A/N: Hi all. Thank you to everyone who's given this story a shot so far and reviewed, favorited, followed, etc. I'm hoping to get chapters finished with an alarming sort of regularity, because I've got this wild idea that I can get the story at least most of the way finished before I start school at the beginning of September.

Since some updates will be rather quick, I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage you to always double-check and make sure that you've read each previous chapter prior to reading any updates.

In the third week of July, the inhabitants of the Potters' summer home are outside eating dinner together when a shimmering light appears out of thin air a few feet away. As everyone watches, the light begins to take shape, finally forming itself into a phoenix.

"Blimey, what is that?" Sirius exclaims.

No one has a chance to reply. The translucent phoenix has flown closer to the table. As it hovers above them, it begins to speak. "Your presence is requested at the first meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. Please be prepared to depart at 6 o'clock on Saturday the 23rd, at which point an envoy will arrive with a Portkey to bring you to the meeting's designated location."

The phoenix bows to the table before dissipating into nothing.

Silence hangs over the group for some moments. "So does anyone know?" Sirius asks at last.

"Dumbledore's patronus," Hermione answers automatically. Everyone at the table turns to look at her, all rather surprised. Remus looks to be the least bewildered, although his eyes are wide; his expression bears a certain sense of urgency that makes her press on. "I mean to say, I've heard that his patronus is a phoenix, so… I guess he can use it to pass on messages." By this point, she's only barely speaking above a whisper.

"Can he really?" Fleamont asks with great interest. "I'll have to ask him to show me."

"And me," James adds. Looking eagerly at one another, he and his father have rarely looked so much alike as they do in this moment.

"Who told you what Dumbledore's patronus is, Jean?"

Lily voices the question, but it seems she's not the only one wondering: Euphemia and Peter in particular are watching her curiously as well.

Hermione swallows hard. "Professor Slughorn mentioned it to me once. He found it interesting because so few patronuses are magical creatures."

"Yes, that is rather interesting," Remus agrees, grinning. Hermione has no doubt that he's remembering a conversation that they'd had approximately a week before, during which she'd mentioned the exact same fact as a point of interest. "Do you know what else I like about patronuses, though? They can change form depending on how the witch or wizard is feeling. Maybe yours will change to a hedgehog someday, Prongs. Or an overzealous slug…"

James snorts. "Not likely. I'm proud of my stag, thank you very much."

As the conversation strays away from Dumbledore's message and toward the patronuses of those sitting around the table, Hermione gives Remus's knee an appreciative squeeze which is concealed from view by the tablecloth. She suspects that he will ask her where she really learned about Dumbledore's patronus next time they're on their own, but there shouldn't be any harm in acknowledging that she saw it once. He just needn't know that it was at a quidditch game at Hogwarts, of all places.

The following Saturday seems to take weeks to arrive. At every meal, the Order is a topic of conversation. Everyone is curious about who else has been invited to join and eager to know what Dumbledore is planning.

When the day comes, though, Hermione finds herself feeling remarkably nervous. She's still worried that Dumbledore is going to object to her attempt to join the Order, and now she's got the secondary concern that he'll observe the change in her relationship with Remus… because somehow he always knows.

Remus comes up to Hermione and Lily's room at about 5:30 that evening. Both Lily and Hermione are reading, but they look up at the sound of Remus's footsteps. At the sight of him, Lily clears her throat and shuts her book. "I think I'll go see what James it up to."

"No, you don't have to—"

Lily smiles graciously at Remus. "It's alright. I was going to go after I finished this chapter anyway."

"As long as you're not leaving on my account."

She stands on the tips of her toes to peck him on the cheek. "Of course not, I would never." She ruffles his hair before walking past him to the stairs.

Now alone, Remus makes to sit down at the end of Hermione's bed, but she scoots over to make room for him, patting the empty space. "Don't be ridiculous. Come sit here with me."

He does, with only a brief moment of trepidation. Once he settles in, though, he wastes no time in curling into her, resting his head on her shoulder and curving his body to match the position of hers. "What are you reading?"

"The last book that might help me to get home."

Remus goes a bit stiff at these words. "Any luck?"

"Not yet." His hand rests on the bed between them and Hermione grabs ahold of it. "I don't know what I'm going to tell Dumbledore."

"What do you want to tell him?"

Hermione hesitates. She wants to tell Dumbledore that she wants to stay, but she knows that her presence in the past is dangerous. She knows that she needs to stop justifying each action by reminding herself that in her past, it has all already happened exactly as it will play out now.

