Authors Note.

Thank you so much for all your reviews. I am amazed at the response that this story has been getting. To those of you stating that you do not know who you are meant to hate... you aren't meant to know because Hermione doesn't know. Please enjoy the chapter and remember reviews are like candy, please share.

Leave behind your wanton ways

I wanna learn to love in kind, 'Cause You were all I ever longed for.

Sheltered, you better keep the wolf back from the door.

He wanders ever closer every night.

And how he waits, baying for blood.

I promised you everything would be fine.

Mumford and Sons -The Wolf.

Clarity was something Hermione was starting to think would be always denied to her after the last few days. After meeting with her father and removing the note from the mirror she had to wonder how Harry hadn't seen it or appeared. She'd half expected him to walk in as after they had left, wand drawn and ready to defend her and had been torn between being disappointed that he hadn't and relieved that she still had time to herself. She'd spent the rest of the night on the sofa convinced she must have imagined it all with Crookshanks against her chest. It was only when a paw pushed against her cursed side and caused her to bite back a scream of pain did she move to get medicine.

She had showered and spent the morning arguing with herself over whether or not she should call Harry or not. She needed something to distract her, take her mind of the internal conflict brewing inside herself but dragging Harry into her turmoil would just give him the chance to weedle where she was from her and she didn't want to go back to the order and Dorea, at least not yet. She knew she had to eventually, she had to face her mother at some point, but Hermione wanted it to be on her terms, and when she had left, Dorea had all the power and everyone on her side. Hermione needed an ally that had her side, would fight for what she needed not what everyone else wanted her to be. She knew that person would have to be herself, so she needed time to heal, to find her strength again and for that she needed time.

So in the cold light of the Yorkshire morning, she had climbed up to Penistone Hill and stared out that the moors that had inspired the Bronte sisters so much. The view was breathtaking, wild moor as far as the eye could see and an old world power to it, as though the very ground was steeped in a history so strong that you could feel it thrumming through your veins. In truth, they weren't that far from town, but the angle of the hill meant civilization was hidden in the valley away from her eyes. It wasn't true wilderness, but with Hermione's side still causing her pain it was as close to the wilderness that she could get without injuring herself even more. But getting up there, only having stopped twice to catch her breath after being winded but she felt a sense of achievement that she had managed at least this.

Hermione wandered away from the paths after a while, instead choosing to try and make it to the waterfalls she had been told about whilst she was shopping in the village. So she meandered in the direction she had been told they were, being careful when she had to climb over rocks and avoiding rabbit holes. It wasn't an easy journey but Hermione felt that if she could do this, then maybe she had control over at least one thing right now. Because she felt that though the Lestrange's had met her on her terms, they and Dorea held all the cards and all the power and she hated feeling powerless, so she kept walking.

She had noticed that the further she walked the fewer people she had seen, and she wondered if that had to do with how boggy the ground had slowly been becoming. She paused to look around and take a drink from the water bottle in her pack and was startled when she heard a voice.

"You really shouldn't be wandering around here all alone, darling." Hermione looked to her left where Thorfinn Rowle was leaning against a rock as though he had been there for hours, and yet she knew just seconds ago, he had not been.

"What are you stalking me now? Do you have so little to do that you're following me around in hopes of distraction?" She shielded her eyes from the sun to see him better and frowned at him. "And since when do you call me 'darling'? I thought I was forever branded as the 'gryffindor princess' in your eyes."

"Since your stepmother threatened to gouge out my eyes with her fingernails if I did anything to upset you or cause you harm. She wants you safe, so here I am, watching you." He walked towards her as he spoke, he loped like a big cat would, a rolling movement that had her biting her lip as she watched him move. "And because the little girl I called Princess appears to have grown up and lost some of that Gryffindor bluster. I mean that as a compliment so take no offense. It took courage to contact your father so quickly, and pure cunning to have survived the encounter with Bella that left you unharmed and her charmed by you."

"Truthfully I had no idea she would even be there, and she spent much of the time cuddling my cat, Crookshanks." She held up her hand to keep some distance between them, not wanting him to get too close and was surprised when he took it on his own but came no closer. His hands were warm and callused and yet she found she quite liked the feel of him holding her hand. She really didn't want to, but it seemed that crush she had had on the towering neanderthal as a first year had come back with a fiery vengeance. He had braids in his hair today, but the wind had blown some of his hair loose making him look like he really had just stepped off a Viking ship and was here to pillage and plunder.

