The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 3 - Dungeon Dwellings, Misunderstandings and Annoying Flashy Lights

The first two weeks of Hermione being in the past weren't nearly as bad as she had imagined they would be. It was, after all, an incredibly close environment to the one she was used to; and after the shock of having to live in another decade wore off, she rather reluctantly began to adapt to living without her usual acquaintances. This was made easier by the rapidly growing friendship she'd formed with Remus, and also Lily, both of whom had been tolerant and unquestioning enough to join Hermione on several occasions to help her with her searching.

Classes generally were as easy for her in the past time as they were in the present - however, it proved harder when Hermione realized that she needed to play along with all the knowledge she was fed, rather than be the smart-aleck she often was and make everyone think she was insane. At one time, she had been correcting the Potions Master, Professor Tetley in saying how the use of Basilisk Fang was made illegal to use in British schools in 1986. She had to quickly joke off the remark when she remembered it wasn't 1986 yet. Another difficult feat was resisting the urge to inform Professor Lonsdale, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, that there was no point in educating them on how to defend themselves against goblins when they had allied with the wizards in 1992.

Perhaps Hermione needn't have bothered working at all; after all, she was only going to have to do it all over again when she returned to the present. However, she decided that she should probably be playing along with the other students, and, well, work from this era was fascinating! She got to learn her N.E.W.T's in a whole other perspective.

Besides, there wasn't nearly as much of a workload for seventh years as there was in the future which was somewhat of a relief for Hermione; not that she normally struggled with her schoolwork, but the lack of pressure really gave her prize opportunities for hunting. She had already been through the whole North and East sides of the castle, as well as the vast majority of the grounds. Needless to say, Hermione had done a hefty and rather panicked amount of searching. The sad thing was, she had still gotten nowhere. God damnit.

She often found herself exhausted; the past was indeed draining, or at least the energy she used up in the past was. And one night in the common room, she was just dozing off curled up in a particularly comfortable armchair when she heard an unmistakable click. She put her hands in front of her face as a bright light flashed before her.

Surprised and somewhat annoyed, Hermione opened her eyes and found herself looking at Remus, who was grinning mischievously.

'What's going on?' she said groggily. She noticed he was holding something behind him, apparently trying to prevent her from seeing it. She sat up. 'What's that you've got behind you're back?'

He snickered. 'Having a nice snooze there?' he quipped, moving backwards as she got up.

'Was having a nice snooze there,' she growled, growing curious despite her irritation. She craned her neck right and left to try and see what was in his hands, yet he swiftly dodged her glances.

'Remus!' she said impatiently, as he laughed at her efforts. 'This is on the list of what not to do to teenage girls suffering from PMS, you know.'

'I'm trembling with fear.'

'So you should be.'

'The git's got a camera Isabelle,' piped Sirius, who had been deeply immersed in a very unscathed version of Quidditch Through the Ages, from the couch. 'He just took a picture of you.'

'Aw, Padfoot you prat,' groaned Remus. 'I was having fun there.'

Sirius grinned at Remus' glower, evidently loving to be the conjuror of more trouble, and returned back to his book.

Hermione felt a jolt of panic arise. If there was a photograph of her floating about in the past, it would give her away in the future for sure. Somebody was bound to pick up that they had seen her, and she couldn't let this happen. What would Dumbledore say?

You have intervened in the threads of time, Hermione, she imagined him saying gravely. Nothing will ever be the same again. You have destroyed the world.

Well, maybe it wouldn't be that dramatic.

'Remus,' she began at length, as if she were telling a child to stop playing with matches. 'Give me that camera.'

'What camera?' he asked, feigning an innocent expression.

Aha, thought Hermione, so he's going to play it this way, is he?

It's rather amusing when she's mad, thought Remus, I wonder what would happen if I -

Before he could finish his train of thought, Hermione had leapt onto him, forcing him to the ground. Remus, who was taken by such surprise, simply lay there squirming and laughing as she attacked him with tickles. Hermione gave a crow of triumph as she picked up the black camera that had slid out of Remus's hands. She stood up and began examining it.

