Chapter 9: Thursday, November 1, 1979
"All you need is love; but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
-Charles M. Schulz
Hermione bolted upright in her bed. Her hair was clinging to a sweat soaked neck and her chest rising and falling in rapid pants. A nightmare. She blinked a few times, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she looked down at her watch. 5:19. She sighed, throwing the covers off her legs and shoving her hair from her face. She barely managed three hours, but that was a sight more than she had been getting in the last several months.
She rummaged through her bag, pulling out a small brick of the expensive dark chocolate that she had nicked from Draco and a tin of espresso and headed toward the kitchen, tucking her wand into the waistband of her pajamas. She hoped Lily wouldn't mind her going through the cabinets in search of a coffee press or a kettle, although she could conjure one if need be. Her eyes adjusted to the lack of light and foreign surroundings as she located the kitchen.
As quietly as possible, Hermione went through the cabinets, quickly finding, and nearly moaning at the sight of, a coffee press. She added the water to it and placed it on the stove top, moving to find a small sauce pot to fill with milk. Once the sauce pot was on and the milk was simmering, she added a bit of the chocolate, mixing it together and then pulled the coffee press off the burner, adding the espresso and pressing the top down slowly.
"That's a lot of effort for a cup of coffee," a gravelly voice came from the table.
Hermione jumped, her hand flying to her chest as she set the press onto the counter, "You scared me half to death!"
Remus chuckled, "Sorry, I erm, thought you would have seen me by now."
"Have you been there this whole time?" she asked.
He nodded, "Yes."
"And you just let me dig through every cabinet and didn't offer any help?"
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "Sorry," he mumbled.
She smirked at him, "It's okay, would you like a cup? I always make too much."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Half hot chocolate and half espresso," she answered.
Remus pulled a face of disgust, "That doesn't sound very good."
"You like hot chocolate, don't you?"
"Yes,"
"Then hush and try it," Hermione said, smiling at him.
Remus narrowed his eyes at her, leaning back in the chair, his hands clasped together on the table in front of him. She pulled another mug from the cabinet and filled each half way with hot chocolate and then topped it off with the espresso. She carried the mugs to the table, sliding one to Remus and taking a seat in the chair across from his. She pulled one leg up, her foot planted on the seat as she wrapped an arm around her knee, taking a sip of the molten liquid.
Hermione watched as he brought the mug to his lips, taking a deep breath through his nose before sipping it. "Well," she said. "What do you think?"
"Blasus," Remus whispered, his eyes fluttering shut.
"I'm sorry?"
"Blasus," he repeated, a bit louder. "Delicious. It means delicious."
"Is that… Is that Welsh?"
Remus nodded, "I grew up just east of Cardiff."
"I didn't kn- realize that you were Welsh. I've been to Cardiff, once. With my parents when I was young, it was nice there. The people were friendly."
He nodded, pursing his lips before taking another sip from his steaming mug. "Dumbledore said your parents were killed, I'm sorry." his brows pulled together as he shook his head. "Sorry, shit, sorry, that was rude."
She offered a small smile, "It's okay. What has you up so early?"
"It's always hard to sleep this close to… I just don't really sleep well," he mumbled.
Of course, she thought. Waxing Gibbous. Full moon is only a few days away… "I don't sleep well either. If you don't mind the company, I'll probably be up for the rest of the day."
Remus shrugged, sipping at his mug some more. Hermione settled into the chair, pulling her other leg up and folding them into a pretzel shape in front of her on the seat. She leaned back, holding the mug in both hands, in her lap. She closed her eyes and let her mind wander, the silence was nice, so much different than the constant movement of someone in the Shrieking Shack. It was a reprieve from the constant moans of someone in pain, needing her medical attention, the arguing between Ron, Seamus, Percy and Theo as they tried to create new battle plans. The constant waking in the middle of the night from her night terrors or the screams of someone else experiencing their own.
Hermione already missed them, though. Her friends, her family. The people she had spent every hour with for the last three years or more, in Ron and Harry's case. She wished she could talk to them, tell them everything she had seen so far, tell them how beautiful Lily was, how James' hair poked up in the exact same places as Harry's...
She could picture it, if she tried hard enough, Harry growing up here. An awkward, messy haired boy, smiling at the table as his mum fixed his breakfast and his dad read the Prophet. Visiting over the summers and coming by over Christmas holiday to drop off a gift to her best friend and his parents. She wondered if they would have dinner at the Weasley's with them, like they used to do before the War. Wondered if Remus and Sirius would have their own places, get married and have children of their own.
Hermione's thoughts were interrupted when the front door slammed shut, rattling a window and causing her to jump from her reverie. She pulled her wand from the waistband of her pajamas and jumped to her feet, her chest heaving in panicked breaths.
