September 28th, 1977

Remus knew he had shifted back into his human form, yet kept his eyes closed shut tight, not wanting to face the reality of his day. He knew she would be there for him, that she would do anything for him, but he couldn't let her spend her life wasting away trying to fix him.

Hermione Granger, a girl he desperately fell in love with, could never be his.

At twenty years her senior, Remus felt too old for her. She was everything to him and deserved more than he could ever offer her. She lifted everyone's spirits by walking in a room. She cared for every single person as if she's known them for a lifetime. She championed the underdogs; those who couldn't put up a fight themselves.

And Remus was nowhere near good enough for her.

He sighed, knowing that Hermione held onto some sort of feelings for him. He loved the way she had a smile only for him. He loved that she would watch him over the top of her book when reading in the library, thinking he didn't notice. He loved how she cared for him after every single moon, making she he was kept fed, rested, and healed.

Just being around her was almost enough for Remus.

But she drove him absolutely crazy with desire.

He cursed himself every time he could sense a change in her physiology when he came around her. He cursed himself for every hidden smile, blushed cheeks, raised heartbeat, lingering touches and even a few forbidden kisses. He hated himself that he pushed her away and kept her at arms reach, but at the time he thought she would thank him later.

He had hoped that she would get over her crush on him quickly and find love with someone else.

Except Remus never thought that someone else would be Ronald Weasley. By far one of the worst suitors for Hermione. His beautiful Hermione.

He hated seeing her doubt the way she looked when Ron's gaze strays. He hated hearing Ron obliterate her confidence in every aspect that made Hermione herself. He told her that she needed to take lessons from Molly on how to cook and clean like a proper housewife. He told her to hide her scars so he didn't have to look at them. He to her to fix herself up more when they went out into public.

Remus didn't care about any of that. He didn't care that Hermione tended to undercook food, in fact, he cherished her for it. He didn't care that the house never looked spotless, he happened to think her sneezes from the dustballs were adorable. He didn't care about her scars, he had more than enough on his own body. Her scars were a reminder of everything she fought and went through to make the world a better place. He thought she looked beautiful naturally. Hair unruly and wild, oversized sweaters that fell off her shoulders and showed her delectable skin, no make-up to cover the freckles that splattered her rosy cheeks and button nose.

He hated being able to hear through the silencing spells she tried to place to protect herself. To hide from everyone and let her emotions rage on. He hated hearing her sob uncontrollably over the words her fiance didn't even know affected her.

He especially hated being able to hear Ron try to pressure her into more than what she felt ready for sexually.

He tried to talk to her about it, yes. But it ended worse than he thought possible. Apparently, he didn't get a say in her choice of men since "rejecting" her.

She told him not to act jealous since she wasn't his to boss around. Remus knew to keep silent but secretly scolded himself for pushing her away. If he knew that keeping her away would drive her to the arms of Ron Weasley, he didn't think he would have done it in the first place.

They were engaged to be married now and Remus's heart broke every time he saw them together. It had been only a couple of months since the end of the war with the Battle of Hogwarts. It had been devastating to everyone around them. He knew that Hermione had many terrible losses due to the war; the worst being the loss of her best friend and pseudo-brother, Harry Potter.

Remus never felt more protective of Hermione than at that moment. He could physically feel her entire world shift seeing Harry go down in battle. When she cradled his lifeless body, all he wanted to do was take her into his arms and never let her go.

Instead, he had to be an arse and tell her that he could never be with her. No matter how noble the act felt in the moment, he made both of their lives completely miserable. He knew that she didn't feel happy being with Ron, but the Weasley's were the only family she had left really. With Molly mourning the loss of Fred, she unknowingly pushed Hermione into an expedited marriage with her son, claiming that the two were meant to be.

But Hermione soldiered on. She pushed back every insult, every stray gaze, every belittlement by the man she was to marry to stick it to Remus for his actions. He knew she deserved so much more, and that even he could have made her happier than Ron. He knew he had to fix his mistakes, but it was almost impossible with Tonks latching onto him at every possible moment.

One of Remus's biggest regrets in life was taking Tonks up on her offer of a sexual outlet. He needed to release all of his pent-up aggression and sexual frustrations from Hermione and he allowed himself to use Tonks. He didn't expect her to get it into her head that they were now a couple. It angered Moony every time he was in the presence of Hermione and let Tonks kiss him or physically touch him. It made Moony furious to see the look of betrayal on her face every single time Hermione saw them together.

