Oh, another chapter in an hour, what what? Okay, one more chapter after this, and then I think I'll be hitting that brick wall. Maybe the brick wall in this story will enable me to work more on The Elements.

Disclaimer: Nothing here is mine but the cabin. Everything else belongs to the respective authors of Twilight and the Harry Potter books. If any of this actually were mine, Severus would certainly still be alive and Hermione would not be with Ron.

Chapter Six

~The Pack~

There was a howl of fury and a blur of black motion, and then the russet male was no longer covering her. Instead, he'd been thrown off, and a new wolf, a muscular black one a little larger than her, stood over her possessively and protectively. He growled deep in his chest in warning as the russet male got to his feet, and let out a harsh snarl when several of the pack tried to step closer. To their shock they found themselves standing fifteen feet behind where they had just been. He stepped so that she lay beneath him, and he leaned forward a little as he faced the other wolves with his tail arched high over his back, ears forward, the ridge of fur along his back raised, and lips curled back to reveal his gleaming teeth. His aggressive stance practically screamed that he would protect the white female with everything he had, and the white female recognized and appreciated the gesture.

Again the russet male, the black Alpha, the silver female, and two or three others tried to approach the black and white pair, but this time they found themselves on the ground, whimpering in pain. Trying to get away from the pain, they all backed up.

What was going on? What were these two wolves? They had to be more than ordinary wolves, for one single ordinary female of her size would have been killed in a fight against so many so much larger than her, and never had they ever encountered anything like what the black male was doing to them. They decided to try and find out more about what was going on before trying to approach them.

The Quileute wolves watched the black and white pair warily. There was something otherworldly about the two that made the pack extremely uneasy. They were not ordinary wolves, that was certain. Not only had the white female managed to hold her own for a while against so many wolves all nearly twice her size, but the black male had done something that put them fifteen feet behind where they'd been standing, against their will, and had caused them intense pain without touching them. Add to that the fact that their coloring seemed off; there was the matter of the white female's unnatural shine, as if her body produced a light from within. The black male, on the other hand, seemed the exact opposite. The Quileute Alpha male was also black, but his fur had a natural gleam that was a reflection of the sunlight. This black male's fur didn't seem to reflect any light at all; if not for the gleam of his black eyes and of his bared teeth, they would have thought he were actually the shadow of a wolf.

Despite the smaller size of the black and white pair, the Quileute wolves regarded them with trepidation, particularly the black one. The shadow-male with eyes unnaturally black and strange abilities they could not explain seemed like a demon, something from nightmares and fantasy realms created by the overly-imaginative.

When the shadow-male with the midnight eyes saw the confusion in the faces of the oversized wolves that had attacked his snow-female, he knew that they wouldn't try it again in a hurry. He had time to ascertain whether or not she was alright before he dealt with them.

He stepped back from his white female to allow her to get to her feet, and he watched her do so with great concern in his black gaze. He touched his nose to hers with a soft whine of encouragement. When she was finally on her feet and standing steadily, he breathed a sigh of relief, his tail waving back and forth in relief and happiness. She was alright.

She greeted him with a soft whine, her tail low but relaxed and wagging gently and her ears lowered away from her face as she sidled up to press against his side, trying to get as close to him as she could. She touched her nose to his and licked his chin, muzzle, and mouth in a show of both deference and gratitude for saving her. He huffed in response, his ears up and tail high but waving back and forth in contentment as he gently washed her face and neck with his tongue, reciprocating her greeting.

Finally, once he was absolutely certain she was alright, he returned to his human body, fully dressed. He would be better able to fend off the wolves should they decide to attack if he could use his wand. Hermione, calmer and able to concentrate more completely on the shifting magic now that she knew she was safe, quickly followed suit, also fully dressed. It had taken the both of them a while to learn how to shift back into their clothes rather than only out of them.

If the pack had been shocked at the abrupt appearance as though from thin air of the white wolf earlier or at the equally abrupt disappearance – also as though into thin air – of the man she'd been stalking, it was nothing to how they felt at the sudden transformation of the white and black wolves into a woman and a man, respectively.

Once they were both human again, ignoring the shocked sounds being made by the wolves, Severus turned to Hermione and hauled her into his arms. "You little idiot," he said shakily as he pressed kisses to her hair. "Does your stupidity know no bounds? Yesterday you charged into the midst of what you knew was a coven of vampires, and today you get into a fight with a pack of wolves the size of horses! What possessed you to get into a fight with a pack of wolves at all, let alone ones this size?"

"They started it," she protested, her voice slightly muffled against his chest where he held her. "They're the ones who attacked me. I felt a disturbance in the wards and came out in wolf form to investigate, and they attacked me. I suppose they thought I was invading their territory and were just defending it." She chose not to mention the fact that it had actually been Lucius bloody Malfoy that had disturbed the wards.

He lifted his head and stepped away from her just enough so that he could look down into her face, keeping his hands on her shoulders. "And the part where that male was about to mount you and essentially rape you? Was that defending his territory?"

"Actually, yes," she said calmly, though he realized by the faint shudder than ran through her body and the way she still had the front of his robes clenched in her fingers that she was still a bit shaken by that particular close call. "A male wolf will attempt to do that to an invading female to assert his dominance. I suppose that was his way of showing me that I was in their territory and would defer to them if I wanted to keep my life." Before he could respond to that, she stepped forward and buried her face in his chest. "Still, it would have been awful. I'm so glad you showed up when you did."

"So am I, Hermione, so am I," he told her fervently, wrapping his arms around her again and holding her tightly to him for a moment. To think he'd almost lost her without the chance to tell her…

By now the pack members were thoroughly confused. What were these people? And why had the small woman not said anything about the human man she'd been hunting? For that matter, why had she been hunting a human on their territory in the first place?

