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Who Could Ever Love a Beast?

Chapter 3

Remus grumbled with frustration as he crossed our yet another sentence of his Potions essay. It was about the history and composition of Veritiserum and was hopelessly complicated. Remus knew he would eventually figure it out, but he just couldn't concentrate. He had carefully avoided speaking with Sirius about anything other than classes, but the tension between the two was almost unbearable. So Remus decided that he would stay in the library and do homework until curfew. He sighed as he wrote what he deemed to be another meaningless sentence.

While he was working, he suddenly felt two arms wind around his neck from behind and something soft and somewhat wet press against his temple.

"What's got you in such a huff, hmm?" He shivered slightly as her breath tickled the inside of his ear. Remus leaned back and smiled up at Lydia. He caught a glimpse of the smile he loved so much before it disappeared. An expression of concern tainted her pretty face. "What's wrong, Remus?" she asked, sitting down beside him, "You're looking a bit peaky. Are you sick again?!" Remus said nothing as she fussed over him, feeling his forehead and peering into his eyes. He could feel his gut writhing with guilt. He hated lying to her, but he knew that he couldn't survive if she found out that he was a werewolf. He knew that he would lose her if she did. He remembered when they were learning about werewolves in third year, and she had passionately stated that all werewolves should be hunted down like the monsters they were. Of course, Remus knew that this was due to losing her father in a werewolf attack when she was very young, but it still made his stomach squirm with dread and shame. When he noticed her looking at him anxiously, he forced a smile on his face.

"I'm alright, Lydia," he said in his most convincing voice, "I'm just having a difficult time with this Potions." Lydia's smile brightened her features once more, but Remus could tell that she wasn't fully convinced.

"Well, I'm glad that's all it is. I wouldn't want to catch whatever you may have, now, would I?" She laughed, and Remus made himself do so, too.

"So, where were you this morning?" Remus asked in an attempt to divert the conversation from further discussion about his health, "I didn't see you at breakfast." Lydia sighed heavily.

"If you must know, I overslept," she admitted, sounding annoyed with herself, "I was up late last night doing homework and darling Hestia never bothered to wake me up. I nearly missed Charms!" She shook her head, and Remus grinned at her.

"Whatever happened to that Hufflepuff work ethic? I'm afraid you're sliding down the slippery slope of failure, my dear," he said solemnly. Lydia slapped his arm lightly, causing him to chuckle.

"Why d'you ask?"

Remus furrowed his eyebrows at her, "Ask what?"

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Why did you ask about my whereabouts this morning? Good Lord, Remus, and I thought you were intelligent." She grinned cheekily at him. He shot her a scathing look.

"Well, for some inexplicable reason I was worried about you. Although right now I'm wondering why I would want to deal with someone as insufferable as you that early in the morning," he answered, managing to keep a straight face the entire time. Lydia raised her eyebrows at him.

"Why? Afraid I was off snogging Amos Diggory, were you?" She placed her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, staring at Remus with a mischievous sparkle in her blue-gray eyes. Remus calmly rustled his parchment as though he were doing something important.

"Of course I wasn't," he said confidently.

"Oh really?" she challenged, "What makes you so sure I wasn't?"

It took Remus a long time to answer. He carefully stacked his parchment papers and set his quills in an orderly line. After he corked his inkbottle, he turned his chair around so that he directly faced Lydia. In a voice deadly serious he said, "Because, Lydia, I know that after snogging me, you would never have the desire to even fantasize about kissing anyone or anything else ever again." This statement was followed by a very extended period in which neither of them spoke. Then Remus snorted, mouth twitching, thus resulting in the two of them bursting into hysterical laughter.

"Remus John Lupin, you conceited prat!" Lydia laughed before throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her lips against his. Remus's eyebrows flew up in pleasant surprise and he sighed contentedly through the kiss. He hugged her around the middle and pulled her closer to him. Just as Lydia deepened the kiss, a screeching sound startled them into jumping apart.

"No! No! No!" shrieked Madam Pince, "Not that in the library! Out! GET OUT!" Trying to suppress their mirth, the couple grabbed their belongings and sprinted from the library and the wrath of the librarian.

"I hope you don't get into trouble for that," Lydia said sheepishly, "being a prefect and all." Remus merely shook his head and chuckled.

"Don't worry about it, Lydia. May I walk you to your dormitory?" He offered her his arm. She beamed at him and took it.

"Why, thank you, kind sir, as I'm sure the Hogwarts corridors are dangerous at this time of night for a helpless female like me." Remus nodded gravely.

"Yes, eight-thirty is much too late to be out," he agreed, "However, I would hardly call you helpless."

"Wouldn't you?"

"I have seen your Reductor curse, Lydia, and feel quite justified in being very, very afraid of you."

Lydia clucked her tongue at him, "My, my, whatever happened to that Gryffindor bravery?"

Remus chortled, "Touché!" They stopped in front of a statue of a witch stroking a badger. "So, will I see you tomorrow or will you be sleeping in again?" Remus asked.

"You will definitely see me tomorrow . . .probably," she smirked at him, and he smiled back.

"I hope so," he said softly, "because I'll be awfully lonesome if I don't." He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers in the gentlest of kisses.

"Good night," Lydia whispered, touching his face, "And feel better. I don't care what you said earlier; I know you aren't well. Take care of yourself."

Remus sighed and gave her a small smile, "I will, I promise," he said.

"Good." She then kissed him on the side of his mouth and turned to give the statue the password.

When she had gone, Remus continued on to the Gryffindor common room, feeling oddly light and buoyant.