Lily was at the kitchen table, pouring over the books that Professor Laurie had given her, and feeling rather frustrated that she could scarcely understand what she was looking at, when the answer to her prayers fell before her on the table top. 

She squealed with delight.

"I went through bloody hell to get those for you," he said as she started unfurling the rolled-up parchment he'd dropped before her excitedly. "You're welcome."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times over, Moony!" Lily cried as the parchment unraveled and she saw all of the complex runes, hand-copied, some multiple times over for accuracy. "Oh I could just kiss you, Remus Lupin, I'm so thankful!" she said as he sat down in the chair across from her. When he gave her a wary look, she added, "Of course I won't, Sirius would be far too jealous."

"Perhaps on every second Thursday and Boxing Day or some nonsense," Remus murmured, and he brought his hands up to rub his tired eyes.

"I dunno," Lily said with a chortle, "Last time we gave snogging a go, you and I, it didn't turn out so well, did it?"

Remus cringed. "Gods, Evans, please - don't bring that back up. Let that memory die off with the rest of unrepeatable history."

Lily smirked, "Was it me that turned you, Moony?" she teased.

Remus shook his head, and got up, headed for the door. "I'm going to go and have a lie-down and pretend that question was never asked," he said.

Lily laughed, "Oh I'm only teasing you Remus. Wait -- wait, no really, wait." He turned back, and she could see he hadn't been exactly joking about the lie-down. It was late, after all, far later than he usually came home from Uni. She looked down at the parchment in her hands and noticed the way he was stretching his hands as he stood there, waiting as she'd asked him to. "How difficult was it really to get this for me?" she asked, curiously.

Remus rubbed the back of his neck and answered as he yawned, "It's an ancient magical language - over 4,000 years old. The original scrolls I copied that from are kept in a vault, nearly a mile underground the British Library. When I requested it be pulled, they did a background checking spell and cast some trace on me so that if I tried to steal or harm the book in any way I would be instantly - how did she word it? Oh yes, permanently immobilized. They made me wear gloves so that my fingers wouldn't soil the book parchment."

"Oh my stars," Lily said, her jaw dropping in surprise. "Why? It isn't as though it's the only copy on earth!" 

But even as she said it Remus nodded, "Actually, it quite literally is, apparently."

"Beg pardon?"

"The copy at the British Library is apparently the only original copy left of this language in the entire world."

Lily stared at the page before her.

"More, apparently there have been attempts made on the life of that book - because yes, that's how the library witch said it. Apparently many folks have tried to have a go at destroying it every few hundred years or so - most recently, and most famously apparently, was Grindelwald, not long before his famous duel with Dumbledore... But she said that the bloody thing's been under attack ever since some bloke tried to set it on fire - which he could not do, despite a hundred and three curses that were apparently cast upon it. Sounds to me like the bloke was more of a squib than anything else, but the way she whispered his name you'd think he was some great and powerful wizard - well knocker if I ever heard of him - Asidius Callous or something of the like."

"Asidius Calchus?" Lily asked, her heart nearly stopping.

"Yeah, that's it." Remus looked surprised, "Wait, you've heard of him? Why haven't I done? Right blighter he was, I looked him up and the bloody man was insane."

Lily nodded, her face pale and her heart rate picking up in her chest. "Yes, I've heard of him." She felt cold and hot at the same time.

Remus studied the expression on her face a moment, then returned to the table side, an uneasy eyebrow raised. "You alright, Lil?" he asked as he sat down, eyeing her. 

Lily's eyes hadn't left the parchment. The runic forms swam before her eyes and her mouth felt as arid as a desert. 

"Lily? What's the matter?" Remus asked, and he reached over and touched her arm.

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with years and she laughed suddenly, a  jingly, tremulous thing that seemed to dance 'round the kitchen, and she wiped her eyes with shaking hands. "Oh Remus, I wish I could tell you," she said, "But I simply can't." She shook her head and hugged the parchment of letters to her chest with one arm, her other palm touching the books that Professor Laurie had given to her to copy down. She looked at Remus and laughed again.

