Chapter Three
"We're going to be late." Zachary, the nineteen-year-old werewolf, sulked as he and Lavender Brown watched their Lupa and Alpha disappear beneath the murky waters of the vast river. "Again," her watch partner lamented.
Lavender rolled her eyes in agreement but said nothing to that effect. "Really, the Council doesn't truly begin until they join us, so…" she let the rest of the sentence hang as Zachary quickly put one and one together.
"I guess you have a point," her partner replied. "But still, they know we have a meeting tonight. It's awfully rude to leave us to wait while they do …" He lifted a hand to the mated pair entangled with each other on the river banks below. "….that."
Lavender was thrown into laughter as she leaned against a tree and smiled at the young man across her. After their pack had returned to the Forbidden Forest, Zachary had been the first werewolf to attend Hogwarts. She was proud of the example he set for the younglings who would follow behind him, and now, he sat on their Alpha's Council. "Fuck, you mean?" She smirked, enjoying how she could track the blush coloring his face even in the dark. "How many full moons have you experienced with the pack by now, Zachary? I think your time away at Hogwarts may have dulled your senses."
Zachary ducked his head as he scratched the back of his neck. "I haven't forgotten," he nearly mumbled. "It's just wasn't on my radar then."
Lavender pushed off the tree, intrigued, as she encouraged him to explain, "And now?"
"Well, I can't turn around without bloody thinking about it," he muttered to the earth.
"You're a male werewolf entering his prime," she said matter-of-factly. "I would imagine so."
He swallowed and wiped his palms against the seat of his jeans. "Yeah." He threw his head to the river below, "Are they finished?"
Oblivious to his discomfort, Lavender peered over the embankment when he made no move to do so. "Looks like it. Ready to head back?"
Zachary nodded and the pair made the easy trek into the thick of the forest. Uncomfortable with the silence, Lavender asked out of the blue, "Have you talked with 'the wolfpack three' about your time at Hogwarts?"
The sandy-haired youth shook his head. "Alpha doesn't want me to just yet. I imagine he wants to talk with them first. It shouldn't be … what is it?" he asked sharply as Lavender veered sharply away from him.
Lavender knew they needed to get back, but her sensitive hearing picked up a disturbance. Somewhere beyond the forest, someone was screaming. Her heartbeat quickened as she whispered, unsure if Zachary followed behind her or not. "Do you hear it?" Her pace quickened as she leaped over tree roots and the damp forest floor. The closer she came to the line that separated the forest from the nearby wizarding village, the screams became more distinct. Her wand dropped into her hand as her senses went on full alert.
"Lavender…" Zachary pulled on her elbow, his voice full of concern. He heard the screams by now. He had to. He threw his head up towards Hogsmeade in the distance. "Aren't we near our potion shoppe?"
They crouched behind the large trees, unwilling to move any further, unsure as chaos broke out at the village ahead. They were indeed close to the werewolf-run potion ingredients shoppe their pack opened ten years ago. The idea was Hermione's and was one step in bridging werewolf-wizarding relations. Now, frantic villagers gathered around High Street, yelling something she could not hear from her perch.
"I can't tell," Lavender admitted. What her eyes could not discern, Lavender honed her ears to pick up. Someone had been gravely hurt. Then the two werewolves heard a distinct shout that cut to the bone.
"Werewolf!" a villager yelled.
Lavender and Zachary immediately backed away from the tree. Both unconsciously moved deeper into the forest. "We need to get back. Now," Lavender whispered as her heart fell into her stomach, sour and heavy.
Zachary didn't need to be told twice.
"Were you able to see who it was?" Hermione questioned as she ran a hand through her hair. It would have been easy to jump into a panic, seeing how there little in the way of disturbances over the past ten years. The hair on the back of her neck certainly stood on end, indicating the start the instinctual fight or flight response, but Hermione sought the root of the problem before jumping to conclusions. When Zachary and Lavender skidded into their meeting, interrupting Council business with news about an attack at Hogsmeade, Hermione had to temper the instinctual response as the werewolves around her went on full alert.
Lavender shook her head from her place in the small circle. Besides the blonde werewolf, Zachary, Draco, Sian, and herself completed the elusive group. "I didn't think it was wise to expose ourselves any more than necessary," Lavender replied. "But it was clear. There was a mob forming in short order."
