Chapter 16: Taking Action
The next day when Hermione awoke, it was to a warm bed and a pair of clean clothes waiting on her dresser. Slowly she climbed out of bed and made her way to the shower, where she spend over an hour washing she skin until she shined. When she walked out, Skylar was sitting on their bed waiting for her. Skylar lifted her head when she heard the bathroom door open and upon seeing Hermione she jumped up and enveloped her into a hug. "I can't believe you're really here." Skylar whispered as Hermione closed her eyes and relished in the moment. "I almost died without you…"
"Come on Hera, everyone's waiting on you." Skylar said once they released each other. Hermione nodded her head and they both left their room and made their way to the living room. From their position in the hallway, they could see their parent's standing next to the couch talking to a person hidden from view. "Wait." Hermione whispered as Skylar started to walk forward. Skylar turned to look at her, but before she could say anything Remus started to speak. "I'm sorry Headmaster, but we haven't seen Miss Granger."
Hermione's eyes got wide when she heard the Headmaster's voice. "Enough Remus, I know the memory charms I've placed on your family had been broken… where is your daughter?" As Remus continued to tell the Headmaster they hadn't seen Hermione, someone knocked on the front door. Ambrosial excused herself and answered the door. "Hello, is Skylar here?" It was Harry. Ambrosial nodded and pointed to the hallway, to which Harry looked down and was surprised to see his girlfriend standing with Hermione. "Herm…" Harry started to say but was stopped when Skylar and Hermione started shaking their heads. "Hey Sky." Skylar nodded as she walked out of the darkness of the hallway and into the living room. "Hiya Harry, come on…" She said, motioning in the direction of the hallway and bedrooms.
As Harry walked across the room, Remus was showing the Headmaster the door. "Thank you for stopping by, but like I've said, I haven't seen Hermione." Remus said as he practically pushed Dumbledore out of his chambers, but the Headmaster wasn't leaving that easily. He turned to say something to Remus when he saw a pair of familiar amber eyes staring at him from the hallway before they turned away in a flash of curly black hair. Remus heard his intake of breath so he pushed him back out of his home and spelled the door shut. Thankfully the Headmaster had no idea the spells that had been placed on the door over the years so he had no chance of getting back in.
When they were sure Dumbledore was gone, Harry, Skylar and Hermione walked into the living room. "Hermione, why did you let him see you?" Remus asked as she sat on the chair next to the fireplace. "I didn't mean to, and besides is it my fault my eyes weren't blue?" Hermione asked him, silently daring him to blame it on her again. Remus looked at her before he shook his head. "Of course not sweetie" He said as he came and gave her a hug. Harry and Skylar watched in silence, once Remus had let Hermione go Harry asked her a burning question. "What do we do now?"
Hermione turned her blue eyes to him. "We call an emergency meeting. Harry, I want you to get the members that attend Hogwarts and bring them here… in this living room. Once the meeting is over, I want you to gather your group and take them downstairs." Hermione said to her sister. "We have a potion to make." Remus and Ambrosial heard their daughter's words so they pulled out their wands and magically enlarged the rooms to they would be big enough to accommodate everyone as Harry and Skylar nodded and left the room chambers to gather the army.
A little less than an hour later, all the student members of Lycan Army were assembled in the Lupin home. "Everyone please welcome back your leader." Skylar said as Hermione walked out of the hallway and over to where Skylar, Harry, Ron and Draco were standing. Upon seeing Hermione everyone started clapping and cheering. Ron walked right up to her and picked her up in a hug. "I've missed you." Hermione smiled at him before she turned to her followers.
"First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for not giving up on me." This caused more cheers. "Now that I'm free, it's time we begin our first course of action. To start and win this war!" Hermione then asked everyone to get into their groups and wait for further instructions. The first group she moved to was Ron's. "We have everything ready for when the battle begins." Ron said pointing to all the maps Pansy was holding with her. Hermione nodded her approval and moved on to Harry's group.
"Has everyone in your group managed to complete the transformations?" Hermione asked him, to which Harry smiled. "Even better, everyone in my group has a minimum of two animagus forms and only one person has four forms… and that's Tawny." Hermione smiled and moved on. But Harry stopped her as she was walking to her own group. "Hermione, I want to show you something, watch." Harry said before he turned to everyone else.
"Let's show Hera that we haven't been sitting around on our bums while she was gone." Here everyone stood up and changed into one of their animagus forms. Hermione's eyes widened as she looked around the room now filled with wolves of various shapes and colors. Harry changed back as he saw tears in her eyes. "I wanted to make sure that everyone in the Army could transform into some type of animal, what better choice than that of a wolf?" Hermione tilted her head to the side, "This means so much to me."
