Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books

Chapter 7 Hungry Eyes.

'What's happening now?' Lunar thought as Remus, Severus, Katrina, Sirius, Pat, Albus and Minerva walked into her room. They were standing in one corner of the room, pointing at a book and then at the room, and muttering.

Finally Severus spoke louder than a whisper. "This had better work." He glared at Katrina. "Or else…"

"Right! Lets clear a space." Katrina interrupted Severus' warning and moved the chair out of the room.

Albus waved his wand and a deep thunderous beat started.

"Not yet Albus!" Minerva said worriedly, and the beat stopped. "I don't know the steps yet!"

"Okay." Remus came back from moving the blanket box, and started talking to the group of teachers. "I've been reading and learning this all morning, ever since Albus contacted me…"

'No wonder he looks tired!' Lunar thought.

"… I'll show you how it's done, and then you can follow me for a quick practice. We want to get this done right first time."

Remus stood in the middle of the floor and clicked his fingers a couple of times. "And a one and a two and a one two three fo..."
"Wait!" Severus' voice cut through Remus' count down. "I want to know exactly why we're doing this again!"

'So do I!' Thought Lunar.

Sirius rolled his eyes and turned to Albus. "Just humour him, explain it one more time. Maybe if you say it very slowly and in words of one syllable he would get it!"

Severus glared at Sirius, while Pat, Minerva and Katrina sat on the floor. They realised it was going to take a long time to persuade Severus to do this.

Albus began telling the story again. (This was the fourth time!)

"I went to see the centaurs in the forbidden forest. They suggested that to get rid of the curse I look up Corybants. So I looked in the library and got out this book. You know the rest." Dumbledore popped a lemon drop in his mouth and rolled it around his tongue.

'Corybants? What do they do?' Lunar asked, and hoped that before they would "practise", they would explain it to her.

"Explain to me again why I have to participate."

Sirius groaned, sat down next to Pat and put his head in his hands.

"The book says that we need three men and three women to dance, while one man chants."
'Dance!!!!' Lunar tried to stop herself from laughing, but then realised that they wouldn't know if they were laughing or not so let her amusement have free rein. 'This is something I have to see!'

"Well, why can't I chant?" Severus really didn't want to dance. He was behaving like an unruly child and he knew it.

Katrina decided that enough was enough. She stood up and walked up to Severus. She whispered in his ear, stood back from him and raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner.

Severus glared at her for a moment, but then shrugged his shoulders and removed his outer robe in defeat. Sirius grinned at him, but it was quickly removed when Severus said harshly.

"Without me you would have ruined it."

"Right!" Remus interrupted before Sirius and Severus started fighting. "As I said before, I will show you how to do it, then you practice. Okay lets begin."

Albus started the booming beat.

Remus walked to the centre of the room. Firstly he pushed his hands up an invisible wall in front of him while stamping his feet. He then started to wiggle his hips waving his arms around like a madman…

'Oh my God!!!!' The image of Remus doing this wild, unruly dance would lodge in her memory forever. 'Nothing can compare to this!'  Remus dancing reminded her of one of her favourite muggle movies, Dirty Dancing. 'He would beat Patrick Swayze any day.'

The thumping beat made her think of one of the songs from the film, and she mentally sung along to the beat (and Remus' gyrations).

'Now I've got you in my sights,

With these Hungry Eyes,

One look at you

And I can't disguise,

I've got,

Hungry eyes.

I feel the magic between you and I.

I wanna hold you so hear me out,

I wanna show you what love's all about,

Darling tonight…'

She was mesmerised by Remus, he put all of his energy into the fluid motions especially for her. She was in heaven. Or so she thought before the others began to practise.

Minerva, Katrina, and Pat just about managed to perform the dance correctly, but Sirius and Severus…

'They have no sense of timing! As soon as they cure me I'm teasing them forever!' Suddenly Lunar became sombre. The enormity of what she thought settled in her mind.

'That is if they cure me.'

"Okay… Anyone want another practice?" Remus asked tactfully.

Everyone turned to look at Sirius and Severus, but neither of them would deflate their pride before the other one.

"No." Sirius said.

"Let's just get on with it." Severus said curtly.

Pat shrugged at Albus' inquiring gaze. "Alright then." Dumbledore rubbed his glasses with his robe, cleared his throat, and started to read the book. Chanting the words loudly.

The drumming beat started and Pat, Minerva, Cleopatra and Remus successfully completed the dance without hiccups. Sirius and Severus managed to keep up with the others, making surprisingly few mistakes.

Suddenly Albus shut the book with a bang. The dance and the drumming stopped. Everyone turned to look at Lunar.

"I hope this was worth it." Severus muttered, then winced as Katrina nudged him in the ribs.

Remus wasn't paying attention. He sat beside Lunar on the bed and murmured softly. "Lunar?"

'Remus? Can you hear me?'

He looked at her intently. Then turned to the others and shrugged sadly.

"Hasn't worked." He sighed.

'Remus!' Lunar sobbed.

"Back to the drawing board." Albus said unhappily.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

He had swivelled, he had grooved, he had even done a few pelvic thrusts, and all in vain! Remus leaned his head on his folded arms, which were resting upon the desk he was seated beside, and resisted to urge to howl in fury. He looked at the clock. It was only nearing eight; the Auror would be here in an hour. Looking out of the window he stared blindly at the sunset, and the full moon, which would soon appear in the distance, which encouraged him to give in to the temptation of being at one with the rage, and sighed. He would not be able to meet Roger.

