XXV

Trouble in Paradise

"Hermione."

The young werewolf drifted into consciousness slowly, feeling a shifting in the space beside her. Hermione groaned, opening her eyes and arching her back in a languid stretch.

She heard a rumbling laugh from her right. Cracking one eye open, she spotted Remus watching her. He had a lighthearted smile on his face, only dimly visible in the darkness.

"It's too early," she mumbled groggily, flipping over and burying her face into the pillow.

"I know." He was moving closer, and she felt his lips press to her naked shoulder. She was completely naked. All the memories of the previous night suddenly came rushing back. She couldn't help the smile that graced her lips, happiness rising in her chest and clenching her heart.

"You have to go back to your room soon," he said quietly, his lips still making their way across her shoulder.

She turned to face him. Remus. Never had she felt more of a sense of belonging, of someone else belonging to her. "I don't want to go back to my room," she whispered. With uncoordinated movements, she shuffled closer to him, pulling the sheets away so that her arms could wrap around his shoulders, her body pressing against his.

His erection was semi-hard against her lower stomach. She wiggled closer, feeling it harden with every movement. It turned her on, the idea of what she did to him.

He let out a quiet groan. "Sunrise is in a half-hour or so. We have until then."

She knew that he was right. After sunrise the others would start waking up. "Well," she sighed, trying to make her voice a little deeper, more suggestive, "we should make use of this half-hour then."

He smiled, his hand running over her waist and hips before pausing. "Are you sore?"

After shifting her hips and legs in appraisal she felt it. There was a dull ache whenever she moved in a certain way. "A little," she answered, "nothing I can't handle, though."

His darkening eyes made her insides clench. How was it possible, she wondered, that just a few looks and touches from him could affect her so greatly?

Keeping true to his promising smile, his hands drifted down from her hips, fluttering over her stomach and reaching the small thatch of hair at her center. His knee pressed between her legs, and she lifted her thigh above his. With the increased wiggle room, his fingers slinked lower. She let out a shaky breath when his hand met her center. She was wet.

Not liking that he had the upper hand, Hermione unclasped her hand from his shoulder, drifting down to his lower stomach. At the first feel of her hand on his cock he shuddered. She gripped him tightly, sliding her thumb over the tip and collecting the drop of moisture.

His fingers continued to circle her clit while she shifted her hand up and down over his erection. Their breathing grew heavy together, eyes meeting and holding each other's gaze. Eventually Remus rested his forehead against her shoulder, his free hand coming up to cup her breast, rolling her nipple between his fingers. She let out a low moan.

Remus started thrusting into her hand erratically, but not before his fingers twisted in an expert move. She gasped at the sudden stab of pleasure.

They came together, both gasping and pulling each other closer. Hermione felt the hot liquid spew into her hand and onto the sheets between them. When her orgasm subsided she let her head fall back onto the pillow, breathing heavily. He kissed her shoulder, then her lips. The kiss was filled with teeth and tongue and neither cared that they probably needed to brush their teeth and wash off the sweat they'd worked up the night before.

After kissing her for a long moment, he pulled back, fumbling for his wand in the dark and cleaning both of them up with a flick. She settled her head onto his chest after, while he placed his wand back on the nightstand and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"You're amazing."

She smiled. "You are too."

"I wish we didn't have to hide this," he murmured, "I wish I didn't have to send you back to your room each morning."

Hermione nodded her agreement. They probably had a good ten minutes until she should leave. "Eventually," she mused, tracing one of scars that stretched across his abdomen, "you won't have to anymore."

Remus watched Hermione as she leaned over the cauldron, wisps of smoke rising in small puffs and obscuring her face slightly. Slowly, with a stirring rod in her left hand, she dropped the chopped Monkshood into the potion. Once the Monkshood was added, there was a limited time to complete the rest of the process. Immediately, Hermione set to work. Remus glanced over at Severus across the lab. He looked almost… anxious. It was an unusual expression on Severus, but to be fair, Remus was quite anxious as well. This was a very important potion to their research.

After almost two weeks of research at the Estate, and even more research in the months before term ended, they had discovered that it seemed a lovage branch was the key. Lovage, while mainly being an ingredient in Confusion or Befuddlement Draughts, could also be altered to replace the normal mind-altering ingredients in the Wolfsbane. Hermione believed that with Lovage, the potion would be more receptive to other ingredients, finally allowing them to implement the body sustaining part of the potion. In other words, this potion, this final test, would tell them if all their work up to here had been good for something.