'There,' she said smugly, turning it over in her hands as Sirius nearly fell off the couch with laughter. 'That wasn't so hard was it? Next time you'll know that I always win, no matter wha-'

Remus, who'd recovered and stood up without her realizing, wasn't going to give up so easily. She gave a startled yelp as he grabbed her by the waist and easily tackled her to the ground, pinning her there with one hand.

'You always win do you?' he said snidely, as he clawed at her side with his other hand.

'Remus,' she gasped in between peals of laughter. 'You're being - very - childish!'

'What was that?' he asked mockingly. 'I didn't seem to hear it.' He started as the distinct sound of someone clearing their throat sounded behind him, and quickly tumbled off Hermione.

Clutching her diaphragm, she sat up slowly and let out a sigh. Noticing Remus eyeing the camera which was now lying a foot away, she snatched it just before he did, placing it safely in her robes. She gave him a devilish smile.

'I'm not interrupting anything, am I?' said Lily in an amused tone, looking down at the two. She was in her dressing-gown.

'No, everything's settled now,' Hermione said happily, standing up.

Remus, though looking disappointed at his defeat, got to his feet as well. 'Yeah, we were just ... no,' he stopped. 'It's too explicit for your innocent ears, Lil.'

Lily snorted. 'I came down because I heard all this yelling and thought something was wrong,' she explained, and Hermione and Remus exchanged guilty grins. 'But since you're both all right ...'

'Well, I'm glad you came down when you did Lily. Things were starting to get brutal,' Sirius said from the couch, pretending to be concerned. 'I was beginning to seriously worry.'

Lily clucked her tongue. 'What are we going to you with you two? Ah well, I'm going back to bed. Coming, Isabelle?'

Hermione, who was getting used to hearing this name now, nodded and trailed Lily to the girls' dorms, whispering in his ear as she passed Remus, 'I told you I always win.'

*-*-*

'Somebody likes you,' chanted Lily, as she brushed Hermione's hair. The two had been sitting on the bed in a rather affable silence, and Hermione had been enjoying the female company she didn't so much in her own time. While she shared a room with Parvati and Lavender, who were as female as females could possibly be, she'd never really warmed up to them all that much. This was partly because she thought they were both air-heads, but mostly because of all the time she spent with Harry and Ron - and without them around, things were taking a slightly different turn.

'What?' Hermione said, taken aback. 'Oh Lil, I'm sorry but I'm not that sort of girl.'

'NOT ME, you gimp!'

'Who, then?' Hermione was indisputably bemused. Who on earth could develop a crush on her when she'd only been there for two weeks, and was quite sure that a great deal of the people at school thought she was a little unstable?

'Oh, don't tell me you don't know Bel, you're the most intelligent girl in our class.'

'But I don't -'

Lily sighed and put the brush on Hermione's bedside table, climbing into her own bed. 'Remus, of course,' she said, tying her luscious red locks back into a ponytail.

Hermione nearly fell off her bed. 'What?'

'What's the matter? I thought it would have been rather obvious,' Lily said stiffly.

'Remus doesn't think of me like that Lily, we're just friends.'

'And do you want to be just friends?'

'Of course I do.' Hermione brought her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. She looked down, wondering if that was all she really wanted.

'If you're just friends,' said Lily quietly, 'then tell me why he looked at you the way he did. As if he'd never seen anything more beautiful in all his life.'

With a swish of her wand, all the candles that lit the room went out and she lay down in her bed, leaving Hermione to think in darkness. Was that true, what Lily had just said? She couldn't imagine anybody looking at her like that, not even Harry or Ron. Especially not Harry and Ron. The truth was, she didn't even know what she was feeling. All she knew was that whatever these feelings were, she was in no way going to act on them. If she did, somebody was going to end up hurt and she had already caused enough damage.

