Yay! Reviews make me happy! I do, do, do, apriciate you, I promise!

Anyway, I'll try and get the next chapter up quicker. I'm having a bit of writers block... nothing to be too worried about though, I hope.

Chapter 15: The Expectations of Involvment

The next day, Emily stumbled slightly as she followed the boys to their potions class. However, regarding the predicament she currently found herself in, this was to be expected.

She was currently in love with a werewolf who, no doubt, was the cause of her "accident" in the woods. However, for some reason, this brought her more excitement than fear.

After all, falling in love with the one who attempted to destroy you was one of the oldest complications in the history of story telling (beauty and the beast was a good example). This only helped to further, what she had titled, the "novelesque" pattern of her current predicament.

Besides, she knew from the old tales her father used to tell her, being a werewolf was far from a choice. It was more like a disease. So, whatever Remus had done in his werewolf form was, truly, not his fault.

Emily would have been content with this knowledge if it were not for one other problem: falling in love with the beast who, only two weeks ago, had made an attempt on her life was not the only complication that Emily was faced with. To top it off, there was the Sirius matter. (Really, it was so like him to come along and complicate things that were already quite complicated enough.)

Emily had known for quite some time that aside from his arrogant, cocky, and sarcastic manner, she had always had an odd and, in her mind, somewhat sick physical attraction to Sirius. After the occurrence of the previous night, it had become clear that Sirius reciprocated these strange...feelings. (Emily supposed that was what she would call them if she were to give them a proper name).

Not to mention, he had proved that he may not have been a completely one dimensional prat that she had once thought him to be. Indeed, he seemed almost to have a ...soft side to him.

And of course there were more than fairy tale complications that came along with this knowledge. The romance issue was no longer quite so cut and dry. No, it had now become more of a choice...

But of course in the end, she would choose Remus.

Wouldn't she?

Needless to say, taking all this into consideration made for an entirely sleepless night. And, even by the afternoon, she found that she could not entirely focus on the task of watching James and Lilly.

She kept stealing worried glances at Remus, who was looking quite pale and peaky. She had remembered that the full moon was to come that night of course. That, no doubt, had something to do with it.

(She also caught herself, every so often, starring adoringly at Sirius Black. However, she tried not to dwell on that.)

Apparently, she was not the only one particularly interested in Remus's current heath condition. James, Peter and Sirius all seemed to be keeping a keen watch on him as well. They had a habit of shooting each other significant looks every now and then, as if they were sending coded messages.

But more importantly, Severus Snape had taken to using any excuse to catch glimpses of what Remus was up to. She had seen him, more than once, trying to glance at the calendar that Remus wrote down all of his class work in, apparently in hopes of catching him in the process of writing something that could possibly get him into trouble.

Luckily, she was not the only one who noticed this.

"You don't think he suspects something do you?" Remus whispered to the other three as they packed up their potions materials and headed outside before dinner.

"You mean Snivelus?" James asked with an ugly sneer on his face.

"That stupid git wouldn't know a werewolf from a krup. He's just trying desperately to find something that'll get us expelled." James said rather unconcernedly

"I still don't like it." Remus said cautiously.

"Look, Remus, even if he does suspect something, he can't tell Dumbledore anything about you that he already doesn't know." Sirius said reassuringly flopping himself and his bag down underneath a tree.

"It's not me, I'm worried about." Remus said setting his own bag down on the grassy hill.

"Aww...how cute! Moony's worried we can't look after ourselves." James sniggered.

"I didn't mean that. I know you can." Remus said, his lips curving into a small smile.

"I'm talking about...someone else." The low, significant sound of his voice told her that he was talking about her.

"Emily?" Sirius asked.

Emily's stomach performed several cartwheels. He had never used her first name before.

Remus must've noticed too because his face suddenly darkened into a vaguely jelous expression. Apparently he was still remembering the scene he had walked in on the night before.

"Yes Emily." He snapped at Sirius, who looked only slightly taken back.

"I don't think you've got to worry about her. Not even Dumbledore himself could guess that we were keeping a muggle in the dormitory." James spoke in an almost soothing voice to Remus whose expression cleared a bit.

