All credit for characters you know go to the original authors, I own nothing
Shout out to starkiss666 again for being my beta
Enjoy the first chapter of the new year!
As always constructive criticism welcome!
and again pinterest for this story which includes outfits, hairstyles, houses etc is
www . pinterest darkerthanthedarksideofthemoon
Hermione didn't even stop when she got into the bed and breakfast, she stormed up the stairs, her hair was sparking at the tips and she needed to get away. Tears burned her eyes as she slammed the door shut not bothering to lock it. She wasn't sad no, she was pissed, pissed that Sirius had humiliated her, pissed at herself for giving him a reason to be disappointed in her, of course she had noticed the magic surrounding Jared, of course she could smell him. She ran her hands through her hair, grabbing and tugging it, letting out a frustrated groan she walked over to the window and threw it open. Relishing in the fresh air she started to calm down, until she caught a scent on the breeze, her entire body stiffened once she recognized it. It smelled like Jared, she looked behind her at the door listening carefully for the tell-tale sounds of Sirius's footsteps coming up the stairs, when she didn't hear them, she made up her mind. She leaned out the window, estimating the distance to the ground to be about 9 meters she pulled herself out the window, sitting on the sill with her back facing outside, she let go and pushed herself out. Free-falling for just a second before she let the shift happen, spreading her wings she soared into the sky taking off into the woods not too far from the bed and breakfast, following the wind she sped through the trees her sharp eyesight locked onto a couple figures blurring through the woods in front of her.
Gathering her magic into her wings she took off faster than a normal eagle could fly, keeping a good distance between the blurs and herself she followed them until they suddenly stopped. She landed on a branch high up in a tree behind the figures. Wolves, huge fucking wolves, bigger than her and Sirius that's for sure, they rival Moony in the height but they looked like real wolves, they obviously weren't children of the moon if they were running in their other skin during the day. Their magic didn't smell like hers though, so they weren't animagi, she cocked her head to the side watching the way they seemed to communicate silently. She flew closer, landing on a lower branch right behind them. She knew they couldn't smell her as she had hidden her scent for years now, it was a second nature to her now, she did it without even thinking.
She felt the magic swell around them and watched as they transformed into Jared and another boy she'd never met, if she had been in her human form, she would've been bright red, the boys were not clothed! She made sure to keep her eyes locked on their faces as they spoke.
"What do you mean she didn't have a scent, everyone has a scent Jared!" the boy she didn't know stated.
"I'm telling you Paul, the girl had no scent, I mean I could smell her perfume or bath oil or something but her true scent wasn't there! Then when that man, the one she called her father came up I could smell him, he smelled like us, but different. Bro I don't know what it was about that girl though but she just drew me in, something about her made me feel safe." Jared scratched his head while he spoke.
"Well we know she's not your imprint, you already imprinted on Kim!" Paul nudged him while laughing. "but maybe the reason you felt safe around her is she's one of the others imprints? I mean you know Jake is getting ready to phase soon, Embry has already phased and hasn't imprinted on anyone, and then there's Sam, granted I doubt Sam will imprint on anyone if Leah is still around him, I know they broke up and all but she still scares every woman interested in Sam off before he even gets a whiff of them."
Both boys laughed at that, they knew how rare imprints were, the fact that Jared had imprinted within a few days of phasing for the first time was amazing. The boys shifted back and headed towards La Push not noticing the eagle sitting in the tree watching them leave. She waited till she couldn't hear or see them anymore and flew down to the ground, slipping back into her human form she stood there, the only thought in her mind was of something she had read years ago about skin walkers, she didn't think that was the right term for what the boys were but it's as close as she could think of. Pulling her wand out of her pocket she cast a few detecting spells used by aurors to trace magical residue, seconds later a red glow permeated the area showing a trace amount of magic, but not magic like hers, no, her magic along with every other witch and wizards would have made the area glow blue, this was very interesting. The spell registered that there was magic in the air but it couldn't tell her what kind of magic it was. This was something new, something the Ministry of Magic had never encountered, she couldn't say for sure if MACUSA knew about them or not but she couldn't wait to study them.
