I dedicate this chapter to my English teacher. She's awesome and one of my favorite teachers.
Disclaimer: I own only the plot and the insertion of tapiocia pudding into a suitcase.
Remus groaned and picked his head up, rubbing his eye with a hand. His hair was severely mussed up, his skin looking pale but his eyes looking bright. He looked around his room, thinking that something was wrong with the early morning look of it before realizing that Hermione wasn't there with him.
He strained to remember what'd happened last night, but couldn't. Instead, all he remembered was Hermione towing him up from the grass, smiling as she led him to the castle while he proclaimed that he was fine.
"Are not," she had grinned as they walked through the halls, "You're ready to pass out on me."
His response had been a hum, leaving that the last memory he had of it. He wondered vaguely if he had passed out at that point. He stood up, stretching his back before sticking his head out of his room into the hall. After making sure that no student would pop up to ask him what he was doing up so early in jeans and a t-shirt – he could practically picture Bill being this student – he silently walked to Hermione's room, the portrait automatically swinging open due to how often he came in. After checking on her from the doorway, he stepped closer and smoothed her hair back before nuzzling her neck with his nose.
She hummed, stirring a little and peeking her eyes open just a tad before sighing and hugging her pillow, "Remus."
"Morning, Love," he grinned, kneeling against her bed, "Rise and shine."
"Mmmn," she hummed before reaching blindly for his shoulder. Once she found it, she jerked him into bed on top of her, yanking him down and cuddling up next to him. He chuckled and hugged her closer, having her sigh and frown up at him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, moving her hair back away from her eyes.
"Had a bad dream," she mumbled before burying her face into his shirt.
"Wanna talk about it?"
She winced, the dream coming back full force.
"Hermione, what are you doing?" Fred sighed, shaking his head at her.
"Don't you want everything to work out? Don't you want to come back?" George asked.
"Of course I do!" she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, "You just have no idea how hard it is to remember things when I wake up! Sometimes I have to strain to remember where I came from."
"Stop lying, Hermione," Fred advised.
She glared at him, "I am not lying."
"Yes, you are," George argued, "You just don't know it."
She arched an eyebrow at the two, "What are you talking about?"
"Think," Fred said, pointing to his head as George did the same.
"Just think, Hermione. Forget, and you'll remember."
"What the hell does that mean?" she blinked.
"Forget to remember," Fred pleaded, "Just forget."
"What are you saying? Stop being so cryptic and just help!"
"Forget," they said again.
"No," she said, squeezing her eyes shut tighter to make the memory go away.
"Okay," he shrugged, running his hand through her hair to make the tangles come out, "We're going over to Grimmauld place for Christmas, yeah?"
"Yeah," she sighed, smiling at the thought of seeing everybody in a happier state.
Alice, Frank and Neville were spending much more time with Lily, James and Harry, the two boys gurgling to each other in nonsense baby language, although Alice had excitedly recounted that Neville's first word had been 'borcli.' Frank had laughed and grinned; adding in that Neville had scrunched up his nose and pushed the 'borcli' away from him. Lily and James were horrified to find that Harry's first word besides "Mummy" and "Daddy" had been a gleeful proclamation of "Pa-foo!" Next had been "Annie Minny," "Moo-ee" following close behind.
"We have to get up, don't we?" she sighed after a few moments, making him sigh as well and nod. She groaned and sat up, rubbing at her eyes before frowning up at the ceiling as he sat up as well, rubbing her back before pulling her into a hug.
"I'll see you at breakfast," he promised as he left, leaving her to smile at him until he'd closed the door. She fought with the blankets as she jumped out of bed, huffing once she'd touched the cold hardwood floor.
"Forget to remember – honestly, guys, you could've just told me!" she growled, pacing around her room before flinging open the door to her wardrobe, glaring at her clothing options before grabbing a pair of jeans and a sweater. She was, after all, the Muggle Studies professor, so she could wear that, right? Right. Besides, it was Saturday anyway.
Her head popped out of her sweater as she gasped before groaning, hitting her head into her palms, "Hogsmeade day. Damn you, Remus, making me forget!" She then sighed and pouted to the air, "I take that back. Don't damn Remus. Damn the full moon instead." She then blinked at herself before catapulting into her bed, groaning as she clutched at her still-warm pillow, "I'm going insane."
"I'll say!" two identical voices sounded, making her pop up and scream loudly as Fred and George grinned at her.
"What – what are you doing here?" she asked shrilly.
"You're obviously not doing so hot on your own – so we decided to pop in and help!" Fred explained as he sat at the edge of her bed as George pulled a disgustingly pink pair of robes over his head, striking a pose in the mirror.
