A/N: None of the characters/plots/settings in Like an Open Book are mine except for those dealing with Rain.

Remus Lupin walked into The Three Broomsticks on a warm summer evening. The sensation reminded him of the beginning of every one of his years at Hogwarts. Long days and late sunsets gradually said farewell to the hot months and welcomed him back to his home and friends each September, but soon, perhaps, it would be as a professor at the castle he loved so dearly. With only a tattered suitcase in his hand, he glanced past the barren room and empty furniture towards the bar. He remembered the place always in such disarray with eager, barely of-age students bustling to buy their first fire whiskey that one would hardly have a choice of more than two or three open chairs, if they were lucky. He made his way to a bar stool and sat his bag on the seat next to it. In Rosmerta's place there stood a young woman wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans, leaning down on the counter with her nose in a book. She looked up.

"Welcome."

He nodded back.

She closed a napkin between two pages to save her place. "What can I get for you?"

"Just a butterbeer, thank you."

Without another word, she strode across the floor to retrieve a glass.

"What are you reading?" he asked when she returned with the foaming drink.

"Nonsense, according to my aunt," the girl replied with an amused shrug of her shoulders.

"I like nonsense, personally," Lupin said as he took a sip. "And I read a great deal of it. Try me."

"On the Road," she answered. "It's a -"

"Muggle classic," Lupin interrupted, "But a good one."

The girl smiled, the kind that comes when two people find out they understand one another. He had to admit, she was very pretty, even if she was probably too young for him to be thinking so. She had a natural, almost wild look about her with long black hair that curled on the ends and hazel eyes that reminded him of the trees in spring. A light dusting of freckles covered her nose and cheeks and traveled to her neckline and shoulders. He guessed her age to be about twenty-two.

"That's right!" she said. "You really know it?"

"I do."

"And you're not going to tease me for reading it?"

"I have no intentions of doing so. Like I said, I'm fond of it myself."

"So you don't find shirking adult responsibilities for travel and freedom to be appalling?"

Lupin looked up thoughtfully. "I wouldn't go that far. It's a nice idea, one that is fun to read about, but I think to practice it in life can be naive and quite hurtful. Dean doesn't realize that his actions have consequences for the people around him."

"I suppose you're right. But sometimes it's liberating to be just a little bit selfish," she said as she sat down across from him, waving her wand and summoning a drink for herself and another for him. "On the house."

Lupin gave a small laugh. "What is your name?"

"Rain," the girl replied.

"Does your employer mind you giving free drinks to customers who are willing to discuss literature?"

"As I said...a little selfish." She smiled again and took a drink. "But it can be difficult to find anyone in the wizarding world who is open-minded to all kinds of literature, even Muggle. It's as if reading about their way of life means I'm ashamed to have magic. I just believe that all creatures experience the same basic emotions, and they're worth listening to. And to answer your question, yes, Rosmerta does mind, but I just can't help it sometimes."

"I'll have to remember that," Lupin replied, then scolded himself. This was beginning to sound an awful lot like flirting.

"I've never seen you. You're not a regular, are you?"

"No, not these days."

"What brings you to Hogsmeade?"

"I have a...well, I don't want to say anything until I know for sure. But with any luck, I will be able to stay in the area for a while."

He was thinking of his impending meeting with Dumbledore regarding the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Of course he wanted to work at the school, and he didn't consider himself particularly superstitious, but the subject made a name for itself in that it couldn't keep one professor teaching it for very long. He hadn't made up his mind to take it on. The Headmaster's latest offer of unlimited wolfsbane put him in a position that he would have difficulty refusing. It meant working at the castle would be safe for him and its students. It meant he could breathe and enjoy his work for an entire year or more. The prospect sounded more wonderful by the day.

"Good," she said. "Then I will see more of you. Perhaps I'll manage to find a book you haven't read in the meantime."

She grabbed the two empty glasses on the counter and walked them to a sink where a brush sprung to life and started washing.

Lupin felt a strange sense of excitement at her words. "You can try," he responded, then shook his head. Don't be ridiculous, he thought, she works in a pub. It's her job to charm the customers. You aren't any kind of special, not to her.

But then she turned and smiled. He watched as she walked back to her place across from him, tucking her hair behind her ear and brushing some crumbs off of the counter. He couldn't explain it, but it was as if all of her movements were for him; small signals that said she felt pleased, at ease, and strangely, intrigued. Of course, he knew she didn't. She couldn't. Not by him. She must have sensed him staring at her, because she caught his eye and held his gaze. Didn't she notice his scars and shabby hair and tattered clothing?

"I should be going," he said as he stood up. "Thank you for the drink."

"Oh," she said. This time he knew it wasn't in his head: she was disappointed. "I thought you would want to continue our discussion. We could try...this volume next." She grabbed the nearest book to her without even checking the cover.