Waving her wand and ending the spell she pocketed it again. Turning back into her eagle form she headed back towards the bed and breakfast. Flying in through the window she landed just inside and transformed back to her human form. She squealed when her door was thrown open by a very angry looking werewolf. She stood completely still as she looked up into his amber tinted eyes, the moon was still a week or so away but Moony was making his presence known here and now.
"Just where the fuck have you been? No note, you're just gone, window open, Sirius was out trying to track you hoping you had taken off in your wolf form but obviously there was no luck there! Mina what the hell is wrong with you? We thought something had happened!" Moony ground all this out his fists clenched at his side.
Hermione lowered her eyes and tilted her head to the side, sighing when Moony rushed over and checked her over for any injuries or scents that he didn't like. Once he was satisfied, he leaned over and nipped her nose like he would a misbehaving pup. Hermione held down the whimper that threatened to spring up, swallowing hard she looked up at Remus whose eyes were starting to go back to normal.
"I didn't mean to worry you guys, but I just caught a scent on the wind that I wanted to check out, so I followed it and I figured out why Jared smelled so funny." She grinned when his head cocked to the side,
"Oh? What exactly did you find out?"
"They're skin-walkers, like the native American folklore, they change into huge fucking wolves Moony! Huge! Bigger than me and bigger than Sirius, they rival you in height when you're changed but they look like true wolves not werewolves!"
Remus stood still absorbing the information he just heard, skin walkers, that would explain why they smelled so much like Hermione. He opened his mouth the ask her what else she found when Hermione started talking over him again.
"I also, did the magia revelatum est and it showed traces of magic, but here's the thing Remus, it glowed red! Not blue, so whatever brand of magic this is isn't known by our ministry! I don't know if MACUSA knows about them or not but do you think we should inform them of what we've found?" Hermione looked up at him her eyes glowing with curiosity and wonder. "Remus we could be the first to ever study these people! What do you think?"
Remus smiled gently at her enthusiasm, "Mina, I think we need to call back your father, he's going to be worried sick, he thought you just ran off."
Hermione looked guilty, "I did just run off, I was pissed, more pissed at myself than anything but I needed to get away and clear my head, then I caught Jared's scent and decided that was the perfect distraction, though looking back, it probably wasn't the best option considering that's what papa was upset with me about in the first place." She glanced at Remus, "Is he going to be mad at me still? Why doesn't he think I can take care of myself?"
He sighed, "Mina, you need to remember that we are a pack, you, me, padfoot, Harry and Teddy. Mina we already lost our pack before, we can't lose you too, I don't think either of us would survive it this time love." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's hard being this far from Harry, the pack bond is strained because of it, but having the rest of you here helps, I think Sirius can feel it more than the rest of us, he just wants you to be safe and happy, hence why we are here." He shot her a grin that she matched.
They both turned to the door as they heard Sirius's footsteps pounding up the stairs, Hermione shot Remus a nervous glance before walking towards the door it suddenly flew open before she could reach it and in rushed Sirius, "Moony! I couldn't find her, the little shit must have taken off in her eagle form, what are we going to do? What if she doesn't come back? What..."
Hermione interrupted him, "Papa, I'm here I'm sorry I took off, I just needed a breather."
Sirius didn't even glance at her before waving his hand, "Not now Kitten, Moony and I need to find Hermione. Moony, maybe we should call the cops, see if anyone has any..." he stopped mid-sentence and spun around to look at Hermione, "Kitten! You're back!" he rushed forward and scooped her up into a big hug, "I'm so so so sorry kitten, I love you so much and I promise I was just worried, I didn't mean to make you mad, you're not stupid and you're definitely not a disappointment to me!"
Hermione sighed, "Oh Papa, I know you didn't mean it, I love you too." She snuggled into his embrace relishing in the faded smell of leather, cigarettes and his cologne, a spicy musky scent she couldn't get enough of. "Nothing is ever going to take me away from you okay?" She pulled away and looked up at him.
