This chapter is dedicated to my drama teacher and director for the play I'm in, McGoo. I just realized how awesome he and his class is. It took long enough….
Disclaimer: I own only the plot and the return of blue hair!
Hermione looked out at the sea of fourth year children, smiling a little at them as they peered at her curiously. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to welcome them to her first ever class – but they'd probably never know that – when Remus ran into the room and skidded to a stop in front of her.
"I need you," he said urgently, "I didn't plan anything for my class."
She frowned at him, sighing and rolling her eyes, "What do you mean you - ?"
"I planned everything for everybody else – but not them!" he pouted at her, making her groan and attempt to turn away, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to face him, "Please? Please, Hermione, please?"
She glared at his pout before relenting with a sigh, making him jump up and cheer before whirling around to grin at her class, "Alright, pack up your things, we're going to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom! Hopefully the Gryffindors and Slytherins haven't killed each other!"
Hermione's eyes widened and she dashed off after him, her class following closely behind, "Do you mean that you left them all by themselves in there?"
"No," he scoffed, "Fawkes was there too."
"Remus Lupin!" she shrieked, making him wince and grin at her.
"Oh come on, Romy – that bird is more well-behaved than most of those kids."
"Point taken, but you can't just leave – " Remus cut her off with his arm, yanking her and shoving her into his room. She glared at him before turning to his class, blinking at the platform in the middle of the room.
"Alright, so – here's the thing," Remus jumped up on the platform, towing Hermione along with him, "Hermione – err, Professor Granger – is going to help me out today. Then her class will pair up with my class. We'll work out the grades later."
As Remus turned around to tell Hermione what they were going to do, he was towed up into the air by his ankle, giving a yelp of surprise before glaring down at her as she smirked.
"That's for mucking up my class," she told him as she set him down.
"Fine," he shrugged before flicking his wand at her, having her hair jump and turn blue. The kids laughed as she just looked at him dully.
"Really, Remus? I thought that was overused."
"But it's such a pretty color on you, Romy," he said cheekily before having to dodge a spell. He tossed one back at her, and soon they were tossing them back and forth and back and forth, making the students stare up at their teachers as they bantered back and forth as well.
Hermione gasped once her wand flew out of her hand, glaring at Remus before he grinned and yanked sharply back on his wand, her ankle following and sending her crashing to the ground. She hissed and glared at him more as he walked forward to help her up.
"I think I won," he said, offering his hand, but she reached up and kicked his wand out of his hand, her fist reared back as if she would punch him. He gaped at her before calling out, "That's cheating!"
"Hey," she grinned as she stood up, "Wouldn't you do that too if it were real?"
He glared at her before sighing and turning to the students, "You are not to mimic Hermi – Professor Granger's – actions. Fight clean and fair in school. Pair up – one from Muggle Studies and one from DADA." Once they had started to work, he turned around and frowned at her as she smirked at him, arms crossed over her chest. He leaned against the desk next to her, watching the kids practice, when he finally hissed out, "Your hair's still blue."
She laughed and turned to put her head on his shoulder, making him grin down at the blue locks.
"Why?" Hermione groaned as she crawled up next to Remus, making him put down his papers as she laid her head on his thigh, "Why oh why do I assign homework?"
He chuckled at her, smoothing down her hair, "I don't really know. So stop."
"How else can I know if they're actually reading To Kill a Mockingbird?"
"Class participation grade. Ask the questions out loud. Dock off points if anybody gets a question wrong. Take off House points if the same person misses ten or more," he offered, running his hand through her hair now.
She hummed and closed her eyes, "Brilliant."
He grinned back, "Rise up."
"No," she argued, turning to hide her face in his stomach, wrapping her arms around him to further prove the point that she would not willingly move.
"Just – please?" he sighed. She groaned but complied, her eyes still closed as she rubbed at them before squeaking when he tugged her into him, throwing a blanket over them as he smiled and buried his face into her hair.
She laughed back, calming down to have her fingertips dance across his chest, making his lips twitch into a quick smile before falling back into his content one. Once she'd stopped, he opened his eyes and glanced down at her to smile when he saw that she was asleep. Grinning, he leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead, smoothing her hair back away from her face, "Goodnight, Hermione."
After he'd extinguished the flames in the fire and got more comfortable against the couch with Hermione lying on top of him, he felt her reach up to kiss his cheek, wrapping her arms around his neck and sighing once she laid her head against his chest, "Goodnight, Remus."
Remus sighing, leaning against his desk as he watched the two redheads lean back in their chairs and stare around at the class room. "Bill," he said, calling attention to himself from the two brothers, especially the older of the two, "I don't understand what's wrong. You're bright, you make good grades, and you get along with nearly everybody. But we have to sit here for an hour every night."
Bill only shrugged, resting his head against his arms, "I dunno. Maybe it's some mental thing."
Charlie bit back a comment to that as Hermione walked past the two, handing Remus some paperwork. "Hey – okay, that's graded, now can you hand me the Lincoln test?"
Remus hummed, grabbing the stack of the papers and making to hand them to her before they were up over their heads, Remus grinning at her as she glared at him.
"You grade each other's papers?" Charlie asked, letting his quill slip a little behind his ear.
"Yes – and then I always have to do this to get mine back," Hermione huffed before jumping up, making Remus grin and stretch so she wouldn't reach them. She growled at him and turned to blink at Bill, who shrunk against his desk and wouldn't meet her gaze, and smirked, "So that's why you couldn't come to my detention."
"You have a detention in her class, too?" Remus blinked, allowing Hermione to snatch her papers back before adorning a warning tone, "Bill – "
"Yeah, I know," Bill sighed, rearing his head back, "Don't let this happen, not good on your resume, mother's going to murder you – blah, blah – Professor, I've heard this around fifteen times."
"Then why hasn't it sunk in it?" Remus asked, making him think about it for a second before he shrugged.
"So – are you guys friends?" Charlie asked, "Professor Lupin keeps messing up and calling you Hermionoboingo or something."
"Remus!" she yelped as Remus laughed.
"I called you Hermione, Love," he grinned, making the students arch their eyebrows, "Many people can't pronounce your name."
She sighed and rolled her eyes before bumping him with her hip, "Such a prat. Why do I talk to you?"
"Yeah, and then there's that," Charlie observed, "Are you guys, like – are you guys dating?"
The two in question blushed and yelped out "Charlie!" as Bill laughed at his brother, not noticing that they were blushing.
"Ahh – it's like that, isn't it?" he said sympathetically as they frowned at him.
"Your detention is over now – get out," Remus ordered the two brothers. Bill jumped up, practically ripping his brother out of his seat and towing him down the aisle of desks and to the doors.
Hermione raked her hands through her hair, groaning, "Why do I teach these children? Why can't they be normal? Why?"
Remus chuckled and pulled her in to hug, pecking the top of her head before realizing that maybe Charlie Weasley had a point somewhere.
"Hey – what are you doing for Halloween?" Hermione asked, sitting next to him on the couch.
Remus smiled and ran a hand over his eyes wearily, "Umm – what I have to do every month?"
"Oh," her smile fell, making him tug her into his lap.
"But, hey – we can do something the day after that," he said as she curled herself into him, smiling.
"Alright," she grinned, loving the fact that Halloween was on this upcoming Saturday. Once he began to run his hand through her hair and rub circles into her back – a combination that he recently learned caused her to fall asleep – she frowned once she felt that she was forgetting something, but forgot about that as Remus chuckled at her.
…I doubt Bill and Charlie were really so close to the Marauders' time at Hogwarts, but I needed them to be there.