A/N: Hello people, and thank you to those kind readers who left reviews on this! I'm glad you're liking this story and Selene and Remus' dynamic! Onwards!

Disclaimer: I do not own Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, or any other recognizable character for the Wizarding World universe. I own, however, my OCs the Selwyns and several minor OCs. The plot had been written purely for entertainment value.

Chapter twelve: Sparks fly

1st November 1981. The Leaky Cauldron.

Word had spread like wildfire through dry twigs. Selene received an owl from the Ministry itself before getting a Howler from her father. The Dark Lord had fallen. He'd killed the Potters, and got destroyed for it. The wizarding world was at a tipping point.

First, Selene couldn't help but feel elated. The Dark Lord was gone. She was saved from his influence. Safe from harm, from having to do harm. Her plan had worked long enough that she would never have to bear the Mark.

Still, she wrote back to her father, faking grief, going as far as to pour drops of water over the ink to make it look like she had cried writing those words. She offered to come to Selwyn Manor, but he declined, saying that the family had to lay low for a while, as the other side would no doubt try to find Death Eaters to condemn to Azkaban. She pursed her lips, considering selling Janus and Aurus out. After all, she didn't need them or their money anymore.

But still. If they didn't get arrested, she'd be dead. Aurus would kill her. Slowly. Painfully. So, once again, self-preservation won over honesty.

After elation, however, came worry. The kind that settled in someone's bones and didn't let go. The kind that made one feel ice-cold, akin to the feeling that Dementors were told to emulate in people.

James and Lily Potter – and their son Harry – had been murdered by the Dark Lord before his demise. James and Lily Potter who Sirius had told her were in hiding, protected by a Fidelius Charm. James Potter, who was Sirius' best-friend.

So, who had given them away? Who had sold them off?

The second letter she sent that night was to her cousin. Asking her where he was, if he needed her help. To come to her Dorset home if he was in need of a place of comfort.

The third she sent was to Remus. She gave him a time, a place. The Leaky Cauldron, room 203, at 2am precisely.

She was sitting on a chair near the window, worrying about Sirius' lack of answer, when there was a knock on the door.

Remus was haggard-looking, which would have been absolutely normal if it had been close to the full-moon. But said full-moon wasn't for another ten days, and he had just lost two of his closest friends, and their son.

His green eyes red and puffy, he approached Selene cautiously, and she wondered briefly if he was considering hugging her for comfort. They hadn't seen each other since James and Lily's wedding over a year prior, that reminder painful in itself.

"Sel," he greeted, voice hoarse. She could picture him perfectly, screaming his lungs out as he heard the news.

She stood, holding her wand loosely, not threateningly, although the simple act was, in itself, a threat being made. His gaze dropped to her hand, then back to her eyes as she asked 'Have you heard from Sirius?'.

His demeanour darkened immediately, a wave of anger turning his eyes amber in a blink. He raised his wand as he bared his teeth, like the animal he turned into each month. "Why, haven't you heard from your dear cousin yet? Has he left you alone after betraying his friends?"

Selene's eyes widened in disbelief. "What-? Are you-?" Then she bared her teeth as well, her own anger rising to meet his. "Are you insinuating that Sirius has betrayed James and Lily? That he sold them to the Dark Lord?"

"That is exactly what I am insinuating!" He got into her face, his wand touching her ribs. Hers rose to rest above his collarbone, both seconds away from jinxing the other. "Did you help him? Were you the one to turn him? Was your daddy proud when you came home with a new Death Eater to Mark?"

Selene yelled as she sent him flying back into the wall, dust dropping from the ceiling onto his head as the whole room trembled. Amidst the noise of celebration downstairs, it passed unnoticed. "How can you possibly say that to me? How dare you?!" She jinxed him again, which he deflected with a Shield, panting as he recovered from her first curse. Despite her slender stature, she pinned him to the wall again, knocking his wand from his hand and placing hers like a knife on his throat. "You have no idea what I've done for your side this past year. So don't insult me, werewolf."

He huffed. "Ah, there it is. Using that word when convenient, right, snake?"

She pushed against him, moving back into the room. A dull noise was buzzing in her ears, her anger was so strong. "Sirius would never have betrayed James. Over his dead body. Someone else did it. Someone who knew where they were hiding." She was eyeing him suspiciously, now. Raising her wand again, she asked "Where were you these past weeks? Sirius said he hadn't heard from you in a while…"

Remus pushed from the wall too, wandless but still glaring at her as if he could kill her with his bare hands. Which he could, obviously. Werewolf or not. "And now you insult me by insinuating that I-"

"More likely you than Sirius."

"Stop thinking Sirius farts rainbows, Selene!"

She pursed her lips, dropped her wand. Headed for the door. "You are a fool. A fool who doesn't know his best friend."

He stopped her, grabbing her arm, not to hurt her, but to make her see sense. "Where are you going?"

"To look for my cousin, who is Merlin-knows-where, probably drinking himself to death or, worse, trying to find the fucker who sold his family off to a degenerate." She seldom cursed out loud, but Sirius had rubbed off on her too much, and the situation was dire.

Remus didn't release her, and his gaze softened a bit, a smidge, really, and he asked "What did you mean by 'what you've done for my side'?"

Selene dropped her own gaze, huffing. "You should ask Sirius. He's the only one who knows."

"I'm asking you."

