Secrets Revealed

The day following the full moon found Remus and Hermione fully recovered from that long night and they resumed their normal routine. Days were once again filled with Boncour/Lupin family secrets and the evenings before dinner were reserved for their usual dueling bouts.

There was a tension between them that hadn't been there before the night they spent together. Remus refused to meet Hermione's eyes and quickly removed himself from the room as soon as his instructions were finished for the day. Other than lessons, duels and meals, they rarely spent any time together. Nights reading in front of the fire in the library ceased and Remus often shut himself into his room for hours at a time, not coming out except for dinner or duels.

When the days were nice, they decided, more often than not, to move their practice session outside, even taking their lunch in the form of a picnics. The outdoor sessions had the added bonus of letting Hermione gain valuable experience dueling in the less predictable atmosphere outdoors. Often, the Gardner or housekeeper would come to watch the duels, once or twice, Maurice would come and he gave Hermione pointers. When this happened, they put on a show of laughing and pretending everything was alright. Still, under all the exterior cheer and camaraderie, the tension remained.

Hermione didn't know why, but Remus seemed more on edge in her presence than he ever had before. Once or twice, she tried to give him a hand up when he found himself on the ground. Every time she did this, he would avert his eyes and scramble to his feet, mumbling something about 'not being that old yet.' She had a sneaking suspicion that the outside activities were more of an excuse to get them out of the too close confines of the indoors.

They avoided talking about the kiss they had shared, instead, Remus kept sending lost and guilty looks at Hermione, never initiating conversation but obviously bothered. Things continued in this manner for several days. Neither knew quite what to say to the other, Hermione couldn't understand why Remus wouldn't talk to her and the tension grew into intense frustration on her part.

Because of their love of learning, and the need to have Hermione completely trained and ready for anything the Death Eaters could throw at her, the tensions between them rarely interfered with their sessions. Unfortunately their free time was filled with awkward silences and cut off words. Time they had previously spent together was now spent in independent study.

Remus had found a spell in his mother's grimoires that would allow him to copy the books into uncursed journals. He gave the first of the new books, a copy of most of the charms from the grimoires, to Hermione, saying that he wanted her to have the opportunity to learn all of the spells that he didn't have time to learn and teach her.

Hermione's frustration grew to the point where she was nearly ready to wrestle her former professor to the ground and sit on him until he talked to her about what was bothering him. She felt that his copied grimoire was an effort on his part to allow him to spend less time in her presence.

Almost two weeks after the full moon, Hermione's frustration hit the boiling point. That evening, during their duel, she was just a little faster, a little more determined and a little more ruthless than her opponent. Remus couldn't get a single curse, hex or jinx through her shields, but while he couldn't touch her, Hermione's curses found a hole in Remus's shields every time. He could almost feel her frustration.

When the dueling session was over, and Hermione had disarmed Remus nearly a dozen times, he nearly bolted from the room before she could say anything to him. Retreating to his chambers to shower and change, he finally came to a conclusion.

"I'll have to tell her." he thought to himself. "It's not fair to her! I just don't understand why I'm attracted to her! By all rights, I shouldn't feel anything for anyone!"

Confusion clouded his thoughts. On the one hand, he could see himself loving Hermione, marrying her and raising a family with her. But on the other, it was quite impossible. Werewolves only mate once in their life, and if their mate should die or leave them, they would spend the rest of their lives alone.

Normally, this wouldn't pose much of a problem. Under normal circumstances, he would take Hermione as his mate in a heartbeat. However, Remus Lupin's life would never be considered as normal, and there was only one problem.

Remus Lupin already had a mate.

Hermione found Remus in the Library, surrounded by old photographs, staring into the flames dancing in the fireplace. Quietly, trying not to startle him, she sat down, turning her own attention to the flames.

After a few moments of silence, Remus spoke. "How much do you know about the mating habits of Werewolves?"

Momentarily shocked into silence at his seemingly forwardness, Hermione found herself unable to do more than stare at him.

Finally shaking the cobwebs from her mind, she managed to answer him in true Hermione fashion. Meaning, of course, that she gave him an almost encyclopedic account of Werewolf mating habits. She concluded, as most of the books she'd read on the subject did, with the heartbreaking fact that a Werewolf usually only has one mate in his/her life and if something were to happen to that mate, then the Werewolf would be alone for the rest of his/her life.

"Ah," said Remus, "and therin lies the crux of the situation." He turned sad eyes to the young woman he had come to care for. Slowly, he picked up one of the many photos haphazardly surrounding him. Silently, he handed it to his companion.

It was a wizarding photo, meaning, of course, that the subjects moved about in a looping scene. She immediately recognized the occupants and the place where the photo was taken. There were two boys in the picture and they were standing under one of the trees at Hogwarts. The smiling, happy boy on the right was none other than Remus Lupin. He wore his Hogwarts uniform, the Griffindor Lion proudly displayed on his left breast and his gold and crimson tie hanging loosely around his neck.

Next to him was a dashingly handsome boy with slightly shaggy black hair and piercing grey eyes. Hermione almost didn't recognize the young Sirius Black, but there were just enough similarities for her to realize who she was looking at. She was almost shocked to see just how badly Azkaban had ravaged him.

The boy she now gazed upon had not yet gained the haunted sunken-eyed look that the wizarding prison had given him. His skin was a healthy golden color as if he'd spent long hours in the summer sun and his eyes crinkled in the corners as a carefree grin graced his handsome face.

Sirius had his arm around Remus's shoulders and Remus had his arm around Sirius's waist. It would have looked perfectly innocent, except for the fact that every now and then the two boys would look at each other and break into identical, slightly goofy grins and focus their attention once more outward.

Again, silently, as if waiting for her condemnation, Remus handed her another photo. This one showed the same two carefree boys, but the scene had changed. Now they were in a bedroom decorated in the Griffindor color scheme. It looked as if they were in a dorm room in Griffindor tower. This one had captured them in a rather heated kiss. They seemed to be ignoring the camera, lost in their own little world.

In this picture, though, Hermione could see a dark purple-ish bruise on Sirius's neck. She knew immediately that it was Moony's mark. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet Remus's. She felt her heart thudding in her chest, knowing as sure as she knew anything that she was right.

"Sirius was your mate."

Author's Note:

Hey all! I know, I know... it's been a while. Hopefully, I will be able to procrastinate on packing my house up by writing another chapter sometime this week. Just thought I'd let you know that this chapter had been updated to include parts of the original Chapter 9... or is it 8? I dunno... anyway, I didn't like how it flowed, so I added some that I found on my computer. Hope you like.

Review Please!

AF Marauder