Summary: Rainy nights are your favorite to roam the halls, but little did you know that your long-time crush was also roaming the halls. So what happens when you meet him sitting by himself by a lake getting soaked to the core by the rain?
Pairing: Remus x Reader (Marauders era)
Rainy nights were your absolute favorite. For most people, rainy nights are nights where you can bundle under the covers in a nice warm room. For you however rainy nights meant late-night walks. When your dormmates found out this odd habit of yours, at first they were weirded out but after a while, they realized everything you do has a bit of weirdness mixed into it and they let you be. You cleaned up after yourself and never once bothered any of them so they did not mind.
Night walks around Hogwarts were peaceful, the castle that is almost always busy with the chatter of students and the clatter of feet was silent. It was almost as if the castle was sleeping, rejuvenating itself for the next day. Another fun fact that made these walks pleasant is that all students walking around past curfew would work together no matter which house’s crest was embellished on their chest. If a Slytherin saw a Gryffindor walking the halls they would warn about the caretaker that’s roaming the corridors and the Gryffindor would inform about the teachers patrolling. It truly was hilarious that breaking the rules is the only time the houses can put away their differences and work together. But during nights such as these, no one roamed the halls, not even the teachers, everyone opting to stay in the comfort of a nice, warm and dry room.
Remus loved to walk the castle at nights. Especially during the week leading up to the full moon. It helped to calm his racing mind; no matter what the weather he roamed the empty halls hoping the moon that disappears during the day will take his problems with it. His friends though with him in everything were kind enough to realize his wishes to be alone and let him have these nightly walks for himself.
It had been a particularly tough week for Remus. The week started with him being the victim of Snape’s prank. It didn’t get better from there, during Care for magical creatures he fell into a pile of dung, during Charms one of the students accidentally poked him in the eye after setting his robes ablaze. And to top it off, the week ended with Defense Against The Dark Arts class focusing on werewolves.
The professor knew of Remus’s issue and had warned him about it but thinking if he missed the class it would be more suspicious Remus went. Every minute he was sitting in class he was paranoid that someone would put two and two together. Not everyone in the school would be as understanding as his friends were, and it could be the end of his school career, he worried. A Ravenclaw in his year voiced his opinion about how vile and evil werewolves were and how he was disgusted by them. Before any of the other Marauders could rebut his comment you responded, “Hey asshole, not all werewolves choose to be one. There are people who get bit and still try to live out a normal life. They have enough to deal with and don’t need you or your prejudice mindset, so kindly shut the hell up.” If you weren’t two rows in front of him, Remus would have kissed you right then and there.
Remus had a huge crush on you but never tried to reveal this to you. He was content watching you from afar, enjoying all the quirks about you that made you, you. Your response to the Ravenclaw was the only highlight to his otherwise dreary day. It didn’t help that his friends in order to cheer Remus up teased him about you, and kept pestering him to reveal his feelings for you. It’s not that Remus did not want to make you his girlfriend it was that you didn’t seem too interested in dating anyone. You were beautiful and lit up any room you were in and so it wasn’t surprising that some boys liked you and asked you out. However, not once did you say yes to any of them, you were always polite in your rejection but Remus didn’t want to be another one of those guys. These mixed feelings along with the crappy week made him decide to walk around the castle late at night.
It was raining and no one was in sight. Remus let the rain seep through his clothes chilling him to the core as he made his way down to the Black Lake. Sitting there listening to the pitter-patter of the rain against the lake Remus let his mind wander to you. You were perfect in his eyes, but some people couldn’t see past your weird quirks. You were made fun of, often and whenever Remus could intervene, he did. You didn’t seem overly affected by it though, you were still kind to everyone. In fact, Remus couldn’t remember a time where you got mad at someone, which is why your earlier outburst at the Ravenclaw made him all the more joyous. Remus was so caught up in his thoughts of you that he failed to notice you calling out to him, and then deciding to sit next to him. It was the absence of raindrops falling on him that first alerted Remus of your presence.
