I know it has been a while since I have last uploaded, but my exams are now over and I will be updating this story A LOT more often! I'm sorry if this chapter isn't brilliant, it's longer than usual and I promise the next one will be much better!
Remus’ P.O.V
I appeared in the front garden of a familiar house named, The Burrow which belonged to the Weasley family. Through the window I could see a child bobbing up and down. It was one of Mr and Mrs Wealsey’s children with their famous coloured hair, but attention was quickly diverted. The dark wild hair of Sirius blew slightly in the wind from around the corner of the shed.
“…I don’t need this,” he hissed to someone out of sight. I had seen Padfoot angry before, and this was as close as it got. I pondered for a moment, wondering if I should be the one to interrupt.
“I’m afraid you haven’t got a choice, Black,” an annoyed hushed man replied out of sight. I tried to put my finger on the voice, matching it to a range of faces.
I had to show myself, I couldn’t stand there earwigging over their conversation, no matter how much I wanted to know what they were jabbering on about.
“Padfoot!” I called out. Sirius turned around and his frown instantly turned into a smile for his friend.
“There’s no meeting today, Moony, but we are all here anyways. The women are in there having a good chinwag,” he said pointing to the house. I searched his eyes for anything that would tell me what he had been arguing about, for any signs of worry. There was nothing.
A cough came from behind him, revealing Frank Longbottom, another loyal member of the Order of the Phoenix. His voice rang alarm bells in my mind, matching him to the voice Sirius had been arguing with.
I acknowledged him with a nod. We were all friends here, all fighting for the same cause.
“Alice is inside with Neville, if you’d like to see him,” Frank said. I knew he and his wife had recently had a son, but I held no real love for children.
“I’d love to, but if there is no meeting, then I must get going,” I went to turn around so I could leave again. I just wanted to get back to Brie and spend some time with her. She didn’t really see me because of these meetings; I didn’t want to stay as the stranger. I had been so busy lately, I feared going home and finding the apartment empty and with no indication of her new location. So far, she’d been home every time. It killed me to know that she was lying in the room just next to me, sleeping, when I got home.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Sirius asked suspiciously putting me on the spot. Something had definitely made him mad today.
I had to think quickly so no secrets got exposed. “I have something I need to do,” I quickly rushed, “But I can stay if you want me to.”
Please don’t ask me to stay; I needed to tell my mind to shut up. I barely knew Brie and yet she was occasionally invading my thoughts and actions.
My friends grey eyes watched me carefully, making me panic inside.
“And do what?” he asked again. Whatever he and Frank had been arguing about had set him on edge. Frank was watching us closely.
“Something relating to the ‘furry little problem’,” I said, choosing each word carefully. ‘Furry little problem’ was the nickname that James and Sirius came up for the werewolf issues at school, a code word for my problem that only our four friends knew about.
Sirius’ face instantly softened, all suspicion washed away. “Alright, see you later,” everything was forgotten and he turned away from Frank, throwing an evil glance in his direction. I breathed a sigh of relief and disapparated on the spot.
~ * ~
I reappeared outside the door to my apartment and pushed open the unlocked door. Knelt on the floor was Brie, with her back to me whispering something to herself.
“What’s up?” I asked her casually whilst hanging my jacket on a rack.
She jumped up in the air, her brown curls bounced with her movements. A pale blush appeared on her cheeks. “Oh, nothing, I just dropped my wand.” She stole a glance at me, “You’re back early,” she commented quickly changing the subject.
“The meeting got cancelled. God knows why,” I said walking over to the enchanted broom and placing it back into the cupboard.
“Alright,” she still looked a little flustered. “I’m just going to go and get changed.”
I physically had to stop myself from staring at her. She looked amazing, why did she want to change? My mind shamefully wondered as I looked at her. No, I had to do something to make those thought leave; she was a friend, nothing more, no matter what I imagined. Pouring a drink made my hands busy, but it didn’t stop the thoughts from tumbling out of my lips.
