I solemnly swear that I am up to no good | Professor Remus Lupin

Chapter 41 | At midnight

I walked back into the great hall first, so no one would think we did something together. Harry and Oliver were discussing something and barely even notice that I was back. In the corner of my eye I saw Remus walking back to his seat, where he started talking to the other teachers again. Remus and I had agreed meeting each other at midnight in the shrieking shack, so we could spend the night and the next morning together. Tomorrow was Christmas morning and I had finished the wolfsbane so I could gift it to him. The next full moon was in one week, so he still had enough time to let the potion do it's work, since he would need to drink it the three days leading up to the full moon. I had already prepared enough for the rest of the school year.

I wondered to myself if he had a present, but I honestly didn't really care, since I would give him mine anyway, regardless of Christmas. For the next two hours I stayed in the great hall with Harry and Oliver, talking about school and Harry seemed to get more and more open about topics that he was usually avoiding. After a while Oliver excused himself and said that he was tired and wanted to get some sleep, since he has had quidditch practice the whole day and was exhausted.

Harry continued talking ignoring Oliver's words, he was muttering more to himself than to one of us. Some other students had already left too and I took a sip of my drink and looked at the ceiling. My eyes wandered over the stars and it was too hard to try to understand what Harry was saying, so I gave up.

"...Sirius Black is my godfather and when I heard that I was like whaaat..." he mumbled with dramatic gestures.

"Say that again" I stopped Harry.

"When I followed Fudge in Hogsmeade they talked about someone called Peter Pettigrew, that got killed by Sirius, and McGonagall said that he was my godfather" Harry answered me. "I know shocking, right? My parents trusted him and he betrayed him..." Harry spat out and I saw his eyes filling with tears. I placed my hand on his to calm him down. And it worked he looked at me questioningly. "Why do you ask?" He asked slowly.

I hesitated if I should tell him the truth and a part of me really wanted to, knowing that he would understand it probably. "I...I can't, not until I know it is the truth..." I said and he nodded understandingly. We stayed silent for a while and stared at the table.

"I should probably get some sleep too" Harry stated and tried to stay up, but the alcohol had a too big impact on him and he nearly fell over. I rushed over to him and helped him stand up and guided him to his common room. We stopped in front of the portrait and he mumbled the password, the lady in the portrait looked at me with a risen eyebrow.

"Don't worry I won't come in" I said a little annoyed. "I am just dropping him off"

She nodded and the door opened. "You will make it from here?" I asked a little worried about Harry. He nodded and smiled slightly to assure me, but he face made it obvious that he was more than tipsy, but he managed to stumble through the door. The door closed itself again and I turned around to walk to my own room again.

"Hey what is your last name?" The lady in the portrait asked me and I turned on the steps.

"Lovegood" I hesitantly answered, not sure why she was asking me that. "Why are you asking?"

"Something about you seems familiar..." she stated "but I don't know from where"
I just shrugged my shoulders and walked down the stairs. She probably just mistook me for someone else. I made my way to my own room and looked at the clock on the wall. It said eleven, so I still had one hour left before I would met up with Remus. I packed the things that I needed into a small brown leather bag. I packed Remus wrapped up gift, my wand and the marauders map. I touched up my makeup and brushed my teeth. I decided to send out the gifts for the twins, Luna, my stepfather and Grace, since I still had enough time to go to the owl tower. And this also could be my alibi if someone would see me.
I decided to stay in my clothes and grabbed my oversized dark grey coat and the Ravenclaw scarf. When the clock said I had half an hour until midnight I slowly walked out of my room and looked around the common room to assure that no one would see me. I slowly opened the door that lead to the stairs after i checked on the map that no one walked around the near corridors. The portrait gladly didn't wake up and I walked down the stairs as silent as possible.

I successfully made my way to the tower with the owls and send out the gifts. Standing on top of the stairs I decided to use my new animagus skill to train it. I transformed into my falcon form and flew away from the tower. The biggest difficulty was the steering part, so I probably looked like a drunken bird. I circled around the shrieking shack when I reached it and waited for Remus to walk inside. But on the whole ground around it, I saw no one. Suddenly I saw that the light was being turned on at the top floor, where the bedroom was. I landed on the roof so I could take a better look inside the room through the windows. Remus was walking around the room he seemed nervous and i wondered why. He was lighting up some candles and made the bed. He fixed his tie and his hair in a dirty mirror. Then he began walking back and forth in the room and checked everything twice, it was obvious that he wanted everything to be perfect.

I flew down onto the ground again and transformed into my human form again. I was about to open the old wooden door of the creepy house, when I heard something growling behind me. I turned around and saw the black dog with the shaggy fur, that I saw in Hogsmeade or at least he looked exactly like him. As soon as he saw who I was, he seemed to recognize me too. He stopped growling and walked up to me. I squatted down on his level and hold my hand out for him, he just looked at it.

"I am sorry little one, I don't have anything to eat for you...you look really hungry" I said in a kind voice. "Maybe I can get you something tomorrow...what am I doing here you can't even understand me...listen, I have a date know with, I would say, the love of my life, so please excuse me." I told the dog, even though it was completely worthless and petted him carefully on his head. He didn't seem too happy about my words or my try to pet him and he started growling again, so before he could do anything I rushed inside the shrieking shack and closed the door behind me.

I was pretty sure that the black dog wouldn't try to come in, so I just went upstairs and carefully opened the old and damaged wooden door that lead into the bedroom.

"Maeve" Remus breathed out and seemed to be surprised to see me. He looked even more nervous than before.

"Professor" I replied with a smirk and walked up to him. I rested my hands against his chest and got on my tippy toes so I could kiss him. I felt his body tensing up and I knew that something was wrong. I took a step back after I stopped kissing him and looked at him worried. I found myself debating whether or not to ask him, too scared that he would say something like he couldn't do this anymore. But before I could overthink more I decided to ask him.

"What's wrong?" I asked and it was obvious that my voice was shaking. He sighed and took some time before he answered.

"I...I am sorry, Maeve. I am so nervous... because I have thought about this a lot..." he stuttered and began to walk around the room. I felt tears coming up in my eyes, this definitely didn't sounded good. I was only facing his back and tilted his head to the side and I saw a smile on his face. This confused me because I thought he was about to end things and know he was smiling.

"After all my worries and the risks that come with this, I still decided to ask you this very selfish question. I can completely understand if your answer is no and I promise that this won't have any impact on your grades. I honestly would beg your to say no, but I love you too much...so Maeve, do you want to be my girlfriend?" He asked and my jaw dropped. This wasn't what I had expected but I was more than happy that he asked me. Remus was still only looking to the side and I walked up to him, so that he would face me.

"I would love nothing more" I answered with a wide smile, which he returned. He finally turned completely towards me and cupped my face in his hands. He pulled me closer and kissed me passionately.