Author's Note: I'm trying to update sooner and stuff… But you probably don't want to hear about all that crap, so, yeah.
Disclaimer: Just thought I'd remind you guys that I don't own Harry Potter, though I wish I did.
Changing the Course of Destiny
Chapter Six
A gasp escaped from Hermione's throat and she stood up, wishing that she could move out of the way in time. She knew she would be too slow though. Her mere human reflexes were no match for a werewolf's. Her eyes closed, her body tensed, and her mind expected the worst; for Remus to bite her. That would be the end of Hermione Granger in the future. She could kiss her normalcy good bye.
It never came.
Instead, a snarl emitted from both a werewolf and a black dog. Hermione opened her eyes to see James standing in front of her, his head slightly inclined so that Remus would be jabbed by his antlers if he tried to go to Hermione. Remus was occupied with Sirius, however. The two were fighting with Sirius trying to keep Remus away from Hermione long enough so she could escape through the door.
/Go./
The sound came from inside her mind, though the voice was not hers. It sounded like James'. She nodded, though no one saw, and edged backwards towards the wooden door. Her palm, slick with sweat, closed around the knob and twisted it and then pushed backwards.
The werewolf stopped fighting with Sirius and turned to Hermione and James. He lunged forward with an inhuman roar of fury. Hermione's lungs constricted and she stumbled blindly through the door and pushed it closed.
A small sob escaped her throat as she slid down the back of the door onto the dirt floor, shaking violently.
Hermione had known of Remus' lycanthropy ever since her third year at Hogwarts. The idea never bothered her; Remus was gentle enough and she had no reason to fear him. She had never seen him transform, though. She had never seen how he acted when he was a werewolf.
It was terrifying.
She looked down and saw that not only where her hands shaking, but her whole being was. Hermione had perspired and felt hot to the touch, yet cold and clammy to herself. The colour had drained from her normally rosy cheeks. Silently, she thanked God that she had not been bitten.
A sudden ear-piercing howl came from the other side of the door and she jumped up, backing away from it and putting her hands over her ears. Barely a yard from the door, her legs gave out from underneath her and she collapsed in the grime of the tunnel, her cheek pressed against cold earth.
Feeling as though she had exerted her last ounce of energy she had to spend, her eyes closed. Hermione had passed out and entered the land of dreamless sleep.
Hermione awoke with a start as she felt two hands gripping her shoulders. Her eyes snapped open and were met with the face of Remus Lupin. She inhaled sharply and attempted to stand up, but he merely pressed down on her shoulders; effectively keeping her in place. Her eyes dropped from his and gazed down at the ground of the dirt tunnel.
"Are you afraid of me, Amy?" He asked softly, a small dosage of pain slipping into his voice before he pushed it away.
"No, I am not afraid of you." Hermione replied with a shake of her head. She instantly regretted it as the world swam before her eyes.
"Please forgive me, I should not have shown you my transformation."
"It's alright." I already knew what I was getting myself into.
"Are you hurt?" One of his hands left her shoulder, leaving the skin he had touched on fire. He placed his index finger under her chin and gently forced her to meet his gaze. An apology and the same sadness from the night before lurked in his amber eyes. "Did I hurt you?"
"I'm fine, really." Hermione said firmly, though quite as if the tunnel would collapse if she spoke too loudly. As if to assure himself, Remus held her hair back from her neck and shoulders and inspected her smooth, tan skin. It was unmarred. Satisfied, he let her hair fall back around her shoulders. A shiver ran up her spine as she realized how close he was to her; she could feel his warm breath on her bare skin.
"Did I frighten you?"
"No." She lied, swallowing and trying to keep a clear head. His eyes searched hers and narrowed as he tore his gaze from hers.
"You're not telling me the truth." He stated bitterly and drew his hands away from her. Hermione shivered as the air brushed over the spots where he had been touching her; suddenly cold. She flinched at his accusation, trying to find words.
"I wasn't scared of you." Hermione started slowly, trying not to upset him further. "I was… Afraid when you tried to bite me." Remus looked at Hermione, his hands pulling her hair back once more and inspecting her again.
"That amounts to the same thing, Amy." He replied softly, running one of his index fingers down her throat and collarbone; searching for any cuts on her skin.
"No it doesn't." She protested, inhaling sharply as he continued to make sure she was alright and that he had not caused her any harm. "I can't explain to you how it's not the same, but it just isn't. I wasn't afraid of you being a werewolf. I was just frightened when you tried to bite me." Hermione started breathing normally again when he drew his hands away from her, letting her hair fall back around her face.
