A/N: Welcome to this new fanfic!
I'll put trigger warning at the start of every chapter that needs it. I cannot be held respo,sible if you choose to ignore these warnings and end up being shocked or triggered by something.
On this note, please enjoy and comment to let me know about your opinion on this story. I am fully open to constructive criticism and only hope to get better at writing!
Harry Potter obviously belongs to J.K.R and not me.
March 23rd, 1998
Many times during her years at Hogwarts, Hermione had wondered if the Sorting Hat had made a mistake when placing her in Gryffindor. She had certainly shown recklessness, both as a student and a member of the Order, and her stubbornness was infamous among her friends. Still, she knew there was more to her than a brave lion. Or maybe less.
She lacked the adventurous traits both Harry and Ron had demonstrated every time they had driven her in the many death traps they had faced since their first year. Sure, she had taken an active role in their escapades, but it had been out of loyalty for the boys more than out of excitement at the idea of facing yet another danger. What she had, however, was a wicked predisposition to guile and revenge. Setting robes on fire as a mean of distraction, stealing from a professor's reserve to brew a restricted potion in a bathroom, sequestering Rita Skeeter in a jar and blackmailing her, jinxing the DA's signing parchment both to recognise and punish a potential traitor, leading Umbridge to Grawp and leaving her to the centaurs… All these actions screamed cunning Slytherin or crafty Ravenclaw, not chivalrous Gryffindor.
As she ran in the forest of Dean, her lungs on fire and nothing but panic in her mind, she couldn't help but wish she had been more prone to self-sacrifice. Had she been, she would have stopped running and fired spells at the Snatchers. She wouldn't have cared for her life, as long as it would have kept her boys safe or even bought them enough time to run far enough to apparate out of harm's way. She wasn't though, and while she had always known there were very few chances of her making it out of this war alive, it didn't change her desire to keep avoiding death. Just a few more minutes. Minutes could turn into hours, which could turn into days and then months. Maybe long enough to keep her standing after the end of the war. Long enough to keep all of them standing.
The Snatchers were approaching, getting closer with every step as the trio started to run low on stamina. Reaching Harry and Ron would be enough. Just a touch of the both of them and she could apparate them far away, hopefully without splinching them in the process. The boys were out of reach though, running close enough that they wouldn't leave anyone behind but far enough to make her fear running head first into a tree if she tried to deviate from her path to get closer.
Another minute and she knew for sure they were about to get caught. She barely had time to send a Stinging Jinx towards Harry's face when she felt a pull at the back of her coat. Unable to resist, her back collided with a hard chest and the impact with the running man sent both of them to the ground.
She heard Ron screaming her name as she tried to get up, but the Snatcher kept a firm hold on her and brought her closer to him as he got back on his feet. The three of them were brought closer to each other by the hunters who turned with them to watch Fenrir Greyback walking towards them. The werewolf seemed perfectly at ease as he drew nearer, his eyes firmly fixed on the tall man who was standing in front of them.
"We caught the three of them," blustered the Snatcher. "We certainly deserve a bounty for that one."
Greyback only smirked at that, getting impossibly close to the man who seemed to shrink on himself in front of him.
"Really, Murray?" mocked the werewolf with a lazy tone. "I don't know about that. This one is damaged. What happened to his face?"
Hermione watched the wolf approach Harry to inspect the swelling disfiguring him when he suddenly turned towards her. Every muscle in her body tensed when his nostrils flared and a dangerous glint lit up his eyes.
"Merlin, sweetheart, who would have thought? A precious little thing like you, running through the forest with boys."
"You know her?" Murray queried from behind him.
Greyback didn't turn towards him as he moved closer to her, answering with a dangerously sweet voice.
"I never had the pleasure to be formally introduced, but I don't need it to recognize her."
He lifted his hand, cupping her face and caressing her jaw with his thumb. Harry and Ron screamed at him to attract his attention off of her but he didn't seem to want to turn away from the witch as he started talking again.
"I made a special effort to remember your scent, pet. I had no other choice, after seeing the way he looked at you. Did he let you run around the country without him? Or did you just take off without warning anyone? Merlin, the man must be a mess by now. If he hasn't already lost his mind, that is."
"Who are you talking about?"
The words had left Hermione's lips before she could even form them in her head and she immediately regretted it as his smile became predatory.
