A/N: I am soo sorry for the ridiculous delay. But I promise you it won't happen again, a year is far too long to hold this in my head.
Thank you so much for the people asking about it and reviewing it, you have encouraged me to keep writing.
The professor began to drone on in a monotone that, coupled with the sun and cool breeze, encouraged the students' minds to drift. Alina stared at her list. Even though she had not seen Ginny's list, it seemed as if Alina was given all the difficult things to gather. How am I going to get the ash of a phoenix? She thought bitterly. The rest of the items gave her even less promise; the only item she even remotely thought she could obtain was hair from the mane of a unicorn. Sighing she tucked the paper in her pocket and pulled her legs to her chest resting her chin on her knees.
"And now class, gather into groups to prepare for the preparations." The professor, decidedly bored, gave at best a half hearted effort in gesturing to the assembled students.
Sirius and Remus stood and brushed their pants off while wandering over to James and Peter. Ginny stood and resituated herself next to Alina.
"So," Ginny sniffed and waited for Alina to divulge information.
"So?" Alina drawled knowing Ginny was somehow going to make her uncomfortable.
"You and Remus were in the library for an awfully long time…"
Alina sighed, I knew it. "We were talking."
"Uh-huh" Ginny said smiling and looking after the boys who had gathered around the release pens for the Phoenixes.
"Shouldn't you be focusing on more important things?" Alina asked pointedly
"Nah, my stuff is readily available-"
"I knew it!" Alina grumbled, "I did get all the hard stuff."
Ginny smirked, "I was going to say, that my stuff is readily available but to get the quantities necessary is where the problem lies."
Curious Alina furrowed her brows and cocked her head, "how much do you need?"
Ginny sighed and said dejectedly, "pounds!"
Alina's eyebrows rose. "Wow."
"I know," Ginny sighed. "And here I thought that hard part of our plan was getting the clothes and putting them back unnoticed."
Alina gave her side long look, "Yeah, it was quite a surprise to run into Remus in the common room this morning. Did not expect him there."
At Ginny's non committal noise Alina continued on, "Remus is the shrewdest and cleverest male I have ever met, and to top it off he has…extrasensory, skills…"
Ginny puffed her chest out and crossed her arms at Alina's tone, "What's your point?"
"I'm not sure of your religious convictions but you better pray he doesn't figure out what happened."
Ginny snorted, "You should be more concerned than me."
"Whys that?"
Ginny gave her a snide smile while practically cooing, "Wolves mate for life."
Alina bristled and turned quickly to stare at Remus's back. Regardless of the heated conversation they were having, as if Remus knew her eyes were upon him, he quickly turned to look at Alina. There was a stunned look on his face and intense suspicion. Ginny laughed openly when Alina's only comment was,
"Shit!"
The boys had gathered around the pens for the Phoenixes waiting eagerly to release the birds, Remus unusually less so than the others. Normally he would be first in line to allow the freedom of an animal from a cage, but today all he could think about was the feel of Alina's surrender to him. And that's exactly how he saw it, her surrender. She gave up her pretenses and abandoned the thorned wall she kept around her heart. Whatever happened to her must have been awful because Remus never met someone who was so capable of such passion and yet was so unwilling to indulge it. And Remus knew she was passionate, like a wild fire waiting for the right ignition. The way she responded to him nibbling his lips and moaning into him, her tentative but exploratory touches told him as much. He couldn't wait for a chance to let her blaze to burn around him, and he couldn't wait to devour her with his own passions.
"So, Mooney," Sirius grinned as if reading Remus's thoughts. "How was the library?"
Remus didn't even bother preventing the wolfish smile that flashed across his face in response.
"Way to go!" James laughed.
"That's our mate!" Sirius laughed clapping Remus's shoulder soundly.
Peter smirked, "So was she any good?"
Remus's face grew intensely serious as he narrowed his eyes at Peter. The others laughed at his response and James playfully pushed him against the pens saying,
"Come on, he was just joking!"