But before the wolves could do anything, a third voice spoke out.

"Severus? Hermione? Are you alright? I see you've met the Quileute wolves," it said.

The wolves and the two humans looked up at the sound of the voice to find Carlisle and Esme Cullen coming into view. The two vampires were looking back and forth between the two humans and the wolves. Esme carried a large stack of what looked like clothing.

"The Quileute wolves?" Hermione demanded, confused. "Aren't the Quileute a tribal people living on the reservation in La Push?"

Before either Carlisle or Esme could answer, yet another voice sounded, saying, "Sam wants to know what's going on." As Edward appeared, his face more peaceful than the wolves had seen him in a while, he continued. "He wants to know who and what they are," he said, indicating Severus and Hermione, "as well as why they were hunting a person in the pack's territory."

Severus and Hermione looked at him as if he were crazy. But as his words registered with them, Severus turned to fix Hermione with a stern, forbidding expression reminiscent of their days as student and teacher at Hogwarts. It was a look that said she had some serious explaining to do. Meanwhile the pack were all staring from the Cullens to the…whatever they were…with nearly identical expressions of mixed confusion, bewilderment, and suspicion.

"Who the bloody hell is Sam?" Hermione demanded. She very carefully avoided Severus's gaze. She hadn't wanted to bring up Malfoy while he was still upset about her fight with the wolves and being attacked by the russet male. "And the person I was 'hunting' was a Death Eater, the one in whose home I was so lovingly played with and tortured by his clinically insane sister-in-law last June. You remember that part of the story, right?" she said indignantly, her cheeks flushed a little.

"Yes, but they don't know that," Edward responded, inclining his head toward the wolves. "As for Sam, Sam is the black wolf. He's the Alpha." After a moment, he looked at said black wolf and told him, "Look, perhaps you'd better shift back. All of you. They won't hurt you unless you attack them, and attacking them would be a very stupid thing to do. Trust me, I learned that the hard way yesterday. And in their natural human form, they're much more dangerous than as wolves."

The Alpha glanced at the two humans, and then looked back at Edward, questions and suspicion in his eyes. After a moment, Edward said, clearly responding to something the wolf must have been thinking, "Put it this way: after what happened yesterday, it would be very stupid for even a vampire to cross them. You and your pack, though powerful, don't stand any greater chance against them than we do. But I assure you, unless you attack them first, you have nothing to worry about. They are good." He smiled slightly. "The woman, Hermione, is my Bella's cousin."

The wolves all exchanged glances, and seemed to be communicating silently. Hermione and Severus were starting to piece things together, but even as some of the things that had just happened were explained, they realized they had more questions.

Finally something happened. The black male, the russet male, and the silver female all got to their feet and stepped forward. Esme stepped toward them, holding out the clothing, and set it before them. Never taking their eyes off Severus and Hermione, the three wolves suddenly transformed until three people stood in their place. Two were young men, while the third was a woman. All three were naked, but Hermione and Severus were so surprised by the transformation that they didn't even notice.

As the three of them began to dress in the clothing that Esme had set before them, Severus and Hermione finally retained enough presence of mind to turn away and give them some privacy.

When they turned back, the two males were dressed in worn, faded denim shorts while the woman was dressed in a pair of faded denim shorts and a plain white tank top. All three were watching Severus and Hermione with expressions of deepest mistrust, expressions that were reflected on the faces of the witch and wizard.

"All right, what's going on?" the man who'd taken the place of the black wolf finally asked. Though he didn't take his eyes off the man and woman facing him, Sam's question was directed at the three vampires present.

"Hermione and I wish to know the answer to that question ourselves," the man said in response. He spoke slowly, his voice deep and smooth, and the three Quileute youth had the feeling that voice could be used as a weapon.

Edward smirked as he answered them. "Sam, Jacob, Leah, I would like to introduce to you Hermione Granger, my wife's cousin, and Severus Snape, her former teacher and mentor and current traveling companion." Turning to Hermione and Severus, he added, "Sam, Jacob, Leah, and the rest of the wolves here are all members of the Quileute tribe residing on the reservation in La Push." After receiving a nod of confirmation from Sam, he proceeded to briefly explain their ability to transform into wolves as a means of protecting the townspeople from danger. Both Hermione and Severus had the feeling Edward wasn't explaining everything, but they figured he was only telling them as much as the Quileute youth were willing to divulge.

When Edward finished explaining the wolves' story, Sam spoke. "Now we would like to know who the two of you are, why you are on our land, and why you were hunting another person in our territory."

It was Hermione that answered. "As Edward said, my cousin is Bella Swan, or Cullen rather, and Severus is my companion. We're here for my uncle Charlie, her father. He was concerned when he was told she was ill and couldn't see him, so we came to see if we could help." She fell silent after this explanation, which clearly didn't satisfy the three Quileute youth, who all frowned. All three noticed that she hadn't even answered the last question.

"Try again," said the young man who'd taken the place of the russet wolf. "You know our secret. I think we need a better explanation than that." He fought the urge to flinch when the black-robed man leveled an intensely hostile glare at him; he could almost feel the potent rage simmering beneath the surface of the man's façade of indifference. He had one hell of a poker face. In fact, Jacob suspected the man was deliberately allowing some of his hostility to show, as a warning.

The young woman, however – Bella's cousin – was making absolutely no effort whatsoever to hide her feelings. Rather it appeared as though she had put them aside for the time being while waiting for answers, but now that it was her and her companion's turn to give answers, it was clear her irritation was returning.

