I don't own anything and thanks to my lovely beta's TheyCallMeHopeless and EveryBodyHatesHugo81
All was quiet in the cemetery as the last few family members in their black clothes made their way in the drizzling rain to their cars. Hermione stood beside the grave with her small hand gripping tightly to her mother beside her in her own little black dress quietly listening to her mother's sniffles.
"Hermione love, here, take this..." her mother whispered in her gentle smooth voice as she bent down to her level and covertly handed her a long rectangular jewelry box. Her brown eyes flew up to her mother's red ones with surprise, making no move to grab the proffered box.
"It's a present from your da-from your daddy," her mother choked out around a sob, opening the box through her tears and holding up the necklace for Hermione to see.
Eyes wide, Hermione took the long delicate golden chain from her mother's fingers and placed the golden heart pendant into her palm, inspecting the words engraved inside its center.
"Amor Vincit Omnia. It means, Love Conquers All. It was your daddy's favorite motto." Her mother said with her tears flowing freely as she took the necklace back to place over her head.
"There, you look beautiful" she said with a brave watery smile, lifting Hermione's mass of hair so the dainty chain can fit properly on her neck, "This necklace has been in your daddy's family for a long time, my love, so you must promise mummy that you will take good care of it, alright?" she asked, staring seriously into Hermione's eyes.
"And when you need some comfort for whatever reason, I want you to take hold of this and squeeze it to your heart and think of me and your daddy and just how much we love you, okay baby? Can you remember that?" she asked as Hermione finally nodded.
Crying, Hermione's mother quickly pulled her into her arms and held onto her tight, sobs wracking her body as Hermione stood there holding tightly the heart to her chest, her own face scrunching up as her tears finally started to fall.
The locket still felt warm with her body heat as she held it in her hand and pressed it tightly to her heart, begging in her mind for patience. She then safely put it back down underneath her clothes where it fell right between her breasts and laid close to her heart.
Feeling slightly better, Hermione pulled out her wand and assessed her situation. She was in the loo trapped in a stall, the green extremely sticky sap that was thrown in with her had exploded all over the door, walls and her person and smelled distinctly like a dumpster. She grimaced wondering how hard it would be to get the stink out from her clothes, if ever before she tried to think of ways to vanish it.
However, a few spells later proved the sappy goo to be a lot stronger than she thought.
'It's okay, Hermione... you've gotten through much worse than this. It's alright if you're stuck in her for a little while, someone will surely come looking for you. Dean will surely notice you're missing at lunch if someone hasn't gone to mess with him and maybe Justin might notice in Arithmancy, that is, if Ernie isn't there...'
Biting her lip, fighting back tears Hermione sat back down on the toilet seat and focused on controlling her breathing. When she felt composed again she just sat there and waited, practicing wand movement as she recalled what she had learned that day in classes.
It took one hundred and thirty eight minutes for Professor McGonagall to come into the girls lavatory and another fifteen to get her out. She had to take four showers after that to get all the goo and stink out and her clothes were officially declared unwearable by her dorm mates Lavender and Parvati, who had tried a whole bunch of cleaning charms for her while she got cleaned up.
It was with a heavy tired heart that Hermione made her way down to the Great Hall for dinner after licking her wounds in the library for hours. Ignoring the chatter, snickers and stares from her peers who heard about her bathroom incident, Hermione took a seat at the end of Gryffindor's table closest to the doors and opened a book to read as she ate.
"There you are Hermione," a voice said, the sound of them plopping down next to her raising her eyes to her intruder.
"Oh, hi Dean." Hermione said with a forced smile, putting down her book.
"Hi. So I, err, heard about what happened earlier..." he said with a grimace as food appeared onto his plate, Hermione sighed.
"You and probably the founders of Hogwarts themselves!" she said with an eye roll as Dean smiled.
"Yeah...are you alright though Hermione? Really? Tell me the truth." he asked worriedly to which Hermione felt a rush of appreciation for her friend, enough so that it put a small genuine smile on her face.