Sirius nodded and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "we should go start making dinner, we need to come up with a plan for how we are going to get into chief swan's house without him noticing. I was thinking that we should go about midnight? What do you think?"
About that time Remus looked towards to the door, "Teddy is waking up I'm going to go get him changed and we will meet you downstairs in the kitchen." He didn't wait for a reply as he started towards the hallway.
Hermione had been pondering how to get in also, "I think midnight will be fine, I think it'd be best if we disillusioned ourselves along with an obvolvere to our shoes, Harry used to use that one after he started his auror training to spook us, made it so we couldn't hear his footsteps, I think the only person it didn't work on was Moony. I was determined to learn it to pay him back for all the times he spooked me!" She smiled at the memories of the times she Ginny and Luna made it their mission to scare Harry, once it ended up with him falling out of a tree and into the swimming hole that was nestled in a grove between the burrow and Luna's house. She shook her head and focused back on project at hand. "I think I'll sneak into Bella's room, you can take Charlie, someone is going to need to stay with Teddy. I also think we need to apparate into the woods behind the house, I don't think we should drive there, the vehicle we have is too noticeable. I can side-along you to the woods because there's a place Bella and I used to play at that I can use to get us there."
Sirius nodded, with the plan settled they both headed for the kitchen, Hermione had the pasta boiling in a pot while Sirius opened the wine to let it breathe. Hermione hand the pancetta crisping in a pan with olive oil on the stove, frozen peas were boiling along and the garlic bread was warming in the oven. While she was waiting for everything to get done, she whisked eggs, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese in a bowl setting it aside. Once the spaghetti was done, she drained it saving just a bit of the water to make the sauce, she drained the peas and left them in the strainer. Adding the noodles to the pancetta pan she quickly tossed the noodles to coat them in the oil, this was followed by her drizzling the egg mixture onto the noodles while she continued tossing them to keep the eggs from scrambling, once all the mixture was gone she poured the left over noodle water into the pan and tossed it some more making a creamy sauce, to finish she added the peas before scooping up servings onto three plates and a little into a bowl for Teddy. Sirius had pulled out the bread and was slicing pieces and adding them to the plates.
Remus had wandered down with Teddy in one arm and a sippy cup in his other hand, he transfigured a chair into a high chair for Teddy, he placed him in it and wandered into the kitchen finding the milk in the fridge and filling the sippy with it. He put that on the table in front of the toddler and then headed back to the kitchen. He found some wine glasses and grabbed three before also grabbing the open bottle of wine and heading to the table. Pouring each adult a half glass of wine he placed the bottle on the other side of the table from Teddy and took his seat as Sirius and Hermione came out each with their plates, Hermione also had Teddy's cut up spaghetti bowl and Sirius had Remus's in his other hand. With a flourish Sirius deposited the plates and summoned the parmesan and grater from the kitchen to garnish the food.
"Ow' much vould you like madame?" Sirius asked in a horrible fake French accent, gesturing to the cheese he held, Hermione giggled and waved her hand for him to start, he added a bit and watched for her signal to stop, with another laugh she waved her hand again when he had put just the right amount. He smiled and turned to Remus "and for your monsieur?" Remus just nodded and let him go to town adding a lot of cheese to his plate, a good minute passed before he told him to stop. Sirius danced over to where Teddy was sitting and clapping his hands at the over exaggerated was Sirius was moving and talking, "and for the young monsiuer I'm sure he vould vant some fromage." He grated a tiny amount onto Teddy's food, relishing in the giggles he drew out of the toddler. He then added some to his food and banished the cheese and grater back to the kitchen with a wave of his hand.
After the meal Remus went upstairs to give Teddy a bath, Hermione and Sirius were hand washing the dishes as there wasn't a dishwasher in the house and they didn't want to risk that much magic in the kitchen, seeing as they hadn't protected the appliances from being overloaded and destroyed by their magic.
"So, Kitten, tell me, what were you doing when you left today?" Sirius caught the clean, wet plate she had dropped in surprise at the question. He looked at the paleness of her face, "Hermione? Are you okay?"
