Author's Note: So many thanks to Mercymadness and GraceMonroe for your reviews! It means so much to me that you take the time to review this story, and I appreciate you so much!

Without further ado, here's chapter 12!


Chapter Twelve: The Kidnapper and the Thief

Mairead messed up the next two batches of Wolfsbane Potion. Without a doubt, this was the most complicated and precise potion she had ever been tasked with brewing. Fortunately, she had reasoned out that, while each batch took two days to brew, she could get more test batches in by starting one every day. This took her chances from three up to six.

When her third try failed, she threw a tantrum and cried stormily. Afterwards, she was grateful that Remus had not been there for her breakdown. He had been spending a lot of time in her lab with her, though he unfortunately was not much help (it appeared as though Potions were Remus's one weak spot when it came to magic).

In fact, he had been spending a lot of time with Mairead in general. Since the Minister's Ball, Mairead had seen Remus every single day, and she was loving it more than she could put into words. Her adoration of him only grew the more time they spent together. She had forever liked and admired him, but the more of himself he let her see the more remarkable he became in her eyes. While he had always appeared to treat everyone with kindness and respect, Mairead realized now that there had always been a part of her that had wondered whether it was at least partially an act. But she saw now that Remus Lupin was a genuinely kind, compassionate, thoughtful man, with a dry sense of humor that sometimes seemed to come out of nowhere and a taste for mischief that belied his unassuming appearance.

Not that there was anything wrong with his appearance. In fact, Mairead found herself struggling not to ogle him when he was closeby. She was obviously mad about his entire being, but she found herself obsessing over something new each time she saw him. To her longstanding preoccupation with his eyes, smile, hands, and hair, she now added a fixation with his shoulders, his jawline, his eyebrows, his throat, and, strangely, his ears.

When Mairead had dated Roger and Steven, she had, over time, come to observe or see things about them that she did not find quite so attractive. As an example, Steven had, more than once, laughed in a nasty way when another student had tripped or gotten stuck in a trick stair or done something or other to embarrass themselves. And Roger had always been pushy in a way that had made Mairead uncomfortable. He had never seemed to care about her boundaries or what she wanted. He also had an obnoxious habit of preening at his own reflection when he passed by windows.

Remus, Mairead was convinced, was perfect. She should know: she had spent one afternoon with him forcing herself to try to find something about him that she found repulsive, something that would be the first crack that would ultimately lead to the crumbling of her crush on him. Perhaps he picked his nose or chewed with his mouth open or smacked his lips in an annoying way.

She had found nothing. He was only, by her estimation, more ideal the closer she looked. The only thing that had resulted from her scrutiny had been a litany of other traits and minor characteristics that Mairead immediately became enamored with, such as the way he had of ducking his chin slightly when he was about to admit something sweet to her, or how, when trying to keep a straight face about something going on he was too polite to laugh about, he would catch her eye and wink subtly at her.

The mere thought of anything happening to him to make him sad or hurt was enough to bring tears to her eyes, and the thought of him suffering through the agony of yet another uncontrolled transformation because of her own incompetence was unbearable to her. She needed to master the Wolfsbane Potion.

When her fourth attempt failed, Mairead began to panic. She only had two more chances to get this right before it would be too late for Remus and he would have to wait another month.

For her fifth attempt, Mairead did something that she had never done in the whole span of time she had been house-sitting: she stayed away overnight. From the moment she began brewing the potion, she refused to leave the room except for very brief bathroom breaks. Mrs. Weasley brought her meals to the lab, where Mairead ate them as far away from the cauldrons as she could while still remaining in the room. Remus had come by and begged her to relax, but in a fit of fanatic temper she had commanded him to leave. She couldn't afford any distractions. And Remus Lupin was the biggest distraction she had ever encountered.

She stayed up overnight monitoring the potion. She spent the entire second day nursing the potion, and when evening came she downed two cups of coffee before attempting the most difficult steps in the potion-brewing. She prepared her ingredients with the greatest precision she possessed. When slicing ingredients, she used a ruler to ensure they were cut into equal pieces, and she pre-measured out the weighed ingredients and set each of them in their own little bowl or dish. She lined the ingredients up on a table she had pulled up alongside the cauldron, putting the components she would need first the closest to her. She copied the instructions to the wall directly in front of her, blew it up in size, and, in a last minute innovation, charmed the text so that whatever step she was currently working on would be boldfaced.

There was nothing left to do but get to it. She took three deep, calming breaths, and reached for the first ingredient.

There was a knock on the door and Sirius poked his head in.

"Hey, Gryffindor, the mee-"

"GET OUT!" she screeched.

Sirius's eyes widened in surprise. "Woah. Got it." He left, closing the door quietly behind him.

Mairead repeated her deep breaths, wiped away the sheen of sweat that had already formed on her upper lip, and regarded the potion in front of her.

