A.N. Warning: the next couple of chapters will be quite dark. Hope you are all enjoying the story; thanks if you've added as a favourite or reviewed x

CHAPTER EIGHT

BPOV

I didn't get much sleep that night. After Hermione's revelation, my mind refused to settle into a relaxed state. Instead I found myself going over and over her time at that party. Part of me wasn't too surprised at Harry making a move on her; they had lost so much he was probably just reaching out for comfort, but by the same token I wasn't surprised that Hermione rejected him. He was her best friend; like a brother to her. I knew that if Jake tried the same thing with me, I would respond exactly as Hermione had.

But Draco Malfoy!

I could not get my head around why she would have let that bullying idiot kiss her, or why she would have kissed him back. The Hermione I knew would have kicked his ass for even trying. But I couldn't even think of berating her for it; she had seemed so desperately unhappy.

For the next few days she seemed to avoid me, getting up early to go for her lectures and spending more and more time in the library. When I did see her, she was pale, with dark shadows under her eyes, which seemed to be permanently bloodshot.

"Hermione, are you ok?" I asked that night as she sat twirling the same strand of spaghetti round and round her fork, without actually eating anything. She gave me a small smile and then got up to scrape her food into the bin.

"I'm just tired. I've had a lot of coursework this week," she said. "I'm going to bed. Night, Bella."

"Night," I said, watching as she headed away. After waving my wand at the mess in the kitchen and restoring it to its former glory, I headed across to my own room, pausing outside Hermione's door, with a feeling of intense trepidation.

XXX

"Bella, come with me, quickly!" My eyes fly open and I find myself on a deserted beach. A silvery grey light hangs in the air and the ocean is an inky black colour in this stark landscape. A light breeze catches my hair and I reach up a hand to push it back, but he seizes my hand and pulls me behind him to a rundown shack. Once we are inside, he leans against the door, his green eyes fixed on me.

"Cedric?" I ask. He nods briefly and I see that he is very much alive this time.

"No, I'm not. I've passed over," he says, quietly, stealing the thought from my mind.

"You can hear what I'm thinking?"

"Of course I can; you're our soul mate," he replies.

"Cedric, I don't understand?" He presses a finger to my lips and gives me a crooked smile.

"Just listen. I don't have much time. I need to give you a message. Everything is not as it seems and you must be aware that those who seem the hardest to trust may be the only ones to trust."

"I don't understand you," I say, a little desperately, as Cedric is already starting to fade. I try to catch hold of him, but with a smile, he vanishes into the air.

"Trust the ones you cannot trust." His voice hangs over me, leaving me confused and anxious.

XXX

Waking with a start, I sat up, confused to find that it was already light. Glancing at the clock beside the bed I swore under my breath and leapt from my bed. How had I managed to oversleep? With a cry of frustration I waved a wand to clean myself and pack my bed and then rushed towards the door of the apartment, only to freeze in my tracks. The bag slipped from my fingers crashing to the floor as it felt like I moved in slow motion through the partially opened door of Hermione's room.

She lay completely still on the bed, her face white, her hair a tangled mess pillowing her head.

Blood; there was so much blood.

It had soaked into the sheets of her bed, staining them crimson.

"Hermione! Hermione!" I screamed. Her eyes fluttered and relief surged through me. "I'm going to get help. Please don't die, please don't die."

The words scrambled out of my lips as I rushed for the door of the apartment onto the corridor, hardly knowing which way to go and suddenly crashing into a wall of solid flesh.

"Careful, Isabella." I looked up to see Edward looking down at me, looking so much like his brother in that instance that I shuddered and stepped back, but he grabbed my arm. "What's the matter?"

"'Mione... blood everywhere..." I stammered, my breathing coming fast and heavy as panic swept through me.

Edward gave me a confused look, but then pushed past me into the apartment.

"Shit!" His voice came from Hermione's room and I hovered in the doorway.

"I don't know what to do, Edward," I sobbed, dancing from one foot to the other, shaking hard.

