A/N: Ok, fine. There will be some Bella bashing. Please feel free to review! They always make my day. Whether it's a compliment, suggestion, or criticism, I'm all ears.
Chapter 6
Jacob looked at Hermione through the trees of the forest as she walked into the school. It has been two weeks since Jacob imprinted and every single minute of each day was spent looking after and protecting Hermione. He had once tried to approach her but was stopped by Sam who said to wait a while longer. The entire pack and Cullen clan were wary of Hermione and this caused tension amongst the group and Jacob. Any plans made to deal with the "arising issue", as they called it, would cease whenever Jacob entered the room. Only Jared, Sam, Quil, Emily, and Kim were slightly sympathetic as they have all experienced the effects of imprinting before. Of course Seth, being Seth, had no ill feelings towards Hermione; however, Leah was the worst of the pack, sending crude comments towards Jacob when in wolf form.
Jacob could not help but feel angry at his supposed "friends", especially Bella who was so quick to judge when she knew nothing of what he was currently feeling. She had become very distant, whether from the imprinting or the incident where she was hurt, Jacob did not know. Due to this anger, Jacob had taken to ignoring most of the Cullens and the pack whenever he could, all except for Seth of course. Most of his attention was placed on Hermione anyway. Ever since he imprinted, Jacob yearned to approach her, smell her although her scent is supposedly "non-existent", touch her porcelain looking skin, and most of all, speak to her. Every single second that passed with Jacob unable to near her, the ache in his heart grew and now it was nearly unbearable. Therefore, he had come with a specific mission today that would hopefully relieve this ache within him.
Hermione knew the shifter was watching her. It had been occurring every day and night since that unintended meeting at the library. However, she never made a move to stop him or make it known that she was aware of his presence. For some unknown reason, Hermione felt warm and protected whenever he was near. Ever since the war, she had become very unfamiliar with these feelings as she was always the one doing the protecting. Therefore, she was hesitant to so readily push this feeling away. The feeling was so nice in fact, that Hermione lowered her wards around her house whenever he came during the night just so she could feel this reassurance that she was protected. After that meeting at the library, the Cullens have been less scrutinizing and Hermione took this as a sign that they were unaware of her vampirism. However, she has only been receiving more attention from Bella in the form of glares. I wonder what her problem is, Hermione thought.
It was now lunch and Hermione had come to loath this time of day. Jessica always spoke of her shopping tendencies and the boys spoke, like any other average teenage boy, of girls and sports. Hermione did not know how much more of it she could take. However, she would rather sit with them than sit alone as sitting alone would lead to other people approaching her and only the heavens knew how that would turn out.
Hermione was currently sucking on a blood pop while zoning out Mike's rant about his ever disappearing six pack, focusing on a group of moronic hooligans attempting to snort their lasagna. Suddenly, Mike's voice, including everyone else's, completely disappeared, leaving the cafeteria eerily silent. Hermione looked up to see two Cullens, whom she recognized to be Edward and Alice, walking towards her table with absolute grace. Both stopped in front of Hermione and looked at each other as if hesitant to continue with what they were planning. Nonchalantly, Hermione raised an eyebrow and removed the blood pop from her mouth. "Well?"
Everyone was watching the conversation expectantly. "We would like to invite you to our home for dinner." Alice stated kindly with a smile. Woah. Everyone in the cafeteria gasped and began whispering with one another. Even Hermione had not expected that and she looked up, carefully masking her shock with a poker face.
With a monotone voice, Hermione replied, "And why should I go?" This erupted into even louder discussions, some not very pleasant to hear.
"What the hell. Are the Cullens high or something?"
"I'm not even allowed to breathe the same air as them yet they invite her to their house!"
"That bitch! How dare she talk to them like that! She doesn't know how lucky she is."
Hermione mentally rolled her eyes at the conversations she had heard while quirking an eyebrow to gesture the Cullens to continue. "Well," Edward stated, "we believe that you have yet to be formally welcomed in Forks. We would like to give you that welcome." Hermione stared blankly at him, then Alice, and finally looked up to the ceiling and sucked her blood pop. Hermione knew that the Cullens had ulterior motives, but what? She did not know if she should attend this "dinner" or not. On one hand, they so obviously had ulterior motives and hiding the fact that she is a vampire would be difficult when having to eat. On the other hand, Hermione would be able to become close with the Cullens, acquaint herself with them and find out more about them and possibly the pack. Hermione turned back to Alice and Edward. All was quiet in the cafeteria and everyone, except for the vampires, fidgeted in anticipation.
