Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling does.
Warning: Violence and gore in this chapter
Hermione watched the sun start to sink into the horizon out of the corner of her eye as she paced back and forth in the Forest of Dean. Her skin itched. Her muscles contracted and relaxed over and over again. Her legs were restless and her head was pounding. She felt like she didn't belong in her own skin.
Tonight was the full moon. Hermione had prepared herself and she had apparated into the quietness and solitude of the Forest of Dean. She stopped pacing, the last of the sunlight making her face glow, her heart about to explode with nervousness. She reached into her pocket and took out the small flask, in which contained the Wolfsbane potion.
With on quick flick of the thumb, the flask's lid opened and Hermione stared at the brown substance. With a great sigh, she brought the flask to her mouth and swallowed the foul potion, gulp by gulp, until everything was gone.
Burning. Her throat and stomach felt like they were on fire. Hermione's eyes watered and her body urged her to coughed, desperate to remove the disgusting potion from her stomach. She forced her to keep the potion inside of her and after a few minutes, the burning calmed down a bit and Hermione relaxed as well as she could.
Sitting down with a dull thump, Hermione watched the remaining rays of the sun disappear into the horizon. The darkness slowly fell and with the darkness, came fear for Hermione. She slowly stood up and looked into the sky. Tingling started to flow through her body, making her body fell like it had fallen asleep. Soon the tingling started to grow more intense and the moon started to felt like it was burning her skin.
All of the tingling and burning stopped in a split second as piercing pain shot through Hermione, starting from her head and going all the way to her toes, making her cry out in pain and fall to her knees. All of the pain shot up to her head and Hermione leaded forward, her back curved and her forehead barley touching the forest floor, clutching her head as a scream of agony tore through her throat.
More pain exploded in her stomach, feeling as the skin covering her abdomen was being viciously ripped open and every organ she possessed was being torn out of her. She clutched her stomach with her arms, screaming facing the ground, tears falling fast on the ground.
She felt the rays of moonlight burn her skin as they fell on her. Hermione opened her eyes as she felt her hands tingling and looked in horror as her fingernails grew long and sharp, like daggers. Hair began to sprout and grow thickly on her hands, spreading up her arms like wildfire, while the bones in her hands and fingers cracked and reshaped themselves into gigantic paws. Her teeth cut into her lip as they grew into sharp razors.
Hermione let a horrid scream out and she felt her back arching up and breaking, forming a new structure. Hermione's femur bone shortened and bent painfully as her legs started to form into hind legs. Her heel stretched up while her foot elongated and shaped itself into a paw, just like her hands had done.
A ripping sound joined in with Hermione's screamed and her clothes fell away, piece by piece, as her torso grew and reshaped itself into a long, powerful torso of an animal. A loud gun-shot like sound rang through the air as Hermione's shoulder blades slipped up and her knee bent backward, completing the hind legs of the wolf.
Hermione screamed as her coccyx bone lengthened and grew into a long tail, hair growing all the while. Her screams soon turned into a mix between a human scream and a wolf's howl as her jaw and nose stretched, making a long muzzle, fitting her already elongated, sharp teeth. Her nose blackened and her ears stretched, going on the top of her head, while her long hair sucked back into her skull, being replaced by shaggy, silver hair that already covered her body. The only thing that was the same was Hermione's chocolate brown eyes.
The she-wolf collapsed her side, her sides heaving heavily. Hermione looked around, not getting up yet. She could see everything perfectly. She heaved herself up on her paws, trying to get use to using four feet. Thank God the potion worked, Hermione though.
The wolf was a beautiful silver white color, completely opposite from Hermione's hair when she was human, and it was shaggy and smooth, looking soft to the touch. There were some light brown strands of fur spread across her chest and going all the way to the end of her belly fur. There were also some light brown strands starting from her muzzle and down to the middle of her back as well as some brown fur in her shaggy tail and legs. The wolf was twice the size of an ordinary wolf. Her tail was a little longer and the paws were a little smaller than the size of a small plate.
She took a few daring steps forward, stumbling a bit but not falling. After a few tries, Hermione got the hang of it. Hermione looked up and let her dark eyes get lost on the full moon. Pricking her ears back and closing her eyes, she let a long, powerful howl erupt from her throat.
The howl lasted for what seem like hours, but Hermione enjoyed every second of it. She broke the howl off and stretched her, so far, unused legs, the fur bristling between her shoulder blades. She sniffed the air, smelling all different kinds of things, from rain in the clouds to the scent of squirrel miles away.
With one sharp movement, she ran deep into the forest. The wind blew through her thick coat, the muscles rippling under her fur. She pushed herself harder and faster, feeling as if she was flying. Her paws were barley touching the ground before they propelled her body forward again. Hermione's mouth opened and her tongue fell out, being pushed back by the wind.
