A/N: Wow. Basically I see my idea of Glimpses of American Pureblood Hermione ending in this chapter, so it's about twice as long as the others have been. Thank you all so much for going along with this with me. I had such a good time!

However! I am writing a series of Future Glimpses that will post in the coming days. Kids, ceremonies, and a more distant future as well.

The Three Broomsticks, 29 April 1978

"Talking to Her Father"

Remus broke out into a cold sweat as they climbed the stairs to Room Two at the Three Broomsticks. Two. Ominous number, that. Because they were a triad.

Weren't they?

Possible ways he could and likely would eff the next hour up kept running through his head.

Thank you for agreeing to meet with us today, Mister Dagworth-Granger. Did you happen to find out I'm a werewolf already or did I just completely ruin myself in your good opinion?

Good afternoon, Mister Dagworth-Granger. Thanks for coming to meet with us. We both want to marry Hermione, but we're having a bit of a disagreement. Sirius thinks I'd be a better husband and I think he'd be a better husband, and your daughter thinks we'd both be better husbands but that's not legal.

What, sir? A werewolf? Me? Oh, saw that, did you? No, sir, I promise never to bite your daughter. During a full moon, I mean. Shite, didn't mean to say that…

Hermione didn't wait for them to catch up to her; she didn't even call for her father first. She just held her hand at the door and it opened for her, silently. "Daddy!"

Remus cast a quiet cooling charm over himself, followed by a quick laundry charm his father had taught him when he'd been younger. Sirius blew out a breath but didn't seem to be suffering from the same set of nerves that were buzzing under Remus's skin. His heart was pounding, hard and heavy. He was panting, dry and desperate, and he had to stop it.

"Pads," he whispered whilst still on the threshold of the room.

Sirius turned from where their witch was giving her father a piece of her mind. "Shite, Moony." He flicked his wand and murmured a low-level Cheering Charm and Remus immediately felt better.

"Thanks."

"I'm charming, what can I say?"

"Yes, that is the report I've received about you."

Remus froze and Sirius gasped a bit when Hermione's father addressed them. He heard Puck whisper an admonishment to her father, but it went unnoticed by the others.

"Oh?" Sirius finally managed.

The older wizard waved them in and shut the door behind them. Chairs were indicated and Hermione stood, as there wasn't one for her, glaring at her father until he transfigured the hat rack into a chair for her. "Look, sweetheart, I'd rather you not be here at all," he said as she sat sternly down.

She lifted a brow. "My boyfriends. My life. My duty to produce progeny, right? So I absolutely have to be here."

Mister Dagworth-Granger sighed, patted her on the knee, and then turned deliberately back to face Remus and Sirius. "So, I've been asking around, as my daughter is quite taken with you both."

Remus kept his mouth shut to see if Sirius would find something smooth and charming to say.

"We're quite taken with her as well, sir," Sirius said smoothly, nodding to their witch, who offered them a small, nervous twitch of her lips. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us today."

As if they'd had a choice, Remus reflected. Aloud, he said, "Did you have any questions for us?" Best to get it over with, if he was going to take serious issue with his little furry problem . . .

"Your intentions?"

"Marriage," Remus and Sirius declared simultaneously. They hadn't planned for that to just burst into the room that way, but it had, and even Mister Dagworth-Granger looked amused.

"Good. But. There are concerns," the older wizard said, leaning forward in the only upholstered chair in the room, elbows on knees. "First, you must know that I am determined to keep the name of Dagworth-Granger alive. Hermione is preparing to be a Healer, I know, but she is also preparing to take her place as the Potioneer should circumstances warrant it."

Remus flickered a glance to their witch, who nodded once.

Sirius cleared his throat. "We're aware, sir, that any man fortunate enough to wed your daughter would be required by marriage articles to take the name of Dagworth-Granger for his own."

"Merlin, sounds like a Jane Austen story," Hermione muttered.

Her father half-turned toward her with a shushing gesture. Remus was not a little surprised when she settled back, lips resolutely pressed together.

"And you're prepared to change your family name for ours?"

"We are," Remus and Sirius said, not quite in unison but close enough.

A look from the older man had Remus wanting to clarify. "Sir. My father has never, er—"

"Dad!"

"Hermione Jane!"