It occurred to him that even though she was out of her wolf form, he still felt that same pull – muted now but still present – that had earlier urged him and all his male pack-mates to try and mate her as a wolf. So naturally, being a red-blooded male with the same urges as any other, he took another, much more leisurely and appreciative look at her. But he wasn't long into his appreciation of her petite, curvaceous frame – no more than a couple of seconds – when the black-robed man shifted, moving closer to her.

Jacob's attention was diverted to him, and he nearly flinched again when he caught the man's black glare. When he recalled how, as the black wolf, the man had stood so possessively and protectively over the white wolf Bella's cousin had been, he could have kicked himself.

Fuck, he thought to himself. There could only be one reason the man was so possessive and protective of her. He felt nauseated to realize that as a wolf he'd tried to steal another male's mate, never mind that he'd only been giving in to the wolf's instinct, having become used to obeying said instincts during his months running from his problems in his wolf form. I tried to rape her! he realized in horror. A wolf half my size who was too tired from the fight to even fight back! What the hell is wrong with me? Did the thing with Bella mess me up so bad I'd resort to rape just to get some?

Instead of answering right away, Severus and Hermione looked at each other.

What should we tell them? Hermione asked him silently.

As little as we can get away with. Obviously they know we're more than human since they've seen us shift, but since they don't seem to have divulged all their secrets, I don't see why we should do the same, he answered.

She nodded, and then turned back to the three natives who were watching them stoically, their faces giving little of their true thoughts away. "All right, then. We are a witch and wizard, part of a secret magical community in Great Britain, which is one of many such communities all over the world. For various reasons, we keep our identities secret from non-magical folk and interfere in their lives as little as possible. Severus and I really are here for my uncle Charlie, who really was concerned about Bella. I suppose you know about the Cullens and the real reason Bella is being kept away from Charlie?" she asked them. When they all nodded – she noted the expressions of distaste on Sam's and Leah's faces and the anger on Jacob's, and wondered at the last – she continued. "We knew there had to be more going on than just the fact that Bella was sick, so I decided to see if I could track her down. I found out where the Cullens lived and when I went to find her, I found out about the Cullens."

"But how did you even know what they are?" Leah asked. "Did they tell you?"

Hermione shook her head. "Vampires are known to the magical community. Tens of centuries ago, perhaps two thousand years or so, vampires did not bother much with hiding. There were fewer then, of course, but they existed more in the open than they do now. But most humans, while they were more certain of the existence of vampires than they are now, had no idea how to recognize them. Witches and wizards were the ones to begin recognizing the signs of vampirism in a person. So we used our magic to protect ourselves and non-magic folk, or Muggles as we call them. Our magic turned out to be one of the few things capable of killing a vampire, the other being the strength of a werewolf. But vampires, with their own heightened senses, began in turn to be able to instinctively sense a witch or wizard's magical aura, and they started instinctively avoiding us, just as humans instinctively avoid vampires. So in general, vampires are no more aware of our existence than humans are of vampires. The few vampires that are aware of the magical world are magically bound to secrecy, keeping the knowledge of us even from other vampires. But the magical community never lost its awareness of vampires. We know what they are the moment we see them. But there are few decent vampires, and even fewer that feed purely on animal blood, so that until I met the Cullens yesterday, I didn't even know they could be distinguished from other vampires by eye color."

"But what about the man you tried to attack earlier? The man with the blonde hair? Why did you attack him?" Sam asked. According to Edward, the witch and wizard were good people. Why, then, would she attack someone without warning?

She frowned, debating how much to tell them. Finally she decided to see how little she could get away with explaining. "He was a dark wizard. There is a set of protective enchantments we put up that alert us when someone approaches us, and one of the enchantments tells us whether or not the person is a witch or wizard. Another lets us know whether the person is a danger to us. Both wards set off alarms when he disturbed them as he passed through them."

"But why attack him instead of just confronting him?" Sam persisted, frowning. "You attacked him as if you have something personal against him."

Hermione lost her patience. Apparently he couldn't just let it go. A small part of her recognized that he was just trying to protect his people and ensure that neither she nor her companion would prove to be a danger to anyone passing through their territory, but it felt to her as if he were demanding to know all her secrets while refusing to divulge all of his.

"Because I do!" she shouted. Furious tears sprang to her eyes at the injustice of it all, particularly at not having her privacy respected and at having to relive such personal, painful memories. "Last Spring I was tortured in his living room by his evil, clinically insane sister-in-law while he watched, and two years before that the both of them tried to kill me and my friends while we were trying to save the life of my best friend's godfather! They were two of the most devoted followers of one of the most powerful evil wizards in history, a wizard who would have made Hitler look like a schoolyard bully and whose evil would have spread to the rest of the continents. The monster I attacked somehow managed to escape an elite group of magical law enforcers, and I attacked him with the intent to capture him and finally have him carted off to prison where he belongs. Only you lot interfered and he got away!"

She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm herself, and then continued in a quieter tone. "He and his sister-in-law were the stuff of nightmares. They both hinged their entire lives on the belief that those of us born to non-magical families, Muggle-borns, are inferior and should be exterminated, much as Hitler and the Nazis believed of the Jews and various other groups. Play-time for them was torturing Muggle-borns. Imagine that one word can cause the most intense pain you will ever feel in your life to rip through your entire body. You're not aware of anything else, only the pain, the fire consuming every nerve in your body. The longer you're under the curse, the more danger you're in of never recovering. That one word can leave people's minds so broken no magic can bring them back. I've been under that curse. And imagine that a knife can be cursed so that when it's used on you, when it cuts into your skin, it leaves scars that, even when they have healed, still twinge with pain every now and then, and that can't be concealed by any magic or with make-up."

