The End's Intent

Chapter 15

Draco's entire body hurt. He only had vague memories of the night and following day he'd spent as a werewolf, but he could clearly remember both transformations. If the cracking of his bones hadn't been off-putting enough, the feeling of his muscles tearing and realigning was.

He hadn't actually been as out of control as he'd expected. From what his father had told him about werewolves and watching Greyback's pack attack others, he'd expected to rage through the forest slaughtering anything that moved. Instead, the Wolfsbane potion had kept him from turning so feral and he'd kept his mind while his body had changed. He'd spent most of his time in the Shrieking Shack, but after he got bored, he'd roamed the forest and tried not to think about how he'd face this every month.

It was an hour after his transformation back that he felt like he'd be able to move. He groaned as he pushed himself off of the floor and crawled over to the tunnel that would take him back to Hogwarts. He stopped several times along the way and when he finally crawled out from under the Whomping Willow, it was well past dark.

He could hear chatter in the Great Hall as dinner finished up and even though he was starving, he wasn't in the mood to join. Instead, he left the Whomping Willow and headed back to the head's dormitory as quickly as his exhausted body would let him. It wasn't until he was at the bottom of the staircase leading up to his dorm that he caught a drift of Hermione's scent mingled with another. His wolf went crazy after not being around her for a full 24 hours and seeing as Draco had caged himself away the days leading up, he really should have expected it.

Still, part of him was amazed that he made it up the stairs as fast as he did. He'd hardly done more than blink before he was throwing open their dormitory door and his wolf was snarling at the scent of another man.

At his abrupt intrusion, Hermione and Blaise jumped and turned to look at him. Blaise seemed to have the decency to be standing by the fireplace across from Hermione who was sat on the couch, but Draco's wolf hardly cared. He could smell Blaise clearly and knew he'd been in the dorm for at least a day. As far as Draco knew, he could have stayed the night while he was gone.

"Draco!" Hermione exclaimed, jumping to her feet. She snatched something off of a nearby study desk and hurried over to him. "I made you a pain relief potion. Remus was always sore after the full moon, so I thought perhaps you could use it."

Draco tried really hard to keep from snarling at Blaise, he did. Logically, he knew Blaise would never touch or hurt Hermione, but his wolf didn't seem to care. The only thing he could really seem to think about was how Blaise had taken over his space in the short time he'd been gone.

"What's he doing here?" Draco demanded, glaring at Blaise. Blaise raised an eyebrow at him but didn't seem otherwise concerned.

"He helped me with the Wolfsbane potion last night," Hermione answered. She grabbed his hand and forced the pain relief potion into his clenched fist. At her touch, his wolf subsided a little as the urge to fight Blaise was replaced with the urge to hold Hermione tightly. "Oh good," she said, smiling up at him and he took the potion, "Your eyes are back to normal."

He looked at her curiously, wondering what she meant. Did his eyes change? Why did that happen?

"Blaise has been worried about you," Hermione said. Draco looked from Hermione to Blaise who was very pointedly avoiding his gaze. "He's offered up his mother's store of bezoars so I can make the Wolfsbane potion for the foreseeable future."

"Blaise was worried?" Draco asked, smirking as his best friend glared at him.

"I won't be during the next full moon," he announced, glaring at Hermione for revealing his poorly hidden secret. "Now that I know you're still a right arse, I'll keep my worry reserved for those who deserve it."