Thank you for the reviews! I really appreciate them.

This chapter consists of more of Remus's memories, I hope you're not getting bored of them.

Enjoy!

The silence of the forest was broken by wild growls and whimpers. Remus was familiar with the sound. Wolves were fighting nearby.

Remus bounded towards the noise. He soon came upon two hulking wolves, one dark grey and the other a deep ochre colour; both were quite a bit larger than himself. They were attacking a much smaller wolf, which Remus realised was a cub.

It was very rare for child werewolves to be found in the forest. In his travels, Remus had never come across one, yet here was one now. The cub cowered on the ground as the other werewolves savagely attacked him.

Remus launched himself into the fight, knocking the ochre wolf out of the way. The grey wolf turned and snarled at him. Remus realised that he wasn't a physical match for the wolves and that he'd have to use his superior agility and speed. He acted quickly. He leapt at the grey wolf, dodging his snapping jaws and sharp claws. He sunk his teeth into the wolf's neck and bit down. The wolf yelped and struggled, nearly throwing Remus off but Remus hung on with his jaws until he tasted the other wolf's blood. The wolf's struggles became feebler and a moment later he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

Without pause, Remus lunged at the ochre wolf, which scrambled to get away. Remus chased after him, snapping his jaws. Remus could have easily caught the wolf but he let him get away. He had just been trying to scare him so that he didn't return.

Remus turned around and ran the short distance back to the cub, finding him sitting on his haunches, licking his wounds.

'Are you alright?' Remus asked the cub telepathically, the way he had learned to communicate here.

'Yes, thank you,' replied the cub.

'You're welcome,' said Remus, sitting down next to the cub. 'Why were they attacking you?'

'I threatened the Duke,' the cub explained. 'I confronted him because he was the one who turned me into a werewolf when I was alive.'

Remus felt surprised. The cub was either very brave or very foolish. The Duke was a powerful werewolf here, who, unlike almost all other wolves who wandered the forest alone, had established a sort of pack with himself as the Alpha wolf. The arrogantly self-named Duke saw himself as ruler of the forest but Remus didn't understand what he was trying to achieve. What was the point of ruling the land of the dead?

'I'd advise you steer clear of him,' Remus said.

The cub gave the telepathic equivalent of a nod. 'I'm Joseph. What's your name?'

'Remus,' he replied as he stood up. 'I need to leave. I'm tired.'

'Then I'll come with you,' Joseph said, standing up and preparing to follow.

'I don't think that's a good idea,' said Remus. 'The Duke will think I'm starting my own pack to compete with his.'

'But what about if those wolves attack me again?' Joseph asked.

'Climb a tree?' Remus suggested. 'Most wolves can't, especially the big ones.'

'I don't know how,' said Joseph.

'I'll teach you,' Remus offered. 'But then we have to part ways. Understand?'

'Okay,' Joseph said contentedly.

'Let's find somewhere to sleep,' Remus said, leading the cub away.

Remus was weary from the energy he had expended fighting off the wolves. He was in a strange place. He got tired and needed sleep and he bled if he was injured, but he didn't need to eat or drink. He didn't understand it.

Remus led the cub to one of the parts of the forest that he frequented most. He lay down and the cub curled up close by. Remus closed his eyes and happily gave himself up to his dreams.

December 1996

'You have to tell him, Hermione,' Ginny said from the kitchen of the Burrow.

'Why?' Hermione asked. 'I'll be going to back to Hogwarts soon and then we won't see each other much.'

'That's all the more reason for you to tell him,' Ginny reasoned. 'So you can make the most of your time together.'

Once again, Remus found himself inadvertently eavesdropping on Hermione and Ginny's conversation (one that just so happened to be about him). He had been headed to kitchen to refill his butterbeer when he realised that the girls were talking about. He couldn't just pretend to happen upon them because he had been studiously avoiding Hermione all day. He felt like it would be awkward now if there were forced to acknowledge each other.

It was Christmas Eve and the Weasleys and their guests were gathered at the Burrow. As usual, Harry and Hermione were there, and Arthur had also invited Remus and Kingsley for a day of festivities. They had had their enormous Christmas Eve dinner and now they were watching the firework display that Fred and George were putting on in the garden. Well, nearly everyone, except Hermione, Ginny and himself.

