Remus Lupin

Does anyone honestly believe in love at first sight anymore? Like the kind from the movies, where the girl sees the guy and is completely and irrevocably in love and the guy feels the exact same way. Can that really happen? Can two completely different people see each other for just a moment in time and be in love? Especially when one is a werewolf and there is something off about the other one that probably does not have to do with fighting a tiger.

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"I can't believe Remus has been here one day and he already has a date," I heard the voice of Sirius Black. I couldn't believe it either.

"I can't believe that you don't," I admitted to Sirius. He looked quite displeased as I said it. He was the one who should have had the date already. That's how it usually went.

"I'm not sure which one is harder to believe, Sirius's lack of date or Remus's quick date?" Peter then spoke. His first day at the beach had been pretty crappy. His entire back was aligned with a terrible sunburn. If he wasn't a wizard, he probably would have been in pain for the rest of the vacation.

"Remus's quick date," James and Lily then answered at the same time.

"Thanks guys," I answered as I took the sandwiches that I had carefully concocted and put them in the picnic basket that Lily happened to bring with her. She was planning on using it for a date with James, but she agreed to let me use it for my date, if it could even be called a date. "Well, have a lovely day."

I picked up the basket and walked outside, heading for the cliff that I told Delia to meet me at. I was a bit early when I made it there, but I did not mind waiting. It gave me time to set everything up.

When about an hour passed by, I started to get a little anxious. She was already forty-five minutes late, and I had no clue where she lived. I began to doubt myself. I was an idiot for believing that she liked me at all. That kiss probably scared her off. She just wanted to be nice. To say that she wasn't sorry about it. But it must have really freaked her out and she probably was doing everything possible to stay away from the cliff for the day.

But then I saw her coming from a house in the distance, one that was relatively easy to see. Her wavy black hair was loosely hanging and she was wearing jeans, sandals, and a long sleeved tee. Her outfit was relatively out of place for the beach, especially compared to my swim trunks and shirt sleeved shirt – red this time.

"You're late," I said as she approached me, relatively out of breath.

"Sorry," she immediately answered, as her feet came to a stop. She stared away from me, which was a tendency that she had. "I was just studying to make sure that I knew how to get back home."

"You know, getting lost didn't turn out too badly," I answered her witty remark. She was always on top of things and as much as I favored the truth, I thought her sarcasm was quite cute. It's not like I was being completely honest with her anyways.

After a quick giggle, we both were quiet. We didn't know exactly how to greet each other. Would a kiss do? Would a hug be fine? A handshake was totally out of the question. I finally decided to go for the kiss and I approached her cheek with my lips.

She was not paying attention to me and she jumped away as soon as I touched her. She was a rather jumpy kind of person. "I'm sorry," I said. So our relationship wasn't that perfect romance. We didn't know exactly what to do in each other's company. It sure seemed like we did the day before. "I just wasn't sure how to greet you."

"I think a hug would suffice," she told me. I nodded and we came closer together, hugging tightly. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before we pulled apart.

"Sorry. I didn't think I would do that," she informed me.

"Don't apologize," I stated, my cheeks growing red as I was sure I blushed.

"Now what do you have planned for us today?" she asked happily. I had just realized that somehow, she had driven me off the topic of her lateness. She was relatively good at that.

I then pointed to the beach blanket that I had set out with the picnic basket on top of it.

She laughed. "I should have guessed," she said as she walked over to take a seat, crossing her legs in her sitting position. I followed her and I took a seat across from her, stretching my legs out on the blanket.

"What do you mean?" I asked, curiously staring into her deep grey eyes. Her expressions were difficult to interpret.

"It's just not the most original idea I've ever come across," she explained.

Okay, so I had to admit that picnics at the beach were a little overdone, but who cared? She was making me completely self conscious about the idea. "It's the beach," I spoke in quite an obvious tone. "What do you expect?"

"No, no, it's fine," she smiled. She had a beautiful smile.

"Did you want me to take you out on a boat to go fishing? Or did you want us to go hunting for tigers and wolves?"

We both laughed. "This is perfect," she finally answered, as she opened up the picnic basket, observing what was in there.

"That's supposed to be my job," I said, as I scooted closer to her, trying to take everything out. My arm briefly touched hers and took a moment to pause and stare at each other. Touching her briefly felt like the transformation I went through each month, a tiny flutter of shock and an increased heart pace going through my system. For once in my life I did not mind a brief encounter of that feeling.

"Remus there are only two of us," she ignored my comment, after our pause ended. "Why are there like six sandwiches? I'm not a cow."

"I didn't know what kind you wanted," I muttered, focusing back on reality. My heart began to pump even faster as I conversed with her.

"So you made six different kinds?" she laughed. "Are there even six different kinds of sandwiches?"