"Go and find Harry," he replied. "He should be in his apartment; he doesn't have lectures this morning. Hurry up!"

"Edward, why would she...?"

"Bella, just go," he said, sternly, before turning back to my cousin's limp form. As Edward leaned towards Hermione, I rushed from the room again and pounded hard on Harry's door. Finally it opened to reveal a very sleepy looking Harry, still dressed in just his boxers.

"What do you want? Neville isn't in," he said, coldly, but then he looked at me and his expression changed. "What's happened?"

"You have to come now. Edward is with her, but I'm scared. I don't want her to die..." I broke off, aware I was making no sense, but Harry had grabbed his wand and pushed past me. I raced after him and found him on his knees beside Hermione's bed, tears pouring down his face.

"No, no, no," he kept saying. "Please, Hermione, please. Open your eyes."

He grabbed her hands and squeezed them, but then Edward crossed the room and led me through to the kitchen.

"I need the ingredients for blood replenishing," he said. "Do you have them?"

"She keeps all the potions stuff in that cupboard," I replied, vaguely. Edward opened the larder cupboard door and withdrew the ingredients he needed. I watched him as he worked, feeling useless.

"Bella, perhaps you could go and find my father?" he said, keeping his voice quiet and calm.

"Y... yes," I stammered, rubbing at my eyes, trying to wipe away the tears that were streaming down my face. Edward paused and placed the potion on the stove, stirring it.

"Come here," he suddenly said. Too upset to object to him giving me orders, I crossed the space between us and was surprised when he grabbed me in a one armed hug, keeping his other hand on the spoon stirring the potion. He pulled me close to him and then shocked me by dropping a light kiss on my forehead. "She'll be ok, Bella. Harry will do everything he can. You know that."

I nodded and then stepped out of his embrace, biting my lip.

"I... I'll go and find Professor Cullen," I stammered. As I passed Hermione's room, I saw Harry standing over her, his wand glowing with golden light as he muttered incantations over my cousin's still form. He had cleaned all of the blood from her and from the bed, so that she resembled Sleeping Beauty now rather than the macabre victim of a vampire attack.

Once again I found my way out onto the corridor, to see Carlisle already hurrying towards me.

"How did you know?" I asked. He gave me a curious look and then nodded behind him, where I saw a tall figure in a green cloak half turn to reveal a shock of white-blonde hair and silvery eyes, before he pulled his hood over his face and disappeared down the stairs.

"Dr Cullen?" I whimpered softly. He looked down at me as he entered the apartment, clutching his bag in his hand.

"Yes, Bella?" he said.

"Hermione would never... she would never try to... you know?" I babbled, but Carlisle nodded.

"I know, sweetheart," he said. "Don't worry. We will help her."

"The potion is ready," said Edward, appearing from the kitchen with a bottle containing the red liquid. The scent of it made me retch and I rushed to the bathroom. Hermione's door closed behind Professor Cullen and I felt cool hands helping me up from the floor. Edward pulled me up against his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around me, holding me, as I sobbed against his shirt. His hand rubbed my back comfortingly and then he led me into the living room, sitting me down and placing a cup of warm tea in my hands.

"Drink this," he said. "It will help you, I promise."

"Thank you," I whispered, sipping the tea, as he sat down on the footstool opposite me, leaning forwards and resting his hands on my knees in a curiously intimate way.

"So what happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said, managing to form a coherent sentence now that I was a little calmer. "I woke up late and was in a rush, but when I came out of my room her door was ajar. I just looked in because I knew she had lectures this morning and all I could see was blood. It was everywhere! And she was unconscious. I... I thought she was dead, Edward."

"Do you think it was deliberate?" he asked, giving me a hard look. I shook my head vehemently but Edward reached up to take my hands again now that my tea was gone. "The blood was from her wrists, Bella and she was lying in her bed..."

"Hermione wouldn't do that!" I cried. "She has been through so much and she has always handled herself with dignity and strength, however much others have pushed her." I looked towards her door meaningfully.

