Chapter One

"and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle." Revelations 9:9

Hermione felt strange the next day. Her friends had stayed until late, reminiscing over the past and discussing future plans and Hermione had felt fine. Now on Boxing Day, she could feel something waking up within herself. Some-thing she hadn't felt since she was a teen-ager.

She stood at one of the lead pane windows set in the thick, grey, stone walls of the library. The pale winter sunlight fell over her face, leeching the natural colour out of it and making her look ghost-like. Severus, who had been coming into the room to fetch a book, stopped suddenly and watched her keenly. A slow, creeping, tingling feeling spread across his skin; he hadn't seen that look since Hermione was 17 years of age. He had a bad feeling; a very, very bad feeling.

"Hermione," he hissed from across the room. "What is it?"

Hermione turned to glance at him but her thoughts were obviously elsewhere. "I don't know. I feel.. restless. Like I want to be someone or something else for awhile." She rubbed her forehead with the fingertips of one hand. "I want to run." as she said it, the important of the words hit her and her eyes widened. She stared at Severus. "I want to run," she repeated to him.

Fear filled Severus' eyes for a split second before he quickly hid the emotion, not wanting Hermione to get upset. "I see," he said quietly. "You know what that means?" he questioned carefully.

"Yes," Hermione said simply, without emotion. "It means he's back."

A muscle ticked along Severus' lean jaw as he clenched his teeth. He glanced down at the Dark Mark on his arm, still burnt black there after so long.

"Do you think he'll try and call you?" Hermione asked, seeing his look.

"I don't know," Severus said honestly, his voice low.

"Bastard," Hermione muttered looking out of the window again, her dark grey eyes burning with anger.

"You mustn't transform Hermione," Severus said, stalking purposefully across the room towards her. He towered over her, a trick he employed from his years of teaching Hogwarts students.

"I wouldn't do it on purpose," Hermione replied, making an effort not to step away from him as she tended to do automatically when he was in one of his autocratic moods.

"You're older now. You should be able to control it," he said, trying to sound reasonable but merely sounding dictatorial which was apt to happen when he was afraid.

"Yes," Hermione sighed. "Trouble is, I don't want to control it. I want to run," Hermione said wistfully, looking out on the snow covered grounds. She smiled; it looked like a winter fairyland out there. She never got sick of the view.

"I'd lock you in a room if I had to," he hissed, his eyes narrowing.

Hermione looked up at him from under her hair. "You would not!" she contradicted him flatly. "Besides, even if you did I'd seduce you into letting me out again," she laughed. It was one of Hermione's peculiar traits that Severus was never able to intimidate her when he frankly terrified everyone else.

"Hermione," he said warningly.

"Oh, stop being so bossy," she said and wound her arms around his middle, resting her head on his chest. Severus often wished she wouldn't do that. It made him think all sorts of inappropriate thoughts for that time of day. But Hermione's face as she looked out the window was serious and her thoughts were far away in the Dark Forest.

* * *

For all his bossiness, Hermione thought later that night, Severus could be very stupidly trusting. While he was distracted by some hot lead on the research he was doing, Hermione was able to sneak out of the manor very easily. The Snape Manor backed onto the opposite side of the Dark Forest to the Hogwarts side. Once she reached the perimeter of the Snape Manor grounds on one side, she was only a short distance from its outskirts.

The moon was high in the clear night sky and shone bright silver. She shivered slightly. She knew it would not be long before the transformation overtook her and sure enough, as soon as her feet touched the moist earth under the canopy she found herself running on four ebony hooves.

Severus meanwhile had finally retired from his studies for the night only to discover that Hermione was not in their bed and was no-where to be found in the manor. A sick feeling started in his stomach. The events of 10 years ago were coming back to him clearly once again; the panic of knowing Hermione has transformed and that Voldemort would give almost everything to have her destroyed.

He quickly did a location spell over the manor and grounds. No trace of her. He swore violently and then did another over the Dark Forest. He got something only faintly of Hermione which meant she was in her animagus state. Quickly he transformed into his raven animagus and flew out over the forest.