Remus stood awkwardly outside the kitchen door, feeling uneasy about listening in on the conversation. He knew he should leave but he couldn't bring himself to move.

'I know,' Hermione said. 'But I don't know if he feels the same way.'

'He does,' Ginny said. 'Believe me. He's obviously so besotted with you.'

'He is? Really?'

'Yeah,' Ginny said, sounding exasperated. 'Hermione you're the cleverest person I know but you can be really slow when it comes to relationships.'

'I just don't want to mess anything up,' Hermione said seriously.

'What is there to mess up?' Ginny said with a laugh. 'You're a woman. He's a man. You like him. He likes you. Wait… you really do love him don't you?'

'Yes,' Hermione admitted quietly. 'I fall more and more in love with him everyday. He's all I think about and he's the only man I can imagine being with. I mean, I know some boys at Hogwarts might be interested in me but… I don't even look at them when there's Remus.'

Remus was blushing for the entire time that Hermione was speaking. He loved hearing her talk about her feelings for him but he was embarrassed that she was pouring her heart out, unaware that another person, in fact, the very person she was talking about, was secretly listening.

Ginny whistled through her teeth. 'You've got it bad, 'Mione.'

'I know,' Hermione agreed. There was silence for a moment and then she took a deep breath. 'You'd better go back to Harry, he'll be wondering where you are.'

Remus moved quickly away from the kitchen before he was caught. He went to stand by the open door, trying to act normally by gazing out at the purple, green and blue fireworks whizzing through the night sky. Less than a minute later, Ginny passed him on her way back outside.

'Hello, Remus,' she said with a wink.

He stood cooling down in the cold December air for another few minutes until Hermione emerged from the kitchen. As soon as she saw him standing there she approached him.

'Enjoying the show, Remus?' Hermione asked as she came to stand beside him.

He nodded. 'Fred and George certainly are talented.'

'Yes, they are,' she agreed simply.

'So are you,' he said, turning to face her. 'Only you could have succeeded in doing what you did with the wolfsbane potion.'

'It was nothing,' Hermione said.

'No, it wasn't nothing,' Remus said, pausing for a moment while looking into her eyes. 'You saved my life, Hermione.'

Hermione frowned. 'What do you mean?'

'I was dying, Hermione,' he said, watching as her expression became stricken. 'Do you know how long the life expectancy of a werewolf is? Well, it's not long, about fifty years. The condition takes its toll, you see. And before you started giving me the Wolfsbane potion, I was in a bad way. Worse than I had you believe. I could feel myself getting weaker. I didn't have long left. But you changed all that.'

Hermione's eyes filled with tears and Remus took her small hand in his to comfort her.

'You're not dying now?' she said, sounding as those she choked on the words.

'No. I went to see a werewolf specialist at St. Mungo's,' he explained. 'He did lots of tests on me and he discovered that I'm almost completely healthy. He told me that my life expectancy is the same as it is for wizards.'

'What is the life expectancy for wizards?' she asked.

'About 150 years,' he said.

There was quiet for a moment as Remus looked at her, waiting for the news to sink in. They were standing so very close together. If he leaned his head down now, he would be kissing her.

'I could have lost you,' Hermione said with a cry, and this time the tears fell, splashing onto her cheeks.

Remus shook his head. 'You didn't lose me, you saved me. Thank you so much, Hermione. Don't cry.' He pulled her into an embrace.

Hermione buried her face in his jumper and she let the tears fall. Remus held her gently against him, his arms around her, his head resting on hers. He felt her shoulders shaking as she wept and he listened to her quiet little sniffles as she tried in vain to stop crying.

After a few minutes, Hermione was calm and still. Her breathing eventually went back to normal. She spoke but her voice was muffled because her head was still resting on his chest.

'What did you say, sweetheart?' Remus asked gently.

She pulled away enough so that she could look up into his eyes. 'I love you,' she said simply.

Remus was silent as he gazed at her. His heart began to thud and his own breathing quickened. He felt as though Fred and George's fireworks were actually going off inside his head.

