Reading Between The Lines ~ Remus Lupin ~ Book 1

chapter 60

Thursday, 23 February 1978

Remus generally took his position as prefect seriously. He did his rounds. He guided the younger students. He broke up fights and made sure students weren't out after curfew. However, one of his prefect duties that he didn't perform was checking closed broom closets.

Broom closets were notorious at Hogwarts for being the place where students would go for some alone time with their partner. Remus really didn't want to see anyone getting it on or interrupt them. He knew how difficult it was finding alone time.

And for that reason, he never checked broom closets.

Until now.

"Mr. Lupin," McGonagall said as she walked to Remus during his nightly rounds.

"Professor," he nodded.

"Will you be opening up the broom closet and reprimanding its occupants?" she asked, gesturing to the broom closet that was emitting noise.

He did not plan on it.

"Yes, I will do that right now," Remus said slowly before turning to face the door.

He knocked on the closet door. "I will open the door in one minute," he announced awkwardly.

He heard McGonagall sigh loudly as occupants of the closet scrambled.

"Open it, Mr. Lupin," McGonagall said with some degree of exasperation.

"Yes, right, of course," Remus managed as he opened the door.

His mouth fell open when he saw the broom closet's occupants. The occupants blinked back, equally in shock. No one said anything for what felt much longer than the actual minute that had passed.

"It's not what it looks like, Moony!" Sirius cried.

"It was a lapse in judgement!" The girl cried.

"Well, lapse implies that it was just one time," Sirius pointed out.

"Shut up, Sirius!" she hissed.

McGonagall tutted and patted Remus' shoulder before walking away. "I trust you can handle this."

"Alright, I guess five points from Gryffindor and five points from Slytherin," Remus said, staring at the couple in disbelief.

"I thought one of the perks of having a prefect as a best mate was that I wouldn't lose points," Sirius said.

"And I thought one of the perks of having a best mate was that they told each other stuff like when they're dating," retorted Remus.

"Umm, could you maybe not tell Lena about this," Gwen said, twisting her hands and fingers together in a state of nervousness before pointing between her and Sirius.

"You can't ask him to lie to his girlfriend, Gwen!" Sirius said before Remus could open his mouth to answer.

"I'm not asking him to lie! I'm just asking him to not say anything until I tell her!" Gwen replied in annoyance.

Sirius' grey eyes widened in surprise. "Wait! You want to tell people about us now?!"

Gwen shrugged. "Yeah, if it's fine with you."

"Yeah it's fine with me! I wanted to tell everyone about it months ago!"

"Months?" Remus said, still shocked by Sirius and Gwen. "This has been going on for months?"

"Yes," Gwen said slowly.

"Since October eighth to be accurate," Sirius cut in.

Gwen looked up at Sirius in surprise. "You remembered the exact date?"