Wow. So it's been a while, and I'm sorry for that. I shan't bore you with the details or excuses concerning my lateness, but I'd just like to thank Dark God Naruto for motivating me and reminding me where my loyalties lie! (Heh, flashback from Philosophers Stone)

Anyway, enjoy! Please .

Hogsmeade

"Shut up and be still," growled a low, dangerous voice. "Otherwise I'll be forced to tear you apart with my teeth too."

A black haired boy was lying on the ground, groaning and whimpering, his lithe body predominantly covered by that of a large, hairy man.

"Please, I c-can't... take any m-more," said the boy in a broken voice.

The muscular man sat up and pulled the fragile-looking boy up by his hair, putting strain on the slender neck. "You will take it, else I'll make it so you can't move for a week."

The hairy man shoved the boy back down again before leaning over him and continuing his prior actions. His hips started thrusting against the slight body, the intensity and force of the thrusts jerked the pleading boy forward an inch or so on every drive.

"Mmm, you feel so good," murmured the brutish man. "So tight and hot for me, hmm?"

"N-no, it hur- hurts... please stop, Fen–" But the dark haired boy was cut off by his own bloodcurdling scream which was torn from his throat, piercing the eardrums of the dreamer.

Remus' eyes snapped open and he gasped for air. Instantly he sat up in bed, his forehead drenched with sweat and his hands shaking uncontrollably.

"Oh, God," he whispered shakily. "Harry, I'm so sorry."

His deep brown eyes filled with tears and he let the sobs wrack his unhealthily thin frame. What a horrific dream! And it had felt so real... too real. He could only pray to the moon that it hadn't been a vision of how Fenrir had treated Harry... But what if it had? What if that beast had torn Harry apart and now Harry was lying on some cold, hard floor, bleeding, forcing out whispered help me's to no one?

Remus pushed his shaggy, grey-flecked hair out of his face as he tried to rid the image in his head, and got out of bed. He needed to come up with a rescue mission to get Harry back, and fast. He knew Minerva and Alastor would tell him it was unwise and foolish, but who were they to deny Harry the liberation he deserved? Maybe Remus would just have to make up a little white lie to convince the professors that going after Harry was the right thing to do. Otherwise they would never know if the poor boy was still alive.

*FGHP*

Harry bounded through the trees, his tail wagging frenziedly as Fenrir strolled along at his own pace. Fenrir was unsure what to do or where to go with his new hyperactive mate; should he try and teach Harry how to hunt in wolf form? Or show him around the forest? Or, maybe, venture out of the forest where they could 'play' with some Muggle humans... Somehow I don't think the boy would like that, Fenrir thought, his eyes focused on his mate who was weaving in and out of trees and shrubs. He decided he should call the pup back before he got too far ahead so he barked loudly; its sound was a threatening, domineering and raucous one that demanded his mate's attention.

When he heard the growl, Harry instantly froze and peered over his shoulder to face his mate. Fenrir was slowly padding towards him so he stayed where he was. Finally the old, silver wolf reached him and butted his nose against Harry's. An impatient huff as well as a hot gust of air from the nostrils blew over Harry's face and he whined softly at the intimate gesture.

Fenrir realised he should probably change back in order to ask Harry a few questions, so he attempted to push back the wolfish powers which were at the forefront of his mind, and bring forward his human strengths. Harry watched on, rather confused as the silver wolf squinted with concentration. Finally, Fenrir felt his body beginning to morph back into that of a human physique and, once again, he marvelled at how smooth and easy this transformation was compared to the unmated, full moon wolf transformation he used to suffer at.

Once he was completely human he stretched, his arms going above his head – not caring that this was exposing his nakedness even more evidently – and shook his unshorn hair out of his face. He then looked down at the little black wolf who was staring up at him with bright green eyes.

"Change back, pup," Fenrir grumbled, but Harry merely cocked his head to the side and continued to stare at him adoringly. He sighed and knelt down so he was face to face with his mate. "Change back, Harry, I want to talk to you about where we should go."

Harry – still in wolf form – shook his head cheekily and, with a rather timid look on his face, licked Fenrir's cheek with his long slobbery tongue.

Fenrir, although touched at the gesture, growled and bared his human teeth. Even though the man was in human form, Harry still found Fenrir terrifying when he displayed such displays of dominance and power. Wasting no time, Harry attempted to change back, before realising he didn't know how.

