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Beta love to Starkiss666

Happy New Year and enjoy the chapter :)


Hermione opened her eyes and stretched her hands above her head, blinking tiredly she sat up and realized that for the first time in months she didn't wake up exhausted. She wasn't plagued by her memories or fears, all she felt was excitement. With a smile she hopped out of bed, wand in hand, she rushed over to her suitcase and dug through it, pulling out a pair of black and white houndstooth print dress slacks and a black button up long sleeve top, digging further she pulled out a red satin bra with black lace trim and a matching thong. Rushing to the bathroom she let out a small squeak when she saw the state her hair was in, she had forgotten to braid it before she went to bed. Groaning she dropped her clothes in a heap by the door and reached into her bathroom bag digging out her emergency bottle of sleekeazy's hair potion. She deposited 10 drops into her hand and warmed it up by rubbing her hands together, smoothing it through the birds nest she called her hair she watched the magic happen. The knots untangled and her curls turned into sleek ringlets that fell down her back in a haphazard fashion. She sighed happily, sometimes she couldn't figure out how she ever lived before being introduced to magic.

She grabbed her toothbrush and paste and set to brush her teeth for the allotted two minutes, followed by a round of rigorous flossing and finished with a whitening mouth rinse, some things were better done the muggle way, her teeth never felt as clean with the charm. Smiling at the mirror to check her teeth she grabbed her wand off the sink, pointing it at her face she closed her eyes and uttered her favorite makeup charm. Fleur may think the muggle way looked better but Hermione couldn't deny the simplicity of having a single charm do her entire face of makeup in under five seconds.

Opening them she glanced in the mirror, a simple light smoky eye, darker on the outer corner and crease and a beautiful shimmery gold color on the lid and inner corner, the spell also made her lashes look like she was wearing false eyelashes, not that she needed the help in that department. The look made her eyes pop and she loved it, glancing at her eyebrows she noted the slight imperfection that this spell always left and with a huff she dug out her eyebrow pomade and filled it in properly. She had also grabbed out her favorite MAC lipstick in the shade Faux, it perfectly accented the pink of her plump lips, she smoothed on the satin finish lipstick and followed it by a charm to lock it in place for the day.

She hurried and threw on her clothes tucking her shirt into her pants, before digging in her bag again to find her suede pointed toe shoes with the small 3-inch heel. She unbuttoned her sleeves and rolled them up about a quarter of the way up her arm. Throwing on her heels she cast a cushioning charm on them so she'd be able to wear them all day with no pain. Straightening out she looked in the mirror, she took out all of her earrings but the small white gold hoops and the opal studs right above them. Leaving her necklace and nose ring and of course her charm bracelet on she banished the earrings to their bag. Glancing at her reflection again she wandered back into the bathroom and found her white gold hair clips with a small diamond on the end of both of them, they had been a gift from Remus on her seventeenth birthday, they had belonged to his mother, Hope, she pulled the right side of her hair back and used the two clips to keep it in place.

With a smile towards her reflection she dug out a small black clutch and placed her credit card and cellphone inside, along with her room key. Wand in hand she walked out the door to see the boys coming out of their rooms dressed very smartly. She looked over their outfits while she shut and warded the door to her room. Sirius was wearing a pair of black slacks and a dark grey button up with the sleeves rolled up and top three buttons undone showing off an expanse of his chest and just a peek of his prisoner tattoo, it was neatly tucked into his dress pants. He had trimmed his beard and had pulled his hair back into a loose pony at the nape of his neck tied with a leather string. The look was tied together with matching black leather belt and dress shoes.

Remus had opted for a dark wash jean and a light blue button up with the top few buttons also undone, but he wore a black vest over top. Black leather dress shoes and a matching belt topped off the look along with a leather wrap bracelet Hermione had given him her 6th year, Sirius had a matching one he wore often. Remus had dressed Teddy in a pair of dark jeans, a blue and white plaid button up topped with a dark grey sweater vest that was trimmed in black finishing the look with black velcro sneakers for him. The toddler has decided that it was time for him to dress himself here lately the velcro helped.

