No, I don't own them… why do you keep asking?

Knowledge is Power

Hermione woke to brilliant sunlight streaming in her bedroom window, bathing her face in warmth. After taking a long, wonderfully hot shower, she decided against the small selection of wizarding attire she owned (mostly because they were all black school robes) and dressed in her favorite pale pink top, form fitting black pants and comfortable black shoes.

She and Remus had stayed up long into the night, talking about their pasts and making plans for the next couple of months. Professor McGonagall, acting as head of the Order, had asked Remus to continue Hermione's training over the summer. They had set up a rigorous schedule, setting aside time each day for different subjects and they would end each work day with a duel. Remus had also promised to help her become an animagus for when she might need to hide.

Not bothering to dry her hair, she rubbed some curling gel between the palms of her hands and ran her fingers through it, letting it dry how it would. Finally finished with her morning ritual, Hermione gave in to her grumbling stomach and made her way down the curved staircase to the ground floor in search of something edible. Delicious smells were coming from the right, so she turned toward the wonderful smell and followed her nose to what she hoped would turn out to be the kitchen.

The sight that greeted her was one she would forever remember. There, with his back to the door, barefoot, wearing tight, faded blue jeans, a soft blue and white flannel button down shirt, and a snowy white apron stood none other than Remus Lupin! He hummed an upbeat tune as he scrambled eggs, flipped pancakes and checked on the bacon cooking in the oven. All the while, Hermione stood frozen in the kitchen doorway, watching her former professor.

"I have never seen him so relaxed and… happy!" she thought to herself.

Her eyes were drawn to the damp curls at the base of his neck. "He must've taken his shower right before I did." The thought sent an odd thrill through her and she was, for a moment, shocked. "I did not just think that about Professor Lupin!" She shook her head slightly, trying to control her wayward thoughts.

Remus chose that moment to turn around, finding her staring at him from the doorway. "Good morning, Hermione! Did you sleep well?" He turned back to the stove as if it were a common, every day thing to have a seventeen year old witch staring at him while he made them breakfast.

"Yes," she said shakily. Clearing her throat she tried again, "Yes I slept alright." She bit her tongue before she could ask him if he'd slept well too. "What is the matter with me?" she thought angrily to herself, "Pull yourself together, Girl!"

Remus gave her an odd look, but shrugged his shoulders and piled the food onto two plates. Giving her an odd little smile, he said, "I hope you're hungry."

"I didn't know you could cook." Hermione took her plate and a glass of orange juice from him and followed him into the dining room.

"Well, you know Maurice raised me." She nodded. "You also know that Maurice is the butler here." Again, she nodded and he continued, "It shouldn't be too much of a stretch for you to imagine where I spent most of my time in this monstrosity of a house." He smiled ruefully. "I spent many happy days in the servants' quarters."

"Maurice taught me everything he knows, yes, but he was not the only one who did. Most of the servants had something to teach me… and I don't mean just magic. They taught me cleaning charms, yes, and cooking charms as well." He took a drink of his juice and said in a conspiratorial manner, "Our chef even taught me to cook the Muggle way!" He smiled with the memories and said softly, "Maurice, of course, thought it was a wonderful idea. He said I would never know when such a skill would come in handy."

Hermione smiled softly. As strange as it might seem to pure blooded wizards and witches for a servant to raise his master's children, Hermione thought it was wonderful that Remus obviously thought so highly of his surrogate father.

"So," Remus said, throwing his napkin down by his empty plate, "what shall we concentrate on today?"

Hermione swallowed her last bite and cleared her throat. "I'd really like to learn more wandless magic." Seeing his eyebrows shoot into his hair line, she hurriedly went on, saying, "for instance, that blue flame charm you used when the Dementors stopped the train." Warming to her subject, Hermione leaned closer to Remus. "I haven't come across that one in a book yet, and believe me, I've looked!"

Remus smiled gently at her, pleased that he could offer her knowledge she could not find elsewhere. "I am not surprised that you couldn't find it in a book." She looked puzzled, so he explained, "That particular charm is very old magic. It has been passed through my family for generations. I suppose no one has thought to publish a book on our family's unique charms, potions and spells."

"You mean there's more?" Hermione was visibly excited about that prospect and didn't try to hide it.

Remus nodded. "Most pure blooded families have their own spells and such." He thought for a moment before saying, "I do believe there are roughly seven hundred spells, incantations, charms and potions that are unique to the Lupin family and another five hundred or so that are unique to the Boncoeur family. My mother was a great believer in having things written down so they aren't forgotten by future generations."

Hermione's eyes lit up like Hogwarts' Christmas trees when he said that everything was written down. "Professor! Do you mean to tell me that there's a book on this and I haven't seen it?" Suddenly, as though troubled by something, her enthusiastic smile turned into a suspicious half-glare. "I thought you said no one in your family thought to publish one."

Remus tried to hide his grin, and almost managed to succeed. "I did, in fact, say that. However, that does not mean that there was not one written. As I said, my mother was a great believer that knowledge, especially familial knowledge, should not be lost to the generations of the future. She spent the years after the war writing to surviving family members asking for their personal spells and enchantments and such." He paused, seeing that Hermione had that hungry look in her eyes that was reserved solely for the acquisition of knowledge. "She transcribed the responses from our relatives into several Grimoires. I believe that only she took the time to learn all of them."

"Would you let me read – "

"I'm terribly sorry, Hermione. Those books are meant for the family only." He saw the sadness begin to creep into her eyes and decided to explain to the best of his ability. "You see, Hermione, when my mother wrote the Grimoires, she cast several spells on the books themselves. Should any one but a Lupin or a Boncoeur lay eyes on them, several curses will activate at once. I believe each has the standard blindness curse on them, but I believe my mother was a bit more protective of her volumes. I wouldn't be surprised if they burned your hands very badly as well." He paused, "Though I doubt very much that she would allow her books to kill anyone."

