When I wrote this particular part of this fict (about a year ago...), it contained a long NC17 part (in English: a long sex-scene). But then fanfiction.net announced it wouldn't allow NC17 anymore... what could I do? And besides, I rated this fict PG13, and well, that scene was anything BUT PG 13...
I finally decided to do the following: this chapter is the edited version of the original. I'll post the original as a separate story, rated R. You can find that one in my profile, if you want to read it. And if you don't, well, don't bother looking for it! You can leave reviews for the original chapter at that chapter, or here (complicated? Easy version: REVIEW! I don't care where!).
'kay, that was everything I wanted to say, so... o yeah, chapter quote is from "Moulin Rouge!" I LOVE that movie!
September/October 1990."The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."
Remus pushed the door open and hastily got inside. Water was dripping from his coat on the floor. He shook his head and drops of water flew everywhere.
I thought they only had raining seasons in the far east, he thought. He looked around in the pub where he had sought shelter for the rain outside. It was a pretty large room with round tables and large windows showing the wet streets outside. Because it was a Thursday afternoon there were only a few people. Three old ladies were enjoying a cup of tea and there was a younger woman sitting in a corner near a window. She caught Remus' attention because she was sitting alone, except for a very young child in a buggy next to her. The woman seemed around Remus' age. She had blond hair and she was apparently occupied. She was scribbling things on a notebook in front of her. Occasionally she would look outside the window, lost in thoughts. Remus thought it best not to disturb her.
He sat down at a table and ordered a coffee and a sandwich. Then he got a map from his pocket and studied it for a few moments. He was going to Loch Ness, by train. He was now in Edinburgh. Tomorrow he would take the train to Drumnadrochit, the largest place near the Loch, where he would stay for three weeks. Then a short visit to his mother's sister, and then back home again.
He pocketed the map again, quickly finished his coffee and sandwich and got to his feet. He glanced once more to the lonely woman in the corner. She was resting her head on her hand. She saw him looking at her and flashed a smile before turning her attention to her notebook again.
Remus left the pub.
~*~
A few days later…A whistle was blown and the Muggle train left the station. Remus watched the train until he couldn't see it anymore, then he picked up his old suitcase.
He walked down the road, enjoying the autumn sun that shone on his head. He imagined himself walking there; a slender young man with already greying lightbrown hair. Although he would be thirty in a few weeks he looked as if he was in his mid-twenties, except for his eyes. His amber-spotted eyes had a melancholic look that you'd expect with a much older person. He looked as though he'd had too much tragedy and problems in his life. Or, as Romulus had kindly put it: "you look like, huh, fun, what's that? Can you eat that?" But then my life had been extremely funny, he thought sarcastically.
He reached a small harbour. The entire Loch could now be overlooked, and Remus was stunned when he saw how huge it was. He could hardly see the other side, only a vague green line. The afternoon sun reflected on the water. Far away he could see a few boats floating about on the lake. It all looked so peaceful…
He noticed a bench not so far away from him. He sat down and leaned back, enjoying the view, the warmth of the sun, the cool breath of wind, the silence.
Remus, you should be looking for a hotel, a place to stay now, he thought. You don't have time to sit here and do nothing!
Just a few minutes more. Then I'll go and find something, he promised himself. Just – a few minutes…
"What are you doing?" a curious voice suddenly asked. He jumped and turned to the left. A girl of maybe seven, eight years old was staring at him with bright blue eyes. Her hair was tied in two short braids, and her nose was covered in thousands of freckles. "What are you doing?" she repeated with a rather strong Scottish accent.
"I, ah, am looking at the lake," he answered.
"Why?" she wanted to know.
"Uhm, because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the monster," he said. She looked at him as if she thought him an idiot.
"Nessie never comes when the sun is so bright," she said. "Michael says sunlight hurts Nessie's eyes." Everybody knows that, stupid, her eyes clearly said.
"Oh… well, that's too bad…" he said hesitantly.
