For Teddy, there was always an uneasy anticipation of the full moon. There was the whole stress of making sure he got every dose of his wolfsbane potion. Also he had to make sure he wasn't suspiciously ducking out of any obligations without a believable excuse. Then there was also making sure that he actually made it to the werewolf forest in time for both his change and all the pre-change rituals that the Alpha made his pack do.

The week leading up to this full moon was worse in many ways. For one, he had the looming promise of having to change in that hospital room. The same horridly smelling room that had housed his first several dreadful full moons. That room still haunted his nightmares and he would have been happy never returning there again.

Then there was the possibility that Hermione would actually becoming conscious again. What would she be able to tell them about her attacker? Would Teddy finally able to bring Lilith's killer to justice? It seemed to be his last solid chance at justice, now that he had been pulled from the case. Harry still hadn't budged on that. And as far as Teddy could tell, there wasn't really any leads without her.

With all this rattling around in his head, it was hard to concentrate on the petty cases he was assigned as the days counted down. Harry, on the other hand, seemed cheerier than usual, even with the intermittent presence of Draco. Harry usually didn't bother crossing off dates on his calendar, and definitely wouldn't have circled a full moon before this. However, Teddy had seen both on his work calendar, no less. It gave Teddy an odd pang of jealousy.

Harry seemed to have no qualms about public-ness of Hermione's werewolfism. Though he understood that her case was different, it still hurt, in the light of everything Teddy had had to do to hide his.

Finally, the day of the full moon came. Teddy and his Uncles met at St. Mungo's and were escorted to Hermione's room. Although Ron was no longer in the investigative branch of the Aurors, he had insisted on joining them. Their conversations had been very tense, all three men shooting glares around Teddy. When the group arrived at the hospital, Draco split off to vent his frustration on the healers in the room. Ron and Harry hovered over the time-theory specialists who were reviewing charms. Though the questions seemed banal to Teddy, the specialists seemed happy enough to stop and explain them to Ron and Harry.

Meanwhile, Draco had cornered the oldest healer. He was gesturing emphatically towards the potion bottles that he had lined up by Hermione's bed. The old lady seemed to hover between being indignant and irate as he talked. Then she caught sight of Teddy and her face froze in apparent surprise before she gave him an almost smile. Teddy finally realized why she looked familiar, she was the pack healer. It relaxed Teddy a little, to have a healer here who might know how to deal with Hermione's werewolf side. It also made him wonder how many more unseen allies there were for the magical creature community that he passed everyday without realizing.

When there were only two hours to the full moon, they released the spell. Teddy wasn't sure what to expect, other than screaming. When he saw her, Hermione always looked like she was about to scream. Except, that didn't happen. Instead, she panted softly, seemingly still unconscious. Harry gripped her hand while Draco carefully poured the antidote potions over her wounds.

A strange smell curled up from where the antidote potion neutralized the white potion. Clean and sharp like a thunderstorm. Draco followed this with the green potion that he had also manufactured. This was the one that countered the potion left in Hermione's wounds by her attacker. Again, came the smell of ozone, erasing the lingering smell of burning and rust.

Lastly, he had to feed one to her internally. Draco dribbled the potion into her mouth while one of the other healers worked Hermione's throat so she would swallow. Finally, all of that potion had disappeared into her as well.

Draco performed a few spells, taking the time to recast and review a few. But finally his shoulder relaxed and he nodded to the room. "She should be able to transform into a wolf now."

Harry's lips thinned and he stared down at Hermione. He patted the hand of hers that he still held.

Ron shifted from foot to foot. "If anything happens to her, I'm going to sic Ginny on you, Malfoy."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Yes. I will risk my professional reputation to resume childhood bullying."

Harry grunted. Teddy wasn't sure if it was an indication of disbelief or some other emotion. Everyone was hard to read beyond the tension around what would happen to Hermione.

After various tests from both the healers and the time-theory specialists, the room emptied out except for Teddy and his Uncles. They had explained Teddy's presence to the others by stating they needed him to use his metamorphmagus powers. That way Hermione's wolf didn't realize there was a human in the room and be needlessly distressed. They didn't mention that Teddy would be changing into a wolf as well.

Sure, due to his metamorphmagus powers, Teddy could change into a wolf outside of the full moon. However, the one true animal morph of a metamorphmagus tended to reveal a lot about them. It was extremely likely that if someone knew his animal morph was a wolf then they would make the connection between Teddy and his werewolfism.

So, they didn't specify which animal he would change into. None of the experts pressed for further explanation, perhaps too cowed by Harry's fame or Draco's scowls.

That left Harry and Draco to lecture Teddy one last time. Teddy tried very hard not to roll his eyes as they repeated warnings and emergency fail-safes. He didn't really want to listen to all that again, but when they left it also meant Teddy was alone with her. Alone in the stark and stinking hospital room. Alone to face whatever happened to Hermione and to him. But eventually their lectures wound down and they left too, really leaving Teddy alone.

As he sat, the room darkened. Dusk had arrived and he didn't bother to use a wand to summon a light. Instead, the room continued to fade into the darkness as the pull of the full moon increased. Moonrise was less than an hour away.