"It's just Sirius," Remus said, his hand touching the top of her wrist lightly, urging her to lower her wand. "He's drunk, I'm sure."
"Moony! Moony, is that you?! Are you still awake?" A very slurred voice called from the sitting room, "Moony, you'll never believe who I- oomph!- Shit, I knocked the fern over."
Hermione took her seat, her hand still wrapped around her wand, resting on the table. "Sorry, I'm a bit jumpy these days," she explained.
"Understandable," Remus said. "You'll have to forgive Sirius, he-
"Lils! Lils, is that you? What are you doin' up at this hour?!" Sirius stumbled into the kitchen, his bleary eyed gaze landing on Hermione and stopping him in his tracks. "You aren't Lily. Who the hell are you?"
"Pads," Remus said, standing up from his chair to walk over to Sirius. He grabbed his elbow and led him to a chair, giving him a light push on his shoulders to sit him down. "This is Hermione. There was an Order meeting called tonight, she's staying here with us until she can get her own flat."
Sirius leaned forward, staring at Hermione through narrowed eyes, his jaw tightened. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-two," she said.
"Why haven't I seen you before? You didn't go to Hogwarts! I would remember hair like that!" Sirius slurred.
"Pads!" Remus scolded.
"What?!" Sirius said, indignantly. "It's on her head! I'm sure she knows she's got a lot of hair!"
"It's all right," Hermione said, "I didn't go to Hogwarts. I was homeschooled, my mum's a witch so she taught me. My dad is a muggle and still wanted me to learn muggle schooling, so they taught me at home."
"And what's your last name Her… Hermoninny… Hermynee..?"
"Granger," she answered. "And it's pronounced Her-my-oh-nee."
"Her-my-oh-nee… That's a mouthful," Sirius said. He turned his head to look at Remus, who was standing next to him, arms folded and looking at him with a severely annoyed look. "Moony, I don't like new people, Moony."
Remus sighed and looked at Hermione, "I'm sorry," he apologized.
She stood, swallowing down the rest of her espresso and hot chocolate and taking her mug to the sink. She rinsed it and cast a scourgify before returning it to the cabinet. "It's okay. I'll go back to my room. It was nice meeting you, Sirius."
"Moony, who is this girl? Why does she know my name?" Hermione heard Sirius asking Remus as she walked out of the kitchen and down the hall to her room.
When she closed the door, Hermione felt the tears in her eyes well up and spill over. This was going to be much harder than she had anticipated. Even with the mental barriers Draco had erected in her mind, she still knew these people. Even if she couldn't recall details about them, she knew who they were to Harry, to her. She could feel the importance of these people niggling in the back of her mind.
It was the smell of cinnamon wafting into the small room, that roused Hermione from the sleep she had fallen into. She sat up, stretching her arms above her head and looking at her watch. 10:46. She dug through her bag, pulling out a pair of trousers and a jumper and changed. She looked into the mirror that sat atop the dresser and sighed, running her hands through her hair in an attempt to get her curls into a manageable state.
A soft knock on the door followed by Lily's voice came, "Hermione, are you awake?"
"I am," she answered, opening the door. "I laid down for a short kip and slept much longer than I anticipated."
Lily smiled, her green eyes lighting up as they wrinkled. "It's all right. Remus said he saw you this morning, I just wanted to make sure Sirius didn't run you off."
Hermione waved a hand of indifference, "I'm fine," she assured Lily. "What is that smell? It smells lovely."
Lily beamed again, stepping back into the hall to make room for Hermione to exit. "Remus is baking."
"He bakes?"
LIly nodded, "Almost every day. Sometimes for every meal… I don't know what he's made, but it smells divine, doesn't it?"
Hermione nodded, wondering if Remus- the Remus she knew, had always baked. She chuckled to herself at the thought of Remus baking biscuits at Grimmauld Place. No, her Remus certainly wasn't a baker.
She followed Lily into the kitchen and took a seat at the table offering a small smile to James and Sirius as she perched in the chair at the end of the table.
"Morning," James said. "Tea?"
"Yes, please."
James poured a steaming cup for her and slid it across the table. "Sugar or cream?"
"No, thank you." she said.
Sirius looked up at her over the top of a magazine he was reading, his eyes narrow and his brows pulled together a moment as he looked at her. Hermione shifted in her seat, taking a sip of the tea and feeling like her skin was crawling under his gaze.
"Sirius, love, did you knock the fern over again when you came in this morning?" Lily asked, taking the cup of tea James handed her and pressing a small kiss to his cheek.
