I haven't been able to make any Poly Juice Potion yet so I am still not JK Rowling so I guess I still don't own Harry. But a girl can always try! ;)

Chapter Sixty-nine

A Furry Little Problem

Taylor leaned up against the wall trying to look nonchalant, as Greg's uncle stood in front of the hospital door with his arms folded waiting patiently. They had already exchanged the normal idle chitchat between strangers. As time stretched on Taylor tried to think of something else to say.

Greg's uncle beat her to it. "My nephew in there thinks a lot of you."

Taylor glanced up and saw him regarding her shrewdly. She shifted a little uncomfortably under his gaze. "I like him a lot too." She said after a few seconds.

"You're muggle-born aren't you?"

Taylor felt anger course through her as she straightened up away from the wall and faced him squarely. "And what if I am?" She demanded her voice suddenly hard.

Greg's uncle unfolded his arms and held up his hands. "Easy Miss Porter, I didn't mean it like that."

Taylor glared at him and he continued. "I merely meant that by being from a non-magical family you probably aren't aware of our customs when it comes to marriages and such."

She felt her jaw drop open as she stared at the wizard. It was a few seconds before she could find her voice. "What in the blue pixies are you talking about?"

Greg's uncle chuckled as he said, "Well for one thing you are wearing our family crest," Taylor looked down at the necklace Greg had given her and felt an odd jolt somewhere near her stomach. "Also I know my nephew fairly well and if he was troubled enough to ask the nurse about having a family then it was something that has been bothering him."

Taylor looked up into the wizard's astute gaze, "I think you are reading more into a question than there really is. Plus Greg gave me this necklace, way back at Christmas, we barely even knew each other then."

Greg's uncle smiled indulgently as he nodded, "A very interesting fact indeed." Then his face became serious as he continued. "I find it quite amazing really that you seem to have accepted what happened to him so readily."

Taylor felt her hackles rise once more. "I don't happen to find it all that amazing. I have known someone with the same condition for a few years now. I consider him a very good friend."

"Remus Lupin right? He is a good man."

"I see we agree on that at least," Taylor said sarcastically.

Greg's uncle nodded, "Quite so." The wizard seemed to have said all he wanted to as he folded his arms and remained quiet for the rest of their wait.

Taylor leaned back against the wall, but she was anything but relaxed as she chewed over what Greg's uncle had said to her, trying to figure out what he had meant by it.

It was almost ten minutes later when Mr. Hunter came to the door and opened it.

"Ah Taylor, Madame Pomfrey is just checking Greg over and he will be out shortly. We need to be going but I'm sure I will see you again some time soon." Mr. Hunter offered kindly before his voice became grateful. "I want to thank you again for saving my son and then again for sticking it out with him this past week. It couldn't have been easy."

Taylor boldly met Greg's father's eyes as she said firmly. "I already told you I'm not going anywhere."

Mr. Hunter smiled warmly, "I'm glad to hear that. Goodbye Taylor. Stay safe."

Greg's uncle said goodbye also before they set out down the corridor.

Taylor watched them until they turned a corner and were out of sight. She didn't realize she was still lost in thought, staring off down the corridor, until a voice behind her made her jump.

"So… where to first?"

Taylor wheeled to see the Hufflepuff standing in the hospital doorway dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt.

"Hey! You're getting out now? Great! I don't know… maybe to get something to eat? I'm starved!" Taylor said in a rush as she grinned up at the Head Boy. She saw his smile waver a little, as uncertainty flooded his eyes and she added. "We can always raid the kitchens!"

"Yeah that sounds more my speed. Though I'm going to have to get used to being in a crowd really soon."

"Let's get something to eat and then we can maybe go to your study room. There won't be as many people there." Taylor offered gently as she caught his hand and held it in hers.

Though the two of them had been up for several hours, it was still fairly early for a Sunday morning and there were only a few students out in the corridors. The ones they did meet were mostly Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor. They looked at the Head Boy curiously but other then a casual greeting didn't bother to stop.

The house elves were only too happy to get them some breakfast and the two of them ate until they couldn't hold another bite. They only talked about easy things while they ate, like schoolwork or the weather, avoiding the more serious topics by silent agreement.

After they were finished they went to the Hufflepuff's study room and they found it nearly empty. Only a lone fifth year was there studying for her OWLS. After a warm greeting the fifth year went back to studying and the two seventh years found a seat in front of the fireplace, a fire in it helping to chase the early spring coolness away.

Taylor put up a silencing charm as she turned to the Head Boy, not wanting to disturb the other Hufflepuff, nor wanting their conversation overheard.

"Everything is going to be fine you know. Remember what I said yesterday, just tell them what you feel comfortable with. They will accept it. They are your friends."

"How do I keep something like this a secret? I feel so… different." The Head Boy said in a tortured tone.

