All Harry Potter properties belong to J.K. Rowling. I'm just futzing around with her ideas.
Much love goes to: PhoenixGirl97, LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL, Emmaline341 and Smithback for reviewing (even if it's just to correct me haha)! Also to: AndromacheCameron, Katalina Resolute and CassidyTVNut (like Mike TV!) for putting this on their alerts!
It took me forever to get started, but I had a lot of fun with his one. Hope you do too. Enjoy!
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It took Remus approximately forty two hours and thirty six minutes after speaking with Dumbledore to finally gather the courage to talk to Miss Grey. He knew it was stupid to be so nervous. What was the worst she could do to him? Ignore him like she did Sirius?
Actually, that would be sort of terrible, he thought.
That was irrelevant. The fact of the matter was: Remus was intimidated by pretty women who could kick his ass. He was also sort of attracted to them… Sirius would have an awfully-lascivious comment for that in seconds.
Thirty seven minutes, Moony. You're stalling.
Sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, he waited until James had sequestered himself in a sufficiently dark corner with Lily and Sirius was trying to pick up a bird of his own. Remus gave Peter a curt nod, decisively shut his Potions book, nonchalantly tucked it under his arm and purposely strode out of the portrait.
Halfway down a staircase, he froze in typical indecision. What if Miss Grey thought he was a total swot, carrying nothing but a thick tome? Or even worse, what if she thought he was trying too hard to look intelligent?
Slightly panicking, he looked around for a solution. None came to him and the staircase started groaning in warning. He hurried off, still worrying.
Now that he was on the topic, did he look like a complete idiot? The werewolf made a mental checklist.
Hair? He ran a few fingers though it hastily.
Robes? They were rumpled from the day, and momentarily forgetting his magical capabilities, he miserably sentenced himself to being stuck with them.
Teeth? He ran a quick tongue over them.
Breath? Oh Merlin, he had onions at supper.
A couple of Hufflepuff underclassmen passed by. They looked at him oddly before giggling.
Remus froze once again and cursed himself in his head. He needed to stop. It was not like he was going on a date. He was just thanking the woman who had given him a potion that allowed him to be lucid on a day when he was cursed to viciously attack everything and everyone around him and brutally injure himself and his friends while-
He was just making it worse.
Take a breath Remus!
He did.
He took another, deeper one. Remus decided that there was nothing for it. It was time to just face the music. He had promised himself that after he talked to Dumbledore about a dueling club, he would thank Miss Grey. Forty two hours and thirty nine minutes.
Not that he was counting or anything.
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When he made it to the Potions classroom, he patted himself on the back for not hesitating and hightailing it all the way back to his bedroom. He entered and his eyes fell on the only person in the room.
She was using a small penknife instead of magic to make herself a new quill. He supposed the lack of magic should tell him something about her personality. But he was too nervous to figure out what that could be.
The woman seemed completely focused on her task. He watched her work for a few moments. Was it strange to admire how deft her fingers were?
Sirius would really have a comment for that one.
Deciding he needed to distract himself, he clutched his book tighter.
"Miss Grey?"
She finished the quill. Setting everything on her desk, she laced her fingers together and placed them on the surface. Settled, the assistant looked up at him expectantly.
"How can I be of assistance, Mister Lupin?"
It helped his courage that she gave him her full attention instead of just brushing him off. He met her eyes bravely and stepped forward.
"I just wanted to thank you."
There was a moment where she paused. He blinked and realized that she was looking at him in an extremely peculiar way. Remus had not gotten it wrong, had he?
He tried to tell her how he knew, but his thoughts ended up being jumbled. His neck and jaw got hot.
"I just- I saw that your writing and… Your scent-not that I was smelling you, but as a well… Uh yeah, you know and… I just wanted to thank you for the potion. It was… It was great… So umm, yeah… Thanks."
She was still giving him that look. He was stuck between being embarrassed and becoming frustrated at his loss of verbal skills. In a matter of seconds, he had lost all capacity to communicate in his native language. Godric's sword, he was a girl.
Miss Grey smiled then. Her grin slowly stretched across her lips and she averted her gaze. The intensity melted from her eyes, turning into something warmer. She sighed and wiped both hands over her face.
"My apologies, Lupin. It has just been an appallingly long day." The assistant spoke into her hands. Dropping them, she looked at him with that unsettling gaze. It almost seemed as if she was looking at someone familiar to herself. He felt the tingling warmth spread into the back of his neck. Remus had always wanted her to smile at him but what was that?
She continued. "So you figured me out, did you?"
He nodded numbly. The Potions assistant smiled in a slightly self-depreciating way.
"And here I thought I was being so clever."
He decided not to tell her in what year the Marauders had stumbled upon handwriting charms. Instead he gave a weak little smile. She was being so friendly to him and he could not get a grip on it. Where was the stoic warrior he had seen before? He had not prepared himself for this.
She chuckled. "Well, since the kneazle is out of the bag, so to speak, I guess we should talk about it. I actually have many questions about how the potion worked for you. What were your experiences, how it affected you, any side effects, etcetera." She peered at a large hourglass on her desk. All of the sand was at the bottom.
"Unfortunately, I am late for a tutoring session and I believe it will be too late to meet tonight." She thought out loud. "And since we should keep any conversations about your condition discreet, we would have to meet when we know there was less chance to be stumbled upon. I apologize for suggesting something so frightfully early, but will about an hour before breakfast work for you?"
Remus' mind was fanatically turning over the words "discreet" and "less chance to be stumbled upon." He managed to mutter a mangled affirmative. Who cared if it was early?
She nodded, pleased, and began to gather her stuff. "Very well, I will meet you tomorrow in here. Professor Shaw will not come in until breakfast is finished and everyone avoids this place if they can. Until then."
He managed to nod numbly. She finished packing everything into a satchel. Slinging it over her shoulder, she finally looked at him. Miss Grey raised an eyebrow at his continued presence.
"Was there anything else you needed, Mister Lupin?"
This time the heat rushed to his face. "No!" He croaked. "Have a good night, Miss Grey."
Then Remus Lupin rushed out of there like the hounds of Hell were after him. It would be best not to hang around and muck up his chances.
When he got back to the Common Room, Peter loudly asked why Remus' ears were so red. Ignoring the friendly jeers, he swept up to his room and hid behind his bed curtains.
His preparations for bed were done in a haze. He fell asleep trying to convince his mind not to classify the meeting as a date. He kind of failed, but it was okay. A not-date with the pretty intern was better than nothing at all.
Words: 1,310
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*Semi-Important Announcement: It's a complete bummer, but there are only going to be a couple of more updates (maybe). Then I will be taking a month's hiatus. I don't want to, but long story short, I'm going be going through future career training and taking another university course. My apologies, but we gotta do what we have to do.
So again, I will update tomorrow and maybe Wednesday. Then everything will be on hold for a month. Thanks for your patience and support all.
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