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Remus always hated how he’d never be able to take you on a stroll under the full moon. A staple of all the classic films he and the boys had watched, he secretly longed for that kind of romantic evening to woo you. Not that he’d ever admit it. He hasn’t even admitted his feelings for you.
You, that sweet Hufflepuff who often frequented Honeydukes on your days to Hogsmeade. Sirius was trying to show him all the different fire candies but his gaze stayed on the girl surveying the card you’d received from a fresh chocolate frog packet. A vision of curly hair and lollipop earrings that brushed the yellow scarf on your shoulders. Then it was like you could sense his gaze as you suddenly looked up and gave Remus a smile. His heart had almost given up then and there, when you approached to hand him the wizard trinket.
“I believe he’s one of your favorites?” Was the thing you’d said to Remus Lupin to make him sure about his feelings. The Gryffindor one year your senior who was secretly the object of all of your affections.
He blushed a bright pink that Sirius and James had to laugh at the sight of him awkwardly taking the card. But the lycanthrope was stunned into silence. Even on his walk home with the boys, he clutched the card closely to his chest and thought more about his bright and sweet underclassman.
You’d met your third year after practically falling out of Slughorn’s class. Apparently the class you were supposed to be in was on the other end of the castle so you rushed to pack your things and go. Remus was on his way to meet James to help him practice Quidditch when the poem book previously in your bag was left strewn in front of him. A little ways away was a young Hufflepuff with lots of curly hair running towards Madam Pomfrey's class. So he figured he’d hold onto the thing until the next time he saw you.
Which was nearly a week later after the incident. You lingered in the hallways late at night to search the castle again for your book. And Remus was wandering as well, one night away from a full moon that was making him anxious. You ran into each other just outside of Slughorn’s room where you asked him.
“Are you alright?”
He swallowed his panic of being seen and turned to see the familiar hair.
“I’m fine,” Remus said finally. “Just having a bad night, I guess.”
“Oh okay,” you accepted. “I guess I’m having one of those too. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, this happens a lot,” he explains. “I’m kind of sick so I deal with a lot of bad nights.”
“I’m sorry, Remus,” you told him. Which peaked his interest.
“You know me?”
“Of course, you and your friends are quite infamous.”
You turn to rummage in the little bag you carried and he tries not to pry by looking inside too much. It only takes you a moment before you’re presenting him with a bright red strawberry lolly in the shape of a heart.
“They were for sale after Valentine’s,” you explained, handing him the sweet. “Might make you feel a bit better.”
Remus smiled a little as he popped the confection in his mouth, then asked, “so, why are you having a bad night?”
“I’ve lost my favorite book and I haven’t been able to find it. Searched the whole castle at this point.”
The thought hit him and he turned to rummage in his own rucksack. As he pulled out the book, your eyes widened in happy surprise.
“You dropped this on your way out of class. I figured I’d hold onto it for you before someone like Sirius got a hold of it.”
“Thank you so much! You can’t imagine how miserable I’ve been without it, I read it almost every night.”
“I can tell, the spine seems to have been cracked ages ago. And they’re beautiful poems.”
“You read them?”
“Had to, since I was holding onto it all week. Plus it was an author I’d never read before.”
“Well, why don’t I read you one now? It might help to calm your nerves.”
And it did. For as much as Remus could read the words of love on the page, hearing them in your voice helped him to fully understand them as he followed the melody of your reading.
It was after that he’d noticed all the little signs you’d sent his way. The shy looks in the dining hall and how quickly you’d turn away when he’d look. Your blushing face whenever he “accidentally” bumped into you. How you always seemed to be in the library reading the books he’d just finished last week. Even how your friends would giggle every time you passed him in the hall.
Remus wanted nothing more than to make you his. So he’d be sure to always look for you in the dining hall and the library. He’s taking strange and long paths to his classes to catch a glimpse of whatever colorful earrings or brooch you might have on that day. And now he frequents Honeydukes more than ever to pick up whatever sweets he’s seen in your hands lately.
Luckily for him, both of you had the propensity for chocolates and honey-lavender lollies.
“Just ask her out, Moons,” Sirius finally says. The dog animagus was growing tired of breaking Remus out of his nightly routine of staring at you at dinner. Peter and James nodded in agreement from the other side of the table.
“I can’t,” the taller boy sighed. “I can’t get her involved with my…condition.”
“The only one who thinks she won’t accept you is you,” James told him honestly. Motioning at you with his spoon he continued, “Just look at her, she’s over the moon for you and you won’t say as much as two words to each other.”
It was written all over your face. In your lovestruck eyes and blushed cheeks, and in how quickly you tried to turn away from the gaze of all four Marauders. Remus let out a breath to relieve the feeling in his chest tightening again at the adorable sight.
