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"You're cold aren't you?"

"No." Hermione felt her body shudder even as the words left her lips. Snow was falling lightly towards the ground, which was already covered in a thick layer. She was wearing her jacket and a scarf but she was still freezing. She had no idea how Jacob could stand around completely comfortable in a pair of dark jeans and a white t-shirt.

"I can see you shivering." he said looking down at her hands which she quickly shoved in her pockets. He shifted like he was about to step forward but stopped himself and leaned back before he could even take a step. "We can just hang out some other time."

"No I'm fine."

"Hermione, it's no big deal." she knew it was strange, but the way he said her name made her stomach flutter. "We can just talk about it tomorrow then." he said. Hermione felt herself nodding, slightly disappointed.

"Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Unless we can find something else to do." he said quickly and she raised her eyebrow. "I mean I would say we could talk about the whole wolf thing but it tends to put some people on edge and I don't wanna do that to anyone since it's only my first week here. But we could do something else besides talk about me."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Um, we can go sit in the library and hang out or something." he offered and Hermione raised her eyebrow. Jacob shifted on his feet reaching to scratch the back of his head anxiously. "I would offer to take you to a movie but I can't because I don't have a car and I don't think there's a movie theater around here. If we were in La Push we could go to the beach but the closest thing we have to a beach is the lake but it's to cold to walk around and… that's all I can come up with. I'm sorry."

"No it's fine." she said shrugging one of her shoulders slightly as she watched him. She bit her lip looking around thoughtfully and Jacob shifted on his feet lightly. "We could walk to Hogsmeade."

"Hogs-what?" he asked. His eyebrows bunched together as he watched her, confused.

"It's a little town that we can walk to from here. They have a few shops and some places where we could go to eat and stay warm. Students from the school go there a lot, it's pretty much the only place we have. It might be a little crowded but-"

"No that sounds great."

….

"Can I have two butter beers?" Jacob watched stunned as the pen wrote done their order on a notepad that was floating in mid air a few feet away from the table. They'd been in the warmth of the shop for almost a half hour and Jacob had told her all about Washington. After that he'd told her about his Pack and from the look in his eye Hermione knew he cared about each of them. Then she told them about her parents and some of her less famous adventures with Harry and Ron.

"You're allowed to drink beer here?"

"It's not what you're thinking I promise." she said shaking her head.

"That's amazing." he said nodding towards where the pen was taking someone elses order before it went to the woman that was serving at the bar.

"It's a simple charm." Hermione shrugged. The way Jacob was watching the girl made her feel sick. After all it wasn't that impressive, and Hermione had done it a million times. Now conjuring a patronus, or the birds she'd mastered recently was something to be proud of.

"Simple charm?" he asked looking over at her as he raised an eyebrow and Hermione nodded slowly. At that moment she realized how cute the look one his face was when he was stunned. His eyebrows bunched together slightly and little wrinkles appeared in between them on his perfect skin. His ears even went up a little bit like a puppy.

"Yeah, we learn it in our first year."

"And what year are you now?"

"Sixth."

"So you must be able to do some pretty cool stuff." his lips curved up as he looked at her and she couldn't help but smile back at him. She was about to respond when he gaze shifted from her over her shoulder. "Your friends are staring at us again." Jacob said looking back at her. Hermione glanced over her shoulder and sighed heavily when she saw Ron and Harry jump slightly before they looked down at their menus, pretending that was what the were looking at all along.

"If you'll excuse me for a second." she mumbled and Jacob nodded glancing around the bar again. Hermione stalked toward the two boys who gave up on trying to be discreet. Harry actually had the decency to look embarassed but Ron just watched her, glaring.

"Would you two mind leaving us alone for longer than two minutes?" she hissed, her temper flaring as she watched the two boys and Ron's cheeks turned scarlet.

"Hey, we're just trying to look out for you. We all know how dangerous werewolves are, it doesn't help that right before the bloody war you decide to start snogging one."

"I'm not snogging anyone Ronald. And he's not dangerous, he's protecting us! Dumbledore said so himself."

"Just like Snape?" Ron asked. "And Professor Quirrel, and Mad Eye." Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Harry cut her off.

"He's right Hermione. Dumbledore is a great wizard, but everyone makes mistakes. I don't think we should assume he's bad, but we shouldn't' just assume we can trust him. None of us know anything about him so for all we know he could be working for Voldemort like most of the other Werewolves. He could be trying to kill us."

"He's not."

"But how do you know?"

"I just do." she said staring into his eyes. After all the years of standing by Harry's side, trusting his judgment about things, for the most part, she expected him to do the same. She didn't know how to explain it but she could just feel it. Jacob wasn't going to hurt any of them, if he was going to he probably would've tried earlier by the lake. And he certainly wouldn't tell her all about his family.

"We were just heading out anyways."

"So what's wrong?" Jacob asked as she sat back down. He took a long drink from his butterbeer as he watched her. "I mean they don't really think I'd tear you to pieces in a room full of people do they?"

"They just seem to have it stuck in their heads that I fancy you and that effects my judgment of you." she said rolling her eyes even as her cheeks flushed light pink.

"Do you?" Jacob asked watching her. Hermione felt her tongue tie itself into knots as she looked at him, and the silly half smile on his face. He was so gorgeous it almost hurt to look at him.

"I think you're handsome boy, and you seem to be a nice person so far."

"So is this a date then?"

"I wouldn't particularly call it a date. Would you?" she asked and Jacob glanced towards the ceiling with his mouth open before he looked back towards her. She knew the awkward moment was coming where he would tell her he wasn't interested because he had a girlfriend, or that she wasn't his type, or maybe even that he was gay.

"I dunno. I would like it if it was but if it's not it's no big deal. For all you know I could be the big bad wolf, just waiting to kill everyone or stab you in the back. I mean I am a stranger. " he joked and Hermione felt herself smile as she looked at him. He took a long drink from his butter beer keeping his eyes on her the entire time.

Something about him was off. She knew she should be wary of any stranger and if she were in Harry or Ron's position she would be doing exactly what they were trying to do, because Hermione Granger wasn't the type of girl who fell all over herself for a boy. She was smart about things, especially not with people she'd just met. But around Jacob in the past few hours she'd found herself smiling more than she had in the past three months because she was actually happy. She was comfortable around him, sure she was a normal teenage girl in the hormonal department, but she got the feeling that Jacob wouldn't judge her like everyone else at Hogwarts. She felt like she knew him.

"You're not a stranger."

"Oh no?" he asked watching her, trying to surpress a playful grin.

"No." she said shaking her head and he grinned.

...

"Would you like to come in?" she asked motioning towards the common room and Jacob glanced at it for a long second before he looked back towards her.

"I think I'll pass."

"Okay." she said nodding slightly as she backed towards the painting of the fat lady.

"Maybe some other time. It's just I don't think you're friends like me very much so they probably wouldn't take it to well that you invited me into your house thing. And I don't wanna cause any trouble." Jacob said leaning against the wall. The light from the sunset was streaming in the castle wndows, casting a golden glow over everything.

"They're a bit thick, but they'll come around eventually."

"They're just looking out for you." he said shrugging. "I should probably get going though." he said shoving his hands in his pockets and Hermione nodded, not stepping back towards the common room. After a minute of silence he stepped forward leaning down to press his warm lips lightly against her cheek. He pulled back slowly looking into her eyes and Hermione knew he must've been able to hear her heart pounding in her chest. "I'll see you soon Hermione."