Hermione unburdens herself
The next morning Hermione had a long overdue letter to send off to their father. She had written it in the late-night hours after coming back up to the tower, still wide awake after her midnight romp. Like ripping off a band aid, she had confessed to every secret she'd been keeping hidden and then told him about her wild night. She had gotten everything she'd been wanting to say to him for weeks off of her chest; conspiratorial letters she'd written and beings she'd met and things her and Harry had discovered and decided upon without him. Afterwards she had promptly fallen into a deeper and more restful sleep than she'd had since she was last in her bed at home.
As soon as she woke up in the morning, without waiting for either her brother or best friend, she rushed to the owlery to post it to him. She stroked their family owl's feathers, and begged him to fly fast and true as he left the castle. Despite fear of facing his disappointment and disapproval, she was desperate to hear from her dad. For the first time since she'd arrived at school she felt the bone-deep ache of just how much she missed him. It had been there all along, but overwhelmed and overexcited by everything else new and interesting, it had been pushed to the background of her emotional landscape.
She hoped Harry wouldn't be angry with her, but he had said he would follow her lead and this was what she had decided was ultimately for the best. Coming clean wasn't easy, and there was always the chance it could go badly. Terribly, really. But there was also the chance that things hadn't yet gone too far, and that her honesty now could save them from worse consequences than if their dad found out from someone other than her. All she had really done was have a few conversations, sent and received a few letters, explored the castle and grounds a little… made a commitment to an interspecies rebellion against the wizarding government… Fuck.
It was almost funny how utterly out of her depths she was - but that's what the letter was for. Even if he was angry, her dad would help her if he knew what was going on. He would tell her what to do and have good advice for her. No question about it.
Letter sent, she made her way to the great hall and sat down to an early breakfast. After the long and thrilling night she'd had, she eagerly anticipated feasting until she was absolutely stuffed and rolling to class. She was pleasantly surprised to see Ron and Draco already at the Slytherin table with only a few others anywhere nearby. Glancing around the hall to make sure no one was paying attention, she slunk over and slipped in between them at the table, taking off her outer robe with the distinctive Gryffindor red piping and folding it to sit on top of.
Thankfully they hadn't been in the middle of too lively a conversation, but they still both looked at her questioningly as she settled in apropos of nothing. "You're up early," Draco remarked coyly, eying her from head to toe and no doubt keenly noticing all the subtle signs that pointed to her being more frazzled than usual. She had taken a shower, and although she was confident she'd washed away all the dirt and gotten rid of all the leaves in her hair, she suddenly felt a bit self-conscious. He was always so put together and seemed to have an uncanny sixth sense for telling whenever she'd been rolling around in the outdoors recently.
"Hiya fellas," she said a little more cheerfully than she felt. In truth she felt a building churning anxiety in her gut that was decidedly unusual for her "Just a heads up, I sent a letter home about ten minutes ago confessing a bunch of stuff I've been keeping from my dad, and he might be actually be furious enough to actually come here and tan my hide in front of Dumbledore and everybody when he gets it," she said casually, reaching for a pitcher of juice and pouring a cup. She took a deep pull off of it, sighing and smacking her lips, and staunchly avoiding eye contact with either of them.
"You're barking mad," Ron said, starting to laugh. When she turned to him and softly woofed with her human mouth, all three of them burst into helplessly uncontrollable laughter.
Remembering that her brother up in the tower was probably wondering where she was, she quietly called for Kipper. The little elf was disillusioned, but she heard the air displace and felt the warmth of her appear on the table near her arm "How can Kipper be helping young Mistress?" the elf asked softly. The boys both startled at the sound of the voice, and she laid a hand on each of their arms "Kip, these are our cousins Ron and Draco. Fellas, Kipper is the elf we were telling you about," she reassured both parties gently. "She's invisible right now cause we haven't really talked to any of the professors about being bonded with her, but Kip you can feel free to show yourself whenever and wherever you feel like, alright? Unless you're shy I guess, then that's fine too. Anyways, can you please let Harry know I came down early so he doesn't freak out?" She asked decisively, cutting herself off from rambling further.
