So, I just realized that the page breaks I have been having have not shown up on the website on any of my chapters. I never really look at a chapter after I upload it. I AM SO SORRY. I don't know how you can read this. I'm trying to fix them all now. I should have known, because someone said something to me about it being difficult to understand one time, but I didn't realize it was this bad.

A/N: This chapter has Hermione's roommates in it. I know you haven't seen them in a little while, so here's a refresher, or you can go back and reread chapter 4. Or reread all of it while you're at it ;) I hate it when stories have filler characters that I've forgotten about. Filler characters are obviously necessary in stories like these, and I even like some of mine, but I just thought I'd remind you about them.

Kate Morrow is a muggleborn. She is quiet, wants to be a healer, and is on the quidditch team. She has fairly short, dark-blondish hair.

Rebekah Heart- fun loving, a bit of a gossip, not sure what she wants to do after Hogwarts. She is probably a half blood, though I don't think it's come up. She has long, straight dark brown hair.

Ashton Davies- Pureblood girl. Wants to go into potions. I really thought about cutting her, but I never did, so… here she is.

And then there is Alice and Hermione/Jean of course.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 20- Returns

"Enjoy the rest of your break," Remus said to his friend.

"You too," James called as he walked out of the door with Remus waiving behind. Somehow, people always moved on from tragedy. The pain would never go away, but it was already mending. Love can help someone through that too.

*****Hermione/Remus*****

There were still several days until students would return to Hogwarts, and Hermione and Remus fell back into a normal routine. They would spend time in the library, wandering the grounds, and occasionally attempting to map out unexplored regions of the school. Even without much of the faculty present though, faculty rooms were difficult to find, much less break into.

"Hello, little mudblood. Picked up a friend, I see. One of the halfbloods that moon over Black and Potter, the filthy blood traitors," came the cool voice of Lucius Malfoy. Since her last encounter, Hermione had managed to avoid every Slytherin that was later associated with You Know Who, a subject she was now glad that she had researched thoroughly during her third year. She could hardly avoid Peter when she was dating Remus, but she could at least avoid others. Unfortunately, several Slytherins stayed over the break, more than any other house.

"Why don't you just go away?" Remus spoke up. They turned to face Malfoy. Severus Snape was a few steps behind him, in silent support of Lucius, Hermione supposed.

"Oh, a brave Gryffindor now," Malfoy sneered. Hermione liked this man even less than his son.

"Look, none of us have been any trouble to any of the Slytherins this year. Let's just have a truce," Remus posed diplomatically. Everyone knew that you had to be careful with Lucius Malfoy. There were rumors that he had already taken the mark.

"I hear that another little mudblood had a tragic happening this break. I hear she was quite laughable in her reaction. Getting so upset over a muggle's death." Hermione and Remus were both clenching their jaws in anger.

"You-," Hermione started to speak up before Remus cut her off.

"Let's just go," Remus said, putting his arm around Hermione's back and leading her down the hall. They both had their wands ready, though Hermione wasn't really sure what she would do. Neither Slytherin boy moved. Lucius was evidently not in a mood to go any further. Or perhaps, like his son, he talked with more confidence than he actually possessed.

*******Hermione/Remus******

The days passed until it was the day that the other students would arrive. Hermione had noticed Remus becoming quieter lately. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Instead of answering directly, Remus responded with another question, "Are you still trying to go- home?"

"Well," she started carefully, "I haven't really done any research in a while, but Professor Dumbledore is looking into it for me"

"I'm sure you'd love to get back to your friends, the ginger and Harry," he said with force behind his statement that surprised Hermione.

"Don't you get like that," Hermione warned, knowing what he was implying. "They are both practically my brothers. I would have thought you were above petty jealousy," Hermione snapped back. She knew that she should be understanding his difficult situation, but she was not finding that generous side of herself at the moment.

"Well, it's pretty hard not to be sometimes when your girlfriend is trying to leave you. I don't even know where you are trying to go! Or when… whatever! I know you aren't a student here yet, so that's four years at least. More because I'm your teacher somehow. I don't even know if you have been born yet!" Remus ranted.

