a/n: alrighty, another chapter goes up...I'm thinking I'll have the next one up in a few days (This chapter was supposed to be much, much longer, but I cut it short and transferred it to the next one) so check back soon! :)

Chapter 33: Runaway

Remus shut his eyes tightly and held his breath as he felt his head spinning against the whirling ashes. When the spinning stopped, Remus opened his eyes and looked up.

"Kierra!" He exclaimed as he noticed a pair of legs standing in what appeared to be a kitchen.

The pair of legs quickly drew nearer to the fireplace. Finally, Kierra knelt down so she was eye to eye with Remus.

"Hey!" she replied with a note of anxiousness in her voice. "What's up?"

"We need to talk...can I come over?" Remus replied urgently.

"Er...now?"

"yea"

"But the wedding's in a few hours! I have to go get ready soon"—

"Please, it's important..."

Kierra sighed. "ok, come on over..."

Remus quickly backed his head out of the fireplace, and stood up. Closing his eyes to concentrate, he disapparated out of his living room.

"That was quick..." Kierra said with a slight grin as Remus apparated in front of her moments later. "So...sit down...anything in particular you want to talk about?" she asked as she led him to the couch.

"Kierra, you know very well what I want to talk about." Remus replied, looking closely at her, who in turn was avoiding his eyes.

"Alright...let's talk..." she replied quietly.

"So..." Remus began uneasily, "have you made your final decision?"

Kierra nodded.

"And?"

"I sent my acceptance letter to them last night..."

"What??" Remus exclaimed indignantly, as she had expected. "Without talking to me

about it first??"

Kierra finally met his eyes. "Remus, this is my life"—

"I know it's your life...but aren't I a part of it? Don't I have some say??" Remus asked at once.

"Of course you're a part of my life...a huge part at that...but Remus, don't you understand? This is a great opportunity for me...all the other places I've applied to haven't even responded to me...and now I've got this fantastic offer that I'll probably never come across again...I can't just pass it up...just like that..." Kierra looked at him apologetically. She really did feel bad for saying all that...but it was true...and she had to think about herself...it was in her best interest to take the job...

"I understand that it's a great opportunity and all...but didn't you think about the sacrifices you're going to be making? You're not just leaving me...you're leaving your family, and your friends...your whole world! You've lived in London your whole life...who knows how you'll find the American environment"—

"I'll never know until I go there"—

"But you don't have to"—

"Remus," Kierra cut in; she put her hand on his knee and looked him in the eyes—"I've

given it a lot of thought. I understand the sacrifices I'm making...but it's really not that bad"—

"Not that bad?? Kierra are you joking"—

"We can keep seeing each other! It wouldn't be that hard! We could take turns

visiting..."

"Kierra, it's not as easy, traveling between continents. Apparating, flying and flooing...they all become a lot harder when covering such a long distance...it wouldn't be like we could visit each other all the time...you'll be busy with work"—

"Then you can come visit me! You can come whenever you want...and you could stay with me for a few weeks at a time maybe"—

"Kierra, you know I can't do that..."

"Why not?"

Remus sighed. "I'm still looking for work, you know"—

"Wait!" Kierra exclaimed suddenly. "Why don't you just come with me to the States? You could look for work there! It would be great"—Kierra stopped when Remus shook his head sadly.

"Kierra, I could never leave home...not while my dad is ill...I need to take care of him...my mum's always gone to work now since she's filling in for dad at the office..."

Kierra nodded. "So...what are you saying then?" she asked slowly.

Remus shrugged. "I don't know...I don't want to call it quits..."

"Neither do I..."

"But how are we going to make it work? It'll be so difficult if we're hardly going to see each other...I mean...we could try..."

Kierra nodded, suddenly remembering something from a few days back...Should they try?

"What are you thinking about?" Remus asked as he watched Kierra's eyes, which seemed to have grown distant in the last few seconds.

"Oh"—Kierra snapped out of her minor trance—should she say what she was thinking? It was best to be honest, she reasoned... "well...I was thinking...is it worth it?"

