Hi, guys! I've found myself in a bit of a rut as far as my other two stories (Fallen Woman and A Girl Like Lovegood). Though I am still tinkering around with Fallen Woman and in the process of writing another chapter of my Luna and Draco story I really thought maybe some of the other ideas rolling around my head were making it more difficult to write so I thought I'd start this story as well. It's a Hogwarts-era story and features Hermione and Draco. I don't know how long it's going to be but the idea is there - I just have to get it all down in words. I hope you enjoy this first chapter...and as always, please let me know what you think!

LCailan

1. Blood Moon

Hermione Granger was tired.

It was late afternoon and a Tuesday - her busiest day all week. She had sat through Potions and Charms that morning and Advanced Runes right after dinner followed by Herbology and Arithmancy. Her lessons were almost over but she still had to survive Divination with the Slytherins, which was loathsome at best. In spite of her reluctance she had arrived early, sitting quietly at her desk with the huge, worn text open to that day's lesson.

Divining the Moon: Fact and Farce

Hermione shook her head, a firm believer that everything to do with Divination was farcical.

The curly-haired Gryffindor waited for the inevitable moment when Professor Trelawney would make her dramatic appearance and begin to spew her useless knowledge to a roomful of tired and unsuspecting students.

As the room filled with boisterous Gryffindors and Slytherins, Hermione flipped listlessly through the day's chapter, hoping to find something interesting to read although she held out little hope. Behind her she could hear Harry and Ron laughing while Dean Thomas carried on; he was howling at what she supposed was the subject of the day's lesson: the moon.

They boys seemed to be having a jolly time until Professor Trelawney rushed into the room, waving he wand haphazardly before her, and tripping over her much too-long robes.

"Mister Thomas! We mustn't poke fun at the moon, must we?"

Her voice was breathless and dreamy all at once and even though the woman was short in stature and rather odd-looking, Dean still appeared apologetic as he sank down into his desk at Trelawney's reproachful look. There were snickers from the Slytherins and murmurs of sympathies from Dean's best mates.

Hermione trained her eyes on her desk, pulling out parchment and quills in anticipation of a long-winded lecture on which she was certain there would be homework. Soon the room was filled with the sound of scratching quills, shifty desks and the dreamlike humming of Trelawney's voice as she led the class in a lecture on the meanings of the blood moon and the history of how it affected magic and what it meant. Hermione quelled the urge to raise her hand and ask why any of what they were jotting down was important but instead she scribbled page after page on the meanings of different moons and how to divine the future from their location in the skies. The lecture seemed to drag on endlessly, nothing rousing her keen interest until she heard Trelawney speak those two most enticing words.

"Extra credit!"

Hermione sat up, leaning towards her professor instinctually.

"And House points to the first student to write me a scroll on the history and folklore of the blood moon and how it affects magic today!"

The minute that lessons were dismissed for the day, the bushy-haired Gryffindor packed up her things and rushed out of the room, headed towards the staircase with determination. She had a lot of work to do before supper.

Draco Malfoy hated Divination.

He hated Trelawney and her pointless, claptrap theories. He hated that they had to waste the end of their day listening to her line of dragon dung. He also hated the fact that his name - Malfoy - seemed to mean nothing, especially since it didn't get him a pass from his Divination lessons. Instead, he had to suffer through an hour-long lecture on rubbish and not to mention he had to share the room and the air with a bunch of worthless Gryffindors!

It's all mental!

But at the same time, Draco was having a difficult time denying that the extra credit assignment wasn't enticing. Not only would he look like a hero to his house by getting the extra points but depending on how much extra credit Trelawney was offering he might not have to pay attention in class for the rest of term and still pass! So even though his best mates and his supposed girlfriend were headed down to supper, Draco found himself making an excuse only to turn around and head back up the winding staircase to the circular, smoky Divination classroom.

There, Trelawney sat on the ground, her eyes closed, humming something suspiciously tuneless.

"Professor?"

She opened her eyes widely and her thick glasses gave her the appearance of a frightened owl.

"Mister Malfoy?"

"Erm...I was wondering if I could have more information about the extra credit assignment..."

Ron glared at Hermione.

"Are you mental? Don't you know that if we were to do the extra credit assignment that it'll keep us in the library all weekend?"

Hermione shot him a stern look as she took a sip of her juice.

"Hermione! This whole weekend? Do you know how bloody gorgeous it's going to be the next few days? No one in their right mind would spend it indoors!"

Ron looked appalled at even the suggestion and Harry took a bite of his second treacle tart, his green eyes somber.

"Hermione, I thought you hated Divination."

The bushy-haired Gryffindor bristled.

"No one ever died from learning. Both of you should take more initiative!"

"And just because it's written in a book doesn't mean we have to learn it!"

Ron reached for some dessert as Hermione shook her head in resignation.

"I just thought it might be something fun for us to do. It would help our house and I know you need the extra credit, Ronald Weasley!"

Ron stared at Hermione incredulously.

"Are you a glutton for punishment?" he asked with a mouthful of chocolate éclair.

"No but for once I'd like to see you take interest in something besides Quidditch and food."

The boys glanced at one another and shook their heads before turning back to their irritated companion.

"Hermione-"

"I'll be going now. I've got loads of research to do on the blood moon."

The boys watched, mouths full of food, as she stalked off, head held high.

"Mental, that one," Ron muttered after swallowing. But he said it with affection and didn't hide the fact that his eyes had followed her all the way out of the Great Hall.

Draco walked up the wooden stairs and stepped across the rope that separated the Hogwarts library from the Restricted Section. He walked carefully, knowing that Pince was watching him; he could feel her gaze on his back. The librarian was perpetually suspicious of students, especially those that required access to all things restricted even though they had permission from their professors.

