Hermione hadn’t expected the yard to feel so enormous.
The morning light filtered through mist, turning every pine needle into a glimmering thread. Teddy bounded ahead of her, arms flailing, hair bright lilac with excitement. She had meant only to check the boundaries of the property—simple, harmless, routine.
But the land felt alive beneath her feet.
As Hermione knelt to examine a line of old stones marking the edge of the yard, her fingers brushed dark earth. Something hummed beneath the soil—warm, ancient, familiar in a way that tugged at her very bones.
Her breath hitched.
Shadow pulsed out from her like a heartbeat.
A ripple of darkness rolled across the yard, subtle yet powerful, stirring pine needles and rattling an old wind chime under the porch. Teddy squealed and clapped, delighted as the shadows swirled around him like a playful breeze.
Hermione snapped upright, heart pounding.
She hadn’t meant to release magic.
She hadn’t even thought about it.
The shadows faded into the ground as quickly as they’d appeared, but the echo of it lingered in the air, like a bell that had only just stopped ringing.
“Alright,” she muttered. “No touching random stones. Lessons learned.”
But the forest had already carried the message far beyond her yard.
---
SAM
The thrum hit him first—deep, strange, and wrong in all the ways that weren’t actually wrong. Not vampire. Not cold. Warm, pulsing, familiar in a way he had no name for.
He stopped mid-step on the forest path, breath catching.
“What the hell was that?” Paul muttered beside him.
Jared’s head whipped toward the La Push border. “Magic?”
Sam didn’t answer immediately. His wolf surged beneath the surface, alert, curious. It felt like an old drumbeat vibrating through the roots of the earth.
Like something waking up.
“It wasn’t a Cullen,” Sam said finally. “And it wasn’t… anything I know.”
But it came from the direction of the cottage.
The ShadowMother, the elders had whispered.
Sam clenched his jaw.
He didn’t believe in omens, but right now he felt swallowed by one.
---
Back at the cottage, Hermione had set Teddy on a blanket in the yard while she tried to wrestle a stubborn vine off the fence. Teddy, in toddler fashion, took this as an opportunity to wander far too close to the shallow slope near the treeline.
“Teddy, stay where—Teddy!”
He tripped.
Hermione didn’t think.
Shadow swallowed her.
One blink—she was across the yard. The world folded, reformed, and she was suddenly crouched at the slope’s edge with her hands around Teddy’s waist.
He giggled, entirely unhurt. Hermione trembled.
“What—what was that?” she whispered.
The shadows coiled around her like affectionate smoke.
She had moved—no, stepped—through them. Instinctively. Effortlessly.
Teddy poked her cheek.
His hair shifted to a triumphant orange.
He seemed very proud.
Hermione laughed weakly, hugging him tight.
“Well,” she whispered, “we’ll call that… Shadow Stepping. And we’re going to practice until I stop nearly passing out.”
The shadows hummed in agreement.
---
SAM
Sam didn’t like the sudden spike of power that followed the first ripple—sharper, faster.
He motioned with two fingers.
“Jared. Paul. Go check the boundary quietly. Don’t engage.”
Paul rolled his eyes. “You mean don’t startle the magical British lady Harry threatened us about?”
“Paul,” Sam warned.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll keep our distance.”
Jared transformed first, his reddish-brown wolf form shaking out its fur before tearing off through the trees. Paul followed, his silver-gray form fast and bright between towering pines.
Sam remained human. Watching. Listening. Feeling the air shift with every pulse of unfamiliar magic.
He didn’t know what she was.
But she wasn’t a threat.
He could sense that much.
Confusing, yes.
Terrifying, a little.
But dangerous? Probably only if cornered.
He exhaled slowly.
He would find out more soon.
---
Hermione had set Teddy down for his nap, shadow-rocking the crib gently, then stepped onto the porch to breathe in the cool air.
The forest was quiet.
Too quiet.
She felt them before she saw them—eyes in the dark, swirling attention, powerful presence. Her magic tingled along her skin in warning and greeting both.
A rustle to her left.
Her gaze snapped toward the tree line.
Two shapes emerged between the pines. Not fully out in the open, but far closer than before.
One wolf, large and silver-gray, watched her with sharp barely disguised curiosity.
Beside him, the reddish-brown wolf stood alert, ears pricked.
Hermione froze.
The wolves did not growl.
Did not approach.
Simply… observed.
She felt no fear.
Only recognition.
Her shadows curled at her ankles, a soft, instinctive ripple.
The wolves tensed—not in threat, but in awareness.
Hermione dipped her head in a cautious greeting.
The silver one huffed and stepped back.
The reddish one let out a low, wondering sound.
Then both melted into the trees as though swallowed by the forest itself.
Hermione released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“Well,” she whispered to the darkening woods, “hello to you too.”
The shadows hummed around her feet, pleased.
YOU ARE READING
Inheritance of Shadows
FanfictionA year after the war, Hermione Granger vanishes from Britain with a child in her arms and magic no witch should possess. Whispers say she crossed an ocean. Others say she was chased. In a small coastal town called La Push, an Alpha wolf senses a pre...
