Summary: SSHG, AU, In a time when Hermione was born long before Harry Potter was even a twinkle in his parents' eyes, she does what she can for her friend. Even if he doesn't truly love her.

A/N: This just kind of fell out of my sleep-deprived brain.

Beta Love: Uh oh, Dragon and the Rose found me.

Devoted

Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love.

Morihei Ueshiba

Severus raised his head as the rustling of footsteps alerted him. He stood nervously, his hand on his wand instinctively—

A halo of curls alerted him before the rest of the witch appeared, and Severus let out a sigh of relief as Hermione walked straight into his embrace without stopping. His arms wrapped around her as he let out a relieved sigh. "You came."

"Of course, I did," Hermione said with a chuckle. "I would never intentionally missmmmphghf—"

Hermione's words were cut off by a searing kiss, and Severus pulled her into the tiny hobbit-like house in the ground that was barely noticeable to the naked eye even if someone was purposely looking.

Hermione heard Severus panting in the dark as his hands wove fingers with hers as he pressed her up against the wall, his eyes glowing gold in the dark of the cave-like abode.

Hermione tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck, and Severus kissed and sucked upon her skin. She groaned from his attentions, her fingers curling just before he yanked her up against him and carried her over to the bed.

"Hermione," he rasped, panting, his voice a growl.

"It's okay, Severus," she breathed. "It's safe. I'm here."

He growled deeply against her skin, sending thrills up her spine and down to her toes. She moaned as he relieved her of her robes and massaged one breast as his mouth captured the other, his tongue wreaking havoc on the nerves of her erect nipple.

Her hands touched his chest, feeling the thick hair thickening under her touch. He loomed over her like some Dark creature, eyes glowing in the dark of the hidden hideaway.

"Rrr. Rrrrr," he groaned as he looked down at her, eyes glowing a brilliant yellow. "Love you," he rasped. "So much."

She held back her tears, knowing that her friend was just caught up in the surging hormones of the change— that the beast couldn't help itself, and the man she loved loved someone else.

No, Severus Snape loved Lily Potter, otherwise, Severus would have told her. He would have spoken to her outside of the moon days. He would have touched her when the moon wasn't full.

Kissed her.

Held her.

He plunged inside her with fervour, but even as his deep growls grew even deeper, his hand moved lower to massage her engorged clitoris, and she saw stars as the ocean seemed to rise up within her and then swallow her whole.

She screamed as the wave hit her, her body arching and convulsing as the strength of her climax dragged her under, and Severus crushed her to him as he pulled her against him, crashing onto the bed as his embrace clamped around her and he ejaculated inside her with a whine and howl.

She tried to hold on to the feeling— the feeling of being loved, cared for. It didn't matter that he was a werewolf. To be held, loved—even if it was only because of his screwed up emotions— she loved him, even if he could not truly love her.

Even if he was forever obsessed with Lily.

It had always been about Lily.

It had been the love for Lily that had driven him out to meet her that had gotten him attacked by Remus— him protecting her from the werewolf's claws and teeth. It had been Lily he thought about, begged for forgiveness every day for a month. Lily he pined for.

Not her.

She was just Hermione.

Friend.

Confidant.

She vaguely registered the soft feeling of his tongue licking her neck gently, and her hand grasped his malformed thumb— the tip of it swollen as pads were forming on each digit and dark black claws pushed out from his fingertips. He panted in her ear, a soft whine punctuating his breaths, and she relaxed against him, allowing him to engulf her in his body as the moon rose.

He pulled her close as if afraid she would leave, and she snuggled closer.

"I'm here. I promise I'm not going anywhere."

Ever since Remus had attacked him, Severus had been struggling in vain against the curse, but her presence had soothed him and seemed to make the change easier for him to bear. His libido, however, had increased tenfold on the moon days, and he became both insecure that she would leave him and super protective simultaneously.

He focused on her because she was there, she knew. If Lily had come to tend him during his first change, it would have been her the wolf would have focused on.

