Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the intellectual property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A Productive Mind

Edward had been sitting in the living room for only fifteen minutes, and he was already thoroughly annoyed. His entire focus was on his bedroom upstairs where his mother and sisters were taking care of their guest. They, the men of the family, had been ushered out of the room by them, the women of their family. Esme said that they needed to change the clothes on their strange guest, which had been drenched by the storm that still raged on outside.

He had not noticed it until now, but indeed the girl was drenched from head to toe, and if they did not get her out of her clothes, she was sure to catch a nasty flu. On top of everything that had already happened to her. He noticed, however, that she was wearing a long, black coat over her white button-up blouse and pencil-grey skirt. Her attire was complete with long black socks and a pair of black and blue sneakers. She also carried a small, beaded bag around her neck. All in all, it was nothing extremely remarkable. It was clear to him from reading Alice's thoughts that his sister strongly disapproved of the choice of clothing. If that wasn't enough, then the persistent clucking noise only confirmed it. If she had any say in the matter, and he was absolutely certain that she would act on it, anyway, Alice was sure to play her favourite activity soon. Let's dress up the new, shiny doll. And whatever the girl would tell Alice would not be taken into consideration.

He had been listening to his father and brothers discuss this new development and the circumstances pertaining to that development when he heard someone gasping above them. He focused his entire mind-reading ability on the three women above, and what he was able to read and see was not something he was totally comfortable with.

"Oh my ... the poor dear! Who could have done this to her?" He heard Esme's thoughts very clearly, and when he tried seeing in the latter's mind what had shocked her so much, he wished he hadn't been that curious. The 'angel' above had a long scar marring her pale skin along her right-side, which started from just below her breast and travelled across her body towards her navel. It looked jagged and rough, and he imagined that whatever had caused that scar had also been excruciatingly painful. He also noticed that her skin also bore various scratch and cut marks as well as some bruising skin along her ribs. It looked like she'd been administered a very serious beating not long ago. There was also a thin, long line that stood out on her throat as though someone had pressed a sharp knife there and would have split it.

He heard Esme's call for Carlisle, who swiftly went up to his room and checked the injuries that had been uncovered. He could not stop himself. He got up and followed his father, but he stayed by the door as he watched the latter examine the injuries.

"It looks like that whatever has caused that scar happened a few years ago. I might be mistaken," somehow Edward doubted that, "but I'd say that this happened no more than three years ago. However, all these: the cuts, the bruises and everything else, looks like they happened not very long ago. The oldest," he pointed towards the bruises on her body, the thin line on her throat and at something on her right arm that he did not see from his point of view, "should be about four months old. The other scratches and cuts have been inflicted some two months ago. Early May I'd presume. There's nothing much I can do right now for these," Carlisle announced as he straightened himself.

"But what kind of monsters could have done that to her? She looks like she's barely twenty." Esme could not help but ask. The problem was that none of them, other than the girl lying on his bed, had the answer to this question.

"It looks like she's been in the middle of a battle-field or something like that," he heard Jasper think as he appeared by his side. It sure looked like it. After the battle with Victoria's newborn vampires and the aftermath of that, he'd thought he would not be the witness to such suffering again to mortals.

He was again ushered out of the way by his mother and made his way back to the living room, all the while pondering the mystery that was the girl currently lying unconscious on his bed. He did not understand it himself. How did she get those injuries? Some of them looked definitely nasty. One of the advantages of being a vampire was that he did not have to fear any injury unless he was being hunted down by some other vampire or the 'children of the moon' looking for his destruction. Whatever had happened to her?

"It's strange how there is no scent attached to her," he heard Carlisle and Jasper think at the same time. He had not even noticed that. To tell the truth, Edward was entirely focused on her well-being and had not even noticed if she smelled. And he did not even know why he cared that much. For the past few days, other than trying to appease his family that his depressive mood was ebbing away, he had not cared about any other thing. And that thought scared him. It wasn't that he thought that he could be attracted to a girl, who had not even opened her eyes, so quickly, but the mere idea of that scared him. He could not deal with a new heartbreak right now. He knew that whoever that girl was, that she was not likely to stay with them only because he would want her to. Did he actually want her to stay?

"She's not going to be waking up soon," said Carlisle as he picked up one of the many magazines on the coffee table and flipped through the pages for anything that might interest him.

"What is this girl thinking anyway, Eddie?" asked Emmett.

If Emmett had not asked him, Edward would not have realised that ever since the girl had 'stumbled' into their lives, he did not hear one single thought from her. He could hear the thoughts and read the minds of everyone. Even when they were asleep or in an unconscious state. Everyone except Bella. And now maybe her. He focused his mind reading abilities on the girl that lay upstairs on his bed. A bed that he had installed in his room for Bella's convenience. He knew that his current train of thought would not help alleviate his former mood, and thus he shook himself to be able to concentrate again.

He focused his entire power on the girl and was surprised when he heard a melodious voice with a thick, British accent.

