A/N: FINALLY DONE. :P

To Be Like You

Chapter Three: To Be a Slytherin

Emma glanced down at her watch. It was a minute past six o'clock and there were only five students sitting in front of her. Mainly her fellow Slytherins and some Ravenclaws. She let out a small sigh. She knew gobstones was a popular enough club and several more students were bound to show up a little late. But she wasn't in the mood to accommodate late-comers. She had written specifically on the flyers that the Gobstones Club meeting would be starting at six o'clock sharp. Apparently 'sharp' bore little relevancy to the likes of Grffindors and Hufflepuffs. The former lived under the illusion that the world revolved around their watches, and the latter didn't even seem to live by a watch.

Glancing once more at her watch, which to her dismay read 6:02, Emma decided to just start the meeting. She stood up and circled her desk so as to stand in front of it. She had already begun to open her mouth to welcome everyone and thank them for taking time out to attend the meeting, but as the classroom door swung open, she felt herself freeze.

Jeremiah McReynold, a fourth year Hufflepuff, had entered. He was a tall, gangly-looking boy with messy blond hair.

"Er…sorry I'm late." He muttered, glancing around the room for an empty seat.

But Emma didn't acknowledge his presence or his apology. She hadn't really noticed it, actually, because in swinging the door wide open, Jeremiah had given Emma a clear view of the corridor that led to the classroom they were in. And right past Jeremiah, still in the corridor, was Peter Pettigrew, who was heading in their direction. He had asked her about the meeting a few days ago because he was interested. But the reason Emma was concerned with Peter's arrival was not because he was excellent at gobstones so much as it was because Remus was walking right next to Peter.

She didn't know Remus liked gobstones. She didn't know him to enjoy any sort of recreation apart from reading. Yet there he was, walking and talking with Peter. Emma felt her heart race. She was going to have to lead the meeting with Remus in the room? Sure, it was only half a dozen of her peers and it was all very informal, but still. She never really talked in front of Remus, as much as she wanted to. It just didn't seem sensible to make a fool of herself in front of a guy that she really liked. And now he was coming to her meeting. He was going to play gobstones with them. Emma felt herself panic. What if she didn't play well enough and he thought her a complete idiot? Better yet, what if he and Peter arrived at 6:03 and she was still standing there in front of her desk, staring at them in a deep panic? Surely her fellow students would question her sanity and decide to impeach her and give the presidency to a mellower student, like Peter. Or Remus. Oh, that would be humiliating…

Remus felt the knot in his stomach tighten as he and Peter turned a corner and began heading down another corridor. The corridor that lead to the classroom where the gobstones club meeting was taking place.

"Listen, Wormtail—"

"Moony, no!" Peter cut him off, glancing sideways at Remus. "You said you'd come, and we're just about there. Anyway, I don't know why you're so afraid of Emma. Padfoot and Prongs aren't."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, Padfoot and Prongs streaked across the quidditch pitch during the Ravenclaw-Slytherin match last month while singing the school song. Do you really want them to be my role models? Anyway, you're afraid of Emma…"

"Only because she's a Slytherin and because she reminds me a little of McGonagall." Peter replied.

"Oh, thanks." Replied Remus sarcastically. "Wonderful to know that I like someone who vaguely resembles the head of our house."

Peter smiled. "But you like McGonagall, and she likes you too."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, but she's in her fifties and the affinity is strictly that of a student respecting his teacher and vice-versa…so you can see why comparing Emma to her is a bit unsettling for me."

"They don't look alike or anything." Peter explained, "They just…I don't know. They have similar manners, I guess. They're both really strict."

Remus laughed. "I love that you think Emma's strict. She's not an authority figure or anything."

Peter made a face at Remus. "Well, she is president of the gobstones club, and she can be very authoritative about it. I mean, she doesn't scold people or anything, but if you come late or do anything to annoy her she'll glare at you and make you feel about two inches tall."

"It's so weird to think of her as someone who intimidates." Remus replied. "She's always so quiet in class…and so nice to everyone."

Peter grinned. "Like you?"

Remus glanced at Peter quickly. "What?"

"You're like that too, you know." Peter replied, still grinning. "You're quiet and nice to everyone, but at the same time you can be authoritative."

Remus rolled his eyes at him. "What are you talking about? I do not wield that sort of power."

"You're a prefect though."

"So? I don't exert much authority with that. I help the first years get around. I'll occasionally step in if others are getting out of line, though I honestly don't do it as often as I should." He added as an afterthought, thinking of Sirius and James.

Peter's smile faltered a little. "Well, you have step in sometimes when Padfoot and Prongs get out of line, and you do a good job making them feel guilty."

"Again, not as often as I should." Remus repeated.

