Hermione wasn't sure which she hated more – the pleased looks from the Slytherins or the sympathetic looks from everyone else.
It was almost Christmas break and she was still getting sympathy from nearly everyone about the death of her parents. She had kind of recovered but there was still a small part inside her that felt shriveled up. She knew it would never go away and had long-since accepted it.
Her life had more or less gotten back on track in the last month. Everyone seemed to have gotten over the initial scandal of Hermione marrying Professor Lupin and had moved on to the newest scandal – couples being caught all over the castle in broom cupboards, empty classrooms, and in the case of one adventurous couple – the Potions classroom.
It had been two weeks since the Hogsmeade trip where numerous couples went into the village to get married. Now married people were being caught in compromising positions all over the place. They explain themselves by saying they're only following the rules about copulation, but the teachers are not swayed. More detentions and lost points had occurred in the last two weeks than in the last three years of Hogwarts combined.
When a seventh year Slytherin and sixth year Ravenclaw were found by Snape on his desk in the Potions classroom, both houses were sent into the negative numbers with the loss of house points, even though Snape was the head of Slytherin.
Hermione could now walk through the halls barely noticed, while the married couples were being watched by everyone, hoping so see more scandalous behavior. Hermione and Lupin were boring by comparison.
Hermione's prediction about some couples getting angry with each other did come true, not a week after the marriage.
Marital spats broke out in the hallways, the Great Hall, and classrooms. Some were just yelling fights, but some were settled with hexes. Hermione watched one morning as a Hufflepuff and Gryffindor screamed at each other from their House tables in the Great hall, arguing because the boy had left his underwear on the floor, leaving the girl to pick it up.
"It's GROSS!" the Hufflepuff girl screamed. "I don't want to pick up after you anymore!"
"Then leave the house elves to do it!" the Gryffindor boy screamed back. "And picking up my pants is not nearly as nasty as what you did last night with your mouth on my-"
"SHUT UP!" she shrieked, throwing a Giggling Hex at the boy.
Hermione had laughed into her goblet of pumpkin juice and couldn't look at her friends for many minutes.
"Trust a Hufflepuff to shut someone up with a hex that makes you giggle," Ron muttered.
Some nights, Hermione would join the boys up in Gryffindor Tower to do her homework. People had finally stopped asking her personal questions.
Even though life had settled down for her somewhat, Hermione was looking forward to Winter Break when the castle would be mostly deserted. She was staying behind, along with Harry and Ron, and couldn't wait for the time to herself. She was counting down the days. Well, she was, until Dumbledore made the announcement.
Two weeks before break and Dumbledore stood up from his place at the head table and called everyone's attention. The hall went quiet, all eyes focusing on the headmaster.
"I have an announcement," he said, his eyes twinkling like mad. "Before everyone decides to leave for the holidays, I thought I should tell you that on Christmas day, Hogwarts will be holding a Holiday Dance."
The hall erupted with girl's excited murmurs and boys cursing like mad. Harry slumped in his seat while Ron looked like he was about to lose his dinner.
"I know a few of you were disappointed that the Halloween dance never took place, so this is to make up for the lost night," Dumbledore continued.
They were all dismissed and immediately the hall broke out into animated chatter.
"Do you remember the last dance I attended?" Harry demanded. "I made a bloody fool of myself."
"I wasn't much better," Ron grumbled. "The night was a disaster."
"You don't have to go," Hermione said cheerfully, remembering how much fun she'd had at the Yule Ball.
"Are you going, then?" Ron asked.
"Sure," she replied with a shrug. "I don't have any horrible memories of my Yule Ball to plague me."
"Goin' with Lupin?" Harry asked.
Hermione frowned. "You know, I don't know. Can someone who's married go to a social event with another person, when their spouse will also be there?"
"I think you'd have to take it up with Lupin," Harry replied.
Remus, it turned out, didn't care. Hermione, Ron, and Harry had trudged up to the private rooms and she'd asked.
"I don't care if you go with someone else, Hermione," Remus said with a smile. "I have to be a chaperone."
"DIBBS!" Ron yelled, snatching Hermione and pulling her close. He pointed a finger at Harry and snickered. "Ha ha ha! Now you have to find a real date!"
"Ron!" Hermione barked. "Let go of me! I'll go with whoever I want! And just because of your boorish behavior, I'm not going with you."
"But, Hermione!" Ron gasped.
"No, Ron," Hermione sniffed. "I think I'll go with Harry."
