Chapter 2

The Wolves

River Edge might be a small inn, but it was cozy and had a nice relaxing ambience. Hermione liked it. It certainly was worth every penny she spent. Her room was spacious and clean, her bed was comfortable and the breakfast buffet was delicious. By the time she finished her pancakes, it was already 8 o'clock. As promised, she called Harry, Ginny and George.

She told them about her meeting with Charlie, that he was so nice and welcoming. The trio was glad to hear it. They were also very supportive of her plan to take the paternity test, but when she told them about Isabella Swan, Ginny and George had a few unkind words for the girl. The only thing she left out of the conversation is Edward. She decided not to tell her friends about the vampire yet.

Before she left London, she had researched the record of magical creatures in Forks. She found the list empty. Meaning Edward was living there without the knowledge of MACUSA (The American version for Ministry of Magic). She could report it, but she was never one to make an uninformed decision. She needed to be sure first of the situation before making any moves.

Charlie had called her after breakfast. He said he had arranged for them to take their DNA Sample today at his lunch break, which made Hermione's stomach lurch. Nervousness and excitement filled her at the same time. It's the same feeling she had each time she had to taken an exam. She was anxious but she knew she would do great.

To fill the time and calm her nerves, Hermione stayed all morning in her room scanning every book she bought, looking for information about vampires. She found three books with relevant information: The Dark Arts (her old Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook), The Living Dead (an encyclopedia of living dead creatures), and much to her dismay, Gilderoy Lockhart's Voyages with Vampires.

"'How to kill vampire… Spell to defend yourself against vampire… Vampire's weaknesses' This is not what I'm looking for." Hermione shut The Dark Arts closed, frustrated that she hardly found any useful information. She didn't want to kill Edward, she just wanted to find out what makes him different from Sanguini and the likes she met before.

Gilderoy Lockhart's book was no help either. It was focusing entirely on him. The vampires he mentioned in his book was more of a sidekick to his superhero story. He barely mentioned them.

She was just about to read The Living Dead, when she heard a knock on her door. Charlie had come to get her.

Shoving the books into her handbag, she and Charlie left the inn. Fifteen minutes later they arrived at a small one-floor building coated in pale white paint. The parking lot was almost empty when they pulled in, and if it wasn't for the sign in the front lawn that said Forks Community Hospital, Hermione wouldn't have guessed it was a hospital. It just wasn't as big as St. Mungo or any other Muggle hospital she saw back in London.

When they entered the building, they were immediately greeted by a gorgeous looking young woman sitting at the reception counter.

"Ah, Chief Swan." Her bright blue eyes glinted with excitement when she looked at Hermione. "This must be the girl."

"Yes, this is Hermione Granger. The girl I was telling you about yesterday." Charlie answered.

"I see she has your eyes." The woman said, her eyes carefully studying Hermione's facial features.

Charlie stared awkwardly at the floor, not sure how to respond to the statement. He was sure Hermione was his daughter, but he was not used to having other people point out their similarities like they were a normal family. It made him feel uncomfortable, yet happy at the same time. Hermione seemed to feel the same way, because she was rubbing her arm nervously while blushing.

"Oh, you two are so cute. There's no need to get that embarrassed." The woman chuckled. Charlie raised his face and glared at the woman.

"Alright cut it out, Melissa." Charlie grunted. "Hermione, this is my acquaintance, Melissa Grant."

"Melissa Grant. Nice to meet you." Melissa said.

"I'm Hermione Granger, nice to meet you as well." Hermione replied.

"You have a beautiful accent." Melissa smiled heartily and Hermione couldn't help but return her smile.

"Thank you."

"Dr. Winston will be ready in a moment. In the meantime why don't you take a seat and make yourself comfortable." Melissa pointed at the uncomfortable looking rows of chairs at the waiting room behind them.

Charlie and Hermione sat themselves down and waited. Hermione ached to continue her reading, but she couldn't possibly read books about magic in front of Charlie. Her books were bewitched to looked like Muggle books, but she still couldn't take the risk of Charlie catching a glimpse of the book's real content. So she settled for last years issue of Vogue that was in the magazine stack, while Charlie watched the sports channel from the TV hanging on the wall.

"Charlie." A gentle masculine voice suddenly called.

Hermione turned her attention from the magazine to the man who was calling Charlie. He was a tall, really handsome, pale man with a sturdy built and blond hair.

"Dr. Cullen." Charlie said as he stood up to greet the man.