She ripped her sleeve up her left forearm, exposing the words Bellatrix Lestrange had carved into her skin, as she stormed up to the three of them and brandished her forearm to show them the ugly words. "These mark me as having tainted blood. They mark me as inferior in the eyes of bigoted, hateful pureblood supremacists. And they will never go away." Her eyes blazed then. "So yes, I'd say I damn well do have something personal against him, and all I can say is, if I find him here, even in your territory, stay the fuck out of my way."

Severus knew the story already, but something in her tone and in her eyes gave him pause. He looked more closely at her as she turned and marched back to him and saw something deep in her gaze, something that hinted at a memory of terrible fear. He frowned as he suddenly recalled something Lucius Malfoy had once said to him in a conversation regarding the goings-on at Hogwarts and the Golden Trio.

Severus had made a snarky comment about the insufferable know-it-all Granger, and Lucius had responded with a lusty chuckle and a leer and said, "Ah, yes, the mouthy little witch who's always getting the better of Draco. I could think of several infinitely better uses for that mouth than spouting off information from a textbook. Imagine the Precious Gryffindor Princess on her knees with her mouth open and a good thick cock stuffed down her throat! Wouldn't that shut her up good! Now there's one mudblood I wouldn't mind a rough little romp with. That little prude's pussy is probably tighter than the Dark Lord's grip on his wand!"

Now, with the memory of that conversation and the look currently in Hermione's eyes in mind, he wondered if perhaps Bellatrix Lestrange wasn't the only one involved in her torture. If Lucius Malfoy had laid one bloody finger on her body, he was dead, as dead as his sister-in-law.

What did he do to you, Hermione? he asked her now, his voice dark and dangerous in her mind. He was enraged.

Hermione looked at him soberly. It's not what he did, but what he almost did. Harry, Ron, and Dobby couldn't save me from Bellatrix Lestrange's torture, but at least they got there before Malfoy could finish enjoying his turn. And his brand of torture would have been infinitely worse. So far I've remained a virgin by choice. He would have taken that choice away from me, and he came so close. Harry, Ron, and Dobby got to me just barely in time. To Severus's surprise, her eyes suddenly took on a rather mischievous sparkle. They caught him literally with his pants around his ankles. I'll never forget the look on his face. It was priceless.

Whether she'd meant it to or not, her suddenly humorous take on the situation was enough to divert his attention away from the subject of her almost-rape just long enough for them to become aware of the horrified looks on the faces of the three wolves-turned-humans.

The clearing was utterly silent. The three natives were staring at the witch and wizard in abject horror. But the silence didn't last long. Soon, the Alpha male was firing questions at them without waiting for answers, but as the other two kept interjecting with their own questions, Hermione and Severus couldn't keep up.

"Enough!" Severus barked, having quickly lost his patience. Beside him, Hermione, who was shorter of temper than she had once been and who didn't appreciate verbal assaults any more than the physical ones the Cullens had learned were a mistake yesterday, was glaring at them in silence, her arms folded across her chest. The mulish set to her jaw and the militant expression on her face told Severus that she was about to be difficult. Knowing her, he knew she'd most likely refuse to answer the three natives' questions until they were prepared to be more patient and polite.

"If it is truly of vital importance for you to know everything concerning our lives as members of the Wizarding World," he began in his best Professor Snape voice, his slow drawl heavy on the cold sarcasm that had made more than twenty years' worth of students tremble before him, "then Hermione and I will oblige you, on the condition that you reciprocate. While she and I realize that we are visitors to an area that is under the protection of yourselves and the Cullens, you must also realize that we are here concerning matters that are much more Hermione's business than yours, given that she is here regarding the well-being of two of the only remaining family members she has left.

"In addition, while we realize you were only trying to ensure the safety of the townspeople, had you not interfered with Hermione's pursuit of Lucius Malfoy, the townspeople would in fact be much safer than they are with him at large. He is not a wizard who is particularly inclined to leave Muggles alone. He believes them to be inferior to wizards, particularly so-called pure-blooded wizards such as himself, and given that he has had no qualms in the past about torturing a witch because of the purity of her blood, you may be sure that he will not think twice about making similar sport of anyone who does not possess magical abilities and is unfortunate enough to cross his path. In order to facilitate his capture, we will explain the Wizarding World in greater detail to you so that you may be on your guard should he return, but in turn we will expect you to reciprocate and explain the nature of your transformations, as well as the nature of your affiliations with the Cullen family and Hermione's cousin Isabella. It may very well turn out that Hermione and I are able to help solve any problems that may exist."

After a moment's pause, the three Quileute youth agreed and shifted back into their wolf forms in order to confer with their packmates, none of whom had shifted out of their own canine bodies. Finally, Sam, Jacob, and Leah turned back to face Hermione, Severus, and the three Cullens, who had come to stand beside the witch and wizard. However, this time they didn't return to their human forms.

Edward spoke next. "Sam says the pack has agreed to tell you their full story, particular-ly in regards to their ties with my family and Bella, if you will agree to tell them more about the Wizarding World, especially as it concerns the pack and the Forks area," he said. "He has also requested the presence of my family and Bella to provide affirmation of certain facts, as well as to provide more information regarding the things which are less clear to them."

Hermione glanced at Severus. "That seems fair, I suppose," she said slowly. Severus detected the note of faint reluctance in her tone and knew it was because she was an intensely private person who didn't like to dwell on her involvement in the war but was now about to relive painful memories for the second time in as many days. He was beginning to think that if it caused her this much pain, they should never have come to Forks. Let Charlie and Bella solve their own problems.

