Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: Hey guys! I know I know, I was supposed to post this about five months back, but life happened and I am so, so sorry I just wasn't able to do it. I recently started my post grad and so I can't promise that I'll be regular hereafter nor can I promise to update weekly. But monthly for sure!

Hope you like this chapter, it has an OC whom I absolutely love, so do review and tell me what you think about him! :D

Chapter – Flumes and Tests

"Careful its a slide, so drop in when I call out from below," so saying, Remus turned and tapped the hunched-back of Gunhilda and muttered, "Dissendium."

We spent the next hour or so in the rather narrow and low to the point of claustrophobia, passageway which eventually emerged into, much to my surprise, Honeydukes.

By the time we emerged into the main shop, my heart was racing and adrenaline was making me light-headed and giddy. I couldn't believe that I had sneaked out of school! Lets just ignore the fact that it was during a holiday, it still counts. I couldn't wait to tell, Nici! And Edgar! And Emily, and Emmeline, and Mary, and Marlene, and Lily... Okay so maybe not Lily. She would have apoplexy.

We roamed the aisles, Remus exercised extreme restraint while picking up the various confections, one chocolate frog, three chocolate wands, one chocolate cauldron, a small pack of Toothflossing Stringmints and that was it; embarrassed, I immediately put back five of my ten sugar quills.

I was examining with equal amounts revulsion and interest the "New Arrivals" section, it contained something called blood-flavoured lollipops (who would want to eat that?!), when I felt a presence over my shoulder. Since Remus and I were the only ones in the shop as far as I had seen, without turning around I conveyed my thoughts, "Hey Remus, look at these, who would want to eat that?"

"Well," a low, silky voice, which did not belong to Remus said, "you can never tell with humans, they have the most," here the voice dipped, both in tone and in space, I could feel the warm exhale of breath on my ear as the person said, "amazing kinks."

I whipped around, and took a quick step back, right into the shelf holding the lollipops. The tall, thin blonde man who had spoken, extended a hand to steady the shelf, effectively caging me with his body, "Careful there, sweetheart," he murmured, bending down, his eyes were a dark blue colour, his nose long and puffy at the end and his mouth wide, "now then, why don't you tell me about your kinks, in detail." My eyes widened as he bent even further, we were almost nose to nose, I opened my mouth to say something, shout for help, but he continued, "After all, someone who looks so innocent with eyes like dark chocolate, yet sneaks out of Hogwarts must have some interesting hobbies, am I right?"

I gulped. Busted.

"Nectorius, what are you doing?" We both turned to see Remus standing at the end of the aisle, with a frown clouding his face. The blond guy, Nectorius, immediately straightened up, his face brightened, and his wide mouth stretched into an even wider smile.

"Remus!" he exclaimed and with two fluid steps he was gathering Remus into his arms. As I watched mouth agape, Nectorius crushed Remus' face into his chest and wrapped his long arms around his, effectively engulfing the whole of Remus' shorter frame with his body and started shaking him around, like a child would his favourite stuffed toy.

I heard words coming from Remus, but they were muffled. His captor, however, understood them and immediately let go of him.

"Oh my, Remy, have you grown taller?" he cooed bending down, much like he had done with me and looking into Remus' eyes, but while with me he had been flirtatious, with Remus he was bursting with affection. He then proceeded to pull Remus' pink tinted cheeks

My mouth was on the ground by now.

Remus batted him away, "Stop it, Nectorius." Yep, he was definitely blushing. Nectorius stopped, but his face still had a bright smile, with a mischievous edge to it. "Anyway, what are you even doing here? I thought you were in France with Benjy?"

Nectorius' smile vanished, his face looked completely different without it, like familiar places had the uncanny ability of appearing twisted and altered at night. Then it was back, dimmer, though. "Yeah, well mom and dad needed me here more, so, here I am," he extended his hands in a flourish.

Remus' was searching his face with a furrowed brow, and he opened his mouth to say something but Nectorius beat him to it, "But what are you doing here Remy? And where is the rest of your gang?" His face brightened even more and he leaned forward eagerly, "Is Shaggy Doo here with you?"

Remus' face twitched with a suppressed smile, "No, Sirius isn't here." Nectorius' face fell comically.

While all through this I had been standing quietly in the corner, perfectly okay with not being included in the conversation but at this a choked laugh escaped me and suddenly, Nectorius turned with a decidedly evil grin on his face which sobered and made me want to run for cover, he continued speaking to Remus, "And who is this? Did you go and got yourself a girlfriend Remy?"

Heat flooded my face, but before I could say something Remus snapped, "No, and would you stop calling me that?!"

Nectorius turned to Remus, with nostrils flared and indignation presesnt in the way he cocked his hip and placed his fist on it, "Well, you started it first, calling me 'Nectorius'!" His lip protruded in a pout, "I thought you liked me?"

Remus sighed, "I'm sorry, Tori, but would you please stop calling me that and ring up our purchases? Audrey and I have to get back to the castle soon."

Nectorius smiled smugly, as he advanced towards the cash register and we followed him, "So you are together," he stated.

"No," Remus said forcefully, "we just came here together. We got bored in the castle and decided to visit." He turned towards me and smiled warmly, "Audrey's a good friend."

His words evoked a conflicting warmth and slight, very slight disappointment.

I smiled back.

