(slight edits Aug. 14)
Chapter 1 – The Start
Hermione faded in and out of consciousness.
"Harry!" Hermione screamed as she jumped in front of him, letting go of Ron's hand. She heard the pop of dissapparation at the same time that the knife hit her. Her vision blurred as she fell to her knees in front of Bellatrix Lastrange.
The icy wind brought her back into consciousness for a moment. She blearily opened her eyes to the utter whiteness around her. Her eyes closed.
Hermione screamed as the Crucio curse ripped violently through her. She tried not to jerk around for fear of jostling the knife that was still lodged in her ribcage, and for that she was grateful because if it had been taken out, she would have died a while ago from blood loss. The cuts and bruises all over her body felt like nothing compared to the fire that was burning through her nervous system.
The curse was finally lifted and Hermione could only pant for breath.
"Awwww, is the poor Mudblood tired?" Bellatrix asked in a sickly sweet voice. She cackled and waved her wand. Chains appeared and pulled Hermione by her wrists until she was dangling from the floor. Her toes just grazed the floor, as if to give her hope of relief, but just high up enough to leave all of her weight hanging by her wrists.
Bellatrix walked forward and slapped Hermione's bloodied face.
"Bellatrix!" a voice called from the other end of the room. "The Master calls."
Hermione looked up slightly to see the back of Lucius Malfoy's blond head as he walked out the door.
"Lucky little bitch," Bellatrix said to Hermione, "but don't you worry, I'll be back." Bellatrix walked out of the room, leaving it pitch black behind her.
Hermione hung limply in the darkness, crying silently.
Hermione opened her eyes again, but she wasn't sure if it was a minute later or a few hours later. This time though, instead of the icy wind and the blankets of blinding snow, she saw a large figure coming closer to her. She whimpered softly as the man's foot came dangerously close to her face.
"Well, blimey!" he exclaimed when he saw her just a moment before he stepped on her head. He knelt down and Hermione was surprised to see a familiar face.
"Don't you worry ol' girl. I'll take good care of you," the man said as his large hands reached for her. He picked her up gently and began walking quickly towards a little cabin in the woods.
Once they got inside the cabin, he lay her down by the fire. He rose and left, coming back a few minutes later with a bowl of warm water and cloth.
Hermione slipped back into darkness.
Hermione had lost track of the days. Many Death Eaters had come and gone, beating her and cursing her. Lucius Malfoy had even come to see her, but he had come disguised as Ron. He had pretended to free her; he took her away and healed some of her wounds. Just when Hermione had relaxed, Lucius revealed himself and tortured her endlessly, laughing brutally at her despair. Hermione wished that she had taken out the knife to let herself bleed to death. It was too late now. They wouldn't allow it. Each day they came, healed her injures from the previous nights and repeated the whole process. Sometimes they would leave her alone for days to deal with her injures and the loneliness. It continued like this for a few weeks.
On one day, she noticed that something was different. Bellatrix came in healed all her critical wounds and undid the chains holding her up. Hermione collapsed onto the cold floor.
Bellatrix called for someone. Two women walked in, heads bowed low. Hermione was in a daze as they quickly helped Hermione to stand and practically had to drag her out to a large bathroom. They scrubbed her clean and dressed her in a large white sheet that had been sown up roughly into a haphazard dress that resembled the pillow cases house elves wore.
Hermione was taken to the drawing room, which now could only be described as a throne room. Voldemort sat upon a large throne, servants by his sides, his Death Eaters stood in a circle around the room.
Bellatrix took a fistful of Hermione's matted hair and dragged her to the center of the circle, shoving her down on her knees before the Dark Lord. Bellatrix took her place in the circle. Hermione could do nothing but lie still on the cold, polished floor.
They were speaking about something, she couldn't tell exactly what. She was suddenly kicked so that she was lying on her back. "Mudblood," someone spat at her.
Someone yelled 'Crucio' and held the curse until she could no longer scream. When the curse was lifted, she breathed heavily as tears streamed down her cheeks. Someone came and kicked her again.
She heard the conversation heating up, she noted Bellatrix repeating the words 'mudblood' and 'bitch'. Hermione curled on her side, holding her ribs protectively. From the corner of her eye, she saw Voldemort raise a hand, commanding silence.
"Bellatrix, what do you think should be done with the bitch?" he asked. Hermione shivered.
Bellatrix smirked evilly, "perhaps she should be cursed to be that which she is, a mudblood bitch?"
"Yes, yes!" Voldemort cackled excitedly as he pointed his wand at Hermione.
Hermione lay as still as possible, wondering vaguely what exactly would be done with her.
A purple light flew from Voldemort's wand and hit her in the chest. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as it felt like ever bone in her body was being broken and set somewhere else. Sometime during the transformation her vision blurred and darkened. The calming sea of unconsciousness claimed her.
