Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything from his realm belongs to its creator, J.K. ROWLING. I make absolutely no money with it. Like you didn't know that already.

A/N: Had a bit of a writer's block, sorry about that, but I did go out with a net to capture that ruddy muse so she'd go back to work. Thanks to my beta, Fredrika, and you all, for your support and for not pressuring me ^^

Chapter 9: Charming and Changing

Hermione was up and around again by the next day. Remus had wanted her to take it easy before continuing their exploration of her patronus form, after all, he doubted very much one could face Voldemort without feeling drained magically, physically and emotionally. Even Harry needed a few days to sort himself out after facing the monstrous dark wizard, and the Boy-who-lived had faced him too many times to count now. There was just no way anyone could get used to the evil stench that emanated from Voldemort.

So Remus had suggested they list the spells Hermione had been hit with during the battle and which had obviously not harmed her. The witch had heard or recognized a few, but Remus had to rely on her description of others to deduce what they were. Unfortunately, the majority of them had been fired by Voldemort who favored wordless casting, which made their task more difficult.

At least the young woman was kept busy, preventing her from going stir crazy and insisting they experiment on the patronus itself.

For the rest of the day, the wizard had the perfect excuse to keep Hermione occupied and by his side for hours. WARTS had tasked him with finding a way to communicate safely, undetected by either Dumbledore or Voldemort. Hermione's charmed Galleons were common knowledge amongst their enemies now and would be of no use. They couldn't hold messages long enough to serve their purpose anyway. But he did think his Marauder's heritage could come in handy, particularly a certain Marauder's map. If he could copy some of its magic to suit their current purpose... but the map had been created a long time ago, and they had been four to do it at the time.

"I think I have a solution for WARTS." he told her conspiratorially in a whisper at lunch, while the other men were busy fighting over the last of the roast beef.

A spark of deep interest shone in the witch's eager eyes.

"I knew you could do it!"

"It's not done yet." he tempered "I'll need your help, if you have time to spare this afternoon."

"Sure. Mistress Fredrik took over the arithmancy calculations Dumbledore needs for a few days so I can rest." she said the last with a moue of distaste, but quickly recovered her more enthusiastic disposition at the prospect of a new challenging project. "So what is it?"

Remus glanced around at the other occupants of the room and mouthed a silent "Not here." before beckoning her to follow him out of the kitchen.

He led her up to his bedroom and only once he had closed the door behind her with an ominous click, did he notice it wasn't such a good idea to have a beautiful young witch in his private quarters. Not only was his mind gallivanting in forbidden places, but tongues would start wagging furiously about the two of them if anyone caught them here. He hesitated and then shrugged, what was done was done, no point in ushering her out now.

Remus saw Hermione perusing his small book collection, which was not surprising, and another realization hit him. His books were shabby, most of them he had picked up at the second-hand section of Flourish and Blotts. But not only that: the few clothes lying about were tattered and threadbare, but still usable so he hadn't thrown them out. The few trinkets that decorated his room had known better days, probably decades ago and even the bed-spread looked like it had been chewed out by one of Hagrid's fluffy monsters. His whole room reeked of shabbiness and poverty. He was ashamed of Hermione seeing it and angry that he should be ashamed. He couldn't help being cast out by the Wizarding society because he was a werewolf.

"So where is it?" Hermione asked, sweeping the small bedroom with her eyes and bringing him out of his dark thoughts.

Remus motioned her to the desk and opened a hidden drawer, revealing a neatly folded stack of parchments, three to be exact. The witch unfolded the one on top and turned it over several time.

"Okay... Parchment. And what does it do?"

"Hermione, you passed your NEWTS. Surely you're familiar with the concept of writing on parchment with quills and ink." he teased, unable to help himself. He knew she was going to scrunch up her nose and press her lips together in an effort not to stick her tongue out, and he chuckled when she effectively did. "I want to bind these three parchments together with a Protean charm like you did with your DA galleons, and have them protected like the Marauders Map so no one but the intended user can really access its true contents."

