V
Fight or Flight
It was on Hermione's way to the Gryffindor Common Room that she first heard the footsteps behind her. She'd just left her own Common Room, intent on spending an evening with the boys and Ginny now that she was fully recovered from the full moon. As she walked she perked up, listening more closely to the sounds behind her.
They were definitely footsteps, light and hesitant, obviously coming from somebody who didn't want to be heard. What this person didn't know, however, was that Hermione Granger now had the exceptional hearing range of a werewolf
Taking a deep breath, she also caught a whiff of the person's scent. It smelled of expensive cologne and the Slytherin Dungeons. It took only seconds for Hermione to realize that Draco Malfoy was indeed following her.
With what Artemis had told her only a short time ago about Draco hanging around outside of his portrait, this incident became even more suspicious. Hermione decided to do the Gryffindor thing and confront Draco. After all, it was better to catch him by surprise than to let him get a free shot on her in an empty corridor.
With a swift turn of her feet, she whisked around, spotting the platinum blonde hair of Draco Malfoy several paces behind her. He quickly ducked behind a pillar, but she had already seen him. Hermione stalked towards him quickly, drawing her wand and preparing for whatever he had in store.
He jumped out from behind the pillar at the last moment, his wand pointed at her. Hermione was too quick; the Expelliarmus left her lips before he could even meet her gaze. His wand flew into her free hand.
"Malfoy," Hermione seethed, "what do you think you're doing?"
He stuttered for a moment. "Y-you drew your wand on me!"
"Because you were following me!"
He paled slightly, his eyes bolting around to examine their surroundings. With her advanced hearing, Hermione could tell that a group of students was just around the corridor, coming this way. She didn't want to make a scene with Draco, so she decided to do something that she was sure Harry and Ron would say was completely stupid.
"In the classroom," she ordered, motioning with her wand to a nearby empty room, "now."
He straightened up, his nose lifting in the air and his eyes narrowing. Hermione could hear the snobbish comeback in her head before he even said it. "I don't have to take orders from you."
"Get in the classroom, Malfoy, or I'll take away all the points you've earned this week and give you a month of detention with McGonagall." She knew these sorts of threats were a petty abuse of power, but in her opinion, anything was game when dealing with the likes of Draco Malfoy.
He sneered, letting out a huff of breath before making his way into the empty classroom. Hermione followed and closed the door behind her, placing a silencing charm over it for good measure. Once she was done, she turned back to Draco, her wand still trained on him. "Why were you following me?"
"I wasn't."
"Yes you were. You hid from me when I turned around. Did your father put you up to this?"
Those words struck a chord with Draco, and suddenly he looked a hundred times tenser. "My father doesn't have anything to do with this," he countered stonily.
"Your father has something to do with nearly everything." She took a step forward. The way his eyes darted between her wand hand and her face gave her a burst of carnal enjoyment that she could only attribute to the Lycanthropy. "Fess up, Draco," she murmured, "Or… I suppose we could always bring this to Dumbledore if you'd like."
His eyes widened slightly, and it was now that Hermione noticed how exhausted he looked. She somehow knew that bringing up Dumbledore would scare him, but she was getting much more of a reaction than she had expected. With another menacing step forward, Draco was ready to give in.
"My father just wanted me to keep an eye on you. It's nothing more than that." His words were short and his tone clipped.
"Why? Is this about what happened last month?" She was treading in risky waters here, but she expected that if Lucius Malfoy had told his son to tail her, he'd probably explained why. For a moment she wondered if Draco and Lucius knew the truth of what had happened; that his failed plan had failed in another way entirely.
Draco nodded warily. "He's angry." Something in the boy's somber expression told Hermione that things were far from right in the Malfoy household. There was a rift between Draco and his father, and if Hermione guessed, Draco did not want to be involved in his father's attempts to 'take care' of Harry's friends. Draco was far from a good person, but Hermione had known him for years. She knew that he wasn't so far gone as to want to participate such violence against his classmates, even if Hermione was a Mudblood and a Gryffindor.
"I'm going to stun you," she informed him, "It will only last for five minutes, and I'll leave your wand for when you wake up." She figured that five minutes was enough time for her to safely make her way to the Gryffindor Common Room. "But let me make myself clear, Draco: your father tried to kill me. If I tell Professor Dumbledore that you are helping your father make another attempt at my life or anyone else in this school I have no doubt that he will ship you straight home to your father. Don't make me do that. I know that you don't want to become like your father." Hermione leaned in closer, her expression turning into a feral grimace. "Stay. Away. From. Me."