"I'm alright Dean. I'll have to borrow a new uniform since I'm poor and can't afford a new one but other than that I'm okay." Hermione said with a shrug as Dean assessed her for a second.
"Well if you're sure." he said distrustfully turning back to his food.
"Yes, I'm sure." she responded softly, absentmindedly fingering the indent of her heart pendant through her clothes. A second later a disturbance by the entrance doors drew both of their attention and the entire Great Hall for that matter.
Draco Malfoy was the first one her eyes were drawn to with his head of shocking, soft looking platinum blonde hair, his lidded light gray eyes giving him a sultry look as they by passed everyone. Next to him, Harry Potter stood like his polar opposite with his shiny black wind swept hair and almond shaped green eyes hidden behind his glasses. And then there was Ronald Weasley, standing at the tallest a step behind the other two gazing down at the floor, his flaming red hair covering his eyes but his clenched fists telling a story themselves hanging at his sides.
They swept in with their usual bored flair, their closed off expressions holding everyone but one another at a distance as they took their seats with the rest of the Pures. Cho Chang with her incredibly long black hair and light golden sparkling eyes immediately launched her rather attractive body at Harry; Pansy next to her with her blunt cut smooth brown hair and tall skinny figure quickly attached herself to Draco's side.
Neville, Blaise, Luna and Ginny instantly were leaning into the two and conversation immediately started between the eight of them. Hermione noticed that as usual it seemed that no one besides a small smile from Luna started engaging with Ronald, not even his sister. It was all rather strange to Hermione, the way that none of the other Pures ever seemed to care for the tall red head. It wasn't like he wasn't good looking enough since all the Pures seemed to have been blessed to have incredibly noticeable beauty, though even amongst them it was Draco, Harry and Ron that had the most votes with the female and some of the male population. He did have a rather horrible temper, however, but she still didn't think that to be the cause of his estrangement.
She was probably just looking too far into things since no one else seemed to notice a rift between the group, not like the Pures ever let someone come into their tight nit circle anyway.
"What are you thinking about?" Dean asked, finally drawing Hermione's attention away from the group.
"Nothing really." she said with an embarrassed blush for getting caught staring as Dean chuckled beside her.
"I still can't help but find it strange..." he said, his own dark eyes roving over to the Pures.
"What?" She asked curiously, purposefully telling herself not to look over to that table again.
"How they can just come and go from Hogwarts as they please...It's like a slap in the face how much favoritism they get, you know. I mean, look at how long they were gone for this time and then they just come strolling back from probably some fancy exotic vacation in like... the Amazon jungle, or something, without a care in the world a whole week later!" Dean said, a tint of greed and envy marring his voice as he gazed at them. "I bloody hate the lot of them, but especially Potter, Weasley and Malfoy cause they're the ones who leave the most and then come back acting all high and mighty!"
"Oh come off it Dean. I don't really think you hate all of the Pures..." Hermione said teasingly as Dean ducked his head with embarrassment and then frowned back up at her...Hermione smirked and continued despite his glare. "I actually think you're rather found of the Pure girls, especially that Cho Chang girl..."
Narrowing his eyes, Dean humphed and folded his arms but couldn't help but gaze back at the table in front of them.
"Oh bullocks, fine! You're right...I wouldn't hesitate to shag either one of those girls and I would definitely jump at the chance to shag Cho but that doesn't mean I have to actually like any of them. They might be beautiful Hermione, but there right bitches to anyone who isn't one of the Pure guys." he spat out harshly picking up his cup and taking a swing of his drink. Hermione sighed at her bitter friend.
"I suppose your right." she said her eyes flashing quickly to the table just in time to see Ginny Weasley averting her own eyes from Dean with a small frown on her face.
Hermione's brows furrowed at that, wondering if maybe Dean was speaking loudly enough for her to hear all the way from her table. She doubted it but wasn't too sure. Besides Hermione couldn't see Ginny Weasley caring what Dean Thomas, a halfblood being raised by a muggle woman, would say about her or her friends. Her blood was too pure to be sullied by a lessers dirty words.
