Disclaimer: I forgot to add that the only character I own is Kat Lawson.
All others belong to J.K. Rowling.
The first month of school went by like a breeze in the summer air and before Remus knew it, the Hogsmeade Halloween visit was coming up. "It won't be on Halloween this year," Sirius reported after reading a poster on the notice board. "They've moved it to the day before."
"Pity," Remus chimed in. Personally, he loved the tiny village of Hogsmeade on Halloween; the air was filled with festivities and decorations were visible on every corner and shop. "I assume that the village will be just as wonderful the day before Halloween as it is on Halloween," he said, looking on the bright side of things. Sirius just scowled.
James and Lily came by shortly after, with Kat Lawson in tow. Lily blanched when she saw Remus staring at Kat. "Oh! I completely forgot to introduce you guys!" she cried. "Kat, this is Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. Guys, this is Kat Lawson."
Remus saw Sirius' eyes light up as he stood up to greet Kat. "Charmed, milady" he said and Kat giggled.
"Nice act," she informed him. "Does it ever work?"
Rejected, Sirius slumped down in his seat again. "Not usually," he admitted. Glancing at Remus, he waited until Kat had turned her head and then he raised his eyebrows questioningly. Remus shook his head, but Sirius shook his own head in response, his black hair hitting him in the face. "Me," he mouthed, pointing to Kat and then to himself. It suddenly dawned on Remus that Sirius took an interest in Kat as well. Deciding to leave things alone, he smiled at his friend and nodded slightly.
"Get a room you two," Peter spoke up and it knocked Remus out of his thoughts. Looking over to Lily and James, he saw that they were holding hands, their faces very close together. Upon Peter's intervention, they had split apart, but not far enough to please Sirius. He was now scowling with a look of contempt in his eyes. Once again, however, he appeared to be fighting the urge to say something nasty.
"Ready for Hogsmeade?" he spoke up loudly, staring hard at James. "We have lots of plans: I need to get to Zonko's again so I can stock up on my joke supplies. Then we'll head off to Honeydukes and..." His voice trailed off as he noticed James' eyes avoiding his own. "What?" he demanded.
"Well, Lily and I sort of agreed to go together," James answered, unable to meet Sirius' glance.
"You're more than welcome to join us," Lily said quickly, glancing around at all of them. "The more, the merrier!"
Sirius continued to glare but Remus nodded his head. "Sounds absolutely delightful," he said in a false voice to regain a bit of humor in the situation. The only person who laughed was Kat and it was then that Remus realized she didn't care what people thought of her. She continued to grin broadly at him as Sirius vied for her attention.
"We're all close friends," he chattered aimlessly, gesturing to himself, James, Peter and Remus. "Have been since first year and I'm sure we always will be." His voice began to falter when he noticed that Kat was only nodding vaguely to acknowledge what Sirius was saying. "Yep, real close friends," he said, his voice louder this time to override all the other voices in the room. "In fact, every thirty days, we all run around as—OW!"
Remus had accidentally-on purpose jammed his own foot onto Sirius' to avoid him revealing their secret. "As idiots," he finished for Sirius. He saw Sirius give him a furtive glance out of the corner of his eyes but Remus waited until Kat and Lily had departed before letting Sirius have it.
"You can't tell her that!" he cried in a hushed voice. "That's between us four!"
"And Lily," Sirius replied stoutly. "James told her."
James held up his hands in protest. "Remus said I could!" he argued.
Remus shook his head. "That's not the point. I trust Lily; she's a good girl."
"And Kat isn't?" Peter piped up. An extensive grin spread across Sirius' handsome face.
"I'd like to find out," he said. James looked at his friend in surprise, with a small smile playing the corner of his lips.
"Oh?" he said. "Do I detect a crush?"
Sirius let out a barking laugh. "More like mad love," he retorted. "She's gorgeous! I can't believe I didn't notice her before."
James went back to flipping through his magazine. "That's because you're so self-absorbed," he said and Sirius began hitting him with a rolled up newspaper. Remus, however, sat quietly, contemplating the life Sirius had. Out on his own at seventeen, he lived by his own rules and took life by the reins. He controlled his every waking move and Remus couldn't have been more jealous. How nice it must be to have a chance with Kat Lawson.