Severus agreed as well, and then addressed both Carlisle and Sam. "Mr. Uley, Carlisle. If Bella's presence has been requested, then we will have no choice but to gather at the Cullen residence as it would be most unwise to attempt to move her. That being said, Hermione and I will be able to expand whichever room you wish in order to accommodate the wolves without their having to revert to human form."

The wolves all appeared to frown before turning to look at each other and converse silently amongst themselves. Unbeknownst to them, Edward was not the only one outside the pack who could hear their discussion; Severus was listening as well, though he did not let on that he could.

Finally the three pack leaders turned back to face the witch and wizard, who remained silent, choosing to allow Edward to translate for everyone. "Sam says that though they would rather not have the meeting on Cullen territory, he would prefer for Bella and my family to be present and they recognize that Bella should not be moved. Therefore, Sam, Jacob, and Leah will be the only three participating in the meeting in their human forms. The rest of the pack will remain as they are."

"Very well," Severus replied, inclining his head toward the wolves.

Carlisle spoke next. "Does anyone object to waiting until tomorrow night for the meeting? Some of our family have gone hunting and won't be back until tomorrow afternoon."

The wolves shook their heads immediately while Severus and Hermione looked at each other, considering. This would give them a little time to gather resources in order to begin researching ways to help Bella as well as searching for information on half-vampires.

"Tomorrow evening, then," Hermione said. "We'll be there at eight." She turned to go back to the little cabin, but paused and turned back to address the wolves.

"If you see Malfoy or anyone else dressed similarly to him, whatever you do, don't confront them. Come here. The wards will let one of us know that you're here and we'll let you in. There's a reason I didn't want to confront him head-on if I could avoid it. He'll be on the look-out for any kind of animal on his trail now, and that kind of ambush won't work anymore. Probably he'll also have told any allies of his about what happened. And you can't protect your people if you're dead." She turned then and to the wolves' astonishment, she leapt forward, shifting in mid-leap into the form of a small tabby cat before trotting away and vanishing seemingly into thin air.

Severus did not follow immediately. Instead, he looked grimly at all the wolves, his gaze lingering most often on the russet male called Jacob. "I understand that what occurred just before I appeared and what would have taken place had I not arrived when I did was a product of a combination of things, including a need to protect your people, pure canine instinct, and a reaction to an unfamiliar magical pull," he began.

Then his black eyes hardened. "But," he hissed, and there was suddenly a feeling of darkness about him that made the wolves exceedingly uneasy, "should any of you ever so much as think about touching Hermione again, I guarantee you will not enjoy the consequences. And believe me, I will know if you think it. Edward is not the only being who can read minds. For twenty years I played the role of double agent, pretending to work for one master while really serving another. For several years not even Hermione was certain of which side I was on. And to maintain appearances on both sides, I have tortured and killed in the name of one, taught and protected in the name of the other. Do not make the mistake of thinking I am not still dangerous. At the culmination of the war when I showed where my true loyalties lay, Hermione saved my life at the risk of her own, and I owe her my life. I do not take such debts lightly. Should she come to harm at the hands of anyone, be they wizard, wolf, vampire, or human, I will not be kind." He paused, his gaze sweeping their faces briefly, and added, "We will see you tomorrow evening." With that, he turned away in a billow of black robes. Seconds later he, as had Hermione, vanished seemingly into thin air.

Moments later, Embry spoke. Is he serious? he asked tentatively, sounding uncertain and slightly awed.

Dude, I think he is, Quil responded. His voice was also uncertain and uncharacteristically serious.

Can anybody blame him, though? Seth asked reasonably. The other wolves turned to stare at him incredulously. What? Didn't it seem to anyone else like he was treating her like she was his imprint? Didn't you see how they greeted each other when he realized she was okay and she got up?

"The best term for it would be mates, I think," Edward said. The wolves turned to him in surprise, as if they'd forgotten he, Carlisle, and Esme were still there. "My family…met… Severus and Hermione yesterday, and they explained a lot about the Wizarding World. Probably everything they'll tell you tomorrow, as long as you're up front about all your secrets as well. One kind of magic they explained at one point was the magic of shape-shifting as it pertains to them. Unlike most witches and wizards, who only know how to access the form of one animal, like yourselves, they know how to access the form of any animal in existence. They said that being so connected to this magic has altered some of their instincts and human abilities. Their senses are heightened, for one thing, so that they can hear, smell, and see as well as you or I can. Their animal instincts are also stronger, especially in regards to mating. And though they didn't say as much and I can't read either of their minds, I think, and Jasper agrees since he's picked up on their emotions regarding each other, that instead of just the kind of romantic relationship most people have, theirs also involves much more animal instinct, so that they are much more like a pair of life-mates in the animal kingdom…or like a pair of imprints." He nodded in their direction, his gaze briefly meeting Sam's, then Jared's, Paul's, and Quil's. "Jasper doesn't think either of them is capable any longer of leaving the other or that either of them would ever be able to fall in love again should the other die."

The wolves mulled over this. It sounded very much indeed like imprinting, and they guessed that magic played a big part in that.

Now that their questions regarding Hermione and Mr. Snape's relationship – the man was just too formidable for them to think of by his first name – had been more or less addressed, their thoughts returned to wondering what they would be told at the meeting the next night. Rather, the thoughts of some of the older ones did. The more juvenile ones, however, Quil and Embry included, despite their closeness to Jacob in age, were still contemplating how uneasy the aura of darkness about the wizard made them.

Dude is downright scary, Embry thought as he replayed Mr. Snape's words in his head. "Do not make the mistake of thinking I am not still dangerous," he had said.