After slipping her wand into the deep pocket of her pants, she grabbed Teddy and gave him a big kiss on the cheek, "Look at you Teddy-bear, you are the most handsome man in the building!" Teddy giggled and Hermione laughed at the scandalized gasp Sirius emitted. "Are you boy's ready to go? This first house has 3 bedrooms, plus one convertible office which can be used as a bedroom, there's an en suite through the walk-in closet in the master bedroom and another bathroom upstairs. It does have a full unfinished basement and a two-car attached garage. It sits on 4 acres of land with a river running through the middle and is right on the border of the La Push reservation, it's a twenty-minute drive to town but only a 10-minute drive into La Push." Hermione prattled off the details of the house she had stored with her eidetic memory.

They started walking to the car, Teddy had demanded a ride on Sirius' shoulders to be taller than both men who stood at an impressive 6 foot 2 inches, they towered over Hermione's petite 5-foot 4-inch frame. She walked behind them laughing at the giggles and squeals Teddy was letting out as Sirius ducked and dipped running away from the werewolf chasing them. Turning she saw Dorothy walking across the lawn from her house which was situated just a bit behind and to the right of the bed and breakfast. She waved at the woman who gave her a big smile and a wave back. Hermione unlocked the car as they walked up and hopped into the driver's seat, watching as Remus strapped Teddy in and then jumped in beside him she waited for Sirius to finish his smoke. After he climbed in, she took off down the road, Sirius was preoccupied with trying to find a good rock station, Teddy was chattering away to Remus about nothing in particular and Hermione just smiled and continued on.


About 20 minutes passed in relative silence when they came across the long winding driveway that lead to the house and turned in. It took a good two minutes for the house to even come into view through the trees, but when it did Hermione gasped. It was even more beautiful than the pictures she had seen, light river stone made up the outside of the house, a wrought iron lined balcony spanned across the front. She couldn't wait to view the inside and she felt her magic hum in contentment, this place was perfect. Glancing at Sirius she noticed his eyes slip shut and a sigh left him, a similar sound came from the backseat. Hermione just grinned, this was it, she didn't even care about the other two houses the realtor had lined up to show her, this was their home, their magic had spoken.

Pulling up the drive she parked in the second stall next to a nice older model car. She climbed out and waited for Remus to unload Teddy before locking the car back up, she patted her pocket to make sure her wand was still there before looping her arm through Sirius's and heading for the front door. The door opened to reveal a stout woman, who looked rather toad-like. Her obviously bleached blonde hair was cut in a short bob and held back from her eyes with a little black headband with a bow on it. Her beady little eyes were framed by a pair of lime colored cat eye glasses which matched the lime green power suit the woman was wearing, Hermione couldn't help but think she looked like what a love child of Umbridge and Rita Skeeter would look like. A shudder passed through her at the thought, shaking her head she extended her hand to the woman, "Hello, I'm Hermione Granger-Black, this is my father, Sirius, my uncle Remus and his son Teddy. I don't believe we've spoken, we were supposed to be meeting a Mrs. Halstrom?"

"Yes, yes I know who you are Ms. Granger, and my colleague had to give me her appointments for the unforeseeable future, it seems her poor husband Leonard isn't doing too well ya see?" the woman replied snidely, "I'm Margaret Crane, you may call me Ms. Crane, come now you were almost late and we have two other properties to view after this one." The woman turned from the group and started back into the house, Hermione let her un shaken hand fall with a scowl. Sirius just chuckled and patted her arm and led them inside after the woman. Hermione couldn't help letting her jaw drop at how gorgeous the interior was, dark hardwood floors, a lovely sitting room with three huge windows facing the front yard, a beautiful fireplace sat surrounded by built in book shelves on the far wall of the dining/sitting room. Continuing on they marveled over the hand bent iron hand rails on the stairs, the kitchen had beautiful soapstone countertops, white cabinets that set off the dark floors beautifully, the backsplash was a grey subway tile which just tied the whole room together. In the middle of the kitchen sat a huge island, it had two small, built in fridge drawers, a wine fridge and a round sink with a built in strainer and cutting boards.