On the morning of the thirtieth of October, Remus joined his friends outside the Gryffindor common room. "We have to wait for Lily!" James called when Sirius began leading the group towards the entrance to the castle. Rolling his eyes and tapping his foot impatiently, Sirius leaned up against the wall and glared at the Gryffindor tower portrait.
Ten minutes later, Lily and Kat burst through the open portrait giggling like mad. They stopped when they saw the boys and Lily hurried to take James' arm. "Hi, guys," she greeted. Remus was pleased to see that Sirius had the manners to smile and greet her back.
"Hello," Kat welcomed quietly as she approached Remus and began walking beside him. "How are you doing?"
"Just fine," Remus replied. "And yourself?"
But before she got a chance to answer, Sirius jumped in between them and said, "You must be doing fine, Kat, because you certainly look that way."
Kat grinned, but made the point of saying, "That's pretty lame, Sirius."
"Could be worse," he replied, draping his arm over Kat's shoulders. They continued like that all the way to the village where Sirius suddenly broke into a run and made a mad dash for Zonko's. "Best products are mine!" he cried in victory, raising his fist in the air and letting the door close behind him. To the right, Lily and James trailed off together, heading towards the picnic area that was set up for students of Hogwarts. Peter began drifting towards the shack on the other end of the village and Kat sat down on a bench outside of the Three Broomsticks.
"You can sit down," she offered to Remus. "I won't bite."
He ignored the irony and sat beside her tentatively. She was like the sun: as long as he didn't look directly at her, he was certain he would be alright. He couldn't risk getting close to her, as much as it pained him to realize that. He wanted to hold her hand, stroke it softly and whisper gently in her ear. He wanted to inform her of all the wonderful feelings she stirred in him and how just her presence made him feel better about himself. But he kept these thoughts to himself as he stared out at the rest of the students filling the village.
"So are you glad this is our last year?" Kat asked. Remus fought turning to face her, but figured that he wouldn't be able to avoid looking at her the entire trip. He twisted his entire body around to face her and stared at her sparkling, crystal eyes.
"I'm going to miss Hogwarts," he blurted out forcefully. She only smiled. "I mean, it's the only place I feel I've ever found acceptance. Professor Dumbledore is such a great man and I've found the best friends anyone could ever hope for." He relaxed a little, surprised at how easy it was to talk to her. "James is a joker, that's for sure, but he means well. Peter's a little quiet and he doesn't really fit in with our group, but he can be good company. Sirius is a little overrated in the eyes of the school. He really is a great guy but he, too, can get carried away sometimes."
"He certainly doesn't seem to like Lily," Kat said but her voice and her face were still kind.
"He means well, too," Remus replied, looking at the ground. "He just doesn't want to lose one of his best friends, that's all. It's nothing personal against Lily, or you for that matter. It's just the way he is."
Kat's smile seemed to have frozen. "I never dreamt it would have anything to do with me," she said, staring out at the village. "I've no problems with Sirius; he seems like a good guy from what I know."
Remus wanted to ask, "What about me? What do you think of me?" but he felt it would be rude and insensitive. Instead he brought up the subject of post-Hogwarts and was surprised to learn that Kat, much like himself, was interested in becoming an Auror.
"I have the marks for it," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Professor McGonagall says I could make it all the way, as long as I keep my mind to it." She grinned softly. "That's where my failing is."
"What?"
"Sticking with it." She looked up at the sky, squinting into the sun. "I tend to start something and then completely change my way half way through. It isn't as bad when I'm working with Lily or somebody else because they're able to direct my attention to the right topics and keep me grounded. But Auror work is a lot of independent work and I'm afraid that I would get too distracted too easily."
"I have the grades," Remus said slowly, "and I believe I have the attitude. There's just one thing standing in my way." His mind was back in the shack of Hogsmeade, wandering with his wolf being. How he longed to be accepted for a person, a regular person of the wizarding community. Yet he knew any background checks on him would reveal his dark secret and flatten any hopes he had of becoming an Auror. Aurors were supposed to fight dark creatures, not be one.
"What's standing in your way?" Kat asked softly and for the briefest of seconds, Remus had the impulse to reveal everything to Kat. Her eyes, her face; they were so understanding. The way she stared at him made him feel a comfort never before experienced. He could tell her now and then maybe that would give her time to think about it after she got through running from him, and see that as a person, he wasn't a bad guy.
