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Disclaimer: if I owned it, I would be publishing books, and driving really nice cars, and living in a really nice house, and owning all sorts of interesting things, but I don't so yea.
Moonlight
An Interesting Morning
Hermione awoke the next morning in a state of rather dazed confusion. Where was she? This small shabby room looked nothing like the bright, cheerful room that she shared with Ron. Ron, last night's events flooded back to her; the pain, the anguish. How could he be so cruel? She rolled over on her side and cried the tears that she couldn't find last night.
Soon a soft smell drifted into her room and slowly grew stronger. She knew that smell well, it was the same smell that had awoken her every Sunday morning as a girl.
Remus Lupin stood in the kitchen, frying pan in one hand spatula in the other. He was currently tackling the eggs. A red eyed Hermione emerged from the dark hallway pulling her robe shut tight over her night dress. "Smells good."
Hearing her voice, Remus turned around, slightly startled but ever cheerful, still scrambling the eggs on the frying pan saying, "Good morning Sunshine!" Bright sun light was pouring in through the kitchen window, with its bright blue curtains drawn back; it was an upbeat and cheerful little room, and did brighten the girl's spirits.
On a happier day, and had Hermione's thoughts not been bent one Ron Weasley, one would have expected Hermione to walk over to Remus at the stove, and give him a light peck on the lips, as she was holding a glass getting ready to pour drinks. So much had the atmosphere of the cozy room suggested.
But as it was, it was not a happy day, and all of Hermione's thoughts were bent on Ron. She crossed the floor of the small room, and sat down at the table under the window. A single bright yellow flower in a small blue vase, the same color as the curtains, was placed in the center of the table. There was a small tug at the corner of her lips; she liked this kitchen.
"Good morning Remus," she said not altogether brightly. But more so than she would have been five minutes ago. The ambiance of the room was getting to her, it was nice and warm; and it made her feel at ease. "I can see someone is quite fond of breakfast."
"Me?" Remus said wearing the expression of someone who was just accused of some ludicrous crime and was trying not to look too guilty. This made Hermione slightly smile. He then quickly switched to the air of a teacher who was lecturing a class, "No, no girl, I usually don't touch the stuff, but I figured as I was up and had company, I might as well play the good host."
He had begun this production solely on account of her; it was a nice thought, which coupled with his sunny attitude, made it obvious that he was trying to cheer her up. Remus had now begun transferring the plates from the counter to the table. And when Hermione started to stand to offer help, he demanded her to "sit" in a rather authoritative voice. She complied without protest; besides, it was nice to be weighted on.
When Remus was rummaging through a drawer, a high pitched beep resounded through the room followed by a popping noise. "Heads up!" Remus called as four pieces of toast flew through the air and landed in a neat stack on a plate in the middle of the table. "Taught them that that myself," he said with a proud paternal tear in his eye.
This was too much for the brunette, and finally a full smile graced her features. "Taught them?" she cocked an eyebrow.
"Okay, okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly teaching them, and it was more like bewitching them, but I still did it all by myself!" Now he sat down beaming like a proud child, and even elaborated this with a small dance of his shoulders.
A laugh escaped Hermione's lips; imagine, a full grown man acting like a silly school boy! "There it is, I knew it couldn't have gone too far," he exclaimed, while looking at her now as an adult would. Hermione looked at him; he appeared quite young, between twenty five and thirty, even though she knew he was actually older. The only thing that didn't seem all together youthful, were the few silver streaks that decorated his sandy light brown hair, but any way about it he was still too young to have gray hair. He was a very handsome man with kind blue eyes.
Remus had begun to eat, so Hermione made an attempt to also. She didn't want to offend her host, but she was running short on appetite this morning. All she ended up doing was pushing the contents of her plate around with her fork. Remus got up and came back with two glasses of orange juice, and she was glad that at least she could drink this.
At that moment an owl flew through the room and landed on the edge of the table, a letter attached to its leg. It was addressed to Hermione! How did they know she was here? She relieved the owl of its burden and curiously tore open the letter anxiously.
Ms. Granger,
Recently, the position of Charms Teacher has become open in my staff. As a student who has excelled in this area, and has also demonstrated exemplary behavior all throughout school, we would be delighted if you joined our staff. Please say you will. We await you owl in return.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
HEADMASTER
A teacher, her? It was perfect! She would have a job, and a place to live at least until the summer. By then she should have enough money to afford something; a small flat maybe? The letter made her quite happy, if only for a moment.
"Remus look! I'm going to be a teacher!" and he read the letter acting surprised.
