Disclaimer: I do not own HP…..Wish I did, though…. 'sigh'……

A/N: Thank You to all the reviewers who read the first chapter and loved it! Glad to please! Sorry it's taken so long for us to get this next chapter up, but as Amaya left ME in charge of writing it….it may take a while…See, I am not the dedicated type….nor do I have time to be, what with school…Anyway…

Chapter Two:

--The black dog looked at her with a blank expression on his features before turning and running off into the direction that she assumed the stag and werewolf went.

Hermione turned back to Ginny, who was lying in a heap of robes and blood on the ground.

"Ginny! Ginny, get up!" she said, frantically, shaking her stagnant form. Still, Ginny did not move. Hermione took her wand out of her pocket and pointed it a Ginny and muttered the charm to levitate her body. She then turned and pointed it in the direction of the castle.

--When she entered, she looked around, her eyes scanning the vast Entrance Hall for anyone that could possibly help her. She was a tad nervous about levitating Ginny's prone body up any of the moving staircases on her own.

She didn't see anyone and was about to attempt to get to the hospital wing and pray to Merlin and all that was magic that she'd make it, when out of the corner of her eye she spotted the caretaker, Argus Filch.

The old caretaker looked….odd. But she didn't take the time to try and figure out why. "Mr. Filch! Please, you must help me get her to the hospital wing!" She said, frantically, hoping that he was in a good mood and would comply.

He stared at Ginny's lifeless body for a minute before seeming to get a hold of himself. "I'll…I will get the Headmaster." he said, and hurried out of the hall. If Hermione had not been so worried about her friend, she might have noticed that Mr. Filch didn't have his trademark limp.

She bent down over Ginny, taking the time to survey her wounds in a manner that she hadn't been able to in the dark. She saw that her friends whole right arm was bloody, a scratch reaching from her elbow to her shoulder. There was also a blood spot on her leg, but Hermione didn't have the time to inspect that, as Professor Dumbledore was coming down the Main Staircase, followed by Madame Pomfrey and Argus Filch.

Hermione stood up fast, causing herself to be dizzy, and faced the professors.

"See, Headmaster. She's right here, where I said." Filch said, looking at Hermione suspiciously and then giving Dumbledore an 'I told you so' stare.

Dumbledore looked at her, his eyes searching hers, before turning to the nurse. "Poppy, if you would please, take these two young ladies to your wing and see to them? I shall be up in a little while, so as to give you time to dress them."

Madame Pomfrey nodded and levitated Ginny, leading them all up the stairs and into the hospital wing.

When they got there, Madame Pomfrey gave Hermione a gown and told her to change. She then immediately started administering to Ginny. Hermione closed the curtain around her bed and started shedding her clothes. She had just gotten the gown over her head when she heard a gasp.

"Oh my! Oh Merlin! Dear child, no!" Madame Pomfrey was saying, her hand over her eyes and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Hermione threw the curtains back, scared that Ginny might be even more injured than before. The sight that greeted her eyes, however, was one more than she had bargained for.

There, on Ginny's leg, was a bite. Not just any bite, but the bite of a werewolf.

Hermione barely had time to catch herself as her knees went out from under her and her mind and body finally succumbed to the weakness and tiredness that had enveloped her.

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When she finally awoke, the whole world seemed to be spinning. She closed her eyes again because the lights were blindingly bright. She opened them again cautiously, allowing them to adjust. Slowly she sat up, peering about the room for Ginny. She saw her, two beds down, silent and unmoving as ever. There was another in the bed next to her, but the curtains were drawn so she couldn't see who it was. Hermione threw her covers back, and carefully put her legs off the bed. She stood up, put her weight down gingerly, before standing straight. She walked over to Ginny's bed and sat down on the side of it, shaking Ginny gently on the shoulder.

"Ginny? Come on, you need to wake u! There's some things I have to tell you." Hermione said, sadly, knowing that one of them was far worse than the other.

Ginny let out a faint grunt, then rolled over and looked at Hermione, dark bags under her eyes and looking really worse for wear.

"What is it?" She said, in a whisper, as her throat was parched. Hermione reached her a glass of water that was on her bedside table before continuing.

She didn't know where to start, so she just threw her arms around Ginny, squeezing cautiously so as to not hurt her.

"Oh Gin, are you alright?" She asked, relieved to see her awake.

Ginny nodded her head. She then attempted a feeble smile before bursting into tears.

Hermione hugged her again and let her cry a little before pulling back.

"Hermione, what am I going to do? At first when Dumbledore and Pomfrey told me, I thought it was some sort of sick joke or a dream, but they convinced me that it was the truth. My mother and father are going to be so angry with me for being out in the forest! And my brothers? What are they going to say?"

Hermione smiled and tried to be empathic. There wasn't really anything Ginny could do besides embrace it. "Well, if they are like me, they will love you all the more."

Ginny frowned. "But Hermione, you don't understand. You don't know the monster that I will be forced to change into every month for the rest of my life! OR not to mention the ridicule I'll face. I mean, look at Professor Lupin! He hasn't had a decent standing in the community in his whole life! I…I'll be worse off than I am now…I…I'll never be able to be a medi-witch! Hermione! That's been my dream for so long! And I'll be alone. No man will ever love a monster!" Ginny said, crying once more.