Fenrir seemed to have understood this after seeing Harry's wolf features scrunch up in confusion and concentration. For Fenrir, the knowledge of how to change back and forth into a werewolf came with the package of being one for many years. For Harry, however, he had only become a werewolf because he had been a werewolf's mate so he was still naive in the areas of lycanthropy. Fenrir sighed, realising he was going to have to talk Harry through his change back into a human.

"Listen hear, cub," he said. "I take it you're pretty clueless at how to transform back. Either that or you're one heck of a stubborn pup. Anyhow, I'm going to talk you through your change, got it?"

Harry nodded his head obediently and waited for the man to continue.

"Right, let's see here... I need you to focus on the smaller, weaker human strength in the back of your mind. Can you feel it?" Fenrir asked gruffly as Harry closed his eyes tightly. "It'll be hard to find but once you've located it, keep hold of it," he advised. "Secondly, the strength you feel at the front of your mind, that's your newly adapted werewolf powers, for example your agility, the knowledge of how to hunt, blah blah blah. Push that back, ignore it and bring forwards your human strength."

Harry obeyed, trying with all his might to do as told. After several long seconds of hardcore concentration, Harry finally started to feel his body morphing. In just under ten seconds he was human again, butt naked, mind you, but human. Instantly he felt his cheeks blushing at his exposure. However, his thoughts suddenly went to his eyesight: surely if he wasn't wearing clothes, he couldn't be wearing glasses, so why was his vision clear? He raised a hand to feel for the cool, metal, circular frames that, for most of his life, had lived on his nose. He gasped when he realised they weren't there; his vision was perfectly clear and he wasn't even wearing his glasses!

"Fenrir, I can see!" he said giddily. The man stared at Harry blankly so Harry elaborated. "I mean I can see and I'm not wearing my glasses."

Fenrir's eyes narrowed and he took a step towards Harry.

"Hmm... You obviously didn't change completely, cub. Your eyesight is still that of a werewolf's," he said wisely, cupping Harry's chin and tilting his head up so he could get a good look at the boy's eyes. He turned the boy's face left and right, examining the brilliant, green, amber-flecked eyes. They would have looked reasonably normal were it not for the absence of the sclera and the slit, black pupils. "Yep," the man confirmed, "you're all transformed apart from the eyes. You still have your wolf eyes, silly pup."

Harry shrugged apathetically, feeling quite happy regardless. "I guess that's lucky, otherwise I'd be half blind seeing as I haven't got a clue what happened to my glasses."

Fenrir grunted his agreement, not mentioning how stunning Harry looked with the eyes of a wolf while in his human body. "Anyway, I was wondering where I should take you to try out your wolf body. Was there anywhere you wanted to explore tomorrow?"

Harry thought hard for a few seconds before a location popped into his head. "Well, yes, there is..." He'd been thinking about his life back at Hogwarts. Did people miss him? Did they know what had happened to him? What stories were out there if his disappearance hadn't gone unnoticed? He'd realised that Hogsmeade would be his best bet to find answers; he could take a leaf out of Sirius's book and pick out old Daily Prophets from the bins, or listen in on gossip. Besides, he and Fenrir would be unrecognisable down there; a lot of stray animals visited the little village so an addition of two wolves shouldn't arouse too much suspicion. However the fact that Hogsmeade was a human, wizarding village, he was unsure what Fenrir's reaction would be to the idea.

"Well? Where?" Fenrir asked impatiently.

"Um, well... I was thinking about... Hogsmeade?" he suggested timidly.

Fenrir narrowed his eyes. Why on earth would his pup want to go there? Maybe the kid did have a thirst for danger and blood after all... maybe Harry wanted to frighten and play with the villagers!

"You want to go back to civilisation?" Fenrir asked hesitantly, trying not to get his hopes up too soon. "Why?"

"I just thought I could find out what's been going on since I left," the boy said quietly.

Ah, Fenrir thought sullenly, he doesn't want to go for the same reason I do, then.

He cleared his throat. "Nah, you don't need to know. I thought you wanted to escape from all of those manipulative bastards and their lies anyway?"

Harry winced slightly at the venomous tone Fenrir said those last few words in.