Taylor put her hand on his tanned larger one and tipped her head so she could see into his eyes. "You look no different. And that is what is important to the vast majority of people. As long as they don't know, their looks will only be curious."

The werewolf was silent for a few seconds as he thought about what his witch had said, "How do you know this? How can you be so sure?"

Taylor smiled gently, "Because I felt something similar when I found out I could use Dark Magic. I felt so different all of a sudden. I was terrified people would find out and be afraid of me. I still worry about that but not nearly as much."

The Head Boy nodded slowly, "It doesn't bother you as much anymore?" he asked curiously.

"No, not as much. It is just a part of me now. My friends have accepted it and they are all that really matter. Besides, Dark Magic can be very useful at times, especially in sticky situations." Taylor grinned mischievously.

Greg was reminded of what Lupin had said about Taylor using Dark Magic to protect her and him from the werewolf. He also remembered the repercussions of that protection.

"Hey, look, Hufflepuff. I'm not trying to make light of what happened to you. I know being a werewolf is not like choosing to use Dark Magic or not. I just wanted to point out that people don't see what is inside of here," Taylor touched her hand to his chest right above his heart and then his head, "if they did then there would be no more secrets."

"I guess you're right. I just am going to have to try to act normal… I guess."

Taylor grinned, "Now you're getting it Hufflepuff! You are the same you… only with a furry little problem!"

Greg's jaw fell open and he stared at the witch for a few seconds, "A furry little problem?"

Taylor grinned and shrugged her shoulders, "Sure, that's what Lupin and his friends always referred to it as. So why not? Besides do you have a better name for it?"

Greg could feel his lips twitching in a grin. His witch's ease with which she talked about him being a werewolf calmed his worries. He knew she wasn't making light of it, just accepting it and incorporating it into who he was now. It made him start to accept it also.

"No I guess not. So I have a furry little problem, do I? That's better then a furry big problem I guess."

"Sure it is! You could be like Nott from Slytherin," She shivered and pulled a horrible face, "I've heard he has to shave three times a day now and he still looks like a hairy ape! Though some of that might be… a tiny bit anyway, my fault. You see when he was trying to get rid of his pink hair, I accidentally let a few drops of hair grower slip into his potion. It's not my fault the crazy Slytherin tried to vanish his potion before adding the Hippogriff feather!" She explained trying to sound innocent all the while fighting the grin that threatened to spread over her face.

The Head Boy rolled his eyes at the witch in exasperation.

At that moment the door to the study swung open and in walked Ernie, Justin and Hannah. Taylor quickly released the silencing spell as the Hufflepuffs called out enthusiastic greetings.

"Greg! You're here! Wow that's great!" Hannah cried as she rushed to the Head Boy and hugged him.

"Hey mate, we were just going to see you when we ran into Potter, Weasley and Granger and they said you weren't at the hospital." Justin said with a smile to his friend before looking at the witch sitting beside him and his smile fell a little, "Potter said to tell you that he's looking for you."

"Well I must say it's good to have you back! Just hasn't been the same all week." Ernie said with a grin only sounding slightly pompous.

Greg greeted his friends with a small smile but Taylor could see he wasn't nearly as tense as he had been yesterday and after a few minutes relaxed even more. She would have been content to stay with the Head Boy for the rest of the day in the Hufflepuff study room but she knew that if Harry was looking for her then she had better go see him.

Coming to her feet a few minutes later she said, "Well I'd better go see what Potter wants, plus I really need to get some homework done. I have that three foot essay due tomorrow for Shacklebolt and I haven't even started it yet!"

"Oh, you're not leaving are you?" Hannah protested, "I wanted to get you to show me that new stunning spell from Defense! I know Sally-Anne wanted some help with it too, she'll be here in a few minutes!"

Before Taylor could answer the Head Boy spoke up as he came to his feet also. "Why don't you bring your stuff down here. We can all study together? I need a book from the library… so I'll walk with you up to your common room."

Taylor glanced at the tall Hufflepuff and saw worry filter through his eyes for a second. Smiling she said easily, "Sure that sounds like a great idea. I'll see you guys again in a little while."

The Gryffindor witch and Head Boy were starting up the second set of stairs before either spoke again, a silencing charm firmly in place. "So what gives Hufflepuff? I already gave you the book you needed from the library."

"I didn't want you walking alone up through the castle." He answered casually.

Taylor rolled her eyes as she shook her head and suddenly a question that she'd had earlier came to her. In a slightly forced light tone she asked. "How come you didn't tell me that this necklace was your family crest?"

"Oh, I suppose Uncle Mike told you, did he? Sorry I never thought of it." The Hufflepuff laughed as he could see his uncle getting a kick out of teasing his witch about it.

"Yeah he did." Taylor snapped.