Hermione hugged her yet again, for it seemed that was the only thing she knew to do for her traumatized friend. "Sshh. Everything will turn out fine in the end. You'll see. For now all we can do is let things play out as they will." She paused, deeming now the time to reveal her little secrets to Ginny. "As for a man, Gin, you'll be fine. Someday you'll meet the man of your dreams and he will love you no matter what because he will see what a great person you are. And, until then, you won't be alone, Gin. I'll be there with you. Every full moon. I promise." She declared.

Ginny looked up at her, puzzlement in her eyes. "What? You can't be there, Hermione. It's impossible, and I won't let you!" she said firmly, sitting up and facing the girl that was older than her by a few mere months, but was separated from her by a year in school. The girl who had become her best friend after Harry Potter had broken her heart once more, and after Ginny had been there for her when she went through the worst of times after the events of her 5th year, and Ginny's own 4th.

Hermione smiled and placed a comforting hand on Ginny's arm. "Yes. You see, Gin, there's something that I have been keeping from you. From all of you." she began.

Ginny looked at her as if begging her to go on.

"Before…"Hermione paused, pushing back the tears that were threatening to come, "Before Sirius died, he taught me how to become an animagus. Actually, I sort of made him do it, but that's besides the point. You see, I can be there with you, and not suffer anything that you could dish out." Hermione said, trying to smiled at the end to take the sting off mentioning Sirius.

Ginny looked shocked. "I….wow. But Herm, what if I bite you or something? How do you know that it would be safe? I would hate myself if I did this to you!"

Hermione really smiled this time. "Didn't Harry ever tell you? His dad and Sirius and Peter always went out with Remus once they became unregistered animagi. How many of them do you know that got turned into a werewolf by Remus?"

Ginny grimaced at the question of Harry actually telling her something. As if he ever thought her old enough for anything that held even the faintest sense of danger. In fact, she felt that if he wasn't so worried about saving Sirius from the ministry that night, he might have tied her to a tree and left her there in the Forbidden Forest. Either that or he was afraid of her famous Bat Bogey hex.

"None of them did, I suppose. But, Herm…" She began, but Hermione cut her off with a wave of her hand.

"No. I am going with you, end of discussion. I refuse to let you face this on your own. Especially since it might be my fault in the first place." Hermione said, looking down at her hands ashamedly.

"Oh, Hermione. It's not your fault, so don't you dare think that. If we are to place the blame on anyone, it would be myself. Serves me right for following you!" Ginny said, this time hugging her friend. After Hermione pulled away, Ginny remembered the dust that surrounded them in the Forbidden Forest and that strange feeling she had when it faded.

"So, Herm. Now that we've discussed that, can I ask you something else?"

Hermione nodded.

"What the hell happened out there?"

For the first time in the history of Ginny knowing her, Hermione Granger shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea."

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"We have a major problem!"

The door shut and four teens all looked at each other. One had shaggy looking sandy-brown hair and sported many scars. He looked like he'd been through hell and had just returned from the hospital wing a few hours ago. The next one had shaggy black hair and glasses, and was running his hands through his specified mane every few seconds, it apparently being a nervous habit for him. He was rather good looking, and had a Head Boy badge pinned to the front of his robes.

The third teen was seated on a couch the was in the middle of the room they were in, feet propped up and looking as though he weren't worried at all. For anyone who knew him, however, they would know different. He had shaggy black hair that was slightly longer than his other two friends, reaching to right above his shoulders, and he was…well, gorgeous to say the least. He was currently watching the fourth and final boy in the room play with the rug from his position on the floor rather nervously. The fourth boy had short, brown hair that looked odd on his chubby face. His head was too small for his plump body, and his teeth resembled rat teeth.

"What exactly happened last night? I can't remember every detail." The first boy, Remus Lupin, asked his friends. He walked over and pushed his friend Sirius Blacks' feet off the couch and sat at the end.

"Well, we were just doing the norm, you know, running around on the grounds and goofing off, when you got all rigid and started sniffing the air. You took off before we could stop you." Sirius said, sitting up and allowing the boy with the glasses, James Potter, to sit.

"You looked hungry." The fat boy on the ground squeaked.

"Thanks, Peter, I'm sure that's going to make him feel better." James said, rolling his eyes at his friends idiocy.

Remus slapped a hand to his forehead and rubbed his face before speaking again. "What next?" He asked, expecting the worst, as usual.

"Well, Sirius here trailed you, and when we found you…." James began, but faded off at the end.

"There was a girl, Moony. And she was pretty bloodied up. There was also another…She was an animagus. A lioness." Sirius said, seeing the looks of shock from his friends, and the look of horror on Remus' face.

"I think she was bloodied up before you got there, pal, because that cat of hers wouldn't let anyone anywhere near her. She almost maimed poor Padfoot." James said, laughing, trying to make light of the situation.

Sirius managed a mock hurt look, Peter laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, and Remus sported a relieved look.

"So that's who were in the those two beds with the curtains drawn on them then? I saw them when I left the hospital wing. I hope they're alright."

Sirius and James looked at each other grimly. They all hoped they were alright.

"In the meantime, I think we need to speak to the Headmaster. Tell him what we saw." Remus added.

"I quite agree, Mr. Lupin." Came a voice from the doorway.

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A/N: There. Hope that's good enough for a chapter two!