But Remus liking her like that - the thought gave her the biggest butterflies in her stomach she had ever had. Why though? Perhaps she felt the same way back; she had to admit that he was charming ... and so intelligent, and not a bad-looking bloke either -

No, Hermione thought sharply. I don't like him back ... Not that he likes me. He's my teacher for crying out loud!

Another thought occurred - he wasn't her teacher now.

Feeling angry with herself, she pushed the thoughts out of her head and lay down under the covers, hoping to fall asleep before she drove herself mad.

After what she thought to be at least three hours; Hermione, coming to the conclusion that she wouldn't be able to sleep anytime soon, got up. She put a wispy satin dressing gown over her powder blue slip, carefully lit a lantern that was under her bed and set off downstairs. There was one place she had not searched yet and it had been playing on her mind all day.

*-*-*

The dim glow of the considerably reduced fire lit the Gryffindor common as she reached the bottom of the stairs. All was silent except for the familiar crackling sound, yet Hermione proceeded across the room on her tiptoes regardless.

'Isabelle?' said a voice which made Hermione nearly drop the lantern in shock.

She turned to see Remus sitting in an armchair wearing a frayed burgundy sweater over his pyjamas, the reflection of the fire dancing in his eyes. He looked wide awake and was holding a bottle of Butterbeer in his hand.

'Remus,' Hermione said, relaxing. 'It's only you.'

'Sorry,' he said with the trace of a smile. 'Only me.'

'What are you doing up this late? It's nearly half past three.'

'Couldn't sleep.' He put the half-empty bottle down and walked over to her. 'And what's your excuse?'

'My excuse sounds a lot like your excuse, really,' she replied.

'Just thought you'd take a bit of a stroll round the castle then, for all times sake?' He glanced at the portrait hole she had been about to exit out of.

She glared at him. 'Actually, I decided to do some midnight hunting in the dungeons.'

'Obscene-hours-of-the-morning hunting, you mean.'

'You can talk, I'm not the only one standing in the middle of the Gryffindor common room in my bed clothes.' With that thought, she protectively drew her gown closer around her, to hide any certain feminine parts of her that might be a tad revealing. Why couldn't I have just worn pyjamas tonight? she thought with embarrassment, hoping that Remus hadn't noticed any cleavage that might have inadvertently gone astray. He seemed unperturbed.

'Right. And I was the one planning to waltz down to the freezing cold, not to mention unpleasant dungeons. If you're lucky, who knows, you might even see Snape, I hear he camps out down there.'

Hermione brought herself up indignantly. 'Well, I didn't say you had to come, did I?'

He smiled and Hermione suddenly felt her knees go slightly weak. 'Bel, you know I've got no choice in the matter. Let's go.'

He climbed out of the portrait hole and stuck his hand back through it. After tutting once or twice, Hermione relented and took his hand, leaving the warmth of the common room behind her.

*-*-*

Shivering because of the cold, the two began descending the pitch black, narrow passageway to the dungeons, Hermione leading with the lantern steady in her hand. She was beginning to wish she had stayed in her warm, comfortable bed, but it was too late to turn back now. She could feel Remus's breath on the back of her neck - she was glad he was staying close, she felt a little edgy going down to the dungeons at night.

'We should be nearly there,' said Hermione uncertainly, her voice echoing.

'Once we reach the stairs, we will,' corrected Remus, his voice slightly hoarse.

'The stairs? Where in God's name are the -' Hermione let out a sudden yelp of surprise as she felt her foot drop. She instinctively threw her hands out to stop herself from falling and the lantern flew out of her grasp. It landed with a clang at the bottom of the staircase that she had not seen, shattering. The light went out and they were thrown into darkness. Dazed, she stood up and dusted herself off.

'Well, I think we've reached them,' she said numbly. Reaching around blindly to find the wall, her hands landed upon a large object that she came to the conclusion was Remus. He was laughing.

'Don't laugh, I could have fallen unconscious!' She punched him hard on what she gathered to be his arm; she could just make out the outline of him standing in front of her. 'You wouldn't be laughing so hard if you had to carry me up all those bloody stairs again.'

