Chapter Ten

Sophie couldn't breathe. What had she just gotten herself into? She tried to marshal her thoughts. She knew the voice.

"Don't get me wrong I find it endearing, but when you're sneaking around the grounds after hours, not the best way to stay hidden." It was Remus. Sophie sagged against him in relief. She very nearly dissolved into a puddle on the floor.

Remus registered her relief and abruptly let her go. "Sorry for grabbing you. You were just about to walk into a pair of prefects and I didn't want you to scream and alert them." If Sophie had been looking up, she would have seen his sheepish expression. As it was, she was too busy leaning against a wall now trying to decide if her heart was going to stay in her body or escape through her throat.

"You sir, just took several years off my life." Taking one last deep breath, she continued. "What are you doing out this late to begin with?"

Remus smiled. "Let's just say I wasn't alone till a couple of minutes ago and you want the plausible deniability of not knowing what we were doing." Sophie shook her head. If she ever needed the reminder Remus was one of the marauders, and thus some sort of hellion, this was it. "The much more interesting question is what are you doing out at such a time in such a place?"

"Oh, what one normally does at such a time." She said with a wave of her hand.

"Sneaking into a rival common room for a midnight romantic rendezvous?" He mused. Sophie turned beat red and swatted him on the shoulder as he started shaking with laughter.

"No you fiend! If you must know I was sneaking back into the library." She continued to mutter non-flattering things about Remus under her breath.

"Were you now? What do you need from in there?" he asked.

"For the same reasons why you probably won't tell me how you knew I was here, I can't tell you why."

"Plausible deniability?"

"Plausible deniability." Sophie said with a smile. The truth was she just didn't want to come up with a lie or claim a charms book again. One of these days, Remus was going to ask her to perform a charm and she was going to be in a lot of trouble.

"Well we'll see how much of that we will be able to preserve with me escorting you to the restricted section. Before you attempt to argue, I've already saved you from walking into the prefects once. I am convinced you would only be caught if I didn't. And I can't have that on my conscience now can I?" Sophie pursed her lips. She didn't want to accept his help but she did really need it. She wasn't very good at all of these clandestine dealings.

"Fine, but no more insinuations from you. My maidenly sensibilities have been wounded enough for one night." Remus just grinned wide and took hold of her wrist, leading the way.

They weren't very far from the library. There was just enough time for Sophie's heart to settle from the initial shock of being grabbed and transition to an angry simmer. Remus looked perfectly healthy. The light was dim so she couldn't speak of his complexion, but all of his limbs were enacted. He seemed energized enough. Even in the low light, she could distinctly see both of his eyebrows. So, why hadn't he responded to her yet? Sophie's heart dropped. Had meeting her turned him away from her? Did he not want nothing to do with her anymore? How the hell was she suppose to ask without revealing who she was?

"So," she started lamely. "How was your break? Did you go to the ball?" she was about as good at this in person as she had been in letter.

"It was, confusing. I was hoping for answers and ended up with more questions." He said absently. Well that's fair, was all Sophie could think. They were silent for a time again before Sophie realized a normal person would be confused by that. Anyone without knowledge she wasn't suppose to have would have been perplexed.

"Did you not know the steps to a dance or something? I heard they had a magic dance floor for that." Sophie finally said. Remus, to his credit, had been lost in memories of that night and only half paying attention to Sophie. The ridiculous question brought him back around. His shoulders started to shake with barely suppressed laughter.

"No." he said. "The dancing was wonderful." Sophie felt a thrill of pleasure. Dancing had been wonderful. "It was who I was dancing with that left me pensive." Remus inwardly cringed at the realization of his inability to think about the person in front of him. At the ball, all of his thoughts had been about Sophie. Now with Sophie in front of him, all he could think about was Jane. He really needed to get a handle on this habit.

"Were you dancing with Gwen? Or did Sirius take a turn with you and complicate things?" Remus laughed a little while flinching.

"Um, actually I broke up with Gwen." Sophie was happy to be behind Remus at that point. He couldn't see her trip.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." How was she just now hearing about it? Dear god this was her roommate! Who didn't know what a whisper was to save her life! Joseph. What was he going to do when he finds out? Was the letter already on its way to her father?

"No need. It was a long time coming. I fear some of my friends are having a harder time with it than I am." Sophie would be lying if a little thrill didn't run through her to think that Remus was now technically unattached. She was scared to death about her secret getting out, but Remus was the most important thing to her after that. Tessie, Remus, and potions that was her life. Now if she could find a way to keep all of those things.

"We're here. By my guess, you'll have about fifteen minutes before the prefects come back around. I'll stand watch here. Without the invisibility cloak we'll need more warning and I wouldn't want to infringe on your plausible deniability." Sophie gave a weak smile before proceeding deeper into the library. Fifteen minutes to see just how much she had poisoned herself and figure out a way to reverse it, sounds easy enough.

