Disclaimer: J.K.R owns everything you recognize. Anything else – MINE!
A/N: You liked it!! Yes I know it was a sappy chap but that's not all, folks! Sarah never let Remus finish his confession, did she now? And what's this? Harry and Ginny? (Oh it had to be done, in all its cliché glory) So, now we move on, hopefully to better, happier things. Thanks for reviewing, guys!! It always wants to make me write more! (Oh and if you went to VH.net, I'm Natalie Goldman, Unsorted at the moment, so Swordsmistress, hurry up!!)
On with the Story!
Chapter 15: Thwarted
The door to the drawing room opened and out came a very happy looking Remus, carrying an equally contented Sarah.
"Sarah!" said Harry, thrilled at her sudden recovery.
"Heya, Harry!" she said, letting go of Remus's neck momentarily to wave at him. "I'd give you a hug but this one here," she pretended to struggle in Remus's arms. "has decided that I am incapable of walking on my own two feet for more than a second. Mind you, last time I argued with him about my state of health he was right, so I'll let him have his way on this one." She grinned cheekily at Remus, who rolled his eyes, all the while looking supremely pleased that he had a living, breathing and very much awake Sarah in his arms.
Sirius looked amused as he surveyed the two of them. "Well," he remarked. "You two certainly took your time in there." His suspicions were confirmed when Remus merely smirked at him.
"Now, if you don't mind," he began to move through the small crowd of people waiting suspiciously close to the doorway. "Sarah needs to get back to bed so she can get all the rest she should have had before." Sarah snorted in protest, but made no real effort to leave the comfort of Remus's arms. Everyone moved out of their way, with the exception of Bill and Charlie, who appeared to be arguing about something at the foot of the stairs.
"Uh…" Remus looked from one brother to the other. "Bill? Charlie?"
The two young men suddenly seemed to recognize that they were be addressed and Charlie cut off in the middle of a "Well, just because she's up doesn't mean that-" to look embarrassedly at Remus and Sarah. "Oh, yes, of course, hello Sarah."
"Hello to you too." Sarah said, looking for all the world like she was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.
Remus carried her up the stairs to her room, setting her down carefully on her bed. Sarah swiped at his head.
"I'm not going to break, you know." She laughed softly.
Remus looked seriously at her. "You were dead, Sarah." He sat down on the bed beside her, running his hands through her hair.
Sarah shivered slightly. "I – I'm okay now, though. I know I am. Yes, I said I was fine before, but I was just avoiding a fact. The whole time I knew I needed to rest. I was actually sneaking out so I could just curl up and sleep for a couple of weeks when you caught me." Guilt momentarily flashed across Remus's face and Sarah felt like kicking herself. "No, silly, it's not your fault. I should have just admitted that I was wrong and that would have been that."
Remus smiled at her, but Sarah could tell that he still blamed himself for everything that had happened. "Hey, remember what you said to me when I was beating myself up about you getting shot?"
He was puzzled for a second, then he remembered that mind-blowing day in which he'd had to fight for his life, been shot, and found out that the girl he was starting to like was a lethal fighter and a telepath to boot. "Oh, yes," he said slowly. "That was an unforgettable day."
"Well," Sarah snuggled up close to him. "Follow your own advice, then. It helped me out a lot."
Remus heard what she was saying, and thought that she was, of course, right, but found it rather hard to concentrate on things like that when she was so close to him, her body pressed up against his. She began to say something else, but he leaned down and tilted her head up towards his, kissing her gently, savouring the feel of her lips as she kissed him back, smiling ever so slightly into the kiss.
Sarah snaked an arm around his neck and Remus used his free arm to pull her fully onto his lap, her legs around him. His arm slipped from her waist to underneath the bathrobe she was wearing, gliding over the smooth skin underneath. As he pulled her even closer to him, she shifted slightly on him, causing a low growl to come from Remus. Sarah pulled away momentarily, smiling smugly down at him. "If you do that again," Remus warned her, his eyes smouldering. "I will not be held responsible for what will most certainly happen next."