"Devil hates a coward," she muttered to herself.

She began.


Remus looked up curiously as Sirius re-entered the kitchen and returned to his seat at the table.

"Was she not there?" he asked quietly.

Sirius pursed his lips before responding. "She... seemed busy," he said.

Dumbledore looked over at Snape. "Severus, would you be willing to check on Mairead's progress with the Wolfsbane Potion before you leave tonight?" he asked.

"Yes, headmaster," Snape said, though his cold eyes turned malevolently upon Remus and sneered unpleasantly at him.

Remus listened in concern to Bill's report from Gringotts. He had made very little headway with the goblins. Ragnok, Bill's primary liaison with the goblins, was now refusing to work with him any further until they received compensation for the losses they had incurred when betting with Ludo Bagman at the previous summer's Quidditch World Cup.

The meeting moved on to Kingsley. The Auror had just begun to talk about the misinformation he was feeding the Department of Magical Law Enforcement regarding Sirius's whereabouts when the attention of the group was diverted to a commotion going on elsewhere in the house. Moody's magical eye rolled up to look through the ceiling, and he smirked at whatever he saw.

Someone was shouting, and their volume had set off the portraits in the entrance hall.

Remus, Sirius, and Molly set off as one to subdue the situation. When they reached the first floor and had silenced most of the portraits, Remus was able to pick out the words coming from the third floor.

"OH, FUCK YEAH! I MADE YOU MY LITTLE BITCH, YOU COCKSUCKER BITCHING FUCKFACE! HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, YOU GODDAMN, PAIN IN THE FUCKING ARSE PIECE OF TOMFUCKERY?! WHO'S THE MOTHERFUCKING BOSS NOW?!"

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Molly complained as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all poked their heads out over the first floor railing, curious as to what the fuss was about. "There are children in this house!"

"Not anymore," said Sirius, grinning up at the teenagers. "Harry, today you are a man."

Remus fought to keep a straight face out of respect for Molly, who looked very displeased with the string of obscenities that had just now broken off. He saw the teenagers on the first landing look around, and then Mairead came into view, clutching a goblet that was emitting heavy amounts of steam. Her hair was a tangled mess, there were stains all over the Muggle t-shirt and dungarees she was wearing, and her eyes looked slightly wild with exhaustion and triumph.

Remus couldn't recall having ever seen anyone look quite so sexy.

She locked eyes with him as she came down the stairs. "I did it," she said breathlessly. "I finally fecking did it."

Molly tutted. "Could you please watch your language, Mairead?"

Mairead blinked. "Oh, sorry," she said, looking for all the world as if she hadn't realized that she had been swearing like a sailor on leave.

"Never mind," Molly said huffily. She turned irritably to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, who were all still watching. "You four! Back upstairs!"

"We're still upstairs," Ron reminded her.

"Well, back in your rooms!" Molly snapped, stowing her wand in her robes and heading back towards the basement.

Mairead turned and looked at Remus, looking anxious. "Was I really being all that loud?" she asked.

Remus opened his mouth to reassure her but was distracted by the way her teeth were worrying her bottom lip, and the swollen, moist, raspberry red look her lip had when she released it.

Mairead took his hesitation for confirmation. "Oh, no, I was, wasn't I? I'm just so tired..."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Sirius said bracingly, slinging an arm around her shoulders and guiding her towards the basement. "Now tell me: which nun was it who taught you to say 'Cocksucker Bitching Fuckface'?"

Mairead pulled away from him, eyes wide with horror but still careful to keep the goblet level. "You heard that?" she asked.

"Oh, sweetheart, we heard it all." Sirius turned to Remus. "It's so delightful to me to hear the things that come out of this girl's mouth."

Remus grinned mischievously. "Personally, my favorite is 'Christ on a Cleansweep,'" he said, joining in on the teasing, relishing the way Mairead's cheeks were suffusing with pinkness.

"I hate you both," she muttered mutinously, setting off for the basement.

"Come back!" Sirius called. "I'll be your little pain in the arse motherfucking piece of tomfuckery!"


Mairead could not believe that she had finally gotten the Wolfsbane potion right. Snape had gone over the potion in excruciating detail - which, Mairead told herself over and over, was exactly what needed to happen, given the disaster that could result from feeding Remus a faulty potion - but in the end had found nothing wrong with it. Remus was now on his fourth day of drinking it, and all seemed to be going well.

All also seemed to be going well in Mairead's life, as Remus was still spending copious amounts of time with her. He picked up cleaning projects alongside her at Grimmauld Place, they volunteered to do the weekly shop for groceries together, he often met her after she got out of work, and she had even convinced him to come over to her new place to watch a film twice. Granted, it had been the same film both times, because they had wound up talking through it the first time, but she still felt that counted.

