AN: The site really messed up my last chapters formatting! GAH!
Disclaimer: It's still a no-go on the whole owning thing.
Reviews: Thanks go out to zeusfluff/Maria, megzzy6688, BiggerstaffStalker, Jessica-McConacil(who greatly exercised the review button:D), gizmama, Aelimin(Wow, thanks for saying this is the best HG/RL!), MaisjetadoreSiriusNoir/Anna(Long reviews are awesome!), Rheniel, Gecko149(Well I like you're broken record), sporty12gd4u, Smiles28, and CharmedLeolvr(Snape…daddy…cough…nope)
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Last Chapter: Next to her wand lie a shiny, viciously pointed dagger that gleamed dully in the hall's light. Clearly, the dagger was wrought in silver.
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Rolling over, Hermione blinked sleepily at the rays of sunlight that fell through the old curtains. She yawned lightly and wondered why; it looked be well past ten o'clock. Pushing back the blankets, Hermione gazed at them puzzled. She did not remember getting under them. The last thing she remembered was crawling on the bed and essentially passing out. Remus, she thought, shaking her head amused.
The air was chilly as her legs left the comfort of the bed. Dashing to her closet, Hermione pulled out a blue and green robe to wrap around her pajamas. Last night, the more she kept her jeans on the more they pinched around the middle. Hermione had finally accepted defeat and changed, trying to keep from getting too worked up about it. The too tight jeans were more reality than she was ready to face yet. Immediately somber, Hermione glanced down briefly at her bedside table's bottom door before grabbing her wand from the top and putting it in her robe's pocket.
Slinking out into the hall incase Remus might still be asleep, Hermione shut her door quietly. Since his door was also shut, Hermione tried to creep down the stairs as best she could, grimacing as each floorboard squeaked. She breathed a sigh of relief once she set foot in the living room. This room was much toasty than her own due to the roaring fire built up in the fireplace obviously done by Remus at some time or another.
She stood in front of the fire for a bit before feeling adequately warm again. Remus still had not come down from his room. Let the poor man sleep, she thought as she strolled into the kitchen. Her socked feet padded softly and she stopped to lean forward on the sink, looking out the window.
The world outside shone brightly lit with a golden, autumn sun shining down from a watery blue sky. Hermione squinted against the brilliant rays into the backyard. Most of the grass had died but a few hardy, pale green ones were holding on. The thicket of trees ringed the backyard as it did the front and near the far right corner was a gray shed. Going back into the front room to sit, Hermione started to turn but a motion in the yard caused her to double take.
Out by the shed, she could distinctly see someone coming out of the door. Hermione bobbed down in the window, only daring to peek a bit. She felt for her wand in her pocket. They kept approaching the house. The wand was gripped tighter. Straining her eyes to see, Hermione saw that it was in fact a man and he did not have sandy brown hair but instead it was jet black. His skin tone glowed a deep tan color while from one of his brown arms swung an axe.
Breathe…breathe…
Slipping up on the side of the window, Hermione clicked it unlocked and raised it a few inches with her wand. She peeked once again tentatively. He stood a few yards from the back porch, casually leaning on the wood end of the axe, looking the house over. Leaning, Hermione took aim out the bit of open window at the still target. Petrificus Totalus! Instantly, the man froze, seized up, and then fell over with a dull thud along with the axe.
Hermione kept her wand at the ready while she slowly made her toward the stiff figure on the lawn. His unblinking hazel eyes stared up at her as she bent over him. Studying his clothes, she noticed they were simple Muggle attire. Dressing as the inferiors now, are they, she thought. Hermione pointed her wand at the man's mouth, ignoring the pleading look in his eyes.
"I'm going to unbind your mouth and you're going to tell me who you are. Alright."
She muttered a counter curse for only his lips. A slight pop and the man wiggled his jaw around before saying, "Hermione-"
Still threatening with the wand, Hermione said, "Yes that's my name. Now yours."
"It's me, Remus. Unbind me, Hermione, and I'll show you."
"What?" she hesitated, "No, how do I know you're Remus? I rather believe you are a Death Eater."
"I'm under a few glamour charms; that's all. Ask me something. Something only Remus would know."
Leaning back on her heels, Hermione thought. "My boggart. What was my boggart in third year?"
"Your boggart was Minerva telling you that you had failed everything."
"Did I pass the boggart test?"
The man smiled, amused. "No, I'm afraid you did fail that."
She stared down at him, struggling over whether to release him. How else could he have known that? Well, the whole class saw it. Draco could have told his father, but how could he have known I'd ask that question. Glamour charms? Hermione racked her brain. Now what was the counter charm for glamour spells?
Nodding her head in unspoken agreement, Hermione silenced the man once more so she could work the charm to break the supposed one in place. Her wand made a slight sound as she tapped his head lightly and muttered the charm that should cause any disguise to melt away. It did not take long for Hermione to feel a bit foolish.
Within seconds, the black changed to sandy brown along with the hazel to gray and the tan to its original lighter color. She quickly released him from the Full Body Bind. Remus commenced to rub his neck and his back. "Your Bind has some bite to it," he said gingerly, getting off the ground.
"Well I wouldn't have to put you in a Body Bind if you didn't walk around like that," she smacked his arm, hard. "Thank Merlin all I did to you was a Body Bind!" She hit him again. "Don't do things like that!"
Hermione stalked off back into the house, leaving a bruised Remus to follow behind. "Hermione," he called, leaning the ax against the house, "I have a good explanation. Plus, I didn't think you'd be down this early. I thought I'd be changed back by the time you came down."