She sighed and nodded, "I went for a fly, after smelling Jared somewhere close. I followed him and another boy through the woods to a clearing, but they weren't human when I was following them. They're skin-walkers, they turn into huge wolves. They're not animagi because when they transform they lose their clothes. I also did the magia revelatum est and it glowed red, meaning there was magic but it's nothing our Ministry has ever come into contact with." She looked up at Sirius waiting for him to respond, she watched his face reveal many different emotions before settling on what she could only guess was exasperation.
"Kitten, I'm not going to say I'm not angry that you put yourself in danger, again, but I know you. Everyone thought Harry was the trouble magnet but I firmly believe it was you who attracted the danger. Also, I believe we will be contacting MACUSA about these skin-walkers you've encountered, we will also be going somewhere to research this tribe that lives here. See if we can't make a little discovery ourselves." He smiled when she lit up at the mention of research. "I'm going to run upstairs and get Moony and see if we can't.." He trailed off looking out the window behind her, "someone's coming up the drive, go upstairs and wait with Moony while I see who it is. It isn't Dorothy."
Hermione opened her mouth to argue but immediately snapped it shut at the look on her father's face, "I'll just go see if Moony has Teddy dressed." she mumbled, annoyed she didn't get to stay. She headed for the stairs stopping to look back at Sirius once more, he shooed her on as he shoved his hand in his pocket, probably gripping his wand. She sighed and continue up the stairs, when she hit the landing, she heard ringing coming from her room, she rushed in and grabbed her ringing cell phone. Looking at the screen a smile broke out on her face, "Andromeda! How are you?"
"Hermione dear, I tried calling Remus but it went straight to voicemail, I didn't even try Sirius because I know he never keeps that thing charged. I just wanted to see how you were settling in, Michael and I have been in China since the wedding, we are thinking of spending a few more days here and then going to Italy, I believe. How is everything there?"
Hermione sighed, "It's a little complicated, my uncle's daughter is apparently here to live now, she hasn't lived here in years. There's also a native tribe here that apparently are skin walkers they can transform into huge wolves, not like Remus, but real wolves, just giant. I'd say they're almost as tall as moony when he's transformed. There's also the issue of the fact that they're not magical, well they are obviously but not like us."
Andromeda hummed on the other side of the line, "Let me speak to Michael, he's been around that area before, maybe he'll know someone or something there that can help you identify them. Now, speaking of Remus, is there any way I can chat with him? I'd like to speak to Teddy and tell him I miss him."
"Of course, let me just run across the hall, he was giving Teddy a bath, I'll take over for him while you two chat." with that she bolted across the hall banging on the bathroom door from Sirius's side.
Remus opened it, "Andromeda is on the phone, she wants to chat with you, I'll finish his bath while you chat. Also, papa kicked me out of the downstairs because someone was coming up to the house and it wasn't Dorothy, mind checking that out for me?"
Remus's face split into the grin and he grabbed the phone, chattering excitedly to Andy on the other side, Hermione just shook her head with a smile and turned to see Teddy had bubblegum pink hair and the bubbles in the tub were charmed all different colors. Her eyes teared up a bit seeing that color on Teddy, it was Tonk's favoured shade of pink. She rolled her sleeves up and kicked off her heels, kneeling on the floor by the tub she tickled Teddy's belly and finished rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. She let him play for another five minutes before getting him out and rubbing him dry with a huge fluffy towel that was in the room. She wrapped him up and pulled part of the towel over his head, scooping him into her arms she headed for Remus's room, she plopped him on the bed making him bounce and squeal with laughter.
She glanced around finding a neatly folded pair of blue pajamas with black wolf heads howling at a full moon on them. She snorted and grabbed them and a pair of pull ups for him to wear to bed. She finished drying him off and cast a warming charm on him drying charm on his hair, she got him dressed and brushed his hair also casting the teeth cleaning spell on him afterwards they settled into the arm chair and Hermione conjured up his favorite muggle bedtime story, 'Oh the places you will go' by Dr. Suess. She made it about halfway through before Teddy was out cold, she picked him up gently and laid him in the cot that was next to Remus's bed she picked up his stuffed dragon which had fallen out onto the floor, she tucked it in next to him under his fuzzy blanket he loved so much.