There was a double oven and a gas range that had 6 burners and the hood stained the same color as the floor, the fridge was a French door with two pull out freezer drawers under that, it was made to blend into the cabinets. A walk-in pantry was off to the side between the kitchen and informal living room, it was shut behind a sliding farm door. They followed the plump woman up the stairs, straight across from the stairwell was the bathroom, to the right were all three bedrooms, to the left was the master suite. "Here is the master suite with a walk-through closet that leads to the master bath." Hermione walked in and marveled at the huge closet, the sitting space in front of the huge windows, she continued on into the master bath and was in love with the stand-alone claw foot tub, much like the one at the bed and breakfast, off to the side tucked in a corner was a stand-up shower.

"May we see the basement please?" Hermione turned and asked the woman who had the nerve to roll her eyes at the question.

"If you must but the only thing down there is a second unfinished bathroom and the washer and dryer hookups." She ushered them towards the stairs and started down. Once they reached the first floor, she took them through the informal living room and to a door none of them had noticed before because it blended in with the wall so well. Opening the door she gestured to the stairs, "off you go."

The three adults just shared a look and Hermione let Sirius take the lead down the stairs. Once they reached the bottom Sirius found the light switch and flipped it on, Hermione was already making mental calculations to see if they would need to magically expand the room like they would with the three bedrooms upstairs. Satisfied that there would be more than enough room for a potion's lab and a dueling room she turned to see Remus with a look on his face. "Everything okay there Moony?" she inquired snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Of course, Mina, I was just thinking we may have to actually add a small room off the living room for Teddy to use as a play room." Remus replied with a smile.

"That's a great idea Moony, I was already thinking of adding a mudroom off of the garage so when we come home, we can go in there and rinse off so we don't drag mud through the house, what do you guys think?" She turned inquiring eyes on Sirius, he nodded along with Remus. "Teddy? What do you think of this house?" she asked the toddler who had been oddly quiet the entire time they had looked at the house.

He looked at Hermione and smiled, "Home?"

Hermione grinned, "Yea buddy, I think this is home."

They headed up the stairs to see the Ms. Cane waiting for them with her arms folded across her chest and her foot tapping, when she saw them appear, she glanced at her watch with a scowl. "I wanted to be at the other house by now, chop chop, let's go."

Sirius leveled the woman with a glare, "We don't need to see any more houses, this is the one we want."

The woman spluttered a bit, "well, I really feel you should view the other two houses before making this kind of a decision, you realize this house is on the market for $900k right? The other two might bit a bit more in your, ahem, budget." she sneered at him.

"Ma'am you realize you're speaking to one of the richest men in England? I'm surpassed by only the Royal family and two others. I'd like the name of your supervisor and the number to speak with them please." He sneered right back at the toad. He reveled in the way the woman spluttered some more and her face paled upon the realization she had misjudged them. Snapping his fingers at the woman, "Now please, I want to buy this house but I refuse to continue dealing with you."

Hermione smirked and pulled her cell phone from her handbag, "Here Papa, I have the number to the office saved and I believe her boss's name is Jeff." she handed the phone to him while smirking at the woman who was turning a lovely shade of puce.

"Thanks Kitten, I'll be just a minute." he replied taking her phone and wandering out the front door.

Hermione wandered over to stand beside Remus talking quietly enough that Ms. Cane's ears couldn't pick up what they were saying but she knew it had to be about her because of the glances the little bitch was sending her way.

"I think we're making her nervous." Hermione spoke quietly to Remus while glancing back at the woman periodically.

