"Rucker with the Snitch! Gryffindor wins!" The roar of the students was deafening. Hermione couldn't remember ever being this excited for a Cup before but as she watched her friends gather in the middle of the pitch arms around each other while she was being hugged in the stands from all sides, she knew that she was doing the right thing. She was in the right time. Peter had his arm slung over her shoulder and she hugged him tight, reminding herself that she was going to save the kind, thoughtful boy next to her and never think about the traitorous rat the killed his friends again. In this timeline, he doesn't exist.

In this timeline, she was the difference.

Instead of the boy who lived, there was the girl who arrived.

"Hermione! Come on!" Alice was all but dragging her, Lily, and Peter down towards the pitch. It was a mad scramble but Hermione made it, feeling like it was déjà vu. There were so many people that it was almost impossible to get to the team.

Lily, for a reason unknown to Merlin himself, had her arms around James who looked like he just took a bludger to the head. Hermione grinned, hoping for the start of something beautiful there and then felt two arms around her middle and a head on her shoulder. She grabbed onto his hands and leaned back into him. Maybe she hadn't crossed the line too far.

"Hey champ," she said cheekily. He laughed next to her ear sending all sorts of hormones all sorts of places. It was just a few days before the moon so he was extra antsy and his voice was extra deep.

"Hi honey." It honestly could have just been the two of them and Hermione wouldn't have noticed.

Give him a shot.

Loving him isn't going to make it any harder.

That's what the girls had said right? They already had a Horcrux. She knew where another one was. Pete was on the right track. Would it be so bad so allow herself this one thing?

She turned in Remus' arms and slid her own around his neck. He put his forehead against hers. Her heart was absolutely pounding in her chest and when she licked her lips, his eyes followed the movement.

"Can you hear my heart beat?" she asked him in a quiet voice that shouldn't have been able to be heard over the crowd. His eyes never left her mouth.

"I always could." His fingers tightened in the sides of her shirt. She knew that it would be so easy to just lean forward and finally learn what it would feel like to have his lips on hers.

Remus had other ideas.

"Come with me." He pulled away from her suddenly. Hermione immediately missed his warmth but felt him slide his hand into hers. "Prongs! Put this away!" He threw his broom at James who caught it with a grin and they took off almost running towards the castle.

It was still pretty empty when they made it to the entrance hall. Hermione didn't know what he was looking for. All she did know was that if he didn't stop somewhere soon, she was going to have to take matters into her own hands. They went up a few flights of stairs until Remus was apparently satisfied and pulled her into an empty classroom.

Once Hermione was through, he let go of her hand and closed the door. She just watched him, waiting to see what it was that he needed to get out. He pulled his robe off, leaving him in just his jersey and pants. She wanted to reach out and touch him so badly.

Now that she was going to allow herself this, she wanted it now.

"Remus-"

"Wait, listen Hermione," he started, running a hand through his blonde hair and looking like James for a second. Hermione let out the breath that she didn't know she was holding. It seemed that he didn't know what to say. His blue eyes were in between light and dark now, but he was at war with himself this time.

"Remus," she said again.

"No, let me get this all out." Her eyebrows went up but she was quiet as he paced. The classroom, though empty, could have been filled with a million people and she still would only have had eyes for him. "I know that this world is a mess right now, I know that I'm a mess. You know the worst part of me and yet you are here right now. I don't understand it but I know that I'm better with you. You make me better. You make me think that maybe after this whole thing is over there could be more for someone like me, more for us. I know that I am hotheaded and a wreck and emotional but I'll give you whatever part of me that you want and-"

Hermione grabbed his hand, stopping him in front of her and kissed him because really what else was there to do?

How long had she wanted to do it? Since she saw him. Since his voice brought her some part of home. Since he smiled at her like he always had.

Her hands wrapped around him to cradle the sides of his face, thumbs on his scarred and beautiful cheeks while she drank him in. His arms grabbed onto her like she was the only thing keeping him on the ground, lips tentative and sweet like he couldn't really believe that she was kissing him. It was her forcefulness that made him pull her to him harder and kiss her deeper, like she would disappear from his grasp.

