Thank you guys, all of you, for sticking with me, despite my horrible
tendencies to have long periods of time between updates and all of that. I
hope that this chapter will make you happy, so go ahead and read it.
Disclaimer: I'm quite sure that you all know it belongs to J.K. Rowlings and probably always will. And, besides, even if it does ever belong to someone else that someone else ain't never gonna be me.
~`~`~`~`~ Chapter 8: Maddening Questions and Even More Maddening Endings ~`~`~`~`~
"An' this is where we eat dinner, though sometimes we go into the parlor if there's a meeting. An' here's where I sometimes help Auntie if she wants me too and we do lots of fun stuff. An' here is where me an' Daddy just sit and talk, though I do most of the talkin' 'cause he says it's nice when I talk. An' here's where we sleep and where I'm s'posed to go if I'm in trouble or if there's somebody here that I don't know. An' that's it, I think."
And so Hermione found herself going through a whirlwind tour of the house she'd known since her fifth year; though she had to say that this tour was far more fun than her first one all those years ago. Children had a way of making even the most boring of tasks fun and interesting. And the tiny hand gripping hers so tightly wasn't bad, either.
"So, Evie, where am I going to sleep?" She asked the question as lightly as she could, but she could still feel the slight fear of hearing that she was to have the same room as Remus. Even if they were married, she didn't want to have to share a room with him, of all people. She'd rather share with Mundungus Fletcher, if it came to that. Well, maybe not Dung, but just about anyone else. At least she didn't have the awkward situation of being married to anyone else.
"I dunno. Where d'you wanna sleep?"
The girl looked at her curiously, waiting for an answer. Hermione sighed. "It's not important. I'll talk to your daddy about it when he returns." She looked up to the tall hall clock, trying to guess how long it had been since he'd left and how long it would take him to return.
She turned back to her new stepdaughter with a forced smile. "What say you and me head down to the kitchen and ask Auntie for a bit of ice cream?"
The girl hopped up with a loud "Yippee!" and grabbed Hermione by the hand, pulling her down the stairs to the dark kitchen at the bottom of Black Manor. Despite the fact that her arm ached from the pull, she marveled at the strength the child had. Being the daughter of a werewolf apparently meant that they inherited a bit of that infamous strength that Hermione was quite familiar to.
In the kitchen, as though Molly had known they were coming, two large bowls of ice cream lay in wait on the heavy table, all ready to be eaten. The elder woman smiled at them as they came in at full speed. Hermione took her place beside Evie and watched in fascination as the child began to eat the treat as though she had never tasted it before. Molly sat beside her and joined in the watching.
After a few seconds, she said, "The girl's got an appetite on her, hasn't she?"
Hermione smiled, feeling the muscles in her cheeks tighten. "Yes. Is this something else she gets from Tonks?"
Molly laughed heartily. "Oh, heavens, no! Have you ever seen Tonks eat? Like a bird, that one. This she gets from Remus. I'm sure that if they were called to, they could eat an elephant and still be hungry for more."
"Yes, but it certainly is entertaining to watch her eat. I've never really been so close to so small a child before."
"No?" Hermione shook her head slowly. "Then you're missing out, my dear. They're the sweetest, and the most devilish, things to ever walk the planet. She may seem the angel now, but just wait. Pretty soon she'll be throwing one of her famous tantrums. Especially when she hears about the M- E-E-T-I-N-G tonight."
Hermione turned to look questioningly at the woman beside her. "The meeting? Why will that bother her?"
Just then, as though someone had found the 'STOP' button on her, Evie quit eating and turned in horror to her Auntie. "Meeting? There's a meeting?"
Molly sighed. "Now you've done it," she muttered to Hermione. "Yes, dear, there's a meeting tonight."
Evie took a drastic turn for the worst and began to cry. And not just a simple bit of whimpering, but sobs that echoed around the room and quickly turned into screams in which tears had no part in. Hermione covered her ears in shock, glancing quickly from Molly to Evie and back to Molly.
"What's the matter?!" she cried over the din. "Why's she doing that?"
