"Honestly Hermione, I don't know why you even agreed to do this. Being a test subject for a highly experimental potion." Bill exclaims, his hands are busy stirring the cauldron while Hermione is chopping various ingredients in different ways according to the notes, certain ingredients need more care then others, as some need crushing instead.
"Well nobody else is going to do it, plus you already tested out it on me the other night. I mean it was a slighty different formula to this, but none the less it is still experimental... We can't honestly wait for the full moon to come everytime you want to test it out, it would take months, years, maybe even decades!" Hermione frowns, yelping as she accidentally cuts her finger while crushing one of the last few ingredients into the bubbling concotion, a few Sopophorous beans.
"Fuck!" She growls, shaking her hand, as she brings it to her mouth to try and prevent the bleeding. The young werewolf stares at the cauldron, it's colour has now changed from the crimson it was to a black colour, her blood had dropped in the cauldron along the with the bean skin, not that the bean wasn't supposed to go in the potion in the end anyway.
"Shit! My blood got in the bloody potion, we'll have to rebrew it." She sighs, bringing her hand away from her mouth, it's stopped bleeding now. "No, I think we should try this version and see how it works." The older werewolf muses, adding the rest of the ingredients that were previously written in the notes.
"I don't think it'll work. I mean I just messed it up and we've already tried at least a dozen different potions, none of which have worked so far... Bill we've been working on this for weeks and still nothing!" Hermione growled, kicking at the table leg before pacing the room.
"Ahh Hermione I've already been working on this for months, perhaps it's even been a year... We can't give up." Bill sighs, stopping the brunette in her tracks who starts to get defensive again and is in wolf form faster than either can say "Lumos!", his eyes widen and he steps back slightly.
"Hermione, Stop! Don't let her control you! You need to accept her fully, allow her to fully merge with you, so you can work together! If you don't then you'll end up attacking everyone she gets agitated near, which is almost everyone, she's not trusting Hermione!" He yells at the wolf, it just stays crouched ready to pounce with its hackles raised.
"Ooh 'ermione snap out of it! 'ou need to accept 'er like I did ze Veela, else 'ou will be too dangerous to be free according to the ministry!" Fleur states as she descends the stairs to see what her husband was yelling at, though she already had an idea of what it was.
"It's so hard though Fleur, she doesn't seem to like anyone and I can't accept her if she doesn't even like one of her own kind, never mind my human friends." Hermione grits her teeth painfully as she says it, but she knows it's the truth even if she doesn't want to believe it.
"Yes it iz unusual, your wolf iz very strange and interesting, but 'opefully we will get 'er fairly under control." Fleur ponders out loud, tapping her fingers on her chin, she seems to do that when she's in deep thought as the brunette girl has figured out from a past attempt at trying to catch her attention during one of these "sessions", she chuckles slightly at the that memory, the crazy things she did to try and get her attention.
"Well, yes she is weird and is rather secretive with me, but she finally told me that her name is Dura." Hermione smiles slightly at the achievement after many fruitless attempts to try and talk with the wolf.
"Umm it is something 'ermione, or should I call you Dura?" Fleur smiles playfully, earning a weak punch to the arm from the brunette.
"I suppose so, but only when I'm in wolf form. The human part of me is still Hermione and will always be, but the wolf part is Dura." Hermione mumbles, playing with the hem of her shirt which is torn and too big for her, so it falls down pass her butt to her thighs where it rests on her baggy jeans.
Her long brown hair is ruffled more so than usual, leaving it in knots instead of fairly tamed curls. Her eyes are darkened, a darker brown then they used to be, it's almost black and the couple swear they see red circling the iris, they're surrounded by dark circles and creases from fatigue, it makes her age a good few years.
"You look very much like Remus at the moment. You're tired. You must sleep. You don't need to look your mental age." Fleur scolds, glancing to her husband who nods in agreement.
"Fine, but only if you promise not to test the potion without me!" Hermione sighes, her voice heavy with fatigue and a hint of depression.
