Fic; Parting the Fog [2/4]
Title: Parting the Fog [2/4]
Author: perilousgard
Character/Pairing: Lily/James, Mary/Remus, Sirius/OC, Dorcas and Marlene.
Word Count: 2,884 (this chapter)
Rating: PG-13 for references to drinking and whatnot.
Summary: Mary avoids confrontation like the plague.
Author’s Notes: Once again, Lyla belongs to Terri! Also, Remus/Mary is CANON to me now.
The first thing Mary wants to do when she wakes up is whack whoever is shaking her, because they should know better than to shake someone who fell asleep holding a wine bottle. She reflexively tightens her grip around the neck of it, ready to whack, but someone slides it deftly right out of her loose hands.
“Oy,” she croaks, slitting her eyes open, and she sees a haze of red that must mean it’s Lily who shook her. “I was going to use that.”
“It’s ten,” says Lily softly. “Aren’t your parents going to be here by noon?”
That wakes Mary up. She sits up too fast and clutches at her head, which is pounding and sore from sleeping on the hard floor all night. “Shit, why didn’t someone move me?”
But she knows why. Judging from the state the house is in, no one was fit to look after anyone other than themselves. Mary reaches up to push the masses of blonde hair out of her face and realizes that her left hand is clenched around something. When she lets her fingers unfurl, she can tell they’ve been in that position for hours.
In her palm lies the small, silver half-moon Remus wears around his neck.
She drops it as though it had suddenly burned her. “How did I get that?”
Lily looks at her like she is dying to know the answer to that question. She shrugs her slender shoulders. “I’m not sure, but Remus can definitely tell you.”
Mary’s heart stutters out of rhythm. “Remus?”
“Yeah, you know, that guy you’ve fancied forever and may have just planted one on last night?” Lily grins.
Mary can feel the blood draining from her face. She looks down at the necklace on the floor, then glances wildly around, but sees no one other than Lily. “Where is he? Tell me he’s left…”
“No, he’s still here.” She can hear the suppressed laughter in her friend’s voice, and Mary wants to demand to know just what is so funny. “The last I saw, he was in the kitchen, wading through all that flour we managed to spill on the floor last night.”
A lump grows in Mary’s throat, and she can’t seem to swallow it. Leaning back against the wall, she pulls her knees up to her chest. “I kissed him?”
Lily nods. “That’s what he told me, anyway.”
She swears her heart stops again. “Oh god, he remembers?”
Lily wraps an arm around her. “Mary, don’t look so petrified. He’s not upset about it, or anything.”
“Of course he’s not upset on the outside, he’s too polite for that-“
Her friend shakes her head and helps her gently to her feet. “I don’t know the whole story, but you should talk to him. We’ve got to get your house cleaned up, though. We only have two hours.”
Mary glances up and down the hall, which is full of empty bottles, chip bags, and stray articles of clothing. Her parents will murder her if they come back and find the house like this, but the only thing she can bring herself to feel panic-and remorse-- about is the fact that she kissed Remus Lupin and she can’t even remember.
She brings two fingers to her lips, trying to recall the memory. What had it felt like? What had he done? Had he kissed her back? Had she looked a complete fool? Had she embarrassed herself? Is that why she had slept under a garbage bag? There were too many questions, and it seems the only person who will be able to answer them for her is Remus himself. And suddenly the pounding in her head seems overwhelming.
“I feel terrible,” she says, closing her eyes in an attempt to blot out the light, which only serves to make her feel terribly off-balance. Lily catches her arm.
“There’s this stuff-I dunno what it’s called-but it’s purple, and there’s a bottle of it in the kitchen. James called it the ‘anti-Firewhiskey’. It makes you feel loads better.”
But Remus is in the kitchen and Mary wants to be wherever Remus isn’t. In an attempt to forget about him altogether, she pokes at Lily’s arm. “Speaking of James, what ever happened to you two last night?”
Lily does not blush, but looks uncomfortable. “Nothing. We went swimming. That’s all.”
