Head Over Heels | Remus Lupin ✓

Same Old Love

"Look, don't Emma me Remus. I get it you were raging hormones. And so was I. So we fucked." He winced at the crassness of her words. Her face didn't betray any emotions otherwise and Remus felt his heart drop.

"We were both consenting adults and it was just that, okay? I don't want you to make a big deal of it."

"But I want you to understand that- that.." he faltered. He was trying to plead that he didn't just want her to warm his bed or the other way around. It was never just that for him. 

He had spent the last few months once again trying to get her to talk to him - to open up. But unless it was at night in bed like it had been a few times or against a tree in the middle of the woods, she didn't give him the time of the day.

He didn't want him holding her only when it was in the middle of their lovemaking. Which is exactly what he told her.

"Lovemaking?" she laughed haughtily. It had that hollow element to it that made Remus stop and stare. "You made it pretty clear it was anything but that last May," she reminded him. 

He looked guilty.

"And what if I said that was me lying."

"Then you're a really good liar..and I'm even more of a fool for thinking I knew you even back then." Pain stabbed through her chest. 

Resigned Remus walked off to finish his morning chores.

ϟ

"That was harsh," she heard Sirius' behind her. "You don't get a say in this, Sirius"

Sirius shook his head. He had seen the werewolf going crazy for her these past few weeks. Their occasional nightly routines weren't a secret. Although Remus was almost back to his old self, he still wasn't the same with Emma keeping him at arm's length. 

Sirius couldn't even play the Devil's Advocate given how much he had seen Emma hurt all those months before.

"When it includes trying to ignore the sounds of the two of you going at it like rabbits in the middle of the night, it does," his reply was chirpy as ever. She gave him a pointed look. 

"He wants you back. Not just physically."

Not now. She couldn't do this right now. Her body might give in to him every time, her heart may still belong to him as well...but her mind... she wasn't ready to go there yet.

"I'm scared."

"Yeah, no shit. I got that."

"He hurt me, Padfoot."

Sirius sighed and sat down next to her. He could sense something more was off. While she had kept Remus at a distance the past few months since they started this odd arrangement, she had never gone out of her way to be downright nasty to him. 

She wasn't a tit for tat kind of person- to hurt him just to be petty.

Feeling the weight of everything crashing down on her she slumped against Sirius and rested her head against on his shoulder. Other than Remus, he was the one person she could talk to about almost everything.

Almost.

So instead she listened to Sirius soften her up to Remus' advances like the best man he proclaimed he would be at their wedding while she threw him wry looks and a hidden smile. Sirius stopped talking when he felt how warm she was next to him and cupped her face.

Just as Remus was returning from the nearest town where he had scoured for the latest paper, he stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. Emma hummed softly with her head on Sirius' shoulder as he spoke to her softly drawing out a tired smile from her. 

Remus gripped the newspaper in his hand almost crumpling it when he saw him caress her face.

"Moony just in time my man," Sirius perked up when he saw his friend make an appearance. Emma lifted her head to look at him but didn't say a word when he glared at them both.

"What?" It was his turn to seethe in anger. 

"Could you come look at her? She's burning up." Almost instantly he faltered harshness in his voice and was by her in a jiffy. 

With Sirius standing up, Remus took the vacated seat and brought a hand up to her temple. He pursed his lips at how warm she was. It hadn't been like this the night before.

"Is Tonks still sleeping? We could ask her to bring back some stuff from the town. I would have on my way back if I'd known.."

Emma didn't say anything when he lifted her in his arms to bring her inside. A little hazy, she wound her arms around his neck, doing a complete 180 from her behaviour a short while back. Remus looked at his friend questioningly. Sirius gave him a reassuring smile.

The werewolf was about to turn and head back in when he stopped mid-step. He thought he had picked up the slightest sound when a shrill Stupefy sounded through the forest barely missing Sirius. 

In a flash, he put Emma down who also scrambled to straighten herself. They had their wands out almost instantly. For a moment nothing else happened as they looked around.

Five dingy-looking Snatchers emerged from behind the trees slowly. At five versus three (four if you counted a sleeping Tonks inside), they were outnumbered.

"Think 'sat 'em?" one of them ask his crew loudly, eyeing the three Order members.

"I reckon. That one looks like the bloke Fenrir told us about. All scratched up in the face," said another one making Remus grip his wand tighter. Emma instinctively held him back.

"My my. What a pretty little thing we have here," the shorter nastier looking one stepped forward toying with his wand as he looked over Emma with a nasty glint in his eye. 

"Make that two pretty things Tony," called out the only witch among the Snatcher as Tonks' light brown hair appeared.

But with her Auror training she had the first person unconscious on the ground before she even fully exited the tent.

This set off the next chain of events as everyone now jumped straight to shooting spells at each other. In the middle of all the chaos, the tent caught on fire at one point. Pent up anger in Remus' body unleashed as he threw counter curses next to Emma while she kept dodging spells barely.

Sirius was back to back with Tonks doing the same. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Emma take a hit in her weakened state. Distracted he turned to rush to her before he was thrown to the ground forward on his face by a spell that hit him in the back.

Too dizzy to comprehend her movements anymore Emma felt herself being lifted. But it wasn't the comforting arms of Remus. This was rough and she felt like a sack of potatoes being manhandled.

"EMMA!!"

The sight of him reaching for her as two Snatchers held him back pinned to the ground was the last thing she saw. She remembered seeing his dejected face, as the horror dawned upon him before she let the blackness consume her.

ϟ

A/N: I'm back. I was in the middle of a writing frenzy for an upcoming original fiction so I was a little distracted on this. But the inspiration for this finally hit me yesterday so here we are. Also, I was a little bummed from the ending of Dark Season 3 (although I totally recommend that show). 

GIF: "alayne" on Tumblr