But Remus was not the man who was on Mairead's mind as she sat at a mid-week Order meeting. The Order were going over plans to convey Harry and the other Hogwarts students to King's Cross the next week, and the longer the conversation went, the darker the expression on Sirius's face became. The more she had observed him recently, and the more she secretly talked with Remus about him, the more certain Mairead became that something had to be done for Sirius, or he might begin to act recklessly. As eager as she was for Harry to leave Grimmauld Place, she knew that it would be agonizing for Sirius to say good-bye to his godson, for whom he clearly felt a fierce kind of love and pride.

His unhappiness was clearly not appeased when Dumbledore asked for volunteers to accompany the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade station on broomstick, to ensure its safe arrival. Sirius volunteered and was rejected by Dumbledore, owing to the chance that one of the students might be able to spot him in the air, or that someone at Hogsmeade would recognize him. Mairead could feel the anger coming off Sirius in hot waves as he glowered at the tabletop, jaw muscles working as he ground his teeth together.

Mairead was surprised to find herself conscripted in the transport plans. Even though King's Cross was a short thirty minute walk from headquarters, Dumbledore felt that it would be more prudent to expedite the trip, and so Mairead was asked to lend her car (and her driving services) to the task.

Once those plans had been settled, the last order of business was an old safe house that had been used during the first war. Since Pettigrew had known about the house when he had been in the Order the first time around, Dumbledore did not think it was wise to use it as a safe house anymore, but he did not see the need to do away with it entirely. He asked for volunteers to go up and check out the house, set deep in a remote part of the Grizedale Forest, make sure that it was still secure, and to booby trap it so that, if Pettigrew brought his comrades to call, they would be met with a very nasty surprise. Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Tonks, and Remus readily agreed. They would set out on the first of September right after escorting the Weasley children, Harry, and Hermione to King's Cross.

Dumbledore concluded the meeting and rose to leave. Mairead half rose from her seat, hesitated, chewing on her lip, then rose the rest of the way and hurried to follow the headmaster out of the room.

She could feel her courage leaking away as she hustled to catch up with the tall wizard's long strides, and softly called, "Professor Dumbledore?" before the last of it could abandon her.

Dumbledore turned and his periwinkle eyes twinkled kindly at her. "Yes, Mairead?" he asked lightly.

"Erm..." Mairead twisted her fingers around one another, unsure of how to begin. "Well... d-d'you know how... erm, how you've asked me to, erm, be sort of the Healer for the Order?"

"I do," Dumbledore said, nodding. If he was impatient with her stuttering, nothing in his countenance betrayed this.

"So..." Mairead broke off and took a look around when she heard footsteps. Snape had just reached the top of the stairs himself.

"Headmaster," he said, bowing his head to Dumbledore. He swept past Mairead as if she were a wad of chewing gum stuck to the pavement.

"Er, sorry," said Mairead, frowning with the sudden worry that Sirius or someone might walk in on them. "Could we actually -?" She nodded her head towards the library.

"By all means," said Dumbledore, indicating with a sweep of the hand that she should lead the way.

Once they were alone in the library, Mairead stiffened her spine and said, with confidence she most certainly did not feel, "If I am to be entrusted with the health of the other members of the Order, then I feel I must advise that we take not only their physical health but their mental health into account, too."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "Certainly," he said. "Do you have someone in mind that you wish to speak with me about?"

Mairead glanced nervously at the door again and lowered her voice as she said, "I'm worried about Sirius." Dumbledore waited courteously for her to continue. "He spent twelve years imprisoned in Azkaban, experienced two years of freedom - albeit on the run - and now he is back in... captivity, for want of a better word. What is more, the place where he is expected to remain at all times is his childhood home, which I have been given to understand was a very unhappy place for him. Sn- certain members of the Order appear to be taunting him about his inability to leave Grimmauld Place, and from what I understand once school starts nearly everyone is going to move back out of here and leave him all by himself. I'm concerned about the effect that all of this may be having on his mental state."

Here Dumbledore frowned slightly. "I agree," he said, taking Mairead by surprise with his acquiescence to her point. "Yet I see no obvious solution to this quandary. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I - he - I think he needs a purpose," said Mairead, floundering slightly.

"I had hoped that by putting him in charge of monitoring the receivers he might be granted a purpose," Dumbledore said.

Mairead nodded, frowning. "Yes, but unfortunately not much has been picked up by the receivers so far," she said, then quickly added, "Which I know you already know." She took a deep breath, then plunged recklessly on. "I think you should let him go with the group that checks out the safe house."

Dumbledore's bushy white eyebrows rose. Before he could respond, Mairead raised both hands in front of her to hold him off.