She turned around in between the kitchen and living room. "Your explanation for sending me into a panic attack is?"
"I was checking to see how far the protection charm went and I can't go wandering across the line looking like me."
"Oh," said Hermione, "still, you could have woken me up and told me."
Remus moved closer to her. "You had a long night last night and I thought I'd just let you rest."
"Did you get much sleep last night?" she asked. Standing beside the coffee table, she gave him a look much like the one Molly Weasley would give her boys.
Remus pulled the sheet off the sofa and they sat down, a bit apart, getting warm again by the fire. "I got enough," he replied.
Hermione muttered something about him needing to get more before asking louder, "So, how far out are the charm's boundaries?"
"Dumbledore really outdid himself this time. The charm goes all the way to the trees in both the front and the back. You'll be able to tell when you leave it. It feels almost a bit cold when you walk through it but nobody other than us should feel that."
"And what exactly were you doing outside with that axe anyway?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
Pointing toward the fireplace, Remus replied, "Chopping a bit of firewood, the good old fashioned Muggle way. Started that trying to get warm after going through some luggage in that freezing upper room. – I'm going to have to work on that…noticed you were somewhat cold – But anyway that reminds I have some things upstairs that are not mine. Mind taking a look and seeing if they're yours?"
Reluctantly, Hermione nodded in agreement, not wanting to leave the comfort of the fire. She followed behind and waited a bit as Remus had to wiggle the doorknob in order to get it to open. His room looked as though a rampaging herd of rather large animals had managed to come through. Suitcases lay half open; their contents pulled out. A few had managed to actually make it to a drawer or space in the closet. Only two trunks sat unopened. Both were glossier than Remus' trunks but Hermione could not recall whether they were hers.
She bent down over the blue one. "I don't think I own any that look like this. Maybe Dumbledore sent a few of his. Can't hurt to open them up and find out."
"Well let's just have a look then," said Remus and he unclasped the locks.
Tilting back the lid, the trunk contained simply clothes; these were in purples, pinks, and other colors not normally associated with the likes of Remus Lupin. Clearly, the clothes were meant for Hermione.
"More clothes," Remus said with a quick look at his disaster around him.
She carefully took out a sage green and pink-stripped top to look over. Her heart skipped a bit, as she looked it over more. The bottom part of the shirt was wider than normal while the sleeves and upper part appeared like any other shirt. Under that shirt was a pair of jeans with a plain patch of navy blue in the front. Hermione glumly put the shirt back. Maternity wear kept ringing in her ears as she stared down.
"Hermione," said Remus softly, "let's see what's in the other one. Alright?"
Blankly, she watched him unclasped the green case and open it up. At the sight of the title Completely Complex Charms, Hermione felt herself perk up involuntarily. She eagerly leaned over Remus to see what else was in it.
"Dumbledore said he had sent along a few books, but it looks like he's packed Hogwart's entire library in here." Remus pulled out another book; this one titled, Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts. "My area of expertise, the one thing I can go over with you without entirely messing it up," he said with a smile.
He continued pulling out standard schoolbooks and several higher-level tomes before coming to something shiny and hard. A swift poke revealed that it was Hermione's cauldron, carefully collapsed inside the case. "Potions, one subject I was useless at during my Hogwart's days."
Underneath the cauldron sat a stack of parchment, which was on top of something else. Hermione lifted out the papers since the DADA book had temporarily distract Remus. More books sat in a neat row in the case's bottom. Their titles stared back at her: The Magic of Being Pregnant, What to Expect When You're a Witch Expecting, and A Complete Guide for the 9 Months.
She felt reality seize her and settle around her again. Remus looked up from his skimming to ask, "Is there more?"
Feeling her face become flushed, Hermione picked up The Magic of Being Pregnant and promptly threw it across the room. She quickly gained momentum and soon all three books slumped in a heap on the opposite wall. Her breath came out in ragged jerks, fighting the urge to just…to just…let it all out. She looked down at Remus, who was still on the floor. "I didn't –"
Not letting her finish, he put down his book and stood up next to her. With a few swishes and Accio, all three came zooming back into his hands. He calmly handed her A Complete Guide for the 9 Months. "That wasn't all you've got. Throw it again."
Hermione's face, now a less red color, grew puzzled looking. He pushed the book into her hands. "Throw it again, harder this time."
She held the book in her hands a moment as if in thought before whipping it back with a fury into the wall. Remus commenced to provide her with a continual supply of paper ammo. Repeatedly, he muttered out Accio, summoning back the books, only to give them back to Hermione to throw again. After about the fifth time, she had to admit it felt insanely wonderful to finally be able to take out her pent up emotions out on something, even if it was only paper.
Soon though, Hermione felt her arm give out. The emotional rush that she had felt earlier had gone. She looked down at the book in the hands then put it Remus' bed. Her eyes, a little bleary with tears, glanced over at Remus who also put the other two on his bed. He gave her a weak smile and asked, "Any better?"
"Yeah," she said, trying to keep those tears from coming out. She had tried so hard not to actually cry. Hermione blinked furiously then ultimately had to turn her head to keep Remus from seeing her wipe them away. A hand gently squeezed her shoulder.
"How about I run into town for some groceries for lunch. You must be hungry."
"Alright," Hermione managed to say. She turned back to look at Remus who seemed to be standing back again as if to give her some space. "And thanks."