Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: So, a couple years ago I deleted all of my old Harry Potter fics, and no, I will not be reposting them. Partially because I no longer have copies of some and partially because the reasons why I deleted them have not changed. I have a very love/hate relationship with this series: I love the community, but I have a hard time separating the series from the author.
That being said, I think this story will be a lot of fun. It's an updated version of a previous story I posted, because I had no idea what the hell I was doing as a younger writer then and I think I can give the premise what it deserves now. So if this becomes somewhat familiar to you (the previous version was not omegaverse nor w/ fem!Harry), that is why.
As the summary and tags on AO3 say, this is a fem!(alpha!)Harry/Multi. I already have a good percentage of the group figured out, as this chapter will show, but I am (somewhat) open to suggestions for the other spots. *Suggestions*, not demands. The warnings for this story fall in pace with the ship/premise: there is underage marriage (all parties will be 15+ though) and all that comes with it, canon has been fucked with to various degrees (to the point you just need to read and find out), and more. If you don't think you'll like the story now or after this chapter, my advice is to just not read.
Anyways, if you do, I hope you do. Title for the fic comes from Meet Me in the Woods by Lord Huron because they've served as a lot of inspiration for me for the premise of this fic over the years, both in the past and now. Highly suggest listening to the song if you haven't before, it's a treat.
Until next time,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
~daughter of briganti~
~meet me in the woods~
~chapter 1~
1 September 1995
King's Cross, London, England, Great Britain
The Hogwarts Express stood in front of them, belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families. Hermione inhaled the familiar scent, which did provide her some comfort, but also made her more nervous than she had already been...
Her palms were sweaty, her heart felt like it was racing inside her chest. Please be here, she thought desperately. Please, please be here…
"Where are the others?" Mrs. Weasley asked anxiously, staring behind her at the wrought-iron arch spanning the platform, through which new arrivals would come. It was a relatively open-ended question, given that they'd agreed to split off into two groups for their own safety in coming to the platform, but it also wasn't. Though she was referring to Mr. Weasley, Moody, and her elder set of twins, they all knew who she really meant. "Ron? Hermione? Remus? Do you see them?"
Lupin grimaced as he stared in the opposite direction. There were a lot of people on the platform, so it was understandable that he hadn't picked them out immediately – which they had to be. Hermione refused to believe that they weren't.
Because otherwise –
"Not yet," the beta man said.
"I'm not seeing anyone, either," Ron added.
"Oh, good," Mrs. Weasley said, which gave Hermione a bit of hope – but, no. While she was relieved, she wasn't as relieved as she would've been if she'd seen them. "Here's Alastor with the luggage, look..."
A porter's cap pulled low over his mismatched eyes, Moody came limping through the archway pushing a trolley loaded with their trunks.
"All okay," he muttered to Mrs. Weasley and Lupin. "Don't think we were followed..."
Seconds later, Mr. Weasley emerged on the platform with Fred and George.
"I'll be reporting Sturgis to Dumbledore," growled Moody. "That's the second time he's not turned up in a week. Getting to be as unreliable as Mundungus."
Mr. Weasley ignored him, having eyes only for his wife. "Molly," he said. "Have any of you – ?"
Mrs. Weasley started to shake her head.
It felt like a stone had fallen into Hermione's stomach at the way that Mr. Weasley's expression fell.
But then –
"Wait," Lupin suddenly said. "There he is!"
They all turned.
Approaching them was none other than Sirius Black. Although she was still nervous, Hermione felt her heart lift, her spirits begin to soar –
– He looked well. He'd been on the path to looking well ever since he'd been pardoned the summer before last and started a potions regimen to make up for his time in Azkaban, but now it was as if the last blemishes of his time there had been healed. His face was properly full, the high cheekbones which Hyleth had inherited accentuating his features rather than making him appear gaunt. His hair was shinier. His skin was tanner as well, which spoke to how he had been out of the country for the past month, minimum.
But there was a peculiar thing:
Neither Hyleth nor Ginny were with him.