They heard a chuckle, and the wolves all turned to look at Edward, who said, smiling, "Severus has been a teacher for twenty years at the wizarding school Hermione just graduated from, and from which he also graduated at the age of seventeen. He was by far both the most hated and the most misunderstood professor the school had seen in a long time, and it all has to do with his tendency to shut people out and push them away. Up until very recently, within the last several months, in fact, life has not been very kind to him. For his own reasons, he has perfected an image of himself that mostly keeps people away. A lot of that image has to do with twenty years of teaching adolescents and learning how to discipline them effectively. Hermione, with her own heart of gold and her tendency to be mule-stubborn, is one of the only people who ever deliberately ignored the image he constantly puts off and managed to work her way into his heart. My family and I understand quite clearly how well she was able to manage that; that was all the proof we needed that she is in fact Bella's cousin."

A snort was heard from Jacob, who rolled his eyes as if to say he knew where Edward was coming from. Edward inclined his head toward the russet wolf in agreement. The entire pack was aware of how stubborn Bella could be, especially in regards to her insistence upon both the Cullens and the wolves being part of her life.

As if the mention of Bella were some sort of reminder, Edward chose that moment to bid them goodbye, saying that he needed to get back to her. Carlisle and Esme also bade them goodbye, saying they'd see them the next night, and the three vampires vanished. The wolves were left with dozens of questions and the sense that things had just gotten ten times more complicated.

They were on tenterhooks as it was, not knowing how the drama involving Bella, Edward, and their unborn half-vampire offspring was going to play out; they were still disinclined to let the child live, but they had been convinced for now that when the time came, the Cullens would be able to surgically deliver the demon-child without killing Bella. So for now they didn't have to worry about killing Bella in order to kill the demon.

But now with the involvement of a witch and wizard whom the Cullens insisted even vampires would be foolish to attack, things had just gotten more difficult, especially considering the witch was related to Bella. No doubt she would protect her cousin to the death, and if vampires could not escape an encounter against a witch or wizard unscathed, then the wolves didn't stand much chance. And none of them wanted to even think about facing Severus Snape. But on the other hand, perhaps she would be inclined to side with them in regards to the fate of the demon-child; it didn't sound like witches and wizards had a favorable view of vampires in general.

And now, to top it all off, in order to learn more about the witch and wizard and their world, they would have to venture into the territory of their only natural enemy, the very reason their abilities existed. They were going to have to be extremely careful; there was no way the entire pack was going to place themselves at the mercy of a coven of vampires as well as a witch and wizard.

And so, with much to contemplate and much to plan, the wolves decided to run a quick perimeter of their territory, with the small witch's words regarding the dark wizard she'd been hunting – what had she called him? Malfoy? – still echoing in their minds. With no trace of anything out of the ordinary, they returned to La Push to discuss the day's events with the tribe's elders.

Severus walked up to the front door of the little cabin, feeling the wards he and Hermione had set about the place bending around him to let him pass. He went inside to find Hermione still in her cat form, perched on the back of the living room sofa along with Crookshanks. She and her fluffy orange familiar were in the process of grooming each other when Severus entered.

He quirked his eyebrow at them before aiming a scowl at Crookshanks as if to tell him to get the hell out. He wanted a word with Hermione.

Crookshanks, by now quite familiar with the taciturn ways of his mistress's man friend, took his time about complying with Severus's wishes. He stretched luxuriously first before rubbing his cheek against Hermione's before casually leaping first to the seat cushions of the sofa and then to the ground, and then he ambled from the room, bottlebrush tail held high, nose in the air as if to tell Severus to stuff it.

Severus waited until the one cat was gone before turning to the other, whose eyes were now on him. He crossed his arms and looked at her stoically, waiting with one eyebrow quirked. She tried to wait him out, meeting his gaze expectantly with an air of innocence, but when he made no move, she rolled her eyes with an annoyed meow and got to her feet. She, too, leapt off the couch, transforming once again in mid-leap until she stood before him in her human form.

"Well, what is it?" she demanded, looking up at him.

"Would you care to explain why you didn't feel the need to tell me immediately that it was Lucius bloody Malfoy you were hunting?" he asked her, his tone at its silkiest and most forbidding. "Or, for that matter, why you tried to confront him at all rather than coming to find me or staying in the cabin? You know he wouldn't have made it through the wards, you would have been safer here."

"Because I didn't know who it was," she argued. "At first I only came out to see who was disturbing the wards. I wasn't stupid enough to come out human; I was in wolf form even before leaving the wards. When I saw it was Malfoy I knew he was up to no good, and knew he could only be searching for you or me. I also knew if he kept moving he could find the Cullens, or the Muggles in town. I had to keep that from happening. I also knew if I took the time to find you we could lose him."

He scowled blackly. "And it didn't occur to you that it could have been a trap, that he could have known you or I were near and intended to draw us out and into a fight?" he demanded. "You remember yourself how your year on the run changed you! Convicts on the run from the law only become more dangerous! He could have killed you, Hermione!" he thundered.

"But he didn't even know I was there," she replied, keeping her voice even. She knew that if she started to raise her voice, things would go downhill very quickly. "I observed him for a great deal of time before I attacked. I think all this time without any direction from a leader he's not thinking things through and is getting careless."

But this, apparently, was the wrong thing to say. "Careless! He was getting careless?! Hermione Granger, careless is confronting a wizard you know to be a desperate, lawless, cold-blooded killer! Careless from him would be firing the Killing Curse first and asking questions later, you foolish woman!" He stormed up to her and seized her by the upper arms, giving her a little shake. "Careless is being so intent in your pursuit of Malfoy that you are oblivious to your surroundings, thus being caught off-guard by a pack of oversized dogs and nearly killed by the lot of them if Malfoy didn't get you first, not to mention nearly raped by one of them."

