Hello, lovelies! The big confession from Carlisle has come! How will Rissie take it? Will she freak out or will she let Carlisle explain? For all those who have read my other story, "I Believe You", I have NOT abandoned that story! I'm just feeling more inspiration for this story right now. Thank you, dream lighting, for that review - it made me laugh! Please spread the word and show everyone this story! To everyone else, please read, enjoy, and review! Thanks!

-Owlix

Chapter Nine: Letters and Memories

Over the next week, I spent most of my time sleeping, eating, and talking with Dr. Cullen. I liked him, but he was rather confusing to me at times. He was always kind to me, no matter how rude I was to him. He always tried to understand my point of view without making me feel like a laboratory specimen. There were even times where I actually cried in front of him, which I never did to anyone else apart from my family back in England.

To me, the most confusing part of him was the fact that he never told me much about him beside the most general pieces of information. All he was willing to tell me was that he was a doctor, he was married to a very lovely woman, and he and his wife had adopted two girls and three boys since his wife was unable to have children of her own. The information about how he gave five children a loving family of their own definitely endeared him to me, but he wouldn't tell me anything more than their names: Esme, Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper. I understood the desire for privacy, but I wanted to know more about this man who seemed to have attached himself to me. I asked a couple of the nurses if he normally spent so much time with his other patients, but they told me that he seemed to have all but adopted me.

After a week, Dr. Cullen declared me strong enough to receive my effects. He brought them into the room wrapped in bubble-wrap and cardboard, very carefully tearing the cardboard open before setting the box on my lap. I slowly unwrapped the bubble-wrap, trying to ignore my shaking hands, until I was met with an amazing sight.

On my lap was the Pensieve, which was full of a few other things: most of my birthday presents! I gasped in delight as I picked up the book on Squibs from Hermione and the Agatha Christie book from the Delacours. Underneath them was the drawing pad and coloured pencils from the Lupins, which were set on top of the folded Chudley Cannons jacket from Ron and the hair ribbons from Bill and Fleur. I frowned a little when I didn't see any Weasley Wizarding Wheezes products, but I guessed they would raise too many questions here.

I looked up at Dr. Cullen and grinned, signing an emphatic "Thank you!" his way. He smiled warmly back at me and signed "You're welcome".

"There's also a letter at the very bottom," he said. "The man who brought you here wrote it before he left."

I smiled and nodded, moving the jacket and ribbons to find a roll of parchment that had been wrapped around some sort of cylinder. After making sure Dr. Cullen had left to give me a little privacy, I untied the ribbon holding the parchment closed and unrolled it. It turned out to be a letter, as Dr. Cullen had said, and a large vial of a wispy-looking substance. I gasped at the sight of the memories. I set the letter down to examine the vial and found that it was labelled "What Rissie Needs to Know".

I forced the shaking in my hands to stop as I carefully set the vial down inside the Pensieve and picked up the letter. The handwriting was spidery and almost feminine, but I could read it. Taking a deep breath, I leaned back into the pillows and began to read.

Dear Miss Potter,

You do not truly know me, having officially met me only once, and I do not truly know you. However, I know that you are a vital player in this deadly game. Despite your lack of magical talent, you have an objective eye like nothing I have ever seen. You can see the big picture, rather than the narrow view the rest of us are burdened with. You have a way of making others see your way, a way that any politician would kill for. And you are very loyal to your beliefs and allies, which is why you have been slated for death by the Dark Lord. He knows he will never be able to sway you over to his side, so he plans on killing you in order to harm your brother.

This is something that must not happen! Your brother has joined this fight to protect you – if you die, he will be broken and vulnerable, easy pickings for the Dark Lord. That is why I have placed you with Carlisle. He has found a way to survive many centuries without making a large fuss in the communities he chooses to live in. He will help you stay under the radar, and he will prove to be one of the most valuable allies you will ever meet. He never forgets a friend or an enemy and will help you know which is which. He will protect you better than anyone in our world ever will.

The memories I have bequeathed to you are ones that you will need to see in order to understand why I have done what I have done. I warn you, I am ashamed of much of what you will see, and no doubt, you will be as well. I will retrieve the memories in one month to give you ample time to view the memories and come to a decision of whether or not to trust me and Carlisle. If you choose not to, we will both understand, and Carlisle will help you make your own way somewhere else.

Understanding is something you must keep close to you, Miss Potter, for without it, much of what will happen in this war will not make any sense, even after the endgame. I am trusting you with these, my precious memories, in the hopes that you will keep the objective eye you are well-known for and take everything into consideration. You are the mediator that our world will need after this war is over. Please look, see, and understand.

Yours truly,

The Phoenix Among the Serpents

P.S. – Whatever happens, do NOT speak the name of the Dark Lord out loud, and do not allow anyone else to make that mistake. The only clue I can give you as to why is this: "Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear."

I blinked in surprise at the sincerity of the letter. Whoever wrote it seemed almost desperate for me to understand what had happened and also halfway resigned to the idea that I might not accept his offer.

I sighed and looked down at the Pensieve, knowing that I wouldn't be able to view the memories here without worrying about an unsuspecting nurse walking in on me. I would have to wait until I was strong enough to get some privacy. Sighing in resignation, I put everything back into the Pensieve except for the drawing pad and coloured pencils. I hadn't drawn anything in ages, and now that my tools were within reach, my fingers almost ached to use them.

I spent the next hour drawing scene after scene: Bill and Fleur in their wedding clothes ... the wedding pavilion in all its glory ... the Death Eaters standing in a circle around a victim ... a frightened wounded girl trapped in a dark cellar ... the Dark Angel who had saved her ... and the Angel of Light who had healed her. Dr. Cullen came in when I was putting the finishing touches on his picture, making his doctor's jacket fade into large white wings that would have graced the back of any angel. I looked up when he tapped my knee.

