"What are you doing?" Emma whispered trying to fathom why this werewolf was currently climbing into her bunk late in the night. It was probably sometime between 12 and dawn.

Need you was all he grunted before he pinned her down with kisses along her collarbone, to which she immediately responded. She whimpered as he brought a hand up to her chest and squeezed through her shirt before tugging it up.

Of course, she realised. The full moon was tomorrow.

"They're right outside," she arched into him, giving him her undivided attention. She ground herself against his hips as they continued to kiss. Even on the top bunk, they both had to lay low so he adjusted himself a little better next to her. Discretion was their best friend.

"Busy keeping watch. They won't notice," he said. Tonks was back for the week with her updates and currently outside keeping guard with Sirius.

He slipped his hand between them to cup her only and make her whimper in response. Capturing her in a searing kiss, they both continued to rid each other of their bottoms before Remus gripped her hips and pressed his obvious need against her.

"We can't put a silencing charm in case they call for help," she reminded him as she went to suck on his earlobe making him close his eyes and take a deep breath. He still had to make sure he didn't lose complete control so close to the full moon. Her touch did crazy things to him.

"I can be quiet," he finally positioned himself at her entrance. He pushed in and they rocked quietly, fast, clinging on to each other desperately. Both on their sides, his fingers dug into her hips and she brought her hand to his face as Remus looked at her from the little light that entered the tent. Here in his arms, she was his. Her eyes were closed in concentration as she approached her climax and Remus' pride swelled at the expressions he and only he made her bring out.

But he knew this would be gone in the morning and she would throw on her distant charade once more when they woke up. The charade he had made her accept.

Once again he focused on her only to see that she had opened her eyes and was staring back at him. Without faltering the pace, he cupped her face and rested his forehead against his. Her eyes softened and he saw her whisper Remus making him increase his pace before they both finally released.

Mine, he thought and gently pulled her in for a kiss.

Yours. She didn't say it out loud. But her eyes said as much.

In the morning, she would refuse to acknowledge him and he knew that. So he did the next best thing. Remus sighed and he held her for a few moments prolonging their unspoken comfort.

ϟ

"We need to talk." He said the moment she exited the tent next morning late in the day. Their nightly escapades since the forest a few months back had been taking a little toll on her sleep. But no one told her otherwise when she pulled a few extra hours of sleep here and there. Remus was more than happy to play the doting boyfriend and not wake her up in the mornings.

Play being the keyword because this is what they were doing.

Playing pretend.

"About?" Emma had been feeling feverish since she had woken up. She wasn't ready for the seriousness she had sensed in his tone.

"Last night."

"Just one of many. What about it?"

"Emma.."

"Look, don't Emma me Remus. I get it you were raging hormones. And so was I. So we fucked." He winced at the crassness of her words. Her face didn't betray any emotions otherwise and Remus felt his heart drop.

"We were both consenting adults and it was just that, okay? A good lay. I don't want you to make a big deal of it."

"But I want you to understand that- that.." he faltered. He was trying to plead that he didn't just want her to warm his bed or the other way around. He had spent the last few months once again trying to get her to talk to him- to open up. But unless it was at night in bed like it had been a few times or against a tree in the middle of the woods, she didn't give him the time of the day.

He didn't want him holding her only when it was in the middle of their lovemaking. Which is exactly what he told her.

"Lovemaking?" she laughed haughtily. It had that hollow element to it that made Remus stop and store. "You made it pretty clear it was anything but that last May," she reminded him. He looked guilty.

"And what if I said that was me lying."

"Then you're a really good liar..and I'm even more of a fool for thinking I knew you even back then."

Resigned Remus walked off to finish his morning chores.

ϟ

"That was harsh," she heard Sirius' behind her. "You don't get a say in this, Sirius"

Sirius shook his head. He had seen the werewolf going crazy for her these past few weeks. Their occasional nightly routines weren't a secret. Although Remus was almost back to his old self, he still wasn't the same with Emma keeping him at arm's length. Sirius couldn't even play the Devil's Advocate given how much he had seen Emma hurt all those months before.