"Are you waiting for someone?" the questioning went on.
"No, not really. I actually need to find a place where I can sleep tonight," he answered, at the same moment wondering why he was telling her all this.
"You can sleep at my house," she offered seriously.
"I don't think your mommy or daddy will like that," he said. Now she looked really offended.
"My mommy and daddy? I'm seven and a half, not four!" she said indignantly. "They are my mother and father, not my mommy and daddy. And I'm sure they won't mind."
She is getting annoying, he thought.
"What's your name?" was the next question she asked. He was about to say something about her being rude and that he wasn't going to answer more questions, when someone interrupted him.
"Meghan!" The little girl turned around abruptly, looking a little as if she was caught red-handed for something. Remus also turned his head to see who was coming.
Hey, I'm knocked out and now I'm dreaming, was his first thought.
A young woman with long brown hair and, at the moment, angry brown eyes, was rapidly approaching them. Remus felt as if he was stunned and could hardly take his eyes of her face.
She looked sternly at the little girl who'd been interrogating Remus. According to the similarities in the colour of their eyes and hair, they were sisters.
"Meghan," the young woman said, with a charming accent. Remus was sure he'd never heard something that beautiful. "What have we told you about talking to strangers?"
"But he isn't a stranger," Meghan replied. "He's, ah, a friend of mine."
"And what is your friend called?" her sister inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"His name is, uh, well…" stuttered the little girl. "Ah…you know, we were just getting to that, but you interrupted us!" She even glared at her sister. Then she looked up at Remus, who'd got to his feet. "What's your name?"
"Remus Lupin," he said, holding out his hand. "And your name is…?"
"Crystal McCowan," she said while she took his hand and shook it (and nearly got him a heart-attack…). She gestured to the little girl. "And this is my most irritating little sister, Meghan."
"I am not irritating!" said Meghan. "Can I keep Remus?"
"He's not a pet!" replied Crystal. "And you don't even know why he's here anyway."
"I do know! He's here to see Nessie. And if I take him home, Papa can show him Nessie. And then Remus can sleep at our house," said the girl quickly.
"You don't even know if he wants to!" answered her sister.
"Uhm, if I may say something," interrupted Remus. "Firstly I'm not really fond of people talking about me like I'm not there-" Crystal quickly apologised.
"- and secondly, I really am here for the Loch Ness Kelpie, and I really don't have a place to stay – yet – and I would like to come with you, if that's all right…" he finished.
"I think it's okay," said Crystal after a short hesitation. "And if you're here for the Kelpie, our house might be the best place to stay. My father has done a lot of research on Nessie, as we call him."
"Oh really?" replied Remus, picking up his suitcase. "Could you tell me more about it?" Could you tell me more about… yourself? And he mentally hit himself for thinking that.
"Sure," she said, and started a long lecture about Loch Ness and its Kelpie, with Meghan occasionally making funny and non-informative remarks, while they were walking to Remus' house for the coming three weeks.
~*~
"You know, there's something odd about Nessie…"
"You mean besides him being an ugly, slimy, icky sea monster?" replied Remus.
The young man next to him on the boat gave him a "haha, funny"look. Meghan really grinned, just like Crystal. The rest of the people on the boat paid no attention to them.
They were floating somewhere on the Loch, taking samples from the water and trying to catch a glimpse of Nessie.
Meghan had adopted Remus and had showed him around. She'd also introduced him to her nephew Michael, a young man around Remus' age, who'd offered to take him along and tell him more about Loch Ness and its Kelpie. Michael was the one who'd said there was something odd about Nessie. He looked like a stereotype of a Scot: his hair was a mix between brown and red, more red than brown. He was tall, really tall, but had kind blue eyes. The only thing he needed to look more Scottish was a kilt. Most of the time Remus could understand him perfectly, except when he got excited, then he got such a strong accent it almost sounded like another language.
"Yes, besides him being an ugly, slimy, icky sea monster," continued Michael.
