There was something distinctly sinister about the foreboding Forbidden Forest at night, even in the day, it was off-putting, hardly needing the Headmaster's warning to admonish the Hogwarts students from losing themselves in a place where they'd be gobbled up and spat back as a skeleton. The Forbidden Forest was adeptly named, it housed many dark creatures, class XXX to XXXX magical creatures called the forest that surrounded Britain's sole wizarding school home. It was forbidden - as the named suggested - for any student to enter the forest, and ill-advised for anyone else to enter either. Growing up Hermione had spent years surrounded by woods similar to the Forbidden Forest, she'd shared lands with dark creatures - by the Ministry's standpoint she was a dark creature - but none had carried the warning these woodlands did. Maybe it was because she was surrounded by the pack that the forest never seemed scary, Hermione hypothesized.
"Would you like a lemon drop?" Albus Dumbledore inquired, his hands already busy opening his own. He had appointed himself as Hermione's guide - or perhaps guard. Hermione couldn't help but envy Lupin, he was being taken to another secure location by Madam Pomfrey, she would be a sight better than the brightly dressed Headmaster.
"No, thank you, sir," Hermione said, her hand clenched in the skirt of her uniform as she walked beside the much taller, older man. They were making their way out the back of Hogwarts, across the grounds and towards the looming forest, the Headmaster had assured her that they would remain unseen, cheerfully explaining the disillusionment charm.
"It's not far now," the Headmaster continued, "I'll walk you about two hundred metres into the forest, and there I'll place a containment charm around you."
To use a containment charm on a werewolf was the same as placing a cage around a dog, although the walls of a dog's cage didn't shock its prisoner with pain similar to an Unforgivable. Her father spoke of it in a voice coloured with trauma, with haunted memories that lingered at the edge of your thoughts.
Hermione was so unprepared for his words that she tripped on a rock that had been hidden in the grass, giving herself a grazed knee, her hands slamming into the soil. For a second she was frozen, unfeeling of the stinging pain of the wound before time sped up and she comprehended the Headmaster's words.
He wouldn't do this, surely, would he?
Dumbledore exclaimed, reaching down and helping her, releasing her when she was back on her feet. "You must be careful Miss Granger, there are dangers in each step when one is not aware of what's in front of oneself."
The words were very Slytherin. Hermione would recognise it, even if she hadn't spent the last few days surrounded by other snakes. Hermione knew what containment charms met, she knew that they were a regularly used practice for wizard-kind when dealing with those with the Moon's gift. She was aware that the general public knew that they caused devastating pain, there could be no chance that the Headmaster didn't know. The wizarding world werewolves so much that their pain was acceptable when their lives were at risk or perceived risk.
Hermione swallowed her questions. If my father can endure, so can I. And I don't care, if Lupin was enduring the same treatment, I will tell him so that we can suffer together. They were pack animals, and while Hermione was without her true pack Lupin would have to suffice even if he was unaware.
Straightening her shoulders, she pulled herself up to her full height and banished all expression from her face, it was a look she'd seen countless pureblood portray. It was a shield. If she was to be treated like an animal she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her bark. Greybacks didn't perform for any wand-waver.
A tense silence befell the pair, not even fracturing as they crossed into the woodlands.
As they walked Hermione was fighting an internal war, should she tell her parents? There would be repercussions to that path, for one Hermione would lose any chance of a true magical education, and the rage it would create in Fenrir. Or should she suck it up? That would mean lying, not a white lie, but a lie that would grow, maybe she'd say it so much that she would believe it herself. She had read stories about that, about someone lying until it became truth.
A vision of Fenrir captured flashed in her mind, steeled her resolve, she would remain mum. But this wouldn't be the end, she was far too Slytherin for it to end there.
The castle grew slightly smaller and the forest taller and more chilling with every step. The Headmaster looked out of place in his lilac robes, the suns and moons of the cloth twinkled just like she saw Dumbledore's eyes do. With hardly a misstep they walk over the disappeared from sight and entered the true daunting depths of the Forbidden Forest.
"We're here Miss Granger."
'Here,' was a clearing, the towering trees seemed to lean, their fingers reaching down as if to caress her. The faint light was fading with speed, she had half an hour at most, maybe less. The nights fell early in the Scottish Highlands.
If Hermione stood on her tiptoes she would see the tip of the astronomy tower in the distance, half obstructed from view by the trees. It was a bit too close to the school and ground for Hermione's liking but none of this was within her control. She hadn't had any control or say since she arrived at Hogwarts.
The headmaster directed her to the centre of the clearing marked by a stump. Hermione couldn't help but think how different this was from her usual shifts, her moon nights before Hogwarts had involved the pack, her parents comfort and the surety that she was somewhere know, a place where the pack could run uninhibited by magic or muggles. The air had always strummed with anticipation, it never carried fear or this uncertainty.
Hermione feverish wished for that.
"Do you need anything?" Dumbledore asked the first year student his wand already half raised to begin casting.
My father, my mother, my pack. Hermione thought in rapid succession without voicing this, she nodded, she was as ready as she could be.
With each incantation, a dome appeared around Hermione, bright purple swirled with blues marking the boundary. It reminded the young Slytherin of bubble mixture, how could something so beautiful scare her seemingly indomitable father?
-0-
Bones broke, cracked, pierced the skin before sinking down and fusing to broken bones. Nails painstakingly peeled off the existing nail, shooting up and growing over naked nail beds. The skin was the worse, it ripped and tore, but worst of all it stretched, it pulled and pulled and pulled, stretching grotesquely over protruding bones.
Finally, the skull began to fracture, reshaping, and Hermione knew no more as a howl ripped through the Forbidden Forest.
