A/N So here's part two, hope no-one's too disappointed! I've got a biiig fic in the works at the moment so not sure when I'll be back again, but thanks to all you lovelies!
Oh, and cookies to everyone who recognises the HP quote in here :)

Disclaimer; Everything recognisable is all JK Rowlings. Love her.

Chapter 2

Hermione raised an eyebrow, even as Remus consciously tried to calm himself. "Breathe." She murmured soothingly after a moment, dropping to her knees and pulling him down with her, taking his hands in hers. "In, and out." Making her breaths deliberately extended, she encouraged him to follow her lead. "In, and out. Iiiinnnn, and ooouuuuuttttt."

Finally he relaxed, and rested his head against her shoulder in exhaustion. "Sorry." He muttered.
"Don't be daft," She chided gently, taking him into her arms as he'd done a few minutes ago, "something's obviously happened." Pausing for a moment, she considered the pros and cons of her next question, and gnawed at her lip. Deciding that she needed to know, she wrapped her arms around his chest and rested her head on his shoulders, and softly whispered, "When is the next full moon?" Though she had expected him to explode again, he giggled like a small boy. "Remus?!" She barked in alarm.
He turned and looked at her in genuine amusement. "Your breath." When the 'book-worm' looked more puzzled than he'd ever seen before, he clarified, with a gentle but poignant stroke of her cheek, and a warm smile. "Your breath tickled my ear. I'm disastrously ticklish, it's very embarrassing. Something the lads used to take advantage of frequently." He tilted his head. "Especially when they wanted me to do their homework."

Hermione chuckled lowly and deliberately in his ear, holding him tight as he tried to squirm away. "Professor Lupin," She mock-reprimanded, "what exactly are you-" He suddenly rolled them over, so she was under him, and with the mischievous glint of the eye that only one of the Marauders could have, began tickling her ruthlessly, chuckling as she squealed and laughed beneath him. "P-please!" She gasped after a few minutes. "Stop!" Both faces were flushed but filled with casual humour as he relented, still grinning with boyish charm at her. She, without even realising it, traced the most prominent scar on his face tenderly.

And then she sharply remembered Tonks, and dropped her hand, which made a loud thump as it hit the wooden floor. The echos of laughter that had momentarily washed away the death and misery that hung like shadows over them vanished, and she shuffled out from under him, leaning against a desk leg and wrapping her arms around her knees. "So," She began softly, "about To-"
"We're getting divorced." He cut across swiftly. Her eyes widened and he held his hand out, waiting patiently until she slipped hers into it, and then rubbing his thumb across her knuckles soothingly. "Tonks and I never really worked," He began to explain, "I think I was just happy to have someone who accepted me, and she just wanted..."
"You?" Hermione supplied, and was surprised when he shook his head in sadness.
"Someone to save."

He spat the words, but whatever hatred was in that tone was nothing compared to the sudden, intense and potentially violent rage that burned in her eyes. "You. Do. Not. Need. Saving." She hissed, and watched Remus' reaction as he glanced up at her, eyes widening at her words and her fury. "Anyone who tells you need fucking saving is a fucking moron."
He cleared his throat. "Well I can't deny that she has reason to-"

"Then you are a moron!" She screeched. "If you think you need saving then you are a... A bloody. Idiotic. Stupid. Fucking. Shit-minded. Crap-filled. Son-of-a-Death-Eater Moron." She punctuated each word with a shove against his chest, until he looked more than slightly alarmed, backed against the wall with her leaning over him. "You are one the strongest people I have ever met, and so help me Merlin, I won't even consider the idea that you need saving." Her chocolate eyes blazed like unforgiving meteors as she glared at him. "And anyone, anyone, who believes that... Well I will make them pay."

He blinked once. Then twice. Then thrice. After ten blinks he cleared his throat. "Erm, okay?" He asked quietly.
She groaned, and stood up, walking wearily over to a desk, resting herself against it, and hiding her scowl.. "For God or Merlin or fucking Dumbledore's bloody hats sake, Remus…" She sighed heavily, before looking at him with tired eyes. "Are you like Fenrir Greyback?"
He shot up, wrapping her cheeks in his palms as his eyes grew to the size of saucers and his face fell. "Of course I'm not!" He murmured, not sure why her opinion of him mattered so much. "I would never- never- do what he did!"
She took on an expression that he recognised from when she had lectured Harry and Ron. "And what did he do?" She asked patiently.
"He-he… Unspeakable things!" Remus blurted.
"And would you ever-"
"No!" He burst from her grasp and glared at her. "How could you think that I would ever be like that, that monster?"