Remus jumped backed as a phoenix nipped at his arm. "Hey!"
"What is your problem?" Peter asked bewildered.
Remus grumbled checking his sleeve, "I only have one good shirt left! The other is still missing."
"Really?" Sirius scratched his head in thought. "it was on your bed this morning, which reminds me, where did you spend the night?"
"Whoa wait," Remus interrupted whatever lascivious train of thought Sirius was about to board. "My shirt was on my bed this morning?"
"Yeah, so was mine," Sirius gestured to the shirt he had on. "They were just sitting on the end of the bed when I woke up this morning. So I guess the house elves were done with them." He shrugged uncaringly.
Remus crossed his arms across his chest and brought one hand up to scratch his chin in thought, "huh." He mumbled. "that is odd."
He sniffed as if to dismiss whatever he was thinking and suddenly stilled. He sniffed again and then again more fervently. He smelled something familiar. Following the faint scent he leaned over to Sirius.
"What are you doing?" Sirius complained trying to put more space between himself and his friend.
"You can't smell that?" Remus asked leaning over to Sirius again.
"Smell what?" Sirius asked swatting Remus away.
"She must have been really good if she's making you act like this," Peter commented warily.
Remus picked up Sirius's arm and brought it under his nose. He smelled like, like, something Remus knew, one of those nagging scents that lurked just beyond the reach of his identification.
"Man, if you don't stop Alina's going to get nervous and Kat will start to get jealous." Sirius said while trying to pry his arm from Remus's grip.
"Kat!" Remus gasped.
It clicked, that was the smell. Sirius shirt smelled like Kat. That sweet smell he had so suddenly become familiar with. But that wasn't all, it had a faint smell of dust and wood, and an animal Remus was not familiar with. Suddenly the smells from the shrieking shack came to mind, but this was different from the scent he woke with. This smell didn't provoke the intense feelings and callings that the other did, but this smell was not doubt in close proximity with the other.
"What about Kat?" Sirius asked seriously.
Grabbing Sirius's arm with more force Remus stuck his nose directly to the fabric and inhaled deeply. There was no mistaking it, he spent hours in the shower trying to rid himself of the stench of the shrieking shack, he would know that scent anywhere. And it was on Sirius's shirt.
"Remus!" Sirius barked impatiently.
"Your shirt," Remus explained in a whisper, "is the one you wore when we went to the shrieking shack. The smell of that place is all over it."
"So?" Peter whispered stepping closer with James.
"What's that got to do with Kat?" Sirius asked crossing his arms and dropping his voice to a whisper as well.
"her scent is on it too."
The boys looked at each other in confusion. Sirius sighed,
"Remus what are you saying?"
Remus looked intently at each of his friends, "didn't you tell me that we had visitors that night?"
"And…..?" Peter asked trying very hard to connect the dots Remus was drawing.
"And Sirius's shirt has three distinct smells, the shack, Kat, and animal."
"yeah," Sirius said as if Remus were a child, "I saw Kat, and I went to the shack, as a dog mind you, to sleep in the same room as a fox, two wolves, a stag and a rat."
Remus got a frustrated look on his face, "after all these years do you really I can't tell the difference between your smells and any other animal in the world?"
"Calm down," James said taking his place as the group mediator. "Remus just walk us through this."
"Yeah, what are you thinking?" Peter encouraged.
"I'm thinking," Remus said slowly, "that the smells are one in the same."
"which means….?" Sirius furrowed his brow.
"Which means," Remus said just as slowly as before, "That Kat is in fact, a fox."
The others blinked slowly. James was the first to recover from Remus's statement and all he could articulate was,
"huh?"
Remus placed his hands out in a gesture for allowing him to explain.
"just follow me here ok? Kat, a read head, the red fox, the scents all together in Sirius shirt, that the fox slept on no less."
