Author's Note:

So, here is the first chapter. Please enjoy and review! I would really like to know how everyone likes the story, or dislikes it in some cases! :) Thanks!

- A. Moonbeam

Chapter One

"Why don't you kiss her

Why don't you tell her

Why don't you let her see

The feelings that you hide

'Cause she'll never know

If you never show

The way you feel inside"

- Jesse McCartney

Remus was sitting pleasantly in the library, trying to ignore the giggling girl over by the window. She was just sitting there on the small window seat she had summoned so she could look outside while she read. Remus assumed that she either had finished her homework or was putting it off. He just wasn't pleased with the person that she was with at the moment.

Why does she have to be laughing at something that git says? Why can't she be over here with me and laughing at my bloody jokes? Remus thought harshly as he pushed a hole through his parchment with his quill. He sighed as he switched his quill for his wand, planning on fixing his essay quickly.

"Why don't you go over there and give Snivillus the ol' one-two?" Sirius asked as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the table next to the pile of books Remus was behind.

Remus rolled his brown eyes and shook his head. "No, Padfoot. It doesn't work that way in this situation. Besides, I wouldn't have a reason when she asked."

Sirius let out a bark like laugh and brushed his hair from his grey eyes. "Well, you aren't going to know if she does like you if you don't try something."

Remus felt his face flush and told Sirius to mind his own business with a well-aimed kick to the chair legs that were in the air. Sirius fell backwards with a very girlish screech before throwing profanities at Remus. The young werewolf chuckled as he turned his attention back to his essay.

"You know, Sev, I think you're right." Austin was saying as she passed Remus and Sirius' table an hour later.

"Really? I didn't think it would actually work." Severus narrowed his eyes at a piece of parchment.

"Well, the wording is right. Now you just have to worry about the rest. The meaning's right." Austin shrugged her shoulders softly but then she paused and took the parchment from Severus' hands. "Actually, it's not right."

Austin wrote something down quickly and then looked it over. "What was it?" Severus questioned curiously.

It seemed as if neither of them realized how close they were to two of the four Marauders. Remus felt his blood boil as he saw Severus stand very close to Austin to look over her shoulder. It was worse when Severus reached out to move a strand of Austin's sunshine hair that was possibly obstructing his view. Remus clenched his fist around his quill.

Austin shook her head as she watched Severus leave her outside the library. She enjoyed her time with the Slytherin. At home on Spinner's End it was far easier, and safer, to hang out with him. At school it was just difficult. Austin frowned as she turned on her heel and began her trek back to Gryffindor Tower. She was seventeen now and things were getting even more difficult. She would have one last year at the orphanage before she was allowed to leave completely. However, Albus Dumbledore—the headmaster at Hogwarts—was planning on making adoption paper work so she could get out sooner.

She sighed as she took a turn without paying attention. It was here that she ran into her best friend Lily Evans. "Austin, I've been looking all over for you!" Lily said in excitement.

"Must not have been lookin' hard enough. I was in the library." Austin rolled her eyes, enjoying Lily's cringing when she would drop the g on some of her words.

"It doesn't matter, now. Come on! Dinner is about to start." Lily smiled brightly and began to pull Austin in the opposite direction so they could go to the Great Hall.

"Lils! I need to put my stuff up!" Austin complained as she was dragged off.

"No you don't. You'll just go straight back to the library with Remus until he has to escort you back because he has to go on patrol." Lily rolled her emerald eyes back at Austin and the two girls grinned.

"So why are we here so early?" Austin questioned as she scratched at her upper arm.

"I have to come and eat with Potter tonight. I need you to make sure I set a good example for the students in the lower years." Lily gave a pitying expression as they stopped inside the Great Hall.

Austin rolled her brown eyes and nodded her head with a good natured smile. "Your parents did throw me that awesome birthday party. I guess it's the least I can do for their only witch daughter."

Lily beamed brightly and the girls started walking down to where the four boys sat. Austin watched as the entire Great Hall seemed to pause and look at them as they sat down with the boys. Of course, Lily didn't sit next to James, but she was across from him at the table. Austin shook her head in amusement as she looked to her right and caught eyes with Remus.

"Ya know, if they don't get together soon, I may just have to do somthin about it." Austin whispered to him with a chuckle.

"I think they'd be likely to kill you." Remus whispered back as he passed the cranberry juice.

Austin smiled her thanks and poured herself a goblet full of the red liquid before setting it back down. After she took a large gulp, she started to fill her plate. Lily was speaking with Peter—a plump boy with watery blue eyes—and ate small bites. Austin smirked as she turned back to her own meal and began to eat.

"So, what were you and Snape talking about in the library today?" Sirius questioned as he grabbed for another chicken leg.