"Your familiar?" He asked, a frown forming a small crease between his brows as he did so.

"Well yes, I guess you could call him that," she responded, slightly confused over why he was interested in that.

He shook his head, pulling her closer as he did so. "I'll explain later, right now you can't be up here."

"What do you mean I can't be up here? Its public land and I wanted to see the waterfalls." She tried to pull her hand back as she spoke, instantly annoyed at being told what to do.

"You can't be here because this land is not public, it belongs to Fenrir Greyback and he came home last night with his pack. He will be hunting soon and already the pack magic is leading victims into traps for them to hunt this night." He looked around as he spoke, as though expecting company at any moment.

"Werewolves don't hunt in daylight and it's not the full moon tonight" she groused.

"They do Hermione. You think they teach you about dark creatures in Defence Against the Dark Arts so that you understand the plight of the beast? No, its because every witch and wizard should know how to defend themselves should they ever find themselves trapped."

"What a load of twaddle. Superstitious nonsense, you forget I know a werewolf, his name is Remus Lupin and he is safe to be around every night but one." Hermione tried once again to pull her hand back and huffed when she couldn't.

Thorfinn laughed darkly. "Yeah, I know all about Lupin. Greyback says the man is killing himself every full moon, driving his wolf insane through forced confinement that he's practically hairless and scarred in both forms. He's starved that wolf, a pack animal darling, of social interaction and the ability to run since he was four years old. He's so terrified of losing his humanity that every full moon he self-harms just to try and appear as normal as the rest of us. That wolf needs an alpha, someone strong enough to make that beast feel safe when his human half has done nothing but torture him. What he is doing to his wolf soul is the equivalent of asking a vampire to survive on gravy, it's the worst kind of torture and self-loathing and not something you should be taking lessons from." He stilled then, tugging her into his chest and placing his hand over her lips as she struggled. "Shh. Look to your left and do not scream."

There, about fifty yards to the left of them she saw them. There were about ten that she could make out, and she swallowed back a scream as they began to change. Men and women whimpered and groaned until howls broke the air as they shook out their fur in their werewolf forms. She pressed back into Thorfinn who only tightened his grip on her, his hands wrapped around her waist. She was both terrified and awestruck as she watched them. Yes, she had seen Lupin change, but now that she saw these wolves she understood what he had been trying to tell her. These wolves had muscles, full covering their bodies as she had expected they would look before she had seen Moony. They didn't look like actual wolves but they had more of that appearance than seeing Moony had led her to believe. She just wished they didn't still have massive teeth.

"I am going to carry you, you can't run with that scar on your side still unhealed. Pack magic means I can't apparate until I clear their boundaries, and with Greyback here, "He paused and pointed at the largest of them, a Black and Grey beast that was nudging one of the smallest wolves to stand. "That's nearly half a mile. They are faster than us, and if they bite either one of us, our lives as we know it are over."

Hermione turned in his arms, hating to turn away from the wolves and let him lift her up into his arms. He placed her over his shoulder and she whimpered as his shoulder dug into her side. She fisted her hands in his shirt and tried not to panic as he began to jog over the uneven ground. From this angle she could see the wolves again, she could see them start to scent the air. Growls and yips filling the air as they communicated with one another. They started to head in the other direction, the smaller of the wolves playing as they followed some trail and Hermione thought they were safe. She let out a short breath and relaxed slightly in Thorfinn's hold.

She watched as Greyback threw back his head and howled and felt a ripple of power was over them all. He was massive, maybe three times the size she remembered Lupin being and his bulk was all muscle. He didn't start after the others though, she could see, even from the distance they were creating that he was scenting the air. She gripped Thorfinn's shirt in her fist and resisted the urge to scream as the werewolf turned his head in their direction. She slapped her hands against Thorfinn's back as she watched the werewolf begin to head in their direction.

He wasn't running, and if she didn't know better she would have thought it was merely curious as it watched them.