"Remus!" Sirius exclaimed in greeting. He had no qualms in hugging the beta man, which they did quickly, before he surveyed the rest of the group. He nodded to each of them, smiling. "Hello, Hermione, Ron, Arthur, Molly – "
Mrs. Weasley was not amused. "Where are Hyleth and my daughter, Black?" she asked icily. It was perhaps the angriest Hermione had ever seen her, if only because she was unusually calm instead of displaying her emotions outright.
Sirius winced. "They, ah, are already on the train."
Now, a bit of that Weasley – Prewett, actually – temper came into play. "What?" Mrs. Weasley hissed, her face reddening. "They can't come off the train, just for a few minutes?"
A warning whistle sounded; the students still on the platform started hurrying to the train.
"Well, I suppose there is the answer to that," Mr. Weasley mused, though he didn't seem particularly happy about it.
"I'll explain to you all what's happened," Sirius said. "It's a long story, but it's the least of what I owe you."
"Yes," Mrs. Weasley agreed shrewdly. "'The least.'"
She stopped focusing long enough on her anger, however, to hug her children and Hermione. "Quick, quick," she said. "Write...be good...if you've forgotten anything, we'll send it on...on the train now, hurry..."
"Look after yourselves," Lupin advised. "Be careful."
"Don't forget, all of you – careful what you put in writing," Moody gruffed. "If in doubt, don't put it in a letter at all."
Sirius was the last one to speak. He let Fred and George go, but stopped Hermione and Ron specifically. "They're in the very last carriage," he informed them quietly. "But, I must ask you to do me a favor."
"What?" Ron questioned, his face scrunching up.
"Go easy on them," Sirius said. His eyes flitted over to Hermione. "You in particular, Hermione."
She frowned. "I don't understand."
"You will," he promised. "And it'll be quite a shock – it was for all of us. But it's not Hyleth's fault." Here, his visage darkened, making it obvious he knew whose it was. "She is not to blame. You must remember that."
He did not say anything else.
Ron gently nudged her when she did not immediately move, and Hermione went along with him, even as confused as she was.
It had been two months since she had seen their other best friend. Two months. And for all except two weeks of that time, she, Sirius, and Ginny, who had been staying with them for what was originally meant to be a few days, had technically been missing.
They'd left a letter, explaining why. Of course, it hadn't really explained anything at all. Just that Hyleth and Sirius had had to go somewhere for reasons related to what had happened that Halloween night almost fourteen years ago, and Ginny had elected to go with them. She'd made that very clear – it'd been her choice to go with them, not Hyleth's or Sirius', and she understood that Mr. And Mrs. Weasley might very well decide to ground her for the rest of her life over it. But it was something that she'd had to do. She'd underlined that part of the sentence for emphasis.
Not even Dumbledore had known what exactly they'd meant about the connection between what they'd needed to do and the Halloween night. Nor had anyone been able to figure out where they were, outside of how they'd had to have left the country.
But now, she and Ron, at least, were about to find out.
They deserved an explanation from Hyleth. Well, perhaps "deserve" wasn't the best term to use. But before, when they'd had to deal with things, they'd always done it as a group: Hyleth, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.
That Hyleth, intentionally or not, hadn't involved Hermione or Ron this time around...
...It hurt, she wasn't ashamed to admit it.
When she and Ron got on the train, Hermione instantly started towards the end. It was only because of Ron grabbing her by the arm that she stopped. "'Mione, where do you think you're going?"
Hermione whirled around to glare at him. "I'm going off to find our friend and your twin sister, Ronald."
He smirked, which irritated her. For somebody whose best friend and twin sister had both gone missing for a month and a half, he seemed too nonchalant about the entire thing. "I know that. But we're prefects now, remember? We have to go to the prefect carriage first."
...That was right.
Hermione bit her lip.
She really, really did not want to go there first. All she wanted to do was go to the carriage and compartment that Hyleth and Ginny were in and demand where they had been, why they had had to leave in the first place, and more.
But:
"Alright," she sighed, relenting. "Fine."