He knew he had to rectify the situation. Maybe he could let Hermione in and they could both be happier together. He knew he couldn't provide her with much, but he knew her feelings for him were strong.

Happy now that he had a plan, Remus snuggled into the blanket covering him, trying to overcome the embarrassment he felt by thinking of Hermione seeing him like this by being delighted in the fact that she covered him up. He stretched out his arms and felt relieved that he seemed to be in better condition than usual, but surprised that he currently was laying on something soft instead of the hard concrete floor of the cellar.

He opened his eyes but had to close them quickly due to the sunlight surrounding him. What the?

He sat up quickly and rubbed his hands over his eyes, hoping to remove some of the crusty leftovers from his short rest. When he finally focused on the room, he knew he had been in the room before. His eyes widened, what happened for him to be brought to the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts?

Remus heard a soft clicking of heels, a telltale sign of Poppy Pomfrey. He felt his eyes bulge out of his head when he saw her finally, she looked to be decades younger than the last time he saw her after the Battle. She smiled softly at him while waving her wand over him to cast diagnostic spells.

"Poppy, why do you look so... young?" Wait, was that his own voice?

She paused her handiwork before scowling at him. "Mister Lupin, I know you are often in my care, but I don't believe I have ever given you cause to call me with such an informal title. I expect this behaviour out of Mister Black and Mister Potter, but not you. Now, you seem to be in a fine condition so I want you to head to the Great Hall for meals, but I do not want to hear that you went to any classes today. You still need to recover from your transformation."

Remus's head spun. Nothing made sense about what she just said. He had been calling her Poppy for years, especially once he began to teach at Hogwarts. Black? Potter? Why did she have to bring up such touchy subjects of his past? Almost everyone with those last names was dead. Classes? Did he have amnesia? Did he accept Minerva's offer to teach Defense and hasn't remembered anything?

He watched as Poppy- er, Madam Pomfrey, walk away from the cot before turning back to him. "Oh, by the way, Mister Lupin, I know I may be in my thirties but that does not classify me as old yet. Just older than you." She gave him a pointed look before crossing her arms and sticking up her nose.

Once he heard the door to her office finally close he shot up quickly. He had to figure out what was going on, he knew something was wrong. Just as he went to walk out of the door, it swung open and collided with his moving body.

"Hey Prongs, it looks like Moony is finally up!"

Remus couldn't focus as he fell on the ground and hand a throbbing head. He must have been knocked back from the door.

"Look what you did Pads! You knocked poor Moony to the ground. How are we ever going to convince him turning Snivellus's hair into an afro is a good idea now?"

Remus opened his eyes again and the world seemed to spin. Two figures leaned over him and he almost fainted on sight.

"Padfoot? Harry? Am I ... dead?"

. . . . .

September 17th, 1997

"Padfoot?"

"I know you're happy to see me Moony, but you could look a little less like you've just seen a ghost! You did just come to see me yesterday."

"I mean.. Pads, does this mean you're dead?"

Sirius looked at Remus inquisitively, "Moony are you okay? Did you hit your head or something?"

Remus scratched the back of his head, "Or something,... Er, I think I just had a bit of a rough transformation. I can't really seem to remember much."

Another figure walked into the frame and wrapped his arms around Sirius, "You should ask Hermione, you know she jumps on any opportunity to do research."

"Prongs? You too?" Remus's mouth fell open and he blinked back tears. How could he get through this day without his friends? "I must really be dreaming now. Is Peter gone too?"

Sirius scowled, Prongs just grimaced, "How much are you missing Remus? What is the last thing you remember happening?"

Remus looked down at the floor quickly and twiddled his thumbs. "Uh, Seventh year," he mumbled, "You two were trying to convince me to go out with that Hufflepuff, Darlene Higgins."

Sirius's face softened and looked at his friend with sad eyes, "Yeah, sounds like you're missing just a bit Moony."

Remus wiped at his eyes, something Sirius would normally poke fun at him, but Sirius himself looked to be on the verge of letting his emotions be shown.

"Then I think I should... introduce myself," The Prong look-alike said. "My name is Harry. Harry James Potter."

At that moment, Remus began to notice the subtle differences between his friend and the figure in the Portrait. The most telling feature being the vibrant green eyes. "Lily," he whispered.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way Moony, it's been a shite couple years." Sirius laughed at Harry's statement, "It's been a shite life, Pup. We haven't caught a break since the first war in the eighties."