Picking up her wand she cast a protective bubble around the cot that would alert her if Teddy tried to get out of the cot, along with if anything tried to get in said cot. Once she was satisfied that he was safe she warded the windows of the room and headed out the door locking it behind her. She padded down the hall towards the stairs, she paused at the top listening to the deep rumbles that told her Sirius and Remus were talking, she was far enough away that she couldn't make out the words, then another higher voice joined the mix and they all laughed. Deciding it was okay to come down she trotted down the stairs and made a bee line for the sitting room off the kitchen.
Turning the corner she stopped when she saw them sitting there, Sirius and Remus were perched on the armchairs while another older looking man was sat on the couch facing them and the doorway she entered from. When his eyes snapped up to see her it made Remus and Sirius turn to face her, Sirius extended his hand and beckoned her over.
"Hermione! Come meet Mr. Tully, he's Ms. Cane and Mrs. Halstrom's boss. Jeff this is my daughter Hermione."
She walked over as the man stood and she shook his hand, "It's a pleasure Mr. Tully."
The man smiled, "Please, call me Jeff. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you as well! Anna told me you were such a nice young woman, I am terribly sorry for the way Ms. Crane acted towards you! She has been thoroughly reprimanded and she is currently on un-paid leave until the owner of the company decides what to do with her. Esme is such a soft-hearted woman I don't know if she'll fire her but I do know she doesn't stand for this sort of thing."
Jeff had sat back down and picked up a glass of water that was on the coffee table in front of him, Hermione wandered over and sat on the tall ottoman sitting near Sirius.
Sirius perked up at that, "Esme? I was under the impression you were the owner of the company?"
Jeff shook his head, "No sir, I'm just the big boss, but even I answer to Esme, that's Esme Cullen, she's Doctor Cullens wife, when they moved here a few years ago she decided she wanted to do something with her time instead of just being a housewife, they have five adopted children, all high school age you see, so she started this real estate business in Forks, and it flourished because before this the only real estate company that people used was based out of Port Angeles, which made it extremely annoying for anyone looking to sell their house, or property."
Hermione looked stunned at the name Cullen, she sat there for a minute making sure she heard him right. She looked at Remus who seemed to be reading her mind.
"Do you need me for anything?" She looked at Sirius and then cut her eyes towards Remus as she asked, Sirius got the hint.
"No kitten, go on up to bed, I think Remus here was just going to check on Teddy, Mr. Tully and I are just going to finish signing these papers and then I'll be up."
She smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "It was a pleasure Mr. Tully, thank you so much for helping us with this house, and please, give Mrs. Halstrom our best wishes for her and her family."
With a nod she headed for the stairs waiting for Remus to follow her. Once he was by her side they walked upstairs together, he handed her the phone she had given him earlier as he said he'd meet her in her room after he poked his head in on Teddy. She wandered into her room and pulled her bag off her bracelet digging in, her arm going in all the way to the shoulder trying to find the singular book she could find on the vegetarians she was here to study. Finally, after digging for a minute she felt the soft cover and pulled it out, putting her bag back on she lit the fire wandlessly and settled into one of the chairs flipping to the page she was looking for.
"Carlisle Cullen, the known founder of the Olympic coven, was the first to be changed and the first to discover he could live off animal blood instead of human. He was once a part of the infamous Volturi coven, which the European wizarding world has an agreement with. Other known members are Esme Cullen, his wife, and their adopted son Edward Cullen. Not much else is known about the "vegetarian" vampires as no one has studied them."
Hermione snapped the book shut and tilted her head back sighing.
"Well, that certainly explains the look you had on your face when Mr. Tully said Esme Cullen was the owner of the firm he works for." Remus's voice rang out through the quiet room. "So, you definitely know you're in the right place."
She looked up at him, "the book only states that they had one adopted child, do you think he made more?"
