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First I'd like to thank my friend Padfoot for the Christmas poem in this.
Secondly I'd like to thank all my readers new and old. I'm at:
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"By James and Sirius!" Hermione called out to the two as they left the common room for Christmas break.

James had owled his mum after he got his letter asking if Sirius could come home with him for the holidays since his parents told him not to come home, and his parents welcomed him with open arms though they were a bit shocked to find out he was of the Black family.

"By Hermione and Remus. Hope you guys have fun over the Holidays," James replied.

After they left Hermione stood and started walking to the portrait door.

"Hey, where you going?" Remus called before she was able to slip away.

"Oh, I was just going to go down to the library to do… some research…for a … friend," Hermione replied nervously.

"Maybe I can come and help you. Then when were done we can research your problem," Remus suggested.

"Well my friend's research is a little personal, otherwise I would not mind a bit of company," Hermione said as she slipped out the portrait and rant to the library.

She really would like company but she knew Remus would become suspicious of what she was doing when he saw her werewolf books, and Hermione did not want to deal with that right now she planned on confronting him tonight before the full moon but that was six hours away and tomorrow was Christmas. She reached the double oak doors leading to the court yard and went outside. She never planned on going to the library in the first place as that would be the first place Remus would look for her at. She made her way down to the beach tree by the lake casting a warming spell on herself, she learned this spell from a charms book in the library, as she walked to keep warm as there was quite a bit of snow on the ground.

She sat down under the tree and spread her book out in front of herself and began reading where she left off.

Remus sat in the common room trying to distract himself from what Hermione was "researching" at the moment. He was desperately trying in vain to convince himself that it had nothing to do with him and his furry little problem.

Later that evening Remus was seated staring into the fire in the common room deep in thought. He never noticed Hermione walk in, go up to her dorm and relieve herself of her books, come back down and sit next to him for five minutes trying to think of a way to start the conversation till she finally spoke.

"H-hey Remus, how long do you have till you need to leave for your detention?" she quietly asked. He would not have heard her if it was not for her shift of position to face him.

"Huh? Oh… um… about half an hour. Why?" he asked still looking at the fire. He knew what she was going too asked and he had been dreading this since the day James received his letter to come home for the holidays.

"Um… well I have a question. I thought this would be the best time to ask since no one else is here."

"What is it?" he asked hopping beyond anything else that he was wrong. He knew he wasn't.

"Well remember what happened the day we were discussing our plans for the holidays?" Hermione carefully asked him. She didn't want to make him upset. At his nod she continued, "Sirius' letter spoke of a blood- traitor, which we said was James, some mudbloods, which is me and Lily, and- "

"You're not a mudblood and neither is Lily," Remus interjected. He still had not looked up from the fire. He did not want her to see the silent tears running down his face, they were in part caused by the pain he was in as his body prepared to transform but they were mostly caused by the pain he felt from knowing Hermione, smart little Hermione, had figured out his secret and probably hated him now. He was not sure why it hurt him so much, plenty of people had found out before and hated him for it. His own father resented him for it. Why did this bother him so much?

"Remus? Are you okay?" Hermione asked him.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm okay what were you asking?" Remus asked.

"I wasn't asking anything. I was going to tell you about my research."

The two kids jumped when they heard a knock at the portrait door.

"That's my queue to leave for my detention sorry," he was actually quite glad to be leaving.

"Okay have a nice night the moon is nice and full tonight. You should have plenty of light," Hermione told him as he left though the portrait door.

Remus walked down the hall in despair. This was going to be a horrible night, but he only hoped to be well enough to enjoy his Christmas tomorrow. These were the thoughts that were running through his mind as he made his way down to the Whomping Willow and to the Shrieking Shack, that and the knowledge that Hermione found out his secret.

This was the last thing that made its way to the front of his mind before he started withering in pain on the floor of the Shack that he had become so accustomed to. He felt his bones breaking and elongating to form the body of the wolf he had never gotten used to. Then everything went black and the wolf took over for the night

"Happy Christmas to me, I get to come out and play for Christmas this year," the wolf thought as he bit his arm and the floor became spotted by the crimson liquid.

Hermione remained seated on the couch staring at the portrait door feeling hopeless for what felt like hours but in reality was only one hour. Finally sleep won out and she laid down where she was feeling too weak to make her way up the stair to her dormitory. Her eye lids heavy with sleep finally flickered shut and she fell into a deep sleep.

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the castle

Santa made his run giving parcel after parcel
All the windows were dark, not a creature awake

Until a sad cry came from down by the lake

The children woke with quite a start

And felt a cool breeze that froze their hearts

Down to the common room they all did run

They grabbed their friends and stood at the window watching the fun

Dumbledore stood at the front gate

Holding a werewolf off the estate

With a wave of his hand the creature did flee

And Dumbledore turned with his hand on his knee

Dripping with blood the old man's joint bent

And for Madame Pomfrey the head boy did send

Yet Dumbledore looked up to the window and yelled without fright

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Back to their beds the relived children did go

Noticing not who wasn't there for the show

A sad little werewolf fled back to his shack

Wishing he had friends to join in his pack.

The next morning Hermione woke realizing that Remus never returned during the night. She quickly ran up to her dormitory to change thankful for the fact that all of her room mates went home for the holidays. She quickly changed and ran out of the Gryffindor tower and to the Hospital Wing where she would find young Remus Lupin lying in a bed.

"You cannot come in! I'm sorry but Mr. Lupin needs his rest he had a hard night. Come back again later and maybe you can see him," Madam Pomfrey told the young witch.

Neither of them noticed the boy sitting up in bed watching the two.

"It's okay I'd actually like to talk to her, Madam Pomfrey," Remus weakly said.

"Alright, go over there but only for a little while," Pomfrey sternly said.

Hermione quietly walked over to his bed and sat in a chair next to it.

"You know about my problem don't you," Remus asked quietly waiting for her to blow up on him and tell him she hates him not, and that she never wants to see him again.

"Yes, I do and before you say anything else, I do not hate you for it," Hermione quickly explained.

"Y-you don't? How could you not? I'm a monster!" Remus asked stunned.

"You're only a monster if you act like one. You are not a monster. You're only a kind, caring, and intelligent boy who happens to have a problem once a month," Hermione explained.

"O-oh, but I don't think you under-."

"No. I understand perfectly well. What do you think I've been studying for the past month?"

Remus blushed and got a sheepish look on his face. He knew she had figured out that he had lycanthropy but he didn't think she had been researching it. Rather he thought she hated him and was trying to avoid him.

"If you don't mind, would you tell me how it happened?" Hermione asked.

"Well, that's a long story."

Hope you all liked it. The back story will be next chaper.