“You look amazing, I wouldn’t change you one bit.” I could have hit myself, hard. What was I thinking making a comment like that? She didn’t like me and I didn’t like her. Worrying that I had made a fool of myself, I couldn’t help but think that girls like Brie were never interested in people like me. That was the fact I had to face - she was way out of my league.
“Thank you, you’re amazing,” she smiled at me. “If you want, I’ll stay as I am.”
I wanted nothing more.
My father warned me once that the pretty girls were the dangerous ones, the women to stay away from. I couldn’t imagine Brie being ugly on the inside, how she was possibly dangerous was beyond me, but things never turned out the way I wanted them too. I might as well give up now.
“Yes, stay as you are,” I looked away breaking my eye contact. “Are you ready to go?”
She nodded and went to her room to pick up her bag. I watched her walk away, my eyes settling on her legs momentarily. I tried to stomp the inappropriate thoughts out of my head with failure. Don’t think of her like that, the words repeated in my mind, the feelings will never be returned.
I walked over to where Brie had been knelling and pulled out the ancient book from underneath the chair. Thank Merlin she hadn’t found it, she wouldn’t want to know me if she knew what monster I was.
The note which Dumbledore had given me, entailing a concoction known as Wolfsbane Potion, was just where I left it, bookmarking the werewolf chapter.
I couldn’t make the potion. One wrong move whilst brewing it could end me up in a grave. For now, I would suffer in silence, just like I have from being a child.
I shoved the whole book back under the chair, hiding so much from Brie, but it was for her own good.
“Ready?” I asked her when she reappeared.
“Ready,” she confirmed, holding out her hand.
I looked at her for a moment, thinking how lucky I was to have been walking in Diagon Alley alone that day, and then to have been in the Shrieking Shack at that time. It was like we were meant to meet.
Suddenly feeling nervous, like when James had set me up on a date back in school, I eagerly placed my hand into her warm one, liking the way the whole situation felt. A spark of something hit me the moment we touched, but I ignored it. It was probably nothing.
Those dates never ended well, why would this? Because you actually like this girl, my thoughts chanted happily.
“I just need some potion ingredients,” she said letting me know where we were heading to.
We disapparated together, Brie leading us to the destination. I placed all my trust in her, knowing that we weren’t going to take any detours. She hadn’t given me any reason to not trust her up to now.
We arrived to a small back alley across the street to the apothecary, our hands still lingering together longer than usual. I was the first to reluctantly let go, trying to make it look casual. I looked around us, seeing who was about. My eyes scanned the deserted street of shops, but I knew death eaters lurked in every dark corner, waiting for the innocent to pray upon. When none were insight, Brie stood closely to me and we began walking quickly across. Two magical beings going to buy some potion ingredients, that’s all that was happening. We both kept our heads down, trying to not encourage interest, just like the first time we met each other here.
“Are you hoping to bump into another girl walking like that?” Brie teased me quietly.
My insides melted even though I knew the comment was a joke. “I just don't want to make eye contact with anyone, apart from you,” I replied without thinking.
The distant sound of a ringing bell alarmed the owner someone was stepping into the shop.
Instantly a young man appeared by our side wearing a dirty apron. I watched him closely when he spoke, in today’s time you couldn’t trust anyone. “How may I help you today?” he asked with a strong American accent.
His blond hair was neatly styled and his brown eyes looked like he genuinely wanted to help us.
“I’ll be just over here,” I said to Brie, wanting to give her some privacy. This, after all, was her shopping trip. I branched off to my left, not paying much attention to the things around me. I wasn’t much of a potion maker, I passed at school, but I wasn’t talented at it.
The shop assistant followed Brie around the shop, constantly talking about something or another. I didn’t pay attention to them; instead I looked down to see what was in front of me, trying to look busy or at least interested.
Small vials of premade potions in collections stood on the shelves and I looked directly ahead, reading the potion name. Love potion. My eyes focused on the person behind the potion bottles and across to store to Brie. She must have caught me looking because she met my eyes and sent a smile in my direction.
