Chapter 5

"Right, then, Bill would you mind putting up some wards? Nothing complex will be needed , just an anti-apparition, a warning charm, don't worry with anti muggle charms, we will want to be as welcoming as possible to the Professor. We will be operating as muggles here, as such we will keep magic to a minimum. Hermione, if you would you could give us all a crash course, Tonks has a bit of experience and I have lived among muggles quite a bit as well," Remus said as they arrived in the house they would be calling home for the foreseeable future.

Easier to blend in and find work." Remus explained the last bit to the questioning look George gave him, being a werewolf made it very difficult in the wizarding world.

"On it." Bill said and conjured a small crystal and used his wand to add a rune to the face.

"What had you living among the muggles?" George asked as they all looked around the comfortable looking room.

"Easier to blend in and find work," Remus explained. "The wizarding world isn't exactly known for their werewolf tolerance."

"Okay, everyone point your wands at this crystal and say 'contego', that will act as a shield and will send an alert to everyone's wand when someone other than one of the six of us enters the boundary. I will set the boundary for the walkway there out front and at the back gate. We will be unable to aparate inside the boundary. Also we will not be set up on the floo network as we would have to go through the ministry."

"Brilliant, it's a muggles life then!" Fred said walking around checking out the ground floor.

"Go ahead and have a look around, your trunks are in your bedrooms, which are upstairs," Remus told everyone.

"How are things coming along?" Fred asked Hermione a short time later. She was in her new bedroom unpacking her trunk.

"Very well thank you," she smiled up at him.

Things seemed to be going quite smoothly between the two of them, which was a bit unexpected. They seemed to be so different, but maybe that's what made it so easy. Hermione knew that Fred didn't actually fancy her and that while they had been flirting fairly seriously the past couple days, that was just Fred's personality, both twins really. She really didn't know how she even felt about Fred at the moment, sure she'd always had a bit of a crush on him, but so did almost all the girls at school. She knew he was very good looking, and obviously insanely funny, not to mention brilliant, no matter how he tried to hide it. He was also kind and thoughtful. She was letting her thoughts run away from her.

"I was just finishing up with these books, then I was going to head down to the market to get things for supper," She said bringing herself back to reality.

"Would you like some company? You could give Georgie and me that muggle crash course," Fred asked.

"Good idea, give me just a couple more minutes, I just have a few more books," She said with a smile.

"Here I'll hand them to you, you shelve."

"Very good, thank you." Hermione said as she placed the last book on the shelf.

"Oh here, I almost forgot, I got this for you," Fred said handing her a small box.

She didn't notice that the tips of Fred's ears were very slightly turning pink. She opened the box and let out a gasp. Inside was a simple engagement ring, it had what looked to be a white gold band and a good sized princess cut solitaire diamond. It was understated and classic and exactly the kind of ring Hermione always pictured when she daydreamed about these things.

"Oh my goodness, that is beautiful. I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything, love, I just thought that if we are to appear to be engaged you ought to have a ring. It isn't much, not a real diamond, hope you don't mind. But it did make me think of you when I saw it," Fred said with a smile, he would never tell her that even though it wasn't a real diamond it was still goblin made, and had cost quite a bit of money. He also wouldn't mention the way his breath caught as she opened the box, or how his stomach flipped a bit at the way she smiled, or that his heart nearly stopped beating when she hugged him tightly and told him that she loved it, and especially that he really really liked the way she looked with his ring on her finger.

"Right," he said clearing his throat, "I'll just go get George and we'll head out to the market."

….

"I hope this isn't too presumptuous of me but I thought we could share a room, being a married couple and all," Remus said, blushing slightly.

"I don't mind in the slightest. I've been trying to get you into bed for ages," Tonks said with a wink.

He really did love her, her sharp tongue, her fierce loyalty and she was beautiful and bright. Remus had figured out what his problem was, he had stopped living a long time ago. When James and Lily died, when he thought Peter had died, with Sirius in Azkaban, he had simply stopped living. Every person he loved left him that night. He was merely surviving, living only in the past. The problem with living in the past was that you made no future, no goals or dreams.

Now that he had met Dora he had started thinking about the future again.

Sure he was older than her and poor, not to mention his furry little problem, but she wanted him, all of him, the good and the bad. She was young and full of life, perhaps full enough to bring him back as well.