"You yourself said that mission has to be conducted in utmost secrecy, right?" she said, speaking quickly to try to get as much of her argument in as she could before Dumbledore cut her off. "The whole point is not to be seen by anyone. So what would be the harm in letting Sirius go? It's way the hell - I mean... sorry - it's way out in the middle of nowhere, it's Unplottable, and no one is even supposed to know it's there. He could go, help set up the wards and traps and stuff, and come back with the rest of them. It would get him out of the house, he would be doing work for the Order..." Mairead braced herself, then concluded, "I understand why it's important for Sirius to stay out of sight, but he would be out of sight for this mission. And it just seems like the benefits far outweigh the risks."

She stopped speaking and waited, holding her breath.

Dumbledore stroked his beard, deep in thought. Eventually he said, "Will you permit me some time to think this over?"

Mairead nodded so frantically she made herself dizzy. "Absolutely, yeah, of course, no problem. For sure."

Dumbledore offered her an enigmatic smile. "You have proven yourself to be an excellent addition to the Order, Mairead," he said. "I am delighted that you joined our ranks."

Mairead couldn't think of a thing to say to that, and so her brain settled for what it felt was the next best thing: a series of garbled squeaking sounds.


Remus Lupin used to consider himself to be a sane, level-headed man. He had always been the cautious one, the responsible one, the voice of reason. When the Marauders had planned pranks, their escape plans, contingency plans, and alibis had always been left to him. He had always been the one to rein in Sirius and James, and he had always been the first of their friend group to acknowledge when they had gone too far, made a mistake, or hurt someone (either physically or emotionally) with their shenanigans. Yes, Remus Lupin had always been a reasonable, circumspect person.

Until he had fallen for Mairead O'Keefe.

Now, he could barely recognize his decision-making skills and logic paths. The old Remus would have known that the solution to his infatuation with his young, alluring, and totally off-limits former student was simply to absent himself to the greatest extent possible. His attraction to her would eventually fade and regardless of how quickly that happened, he would be completely cut off from his ability to do anything about it. And the old Remus would certainly have known better than to allow himself access to a woman he achingly longed for in the week leading up to the full moon. He had known since adolescence that the wolf had a greater pull on his actions and emotions in the lead up to the full. His aggression rose, his temper shortened, his sex drive was elevated, and all of these were spectacular reasons why Remus had always chosen to limit his contact with other people around this time of month.

And yet Remus had spent every spare moment he could eke out over the past two weeks with the object of his steadily intensifying affections.

In his more sensible moments, Remus questioned why Mairead never seemed to grow annoyed with his recent attentions. A large part of him feared that she felt she could not say 'no' to him, as his former student. And yet Remus knew Mairead well enough - both from the year they had spent working closely together at Hogwarts and from the truly indecent amount of time he had most recently spent watching her, observing her, cataloging her mannerisms and characteristics - that he felt reasonably certain that, if she had been only acting happy to see him, he would have known.

But she seemed genuinely delighted every time he showed up. Remus also felt increasingly guilty for taking advantage of such a sweet person being so generous with her time and attention. He knew that Mairead would be this kind and welcoming to anyone who started hanging onto her, and he was frequently preoccupied with concern that she saw him as a pitiable old man who was too poor, sickly, and unsightly to have any other friends.

He had no idea what he had been thinking in proposing that they spend more time together to build a friendship. He felt wracked with guilt that he had led her into this arrangement under such false pretenses. He had no right asking her to be friends when every night for the past five nights he had lain in bed squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his hands around his sheets to stop himself from reaching into his pyjama bottoms to relieve the painful pressure as lust roared within him. Mairead innocently thought that they were building a platonic friendship, blissfully unaware that her new friend's ardor only grew more and more as each night brought the wolf closer to breaking out through his skin.

It was now two days before the full moon, and Remus felt that he simply must avoid Mairead, if only to spare himself the uncomfortable task of hiding his embarrassment. The past two nights had brought torturous dreams, cruel both in their specificity and their fleeting length. Dreams of hands roaming over bare skin, dreams of nibbling a path along her collarbone, dreams of his nose buried in her hair, of her whimpering his name, of arms twining around his shoulders, of sliding a hand down her thigh to curl his fingers around the back of her knee, of arching spines and agonized cries of passion.

Thus, when Mairead walked into the library, where he had been relaxing with a familiar book and a cup of tea, and smiled her brilliant smile at him, Remus resented the thrill that went through him, and hated the warm, full feeling of satisfaction he experienced when her bright eyes lit up in the way that told Remus she had been looking for him.

"Hey," she said, hanging onto the door and letting herself swing playfully with it on its hinges. "Am I interrupting?"

Say yes. Say you're busy. Tell her to go away.

"Not at all! What can I do for you?"

You fucker.

Mairead smiled impishly. "I was wondering if you were busy or if you might have a couple of hours you could spare," she said.