'Who said I wouldn't have left you there?' She could almost hear him grinning. 'Look, we'll just have to make our way down in the dark.'

Hermione agreed and flounced off down the stairs.

'Carefully,' Lupin added behind her, following cautiously.

*-*-*

It was just as dark, if not darker in the actual dungeons than it was in the passageway and Hermione squinted, trying to make out her surroundings. She turned as she heard a great clatter sound from behind her and a whispered exclaim of pain. An outline of Remus was limping towards her.

'What are you doing?' she hissed.

'Stubbed my toe,' came Remus's voice. 'Forgot there was a shelf next to the door.'

'It's very dark,' Hermione said anxiously.

There was a silent pause.

'Really?' he said finally. He came up close to her and she could see him a little clearer, his face was set.

'Well, I know how to make this situation better.' The shape of his head moved closer to hers, closer and closer. Without thinking, Hermione stepped back. Unexpectedly, he bent down completely and retrieved something out of his ... sock?

'Lumos,' he chanted, and an illuminating light burst forth from the wand he had just picked up. Hermione cringed, how could she be so stupid? Did she really think that he would -

'There, that's better,' he said, looking around. 'Don't you think?'

Hermione nodded; she felt herself going scarlet. 'Yes, yes that's loads better.' She moved to a nearby shelf stocked with many water-filled jars, pretending to examine one with a vine of Monkswood concealed in it.

'Isabelle?' said Lupin.

'Mmm?' she responded without turning around.

'Why did you step back?'

She bit her lip and turned, looking at the ground. 'It's stupid,' she muttered.

'No, no tell me,' he insisted. 'I'm sure it's not.'

'Well I thought,' she began, 'I thought that you were going to ...'

'Yes?'

'Kiss me.' She looked up reluctantly. Remus's face was unreadable.

'It's pathetic, I know -' she added shamefully before being cut off.

'No, it's not.' He smiled in a reassuring way which made her feel slightly better, although she still wanted to bash her head against something hard - the desks looked inviting. Remus walked over to the shelf she had been looking at and began observing it keenly himself.

'Er, Remus,' she said, her temperature returning to normal. 'Could I ask you something?'

He grunted in response.

'Why do you keep your wand in your sock?'

He shrugged. 'Safety reasons,' he said dismissively, picking up a jar of pickled toads and pressing his eye against the glass.

She shook her head incredulously and knowing she wouldn't get a straighter answer, dropped the topic. She focused her attention back to searching and suddenly had an idea.

'I can't believe I've been so daft about this!' she said suddenly, getting her wand out of her dressing gown pocket.

'Eh? What do you mean -' began Lupin,

'Accio whatever-I've-lost!'

For a moment, nothing happened. Hermione lowered her wand disappointedly. 'Well,' she said, 'it was worth a try.'

She looked down as a soccer ball rolled to her feet. She picked it up, confused. 'What the -?'

She didn't have time to finish as various objects began flying rapidly toward her: quills, old bits of parchment, socks, hair-ties, an old shoe, even a pet hampster that she remembered running away when she was five.

'Oh. My. God.' she breathed, ducking as her mum's old car keys narrowly missed her ear.

'Wonderful idea Isabelle,' said Lupin loudly over the clatter of objects and breaking of glass. 'Only one set back; you have lost a fair few things in a lifetime.'

'Perhaps I should have been more specific ...' she said sheepishly, catching something silver as it flew to her chest.

'Ah!' she enthused. 'My old bracelet. I lost this in second yea -'

'LOOK OUT!'

Remus leaped onto her and they both tumbled to the ground as a china vase flew across the room, crashing into the opposite wall and shattering. The Dungeons were beginning to look like a junk yard - or a war zone - or even Ron's room at the Burrow. Either way, it wasn't a pretty sight.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Remus appeared to have ended up in a rather gauche position. He was lying on top of her, their noses almost touching.

'Finite Incantatem,' Hermione murmured, her wand still in her hand.

