The sun was still bright when she stepped outside. It was close to midnight, but at summer solstice, the day never seemed to end. Looking down to the beach, she saw that Bill had lit a bonfire. The driftwood burned with bursts of green and blue, magnificent to look at. Hermione sighed. It was a beautiful night.

She walked down to the beach to meet her boyfriend. He was still busy setting out blankets and arranging a bottle of red wine and two glasses. She smiled. This would be the first summer solstice they spent together, just the two of them. They had celebrated the night in bigger groups before, usually with the Weasleys, Harry, and what Order members decided to come. Somehow, this summer solstice most couples had decided to spend it alone. Harry and Ginny would be lighting their bonfire in the backyard at Grimmauld Place, Ron and Lavender had gone to the continent to spend the night there, Arthur and Molly would be celebrating at the Burrow. Charlie had whisked Tonks away to Romania, and the twins had escaped to Merlin-knows-where with Katie and Angelina.

Hermione was delighted to be spending the night alone with Bill on the beach at Shell Cottage. She hoped for it to be a very happy occasion indeed.

When she reached Bill, he had just filled the two glasses with a generous amount of red wine. He drew her into a loving kiss and pressed one glass into her hand. They sat down together on the blankets. Everything was silent for a while, the quiet only interrupted by logs cracking in the fire and the waves gently breaking on the shore. Hermione revelled in the warmth of Bill's arm around her waist, his hand drawing circles on her skin.

When she had emptied her glass, Bill took it from her and put it in the sand before pulling her into his arms once more. He lowered her until they both came to lie on the blankets, him hovering above her and closing her lips in a passionate kiss. His hands roamed her body, lifting her shirt to touch the smooth plane of her stomach, slipping underneath her skirt to stroke the soft skin on the inside of her thighs. Hermione gasped as his fingers shoved her knickers to the side and entered her swiftly.

Bill's fingers quickly brought her to the brink of an orgasm. The heat rolled over her in waves, building and building until it broke when Bill added his thumb to rub her clit. Hermione felt her walls clamp around his fingers, and from her lips burst his name with a sweet cry.

Bill used the time she needed to calm down to divest her of her clothes, kissing every patch of skin he laid bare. When she was naked and calm enough to enjoy the show, he slowly took off his own clothes. One by one, he popped the buttons of his shirt from their holes before letting it slide into the sand. Hermione knew her eyes to practically glow with desire as he lowered his hands to open his belt and shove off his trousers. When he stood in only his boxers, she interrupted him.

"Allow me," she whispered huskily.

She rose to her knees in front of him and delighted in the sight of him. She started at his feet and let her hands slide upwards along his legs and over his torso. Then, she stroked downwards again, her fingers gliding over the defined muscles of his strong chest and stomach until they hooked into his boxers. Lifting her head to smile at Bill, she pulled them down to his feet. He kicked them off and Hermione revelled at the hard length bobbing at her eye level.

She did not hesitate to close her plump lips around his bulbous head. Above her, Bill groaned. His fingers found purchase in her wild mane and held onto her head. Hermione was grateful that he was satisfied to simply have them rest there instead of grabbing her and taking his pleasure from her as she had heard her girlfriends talk about some men.

Bill was different though. She had no one to compare him to, of course. He had been her first and only, and she was glad that she such a fine man decided to stand by her. They had first met the summer of 1994, when he came to attend the finale of the Quidditch World Cup. She hadn't even been fifteen at that time, but he treated her like an adult anyway. Hermione still shook her head at herself when she thought of how easy it had been at the time to slip into a full-grown crush.

After that, each and every one of their encounters had just manifested and furthered that crush. Over their discussion during the summer after Voldemort's return she realized that her crush had developed into a sincere affection for the eldest Weasley son. A year later, she helped him care for his wounds from Greyback's attack when Molly let her and he wasn't talking to Lupin. She got to know him very well during that time, and when he kissed her for the first time she knew that he had come to care for her as well.