"This isn't exactly easy for me either," Hermione spoke up defensively. "I can't tell you anything because I can't change everything," she spoke quietly but still defiantly. So long as she was angry she wasn't crying, she told herself.

Remus covered his eyes with his hands and exhaled deeply. "I know. It's just all very- unconventional, and I would give anything to be normal."

"I know," Hermione answered quietly, glad that the situation was diffused quickly, thanks to Remus. She knew a fight like this with Harry or Ron would have just escalated further and ended with none of them talking to each other.

"Let's just go get ready for dinner, alright? Everyone will be back soon," Remus suggested tiredly.

Hermione wrapped her arms around him and drew herself up onto her toes to gently kiss his lips. "Alight," she replied and walked off, shyly swinging her hips just a bit and leaving Remus with a smile on his face. It was a small, somewhat sad smile, but present nonetheless. "It will be alright," Hermione whispered as she walked away, more to herself because she was not even sure if Remus would be able to hear.

*******Hermione******

Dinner was a lively affair, as it always was after a break. Everyone was talking of their gifts and about what happened over their breaks. Hermione tried to pay attention to everyone around her, feeling bad for not paying much attention to her housemates sometimes. Though back home she never paid much attention to Lavender, Parvati, and the other girls in her dorm. She listened to a boy named Mark in her year talking about the new broom that he got for Christmas, knowing that there would be "girl time" in her dorm later.

Even though it wasn't late after dinner, the five Hufflepuff fourth year girls gravitated to their room. The last one to enter the room closed the door behind them.

"So, which of you wants to go first?" Rebekah asked, looking between Alice and Hermione.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Oh, come on," Rebekah countered. "The rest of us know that we had boring breaks with a family. Lots of fun. Whatever. Whereas you, Alice, met your boyfriend's family and stayed at his house." Rebekah turned to Hermione and continued. "And you, Jean, spent the entire break in an almost empty castle with a certain Remus Lupin. Don't think that we don't remember that he stayed just to be with you. Nearly all of the Gryffindors always go home.

The two girls put on the spot were blushing. They looked at each other. "Alice?" Hermione prompted.

Alice laughed, "Oh fine. It's not like I didn't really want to talk about it anyway. It was really nice. I stayed through Christmas with my family, though Frank came over on Christmas Eve and met my family. We had a big dinner and it was really lovely. They loved him of course; how could you not? They didn't like it when I said that I wanted to be an auror. I hoped I could avoid that discussion for a little while longer. But everything was fine really." Alice seemed to be done talking.

"And…" Ashton prompted. "You are leaving out a lot of bits. Like the bit where you stayed an entire week at his house?"

"Hmmmm… must have slipped my mind," Alice said, giggling.

"Well?" Hermione asked, finding herself getting into the spirit of "girl time" that she had not had over the break.

"Well," Alice paused. "He told me that this summer, he plans on asking for my hand," she stated.

"What!" Rebekah voiced. They all sat in mixed states of excitement and confusion.

"Well yes. My family is rather traditional, so he's going to ask my father and grandfather. I mean, they aren't so traditional that I would have an arranged marriage. Though they did try to push me towards a boy when I was eight actually. He wasn't very nice though."

"But you're only fifteen!" Rebekah protested. "And dating the first boy you've ever been out with."

Ashton, the other pureblood in their year, spoke up, "It's really not unusual. There's a boy from France that my family wants me to meet…"

"What!" Rebekah responded again.

"Yeah, Alice is really lucky to find someone herself that her family likes. Pureblood families often start planning early to make sure their children have a match. Especially if they care anything about genetics and do not want their child marrying a first or second cousin. Anything beyond that is nearly unavoidable unless you look outside of the country," Ashton spoke quietly.

"Frank said that he would propose anyway, but this makes it easier, if everyone is happy. I'm not really supposed to know if we were being "traditional," but he wanted to ask me first," Alice smiled.

"Wow," said Rebekah, "I mean, that's great then, so long as you're happy. It's just not what my parents did." The rest of the girls agreed with well wishes and smiles.

