A/N: I do not own ABBA's "When I Kissed the Teacher." I do think I should start lobbying for advertisements with the way I am plugging music from the 1970s. Then I would be able to get more records from the 1970s. Then I could reference even more music from the 1970s. Still wouldn't give me ownership of the songs though. Drat.


October 1976.

"Fairytales are a principle of modern literature," Professor Durand said to his beginning English literature class, passing out several different small books written in foreign languages. "Many novels and plays that we know and love today are derived from them in one way or another. Can anyone think of an example of one?"

A hand raised. "My Fair Lady comes from the play Pygmalion."

"It absolutely does, you're right, but that's not quite what I'm looking for. That's more of an adaptation. We're looking more for a story where you can see the influences of a fairytale in it. Think of some of the things we've read this semester if you have to, or something you've read for school."

"Jane Eyre?" a student supplied.

"Great, Jane Eyre. What about Jane Eyre?"

"It's about a common girl that falls in love with someone who's wealthier than she is, kind of like in Cinderella."

"Exactly," Professor Durand said, pointing at the student. "Go off of Miss Templeton's thought process. Think about the stories that we've read. What else?"

"The Great Gatsby? It's about a girl who's married to another guy while another guy is in love with her, kind of like the stories about King Arthur and Guinivere and Lancelot?"

The professor nodded his head once, giving concession to the idea. "Okay, yeah. You could say that. Love triangles are employed all the time. That's definitely a great example of one. Anybody read Cyrano de Bergerac by Monsieur Rostand?"

Beth looked around the room. No one raised their hand.

"You're all dead to me," the professor jokingly deadpanned. "Are you serious? A guy with a big nose helps a different guy get the girl that he's in love with to fall in love with the different guy? Classic French play?" Blank stares met him. He shook his head. "Unbelievable," he mumbled. Beth caught his eye and briefly smiled as an apology. She reached for the book being handed to her, skimming through the pages of it. "What else?"

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame is kind of like The Beauty and the Beast," Beth offered as she looked down at the faded copy of the fairytale.

"La Belle et la Bête, fantastique, yes. What else?"

A different hand raised. "Phantom of the Opera is kind of like Beauty and the Beast, too."

"Le Fantôme de l'Opéra. You guys are obviously trying to make up for not reading my favorite play by listing off everything you know in French." The class laughed as he walked back to the front. "Great examples, great examples. We could keep going on with this, thinking of books we know and twisting it so that we can see a fairytale in it. However, the purpose of fairytales is not necessarily to enchant us with a story but to teach us something. In Cinderella, for example, we learn that love has no borders. It's not limited to only affect those in the same circles as you, but can reach out and affect anyone. We mentioned King Arthur. What could we learn from that?"

"Sometimes affairs are okay," a student called from the back.

Beth bit back a grin as Professor Durand rolled his eyes. "Somehow, I do not think that is the message you're supposed to take from that. How about, bravery and nobility are more virtuous attributes than fame and wealth?"

"Depends on how wealthy he is," the girl sitting next to Beth mumbled under her breath. She stifled her laugh.

"What about Beauty and the Beast? What's the most classic lesson we can learn from that?"

"If you love someone, let them go."

"Exactly," the professor said, moving to sit on top of his desk. "One of the hardest lessons in life to fulfill. If we look at Phantom of the Opera, we see at the end that Erik lets Christine go, even though his heart yearns to be with her. She goes off and lives a full and happy life away from the person who was controlling her, but we see the evidence of his love for her in him letting her go and not forcing her to stay. In Hunchback of Notre Dame, in contrast, we see that Quasimodo cannot let Esmerelda go. He rescues her repeatedly from near-death experiences and tries to keep her with him. In the end, we see her die, and he follows her shortly after. He didn't let love have the opportunity to go, and it ended up leading to his own death. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby was obsessed with Daisy and wouldn't let the idea of her go, and he ended up dying too.

"Now, that is not to say that's always going to happen," he explained. "Some of you look a little concerned to ever fall in love, now. Love does not lead to death. Don't get the wrong idea here. But the examples we have in literature of love at its truest and purest form is found in those examples of letting the person go, letting the person decide what's going to happen. You're putting aside all of the control you have in your life, potentially giving up your own happiness, and letting it rest in the hands of another. And that, my dear students, is when love becomes strong."

