Howling at Hogwarts

"Cookies"- talking

The moon was high in the sky with no clouds in sight. For once, the forbidden forest was silent except for the pounding feet and heavy breathing of two teenagers. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were running as fast and as far as they could get, having just gotten Professor Lupin's attention thus saving past Harry. Hermione racked her brain trying to think of something, anything that could save them in this situation. All she could come up with is that wolves couldn't climb trees well if at all. Sadly the trees of the forbidden forest didn't have branches low enough for them to climb.

"Hermione, Hurry!" Harry yelled to her when he saw Professor Lupin gaining on them.

Harry, being in better shape than his bookworm friend, started to pull ahead of Hermione. He held back as much as he could so the bushy haired girl wouldn't be left behind, but he knew they couldn't outrun the werewolf. Even if they could lose him, he had better senses then them. The wolf could easily track them on sent alone. Lupin was going to catch them it was only a matter of time. At best they would be bitten and turned into werewolves themselves. Unfortunately the chances of that happening were very uninspiring.

With this in mind, Harry made his decision. He would not let Lupin hurt Hermione. She was his best friend and the closest thing to a sister Harry would ever get. The young Gryffindor would happily die before he'd see her hurt. Harry stopped running and spun around, letting Hermione pass him.

"Harry! What the hell are you doing? Keeping running!" She yelled coming to a stop a few steps ahead of him.

Harry shook his head with a sad half smile. "Keep going", he said softly

The muggleborn's eyes widened when she realized what he was saying, but before she could say anything the werewolf was upon them. Lupin quickly reached Harry, driving his claws into the dark haired boy's sides to hold him in place. Fast as lighting, the wolf's fang were ripping into Harry's right shoulder making him cry out in pain. Hermione took a step towards them hoping to help her friend, when Harry screamed again. Only this time he screamed with words.

"No! Hermione go, go now!" Harry Screamed as loud as he could manage, while holding the werewolf to his body.

With tears in her eyes, Hermione backed up a few steps before turning to run. Unfortunately for the young bookworm when she turned she snapped a twig causing Lupin to look up. When the werewolf looked up, probably looking for a possible threat, he saw her trying to get away. Leaving Harry bleeding out on the ground, the wolf ran at Hermione. Having felt something was coming at her, the girl turned just in time to see Lupin's claws coming down on her face. As the claws were tearing down her face, nipping her neck and finally lodging themselves in her shoulder, the werewolf professor bit into Hermione's left arm. The wolf released he hold on the girl before taking hold of her leg in his mouth and dragging her back to where Harry still lay barely alive on the forest floor. After dropping Hermione next to Harry, Lupin let out a loud, long howl of victory to the moon.

Once Lupin had both teens together, he bared his fang fully intent on feasting. When suddenly there was a loud roar from behind him. The werewolf turned ready to kill whatever it was that was stopping him from eating, only to come face to face with a very unhappy Buckbeak. Before the wolf could do anything, the hippogriff charged him making Lupin scramble to get out of the way. Buckbeak, now standing over the injured teens, rose to his hind legs, spread his wings as far as they could go and roar out a savage challenge to the werewolf. Lupin sensing that this was a fight he wouldn't win easily turned and ran away. Even as a wolf, he knew he was out classed and out matched. With the danger now gone, Buckbeak turned to the young humans that had freed him earlier that very day. The hippogriff gently nudged the dark haired boy that he had taken flying once.

Opening his eyes slowly, Harry smiled at Buckbeak. "Hey, Buckbeak . Looks like you saved us, thanks." He whispered before reaching up to pet the hippogriff. The big winged creature whined softly before laying down next to the teenagers. The Gryffindor chuckled slightly at Buckbeak's behavior. Turning his head to the side a little, Harry looked at his friend sadly and took her hand gently.

"Looks like this might be the end huh, mione?" He said barely above a whisper. Pain and blood loss making it hard for Harry to see or feel anything but he was sure that he felt Hermione squeeze his hand before the world went black.

WwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwW

"How are they, Poppy?" A voice asked.

"Honestly Albus? Physically they're healed. They're both going to have scars, but nothing too disfiguring. What I'm worried about is how they'll be emotionally after all that's happened to them." A different voice, more feminine, said.

"Well, at least-"A loud groan sounded cutting the first voice, definitely male, off.

"Where am I? Where's Harry? What's going on?" the young girl in bandages asked looking around. She saw that she was in the hospital wing in a nice bed with curtains closed around her. As she looked around, she noticed that she was seeing things though only one eye. Panicking the girl quickly reached up with her hand to touch her eye, only to feel bandages covering half her face. The curtain to her right pulled open to reveal Headmaster Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey.

"Ah Ms. Granger, you're wake. Tell me how are you feeling?" the school nurse asked.