He snickered, unable to stop himself. "You know, you could sound more enthusiastic about it. This is all you've wanted ever since you found out prefects were a thing at Hogwarts."
She sniffed. "And you could be more concerned about Hyleth and Ginny."
"I am," he replied. He shrugged. "They're here now, that's what matters. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again, even though it pisses off Mum: I trust Sirius. He wasn't going to let anything bad happen to them, and they wouldn't have left unless it was for a really good reason."
Hermione's eyes narrowed. "You're just glad you're not going to be the one in trouble between you and Ginny."
"That too," Ron said, unrepentant. "Come on, let's get going."
They dragged their trunks, Crookshanks, and a caged Pigwidgeon off towards the engine of the train, since that was where the prefect's carriage was. Unlike the other carriages, as they saw when they arrived, the prefect's carriage did not have compartments. It was an open floor plan.
"Alright, everyone, let's get settled," Cedric Diggory, the new Head Boy, said as they walked in. Hermione was not surprised in the least that he was the one who had gotten the role.
Nor was she surprised to see that Alicia Spinnet had apparently become Head Girl. Typically, the prefects fell into the secondary gender or designation roles just as they did the primary ones: so, while there would always be a male and female prefect, one of them would additionally always be either an alpha, male beta, or theta, and the other would always be a female beta or an omega.
Since Cedric was an omega, it only made sense that a female alpha, like Alicia, would be chosen.
As soon as Cedric saw them, his expression visibly brightened. "Ron! Hermione!" he exclaimed as he walked over.
"Cedric, you look good!" Ron said.
The male omega smiled ruefully. "Ah, I still have some bouts of numbness and/or tremors," he said, holding out his right hand to prove his point. "But yes, I'm as well as I can be. I'm glad to be able to come back to Hogwarts." He turned a touch concerned. "Have either of you seen Hyleth yet? She sent me a letter in July to tell me that she and her godfather were going out of the country – "
"No," Hermione said. "Not yet."
Her tone must've belied what she'd been trying to express. Cedric's smile returned. "Don't worry, Hermione. We won't take too long here, I promise."
And indeed, they didn't. Cedric and Alicia quickly called them into order, telling the fifth years and reminding the sixth and seventh years what to expect from and do with their abilities. Hermione was a little surprised at who in their year had been chosen to be prefects in the other houses: Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott were from Hufflepuff, which was really no shocker there. Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil had been chosen from Ravenclaw, which was somewhat relieving.
Hermione had wondered before if Luna Lovegood was going to get the position. It was nothing against the girl – she was smart, brilliant even. She made Charms and Ancient Runes look like they were a breeze, and she and Professor Babbling could have fluent conversations in ancient Greek. But she was a little too obsessed with her theories and imaginary creatures, and the other Ravenclaw girls in their year besides Padma had a tendency to pick on her.
Padma was a good choice in that regard. A neutral party who would be sure not to abuse her powers.
The real big surprise came from Slytherin. If she'd had to guess beforehand, she almost assuredly would've said that Malfoy and Parkinson would've been chosen as the prefects. But instead, the prefects were Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass.
It wasn't like they were bad choices. Both Zabini and Greengrass were much more neutral than Malfoy and Parkinson. But they weren't the choices Hermione had expected, now that You-Know-Who had returned.
Snape, she believed, wasn't an entirely bad person, him being in the Order of the Phoenix proved that. But he had to act like he wasn't, and that undoubtedly should've meant him showing favoritism to Malfoy yet again.
She refused to think about Malfoy for much longer than that.
The meeting took around an hour, leaving the fifth years the remaining seven hours of the trip to do as they pleased, since a few of the sixth and seventh years would be in charge of patrolling the train. Hermione was eager to leave, so she and Ron were some of the first ones out the door.
"I swear, Hermione – " he started to say as a joke.
She huffed. "I don't want to hear it."
Wisely, he shut up.
Zabini and Greengrass were right behind them. She did think it strange, as they stopped at the compartment that their friends – Tracey Davis, Diana Runcorn, and two sixth-year boys that Hermione didn't remember the names of – were in, that Zabini immediately went, "Have any of you seen Nott?"
