A/N: This chapter went in a completely different direction than I intended it to, but the Remus/Emily conversation took longer than I expected so... not a whole lot happens in this chapter. Hope you don't mind.

Chapter eight: The saving power of chocolate

It is truly amazing the things one can learn when one is locked in a dorm room with absolutely nothing to do. From being in this exact situation, Emily Gardner had seemingly mastered the art of telling time by the light of day (quite as her father had before he was employed).

Now, for example, The sun was peeking through the stain glassed windows and beginning to cast small shadows on the wooden floor. This meant that it was nearly six o'clock. Almost time for dinner.

Remus would be up soon. The highlight of her day, Emily thought quite bitterly.

Not that she didn't enjoy his company. She simply found it much more interesting to talk to him after eavesdropping on him and his friends over dinner via a certain invisibility cloak.

She had only gone one day without and already Emily missed it terribly. Indeed, she was beginning to sincerely wish that she had at least waited at least one more day to tell James that she had used the cloak.

Well, of course she hadn't really told him. He'd made that assumption completely on his own. This, however, did not change the fact that James had kept an annoyingly close watch on his cloak ever since the little black mail episode of the previous evening. He'd kept it in his bag the entire day, not once letting it out of his sight.

Emily began to wonder vaguely weather or not the diary would hold just as many blackmail capabilities today as it did yesterday. She could always use the same threat to...er...persuade James to allow her to use the cloak during the day. Couldn't she?

She made a mental note to attempt this after James's first "lesson" that evening. After all, a girl had to have something to amuse herself with.

It was at that moment that a knock came at the door.

"Come in Remus."

Remus had, for some reason taken to knocking on the door to his own dormitory. She had asked him about it that morning, and he had told her it was something he'd learned from his mother. She had always told him that it was simply proper etiquette to knock on the door when a lady was in a room alone.

Though this sounded, to Emily, almost like something her uncle would say, she had to admit that she appreciated the gesture. After all, this was also something a proper hero in a novel would do.

"Hey Emily." He said poking his head through the door.

She noticed that he had also become a bit bolder with her since the "magical bandaging" incident. Which she could only see as an improvement. At least this way his lovely sad eyes were not constantly pressed to the floor away from her gaze. She had to admit that she did like looking into them.

"Hi Remus. So what is it today?" She asked peering at the plate he had brought for her.

"Chicken breast and mashed potatoes." Emily smiled as he laid the plate down on the bedside table. So far the food had proved to be much better than the food at St Magdalene's (That wretched, exclusive, all girls academy which her uncle had put her up in.)

"And what's for desert?" She always asked that question with great anticipation. Because, while she had had wonderful deserts in the past few days, (that included Strawberry tart, Lemon custard, and something called a pumpkin pastie which turned out to be something like a crème puff.), she was still always missing the one element that made her whole world complete...

"Chocolate pudding." He answered

That was it.

"Thank God!" Emily nearly yelled, all dignity quite forgotten as she took the small bowl that held the heavenly chocolate aroma greedily from his hands.

"Just a bit enthusiastic are we?" He asked in a half amused, half shocked tone.

It took a moment before Emily found control of herself once more.

"I'm sorry Remus. It's just that I haven't had chocolate in months!" And with very little hesitation she began to hungrily scoop up the contents of the bowl with the spoon he had given to her.

"Forgive me if I still don't completely understand it. I mean chocolate isn't exactly a delicacy is it?" He said with the slightest hint of an amused eye roll at her current eating habits.

She looked up at him scandalized 'not exactly a delicacy?' how could he possibly say such a thing?

"It is if you've been living off cold soup with bread and chese every day since you were eleven." She said coolly, still shocked at his disappreciation for such a heavenly product.

"Think what you like I suppose. I've just never seen what's so wonderful about it. To me chocolate is just like any other sweet."

Was he mad? Chocolate was the saving food of the world, man's most ingenious creation, and she was sure, no matter what those nun's said about the fruit, chocolate was what had lured Eve to eat from the tree of good and evil. The mere taste of it was enough to turn anyone into a life long addict.

Yet this man stood before her acting as if chocolate, devine chocolate, was merely cheap candy!

She took a deep breath in order to collect her self. It was allright. He was simply unenlightened. At least, she thought to herself, she had found a flaw in someone apparently near perfect.

Besides that gave her something to work on with regards to him. He was going to not just like, but LOVE chocolate by the time she was through with him. And she told him so...er, in so many words.

"Someday Remus Lupin, you too will discover the saving, redemptive, power that is chocolate." Emily told him in her most dignified voice. Yes, that wording was better anyway, more powerful.

"Amazing prediction. Even if it is a bit far fetched."

Emily scoffed realizing that she had her work cut out for her. She proceeded to finish the small bowls contents, as Remus took a seat looking at her almost cautiously as she ate.

As she looked at him she ventured to ask a question that had been burning in her mind for months:

"Remus?"

"Yeah?" He edged forward on his chair.

"Why are you doing this?" She cursed herself for being so vauge. It was a tactic she had learned from plays and movies that she had seen. But it obviously wasn't going to work the same way in a real life situation. No matter how "novelesque" that situation appeared to be.

"Doing what?" He asked looking as perplexed as she had expected him to be. She cursed herself again, but answered slowly. Wanting to get it right this time.