Peter rolled his eyes as the classroom where the gobstones club meeting would be held came into view. "My point is that you and Emma are kind of alike, so I can see why you fancy her."

"Point taken." Remus replied grumpily. A boy named Jeremiah McReynold ran past them, muttering something about being late for the meeting. Remus and Peter watched as Jeremiah reached the classroom at the end of the hall and swung the door open.

"Sorry I'm late!" he said apologetically as he hurried into the classroom.

"We better hurry too," Peter said, picking up his pace. "Otherwise Emma will…"

But Remus never heard what Peter thought Emma would do if they were late, because the door to the classroom was still wide open, and Remus had a clear view of Emma in the distance, leaning in front of the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom.

She glanced up, and looked straight at them.

"I changed my mind."

Peter stopped walking, and glanced back when he realized that Remus had stopped walking a few paces behind him. He was frozen to his spot, staring at the floor.

"What?" Peter said, glancing at Remus, and then back at the classroom. He saw Emma's figure and turned back to Remus, sighing a little. "Oh, come off it, Moony."

Remus glanced up anxiously at Peter. "I can't. I can't go in there."

"Moony!" Peter started loudly, but dropped his voice when Remus gave him a sharp warning look. "Moony," he started again quietly, "you can go in there."

"I'll look like an idiot, Wormy." Remus said quickly, taking a step back. "I'll make a fool of myself."

Peter rolled his eyes. "In all the years I've known you, you've never made a fool of yourself or have looked even remotely idiotic. You're too smart to be idiotic."

"But she's smarter than me," Remus muttered, "Emma…she's….well, she's probably loads better than me at gobstones. I'll look like a fool in front of her."

"Moony, I'm sorry, but you're insane—"

Remus glanced up towards the classroom and saw that Emma had looked up again at them. "Insanity's a daily staple at Hogwarts though." He said quickly as he turned to leave. "See you, Wormy!"

And without waiting for a goodbye from Peter, Remus hurried back to the Gryffindor common room, feeling thoroughly embarrassed at his cowardice, guilty for abandoning Peter who probably wouldn't be altogether offended anyway, and painfully aware of the torment he was to face from his friends for being a disgrace to the name of Gryffindor.

Emma had decided to start the meeting in spite of the fact that Peter and Remus were standing about twenty feet from the classroom she was in, and began to address her classmates when Jeremiah McReynold took a seat at a desk in the back of the room.

"Hi everyone, thanks for coming tonight. Just to make sure everyone's in the right place, this is the Gobstone Club's first official meeting this term. I'm Emma Goodrich, the current president of the club…"

She glanced past everyone to observe Remus and Peter as she continued to speak…

"I see that we've got people from different years and different houses, so I think the first thing we should do is go around the room and introduce ourselves…"

…Remus and Peter had stopped walking. They seemed to be having some sort of argument. Or a small disagreement, as it didn't look particularly heated…

"…Just tell us your name, year, house, and why you decided to attend tonight's meeting if you're new, or maybe a little bit about your background in gobstones…."

Remus had glanced in her direction a few times while talking with Peter. Or in the general direction of the classroom, perhaps. He looked rather upset…

Again, my name is Emma. I'm a sixth year Slytherin. I actually grew up on gobstones as a kid, and I've always been fond of it. I played in a few tournaments over the summer on Diagon Alley, and ended up winning the championship a couple of summers ago…"

…She watched as Remus turned around and hurried away in the opposite direction, until his figure disappeared behind a corner. Peter stood rooted to his spot, but after a few moments he shrugged and continued on his way to the classroom. Forcing herself to bring her unhappy gaze back to the students in front of her, she compelled herself to smile.

She turned to a young student in her own house who was sitting in the front row. "Why don't you go ahead and start? Tell us about yourself."

The young boy glanced around nervously, and introduced himself as Gary Eastham, a first year Slytherin. He briefly explained his affinity to gobstones, but Emma didn't really take any of it in. Peter had just walked into the classroom alone and had taken a seat in the back of the room, giving Emma a quick, slightly nervous-looking smile. A part of her wanted to end the meeting then and there, just so she could approach Peter to ask him why Remus had abruptly left him, but of course she knew she would do no such thing; she wasn't really the confrontational sort. Especially when it came to confronting people who were closely connected to Remus Lupin.

"Oi…"

Remus was watching as McGonagall handed back last week's essays back, only vaguely aware of Sirius's jabbing him in the back with the tip of his quill. McGonagall had just handed back Emma's essay to her; Remus drew air and watched for her reaction. Emma smiled slightly as she glanced down her sheet of parchment. She had done well, it seemed. Probably an O, Remus thought as he sighed a little and leaned back in his chair. He himself had gotten an O on the essay and was hoping she had gotten the same. There was always some sort of inexplicable satisfaction to be had when he thought he and Emma were doing equally well in a subject.