"That's very good!" he signed, smiling as he pointed to the picture. "You're quite talented!"

I blushed and smiled before I remembered something the letter had mentioned. It had said that Dr. Cullen had survived centuries, which should have been impossible for any normal human or even a wizard, especially considering how young he still looked. I quickly grabbed the letter and pointed to the paragraph where the passage I'd remembered was. Dr. Cullen sighed when he read it and looked up at me, looking very apprehensive.

"You can tell me," I signed earnestly. "I need to understand in order to truly trust you. Whatever it is, I won't tell anyone! Please, tell me!"

Dr. Cullen looked down at the letter for a long while before taking a deep breath and nodding. He handed me the letter back and went over to the windows to pull the blinds.

"I don't want anyone eavesdropping," he signed. "Some people here are learning sign language for your sake and I don't want them to see something I sign and take it out of context."

I nodded and gestured for him to sit down in the chair beside my bed, where he normally sat during our talks.

He looked up at me and stared for a long time before finally lifting his slightly trembling hands to sign one sentence that could change everything.

"I'm a vampire."

I blinked hard and almost gaped at him, but I forced myself to stay calm.

"Explain, please," I signed, wanting to know everything.

"I was born in England in the 1640s," Dr. Cullen signed. "My father was an Anglican pastor, one who led many hunts for witches, vampires, werewolves, and the like. Back then, people still believed all those creatures were real, and my father was good at filling people with a bloodlust I have rarely seen elsewhere. He was quite ruthless, slaughtering many people using only circumstantial evidence to condemn them. He expected me to follow in his footsteps, and for a while I did. I didn't like the killing as much as my father did, and I sometimes found ways to set the so-called 'creatures' free.

"I was, however, quite good at seeing when I was dealing with true creatures. I managed to find a coven living in the sewers of London. The chaos that followed was the turning point of my life; I was attacked in the streets by a ragged and almost insane vampire, left bleeding when the crowd grew too close. I somehow managed to hide myself for three days in a nearby potato cellar while I transformed.

"I knew what my father would do to me when he found me. I was horrified and, frankly, disgusted with what I had become. I became suicidal, trying everything from throwing myself off a cliff to drowning myself to starving myself. My salvation came in the form of a herd of deer. I was so thirsty that I drained them all, but I realized that I could survive off of animal blood. I could still retain my humanity.

"I travelled through the centuries alone, desiring above all else for a companion to share my lifestyle with."

"To not feel like the freak among the monsters, right?" I signed, wanting to show him that I was listening.

He smiled and nodded.

"I found my first son, Edward, in 1918. I was helping in Chicago during the Spanish Influenza. Yes," he said, noting my flinch, "it wasn't pretty. Many people died, including Edward's parents. His mother had somehow seen or at least guessed what I was and all but demanded, on her deathbed, that I make Edward like me. That I do what no one else could do for him. Three years later, we found a young woman named Esme Anne Platt."

I noticed his demeanour get much warmer, if that was even possible, when he spoke of Esme. Despite the fact that I had no idea what she was like, Dr. Cullen's loving smile made me smile along with him and hope that I would eventually get to meet her.

"She'd ... just lost her baby," Dr. Cullen continued. "They'd found her body at the base of a cliff, slightly alive. I managed to hear her heartbeat and save her. I'd met her when she was about your age, and somehow I never forgot her, never let her fade into the crowd of humans that I had met in the past. Something about her always made her stand out to me. It turns out that she was my soul-mate. We married not long after I turned her. It was one of the happiest days of my life.

"Rosalie and Emmett were turned by me in the thirties, two years apart, and they have been inseparable ever since. Alice and Jasper came to us of their own accord in the fifties. They'd already been practicing living our lifestyle and wanted to join us. We were only delighted to let them.

"We've been living this way since then, moving every few years and finding new places to live, living new lives each time. We've lived in Forks before, but we had to leave soon after we came here the first time. We had some rough relations with the locals, unfortunately. They'd dealt with our kind before and, despite the treaty we'd signed with them, didn't want to trust us."

"Well, they're stupid!" I signed angrily. "You're not a threat to them or any other human, so why would they not trust you?"

Dr. Cullen smiled gratefully at me.

"Thank you for your support. It means a lot to me, and all of us."

"Will I get to meet them sometime?" I asked.

Dr. Cullen considered the idea for a moment before nodding.

"I'll bring them to you one at a time, to avoid overwhelming you."

"Can I ... Can I meet Esme first?" I asked, feeling slightly embarrassed.

I saw Dr. Cullen chuckle before nodding.

"She will be delighted to meet you. Alice might get a little miffed that she didn't meet you first, though."

I shrugged. "Then I'll meet her after Esme. Unless she'd prefer I make her wait until I've met everyone else," I added mischievously.

I was rewarded with Dr. Cullen's laugh. I couldn't hear it, but seeing his entire face light up with delight made me smile.

"She'd walk all over everyone else to get to you if you did that," Dr. Cullen said, still chuckling. "They'll like you," he said definitively. "You'll see."

"Thanks," I said, for once excited to meet new people. I don't know what it was about this family, but my normal shyness didn't seem to speak loudly enough to make me avoid them. While I was still a part of the war back in England, for the moment, I was free to live my own life and be who I truly was. That knowledge was strangely electrifying, at once thrilling and terrifying.

I was free.

Free from the Dursleys, free from the Death Eaters, free from Vol ... from the Dark Lord.

Free to be deaf, free to be an artist, free to be mischievous.

Free to be Rissie.

I didn't know what this new world would bring me, but I was free to choose how I fit into it. I would find a way to be who I was here, whether people liked it or not.

Look out, Forks! Rissie Potter is here, and you will remember her when she leaves.