And the longer she remains, the more hurt Remus will be when she does have to leave; the more difficult it will be to look him in the eye when she returns to the future… and that's if he's even still alive at the end of the battle.

Instead of answering his question, Hermione admits to a new thought that has been nagging at her for weeks. "What if it doesn't matter that I can't fix mine? Ministry-sanctioned time turners will be released in a few years, what if…" But she finds that she can't even voice the end of her question.

Luckily, Remus is able to draw out her intended meaning. "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

"Cross…?" she asks.

"No, no, burn. I'm intentional with my idioms," he tells her.

Hermione doesn't ask him what bridge they'll be burning. Instead, her mind has strayed in another direction as she looks toward the stairs down which Lily has just retreated. "You told Harry once that Lily was probably the best friend you ever had."

"Oh, really?" Remus exclaims. "Interesting. Well, I suppose that's fair."

"Yeah, I've certainly noticed that you get on really well, and I think it's really nice. It makes me miss Harry… we got on in sort of the same way, I think."

Remus chuckles. "Why do I sense a 'but' coming on?"

"But," Hermione continues, smirking when Remus laughs more eagerly. "You never really mentioned how you got so close. We heard all about you becoming friends with James, Sirius, and Peter, but not Lily."

"That doesn't surprise me," he admits. As he sits up straight on Hermione's bed, he meets her gaze, his eyes sad. "My first year at Hogwarts wasn't particularly pleasant, so if I was trying to tell stories that Harry found interesting, I imagine I might have just… skirted around the subject."

She frowns. "If you don't want to talk about it—"

"No, no." Remus rushes to reassure her and places his hand on her shoulder with what he hopes is a gentle smile. "I'd be glad to tell you all the gory details."

"If you're sure…"

He's almost defiant when he curls back up beside Hermione. "I'm trying to think of where to start. I suppose… Well, when I first came to Hogwarts, I was rather scared to become friends with anyone. You'll remember that we moved around a lot when I was young—" Hermione nods: they'd had the conversation about his rather isolated upbringing months ago. "But that had a consequence that my parents didn't really expect. I'd managed to pretty thoroughly convince myself that things would be easier for me and for everyone else if I didn't allow myself to grow close to anyone."

"Oh no, Remus…" Hermione begins to speak, but before she can decide on words of encouragement, he plows on.

"It was lonely," he continues simply. "I lived in a dormitory with James, Sirius, and Peter, and I saw how they were together and I wanted to be a part of it, but I didn't think I could be. Even if I let them befriend me, they'd figure out I was a werewolf soon enough and then they certainly wouldn't want anything to do with me. But somehow Lily was… she managed to…" Remus trails off multiple times while he tries to sort out precisely what he wants to say.

"She saw how lonely I was, and she made sure that I never had an excuse to isolate myself, at least not completely. She studied with me a lot by pretending not to know the answer to obvious questions. When we were at meals at the same time, she made sure that I didn't sit by myself, even if she did all the talking. I didn't deserve it. Not because I'm a werewolf," he says more loudly, because Hermione is trying to protest. "It's just that I was very rude to her. I did everything I could to get her to leave me alone and it didn't work. It was all very annoying at the time."

Hermione laughs. "Good for Lily. What changed, then?"

"Eventually she wore me down. After that, I figured that if she wanted to hang around me, maybe I could befriend James, Sirius, and Peter too. I'm very lucky that she wouldn't let me push her away. Who knows where I'd be without her."

"Who knows where any of us would be without her," Hermione murmurs. She thinks of the day when Harry told her and Ron that Voldemort might never have fallen if it weren't for Lily's sacrifice. Hermione had always been so aware of what had done for the wizarding world, but she had never given much thought to the ways in which she could have changed the lives of the people around her in small, easy ways.

Remus heaves a loud sigh. "Necessarily cryptic?"

"'Fraid so." Hermione ducks her head so that she can peck Remus on the lips by way of apology, but he kisses her harder, leaning into her with a hint of aggression that takes Hermione by surprise. She responds almost immediately, though—she grabs for his hip, trying to press into him and pull him closer all at once.

Vaguely, from so far away that Remus almost thinks that he's imagining it, he hears the 'pop' of a wizard apparating. He stops kissing Hermione as abruptly as he began, and with a low sigh he buries his head in her chest. "Did you hear that?"

"Mhm. Must be time to go. I wonder who's come to fetch us." She smooths a hand through Remus's hair where she's managed to rumple it.

It takes him a few moments to stir; he seems so intent on staying right there, and Hermione can't really blame him. When Remus does sit up, he pauses for a moment before giving her one final, lingering kiss.