"I think we are too, I wonder what she thinks we are saying, if only she knew we were just talking about Teddy." Remus replied a smirk on his face as he shifted Teddy to his other arm. "Do you think Sirius is going to close on the house?"

Hermione nodded, "I do, it was foreclosed on so it's being sold by the bank and I bet they will take way less than what they're asking, especially once Sirius is done with them, this woman really struck a chord with him."

Remus nodded, Sirius was used to people looking down on him because of how he dressed or how he acted but it ticked him off to no end when people said things about Hermione or Remus. They both looked towards the door as they heard his footsteps coming up.

"Alrighty Kitten, they're going to be bringing us the keys and paperwork sometime tomorrow, I've arranged it so that your Mrs. Halstrom will be getting the commission from the sale, I told him I absolutely refused to let this bint take our money." Sirius had flung open the front door and started talking as soon as he was in the house.

The woman huffed angerly "you can't expect me to believe my boss is allowing you to steal my commission, I sold this house, I deserve it!" The woman went as far as to stamp her foot to make her point.

Hermione looked at Remus then Sirius and finally back to the toad, "I believe we will be taking our leave now, we shall wait for the paperwork and keys, have a nice day." and she strolled off without a backwards glance to the spitting mad woman. Once to the car she unlocked it and climbed in waiting for everyone else as she started the car. She glanced at the clock noting they had been here for around three hours already, seeing it was 1pm, "Sirius? Did you actually talk to him? Also, is anyone else hungry?"

Sirius nodded, "I did in fact speak with him and apparently Mrs. Halstrom had mentioned what a sweet young woman you were and was happy to help, apparently her husband is the English teacher at Forks High and is fighting a losing fight with prostate cancer, he's not expected to make it to the school year." He shot a sideways look at his daughter sitting in the driver's seat, "I figured she could use the help the commission would give her when it came to funeral costs and whatnot. Muggles can be so chatty about others personal lives. Also, do you even have to ask if we are hungry? It's like you don't know us at all kitten!" He shot her a lopsided grin which she returned.

"What are you hungry for, we just had the diner last night, I bet Dorothy would let us use the kitchen at the bed and breakfast if we asked politely, why don't we stop by the shop and pick up some stuff and I'll make something?"

"Teddy says he wants sketti" Remus piped up from the backseat finishing with a laugh.

"Spaghetti carbonara it is!" Hermione replied, "so we just need some noodles, eggs, olive oil, I wonder if we can get real pancetta here, we will have to see, otherwise a few bacon rashers will work, parmesan, and parsley Teddy, do you want peas?" Hermione had taken to adding veggies in whatever she could because her boys would eat only meat and starches if she let them.

"Peas!" Teddy squealed from the backseat clapping his hands while Sirius groaned.

"Why do you insist on making us eat rabbit food kitten? We are men we need meat and potatoes and butter and beer." He thumped his chest and lowered his voice an octave while speaking making everyone in the car laugh at his behavior.

"You know you need to eat more veggies, a few peas in the carbonara will not kill you papa. If anything, it will help prolong your life, maybe for dinner I'll feed you a salad...without dressing!"

Sirius just mimicked her under his breath crossing his arms. A few minutes went by and they pulled up in front of a muggle grocery shop. "Sirius, why don't you call Dorothy and ask permission seeing as you still have my phone, Remus and I will wander in and get a few things we need anyway, we'll be in the diaper aisle." With that She grabbed Teddy's hand and started for the store. She had only made it a few steps inside looking down at Teddy when she collided with someone. "I'm so so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going! Are you.." she stopped mid-sentence when she met the eyes of the person in front of her.

"No problems! I'm a klutz! You must be Hermione, my dad told me all about you and your family, it's nice to not be the "new" person anymore, I hated all the attention, oh, I'm Bella by the way Bella Sawn." The girl stuck her hand out for Hermione to shake.

