AN: Hey guys, I meant to update sooner but I just had surgery two days ago and I haven't really been feeling up to it. Anyways, today was a good day and so I got lots of writing done. I hope you all enjoy!

December 15th—The Second Day of Christmas

Hermione woke up the next morning to the scent of bacon, and was delighted to find that Remus had made some extra for her. The only bummer was that Remus was nowhere in sight. He had plated some scrambled eggs and bacon for her and set it neatly on the table next to a note explaining that he would be out with Sirius for the day.

Yes, Hermione definitely needed to treat this man to a nice, expensive meal. He was sharing his food with her, even though his budget was likely already tight from unemployment. That realization gave Hermione an idea. She should go out and buy some groceries for him. It was only fair.

She took stock of the remaining food in the kitchen—which wasn't really a lot—then made a trip to the muggle market to refill those empty cupboards. She didn't know Remus very well, but she knew that he enjoyed cooking his own food, and so she got all the cooking essentials: milk, eggs, vegetables, ground beef, chicken, cheese, etc.

On her way to the checkout, Hermione made a last minute decision to throw a box of assorted chocolates in the cart. Though she didn't know much about Remus, she knew from her third year at Hogwarts that he carried chocolate with him everywhere he went, and she somehow doubted it was simply in case he happened to run into an angry dementor.

She payed and stepped into a deserted alley so she could shrink the groceries and pocket them away from muggle eyes. She returned the cart and apparated back to Grimmauld Place. Back home.

Hermione spent the afternoon unpacking the groceries and tidying up the house. Because the house wasn't a permanent settlement, some of the more simple chores like dusting and washing the windows were never actually done. There was a thick layer of dust on every surface, cobwebs in corners, dust bunnies under the sofa, grime in the corners of the windows, and many other disgusting things that probably hadn't been properly cleaned since the summer before Hermione's fifth year when she, Harry, and the younger half of the Weasley children slaved away for weeks under Molly's orders.

Luckily, most of the work wasn't too hard. She was allowed to use magic to clean this time, unlike when she was fifteen, so she didn't have to get her hands too dirty. And if she didn't have the proper spell or supplies for a task, she could easily transfigure something into what she needed. Thank Merlin for magic!

While she was dusting, she found an old, broken-down record player in the corner of a sitting room. On a shelf next to it, Hermione found a small collection old records that could only have belonged to Sirius. She was delighted to find that Sirius had amazing taste in music, and that she recognized many of the albums. She finally decided upon Black Sabbath's album Paranoid, and with a quick reparo, she began to rock out while cleaning the main floor.

The music was so loud that she didn't hear when Remus returned to the house at about 4:00. He was totally bewildered as to why the song Hand of Doom was blaring, but he had to quickly suppress his laughter when a crazy-looking Hermione clumsily headbanged her way into the entranceway, dancing crazily and singing—well, more like screeching—all the words of Hand Of Doom. Remus found it all quite charming, actually.

Her back was to him, so she still hadn't noticed him yet. Before Remus even noticed what he was doing, his eyes wandered to her bottom, which was swaying to the beat. She had a really nice arse, and the jeans she was wearing made it look so enticing…NO! Remus wanted to slap himself. He felt like such a pervert, staring at the arse of a girl half his age. He was disgusted by himself, and decided it would be best for him to make his presence known before she caught him staring at her behind.

"Not even in my wildest dreams would I ever have imagined Hermione Granger as being a heavy metal fan…I guess you never really know a person until you live with them," Remus laughed, trying not to look guilty.

Hermione had jumped over a foot in the air when she heard someone behind her speak, and was actually panting from the intensity of the scare.

"Remus Lupin, you arse! You scared the magic out of me!" she screeched, then pinned him with a withering look. "You were very nearly on the receiving end of a reflex hex, you know that?" She saw something flicker in Remus' eyes when she said the word 'arse', though it was gone before she could identify what it was. She brushed it off, deeming it insignificant.

"Hmmm…easily scared as well. I should make a list of the things I am learning about you. It's getting hard to keep up," Remus teased.

Hermione narrowed her eyes menacingly and stuck her tongue out in a childish manner. Remus laughed and turned to take off his coat. Hermione didn't realize that she was staring at Remus' back muscles through his thin shirt until she started wondering what they would look like without the fabric covering them. This made her eyes widen, and she had the urge to slap herself.

"So what have you been up to all day? Don't tell me you spent the entire day ransacking Sirius' old metal records" he said, turning back around to face her.

"Of course not! I also did some groceries and cleaned the house."

Remus' head snapped up. "Hermione, I won't have you treating me like some charity case. I'll have you know that—"

"I'm not, you silly man," Hermione interrupted with a smile, "I just wanted to put in my share. You've fed me my dinner last night and breakfast this morning—which was positively delectable, by the way—and so it was my turn to provide you with some food."