"I feel pretty good, other that the fact I can't see out of one eye. Where's Harry and what's going on?" the young bookworm responded almost instantly. The two adults shared a look that made her fear the worst. When they looked back at her, Hermione didn't see looks of sadness or grief. She hoped this mean that Harry was alive. Madam Pomfrey left to check on other patients leaving the bookworm and old man to themselves.

"Harry is fine, Ms. Granger. He's sleeping in one of the other beds. Miss Granger, you and Harry were brought here late last night. Can you tell me what happened?" Dumbledore asked in his grandfatherly tone. For some reason that Hermione couldn't describe she felt on edge near the headmaster at that moment. She had never felt like that before and couldn't understand why, but she just felt that it was not safe to trust him. Giving herself a good mental shake, Hermione pushed that feeling away and started to tell Dumbledore everything that she could remember.

About half way through telling the headmaster what had happened Harry had woken up as well and helped she tell their story. Once they were finished Dumbledore just looked at them with a twinkle in his eyes. Unbeknownst to them, harry and hermione were both experiencing a feeling telling them not to trust the old man before them. An awkward silence fell on the group with dumbledore staring and the teens just sitting there. Luckily the silence was broken as Madam Pomfrey returned with Professors McGonagall and Snape in tow.

"Ah now that we are all here we can start." The headmaster stated as all the adults looked at the two teenagers.

"Start what Professor?" the bespectacled teen asked as he sat next to hermione on her bed.

"Harry, I am sad to say but you and Ms. Granger are now going to become werewolves. I am truly sorry this happened to the two of you. That said we need to have precautions in place to insure that you don't harm yourselves or others, do you understand?" Dumbledore said in a kind voice, the type of voice you use with little kids to make them understand things too complicated for them otherwise. Before last night nether hermione nor harry would have minded if he spoke to them like that , but right now the way he was talking to them was pissing them off.

"Sir with all due respect, Harry and I know we are werewolves now. We knew there was a chance that this could and most likely would happen if we messed with a werewolf. We accepted that fact before we even got the wolf's attention. Please don't talk to us as if we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. As for precautions, I am more than willing to accept your help provided you do not treat us as children. Is that good with you Harry?" the bushy haired girl said while turning to look at her friend, who nodded his head in agreement. Hermione would normally never say anything like this to a teacher, but she felt like she had to make it clear that Dumbledore didn't have the final say in what she did or was going to do. A quick glance at Harry showed that he agreed with her.

The professors stared in shock at the girl before them. Potter they could understand saying something like that because the boy did not like to be talked down to or told what to do, but Granger? Granger, as in Hermione 'by the book, never tries to break rules' Granger, just told a professor not to do something? This moment was not making sense the teachers that standing there. McGonagall would have been less surprised if Snape started to dance around in a tutu. Dumbledore would never admit it, but he agreed with McGonagall.

Thinking quickly, Dumbledore back tracked. "I apologize if that is what if sounded like I was going. Rest assured that was not my intent, I was merely offering my help, if you would rather go it by yourselves then so be it." He did not want to make them too angry at him, because new werewolves are known to have extremely short tempers. The last thing that Dumbledore needed was for the Boy-Who-Lived and the brightest witch of her age to be raging around the hospital wing like a pair of drugged up psychos. Madam Pomfrey just might actually kill him if that happened.

Needless to say Snape was less then excited by that suggestion. "Albus, you can't seriously mean that. These two are now dark creatures and as such are supposed to be sent to the ministry for-"he stopped talking as two very loud and very menacing growls filled the air. Turning to look back at the young wolves on the bed, the potions master was met with twin glowing amber eyes trying to burn a hole in his head. The look in those eyes could make the devil himself step back.

"I would hold my tongue if I were you, omega. It not then we can always take it from you." Harry growled while hermione bared her teeth at him. If they weren't going to let the headmaster talk to them like that, then they damn sure weren't going to let a man they didn't like do it either.

"Omega?" McGonagall questioned. After a minute or two of glaring at Snape, hermione looked over to the gryffindor head. Dumbledore sent Snape a look and the potions master scowled before leaving the room. As he reached the door Harry could just barely hear him mumbling about arrogant, glory seeking, and furry brats.

"Omegas are considered the weakest of the pack. That said, omegas can be strong sometimes even stronger then the alpha. The problem with omegas is that for the most part they don't get along with the rest of the pack. They eat last, get the worst place to sleep, and have to take everyone else's crap. They are only part of the pack because the alpha lets them be there." she said to her head of house with respect. In their minds McGonagall deserved it since she was the Beta.

"Why would you call your professor that?" Pomfrey asked. Until now the school nurse had been quiet, mostly watching her two patients looking for any sign of pain or discomfort. The two teens look at each other before shrugging.

