Disclaimer: I own the books, the movies, and a plushie name Voldiekins. Please don't ask what I am doing with that, because I really can't say.
A/N: I love you all! And the next chapter will be filled with more Hermione/Remus fluffiness, promise!
The next evening, right after the meeting, Remus and Hermione Floo'd over to his house so she could get a start on the potion before the next full moon. He showed her the cauldron and all the potion ingredients in the cupboard across the room. She nodded to him and set down the giant potions book under her arm. As Hermione began digging out ingredients, Remus walked into the other room and started pacing.
He was worried about how this was all going to end up. He was worried about Greyback and his plan for the girl in his kitchen. But what was worst of all, he was worried about Hermione, and the fact he was more worried about her than he should be. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Must be the wolf in me.
Hermione fidgeted as she smelled the anxiety from Remus practically pouring off him as the floor boards creaked from his pacing. It was started to make her anxious and that wasn't a good thing when she was trying to make a rather difficult potion. Finally she couldn't take it anymore.
"Oh for Heaven's Sake, STOP IT!" she yelled into the living room. She heard the creaking of the floor stop and the anxiety slowly faded away.
"Sorry," she heard his soft call before she went back to her potion.
No one seemed to notice her gone, but since she had been rarely seen before, it was really to be expected. She used to spend hours reading in a corner somewhere, but now she spent hours at a certain wolf's house to make a potion she now needed to share with him.
Despite her best efforts to focus on nothing but the potion, Hermione found the job quite hard. It was exceptionally hard to not pay attention to the presence of him all the time. She could feel whatever he was feeling and at first it was a direct distraction to her task. But that she had gotten used to. She had even gotten used to the random appearances he would make to stick his nose down to the cauldron to examine its progress.
One night as she lay in bed it finally hit her what distracted her the most. It was him. It was his overwhelming presence, it was his body. It was the half smiles he would give her, it was the hair that would fall into his face. It was his strong hands, it was the muscles she knew were under his shirt.
Hermione fidgeted in her bed, her forehead wrinkling before she slapped it with her palm. "Idiot," she chided herself. "You're not supposed to fall for the guy."
After Hermione came to the realization she had a crush on her ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, it became slightly more than a distraction when she arrived at his house the next evening to put the finishing touches on the potion for that full moon. She was suddenly more concerned about what she wore, more concerned with how her hair looked. Looking at herself in the mirror before she went over to his house she banged her forehead against it.
"What am I doing?" With a groan she grabbed her robes and ran down the stairs to Floo to his house.
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It wasn't so much a change in attitude, or even in her actions, but Remus knew something had changed in Hermione. When he sat down and concentrated on the particular smell she was giving off he realized she was nervous. He 'hmphed' and leaned his head against the back of his couch. He began to wonder what could have possibly changed to make her suddenly nervous in his presence. He hadn't done anything, hadn't said anything. So why did she smell different?
Then realization hit him. No, it wasn't the right reason, but it was a viable one that he could use until he found out the real one. Tomorrow evening would be the first of the three nights of this month's full moon. And it would only be her second full moon. Her first experiences had been anything but pleasant, so naturally she was nervous about the upcoming one.
Rather pleased at his discovery, he went in to the kitchen to see if she was almost done. What he saw stopped him in the door, her appearance causing his breath to hitch slightly in his throat. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her face with sweat from bending over a hot cauldron for the last hour. She was mumbling something too quiet even for his wolf ears to pick up before she started biting her bottom lip. He watched as she slipped her robes off and placed them on a nearby chair, her eyes never leaving the pages of the book beside the cauldron. She wore a pair of nicely fitting hip hugger jeans and a white spaghetti strap tank top that was sticking to her like a second skin.
Appalled at himself, Remus felt his body starting to react to her against his will. Something started stirring in the pit of his stomach as she brought a hair tie out of her pocket and haphazardly tugged her untameable hair into a high ponytail to keep it out of her face. He finally noticed the feeling in his stomach growing as he watched the girl in his kitchen.
'Girl' he told himself. 'And a student. Keep your damned wolf hands off her.' This rather self reprimanding action made him unaware that a low growl had issued from his throat at the site of her now exposed neck as she titled her head away from him. And that is what finally got her attention. Her eyes flew up to meet his and widened slightly.
Hermione felt her heart start to beat slightly faster and she knew a blush now stained her cheeks. She only prayed he would think it was because of the heat of the cauldron she was working over. She suddenly realized how disheveled she looked, especially with her hair being its unruly self and the sweat returning it to a frizzy state. She absentmindedly ran her fingers across her hair to flatten any stray curls.
"It should be done in an hour or two if my test was correct and I've done it right," she said, fidgeting slightly under his gaze.
Remus smiled at her, the butterflies noticing this immediately and taking it as their cue to begin flying around in her stomach.
"I've been thinking," he started as he made his way the rest of the way into the room and too close for Hermione's breathing to stay normal. "It has occured to me that it would probably be best if we both stayed unchanged for 2 nights, and changed the one."
Hermione nodded. "That would make sense. Would make it more believable if-if Greyback were to check in unannounced."
Remus just gave her a half smile, causing her heart to pound against her chest more forcefully.
"Well, what night do you think would be best? To change, that is."
Hermione started biting her bottom lip, an old habit that died hard. "Well, is there a difference?" she finally asked him.
"Actually, there is. The night before the full moon and the night after tend to be better. Being under Wolfsbane on the night of the Fullmoon is usually more...uneasy I guess you could say. More of the animal side tends to get out and that is slightly more difficult to control than just being restless."
"So do you think it would be better to change only on the night of the Full Moon?"
"That would probably be the best. Tomorrow night is the first, so you should go home and get a good night's rest. You're gonna need it."
Remus looked over at the girl and saw the fear clouding her eyes. Before he realized what his body was doing, he was standing in front of her, his hands on her arms. They gripped her and he bent down to look her in the face.
"Hey," he said softly. "Just try not to think about it. You can't let this rule your life."
Hermione nodded, still scared, but much less now that his hands were on her arms. She could feel the warm imprint he was making on her bare skin and it sent a thrill of delight all the way to her toes. She didn't know if this was a reaction she would have had if she wasn't now a werewolf, if her senses weren't heightened. Looking up into his eyes, she knew she still would have felt it, werewolf or not.
Author Babble:
Awww, I was well behaved for that! I have to give the poor girl a build up for her crush, jeez. Shecan'tt just decide she likes him and throws herself on him! That happens next chapter! Wait, did I just say that outloud? Strike that!