After dinner, Hermione hung out with Dean a little longer by the safely obscured Black lake where Dean decided to make a quick sketch of the black lake and Hermione watched him good heartily envious of her friends natural talent.
Lost in her own musings, Hermione stayed outside the castle long after Dean decided to leave, giving her his beautiful picture of the full moon hanging over the black lake. As per her usual habit, Hermione withdrew her heart necklace from underneath her shirt and fiddled with the pendant; opening and closing as she thought to herself about the continuous bullying she was forced to face since she got to Hogwarts.
'What am I doing? Sitting here moping in the dark about my problems won't change anything. I have to be strong, like mum was.' She thought, an image of her mother's gentle smiling face burning in her mind's eye.
"Hermione my love, do you know just how much I am proud of you...my smart kind beautiful girl...I love you with all my heart!"
"I love you too mum!" Opening her locket to gaze down at the small pictures fitted into the sides of the hearts of her parents smiling faces. "I'll try harder to make you both proud up there...With your love to guide me I know I can do this." she whispered, gazing up at the stars with a small sad smile.
"Well, well, well...Lookie here Millicent, I think the mudblood actually has something worth value in her hands!"
Closing her eyes in dread, Hermione clenched tight to her necklace with one hand and withdrew her wand from the other, pointing it at the gang of her terrorizers since her first year: Daphene Greengrass, Millicent Bulstrode and the twins Flora and Hestia Carrow.
"Oh ho ho! Look at this! Seems the mudblood wants to play!" Millicent continued as the rest of the gang smirked and sniggered, positioning themselves to surround her.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at their movements and held out her wand with a sure grip, looking for any escape route. The edge of the forbidden forest was just slightly to her right, she knew that if she could manage to scoot that way just a little more, she could make a break for the trees and lose them in the dark forest. It was risky but better than something happening to her necklace or being drowned in the black lake. So she decided to keep them talking as she edged slightly closer to the forest.
"Came to gloat Millicent? I know it was you four who trapped me in the stall earlier." Hermione accused as the girls started laughing with malicious glee.
"Well aren't you bright mudblood? Figure that one out all on your own?" Daphene asked with mocking sarcasm.
"Yeah, it was us! Gave us a right laugh to hear you were stuck in there for almost two hours...Then again no one would actually come looking for you now would they mudblood? Since your nothing but a disgusting dirty blooded bookworm. I bet you the only friends you have are you worthless mummy and daddy!" Millicent said cruelly as Hermione hand clenched around her wand.
"Shut your mouth Millicent cause you're in danger of looking far dumber than your usual Troll brained self." Hermione retorted tersely, backing slowly away as she finally got closer and closer to the forests edge.
"Don't you talk to me like that your filthy foul little mudblood! You're the one whose dumb for even coming to Hogwarts! You should have stayed with your pathetic muggle parents and never even stepped foot into our world! Then again, you were probably just a lonely pathetic loser even before you came here weren't you, you little freak! That's cause no one can stand you and your know-it-all attitude!" Millicent bellowed with her own wand raised as she took menacing steps toward Hermione.
"You know nothing about my life Bulstrode so why don't you stop making assumptions. You do know what they say about those who assume, don't you?" Hermione retorted with her own sarcastic look.
"That's it mudblood! I think it's time we put an end to your damn smart mouth!" she bellowed, her face an angry flush as she raised her wand.
It was at that moment that Hermione made her move. With a quick swish of her wand, Hermione bellowed 'Protego!' to block Millicent's 'expelliarmus!' and ran straight into the forest.
Great panting breaths escaped her as she zig-zagged with single minded purpose, dodging and ducking behind trees away from their curses.
"Get her! Don't let that mudblood go free!" She heard Millicent scream behind her, fueling her legs to go faster, uncaring of the treacherous branches scratching her.
She continued to run even though the sound of footsteps had receded behind her, adrenaline and panic fueling her. She ran until a tree branch made her fall harshly onto the dirty ground.