Mary gives her a skeptical look. “I think I remember seeing the two of you in your skivvies.”
“Because our clothes were wet, and we were both as drunk as everyone else,” Lily deflects. “I swear, nothing happened. That purple stuff clears your head, makes you remember things you might’ve forgotten.”
Mary looks up. She wants more than anything to remember that kiss. “Right, and that’s the stuff in the kitchen.”
Lily nods. “I’m going to start cleaning the bonus room, all right? I have no idea what happened down there, but I didn’t even see the pool table.”
Mary can’t help but laugh. “All right.” Suddenly her eyes land on what the redhead is wearing. “Nice shirt, by the way.”
This time, Lily does flush. “Shut up.”
As she heads off downstairs, Mary closes her hand around the necklace again and tucks it into her pocket before she makes her way cautiously down the hall, heading away from the kitchen. It’s entirely possible that Remus is no longer there, but it makes her feel better to go in the opposite direction. She decides that she’ll most likely feel better after a quick shower, so she moves towards the one in her parents’ room. She had told everyone to stay out of there, so she figured she wouldn’t run into anyone in there.
She almost has a heart attack when she sees the masculine form draped over her parents’ bed, but a split second later she realizes it’s not Remus. Walking over, she gives Peter a poke in the gut. He does nothing but burp and roll over, and she decides to leave him until later. She hopes he doesn’t drool on the pure white sheets, but for how messy the rest of them got, Peter looks reasonably clean.
The hot water makes her head feel a bit better, but as hard as she tries, she can’t remember kissing Remus. When she steps back into her clothes from the night before-might as well, since she’s going to be cleaning-her hand goes to the lump in her pocket where the necklace is. Along with the mystery of the kiss comes the mystery of the necklace. Surely she didn’t just take it from him? She wouldn’t have done that, regardless of how drunk she was. Had he given it to her, then? That seems just as unlikely.
Sighing, Mary pulls her wet hair back into a pony and goes again to Peter. When it seems clear that poking and shaking isn’t going to do any good, she bends down next to his ear and shouts, “THE TOAST IS BURNING!”
“Wha?” Peter jerks up, and they bump heads. Groaning, Mary pulls away, rubbing her skull.
“Fantastic, I really needed that…”
Peter squints as her for a moment as though trying to figure out who she is, and then his eyes go from his bare torso to the Sex Pistols album in his hand. He looks back at her, his eyes lighting up hopefully. “Did we-?”
“No!” exclaims Mary, disgusted.
“Oh.” His shoulders sag, but then he perks up again. “Did Dorcas and I--?”
“Eurgh,” says Mary in response, effectively cutting him off. “You might want to ask her yourself.”
“Brilliant, where is she?” asks Peter, attempting to stand up, but getting himself tangled in the sheets and toppling back onto the bed.
“No idea,” Mary replies, “but can you tidy up in here, please? My parents will be home in two hours.” She checks her watch. “Make that an hour forty-six.”
Peter just nods, finally untangling himself from the sheets. As soon as he’s free, he bolts for the door, hits the frame on the way out, and stumbles down the hall, yelling for Dorcas.
Shaking her head, Mary tidies the room herself, and Vanishes the record player back to her room. The Sex Pistols album, she believes, belongs to Sirius, so she takes that in hand as she makes her way back into the hall. She’s on a mission now, that gives her an excuse to keep avoiding Remus…Sirius will surely be terribly worried about where his record went off to…
She’s so focused on this mantra that she doesn’t realize she’s passing the kitchen until she’s standing right in the doorway.
Mary freezes, fully prepared to dive out of sight, until she realizes that the kitchen is empty. The flour that Lily mentioned is no longer there, and it actually looks relatively neat, save for a few chairs and decorations that seem out of place. She darts in to take a vase off the counter and put it back on the shelf behind the kitchen table, and spots the bottle of purple liquid Lily was talking about.
Setting the vase carefully in its proper spot, Mary moves around the table and picks up the bottle. It’s labeled “Fire-b-Gone” and has a cartoonish figure of a boy downing a can of Firewhiskey on it. She licks her lips once, wondering if this stuff can truly make her remember everything from the night before. Her fingers are just grasping the cork when James walks in and she drops the bottle in surprise.
