"Well, that was uneventful," Remus muttered heatedly as he shut his precious car door gently.
"You can say that again. All we managed to do was anger the cook."
Sirius' voice crackled into their ears. "You did everything right, maybe this is just a test of some sort. Go on to the hotel and get settled. Chat up the help and see if they know of anything."
"Padfoot, that is a truly excellent idea," Remus snapped, making Hermione grin despite herself. Of course it was a great idea, it had been Remus' to begin with and the main reason he had chosen the hotel in the first place. It had a reputation of strange occurrences recently, and Remus had suspected that several from the New Darkness had stayed there on occasion, due to its close proximity to the café, and who knows what all else it was close to.
When they pulled up to the motel, Remus went inside first, and Hermione knew it was partly to make sure it was safe before she entered, and partly to get away from her. Being this close to him for the next few days was going to be murder for her.
"May I help you?" the young clerk behind the desk asked, irritating Hermione with the way she leaned toward Remus and exposed her more than ample cleavage.
"We have a room reserved for the next two nights," Remus said, furthering angering Hermione when he made a show of looking at what the young girl offered and returning her smile.
"And your name, Sugar?"
"Edward and Grace Worthington."
"Room 212." Her smile slipped a little when she realised he was married, but she recovered quickly, much to Hermione's continued annoyance. "Up those stairs and it's the last door on the right, or you can take the elevator beside the staircase. Breakfast is served between seven and nine, Dinner between five and seven. You'll be all on your own for lunch. Unless," she whispered, leaning even closer to Remus and saying something Hermione couldn't hear. Remus, however, chuckled at the girl, whose hand accidentally slid to his bare forearm.
Torn between acting the jealous wife or pretending not to notice, Hermione decided it best to see to the man struggling with their small amount of luggage, whilst Remus had fun with the blonde bimbo. She groaned inwardly when she remembered that she, too, was now blonde.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," the boy, apparently still in his teens if the pimples on his face and the blush in his cheeks were any indicators, said as he smiled at her and began gathering the rest of their bags before following her to the stairs.
"Good afternoon," she replied warmly, liking him instantly though not sure why. She knew she was supposed to act the part of an aristocrat, but found she compared herself to Narcissa Malfoy and that made her shudder. Perhaps there was a happy medium in there. He, however, kept looking at her strangely as they walked up the steps and she wondered if maybe it was possible he had recognised her. The bags teetered a little in his hands. "Please be careful with that one, it's very-"
His grasp slipped right outside their door and the duffle bag slid to the floor with the ominous sounds of breaking glass.
"Oh no!" she shrieked as the liquid began seeping through the expensive material.
"I am so sorry!" He bent over to set the remaining bags by the door, but, when he smelled the air, his nose curled in disgust and he jumped back as though stung. "What is that smell?"
"Perhaps," Remus said coldly as he walked up behind them and eyed the young man, "if your mind had been on your job, and not my wife, this would not have happened."
"Edward!" she admonished, happy that she used his alias, even as the word 'wife' gave her shivers. At least they remembered to act their parts. "Don't be rude."
"I'll…I'll go get my manager," he mumbled dejectedly. "They'll replace anything broken or ruined. I'm terribly sorry."
At whose expense? Hermione wanted to ask; she knew how things like this worked. They'd nicely offer to replace the potions she had brought for Remus and herself without even knowing what it was they were attempting to replace. They'd be apologetic and courteous to a fault, but then the younger boy would be forced to pay them back out of his own pocket and probably be fired as well.
"No, don't," she said gently. "It was nothing important, but I do need to get my clothes out before they ruin. Thank you for the offer, but perhaps it would be best not to mention this to anyone."
He looked like Christmas has come early as he eagerly thanked her and walked away, looking at Remus with a guarded expression as he did so.
Hermione picked up the bags and opened the door. "There was no need to be so rude to him."
"There was no need for him to be looking at a married woman in that way, either."
Her angry reminder that she wasn't really married died on her lips as Remus pulled her sharply into his arms and then kicked the door closed behind them. Unexpected desire shot through her body and she realised with slight disappointment that the feeling was hers alone. His eyes widened and then he lowered his mouth to her neck, skimming her skin with his lips until he reached her ear. She thought for a moment that he was feeling the same thing for her, that his actions and feelings were finally matching hers, but that silly notion left as soon as he whispered in her ear.
"Unpack and make as much noise as you can. We need to discuss something trivial to add to the noise level while I check the room for Muggle bugging devices."
Disappointment tried to claim her, but she pushed down the feeling and walked to the bed.
"Besides," she spoke only slightly louder than normal, "it's not as if the front desk clerk wasn't fawning all over you." A wife would be jealous, right? So, it was only good acting that caused her voice to sound accusing.
Remus continued walking around and shuffling things into order. "On the contrary, wife, I believe she would be more inclined to your direction, though the offer was made for us both." She stopped moving and stared at him, making him laugh at her expression. "Scandalous, isn't it, love? Now," he added, walking over and showing her the three electronic listening devices in his hand, one of which also appeared to be a camera, "stop sulking. It's completely beneath your station and you're well aware that I am nothing if not faithful."