The class was silent as the words sank in. The professor nodded, encouraging them to continue digesting his words. He looked at the watch on his wrist. "Holy smokes, we went over. Don't forget," he called over the hustle and bustle of the students gathering their things together, "your next paper is due Friday at the beginning of class. I do not want a repeat of the last paper we turned in, folks. Get it done." Professor Durand walked over to Beth's desk and tapped on it. She lifted her head as she shoved her notebook into her bag. "It's not often I get a student who knows about The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Beth smiled at him, trying not to focus on his dark features and winning smile that he returned. The French-turned-English professor was renown throughout the school for his charming personality and good looks, and Beth tried not to let it be obvious how flustered she was at him talking to her. "It's one of my favorites," she said. "Mom fell in love with it while they were living in France."

"You lived in France?"

She shook her head and lifted her bag to her shoulder. "I didn't, but my parents did. Dad's in the Air Force, so—"

"Used to moving around?"

She got a strong whiff of his cologne and had to stop herself from leaning in to smell him. "I guess so, yeah."

"Well then, keep up the good work. Keep mentioning some of my favorite works of literature, and I might just have to give you an A on principle."

Beth's cheeks flushed. "Yes, sir," she stated, then walked out the door, where the girl who had been sitting next to her was waiting.

"Okay, teacher's pet."

"He was the one who came over to me," Beth assured her. "I had nothing to do with that."

"Everybody screamed," the girl started singing.

"Polly—"

"When I kissed the teacher."

"Polly, stop!"

"And they must have thought they dreamed—"

"You're going to ruin ABBA for me forever."

Polly scoffed. "You're about to ruin English class for me forever. Just promise me you won't turn into one of those students who actually does date their teacher."


December 1979.

Beth put her last shirt into her suitcase and snapped it shut. That was it. She was done. There was officially nothing stopping her from leaving.

The day after the late-night encounter in the kitchen, Beth had received a sincere, genuine apology from Sirius. An assurance that he wasn't in his right mind, that he didn't mean anything he'd said, and that he desperately wanted to make things right. It would have been easier for her if he'd just ripped her heart out right there.

He'd regretted it. She'd made him miserable.

The entire rest of the day, life went on normally. Perhaps that was what lead her to make this decision to just leave. No one noticed how she'd isolated herself almost entirely. Everyone kept on talking and laughing and carrying on as if she wasn't there. Nothing about the previous day was brought up. It was as if she was a statue, sitting there watching everything happen, adding nothing to the room but volume.

They'd gone to a couple of stores in some shopping center specifically for wizards for the Boxing Day sales. Remus had tried to tell her about where they were at, explaining what the purpose of all of the stores was, but her mind had been entirely focused on how she was going to get to the airport from the flat. A smarter part of her had reminded her that she'd need to check for a flight out first and ensure she'd be able to change her flight. She'd even began planning how she would ask to use the telephone without bringing attention to what she was doing. But then Marlene had laughed loudly at something Sirius had said, grabbing onto his arm and pressing her face into him, and Beth decided she'd just go to the airport and hope for the best.

Sirius had stated the night before that nothing had been going on with him and Marlene. He'd told her that she spent most of the trip reminding him to sleep and eat, and as they walked around, she didn't miss the number of times Marlene asked him if he was okay. She'd been attentive to his every need, and when he once mentioned he was starting to get a little hungry for lunch, she'd immediately stopped the group and began listing off options of places to go. But Beth also saw small, rather intimate moments between the two of them: him pulling the chair out for her, her running her fingers through his hair in an attempt to get it to the right amount of whispy. They may not be together now, but their actions spoke as if they were finely attuned to the desires of the other.

At one point, Beth had left the table to go and stand in the bathroom, trying to regain a sense of composure. Remus' words ran through her mind. "You captured his attention, and then repeatedly stepped on his heart." Now, here he was, doing the same thing to her. This time, though, she knew what to do, how to handle it, how to fix the situation.

Option two. Move on. She deserved that much from herself. She deserved better. It just wouldn't happen here.