"Sir," Sirius interjected, hand up as if to stop a quarrel. "If you've been checking up on us, you've likely learnt a great deal about us. Such as me being charming," he said with a self-deprecating smile. "Or Remus's . . . illness."

Dagworth-Granger's brows rose briefly into his forehead. "I have indeed. So, Mister Lupin, you're prepared to leave the name of Lupin behind? Is your family?"

Remus felt an ache tugging at his chest, a sad feeling of broken inevitability, but he persevered. "Sir. My father would rather our line die with him than to continue it through the headship of someone . . . like me."

"A lycanthrope," Hermione's father said, as if putting it out there would make it more real than it already was.

"Yes, Dad, he's a werewolf. He was bitten as a child, a pre-schooler! It's not like he can do anything about it."

With a tight voice, her father ground out, "I know, Hermione. Enough." To Remus, his voice was more smooth. "So you're willing to be Remus Dagworth-Granger, and have all children you sire take on the name of your wife?"

Remus nodded, though the idea of siring children still made him nervous. "Hermione has assured me they'd be unafflicted with my . . . curse. I'd be more than happy to relinquish the name of Lupin, sir."

"And you, Black? Noble and Ancient House, they say here." The Potioneer leaned back, his tone less smooth as he spoke to Sirius. "Your brother certainly couldn't deny the rights of my House fast enough."

Tension thickened the air in the room and Remus met Hermione's wide brown gaze with some alarm. Sirius, though, just laughed. A derisive sound, but it served to ease the room a bit. "Regulus is our mother's son. I'm not even on the family Tapestry any longer."

"So I understand from . . . a knowledgable source."

McGonagall! Remus knew it had to be her.

"This source tells me, Mister Black, that you're brilliant but a troublemaker. A staunch friend, and loyal to those whom you claim to be yours, but vindictive to those you perceive have wronged you. You do, however, belong to an Ancient and Noble line and men of those lines don't tend to be amenable to relinquishing their House for a woman's."

"My brother, as he probably told you, is the Scion of the House of Black, sir," Sirius said, his tone edged with just a bit of defiance. Remus hoped it wouldn't be detected by Hermione's father. "So I have no problem with taking Hermione's name."

Mister Dagworth-Granger nodded once, as if he'd heard something he'd expected to hear. "Hermione understands her duty to her bloodline and she knows she is expected to carry it on."

"Dad," their witch said, her voice low and rasping through the flat, Americanized vowel. "Enough!"

"No, sweetheart, your suitors have to be perfectly clear as to the situation." He inhaled sharply and thrummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. "Are you? You said you wanted to marry my daughter. But she can only marry one of you. Who is supposed to make that choice, do you think, gentlemen? Me? Hermione? Or will one of you step aside?"

"I want them both!"

Cacophony ensued and Remus and Sirius exchanged a look as father and daughter went nose-to-chest in their argument.

The father put his hands on his daughter's shoulders after the flurry of words ran its course. "You can't marry both. Only one."

"But they can both give me children, and a variation to the bloodline is a good thing," she countered. "And I love them both. I can't abandon one and keep the other. That would be . . . a breaking of the Pack!"

The point stilled the Potioneer so that he stepped back and stared hard at Remus until Remus felt the sweat trickle down his spine.

"Sir?" he ventured.

"Pack. This has to do with her Animagus form. I know you are as you are, but what is this Pack?"

Sirius coughed and took a step forward. "We're, erm, that is I, erm. Sir. I'm an Animagus as well, but not exactly registered."

"So the three of you are a Pack?"

"Yes," they all said at once, Hermione with a glint in her eye that both worried Remus whilst it made Moony howl with glee.

"I'm, well, the Alpha male," Remus admitted, feeling his cheeks go red. Hermione, though, beamed at him and sighed happily. That gave Remus the courage he needed to continue. "And they're my Pack. And we spend the full moons together, both of them helping me get through it. Sirius is a huge dog—"

"A Grim, really," Hermione interjected.

"So he's the protector," Remus went on. "And Hermione of course is our Healer, so she's available to help even before Madam Pomfrey arrives in the mornings. It's . . . safe, sir. Safe for all of us." No mention was made of Prongs or Wormtail, as neither of them were registered. Neither Remus nor Sirius would out a fellow Marauder without permission.

"And I'm working on a new potion for Remus, Dad," Hermione said, rolling up on her toes in enthusiasm. "To help him through the transitions. So, see, we're already a good partnership. All three of us."

