A/N:

Is this slightly a filler chapter? I feel like it's been a while since we heard from Andromeda and I couldn't exactly not mention Hermione's birthday, could I? :) Hope you enjoy it and it leaves you with a little more intrigue. The plot should start moving forwards again next week.

Much love xx

Chapter 27 - Celebration

My Dearest Hermione,

Draco wrote to me concerning what happened last week and I would advise you not to overly concern yourself. I have seen Harry since and he seems in fine spirits. No harm done on his part. Yours, however? I worry about what Draco has told me of your anxiety, particularly regarding the presence of other children in the school.

I beg you not to fret, Hermione. Understandably you are emulating Remus' behaviour as you understand it from his time as your Professor. Forgive my bluntness, but he was alone and miserable and paranoid. You do not have to be any of those things. Instead, you might try and experience the moons at Hogwarts with your friends as he did with his. He often spoke wistfully about how much more bearable they were, running beneath the moonlight with James, Peter and Sirius.

If you are worrying about getting into the castle, don't. Ginny, Ron and Harry (and Draco soon as I understand it) would steer you away, but you will also have more control once you place trust in yourself and relax. Panicking only lengthens the reins you hold over your wolf.

Teddy misses your muggle folksongs. I have sent a collection of wizarding songs that run in a similar vein for you to enjoy. Happy Birthday, my dear.

All our love,

Andromeda and Teddy

Hermione read the letter through a third time and then peered into the box it had been attached to, finding it half full with twenty to thirty miniature vinyl records. She shut the lid quickly to fend off the rush of emotions that flooded through her as she remembered her father telling her off for touching his collection when she was much younger; her sticky fingerprints getting all over the shining surfaces. She took a deep breath and reminded herself of how happy Monica and Wendell Wilkins were with their lives in Australia, before carrying the box down to the common room where she knew there was a gramophone in the corner, usually only used after a successful Quidditch match.

The common room was empty with the rest of her house at breakfast before classes started, but Hermione had been running late, even before she was waylaid by Andromeda's owl. She knelt down beside the small table in one corner of the room and carefully slipped the first vinyl she grasped underneath the needle, sitting back on her heels as a haunting melody began to play.

She knew she only had time for this one song, but it was a beautiful one for her to have selected. The lyrics hit her hard in the centre of her chest, reminding her of the advice and pleas Andromeda had written in her letter, of how cared for she was and how lucky.

"Hermione, there you are! What are you still doing here? Breakfast has already finished." Ginny, having clambered through the portrait hole, made her way towards the corner that Hermione was kneeling in. "What are those?"

"Andromeda sent them to me for my birthday. I just wanted to listen to one before Herbology."

"But your birthday's tomorrow."

"Draco gave her something more important to write to me about. She probably thought it was worth sending them through at the same time. Save her owl a trip."

"Malfoy? What did he do?" Ginny's eyes narrowed and she folded her arms across her chest. "I swear, 'Mione. If he keeps sticking his pointy nose in..."

"Ginny!" Hermione interrupted sharply. "He's only doing what's best for me when I can't seem to do it myself. I wasn't exactly functioning like a leader and protector to you last week."

"Again. We don't blame you!"

"I know! I know," Hermione smiled sheepishly, "but it's taken a few words of wisdom for me to stop blaming myself." She stopped the record and put it back in its sleeve, leaving the box tucked away underneath the table.

After sighing with yet another attempt to roll some of the constant tension out of her shoulders, Hermione summoned her school bag down the stairs and set off out of the common room, tying the trusty scarf that held Ginny's scent around her neck. She'd need it in the stuffy greenhouses.

"So, what did Andromeda say?" Ginny asked as they moved quickly down the main staircase towards the entrance hall.

"To lean on the support that my friends are offering. She seems to think Remus ran with the Marauders sometimes and that it made him calmer. More in control."

"How would she know?"

"Sirius, I'm guessing. He was in her life until he was sixteen. Either that or Remus told her himself last year."

"So we're going to do what exactly?"

"We're not going to have a repeat of this month, that's for sure. But I need to think about how I can manage it."

"Do you want to talk to McGonagall about it?"

"Not just yet. Let me think about it first."

X - X - X

When Hermione stepped into the great hall for breakfast the next day, she found her arms pinned to her sides as Luna pulled her into a tight hug, knocking the air from her lungs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ginny give her an amused smile before she squeezed Hermione's hand and went to sit at the Gryffindor table.

"Good morning, Luna," Hermione rasped, trying to avoid the strands of long, ethereal blonde hair getting in her mouth.

"Happy birthday, Hermione," Luna squeezed a fraction tighter before stepping back and smiling. The slender girl had a surprising amount of strength in her. "Here, I made you something."

Hermione reached out automatically, still dazzled by Luna's smile and her strength, only looking down when she felt Luna curl her hands around the straight edges of a canvas stretched taught over its wooden frame.

"Oh, Luna. It's beautiful," Hermione breathed, awestruck at the detail of the portrait finished in a similar fashion to the painting that had been on the ceiling of Luna's bedroom.

Hermione was looking at an image of herself in watercolour, streaks of gold placed strategically and lightly around her face that almost gave a sense of reverence. Her brunette curls had not been tamed, and fanned out behind her, almost hiding from view the Aegis that Hermione recognised from descriptions in The Illiad. Within the frame, she also held her wand determinedly in one hand, looking out to where it was pointing, past the owl that perched on her forearm.

