I dedicate this chapter to KT Shy, an awesome cartoonist who draws the comic Shrub Monkeys on Girlamatic. And not only that, but she's a Potter fan who drew the comic series "Simply Potterific!" *fangirlish glee*

So…umm…hopefully I can explain some things about the Felix Felicis from the last chapter, and add in some AKSHUN! (It's never good when I say that, is it? XD) Err…hey look, Sirius is in the chapter! Huzzah!

Disclaimer: I own only the plot and "You idiot!"

Remus and Hermione's relationship had remained the same, according to them, but everybody else could see that something had happened between the two. Hermione was much more quiet around him, and Remus no longer appeared by her side at random. They no longer worked late hours at her flat, instead calling it a day once the shop closed and then owling their ideas to each other.

"Mate," Sirius whispered as he leaned against the counter, his back to all the customers as he watched Remus doodled down something, "What happened?"

"What happened with what?" he asked absently.

"The Felix Felicis last week? What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing," Remus said roughly, pushing himself off the counter and heading to the backroom, having his friend follow him. Hermione was standing on a chair, stretching to get a few boxes from the top shelf. "Hermione, you can use magic you know!"

"I know," she said, trying to contain a few laughs, "I accidentally flung my wand up here too."

Sirius laughed and waved his wand, having hers come down to her palm. She waved the wand and the boxes flew back out to the people, having her jump down from the chair and walk out after them.

"Anyway," Sirius leaned against the desk before hopping up next to the cauldron, "What happened?"

Remus rubbed his hands over his face, groaning before he shut the door with his foot, "I kissed her."

"Yes!" Sirius crowed before he frowned, "What happened though?"

"I figured out that she was only doing it because of a potion and stopped. Blamed it on butterbeer. Everything got weird."

Sirius processed this with a gaping mouth before he leaped up and began beating his friend with a potions book, emphasizing every word with a blow, "You – bloody – idiot! You idiot! What – is – wrong – with – you?"

Remus held his arms up to shield his head, "What? What? Why?"

"I didn't give the potion to you, you idiot, I gave it to her!"

"What?" he yanked the book out of his grasp and looked at him as if he'd grown another head.

"I put a drop of the potion in her drink so that something lucky would happen to her, then made you go home with her! You kissed her because of the potion, but it must've worn off because you stopped kissing her!" Sirius was glaring at him as he stood there with his book, thinking through what it meant. He dropped the book and groaned, running his hands through his hair.

"Yeah, so it's all your fault," Sirius huffed and crossed his arms.

"My fault?" he shouted.

"Don't deny it! It is!" he growled, "And you know it!"

He sighed and rubbed his temples, "Now what do I do?"

"I dunno," Sirius shrugged, "I'm tired of trying to help you out and getting no appreciation. I did that enough with James. So you're on your own."

Remus watched him leave the back room and then groaned to the air, mentally chiding himself.

"So you have to go do a mission for the Order tonight too?" Sirius asked as he played with the flowers on Hermione's bedroom windowsill as she changed in the adjacent bathroom.

"Yeah – I dunno if we've got the same one though," she shouted through the door.

"I doubt it," Sirius snorted, "We've never had one before."

"I know, it sucks," she said, opening the door.

He glanced at her appearance before doing another take. She had her hair up in a curly ponytail, wearing a light blue dress that went down to her knees with loose sleeves that cut off at her elbows. She had on very little makeup and white flats.

"Well?" she asked, giving a spin and having all the fabric fly about her, "What do you think?"

"Umm, it's a little much for an Order mission, don't you think?" he laughed as she grinned.

"Actually, they told me to wear this," she smiled as she put her wand in her up-do, where it was hardly noticed amidst all of her brown hair. She clapped her hands, "Well, I guess I'm off."

"Have fun – don't die!" he called out as she walked out to the Floo. She laughed and nodded, leaving with the roar of the flames.

"Okay, humanoid figures!" James jumped down from the tree as Sirius and Remus approached, Peter fiddling with the bark on the tree, "Dumbledore has sent us out here to negotiate with - …Err…what'd he send us out here to negotiate with, Peter?"

"Greyback Pack," he whimpered, looking anxiously at the tree as Remus groaned.

"Great, now I've got to deal with him," he mumbled, glaring down at the ground.