"But only one can be a legally bound husband," Mister Dagworth-Granger reminded them, shifting his upholstered chair and beckoning them all to do likewise so that they sat in a circle. "The other can be, what . . .?"

"A consort, maybe," Sirius murmured, studying his hands with far too much attention. "I just had a thought. Hermione? Would you cast that sound-bending charm of yours for Remus and me for half a moment?"

Remus's mouth went dry. What was his best mate thinking? Heart thudding, he nodded and met Sirius's silvery eyes when Hermione indicated they were covered by her charm. "What is it, Sirius?"

Sirius ran both hands through his hair and turned to face him fully. "You have a bond with Hermione. The Alpha thing, right?"

"Yeah. Happened the first time she joined us and then the next morning . . . I mean, it's not full, yet." They'd still not had sex, so the culmination of the bond wouldn't happen between them until they had. It hadn't been necessary with Sirius, but then their friendship was deep enough that Remus never questioned it. "But it will be, won't it?"

"Of course! What I'm thinking, though, is that you have a bond with her. I, I don't. Not really." He swallowed, his eyes pained but also with an edge of longing that touched Remus at a basic level so that he could feel it himself. "What if I married her officially? And the two of you could have a formal, what, Marking? Then we'd both be bonded to her."

Remus felt a bit cautious, but Moony thought it was a grand idea, he gathered from the way he could feel his eyes shift to gold and his own sexual heat rise in a hopefully non-obvious manner. "I can do that," he answered, his voice a low growl. "But she has to agree."

Congratulations went 'round the room when she did and Remus felt no compunction whatsoever in kissing her heartily whilst Sirius and the Potioneer made arrangements to meet with solicitors and whatnot.

He would have Hermione.

Probably first.

"Are you really all right with this, honey?" Hermione whispered, her fingers curled into his robes as she stared seriously into his eyes. "Me being your wolf's mate and Sirius being my official husband and all?"

"I love you. Moony adores you. And Sirius loves you as well. We'll make it work, Puck. We will. We'll work out the fun stuff later. But I will tell you," he said, gathering her more firmly into his embrace, "that I am very much looking forward to making us bonded Mates. The sooner the better."

Her eyes glowed and her lips parted. "Oh. Me, too, Remus Lupin. Me, too."

Then, Sirius came for his first kiss as official fiancé and Remus shook hands with Mister Dagworth-Granger—

"Call me Daniel."

—Daniel, and he was given to understand that, though he would not be a legal spouse, he would in all other ways be given equal consideration in all documentation and so on.

"Hermione would insist, if she weren't already, um, occupied," Daniel said with a crooked smile. "So, we'll make it happen. Welcome to the family, Remus."

"Thank you, sir."

They ordered up a late luncheon before the Potioneer left the inn.

Remus and Sirius flanked Hermione on their walk back to Hogwarts, hands entwined, walking in step, but rather quiet under the mist that lingered from the earlier heavy rain.

Before they reached the gates to the school, Hermione stopped and pulled both of them to her. "Are you all right with this? Both of you? I love you and I don't want either of you to think I don't, not for any reason or in any way. I feel all, well, jumbled, you know?"

"I think we all do, love," Sirius said, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing her palm. "But we'll settle in, I think. I love you. And I will be honored to be Sirius Dagworth-Granger to the end of my days."

Hermione's face turned pink and she blew out an audible breath. "Whew. That's . . . wow. Yeah. That'll take some getting used to."

Not to be outdone—and foreseeing a playful lifetime filled with such moments—Remus cleared his throat. "I love you. And I am honored to have you as my Mate." He was gratified when Hermione once again exhibited that embarrassed, pleased expression.

"Oi! Puck!" Peter called, waving as he ran up the path to them, brandishing a package of some sort. "I found some more of those bulbs at Dogweed and Deathcap!"

"Excellent! We'll start preparing them tonight, if you want, Peter."

And then James and Lily came and joined them and Hermione shared her excellent news with the rest of the Marauders Plus One.

Remus let Hermione and Peter walk on ahead whilst he kept Sirius a few steps behind. "We owe Professor McGonagall flowers or something."

Sirius laughed, a big, barking sound that was filled with joy. "We certainly do!"

End Note: Thanks again for joining me on this little adventure. More will come before too long. - LJ