"But it won't be very practical running around looking for a quill when you need to part information quickly. Particularly Severus, I mean if he's in enemy territory, it won't be very handy."

"That's why I need you to perform the charm you used on the galleons, so we'll be able to write upon the parchment just by applying your wand to it."

"Mhmm, we can try, I don't know how it'll interact with the protection spells from the Marauders Map though."

"Time to find out then!" Remus replied cheerfully.

The pair of them worked on the parchment all afternoon, discussing theory, concealment, practicality, and testing the parchments. They didn't make much breakthrough and decided to try again the next day, and the next, and the one after, always sneaking off into Remus' bedroom after lunch, where they would huddle around his small desk, trying to make the various embedded charms cooperate to exist on the same innocuous parchments.

It was only by luck that they remembered to get down that Wednesday for the Patronus lessons. They were completely engrossed in trying to stabilize the charmed shape-shifting ink, when someone knocked something over downstairs in a loud clatter and awakened Mrs Black's portrait, who shrieked her usual pure-blooded invectives. Remus chuckled when he thought it had probably been Tonks who had tripped over the troll's leg that was still used as an umbrella holder for some reason. For once, her clumsiness had proved to be useful: it would have been awkward if one of Hermione's pupils had knocked on his bedroom door to ask about her whereabouts, only to find her there.

That night's session was more eventful than the others, as Miss Lovegood managed to hold her Patronus form for a few minutes. She looked quite similar to Hermione's Patronus: glowing as brightly and just as translucent, but her long wavy hair was not as wild and lively. In fact, it was her eyes that were her most striking feature. They shone as blazingly as a lighthouse, so much so that it was difficult to watch her directly in the eyes. He wondered if each Patronus form would have specific attributes depending on their human shape, and speculated idly on what his would be. If he ever manage the transformation that is.

Hermione glowed with pride, congratulating Luna and reassuring the tired witch that it would get easier with each transformation. The others gathered around Luna too, offering their own congratulations and asking for any tips.

Remus stayed back and watched Hermione, which seemed to have become something of a habit lately. The witch had a calculating gleam in her eyes as she looked at her successful pupil, and Remus knew, without a doubt, that she wanted to experiment one of their numerous theories on what would happen if two Patronus-people touched. Somehow, he had hoped it would be with him she would be testing it out with, just like they had been doing together for so long, and he felt a pang of loss, followed soon after by determination to master his own Patronus form as soon as possible.

Finally, it was Friday night when Hermione and Remus had achieved their goal: three messaging parchments were ready. Anyone seeing them now, wouldn't think twice about them: Severus' would normally display a list of potion ingredients, Hermione's a simple arithmancy calculation and his own, a list of Defence books. That way, the ink would be present for the message charm to work, as it would simply rearrange itself when the password was applied to the parchment to access the true message. It had the added benefit of explaining the presence of a piece of spare parchment on their person if they were ever captured.

The trickiest bit had been to find a way to be alerted of a new message: heating the parchment like Hermione had done with the coins proved unsuccessful since the dry paper would simply turn into ashes. Hermione suggested a sonorous alarm like the muggle phones, but that was too much of a give-away, particularly in their spy's case. Despite their better judgement, they finally decided on a dark compulsion spell that subconsciously influenced you to check the parchment when a new message awaited. It was a dark spell because it could be used for less honorable endeavors and it needed the recipient's blood to be cast. It was all about intent in the end, so the witch had declared it was more of a grey-spell than a dark one, and thus, was perfectly all right to use.

Severus, however, had arched one of his eyebrows in surprise when Hermione had requested a vial of his blood, but to Remus' own astonishment, had immediately complied without question. The Gryffindor wizard wondered, not for the first time, if there was not more to their relationship than they were letting on, and a flame of jealousy licked at his heart before he smothered it, thinking of how ridiculous he was being. Hermione wasn't his, and would probably never be, even if he had wanted her. No, that was a lie, he did want her, he was just doing his best not too.