"Oi!" came Sirius's whisper, louder this time.

Remus jumped slightly in his seat, and craning his neck ever so slightly to face Sirius, hissing back, "What?"

"Checking to see how your girlfriend did on her essay?" he asked quietly, grinning.

Remus glared at him. "Piss off, Padfoot." He turned back around to face the front, sinking slightly in his seat, his cheeks burning with embarrassment at being caught by Sirius.

"Oi, Prongs," came Sirius's whisper—he had obviously turned around in his seat to share something with James—"Moony told me to piss off!"

James' sniggered. "You're joking."

"No, I'm as serious as my name! He said 'Piss off, Padfoot.' Blimey, he's really growing up, isn't he?" Sirius said in continued whispered tones.

"I'm so proud of him." Remus heard James whisper back. "Tell him if he keeps this behavior up, we'll reward him with a talk about the birds and the bees."

Remus made to turn around to tell both of his friends to stop talking about him, but froze in his seat when he saw the figure of Professor McGonagall standing between his and Sirius's desk, glowering at the three of them. In the corner of his eye he could see Peter watching on with mingled interest and relief, probably at not being taken down by Sirius and James for once.

"There will be no discussing of birds and bees in my classroom, Mr. Black, unless it pertains to zoological transfigurations. Do I make myself clear?" McGonagall snapped.

There was scattered laughter, and Remus felt his stomach do a back flip when he heard Emma's laughter amongst the other students.

"Yes, ma'am. I understand. I'm sorry." Sirius replied in an unabashed tone. Though Remus could not see him, he was almost certain that Sirius was grinning charmingly at Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall, of course being McGonagall, did not seem to react to Sirius's charms. She merely turned on her heel and headed back to the front of the classroom in her usual brusque manner.

"Now, I want to use the remaining minutes of class to assign partners for your transfiguration projects—"

Remus heard James groan two seats behind him. "Aw, Professor! Can't we choose our own partners?" he whined.

"Silence, Potter." McGonagall replied, frowning in the general direction of the marauders. "You're a fool if you think I'm going to let you work with one of your friends. No, Mr. Potter. You will be working with Ms. Mayfield."

A brunette sitting in the front of the room turned slightly in her chair to see James. Remus could tell that she was blushing profusely.

"Mr. Pettigrew, you'll be with Ms. Evans"—and ignoring James' very loud groan of "No fair!" McGonagall continued—"Mr. Lupin, you'll work with Ms. Goodrich. Mr. Snape with Mr. Ellison…"

Remus felt his stomach do another back flip as he struggled to refocus his gaze on Emma. She had wheeled around in her seat to look at him. She smiled slightly, nodded in acknowledgement that they would be partners, and turned back around and began packing her things. He would be working with Emma on his transfiguration project. Hours in the library together. Studying, talking, writing. His stomach was doing a series of summersaults now. He was never one for gymnastics.

He noticed Emma zipping up her bag, and Remus immediately got out of his own seat to begin packing his books, praying that she didn't notice him frozen to his seat, unable to move for shock at being partnered up with her.

"Well, well, well." Remus heard Sirius say as he leant forward to grab his book bag. "Moony, Moony, Moony."

As Remus stood up he saw Sirius, James, and Peter lined up together, grinning knowingly at him. He felt himself blushing. "Don't even—"

"Er…Remus?"

Remus had whirled around so quickly at the sound of his name that the strap of his book bag slipped off his shoulder, causing his bag to wheel around with him and ricochet off the person who had been previously standing behind him.

"Oh!"

Remus stared in horror when he saw that the weight of his bag had knocked Emma backwards. She fell against Remus's desk.

Ignoring James' laugh-turned-cough, Remus pulled Emma up. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bang you like that—"

James and Sirius burst into laughter. Peter snorted.

"My bag!" Remus said quickly, glancing briefly at his friends to glare at them. "I didn't mean for it to bang into you like that. Sorry."

Emma smiled slightly as she steadied herself. "It's alright. I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that. I just wanted to know where and when you'd like to meet up to work on our project."

"Oh! Er…well, are you free tonight? We can meet up after dinner and go to the library if you'd like. 7:30?" Remus suggested, wishing his friends would take their things and go on to potions without him.

"Alright. That works for me." Emma replied. "I'll see you after dinner then."

Remus watched as Emma turned to leave. He forced a smile at her when she glanced over her shoulder to say bye, waited for her to leave, and then turned on his friends.

"You could've just gone on to potions without me, you know." He said, folding his arms over his chest as he frowned at his friends.

Sirius laughed. "And miss hearing you apologize to Goodrich for banging her? Are you kidding?"

Remus glared at him as James and Peter fell into laughter once more. "I was nervous."