Remus looked at her curiously. "Er...what's worth it?"

"Trying to...make things work..." she said slowly, hoping her honesty wouldn't offend him, "I was wondering...if taking the trouble to make things work would be worth it..."

"Why wouldn't it be?" Remus asked, staring at Kierra suspiciously.

"Well..." she started slowly, staring back at Remus a bit anxiously, "what I mean is...what if we went through all this trouble to make things work between us...but then we break up? I mean...what's the likelihood of us doing that? The chances would certainly increase with me moving, wouldn't it?"

Remus shook his head, seeming to be a bit confused. "I don't get it...where is all this coming from? Are you suddenly having doubts about the strength of our relationship?"

"I was just remembering what everyone was saying, the other day at Sirius's flat...how we have nothing in common"—

"Kierra, that's rubbish! Of course we have stuff in common..."

"Like what?" Kierra asked.

Remus paused to think, racking his brains for some argument...

"See! Nothing..." Kierra said after a moment's silence, "We don't have anything in common...I'm so ditzy at times I wonder why I'm not a squib...I'm loud and obnoxious and I wear my heart on my sleeve...and I'm so immature...and you're just the opposite!

You're this brilliant wizard, you're so much more mature than everyone...and you're good at everything"—

"I was horrible at potions...hey you were too! See? We have something in common!" Remus said with a grin.

Kierra sighed exasperatedly. "Remus, how are we going to base a romance on a shared hatred for potions? Don't you see? It's just...lust...I've suddenly realized it...it's lust... that's why we've lasted this whole time...but sooner or later that'll run out and whenever that happens we'll suddenly be all conscious of how dissimilar we are..."

Remus stared at her incredulously. He couldn't believe what he was hearing...

"Kierra...this is ludicrous..." he said as he shook his head. "You really think that? It doesn't make any sense..."

"It makes perfect sense..."
"It kind of does...but it can't...it's just...stupid..."

"Look...I just thought we should consider the long run...and we want different things..."

"You still hate kids then?" Remus asked.

Kierra nodded. "See? I hope to God I never conceive a child, and I know you want half a dozen little Lupins running around your house..."

Remus frowned. "Not half a dozen"—

"Oh for goodness sake Remus, you know what I mean!" Kierra said irritably. "You know I hate kids and am not willing to have even one!"

"Well why can't you compromise? Having kids isn't that bad, you know!" Remus replied just as irritably.

"Look, if you like kids, that's fine, but don't try to push it on me, ok?" Kierra snapped.

"Anyway, why do I have to compromise, why can't you?"

"Because"—Remus paused momentarily to think of an argument—"because when you get all old and wrinkly you'll probably regret that you never had kids..."

"And you're so sure you won't ever regret having kids?" Kierra asked.

"No one ever regrets having kids....but people do regret not having them..." Remus replied.

"Well, that's not the case for everyone...it certainly doesn't apply to me"—

"You don't know that"—

"Well you don't know either! Look can we drop this whole child issue??" Kierra exclaimed.

"Fine" Remus replied.

Several moments passed by where neither spoke. Finally, Kierra let out a deep sigh and looked squarely at Remus.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about here, Remus..." she said, "we have nothing in common...our friends are right...we don't talk to each other"—

"We're talking right now"—

"Yes, but whenever we sit down and talk...I mean really talk...we always argue! We can't live like this, Remus!"

"We don't fight that much..."

"That's because we're usually busy doing other things that requires very little talking..."

"You know, I'm starting to get the impression that you just want to break up...you're just bringing up excuse after excuse as to why we can't last together...if you want to break up, just say so!" Remus said angrily as he got up quickly from the couch.

"Fine!"—Kierra stood up as well and glared at Remus—"fine...I want to break up with you!"

"Fine, we're broken!" Remus retorted. "Happy?"

Kierra folded her arms across her chest as she continued to glare at him. "Yes" she replied contemptuously. "I am."

Remus shook his head and rolled his eyes irritably.

"What?" Kierra asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Kierra scoffed, "Please...I know you better than that..."

