Author's Note:

This is my very first attempt at a FanFic so please be kind. I will do my best to update often but I do have classes starting again soon. I work quite a bit as well. Some of the characters may be slightly OOC but only as far as I have perceived them to be while reading the original Harry Potter series. Also, some slight AU.

Caution: This story contains coarse language, some violence and mature scenes filled with lemons.

Italics will be used for thought and Quotations (") for dialogue.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. JK Rowling owns everything, including the $1.6 million dollar home next to her $3.3 million dollar home. *sigh*

-K

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Shit.

Hermione's mind raced as she groped blindly about her.

Shit. Shit!

Her hands worked franticly over the crusted earth for something, anything to save her life.

Not anything, the only thing.

Even with the full moon's light flooding through the night sky, she took painful note of the fact that the thick forest canopy provided very little to see the ground beneath her. Desperately crawling on all fours she latched on to anything that remotely resembled the intricate woven vines of wood that was her wand.

Her heart thumped loud in her chest. Every beat like the ticking of a clock serving as a constant reminder of how little time she had. It fluttered faster skipping a beat, when she felt something coarse and slender but it soon then returned to its ominous ticking countdown when she discovered in vain that it was just another stick. Snapping it angrily in two and tossing it aside, she slumped against a nearby tree.

She hadn't planned on being here, at night anyway. The thick Devon forest provided a quiet and peaceful place to read during the day, but by nightfall, it was not somewhere she or any other witch in her right mind wished to be; especially alone and especially during the full moon.

She had gone into the forest during the early evening with every intention of leaving before supper. She only needed to escape the noise and bustle of the Burrow for a few hours.

After they graduated, Harry, Ron and she had all taken up temporary residence in the Weasley household. They all pitched in to help to restore it after the final battle and after Bellatrix and Greyback burned it down. Molly, being the mother hen she was, insisted that they stay in the additional rooms that were constructed until they had all found other suitable living arrangements.

It had only been a few months since they left the doors of Hogwarts, so it seemed like the most logical decision. It was by all accounts a good place to continue healing after the losses of the war. Hermione figured that with the extra company, the Weasleys along with Harry and herself wouldn't feel the sting in their hearts quite as often when they glanced at the empty chairs around the table.

Today had been like most of the other summer days. Everyone in the house rose early with the exception of Ginny. With another year to go at Hogwarts, she needn't worry about the responsibility of a job just yet.

The others however, were up and out the door by 7:30 every morning. Ron pursued his career in Quidditch and practiced everyday with the Ballycastle Bats as the new Keeper. George had kept up with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Fred's memory and despite the loss of his brother and best friend; he had not lost his penchant for scheming up new tricks and spells. He was in every sense of the phrase, doing quite well for himself.

Molly was without fail, always the first to rise in the morning. She could be found in the kitchen cooking up breakfast for a family of twenty let alone the seven occupants that resided within the home.

Harry had taken up a position as an Auror in the Ministry while Hermione, who in her third year had become fascinated by Professor Lupin's Lycanthropy, accepted the head position in the Department of Magical Creatures.

From the early morning to the early afternoon the house was quiet. As everyone trickled in the front door from their various daily tasks however, the volume of noise within the home grew and grew until she could swear that the walls of the house shook.

Desperate for some serenity to re-read the volumes of new werewolf law proposals, Hermione took to the nearby forest. As she engrossed herself in her readings she hardly noticed that the sun was getting low and the air around her had began cool. It wasn't until she couldn't make out the words in front of her anymore that she noted she should be heading back.

Gathering the volumes of pages scattered around her, she pulled out her wand and muttered a quick, "Reducio". Sticking her wand back in her pocket of her crème colored sweater, along with the now considerably smaller stack of laws, she dusted off her muggle jeans and headed back down the path toward the Burrow.

She was nearly out of the forest when she stepped into the intense glow of the moon. It washed over her completely, pooling over her honey brown curls, down her slim frame and all the way to the toes of her bare feet. Stopping at the edge of the forest, she turned to face the rather large, rather bright and beautiful full moon. She knew it was dangerous, but her nagging curiosity to discover something new and vital kept her from continuing on her path home.

Walking briskly back into the forest she fully reassured herself that there were no known dens in the forests near Devon and that it was highly unlikely a werewolf would be lurking nearby. As far as she could recall, there were none even registered within a hundred miles.

She approached the clearing in the middle of the forest, where she intended to cast a few simple spells and take some measurements of the moons position in the sky. For the last month she had been researching a stronger alterative to the Wolfsbane Potion. Having only just started off in her research, she had little of the valuable information that she needed. The opportunity to observe and calculate the full moon had been too great for her to ignore.

She was only a few steps from the clearing. Going over the mental list of things to do once she arrived she hadn't noticed the defining silence of the once very fervent crickets. What she did hear however, was the sudden eruption of a low and lengthy wail that had her tripping over her own two feet, sending her wand and the copy of the new laws flying out about her in every direction.

That loud, drawn and desperate sound, in addition to her own morbid curiosity, was how she ended up there now; slumped against the tree, defeated in the attempt to locate her only source of protection.

I can only imagine the story in the Prophet tomorrow. "Hermione 'Know-it-all' Granger finally let curiosity kill the bushy haired cat. She will fondly be remembered for helping to defeat Lord Voldemort, only to be killed by some ...creature…"

No. Hermione knew it wasn't just "some creature". In the vast expansion of her mind, with all her late and recent research, she knew precisely what "creature" was stalking her. The signs were too obvious to ignore. She just didn't want to admit it.

The over sized prints, the trail of deer bits and blood that had been strewn across the clearing, the full moon and perhaps the most tell tale of them all, the panged, lonely and unmistakable howl of th-

CRACK!

Hermione stiffened and stared straight at the ground ahead. A low guttural snarl erupted from the other side of the tree, followed by the quick sharp intake of hurried breath. Knowing that any sudden movement would mean her life, she did what she did best. She began to think. Fast and hurried thoughts filled her mind, searching for any way out.

If I make it to the edge of the clearing I might- no. I can't out run a- well maybe if I slowly make my way around the tree and surprise it, then stun it- ugh but I need my- WAND!

The realization hit her hard and at the precise moment she needed it to.

From the second she heard the monster behind her, her deep brown orbs had been fixated on the object in front of her. Partially hidden in the shadow of the forest, her wand lay a few feet beyond her reach.

She acted instantaneously without a further thought. She sprung from her shelter of the tree and lunged for her life.

Sensing her movement almost before she had even begun, the large black werewolf leapt snarling and hissing from behind the tree at her retreating form. Its glassy crimson eyes were focused and narrow, only to be mimicked the pointed and bloodied fags of its open scowling mouth.

Hermione landed gruffly on the ground in front of her, shooting her hand out to clutch the thin carved salvation in her hand. As she wretched her body around to face the beast she cried out in a shrill and shaking voice.

"STUPEF-ARGHHHH!"

The end of her spell, cut short from the white hot searing pain that erupted from the torn flesh of her hip. The pain enveloped her whole and the scene around her began to dim.

The wolf growled in apparent victory over its prey as it reared back for the kill. But before she slipped from the conscious world, she could just make out the sound of a panicked voice calling out her name and the muttering of a spell. A red light illuminated the world beyond her closed lids before she succumbed to the darkness that beckoned her.