He had taken the wolfsbane Severus had left, which enabled him to safely change without harming anyone. Gritting his teeth he rose from the chair and entered the kitchen calling for his house elf.

Fingers appeared as if from nowhere and twitched anxiously, her gaze switching from the window to her master. She had seen the wolf only once, but it was enough to scare her for life.

He sighed at her apprehensive expression and said calmly. "I am going out for tonight." He never mentioned his curse, and neither did she. "Look after Miss Black, and I will be back in the morning."

She nodded, and with a squawk hurried up towards the stairs. Only stopping when she reached the room he had put Lunar in and firmly shut the door.

Sirius bounded in through an open window, and looked cautiously around before changing into his human form. He looked at Remus, and frowned. "Shouldn't you be in the forest somewhere?"

"I couldn't…" Remus trailed off. He still couldn't reveal to Sirius that he loved Lunar, and letting him know that he had stayed until the last possible moment to make sure either Sirius or Pat were back to look after her would be a sure sign. "I had something to do, but I'm just leaving now."

Sirius twisted his face into a bleak smile. "Want some company?"

"No." Remus said swiftly and harshly. "Lunar needs you more than I do right now. You must be here to listen to the Auror. The more people that listen to the information the more information we gather." He added to soften the blow.

Sirius nodded, but still was frowning, but now was not the time to ask questions as Remus felt a wave of violent emotions wash over him.

"I've got to go. Now." He growled as he rushed from the room into the garden at the back of the house and from there into the forest beyond.

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

The emotion-filled howling coming from the open window woke Lunar up. She was having a wonderful dream, reliving the Corybantic dance they had tried to cure her with. Severus' discomfort would have been her brother's dream, but in her dream he was nowhere to be seen.

In fact there were only two people in the room. Herself and Remus. She had to admit, nothing about that dream would have pleased Sirius, but just thinking about it gave her a deep glow throughout her body. She sighed in pleasure, but was disturbed by the howling, which had begun again.

She was mesmerised by the call, it had echoes of intense sadness in it, but at the same time it seemed incredibly familiar. It reminded her of Remus, and her thoughts resonated with the emotion in the cry. She would never be able to tell the enigmatic man how much she felt for him. How she had treated and been treated by Sirius' friends as if they were older brothers to her younger sister, except with Remus. He had treated her differently, still protective, and teasingly, but… differently.

Her eyes wandered to the open window, and she thought of tomorrow's adventure, the next thing that her friends would try in an attempt to cure her, and she hoped that this time it would work.

A/N

And here's the proof! And I quote from the encyclopaedia Britannica

"CORYBANT

Any of the wild, half-demonic beings who were mythical attendants of the ancient Oriental and Greco-Roman deity the Great Mother of the Gods. They were often identified or confused with the Cretan Curetes (attendants of the Greek god Zeus) and were distinguished only by their Asiatic origin and by the more pronouncedly orgiastic nature of their rites. Accounts of the origin of the Corybantes vary, and their names and number differ from one authority to another. They apparently had a mystic cult, and a prominent feature of their ritual was a wild dance, which was claimed to have powers of healing mental disorder. It is possible that they originally were priests or medicine men of ancient times, later thought of as superhuman…" blah blah blah. And you thought you didn't learn anything from ff.net!! Here's a prime example of Greek mythology!!

I'm sorry; I couldn't resist getting "Dirty Dancing" in my story somewhere. Hungry Eyes comes from the movie Dirty Dancing (and so does Patrick Swayze), I don't own Patrick Swayze (not that I'd want him (not my type)), I don't own the movie (except on video), and I don't own the soundtrack (except on CD) (both of which I like to watch, listen to, sing along with, and in some scenes I can say all of the words. (Needless to say, I have a lot of time on my hands!!!)). (My sister suggested that Dumbledore should sing "Hungry Eyes", while Severus, Remus, and Sirius gave us our own private showing of the Corybant dance. They (unfortunately) refused. Something about a prior engagement, and washing their hair….)

Anyhew!

Annoriel, If your reviews stop coming then I guess I should leave the country, cos prison is not a good place for ff inspiration!!!! I hope Severus' dancing lives up to your expectations!!!

Iluvlegolas, My fevered imagination has (somewhat unfortunantely, but only due to the fact that I have a dissertation to write and final year exams to study for) come up with 4 more Harry Potter stories. These are about a couple of the students when they grow up. (Not exactly difficult to guess who!!) After that, I really don't know what I'm going to do!!!!

Precious Girl. Thanks for the compliments!! Keep reading!

Ingenious. She isn't cured as yet, you'll just have to wait another couple of chapters! And my stories almost always have "nice fluffy" endings!! And I love them too!!!

And finally thanks to Panny Savage for the compliments.

Sorry to all for the long wait inbetween postings.

Love Krusty.

xxx.

P.S. Please don't tease me about the whole Dirty Dancing thing... Esp. Martha, don't forget I know where you live!!

P.P.S. I have to go now, I'm going to watch the greatest movie ever made.

The Matrix really kicks ass!