"I think I understand." Remus stated slowly, still thinking over her words. She shivered and suddenly realized how close they were. "Are you cold?"
"A little." She told him, brushing off his concern for her. In truth, she was freezing. The material to the dress wasn't that thick and on top of that, it had spaghetti straps; exposing part of her bust and everything upwards.
"We should get back to the castle." He pulled off his cloak and wrapped it around her and then pulled her up to her feet. Hermione thanked Remus and they began their way out of the dirt tunnel underneath the Whomping Willow.
"Where have you two been?" James asked with a smug grin plastered on his face as Remus and Hermione entered the Gryffindor Common Room. Sirius leapt up in a similar fashion and strode briskly over to the trio.
"I hope you two weren't having a nice snog down there. James and I were so worried about you." He flashed his million-watt-movie-star smile.
Hermione blushed at his words and handed Remus' cloak back to its owner. Her upper teeth bit down on her lip in embarrassment and she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Remus sighed exasperatedly at the pair's antics.
"No, we weren't having a nice snog." He stated flatly and brushed a loose strand of his dull golden hair out of his face. "We're friends. Nothing more." So the last part was a lie, but who needed to know? Still, Remus felt a pang of guilt for lying to his friends.
"Uh huh, suuuuure." Sirius said teasingly with a roll of his eyes.
"We're friends, you and I, right Sirius? Does that mean that I'm going to snog you?" Remus pointed out and tried to conceal a smirk.
"I don't know, are you?" Sirius replied with quick wit and displayed the smirk on himself that Remus was trying so hard to hide.
"You know what I mean." Remus sighed heavily, throwing up his hands. "I give up, you are the worst." Hermione chuckled at this and a smile spread across her face. Though Remus, Sirius, and James were not the same as Harry and Ron, they were good enough. Besides, you may never see them again. Her laughter ended with this thought and a distraught look settled in her chocolate eyes.
"Are you alright, Amy?" Remus asked her and she nodded.
"I just want to go to the library. Get some of my homework done, you know? Those essays will take a while." With that, she left the Marauders and walked up the staircase to gather some parchment, quills, and ink.
Hermione bit her lip once more, trying to keep herself from crying by distracting herself with the physical pain. Her hands worked mechanically, picking up her ink bottle and putting the cork in it, selecting a quill to work with and one to use as back up, and then grabbing a roll of parchment. She put her supplies into a smaller bag than the one she usually carried around with all of her textbooks and took a deep breath to compose herself. The tears pricking the edges of her eyes were threatening to overspill, but she closed her eyes for a minute. When she opened them, she wiped the corners of her eyes delicately with the hem of her dress.
With one last breath, she shouldered her bag and began her way back down the stairs. When she reached the common room, she didn't glance in the direction of the Marauders, but rather headed straight out of the portrait hole. If she could finish her essays early, perhaps she could look for some books on how she could return to her time.
She wandered through the corridors, taking all of the right turns automatically. Hermione had lived for six full years at this castle and was closing on her seventh. Another pang of sadness struck at her heart as she realized that she would have to leave here in June. That was quickly followed by panic when she realized that she had almost no idea what she wanted to do with her life.
Being an Auror would be fun, but that would be a constant danger. Her thoughts drifted to Mad-Eye Moody and his scars and the hunk of his nose missing. She shuddered involuntarily; she didn't want to become like him. So being an Auror was out of the question.
What about being a Ministry Official? Hermione quickly dismissed that thought, thinking of how rashly Fudge had acted. If he would be her boss, she would most definitely not work in the Ministry. Perhaps if a new Minister was elected she would consider the job again, but not until then.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she entered the library and she continued walking until she reached the back of the library, at the table that she had always worked at in her past years. Or I guess those are previous years, now. She thought dryly as she sat down and spread her tools out on the smooth table before her and contemplated which essay she would work on first.
Hermione decided to work on her Transfiguration essay: the subject was on safety and was to show that you understood what to do and not to do. The human transfiguration portion had begun, though Hermione wasn't quite as excited about this as she used to be. Her dreams about that subject had always included Ron, Harry, and herself and how something would go wrong but it would be hilarious and fixable. Stop thinking about them! She chided herself. You're going to make yourself cry.