Yes, it was fair for Severus to be anxious. The Potions Master stood over his own cauldron – something Dumbledore had asked him to brew – his eyes never leaving Hermione and Remus.

"Remus," Hermione murmured, her eyes still focused on the contents of the cauldron as she stirred. Her right hand extended to him, "goblet, please."

He obliged, grabbing a small goblet and holding it out. She ladled about two scoops of the orange colored potion into the goblet. Remus caught a whiff of the potion now that it was in his hands. It smelled like pine. He didn't want to ask Hermione or Severus whether that was a good sign or not, but he figured that it wasn't. Wolfsbane wasn't supposed to smell like anything, especially not something that pleasant. He wondered if the lovage had neutralized the potion in its entirety.

"Alright," Hermione sighed, stepping back and lowering the flame beneath the cauldron to a low simmer, "I think we're ready to test it." She was nibbling her lip between her teeth, and there was a crease between her brows that always appeared when she was deep in thought. She was just as unsure as Remus was about this. He wanted to reach out a hand and smooth down the worried crinkle, kiss her lips in placation. But he didn't; Severus was standing only a few steps away.

Remus set down the goblet, reaching into the cupboard beneath them to fetch the two vials of blood they had left. One was Hermione's, the other Severus'. When Hermione had explained to him the need to draw hers and Severus' blood he'd felt quite uncomfortable, but with time he understood how necessary it really was. At least she wasn't testing the potion by actually drinking it.

The vial of blood labeled 'Human Sample' was opened first. Remus held it while Hermione poured only a few drops of the potion into it. The burgundy red blood darkened momentarily before reverting to normal. That's good, Remus thought, a normal reaction to human blood.

The reaction that mattered the most was Hermione's blood. Remus opened the vial labeled 'Lycan Sample' and extended it to her. She took a deep breath before tipping the goblet of the potion, letting three drops fall into the vial of her own blood.

A glance at Hermione's open notebook on the table told Remus that they were hoping for no visible reaction. If there wasn't a visible reaction, Hermione would cast a spell that told them the potency of the potion mixed with her blood. If the potency was high enough, then it was a success.

There wasn't even a need to cast the potency spell. Just as the drops of the altered Wolfsbane hit the blood, it darkened in color, just like it had done with Severus' blood. Hermione's shoulders sagged, her mouth opening slightly in surprise. "That can't be," she murmured quietly, shakily. A second later she'd fetched her wand and performed the potency charm. Remus glanced up at Severus, who was shaking his head sadly. It was a failure.

"No," Hermione whispered. Remus glanced down at the vial, now a bright green color from Hermione's spell. Green indicated that the potency was virtually nothing. It truly had been a failure.

Her wand hand dropped to her side, her eyes darting from the vial to her notebook on the table. She pounced on the book, skimming pages, flipping through them with abandon. "We must have done something wrong," she murmured, talking to herself more than Remus or Severus, "one of the ingredients must have been spoiled, or-"

"It didn't work."

Severus' deep voice surprised Remus. He hadn't spoken all day. Hermione glanced up from the notebook, a challenging look on her face. Severus stepped away from his cauldron, examining Hermione's notebook and then the Wolfsbane in her cauldron. "You did everything right," he said with conviction, "but it didn't work."

Hermione inhaled shakily. Remus extended a hand to her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Hermione."

"No," she shook his hand off, stepping away from her notebook and pressing her hand to her forehead. "I- I must have done something wrong!" Her tone was shrill.

"Hermione," Severus spoke. Remus didn't think he'd ever heard the man refer to her by her first name. "There's a reason the Wolfsbane is the way it is. Perhaps it isn't possible to alter it like this. Some things just can't be done with a potion."

"So what?" she looked at him questioningly, "you think I should just give up?"

He didn't respond for a few seconds, but finally nodded.

"I can't give up!" She exclaimed, looking at Remus and then back at Severus.

Remus felt a terrible ache in his chest. His voice was low and placating when he spoke. "Perhaps we should take a break, Hermione."

She turned to him with an angry glint in her eyes. "Don't patronize me, Remus Lupin." Her finger was pointed at him accusingly, but he could see her hand trembling.