Hermione suddenly realized how incredibly close he was, and in the next instant, as his intense gaze collided with and burned into hers, he seemed to realize it too. He stepped further into her, until their bodies were flush against each other, and when he spoke, he was quieter, though no less intense.

"I only just tracked you down a few days ago after weeks of searching. You saved my life and gave me something to live for. I am not about to let you get yourself killed and take it away from me," he told her, his dark voice roughening with that last sentence until it was nearly a growl.

Eyes wide in surprise, she opened her mouth to speak but was only able to get out a startled "Wha-?" before his lips were suddenly upon hers.

The kiss took her senses by storm; her knees gave out and he wrapped both arms around her and lifted her off her feet. All she could do was hang there in his arms and cling helplessly to him, her hands clutching his shirt for dear life as he devoured her mouth with his. Her head began to spin and her lips parted in a gasp for air, allowing him to deepen the kiss as his tongue slid between her lips to plunder her mouth and draw her own tongue into a duel, which of course only made her head spin more madly. It was all she could do to keep up with him.

After what seemed like both an age and no time at all, he finally gentled the kiss, his tongue retreating from her thoroughly ravished mouth as he eased the pressure of his lips until he was sipping kisses from her lips rather than devouring them like a man starved.

When he finally broke the kiss, he only pulled away enough to allow them both to breathe. He rested his forehead against hers as they both fought for air. At the same time, he maneuvered them backwards toward the sofa, scooping her up so that instead of her just hanging in his arms, he held her in a fireman's hold so that he could arrange her across his lap when he sat down.

"Where did that come from?" she breathed, her eyes closed. He might have feared her words to be a rejection, but the way she tucked her head under his chin and still clutched handfuls of his shirt dispelled that fear.

"I've wanted to do that for days. Since I first found you in the rainforest, actually," he responded, wrapping his arms securely about her.

"What stopped you before now?"

"Fear," he answered honestly. "I worried you would reject me. Who would want a man twenty years older than them, bitter and sarcastic, incapable of kindness, chasing after them?"

She lifted her head and shifted in his arms. For a moment, he thought she would pull away, but she merely arranged herself so that she straddled his lap – Words and her face, he chanted in his head, focus on her words and her face, not where she is sitting! – and faced him. She still didn't release his shirt.

"I would," she declared. "Because while you may be bitter and sarcastic and may think you're incapable of kindness, I know differently. You came looking for me when you learned of trouble with my uncle, you allowed me to bring my foul-tempered cat on a trip with us, and you hold me at night when I have nightmares. That's besides all the sacrifices you made for Harry, Ron, and me, as well as everyone else against Voldemort without us knowing, even if you only did it for the sake of Lily Potter. The fact is, Severus, you are a good man. You are a good man who has done bad things for some damn good reasons, and it's not fair how unkind your life has been." She smiled then, and added, "And I for one happen to like your sarcasm. I find it refreshing. You don't know how many times I've wanted to laugh at some of the insults you've been able to come up with."

She wrapped her arms around his neck then and held him, saying, "So really, Severus, you have nothing to fear. In fact, now that you've kissed me, I'm rather afraid you're stuck with me. If you've been wanting to kiss me for the past few days, I've been wanting to kiss you for the past couple of years. I developed a crush on you starting in sixth year, you know. Of course, everyone thinking you'd murdered Professor Dumbledore in cold blood and were really in league with Voldemort put a bit of a damper on that. That broke my heart. So imagine how elated I was when we all found out you really were loyal to Dumbledore all along."

She paused for a moment, thinking, and then spoke again. "And I'll tell you something else -" she began, but he suddenly cut her off.

"Do you ever stop talking?" he asked her, rolling his eyes and sounding only partly exasperated and partly amused.

She opened her mouth again, but before she could get anything out, his mouth was on hers again in a bid to shut her up.

This time, the kiss was much more leisurely than before. Severus took his time, gently smoothing his lips over hers in a caress designed not to take her senses by storm but to show her in no uncertain terms his affection and desire. As he kissed her, his large, strong hands drifted up to frame her rib cage and his thumbs traced slow circles on the sides of her breasts. He did his best to keep his focus on the kiss rather than the increasingly uncomfortable place she was sitting, but she wasn't making that easy. She moaned against his mouth and shifted in his lap, inadvertently grinding that warm place between her thighs against the bulge in his trousers as she tried to press closer. He groaned against her lips as his considerable length grew in size and hardened against her.

She sucked in a gasp and tore her lips from his. Her sparkling brown eyes flew open and found his; he met her gaze, and though neither of them spoke, something seemed to pass between them. Understanding suddenly lit her eyes, and without taking them from his, she slowly and deliberately ground herself against his erection again.

He groaned again, and his fingers tightened around her ribs. "If you don't stop that, witch, I can't promise you I will be able to control myself," he warned her, his dark chocolate voice laden with erotic promise.

Just the sound of it sent bolts of heat and moisture shooting straight to that place between her legs that she'd just been rubbing against him. She felt her face flush, but the understanding of what she was doing to him made her bold as she held his gaze with hers and said, "What if I don't want you to control yourself? What if I want to know you in the most intimate sense of the word? What if I want to show you what you do to me, and for you to show me what I do to you?" Her voice sounded odd to her own ears, suddenly lower than it usually was, and with a husky note she knew it normally didn't have.