Before Draco had any time to react, Hermione's stunner hit him. He slumped to the ground, allowing Hermione to place his wand beside him and slip out the doorway.
She made her way to the Gryffindor Tower wondering if there was even a small chance at redemption for Draco. Judging by the way he reacted to her bringing Lucius up, Draco was afraid of his father. Going off of that, Hermione figured that Draco probably did not want to follow the path of his father or of the other Death Eaters.
Maybe there was hope for him yet.
Two weeks after the full moon came the first Hogsmeade weekend of the Spring. It was getting somewhat warmer outside, and everyone around the school was in a generally cheerful mood. Even Hermione was happier than normal. She'd turned in a huge Potions assignment on the previous day, and the weight of schoolwork being lifted off of her shoulders was a welcomed relief.
Hermione walked down to Hogsmeade with Ginny, Ron, and Harry around her. The boys seemed happy to have Hermione spending more time with them, and she was determined to keep up the act of the healthy and completely normal life.
The group was walking along ahead of most of the upper-year students. As Head Girl, Hermione liked to lead the pack on the way to Hogsmeade. Evan usually brought up the back with some of his fellow Ravenclaws. As they approached the village, Hermione spotted Professor Snape catching up to the front. Not far behind him was Remus.
Professor Dumbledore had recently implemented a new policy: During every Hogsmeade weekend two teachers were picked to accompany the students and spend the day in the village. Somehow Remus and Snape had ended up being assigned the same day. Harry and Ron found it quite amusing to watch Snape grimace with distaste when his name was mentioned as the "co-supervisor" of this weekend's visit. Hermione just felt sort of awkward about it. She and Remus had a complicated relationship lately. Plus, Snape basically hated them all on the basis of being Gryffindors, so there was always some animosity and awkwardness there.
Snape and Remus arrived at the front of the group just as they got to the outer edge of the village. All of the students collectively stopped when Snape turned to face them. Remus stood at his side casually, but still holding his professorial air about him.
"Students, you have until three-thirty, as per usual. I would like to remind you that Hogsmeade is a privilege, not to be taken advantage of by troublemaking, pestilent children." His voice was harsh but with a simultaneous air of disinterest. When Snape was finished he inclined his head slightly towards Remus, who shook his head, indicating that he had nothing else to add.
"You may go," said Snape.
The large crowd of students erupted into excited chatter as everyone made their way past the teachers and into the village. Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ginny remained where they were, waiting for the crowd to die down a little before they set off into the village.
Just as the four of them passed Remus and Snape, Hermione caught Remus' eye. He'd been watching her, and he smiled when they made eye contact. Hermione couldn't resist the urge to smile broadly in response. Her mistake was that she hadn't noticed Ginny watching the exchange.
"Let's go to Honeydukes before they sell out of all the good stuff," Ron said, looking more like an third year than a seventh year in his excitement.
Harry nodded in agreement, looking to Hermione and Ginny next.
"I think we're going to stop by some other shops first," Ginny interjected, looping her arm through Hermione's.
Hermione could barely hear Harry's mumbled "okay" before Ginny was pulling her away. "So," the girl began, giving Hermione a sly look, "you're crushing on Lupin now, are you?"
"What?" Hermione nearly gasped, "where did you get that from?"
"Oh come on," Ginny exclaimed cheerfully, still pulling them along the street, "I saw the way you smiled and blushed. It's exactly the way you used to look at Ron, and Krum before him."
"I don't have a crush on him," Hermione insisted, setting her face into an expression of indifference. "He's my professor."
Ginny chuckled, but didn't say anything more on the subject.
Together, Hermione and Ginny shopped for a bit, spending a lot of time looking at dress robes and then splitting up so Hermione could go to Tomes and Scrolls and Ginny could meet up with the boys at the Three Broomsticks.
Inside Tomes and Scrolls, Hermione was happy to find that other customers didn't occupy the bookshelves holding books on magical creatures. She pondered what she'd found out from the books Remus had given her while looking for titles involving Lycanthropy.
Remus' books had been highly intriguing and filled with unique information about Lycanthropy. One of the books had focused solely on the Wolfsbane potion, and that had been what Hermione was most enthralled by.
The Wolfsbane potion was intriguing because it functioned mainly by interrupting the ability of the wolf to take complete control over the human's brain. The Wolfsbane had some agent in it that made it so that the brain became almost independent of the wolf, but still managed to control the body. It was really an ingenious invention, and Hermione very much wanted to learn more about it.