Remus' mouth quirked in a crooked smirk. "Hermione, I really need to teach you to have some fun."

"What?" she asked, taken aback by the quick change of subject.

"The stick in your arse is so big that it's probably drilling a hole in your intestines. I need to teach you to have some fun that doesn't involve work or reading."

"Pffft! You teach me to have fun? As if! Your idea of fun probably consists of a sock hop and a drive in diner, old man."

"Ha ha, you're absolutely hilarious. 'Old man'…comedy gold," Remus drawled while rolling his eyes, "but as a matter of fact, it would not consist of those things. I may seem old, but you should remember that I'm a Marauder. I have more fun in my big toe than you have in your entire body."

"Oh alright, I'll amend my last statement then. A Marauder's idea of fun probably involves booby-trapping a Slytherin's house and blowing up a watermelon," Hermione retorted with a quirked eyebrow. She wasn't usually this sassy with anyone, but Remus brought out her sense of humour. He understood it, too, unlike most people.

"Blowing up a watermelon? I've never done that, but it sounds like fun! Let's go get Padfoot and we can try it!" Remus said while turning to the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Hermione cried, grabbing his wrist before it could reach the door. Something shifted in the atmosphere, albeit only slightly, when her fingers wrapped around his wrist. She had always read in books that the air would become thicker in a moment like this, and she had never really experienced that until now. The air felt too thick to pass through her airway, which caused her breaths to become shallow and her heart rate to pick up slightly.

Remus had stopped in his tracks, his fingers wrapped around the doorknob like Hermione's were around his wrist. Her fingers were colder than he would have expected from such a warm and happy girl. He had the urge to take her hands in his to warm them up. He wanted to warm her up…DAMNIT, LUPIN! GET IT TOGETHER!

And yet, he couldn't help but tentatively peek down to where her hand met his wrist. Something about it struck him as so right. Guilt quickly accompanied that sentiment. This shouldn't feel right at all! Hermione was only twenty-one, and he was already thirty-nine years old. Eighteen years older. Positively disgusting. And he was a werewolf on top of that. He wouldn't allow himself to feel these feelings for a girl who deserved ten times better than him.

After what felt like minutes, though was probably not even more than a few seconds, Hermione released his wrist. All the humour had left both of them, and now they simply stood face-to-face, looking into each other's eyes, just as they had done the night before.

"Can I take you to dinner tonight?" Hermione blurted before she could stop herself. Her stomach dropped as though she had just done a loop-de-loop on a rollercoaster. Why the hell did she have to say it like that? It sounded as though she was asking him on a date. "It's my turn to make you a meal, but seeing as I can't cook I thought I could take you to a restaurant. I know this really nice one not too far from here…" she started babbling, trying to save face.

"Alright," Remus said simply, "what time should we leave?"

The fact that he accepted didn't at all help to relieve her of the stupor she was in. Not that she had expected him to refuse, but accepting it made it all very real. Oh Merlin, she was such a mess.

"Seven?" Hermione found herself suggesting.

"Alright," Remus said again, his eyes still not leaving hers.

"Alright," Hermione repeated back dumbly. After a few more seconds of standing there awkwardly, Hermione turned and half-ran up the stairs. She closed her bedroom door behind her, grabbed her pillow and smothered her face in it. What the hell was she doing?

When she finished mentally abusing herself for everything she had just done, she took an apprehensive peek at her watch. It was half past six. What time had she—? SHIT SHIT SHIT SHE ONLY HAD THIRTY MINUTES TO GET READY!

Hermione gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror on her dresser and realized that she was a total wreck. She was all dirty and kind of smelly from her cleaning earlier, so a shower was a must. And what on earth was she going to wear?!

Hermione stripped off her clothes hastily and jumped in the shower. She forewent her usual routine of shaving and scrubbing herself with her fancy soaps and body scrubs, and decided instead to just wash herself with her hazelnut and shea butter body soap just to get the smell of sweat and cleaning product off of her. She then proceeded to dry herself off with a nifty little charm Lavender had taught her.

Practically sprinting over to her newly-filled wardrobe, Hermione started riffling through every garment of clothing she owned, instantly deeming everything unworthy for going on a date with—wait what?! Why on earth did Hermione's subconscious consider this a date? Hermione shook her head and reassured herself that she was taking Remus Lupin, her former professor, out to dinner as a friend. Only a friend.

And with that last notion, Hermione decided that her outfit wasn't actually that important. She looked through her clothes and decided upon a powder blue ribbed knit sweater and a pair of leggings. It was comfy and casual, but also very cute at the same time. Most important of all, it didn't scream 'I'M TRYING TO IMPRESS REMUS LUPIN BECAUSE I'M DEVELOPING YET ANOTHER GOSH DARN SCHOOLGIRL CRUSH ON ONE OF MY FORMER PROFESSORS!'

