Remus liked her instantly.

It surprised him to make such a snap decision about a girl's likeability, although he wasn't entirely sure why. These days he made snap decisions every day that were of far greater import – did he dodge left or right to avoid a Death Eater curse? Which spell should he use to extricate himself with all his limbs intact from a tricky fight? He made actual life or death decisions on the spur of the moment all the time, and yet, liking this girl instantly had made his heart summersault with shock.

He supposed it was because, since the whole Lily debacle, he'd barely even noticed other girls existed.

It wasn't that he was still in love with Lily – it had been over a year since he'd told her how he felt, and they'd come to some kind of arrangement whereby his feelings for her were just another layer to their friendship. They both knew it was there, and on occasion it was a joke that they shared, but other than that they'd consigned it to some pile of givens – his feelings existed, but didn't warrant any real thought, or further explanation, or time spent discussing them.

So it wasn't that, but somehow, when it came to actually moving on to another girl, despite Sirius' constant nagging, James extolling the virtues of settling down at every turn, and Peter making recommendations of girls who he'd seen looking scared and possibly in need of a werewolf-shaped protector, Remus just hadn't been able to drum up the enthusiasm. Until now.

He'd noticed her the instant he'd stepped through the door to take his place for the meeting. She was new, and new faces tended to stand out, because they hadn't had a huge influx of new recruits for years. She had an interesting face – pretty, in her own way, with a nose that was slightly too big for the rest of her features and had a noticeable bump in it, as if it had been broken and fixed far too many times, and dark hair that poked out in a variety of directions from underneath a black beret which perched on her head at an unorthodox angle. The multi-coloured stripy jumper she was wearing completed the picture, and by the time he'd suppressed a chuckle at the thought that any girl who would wear such cheerful clothing in such dark times was his kind of girl, he was rather taken with her.

Throughout the meeting, he found himself unable to stop shooting glances in her direction, and a couple of times she almost met his gaze and he saw the faintest trace of a smile on her lips – although whether it was for him or whether it was a nervous smile because he was making her uneasy by staring at her, he wasn't sure.

He frowned at the thought and turned away, trying to concentrate on what Dumbledore was saying about goblins, failing, and wondering if she'd hang around afterwards, and what he might say to her if she did.

An hour and a half later, Remus found himself in the Hog's Head, surrounded by various members of the Order. It was customary after meetings for some of them to head to the pub – a chance to toast the injured, or worse, and to steel themselves for the missions they'd just been assigned. The conversation was always peppered with regret, false bravado, discussion on politics and bile directed at those who ran in fear rather than standing up and fighting, but tonight Remus barely listened, let alone contributed.

The girl he was so taken with had – to the delight of the butterflies in his stomach – tagged along, and although he hadn't been able to get in quick enough with an offer to buy her a drink, he felt sure that sooner or later an opportunity to speak to her would arise. After all, there weren't that many of them and if she continued to make her way through the group, she'd get to him eventually. As he sipped his pint, he thought how nice it was to have something else – something normal – to think about, and as she looked up from the conversation she was having with Dedalus Diggle and met his eye with a cautious smile, the nervous tingle in his stomach flared.

He was vaguely aware that Sirius was bragging about some new hex he'd tried on a Death Eater who he'd come upon on his way to the meeting, but the story failed to hold his attention for very long, and Remus suspected Sirius was rather more telling it for the benefit of the girls clustered at his elbow than him. His eyes kept being drawn back to the girl in the stripy jumper. She was very animated – waving her arms in wild gestures in a way a lot of people – by the looks on their faces – seemed to find a bit perturbing. But he was captivated. He liked the way her eyes lit up when she smiled, and how her nose wrinkled when she laughed nervously, and especially how, just once or twice, her eyes had darted in his direction again. She seemed so very…alive.

He couldn't help wondering what it would be like to kiss her, if she'd make him feel alive too.

One by one, or two by two, people drifted off, with Dorcas Meadows and Sirius the last to leave, talking and giggling and walking far too close together, with Sirius' hand on her arse. Remus rolled his eyes at their retreating figures, and then looked up and met the new girl's eye in some silent acknowledgement that as they were the only two left, they should probably talk to each other, and she smiled and took a few steps closer, resting one elbow on the bar behind them. "I'm sorry," Remus said. "I missed the start of the meeting, so I didn't catch your name."

"Oh," she said, smiling and causing a pleasant tingle to pass through his body. "I'm Malina." She extended a hand, and Remus took it, shaking it lightly, even though she had a surprisingly strong grip. "Malina Dobrowski."

"Remus. Remus Lupin," he returned and she dropped his hand and gazed at him.

"Hi."

"Hi."

As she held his gaze his heart beat louder and faster. He wondered if she could hear it. Malina bit her lip and glanced at the door. "Do you think we're going to see either of them again tonight?" she said, jerking her head in the general direction of the street outside.

"I wouldn't bank on it," Remus said.