She smacked Thorfinn again, who turned his head to see what was going on. He swore and the wolves howled, joining their alpha and started to run after them. Thorfinn whipped out his wand and shot fiendfyre at their pursuers. "Ardenti mortem!" had barely left his lips when the closest wolf was wrapped in snake-like flames, his howls of pain sending other wolves skidding to a stop to try and help their packmate.

Thorfinn shot stunning spells as he ran, jumping over rocks that caused Hermione to bounce on his shoulder and made her cry out in pain. The werewolf she knew was Greyback never stopped running after them, he dodged every spell that Thorfinn threw his way and Hermione screamed when the wolf got close enough to almost touch her. Her wand was in her boot where she couldn't reach it and so she held onto Thorfinn, but still, the wolf got closer still. His fangs were only inches from her and he readied to pounce when Thorfinn suddenly dropped carrying her with him. She watched as the wolf sailed over them before she was engulfed in water.

She was panicking and tried to kick free from the Viking wizards grasp when he surfaced them both from the depths of the water. He had jumped down the waterfall and the wolves had jumped right across missing catching them both by inches. He swam to the bank with her in his arms, but Hermione couldn't breathe. She was terrified, that wolf had only to stretch his neck a little further and his teeth would have sunk into Hermione. There was a cracking sound and the feeling of being compressed through the head of a pin only to be thrown out the other end but Hermione didn't register any of it. She could hear Thorfinn saying her name but she can't shake the feral gleam of golden eyes and sharp teeth from her mind. He had been going to kill them both. Her hands were shaking, her whole body trembling and she didn't know how she was still upright.

Thorfinn growled when he realised she was going into shock, he pressed her against a wall and kissed her. He needed to shock her out of the stupor that she had fallen into and so he did the only thing he could think of. He tunneled his hands into her wild hair and kissed her, her lips parting with a gasp and he plundered her mouth. His hands ran down her sides, pulling her into him as he hitched one of her thighs over his knee. She tasted like chocolate and mint and groaned at how soft she was. He bite her lip and she mewled against his lips, her body arching into his as she slowly came back from the panic that had engulfed her.

Her hands slid up his chest before they wrapped around the locks of his hair. She pulled him against her, shuddering as the stubble from his beard rubbed against the soft skin of her neck as he kissed and nipped at her pulse point. Hermione could feel the terror leaving her as need and lust flooded her body, she wanted him in the worst way at the moment, needing him to make her feel alive after she had looked death so closely in the eye. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him even tighter against her and whimpered as he thrust his groin against hers.

It was only when someone shouted "Get a room!" did she realise what she was doing and she pushed him back with both hands. She blocked his next kiss with her hand and moaned when he sucked her finger between his lips, his tongue tracing the slender digit.

"Thorfinn stop. We can't do this, we almost died and now you want to make out." She looked around and saw she was on a side street off of Main Street. "Make out in public when a werewolf was inches away from sinking his teeth into me." She trembled then and didn't protest when he held her against him.

"You're safe, Princess. He won't follow you here, he has no trail to follow you with, just never go up there again." He tilted her head until her eyes met his, his thumb tracing her lip as he did so. He smiled them "I must say I expected more grief from you."

"It'll come" she murmured, her mind torn between fear and wanting him to keep touching her. "But right now my mind is too panicked to put the energy into yelling at you for saving my life and endangering it at the same time. So, for now, I'll ask what happened to darling?"

He smirked at her, melting her insides with those blue eyes staring into hers. "Caught that did you? I tried, but I fear that I will always see you as a princess. So pure and innocent and that you make a depraved man wish for things he should not have. Sending me to watch you was a foolish move, but now that I'm here I find myself enthralled with you." He stood back then, letting her slide from his arms and walked her into Main Street, reluctantly letting her hand go. "Now run home and lock your doors, Princess. The pack will not stay long but it's best that they do not find you. I'll tell your father about the close encounter so that he knows to keep Greyback from you."

She paused, turned to leave before turning and tugging his head down and kissing him softly. It was brief and she gave him a small smile when she pulled back. "Thank you" was all she said before she headed down Main Street and lost herself in the crowds, only then realising that he had dried them both without her knowing. Well almost everything, she noticed with a small grimace that her knickers were soaking wet.