{11-And Here I Thought}

Hermione stared at one Remus Lupin with astonishment that was not befitting a woman like herself who'd seen many worse things than the boy before her. For example, the fact that she'd been cursed and put back around twenty years in time was one of those factors that should have made this situation one of the many normal every-day occurrences. 

Unfortunately, this situation dealt with matters of Hermione's ever-confused heart. And when the heart was involved, emotions seemed ten-fold as opposed to their normal capacity. 

"Hey, Remus," Mary spoke, looking back towards her pleadingly, but Hermione was just as speechless as she was. 

Besides the fact that Remus could make or break her staying at Hogwarts and not blowing up Time, there was also the question of how in hell had he gotten into the room? It was supposed to be a place where Hermione could be free and relaxed while Mary took her picture and she relaxed as herself for a while. Then again... the room could have taken into account the fact that she very much fancied Remus, which also meant if Severus had been looking for her then he could have just as easily stumbled into the room. 

Bloody hell with this castle, hadn't six years of screwing her over been enough? 

"Who is she?" 

"You know who I am," Hermione provided, stating it rather than asking because Remus was very smart, and she knew he could easily figure it out. 

"Florizel?" 

"Sort of, what's the map say?"

He was too flabbergasted to be worried over how Hermione knew what the map was, and she would hope that they kept it that way so that way no questions could be asked. 

"Hermione Granger," Remus said slowly, looking at the parchment as though it had been the reason for the sudden revelation.

"Right," she mumbled stepping to the middle of the couch, "Care to join? I can explain more if you're sitting..."

"You know... it's none of my business," he said suddenly, "If you didn't want to tell me you were  a girl, I'm sure you had your reasons... I shouldn't have come here, I've never even been to this part of the castle, but I couldn't find you anywhere on this bloody map.... and now I'm rambling."

The poor thing was flustered, and Hermione really wanted to just yank him onto the bloody sofa. 

"Just sit, will you? I want to explain."

"But you wouldn't have if I hadn't barged in and forced it out of you!" Remus protested, very much the boy who'd hidden a secret of his own for far too long. 

"Everything happens for a reason, why don't you just come sit down, and I'll give you all my reasons," Hermione offered. And while it was a half-lie, she wouldn't be leaving anything out that she hadn't already told Mary. 

Speaking of whom looked very uncomfortable. 

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

Remus still did not look fully convinced, but he shuffled over and plopped onto the sofa Mary soon occupied as well, and now they were both looking at her expectantly. One was being much more enthusiastic, however. 

"My real name is Hermione Granger, and this is what I actually look like. I used Florizel as a cover up because I didn't want to make any friends or anything and just wanted to keep to myself, and I thought the best way to do that was to change what I looked like that way when school was over I could be a girl again and no one would be the wiser as to who I was." 

Some of the "information" was new to Mary, but she was far more concerned with Remus Lupin's reaction to care about the details. He was more important. 

And he was shaken, though it was obviously not the strangest thing he'd heard in his life because he let out a loose laugh that reminded Hermione briefly of a howl. What a coincidence.

"Is everything else true? Your parents being dead and all... and your sister?"

"Well, yes and no... my sister is... me, but I am alone here. I'm just your average only-child who transferred out of home-schooling trying to make it in Hogwarts as a girl disguised as a boy." 

She earned a real laugh this time, and Hermione's shoulders let off a significant burden she hadn't remembered picking up. It felt nice to tell people her secrets, she had always been an open book. Everything bar wiping her parents memory clean, she'd told Harry and Ron. They knew her better than they knew themselves because she let them. Having so many secrets from people she liked was awful. 

"I think average is quite the bloody understatement. You're very odd, Hermione."

The name was familiar on his lips, and Hermione realized what she'd just done. What had just happened. Fate and Hogwarts had just put her in a terrible position that meant she was going to need to tell more lies and keep more secrets for twenty more years. And the memory charms! She'd have to spend hours perfecting them, for the whole of time rested upon her now. 

"Thanks, I'm used to it." 

"Well, if it's any consolation, I think you're a very pretty girl."

Hermione grinned, attempting to ignore the gross faces Mary was making at Remus and herself. It was all quite amusing, really, and she wondered briefly if by trusting this secret to Remus that one day soon he would entrust her with his. It wasn't like she didn't know it already. 

"Thank you, Remus."

"You said you were looking for Hermione? How'd you find us? I didn't even know this room was here until Hermione showed me and told me how it worked," Mary wondered, being the nosy one of the group. 

Remus looked at her with surprise, probably just recalling that she was there to his right. 

Stuttering a bit, he pulled out a map, "I hadn't ever seen your name on here before, Hermione, we usually only use it at night, and now that I think about it, you should be rooming with us, but you don't, so that makes a lot of sense."

"Dumbledore enchanted my single room so that no one questions it, I suppose his magic surpassed yours. I assume that parchment shows everyone's location?" 

He looked up at her with a grin, hands posted on the sprawled map, "You're right, yeah. And well, I didn't think much of your name not showing up, but then I remember you saying something about hanging out with Mary, so I looked for her, and she wasn't on here either."

"That's sorta creepy, Lupin," Mary remarked, looking slightly weirded-out. 

