Hermione wasn't a coward, but she was hiding. With good reason. There was no way she was going anywhere near Remus Lupin after the "Tonks" incident. Aside from the defence lessons which she continued twice a week, she barely left her Library. The intruder alarms she had set warned her whenever he got close and she would retreat in to her office. He'd tried to corner her after their lessons but Lily was helping and kept him busy long enough for her to escape. Hermione spent the full moons locked in her rooms, paws over her ears trying to drown out the haunting howl of her mate, searching for her. So yes she was hiding, but she wasn't a coward.
Lily thought the situation was hilarious. Sirius had made fun of her for weeks about being a lightweight and James had stood quietly and watched in that quiet way that Harry used to do when he was thinking. Their defence skills had grown quickly under her tutelage. They had mastered basic stunners and spells, their shielding was impressive and Hermione had just started them on the Patronus Charm. She glanced around at the Seventh years. At her insistence their group had expanded to include Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend Alice Prewitt. They were clever, brave and deeply in love. Alice had Neville's features but he had his fathers build and hair. Or at least when Neville grew out of his puppy fat in his seventh year he would. Whenever Hermione looked at them she couldn't help but see the broken minded couple she had met in St Mungo's Hospital. It made her all the more determined for them to protect themselves.
"The basis for this spell is happiness. It has several uses the primary one being the reflection of Dementors, but it can also be used as a messenger or a sentry." Hermione gestured around the circle they sat in. "I was taught this spell by my best friend Harry. The magic itself isn't hard. It's the concentration on happiness that causes difficulty. For example my Harry had a very difficult life, facing hardships I hope I never have to tell you about. As a result he didn't have a memory happy enough, although this may work for some of you. Harry used something that he couldn't remember. It was probably something he had constructed from pictures of his parents but it worked. So whether it's a memory, a hope or dream, as long as it's happy it should work. Up." Hermione got to her feet smiling at Severus as she did. "The enchantment is simple. Expecto Patronum. Got that?" They nodded and she gestured for them to find a space. Hermione breathed deeply and avoided her mate's gaze. There was no avoiding this.
"My patronus was an otter. However it changed. Harry's was a stag." She smiled at James, spouting the lie she had already come up with. "It's a very common animal. Would you like a demonstration? Lily has already seen this." The group nodded and Hermione sighed. "Very well. Expecto Patronum." The silver wolf bounded out of her wand and trotted around the room coming to a stop by her side gazing at Remus. She refused to look at him, instead focusing on Sirius's grinning visage.
"Who wants to give it a shot? Although i know the Purebloods may have already learned this."
"I will." James broke his self imposed silence and stepped forward. He drew his wand and turned to Lily staring straight into her eyes as she blushed slightly.
"Expecto Patronum" A silver stag burst out of his wand, trotting forward to stand in front of Lily. She smiled at it and the Marauders burst into peals of laughter.
"Well that is strangely fitting Prongs." Sirius teased. "What an odd coincidence."
Hermione snorted. "You're a dog Sirius Black."
His face went pale for a second as she grinned at him.
"Who want to go next?"
One by one they produced matching patroni. Sirius was of course, a large dog which panted at him, running in circles and chasing it's tail. Frank and Alice were a pair of eagles and Hermione had had to explain matching patroni to the grinnign couple.
"There is a theory that you can recognise your soul mate by their patronus." She smiled as the pair of eagles swooped over their heads. Frank and Alice blushed at each other happily. "Although it is only a theory it does seem to be correct an alarming amount of the time."
Lily went next and after a couple of tries almost fainted in shock as her doe had joined James' stag. Everyone else just smiled as James blushed slightly, smiling slightly at Lily. Severus' lion was greeted with no small amount of laughing and teasing, which the Slytherin managed to join in once his horror had worn off. He had come a long way from the boy at the start of term who had one foot in camp Death Eater. The Marauders now considered him one of their own and Lily was once again his friend. Hermione wondered if she hadn't performed the charms on his face he might not have had the courage to go and apologise to Lily publically. Even if he had and she hadn't taken them somewhere private away from the harming influence of James Potter this would have turned out very differently. Maybe it had been Lily's refusal to forgive him that had driven him to accepting the Dark Mark.
Hermione smiled at the gold bracelet which was set with ruby stones on Alice's wrist. "You didn't tell me you were engaged."
The pair froze and the group burst out laughing as they blushed guiltily.
"If you didn't want anyone to know you shouldn't be wearing your betrothal gift around the place. I'm surprised no one else had noticed."
"Actually..." Remus smiled at the pair. "We noticed weeks ago."
Frank grinned. "She said yes." He stated proudly grinning like a fool.
"We can see that you love struck moron. You are as bad as James." Sirius sighed. "It's just you and me Moony, against the unwilling binds of matrimony."