"This is so not my color," George gagged, pulling the robes off and kicking them against the wall. Hermione halfway hoped they'd ripped.
Hermione stood and crossed her arms over her chest, "Okay, that's good, except – oh wait – you're both dead."
"But that's where this helps," Fred winked as he stood.
"You know that Muggle story you brought Dad one Christmas, and he's been reading it ever since?" George asked dully, examining the rest of her wardrobe.
Hermione scrunched up her face before Fred shook his head and stepped forward, placing his hands on either side of her face.
"Stop straining," he instructed, rubbing into her temples and making her wince as she wanted to pull away, but he wouldn't let her, "Relax and let the memory come. That's what we meant – forget to remember."
Hermione frowned warily before sighing and closing her eyes, allowing the memory of a very exuberantly toned letter coming through her window on her fourth year's Christmas afternoon. She blinked her eyes open in surprise before smiling up at him, "Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol."
"Yeah, that one!" George said brightly, "Anyway, the ghosts see everybody and talk to who they want to talk to, but the non-dead people don't look like they're insane."
"Thank Merlin," Hermione sighed, a hand to her heart, "I was wondering how the bloody hell I was going to wander throughout Hogsmeade without getting fired."
"Problem is – you've got to keep your little lover boy away for us to talk to you right," Fred smirked as Hermione's eyes nearly popped out of her head and her face started to get red, "If he's too close, he'll hear us."
"One – Remus is not my 'little lover boy,'" she scowled, "Two – how am I supposed to do that?"
"Two – just tell him that he should really go Christmas shopping before it was too late," George advised before smirking as well, "And one – he never said it was Remus."
She glared between the two, "Shut up, you lot." They only grinned wider and followed her out of the door.
Remus sighed, tilting his head back to the sky before frowning at her, "Alright, fine, I'll go – but I'm getting you something embarrassing to open in front of everybody."
She smirked and arched an eyebrow, stopping in their walk across the newly fallen snow to cross her arms over her chest, "Like what?"
He pursed his lips, frowning at the air as he stuffed his hands in his pockets before shrugging, "I'll figure something out."
She laughed, waving him away, "Go – find something for our friends before they decide to turn on us for not showing up!"
He smiled and waved back as he walked down the hill before he checked behind him to make sure she wasn't watching before sending a snowball her way. She gave a little scream before huffing at him as he waved happily at her before running down the walk.
"Okay – now what?" Hermione asked the air irritably.
"That was so cute," George told her, wrapping his arms around her and shoving his face into her jacket, smiling at her, "You're both so cute."
Fred grinned, "Cool it, Georgie, we can tease Hermione later. Horcruxes now."
"Fine," he sighed, pulling away before frowning at her, "Now, you've never really told us where you've gotten all of them – "
"So, naturally, we don't know where they are – "
"And we don't even know if they were moved there before or after now – "
"So you're more than likely going to jump around again," Fred shrugged as she stifled a groan.
"But you just have to remember what they are – you'll remember things we want you to remember when you're ready, you just have to relax and – " she cut George off.
"Forget to remember, I got it," she smiled before opening her arms for a hug, "Please? I never did get a real one."
Fred smiled down at her before swooping down and hugging her tightly, stepping back for George to do the same.
"Hey!" James said brightly, opening the door wider for a soaked Hermione and a grinning Remus. "What's with you?"
"Somebody," she quickly glared at Remus before going back to James, "Decided that I deserved a load of snow piled on top of me."
"Moony!" James was grinning at his friend, "Why would you do that to Hermione?"
"She's not telling you the whole story!" he grinned back, "She tripped me into a snow embankment on the way here! I did a drying charm and pretended to get over it, but dropped it on her a second after she rang the doorbell."
"What, have we grown out of the blue hair now?" Lily asked, appearing at James' side with Harry at her hip.
The little boy lit up, reaching for Hermione and Remus and grinning brightly as Lily worried about dropping him until Hermione held him. She winced as she remembered that she was soaked, passing Harry to Remus with a glare at the older of the two before drying herself off.
"I missed you, Hermione," Lily smiled as she hugged her friend tightly, passing her off to James as she reached up to peck Remus on the cheek, "You've gotten taller."
"Have I?" he questioned, setting Harry down on the ground and leaning to hold his hand as he wobbled unsteadily on his legs.
"We haven't really noticed," Hermione shrugged as she took off her coat, setting it on the coat tree.
"Maybe it's just because we don't get to see you all that often," Frank teased as Alice squealed and practically tackled Hermione, the two hugging tightly and grinning madly.
"Oh, look at you!" Alice gushed, fingering Hermione's hair, "You smell like lilacs and roses. And mint. How'd you do that?"
