[Author's Note]
I haven't forgotten this fic! As those who have been following my other Fenmione Wolf Island already know, I am in grad school and during the bulk of my time I am inundated with writing papers. But please know I have every intention of finishing this fic even if it's at a glacial pace! Thank you for your continued support, readers.

Harry had been looking forward to seeing Hermione but just as Ginny and him were getting ready to Apparate a message came through from the office and it wasn't one he could ignore. With a sigh Harry traded his quidditch shirt for Auror robes, kissed Ginny good-bye and Apparated to the the Auror's downtown London station. No sooner did he pass through the building's ancient doors was he greeted by a several rookie Aurors.

"Did you hear the news, Potter? There was half a dozen werewolf attacks reported just last night."

"Last night? There wasn't even a full moon," he chided with a hint of exasperation. Harry tried to remind himself that he had been a rookie at one point as well but their lack of critical thinking skills were enough to elicit some annoyance.

"See for yourself, boss had us put the report on your desk," one of them replied. Harry quickly made his way to his office where a neatly stacked set of parchment waited for him. To his surprise the young aurors had been correct in their claims, at least from Harry's cursory examination of the reports. Six victims, all dead, all showing signs of death by werewolf. Even the sample of fur found at one of the scenes confirmed it was a werewolf which ruled out more plausible possibilities. Of it literally being anything else, Harry said to himself.

He looked at the calendar. The full moon was two weeks away. How is this bloody possible?

The victims had all been in one remote neighborhood on outskirts of the city. It was a lot of attacks at once. Could there be more than one werewolf? That thought troubled Harry as recalled the still-open cases of the missing werewolves. None of them had any prior convictions though and their families were adamant that they had been model citizens. Harry still considered them victims even as the weeks drew on and the rest of the precinct considered the missing werewolves to have fled to live among the mysterious packs that lived in the remote forests of Scotland.

However these sudden strange attacks gave him reason to consider if there wasn't a connection. Harry's mind drifted to Hermione, recalling the cold trail of her past that he still believed involved Greyback.

Chief Inspector Savage suddenly entered the open door without any preamble, "Someone already leaked the reports to the press. Please tell me you have a bloody lead."

Harry wanted to tell the Chief that he had only seen the reports a few moments earlier but knew that it wasn't what the older Auror wanted to hear. Excuses, no matter how valid, were never tolerated.

"I will start digging up what I can but chief this doesn't make sense," Harry said with a frown.

"None of it makes sense, Potter! I am well aware of that much," Savage said. "We have six dead to werewolf attacks when there was no full moon and still three missing werewolves."

Harry looked at the chalkboard in the corner where Theodore Nott's property was still circled on a map. "My instincts tell me Theodore Nott has something to do with this. His property was right in the middle of the original abductions and his family's history of-"

"Nott? You told me you already questioned him and nothing came of it," Savage said.
"Nothing came of it, yes but I am still not convinced-"
"Theodore Nott is the star wizard of the Wizengamot and according to the papers he might be the next Minister of Magic, if you don't have any leads on him I advise you to drop it."

"But sir," Harry began to protest.

"I mean it Potter, we have a serious crisis on our hands and this isn't time to settle vendettas. I know his father was a bloody Death Eater but as I recall the boy was squeaky clean."

Harry wanted to retort that not having a Dark Mark was not a benchmark for being 'squeaky clean' but he held his tongue at the risk of being suspended for insubordination.

When Harry chose to say nothing at all but nod, Savage turned to leave but not before he said,

"Get to the bottom of this Potter, I'm counting on you."

Artemis Home

"You look good, Hermione, so good," Ginny said and gave Hermione a tight squeeze. Ginny had apparated at the school's back entrance to avoid the zoo of paparazzi still clambering at the front gate. Everyone wanted a chance to speak with the war heroine gone werewolf. She knew it had been exactly the type of publicity Lupin, Harry and the others had hoped to avoid but Hermione simply didn't care. She did not care who knew what she was nor who had a problem with it. It was as much a part of her identity as her curly hair.

Hermione smiled but she knew that "looking good" was code for "acting normal" for most of her old friends. Tonks had said the same thing and even Neville and Luna when they had come to visit (and also present Hermione with a wedding invitation) only three days prior. Hermione wasn't offended. It only meant she was assimilating into the life her old self once had, a person she still was resolving to understand even as she acknowledged that she was someone different now.

Bit by bit she remembered pieces of Hermione's past. My past, she amended. She remembered that she had a cat named Crookshanks during her school years and that a boy named Viktor Krum had taken her to the Yule Ball one year. Among the bigger memories that were coming back to her like hunting for Horcruxes, she remembered small insignificant details like her favorite candy at Honeydukes or falling off a runaway broom one summer. Friends and loved ones, enemies and acquaintances. She could remember them all.

But the past five years? They continued to evade her even as she felt closer to the truth each day.

"Thank you for coming by Ginny," Hermione said as they began a leisurely stroll towards the property's gardens. "How is Harry?"

"He's doing fine, just incredibly busy. He wished he could have stopped by today but he was called into work suddenly. He told me to send his love though and he will be sure to stop by soon."

"I understand," Hermione said and they walked in comfortable silence for several minutes.
"So the reporters at the gates are all for you? Your big statement is all the Wizarding world is talking about right now," Ginny said.