James stopped laughing long enough to pat Remus on the back and reply, "Ah. Well, that explains the bad banging. No worries though, mate. I'm sure you'll get it right next time."

"And you know what," Sirius said, coming forward and putting an arm around Remus, "there's a cozy little alcove on the second floor of the library, near the Magical Creatures section that's a surprisingly comfortable and private place for shagging."

Remus slapped Sirius' hand off his shoulder. "I'm so lucky to have understanding friends like you guys, aren't I?"

Peter grinned. "We're only pulling your leg, Moony. Relax."

Sirius cocked an eyebrow at him as the four boys headed out of the classroom. "What are you talking about? I wasn't kidding about the alcove! It's the perfect place! Madam Pince never checks there…"

And as Sirius continued to explain the best ways to shag in the library without getting caught, Remus listened on with mild interest, knowing full well that Sirius's tips would prove to be utterly useless to him. Apart from not being very keen on showing affections to a girl he fancied within a fifty foot range of Madam Pince, Remus was certain he would never be put in a position where Sirius's sermon on groping women could be applied.

Emma tapped her quill lightly against her transfiguration book that rested on the table. She glanced at her watch. It was 7:32. She had been waiting in the library for exactly seven minutes. Fighting the sickening feelings of her stomach going into a knot, Emma glanced around her space, wondering if she had been too quick to leave the Sytherin table after dinner. Perhaps she should have looked for Remus in the great hall before setting out for the library. He was probably still down there eating his dinner at a leisure pace like a normal person. Emma, by contrast, had taken only five minutes with her dinner—though in those five minutes she only managed to take about three bites of her baked potato and a sip of her pumpkin juice before deciding to get up to go to the library. Anyway, the less food in her, the better. Less to throw up in front of Remus should the situation rise.

It was now 7:33, and Emma was having second thoughts about her three-bite dinner. Her stomach made a vicious rumbling noise, and after glancing around to make sure no one was in the vicinity to hear it, Emma leaned back in her chair and sighed, hugging her stomach tightly to curb the hunger pangs. She should've eaten more. She was going to kill herself if her stomach rumbled like that in front of Remus—that is, if he ever showed up.

"Er—hi, Emma."

Emma glanced up quickly, her arms falling down to her sides. She felt her hunger subside as she smiled and said hello to Remus.

"Sorry I'm a little late," he said as he took a seat across from her, dumping his book bag on the table, "I got held up by Filch."

She frowned at first, immediately concerned with Filch harassing Remus, Gryffindor prefect, model student to all. But then she saw the mingled look of exasperation and amusement on his face, and she felt her own countenance soften. "What happened?" she asked.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Someone transfigured Mrs. Norris's tail into a licorice wand."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "How do you know it's a licorice wand and not just licorice? They look alike."

Remus smiled wryly. "Her tail was shooting out sparks of light."

"Ah."

"Yeah. Anyway, Filch accused me of doing it." Remus said nonchalantly as he began unpacking his bag and stacking his textbooks on the library table. "It took some time for me to convince him that neither I nor any of my friends had anything to do with it."

Emma noticed a tiny smile playing around his mouth. She couldn't help but also smile. She wanted to ask him if he had transfigured Mrs. Norris's tail, or if Sirius or James had done it and he had been covering for them. She wanted to know how he or his friends had managed to pull off a prank like that. But in brief seconds Emma spent trying to gather the courage and proper eloquence to ask, Remus had already opened his transfiguration textbook to Chapter Nine and was asking her if she wanted to do their project on human transfigurations. Feeling disappointed, and even more disappointed by the magnitude of disappointment she felt at not getting the chance to chat with Remus about non-transfiguration related things, Emma forced a smile and agreed that human transfigurations seemed interesting enough to do a project on.

Remus glanced at his watch. "The library will be closing in a few minutes. I suppose we should start packing up."

Nodding in agreement, Emma shut an old volume of Transfiguration Today and placed it on the table as she leaned back in her seat and yawned.

Remus smiled at her. She covered her mouth when she yawned; hand bent at the wrist, fingers lined up straight, and she tapped her mouth with her fingertips in a gentle but impatient manner, as if she wanted to hurry this seemingly improper ritual.

He sat up straighter, suddenly very aware of how much attention he had paid to Emma doing something as mundane as yawning. "Tired?" he asked.

She smiled back at him. "Only a little. Two and a half hours of researching animagus theory leaves one fatigued."

"We don't have to specifically work on animagus theory," Remus said as he began stacking the library books they decided to split between themselves and check out. "We can do a presentation on general human transfigurations—talk about transfiguring into inanimate objects as well, if you'd like."

Emma shook her head. "It'll be too broad…too much information to cover and McGonagall will expect us to cover everything. Plus human transfiguration into inanimate objects is kind of creepy, don't you think?"

