Chapter Text
Hermione developed a crush on Remus Lupin at thirteen when he saved them from a Dementor on the Hogwarts Express. She’d been fascinated with his quick action, calm exterior, and intelligent cadence of speech. As the year progressed, her crush grew into admiration for his continued bravery and proven intelligence as their teacher, a closeted werewolf, and always the professor who never said no to answering more of her questions.
As the years went on, and the Second War ravaged wizarding Britain, they fought side by side, saving each other at times and grieving when others fell.
When she came of age at seventeen, Hermione knew she was in love with him. Yes, for all the reasons she’d admired at thirteen, but even more so now as she saw through his tough exterior and occasionally got a peek at the weathered and tired man beneath. She saw up close at Grimmauld at meetings and functions the scars from war and transformations. And ever observant, she could see that he was happy but lonely despite sharing a home with Sirius.
A part of Hermione’s heart ached when she looked at him. It wasn’t just the sad eyes, ruffled hair, and rumpled jumpers on the tall, wiry man. Something in her heart drew her to want to be near him constantly. He didn’t need to speak or answer her questions; she was so content to just share the same air in front of the fire in the library.
That gnawing at her heart sent her deeper in the Black library one day, searching for texts on what she had a hunch might be the dilemma. Hidden away in a corner, she read an old book on lycanthropy. And there, in its shortest chapter, Hermione found what she was looking for.
Considered extremely rare, a minuscule percentage of werewolves will find a mate in their lifetime. The mate in question need not share their lycanthropic traits, but their bodies will attune to the needs of the other. While specifics on this subject are few, a pool of werewolves who were fortunate to experience a mating bond and provide information for this text have attested that said mates experienced a shift in their hormonal levels around their twenty-first year and gained a slightly heightened sense of smell, which, in turn, helped them to seek more comfort with their lycan partner.
Hermione’s heart stuttered as the rest of the text lightly detailed the more physical aspects of lycan mating. She felt a flush in her cheeks as a rough diagram was provided at the bottom of the page.
Feeling somewhat vindicated by her findings, she tucked the tome back onto the shelf and skirted out of the library. On her way to the room she shared with Ginny, she ran into Sirius with Remus following not far behind.
“Ah, hello, Kitten,” Sirius patted her arm. “Find anything useful in there?” he chided. Hermione felt her cheeks flush and ignored what she now realised was a slight dampening in her knickers as her eyes flicked to Lupin.
“Don’t make fun the girl, Sirius. At least she can read.” he chimed in while giving Hermione a curious look.
Hermione nodded before, “Yes, I’ve just finished for the night. I..I think I’d better go to bed.”
“Would you like to join us for a nice cuppa before you go?” Remus asked kindly, still looking at Hermione with a curious expression.
“No, no!” she chirped almost too quickly. Truthfully, she would have loved to sit in the warm kitchen chatting with the two of them for another hour, but she didn’t trust herself not to stare at Remus. “You enjoy yourselves, I should rest,” she finished, face still slightly warm.
Sirius cut Remus an amused grin and bid her goodnight, which was soon followed by Remus’ soft voice.
“Sweet dreams, Hermione.”
Hermione gave him an incoherent goodnight and scampered up the steps to her room.