Remus was pacing the little room he was staying in. He had just finished with another full moon and had a letter waiting for him from James. He hadn't seen anyone since they left school, he thought it was for the best. All of them had schooling and training and jobs, they didn't need him getting in the way. He had found a little cabin in the back woods somewhere. He had charmed the whole house to be Unplottable and to hold him in his werewolf form by strengthening the structure and adding a locking system on it that could only be opened with a wand and by saying a complex spell out loud, something he could not do while in werewolf form. He sat down to his tea and toast and read the letter. It basically said how much they missed him and that they really wanted him to come back. Remus sat at the table for a while thinking. He really did miss his friends and he was running out of food and money. He snapped up. He really was pathetic, he was only thinking of going to see his friends so they could feed him. They didn't deserve to be stuck with a friend like him. He crumpled up the letter and threw it in the fire. He got up and put his shoes on and headed out the door; he needed more firewood for his stove.

Hermione winced as a Braxton Hicks contraction ran across her belly. She knew that they were termed false labour and didn't hurt nearly as much as real contractions, but if this was the case, she was going to pass out when her real ones came. Lily was in her kitchen, making them lunch. Professor Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea to move Hermione to some more permanent rooms and just simply transferred all of her rooms to a new location. They thought it would be best to have her out of the Room of Requirement for when the students would return. Lily and Severus still came over each weekend and it seemed that Severus was almost done coming up with a potion that could help Hermione to 'remember'. It seemed that Voldemort was more than willing to supply him with anything he needed and he had also risen in rank, because of his friendship and what he was doing to help Hermione. This was also one of those rare weekends were James and Sirius were coming to visit too. James and Lily had just gotten engaged and he wanted to celebrate and go out, but Lily and Hermione quickly said they wanted to have dinner at Hermione's house. Severus got up and answered the door when a knock resounded on it and in walked two of the Mauraders. They just sneered at each other, but said nothing. All the men silently agreed to a truce for the sake of the women. They came and sat down on the couches, just as Hermione came out of the loo. Sirius started to run up to her to tackle her, when the back of his robes were caught in Severus' hand and he was yanked backwards.

"What the bloody hell do you think your doing Snivellus?" James glared at the man in question, as Sirius sat up trying to get his bearings. Once the stars cleared from Sirius' head he jumped up and pulled his wand.

"James, Sirius put your wands away. Severus could you go and see if Lily needs any help. You two, sit!"

"I don't want that greasy haired git anywhere near my fiance."

"James, sit. Severus, please." Severus walked out of the room and James and Sirius slowly sat on the couch. James was still watching Severus walk away.

"James, he will not hurt her. He would rather die than allow anything to happen to either one of us. Now I wanted to ask you if you heard anything yet from Remus?"

"We owled him well over a month and a half ago and we haven't heard anything from him yet. We are really getting worried; I can't imagine how you must feel. I don't know what I would do if Lily and I fought and then she took off and I hadn't seen or heard from her in months." Hermione started to bawl at this and both James and Sirius looked scared. Lily came running out and hugged Hermione.

"What have you two done now?"

They two men proceeded to tell Lily the conversation they just had and she quickly smacked them both on the back of their heads. Severus stood in the kitchen doorway laughing.

"OW, what was that for?" James yelled.

"Prongsie, tell your girl to leave my gorgeous head alone."

"You prats, you're so insensitive."

Severus decided to step in. "Perhaps it is time to bring them up to date and then they may be able to understand why they are being insentitive." He pointedly looked between Hermione and Lily. Both boys on the couch were now completely confused and looked back and forth between the three.

"Lily, what is going on?"

"It's not my story to tell, but if you interrupt or make her upset, you will not only have me to deal with, but a lot of other people as well." Lily turned and looked at Hermione, who nodded her head. Taking a deep breath, Hermione began.

It took almost 40 minutes to tell the tale, with James and Sirius constant interrupting. They both sat in disbelief. They looked from Hermione, to Lily, to Severus and back again.

"Wow. Does he know?"

"How could he know? He left before I got chance to tell him and besides, would he really care?"

"Of course he would. Come on Prongs, we have to go and find Moony right now."

"Hold on, Sirius Black, don't you dare move." Lily stood up and shouted. James, who was starting to rise, quickly sat back down and Sirius stood beside the couch looking at her confused.