"You'll never believe what I got!" Sirius cried, rushing up behind them. Remus let out a small sigh of relief; he couldn't believe he had almost told Kat the entire story—was he insane?
"What did you get?" he asked Sirius, peering in the bag that Sirius held in his hand. "Anything that might interest me?"
Sirius produced a tiny trunk, no bigger than the palm of his hand, which he placed on Remus' hand. "This is kind of cool," he admitted, snapping the fingers on his free hand. The lid on the little trunk opened and a silvery-white orb popped out of the trunk, covered in misty clouds. Remus couldn't close his hand fast enough as he feigned a grin.
"A miniscule Boggart," he said. "How cool."
"It's for you, mate," Sirius said grandly. "I thought you would like it, seeing as you're interested in fighting the dark arts and all."
Kat smiled. "A crystal ball scares you the most?" she asked, but her voice was not malicious, nor was it teasing. "I don't blame you," were the next words out of her mouth. "Professor Irwin scares me, too. I really doubt she can predict tomorrow's weather, let alone someone's future."
Remus smiled tightly and decided not to comment. He watched in silence as Sirius handed Kat a handful of daisies, which kept dying and then growing to full health again while in her hands. Remus knew it was a desperate attempt of Sirius' to win Kat over and he longed to tell his friend that he needed not worry. There was no chance of anything happening between Kat and Remus; things were strictly platonic and Remus was grateful for that.
The rest of the trip went rather quickly, seeing as they had lost Peter, James and Lily for the day. James and Lily returned towards the end of the trip, both looking rather content. Sirius spent the remainder of the day trying to win over Kat's attention. She had thanked him repeatedly for the Zonko's gift, but seemed to want to avoid his lavishing affection. Remus found it rather immature that Sirius kept chasing her around like a five-year old boy but he kept his thoughts to himself and only smiled when Sirius asked whether or not Remus thought Kat liked him.
"She's really pretty," Sirius said, smiling fondly at Kat, who was talking to Lily on the way back to the castle. "I really hope she likes me; I think I could really settle down with a girl like her."
Remus felt an incredibly tug of guilt at this phrase. Never before had Sirius expressed this much genuine interest in a girl and Remus felt horrible for being the type of friend he was being. He made a promise to himself never to reveal to Sirius how much he fancied Kat himself.
The first month of school went by like a breeze in the summer air and before Remus knew it, the Hogsmeade Halloween visit was coming up. "It won't be on Halloween this year," Sirius reported after reading a poster on the notice board. "They've moved it to the day before."
"Pity," Remus chimed in. Personally, he loved the tiny village of Hogsmeade on Halloween; the air was filled with festivities and decorations were visible on every corner and shop. "I assume that the village will be just as wonderful the day before Halloween as it is on Halloween," he said, looking on the bright side of things. Sirius just scowled.
James and Lily came by shortly after, with Kat Lawson in tow. Lily blanched when she saw Remus staring at Kat. "Oh! I completely forgot to introduce you guys!" she cried. "Kat, this is Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. Guys, this is Kat Lawson."
Remus saw Sirius' eyes light up as he stood up to greet Kat. "Charmed, milady" he said and Kat giggled.
"Nice act," she informed him. "Does it ever work?"
Rejected, Sirius slumped down in his seat again. "Not usually," he admitted. Glancing at Remus, he waited until Kat had turned her head and then he raised his eyebrows questioningly. Remus shook his head, but Sirius shook his own head in response, his black hair hitting him in the face. "Me," he mouthed, pointing to Kat and then to himself. It suddenly dawned on Remus that Sirius took an interest in Kat as well. Deciding to leave things alone, he smiled at his friend and nodded slightly.
"Get a room you two," Peter spoke up and it knocked Remus out of his thoughts. Looking over to Lily and James, he saw that they were holding hands, their faces very close together. Upon Peter's intervention, they had split apart, but not far enough to please Sirius. He was now scowling with a look of contempt in his eyes. Once again, however, he appeared to be fighting the urge to say something nasty.
"Ready for Hogsmeade?" he spoke up loudly, staring hard at James. "We have lots of plans: I need to get to Zonko's again so I can stock up on my joke supplies. Then we'll head off to Honeydukes and..." His voice trailed off as he noticed James' eyes avoiding his own. "What?" he demanded.
"Well, Lily and I sort of agreed to go together," James answered, unable to meet Sirius' glance.