'I know you probably wouldn't look twice at me. I know I'm probably too young for you. But I love you. And I'm tired of keeping it from you. There's a war on and we're both targets. We support Harry and Dumbledore. You're a werewolf, I'm a Muggle-born. There's a good chance we both might die, so you need to know. It doesn't matter if you don't feel the same way, it just matters that you know. I love you, Remus and -'

'I love you too,' Remus said, interrupting her. 'I've never loved anyone in my life like I love you.'

Hermione began to smile. She was gazing at him intently and Remus had a feeling he knew what was about to happen. She closed the gap between them and slowly began moving her head closer to his.

Remus looked down at her, his heart racing. She looked so welcoming, her lips so warm and soft. All he had to do was lean down. It was easy. If he only leaned his head towards her he would be kissing her. Hermione. The girl of his dreams. He closed his eyes…

'We can't,' Remus whispered.

Hermione stared at him and moved back a step, hurt showing in her eyes.

'This is wrong,' he said, his voice shaking. 'You're so young. I was your teacher. I am a werewolf.'

'But, Remus, I love you.'

'I'm sorry,' he said in an agonised voice, watching as she quickly ran out of the room.

Later that night, Remus lay in the bed in the guest room of the Burrow, unable to sleep. He kept visualising Hermione's face as he rejected her. He felt sick thinking that he'd made a mistake that he couldn't put right. He wasn't sure if it was his enhanced werewolf senses or because he was more attuned to Hermione, but he could hear her quiet sobs. As he listened, a single tear of his own fell onto his cheek and landed on his pillow.

The gloom of the forest encroached on Remus's consciousness but he stubbornly kept his eyes shut. A small part of him knew he should awaken. He was telepathically aware of the little cub lying nearby and he was also aware of the danger they were in if they weren't alert. Those huge wolves could find them at any moment or worse- the Duke. But a larger, more powerful part him couldn't bear to let the Hermione of his memories go again.

So Remus focused fully on her once again. He focused on her smile, her laugh, the happiness shining in her eyes. Hermione. Hermione, Hermione, Hermione. And it worked. Gradually, the surrounding gloom retreated and he fell, once again, into another dream…

June 1997

As Remus expertly duelled with Amycus Carrow, he saw a flash of wild brown hair as Hermione rushed past him with Ron. He hated seeing her in battle. She could get hurt. The Death Eaters would target her because of her blood status. Greyback was here and he loved young girls. He knew he had to get her out of there. He quickly stunned Carrow and turned to find Hermione, watching her successfully disarm Rowle.

He was about to rush over to her when he was knocked off his feet by an intense wave of pain that seemed to strike his entire body all at once. He screamed in agony, feeling as though his skeleton was on fire. He managed to turn his head, and saw Yaxley with his wand pointed at him. The pain had only begun to subside and then the Death Eater cast the Cruciatus Curse on him again. His body began to convulse and he went blind. The torture went on and on and seemed without end. He lost the ability to scream, so all he could do was writhe on the ground and wait for death.

Remus felt himself losing consciousness. He almost smiled, welcoming oblivion. The pain was so much now that it was almost as if it had stopped. Maybe his body was so damaged that he couldn't feel the agony anymore. Above all the shouts of spells, he heard someone screaming his name. He wondered who it was. He felt water dripping onto him. Was it starting to rain? He found he didn't care. He let go…

'He was lucky,' said a voice. 'If he had been tortured any longer we would have lost him.'

The voice was female, brisk and efficient but it also seemed kind. Another female responded to the first, but he couldn't make out what she said.

'Yes, of course you can sit with him, dear,' the first female voice said. 'But please put on one of these blankets, you're shaking.'

It was quiet now. From what he had heard, Remus knew that the brisk woman had gone. The other, quieter woman had moved closer to him. He could sense her presence but he couldn't hear her.

He wondered what was going on. He knew he should open his eyes and find out, but they felt so heavy. He lay completely still and focused all his strength on forcing his eyelids open. After a tremendous effort, he managed it and the first thing he saw was Hermione, who was sitting on a chair by his bed and gazing out of the window.

His eyesight was bleary at first but it soon cleared. She looked bedraggled. Her hair was even messier than usual and her clothes were torn in places. Her shoulders slumped with exhaustion. She was pale and her eyes were red and puffy.

'Thank Merlin you're okay,' Remus said, discovering that his voice was hoarse.

When she heard him speak she quickly turned to face him. 'Remus,' she whispered.