“What would I even say to her, how could I even explain?”
“You don’t need to explain all at once,” his raven haired friend assured. “If she likes you enough, she’ll give you the time to tell her whenever you're ready. But you won’t know that if you don’t bloody try! Now go over there before I send a Howler in your name to do it for you.”
The Potter boy chuckled but agreed with Sirius, making the werewolf huff.
“Fine, but I won’t be responsible if she runs out of the hall screaming,” he told his friends. They gave him cheers as he stood to make his way over to the Hufflepuff table.
Where your group of friends were smirking at you and whispering to each other. Growing more frantic as he approaches before a shushed silence falls on all of them.
“Hi, Y/N,” he greeted. “May I have a seat?”
You scramble to make room for him next to you and Remus swings one leg over the bench to sit.
“Hi Remus,” you said finally as your eyes met his. He was still taller than you even seated, but it seemed he was almost trying to make himself smaller.
“Hi,” he said again. “So I was wondering,”
The whispers of your friends picked up again. As did your heartbeat in his ears, for which he almost damned his acute hearing.
“I was wondering if you have any plans to go to Hogsmeade on Saturday? And if you might want to go with me?”
Both of you were bright red, much to the amusement of both friend groups.
“Of course Remus,” you told him with a tone almost bursting with happiness. “I’d love to.”
I’d love to. It played endlessly through his mind even hours later in the Gryffindor common room. As he lounged on the couch with a goofy grin on his face while the boys plotted their schemes by the fire. Only this time the scheme was the perfect date for you and Remus. They wanted their lovesick best friend to have the best chance possible of impressing you. You, the girl on his mind for almost a year now.
The werewolf was early to the castle door that morning. His hair was slick with all the gel Sirius had insisted on and his nose stung with all the cologne Peter had sprayed on him. That was as much as he’d allow his friends to help after seeing the ridiculous outfit they’d tried to put him in.
“You’d look like James Dean!”
But he didn’t want you to like him as James Dean. He wanted you to like him as himself, as Remus Lupin.
The same Remus Lupin you were staring at from just behind a pillar. Where you’d been almost the same amount of time he’d been there, staring at him. The wrinkles of your dress were smoothed out almost dozen times by this point but you still couldn’t muster the courage to approach him.
Your friends were buzzing in the corridor as they had been for the entire night before. Though the parade of trying on clothes and fixing your hair had been annoying, you were touched by how much they cared. So much that your two closest friends had promised to be lurking on the trip just to make sure all went smoothly.
Perhaps it was their less than silent giggles that alerted him to where you were. You stood nervous as his head whipped around and eyes widened at the sight of you. Though the other girls were whispering about the blush now pooling onto his cheeks, it fell silent to your ears as you could only focus on how handsome his new hairstyle made him look.
“Hello Remus,” you greeted, taking in the sight of his warm eyes and bright smile. He moved a bit more shyly today without the other Marauders. From his cloak he presented a little daisy and handed it to you.
“Hello Y/N,” he said, his gaze focused on your beautiful dress. “You look lovely this morning.”
Another stutter of the heart, but this time it had Remus grinning.
“Thank you,” you said with the last breath he’d stolen from you. “You look lovely, too. Did Sirius do your hair?”
“That obvious?” he asks nervously and scratches at the back of his neck.
“Only Sirius wears so much hair gel,” you giggle.
“Well, I just wanted to look a bit nicer today.”
“Then I guess we had the same idea. Though I must say, you definitely don’t need the boys’ help on your looks. They’re not nearly as handsome as you are.”
The word had slipped out so casually. But when it settled in, you were mortified.
“Not nearly as handsome?” he says with a wolfish grin.
Where he was usually just tall, he now seemed to loom over you. The group of friends you had left somewhere in the conversation so you were left to fend for yourself under his teasing gaze. Eyes still a warm hot chocolate lingering on your blushing face.
You tried to cover up with your hands, but he caught them before they could reach your cheeks. Remus then pressed gentle kisses as a knight would a princess.
“I don’t mean to tease,” he tells you, hoping that he didn’t make you uncomfortable. “I’m just excited to hear that the most beautiful girl in the castle thinks so highly of me.”
Oh he had you now. As you looked up at him with sparkling eyes full of affection, Remus was excited to have the chance to romance you.
“I think we’ll be heading out to Hogsmeade soon,” you said next. “Would you want to stop by the bookstore? I know a couple titles you might like.”
It was his turn to have warm affection pooling for you in his gaze.
“Only if we go to Honeydukes afterwards,” he agrees. “I’m gonna buy you all your favorite sweets.”
