Chapter 29: Sunday, April 6, 1980 cont'd

"Your eyes show the strength of your soul."

-Paulo Coelho

Through the course of eating supper with the Lupin's, Hermione noticed a considerable dismantling of the tension that had been present. Mr and Mrs Lupin, or Hope and Lyall as they asked her to call them, seemed to relax a bit in her presence as the evening wore on. Hermione noticed that even Remus seemed to loosen up, the tension in his shoulders easing and the nervous fidgeting coming to a stop.

When they had finished eating, Lyall and Remus moved to the living room. Hermione denied the request to join them, instead staying in the kitchen to help Hope clean up. Hermione washed the dishes in the sink as Hope dried and put them away, denying the offer to use magic to make things go a little easier.

"My boy seems to be quite taken with you, Hermione." Hope said as she dried her hands on her apron and placed the leftovers in the refrigerator.

"I'm quite taken with him, as well," Hermione said, a smile on her face as she wiped out the sink and washed her hands.

"Lyall told me that you're aware of the sensitive situation Remus is in."

Hermione nodded, "I am."

"Do your parents know that you're romantically involved with someone like him?"

"My parents died, but if they were here, they would love him," Hermione said.

Hope gasped, covering her mouth with one hand, "I'm so sorry, my dear girl! I didn't realize..."

"It's okay. I've grieved and moved forward," Hermione assured her. "But I'm fairly certain my parents would have loved Remus."

Truthfully, Hermione had grieved her parents. She didn't actually know if they were still alive and well in Australia or if the war had caught up to them. She had forced herself to compartmentalize, to push the thoughts and worries for them away for so long, not thinking of their well being had essentially become second nature. She felt a tug of guilt at that realization, but it was necessary. She had ways to feel closer to them when she missed them, and she promised herself that once the war was over, she would find them. But then, it didn't seem as if the war would ever truly be over.

"And you're okay with demons that plague him?" Hope asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"We all have demons, that doesn't make us any less deserving of love or happiness."

Hope smiled, her hands reaching out to take Hermione's. "So few people understand that, and I am so thankful that my Remus has found someone who does."

It was just after nine at night when Hermione and Remus stumbled through the floo and landed in her living room. Hermione sighed in relief as she pulled off the heels she was wearing, tossing them next to her trainers by the door and collapsing on the sofa next to Remus, her back against the cushioned arm as he pulled her feet into his lap, rubbing the ache from her arches.

She sank deeper into the cushions, sighing as she closed her eyes a soft groan of appreciation pulling from her throat as Remus massaged her ankles. She cracked open an eye when she heard him chuckle, his warm hands resting against the tops of her shins.

"My parents liked you," he murmured.

"I liked them too," she said. "Your mum invited me to have lunch with her in a few weeks."

"Did she?" Remus asked, his eyes growing wide.

"Mhm," Hermione hummed. "She said she'd send me an owl to let me know when."

"She doesn't even invite me out for casual lunch," he grumbled.

Hermione laughed and sat up, pulling herself into Remus' lap and snuggling into his chest. She pressed a light kiss where the skin of his neck met his collar bones. Remus sighed in content, wrapping his arms around her and pressing into her hair.

"I want to erm… I want to thank you for tonight," Remus whispered.

"Thank me?" she asked.

He nodded, "Yeah. I know it's strained where my parents are concerned. But they're good people."

"I believe they are," Hermione said. "I think they've just fallen victim to the misinformation surrounding werewolves, just as so many people have."

"My dad blames himself," Remus said. "And I blamed him too, for a long time."

"Blame? For what?"

He sighed, tightening his hold around her. "I told you I was bitten young but I didn't tell you that it was in retaliation."

"Retaliation?"

He nodded and rested his chin on top of her head, "He works in the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, spirits division… When I was young he got mixed up in some political campaign against werewolves. Fenrir Greyback didn't take too kindly to that."

"Oh my god," Hermione gasped, twisting in Remus' lap to face him. "He publicly defamed werewolves for political advancement?"

"He didn't just slander werewolves, people already did that, they still do. He decimated Greyback personally to anyone who would listen. Greyback had been accused of several crimes involving muggle children, the public was already afraid of him but they didn't know about his lycanthropy. My father found him on the registration list and outed him to the public while trying to gain favor to take over the entire department, humiliated him and exposed his lycanthropy."

"So he attacked you- to… To teach your father a lesson?"