"Well, I mean all of this. Bringing me my meals everyday, checking in on me between classes and before you go downstairs at night, giving me your bed..."

"I won't anymore if...if you don't want me to." He pressed his eyes down to the floor, looking very much like a forlorn puppy.

"No, no. I do appreciate it." She answered quickly. Perfect, she had given him the wrong impression.

"Besides, I-I like having you here." She added quietly. His face brightened at this admission as he lifted his eyes from the floor.

"You do?" He asked smiling brilliantly.

She had saved herself. Even if she had, basically, admitted to fancying him in the process. But his smile made it worth it. (And this time it had reached his eyes, which was rare.)

"Yes." She answered. "I was just wondering. I mean I never get this sort of treatment from the others. In fact I've never gotten this sort of treatment from anyone."

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment.

"Well, I suppose it's because I feel responsible for you." He said carefully.

"After all I was the one who..." He paused suspiciously for a moment.

"...Who found you." He continued finally. Not for the first time Emily had a suspicious feeling that he wasn't telling her everything.

"You say that like it's something to feel guilty about." She said with a small laugh. Remus began fidgeting nervously.

"I should be thanking you on bended knee. In fact, I probably owe you my life." Remus blushed lightly and began to look to the floor again.

"Oh, I don't know." He muttered quietly.

"It's true!" Emily said, again attempting not to raise her voice with him. Their relationship was still not quite at that stage after all. Not that a true lady would raise her voice even if it were. But she hated hearing him belittle himself.

"Remus you have to stop beating yourself up like this. After all, it wasn't your fault I was out there alone at night was it?" He looked slightly flustered but shook his head slowly.

Of course it wasn't his fault. She had that horrible school to thank for that. Those terrible nuns (who were ten times worse than any creature she would have encountered in the wild), had pushed her to the brink of her sanity and forced her, however indirectly, to run away from St. Magdalene's and take her chances in the wilderness.

"And it wasn't you who forced me to climb up in that tree was it?" He seemed oddly hesitant to respond this time. He began to fidget with the edge of her bed covers again. "No, of course not." He answered finally in a strangled sounding voice. Now she knew there was definitely something he wasn't telling her, and she was dying to know what it was.

She thought for a moment. This would have to be handled cautiously if she was going to extract something from him. She would have to find out in a very vauge, yet tactful manner...yes that was the way to approach this.

"See, the idea is preposterous." She began to laugh lightly. The same laugh she had heard her mother use in her plays. It always seemed to work for her.

"After all, that thing, whatever it was, that scared me enough to climb up there, certainly wasn't human."

That was true that large horribly terrifying figure that you had seen just before you dashed up the small tree for safety, could not, even by the largest stretch of the imagination been human.

She looked to Remus hoping that she had coaxed him into telling her what she knew. It didn't look like he was budging though. He had stopped fidgeting but his eyes were still focused on the floor.

"No. It wasn't human." He said quietly.

Damn. She had to find out what he knew. He obviously knew something about that...that...thing that she didn't. She would try again.

Tact, tact. She had to remember use tact...oh sod it.

She was just desperate enough to use the direct approach. It wouldn't work, she knew, but she had to at least try or she'd go mad.

"So what was it?" She asked exasperatedly.

"What was what?"

"That thing that chased me into the tree, what was it?" His face turned red and he hesitated a moment before answering.

"Oh, wolf probably." He said avoiding her eyes.

He still wouldn't budge. She knew it. Oh, well. If she could get James to give her the cloak during the day then she could...yes that would work. She'd just have to wait until then.

"Well, I'd better go. Homework. I'll be back before bed." He moved out of the chair.

"Oh," He added before he reached the door. "And be sure not to spoil your appetite on that chocolate."

"Yes Father." Emily answered sarcastically. He smiled at her and began once again to head towards the door.

"Remus?" Emily stopped him once again before he reached it. She had decided to give it one more try, without the aid of the cloak.

"Yes?" He asked almost eagerly.

"What's the real reason you do all this? I never really got an adequate answer."

Remus looked at her for a second before his cheeks began to flush.

"Well, I suppose I just...like seeing you" He said quietly, his face now beginning to turn completely crimson.

"I like seeing you to." Emily said before she could stop herself.

So he DID fancy her! She wasn't imagining it. How perfect. Now where in the world was that mysterious evil villan...?

He beamed at her, his smile once again reaching his eyes. The moment was somewhat broken by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

They both turned around to see James Potter leaning leisurely against the doorway. He looked at them smirking for a moment, and then opened his mouth as if to say something

Emily raised her eyebrow and looked discreetly in the direction of Lilly Evans's diary, which was still lying on his bed.

A flicker of panic settled into James's eyes for a moment. Then he swallowed and said simply.

"If you don't mind moony, miss Gardner and I have...er... business of a personal nature to discuss." Remus looked back and forth between them perplexed.

"I'll see you later Remus." Emily smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. Remus smiled back at her, but still looked rather bewildered.

"All right then." He said. And with one last cautious look, he left the room closing the door behind him.

"Right then." James said eagerly walking over to her bed.

"What exactly is it that I have to do?" He sat down in the chair in, what he apparently thought to be a cool and charming manner.

Emily heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes. This was going to be harder than she thought...

p.s Please review! I know I sound desperate but...that's probably because I am so...Please! (insert sad puppy dog eyes)