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She used to love flowers. She used to love smelling them, seeing them and holding them. But that was before he started leaving flowers for her.
It had started in her third year on the night of a full moon. She had thought it was Remus at first.
After every full moon there were flowers left outside her window. At first she liked it, at first she thought it was sweet.
It wasn’t until her fifth year that she found out it wasn’t Remus. It was Fenrir Greyback. He had come for Remus and seen her. He had scented her.
He had claimed her as his mate and now no one could get close to her or they would end up dead.
Ron was killed in their sixth year, and Cormac was torn apart. She didn’t realise what was happening until she was on the run with Theodore and Harry and she had fallen for Theo. That was when he left the rose on Theo’s chest.
When they were captured he told her she was his mate and that there would be no one else but him.
Then he saw the look between her and Theo and he killed him the next full moon and left the rose. That was her last straw— no matter how much she liked someone she wouldn’t get too close.
She wasn’t going to be at fault for anymore people losing their lives.
Hermione hadn’t told anyone, not even Harry. She couldn’t have them look at her differently when she told them that the reason three people were dead was because of her.
So she didn’t tell anyone. The roses never stopped coming, and she began to hate them. No one could understand why she would freak out at the sight of the flower.
Then the word came— he was dead. Fenrir Greyback was finally dead. Someone had hit him with a stray curse and he was finally gone.
That was when Hermione felt something within her snap— she didn’t know what it was but she couldn’t stop crying after that.
Remus came and seen her that day, “You know I know.”
“What do you know?” She sobbed uncontrollably as he sat there and looked at her with pity.
“That you were his mate,” Remus stated.
“How?”
“The flowers at first. That was my first tip. Then I felt the pull to protect you as my Alpha and I didn’t understand until I went to Dumbledore. He explained everything,” Remus explained.
“He knows too?” She asked.
“Yeah, only us and Nymphadora though,” he told her.
“Why, why does she know?” Hermione asked, looking up at him.
“Because she could feel the pull too after we mated, she asked me about it and I had to tell her. It’s a mate thing,” Remus said.
“Why am I feeling like this? I hated him,” Hermione said.
“Because even if you hated him, the bond in your soul didn’t. It needed him,” he said.
“Thank you for explaining, you can go now,” Hermione said to him.
Once Remus had left, Hermione sat there for a few more hours and then got up and cleaned her apartment. She wasn’t going to let him control any part of her life any longer.
Fenrir Greyback may have been her mate. But she wasn’t going to let it stop her from finally finding someone who she could actually love.