DISCLAIMER:I do not own Harry Potter the fabulous Joanne Rowling does.

Chapter Two

Dawn broke over the dew sprinkled grassy hills of Hogwarts, illuminating the tall panes of the castle's hospital wing. The sun rays dancing over his face, warming him, woke Remus from an uneasy slumber; he moved stiffly easing out the kinks in his neck from sleeping in an uncomfortable wooden chair all night, to gaze at the reason for his aches.

Hermione.

Still unconscious. Still deathly pale. But alive.

Remus didn't have it in him to respond to the wolf as his heightened senses allowed him to hear her heartbeat. For that, the human in him was thankful.

"Poppy said she'll be fine in a few days."

Remus turned his head to see Sirius in the exact same position in the opposite cubicle, next to Harry's sleeping form. Jerkily nodding his head, Remus reached out to run his hand along the inside of Hermione's left arm, tracing the awful scars left behind by Bellatrix; as his fingertips traced the crudely carved letters on the previously unblemished skin, the wolf growled menacingly, thirsting for Bellatrix's blood.

Only the knowledge that the witch had been dealt with stopped him, both of them, from going after her.

"When she wakes up, tell her. She's intelligent enough to understand, Remus. I can see the way you look at her, mate. It's not just the wolf that wants her, not anymore..." Sirius spoke softly.

Remus froze. The wolf sneered. When the mutt tells you, you see reason. Pathetic. She is mine. Yours. Our mate…

Remus bolted out of his chair, staring at his best friend with a horrified expression. The wolf wants to mate with her, he realised, failing to hide the horrified expression that crossed his features.

A 15 year old child? Remus internally screamed at his monster.

He was met with silence.

Disgusted at his inner wolf, Remus turned to look at the innocent little witch cocooned in soft white blankets; she was the epitome of innocence and beauty as she laid there, her chest rising and falling softly, and her hair sprawled on the pillow.

"Tell me when she wakes up, Sirius." As fast as he could manage, Remus hurried out of the hospital wing, out of the castle and outside of Hogwarts' wards. Taking a deep breath to clear his nostrils of her enticing scent of parchment and cinnamon, he apparated to Grimmauld Place, immediately rushing to the only place where he could find solace – the library.

The Black Family library held hundred of books on the darks arts, something Sirius had told him back in their school days; a fact that proved useful to him at the moment. Running his hand along the mahogany bookshelves, Remus finally felt the tension slipping from his body; he had always felt at ease around books.

Remus had always been the one who knew the answer to every question, the one his friends always seek advice from; but right now, he felt lost.

He knew everything he needed to know about magic, but nothing about what it meant to be a werewolf; such was his disgust at what he was, that he had consciously avoided reading anything that might have shed some light in what was happening to him now.

But he couldn't postpone it any longer; not now, not when someone else, Hermione, was in the middle of this mess.

Lighting a torch by the door to illuminate the darkness of the room, Remus took one from the wall, and moved to the farthest corner from the entrance.

Tracing the faded, dusty tomes with his finger, Remus stopped on a book entitled 'Canis Lupus Luna'; there were literally hundreds of books on werewolves, but most of them were half truths, myths and prejudiced tales, with just enough truth in them to ensure credibility.

But this one didn't bother with sensationalist tales; 'Canis Lupus Luna' was a historical, empirical chronicle of lycanthropy. There were no lies in this book, just hard facts.

Carefully extracting the book from the shelf – having attended Hogwarts, he knew to always treat a book gently. You never knew how it'd react otherwise, – he moved to sit in an emerald green, velvet chair near the small fireplace, a fire erupting the moment he settled; balancing the book on this thighs, he got comfortable before starting to read.

After what seemed like hours, Remus was beginning to get desperate; the wafer thin parchment seemed to held no useful information, and he was ready to give up, when he caught the word 'mate' in a footnote near the end of the book.

Inhaling sharply, he narrowed his eyes, and focused on the small section, his lower lip caught between his teeth.

Due to the afflicted people's complete denial of their inner wolf, it is a little known fact that werewolves, like normal wolves, mate for life. The human counterparts are rarely aware of their mate, even if they are close to them; it is when they are in their wolf form that they'll seek their mate out, intent to establishing a bond. Although usually through scent, there have been documented cases where a wolf heard its' mate's call, and responded.

Upon identifying their mate, the urge to bond grows stronger every day, until it'll become unbearable for the human to deny, and it will either force them to act, or the wolf will take control of their conscious mind.

Tentatively closing the book, Remus discovered his throat had become too dry to swallow, and his heart rate had accelerated. Hands shaking, he withdrew his wand from his robes' pocket, and cast a patronus, which took the shape of a wolf.

"Albus, I'm ready to take on more missions for the Order. My wounds have fully recover, so give me the word, and I'll go immediately."

The silver wolf tried to nuzzle his palm, but he didn't pay him much attention; inside his head, his wolf was growling, making him feel as if his head was going to explode from the pain.

YOU CANNOT KEEP ME FROM OUR MATE! The wolf snarled, fighting to keep Remus from shutting him down. Remus managed to maintain control over his mental faculties, but it took a lot of effort.

After five minutes of silence, a burst of light blinded him and he jumped; an envelope appeared, a red and gold Phoenix feather floating above it. Reaching out, he grabbed both the letter and the feather.

There were only a few words scribbled on the parchment, a set of coordinates in Romania where Remus knew a wolf pack dwelt. A pack Albus wanted him to associate himself with, gain their trust, and eventually their alliance for the inevitable battle between Voldemort's forces, and them.

Incinerating the letter in the fireplace, he stood up, and after extinguishing the fire and the torch by the door, he made his way to the basement. Once in the cold, cavernous kitchen, he shrugged on his old travelling cloak that had been left behind when they'd all rushed to the Ministry, and grabbed a handful of the emerald flood powder.

Even though he pretended he couldn't hear him, Remus heard every word his wolf whispered threateningly in his ear.

You will pay for this. Until you come back for her, I will make you suffer. You shall have no second of peace until we come back to her. Mark my words, human, by the time I'm done with you, you will be begging me to take over. And when I do, she will be mine.

Thank you so much for the reviews and the constructive feedback.

I apologise in advance for the delay in upcoming chapters, I have recently started a full time job for the summer and can no longer dedicate all my time to the wonderful ideas stored in my head *sniffles*.

Again, thank you to my wonderful beta waterflower20 who is amazing - if you haven't guessed already.

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