The Given Choices

*~*~*~*~*~*~* Chapter Eight ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Knock. Knock.

"Come in," Hermione replied as she lay on her stomach on her bed in the sixth years' dorm room.

Ginny opened the door and leaned on the doorframe. She looked at her depressed friend and said, "Remus is downstairs, just arrived and the boys already went down for dinner."

The brunette nodded, and with great effort, she pushed herself up and off the soft mattress. After the events from that morning in Hogsmeade, she didn't have much energy or an appetite. Slowly Hermione followed her friend down the steps and into the common room. Remus Lupin stood in a pair of gray slacks and a dark-brown sweater. When he saw Hermione, she noticed a hint of happiness in his eyes but then replaced by something that looked like worry.

"You look very lovely today, Hermione. I would have said so earlier but the time - didn't seem right," Lupin stated as he offered her his arm.

She took his arm and silently wondered what was going on. A letter had arrived earlier in the week from him asking to spend sometime talking. Their conversations were never pre-arranged however, they noticed, on several occasions, they would last for hours. The day at Hogsmeade had been on her mind most of the week that she had forgotten about the talk he wanted to have.

As Remus led her through the corridors, he was occasionally greeted by students who had been there during his one-year of teaching as professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Their final destination was the Room of Requirement.

The room had been affix for a small dinner setting with a round table with two places already set. A warm glow from the candles gave the room a comfortable atmosphere. The linens of the tablecloth and the napkins were a dark red color and the rest was the same as the Great Hall.

Lupin pulled out her chair as she sat down and then seated himself. He clapped his hands once and a meal of salad, shrimp, onion rings, macaroni and cheese, and a pitcher of butterbeer appeared. The sight made her lick her lips; this was a meal of her favorite foods minus dessert. Even though she didn't have an appetite when she first walked in, Hermione did once she smelled the cheddar cheese that covered the long noodles.

The delicious meal went smoothly as they ate, drank, and chatted from things like school to the places he traveled for the Order since they last spoke. Once they were done with their dinner, the plates cleared themselves and were replaced by a slice of chocolate cheesecake, which was both of their favorite dessert.

After Hermione took her last bite of the silky dessert, she laid her fork across her plate and spoke, "Now, that was a fabulous dinner. As much as I have enjoyed all this, I don't think you asked me here to talk about school or the goings of your travels. What is it, Remus?"

With a heavy sigh, Lupin swirled the tea in the cup that arrived with the cheesecake. "I was hoping to have a serious conversation with you that requires a lot of maturity and understanding. Both of which I know you possessed and probably, like myself, had it even before you came to Hogwarts."

"Why thank you, Remus," Hermione smiled at his compliment.

"Have you ever done something so awful that you blocked it out of your normal memory but something so very special ended coming from it?" he asked as he got up from his chair and helped her with hers.

Hermione got to her feet, "I don't know what you mean," she replied.

With a swish of his wand the table and chairs were gone, the only objects in the room were themselves and the candles that flickered on the walls. From his pocket, he pulled out a small black glass ball about the size of a large marble and was flat on the bottom. Remus placed her body across from his on either side of the ball. He looked at her as he asked, "Have you ever heard of a Remembrsphere?"

"Yes, they are a more complicated than a Remembrall. They allow a person to physically get into a memory, much like a Pensieve. But it doesn't hold memories just replays a certain one at a particular moment," Hermione recalled as he watched her memory at work.

"If I was still a professor, I'd give you ten points for that. Very good. The Headmaster let me borrow one for the evening. Now, I am going to take you into a memory of mine that I regret but which something good came of it. Take my hands," Remus explained as he held his wand in one hand with her hand around it and intertwined their free hands.

A strong rush of wind circled them as the glass ball started to glow a bright purple. Suddenly, they were standing in a place she had been before. The two of them were standing in the middle of The Hog's Head, which was partially empty except for a pair a couple bickering by the farthest end of the bar.

Suddenly, the door to the inn was opened and a hooded figure in a brown cloak closed the door behind them as it approached the end of the bar. A hand withdrew from the cloak and set down a shot glass, "A Firewhiskey," it stated to the bartender.

"Who is this? That's you I take it," she asked as the hooded figure took a seat on one of the tall wooden stools.

Remus watched the person throw back the amber drink and set the glass down. "Yeah, that's me age around nineteen. More precisely just after James announced that Lily and he were expecting their first child - Harry, but he wasn't named at that point." The young hooded Remus ordered another as the elder continued to talk, "They were so thrilled and I was truly happy for both of them."

"But I was also lonely. At that point, I had never been in a serious relationship and feared to be in one; because I thought as soon as I told them my secret, they would leave me," Remus explained as his younger self ordered his third shot.