"Did meeting his family go well though? Is his mother a hag?" Rebekah asked, never one to be subtle.

"She's a little rough on the edges, but she has a really good heart. She is so proud of Frank. She was an auror when she was younger, one of the very first female aurors actually. It was quite a scandal at the time as I hear it. You still don't hear about many female aurors. I heard her tell Frank that he brought home a nice enough girl, which is quite the compliment for her.

"That's sweet. We'll have to hear more later, but now, Jean?" Rebekah prompted.

*******Remus*******

Remus walked into their room, already feeling nostalgic about this place, thought he had a year and a half left in school. James sat on his bed, unpacking his things. Remus wasn't sure what Peter was off doing, and he knew Sirius was still talking to Lily's friend, Marlene McKinnon. Maybe the two of them would get together at some point. One could never tell with Sirius Black though. Remus privately thought that if James hadn't always been so fixed on Lily then Sirius might have found it harder to flirt with any girl that he chose. He seemed slightly more persistent with Marlene though.

James asked, "So how was your break? I'm sorry I didn't get to see you much."

"It was- fine. Jean and I spent a lot of time together."

"And the full moon?" James asked, seeming concerned for his friend.

"It wasn't too bad, really. I missed you lot though. You almost make it fun," after a pause he continued, "Strange though, it was like Madame Pomfrey couldn't wait to get rid of me the next day."

"Maybe she had a date?" James suggested, laughing.

"I think it was more like she wanted me to have one," Remus replied, laughing back, enjoying having his other friends around him again.

*******Hermione*******

"Jean?" Alice asked again after Hermione had sat in silence for a few moments thinking. "How was your break?"

"It was… great," she offered. "I caught up on my school work," she started, ignoring the chuckles of the girls who already knew her well enough to know that "catching up" meant "getting well ahead of even the other studious students."

"And?" Rebekah nudged.

"And Remus and I enjoyed each other's company and explored the castle a bit.," Hermione continued.

"Sounds romantic," Rebekah smiled, looking a bit more satisfied.

"And, I went to a party at the Potter's house," Hermione said softly, sharing a look with Alice.

Rebekah seemed a bit deflated now, "Yeah, we heard about all of that. I'm sorry for the poor girl."

Kate spoke up for Hermione thought the first time, "Is she alright?"

"I heard from Remus a day or two after that she was doing better. It must be hard though…" she said as the girls all reflected in silence before slowly starting to open up to chat about other, lighter topics.

*******Remus*******

Remus felt like he had run out of things to say and asked quietly, "How's Lily?" He had seen them together earlier, and he wondered if they had been in contact over the break.

"She's good, actually. We've been talking a lot. Well, writing mostly. I think she's handling everything better than anyone ever could. And actually handling it, not just ignoring it. We talk about things sometimes. She wants to name her first son after him," James said in an off-handed way that still did not conceal the importance he put on that statement.

Remus didn't quite know what to say. "You don't want to name him James Potter junior?" Remus asked, opting for humor and hoping it wasn't disrespectful.

"James can be his middle name," he laughed.

"So talking about kids?" Remus questioned, a bit more serious. "That sounds pretty official."

"Not really," James sighed. "I really don't want to mess anything up this time. I'm just going to be her friend a while." The room was silent for a few moments as Remus tried not to show his amazement. This was not the same young man that planned pranks on Slytherins. James spoke again, bringing Remus back to reality. "It has a nice ring to it though, doesn't it? Harry James Potter," he tried. "Harry Potter." "Harry," he said with a smile, probably picturing his life with Lily raising a little boy. Remus would not have suspected his friend of those thoughts even a few months ago.

Remus's eyes widened in shock, Harry.

A/N: Ooooohhhhhh. Haha. What conclusions is Remus going to jump to? Thank you for all the kind words, and I am so glad that people like my story. I'm working on planning out some more now. It's just coming rather slowly. I hope it doesn't bother people when I don't use perfect grammar, particularly while people are speaking or thinking. That definitely falls under artistic licensure since people don't actually speak in proper sentences.