"Let's go before they come to yell at us."

They're halfway down the steps when Sirius appears. "Oh, good, you heard. They're coming, Prongs!" he adds, loudly enough for his voice to carry downstairs.

As soon as they get to the entrance hall, Hermione's stomach drops to her feet. A man is standing there, chatting with Euphemia Potter, but he turns around when he hears Hermione, Remus, and Sirius coming.

"Hello," he says cheerfully. "I'm Ted Tonks."

Remus takes Ted's hand right away, introducing himself with a small smile, but Hermione hardly hears him. She hardly hears herself as she mumbles her own name.

Since her arrival in February, she has been plagued by memories of the world that she's left behind, but there's one thing that, until now, she's managed to ignore. Twenty years from now, around this very date, Remus is going to marry someone else.

Ted has always struck her as so cheerful and engaging. Now, he stands in front of her as the most tangible reminder thus far that for some reason, whatever this thing is that she's started with Remus, it's going to end.

Luckily, they're in a rush to leave, so no one notices Hermione's sudden discomfort except for Remus. As they crowd around the Portkey, he rests his hand carefully on her elbow. So low that no one else could hear, he breathes, "You alright?"

"No," Hermione admits. A moment later, the Portkey wrenches them off their feet.

She doesn't know where she expected them to go – she knows that Sirius's mother is still alive, so it's not as though they're going to use Grimmauld Place as their headquarters – but when they land, she doesn't recognize her surroundings.

James recognizes it, though. "Isn't this Frank and Alice's place?"

"Good eye!" Ted exclaims as he leads them toward the door. "So you've been here before."

"Only me and Sirius. We came to their housewarming party when they moved in."

"I see. Well, Dumbledore's hoping to pull together a more permanent location. In the meantime, we'll probably be moving around quite a bit."

Hermione feels Remus's hand at the small of her back. No doubt, the gesture is supposed to reassure her, but as it is, it just makes her feel sad.

They shuffle in behind Ted, James's parents bringing up the rear and glancing behind them as though they expect an ambush. Two people are standing right in the vestibule, in shadow at first because of the dim light. But then Ted says, "Evening, Albus, Minerva."

"Ted." Albus gives him a slight nod. "No trouble setting up the Portkey, I assume?"

"None at all."

"Wonderful. Why don't you show everyone into the sitting room? We're expecting Andromeda, Alastor, and Kingsley's groups soon."

But as soon as they begin to file through the vestibule, Dumbledore's attention shifts to Remus. "Mr. Lupin, may we share a word before the meeting?"

Remus pulls his hand away from Hermione as though he's been shocked, but when she glances toward him, he looks totally nonchalant. "Of course, sir. Right now?"

So while Ted leads everyone else into the Longbottoms' sitting room, Remus follows Dumbledore into another room, glancing back at Hermione one last time before Dumbledore gently shuts the door.

As soon as they reach the sitting room, Remus's friends begin whispering. "What do you reckon that was about?" and "Is he in some sort of trouble?" and all sorts of other questions echo from all around Hermione. For her part, she's wondering all of these things herself, but she's also not sure whether she wants to know why Dumbledore's singled Remus out.

Then Remus reappears, and she knows that she needs to know. He hadn't been exactly cheerful before, but at least he'd been smiling. Now he's got a sort of dead look in his eyes. When he claims the empty seat beside Hermione, she smooths her hand over his back; he doesn't pull away, but he doesn't lean into her touch either.

She takes the opportunity to ask him about it when the next crowd of people comes in. While everyone around them begins to exchange introductions with the new faces, she leans over and asks, "What was that about?"

When Remus responds, his lower lip quivers just slightly. "He wants me to seek out werewolves. To appeal to anyone who seems conflicted about Voldemort." His tone is verging on disdainful.

"What?" Hermione feels her own voice shaking. "Does that mean you have to leave?"

"Yes."

"When?"

He swallows hard. "The beginning of September. The full moon's at the end of August, so I can take a few days to rest, but then…"

But then.

"I don't want you to go," she whispers, echoing his words from a few weeks before. Has it really only been a few weeks?

Remus's hands twitch in his lap, as though he's about to reach out to Hermione, but at the last moment, he tucks them into his pockets instead. "I don't want to go."

A man comes to stand in front of Hermione, and she finds herself looking up at a much younger Kingsley Shacklebolt. As he introduces himself, his low, easy voice is one of the most reassuring things she can hope for in this moment. Glancing at Remus, though… she can tell that he's not so lucky. He looks like his whole world has come crashing down on him.