Then, behind Hermione, she heard someone walking down the wooden steps that must've led to the inn's rooms. Hermione turned around and saw a young woman, who looked about eighteen, dressed in black robes that looked very expensive. But the robes did not hold Hermione's attention; it was the young lady's appearance. She had long thick wavy hair that was as jet-black and had beautiful gray eyes.

As the young woman in the memory passed Remus and Hermione, something about her tugged at Hermione's brain but she couldn't place it. The young witch carried an air of arrogance with that pretty face and nice figure. Yet, why she was staying at a place like this, it didn't make sense to Hermione.

As she approached the bar a few stools away from Remus, the bartender automatically pulled out a clean glass from somewhere under the counter and poured her some red wine. A few silent moments passed as they watched the witch stare at the young man that was still hidden under his hood. It seemed like she was trying to figure if she had known who he was.

With glass in hand, she approached Lupin at the end of the bar, "Well, I would never expect you here and without your three friends," she said. "I always thought you went everywhere together. I'm surprised Sirius let you out of his sight but maybe he is preoccupied with one the stupid girls that just line up for a chance at him."

"Leave me be. Another shot," Remus stated as he laid the money down and picked up his refilled drink and took it to a booth in the back. The young witch followed him after she got her own refill on the wine.

Just as the two young people started to banter quietly in the booth a few feet away from them, just out of hearing distance, the elder Remus spoke up, "It's funny. This was the first time a woman tried to flirt with me and I admit I was very wasted by this point."

The young woman moved out of the booth and kissed the top of Remus's hand as she headed back toward the stairs. The young Lupin played with the rim of the glass before he got up from the booth at went to the bar. More money was placed down as he got one more shot of Firewhiskey.

"Give me your hand, Hermione," Remus stated as his younger form went up the stairs after the pretty witch. Suddenly, the inn disappeared and they were back in the Room of Requirement. He bent over and picked up the glass ball, which he tucked into his pocket. The room now had two loveseats and a small coffee table with a tea service ready.

They each took a seat on the separate loveseats and made their drinks in silence. Then after a few sips, Remus began, "That was something I tried for years to forget. I don't remember the details after that clearly but you can guess to yourself what happened afterwards."

Hermione tucked her feet under her as she commented, "I think everyone is allowed one night they'd rather forget. But you said something good came from all of this. What was that?"

He leaned over and placed the cup on the glass table as he watched her face. With a worried look, he spoke, "I just recently found out that nine months later that a baby was born. She never told me and I don't exactly know what happened but I know a few details. When she was in labor, she was in the country near a Muggle hospital. As she crossed a country road, she collapsed in the middle of the road and was almost hit by a car. The driver was able to miss her but he ended hitting a fence very hard that left both him and his pregnant wife unconscious."

Hermione was shocked by his story but listened on without saying a single word. He continued, "A few hours later, the young woman from my tryst woke up and discovered herself in the Muggle hospital with no longer a baby in her abdominal. A nurse came in to tell her that she collapsed due to complications and that she would never have a child again. The young witch was confused and left the hospital without the child."

"What about the couple in the car?" Hermione asked.

"They were both alive but the wife was in labor when they were driving to the hospital when they hit the fence, their baby did not survive and they adopted the infant. However, they did not know the child was of a witch and a werewolf. The child was raised happily as if she was their own and they loved her very much but never told her of her heritage because they were unaware," he explained as he watched the wheels turn in Hermione's head with each piece of information she processed.

Her face turned a lighter shade, as her breaths became more frequent. "Who is - " she began to say as she tried to get the words that didn't want to come, "Who is your daughter?"

Remus stood and then knelt in front of her as he took her shaking hands in his and stated, "You are, Hermione."

Hermione's eyes closed at Remus's words that she was adopted by the Grangers and was actually his daughter. Her mind was confused by all of the information from the past few minutes but one question forced itself out of her lips. "Do you even know who my birth mother is?"

His face went still and rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. His eyes then focused on her small hands as he whispered, "It doesn't matter. Don't ask."

"It doesn't matter! Don't ask! It might not matter to you and you may want to forget but I want to know," Hermione yelled as she pushed off his hands and got to her feet. "No, I don't want to know, I demand to know. And if you don't tell me, I'll find out on my own and you know I will."

Remus slowly got to his feet and tried to take a step to her but she stepped back, and was now about two feet from the door. With a heavy sigh, he finally admitted, "Bellatrix Black."

She shook her head and tried to fight off the lightheaded feeling that was taking over. Hermione bolted from the room leaving a worried Remus behind. Tears rolled down her face as she ran through the corridors not carrying what time it was or who saw her. All the thoughts swirled in her brain as she continued to run not knowing where she was going. When the pain in her head was finally too much to bear, Hermione lost all feeling and fell to the ground.