"Well, in that case…" Sarah leaned back down to kiss him again, Remus falling back against the pillows as they moved together. Sarah moaned into his mouth as his hand made its way up her body until it found her breasts. "Oh, my god, Remus…" she whispered, lifting slightly as she moved higher up on him to give him better access. Remus kissed her neck, soft, languid kisses trailing ever further south as Sarah gasped.
"Now, now, you two," came the very smug voice of Sirius. "With the door wide open and all? Must I remind you that we have innocent children staying here and that the sight of their trusted professor in a rather compromising position with a lovely young lady might just taint that innocence?"
Sarah sprang up with a gasp, quickly fixing her bathrobe to hide the fact that, much to Remus's delight, she was wearing absolutely nothing underneath. Remus struggled up, as Sarah was still partly on his lap, neither willing to relinquish the contact they'd had only seconds before.
"Merlin, Padfoot, you have horrible timing. Couldn't you have just done a silencing charm and closed the door?" Remus scowled furiously at Sirius.
"Ooh, the look on your face! Sarah, my dear soon to be proxy sister-in-law…" he paused, grinning widely as both Remus and Sarah blushed profusely and protested that Sirius was being ridiculous. "Sarah, you'll soon learn that at certain times of the month – well werewolves get a little…ah…needy." Remus now went very, very red as Sarah merely smiled smugly.
"I know." She said, laughing at the surprised expressions on the faces of both men. "What?" she asked them. "When I found out that you were a werewolf I read up on them, as I'd come across an article in the prophet that wasn't too complimentary, which totally contradicted what I'd come to know of you."
"Aww." Said Sirius, wiping away imaginary tears. "Oh, I can just feel a sappy love moment coming on, oh, it's just too romantic!"
"It might have been," Remus ground out. "But you certainly headed that off, didn't you? Now, if you don't mind, would you please leave and make sure any impressionable children are not anywhere close by? Thanks."
Sirius turned to leave, but then stopped. "Well, I can leave, but you're a bit late about the whole 'impressionable children' thing. Harry was the one who saw you two." He laughed at the identical looks of horror on Remus' and Sarah's faces. "You were somewhere around the point of 'Oh my god, Remus', I believe." He smirked at them one last time before leaving.
Remus and Sarah looked at each other, horrified. "Oh, no…" Sarah buried her face in Remus' chest. "Remus, Harry? Oh, great."
Remus shook his head, equally unsettled. "I know." He said, gently stroking her arm. Soon, however, the bathrobe began to fall open as Sarah lifted her head up to his grinning.
"Well," she began, kissing him lightly on the neck between words. "Now…that…the…door…is…closed."
"Oh, and one more thing…"
Remus and Sarah were in the middle of a very passionate lip-lock when Sirius poked his head back in the door again. Sarah was the one to yell at him this time.
"Sirius Black! I rescue you from behind the veil-" She quickly pulled Remus' robes around her upper body, which Remus had rather speedily removed from the confines of her bathrobe. "- the least you could do is to give us a little privacy? Is that too much to ask?"
"Sorry, forgot the first time around." Sirius said, looking not in the least bit apologetic. "Moony, Dumbledore needs to see you about Order business fairly urgently. He's downstairs. And I'm not trying to pull one over on you, I of all people know how important it is to have a good -"
"Do you mind??" Remus looked absolutely ready to kill at that point, although whether or not it was Dumbledore or Sirius he wanted to kill was anyone's guess. Sirius merely grinned at him, knowing full well that Remus was inwardly too happy to do much damage to anyone, least of all his best friend. He left the room, his laughter echoing down the hall.
"Ugh!! Damn that man! Damn Dumbledore!!!" Remus grumbled furiously under his breath as he got up, straightening his robes. Sarah got up as well, smoothing out his now much ruffled hair.
"Whatever," she told him. "Yes, it was bad timing, but you're forgetting that essentially, it's just you and me here alone most of the time, so…" She pulled him down to her for one more kiss, Remus holding her tightly wrapped in his arms.
"When you go out," Sarah broke the kiss and Remus reluctantly let her go. "Could you call in Bill and the rest?"