The compelling spell had worked like a charm, and it wasn't even as strong as they had feared. They felt a sudden urge to check the parchment and that was it, if they focused on something else, the need faded.

"I'll give his to Severus tomorrow." Hermione chirped happily.

"I didn't know he was coming. Is he attending the Patronus lessons?" Remus asked casually, although he really couldn't picture the dour man all aglow and pretty that seemed to be the norm for the Patroni.

"Oh, no." she said uneasily, not meeting his eyes. "He... We have a... thing... to work on. That's all. Nothing to worry about."

Remus nodded but hadn't believed a word she had said. Gryffindors couldn't lie to save their lives – except for that traitorous rat, Pettigrew, he recalled somberly.

"All right then. Good night Hermione."

"You too, Remus. Don't forget the lessons start at ten tomorrow morning, I'll see you in the library."

But the wizard did not sleep well that night. He kept fretting over what Hermione and Severus had planned the next day and why they felt the need to hide it from him, since he was also a member of WARTS. Or did they have another very secret organization within the secret organization, which was part of yet a third, less secret organization. It was very early morning when Remus gave up on trying to catch some sleep altogether and quietly made his way downstairs to drown his gloomy thoughts in a mug of hot chocolate. With a marshmallow or two.

However, as he reached the ground floor, he saw light coming from under the Library's door and he naturally went to check on the reason for it. He refused to admit he was hoping Hermione was already up, of course, but he wouldn't be surprised, he had often found her reading at odd hours in that room, whether into the late hours of the night or at an insanely early hour, like today.

Remus pushed the door open slowly, so as not to startle whoever was there. But he was the one to be alarmed by what he saw instead. Hermione was in her Patronus form, barely hovering above the floor, facing a black clad figure raising his wand. The Gryffindor only had the time to hear the beginning of the cruciatus curse leaving the foe's lips, before his instincts kicked in and he bodily launched himself on the menacing wizard that had his back to him. Remus tackled him to the ground and tried wringing the wand away from his opponent's grip.

"Get off me!" bellowed a deep angry voice he knew only too well, followed by the witch's pleas to let him go.

He released his prisoner from under him.

"Sorry, Severus. I was thought you were a Death-Eater ready to cast an unforgivable on Hermione."

The Slytherin glared at him and sneered.

"Both of your assumptions are correct."

Remus allowed a smirk to grace his features. It wasn't everyday he could pull one over on the sarcastic man. He then turned to Hermione, who had regained her human shape, with a more severe expression.

"I thought we agreed to wait before trying such a dangerous spell?"

"No, you decided that on your own. And at the speed we're going, we'll never know if it has any effect on my Patronus. I'm not going to wait to be on a battlefield to find out. I know you just want to protect me, Remus, but I need to know. Even more so if others are starting to master the spell."

"But why Severus? Surely I could have..."

"Could you, Lupin? Really?" Severus asked snidely.

Remus faltered. Of course, he knew the theory, and he was skilled and strong enough as far as wizards went, but it was true he had never cast an Unforgivable before. It was said it needed more hatred and darkness than he thought himself capable of, if he wanted to be completely honest.

"Maybe not." he conceded, and it was the Slytherin's turn to sport a triumphant smile.

"Besides." Hermione interrupted them. "I thought it could be useful for Severus to have real memories of him torturing Harry Potter's best friend for information if he ever was in a tight spot. Just in case the Patronus didn't work against that spell." she added hastily, seeing Remus' bewildered look at the thought of her really getting cruciated.

"Now, if you don't mind, Lupin." Severus told him, shooing him away, like an annoying pet. "I don't have all day, you know."

"You're really doing this then?" he asked, looking from one to the other. Hermione stared stubbornly back, giving a single firm nod of her head.

"As soon as you're done with your bloody knight-in-shining-armor act, yes." The Slytherin spat impatiently.

Remus blushed at the meaning of that and retreated to the corner nearest Hermione, just in case, and looked wearily as the young woman faced the somber wizard in her Patronus once more.