Malina frowned, but there was something about her expression that was distinctly amused, and he couldn't help offering her a smile of encouragement. "Well, this is pretty awkward," she said, and he raised his eyebrows at her, taking a sip of his pint and neither agreeing nor disagreeing, just keen to see what she might say next. "They could at least have introduced us before they left. You know, thrown us a helpful hint about what to say to each other, or something. I mean what are we supposed to talk about?" Despite her words, Remus couldn't help noting the flirtatious tone that rather belied them, and he couldn't help liking it, a lot. "I've been trying to break the ice with people all evening by going on about why Death Eaters wear such dismal clothes and the like," she continued. "And now everyone thinks I'm a total weirdo." She rolled her eyes at herself, and then her forehead creased and she peered up at him through her scrappy fringe apologetically. "Sorry. I talk too much when I'm nervous."

"Why are you nervous?" Remus said.

"Because the only person I really know just left me stranded here so she could go and shag your friend against a wall somewhere, and if you don't like me I'm going to have to sit in the corner on my own all night like a big freak."

"Oh," he said, suppressing a chuckle.

"See?" she said, gesturing in exasperation at the ceiling. "Talk too much."

Remus drained his pint, and gestured to the bottle she had in her hand. "Would you like a drink?" he said. "Something to steady your nerves?"

"Yes," she said. She opened her mouth to say something else and then closed it again and grinned. "I'll just leave it there."

He suppressed another chuckle, and gestured to Aberforth, ordering them both a Butterbeer. When they had been unceremoniously plonked on the bar in front of them, Remus waved at a table in the corner near the fireplace, raising his eyebrows at her in question. Malina nodded, and went over, choosing the stool next to the fire and perching on it rather delicately, fiddling with a beer mat on the rickety table in front of her. He sank down in a stiff-backed chair opposite, and slid her drink across the table to her. "Thanks," she said, lifting it to her lips and smiling in a way that made his insides dance like the flames in the grate and his body heat in a way that had nothing whatsoever to do with their proximity to them. "So – how long have you been in the Order?"

"Since I left school," he said. "Couple of years."

"Is it always this grim?" she said, and he laughed. He couldn't help it, because things had been so dire, and yet they all pretended, constantly, that they weren't fighting a losing battle. He thought that maybe no-one wanted to be the first to say it – or maybe it was pride – no-one wanted to admit out loud, or even to themselves, how scared they were.

"Honestly?" he said, and she nodded. "Yes."

"Seems like I picked the right time to do the right thing, then," she said, rolling her eyes. "I always did have really appalling timing."

He chuckled softly, glad that his impulse to hang around until everyone else had gone, to see if she lingered too, had paid off. They chatted for a while about why he didn't recognise her from Hogwarts – her parents had travelled around a lot, Eastern Europe, mostly – and with every question she answered his impression of liking her was more and more reinforced.

Their conversation was easy, and uninterrupted, save for the crackling of the fire and the squeak of Aberforth in the corner polishing a pint glass with a cloth that looked as if it had already been used to dust the entire place, and Remus learned a lot about her – on hearing that she was a troll tamer, he'd almost choked on his Butterbeer, and she'd laughed, and then explained how she'd come to understand troll behaviour enough to control it to a certain degree, and how Dumbledore had approached her family for their expertise, in the hope that some troll factions might come over to their side for some added muscle.

Malina told him that she lived in Poland at the moment, and, sensing the perfect opportunity for some speculative flirting, Remus smiled. He dropped one elbow onto the table and leaned on his hand, peering at her through the firelight and a bit of stray fringe. "Teach me something," he said, fixing her with his best flirtatious gaze and hoping he hadn't forgotten how to do it. Her eyebrows raised as if she hadn't really been expecting the question, but at least she hadn't run away screaming.

"What?"

"Teach me some Polish."

"Oh," she said, smiling. "All right."

She looked up at the ceiling for a moment in consideration, and then met his eye. "Dzien dobry, moj miano jest Remus, i jestes piekna," she said, and he liked the purring tone her voice took on as she spoke the words very much, even though he didn't understand a single syllable.

Remus blinked at her a couple of times in playful incomprehension, and she laughed.

It had been a while, but he hadn't forgotten that laughter was normally a good sign. "Dzien dobry," she said more slowly, and he concentrated hard on trying to do something other than staring, mesmerised, at her lips. "Moj miano jest Remus, i jestes piekna."

He wasn't sure how she expected him to concentrate when she was using that honeyed purr of hers, but he repeated what she'd said as best he could – although it was a rather pathetic attempt. She giggled. "No, its – dzzz," she said. "It's all in the throat – dzien."

"Dzien?" he offered, hoping she wouldn't hold his lack of linguistic skill against him. He wondered if he shouldn't have asked her to teach him some troll instead.

Although would the grunting be appealing?

"Nearly," she said. "Imagine you've got a cold and you're trying to clear your throat."

"Dzien," he said, thinking that imaginary phlegm was probably setting the appropriate romantic tone even less than learning troll would have.

"Very good."

"Thanks," he said, even though he suspected she was lying.

"Do you want to try the rest?"

Remus made another, perhaps even more, pathetic attempt at the phrase, but Malina beamed at him as if he'd got it exactly right first time. "What does it mean?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.

"It means," she said, meeting his eyes, hers smiling coyly, "'hello, I'm Remus and I think you're really pretty.'"

"Oh," he said, laughing. She took a long swig of her Butterbeer, and then set it back on the table, rolling the glass between her palms.

"Just a spot of wishful thinking on my part," she said, and her smile was intoxicating.

Remus grinned. "You think?" he said, and her eyebrows raised hopefully.