"She doesn't like the meetings," Molly answered as she stood and picked up the crying child, holding Evie's face to her shoulder and muffling the sound somewhat. "It means that she has to stay in her room and she won't get to play with her father. It's the highlight of her day, going into that little room and playing some silly game or other with Remus. He's not around all that often, you know."
"Oh. I hadn't known. I thought he spent a lot of time with her."
Molly rubbed the girl's back soothingly, shushing her all the while. "It seems that way, doesn't it? From the way they dote on one another you'd think that they were hardly ever apart. But he's so busy with business for the Order all the time that he hardly gets to come here even to sleep. So when he gets to come, they spend all their time together."
Evie squirmed in Molly's arms for a bit before she was finally set down. She looked about at the two women's faces through red eyes set in a wet red face before shooting out of the kitchen like a rocket. Hermione stared at the door in surprise for a second before turning to Molly.
"She's quite prone to mood swings, isn't she? If I didn't know better, I'd say it was PMS."
Molly looked at her in disbelief for a moment before bursting out laughing. "If only it were so simple. I could give her a potion and send her up to bed for an hour or two. But she's just a bit of a spitfire on her own. Just imagine what it will be like when she is PMSing." They both shuddered dramatically and laughed.
After a moment of companionable silence, Hermione asked, "What is the meeting about anyway, Molly?"
The plump lady waved her hand dismissingly. "Something to do with the Minister. Apparently they think he might be behind some of the recent Death Eater revivals. Fat lot of good it'll do them even if he is. He's guarded so well that even his own mother, were she alive, couldn't even get close enough to actually give him a hug. They have a better chance of seeing a snowstorm in August than getting the chance to do something about Malfoy."
Just the name of the slimy man made the hairs on the back of Hermione's neck stand on end. All she could think of was that if it hadn't been for him she could be living a much less stress-filled life. And she wouldn't have to be married if she didn't want to be. Damn the man.
"When does the meeting start?"
Molly glanced at the small clock on the mantle to the kitchen fireplace and shot out of her seat after reading the time. "Would you look at that! See how late it is already! It's nearly five! They should be arriving in an hour's time and I still have to make supper enough for the lot of them! Oh my goodness! I must..." She trailed off as she bustled about the kitchen, starting the oven and readying the pots and pans. Hermione quietly snuck out before she could be stopped and suckered into helping.
She stood outside the door and leaned against the wall. It felt so good to be with Molly again, and yet it was so much more painful. Molly had the best shoulder to cry on and the most soothing voice, but she reminded her far too much of Ron. Everything from the red hair to the almost smothering feeling one would get from the hugs. She took in a shuddering breath as she remembered when she and Ron had come over to Grimmauld Place right after getting married and how they had both flushed as red as tomatoes when they told everyone. How ecstatic all the Weasleys and Harry were, how shocked Remus and Tonks had been, how pleased they made Dumbledore, and how much they disgusted poor old Professor Snape. And with Molly so close all she could think about was that day.
Standing straight, she turned and started for the main staircase to the upstairs parlor. Before she made it to the steps, a small hand reached out from what seemed like nowhere and grabbed her ankle. She squeaked in surprise and stared at the hand and its little grubby fingers.
"Evie?" she asked as she leant down and looked under the staircase. "Is that you down there?"
"Yah-huh," a small voice said. Hermione knelt down obligingly to speak to the girl and detach the child's hand from her leg.
"What are you doing down there, Evie? Isn't it awfully dark?"
The fingers let go from her before she'd even had a chance to try and pry them off. A small disheveled figure crawled out and stood before her, a frank and rather curious look set on her features. "It's dark, yeah, but I was thinkin'...How come you're my new mummy? Why did my daddy marry you, huh?"
For a moment, Hermione was taken aback by the suddenness of the question. Then she was amazed by the swift change of mood that had taken Evie. "Why- why do you want to know?"
The little girl's expression did not change, she was just as determined to be answered now as she had been before. "I just wanna know, is all."
Hermione mumbled and fumbled for the right words to tell her, but she couldn't summon them. She continued to stammer before a thought struck her brain. She smiled slowly and told her the most maddening thing that a child could hear from a mother. "Ask your father." And, just as Hermione had predicted, the child's face turned grim almost immediately. Her eyes narrowed and her lips set in a thin, nearly invisible, line.