Greg's laughter faded as he looked at his witch, taking in her furious look. "Hey, what's wrong? It's just a necklace, I thought you'd like the crest."

Taylor was suddenly fuming and she marched on ahead of the Head Boy forcing him to lengthen his strides to keep up. She couldn't believe his audacity!

"Taylor! Hey wait up. What's wrong?" Greg called as he hurried to catch up, grabbing her arm and turning her to face him, slightly shocked to see the fury in her eyes.

"Just a necklace? Just… Do you give these out to all your girlfriends?"

"What? No! Of course not! I wanted you to have something of mine. Sorry if that upsets you. It's no big deal… really." Greg could tell that he had just inadvertently made things worse, though he didn't have a clue how.

"No big deal? NO BIG DEAL! What? Do you just have hundreds of these lying around?"

The Head Boy was really taken back with the witch's outburst. "No! Taylor what is the matter?" An idea about what this might be about occurred to him and he tried to reassure his witch it didn't mean that. "It's just a necklace. It doesn't mean anything. It's not a ring or anything like that. What did Uncle Mike say anyway? Did he make you think it was some kind of engagement thing?"

Taylor's heart gave a funny stutter step before she sucked in a ragged breath, "No! Well, not exactly, but that's not the point!"

"What is the point? Why are you so upset? It's just a necklace."

"Will you stop saying that! It's not!" Taylor was fighting for control. She shouldn't let this bother her so much, but it did.

Greg was totally confused, as he looked at the angry witch in front of him, even more surprised when he noticed how over-bright her eyes had become. His voice gentled and he stepped closer to her, "Hey what is the matter? It is only a Hunter family crest necklace. Not anything else, I promise."

Not anything else… She realized the Hufflepuff really didn't get it. "You're wrong. It's something way more then a just a necklace. It's a piece of your family history… Something I do not have. You know all I have to remember my aunt and uncle by is a muggle picture and a necklace? I have absolutely nothing from my parents, not even a foggy memory. So no, this isn't just a necklace." Turning Taylor started down the empty corridor, feeling lost once again. She had nothing from her parents, not a single thing. Her brother had a few things and he willing shared them with her, but they were his things, left to him… Then the Hufflepuff had given a family heirloom away…to a girl he barely knew.

Greg was shocked once again by his witch. He had grown up in a large extended family. He had numerous aunts and uncles, grandparents on both sides and lots of cousin's. Though he was an only child, he had never felt alone growing up because of his many cousins and the many sleepovers they had. With so many in the family there were all kinds of knickknacks and things that were passed around and down through the generations. The necklace he had given his witch was only one of them.

Shaking his head he hurried to catch up to his witch, turning her to face him again when he did. "Taylor I'm sorry. It never even occurred to me it would upset you. I have a lot of things that I treasure dearly of my family's and while I really like this necklace, it isn't very valuable or old. I just wanted you to have something of mine."

Taylor closed her eyes and looked down at the floor. Here she was making a mountain out of a mole hill again, a sad smile pulled at one side of her mouth. Taking a deep breath she looked up at the tall Hufflepuff. "I'm sorry, Greg. I know I'm being stupid about this. It's just that…"

The Head Boy smiled gently down at her, "I'm sorry too. I should have told you about it being my family crest. I just didn't think to last night, and this morning, well that was a little… I'm going to kill Uncle Mike though!"

Taylor couldn't help but smile a little as the Head Boy scowled at the mention of his uncle before he continued. "You know that's what my father wanted to talk to me about? Well one of the things. He wanted to know if I was thinking of marrying you." The Hufflepuff watched his witch's eyes go wide in shock, "I'm not going to lie to you. It really bothered me thinking that I might not ever be able to… be with you. I'm not asking you now or anything, but I needed to know if it was possible."

She watched as raw emotions filtered across the Head Boy's face. And she reached up and put her hand on his face and he turned his cheek into her palm. "I'm warning you now witch, that someday after we finish school, I am going to ask you to marry me… me and my furry little problem!"

Taylor smiled as she felt her heart stutter step again at his words but she tried a joke to lighten the mood. The last week had been a real roller coaster ride and there were still so many things they needed to discuss, though she didn't doubt the sincerity in Greg's words. "I see. Well assuming I say yes, you do know I will want a huge wedding. With at least fourteen bridesmaids! A full course orchestra and at least a thousand people in attendance. Plus I want to have twenty-one Hippogriff's pull the carriage away! Then there is the honeymoon…" She saw the Hufflepuff roll his eyes before he grinned.

"A honeymoon hey? So where might you want to go for that Mrs. Hunter?" Greg teased waggling his eyebrows, glad that his witch was willing once more to overlook his blunder, however inadvertent it was.

"Oh I don't know… how about Antarctica or the North Pole? I hear it's lovely there this time of year?"