"I do, it's just I don't want to lose all my connections to the outside world."

Fenrir thought to himself for a moment, his amber eyes narrowed and piercing. He really didn't want to take Harry back to civilisation in fear of the boy realising how much he missed it and wanting to stay there. Nonetheless, Fenrir wanted to make his little pup happy so he really didn't have much of a choice. Anyway, the mating bond should be stronger than Harry's will to live with humans again, surely?

He rubbed his unshaven chin thoughtfully, thinking about the conditions of taking Harry out.

"Well I suppose we could go... Do you really want to?"

Harry nodded timidly.

Fenrir sighed. "Fine. We'll leave in the morning."

*FGHP*

Harry slept restlessly that night. He wasn't sure if he was excited or nervous to be visiting Hogsmeade again. Would the temptation to return be too great? What kind of news would he hear? Would he see any familiar faces?

Finally after several hours of heavy thoughts, Harry's eyelids began to drop. He cuddled up closer to the warm body next to him and let sleep claim him.

*FGHP*

"Now listen here, pup. I need to lay out the rules of venturing out into the world of wizards," Fenrir barked the next morning. Harry nodded and Fenrir cleared his throat. "Number one, you are to remain in your wolf form at all times. No excuses. Rule number two, if I catch you acting like a common mutt we're leaving. In other words, don't let anyone pet you, understood?" Fenrir had heard tales of mated wolves who had gone soft and he wasn't going to allow that to happen to him or his pup. "Rule three; it will be a quick trip. You get what you need to and we get out of there, got it?" Harry nodded slowly, thinking how trivial these rules were, but he kept his mouth shut. "And finally, four, I think me and you should keep our distance, but I don't want you out of my sight. You know that pathetic little village better than me so I'll allow you to lead when we get there, though I'll be following you in the shadows. I don't want to cause any suspicion on us."

Harry, after cramming all the rules into his head, nodded again. "Sounds reasonable enough to me."

"Good," Fenrir huffed. "If we do get separated or if I lose sight of you I'll howl. You are to answer back until I catch up with you again." Fenrir took a deep breath. "Right, I think that's everything. We might as well transform now. Just do the reverse of what I told you earlier, pup."

Harry beamed and attempted his transformation.

*FGHP*

Harry trotted happily through the little village of Hogsmeade, briefly forgetting about the silver wolf that was lurking in the shadows a few feet back. The old little cottages and shops brought back many memories and he felt his heart ache at the history of this place. He faltered for a few steps as he took in his surroundings before he heard a low growl from somewhere behind him. Instantly he picked up his speed; Fenrir had been clear on the 'no dawdling' rule.

As he wound his way through the shoppers and villagers he kept an eye out for a bin or alleyway where an old newspaper may be lying around. However, his search was cut short when he heard two familiar voices from up ahead.

"– just been sitting here for god knows how long, reading."

"It may interest you to know that some people like to read books for fun, Ronald!"

Harry's heart lurched and he took a few steps towards the source of the voices. He rounded a corner and found a bench occupying two teenagers, one with bushy hair, and the other with flaming red hair. The former was reading a hefty-looking book, whilst the latter looked thoroughly bored.

"You are the only person I know who enjoys reading out of school hours," Ron grumbled. "Well, apart from Snape but he's gone. Shame, I bet you two would have gotten along brilliantly if he wasn't a snarky, slimy Slytherin teacher and if he hadn't ki–"

"Don't even mention what that traitor did," Hermione said coldly. There was a long, awkward silence and, just as Hermione was about to go back to her reading, Ron muttered something unintelligible.

"What was that?" Hermione snapped. "You know, mumbling is considered rude in proper etiquette manners."

"I don't give a flying fuck!" Ron exclaimed, standing up and flailing his hands about in the air. "I couldn't care less!"

Harry felt as though he'd gone back in time. It was like being in the middle of one of his best friends' arguments again and he had an overwhelming urge to stand between the two friends.

"Ronald Weasley, please mind your mouth around me," Hermione snapped. "If you're so... irate at my want to read, I suggest you find a new best friend."

"I have plenty of friends I could be with, I don't need –"

"No, Ron. Your only other true friend was Harry, and you pushed him away." Hermione took a deep shaky breath. "We pushed him away."

Ron blinked at his friend; this was the first time they had properly spoken about Harry without it concerning his whereabouts.