"Yeah," Remus said. "I was five. My mum and I had been working in the garden all evening, she went inside to get us something to drink, my father was still at work. Greyback took me from my garden, we think he had been watching us for a while at that point. He dumped my body on my front steps the next morning while my parents were at the Ministry trying to get an Auror to help them find me. Mum saw the bite first, and then I remember I got really sick. The next full moon dad locked me in the cellar just in case, warded it to the nines. In hindsight, that was probably a good thing, but it was terrifying."

Remus was looking intently at something over her shoulder as he spoke, lost in the memory of what happened to him. Hermione felt her eyes prickle with tears as he told her what happened. She knew he had been turned young, but she had never known the events that took place, nor would she have ever asked. She couldn't help but feel sick at the thought of it, her mind replaying the cries from the children she watched get taken and hidden in the den she and Sirius were observing months ago. To think that Remus was just like those children, his life stolen away from him through no fault of his own… But because his father…

"I've never told anyone how it happened," Remus said, his eyes finally meeting hers and pulling her from her own thoughts. "Not even James or Sirius."

"Why are you telling me?"

"I just want someone to know," he whispered, his eyes dropping down to her lips. "It gets heavy to hold sometimes."

Hermione felt a tear slip past her lashes, trailing down her cheek as she took his face in her hands and leaned forward, claiming his lips in a slow kiss. Remus pulled away first, his lips hovering over her own and his forehead pressed to hers.

"I know we haven't been together very long and I erm.. I'm not very good at this being someone's boyfriend thing… But… Hermione, I… I trust you. I think I'd trust you with my life."

"I trust you too, Remus."

"I…" Remus huffed out a breath that tickled Hermione's face as he tried to put his words together, "I want to… Shit, I don't know how to… I want to touch you."

Hermione pulled back slightly, her arms still locked around his neck. "We are touching, I'm sitting on your lap."

He closed his eyes, his face pinching up in irritation with himself, "No, not… Not like this. I mean, I want to touch you… Like, erm… intimately..?"

"You want to… Oh. Oh!" Hermione laughed, surging forward to press her lips to his again.

"Is that a yes?" Remus mumbled into her lips.

Hermione laughed again, "Yes."

Remus smiled against her mouth before sinking a hand into her hair and splaying the other across her back, he pulled her flush against him as he slipped his tongue past her lips, claiming her mouth as his own. He ran his hand up her spine, causing her to shudder and moan softly into the kiss. She adjusted herself on his lap, her knees falling to either side of his thighs, trapping him beneath her as she rocked forward, revelling in the groan that pulled from his chest. His lips pulled away from hers to trail down her throat, stopping only to suck lightly on her pulse point. When he pulled away, Hermione stood up, holding her hand out to him.

He raised an eyebrow to her but pushed himself off the sofa, taking her hand and allowing her to pull him into her bedroom. The second the door clicked shut, Remus' lips were on hers again, his hands roaming up and down her sides before snaking around to palm at the round of her backside. Hermione chuckled at his enthusiasm, kissing him back just as fiercely. She walked him backward, their lips parting when the backs of his legs hit the bed, forcing him to fall away from her and land with an oomph! on the bed.

Hermione smirked as she bent over, giving him a slow kiss and tugging at his bottom lip before she stood up, taking the tie of her wrap dress in her hands and tugging it open, shrugging off the sleeves and letting the fabric pool around her ankles. She saw gold flash through Remus' eyes as his throat bobbed with a swallow.

She stepped forward, climbing onto the bed and reaching her arms behind her to undo the clasp of her bra, pulling it off her arms and tossing it onto the floor with the dress. She laid on her back and motioned for Remus to move next to her. He propped himself on his elbow and stared down at her, his fingers ghosting over the gnarled purple scar that ran up the length of her ribs, under her breast and onto her sternum.

"You aren't the only one with scars, you know." Hermione whispered, surveying his face as his eyes roamed over her.

His eyes pulled up from her bare torso to land on her face as his head dipped down and he captured her lips, the heat of his hand finally reaching her skin as he palmed her breast. Hermione moaned softly into his kiss, arching her back up slightly as she tugged at his cardigan, trying to pull it off of him. He changed his position, his lips pulling away from hers as he pulled the material of the cardigan and the button down underneath up over his head, balling them up and tossing them aside.

"I've never-

"I know," Hermione said.

He took in a sharp breath when her hand trailed over his trousers, feeling the stiff length through the fabric, "Can you… will you show me?"