The people in Hogsmeade were almost choking on the thick romantic air around the two of you. Holding hands, your thumbs would rub gently over the scar on the skin while listening to him talk about a recent music artist James had shown him. He noticed if your scarf loosened and always stopped walking to bundle you back up. More than once a loose compliment would slip from either of your lips and you’d both giggle.
“I’m just trying to keep you warm, sweetheart,” he explains.
“The only sweetheart around here is you, Moony,” you respond.
You’d first stopped at the bookstore and Remus smiled as you handed him another book of poems from your favorite author. He in turn scrolled through all the sections to find his favorite childhood stories of constellations and tried not to point out how many names sounded like members of the Black family. You two sat and read for almost an hour before the shopkeeper made you finally buy it.
Then was the candy store where he was all too happy to indulge your sweet tooth. Though he didn’t care for too much in the store, you seemed to ramble about all the different things you’ve already tried. Things like “the red cinnamons are too spicy” and “these taffies taste like birthday cake, so i get extras for my friends” were all being cataloged in his memory now. It was another hour and a half before you’d settled with all sorts of things and he bought his own bag of chocolates.
Finally as the afternoon was settling into evening, you’d found yourself in a booth of The Three Broomsticks with his arm slinked over your shoulder as the two of you talked. The butterbeer you both slowly drank turned warm in the length of the conversation of how many times you’d each dreamed of asking one another out.
“James tried to set us up by trapping us in the tents after the Quidditch match-”
“Lily tried that night too! When we somehow got locked out onto the balcony at the after party.”
Which led into conversations about your second, third, and fourth dates.
But eventually the professors had wrangled all students to trudge back to the castle. Though you both carried a lot under your arms, you each reserved a hand to be held.
“Love at the lovebirds!” called Sirius to Wormtail and Prongs. After a successful day of collecting masterful Marauder material, they were able to find Remus walking just ahead on the path.
“Moony’s over the moon,” Potter teased. But the three shared the same feeling of happiness for their friend. He was beaming brighter than the boys had ever seen him. All the way back to the castle and all the way back to the dinner table where they were happy to listen to his sap.
“And she said poetry was her favorite because they’re like the kisses of literature,” Remus swooned to his mates. “If she gets any more adorable, I think I might die.”
“We’ll be sure to make the funeral beautiful,” Padfoot promises with fake sincerity.
To which Remus gives him a harsh side-eye and says, “Only Y/N is allowed to plan it.”
“What?!” He and Pettigrew whined, “A girl you barely know over your best mates?”
“Definitely.”
“Well you might want to ask her about that now because here she comes and I think she’s got something for you,” James told them, and nodded his head towards your figure walking down the hall to where the group sat. In your hands was a neat envelope that had the werewolf’s mind in overdrive thinking of what it could possibly say. But he didn’t have the time to find out as soon as you were standing in front of him.
“Hello Remus,” you greeted sweetly and nervously.
“Hi,” he said breathlessly. Which he tried to cover with a cough before the boys got any idea to make fun of him.
The note in your hand was thrust at his chest and before he could ask you’d scampered back to the Hufflepuff table.
All four boys turned to look at their friend as he opened it.
“She wants me to meet her by the astronomy tower at 11,” he said to them, a goofy grin spreading across his lips.
“Already getting her into trouble, that’s our Moony,” one of the boys had cheered, but Remus was busy re-reading the simple sentence.
The rest of dinner passed by quickly as he occupied himself thinking of what the two of you were to do in the tower tonight. Knowing you, you had another thing about you for him to adore and he couldn’t wait.
The students shuffle back to their common rooms, James disappearing somewhere in the fold and reappearing in the boys’ room.
“Were you off with the Evans girl again?” Peter asked as he noticed his friend. James only smirked.
“A gentleman never kisses and tells,” he simply told them. To which all the rest laughed.
“What is this chivalry all of the sudden,” they teased.
“Just trying to live up to the Gryffindor name.”
They went on laughing and raving for another hour until eventually it started getting late. The Marauder’s quietly watched with amusement as Remus grew more and more nervous as time passed. For now his overthinking was taking him down the worst routes and by 10:50, Sirius had to push him out the door to get him moving.
The castle corridors at night were easy enough for Remus to maneuver, what with his wolf eyes adjusting well to the dark. And he knew the hallways like the back of his hand, so he was only ever cautious to listen out for professors.
“Alohamora,” he whispered to the lock on the door and let himself into the tower where you were standing, waiting. A bathrobe was slung over long pajamas in a fashion similar to his own, but somehow he wanted to bundle you up even further in a layer of himself.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he greeted gently. Your smile was warm as you turned to him and gave him a hug, and he felt content to finally have you in his embrace.