"I am so going to thank Ronald Weasley for his marvellous suggestion of the Portkey for international travel. Portkey travel is one quick way to travel, Hermione." He heard her mental huff. "This is just fantastic. I am not prone to cursing but this situation, whatever it is, just calls for desperate measures. This is BLOODY fantastic. If he got hit by Ginny's Bat-Bogey hex it will be a blessing once his carrot-top head appears on my radar. He'll be sorry that—"

Edward did not hear the rest of the rant. And one very strange rant it was. It was gibberish to him. All he understood was that it was Ronald Weasley's fault that the girl was traveling from wherever she was from. "Probably England," he told himself. He knew that her name was Hermione and that she did not curse often. Hermione, it was a rare and beautiful name. But what he wanted to know was how did she travel and what was a Portkey? What was the Bat-Bogey hex?

He looked up to see his brother looking impatiently at him.

"Well, what do you have?" mentally asked Emmett.

He just raised a hand in response, asking him to keep quiet as he wanted to try again and find more. His brother only huffed in response and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'silly self-important mind-readers and their abilities'. He knew that it annoyed Emmett greatly when Alice or he would not immediately share any information they would acquire with their gift. But after everything that happened during the past hour and Emmett's attitude towards him, Edward was ready to leave him stew. He had a more important thing to do at the moment.

He again focused his ability on the girl upstairs. He needed to understand what the girl was thinking. He did not like not knowing and being left out of the loop. He concentrated hard on hearing or reading Hermione's mind. The hardest he ever tried. Something baffling happened.

He had... He did not know how to explain what happened to him. Edward found himself somehow inside of Hermione's mind. Normally, when people were asleep, unconscious or in a state that would not require them to pay attention, their minds would conjure some place familiar. A place where they liked to be and where they could think. If Edward was still able to sleep, he knew that this special subconscious place for him would be his meadow, lost in the heart of the Olympic National Park forest.

So it appeared to him that the special place for Hermione was a library. At least it appeared to be. There were large windows that allowed for bright, natural light to bathe the interior of the 'library'. There were towering shelves of what, at first, appeared to be stacked full with books aligned in a perfectly symmetrical order. When he looked more closely into the nearby rows, he understood what was stored there. Thoughts.

Hermione had a very organized mind. There were rows that were labelled 'School', 'Home', 'Work', 'Life', 'Family', 'Friends' and 'Projects'. She even had a section labelled as 'Miscellaneous'! And it was precisely in front of that section that Edward found Hermione standing with her back to him. As he'd guessed, she was petite compared to his tall frame. Even though he knew that it could be a trick of his mind, he knew he was right.

He'd learned with time that people often pictured themselves with completely different physical attributes. It was rare that people pictured themselves in their dreams or fantasies as themselves. Those who had a weight problem would see themselves either with less or with more weight so that their physical stature would be more at an advantage. But this was different. In Hermione's mind, Hermione saw only herself. She liked and accepted who and how she was and did not want to be someone else. He did not know why, but he liked that. She had curly brown hair, slightly wild even.

She was talking to herself. To Edward, it seemed that Hermione decided to make use of her temporary handicap to sort out the thoughts she had labelled as 'Miscellaneous'. Edward observed her silently. He did not dare breathe. Not that he had any need for that.

"As soon as this is finished, I'll be bringing you back. I miss you so much." She was standing in front of some image that he could not see, but he did get a glimpse of it as the thought was 'filed' in the 'Family' section which had moved forward towards her. It was an image of a couple in their late forties.

"I need to finish this theory on wandlore and their properties." The thought was sent into a sub-section in the 'Projects' section. Peering into it, he noted the finer details of the section; Priority, Consideration, Completion, Dismissal and Research. Edward concluded that Hermione's mind was strange. Definitely the strangest thing he'd ever encountered. But it was still interesting.

"Vampires and venoms," he nearly gasped, "I don't know if this is a laughing matter or if research will ever get me somewhere." The thought was filed into the 'Dismissal' sub-section.

"Let's do some more research before dismissing it completely." The thought was then sent into the 'Research' sub-section.

"Wolfsbane potion. That's nearly finished, so I might as well finish this one." Edward noted that she spoke with a satisfied voice as the thought was sent to the 'Priority' sub-section.

"Ronald Weasley!" The fond exasperation that he detected in the voice of Hermione made him smile. "Once I know what has happened to me, I'll decide how you'll repay me." He detected an underlying threat in her voice. Edward knew that Ronald Weasley, whoever he was, would pay greatly for his sins once the girl had him in her line of sight.

He let escape a small chuckle, thinking that it would not be heard, but he was mistaken.

Hermione had turned so quickly in his direction that he temporarily froze on the spot. He found himself the object of the unflinching stare of her honey brown orbs. It was like he was being examined under a microscope.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"Err, I'm Edward Cullen," he answered cautiously.

"I don't have any memory of an Edward Cullen. What are you doing inside my mind? Don't you know the meaning of the word 'privacy', Edward Cullen?" she snapped at him. He wasn't welcomed.

"I needed to know if you were okay," he supplied as reason for his intrusion.

"Well, as you can see, I'm not writhing in pain or living completely in La-La land despite the rather odd circumstances. So you know the way out?" She waved her hand at him, asking him to leave.