Remus made a note of the page in his book and closed it. "I can't think of any demands on my time," he said slowly. "What's going on?"

Mairead's eyes darted off to the side for a moment. "I wanted to see if it would be okay with you if I kidnapped you for a bit," she said, a smile still playing around her mouth.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "You know, generally kidnappers don't ask permission from their victims before striking, Mairead."

The smile faded from Mairead's face and a serious look took its place. "Really? Huh." Mairead began patting down the front and back pockets to her denims as though searching for something. "I should probably make a note of that. Now, where did I leave my kidnapper's handbook?"

Remus smirked. "I stole it," he rejoined. "I put it with my thief's handbook."

Mairead giggled and the sound went straight to Remus's stomach, which squirmed with gratification at making her laugh.

As he rose to his feet and vanished his tea, Remus told himself that the reason he was spending so much time with Mairead was because of the way he had hurt her feelings earlier that month. He owed it to her to treat her with kindness and congeniality.

He wasn't doing this for selfish reasons; he was doing it for her.

This was the mantra that Remus played over and over in his head as he sat in the passenger seat of Mairead's car, listening to another of her mixtapes as they slowly worked their way out of the city and into the suburbs.

About half an hour later, Mairead began to slow the car. She signaled and turned into the large, empty car park of an abandoned shopping center. She drove to the very middle of the lot and stopped the car, shut off the engine, and unbuckled her seat belt.

Remus looked around out of the windscreen and window. There was nothing around them except for a boarded up, heavily graffitied building and scattered light poles. He turned to Mairead, who looked about to bounce out of her seat with excitement.

"You really are kidnapping me, aren't you?" he asked with a teasing smile. "I regret to inform you: I cannot pay a ransom."

Mairead opened her door and began to get out as she briskly said, "No, actually, I'm going to murder you. I'm just scouting locations to dump your body."

Remus followed her lead and also got out of the car. He rested his forearms on the roof of the car and looked at her across the top. "Again: revealing your plans to your intended victims isn't the smartest choice, May."

Mairead threw her hands up in mock exasperation. "Well, how the hell am I supposed to know that?! You stole my handbook!"

Remus laughed and she grinned at him.

"So what are we doing here?" he asked her.

The barely contained excitement was back in her eyes.

"I'm teaching you to drive," she said.

Remus laughed in shock. "Y- driving?" he asked.

Her grin widened and she waggled her eyebrows at him. "Come over to this side," she ordered. Then, she paused uncertainly and said, "I mean, please. If you want to."

Feeling a smile tugging at his lips, Remus circled around the back of the car and joined Mairead on the driver's side just in time to watch her sink to her knees.

Remus blinked. Ohhh, I really didn't need to see Mairead on her knees in front of me today, he thought bleakly.

In one piece of good luck, Mairead seemed oblivious to Remus's discomfort. "Here, come down here," she said, gesturing with her hand that he should also kneel. She pushed the driver's door open as far as it would go and shuffled over to make room for him as he knelt down beside her.

"Okay, so first things first," she began. "Do you see those three pedals? The one on the right is the accelerator. It makes the car go. The harder you press the pedal, the faster the car will go. The middle pedal is the brake. It makes the car slow down and stop. The harder you press it, the faster you'll decelerate. And that last one on the left is called the clutch. It's what lets you change gears. You always have to push the clutch down to the floor."

As she spoke, she leaned past Remus and pointed to each of the pedals. She was so very close to him. Her thigh was pressing against his thigh, her hair occasionally tickling him as she moved, and, to make things worse, as she reached past him for a lever underneath the driver's seat to slide it backwards, she rested a hand on his shoulder to steady herself and he could feel the heat coming off her through his shirt. Remus tried taking slow, deep breaths, but found that this only overwhelmed him with her scent - brown sugar and vanilla, he decided.

"...Does that all make sense?"

Remus blinked and realized that he had been staring at her. "Right - accelerator. Middle - brake. Left - clutch," he recited.

She nodded. "Okay, get in," she said, pulling herself to her feet.

"Is that all the instruction I'm going to get?" he asked, half-joking, as he stood and dusted off his trousers.

She tutted. "No," she said, rolling her eyes. "And I definitely didn't give you this much sass when I was the student."

Remus laughed as she walked around to the passenger side. "No, you just called me a megalomaniacal moron, as I recall."

Mairead winced. "I did, didn't I?"

Remus winked at her, then slid into his seat. As he got in, his eye caught on something in the backseat. While Mairead was getting settled on her side, Remus took a subtle glance into the back of the car. A large duffel bag was on the floor. There was a blanket spread across the backseat, and another blanket had been piled against the door on one end of the seat, almost like a pillow.

Remus looked around at Mairead and saw from the wary look in her eyes that she knew he had put the pieces together.

