The loving are the daring

"Omph," Hermione grunted as she hit something solid. The stack of books in her arms went flying. It was early August and Hermione was doing some shopping at Flourish and Blotts.

"Oh excuse me Miss," the man she had run into set down his equally enormous pile of books and reached out his hand, "Here, let me- Hermione?"

She lifted her head and looked at him, "Remus? What are you doing here?" She'd seen him several times since her third year, mostly when she was visiting Harry, who'd moved in with Sirius during the winter break of their fifth year. There was also the numerous times she's seen him in the halls at Hogwarts when he'd come in the past two years to meet Professor Dumbledore, as part of a committee working to vanquish Voldemort.

He'd been part of the raucous celebration last May (near the end of her sixth year) after a contingent of that same committee, Remus himself, Sirius, Mr. Weasley, and Dumbledore had together defeated Voldemort when he'd holed himself up in a building in Hogsmeade. They'd killed him without hurting any of the people in the building whom he'd been holding hostage. She didn't know however, where he was currently living.

She surveyed the eclectic array of books he was gathering, all Defense books, but from the lowest levels, up to a level of difficulty that few ever hoped to understand. She gazed at him quizzically, as if to reinforce her question.

"I'm choosing books for my class," he spoke calmly, as if he had done the same thing every day of his life.

"Your what?!? Does this mean what I think it does?"

His face broke into a wide grin. "I've been hired back at Hogwarts. After the anti-discrimination legislation the ministry passed in June, and everything with Voldemort, the school governors have agreed to hire me back. I was willing to go after that implant I got last year, remember? If I try to harm anyone as a wolf, it shocks me, so I'll be safe even if something happens like it did last time."

Hermione could barely contain her excitement. Despite all of Dumbledore's attempts, the school had not had a decent Defense teacher since Lupin, although many of the students had gotten practical experience the past few years just from observing the fight going on around them. She could also see how happy Remus was, and after all he'd gone through in the past years she thought it right that she should be happy.

"Well now that I've explained, what are you doing here? You can't possibly be getting supplies, if I haven't turned in my book list yet. Unless of course, Professor Trelawney has divined everyone's course of study this year."

"Nope. I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the month. My parents are currently undergoing some type of mid-life crisis. They both volunteered to go Mozambique for a year on some type of program to give dental care to the citizens there. Since they just left last week I didn't really want to accompany them for a month, and they've got our house leased out to a thirty year old american muggle graduate student who's studying at Oxford for the year. Since he's a friend of a friend and they don't know him very well, they don't trust him with me there, so here I am."

"I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron for a few days too, long enough to do some shopping before heading to Hogwarts for the year. Care to have dinner with me tonight?"

"Sure!" She accepted gratefully, as she was a bit tired of eating alone every night. She'd taken to reading a book with dinner lately to stave off boredom.

"Great. I'll meet you down by the bar at," he paused checking his watch, it was four o'clock. "Six. Sound okay? I've got to leaf through these and find something for the first two years before I can do anything else. Maybe you can help with the seventh year book. As much as all of you have gone through, every book I look at seems more like your class would see it as a children's fairy tale than an actual text. I tried to get Harry's opinion, but he was spending the week with Ron when I dropped by Sirius' last week."

"I'll meet you, and I'd love to help. Do I see extra credit in this somewhere?" She smiled mischievously, "I've got to go pay for these now, I'll see ya."

"Bye,"

* * *

The clock by the bar was striking six, just as Hermione came down the stairs. Remus was sitting at the bar with a soda, talking to Tom. She walked up and tapped him on the shoulder. "Oh, hey Herm. See ya Tom." He set some money down on the counter, and they headed toward an empty booth near a window.

"So what happened to Professor Casador? She wasn't wonderful or anything, but she was the best Defense teacher we'd had since you left, barring Crouch-Moody. So, I hope she's okay."

"Oh, she's fine. Actually, according to Professor Dumbledore, she moved to Portugal to be with one of the Professor's who came with the exchange last year. Apparently she's very happy. I'm very happy too, since it's means I'm the new Defense teacher. Especially since it's your classes seventh year. I figure that Hogwarts hasn't managed to keep a Defense professor for more than a year since your class entered, so maybe since it's leaving I'll get to keep my job." He paused, and smiled at the waitress who'd made her way to their booth. "Another soda, and today's special, please."

"Me too please."

"Coming right up. Enjoy your meals." She conjured the food onto their placemats, and walked away.

"I certainly hope you get to keep it Remus, and I'm sure there are plenty of others who feel the same way. Every new teacher ultimately ends up getting compared to you. Oh excuse me," she smiled, "Professor Lupin. You should have warned us you might get the job back. I've got to get used to calling you Professor again. And I'm not sure Harry's going to do well not calling you Moony."

"You'll all get used to it. Not too much though, I'd hate for you and Ron and Harry to be calling me Professor the rest of my life. I managed to break you all of the habit last time though." They intensified their eating, and were fairly silent for the rest of the meal.

When the dishes had been cleared away though, Remus picked up several books from the seat next to him and laid them on the table. "These are what I've narrowed it down to for the seventh year. There are a few actual texts, because I'm thinking about teaching a different kind of curriculum. I'd like your opinion on this. Most of these book are recounts of Voldemort's first rising. They would be supplemented by practical lessons of course, but it seems that you've been taught plenty about defense of creatures and curses and the like, but not about the rising of an entire dark regime.

"I know you've lived through the last two years, but that wasn't near the scale of Voldemort's rise to power thirty years ago. That was an entire decade of crescendoing fear." He paused. "I think you should know how to recognize something like that beginning again and know how Dumbledore and other leaders organized to fight it."