"Isn't it?"

"Maybe," he said, and then chuckled, studying the grain of the table and not quite confident enough to meet her eye. "Maybe not."

He told himself not to be pathetic, because girls very rarely found that an attractive quality in a man, and looked up slowly. Malina bit her lip and held his gaze for a moment, and as he watched, her eyes took on a flirtatious twinkle. "Can I buy you another drink?" she said, gesturing to his nearly finished pint on the table.

"I'd like that."

She grinned briefly, and then leant forward, peering at him through the firelight. "Feeling adventurous?" she said.

"Why? What did you have in mind?"

"In Poland," she said, "when we drink Firewhiskey, we set it on fire."

"Really?" he said, although he thought that, given some of the things reputably available under the counter from The Hog's Head, something on fire was actually a bit tame.

"Can I tempt you?"

Remus' insides tingled in a way they'd grown exceedingly unaccustomed to. "I think actually," he said, "yes you could."

She flashed him a smile and then got up, and he watched as she crossed the bar. Aberforth folded his newspaper with a huff, even though Remus knew he'd only been pretending to read it while he listened in on their conversation, got up from his stool at the hatch and went over to serve her.

As Malina came back, one shot glass clutched in each hand, she looked vaguely puzzled.

She sank into the seat next to him rather than the stool she'd chosen earlier, and her knee touched his under the table. He wondered if it was an accident, although when she didn't move it away again, leaving it resting against his, he thought probably not. She met his eye, smiled slightly, and then leant towards him. "I think the barman fancies me," she said.

"Really?"

"Hmm."

"Is he in with a chance?" Remus asked, his voice lilting with amusement at the thought. Then he paused, hoping more acutely than he had for anything in a long while that the answer was the no he expected, and that his amusement was justified. She raised an eyebrow by way of reply, flooding him with relief, and when she spoke, her voice was a low, conspiratorial, whisper.

"He asked me if I'd like to come up to his bedroom later and play with his goats. It's an inventive euphemism, I'll give him that."

Remus choked back a laugh, shooting a glance at Aberforth and wondering if he was listening. "It's not a euphemism," he said quietly, and then had to choke back a shiver as Malina leant in inquisitively, and her shoulder brushed his.

"What?"

Her eyes were alive and alert as they roved his face, looking for clues about whether or not he was joking. "It's not a euphemism," he said. "He really does keep goats in his bedroom."

Malina's mouth dropped open. "Really?" she said, her voice leaping up in volume in surprise. Aberforth turned towards them and raised an eyebrow, and Malina tittered at Remus' side, and then grimaced at him in apology. She lowered her voice to so little a whisper he had to lean even closer to hear. "He really keeps goats in his bedroom?"

"Well not exclusively," Remus said. "I hear they rather wander wherever they like."

"Oh," she said, her expression slowly shifting from shock to amusement. "I can't quite decide if it's worse that he actually has goats in his bedroom for me to play with," she said, "or that it might be a euphemism for his – well, you know." Remus laughed, feeling his breath quicken slightly at the twinkle in her eyes.

"Need that drink now?" he said, and she nodded, taking out her wand and shooting a

silent Incendio at both of their shot glasses. The amber liquid in them leapt into blue flame with a tiny 'whoosh', and she reached for her glass.

"Erm – " Remus said, warily eyeing the flaming spirit in front of him. "What am I supposed to..?"

"Oh, it's easy," she said, and, deftly and fearlessly, she covered her shot glass with her hand. He watched, fascinated, as the flames went out and the glass stuck to her palm as she raised it off the table, her eyebrows inching higher as she watched his reaction. Then she removed her hand, and raised the glass at him in toast. "Na zdrowrie!" she said, and knocked the drink back.

Remus eyed the flaming glass in his hand, knowing that drinking things that were on fire was probably a bit foolhardy. But he didn't want to appear less manly than she had, and of course he was supposed to be a Marauder. He placed his hand over the flames quickly, telling himself that when it came to romance, fortune was supposed to favour the brave, and if he couldn't even deal with a spot of fire, he was done for. The flames tickled at his palm for a moment, and when they stopped, he removed his hand, and casually lifted the glass to his lips, as if drinking things that had recently been alight was a regular occurrence.

The glass was halfway to his mouth when flames leapt from the rim of the glass, and he could only marvel in horror as his fringe caught light. "Ahhh!"

For a moment he was too dumbstruck to do anything but make a rather un-manly noise, but when Malina uttered something he presumed was a Polish swearword and leant forward, swatting at his flaming fringe, he leapt into action himself, patting at his forehead as the scent of singed hair swirled around them. When the flames were finally out they were both giggling hysterically, and he swore he saw Aberforth on the other side of the bar roll his eyes in a distinctly Dumbledore fashion. "Are you all right?" Malina said her cheeks pink-tinged with laughter or embarrassment.

"Slightly singed," he said, toying with his smouldering fringe. "I'll live."

"You need to wait 'til the glass sticks," she said.

"I'll bear that in mind next time," he said, and, this time making sure the flames were properly extinguished, knocked his shot back, grinning at her, not even minding the singed fringe when she smiled at him.