"We don't know, I just looked at him and the word came to mind. Hermione agrees with me otherwise she'd have told me not to call him that." Harry said nonchalantly, like it was the most normal thing in the world to call your teacher the odd man out in the pack. Before anything more about this could be said, Professor Lupin walked in the room. He looked around before spotting them and running over to them. The only thing going through the minds of the two teens upon seeing Lupin was this: Omega

As Lupin got closer to the bed he felt his emotions running rampant. He felt horrified hat he had almost killed his students, relief that they had survived, guilt for the curse they now shared, and happy that at least they would live. Through all this he couldn't help but feel a little hope. Harry and Hermione would be werewolves by the next full moon, maybe they'd want to form a pack with him. He could finally have someone to talk to that understood the pain of being what he was and would help him look for a cure. After all wolves are social creatures and the need to be with other wolves is strongest in newly made werewolves.

"Harry Hermione, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you; you know I would never hurt anyone. I'm happy you two are alright and I'm sorry for turning you into animals. I only hope you can forgive me, cause I never meant to make anyone into monsters like me." The older wolf said with his head down. Lupin waited for them to yell at him for doing this to them. He knew no one ever wanted to be cursed with an animal prowling around just under their skin, waiting for a chance to get out. He figured once they were done yelling and screaming at him, he could offer to teach them about being wolves and hiding what they were. Lupin waited and waited. Finally he looked up at them confused why they weren't screaming at him for ruining their lives. Both teens were looking at him with confused expressions on their faces, before turning to look at each other.

"Harry, are you an animal?" Hermione asked her head tilted slightly.

The boy in question shook his head. "No. Are you a monster?"

This time she shook her head. "No. Last I checked I was still me." Both gryffindors nodded at this and turned back to the older wolf looking at them.

"We forgive you sir. It wasn't your fault, so don't worry so much. Besides we're both cool with being werewolves, but we are not monsters or animals sir. We don't see anything wrong with what we are." Harry said with a lopsided smile. He really didn't see anything wrong with being a werewolf. If anything he saw it as a plus being one. Both he and hermione now had increased strength, speed, senses, and endurance. With as dangerous as their lives can be at times, having these added bonuses would certainly be a good thing.

Lupin frowned at this." But Harry you could hurt someone or worse kill someone." He didn't like that they were so calm about being werewolves. Being what they were was wrong. Werewolves were savage wild animals. At the very least they should be upset that now they were going to be second class citizens in the magical world.

Tilting her head again, Hermione frowned at the professor. "Sir, we could hurt or kill someone if we were human just as easily as we can as werewolves." She couldn't understand why he was bothering them about this. They forgave him and weren't even mad about being werewolves, so hermione couldn't see what the problem was. Though now that she thought about it she figured Lupin's problem was that she and Harry were ok with lycanthropy while he thought werewolves were vile bloodthirsty monsters of the moon. She knew that the older wolf despised and pitied himself and other wolves for what they were, to the point of taking a number of potions to try and hide what he was. Hermione was willing to bet now that she and Harry were werewolves, Lupin was going to try and get them on the same potions.

Unfortunately she was proven right with his next sentence. "Fair enough, anyways we need to get you both started on the potions you'll need from now on." He said but you could tell from his eyes that this conversation wasn't over.

"I thought a person only needed one potion for being a werewolf?" Harry asked though who he was asking a good question too, since he was looking at the ceiling.

Now hermione was looking at ceiling too as she answered him." That's true. The only potion you need to control the shift is wolfsbane. Even then all you really need is a small dose one hour before sunset and another small dose one after sunrise on the night of the full moon, but that's just because the night of the full moon is the only time you'll lose control. Any other time you'll have full control, unless you use too much wolfsbane. Then you start to lose control of your wolf all the time. After that happens you become reliant on the potion, because if you miss it once than you do turn into a wild animal that doesn't think at all."

Harry, now looking at hermione, asked the question that was on everyone's mind but hermione and Lupin." He said potions. If we only need one, what other potions is he talking about?" Lupin was starting to get nervous and angry. He didn't what anyone to know what potions he was taking and wanted them to take. The older wolf couldn't understand how hermione knew what he was on but he wanted to find out and make sure no one else did.

"It's nothing much, just a couple calming potions to help you keep in control." He said hoping they'd just accept his answer. He was doing what was best for everyone; he couldn't let other werewolves run loose. They just weren't safe for the public.

Sadly for him, hermione wasn't about to just let it go." You're lying. When I first learned you were a werewolf, I looked up everything about werewolves. The only thing you need is a small amount of wolfsbane a month to be fine. So I was curious about all the potions you were taking and why you looked so sick, since from what I found werewolves are emund to most sickness and have very few weakness. The potions you've been taking are a strength damping potion, a senses blocking potion, an endurance damping poison, and a speed reducing poison, aren't they? That's why you wolf looks so bad, you're trying to force yourself to be human when you're not."