"Show you?" she asked.

He nodded, pressing his lips down her jaw and scraping his teeth against her throat, "Show me what you like."

Hermione felt her heart rate speed up at the huskiness of his voice, her mouth going dry as he groaned into her throat from her touch. She felt her face flush with embarrassment-turned-arousal as his mouth made its way down her chest, his tongue dragging across her nipple before his teeth clamped lightly on it. She pulled her hand away from him, hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her knickers and lifting her hips from the mattress as she shoved them down, kicking them off when they got to her ankles.

Remus pulled back and watched as her hand slipped between her thighs and ran her fingers between her folds, collecting the slick from her arousal and swiping circles over her clit. Her knees fell apart as she picked up her pace a bit before sinking a finger into her core and moaning as she crooked the finger in a come hither motion.

Remus' hand met hers as he began drawing circles over the bundle of nerves with the pads of two fingers. The heat of his hands, far warmer than Hermione's own, nearly sent her crumbling right then. She cried out a breathy moan as her hip bucked up. Soon, she felt him pull her hand from her core, replacing it with his own as he slipped one of his gloriously warm fingers into her heat, pressing upward and stroking her from the inside.

"Right there… shit… Right there, Remus!" Hermione said, her voice pitchy as she whined with pleasure from his hand. Her eyes fluttered shut, her chest heaving as he continued his ministrations, keeping the pace and pressing his thumb against her clit.

Just as she was sure she would shatter, he pulled his hand away and she nearly sobbed from the loss of contact, her eyes flew open as she pushed herself up on her elbows. Remus' eyes met hers and they were almost completely gold, green swirling in and out, as he moved lower on the bed, settling himself between her legs and kissing up the inside of her thigh.

"Remus you don't have to-

"If I… If I don't taste you right now, I'm fairly certain Moony will kill me on the next moon," he said, his voice shaking and gravelly as he nipped at the inside of her thigh. His palms pressed against her thighs, pushing her legs further open as he kissed and nipped his way up to her center.

His tongue pressed against her folds and dragged up and Hermione shuddered, collapsing back down onto the bed. He moved his mouth against her, the flat of his tongue caressing her clit. If she didn't know without a doubt that he had never done this before, she would call him a liar. He's an exceptional kisser, it would stand to reason he'd be fantastic at this, too, she thought.

The thought disappeared almost instantly as his fingers found their way back inside of her core, stroking at the exact angle that he was at before. His lips clamped around her clit and he pressed his tongue down, sucking in. Her hands fisted into the blankets as her back bowed off the mattress, hips bucking forward. She could feel him smirk against her and she opened her mouth to tell him to stuff it- instead a loud moan tumbled past her lips.

"Oh God, yes… Remus, yes!" Hermione cried, her toes curling as her eyes rolled back into her skull.

Remus picked up his pace pumping his fingers furiously in and out of her as he devoured her. She nearly screamed when she fell over the edge, her entire body shaking as his tongue continued to move against her, lapping at her arousal coated heat as stars burst behind her eyelids. Slowly, he removed his head from between her thighs, wiping his face with the hand that hadn't been pleasuring her.

Hermione sat up, surging forward and pushing her lips against Remus', slipping her tongue into his mouth and shuddering at the taste of herself lingering on his tongue. When they broke apart for air, Remus' eyes were mossy green, rimmed with gold again.

"I think I could do that every day," he breathed, pressing his forehead against hers.

Hermione laughed, "Don't make promises you can't keep, Remus Lupin. Because that's something I will hold you to."

The smirk that pulled his face was more mischievous than any she had seen from him so far.

Thursday, April 17, 1980

Hermione's heart sank into her stomach as news of another group of Muggleborns going missing surfaced during the Order meeting. According to Moody, there seemed to at least be a pattern to these disappearances. It looked as if the Death Eaters were raiding magical settlements along the northern coast, working their way south. Moody had explained that the Dementors were being spotted within weeks of each group going missing, and these creatures were quite literally sucking the soul from anything it came across.

James had been the one to voice that the Dementor's may actually be cursed Muggleborns. Hermione was grateful that he remembered what she had told them, because every time she opened her mouth to put the information on the table, her wrist felt as if it were catching fire, burning furiously.

Everyone seemed to be arguing about the best course of action and Hermione found herself greatly missing her own time. The Order that had been established at the downfall of Voldemort in 1998 had been the most organized she had ever seen it. She thought the Order now could certainly benefit from some sort of hierarchy system, something besides Moody barking orders out to everyone.