She placed the note she'd written explaining everything on the bed, positioning it so that no one would be able to miss it. She took in a shaky breath and closed her eyes. She would get yelled at for this. Probably tomorrow. She fully expected to come into her apartment with several sets of eyes glaring at her and demanding explanations. At least then she'd be in her own territory. They would have easy access to being able to leave. Here, she was trapped. She'd take being yelled at for abruptly leaving over being ignored anyday.

Beth picked up the suitcase and gently cracked the door open, peeking down the hall for any lights still on. Relieved at the darkness she saw, she tiptoed out of the room, paying extra care to not making any sounds at all. Past Lily and James' room, past the bathroom, past the kitchen, she crept. When she got to the living room, she paused, checking to make sure Sirius was asleep. His breathing didn't change, he just hummed at a soft snore. Sighing in relief, she continued, the door just feet in front of her, escape just moments away.

Unfortunately for her, she forgot how far the convertible sofa stretched out and ran into the side of it with a loud thud. She winced at the pain, only vaguely registering that Sirius sprung up, wand in hand.

"Lumos," she heard him say, and suddenly the room was filled with soft light, catching her in the act. He rubbed a hand over his face and stared at her, eyes adjusting to the light. "Beth?" He squinted at the clock sitting next to him. "It's five in the morning. What are you doing?"

She sighed deeply. "I'm sorry," she said, adjusting her suitcase into her other hand in an attempt to hide it from him. "I was trying not to wake you up."

"Did you need something?" he asked as he bent down to pick up the t-shirt on the floor. She saw him pause as he looked over at her, t-shirt still in his hand. "Why do you have your suitcase?"

The inflection in his voice made it sound more like a statement than a question, and when he looked up, she saw the plain realization in his eyes.

"Are you trying to leave?"

She'd made it too far to give up now, though. She steeled her nerves and moved to the door. "Tell everyone bye for me, will you?"

"Beth, wait," she heard him say, and suddenly he was standing in front of her, gazing down at her with concern, t-shirt forgotten on the floor. She tried to move past him, but he held out his hand. "Why are you leaving?"

She looked away from him. "I don't want to be here anymore."

"What?"

"I want to go home." A lump caught in her throat at the honesty of that small phrase. "I'm not helping anyone by being here. I just—I just want to go." She moved to push past him again.

"Wait, wait." He drew her back in front of him. "Why? What happened?"

He looked so genuinely worried and confused, and it carved into her soul, reminding her of that awful sentence that had been running through her head on repeat. "I make you miserable."

"What are you talking about?"

"At least that's what I keep being told." Her breath was coming out shaky, her resolve at leaving all but crumbling. "I don't want—I just—I'm done. I'm done. I refuse to be a problem for you anymore."

"A problem? Beth—"

She looked up at him, though her vision was slightly blurred as tears threatened to fall. "Do you know what it's like finding out that half the people you're staying with don't like you? Do you know what that feeling's like? To hear people talking about you behind your back? Do you know what it feels like to be trapped on a separate continent and unable to leave?"

He nodded. "I do. I know exactly what that's like."

And he was miserable. "Well, lucky for me, I have a way out." She moved to brush past him again.

He stepped in front of her, blocking her path. "No, Beth, I didn't mean—"

"I don't care," she said honestly. "Hate me if you want. You'll hardly be alone in that."

This time, when she tried to move past him, he pulled her hand into both of his and held to it tightly. "Who hates you?"

She shook her head. "Let me go."

"Who hates you?"

"Sirius, please." The single plea tore the tears from her eyes. She tried to pull her hand out from Sirius' to wipe the streaks away, but he refused to let go, and she knew that if she put down the suitcase, he'd never let her pick it back up. She tugged again. "Let me go. I'm done with this. I need to move on from all of this, from you, from everything."

"I don't want you to go."