"Alright." Alice smiled brightly at Hermione's response.
"Great! Come tonight, at 8. We'll be expecting you. I trust you'll find out where we live." With that, Alice skipped away with Edward following. They met with the other Cullens and Bella and together, they left the cafeteria. The closing of the door behind them was the trigger to the chatter that erupted afterwards, most likely all about the incident that had just occurred.
"Well, well," Jessica said, catching Hermione's attention. "Aren't you lucky? You just arrived and you're already making friends with the Cullens." Hermione could sense the bitterness in her voice and smirked. Oh, Jessica. You have no idea.
"Why the hell would you do that!" Rosalie growled at Edward and Alice. The Cullens and Bella were currently in the parking lot, discussing the occurrences in the cafeteria.
"Rosalie, calm down. I'm sure Alice and Edward have a logical explanation for their actions." Alice smiled at her mate and went to grab his hand.
"Thank you, Jasper." Alice said while pecking said mate on the cheek. She then turned to Rosalie who still looked as though she were ready to murder someone. "We have been suspicious of Hermione for the past two weeks. What better way to ensure that she is or is not a vampire and find out more about her than have her over for dinner!" Rosalie, who was now slightly calmer than before, rolled her eyes.
"Have you forgotten something, genius? We can't eat! She'll obviously notice that and then think we're suspicious. Also, I thought we already established that she is not a vampire. Why do you keep trying to prove that wrong?" Edward intruded into the conversation at that moment.
"Alice and I were ready to let it go but, think about it." Edward said, attempting to persuade the group. "She has extremely pale skin, is inhumanely beautiful, and have you noticed?" Everyone in the group was now looking at Edward curiously. "There is no warmth radiating from her." It was silent as the group contemplated what he said.
Rosalie, being the first to snap out of her reverie, replied, "Ok fine, that's true, but, we've already confirmed that there are more facts that counter the idea that she is a vampire. Are you just finding an excuse to kill her? Is that it? If that's true, then let's just kill her! It's not like anyone will miss her!" The other Cullens frowned at Rosalie's statement.
"Rosalie," Jasper stated in a reprimanding tone, "you know that's wrong. Especially since Jacob had imprinted on Hermione. Killing her would mean breaking Jacob to the point where no amount of fixing could repair the damage. It would kill him, literally." Bella growled angrily at this.
"We should just kill her! She's adding so many problems to the one we're already facing with Victoria. We can just not tell Jacob. It's not like she's any good for him anyway." Edward looked disappointedly at Bella.
"Bella, we can't just kill her when we don't know for sure that she is a threat. She could be a normal human being, like you, for all we know. Besides, even if we don't tell Jacob, he would be able to feel his imprint leaving the world and know that she's dead. I'm disappointed that you actually considered the idea." Bella lowered her gaze ashamedly.
"Anyways, let's just see what happens tonight. Even if she is a vampire, that doesn't necessarily mean she's a threat. Oh, maybe we can even become friends! We can be shopping buddies! I mean, where did she get her clothes? It's always hoodies and jeans. Really, she needs a fashion intervention." Alice exclaimed, slightly talking to herself. Everyone rolled their eyes at her Alice-like tendencies.
"Let's go home and prepare our plan for tonight. Nothing is to go wrong." Edward stated seriously as they all began to walk towards their respective cars.
"Wait," Bella called, catching the Cullens' attention. "It's the middle of the school day. We have to go back to class."
"Honey," Emmett said overdramatically while placing an arm around Bella's shoulder. "We've gone this school like, what, ten times? Who the hell even knows? We know every single lesson the teachers have planned for each day. We probably even memorized their lessons word for word! And trust me, sister, you do not want to dissect that frog in bio today. It smells like ass." With that, the group retreated, laughing, to their cars and began driving to the Cullen home.
