part II

The Haircut part II by shalimar1981

"Remus, are you in he涌h."

Hermione removed her hands from his hair and picked up comb and scissors, resuming cutting, her face flushed. Remus opened his eyes and smiled genially at Molly Weasley.

Speak of the devil.

"Hello, Molly."

"Remus. I'm sorry to interrupt," she said, looking back and forth between him and Hermione with interest, "but I need your help in the garden. Something is hiding in the bushes, and it doesn't seem to be a gnome."

"I'm finished," Hermione replied, combing loose hair out of the greying strands, still slightly red in the face.

"Oh, good. Then I'll be right with you, Molly."

But Molly didn't leave. Instead she came to stand beside Hermione, observing her handiwork critically.

"Hmm, you've done a good job on this, Hermione. Whose hair did you cut before?"

"My father's," Hermione replied simply. She laid comb and scissors on the small table beside her and removed the clothes-peg holding the towel around Remus' neck in place. Taking the towel from around his neck carefully, she Evanescoed any loose hairs from it and the floor.

Remus got up from his seat on the sofa and walked over to the mirror of the vanity. "It looks good. Thank you, Hermione." He looked into the mirror, checking his reflection for a moment before he looked straight at Hermione, staring at her intensely. "Lovely."

Her face flushing once more with heat, she held his gaze till he broke eye contact and turned to Molly.

"So where's that unknown beast in the garden?" Leading Molly out with a firm grip on her arm, he took care that what his other hand did was not visible to her.

The moment he passed Hermione, he grasped her hand and squeezed it tightly for an instant before he had to let go of it again to leave the room with Molly, shooting Hermione a quick smile before disappearing around the corner.

Hermione stood frozen in the middle of the room, listening to their progress down the stairs.

When she heard a door shut several floors below her, she unfroze instantly. She leapt up and down with an ecstatically happy expression on her face in an unusually immature display of emotion. Though she took care to only use the balls of her feet as to not make any loud sounds.