After the shock of her parents' acceptance sank in, she headed over to Remus's quarters. Hermione wanted to share the good news with him, plus, ask him how he felt about dinner with her parents one night, preferably some night soon.
She walked in quietly and looked around. His room as messy as ever. His bed unmade, various clothing scattered about the floor. She just shook her head and started picking up. After all, if he planned on being a good father, he needed to learn that he would have to set a good example. Hermione just wanted to give him a push in that direction.
After a brief time spent tidying up, she sat at the foot of his bed and looked around. Even though she had just spent a good half hour cleaning up, it was just now dawning on her that Remus wasn't even in his room. Hermione blushed slightly at the thought of how oblivious she had been to the fact that the room was empty and all she had thought about was cleaning the place up. So, she got up off his bed and headed out to go find him, going towards his classroom and office first, perhaps he was doing some work in there.
She politely knocked on the door first. Not hearing a reply Hermione walked in and looked around. "Remus? Remus are you in here?" she called out as she glanced around the classroom for him. She got no reply, so she headed back to his office.
Once again, she politely knocked on the door. "Remus?" she called out again, putting her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything. Hermione was growing slightly concerned on where he could be, so she opened the door and walked into his office. She sighed as she found another empty room.
Hermione desperately wanted to know where Remus was. After all, she had wonderful news to tell him. Why was it that she could always find him when she had bad news, or something she was hesitant to tell him, but when she had good news he was nowhere to be found.
She casually walked over to his desk, running her hand over the wood before sitting down in his seat, sighing ever so slightly. "Remus, where are you?" she whispered to herself, wishing he could hear her and answer her.
Hermione was growing bored, so she began looking around through some of Remus's things, knowing he wouldn't mind, and if he did, well, too bad for him. She opened the top right hand drawer of his desk. In it was nothing more than quills, ink, parchment, and of course his other necessity, a small assortment of chocolates from Honeydukes. She smiled inwardly as she helped herself one, definitely knowing he would not object to her taking one seeing as he was always offering them up to her.
She went on to the drawer below it and looked inside. This drawers was rather large and filled with files for his different classes. There were three for each class, one for to be graded assignments, one for assignments that needed to be returned, and a third with lesson plans, in case he needed a sub.
Still not finding anything of true interest, she closed that drawer and decided to just leave it at that. Seeing as he wasn't coming into his office anytime soon, Hermione got up and decided to head out and continue her search for Remus.
She was out walking around the halls, looking around when she literally ran into someone. Hermione fell down on the cold stone floor.
"Miss Granger, do watch where you're going," a cool voice spoke to her. She looked up and saw Snape sneering over her.
"Perhaps you should also watch where you are going Professor," Hermione said icily back as she got up, brushing the dust off of her robes.
Snape just sneered at her comment, moving on from their unpleasant exchange. "Now, where would someone like yourself be going on a Saturday? I understand you're unrelenting bookworm, but honestly, don't you ever take a day off Granger?" he asked as he crossed his arms.
"Actually, I need to talk to Professor Lupin about some class work. I was working on a paper and I wanted to clear some things up with him," Hermione said to him. "Have you seen him?"
"No, I'm sorry. I have not seen Lupin all day," Snape said, as if trying detect if that was the real reason for her looking for him.
"Well, then I'll be on my way," Hermione said brushing herself off. "So excuse me Professor," she said walking past him. Snape just watched her as she continued down the hall. Yes, something was definitely up.
Hermione ignored Snape and continued on her way. She really needed to find Remus. She really needed to tell him what her mother had to say. After all, they both needed a good dose of good news after all of her little emotional break downs she had since she found out about her pregnancy. And her parents giving the ok was definitely good news.
She headed into the Great Hall and found a couple of professors, but not Remus. Hermione let out a slight sigh. Where on earth could he be? He was not in his quarters, not in his office, not in his classroom, and now, now in the Great Hall. Where was he? Hermione headed over to the staff table and decided to ask McGonagall on the subject.
"Can I help you Miss Granger," McGonagall asked her, wondering about why Hermione was approaching the staff table.