Then, suddenly, he put his hand to his stomach and let out a grunt of pain.

Emily had a maternal urge to rush over to him, but caught herself. Instead she was forced to remain helpless in her spot by the tree as more color drained out of his face. "It's not time yet is it?" Peter asked anxiously.

"Not for another couple of hours, it's only five o'clock," Remus answered breathlessly, now clutching his side with a grimace.

"Still," He continued, trying his best to ignore the brief moments of pain.

"Padfoot, you said it last night. He's become more and more interested in what we're up to lately."

"That is true." Sirius mused. "And he did see the letter..."

"Think we should teach him a thing or two about meddling in other people's business?" Asked James with an evil smirk as his hand instinctively landed over his wand.

Not again. As much as she had begun to detest Severus Snape, she never particularly enjoyed watching him tortured by James and Sirius. It simply didn't sit right with the guiding rules of chivalry. (Not to mention that Lilly shared the same opinion as Emily on this particular point. And James wasn't doing himself any favors by continuing to "teach" Snape.)

Emily made to step on his foot in order to remind him of his duties when Sirius said, "Nah. Not this time prongs."

Emily's jaw dropped open. Never, in the two weeks she had known him, had Sirius ever passed up the chance to torture Severus Snape. (Indeed, it was like a sick sort of hobby to him.)

"Our lessons, well intentioned as they are, never seem to have an impact on him do they?" He continued thoughtfully.

"That's not really the point padfoot." James said with a curious look at Sirius, as though highly doubting his sanity.

"Isn't it?" Sirius asked.

"Let's say that this time, we give him a lesson he'll always remember." Sirius was now grinning at the rest of them, a mischievous glint played in his eyes. Emily knew this look well enough to know, that it usually meant nothing good.

Peter looked eager, but Remus shook his head.

"Look, don't go and do anything stupid. If Snape finds out we'll already be in enough trouble as it is." He let out a small grunt of pain once again but seemed to push it aside.

"Oh, where's your sense of adventure moony? Besides it's the greasy prat's own fault...sneaking around trying to find out what were up to. If he wants to know so badly..." Sirius trailed off, the wicked glint remaining firmly in his eyes.

He wasn't actually going to tell him. Was he?

"Sirius you wouldn't actually tell him would you?" Remus asked frantically. Not for the first time, Emily felt as though they were thinking along the same wave length.

"Oh, I don't think I actually have to tell him, do I? If I just let slip how he can get past the whomping willow..."

"Sirius please! Do you have any idea what could happen if you did that?"

"Well, it's not as if any one'd miss him-"

"Sirius." James spoke up rather quietly. "He's right. You couldn't do that."

Sirius's face fell for a second.

"Alright then, I won't." Sirius said with a small pout. "Not that the slime ball wouldn't deserve it...

"Padfoot, promise!" Remus implored urgently.

"Fine. I promise." Sirius answered.

But the mischievous glint had returned to his eye, and Emily was sure she saw him throw a wink to Peter who gave him a knowing smile.

This meant only one thing; he did not intend at all to keep that promise.

The idiot was actually going to let Snape "find out" about Remus. And, if she hadn't misunderstood, Sirius actually seemed to be hoping that Snape would get himself killed in the process!

"Ugh." Remus doubled over in pain once more.

Emily had to do something about this. After all she was involved now.

"Remus mate," James began hesitantly. "Maybe you should go to Madame Pomfrey a bit early."

And a proper heroine never allows any one to come to harm when she could have prevented it. Even her one of her enemies.

Remus nodded slowly clutching his stomach. The others looked at him with worried expressions.

"I have to get Emily's dinner first, then I'll go." With the help of James and Sirius, Remus slowly raised himself from his spot on the grass and grabbed his bag.

"See you tonight." He said quietly, once again clutching his side as he headed in.

As he turned right towards the great hall Emily turned left and began the long climb to Griffendor tower.

She didn't have long before sunset. That was, no doubt when Sirius would unleash his oh- so brilliant prank. Emily had to find a way to thwart him before then.

If there was one thing that was always certain above all else, it was that a heroine never has enough time...

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