"You'll never guess what I got to do today," Oni sing-sang the words as she slid onto her knees on the bench opposite the table from where Regulus Black sat studying in an alcove of the library. Nobody else was there this late in the evening - most everyone had gone off to get ready for dinner, but Regulus was flipping through dreadful, dusty old books and hadn't even noticed everyone else clearing off.

He looked up now in surprise, then turned his gaze to Oni. "And what's that?"

Oni grinned. "Welllllll..." she drew the word out, then plunged in excitedly, "You know the delivery that Professor Kettleburn said that he was expecting? The mystery one that he asked us to clear out that stall for last week?" 

Regulus knew precisely the delivery she was talking about. They'd only been guessing at what it could be all week. They'd spent so much time in the stables that Kettleburn had started giving them chores to do about the place - small, menial things like brushing the thestrals and feeding the grindylow and such. But a couple nights ago, they'd been there playing with the moon calves when Kettleburn had asked them to clear way for a large tank, which he needed to install because he was getting a mysterious delivery, which he simply refused to tell them about, insisting they could see it when it arrived.

"It came?" Oni nodded. Regulus gasped, leaning forward. "And you know what he got?" Oni nodded again. "What is it?" Regulus asked. "Bloody hell, out with it, you're killing me with the suspense!" 

Oni grinned. "It's kelpie eggs." She breathed the word with reverence.

"No!" Regulus's eyes widened. "Is it really?"

Oni nodded, pleased with his excitement. "Yes! and Regulus -- ohhh you just wait until you've seen them! they're perfectly fascinating! He told us all about them."

"Us?" Regulus asked.

"My class," Oni said, nodding, "They came late last night and they are such a chore that he actually taught us about them and had my entire class help in various odd-hand ways, and -- Regulus, because he knew me he actually trusted me to the job of helping him at polishing the eggs."

Regulus's eyes grew even wider, if that were possible. "NO!" he cried with jealousy, gasping, "Oh Merlin's beard that must've been positively -- oh it must've been incredible! What was it like?"

"Well sticky at first, but when they're polished proper - they look like floating opals, Reg! And they're clear, you can see straight through inside. They look like perfect little ponies suspended in gelatin, Reg. It's positively fascinating!"

Regulus closed his eyes to imagine it.

"Kettleburn said the mothers polish the eggs in the wild as a way to go about hiding them. You'd think making them shimmer like that would be more of a danger but no, he said it's brilliant because they float on the surface of the water and the muggles think the water is just very shiny - he said you'll hear them say rubbish things like 'the water looks like it's full of diamonds' when there's kelpie eggs a float, and that it has the same effect except in opposite for the merpeople. They don't disturb the eggs because they think it's just the surface of the water reflecting the sun and the opalescent light can actually blind water nymphs, so the only natural predator are grindylows and they stay off most of the time because an adult kelpie will swallow a grindylow for breakfast as though it's nothing."

"Blimey," Regulus said, admiringly, "That's brilliant."

"Isn't it just?" Oni asked, practically tingling with excitement. "Oh Regulus, you've got to go down there and see them. You should come with me after supper."

Regulus sighed, "I wish I could, but I've got detention."

"Again?" Oni groaned. "You've got to be joking!"

"I wish I was," he replied.

"Tell that woman to leave you alone," Oni said, "Or else to at least move your bloody dormitory up there so you don't have to bother with going all the way back down to the dungeons every night." She rolled her eyes. "I swear, you practically live in McGonagall's office these days!"

"I know," Regulus agreed. "But I can't really blame her, I mean, she has told me about a thousand times now not to go down that corridor... She's just trying at upholding the rules."

"I dunno why you're so persistent about it," Oni said. "I don't understand what's so fascinating about a stretch of might-as-well-be-blank canvas."

Regulus flushed, "I told you, I'll explain it all when I fully understand it myself, but right now I'm still a bit in the dark about it all." He hesitated, then, "But I've got to keep going until I get it figured out. It means a great deal." 

"But you don't even know who the portrait is of, you said," Oni pressed.