Hermione sighed. She hoped Sirius would find a wife this time around. The wizard had lost the best years of his life rotting in Azkaban. He deserved the wife and children she knew he'd always craved.
Remus broke through her thoughts. "Is it my turn?"
Hermione nodded refusing to speak directly to him. She couldn't risk letting another secret slip.
Remus stood up straight and drew his wand. Unlike James and Sirius he didn't shout the spell, preferring to whisper it. "Expecto Patronum."
Hermione sighed watching the animal. I hate magic.
Remus hadn't missed the fact that her wolf bore a strange resemblance to himself. It was almost identical. The silver wolf sat next to its mistress and watched the room with a quiet intensity. When Frank and Alice's eagle had taken to the air together, Remus had smiled watching as the two patronus' interacted with each other. James' stag had followed Lily's doe around the room, nuzzling her and shielding her from the others, much to Sirius' undying amusement. When Remus stepped forward, he'd be temporarily been at loss as to think about. He thought about everything he wanted and dreamt about. Home, a hearth, cubs...a mate. He smiled as the joy of that filled him and cast the spell not really expecting anything to happen. When the wolf had burst out of his wand to pad across the room, his face had frozen in shock as it made its way towards Hermione. Sirius cursed and it seemed to dislodged the witch from her thoughts as she stared at the wolf in something like longing and horror. She sighed and banished her own patronus with a flick of her wand.
"That's enough for today. Keep practicing the spell. I'll see you on Tuesday."
"No you won't." Lily smiled. "Christmas holidays. Remember?"
"Is it?" Remus echoed her sentiments in his own head. Half of their seventh year was already gone and he hadn't noticed. He didn't dare take his gaze off Hermione in case she vanished again.
"I'll see you after the holidays. Congratulations Alice." And she was gone, the door closing behind her. The seventh years looked at each other in confusion.
"So does that mean…" Alice started.
"That I can be your bridesmaid? Definitely. I accept." Lily shrieked in happiness, swiftly changing the subject. "Right you lot, back to your dormitories. It's almost curfew." She virtually tossed them out on their ears, linking arms with Alice and Frank and talking loudly about wedding plans, making it impossible for anyone else to mention what happened with Hermione.
"So Hermione can be your other bridesmaid and your sister would make a lovely flower girl wouldn't she?" Remus sighed loudly causing James to glace at him. The Head Boy smiled at his partner's antics. He could tell exactly what she was up to. Remus could also tell that she knew something. He could smell her nervousness.
He kept his patience until he got back to the dormitory he shared with Sirius, Frank and Peter.
"Give us the map Sirius." The wizard went pale.
"Err…I lost it?"
"You know I can tell when you're lying, don't you."
Sirius sighed looking strangely sombre. "Believe me you don't want to see the map at the moment." He turned to Frank. "Congratulations by the way."
Remus snarled and stormed out, only to be caught by James at the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Don't do it." James dragged him over to an armchair. "Leave it and give her until the end of the holidays to recover."
"You don't understand. She can't be my soul mate. She's already mated."
James looked at him strangely his hazel eyes oddly sympathetic. "Yes she is. Doesn't mean that she's not your soul mate does it? Now do you want some old story about me and Lily in which I will bore you to tears or will you back to your bed and leave our poor confused Librarian alone?" Remus sighed and gave in. He knew James was probably up to something but he was too fed up to care.
She paced the octagonal room that was her sitting room. Maybe she should just leave. Moody would train them when they joined the Order and she would be free to find the Horcruxes. However that would leave them at Dumbledore's mercy. Ever since Sirius had fallen through the veil in her fifth year, Hermione's respect for the Headmaster had dwindled. She began to see how he manipulated people and twisted their thoughts to follow his plans. No one was a better example than Harry. Although he remained faithful to the Headmaster until the very end Hermione had watched as her friend, who was nothing more than a child was forced to take on impossible tasks and burdens. In their first year he had hidden the Philosophers stone in his school, guarding it with the most ludicrous wards Hermione had ever come across. At the time it hadn't seemed strange but Hermione eventually began to wonder why he hadn't just left it in Gringotts. It would have been safer. If three first years could get through his defences then Voldemort certainly could. Hermione snorted in anger. As for leaving Harry with the Dursley's, she couldn't see how anyone had bought his story. The blood wards were no stronger than those around the Burrow. Harry should have gone to Remus or even Dame Longbottom. Anybody other than Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Either the man was incredibly stupid or just plain manipulative.
"Hermione?"
She spun drawing her wand in one smooth movement and sinking into a duelling stance. She relaxed when she saw who was standing in her doorway.
"Lily Evens, James Potter and Sirius Black. What are you doing in here?" She paused. "How did you get in here?"
"You haven't changed the password for that wretched goat." Lily shrugged. "Wasn't difficult. As for how we got here, James and Sirius finally decided to come clean about the invisibility cloak."
"Wait." James stared at her. "You already knew about it?"