"Mairead, are you sleeping in your car?" he asked as gently as he could.

Mairead's mouth twitched unhappily and she looked away, shoulders shifting nervously. "It's just for a bit," she mumbled. "A gig fell through."

Remus nodded. "Does that happen often?" he asked, carefully keeping his voice free of judgment and pity.

"No," she said quickly. "It's just - they were going to go on holiday, but the wife called me and, er, well, it sounds like they're getting a divorce instead."

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

She looked at him. "Well, you should be," she said, taking Remus by surprise. "It was probably your private investigation firm that found out the husband was cheating."

Remus laughed, once again caught off-guard by her strange sense of humor.

She squared her shoulders to the front of the car. "Okay, back to business," she said briskly. "Here's how the gearstick works..."


The sun was sinking by the time Mairead and Remus rolled up in front of Grimmauld Place. Mairead stole a glance over at Remus and felt herself blushing when he looked back at her, smiling warmly. He had caught onto driving remarkably quickly - which Mairead had not been surprised by. He was so incredibly intelligent and quick on the uptake that it had hardly been any work at all for her to explain how the various parts of the car worked. And unlike Mairead, Remus possessed a natural grace and hand-eye coordination that allowed him to work out how his hands and feet were supposed to move far more quickly than Mairead remembered picking up those skills.

They had driven around the car park in circles until Remus had gotten the hang of shifting, using the clutch, and steering, and then Mairead had directed him towards a country road, where he was able to pick up speed and get the car up into fourth gear.

It had been another hot day, and the way the sun had looked on Remus's fair skin, the way the wind had whipped his light, fluffy brown hair, and the way his long, graceful hands had draped over the steering wheel all made him look so unspeakably sexy that Mairead had had to look out the windscreen straight ahead of her for several minutes in order to get her attraction under control.

They had stayed out, driving down country lanes, Remus smiling broadly at Mairead's excitement at the sight of cows and sheep, until they realized that they were going to miss the Order meeting if they did not head back.

Remus had declined to drive back, saying that he did not feel that his skills were equal to the task of weaving in and out between London drivers, and so they had switched seats. Remus had beamed fondly at her as he watched her scoot the chair all the way forward so that her feet could reach the pedals, and she hadn't quite been able to bring herself to be embarrassed about her short stature when he was looking at her like that.

"I didn't mean to keep you out all day," she murmured to him as they made haste down the front hall towards the basement.

Remus turned and twitched an eyebrow at her, dark grey eyes twinkling mischievously. "Ah," he said quietly, "but how do you know that I didn't mean to keep you out all day?"

Yeah, I can just die right now, she thought to herself.

They had barely made it back in time for the start of the meeting, and there were not two seats next to one another, so Mairead went and sat between Moody and Mundungus while Remus sat between Sirius and Tonks.

The bulk of the meeting was devoted to finalizing plans for ensuring that Harry, Hermione, and the four Weasleys got safely back to Hogwarts in three days' time. Moody asked Mairead to bring her car to Grimmauld Place so that it could be magically enlarged. She, Remus, Tonks, Bill, and Fleur would be escorting Harry, Hermione, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny, and Arthur and Molly would bring their luggage. Everyone was to meet Moody on the platform, who would arrive early to sweep the platform for security risks.

"Probably should disguise your car, too," added Moody. "Especially if it's going to be used for other Order missions."

Mairead shrugged. "I mean, sure, if you want to," she said carelessly. "It's already the ugliest thing on wheels, so anything would be an improvement."

Moody did not laugh. Mairead shut her mouth.

"I think it would be wise to disguise Mairead's car," Dumbledore agreed with Moody. "I did hope that we might be able to intrude upon Mairead's generosity with her vehicle at least once more, and I think it would be best if it were not recognizable."

There was a silence, and it took Mairead a beat or two to understand that Dumbledore had asked her permission to use her car again.

"Oh!" she said, sitting up straighter. "Y- th- you wanted- erm, yeah. D- er, for sure."

Dumbledore graciously ignored her stammering and inclined his head to her in acknowledgment. "Thank you, Mairead," he said, eyes twinkling from behind his half-moon spectacles. "You see, I have rethought the plan for the scouting mission that is to take place that same day, and I would like to add two more Order members to the team."

Mairead's ears perked up. She looked at Dumbledore, mouth open and hoping this meant what she thought it meant.

"I would now like Sirius and Mairead to join the group that will visit the cottage in Grizedale Forest," Dumbledore said.

Sirius actually partially rose from his seat.

"Really?" he said, blue eyes wide with disbelief.

"Yes, really," Dumbledore said, smiling. "The mission must by nature be conducted in secrecy, and I believe your skills at wards and your propensity for... well, making things blow up, could be put to excellent use, Sirius."

Sirius looked like he couldn't believe his ears. Mairead wanted to cry with happiness.