Hermione had just been approaching her parked Bentley while contemplating the plans of the Cullens when she was stopped by a large, tanned figure. Looking up, she recognized that it was the shifter who had been following her. As if to prove the fact, she began to experience that warm feeling of reassurance that only came when he was near and Hermione had to resist the urge to touch him to strengthen this feeling. "Hello." Hermione stated kindly, a total opposite of how she acted in front of the Cullens. She did not know why she acted like this, but the person in front of her made it easy to feel comfortable. "Jacob, was it?"
Jacob stood shocked while attempting to analyze every aspect of her before going to her eyes. "You know my name?" Hermione smiled slightly.
"Well, I believe it is only polite to learn the name of the man I bumped into at the library two weeks ago." Jacob's eyes widened at the memory.
"About that, I'm so sorry! I just wasn't looking where I was going and I was so distracted. I don't know what got into me that ti-," Hermione quickly ended his quick rant before Jacob suffocated.
"It's quite alright. I wasn't hurt in any way. By the way, I'm Hermione. So, what brings you here?" Jacob blushed and looked away while rubbing the nape of his neck.
"Well, I wanted to say that I was sorry about bumping into you and maybe-," Jacob paused and the blush in his cheeks deepened. "Maybe I can make it up to you tonight. I know this nice Italian restaurant in Port Angeles." The small smile that had been adorning Hermione's face instantaneously dropped. Is he asking me on a date? Hermione questioned to herself. She was torn. On one hand, Jacob seemed nice and Hermione had this great urge to say yes for some reason. On the other hand, they had only just met and with everything that was happening and had happened before, Hermione wasn't sure if she was ready to date just yet. Along with this, this would be a betrayal to Ron. Also, this may just be some sort of plot to get close to her in order to find out more about her. The last thought seemed to bring Hermione back to her senses and her poker face from before returned. How could she trust this man so easily when he had been one of the shifters planning against her a few weeks ago? Where have her war instincts suddenly disappeared to?
"I'm sorry, Jacob. I am going to have to decline your offer." Hermione stated coldly. "You see, I had promised the Cullens that I would attend dinner with them this evening. Goodbye." With that, Hermione walked around the stupefied Jacob, entering her car and quickly speeding out of the parking lot.
Jacob could practically hear his heart crack as Hermione drove further and further away. She said no, Jacob thought to himself. At that moment, Jacob scoffed. Of course she said no. I just met her! Why was I so hopeful? He could feel the sadness eating away at him, the feeling growing stronger by the second. The memory of his rejection began to play in his mind as he slowly walked over to his motorcycle but, suddenly, he stopped. She said she was going to the Cullens'. The Cullens. Gradually, Jacob could feel his sadness dissipating into unbearable anger and with that, he mounted his bike and Speeded off onto the road with only one thought in mind. The Cullens.
"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Jacob yelled at the Cullens and Bella who were standing on the Cullens' front porch while getting off of his bike. Bella was cowering in shock behind Edward while the other Cullens looked at Jacob worriedly.
"Jacob," Carlisle began calmly, "what is the problem?" Jacob sneered while approaching the group who all moved to protect Bella.
"I'll tell you what the problem is! The problem is that you invited my imprint over for 'dinner'! Really, dinner? Couldn't you think of a better excuse? Why not just say, 'hey, want to come over so we can have you for dinner?'" Jacob was now seething and breathing heavily while Rosalie was growling angrily at his comments.
"Jacob, please," Carlisle replied, "Come inside so we can talk civilly." This seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Jacob began to grow even redder with anger.
"Civil? Civil! Civil is approaching Hermione and asking her if she is a vampire. Civil is not inviting my imprint over for 'dinner' just so you can hurt her! What has she done to you since she's been here? Huh? That's right, nothing. I will not let you hurt my imprint."
"Jacob, we only invited her to find out more about her. We had and have no intention of hurting your imprint, whatsoever. Trust us." Edward said warily while eyeing the trees of the woods.
"Trust you? You expect me to trust a bunch of leeches with my imprint? This is a joke! You're vampires! All you know is killing others for blood and you expect me to trust you?" Jacob scoffed loudly.
"Jacob, stop!" Sam yelled loudly as he and the rest of the pack exited the forest. Jacob looked at his pack, wide eyed.
"Are you kidding me? You're supporting them?" Jacob asked incredulously. The pack was looking at him with sad eyes.
"Jacob, we're sorry, but we believe this is necessary. The Cullens won't hurt her. We all promise to you that she will return home safe. We are just trying to find out more about her. Truthfully, I know you would want to find out more about her too." Sam stated sympathetically.
