Sorry it's been a while, I've been busy with other things on my mind but hope you enjoy the new chapter. It's definitely not my favourite but hopefully it's OK!

-HermionesPolyjuice xo

Chapter 7

Hermione could smell him return before she heard the door unlock so she had just a few seconds to put away her potion book. She had decided that whilst Malfoy was staying with her, she wouldn't continue attempting the Wolfsbane but rather read up on it more and understand the theory behind it in the hopes it would help once she started again, but she still couldn't let him find out what she was brewing.

"You're back early," she said with surprise as Malfoy threw a backpack onto the counter. He had refused to take her beaded bag shopping, so she had added the extension charms to an old rucksack she had found under the bed for him to use.

"I gave up after the butchers. The crowd was too much for me to cope. Everyone was walking into me and it was taking a lot not blast everyone away," he groaned pulling out a beer from the fridge and collapsing into an armchair.

"I'm impressed you managed to contain yourself, the old Malfoy would have blasted everyone to smithereens," Hermione said with a laugh as she unzipped the bag and started pulling out the sausages and chicken from inside.

"Not true, at least not in a muggle town," Malfoy said irritated.

"Well, it is what you get when you don't do the grocery shopping on a Saturday and have to go on the Sunday when there's the biggest market of the year on," Hermione said with a laugh.

"It's not my fault I spent all of yesterday fixing this hut to make it slightly more liveable in." It had been less than 24 hours since Malfoy arrived, and he was already insisting on transforming the small cabin into something much larger and more luxurious. Although Hermione had argued incessantly about it, there was a part of her that was glad. It had been small and crowded with two people and now they could move around each other more easily and there was generally just more space.

"Hmmm."

"Come on, even you would admit you like it better now," he said with his usual smirk. Hermione rolled her eyes, but it was true. She definitely preferred it like this.

"So, what's the plan for this afternoon then?" Malfoy asked from his armchair.

"I was planning on going for a walk. You can join if you want, or you don't have to," Hermione responded from the kitchenette where she was preparing some lunch.

"Sounds good to me. As long as it's not in the town."

An hour later, Hermione found herself walking along a beaten down track she had found a few weeks back that led to stream and waterfall, alongside none other than Draco Malfoy. It may have been over 36 hours since he had arrived, but she still couldn't get her head around the fact that she was actually in his company and not wanting to strangle him. They had actually found out they had a fair bit in common and both enjoyed each other's company.

"Are we there yet?" Malfoy moaned not for the first time since they had left the hut. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"No." Malfoy kicked at the ground in a huff. Hermione had learnt the long way that he majorly lacked any kind of patience or sense of adventure.

"Not far though. Maybe five minutes," she said and almost instantly Malfoy's mood lightened, and he picked up the pace. Hermione sniggered and also sped up to keep up with him. It was like being back with Harry and Ron, their long legs taking up half the number of strides as her short ones and she almost found herself at a jog to keep up. They walked in silence the rest of the way until Hermione veered off the track and pushed apart a bush to reach the waterfall. It had rained a fair amount over the last week, so the stream was high and the waterfall flowing fast.

"Wow, this is pretty cool if I must say so myself," Draco said in awe. Hermione put down the beaded back and kicked off her sandals. She walked over to the waterfall, climbed over a few rocks until she was at the edge of the pool underneath and sat down, her feet dangling in the water. She heard footsteps behind her and knew Malfoy had followed her lead. He sat down next to her and they stayed there in silence, the only noise the crashing water and birds above.

"You know, this is kind of peaceful," Malfoy said. "Good find, Granger."

"Do you have to keep calling me by my surname? I much prefer Hermione if I'm honest," she said as she kicked her feet about in the water.

"Sorry. But maybe you could call me Draco as well? Malfoy reminds me of who I'm related to."