Her mouth had gone dry when she realized who she was looking at, she couldn't mistake those eyes anywhere, just like Charlies and her mum's. Remus cleared his throat behind her snapping her out of her thoughts, "Oh yes! Chief Swan told me I may run into you! I am Hermione, this is Teddy and my Uncle Remus! My papa Sirius should be coming in anytime he just had to make a quick call."

Bella smiled a small smile at her and waved down at the suddenly shy Teddy who was trying to get back to his father and away from the boy standing behind Bella. "This is Jacob Black, he lives on the reservation with his dad Billy."

Hermione couldn't help but notice the way the boy's eyes narrowed at her and Remus as if sensing something was off about them. She noticed he seemed to have grown overnight from what she had seen of him coming out of her uncle's house. Pushing those thoughts away for now she reached out to shake his hand, "Jacob black huh? That's amusing I'm Hermione Granger-Black and my papa is Sirius Black."

"You talking about me again Kitten?" She heard Sirius say from behind her, she turned with a smile.

"Papa, this is Bella Swan, chief Swan's daughter and her friend Jacob Black." Sirius's eyebrows climbed his forehead.

"Another Black huh? It's a pleasure to meet you kids, Kitten, Dorothy said it was fine for us to use the kitchen, we might as well get going and get those groceries so we can go eat." He had noticed the way Teddy was inching further behind his father's legs, something was wrong and he felt the need to get his family out of there.

"It was so nice to meet you Bella and Jacob, I hope to see you around!" Hermione waved goodbye to them as Remus said his farewells trying to get Teddy to say bye but the toddler wasn't having any of it.

"I wonder what has Teddy so upset, he did not like that Jacob boy, did you feel the tension rolling off him? I swear I felt a bit of magic lingering around him." Hermione looked at Sirius who just shrugged.

"All I know is I trust Teddy's instincts and he didn't want to be anywhere near that boy, plus I'm hungry so let's get this shopping over with, I'm thinking we need to get some garlic bread and maybe a bottle of wine to go with the carbonara, what do you think Remus? "

Remus had been too focused on whatever was wrong with Teddy to even be tuned into the conversation, "sounds good Pad's I'm going to go grab a bag of diapers for him I used the last one I brought with me last night, I didn't think this far ahead." he scratched the back of his neck and took off in search of what he needed.

"I'll get the wine and the bread, you get the stuff for the carbonara and I'll meet you at the checkout lane, sound good?"

Hermione nodded and grabbed a trolley making a bee line for the pasta section. Sirius watched her go before darting out of the shop following the scent the boy had left. He soon found then climbing into an old beat-up red Chevy he saw the boys head snap towards him and met his eyes in a challenge. O yes, something was off about that boy and Sirius was determined to figure out what it was. He waited for them to leave the car park before heading back into the shop and grabbing the wine and bread like he said he would, keeping a nose out for that scent he wandered up to wait for the rest of his pack to come up with their items.

Remus was the first one back and Sirius was starting to get a little worried because Hermione was taking so long. "Watch these Moony, I'm going to go see what's taking her so long." He handed the bread and wine to Remus and took off for the deli section knowing she'd save the pancetta for last. Winding around the corner he stopped in his tracks and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

It was that damn scent again but it wasn't coming from that Jacob boy, no this one seemed to be a bit older and a bit taller, his hair wasn't long like the Black boy's was, this one had his hair cropped short, Sirius could see a tattoo on the boy's right upper arm, an inhuman growl low enough not to be heard by normal humans came out of his throat watching this thing interact with his daughter. Hermione and the boy's head snapped his direction, 'strange' Sirius thought, 'I knew Hemione would be able to hear that but how did the boy?'

Hermione shrunk under the weight of the glare her papa was sending her, well not her it seemed but close enough. Turning to Jared she realized he was staring at her papa with something akin to a snarl on his face, she took a step back and that made him look at her. Suddenly Sirius was there with his arm around her, "Kitten, I was getting worried, what took you so long?" He continued to glare at the boy across from him.