"He said he had a volunteer go into the forest to get them out into that clearing over there," he pointed out where their puny batch of trees stopped, leaving about a mile or so until the massive forest began. "If we hear screaming for help, we should go help and then negotiate with them."

"Who's the volunteer?" Sirius asked.

"Err – I dunno," James shrugged, now looking nervously at his friends, "He never said. He didn't seem to like the fact that they were one, though, he kind of had that disapproving face."

"Oh, you mean the one he used when we put all the professors in girly dresses – including him?" Sirius grinned, "Yeah, that was great."

"'Twas."

Remus shook his head and smiled at his friends before a scream broke through the silent atmosphere. Everybody froze and he immediately placed the voice, yelling out her name and then running to the woods, James and Sirius fast behind him as Peter ran off with a squeak.

Hermione gasped and burst through the trees, watching between the ground and looking over her shoulder as Greyback advanced on her. She tripped over a root and fell to the ground, gasping at the pain in her ankle and looking up at the man getting closer and closer to her, mouth ready to bite her when another figure stepped up, guarding her from him. He blinked and an easy grin slipped onto his face.

"Lupin," Greyback smiled, "What a pleasant surprise."

"Leave her alone, Greyback," Remus growled, clenching his hand around his wand.

"Oh, I would, believe me, I'd never want to force the wrath of you and your little preschool friends upon me," he snickered before looking darkly at Hermione, who was still on the ground but warily picking herself up on her elbows with her hair splayed everywhere, the dress torn in various places and blood dripping down to her eyebrow from a cut on her forehead. She was either covered in dirt or mud or both. "But she smells divine, you see, so if you'll just let me get back to my snack – "

"You're not touching her," Remus announced, making Greyback look at him with confusion and blink before the grin slid back into place.

"Oh, I get it," he hissed with glee, looking between the two, "She's your mate, isn't she?"

"Does it really matter, seeing as if you touch her again I'll kill you?" Remus asked, tilting his head up in defiance.

"Ahh – she's not is she?" he twirled a wand around in his grip before tossing it to her, "Here, girly, think you might want that. At least then the Daily Prophet can say that you died with your wand in your hand and not running like a little girl."

"Touch her and you're dead," he repeated again, growling low and making Greyback straighten as James leaned over to help Hermione up. She crumpled against him, letting out a hiss of pain before he slipped her arm over his neck. Remus watched as James Apparated Hermione away, leaving him and Sirius to either try to kill Greyback or negotiate with him. It looked like a toss-up between the two at the moment. The sun had set sometime during their argument, leaving them with faint orange light against all of the darkness. Remus could see figures shifting around in the forest, so he turned back to Greyback with a frown and decided to make it quick before he and Sirius nearly got mauled.

"We were sent here to negotiate with you," Remus began.

"'Bout what?" Greyback asked dully as he began to pick at his fingernails with a stick.

"Which side you're on in the war," Sirius answered, making Greyback look at him as if he were about as interesting as his manicure.

"The winning side, of course," he grinned back at Remus, "Think Voldemort will let me have your little girly when we've won?"

Sirius yelped and clutched at Remus' shoulder, yanking him back from his attempts to off a laughing Greyback. Greyback threw his stick over his shoulder as he turned back to the forest.

"Stay in school, kiddies, first grade's killer!" he laughed with the rest of his pack, some of them sounding human, others canine-like, and some even in between the two.

Remus tugged his shoulder away from Sirius and looked at him. They stared at each other before they sighed together, slowly heading away before they both decided to Apparate.

"Merlin! What happened to you?" Lily yelled as she rushed to Hermione and James, who was being a crutch for a pale Hermione. McGonagall jumped up as well, going to get Madame Pomfrey.

"I volunteered to get Greyback and his pack out of the forest," Hermione said softly as James lowered her to the couch, "I just didn't know how fast they all were."

"She twisted her ankle on a root," James said, "And she's pretty shaken up. I'm going to go make a Dreamless Sleep Potion and a painkilling potion, no doubt you're going to need them when you get home."

Lily watched James leave before she sat next to Hermione, pulling her into a hug as she began to breathe deeply, trying very hard not to cry.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked.

"He thinks I hate him, Lily," Hermione said as she began to break down.

"Who does?"