"Same old, same old." Austin shrugged. "He needed some help with a project and I just so happened to be the one he came to."

Lily paused her conversation and turned to look at Austin. "I just can't believe that you still talk to him." Lily said with a light sneer on her face.

"The argument between Sev and you are gonna cause me to go grey, I swear it!" Austin shook her head and then caught a piece of her hair between her fingers. "Look! Remus, look at it! Its grey and it's all cause all ya'll won't leave poor Sev alone!"

Remus chuckled at her dramatics before taking the piece of hair that was still shoved in his face and tucked it back behind her ear, "You'll be fine, Austin."

Austin pouted lightly before she decided to change the topic. "It don't matter. James, what is the agenda for Quidditch this year?"

James paused with his fork half way to his mouth and then lowered it. "I was thinking about starting practice soon. I'm sorry, though. I can't tell you anything just because you aren't on the team."

Austin rolled her eyes but nodded anyway. "Guess I can understand that. Yet, comin from such a great captain who should know all the plays by heart already and believe his team is undefeatable even if other teams know the plays."

The group laughed as James bowed his head in defeat. "Lay off him, Austin. He's in over his head this year. He has to do all of his N.E.W.T classes and then take the bloody tests at the end of the year and he has to go on Head Boy duty all the time AND he has to train an entire Quidditch team." Sirius stood up for his friend before leaning forward, "But you do make a valid point. Prongs needs to buck up a bit."

With that the group laughed once more.

Later that night Remus sat in the common room with a book. Sirius was off with his girl of the week, Peter was at a study session with a tutor for one of his classes, and James was with Lily doing their Head duties. This left Remus with Austin in the common room, on the same couch. Remus tried to concentrate on his book that he needed to finish before his next Defense Against the Dark Arts class, but it was starting to seem as if he wouldn't get anything done tonight.

Austin was leaning off the couch and over the table she had pulled over to do homework on. She never did like using quills and so had taken to using a pen. The pen scratched at the parchment without pausing it seemed like. She kept shifting on the couch as she wrote, but it seemed as if she just wanted to get her essay finished. Austin doing homework was not what caused Remus to be distracted. It was the patch of skin on her back that was showing through because she had already changed into her night clothes.

Her shirt was pulled up as she bent over and a good portion of her lower back could be seen. The pair of shorts she decided on wearing rode up on her thighs and allowed most of her long tan legs to show. Remus gulped as he tore his eyes from those legs and the curve of her back. He needed to get a hold of himself before he did something stupid.

"Remus?" Austin's strange American accent penetrated his mind and he opened his eyes to look at her. "Do you mind checking over this essay? Astronomy is killing me again."

Remus smiled as he took her essay. "I thought after fourth year when I helped you, you were doing better."

"Well, it's just that it isn't working very well for me this year. I'm trying to decide if I really should be a healer now…it just seems too hard." Austin shook her head with a chuckle.

"I didn't know you needed a N.E.W.T for Astronomy to be a healer." Remus mused as he changed a few words in the essay with his wand.

"You do if you want to work in the Creature Induced Injuries Research Ward." Austin smiled brightly before she grabbed one of her books. "Besides, there's this other witch at the orphanage. Her father's a werewolf. He still comes by and visits a lot. He just loves her to death and you can tell she feels the same way. It's just a bit harder cause of what he is. She's upset because she is reckoned to be an orphan and she's really not."

Remus looked up at the story. "Her father still comes and sees her?"

"Course he does, Remus! She loves her father and wishes that she could go home with him one day. He's explained to the both of us that he couldn't do that. He said that if he ever could take his kid home, he'd have to take me too. He's kinda like my daddy, just with a lot more hair." Austin chuckled at the joke.

"You never did tell me what your father did for a living." Remus stated as he handed the essay back. "This is good by the way. I think with just a little bit more you should be able to get top marks."

"Thanks, Remus." Austin whispered as she reached up to her neck and took a hold of the locket she always wore. Remus knew that in this locket was a picture of her parents and her grandparents. "Daddy worked at the hospital there in America. He worked at two, actually, both the muggle and the wizard one. He really liked it and he was trying to find a cure for lycanthropy before he died."

Austin shook her head of the melancholy and beamed up at Remus. "Thanks for looking over the essay. I'll just go ahead and finish it up in my room. I'm kinda getting tired."

With that, Austin levitated her things and rushed up the stairs to the girls' dorms. Remus frowned as he watched the door she had disappeared into. Her father had been working on a cure for lycanthropy? Why? There was so much more about this American country orphan than he had previously thought.

If she hasn't told anyone else about her father, why did she decide to tell me? Does she know what I am? Remus thought just as Sirius came back into the common room for the night.

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