“Hello, Remus,” you said sweetly as he turned to you. “I know that it may be nice to get wet in the rain however, based on how soaked your clothes are you’ve been out in the rain for a while. That mixed with the decreased temperature outside can lead your core temperature to drop to a dangerous level. I did not want you to suffer from hypothermia and pass out, hence why you are currently under my umbrella.”
“You are beautiful” was the first thing Remus could manage. “I mean it is beautiful outside,” he tried but failed to fix his blunder.
“I think you’re beautiful too Remus,” you let out. An awkward silence ensued during which Remus was freaking out on the inside about your confession, and you were debating what to do from here.
“I have a present for you Remus,” you broke the silence while grabbing something from your satchel. It was a box, beautifully wrapped with his name written in calligraphy.
“What’s this for?” Remus immediately questioned, wincing at how his question sounded more acquisitory than curious. The girl in front of him just confessed that she thinks he is beautiful and had gotten him a present and all he could do was question her. “I mean, it’s a really nice gift (Y/N). I’m just… er… no one really gets me gifts out of the blue,” he added.
“Just open it. You’ll understand why I got it for you,” you replied. You had to admit that you were very anxious about the present. You had a huge crush on him, actually, it was more than that but you didn’t have the courage to reveal it to him. Remus may not know it or acknowledge it but he was very handsome and had girls swooning over him wherever he went. Even though he had never exclusively dated a girl, you knew that you were nowhere near to his standards. It hurt you deeply but you had to keep telling yourself there was no chance of him and you ending in a romantic relationship in order to get your heart ready for the day Remus decides to date someone else. Though you strongly believed that you didn’t have future romantically with Remus you still cared for him a lot. This present was your way of showing him that.
Remus carefully opened the present, making sure not to rip the wrapping paper. Underneath the wrapping was an exquisite wooden box, the top of it had his name carved into it. He almost burst into tears realizing the amount of time you put into this present for him. Opening the top he pulls out the contents, most of it was chocolates that he’s never seen before but what caught his attention was the bottle at the bottom of the box. He took it out and examined it, shocked and wide-eyed he realized that it was wolfsbane potion. He turns towards you wanting to ask thousands of questions yet unable to let a word out.
You understanding his dilemma start explaining, “I know you’re a …werewolf.”
You made sure to say the last bit as quietly as possible while also looking around to make sure no one was even remotely near you guys. “I’ve known since the second month of our first year. Before you ask, no I have not nor will I ever tell anyone about it. I’ve watched you struggle to keep it together every time the full moon approaches. I’ve also seen how protective your friends become of you, I just really wanted to do something to help you but I didn’t want any of the other boys to think of me as a threat. It took me a while to get all of the ingredients together and it took even longer for me to perfect the potion. I don’t know if you already have a supply of it, but I just couldn’t watch you struggle anymore without doing something to help. I also included a couple of healing potions for you as well.”
Remus was still quiet, staring at the potion still in his hand and occasionally stealing a glance at you. “I’m sorry Remus. I’m sorry if I’ve overstepped my boundaries. I still stand by what I said though, I won’t ever tell anyone about this. Even if my life depended on it. If you don’t trust me I am willing to make an unbreakable vow with you,” you tried to get through to Remus but he kept sitting still. “I’m just gonna go now.” You state and get up with eyes filling with tears. In your efforts to show him how much you cared, you snuffed out any chances of him even thinking of you as a friend. To him you’re probably now the weird girl that couldn’t mind her own business.
“SHE WHAT???,” James and Sirius screamed together.
“She knows, she’s known since the beginning of first year,” Remus responded. After finding his way back to his dormitory Remus woke his friends up and told them everything that happened between the two of you. He just couldn’t help it.He needed their opinion on how to proceed.
Remus hadn’t realized you actually left. He heard all of the things that you said, he did. However he was so blown away by the amount of care you showed towards him, and how you knew about his biggest secret yet not once did you tell him. Because you respected him. You still treated him the same, whether the full moon was approaching or not. You didn’t treat him like he was made of glass, something that the Marauder’s had a history of doing. Because you knew he was competent. You told him he was beautiful, even though he thought he was a monster. With all these thoughts swirling throughout his mind, he failed to notice how you had interpreted his silence.