Gasping, Hermione flipped onto her back and stared up at the starry night sky above her, at the dark leaves stirring with the breeze. Over the loud thumping of her heart, Hermione was relieved that she couldn't hear Millicent or her brainless gang of prejudice twists.
Staring up at the sky with her heaving breaths and completely filthy from sweat and dirt, Hermione took a moment to laugh at how her life could not get more pathetic. It really was almost comical how bad her luck in life is-poor, parentless outcast on the run from her childhood bullies...She shook her head, a giggle escaping her. Could this really be her life?
Her smile fell as the tears finally pooled in her eyes, spilling down her dirty cheeks and into the dirt beneath her. Hermione raised her hands up and pressed them to her eyes, trying to hold back the tears even as the sobs wracked her body.
"Stay strong Hermione. You can't let them know that they're getting to you... You have every right to be here!"
"Look at this Hermione!" Her mother's excited voice rang out from across the yard. Hermione raised her head, her eyes taking in one last sentence from her book before she actually looked at her mother.
She was surprised to see her mother running towards her, an open envelope in her hand. She would have panicked slightly at the sight since her mother never full out ran for any reason...but she could see even from a distance the radiant smile on her face.
"What is mum?" Hermione questioned, her own excitement rising as she stood up from the swing and met her mother halfway.
"Oh Hermione!" was all her mother could say, laughing even as tears ran down her face.
"What? What is it mum?" she asked with excited impatience as her mother sank down on her knees before her, her eyes alight with a bright wondrous look as she gazed at her only child.
"Read it." she responded, her smile turning sly as she lifted the letter for Hermione to take.
Cautiously, Hermione took the letter with both of her hands, feeling the strange smoothness of the paper as she flipped it over. She read the elegant script of her name and address, noting that there was no address of the sender. Quickly raising her eyes to look at her mother, Hermione flipped it back over once more, barely sparing a thought for the broken red seal as she reached inside and took out her letter.
Her eyes steadily got wider as her eyes zig-zagged rapidly across the paper, her mouth falling open slightly as she read the last line. Her mother wiggled with anticipation as she waited for her only child to finish and react.
"I can't believe it..." Hermione whispered just as her mother gave a loud squeal of excitement and launched herself at Hermione, making all the air in her body shoot out with a loud whoosh.
"I know! Of course, I'm not surprised at all that you're really magical Hermione! I've always none you were special since you were in my womb! Call it mother's tuition...I just thought you'd... I don't know, grow up and be the first female ruler of the world, with your brains...being magical was always an suspicion though...a close second to the future Ms. Universe-" her mother rambled excitedly as Hermione just stared down numbly at the letter in her immobile hand.
"No mum!" Hermione interrupted, her temper flaring as she crushed the letter in her hand. "I really can't believe it! I bet you this is one of Mary's tricks again! Their probably all having a laugh at me right now at how they got the nerdy bookworm! Honestly mum! How could you even believe this is real! It's completely rid-"
"Oh my angel..." her mother said, her excited tones turning gentle and slightly said as she pulled back to gaze at her. Gently, with a small tender smile, Hermione's mother reached up her hands and lovingly pushed the wild curls she got from her father, back behind her little ears.
Stubbornly, Hermione scrunched up her face so her tears wouldn't fall at her mother's knowing look in her eyes. Still, some treacherous tears got out so her mother gently brushed them away with her thumbs.
"Hermione, it's okay to cry when you are hurt..." her mother whispered, and just like that the damn broke loss and big fat vicious tears burst through, streaming down her face. Hermione followed the gentle pull of her mother into her arms and took comfort in her gentle caresses.
"It's alright, my brave, smart, strong, baby girl. I'm here for you my angel. I will always be here for you." her mother soothed as Hermione finally started to calm down. "Those other girls who pick on you...they are being mean so that they can bond with other girls in your class so they aren't the ones picked on. They're just scared Hermione but you... you are braver than they are and so much smarter.