“Dammit!” yelps Mary, at the same time James says, “Oy!”
The Fire-b-Gone spills over the floor, touching her bare toes, and Mary feels the memories of last night get locked away forever. She’ll never know what it felt like to kiss Remus for the first time. She looks up at James, wanting to be angry, but surprised to feel the prick of tears behind her eyes. Bloody hell. Get yourself together.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” says James, pointing his wand at the shattered bottle. The pieces move back together and he levitates the bottle back onto the table. But there’s no way to save the Fire-b-gone, and so Mary points her wand at the floor and says dully, “Evanesco.”
James peers at her. “You all right?”
She nods. “I know you didn’t mean to scare me. I’m just a bit jumpy.”
“I just came in to look for my--ah.” Stepping forward, he reaches over Mary’s head and pulls a red and gold Quidditch jumper off of the chandelier hanging over the table. “It’s a bit chilly this morning, and Lily’s got my shirt,” he says by way of explanation, tugging it over his head. “Have you seen her?”
“She went downstairs to clean up the bonus room,” says Mary, looking at the empty bottle. “Did you only buy one of those?”
“Yeah, we didn’t think to get more than one,” he replies. “Doesn’t take but a few sips of that to sober up. Are you feeling sick?”
Mary nods, and it’s not because of her hangover. “I’ll just have some water. Go find Lily.”
James is halfway out when he seems to be struck by a thought. “Oh! Remus is looking for you. He’s in the study, I think.” With that, he leaves.
A million thoughts enter her head at once, the most immediate being that he is surely only looking for her to get his necklace back and to ask her why she kissed him. She fidgets, fighting the urge to run straight to her bedroom and lock the door. The house still needs to be cleaned, with-she checks her watch-only an hour left to go. And it’s obvious Remus is sticking around to help. She can get the painful part out of the way, and then focus on getting everything tidied up. It’s better than running around and dropping things whenever someone enters a room, at any rate.
Sucking in a breath, Mary leaves the kitchen and heads for the study.
The study is where her father goes to do crossword puzzles in silence, and it’s where she goes to read when she wants to be by herself. It’s more like a library than anything else, and she finds the idea of Remus being in there so appropriate that it brings a smile to her face. He loves books as much as he loves chocolate, and so does Mary. When she was little, she used to collect word magnets and cover the entire fridge with them, taking the time to read and absorb each word. Even when she didn’t know what they meant, she loved the way they sounded. She would string the words together and make a story out of them, a story that usually made little sense but made both her parents laugh. She used to fancy herself a writer.
Going to Hogwarts changed her goals in life slightly, but Mary still loves books.
She stops in front of the study door and places her hand on the golden knob. This will probably be one of the most embarrassing moments of her life, but for whatever reason, she doesn’t hesitate at all as she pushes the door open and steps inside, leaning back against it. At the window, Remus turns.
“Hey,” she says quietly.
“Hey,” he returns, his voice equally soft.
“You, um-you probably want this back.” Mary reaches into her pocket and pulls out the half-moon necklace, holding it out to him. “I’m sorry, I don’t even know how I got it.”
Remus laughs. “You were admiring it, so I told you that you could wear it for the night.”
She blinks. “I was? I mean, you did?”
He nods. “James and Sirius made it for me. It’s not made of real silver-I’m allergic. It’s actually carved from tree bark and made to look like silver.”
“Oh.” She isn’t sure why he bothers to explain all that, but it only serves to make her wonder why he would have trusted her with it if his best mates had made it for him.
Remus smiles and takes a few steps toward her. “Sirius says it’s cool to let the girl you fancy wear things of yours. You seem a little confused, though, so maybe I shouldn’t take his advice anymore…”
It takes a moment for his words to click in Mary’s brain, and when they do, she says “OH!” so loudly that it makes both of them jump. “Oh,” she repeats, more quietly, and she feels as if all the blood in her body has just rushed to her face.