"But Harry can go with Ginny!" Ron said, looking panicked. "I don't wanna havta actually ask someone! C'mon Hermione!"
"You should have thought about that before being a prat," Hermione said sternly.
"I don't think Ginny would go with me anyway," Harry said. "She and Dean have been making eyes at each other for a while."
Ron's head whipped around fast enough that his neck cracked. "Dean? As in, Thomas? Dean Thomas? Our dorm mate?"
"Yeah," Harry said slowly.
"I didn't authorize that!" Ron yelled.
"You're not her supervisor, Ron," Hermione said angrily. "She's a human being, a fifteen year old one, and she can make her own decisions!"
"But I thought she liked Harry!"
"Perhaps she's moved on," Hermione said loudly, throwing her hands up in irritation.
"Like hell," Ron said.
"Oh, get over yourself," Hermione snapped.
"Children," Remus said mildly. Three heads turned to look at him. His tie was gone, as were his outer robes, and he looked amused but exhausted. "Please take this somewhere else."
Hermione shooed the boys out the portrait hole, but before she shut it she said, "And I've decided to go with neither of you. Good night!"
Harry didn't appear to care, but Ron looked horrified. She meandered back to the bedroom and found that Remus had flopped back onto the bed without taking off his clothes.
"Come on, sleepyhead," she teased, poking him in the leg. "You've got to get changed first."
"No," he mumbled, sounding like a petulant child.
"Yes," she said, smiling.
"That takes energy. Something I lack right at the moment."
She rolled her eyes and crawled up onto the bed next to him. Without asking for his permission, she started to unbutton his shirt.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm taking your clothes off," she replied. "Just like you did to me once."
"Do I get to wear your underwear, too?" he asked.
"Only if you ask nicely," she said with a laugh. He smiled without opening his eyes and let her undress him. It was just after the full moon and his energy levels weren't quite normal yet.
His first full moon of the marriage had been extremely anti-climatic. She'd been expecting something horrible to happen, just because nothing ever went according to plan in their lives, but everything had been fine. Remus had been locked up in his office, where he'd spent the night, and Snape retrieved him in the morning. Hermione had been up all night, worried sick, and when Snape came in supporting Remus, he'd sneered at her red eyes and dark circles. Remus had fallen asleep the moment he hit the bed. For the following days, he'd been tired but slowly regaining strength.
The full moon had been two days previous, and his strength was easily depleted still. He didn't move a muscle as she pulled his shirt from his trousers and finished unbuttoning it.
"You're going to need to sit up for me to take it off," she said. He pushed himself upright and winced. "Headache?"
He nodded.
"I'll grab you something for it in a minute," she said. The shirt was pulled off and she stared at his trousers. Remus flopped back and left her to it.
How strange. She'd never undressed him before. The previous full moon he'd done it himself, no matter how much it drained him. She rarely saw him half-clothed, and never naked. She'd yet to see his private bits.
Whenever they'd upheld the Marriage Law, they did it from behind. It was the most convenient and the least personal.
She tried to be as efficient as possible and not think about the fact that her hands were so near his crotch. She tugged the trousers down his legs and saw that he still had his shoes on.
"Bugger," she muttered.
The shoes slid off, followed by his socks and she stared. Now she knew where his tattoo was. On the ball of his right foot was a black paw print. She was dying to know what it was about, but she'd ask him later.
She slid the trousers the rest of the way off and tossed them onto the floor.
"Do you want to sleep in you boxers? Or would you prefer me to grab your pajamas?" she asked.
"Boxers," he mumbled.
"Then get on into bed," she said warmly.
"Mmf," he replied and didn't move.
"If you stay out like that, you'll get cold."
"Mmf."
"I could always ask Crookshanks to lay on you like a blanket," she said.
Remus forced himself up. The muscles in his arms and abs contracted and Hermione twitched a little at the heat that pooled in her abdomen. He'd gained more weight, no longer looking unhealthy. Now he was tall, broad, and muscular. He filled out his robes and Hermione noticed more than one female in Hogwarts admiring her husband.
Remus pulled the comforter up to his shoulders and collapsed onto his stomach, where he didn't move again. Hermione bit back a laugh and took off her own clothes. Down to her knickers, she went into the closet and pulled on her own pajamas.
Since he'd already fallen asleep, she didn't bother with the pain potion for his headache. It was probably tiredness that caused it anyway. Crookshanks crawled onto the bed before she could get there and curled up on Remus's bum.
"He won't thank you for that," Hermione said, eyeing the cat in amusement. Crookshanks purred loudly.