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Remus supposed he should have seen it coming.
If he was being honest with himself, she'd been dropping hints all semester, like bringing him coffee during his office hours or letting her eyes linger a little too long during his lectures. Even her essays were suggestive: "Like Heathcliff, I too, have experienced the burning desire and thought-consuming fire of unrequited lust."
He'd pointedly ignored her overtures all semester and was more than a little relieved when the final day of term arrived. He had no desire to date a student, even one as admittedly good-looking as she was. In truth, she was the kind of girl he might have taken home if he'd met her in the pub, or at least snogged senseless for a little while after a couple of pints. But lately his attentions had been swinging more toward blokes and besides, she was way too young. Plus, her writing was mediocre. "Thought-consuming fire?" He could do much better than that.
He thought he was finally in the clear as the students filed out of his classroom for the last time that term. He loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt, and rolled up his sleeves, before hearing a soft sound behind him.
He turned around to see her standing in the doorway of his classroom, watching him with a look of naked desire. She swallowed, walked slowly toward his desk, and handed him a small pieced of folded notebook paper without breaking eye contact, letting her fingers gently brush his. Then she whispered, "Just think about it," before turning and hurrying out into the busy corridor.
Remus unfolded the piece of paper.
"I think you're the most brilliant, beautiful man I've ever met. If you're interested in something more, meet me tonight at The Three Broomsticks."
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Remus let out an exasperated sigh and sunk into his desk chair. He pulled out his phone and shot off a text to his group chat.
Padfoot, Prongs, Wormtail: Any chance we can meet somewhere else tonight? I'm not feeling The Three Broomsticks.
Prongs: Whaaaaaat??? Why the fuck not???
Wormtail: Rosmerta is expecting us, dude.
Padfoot: She baked! End-of-term cupcakes! Just for us!
Moony: She has other customers. I'm sure they won't mind eating them.
Prongs: OK, who is he?
Wormtail: Ugh, fucking Moony and your slag ways, we're gonna run out of bars.
Padfoot: What am I missing?
Prongs: Moony doesn’t want to run into whatever bloke he never called back.
Moony: That is NOT what's happening.
Wormtail: Whore.
Moony: STOP!!!!
Prongs: No, you stop! Stop leading people on.
Moony: You're fucking impossible. It's a student. She wants to meet me there tonight. I don’t want to give her the wrong idea.
Prongs: What a giant mistake you just made, Moony.
Wormtail: Yes, I'm surprised at you.
Prongs: You do realize that us knowing this information pretty much guarantees that we're not going ANYWHERE else tonight?
Wormtail: We need to see this girl.
Moony: Ugh. Fuck me.
Prongs: Indeed.
That's how, against his better judgement, Remus found himself at The Three Broomsticks that night. Hogwarts University was a small school, and the little pub was packed with students and professors celebrating the end of term. Remus pushed his way through the crowd, nodding hello to people he recognized, until he finally saw his three best friends waiting for him at a table near the back.
"Oi, Moony!" James called out, waving him over.
"Already got you a pint," Peter said.
"Cheers," Remus said, sliding into the bench seat beside Sirius who just mumbled, "Hey."
Remus sipped his beer and looked around the bar warily. James watched him through his round wire glasses.
"So where is she?" James said, swiveling in his seat to look through the crowd.
"I don’t see her," Remus said, feeling relieved.
"I wonder if she was in any of my classes," James asked.
"Doubt it," Remus said. "She was a lit major."
"Physics is for everyone," James insisted earnestly.
"You truly believe that don’t you, Prongs?" Peter asked good naturedly.
"So, how was everyone's last day?" Remus asked.
"Fun!" James said. "I set up an equation scavenger hunt around campus for my seniors."
"Oh my god, you're such a nerd," Peter snorted.
"And I wear it proudly," James said. "What about you? How many of your intro to accounting students actually showed up for class?"
"Three," Peter admitted. "I let them go after doing their teacher evaluations. Anyway, we can't all be as desirable as Professor RJ Lupin, can we?"
"Ah yes, the resident hottie of the literature department," James said. "You know he had to expand his office hours after the book came out?"
"No!" Peter said, giving Remus an affronted look. "You never told me that."
"I never told James, either," Remus muttered. He wanted to hide under the table.
"I hear things, Moony, I hear things," James laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.
Remus just shook his head, his ears burning. If he could count on anyone to take the mickey out of him for this, it would be these three. He, Peter, James, and Sirius had become fast friends when they all joined the Hogwarts faculty seven years ago. The school had been attempting to bring some younger professors onboard after a spate of retirements, and the new dean, Albus Dumbledore, snapped up each of them from other universities around the country, enticing them with high salaries, spacious offices, and onsite housing. Now, they were all deeply woven into the fabric of the little college town. James had met and married Lily Evans, one of the Hogsmeade locals, and had a baby last year; Peter was engaged to another faculty member; and Sirius had opened a pottery studio and art gallery just off campus which hosted visiting artists and student exhibitions.