"You're not very nice," was all she had to say before she took off in the opposite direction, probably searching for someone who might have a better answer to her inquiry.
While Hermione was glad to be rid of Evie's prying question, the outburst about being "not very nice" struck her somewhere and she felt absolutely awful for using the mother's secret weapon for avoiding questions that could lead into sticky situations. She didn't have much time to dwell on it, however, for just then, the front door opened with a resounding slam and the every annoying portrait of Mrs. Black resumed her tirade of "filth" and "Mudbloods". Hermione turned about quickly and watched as the tall and rather lanky form of Professor Snape made his way languidly inside the building, not bothering to close the door behind him. She stared for a moment at him, her mouth open in surprise. Then she was distracted once more by the presence of numerous members of the Order making their way through the doors: Mundungus Fletcher, Percy and Fred Weasley, some young and pretty Auror called Catalyn, a shopkeeper by the name of Tzeitel, Professor McGonagall, a waiter she'd heard referred to as Hal Rosser, and many others she'd seen a few times, but did not know by name. As Snape passed her, she was delighted to see a bruise residing high on his cheekbone from where she had slapped him the previous night. He sneered at her smile and self-consciously touched the unseemly blemish. After they had all gone by, each stopping with their own words of sympathy and condolences to say, she followed them into the kitchen.
A bustling Molly greeted them; though Hermione could tell from the lines around her taught mouth that she wasn't the least happy to see them there any earlier than she had anticipated. The rowdy younger members laughed and joked around, some sitting and some leaning against the monstrous fireplace, and the elder members, including Percy and Fred, sat grimly together, none of them smiling or even hardly speaking to one another. Hermione, on the other hand, stood uncertainly beside a wall, not quite sure whether she ought to join the happy younger set or the older melancholy one. She was, however, not called upon to make a decision, for Harry and Hannah walked in, flushed and red, with a smiling Remus coming in behind them. The crowd turned to them with a burst of approval and congratulations to the newlyweds.
"And you'll never guess where I found them!" Remus called above the din. A resounding cry followed his words. "Down a side alley in Hogsmeade in a rather...compromising...position," he said rather delicately, a bright twinkle in his eye. But the group would not be satisfied with so polite an answer.
"Aw, come on, Remus! You gotta give a bit more than that!" one strapping young fellow with shaggy blond hair and a broad chest cried from where he stood with his arm around an equally good-looking girl with long black curls and a practically perfect hourglass figure.
"Yeah!" another cried, a lock of green-dyed hair falling in front of his almond-shaped eyes. "We want the dirt!"
A cheer and a laugh rose from this announcement. Remus raised his hands high. "All right, all right! You've torn it from me." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "I found our lovely young Hannah here nearly robbed of that pretty little blouse she's wearing. Why don't you show it to us, Hannah, dear. It really is pretty." A flushing Hannah hid behind her husband in embarrassment. The Order members laughed good-naturedly. "And Harry here, being the regular little 'love bug' that he is, was only too happy to be the one robbing her of it!" The group laughed once more, a few of them even clapping Harry on the back as he tried to make his way through them to his seat.
Hermione, though, neither laughed nor cheered. She was too surprised by the change in her once rather stoic and calm professor. It shocked her to see him so at ease and so...so funny in front of all these people. She'd never seen this side of him and, she hated to admit it, even to herself, but she liked that side. It was more of a "Ron" side of him that she had never known had been there before. And even as these thoughts made their way through her brain, he turned to her, a bright smile on his face and his eyes brighter than she had ever remembered seeing them before. He sobered soon, though, at the look on her face. He came over to here quickly.
"Are you all right, Hermione?" He took hold of her arm in concern. She looked at him almost without actually seeing him. It almost hurt her to think of the new him. He led her discreetly out into the hall. And, again, asked her if she was all right.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she answered. She had to think up something to say, and fast. "I--I just--I don't think I really want to stay at the meeting tonight. I'd rather just go to bed and catch up on some of the sleep I've been missing. And..." She couldn't think of anything else to say, but he seemed to understand. At least, he understood what she had told him.
