I don't remember falling
asleep. The last thing I remember was staring into Remus's face, his
eyes glistening. I remember him muttering a “g'night” and
stumbling up into the boys' dormitories.

Then I woke up in my bed,
hair as messy as ever.

And I realized it was all a
dream.

I was going to walk into
Potions with my friends' glaring, Remus glancing at me hopefully
every ten seconds, and the teacher droning on and on for forty-five
minutes.

But I remember so clearly his
warm arms around me. He smelled like chocolate. You couldn't smell in
a dream, right?

Well, I
thought, even if it is a dream, my dreams tell the future,
so we'll make up soon. Hoping
that it was so, I crawled out of bed and got ready.

By the time I looked at
myself in the mirror fifteen minutes later, I had completely
forgotten about the dream. I messed with my hair a little, tugged on
my clothes, and looked back at the mirror.

My dark brown waves were
lying on my shoulders casually. I had little golden pearl earrings
and a matching necklace. I had applied a bit of mascara and the
tiniest bit of lip gloss. I grinned slightly.

For
the first time, I was actually satisfied with the way I looked.

I was about to sit by Sirius
and James in the Great Hall (Remus hadn't come down yet) when Lily
and Molly walked up to me swiftly and purposefully. Sirius grinned as
he saw them walk up to us.

“Rachel Wagner, can we talk
to you? In private?” Molly said as Lily wrinkled her nose at James'
horrible attempts at flirting with her.

“Um. Okay.” I said,
grinning. Even if Remus kissing me was a dream, I was ecstatic about
my friends talking to me for the first time in weeks. I got up from
the Gryffindor table and walked over the Entrance Hall, where Molly
threw her arms around me, along with Lily. We hugged what seemed like
hours (not that I didn't enjoy every bit of it: the fact that they
missed me made me feel wanted). Finally, they let go of me and Lily
began to speak:

“Girl, we are so proud
of you!” I frowned, not knowing what I had done. Molly raised
her eyebrows.

“You don't remember
flipping out at Remus for trying to hurt you? That was amazing, by
the way,” she said, holding up a hand to high-five me.

All of my excitement and
giddiness in me faded. Suddenly, I remembered why they had gotten mad
at me in the first place. I had defended Remus. I had said he wasn't
all that bad. They hadn't seen me apologizing to Remus. All they saw
was a glimpse of me screaming at Remus in front of the fat lady two
weeks before.

“Is something wrong?”
Lily asked, frowning at me. I didn't respond. I just ran out of
there. Fast as I could. Past the Great Hall, through the corridors,
to the fat lady. I muttered, “pygmy puffs” and went to the common
room, staring at my feet to keep anyone from thinking I was crying.

I slammed into something –
wait, no, someone, who gasped and touched my shoulders, then
pulled away.

I finally looked up to see
Remus's worried face, staring into mine.

“You – you okay?” he
asked, still staring at me. I wiped my eyes.

“I'm – I'm not okay,
Remus.” I said. “And I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm tired
of telling people I'm fine. I'm not fine. I'm not even close
to fine. And I -” I couldn't speak by then. I was bawling my eyes
out. Remus pulled me into him and I cried into his shirt for awhile,
while he stroked my back. When my sobs were reduced to hiccups, he
pulled me away slightly, still holding my shoulders.

“Rachel,” he said, “did
– did last night – did it really happen?” he asked, eyebrows
puckered. I smiled.

“I was going to ask the
same thing.” Remus's eyes lit up.

“So – so it is real?
We're – we're dating?”

“I don't know. Do you want
to?” Remus almost jumped.

“YES!” He cleared his
throat. “I mean, yeah, sure, I guess so.” I smiled ear to ear.

“Alrighty, then, Moony. I
guess we should find out when the next Hogsmeade trip is.”