Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, they belong to the wonderful JK Rowling... I'm just having a little play around with them ;)
He couldn't remember when it had started exactly. When these feelings had grown from simply an urge to protect and care… to this. He couldn't remember when this wonderful girl had turned into a beautiful woman. He found it ironic that he could remember every single detail about her, but not the exact point that he had fallen head over heels in love with her.
They had grown close since the war, something that until recently had gone largely unnoticed because everyone was still mourning for the lost and brave and rebuilding their lives into some semblance of happiness. He had lost friends, much the same as everyone else. The order had lost Tonks, Sirius, Mad Eye, Snape and of course Dumbledore. They had come so close to losing Fred too, and he would never forget until his dying day the sound of Molly Weasley screaming and holding on to her son as if he were the very air she breathed. And anyone that knew Molly even a little knew that her kids were just that important to her. She would have given every breath in her body to her children. To see the whole Weasley family trying to restrain her as Madam Pomfrey desperately tried every spell and potion she knew was simply heart breaking. But Fred had survived by some form of miracle and when he had enough strength, he had simply held his mother while she sobbed and simply stated that not even in her very worst nightmares could she ever have pictured George without Fred. He had not joked, he had just held her and let her do what she needed to convince herself that he was still there.
He could remember when they had started to grow close. After the war, Kingsley had taken control of both the Order and the Ministry. He had paired people on their abilities and sent them out to round up Death Eaters and complete research on Voldemort to try to ensure nothing of this magnitude would ever happen again. They had been paired of course and tasked with going through Voldemort and his family's possessions at the manor where his father had lived. It was cold, dark, and in her opinion, disgusting. She had felt immediately uneasy and knew she was in for a week of very little sleep. However, with him by her side, the week could have only been described as enjoyable. In the day, they opened the windows to air the place out and at night, he lit a fire and they would lay under a blanket together and just talk. That was the start of it all. They had woken on the first morning cuddled together and it had been awkward to start with. But by the end of the week, it just felt too natural to change. And it had grown from there. He would help her work towards her NEWTs which she was doing instead of returning to Hogwarts. She had wanted to do them so much, but returning was just too raw. They had been sent off on further missions, rounding up Death Eaters and had been very successful at it. They just seemed to know where the other one was at all times and completed missions with relative ease. They had managed to place charms on any of Voldemort's remaining family members to track them and ensure they were abiding by the laws. It was likely these people didn't even know they were related to him, but they had to be extra vigilant in these times.
A year on things had settled down and people had started to notice that they would usually be up together longer than everyone else on weekends. They would always sit together for meals or on the sofa in the Burrow. They would debate over literature and laws, take trips to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley together. But if anyone had known the extent of the time they spent together, there would have been no doubt in their minds of just how much they loved one another. It was not unusual to find them up at 5am on a Saturday morning still talking animatedly. Or to find them curled up in his bed after exhausting themselves laughing at something that others just simply would not find funny. She would always manage to sneak back into her own bed before anyone else roused and if she woke Ginny, she would always state the same thing: "I just went to get a drink". It was completely plausible, why would anyone suspect anything else?
The truth was Remus Lupin was completely in love with Hermione Granger. And she was in love with him. But they couldn't admit it to each other as they both feared the same thing- it would be unrequited. However, there was one person that had been keeping an eye on them for a while now…