The blonde takes her hand leading her upstairs, they enter the guest room that Hermione occasionally uses and the blonde sits by her as she lays down, running her hand over the girl's ruffled hair, she's taken to doing this since Hermione's first nightmare involving the wolf, where she loses control and kills her friends, before Fleur manages to wake her and when she does the girl bolts up panting, sweat running down her neck, she shivers like she did after Malfoy manor and the blonde hugs her comfortingly.
"Thank you!" She mutters before sleep claims her.
All she can see is darkness that stretches on forever, once again it frightens her because this is how they always begin. Some of the darkness fades and now shows a forest scenery, at first it's empty, there's no figure just trees, bushes and the soil they rest in.
It's eerily quiet, normally there's at least birds singing through the trees or the soft footsteps of another animal making its way across the forest floor that's scattered with debris, mostly a mix of dead leaves, chipped bark, seeds and berries from the trees.
It sends shivers down her spine, it's too quiet to be true and then there's finally some noise, soft footsteps treading on the forest debris, it crunches underneath the feet of the creature, there's more than one each pace so it definitely a four legged animal at least.
The footsteps seem to get louder and the shadow of the animal enters her eye sight, it's a wolf of course though it's confusing, Dura normally comes as a human, each time it's a hooded figure and she can never see the face.
It howls as it turns to her and walks closer, she has the urge to run, but her feet stay planted to the ground which is soft beneath her and covered in moss, though she doesn't remember taking off her shoes because she didn't notice they were gone until now.
"Dura?" She says tentitively, the wolf moves closer and seems to nod and she can see now that's it's fur is a dark brown which is almost black, it's yellow eyes ringed with red, stare unmoving at her as she shifts slightly.
"Why do you come here and taunt me? Make me even more afraid of you than I am? If you didn't do this, then maybe I would have already accepted you, beared with you for both our sakes." Hermione questions calmly, fighting the urge to shout it instead.
The wolf pauses, sitting in front of her and it's fur seems to shift, it's body gets larger, it's changed to human form. Dura stays crouched for a few more seconds before standing up in front of the brunette and now she finally takes her appearance in.
She's tall, a fair few inches taller then Hermione and she's wearing a tattered, black shirt with rips running along most of the fabric, it's the same with the black jeans she wears, though she wears nothing else showing her toned muscles, her feet are bare and the brunette wonders how she's not cold before remembering that this is her domain.
Her hair is ruffled and short, a dark brown almost black colour like the wolf's fur though unlike the fur, her hair barely covers her ears, but seems to cover the right eye. The eye that she can see however is an icy blue colour in the center that gradually changes to dark blue around the edge of her iris, it's beautiful, but also frightening.
The different parts of her appearance seem to contrast against each other, the dark brown and the icy light blue and the tanned skin that also contrasts with her deep red lips that are pulled into a pout, the girl swears she's seen that expression on a certain dark-haired person before.
"I come here because you need to learn, and deep down you know that... You accepted me a while ago, you're just not fully invested in the decision, I'm trying to help you do that." Dura finally replies, tapping the young brunette on the nose.
"Liar! You make me kill my friends over and over again to teach me... teach me what exactly? And I have not accepted you, I don't need to!" Hermione shouts, instinctively throwing her fist forward as anger runs through her veins, it hits the wolf? In the face, leaving blood to trickle from her nose before taking of into the forest.
"Ahh come on Terra, you know what I say is the truth! There's no point in running you foolish girl, you'd do well to remember that this is my domain!" Dura calls after Hermione, who hesitates at the nickname for a few seconds before dashing off again.
"My name's Hermione!" Is all she responds with as she continues running past trees and bushes, her feet padding against the floor collecting soil and other things on the forest floor, though she ignores them and carries on, glancing back to see the woman on her tail.
"No! You are Terra here!" The woman throws back at her as she gains on her, both of them have their legs pumping fast to throw them forward, only one is trying to get as far as possible from the other and the other is to get as close as possible to the other, the complete opposites.
Hermione keeps quiet to save her breath and powers on, even as the lactic acid build up is becoming painful as it burns at her muscles. She throws herself across the floor fast, but everything seems to slow down and she lands on the floor, facing an agitated Dura.