He stroked her cheek with one hand while he crushed the devices with the other and she tamped down her desire to snort at his comment. Then, he dropped the pieces and drew his wand while using her body to block the movements. He muttered a spell and two more devices flew into his hand. He crushed them easily and Vanished the remnants.
"I chatted her up," he said, unsure why he was explaining himself, but still feeling the need, "because she could prove a useful tool in future. I was a Marauder, if you'll remember, flirting and charm are second nature when I want them to be."
Words died on her almost smiling lips as his hand slowly left her face and he pushed a small button in his ear while turning away from her. "We're in. The room was bugged and I even found a camera that had yet to be activated."
"Well," Sirius sounded in her own ear and she tore her gaze away from Remus before touching her burning cheek, "they're either on to what you want or they're a kinky lot."
Hermione pushed her own button. "Considering the two we've already met, I vote kinky."
"Hey, Sprite! I see you're still alive. He treating you all right after your less than stellar lunch date?"
"She's fine. We'll check in after dinner. We're going to scope out the place and the other guests, then we'll be in touch."
"Sounds good. Wait, am I supposed to say some silly spy movie phrase? Over and Out, or something?" Harry asked this time.
"Goodbye, Sirius. Goodbye, Harry," Remus said impatiently and they both clicked their buttons off.
"Perhaps we'll meet someone today who will be better able to give us ideas of what to do tomorrow when we go back to the café."
"I think you're right. Stay away from the young one, there's something off about him and I don't trust him. I cleaned up the potion outside," he said quietly as he examined the contents of her duffle bag that were now strewn out along the floor. She Vanished the broken glass and sat two unbroken vials to the side, while ignoring his previous comment. "Thank you," he added softly. "In the sudden rush to get ready, I actually forgot the full moon was four nights away. Not that it does much good with the carpet soaking it up."
"Hermione?" he asked suddenly and she felt his curiosity and accusations acutely. "This one smells like Wolfsbane, yet not. What is it?" His tone held a warning that almost frightened her.
She looked up and saw the broken glass that she has missed before. "It's nothing," she sighed, "not any longer. And you should be careful using my name." She stood abruptly, tossing her untouched clothes on the bed and grimacing at her now ruined sleepwear that she had used to pack around the vials in lieu of an Unbreakable Charm that might be detected. The smell of the potion could easily be taken care of, but the potion had already burned large holes in the cotton fabric.
She held up her shirt and looked through the largest hole at Remus. "Surprising that you don't have holes like this in your stomach."
When she noticed he was glaring at her and then felt a twinge of his anger, she lowered the shirt and looked back at him. He was definitely becoming better at hiding his emotions.
"The other potion," he said between gritted teeth. "Too much has already happened due to someone messing with me," he growled, snatching his own bag and looking almost as if he were ready to leave. Now she could feel his anger more strongly, along with his feelings of betrayal. "I thought I could at least trust you, especially with something so important."
"Oh, that's right," she hissed. "I had forgotten it was about you, that it's always about you--What has happened to you, what's been done to you, how everyone is out to get you and you alone."
He dropped his bag and grabbed her shoulders roughly. "That is enough! Now, tell me what you were trying to do to me by sabotaging that potion!"
"Take your hands off me! I wasn't doing anything to you. That potion was for me!" Now why had she gone and told him that?
"For you? Since when have you become a werewolf, Hermione?" he snarled, allowing her to move from his grasp.
"It is mine," she said quietly as she sat on the bed and rubbed her now sore shoulders. Her fingers idly began stroking the ruined fabric in her hand as she frightfully contemplated what it would mean for her to go without the new potion she had picked up from Severus days earlier. "It's not for you."
"It's yours? Again, I don't believe you. I think you're as bad as the others--manipulating me. But what do you have to gain unless it's some sort of payback? And you wouldn't sacrifice the mission." He stood before her before she even realised it and grabbed her roughly by the arms once more while dragging her to her feet. His face was red with anger as he snarled. "No, you're worse! You're actually playing directly with the wolf. What did you hope for?" He shook her roughly and tears sprang to her eyes as she allowed him to feel how much his words hurt her. If his continued questioning was any indication, he obviously didn't care, and that angered her far worse. "Did you think he'd come out and give it to you again? Is that what you were hoping for, a fun night with the wolf?"
She slapped him hard and his head snapped back quickly. When he looked back at her, his expression was stony and his eyes were flashing between the man's and the wolf's, and her wand was pointed at his chest.
"Neither of you," she hissed in anger while her mind remained somewhat on the pain she, too, would feel in several nights, "have any right to treat me this way. Let go of me." When his grip loosened on her arms, the tears leaked down her face and she turned away from him and hid her wand in the back of her jeans. "Severus brewed that potion for me." She turned angrily back around and pointed to herself. "For me! Not you! I felt your last transformation, Remus. I felt it as if it were my own and I thought I was dying. Ask Severus, or Harry, if you don't believe me. They were there, they saw." Her voice cracked and she hated herself for the weakness even as she stood her ground against a man she knew was slowly merging with the wolf and had become much stronger physically for it. "I told them not to you tell you because I knew you'd…well, I thought you'd feel guilty."