Two hours and a couple of drinks later, Aberforth stared grumpily at them over the top of his folded arms and kept pointedly looking at the clock above the bar, which read 'Don't you have homes to go to?' instead of eleven. Malina, at least, seemed to take the hint.

"I suppose we'd better go," she said, and he wondered if he imagined the reluctance in her voice, imagining the tone he wanted to hear. "I think he's going to throw us out in a minute. Or set his goats on us."

Remus attempted a chuckle, but underneath, his chest thundered. He'd always known that at some point the evening would come to an end, but he'd been having such fun finding out about her and talking to her and flirting with her that he hadn't given any real thought to what would happen when it did.

He wanted something to, of that he was certain. As they'd sat progressively closer, on a couple of occasions he'd been completely overtaken by the urge to kiss her, and the way she'd sometimes brushed his arm with her hand as they'd talked had only bolstered the impulse. He supposed the end of an evening together was pretty much the ideal time to do it – at least he'd have tradition on his side.

"Shall I see you home?" he said, hoping he didn't sound too hopeful, or if he did that his hopefulness wasn't too tinged with desperation.

"I'm a troll tamer," she said, pleasantly, gathering up her cloak. "You don't have to – I can look after myself."

"I know," he said, quickly. "But if I don't come with you, it's going to make it really hard for me to kiss you goodnight on your doorstep."

Malina stopped midway through donning her cloak and met his eye, and he twitched his eyebrows at her. "Ok," she said, and the way she battled a grin made his insides squirm.

She stood up, and he followed, helping her on with the rest of her cloak before reaching for his own, and then tentatively offering her his arm. She took it, and he lead her to the door and out into the cold.

The doorstep in question wasn't far. Some friends of her parents had decided to leave the country for a while and had offered her their Hogsmeade flat, apparently, and as they climbed the stairs behind Gladrags, Remus' heart was pounding. He wondered if he'd been this nervous and excited about kissing a girl since the first time he'd done it.

When they reached the door, Malina's face turned to his, the hint of an inviting smile playing on her lips. For a moment he had the completely irrational worry that he might have forgotten how to do it, and then that he was so out of practice he wouldn't be any good at it when he so desperately wanted to be, but he told himself not to be ridiculous and stepped forward a little. He was about to lean in, when – "You know," she said, "it's very dangerous for us to be lingering outside."

His eyebrows leapt in surprise – maybe she'd changed her mind? Maybe all this was one-sided? It'd be just his luck to fall for the wrong girl, again. He really was a disaster. Why couldn't he just find a nice girl who –

Malina fumbled in her pocket for her wand and then unlocked the door, gesturing for him to go inside. He shot her a vaguely quizzical look and, at her re-iterating the gesture, stepped into the hall, and she followed and closed the door behind them. He looked around, feeling a bit bewildered as he took in the narrow hallway he was standing in. "Erm – "

He let some kind of implied question about what on earth they were doing linger between them, and she smiled the most intoxicating smile she'd offered him all night, and then stepped closer, fingering the edges of his cloak. "Well, now," she said, "we just do whatever we were going to do, but on this side of the door."

"Oh," he said, inching closer and tilting his head down just a little, hoping he didn't look too delighted at the thought.

"Just a safety precaution."

He smiled, and she eased herself a little closer, until their bodies touched. He met her halfway, taking her face in his hand and leaning in to catch her lips with his.

And the kiss he received in return very nearly knocked his socks off.

He'd intended to ease back into this whole girl thing – take things slowly – a goodnight kiss that was more of a friendly peck – well, maybe just a bit more than that – had been what he had in mind, but he couldn't help himself, and the instant her lips were under his, he found himself utterly captivated by the idea of never doing anything but kissing Malina for as long as he lived. He hadn't kissed a girl like this – properly – for ages, and he'd forgotten how good it felt, how it made a pleasant ache set up camp in his stomach, and made his brain give over all its earthly concerns about Death Eaters and Ministry politics and envoys and spies to something that was just a little slice of heaven.

He pressed her back against the wall, dropping one hand to her waist and slipping it just inside her cloak, while the other tangled in her hair and dislodged her beret. She didn't seem to mind, and her hands roamed too, letting him wonder if they were still in strictly goodnight kiss territory. She pulled away slightly, her breath tickling his face as she looked up at him. "Stay," she whispered.

"What?"

"Stay," she said. He smiled, wondering if she really meant what he thought she meant, but before he had time to come to a conclusion, she took advantage of his stunned silence and covered his lips with hers.

Her kiss was searing.

Remus thought he'd had some pretty great kisses in the past, but nothing had made him feel quite like this. She made him feel as if she alone had the key to his senses, the power to obliterate all of his concerns, and worries. He felt as if a fog had lifted, a fog he'd barely known was there, and it felt amazing. He pulled away a little. Was this really a good time to be making rash decisions?

"Just so we're clear," he murmured, his knees nearly buckling as she craned her neck and nibbled his earlobe, "are you inviting me to play with your goats?"

"Uh huh."

He swallowed. It probably wasn't the best time to be making rash decisions, but Remus thought that since he didn't really have the time to make anything other than a rash decision, he'd have to make do. He took her face in his hands and steered her lips back to his.

Moments later, they were tumbling down the thin hallway with her untucking his shirt and him wondering if this was really happening, and they came to rest against the doorframe to what he supposed might well be the bedroom. "I just want it noted that I don't normally do this kind of thing," she said, forcing the word out between frantic kisses.

