Through Her Eyes

Chapter 16: The First Date (kinda)

"He's nervous as all hell. You'd think he'd be proposing the way he's got himself all tense,"

Chuckling, Hermione shook her head and looked at herself in the mirror again. Before she could even think anything against herself, Lily came up and looked in the mirror too,
"None of that tonight, Black. You look beautiful. I bet you could have just rolled out of bed and Remus wouldn't have cared,"

"My hair used to look like Crookshank's," Hermione laughed, remembering the hideous nest of wild curls she had her first year at Hogwarts, "a bush of hair and buck front teeth. It was embarrassing...where is that cat anyway?"

"Stop trying to avoid this, Hermione. You have a guy waiting himself into anemia downstairs, now go, before he keels over,"

Lily gave her friend a shove towards the door as she stuck her tongue out, leaving the dorm to stand on the top of the stairs. She could distinctly hear Remus pacing, while both Sirius and James attempted to console him,

"What if she doesn't like me?" Remus questioned, "I mean she already knows what I am, but still. What if I mess this up?"

"You won't mess it up, mate," Sirius stated, "I'm positive you could have walked in here with two teeth missing and a wooden leg and she wouldn't bat an eye,"

'Sounds like Professor Moody,' Hermione thought with a smile, descending the stairs to cautiously look around the corner into the Common Room. Remus was indeed pacing, dressed in his best black jacket and pants, though his shirt was left open to reveal much of his chest, 'that idea probably belonged to Sirius,'

All the Marauders were present this time, Peter included as all three watched their friend pace. Hermione hadn't noticed at first, but he was holding a bunch of flowers. Good thing she wasn't allergic to any of them. Stepping out into the room, Remus froze, looked at her for a moment before all his tension was gone. It was the most impressive display Hermione had ever seen, even more impressive then the pompous windbag known as Lucius Malfoy,

"These are for you, Mia. Hagrid the groundkeeper suggested them,"

His voice had gone from a nervous twitter to deep and creamy in a matter of minutes as Hermione's heart melted as she took the forget me nots and inhaled,

"These are wonderful, thank you Remus,"

"Ah, you look beautiful tonight. It's nice that we won't have to go far,"

"Indeed. But this really doesn't suit you," Hermione vanished her flowers up to the dorm while she stepped closer to Remus, taking hold of his collar as he inhaled sharply. Re-tucking the buttons slowly and meaningfully, Hermione patted his now covered chest, "it was Sirius's idea?"

Remus nodded as Hermione hummed a bit in knowing, glancing at the boy who was glowering at her from the sofa,
"Well, maybe we can undo it again later in the night?"

Both boys on the sofa nearly exploded with laughter as Remus stared, practically purple down at Hermione who still had her hands in his collar. Winking, she let go and motioned to the door. Hermione Granger may have been a flop at flirting, but Black knew every move in the book,
"Shall we?"

"Right. Right, I made plans," Remus strode quickly beside his date, taking her arm as they marched out the door together. It was a comfortable silence, just walking in the weekend torchlight of the castle, listening to the joyous chuckling of Peeves somewhere down the hall. But after tickling a pear on a fruit painting, Remus lead Hermione to the kitchens. It smelled heavenly as several pairs of eyes landed on them from many different house elves, all of them smiling broadly as one approached,

"Welcome back Master Remus, we have everything ready for you. Come, come!"

The little elf led the couple through the kitchen to a very dark corner. Hermione released a small gasp and smiled. A table set for two was pushed up against a nearby window, allowing a view of the grounds. It was illuminated by candlelight, and an enchanted harp was setting the mood,

"It's lovely, Remus," Hermione stated, taking the seat her date pulled out for her as he brushed a purposeful hand against her cheek,

"I wanted this to be perfect, since we've only had...you know, informal help. It was actually Sirius's idea for a moonlit dinner, and Lily provided me with some information. The elves were a big help too,"

"Well it's amazing," Hermione said, watching as an elf appeared to fill their glasses with sparkling pumpkin juice, while Hermione whispered to an elf for a small dash of firewhisky. The pair chatted about this and that, soon tucking into a lovey pasta dinner and letting the harp fill the empty space. It wasn't till after the chocolate mousse was served that Hermione popped her question on Remus,
"You didn't happen to bring James's invisibility cloak with you, did you?"

Remus lifted an eyebrow, but nodded an affirmative,

"How'd you know? Oh wait, you're Hermione, of course you'd know. James wanted me to use it in case we wanted to snog in a closet somewhere. Why? Are we going to need it?"

Remus wagged his brows as Hermione giggled,

"We will be needing it. But...this is actually a bit more important then snogging. Remember when I told you and Aberforth about the Horcruxs? Well...I know where one of them is, and I need your help to get it,"

"You mean one of those things is in the castle?"

"It should be Ravenclaw's Diadem. Come on, we'll talk more on the way there,"

As Remus and Hermione bid the elves a good night, they slipped under the cloak and headed up towards the seventh floor. Coming to an empty portion of wall, the cloak was removed,

"It should be in here,"

As Hermione moved to pace three times and thought, 'I need to find Rowena's Diadem,' Remus watched in skepticism, then amazement as the Room of Requirement appeared,

"This must be the room everyone has to find when the Order starts on Tuesday,"

"Yep. Come on, before someone sees us,"

Ducking into the room, Hermione was faced with large piles of junk. Vincent Crabbe had died in here, his own blaze took him. Shaking out of the memory, Hermione waved to the stuff,

"Harry found the diadem the first time by speaking to it. But neither of us can do that so we just have to hunt for it,"

"You make a very strange date, you know that Hermione?"

"I suppose, Remus. You...don't mind, do you?"

Hermione pursed her lips, only to groan as Remus pulled her to him and kissed her passionately. Pulling away, both teens stared at each other wide eyed,

"That wasn't me," Remus whined slightly, "Moony he..."

"Pfft, if we find the Diadem tonight, maybe we can get back to that later?"

Remus's eyes widened before he whipped his head around and dived into a nearby pile of junk. Smirking, Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head.

'Hopefully the Diadem shows up tonight, I can't wait another lifetime.'