Sophie did find the right book quick enough. It was titled something in Latin that she barely bothered looking at. The ornate cauldron that graced the cover had pulled at her memory. She flipped through the pages skimming as she went, reminding herself that she was on a time crunch and she could look at all of the interesting potions again later. She finally found the right one toward the middle of the heavy tome. The potion she had used for her Cinderella evening was The Waxing Moon Draught. It gave the person the perfect appearance of a ghost. The coloration the voice, even a slight chill to the skin. The only thing it did not do was take away the persons solid shape. That had been as far as Sophie had read before deciding to use it. There was more further down at bottom of the page that she had skipped over. The effects of the potion only lasted one to two hours, but after that, the person would revert completely to normal. Then the potion would start taking effect again. Slowly the person would change back into a ghost before the potion would sever the last bonds of life and complete the transformation. There was only one way to counteract the potion. The afflicted person would need to take The Waning Moon Draught. Sophie was happy to discover it on the next page, but tried not to cry out in alarm when she realize how long it would take to create this potion. The brew time called for six full months. During that time, she would be progressing back toward a ghost façade. Those affects would be irreversible by any sort of magic. The Waning Moon Draught only stopped its progression. As it was, the first potions was suppose to last tops two hours, Sophie's tweaks had extended that time to seven hours. Would they also speed up the negative effects?

"Sophie! Are you almost done?" she heard Remus hiss from the doorway. Not bothering to answer, Sophie hastily copied the recipe and replaced the book. Joining Remus at the door, they slipped out of the library right before prefects came meandering their way up.

Sophie didn't try to convince Remus not to escort her back to the Ravansclaw common room. It would have been a useless endeavor even if she wasn't consumed with her own thoughts. She was pretty certain she could complete the potion easy enough. Some of the more exotic ingredients were going to be hard to get her hands on, but she had time enough to gather those while she was completing other steps of the potion. Sophie's chief concern was how far the affliction will have spread by the time she was done with the antidote. That was going to be a hard thing to explain. It seemed she was going to at least lose her hair to it. Not the greatest lost in the world. She was trying to not feel some vane distress from it.

For the second time that night she felt arms enclose her and a hand settle over her mouth. She knew it was Remus pulling her into yet another alcove, but that didn't stop her heart rate from jumping again. They were about a turn or two from the entrance but Sophie could see a dim glow growing brighter. Remus had her pinned against the wall, giving him the better vantage point. My views still better, Sophie thought. With them pressed in so close, she was given an unobstructed view of Remus's face. Even with the increasing wand light, things were dim at best. She did notice how drawn his face actually looked. Hard lines had etched themselves into places that should have been smooth for at least another decade. Sophie's hand itched to soothe them away. It was probably a good thing that he kept his hand over her mouth. She would either be talking to herself or asking him horribly inappropriate questions if he didn't. Why was he always so sick? Why did he look so much older than his years? Why did he continue to talk to an anonymous woman when he had such good friends? Why did he talk to either of the hers at all? Sophie's eyes dropped to his chest as she tried to stop the riot of thoughts raging in her mind.

The light from the wand, and thus prefects, faded. Remus's hand falling away from her mouth brought Sophie out of her pensive state. She expected him to step away from her and for them to continue. Instead, she felt his hand come underneath her chin and tilt her face upwards.

"Stop looking so sad Sophie. You haven't said anything to yourself in at least a half hour." Sophie swallowed. She hadn't thought he would notice. "That face makes me want to change it anyway I can. Right now this is the only way I can think of." Sophie forgot to breathe. After his lips descended upon hers, she lost all ability to think. Remembering previous times, Sophie half sank into Remus. She couldn't believe how much she had craved doing this again. He smiled a little as he felt her hands come up and wrap round his neck. For whatever reason, Sophie brought out the forward side of him. Her quietness and sullen look had nearly cut him with how much he hated seeing her like that. Maybe kissing a girl he had only seen a couple of time previous wasn't the best—or least creepy—way of cheering her up, but it seemed to be working and he had craved doing this again since right after the first time. Now that he wasn't with Gwen anymore, the guilt wasn't there to hold him back. Sophie was beautiful and sincere and kind. If it was in his power, she should never frown. Too many people were sad or tormented because of him. He couldn't change some parts of himself but he damn well could help her. Pressing closer to her, he redoubled his efforts. A shiver of masculine pride went through him as she molded more completely to him. She was the perfect height for him. Just a little shorter than another woman who had been in his arms not so long ago. Images of Jane flashed in his mind. Hers too had been a sadness he was not easily able to touch and change. Jane who made him wonder and think and feel so many different things just like the woman with him now. Remus inwardly groaned and eased away from Sophie. Thinking of Jane had brought too many thoughts to his head and as much as he wanted to keep kissing Sophie, he couldn't. She was properly dreamy eyed and swollen lipped when he looked at her. The tortured look was gone replaced by pleased confusion.