She gasped a little when he backed her up against a desk and picked her up to sit on it. Their height difference was such that he was bending down to the point where it should have been painful. He would have gone on his knees for her if she asked him to, would have walked on water if she wanted, he would have done anything. His hands moved from her back to her neck, one hand fisting in her curls. She sighed in contentment against him and ran her hands down his chest, fingers catching on the buttons of his white dress shirt. It would be so easy to undo them-

"Oh!" The door suddenly opened and Remus and Hermione separated, Remus letting his head fall into the space between her neck and shoulder. Hermione sent a glare at the fifth year Hufflepuff prefect who interrupted them. The girl, Tess she thought, looked like she was going to say something but realized that Remus was the one Hermione was currently kissing and she backed away slowly, shutting the door.

He didn't move and Hermione put a hand to the back of his neck, rubbing at the knot there. His head turned so she could get at the most tension and he let his fingers play with the fabric at her hips. She let out a sigh but it wasn't unhappy.

"We should get back upstairs," she whispered. He didn't move but raised his eyes to look at her. She almost lost her resolve. He was beautiful.

"Do we have to?" his smile was sweet and just for her. She pushed his hair back out of his eyes.

"They'll all be looking for us soon," she told him. He nodded, pretending he was listening when really he was just staring at her mouth, already puffy and swollen from his own, waiting for the opportunity to kiss her again. So, he did. He kissed her sweetly, like they had all the time in the world. Hermione pulled herself up off the desk so she could line their bodies up, fit them together like some sort of broken and pretty puzzle.

It could have been three full moons later before they finally got back up to the common room. They didn't know and didn't really care but this time when they went through the portrait hole, Hermione didn't let go of Remus' hand. In fact, she wound herself into his arm, tucked against his side.

"Do mine eyes deceive me?" Sirius asked dramatically, putting his hand over his eyes like he was shielding the sun. "Prongsie, Wormtail! Come here! Dost thou see what I see?"

He was obviously already drunk.

"Looks like our boy Moony here won more than once tonight!" James slurred.

Yes, they were all drunk.

"You're all idiots," Hermione told them but nonetheless kissed Remus on the cheek before going to sit by the girls. Even Lily was drinking this time. Remus was pulled towards an impressive collection of alcohol by his friends.

"Well!" Alice demanded as soon as Hermione sat down and was handed a butterbeer. "Spill!" Hermione was as red as her shirt.

"I don't-"

"Don't you dare deprive us of this, Granger. We have ALL wondered what getting a piece of that is like, now paint us a picture!" Marlene, ever the poet. Hermione smiled, eyes sliding over to Remus who was laughing at something Peter said. He must have heard what Marlene said because he met her eyes with a grin and a wink.

"Oh Merlin," Hermione said, putting her head in her hands.

"Is his body as hard as it looks?"

"Is he as good of a kisser as I imagine? I feel like he is."

"What color do his eyes turn when he's turned on?"

"Oh my God!" Hermione said laughing with her hands up. She took a drink of her butterbeer. "How do you even know that he kissed me or that I would tell you about it?" The looks on their faces said that she would regardless.

"Well you better figure something out," Lily said, raising her drink in the boys' direction. They were on their way over. Sirius picked Marlene up and put her in his lap. Alice snuggled into Frank and James sat at Lily's feet. It was only Remus left and he scooted Hermione over to make room for himself.

"What are you ladies talking about?" he asked, smirking as if he didn't already know.

"How you and Hermione just got done snogging in a broom cupboard somewhere," Marlene told him. Hermione looked scandalized.

"I said no such thing!"

"You forgot already!" Remus admonished, pretending to look offended.

"One, it was an empty classroom." There were cheers all around. "And two, maybe I was choosing to forget," she said cheekily.

"Then allow me to remind you."