"Of course, young Mistress Hermie," the elf said as she popped away, and she was intensely aware of her cousins both looking at her as if she were a certifiable space alien from the year 3000. She sighed heavily and took another swig of her juice. A sound like air escaping a latex balloon came from Ron's pursed lips as he tried and failed to hold in his laughter "…Hermie" he wheezed a moment later, and she scowled "Don't you bloody dare, Weasley!" She retorted venomously.
"So aside from stealing school elves and uncovering an ancient curse on their entire species," Draco began, and she whipped her head back around to him, frantically making sure no one else at the table had overheard "what else could you have possibly gotten yourself into that you think will make your father so mad?" He finished casually. She ought to strangle him.
"I ought to strangle you" she said tartly.
Ron laughed again, a loud guffaw that echoed through the hall and drew curious eyes to their location. She elbowed him sharply in the ribs and he doubled over "Listen, I'm simply going to have to stop telling you things if you're just going to repeat them like that where Merlin and everybody can hear," she told Draco in no uncertain terms.
He grinned like the little snake he was and shrugged carelessly "Unlike us, you're physically incapable of keeping a secret. Try and keep us in the dark about all of your many ridiculous lupine shenanigans, I dare you. You'll go mad in three days or I'll eat my broom," he said with such smug surety that she almost wanted to take him up on his bet, but he was tragically right. After how cathartic it had been to write her tell-all memoir to her dad, she was absolutely desperate to spill the beans again to anyone who would listen. She whined low enough that they wouldn't hear, and gritted her teeth.
Refusing to acknowledge his unfortunately correct statement, she proceeded to tell them absolutely everything. They knew the bare bones of her and her brother having visited the kitchens and learning about the geas, but she hadn't told them about the goblins recruiting them for the rebellion or about accidentally inciting the elves to join in as well, and they were gobsmacked to hear it. She then told them about her stunt in the common room the night before and her midnight romp, and they were properly thunderstruck. She hesitated over whether or not she should tell them about Amalthea, and ultimately decided they were too exposed in the great hall to talk about something so important.
This was a bridge too far for Draco. "I'm sorry," he whispered hotly "there's something else that's more secret than you apparently enlisting the entire bloody family into the next goblin rebellion? Are you having a bloody laugh?" He hissed, sounding significantly more put out than she would have expected. She looked to Ron to back her up, but he seemed upset as well "Really Hermione, you transformed into a werewolf in front of your entire house but you won't tell us what you saw in the woods? Was it a big spider like Neville said? I may not like them but I promise I won't panic just hearing you talk about one," he said, sounding as if even he didn't fully believe the last part. He definitely wouldn't be able to handle even hearing mention of a giant spider.
Frowning, she glanced around once more and looped an arm around each of their necks, pulling them both in so close that their ears were scarcely a breath away from her face "Alright, listen! There's a centaur in the woods who can transform into a unicorn, or maybe the other way around. I'm actually not sure. But she's very magical and special and the others treated her like she was their queen or something. Well, I met her and she told me we were both blessed by the moon goddesses to fight a war together, and then her magic did something that made my wolf form huge. Is that secret enough for you two gossipy fishwives? You're not to tell a soul - not even family!" She hissed directly into their ears.
"Mother of Merlin" "Morgana's tits" the two of them exclaimed breathlessly at the same time, before side-eyeing each other and judging their choice of swear. Ron had taken great inspiration from her dad's school of salty language, while Draco frequently insisted that vulgarity was beneath the well bred.
Shaking his head, Draco apologized for going off on her "Honestly Hermione, how in Salazar's name do you even find yourself in these situations? I literally don't understand how so much can happen to one person, no matter how much of a magnet you may be for trouble," he said as wearily as a tired little old man. She shrugged helplessly "I don't know, but she said I could bring Harry back to meet her next time. Do you fellas want to come too if my dad hasn't dragged me back home by the scruff of my neck by the time the weekend rolls around?" she asked earnestly, and they both immediately replied in the positive.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Harry rush into the hall, clearly looking for her. Neville trailed in behind him a moment or two later. She grimaced, not looking forward to having to repeat everything she'd just told the two of them or admit she'd folded and confessed everything to their dad "Alright fellas, that's my cue. I'll see you in transfiguration," she said, making a swift egress from their table and across the room to her own.