"You're more than welcome to join us," Lily said quickly, glancing around at all of them. "The more, the merrier!"
Sirius continued to glare but Remus nodded his head. "Sounds absolutely delightful," he said in a false voice to regain a bit of humor in the situation. The only person who laughed was Kat and it was then that Remus realized she didn't care what people thought of her. She continued to grin broadly at him as Sirius vied for her attention.
"We're all close friends," he chattered aimlessly, gesturing to himself, James, Peter and Remus. "Have been since first year and I'm sure we always will be." His voice began to falter when he noticed that Kat was only nodding vaguely to acknowledge what Sirius was saying. "Yep, real close friends," he said, his voice louder this time to override all the other voices in the room. "In fact, every thirty days, we all run around as—OW!"
Remus had accidentally-on purpose jammed his own foot onto Sirius' to avoid him revealing their secret. "As idiots," he finished for Sirius. He saw Sirius give him a furtive glance out of the corner of his eyes but Remus waited until Kat and Lily had departed before letting Sirius have it.
"You can't tell her that!" he cried in a hushed voice. "That's between us four!"
"And Lily," Sirius replied stoutly. "James told her."
James held up his hands in protest. "Remus said I could!" he argued.
Remus shook his head. "That's not the point. I trust Lily; she's a good girl."
"And Kat isn't?" Peter piped up. An extensive grin spread across Sirius' handsome face.
"I'd like to find out," he said. James looked at his friend in surprise, with a small smile playing the corner of his lips.
"Oh?" he said. "Do I detect a crush?"
Sirius let out a barking laugh. "More like mad love," he retorted. "She's gorgeous! I can't believe I didn't notice her before."
James went back to flipping through his magazine. "That's because you're so self-absorbed," he said and Sirius began hitting him with a rolled up newspaper. Remus, however, sat quietly, contemplating the life Sirius had. Out on his own at seventeen, he lived by his own rules and took life by the reins. He controlled his every waking move and Remus couldn't have been more jealous. How nice it must be to have a chance with Kat Lawson.
On the morning of the thirtieth of October, Remus joined his friends outside the Gryffindor common room. "We have to wait for Lily!" James called when Sirius began leading the group towards the entrance to the castle. Rolling his eyes and tapping his foot impatiently, Sirius leaned up against the wall and glared at the Gryffindor tower portrait.
Ten minutes later, Lily and Kat burst through the open portrait giggling like mad. They stopped when they saw the boys and Lily hurried to take James' arm. "Hi, guys," she greeted. Remus was pleased to see that Sirius had the manners to smile and greet her back.
"Hello," Kat welcomed quietly as she approached Remus and began walking beside him. "How are you doing?"
"Just fine," Remus replied. "And yourself?"
But before she got a chance to answer, Sirius jumped in between them and said, "You must be doing fine, Kat, because you certainly look that way."
Kat grinned, but made the point of saying, "That's pretty lame, Sirius."
"Could be worse," he replied, draping his arm over Kat's shoulders. They continued like that all the way to the village where Sirius suddenly broke into a run and made a mad dash for Zonko's. "Best products are mine!" he cried in victory, raising his fist in the air and letting the door close behind him. To the right, Lily and James trailed off together, heading towards the picnic area that was set up for students of Hogwarts. Peter began drifting towards the shack on the other end of the village and Kat sat down on a bench outside of the Three Broomsticks.
"You can sit down," she offered to Remus. "I won't bite."
He ignored the irony and sat beside her tentatively. She was like the sun: as long as he didn't look directly at her, he was certain he would be alright. He couldn't risk getting close to her, as much as it pained him to realize that. He wanted to hold her hand, stroke it softly and whisper gently in her ear. He wanted to inform her of all the wonderful feelings she stirred in him and how just her presence made him feel better about himself. But he kept these thoughts to himself as he stared out at the rest of the students filling the village.
"So are you glad this is our last year?" Kat asked. Remus fought turning to face her, but figured that he wouldn't be able to avoid looking at her the entire trip. He twisted his entire body around to face her and stared at her sparkling, crystal eyes.
"I'm going to miss Hogwarts," he blurted out forcefully. She only smiled. "I mean, it's the only place I feel I've ever found acceptance. Professor Dumbledore is such a great man and I've found the best friends anyone could ever hope for." He relaxed a little, surprised at how easy it was to talk to her. "James is a joker, that's for sure, but he means well. Peter's a little quiet and he doesn't really fit in with our group, but he can be good company. Sirius is a little overrated in the eyes of the school. He really is a great guy but he, too, can get carried away sometimes."