"Ahh," she winced, trying to remember, "Lilacs are my shampoo, roses are my perfume, and mint is my toothpaste."
"Smells yummy," she smiled before leading her to where Sirius was playing with Neville. After she spent about twenty minutes cooing and playing with him, she stood and looked around for her bag and suitcase, wondering where she'd left them. She found James, Remus and Sirius in the study, talking over it and moving them around in various angles to get better looks at them. She quickly ducked behind the wall and listened.
"How do you open this thing?" Sirius asked, letting out an annoyed huff.
"I think we've made her too paranoid," Remus knocked on her case a few times, "She's got enough wards on here to keep, well – Sirius out."
"And that's saying something," James chuckled before tapping the desk with his wand, tapping out a beat, "How else are we going to get the tapioca in here though?"
"You don't," she scowled at them from the doorway as they shared glances with each other. "Honestly – we can't leave you three alone for fifteen minutes, can we?"
"In all honesty, we only got the idea ten minutes ago," James said quietly avoiding her gaze.
"Oh, please," she huffed at the ceiling before frowning back at James, "You're a grown man with a wife and baby. Do you want Harry acting this way?"
"Yeah!" he said brightly, grinning as Sirius chuckled and Remus winced, tugging at his collar. "A little mini-Prongs!"
"Lily is going to murder you," she said simply with a shake of her head before turning to Sirius, "And you – I honestly thought you would've grown out of this as well. Merlin, Sirius, you're applying for a teaching job in a few months! You can't go around teaching children when you act like one!" She whirled on Remus with a frown as he carefully swirled around in the swivel chair, looking up at her innocently, "Same concept goes to you. Remus, for Merlin's sake, you give detentions to children who do the same things you three do! I understand that I am a different matter all together, and I love the fact that you three feel safe enough to mess with my things – even though you really aren't – but please just understand that my stuff is not to be tampered with." She reached forward, grabbed her bags, glared at the three, and left the room with them staring out after her.
Once she was out of hearing range, Remus whirled around to James and grinned brightly up at him, "Now I know why you pissed off Lily."
James chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, "It's hot on our girls."
"Merlin, yes."
"I don't know what drugs you two are on," Sirius frowned, "She freaks me out when she's mad."
"Well yeah," Remus called as he tucked his legs up and pushed off from the desk, going around and around in a circle, "But you don't like her like Prongs likes Lily."
He arched an eyebrow, "And you like Hermione like Prongs likes Lily?"
He gave a guilty little grin, unaware that Alice was in the doorway and gaping happily at him, "I've gotten a whole lot closer to her in Hogwarts – which is an amazing feat as we were practically inseparable beforehand."
"Oh yeah," Sirius grinned, "Those annoying little pecks on the cheek you two do."
"What?" Alice gasped, zooming up to lean against the arm of Remus's chair as he looked at her, startled. "When did this begin happening?"
"Err – " his gaze flicked to James before Alice gasped again.
"I must go tell Hermione that you love her!" she said before Remus leapt up and wrapped an arm around her waist, a hand over her mouth to shush her.
"Alice, honestly, if I was ready to tell her, I would've done it myself," he frowned as she struggled.
"But-but-but-but-but-but-but," she pouted once he'd released her mouth, looking up at him sadly, "True love! Happy endings! A little ray of hope in this dark and bleak world! For me!"
Frank walked by at that point and winced as he stepped into the room, carefully taking Alice away as she babbled on to Remus. "Sorry, sorry, continue," he winced as he led Alice up the stairs, shushing her a few times.
The three watched them go before wincing at each other until James broke through and began laughing.
"Merlin, all of us seem to fall for strange birds, don't we?" he grinned as Lily arched an eyebrow up at him. At Sirius and Remus's winces, he sighed and slumped his shoulders, "Lily is right behind me, isn't she?" As they nodded, he turned around and grinned at her mushily, "I love you so much."
"Mmhmm," she hummed before waving James into the hall. He hung his head and followed out after her as she grinned pleasantly at Sirius and Remus and shut the door. They glanced between each other before grinning madly, silently agreeing that, at the moment, being single was a little bit awesome.
Okay, soo…I can't think of anything to say here right now, aside from this –
POTTERMORE IS OPEN TO ALL AS OF THIS MOMENT. GET YOUR BUTTS MOVING NOW. GO, MAN, GO!
I'm awaiting my e-mail to allow me to explore it. I feel my heart drop a little everytime I check and it isn't there. My heart's going to drop into my stomach soon enough.
Review, and if there's any way to communicate on Pottermore (I wouldn't know yet *pouts) I am FlightMidnight16845…I think.