I cannot believe it's been over 3 months since I updated. I can only apologise. Thank you to all the people sticking with this despite the ludicrous gaps in updates. Special thanks to LoveHGSS for the beta, and to Clover Bay for allowing me to be weird and ramble at her!

It was early when Hermione walked across the Atrium of the ministry building. Her footsteps echoed off the marble floor as she headed to the lift from the line of fireplaces. She glanced at the monument in the centre of the room with a sad smile. Where once had stood a golden fountain, and later the monstrosity showing wizarding might, there was now a memorial to the casualties of the wars. A marble plinth held the names of the fallen, while an everlasting flame burned in a copper bowl on top. She passed the monument and waved to the desk wizard, who smiled back. There would be few people in the building at not quite nine on a Saturday, the weekend shift of the Aurors, and a few members of the research and development department checking on projects. Deep beneath her feet Hermione knew there would be Unspeakables at work, but she'd long since trained herself not to think of the maze of rooms at the bottom of the Ministry, to avoid the memories it stirred.

When she had woken up that morning in George's garishly purple spare room, everything had seemed a lot clearer than it had the night before as she sobbed herself to sleep. It appeared to Hermione that the main issue was Tonks' threat that Remus wouldn't see the baby if he didn't resume his relationship with Tonks. Both she and Remus had accepted Tonks' statement that, as a werewolf, Remus had no rights in the eyes of the law. This morning she could've kicked herself. Of all the people in the wizarding world, they were the best placed to know that it wasn't true in the slightest.

It was the work of moments to remove the wards from her office. She walked through the door and stopped with a sigh. Usually she was meticulous about her office space, left the desk clear from clutter, all her paperwork filed away and her quills neatly in their holders. Last night she and Remus had barely managed to finish the work they had to do before he had pulled her out of the office and to the fireplaces to floo to his house, leaving no time at all to tidy up.

Hermione started at one end of the desk and sorted the piles of parchment into the different sub-topics they referred to. Once this was done she started to sort through the papers regarding social laws. It took her nearly an hour of pouring over the tiny ancient writing before she found what she was looking for.

Dangerous Creature Control Act 1892 – Subsection Two: Werewolf Restriction

Article four hundred and eight

In the occurrence of mixed blood offspring, the male Werewolf can have no rights to the offspring unless it can be proved by three wizards of pureblood and well known reputation with no history of Dark Arts involvement that the male wolf has been in a consensual relationship with the woman in question for a period of no less than six months prior to the conception of the offspring.

The male wolf must also be able to prove to the Ministry of Magic that it has been in continuous employment for a period of no less than six months at any stage of its adult life.

If these conditions are not met to the full satisfaction of the Wizengamot, then the wolf has no legal rights concerning its offspring.

Furthermore, the mother of the offspring is within her rights to destroy the offspring on the occasion of its birth without risk of recrimination from official bodies of the Ministry of Magic or any group associated with the Ministry of Magic.

Hermione set the parchment on the desk in front of her, feeling a strange mix of relief and anger. The terms set out it the antiquated law meant that Remus would be able to have access to the baby if it did prove to be his and not Bill's. Hermione was quite sure, however, that Remus was one of a very small number of werewolves who would ever have been able to meet the criteria, possibly the only werewolf to ever meet the terms.

She murmured a spell to copy the paper and locked the original document, as well as all the other paperwork, in one of the drawers of her antique oak desk before leaving the room.

The lift seemed to move twice as slowly as usual as she headed back to the Atrium, her impatience to get to Remus and tell him that he had another option making the walk across the marble floor seem far longer than it had ever been previously. Even the flames seemed to be slow turning to green when she tossed in her handful of floo powder. She shouted her destination, her hand clutching the copy of the law as if it were her last hold on reality.

She tumbled out of Remus' fireplace with her customary lack of grace, spilling ash all over the carpet but paying no attention to it.

"Remus?" she called. "Are you here?"

Remus walked out the kitchen and stopped dead at the sight in front of him. Hermione was covered in soot from her floo trip, the carpet dirty at her feet. Her hair, always wild, was worse than usual from a combination of her hurry to get dressed and to the Ministry that morning and her habit of running her fingers through it as she researched. Her eyes were still slightly pink thanks to her tears the night before and the skirt and blouse, which had been professional and neat when she had donned them over twenty four hours earlier, were a scruffy mess from long wear and the way Remus himself had pulled them off her and dumped them unceremoniously on the floor the previous evening.

"Hermione? Are you ok?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. I thought I had seen something about this you see, when we were working, but I hadn't paid much attention because it wasn't relevant to the angle we were looking at so I just added it to a pile of things to think about later. But then when I woke up this morning it was there in my head, so I went to find it and check that it fitted your case and it does so I brought it for you to see so that you knew you had a third choice," Hermione said in a rush, the words tumbling over each other in her haste to get them out of her mouth.

Remus frowned at her, unable to figure out exactly what she was talking about. He had gathered that she had a found something while they were working which related to his current situation but he couldn't work out from her garbled statement what exactly that was.

"Here, sit down," he said, taking her hand and leading her to the sofa. "Can I get you a cup of tea?" He smiled as she shook her head then sat next to her. "Right, what have you found that you want me to see?"

"This," she said, and handed him the now crumpled paper she had copied the section of the law onto.

Hermione watched his face as Remus read the old law. She understood the pain and horror on his face as he took in the wording and the callous dismissing of the value of a half-werewolf life, because she was certain that they had been reflected in her own expression when she had read it too. As he finished, he lifted his eyes to her face.

"You know what this means, don't you?" he asked.

Hermione nodded. "It means that you can see your child, if it is indeed yours, because Mr Weasley and Kingsley and Ron and Neville and various other wizards can testify for you. So you don't have to go back to her to see the baby." She hesitated suddenly. "I understand though, if you choose to try things again with Tonks, I just needed to know that I'd, well, that I'd tried everything I could."

By the time she finished speaking, Hermione was staring at her feet and she jumped as Remus slide off the seat and knelt next to her.

"Hermione. You wonderful, caring, intelligent, beautiful woman. I don't know what I did to deserve you in my life, but I'm so grateful. I know I could never take Tonks back, as if the way she treated me before wasn't enough she sunk to trying to hold me ransom with a baby. I've spent the whole night trying to reconcile myself to the idea of not knowing my own child, because I can't return to a relationship with someone that manipulative. And you walk in here and give me all the answers. You're my angel."

He closed the distance between them and kissed her tenderly, expressing in actions the feelings it was too early to express in words. He pulled back from the kiss and was surprised to see tears on her cheeks.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

Hermione chuckled softly. "I'm fine. I was so scared you would go back, because I don't want to lose you. Not now I know how it feels to have you. I want to wake up in your arms and go to sleep in them and be a part of your life. I want to see where this goes and see what it could be. What we could be."

With a gentle tug Remus pulled her off the edge of the sofa where she was still perched and into his arms. He held her close to him and knew that he wanted her in his arms for a long time to come. He couldn't have said in words how much her actions had meant to him, how wonderful it felt to have someone who really cared and would fight for him. So he contented himself with holding her and hoping that one day soon he would have the courage to tell her he loved her.