"He certainly doesn't seem to like Lily," Kat said but her voice and her face were still kind.
"He means well, too," Remus replied, looking at the ground. "He just doesn't want to lose one of his best friends, that's all. It's nothing personal against Lily, or you for that matter. It's just the way he is."
Kat's smile seemed to have frozen. "I never dreamt it would have anything to do with me," she said, staring out at the village. "I've no problems with Sirius; he seems like a good guy from what I know."
Remus wanted to ask, "What about me? What do you think of me?" but he felt it would be rude and insensitive. Instead he brought up the subject of post-Hogwarts and was surprised to learn that Kat, much like himself, was interested in becoming an Auror.
"I have the marks for it," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Professor McGonagall says I could make it all the way, as long as I keep my mind to it." She grinned softly. "That's where my failing is."
"What?"
"Sticking with it." She looked up at the sky, squinting into the sun. "I tend to start something and then completely change my way half way through. It isn't as bad when I'm working with Lily or somebody else because they're able to direct my attention to the right topics and keep me grounded. But Auror work is a lot of independent work and I'm afraid that I would get too distracted too easily."
"I have the grades," Remus said slowly, "and I believe I have the attitude. There's just one thing standing in my way." His mind was back in the shack of Hogsmeade, wandering with his wolf being. How he longed to be accepted for a person, a regular person of the wizarding community. Yet he knew any background checks on him would reveal his dark secret and flatten any hopes he had of becoming an Auror. Aurors were supposed to fight dark creatures, not be one.
"What's standing in your way?" Kat asked softly and for the briefest of seconds, Remus had the impulse to reveal everything to Kat. Her eyes, her face; they were so understanding. The way she stared at him made him feel a comfort never before experienced. He could tell her now and then maybe that would give her time to think about it after she got through running from him, and see that as a person, he wasn't a bad guy.
"You'll never believe what I got!" Sirius cried, rushing up behind them. Remus let out a small sigh of relief; he couldn't believe he had almost told Kat the entire story—was he insane?
"What did you get?" he asked Sirius, peering in the bag that Sirius held in his hand. "Anything that might interest me?"
Sirius produced a tiny trunk, no bigger than the palm of his hand, which he placed on Remus' hand. "This is kind of cool," he admitted, snapping the fingers on his free hand. The lid on the little trunk opened and a silvery-white orb popped out of the trunk, covered in misty clouds. Remus couldn't close his hand fast enough as he feigned a grin.
"A miniscule Boggart," he said. "How cool."
"It's for you, mate," Sirius said grandly. "I thought you would like it, seeing as you're interested in fighting the dark arts and all."
Kat smiled. "A crystal ball scares you the most?" she asked, but her voice was not malicious, nor was it teasing. "I don't blame you," were the next words out of her mouth. "Professor Irwin scares me, too. I really doubt she can predict tomorrow's weather, let alone someone's future."
Remus smiled tightly and decided not to comment. He watched in silence as Sirius handed Kat a handful of daisies, which kept dying and then growing to full health again while in her hands. Remus knew it was a desperate attempt of Sirius' to win Kat over and he longed to tell his friend that he needed not worry. There was no chance of anything happening between Kat and Remus; things were strictly platonic and Remus was grateful for that.
The rest of the trip went rather quickly, seeing as they had lost Peter, James and Lily for the day. James and Lily returned towards the end of the trip, both looking rather content. Sirius spent the remainder of the day trying to win over Kat's attention. She had thanked him repeatedly for the Zonko's gift, but seemed to want to avoid his lavishing affection. Remus found it rather immature that Sirius kept chasing her around like a five-year old boy but he kept his thoughts to himself and only smiled when Sirius asked whether or not Remus thought Kat liked him.
"She's really pretty," Sirius said, smiling fondly at Kat, who was talking to Lily on the way back to the castle. "I really hope she likes me; I think I could really settle down with a girl like her."
Remus felt an incredibly tug of guilt at this phrase. Never before had Sirius expressed this much genuine interest in a girl and Remus felt horrible for being the type of friend he was being. He made a promise to himself never to reveal to Sirius how much he fancied Kat himself.