Remus rummaged around in the cupboards. He pulled out one of the soup cans, but discovered the expiration date was several weeks past the current date. He threw them and the crackers away and ate the remaining chocolate bars. Groceries were a luxury he had trouble affording. The laws against magical beasts and the prejudice against werewolves made it impossible to find a job within the wizarding community.

Those same laws made it illegal to buy the wolfsbane potion. Without the potion to control the symptoms the day before and after the transformations, he was absent too many times a month to have a stable job. The one he was at now, a simple janitorial job cleaning the toilets and the employee cafeteria, was for minimum wage.

All of his meager wages went to paying for the house bills. There was very little left over for food or clothes, and none whatsoever were left over for potions. Multiple times Sirius or Molly would ask him to accept their money or hospitality but he always declined. He was much too proud to accept help from them. He was determined not to be a burden on anyone more that he had to be.

The sound of the front door opening and slamming shut pulled him out of his thoughts. Hermione came stumbling into the room, placing multiple shopping bags on the old wooden table, which creaked under the weight.

"I hope that this is alright with you; I explored the house a little and the kitchen was really empty, so I stopped by a muggle grocery store as well as Diagon Alley."

She started unpacking all the food she had brought and putting them away. He watched wordlessly as the cupboards and refrigerator filled up with more food than they had ever seen while he had been living there. Remus felt a stab of nervousness; he could not afford what she had just bought, particularly when he noticed the array of potion bottles.

Hermione noticed him looking at the bottles apprehensively.

"I picked up just a few of the basic potion necessities: headache potions, sleeping draughts, and a few pain reliever potions. I always find it's helpful to have them hanging around. I hope you don't mind about me just sort of taking over and buying groceries, but they seemed…needed."

His mouth went dry. He didn't like to bring up any of his issues, whether financially or monthly, but as they were now supposedly married he supposed they would have to.

"Hermione, I appreciate you doing this but," he tilted his head backwards slightly and closed his eyes, "I can't afford any of this. As a werewolf I can only get low paying jobs in the muggle world, I'm a janitor currently, and all my money goes towards the bills on the house."

She waved his concerns aside. "I have enough money and a suitable job in the Magical Law Enforcement of Underage Wizardry department so I bought all this myself. And now as we're," she paused, "married, you're going to have to get accustomed to it."

"It's not me I'm worried about!" Lupin ran a hand through his graying hair and he looked more tired and more worn out than ever.

"This 'relationship' is all going to benefit me and hurt you. The reason you're married to me is for my sake! I have practically no money, I'm dangerous to be around once a month, and I'm hated and shunned by most of the wizarding world."

"Remus, look, I don't mind paying for you. You have to deal with so much pain and hatred that I'm just glad that I can help you in some way. Besides, you're intelligent; Sirius says that you're great at chess and intellectual conversations and trust me, after hanging around with Ron and Harry anyone who doesn't talk about girls and Quidditch is good with me."

Her eyes were once again burning so fiercely and honestly that Lupin let the matter drop.

"Thanks Hermione. If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know. I'm turning in. You can have the bed; I'll sleep on the couch."

She started to protest, but he looked so determined to do something to benefit her that she let the matter drop. Hermione cleaned up and then proceeded to bed.

In the days following she saw very little of Remus. Hermione's job ordinarily started at around five in the morning and didn't end until three. She was out of the house before Remus woke up and he was gone by the time she returned. She normally spent the time before Remus came home reading, shopping, or visiting Ginny and Harry. Ron adamantly refused to talk to her.

Hermione and Remus never talked more than necessary. Every night Hermione would cook dinner for him around six and they would sit at the table together and discuss the nightly news or events at their jobs and then retire to bed; despite Hermione's insistence of buying a new bed, Remus still slept on the couch. Not that there was much room to place an extra bed anyway. Hermione got weekends off, while Remus only got off Sunday, so she decided to focus her time on renovating the house.

Remus had told her to go ahead and make any changes she wanted. Hermione and Ginny spend all of Saturday performing simple color charms on the furniture, drapes, and walls. A few simple pictures, flowers, and other decorations later and the house looked much more colorful and cheerful than it had before. When Remus came home from work and saw the revamped house, he was extremely grateful, although he still felt guilty when he thought about how much it must have cost, and the nonexistent contribution he made to it.

