AN: Forgot to do this until now, but DO NOT OWN any of this (sadly). Thanks for reading! :)
Over Christmas break, I send gifts to Reggie, Pandora, and Remus. Dad and I spend our Christmas, as usual, in the cellar of our pub for all hours of the day. Reggie, Pandora, and Remus send a letter of gratitude to me. From there, I exchange letters with them for the whole break. When we get back, I give them all big hugs, and Remus seems taken aback by it. Reggie looks grumpy that I included Remus into my hug list. Over the next few months, the other Marauders think it's funny to prank me, and Remus apologizes after every time for the others. I choose not to retaliate, and this seems to frustrate them.
Reggie slowly gets used to the idea of my having Remus as a friend, and Pandora accepts him right away. We throw a mini party the weekend before his birthday, and he tries to invite us to his true party. We all decline. We also throw mini parties for Reggie and Pandora's birthdays and have a great time.
At the end of the semester, I ride the train with Pandora and Reggie when Remus comes in about halfway home. "Hey guys."
"Hey Remus." Pandora and I both smile.
"Lupin."
"So, are any of you going to come to my place for a day over the summer?"
"I will for sure." Pandora grins.
"I'll try, but you know how my Mother is." Reggie includes.
"Probably sometime, but you know James and Sirius will be trying to steal all of my time away."
"Yeah, but it will be fun! You guys can escape! We can run around Hogsmeade, get some chocolate, go swimming at the pond, or whatever you want!"
"Sounds fun, I'll definitely try." Remus gives a somewhat bitter smile.
"Oh, you'll try to get away from the idiots? Why are you still friends with them anyway? They are rude, inconsiderate and they also bully 'Mione to no end. I think 'Mione has proven to be a great friend to you, sticking with you after you let your other friends bully her, why not-"
"Hey, Reggie, I'm not asking him to not be friends with them. He lives with them, and they are thick as thieves. We can't take that from them."
Reggie shrugs, and Remus looks relieved. "Thanks 'Mione."
"Don't mention it." We continue chatting for the rest of the train ride, and I get off to head to the nearest floo when I see Dad. I run up to him and cry out, "Dad!" Then I jump into his arms. He catches me deftly.
"Hey, sweetheart! Did you have a good first year? Did you make friends?" He sighs, "Did you invite anyone over?" He looks at me pointedly. I grin widely.
"Yep. I had a great first year. I have three friends: Regulus Black, Pandora Luminosity, and Remus Lupin. I also invited all three of them to come over sometime during the summer. Pandora will probably be the one over the most."
He rubs his hand over my head, puts me down, and kisses my forehead. "Alright, just don't go getting yourselves in trouble!"
"Course not." I smile up at him mischievously.
We walk to the floo and make it home. "How'd your Uncle Albus take the news of having a niece?"
"He looked completely shocked during the sorting ceremony, but he never came and talked to me. I did find him watching me several times throughout the year, though. I think he's just curious about me, honestly."
He looks me in the eye seriously, "Don't trust him. He may not have been the Slytherin in the family, but he's as sly as any snake I've ever met. Don't let him get a glimpse of the magic you can really do. Speaking of, have you practiced wandless or wordless performance of your first year spells?"
"Yes, Dad, I tried it, and it works. Should I show you?" I grin since we both know it won't be caught by the trace if I don't use my wand. He grins with me and nods excitedly. "Wingardium Leviosa." I reach out to a cup, and it floats high in the air. I throw a quick smile at Dad's glee before I decide to throw in a surprise, Accio Cup. I say in my head. The cup flies into my hand, and Dad looks gleeful.
"So you've been looking at future spells? Good job! I'm so proud of you sweetheart!" We grin together and make plans to have an hour a day (that company is not over) practicing my wandless and wordless magic.
When Pandora is over, we walk all around town going through the little woods by the pond and going swimming. I take Reggie to the pond and teach him how to swim after configuring his slacks into swimming trunks. I take Remus to Honeydukes and show him where the chocolate is. I didn't really think about this very much, but he stops and stares at the type of candy bar that I have given to him around the moon. He points at it shakily looking at me. Not thinking, I smile and tell him, "That's my favorite kind! I always keep a big stock of it! My Dad helps me stay stocked during the school year, even. That's how much I love it!"
His eyes go even wider, and he pulls me away from Pandora for a moment where she can't hear us. "D-do you give this chocolate to me?"
"What?" Then my eyes widen as I finally realize what I just revealed accidentally. My face turns red, and I scuff my toe on the ground, "Yeah. I have my friend, the house-elf Mitsy give you chocolate around the full moon." I look him in the eye to see that they're not his normal green, but almost fully golden. The wolf is out.
"Why would you help me?" Moony asks.
"You seemed nice. I wasn't planning on ever telling you it was from me, to be honest, I never even planned on telling you that I know you're a werewolf."
Moony cocks his head, studying me, then nods and lets Remus return. "You never planned on telling me? What are you ashamed?" He looks embarrassed and a little hurt.
"No! Never ashamed of you, but I didn't think you would like that I knew. I was waiting until you decided to tell me to talk about it. If you had ever decided to tell me, I would have confessed to giving you the chocolate." I take a deep breath, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings; I just know that chocolate helps the wolf have less painful transformations. Also, it's delicious!"
He smiles and nods, "Alright, I can understand why, and I guess I probably would have been alarmed if you'd just started giving me chocolate when we weren't friends. Wait… how did you know I was a werewolf in September? We'd barely even spoken! My roommates didn't even know yet! And we're not in the same year!"
I take another deep, fortifying breath, "I knew because I was told before you even started school what your name is." He looks shocked. "My Uncle asked my Dad to create a safe haven for a young werewolf named Remus Lupin to transform every month after he started school. My Dad then relayed that message to me because he was far too busy to handle it." His mouth is dropped open in shock. "Surprise!"
This makes him close his mouth and smile, "So… you knew all along? And… you still wanted to be my friend? To help me even when I wasn't your friend?"
"Er- yeah. I did." He suddenly wraps me up in a tight hug, picking me up to his height.
"Thank you, Hermione Dumbledore. You are the nicest person I've ever met." He mumbles into my hair.
I pat his head, "Okay, you can put me down now." He looks sheepish as he sets me back on my feet. We share a smile and go about the rest of our visits dancing around the topic of Sirius whenever Reggie is there. I lend Remus some books on werewolves after he sees my vast collection. He is grateful.
The next year, Remus pulls me into the compartment with him and the other Marauders as I walk by. He purposefully seats me next to him and looks at his friends expectantly. I hide my surprise. James speaks first, "We're sorry we bullied you, Hermione." I raise an eyebrow at them.
"Remus told us… about the chocolate… and about you helping set up his place to transform, so he could come to school. We're really sorry. We thought you weren't really Remus's friend and were just using him for something. Also, we were beginning to get suspicious of his monthly trips out of the castle, and we may have originally thought you had something to do with it." Sirius continues.
"Well, I'm glad we got that all cleared-"
Reggie bursts in angrily, "Why are you holding my 'Mione captive over here?" Sirius just stares silently in shock at his brother. No one says a word. He grabs my arm and totes me out. I wave softly as I leave with Reggie. "What were you doing in there? Did they hex you?" He starts checking me all over for signs of injury.
"No, they were apologizing for being bullies."
"Really?"
"Yeah, let's go find Pandora."
"Okay, I know where she is. Follow me." We go down the train until we get to her. The rest of the train ride is pretty uneventful while we chat about whatever the others may have missed.