Jacob looked into the eyes of every single pack member and then he looked to Bella. Having met eye to eye, Bella turned away and stayed silent. Jacob sighed loudly for everyone to hear. "She has one scratch on her body, you're all dead." With that, Jacob climbed onto his motorcycle and exited the scene, leaving a baffled group of vampires and shape shifters and one scared human.
Hermione was pacing in her living room, biting her quickly healing thumb as she had done on her first day at Forks. It was currently seven o'clock and she had yet to get ready for dinner with the Cullens. She had spent four hours contemplating how she was going to go about this meeting. How would she deal with the questions that were so obviously going to come? How would she find out more about their lives? Hermione knew she shouldn't worry so much but, she was Hermione Granger. It was in her nature.
Seeing that she only had less than an hour left to prepare, Hermione ran upstairs to her room and quickly showered. Coming out of the steaming bathroom, Hermione grabbed her wand from the bed and dried her hair, allowing it to come down in ringlets as a half up, half down hairstyle. She entered her closet and dug through the many hoodies and jeans until she finally found what she was looking for. Hermione pulled out a black lace dress that hugged her curves perfectly. The bottom of the dress ended just above her knees and the sleeves ended mid-forearm. The collar area of the dress fell slightly off of her shoulders. After having dressed and readied her hair, Hermione applied some mascara, eyeliner, and red lipstick, something she rarely does. She placed her wand in her holster and the holster inside of her right sleeve, casting a glamor to conceal the bump. Hermione quickly grabbed her black pumps and clutch, looking in the mirror after all was set and done. The woman in the mirror was gorgeous, there was no denying it. However, Hermione could still never get used to it. The perfectly still hair, the model-like body, the perfectly white and polished teeth, everything. It was all so daunting.
Hermione shook her head to remove these thoughts from her mind. She was going to face the Cullens head on, confidently. With that, Hermione put on a smirk that would put Draco Malfoy's to shame. Let's do this.
Hermione climbed the steps leading to the Cullens' home. Before she could knock on the front door, it swung open to reveal a rather excited looking Alice. "Hermione! Eight on the dot! How punctual of you. Come in!" Hermione could do nothing else but nod politely and enter the rather large home. The house, which had been subject to much awe from other people, had no effect on Hermione as she had lived in the Hogwarts castle for six years. Inside, she noticed, was beautifully furnished and bright, and designed much more articulately than her home. Just as she was about to compliment the interior design, Carlisle and Esme entered the room, a motherly smile adorning Esme's face. Behind her, the Cullen children followed. The women of the coven, or "family", were all beautiful. Esme more attractive in a protective way, Alice in her usual enthusiastic way, and Rosalie was just plain gorgeous. However, Rosalie's beauty did not fool Hermione and she knew that Rosalie would be the one to look out for the most. The men of the family were all dashingly handsome. Carlisle, kind; Jasper, strong; Edward, mysterious; and Emmett, humorous. The sound of a breath interrupted Hermione's thoughts. Turning to the sound, Hermione realized that the origin of that breath was, in fact, Bella. Bella was pretty in a plain Jane manner. She certainly was not ugly, but her lack of confidence and annoyingness tended to overshadow her looks, in Hermione's opinion.
"Hello. I'm Esme." Esme introduced herself as she went to shake Hermione's hand. Hermione returned the smile that was being sent to her out of manners.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Hermione." At this, Carlisle joined the conversation.
"Hermione. That is an interesting name. I am Carlisle, by the way." Hermione's smile dropped and she worked quickly to conceal the pain from her expression but she knew the Cullens had noticed. Bringing the smile back to her face, Hermione replied,
"My mother was a fan of Shakespeare. A Winter's Tale, to be exact." The room was silent as no one knew what to say. Jasper, being the empath, quickly attempted to diffuse the tense situation.
"Hello. I'm Jasper." He said in a slight southern accent while grabbing Hermione's hand gently, placing a kiss on it. The introductions continued on, Rosalie giving an especially cold one, until it reached Bella.
