This will be a bunch of unconnected and completely random one-shots. Most of which will involve some sort of romantic or sexual interaction to varying degrees. This one mostly fits with canon which will also vary from one-shot to one-shot. The pairings are being picked with a random number generator and two numbered lists of characters. There will be no slash, as I don't really write slash. So, all het. pairings but other than that, random.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Harry Potter world. Anything you recognize belongs to either JKR or (if you recognize it from the world of fanfiction) one of the many authors on the web who came up with things before me.

Also, I give credit specifically to C. Adrien Cummings, author of "A Drabble a Day" for the random pairings made into short fics (drabbles in his case) on a regular basis idea. However, I am nowhere near good enough to whip out a fic a day (even a drabble) so mine are hopefully going to be weekly. I might make more than one a week sometimes and I might miss a week, but my goal is to average at least 1 a week. Wish me luck and here is my first one:

Hermione and Remus

(It's set in the summer before the trio's 5th year at Grimmauld Place)

What Might Have Been

Ron, Ginny, and the twins were in the kitchen cleaning up after a prank gone wrong. She happened to know that Ron was actually innocent and was just caught in the middle of it. Hermione, luckily, had been up in her room still and had only just come down after Mrs. Weasley had already finished yelling and sentencing all those involved - including Sirius for some reason. Hermione was okay with that because it gave her some alone time to get some reading done.

She had a to-read list a mile long so she curled up in her favorite armchair in the drawing room. It wasn't the most pleasant of rooms but they had cleaned it out some. As she sat there reading, she didn't notice a pair of eyes watching her from the doorway.

Remus chuckled to himself as he left the kitchen where Sirius and the Weasley kids were all cleaning up a mess of pink suds, sticky green goo and feathers. He found it quite funny that Mrs. Weasley had blamed Sirius for her children's prank, simply because it had been meant for him. Remus personally thought that Molly ought to be apologizing to Sirius for their behavior, but he was pretty sure that Sirius enjoyed the attempt to prank him anyway.

He made his way to the drawing room with his most current book. He started toward his favorite chair but immediately noticed that it was occupied. He raised his eyebrow at the young brunette reading a thick tome during the summer.

"Homework, Miss Granger?" Remus asked teasingly.

Hermione looked up quickly and blushed. "Actually, I've already finished my summer homework. This is just a book I've been wanting to read."

"Ah," he walked closer and peeked at the cover, reading it out loud, "Totally Transfigured: The Complete Guide to N.E.W.T. Transfiguration." He raised his eyebrow at her reading choice, "Not homework, Miss Granger?"

Hermione frowned, "No, Professor Lupin, this textbook isn't an accepted work for Hogwarts, though I'm not sure why. It seems accurate enough to me so far."

Remus nodded his head and smiled, "Yes, Minerva is quite finicky about her textbooks. Oh, and please, call me Remus. I won't be doing any more teaching any time soon."

Hermione blushed again, "Okay, Remus, but you have to call me Hermione then. 'Miss Granger' is too formal, it makes me feel like I need to take notes on what you say." She laughed at her joke about herself and Remus joined in a bit.

"Very well, Hermione." Remus looked just a bit uncomfortable saying her name and she blushed again when he did.

"So, what are you reading, Pr-Remus?" she corrected herself mid-word.

Remus looked down at his book and brought it up to show her, "Actually, it's a work of fiction: A muggle book about a werewolf."

She quickly read the back and then asked, "Is it good so far?"

When he said it was, she continued by saying that her father had always been into fantasy stories and might be interested in reading it.

Remus had sat down on the couch across from Hermione at some point in their conversation, but he now stood up saying, "Well, I won't bother you anymore. I'll let you read in peace."

"No!" Hermione said a bit too loudly and quickly, "I- I like the company," she stammered and blushed.

Remus just nodded and sat back down on the couch. Their eyes caught for a moment. In that moment, Remus saw confusion and interest in Hermione's eyes. He was intrigued. She was interested by him? No, he decided, it had to be the book. He felt his thought was confirmed when her eyes turned back down to her book. Remus also opened his book, but couldn't help but notice the blush creep back onto Hermione's face.

Hermione sat in the comfortable silence, reading her book and only looking up every once in awhile, to steal glances at the werewolf in front of her, who was also reading. She couldn't help but admit that she fancied this man just a bit. He was intelligent, mature, and loved reading almost as much as she herself loved reading! He was almost perfect. His one flaw would have to be his age, Hermione mused to herself, sometimes I feel much older than my actual age, so I guess it's no surprise that I fancy an older man.

She sighed to herself, which caused Remus to look up at her. She ducked her head back down into her book, embarrassed that he had caught her staring at him.

Just then, one of the twins stuck his head in the room as he was running by and said quickly, "Dinner."

Hermione placed the bookmark between the pages and closed her book before looking up to see Remus doing the same. Hermione noticed her legs tingle a bit from being tucked underneath the rest of her while she was reading. She knew they had fallen asleep but decided to try to stand up anyway. She stood but her legs just wouldn't cooperate and she started to crumple to the floor.

"Woooaahh – Ooof!" She was saved by strong arms pulling her back up.

"Careful there!" exclaimed Remus as he steadied her, "Are you alright?"

Hermione blushed deeply as she realized that his hands were resting on her waist and answered shyly, "Sorry, my feet seem to have fallen asleep."

"That's okay. I didn't mind saving you." His hands left her waist, but as soon as they did she fell into him.

"Um, I'm not sure my legs are ready to cooperate yet," Hermione said with a bit of a laugh as she tried to push herself off of his chest. His very muscled chest she couldn't help but notice.

"Well, we'll just have to work together to keep you standing for a bit then, huh?" he said with a chuckle.

She smiled up at him and their eyes once again locked. Hermione had no idea how much time passed as she stared into the depths of his hazel orbs. They exuded so much wisdom, knowledge, and suffering. So much suffering and pain.

Their faces had been getting closer and closer until their lips were almost touching. Hermione closed her eyes and felt the soft brush of his lips against hers.

"Hermione! Where'd you go?" Ron's voice yelled from outside the door, "Dinner's ready!"

Hermione and Remus jumped apart and quickly turned to the door, already on opposite sides of the room by the time Ron came traipsing through.

"Ah! Both of you. It's dinner time. Didn't Fred tell you?" Ron turned around and headed back out the door, toward the kitchen.

Hermione and Remus stared at each other from across the room just for a moment. That moment was long enough for Hermione to see the suffering and pain and guilt swimming in his eyes. He shook his head sadly and walked away, leaving Hermione to think of what might have been.



Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think and feel free to alert + me or the story so you know when I update it. The next update should be within the week. I welcome criticism! Please review.