The time came to leave him though. The night the Ministry fell, she left with Harry and Ron on their mission to hunt down the Horcruxes. While they were still staying at Grimmauld Place, no longer headquarters for the Order, he accompanied Lupin when he came to offer his assistance. They argued that Remus was the closest to a relative Harry still had, and had been a mentor to him in a time of need before, but Harry, stubborn and proud as he was, would not have him.

Bill tried to reason with Ron that as the eldest, he was responsible for aiding and protecting him, and as a curse breaker had valuable insight into most obstacles they might encounter on whatever mission they were on. Hermione saw in his eyes that night that Bill very much wanted to aid and protect her as well, maybe even more so than Ron though she hated herself for the arrogance that thought betrayed. However, Ron rejected his plight to accompany them. Bill's eyes lingered on hers, his expression imploring her to be safe, before he and Lupin left.

Hermione felt desolate that night. Nothing the boys could say would cheer her up. She cried herself to sleep, late after Harry and Ron had already dozed off. She was afraid more than ever before in her life, afraid that she would not be able (or alive) to return to Bill and tell him she loved him. At first she was startled at the realization that she loved him, but soon acknowledged that it had been long coming. He probably knew already anyway.

All her tears were of no help, however, she told herself. She would strive to survive this war, but more important was securing the survival of everybody else; Harry, Ron, and Bill above all. Her parents were safely hidden away in Australia, and Bill could look after himself. Her highest priority now was the safety of Harry and Ron while finding and destroying the remaining Horcruxes. Deciding to pull herself together, if only for their sakes, Hermione fell asleep, tears still fresh on her face.

She would not meet Bill again until the worst day of her life. With Dobby's help, they had escaped Malfoy Manor, her barely alive and the loyal elf dead. Bill cared for her, healing her wounds as best he could, wrapping her disfigured arm in soft white bandages, and held her as she wept. He stayed with her the whole night. The boys slept late the next morning and did not see him slip from his own bedroom where they had bedded down Hermione the evening before. Nothing untoward had happened, of course, but neither she nor Bill were keen to explain to her two best friends why he had spent the night in her bed (or she in his, technically speaking).

The following days were spent planning their break-in at Gringotts. Bill would caution them to be very careful in their dealings with Griphook, but the boys did not want to hear about it. Hermione listened to him, but could not heed his advice as this was their only chance to retrieve the Cup of Hufflepuff from Bellatrix Lestrange's vault.

Bill grew increasingly frustrated, but Hermione took care to kiss away his worries every time they marred his handsome face. They had fewer opportunities to spend time together, as she was busy planning and plotting with the boys. Sometimes Hermione caught Luna looking at her or Bill with a weirdly knowing expression but decided not to ponder on it. She trusted Luna not to tell the boys about them, and after only a couple of days, it was time for them to leave anyway. Bill was even more reluctant to let her go than before, but she would not be deterred.

Later that day, when they were drying their clothes after having jumped into lake from the back of the dragon they had ridden out of Gringotts, Hermione realized that she still hadn't told Bill that she loved him. It mattered little though, she knew, as she remembered the look in his eyes every time he kissed her good-night. His expression had told her that he knew, and that he felt the same towards her.

After that, she had become fully absorbed in their hunt. When she saw Bill standing in the Great Hall in the aftermath of what would later be called the Final Battle, very much alive and mostly unharmed, she felt her heart burst in relieve. She ran to him, flew into his arms, and he lifted her to bestow the most passionate, loving kiss on her she had ever received. They cared little for the surprise of his family and their friends, so immersed were they in assuring each other and themselves that they were alive and well.

After that, everything developed quite quickly. Ron sulked for a while, as he had seemed to expect to get together with Hermione himself, but had settled into a renewal of his relationship with Lavender soon after. Harry was too absorbed in his own relationship with Ginny to care much for what Hermione did with her life. The rest of the Weasleys were delighted at having her in the family. When Luna heard that they had made their relationship official, she only smiled serenely.

