Reminder: I do not own Harry Potter, as much as I would like to. He and all related characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter Eleven: A House Full of Werewolves
Remus could not help but notice that the cottage looked cheerier as he approached it. The children were looking slightly sick from the side-along apparition they had been subjected to. Ana's slightly green face peaked out from the pink blanket.
"Pretty flowers." Her tiny voice sounded odd to Remus's ears. He barely remembered being around a child as young as she was. The little werewolf could barely be five years old. The thought of Greyback biting the innocent doll-like child made him livid.
"Yes, Ana, pretty flowers. I'm sure that Diane will play out here with you after we get you all settled in." Hermione would be better at dealing with the children than he was. At least he hoped that she would.
Alec and Leandra were considerably more stoic than their younger packmate. They declined to speak to him, and he wondered just how horrible Arctos had been to them. Kimi followed behind the group, grinning to herself as they approached the cottage.
Remus opened the door slowly, marvelling at his transformed house. Those books that had been on the floor were now unwitting residents of the magically expanded and reinforced bookcases. The dust that had ruled the room had been banished more effectively than it had been in years. Yellow wallpaper was visible on the walls, where previously, only a layer of grime had been. He took a deep breath, amazed that for once, he did not break out coughing in his own home.
Snippets of a catchy tune wound their way through the house. He followed the melodic trail only to find Hermione singing to herself as she prepared tea.
It was strange to see someone else moving around his kitchen with such stubborn resolve. She was learning her way around his space with the same persistence that had made her the smartest witch in her year, if not her generation. Instead of simply using a summoning charm to find what she needed, she opened every cupboard and drawer in her search. By the time the tea was steeped, he had no doubt that she would know his kitchen just as well as she had known the one in the house she had grown up in.
Remus heard a delighted gasp behind him. Kimi was inspecting his shelves, obviously entranced with his wide variety of muggle fantasy novels dealing with werewolves. The books were remnants of happier days when the Marauders had thought it amusing to present him with a new one the morning after every full moon when he recovered in the hospital wing.
The children hung back, away from the walls and the two armchairs. They looked afraid to touch anything. Seeing their hesitation, he was suddenly more comfortable with the fact that he was now alpha of the pack. Being alpha meant that he could help in situations such as theirs, when he never could have before.
Hermione looked up and spotted Remus in the doorway to the kitchen. She forced herself to smile at him, no matter how much she wished to frown or scold him like she would have scolded Harry. The blotted parchment that she had received an hour after leaving the pack had panicked her and she doubted that he knew that. All she had known was that she had to hide the evidence of their identities, because some members of the pack were coming over.
"Oh, John, you never told me how many we were expecting for tea." The words were slightly forced and she hoped that no one would question her act. She bustled around the kitchen, taking down teacups and saucers from the cupboard by the stove, setting them daintily on the tea tray.
Hermione brushed past her former professor and entered the sitting room. One look around and she hastily cast a few spells to start a pot of hot chocolate for the children. Holidays at the Burrow had been good practice for common household spells.
"Diane, this is Ana." Remus said, laying his scarred hands on the tiny girl's shoulders. Hermione looked down at intelligent brown eyes, much like her own. The golden curls reminded her of a doll that she had played with as a child, before dolls had been replaced with miniature chemistry sets and rotating models of the planets around the sun.
"It's nice to meet you, Ana." Hermione carefully set the tray onto thin air, hoping that her knowledge of the spell would not fail her. She knelt down carefully in front of the scared little girl, wrapped in a stained pink blanket. "Would you like some hot chocolate?" The curls bobbed as she nodded her head.
"Alec, Leandra, this is Diane. Diane, you've already met Kimi Lightfoot." Remus tried to take calming breaths as he introduced everyone.
Alec looked slightly thoughtful as he surveyed the young woman who was only eight years older than him. The realization shook Remus that the children were closer in age to Hermione than he was. How was he supposed to keep up the charade that they were together?
Thankfully, Leandra appeared as passive as she had been since meeting him earlier that morning. She followed Alec's lead and since he was not doing anything, she would not either.
He had warned the children, and Kimi to behave as they would normally within his home. No shows of dominance or submission would be tolerated. The words had cost him. He hated having to be so stern with children, but he would hate it even more if passive Leandra or little Ana offered their necks to him in fear.
"Well," said Hermione, taking command of the situation. "The chocolate will be ready shortly, until then..." She conjured fluffy armchairs for the company. "I take it you'll be staying here." She said, turning to the children who had just settled down into the new chairs.
"Yes, ma'am," Alec sounded slightly impertinent, but she had dealt with boys like him for over six years now.
"We don't have any guestrooms prepared right now, but I'll see what I can do after tea." Just then, a carafe of hot chocolate floated into the sitting room to join the tea tray suspended in the centre of the ring of chairs.
Remus wondered how she knew that the children would be staying with them, but a glance her direction only made him ask more questions. Why, for instance, was she casting smiles at him and looking so comfortable in his home. It was almost like she had been there for years.
He watched as she poured out four cups of hot chocolate, handing one to each child and then placing the last cup in his hands. Was it his imagination, or had she purposely let her hands touch his?
Two more cups were filled with tea, one to Kimi's taste and one to Hermione's. They sat around the circle, offering idle chatter that meant little in the actual scheme of things.
Her gut twisted. He was her professor, or at least her former professor. The look in Kimi's eyes from the moment she had entered the room clearly said that everyone else present thought they were more than that. She knew what had happened the night before. It had taken her a little while to remember, but she knew the signs of submission towards an alpha. Both she and Remus had received those signs that morning.
The knowledge had taken a little while to surface, but she had not studied up on werewolves during her third year to no avail.
Their little conversation ended when Ana yawned and Remus looked down at his wristwatch. The wristwatch itself was a puzzle to Hermione, but she did not question it.
"Diane, I have to be off, if you could make our guests comfortable." She wondered if he was going off to report on the newest developments to Professor McGonagall.
He pulled his cloak around his shoulders, apologizing to his guests for his hasty departure. Within moments, Hermione was alone, in a house full of werewolves.
...Author's Note:
Yet again, I refuse to bore you with excuses for my long absence.
Kimi's last name was originally going to be Hattai from the scientific name of a type of Japanese wolf that is now extinct. Her personality and physical characteristics though seemed to fix the other type of Japanese wolf, the Honshu wolf (also extinct) more closely. The problem was that the Honshu's scientific name is canis lupus hodophilax and there is no way to make that into a good last name. So, Lightfoot it was, since I have actually heard that as a last name and it did not sound too bad with her first name.
Sorry the chapter was kind of boring, but I needed to get the kids and Kimi to the cottage, and I did not feel like doing so in a flashback.
Comments? Questions? Flames? Promises of devoted readership? Anything is fine by me.