Remus smiled. "I suppose the idea of our table being an actual human being in reality is a bit unsettling."

Emma frowned and glanced at their table, backing away from it a little.

Remus laughed. "I'm sure the table is just a table. Anyway, that sort of transfiguration is really rare and obscure. I wouldn't say it's dark magic, but it's pretty undesirable, to want to change one's self into an inanimate object. You wouldn't be able to move or do anything."

"And if you transfigured yourself into a chair, you could get sat on." Emma replied. They both sniggered.

Remus and Emma continued discussing the various inanimate objects that would be uncomfortable to be transfigured into as they went to Madam Pince's desk to check out their books. Remus suggested a bed. Emma countered with a roll of deodorant. Remus offered that a shower curtain would be an uncomfortable transfiguration, but then added as an afterthought that the discomfort at being a shower curtain really depended on which side of the shower curtain a transfigured human would be seeing into, a comment which caused both of them to laugh quietly and blush.

They were out of the library, walking in the direction of the Slytherin common room because Remus offered to walk her there. He had also offered to carry Emma's share of transfiguration books, but wanting to reciprocate his politeness towards her, Emma refused, and almost immediately regretted it when she saw the disappointed look on his face. He had wanted to useful.

She felt her heart racing—Remus wanted to be useful to her. Perhaps it was just because he was nice like that to everyone, or maybe it was because he had that general sense of gentlemanly propriety with women, or maybe it was because it was her. She did not dare get her hopes up though. She did, however, want to let Remus feel useful if that was what he really wanted.

She adjusted the small stack of books in her arms so they rocked flimsily against her until the top book fell from the stack and onto the floor.

"Woops!" she said in as surprised a tone as she could, stopping to pick up her book. Remus, however, got there before her.

"I've got it." He said, stooping down to grab Emma's book while cradling his own books under one arm. He picked up the book and added it to his own stack.

Emma smiled, pleased by his gentility. Pleased that she had expected it. Pleased that it was directed towards her. "Thanks. I can carry it though—"

Remus shook his head though and smiled. "Hand them over."

"Sorry?"

He nudged his head at the stack of books in Emma's arms. "Hand your books over. I can carry them for you the rest of the way."

"No, it's alright—"

"Really, I don't mind!" he said, adjusting his stack of books and steadying them in his arms in anticipation for the other books to be laid on top of the stack.

Emma smiled. "Alright. If you're sure you don't mind," she said, handing her remaining books to Remus, "Thank you."

"Not a problem."

They continued down the corridor, falling into a discussion about their classes, and as they walked down the steps that led to the dungeons, they had segued into complaining about how busy they were with their studies and how little free time they had to do anything they actually enjoyed. Remus had just finished summarizing the plot of a book he had just finished reading that took him the entire term to get through for lack of free time when they arrived at the portrait that guarded the Slytherin common room.

"Oh!" he had stated with surprise when Emma stopped in front of a portrait of a young woman with long blonde hair who wore a forest green dress. "Is this where your common room is? It didn't take as long as I thought it would to get here."

Emma smiled. "Yeah, it's here."

The two of them stood there for a few seconds in silence; finally, Emma reached for her books. "Thanks for walking with me."

He smiled back in such a way that Emma could tell it was forced. "Any time."

She stood there for a moment, trying to come up with the different reasons for why Remus forced a smile at her, but the only one she could think of that fit in with the rest of his behavior from this evening was that he was disappointed that he had to leave her at this point; that he had enjoyed their walk and wanted to continue walking. Emma replayed the logic in her head; the idea of Remus wanting to continue walking with her seemed ludicrous and unbelievable, but it made sense. His actions—being pleasant, making non-awkward conversation, volunteering to walk her back to her common room, carrying her books—individually they meant nothing, but collectively they totaled to a Remus who enjoyed her company. A pleasant thought indeed. So pleasant, in fact, that it made Emma's heart flutter excitedly as she decided to step into the shoes of Gryffindor for a few moments and be daring.

"Do you"—she started, but faltered. Courage, Emma, she thought as she braced herself for the worst—"Do you want to keep walking? I mean, curfew's not for another hour."

And almost immediately, Emma regretted her foolhardy desire to be bold, as she saw that Remus's jaw had stiffened and his eyes had widened considerably.

"But I mean, you don't have to," she stammered quickly, desperate to salvage their evening. "If you don't want to…I mean, it's late, and you probably want to get back to your own common—"

"I'd actually like that very much." He cut in, smiling slightly at her. Emma saw that he was blushing. She sighed with relief. There was a reason why she wasn't in Gryffindor…

Emma had taken all of their transfiguration books and left them in her dormitory for safe keeping before joining Remus again in the corridor. As the portrait hole closed behind her, Emma spotted Remus leaning against the wall opposite her, staring at the ceiling. At her appearance, he pulled himself up from the wall and smiled.