It was the early hours of the morning before he found the black unicorn running with eerie silence through the undergrowth. Its motion was a fluid as water and its muscles rippled under a coat so black and shiny it looked like obsidian and reflected moonlight the way water under a clear night sky does. The raven followed it until it eventually stopped and pawed the ground only a 100 metres or so from a pixie gathering in a clearing. It almost seemed to be watching them curiously. There were maybe a dozen pixies seated around a fire smoking some kind of earthern pipes and listening to some odd music being played by instruments that Severus had never seen before. It was obviously a peaceful and harmless gathering. The unicorn snorted softly and moved away to a more shadowy part of the forest.

Severus noted that the black unicorn was careful not to be seen more than it could help. He knew trying to persuade her to change back was pointless, each time he'd tried it 10 years ago the black unicorn had shied and run off. His only intention was to keep her in his sights to make sure no harm came to her before she transformed back at dawn.

Time was deceptive in the Dark Forest, Severus noted as he flew behind the galloping unicorn later that night. It could have been one hundred years since he started following the unicorn though the forest or it could have been one minute. He felt no weariness in his wings but he felt like he was flying underwater.

Eventually, the unicorn stopped and knelt beside a shallow stream. One firey red and gold eye fixed upon the raven perched in the tree above it. "She knew I was here all the time," he thought distantly.

He blinked and Hermione was sitting by the stream instead, looking away from him. He flew down and perched on her shoulder. She reached up and stroked the shiny dark feathers of his wing before he flew a few metres away and transformed himself.

Severus had taken his bearings before flying down to her and knew they were a short walk from Hogsmeade. He waited until she got up from beside the stream and then silently led them through the forest in the direction of the Three Broomsticks. Small patches of snow had made it onto the forest floor and it was cold but Hermione didn't feel it. Severus didn't talk. He knew that Hermione was almost more unicorn than human just after transforming.

Rosmerta nodded to them as they stepped into the fireplace. As soon as they got home Severus made Hermione take a hot bath. He sat beside her as she stared silently into space, soaking and getting warm. Eventually her eyes focused on him. "Get in, you look cold," she said quietly.

His fingernails were blue and even the tips of his long, white fingers were blue too. "You're not going to distract me that way," he said wryly, raising his dark eyebrows.

"Oh, like I think you're not going to yell at me anyway," Hermione said sarcastically and looked sulky, suddenly her fully human self again.

Severus felt relieved. He didn't like the Hermione that was more unicorn than human - it was eerie. He quickly stripped off and got into the hot water. "Ow! It's hot!" he complained.

"I told you it was too hot," Hermione said, still sulky.

"You have been out in the Dark Forest all night!" Severus began lecturing again.

Hermione made a rude noise then snuggled against Severus. If he was going to give her a hard time anyway, at least she could put him off the idea for a while.

"I knew you were going to do that," Severus said, sounding resigned as her hands wandered. Hermione smiled as she felt his response.

* * *

Hermione got lectured anyway, as she knew she would. It was just quite some hours later.

"Do I have to lock you in a room?" Severus asked pointedly, drumming his long, beautiful fingers on the desk in the library.

"Are you going to lock me up in the dungeons like an evil, wicked wizard in a fairy-tale?" Hermione mocked trying not to grin and failing.

"Hermione! You're not being serious!" He said, his pale lips thinning.

"Oh, you noticed that huh?" She said cheerfully.

"Will you stop behaving like a bratty school kid?" he said with a dark frown.

"Only if you stop behaving like a damn school teacher. You'll put me off you in a minute. I didn't like you when you were my school teacher," Hermione reminded him.

"I didn't like you when you were a bratty, buck-toothed school kid either but that's beside the point!" Severus snarled.

"Oh, let's get personal now, why don't we?" Hermione said, looking offended. "Besides, I was never a brat."

"Hermione," Severus said warningly, looking at the end of his patience, "we need to sort this out. I can't have you transforming like that. It makes you far too vulnerable. If Voldemort is rising again - and you starting to transform again is a pretty good indication that he is - he is going to hunt you down as his first priority. I can't have you sneaking out and transforming every time you get the urge to."

Hermione sighed deeply and played with her hair. "Well, I can't think of anything," she said peevishly.

"No. That's because you don't want to, not because you can't," Severus said, getting up to pace. Severus pacing was a bad sign, Hermione knew. It meant he wasn't going to be dissuaded.

"Maybe we need to speak to Dumbledore," Hermione said finally. Watching Severus pace was making her tired and she was tired already.

He turned his lean form round to face her and examined her with his dark, deep-set eyes. "Yes," he agreed seriously and took some floo powder off the mantel.