"It's a deal," Hermione said with a broad smile and stuck out her right hand. Draco took it in his and they shook on it. Hermione lazily summoned her bag and delved in deeply. She rummaged around for a bit until she found the cool bottle and pulled out a large jug of elderflower presse. She then pulled out a bag of grapes, punnet of strawberries and some Battenberg cake.

"I know we just ate, but you can't come to a place like this and not have some kind of picnic," she said seeing Draco's questioning look.

"Plus, if you're like any other teenage boy your stomach will be rumbling within the next twenty minutes," she added with a laugh as she poured the elderflower into two plastic mugs. As if on cue, there was a loud rumble from Draco's stomach causing Hermione to let out a laugh as his ears turned a light pink. It didn't surprise her either that he shook his head to her offering of grapes and greedily took a slice of cake and stuffed half of it into his mouth.

"You know, you're really quite similar to both Ronald and a pig," Hermione said popping a grape into her mouth. She almost received a face full of chewed up food as Draco spat the cake out.

"I am not," he retorted indignantly.

"How you're eating right now I would disagree. You really are," Hermione said with a slight giggle. "It's really not that attractive."

"Fine." Draco then picked up his piece of cake daintily and carefully tearing off a tiny corner before placing it elegantly in his mouth. He chewed it for a while and swallowed and went again. By the time he had finished the piece of cake he had Hermione quite literally rolling on the floor in laughter. He couldn't help but smirk at the situation.

It was what Hermione did next that surprised Draco the most, however. She stood up and pulled her pale blue t-shirt off revealing a green swimsuit. She shrugged off her shorts and threw them on top of her t-shirt. She then went to the edge of the rock, smiled at Draco and jumped. His eyes widened, not just in shock at what he had seen her do but also the size of the scar on her right shoulder, presumably from the battle. But it wasn't just a scar, there was something about it that was very distinctive, and Draco couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"You joining?" Hermione's voice wafted up the rock to where Draco was still sat. Without a second thought he shed his grey polo shirt and shorts until he was just in his boxers. Sighing at what he was wearing he stood up and with a run he jumped off the edge, forming a cannonball in the air and sending a huge wave of water over Hermione when he hit the pool.

"Bloody hell, woman. It's freezing in here," he said, his teeth chattering as he broke the surface. All Hermione could do to answer was to laugh.

"It's not funny. We're going to die of frostbite if we don't get out now," he said angry at her reaction, but this only made her laugh harder.

"Relax, Draco. We're fine, trust me," she finally managed to get out through her laughter. Draco rolled his eyes but did as he was told and tried to relax. Once he found himself swimming around a bit, he found that the water really wasn't that cold and was surprisingly pleasant. The unusual friends swam around for what felt like only a half hour but in reality was a few hours until they noticed it start to get darker. Hermione cast drying and warming charms over them as they pulled back on their clothes and headed back to the hut, where Draco immediately lit a fire and collapsed in front of it, convinced it would be a while until he thawed.

[-||-]

It had been four weeks since Draco had arrived in the Black Forest and he honestly thought he wasn't going to leave. He loved the area. He loved the sense of freedom and the exploring of all the small German towns. And he was actually growing to enjoy the company of Hermione. She turned out to be a good laugh, someone who understood him. Someone who genuinely wanted to help him and cared about him. They actually had a fair bit in common and they spent most nights talking until the early hours of the morning.

But something was beginning to worry him about Hermione. She was seeming a bit off. She wasn't eating much at all and she was beginning to lose weight at a substantial rate. Her eyes were sunken, and he knew she wasn't sleeping; he had woken a number of times in the night to see a faint light from her bed and her reading a book. She wasn't as chatty and happy as she normally was, and she was taking pain potion as if it was juice. He was concerned. He hadn't seen her like this, and he didn't like what was happening to her in front of him and so he snapped, on the night of the 8th August, which happened to conveniently be a full moon.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You're not eating, you're not sleeping. What's going on? Do I need to get you to a healer? Talk to me, Granger, I can help," he said fiercely as they sat at the table, his plate empty and hers still filled in food. His tone had caught her by surprise, and she felt tears sting her eyes. She tried to contain them but, in the end, just let them fall. She had been expecting this outburst for a week now.