Her twin visibly relaxed when he laid eyes on her, and she felt incredibly guilty. She sat down so close to him their thighs were pressed together, and reached out instinctively for his hand. Neville settled into the space directly across from them, a worried expression on his sweet face. She cleared her throat, and they waited expectantly "Look, I'm sorry for not telling you I was taking off. I had to go to the owlery. After last night I had a lot on my mind, and I ended up writing a letter to dad telling him everything. Like… everything everything" she clarified tentatively, bracing for impact.
To her surprise and relief her brother sighed contentedly and smiled warmly "Thank all the goddesses, Nene! I realized the instant I suggested it that it was just too soon for us to be acting so independently, and that I was only encouraging your worst impulses. That's not what a beta's supposed to do, and I only proved how much more growing up we have to do by saying it," he said in a rush, and she felt tears well up in her eyes and her nose start to sting. "I'm sorry I didn't turn you down, Harry. It may have been the wrong idea at the wrong time, but it took two of us to agree to it. My ego let me believe we could handle it on our own, and life at school only took two weeks to prove me a fool for thinking so!" She said, pouring her heart out to her brother and feeling seen and understood.
He nodded and pulled her in for a tight hug "I'm really glad you decided on your own to fix things, but I honestly don't think he's going to be as mad as you're imagining," he said comfortingly. Though it was a tender moment she couldn't help but scoff "Harry, we'll be lucky if he doesn't come down to the school personally and drag us home by our ears," she insisted, but Harry grinned "Dad always rewards you when you come clean of your own volition. Just you wait, he's gonna be proud - I didn't even have to pretend to try and take the blame this time for you to jump on your own sword," he said cheekily and she gasped and shoved his shoulder.
She laughed and then blew her nose and wiped at her eyes, feeling profound relief "There's another thing I have to tell you as well," she said glancing furtively around herself once more and beckoning Neville to come around to their side of the table. Once he had squeezed into the spot on the other side of her, she had a moment of deja vu as she pulled them both in like she had her cousins a few moments ago. Thankfully Harry had already told the other boy that she'd taken a walkabout into the woods the night before, so lowering her voice to barely a whisper she quickly brought them both up to speed on her incredible meeting with Amalthea, and that she'd like to go back again and bring all four of them with her next time.
"Helga's green garden" "Nimue's starry garters" they exclaimed in wonder at the same time, giving her another jolt of deja vu. As awestruck and transfixed as they both initially were by what she told them, a troubled expression soon took over both of their faces "We don't exactly have the same freedom or ability to go run around the woods that you do though, Hermione," her brother said gently, with a pained look on his face. Her heart dropped down to her toes, she wanted to show them what she'd seen, to share with them the incredible experience she had. Feeling on the verge of tears again she leaned her head on his shoulders, clutching his hand again and squeezing. From her other side Neville lay a comforting hand on her back.
"I know you wouldn't have had my powers even if dad had been the one who gave you the gift, but I still feel so guilty sometimes that I wasn't able to pass them on to you. You're the other half of me and you're missing out and it's not fair. We're the same in every other way, and I can feel that our wolves are twins like we are. So why is yours stuck only shifting with the moon like a normal wolf?" She said mournfully, and he only hummed and stroked her hair. It only took her a moment though to perk up as she realized her own words "With the-… with the moon. Harry, with the moon! Maybe if it has something to do with your relationship to the moon, then Amalthea can help me bring your wolf closer to the surface!" she breathed excitedly, her eyes becoming wide and bright. Her mind started to race.