At first, she had just intended to stay with him and watch over him during his first change, keeping a safe distance, but when his body was seemingly tortured and in agony, she had held his hand in hers, feeling the transformation as his bones shifted and skin stretched and hair grew. She'd watched the yellow bleed into his normally black eyes— the fear there.

Fear for her.

Fear he would hurt her.

But her touch seemed to soothe the savage beast and his fear, and when the beastly transformation completed, the werewolf whined and nuzzled her, licking her face, teeth pressed to the skin of her neck but never piercing.

She lay against him, her hands clutching his surprisingly soft, thick fur, pressing her face against his scruff as he groomed her curls into a mess of wolf-licked tangles.

Now, every moon night, she met with him in Dumbledore's hidden safe-house— perhaps more to save his own face than to protect Severus— and helped ease his transformation. He never once showed her even a hint of aggression, seemingly content as long as she was in contact with him or at least within eyeshot.

She had to admit that having a werewolf staring at you while trying to use the loo was a bit strange, but there were many things she'd learned to do on moon nights.

Like how to bathe with an overprotective werewolf.

How to read to a werewolf that kept trying to lick the pages.

How to rescue your shampoo bottle from a playful werewolf—

Brushing werewolf teeth 101: how not to impress with carrion breath—

How to keep cool around a raging werewolf furnace.

She thought about writing a book of practical werewolf knowledge, but she figured no one would ever believe her.

Werewolves were murderers, after all.

Remus had been violent, savage.

If someone as kind and gentle as Remus turned into a ravaging monster, then there was no way anyone could accept that Severus was not.

Severus was a Dark wizard.

Everyone believed it.

One time, she'd been sick as a dog, but she had still dragged herself off to the hidden refuge, and she had just managed to keep a hand upon him as he changed before having to bolt for the loo and worship the porcelain throne with devout praises. She had curled up on the rug on the cool tiled floor, whimpering with distress, but he had come and laid down beside her. He had lain his head over her body and kept her warm to drive away her chills until she was well enough to move to the bed. She lay there, oblivious to all things until the morning, waking to Severus' arms around her as he spooned against her in the clear wolf-shaped divot in the blankets where the werewolf had watched over her.

When he woke, though, he parted from her in horror— concern for her health warring with his knowledge that the wolf had taken liberties with her, let her touch him.

Severus always seemed surprised to see her on moon nights, as if he expected her to change her mind in doubt of her own sanity in keeping company with a werewolf. Perhaps, she thought, he was hoping it would be Lily at last, come to forgive him. Come to accept his profuse apologies.

Yet, even with his change from hot and cold and the illusion of his caring for her influenced by the moon, how could she not be there for him when the alternative was to know he was suffering the transformation in agony, all alone?

Severus was her friend.

He needed her.

And if just for a moment she could imagine that his feelings truly desired for her to be at his side, then well, what of it? There could be no one else for her, anyway.

When she'd caught the odour of Slughorn's Amortentia in class, it had been his scent that she smelled.

She was doomed.

Doomed to love a wizard who loved someone else.

Longed for someone else.

Severus growled, his mass leaving her as he stood, hackles raised and ears pinned back as his lips pulled back from jagged teeth. Saliva dripped from his teeth as he snarled.

Hermione pulled herself up, shivering in the cold left behind when Severus was not nearby.

Severus seemed to realise she wasn't comfortable, and he backed up to keep in physical contact with her, but he continued to growl towards the door.

Hermione rummaged around in the dark for her clothing, hardly wanting to face Dumbledore in her starkers.

No thank you.

She fumbled with her robes and found her wand, feeling the familiar touch of polished wood in her hand. She pressed herself up against the door, pressing her ear to the natural stone.

Severus was whining against her, half-growling, half-nudging her away from the door towards relative safety.

She tried to soothe his hackles, begging him silently to be quiet so she could hear. His ears might be able to pick out what was going on on the other side, but hers could not.