Hermione bit her lip, there was still a month left before the teachers were to go back. Well, maybe Dumbledore would let her come back early. Her thoughts were interrupted.
"Hermione this is wonderful! Now you will have a place to stay as well as a job." She smiled. "You can stay here until we have to go to the school if you'd like."
"Oh, no Remus you've helped so much already, I don't want to be a burden to you, and…wait, we?"
"Oh don't worry its no inconvenience at all! Quite the contrary, I'll be glad for the company. And yes we, I am teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts again this year."
Hermione smiled, "So, you're saying you wouldn't mind me staying here?"
"Not in the least!"
"Well all right then," she said as she broadly smiled and wrote the reply to Dumbledore. The owl hooted dutifully and took off with the letter.
Hermione set about eating now, and cleared her plate in a matter of minutes. Getting the letter had certainly brought her appetite and mood up a lot. "I wonder how Dumbledore knew that I needed a job and such now, he has impeccable timing doesn't he?"
Remus was sipping his orange juice rather guiltily.
"Remus?"
"Umm…yes?"
"Did you talk to Dumbledore?"
"That all depends. Would you be mad if I did?"
"Remus!"
"Okay so you would wouldn't you?" She had gotten up and was walking towards him angrily. "Well in that case…I…uh."
But right then, Hermione gave him a hug and a friendly peck on the cheek, leaving him quite speechless, "I...uh…you…what I mean to say is…hey! I thought you were mad!"
Hermione simply laughed.
Two can play at this game! Remus stood up suddenly, knocking his chair over backwards in the process. He walked towards Hermione menacingly, and she took two frightened steps backwards. At the last minuet, Remus smiled and grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her high into the air spinning around in circles. She made him feel like a teenager.
By now, Hermione was laughing up a storm, and it didn't help that Lupin was squeezing her oh so ticklish sides. She was squirming and screaming. "Remus…ep!...Re-mus!...put me…EEh!...put me…hehe…down!"
Despite all of her fussing, Remus was able to hold her steadily in the air; re really was quite strong. He brought her down slowly, and gently her feet touched the floor. His arms still circled his waist, and her hands had come to rest on his broad shoulders. Their faces were just inches apart- Oh God! She was so close he could practically taste her! Wait! Was it just his imagination, or was she coming closer? His heart began to pound furiously. Oh, oh God!
But suddenly, the small hands slid from his shoulders to his chest, and pushed gently, yet firmly. Her soft eyes looked up at him with a mixture of sorrow and pleading. "I should go get dressed," was all she said in a quiet voice.
Remus nodded and reluctantly relaxed his hold around her waist. More reluctantly still, she took two steps backwards with one hand still on his chest, before she turned and fled the room.
Remus touched the place where her hand had lingered longest, over his left pectoral muscle, over his heart.
He crossed the room and sat at the table with his head in his hands. So many thoughts ran through his mind; so many feelings ran through his soul. He could not give in to this fire that grew inside of him, the fire that came with her.
All his life, Remus J. Lupin had been afraid of love. A werewolf cannot share his life with any one, the danger is too great. And who could ever love a beast? True, he was only a beast thirteen nights a year, but to love him would mean to embrace his condition, and to love him for what he was, not in spite of it.
There had been only two people in his life that had done this, James and Sirius; and they were both dead now. They were his friends, his companions, his brothers. It was possible to love them as brothers, because he didn't have to worry about hurting them, but with every one else…
Romantic love was, well, different; it involved living together, acts of intimacy, raising a family, things he could never do. Things that he wanted so badly, but knew he could never have. A tear slid down his cheek. In all of his childhood, the only girl he had ever been close with was Lilly Evans; and to him, she was a sister. There had been plenty of girls who liked him, but he never let them get close. Oddly enough, this had worked in some backwards way to make them like him even more.
His adulthood had been spent alone, as solitary as a hermit. Before the death of James and Lilly, he had spent his time with the Order and help out as much as he could, doing secret missions, and dangerous work. It was a good distraction from the emptiness that was his life. But after they passed on, and Sirius was in Azkaban, and Peter supposedly dead, he lived alone. He had not a sole to talk too. Then eight years ago, he had become a teacher, and found his old friend, in addition to making many new and well young ones.
But then six years ago, Sirius joined James and he was left, the last faithful Marauder, entirely alone. His only comforts were his new companions, but they could not fill the place of James and Sirius; they could not love him as they did. He had spent most of the time since helping the Order yes, but living on his own. He found it hard to enter Grimmald Place, the house where he had lived for many months with his brother; it held many painful shadows that he could not face. He found the world hard to face with his friends gone, and became one step away from a recluse. But Dumbledore thought this most inappropriate for such a young man, and insisted he take up his teaching career once more.