"Nothing. I'm fine," she said, her voice hoarse and quiet.

"No. You're not fine. You're going to tell me what's wrong with you and you're going to let me help," Draco said sternly.

"Draco, please, just drop it. I promise, I'm fine. It's just the flu and I've taken care of it. I'll be fine in a few days," Hermione said, trying to make her voice sound as convincing as possible. She knew that he didn't believe her lie but she was grateful he didn't push it.

"Fine. But if you're not fine by Wednesday I am getting you to a healer, deal?" Hermione gulped. The past two months it had taken her 5 days to fully recover from a full moon so it was looking like she would be making a trip to a healer next Wednesday. No, she wasn't going to let that happen.

"Give me a week. Please," she pleaded with him, tears still falling down her cheeks.

"I'll give you a week. But only if you tell me that it has nothing to do with that scar on your shoulder. It's not infected is it?" Hermione's eyes widened in shock. How did he know about her scar? She had been so careful to always have it covered. That's when it hit her. The first time they went to the waterfall she hadn't kept her t-shirt on out of habit and he must have seen it then. She shook her head.

"No, it's not infected. It's a few years old, I got it when we broke into the ministry in our fifth year," she said hoping he would take her word for it. But the look in his grey eyes didn't convince her and she suspected that once again he wasn't believing her. They locked eyes for a moment until Hermione excused herself to bed. It was late and she didn't have much longer until she needed to get away for the transformation to begin. She changed into an old pair of leggings and t-shirt before packing her bag with a change of clothes, some vials of various potions and a bottle of pumpkin juice. She then climbed under the covers of her bed, her wand held tightly in her hand, and turned onto her side to face the wall, her eyes still wide open.

Twenty minutes later she heard Draco get into bed himself and flick out the lights, the dying fire the only thing lighting up the cabin. Once she was convinced his breathing had slowed and regulated, Hermione kicked off the blanket and sat up. She flicked her wand and was glad to see the spell confirm that Draco was indeed asleep. The last thing she wanted was him to know she had left and to follow her. She stood up and silently tiptoed to the door, her bag in one hand and a pair of trainers in the other. She quickly cast a silencing charm over Draco's bed so he wouldn't hear her as she pushed open the door and stepped out into the cool air. She shut the door behind her, charmed it shut and pulled on her shoes before hurrying down the hidden paths to the clearing she knew and was beginning to use as her safe haven during the nights of the full moon.

After a few minutes of pacing she finally put her bag down and kicked off her shoes. She knew she didn't have long, thanks to Draco's dawdling in Kinzig earlier, they'd had a late dinner and gone to bed later than she would have wanted. She rummaged in her bag and pulled out the small vial of Wolfsbane potion for the night and gulped it down. Even after taking it for quite a bit now, it still didn't taste any more pleasant and she winced as it travelled down to her stomach. She then put her wand in her bag and hid it along with her trainers in a small crack in the tree stump she was near. And now, it was time to wait. She sat down on the stump and started twiddling her thumbs.

It was her third transformation, and although she knew it was going to be horrifically unpleasant, she felt surprisingly calm about this one. She had picked up a scent the past few days and was excited to test out her even more heightened senses tonight to see if she could decipher it.

And then it began; her third transformation into a werewolf, and like she had thought it was no more pleasant than the past two. The pain coursed through her body as she felt her nose lengthen, her spine round and fingers and toes grow. She felt the prickling as hair sprouted all over her body. She collapsed onto all fours, her breathing coming as pants and her heart racing a million miles an hour. And then, almost as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Werewolf Hermione let out a loud howl of freedom and her night of adventure began.

(A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review with your thoughts, it makes writing a lot easier!)