Dumbledore had, to his credit, cast a silencing charm on the place as well as layering a number of other enchantments to help protect Severus during his changes, but that didn't mean someone couldn't accidentally stumble upon the place. The door wouldn't open for them, thankfully, but she had to wonder if some lost Muggle hunter was out looking for a place to camp and just happened to choose this particular spot of all places. It would be just their luck, really. Severus would not relax if anyone else was around. The wolf was adamant that she was the only one he'd tolerate, no other interlopers were permitted.

Severus had her hand in his mouth, tugging at her urgently as he whined softly.

Frowning at his insistence, she let him pull her to the side, and he released her hand only to shove his rump against her and back her up into the corner so he could stand in front of her, growling threateningly all the while. When she tried to move out of the corner, he bumped his rear into her again, pushing her back against the wall.

Sighing in frustration, she thumped her head against the wall. It was so hard to reason with a highly protective werewolf.

Without windows and a sealed door, it wasn't like she could look out and see whatever Severus was hearing. Great in concept for protecting a werewolf— bad in practice when someone was in there with said werewolf.

Not that Dumbledore had expected her to be able to do anything but watch over Severus from behind a protective set of bars—that had lasted all of five minutes.

Nothing quite like watching your best friend transforming in agony to make you want to ease that pain— despite the danger, despite the risk.

Scratching came from at the door, and she heard the sound of frantic digging. A sliver of moonlight shone from the small hole, and it was growing steadily larger. Severus was growing more and more irritated, flecks of white foam flying from his mouth as he snarled in clear warning.

Suddenly, the digging stopped. She heard voices. Muffled, male.

All of a sudden, the door was blasted in, the stone and roots and sturdy earthen reinforcement were all shattered, and the last thing Hermione saw before she fell was a dark piece of stone coming directly for her head, the last she heard was Severus yelping in pain.

"Little bit too much Maximus on that Bombarda, Pads."

"Well, Moony wasn't exactly digging fast enough, mate."

"He sure was determined to get in here, yeah?"

"Yeah, wonder what all the fuss was about."

"The moon is behind the clouds, so maybe we can ask him now."

"Looks like a little house, yeah?"

"In the middle of a forest preserve?"

"We could make it our blokes' hideaway, heh. Lils calls it a man-cave."

Sirius brushed the fine coating of soil and twigs off himself. "Bah, I can't smell anything when I'm not a dog," he complained. "Everything smells like ruddy dirt."

James just shrugged. "Well, there has to be a reason why Moony was so determined to bring us in here. "We have a little time to look around before the moon comes out again." He ignited the end of his wand to cast some light so they could see properly.

"There was a bed here, mate," Sirius noted. "Well, there was. Oops?"

James shook his head. "I told you not to use that bloody spell."

"It opened the door, Prongs," Sirius snorted. "Who the hell cares?"

"This could be someone's actual house. What if someone was really living here?" James wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Let's just look around and then get out of here, Pads. Bad enough we have to wolfsit Moony when Lily is all dolled up and waiting for me at the cabin wanting a romantic holiday."

"Worry about your raging libido later, mate," Sirius huffed. "Moony was our friend long before you hooked up with Lils."

Sirius suddenly smiled wickedly. "Well, well, well, look who we found," he said. He pointed to the rubble where someone was pinned down by the weight of a piece of the shattered stone door. "We found Snivellus' little moonlit nest that Dumbles refused to tell us where it was." He pointed his wand at the naked, pinned wizard. "Maybe we should let old Moony finish what he started, yeah?"

"You almost got Lily killed with that stupid stunt, Pads!" James hissed. "Don't think I haven't forgotten about that!"

"It just hurt Snivellus," Sirius said dismissively. "And even you know the bastard deserves it."

"Moony could have been sent to Azkaban or killed for attacking someone! Can you at least care about THAT?" James yelled.

