Meanwhile, Remus had retreated into his own room and closed the door. Ever since he'd stepped from Hermione's room, he'd been having a mental argument with Moony.
"Why won't you give in? We want her, she wants us! It's perfect!" Moony urged.
"And doom her to what life tied to a werewolf would be? She's young, plenty of time for her to find someone else." Remus argued.
"Then talk to her! Ask her! Give her the chance to make that choice! She's smart enough to understand!"
Remus sighed. "Fine! I'll talk to her later. But no more interference from you!"
With that, Remus finally had some mental peace as he finished his hot chocolate and laid back on his bed in thought on how to approach Hermione in a way that wouldn't seem like he was insulting her intelligence.
It was a couple of hours later while they dined on pasta in the kitchen before either of them tried to break the silence.
"Remus?" Hermione started. "About earlier…."
"I'm sorry if I made you feel pressured or rather if Moony did." Remus started.
"You didn't." She reassured. "Though I don't think I've seen Moony come out like that before."
"Moony rarely makes an appearance like that." He pointed out. "Not counting my mood swings close to the full moon of course." Remus spoke wryly. "But then..this is an unusual situation."
"If staying here with me is making you uncomfortable….we can get your wand and you can go on home." She murmured while looking down at her plate.
"And here I was about to offer to go home if I was making you uncomfortable. There's a particular reason why Moony is making appearances." He frowned and reached over to gently cup her chin and tilt her face to look at him. "It's a very big reason. And I'll understand if you're against it and never want me around again once you know."
"Tell me what it is Remus." Hermione looked at him with her eyes ready to take in new knowledge. "Whatever it is, I doubt it'll make me push you away."
Remus took a deep breath and nodded. "You remember the essay Severus assigned your class in your third year?"
"The one that was his way of trying to expose that you're a werewolf out of spite?" Hermione questioned. "I still remember it. Added every bit of information on werewolves that I could find."
Remus chuckled. "That very one. So then you know that werewolves usually have a predestined mate? Though not all are lucky to find their mate no thanks to all those laws the ministry had in place."
Hermione nodded. "The werewolf wouldn't officially find its mate until the mate was of age and in constant close contact with…." Her eyes widened with realization. "Me? I'm….your mate, aren't I?" She blushed.
Remus nodded, glad that Hermione would never seem to change with how easily she could come to the final conclusions with just the right push. "I won't push you if you don't want to." He moved his hand from her face to grab one of hers gently. He then looked away himself. "I would understand if you wouldn't want to be tied to me for life. I'm old enough to be your father and a…"
"Don't you start with that talk Remus John Lupin!" Hermione had stood up, walked around and moved to where she could look him in the eyes. "You are not a monster. And it's not your fault you haven't had a job. It's that...pink toad's fault! I've accepted you in whole years ago. It wasn't just because of Harry that I tricked Umbridge to where Grawp was in the forbidden forest." The brunette smirked.
Remus looked at her in shock after her confession that she'd partly been thinking of him when she tricked Umbridge into the forest. "But...but why?"
"Because. You were obvious proof that not all werewolves were dangerous creatures that wanted nothing more than to hurt others." Hermione's expression softened. "Granted I didn't know of any others outside of you and Greyback but I just knew that there had to be more like you than of those like him. There is of course the bonus that you were the best defense against the dark arts professor we'd had. Harry is a close second. But the way Harry taught in the D.A. that year...was reminiscent of you." She shrugged. "Anyway, between the fact she'd put such restrictions in place that made things hard for you and what she'd done to Harry...well, I'd had more than enough of her. Couldn't let her get away with causing pain to what's mine..." She broke off and looked away
Remus raised an eyebrow at her final statement. "What's yours? Care to elaborate?"
"Well...Harry was like and still is like a brother to me. As for you...well...you were my favorite professor and also...my crush." She blushed deeply.
"Is that so?" He gently cupped her face and turned her to face him. "How long?" He gently nipped her lower lip.
She whimpered at the sensation. "Since..the beginning of third year."
Remus tugged at her lip again before burying his nose against her neck. "Tell me Hermione...is there an alternate reason as to why it was so hard for you to stop calling me 'Professor' after your third year?" He gently pressed teasing kisses to her neck.