Harry's brows shot up "I mean, that would definitely be incredible, but let's not get our hopes up," he said, trying to temper her expectations. She shook her head "I'm sure if it's at all possible she'll be the one who knows how to do it. You'll understand when you meet her," she insisted happily, a radiant smile transforming her face. Confident in her assessment, she nodded matter-of-factly "That settles it - I'm going back out tonight and you're coming with me," she told her brother. "If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. We have to at least try though, please," she said much more plaintively.
The facade of the brother who tried to be the mature and responsible one dissolved immediately in the face of his sister's enormous puppy eyes, and the brother that loved getting into trouble with her more than anything else sprung free with a wicked grin. Neville gulped audibly from where he was sat on the other side of her, a relatively silent supportive audience so far "Hmmmaybe I can be a part of the third wave that visits once the two of you have gone and undertaken your erm… spirit journey," he suggested a bit weakly.
She turned a twinkling mischievous eye towards him, "That's fine, Nev. Although… now that I think about it I'm fairly certain I noticed a lovely thicket of red helleborine growing in a clearing I passed by," she said temptingly, relishing in his gasp of delight. She shrugged innocently "But I wouldn't want to push you to come with us if you don't feel comfortable having a little adventure yet," she said with a wicked little grin as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
They were just finishing up their breakfast and getting ready to head to their first class of the day when their family owl swooped into the hall and dove straight towards them. Hermione lifted her arm into the air and he landed on it elegantly, sticking his leg out with a letter attached. She was thrilled that their dad had gotten back to her so fast, but anxious to find out what he thought, and furthermore disappointed that she wouldn't have time to read it for several hours.
With a groan of frustration, she stored it carefully in her bag and gave their owl a slice of bacon before letting him wing away. Harry eyed her curiously and she shook her head with a frown. They had to get outside for herbology, and she'd have to wait until lunch at the absolute earliest to respond. Although she liked being out of the castle, class dragged long and dull. It felt like the letter was burning a hole in the bottom of her bag, and professor Sprout had gently scolded her for having poor focus on the plants they were repotting. Neville was having a great time, but that was a given as he loved playing in the dirt and messing about with green growing things.
Even Harry was a sport, paying proper attention and earning points for watering his soil the correct amount. She was sure she'd probably drowned hers. By the end of the two and a half hour class block, Hermione couldn't have recalled what plants they were manhandling or why if her life depended on it. She'd have to apologize to their professor later, but as they made their way back into the castle for lunch she had little else but her dad's letter on her mind.
As they passed through the doors of the hall, Ron and Draco shooting her questioning looks from their table and she shrugged helplessly. She heard both of them mutter good luck under their breaths and she shot them thumbs ups and a weak grin. Settling into their own table on the other side of the hall she pulled her letter out and opened it, holding it up slightly so that Harry and Neville who had settled in on either side of her to snoop over her shoulders could see it as well.
17/9/91
The kitchen table
Alpha house
Greyback compound
Little wolf,
First of all, you sounded very upset in your letter and so I'd like for you to please calm down and be reassured in the knowledge that I love you unconditionally and am glad you chose to be honest with me. I will always be proud of you for making the decision to come to me for help when you need it, and I'm always here for you no matter how big your problems may seem. Even if I were angry, which I am not, there is nothing you could do that I would stop loving you.
Although I have of course missed you and your brother both dearly, you should well know my girl that you are my very heart beating outside of my chest. To have you so far away has left me a nervous and irritable wreck. I have not been myself to say the least. If you had asked me a week ago right after receiving your last letter, I would have said I was quite cross with the both of you. It was very obvious that you weren't telling me everything. I let my frustrations get the better of me, and felt out of control with you acting on your own without my input.
I can see clearly now that you were not trying to buck my authority, but rather help ease the burden of my many responsibilities. You are a sweet child, and though I appreciate your thoughtful heart it is my job as your father and alpha to watch over you and guide you until you are grown. You don't have to fly away from the nest yet, you're still my fuzzy little chick and your feathers are only just coming in.