"Hermione," he began, pleadingly, "I'm not-"

She stopped him. "You don't understand, Remus." Her tone was low and rough. "I need to do this," she placed a hand on the table to steady herself, "I need this to work. I can't take a break. I can't let this be a failure. I need you to know what life is like without these goddamn transformations!" He could hear from the hitch of her voice that she was close to crying. "I need to fix this because otherwise you will blame yourself and hate yourself forever for what you've done to me!"

He stepped forward then, reaching out to her and opening his mouth to speak.

She stepped away from him, holding a hand to stop him before he could even start. "Don't tell me you don't blame yourself, Remus," a sob tore free from her throat, "I see the guilt in your eyes nearly every day!"

He didn't let her get any further, and she didn't protest when he took two more steps forward and pulled her into his embrace. She was gasping for breath, clutching his arms and shoulders tightly. He wrapped his arms around her firmly and swallowed down the lump in his throat. With one hand he reached up and smoothed down her hair, resting his chin on the top of her head.

On the other side of the cauldron, Severus stepped back. Remus watched as the man nodded wordlessly at him, uncomfortably stepping towards the door and exiting the room.

She was crying into his shoulder now, her hands fiercely gripping the back of his jumper. He tightened his arms around her. "We don't have to give up," he murmured, "we can try again. I'm sure there's a way, and if anyone can figure it out, it's you."

She shook her head back and forth, her face still pressed against the front of his jumper. "Snape said he thinks I should give up. He's probably right, Remus."

Although he hadn't known Hermione this closely for longer than a few months, he understood her well enough to know the root of her distress over this. She'd always feared failure and rejection above nearly everything else. He vividly remembered her Boggart in her third year: Minerva telling her she'd failed all her classes. She was terrified of failure, especially when it came from the mouth of someone she admired as much as her Professor.

"No," he responded quietly, "Severus has been wrong before. We need to keep trying. What if there really is a solution out there and we just haven't found it yet?"

She sniffled, not speaking for a long moment. "You're right."

"Good," he murmured, "but let's take a break. It won't hurt if we have one or two days away from all of this."

"Okay," she said reluctantly, picking her head up, "but only one or two days."

He chuckled, reaching out a hand to wipe a stray tear from her cheek. She leaned up on her toes and kissed his lips. He returned the kiss for just a moment before pulling back. "One or two days," he agreed. "Let's go downstairs and get something to eat. I'm starving."

She let out a quiet laugh, too. "You sound like Ronald."

He released his arms around her, and together they walked towards the door.

Hermione and Remus didn't return to their research the next day, or the day after. On the third morning they sat at breakfast, determined that today was going to be the day they returned to the lab. The failure with the lovage was a major setback, but Hermione knew that there must be a solution, or at least a way to get around this particular obstacle.

"Are you sure you want to start up again today?" Remus inquired, giving her a sidelong glance from where he sat beside her at the table.

She nodded. "I'm ready to go back."

He smiled lightly, returning his focus to picking at his breakfast. Hermione looked across the table at Harry and Sirius. Harry was immersed in an animated story Sirius was telling, but Sirius had noticed the interaction between Remus and Hermione, however quiet and insignificant. Ginny appeared to have noticed as well, sending a smirk in Sirius' direction. The two of them had been far too smug lately about their knowledge of this secret. Hermione had told Ginny almost immediately the morning after that she'd had sex with Remus. Though she suspected Remus wasn't the type to disclose everything about his personal relationships to a mate, something told her Sirius could tell what had happened as well.

"So, as I was saying," Sirius continued, leaning back in his chair, "in our fifth year the new bloke that was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts was an absolute git. Moony can attest to that, right?"

Remus hummed in affirmation, nodding into his coffee. "The man didn't even know what he was teaching. Half of my goals as a professor when I took the job were to not be like him."

"Sounds like Lockheart," Ron huffed from between Ginny and Fred. Everyone took a moment to cringe at the awful education Lockheart had tried to bestow upon them.

"Anyway," Sirius sighed, "we found out sometime in the first term that he'd been president of the Gobstones Club when he attended Hogwarts."

"Naturally, James challenged him to a Gobstones match," Remus said, laughing openly.

Harry's eyes were bright with amusement as he listened to the story. Hermione was the only one to notice Draco slip into the dining room, passing Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who were talking quietly at the end of the table about something, and taking the only open seat next to Hermione.