Dumbledore himself looked quite satisfied as he turned back to Mairead, whose chin wobbled emotionally as she met his gaze. "Given the number of Order members who will now be going," Dumbledore went on. "I think it would be best if a car could be used for transportation... assuming that Mairead would be willing to lend her time and her vehicle for the purposes of this mission?"

"Absolutely," she readily agreed.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore said, smiling happily. "The cottage is in a beautiful location, as I recall. It is not far from a waterfall that feeds a small swimming hole, if I am not mistaken. In fact, I would highly recommend that you all spend the night there. Once you have finished your work - save the booby trapping, of course - take the night and the following morning to relax. Make your way back at your leisure. Goodness knows you have all more than earned it."

Dumbledore looked around the table, clearly pleased with the almost tangible boost in morale that the change in plan had inspired.

"Well, I believe that is all," Dumbledore concluded. "Thank you all once again for your time."

Mairead got to her feet, holding both hands to her mouth to stop herself from grinning like a fool. Dumbledore had listened to her. He had taken her advice and now Sirius would be allowed to leave Grimmauld Place for the first time in two months! She made her way out of the kitchen and up the stairs in a dream. She didn't even mind the concept of sleeping in her car.

"Hey, Gryffindor," she heard Sirius say quietly behind her as she walked down the corridor towards the door.

She turned and grinned at him.

"Got something to show you," he said, jerking his head towards the stairway.

"Oh, sure," said Mairead, following him as he led her all the way up the stairs to the fifth floor and along a corridor.

Sirius stopped at one of the doors lining the hall and turned the knob. Mairead peered curiously into the bedroom that was revealed when Sirius stood back.

He gestured with a hand at the bedroom, and Mairead tilted her head. "What is it?" she asked.

"Your room."

Mairead blinked once, then twice. "My room?" she repeated.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "You didn't honestly think I was gonna let you sleep in your car, did you?"

Mairead's shoulders slumped. "He told you?" she sighed.

A corner of Sirius's mouth turned up. "More like he suggested that I might consider letting you know that if you ever needed a place to crash you would be welcome here. I was able to put two and two together after that."

She sighed again, feeling embarrassed.

"Hey, don't be angry with him," Sirius said imploringly. "He's mad about you. He's just trying to take care of you."

All of her unhappiness evaporated instantly at Sirius's words and Mairead felt her face catch fire. For want of something better to do, Mairead walked past Sirius and into the bedroom, hoping he wouldn't see the effect his statement had had on her.

It was certainly one of the less dank rooms Mairead had been inside at Grimmauld Place. The decor definitely fell into the Slytherin theme that the rest of the house seemed to share, but it had a large window and the linens on the bed must have been new, scarlet and gold as they were.

Mairead decided to let her pride go and turned back to look at Sirius, who had joined her inside the room.

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "And... if you're talking to R-Remus, please thank him, too."

She had to look at the ground to get her second sentence all the way out.

Sirius was silent for a few moments, watching her with folded arms and a shrewd expression that made Mairead want to squirm under the scrutiny.

"He's never gonna make the first move, you know."

Mairead felt all the blood drain from her face.

"Huh?" she asked.

Sirius frowned at her. "Don't play dumb," he scolded her. "I've seen the way you look at him."

Mairead felt as though her blood must have turned to sludge. She could feel her heart thumping heavily as it tried to pump it through her veins. "What way is that?" she asked warily.

Sirius regarded her in silence for another moment. "Like his eyes are the sun and his smile is the air you breathe," he said, his voice a quiet rumble. "Like your reason for getting up in the morning is to hear what he has to say. Like you live and die by his happiness and wellbeing."

She had expected him to be crass. She had braced herself for a caustic remark. What she hadn't been ready for was for Sirius's expression to soften with respect and recognition as he looked on the woman who loved his best friend.

To her horror, she felt her eyes fill with tears.

"Fuck," she said thickly, turning away and swiping at her eyes in panic. "Shit." She sat down on the bed, feeling heavy with defeat.

Sirius simply watched her as she took deep breaths, trying to get her nerves under control. She had never told a single soul of her feelings for Remus. Not even Cedric had known. If Sirius knew, did that mean other people had noticed, as well? Did that mean -

Mairead's head shot up as she looked at Sirius with barely suppressed panic. "Does he know?" she asked. He was right; there was simply no point playing dumb.

Sirius barked out a laugh. "No," he said. "He's as oblivious as a Memory Charm."

Mairead laughed bitterly. "Well at least there's that," she said sourly. "My having a crush is so fucking pointless and futile that the possibility hasn't even occurred to him."

"I didn't say that."