"You're kidding me," said Remus. "What is it?"
"He likes attention," said Michael seriously.
"Oh," replied Remus. Then, after looking around for a few moments: "so that's why I can feed Nessie from my hand." There was indeed a notable lack of Kelpie.
"Argh!" Michael exclaimed. "There's no talking to him! You tell him," he said to Crystal. "He listens to you."
"Sure," she agreed. She quickly brushed her long brown hair back, then she said: "Nessie likes attention, which is strange for a Kelpie. Most Kelpies are rather shy. You can find a Kelpie in almost every large lake or river, but you hardly see them."
"Probably also because they mostly appear on quite ungodly hours," added Michael.
"Hey, who's teaching here?" cut Crystal in. "You said he only listened to me, well, don't interrupt me then!"
"But what's with the attention then?" asked Remus in an attempt to avoid an argument. "You said Nessie likes attention."
"Yeah, that's so typical about Nessie. Most Kelpies are rather shy, but it seems as if Nessie only appears when you have a camera with you. Nessie is in fact the most spotted Kelpie."
"That's why you have those camera's with you?" asked Remus, pointing at a few camera's hanging in the water. The monitors showed dirty water and sometimes a fish.
"Yes and no," answered Crystal. "The camera's are not really to see Nessie. Of course, it would be great to catch a glimpse, but he rarely shows up during the day. You have the most chance to see him in the early morning or when it's nearly night. And he likes fog."
"Muggles have a few pictures of him, but they think it's fake or that the person who saw Nessie was drunk," added Michael.
"How can you make a fake Nessie?" Meghan wanted to know.
"An inflatable thing, or just some pieces of wood floating on the water, or they think it's just a few rocks that seem like a Kelpie," said Crystal. "When there's a lot of fog it's easy to see things that aren't there."
"Okay," said Remus. "That sounds reasonable. Now I'm going to ask the most stupid question imaginable. What exactly is a Kelpie?"
"What a stupid question! You don't know what a Kelpie is?!" cried Michael and Crystal simultaneously.
"Just joking," said Crystal quickly when she saw Remus' face. "A Kelpie is…" She turned to her sister. "Well?"
"A waterdemon," Meghan said. "It can take a lot of shapes, like a sea serpent or an otter or a fish or a frog or a butterfly-"
"Not a butterfly, Meg. Butterflies aren't water creatures," corrected Michael.
"- or a horse. Most Kelpies are horses," continued Meghan. "And you need to go and sit on the horse, and then it walks into the water and you drown and the Kelpie eats you. And you can tame it if you put a bridle over the horse's head. And if you can ride a Kelpie without being eaten your most deepest wish will come true." She looked at Michael. "Right?"
"Ten points for you," her nephew said. "That was perfect."
"Kelpies sound like the ideal pet to me," concluded Remus. "They change shapes and they eat you. Where can I get one?"
"The local pet shop," replied Crystal. "Or catch Nessie. But he usually takes the shape of a sea serpent, so a bridle won't be of much use to you."
The four of them were joined by a tall man with wild grey hair which made him look intimidating. But Remus knew Mr McCowan, Crystal and Meghan´s father, was a kind, warm man who had generously offered Remus to stay at his house for as long as he wanted.
"We'll be going back soon," he announced. "We don't have much to do, we're almost done. I hope we have Haggis for dinner!" He grinned at Remus. Haggis and Remus had become sort of an in-joke. Remus had tried the typically Scottish dish the first evening but had so thoroughly disgusted it that he had amused everyone with the faces he'd pulled. Remus and sheep entrails somehow didn't mix.
"Don't worry," Crystal assured Remus. "I know we have pea-soup for dinner. And tonight I´ll take you with me to the pub, to meet some friends of my father. They know almost everything about Nessie."
"Good idea Crys," Michael said and then he continued with the sing-song Scottish accent: "And I´ll let you taste some real whisky, none of those tasteless stuff they drink in England. You'll like Scotland, lad, I promise!"
