Chapter 12: Night Of The Beast

The Grounds, Hogwarts...

Nightfall had always been a very stressful time for Severus Snape. He would make his usual rounds paroling the school catching the unsuspecting students unawares, travel back down to the Slytherin dungeons and get started on potions for the next batch to be sent to the infirmary, grade a ridiculous amount of parchments full of lengthy nonsense, and then retire to his front room and only then would he be alone with the looming darkness of his thoughts and bitter memories after a round or two of firewhiskey he would fall asleep, if one could call passing out blind drunk where ever one landed. Some times he had even awoken in the bath tub after a night of strong drink, Of course there was no water in which to drown but he would have the oddest dreams.

The air had been filled with various scents and repulsive pungency. The coolness of a breeze brought a slight chill but it was not much in the way of a dramatic temperature change. The Potions Master made his way silently down a rather empty corridor and came across a young, rather plump, dark haired Hufflepuff boy by the name of Alec Steele. The boy had been out one minute passed curfew and Snape took the opportunity to assert his authority.

Snape had been giving the boy a very well placed verbal attack when he suddenly felt intense pain fill his body. Alec had been trembling before hand but his very Hufflepuff nature took over and he looked at Professor Snape with the utmost concern. The Potions Professor doubled over as the pain continued to increase in intensity.

"S-Sir you need a doctor." said Alec worried.

"G-GET AWAY FROM ME!" said Snape irate.

Just like before the scent of decaying flesh caught his attention. The white glow of the moon had been beckoning to him. Alec really grew worried when Snape started to sweat at such a rate that his ebony robes became soaked and his lank raven hair was sticking to his sallow pale cheeks. Light became much too bright and the sound of the boy's constant whimpering deafening as he stumbled to get closer toward the grounds.

His heart was pounding thunderously in his chest as fear and disorientation over took him. The soft panic gasps that escaped him put a good deal of fear into the heart of the young Hufflepuff boy Alec as he watched unsure what to do as Snape continue to stumble until he fell face first onto the grounds.

Believing the man to be having something along the lines of a heart attack, Alec rushed off in search of help. A wise decision on his part as Snape continued to crawl toward the forbidden forest. His body gripped in agony beyond measure as his bones lengthened and his lean pale form began to contort .

The glow of the pale moon loomed above him bathing him in the soft white light.

Hermione Granger had been the first person whom Alec had run into. His face a mask of unyielding terror and soaked with tears. She had known of Alec Steele, he had been a third year Hufflepuff that mostly kept to himself. She wondered why he had looked so scared and calmly pulled him to the side of the corridor.

"Alec what's wrong?" she asked concerned.

"P-P-Professor S-Snape's having a heart attack." he stammered out.

Hermione took a moment for he brain to make a most alarming connection.

"Alec, I want you to make your way back to your dorm a quickly as possible, if you see Professor Lupin about ask him to meet me in the forbidden forest." she said. "I may know of a way to help Professor Snape."

Thinking that Hermione meant the possible herbs in the forest could help with a heart attack Alec agreed pleased to find someone who could help the dour wizard.

Once she was sure Alec was out of sight Hermione made her way to where Alec had just come from hoping to find Snape before anyone witnessed his transformation or he went on a rampage and attacked someone.

It didn't take her long as he laid out on the ground whimpering from the pain. His body contorted and his bones lengthened. Quickly she cast a notice me not charm on both herself and the ailing Professor.

Beast mind:

The Female. Her scent had been unmistakable. Once more he could taste the air around her and it had been sweet. The dog had not been around. A good thing for it. The beast's heart beat wildly in its chest as it continued to move towards freedom. Her amber eyes had been fixed on him. If a beast could smile he would have pulled it off nicely as his nose lengthened and his teeth became daggers and fingers became razors.

The Female seemed to be waiting for him to finish breaking out of his fleshy prison. The winds shifted and his eyes became predatory as the scent of blood caught his attention. This time it had not been from The Female. A scream caught his attention as well. An agonizing and injured scream.

Hermione had not known what to do once the wolf emerged. She had gotten quite lucky the first time she had been caught out during a full moon, with Lupin having taken his Wolfsbane Potion and Snape being able to recognize her or at least he appeared to. As before she was treated to the sight of the ebony wolf with his rippling gray muscles and dark fur and tale. Snape's attire had been shredded in the process of his transformation and he had been whimpering like before as well as trying to crawl his way toward the forest.