“Hi, Rem,” you greeted with your face buried in his chest. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he promised. He could feel your touch as your hands unwound form his back and slid down to hold his own.
“I need to show you something,” you told him. Remus straightens up at the shift of tone in your voice, more serious than he’d ever heard.
Silently, he allowed you to guide him further inside.
“I’ve been learning how to apparate,” you explain, standing by the largest of the globes. “I always liked to wander around the castle grounds, so I’ve been apparating whenever I can.”
“That’s wonderful, Y/N,” he praises. And your serious demeanor breaks for a smile to form on your lips.
“I can apparate with people, too,” you continue. “You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve taken Lily to see your friend James. But it’s fine since he could do me this favor.”
“Favor?” Remus begins to question.
“Do you trust me?”
“Well if you’re collaborating with Potter…” he tries to joke to cover his hesitance.
“Trust me, he’s very little to do with this, I’ve just been planning this for a while before you asked me out,” you assured him, rubbing a thumb over the scars of his hand. To which he relaxed a little and gave a small nod.
Remus Lupin apparated for the first time with his sweetheart Y/N to the place he hated most in the world: The Shrieking Shack.
He was almost trembling standing in front of his grand wooden prison. His heart sunk straight through his body and he could barely feel your hand clamp down tightly onto his. The panic was already swelling so even the first words you uttered were mumbled.
“-found this place a couple months ago,” you were saying, trying to turn his pale expression back to you. “And I’d heard about what some of the people were saying but I wanted to know if it was true. So, I came out here during a full moon.”
That caught his attention, “you what?!”
“Relax, no one saw me. But I saw enough to understand what was going on.”
Slowly you were leading him inside, though he didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were fixed hesitantly on your face alone.
‘What did you see?”
“I saw two dogs chasing a deer. Actually, a black dog and a much larger lighter one.”
His expression started to sour but he let you continue.
“At first I thought they were hunting together, but I noticed the stag was so close and yet entirely too calm. Then it looked like the dogs were playing, but it seemed the bigger one was much more ferocious.”
Remus winced at the description. And still paid no mind to how the two of you were now walking down a hallway further inside.
“Finally I got close enough to realize they were fighting. And then one of them turned his snout up and let out a big howl. He was a wolf.”
You were in the living room, turning the corner to ascend the stairs. Ones he’d never climbed as a human, fearing even the thought of the house. But too enchanted with you to feel that emotion now.
“And that poor wolf had a scar across his face.”
At the top of the stairs, you turned to the now wide-eyed boy. Both hands cup his cheeks before a thumb strokes at that matching mark.
“Just like this one,” you said with finality in a whisper. Before pressing a kiss to where the blemish stretched across his nose.
Tears pooled in his eyes and you rested your forehead against his.
“It’s okay, Remus. I know.”
“You do?” he asked, in hopes that maybe he could believe otherwise.
“It was almost the full moon when we met, darling, and you were so sick. A sickness you’re used to. You keep getting scars on your hands but you aren’t in Quidditch like your friends. Not to mention, they call you Moony, it wasn’t terribly hard to put it together after that.”
He was quiet for a moment, accepting that you knew about his condition. But that was only half of his concern.
“And…you’re alright with this?”
You let out a chuckle, finally dragging Remus into the bedroom. There was a picnic of tea and sweets you’d just bought in the candlelight, waiting next to a large open window. The new moon allowed for a canopy of uninterrupted starlight to stream through the glass. He’d never realized how beautiful the night sky looked through it.
“It’s why I always bought honey lavender lollies,” you said to him. “They’re good for relaxing, so I thought you might like them. And I always have chocolates because I know they’re your favorites. I even spent more time in the library because I knew you’d be there. After dinner, I asked James for the map so I can do this and show you how mad I am for you.”
His heart was warm and beating hard in his chest again.
You both sat on a sprawl of pillows that was laid out on the floor.
“You deserve a man who can take you strolling in the moonlight,” he says solemnly. It’s his final act of self-sabotage that you won’t accept as you laugh off the comment.
“I don’t need that,” you tell him. “I have my Moony right here. And he’s beautiful, all covered in stars.”
The tears finally overflowed from his eyes down his cheeks. His heart was too full with your sweetness, and you didn’t even understand how deeply he was falling for you.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he begins with a thankful smile. “I’ll gladly be the moon if you’re my earth, everything I need to live. Because I'll be the fool to always orbit you if you let me. “
“I’d love nothing more.”
From somewhere under the blanket you produced the book of constellations and let him rest his head in your lap while he read to you all his stories. While in the back of his head he planned evening strolls under the new moon, where he’ll woo you with poetry about his sweet, sugary love for you.