8. Thief
Does' lungs burned from exertion and from the frigid air. She had to keep running though. She had to make it.
"Doe!"
"No!" she shouted, jumping off the trail in an attempt to make a shortcut back to the castle.
"Doe, come on, this is mad!"
"No, it's fun!" she said with a laugh.
She stumbled in one the higher snowdrifts, but was able to keep her footing long enough to get a few more paces ahead. The road takes a wide and graceful horseshoe curve, but Doe had simply cut a straight line from point A to point B. Though quite the struggle, she was finally approaching point B, in spite of the snow's attempts to keep her back.
"Dorcas, give them back!"
"Now you've just guaranteed that you won't be getting them back, Lupin!" she called backwards said with a laugh.
She hated her first name. Well, no, that wasn't entirely true. She liked it. 'Dorcas' meant 'gazelle' in Greek, something that served as inspiration and imagery for her dancing. What she hated, what she absolutely loathed, were all the various nicknames others would try to create and give her. 'Dory' was okay. 'Doe' was okay. Calling her 'Dorky' was not okay. 'Dorcas' was forbidden, except to family.
"Dorcas Meadowes!"
"What?"
"Stop being such a brat, and give them back!"
"You know, Remus, that almost rhymed!" she laughed as she managed to scurry up the embankment, finally making it back to the road.
She paused briefly, her hands on her knees so she could catch her breath. Running through practically knee-deep snow was not an easy thing to do.
"Dorcas!" called Remus from entirely too close. Doe looked up and screamed – he was practically within an arm's distance. She'd wasted too much time trying to catch her breath. Perhaps she should have kept to the road after all. Few good things ever came from straying off of one.
She took off again, as fast as her legs could carry her, which was unfortunately not very fast at all. It really didn't help that Remus' legs were longer than her own, giving him what she considered a very unfair advantage.
Case in point, his hands were on her shoulders, forcing her to slow down.
"Come on Doe!"
"Aw, Remus…" she whined, trying to squirm from his grasp. Unfortunately, though, she had been a little to close to another embankment, and began pitching backwards, sending them both tumbling down the hill in a flurry of shouts, and kicked-up snow.
Dorcas opened her eyes, her nose wrinkled against the cold that covered her face and saw a pair of light eyes hovering above hers.
"You know, Dorcas, thievery is not tolerated at Hogwarts," said Remus with a smirk on his face.
"Then it's a good thing we're not in the castle right now, Lupin," she responded.
A rough pair of chilled hands brushed over her face, carefully wiping away the ice and snow.
"You okay?" he asked quietly, his face just inches from hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her face and still smell the peppermint hot cocoa they'd had back in Hogsmeade.
"Yeah, the snow padded the fall…" she gasped out. Her stomach was full of fluttering butterflies and her heart was racing in her chest.
He was just so close. She could almost taste the hot cocoa on his breath. She could almost feel the heat from his mouth mingling with her own, his hands on her face, maybe slipping under her jumper and caressing her skin…
"Good," he said pulling her from her thoughts. There was a smile crossing his face, almost mischievous. "I'll be taking what's mine, then."
"What'll you give me in return?" she asked coyly, batting her eyelashes at him.
"Well…" he said, clearly thinking hard. "I… I suppose you… could have part of one…" he trailed.
Does' face fell. She really shouldn't have been that surprised by his offer. He was always at least an arm's length away. A lot had changed in the past year, but perhaps that was something that never would.
"Chocolate," she said unemotionally.
"Hey, only the best chocolate in the world!" he protested.
Doe squirmed underneath him, digging in her pocket until she produced five large bars of chocolate and held them between their faces. It wasn't his fault; she shouldn't take it out on him. She was annoyed with herself. She had gotten her hopes up… again. Just because they had spent a few hours together in Hogsmeade didn't mean anything special. Friends spent whole days in the village together without it meaning anything. Just because he was finally calling her by a nickname didn't mean he was actually letting her in.
"Take them, you prat," she grumbled.
"I was only teasing."
Remus' hand lightly pushed her hand and the chocolate from between their faces. Her eyes met his and held firm, her heart still racing in her chest. Her mind, however, had gone blank and her face was one of shock. Before any of that could change, his lips pressed against hers, dry and rough from the elements.
No first kiss is perfect – one or the other would move at the wrong time, their teeth clicked on more than one occasion, she might be prepared for a small peck whereas he was going for open-mouthed… all sorts of mishaps that were common in first kisses happened to them.
It was awkward, and a little embarrassing, but to her it was perfect. It was everything she had ever wanted – even before she knew she wanted it – ever since she had first set eyes on him at the Sorting.
"Now, what do we say?" he teased quietly as his nose brushed against hers.
"If that's your idea of punishment, then I should act out more often," she replied with a grin as she leaned upwards, pressing her lips to his once more.