The next morning Audrey and I treated ourselves to a nice sleep in; we had decided the night before to skip breakfast with the rest of the school and have an early lunch at Hogsmeade instead.

"It's so cold," Audrey complained as we made our way down the road that led to the village, "Come on, let's not stay too long, we have so much homework waiting for us back in the common room…"

"Okay, let's go to Honeydukes first the, shall we?" I suggested, pulling my cloak more tightly around my body, "I can get you your ten slabs of chocolate. Mind you, don't eat them all in one day; I don't want to be the one dragging you off to the hospital wing."

Audrey laughed, "Tell you what, how about you make it six slabs of chocolate instead, and a muffin and butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks?"

"Anything for you Audrey, after last night, you could probably ask me for a Firebolt and I wouldn't say no," I said, feeling a familiar tingling sensation run through my stomach as I remember the kiss…

We arrived at the village shortly after, and made our way straight to Honeydukes, where I let Audrey choose her favourite blokes of chocolate while I stood besides her, daydreaming. I noticed a few of the younger students shooting inquisitive glances at me, some of them smirking. I assumed they thought that I must look rather foolish standing in the middle store daydreaming, so I focused my attention on helping Audrey choose her chocolate instead (which was a difficult task – the girl takes her chocolate very seriously).

Our robes loaded with chocolate, we made our way to the Three Broomsticks, which was packed with students, as always. I bought a muffin and butterbeer each for Audrey and myself, and set of to join her at a table for two at the back of room. On my way, I noticed that Marcus Flint was sitting with a group of Slytherins, and for some reason he was smirking with an evil glint in his eye.

"Audrey," I said, as I sat down across her, "Why on earth is Marcus Flint smirking at me as though Christmas has come early?"

Audrey looked across the room at Flint, who was now talking animatedly with his friends.

"Was he?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"Yeh, it was weird," I said, "Anyway, forget him, we better finish these quickly, and get back to the castle. I really need to get started on McGonagall's essay…"

We chatted casually for the next twenty minutes about the usual; the overwhelming homework load, prefect duties, the escaped prisoner Sirius Black, whether Oliver ever notices any girls who are not on his Quidditch team ("I mean, honestly, the way he talks about his three chasers, you'd think he was ready to marry them all, if it weren't that he was so in love with Potter"), and the occasional mention or two of Professor Lupin, though Audrey tended to cut me off if ever tried to discuss the kiss with her or if I spent too long speculating about who that Rose girl was. Occasionally, I would look around the room, and, to my confusion, there was always a person or two looking at me – some of them were sneering, others giggling, and yet some wore looks of pure loathing.

"Audrey," I said, after receiving a very unpleasant look from a fifth year Ravenclaw girl, "People are staring at me."

"I know," she said, looking around the room quickly, "I've noticed it too. You haven't got something stuck on your robes, have you?"

"No," I said shaking my very confused head, "I've already checked. Come on, let's just go, this is getting annoying."

Audrey gulped down the last of her butterbeer, and we set off to the door, but before we reached it, a voice shouted out,

"Hey, Goodwill," I turned around to see Marcus Flint sneering stupidly at me, his unnaturally large and uneven teeth more prominently than ever.

"Fancy a kiss?" he asked daringly, so loudly that most students in the pub were now looking either at him or me.

I raised an eyebrow, revolted, and said, "What?"

"Ah, come on, don't be so frigid," his friend, Damian Kreb, added jeeringly.

"Yeh, you let Lupin kiss you last night, didn't you?" Flint said loudly. "I assure I'm a better kisser than him."

There was a moment's stunned silence in the pub as I stood there, my mouth hanging wide open, starring disbelievingly at Flint. How did he know?

Then, moments later, the students in the pub were roaring with laughter; some had fallen off their seats, others were crying tears of mirth.

I felt Audrey grab my arm, and drag me outside. She slammed the door shut just as some fourth year Slytherin boys started cat-calling.

I stared at her, speechless.

"Come on," she said gently, let's go back up to the castle."

"But – but – how did he know?" I stummered, allowing Audrey to drag me forward, "How? We haven't told anyone!"

