"Did you hear that?"

Hermione looked around nervously. "No. What?"

"That noise. Like a twig snapping, over there." Harry grinned, leaning back against a tree and folding his hands behind his head. "It's probably just Bill and Ginny. They're late enough as it is."

"I don't like that you're hearing noises," Hermione said, standing and moving a little closer to him on the pretense of looking over his shoulder into the woods. "It's getting dark. It's just about the right time for monsters, isn't it?"

"Bill's haircut is pretty monstrous..."

"Harry, stop it!" She glared at him. "How can you be so relaxed? I took the test! They're going to come after me next! I know they are!"

He stood and reached out awkwardly, putting an arm around her shoulders. "It's not going to happen, Hermione. We're getting out of here tonight. Nothing - oh dear God. Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"You know, if I saw it, it's pretty much guaranteed that it's not a monster coming after you," Harry pointed out. "Anyway, I think it was just a shadow. It just sort of looked like a person for a second, is all. What's taking them so long, do you suppose?"

"Harry! It wasn't a shadow!" Hermione caught hold of his sleeve. "I just saw something! Over there! It looked like a person!"

"Well, it's probably Bill and Ginny, then," Harry said reasonably, extricating his arm from her grip and raising his hands to cup around his mouth. "Oi! You two! Hurry up, will you? It's creepy out here!"

There was a long moment's silence. Then, from the edge of the woods, there came a snarl. Both of them flung themselves away from it, backs against a tree and clinging tightly to each other's hands. "Do you see anything?" Hermione managed to whisper after a moment.

"Yeah. There's someone there. See him?"

"Yes." She swallowed. "It looks like Professor Lupin."

Harry didn't even take the time to roll his eyes and give her the customary 'you're twenty-six years old now, you can call him by his first name' speech; he just nodded. "I know. Except I don't think he's going to stay the same shape for long. Otherwise we wouldn't have any reason to be scared."

"Hermione? Harry?" Both of them whirled at the sound of their names; Bill came striding into the clearing, Ginny and Robby lagging behind by a few paces. "There you are! We got mixed up, thought your campsite was further west. It's a bit embarrassing having to cast a locator spell in your own woods, you know." He looked more closely at the two of them. "Are you all right?"

"Look over there," Hermione said, pointing. When Bill gasped, she explained, "Harry and I can both see him, too. Something's happening. They don't want anyone to know how they work."

Bill nodded. "Come here, Ginny. Stay close. Harry, is the Portkey ready?"

"No." Harry pulled the miniature Beater's bat out of his pocket and un-shrunk it with a flick of his wand. "It'll take about three minutes to set up, and after that, we'll have one minute before it goes." He half-closed his eyes and started murmuring the memorized incantation, and the others settled down to wait.

With only a dozen words left to go, all hell broke loose.

The shape at the edge of the woods had finally begun to change, growling and snapping its jaws, its face elongating as it dropped to all fours, fur sprouting all over. As Hermione shrieked and tried to draw her wand, somehow getting it caught in her sleeve, the werewolf sprang forward and Bill leapt out to meet it halfway. Harry managed to keep his concentration for the last few seconds needed, and as the Portkey glowed for an instant in his hand, he reached out and grabbed at the first hands he found - Ginny's and Robby's, as it turned out. "Hold this!" he shouted at them. "Bill! Hermione! It's ready! Hurry!"

Bill glanced up for an instant from where he stood, circling with the werewolf, Hermione covering him against surprise attacks from a few feet away. "If I take my wand off it, it'll bite somebody!"

"Bill, come on!" Ginny was nearly in tears.

He shook his head. "Hermione's been right all along, you know. I have been controlling them. I just didn't realize it. You lot go. I've got to stay here. I started this. I'll finish it."

"Bill-"

"Go! Hermione, you too!"

With a sob, Hermione turned and fled toward the Portkey, her hand locking around it at one end just as Robby let go of the other end. "Robby cannot leave his master!" he cried, flinging himself forward, toward Bill and the werewolf. "Robby cannot-" but before he could reach Bill to pull him back, the Portkey had activated, and the three of them left holding onto it were jerked through space and into the General's office, where they tumbled to the floor, all three of them crying, Harry pulling Ginny into a desperate embrace.

THE END