Remus shrugged, "He might have, no one knows Mina, that's why you're here. I think you might need to take advantage of this, Mr. Tully said the "children" are high school age, Mrs. Halstrom's husband was the English teacher, I bet they're going to be looking for a substitute to replace him for the year if he doesn't get better. Maybe you can observe them by being there, see how the interact around humans."
Hermione sat there thinking that over, "That could work!" About that time Sirius came up the stairs.
Throwing a set of keys at both of them, "Do you have everything ready to move? These are the keys to the house, I replicated a permanent set for both of you, we can move in whenever. I Know Teddy is sleeping Moony so it's your choice, do you want to move tonight or wait till the morning?"
Remus pondered that for a moment, "Why don't you two go ahead and move your stuff over and in, Teddy and I will be along tomorrow, you're going to have a late night heading over to Charlie's here in an hour or two, I'll just nap with Teddy and when you come back from the memory fun, him and I will move too."
They both nodded, "Also, Mina, you might want to talk to Sirius about what you figured out, and the plan we came up with."
Hermione grinned at him, before giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, promising to see him in a few hours. Remus wandered over to his room and laid down for a nap.
"So, kitten, what's this plan you've figured out with Moony?" He sat himself in the chair next to her, clasping his hands under his chin and staring at her.
"Well, when Jeff said Esme Cullen owned the firm, the name struck a chord with me. So, when I came back up here, I dug out that book that mentioned the vegetarian vampires, and I was right, their name was Cullen, specifically Carlisle and Esme Cullen along with their adopted son Edward. The book doesn't mention anything about three other children. So, when I mentioned this to Remus he said, since these "children" are high school age, and Mrs. Halstrom's husband was the English teacher there, maybe the school will be looking for a substitute. He recommended I apply and see if I get the spot, so I can observe them without having to, I don't know, stalk them?" She watched his face, seeing the emotions flashing across his features before settling on acceptance.
After what felt like forever, he spoke, "Well kitten, I don't think that's a bad idea, you'll be in a public environment and you'll be safer watching them there, plus you can see how they interact with humans."
Hermione nodded at him, "Exactly! Although, the one who really interests me is Carlisle, Mr. Tully said he's a doctor! How can he stand to be around all the human blood he would have to deal with!? Do you think his control is that extreme?" She thought back to their sixth year and the vampire Sanguini who had been brought to the slug club party, he had amazing control being tempted by all the young, healthy students at the party, but that wasn't with open wounds and flowing blood. Shaking her head, she focused back on Sirius.
"Go pack your stuff kitten, I'm going to go load up what I have here, we can run everything to the house. Then I want you to give me a rundown of the plan for tonight, meet me in the front room. I'll bet there in 15 minutes." He patted her head and left the room.
Hermione summoned all her clothes and placed them in her suitcase, she walked into the bathroom doing the same thing, loading everything into her bathroom bag and then banishing it all to her suitcase. After everything was packed, she triple-checked before taking down the wards on her windows, and removing the sutras from the electronics in the room. Satisfied that she had everything, she shrunk it all and put it into her beaded bag she had pulled off her bracelet, doing one more sweep over the room before putting the bag back on the bracelet.
Walking out of the room she went downstairs and stood there waiting for Sirius, thinking back to the last time she was in her uncles' house. If she remembered correctly both of the bedrooms were upstairs, and the stairs were directly in from the front door. Bella's was on the left and her uncle's was on the right, it shouldn't be too hard sneaking in the back door that lead into the kitchen and up the stairs without anyone hearing them, she would have to remember to warn Sirius that sometimes Charlie would fall asleep in front of the t.v. or at least he used to.
She was still lost in her thoughts when a hand on her shoulder snapped her back to reality, she jumped and spun around. Seeing it was just Sirius she put her hand to her chest in an attempt to calm her erratically beating heart.
"Damn it, Sirius, you scared me!" she scolded him, smacking him on the arm when he started laughing.
"You have heightened senses and still get lost in your own world unable to sense anything. Do you have everything packed?"