-0-
When the moon had had its full of the sky, she surrendered, bowing out of the sky and making way for the sun to warm the earth. In a clearing not far from the prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was the naked form of a twelve-year-old werewolf, broken and bloodied. Defeated.
It was as the sun was seizing the sky that Hermione woke. This shift had been different, far different from any she had experienced beforehand, even worse than her first shift. After her first full moon, she had ached but now, at that moment, Hermione wished for Death to embrace her. Everything hurt, throbbing under the sky. Her bones, her skin, her joints, even her eyes and hair hurt.
Hermione turned over, naked on the ground, and sobbed into the forest fall. The heart-wrenching sobs that stole your breath and caused your chest to feel as if it had been hit with a Reductor Curse.
She keened, one hand dug into the dirt below her, the other grabbed at her chest. "Daddy, Daddy I need you," she sobbed. It was agony.
She remembered.
Remembered everything, remembered the pain, she could feel phantom pains, she knew where her skin had ripped, could feel the fractures that littered her bones. No werewolf ever remembered the pain, normally they felt the throbbing pain of exhausted and healing muscles. Hermione finally understood the haunted look her father had carried that night he had talked about the containment charm. It was pain beyond words.
Every time her wolf had crashed against the warding charm she had been shocked, shocked until the skin had burned and smoked right down to the bone. The wolf didn't want to be contained, was used to the freedom of towering mountains and sprawling lands, it didn't understand why the forest was there but they couldn't reach it. So it had tried, and tried and tried. Tried to find the freedom that was so close, even as bones was exposed the wolf had fought on, desperate.
There was a 'whoosh' of a broom flying before feet rushed across the ground, "Oh, oh dear," Hermione recognised Madam Pomfrey's voice, "on Merlin," she cursed.
The nurse lent down and her wand already out casting diagnostic charms followed by healing charms. "Merlin and Morgana," the nurse cursed again. "Okay, Miss Granger we're going to have to move you, I know it will hurt dear but we need to get you to the Infirmary." She berated herself for not having pain relief potion on hand.
Hermione but couldn't response pass her heaving sobs. They tore their way from her throat until she was sure that they would stop her breathing altogether. Part of her wished they would.
A charm fell over Hermione, lifting and straightening her out, she cried out as abused muscle shifted and stretched out. Madam Pomfrey tried to reassure her but Hermione could hardly focus over the feeling of fractured bones grinding beneath her skin.
Hermione, through a window of tears, saw Madam Pomfrey wave her wand and knew no more.
-0-
"I think we have to reevaluate the placement of Mr Lupin and Miss Granger, Albus. I read some reports last night and they support Miss Granger's words. Werewolves are pack animals they need to be around others of their kind. It would significantly reduce the incidences of self-mutilation that is evident in the pair."
"I understand this Poppy but it just cannot be done at the moment, perhaps in a few years when they are stable and mature."
"Why Albus? Why are we going to let these to children suffer when we can do the bare minimum to support them. They through no fault of their own are afflicted by this dreadful curse, are we really powerless to help?" The Madam had joined the Healers guide to protect, to save, to help, to have the ability to help but no higher permission tore at her, stretching her Healer vows.
"Lord Lupin requested that no one knows about his son's condition."
"And you bow to him?" She was furious, who was Lord Lupin when it came to her patients.
"Poppy!" Dumbledore reprimanded, "do you think me so callous? If Lord Lupin finds out that anyone knows about Mr Lupin he has threatened to yank the boy out of school then disown him. I can't do that. I know both of them are in pain but I can't give them respite for one night only for them to be rejected publicly from the Wizard world as a whole the next."
The healer muttered a quite, "oh," before falling back into the chair she had abandoned to storm around her small office. It was more complicated than she thought. Personally, she vowed to find a way to help them, regardless of what the great Albus Dumbledore thought or had decided.
"Yes," the Headmaster said seeing his friend's dismaying look. "I want to help, it ached to not do anything but at this stage, they are too young to trust with keeping the secret if we were to bring them together.
"I find myself at a loss of how to act around Miss Granger. I know she doesn't trust me, and I'm afraid I can't do anything to change her mind. She sees me as a villain and perhaps to her I am, but that doesn't change the fact that this is for the greater good of both of them. If their pain is the price to pay so be it. I can't do anything to sooth Hermione, that broom has flown far beyond my reach, and because of this, I will protect Remus Lupin. It is vital we keep Mr Lupin safe and ignorant."
"And Miss Granger? You didn't see her this morning Albus, it was devastating. She lay in the dirt crying in pain that no child should ever experience. The reports from her mother said she had almost no issue with shifting, that she would be able to move and rejoin classes within the day. She'll be lucky to move by next week. And Mr Lupin suffered no shortage of pain, it looked as if he tried to rip himself apart. I predict that he'll be able to return to his studies within the next two days but it will be with no little pain. Albus, they are children, I took this role to help, to heal and here I am watching them suffer.
"If something doesn't change then… then there isn't much hope for either of them I fear."
"I understand." Headmaster Dumbledore assured her, patting on the shoulder he promised to find something to help them, the werewolf children of Hogwarts. At the threshold, Dumbledore turned around and cast a spell on Madam Pomfrey, her shoulders slumped and her eyes grew glazed, she remained still for a second before reaching for a paper to do potion inventory, thoughts a little more clouded than usual.
Making his way out to the Infirmary, Hogwarts' Headmaster paused between two beds, the left side held Miss Granger and the right, Mr Lupin. Looking at their prone forms he reassured himself that what he was doing was right. If Hermione had to be sacrificed so that they both might have a chance to survive then so be it. And if he had time he would find a way to relieve the stress and pain suffered by both of them, but he had a school to run, his position with the ICW and his work on the Wizarding Government, and he had a month to find something to help them, if not, then there was always the month after.