A/N: Last chapter! Hope you like it and review accordingly.

Chapter twenty-two: A Hero's Exit

"...It's this bed over here." The nurse said leading her through the hospital. "Though I normally wouldn't allow visitors just yet. But in you're case..."

The nurse sighed exasperatedly and carefully pushed back the curtains of a small bed in the far right corner of the hospital wing. It seemed far secluded from the others.

"We had to put him back to sleep with a potion, poor thing." She shook her head slightly

Remus lay on his back fast asleep. His clothes were torn and his arm was sporting large scratches from the previous night's excursion. Still, he looked rather peaceful.

"When he first woke up, he was in quite a state... Convinced that you were in some kind of danger. I simply had to put him out again. But he'll be all right now you're here I think."

Emily Barely heard what the nurse said as she continued to watch Remus's rather labored breathing.

"He should wake up soon. I'll leave you two alone." She said with a knowing smile and walked off.

It was still difficult to imagine that a few hours ago, this peaceful, sleeping boy, was a monster more than ready to destroy her in the blink of an eye.

No. She decided. He would never destroy her. Hero's did not murder their damsels, no matter what form they were in. And that was what Remus Lupin was. A hero. More so than the rest of them at least.

James ( thanks to Emily's wonderful black mailing skills), already managed to capture his damsel.

Peter...well, they would have to work on that. Though she wasn't sure how to approach this, as his problem seemed to be opposite that of James.

Sirius. Well, Sirius might have thought that he had her in the palm of his hand. But he didn't. Ha! When she had kissed him there was nothing. And when you kiss your first, true, love there is supposed to be something, isn't there? Well, there was only one way to find out.

She would just have to...

"Emily?" Remus stirred and said her name before he had even opened his eyes.

"'Morning." Emily said, feeling very maternal as she sat on the end of the bed.

"Emily!" Remus said finally opening his eyes. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm fine Remus." Emily answered him smiling. "How're you?"

"I've been better I guess." He answered looking at her slightly bewildered. "What happened last night? I kept dreaming that you were in the tunnel...the one that leads to the shrieking shack." Remus put his had to his head, as if it hurt him to think too hard.

"Remus," Emily said placently. "You don't have to think about it now."

"You-you weren't were you? In the tunnel I mean?" Remus's eyes widened frantically.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to be in there if it weren't for Sirius and Snape." Emily said

"He didn't!"

"He did."

Remus looked as though he would very much like to kick something (or someone for that matter).

"Perfect." He muttered. "So Snape knows now?" Remus began to prop himself up on his pillows. Emily touched his shoulder and forced him back down.

"Don't worry. Dumbledore's already told him not to say anything."

Getting worked up like that couldn't be good for his condition. The nurse had said that he wasn't completely better yet.

"But he did see..." Remus trailed off.

"Only a glimpse of you when you'd just transformed." Emily said hoping this would reassure him, at least somewhat.

He sighed, apparently resigned and sunk back onto his pillows.

"And, I guess you know too?" He asked quietly not looking at her. Oh, he was so cute when he did that little forlorn puppy dog look.

"Yeah I know." Emily said lightly. Hoping to convince him that it didn't matter to her at all...his being a werewolf.

"So..." he said hesitantly after several moments of silence. "What happened, well, afterward? I mean when you got back up to the castle?" He asked as he picked up a corner of the bed sheet and began to fidget with it. She noticed his fingers shaking.

"Well..." She began awkwardly. "I don't remember exactly what happened going up to the castle because...don't ask." Emily said, finally deciding that the story plot was too complicated to go into. Though she was happy to see that this made the corners of Remus's mouth shift upward, indicating a smile.

"Anyway, afterward, Dumbledore called us, well, Sirius, Peter, James, Snape, and me into his office." She bumbled, not exactly certain how to make her dramatic announcement. Somehow she had lost all the poise that she thought she had possessed.

She continued her story uninterrupted until she reached the part about her Father and Uncle.

"They're here then?" Remus asked hesitantly.

"Well, my Uncle left. But my Dad's here as far as I know." She said lightly.

"So, does that mean your going back to school or straight home?" He attempted to sound non-chalant as he said this, even though by looking at his eyes, she could tell the poor thing was heart broken.

In fact, Emily thought, as she surveyed him for a moment. He looked almost the way she pictured the damsels in story books looking before their hero goes off on a quest far away.

But that wasn't right at all. Remus was the hero in her novelesque situation. That had already been decided.

Hero's were meant to end stories with dramatic revelations and damsels were meant to receive the news with happy hearts from hospital beds.

It was almost as if the scene positions had been reversed. It was almost as if she was the hero.

But, if that was true, it meant that she didn't necessarily have to wait for him. Hero's didn't have to wait...

"Close your eyes." Emily said.

"What?" Remus stammered. This apparently was not the response he expected to receive.