~*~
"It looks like tea," said Remus, suspiciously eyeing the brown liquid in his glass.
"Tea?" said Michael offended. "Well, it bloody well isn't!"
"Bloody?" imitated Remus. "That didn't sound very Scottish!"
"It damn well isn't!" corrected Michael. "And don't laugh!" he added to Crystal who sat grinning behind her own glass. She stuck out her tongue.
"So this is Scotland's most famous drink," said Remus, lifting up his glass and studying it in the dim light of the pub as if it was a special potion.
"Afraid to drink it?" said Michael, daring Remus to drink.
"Why should I?" replied Remus braver than he felt.
"Then drink."
Remus put the glass on his lips, smiled and took a gulp. It was as if he'd poured boiling hot water down his troath.
"Holy…" he gasped.
"Are you okay?" asked Crystal.
"It's just…" gasped Remus. "I'm just cooking from the inside…"
"That's the real whisky, Englishman," said Michael with a broad grin. "Stronger than tea, eh?"
"Yeah, a bit stronger," said Remus, blinking to get the tears from his eyes. "But I think I´ll drink the rest a little slower…"
"Take it easy," said Crystal. "We got all night."
~*~
A few hours later they still sat there. Michael had left them because there were some friends he had wanted to talk to. Remus and Crystal had passed from whisky to the more innocent butterbeer.
"And, how do you like Scotland?" asked Crystal, supporting her head with her hand and looking Remus straight in the face. Her face was lit by a singly candle on the table. The golden light made Remus think he'd never seen someone that beautiful.
"How do I like Scotland?" he said. "Very much. Beautiful nature, interesting wildlife, although some creatures never show up when you want them to." This reference to Nessie made her smile. "The weather can be horrible, though."
"And the people?" she inquired.
"The people? Nice, kind…" he said. Then, seeing her brown eyes on him, he added: "good-looking, very good-looking."
"Good-looking?" she replied smiling. "All of them? I wouldn't exactly call my uncle Angus good-looking."
"No," he said. "I was actually referring to one person…"
This time she did not smile. "Do you really mean that?"
"I… Yeah, I think so…" he replied hesitantly. "Yes, I do mean that."
"That's nice," she said. "Because…" she looked away for a few moments, then turned her face to him again. "Because I think… I don't have any objection to that. Quite the contrary in fact. Actually… I believe I think the same about you…"
Remus inhaled deeply, then breathed out again with a soft whistling. "Wow."
"Yeah, indeed, wow," she laughed softly. "That was exactly what I was thinking."
"But, I mean, seriously?" he said, still thinking he must've heard it wrong. This couldn't happen, could it?
"Unless you don't like it of course," she said quickly. "You do like it, right?"
"Like it?!" he replied. "I… yeah, I like it! God, do I like it!"
Crystal laughed again, a happy kind of laugh. Her laugh sounded like the feeling Remus had: if the world ends right now, I won't mind, because I already had the happiest moment in my life…
~*~
Ages later, Crystal checked her watch. "It's getting late," she said. "We should go home." Apparently more people had thought that, because they were some of the last persons who left the pub.
Outside they found out it was a cold evening. The sky was clouded by thick dark clouds.
"I think it's going to rain," said Crystal worried, having more experience with the weather in Scotland than Remus.
"I don't smell rain," said Remus, having a far better nose than Crystal.
"You can smell rain?" she said. "That's something I've never heard about before."
"Yeah, as a matter of fact I can smell a lot better than you or anyone," he shrugged.
"Really? What do you smell right now?" she wanted to know.
"I smell…" Remus inhaled the air. "I smell water, trees, whisky – that's probably me-" Crystal grinned. "-something fishy. Could that be Nessie? And… I smell you."
"Me? What do I smell like?"
"Like… you," was his answer. "At least not like whisky. It's hard to explain. You can't explain things you smell. It's like explaining music to someone who's deaf, or colours to someone who's blind. You have to experience it to understand it."