You know that the friendships brought about by cruelty are never friendships worth pursuing, because they are never lasting...Those type of girls will go through most of their lives being so afraid of being ousted they'll do or say anything to not stand out or be different until eventually, those girls will lose all sense of who they really are. They'll continue to form meaningless fake friendships and hide their lonely feelings behind plastered smiles until they burst...
'But you, my angel. You will always be able to stand tall because you will not drown in fakeness like them. You know who you are, now more so than ever, and you know that with your bravery, your kindness you will attract other people who are real just like you. You just have to keep your chin up Hermione, and your heart open and know that no one and nothing is worth the price of losing who you really are. Do you understand?" Her mother said, lifting her chin so their eyes connected.
Hermione smiled a watery smile as she nodded.
"Good! But just in case, if you ever really feel backed into a corner than I give you full permission to fight fire with fire and beat them bloody and then come tell me so I can beat them bloody! My little angel will not be a push over!" Her mother said, her gentle tones turning fierce as she glared at the invisible enemy and brought up her fists. Hermione couldn't help but giggle at her ridiculous mother.
"Alright, mum! I get it." she said with a faux long-suffering sigh as she continued to beat down the invisible enemy as they walked back to the house.
Hermione couldn't help but smile at the memory, her hand reaching down to clutch at the indent of her heart pendant. She could still see her mother fiercely fighting air in her honor like it was yesterday. Of course, that was the day she had found out she was a witch. Professor McGonagall had been waiting patiently with a cup of tea in her living room when they had walked back inside and explained everything to her. She had thought so strongly that her life was changing for the better that day...little had she known just how much struggle and strife she would go through entering her Hogwarts years, that she was still going through.
Her mother's words still rang true, however. Bulstrode and her gang were hardly worth her tears. They definitely weren't worth her getting all depressed on the dirt in the middle of the forbidden forest.
With that thought, Hermione quickly sprang up from the ground, patting the dirt off her clothes. She paused for a second before smacking herself on her forehead, before she weaved her wand and quickly cleaned her clothes and herself off with a spell. That done, Hermione took a deep breath and scanned the forest around her, her next biggest problem being she had no way of knowing how to get out of the forest.
Nervously, she jumped at the howling that sounded off in the distance, only then realizing the huge danger she was in being all alone in the notorious dark forest. When another howl sounded a little too close for Hermione's liking she could feel the start of try debilitating fear strike through her. She could curse herself for ever thinking that running into the Forbidden forest was a smart decision... How could she have been so stupid to forget the horrible creatures that dwell in the forest? She knew that her panic had striped her of her rational and now she was facing possible death at the jaws of some beast or worse, expulsion if Millicent or her cronies dared to blab to a teacher.
"No, don't panic, Hermione. You need to think...think, think, think!" she said to herself, squeezing her eyes shut and clenching her hands trying to think. Taking deep breath she decided that the best start would be to disillusion and put a silencing charm on her feet so she wasn't completely like a sitting duck.
"Right," she said to herself once that was done, "now, I just have to find a way back to the castle...if only I had a compass...Oh!" she exclaimed, hitting herself in the forehead. "Duh! Point Me!" she said with a wave of her wand, pleased when a misty arrow appeared to her left.
Feeling slightly calmer, Hermione followed the path of arrows. Still, every nerve in her body was hyper aware even at the soothing sounds of crickets and whispering breeze tickling her skin. She jumped at every hoot, spun frantically to any twig snap and kept her wand raised in front of her, her breaths came out in panicked pants, her blood coursed loudly throughout her body. She was immensely grateful for the full moon that lit her path so she didn't have to use a lumos! and feel even more vulnerable.
An almost dizzying wave of relief hit her when ahead in the distance she could make out a break in the trees. Eager to quickly get out of the scary forest, Hermione broke out into a run for the tree line, very eager to just curl up into a ball underneath her Gryffindor comforter back in the dorms. In her haste, Hermione once again lost her footing on a tree root and roughly face planted into the dirt just at the tree line.
"What the hell was that?" a voice asked ahead of her.
Hermione's heart plummeted as she recognized the voice, and slowly, with mortification and dread, raised her head from the ground and promptly froze with shock.