He raised his eyebrows. "You want to talk about Lord Byron?"

Rain looked at the book and realized it was one of Rosmerta's, full of romance and seduction and embarrassment. She closed her eyes and tried to act un phased, but her blush was obvious.

"If it would make you stay."

Then she smiled, then she laughed, and Lupin knew that saying "no" would be out of the question. For whatever reason, a bright, pretty woman wanted his company. Perhaps it was the butterbeer, or the fact that he wanted to enjoy the feeling of speaking with someone who didn't know him or what he was, but he sat down again. He promised himself that he would stay just a short while longer, with nothing more than appropriate conversation between them.

As the next hour progressed, Rain slowly made her way from standing on the other side of the counter to sitting beside him. She would rise to complete some task or greet a lone customer, and each time she returned it would be closer to his seat.

"You sound as though Jack Kerouac has convinced you to take life to the highway," Lupin said.

"It's easy to romanticize something on the other side of the grass, but yes, I would like to travel. I moved a lot as a child and hated it because it meant I never had friends. Now that I have friends, naturally, I am eager to travel again."

"What's stopping you?"

"I...have some things to settle here, first," Rain replied. "But you've clearly seen your towns outside of Hogsmeade."

"Traveling is something that is necessary in my life, but even I still have a bucket list."

"I envy you," Rain said.

"You shouldn't. Not all of it has been sitting and talking to literary women."

"And do you like talking to literary women?" Rain asked with a smirk.

"One in particular."

She smiled wider but Lupin cursed in his head. He'd done it again.

"Nor has it involved butterbeer and pubs," he added.

"If you haven't noticed, I spend enough time in one as it is. I want to see mountains and forests, or better yet, the creatures inside them. You see I-"

The bell on the door chimed as it closed and suddenly they were the only two people left sitting in the bar. Lupin knew he should leave. He was beginning to see her eyes and hair and skin as a pool he wanted to sink deeply into, and it was well past time to end this before he could make another mistake. He looked at his watch and made a show of surprise.

"Now I really must go."

"Right. Of course," Rain said.

As he stood, she stood too. He looked at her nervously. Rain waved her wand at the door and the Open sign flipped and the lock clicked. He tried to speak but she spoke first.

"You said with any luck you would stay in Hogsmeade. Well, this is for luck."

She put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself as she stepped on a bar stool, rising up to his height. Then they slid from his shoulders to his neck below his ears. As if she had no doubts in the world or herself, she kissed him. Lupin closed his eyes as she gently pulled his bottom lip once and then his top a little deeper. The sugar from her mouth entered his as her tongue kindled the sensitive skin at the roof of his mouth. He could only breathe to try and keep himself in one piece. Rain drew away and brought her feet back to the floor and her arms to her sides. He should have let her but his body couldn't be convinced to allow it, grieving at every inch between them. His eyes slowly opened.

"Do you know what you're doing?" he asked.

"No, but you said you like nonsense, right?" she answered.

"Much more than I ought to."

He kissed her again as his hands brought her legs up around him and sat her atop the counter. They stayed on her outer thighs, squeezing as they pulled her body against, then underneath, his. She smelled delightful, like the richness of butterscotch mixed with the kick of a whiskey. He wanted to taste and touch every bit of her from the inside out. As if anticipating this, Rain unbuttoned the top of her shirt to allow him to do so.

Not a moment later, the fog around him cleared and he realized that those thoughts, his thoughts, were coming from a dark place that he needed to keep hidden. He couldn't allow this girl, young and without taint, to ruin herself by getting involved with a man like him.

"No," he said, putting his hands up. "I don't do this. We can't do this. We hardly know each other." If you did, you would want nothing to do with me.

"I know, you're right," Rain said as she slipped off of the counter and onto her feet. "Forgive me, I got carried away. It's just...you seem to speak to me when you aren't saying anything at all. I'm sure it sounds absurd."

Not absurd, he thought, because he felt it too, but admitting it might appear as a justification for what he'd done. There was no excuse.

"I consider myself lucky that a woman like you should so much as look at a man like me," he said. "But because I admire you, I cannot disrespect you."

Their eyes looked at everything in the room except each other. Rain raised her wand. The sign changed back and the door unlocked.

"I hope we can see each other again. Perhaps, if you do stay in town after all, we could-"

"Perhaps," he echoed, interrupting her, but he knew that relationships never worked for people like him. Pretending otherwise would only give him misery to add to his loneliness. "Goodbye, Rain."

"I'm going to miss the opening feast!" Rain called to her Aunt Rosmerta, who was levitating one of her suitcases down the stairs after her. "It's my last one!"

"As if it will be any different from the other six," Rosmerta huffed. "Outside of the song by that wretched hat."

Rain ignored her. "The carriages will have left by now and I can't apparate within Hogwarts."

"Then I'm afraid you'll have to walk, my love. I can't leave the pub. It'll be busy enough without you here every day. I may bloody well have to hire someone."