Having no family to go back to, Hermione moved into Shell Cottage with Bill. That first night they spent there together, alone at last, she gifted him her virginity. Their lives settled into a comfortable rhythm. Bill continued to work for Gringotts, his appointments limited to the UK so that he would always be home for dinner. Hermione took her NEWTs in a crash course, made possible by Professor McGonagall who succeeded as Hogwarts Headmistress after Professor Snape's surmise. She aced them (naturally) and decided to study Wizarding Law by correspondence course with the Salem Institute. And now, four years later, they were still very much the happy couple they had started out as.

Hermione was brought back to the present as Bill scratched her scalp in a way that sent pleasant shivers down her spine. Licking around the large head in her mouth, Hermione soon let her lips slide downwards along the long hard shaft. She was unable to fit him fully into her mouth, and even after having attempted to deep-throat him a couple of times was uncomfortable doing so. What she couldn't accomplish in depth, however, she made up in tightness. She sucked in her cheeks and heard Bill gasped in pleasure above her. Wrapping one hand around the base of his length and massaging him there, Hermione started to bob her head up and down along Bill's rather impressive member.

Bill became fully absorbed in the pleasure she was giving him, but after a while, before she could suck him to completion, he withdrew from her lips. When Hermione mewled her discontent, he chuckled.

"Patience, love," he said.

Then he held out his hand to her. When she took it, he drew her up and embraced her into a sensual kiss. Before the passion could get out of hand, Bill led her into the water. The Celtic Sea was still quite cold, even at the height of summer, but they stayed in the shallow water. The waves hardly reached their upper legs when Bill stopped. He sat down in the sand so that he was immersed in the water from mid-torso downwards. He tugged on Hermione's hand he was still holding until she came to stand right in front of him, her legs parted, feet placed on either side of his thighs. Another tug on her hand and she lowered herself to him, onto him, until she finally knelt in the sand underneath the waves, his hard cock nestled in the wet heat of her canal.

Bill's face split into an expression of awe at her tightness, still surprising him after all the years they had been together. Hermione knew her own face probably mirrored his as she revelled in the sensation of being spread wide open by his sizeable cock. It took her only a few moments to adjust to his size, and she began to slowly raise her hips until only the head of his member remained inside her, only to sink down onto him to the point of him bottoming out in her sheath.

She repeated the motion again and again. After a while, she could not contain her sighs any longer, and the night air was filled with contented mewls, pleasured gasps, and soft cries. Unwilling to remain passive any longer, Bill soon grabbed her behind, his fingers digging into the tender skin of her round cheeks, and supported her in her motions along his shaft.

Their pleasure mounted quickly, and their movements became frantic soon. Desperate for her to find her release along with him, Bill slipped his hand in between their moving bodies and rubbed Hermione's clit. Only a few thrusts later and she could not go on any longer. Hermione's lips parted in a passionate cry, her walls clamping around his cock and her fingernails digging bloody half-moons into his back as she came. Bill drove into her another two or three times until he buried himself in her and filled her with several long spurts.

They remained sitting in the sand for a few moments, not moving from their loving embrace and listening to each other's ragged breathing calm down. Their bodies radiated an impossible heat, but when the umpteenth wave broke on Hermione's back, she shivered. Bill took this as his clue to help her up before rising to his feet himself. Once more grasping her hand in his larger one, he led her to the shore where they lay down on the blankets at the merrily crackling bonfire. The heat emanating from the flames quickly warmed their bodies as they stared into the darkening skies. It was the night of the new moon, a rare happening at a summer solstice.

Nestled in the security of Bill's arms, Hermione finally dared give voice to the question burning inside her.

"It is a beautiful night," she started.

Bill hummed his agreement.