“Mate, you still with us?” James shook him a little.
“I said, this girl, the girl you’ve been in love with since second year, she knew this whole time about your furry little problem. She took the time to get you imported chocolates, and made you FUCKING WOLFSBANE potion, a potion that even gives Slughorn a run for his money to make. She did all this for you because she couldn’t stand to see you hurting and you just let her leave without saying anything,” Sirius frustratingly summarized the events that took place that night.
“What was I supposed to say? Well, I suppose I should have thanked her,” Remus muttered.
Sirius let out something in between a grunt and a scream. “Alright. Listen to me very carefully Remus John Lupin. I have more experience than you with dealing with women. So take what I say very seriously, (Y/N) is in love with you. No girl would go through this trouble to help out someone she considers to be just a friend. Even a girl as nice as (Y/N). So here’s what you are going to do. You are going to find this beautiful soul and explain your feelings to her. Bring some flowers also, maybe share some of your chocolate since there’s a good chance that you made her cry.”
It took a minute for Remus to come up with a plan but as soon as he had it, he jumped into action. He conjured up a bouquet of your favorite flowers and took a couple of the chocolates you had gotten him and ran off to where you were. He knew to find you in Astronomy tower, that’s where you usually went when you were upset, that’s where Remus usually found you curled up into a ball when the jokes of others got a bit too much for you to handle. “I’m the one who should be sorry. You are an angel. You went through so much trouble on my behalf and all I could do was be stunned and stay quiet,” he spilled walking towards you. You refused to turn around, your face was probably beet red from all the crying you did and it was not a side of you, you wanted Remus to see. “Love, please turn around for a second and let me explain something to you,” he pleaded. Reluctantly you obliged, wiping your face vigorously to try and wipe the sticky tears off your face. You were right about your face, it was beet red from crying, your eyes were puffy and your nose was runny. The site broke Remus’s heart, usually, when he found you in these situations it was because someone had made fun of your quirks. In those situations, Remus wanted nothing more than to find those people and make them pay but knowing that he was the cause of your pain now made him beat himself up even more. “Listen, I am so sorry for not responding to you when you gave me the present. I was rightfully blown away,” Remus said coming closer to you and cupping your face to forcing your eyes on him. “I told you that no one really gets me anything out of the blue and truth is no one has ever put so much thought into a gift for me. I was dumbfounded that you knew all along about my problem but decided to say nothing and treat me the same. You see, I worry that when people find out about my issue they will think of me as a monster and treat me as such, but when my friends found out and didn’t out me to the whole school I was relieved. However, that relief was short-lived because then they proceeded to treat me as if I was made of glass. It irritated me that they kept treating me as if I was some incompetent, and weak boy that couldn’t fend for himself. Then I started to worry that of those people that found out about my problem and chose to accept me as not a monster would see me only as a weak man. But you, you (Y/N), you changed everything. You broke down every one of my worries. You knew before any of my friends about my problem but didn’t think of me as a monster. You knew about my problem yet still treated me the same as you did before. Even at times, you let me protect you, when I am around you I feel like my true self. And then you go and get me a present that you clearly put so much time and effort into. I just…” Remus stopped. He didn’t know what else to say, rather he didn’t know how to describe what he felt for you into words.
Before he had a chance to second guess Remus crashed his lips onto yours. It took a couple of seconds but soon you were kissing him back. Cliched as it may be, you felt as if fireworks were going off in the middle of the thunderstorm. The intensity of feelings you had for each other was clearly conveyed through the kiss and it made butterflies erupt in your stomach. After a minute or two you both broke due to the lack of oxygen. “Be my girlfriend will you? I’ve been a coward for long enough. I like you (Y/N), a lot. Will you please go out with me?” Remus asked not knowing where he got a sudden surge of confidence. You just smiled at him and pecked his lips again.
Rainy nights are your favorite nights to roam around the castle. However, rainy nights might now be your favorite nights to sit in the astronomy tower, wrapped in the strong arms of your boyfriend, cuddled into him, eating chocolates and talking about anything, everything and nothing.