"Ok."

"I mean it," she said, pulling back far enough to offer him a very sexy pout. "If I weren't going back to Poland in two days I'd insist on you taking me out."

"Well I could," he said. "Tomorrow, or – "

She cut him off with a kiss. "Let's just assume you have, shall we?" she said, steering him around the doorjamb.

"All right," he said, fumbling with the fastening of her cloak and nearly sighing as it fell to the floor. He pressed his lips to her throat, making his way up towards her ear. "Did I take you somewhere nice?" he asked against her skin.

"No," she said, pulling away and pouting at him in the most adorably playful fashion. "I'm very cross."

"You seem it."

He cradled her face in his hands, kissing her as they took a couple of steps towards the bed and he slowly tangled his fingers back into her hair. "You're going to make it up to me, though," she said, moving away to kiss his neck as she started unbuttoning his shirt.

"Am I?" he said. "How can you be so sure?"

"I tame trolls for a living," she said. "You don't want to make me angry."

"That's a good point," he said, fumbling to try and get her stripy jumper over her head. "Your wish is my command."

"I bet you say that to all the girls."

Before he really knew how it had happened, they'd collapsed in a giggling, kissing, tangle of limbs on the bed, desperately trying to free each other of their remaining clothes. "Will you still respect me in the morning?" she said, rather breathlessly. He opened his mouth to reply, to say that of course – but she cut him off. "Aw hell," she said, slipping his shirt off his shoulders. "I'm leaving the country in two days. I don't care."

"Will you still respect me in the morning?" he said as she pressed him back against the bed. She cocked her head at him in thought.

"I'll probably make you breakfast and shag you again," she said, "if that counts."

"I'd say that would do nicely," he said.

It was his last coherent thought, let alone sentence, for a while.

Remus smiled as she woke. Admittedly he didn't have a lot of experience waking up next to girls – at least not when he hadn't half-fallen asleep, half-passed out unconscious, but he liked waking up with Malina. Although he'd only done it three times, he thought that was far and away enough times to be certain.

They'd had two blissful days together, and three very blissful nights, and he really wished she didn't have to go back to Poland. She was a wonderful girl – she was quick-witted and exuberant, and she said what she thought, and she was tough, and feisty, and she knew about things he didn't, which he'd always found incredibly attractive in girls.

As he leaned down to kiss her, he wondered if the stirring feelings in his chest were in any way echoed in hers.

Later that morning, he walked Malina to the international Floo station, and they stood, hugging, neither really wanting to say goodbye. Or so he thought. For all the things he thought he'd felt when he was with her, neither of them had really raised the subject of doing this again, and he wasn't sure that was what she wanted, wondering if, for her, this had been nothing more than a pleasant diversion from the grim world she'd been plunged into.

But somewhere between inhaling the scent of her hair and giving her back one final squeeze, he thought sod it. She was going away, and she wouldn't be back for a month, at least – and by then, he might be dead. Was it really the time to fear embarrassment, or rejection?

He pulled back far enough to see her face, because if he was going to do this, he wanted to do it properly – and took her hand. "I know it's only been a couple of days," he said, scuffing her thumb with his, "but this has been nice. Very, very nice."

"I know," she said, and he met her eye, seeing the relief he felt at her words echoed in them.

"I'd understand," he said, "if that's all you wanted – a one time thing…."

He trailed off, and she raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought we talked about me – despite appearances, not being that kind of girl?" she said, and he sniggered.

"I just – would it – " He bit his lip. "Would it be all right if I wrote to you, or something?"

She grinned. "I would really like that," she said, and his heart leapt.

"And maybe when you come back, we could go out?" he said, squeezing her fingers, and delighting in the way she squeezed back.

"That would be nice."

"Ok," he said, suddenly feeling bashful, for some reason. He looked down at his feet, thanking his lucky stars that she'd said yes.

"As long as you know what you're letting yourself in for," she said.

He looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Well," she said, "there's really not that much to do in Poland, so you'd better be prepared for some lengthy replies."

"Ok," he said, chuckling.

"My owl likes crusts," she said, and he murmured the words 'I'll bear that in mind' against her lips as he kissed her. "I'd better go," she said, as they parted. "My family'll worry if I'm back late."

He nodded, and reluctantly let go of her hand. "Stay safe," she said, and he kissed her softly.

"You too."

There was a tap on the window and Remus looked up to find Malina's owl, Olaf, peering hopefully at him. Lily looked up from her lunch too, raising an eyebrow at him inquisitively as he opened the window. "For you?"

Remus smiled. "Hmm."

The owl fluttered inside and rested on the draining board, holding out its leg obligingly. He crossed the room and scratched the owl's head in a way he knew it liked, before removing the parchment tied to its leg. "He's a handsome beast," Lily said. "And I don't recognise him so it's not from anyone in the Order…."

"No," Remus said. He gestured to the abandoned crusts on Lily's plate and she nodded, watching intently as he fed a couple to the eagerly awaiting bird.

Olaf finished his crusts and then hooted once at him and made for the open window and launched himself into the sky, and Remus watched until he was completely out of sight, fingering the parchment in his hand, wondering whether to read it now or save it for later when he could give it his full attention.