"How many times do I have to tell you. It's just Carlisle." The man said in amusement.

"Right, Carlisle." Charlie repeated gawkily.

"And who might this beautiful young lady be?" Carlisle's eyes turned to her and Hermione felt like she had seen those golden orbs before.

"This is Hermione Granger. I assume Edward and Bella have told you about our situation." Charlie said.

"They might have mentioned it in passing." Carlisle nodded. "It's nice to meet you Miss. Granger. I'm Carlisle Cullen, Edward's father." He held out his hand.

So he is his father. No wonder his same gold eyes feel familiar. He was also as pale as Edward. But aside from that, he doesn't look at all like Edward. The two men shared little of the same facial features.

"Hermione Granger. Pleasure." Hermione took his hand and she could feel how cold it was. He too was a vampire. Hermione instantly created a barrier to protect her mind. Yesterday, his son rudely forced himself into her mind. Using Occlumency, Hermione had quickly thrown him out but she still couldn't guarantee his father wouldn't try to do the same. She needed to be careful around them.

She must have been staring a little too intense at Carlisle, because the next second he asked. "Are you alright Miss. Granger?"

"Yes." She said, pulling back her hand. "I don't mean to be rude, but you look a little too young to be Edward's father."

"I get that a lot. Despite how I look, I am nearly forty." Carlisle let out a small laugh. "And Edward is my adopted child."

"He has four more children." Charlie added.

"Really?" Hermione's eye widened. There are more of them?

Carlisle noticed her expression, though he didn't understand why she looked so surprised. "Yes. I would love to have you over sometime and introduce them to you."

"S-Sure. I would love that." Hermione flinched at how croaky her voice came out. She cleared her throat and continued. "Tell me Dr. Cullen, how long have you been a doctor here?"

"How long was it again?" Carlisle asked himself, tapping his chin. Hermione had to admit the man was looking incredibly handsome in this current pose. "I think it was about two years."

"Two years?!" Hermione shrieked a little too loud.

Carlisle and Charlie raised their brow, looking weirdly at Hermione.

"Is something wrong with my answer?" Carlisle asked with a friendly smile, but by the way his eyes bore at her, Hermione felt like he was pressing for answer.

"Nothing." Hermione said.

But she was confused. She never heard of vampires lasting so long, living and working with humans and blood every day. Carlisle must have an amazing control of his thirst, otherwise none of his bleeding patients would make it out alive. And if that were to happen, surely MACUSA would have heard of it. This must have something to do with their eye color. That's the only thing that differentiates them from the other blood-sucking vampires Hermione knew.

Her thought was cut short when Charlie tapped her shoulder.

"Melissa is calling us." He pointed at the reception desk with his chin, where Melissa was waving at them.

Hermione nodded. She took a last good look at Carlisle Cullen, and just then she realised he had such gentle eyes that made him look like the tenderest and kindest person you ever met. And it made it even harder for Hermione to believe he would harm anybody. Still, she was only assuming and she would need to do more research to make sure everything in Forks was alright. She tried to put on a polite smile to Carlisle.

"It's nice to meet you, Dr. Cullen."

"It's nice to meet you too, Miss. Granger." Carlisle smiled just as politely.

The process took less than two hours to finish. The swabbing for the sample took less than ten minutes but the amount of documents they needed to fill out was tremendous.

When they were done, Charlie's lunch hour was over. He looked apologetic when he dropped her at the small diner near the inn, feeling guilty that he couldn't accompany her for lunch. It took Hermione three times of 'I'm okay, I can eat alone' to convince Charlie to finally get back to work.

Hermione entered the diner and sat in the booth at the corner of the room. She ordered a plate of turkey sandwiches with fries and a glass of lemon tea. When the waitress left, she pulled out her bewitched copy of The Living Dead from her handbag and started reading. She quickly flipped to the vampires section.

Her eyes moved quickly between the words. Her hand busy turning the pages every minute. She was so busy thinking and reading she didn't realize when the waitress bought her food. Or when three young men entered the diner and sat at the booth next to her.

There are two type of vampires, easily distinguished by the color of their eyes. The ones who drink human blood have red eyes. The other ones, have gold eyes.

"Aha!" She unconsciously screamed in joy when she found what she was looking for.

The whole diner was looking at her. Fortunately, the building was not that crowded. Only the waitress in the front counter, a couple middle-aged women that sat at the opposite end of the room and three young men that sat next to her booth.

She smiled apologetically to all of them before concentrating back on her book.