"Nothing papa, this is Jared, he's a friend of Bella and Jacobs and he was just getting me the pancetta we needed for lunch." She shrugged his arm off her and turned to Jared, "thank you very much for getting this and it was nice to meet you!" She didn't get to hear him say his goodbyes before Sirius dragged her back up to the checkout lane. Sirius said nothing as he slammed everything out of the trolley onto the conveyor belt. He ignored every attempt Remus and Hermione made to speak to him until they were back in the car where he exploded.

"Did you or did you not notice the scent coming off that boy? Could you not feel the energy? What is wrong with you putting yourself in unnecessary danger like that? I am so disappointed in you. Get back to the bed and breakfast we can talk more there where we are in private." He then turned and glared out the window not saying another word.

Hermione felt like she might cry, she could handle Sirius being mad at her but she couldn't handle disappointing him. You could almost taste the tension in the air by the time they pulled up to the bed and breakfast, Hermione didn't even attempt to get any of the groceries out of the car, she just handed the keys to Remus and took off, presumably up to her room. Teddy had fallen asleep on the car ride back so Remus just left him in the car seat for a minute while he and Sirius got out.

Facing Sirius, he got in his face, "What is your problem? Why did you blow up at Mina like that? What could she have possibly done that was so bad you had to tell her you were disappointed in her? Couldn't you have just said you were angry? You know how she gets about disappointing people Sirius!"

Sirius sighed and pulled the leather strip from his hair, "Do you remember how Teddy hid from the boy that was with that Bella Swan chit? Do you remember the feel of the magic coming off of him and the scent he gave off? He smelled almost like you and me combined, not quite werewolf but not quite dog, I guess he actually smelled a bit more like Hermione, like wolf. Anyway, I went back out to the car park and made sure they left because something was off with him and when I came back and realized how long it was taking her to get back with the little bit of groceries she needed I got worried. So, I went to go find her like you know, well I found her talking to another native boy, but this one, this one smelled so much stronger of wolf, you could just feel the magic coming off him in waves and Hermione was just standing there chatting and smiling at him like nothing was wrong! I was so worried, I might have let a small growl slip, nothing that the muggles could hear but Hermione could and surprisingly so could this boy Jared." Sirius paused and ran his hand through his hair.

"The boy shouldn't have been able to hear me, and the magic he emitted wasn't like ours, it was strange and Hermione said he was friends with that Jacob boy and Bella. I had to get her away from him and I may have let my worry get out of hand. I'm going to go up and apologize to her after we unload the groceries, give her a few minutes to calm down and give myself a few minutes to think up what I need to say."

Remus was watching Sirius not saying anything the entire time, "I smelled them too, you're right, they do smell more like Mina, they're defiantly not normal muggles, I was thinking we may need to do some research about the tribe that lives on the La Push reservation." With that he grabbed a still napping Teddy from the seat and a handful of grocery bags and headed for the house, Sirius following close behind with the rest of the groceries. After they put everything away Remus went up to put Teddy down to let him finish his nap, fully intent on taking one too. Sirius followed him up the stairs but went for Hermione's door instead of his own.

Knocking he called out, "Hermione? Can we talk? I want to apologize for everything kitten, I was just worried." When she didn't answer he tried knocking again. Nothing. Sighing he tried the handle expecting to find it locked, so he was surprised when the door opened without force. "Kitten?" he called out again. He didn't hear the shower running or the sound of water in the tub, plus the bathroom door was wide open and the light was off. Pulling his wand out of his pocket he walked further into the room only to notice that one of the windows by the bed was completely open and Hermione was nowhere to be found. Running over to the window he looked out "Hermione?!" he called worriedly. When no response came, he bolted over and burst into Remus's room. "Hermione isn't in her room and her window was open and she's gone!"

Moony just sat there for a minute comprehending the quickly spoken words that tumbled out of Sirius's mouth before the shock set it, "She's gone?"