Taking all her famous Gryffindor courage, she asked, "Are you going to ask me tonight?"

She could feel Bill turn his head towards her. She moved her own face to meet his, twisting her neck in the awkward position. When her eyes met his, he answered in a soft voice.

"No."

Hermione turned away from him to hide the tears that had come to her eyes. They both knew the question she was waiting for. It wasn't that she was one of those empty-headed girls whose only goal in life was to find a husband, settle down into their kitchen and pop out kids in between cooking meals and cleaning the house. No, she wanted to live as an independent witch, powerful in her own right, following her career, changing the world, and making a name for herself. But she had no wish to do so alone. Ever since she had met Bill, she had been longing to manifest her loyalty to him, to show her love to the world by taking his name.

Alas, he had yet to ask.

"Were you going to ask me tonight?" she asked again. Disappointment laced her voice. Sometimes Hermione hated that she could not hide her emotions as well as others, even though Bill always assured her that it was one of the many traits he loved about her.

"No," he answered again.

Hermione drew a ragged breath, fighting to keep the tears from spilling over.

A finger on her chin turned her face to his once more.

"No," he reiterated, "but the night is still young."

Confusion filled Hermione at those words.

"What do you mean, Bill?" she asked. "What could possibly happen tonight to change your opinion?"

He chuckled.

"My opinion doesn't need changing love," he said. "I very much want to marry you. I have wanted to marry you for quite some time now."

"I don't understand," Hermione interrupted. "If you want to marry me, then why -"

"There is somebody I want you to meet first," Bill continued, "as it is custom among my people."

"Oh please," Hermione huffed, "is this a pureblood thing? I have met your family time and again, they've known me for years and as I see it, they all agree to our union. Who else could I possibly need to meet yet?"

Bill chuckled again, though his face turned serious.

"No, this is not 'a pureblood thing'," he said, miming air quotes. "I want you to meet my Sire."

I want you to meet my Sire.

The words rang in Hermione's ears, but she could make no sense of them.

"I don't understand," she said once more, hating herself for having to repeat herself at all in general and this sentence in particular. "How can you have a Sire? You aren't even a full werewolf, so nobody could have sired you."

"That's true," Bill agreed, "but there in some instances, when a wolf with neither Sire nor Alpha joins a pack, their Alpha becomes his Sire in hierarchy."

"Like an adoption, you mean?"

"You could say that, if you wanted to put it into human terms," he conceded reluctantly.

Hermione's confusion grew.

"But Bill," she said, turning her body to his so that she could look at him more comfortably, "you are human. So why are we even talking about this at all?"

Bill sighed and reached for their wine glasses where he had put them in the sand earlier. He filled them and motioned for Hermione to sit up before pushing one of the glasses into her hands.

"This might take a while, so we might as well make ourselves comfortable," he offered with a half-smile. Then he waited until Hermione had taken a large sip from her glass. Watching her delicate neck move as she swallowed, he began his story.

"When I had been mauled by Greyback that night at Hogwarts, I was afraid of what was to become of me. Werewolf nature is documented sketchily at best and outright falsely at worst. There were no documents of cases similar to mine, and we could only guess at the implications my wounds held.

"In my fear, I turned to a werewolf for help. He did not know what would become of me, either, but was willing to be there for me with any questions or requests I might have. And thus, he became my Alpha."

"Wait a moment," Hermione interrupted, incredulous. "You were looking for help and in turn he demanded your fealty? What kind of bastard does it take to make such demands of somebody in need?"

"No, you misunderstand me, love," Bill countered. "It wasn't like that at all. By asking for his help, I had willingly submitted to his guidance in all things. He became my Alpha because I needed a leader, not because he wanted a follower.

"When Greyback, who was considered my Sire even if he had not turned me, was killed during the final battle, the eldest of his remaining Prodigies became kind of a substitute Sire for the rest of us. This werewolf happened to be my Alpha. Due to his leadership over me, I accepted and welcomed him as my Sire."

