Chapter 3
Remus wandered aimlessly through the halls of the empty castle. The first term wasn't to start for another week, so Remus had the castle all to himself, besides the other teachers residing there.
He had come back to teach DADA, since Hogwarts was badly in need of another professor for the supposedly 'cursed' job.
Remus walked past the painting of Sir Cadogan, the critisizing and pathetic knight. "Up right then, lad!" He yelled from his painting, falling with a loud thud off his horse.
Remus laughed a bit, remembering back to when Sirius had torn up the fat lady. And to all the fun they used to have terrorizing her.
But all that fun was long before the shit hit the fan, Remus thought.
He walked over to a long flight of stairs and looked up. Windows of steel and glass allowed light to flow freely down the cascading staircase. There was something beautiful there, Remus thought, as he watched rays of sunlight streak across an empty castle. Something strangely beautiful.
A loud scream woke Remus from his reverie and had him bolting down the stairs at lightning speed. He recognized the scream, it was Poppy, the school nurse.
When he finally reached the hospital wing, he found Hagrid holding a large weird looking creature that Remus recognized as a baby hippogriff. Poppy sat on the bed, on hand clutching her heart and the other holding a wet washcloth to her forehead.
Hagrid looked oddly amused at the situation. "Af'noon Professor." he said, grinning.
"What happened? I head a loud scream." Remus said, peeking around Hagrid to look at Poppy.
"Scream? Oh..that. Well, ya see, Poppy 'ere was 'n 'ere fixin' up a potion for me baby hippogriff, an' she didn' hear me walk in. I walked up behin' er an' tapped er on the shoulder...she jumped an' saw little baby griffin 'ere and screamed, clutchin' er 'art an' all." Hagrid looked over at Poppy, who was still trying to regain her composure.
Remus snorted out a laugh and walked out of the room. "Hope ya feel better, Poppy." he called out to her, trying to keep from laughing. He ran straight into Dumbledore, backed up, and grinned foolishly at the floor.
"Sorry Albus, was too busy laughing to watch where I was going."
"That's quite alright, Remus...but could I see you in my office please?"
Remus followed the older wizard up to his office, where he sat comfortably down in a large, red armchair. The headmaster sat in his chair behind his desk and began strumming his fingers together, as he usually did when he was gathering his thoughts.
"Did you get in contact with Farrah?"
"Of course, in fact we have a 'date' tonight. I thought I'd get to know her a bit, get her to trust me like you said, and then invite her here for dinner with 'the family' or something."
"You mustn't lie about ANYTHING...promise me this Remus, don't lie unless you have to, it's most important." Albus said, staring at Remus with concerned eyes.
"Okay, I promise you that I will not lie, Headmaster." Remus said, his mouth forming a serious line.
~*~
The Ivy that night was packed full of people. Remus had forgotten to make reservations and seemed to be finding the thought of how angry this Farrah girl would get to be highly amusing. Dancers always seemed to be uptight.
Remus stood alone near the entrance of the restruant, his left arm tucked under his right and his right arm holding a bottle of soda. A black 95' corvette convertible pulled up in an empty parking space in front of him.
The woman who stepped out of the car was beautiful. Her long, strawberry hair glistened under the light of the waxing moon and her shimmering peach dress flowed just to her ankles which were perfectly fitted in strappy silver shoes.
Wow, Remus thought. When the woman looked up he almost choked on his soda.
Farrah??? He couldn't believe that it was her. When he'd first seen her, he hadn't gotten that great a look at her since their meeting had been brief. But under the light of the moon she looked absolutely stunning.
"Good evening, Remus." she said as she walked over to him, clutching a tiny handbag. He felt stupid and unformal since he was wearing jeans and a deep green polo sweater.
"Hello Farrah." Remus said, nearly dropping his drink as she stepped a bit closer. "I...er...well I forgot to make reservations...and seeing as to how there are people waiting outside I'm guessing that the place is full."
"It's okay, let's go for sushi instead, I don't feel like fancy food right now."
"You sure dressed for it."
Farrah looked down at her dress and smiled when she looked back up at Remus. "Ah...well, I figured that a first date should leave a good impression, and seeing as to how I am an elegant kind of person I thought I should look it." She winked at Remus and made his stomach quiver.
They walked down the sidewalk a few blocks until they reached a small sushi bar.
"You like this place?" Remus asked.
"Of course, I've been going here with my nanny ever since I was little. Why, do you not like it?"
"No, no, this place is like my home." Remus said with a grin.
They walked into the small restruant and Farrah immediately began speaking in Japanese to the waitress. They laughed and the waitress showed them to the sushi bar.
The restruant was only about 20 feet long and wide, and there were about 4 booths and 4 tables and chairs. The bar seemed to take up most of the room and seemed to hold most of the action.
A small tv in the corner was showcasing an American boxing match that seemed to be overly exciting a group of people seated at the end of the bar.
Farrah sat down casually at one of the stools and instantly began helping herself to sushi that was at the bar. Remus sat down next to her and ordered a drink.
"So," he said, taking a sip of the iced tea he'd ordered. "What do you like to do for fun?"
"Well, I of course love to dance, it's a kind of, passion, I guess you could say...hmm...I like to read and sit outside and go for walks...basic stuff, I'm not really all that interesting." Farrah said, grinning at Remus.
