"My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you."

Oscar Wilde The Importance Of Being Earnest

Where You Belong

Chapter 13

Rescue me
Oh take me in your arms
Rescue me
I want your tender charms
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too

Come on and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
'Coz I need you, by my side
Can't you see that I'm lonely
Rescue me

Come on and take my heart
Take your love and conquer every part
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too

Come on and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
Come on baby and rescue me
'Coz I need you by my side
Can't you see that I'm lonely

Rescue me
Oh take me in your arms
Rescue me
I want your tender charms
'Coz I'm lonely and I'm blue
I need you and your love too
Come on and rescue me
Come on baby, take me baby, hold me baby, love me baby
Can't you see that I need you baby
Can't you see that I'm lonely
Rescue me

Come on and take my hand
Come on baby and be my man
Cuz I love you cuz I want you
Can't you see that I'm lonely?
take me baby
love me baby
need me baby
Can't you see that I'm lonely?

rescue me, rescue me...

The rest of the Christmas Holidays passed in relaxed fun, with the boy's busy thinking up new pranks to play and the girls gossiping and getting to know each other. Snowball fights amongst the group became an almost daily ritual. Andrea also spent a fair amount of time in the library doing her work and tutoring a Ravenclaw, Andrew Davies, in Potions.

Classes had started back up two weeks ago and true to her word Andrea went to Dumbledore a week after classes resumed to talk to him about her memories. Dumbledore told her that it was normal for people who went through a traumatic event to lose some recollection of what had happened but promised to look into it anyway.

Andrea was sitting in the Library working on her Charms essay waiting for Lily and Remus to show up, when Andrew Davies approached her from across the library.

"Oh hey Andrew how'd you do on that essay?" Andrea asked.

"I got an O thanks to your amazing teaching I surely would have failed if it weren't for you," Andrew said as he came to stand right next to Andrea.

"Well I'm glad you did well on the essay but you're giving me way too much credit. All I did was help to fix a few errors here and there," Andrea replied blushing slightly from all the compliments Andrew was giving her.

"Well I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to Hogsmead this weekend so that I may pay you back for all your help."

"As in a date," Andrea translated.

"Well yes I was hoping that if all went well on this date that maybe we could …go on others…and be a …couple," Andrew said getting shy at the end.

"Oh I'm so sorry Andrew but I can't…"Andrea began

"Ok well maybe next Hogsmead weekend."

"No I mean I can't go out with you because I'm already dating someone. Look I'm really sorry if I ever gave off the impression that I liked or wanted you as anything beyond friends," Andrea said hoping that Andrew wouldn't stick around to ask too many questions.

"You're dating someone?"

"Yes."

"Who?"

"Remus."

"Lupin?"

"Yes Davies can I help you with something?" Remus asked as he came up behind Andrew.

"No I was just chatting to your girlfriend here about potions but I'm done so I'll be going now," Andrew said as he abruptly turned around and left the library. Remus and Lily were left to stare at Andrea waiting for answers.

"Since when were you two going out?" Lily questioned.

"Since like two minutes ago," Andrea meekly replied.

"When was I going to be informed about this little development?" Remus asked.

"I'm so sorry Rem it's just that Andrew asked me out and I'm not interested in him at all but I knew if I told him no that he would continue to ask me so I did the next best thing and old him that we were dating so that he would leave me alone. I was really hoping that he would leave so I could talk to you about acting as my boyfriend first. We can break up if you'd like," Andrea explained.

"Nah it's cool I've heard what a jerk Davies can be and besides if we broke up your little plan to get him to leave you alone wouldn't work now would it?" Remus said.

"Aww Remmy you're the best! Thank you soooo much!" Andrea practically squealed as she jumped up and enveloped Remus in a hug.

"So as your 'boyfriend' I guess I need to know how long we've been going out and who we should tell about the truth of the situation."

"Ok well lets say that we got together during the Christmas holidays seeing as we were denying anything before break and I guess you should tell the other guys so that they don't try to question anything," Andrea answered.

"Ok well now that the two love birds have gotten their love lives straightened out do you think we can get some work done?" Lily asked with a knowing smile spread across her face.

The three settled down at the table to get started on their work. Remus sat next to Andrea instead of across from her like he normally did and put his arm around her as he began to read his Transfiguration text.

"Rem, what are you doing?" Andrea quietly asked.
"Well I figure since we're supposed to be a couple we may as well act as a couple," Remus replied never once taking his eyes off his book.

"Oh ok," Andrea said as she settled into Remus' embrace and got back to her Charms essay.

The trio finished up their work for the day and packed up their things so that they could head down to dinner. Andrea was done packing up first and began to lead the group out of the library. Andrea paused momentarily as she felt Remus' slightly larger and calloused hand enclose around hers.

"Don't run off on me like that silly we need to stick together to make an entrance," Remus whispered as kids passed them.

"Sorry I guess I forgot again. It's just that I'm so used to doing things on my own, this is defiantly going to take some getting used to," Andrea said as she shook her head. Lily laughed quietly as she fell into step on Andrea's right.

"You two are so cute. If I didn't know any better I'd say you really were a couple," Lily said. "Hey Rem what are you going to tell the guys?"

"Shit we can't explain anything to them until we get back to our dorm but I'll try to hint at what's really going on."

"Well it shouldn't really be all that hard for this one meal since we always sit together and I usually rest my head on your shoulder and stuff so they probably won't notice anything different," Andrea replied as they turned the corner and faced the doors to the Great Hall.

The trio entered the hall in a line with Andrea and Remus still holding hands and Lily joking around. They headed straight to the Gryffindor table and took their regular seats oblivious of the commotion they just brought about. Sirius who was sitting across from Andrea and Remus noticed that it looked like the two were still holding hands under the table.