Hermione merely leant back against the table and smirked. "So why exactly do you need saving?" His mouth gaping, he tried to form words, but they simply vanished. "Exactly." She said with finite certainty.
Remus scowled, moving to lean against the desk beside her. "When the full moon comes, I'm…"
She placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know."
"You don't!" He insisted.
She raised an eyebrow. "I've seen it, remember?"
A shudder ran through his body, and his eyes burned as he gazed at her. "You called to me. Even when I was... That... I heard you." He didn't take his amber eyes from hers, but moved closer as he murmured, "It doesn't matter when the next full moon is."
Hermione was frozen. Something within her called for her to close the narrow gap between them, but as she faced him, her peripheral vision caught on that damned inferus picture again and she lowered her eyes. "No, Remus." She murmured, taking his hand in hers and rubbing her thumb soothingly over his palm. "It doesn't matter when the next full moon is. What does matter is who you are, and who I am."
He stroked her cheek gently. "And who are we?"

Sighing, and hating herself for what she must say, she replied in a cool voice. "We are two people in the middle of a war. You are a married man, I am a monster, and we both have places we need to be right now." When he opened his mouth to speak she shook her head. "You need to find your wife and find out if Teddy's okay. I need to find Harry and do," She sucked in a deep breath, "whatever it takes to win this war."
"Hermione, you can't die." Remus sounded as if he were pleading, begging someone to make his statement true.

She gave a sad smile. "I may. Better me than you, anyway, Teddy doesn't deserve to be an-" Her last word was cut off as he pressed his lips against hers with more force than before, and with an almost desperate passion driving them, they were quickly against the wall once more, Remus between her legs, nipping playful bites up her neck. She tried to push him away, saying, "You're marri-ohhh," as her pushing had merely given him access to her chest, which he quickly began kissing enticingly. She felt her head swim, and almost gave into the ecstasy that would undoubtedly follow, but using the logic that had, more than once, denied her her desires, she scooted away, breathing heavily and gazing into her ex-Professor's eyes.

He looked hurt, so she glided over to him and kissed him softly. "I'm sorry," She murmured against his lips, "I really am. But… I have to find Harry. I have to help him." Raising her chocolate orbs, now swimming with tears, to meet his, she saw the warm understanding that she adored.
"Of course." He said, pressing a chaste kiss on her mouth, before a dark look overcame him. "I just wish I could help."
Hermione kissed every scar on his face; from the tiny one over his eyebrow from Padfoot's accidental bite, to the large one from Greyback that stretched across his cheek, she kissed every one. "Stay safe." She whispered. "I don't know what it is about you Remus… But just stay safe, that's the best way you can help."

He gave a grim smile. "I don't know what it is about you either. It's just… Something within me seems to need you, and that is so wrong!"
"Why is it?" She breathed, not quite touching his mouth, but oh so close.
"You're young-"
"As if you're not, magically speaking."
"You're beautiful-"
"Not looking so bad yourself, not bad at all."
"You've got your whole life ahead of you-"
"Possibly not, considering I'll likely die in the next-"

He grasped her face in his hands, eyes wild. "You. Will. Not. Die."
She leant forwards and kissed him softly. "If I don't, you'd better not either."
He scowled, before giving that boyish grin. "I suppose I can agree to those terms."
She gave him a playful push. "Good, 'cause otherwise I'd have to haunt you forever."

Remus chuckled, draping an arm around her shoulders casually, and for a few moments, deciding that they could act like love-sick people, rather than soldiers fighting a war. "Hey, I don't think I ever thanked you for saving Sirius, so, well, thank you."
She shrugged and blushed, biting her lip. "I kinda cost you your job in the process."
He scowled. "No, that was Severus's doing."
She shuffled closer, so she was resting more comfortably against his side. "Do you think he's bad?"
He considered her question carefully; he'd guessed fairly early on that bad things had happened to Severus Snape, but did that excuse the bad things he'd done? And did his rare actions of kindness excuse the terror he'd caused? "I think," He began slowly, "he is a very unhappy person. He's done evil things, good things, worked on the side of light and dark and, well… But I guess no, I don't think he's a bad person."
She nodded against his chest. "Me neither."