Mairead felt her eyes burn as a second battalion of tears prepared to attempt to overtake her. "I know I'm pathetic," she sniffled. "Holding onto this... this ridiculous crush when it's so obvious he doesn't feel the same way. He would never feel the same way. I do know that," she added defensively, glaring up at him as if to preempt his scorn.

But there was no scorn on Sirius's face. "Let me ask you something," he said, closing the door behind him with a gentle click and leaning against it. "What exactly are your intentions for Remus?"

Mairead raised her eyebrows and blinked at him. "Intentions?" she said petulantly. "I don't fucking know! I don't have any intentions. Intentions implies that there's hope, and there's no hope. I know that; I'm not stupid."

Sirius snorted. "You sure about that?"

Mairead scowled at him. "What is that supposed to mean?" she snapped.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "It means that you're just as fucking clueless as Remus is."

If Mairead's temper weren't on a hair trigger lately, she might have picked up on what Sirius was implying. As it was, her scowl deepened and she cried, "What's your fucking problem? Why the hell did you invite me in here? So you could mock me for fancying your bestie? So you could insult my intelligence? So you could tell me to my face I'm not good enough for him?"

Sirius's own temper flared as he narrowed his eyes at her. "I invited you here so that I could see whether you're just curious about what it'd be like to shag a werewolf or if you're actually in love with him."

"What does it matter?" she snarled.

"Because I'm not going to help you break his heart, and if that's all you're going to do, then you can fuck right off, thank you very much."

Mairead stared at him harshly. "What are you talking about?" she demanded.

Sirius looked like he wanted to wring her neck, but instead he huffed out a breath and said, voice shaking slightly with annoyance, "Do. You. Love. Him."

"YES!" Mairead shouted, tears finally breaching her eyelids and running down her face. She buried her face in her hands and cried brokenly for a long moment. "I love him," she whimpered, hating how pathetic she sounded. "Are you happy?"

She felt the bed dip, but she didn't look up.

"Yes, actually, I am."

"Well, then, you're a hippogriff's arse."

She heard Sirius laugh softly. The sound made her grind her teeth together so hard that she almost didn't hear his next words.

"I just needed to be sure."

"Why?" she asked bitterly from behind her fingers.

"Because he adores you," he said softly. He sighed before continuing. "Remus doesn't fall very often, Mairead, and I needed to be sure you'd be careful with his heart. His life's been hard enough as it is."

"What are you talking about?" she repeated sourly, still not looking up.

"Kid," Sirius said emphatically. He reached out and tugged Mairead's hands away from her face. "He likes you back."

It felt like time stopped. Mairead felt as though everything were suspended in the air, as though everything in the world had a crystalline beauty and fragility to it.

Her mouth had gone dry, and her voice croaked when she said, "N-no he doesn't."

"Yeah. He does."

"Remus likes everybody," she said slowly.

"No, actually, he doesn't."

"Don't be thick," said Mairead, shaking her head doubtfully. "He's nice to everybody! He's even nice to Snape. It doesn't mean anything."

Sirius gave her a weary look. "Don't confuse Remus's courtesy for inability to discriminate."

Mairead stared at him, terrified of the hope that was beginning to swell inside her, afraid it would soon cut off her oxygen.

"He's mad about you," Sirius said.

"How do you know?" Mairead breathed.

Sirius smiled crookedly at her. "Well, for one thing, he told me."

Mairead's heart, which had been beating so sluggishly moments before, began pounding. "He did?" she whispered.

"Yep."

This was too much. It couldn't be possible. Slowly but surely, the hope that had been filling up her chest began to seep away, replaced by doubt.

"N-no," she said, shaking her head. "He can't. I would've noticed something."

Sirius tilted his head cheekily. "Babe, you're talking about a man who managed to keep a much bigger secret from the entire student body of Hogwarts. Twice."

Mairead swallowed. How had he managed that?

"W-well, if he likes me then why hasn't he done anything about it?" she asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Because for all of his, 'I'm not your professor anymore' bullshit, he absolutely still sees you as his innocent young student."

Mairead pursed her lips. "So it's useless then," she said, sighing heavily. "Well, of course it is. You said yourself it's never going to happen."

"That's not what I said."

Mairead stared at him. "Yes, you absolutely did!" she insisted. "You just did!"

Sirius leaned in, indigo eyes boring into hers, and spoke slowly and clearly. "I very specifically said that he is never going to make the first move."

Mairead's mouth opened slightly as the distinction dawned on her. She looked pathetically at Sirius, wide-eyed and meek. Sirius grinned doggishly at her.

"So: got any more of those Gryffindor guts in you?"


Author's Note: So there we have it! Now the cat's out of the bag for both of them, thanks to Sirius being the wingman that he is. What did you think? Too much fluff? (If that a thing?) And poor Remus getting all hot and bothered over Mairead. Ho hum.

Song for Chapter 11: "Can't Have You," by Parade of Lights (Remus)