"Won't be a problem ever again," Sirius said defiantly, tilting his chin up. He put the tip of his boot under Snape's chin, grimacing.

There was a low growl from the wall that had once held the door, and Remus was bracing himself against the remains of what hadn't been obliterated. "You. Used me. As— a— murder weapon?" His eyes were half-yellow, his teeth looking a bit too sharp to be properly human.

Sirius' head jerked up. "Now, Moony. This is Snivellus, yeah? Always trying to get us in trouble. Casting Dark curses at us."

Remus' head jerked, the bones cracking. He stared hard at James. "You. You didn't say anything. You let me think. I. Attacked him—on my own."

"It wasn't like that," James placated, holding out his hands.

"WHAT WAS IT LIKE?!" Remus snarled furiously, flecks of foam forming around his mouth.

"We didn't know Lily had arranged to meet Snape at the tree that night!" James blurted. "Snivellus jumped in front of Lily to save her!"

"That's impossible," Remus growled, drool starting to drip from his mouth. "Lily knew what I was. She knew!"

Sirius and James exchanged baffled glances. "No, she didn't."

"She did!" Remus snarled. "She asked me about my moon nights every single time I came back from the infirmary!"

"But that means—" Sirius trailed off.

James' face creased into a grimace. "I saved her. That's when she started giving me a chance. That's when—" Horror crept across his face. "No, she wouldn't have. She wouldn't have done that!"

"How does it feel," a coughing growl came from under the shattered door, "to be used?" Snape's eyes were golden. "She may have dosed the human, but I know better. I— remember everything."

James and Sirius hastily stepped back from Snape's body, wands aimed at his heart.

"She keeps the human fascinated. Obsessed. Do you feel— obsessed, human?" Snape's voice was barely human. Saliva dripped from elongated teeth. "She keeps me from my mate. She keeps him on a leash. Do you feel the leash, dogs? Do you feel it tighten around your balls?"

"She will be mine!" Remus snarled, his body already descending to all hours as his legs and arms tried to even out. Fur was sprouting over his body again, bones cracking, shifting, changing alignment. He cried out in agony and rage. "For years I tried to get her attention, but she only had eyes for you. You don't deserve her!"

Snape's eyes glowed. "And you would challenge me, pup?"

"I've been a werewolf longer than YOU!"

"You may have indeed been a werewolf longer, pup," Snape's voice growled ominously, but I am He-Who-Hates, the Enemy, the wolf who chases the moon. You were but a catalyst to bring about the reckoning. I am Hati Hróðvitnisson. I shall eclipse you."

James let out a panicked bleat as he fell into his stag shape even as Sirius hastily turned into a scruffy black dog. Both went tumbling backwards on their rears as if comically attempting to swim the backstroke on land.

Remus snarled and leapt, all pretence of humanity gone as rage and wolfen instinct took over, and Severus met him halfway, casting aside the stone door as easily as if it was made of cardboard.

They clashed together, snarling, clawing, and tearing at each other, tufts of fur flying in all directions, but Severus was bigger, and his rage was legion— his hate eternal. He crunched his jaws around Remus' neck and shook him viciously, his back legs primed to claw open his vulnerable belly.

"No!" a female voice cried as Hermione threw herself in front of the fighting wolves, and she let out a choked cry as James' antlers impaled her abdomen and chest. Her ribs cracked with the force of the impact, and she spewed a gush of blood from her mouth.

The room grew deathly quiet and still as the grave, the sound of Hermione's lifeblood dripping from James' antlers and her chest might as well have reverberated like a gong struck in the dead of night.

The black wolf jerked his head around, his golden eyes seeming to smoulder as fire began to burn around his eye sockets and deep green venom dripped in thick ropes of slime from his teeth. He crushed Remus' throat with his fangs and flung his limp body into the limping exodus of the retreating dog. The maimed werewolf bled from everywhere at once as Hati's hateful venom oozed from every bite.