A rueful smile twitched on his lips. "As what seems to be the habit when we get together, I find myself needing to apologize to you again Miss Naldeg." It took longer than she would like to admit for the words to sink in to her pleasure addled brain. One would think she wasn't use to slight strangers that knew her as two different people declaring she shouldn't look sad and kissing all thoughts out of her brain.

"No no no. Please don't apologize. That was," her brain stopped working again just thinking about it. "Nice." She blurted out, needing to say anything. That got a gruff laughter from Remus.

"Nice huh? That's exactly what my manly ego wanted to hear." He said with a smile. Sophie's face fell as she once again berated herself for her utter lack of social anything.

"Oh now this won't do." Remus leaned in again and kissed her. It was a very brief interlude but more than enough to distract Sophie. Disengaging again, Remus was glad of the bemused expression. "There that's more like it. You have a lovely way with words Sophie. You are lovely Sophie. Don't try so hard." Sophie nodded keeping any hint of a frown off her face. His kisses were dangerous. She would like to retain her focus for a minute.

"Thank you for tonight Remus. Truly. You aren't nearly as bad for me as you seem to think. You've helped me so much that I hope one day I can do anything to even the debt, even a little bit, between us." She offered up a shy smile to him.

Remus tapped down the guilt of what danger she truly was risking with him. Impulse made him speak. "Join me and the rest of the gang at Hogsmeade. The next trip is the last one before Christmas break and I wager you'll be going home. It'll give you a chance to pick Grace's brain over potions. Though she is pretty rubbish at it too." Sophie gave a shy smile. A whole day with Remus and all of his other friends. That was the most terrifying thing she could think of and she wanted it more than life. Remus saw the apprehension on her face and continued "Unless you already have plans that is."

"No. I don't." Sophie could have bitten her tongue. Remus had given her a perfect out and she had thrown it away. There was no graceful way to get out of it now. "It sounds lovely."

"Perfect!" Remus exclaimed. "Then I'll meet you at the castle gate in two weeks." Sophie smiled at his glee and nodded. Unable to help himself, Remus kissed her one last time before walking away. Sophie stayed in her little alcove for another ten minutes letting the events and information of the evening wash over her. She only had one comment to mutter to herself as she stumbled her way into the common room.

"Well, that went well."

Sophie's optimism did not hold up to the light of day. By morning, her scarlet letter seemed once again firmly attached to her chest. Broken up or not, it was hard to not think Gwen had some superior claim over Remus. The more she started to pay attention to Gwen the more Sophie wondered what Remus had seen in her in the first place. She wasn't all bad of course, Sophie reminded herself. She had changed since her and Remus had started to go out. Though, it seemed to her anymore that Sophie knew him better. Something about Sophie just seemed to make him open up to….

"What do you think you're doing?" she muttered. She was getting a big head about this whole Remus situation. Yes, he had kissed her. Multiple times. On multiple occasion. Okay two occasions. She shook her head trying to reorder her thoughts. She needed to look at things objectively. There was a lot more at stake than just more earth shattering kissed from Remus.

Joseph had still not said anything to her. She was finally up when Gwen was up this morning. Sophie's roommates had spoken about the recent end of the relationship. Gwen didn't seem so much upset about it as she was irritated that Remus was the one to break up with her. She was slightly suspicious if he knew about her extracurricular activities with Joseph. The more Gwen had talked the happier Sophie was that Remus wasn't attached to her anymore. This could be chalked up to Sophie's new found possessiveness of Remus. Every time she thought back the previous night and Remus calling her lovely and how he hated seeing her frown. She hadn't felt so…. needed or appreciated or special in a very long time. This was definitely a drug she had a taste for.

There was also the potion she had to focus on. Without it, she would have much more deadly things to worry about than the butterflies that manifest in her stomach. She would start brewing it tonight. Some of the more exotic ingredients would be required later. Right now, she could get it started and even leave it to its own devices over Christmas break. Trying to get the potion back and forth from school was a tactical nightmare she was happy she could skip. The alternative of starting two months later was not a pleasant one either. The streak in her hair had gotten a little more pronounced. It was still easily hidden, but it was increasing at a pace she did not like. With such an important potion, she was worried about trying to speed anything up. She had to brew it too. She had read a stipulation that for The Waning Moon Draught to work it had to be freshly brewed and with the essence of the person taking it. The addition of that would be about half way through brewing at that.