On Tuesday, Hermione and Remus were sitting down for supper when he cleared his throat.

"Hermione, Thursday is the full moon, so if I start acting short with you, I apologize. Wolfsbane is illegal to buy now, and the prices on the illegal market are insane."

Hermione looked at him concernedly. She had researched lycanthropy extensively in her third year. Werewolves experienced wild moods a day before the full moon and slight twinges of pain as their body prepared for transformation. After transformations, a day or two would be needed for their bodies to fully recover.

"Is there any other potions I can buy to help?"

"No. I'll be fine. Just promise me that on Friday night you'll stay away from the basement. I don't want to risk hurting you."

"Do you want to me to help you when you transform back?"

"No! I'll be fine!" He repeated. "In fact, I want you to spend the night with Sirius, Harry, and Ginny."

He spoke this so forcefully that Hermione was taken aback and agreed. After work on Wednesday Hermione made plans with Harry, Ginny, and Sirius. Sirius looked uncomfortable at Remus being left alone after his transformation and Hermione didn't blame him.

"I'm going to offer to stay with his as the dog."

"Sirius, you can't do that!"

"Harry, you've never seen him after a transformation. James and I saw what he was like before we could keep him company. He sometimes scratched himself close to death."

"Harry's right Sirius, you have to stay here. He would be furious at you."

"Tell me what to do."

"Excuse me?"

"Tell me what to do." Hermione repeated. "I'm going to stay in the house and when the sun comes back up I'll go and help him so you don't have to Sirius."

"He'll be furious at you Hermione. Sirius, you can't honestly tell her to…"

"Harry, I've seen that cellar that he locks himself in every full moon. I'm surprised he gets himself up the stairs. He won't be a danger as long as she doesn't go down there while he's transformed."

"I won't, I swear."

"Okay then."

Sirius gave her a few healing salves and told her which incantations worked best on werewolf inflicted wounds as well as pieces of advice. He, Ginny, and Harry all agreed to let her stay the night and then have her Apperate when the sun rose. Hermione left and told Remus only that they had agreed to let her stay the night.

The next evening, Hermione did not stop back at the house after work. Remus had left early, and walked down to the cellar. Unlocking the padlock with his wand, he stepped in the cage, relocked it, and then placed his wand on a special shelf he had built in the cage as well as his clothes. The shelf was in reach for him but above the possible reach of the wolf.

It was degrading, sitting in this cage, naked, but Lupin had experienced enough transformations to get used to it. He did not have enough money to replace his clothes every full moon. He was sure Hermione would be willing to buy him new clothes, but she was already doing too much for him. He shivered in the cold and huddled in the corner, waiting for the first pains of transformation to hit him.

Hermione was lying on the couch in Grimwauld Place, nervously trying to get some sleep. She was sleeping fitfully; she kept imaging someone being locked up in that awful cage, biting and scratching themselves until deep gashes were formed…She was finally awoken by her alarm she had set. Grabbing the bag Sirius had left for her, she quietly left Grimwauld Place and Apperated into her house.

Remus, human again, was struggling to stand up and get his wand from the shelf. His legs gave out and he went crashing to the floor. After a few more failed attempts, he managed to grab his wand and clothes. He weakly pulled on his robe, but got no further. The effort of transforming, and the loss of blood from the cuts on his arms and legs, cost him too much energy. Most full moons he lay in that cage for hours until he had the strength to stand up and retrieve his wand. Even when he did that, he still had to make it up the stairs and dress, both amazingly taxing feats.

He almost regretted sending away Hermione. Almost, but not quite. She had been amazingly more tolerant than most people in the wizarding community at living with a werewolf, but he doubted she'd want to help his weak, sorry, bloody, scarred self every month. Speaking of Hermione… She had appeared in front of the cage and let out a little gasp. She had been warned how badly he looked after transformations by Sirius and she had been expecting all the blood and cuts. What she had not been expecting was the look of weakness and surrender on Remus' face as he lay there.

"I-told-you-not-to come."

His breath was ragged and uneven and Hermione wasted no time in unlocking the padlock and helping him to his feet.

"Yes, but Sirius was thinking of coming to help you, so this way was safer. I didn't spend the whole night, I just apperated now."

She tried to help him walk to the stairs, but even with her supporting most of his body weight he still couldn't manage the walk up the stairs.

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