There, standing in front of her were not one or two but all of the Pures. Her face burning, Hermione waited for them to start laughing and making fun of her...possibly calling her a disgusting dirty mudblood and cursing her. Shockingly however, it was only Ronald Weasley who was looking even remotely her way, the rest all either ignoring him or continuing to talk among one another.
"What was what? I didn't hear anything." Ginny Weasley said, finally tearing her eyes from gazing at the sky to her brother. Shaking his head with his ever present frown, Ronald Weasley turned back around to gaze up at the sky.
"Nothing, never mind, Ginny." Hermione could barely hear him mumble. Ginny gave him an indecipherable look before she too raised her head to look back at the sky, leaning back on her arms from where she was casually reclining on the ground beside a faintly smiling Luna Lovegood and an expressionless Neville Longbottom.
Blinking owlishly and sitting up onto her knees, Hermione failed to understand before mentally giving herself a slap at forgetting she had disillusioned herself. It was then that Hermione fully understood the strangeness of what she had stumbled upon. Not only was she not anywhere near Hogwarts, she was back at the Black lake on the complete opposite side from the castle at the deepest point in some sort of clearing next to the shoreline.
Even stranger still was the fact that all the Pures had gathered in this secluded far away landscape, staring up at the sky with what Hermione deciphered to be expectant expressions. Hermione decided to take this very rare moment to examine the Pures in their own element. She noticed right away how ethereal they all looked in the pale light of the moon touching down upon their skin, she wondered how it could be so that each one of them was so beautiful.
Ginny, Luna, and Neville were the only ones actually on the ground, with Ronald standing not too far away next to them. Pansy Parkinson was surprisingly sitting calmly on a huge rock that was peaking out of the lake and staring at the reflection of the moon on the lakes surface. Blaise Zabini was actually leaning on the very same rock with his arms crossed over his chest as he gazed up at the night sky. Cho chang was next to him but instead of looking at the sky, she was staring at Harry Potter with a complicated look Hermione couldn't even begin to understand, her elegant hands absentmindedly running through her incredibly ridiculous silky, long thick black hair. Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were the only ones quietly conversing as they stood tall side by side close to the shore line with very serious expressions.
Hermione wished she could hear them but didn't dare move closer, in fact, she even started to back up. She had a strange feeling in her gut that she was intruding on something extremely private and she didn't want to risk getting discovered spying. Yet, as scooted back into the cover of the trees, she found she didn't want to leave either. She just had to know what they were doing here...what they were expecting...
Maybe it was because she was just too damn curious to find out why the Pures were just so closed off from everyone else. Even each other, she thought as her eyes flitted about their empty expressions and felt the heavy atmosphere.
She tried to think up of a time she'd even once seen the Pures truly laugh together throughout the years and could not come up with an instance. Sure, she had seen them laugh politely at a joke a Professor said in class but she'd never seen them truly enjoying anything, not even their popularity. If anything, the over attention they received seemed to make them even more closed off from everyone else as Hermione thought of their polite smiles they flashed sometimes to keep everyone else at a distance.
She was startled from her thoughts when quite suddenly all the Pures tensed up, Draco and Harry, immediately cutting their conversation as an eerie silence fell, it seemed, all over the forest. Those sitting on the ground quickly stood up and in disturbingly perfectly synchronized movement the all stared trans-fixedly at the moon now hovering directly above them and then started unbuttoning their shirts and tugging on their skirts and trousers.
Hermione watched blankly for a moment, completely not understanding what was happening until it was like she all the sudden stepped into a nudist colony. Feeling appalled at what was going but at the same time strangely mesmerized, Hermione continued to watch, trying to ignore her pounding heart as more and more skin was revealed to her and the night.
She couldn't help but let her eyes trail, gulping at the stunning bodies in front of her, all perfect in their different ways. She followed the lean lines of their back sides, over plump round romps, broad shoulders, hourglass hips of both the girls and the boys. She felt the strange need to pinch herself to see if this was all real. Had she stepped into another world... some strange alternate universe, the twilight zone or something? She wouldn't be surprised if an alien space craft came and carried them away at this point...