"Ready?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded. Of course, she wasn't ready at all. She had never expected Remus and herself to take a stroll around the castle in the evening after two and a half hours of studying together. She certainly hadn't expected to be the one to make the suggestion in the first place. She definitely didn't expect Remus to be keen on spending time with her though. And yet things seemed to have taken an unexpected turn for Emma. She certainly wasn't prepared for this.

Remus and Emma walked to the end of the corridor and back up the steps they had come from. The latter was about to open her mouth to comment about how it was a nice day for a walk, but shut it when she remembered that they were indoors and such a comment would seem incredibly idiotic on her part. They had been walking in silence for about thirty seconds now, and Emma had begun to wonder if asking to prolong their walk was a mistake.

"So…er…" Remus began awkwardy, glancing sideways at Emma. "Er…should we be going somewhere specific?"

Startled by his question, Emma could do nothing but shrug. Had he been hoping that she already had a destination in mind for them? Would he have considered their walk a waste of time if she replied with an "I don't know"?

"Sure, we can, if you want." Emma finally replied, turning to meet Remus's sideway glance. "Where do you want to go?"

Remus shrugged, but rolled his eyes up to the ceiling as if in deep thought. He then glanced again at Emma, who was looking at him expectantly. Somewhere interesting, Remus knew that much. He had seen a longing for excitement in eyes. So perhaps something fun.

He shifted his gaze to a window that they were nearing in the corridor. It overlooked the path that led to Hogsmeade. He was a marauder, one of the founders of the Marauder's Map, and privy to the inner workings of some of the most elaborately manifested pranks and schemes that had taken place at Hogwarts. Surely he could think of something interesting and fun…

"Do you want to go outside?" he found himself saying, stopping by the window that overlooked the path to Hogsmeade and turning once again to face Emma—"I mean, if we could hide ourselves to we're no see…would you want to?" he added when he saw a look of mingled surprise and concern on her face.

Emma cocked an eyebrow at him. "How—?"

He smiled. "If there was a way, would you want to?"

She hesitated, but Remus's smile seemed contagious. She grinned back. "Sure."

"We'll need to make a quick stop at my common room then." He said, leading her down to the end of the corridor and up another flight of stairs.

"What for?"

"You'll see." He replied, "Well, I hope." He added more to himself than out loud, wondering if James would indeed lend him his invisibility cloak for a few hours.

Remus crossed his arms over his chest, rolling his eyes at the ceiling as he waited patiently for his friends' laughter to subside.

"You've got to be kidding, mate!" Sirius chuckled as he leaned against the frame of James's bed. "A few hours ago you were about ready to throw up your dinner because you were afraid to study with her…"

"And now you two are on a bloody date?" James asked as he helped up Peter, who had fallen off his own bed laughing at Remus's recap of events, snorting something about running away at the gobstones club meeting.

Remus let his arms drop to his sides. "It's not a date," he replied. "We're just…walking. And you know, apart from all the secret passageways we've all found, there aren't many interesting things to see in the castle. And I certainly can't show her any of that stuff."

"Heaven forbid." Sirius said as he sat up straight in James's bed, "she's a bloody Slytherin."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Sure. Anyway, I thought we could go outside maybe. Get some fresh air—"

"…snog behind Hagrid's hut…" Sirius continued, rolling his eyes to mock Remus.

Peter and Remus together made faces of revulsion while James sniggered, patting Sirius on the back.

"It's not a bad place," Sirius continued with a bored sigh. "So, answer me this, Moony. If you and Goodrich—"

"Emma." Remus cut in, frowning at Sirius.

Sirius in turn simply shrugged. "Right, Emma. If you and Emma were taking a walk and decided to go outside, what are you doing here in our dormitory and where the hell is Emma?"

"Emma's waiting outside our common room," Remus said, ignoring Peter and James's smirking and the whipping noise Sirius made as he whipped his hand forward in the air, "and I'm here because I was wondering, Prongs"—he turned to James to emphasize the fact that he was mainly addressing him—"if I could borrow your invisibility cloak. It would just be for a few hours!"

Peter grinned appreciatively while Sirius gasped in shock. "You can't show her the cloak!" he hissed. "That's James's, and it's valuable, and she's a bloody Slytherin—"

James grinned, holding a hand up to silence Sirius. "You're just going to use it to stay hidden while you take a walk, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Nothing dirty?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Of course not!"

James stood up and walked over to his trunk. After opening it and digging through it for a few moments (stopping once to tell Sirius to relax; Emma was harmless and if bringing Moony one step closer to getting shagged meant lending his invisibility cloak to him for a little bit, it was fine with him. Remus blushed furiously in response and assured him there was no such plan), James emerged with a silvery grey cloak and handed it to Remus.