I don't have an answer yet for what you've told me about the goblins (and house elves and centaurs??), but I am honored that you and your brother both wish for me to serve as your proxy and I am glad that you told me about your correspondence. That is something we will discuss together in person on the full moon. I will say that I am proud of your desire to instinctively help others, but you must know that sometimes offering things you cannot follow through on can cause more harm overall in the long run. Even if we do decide as a family to help them, we cannot guarantee that we will be successful, and false hope can be particularly devastating.
It sounds like you had a crazy night, my girl. You're certainly braver than I am to have shifted in the middle of a room full of little wizards. However it sounds like you and your brother did a very good job in building goodwill towards werewolves among your house mates. Well done.
I don't blame you for needing to let off a little steam, especially if they keep you cooped up in that castle all day every day, but really Hermione - running off playing in the woods with centaurs and unicorns? I'm glad nothing bad happened but I wish I'd been there to join you. Amalthea sounds very special, and I hope I get to meet her. That being said don't make it a habit to sneak out at night.
Why was your professor there, though? Don't think I didn't notice how you rushed past that part without explaining!
Now I have a very important question to ask you little wolf, and like you were in your letter this morning I need you to think hard and remember as much as you can and be totally honest with me. It will go a long way in helping build trust back up between us again if you do this for me. You mentioned that Ófnir told you about a prophecy - what exactly did he tell you? Please tell me everything. If he told you to keep things a secret from me I need to know that too. Remember that you can tell me anything, and please write back as soon as possible.
With all my love,
Your father
She sighed with bone-deep relief and slumped down to rest her head on her brother's shoulder, feeling warm and buzzy like she'd just gotten out of the bath. It took him and Neville each a few minutes longer to finish reading, but when they did Harry had the most intolerably mug smirk on his face, and she rolled her eyes knowing what he wanted to hear "I can't believe my brilliant and genius brother foresaw this exact happenstance with his masterful powers of insight. I was a wrong and incorrect fool for doubting him for even a moment" she intoned dryly.
Ignoring his preening and Neville's laughter, she pulled out a roll of parchment and a quill and ink pot and set to writing a reply to their father. As she wrote Harry handed her chips and cut up bites of a sandwich, and she shoved them in her mouth with graceless singleminded focus. To her delight, Ron and Draco came over once they finished eating, clearly curious if she would still be enrolled alongside them for the remainder of the year. She nodded and smiled, letting Harry fill them in.
As she finished her letter back to their dad and rolled it up, she looked at the rafters of the hall but didn't see their owl. Realizing he must have taken off back to the owlery, she swore mildly. Neville giggled at her and called her a sailor, still unused to hearing such salty language as he called it. She laughed at his reaction, but was biting her lip only a moment later and glancing at her brother nervously "Dad said he wanted to hear back from me as soon as possible, but the owl already left," she said to him softly "I don't think I have time to get all the way to the owlery before afternoon classes start," she said checking her small mechanical watch to confirm.
"Why don't you just ask your elf to deliver it?" Draco asked in genuine confusion, to which Hermione glanced to Neville as something of a moral compass, being the only other person they knew who had elves. He shrugged and tilted his head back and forth consideringly "It's not exactly polite to treat them like owls, but it's not rude either so long as you make sure they're not busy doing something else. Crossing powerful ward lines can wear them out so it's not nice to send them back and forth, but they usually don't mind if it's important," he said thoughtfully. She raised an eyebrow at her brother, who nodded and then proceeded to call Kipper.
Like earlier in the morning when she had come at Hermione's call, the elf was disillusioned so as not to cause a commotion and arrived nearly silently. She stood on the bench between the twins, and softly asked how she could serve them "Kipper," Harry started "if you're not too busy would you be willing to deliver an important letter for us?" She was already nodding before he even finished his question "Yes young Master, of course!" She said excitedly, and they felt her bounce up and down on the bench.
"Can you find our dad if he's never called you before? Or do we need to tell you how to get to the compound?" Hermione asked curiously, still for the most part very unsure of how elf magic worked. She felt Kipper pat her hand "Young Master and Mistress is not needing to be worrying, elvesies can always be finding their family. Always! This is being for the Master?" She double checked.