Sirius' gaze pulled away from Hermione as he wrinkled his face up in thought, "It would explain the bruise on my shin."
"He knocked the bloody thing over and I cleaned it up," Remus' voice came from where he was standing, bent over the open oven as he pulled a round cake pan from inside. "Spilled soil all over the floor."
Lily nodded, humming as she sipped at her tea, "I thought so. It was moved a bit further to the left than I had it."
Hermione watched and listened with interest as the group began to talk about the correct placement of the large fern and where it would get the best light. Lily was adamant that Sirius was wrong, that the fern, in fact, did not need to be in direct sunlight to thrive. A sentiment that Remus agreed on, wholeheartedly. James and Sirius both argued that every plant needs a lot of sun- 'that's why they grow outside, Lily!' Hermione couldn't help the chuckle that spilled from her lips as she finished her tea.
"What do you know about plants? You didn't even go to proper school!" Sirius shot at her.
"Sirius!" Lily snapped, "That's rude!"
Hermione placed her teacup on the table and smiled, "It depends on the type of fern," she began. "Most ferns do best in partial sunlight-
"I told you!" Lily said.
"There are a lot of species that thrive in damp, totally shaded areas. They're an inner woodland plant, afterall. Judging by the leaves and shade of green on the fern you have potted, it's an evergreen fern, which requires partial sunlight. In order for a species that requires ample sunlight, like a cinnamon fern or a royal fern, you would need to keep its soil very damp which is hard to do for a fern that grows indoors. Of course, if you look further into magical species it all depends on which region they-
"Great!" Sirius said, throwing his hands in the air. "Another swot in the house to point out when I'm wrong! Perfect, just bloody perfect."
Remus joined them at the table, his eyes twinkling with delight as he hovered the cake over to the stand in the center of the table, lowering it gently and swatting at James' hands as they moved toward it. "It needs to cool or else it will fall apart," he said. "And Sirius, you know better than to question Lily on her plants. You brought it upon yourself."
"It smells amazing," Hermione said, pointing to the cake. "Lily said you bake a lot?"
The corner of Remus' mouth quirked in a shy smile as he nodded, "Yeah, I guess I do. It's an apple cinnamon cake. I got the apples out of the orchard behind the village this morning."
"So, Hermione, tell us about yourself." James said, "You didn't go to Hogwarts?"
She shook her head, "No, I didn't. I explained to Sirius and Remus this morning, my dad was a muggle and wanted me to continue with muggle schooling as well. So my parents taught me at home. My mum taught me magic, my dad taught me muggle subjects," she said.
"Your dad's a muggle?" Lily asked, "I'm muggleborn! And Remus is a half-blood, too! His mum is a muggle."
Remus nodded, his hands twisting into the hem of his cardigan as he looked down, as if trying to avoid eye contact.
Hermione pulled her eyes from Remus and smiled at Lily, "Yes, he was a dentist. I studied a lot, though, at home. There wasn't much else to do and I always enjoyed learning. Didn't lead a particularly exciting life, I guess."
"What was your favorite magical subject?" James asked.
Hermione shrugged. "All of them? They're all useful, in their own way. I've always done well at potions and I'm a good healer, muggle and magical. I studied both."
"A good healer?" Lily said, a significant glance at Remus before settling back to Hermione. "That's a useful skill to have. I'm fair, but I wouldn't call it good." Lily leaned over to Remus, tapping his chest lightly. The motion caused him to sit up straighter, pulling his shoulders to the back of the chair. "Stop your slouching, Remus. That's why your back always hurts."
"That isn't why my back always hurts," Remus grumbled, under his breath but adjusting his posture anyway.
They continued to talk for over an hour, telling Hermione about Hogwarts- things she already knew about the castle and the classes, but she listened with rapt attention. It was interesting, the interactions between them all. James seemed to direct the conversations, asking questions and moving everyone to what he wanted to talk about. He was funny but very direct and Lily often pointed out to him if he sounded rude or too blunt.
Lily seemed to be very close to not only James, but Sirius and Remus as well. She nearly doted on them, fixing their tea and making sure Remus sat up straight. She was mothering, but not in an annoying or unbearable way. She cared, truly cared, for these people in her life and it was obvious she wanted only the best for them.
Remus and Sirius were a little more difficult to pinpoint, which gave her a headache. Out of the group, they should have been the easiest. She had actually known them, afterall! She lived an entire summer with Sirius and even though she couldn't really remember it- thanks to Draco- she felt like his personality shouldn't be so hard to grasp.
He was standoffish, laconic in the way he spoke to her. He seemed apprehensive of everything she said, as if he were surveying her every move. It made her uncomfortable, the way he seemed to stare into her, picking apart her words and questioning everything she said.