"So?" Lily said, readjusting Harry's position in her arms in a vain attempt to stop him tugging on the ends of her hair. "Are you going to put me out of my misery?"

"Hmm?" Remus murmured, forcing his eyes to fix on her.

"Who's the letter from?"

"My – " Remus paused, and glanced back at the window, even though Olaf was long gone. He'd been about to say 'girlfriend', but he wasn't sure the term was all that appropriate for a girl he'd only met four times, however much he felt he wanted to use it. "Well," he said, still not really knowing what he was going to say next.

"If it's from a girl," Lily said, rolling her eyes, "you can say. I won't be totally broken-hearted that you're over me."

Remus smiled, trying to quell the feeling that it was odd to be talking to Lily about this – after all, he'd always talked to her about girls in the past. "Yes," he said. "It's from a girl."

Lily smiled at him, and let the matter drop until after he'd finished his sandwich and she'd put Harry down for a nap, but as soon as she tapped her wand on the side of the kettle to heat it, he knew there was only one thing Lily wanted to talk about. She sat down across the table from him, presenting him with a mug of steaming tea, and raising an eyebrow at him in expectation. He avoided her eyes, even though years of experience told him it wouldn't help, and fingered one corner of the parchment in front of him, wondering about the contents of the letter he still hadn't read yet.

Lily leant forward, resting on her elbows, and peered at him over the rim of her tea cup. "Well do tell," she said, and Remus bit his lip to hold back a grin, because really, he'd been bursting to tell someone – there'd just never been an appropriate time.

Every conversation they seemed to have these days started with 'Did you hear about so-and-so? Two hours of the Cruciatus,' and it always seemed completely wrong to Remus for him to even think about following some tale of someone else's distress or demise with 'yes, I did. By the way, I've met a girl…'. But he and Lily had been having a very ordinary conversation about whether or not to have some cake, and she did seem to want to know. Remus took a deep breath, wondering why he felt so nervous.

"Her name's Malina," he said. "She lives in Poland."

"Really?"

"Hmm."

"And?" Lily said, widening her eyes at him in a mixture of inquisitiveness and annoyance.

"And what?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh come on," she said. "You've got to give me more than that. Details."

"Details?" Remus said.

"Yes," Lily said, with mock-terseness. "Is she pretty? How much do you like her? How did you meet? Have you shagged her yet? When do we get to meet her?"

Remus grinned, any unease he'd felt abating immediately in the wake of Lily's warm, friendly smile. "Very, lots, through the Order, yes, and sometime between now and never. Probably erring towards the never."

Lily laughed. "I knew it," she said. "You're ashamed of us."

"Well who wouldn't be?" he said, taking a sip of his tea. "Sirius met her, briefly – "

"And she's still talking to you?"

Remus chuckled. "He didn't stay long. Too busy flirting with Dorcas. Or whatever it is he does with girls."

"I'm not sure he ever has to flirt, does he?" Lily said. "Doesn't he just pout and wait for girls to fall at his feet?"

"Ah," Remus said. "Maybe that's where I was going wrong. Making too much effort."

Lily met his eye, hers twinkling approvingly. "Doesn't seem like you're going very wrong at the moment," she said, and Remus smiled, fingering the edges of the parchment in his hands.

"No," he said, feeling rather shy for some reason and shifting in his seat.

"Will you just read it?" Lily said, and her tone was so redolent of the days when they were both prefects and she scolded him about his friends, he jumped, and then laughed.

But he did as he was told. He broke the seal and unfurled the parchment, quickly scanning through the first few lines. "What's she say?" Lily said, peering at him over the top of her teacup. Remus swallowed, his eyes flickering up to Lily's and then back to the parchment in front of him.

"That she misses me," he said, smiling to himself.

"Aww," Lily said, wrinkling her nose at him as she tittered quietly. "What else?"

Remus scanned the next couple of lines. "She's working pretty hard," he said. "But her brother's back from his trip to Bulgaria, so she says that she thinks she might be able to come over in a couple of weekends time, if I'd like her to."

"And would you?"

Remus bit his lip, managing to get out a 'hmmm' before he had to give in to the strangled tone his heart leaping in his chest caused. Lily grinned, before eying him for a moment, weighing something up. "Are you in love, Remus?" she said, and he laughed.

"I don't know about that," he said, and as Lily gestured for him to continue, he took a quick, steadying, breath. "She's fun," he said, "and she thinks I'm fun, which is a minor miracle and probably means she's mentally unstable." Lily glowered at him playfully and let out a long admonishing sigh. "We haven't known each other very long and we don't see each other very often – "

"I don't think it's really about that," Lily said. "Love is just something you feel. Either you feel it, or you don't. Time isn't really a factor, I don't think."

"Oh yes?" Remus said, raising an eyebrow at her across the table. "And how long was it before you realised you were in love? Seven years, was it?"

Lily reached across the table and slapped him playfully on the arm. He shied away, open-mouthed with mock-offence, and, laughing, she relented. "All right," she said. "I don't have a leg to stand on."

Remus went back to his letter, scanning the next couple of paragraphs for the details Malina had sketched out for her trip, asking how free he'd be on those dates and if it'd be all right for her to stay with him so she didn't have to do any shopping for the flat when she arrived. Lily craned her neck over the table, and indicated the drawing in the corner of the parchment with her tea cup. "What's that?" she said.

