AN: :D

DISCLAMER: I do not own Harry Potter

Dawn lazily climbed over the horizon, the sky was starting dimly to glow as night came to its end. Yet, it was still early in the morning, around the hour of five in the morning. The corridors of the castle weren't pitch black but not quite lit. The candles had long gone out and the smoke had long been cleared. Yet the only noise was the soft patter of foot steps on the cold stone floor.

Hermione Granger crept slowly down the hall with a wool cloak wrapped about her shoulders with a stressed look. She took deep breaths trying to calm her heart that was beating fast after a recent nightmare. Her dreams had been replaced by nightmares even though the war had ended last year, but the memories could never be purged from her mind.

One year ago in about march, the great war had ended. It had been a horrible surprise and everyone was unprepared. Hermione, Harry, and Ron had amazing luck in finding all the horcruxes but two, which were later discovered to be Voldemort's snake and Harry himself.

No one is quite sure how a massive army of death eaters had gotten into the castle, but rumor was that a magical cupboard had something to do with it. Dumbledore had been in his office with Professor Snape when a student came running to the door screaming that the death eaters had arrived.

One small group of students fled to Hogsmead to get help, and help they received. The people of Hogsmead went straight to war, flying out to Hogwarts within minutes. Others sent their familiars or owls to contact the ministry or family.

The students themselves had also done a fantastic. First to Third years were rounded up and put in the deepest part of the castle with wards strong enough to keep an army of dragons away. Fourth years all helped the wounded with madam Pomfrey as their commander. Everyone else fought.

The battle went on for two days, no breaks were taken. It was all out war, death eaters and their supporters came in every time they were sure that it was over. Then Voldemort was killed. That was when all the bloodshed stopped. Hermione, had her own horror to face on the second day of the battle.

After the 42 hour long battle, the castle had been destroyed. It looked as if it had been bombed repeatedly over and over then set to fire. School was ended for that year and everyone helped aid in the reconstruction. Hogwarts reopened of course when the construction was finished, it sent out letters to the students explaining what the procedure would be.

All students were to re-take the year they were in. Seventh years had another option that the others did not. If any of the students did not want to re-take their seventh year they were all offered a job at the ministry. Harry and Ron had been so happy to become Aurors. Hermione however, had enough fighting and wanted to pick a more peaceful career and declined. She would repeat her seventh year.

And here she was, in late October wandering the halls trying to find an empty room.

When she did finally find the room she was looking for she stopped in front of it. Checking once more for no followers, she entered. It was very dusty and a heavy smell of musk hung in the air. Broken glass was scattered about the room. Curtains covered the windows and they were moth bitten and ragged. Through the little holes light peeked through as the sun began to rise.

Boxes were stacked up on top of each other neatly about the room. An old desk sat in the corner covered in a thick layer of dust. Shelves lined the walls with crystal balls, a few with cracks in some. Hermione walked inside of the dark room and closed the door behind her. First thing she did was walk over to the windows and ripped the curtains down, allowing natural sunlight to bath the room in a warm golden color.

She stood in the center of the room and dropped her wool cloak, revealing the thin nightgown under. She pressed her eyes close and tightened her hands into tight fists, slowly her human body began to shift its shape. Bones were stretched and others were shortened. Skin and clothes were replaced by golden fur, and from behind a short tail grew. She grit her teeth, it always hurt transforming the first few times.

When finished, Hermione let go of the breath she had been holding. Where once stood a human girl now stood a serval. Her fur was a golden honey color with white socks on her legs as well as black spots that littered her body. Her eyes were their normal brown color, but in this form they looked more clear. They looked like pools of dark amber.

Hermione had started her animagus training this year when school had started. Professor McGonagall had approached her and asked if she would like to formally begin animagus training. Hermione had of course agreed but found herself very challenged with the task. She still wasn't allowed to transform without her professor with her.

She, Hermione Jean Granger was breaking a rule.

Without warning she took off and ran around the classroom in her stealthy form. Jumping on boxes and jumping off, she released any stress she had and did something she didn't often do. She had fun. Minutes seemed to pass by quickly as she continued to prance about the classroom and enjoy herself.

Outside the sun was starting to peek its head. Hermione knew this meant she would have to be back in her dormitory before anyone noticed her missing. But... she decided to do one more go at climbing the stacked boxes. The serval climbed onto the first box closest to the ground, then jumped to the next, and the next, and the next. She found herself towering above the ground and a few feet from touching the ceiling. There was one more box to climb to then it would be time to go.