She nodded and held her hand up shaking it to make the charms shake, he just grinned at her in response.
"Should we take the car to the house?" He questioned her.
"Let's just apparate because then Moony can take the car with Teddy when they wake up, we have to apparate into the woods behind Charlies house anyway."
He nodded and they wandered out the front door together, heading towards the tree line beside the bed and breakfast where Hermione had landed with the portkey a couple days ago.
"See you there kitten." With a wink towards her he spun on the spot and disappeared with a quiet pop. She followed seconds later and landed on the front step of the house, the door was open so she just wandered in, Sirius was already making his way up the stairs so she followed. She started to wander to the closest bedroom on the right when she felt him grab her arm.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, "That's my room, this one is Moony's and the one we will convert is Teddy's you're getting the master suite." he nodded his head towards that door and gave her a light push that way.
"What? No, Sirius you bought the house you get the master suite! I'm fine with just the room!" She spun around trying to head back that way, she squealed when she was picked up and thrown over a shoulder.
"Kitten, you're taking the master suite, end of discussion, Moony and I already decided it." She huffed and settled for smacking him on the back before he deposited her in the middle of the empty room.
He smirked at her and strolled across the landing to the bedroom she had been heading for, she stood in the doorway with her arms crossed and scowling as she watched him summon his boxes from the storage unit. Resizing them and looking at the labels to see what he had in what box. She just sighed and followed his example, there was no changing his mind when he and moony decided something.
She cast a quick tempus and saw that it was already 11pm, so she just summoned the box that had her dresser, a pair of chairs, a small coffee table and somethings like a dirty linens basket. She arranged one of her chairs to have the huge windows behind them, placing the short black table in front of the chair. The other chair she sat where her bed would go once she bought a new one, for tonight she'd just transfigure the chair into a small cot. She probably wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight anyway, she placed the dresser and the linen basket in the closet and summoned her boxes of clothes. Using a simple spell, she watched as everything unpacked itself and either hung itself up or tucked itself away in the drawers of the dresser. She pulled her bag off and resized everything she had in there that was going to stay at the house clothing wise and toiletries wise.
After that there wasn't much more she had to summon besides her books and the kitchen stuff but that could all wait till tomorrow. Walking into her closet she stripped out of the nice outfit she had on and pulled her hair up into a ponytail, digging in a drawer she pulled out her favorite pair of black yoga pants and pulled a black hoodie out of her collection, throwing them on she dug out her old pair of worn black trainers and a pair of no-show socks.
Once she was ready she cast another tempus and saw it was finally about midnight, heading over to Sirius's room she saw him coming out.
"Sirius, I wanted to tell you, Uncle Charlie sometimes falls asleep in his chair watching tv, we will apparate, I'll side along you, to the spot Bella and I used to play a little ways into the woods behind her house, then we will head into the house through the back door that leads into the kitchen, from there we can go into the living room and if Charlie is there, I'll leave you to it and I'll head upstairs to Bella's room, if he's not there we will both be going upstairs and Charlie's room is the last door down the hall, Bella's is right at the top of the stairs. We will meet back at the door in the kitchen and return to the spot we apparated to, and I will apparate back here and you will go get Remus and Teddy, sound good?"
She watched as he processed the information she had given him and smiled when he nodded.
"It shouldn't take me more than twenty minutes to break the lock on your uncles' memories, do you think you'll need more time?"
Hermione thought about it, she had done some reading on the spell MACUSA used to lock muggles memories, shaking her head she replied, "I don't think so, maybe 30 minutes tops, it depends on how strong the lock is but I don't think it will be a problem, are you ready to go?" She glanced at him, noting he had his hair pulled back in a low ponytail again and was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a black long sleeve polo, she giggled at the fact they looked like two robbers, all they needed was the masks. He must have caught her train of thought because he huffed out a laugh too. He nodded and held out his hand tightening the hold he had on her when she grasped his.