She didn't believe it. "Everybody else does. Lily, Marlene, James probably does now—"

Sirius shook his head vigorously. "Of course he doesn't. What would make you think—"

"Of course he does. Now that you're here—"

"James and I have talked—"

"He doesn't need me now—"

"—and he's told me nothing except—"

"—he has you here, he doesn't—"

"—how happy he is to have—"

"For the love of God, Sirius, let me talk!" she exclaimed, finally pulling her hand away from his with a violent tug. He backed away from her slowly at her outburst, but the look of concern and worry stayed. A part of her registered that she could wipe away the wetness from her face, but as she stood there staring at him, his chest still bare and breathing heavily, she lost the desire to do so.

"I have done everything in my power to see things from your perspective over these past several months," she stated slowly, putting together the words she'd desperately been longing to say. "I've apologized for hurting you. I've apologized for putting all of the blame on you. I've accepted everything you've thrown at me, every new piece of information you've told me. I've opened up my house, my life, everything to all of you in an attempt to apologize for it all. But now it's time to see things from my perspective because if everything was switched, you would have been just as upset. You would have questions that you would want answers to. You would feel betrayed and hurt, and you would want explanations. Was it really selfish of me to want to understand why everything is different? Was it really selfish of me to want time to process it? Was it selfish of me to want answers? My entire life was being turned upside down, and I'm the one at fault for wanting to know why? Is that really selfish?"

He took a step towards her. "Beth—"

"I am not done!" He froze where he was, and finally, she did take a moment to wipe her face, to attempt to compose herself. "I'm sorry that I make you miserable, Sirius," she confessed after a small moment. "I really, really am. But you have to understand that I've been miserable, too. That I'm hurting, too. That this wasn't easy for me, too. James asked me to come stay here, but now you're here and he's happier, and you have Marlene with you and you're happier. Everyone, everyone keeps getting happier, and as everyone keeps getting happier, I keep on hurting more, because I was happiest with you. I don't want to be the person that everyone blames anymore. In fact, I refuse to be that person. I want to be away from hurt, I want to be away from pain, and if that means letting all this go, letting you go, then that's what I'll do. Being here just makes it hurt to love you, and I don't want to hurt anymore." She shook her head. "But I need you to let me go, too."

He was quiet for a long moment. His mouth had opened up in what she assumed to be surprise at her sudden headstrongness. His expression had shifted to something else entirely, something she couldn't read at all. He swallowed hard. "Are you done now?"

She looked down at her suitcase and shifted it into her other hand. "Yeah."

He nodded once and took a step forward. "Did you say you love me?"

Did she say that she—oh. She had, hadn't she?

"I didn't mean it," she could say. Or maybe, "I didn't mean it like that."

But they'd done enough lying beforehand for her to know that it didn't help anything in the long run. That trying to keep this a secret would inevitably hurt somebody in the end, and they had promised no more secrets, no more lies, no more deception.

So instead, she simply nodded.


Summer 1996.

"Oi, we having a party in here?"

"No!" Ginny yelled in disbelief, looking over her shoulder. Remus looked up at the intruder in question and felt his heart skip a beat. Tonks was there, a basket of goods in her hand, her whole countenance suddenly nervous.

"I'm so sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"Yes!" a chorus of kids yelled.

"No," Remus said, giving everyone an admonishing look. He stood up and walked over to her. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, don't even try to act like you're not excited to see me," Tonks said, playfully punching his arm. "Molly said when you got here that you were a little bit down in the dumps."

"I'm all right."

Her face scrunched up in concern. "You're sure?"

"Positive," he promised, but she still regarded him warily. He motioned to take the basket from her, trying to take the attention away from him. "What have you got in here?"

"Well, I knew I'd be coming into a big hassle of people, so I thought I'd bring some snacks for you all." Remus set the basket down in front of the group of kids huddled in the room, letting them rummage through it all. "I just didn't think I'd need to bring a white flag as well," Tonks mumbled to him with a smile.

"Professor Lupin is telling us about Sirius' fiancée," Hermione explained.

"Fiancée?" Tonks raised her eyebrows in question. "Sirius didn't have a fiancée."

"He did indeed," Remus said.

"Really? Who?"

"Her name's Beth," Harry said, pulling a chocolate frog from the basket.

Tonks shook her head. "I don't remember a Beth."

"I don't think you ever met her. It was '79. You were what? Twelve?"

Tonks laughed. "Try six, but thank you for thinking I'm more mature than what I actually am."