"Oh," Remus said, his eyes fixing on what she was pointing to. He watched for a moment as a girl in a knee-length flared skirt with wild hair and a lop-sided beret ran, arms aloft, from a family of assorted-size trolls. He laughed quietly at it and the way she always drew herself, keen to get to the part of her letter where she detailed what had happened in full. "She does that sometimes," he said, "sends me cartoons of things she's been doing."

He slid the parchment across the table so Lily could see, and Lily chuckled. "Is that her?"

"Hmm."

"Why is she being chased by trolls?"

"Oh," he said, sniggering quietly. "That's what she does. She's a – well, she's a troll tamer."

"A troll tamer?" Lily said, open mouthed.

"Hmm."

"Really?"

"Hmm."

"How on earth did she..?"

"Bizarre as it sounds," he said, "it's kind of her family business."

"Really?"

"Hmm. Before the war they were training security trolls, that kind of thing – Dumbledore contacted them – he and her father are old friends, apparently – to see if they might not be able to persuade some of the larger breeds to come over to our side for a bit of added muscle. Her father's too ill to travel at the moment, so she's been coming to see Dumbledore instead."

"Wow," Lily said, dropping back in her chair. "All of a sudden I feel a bit boring."

Remus laughed before meeting her eye. "You could never be boring," he said. "And you know it." Lily smiled shyly, and looked away, and for a moment, the world felt completely still.

"She sounds really lovely," she said, and everything lurched back into motion.

"She is."

"And how does she feel about you?" she asked, and Remus smiled, avoiding her eyes.

"I don't know," he said. "I think she likes me. You know, quite a bit."

"Well there's an easy way to tell."

"Is there?" Remus said, looking up inquisitively, wondering if there was some kind of romantic intentions spell witches knew how to do on letters.

"How's she signed the letter?" Lily said.

"What?"

"I mean, has she finished off with a yours sincerely, or a from, or…something else?"

"Oh," Remus said, not sure whether he was disappointed that there wasn't a new spell to learn or not. He skimmed Malina's loopy handwriting until he got to the part in question, just checking whether it was the same word as it had been recently. "Kochający," he said.

"What's that mean?"

Remus bit his lip. "With love," he said.

He'd looked it up. He'd assumed, at first, when it appeared for the first time three weeks ago on her first letter after her last visit that it meant 'from' and had been pleasantly surprised. Since then, he'd been signing his with the same word, too, because that was what he felt.

"Been a while since I saw you smile like that," Lily said, and Remus realised with a start that he'd been grinning without noticing.

"Well that's because somebody broke my heart and crushed my romantic spirit," he said, arching an eyebrow at Lily, and she laughed.

"Seems to be back with a vengeance," she said.

"Hmm," he said, leaning back in his chair and resting one elbow on the table. "Well, Sirius always did say the way to get over a girl was to fall for another one."

"I remember his version being a little crasser than that," Lily said, and Remus sniggered. "Are you going to tell him he was right?"

"Of course not," Remus said, clutching his chest, playfully appalled. "I'd never hear the end of it."

Their laughter was interrupted by a whoosh in the fireplace in the lounge, and James' spinning form appearing in the flames. He stepped out onto the hearth rug, brushing the soot off his robes and coughing slightly as he created his own cloud of Floo powder. Another whoosh followed and then another, and Sirius and Peter appeared in the flames roughly simultaneously, with Sirius trying to shove Peter back so he had enough room to get out and Peter apologising profusely from the crook of Sirius' elbow.

James ignored them both, and beamed over at the table, where Lily was getting to her feet. He shot a quick smile and hello at Remus, before crossing the room and drawing Lily into a hug, kissing her temple. "Everything OK?" he said, and Lily nodded.

"You?"

"Fine," he said. "Peachy, in fact."

He gave Lily a squeeze, and for a moment, Remus wondered if he'd ever know what it'd be like to have someone to come home to. "Where's Harry?" James said as Lily moved away and tapped the kettle with her wand before Summoning another three mugs from the dresser.

Lily glanced up at the ceiling. "He's sleeping," she said, her voice taking on a pointed menace. She cast a quick frown at Sirius and Peter who had only just managed to fight their way out of the fireplace and were now dusting off their robes and covering the rug with soot.

"I'll just pop up and say hel – " James started.

"He's sleeping."

"I'll be quiet."

Lily raised an eyebrow, and James grinned in what Remus supposed was intended to be an endearing way. He bit back a chuckle at the thought that of all James' Lily-related grins, the one he thought she found endearing was probably the dopiest. "There's no such thing as James Potter being quiet," Lily said, but even though she had one hand on her hip, and was attempting a glare, Remus could tell her resolve was wavering as the corners of her mouth twitched with the onset of a smile.

"No need to tell us that," Sirius said, striding over to the table and stealing a banana out of the fruit bowl. "We had to share a room with him, remember? Dunno why he bothered with the Invisibility Cloak – most of the time you could hear him coming long before you'd have been able to see him."

He peeled the banana and shoved half in his mouth straight away. "Sirius Black," Lily said. "You have the table manners of a baboon."

"Thanks," Sirius said, grinning widely and revealing far too much half-chewed banana for Remus' liking.