She looked over to the Gryffindor table, ready to shout Ginny over to have a look, but her friend's name died on her tongue. Ginny was clutching a letter tightly in her fists, her face looking particularly grim. She was blanched so pale that Hermione could have counted her freckles from where she was stood by the doors.

As Hermione considered whether to approach her friend or let her deal with the letter herself, Draco swept his way across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table to stand over Ginny's shoulder.

Hermione noticed that his face was equally grim, but his features twisted into quiet anger; the beginning of a snarl at the corners of his mouth and the narrowed, focused slits of his ice-cold eyes. He also had a piece of parchment clenched in his fist and began to shake it at Ginny, whatever he was saying reaching Hermione in a low, frustrated hiss. It was unlikely that many other people could hear what he was saying, but their interaction was drawing curious eyes.

Making her mind up, Hermione straightened her spine and lifted her head, excusing herself to Luna before striding over to the two of them. "What," she said between clenched teeth in her own low, lethal voice, "is going on?"

They immediately stopped glaring at each other, but Draco raised a single eyebrow at Ginny who just folded her arms across her chest without turning her eyes from him. Hermione recognised this as a silent consultation between the two of them and was momentarily proud that they had reached that level of understanding, but the feeling was subdued by the circumstances of their silence. She knew they were debating whether to tell her something.

It was likely that she could make Ginny tell her if she was stern enough, but Hermione didn't want to betray her trust by getting all Alpha-like whenever she wasn't telling her something. Ginny could have her secrets from and Hermione wouldn't feel guilty about using her status over her friends. Draco on the other hand, she had absolutely no chance of persuading. He wasn't in her Pack so she couldn't compel him and anyway, he was just as stubborn as she was, if not more so.

Draco hummed acceptingly, breaking the silence, and inclined his head briefly to Ginny before turning his head to train his determined, don't-argue-with-me gaze on Hermione.

"Nothing of importance, Granger. A misunderstanding is all." He stepped towards her and turned his body as though to move around her and back to the other side of the hall, but stopped alongside her. Hermione was just about to argue and attempt to get the truth out of him when he dipped his head to press a light, distracted kiss to her cheek murmuring "Happy birthday," before disappearing.

Her words stuck in her throat and she found that the fingers she had been about to grab Draco's robes with were suddenly tracing the lingering feel of his lips on her cheekbone. Realising she was standing there blinking like an idiot, she dropped down onto the bench beside Ginny who pushed a plate of food towards her.

"Breakfast?" she said with a knowing smirk.

Hermione reached for the pastries blindly, following Draco's path across the room as she brought the croissant to her lips. It was only when the scent of cinnamon assaulted her nostrils and the sticky icing sugar touched her lips, she realised that it was a cinnamon swirl she held.

"This isn't my usual croissant, Gin," she scowled, finally looking away from Draco.

"Well you chose it," Ginny snickered, gesturing to the other, usual pastry on the plate.

"Ha ha. Very funny," Hermione fought the urge to stick her tongue out at Ginny and picked up her usual almond croissant with raspberry jam, glancing up at the Slytherin table occasionally as she ate until it was time for class.

Draco's argument with Ginny finally came back to her when she was sitting in Defence Against the Dark Arts - one of her two classes that Draco didn't take. Her brow furrowed as she thought back on it and, when the demonstration of Cave Inimicum began - a charm she had already practiced sufficiently in the Forest of Dean - she leaned in close to Ginny's ear.

"So what was the argument at breakfast about?" she whispered.

Ginny blanched slightly again but otherwise put up a confident facade. "I don't know what you mean. It was just a misunderstanding."

"About what exactly?"

"It doesn't matter," Ginny lifted her chin further into the air. "We came to an agreement about it."

"An agreement not to tell me," Hermione said pointedly, making sure Ginny knew that she was not fooled. "I don't need to be protected, Ginny."

Brown eyes snapped to her own. "We know, 'Mione. It's more to do with Harry than you. And you know how Malfoy is."

"I know how Draco was," Hermione huffed and gave in, turning back to the demonstration, unwilling to get into this disagreement with Ginny yet again.

"I'm sorry," Ginny sighed after a while. "I know he's not an evil prat anymore. But he's still an entitled one, and that gets to me."

"Even if the argument was about Harry," Hermione breathed back, "there was obviously more to it that you didn't want me to know about. What was in the letters?"

Ginny looked at her with a conflicted expression and her fingers twisting together under the desk. She pulled her lower lip into her mouth and searched for something in Hermione's eyes before she released it and started to speak.

"My letter was from Harry. I think Malfoy's was from his mum because I don't see who else would know, and I doubt the Ministry would think to contact him directly about this."

"Just tell me already, Gin," Hermione pleaded.

"Well, the Aurors. They, um... They kind of lost track of Greyback."

Hermione felt her heart stutter. "How? How can they kind of lose Greyback. They had eyes on him at Cherbourg."

"I know. And if he moved, they would have known. But somehow, he has moved, and they don't know."

"Great. Wonderful," Hermione fought hard to keep her voice at an acceptable level in class. "Happy birthday to me."