There were gasps all around as everyone looked at Lupin in shock. He looked at them all before his gaze stopped on Dumbledore. "Why Remus? Why would you do that to yourself?" the headmaster asked with such disappointment in his eyes that Lupin could look at him anymore. While everyone was looking at Lupin, no one saw dumbledore a subtle nod to Pomfrey. Seeing this, the school nurse slowly got her wand and began casting silent analyzing charms. Within seconds she confirmed what hermione said was true and nodded back at dumbledore.

"Albus! You don't understand. Werewolves are dangerous they need to be controlled in wolf and human form. I'm keeping people safe, I am. I know you aren't going to expel them from school so we have to control them. That way innocent students don't get bitten and this curse doesn't spread." Lupin all but screamed at him. He was breathing heavy and shaking slightly. The look in his eyes was that of a corned animal. He had to get them on the same potions as him. He had to, it was the only way others would be safe around them. If Dumbledore didn't help him, then he would make them take the potions himself. He sired them; they were his wolves they had to do what he said.

"NO" growled Harry and Hermione, both of them now off the standing side by side. What neither of them knew was that as they started growling their eyes had turned an amber/gold color and started glowing. Lupin jumped back a little, having not expected them to oppose him like that. Now that he got a good look at the two he realized something that made the wolf in his whimper in fear. They were Alphas, meaning they would never submit to him unless they wanted to. He had tried to force his rule over two stronger predators. Together Harry and Hermione stalked closer to the older wolf, with each step their growling got louder until they stood in front of him practically roaring. Suddenly the growls stopped, no one spoke the only sound be a pathetic whimpering from Lupin.

"You don't command us omega. You gave us the gift of the bite, but that doesn't make you an alpha to us." Harry said in a low menacing voice that all but begged for that chance to rip something apart.

"If anything you should bow to us. We are alphas. We are the apex here, we answer to no one. If I were you, I would run while you still can." Hermione's voice matching Harry's perfectly.

"Wait…I didn't-"Lupin stammered.

"NOW!" They roared together, their voice sounding like one and dripping with power. So much power in fact, that Lupin's own eyes changed to his own amber color before he turned and ran for the door as fast as he could.

There was silence as the two gryffindors calmed down. Once they were both calm, they sat back on the bed and looked at the professors. McGonagall was still shocked at what just happened so she was not really looking anywhere. Pomfrey was just watching them still looking for signs of pain as if nothing had happened. Dumbledore looked at them with his head tilted slightly before a look of clarity appeared in his eyes.

"That explains why you didn't like that it sounded like I was telling you what to do before." He said with a nodded of his head.

"What do you mean, professor?" harry asked.

"You are both alphas, so you don't like to let someone else be in charge when you can do it yourselves. It's rare that two alphas can stand to be in the same room as one another. Yet you two speak as if you were the same alpha, most of the time that only happens when the two alphas are soulmates." Dumbledore responded. When he saw harry and hermione look at each other and make disgusted faces, he laughed." You two are not soulmates. If I had to guess I'd say you were spirit mates." Upon seeing their confusion he chuckled again. It wasn't often that hermione didn't know something after all.

"Spirit mates are people whose spirit calls to one another. This is different from soulmates in that a soulmate is the person you are meant to be with. A spirit mate is a person who your spirit claims as part of you like family. Basically you spirits have decided that you two are each other's family. You are brother and sister to each other. Spirit mates are the family you choose. You two wouldn't have become spirit mates unless you were already as close to each other as you could be without being soulmates. If spirit mates are turned be the same type of creature on the same day within moments of each other their bound strengthen to the point of viewing each other as one. It's why you don't have a problem listening to each other or being in the same room together. Your wolves see each other as one, so you act as one. This doesn't mean you share a soulmate or anything. Basically you're twins now." He finished his little speech with a smile.

Hermione looked at harry and he looked back at her. Suddenly they were both grinning like fouls and hugging each other. They had always seen each other as family and now they were. It made becoming werewolves worth to now have each other the way they wanted. Hermione had the brother she always wanted and he was best friend. Harry now had a family he could be proud to be in, it didn't matter to him if it was just the two of them. They were family and that was all that mattered.

"Well, it's getting late so you both will be staying in the hospital wing tonight and in the morning will be going back to Gryffindor tower. Tomorrow you will also be getting those bandages off and we will sit down then to discuss what you want to do about the full moon. "The headmaster said before he and professor McGonagall left the wing.

Hermione got into bed while Harry left for his own bed. The last thought on either of their minds was how last night was a good night after all.