"There's turkey, chicken, tuna, ham, cheese, and peanut butter," I listed. "Take your pick."

"I'll take tuna and ham," she answered definitively.

"So I did need to make you more than one," I teased, as I handed her the two sandwiches. She took them from my hand, somewhat struggling to grasp them.

"Well, I don't want them to go to waste," she explained, as she took the tuna sandwich and unwrapped the foil that I had covered it in. "And you're a boy, so I figured that you could eat four, so I'll take two."

"I'm not quite sure I can eat four," I stated, amused by her statement.

"Well, we'll see," she answered as she took a bite of the tuna sandwich. Her face soon covered in mayonnaise, which I neglected to tell her. I slightly chuckled as I took a bite of the peanut butter sandwich that I carried in my left hand.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked me in between bites. She certainly wasn't the most lady-like of girls that I had ever met.

"My friends and I all just graduated from school," I answered quickly. "So we decided to go on vacation to celebrate, before we all start our lives in the real world."

"How old are you?" she quickly questioned, not taking her eyes off of her sandwich.

"18," I immediately answered in a lie. I knew that the Muggle world required an extra year of school, and I did not want her to grow suspicious.

"Wow," she answered in awe. "You know that I'm only 16."

"Does age really matter?" I asked. Two years really wasn't anything, especially because it was really one year.

"As long as you don't mind," she answered, focusing on her ham sandwich now since she finished the tuna. I took another bite of my peanut butter sandwich, amazed at how quickly she ate hers.

Age really was not the big deal. The main problem was a little deeper, even if she could get past the fact that I was a wizard. Because I was a wizard with a problem.

And I had to question myself about how serious this thing could get. What did she expect? We probably lived several miles away from each other, and we had so many differences. Was she even thinking about the future as much as I was? Maybe not. Maybe I just had to enjoy the moment.

"Nope, I don't mind," I finally responded, leaning in even closer to her. I wanted to put my arm around her, but I just wasn't sure how she would like that. It's not like I had much experience with that sort of thing.

"How long are you here for?" she then asked me, her eyes still focused on the ham sandwich. The poor sandwich was almost all eaten, in only several seconds. And I was still working on my peanut butter sandwich.

"Just a week," I told her. That was the other thing. How serious could the relationship get in a week? We didn't have much time.

"Oh," her tone was disappointed.

"What's wrong?" I asked her concerned, but knowing that the time probably had something to do with her disgruntled response.

"I was just starting to warm up to the idea that this vacation wouldn't be all too bad, but you're leaving so soon." Did that mean that she really did like me? Because it sure sounded like she did.

"You didn't come here willingly?" Suddenly I was interested in why she was actually there. Maybe I would be able to find out a little more truth to her background. She barely gave anything away.

"Not really," she answered, seriously… I could tell. Her honesty was easy to decipher from her sarcasm. Plus, she put down her sandwich for the moment, as she talked. "My father wanted me to come here. He thought that I would enjoy it, but I'm not usually much of a people person. If this was my own private island maybe I'd enjoy it, but it's not, so now I'm stuck here for a whole summer."

"I'm sorry," I said, though I didn't really understand why she hated it so much. I wasn't a huge fan of being in big crowds too, but I had been looking forward to the trip for a long time. She didn't have to be around people.

"It's not your fault," she remarked as she took the remaining bite of the ham sandwich and then dived her hand in the basket again, picking up the chicken sandwich.

I laughed as I watched her pick up the sandwich and unwrap it.

"I'm hungry, okay?" she shoved it into her mouth, ignoring my laugh.

"And I thought James and Sirius ate a lot," I muttered.

"Are you guys really close?" she soon asked more details of my life. I wanted to know more about her.

"Like brothers," I answered her. "You met James, but there's also Sirius and Peter. We've known each other for seven years now and we've been best friends since the day we met. We were actually the biggest pranksters in the school. We're known as the Marauders."

She laughed. She actually spit some of her sandwich out as she reacted to my words. I dived my face out of the way, so that I was not hit my sandwich bits. "You have a name for yourselves? Hah! I remember those types of people… the ones who thought they ruled the school because they thought of a cool name for their group."

"Well, I'll have you know that we actually did rule the school," I answered, but as I thought about it I realized that it was a little cheesy. But it wasn't too terrible. Hogwarts was different from your everyday school.

"Sure," she continued to laugh, as she held her sandwich in her right hand. I actually finished my sandwich at that point, but I wasn't hungry anymore, so I did not try to compete with her as far as food quantity was involved.

"Fine, fine," I answered. "Don't believe me."

"What's it like?" she moved on back to her seriousness, questioning me, before I could ask about her again. "Having such a close set of friends and being so popular."

"The friend part is nice," I smiled. I was lucky to have my friends. They really were my brothers. They had always been there when times were tough for me. "I couldn't care less about the popularity. Take it or leave it, so long as I still have James, Peter, and Sirius. Even Lily now. She and James are engaged."