He steps forward again, looking embarrassed as well. “Am I making a giant arse of myself?”
“No! No, not at all. I’m the one doing that.” She twists the necklace chain around and around in her hands. “I’m the biggest arse in the world, actually, because I kissed you last night and I can’t remember.”
He quirks a brow. “Ah, Lily must have told you.”
She nods. “Yeah, and I wanted to apologize for that as well. It sounds like I bloody well attacked you-“
He grins. “In so many words.”
She groans, letting her head fall back against the doorframe. “Merlin, I’m never drinking again.”
“Mary,” says Remus cautiously, “I was wondering if you’d like to go out.”
“What?” Mary jerks her head back up so quickly she nearly gives herself whiplash. “Go out? You mean, with you?”
“Yes,” Remus replies, laughing again. “Preferably to Honeydukes, unless you have someplace else in mind.”
“No, I love Honeydukes!” says Mary, smiling so widely it feels like her face is about to split in half. “Have you heard about that new chocolate they’re making? What’s it called-“
“Shockolate,” Remus fills in, smiling back, and repeats the slogan. “ ‘Literally an explosion of flavor!’”
“Right,” laughs Mary, and they fall silent again.
“I suppose we should get everything cleaned up now,” says Remus after a moment.
“Yeah,” she agrees, quickly moving to pull the door open so they can get out. But both of them try to walk through the skinny doorway at the same time, and Mary finds herself sandwiched against Remus’ chest. Her heart feels like it’s stopped again.
“Sorry,” says Remus with a slightly breathy chuckle, and he moves back so Mary can escape.
She walks with him towards the bonus room, where she thinks she can hear Lily and James arguing. There is a crashing sound, and Mary starts to quicken her steps, but suddenly Remus catches her arm and pulls her back.
“You really don’t remember that kiss?” he asks quietly.
She shakes her head slowly.
He smiles in that sweet way that always makes her insides melt a little, and pulls her closer very gently. “Do you want me to remind you?”
In response, Mary grins and slips her arms around his neck.
end of part two
Author: perilousgard
Character/Pairing: Lily/James, Mary/Remus, Sirius/OC, Dorcas and Marlene.
Word Count: 2,884 (this chapter)
Rating: PG-13 for references to drinking and whatnot.
Summary: Mary avoids confrontation like the plague.
Author’s Notes: Once again, Lyla belongs to Terri! Also, Remus/Mary is CANON to me now.
The first thing Mary wants to do when she wakes up is whack whoever is shaking her, because they should know better than to shake someone who fell asleep holding a wine bottle. She reflexively tightens her grip around the neck of it, ready to whack, but someone slides it deftly right out of her loose hands.
“Oy,” she croaks, slitting her eyes open, and she sees a haze of red that must mean it’s Lily who shook her. “I was going to use that.”
“It’s ten,” says Lily softly. “Aren’t your parents going to be here by noon?”
That wakes Mary up. She sits up too fast and clutches at her head, which is pounding and sore from sleeping on the hard floor all night. “Shit, why didn’t someone move me?”
But she knows why. Judging from the state the house is in, no one was fit to look after anyone other than themselves. Mary reaches up to push the masses of blonde hair out of her face and realizes that her left hand is clenched around something. When she lets her fingers unfurl, she can tell they’ve been in that position for hours.
In her palm lies the small, silver half-moon Remus wears around his neck.
She drops it as though it had suddenly burned her. “How did I get that?”
Lily looks at her like she is dying to know the answer to that question. She shrugs her slender shoulders. “I’m not sure, but Remus can definitely tell you.”
Mary’s heart stutters out of rhythm. “Remus?”
“Yeah, you know, that guy you’ve fancied forever and may have just planted one on last night?” Lily grins.
Mary can feel the blood draining from her face. She looks down at the necklace on the floor, then glances wildly around, but sees no one other than Lily. “Where is he? Tell me he’s left…”
“No, he’s still here.” She can hear the suppressed laughter in her friend’s voice, and Mary wants to demand to know just what is so funny. “The last I saw, he was in the kitchen, wading through all that flour we managed to spill on the floor last night.”
