PLEASE READ!!

A/N: So.

You probably are wondering "what the hell is this woman doing, filling my inbox with hope only to find she's posting OUTTAKES of all things?!"

Well...it's because I AM SOOO STUCK/SORRY. A) I am stuck on the next chapter. I know what I want to happen, I have WRITTEN AND REWRITTEN IT FIFTY GAZILLION TIMES, but something is missing and I'm hoping you guys will help me out by giving me some feedback. The first couple chapters of this thing, you will notice, are all various reconsctructions of my last few chapters in the ACTUAL "Sola Fida" fiction. So yes, I have not stopped udating because I've been lazy (this time!!) but because I am STUCK, AND I HATE IT. HELP. ME.

B) I read your reviews for Sola Fida again today, and I felt SO guilty for not updating for such a long time. I hope these small tidbits help tide you over.

A few notes: These are not in order. They are in verying perspectives, and a lot of the time literally stop mid sentence. I will post other things here other than just stuff to do with the last few chapters, but it'll probably be after I've got over my writer's block. Also, I realized the other day that "Sola Fida" is probably going to be rather depressing in the next couple chapters, so hopefully some of this lighter stuff will ease the burden. That being said, read on!

This one is in Ivy's POV.

Chapter 21, Take One

I woke in a haze of warmth, feeling safer than I had felt in a long time even before I opened my eyes. I wanted to stay swathed in this feeling forever, and drift back to sleep, but my mind woke up more with every passing moment. There was the soft crackling sound of a fire nearby, and past that, the hum of rain. Every now and then I could hear a distant rumble of thunder.

Yawning softly, I figured it was about time to wake up despite my reluctance to do so. I started to push the heavy blanket off my body, but paused when I found it wouldn't budge. Instead, of it's own accord, my "blanket" grunted softly and squeezed my bare shoulder, keeping my legs still by tucking them between its knees.

Since when do blankets have knees, I wondered sleepily, stroking the blanket's hair. And since when did they move of their own accord?

Wait. Since when have I slept naked?

I tried sitting up, and groaned loudly - not only because the "blanket" stopped me from doing so, but because the moment I moved a wave of nausea overtook me and I slumped back to the ground. I could feel a growing sense of horror deep in my stomach as I realised that I was not in my room, I was not wearing clothes, and the "blanket" laid overtop of me was not a warm quilt but rather a fully grown and equally not-clothed man.

My responding squeak of mortification made Remus shift against me in a number of ways I did my best to ignore. He exhaled softly against my temple. "Ivy." He murmured in a tone laced with sleep.

"Ah…good morning," I whispered, at a loss of what else to say. What do you say in a situation like this?

"Hmm," Remus stroked his fingers slowly across my cheek. "Your temperature is back to normal…how do you feel?"

"Erm," I stuttered, caught somewhere between if I move again I think I might vomit and perhaps you should get off before I molest you. "Well, fine…but…er, Remus?"

"Hmm," he murmured again. I could feel him drifting back off to sleep.

"It isn't that…I doubt your intentions…but, er, why…why are we naked?"

"Naked…?" Remus echoed sleepily. He sighed softly, and I thought he'd fallen asleep again, until he stiffened very abruptly. "Oh." He sat up on one elbow, just enough to meet my wide-eyed look. "Oh." He started to sit up further, perhaps to scramble away to a safe distance - his eyes flashed downards, and I grabbed his neck to squish us back together so he wouldn't expose me further.

"Don't peek!" I squeaked.

"Ivy! Hold still, please," Remus grabbed my elbows and gently pinned my arms to the earth. Only a mere inch away from each other, nose-to-nose, he closed his eyes for a moment to pace himself. "Now, calm down. You're - breathing too quickly. Slow down. I'm not peeking." I calmed down enough to meet his gaze, for the first time noticing how very tense Remus was. He closed his eyes against and took a deep breath; his chest and stomach seared against my breasts and abdomen and sweet Merlin where were my clothes -

"Now, Ivy," Remus started in a measured voice. "I need you to relax your legs."

I was squeezing his hips between my knees, I realized. Flushing, I slowly did as he asked, laying my legs flat against the earth. Remus' frame relaxed just slightly. "Good girl. I'm going to sit up now."

"But the clothes-,"

"I've already seen you naked," Remus said gently, but only succeeding in horrifying me further. "But if it makes you feel better-,"

"It does!"

The corner of Remus' mouth jumped, just a tiny bit, before the little smile disappeared. "All right," he said quietly, and shut his eyes before slowly sitting up and moving away from me. I sat up gingerly, eyeing him all the while - not out of a lack of trust, but more a feel of paranoia. Waves of nausea crashed over me with every movement, but I eventually made my way over to my clothing, which was in a hasty pile near the fire.

"Hypothermia," Remus said suddenly, scaring me out of my wits. "You almost froze to death, and the only way to warm you up was by body heat. It's a Muggle practise. I didn't realize it wasn't known by…" he stumbled slightly, noting his mistake.

"Purebloods," I finished, picking up the engorged cloak I had fashioned for him and tossing it in his direction, cursing myself when I felt my cheeks redden again. He appeared at my side after a moment, leaning his back against the wall of our shelter with the dirtied cloak pulled tightly around him.

"Remus?" I whispered, coming to sit with him against the wall. "Are you all right?"

He looked worse for wear. Even with my beaten cloak hiding most of his frame, dirt was smeared across his skin, tiny scratches and brushes climbing up his neck and all the way to his cheekbones. There was one long, deep cut along the side of his throat that looked prone to infection. His dark hair was wild and tangled, his large, dark eyes tired.

I couldn't look much better, really, in a filthy uniform stained with Morgan's blood, My black hair a heavy, dampy mass down my shoulders and ready to throw up if I moved even a little too quickly. My wrist was surely sprained, andmy head, while not as foggy as before, throbbed dully.

When Remus did not respond to me for several long moments, I grew concerned. He was just looking at the fire. "Remus - ?"

"That boy," he said softly, voice betraying nothing. "Morgan. He's…he's dead, isn't he?"

I looked at the fire, too. It was still coming down heavily, the rain. I wondered absently if people were looking for us, if they had found the Marauders, if they had found Morgan's body. I wondered what lies I would come up with to cover myself, what excuses to make to Severus when I saw him next. Lies upon lies upon lies. I just kept digging myself deeper.

"I killed him," I said calmly. I sensed Remus turned sharply in my direction. "And before you even ponder the thought, I did not kill him because you bit him and he would have become a werewolf. Just don't worry about him anymore."

"Why?" Remus said, a deep crease forming in his brow. It was much easier to read his tone now; it screamed confusion and alarm. "How? Your wand-,"

"I drowned him," I invented simply. It would have been easy enough. "As for why; there are a number of reasons." He was going to kill you if I didn't stop him first, for one. I shrugged and sighed. "Don't think too much on it."

There was a moment of silence that stretched between us, and I focused on staring at the crackling flames before us. Remus caught me thoroughly by surprise when he grasped my chin and made me turn in his direction. His gaze was tortured and confused and serious.

"You just freely chose to kill a man," he said softly, sounding pained, "And you don't want me to think too much on it?"

There you go. More to come.