He started leading her towards the stairs, taking hold of her by her shoulders. "Right, that's a good idea. Why don't you just go up into Evie's room, I'm sure she's showed you where that is. I'll come up to see you after the meeting. You know, give you sort of a rehashing of all that they say." She started to climb the stairs, but his hand, still on her shoulder, stopped her. She turned around to face him.
"Sleep well, Hermione," he whispered. She smiled faintly to him, searching his eyes for some trace of either the Ron she thought she had seen earlier, or a bit of the Remus that she had thought she knew. But she could see neither, just a bit of sweet concern and very endearing worry. And, without thinking, she leaned forward and lightly touched her lips to his, hardly a fraction of a second.
He stared at her, eyes wide and eyebrows lifted high, causing his brow to wrinkle becomingly. Startled by her own forwardness, she gave him one crooked grin before shooting up the stairs.
Remus turned about, a finger touching his lips as though he didn't quite believe that Hermione had actually done what she had done. Almost dawdling, he made his way back into the kitchen to fulfill his duty to the Order, but he wanted, more than anything at that moment, to just follow her up the stairs and see if she had meant something with that slight kiss.
After he made his way through the kitchen doorway, a lightly stooped figure stepped out of the shadows, bright blue eyes twinkling merrily and a gnarled finger absently toying with a few strands of snow white beard. A broad smile appeared under a crooked nose as the man thought of what he had just seen, but soon disappeared as other more unpleasant thoughts reached him. And, despite his usual tendency to keep quiet about such matters, whispered quietly to himself. "Better that they find each other now, before the storm, than after, when it may have been too late." And with those words, he followed Remus' steps and disappeared through the kitchen doorway and was lost amidst the loud and happy group of people that made up the Order of the Phoenix.
~`~`~`~`~
All right, I know that it's been forever. I seem to be making up a lot of excuses, but I can only get to write every now and then. So, I'll try to get another chapter up soon, but don't be too angry if it takes longer. Well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Finally, a little bit of fluffy stuff, just like you all wanted! Please review and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I'm quite sure that you all know it belongs to J.K. Rowlings and probably always will. And, besides, even if it does ever belong to someone else that someone else ain't never gonna be me.
~`~`~`~`~ Chapter 8: Maddening Questions and Even More Maddening Endings ~`~`~`~`~
"An' this is where we eat dinner, though sometimes we go into the parlor if there's a meeting. An' here's where I sometimes help Auntie if she wants me too and we do lots of fun stuff. An' here is where me an' Daddy just sit and talk, though I do most of the talkin' 'cause he says it's nice when I talk. An' here's where we sleep and where I'm s'posed to go if I'm in trouble or if there's somebody here that I don't know. An' that's it, I think."
And so Hermione found herself going through a whirlwind tour of the house she'd known since her fifth year; though she had to say that this tour was far more fun than her first one all those years ago. Children had a way of making even the most boring of tasks fun and interesting. And the tiny hand gripping hers so tightly wasn't bad, either.
"So, Evie, where am I going to sleep?" She asked the question as lightly as she could, but she could still feel the slight fear of hearing that she was to have the same room as Remus. Even if they were married, she didn't want to have to share a room with him, of all people. She'd rather share with Mundungus Fletcher, if it came to that. Well, maybe not Dung, but just about anyone else. At least she didn't have the awkward situation of being married to anyone else.
"I dunno. Where d'you wanna sleep?"
The girl looked at her curiously, waiting for an answer. Hermione sighed. "It's not important. I'll talk to your daddy about it when he returns." She looked up to the tall hall clock, trying to guess how long it had been since he'd left and how long it would take him to return.
She turned back to her new stepdaughter with a forced smile. "What say you and me head down to the kitchen and ask Auntie for a bit of ice cream?"
The girl hopped up with a loud "Yippee!" and grabbed Hermione by the hand, pulling her down the stairs to the dark kitchen at the bottom of Black Manor. Despite the fact that her arm ached from the pull, she marveled at the strength the child had. Being the daughter of a werewolf apparently meant that they inherited a bit of that infamous strength that Hermione was quite familiar to.