Remus raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to tell her she needed to rest, but then realized that they'd been about to engage in some rather un-restful activity themselves and closed it, bending down to kiss her cheek.
"Will do, peaches." He grinned as Sarah rolled her eyes at him.
"Oh, there is no need to call me that." Sarah harrumphed, settling back against the pillows. "So very unnecessary."
Remus merely chuckled and left the room, stepping lightly down the stairs.
"You're certainly in a good mood today, Remus." Dumbledore remarked. Remus opened his mouth to say that of course he was in a good mood, but then looked at the tired expression on Dumbledore's face and stopped short. He doesn't know!!
"Well, sir, there's a very good reason for my excellent mood…"
A tentative knock on the door woke Sarah from the very pleasant dream she'd been having. Groggily sitting up, she called out. "Who is it?" although it came out more along the lines of "Mmmnt?"
"Er, Harry," came the shy response. "And Bill, and Charlie and -"
"Oh yeah!" Sarah said, fully awake now. "Yeah, come in, I was just having a bit of a rest."
The door opened slowly, and Harry came in, his eyes angled slightly downwards, as if he was afraid to see something he wasn't supposed to.
"Come in, Harry." Sarah said, smiling at him. "I'm fully dressed, don't worry, Remus left a long time ago."
Harry went very red and muttered something about "this always happens to me", but looked up nonetheless and came over, plopping himself down on the end of her bed. Sarah looked confused at him, then remembered a similar embarrassed expression on his face the day she had left for the Dominican.
"Oh, my …. You thought me and Remus had…. Oh…" she dissolved into laughter, and Harry looked puzzled for a second, then rather hurt.
"Well, it wasn't too hard to get that impression." He huffed. Sarah continued to giggle randomly, and everyone else, just entering the room, was slightly alarmed at her outbursts of laughter. Ron looked to Harry, mouthing 'Is she mad?' rather obviously, so Sarah decided that she'd better calm down.
"So," Bill said. "What's the joke, or did you hit your head when you collapsed."
Sarah looked wickedly at Harry. "Now, Harry here, was under the much mistaken impression that - "
"And there's really no need to tell that story, Sarah, it's all in the past." Harry said rather hurriedly.
"Wait just a second, young Harry." George said, an expression of mock seriousness on his face.
"Mistaken impressions? Now, that's serious business." Fred continued.
"We don't want this to happen again, now, do we?"
"So we'd best have it all out with now"
"And get to the bottom of it so it never happens again."
"Don't worry, I'm sure it was just a harmless misunderstanding."
"I agree entirely," said Bill, joining in. Now Sarah began to blush slightly along with the already extremely red Harry.
"No, on second thoughts, Harry's right, it's all in the past." She quickly interjected. "Now, I haven't met some of you before, I guess you already know that I'm Sarah."
Bill and the twins looked mightily disappointed, but the latter quickly moved forwards, offering their hands rather pompously.
"Fred Weasley, at your service." said George.
"Nice to meet you, George." replied Sarah. "And you must be Fred." She turned to the twin in question, who was currently looking rather taken aback. Harry grinned widely. He suddenly realized that with Sarah's telepathy, she would be the only person who could tell the twins apart. They, however, recovered quickly, and deciding that it must be a fluke, retreated to the back of the room to plan how to get this new potential prank victim.
"How'd you do that?" said Ginny breathlessly. "I can't tell them apart and I've lived with them for all my life. I'm Ginny, by the way."
"Oh, they think differently." Sarah shrugged. "Quite distinct, really. But then, most identical twins are like that, you know. It's the fraternal ones that are near impossible to tell apart just from their minds. Nice to meet you, Ginny. Harry has – "
"This is Ron, and Hermione," Harry quickly cut in, and Sarah grinned at him. Ginny looked curiously at them.
"Harry has what?" she asked, looking suspiciously at Harry.
"Oh, nothing Gin, nothing." He said quickly.
"Hello, Sarah, I'm Hermione." Hermione introduced herself and Sarah smiled warmly up at her.
