"Isn't that just wonderful," said Filch, looking between them with a grin, though it then vanished as he grumbled, "Follow me. Both of you."
The walk down to Filch's office was spent in complete silence and occasional glares that Diana and Remus sent each other every now and then from the corner of their eyes.
Diana had never been to Filch's office before, but Remus had come down here more times than he could count, ever since he had become friends with James, Sirius, and Peter.
As they followed Filch inside, Diana looked around at the dingy and windowless room, which was only lit by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. Wooden filing cabinets stood around the walls which contained details of all the detentions that Filch had given students throughout the years. James and Sirius had two whole drawers to themselves.
Diana had to hold back the urge to hold her nose in disgust as she felt the faint smell of fried fish that lingered about the place.
"Sit," Filch demanded as he opened the desk drawer and began shuffling around looking for parchment.
Diana and Remus sat down on the wooden chairs which were set against the wall beside his desk.
"Where are all the damn forms... I'm almost out of them, thanks to you and your friends," Filch mumbled, sending a quick glare at Remus.
He retrieved a large roll of parchment from his desk drawer and stretched it out in front of him. He then grabbed an old black quill from the pot on his desk, dipped it quill into the ink pot, and began to write.
"Names... Remus Lupin, and..." he looked up at Diana with narrowed eyes, "your name?"
"Merlin," she answered sincerely.
"Your name, child!" Filch demanded sharply.
She huffed quietly, folding her arms as she muttered, "Diana Greengrass."
"Ugh, damn it!" Filch cursed out loudly when the ink on his quill dribbled over the parchment, leaving a big stain. "That was my last form... never mind. I'm going to go bring another patch. You two better be here when I return."
With a warning glare at their direction, Filch walked out of his office, closing the door behind him and locking it.
"That idiot. We have wands! We can easily open the lock with a simple spell," said Diana crankily.
"If we escape, he'll make it double detention," said Remus without even looking at her. "Trust me. I know from experience."
Diana sighed miserably, leaning her back against the wooden chair. She fell silent as she remained seated rigidly, with her arms still crossed and her eyes fixed stubbornly on the floor.
No more words were exchanged between the two of them as the minutes passed by. Although the silence was at last broken by Remus as he let out a little sigh.
"I'm sorry," he whispered distantly, his voice barely audible.
Diana turned her head to look at Remus, who was sitting on the chair to her left, though he was avoiding her eyes.
"You — you don't have to say anything," he went on, playing with his fingers sheepishly, "but... it's just that... I didn't get mad at you because I thought you had kissed Sirius. I got mad because — because —"
Because you had kissed someone that wasn't me, he wanted to say, but the words died on his lips.
"Because you were my friend, and I didn't want to lose you to someone else," he said instead. He didn't dare to look up into her eyes, afraid of losing control of all his senses and doing something that he would regret.
"Were?" Diana repeated. "Does that mean you don't want to be friends anymore?"
No... Not friends...
"Of course I do," he said, finally looking back at her with nothing but yearning and sadness in his deep brown eyes. "I'm not sure if you do, after the way I treated you. And I'm sorry for that. I really am. I was being childish. I know I was."
"This is what you always do, Remus," Diana said resignedly, letting out a small sigh. "You keep pushing me away, then you come back and want to be friends, but then you push me back again — why are you smiling like that?"
He chuckled, catching her by surprise. "You just called me 'Remus'."
Diana gave him a look. "Yeah, that's cause it's your name, dipshit."
Remus laughed at that, shaking his head, "I know, I know. But it was the first time you actually said it."
Diana grinned teasingly. "Fine. If you don't like me calling you by your name, then I'll just keep calling you 'Lupin' —"
"No," Remus cut her off softly, reaching out and holding her hand which was resting on her thigh.
Diana felt her whole body stiffen at his touch, but Remus didn't pull away.
"No," he repeated himself, smiling warmly as his gaze melted into hers, "I like it."
Diana said nothing. A little smile formed on her face as she looked into his eyes, though she lost control of her own gaze as her eyes slowly wandered down to his lip, her mind going blank.
But she was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of the door unlocking. The moment Filch jerked the door open, Remus abruptly removed his hand from hers, leaning back on his chair again and sitting up straight.
Filch gave them a suspicious look before returning to his desk with the pile of new forms held in his arms. He thumped the parchments down on the desk before taking one and placing it in front of himself. He grabbed his quill, dipped it into the black ink again, and began to write.
"Let's see... names... Diana Greengrass and Remus Lupin... Crime —"
"Ah, Mr. Filch! Good, good, you're here," said Professor McGonagall as she entered through the open door of the office. "Peeves has thrown dungbombs in the Owlery again. It's become a habit of his now, as it seems. Please look into it."
"Yes, ma'am," Filch assented politely, though he didn't seem much happy about it.
"Thank you," said McGonagall, but as she began to leave, her eyes fell upon Diana and Remus who were sitting there awkwardly, looking up at her with pleading eyes.
"Mr. Lupin, Miss Greengrass. What are you two here for?" The professor asked, frowning.
"It's all a misunderstanding, Professor —" Remus began to explain, but Filch broke him off.
"They were out in the corridors after curfew!" Filch reasoned as he shot up to his feet, pointing a guilty finger at them.
"Mr. Filch, Miss Greengrass was asked to go to Professor Dumbledore's office, and Mr. Lupin is a prefect! It was his duty to be patrolling the corridors!" Professor McGonagall huffed angrily, looking tired of Filch.
"Oh..." His face fell at those words, trying to avoid looking at Diana and Remus's grinning faces. "Sorry, ma'am."
Professor McGonagall sighed before turning to look at her students' direction. "Miss Greengrass, please return back to your dormitory. And Mr. Lupin, I assume your patrolling duties will be over in ten minutes, so you might as well go back to your common room, too."
"Right. Thank you, Professor," said Remus politely, rising to depart along with Diana.
"Goodnight," Diana said curtly, leaving the office with Remus as they tried to suppress their smiles.
The moment they had gotten far enough from the office to be out of earshot, they burst into laughter.
"Oh, that was a good one." Remus chuckled.
"Yeah! Did you see the look on Filch's face?" Diana snorted with laughter. "It was amazing."
"True." Remus grinned as the two of them walked down the corridor. After a minute or two of silence, he then said casually, "I'm going to Azkaban tomorrow, by the way. Any last words?"
She frowned. "What? Why?"
"Oh, nothing important." He shrugged. "I'm just going to kill Sirius."
Diana laughed. "As much as I want to see that, but I don't think you should do that."
"Why not?"
She grinned slyly. "Because I have a better idea."