"Bella." She said quietly while nodding her head. Hermione narrowed her eyes and analyzed her. Bella was wearing a too short dress that Alice had obviously picked out for her as she looked rather uncomfortable in it, always pulling it down. She kept picking at her fingers and could not make eye contact as Hermione had Bella under her gaze. Overall, she looked much too self-conscious. Having to be surrounded by naturally gorgeous supernatural beings when your self-confidence is so low must be difficult. Hermione almost felt bad for her. Almost.
Esme clapped her hands, the sound reverberating around the room. "How about we all head to the dining room and begin dinner?" Everyone nodded their heads and followed Esme, sitting at their respective seats. Carlisle and Esme sat at either heads of the table; Hermione sat to Carlisle's right, Edward and Bella sitting across from her. Emmet and Rosalie sat next to Hermione and Alice and Jasper sat across from them. Soon, everyone was situated and the salad and chicken was being passed around. Hermione had to stifle her laugh as the food was placed on every Cullen's plate, the disgust being so evident in their faces. However, when the food was passed to her, her laughs automatically died down as the disgusting scents hit her nostrils. Hermione could not believe she was about to do this.
After placing the food on her plate, Hermione quickly began to eat the wretched food, knowing she would have to regurgitate it later. She could feel all eyes on her as she ate the food and knew exactly what to say to complete the act. Turning to Esme, Hermione said kindly, "The food is absolutely wonderful, Mrs. Cullen." Esme looked slightly shocked before composing herself and returning the smile.
"Thank you, sweetie. There are always seconds! Please, call me Esme." Hermione nodded and went back to her food, grudgingly helping herself to more. She could see that the Cullens were also eating the food and attempting to hide their distasteful expressions.
"So, Hermione," Carlisle began, "Where did you move from? Why Forks of all places? Forks is hardly a tourist attraction."
"I had moved from London because I was in need of a change of scenery. London was such a large city so I wished to find a more reserved and woodsy area. Forks seemed to be the right place." Hermione stated while poking a piece of tomato and nibbling on it.
"Are you here with your parents?" Alice inquired. Hermione tensed and stilled all of her movements. She looked up from her plate to see that everyone was now staring at her curiously, waiting for an answer.
"No, actually." Hermione said coldly while adorning a poker face. The others widened their eyes at the sudden change in expression. "I'm here alone." The group, knowing that Hermione did not wish to continue on with the subject, stayed silent as they finished their meals. Suddenly, Bella ended the silence.
"Have you spoken to Jacob lately?" It was now the Cullens' turn to tense. They all looked to Bella with a wide array of emotions written on their faces ranging from, questioning to angry.
Hermione quirked an eyebrow. "I have actually. Quite the nice lad, when he isn't bumping into someone, might I add." Hermione stated while observing the Cullens. They all laughed at her comment awkwardly.
"Well, he seems to have taken interest in you. Let me warn you though, he might be somewhat unstable. He just kissed me a few weeks ago when he knew I was dating Edward. He was practically infatuated with me and now he's suddenly moved on to you." Bella stated, attempting to hide her smug tone that was so obvious to the rest of the table.
"Bella, this isn't the time." Edward stated, slightly angry. Hermione was annoyed at the audacity of the simple muggle who thought herself to be so great. However, it was not only Bella's words but the idea that she and Jacob had kissed that peeved her. Now, she was annoyed at the thought that she was annoyed at the thought that Bella and Jacob had kissed (A/N: Sorry. I know it's confusing.) How did she become so soft for a boy she had barely even talked to? Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age and the invincible one-third of the Golden Trio, was jealous, and she didn't even know why. She was suddenly brought from her thoughts once again by Bella.
"But the thing is, Jacob is also my friend. He's been going through a lot lately and I don't want him to be hurt even more by some girl who can't even get along with her parents let alone Jacob." Hermione's eyes narrowed into glares and she used all self- control to not punch Bella in the face. Hermione reached across the table for Bella and grabbed her dress's collar, bringing her close to her face.
"Don't you ever talk about me or my parents like that again. You don't know anything about my life and I could not care less about your petty jealousy or high school love story! You do not deserve to speak of my gracious parents with that lowly mouth of yours. Understand?" Bella nodded quickly, fear evident in her eyes. Hermione shoved her back into her seat and looked down at the shocked Cullens from her standing position. "Well, it seems as though I have overstayed my welcome. Goodnight." With that, Hermione roughly grabbed her clutch and exited the home, leaving as fast as she could.