The black wolf eyed James with malevolence, his enmity made into venom, and his body wreathed in the smoke of seething anathema. Black lips pulled back from his teeth, and he leapt upon the stag, his mass seeming even larger as his wrath grew along with his size. He snapped his mouth around the stag's head, jaws crushing, and he tore the stag's antlers clean off his head, leaving the injured stag bleeding profusely from the head.

James' staggered, stunned and in agony, rapidly losing blood along with his ability to reason.

The black wolf of hate snarled, his body tensed to leap and end the stag's pathetic staggering once and for all.

"Sev—erus," Hermione's voice whimpered weakly.

Hati's lips loosened as the wolf turned to look at Hermione, her body bloody and her eyes fluttering as her breathing came in agonal gasps.

He nuzzled her, licking, nosing, whining. He shoved his muzzle under her hand, moving his head to stroke his head with her hand as he whined.

"Sev'rus," she whispered, her eyes glassy.

He-Who-Hates began to lick her furiously, his venom taking on the blue-white glow of the moon as he licked and licked and licked every wound. Everywhere he licked, her skin glowed pale like the full moon, and golden fur began to emerge from her skin, spreading from every wound as they knit together.

He licked more furiously, frantic and determined, and he tore at her robes until they were shreds to expose more skin. He licked every bit of skin he could find, every wound extra thoroughly, and her face as well. He licked each of her fingers as she raised them to cup his muzzle in her hands.

"I love you."

Hati's muzzle wrinkled as his teeth flashed, and his jaws clamped around her neck and shoulder, his fangs piercing her skin as a torrent of his emotion became his venom and flooded into her body, every vein, every artery. Her body twitched weakly as the pain caused her to whimper.

He whined, his tail wagging, his ears both flat against his head and perked forward, alternating with the conflict in his soul. He released her as the torrent of his infection eased, and he soothingly lick, lick, licked her wounded neck.

White lunar runes formed across her skin where his teeth had marked her, and they spread across her skin as golden brown fur spread swiftly over her body, her face jutting out into a dainty muzzle as fangs erupted from her gums, pushing out the dull human teeth. Her jaw snapped, open close, open close, and her ears funnelled and shifted to the top of her head, covering with a thick coat of soft, brown and black fur.

Her bones cracked, shifted, grew, reshaped, and realigned as her body jerked and twisted. Her chest bulged out, barrel-like, as her hands and feet bulged and grew pads and then reformed into paws, golden claws erupting from her fingers as they reformed and changed.

A tail erupted from her rear, first naked and ugly, but as it grew outward, it gained fur and more dignity. Her body grew still at last.

Hati nuzzled her insistently, whining and licking. Hermione. My Sköll. My Hermione.

Hermione's eyes opened slowly, her pink tongue jutting out of her muzzle awkwardly in a pant. Severus?

That and so much more, my love, the Wolf-of-Hate rumbled, nuzzling her tenderly.

But Lily— Hermione's voice was sad, defeated.

Is nothing to me. Hati's snarl took up his muzzle as venom dripped. Her perfume potion ensorceled the man, twisting his devotion for you to focus on her instead.

Hermione's eyes widened. You? You—

Love you, my Sköll, and only you. The black wolf touched noses with her. I would chase you through the skies until the day that Fenrir devours Odin, and a great legion of our pups would wreak unholy chaos upon the Earth. I would have only you. You, Hermione. Forever.

Hermione tentatively licked Severus' muzzle. I've always loved you.

Come with me, my Sköll, my love, he crooned. Follow me into the heavens to chase the moon and sun. Let our matings turn the skies with colours. Let none doubt the strength of my devotion.

Leave this world that cast you aside, and I shall adore you until the very fires of Ragnarök consume us all.

Hermione's eyes met his. I won't be alone?

He licked her muzzle. Never again.

You'll be with me? she asked.

Always.

Her tail wagged joyfully. Then I am yours, Hati Hróðvitnisson. From now until the end of all things.