Gold eyed vampire feast on animal blood. This is an unpopular lifestyle as animal blood is not as satisfying. Less than 1 percent of the vampire population recorded choose this lifestyle.

"Excuse me."

Hermione quickly closed her books when she heard a very deep voice calling her. She whipped her head to the native American man standing right next to her table. He was about 6' tall and really muscular.

"Can I help you?" Hermione asked awkwardly, still embarrassed by the fact that she just yelled like that in public.

"I can't help but notice you're not from here." The man said with an enthusiastic tone.

"I'm visiting someone here." Hermione answered. "Why?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." He said with a toothy grin, noticing her look of discomfort. "We're just not used to seeing new faces here in Forks. So when we do, we're all over them."

"Oh… All right then." Hermione nodded.

"I'm Quill by the way. Quill Ateara." He said. "Those are my friends." He pointed to his booth. "The grumpy looking one is Paul Lahote and the shy one is Embry Call."

"Hello." Hermione waved at them. The grumpy looking one, as Quill so lovingly put, Paul, nodded while Embry gave her a small smile.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Quill asked.

"Sure." Hermione shrugged. She figured there was nothing wrong with getting to know more people, since Charlie is the only friendly face she knew in Forks.

"Great. Hey guys, get your ass over here." Quill called to his friends.

Paul and Embry looked like they minded, but they still came to her booth.

"Mind if I sit beside you?" Quill asked. Hermione nodded, then slid further into the booth making room for Quill to sit while Paul and Embry sat across from them.

"So what were you yelling about earlier?" Paul asked and Hermione felt her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"It was just this calculus problem." She showed them the book she had been reading. Advanced Calculus was printed on its cover. "I've been stuck with the problem for a while so when I finally solved it, I just couldn't help myself." Her answer was half true.

"I would yell too if I could ever finish a calculus problem." Quill joked.

"Only because you're an idiot." Embry snorted.

"Oh shut up Embry!" Quill stuck his tongue out making Embry smirk. "So Hermione, where did you came from?"

Embry rolled his eyes at his question. "You heard her accent. She's clearly British."

"I know that! I mean which part, what city. In case you didn't know, England is a big country" Quill retorted.

"I'm from London." Hermione answered, finally taking notice of her food and drink that had been sitting for a while. She stirred her tea with her straw before slurping on the beverage. The cook was a little too generous with the sugar.

"How are you liking Forks so far?" Embry asked.

"It's fine so far. I haven't been here long enough."

"This place is nothing compared to big city like London. There is not much to do here, but if you enjoy surfing or whale watching, there's this beautiful beach, La Push, about a 20 minutes drive from here." Quill explained.

"Really?" Hermione propped her chin on her hand and looked at Quill with interest. She hasn't been to a beach in a long time. Shell Cottage was a different story. They were hiding and she didn't have any time to take a leisurely walk along the beach or enjoy a nice swim.

"Yeah. We're all hanging there this Saturday. You want to come along?" Quill asked cheerfully. Paul kicked his leg under the table, clearly unhappy with the situation, but Quill ignored him.

"So what do you say, Hermione?" He asked again.

"Well…" She trailed off. She wanted to go, of course. And Quill was great. He was easy going and friendly, and Hermione felt comfortable with him. Embry didn't talk much but she could tell he didn't mind having her. On the other hand, Paul clearly didn't share the same opinion. He might not like having a stranger around so much.

She thought silently for a while before finally answering. "I guess I can go this Saturday."

"Great!" Quill exclaimed happily. Embry gave her a small nod, and Paul, as expected, grunted silently.

"So should we pick you up here?" Quill asked.

"Oh no. I wouldn't want to trouble you. I'll just ask my acquaintance to drive me there or catch a taxi." Hermione said.

"Ask your acquaintance. The taxi fare is ridiculous." Embry suggested.

"Embry's right. But really, Hermione. We don't mind driving you there." Quill tried to convinced her.

"I'll ask my acquaintance." Hermione insisted. "But if he is unable to drive me, I'll gladly take your offer."

"Good enough." Quill shrugged. He pulled his phone from his jean pocket and gave it to Hermione. "Do you mind giving me your number?"

"As long as you give me yours." She grinned. "Otherwise how can I call you if I need a ride?"

Charlie called her later that evening. He wouldn't be able to meet her for dinner or come and check in on her at the inn again that day. He was assigned to a new burglar case and had been extremely busy. But he promised to meet her tomorrow for lunch. With nothing else to do, after dinner, Hermione took a walk to the forest behind the inn.