She nodded. "That's true." She suddenly raised her head up. "But you were wrong about the rain. It is raining!"
It was as if someone had turned a shower on. Suddenly, rain was pouring down from the sky and it took only moments before Remus was soaking wet.
"If we had made a bet, I would've won!" Crystal said triumphantly.
"What would you've betted for?" asked Remus, shaking wet hair out of his eyes.
She shrugged. "I don't know." She suddenly had a mischievous twinkling in her eyes. "A kiss perhaps?"
"You would have betted for a kiss?" he repeated laughing.
"Yes. A kiss from you if I was right, a kiss from me if you were right."
"No fair, we already know you won."
"We can bet for something else." She looked around. "Ehm…"
"We can bet how long it will take before the rain stops," he suggested.
"Ages," she said. "We can bet if my cat likes staying outside in this weather."
"Sure, with you betting it doesn't like it. No way."
"And I don't even have a cat. We can bet, er…"
"What if you just kiss me?" he said. "Without betting for something?"
She stared at him for a few seconds. "Okay." Standing tiptoe she gave him a small kiss on his cheek.
"That was-" he began.
"Way too short," she finished his sentence and flung her arms around his neck.
~*~
She tasted like rain and like something that was totally her. This kiss lasted longer than their first one, and was immediately followed by a thirth kiss. Remus had lost his sense of time; he could've been standing there for hours, but it could also´ve been just minutes. His hands carefully and hesitantly touched her, felt her, until they rested on her hips.
"What are you doing?" Crystal asked between two kisses.
"I don't know…" he replied.
"Whatever it is, don't stop doing it," and she took his hands and put them around her waist. "Don't stop…"
It was unlike anything Remus had ever experienced. He had kissed girls before; he had been rather popular among the girls on Hogwarts, due to his serious and somewhat melancholic appearance (girls seemed to fall for that), but this was totally different. He had never felt so good, so alive, like he felt now.
"You know what," he whispered after four long kisses.
"What?" she whispered back.
"I am deeply in love with you," he said.
"That's good, because I'm also deeply in love with you."
"And there's something else…"
"What is it?"
"I am só soaking wet, I'm wet to my skin!" They both laughed.
"We dó look rather stupid, don't we?" Crystal said, while she took a step back to look at him as he stood there in the rain.
"Stupid?" he answered. "No. More like two drowned cats!"
"Even worse! I suggest we go inside."
He heartily agreed with that suggestion. They ran the short distance to their house and hastily got inside. The water dripped from their cloaks on the floor.
"Look at you," she said. "Like you've been standing under a shower with your clothes on."
"May I say that you look the same?"
"Sure," she said, walking up the first few steps of the stairs.
"You look the same," he said. Then he took a few steps in her direction, and he took her hand. "Wait. I…"
She said nothing but waited for him to say something.
"Just… goodnight."
She bowed over and kissed him lightly on his lips.
"Goodnight."
He watched her as she walked up the stairs, then he walked into his own room and closed the door softly behind him.
~*~
The next days Remus and Crystal were nearly inseparable. It turned out, much to Remus' surprise, that practically everybody had known that they were in love with each other. Hardly anyone had been surprised.
"It was so obvious," said Michael. "The way you were looking at one another…"
Crystal lifted one eyebrow.
"With those eat me-eyes," her nephew added.
"Eat me-eyes?" she repeated dangerously. Remus grinned.
"I'm not going to eat you," he said. "Trust me."
Meghan had been delighted. She had already adopted Remus as her big brother, now she was hoping that he was going to marry Crystal.
"Are you going to marry?" she asked constantly.
"If you keep whining like this you aren't invited at our wedding," said Remus finally, desperately. That worked, she stopped asking it, but then she was constantly looking at them with an approving look in her eyes. At first it had amused him, then it kept creeping him out.
"It's like having my mother here in the shape of a seven-year old girl," he complained to Crystal. "Like she's saying 'well done, Remus'."