As for Remus, he'd become something of a celebrity, much to his chagrin. His first novel became a bestseller when it was published six months ago, and ever since, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts were attracting tourists who wanted to take photos at the town and school where he'd set his magical coming-of-age story. Rather than feeling annoyed by this, the people of Hogsmeade embraced it, selling everything from walking tours to themed cupcakes to t-shirts. Remus had made sure not to put his own photo anywhere—either on the book jacket or website—and published under the name RJ Lupin, all with the hopes that he could fly under the radar, as he preferred. Although it had worked for the most part—he rarely got recognized out in public—it didn’t take much online sleuthing for fangirls and boys to find him online and enroll in his classes.
"Besides," James continued, squeezing Remus's cheeks between his hand. "Who could resist this face?"
Remus batted James's hand away as he and Peter dissolved into laughter.
"Certainly not me!" Peter said, leaning across the table and kissing Remus on the forehead. "What about you, Pads?"
"Yeah," Sirius said, sipping his beer and looking distractedly around the bar.
Peter and James's laughter soon turned into an animated discussion of that weekend's football match, but Remus watched Sirius, who was looking moody and preoccupied.
"You're awfully quiet," Remus said, elbowing Sirius. "Someone blow up a kiln?"
"Just a quiet day," Sirius shrugged, leaning back in his seat, and folding his arms. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact. Remus wondered if he imagined it.
"Any plans this weekend?" Remus continued.
"So, are there a lot of guys?" Sirius said out of nowhere. His voice was low, as though he didn’t want the other two to overhear.
"What?" Remus asked.
"In the chat. James said you didn’t want to run into whatever bloke you never called back," Sirius said, still not quite meeting Remus's eye.
"Oh," Remus said. "No, not a lot."
"I didn’t know there were any," Sirius said.
"You don’t have a problem with that, do you?" Remus asked. Sirius didn’t date much, but when he did, it was always men. Remus couldn’t imagine why he'd be upset.
"I just didn’t know you were dating anyone," Sirius replied. He sounded almost defeated.
"I mean, I wouldn’t exactly call it dating, but…"
"Why didn’t you tell me?" Sirius asked.
"There's nothing to tell," Remus said. He was feeling defensive, and he wasn’t sure why. "It wasn’t anything. Just a night or two here and there."
"But James and Pete knew," Sirius said.
"Well, they were there the last few times that I'd, you know…met someone."
"Oh," Sirius said.
"We weren’t going out without you," Remus said hurriedly. "It was always after you’d left."
Now that Remus thought about it, Sirius had been calling it a night early a lot lately, leaving him, Peter, and James alone at the pub. In fact, he seemed to be doing that more and more often, ever since Remus broke things off with Mary a few months ago. Not that they'd dated long, maybe six months. But still. Odd.
"Does this have anything to do with Mary?" Remus asked gently.
At this, Sirius shot him an incredulous look.
"Why would it have anything to do with Mary?" Sirius huffed.
"I don’t know," Remus said. "I'm just trying to figure out why you'd give a shit who I'm dating. What do you think, I'm going to move in on your conquests now that I'm seeing men more often?"
Remus tried to keep his voice light but found it hard to do for some reason. Sirius just gave him a withering look.
"You know that's not it," he said.
"Then what?" Remus said. This conversation was going nowhere, and it was starting to annoy him.
Sirius looked stricken. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and started chewing the inside of his cheek.
Then Remus spotted her. The girl from his class. He attempted to hide behind Sirius, but it was too late. She'd seen him and was hurrying over, not taking her eyes off him as she pushed her way through the crowd. Remus panicked. He didn’t know what to do. So, he did the first thing that popped into his mind.
"Sorry Pads," he hissed. "Take one for the team."
And he kissed Sirius, full on the mouth.
Remus wasn’t sure what exactly happened, but time seemed to stop. The noise of the bar faded into nothing but the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears and the feeling of Sirius's soft, full lips under his. Sirius hummed in surprise, but leaned into the kiss, fully and completely. Remus felt Sirius's tongue dart into his mouth and, seemingly instinctively, he wrapped his arms around Sirius's back and pulled him closer. Sirius's hands found Remus's neck, then his hair, and soon, his fingers were wound through Remus's curls. He tugged gently and Remus moaned, kissing Sirius harder still. He couldn’t possibly get enough. What on earth had he been doing with his whole life when someone existed who could kiss him like this, Remus thought feverishly.
It was only when they needed to take a breath that they broke apart and the sounds of the pub came flooding back. It might have been a minute or an hour, Remus couldn’t tell. What did time matter when the earth was busy shifting on its axis?
They stared at each other, panting and slack jawed. Remus couldn’t think. Then he took in Sirius: His pink, swollen lips, his rumpled t-shirt, his trembling hands, and most of all, his wondering, worried, searching eyes.
"Oh," Remus said softly.
"Yeah," Sirius whispered back.
James nudged Peter.
"You owe me five quid."