"Really? How? Between all the snogging and fighting, how on earth did you ever sneak in time to get to know me?" Remus asked in a mock surprised voice.

"It's not hard" Kierra retorted, "You're pretty damn predictable..."

"Am I?"

"Oh yea...in fact, you were just thinking, quite condescendingly I might add, how childish I must be for acting the way I did and that I'm being a complete dolt about all this..."

"Touché, Kierra...touché...I guess I am a bit predictable" Remus said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Well, since I'm obviously a big dolt, and you're just so clever, I'm sure you can figure your way out of here on your own then?" Kierra asked.

As Remus opened his mouth to reply, a sudden a burst of fire came from the fireplace, causing himself and Kierra to jump slightly, as they faced Lily Evans.

"Lily!!" Kierra exclaimed.

"Kierra..." Lily said breathlessly. "Get ready and come to my house...now..."

"But"—

"Oh, Remus! Hey!" Lily said quickly as she noticed Remus kneeling down to see her.

"Lily, I don't need to come over for another hour!" Kierra said irritably as she also knelt by the fireplace. She looked more closely at Lily, and noticed her brow creased with preoccupation. "Is something wrong?" Kierra asked.

Lily nodded anxiously. "Dominique's gone..."

"What??" Remus and Kierra exclaimed at once.

"What do you mean she's gone??" Kierra asked. "She's supposed to be at your

house...getting ready"—

"I know, I know!" Lily said hastily, "she was getting kind of antsy...prewedding jitters I suppose...and then when I was helping her get dressed, she said she had to use the loo, and when she didn't come out after like, ten minutes...I went to check on her...and she was gone!!"

"Out the window?" Kierra asked.

"There are no windows in that bathroom!" Lily said brusquely, "she disapparated!"

"Oh..." Kierra replied stupidly. She watched way too many muggle movies... "Well, ok, I'll be right over then...just give me a few minutes to get dressed!" she shouted as she ran out to her room to get ready, leaving Lily and Remus alone.

"Listen, Remus," Lily said, "could you go over to Sirius's and hang out with him? Try to stall him a little? Just don't tell him anything, please...I'm sure we'll find Dominique, or she'll turn up or something...we just don't want to worry him..."

Remus nodded. "Sure thing..."

Lily smiled slightly. "Thanks. I need to contact Alice now...and I'll get in touch with you whenever we find her..." she said and without further adieu her head disappeared from the fireplace.

"Oh! She's gone..." Kierra said as she came into the living room, only to see Remus, facing an empty fireplace.

"Oh...yea...she had to go tell Alice..." Remus said tersely.

"Oh...right..."

Remus finally turned around to look at Kierra. Her hair was out of its normal pony tail, and tousled all about, falling messily over her shoulders. She wore a long, pink dress of taffeta that poofed out from the waist-down, and tightly hugged her outline from the waist up.

"Well..." he said, finally managing to pull his eyes away from her corseted torso, "I have to go...Lily told me to see Sirius..."

Kierra nodded. "Right..."

"Well...I'll show myself out." And with that, Remus headed towards the door—

"Wait!"

Remus turned around and looked at Kierra with surprise.

Kierra sighed. "Don't tell the others...today is for Dominique and Sirius...we're not ruining it for anyone."

Remus nodded. "We'll tell them later."

"You will."

"Me?"

"Yea"

"And you?"

"I'm moving tomorrow, I'll have just enough time for some goodbyes." Kierra replied.

"Right." Remus replied. "Well, have a safe trip then..." and without turning back to so much as look at Kierra, Remus disapparated out of her house.

Kierra sighed as she grabbed her pink high heels. The day had hardly even begun and it seemed to be horrible already. Her relationship with Remus had ended on a sour note; of all days to choose, it had to be on her friend's wedding, and what was worst—the bride was missing. Kierra glanced briefly at the spot where Remus stood moments before he disapparated and sighed again before she too disapparated out of her house.

"Ok..." Lily said as she paced around the living room of her house, "here's what we're going to do. We're going to split up and search the city"—

"Lily, have you any idea how big London is??" Kierra asked incredulously.