Hermione sat in thought for a moment, thinking how hard it might be for him to teach that particular curriculum. She formulated her reply carefully, "I think that would fit the bill Re-Professor. It's one aspect of defense that we've never learned before. I think it's something most of us will be interested in too, since the students with magic parents had parents who lived through it. I've always wondered if it would ever be covered, but I always thought it would be in History of Magic at some point, but since it's been six years, and we're only on the Vampire Wars of 1750, I don't think we'll ever make it there."

"I'm glad you like you the idea. This is my other question, which I specifically need *your* opinion on, not just a general seventh year opinion. How do you think Harry would take it? I know he's not much for enjoying his status as 'famous' but if I go through with this, some of the focus is going to be on him, not to mention Lily and James."

"I really think that he would be okay. I mean he's always wondered a lot about that side of his parents. He said he doesn't want to ask Sirius though. He told me that Sirius tells him about his parents at Hogwarts, all kinds of things that all of you did together, but he shies away from any of the time after that."

"Yeah, Sirius still feels very guilty. Anyway, thanks for the input. So what's going on in your life? We've talked about me. Are you enjoying living on your own for a bit?"

"It's interesting. Not much different from living at home actually. It's kind of nice to be on my own and not listening to my parents all the time though. Especially since they're footing the bill. It seems like it'll be good experience for next year when I'll be on my own."

"Yeah, good experience. I believe the muggles call it college," Remus said with a laugh.

Hermione laughed too, then continued. "Living at all during the summer would be a lot easier if I were allowed to use magic. It's very annoying that I've been a witch for six years, I received more OWLs than anyone since Bill Weasley, and I still can't use magic during the summer."

"Only one more year, then you'll be a full-fledged witch."

"Yeah. And knock on wood this year will be much less challenging than the last six. With Voldemort gone, thanks to you, it's one less thing to worry about. And after fourth year they sacked the Triwizard Tournament again, so even though Harry would now be old enough to participate, I don't have to stay up nights worry about him."

"You're way too young to be worrying about that stuff. That's what Harry has Sirius and I for. Of course, at the time, I was busy starving somewhere in Wales and Sirius was starving in Hogsmeade, but just the same." Remus paused for a bit, and then spoke again. "Aren't you glad I invited you to dinner so we could have such an upbeat conversation? What do you say to ice cream to make up for it? I'll buy." Chocolate was always good for the depressed, and that's rather what he was after so much talk about Voldemort.

"How can I pass up free ice cream? Lead the way."

On the way to Florean Fortescue's Remus began conversing anew. Determined to keep the conversation light. "So, have you talked to that Krum boy recently?" He'd heard plenty from Harry and Ron about Hermione's love interest in the summer after their fourth year. He'd also heard from Hermione later that he'd met someone else, just after the end of that school year, when Herm was busy trying to convince her own parents that she should be allowed to continue seeing the eighteen year-old. The break-up had been mutual, so it didn't seem like a sore subject.

"He's playing quidditch in some German league now. It sounds like he's enjoying it. At least after dating him for six months, I'm almost immune to Harry and Ron's incessant talk about quidditch. I got so good at smiling and nodding at the right places that I barely have to listen anymore."

"That's right, Ron did make the quidditch team last year. I'd forgotten."

"Yeah. He was very upset when it was all called off at the end of the year with Voldemort starting to really gain power again. He was mostly upset about the Voldemort rising part, but knowing he only had one year left to be on a winning quidditch team just added to the whole thing.

"I'd just as soon have everyone learn apparation at eleven and get rid of broomsticks all together. I'm terrible at riding them, can't keep my balance for anything, and watching Harry play for all those years is going to lead to many premature gray hairs I think. Now with Ron on the field too, I can barely watch an entire match. I think the only reason I manage is so that I know I can help if something bad happens."

Remus smiled nostalgically. "That's how Lily always used to be. Sirius and James were both stars on the quidditch team. I never tried out, I didn't think it'd be right to miss practices with the full moon excuse, but watching didn't worry me. Lily though, she right next to me every match, holding onto my sleeve so tightly I think I lost the feeling in my arm several times. If anything scary started happening, she bury her face in my shoulder, and make me describe everything to her in great detail, she wanted to know, but she couldn't watch."

They'd reached the Florean's by this point, and they ordered, and ate their treats as they walked back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"You know," Remus started, as they walked, "I almost forgot to congratulate you. Sirius told me about you and Harry being head-girl and boy. Congratulations!"

Hermione blushed, she didn't really enjoy talking about it, because she'd seen how Percy acted, and didn't want to seem like him. "Thanks. Yup, we both got owls in July about it. Two heads both from Gryffindor."

"Professor McGonagall will be very excited about that." Remus smiled at the thought of McGonagall lording the fact over Snape, the two of them had always had a rather love hate relationship... well, mostly hate.

They reached the Leaky Cauldron, and Remus dropped Hermione off at her room, promising to see her tomorrow before heading off to Hogwarts.

Hermione shut her door and took her hair out of the pony-tail it had been in for the day. Somewhere between brushing her teeth and changing into her pajamas, several thoughts made their way into her head, which she did her best to push out. Remus is not cute. The way his hair is always a little bit too long is not endearing, and that his eyes have those sparkling flecks of color is not handsome. Only eight year olds are supposed to have crushes on forty year-olds, and then it's supposed to be their fathers, or something else totally innocent. You do not have a crush on him, you like him because he's a nice person and he was Harry's father's friend.