A sudden bang interrupted them, and though they had been there for what seemed like a lifetime, when Hermione waved her wand, she realised it had been less than twenty minutes. Still, when ten minutes, or even one minute, meant a life, she realised she'd dallied for too long. "I have to go!" She jumped up and began racing to the door, but Remus grabbed her arm quickly.
"I don't want you to get hurt!"
She gazed into his concerned eyes and felt herself falling even deeper. "Remus… When this is all over, I really want to know what this is." She gave him a swift kiss. "But I have to help Harry, you know that." He sighed and nodded, watching her sprint away. However, when she reached the door she turned, and giving a somewhat confused smile, said, "I think I love you, Remus Lupin."

He watched her begin to leave and, before following her back into the battle, murmured, "I know I love you. Werewolf mate or not, I love you Hermione Granger." He gazed pointedly at her. "It wouldn't be Tonks's child I saw myself with in the Mirror of Erised."
She smiled, before smirking cheekily. "And hey, if you ever worry about that whole full moon thing, just think of how some women are once a month. Now there are some monsters."
He simultaneously paled and blushed scarlet, muttering under his breath as Hermione laughed at his typically male reaction to the idea of periods. "Get out of here." He said eventually, scowling slightly, but with the hint of a smile playing at his lips. "I'll see you later?"
"Stay safe Remus."
"You too."

She wished her eyes had been burned out and rendered her blind. Screw the pain, screw the freaking flowers, screw every bloody-mother-fucking sun-fucking-set. If having hot pokers in her eyes would erase the image she was now seeing, she would happily take it. He was dead. As she walked into the Great Hall, she saw the Weasleys crowded together, other friends and family members crowding the dead, she merely stood there. Alone. Staring at the corpse that had been placed hand in hand with his wife, she choked.

Walking slowly over, ignoring Ron, ignoring Harry, she fell to her knees beside him, and gently removed his hand from Tonks so that she could hold it in her own, as she pressed one last, gentle kiss against his lips.

"Harry, why were my mum and dad buried apart?" Teddy Lupin asked curiously.
His Godfather- well, Goddad really- quickly deflected the question. "Hermione?"
When the young boy looked up to the woman who had been a mother to him, Hermione smiled at him. "Well, your dad was part of this amazing group called the Marauders, and we thought they should stay together!" Translation; she had fought tooth and nail for Remus to be laid to rest here.
"What about my mum?"
She plastered a smile on her face. "She's with everyone else who needed to be saved, Teddy."
"But why isn't my dad there?"

She knelt in front of Remus's grave, which was situated in Godric's Hollow next to James and Lily's, and the memorial Harry had made for Sirius. Looking wistfully at the otter and wolf carvings she had placed on the headstone, she smiled. "Someone saved him, before he left. Told him that there was nothing wrong with him, told him that he was amazing. Told him that he was loved." Teddy fell to his knees beside her and started crying silently. She wrapped an arm around him, a sole tear falling from her eyes as she murmured, "You're dad was saved before he died."
Teddy looked at her with moisture in his eyes. "What do you mean?" He choked out.
She gave a grim smile. "There was one thing we all needed, that none of us seemed to have, in those last moments." He made an enquiring sound and she hugged him fully. "Hope, Teddy, hope. And in the end, your dad had hope."

He buried his head in her chest and they remained there for a few more moments, before, clearing her throat, she stood and turned to her best friend, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Harry smiled and rested his hand over hers in a mute sign of solidarity, before he suddenly grinned at the young, crestfallen boy. "Hey, Teddy, did I ever tell you about your dad's love of chocolate? He would always have secret stashes of it everywhere, and…"

Letting Harry's voice fade away as the trio left the graveyard, she looked back one final time and let one bead of moisture work its way down her chilled cheeks, before turning back to the other two and grinning. "You know what this means of course… Chocolate ice-cream!" The young boy gave a half-hearted cheer, still clearly upset, and she squatted down to his level, looking into eyes that were the spitting image of Remus's. "He had love too Teddy. So much love." Looking at the boy who, even with his metamophmagus abilities, had traits of his father in the colour of those caramel orbs, the gentle curve of his mouth, and the long, studious fingers that now rested in her palms, she made a promise to herself. I'll look after him Remus. I swear. And we'll find each other again; somehow, someway, we'll find each other again.

Unbidden by her magic, her patronus suddenly burst into life, no longer an otter but a large wolf with beautiful markings and deep, knowing eyes. It circled around the three of them as they gaped at it, before giving Teddy a ghostly lick on the cheek, and resting its snout against Hermione's neck. "I love you Moony." She breathed, and the wolf gave a small, gentle yip before seeming to be sucked into her chest. Suddenly she knew what to say. "The ones who love us never really leave us, you can always find them in here." She placed a hand over his heart, and for the first time that day- his birthday- he genuinely smiled.

"So… What's this about chocolate ice-cream?