"Yes, I'm quite aware," Lily snapped, "but Dominique doesn't know London well. She's hardly seen any of it. She'd only go to the places she's familiar with...and that would be"—

"The mall!!" Kierra and Alice said together excitedly.

Lily sighed. "Yes, the mall...that's definitely a possibility, so I'll be checking it out"—

"We'll come too!" Alice said.

"No way," Lily replied, "even in the direst of situations, I would never trust either of you to help me find something in the mall. No, I'll go by myself. Alice, I want you to check out the park down the street. Kierra, I want you to check out every tea and coffee shop within a two mile radius...we're bound to find her in one of these places...."

Two hours later, Lily, Kierra, and Alice sat despairingly on the couch back in Lily's home.

"The wedding's in half an hour...what the hell are we going to do?" Kierra asked.

"Maybe she went back to Paris..." Alice suggested.

Lily shook her head. "She couldn't have disapparated from the bathroom and gone to

Paris...it's just too long a distance...she can't have had enough apparation experience to pull that off."

"Well, you never know, she's a pretty good witch..."

"But why would she go back to Paris?" Kierra asked. "I know she misses things about it...but I would've thought that she'd be scared to go back there...she has bad memories of that place..."

"true..." Alice said as she nodded in agreement.

"Maybe we should just break the news to Sirius..." Kierra said finally. "The guests are probably starting to arrive..."

"No!" Lily said with sudden determination, "Come on guys...we need to find her...she's bound to be somewhere!!"

"But we've looked everywhere you thought she'd be!" Alice said.

"But she can't have just...disappeared..." Lily sighed, frustrated, trying to rack her brains for any other potential hiding spots for Dominique....

"We need to think like Dominique!" Kierra said suddenly. Lily and Alice turned to look at her curiously. "I mean she probably has seen other parts of London with Sirius...or Remus..." she added hesitantly. "We need to think like her. Put ourselves in her shoes...So, she's getting married today and she freaked out and left...If you were Dominique, where would you go?"

Alice and Lily glanced at each other and sighed.

"The mall..."

Kierra rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Ok lets rephrase this...er...alright...If you were Dominique...where would you go...if...if you were scared of facing something?"

"Some sort of sanctuary..." Lily murmured.

"Or a person she can confide in..." Kierra added.

"Of course!" Alice said, "Remus! She always goes to him"—

"No!" Kierra said all too abruptly. "I mean...no...she couldn't have..." she said cautiously as Alice and Lily eyed her curiously.

"Why not? It makes perfect sense!" Alice said.

"Well..."

"Of course"—Lily muttered—"Remus was at Kierra's house when I told her about Dominique...she couldn't have seen him..."

"Exactly my point..." Kierra said quickly with a nod.

"But maybe she went to his house, thinking he would be home..." Alice persisted.

Lily frowned. "That's quite possible...but then I told Remus to go directly to Sirius's place to distract him a little...Kierra, did he go to Sirius's flat after I left? Or did he say he was going anywhere else?"

"Er...yea he was going's to Sirius's I guess..." Kierra replied.

"You guess?" Alice looked at her appraisingly.

"Well...I had gone up to change when Lily gave Remus the orders...and when I came back...he just said he was going to Sirius's flat...and he left...so I'm assuming he went there directly..."

"Maybe she went to his house, thinking he'd be there...maybe we can check it out"—

"Come on, Alice...no one's home. Remus is at Sirius's...Mr. and Mrs. Lupin have probably left for the wedding by now...no one to let her in..." Kierra said in one breath.

Alice looked warily at Kierra. "Why are you acting so weird?"

But before Kierra could even begin to think of a reply, Lily gasped. Startled, Kierra and Alice jumped slightly.

"Dumbledore!" Lily exclaimed. "She went to Dumbledore!"

"Great..." Kierra muttered. "How are we supposed to find Dumbledore? He's probably unplotable or something...and he doesn't exactly hang out in local tea shops around here, does he?"

"On the contrary, Miss Nakofsky..." came a voice from behind them.