"I don't," Regulus agreed, "But he knows something about -- well, about something very important."

"You have so much more patience than I would ever have with this sort of thing, Regulus," Oni said. "I wouldn't have invested even half the time that you have waiting for that old thing to explain itself."

"You would if you were in my position," Regulus replied, "If it meant such a great deal to you as it does to me." 

Oni stared at him for a long moment, and then, without any warning, she suddenly leaned forward over the table and kissed him.

About twelve hundred and forty-seven things went though Regulus's mind in that instant - every emotion from anger to delight to guilt and back through again shivered through him until his body finally settled for something like relief.

Oh he'd wanted to do that for some time himself and now she'd finally gone and done it.

All of that in about eight seconds.

"Sorry," Oni said when she pulled away, all flushed, her eyes cast downward.

"Sorry?" Regulus asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Oni answered. "I just - I suppose I was just really overexcited about the kelpie eggs and - and you are just so -- I mean, when you're passionate about something -- the way you look... it's like you light up... and it's just so hard to look away from when you're like that, you're just so --" she paused, trying to think of an adjective, and finally landed on, "Considerate."

"Considerate?" Regulus laughed.

"Yes," she said, and she flushed deeper red than before. "Why is that funny?"

"It's just usually when people are trying to tell someone else that they like them, they don't go for words like considerate to describe them is all."

Oni made a face. "Oh? Is that so? And what adjectives do they go for then, Mr. Expert?" she demanded.

Regulus shrugged, then said, "I dunno... Maybe ones like smart, or funny... or... or pretty."

"You want me to call you smart, funny, and pretty?" Oni asked.

"No, stupid, I want to call you smart, funny, and pretty," Regulus replied, and the moment the words left his mouth he bit his lips. 

He stared at Oni.

Oni stared back.

Then, "Are you saying that you like me, Regulus Black?" A smile trembled at the corners of her lips.

"No of course not," Regulus answered, but he could feel his skin setting itself on fire.

Oni smirked. "Oh Regulus," she said, eyes sparkling, "I think you like meee-eeee..."

"Hush," Regulus snapped, turning even more red. His ear lobes burned and he couldn't make eye contact with her.

"I will not hush. And do you know why I won't?" she demanded.

Regulus murmured, "Why?"

Oni leaned very close - so close, he half thought she was about to kiss him again, which, admittedly was something he would not have resisted - but instead her mouth was there by his ear and he could feel her breath on his temple and she whispered, "Because I like you too."

Those words were still ringing about in Regulus Black's mind later that night, even as he sat in the chair at the student desk in McGonagall's office, trying to concentrate on his homework. There was no use to it. Every time he started to focus, he could hear her in his head again, "I think you like mee-eee..." and his face flushed all over again. 

He kept stealing glances at McGonagall's down-turned face as she worked on grading student parchments, and he was thankful that she had something to keep her busy so that she didn't catch the stupid, day-dreamy face that contorted his features unnaturally every time he thought of the plumpness of her lips and the way they had felt pressed against his own mouth.

He was staring off into space, his eyes absently landing on a painting over the mantel of the floo in her office when he realized that the painting was staring back at him. A figure crouched within a Scottish moor that was positively teeming with heather.

"Pst. Psttt. Regulus," hissed the figure.

Regulus sat up in surprise. The man in the painting quickly lay a silent finger over his mouth, signaling Regulus to be quiet. Then he pointed at the door and beckoned Regulus to follow.

Regulus glanced at McGonagall. 

I can't yet, he mouthed the words at the painting. 

But the figure pointed again, more urgently this time, nodding toward the corridor.

Regulus nodded in protest toward McGonagall's direction.

The figure mouthed, Now. 

Regulus hesitated, then he suddenly blurted out, "I have to go to the loo!"

McGonagall looked up, startled by the unexpected voice. She glanced at Regulus and the seemingly unending papers. Her eyes travelled to the clock on the wall.

"Five minutes," she ceeded.

Regulus got up and, just to show her that he intended to come back, he left his bag and books precisely as they lay, and he hurried to step out into the corridor.