Harry gave her a hug before he let her continue on to her group. "Draco, what have you been teaching them?" Draco bowed slightly before answering before her. "We've learned all the spells in the Hogwarts' book list years 1 through 7 by heart. We've drilled both the formal and informal dueling stances into our heads. I've also taught them the proper way to handle a wand." Hermione smiled as she looked around her group as Draco continued to update her, but her smile didn't stay for long.
"Where's Vincent?" Draco looked away from her before he answered. "Ever since the day he found you in the dungeons, he's been under lock-down. Dumbledore placed a house-elf on him that is to alert him of all his activities. He believed it would be best if he didn't come to the meeting, for your safety." Hermione shook her head in anger. "Tell Vincent that he will come to the next meeting I call, no exceptions." Draco nodded his head in understanding.
"I want to thank you all for coming and working so hard while I was being held captive. I'm extremely proud of everything you've done, but I must leave now and help Skylar's group in the production of a delicate potion downstairs. So I'll see you all at the next meeting." Hermione said as she waved to the others before she followed the already departing Potions group. Harry and Ron showed everyone to the door before they sat in the living room and waited for them to return upstairs. By the time Hermione, Skylar and the potions group returned Harry and Ron had fallen asleep on the couch. "Leave them, they'll be fine." Hermione said as she led the group out of the chambers. "I'll see you all after breakfast; we have a lot to do tomorrow."
Hermione and Skylar left Harry and Ron asleep on the couch as they went to their room and went to bed. The next morning only Harry, Ron, and Skylar made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Hermione stayed behind for two reasons, first she was still be hunted by Dumbledore and second, she wanted to get a head start on the potion. After breakfast was over Skylar brought her group back to her chambers and down to the private potions lab. The group
stayed down there until it was three hours past lunch, to which Skylar brought them upstairs where she prepared them some food. Hermione declined the offer to join them.
After they finished lunch they headed back down to the potions room and continued to work through dinner, until it was an hour before curfew. Before they left Hermione told them that they had done excellent work and that they would be meeting after lunch tomorrow. These meetings in the potions room continued until the end of November, until Hermione was certain they had perfected the potion. She called for a meeting the next day. "Thank you all for coming. I'm happy to announce that it's finally time to put our plans into action." Hermione said to everyone in her living room. "Tomorrow all the leaders, including you Draco, will accompany me on a trip. And when we come back, I won't be returning to Hogwarts."
This announcement caused looks from the members and the leaders. "Since I haven't attended any of my sixth year classes, there's no point in me staying until the year ends. So we will be having all the remaining meetings at my house. If you wish to stay there with me and my family until the war is over, you will be warmly welcomed. Until the next meeting." Hermione continued as she looked into the faces of her followers while Skylar showed them the way out.
The next day, Harry, Skylar, Ron and Draco waited on Hermione so they could begin the trip that was planned for that day. She joined them in the living room and informed them of where they were headed. "As all of you know I had an idea over the summer that would help insure the help of the werewolves in Great Britain. And since I've come back, we've been working on making it a reality." Hermione said as she pulled out two small vials, one filled with a lilac potion and the other filled with a ruby potion. "We completed them last Friday and now it's time for us to visit the largest known pack of werewolves in Britain. So if you'll please hold onto me, I'll take us there." Everyone grabbed onto Hermione's cloak after she put the potions back up. She then activated a portkey that was hidden in her hand.
The group landed minutes later in the middle of a dark forest a few minutes later. "Come on, they're waiting on us." Hermione said as she helped the others off the ground. They followed the path in front of them for what seemed like hours before they came to another clearing, much like the one they had first landed in, except this one was slowly being filled with people.
Slowly Hermione's group came to a stop while the others continued to come from the trees surrounding them. As they stood there waiting on their leader to come forward, Hermione and Skylar could tell that the werewolves in front of them weren't going to make this easy on them. "Who are you?" one of the werewolves called out hidden from their view. "I'm here to see Adrian. He's expecting me." Hermione called out in response causing mummers throughout the werewolf pack before they stepped to the side to let a man with graying hair through.
"I am Adrian, and who might you be?" He asked as he stopped, standing a few feet from Hermione. "I contacted you over the summer and I'm here just like I promised I would be." Hermione said easily dodging the question. Adrian nodded his head. "I remember you now, were you successful in your endeavor?" Hermione nodded her head.
Adrian let a smile grace his face before he turned back to his pack. "Everyone, I want to introduce to you someone that will not be harmed during her stay here, however long it may be. She has brought us something that most of us have dreamed about since the day we were bitten. She's brought us a cure!" Adrian said throwing his arms in the air. This announcement caused cheering from many of the werewolves assembled, but others looked around unhappily. "Adrian, what if she's lying to you? What if she made a poison?" An old man asked as he walked up to his leader. Following the old man's words, more werewolves started to cry out in protest. "Yes! How can you trust her... She's not even one of us!"