Were-Snape had been monstrous in size. The witch had not realized how monstrous until he loomed over her on his rather large and equally muscular legs. She tried not to blush as she took in the sight of him once again noting the lack of a thatch of fur to cover his enlarged organ. The ebony made a move toward the forest after something caught it's ear and it inhaled a scent that sent it into a frenzy.

Before Hermione could inquire as to what had been going on Were-Snape bolted toward the sound. His long black tail swaying behind him. At first the bushy haired witch had been more than happy to let him go off and work someone else's nerves into a fit but then she recalled just how aggressive Were-Snape could be not to mention how powerful.

Knowing this was going to get worse if the Potions Master ended up attacking someone she took off after him. Hoping she would still reason with him before he did something terrible in his current state of mind. She believed he was experiencing the blood-lust the book she read about his condition had described. His dark eyes changing red had been the major indication.

By the time Hermione happened upon Snape he had been standing over a ravaged carcass of what she believed to have been a deer. It's entrails torn out and bitten into pieces, blood pooled all around, and the sated expression on the werewolf's face meant he had completed his hunt. The bushy haired witch shook her head. The sound of the stream that they had found themselves near caught her attention as she noted that they were further from the school than she initially thought.

"That poor creature." she said in sympathy for the deer.

Snape looked at her tilting his head like that of a confused dog.

He grunted and removed one of the organs from the dead deer's body and dropped it at her feet.

Hermione had not known what to do other than freak out when Snape dropped the dead deer's heart at her feet. He watched her intently his dark eyes seeming to probe her with questions.

"I don't eat animal organs." said the bushy haired witch. "Especially...raw dead animal organs."

Snape let out a groan and lied on his stomach chewing on the deer as he had the spiders during his first transformation.

"P-Perhaps we can harvest Potions ingredients while were here." she said. Sealing the dears heart in a magical jar that she had conjured in seconds.

Snape tilted his head again in his usual manner. Hermione guessed this passed for his usual arched eyebrow expression and smiled.

"You know your pretty gross when you turn into a werewolf." she said.

Snape seemed to ignore her and finished gorging on his meal.

Time passed quickly and it grew dark. Snape had seemingly closed his eyes for a second but instead he had taken a nap for close to two hours. There had been no sign of Hermione though the scent of her overwhelming fear stirred the beast from his slumber. The urgency of her fear had him on high alert.

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Beast-mind:

The Female.

Where is the female?

She is fearful, but not the way she should be.

The beasts ears perked when he caught the sound of rapidly rushing water. Then the scent of the distressed witch.

Beast-mind:

The rushing water. She's at the rushing water! I have to get to the female. She'll die. She'll die.

Snape took off at top speed toward the scent of Hermione and the sound of the water. He happened upon the witch dangling on a rotted log for dear life with only her head above water. She had been soaked to the bone and suffered more than a few scratches. Without hesitation Snape sprang into action. He lept into the warring currents and swam underneath the bushy haired witch. She stopped panicking once she realized that Snape had been there and quickly grabbed a hold of him.

He had saved her from the spiders the last time she needed help and there was no reason to believe she could not trust him now. Snape swam as hard as he could applying his power and they were half the way toward land when a random current swept them from their intended target. Snape stayed afloat with Hermione grasping desperately at his neck.

Snape continued to swim against the current finding that it was slowly sapping even his superior strength. The bushy haired witch had been shivering and the darkness of the night sky had made it hard to tell where they were going. The current tossed them about like rag dolls for a few minutes with both of them being repeatedly submerged beneath the water. Hermione had lost consciousness and started to slip. Snape summoned all his strength and lept into the nearest stretch of land.

By the time the whole ordeal ended both Snape and Hermione had reached land. He landed on his back unable to move any further. Hermione had landed on her side about three feet away from him. Snape lost consciousness soon after letting out soft whimpers due to the injury he sustained from being bashed against rocks as he swam.

He had no strength to stop the bleeding on his own and it simply oozed out rather slowly from his side.

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The Next Morning...

