"Remus?" Moira whispered under her breath, her cold fingers lightly touching her lips. Shock barely began to explain what she felt when the thin, pallid man walked past the hospital wing. A familiar pang of longing coursed through her, and she swallowed hard, looking from the students in the hospital cots into the hallway. A ghost from her past, nothing more, she assured herself.

She hadn't seen Remus in nearly a decade, maybe even longer. Every day she fought to forget him, having expected that the worst had happened and that he had either perished at the hands of wicked anti-werewolf hunters or had rid himself of his burden. She missed him. It didn't help that James and Lily had been murdered, and that Sirius had killed Peter. With Remus's disappearance she could hardly bear to remember her time at Hogwarts. No, surely it could not be him.

"Poppy?" Moira called, not daring to take her eyes off the halls in case she caught a glimpse of him again.

"Yes?" Madame Pomfrey's heels clicked behind her, moving between the beds promptly. "What Moira?"

Moira swallowed again, her throat thick and suddenly feeling like it was full of cotton balls. "May I take a short break? I'd like to go ask Severus about an ingredient I need."

Poppy pursed her lips together, measuring whether or not she needed the extra pair of hands at the moment. After a couple moments of contemplation, she nodded. "Yes, well. Sure. But don't be too long."

Moira wasted no time and dashed out the door, looking to the right where she had seen the man go. The halls were empty, but she followed where she could only assume he had gone. Moira didn't take the precious seconds to take off her hospital apron or matronly hat. I probably look ridiculous, she thought, but could not muster the effort to care. She peered into empty classrooms, finding no trace of him. As she turned the next corner, she saw him.

Was it Remus? She couldn't truly be sure. It had been so long…but it seemed like him, scars and all. Who else would have had those scars? Or had she simply made herself see what she wanted to see? It had been such a fleeting glimpse, after all. She tried to quell the feeling of hope, but it was useless to resist.

"R…Remus?" She called out, incredibly unsure of herself and ready to be embarrassed. Her hands were balled into tight fists at her sides, physical manifestations of her anxiety. He turned around suddenly, and it was undeniably him.

"Yes?" He answered. He appraised Moira, taking in her appearance and trying to place her in his memory. When he scanned her face for traces of familiarity, his eyes settled on hers. Though he did not smile, his eyes seemed to sparkle. "Moira?" Disbelief, but pleasant disbelief.

"Oh my god." Moira shook her head, truly feeling as if she was in a dream. She had pictured what it would be like if she ever saw him again, but she never expected it to happen back at Hogwarts where they had first met. She felt frozen in place, despite having run what felt like all over the castle chasing after someone who very well might not have been him. But it was, and it was so incredibly unexpected that she didn't know how to process it.

Remus approached her slowly, looking hesitant himself. They had been the best of friends, but that sense of familiarity and effortlessness had waned over the years of absence. Moira watched him carefully, her eyes tracing the contours of his body and the folds of his robes, drinking in what her friend had become. He was handsome, of course. He always was to her. But he had aged. So had she, naturally. But his condition had taken a toll on him, and it showed in his sunken cheeks and sleep-deprived eyes. His hair was graying and tousled, his robes thin and worn.

"I must admit I wasn't expecting this." He smiled softly, his voice just as comforting and friendly as she had remembered. "How are you Moira?"

At that moment she didn't know how she was. Elated? Yes. Confused? Totally. Caught off guard? Incredibly. But she was also angry—immensely so. She had sent owl after owl looking for him, worried about him. She had no point of contact once the unthinkable had happened with the rest of the Marauders.

"Confused…" She began, choosing her words carefully as her conflicting feelings waged a war inside of her. "…And upset." Upset seemed like a more measured and mature way of saying that she was beyond pissed. She cleared her throat and her eyes darted to the floor. "But happy to see you're alive. I had worried the radio silence for the last forever indicated otherwise."

There was a measure of uncomfortable silence as her words sat between them. Remus put his hands in his robe pockets and nodded towards the stone floor.

"I suppose I do deserve to be chewed out." A couple seconds passed, and then he continued, "I got your owls."

"I wish you had not just said that." Her throat throbbed, holding back tears that were begging to flow. "What the fuck." Moira rarely cursed. Remus flinched.

