Out of Harm\'s Way

\"Okay.\" Hermione felt reasonably calm about the news. That at least explained why she had singed her nightgown in the fire that was supposed to be magically cool. \"So where are we?\"
\"We\'re in my house. I live here, in London.\"
\"Why?\"
\"You\'re here because I want you out of harm\'s way, and I\'m here because Harry doesn\'t need me for the time being. We decided that I should show up for work a few times so I keep my job.\"
Hermione was sure that there were things she should be asking about first, but her head didn\'t feel very clear.
\"Your job? What\'s your job?\"
\"I\'m a professor at a muggle university.\"
\"Really? Don\'t muggles mind your being a werewolf?\"
\"Don\'t believe in them.\"
\"So what do you teach?\"
\"Literature.\"
\"Why doesn\'t Harry need you?\"
\"I\'m doing my part from this house. Half keeping track of you so he doesn\'t have to worry, and then there are spells in the attic. I need most of my magic to maintain them and they must not be disturbed.\"
\"So I shouldn\'t go in the attic.\"
\"No. All you should do is sleep and eat, take hot baths and maybe read a little, if you feel like it. I have to go to work, but the house is all yours.\"
Hermione gazed at her host. Since she had taken the Defense Against Dark Arts post she had gained new respect for the only man who had managed it in her seven years as a student. He looked very much the same as he had in those days.
\"You don\'t wear robes to a muggle university, do you?\"
\"No, I was up all last night. I\'ll change into Muggle clothes before I go. Be sure to relax, make the most of the bath tub.\"
\"Pr- um, Lupin, Thank you.\"
\"\'Remus,\' please Hermione. And you\'re welcome.\"


Hermione found herself alone for the day in an unfamiliar house. Now that she knew whose house it was, all the details of the decor seemed much more interesting. She had wondered how Lupin lived for years, and finally she had free reign to snoop wherever she wished. In her reasonable mind, she knew that she should be too stressed out about the battle between good and evil that was still raging outside this sunny bedroom, but she hadn\'t felt very rational since she woke up in that clean lavender scented bed.
She leaned down and sniffed the pillows, first the one she had slept on and then the other. They only smelled of clean sheets, so he must have either washed them or said a \'scourgify\' before putting her to bed last night. He clearly hadn\'t slept beside her at all. Of course he would be a gentleman.
Had he really not slept at all last night? She decided to satisfy her curiosity on one other point and then look around the rest of the house before snooping in any more detail. Inside his closet, there were three sets of wizard\'s robes, all tidy but old, and then an array of muggle menswear. She couldn\'t judge just by looking at it on hangers and shelves, but she suspected it was in better repair. Perhaps he saved his muggle work clothes for days he knew he wouldn\'t transform and that explained why his robes were more damaged. Remus Lupin was a mystery, Hermione thought, and finding out that he had a muggle dwelling in the heart of London and a full Muggle job did not leave her with fewer questions.
The house had two levels, aside from the attic, which she left alone. There was a kitchen with space to eat and cook, a sitting room that might have been a library with all those books, a bathroom and the bedroom she had already seen.
In the refrigerator, she found condiments and sauces that didn\'t give her her many clues about what he ate, a few vegetables, eggs, milk, and a large diet coke. There were several packages of frozen lamb in the freezer, presumably for wolf nights. In the cupboards, there were the ordinary baking ingredients, flour, sugar, some crackers.
Occasionally, in the years she had daydreamed about Remus, she had imagined being his wife, just an ordinary muggle wife and making him a cake, chocolate because he liked it-- then kissing him on the cheek because she imagined he liked that too. She had imagined his stubbly cheek and his wide smooth hands and his shoulders rounded with just the right amount of muscle, but that was where her daydreams started being less wholesome. The part of her mind that reminded her to be worried about Harry and the big battle also reminded her that it didn\'t mean anything that Lupin had taken her in to protect her. The thrill in her stomach from walking around barefoot in his home didn\'t listen to reason, of course.
Perhaps this was the day to make him a chocolate cake. After all, he seemed to have the ingredients. She even found a cookbook above the oven. He probably made them for himself from time to time. Or his girlfriend made them. She didn\'t think he had a girlfriend, but then, she hadn\'t known about the job, either.


Finally, Hermione took a bath before she did any more snooping. Her aching muscles and bruises were glad of the relief, and she felt curiously unstressed about her lack of magic. After mulling it over submerged in the tub, she decided that it was almost like none of it had ever happened, Hogwarts, Voldemort, Witchcraft or any of it. She felt completely safe for the first time since she read Hogwarts A History the summer before her first year at the school and first learned about Voldemort. She felt like an innocent muggle girl again. The idea of any kind of threat seemed laughable. She washed her hair and finally got out of the bath once the water got cold.

In her daydream, she made a cake for Remus wearing a sweet little dress, or sometimes sweet little robes, but she didn\'t have anything like that. All she had was a singed nightgown and Remus\'s own clothing. After a long consideration, she picked a pair of gray pants that weren\'t too loose on her, and a belt. She didn\'t have any underwear, and she couldn\'t wear his, not without asking first, and it seemed wrong to put on his pants commando. But then, how had she gotten into the nightgown? She wouldn\'t have been wearing it for the battle in which she had lost her powers. If he was presumptuous enough to change her clothes while she was unconscious, then she could wear his pants commando. Once she had them on, they fit fairly snugly in the hips, thought she had to roll up the cuffs a fair amount. They probably didn\'t loolf blf bad, for men\'s trousers.
She didn\'t have a bra, and couldn\'t figure out how to devise one out of men\'s clothes. She ended up just wearing one of his undershirts with nothing underneath. It probably wasn\'t that see-through.
Feeling slightly jigglier than usual and much better otherwise, Hermione went to bake her cake.