"You have extraordinary eyes, you know that?" she replied, obviously not impressed.
"Are you listening to what I'm saying?" he asked.
"Sorry, what did you say?" she said.
"Nothing of importance," he answered and he hugged her.
It were almost the happiest days of his life, except for one thing. Something was itching: his conscience. He hadn't told her yet that he was a werewolf, and he had no idea how she would react when she would find out...
~*~
"What are you thinking about?" Crystal asked one afternoon when he was lost in thoughts and trying to figure out what was the best way to tell her. He suddenly came back to earth when he heard her question.
"Er… you," he said. That was true, he wás thinking about her.
"That's sweet," she said.
He studied her for a few moments, looking at her sitting next to him. They were once again aboard the boat that belonged to the Nessie-studying wizards. She was wearing a blue coat against the October wind, which could be fairly cold in Scotland. She hadn't tied her long hair back, it was hanging down her shoulders. Occasionally the wind played with it, brushing her hair in her face.
"What?" he asked when he saw her looking at him and smiling.
"Remus, you didn't hear me again, did you?" she said. "You are such a dreamer!"
"But I'm not the only one," he quoted.
"Hello, earth to Romeo and Juliet!" interrupted Michael sarcastically. "Can I please have your attention for one microsecond?!" He was standing on the front of the boat, waving frantically as if they were miles away from each other. The other wizards in the boat grinned.
"Now the two lovers decided to join our meeting, I can tell you all why we are here," he continued. "We appear to have a problem. Nessie is lost."
A worried murmur rose. Remus frowned.
"Isn't it that the point, that Nessie can't be found? Muggles are not supposed to see him, right?" he whispered to Crystal.
"Muggles, aren't, but it's not good if we wizards don't know where he is," she replied, a worried frown on her face. "Nessie is supposed to stay in the loch, were we can keep an eye on him. He can't go swimming around and show himself to Muggles who believe he's not real!"
"So that's why your nephew hasn't got the best mood possible."
"Probably, yes."
After the murmur faded, Michael continued. "We have no idea where Nessie could be. He hasn't been seen for almost five days, that is, we haven't seen the regular signs, like footprints or an animal suddenly changing into another animal. And the number of fish in the loch only seem to increase, so he's not eating them. Nessie´s existence must be kept secret, or we'll have groups of Muggles coming here to search for him and do God-knows-what with him. Somehow we must find a way to find out where he is. Does anyone have a good idea?"
"Uhm," said Remus. "Stupid suggestion, but what if we're all going to act like Muggles and walk around with cameras and such?" Everybody stared at him.
"What?"
"Well, y'know," he said shyly, "I've been told that Nessie really likes attention, so why not lure him with that? Just walk around the loch with cameras and tell everywhere around that you're looking for the Loch Ness monster, and maybe…" He stopped in the middle of his sentence. "Stupid idea, forget about it."
"No, quite brilliant, actually," said a wizard Remus didn't know. "And funny. Maybe we should give it a try." To Remus' astonishment, the other wizards agreed with the plan.
"But only for a week," said Mr McCowan. "If Nessie hasn't been found then, we need to take more drastic measures."
Then they went and tried to figure out what a normal, insuspicious looking Muggle looked like…
~*~
Remus flipped idly through a book he'd already read half a dozen times. Due to the increasing cold and fog, the evening expeditions were cancelled, and the members of the Loch Ness Kelpie Department (or the Nessie Group, as they liked to call themselves) had little more to do than stay inside, read and a bit, and bore themselves to death.
A soft knocking on the door caught his attention. He looked up and saw Crystal poking her head around the door. "Am I interrupting you with anything?" she asked.
"Not at all," he replied. "Come in."
He didn't need to say it twice. She started walking around his room, looking at his old suitcase in the corner and reading the titles of the books on the desk, most of them books about the Loch Ness monster. She picked one up and opened it.
