"Jacob." she whispered walking farther into the dark forest, her wand out at her side. The snow had melted away over the past few days but the trees still blocked out most of the light.

"You shouldn't be out here." Hermione almost jumped out of her skin as she turned around to face Jacob. He didn't say anything as he circled her slowly and Hermione felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. He wasn't smiling like usual which was strange but the thing that was scaring her was the way he was watching her, almost like she was prey that he was about to attack.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people. Next time break a twig or something so I don't have heart failure." she said and he stopped walking to stand in front of her. His eyes traveled up and down her body before he smiled.

"Sorry. Dumbledore told us to becareful if we see anyone out here because it might not really be them. I just needed to make sure you were, well you."

"It's fine." As she tried to calm her heart down, breathing out heavily, she couldn't help but notice he was shirtless. The only thing he was wearing was a pair of gym shorts. The light that faded through the holes the canopy of trees were making made part of his skin seem golden while other parts looked like the russet brown color she'd become so used too. There was no denying he was the most gorgeous person she'd ever seen.

"So not that I'm not happy to see you, but do you need something? I mean I'm pretty sure you would be in a lot of trouble if anyone knew you came here."

"Right, I just wanted to apologize again on behalf of my friends." she said and Jacob shook his head.

"It was really no big deal."

"I just thought it was because I haven't seen you around for almost two days." she said quietly and Jacob flinched slightly.

"That has nothing to do with them. I've been running patrols for the past two days to make up for the times I missed out on earlier this week so we could hang out."

"Oh." the thought had never crossed Hermione's mind until that moment. She'd assumed he changed his mind about liking her and thought it was best to just avoid her, but she'd felt a pull to him so strong she couldn't help but try to find him. She wanted to be close to him. "I should probably let you get back to it then." she said taking a step back but Jacob stepped forward closing the distance between them to wrap his arms around her. She felt his cheek pressed against the side of her head close to her eye he was so tall.

"I'm glad you came." he said quietly. Hermione rested her hands on the small of his back as he squeezed her slightly and she closed her eyes relaxing. She forgot all about Voldemort and the Horcruxes she knew Harry would need her help finding one day so they could finally live normal lives. She forgot about Ron, Malfoy, and Snape. She forgot about everything except Jacob, and how safe she felt at the moment.

When he pulled back she noticed he was about eye level with his mouth

"Since you're here we might as well talk about what I am."

"You're not a Werewolf. Not really." Hermione asked moving to rest her back against one of the trees as she sat and Jacob moved to sit beside her, so close their shoulders were touching. She could feel the heat radiating off his body, soaking into her skin. They were surronded by trees but about 50 feet in front of him there was a small clearing were a pond sat. Light shined through the trees to make it look like the only sign of light in a place full of darkness.

"Technically I'm a shape shifter."

"Which explains why you don't need the full moon to change." she said thoughtfully and Jacob nodded before he intertwined his fingers with hers. His hand compared to hers was so huge it almost made her feel like a child, and she couldn't help but grin slightly.

"Yeah and it's a tribe thing. You can't get bitten and change or something like that. Turning into a wolf is something passed by blood so we can protect ourselves and everyone else from vampires. We don't change into wolf men we just turn into these like giant wolves the size of horses. And we can read each others minds when we're wolves to help us strategize while we're fighting."

"That must be amazing." Hermione said in awe and Jacob smiled.

"It was for about the first, mmm, five minutes. It's pretty annoying especially when Jared just leaves Kim's house or Paul's thinking about my sister but they can't help it I guess. Leah thinks about a lot of stuff that gets under everyone's skin which is why everyone in the Pack is usually annoyed with her. But it helps out when we're fighting."

"So are you only friends with people in the Pack?"

"Yeah. People can usually tell when you're hiding something and some of us are so unstable it's to dangerous to be around them. Keeping the fact that you're a Werewolf is really hard on some people. I'm glad my dad's in the council or he probably wouldn't understand half of the things I do now."

"You're not even allowed to tell your parents?"

"No. The only person you can even mention the fact that you're a werewolf to besides the pack is your Imprint."

"What's that?" she asked and Jacob looked away from the pond to focus his attention on her.

"It's a girl who you would do anything for and be whatever she wanted whether it's a friend, a brother, or something more. When you meet her your whole world stops and nothing besides her matters. She's the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing on your mind before you fall asleep. You can't live without her." he said watching her closely. Hermione felt like he was staring deep down into her soul as he spoke but she couldn't look away from him. He rubbed the back her hand with his thumb lightly as he looked out over the pond but Hermione kept watching him.

Hermione couldn't stop herself, she leaned over and kissed him. It wasn't like her to kiss someone so soon into a relationship, if that's what they were calling it, but with Jacob she just couldn't stop herself. She felt like if she wouldn't have kissed him she would've exploded or gone completely mad. She hadn't ever been the one to initiate a kiss before but with Jacob she knew she did the right thing. His lips pressed against hers lightly and then everything shifted like something snapped inside his body. Jacob leaned closer crushing his lips against hers and Hermione kissed him back just as passionately. His fingers tangled into her hair and she rested her hand on the side of his face.

She had little experience kissing but when she ran her tongue along his lip it seemed to get a reaction out of him. Jacob shuddered so hard it almost felt like he was vibrating. He pulled away from her turning his face away as he breathed out heavily moving his hand away from her. She stared at him as his shoulders shook but he kept facing away from her.

"I'm sorry." she said calmly and Jacob shook his head. After about a minute the shaking stopped and he turned to face her slowly, using his arms to scoot himself away from her.

"No, I'm sorry, you didn't do anything wrong. You just... you drive me crazy." he said staring at her exasperated. Hermione felt her eyebrows raise and he swallowed roughly. "In a good way." he added quickly. "I mean you're smart, and nice, and you're beautiful and I just can't control myself." Hermione felt her lips curve up as she watched him struggle for words and his ears turned red from embarassment.

"I should get going anyways." she said calmly and Jacob nodded standing up, offering her his hand. She slid her hand into his as they walked back towards the castle silently.

"Hey will you promise me something?" he asked letting her go once they reached the edge of the forest.

"It depends on what it is."

"Don't come back here. Even though the Pack and I are running patrols it's still dangerous here and I have no idea what I would do if something happened to you."