Be Silently Drawn || Remus Lupin & Hermione Granger

Chapter 32

s Hermione's footsteps wandered through the halls of the hospital in search of a late afternoon cup of coffee, her mind wandered to Hogwarts and a certain professor's living quarters. Not for the first time, she found herself reliving her encounter with Remus last night.

If the circumstances had been slightly different, she would have accepted his advances without hesitation. She'd have given herself to him wholeheartedly, allowing things to lead to wherever they may. But she'd seen the wolf in his eyes, and as much as she trusted Remus and knew he had great self-control, that look in his eyes had frightened her a bit, like the first time she'd seen it in the past, when the younger Remus had gotten a little too aggressive and bitten her lip a bit too roughly as they'd snogged on the teacher's desk in the D.A.D.A. classroom.

After that incident, the younger Remus had told her he'd never lost control like that before, that she affected him differently, more intensely, than anybody else. So was that still true now? And if it was, what exactly did that mean? Why did she affect him differently? Was she special to him somehow? Could it be because he might have feelings for her?

Or maybe she wasn't special to him at all. Maybe, when the full moon was near, the wolf part of him reacted that way to any woman he came into contact with. But the Wolfsbane Potion was supposed to keep him from being affected that way. Why, then, had she affected him last night? Perhaps he hadn't been taking his potion properly this lunar cycle. She knew it was only effective if he took it at the same hour each day in the week leading up to the full moon. Maybe Remus had allowed too much time to elapse since his last goblet the day before and the potion's effects had worn off by the time she'd seen him last night.

Or perhaps he'd only acted that way because of the firewhiskey. Perhaps he—

Hermione stopped short when she arrived back to the floor Harry was on, confused by the commotion that greeted her in the waiting room. She blinked, unable to comprehend the flurry of activity and noise from the Weasleys, St. Mungo's staff, and fellow hospital visitors. Her confusion worsened when Ginny broke away from the crowd and ran up to her, her momentum nearly knocking them both over as she threw her arms around her and half-sobbing, half-laughing cried, "He's awake!"

"What?"

"He's awake! Harry's awake! The Healers are with him right now, but we'll be able to see him in a minute. He's awake, Hermione!"

"He's awake?" Hermione hardly dared to believe it. But everyone in the waiting room was beaming and cheering. She caught Ron's eye amongst the hugging Weasleys, and with a tearful grin, he nodded.

A feeling, bright and swelling and full of incredible joy, relief, and gratitude, slowly filled her heart. And then she squealed, "He's awake!" and joined Ginny in her happy dance, laughing and crying all at once.

"The Healers say it's a miracle," Ginny said. "But he's the miracle really, isn't he?"

Hermione agreed and then demanded, "What happened, Ginny? You asked me earlier to give you and Harry some privacy because you wanted to talk to him — is that what made him finally react? What did you say to him?"

"That's what we wanted to know," Ron said as he and his parents came over to them.

"I told him that I loved him," Ginny said, wiping the tears from her glowing face, "and that he had to wake up because I'm pregnant!"

"Y-you — you're what?" Mr. Weasley spluttered, his eyes wide. Everyone else stared at Ginny as well, their jaws dropped.

"Pregnant!" she repeated brightly. "I told him he couldn't die because he was going to be a father, and then his hand twitched in mine and he started to wake up!"