"Remus! He saw how scared I was of Greyback and now he's going to think - ! But he's an idiot! How can somebody so smart be so stupid?" she took several deep breaths as Lily rubbed comforting circles into her back.

"I don't know, Love," Lily said softly, "But you're just going to have to get it through his thick skull. All boys seem to develop a thickness to their skull when it comes to girls. If it helps, you can call me fat."

"You're not fat, you're pregnant," she muffled into her shoulder.

"So far, I see no difference," she disagreed, making her friend laugh weakly into her.

Remus looked dully out of the window of the shop, The Grangers' Wizard Whams! printed backwards for him to look around them at Hogsmeade. If he scooted to the left of the window and leaned with his head against the glass, he could see a smidge of Hogwarts. He turned when he heard the previously approaching footsteps stop, seeing Hermione standing in a grey long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, wearing fading jeans and grey converse. He had dressed in a white t-shirt with a light blue shirt underneath, jeans and trainers as well. She was holding her elbows, looking up at him with big eyes. They were both silent in the still-dark store, staring at each other before he slowly took a step towards her, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking down at the floorboards.

"I understand," he mumbled, "I can leave tomorrow."

"No you're not," she insisted quietly, "Remus, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What about then?" he said, hardly taking his eyes off the knothole in a piece of wood until she got so close to him that it was impossible to not look at her.

"Remus, I'm not scared of you," she said.

"You should be," he took a step back, frowning at her, "You saw what other people who have lycanthropy are like, Hermione. I'm the same."

"No, you're not," she said, "When have you ever tried to eat me?"

He rolled his eyes at her, "This isn't a joking matter."

"I'm not joking!" she insisted.

"Look, word's going to get out, and nobody will want to come into the store now that they know that there's a giant wolf inside," he frowned at her and crossed his arms, "I don't know why you even hired me."

"Did you ever think I wanted those type of people in my store?" she asked, looking up at him defiantly, "Better yet, what makes you think they would've stepped foot in here anyway? After all, I'm only a Mudblood!"

"Don't call yourself that!" he glared at her.

"Why not? It's like what you do! You call yourself a monster, I'll call myself a Mudblood."

"You aren't a Mudblood, Hermione," he frowned.

"Oh really? Well, I'm a Muggleborn, and I've got a scar that says I'm a Mudblood, so why shouldn't I be?"

"Because you're better than that!"

"So are you!"

They were both silent as they looked at each other, making her take a few steps towards him and look pleadingly up at him, "I'm not scared of you, Remus."

He absorbed this and turned back to the window, a little sad smile on his face, "Y'know, you're probably the only one who didn't freak out when I told you."

She blinked at him before slowly saying, "What about - ?"

"They found out on their own," he answered, "I never told them. They could've known and dealt with it for months before they confronted me about it. Lily found out from Snape – I still don't know how Snape knows. I don't even know if Alice, Frank and Marlene know. But you've got to be the only one who acts like I've just told you I've got a headcold and not some stupid disease that turns me into a murderous thing once a month." He turned back to her, the smile a little bit bigger now, "What'd you call me, whenever I first told you?"

"An overgrown dog?" she muttered.

He grinned now, "That's right. I didn't know whether to get offended or laugh."

"You looked pretty confused," she smiled a little and stepped closer, glancing down at her shoes before back up at him, "Does this mean you're not leaving?"

For an answer, he reached out and pulled her into a hug, having her reach her arms around his neck and bury her face into his shirt.

"I missed you," she murmured to him, having him sigh and hold her closer.

"I missed you too."

I like Greyback when it comes to ticking off Remus. He seems perfect for the job. And now you know things! Huzzah! (I just keep putting Hermione in dangerous situations, don't I? PFFT, I'm a terrible humanoid figure.)

Let's see…Let's say that this chapter was the last week of March, which means that the twins' birthdays are coming up. Then it's May, and not a lot happens in May, then June, and then July – so we'll say Lily's about four and a half months preggers in this chapter. We'll skip May and June then, go on to July and Harry and then August. September, then go through that year…hmmm…. Well, what do you think? Do you even read these things? Do you just see this thing down here as a huge mass of intimidating scribbles that you think will just be begging you to review? I haven't done that in a while, actually….

…

REVIEW!

[Ahhh, back on track! :)]