"It wasn't meant to be a big statement," Hermione said and thoughtfully didn't add that she merely had wanted to prove a point to Lupin. She wanted him to see that she wasn't ashamed of what she was nor would she let being a werewolf be a taboo subject.

"Of course not, Miss President of SPEW," Ginny said and rolled her eyes. Hermione smiled. Among the little details she remembered of old Hermione's life SPEW was another one. "So I guess my next question is what are you going to do next?"

To be honest, Hermione's next item on her to-do list was nothing more than to go to the library and read. That was it. The rest of the world could go to hell in a handbasket over her announcement if that was to be the case. However she gauged by her friend's expectant look that she wanted to hear a more far-reaching goal than her plans for the afternoon.

Hermione shrugged, "I don't know yet."

"Well surely you don't want to stay here anymore, why don't you come live with Harry and I at the Hollow."

"Why wouldn't I want to stay here? This is my home now," Hermione said with a mild frown of confusion.

"It doesn't have to be though now that you're feeling better," Ginny said.

Better. There it was again. Her well-meaning friends tip-toeing around lycanthropy as though she had been cured of dragon pox and was no longer contagious.

"Thank you for the offer Ginny but I like it here. It's good for me to be around other werewolves. Besides I don't think you need me taking up extra space at your home when you have a baby on the way."

Ginny stopped in her tracks, eyes wide as she gasped in shock. Hermione paused beside her, confused by the reaction.

"How did you know? Harry doesn't even know!" Ginny said with a sharp whisper.

"Your scent is different," Hermione replied matter-of-factly before it was her turn to be surprised. "And wait, you haven't told Harry?"

"I just found out myself and I was waiting for the perfect time," Ginny said.

"Oh," Hermione said. To recover from the moment she gave Ginny a hug. "Well congratulations anyways. You and Harry will be great parents."

"Thanks Hermione," Ginny said with a nervous laugh. Despite it all she was excited to talk to someone about the pregnancy and it wasn't long before she was chatting about all her hopes and wishes with Hermione. To her duty, Hermione listened patiently for at least an hour before Ginny looked down at her watch and realized she had an appointment with the medwitch to keep. So they parted ways in the garden and Hermione sat alone on a bench for awhile.

The silence blanketed her and while she normally relished the solitude Hermione felt an inexplicable ache in her chest. It was the same familiar pain she had suffered when waking up from forgotten dreams over these long months. What have I lost? She asked herself.

She stared at the rose bush in front of her and found herself transfixed by the wilting petals. A gentle gust of wind would sweep one, two, three of the delicate petals off their stem and she would watch as they slowly drifted to the white-pebbled ground. It reminded her of something and she stared awhile longer trying to trace the memory to its origin. Each petal was a deep crimson against the ivory stones.

Like blood drops on the snow.

And that was when Hermione remembered what had been buried deep. The tears began to fall from her eyes as she cried out. Hermione sobbed openly as the gates to her past opened for good.

She remembered it all.

The Past

"That's a pretty steep climb," Hermione said as she eyed the mountain pass before them.

"We've been through worse," Fenrir replied and Hermione had no choice but to agree. They had been through much worse. She glanced over her shoulder as though expecting to see remnants of the centaurs they had left behind many miles ago by now. "And we can get through this. Just beyond this mountain I am sure we will find civilization."

"And if not?"

"Then we stay in the forest forever and live happily ever after," Fenrir said and this evoked a smile from Hermione. He grinned and gave her a kiss. She melted against his embrace, feeling the warmth radiating from his skin that sent a shiver of excitement through her.

Happily ever after.

A part of her found the idea irresistible. Hermione Granger had never been one to run away from her problems but this didn't feel like running away. It felt like she was choosing Fenrir and neither the wolf nor women part of her could argue against that. What was left for her back home? Neither of them knew how the war had ended, if it had even ended at all. Regardless, whatever they went back to, Hermione knew it was only to be a divided world. Fenrir couldn't exist in her old life as neither could she belong to his. So what if they forged a new path? Out here. Together.

Hermione clung to the idea even as she continued to hug Fenrir and feel the sinking reality begin to take hold. She could run away from the Wizarding World but she couldn't abandon Harry. She didn't know how long it had been since the Battle of Hogwarts but she couldn't stand the idea of him making that final stand alone. In the months she had spent fighting for her life as a prisoner of the centaurs she had pushed thoughts of him and Ron and the world she had held dear away. The only thing that had kept her going through those violent painful times was Fenrir.

Hermione began to cry, feeling the hot sting of tears well in her eyes as she revisited the choices she had to make. Getting back home had always been the plan so why now did it feel so hard? Fenrir pulled away with concern etched into his expression. "What's wrong, love?"

"I want us to live happily ever after," Hermione said. "I want to see my loved ones again. I want both. But I don't know how it's going to happen, Fenrir. I don't know and that scares me because, because…"

"We will find a way," he said and the calm in his voice cut through the panic racing through her heart. She looked up into his gold eyes and saw only truth. He wasn't trying to merely placate her. Hermione could sense it through the bond between them: Fenrir believed they would find a way and slowly Hermione too began to feel the same.

Their love would find its way.