"Don't get me wrong," Hermione spoke up once more, "this is all highly interesting. I mean, as you said, there is so little written knowledge about werewolf behaviourism, and I would really love to get to know more about that. But right now, I just want you to get to the point of why you have put off asking me to marry you for so long."

Bill graced her with a smile, even though she was impertinent and demanding in her impatience.

"I will get to that soon, love, I promise.

"Now, as I am mostly human I would normally be exempt from following Lycan laws. But as I willingly submitted to an Alpha and subsequently chose to follow him as my Sire, I joined a pack, and all pack members heed Lycan laws. I could not not follow these laws if I wanted to.

"As it is, there are many ancient traditions among werewolves. Most of those evolve around relationships between wolf and wolf, or between wolves and other creatures. Among the wolf-wolf-relationships, there is a clearly defined hierarchy. At the top of them all, there is True Mateship. It is extremely rare and needs to be protected above all else. Right beneath that comes the Pack, and only after that come Chosen Mateships.

"It pains me to say this, love, but you are not my True Mate. I don't know whether maybe don't recognise you as such because I am not a full werewolf, or whether I don't have a True Mate in this world. But believe me when I tell you that I love you, and that I choose you to be my Chosen Mate."

"Wolves mate for life, don' they?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

Bill nodded serenely.

"But that means, that – " She swallowed thickly. "That if you find your True Mate, you will leave me for her?"

"No!" Bill almost shouted, frantically shaking his head. Cupping her face in his one hand not holding a full wine glass, he waited until her eyes met his once more. His heart clenched at the hurt and insecurity he saw there.

"No, love," he repeated. "From the moment I choose you as my Mate, I renounce all other potential mates, be they true or otherwise. And that's where the Sire comes into play."

Hermione perked up at his words. He loved that about her, that thirst for knowledge. She was a woman after his own heart, always eager to learn, eager to improve.

"Lycan law decrees that Pack will come before Chosen Mateship to prevent wolves from choosing to early and making a mistake in their choice. Many young werewolves are eager to find their Mate and to begin the rest of their lives with them. This leads them to a hasty decision and they are forced to spend decades with somebody not truly fitted to them. As a conclusion, their whole Pack suffers. A Pack member's Mate is untouchable, so even killing somebody truly unsuited is not an option – not that it should be," Bill quickly assured Hermione as he saw the shocked expression on her face.

"That is why a Chosen Mate has to be approved by the werewolf's Sire and/or Alpha. Lycan values keep the werewolf from approaching his Sire or Alpha in hopes that he will approve his choice while certain that the other would reject his request. Thus, they can never purposely work around the disapproval of one of their leaders. In my case, Sire and Alpha are one, so you will only have to find the goodwill of one Lycan."

"But why, Bill?" Hermione asked. "Why do I need to be approved by a werewolf at all? I mean, I understand that this is important to you, but could they actually keep us from getting married if we so wished?"

Bill sighed heavily.

"No," he answered, "at least not in the way you are thinking of marriage. We could still stand in front of some Ministry official, speak our vows and be bonded as a witch and a wizard can be bonded. You, however, would not assume the position of Mate by Lycan law, and I would be free to seek out other females without repercussions."

When he saw that she was about to protest against him questioning his own loyalty, Bill quickly continued.

"Of course, I don't believe that I would be prone to cheat on you simply because I could," he said. "However, if by some miracle there was a True Mate for me and we did meet, I would leave you without batting an eye. Much more importantly, though, is the fact that you would be in danger from other werewolves. When I said that Mates are untouchable for Pack members, I did not mean it only in the aggressive way. I am too low in my Pack's hierarchy to keep others from bedding you, and I think you are with me when I say I do not want that.

"As it is, I very much want to have my Sire's approval before even asking you for your hand in marriage," Bill concluded finally.