But she didn't think much of it.
Her entire being, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, was focused on finding Hyleth and Ginny, and nothing else.
She was almost shaking herself by the time that they reached the last carriage. Seamus, Dean, Lavender, and Parvati had chosen one of the other compartments, and they all waved at her and Ron through the door's window. Ron waved back at them.
Hermione just kept on going.
When she reached the one that Hyleth and Ginny were in, she didn't think to knock at the door or properly take in the scene. She just opened the door and crossed her arms as she demanded, "Hyleth Lily Potter, where on Earth have you been?"
It was, perhaps, not the wisest of moves.
Because then, as Ron came up behind her, she could feel him tense. She did not need to see his face to know that his eyes widened as his jaw almost dropped open – because she was having almost the same reaction.
"What the actual bloody hell?" he breathed.
Hyleth and Ginny were not alone in the compartment.
Along with them was Neville, who was looking a little dumbstruck himself, Luna Lovegood, who had a copy of The Quibbler upside-down in her hands and her wand tucked behind her ear, and...Theodore Nott.
Now, Hermione had known before that Hyleth and Nott had something of a...tentative friendship, of sorts, so it was somewhat reasonable for why he was here. He'd never really interacted with her, Ron, or Ginny, only ever Hyleth. But she knew the two of them exchanged letters during the summer and studied together from time to time in the library or otherwise hung out – whenever they were able to manage it without his fellow Slytherins noticing. He had a reputation to uphold, Hyleth had said, as the son of Tiberius Nott, once a former and now reinstated Death Eater.
Like Sirius, Hyleth, and Ginny, as the two girls were also well-tanned (which made Hyleth's scars stand out even more as they traveled across her face and down her neck and arms), the younger Nott looked...healthy. Healthier than usual, at any rate. His skin was not as unnaturally (perhaps even sickly) pale as she'd come used to it being. His butterscotch gold eyes were far happier than she'd ever seen them, too. He'd been smiling, laughing –
– Up until Ron and Hermione had arrived.
And speaking of Ron:
"Are those – are those ?" he stammered out, his voice getting progressively louder with each word.
Ginny rolled her eyes as she got to her feet. "If you're going to yell, at least do it in here where we've put up silencing charms," she said as she grabbed her brother by the wrist and pulled him into the room. This meant that Hermione was additionally forced into the room like the tide carrying her back to shore, but she didn't mind it.
Couldn't, when she was seeing what was in front of her own eyes.
After forcing her twin brother to sit down, Ginny focused on Hermione. "Hi, Hermione," she said. "How are you?"
For once in her life, Hermione couldn't manage words. "Uh..."
Nott abruptly laughed, the smile returning to his face. "I think we've broken them," he said, almost giddy.
Hyleth sighed as she got to her feet. "Theo."
The Slytherin was wholly unrepentant, succumbing deeper into his laughs.
Hyleth looked to the other male alpha in the room besides Ron imploringly. "Neville, can you – ?"
"Sure thing," Neville said quickly.
Between the two of them, they were able to get Ron's and Hermione's into the compartment. It was a bit of a tight fit, as the compartments were only supposed to hold six people, not seven. But somehow, they made it work.
When the door closed with a snap!, it was as if a spell had broken on them. Hermione brought a hand up to her mouth to stifle the sound she was sure she would have made, while Ron –
"You – you got married?" he shouted. His face had long since gone into the Weasley shade of red.
One of the many adjustments that Hermione had had to make upon entering the wizarding world (and one that she was continuing to deal with, like the treatment of house elves, although she was still vehement about changing that. Forcing another life to depend on you without any compensation was slavery, and she didn't care about the argument of "it's necessary for their survival" when it was factually untrue. She'd checked in the reports about it coming out from Brazil and the other South American countries) was that omegas and female betas did not wear wedding rings once they were married like everyone else.
They wore collars. True, they didn't wear them all the time; Mrs. Weasley only wore hers when they were out in public, as they had been today. But yes, they wore collars, like they were dogs or something else to be owned.
