I dedicate this chapter to the makers and creators of Toy Story. You are the reason for my childhood. (Watching Toy Story 3. I cry every single time.)

Disclaimer: I own the plot and Remus' plotting. (Lol, whut choo talkin' 'bout Ava?)

Remus glared at the ceiling as he sighed, "Please tell me – again – that you aren't really doing this even though I know that you'll tell me – again – that you are going out with the guy that tried to pick you up using the line Romeo says right before he dies – who, in fact, got it wrong anyway."

"Why do you care?" she asked from her bathroom, "You want to go out with him?"

He wrinkled up his nose and rolled his eyes, slumping further into the chair, "I mean, it was so lame and just so – so – "

"Remus," she said as she stepped out, having him glance dully at her appearance of jeans, a peasant blouse, and heels as she tied up her curly hair, "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had a date? Before Hogwarts."

Remus furrowed an eyebrow, "So you dated when you were ten? How did you – oh." He grinned sheepishly at her as she grinned at him. "Right. Well, in my defense, it's like I've known you for that long."

"Same here," she smiled before frowning and attempting to look for her wand, not knowing that it was in Remus' pocket in a last, futile attempt to make her stay.

"C'mon, Hermione," he jumped up and lead her to her couch, sitting her down and then sitting on the coffee table in front of her, "Blow the guy off – he's probably done the same to plenty of girls. C'mon, we can go and see a movie or something."

"What do you think I'm going out to do?" she smiled, "Dinner and a movie."

"But – " he began as she stood up and kept searching for her wand.

"Maybe I'll just go without it," she hummed to herself.

He glared at her, throwing her wand behind his back so it landed up in the chair, "You can't go out without your wand."

"But where – oh, there it is," she smiled, reaching past him and plucking it out of the chair, putting it in her pocket and then rearranging her shirt so it'd cover it as he plopped right back down.

"I'll be back – think you can handle ideas on your own?" she asked with a smirk.

"No – stay," he grinned pleadingly at her.

She shook her head with a grin, "Sorry, Remus."

He sighed and looked sadly at her, "Alright. I'll see you when you get home."

"Bye," she waved as she walked out of the door. He watched her go, waiting a few minutes to give her a chance to change her mind and come back. When she didn't, he jumped up and rushed out the door, wand in hand. As he was leaving, he grinned to himself.

"There's a very good reason why I'm a Marauder."

Hermione chuckled at her date, who was walking around with an egg balanced on his nose. He quickly shot back up, catching it and setting it back on the cart, where the owner of it looked at him huffily.

Daniel, the name of Hermione's date, grimaced at her with a grin still on his face, making Hermione laugh at him.

As Hermione had walked to meet him, Daniel had promptly stepped into a large mud puddle that he was positive hadn't been there before. Hermione shrugged it off as nothing. Once they went to go eat and several waiters dropped platters on him, she started to get suspicious. After the movie, when a bird had narrowly missed him, Hermione was positive she knew something was wrong. Once she was sure that somebody wasn't around to hear, she told Daniel about it. He'd laughed and shrugged, deciding to take a walk with his new friend.

"So – he must really care about you, huh?" he asked, watching where he stepped with his hands in his pockets.

"What?" she blinked at him, as they had been talking about the movie a moment ago.

"The guy. To do all of that? He's pretty jealous then," Daniel smiled at her, "Why are you out with me then?"

Hermione sighed and smiled sadly at him, "Well, he kissed me once and…well…."

"Okay – so he kissed you then stopped kissing you and left and acted like it didn't happen?" At her nod, he grinned, "Ever think that he didn't want you to think he was taking advantage of you?"

"Err – well – "

"I mean, the guy cares about you enough, from what you've told me, so he wouldn't want you to think that," Daniel smirked at her, "And, from what you've told me, you care about him just as much."

Hermione smiled at the ground, "Yeah."

"Then stop talking to me and go hunt the Bludger down. Merlin knows he can't be too far." Daniel snorted before waving to her, Apparating away and making Hermione smile as she turned around and walked back down the way they'd came. Once she was back on the sidewalk to the street, she grinned when she rounded the corner and saw Remus there, sitting there with his head in his hands.

"I did that, didn't I?" he asked.

"Yes," she smiled.

"I can't believe I acted like James."

"That was very worthy of James," she grinned further.

"I'm a terrible human being."

"Oh, no you're not," she helped pull him up, "Thank you. It probably never would've worked out like that anyway."

"Really?" Remus seemed to brighten at that, making her chuckle at him.

"Yes, really," she grinned as they headed back to her flat, a long night of brainstorming ahead of them. "He's good for being a friend, but I'm afraid that's as far as it will go."

"Oh, too bad," Remus said, but he couldn't kill the grin or the excited tone, making her laugh and lean into his side. He automatically pulled his arm up on her shoulders, grinning as they walked.

When they were a few minutes away from the flat, they frowned at each other at the smell of smoke. As they got closer, they saw bright orange flames licking against the dark night sky. Hermione cried out when she saw which building it was, rushing out of Remus's numb arms and running towards the building futilely.

"No!" she cried, staring up at it before crumpling down on the sidewalk in front of it, tears running down her face. Remus sat down next to her, pulling her into his arms where she was finally able to pull her gaze away from the ruin of her shop and home. As she cried into his shoulder, Remus watched as Noel picked her way over to her owner, getting into her lap and trying to comfort her as well. Hermione calmed down more after she saw Noel was okay, opting just to sit with Remus and pet her cat as Aurors finally decided to show up.

"You've got several pieces of furniture – bed, couch, some chairs – some notes, and a few clothes that survived," Moody said as Sirius stared at the cooling ashes numbly, "Other than that…"

Hermione released a shaky breath before looking up at Remus tearfully, "We have no jobs."

He sighed and nodded, rubbing her arms.

"We can fix it, right? It was a Deatheater attack, so – " Sirius started.

"Deatheaters?" Remus repeated.

"Well I don't see anybody else who would try to kill her," Sirius sighed, rubbing his eyes, "Remind me why I took this job."

"I don't know. I never even knew you had this job until now," Remus answered, making the two give weary smiles.

"Professor Dumbledore," Moody nodded to the approaching man, making Hermione and Remus get up from off the sidewalk, Noel nestled in Hermione's arms.

"Professor," Remus said as Sirius started to right furniture from where it'd toppled down.

"I'm sorry to see this store go in such a way," Dumbledore said sadly before turning away from the vacant, charred lot and to Hermione, "It was one of my favorites."

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione whispered.

There was a silent moment before Dumbledore spoke again, "I understand you two are without jobs now."

Hermione and Remus looked between each other once more before nodding.

"Miss Granger, I would be honored if you'd fill in the position for Muggle Studies professor this year," Dumbledore said, making Hermione's eyes widen and a grin start to form on her face, "Mister Lupin, if you'd like to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor…."

Remus brightened a little at that, "Thank you so much, Dumbledore."

"We can relocate your things to your room at Hogwarts once they've cooled down," Dumbledore smiled at her, making her nod in agreement.

Sirius sighed once Dumbledore left to go talk to Moody, stepping up to his friends, "Well, it's going to take a while, and that's with magic."

Hermione whimpered and turned to hide her face in Remus' neck. He hugged her back, shrugging at Sirius, who reached forward and smoothed her hair back like he'd seen Lily, James and Remus do to her many times before, even remembering vaguely that Fred and George used to do it to her before.

…I have got reasons. Good reasons.

Umm, hopefully we've got a while to go. Sooo – yeah. Hope you liked it!