In the kitchen, as though Molly had known they were coming, two large bowls of ice cream lay in wait on the heavy table, all ready to be eaten. The elder woman smiled at them as they came in at full speed. Hermione took her place beside Evie and watched in fascination as the child began to eat the treat as though she had never tasted it before. Molly sat beside her and joined in the watching.
After a few seconds, she said, "The girl's got an appetite on her, hasn't she?"
Hermione smiled, feeling the muscles in her cheeks tighten. "Yes. Is this something else she gets from Tonks?"
Molly laughed heartily. "Oh, heavens, no! Have you ever seen Tonks eat? Like a bird, that one. This she gets from Remus. I'm sure that if they were called to, they could eat an elephant and still be hungry for more."
"Yes, but it certainly is entertaining to watch her eat. I've never really been so close to so small a child before."
"No?" Hermione shook her head slowly. "Then you're missing out, my dear. They're the sweetest, and the most devilish, things to ever walk the planet. She may seem the angel now, but just wait. Pretty soon she'll be throwing one of her famous tantrums. Especially when she hears about the M- E-E-T-I-N-G tonight."
Hermione turned to look questioningly at the woman beside her. "The meeting? Why will that bother her?"
Just then, as though someone had found the 'STOP' button on her, Evie quit eating and turned in horror to her Auntie. "Meeting? There's a meeting?"
Molly sighed. "Now you've done it," she muttered to Hermione. "Yes, dear, there's a meeting tonight."
Evie took a drastic turn for the worst and began to cry. And not just a simple bit of whimpering, but sobs that echoed around the room and quickly turned into screams in which tears had no part in. Hermione covered her ears in shock, glancing quickly from Molly to Evie and back to Molly.
"What's the matter?!" she cried over the din. "Why's she doing that?"
"She doesn't like the meetings," Molly answered as she stood and picked up the crying child, holding Evie's face to her shoulder and muffling the sound somewhat. "It means that she has to stay in her room and she won't get to play with her father. It's the highlight of her day, going into that little room and playing some silly game or other with Remus. He's not around all that often, you know."
"Oh. I hadn't known. I thought he spent a lot of time with her."
Molly rubbed the girl's back soothingly, shushing her all the while. "It seems that way, doesn't it? From the way they dote on one another you'd think that they were hardly ever apart. But he's so busy with business for the Order all the time that he hardly gets to come here even to sleep. So when he gets to come, they spend all their time together."
Evie squirmed in Molly's arms for a bit before she was finally set down. She looked about at the two women's faces through red eyes set in a wet red face before shooting out of the kitchen like a rocket. Hermione stared at the door in surprise for a second before turning to Molly.
"She's quite prone to mood swings, isn't she? If I didn't know better, I'd say it was PMS."
Molly looked at her in disbelief for a moment before bursting out laughing. "If only it were so simple. I could give her a potion and send her up to bed for an hour or two. But she's just a bit of a spitfire on her own. Just imagine what it will be like when she is PMSing." They both shuddered dramatically and laughed.
After a moment of companionable silence, Hermione asked, "What is the meeting about anyway, Molly?"
The plump lady waved her hand dismissingly. "Something to do with the Minister. Apparently they think he might be behind some of the recent Death Eater revivals. Fat lot of good it'll do them even if he is. He's guarded so well that even his own mother, were she alive, couldn't even get close enough to actually give him a hug. They have a better chance of seeing a snowstorm in August than getting the chance to do something about Malfoy."
Just the name of the slimy man made the hairs on the back of Hermione's neck stand on end. All she could think of was that if it hadn't been for him she could be living a much less stress-filled life. And she wouldn't have to be married if she didn't want to be. Damn the man.
"When does the meeting start?"
Molly glanced at the small clock on the mantle to the kitchen fireplace and shot out of her seat after reading the time. "Would you look at that! See how late it is already! It's nearly five! They should be arriving in an hour's time and I still have to make supper enough for the lot of them! Oh my goodness! I must..." She trailed off as she bustled about the kitchen, starting the oven and readying the pots and pans. Hermione quietly snuck out before she could be stopped and suckered into helping.