While Lily was occupied with staring at Sirius disapprovingly, James made for the stairs. "Don't you dare wake him," Lily said, glaring at James accusingly. James grinned.

"I'll be quiet as a mouse with a Muffliato spell," he said, and took off up the stairs two at a time, making much more noise than a mouse with a Muffliato spell.

Lily rolled her eyes, and Sirius slumped down into a chair at the table, finishing the last of his banana in one bite and lazily tossing the skin over his shoulder and into the bin. Peter hovered at the work surface as if he wasn't sure whether to offer to help Lily with the tea or not, and then smiled in relief as Lily handed him a mug and indicated that he should sit.

"Anything exciting happen while we were gone?" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow sardonically as if he didn't believe such a thing was possible, and reaching for the mug Lily offered him.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Lily said, meeting Remus' eye pointedly. He shot her a half-hearted glance of warning, knowing that she wouldn't take any notice. "Remus has a girlfriend."

Peter's eyebrows leapt high on his forehead in surprise, and Sirius rocked back in his chair far enough to give Remus a slap on the back that knocked all of the air out of his chest. "I knew that dry spell wouldn't last," he said. Remus coughed. "Men like me and you – "

"For the last time," Remus said, sighing, "would you please stop putting me in the same category as you?" Sirius grinned.

"Who's the lucky lady?" he said.

Remus was about to reply when there was a creak on the stairs, and James appeared with Harry in his arms and a sheepish expression on his face. "I told you not to wake him," Lily said, although her reprimand sounded a little half-hearted.

"He was like this when I got there," James said, and Lily chuckled, grinning as she watched James jiggle Harry in his arms and Harry emit a little, tiny, gurgling laugh.

"So uncle Remus has gone and got himself a girlfriend, then?" James said, leaning on the dresser and offering Harry a finger to play with. "What's she like?"

Remus opened his mouth to say something, but Lily cut him off. "Her name's Malina, she lives in Poland, and she's a troll-tamer," she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she watched the blush creep up Remus' cheeks.

"A troll-tamer?" Peter said.

"Hmm."

"I didn't even know you could – you know – tame them," he said, shrugging.

"Have you – " Sirius started, but before he got a chance to go any further, Lily interrupted.

"And yes, he has shagged her, she's very pretty, and he likes her very much," Lily said. A slow smile crept across her face and she met James' eye. "In fact," she said, "I think he more than likes her very much."

Remus studied the table. "It's early days," he said, but he couldn't help smiling.

"It's about time you fell for someone," James said.

"I didn't say – " Remus protested.

"Oh come on," James said. "We know you well enough to know that look."

"What look?"

James squinted at him in consideration, and Remus wished he hadn't asked. "It's part hopeful puppy and part romantic hero," James said, leaning forward and scrutinising him further. "With just a dash of something else…."

"It's a kind of pathetic desperation," Sirius mused, and Peter sniggered. Remus sighed.

"Thanks," he said, shooting Sirius a glare. Sirius held up his hands defensively.

"That's the look you wore all year when you were mooning over Olivia Crosby," Peter said.

"And the one you wore after your indiscretion in the broom cupboard," Sirius said.

"And the one you were stuck with all last year while you were in love with that mystery girl," James added, and then frowned. "Although that one was a bit more anguished."

Remus chanced a glance at Lily across the table, and then a slight smile. "When do we get to suss her out, then?" James said.

"Suss her out?"

"Well we've got to make sure she's not going to make you go all melodramatic, haven't we?"

"Yep," Sirius said, letting out a quick sigh of mock resignation, as if he'd just been forced to assume some terrible responsibility. "We've got enough on our plates without having to deal with a moping Moony and his Joni bleeding Mitchell records."

Remus laughed. "I don't think that'll be necessary," he said.

"He's ashamed of us," Lily said.

"I'm not," Remus protested. "I just – "

"Don't want to let us meet her in case we embarrass you?" she offered, and Remus grinned. "You know, if you marry her, we'll get to meet her then," she said, her eyes dancing with playful challenge.

"You'll just have to wait 'til then, then," Remus said quietly, and Peter, Sirius and James all looked at him with a variety of shocked expression. "It'll give you all something to do between us cutting the cake and the first dance."

Sirius gaped at him for a minute, and then closed his mouth and rolled his eyes. "Now I've seen everything," he said, leaning back in his chair. "A werewolf in love."

Remus smiled. A werewolf in love indeed, he thought.

They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and teasing, laughing at things no-one but them would find funny, reminiscing about schooldays, old friends, stories – memories – they shared, and as the sun set and the light drained away, they carried on, putting the world to rights in the face of encroaching darkness, taking it in turns to make the others laugh, to tell some story they'd forgotten.

And all the while they talked, Remus silently marvelled. He wasn't just a werewolf in love, he was a werewolf who had love, and that was, in all honesty, something he'd never expected. But looking at his friends, he couldn't doubt it.

It was a memory he'd treasure, and as the darkness stopped encroaching and took them all, it was the one thing he clung to.

A/N: Many thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, with extra special thanks to everyone reading this who leapt in with a snarky review for the person who tried to plagiarise me over the weekend. Much appreciated.

Anyone reviewing this chapter gets a love letter from Remus by first class owl post ;).