"Meaning Harry?" he said.

"Exactly. Meaning Harry who abandoned her because she didn't want him. Just because she kissed someone else..."

"She kissed Malfoy, Bella. Of all the someone elses she could have picked he was quite possibly the worst in Harry's eyes; you know how he feels about Draco." He released my hands and leaned back.

"That's beside the point," I said, lifting my chin slightly and glaring at him, but before I could say any more, the bedroom door opened and Harry emerged.

"She's stable. Your dad is going to stay with her," he said, shakily. Edward got to his feet and nodded.

"Good," he said. "Maybe you should go and get dressed, Harry."

"I could do with a shower," he said, with a small smile. Slowly, I got up from the settee and turned to face him.

"Will you come back? When she's awake?" I asked.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Bella," said Harry, running a hand across the back of his head.

"I am," I said, snappily. "Perhaps if you had swallowed your fucking pride and been there for her this wouldn't have happened?"

Now that I knew Hermione was going to be ok, my fury rose in me like a tidal wave. I blamed Harry Potter for this and I was damned well going to make sure he stood by my cousin this time. Harry looked a little uncomfortable as I glared at him.

"I'm not sure she would want me around," he said, after an awkward silence.

"For fuck's sake, Harry, that's all she's wanted for the last eighteen months! You're her best friend; the brother she never had! Why would you even think she doesn't want you around? Come down off your pedestal and try being a friend again instead of a self-righteous ass hole!"

Harry looked uncomfortable but then he nodded and walked away without another word.

"You have a mouth like a sewer, Swan," said Edward, raising an eyebrow as I turned to face him, one hand on my hip.

"Fuck you, Cullen," I said.

"Thanks for all your help, Edward. I really appreciate it," he said, sarcastically and I felt immediately guilty.

"I'm sorry, Edward," I said with a sigh. Running a hand through my hair I stepped towards him hesitantly. The tears were already forming in my eyes and I wanted to brush them away, but he caught my hands before I could.

"It's ok," he said, with a sigh. "If you need anything you know where we are. Maybe you should go and lie down for a bit? Dad will stay until she's through the worst of it and you look like Hell."

For once I didn't bite back, but nodded and then watched as he left me alone, feeling strangely bereft. As my eyes closed though, Cedric's words span around in my head; trust the ones you trust the least.

XXX

"You really scared me," I said softly, as I sat down on the bed beside Hermione and handed her a cup of tea. I had very quickly learnt that in Hermione's world tea was the cure to all ills. She was sitting up in bed and there was a little more colour in her cheeks now after Carlisle's tender care. He had stayed with us for three days solid after the incident and this was the first time we had been alone.

"Sorry," she said, her voice a little vague still, but I knew that this was an after effect of the potions Carlisle had had her taking rather than blood loss

"Do you remember what happened?" I asked quietly. Hermione shook her head after a moment's thoughts.

"Just a flash of green and someone saying Obliviate," she replied.

"Green?" I echoed, remembering seeing Draco Malfoy at the end of the corridor, but why would Draco hurt Hermione and then fetch Carlisle to help her?

"Edward and Harry were brilliant," I said, after a brief silence. She looked at me curiously.

"Harry? He was here?"

"He was really worried Hermione, we all were. We need to find a way of reversing the Obliviate. So we can find out what happened to you." I paused and then looked at her. "You definitely didn't do it to yourself, did you?"

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, with more than a little fire in her voice and I smiled at her.

"You sound a lot more like you," I said, with a smile.

"Yes well, I will be up tomorrow and I intend to return to lectures. I cannot believe how much I have missed..."

I listened fondly as she carried on talking about lectures and coursework. But then there was a knock at the door.

"I'll just be a minute," I said. She squeezed my hand as I went and I smiled down at her. Opening the front door, the smile froze on my lips.

"Can I see Hermione?" asked the tall young man. I stepped back and admitted him, almost reluctantly, loitering in the living room for the shortest time before I sat down on the edge of the settee, knowing they would need their space.