She stood outside the door and leaned against the wall. It felt so good to be with Molly again, and yet it was so much more painful. Molly had the best shoulder to cry on and the most soothing voice, but she reminded her far too much of Ron. Everything from the red hair to the almost smothering feeling one would get from the hugs. She took in a shuddering breath as she remembered when she and Ron had come over to Grimmauld Place right after getting married and how they had both flushed as red as tomatoes when they told everyone. How ecstatic all the Weasleys and Harry were, how shocked Remus and Tonks had been, how pleased they made Dumbledore, and how much they disgusted poor old Professor Snape. And with Molly so close all she could think about was that day.
Standing straight, she turned and started for the main staircase to the upstairs parlor. Before she made it to the steps, a small hand reached out from what seemed like nowhere and grabbed her ankle. She squeaked in surprise and stared at the hand and its little grubby fingers.
"Evie?" she asked as she leant down and looked under the staircase. "Is that you down there?"
"Yah-huh," a small voice said. Hermione knelt down obligingly to speak to the girl and detach the child's hand from her leg.
"What are you doing down there, Evie? Isn't it awfully dark?"
The fingers let go from her before she'd even had a chance to try and pry them off. A small disheveled figure crawled out and stood before her, a frank and rather curious look set on her features. "It's dark, yeah, but I was thinkin'...How come you're my new mummy? Why did my daddy marry you, huh?"
For a moment, Hermione was taken aback by the suddenness of the question. Then she was amazed by the swift change of mood that had taken Evie. "Why- why do you want to know?"
The little girl's expression did not change, she was just as determined to be answered now as she had been before. "I just wanna know, is all."
Hermione mumbled and fumbled for the right words to tell her, but she couldn't summon them. She continued to stammer before a thought struck her brain. She smiled slowly and told her the most maddening thing that a child could hear from a mother. "Ask your father." And, just as Hermione had predicted, the child's face turned grim almost immediately. Her eyes narrowed and her lips set in a thin, nearly invisible, line.
"You're not very nice," was all she had to say before she took off in the opposite direction, probably searching for someone who might have a better answer to her inquiry.
While Hermione was glad to be rid of Evie's prying question, the outburst about being "not very nice" struck her somewhere and she felt absolutely awful for using the mother's secret weapon for avoiding questions that could lead into sticky situations. She didn't have much time to dwell on it, however, for just then, the front door opened with a resounding slam and the every annoying portrait of Mrs. Black resumed her tirade of "filth" and "Mudbloods". Hermione turned about quickly and watched as the tall and rather lanky form of Professor Snape made his way languidly inside the building, not bothering to close the door behind him. She stared for a moment at him, her mouth open in surprise. Then she was distracted once more by the presence of numerous members of the Order making their way through the doors: Mundungus Fletcher, Percy and Fred Weasley, some young and pretty Auror called Catalyn, a shopkeeper by the name of Tzeitel, Professor McGonagall, a waiter she'd heard referred to as Hal Rosser, and many others she'd seen a few times, but did not know by name. As Snape passed her, she was delighted to see a bruise residing high on his cheekbone from where she had slapped him the previous night. He sneered at her smile and self-consciously touched the unseemly blemish. After they had all gone by, each stopping with their own words of sympathy and condolences to say, she followed them into the kitchen.
A bustling Molly greeted them; though Hermione could tell from the lines around her taught mouth that she wasn't the least happy to see them there any earlier than she had anticipated. The rowdy younger members laughed and joked around, some sitting and some leaning against the monstrous fireplace, and the elder members, including Percy and Fred, sat grimly together, none of them smiling or even hardly speaking to one another. Hermione, on the other hand, stood uncertainly beside a wall, not quite sure whether she ought to join the happy younger set or the older melancholy one. She was, however, not called upon to make a decision, for Harry and Hannah walked in, flushed and red, with a smiling Remus coming in behind them. The crowd turned to them with a burst of approval and congratulations to the newlyweds.
