AN: Sorry! I've been really busy lately, and so I haven't gotten a chance to write the fifth chapter. So it seems like a lot of people like my story! Thanks for much for putting it on your alerts, and if you could be so kind as to check out my other fan fiction on here, that I co-wrote: It's called "A Hogwarts Tale: The Alchemist: Betrayal" It's under Lethal Trinity's account. We need more people to read and comment on it. It's going to be a two part story, so if you read this, you must go read that one too!!
Disclaimer: Same thing, yadda yadda yadda, you know this drill.
A week had gone by since Ginny's departure, and now Hermione and Teddy were considered permanent residents of the Potter Manor. Hermione sat on the couch in the living room in front of Harry's muggle television as Teddy played with the remote. Hermione left him to his own devices to figure out how it worked, seeing as that would keep him occupied longer. Hermione read a book that was sitting in her lap, her legs crossed underneath it, and hot chocolate in her left hand. She took sips of it here and there as she read.
It was late in the evening, they'd already eaten dinner, and it was almost Teddy's bed time, but Harry told her to let Teddy stay up, because he had something to show them out in the backyard when he was finished. Harry seemed to be doing yard work, but Hermione wasn't sure because he wouldn't let her come outside until it was time.
Hermione read a little longer, soon finishing her cocoa and setting the cup on the coffee table, and Teddy was slowly getting bored of trying to figure out that blasted black stick with colorful buttons all over it, that he got bored and crawled over to Hermione and looked down at her page.
"No pictures?" He asked curiously.
Hermione smiled and shook her head. "No. When you get older, you can make up the pictures in your head from the words." She said with a smile.
"It's time!" Harry had called from inside the backdoor as he was pocketing his wand.
Hermione smiled and scooped Teddy up and walked over to Harry.
"Alright. Now just to warn you, it could be a little overwhelming. The backyard needed a little fixing, and I wanted a place outside where you two could go if you wanted." He explained with a mischievous grin.
"Just get on with it Harry!" Hermione said jokingly with a exasperated shake of her head.
"Fine, fine." Then he opened the back doors and there was a large porch made out of dark wood, a dining table, but made for the outdoors, and chairs around it with a folded umbrella in the middle. There were lawn chairs on the other side of the porch, and off to the right was a medium sized pool that had a string of lights suspended around it, though the lights seemed to just float there like little Chinese lanterns not connected to anything.
"Wow, Harry, this is brilliant. It's so beautiful."
"Why thank you. I slaved all day over it." Harry joked.
Teddy pointed at the lights with wide eyes, most likely mesmerized by their suspension in mid-air.
"I think you'll love this part, 'Mione." Harry said with another one of his sly grins, and took her hand and pulled her and Teddy over to what seemed to be a short white gate with a matching fence around it, and inside were tall flowers growing up wooden stands that the vines intertwined through. Harry opened the gate for Hermione and Teddy, and Hermione walked inside and took a sharp breath in as she was hit by a million different amazing scents from all the flowers around her.
"I never knew you had such a feminine side." Hermione teased as she looked around.
"Hey! This is hard work, it is!" Harry protested, then took her hand again and led her down a row of sun flowers to a white metal bench, with a back to it and metal arms on either side and on the legs of the bench were white, metal vines welded around them, almost looking lifelike as they ended in blooming flowers.
"Did you make this?"
"Sure did." Harry replied with a grin.
"Go have a seat, try it out."
Hermione set Teddy down and walked over to the bench, Teddy followed. She was afraid to sit down. It looked so beautifully crafted, but to beautiful to be sturdy enough to hold her. She slowly sat down on it and ran her hands along the seat, feeling the smoothness of it.
"I love it. It's beautiful." Hermione breathed. Over the bench seemed to be an overhang of pink, white and red Chinese cherry blossoms.
Over the entire back yard seemed to appear a layer of moonlight, and a full moon had come out from behind the clouds. Hermione didn't think anything of it until Teddy, who still sat next to her, began shaking uncontrollably. Hermione jumped and kneeled in front of Teddy and shook his shoulders a bit. "Teddy!" She screamed at him.
Harry ran to her side and saw Teddy's eyes roll back into his head slightly. Suddenly he knew what was happening. He remembered that night vividly, in their third year, as they watched their professor become a beast. He grabbed Hermione's hands and pulled her away.
