Author's note
I woke up in the middle of the night the other night and wrote the first part of this down. And I had to finish it today or else I wouldn't have had time this week.
And it's not slash! I have a soft spot for Hermione, I guess it comes through here.
A little bit of Hermione/Lupin. Very mild stuff.
Reviews please.
Disclaimer- I own no one. Especially not these two.
Human
Sometimes, she found it hard to feel "real".
It was hard to feel normal when your best friends treated you like a walking encyclopedia half the time.
So she liked to read. She was smart.
You can't help who you are.
She liked the intimacy and the quiet of the library at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. When she was there, she could be herself, and get lost in places she'd never been in books she'd never heard of.
The Black's old library was only ever occupied by one other person. Who sometimes spent more time in there than she did. Proffesor Lupin, who, out of an old habit it seemed, would sit in the old chair closest to the fire in the evenings and read.
Or just simply stare into the fire. Which, she noticed, he had started doing more frequently, now when Sirius's prescence was so suddenly absent, and everyone tiptoed around the house, avoiding the subject with hushed small talk.
When Christmas came, things were quiet. Harry watched them put up decorations from the kitchen table over a mug of Mrs. Weasley's eggnog, smiling every once in awhile in a nostalgic sort of way.
Christmas was hard for them all.
She was still up at 11:30 that night, reading another one of those dusty books pulled off the top shelf, and he had been there since 10:40, when she checked the clock as she saw him come in and they exchanged nods. He had been watching the fire, watching it snow, and sometimes just watching her read.
She looked at him, staring into the fire, and wondered if maybe this library was really just a place for lonely people like themselves.
"Did you want something Hermione?"
She was met with a steady pair of brown eyes from across the small room.
"No, not unless...I mean, is there anything I can do?"
He gave her a kind smile.
"I'll be fine."
She nodded and looked back down at the book in her hands.
"Professor Lupin?"
He looked up at her again, the firelight playing off his face.
"hmm..?"
"Thank you."
"What for?" he asked, giving her a questioning look.
"For being here."
He smiled, and turned back to the fire.
He stayed there until she fell asleep, the book in her lap long forgotten. That unspoken sort of relationship between them filling the room up.
In truth, she thought the library wasn't so lonely with someone with whom you can relate to. The nearness of an ally, of someone who understood, is sometimes all she wanted
In all honesty, he made her feel human.