And the intensity of his gaze upon her made her answer a shaky "I've warned him. Several times. Liverpool. Aberdeen. Belfast. Coventry." Her voice had dropped an octave, but he heard her of course.

She'd warned the other side whenever her father or brother gloated about participating in a murder-mission. She'd been discreet enough that they didn't get back to her, and Sirius had been clever enough not to make a rescue mission too obviously tied to intel.

Remus did release her at those words.

Making her look back into his lovely eyes, sad now, in a way she hadn't been in four years. She leaned in, tentatively kissing his lips before saying 'You're wrong about Sirius' and leaving the room, defeated in more ways than one.

The next time they'd see each other, she'd be under the pouring rain, and he standing under the porch of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…

24th June 1995. Dorset.

Sirius hadn't come back to Selene's house since November. She and Remus had been left to their own devices, worrying sick about him and trying to get used to life together. At first, he had been willing to leave, to find another place to stay, but she had refused, saying he was safer there, and that she was feeling safer with someone there as well. As usual, letting her wish not to see him leave pass for selfishness.

At first, it was been awkward. They often spent dinners in silence, opening a conversation before closing it immediately after. Sometimes, oftentimes, they stared into each other's eyes, unable to speak or to act at all.

Minty had been nonplussed about the situation, even calling her Mistress a coward on occasion.

For Christmas, they'd both travelled to Hogsmeade to find Sirius and spend a cold, damp and miserable evening with him in an equally cold, damp and miserable little cave. He'd been thinner, dirtier, but he hadn't wanted to come back home. Harry was more important.

Harry, who'd managed to defeat a dragon in his First Task, using his unparalleled Quidditch skills to fly around the beast and take its golden egg from it.

Harry, who'd displayed a remarkable sense of altruism when he tried to save everyone during the Second Task, and not only his assigned task.

Harry, who was facing the Third and last Task that very night.

Sirius was meant to come back home two days later.

Selene was worried beyond belief.

She'd gone to see the First Task, as outside public was allowed, but hadn't dared repeat the experience after Aurus cornered her at work to ask her what in Salazar's name she had gone to Hogwarts for. She'd pretexted feeling that Black would try to sneak in again, and he'd barely bought it.

He was becoming a bigger pain in her bottom than ever…

That night, neither she nor Remus could eat anything at dinner.

Instead, they went outside, basking in the early summer's sun on the terrace, the quiet countryside surrounding them and their worries.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" she asked, almost in a whisper.

He turned to her, soft, but also worried. "I think Harry will be fine. He's surrounded by capable witches and wizards. As for Sirius…I dearly hope so."

"If he does anything foolish tonight, I'll kill him."

He chuckled. "I believe you." After a pause, he added "You really care for him, don't you?"

She turned his way as well, eyebrow raised. "Of course I do, why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "You've never shown this side of yourself, back when…we knew each other." He didn't elaborate, didn't need to.

She sighed. "I've changed. I've had thirteen years to live without him, to miss him…" She paused, loath to admit to sentimentality, but feeling more honest than ever. "He's my brother. My closest friend. I've lost him once. I can't lose him a second time."

Remus nodded, thoughtful for a moment. "Sel…" he began, his voice low.

This almost made her shiver in the bright sunlight. "What?"

He sighed, too, as if gathering the famed Gryffindor courage. "Back then… Back when…" Another sigh. "When you ended things…"

She paled, turning back towards the horizon. She hated thinking about that day, and even less to talk about it.

But Remus couldn't be sated, now. He rose from the chair he'd been sitting on, and came to stand in front of her, obscuring the setting sun from her sight. He was magnificent in that dying light, and she hated it. "When you ended things," he repeated, "did you mean it? What you said?"

Selene pleaded ignorance. "I don't remember what I said that day."

"Yes, you do," he almost hissed, anger rising in him now, and in her immediately after.

"I don't."

"You do."

She stood to her feet, then, bent to leaving, of going back into the house to run from this conversation altogether.

But, as was a habit of his, he caught her arm before she could escape. His gaze was amber, like the sun that had disappeared behind him. "Selene, please. I need to know. You owe me the truth." Seeing that she was about to deny him again, that she had falsely ignorant words on her lips, he asked "Did you really feel nothing for me at the time?"

The word was there, on the tip of her tongue. She only had to push it out. To form it so he'd hear. "No. I felt nothing for you. You were an experiment, that's all." She tried to tug her arm free, but he wouldn't let her.

"I don't believe you. You know why I don't believe you?" he whispered, then.

She shook her head, almost scare of what he was going to say.

He didn't say anything. Instead, he leaned down, and brushed his lips to hers.

For the first time in almost fourteen years, they kissed.

Selene couldn't help but let out a pleased moan. It had been so long… Her hands rose to his hair, mussing it as she loved, and he pulled her closer, setting her body on fire hotter than a sunburn.

The kiss was passionate, but soft in essence. She loathed it for its softness, for what it meant, but she hadn't said the words, so who cared?

She kissed Remus as if it was the first time, the last time. It was wonderful, it was consuming her. Soon, they'd forget all about the Third Task… Soon…

In the dark of night, a soft 'pop' made them jump from each other, and eye the small House-Elf who'd appeared a foot from them.

Minty's eyes were brimming with tears as she stared at Selene.

Her words were even more terrifying. "Mistress… The Dark Wizard is back. Master Sirius has sent word. He came back at the Third Task of Mister Harry Potter."

Selene blindly reached for Remus' hand.

Not again…