The two children nodded in unison "You won't get in trouble for leaving the school will you? Are you supposed to stay here during the day?" Harry asked a bit nervously, and he felt her pat his hand as well "young Master is being very kind to worry about Kipper, but she is being able to come and go as she likes. There is being so much magic and so many elvesies in the castle that one going missing for a bit is not beings a problem," she reassured him confidently. They thanked her and she left a moment later with the letter.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After that excitement, and knowing that they still had an adventure ahead of them that evening, the rest of the day seem to drag on endlessly. The Gryffindors had a double block period of history with the monotonous ghost professor that had talked himself to death - although it felt more like he was talking them to death. Even Hermione, ever the studious little academic, struggled mightily to stay awake. The two and a half hours in his stuffy classroom felt stretched like taffy out to feel like four or maybe even five days.
When the bell finally rang to dismiss him, their professor was still droning on endlessly and mindlessly, and Harry and Hermione were both vividly reminded of the times they had seen static on a muggle telly. Buzzing meaningless white noise. The three of them staggered blearily out of the room afterwards, utterly spent and desperate for a gasping breath of fresh air. Done with classes for the day, they headed to the library to meet with Ron and Draco and cement the plan for their midnight excursion… and maybe study a bit.
A thought occurred to her as they came down the grand staircase, and she told them to go on ahead of her. Harry and Neville eyed her curiously but she just shook her head and waved as they got off at the second floor for the library and she continued down the rest of the way to the main floor and then down further towards the dungeons. She checked her little mechanical watch and smiled, it was just the right time.
Closing her eyes she let her nose guide her as she navigated the dungeons, as she hadn't exactly been where she wanted to go before. She knew professor Snape had his classrooms, his practice labs for student use, an office, a personal laboratory, and his private quarters all down in the belly of the school. Ron and Draco had implied that they were supposedly in this wing, but only the classrooms and practice labs were clearly marked.
The professors were all supposed to have open office hours at least once a week, and she realized belatedly why the syllabus for his class had his written in such incredibly fine print. He clearly didn't want visitors. Too bad. She reached the potions classroom and followed his fresh trail from only a few minutes previous. He wouldn't be avoiding her!
She easily tracked his scent down corridors and around corners until it ended suddenly in the middle of an empty hallway with no doors. She looked around at the dark and slightly damp stone walls, and with excitement she realized that there must be a hidden entrance somewhere nearby. Abandoning her scent work she concentrated her hearing close around her and leaned her ear in close to the nearest stone. She hummed a high note and observed that most of them had the same dull acoustic echo of the sound bouncing off. The stones were large so the wall must be thick, so she concentrated further.
She heard breathing and a heartbeat, a bit of aggrieved muttering. The shuffle of parchment and the scratching of a quill. He was marking papers nearby. Jackpot! She followed her ears until the sounds grew louder, and realized that the stones in front of her were a facade for a much thinner wooden plank door. She raised her fist and knocked, and heard him swear heartily under his breath. The legs of his chair dragged loudly across the floor and made a horrible noise that had her clapping her hands over her ears and wincing. His footfalls towards the door were light and fast, and when he opened the door it whipped past "What?" He demanded angrily, before registering who it was at his door and frowning "My Lady… you might as well come in," he sighed reluctantly, eyes rolling skyward.
She thanked him primly and followed him into his office. The kindest words she could think of to describe it as she stood at the threshold were humble. There was a fireplace with an armchair in front of it, a desk with a chair on either side, and taking up an entire wall was a massive bookshelf that was packed to bursting with tomes and scrolls. She itched to inspect what titles he had, but decided he'd probably not have much patience for that. As he returned to his desk, she noticed that the wooden chair on the side across from his was smaller and significantly less comfortable looking than his own. He really didn't want company, what a grump! She folded her robe to make a cushion for her bum and sat cheerfully, making no mention of the hardness or unwelcomingness of the chair whatsoever.
