Title Bellow.

Chapter 1

"Bloody hell, Hermione! What the devil is that?!"

These were Ron's words when Hermione had finally managed to assume her animagus form after months and months of preparation.

Which form a witch would get was always a bit of a crapshoot. Animagi were rare in itself and were usually mundane creatures. A magical creature as an animagus form was exceedingly rare. But an extinct animagus form? That was unique.

At first Hermione thought that something had gone wrong when she'd first seen her form in the mirror. Her form was that of a two foot high flightless bird with a tail twice as long as her body. Strong legs with razor sharp curled talons supported her body, while her head sported a snout which was vaguely beak-like and filled with razor-sharp teeth. Vestigal wings and tail had a rich plumage to boot.

Some research later, she discovered that her animagus form was that of a Velociraptor. In fact, a Velociraptor Mongoliensis, to be precise. Curious. She had expected a Velociraptor to have scales or a leathery skin. But dinosaurs had never really been her area of expertise and she discovered that, indeed, Velociraptors were covered with feathers both small and large.

Hermione quickly grew to like it quite a lot. There was a distinct pleasure in being unique and being a dinosaur had its advantages.

Like many days before, Hermione enjoyed trying out her new form by running through the Forbidden Forest. All her senses seemed to be heightened: there were so many smells in the forest, so many sounds. She ran through the forest effortlessly, with tremendous speed. She jumped over branches before she even saw them. It was like she was processing information from her senses so much quicker than with her human body.

Getting used to the speed was one thing, but she was glad to have two legs. Other animagi seemingly had a lot of trouble getting used to walking on four legs or struggling with flying. Not Hermione. In fact, she was seriously considering going hunting at some point. She was certain she could outrun a rabbit easily.

Hermione came up to the grove and decided to have a little fun. The moment she saw the clearing, she jumped over a fallen log and off the rocky incline, only to land expertly on a large flat rock in the middle of the grove. Feeling quite proud herself Hermione started to preen... and only realize she had failed to notice she wasn't alone in the grove.

She turned her head and almost fell off the rock in sheer surprise. Only a few meters away, stood Bellatrix Lestrange of all people. With a small sickle and a bag in her gloved hand, she appeared to have been collecting stingweed from the rockface. Hermione, having suffered greatly at the hands of this vile woman, had more than her hackles raised when the dark witch slowly turned to face her.

"Well, hello there," spoke Bellatrix. "And what are you supposed to be, then?"

Her voice... was so gentle. So soft. Hermione had only ever heard her shriek, shout and cackle. It was as if this soft voice could simply not belong to the same woman.

Naturally, Hermione turned to flee as fast as her legs could carry her. And Velociraptor legs were very fast indeed.

Unfortunately, she'd turned the wrong way and ran straight into a rockface, effectively ending her escape attempt before it had even started. Worse yet, she had managed to trap herself between a rock and a hard place.

"I've never seen a creature such as you before," Bellatrix spoke gently again.

There was a smile on her face. An honest-to-god genuine smile!

"No, no," Bellatrix approached carefully. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you."

Laughable. But for some reason, for some unfathomable reason, Hermione believed her. Still, she didn't want the vile witch to get too close to her.