Reminder: If I owned Harry Potter, there would have been a heck of a lot more unnamed casualties in the Battle of Hogwarts. Nope, J.K. Rowling owns the books, the characters and the world, but kindly lets us play with them.

...Chapter Sixteen: A Houseplant from Hell

Hermione's heart was in her throat, a feeling that she did not much care for. Only a few times previously had she felt so completely at the mercy of a man, but Lupin was neither Victor nor Cormac. His build was noticeably different from those two young men and he showed a degree of concern for her that even Victor with all his dedication to "Herm-own-ninny" had not cared so much about her as a person. And all that was to say nothing about Ron.

No, having Remus Lupin's hand on her arm made her feel a totally new kind of feeling. If the word "awkward" had been coined in that second, it would have undoubtedly referred to her rather tumultuous emotions towards a man who had been her teacher when she was fourteen.

Her wolf's pleasure almost outweighed her own compunctions though and she found herself standing closer to him than she should have.

"What was it you needed to ask?" She wondered if it was just her imagination or if his voice had really changed to a more sensuous tone near the end of the sentence.

She caught her breath while struggling with the warm feeling of her inner wolf brushing up too close to her skin.

"Erm... potions." She finally got out. "I was wondering if you had anywhere I could brew the Wolfsbane. And it seems the children want to help me."

Remus watched as her nose wrinkled up a bit at that last. He had wondered when he was her teacher if she actually liked to help students like Neville Longbottom learn their lessons or if she did it out of duty. The faint look of horror on her face at the thought of teaching two underage witches and one ten year old wizard how to make one of the most complicated potions she knew must not have sat easily. He focused on that thought to banish the ones of a pretty brown haired young woman lying naked in a forest glade.

"The cellar would be best. My father's old cauldrons are down there as well as some dried out ingredients. I've done my best to keep things down there orderly, but I'm afraid that since I am not particularly skilled at potions making, I don't look after them as well as I should. " He was rambling and he knew it. It had been an exceedingly long time since he had been nervous around a girl specifically because she was a girl, and not for fear that she might find out about his condition. The few dates he had been on as a blissfully ignorant Hogwarts student had ended after Snape's excursion to the Shrieking Shack.

"I'll need some fresh wolfsbane for the potion." He backed up a step. Was it possible that she really had not noticed the singular houseplant that occupied the windowsill of the kitchen they had just left? Fear flooded him. If Hermione had not recognised the plant right away, the children...

He ran into the kitchen and scooped up the wilting, but still green plant. His Marauder sensibilities had been tickled by the idea of being the only wizard he knew who had a houseplant that could kill him. That was of course excluding Professor Sprout and her assortment of doubtlessly dangerous houseplants.

With the plant held at arm's length, he walked back to Hermione. A stern, "Back to the kitchen" from Hermione sent the children who had followed him back to their breakfast.

He watched as Hermione's face turned white.

"I can't believe I didn't notice." Her self-recriminating murmur echoed closely with his thoughts.

"It's been a busy few days. You didn't have time to be identifying houseplants along with everything else you've had to get done."

She smiled sadly up at him. A tug at his heart made him realise that for the first time, he was seeing Hermione as herself and not just one of Harry's friends.

"No, it's not acceptable. But I might as well teach the children about it before they stumble upon it in the woods someday." She gently took the plant out of his hands and called the children out of the kitchen.

"Ana, Alec, Leandra, please pay attention." She held the plant down so that even Ana could see it. "This is your first lesson in potion making. This plant is known as monkshood or aconite. But the name that you will probably best remember is wolfsbane. As the name implies, this plant is potentially fatal if ingested or absorbed into the bloodstream of a werewolf.

Ana raised her hand.

"What's ingested?" Hermione smiled indulgently down at the little girl.

"Ingested means eaten. I want all three of you to memorise what this plant looks like so that you can avoid it in the future."