The next second, however, Hermione knew that something was up as the Pures all seemed to clench up, hissing breathes of air whistling through clenched teeth, long drawn out moans and groans all reaching her ears from where she was crouched completely frozen leaning against a tree. Her eyes grew as suddenly Pansy plunged with a stunning swan dive into the Black lake, with Luna quickly climbing onto the large rock and following after. She half expected for the rest of the Pures to go into the lake as well, maybe they were all just skinny diving? But that theory quickly was chucked as none of them made a step closer to the edge of the lake.
No, instead Hermione watched as the strangeness just kept increasing. Trans-fixedly she stared as muscle moved under flawless skin and bodies twisted, bones creaked and they all stared to morph right before her eyes. She couldn't help but cringe as the skin of Ginny, Cho, Draco, and Harry ripped harshly, making all of them howl with pain.
At that point, everything happened pretty quickly as Hermione continued to watch this time with horror as the Pures that were once human before her were now all something else entirely.
They were monsters.
Ginny, now a rather large, strong pale white horse with a mane and tail of flaming red hair and huge long white wings, quickly galloped straight into the air with an impressive whoosh of her wings. Neville too transformed into a horse... or rather, a huge powerful black unicorn with a stunning, long glittering horn and gracefully trotted to the black lake, taking a sip of water. Hermione nearly jumped when not too far away from the unicorn, Luna emerged from the water looking perfectly normal as far as Hermione could tell...that is until the girl started giggling and splashing Neville before swimming away with her legs now bright blue sparkling fins because she just happened to be a mermaid.
Feeling faint, it only became worse for Hermione when out of nowhere a huge cat fish head popped out of the water from where Luna had disappeared under. It's eyes glowed with a bright white light, its massive serpentine body breaking out of the water for a distance at least thirty feet out. Numbly, Hermione realized she was looking at a leviathan, a serpentine sea monster, and that that leviathan was really Pansy Parkinson.
Hermione was distracted from this mind boggling thought when another different and, if possible, even fiercer serpent slithered off. Luckily it went in a direction far away from Hermione, who quickly averted her eyes from the form of Blaise, now transformed into a deadly basilisk. Feeling completely petrified, Hermione didn't dare to even breath until she could no longer hear its bone chilling ominous hissing.
It was then that the flapping of winds finally registered in her numb mind, and she turned her head to look back to see two more flying creatures in the clearing. Biting her lip, Hermione bit back a gasp at the massive dragon before her getting ready to take flight. She knew without a doubt that it was Draco because of the startling color of its huge silver eyes. She also knew that this type of dragon he transformed into is called a Hebridean Black dragon since she could recognize the gleaming obsidian scales from her care of magical creatures textbook. Her observations were quickly over however, when he took off into flight a second later.
She only had a few second to gaze in wonder this time at the beautiful multicolored phoenix with glowing bright green eyes before it took flight with such an effortless stretch of its wings. Hermione followed after the form of Harry as it ascended with a harmonious cry that had a newly reappeared Luna giggling and a unicorn Neville neighing up at him.
Realizing she was gaping, Hermione dumbly snapped her mouth shut, taking a shuttering breath as suddenly inexplicable tears pooled in her eyes. Her whole body shook worse than a leaf and she knew that this strange inability to think was her in complete shock.
Calm down Hermione. Just calm down...calm down. She repeated inside of her head like a mantra as she sat with her head between her knees.
The sound of a twig snapping had her turning into stone. She heard over the loud thumping of her panicked heart, sounds of something sniffing the air very close to her hiding spot. Not even daring to breath, Hermione slowly raised her head, fear and apprehension turning every nerve ending in her body prickly with alarm.
Clasping her hands over her mouth to stifle her gasp, Hermione's wide eyes were fixated on the leopard in front of her as it prowled closer and closer.
Oh no! Please don't get any closer! Please God! Don't let it come closer! She silently begged in her head completely horrified as it steadily got nearer, it's head tilted down and sniffing the grass, obviously tracking her scent.