In order to brush away her memories and dreams, she uncorked the black inkbottle and started fiddling with her quill in thought. Instead she thought about how to start her essay, what type of writing it would be, and what the main points were. Settling on an introduction, she bent over her sheet of parchment and wrote her heading and then penned her introduction.
She didn't look up as the outline of a male walked towards her. Only when he stopped right next to her did she notice. The hand with her quill moved towards the inkpot and she set her quill down before looking up at the young man.
"You seem sad, Amy." Remus said quietly so he would not disturb the other patrons in the library. He took the seat across from her, the one where Harry sat when he, she, and Ron had stayed up almost all night trying to find a way to complete the second task. Stop thinking about them, for God's sake!
"I don't know what you mean, Remus." She replied evasively and took her quill out of the ink and continued writing her essay, carefully acting as though he was not in front of her. When she went to dip her quill in ink again, his hand encircled her wrist.
"I think you do," He stated and searched her eyes. "It's in your eyes. A sickle for your thoughts?" With a heavy sigh, Hermione opened her mouth and began to speak.
"I'm just thinking of my friends, Harry and Ron. I wish that they were here so much. This is the table where we stayed up all night trying to find a way for Harry to-" Hermione stopped abruptly and her eyes widened. SHIT! Holy-freaking-shit, I am so freaking screwed, I should not have opened my mouth I should not have said anything and I am so freaking screwed!
"What's wrong?" Remus inquired, letting go of her wrist and moved around the table so he was next to Hermione. She shook her head, sending her hair flying out around her head with the movement.
"Nothing is wrong." She spilled out hastily and stopped shaking her head, as it was beginning to give her a headache.
"You stopped mid-explanation. No one does that when nothing is wrong." Hermione looked down at her lap and knew that he was right. Think Hermione, think! One of his hands cupped the side of her face and lifted it so he could look her in the eyes. "Come on, Amy. I'm your friend. Friends are here to help."
His words were the breaking point for her. Hermione's eyes watered up and tears spilled over. Her petite body racked with her silent cries and the quill she had been holding dropped onto the table. Remus removed his hand from her cheek and began stroking her back between her shoulder blades. He knelt before her, though was still tall enough to look her eye to eye.
"It's okay," He told her quietly, trying to soothe her. Hermione sat in the chair, doubled over, trying to stifle her sobs. You're in the library. Stop crying. "It's okay." He repeated again, continuing to stroke her back.
Eventually her tears subsided and she found herself curled into Remus, one of her hand clutching to the back of his robes. With her other hand, she wiped at her one of eyes, trying to clear away the remains of the salty tears. Before she could repeat the same process with her other eye, Remus raised his hand and wiped away the last of her tears.
"I'm sorry." She muttered, her voice strangled by embarrassment and from her crying. Gathering her senses, she made to push herself out of his strong hold, despite the comfort she felt from him.
"Don't be." He told her, looking down at her and their eyes connected.
Before either of them could clear their thoughts, Remus bent his head down over hers and brushed her lips gently with his.
Author's Note: Oh, yay, their first kiss. I hope you guys aren't going to be mad at me or anything… -cowers in a corner-
Reviews and flames appreciated.
I guess I owe you guys an explanation. In the third book it's almost pitch black, right? "Harry could see Lupin's silhouette."
sil·hou·ette n.
2. An outline that appears dark against a light background.
My definition of 'seen' is for Hermione to see the details of his transformation – not just the outline. I suppose I should have explained this earlier.
For the part where I said, "She had never seen how he acted when he was a werewolf.", I meant she had never seen it up close. Up close when he was coming after her. Also, from what I read in the third book, it lead me to believe that Hermione was watching Pettigrew instead of Remus and Sirius fighting.
So, yeah, Lauren is very sorry for the misunderstanding and sends her apologies. While I'm doing this though, I might as well answer a question I got in my review.
Anonymous- Remus was checking Hermione's neck for a bite because that's where I had imagined that her neck was the point he would bite, if he reached her. It makes logical sense to me, but I should have explained that more. I'll do that when I go back and correct this story.
As for why I gave Hermione the name 'Amy'… God, my reason is stupid, but it's the first name that popped into my mind. It's simple so I thought it would be easy for Hermione to remember she's called 'Amy' by the Marauders.
I'm not telling when she meets Lily. If my thinking stays in the same direction, perhaps in the next chapter. As for when she meets Severus… I'll leave that to your imagination.