Remus, on the other hand, seemed uncomfortable. Not just with her presence, but in his own skin. He certainly wasn't the confident, knowledgeable man she remembered. Nearly every other sentence included an apology of some sort and his body language suggested he wanted to just disappear into himself, to be forgotten. He seemed genuinely surprised every time someone brought him into the conversation, as if he were far more content to just listen and had nothing to say. Every word he spoke was soft, quiet, as if he were afraid he'd startle them by speaking too loud. The gentle, sing-song tone he spoke with was only contradicted by the surprising amount of swear words he peppered into his sentences.
After lunch, sandwiches put together by James, James, Lily, and Sirius all left to check in with Moody. They had been working to gather intel against the Death Eaters and met every thursday to go over any new information, according to Lily.
Remus was asleep in his room when the three of them left. Lily explained that sometimes, Remus needed extra sleep, and since he didn't sleep well at night, he napped throughout the day when he needed to rest. Of course, Hermione knew this was due to the approaching full-moon, but didn't think it would be wise to admit she had sensitive information about a man she had just met.
Instead, she sat in the back garden, her journal in hand as she wrote small details about their conversations into it. She made it a point to keep track of every small detail she could of Lily and James, so when she got back home, she could deliver Harry as much information about them that she could manage.
The garden was beautiful and well kept, like the cottage itself. There were a few wooden benches that sat under the large walnut tree and tons of flowers- both muggle and magical. The air was cool, even with the sun shining overhead, and Hermione wrapped her cloak tighter to her frame as she scribbled into the journal.
"You're using a muggle pen," Remus' voice came from above her.
Hermione looked up to see his green eyes staring down at her, his head tilted a bit to the right as he looked at the pen. She closed the pen into her journal and shifted, scooting to the side to make room on the bench for him. She patted the seat, inviting him to take it.
He looked hesitant for a moment before pulling the legs of his trousers up a bit to give him some room at the knees as he sat. She noticed that his socks were argyle and mismatched. She chuckled, pointing at his ankles, "Your socks aren't matching."
He looked down at them, pink tinging his cheeks, "I guess they aren't."
"My best friend never matches his socks either, always said it was a waste of time," she said, chuckling lightly.
Silence fell over them and she looked at Remus from the corner of her eye. He looked stiff and awkward, patting his hands lightly on his lap as he stared off over the garden. After a while, he spoke, "Would you maybe want to eat a piece of cake with me?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Hermione stood, placing the journal in the inside pocket of her cloak and held a hand out to Remus. He stared at it, slowly bringing his gaze up to hers, his brows furrowed together.
"I was offering to help you off the bench," she explained. "If you don't like to be touched, I understand." Her hand fell back to her side as she took a few steps back, "But a piece of that cake sounds wonderful, and I would very much like to try it."
Remus pursed his lips and stared at her for another minute before pushing himself up off the bench and taking a stride, standing next to her. "Sorry," he mumbled. "It's nothing personal I just-
"You don't have to explain yourself." Hermione said, "I understand."
"Sorry, right. Shit. Sorry."
Hermione tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, biting back a smile at the nervousness of this young Remus. He began walking toward the house and she stepped beside him, following him into the house. As Remus moved into the kitchen, she removed her boots and cloak in her room, hanging the cloak in the closet and padded back into the kitchen.
Remus had two slices of the cake waiting on the table as he rummaged through the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of milk and bringing it to the table. He poured a mug for each of them before taking his seat, across from Hermione.
He watched her as she stuck the tines of the fork into the cake and brought the bite to her mouth. His eyes scanning over the motion, waiting for her reaction. When she tasted it, it was all she could do to stifle the small groan in the back of her throat. Her eyes fluttered shut as she chewed.
"Remus," she said, the words coming out on the end of a sigh. "This is amazing."
Hermione could see the ribbon of gold flash through his eyes as they lit up, a small but satisfied smile tugging his lips. "You like it?"
"What did you say this morning? Blasus?"
The grin widened and he nodded, taking his own bite. "Blasus."
.
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a/n: Hey all, thank you for reading! As always supermega love to Mayghaen17, without her this story would not exist. Or, I mean, it would. It would just be god awful lol
So, I'm kind of IN LOVE with the Remus is Welsh headcanon... With that being said, I am from the US, and I have no idea about the proper Welsh dialect beyond google and google translate, so if something is wrong or misused, tell me! I promise not to be offended haha
Please take a second to leave a review, I really appreciate them and it helps me to figure out what people are liking and not liking about the story. While it is pre-written, I do go in and change things from time to time, so I like to have the feedback!
Thanks again!
xo
Mimi