"How can I be certain I'm not just dreaming? This all seems to be too much, like my... worst nightmare."

"You can't really know for sure. You're going to just have to put faith in us when we say it's all real. You could always come back to talk to us if you're still missing information tomorrow."

"No, I don't think I'll be able to sleep on it... I need to know what happened in this reality. At least if I'm dreaming or if I've been given a vision by the Fates I can try to prevent something from happening."

Sirius and Harry looked at each other, "If you are planning on changing the timeline, you will need to talk to Hermione. One little thing could change the entire outcome of the War. We've already won the battle," Harry rationalized.

"But at what cost!" Sirius raged on, "we lost nearly everyone we loved or cared about. I know you can't stand only being able to talk to Hermione like this. I know you can't stand not being able to be there for her while she tries to heal."

"Hermione," Remus tested on his tongue. "That name sounds... familiar. Who is she?"

Harry looked shocked while Sirius smirked at him, almost giving an 'I told you so' look. "Hermione is your mate." Remus nodded his head, "But I gave her up, why?"

"You're old enough to be her dad!" Harry explained with a gasp. Remus looked appalled at his own words and immediately understood that there would have been much backlash if they had a relationship.

Sirius squeezed Harry's shoulders, "I tried to explain this to you before, Pup. They are soulmates. That isn't something you can take lightly. But to answer your question Moony, it's because you're too damn noble. You thought she would be better off without you," Sirius gave Harry a challenging look, "but both of you are clearly miserable without each other."

Remus sneered, "She didn't seem to be miserable without me! she's clearly engaged to someone else."

Harry fumed, "Yeah, because you threw your relationship with Tonks into her face! Hermione had a crush on you since fourteen and you couldn't even let her down gently. It took me months while we were on the run to comfort her enough to tell me what happened. The entire time I thought she was upset because Ron left, but instead, it happened to be because of you rejecting her at Bill and Fleur's wedding! I can't even describe how angry I felt when she told me you kissed her, told her you two could never be together, and then, later on, she saw you snogging Tonks!"

"Tonks. Tonks? Why do I keep hearing this name? Who is she!" Remus threw up his arms in exasperation.

"She's my kid cousin," Sirius cut off Harry's own explanation in fear of upsetting Remus with all of the new information. "To be honest, she always seemed a bit obsessed with you. You told me later on that you two had some sort of friends with benefits relationship during the war. I know that sex can always help Moony from being more aggressive with you during the moon," he snickered at the disgusted face Harry made. "After the war ended, she got it into her head that you two were an item. You thought it would be better to keep her around so Hermione could move on from you. Which is a bunch of dragon dung if you ask me."

"What should I do?" Remus felt frustrated, he never could talk to the ladies like Sirius or James.

"You need to talk to her," Harry said. "Tell her that you don't remember anything, and be honest. Knowing Hermione, she'll know exactly what to do to figure out what happened."

Remus wiped his hands over his face and groaned, "I don't even know when she'll be back. I kissed her this morning and she ran away, saying she needed space from me."

"She's probably at the Burrow."

"The Weasley's?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Harry stated, "She's engaged to our best friend Ron. Although how they haven't killed each other yet, I have no idea. The pair of them gets along as well as oil and water."

Sirius gave a confused look at Harry and Remus smiled. He missed how much his friend tried to get involved with Muggle culture, only to get hung up on the silly expressions. Remus's face deadpanned, knowing exactly what he needed to ask now.

"Can you please tell me about the war? What happened? Obviously, Prongs had a kid, but where is he. Or even Lily and Peter."

"Don't ever mention that rat again," Sirius seethed. "He's not even worth your breath." Remus had to take a step back at the accusatory tone of his best friend, needed to know what warranted it.

"Sirius, he needs to know." Harry used a calm and soothing voice on his friend.

"Know what!" Remus demanded.

"Pettigrew sold out James and Lily to Voldemort. They're dead and I ended up in Azkaban for twelve years for it."

A/n: Wow, I am blown away by the response for the first chapter. I HAD to post chapter two to thank you all for such amazing feedback. Thank you so so much. I hope you enjoyed this chapter just as much!

Beta Love to DiagonAli and Reyloclaw always for being there with every story I write. You guys rock.