"Don't you know, pet? How can you not know who you belong to? Unless…"
His hand left her face and grabbed her shirt, pulling its collar out of the way to reveal the smooth skin at the junction of her neck and shoulder. It felt wrong, disgustingly wrong. A voice at the back of her head murmured that maybe death wasn't the worst that could happen as the werewolf erupted in a loud laugh.
"The idiot didn't claim you!"
Hermione could feel the Snatcher behind her growing uncomfortable, and assumed it meant the werewolf's behavior was as unusual as she suspected it to be. He tried to take a step back, prompting Hermione to do the same, but Greyback's hand was still holding her shirt and both the Snatcher and her were unable to move away.
Sobering up but still smiling madly, Greyback dug his hand in his satchel and retrieved a compass necklace covered in runes which he tied around her neck before she could react.
"No worries, pet. Your mate is a masochistic fool but I knew there was a chance I'd run into you."
Hermione was confused, too confused to even speak. She knew she should be trying to flee, kicking and screaming her way to freedom, but the werewolf's words and the cold feeling of the metallic compass against her sternum kept her rooted where she was.
Her mind was blank, so full of thoughts and questions she couldn't make sense of a single one of them.
"Get away from her, you evil son of a bitch!"
At that, the werewolf turned away from her to face her best friend.
"We have Lupin's little mate and the red-headed waste of oxygen, so you must be the Potter boy."
He ignored Hermione's screams as the girl tried to contradict him, telling him he had the wrong boy in a vain attempt to save her friend from being sent straight to Voldemort. Scared as she was, she hadn't registered the way he had called her or the presence of a vial in his hand.
"How much do you reckon the Dark Lord will pay for Potter's capture?" wondered the man holding Ron's right arm.
The question was ignored by the werewolf too as he turned back towards the girl, his hand lifting the vial filled with a suspiciously dark red liquid.
"Drink, pet."
It didn't take a werewolf's heightened senses for Hermione to recognize the smell of blood. She pressed her lips firmly together and raised her eyes in defiance towards the mad-man in front of her. Greyback gave her a few seconds before deciding to take the matter in his own hands. One of his hands brought the vial closer to Hermione's mouth while the other forced her mouth open. Hermione thought she was about to throw up when Greyback finally let go and discarded the vial on the forest's damp ground.
"What the fuck are you playing at, Greyback?"
Murray and his Snatchers were growing nervous, the werewolf's nonsensical actions putting them on edge. Still, the beast kept ignoring them, once again entirely focused on Hermione.
"See, it wasn't so bad, was it? The taste might not be to your liking, but we can't just send you anywhere, can we? We need something to ground you and the centuries old family magic running through this blood is just what we need. The fact it'll mess up the precious bloodline of someone who's been a pain in my ass for the past year is merely an added bonus."
"What are you doing?" Murray was approaching, but a low growl from Greyback kept him from getting any closer.
"Messing with a rebellious pup," answered Greyback with a smirk and Remus's name shot at the front of Hermione's mind. The werewolf chuckled at the look of understanding in her eyes. "He was easier to deal with when he was younger. He grew so self-sacrificing with age, so stubborn. He wouldn't have if you had been around earlier."
"You can't send me back in time," whispered Hermione in what she tried to make into a stern tone but turned out to be nothing more than a squeak.
"Ah, they said you were a smart one," complimented Greyback. "Time is a loop and if I were meant to merely send you back, you would have already grown with him. But why bother with something as complex as time paradoxes when I can just break the timeline?"
"Why would you do that?"
"My victims either die or become werewolves, pet. I give them two options, nothing more. Surviving the bite to become a wuss who rejects his nature and can't even put his big boy pants long enough to claim his mate is not an option. This is me giving him a second chance. And you, precious little love, are going to help me. Best part is, you won't even know it!"
The smile he sent her chilled her to the core. She had no time to react before he pushed the compass against her skin and muttered an incantation in a language she didn't recognise.
She couldn't hear Harry's and Ron's desperate screams anymore or feel the hands of the Snatcher on her arms. There was only her, the feeling of the cold metal on her skin and the sound of her heart beating alarmingly slowly in her ribcage.
The compass's pointer lost the North, turning furiously as the magic settled. Finally, it stiled.
The world collapsed beneath her feet.