"Hermione, stop! Get away from him!" He yelled at her, but Hermione kept yelling at Teddy, trying to get him to respond, but he kept shaking, as if he was having a seizure. He fell onto the ground off of the bench and landed on his hands and knees, and his back arched and his body began to take on a new form.
Hermione screamed and looked away. "Get into the house. Now!" Harry yelled at her, and pushed her in that direction. Hermione looked back at Teddy one more time before running back to the house, putting her trust in Harry to handle whatever was going on.
Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at Teddy, his hand shaking slightly. He knew what was going on, and he knew Teddy could hurt them, even though he was just a little child. He slowly backed away to the house, keeping his wand pointed.
Teddy's head finally looked up from his spot on the ground and he stared at Harry, his eyes seemed as black as the night above him. His nails dug into the ground, his legs had a dog like bend to them, yet he didn't seemed covered in fur, and dog like at all. This seemed to scare Harry even more then if he had really taken on the full form of a werewolf. This little child was looking at him like he was food.
The boy launched his small body at Harry, and Harry responded with a stunning spell and the boy flew backwards, flipping once in the air, but landing on all fours. Harry turned and ran to the house and when he got to the porch, he saw Hermione at the backdoor with it cracked slightly. Her knees were shaking, and her eyes glistened with tears.
Teddy skidded around the corner coming out of the garden and looked at Harry as he crouched, more like a cat then a dog like demon, and waited for Harry to move. In one swift movement, Harry turned for the door, Hermione moved away and as Harry shut the backdoor on the cold night air, a loud thud could be heard on the other side of the glass from Teddy Lupin running into the closed doors. Harry quickly sealed the doors with his wand, breathing heavily, and closed the curtains so that they couldn't see the boy who seemed no longer an innocent child.
They heard scratching at the glass, and they both stood there, silent, not moving. After a few minutes of holding still, the scratching on the glass stopped and they heard nothing outside. Hermione thought she could hear the ragged breathing coming from the other side, but that was a sound she tried to block out. She let out a small sob, and as soon as she did Harry had his arms around her, holding her closely.
"It's okay. It's going to be fine, I promise. We should have seen this coming. His father was a werewolf; it's only to be expected." Harry whispered as he rubbed her back to calm her.
Hermione pulled her head away from being buried in his chest, and wiped her tears. She moved out of his comforting arms and over to the door, she made a move to push back the curtains, but Harry grabbed her wrist.
"No! Don't…" He said, loudly at first, then quieted. "He won't be his normal self again until sunrise. We can't risk anything until then. He must stay outside." He instructed her sternly.
Hermione pulled her hand away from his wrist, an angry expression on his face. "I'm not going to leave him outside all night by himself! He's only a child!" She yelled. More scratching began on the door, and then it seemed that Teddy was launching his body at the doors to get them to break under his strength.
"He's not a child anymore Hermione! Right now, he's a werewolf, now get away from the doors!" He said sternly again, and grabbed her and pulled her away from the shaking doors by wrapping his arms around her torso.
Hermione tried to wrench herself away from him, but Harry held her tightly, and she finally gave up, to tired now to argue with him, and settled for crying in his arms again.
"Harry, please… I promise I won't go near the door, just let me go. I'm fine now…" She said softly, but squarely, and Harry immediately let go of her, feeling a little hurt. He had been comforting her then, not trying to hold on to her. He thought she'd wanted his comfort now, but apparently not.
"Now we know why Remus and Tonks hid him from everyone else. They wanted to keep his secret a secret. I know Lupin wouldn't have wanted a life for his son, one that he had to live. I bet he felt terrible, so torn inside. He probably felt like it was his fault, but he couldn't help it…" Hermione said sadly, walking over to the hallway wall a good fifteen feet away from the backdoors and leaned against it, then sunk down to the floor.
Harry joined her, and put his arm around her shoulders, and leaned his head on top of hers.
"I'm sure he was, but it doesn't matter what has happened to Teddy, he's still an amazing little boy, and I'm still helping you take care of him; now more so then before." Harry said with a soft chuckle.
"Thank you, but I'm going to need help from other people then just you. We need to tell Molly about this."
Harry nodded and sighed. "You should get some sleep, don't worry about Teddy. I'll listen for anything. I'm here to keep you safe Hermione… you and Teddy." He said softly as he kissed the top of her head.