A grey wolf sniffed the tree deeply. With a frustrated snuff, the wolf turned around and trotted over to the next tree, trying desperately to pick up the scent and complete the mission. The wolf cringed when he thought about the punishment the Dark Lord would give him.
Greyback had been assigned to track down the mud blood Granger during the full moon. For the second time in two months, he had to ingest that awful potion. He always liked being a wolf, minus the transformation. He felt more powerful than every normal witch or wizard. They could only do magic, but he… he could do magic and was more powerful than everyone else,
He huffed and began to sniff again. This was why he never liked to take the Wolfsbane potion. He always thought about stupid things, about stupid people. When the wolf was just thinking, he didn't think worry about missions the Dark Lord gave him. When it was the wolf thinking, it was simple, all the stress and irritation the Dark Lord gave him just washed away.
Greyback growled and focused on finding the scent. He went from tree to tree in the Forest of Dean. He galloped to a new section of trees. He went over to the nearest tree and gave it a huge sniff. Immediately, his ears pricked up and he gave a growl of happiness and succession. Like an expert, he ran with his head up in the air, following the trail of the she wolf's distinct scent.
Hermione rolled over on the ground, getting to her feet. She looked up into the sky and looked at the full moon, shining down with power and strength. The full moon would only last about another 30 minutes left until the full moon ended and the transformation back. She was just hoping that it would be a lot less painful.
The distinct rustling of bushes and the sound of paws thumping against the solid ground. Hermione was immediately in a fighting stance, her legs spread apart and her lip back, showing of her gleaming, white teeth in a threatening way.
The sounds got closer and closer until they stopped all together. Hermione tilted her head in confusion and let her stance falter a bit. She pricked her ears back, trying to hear any sound at all, but all she could hear was the rustle of leaves on braches from the wind and the scatter of small animal's paws.
The trees rustled and Hermione tensed, looking around frantically in the dark, her heart pounding in her chest. She whined quietly in fear and turned around over and over again. Her senses were mixed up in her fear and it was making her confused and scared, but over all she smelled something familiar to her and realization hit her over the head like a hammer on a nail.
Before she could do anything, he bounded out of his hiding space and knocked her down. The wolf that attacked her a month ago loomed over her for the second time in her life, but she was more powerful now.
She kicked the wolf in his stomach, like she had the first time but this time with much more strength, more strength than any human could possess. Greyback flew off of Hermione because of the power in her kick and landed against a tree a few feet back. He immediately got to his feet, barely feeling the impact the tree had on him through his anger at her. Once again, she had caught him off guard.
Hermione got to her feet just as her made a charge at her, his mouth open, snapping at her as he ran, trying to get a bit of her again. When he was about a foot away, Hermione hunched her hind legs and jumped over him, just skimming his head with her back paws.
Greyback reeled around, snapping his jaw and catching her left back foot. A loud crack echoed through the forest as he easily snapped her ankle bone with his jaws. Hermione howled in pain before the sound of her discomfort was stopped by her meeting the ground head on.
She struggled to her feet, finding it obvious that he outmatched her from years of fighting and being more used to his wolf side. She just moved out of the way, moving a little weirdly on 3 feet, before he could knock her over again. He ran at her, fire dancing in his black eyes, but she sidestepped him at the last second, which she considered a lucky move.
Before he could stop and turn around, Hermione jumped onto his grey back and ripped open his shoulders with her daggers she called claws. He yowled and tried to throw her off and blood started to mat his grey coat, causing it to look black.
He jerked and jumped every direction and Hermione sunk her claws in his hind harder, fighting to stay on. He slammed his back against the nearest tree and Hermione let go and fell off with a high pitched whine of pain.
He swiped his paw hard at her and she managed to roll over to miss it. She stood up fast and swiped at his, catching Greyback in the back of the head, causing his to spin around fast and claw Hermione in the face, creating a long gash across her muzzle.
She growled and pounced at him, knocking his over and standing on top of him. He easily rolled over her and bit down on her shoulder, just as her hind legs ripped open his stomach, spraying blood on her stomach and causing him to let go of her shoulder. She took her chance and rolled on him, biting into his neck, causing him to struggle and howl and snarl and claw at her.
She was kicked off and she fell on her side, her stomach bleeding from 3 long gashed across it. Her silver fur was becoming matted and clumped together as the blood flowed freely. She watched him escape into the forest, going extremely slow and stumbling like he was drunk. Her vision blurred and her skin tingled, the pain getting less and less. Right before she passed out, she could see the moon sinking into the horizon.