"I didn't mean—"

"Oh stop." Moira laughed hollowly. The joy she had felt five minutes past had melted away, and she felt an ache for the last decade that had been devoid of any contact with her best friend, a man she had grown up with and went through hardship with—a man she had fallen in love with but had never been able to confess her feelings to. What could they have done in the last decade? What could they have been? "You could have found me if you wanted to. I was only an owl away. And you got my owls! Year after year. I must have seemed pathetic." She shook her head, a tear escaping. "I worried for so long, Remus. I know how you could be self-destructive. I wanted to help you. I knew it must have been hard for you after what happened…it was hard for me too. We could have helped each other. I tried…" She inhaled sharply. "I tried to keep us together. I figured it's what James and Lily and Peter would have wanted, for a part of the gang to at least remain in contact. I don't know what I did to make you want to leave me behind."

"Moira, that's not…you know that's not what I wanted." He closed his eyes, the dark circles beneath them prominent. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm a disaster. I bring strife to anyone in my life. I'm a walking time bomb. You didn't need that. No one does."

"But what if I wanted it? You were my best friend, Remus. I had no one for so long. And," she emphasized, "you're none of those things." Moira glanced up at him. She tried to soften her voice, to be less caustic. It was hard—this had brought her so much pain for so long. "You must have been lonely too."

"I was. I wanted to reach out—I did. I just didn't want to bring you down with me."

"Are you okay?"

"I've learned to deal with it better." He said, smiling softly. "It's hard. It always has been. But I've avoided other people as much as possible. I don't want any accidents."

"Remus…" She shook her head. He was exactly as she remembered. He was overly cautious, distant at times, and maybe a touch dramatic. But that was through her eyes, from the perspective of someone who only ever wanted to be as close as possible to him. Having a werewolf for a best friend had its challenges. Being quietly in love with one was even harder. "Why are you here now?" There were so many other things she wanted to say, so many things she wanted to ask him. Did he think about her the way she thought about him? Did he still think back to the times they held hands by the black lake, or the study breaks spent by the common room fire? She had to admit her mind wandered to those times quite frequently, especially when she was feeling lonely or was the only one working in the apothecary shop she tended to before landing a job with Poppy.

"Dumbledore asked me to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. It seems that they've had a bit of bad luck keeping the position filled, and he and McGonagall remembered I was particularly gifted at the subject. We'll see how I do," he shrugged in classic Remus fashion. He was always so humble.

"You were damn near genius, if I recall." Moira smirked, allowing herself to lighten up. "I think you'll be brilliant. You're a great teacher, at least when it came to teaching me wizard chess and tutoring me in Charms."

"Ahh well…you had me beat in Potions. You were gifted."

"I still am!" She feigned offense, clutching her chest. The iciness between them was dissolving as the banter wore on. She missed this. "That's why Pomfrey called me here. My knack for potion-making and herbology make a good pair when a nurse's aide is needed…I've heard we'll be under the watch of dementors this year. Dumbledore was worried we might have some issues with some of the more sensitive kids, and Pomfrey is always overworked regardless."

"You're going to do brilliantly. Has that what you've been up to all this time?"

"You wouldn't have to ask if you'd answered my owls." Moira responded, only half poking fun. "But yes. Mostly. I've been working at the apothecary in Diagon Alley for some time now. I whip up remedies for customers who aren't quite keen on do-it-yourself recipes. Salves, potions, soaks…You name it, I've made it. Plus a lot of weighing ingredients, which gets tedious."

"Well, here's to both of us trying something new this term. Now, I need to run to see Dumbledore for a bit of debriefing. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around the castle so for now…" He smiled and saluted at Moira, who only mustered half a smile in return. She wanted to feel optimistic but didn't quite allow herself.

"I'm glad to see you, Remus. Just don't go silent on me, yeah?"

"That'll be quite hard to do I imagine, in these close quarters."

"Oh, Hogwarts is a big place. I'm sure if you really wanted to, you could manage. But if you try, I will harass you with a barrage of owls. Now that I know you're alive, there's no excuse."

"Quite right, too." Remus chuckled and nodded. "I'll be seeing you, Moira."

"I hope so, Moony."

Remus's eyes widened at hearing himself called that name, but the initial shock eventually wore away into a warm expression, and he turned to walk towards the Headmaster's office.