The white wolf

Summary: AU In third year Hermione granger became a wolf animagus and often snuck out at night. Its now 6th year and things are changing drastically for her. Isn't there anyone who can share her love of running on a moonlit night?

Disclaimer: do I look like J.

I ran down the moonlit path, revelling in the feeling of my paws thudding against the dirt covered path. Ever since my third year when I decided that I could put all my knowledge into finding a way to make my night time runs acceptable. Right from first year, I have been sneaking out to go for nightly runs in the forbidden forest and by now I know them just as well as the woods back home. It was because of my nightly runs that Harry and Ron had pushed and prodded me into becoming an animagus, purely for my own safety (and, obviously, because it would help them immensely with their own night wonderings that so often get them into trouble). With my wolf senses I learnt even faster than I would have if I'd been completely human. For it seams that because of the creature I had chosen and the time of my transformation (the full moon), my instincts had become more like an actual wolf than simply a human in an animals' skin, like most animagus. It was these instincts that tried to force me out of my human skin whenever there was a full moon and into the body of my lupine half. Even in human form the wolf lurked beneath the surface guiding me and often making my reactions quite animalistic. It sometimes scared me how close to the surface my wolf rested and how much its instincts could influence me and my decisions.

My thoughts on this matter were whisked away from me as a rabbit darted in front of me across the path. It was a young rabbit and it obviously had never learned to stay out of the way of larger predators like myself. Like a shot I went after it and quickly caught up. In a flood of pure wolf my mind went blank and the only thing I could really focus on was the meal in front of me. I caught the small animal under one of my paws and proceeded to enjoy my meal. I had skipped dinner to run and my stomach was telling me that it was time for food.

It was in this state of mind that I was met with a curious sight before me. In the bushes was another wolf, male, who, if I didn't know any better, I would have said was smirking. But, of course, wolves cant smirk so I quickly shook this thought out of my head and quietly growled; warning the wolf that this was my prey and that I was not going to give it up without a fight. It crossed my mind that it was strange that I had not smelt the wolf or that he had been warned away from my territory. This part of the woods practically had my name on it. The strange wolf crept out of the bushes and closer to me. My growls felt like they were being ripped out of my chest. My instincts were trying to tell me something but I was too busy battling with the need to flee that I ignored it. I knew that once I run it would be my wolf telling the male to follow and, as much as I do to encourage inter species friendships in the magical community, I do not want to try to explain how I managed to end up mated to an actual wolf if he ever caught up to me.

I was sure that there was something off about this wolf, but as I struggled to keep my paws firmly planted on the ground, I had no control over the part of my brain that dealt with logic. My tongue felt dry and my eyes were wide with terror. I was all wolf now, I couldn't control it. This wolf in front of me had me right where it wanted. I couldn't move from fear and it knew that.

By this time the other wolf had proceeded to circling me, ready to pounce. I made myself as small as possible and stayed low to the ground in a submissive gesture. It was me signalling the other wolf that he was the alpha. I knew that was my only real hope if I wanted to get out of there. I knew, from extensive research, and through my own experience with wolves, that the alpha does not like to be challenged and that the males are generally dominant in a pack unless there is an alpha female and I was pretty sure that this wolf would not see me as one of them. The other wolf seemed confused by what I was doing and cocked its head to one side and sat down heavily. I looked up at the wolf and backed away slowly. I was confused too; this wolf was not acting like a wolf. It growled as if to tell me that it hadn't finished with me yet. That was when I truly lost myself to the wolf within. I ran.

It was the single most stupid thing I could have done, except maybe fight. There was no way I'd win that one. He was almost twice the size of me. I knew that I had just practically offered myself to him on a silver platter. It was my wolf in control now and until I got my human self back in control there was no way I could begin to change back to my human form. I slowed my pace when I found that I couldn't hear the other wolf behind me. That was unheard of behaviour. Everyone knew that when I female wolf runs, it means the male chases. It's just the way it works. It is natural wolf behaviour. That's when it hit me. Almost nothing this wolf had done was normal. For one thing it smirked at me for another it didn't force me to be submissive, it backed away fro the fight and the last thing is that it didn't start the chase.

I came to the conclusion that I was dealing with another wolf animagus; it hadn't displayed any of the normal wolf behaviour. I had already guessed that the wolf was quite young and through this I then determined that the wolf must be a student and therefore an illegal animagus, much like me. I thought about who it could be, but realised that it could be anyone of the male students in the castle. Then, I heard paw- steps behind me; the wolf had just walked after me. It was definitely not a natural wolf.

I did the only thing I thought possible. I changed back into a human. It turns out that it was a pretty stupid thing to do and that the other wolf had the same idea.

I was sat in the middle of the forbidden forest opposite…

Draco Malfoy.

I turned, shifted and ran back to the castle.