It was with this train of thought and her cheeky comment that Remus Lupin did something that he had wanted to do for quite a long time. He reached out and took her hand in his, pulled her close to him and kissed her. It wasn't a passion filled needing kiss, but a soft and tentative inquiring kiss. A kiss to test the waters so to speak. After getting over the initial shock, Dora reached up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck, she deepened the kiss but not aggressively so, she let Remus lead, matching everything he gave her but not pushing for more. When they broke apart they were both gasping slightly for air and neither could stop the huge smiles that crept to their faces.

"Well, what the bloody hell was that for? And please remind me to do it again!" Tonks chuckled.

"That was for reminding me how to be a person," Remus smiled at her.

He turned, a bit embarrassed, and started unpacking his things. Once again she took his lead, and with a triumphant smile she started unpacking as well.

….

"Do you even know how to cook, Granger?" George asked as they made their way around the supermarket close to the house.

"Honestly, I'm much more of a baker than a cook, but yes I can put a meal together," Hermione said only half paying attention to the twins. She had given up trying to rein them in as they wreaked havoc through the aisles. They kept bringing her things like crisps and biscuits asking if they could have them. She felt like a mother with two small children. More than once she had to take things from the basket and replace them on the shelves.

The funny thing was that she couldn't bring herself to be even irritated with the twins. She was still in such a great mood and couldn't stop looking down at her left hand. She was laughing at George as she turned the corner and ran straight into something solid.

"Oh my goodness I'm so so sorry," Hermione said as she bent down to pick up the basket she'd dropped.

"It was entirely my fault, please let me help with that. My-oh?" Said a deep voice. She looked up at the familiar nickname. It took a second for her to place the face, it has been several years since she'd seen him.

"Nick? What on earth are you doing here?!" She said as she stood and hugged her old friend.

"I'm visiting Mum and Dad for the summer holiday, what are you doing here? Last I heard of you, you were up at that fancy boarding school of yours," Nick said with a smile.

"Oh, I've finished actually, I'm here taking a few summer courses at the university. I was going to ring your mum for lunch this week! How is Aunt Linda?" She asked.

Nick was like a brother to her when she was small, he was a year older than her. Their mums had been best friends when they were at school and the two kids had grown up together until Hermione started at Hogwarts. She hadn't seen him since the summer of her second year when she started spending more of her summer holidays with the Weasley's. He had grown up to be quite handsome, she thought absently.

"Mione, love, can we get some of these? They look fantastic!" Fred said coming around the corner holding a very large bag of gummy worms, stopping short when he saw that she was talking to someone.

"Fred, no, get the sour ones they're better. Here, I'd like you to meet an old friend of mine, remember I told you about my Aunt Linda? This is her son, Nick," Hermione said, completely missing the look that passed between the two boys. "Nick, this is my fiancé Fred."

"Fiancé, yeah?" Nick said looking from Fred's hand on Hermione's shoulder to her left hand with the ring on it. "Little My-oh getting married. Congratulations mate, you're a lucky bloke, she quite a girl."

"That I am, and that she is," Fred with a smile as he shook hands with Nick. They talked for a few more minutes before Hermione invited Nick and his parents over for supper the following weekend.

"Well he's a handsome bloke," Fred said tentatively as they were walking back to the house with their shopping bags.

"I suppose so," Hermione consented.

"And he seems nice enough," George added.

"He was always very nice, I haven't seen him in years, we never did keep in touch. What's all this about anyway?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well he seemed to be interested in you, I'm just sorry to ruin any chance you might have because we are on this mission and we have to pretend to be engaged,." Fred said looking down at his feet as they walked.

"No worries there, he always sort of reminded me of Cormac McLaggen, a bit pretentious. He's nice enough, but I'm not sure I would be able to date a muggle, too complicated I would think. Besides we are at war, not the best time to be starting a relationship, don't you agree?" Hermione said, rambling thoughtfully.

"I suppose so," Fred said. He was happy that she wasn't interested in this Nick person, but a little discouraged at that last bit, but being Fred he didn't dwell on it too much.

Dinner was an easy enough affair that night, everyone enjoyed Hermione's shepherds pie and with three Weasley boys in attendance, there was none of the chocolate cake she'd made left over. There was an underlying excitement and nervousness for each of them, the war was, as always, ever looming. Though, as if by an unspoken pact between the six of them, they didn't speak about such topics. They contented themselves with enjoying the last evening they could be entirely themselves. Instead of game plans and contingencies, they listened to stories of Remus' youthful adventures, Bill's exploits throughout Egypt and some of the more precarious situations Tonks and Charlie had found themselves in back at all knew there was no avoiding the danger just around the corner, but they still had tonight. They had each other, a family of their own choosing, they had friendship, a bit of romance and their immediate purpose and that was enough for the moment.