"Word must have got round amongst the staff – I mean, Lupin wouldn't say anything, of course, but he didn't ask Madam Pomfrey or Dumbledore to keep it quiet did he... and I assume someone must have informed McGonagall, she's our head of house…"

"But Flint?" I asked.

"He must have over heard it somehow…" she said thoughtfully, her eyes full sympathy, "And I think others know too, it would explain why you've been getting funny looks all day…"

"Oh no," I moaned, grabbing my head in my arms, "Audrey, this is horrible, I'm going to be the laughing stock of the whole school!"

"It's alright, Fay," she said soothingly, "I'm sure most people won't care –"

"Won't care? I kissed a teacher!" I cried, "And do they even know why it happened? You know how gossip goes at Hogwarts, people are probably saying I tried to seduce him during my meeting with him, or – or –"

At that moment, I was cut off by a group of young Ravenclaw girls, who were giggling frantically as they walked past us, most of them looking at me.

"See?" I said angrily to Audrey.

Audrey looked away from me and grabbed one of the girls by the arm.

"What?" the little girl asked, still giggling stupidly.

"Why are you laughing at Faylinn?" Audrey demanded, "Does this have something to do with Lupin?"

I felt myself blushing as the girls started laughing even more. The one who Audrey had grabbed spoke first.

"Yes, obviously," she said, her eyes gleaming mischievously.

"What did you hear?" Audrey asked.

"Well," said one of the other girls, speaking directly to me, "We don't know the details, but word going around the Ravenclaw table this morning was that you came across a boggart and it force feed you an apple or something, and you couldn't move after you ate it and the only way you could get cured was by being snogged… and that Lupin was the one who did it!"

Her bright brown eyes widened as she said those last words, looked expectantly at me, as though expecting me to confirm or deny.

I merely grunted vaguely, and continued walking back up to the castle. So, most of the school has probably heard something by now…

"On the bright side," Audrey said quietly, "At least they know more or less the truth, and not some fanciful version."

"But they didn't know Lupin was like the last resort did they?" I said glumly, "And how am I meant to face Lupin now? It was bad enough having to face him knowing that we've kissed before, but now I have to face him knowing that the whole school knows we've kissed!"

"I think Lupin will understand – he's probably going to suffer as much as you anyway."

"Audrey, how can you be so calm?" I asked hysterically.

But before Audrey could reply, she was cut off by two girls who I recognised as Hufflepuff fourth years, who approached us as we walked past Zonko's.

"Uh, hello. You're Faylinn, aren't you?" the taller of the two asked. She had a full head of curly blonde hair.

"Yes," I replied, eyeing the girls suspiciously.

"We heard you kissed Professor Lupin," asked the other, her blue eyes wide with curiosity.

I sighed loudly, "Yes, but –"

The girls gasped, the blonde clasped her hands to her mouth.

"You're so lucky!" said the girl with blue eyes, now wearing an expression that could only be jealousy.

Audrey and I looked at each other, and judging by her expression, she was stunned as I was.

"What?" I asked blankly.

"Professor Lupin is just so handsome!" said the blonde dreamily.

"Was he a good kisser? I bet he was great."

Audrey snorted loudly, and rolled her eyes at the two girls.

"Uhh…" I said blankly, finding it difficult to register that I was not the only girl in the school who had a crush on Professor Lupin. How many others were there? At any rate, I was not about to tell them just how good a kisser he was, but at the same time, I did not want to say he was lousy either.

"I wasn't really paying attention to be honest, you know, I was poisoned at the time…" I said, "Anyway, we've got to get going."

I grabbed Audrey by the arm and we walked quickly away, before the two girls had a chance to say anything else.

"I can't believe this," I said, laughing for the first time since we left the three broom sticks, "I never thought there would be others who fancied Professor Lupin too!"

"Me neither," said Audrey, shaking her head, "It's a scary thought, really."

Ignoring the snide remark, I said, "I wonder how many others are going to get all jealous? I hope no one tries to hex me!"

"Don't be silly," Audrey said, grimacing, as though it was the most horrible thing in the world that students would get jealous over a teacher, "Come on, let's just get back to Gryffindor tower, we've got so much homework to do…"