"Someone shouted, 'werewolf,' as if they knew it was one of us. Will they come to the forest looking for us?" Zachary asked the group, his youth and inexperience betraying his fear at the moment.
Hermione's hardened glance softened as she took in the young werewolf's fear. "If they're wise, they will not," she reassured him. Surprisingly, it came as natural as when soothing her children. She doted upon Zachary as she did her own blood. She looked around to the Council. "But it would behoove us to meet them before any rumors could spread." Surely, that's all it was. Rumors.
Sian shook her head. "To them, it would look like we were purposefully trying to hide something." The small Council knew who constituted 'them:' everyone who wasn't pack.
"We should be looking for the werewolf who did it!" Lavender put in. "Whatever it was!"
"How do you know it was a werewolf?" Draco asked from his crouch on the ground. He was only one who did not stand in the group.
"I assumed the villager would know if he shouted it," Lavender replied. "We've been working in Hogsmeade for nearly ten years now. There are only, but so many of us."
"Whoever they're looking for, isn't one of ours," Hermione stressed. She met everyone's eyes before announcing confidently, "We would know it."
Draco stood from his crouch to softly remind her, "It wouldn't be the first time we've been betrayed from within."
Lavender cleared her throat, in effort to move on from things better left unsaid. "Then we wake everyone now. We're all here. We can root out the culprit."
Sian sneered at this, before turning to Hermione. "Do this, Lupa, and you will lose the Loup Garou."
Still interlocked with Draco's gaze, Hermione shook her head. "That isn't the best course. It would signal to pack that we doubt them." Here, she turned to Lavender. "Once that happens, we'd lose them for good."
Lavender pressed back, "You'd leave our children's safety up to chance, then?" Draco growled in warning, but Lavender met his silver stare head-on. He wouldn't have made her his second-in-command if he didn't value her counsel, so she advocated the position again and forced them to accept the totality of their decision. "Because that's what this means."
It was Hermione who replied instead, "The pack has always kept our children safe, and if someone has betrayed us, then I have full faith that the pack would come to our aid."
"Besides if you hide the younglings away, they would gather something's amiss," Zachary finished quietly beside Lavender.
"The Loup Garou has never betrayed you, Lupa. Place the children in our care and we will ensure their safety," Sian announced firmly.
Lavender and Draco narrowed their eyes at the pink-haired werewolf. She may have had a point, but the old wounds that resurfaced from the reminder were sharp and still as severe.
"So, you don't trust our pack then? Her mate, and your Alpha's pack?" Lavender stepped forward in an unspoken challenge.
Sian shrugged but stepped forward as well as an unnatural cold settled over the group. "I did not say that, but I speak the truth."
"I can show you the truth of the matter…" Lavender halted when Hermione placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Please," she begged with her eyes. "This is not the time to quarrel among ourselves. The packs, both of them, have done nothing to question our trust. No one new has joined in years. We know and trust each other," she emphasized to Lavender and her second-in-command, Sian. It took several moments, but Lavender backed away to stand near Draco. The pair of blonds made for a twin picture of discontent, but they would not explore this route further. Taking a deep breath, Hermione explained, "We need to speak to the villagers as soon as possible. If we make an overture that we are willing to help, then it may allay any suspicions."
"So, they scream in fear and we come running like the good 'dog' that we are?" Draco asked icily with a lifted brow. He crossed his arms to mirror Lavender's similar stance.
That hurt. She knew he didn't mean it, not truly, but for her mate to echo Ariel Delphi's earlier sentiments stung. Internally, she swallowed the ugly emotion down and lifted a mirrored brow back at him. She knew what it meant to show weakness among kin. "No. We show them that we possess as much as humanity as much as they do. It's the right thing to do."
Quiet, tense moments passed as Alpha and Lupa warred on who would break first.
"Lavender and I will go at first light to the village tomorrow," Draco suddenly announced to the Council. "You and Sian can stay to mind the others."
"It should be all of us," Hermione countered, even though something in her gut told her she would lose this fight.
Draco's eyes glittered in the moonlight. There was more he wanted to say on the matter, she could tell, but he would not say them aloud. His jaw worked around his anger. "Our children will need their mother close by," was all he could say before turning, abruptly signaling an end to their Council meeting. "Zachary?" he called for the youngest among them as he moved away.