Remus blanched at the comment as she bent down to start passing out the different things she'd brought. Six in 1979, he thought to himself. He had been nineteen. Nineteen. She'd still been playing with dolls when he'd been fighting in a war. He slowly sat back down, resuming his spot next to Harry. Six. What on earth was she doing, investing in him and his life so much that she would resort herself to spending her evenings with an old, decrepit werewolf who still had nightmares about things that happened to him when she was six?

"Earth to Remus." A hand waved in front of his face. "Come in, Remus."

She was beaming at him, her smile matching the brilliance of her vibrant pink hair. She was radiant. Beautiful, breathtaking, and radiant, and she had been six when he was nineteen.

"Don't think I forgot about you, Professor," she said mischievously, pulling out a bottle of wine and two glasses. She went to pull her wand out of the basket to open the bottle up, glasses still in her hand. Remus quickly reached for the bottle of wine.

"I've got it," he said, preventing an easily foreseen accident from happening. He'd been spending too much time around her to know it was a high possibility.

"My hero." Tonks winked at him, and he silently chastised himself from the way his heart raced at the small motion. "I love that they all still call you 'professor.' It's very sweet."

Remus looked up at the people sitting around him, passing and trading the snacks they all had. It looked like the Trolley Witch herself had made her rounds in here. He smiled at the group. "Old habits die hard."

"Maybe they just all still think of you as someone they can turn to for guidance," she said as he poured some wine into the glasses. He nearly dropped them when her hand quickly stroked the side of his leg. "I certainly do."

He smiled awkwardly in response but gave no other answer. She thinks of you as a teacher, he thought to himself. That's it.

Only that's not exactly what she said, was it?

"All right, snacks are good," Ginny announced, settling back down in her spot. "Let's get back to it."

He brought his attention back to the group and laughed when he saw everyone already looking up at him expectantly. "You guys don't really want to hear about all of this, do you?"

George put a hand over his heart. "Fred, however did he guess it?"

"Haven't the slightest idea," Fred replied, mimicking the same action. "Perhaps he thought that by sitting here, we weren't interested."

"That does seem to be the only logical thing to take from this."

"All right," Remus said, throwing a pillow at the two of them. Tonks was sitting at his feet, an elbow leaning up to rest against the space next to him on the couch. He looked down at her, eyes expectant and joyful. "So," he said, looking directly at her. "James had this friend Beth that he invited over for his wedding—"

"That's not where we were at," Ron exclaimed.

Remus looked up at him. "Tonks doesn't who Beth is, though."

"It's Sirius' fiancée," Harry interjected.

"Yeah, it's Sirius' fiancée," Ron echoed.

"Well, they're not engaged yet."

"Oh, who cares," Ginny whined. "Just keep going!"

Tonks bumped his leg. "Better not leave them waiting. You can catch me up later."

The implication of the word "later", that they would have a moment where it would be "later", made his old, decrepit heart soar. His strict, practical common sense brought him back to reality.

Tonks nudged him again. "Keep going, the woman said!" Ginny grinned widely.

He momentarily looked up. Molly was standing to the side, arms crossed, a smile on her face. She looked happy. He hadn't let her down. Remus smiled back.

"All right. So Sirius asked Beth if she was done…"


December 1979.

He nodded once and took a step forward. "Did you say you love me?"

Did she say that she—oh. She had, hadn't she?

"I didn't mean it," she could say. "I didn't mean it like that."

But they'd done enough lying beforehand for her to know that it didn't help anything in the long run. That trying to keep this a secret would inevitably hurt somebody in the end, and they had promised no more secrets, no more lies, no more deception.

So instead, she simply nodded.

He let out a heavy breath and rubbed his hand over his face, and she didn't know what it meant. When she heard him let out a small chuckle, she felt her heart sink. "You're laughing at me."

"No!" he immediately shouted. "No, no, not at all. I'm just confused."

"About what?"

"About what? You just told me you—and now you're still—Beth, why are you leaving?"

She gave him a small smile, thinking back to those fairytales she'd read about, the lessons that they taught. "If you love someone, you let them go, right?"

The ultimate act of true love.