"Good afternoon, professor Snape," she intoned politely "I know your office hours are strictly for academic matters only, but if you're not otherwise busy I had a personal question I was hoping to ask you," she began boldly, trying to appear cool and casual. He blinked at her in silence for a moment before inhaling deeply "Alright, I suppose you might as well go ahead," he said, sounding pained and as if he'd really rather prefer that she didn't. She heard him mutter under his breath about not putting the office hours on his syllabus at all going forward, and she tried hard not to giggle at his constant air of melodrama.
She hadn't thought through what exactly she was going to say, so she took a moment to gather her words before addressing him "I suppose first of all I wanted to thank you for letting me out of the castle and then back in last night, sir. I honestly wasn't expecting to do anything more than stretch my legs and have a bit of a run. I'm used to being able to go have a romp in the woods whenever I like at home, and I've been feeling really cooped up in the castle. I know it's silly! It's so big and there's so many hidden rooms and passages and interesting secrets, but it's just an animal thing I can't really describe. The wolf inside me needs to feel the dirt under her paws every once in a while," she explained a bit embarrassedly, giving him a sheepish shrug and grin.
His smile was so small it was almost nonexistent, more a twitch of the corners of his mouth, but his eyes were soft and warm and so she relished it all the same "I can logically understand the impulse, but the forest is forbidden for a reason. There are creatures roaming about in there that even an adult witch or wizard might struggle to defend themself against," he cautioned her, and she nodded vehemently "yeah, we heard the rumors about the spiders and I think I actually came close to some of them last night. Not enough to actually see them, but I heard what sounded like things the size of muggle cars scuttling through the woods. I definitely wouldn't want to come face to face with one. And even the centaurs weren't friendly at first - one of them nearly shot me with an arrow!" She said, realizing a moment too late that it was a very foolish thing to admit to a professor whose permission she was trying to get to go back into those same woods.
Her professor looked aghast "A centaur drew their bow on you last night?" He demanded incredulously, and she rushed to backpedal "Well, no - he missed on purpose, they were really just trying to help me. You see, they thought I was a regular werewolf that had gotten stuck in my transformation somehow and were rightfully very concerned. Once I shifted back we had a perfectly civil conversation about it. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. I didn't want you to think I was making a habit of it or pushing the envelope, but I need to go back and I'd really hate to get into trouble for going again. And I need to take my brother with me, and my cousins and my friend Neville want to come as well, but really I'll understand if it's just me and Harry that can go. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important," she said beseechingly, pulling out her biggest wateriest puppy eyes.
He took in her rambling with all the patience and understanding of a drunk priest. Rubbing his temple, he asked wearily "Why is it exactly that you need to go back right away when you were just there less than 24 hours ago?" And she winced because it sounded bad when he put it that way.
"Well it sounds bad when you put it that way!" She said defensively "But the thing is that I realized today that the unicorn I met who told me I was blessed by the moon might be able to help me finally fix my brother if I bring him to her. We weren't born family, but he was adopted by blood and I gave him our gift to make him a wolf like the rest of us. When that happened, my wolf soul enveloped his and left an imprint that made his own wolf soul my perfect identical twin when it was born. We're two halves of the same spirit, we should be alike in every way - but he can't shift the way I can. He's stuck shifting only on the full moon like dad and the rest of the pack and all the loners out there," she said, feeling tears well up in her eyes and looking up to keep them from falling.
"I wish more than anything else in the whole world that he could shift freely like I can so that we could run together outside of the night of the full moon, and I've always felt so guilty that I didn't give him my gift properly. For the longest time I thought it was maybe something I did wrong in the ceremonial ritual, but now after meeting Amalthea I think it's got to have something to do with his relationship to the moon itself. I think what I need to do is bring his wolf to the surface somehow so it can interact freely with the moon and not be tied to it's phases so rigidly, and I have the strongest instinct that she'll be able to help me figure out how to do it. She's the centaur's sacred moon priestess and if anyone on earth would know it would be her! Please can I take him to go meet her? You could come too if you don't want us going by ourselves!" She said feeling desperate, only barely holding back from outright begging.