Something inside me awakened, why was I denying that I liked her? Just because she was hot, did not mean I didn’t stand a chance. At school James and Sirius always said they wanted the girls to say no to their faces, and hear the words from their lips before they gave up pursuing them. That was what I was going to have to do with Brie. It might hurt being rejected, but at least I’ll know the answer and I won’t think about what could have happened.
“I don’t need any help, could you please just leave me alone,” Brie’s voice rang out into the silence, getting more irritated by the second.
My feet began to move in her direction without me telling them to. Nobody was going to hurt her whilst I was around.
The shop keeper didn’t look taken back at all. “A pretty young woman shopping alone, that is a death wish if you bump into a death eater, babe,” his accent was grinding on me.
“I believe she wanted you to leave her alone,” I said firmly and stood next to Brie. She slipped her arm around mine, clinging on. The man in front now did look taken back, but I couldn’t concentrate on him, not whilst I had Brie touching me.
“I just thought-” I cut him off straight away, he didn’t need to explain.
“You thought wrong.” The American shuffled off and stood behind the till, leaving us alone together.
I looked at Brie, her beautiful grey eyes sparkling with something that I had never seen before.
“Thank you, Remus,” she paused. I loved the way she said my name, I didn’t feel invisible to her. “For protecting me,” she finished. My whole being filled with pride – she felt protected, and suddenly that made me feel more important. As though to put the cherry on top of the cake, she leaned across and lightly placed a kiss on my cheek, just like she did the day we met. I had to stop myself from tracing with my fingers where my skin burned with the meeting of her lips.
If I was ever going to stand a chance with her, I was going to have to move quickly. I didn’t ever want to enter the friend zone.
“You’re more than welcome,” I said smiling. She made me smile more than my friends did. Smiling with her was different to them, our situation wasn’t funny; I just felt happy all the time.
I glanced at the wolfsbane ingredients in her hand, an ingredient not used in everyday potions, and extremely pricey. This made me raise my eyebrows at her.
She looked down, breaking eye contact. “I like making potions,” she said clearly.
Something was amiss, but I brushed it off. The war was making us all suspicious of every little move people did. Brie was only buying potion ingredients.
My mind wondered idly as I waited for her to be served. If only I could afford wolfsbane all the time, then at least I could be slightly more normal. The monster inside me would be controlled. When Dumbledore gave me the wolfsbane potion instructions, I knew I’d never be able to make it, it was the most complicated instructions I had seen, something a skilled brewer would have difficulty making. And I couldn’t hire anyone because nobody would be willing to brew a potion that wasn’t ministry approved, that was a fact.
I mentally sighed, but suddenly it hit me. it was as though an imaginary light bulb image above my head. I gasped, loudly.
“What?” A shocked expression formed on Brie’s face, who had joined me.
My mind flew through the possibilities, quickly calculating all the clues so I could come to my final conclusion. Brie, kneeling near the book and looking surprised as I walked in, then buying wolfsbane the same day, finding her scent in the woods after a full moon, then meeting her unharmed. Brie seemed eager to leave, and soon before the next full moon. She seemed to have such a big secret, she was so desperate for me to not know and never find out.
I had one answer. One I could have had before if I had worked it out. Everything clicked together like the final jigsaw piece. Her biggest secret, her fear of me finding out, her being alone and running away from Voldemort. Now I held the answer.
“Nothing, nearly tripped,” I muttered to her. She smiled up at me, and then took my hand in hers. We were alike in so many ways. I knew she would understand me like no one else had. We were the same.
Brie was a werewolf.
A/N: As you probably know that I can't stick to a certain day to upload this story, so I have thought of a new way. I won't be uploading the next chapter until I get at least 10 votes on this one. It should be easy to do, the last chapter has more than 10, and that way I will have some time to write the next chapter. I'm actually beginning it now so it will be ready for when the little goal is met.
I'm sorry if you think I'm being harsh! But please do let me know what you think of this chapter below too. Even if you are leaving a comment to tell me to upload, I appreciate every single one of them!