A Freak of Nature

A/N:In this place was supposed to be Another chapter, whic I'll post in a couple of days. Since some of you were confused a little, I've decided to write this one to clear couple of things...Hope you still like the story and now...Read and hopefully Enjoy:-)


to Ravensblood, I know that she was cruing numerouse time before...I admitt it, I'm guilty in that...but since this is AU story...I wrote it just to add a dramatic act...Sorry if that's bothering you. And I'll try to clear couple of things in this chapter...everything else comes in next one which I am awaiting back from my beta.

To Lady Lynn- ( blushing madly)...my fault, I must have uploaded the wrong-rough chapter.....sorry, I've re-uploaded it. Thank you for pointing!English is not my first language, (it's Russian), so I just prefer text to be checked...


Pushing herself up from her four poster bed, Hermione slowly stood up and stretched, going to the door of the Head Girl’s suite. It was a few hours after the incident with Zabini; she still felt extremely guilty about it and wanted to apologize to him. She opened the door to the common room and walked in. Zabini was not there and when she turned to her right, she saw that the door to him room was open and empty.

Her stomach made a small growl, alerting her that she hadn’t eat yet today. Hermione glanced at her watch and saw that it was time for dinner. She didn’t bothering to put on her school robes, she decided to walk like she was: comfortable, dressed in the white school shirt with her Gryffindor tie, black skirt which ended few inches over her knees, and her black, ankle length non-heel boots.

While walking towards the door she saw the piece of parchment Zabini had tried to give her earlier. Briefly scanning it she thought of one more thing she needed to explain to Harry and Ron, besides her family history, that is.

Both of them were quite eager to learn to be an animagi and were exited about the possibility to became ones. Naturally they believed that she was going to do this with them. Well, they had been wrong.
The subject was called ‘Human Transfiguration”....and the fact was, she was not exactly a human. On the outside she was, no doubt in that. But on the inside...

She belonged to the ‘Manticore’ clan, their special breeding program which was created by Conclave thousands of years ago, which prevented her from being human on the inside.

Sometimes she thought that Ferret was right about some things...her blood for example; it was dirty in one way. Her blood was a mixed breed between all known animals. Perfect eyesight, hearing, smell, living without actual sleeping for up to few weeks (which she selfishly used when studying for her OWLs). These were only minimal qualities which she possessed but hide from others. She tried hard to control all of this but sudden mood swings were quite common to her.

Harry had always wondered how could she memorize whole book just from reading them once.The answer was-her blood.

But creation of such blood didn’t ended without knowing sacrifices.

False miscarriages (which were pushed by the ‘loving husbands’), two in a row broke those woman’s hearts who were carrying the child. It was quite commonly thought that those two deaths would give the strong spirit to a third and the only which was allowed to be born from one woman.
This fact actually explained why her father had three wives.There was no love between man and woman, only creation of the child to continue the ancient clan was in order.

The prophecy said that she didn’t have to terminate her unborn children for a first few times. She silently thanked all gods for at least that; she knew she couldn’t handle that.

The second reason was a little bit more complicated: she could turn into an animal and she already knew which one she was but it would be too dangerous for a people around her if she were to transform. Even MaGonagall in her cat form would be in danger of death near Hermione. She had only one form to turn into. A Manticore...

The Manticore was a legendary, deadly creature, a kind of chimera with the head of a man — often with horns; gray eyes; three rows of iron, shark-like teeth; a loud, trumpet/pipe-like roar; the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion.

If you take a translation: a man eater.

She did not want someone to get harmed and get herself sent to Azkaban for transforming.

Putting the parchment back on the table, she sighed deeply, walked out of the dorm, and headed to the Great Hall. It was time to start telling the truth to her friends…

Theodore Nott was sitting at the Slytherin table, quietly eating his roast beef and observing his friend. Blaise had came over to him and Millicent few moments ago and sat down. Blaise Zabini was acting as usual, not talking much (Millie did all the work in this department) and strangely touching his neck every few minutes.

“Do you,” Blaise suddenly spoke, “have that salve for bruises?”

Theo felt surprised by Blaise’s question. “Yeah, I think there’s a bit left. But I need to get another one bottle; last Quiditch practice was terrible.”

“Why do you need it?” Millie cut into the conversation with a knowing smile on her face, which was starting to irritate Blaise.

“I just need it.”

“Surely not to hide those hickies you have on your neck,” she giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.

“You’ve got hickies?” Theo leaned a bit closer to him, examining his neck. He finally saw what Bullstrode was talking about. There was couple of small bruises covering his neck although he could only see part of them.

“It’s not what you both are thinking right now.”

“Really?” Millie raised her eyebrow at this. Her mind started to wonder who girl to give Blaise love bites was. Surely he would tell her and Theo about her. ”About damn time, I tell you.”

“These aren’t hickies or anything of the sort,” he snapped angrily.

“Then what are they?”

Blaise slowly pushed down the collar of his shirt, revealing, not love bites, but clearly visible fingerprints.

Millicent gasped in shock and Blaise quickly covered them again.

“Who did this?” asked Theo in a hiss. He was thankful now that they were sitting at the end of the table. Blaise did not reply and was looking towards Gryffindor House table. Theo followed Blaise’s gaze.

Hermione Granger was the last one to come into the Hall and was now was heading over to Potter and Weasley. She was looking tense as she said something to Potter who only nodded in reply. Turning around, her gaze fell on the Slytherin table and stopped at Blaise for a second before she proceeded to the Head Table.

“Salazar’s socks! Don’t tell me..”He started again “Granger? She does’nt seem like the violent type to me.”

“She did break Malfoys nose back in third year,” added Millicent .After looking at boy’s reaction to her statement she continued, “Wait…you didn’t know?”

“Forget about it. I should get going.”With that Blaise stood up and went to the Head Table as well.

They sat together in silence, eating and drinking. However, the tension between them was so thick that it could have been cut with a dull knife. The main source of this was Hermione. She was still thinking how to say ‘I am sorry’ in a proper way when Zabini broke the silence, pouring the pumpkin juice in his glass.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked, not looking at her.

“Hmm...” She looked at him quizzically. His facial expression unreadable. “You’re angry.”

Her simple statement made him roll his eyes and turn his eyes at her “Why shouldn’t I be, Gryff?” His bright eyes seemed to bore holes in hers. Hermione desperately wanted to break their contact, but had to stay until the end. “Not everyday girls are throwing themselves at me, wanting to choke and kill….What have I done to you?”

“It’s not you…it’s me.”

“And?”

“I can’t tell you about it.”

“When you can, you know there to find me.” He put his napkin aside and stood up walking and walked out of the Great Hall. He had completely lost his appetite

When she finally satisfied her hunger, she stood up and walked to Harry and Ron. It was time to speak with the boys

A/N: in the next chapter will be the full story of Manticore clan you now Hermione, she likes to talk...so stay tuned:-)