Severus Snape heard the sound of birds in the distance. It drove him to open his eyes as the cool of the early morning breeze hit his sallow pale face. The Potions Master had not recalled much of the events of the previous night other than Alec Steele being very afraid of something. The scent of jasmine lingered in his nostrils and he felt the unfamiliar weight of something warm on his otherwise exposed chest. He had not known what it had been but what ever it was started breathing evenly as his chest rose and fell.

Please let this be a woman and let her be of age. He thought. Who the hell am I kidding, I've never been lucky enough to have a woman in my bed...for the love of Merlin please let it be a woman that's pressing against my cock.

He had sincerely, hoped that he had not been recovering form a night of binge drinking and that whatever was laying on him had been a woman. He groaned feeling the weight press against his now prominent morning erection. Whomever it was pressed against him harder only serving to further agitate his aroused state.

The Potions Professor took in a sharp breath as whomever it was begun to stir.

The mass of bushy brown hair that had blocked his view had moved out of the way once the sleeping person lifted their other wise heavy head from his chest. It was then that Snape's obsidian eyes met those amber of none other than Hermione Granger.

Though he was filled with absolute panic over waking with his student pressed firmly against his erection Snape thought it best to play it cool. She had not seemed to notice the error of her actions quite yet but he needed her to get off him soon.

"And what do you think you are doing, Miss Granger?" asked Snape in his usual icy tone.

Hermione blinked for a second and realized that she was not back in her bed at Hogwarts. It took a second for her to register that it was not a hot water bottle pressing against her stomach but her Potions Professor's morning erection.

"I-I..." said Hermione trying to explain. "We..."

Snape rolled his eyes.

" GET. OFF. OF. ME!" he demanded vastly annoyed at his current predicament.

Hermione scrambled to her feet kneeing him in the groin in the process.

"Oops!" said the bushy haired witch apologetic. "I'm so sorry Professor Snape."

Despite the pain he had been pleased to see that he had at least his black trousers on. Though he didn't recall how he lost the other parts of his attire. The dour wizard gingerly made his way to his feet and his impressive height loomed above Hermione as she tried to keep from thinking about the close encounter they had upon awakening. It was clear that despite being kneed by accident his erection had not gone away. Noting her curious gaze Snape turned away from her mortified that she had been able to not only see how aroused he had been but feel it if at all by accident.

He had not known where they were but he had noted how he had been recently healed from an injury and sore all over now thanks to a certain bushy haired witch. Hermione sighed as she watched him make his way toward the strange looking trees. She had deduced that they had been deeper in the forbidden forest the night before. She had awakened to find that she had not drowned and that the source of her misfortune, a rare plant called The Rivermist plant, which grows in the foggy mist areas of the river and only blooms once a year and during a full moon that had been her prize was tucked safely into her enchanted knapsack.

She smiled noting how she had been the youngest witch in history to capture it.

Snape had been asleep when she had ventured off to find it hoping to get lucky. She had not counted on the ground being so slick or that the log was badly decomposing before she lost her footing upon successfully securing the plant and sealing it away. The bushy haired witch guessed that Snape must have sensed her distress and came running. When she regained consciousness, Hermione had healed his wound and conjured him some trousers lest he freeze to death during the morning. She had not the strength to equip him with full attire, having underestimated how exhausted she had been when she got the trousers on him and passed out after the fact.

She had not known how she ended up sleeping on top of him. Perhaps it was due to her seeking out warmth in her sleep.

The young Gryffindor witch thought it best to get a fire going before she and Snape headed back to Hogwarts there was no telling when he would make it back. After what seemed like hours Snape came back though he had still been none too happy about what happened upon awakening. Hermione spoke to him as little as possible still embarrassed enough for the both of them after not only seeing him naked but what happened that morning.

"Not one word." said Snape irate.

"Understood." replied Hermione.

"Let's go." he said. "I have a feeling they'll be expecting us."

The bush haired witch nodded in agreement. She wondered briefly if she should tell Snape about the Rivermist plant. Then the look on his face made her keep her mouth shut and her legs moving until they could apparate back to Hogwarts. So far this was the strangest morning the young witch had ever experienced. Snape had continued to walk in silence with not so much as a glance in her direction. He could not believe he had gotten an erection with Hermione present. Though he still had been asleep at the time. The last thing he needed was for her to go blabbing to her friends. Especially, Potter. The Potions Professor made a mental not to have her take an oath of silence before they got back to the school.