Run with me, the great wolf said, taking a few bounds and then leaping up into the sky. He waited for her, hovering, defying gravity and so much more.

The golden brown wolf tested her legs, tongue lolling as she took a few tentative steps. She began to run, take a few leaps before—

The two wolves chased each other across the sky, leaving vibrant trails of aurora borealis as they went. They left behind the trappings of Earth and curses, human rules, and human shelters. They mated amongst the stars, chasing each other across the here and now, the then and was, and the future yet to be.

And the wolf-god Fenrisúlfr, bound in the very bowels of the Earth to Thviti, wrapped in the fetters of Gleipnir, sword clasped between his jaws until the time of Ragnarök— wagged his tail.

The Earth quaked.

The world turns many times...

Harry Potter didn't like all the stares he received when he boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Or the whispers.

Most definitely the whispers.

His father and his best mates were sent to Azkaban for unleashing a werewolf against another student and then, later, doing it again after leaving school. His mother was found guilty of testing an illegal love potion on her childhood friend—

And Dumbledore, the great Albus Dumbledore, had to testify, under Oath about how the safe place he had created for his father's victim had been found utterly obliterated.

His father had been unconscious at the time, and so had his best mate, Sirius Black, so memories were extracted for the trial— damning memories that apparently dated far longer back than anyone had ever expected.

As for Remus Lupin, known werewolf, he'd been sent away to a werewolf colony on Bear Island in the Barents Sea, well south of Norway. What was left of him, anyway. The papers said he was left severely crippled after such a savage fight that even his werewolf form was paraplegic. It was enough to simply send him away rather than kill him outright for his offences.

They had all been sentenced after a secret trial, so, of course, everyone knew all about it.

And since they weren't supposed to know about it, they just whispered and stared at him as though he couldn't tell—

He hated how people talked about him.

Why couldn't his parents be heroes instead? Why couldn't he be seen as someone worthy of respect?

An orange-haired, freckle-faced boy was heckling him from amidst a crowd of other boys, so Harry tucked his head down and dove into one of the train compartments, accidentally bashing his owl's cage against the side of the door.

Hedwig cursed him out in furious owl-ese, unimpressed by his stupidity.

As he entered the compartment, a thin, tall, black-haired boy with pale skin was helping place a few trunks in the luggage racks above as two bushy-haired girls (one black-haired and other brunette) shared a small basket of train treats between them.

"Can I have the caramel, Runa?" one girl begged the other. "I love the caramel ones!"

The other girl huffed. "Fine," she answered, passing the other girl a brightly wrapped caramel chocolate, "but Leif gets the other one. They're his favourite too."

"Thanks," the pale boy said, sitting down as he took the offered sweet. He unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth. "Is that all Mum gave us for the sweets?"

"Sylvi told me Mum gave us more, but she's saving the rest for if we need more supplies, just in case we blow something up."

Leif sniffed. "Don't blow anything up."

"Easy for you to say!" Runa complained, pouting. "You're a natural at potions."

Leif just shrugged.

"Um, can I sit in here?" Harry asked a bit nervously.

The three children eyed him, brows knitting together as they stared at him.

"Doesn't matter to me," Leif said finally, flipping open a book and starting to read.

The two girls took the boy's lead and settled in.

"Want some?" Runa asked, thrusting the bowl of sweets out in front of her.

Harry smiled and picked out a bright blue foiled chocolate. "Thanks."

"Mum says we should always share," Runa said, smiling back.

"Oi, look, it's Harry Potter," the carrot-topped boy yelled as he yanked open the compartment door. He shoved himself in the door, chewing something in his open mouth quite noisily.

Leif put down his book and stood up with a scowl, his arms crossed firmly in front of him. "You must be a Weasley. I would hate to have to start you off with negative points to whatever house you get sorted into, but I will if you do not turn back around and leave this compartment at once."

"You don't scare me," the freckled boy snorted.