A lump grows in Mary’s throat, and she can’t seem to swallow it. Leaning back against the wall, she pulls her knees up to her chest. “I kissed him?”
Lily nods. “That’s what he told me, anyway.”
She swears her heart stops again. “Oh god, he remembers?”
Lily wraps an arm around her. “Mary, don’t look so petrified. He’s not upset about it, or anything.”
“Of course he’s not upset on the outside, he’s too polite for that-“
Her friend shakes her head and helps her gently to her feet. “I don’t know the whole story, but you should talk to him. We’ve got to get your house cleaned up, though. We only have two hours.”
Mary glances up and down the hall, which is full of empty bottles, chip bags, and stray articles of clothing. Her parents will murder her if they come back and find the house like this, but the only thing she can bring herself to feel panic-and remorse-- about is the fact that she kissed Remus Lupin and she can’t even remember.
She brings two fingers to her lips, trying to recall the memory. What had it felt like? What had he done? Had he kissed her back? Had she looked a complete fool? Had she embarrassed herself? Is that why she had slept under a garbage bag? There were too many questions, and it seems the only person who will be able to answer them for her is Remus himself. And suddenly the pounding in her head seems overwhelming.
“I feel terrible,” she says, closing her eyes in an attempt to blot out the light, which only serves to make her feel terribly off-balance. Lily catches her arm.
“There’s this stuff-I dunno what it’s called-but it’s purple, and there’s a bottle of it in the kitchen. James called it the ‘anti-Firewhiskey’. It makes you feel loads better.”
But Remus is in the kitchen and Mary wants to be wherever Remus isn’t. In an attempt to forget about him altogether, she pokes at Lily’s arm. “Speaking of James, what ever happened to you two last night?”
Lily does not blush, but looks uncomfortable. “Nothing. We went swimming. That’s all.”
Mary gives her a skeptical look. “I think I remember seeing the two of you in your skivvies.”
“Because our clothes were wet, and we were both as drunk as everyone else,” Lily deflects. “I swear, nothing happened. That purple stuff clears your head, makes you remember things you might’ve forgotten.”
Mary looks up. She wants more than anything to remember that kiss. “Right, and that’s the stuff in the kitchen.”
Lily nods. “I’m going to start cleaning the bonus room, all right? I have no idea what happened down there, but I didn’t even see the pool table.”
Mary can’t help but laugh. “All right.” Suddenly her eyes land on what the redhead is wearing. “Nice shirt, by the way.”
This time, Lily does flush. “Shut up.”
As she heads off downstairs, Mary closes her hand around the necklace again and tucks it into her pocket before she makes her way cautiously down the hall, heading away from the kitchen. It’s entirely possible that Remus is no longer there, but it makes her feel better to go in the opposite direction. She decides that she’ll most likely feel better after a quick shower, so she moves towards the one in her parents’ room. She had told everyone to stay out of there, so she figured she wouldn’t run into anyone in there.
She almost has a heart attack when she sees the masculine form draped over her parents’ bed, but a split second later she realizes it’s not Remus. Walking over, she gives Peter a poke in the gut. He does nothing but burp and roll over, and she decides to leave him until later. She hopes he doesn’t drool on the pure white sheets, but for how messy the rest of them got, Peter looks reasonably clean.
The hot water makes her head feel a bit better, but as hard as she tries, she can’t remember kissing Remus. When she steps back into her clothes from the night before-might as well, since she’s going to be cleaning-her hand goes to the lump in her pocket where the necklace is. Along with the mystery of the kiss comes the mystery of the necklace. Surely she didn’t just take it from him? She wouldn’t have done that, regardless of how drunk she was. Had he given it to her, then? That seems just as unlikely.
Sighing, Mary pulls her wet hair back into a pony and goes again to Peter. When it seems clear that poking and shaking isn’t going to do any good, she bends down next to his ear and shouts, “THE TOAST IS BURNING!”