"Why not? He would want to know and to be here."

"Just please, wait?"

Hermione sat on the couch quietly and it looked like she was concentrating really hard on something.

James looked at her and smiled, then in his usual fashion asked, "Trying to decide if we are right or not about telling Remus?"

"No, I'm trying to decide to tell you that I think I either just peed myself or my water just broke." This statement sent the room into a flurry of robes of people running around. Hermione was even sure she heard someone tell the others to boil water and get towels. Hermione grimaced on the couch in pain. Suddenly there was a shout from the other side of the room.

"HERMIONE!" Lily remembered that it was her friend they should be concerned about, when Sirius told her to boil water, what the? She looked over in time to see Hermione slump over on the couch. Lily reached her first and picked up the poor girls head. She was sweating and very warm to the touch.

"Go get Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey right away." The three boys all raced out the door and each one shouted a different name and took off in that direction. At the moment it seemed they were all sharing one brain and it was working only to help their mutual friend.

Lily sat in the room looking down at her friend. Hermione seemed to have passed out and for that small favour Lily was grateful. Professor Dumbledore entered the room first followed by Severus. Right after him came Professor McGonagall and James and Madame Pomfrey and Sirius. All six people looked at Lily holding Hermione's head sitting on the couch. They quickly got into action and before the young people knew it, she was in her bed with a clean change of clothes and Madame Pomfrey by her side. Professor Dumbledore stepped out of the room and addressed Hermione's friends.

"I believe that Hermione would feel better if Remus were here. Do any of you know where he is?"

All of them answered in the negative and the headmaster sighed. "We must find him. Werewolf births are always very difficult and the mother always seems to calm down when the father is present. The baby will most likely be big, as all children of werewolves are and the birth will be even more painful than normal. Would you mind going to sit with her, Miss Evans? I feel she would be more comforted to have a friend there than a mediwitch and her old professor."

"Yes, sir." Lily got up and went into the room and sat down beside the bed. She could see Hermione toss back and forth and looked at the mediwitch. Madame Pomfrey was setting up different intruments and potions. "What are all of those for?"

"Some are to help with the pain, although she will still be in tremendous pain. Some are to help her after and others are vitamins and what not. The instruments are for the birth, if we need them. These type of births are always very difficult and it is very dangerous to use spells. We are going to be in for a rough night. If they can find Mr. Lupin it may help us a bit but we will still have our work cut out for us. I have only been at 2 werewolf offspring births and both of them were very hard on the mother."

"Does that mean the baby is a werewolf?"

"Not at all, but the father is, so that makes the birth hard. I really don't know why. If the mother were a werewolf, the birth would still be difficult, but not nearly. I guess it's just the universes way of trying to discourage werewolves from procreating, although there are some werewolves out there more decent than some 'upstanding' citizens I've met." Lily chuckled and nodded her head. From the other room she heard a door close and then silence. She figured they had come up with a plan to find Remus.

When Lily had walked into Hermione's room, Albus turned to the three remaining men and said, "I am almost certain we will find Mr. Lupin making his way to the Shrieking Shack."

"You mean he's been there all this time?"

"No, I believe he is trying to make his way to the castle and the shack is the safest way for him. He may also be afraid of everyone's reactions, so he chooses to stay close enough to be here, but far enough away to not have to deal with rejection. Since he is a werewolf, his senses have probably already picked up that his mate is in trouble and if I am not mistaken about werewolves and their mates, they can sense each others feelings, even from great distances. Mr. Lupin does not know what is happening, but he does know his mate is in great pain and despite the quarrel they had, he will come. I must warn you though, he may be very agitated because of this and may do anything to get to his mate to see if she is alright. Do not stand in his way, he will not do anything to harm her. We may even find it impossible to visit with her for a while, after he has arrived." There was a twinkle in the headmasters eye and the three men nodded in understanding. They all headed out of the rooms to go and wait in the shack.

Just before leaving, Sirius asked, "What if one of them needs some help, or something goes wrong?"

" Madame Pomfrey has a way to contact me immediately. Let's go and retrieve your friend and I believe my future grandson in law!" Both James and Sirius looked at one another shocked. Severus just shook his head and chuckled. Even though he was around Hermione all the time, he even sometimes forgot she was the headmasters' granddaughter.

They shut the door and left the room in silence.