"Listen to me now Terra!" She commands, Hermione freezes struggling and looks up at her inner demon, staring her straight in the eyes.
"There we go, you're facing one of your fears right now, your inner demon or wolf in this case I suppose." The dark-haired wolf-girl smiles goofily, revealing the sharp canines that Hermione now has in common with her.
"Do you know why I show you those things?" She questions and explains when Hermione shakes her head. "I thought you'd know, you're the Hogwarts know-it-all, after all Terra... Well, I show you them, because you need to be ready for it, because if it comes to them or you, it has to be you... And because as soon as you tell them about "us" I guarantee that they will not react well. I... I just need you to be ready for it, in the likelihood it does happen."
"But they already have other werewolf friends. Why would we be any different to them?" Hermione asks, although Dura is pretty sure she already knows the answer.
"Because my dear, we are special and people are afraid of special, more afraid of special than of normal, "dangerous" werewolves, because they assume we're worse, that we're going to be like the 2nd Voldemort with werewolves beside us to raise against everyone else." Dura explains, smirking at little at the end as Hermione chuckles at the ridiculous idea in peoples heads.
"That's absolutely stupid, although we actually could, werewolves should have more rights, as should the other magical creatures!" Hermione exclaims, tapping her finger to her chin in thought.
"We sadly can't actually do that, though I do love your sudden determination Terra." The wolf has a sad smile as she says it, looking away from the girl.
"You were right." Hermione almost whispers and the wolf gives her a questioning look. "I do accept you. I just wasn't fully invested in it, but now... Now I believe you, about it all and I don't want to keep fighting."
Dura smiles genuinely. "I knew I was right... Does that mean that you finally accept me completely? That you're ready to embrace the true ways of the wolf?" She queries, looking at the girl who she has now helped to her feet.
"Yes, but on one condition. You have to try and get on with people... I get you don't trust people, but I... We sometimes need help from others." Hermione states, holding her hand out.
"I have reasons for not trusting people, this was a result." The taller brunette announces, lifting up her fringe to reveal her other eye which is also blue, but is mostly red, a scar runs across her eye, from the middle of her eyebrows to the edge of her right cheek.
"... But I will try for you. I will say something if I seriously don't trust them at all though... We have a deal!" She agrees, taking the girl's hand firmly and shaking it, a glowing string of red connects their arms for a few moments and disappears under the skin before their hands unclasp and Hermione's drop limply to her sides.
As soon as the contact breaks, the scenery starts to deteriorate, Hermione's eyes snap to Dura's and she smiles. "I'll see you soon then!"
Dura smiles in return and nods. "Of course!" She chuckles lightly, hesitating before deciding to say something else. "And Hermione... I think that potion of yours just needs a little strength potion, some of Baruffio's brain elixir and something of wolf... It won't cure of course, but it will help with the transformation in a few ways."
Everything including Dura fades away before Hermione can reply fully, so maybe she doesn't hear, but perhaps she did. "Thank you, but why would I want a full cure now. I've finally made friends with you, I'm not going to get rid of you... even if I could."
Hermione bolts up from the bed, a smile on her face as Fleur moves to comfort her, the brunette scoops the blonde into a hug as she stands up from the bed, pulling the blonde off her feet in the process.
"What 'as 'ou so 'appy?" Fleur asked suprised by the sudden strength of the brunette who hasn't stopped smiling.
"We finally sorted it out between us... We accepted each other completely!" She grins excitedly, finally putting the blonde down.
"That explains the suprising strength and probably some other things later on." Fleur pounders, smoothing her clothes out.
"Right! I need to work on the potion while the formula is still fresh in my mind... She said it would help with the transformation, but it's not a cure." Hermione mumbles, rushing downstairs to write in the potions book.
A/N I'm sorry for the delay, but hey at least I didn't decide to stop writing cause I really did want to continue this, but college and uni and so many other things are taking up time, but I am gonna try and get back into writing when I have the time.