“Wha?” Peter jerks up, and they bump heads. Groaning, Mary pulls away, rubbing her skull.
“Fantastic, I really needed that…”
Peter squints as her for a moment as though trying to figure out who she is, and then his eyes go from his bare torso to the Sex Pistols album in his hand. He looks back at her, his eyes lighting up hopefully. “Did we-?”
“No!” exclaims Mary, disgusted.
“Oh.” His shoulders sag, but then he perks up again. “Did Dorcas and I--?”
“Eurgh,” says Mary in response, effectively cutting him off. “You might want to ask her yourself.”
“Brilliant, where is she?” asks Peter, attempting to stand up, but getting himself tangled in the sheets and toppling back onto the bed.
“No idea,” Mary replies, “but can you tidy up in here, please? My parents will be home in two hours.” She checks her watch. “Make that an hour forty-six.”
Peter just nods, finally untangling himself from the sheets. As soon as he’s free, he bolts for the door, hits the frame on the way out, and stumbles down the hall, yelling for Dorcas.
Shaking her head, Mary tidies the room herself, and Vanishes the record player back to her room. The Sex Pistols album, she believes, belongs to Sirius, so she takes that in hand as she makes her way back into the hall. She’s on a mission now, that gives her an excuse to keep avoiding Remus…Sirius will surely be terribly worried about where his record went off to…
She’s so focused on this mantra that she doesn’t realize she’s passing the kitchen until she’s standing right in the doorway.
Mary freezes, fully prepared to dive out of sight, until she realizes that the kitchen is empty. The flour that Lily mentioned is no longer there, and it actually looks relatively neat, save for a few chairs and decorations that seem out of place. She darts in to take a vase off the counter and put it back on the shelf behind the kitchen table, and spots the bottle of purple liquid Lily was talking about.
Setting the vase carefully in its proper spot, Mary moves around the table and picks up the bottle. It’s labeled “Fire-b-Gone” and has a cartoonish figure of a boy downing a can of Firewhiskey on it. She licks her lips once, wondering if this stuff can truly make her remember everything from the night before. Her fingers are just grasping the cork when James walks in and she drops the bottle in surprise.
“Dammit!” yelps Mary, at the same time James says, “Oy!”
The Fire-b-Gone spills over the floor, touching her bare toes, and Mary feels the memories of last night get locked away forever. She’ll never know what it felt like to kiss Remus for the first time. She looks up at James, wanting to be angry, but surprised to feel the prick of tears behind her eyes. Bloody hell. Get yourself together.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” says James, pointing his wand at the shattered bottle. The pieces move back together and he levitates the bottle back onto the table. But there’s no way to save the Fire-b-gone, and so Mary points her wand at the floor and says dully, “Evanesco.”
James peers at her. “You all right?”
She nods. “I know you didn’t mean to scare me. I’m just a bit jumpy.”
“I just came in to look for my--ah.” Stepping forward, he reaches over Mary’s head and pulls a red and gold Quidditch jumper off of the chandelier hanging over the table. “It’s a bit chilly this morning, and Lily’s got my shirt,” he says by way of explanation, tugging it over his head. “Have you seen her?”
“She went downstairs to clean up the bonus room,” says Mary, looking at the empty bottle. “Did you only buy one of those?”
“Yeah, we didn’t think to get more than one,” he replies. “Doesn’t take but a few sips of that to sober up. Are you feeling sick?”
Mary nods, and it’s not because of her hangover. “I’ll just have some water. Go find Lily.”
James is halfway out when he seems to be struck by a thought. “Oh! Remus is looking for you. He’s in the study, I think.” With that, he leaves.
A million thoughts enter her head at once, the most immediate being that he is surely only looking for her to get his necklace back and to ask her why she kissed him. She fidgets, fighting the urge to run straight to her bedroom and lock the door. The house still needs to be cleaned, with-she checks her watch-only an hour left to go. And it’s obvious Remus is sticking around to help. She can get the painful part out of the way, and then focus on getting everything tidied up. It’s better than running around and dropping things whenever someone enters a room, at any rate.