He drank his wine to relax his voice which had become a little sore during his long explanation. All the while, she could feel his eyes on her as she twirled the delicate stem of her glass between her fingers while she pondered his words, thinking hard about what to do next.

"How?" she finally asked. "How do I meet his approval?"

Bill appeared reluctant to disclose that knowledge to her, as if he was afraid of what her reaction to his next words might be. Hermione willed herself to be open to what she needed to do in order to have a happy and healthy marriage with Bill.

"He will try you," he eventually confessed.

Hermione was not quite certain she could believe her brain as it brought her to a solution of what his words could possibly mean that defied common sense.

"Sample you, so to speak," Bill continued. "He will lie with you."

The words took a few seconds until they reached her brain, and she took a few extra seconds to check and double check that she had indeed heard him correctly.

"WHAT?" she shouted. "HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY MAD?"

Bill visibly shuddered at her loud voice. She knew his sensitive ears probably hurt from the volume, but could not bring herself to care, not with the reason for her shouting being what it was.

"Please explain to me," Hermione spoke quietly, forcing her voice to a lower level dramatically resembling the quiet before the storm, "why you would want me to sleep with your Sire when the whole reason for me doing so is for me not to have to lie with your Sire?"

Bill winced at her harsh tone.

"I do not want you to sleep with my Sire per se, love," he tried to explain. "I want to follow Lycan tradition, and I want you with me as I do so. This means that in order to make an educated decision about whether you are fit you be my Mate, my Sire will lie with you. It will help him determine whether – no, not whether – that you are able to satisfy me and bear my children.

"I will not ask you to sleep with him, as I have no right to request that from you. I know that you hold loyalty above all else, and I would never ask you to forfeit that loyalty for me, even if it is your loyalty to me. I would, however, ask you to meet my Sire with an open mind. If you decide to submit to his test of your suitability as a Mate and sleep with him, you will do so in the knowledge that I approve and support you in this. I will be with you the whole time, you could get out at any point."

"Let's just say, hypothetically, that I did sleep with your Sire but suddenly wanted out in the middle of the act. Would that mean instant disapproval?"

Bill swallowed thickly.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"And that would mean that any chance of you marrying me in the Lycan sense of the word would be forfeit?"

"Yes," Bill admitted, his face a mask of sorrow.

"And if I only met with your Sire but was unwilling to lie with him, as you say?"

"We would not face disapproval," Bill was quick to explain. "It would merely mean that you delayed your test. We could attempt to seek his approval at some other point."

Hermione pondered his words for a moment, her brows furrowed as they always were when she was deep in thought.

"Tonight," she suddenly said. "You said you might still ask me tonight."

Bill nodded slowly, as if unsure of her reaction.

"You will bring me to him?"

Bill hesitated.

"No," he said. Her shoulders sagged in relief, but the sweet moment lasted only for a second.

"If I am right," Bill said, "he is already here."

Bill had to snap her still half-full wine glass out of her hand as she shot up and looked around in panic, forgetting her nudity in her haste.

"He is," a deep voice spoke from the shadows to their left.

Two bright-green eyes flecked with gold appeared in the darkness. Stepping out of the blackness came a man, tall, muscular, and ruggedly handsome. Hermione's hands flew to her mouth to contain the surprised gasp that tried to escape her lips as she recognized the man in front of her.

"William," the man acknowledged her boyfriend. From the corner of her eye, she could see Bill bow his head in deference.

"Hermione," Remus greeted her. "It is a pleasure to officially meet you at last."

A/N: This is a short story I have been pondering for quite a while. Today, I finally decided on a setting and some other details that had before been unclear to me. I decided to get to work immediately as I felt I had to get this out as soon as possible. As it is, I present to you the first chapter of this story. After this, only one chapter, two at the most, of similar length will follow. This one comes with kudos to the magnificent McGonagal'sCat whose stories I love and whose feedback gave me the courage to write this story, even though she may be unaware of that fact.