In the end he complied, and now he was going back. He did so enjoy it there; but there now was on who would be there who he feared. She was the only girl he could not refuse, and he feared her, because he knew that he loved her, should he choose to admit it. He feared her, because when he was with her, he felt alive, and he did not find it just to live while his friends could not. And he feared her, because he distrusted himself. To love her, was to hurt her; so if he loved her, he must not let her near him. Yet it was harder than he could ever have imagined, because she ignited feelings in his soul that he never knew existed.
Yes he knew it was wrong to indulge in these feelings that were so perverse to his existence; but being in her presence was like being intoxicated: he was not in control of his thoughts and actions. It was as if he were taken over by some foreign power.
Yet he knew he must extinguish his desires, least they possess him and make life unbearable.
And it was wrong to want her love anyways; it would be to take advantage of her delicate state. No, he could not ask her to love him, but he would do anything for her. He would help her, shelter her, take care of her, and protect her. Mostly protect her; from the world and from himself. She could not know of his love and could not reciprocate.
He heard the water turn on and he knew that Hermione was in the shower. There was no use sitting here sulking, what with the kitchen in the condition it was in. With a sigh, Remus Stood up, masked his emotions, and began cleaning the kitchen.
In the shower, Hermione was trying to let the hot water amend the throbbing in her head. The reason her head was throbbing, was that too much was going on in there at once. The most predominant thought was of a certain red haired boy and how he just cast her off and moved on. After all she had given him he just tossed her aside like she meant nothing.
Why if it weren't for Remus, she would have had no where to go. No, if it weren't for Remus, she'd be dead. There were so many horrible things that could have happened to her last night as she strayed through London unaware and unprotected. With all the things that could have harmed her, it was a wonder Remus found her in one piece, no it was luck that Remus found her at all. A possibility that she didn't consider, was that maybe it was fate.
But the thought of Remus gave her more trouble, because the thought of Remus had a habit of stealing the spotlight from the thought of Ron. Remus: he was such a caring and kind man, despite that the world had never shown caring or kindness to him. In a mere few hours, he had already taken her in, made sure she didn't get sick, owled Dumbledore to find her much needed job, made a rather presentable breakfast, and acted goofy until she had smiled. And she remembered very much the way it felt to be in his arms, as they firmly held her close his blue eyes full of emotion and conflict boring into her own.
It had felt so right, yet so ethereal; like something that was too good to be true. A strange feeling had come over her spreading fast igniting every inch of her body. And in that moment she had desperately wanted to taste his lips and feel his tongue with her own. Ron had never made her feel quite like she felt that morning. Ron, no, it was all too soon; too soon to feel for another. The pain was still too fresh.
But as she thought again about Ron, she thought about the dreaded truth of their relationship. They had always been great friends, each knowing the other almost better than they knew themselves; it was quite pleasant living together for this reason. But there was no passion in their relationship, merely contentment. They could have easily gotten married and had a happy life, and taken care of one another, and to all appearances they would have had the perfect family. But two people would know the truth that there was simply no great desire. That was probably why neither had ever mentioned marriage. They had no real reason to break things off, they got along well and were content, but they had no real reason to make things officially permanent, both had their doubts thinking that maybe there was something well, more out there.
It was better this way she knew; hadn't she been expecting something to happen for months now? While they may have had the perfect teenage relationship, the older they grew, the more they realized it wasn't what they wanted for the rest of their lives. However, Hermione thought that the separation would come as a mutual decision, not as Ron saying I'm sorry but I've found someone better; that hurt more than anything. And yet she wondered…
She didn't allow her self to finish the thought, she would not wonder if she had too found someone better. It would only lead to tears. To Remus, she was just a silly child she was sure. Sure, he was now one of her closest friends thanks to the Order of the Phoenix, and he had long since been her favorite mentor, it always seemed that he had something new she could learn, and these things meant the most to Hermione when she considered people; but she was sure Remus would never consider someone much younger than himself. He would want someone who was mature and probably with more experience than herself; she thought too that he was probably rather selective as in all the time she'd known him he had never had a girl, as he never had in any tales from his high school days.
She had known and loved those stories well. There were four boys, the first had only really wanted one girl his whole high school career and did not stop until she was his; the second had had his share of girlfriends and even more that wished that they had been; the third was not really noticed too much by the girls, always in the shadows of his friends; and the fourth, he had been sought after by many, but he had always gently refused them. Hermione had not heard tell of one tale where he had had a girlfriend. And if he were that picky, there was no way he'd want her.