Adrian turned his eyes to his pack and as he was about to tell them why he trusted Hermione, she walked over to him and placed a hand on his arm. This, of course, caused more outrage from the wolves. "How dare you touch the Alpha you dirty witch!?" Hermione turned her eyes to the wolf that said that, her eyes flashing amber as she took a step closer to Adrian's pack. The wolf saw this and tilted his head in wonder. "Adrian, if I may?" Hermione asked him as she gestured to his pack. Adrian nodded his head.
Hermione walked past him and the old werewolf until she was a few feet away from the werewolves. "I can understand the fear at what your Alpha just told you. I can sense that many of you do not believe that I even have a right to be here, since you think I'm just a witch and nothing more. I also know that a werewolf can tell how powerful someone is by their scent, so I'm about to do something I've never thought about doing before." Hermione said to the pack in front of her.
Before she continued she called out to the werewolf that saw her eyes flash and asked him to join her. He did and Hermione instructed him to sniff her, but as he leaned closer to her neck Hermione stopped him. "Not yet." Hermione closed her eyes and started her transformations into Hera. Where there was a pretty black hair girl now stood a medium build pure white werewolf. All the werewolves' eyes widened slightly at this especially the werewolf that was standing next to her. He slowly lowered his head and inhaled her intoxicating scent before he started to back away from her. Hera saw this and changed back into Hermione.
"What did you learn?" She said him. The scared wolf turned half-way to his family, careful not to show Hermione his back. "She is without a doubt the strongest werewolf I've ever met. Even stronger than our Alpha" Hermione smiled at their shocked faces before her. "How is that even possible?" one wolf near them asked with bewilderment in his eyes. "It is because I am the only genetically born werewolf, until everyone else that contracted the disease from a bite or wound." Hermione briefly explained. This tiny piece of information caused looks of interest from the wolves. "So, you really found a cure?" The same wolf asked, this time with more respect. Hermione nodded. "I promise that everyone that wants the cure will get it, but I do wish to ask you one thing." Adrian had come over by now, "And that is?"
"I wish for your aid, to help us defeat Dumbledore and Voldemort in a war that never should have started, and I know that with your help, the Lycan's Army's victory is assured." After Hermione explained the situation, Adrian invited all of the leaders back to the werewolf den; a few minutes away from the clearing they were in… everyone accepted his offer. By the time they arrived at the den, it was nearing time for dinner. Adrian noticed this and invited them to spend the night, and after checking with everyone Hermione accepted the extended invite.
They proceeded to eat the delicious dinner and talk to the various wolves in the house. As Adrian showed them to the rooms they would be occupying, he pulled Hermione to the side. "Alpha, if you would, there is someone that has been waiting to talk to you since we returned." Adrian said as he gestured to another part of the house. Hermione turned back to her friends and told them she would be back soon.
They waited until her group was settled in their rooms before they walked down the hall. "Who is wishing to see me?" Hermione asked as she followed the fellow werewolf down the hallways. Adrian glanced at her, answering in his soft voice. "A young werewolf who simply wants to talk to you" Hermione looked at him, but she didn't question him again. They soon arrived at a door smaller than the rest. Adrian knocked on it softly and if it wasn't for her heightened hearing, Hermione would have missed the quiet voice granting them entrance.
Adrian pushed the small door open and motioned for Hermione to enter. "Alpha, this is my youngest pack mate; she's nine years old and extremely sick. One of the few things she's ever wanted was to meet the person that planned on killing Dumbledore... You see, Dumbledore ordered the attack on her home causing the death of her parents. Not long after that I found her and took her in." Adrian said softly as Hermione walked over to the small girl lying on her bed.
Upon opening her eyes the little girl sat up in her bed and gave a weak smile. "Arianna, this is…" Adrian started to say, but paused unsure of Hermione's name, to which she whispered under her breath. "This is Hera. She's the one that's destined to kill Dumbledore." Arianna's eyes widen in shock and happiness.
"Hi." She said in her ethereal voice which caused Hermione to smile at her while Adrian walked over to her. "Sweetie, would you like to be normal again?" Arianna raised her green eyes to his gray ones. "To be normal? Not to be a wolf?" she asked with a mixture of confusion and hope in her sweet voice. Adrian nodded his head. "I would like that." She said with a smile.
Adrian pointed at Hermione. "She can change you back, but it will be sometime later before she can." Arianna's smiled didn't fade in the least. "I can wait." Adrian smiled at her before he walked back over to Hermione. "We will see you tomorrow Ari, get a good night's sleep." He said as he closed the door to her room.
"Alpha, Hera the reason why I showed Arianna to you instead of just telling you about her is, well she needs a new home." Adrian said as he was taking Hermione back to her room. "I'll see what I can do." Hermione said after she thought over Adrian's words. "Until tomorrow" She continued nodding at Adrian before she opened the doors to her rooms.