Things immediately stopped flying from nowhere, leaving a rather awkward silence in their wake. Hermione felt warm under his weight and secretly thought that she would never, ever have imagined herself to be in this position with this person ever in her life, past or present. And, was he going to get off soon?

'Funny how we always seem to end up like this,' he said in a would-be offhand voice. She knew that he was trying to sound unconcerned but she could hear the nervousness in his voice.

She gave a cross between a cough and a grunt in reply - she seemed to have lost her voice. When she finally got it back she said, 'Perhaps we should go to bed, I mean get back to bed, I mean ... sleep is good.'

'Yes, back to the common room, it's uh, very late,' he said huskily, carefully getting off her and standing up, making sure he was a few steps away.

They walked out of the dungeons, Remus pointing his wand behind them and reciting a quick clean-up spell.

'So ... how did you lose a vase?' he asked as they began ascending the stairs.

*-*-*

The return to the common room was rather quiet. Hermione tried to convince herself it was tiredness from both parties but she knew this wasn't really the case. She was still mentally kicking herself over the whole Lupin-trying-to-kiss-her fiasco and although it wasn't written all over his face, she could tell he was thinking about it. Oh, what a mess she had made of things! She never meant to hurt him; she probably wouldn't even mind him kissing her ... she had been kissed before of course - once, or twice. She didn't have any major experience in the exercise but wasn't completely unknowing. Oh gosh, this wasn't even the point. The situation was just so ridiculous.

As they climbed through the portrait hole the two stood by the fire, silence still hanging over them like pestilence.

Hermione finally decided to speak, clearly Remus had the same idea.

'Well I suppose -'

'Remus, I -'

They stopped as their words overlapped. 'You go first,' Remus said.

Hermione took in a deep breath. 'Look, I just wanted to explain about before. When I thought that -'

'No,' he interrupted, turning to look into the fire.

'What?'

'You don't have to explain anything Isabelle. You had every right to step back when you thought that I was -' he stopped and heaved a sigh. 'Whatever, I understand.'

She was beginning to despise being called Isabelle, it felt demeaning, as if she was trying to be someone else. 'But you don't understand Remus,' she said resolutely. 'You don't understand at all.'

He said nothing. Hermione's eyes begged his to look into them, but she knew it would do no good. He was being all proud and self-preserving, and it was very annoying.

'All my life, my best friends have been male. When I first started school, I befriended these two boys who I grew exceedingly close to over the years.' She paused and rubbed her eyes with one hand tiredly. 'When we started getting older and began obtaining strange feelings, or if you like, hormones, things got complicated.' She let out a short, humourless laugh. 'I thought I had these - feelings - for one of them, but as it turned out, he didn't have them for me at all. Neither of them did. So, we all sat down and had a talk one day, and they made it very clear that neither could handle being my boyfriend. That taking it further would just cause trouble and well, even though I never dated either of them, they became a little too protective over me. They assured me that anyone I ended up with would just hurt me, and so they scared off any boy who showed the slightest bit of interest.'

She began staring into the fire herself.

'To sum it all up, I stepped back from you because I panicked when I thought of them and ...' She let out an exasperated breath. 'And I just can't think why anyone would have an interest in me let alone want to kiss me. And, as it turned out I was right.' Hermione was beginning to feel stupid. 'I don't even know why I told you all that, you didn't want to kiss me at all, you were just getting your wand!'

Remus was now looking at her, but in an amused manner. His unattainable chocolate hair was hanging in messy tendrils around his face and his lips were twitching into a smile.

'Thanks,' Hermione said heatedly. 'I just made a complete idiot out of myself, I do realize that, so you don't have to rub it in Remus. Evidently you aren't big on the word consideration and oh God, why do I even care? You know what? I don't care! I do not ca -'

'You're right,' Remus broke her off doggedly. 'You are an idiot.'

She stared at him and he looked at her intently. 'You're an idiot for not seeing what's right in front of you.'

And with that, he walked up to the boys' dormitories, leaving Hermione standing in the middle of the common room at four-thirty in the morning, not quite sure of what had just happened.