"Really?" she asked rhetorically. "They're so young."

"And they were mortal enemies until last year. But they found each other and they fell in love… true love."

We both grew silent at that moment. I couldn't tell if it because we were thinking about the meaning of love or if it was because of something else… like our own relationship? To tell you the truth, I don't think I was thinking about anything in particular… just staring at her dark eyes, which I just happened to notice were a bit cloudy. I couldn't think of a reason for that.

"I know this is a weird request," she suddenly spoke again, disrupting my thoughts. "But could you do me a favor?"

"What is it love?" Did I just say that? I sounded like Sirius.

"First off, don't call me that," she laughed. "Second, would you sing a song for me?"

"What?" I asked, in reference to the second request. I had never gotten that request before.

"Whatever song you want, I just want to hear you sing," she was being serious… no sarcasm at all. I didn't understand her request though.

"Never mind then," she said as she saw my puzzling expression.

"No, I'll do it," I promised. "I'm just trying to think of something to sing."

After thinking deeply about the song I wanted to sing, I turned to face her and I started to sing. I picked a song that had meaning to me.

You fill up my senses like a night in a forest
Like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,
Like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.
You fill up my senses come fill me again.

I paused as soon as I finished the last words of the song. I was a terrible singer. Why did she want me to sing in the first place?

She didn't say anything for awhile. Her eyes were filled with tears and her body was motionless. "John Denver?" she asked after some deep thinking.

"You know it?" I asked, surprised. I was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"My dad used to sing it to my mum," she said with a cracked voice.

"Used to?"

"She died last winter," she mentioned quietly.

Then, she changed the topic, "You have a wonderful voice." Her quick topic change made me realize that it was something that she did not particularly want to talk about.

I laughed, with the thought that my voice was wonderful. "If you say so." I wasn't sure where she got that from.

"Thank you," she answered. "This trip was worth it just for that."

I guess she did not mind the song, even though it probably brought back painful memories. I did not want her to have to think of those memories anymore if they were difficult for her. "Good, now can we do something that I want to do?"

"Depends," she muttered.

I did not wait to tell her though. I had been eyeing the water since we sat down and I had been extremely hot throughout our picnic lunch, wanting to go into the water. I knew that she was covered in long layers and the water would be good for her.

So I ran behind her and I picked her up. She was much heavier than she looked, but I could manage. I ran to the water with her in my arms and I heard her squirming and I felt her struggling to break free of my arms, "Let me down, Remus!"

But I didn't listen. I soon felt the wet sand, as I realized that I was almost in the water. She continued to fight me, but I didn't want to let her go… not until we were in the water. I knew that she was going to protest, so I did not pay attention to her moans.

As soon as I was waist deep, I let her down. I didn't throw her or anything; I just let her down softly. There was no way that she was going to be able to avoid the water though. We were already far enough in.

A wave came by just at the moment that she brought herself to stand on two feet. She was still protesting me and she was angry. "Get me out of here!" she yelled as a wave came by, soon overpowering her, and knocking her under the water.

I jumped over the wave, so that I did not become covered in the water like her. But then she stayed underwater for some time. She was not coming up. Did she know how to swim? What did I do?

But just as I was about to come to her rescue, I saw a head of black hair come up for a breath. I laughed, but she was not laughing. "Damn you!" she yelled, in a way that I could tell that she wasn't just playfully angry. She was struggling to breathe and I saw tears forming in her eyes. She must have kept her eyes open under water. That was a painful experience. "I need to go home," she said fiercely as if she were on a mission.

She started to swim, but she was swimming in the wrong direction, so I offered to help. I picked her up again and I could hear the sniffling worsen. It honestly wasn't that bad… just a little salt water, but she insisted on going home.

I remembered the house that she came from, which was a good thing because she didn't say anything as I held her in my arms. I just could tell that she was crying and that made me upset. Why did I do that?

We finally arrived at her cottage and I let her free from my arms. I knocked on the door, afraid of what her father was going to say. The first time he saw me it was because she had lost her way and she did come home with some wounds. This time she was teary and upset. I hadn't made a very solid first impression at all.

I soon found the man that I had seen the previous day standing behind the door. I recalled that he didn't look quite like Delia at all… his blonde hair and blue eyes didn't quite match her dark features, though they both had the pale skin.

She ran to him, grasping onto him, and finally hugging him. "She got a little salt water in her eyes," I told him. "She's just being a baby about it." I didn't want him to think that I hurt her. It was just salt water.

"Mr. Lupin," Delia's father spoke with a serious tone, much like the way Delia spoke when I realized that she was not being sarcastic. "She's not being a baby. She's losing her sight."

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AN: The song is not mine. It is Annie's Song by John Denver.