The young werewolf briefly caught eyes with Hermione before trotting off to catch up with his Alpha. She exhaled the anger through her nose. Little was said after that, as plans were hastily made. The key was to project calm before the rumors from the village inevitably made its way through their pack. They would get out ahead of this mess first, it was decided.
After, Hermione marched alone back to their tent hidden among the large tree roots. Her anger did not abate as she waited for her mate to return from his rendezvous with Zachary. She paced, she ran through counter-arguments, but she was utterly unprepared the moment the father of her children ducked through the entryway of the tent. He pushed past fabric of the doorway and met her fury head on.
Taking a deep breath, Draco grated lowly, "I will not leave our children unprotected."
Hermione held her ground in the middle of the tent. She simultaneously wanted to run into his arms and slap him at the same time. "They will be safe here, and you know it."
He cocked his head at her, testing her resolve. "Do we? Sian may be brash, but she has a point. We have suffered a betrayal before."
Hermione bit her lip to keep from raising her voice. "And now, you've validated her point by ordering me to stay behind. What kind of message does that send, Draco?"
"What's wrong with making sure our children are protected?" He turned from her and began to undress. She'd witnessed this routine thousands of times over the years. Methodically, he would unfasten his wand holster from his chest. Then, he would remove his trousers. That he would so casually turn from her to begin something so benign made her inexplicably furious.
"What's wrong with me accompanying you to the village tomorrow?" she countered to his bare back. She did not visually trace the scars found there, as was her secret habit.
"So, our children's safety is less important than werewolf-wizarding relations, you mean?"
She reeled back as if physically struck. In a low voice, she grated, "That isn't fair, and you know it. Of course, our children's well-being means more than anything in this world. But we have a balance to maintain: here, with our pack, and yes, in their world, too."
He placed his wand and clothes on her reading desk. "I can manage it, you know. I managed fine before you came along."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Draco shut down before her, but she would not have any of it. She grabbed his elbow and forced him to look at her. "No. You don't get to throw something like that out there and not explain yourself." She took up all of his personal space and dared him not to respond. "What does that mean!?"
He looked down at her defiance, before lifting a hand to cup her face. A long finger traced the outline of her lower lip. Softly, he answered, "It means, I can handle the Hogsmeade visit tomorrow. I've experience in treating with others. I'll manage. I need you and our children to be safe. I couldn't stand it if something were to happen to you, or to them. I did it, once. Do not ask me to do it again." His eyes flashed in memory, and quickly she sought to anchor him in the here and now.
She reached up to take a hold of his face, forcing his wild eyes to meet hers. "We will be fine. I promise you." She peered up at him closely. Something about what he said earlier still weighed upon her … "Does it bother you that Sian defers to me more than she does to you?" she gently asked.
He smirked as his hand ran behind her ear and up into wild curls. "I understand werewolf dynamics more than you, mate. It does not bother me." He tugged on her hair with enough force to tilt her head back. Her bare neck was exposed to him.
She eagerly accepted the submissive role as reasserted his dominance. Her eyes fluttered closed as he pressed cool lips to her neck. Quick nips and small licks to delicate skin made it hard to reply. With great difficulty, she replied, "Except when she reminds you of Greyson and Clara."
He growled into the intersection of her neck and shoulder and her womb clenched in response. "Who wants to be reminded of their failures?" he spoke into her skin.
She held onto his shoulders for purchase as her knees weakened. "Is that why you don't want me to accompany you tomorrow? Because Sian's words have merit?"
He looked up from lavishing her neck to meet her eyes. "I'm not changing my mind, mate."
She awkwardly nodded her head, though it remained tight within his grasp. "I know," she gasped. "But that doesn't answer my question."
He released her head, and gently massaged her scalp. "We'll be back after we've met with the villagers."
Hermione opened her mouth to press the issue further but knew there was no changing his mind now. Sighing, she leaned forward into his embrace. "I promise we'll be safe."
He pulled her head close to his chest. His elevated heartbeat should have been enough to calm her worried thoughts, but it wasn't.
"I don't like this," she whispered as she ran her fingertips over his heart.
"Neither do I. Tell the children where I've gone?" he requested.
She nodded against his chest. "I'll explain this to them in the morning."
an: One of Hermione's lines was inspired from lovebitca8's "The Right Thing to Do." It's my headcanon now that she must say it at least once in fanfiction. Read it if you haven't. I highly recommend it! Apologies for the bit of a break, dear readers. Work entered a busy period in April, but this story is back. X