"It has it's purposes, and it only shows locations on Hogwarts, it's not like I can follow you home," he retorted blatantly, looking back to Hermione with a prideful grin, "The boys and I made it ourselves for... mischief, I suppose."

"You're a prefect!" Hermione played the good and horrified student as if she hadn't chased after a Philosopher's Stone and beaten a fully-grown mountain troll with Harry and Ron her very first year in Hogwarts. 

"It just means I'm better at not getting caught," Remus said playfully. 

She could see the Marauder in him, and the side that his other friends were attached to, the fun and deviant side of the wolf who liked to play. 

"You're every bit as awful as Sirius, aren't you?" Hermione teased, glad he hadn't asked her exactly how she so intuitively knew about the map. 

"How dare you put me so low? I'm worse! The amount of detentions he's taken for me, I think I owe him one at this point." He didn't really mean it, and Hermione was ever the more intrigued by him. 

She had only known him for so long before he died, and half of that was the sweater-loving Professor Lupin era before the I-have-no-idea-how-to-function-while-married-and-soon-to-be-a-father-Lupin. This side of him, which Harry should have known and referred to fondly as Uncle Remus, was foreign and so very lovable. 

"Well, as fascinating as this is," Mary interrupted their moment, "You still haven't told us why you needed Hermione."

"Right," he shook his head and ran his right hand through his hair, Hermione catching the glimpse of a few almost-healed cuts and scrapes on his hand, "I wanted to know if you'd want to go see the Quidditch game tonight with Sirius and I? I should warn you he's too prideful for his own good, though. I reckon they'll cream Ravenclaw. Sorry, Mary."

"You don't mean that," she said factually, collecting the photos from the table in front of her, then getting up to gather the other ones that had been left behind. 

"I'd love to go." 

"Great, see you tonight, then! Don't forget to wear Gryffindor colors, there's no excuse not to! James would be disappointed if you didn't. Snape be damned." 

Hermione heard the tinge of jealousy in his acknowledgment of her friendship with Severus, especially now that he knew she was girl, he was to be even more alert of the potential threats to their... whatever it was they had. 

"He doesn't know, you know. It's just you and Mary."

"That is good to know," he replied lightly, looking over to where the other girl was holding up little squares of photo-paper. "Why were you two in here anyways?"

"I can't see what I look like when I have my charms up. Only everyone else and a camera can see the facade, so I asked Mary to do this little photo-session and we ended up having a lot more fun with it than originally planned," Hermione said with a smile, thinking back to before they'd been so suddenly interrupted. 

"Ah, well, either way, I think you look great."

"So you're okay with me like this? Truly?" 

"She was worried, you know!" A very boisterous Ravenclaw shouted from her corner. 

Remus laughed, looking over to the intruder with a glance, "Yeah, I reckon I've always had one foot on land and one in the water, if you get my drift." 

"Definitely," Hermione said, and she knew even better than Remus did about his preferences. Specifically a metamorphmagus who was only a few years old at this point, but then again, if Hermione wanted to be technical she hadn't even been born yet, so which one was really the crime? 

"See you tonight, then?"

"Tonight," Hermione agreed, "Tell James good luck for me, I want to get some work done before the match, so I'll be in my room."

"Shall do," Remus said, taking out his wand and muttering the incantation to close the map, something Hermione would pretend she didn't know. 

"I thought he'd never leave! Merlin, you have boobs all of a sudden and it's like he can't keep his eyes in his head!" Mary exclaimed handing Hermione a stack of photographs. "Those are all the good ones and some of the funny ones. I have a few good ones, too, keepsakes, if you will."

"I don't mind," she said as she thumbed through the photos, thinking lightly as she watched the boy version of herself twist and turn, "Is there anymore film?"

"I reckon, why?"

"Would you take a photograph of me like this? I want to give it to Remus."

"Is that smart?" Mary asked her, and she had a very good argument to back it up, "If you want your secret to be kept, giving your picture to a boy surrounded by four other boys is probably not the best way to go."

"True, but he seemed genuinely touched that I was willing to tell him why I hid myself, and if he really fancies me, then he'll keep it." 

"Ah, so you're testing him now?"

"Is that a bad thing?" She wondered, lost in the time and the carelessness of being seventeen.

"Not at all, I was curious. What's new?"

Hermione giggled, looking over to sudden change in the room where a wardrobe now stood. 

"I simultaneously hate and love this room, Hermione, however in the world did you find it?" Mary wondered, walking over to the cabinet and fishing out the only garment hung inside.

"I really needed it one day, I suppose," she said mindlessly, taking the pretty yellow dress in her hands and smiling at the softness. "It's perfect."

"Well, throw it on and let's get this Polaroid taken! Fussy little thing."

And with a final few pictures taken, Hermione was filled with the utmost joy as she tried to block out the fact that her studying before the Quidditch game would solely consist of memory-charm research. 

A/N

I promise Severus will make his return in the next chapter and then most chapters after that, I just wanted to get a few things out of the way first. But... he's been doing something while off-book, you'll see! Lot's of time to think... to mull things over as it were. 

Do you like the pairing of Remus and Hermione? I think it's rather cute, actually, but we all know where this is headed eventually, so why bother, right? Or will I bother anyways? Probably. 

See you next week!