Just as she climbed onto the last box, she found that it had been poorly stacked and tumbled down with her. Glass objects from inside spewed out. As she tumbled down the tower of boxes, more and more fell with her. With a loud shatter she fell to the ground with the boxes and glass objects from inside them. She felt glass cut into her the delicate pads of her paws, and looked on in horror to see her flank oozing blood.

She made a poor attempt to gather herself from the ground with she was greeted with a sharp pain in her front left leg. She gave up her attempt and fell back onto the floor whimpering. She was going to bleed to death right there on that floor. Or so she thought.

Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door.

"Who's there?" asked a silky voice. Hermione stopped breathing. A tall lanky man threw the doors to the empty room open and wandered inside of the classroom. The black clad man loomed over Hermione with a great sneer on his face.

"Hello Granger"

"Good Morning Fwakes" The old man greeted as he came off the last step of the staircase to his office. A great fiery bird stood on its post and let out a squaw to greet its long time master. Dumbledore stroked the birds silky feathers with his hand with a loving smile for his dear pet. Giving the bird a bowl full of seeds and meat grounded together (recommended by Hagrid) he sat down at his desk and sent a request to the house elves for tea. That was when was startled by urgent knocking on his door.

"Who is it?" Dumbledore asked in a somewhat amused voice.

"Headmaster, this is no time for jokes." moaned back a deep voice.

"Oh, Severus my dear boy. You know the password, do you not?"

Severus Snape stumbled into the office clutching a large cat in his arms. The cat itself was very pretty with its silky coat and healthy appearance. Its tail battered about with annoyance for being handled in such a way. Snape walked over to the table and set the large cat down on the desk carefully.

"This a new pet?" Dumbledore asked, now intrigued. Snape's frown deepened and gave the old man a skeptical look.

"Please Albus, why would I waste my time? This is Hermione Granger in her Animagus form. She isn't supposed to be running around in it currently. She and McGonagall have not finished her training yet."

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose high and he stood up, walking around his desk he began to stroke the cats silky fur with a surprised look. "Miss Granger? Is that really you?"

The cat dipped her head and lowered her eyes. Breaking a school rule was something she had done before, but that was for the greater good. This however was irresponsible and she had no good reason for doing so.

"You were once a Transfiguration Professor were you not Albus?" Snape questioned.

"Yes but... She can transform back herself can she not? I have little experience with anamagi. If something was to go wrong..."

"She cannot transform back on her own."

Dumbledore looked quite concerned and rubbed the cat's head thinking deeply to himself.

"Minerva cannot do it, she is still away visiting family. They are still morning over a recent loss, I couldn't be able to take her away from something like that." He sighed deeply. He returned his eyes to the pretty serval sitting on his desk. "Well what to do with you then?"

"She will have to stay with a professor Albus. We cannot have her roaming around the halls like this." Snape informed, rather smugly. Dumbledore lit up and looked over to Snape with a very smug grin.

"I am glad you volunteered Severus!" Dumbledore chuckled.

"I- WHAT?" And with that, Miss Granger fell off the desk.

"Hey Edmund!" little Allard Jonson raced to greet his friend. Edmund Toroes jumped and dropped the book he was holding.

"Oh Allard! You scared the lights out of me!" He laughed nervously, bending over to pick up his book. The two first years had made instant friends when they were on the train to Hogwarts. Allard Jonson had made it into Ravenclaw for his clever and kind personality. Many were surprised to find Edmund had made it into Gryffindor.

"Whats that your reading?" Allard asked glancing at the book he held tightly to his chest. Edmund smiled.

"Its this book chop full of these really cool attack and defensive spells!" He opened the book to the page he was on and held it out for his friend to see. " Look at this one, Sepulchrum Flatus." He pointed to it with a tiny finger. "It blasts people backwards! It translate too-"

The two boys were interrupted by a very angry man, pushing the two apart. Professor Snape marched by the boys with a look that could kill. A Cat followed behind him growling. The two boys sat on the ground watching their professor storm down the hall, both shaking.

"That Bloody Jerk! He must get off from making kids suffer." Allard mumbled angrily to himself. Edmund watched him go with a angry expression on his face. Allard helped Edmund up and they dusted their new school robes off.

"Come on, its time for breakfest."