In time, Sarah had been introduced to all the members of Harry's extended 'family', which included a nice long talk with Molly Weasley. Bill and Remus had been right; the two of them got along famously. She'd also promised Bill, Charlie and Tonks that as soon as she was better, the four of them would be going out to the nearest club. She soon became tired and Molly ordered everyone out of the room so that Sarah could get her rest.
"You just have a nice long sleep, dear." She smiled affectionately down at Sarah; upon returning to find that the younger woman had kept Grimmauld Place in such good condition she had immediately warmed to her.
"Thanks, Molly." Sarah sunk her head into the pillows, enjoying their comfort, but sat up again just before the older woman left the room. "Oh, and Molly? Could you tell Remus to come up here when he's finished talking to Uncle Al? Thanks!"
Molly turned around, shaking her head but smiling nonetheless. "Oh, you two. If I tell him to come up here you definitely won't be getting any rest!"
Sarah blushed, but protested that she knew she needed to sleep and just wanted to talk to him for a moment.
"Oh, all right." Molly sighed good-naturedly and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
She had only been gone for a few minutes when the door opened again and in walked Dumbledore, followed by Remus. "Sarah!!" he greeted her, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "No, don't get up, my dear. How are you feeling?"
"Good," Sarah smiled up at her godfather. "I'm really sorry, Uncle Al, I just, knew it would be too late if we waited, I-"
"We're just happy you're alright, Sarah." Remus said quietly, his eyes smiling. "I have my best friend back, as well as…" he trailed off. Dumbledore was the closest thing to a parental figure Sarah had, and he wasn't exactly sure how to tell the man that he was with his goddaughter. Dumbledore, however, beamed down on the two of them, looking absolutely ecstatic.
"Yes, I am quite happy that everyone seems to be doing so well." His eyes twinkled madly at the two younger people, who looked rather warily at him.
"Alas," he said after a time. Who says 'alas' anymore? Sarah thought. Honestly, this man! "Alas, it seems that we still have a few issues to work through. As I was saying to Remus earlier this afternoon, there is still the matter of the few Deatheaters at large."
Sarah and Remus felt a twinge of guilt as he said this, but he continued, oblivious to their emotions. "Sarah, if you do not wish to continue, I understand."
"What?" Sarah sat up straight. "No, I started that, and I'm not just going to walk away and leave it unfinished. Besides, it'll take you much longer to do it any other way, and they could have caused more trouble in that time. No, I'm still in."
Remus and Dumbledore exchanged looks, but neither commented. A thought flashed into Remus's mind, unbidden. What about afterwards? He thought. What happens when she finishes that job?
Dumbledore seemed to be thinking the same thing – his eyes had lost some of their usual light and he was looking rather seriously at Sarah. "All the same, Sarah," he told her. "All you would have to do is to pinpoint their location. Remus and Kingsley will be leading a team to find them."
Sarah opened her mouth to protest. She knew that she could be a valuable asset to any sort of reconnaissance mission, and once she had recovered, she didn't need protecting.
"This - this isn't your fight, Sarah," Remus said gently, sitting down beside her on the bed and taking her hand. Sarah, however, pulled her hand away from him, her eyes flashing angrily. "No, I know it sounds like we're shutting you out – we're not. But you have your own job, and while everything you do for us is amazing, it's wearing you down to have been doing double duty."
Sarah bit back an angry response and sighed instead. Looking up at the two men, she shook her head. "Everyone else is pulling double duty – at their own jobs, and here in the Order. I just overdid things temporarily. I can still help!"
Remus looked down, finding he had nothing to say – he could find no fault with Sarah's reasoning. Dumbledore, too, was silent for a moment, but then looked resolutely at Sarah, appearing to have made up his mind.
"You definitely outreached yourself, Sarah, and for the time being, all we want to do is make sure that it doesn't happen again." Sarah looked exasperated, and Remus took her hand again, squeezing it slightly. She shot him an accusing look, but left her hand in his. If Dumbledore noticed, he gave no sign that he did. "Mr. Calahan has also been slightly concerned about you of late-"
"Wait a minute," Sarah began, but Dumbledore held up a hand.