The chattering of owls brought her back to the breakfast table. Given that he had spent most of the night with her, she doubted that Remus had replied to Jane. It was possible. He had the whole day to do it. Sophie's insides did a little flip-flop as her regal Duchess swooped down to nuzzle at her. She did indeed have a letter attached to her leg. The loopy handwriting was that of Tessie. Sophie detached the letter while feeding Duchess bits of toast. Snidbits of conversations floated towards her as she worked.

"Did you hear what happened to Joseph and the rest of the team?" one shrill voice asked. Sophie's ears perked up at the name.

"No, what?"

"Well they went out early morning practice and found all of their stuff bewitched! All of their equipment, pads, brooms, balls, everything, flying around on its own. The rest of the lockers were sealed up tight so they could only get spare brooms and fly around and try to catch everything. I don't want to think about how they managed the bluggers!" Sophie was at the same time aghast and trying very hard to suppress her laughter at the mental image that afforded her. Joseph deserved it.

"Who could have done such a thing?" the gossips friend asked. The gossip barely needed egging on.

"Well of course it had to be those marauders! They might not normally go after Ravensclaw, but they were very loud about their thoughts over the last match. They thought that Joseph was, if not playing dirty, then certainly trying to. Not that he ever would. They're just threatened by his popularity." Sophie tried not to scoff. That would be the day.

Realization wouldn't dawn on her until she was sitting writing a report in the library. That's why Remus had been out so late last night. He must have been returning from his group's journey to the pitch. Sophie didn't know where his common room entrance was exactly, but she still felt that it was out of the way of where she had been. How had Remus known she was there? "How does he always seem to find me." She mumbled

"It's not like you make it particularly hard my dear." Sophie suppressed her muscles as they tried to jump in fear. You knew this was going to happen—part of her chided. Joseph of course was going to find her. Of course she was going to be muttering to herself when it happened too. "You and I need to have a little chitchat about your boyfriend." Sophie started to pack up her things with as much composure as she could muster.

"I don't have a boyfriend." She was proud of how steady her voice was. Throwing the last few of her things into her bag, she stood. Joseph perched himself on the table in front of her.

"A nuance of a label." Sophie finally met his gaze. Her eyes widened as she took in the purple splotch that had swollen one of his eyes shut and mutated his normally attractive face into a broken mask. "I see you hadn't had a chance to see his handy work." The smile was made twisted by a split in his lip. "You would be surprised just how useless beaters are without their bats." Sophie declined to answer.

"Now, I had been inclined to let you go. Gwen was useless to me anymore and her and Lupin not being together is of no consequence to me. After the events of this morning, I am less inclined to mercy."

"I don't know what you have yourself convinced of, but I am nothing to Remus but a passing acquaintance. With Gwen out of the picture, I hold no incriminating evidence in regards to you. I certainly had nothing to do with the events of this morning. I only heard about it after the owl post got here." Joseph's soft chuckle gave her pause.

"Oh you silly girl. You apparently have no idea how he looks at you. You will not be disappearing from his life any time soon. You'll continue to get closer and closer and I will bide my time. Then I will come to you one day. You will give me something to ruin one or all of them, I'm not picky." Sophie opened her mouth to protest. Joseph placed a single finger over her lips. "Shh shh shh. Don't try fighting this my dear, You will give me the information I want or I will use the wealth of information I already have to ruin you. Not only will that teach you the wage of disobeying me but also would I imagine hurt Remus quite a bit too." Sophie had never felt hatred like this before. Pure and hot and all consuming. She couldn't think past the rage and fear.

"Come come now my dear." Joseph cooed. "When you look so angry you make me want to do this." With one hand braced like a bar behind her head, Joseph crushed his lips to Sophie's. It was over blessedly quick but the poison of his touch seemed to burn on her lips like acid. "Be careful sweetheart. Right now, you are an instrument in my revenge. Don't want to get me addicted to me now do you?" With a final smirk and peck to her forehead, he left. Sophie sank down into her chair with only one thought.

"Well, that went well"

A/N: HUZZAH! I HAVE RETURNED TO MY MAGNIFICANT READERS! I honestly can't believe y'all are still here. You persevere in following me more than I do in writing this thing. Thank you for being patient with me *bows* So automatic bonus points and cookies for those who caught the firefly reference that happened not once but TWICE in this chapter. It might be corny but I'm happy to give Firefly the shout out. I'm also excited that I have two of the main conflicts framed and ready to go! Another huzzah! It makes it much easier to write when you kinda know where things are going. So ya my ravings beside I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY VERY VERY VERY MUCH! PLEASE REVIEW! AND KEEP BEING AWESOME! Ja Ne!