Severus cast the unforgivable, his wand aimed straight at Hermione's chest.

"You sure you cast it right?" she questioned after a few seconds of tense silence.

"Are you implying I did it wrong, you insufferable know-it-all?"

"I wouldn't dare, it just seemed a bit anti-climatic, I didn't even feel a shiver. I guess we're settled on that particular question then. Still, I wonder if the killing curse..."

"NO!" the wizards' two voices exclaimed at the same time, nipping that idea in the bud.

"All right, all right. No need for hysterics." she chuckled. "How about the Imperio then? Severus?"

"If you insist. Imperio." he said lazily.

"Should I be feeling something?" the witch inquired.

"Well, you shouldn't be so chatty, for one, so we can safely assume you are once more immune."

"Immune to two out of the three unforgivables." she resumed innocently. "You know, I'm sure the killing curse wouldn't harm me either."

Remus sighed and he clearly heard the Slytherin mutter about her foolishness and having a death-wish. He couldn't agree more.

"I think that's enough emotions for today and I, for one, could do with some coffee." Remus announced. "Severus?"

The man nodded, and the group quietly made their way to the kitchen. Remus prepared a pot of strong coffee while Hermione offered Severus his messaging parchment, explaining to him how to use it. The raven-haired wizard was actually more curious about the device's conception and they spent the next hour in animated discussion about magical theories, until the next residents made their way down for breakfast. Severus excused himself, as he had to head back to Hogwarts to attend his duties as Head of House, and the two Gryffindors returned to the Library to await the beginning of the Patronus lesson. As he was about to follow Hermione through the door, he was roughly pulled back, and the door locked and sound-proofed before him.

"What..." he started before he realized just who had been manhandling him. "Severus, if you wanted a word, you could have just asked, you know." which only earned him a derisive sneer.

"I wanted a word concerning Hermione, but seeing as you're so...inseparable, this seemed the best way to go about it."

Remus rolled his eyes at his pitiful excuse, he was sure the man had enjoyed finding a reason, however lame, to rough him up.

"What about Hermione, then?" Remus asked suspiciously

"I find you way too familiar with her." Severus told him blandly, which was very rare for a Slytherin.

"So are you." the Gryffindor countered.

"It's different, I care for her like I would a little sister." he explained, glaring at him, as if daring him to laugh at such an attachment to someone, and to a former student no less. "You, however," he continued in a menacing tone, "don't think for a second I haven't noticed the way you look at her."

Remus blanched, he didn't think anyone would have noticed his errant thoughts and looks when the young woman was around.

"You can't be serious." Severus seethed when Remus failed to even try denying it. "For Merlin's sake, Lupin, you're way too old for her, you could be her father!"

"I know! I know!" Remus all but shouted, getting angry at the Slytherin. "Don't you think I haven't realized that? I don't intend to act upon it. It's just... an infatuation. It'll go away. With time..."

The other wizard continued to glare at him, probably hoping he'd drop dead from all the venom his dark eyes held at that moment.

"This is the only warning I'll give you: do anything, and I mean anything, untoward to Hermione and I swear no woman will ever look at you ever again with anything but disgust when I'm done with you."

Remus didn't doubt for a second that the dour potions master probably did know a good many curses that would make him look like Filch's ugly little brother, but he was still angry at him for thinking he would ever take advantage of Hermione.

"I told you, I don't intend to."

The Slytherin made a non-committal sound, and whirled around to stalk out of the house, not that Remus was surprised: the gloomy wizard liked making dramatic exits as much as he liked making grand entrances. How he managed to be a spy was beyond him however, he had always imagined it required stealth and discretion. Shrugging off the whole meeting, Remus started undoing the wards Severus had placed on the door, and had conveniently forgotten to take down. Just as he finished, the first pupils started arriving and Hermione, who was obviously bursting with questions concerning his sudden disappearance and her confinement to the Library, rushed towards him.

"I'll tell you later." he whispered, wondering if he actually should tell her just what Severus had been accusing him off. He didn't want to make the young woman uncomfortable.