"He'd hoped the potion would keep me from feeling it this time, but, unless we get back before the full moon, I guess we won't know. You have two doses of your potion left and we'll just have to hope it's good enough if we're still here in four nights."
He stood there, staring at her with a stunned, disbelieving look on his face. After a few moments of silence between them, she sighed heavily.
"It's almost dinnertime and I need to wash up. Then we should head down and start mingling."
Hermione quickly went into the large inclusive bathroom and washed her face before she reapplied her makeup just like Tonks had shown her, all the while feeling more out of sorts than she ever had before. She considered herself an understanding person, she knew Remus was going through a lot and that it was difficult for him to sort through emotions of not one, but three separate beings. He had been betrayed by those he trusted and she understood that. What she didn't understand was why he could forgive Tonks so easily and, with the same ease, hate Hermione herself.
Remus stood shell-shocked in the same position she had left him in. "You felt that?" he whispered in horror after several long moments, though she was no longer in sight.
'Of course she did! We are bound to her, you know. She'll feel every time I come out until we all accept the bond.'
'I didn't know.'
'And if you hurt her again, human,' the wolf snarled angrily, 'I will find a way to make you pay. You used our combined strength against our mate and you hurt her.'
Remus felt horrible. Hermione was precious to him, he had finally admitted the truth to himself just in time for the entire world to crumble around him. He had been so angry with her lately, and had wrongly blamed her for attempting to use him, to hurt him, only to do that very thing to her in return. He felt dejected and he hated himself more than usual. 'I never meant to hurt her.'
'And yet you have. Time and again since our bonding, you have hurt her with your words, your actions and even your looks. Everything you do affects her and it is time you took that to heart. A mate is not the burden you make it out to be; she is to be cherished, loved; she is to be held above all other things without thought.'
'Sounds like a marriage." Remus was quiet, contemplative as he digested the wolf's words along with what he had learned from Hermione the last several days and weeks. She was right, he lay the blame at her feet when it was really his own curse that drug her into a situation in which she did not wish to be in, nor one in which she belonged. 'What have I done?'
The wolf's voice was softer now, more understanding. 'She is a forgiving mate. Much more than you deserve, and yet, she has loved you from afar for so long. It is up to you to rebuild those bridges, my human, and to work with her on making amends for your stupidity.'
'Stupidity? You could have explained all this to me years ago, you know? For the last month I have been feeling the emotions of two people that do not belong to me, and it has been much more than a little disconcerting. I've taken it out on her because I thought she was to blame.'
'Your friend and her friend were to blame for my coming out. The potion weakened you enough for me to take the action you refused to take. Hermione is innocent and you should consider yourself lucky she didn't do more than mark your ugly face just now.'
'Do go on. Please, tell me more reasons of why I should stay away from her. Shall we start with age? Perhaps then we can move onto the fact I was once her teacher? Or would you prefer we discuss you? No one in their right mind wants a werewolf, and she is certainly in her right mind.'
'And yet she has wanted you for a long time now. All human males are ugly, no offence, but your species does not lend itself to my desires where that particular gender is concerned. I could care less about your teaching status of so long ago it has mainly been forgotten. I have allowed your features to return to their true state, to the age you would have been had I not toyed with you for all those years, so you no longer look years older than you truly are. Before you begin using the excuse that you have no money to support her, we both know it to be false and she is not a mate who cares about such material things. Do not insult her by assuming she is like all the others.'
"I suppose you're right," Remus muttered aloud.
"What was that?" Hermione asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway as the beautiful woman Tonks had made her appear to be, but not as the woman he truly wanted.
"Nothing." He stood before her then, his arms raising to encircle her body, but his heart breaking when she flinched slightly. Pulling her close to him anyway, he softly whispered into her ear. "I'm so sorry, Hermione. Please forgive me for hurting you. I swear I never will again."
She patted his back softly, then drew away from him. Of course he was sorry for hurting her, Remus would never physically hurt anyone. It was, unfortunately, yet another thing to love about him.
"I know, it's okay," she said softly as she walked to the door. "Come on or we'll be too late to mingle with the others. I'm sure the desk clerk is happily awaiting your arrival."
Remus rolled his eyes and followed her from the room, easily forgiven yet again, though he knew she still hurt6. Only one woman could claim his attention, and as his gaze ran along her backside, her skin heated to a flush that started along her shoulders.
He put his arm around her as a husband would do and led her down the stairs. "I was a Marauder, love," he whispered in her ear. "You can't be with James and Sirius as much as I was and not know how to charm those that could potentially help you."
"Oh," she said with a grin, "is that what you were doing? Charming a potential ally?"
"Of course!"
Perhaps he wasn't too late. Perhaps, if he pretended to be the husband that he actually found himself wanting to be, she would forgive him of his transgressions and they could slowly start all over. And, if 'perhaps' were to truly happen, then perhaps he could move from loving her from afar, as the wolf said she did him, and start loving her with all he was and in every way he had wished possible for the last year.
Chapter End Notes:
And amazing thanks to Lady Lynn for beta'ing this one on her own (lilmisblack has literally skipped the country). Much love to you!