"Remus please! I just need to see something." Emily pleaded.

Still looking quite perplexed, Remus did as he was told and shut his eyes.

Emily took in a breath. There was no other way. She had to know...

So with out hesitating, she leaned over the bed sheet, and shutting her own eyes, she kissed him.

Instantly, she felt something warm and quite foreign erupt in her stomach as he began to kiss her back. In fact, if she were to describe such a feeling, she would have to say that it felt like fire works exploding through her entire body. Fireworks. Definitely. But there was something else there too...

"Chocolate?" She asked dumbly as they both pulled quite hesitantly away. Of course, she had been practicing something much smoother to say than this. However, she didn't seem to be able to think properly while there was a strange ringing (that sounded very much like trumpets), in her ears.

Remus nodded at her question. He seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to speak, as he stared at her with wide eyes. After a second, he seemed to come to himself slightly and gave her a more satisfactory answer.

"The drink madame pompfrey gave me to sleep, tasted a bit like chocolate." He said not taking his eyes off of her face.

"To tell you the truth I'm starting to become rather fond of it." The corners of his mouth turned up again.

"I told you." Emily said simply, smiling at him, but inwardly began to curse herself. This all made the timing completely wrong. She had to find someway to make her revelation with out it seeming abrupt.

"So, I guess that's it then." Remus said quietly, finally moving his eyes away from her.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"Well, I mean, you are leaving. Aren't you?"

Perfect, Emily thought as she shook her head now beaming at him.

"I'm staying." She said fighting to contain a giggle at his relieved yet equally perplexed expression.

"But-but Emily, how is that-"

"Possible?" She finished for him.

"Simple really. It all starts with this letter..." Emily pulled the letter from the pocket of her skirt where she had placed it after Dumbledore had let her read it.

"Which my Uncle conveniently forgot to show me, when it arrived six years ago."

She handed Remus the open letter. Still looking quite skeptical he took it from her and began to read. It seemed to take several minuets for the full extent of it's meaning began to sink in.

"So this means that...you're staying?" Remus asked. A truly excited and anxious expression began to slowly light his face.

"I'm coming here next year." Emily answered beaming at him.

"Of course," She continued "I'm sure that I won't be in the same classes as you are. And even with extra work and tutoring, I probably won't reach the level that I should. But other than that..."

She never got a chance to finish the sentence. Remus suddenly leaned forward on his pillows and began kissing her again.

Emily registered vaguely that this was quite a bit different than the first kiss. This brought, not the fierce explosion in her stomach, but a comforting tingle in her spine. And throughout this kiss, one thought seemed to prevail in her mind. A thought that simply had to be said out loud for it to ring true.

It was the ending after all. And the endings of stories like these always came with such proclamations. Yes, she decided, it simply had to be said. And, since she was the hero, she would be the one to say it.

Slowly she pulled away from him, and took a long breath.

"I love you Remus." She said quietly.

Remus looked at her in awe, as though certain he was dreaming. Slowly, he brought his hand up to cup her cheek, as if to make absolutely sure that she was really there.

"I love you too, Emily" he whispered looking into her eyes with such obvious sincerity that Emily was certain she could feel her heart melting.

They stared simply smiling at eachother for a few moments, before he slowly began to lean forward to kiss her again. She closed her eyes in preparation before...

"I thought so." A very familiar voice came from somewhere to the right of them.

Both Emily and Remus pulled apart and turned around quickly to see Sirius walking towards the bed with Peter following in his wake looking quite embarrassed.

"Well this is just perfect." Sirius said

"I've got detention for the rest of the school year and to top it off my friends are pairing themselves off like rabbits in the spring time." Sirius grabbed a chair from a near by desk and sat casually backwards in it.

"Where's James?" Remus asked, still looking quite flustered.

"Apparently Prongs would rather walk Lilly Evans to breakfast than see one of his best friends in their hour of need." Sirius said with an uncharacteristically sour look on his face. "Honestly! Am I the only sane one left?"

"Hey!" Peter interjected.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about you." Sirius said lightly to Peter, whom Emily heard mutter something about 'one of these days...'

"You know." Remus said quite sharply to Sirius. "It wouldn't kill you to take a leaf out of James's book." He finished grabbing Emily's hand in his own and wearing a defiant look.

"Wanna bet?" Sirius asked scoffing.

If this had been the beginning of the story, Emily would have begun a lecture on chivalry or at the very least thrown one of her shoes at him. But, since it was the ending, she just gave him a superior smirk.

"What're you smirking at Gardner?"

"You'll learn."

And he would learn, in time. Because, after all, timing was everything.

The end

Well there it is! At the moment, I'm leaning very much towards making a sequel (of course, it still depends on the response for this chapter.. so I'll tell you for the last time, Review!.). But most likely the first chapter of the sequel will be comming sometime this month, so look for that if you're interested.