"Alright...how do I look Moony?" Sirius asked as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

"Like a thousand galleons..."

Sirius's jaw dropped as he turned to face his friend. "A thousand galleons? How dare you put a price on a body like this! And what's more...only a thousand...you wound me, Moony..." he muttered.

Remus chuckled. "You run the risk of wounding yourself with such an inflated head...it might just explode one day..."

"And then poor Dominique would have to clean the pieces..." James said with a wry grin as he came out of the bathroom. "Looking good Padfoot! I daresay you clean up remarkably well..." he said as he came face to face with his best friend.

Sirius grinned and turned to Remus. "See, that's how you compliment a person's looks..."

"Yea really, Moony...I heard the thousand galleon bit..." James said, "though you may be on to something with his head exploding..."

Remus rolled his eyes. "A thousand galleons...it's just an expression!"

"Let's hope you've never used it on Kierra..." James replied with a laugh. "Oh, then again, maybe you should...I love watching her get mad..."

"I thought you loved watching Lily get mad..." Sirius said as he walked over to the closet and knelt down to get his shoes.

"Yea, her too...well...not angry mad...just annoyed. I don't like seeing her angry..."

"Afraid she'll get her wand out?" Remus asked with a slight smile. Lily was the best in their year at charms, and she owned a wand that seemed so compatible with her it was almost unnatural.

James nodded and smiled sheepishly.

"Alright I think we're ready to go, boys...I'll bet Wormtail's already there and waiting for us, the poor punctual bastard..."

"Er, no...we can't go..." Remus said suddenly, as he glanced shortly at the clock.

"Because...?"

"Well..." Remus began nervously, "because...because you have a stain on your jacket!"

"Where?" Sirius asked, glancing down at his tuxedo.

"On the back...right...here..." Remus said as he gently pressed his fingers on Sirius's back, hoping he wouldn't feel the thin jet of orange light that came out of his hand and penetrated Sirius's jacket. Remus frowned. He needed to work on his wandless magic. There on Sirius's jacket, he had managed to put a meager looking stain.

"That's not too bad..." Sirius muttered as he pulled his jacket off to examine the stain. "Well, no matter...I can see Dominique flipping out if she saw it...what with how touchy she's been lately...better get my wand..."

As Sirius turned around and flung his jacket on the couch, Remus quickly scanned the room. He immediately spotted Sirius's wand resting on the kitchen table. Remus quickly pulled out his own wand and whispered "accio..."

The wand fell into his hands, and Sirius turned around just as Remus pulled his hands behind his back.

"Hmm...I could've sworn I left my wand on the table..." Sirius muttered. He turned back around and headed to his room. "Maybe I left it in there..."

Remus sighed with relief as he tucked both wands away inside his jacket.

"What the hell are you playing at??"

Remus turned around, only to be facing James, who was staring at him with suspiciousness that was mingled with anger.

"Prongs! I...I can explain"—

"You had better"—

"I'm trying to distract Sirius, that's all...he can't go to the wedding...not now..."

"Why not?"

"Well"—

"Hey have you guys seen my wand? I can't find it anywhere!" Sirius exclaimed as he came out of his bedroom.

"Nope..." Remus said at once. He watched nervously as Sirius scratched his head while studying his surroundings.

"Maybe it fell somewhere..." he muttered as he got on all fours and began checking under all the furniture in the living room.

James looked at Remus anxiously. 'Well??' he mouthed to him, pointing at Remus's jacket, where he hid Sirius's wand.

Remus motioned for James to come closer. He leaned forward, and as quietly as he could, he whispered to James, "Dominique ran away ..."

"She what??"—Remus clamped a hand over James's mouth and glanced at Sirius, who was already standing up and looking at his friends curiously.

"Er...what are you guys doing??"

"Well, we were—eww!!" Remus pulled his hand away from James's mouth.

"Disgusting!!" he said with a shutter as he ran to the kitchen sink and began to wash his hand.

"What just happened here?" Sirius asked.

"Prongs licked my hand!!" Remus exclaimed.