Sirius shook his head only half believing his own protests, "no. I mean…she's not…"
Remus shrugged his shoulders, "the smells don't lie, and my nose is never wrong."
Peter nodded, "I can see it."
Sirius suddenly got an excited vision of Kat and himself running through the forest. He remembered laying there burying his nose in the soft red fur and never feeling as peaceful as that moment.
"This is great!" Sirius said animatedly. "I can't wait to tell her I know!"
"No!" James suddenly grabbed Sirius's arm firmly and hissed, "You can't tell her we know!"
"Why not?" Sirius asked jerking his arm from James.
"Can you imagine how much trouble they could get in? That we could get in?" Peter asked vehemently.
Remus nodded, "Any sort of higher level magic like form changing has to be registered and monitored by the ministry. Besides, what if they're embarrassed and don't want anyone to know?"
Sirius shook his head, "why wouldn't they want anyone to know?"
"Lily told me some stuff….but it's private and I think it was supposed to be a secret." James said softly leaning towards his friends. "When they got separated after their parents divorced, Alina was forbidden to do magic."
"What?" Remus breathed.
James nodded sagely, "yep. Her Dad told her she was shameful and she wasn't supposed to use magic ever."
Peter quirked an eyebrow up skeptically, "James are you sure that's what Lily said?"
"Yeah…well, not word for word but that's basically what she said."
Peter shook his head, "if that's true then why do they know so much about magic?"
"Probably from reading," Remus pondered out loud. "That's probably why she reads so much. That was the only way she could stay connected to her sister and wizarding world."
Sirius sighed, "Well fine then, we won't tell Alina."
"No, you can't tell Kat and Alina not know." James reiterated, "They're sisters mate, and roommates. Look at how close they are,"
"Yeah, you won't see one without the other." Peter commented.
"I suppose you're right." Sirius grumbled.
"Man…" James shook his head, "you think you know a girl."
"I know," Sirius said with a huff. "Who would have thought Kat was the red fox?"
They all shook their heads. Peter suddenly perked up and announced,
"You know what that means don't you?"
He stared into the blank faces of his friends and elaborated, "If Kat is the red fox, then Alina has to be the wolf."
Remus's chest tightened as the one thought that never occurred to him took root. He began to breathe more heavily almost hyperventilating as the weight of that statement came crashing down on him. If Alina was the wolf, then that meant that all his worries about what she would think of a man becoming a beast were moot. There was literally nothing standing in the way of their relationship, there was no dark cloud, no fear of the future, and against the odds Remus felt his heart fill with hope and intense warmth he never felt before. He remembered their conversation last night,
"You-you didn't mind he was a werewolf?" Remus asked.
"At first?"
Remus merely nodded.
"I thought it was hot."
Remus blinked in amazement and then wiped his face with his hand. "are you insane?…That fact doesn't alter your opinion of me at all?" Remus asked sarcastically.
" …being a werewolf was not a condition, it was an identity…"
Remus inhaled expanding his chest as much as physically possible as if he'd finally surfaced from beneath cold, dark waters. Everything he thought he felt for Alina was sudden magnified and formed into a surety. They were kindred spirits, and suddenly it didn't matter how much he didn't know about Alina, Remus wanted to spend forever finding out. He wanted to know the feeling of waking in the morning with his nose buried in her hair with her warm soft body molded to his. He wanted to taste her and touch her and he knew without a doubt that the first night he met her in the library was the first night of the rest of his life. He could feel in his soul that it didn't matter how much time had passed and how many other girls he met, none of them would consume him like Alina.
He felt the animal side of him calling to possess her and claim her as his for everyone to know, and most specifically for her to know, that no other would do.
With this realization Remus suddenly became more attuned to everything about Alina and everything about how she made him feel, like when her eyes sought for his. Remus turned quickly and stared deeply in Alina's eyes with the shock of his epiphany and a sneaking suspicion that he was going to have to fight her to make her understand she was meant to be his.