"Kingsley, send a patronus to Dumbledore, tell him we're starting a new assignment and that we'll meet him later tonight," Moody said.

Patronus? Why would they know what a Patronus is..?

Kingsley waved his wand, calling out "Expecto Patronum" and sent the message to Dumbledore with his silvery lynx. As the lynx disappeared from the room, Moody began explaining the assignment.

Marlene, Kingsley, and Peter were all going to head undercover to a magical community in Scotland called Banchory, where Moody believed the Death Eaters may strike next. They would be gone for four weeks, splitting up to cover different parts of the small town, and reporting back by the middle of May with their findings. According to Kingsley, this town had a particularly high count of Muggleborns and would need Auror protection, hence his accompaniment on a mission that was lasting so long.

Fabian had been absolutely incensed when the suggestion was made that Marlene would be separated from Peter and Kingsley, which then turned into an argument about the witch's capabilities. Eventually, Sirius chimed in with an inappropriate comment about her "nimble fingers and flexible limbs" and earned himself a nasty burn from a hex that Marlene fired across the table.

Hermione tried to pay attention and participate in the meeting, but the only thing running through her mind was the Patronus. Had they known all along about the spell and not used it? Why on earth would they need a spell like a Patronus before the Dementors? Finally, Hermione leaned into Lily's side to whisper in her questions in her ear.

"It's a communication spell," Lily said. "Do you not use this in your time?"

"You only use it for communication?" Hermione asked.

Lily nodded, "As far as I'm aware. It's not used often though, bloody hard to conjure apparently, but it's quicker and more secure than an owl."

Hermione bobbed her head as she chewed on her lip.

"You know something, don't you?" Lily asked.

"After the meeting, can we meet at your place?"

"Yeah of course," Lily said.

"I'll tell you then."

Finally, the meeting ended and Hermione apparated back to Lily and James'. Hermione's mind was reeling as she stepped foot into the home and sat at the table with everyone else. She pulled her journal out of her pocket and began going through her notes from the meeting.

"We were just there, why is this important?" Sirius groaned.

"Because," Hermione said, shooting him a look, "While you were busy getting hexed by Marlene-" James and Remus both snickered. "I was paying attention to what was going on! How many of you know how to cast a Patronus?"

"A Patronus?" James asked, "The communication spell?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "Can any of you cast one?"

"Remus is the only one who's managed to get a few wisps of one," Lily said.

"They aren't exactly easy to cast," Sirius said.

"So none of you can perform a corporeal Patronus?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"Can you?" James asked.

"Yes!" Hermione said, "Of course, I can! Why else would I think it's important!"

"Bullshit!" Sirius said.

Hermione rolled her eyes, pulling out her wand. "Expecto Patronum!" A silver otter burst from the tip, flouncing around the room and doing barrel rolls through the air, "Still don't believe me?"

"Okay, okay, so you can do a bloody Patronus. Fat lot of good those are! An owl does the same thing!" Sirius said.

"Does it?" Hermione asked, smirking as she folded her arms over her chest, "Can an owl protect you from Dementors?"

"What are you talking about, Hermione?" Remus asked, sitting up straighter in his chair.

"In my time, we don't use a Patronus simply for communication. The reason they're so hard to conjure is because you have to use a happy memory, one that fills you up from your head to your toes. The Dementors are sucking the souls from people because it makes them feel human, happiness is the one emotion that fuels human motive, people will do almost anything for a taste of pure happiness. Therefore, pure happiness is what will protect you from the one thing trying to take your ability to feel the happiness in the first place."

"You're telling us that that little otter can fight off a Dementor?" Lily asked, interest lacing her voice.

"That little otter has fought off dozens of Dementors. I'll teach you all, but you have to learn how to do one. It's the only thing that works against them."

.

.

a/n: SORRY EVERYONE! So apparently this chapter was only available for people using the app? and even then it was hit or miss and I have no idea why. So I took it down and reposted, hopefully this works. I am so goddamn irritated with ffn right now _

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone stays safe and has a good time today. I'm staying in, but what else is new? lol Anyway, how about a little Saturday smut for you? Did you like it? I've been excited to get this chapter out, and I promise, more is coming. They're a fickle couple, you know. It takes a minute for them to get there hahaha

Anyway, if you haven't already, come join my FB group! Mimifreed Writing :) I'd love to talk to you all!

See you on tuesday!

xo

mimi