Later that night, Ginny and Hermione sat in the girls dormitory. It was empty save for themselves, and they were free to discuss their situation.
"Gin," said Hermione as she brushed her hair, "do you know anything else about the feather? I mean, we can't stay here forever."
"I think I had a copy of the page from the book in my pocket when we arrived here..." said Ginny distractedly as she tried to find her cloak. It was a cold night, and she was about to head out with James to meet his "connections".
"Can you get it out right now?" the older witch asked.
"Yeah, sure." Ginny walked over to the chair at the foot of her bed, where she had carelessly tossed her school robes. She searched all four pockets, but found nothing. Gulping, she said frantically, "It's not here, Hermione."
"What?!" exclaimed Hermione, dropping her brush and running over to her friend. "Are you sure you put it in your pocket?"
"Yes, absolutely," replied Ginny. "It must have fallen out..." She got on her knees and began searching under the drawers and beds. Moments later, she cried out, "I found it!"
After carefully extracting her head from underneath Lily's bed, Ginny stood up, brushed her knees off, and went over to the desk. Hermione joined her there, and the two of them read the wrinkled sheet of paper together.
"It will take you back to the past...one year for each hair pulled out...choose to stay...oh! The hairs will continue to fall from the feather at a random pace, and once they all fall out the travellers will return to their time," read Ginny, her voice rising when she found what they had been looking for.
The two students looked at each other in shock. "I...I have the feather here," said Hermione as she pulled out a key from her shirt pocket and unlocked the first drawer of the desk. She pulled it out, and she and Ginny both gasped simultaneously. Only a small fraction of the strands of silky, white hair remained on the feather.
"Get Malfoy," said Hermione numbly.
Ginny nodded, and hurried to the boy's dormitory. To her relief, Draco sat in there, talking with Remus. "Malfoy," she hissed. He looked up in surprise, then frowned when he saw her.
"What?" he asked, standing up.
"Come here. Hermione and I have to talk to you."
Giving Remus a helpless shrug, Draco replied, "Okay," and followed Ginny to the foot of the stairs.
"You can't come into our dormitory; hold on, let me get Hermione." She scampered up the stairs, and promptly returned with her friend.
Without saying anything, Hermione showed Draco the feather. He gave her a confused look, which was quickly replaced by a look of distress when realization dawned on him. "How long is that?" he asked, his voice hard.
"Well...it's been three weeks since we arrived here. The first day, almost all of the hairs were still there. So that means...we have about 2 days left."
"No...Granger, please tell me this is some joke."
"No joke, Malfoy. You'd better say good-bye to Lily because after Monday, you'll never see her again," answered Hermione grimly.
"Say good-bye to me?" came a light voice from behind them.
Ginny froze. Turning around slowly, she saw to her utter dismay Lily standing there with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you have to say good-bye to me?" she asked again.
"Umm..." began Ginny.
"Lily," interrupted Hermione, "we, erm, have some things we need to share with you and the rest of the gang..."
"What do you mean?"
"Meet us tomorrow at 1PM by the statue of the golden apple. We -" she gestured to herself, Draco, and Ginny "- have to tell you guys something which...might have a big impact."
"Okay," replied Lily with a curious look at them. "Well, I'm going upstairs now. I'll see you three later."
"Bye Lily," Draco said glumly after her retreating figure. She didn't say anything just then, he thought with unease. If she's mad at me, I'd better apologize soon before I run out of time to do it...
"Have fun with James," Hermione called after Ginny.
"I will," she yelled back, and then she was gone.
Hermione was now left alone to her thoughts. She sighed, and moved over to a low, orange couch, where she sat down. As she closed her eyes, Remus's face appeared in her mind. I'm going to have to leave him in a few days, she thought sadly. Then, she remembered Sirius. The moment his name entered her head, however, Remus's pushed it back out.
"At least you're luckier than Ginny and Draco," she whispered to herself. "They won't ever see James or Lily again..."
But, as she dwelled on this thought, Hermione realized what she had to do before her time in the past was up. Standing up, she headed back towards the boy's dormitory to apologize to Remus.
When Hermione reached the wooden door that read "Boy's Dormitory", she stopped for a second to consider her next move. Should I really do this? He might still be mad at me, she thought worriedly. Before she could decide what to do, though, the door swung open and she came face to face with Remus himself.
He looke down in surprise at Hermione. Then, he made to shut the door, but Hermione quickly held out her hand. "No, wait! Don't leave, Remus. I...I wanted to say something."
"Oh?" came his voice from behind the door.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted at Hogsmeade a few weeks ago."
"That sure is thoughtful and kind of you. I can tell you put a lot of effort into making that apology," Remus replied sarcastically. However, he did open the door again, and stood leaning against it as he surveyed Hermione disinterestedly.
"Well what else do you want me to say? I don't want you to stay mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you."
"You aren't?" asked Hermione, hardly daring to hope.
"Oh no. I'm totally fine with the fact that my date ran off and started kissing another guy while I..." he stopped, his voice trailing off.
Hermione blushed, and looked down at her shoes. "I know," she answered quietly, "I don't know what came over me. It just...happened. Like I had no control over it."
"Sirius sure does tend to do that to a lot of girls," Remus said in a cold voice.
"But I don't LIKE Sirius."
Remus sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. "You're the only thing good that's happened to me since..."
"Since what?" inquired Hermione, although she had a good idea what he was about to say.
"Nothing."
"Please, tell me."
Remus looked at Hermione. Her soft, brown gaze held his, and it silently begged him to trust her. He took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "I'm a werewolf."
Hermione smiled sadly. She had known this already, but showed no sign of it. Instead, she said, "That makes no difference to me. I see you as who you are, not what you are."
"I'm not asking you to accept me. I don't even know what came over me; I shouldn't have told you that."
"No, I'm glad you did. But I'm even more glad knowing that you can trust me to keep such an important secret." Hermione placed a hand gently over his as she said these words, and tentatively took a step towards him.
Shrugging, Remus looked away. He let his eyes wander over to the window to his left. It looked out over a part of the forbidden forest, so all that was visible was blue sky and green treetops.
"Sometimes I wonder if I will ever stand out. Hanging out with James and Sirius, I've always just been known as "the sandy-haired kid". No one really bothers to get to know me. I don't blame them; who would want to befriend plain old me when they can chase after the tall, handsome, popular ones?" He finished his mini-speech with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"I would choose you over Sirius," Hermione said without thinking.
Remus turned to look at her, surprised that she was still there. Suddenly, something came over him. A need to be closer to her... without thinking, he lifted a finger to tilt her chin up, leaned down, and brushed his lips against hers.
Hermione was surprised by his sudden movement. Instinctively, she tensed up, but the moment their lips touched, she relaxed again. It felt so natural and right to be kissing Remus. His kisses were the complete opposite of Sirius's; sweet, loving, and tender whilst Sirius's kisses were full of passion and lust. Feeling him so close to her...it was like she had found the other half of her, as if they fit together like a puzzle. He pulled away first.
"Good night Hermione," he said, kissing her forehead lightly and smiling crookedly at her before closing the door.