"Oh trust me, your plenty interesting Farrah." Remus said, picking out a small shrimp sushi. "Anything interesting go on today?"
"Actually, yea, this morning as I was getting dressed my maid brought me in a letter...only, it was so strange...it said something about meeting the 'Minister of Magic' at the Ivy tonight, haha, actually, now that I think of it, it said at 8:00! Oh well, whoever this 'Minister of Magic Tricks' is, he'll have to schedule another 'appointment'." Farrah laughed at the idea and went back to eating as if there was nothing extremely odd about the letter at all.
Remus, however, nearly choked for the second time that night at the mention of it. "The...Minister of Magic?" he said, looking at her with concerned eyes.
"Yea...why? Is that a nickname of someone you know or something?"
Remus cleared his throat and looked back down at his sushi that was half eaten. "No, no, nevermind."
"It was probably just some mentally challenged fan of mine or something that somehow got my address...whatever I'm not worried about it really." Farrah said, going back to eating but noticing that the mention of the letter really seemed to disturb Remus for the rest of the date.
After dinner, they payed and walked out into the cool London night. It was incredibly late, and there were not that many people out on the streets. There was a park ahead of them and Remus requested that they go for a walk.
Farrah and Remus walked silently through the trees in the park, both of them searching for words to say. Everytime each was about to say something, they'd look at the other and not be able to say it.
"Farrah, I..." "Look I..."
Cut off by the other, Farrah and Remus turned to face eachother, standing still in the large dark park. They were both breathing heavily and standing really close to eachother.
Remus felt a ball of anxiety burst in his stomach that sent him wanting what he didn't think he should be wanting right then. Farrah felt a tiny jolt in her stomach at the sight of Remus, the first good clear look she had gotten of him that evening.
"Remus, I had a ..."
Remus cupped the side of her face in his palm and reached down and touched his lips to hers. The touch at first was gentle, tiny nudges of soft lips. Remus intensed the kiss and felt the anxiety in his stomach fade up into his heart.
Farrah had closed her eyes, letting his touch overwealm her. But she suddenly felt uncomfortable and pulled away, looking reluctantly at the ground.
"I'm sorry Remus, this is all too fast..."
Remus cleared his throat and pulled his hand away from her face, placing it in his pocket along with his other hand. "Yea, your right...I'm sorry."
"Maybe I should go," she said, looking up at him. Farrah felt anxiety balling in her own stomach as she tore her eyes off him and walked, shaking, down the sidewalk and out of the park.
~*~
"Wait wait wait...let me get this straight Remus, you KISSED her and she WALKED away??" Minerva shrieked, her hair falling out of its bun from her frantic pacing around Dumbledore's office.
The headmaster was seated at his desk, looking as casual and carefree as always, sucking noisily on a lemon drop.
Remus was standing by one of the armchairs in front of the desk, shifting his weight constantly at Minerva's loud bursts of anger. She had been informed of the plan and was taking a huge part in it, and feeling that since she herself was a woman that she knew how women thought. And in her opinion, Farrah and Remus seeing eachother again was a lost cause.
"Why didn't you stop her??" She said again, her voice calmer this time. She took a deep breath and paused her pacing to stare at him.
"She wanted to leave, the date was over...Minerva I couldn't help it if I felt something for her and acted on it, I knew she was enjoying the kiss while it was happening, I just think that she wasn't into something like that being to impulsive." Remus explained, glancing over at Dumbledore, who was now strumming his fingers together and smiling at the fight going on in front of him.
"Ugh, what do you think Albus?" Minerva asked, turning impatiently to face the headmaster.
"I think what he did was just perfect." Albus said with a smile and a wink.
"Thank you, Headmaster." Remus said, turning around and grinning at Minerva before stepping out of the office.
Professor McGonagall threw her hands up in the air. "Albus how could you tell him that was a good thing to do? Now he's going to go around kissing every girl he sees!! You know he thinks of you as a father..."
"Stop being so protective, Minerva. Remus is a smart young man, he knows what to do with his life and how to handle his way with women. Your not seeing the big picture here anyhow, this girl is going to wallow on the kiss for days and want to come back for more, don't you see that?"
Minerva paused, thinking for a moment. "I hope your right, Albus...I better get going, gotta start getting my classroom in order."
"Bye Minerva." Albus said, winking at her as she stalked, defeated, out of the office.
Seeing McGonagall walk quickly down the opposite corridor, Remus crept back up into the headmasters office.
He knocked lightly on the door and stepped in. Dumbledore looked up at him and smiled.
"Something else you need to tell me Remus?"
"Farrah got a letter from the Ministry of Magic. She told me about it yesterday, only she took it as some fan of hers...but I think it's serious. The letter apparently said that she had to meet the Minister of Magic at the Ivy that night..."
Remus looked at Dumbledore, and noticed that he was not at all shocked by the news. "Is there something your not telling me, headmaster?" Remus asked, his eyes narrowing.
"You wonder why I'm not surprised. Well, Remus, the real question is, did the Ministry send the letter, or did Voldemort?"
"But it was signed by Fudge."
"How do you know? Did you see the signature? Was it authentic? Just something to think about Remus..." Albus said, with a small grin lighting up his baby blue eyes.
~*~