"When you're a bit better, you can meet with him. I'm sure the two of you have a lot to talk about, but yes, that is none of our business. I'm simply passing on a message." Sarah was quiet, then nodded. "Well, since that is all taken care of – I must be moving on! It's amazing, really, that amount of things in this world that seem unable to happen unless someone attends to them! Remus, don't keep Sarah up too late! Have a good rest, my dear." And he promptly disapparated from the room with not even so much as a small 'pop!'.
Remus looked down at Sarah, who had fallen back onto the pillows with a huge, dramatic sigh. "You know you'll like the time off." He said playfully, lying down beside her. Sarah turned towards time and shifted closer, letting him slip an arm around her waist. "Yeah, I will. He's right, I definitely don't want to do that again."
"No," Remus murmured, leaning forward to kiss her gently on the lips. "No, you don't want to. Besides, you promised!"
Sarah laughed softly. "Yeah, I promised. But now you're going to be traipsing goodness knows where. You know," she looked thoughtfully at the man lying beside her, lightly tracing the outline of his face with her finger. "I'm a telepath, so I could probably stay in contact with you the whole time without overdoing anything – mental connections like that are easy."
"Maybe," Remus said, leaning into her touch. "But we can discuss that later, Sarah. I'm thinking sleep wouldn't be such a bad idea for me now, either."
Sarah rolled away from him and held up the covers. "Well," she said suggestively, waggling an eyebrow. "Come on in, then."
Remus shook his head at her, chuckling, but slipped off his robe and got into the bed nonetheless. Sarah snuggled up close to him, and Remus remembered his earlier discovery that she was wearing all of nothing underneath her bathrobe.
"Remus?" she said after a few seconds, interrupting a rather pleasant train of thought for Remus.
"Hm?" he replied, suddenly not feeling so very tired.
"Did you lock the door?" came Sarah's query, sending all sorts of interesting ideas into Remus's mind. He reached for his wand, did a locking spell, and turned to Sarah, kissing her deeply. Pulling away, he grinned wolfishly down at her.
"Any particular reason for wanting that door locked? Should I be putting silencing charms in place?" he asked her, bending down to kiss her neck.
"Well," Sarah said, running her arms around his back. "Didn't want Harry barging in here tomorrow morning, did we?"
"Sarah!!" Remus groaned, stopping his exploration. "Did you have to bring that up?"
Sarah laughed, smiling at Remus before bringing him down for another kiss. "But now that you mention it, I like your idea so much better…"
Sirius was just rooting around in a drawer in the room next door when he heard some rather interesting sounds coming through the wall. Smirking, he put his ear to the wall, the sounds coming through only serving to confirm his suspicions. "Nice going, Moony." He said, before going out into the hall to put a silencing charm on Sarah's room.
"But please – do us a favour and remember the silencing charm next time?"
A/N: Okay people, hope you liked it, because there is more coming; the story is definitely not over yet! To my reviewers sniff oh I love you guys!! In fact, I'm actually going to give you all individual responses!! So, here goes:
Swordsmistress: Baby-making time is on the way, hunny, so keep your pants on!
Aljinon: You went to VH!! I'm so proud!! Come by my compartment!! Oh, and don't worry, that was not the end – oh god no shudder that was waaay to sappy to be the end
Fiona: You think so? Oh, that makes me so happy! I always think that about my stories, and then someone comes along and is all - oh, you were so much better at first, and it's just like, oh. I thought I was better now goes and cries in a corner but you like it! Woohoo! (Okay, I am waaaay too hyper for my own good)
Amanda : hehe you like the sappy chapter – it's a romance, it so had to be done! I agree, Remus is a very very very sexy werewolf! Now, if Sirius was bi…. Oh, the possibilities…
Alana : Happy Belated Birthday!! I'm glad you like the story! P.S. It's my birthday really soon so I may get a tad distracted, but I will do my best to updateOkay I think I got everyone who reviewed this time around, thanks to everyone! I will update as soon as I am able (I actually may be delayed because of the whole birthday thing and I've got this absolutely FANTASTIC and I mean BRILLIANT plot bunny floating around in my head and I may try and get that down for a bit as all the possibilities with it are just killing me!) Right, okay, all done.
-Laren