"Hermione..."

The fact that Hermione felt guilty for what had happened back at Hogwarts made Harry's heart ache. Almost subconsciously, he padded over to the two teenagers. They instantly ceased their squabbling at the sight of a black wolf heading over to them.

"Oh god," Hermione breathed as she stood stock-still. "Ron, don't move."

"What is it?" Ron turned around slowly and stared at Harry before sneering at him. "It's just a stray dog, 'Mione, relax," he said, though he took his wand out to be sure.

Now that Ron and Hermione had stopped arguing Harry felt a little happier and his tail wagged automatically. At the puppy-like motion, Hermione smiled and looked at him fondly which only increased the speed of Harry's tail wagging.

"Get out of here, mutt," Ron snarled, aiming his wand at Harry's face, and immediately Harry's happiness disintegrated.

He whined softly, the anger in Ron's face reminding him of their last argument back at Hogwarts, and the hurt Harry had felt then came back to him in an instant. Ron looked as though he was about to take another menacing step forward when Hermione stopped him.

"Wait a moment, Ron," she said slowly. "It looks... familiar." She took several hesitant steps forward and stared at Harry intently.

"What, like Siri... I mean, Snuffles?" Ron asked, his wand lowering slightly.

"No... just... I think it's the eyes..."

The calculating look in Hermione's eyes reminded Harry of how perceptive she was and he realised that she would most probably recognise him somehow. His instincts told him to turn around and leave now, but his heart was telling him otherwise. Do I want her to recognise me? he thought. Should I stay for a while to see what would happen if she did recognise me?

He was about to take a tentative step towards his old friends, when he felt a set of teeth gripping the scruff of his neck and he found himself being dragged back round the corner he had come from and was thrown into an alleyway.

Fenrir growled angrily through his teeth and threw Harry from his grip in ire. The little black wolf hit the brick wall and Fenrir closed in on where his pup was slumped. He'd been separated from Harry for about five minutes due to some annoying first year students who had tried to pet him. Of course, to keep his identity unknown Fenrir couldn't have struck out at them or turned them, for fear of an older witch or wizard recognising him. Finally he had managed to shake the brats off and when he'd caught up with his mate again, he'd found him wagging his tail to his two previous school friends! Not happy with what he'd seen, he let his anger out unintentionally and it was because of that Harry was now shaking violently as he huddled in the corner of the alley looking most frightened. However, upon closer inspection, in the green eyes there was no fear to be seen, but fury and frustration. Fenrir looked down on his mate and noticed that there was a graze on the side of Harry's face from where he had hit the wall. Instantly Fenrir felt a surge of regret for his violent actions. He leant in slowly wanting to heal his pup, but Harry flinched and grunted. Slowly, cautiously and tentatively, Fenrir butted his muzzle against Harry's cheek, hoping Harry would forgive him. The green eyes found Fenrir's amber ones and Fenrir tried to put as much sympathy and apology into his gaze. After a while, Harry relaxed slightly and slowly offered the grazed side of his face to his mate. Fenrir sheepishly licked the wound, hoping Harry would forgive him once they were human too. Out of his peripheral vision he saw Harry wince once or twice which only heightened his guilt. He whined lowly, hoping Harry would understand it meant sorry. When Harry looked up at him and blinked slowly before nuzzling his face into Fenrir's chest, the silver wolf knew he'd been granted some sort of forgiveness, and that was enough for him.

As he waited for Harry's wound to heal, he looked around the dim alley and spotted an old newspaper in a corner. He padded over to it and examined it, making sure it was still readable. Once he had deemed it decipherable enough, he took it in his mouth and indicated to Harry that they should leave now that they had some kind of news. He headed out into the village again; all the while making sure Harry's friends weren't around. Harry followed hot on his tail and together they ran back to their cave, not stopping once.

*FGHP*

Finally they reached Fenrir's territory. Immediately Fenrir threw the old newspaper to the ground and changed back, the movement very effortless and easy now. For Harry, however, it was a bit more of a struggle. Although he could run faster than Fenrir, he did, unfortunately, have shorter legs than the man, so he was panting a lot more than Fenrir. Plus the knock to his head had dizzied his mind more than once on the journey uphill and he found himself wanting nothing more than to go to sleep. Nonetheless, he tried to change back into human form, albeit very tiredly and slowly. When he was in his normal state, he didn't bother hiding his indecency. At the moment he just wanted to sleep and rest his aching head. He found he didn't want to talk to Fenrir either after his outburst of anger back in Hogsmeade, so without a word to the man he made his way back to the cave.