"You don't know what you're asking," he responded. His voice sounded slightly pained for a moment, but then it retained the warning tone it had held a moment ago. "I am not an easy lover. I have never taken a woman by force, but neither have I ever 'made love,' and I don't 'shag.' Such a word implies a casual encounter where both parties are completely detached. I take, or I fuck. Either way, even in my one-time encounters, both parties are invested in each other's pleasure. I have never had a complaint, but I have been told on several occasions that I am too much. Many of my lovers have been left scarcely able to walk the next morning. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who will treat you as a priceless treasure, who will have the patience to make love to you."

She scowled. "Oh, yes, and this is the perfect way to go about convincing me of that – give me the best kiss of my life and then tell me I deserve better. Why kiss me in the first place then?"

Then, as if to deliberately ignore his words, she ground herself against him a third time. "What makes you think I couldn't handle you? You know everything I've been through this year, the things I've withstood to help win the war. I don't want a lover who will treat me as if I'm going to break. Bellatrix Lestrange tried so hard to break me with the Cruciatus Curse and couldn't, and she so wanted to. I don't think you will break me with sex when you clearly don't want to. I'm not going to run if things get a little rough and tumble at times. Or has my tendency to do things like charge into a room full of known vampires or get into fights with wolves the size of horses taught you nothing?" That last question was spoken while she slowly gyrated her hips, her hands braced on his shoulders to give her leverage while she locked her eyes on his. She had the pleasure of seeing his pupils dilate and his nose flare, though he gave no other sign that what she was doing affected him.

"More than that, I think you and I would both get bored with a relationship that's all rainbows and butterflies. A little bit of roughness can be good. It reminds us that we're lucky to be able to feel. And don't you think for a second that if things get a little rough I'm going think you're abusive. You know that if I thought you were abusive I never would have asked you to come to Forks with me, and more than that, you know that if I thought you were abusive, I'd pull your testicles out through your arse and then shove them down your throat and make you swallow them if you laid a hand on me. Shape-shifting wasn't the only magic I learned in the rainforest."

With that, she pressed her lips to his in a kiss every bit as passionate as the one he'd given her the first time. At first he intended to resist, but she seemed to sense that, and when she nipped his lower lip more sharply than he would have expected of her, he forgot every reason he had for his reluctance.

He growled low in response and wrapped one arm securely about her back as he moved suddenly, swinging her beneath him as he lay them both down on the sofa. His tongue plunged into her mouth to battle with hers for dominance while his hands pried hers from his shirt and pinned them to the sofa cushions above her head. He held the rest of his body suspended over hers, out of her reach, and he chuckled tauntingly when she tried to arch her body upward and press it against his.

She managed to raise one leg and hook it around his hips, bringing him back down to her, so he allowed his body to settle between her thighs but removed his lips from hers. Instead, his mouth traveled across her jaw to attack her neck starting at the pulse point just below her ear and just behind the corner of her jaw. After a moment of suckling kisses and gentle nips there, he moved lower, to the junction of her neck and shoulder, where his kisses became more fervent and the nips less gentle. At one point, he bit the side of her neck sharply enough to leave a mark there, making her cry out.

His lips trailed lower, across her chest, but then he encountered the lace of her brown tank top that impeded any further contact with her skin. He finally had to release her hands in order to bring his own to the hem of her tank top. Knowing what he wanted, she lifted her upper torso just enough for him to haul her tank top up and off her body, and he tossed it away, not knowing or caring where it landed. Her bra abruptly shared a similar fate, leaving her lush, beautiful breasts bared to his burning eyes and hungry lips.

He stared at them in awe for a moment before lowering his head to reverently take one stiff nipple between his lips, and when he began to suck on it, all her limbs tightened about his body as she let out a strangled noise that was half gasp and half cry. The fingers of both her hands speared through his hair and clutched his head to her breast, while the fingers of one of his hands toyed with the nipple he wasn't feasting on with his mouth.

She was so focused on the sensations brought to her by his mouth that she wasn't paying any attention to what his free hand was doing as it trailed its way down her torso and to the waistband of her jeans. It wasn't until she felt a tugging at her hips that she realized he had unbuttoned her jeans and was attempting to pull them off her with one hand. She lifted her hips to help him and he managed to pull them down about halfway; she let out a whimper of protest when he lifted his head, releasing her nipple from his mouth, in order to pull them and her knickers completely off.

Her body was now completely bared to his heated gaze. He moved to his knees so he could see all of her, and stared at her laid out, body naked and soul bared, before him like a feast before a man starving.

Severus found he couldn't breathe as he looked at her. She was so beautiful, in such an unconventional way. He knew she thought her thick hair was a pain sometimes with its tendency towards untamable wildness, but her hair captivated him. To his eyes, it alluded to the untamable wildness within her soul that she normally kept carefully hidden and that mostly only emerged when her emotions got the better of her. He knew she sometimes cursed her lack of height, but he loved her petite body. It might sound egotistical of him to say, but her petite stature made him feel all the more masculine, as if she'd been made for him to protect. And then, of course, there was the fact that it seemed the saying "dynamite comes in small packages" seemed to have been coined with her in mind. She had a small body but a great mind, a heart of gold, and a will of steel.

She wasn't waifishly thin as was the latest style for young witches; in fact, she was rather curvy, with mouth-watering proportions in his opinion. He liked a woman whose breasts and buttocks would fill his sizable hands, and better, her waist was nipped in enough that her hips flared out.

Severus looked at her so long Hermione began to feel self-conscious and had to fight the urge to cover herself. Finally she couldn't take it any longer and sat up. She reached out to him hesitantly, touching his cheek.

"Severus…please," she said to him.

Ooh, getting a bit hot now, isn't it? Questions, comments, concerns? Talk to me.

RP13