Sucking in a breath, Mary leaves the kitchen and heads for the study.
The study is where her father goes to do crossword puzzles in silence, and it’s where she goes to read when she wants to be by herself. It’s more like a library than anything else, and she finds the idea of Remus being in there so appropriate that it brings a smile to her face. He loves books as much as he loves chocolate, and so does Mary. When she was little, she used to collect word magnets and cover the entire fridge with them, taking the time to read and absorb each word. Even when she didn’t know what they meant, she loved the way they sounded. She would string the words together and make a story out of them, a story that usually made little sense but made both her parents laugh. She used to fancy herself a writer.
Going to Hogwarts changed her goals in life slightly, but Mary still loves books.
She stops in front of the study door and places her hand on the golden knob. This will probably be one of the most embarrassing moments of her life, but for whatever reason, she doesn’t hesitate at all as she pushes the door open and steps inside, leaning back against it. At the window, Remus turns.
“Hey,” she says quietly.
“Hey,” he returns, his voice equally soft.
“You, um-you probably want this back.” Mary reaches into her pocket and pulls out the half-moon necklace, holding it out to him. “I’m sorry, I don’t even know how I got it.”
Remus laughs. “You were admiring it, so I told you that you could wear it for the night.”
She blinks. “I was? I mean, you did?”
He nods. “James and Sirius made it for me. It’s not made of real silver-I’m allergic. It’s actually carved from tree bark and made to look like silver.”
“Oh.” She isn’t sure why he bothers to explain all that, but it only serves to make her wonder why he would have trusted her with it if his best mates had made it for him.
Remus smiles and takes a few steps toward her. “Sirius says it’s cool to let the girl you fancy wear things of yours. You seem a little confused, though, so maybe I shouldn’t take his advice anymore…”
It takes a moment for his words to click in Mary’s brain, and when they do, she says “OH!” so loudly that it makes both of them jump. “Oh,” she repeats, more quietly, and she feels as if all the blood in her body has just rushed to her face.
He steps forward again, looking embarrassed as well. “Am I making a giant arse of myself?”
“No! No, not at all. I’m the one doing that.” She twists the necklace chain around and around in her hands. “I’m the biggest arse in the world, actually, because I kissed you last night and I can’t remember.”
He quirks a brow. “Ah, Lily must have told you.”
She nods. “Yeah, and I wanted to apologize for that as well. It sounds like I bloody well attacked you-“
He grins. “In so many words.”
She groans, letting her head fall back against the doorframe. “Merlin, I’m never drinking again.”
“Mary,” says Remus cautiously, “I was wondering if you’d like to go out.”
“What?” Mary jerks her head back up so quickly she nearly gives herself whiplash. “Go out? You mean, with you?”
“Yes,” Remus replies, laughing again. “Preferably to Honeydukes, unless you have someplace else in mind.”
“No, I love Honeydukes!” says Mary, smiling so widely it feels like her face is about to split in half. “Have you heard about that new chocolate they’re making? What’s it called-“
“Shockolate,” Remus fills in, smiling back, and repeats the slogan. “ ‘Literally an explosion of flavor!’”
“Right,” laughs Mary, and they fall silent again.
“I suppose we should get everything cleaned up now,” says Remus after a moment.
“Yeah,” she agrees, quickly moving to pull the door open so they can get out. But both of them try to walk through the skinny doorway at the same time, and Mary finds herself sandwiched against Remus’ chest. Her heart feels like it’s stopped again.
“Sorry,” says Remus with a slightly breathy chuckle, and he moves back so Mary can escape.
She walks with him towards the bonus room, where she thinks she can hear Lily and James arguing. There is a crashing sound, and Mary starts to quicken her steps, but suddenly Remus catches her arm and pulls her back.
“You really don’t remember that kiss?” he asks quietly.
She shakes her head slowly.
He smiles in that sweet way that always makes her insides melt a little, and pulls her closer very gently. “Do you want me to remind you?”
In response, Mary grins and slips her arms around his neck.
end of part two