"Where you going, pup?" Fenrir asked gruffly.

"Bed," Harry muttered. "Tired."

Fenrir studied the naked back of his mate and noticed a few grazes on the right side there too, obviously from the brick wall. He swallowed before deciding he should probably apologise. He followed Harry into the cave, keeping reasonably close to the boy. Just as Harry reached his bed and was about to sit down on it, Fenrir grabbed the slender shoulders before licking up the boy's back.

"What the... Fenrir, get off me!" Harry exclaimed.

"Hold still, would you," he grumbled while trying to lick the moving back.

"No... get your paws off me!" He tossed and pulled away but Fenrir's grip was pretty damn strong. He pulled with all his might and, after a few more violent attempts at freedom, he broke free, only to fall face first onto his bed. Immediately Fenrir crawled over him and began licking up his back again.

"Please, get off," Harry whispered.

"Your back's cut, cub, I'm just healing it."

Harry buried his face in the fur beneath him. "You don't have to."

"Damn it, Harry, yes I do," Fenrir growled. "I hurt you back there."

Before Fenrir could press his tongue to Harry's back once more, Harry squirmed so he could lie on his back to face his mate. Instantly Fenrir's breath hitched. It was only now that he had seen Harry's human face properly since the incident in Hogsmeade. On a light note, Harry still had his stunning wolf eyes; clearly the art of transformation wasn't as easy as Fenrir made it out to be. However, what had made Fenrir's breath catch in the back of his throat was that the injury from that incident was still there on Harry's face. Thankfully it wasn't bleeding or torn, but where the graze had been there was quite an impressive purple bruise.

Clearly his surprise must have shown in his eyes for Harry put a hand to his cheek which was where Fenrir's gaze was, and asked, "What is it?"

Fenrir just stared at Harry's face, bringing up his own hand to caress the bruise he had inflicted. His larger hand crept under Harry's slender one and he rubbed light circles on the bruised area with his thumb. Fenrir didn't know what to do. He'd only ever healed bloody wounds, not under the skin ones. In a flash he stood up, his eyes fiery with anger at himself. What kind of mate was he? Only last night they had mated, and the next day he practically strikes his pup!

"I'll be back soon. Get some rest," he said gruffly.

"But Fen–"

"I said get some rest!" he bellowed.

Harry looked at Fenrir, not in fear, but in confusion.

"Fine," he said flatly.

Fenrir stalked out of the cave and immediately changed into wolf form again. He was thankful he could do this now; the escape was wonderful. He ran through the trees, all the while the image of Harry's wolf form staring up at him with trepidation and betrayal in his eyes imprinted in his mind. Then, following that image came the haunting one of Harry's purpled face. Clearly the boy wasn't overly fussed by it, and Fenrir made a mental note to find out why. But for now all he wanted to do was run away from the images in his mind until he could think straight again.

Back in the cave, meanwhile, Harry was trying to sleep, but every now and then he'd lean on his right cheek before hissing in pain. Obviously he had some sort of bruise on his face which was sore to the touch. Sighing in frustration, he sat up and ran a hand through his matted hair; it was even messier than usual. For the first time since living out in the cave, Harry really wished he could take a shower. A proper shower though, one with soap, shampoo and warm water... He smiled contentedly at the thought until he realised what he was wishing for. Could he really be yearning for his old life? His old life, in which the weight of defeating the Dark Lord constantly rested on his shoulders? No, out here he was free... that was what he wanted... But the anger Fenrir had shown, surely that had been out of protectiveness? So in a way, Fenrir was restricting Harry's freedom as much as the prophecy had.

He huffed before flopping back down, hoping to clear his mind of all this stress. He needed to speak with Fenrir as soon as the man got back, but until then Harry vowed to himself that he would attempt to get some sort of sleep. After all, it was what Fenrir had wanted.