"Ah Remus…" James began.

"Later guys," Remus interrupted.

"What do you mean later, what the hell is going on?" Sirius said through gritted teeth.

"Too many ears right now, in the dorm after dinner I'll tell you ok?"

"Fine we'll wait till after dinner," James responded.

After dinner the six Gryffindors ran up to the tower and up to the boys dorms. They all settled on various beds around the room and everyone turned to Remus and Andrea who were sitting awfully close on Remus' bed.

"Alright what the hell is going on here?" Sirius asked.

"Well Siri, guys I'm sort of dating Andrea," Remus said.

"What do you mean you're 'sort of' dating Taylor?"

For the next half hour or so Andrea and Remus explained what was going on to the other Marauders. About halfway through the explanation Lily left to do something 'productive' as she said. After the explanation was through Andrea left to give the guys some time to digest what they had learned and to talk about it amongst themselves.

Andrea was coming back from talking about the newest project in Transfiguration with McGonagall when she ran into Sirius outside the portrait to the common room.

"Sorry Black didn't see you there," Andrea apologized. "Could you please move so that I can get in?"
"No."

"Why not?"

"Taylor we need to talk," Sirius stated before Andrea could get around him and into the common room.

"Fine what did you want to talk about?"

"Look I don't know what you did to trick Remus into doing this little lie of yours but I'm not going to blindly trust you like everyone else around here does," Sirius said pointing his finger in Andrea's face. "I don't care how much Remus tells me how much like the rest of us you are I won't believe it because you have too many secrets and I don't trust you. I may tolerate you to keep Remus happy but I don't like you."

"Look Black I didn't trick Remus into doing anything. I gave him a chance to back out of this hair-brained idea, he wanted to help me. So why don't you shut up and take your accusations to someone who cares," Andrea spitefully said.

"Yeah you took advantage of the fact that Remus wouldn't say no to someone who needed his help. You know he won't stop pretending until you do and I don't like you in control of one of my best friends. So here's my advice…leave Remus alone!"

"Look Black Remus is my friend as well as yours and I'm not out to hurt him or whatever other crazy idea you have me doing in that twisted mind of yours."

"Yeah sure like I'm going to believe you."

"Alright Black I know and understand that you don't like me but what the hell did I ever do to you to warrant you being such an ass hu? What did I ever do to you?" Andrea questioned as she stared into the grey-blue eyes that were staring her down. Sirius took a breath and paused before venomously spitting out "You existed."

Once the words left Sirius' mouth he turned and entered the common room. Andrea just stood there for a few seconds before turning away from the portrait hole, the last place she wanted to be right now was anywhere near Sirius Black.

Remus heard the portrait hole open and shut and looked up to see who entered the common room only to see Sirius scanning the common room before heading over to James. He had hoped that it was Andrea coming back from wherever it was she had wondered off to. Remus followed Sirius with his eyes for a bit before returning to the book he was reading. Andrea had been gone for quite a while and part of Remus wanted to go looking for her but he knew that she was more then capable of taking care of herself.

A half hour later the portrait hole opened again but this time Remus didn't look up, instead he continued reading his book. In fact Remus was so into his book that he didn't notice the impatient red head standing in front of him until she poked him in the shoulder.

"Ow…Lily was that necessary?" Remus asked.

"Well I had to get your attention some how," Lily retorted.

"Ok you've got my attention so what's up?"

"I passed Andrea in my way up here she looked upset and didn't even acknowledge me when I passed her."

"So?"

"God you're as clueless at this as she is. As her boyfriend you should probably go look for her and find out what's wrong."
"Oh yea," Remus sheepishly said as he averted his eyes only to have them land on James and Sirius across the room. "Oh shit."

"What?" Lily asked concern lacing her voice.

"I think I know what's wrong with Andrea," Remus stated. With that Remus quickly left the common room without explaining anything to Lily and began a hasty search to find Andrea.

After checking all of Andrea's haunts inside the castle he slipped out the front doors and out onto the grounds. He let his feet guide him to the lake where he stood looking at its glassy surface almost as if he wished it would tell him where Andrea was. After just standing there for about five minutes Remus decided to resume his search. He was about to head back inside the castle when a sudden movement on a large bolder on the other side of the lake. Cautiously he made his way around the lake and closer to the boulder. As he drew closer he realized that it was Andrea sitting on top of the boulder which he found to be odd seeing as this side of the lake bordered the forest and Andrea, for some reason or another, hated the forest.

"Andrea?" Remus called out.

Andrea made no movement to show that she heard his call but he was sure it was her the closer he got. Finally he was standing right behind her and still she made no signal that she knew he was there. Andrea sat on top of the boulder with her legs pulled close to her chest and her head resting upon her knees as she stared unseeingly out at the lake. Remus took one look at her face and a part of his heart broke. He knew as hard as she fought it the Sirius had something that had really upset her. So Remus did the only thing he could to help her, he stood right behind her and wrapped his arms around her resting his head on top of hers.

Andrea sat on the big boulder by the lake convinced that she was now as far away from the castle and Sirius Black as she could get. She brought her legs up and rested her chin on her knees as Sirius' words replayed over and over again. As much as Andrea hated to admit it his last words had really stung her and now she was trying very hard to get rid of the feeling. She had no idea how long she had sat out there she was so lost in her thoughts that she really didn't care. She was more then a little startled when she suddenly felt to warm arms embrace her but she instantly realized that it was Remus and relaxed in his arms.

Neither said anything as they stayed there staring out at the placid lake. The giant squid so the surface stayed undisturbed. The couple sat there for quite a while both minds wandering as they enjoyed each others warmth, and neither one really wanting to leave the comforting spot they found in each other.