"When it includes trying to ignore the sounds of the two of you going at it like rabbits in the middle of the night, it does," his reply was chirpy as ever. She gave him a pointed look. "He wants you back. Not just physically."

Not now. She couldn't do this right now. Her body might give in to him every time, her heart may still belong to him as well…but her mind… she wasn't ready to go there yet.

"I'm scared"

"Yeah, no shit. I got that"

"He hurt me, Padfoot"

Sirius sighed and sat down next to her. He could sense something more was off. While she had kept Remus at a distance the past few months since they started this odd arrangement, she had never gone out of her way to be downright nasty to him. She wasn't a tit for tat kind of person- to hurt him just to be petty.

Feeling the weight of everything crashing down on her she slumped against Sirius and rested her head against on his shoulder. Other than Remus, he was the one person she could talk to about almost everything.

Almost.

So instead she listened to Sirius soften her up to Remus' advances like the best man he proclaimed he would be at their wedding while she threw him wry looks and a hidden smile. Sirius stopped talking when he felt how warm she was next to him and cupped her face.

Just as Remus was returning from the nearest town where he had scoured for the latest paper, he stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. Emma hummed softly with her head on Sirius' shoulder as he spoke to her softly drawing out a tired smile from her. Remus gripped the newspaper in his hand almost crumpling it when he saw him caress her face.

"Moony just in time my man," Sirius perked up when he saw his friend make an appearance. Emma lifted her head to look at him but didn't say a word when he glared at them both.

"What?" It was his turn to seethe now. "Could you come look at her? She's burning up," almost instantly he faltered harshness in his voice and was by her in a jiffy. With Sirius standing up, Remus took the vacated seat and brought a hand up to her temple. He pursed his lips at how warm she was. It hadn't been like this the night before.

"Is Tonks still sleeping? We could ask her to bring back some stuff from the town. I would have on my way back if I'd known.."

Emma didn't say anything when he lifted her in his arms to bring her inside. A little hazy, she wound her arms around his neck, doing a complete 180 from her behaviour a short while back.

Remus looked at his friend questioningly. Sirius gave him a reassuring smile.

The werewolf was about to turn and head back in when he stopped mid-step. He thought he had picked up the slightest sound when a shrill Stupefy sounded through the forest barely missing Sirius. In a flash, he put Emma down who also scrambled to straighten herself. They had their wands out almost instantly. For a moment nothing else happened as they looked around.

5 dingy-looking Snatchers emerged from behind the trees slowly. At 5-3 (4 if you counted a sleeping Tonks inside) they were outnumbered.

"Think 'sat 'em?" one of them asked his crew loudly, eyeing the three Order members.

"I reckon. That one looks like the bloke Fenrir told us about. All scratched up in the face," said another one making Remus grip his wand tighter. Emma instinctively held him back.

"My my. What a pretty little thing we have here," the shorted nastier looking one stepped forward toying with his wand as he looked over Emma with a nasty glint in his eye. "Make that two pretty things Tony," called out the only witch among the Snatcher as Tonks' light brown hair appeared.

But with her Auror training she had the first person unconscious on the ground before she even fully exited the tent.

This set off the next chain of events as everyone now jumped to dueling and shooting spells at each other. In the middle of all the chaos, the tent caught on fire at one point. Pent up anger in Remus' body unleashed as he threw counter curses next to Emma while she kept dodging spells barely.

Sirius was back to back with Tonks doing the same.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Emma take a hit in her weakened state. Distracted he turned to rush to her before he was thrown to the ground forward on his face by a spell that hit him in the back.

Too dizzy to comprehend her movements anymore Emma felt herself being lifted. But it wasn't the comforting arms of Remus. This was rough and she felt like a sack of potatoes being manhandled.

"EMMA!"

The sight of him grasping for her as two Snatchers held him back pinned to the ground was the last thing she saw. She remembered seeing his dejected face, as the horror dawned upon him before she let the blackness consume her.

ϟ

A/N: I'm back. I was in the middle of a writing frenzy for an upcoming original fiction so I was a little distracted on this. But the inspiration for this finally hit me yesterday so here we are. Also, I was a little bummed from the ending of Dark Season 3 (although I totally recommend that show).