And so, after exactly thirty minutes, Hermione descended the staircase to meet Remus at the door. He was wearing an old band t-shirt that did nothing to quash the fluttery feeling in the bottom of her stomach. That, as well as the super sexy jeans he was wearing, both clung to him in all the right places. It actually took Hermione a second to realize what band was being featured on his shirt: Black Sabbath.

She smirked at him as she slipped on her coat. "Ha, ha. Very funny."

"I thought so," Remus replied, winking playfully at her.

As soon as they had bundled up sufficiently for the mild winter weather, they stepped out onto the street to walk. It was a little colder than Hermione remembered it being earlier on in the day, but it was totally bearable. They had both agreed to walk to the restaurant since it was only a twenty minute walk, and they both needed some exercise after all of Remus' delectable, fattening meals.

They chatted all along the way, discussing anything and everything all at once. Once again, they were back to the easy conversations and light teasing that Hermione was quickly growing to love. About halfway to the restaurant, it started snowing. They were both surprised since the weather had been so mild earlier, and since it didn't snow very often in London.

Hermione resisted the urge to skip around in happiness like she used to as a little girl during the first snow at Hogwarts, but there was no way that she could stop the child in her from sticking out her tongue and attempting to catch one of the fat flakes in her mouth. Remus laughed and Hermione blushed, though it probably wasn't very visible due to the rosiness the cold weather had painted on her nose and cheeks.

"I love the snow," Hermione sighed happily. She looked up at Remus to find him looking down at her with a funny expression on his face. It wasn't a bad expression, just one that she had never seen him use before. All Hermione knew was that it was not a look that he would give to one of his students, and that thought caused her stomach to flutter again. Fifteen minutes into the evening, and already Hermione was losing her grip on all logic.

Hermione was very grateful when they entered the warmth of La Luce D'amore, her favourite restaurant in all of London. The storm had been slowly picking up in pace, to the point that there was already a thin, dusty layer of it covering the ground. Hermione and Remus shook themselves off in the small entranceway and followed the hostess to their table.

The dinning room was the best part of the entire restaurant—besides the food of course. It had a sort of quaint, cottage-like warmth to it that made her inexplicably happy. They sat down at a small but comfortable booth at the back corner of the room, which would provide them with lots of privacy. Hermione didn't know why she was glad about that last part, but she had a feeling it wasn't for a very honourable reason.

"So what do you think you'll be getting?" Remus asked from behind his menu. The menu was one of those overwhelmingly large ones, the ones that took you ten minutes to read and then another ten to actually decide what you wanted from the never-ending list of options. Despite that, Hermione got the same thing every time. She had always been a girl who knew what she wanted.

"The grilled cheese with a caesar salad and french onion soup," Hermione declared, folding up her menu and placing it on the table.

Remus' eyebrows lifted. "How on earth did you come to that conclusion so quickly? There must be a hundred different options here, and you looked at your menu for all of…what, thirty seconds?"

"I actually didn't look at it at all, but I didn't want to make you feel bad so I pretended to. The grilled cheese is the best thing on the menu. That is a fact," she smiled knowledgeably.

"You can't possibly know that for certain! You'd have to try every item on the menu to know that."

"I have only ever had the grilled cheese here, and yet I still know it's the best."

"What can be so great about grilled cheese in comparison to a seafood linguini…or a fillet mignon?" Remus cried indignantly, looking nearly offended. Damn, did Remus ever love his food…

"I know it's the best because it tastes almost exactly like how my mum used to make it. It was my favourite food ever and she was the best at cooking it, but I went years without tasting it due to a memory charm mishap. I found this establishment about six months ago and it's been my favourite ever since."

Hermione hadn't meant to get that deep, but it all somehow just spewed out of her mouth. She had never told anybody about this restaurant, never shared that little fact about her with anyone, and yet now she was sharing it with Remus Lupin. She didn't let herself think about it too deeply.

Remus was looking at her funny again, but this time it was a bad kind of funny. What was it…pity…empathy…understanding perhaps?

"What can I get you pair of turtle doves this evening?" asked a friendly waitress who had come to take their order. She obviously thought that Hermione and Remus were a couple. Neither one of them corrected her, but Hermione refused to think too deeply about that as well.

"Grilled cheese, french onion soup, and a caesar salad please."

A pause.

"I'll have the same."

Now it was Hermione's turn to look at him funny. Remus gave her a small smile, his deep green eyes never leaving her brown ones.

"Well, I've got to try the best grilled cheese in the world, haven't I?"

That was it. There was no more denying it. Hermione was officially falling for Remus Lupin, and boy was she falling hard.