For a moment, the compartment went utterly pitch black, and the only thing seen was a miniature sun and moon suspended around a spinning Earth. Two great wolves, one black and one golden devoured the sun and moon as twin howls bayed over the piteous screams of countless lives cast into the dark.

The freckled boy's eyes went almost comically wide, and he hastily scampered out, slamming into the door face first before remembering to open the compartment first. He fled down the car hallway with a large wet spot forming in his trousers, obviously having pissed himself in fright.

Leif tilted his head, the bones in his neck cracking. "Idiot." He sat down, picked up his book, and resumed reading as if nothing of import had happened.

The two girls were happily eating from the bowl of sweets, seemingly oblivious to the brief altercation.

Harry's eyes went to the window, and he swallowed hard as he thought he saw the forms of two great wolves chasing each other across the sky.

"I'm Harry," Harry said quietly, adjusting himself in the seat to feel like he was doing something.

"Leif."

"Runa."

"Sylvi."

Harry's mental gears clicked. "Wait, you're—"

"Snapes, yes," Leif looked up from his book and scowled. "Do we need to have words about it?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I mean. It's just— I've heard of your parents."

"One shouldn't listen to stories and rumours. People often lie and others repeat the lies." Leif wrinkled his nose.

"I heard your parents ended the war," Harry said a little nervously.

"You think my parents caused a bunch of fanatical sycophants to attack each other accusing each other of being werewolves?" Leif asked, arching a dark brow at him.

"It does sound a little out there," Harry admitted.

"Hn," Leif said, turning a page in his book. "The papers said my parents caused You-Know-Who to think he was a werewolf and that he was killed by Muggle police as he ran around naked in the Royal Park in London, baying at the moon like a lunatic. Do you believe that too?"

"Of course not!" Harry protested, quickly turning his head away in embarrassment, trying to hide the fact that he did indeed think it was true.

Harry missed the quick upward twitch of Leif's lips as he looked out the window to see his parents chasing each other in the sky as they watched over the Hogwarts Express.

"Don't believe everything you hear or read, Harry Potter," Leif said, stifling a smirk.

As the sun set over Hogwarts, and the firsties settled into their new dorms for the first time, Albus Dumbledore looked out over the green from his balcony. The sky was dancing with colour, but he took no comfort from it.

There was something terribly unnerving about it; the unease danced about his aging brain as if to remind him of something he'd forgotten.

He had forgotten something—

But what?

The infamous Harry Potter was now at Hogwarts, and his notorious mother and father had already painted the young boy as the villain before he was even known at school. The Sorting Hat had put him in Slytherin of all places.

Albus scowled.

Things should have been different, but—

Every time he tried to put his finger on what, the thoughts would flit away.

Maybe, he would have to get one of those remarkable memory potions from Hati and Sköll Apothecary. They had excellent reviews.

Yes, maybe he'd have to get an entire case.

He had a feeling he'd forgotten a lot of things.

Yes, he thought. He would put in an order tonight before he forgot.

Hati nuzzled his mate as they curled up in the forest, tucking his head over her back after giving her head a good lick-over. The youngest pups squabbled over her teats before settling in for sleep, and he counted them to make sure all of them were accounted for.

With a fluid shift, he was in his human form, and he scooped his mate up in his arms as she, too, shifted into her human form. The pups snored on obliviously as their parents engaged in a passionate snog before creating even more beautiful colours in the night sky.

"Severus," Hermione whispered into his skin. "I love you so much."

Severus breathed into her ear. "I love you too. Always."

He wrapped her in his arms as they spooned against the earth, happy and content.

And the great wolf Fenrisúlfr's tail thumped in approval as the ground quaked once more.

Fin.

A/N: I blame insomnia. Yup. Also, kudos to Dragon and the Rose for staying up way past her pumpkin hour. Praise her. PRAISE HER!

*Ahem*.

Also, Sköll is usually Hati's brother, but in this story Sköll is Hati's mate because I wanted it that way. XD