"Have fun." James said with a wink.

Remus blushed. "Thanks, Prongs."

He stuffed the cloak in one of his pockets and hurried towards the door to meet Emma. But just as he turned the doorknob he glanced back at his friends, feeling slightly uneasy at the idea of Sirius being annoyed by him.

Sirius, however, gave Remus a small, lopsided smile when their gazes met. He rolled his eyes and sighed. "And Moony," he said, leaning back into Prong's bed once again, folding his arms back and cradling the back of his head in his hands, "for all the trouble you're causing, taking a prized cloak and all to sneak off with one of our sworn enemies, you had better do some snogging at the very least."

Sirius winked, and rolling his eyes once more at his friends while they sniggered immaturely, Remus hurried out of his dormitory to meet Emma.

He emerged the common room moments later, only to find that Emma was several yards away from the Fat Lady portrait that guarded his common room. She was staring at a painting of a vase of flowers. When Remus approached her, however, Emma turned and smiled at him.

"Sorry, I thought it would be safer to wait a little distance from your common room entrance. I got a few suspicious glances from some passing Gryffindors." She said as she fell into step with Remus.

He frowned. "I'm sorry about that."

She shrugged. "It's no big deal. Did you get what you had gone in for?"

"Yes, I did." Remus replied as they stopped at the foot of another staircase at the end of the corridor. He glanced around. No one was there, so he pulled the cloak out from his pocket.

Emma stared in disbelief. "Is that—"

"An invisibility cloak?" Remus finished, smiling. "Yes. But if you could not tell anyone about it, that would be great. If word got around that a student owned one of these, well…it wouldn't be good."

"But how…how did you get one? They're so rare!" Emma exclaimed in a whisper, leaning forward to get a better look at the silvery fabric.

"It's not mine. I borrowed it."

Emma was sorely tempted to ask from whom he had borrowed it, but forgot her question at once when Remus threw the soft material over them.

It was like wearing a thin, see-through sheet. The world around them had become slightly dimmer from the opacity of the cloak material, but everything around them was still visible.

"So…no one can see us now?" Emma whispered.

"Nope, no one." Remus replied, taking Emma's hand and guiding her down the steps. "Careful. Watch your feet."

"This is amazing." She breathed, sighing quietly to take in everything. The sudden invisibility. The soft, smooth touch of the cloak. Remus's fingers interlocking with her own.

Remus and Emma were outside within a few minutes, but the latter insisted that they continue wearing the cloak, just in case.

"So where to now?" Remus asked as they walked down a small slope in the direction of Hagrid's hut. The Forbidden Forest was in view; he prayed Emma wasn't feeling that daring tonight.

"Anywhere!" she said with a happy shrug of her shoulders as she glanced around excitedly as if it were her first time seeing the grounds of Hogwarts.

Remus couldn't help but smile at her. He had explored Hogwarts and the surrounding area countless times with his friends, of course, and so the prospect of doing so once more tonight had diminished in its excitement, all in except one aspect: his company this time was lovelier.

Not that he didn't like exploring with his friends, because he loved it. But he was fairly certain that neither James, Sirius nor Peter would appreciate being called lovely company so he didn't feel guilty at all for feeling excited anticipation at sneaking outside with another person tonight. Mainly because it was a different sort of excited anticipation than the kind he had with his friends.

It must have been a good excited anticipation though, because it seemed to bring out the Gryffindor in him.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade?" he asked. "Since it's not that far a walk…"

Emma grinned. "Alright. Can we go to the Shrieking Shack too then?"

Remus could feel his face freeze, and only hoped that it was too dark outside for Emma to notice this. He didn't hate the Shrieking Shack—quite the contrary, it was quite the safe haven for him once every full moon. It kept him safe from others, and it allowed him to continue being a student at Hogwarts, so he was quite grateful for the Shrieking Shack and a headmaster like Dumbledore for having it built for him. But again, it was a safe haven for Remus, and a very private one at that. He didn't like the idea of people violating that privacy, mainly because he was afraid of how people would react upon violation. Of course, his friends had violated that space long ago, but they had obviously stuck to him, assuring him that what they found upon violating his privacy did not alter the way they saw him.

He did not, however, anticipate that much show of tolerance from anyone else. He certainly would not expect it from Emma.

He did, however, like Emma very much and while he wasn't quite sure if they were on an actual date or not, Remus wanted her to look back on this night as an enjoyable night.

"To the Shrieking Shack." He said with a smile.

They walked on for several minutes, taking the path that led directly to Hogsmeade. Remus of course knew a much quicker and direct route to the Shrieking Shack, but he did not dare show it to Emma. Showing her how to get past the Whomping Willow, how to crawl through it and through the tunnel that went directly inside the Shrieking Shack—it was inconceivable. He would never be able to adequately explain to her how he knew such a path. So they took the longer way. So much the better though, Remus thought as they walked on, still holding hands, their time spent together would be prolonged.