She knew that almost all purebloods and half-bloods did not see it that way. But she did.
(It wasn't too long ago that her own ancestors had been forced into slavery, had been treated like animals and less thansimply because of their skin color. What would they think if she decided to marry a wizard or another witch and it would become expected of her to wear a mating collar? What would her parents think?)
And those were what Ginny and Nott were both currently wearing. Mating collars.
Not only that, but it was obvious who they had to be married to, if for no reason than the simplicity of Occam's Razor:
Hyleth.
She was an alpha now. Her pheromones identified her as such.
It should have been impossible. Alphas only presented in the spring, unlike the other designations, and spring had long-since passed and it would be a long time before it came back again.
It should have been impossible.
And yet, here they were.
"Oh, Merlin, you're going to be as bad as Mum and Dad, aren't you?" Ginny groaned.
Ron spluttered. "Ginny, we're only fifteen!"
His twin sister didn't bat an eye. "Yeah, so?"
"What do you mean, 'so?'" Ron cried. "You and Hyleth have been missing for the past month and a half, and you got married? Where have you even been?"
"Greece," Hyleth answered. "My grandfather, Charlus Potter, inherited a property in Crete from his mother, Euphemia; she was Greek. It's been in the family ever since."
"You got married in Greece," Ron stated, dumbfounded. He shook his head. "But Mum and Dad don't even know about it! How were you even able to get married without their permission?"
"They're going to find out soon enough, if they haven't already," Ginny mumbled. "The bonds were going to be recognized as soon as we set foot back in the UK, which we did this morning. And Sirius said he was going to take the fall for us. 'M still expecting a Howler from Mum tomorrow, though, especially considering...everything else."
Both Hyleth and Nott winced at that.
"As for their permission," the female alpha said. "We...didn't need it."
Ron made a guffawing noise. "How?"
"We'll get to that," she vowed. Then, she leaned forwards, her green eyes sharp and piercing. "Hermione, are you alright?"
"Um, I'm – I'm fine," Hermione said. "I just – I wasn't expecting this."
What had she been expecting?
She didn't know.
She decided to reiterate herself: "I don't...I don't understand."
Nott's expression turned understanding. She didn't like it.
It made her feel like there were snakes in the pit of her stomach, twisting and coiling.
"What did my dad tell you two?" Hyleth questioned. "He said that he was going to tell you something to help prepare you."
Was there any way that they could have been prepared for this?
"He said...to take it easy on you," Hermione recalled slowly. "That...it wasn't your fault."
Nott snorted. "Well, he wasn't wrong about that."
"Hyleth chose to marry you – and my sister!" Ron protested.
"It wasn't her choice," Ginny snapped back. "It was ours. We – we signed ourselves up for this."
"Hyleth asked me to do it."
"But you still accepted, Black," Ginny returned.
Hermione stared at them.
"Black."
Had Nott taken up the – ?
"That is true," the male omega said. He flashed a grin towards Hyleth. "And I don't regret it a bit."
Hyleth smiled back at him.
"I don't like that he told you to take it easy on me," Hyleth mumbled. Louder: "But he's right, and so are Ginny and Theo. This wasn't...my idea."
"Then whose was it?" Hermione pressed.
She was – she was willing to put aside her judgment for now, and whatever else she was feeling on top of that, but she needed answers.
None of this was making any –
"Our mothers'."
It was Luna who had spoken. The blonde-haired omega had closed her copy of The Quibbler and placed it in her lap. She was looking at Hyleth expectantly, which was a strange visage for her to have. It felt out of place for Luna Lovegood, who wore raddish earrings and butterbeer cork necklaces and always gave off an aura of distinct dottiness.
Silence fell over the compartment as Hyleth's jaw locked. Her eyes hardened.
Hermione had never seen her have that kind of a reaction over her mother or her other biological father before.
"To be fair, it wasn't just theirs," the female alpha spoke, but this was said reluctantly, as if she did not want to acknowledge it. "But yes, it was."
Word Count: 3,776