Sirius looked at James and raised an eyebrow. "There's some leftover chicken in the fridge if you're hungry..." he said warily.

James shrugged. "Moony tastes good..."

"Is there something you two need to tell me? I saw you guys"—

"Oh, that!" James said with a laugh. "see...um...Remus here...he...um...he had told me that uh...the ear....it's uh...it's a sensitive spot"—James glanced back at Remus apologetically, who looked absolutely appalled—"and so...I didn't believe him...and told him to prove it..."

"And so he proved it?" Sirius asked.

"Er yea..." James replied, tugging uncomfortably at his collar as he did so.

"And he clamped a hand over your mouth because why?" Sirius continued.

"Well...Remus...you wouldn't believe it"—James chuckled nervously as he patted Remus on the back—"he's quite talented, you know...we don't give him enough credit...he put his mouth on my ear and...wow...had trouble containing my excitement..."

Remus and Sirius stared at James with revulsion.

"I thought Moony was just telling you a secret, and he covered your mouth to keep you from blurting anything out loud..." Sirius commented.

"Oh...yea..." James muttered, "that probably would've made more sense..."

"You think??" Remus asked sarcastically.

Sirius frowned at Remus, and then at James. "Fess up..."

"Why Padfoot, my dear...I have no idea what you're talking about"—

"Prongs, you're more than welcome to act like a poof with Moony, but don't do that with me"—

"Don't do that with me either!" Remus chimed in. "Really Prongs, even joking like that...that's just not right...it's indecent..."

"What if I wasn't joking?" James asked innocently as he linked his arm with Remus's.

"I'll tell Lily you were hitting on me..."

"Ok, enough nonsense" Sirius interjected with a tone of annoyance in his voice. "You two are acting a bit odd...I mean, odder than the code of marauding usually allows...and what's more, my wand is missing..."

"Well...while we're waiting..." James said as he walked over to the fridge and helped himself to leftover chicken.. "Want some Moony?" he asked as he took a seat next to Remus at the kitchen table. "It's definitely more flavorful than your hand..."

"Er...it's cold..."

"So?"

"That's gross..."

"I like it cold..."

"And I think that's at least a couple of weeks old...Prongs, throw it away, you're going to get sick!"

"Don't talk about the chicken that way...it sacrificed its life for our culinary pleasure...the least you can do is make sure it doesn't go to waste...I mean, otherwise it would've died in vain..."

"How can you talk about the chicken's death while you eat it? That's just sick, Prongs....very sick..."

"Will you two shut up?" Sirius snapped irritably as he opened the oven door and checked inside. "Make yourselves useful and help me find my wand! Damnit, the wedding's in fifteen minutes!! D's gonna kill me!! Ok forget it, let's just go"—

"No!" Remus and James exclaimed in unison.

"Your stain"—James started—"she'll never forgive you for that stain!"

"And she'll refuse to marry me if I stand her up at our own wedding"—

"Sirius, calm down"—Remus cut in—"here, take a seat"—

"Take a seat? Are you guys on smack or something?? I'm getting married in fifteen minutes and you're telling me to"—Sirius stopped in mid-sentence—Remus was leaning back in his chair, the flaps of his open jacket hanging at his sides. In one of the inside pockets, he saw Remus's wand, tucked away with his own wand.

"Er"—

"You...traitor!!"

"Sirius"—Remus fell backwards in his chair as Sirius lunged at him.

"SABOTAGE!!"

"Padfoot!!!" James shouted as he struggled to hold Sirius back. "Don't be stupid"—

"TRYING TO KEEP ME FROM MY OWN WEDDING, IS THAT IT?? SO YOU CAN HAVE DOMINIQUE ALL FOR YOURSELF? I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS"—

"We ARE friends, you numbskull!!" Remus exclaimed as he pulled himself up and out of Sirius's reach. "I don't want Dominique for myself, but I AM trying to keep you from your own wedding!"

Sirius stopped struggling against James's grip. "What?"

Remus sighed and looked at James. "Might as well tell him now..." James nodded in agreement.

"Tell me what?" Sirius asked.

"Dominique's gone..."