The lesson went much as the others had. Tonks ignoring Hermione and what he supposed was attempts at seducing him; Luna hovering dreamily in the room and fixing her disturbingly bright eyes on the other pupils; Ginny and Harry avoiding looking at each other; Ron snoring in a corner -he didn't know why he even bothered coming in fact - ; and Shacklebolt who was so focused, Remus didn't understand why it was he hadn't mastered the patronus yet.

The Gryffindor heard the now familiar yelp that came from Neville whenever he managed to trigger the spell.

"You can do it, Neville." Luna said in her calm voice, flying nearer the scared young man. "Just relax, let it take over you. It doesn't hurt, quite the contrary actually."

The tension visibly eased from his shoulders, he let out a breath he must have been holding since his wand had started becoming translucent, and everyone watched attentively as the shy wizard became their third patronus totalus. Remus looked at him more attentively than the others, searching for a distinctive feature like Hermione and Luna had, but found none at first glance, he was just very average, like he was as a human.

"That's wonderful, Neville!" Hermione squealed. "I knew you could do it."

Neville offered her a shy smile, and his patronus form faltered.

"Sorry." he said. "It's really tiring."

Luna, in her human form once more, pulled him towards the couch so they could rest and share their common experience. Remus sighed, he didn't even have the excuse that only women could master this spell now that Neville had transformed successfully, and judging by the scowl on Kingsley's face, he was thinking along the same line.

Trudging over to his assigned place on a cushion on the floor, Remus tuned out Tonk's flirting and closed his eyes. He felt like sulking but wanted nothing more but to master the damned Patronus Totalus. He wanted to take such an important part in the battles to come too, to fight the vile dark creatures that allied themselves to Voldemort, to fly alongside Hermione and lift some of the burden off her shoulders.

"Remus." came the pink-haired auror's annoying voice and he decided to ignore her. "Remus!"

Snapping his eyes open to glare at the woman, his gaze was immediately caught by the sight of his wand glowing brightly as it enveloped itself in the Patronus light. He must have unconsciously been casting the Patronus Totalus while lost in his thoughts, his desire to protect everyone and Hermione in particular...

He realized everyone in the library was watching him, but as Neville had done just a few minutes before, he let the tension slide away from him to allow the intense blueish white glow to take over him completely. It felt...glorious. He had never felt so blissfully happy and well in his entire life, not even since he had been stripped of the werewolf that had feasted upon his soul for so long. This was something else entirely, like reaching a new plane of existence, and he doubted there even existed a word to describe what he was feeling.

He needed to see Hermione, amazed that this wondrous witch could have invented such a magnificent spell, and he glowed just that much brighter when their eyes locked, hoping no one had noticed. He didn't need other Order members going all big-brotherly on him like Severus had done.

"Aren't you feeling drained?" Hermione asked after a few minutes. "You've been holding your patronus for longer than either of us managed on our first try."

"Not really." Remus confessed reluctantly. "It's probably because I'm older and more used to harnessing my magical powers."

"Good news then." the ever practical Shacklebolt said. "You'll be able to assist Hermione next time."

"Snake-face is in for a surprise." Ron snickered. "And wait till Luna and Neville join you too."

Hermione and Remus both winced at the idea of more of them being targeted by the dark wizard, and judging by Neville's green complexion, he wouldn't be ready any time soon anyway.

After a few acrobatic moves around the library to get a feel for his new weightless and ghost-like shape, Remus joined the other Patroni on the couch, he wanted to know what they had in common to have mastered the spell while other very talented and powerful wizards like Harry and Kinglsey hadn't managed as much.

Near the end of their lesson, like the last time they were all assembled here, Dumbledore appeared, and although his entrance was not as alarming or flamboyant as the last, Remus feared another attack was under way to capture Hermione. Or himself, now, he added as an afterthought. He caught the witch's frightened gaze, and quickly went to her side to reassure her, whatever anyone made of that.