"I know all your secrets." She laughed evilly. "The cloak, the map, the full moons, your animagus. Everything."
The boys went pale.
"I think…" Sirius turned to his best friend. "That we have met a fellow Marauder in your Head Girl."
"You may be right." James muttered still staring in shock at her.
"Anyway," Lily turned back to Hermione who was grinning. "This is an intervention."
Hermione scowled. "Is this about Remus?"
"No it's about your Firewhiskey addiction. Of course it's about Remus." The group sat down on the sofa and Hermione collapsed into her armchair, dislodging Crookshanks who hissed at Sirius and curled up on Lily's lap, glaring at Hermione
"We know he's your mate. We know he's your soul mate. We don't know why you're hiding from him."
Sirius snorted. "I know why. She's a coward."
"Then I would be the first Gryffindor who was." Hermione quipped, rolling her eyes at him.
"You were in Gryffindor?"
She glanced at Lily who was watching her with amusement.
"I did it again didn't I?"
"Yep. Unless you've changed your mind about memory charms, your going to have to explain yourself. Again."
"You can't be in Gryffindor. You would have been in last years seventh year." Sirius laughed. "I would definitely remember you."
She sighed.
Do you think we can trust them?
They're pack.
All of them?
"I'm not from around here."
"But you were in Gryffindor."
She laughed. "Geographically speaking, I'm from around here. But I won't be for a long time. DO you know what a time turner is?"
Surprisingly it was James who nodded.
"They're method of travelling through time. Most old families have one. So you're from the future? Time turners only go backwards, so you can't be from the past."
Hermione nodded. "About 20 years into your future. I will be born in three years time to two muggle dentists who'll name me Hermione. Or they should if I haven't mess up the time lines too much."
"This has what to do with Remus?"
"You've always been impatient Sirius." She smiled at him and tucked her wand back into it's holster. "Voldemort isn't defeated by this War, just knocked out for a while. In my third year we had a new Defence Professor at Hogwarts. Professor Lupin was the best teacher we'd ever had. I discovered his "furry little problem", as Sirius says, but I kept quiet about it. Eventually he was fired by Dumbledore when the parents found out about his Lycanthropy, but he remained in the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledores secret organisation fotr the Light. I fought along side him and his wife. They were good friends of mine. The potion that Remus took controlled his lupine senses and stopped him from acting on certain urges. NAmely the mating sense. He knew there was something strange abut me, but he never worked out what it was. He got hit by a confundus jinx and the potion stopped working. Moony saw me and decided to take what he considered was his." Hermione sighed. "And that is the worlds most edited version of my story. However you will not get the full version."
"Why not?" Lily sighed and scowled at James.
"If she knew Remus she knew us too. She can't tell us the future without ruining the future."
Hermione laughed. "Strangely enough that is exactly what I decided to do. I was at the centre of the War. Well slightly to the left of it actually. The centre was my friend Harry."
"So why won't you do something abut Remus?" Sirius and James scowled.
Hermione just sighed and Lily guessed her answer.
"Because he's married." Hermione nodded sadly and Lily turned to her friends. "She won't consider doing anything with him because she knows his wife is out there somewhere waiting for Remus."
"That was in the original time line though. You've already changed it. Maybe Remus only settled for her because her couldn't have you. You would have been 20 years younger than him wouldn't you?" She nodded frowning slightly and James continued excitedly. "The only reason he hasn't gone after you is because you're so bloody hard to catch and he thinks you're mated to another were-wolf."
"That and you're the Librarian." Sirius grinned. "Although knowing Moony that could be a major turn on."
"Behave Sirius." Lily snapped, he just gave her his patented puppy dog eyes.
"You can't stay mad at me Evens."
"Which House are you from?" James scowled. "Because if I'm not mistaken that ring looks suspiciously like mine."
"Mine too." Sirius broke in, "Although the motto and lightening bolts are different. But those are the Black ravens."
Hermione sighed and glared at the ring. "I can't tell you. Which will be the answer to a lot of your quetsions I'm afraid. At least until I'm sure that everything is going the way it should be. Are you lot done meddling in my personal life now?"
"Almost." Lily smiled. "Will you be Alice's bridesmaid? She wanted me to ask."
Hermione shrugged. "Yes."
She shooed the joyful Head Girl and her companions out of the room and collapsed on her sofa, cuddling Crookshanks.
"So now we just have to tell Remus."
A/N Okay. Eep. I think this okay. Feed back would be nice. Maybe this isn't okay. I DO NOT KNOW.
By the way my favourite review is from Angel Girl5. I love the evil laughter.
Any mistakes feel free to point them out and I'll correct them. I can't wait to get to Potter Manor. Major Dumbledore bashing ahead. :)
Our favourite were-wolves will be getting closer soon. James and Sirius can be really persuasive when they want to be.
Review please.
Hood Out.