Chapter Nineteen

Hermione was sitting across from McGonagall, her ears ringing from her last question, "I'm sorry?"

McGonagall cleared her throat, "I asked, Miss. Granger, how many times you have transformed into your animagus form."

Hermione's heart caught in her throat, "Uhm…" she started, shuffling in her seat, "I-I, uhmm… a bunch?" she answered, cringing.

McGonagall's stern face contorted into a smile and she stood up, "Well done Miss. Granger, I always knew you'd do well." Hermione blushed.

They had gone down to the Quidditch pitch afterwards; it didn't look that much different from when she'd gone to school, except for the lack of giant hopes; there seemed to be platforms set up all over the field, varying in heights and sizes. McGonagall had told her what she was expected to do and see before her and Andromeda set of for their places of the field.

They started switching between human and animagus form while going about the course that had been set up. McGonagall was her signature cat and Andromeda seemed to be some form of pegasus.

As Hermione was taking notes on their transformations, she felt something heavy land on her foot. It was Dragon; Hermione dropped her notes and squealed, "Hey Dragon!" she shrieked, bending down to give him a hug, "I can't believe you came all the way out here! You looked so sick when I saw you this morning."

Hermione was too busy cooing over the wolf to see that Professor McGonagall and Andromeda had stopped their charade and had come over to see what she was doing.

"Miss. Granger?" McGonagall started, coming up to her with a frown on her face, " What is this wolf doing here?"

Hermione glanced up at her, "This is Dragon, Professor. He's my wolf."

Hermione saw McGonagall stiffen, and peruse her lips, "That's no wolf Miss. Granger."

Hermione frowned, "What do you mean?"

Taking a deep breath, McGonagall opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Andromeda, "He's an animagus Miss. Granger." Said Andromeda, dryly.

Draco was watching the two women walk up to Hermione, they started talking but he was paying attention to his aunt. All of a sudden she looked own at him and spoke. What she'd said made Draco's heart leap, crap, he thought, they're going to make me revel myself. So he did to only thing he could think of, he ran away.

Draco ran off the Quidditch pitch and into the forbidden forest. It wasn't so forbidden now, with Aragog dead, the Ministry taking off the restrictions from the centaur and the new registration for werewolves; the forest was just about as safe as your own backyard, except for the whole it being dark issue parents have.

Draco was running through the trees when he heard someone following him, scampering on to a nearby rock he looked around. It was his aunt, he thought it was a unicorn at first but it didn't have a horn; Draco never paid that much attention to the giant off, but he remembered that much.

As his aunt came up to the rock he was on, she transformed back into her human form. Standing in front of him, she narrowed her eye, "Come down here Draco."

Draco growled, but did as she asked; when he got back on the forest floor he returned back to his human form as well. "Hello Andromeda."

A Faint smile played on her lips, "Well at least you know who I am. But that's not why I followed you in here. I don't care if you know who I am, but what I do care is why you're following Miss. Hermione Granger around."

Draco cleared his throat, "she's kind of pregnant-" he started, his voice craking before his aunt cut him off.

"Then as far as she'll be concerned I never caught up with you and I might have been mistaken." She said, turning to leave, "And Draco, Family Loyalty is worth more than pride." With that, she turned and transformed back into her animagus form and galloped off.

Draco stared after her incredulously, what was that? He thought, running a hand through his hair. He was still within the school grounds, so he couldn't apparate back to his Manor; sighing, Draco turned back into his wolf and trotted off towards the castle.

As he walked through the courtyard, he saw Hermione racing towards him on all fours. Draco sped up and met the sliver wolf. Sniffing around each other, Hermione took off towards the Black Lake. Racing alongside her, Draco paused by the water's edge; but dove in after her when she didn't hesitate.

Splashing around in the lake, Draco forgot all about what had happened earlier today and just focused on one thing; he was back at Hogwarts. No matter what happened to him while he was here, or how stressful it was, he still loved this place.

Draco stopped padding through the water and turned to look up at the castle. He was staring at the setting sun when he felt someone bowl into him. Flipping around, Draco landed on top of Hermione and sunk her in to the water. Jumping around her he managed to get behind her by the time she came back up. He let her swivel her head around looking for him before jumping over her and landing on a nearby rock.

Hermione shook her haunches back and forth and growled; Draco was about to jump at her when all of a sudden the lake floor seemed to dissolve beneath her feet. With a yelp, Hermione disappeared into a giant hole that appeared in the water. Fidgeting on the rock, Draco tried to see if she was okay but the hole was too dark. So, growling, Draco dove into the hole after her.

As Draco fell beneath the water level, he felt the air get colder. He landed in some water a few moments later; dragging himself on to a stone path way, he found himself staring at Hermione. She was sitting on the stone staring up at something behind him.

Turning around, Draco found himself staring up at a gigantic Wolf statue; Draco's jaw dropped open. Hermione took a step forward and two torches, on either side of the golden wolf, lit up. Looking around, Draco saw that they were in a cave; it reminded him slightly of the Slytherin Common room. The walls had a green slime on them, dripping down from the ceiling. The air had a musty feeling, as though no one had been here for a long time. The pool of water they'd fallen into, was glowing a slight green from the light outside, and the rocks were covered in algae.

Glancing behind him, Draco saw that the path went off into the dark; he wondered if there was a way into Hogwarts from here. Turning back to Hermione, he saw that she had approached the Wolf and was sitting at its feet. He padded up to her and sat by her side; his arse had long grown cold by the time anything happened. It was over almost as soon as it happened; a cold wind blew from the mouth of the Wolf and blew towards them. It felt like when one of the Hogwarts ghost's walked through you, only different. Draco couldn't quite describe it, but as soon as the wind was gone, he felt different; he felt something odd stirring inside him, like something was awakening after a long slumber. He felt like a piece of his soul had been reconnected to his body, he felt at peace.

Draco was staring up at the statue when he saw a silver vapor drift out after the wind; it morphed into a replica of the wolf he was sitting in front of. It walked down from the air to stand in behind Hermione and Draco; turning towards it, he noticed a silver gleam in her eyes and wonder if he looked like that too.

The wolf was no taller than Draco's wolf, yet it still looked down on him; blinking slowly the wolf opened its mouth. It started speaking, only it sounded as though it was far away, like it was talking through something, "You have awoken the ancient spirits of your ancestors… We have slumbered for thousands of years waiting for the return of our kind… And now you have come…" it breathed out another sliver vapor, "Go…and we will walk with you as you walked with us so many years ago…" with that it disappeared, and Draco and Hermione were left staring at the statue; yet as the wolf disappeared, the stirring inside of him seemed to take over and it felt like his eyes had been re-opened to the world around him. Nothing was different yet it all felt so new to him, like he'd never seen anything like it before. And then, as one, he and Hermione turned away from the statue and walked off down the path towards and into the darkness; as though they'd walked it a thousand times before.