She smiled at him. "Good morning."

"Morning," he replied, reaching for a glass and the pitcher of pumpkin juice. "Is it story time again?"

Hermione restrained a laugh. Draco thought it was funny how enthralling Harry found stories about his parents. "Stop it," she chided lightly under her breath, "it's all he has."

Draco quirked a brow, reaching for a piece of toast next, "Okay, okay, whatever you say. I just think it's funny how easily entertained Potter is." As he was bringing the toast up to his mouth, he froze, wide eyes gazing down at Hermione's shoulder.

She blanched, realizing that her t-shirt had shifted slightly, exposing the scar on her shoulder. Draco stared at the scar with alarm for two seconds before looking away. "Sorry," he mumbled under his breath.

"It's okay," Hermione replied. He'd learned the truth of her lycanthropy several days ago, but she wondered if he fully understood the implications of it.

Well, now he was faced with some solid, undeniable proof.

He looked like he wanted to say something else. When he hesitated Hermione nodded, egging him on. "Is- is that where you were bitten?" though his voice was low Hermione could tell that Remus was listening on her other side. Everyone else at the table was absorbed as Sirius regaled them with a tale of James Potter's epic Gobstones match.

"No," she shook her head, "just a scar. I was bitten near my ankle."

"Oh." His voice was uncharacteristically shrill.

"It's okay, Draco," she murmured, a hint of malice in her voice, "you don't have to feel so uncomfortable." A small part of her knew that some Pureblood ideas wouldn't fully leave Draco for a long time. He still sometimes spoke and acted like the spoiled pureblood supremacist he'd been as a child. She wondered if perhaps he remained a bit of a supremacist on the inside, uncomfortable and disgusted by her because she was a werewolf.

"No," he immediately sat up straighter, "I didn't mean to- I'm sorry. It's just hard for me to think about the fact that my father caused this."

She let out a small breath, and she thought for a moment that she could hear Remus do the same thing on her left. "It's alright. I know it's difficult for you, but… it's my life now."

He nodded, opening his mouth to say something else, but interrupted by Sirius' voice across the table.

"And believe it or not, James beat him!" Sirius said between laughs, "won the bet and everything. The bloke had to give him an O for the whole term! You should have seen how much that guy hated the lot of us for the rest of the year. More detentions than your father had ever had that year. The best part was that the next day we told the president of the Gobstones club – Amelia something – and the following week she asked James to join in front of the professor!"

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and the twins broke out into laughter. Hermione didn't quite understand why it was so funny. Neither did Draco. The pair of them just sat, staring at the others as they chuckled. They remained like that, watching the laughter across the table, until breakfast was suddenly interrupted.

The door to the dining room slammed open quite suddenly, and a disheveled Professor Snape stepped into the room. He scanned the occupants briefly. Hermione noted that he was wearing different robes than the usual type, and there was some slip of fabric tucked under his arm. She grew quite pale at the realization that he was wearing Death Eater robes and the fabric under his arm was his Death Eater mask.

"Arthur," he murmured deeply, "a word?" His eyes were focused on Mr. Weasley, but Hermione could see them dart around the table once more. Everyone was silent, staring at him in surprise or confusion. If the sight of a disheveled Professor Snape wasn't shocking enough, she was certain that a few of the others understood what the robes and the mask under his arm meant. Harry was gripping his fork with white knuckles.

"Of course," Mr. Weasley stood from the table, patting his wife's hand placatingly before following Snape out of the room.

There was complete silence for several seconds before Mrs. Weasley stood abruptly. With a flick of her wand she levitated empty plates and cups towards the end of the table. Hermione could tell the woman was pretending that all was well.

"You don't reckon…?" George mumbled across the table.

"I reckon so…" Fred replied grimly.

As if in response, Mr. Weasley entered the room once again. It couldn't have been more than a minute since he'd left. He brushed off some imaginary lint from his sleeve, sitting back down at the table.

"Dad?" Ginny questioned lightly.

Mr. Weasley fixed his daughter with a long look, his eyes then roving over everyone at the table, pausing at Draco for a second too long. "Severus has been called," he said at last.

Author's Note: I decided to post this chapter just a little early as a sort of thank-you after you all left me so many lovely reviews on the last chapter. I'm really so grateful that so many people read and enjoy this story. As for this chapter, we're very close to hitting 400 reviews. Can we get there?