Hermione sighed and closed her eyes. "Thank you." She whispered again.
Harry soon heard her steady breathing, and he knew she was asleep. She had lain down on the floor with her head resting on his right leg, and one hand resting on his leg as well next to her head. Harry looked down at her admiringly, stroking her hair softly.
He liked the way her hair had curled as she got older, no longer frizzy, but soft and golden. She looked so peaceful when she slept. Her skin was soft and cream colored, and her eyelashes were long and brown and curved perfectly, and her lips looked pink and full.
He found himself imagining her with him. He realized he was thinking about things that were absolutely out of bounds in a friendship, yet he didn't stop himself. She'd grown up, filled out in all the right spots and looked so beautiful. He thought himself insane now to not have realized her perfection before. How could he have ignored something so amazing? His eyes ran down her body, a little too longingly. He finally came to his senses and looked up at the opposite wall of the hallway as he leaned his head back, he took a deep breath, and tried to think about other things, but everything came back to Hermione.
He knew she would make an amazing mother to her own child or children one day, and he secretly hoped it would be his, but he was never going to tell her that. It wasn't going to happen.
When Harry finally saw sun peak through the sides of the curtains around the door, he shook his head, trying to wake himself up more. He had stayed up all night, mostly occupying himself with looking or thinking about Hermione. He put a hand on Hermione's shoulder and shook her gently.
"Hermione, wake up. It's morning." He whispered, then repeated himself in a normal tone when Hermione didn't respond.
"Huh?" Hermione groaned as she stirred and sat up, but slumped against the wall as she got a huge head rush.
"Easy… it's okay. I just wanted to let you know it's morning, I was going to go check on Teddy." He said quietly. That seemed to wake up Hermione enough as she stood up quickly, ignoring her aching limbs from laying on the floor, and headed to the back door.
Harry grabbed her wrist quickly. "Wait, let me go first, just to check." He said with an assuring, small smile. Hermione hesitated but nodded and stepped back.
Harry grabbed the door knob and slowly turned, waiting for any sound, but nothing happened. He opened the door and it creaked a little, but other then that, there was no sound. He stepped out onto the porch and was temporarily blinded by the sunlight, seeing spots a little, but when his eyes focused again he saw Teddy curled up in a fetal position on the grass a little way from the porch. He seemed like a normal little boy again. No growls issued from his throat instead of snores, and his hands were in little fists at the end of his arms wrapped around himself that had kept him warm during the night.
Harry approached the sleeping Teddy cautiously, then kneeled down next to him. Hermione had appeared a few feet behind him, looking at Teddy with sad, tired eyes, biting a finger nail nervously. Harry reached a hand out and shook Teddy's shoulder softly, much like he had to Hermione, and Teddy's eyes immediately opened and Harry jumped back.
"Miony!" Teddy yelled in his happy toddler voice and ran to Hermione. Hermione grinned and scooped him up. Harry reached a hand out, wanting her to be careful, but let his hand fall back to his side, knowing Teddy was back to normal now.
"He's freezing." Hermione commented quietly to Harry, stroking the little boys back as he shook in her arms, burying his head in her hair that hung against her shoulder.
Harry nodded in acknowledgement and ushered the two back inside the house.
Hermione took Teddy into the living room and sat down with Teddy.
"Teddy, are you okay. Are you hurt?"
"No. I'm fine."
"Do you know what happened last night?"
Teddy shook his head with a confused look. Hermione thought about this, looking away from the boy for a moment.
"Oh, of course you don't!" Hermione said, putting a hand to her head. In her third year, Hermione remembered reading a bunch of different books on werewolves for her essay that Snape had assigned, and for outside reading when she'd suspected Professor Lupin of being a werewolf. A young werewolf doesn't remember anything that happens when they're changed until they come of age, around 11 or 12. Teddy wouldn't remember a thing from last night. That made Hermione feel a little better, but it also made her more frightened.
Along with memory of being a werewolf, a young werewolf doesn't have as much control over what they do when they're young. They'll hunt anyone or anything. When the werewolf gets older, then choose their prey more carefully. Hermione pulled Teddy into her arms and held him close in her lap.
She kissed his head and whispered, "It'll all be okay. There's nothing to worry about."