Hermione woke again about an hour later. The man was speaking softly to her. "There now, see? You have a beautiful white coat. I wonder what happened to you for you to be so filthy and bloody. Well, don't you worry now girl. I know someone who would love you have you. I suppose it's a good thing you were so dirty, otherwise I wouldn't have seen your white fur in the white snow." He smiled
Hermione gazed at the mop of orange-red hair on the head of her rescuer. "Charlie?" she tried to speak, but all that came out was a quite bark.
"Ah, let's see now. You'll need a name I suppose." Charlie Weasley rubbed her ear affectionately, "you're awfully sweet, and your white fur is beautiful. Well, you'll be staying with that mangy mutt Fang, so maybe a nice name." He spoke gently. "Ah, well, you're probably hungry aren't you girl? We can decide on a name later."
He gently nudged Hermione's back for her to get up. She slowly and rather awkwardly raised herself up on four, large paws. Hermione tried to look at her body, awkwardly turning her head.
She was indeed a snow white wolf. She had thick fur all the way down to her long, curled tail. She whimpered slightly as she looked closer at her coat. There were patches of skin that had no fur because of the scarred skin. Hermione didn't know how Charlie could call her coat beautiful if it looked the way it did, but she ignored that fact for now as Charlie had mentioned food. She tried to shake herself like she had seen dogs do and trailed behind Charlie into the small kitchen.
She delicately sniffed the chicken and broth Charlie had set before her. She nudged some of the food around her dish and began to eat slowly, fearing her stomach would not be able to handle such food after so long of only being fed dry crusts of bread and small sips of water.
Over the next few days, Hermione settled into her new body. She was prone to jumpiness around Charlie for a while, but soon she became used to his presence. She also got to experience new things like being able to smell things that should couldn't as a human, or having to go outside to relieve herself.
She had tried many times to somehow tell him who she was, but he never understood.
The two had also settled into a routine. Hermione would wake Charlie in the mornings and he would let her outside. He would go shower and start preparing breakfast, Hermione dutifully watching him cook. They would eat and then Charlie would prepare a bag lunch for himself. The two would head out into the snow. Charlie would be gathering information for his research and Hermione would be learning to hunt. This had started because Charlie had teased her for being such a domestic wolf.
It was quite lucky really. One night Charlie was speaking to her and he told her he thought she wasn't catching anything because of her injuries. So, this gave Hermione time to learn. When she finally caught her first rabbit, she was repulsed at the thought of eating it raw, but she knew that it was what Charlie expected of her. So, she slowly became accustomed to being a wolf.
A few weeks passed and one night, the two were sitting by the fire. Hermione had rested her head on Charlie's leg, her tail wagging lazily, Charlie's hand petting her fur slowly.
"We leave tomorrow, girl. I suppose it really is time to give you a name."
Hermione perked her ears up and gazed at him steadily.
"I mean, I'll be giving you to Hagrid. Who knows what kind of horrid name he'll come up for you? No, you need a good name. And I can't just keep calling you 'girl' all the time, hmm?"
Hermione flopped her tail.
"Let's see then," he paused "I think I've got it." Charlie smiled mischievously. "The way you walk, you hold yourself like royalty. I think I'm going to call you…" he paused again.
Hermione wagged her tail, a little curious to hear what he would call her.
"Princess," Charlie grinned.
Hermione raised her head from his lap and whined, disliking the name immediately.
"See!" he exclaimed. "I knew you'd like it!" he had entirely misunderstood her.
She shook her head at him and lay down again, resigned to the fate of being called Princess.
A/N: Hello to one and all! I'm SUPER excited about this fic. It should be a little simpler, but I feel like my writing has improved a lot recently, so I wanted to test it. (Guess I still have a ways to go yet, ay Qoheleth?)
This story IS a Hermione/Severus story. It starts when the trio were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor.
So, what happened in the first part of the chapter, in case you didn't catch on, Hermione was having flashbacks to her time in captivity. So, I'm gonna say Bella threw the knife just a smidgen earlier than she actually did. This gave Hermione time to react. She let go of Ron and stepped in front of Harry to take the knife. Since she was not touching anyone, the group got away, leaving her to her fate in the Manor.
Voldemort later turned her into a "bitch". I know that in the story, I've referred to her as a wolf… it will be explained. EVERYTHING will (hopefully) be explained. I do realize that some things seem a little unclear, please let me know if you are confused and I will make a point to explain those things in the next chapters.
Normally my A/N's will never be this long ever again.
Oh! I'm also looking for someone to beta this story. Please?
And of course, the Disclaimer: Not mine, I do not make ANY money from the writing of this story. I just like to play with the characters a little. I will NOT be posting this every chapter, so this applies to the whole story.
Please Review if you feel like it. I LOVE to hear what you all think!
See ya next time!