"'The Loch Ness monster (scientifical name: Nessitas rhomboptery) is sometimes said to be a Kelpie, a legendary animal which can take the shape of various animals. Others believe the monster, most of the time affectionately called 'Nessie' to be a plesiosaurus, a dinosaur believed to be extinct'." She looked up. "D'you really read this?"
"No, it's a Muggle book, but I only found that out when I had already read half of it…"
Crystal nodded. "Muggle sources are rather unreliable, because they simply don't believe in Nessie, even though the evidence is sometimes right under their nose."
He grinned in agreement. The stupidity of Muggles was a much-discussed topic among wizards. 'How on earth is it possible that they believe such strange explanations for simple things?' was the most heard comment.
"What are you reading?" she suddenly wanted to know when she saw the book in his hands. The question rather embarrassed him; it was a Jane Austen novel. He really liked the books because of Jane Austen's wit and sarcastic way of writing, but her subjects were mostly described as being 'feminine', so it wasn't really cool to be caught with one if you were a man.
"Oh, just a… just a novel," he stammered and tried to hide the book away.
"Can I see it?" she asked, then she saw the title. "Sense & Sensibility!" she said delighted. "I love that book!"
"You do?"
"Of course! How can you not enjoy it? I like Marianne Dashwood better than Elinor, because she's more lively."
"Hm, I don't know…" Remus said. "Elinor is more sensible, more thoughtful. Marianne is a bit too rash and too wild, I think."
"But at least Marianne got to marry the Colonel," Crystal replied. "And she got Willougby madly in love with her."
"That's not something to be proud of. And I don't really like the Colonel. As a character, I mean."
"Why not?" she said rather aggressively.
"Because he's not in it enough! I'm sure he's a most kind person and all, but you don't really get to know him. He suddenly rides off to London and disappears for chapters before he comes back. He explains a few things, has a few scenes, then Marianne gets ill and Brandon disappears again."
"To be the hero."
"An absent hero. Well, and a few chapters later he lives happily ever after with Marianne. He never really develops, like Mr Darcy in Pride & Prejudice for example." Suddenly Remus heard something in his head, a voice he hadn't heard for years: Sirius. "I can so see it," he'd said once. "Remus and his girlfriend, and then they can discuss the virtues of Mr Darcy for hours and hours on end, and they'll never get tired of it."
He must've been smiling without being aware of it, because Crystal narrowed her eyes and said: "Are you laughing at me?"
"No. It's just something I remembered," he said quickly. "Something an old friend of mine said once."
"Really? What was it?"
"Hm, it's not really important," he tried to avoid the subject.
She placed her hands on her hips. "What did he say?" she insisted stubbornly.
"I'll tell you, if… you kiss me," he suggested shrewdly.
"Are you blackmailing me?"
"Wouldn't dare," Remus replied angelic. She thought for a moment about his suggestion, then she gave him a long, warm kiss. But instead of stopping after a few seconds, they kept kissing, hungrily, as if it was for the last time. Remus fumbled feverishly with the fastenings of her robes as she unbuttoned his shirt.
"What are we doing?" he whispered.
"I don't know…" she whispered back. "Just don't stop doing it…"
She pulled his shirt off his shoulders, letting it fall on the ground. Almost at the same time Remus managed to unfasten her robes. He hesitated one last time.
"Sure about this?"
"You talk too much," she muttered. "Sure I'm sure."
He said no more, but kissed her and gently laid her down on the bed…
~*~
Later, when they were both half asleep, Crystal muttered: "and what was it that your friend said?"
Remus blinked. It took him a few moments to understand what she was talking about.
"Oh, that. He predicted that I would be discussing the virtues of Mr Darcy with my girlfriend."
"He was right," she muttered. "He must've got the highest grades in Divination."
"Quite the contrary, actually," he answered. "Quite the contrary…"
Crystal did not reply anymore. He got a bit closer to her and closed his eyes. He almost instantly fell asleep.