She gave him an incredulous look, sputtering, "So, you're telling me that only your children will be able to read them someday?"

"Not at all." He smiled, "I merely said that only a Lupin or Boncoeur can read them. I didn't say that they had to be born a Lupin or Boncoeur."

Comprehension slowly dawned in her eyes. "So," she said uncertainly, "your wife could read them?" He nodded. "How about someone you adopt?" Again he nodded. She seemed lost in thought for a moment until he spoke again.

"You know, Hermione," he said slowly, "I could just learn the ones I think you would like and teach them to you."

He eyes lit up once more. "Would you, Professor?"

Remus winced and a sudden idea crossed his mind. "I will teach you anything you desire, under one condition."

She looked at him suspiciously for a moment before saying, "and that would be…?"

He smiled across the table at her and made his request, "That you call me Remus when I am not teaching you something. I can handle the Professor title while I am instructing you, however, I would like very much for us to be more informal while you are in my home." He stopped and held his breath, hoping she would agree.

Finally, after what seemed like ages to him, but was only a few seconds, her face split into a huge grin and she nodded her agreement.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Remus rubbed his hands together and asked, "So, what do you want to learn about today?"

Without a moment's hesitation, she started listing things she wanted to learn. "Well, the blue flame spell first. That should be fairly easy to master, right?" He nodded his head and she took that as a sign to continue. "Then I want to learn to apparate properly. I don't think I got it down quite right when they taught it at school. Oh! I would love to learn the spell to make Port keys. And then there's the animagus transformation and – "

"Hermione!" he interrupted, "We don't have to cover everything in a single day!" He laughed a little at her crestfallen look. "We can concentrate on what you mentioned so far, as most of those spells aren't that hard to master." He smiled a little as her eyes lit up again. "Don't forget, we also have to set aside some time to duel. I think before dinner would be a good time. It is rather hard to duel on a full stomach."

"Erm… Professor?"

"Yes?"

Hermione chewed on her bottom lip for a moment as she thought of how to voice her concerns. Finally she decided to just put it out there, so to speak, and hope that he didn't take it the wrong way. "I'm not at school."

"Yes," he replied, a bit puzzled as to what she meant.

"Well," she hesitated then plowed ahead, "won't I get in trouble for doing magic outside of school?"

He chuckled and said teasingly, "Really, I would have thought you would have known this, Hermione." Seeing that she was still confused, he asked, "How old are you?"

"Well, I suppose legally, I'm seventeen, though with the whole time turner thing, I'm closer to eighteen… and… I..." She trailed off and slowly raised her eyes to meet her former professor's in sudden understanding. Her next words barely came out as a whisper. "I'm of age."

Remus smiled broadly at his companion. "I knew you were the smartest witch of your class."

"I'm of AGE!" she practically squealed in her excitement!

He smiled indulgently at his young charge, glad to see her excited about something that had obviously slipped her mind. "Yes, yes. You are now of age to do practically anything you like. And, being muggle raised, you have some opportunities open to you that pure bloods do not."

Hermione looked at him quizzically. "Like what, Professor?"

"Well, getting your driver's license for one."

This time, he had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud at her expression. Emotions ran across her face like shadows, shock, disbelief and excitement battled for supremacy for a few seconds. Finally excitement won. She jumped up and began pacing the room.

She started talking under her breath very quickly. "Oh, there's so much I want to do! I can get my driver's license and my apparation license! OH! No more floo powder! No more portkeys! I – "

Hermione lost her train of thought when the sound of his laughter registered in her ears. Remus couldn't keep the joyous sounds from escaping his lips as he watched his most prized student assimilate her latest discovery. For a tense moment, he thought she would think he was laughing at her. His fears were laid to rest when her eyes began to sparkle and the corners of her lips curved slowly upwards.

"I was being rather silly, wasn't I?" She smiled as she blushed and returned to her seat.

"Never fear," he reassured her, "it is alright to get excited about things." He smiled with his eyes and patted her hand. "There hasn't been enough laughter in the last couple of months."

"Well, shall we retire to the Library?" he asked. "That would probably be the best place to start.

Once again, the knowledge hungry look came into her eyes and she nodded enthusiastically at his suggestion.

Smiling at her obvious approval, he rose from his chair and pulled out Hermione's chair so she could also rise. He offered her his arm and when she linked her arm with his, he lead her to the book lined room that had called to her the night before.

They reclaimed their seats from the night before. As soon as they were seated, Lupin held out his hand, palm up. In his hand were blue flames merrily dancing in the slight air current made from their exhalations.

"Alright, let's begin."

Authors Note:

Many of you have reviewed and for that I say THANK YOU! Those of you that got a reply (I hope I got all of you) were asked what animal you thought Hermione should be. I think I have a fairly good idea what I want her animagus form to be, but I wanted to put it out there for you. When you review this story, please tell me what you think.

Just so you know, so far I've gotten these responses:

Owl

Lion(ess)

She Wolf

Unicorn

For some reason, my reviewers have decided that Hermione becoming a cat animagus is over done. I actually have not seen any fan fics that turn her into an animagus at all. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places? If you have a fan fic you like that has to do with Hermione becoming or being an animagus, send me the link. I may need something to do when I'm putting off doing homework (like now, for instance).

Also, those of you who got a chapter update… psych! Just kidding. I am working on the next chapter as you read this. It should be up by Friday but don't quote me on it.

Thanks for Reading,

AF Marauder