"I was looking for Professor Lupin, Professor. I needed his help on an assignment in his class. Just a little verification on something." Hermione said to her.
"Oh, well, I do believe he was having lunch with Professor Dumbledore," McGonagall said to her. "So, if you would like to check there, that might be a good place to check. If he's not there, I would check his office again," she said.
"Thank you Professor," Hermione said with a nod before heading off to Dumbledore's office. The door was open, so she headed inside, hearing Remus and Dumbledore talking. She tried not to eavesdrop, but she couldn't help herself.
"Remus, you do know there is a risk involved correct?" Dumbledore asked him.
Remus nodded his head. "Yes, I'm aware. But, it's too late to do anything now," he said with a another nod. "I just wanted to know if there's any treatment of some kind."
Hermione's face was puzzled and worried. She was concerned about Remus. After all, with her expecting she didn't want him doing anything risky. That would be all she needed was for him to get killed and leave her with the baby on her own.
Dumbledore nodded as well. "Remus, I'm not sure if there is," he added with a slight sigh. "I can check for you if you would like."
"I would much appreciate that," Remus said to him. "I know Hermione would too. I still haven't talked to her about this. I'm still a little worried how she might react and I do not want her stressed out right now. She has enough on her mind."
Dumbledore nodded. "That worries me as well Remus. Do you realize if word gets out, you will be fired?"
Remus nodded. "I am, but that's not the bulk of my concerns right now."
Hermione sighed slightly. She was definitely worried, but Remus was never going to tell her while she was pregnant. So, she figured it was now or never.
"Talk to me about what?" Hermione spoke up, revealing her presence to the two men who had been sitting and talking. Remus looked right at her as he stood up and went over to her.
"Mione? What are you doing here?" he asked her as he took her hands.
"I needed to talk to you, but it seems you're busy right now," she said looking over at Dumbledore, worry filled her eyes still wondering what sort of thing Remus had just agreed to do.
"Actually, you can stay for our talk. I wanted to ask Dumbledore some things about, well, the baby," Remus said to her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know if you wanted me saying anything, but something came to mind last night when Snape brought me my potion, and I needed some advice."
"Oh, it's ok," Hermione said hugging Remus, instantly feeling better knowing that's what they were talking about. "But," she said pulling back. "Why are you talking about the baby?" she asked, putting a hand on her stomach.
"Hermione, you must remember, I'm a werewolf. What if the baby is too because of me? I don't want that to happen," Remus said holding her hands.
Hermione looked down for a moment. She hadn't thought about that. She took a deep breath and looked back up at him. "Well, what can we do about it?"
"I don't know," Remus said shaking his head. "That's why I was asking Dumbledore."
"I plan on asking some experts on the subject on your behalf, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said to them. "I promise I will try to help anyway possible. And trust me, I won't bring you into the conversation specifically."
Hermione smiled some. "Thank you Professor. I really appreciate that."
Remus smiled back at her. "Now, Mione, what was it you wanted to tell me?" he asked her, hoping it wasn't something else bad.
"Oh!" Hermione said, as if suddenly remembering. "I came to tell you that I got a letter back from my parents," she said to him, still smiling. "Guess what, they're ok with it. They sent us their congratulations. Plus, they want to have you over for dinner some night."
"That's wonderful news!" Remus said hugging her. "I know how worried you are about that. I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I would feel horrible if your parents had objected."
"I would too," Hermione said nodding. "I'm feeling better about having this baby everyday. I would be crushed if my own parents didn't approve of us having him or her."
Remus smiled and brushed some hair out of her face, then turned to Dumbledore. "Well, if you don't mind I think I'm going to leave a little early from our lunch."
Dumbledore smiled and gave a small nod. "That is perfectly fine Remus. Go and celebrate the good news."
Remus smiled and took Hermione's hand as he led her out. Today was looking like a very good day.
a/n: A big thank you goes out to all-hail-toasty-goodness and Lightfoot531 for keeping me going. Please people, let's get more than two reviews. I really want to know what you think about what's going on. -Laura