"Yes, the horror of having to pay an employee because they're unrelated to you."

"I would be willing to feed them and put them in your room while you're gone, I just have no desire to pay them."

"Hey, I like that room. Keep it for me," Rain said. She gave her aunt a rushed hug and hurried out. "I will visit on Saturday!"

"Can you cover a shift while you're at it?" Rosmerta called.

"I love you, too!"

Rain turned around and hurried off. She may not miss the feast entirely, but all of the good food would be gone by the time she arrived. In that case, she thought, I may as well walk.

As she did so, she took a glance down the main street of Hogsmeade and saw a few familiar faces, but none of them were of Remus, or so he said his name was. Perhaps he can't stay, she thought. Or worse, he did stay and is avoiding the pub. The idea gave her an acute amount of disappointment. Sure he was older than her, but he was interesting and thoughtful and brilliant, more attractive to her than any boy her own age, and probably entirely put-off by the fact that she threw herself at him like a harlot. Why did she give in to her foolish impulses without considering that he was a gentleman who likely wanted a woman of equal manners? No wonder he hadn't come back. Maybe he thought she did that with every customer. If only he'd known that she had never been that bold with any man, ever.

After depositing her luggage and changing into her robes, Rain crept up the staircase to the Great Hall. She could hear Professor Dumbledore's voice booming from outside, announcing that Hagrid would take over the Care of Magical Creatures class. Rain was delighted. She knew that Hagrid, like herself, respected animals as much as he respected his fellow man. The applause that followed was the perfect time to slip in unnoticed. She kept close to the wall as she moved. Because the first years had already been sorted, the long tables offered little space to sit. She eyed up and down the Gryffindor benches, giving small waves to a few friends who noticed her. That was when she heard it.

"And please welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin!"

Rain's stomach dropped and her eyes shot up to the front of the room. It couldn't be. And yet, there he was, already standing, and just as aware of her as she was of him. If they could have seen into each other's minds, their thoughts would have matched perfectly: What have I done?

While the rest of her schoolmates filed into their dormitories, she knew she needed to find him. Rain could think of nothing else during dinner and ignored everyone at the table except for Violet, her closest friend, who looked at her with concern.

"Rain, are you all right?" she asked.

Rain shook her head, trying to be rid of the shock. "No, but I can't tell you now. Wait for me in the common room."

When the students were dismissed she bolted up and went to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He hadn't arrived yet, so it gave her time to think. She paced as she tried to come up with the right words. Her head was still empty when the door opened and Lupin appeared, slowly closing it behind him and turning the lock.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked quietly.

"I never thought you would be-"

"NO, YOU DIDN'T!" He erupted. Rain closed her eyes and took the blow as he continued to yell. "Are you aware that to any rational human, working in a pub indicates that one is an adult? I know for a fact that Rosmerta never hires kids, and definitely not students."

"Rose is my aunt," Rain answered in almost a whisper. "So I am a bit of an exception, but I am not a kid. I'm nineteen years-old."

"What?"

"I traveled with my parents until I was thirteen and then I settled in Hogsmeade. That is when I received an invitation to attend Hogwarts, under the condition that I start as a first year to ensure I didn't graduate without all of the necessary education."

Lupin had to admit he felt somewhat better, but not much. "You are still incredibly young, and a student in my classroom, which, I might mention, I never saw a 'Rain' listed on the attendance sheet. Is that even your name?"

"My name is Marayna Marquis, but everyone calls me Rain."

"And you just thought I was the kind of man who would want to bed a student, Ms. Marquis?"

"No. I left it out on purpose. I knew you wouldn't give me a second glance if you knew I was in school."

"You are damn right I wouldn't have!"

Don't cry, Rain said to herself. Don't be pathetic. "I'm sorry Remus."

"And you cannot call me that!"

She flinched. "Professor. Professor Lupin, this is my fault. I don't deny it. I accept full responsibility."

Lupin exhaled and regained himself. "No. I should have known better. I should have left that pub the minute I finished the first drink."

"But then..."

"Then I wouldn't have to walk around here, knowing that I took advantage of one of the students I've promised to guide responsibly into the world of magic. I've broken my own oath."

"There is no point in wishing it hadn't happened," Rain said. "The best thing we can do is move forward."

"Which, I'm sure I don't need to explain to you, means we can never allow it to happen a second time. We must keep our distance, especially..." he was about to say, "around the full moon," but stopped himself.

"Especially, what?"

"Never mind. It doesn't matter," Lupin replied, and then knew what he had to do. Despite his anger at her, the words would hurt and he hated himself for saying them. "Now please leave, Ms. Marquis, and do not come back outside of classroom hours, and certainly never alone."

He turned and climbed the staircase so he wouldn't have to see her eyes, which, out of his sight, she finally allowed to cry.