Despite Pince's hawk-like gaze, Draco found himself mesmerized by the long stacks of books before him. There were so many! He had only been in the Restricted Section one time before and he had felt as unnerved then as he did now, even though he would never have admitted it. It was colder here...and darker. The only light came from the cathedral-style windows on either side of the massive room and Draco noticed that the rising moon was nearly full and tinged the lightest shade of red.

The blood moon.

He glanced down at the small note in his hand, written in Trelawney's wide and airy script:

My Life and Many Moons

Ravenna Blackmore

She-wolf.

Trelawney had been certain about that. Draco knew of very few werewolves and certainly had never known any to be female. It was intriguing in spite of the fact that it was a bloody homework assignment.

He moved towards the east side of the room, glancing once more upwards and at the bloody-colored moon and shivered.

Hermione found herself more irritated with Harry and Ron than usual.

I'm just tired, she told herself as she hurried down the staircase towards the fourth floor.

She had two hours before the library would close; it was just enough time to check out the book she needed for Trelawney's extra credit assignment. Perhaps she wasn't as much irritated with her best friends as she was disappointed in them. Yes, that was it. She was disappointed because she took much more interest in Harry and Ron's activities than they ever did to hers.

Some friends they are.

The library was darkened and empty as she hurried inside. Candlelight flickered along the walls as the only illumination and beyond the light, the stacks were dark. Hermione moved towards Irma Pince, her promissory note in hand and the old librarian offered a curt nod of acceptance before Hermione hurried across the cavernous room towards the Restricted Section. She new exactly what she needed and moved towards the east side of the room.

Ravenna Blackmore.

Hermione had taken interest in one of Binns' lectures the previous year and had found time to check out a few books about the Ministry's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Blackmore had been mentioned several times in one of the books, a foreign woman turned wolf that had fought for the rights of her kind - those who had been born human and turned beast. Hermione had even taken out a book on Blackmore's life only to learn that she had been born with an unnatural sensitivity to the cycles of the moon, long before she had been bitten. Because of the violent nature of her changing and extreme sensitivity to the moon, the British Ministry had taken a keen interest in her - both fearing her beastly nature and embracing it as a giant step in the advancement of wizarding medicine. After being used as a subject for many experiments in creating a more powerful Wolfsbane Potion, Ravenna had fled from Britain and no one had ever heard of her again. She had written only one book - one that had been banned from most wizarding school libraries because of the graphic details of her transformation from human to wolf.

Hermione was disturbingly fascinated with this detail and hurried towards the back stacks with excitement. There was no better source on the history of a blood moon than a werewolf, after all.

"Lumos."

At Hermione's whisper, her wand burst into a brilliant white light and illuminated the last few stacks along the back wall of the Restricted Section. Here one could find all sorts of odd books on dark creatures, banshees, vampires and werewolves. She moved her fingers along old, disused bindings, reading the titles to herself when suddenly she came to a space on the shelf. Here there was obvious evidence of someone else having been there. In that same moment Hermione was shocked to find that the book she was looking for was gone.

Oh, no!

She whirled in the dark stack, wand aloft, as if expecting to see someone walking away from her, the precious tome tucked under his or her arm. But she was alone as before, with only the whisper of the wind outside and the light of the moon coming in from the high windows above her. The determined Gryffindor turned back to the stacks, looking more closely this time, just in case someone had simply placed the book on the wrong part of the shelf...

No, it was gone.

How is it possible that someone else got here before I did?!

The earlier disappointment and irritation Hermione had felt over her friends returned, this time with a vengeance. Was it so horrible that she wanted to do extra credit? Not only did her closest friends poke fun at her but now the book she needed wasn't there?

Turning, she quickly tucked her wand back into her robes and began to walk quickly the way she had come, determined to find the person who had taken her book. Surely, they could share it, couldn't they? After all-

Her thoughts were cut short when she saw him.

Draco Malfoy was sprawled out on one side of a huge wooden table, engrossed in a book. Whatever he was reading was fascinating enough that he hadn't noticed Hermione's sudden appearance. That or he simply did not acknowledge her. She stood, blinking for a few seconds, surprised to see anyone in the Restricted Section. But she was especially surprised to find that it was Malfoy, of all people, and would have been even more surprised to find that she was staring at him.

He sat, supporting his head by one hand, long fingers twisted in messy, pale-blond hair and the other hand training his wand on his book, which he read by its light. There was something about that wand light - that and the light of the moon - that made him look less like a Hogwarts student and more like the ghosts that tended to haunt this part of the library.

Hermione wasn't sure what it was about Malfoy in that moment that had captured her interest. He was just Malfoy, a conceited, cruel prat from Slytherin House. He was the same boy that loved tormenting Harry and Ron and Hermione hated him. In that moment she hated him more than she had ever hated him. But in the next, she noted that he wasn't wearing his school robes, instead a more casual pair of trousers and a well-fitted linen shirt beneath a black and emerald vest.

What is wrong with me?

As Hermione analyzed the strange feeling inside of her the room seemed to grow a bit brighter and her eyes were drawn upwards, towards the tall windows where the moon suddenly appeared from behind the clouds. It shone clearly into the room, a strange, white-red color.

A blood moon.

It offered a strange illumination and when Hermione glanced back at Malfoy she suddenly could make out the text he was reading and the realization made her gasp.

"That's my book!" She exclaimed before she could stop herself.

At the sound of her voice, Malfoy jumped only slightly and turned his face a mask of surprise at first and then one of triumph. His eyes gleamed in the moonlit darkness and Hermione was reminded of a silver wolf.