She moved her chair closer to his bed. She reached over and stroked his cheek. Remus removed her hand from his face and clasped it tightly.

'The battle's over?' he asked.

She nodded in confirmation.

'Were there are casualties?'

She nodded and her expression became grim. 'Dumbledore.'

'Dumbledore?' he repeated, shocked.

Hermione nodded again and there was a moment of silence.

'Tell me what happened,' he said.

She related the whole battle, struggling to describe what it was like when she saw him fall. It turned out that she was the one who stunned Yaxley, saving his life.

'What went wrong, Remus? You're so good at duelling.'

'I was distracted, worrying about you, and I didn't see Yaxley.'

She raised her eyebrows at him. 'You didn't have to worry about me. Harry gave me, Ron and Ginny the rest of his Felix Felicis. The curses just bounced away from us. We were safe.'

Remus looked relieved. 'I'm glad.'

'Remus you can't worry about me every time there's a battle, even if I haven't taken liquid luck. I'm perfectly capable of defending myself. You were so distracted that you got hurt.'

'I'm sorry,' Remus said, seeing the pain in her eyes.

'Y-you could have died,' Hermione said, close to tears.

'But I didn't,' he said firmly.

'Yes but you were tortured. Madam Pomfrey said that if you had been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse any longer you really would have died.'

'Then I'm lucky you were there,' he said. 'Thank you, for saving me.'

She nodded. They both became quiet for a while, but Remus didn't let go of her hand.

He thought about Hermione and how deep her feelings for him went. She both puzzled and delighted him. It was almost too good to be true.

'Why do you care so much about me?' he asked, breaking the silence.

She gaped at him, looking as though she had misheard him.

'Remus, I love you,' she said, speaking the words with so much sincerity that her eyes shone.

'You shouldn't,' he said simply.

'It's not something I can control.'

'I'm no good for you,' he said, trying to keep his voice gentle, but realising that his words were still hurting her. 'I'm too poor, too old, too dangerous.'

'You know I don't care about money,' she insisted. 'And I don't care about the age gap. I know I'm meant to be with you, Remus.'

'You're not,' he said. 'There is one very good reason why you shouldn't be with me: I'm a werewolf.'

'That doesn't matter to me.'

'It should,' he said firmly.

'Bill Weasley was mauled by Greyback tonight. He could develop werewolf characteristics but Fleur still loves him.' She looked at him accusingly.

'That's different.'

'How?'

Hermione looked away from him and gazed out of the window again. He didn't know how to answer her.

'I could hurt you, Hermione,' he said after a while, using his head to try and think of logical arguments against their relationship while his heart yearned to be with her. 'I could kill you. I could even make you like me, is that what you want?'

She turned to look at him again. 'It wouldn't happen, though, especially since I've been making you the wolfsbane potion. And even if you didn't have that, it still wouldn't happen, I know it.'

'Ok, fine, let's just pretend for a moment that it's impossible for me to hurt you, have you really thought about what it'll be like to be with a werewolf? You'll be shunned by society. You won't be able to get a job. I won't be able to marry you or give you any children.'

'I don't care; being with you is worth it. I'll give up everything for you.'

Remus fell back onto his pillow, exhausted. He couldn't argue anymore. And he couldn't keep fighting the part of him that wanted her. He looked at her and saw the sincerity and the seriousness in her eyes. She was hopeful, but she was also scared. He knew she feared that he would reject her again.

'Come here, Hermione,' he whispered, and he shifted over on the bed to make room for her. He pulled back the covers and she climbed in next to him. He put his arms around her and drew her to him. 'I love you.'

'I love you, too,' she whispered back.

He was quiet for a moment as he breathed in the scent of her hair and listened to her steady heartbeat.

'Are you sure you love me?' he asked slowly. 'Are you certain you want to be with me?'

'Yes,' she said immediately.

He paused for a moment and then nodded. 'Ok, we can try and be together, but not until you've graduated Hogwarts.'

'Ok,' she agreed, and settled against him more comfortably.

Reviews are nice! By the way, I've made a banner for this story. Check out my profile for a link to it. I'm afraid it's not terribly good, I'm kind of crap at making them. If you'd like to make a banner for this story, feel free, but please let me know because I'd really like to see it :)