*FGHP*

When Fenrir got back nearly two hours later, he transformed out of his wolf body and crept into his cave. His long run had given him time to think and he realised that maybe, just maybe, he had been a little over-protective with his pup in Hogsmeade, dragging him away from his friends like that. His rage had got the better of him though, and once his rage was released it was damn hard to force it back down again. He just hoped Harry would be able to forgive him.

When he reached his sleeping cub he crouched down beside him. The bruise wasn't as purple as before; it was more a dark brown, yellowing colour, but Fenrir took that as a good sign; maybe his lick to Harry's face had helped the bruise to heal faster. He ran a chunky finger over it delicately before moving his hand up to brush Harry's mop of hair off his face, hoping to rouse his sleeping pup. He figured the boy might prefer a gentle kind of wakeup after everything had had happened.

After his fifth stroke of Harry's hair, the dark eyelashes began to flutter and green eyes flecked with amber were revealed.

"Hey, pup," Fenrir grunted, his hand still entwined with the dark locks.

Groggily, Harry heaved himself up, knocking Fenrir's hand away in doing so. "How long were you gone?" he muttered, rubbing his eyes.

"Dunno," Fenrir said unhelpfully. "Time escapes me sometimes."

Harry stretched and yawned, then winced when he felt his cheek stretching against the bruise on his face.

Fenrir cursed crudely at the obvious discomfort his mate had just gone through.

"What?" Harry asked as he hugged his knees to his chest.

"I just... that thing on your face... it's my fault," Fenrir grumbled bitterly.

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Don't be stupid, it's mine. I did something you told me not to."

"You're saying you deserved what I did to you?" the man challenged quietly.

Harry chuckled unconvincingly. "Maybe not everything, but still..."

Fenrir studied his little mate for a few moments. "You know, I may be a ferocious killer and traumatise wizards whenever I get the chance," he started cynically, "but now you're in my life I seem to have developed some kind of conscience. I know what I did was wrong so don't try and tell me otherwise."

Harry chewed on his the inside of cheek absentmindedly before reaching the decision that he should tell Fenrir what had been bothering him since Hogsmeade.

"Fen, I need you to understand..." He paused, trying to find the right words. Fenrir didn't hurry him, but crawled into the makeshift bed with him and wrapped a thick, muscled arm around Harry's exposed waist. Finally Harry found the right words and spoke up again. "You need to understand that the main reason I'm with you is because I thought it would mean freedom. When you dragged me away from Ron and Hermione... it reminded me of..."

Here he paused again, this time thinking back on all the memories where he had had to save someone... and frowned angrily.

"Well it reminded me of all these stupid times where I was forced to do something I didn't want to do, where I had to put my neck on the line."

Fenrir furrowed his brow. "What do you mean, pup?"

Now the opportunity had arisen, Harry found he wanted to vent everything he had been through. So he did.

"First year, it was up to me to stop Voldemort from obtaining the Philosophers Stone. Second year it was me who had to save Ginny from the basilisk. Third year it was me who was being followed around by Aurors, and it was up to me who had to save the man who everyone thought was out to kill me! Fourth year... don't even get me started on that year," he growled bitterly. "And last year... well you were broken out of Azkaban last year so you probably know all about what happened."

Harry finished his rant and was breathing rather heavily. Fenrir was speechless, to put it mildly. He knew Harry was the supposed Chosen One, but he never knew Harry had put that role into action.

At Fenrir's silence, Harry said, "So you understand why I want freedom. I don't mind listening to you or doing what you say, but..." He trailed off and lowered his eyes before chewing on his thumb nervously; he felt strangely hungry.

"I understand," Fenrir said quietly. "I don't want to have you taken away from me, is all. You need to realise how much... protectiveness I feel for you. You're my mate." He batted Harry's hand away from the boy's mouth. "And stop eating your thumb. If you're hungry we'll going hunting."

Harry smiled, feeling a rush of adoration to the man, and nodded. "Thank you, Fen." He sat up on his knees and wrapped his arms around the man's neck.

"No problem," Fenrir muttered. The fact that Harry willingly touched him like this brightened Fenrir's spirits. He growled lowly and placed his hands on either side of Harry's slim waist, before using his thumbs to rub soft circles on the boy's hipbones.

He felt rather than heard Harry's hitch, and he grinned devilishly. He and Harry could make this work. He just knew it.

Thank you for reading! My biggest thanks to my beta, Izzy. You da bomb!

x