His eyebrows scrunched in confusion. He shook his head. "No. No, if you love someone, you beg them to stay."

Her eyes went wide at his response, and then he had crossed the room in two steps and was standing in front of her again and holding her hand again, but this time it was cradled against his chest, and his eyes were hopeful and pleading, and she felt all of her breath leave. "Please," he whispered, and she saw that his own eyes glistening. "Stay."

Her breath was coming out in short, shaky pants. "Stay?"

"I love you. I don't want you to go. I want you to stay." A hand came up and cradled her cheek, and his thumb brushed away the new set of tears that were falling. "Please."

She shook her head. "What about Marlene?"

"I told you yesterday nothing is going on."

"But she doesn't like me—"

"I do. Beth," his fingers carded through her hair, "I do. I love you." Her eyes fluttered shut at his words, letting them seep into her, letting them remind her that all of this was real. He let out a shaky, nervous sigh. "Please."

She responded the only acceptable way she knew.

She kissed him.

But this time, there was no urgency following it, no sense of sympathy or desire to fix. This time, it was him and her and this moment, and she couldn't have stopped the tears from falling if she wanted to. This time, she felt like things might actually turn out okay. This time, she felt nothing but pure, incredible happiness.

This time, she felt loved.

When they finally pulled apart, they both had wide, exuberant grins on their faces. Beth pushed the hair out of his face and held it tenderly. "Really?"

"Really."

Beth leaned in again and kissed him, and this time she was flying. He was crushing her to him, holding her tightly as if he was afraid she would leave, and while it was certainly on her mind to only minutes ago, now it was such a distant memory that she could scarcely remember it. Lips traveled over every visible patch of skin, caressing it with adoration and desire and love, and it knocked the balance out of her knees. He scooped her up, cradling her to him, lips never once leaving her. They sat down together on the sofa, and she switched her position so that she was straddling his lap.

She trailed her lips across his once she was settled. "We'll need to talk about this."

He nodded, turning his head so that he could kiss and nip at her neck. "We will."

She sighed and grasped at his hair. "We've changed. We'll need to adapt."

His lips moved to her ear, and she felt a tingle go through her as he tugged at her earlobe. "We will."

"It can't be like what it was last time."

"I know."

She turned her head and brought his mouth back to hers, hands tracing down his arms, his back, his chest, before finally returning to his face. He kissed her savagely in response, his hands following the same pattern as hers, and the trail that he left burned against her.

"This time," he whispered, mouth fluttering against her cheeks, her nose, her eyes, her jaw, "there are no lies. No secrets. Nothing you don't know, nothing I won't tell you. No more hurting." He pressed a kiss to the side of her mouth. "No more pain." A kiss to the other side. "From either of us."

He pulled back that time, lips just centimeters from hers. "This time," his breath was tingling her skin, "I'm not going to let you go."

He gazed at her again with love shining brightly, and Beth wanted to go back and tell that professor that love wasn't just about being able to let go. Sometimes, it was about fighting to stay.

"I love you," she said. Freely and openly. Because she could.

He ran a hand through her hair and smiled. "And I love you, too."


A/N: Surprise! I suddenly have time on my hands, and look at what I was able to crank out! Yay! Back together! Life is happy, love is real! Hope I wasn't too cruel in interrupting their moment like that, but I was getting desperate to throw Tonks in there.

I'd like to give a shoutout to grueneHimbeere for asking me if Beth was going to have an opportunity to stand up for herself. That was what really kicked this chapter into motion and what kept me up late trying to plan out the dialogue for this scene. What I originally had planned for this chapter was suddenly not enough, because this person was right. At some point, you do need to stand up for yourself. One time I did at my job at the time, and I left with a promotion. Beth just did, and she got her man. I just hope I did you justice, my friend! Reviews, people, they really mean a lot! Keep them coming!

Also, Marlene and Lily are not going to stay upset about this. I do not mean to paint them in a bad light, but sometimes you don't like the person your friend is dating. They'll come around to the idea soon. Lily, in particular, is about to have some awesome moments. Just you wait.

A very special thanks to nimblescrivener for not judging me when I texted them and said, "I may have a chapter for you tonight."

Stay safe, my friends.