Despite the potion being accepted and well known to academics, nobody completely understood how it worked. Hermione was determined to understand it more. She knew it was silly to think that maybe she could do something like this, but a small part of her brain wondered if perhaps a variation could be made on the potion so that instead of just restricting the brain from the control of the wolf, the potion restricted the whole body from the wolf.
She ended up purchasing a book that focused on mind-altering potions, with a specific and rather extensive section on the Wolfsbane. Before leaving, she shrunk the book and pushed it into her pocket. Hermione left the store eager to meet the others at the Three Broomsticks and then get back to her dormitory so she could read.
Her mind was so distracted by thoughts of the new book currently nestled in her pocket that for a long time she didn't notice the ominous hum of people around her.
"Who is that?" one young Hufflepuff boy asked his friend, pointing behind Hermione. Her attention was caught, and she turned around. Far off, several shops down the street was a large, cloaked figure, making their way at a brisk pace down the road. As the person walked, they approached a group of third years outside of Honeydukes who were not paying attention to the frightful figure. One young boy took a step backwards, bumping into the cloaked person by accident.
Hermione's senses weren't that good this far from the full moon, but she could clearly hear the man's loud growl of anger. The young boy turned to face the figure and immediately let out a wail of terror.
The man pushed the boy aside, continuing on down the street, now removing his wand from his cloak. Some of the other children screamed when they saw him, and others just backed away in fear. There was something wrong here, and, after looking around and seeing neither Snape nor Remus, Hermione decided that she had to do something.
"Go inside the stores," she ordered, turning to the group of younger children behind her. The children looked hesitant, but after a harsh glare from their Head Girl they obeyed.
Next, Hermione spotted Neville Longbottom walking in her direction. Judging by the worried crinkle of his brow, he knew something was very wrong. "Neville!" Hermione called, "I think I may need you to go find Professor Lupin or Professor Snape."
"Do you know who that is?" Neville asked, eyeing the man. Hermione took one more glance at the figure. Each time he got close enough to a student, they shrank away in fear and horror. He must have looked quite frightening under the hood of his cloak. He appeared to be scanning the crowd of students around him.
Is he looking for someone?
"No," she shook her head in response to Neville, "but I need you to go find a professor."
"Okay," Neville breathed, rushing off in the other direction to search.
When Hermione turned around the man was closer, and she could now recognize why the students had screamed at the sight of him. He looked positively menacing, with matted grey hair and grotesque scars cutting across his face. For a moment, she wondered if she knew him from somewhere. But surely she would recognize someone so frightening.
Suddenly, as if he could hear her thoughts, he turned to face her. They locked eyes. He took a deep breath of air, inhaling deeply and focusing more on Hermione. She raised her wand, but before she could use it he knocked it out of her hand with a powerful disarming spell.
She took a step backward, looking for anyone nearby who could help, but the street had almost cleared of people entirely. He was stalking towards her, and she could now smell him too. He smelled dirty and foul, but there was something different… something different and familiar about him…
He was a werewolf.
As soon as that thought entered Hermione's mind, she realized something else: this was Fenrir Greyback. This was the werewolf she had seen in the Prophet and heard whispers of from Order members. He was one of the Death Eaters, or at least associated with them. And from the looks of it, he was trying to get to her.
Hermione turned and broke into a sprint in the opposite direction, making her way toward the nearest shop. She didn't make it very far. A quick spell cast on her feet bound them together, causing Hermione to stumble and fall roughly to the ground. She let out a shout of pain before another spell was cast on her, clamping her mouth shut and rendering her silent.
Greyback's footsteps approached from behind. Suddenly she was being jerked upward by the collar of her robes, and she could walk again. To her dismay, her screams were still silent.
Greyback pulled her along to an alleyway between Tomes and Scrolls and the shop beside it. He proceeded to cast another unidentifiable spell, one that looked a lot like a concealing charm of some sort.
Greyback's next flick of his wand released the silencing spell. Upon realizing that she could speak again, she let out a loud, angry scream, shoving her arms against him. Most of her raging anger stemmed from the fact that she had allowed herself to end up in a situation like this again.
Really, Hermione, you need to start thinking about your own safety for a change.
Though, she did suppose that it was better Greyback was after her rather than one of the younger students. She would just die of guilt if she allowed one of them to get hurt.
"What do you want?" Hermione spat at him.