"And you'll never guess where I found them!" Remus called above the din. A resounding cry followed his words. "Down a side alley in Hogsmeade in a rather...compromising...position," he said rather delicately, a bright twinkle in his eye. But the group would not be satisfied with so polite an answer.
"Aw, come on, Remus! You gotta give a bit more than that!" one strapping young fellow with shaggy blond hair and a broad chest cried from where he stood with his arm around an equally good-looking girl with long black curls and a practically perfect hourglass figure.
"Yeah!" another cried, a lock of green-dyed hair falling in front of his almond-shaped eyes. "We want the dirt!"
A cheer and a laugh rose from this announcement. Remus raised his hands high. "All right, all right! You've torn it from me." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "I found our lovely young Hannah here nearly robbed of that pretty little blouse she's wearing. Why don't you show it to us, Hannah, dear. It really is pretty." A flushing Hannah hid behind her husband in embarrassment. The Order members laughed good-naturedly. "And Harry here, being the regular little 'love bug' that he is, was only too happy to be the one robbing her of it!" The group laughed once more, a few of them even clapping Harry on the back as he tried to make his way through them to his seat.
Hermione, though, neither laughed nor cheered. She was too surprised by the change in her once rather stoic and calm professor. It shocked her to see him so at ease and so...so funny in front of all these people. She'd never seen this side of him and, she hated to admit it, even to herself, but she liked that side. It was more of a "Ron" side of him that she had never known had been there before. And even as these thoughts made their way through her brain, he turned to her, a bright smile on his face and his eyes brighter than she had ever remembered seeing them before. He sobered soon, though, at the look on her face. He came over to here quickly.
"Are you all right, Hermione?" He took hold of her arm in concern. She looked at him almost without actually seeing him. It almost hurt her to think of the new him. He led her discreetly out into the hall. And, again, asked her if she was all right.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she answered. She had to think up something to say, and fast. "I--I just--I don't think I really want to stay at the meeting tonight. I'd rather just go to bed and catch up on some of the sleep I've been missing. And..." She couldn't think of anything else to say, but he seemed to understand. At least, he understood what she had told him.
He started leading her towards the stairs, taking hold of her by her shoulders. "Right, that's a good idea. Why don't you just go up into Evie's room, I'm sure she's showed you where that is. I'll come up to see you after the meeting. You know, give you sort of a rehashing of all that they say." She started to climb the stairs, but his hand, still on her shoulder, stopped her. She turned around to face him.
"Sleep well, Hermione," he whispered. She smiled faintly to him, searching his eyes for some trace of either the Ron she thought she had seen earlier, or a bit of the Remus that she had thought she knew. But she could see neither, just a bit of sweet concern and very endearing worry. And, without thinking, she leaned forward and lightly touched her lips to his, hardly a fraction of a second.
He stared at her, eyes wide and eyebrows lifted high, causing his brow to wrinkle becomingly. Startled by her own forwardness, she gave him one crooked grin before shooting up the stairs.
Remus turned about, a finger touching his lips as though he didn't quite believe that Hermione had actually done what she had done. Almost dawdling, he made his way back into the kitchen to fulfill his duty to the Order, but he wanted, more than anything at that moment, to just follow her up the stairs and see if she had meant something with that slight kiss.
After he made his way through the kitchen doorway, a lightly stooped figure stepped out of the shadows, bright blue eyes twinkling merrily and a gnarled finger absently toying with a few strands of snow white beard. A broad smile appeared under a crooked nose as the man thought of what he had just seen, but soon disappeared as other more unpleasant thoughts reached him. And, despite his usual tendency to keep quiet about such matters, whispered quietly to himself. "Better that they find each other now, before the storm, than after, when it may have been too late." And with those words, he followed Remus' steps and disappeared through the kitchen doorway and was lost amidst the loud and happy group of people that made up the Order of the Phoenix.
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All right, I know that it's been forever. I seem to be making up a lot of excuses, but I can only get to write every now and then. So, I'll try to get another chapter up soon, but don't be too angry if it takes longer. Well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Finally, a little bit of fluffy stuff, just like you all wanted! Please review and tell me what you think.