The two continued to make wild suggestions where they'd want to go for a honeymoon, the rest of the way up to the seventh floor where they happened to see Harry and Ginny just coming out of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Hey what's so funny? Where have you two been anyway?" Harry asked when he caught sight of the pair.

Taylor had vanished the silencing charm and called in a serious voice, "Why discussing honeymoon locations of course! Which would you pick Harry? Siberia or the Canadian north?"

Ginny had to pound on her boyfriend's back as he gasped and then seemed to start choking, though she hadn't missed the wicked look in the other Gryffindor witch's eyes and knew it was just a joke. "Taylor! You know Harry doesn't take well to such serious discussions! He nearly died of heart failure when you told him you wanted to start seeing a witch, don't you remember!"

Taylor caught sight of her brother's red face and then glanced up at the Hufflepuff beside her and lost it, the other witch joining her. Laughing so hard tears ran down her face, it was nearly a minute before she could get any words out. "Oh Merlin Ginny! Did you see their faces! Oh, that was priceless!"

Greg shook his head as he laughed some himself. He could see Potter was having a harder time recovering from the witches' teasing and that made it even funnier in his opinion.

When Taylor finally stopped giggling, she had to refrain from looking at her brother or else she'd start again, she asked, "You were looking for me?"

Harry glared at his sister and even sent an angry look at Ginny who seemed to think it was extremely amusing also. "Yeah, I was. I wanted to make sure you were okay. Seeing as how you weren't at breakfast or in the Hospital Wing when we went looking for you earlier."

Taylor sobered, "Sorry. It's been a rather crazy morning actually. Greg's dad came to see him… well after that he was released and we headed for the kitchens for something to eat. Flinch-Fletchley told me you were looking for me."

Her brother heard more in her pause, as she had glanced meaningfully at the Hufflepuff, than in the rest of her explanation. "We were just following your suggestion and going to see Hunter in the hospital. Also Kingsley stopped by our table at breakfast and said we have a research session tonight. Oh… I think Hermione wanted to see you about Head duties or something too, Hunter."

Taylor gave her brother a dirty look, and he cocked an eyebrow at her questioningly. "Hunter? Really now Potter, how mature are you?" Taylor asked sarcastically before grabbing the Hufflepuff's hand and asking, "Granger in the common room, Weasley?"

The other Gryffindor witch fought to control her smile as she nodded and couldn't resist saying, "Of course Porter."

"Golden snitch." Taylor told the Fat Lady before walking past her brother and his girlfriend, pulling the Head Boy into the Gryffindor common room behind her to find Hermione.

The common room was fairly crowded but Taylor had no trouble picking out her bushy haired friend over in the corner at her favorite table with a pile of books and parchment spread all over it. Taylor felt a huge weight settle on her shoulders as she thought of all the homework she had to do today. With a sigh she headed for her friend with the Head Boy still in tow.

"Hey Hermione, how's it going?" Taylor asked as she stopped by the table.

Hermione looked up and glared at her friend, demanding in her bossy voice, "Where have you been? You know you are going to be in detention again if you don't get cracking with your homework? Oh, hi Greg. It's good to see you up and around." Taylor rolled her eyes as Hermione's voice turned pleasant as she addressed the Hufflepuff beside her. "I didn't know if you were feeling up to it or not, so I went ahead and made up the patrol schedules for the next week. Do you think you are going to feel up to patrolling tonight? If so just let me know and I will switch Ron and Kerr, then that way we can patrol together for the early shift."

Taylor smiled at the other witch. She knew that by those simple words, her friend had just told Greg that nothing had really changed and that his furry little problem didn't bother her.

Taylor glanced up at the Head Boy as he met the Head Girl's eyes and nodded a little hesitantly as he said, "Yeah, thanks Hermione. I should be good to go tonight… on patrol with you."

Hermione smiled at him reassuringly before turning to Taylor again and glaring at her.

"Alright! Jesh, Mom. I'm getting my homework! I'm heading back down with Greg though, we're going to study together."

Hermione gave her friend a stern McGonagall-ish look before saying, "You had better be getting homework done! I'll see you at supper?"

Taylor laughed as she went to grab her schoolwork calling, "Of course Mom!"

A/N Well that was a bit of a lighter chapter don't you think? A few tense moments in it but over all it was lighter. I couldn't resist calling Greg's werewolf thing a furry little problem! LOL! Hope you can maybe understand why Taylor was so upset about Greg giving her the Hunter family crest(and no I did not do any research on what it might be but just made it up!) Well hoped you liked it, let me know with a review!

Thank you to those who reviewed, alerted and favorited! You guys make me smile! Plus thank you for just reading! Thanks as well to my beta barbc! Without her hard work this story wouldn't be what it is! Well until next time, cytpotter.