He was still holding onto the collar of her cloak, now moving to push her roughly up against the brick wall of the alley. His crooked toothed grin was almost more repulsive than the smell of his rancid breath. Hermione momentarily cursed her enhanced sense of smell for allowing her to identify the scent of blood on his breath.
Obviously amused by her disgust, Greyback leaned closer, closing his eyes and taking a long whiff of Hermione's scent. She squirmed under his grip, trying to think of some way she could get away from him before he did something disastrous like Disapparate her somewhere.
"Ah," he breathed, pulling away and opening his dark amber eyes, "you're definitely the one Lupin bit, then."
Her eyes widened. "Wh-what?"
Greyback's lips spread into a menacing grin, and Hermione couldn't resist the urge to shiver. This movement only prompted his eyes to leave her face and roam over her body. She felt like she was going to vomit.
"I knew Lupin had changed someone, but you're quite a pleasant surprise, aren't you?" His leering gaze did not falter as his eyes returned to her face. "You see, as the wolf who changed Lupin, I have a sense for when he has… created a new wolf." She had no idea this man was the one who had infected Remus, but it instilled her with a great stab of sadness and anger.
Greyback's wand hand came up to her face, one finger tracing the hollow of her cheek, down along her neck and throat. Hermione tried to turn her head away from him, but his grip was too tight.
"Lupin wasn't supposed to change anyone," the man continued, "we have a bit of an agreement, the pair of us. The rules are that he never changes anyone, but if he does… they're mine." His final words were just a whisper, his free hand simultaneously falling to her waist, clasping with a rough, bruising grip. Hermione's expression must have been rather amusing then, because Greyback let out a loud grunt of laughter.
"He didn't try to change me," she challenged, steeling herself and meeting his gaze with a fierce bravery, "it was a mistake."
Greyback shook his head chidingly. "Ah, but I simply don't care, pet. He still did it, eh? Lupin broke the rules and now he must pay the price."
She knew that he was preparing to leave because at that moment he picked up his wand hand again and began to take down the concealment charm. The spell made it more difficult to Disapparate within its range.
Hermione turned her head towards where the alleyway let out, looking for any sign of hope. By some stretch of fate, Professor Snape briskly strode into view, and not far behind him came none other than Remus. Hermione screamed then, her words unintelligible but definitely audible to the professors.
Without a moment's hesitation, Snape sent out a barreling spell, catching Greyback and throwing him across the alley. Greyback smashed into the wall with a loud grunt, sliding to the floor against the bricks and dirt. Hermione stumbled away from the man, sliding along the opposite wall as fast as her legs could take her.
Greyback got off the ground quickly, sending rapid bursting spells at Snape while stalking towards Hermione. Snape fought back with ease, and soon Remus joined in as well. The bright torrent of spells around Hermione lasted for a solid twenty seconds before they ceased. Greyback had Disapparated with an echoing crack.
She kept her eyes on the spot he'd been standing in as she moved, not even watching where she was going when she bumped backwards into Remus. His hand came up to grasp her upper arm, and she felt the wave of soothing calm hit her hard. Hermione let out a long, heavy breath, leaning her head back against the brick wall and trying to get her heart rate under control.
"Hermione" Remus' grip on her arm tightened. His wand hand came up to rest on her opposite shoulder. "Are you okay?"
She looked at him and was surprised by the amount of emotion behind his green speckled eyes. "I'm fine," she said, her voice only a whisper. Snape approached the pair of them, a dark glint in his eyes.
"What did Greyback say? What did he want?" Snape was livid.
Hermione played the conversation over in her mind, thinking through Greyback's few words spoken to her. When she opened her mouth to speak her voice came out stronger than before, "he knows that I'm a werewolf. He said something about an agreement Remus has with him."
Remus was confused for a moment, but then his jaw slackened with the realization. He dropped both of his hands, backing away from her. His voice was far-off when he spoke. "I'm so sorry that happened, Hermione. It's not- none of that means anything- he can't do anything-"
"I'm sure you have a lengthy explanation to give, Lupin," Snape interjected suspiciously, "but perhaps we ought to have this conversation back in Albus' office? Once the other students are safely inside the castle?"
Remus looked at Snape for a long moment before allowing his shoulders to slump in a way that made him look remarkably similar to Harry. "Of course," he murmured, taking another step away from Hermione.