"I'll leave you to your sorting," he realised too late that it was the wrong thing to say when her expression turned hostile, "but I have to tell you that you're currently staying at my place after your accident."

She arched a brow in response.

"Before I ask you again to leave, would you care to explain to me, Edward Cullen, what kind of accident are you referring to?" She looked at him questioningly.

"You were hit with a baseball..." He would have asked her how she managed to find herself in the clouds, but she did not let him finish.

"Who could send a baseball with cannon speed into the clouds?" she questioned him.

"It was a dare from my brother, and the ball went flying very high." Now that he thought about it, it was plain stupid. And he'd sunk to Emmett's level.

"It is because of you, then?" He only nodded in response.

"How much time will I stay unconscious?" She was oddly calm.

"My father, who is a doctor, says that it will take a few hours."

"Right. So, Edward Cullen..." He was going to ask her to call him Edward only. It was rather irritating. "If I happen to have any lasting side-effect after this accident that would somehow qualify as a mild handicap, please be aware that I'll castrate you. Personally." She looked particularly murderous.

Shit.

"That won't be necessary," he reassured her.

"I'll be the one that'll be deciding if it's necessary or not," she told him bossily. "Just so you know the consequences, okay," she said sweetly before her face turned fierce again. "Now that you've been forewarned, I'll ask you one more thing."

"What?" He was surprisingly afraid to ask what she wanted.

"GET OUT!" she yelled.

He felt like he was being thrown out of her mind, and when he opened his eyes, he was surprised to find Emmett still standing in front of him.

He again tried to enter Hermione's mind, but he found himself hitting a wall. It was as if one thick wall had been built around the mind in which he had been a moment before.

DOUBLE SHIT!

Chapter note:

I've contemplated for a long time whether Edward could read Hermione's mind or not. I am rather satisfied with the compromise that I've got.

I've always imagined that Hermione's mind would be as organized as her life or her school work. The original chapter was not planned this way but I decided to change it because of that outrageous idea that I had. Hermione using her 'spare time' to organize her thoughts. It's possibly the craziest idea I've had in a long time and by the way, I have one very insane imagination by the way.

The chapter is not as long as I originally wanted but I hope it will still satisfy your expectations.

I have one crazy idea for a new Edmione story but I don't know if I'll have time to spare for a new project. I'll listen to any co-writing idea should there be any interested parties.

Have a great one and take care.

Ludo

Thanks to all reviewers:

waterflower20, lil-miss-sammi, YearOfJudges, In your dreams bby x3, loserbelle, ashley, crimsonprincess99, NightingaleRhapsody, Marsgoddess1, anajosephina, len, Kimay, The-tall-girl-in-green, writeme516, bbonin, posiden'sdaughter, cjewellm, klgaliza, TimeRose, ariah23, HollyAnne87, BeCkY, YesILoveMyHorse, crazikido2, deator11, saqqara08, arabellagrace, 8thweasleykid, Pineapple.X, speech of silence, LetMeLoveYou, lucilala, Toxxick Lollie, coeur de plume, LauRawrCait, Kitty-on-CRACK, CheshireCat23, Megan Consoer, Vee, Liza, Painelust, The Alternative Source, Desi-Pari Always, Banana Flavored Eskimo, Carolina Zoldyeck, Iriomote Yamaneko Nokomis, Gina619, unaveragedsimplicity, Anonymous reviewer (06/12), ShiningxXxShadowxXxThief, Azera-v, Tearainy, The Lady of the Land, Salena Knight, mekom, Rosalie Carlisle Cullen, Dark Latinas

Answers to anonymous reviewers and for those that have disabled the private message feature

TimeRose
I am always pleased to know that readers loved to read a story. It's always makes the sharing a wonderful experience.

Ashley
I therefore hope that this new chapter satisfied your curiosity.

Kimay
Yeah. Hermione being willingly in the air is something of a miracle. Of course she won't be happy; the chapter just gave an inkling of how she felt because of that.

len
I hope this chapter satisfied your curiosity.

For anajosephina & crazikido2
Yeah. I try when possible to create an original twist for any story. I want to deviate from the usual twist in the HP/Twilight crossovers where Hermione would usually move into Forks and fall for a vampire or a wolf.

Hermione being willingly in the air is something of a miracle. Of course she won't be happy; the chapter just gave an inkling of how she felt because of that.

YesILoveMyHorse
I am always pleased to know that readers loved to read a story. It's always makes the sharing a wonderful experience. I try to surprise the readers with my plot twist.

For BeCkY, LetMeLoveYou, Liza, coeur de plume & unaveragedsimplicity
I therefore hope that this new chapter satisfied your curiosity.

Vee
I understand. When I write and post a chapter, I don't always check if the information is coherent. I have a tendency to make long-winded sentences and it does not always make the reading easy. I thus opted to have a beta checking my work. I am always pleased to know that readers loved to read a story. It's always makes the sharing a wonderful experience

End Note:

I wish to end this chapter by saying that the response to this story is above my highest expectations. I take this opportunity to thank everyone that have reviewed, listed it as one of their favorites or put a story alert for it.

Thanks everyone and take care.

Ludo