It was best to forget about these thoughts and feelings; Remus was a dear friend and would remain so no matter what she did. She must ignore these feelings and simply carry on with their friendship. They had fun together and enjoyed each other's company, and the next month would be rather entertaining if she could live with her feelings.
Hermione got out of the shower, wrapped in a pink fluffy towel, and headed back to the room. She wasted no time in finding a piece of parchment, and an ink bottle and quill in her trunk. There was something important that she needed to write before she lost the words she wanted to say. Hurriedly she wrote:
Dear Ron,
Hello! I knew that you would probably be worried about me, so I wanted to tell you that I am fine. I have gotten a job at Hogwarts as Charms teacher. I am staying with a friend until the time comes for me to go back to school. I wanted to let you know also that I bear no hard feelings and I hope that the recent events do not hinder our friendship.
Sincerely,
Hermione
Ron, even as her ex-boyfriend was still a close friend and he had expressed his worry on the night he told her things were over. It was only fair to let him know she was alright; she knew if she didn't he would probably have Harry help him search the entire continent of England looking for her. He did love her even if it wasn't romantically. Things seemed so sensible now, and last night seemed surreal, her reaction should have never been like that. Damn her pride!
As she sat checking the letter for possible errors, there was a creak and a voice said, "Hermione?" The door had swung slowly open and Remus Lupin stood in the door way.
Hermione quickly assumed the favored shocked and trapped expression of a deer caught in headlights.
"I," but then he looked at her and realized she was sitting on the chair at his desk with her legs crossed, wearing nothing but a pink towel. He immediately turned a dark shade of crimson while he adverted his eyes and began to speak, "Oh god! I'm so sorry! Should have knocked and he left shutting the door behind him.
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And what do we think of this one? Hmm? I wanna know! You've got to tell me! Tee hee! This of course means I want you to REVIEW!! Please? ::makes puppy dog eyes::
Wait a minuet!! There are 35 pages of stories with Hermione/Snape, and only 4 with Hermione Remus!!! Why is this? I am offended! There must be more fics with this werewolf!! ::cries:: the injustice of it all!
Well I just finished this chapter and found it appropriate that there is a full moon tonight (Monday, since I don't know when I'll be posting) and I am writing about a werewolf. ^__^ makes me happy!
Let me know in your review if you want to receive an e-mail when I update. I usually make a mailing list when I write stories so pple don't have to check and see if it's updated. This of course stems from my laziness and not liking to have to visit all the stories only to find none updated. I think its more convenient this way!
Well it is now time to thank all of my reviewers!
Roxy Surfer: Yay! You're my first reviewer! Thank you for reading and reviewing yet again!! It makes me happy to have readers like you!! ::smiles:: I'm glad that I might be able to make you like, or at least tolerate a big age gap. I heart that werewolf though! I wish he were younger so it would make more sense, but I guess that that is just an obstacle I will have to over come. Well I am actually going to go start on the third ch for Astronomy Tower now! I had this chapter written n wanted to type it, I should have the next ch for AT done in the next day or so depending on how much sleep I have to get. I m supposed to have a job interview tomorrow, so I prolly should sleep, but its so much more fun to write stories!! Well, thank you for being such a great reader! ::smiles::
Beyond-Artemis: thank you! I'm glad you liked it even though it's not your usual pairing! I hope you continue to enjoy it! ^_^
MovieStarMissy: thank you! And I agree what a great couple! Those two are so much alike its scary! And poor Remus never gets the attention he deserves! When I finish the massive amounts of fics I have now, I am going to do one from Remus's view, it'll prolly be angst in the beginning, but we will amend that with love? Maybe… or maybe something else, yes I see a much more evil plot forming!
Bell: thank you! Maybe it wasn't so short, but it was kinda shorter than I like to write them, but I made this one kinda long so that should make up for it! Do you really think I have loads of talent? ::blushes:: you're too kind! But thank you!
MiniTeija: I am glad that you liked it! Thank you for reviewing! I am glad that you are enjoying it!
OneOfaKind92: I love Remus too! I heart that werewolf like mice heart cheese! ( n that's a lot!) ::smiles:: it has become my favorite pairing too! Those two were meant to be even if the age is kinda off. Ooo! New thought for my next fic (one staring Remus) yay! Sadly I must hold off for the time being! ::cries:: too many plots too little time! Thank you for reading and reviewing, hope you enjoy!
Miffy: why thank you! Glad you liked it!! hope it worked for you! thanks for your review!
And those were the reviews that I have already received! Thank you! I love you all!