"But isn't it part of the Wolfsbane potion? We always drink that." Hermione wondered if Leandra would be a Ravenclaw when she was older. She felt a pang in her gut as she remembered Hogwarts and the fact that none of these children would ever be allowed within its walls unless things changed.

"Yes, it is in the Wolfsbane potion. When mixed with the other ingredients, the Wolfsbane is rendered safe, or at least safe enough. It will weaken your wolf, but not affect you too much otherwise. Now, if any of you want to continue learning about potions, I need you to gather some things from around the house. John's sense of organisation isn't what it should be."

Remus grinned at the parade of little werewolves following Hermione out of the room and into the kitchen. Her comments about him in conversation made the fiction of their relationship all the more believable. He just hoped that Kimi would accept it as easily as the children had.

As if thinking about the werewolf summoned her, Kimi walked into the room. Her hair stood on end and the expression on her face, along with the slouch of her back clearly stated that she was not yet fully awake.

"Good morning, Kimi." He said with a smile, remembering the days that James and Sirius used to appear in the Great Hall in just such a state.

"Not good yet." She mumbled with a yawn punctuating the comment. He sat down in one of the armchairs while still watching the woman. For some reason she seemed a bit familiar to him, besides the fact that she was a member of the pack.

She yawned again and sat across from him, obviously not willing to enter the kitchen, where sounds of giggles and soft admonitions indicated the presence of the others.

"Diane seems good with the children." She commented finally. Remus found himself agreeing.

"It's surprising. I wasn't sure if she would have the patience or the temperament for it, but things seem to be working out just fine." He must have smiled absently to invite the next question from the now more alert werewolf.

"Do you mind me asking why you don't have any of your own? I mean, I know Diane is young but I'm surprised you aren't a father."

"That seems to be a general consensus. The answer is rather simple. I never really thought about it. I've always had other things to do. The most I ever thought about it was when I tried teaching for short time." Remus cringed inwardly at the truths that he was bandying about. There was something about an early morning conversation that invited more confidences than one would guess.

"Well, I for one am glad that you're the new Alpha. It's good for the pups to get away from Arctos. It's good for me to get away from him too." The brooding expression on Kimi's face looked out of place and Remus wished that he could reassure her. But how long would he be the leader of the pack? How many days, months or years would it take to build up enough support to destroy Fenrir Greyback and turn the werewolves away from Voldemort?

It was easy to forget that Kimi as the pack's Omega was just as much under the sway of the current Alpha as the pups were. More and more as he saw the four of them wandering around his house, he felt better about the actions of his wolf. He had protected Hermione and in doing so, he had saved four people that would have continued to suffer had he not stepped in.

A crash came from the kitchen along with a slightly exasperated "reparo." Within a minute, a troupe of smiling children exited the kitchen and made for the door to the cellar, carrying a variety of bottles, bowls and each with a pair of dragon-hide gardening gloves atop their stacks. Remus would have dearly loved to know how Hermione had found so many pairs when it seemed he could only ever find left gloves.

"Kimi! Kimi! We get to help Miss Diane make Wolfsbane!" Ana called excitedly from over her full arms.

"Her name is Mrs Canis." Alec said sternly.

"Is not! She said I can call her Miss Diane still. Right, Miss Diane?" At that moment Hermione exited the kitchen, already wearing a pair of dragon-hide gloves and holding the wolfsbane plant.

"That's right, Ana. Now, if you three would stop fussing, maybe we could get to work." Remus recognised a faint trace of Professor Snape in the comment, but Hermione had toned it down so as not to make the children nervous.

He was just glad that he was not going to be the one teaching three little werewolves potions making.

...Author's Note:

Yes, I got something done. Hopefully now I can get the story rolling, but I doubt it.

The idea of Remus having a houseplant that can kill him was thought up with the help of Russet022. A delightful author who also helps me out when I make terrible mistakes, one of which will be rectified in the next chapter.

So, comment, critique, flame or just feel free to tell me what you like so far. I'm open to anything.