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Remus moaned, his head falling into his hands for about the fifteenth time in the past hour. Remus and Hermione, after arriving back at the school, had come to Dumbledore's office to speak about the incident at Hogsmeade. Hermione had cooled off since their arrival, but Remus had not.
She wasn't angry anymore. She was just sad. Remus' disconsolate state and her own exhaustion made her want to curl up into a ball with Crookshanks at her side and sleep.
"Remus," Dumbledore began, "perhaps it would help if you explained why this happened?"
Remus picked his head up, one hand still rubbing his temple. "Years ago Greyback sought me out. He wanted me to join his pack." Hermione watched as Remus' expression became even more hateful. "He thought I owed it to him, because he infected me. He wanted me to come with him and live like an animal."
Hermione wanted so badly to give Remus some sort of comfort.
"I said 'no'. He eventually coerced me into agreeing that if I ever created another werewolf they would take my place in his pack." Remus turned his eyes on Hermione now, "I never thought I'd create another Werewolf." He looked away shamefully, "I guess Greyback knew me better than I knew myself."
"Don't say that," Hermione interjected, "you didn't mean for this to happen. There wasn't- there was nothing you could have done."
Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Remus, surely there's nothing real other than a casual spoken agreement between Greyback and yourself, correct?" It took Hermione a moment to realize that Dumbledore feared there was some sort of vow or contract.
Remus shook his head. "There's nothing else."
Hermione hadn't realized how nervous Dumbledore looked until now, when the tension seemed to leave him. "Well then. There is nothing Fenrir Greyback can do." He seemed to be speaking for Hermione's sake more than anything else.
"Greyback is a Death Eater," Hermione observed cautiously.
Professor Dumbledore shook his head in the negative. "According to Severus, Mr. Greyback is a lower-level associate of the Death Eaters. Nothing more."
"Voldemort refuses to have Werewolves or other 'half-breeds' in his upper ranks," Remus said, leaning back in his chair and exhaling deeply. Hermione watched the way his chest fell and rose with his breath.
"But he is still dangerous, Miss Granger, and he is still an ally of the Death Eaters."
Hermione felt uncomfortable under Dumbledore's gaze, shifting between Remus and herself.
"She's safe here, though, right?" Remus hopeful tone made Hermione a little less worried about his state.
Professor Dumbledore nodded. "All students and staff are safe at Hogwarts. Miss Granger was already in some danger because of Lucius Malfoy. The involvement of another party will not change anything unless we allow her protection to falter. Which we won't."
Hermione didn't think the statement or the manner in which Dumbledore said it were exceedingly comforting. Remus looked deeply conflicted.
She found that the next words were leaving her mouth before she could stop them. "Draco Malfoy has been following me."
Remus' eyes jerked away from their study of the carpet and focused on her. "What?"
Hermione winced. She hadn't meant for this to come up with Remus around, intending to speak to Dumbledore about it alone. But alas, here it was, out in the open. "I confronted him about it," she continued, meeting Dumbledore's curious gaze, "he said that his father asked him to do it."
"Well," Remus breathed coolly, "she's not so safe at Hogwarts then, huh?"
Dumbledore held up a hand to calm Remus, nodding at Hermione to elaborate.
"I don't think he's that much of a danger, actually. He seemed afraid of getting involved in all of it, and I think I was quite convincing when I told him to stay away from me."
Remus was studying her intently. Dumbledore did the same for a moment before nodding in acceptance. "I will ask Severus to keep an eye on Draco and his father. In the mean time, I think both of you ought to return to your evening routines. It wouldn't do to have suspicions raised with the rest of the students."
Professor Snape had rounded up the students while Hermione and Remus returned to the castle. Rumors of the mysterious and frightening man had spread fast through the children, but luckily Snape was able to quell some of their worries by saying that the man had been an unknown wizard who disappeared shortly after coming upon Professors Snape and Lupin. It would doubtlessly still be the subject of a lot of gossip tomorrow at breakfast. Plus, Hermione would probably have to explain to Harry, Ron, and Ginny why she'd been missing for so long.
She nodded to Dumbledore, understanding that she needed to leave but not wanting to. As awkward and tense as this was, she knew that once she left Remus' presence that now-familiar calming sensation would leave and she would descend into a state of restless anxiety. She was still shaken from her encounter with Greyback, and she knew that she would worry about Remus late into the night.
And so it was established that there would not be much sleep tonight for Hermione Granger.
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed. What did we think about Hermione's interaction with Draco? And the whole incident with Greyback? I'm curious to know what everyone thinks. Happy holidays!