you are loved. - r.lupin (ft. THE s.black)

running after you

Caroline was doing her homework in the library with Lily when she started to zone out. I wonder what Remus is doing right now, she thought to herself. I wonder if he's moved on. Merlin, I hope not. I love him so much. I wonder how much longer my homework is going to take. How long do nargles live? WAIT. Back it up, did I just say that? Do I love Remus?

The ethereal girl dropped her quill suddenly and inhaled sharply. Her face started heating up and her heart was pounding out of her chest, so much that the sound of her heartbeat deafened her. "I love him," she breathed out.

Lily glanced up from her homework and tucked a strand of her red hair behind her ear. She gazed at her flabbergasted friend from across the table with raised eyebrows. "Care?" Lily waved her hand in front of Caroline but her best friend didn't seem fazed in the slightest. "Care? You there?" she asked. Lily snapped her fingers in front of Caroline's face and the blonde blinked suddenly.

"I have to go," Caroline announced abruptly. She left all of her belongings at the circular wooden table and practically sprinted out of the library, leaving Lily, who threw her hands up in the air dramatically.

"Yeah, Care! Just leave all your shit here so I can clean it up!" Lily called after her in a sarcastic tone. "Don't even tell me where you're going so I can find you later!" The librarian, Madam Pince, shushed Lily and the redhead immediately blushed and sunk lower into her seat.

The youngest Pettigrew was out of breath by the time she got to the Marauders' dorm and forced herself to catch her breath before knocking on the door. After a few minutes, she managed to catch her breath but she paced around the hallway a few times in hopes of figuring out what she was going to say to him.

"Fuck it," she muttered. "Just go at it. You can do it, Caroline. You are amazing and super fun and awesome. Okay, okay... okay! Okay." Before she could contemplate everything again, she forced herself to knock on the door. A few seconds later, the door swung open.

"Sirius isn't here. He's at quidditch practice," Remus informed. His hand was still wrapped around the cool metal of the doorknob and he planned to close the door after she gave a response. "He won't be back for another hour or so, so I'd suggest you come back later."

"I'm not here for Sirius," Caroline said shakily. Her fingers were nervously playing around with the hem of her skirt and she tried her best to remain eye contact with Remus so he wouldn't slam the door on her but it was getting awfully hard to do that when he was staring her down.

"Oh. Peter's down at the field with Sirius. He likes to watch Sirius and James when they practice," Remus explained.

"I know that," Caroline replied in a smoother, lighter tone. "I'm not here for Peter."

"James is also at practice with-"

Caroline finally built up the courage to do something and she cupped his face, bringing him into a long kiss. Being completely in love with her, the sandy-haired boy kissed back and felt familiar fireworks that he loved but pulled away once he registered the reality of the situation.

"I'm not here for Sirius or Peter or James," Caroline said rather quickly before he could even open his mouth to speak. Remus seemed taken aback so Caroline tried to recompose herself and she smiled sweetly. "I'm here for you, you dolt."

"Caroline, that's very nice, really. But I don't want an affair, I want something real," Remus insisted. He reached up and gently grabbed one of Caroline's hands that was on the side of his face and ran his thumb along the knuckle of her pinkie finger soothingly. He took both of her hands and carefully pried them off of him until both of them were no longer touching. "I don't want someone who can never-"