It took another fifteen minutes to reach the entrance of the Shrieking Shack, by which point Remus had awkwardly brought their conversation about his being a prefect to an awkward halt when he told Emma that the prefects' bathroom was one of the nicest rooms in Hogwarts. Thankful for reaching the Shrieking Shack in perfect timing, Remus held the door open for her and followed her inside.

Emma stared wide-eyed at her new surroundings. It was not quite as she had imagined it. The old and rickety-looking pieces of furniture occupied the main room were of course no surprise to her. Shacks always entailed old and broken furniture in Emma's mind. But it was the lack of age in the structure of house that had taken Emma by surprise. Very little dust. Next to no cobwebs. Emma pointed this out to Remus, and he gave her a small smile as he threw off the borrowed cloak.

"Well, we're not the first ones here, are we?" he said, leaning against the wall adjacent to the door.

Emma glanced at Remus. "Right. Other students have probably wandered in here a million times before us, haven't they?"

He smiled ruefully. "Yes, probably."

"Have you?"

"Sorry?"

Emma was examining a chair near the door, and testing her weight on it, she slowly took a seat in it, wincing slightly when it creaked. "Have you been here before? You seemed a little hesitant before about coming here…and you don't seem nearly as interested as I am right now in exploring this place. My only guess is because you've been here before and none of it's new to you."

Remus smiled again. "You're clever."

Emma felt herself blush. She quickly stood up and the chair emitted another loud creaking sound. She got down on all fours to examine the chair legs.

"I have been here before" Remus continued, watching Emma nervously. She was running her hand along the leg, tracing what looked like a bite mark on it with her fingertips. "With some of my friends. We've been here a few times."

She glanced over her shoulder to look at Remus. "Why were you hesitant to come back here? You thought it'd be boring?"

Remus's mind raced. "Well," he started slowly, racking his brain for a good answer, "I thought you might be bored. Or that you wouldn't like it here."

He sighed with relief when Emma looked at him incredulously. "That's ridiculous, this place is amazing! I mean, look over here—"

She turned back to the chair leg she was examining and beckoned Remus to join her. He crawled over to her side, remaining on all fours to look at the bite marks on the leg of the chair. His bite marks.

"Some sort of animal made these." She said, running her fingers along the marks once again. "Wonder what it was."

Remus shrugged but did not offer her an answer. They were suddenly treading dangerous waters, though unbeknownst to Emma. He stared at the marks, pretending to be interested in them while his mind raced to think of a way to draw Emma's attention away from it. Ignoring the uncomfortable tug of his conscious telling him that this was exactly why he should not ever get involved with women.

Remus sighed a quiet breath of relief though when Emma seemed to lose interest in the teeth marks and instead turned her attention back to Remus.

She smiled at him, but did not say anything. They had both lifted themselves from their all-fours positions and were seated cross-legged now beside the chair. Emma was closest to it, and Remus sat next to her, and it seemed they were both very aware of just how closely they were sitting, because both of their gazes when to their hands, which rested quietly in their respective laps.

They had been silent for several moments now, and it had become unbearable to Remus. Gulping, he forced himself to shift his gaze towards Emma.

"Emma?"

She looked up immediately.

"When you asked me earlier if I wanted to keep walking with you…did asking me that make you feel nervous at all?"

Startled by Remus's question, Emma instinctively glanced down to her lap again. She knew, however, that Remus wanted and answer, regardless of how much Emma didn't want to tell him.

She turned her head slightly and looked away from Remus as she nodded, feeling herself blush.

Remus nodded, acknowledging her affirmative response. Deriving a little more courage from Emma's answer, Remus continued, "Well, I wanted to ask you something too, but I'm feeling nervous myself." He said, honesty compelling him.

Emma looked up at him with a look of concern on her face. "What is it?" she asked.

"I"—Remus felt his voice go hoarse—"I—well, I wanted to know if I could kiss you—"

But Remus never got to finish his request. Emma had already leaned forward and had planted her mouth on his.

His first reaction was shock. But almost immediately excitement followed when a few seconds had gone by and they were still kissing. He leaned into her slightly to deepen the kiss and moved his hands up her back—

Remus let out a small grunt as Emma pushed him onto his back and crept up to his chest, resting her elbows on either side of him. He stared at her, unable to say anything. He was too surprised. And he was still trying to catch his breath.

Emma had laughed quietly when she saw his reaction. She smiled and leaned in closer to him "Might I remind you that I'm a Slytherin and catching people off-guard is in our nature?"

Remus laughed, reaching his arms around Emma's lower back and cradling her. "Ah, my mistake. Carry on."

And so they did.