His eyes were small and so dark they looked black, and when she gazed into them they seemed just as deep and cavernous as Amalthea's had the night before. They seemed to be whispering for her to tell him everything she was hiding, all of her most hidden secrets. She had the urge to look away before she found herself pulled in uncontrollably, but instead she got the sensation of him following her back into her own mind. Suddenly she was reliving images of the last day at breakneck speed. Then the last week. Then the last month. Then the last year.
Then practically her entire life rushed before her eyes faster and faster until she was meeting Harry at the library at six years old and feeling instantly like he was her missing other half. Her and her dad were going to pick up his blanket from the Dursley's house, and then they brought him home. Then they were getting him acclimated to being safe and loved. Then they were undergoing the ritual ceremony. He was becoming part of their family, his very blood mixed in with theirs. He was handing her his wrist so bravely and with so much unquestioning trust and love, and she was biting and her teeth were rending the flesh of his arm as easily as scissors cut paper, and she was tasting his blood that also tasted like hers and her fathers because it was. He was her brother, and he was of her blood, and he would be her future beta, and she was making him part of their sacred covenant of moon shifters.
With her teeth and her heart she brought him into their fold and connected his soul to the communal pack spirit they all carried with them, taught his lungs how to howl and his legs how to run, elongated his spine until it had a tail that could wag, coaxed his fingers and teeth to grow until they could bite and scratch. Whispered into his ears until they could hear the heartbeat of a rabbit from half a mile away. Breathed into his nose until it could smell the blood of a squirrel from three miles away. It was a radical transformation, and it was built on love and it was done from scratch and in parts and pieces and then all at once. All these things she did with her teeth and her heart.
A ragged gasp left her and her professor's chests at the same time as they both exited her beautiful memory. Panting, they sat in relative silence for several minutes taking each other in. Tears were in both of their eyes, though his were blown open wide in stunned shock. She could tell he rode the razor's edge of fear, though she also knew it would pass. He had witnessed a piece of her heart and felt the radiant joy of the best moment of her life. It was understandable that he might need a few minutes to process, and she was happy to give him that.
"Forgive me, my Lady," he said miserably once he'd had a moment to catch his breath, "that was a terrible violation, and I never should have even attempted it," and the sour scents of guilt and shame bloomed forth from him. She held their eye contact and refused to look away, pushing forward to the very front of her mind the thought that she wanted him to know she held no grudge "I'm glad you saw what you did if it helped you understand us better, sir. How did you do it, though? I've heard there's magic you can do with the mind and the memory, but that was incredible!" She said enthusiastically.
He recoiled away and shook his head vehemently, his dark hair hung like a curtain over his face and swayed back and forth "You're just a child, you don't understand - to invade another's mind as I have done to yours is a crime. I have always been a natural practitioner of the mental arts, and although I intended only to skim the surface like I do the rest of my students to ferret out misbehavior and tomfoolery and lies, I erred grievously. You have no shielding whatsoever, my lady, your mind is an open book that I did not expect to be drawn into. Quite frankly, if someone had done the same to me I would be furious. I might even press charges. I am… so sorry" he said urgently and earnestly, and she was rather taken aback.
"If it's really as bad as you say then maybe you shouldn't do it to students, sir," she suggested lightly "but then again, if I were a liar I wouldn't exactly admit it just because you asked me nicely. That's why you did it right, because you thought I was lying? I can hardly blame you, I don't know if I'd believe it either if I hadn't seen it myself-" she cut herself off a touch awkwardly, realizing she was rambling again. His brows were furrowed and he shook his head "I don't know why I did it, I saw the unicorn last night and I knew at the very least you couldn't have been lying about that. Something told me to look and so I did," he said wistfully.
Seeming as if he were coming out of a trance, he gave a full body shudder and lit a fire in the hearth with his wand. He slowly rubbed warmth back into his hands, and when he finally looked back up at her again she felt like he was really seeing her this time "It's less than ideal to go out into the forest a second night in a row on a school night, especially since you all already have astronomy tonight. If you're willing to wait until Friday evening, I will escort the five of you on your foray. You won't have to worry about being up early the next morning that way," he offered, and she beamed at him "That'd be fantastic professor, thank you so much!"