Nectorius was still smiling smugly, as he rounded the counter behind the cash register, an impish gleam in his eyes, "Sure, whatever you say. I just know that when I told you about the secret passage from Hogwarts to Honeydukes I knew that you would tell about it to only those who were close to and trusted implicitly by you and your friends." He paused and then said with a smile heavy with insinuation, "And you have always done exactly that. You Remus especially, have always chosen your friends very carefully and were even more selective in revealing your secrets. After all who would know better than you, the price of secrets?" Remus stiffened and shot him a glare but he ignored it and continues, "So Audrey," he leaned on the counter with his head in his hands, "would you like to try some of those blood-flavoured lollipops? Sucking on them gives the lips a particularly seductive crimson colour, and guys love that, especially those," he glanced slyly at Remus from the corner of his eyes, "more animal than others."

Remus slammed his purchases on the counter, and forced his words out through gritted teeth, "Just ring these up."

With a catty smile, Nectorius rung up both of our purchases, while I glanced between the two in confusion.

What had just happened? While I got the innuendo, and the fact that Nectorius thought there was something between Remus and me, the rest of it seemed to be some kind of an inside joke and I felt a bit left out. And just who was Nectorius?

Remus answered the question as we walked away from the counter, "That's Nectorius Flume, Ambrosius Flume's only son and heir to Honeydukes. He is also," he glanced at me then away, "gay."

My mouth parted on a long "Ohhh."

"But," my brow crinkled, "he was kind of," I hesitated, and tilted my head to look up at him inquisitively, and whispered "flirting with me."

Behind us, Nectorius called out a cheery, "Do come again!"

Remus raised a hand in a silent farewell and turned to address me, "That's just how Nectorius is, he flirts with everything and everyone."

"I can still hear you, you know," said boy called out from the counter.

"Oh, I know," Remus answered back, smirking.

We stepped out of the store together; I was fishing in my pocket for one of the liquorice wands to suck on and crashed into Remus' back.

He turned around and quickly moved out of the way. "Hey," I looked up at him, "why did you stop?"

In response, he tipped his head towards the sky and held out his hand. My gaze followed his arm and watched as a small, fluffy piece of a cloud floated down into his hand, my head snapped up to look at the sky.

"Oh yay, it's snowing," I restrained myself from clapping my hands in delight but beamed nevertheless.

Remus grimaced, "Travelling back to the castle is going to be hell." My face fell, he was right. He must have seen my expression because he quickly added, "But we still have some time before it starts in earnest, why don't we get a butterbeer to warm ourselves up before heading back?"

I nodded enthusiastically, "Lets."

After a quick stop at The Three Broomsticks, with just enough time to gulp down a butterbeer each we started back for Hogwarts.

As we trudged back through the heavily falling snow, he turned to me and asked, "You are-," he paused, searching for the right word, "okay, with Nectorius?"

"Umm, he is a bit too flirty for my taste-," I started hesitantly, but he cut me off.

"No, no, I mean, you are okay with him being, you know, different?" he asked, cautiously.

"Oh. You mean his being gay?" I waved my hand, "Eh, as long as he is human..."

He flinched.

I hurried to explain, "Look, his sexual orientation doesn't really affect me. That's his personal business. Besides..." I trailed off, not really sure whether to tell him or not. However, I decided that it was up to Emmeline to decide who she wanted to tell and I won't take that choice away from her.

He glanced at me inquisitively and I quickly shook my head, "Nothing, nothing." Then casting a glance around for a topic change, because I sensed that Remus was venturing into the brooding territory, my eyes landed on what the locals had started referring to as the Shrieking Shack. "Hey, have you ever been in there?"

Remus glanced at me, startled, then turned his gaze towards the Shack, then me again, paling and then the shack again. His eyes were wide, and his hands had curled into fists.

"Uhh, why-" he croaked, then cleared his throat; I watched his behaviour in bewilderment. He continued, "-why do you ask?"

"Well, you are one-fourth of the Marauders. I figured that if there was a mystery then you lot won't be far behind...?"My voice ended in a high pitch making it a question, wondering if I had offended him somehow.

He turned away from me to stare at the Shrieking Shack, and was silent for so long that I didn't think he would answer, I had just decided to prompt him, when he said, "It's supposed to be dangerous."

I stepped forward and stood beside him, he turned his head minutely to look at me from the corner of his eye. "I don't know," I said, "If it was really dangerous, then Professor Dumbledore would have done something about it. I trust his judgement."

He turned to stare at me fully, and I got the feeling that I was being evaluated, my stomach twisted, this was some kind of a test. After a moment he said, "We should hurry if we want to be in time for dinner."

I didn't understand, was I up to the mark? Had I passed? All kinds of questions and doubts ran through my mind as we continued our trudge in silence.

I didn't want to lose Remus, not only because I valued his friendship but also for, what, I admitted guiltily to myself, were purely selfish reasons. He was the first guy to pay any kind of special attention to me, whether it was just for the holidays since he wasn't in the company of his friends and we didn't have the rest of the Hogwarts' populace around us remained to be seen. That was a worry for later. Another reason was that Remus was a Marauder and well, I could admit to myself that I was shallow enough to be proud and excited to be in the company of what constituted as Hogwarts royalty. Because, honestly, who wouldn't be?

We continued our journey in silence, which was enforced by the increasing intensity of the wind and the falling snow.

We reached Hogwarts' some time before dinner and sneaked in through the gatehouse because apparently Remus knew the password to open the gates. At that point I wasn't surprised by this at all; in fact I kind of expected it. It was like The Marauders owned the castle.

We didn't speak until we were in the Entrance Hall. Then, it was just like yesterday, we lingered, awkwardly waiting for the other to speak or leave, whichever came first.

Finally Remus opened his mouth, "So, meet you at dinner?"

I smiled, relieved. I had apparently received a passing grade on his test, "Yeah."

He smiled back, and then with a final nod to each other, we parted ways.

A/N: Do Review guys!