It was so close she could clearly see the dilated cat pupils, the fine muscles of its shoulders as it moved with silent paws, even the whiskers flicking as it tasted the air. Her heart literally stopped beating in her chest when those cat eyes flew up and stared directly into her own brown eyes.
A tense moment followed in which it felt like, to Hermione, the entire world slipped away and it was just her completely vulnerable in the eyes of a predator as it took one ominous deep breath of air.
Immediately, the instinctual fight or flight response tapped in Hermione and a second later, without a conscientious thought, Hermione was up and taking off through the trees.
She ran as fast as she could without a single thought in her mind besides getting away as fast as possible. She ran so hard and fast it was almost surreal. Twigs caught into her hair, branched harshly slapped every inch of her body as she whizzed past but nothing registered to her besides keeping her legs going. She didn't even realize that there was nothing following after her for she couldn't even hear anything over her beating heart.
She continued to run frantically, bursting out of the forbidden forest with cut up, dirty flailing limbs, and her eyes panicked and wide looking quite a sight. She didn't pause as Hogwarts finally was within her sights; she kept going, running head on straight up to the castle doors.
Only once she had slammed the entrance doors behind her, did Hermione finally catch her breath, falling heavily back on the doors. She gasped for air, sliding down onto the floor with her back propped up bracing her arms on her knees and her head in her hands.
When she regained her breath, Hermione mechanically made her way back up to Gryffindor tower as her mind replayed image after image of the Pures turning into those creatures. They plagued her as she numbly undressed to take a shower once she was in the dormitories. Slowly, thoughtfully, she rubbed the soup into her skin, questions plaguing her all the while.
Could what she had seen really have been real? Did the Pures all just turn into creatures right before her eyes? How was that even possible? Why? How the bloody hell could they just morph into those beasts? There was just no way it could be possible...but she had seen it, hadn't she? It had happened right in front of her face! She could still recall them all standing there naked as their skin rippled, stretched, ripped apart...
She sputtered when water spilled into her mouth, realizing she was standing blankly with her mouth gaping as she thought. Sighing heavily, she reached out and turned the water off stepping out and drying herself off. Her balance wavered as she got dressed for bed quietly as she could, feeling overwhelming exhaustion that caused black swirling dots to form in her vision.
Crawling into bed with a contented sigh, Hermione reached out to touch her necklace and frowned at the absence of the dainty gold chain. Heart thundering in her chest Hermione immediately sat up in her bed, her eyes going wide as she patted herself down.
"Oh no...oh no oh no oh no! Please this cannot be happening, please please!" she begged to herself as she searched all around her frantically for that gold chain, for that heart shaped necklace.
Tears streaming down her face, Hermione practically flew back to the bathroom, her eyes searching...by the time she gave up looking her entire belongings were strewn out everywhere around her. She could only stand there in the chaotic mess she created feeling more defeated and lost than she had all night long.
The light wind rustled his hair into his eyes as he put back on his shoes.
It was so quiet out here...not even a cricket chirped in this stillness, only the rustling of clothes on skin broke the silence as they all got dressed. It was like a whole different world.
He lost himself to the silence for a moment, staring down at the golden locket cradled in his rather large hand. Now that he was back to being a human, he could use his thumbs to open the tiny clasp.
He stared down at the pictures, his brow furrowing at the unrecognizable faces of a smiling man with curly brown hair and the woman wearing a wide grin, her hair falling slightly into a face. He immediately knew that these people were muggles, the unmoving pictures showing slightly the tops of the muggle clothes. It didn't really help him to find out who it was that he had smelled out here spying on them.
With a frustrated growl, Ron snapped the locket back shut, effectively getting the attention of the others.
"What is it Ron?" Luna asked in that wispy curious tone as she moved next to him, daring to place a hand on his forearm to peer at what he held in his hand.
Gritting his teeth, Ron raised his head and looked very seriously at all of the faces around him, holding up the golden locket in front of him so they could all see it.
"We've got a problem...