Forks was surrounded by forest and woods as far as the eyes could see, which was convenient for her. She needed the place to train. Nobody was stupid enough to take a walk in the forest at this time of night. So there would be no interruption.

She never told anybody, not even Harry and Ron, but she had been secretly training to become an animagus ever since the beginning of her sixth year. The process was indeed complicated, long, and difficult as Remus once told her. Especially the one where she had to hold a mandrake leaf in her mouth for a whole month without accidentally swallowing it, but giving up was not in her dictionary. She keep up and had managed to follow the steps almost to the last one, but before she was able to complete the ritual, she had to go on the run with Harry and Ron.

After the final battle ended, she had to repeat everything from the very beginning again. She was struggling to balance her secret training and her busy life at first, but in the end, she managed. Finally, two weeks before coming to Forks, the last electrical storm came and she finished her transformation.

The first time she transformed was excruciating. It took every bit of her energy to maintain her consciousness and her form. She was only able to maintain her animagus form for three minutes before she reverted to her human form and passed out. She had been improving, but still didn't like to slack off. So she decided to continue her training here, deep in the forest.

After walking far enough into the forest, she stopped. She closed her eyes and chanted the spell. She could feel the raise in her body heat. Her skin felt like it was burning, but she endured it. She kept her focus and her mind calm. Her body grew twice her side and as she dropped to her hands and knees on the ground, she finally transformed into a lioness.

She roared loudly after the pain had passed and walked slowly on her paws, adjusting to her new form. She still wasn't used to walking on four feet. Her walk gradually gained speed and when she felt more comfortable she finally leap on, running through the forest. She always liked the sensation of the passing wind in her face. She felt free.

She ventured further into the forest until she heard a howling sound not far from her. Another howl followed, and then another one and another one. There were wolves near her. And at that current moment she wasn't sure she could beat them, should they attacked her. So she retraced her steps.

When she almost reached the outer side of the forest, she transformed back into her human form and took a glance at her wrist watch. Twelve minutes and still conscious. Definitely better than the last time. She smiled proudly at herself.

As she was about to take the step to leave the forest. She heard what sounded like paws pounding against the ground. Many of them and they were coming in her direction, gathering speed at each second. Less than ten seconds later, she was surrounded by at least a dozen wolves, and not just ordinary wolves. Eight feet tall wolves.

"Bloody hell." She cursed. She'd seen a lot of wolves, hell even werewolves. But never as big as the pack in front of her. One of the wolves standing in the front, the biggest one, the one with black fur, slowly approached her and she felt her heart rate rise rapidly. Her hand gripping around her wand holster, tightening as she prepared hex spells in her mind in case the wolf attacked her.

The wolf growled and bared its sharp fangs, looked about ready to attack her, but then three other wolves stepped to the side of the biggest wolf. One of them, the one with chocolate brown fur, shook his head, letting out a small whimper, like it was pleading something with the black wolf. The other two wolves nodded. They grunted and growled as if they were arguing with each other.

Finally, the biggest wolf looked at her again and with hesitation turned away from her. As the biggest wolf ran from her, the pack followed suit and leaving her alone.

"What just happened?"

A/N :

Thank Lord I'm finally able to update!

First of all, to all my reader and reviewers, I am really sorry for this super late update and after I just stated in the previous chapter that I planned to update every week or two.

But life has been crazy. College has been crazy. This will be my last semester so I'm putting every single energy on that. But fear not, I will most certainly not abandoning this story. Even if I might be late on update.

So thank you all for being so patient and thank you for all your support and kind reviews: Lost O'Fallon Girl, leonix2009, Suzululu4moe, simbacurls, Fatalromance, Bentears , Jasper'sDarlinBunny, LeonaMasha, MayhemBunny, coffeecoffeecoffee04, alexisrodgers, Banana Flavored Eskimo, NYFanFic, Guest #1, Ash, Guest #2, Cottonkey, mewshoshe and Nora.

You guys are the best and I hope you enjoy this chapter and what will come :)

Also, shout out for Luumus: thank you for ponting my mistakes. Truth to be told grammar isn't really my strong suit. I have beta readers who helped me with it, but we might still miss something. Even so, I'm glad to hear you enjoy the story so far :)

Special thank you for my beta readers killikate and CountryBaby9 for without them this chapter will also be difficult to read.

Please leave a review and let me know what do you think of the chapter.

Until we meet again :D