"All right Sirius, here we go, hold on tight I don't want to splinch you!" with that she spun on the spot pulling him with her. Seconds later they landed right next to her favorite tree that had a branch that had grown sideways and had a flat spot right next to the trunk that made the perfect spot to sit and read while she watched Bella play. She shook the thoughts out of her head and started walking the direction the house was in, they had made it all of 20 steps when they both froze, their heads snapping in sync to look behind them. Hermione glanced up at Sirius.
"You heard that too? Do you smell it?" she whispered quietly enough that only Sirius could hear her.
"I heard it, I smell it, it's that damn Black boy, apparently he's one of the wolves, he had the scent of that Jared boy but not quite as strong, now it's almost overwhelming." he replied back still staring into the dark trying to make out the shape of the boy, not realizing he should be looking for a wolf not a man.
Hermione followed his line of sight catching a glimpse of a huge brown wolf as it darted out of sight into some underbrush.
"He's changed, he's a wolf now, I just saw him or at least I'm assuming it's him seeing as his is the only scent I can find." She murmured, turning back towards the house, "he won't bother us anyway, once we disillusion ourselves and obvolvere our feet he won't be able to find us, he can't scent me anyway, you should cover yours just to be safe." He nodded and suddenly the smoky scent she loved disappeared from around her. With a nod she continued towards the house, when they finally reached the tree line she looked at Sirius who cast obvolvere on both of their feet while she disillusioned them.
Sirius grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt and she started towards the house, crossing the yard in quick steps, once she reached the back door a simple alohamora had them inside, she breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed Charlie was upstairs sleeping. Heading up the stairs she felt Sirius release her hood and waited till she saw Charlies door open and close quietly before she entered Bella's room. She padded silently to the edge of her bed and raised her wand. "Intrabit in animum" she whispered watching the telltale purple glow form on the end of her wand, she pressed it to her temple leaving a purple X on the side of her head, she pulled her wand slowly away a smoky purple wisp followed as she pressed her wand to Bella's temple. Cutting the magic from her wand she saw a matching purple X form on Bella's head. She sat down on the floor next to the bed and leaned against it before whispering "incipere" her eyes slid shut as she dove into the mind of her cousin, coming face to face with a big brick wall.
"Well fuck me" she whispered as she pressed her hand against the wall, "it's like she's practicing occlumency!" She walked along the wall keeping her hand against it feeling blindly for any cracks, finally she found a loose brick, pushing lightly she watched as the brick shifted and fell out leaving just a big enough gap she could slip into the depths of Bella's mind. She quickly sorted through her memories searching for the locked box that surrounded the memories of her and her family. She stopped suddenly when she came across a memory string that she felt the need to see, it was a new memory from earlier today, tugging it she watched as it expanded into a screen the memory playing out in front of her.
She gasped at what she saw, Bella had gotten hurt, scratched by one of those damn wolves! Jacob had phased for the first time to protect her after she got a good gash across her right shoulder from Paul. Hermione made a note to take a look at the scratch, but what had caught her eye was the doctor Bella had been taken to by her father. Pale skin, bright golden eyes, very light blond hair and a dusting of facial hair, Hermione froze the memory in place staring at what could only be the vampire doctor. Making a split-second decision she made a copy of Bella's memory to show Sirius and Remus, storing it in a vile she dug out of her little bag, before letting the memory continue. She watched as the vampire (Carlisle) cleaned and stitched the scratches with amazing precision, his eyes never even changed shades of gold, meaning he wasn't affected by the scent of her blood at all, just as the memory cut out Bella's eyes snapped to something in the corner of the room by the door, Hermione growled at what she saw. Another vampire, this one's eyes started to turn almost black at the smell of Bella's blood, she watched as the "teenager" rushed out of the room letting the door slam behind him, she had to give him credit for getting out of that situation.
Sighing she put the memory back into its string form and continued on finding the box, suddenly the memories she was pulling on got tight, harder for her to pull apart and search. She grinned reaching her hand into a tangle of memories and felt something hard in there. She grasped it and with a triumphant smirk she pulled it loose, it reeked of magic so she knew it was what she was looking for. Pulling out her wand it pressed the tip to the lock on the top, "memorias revelare" as soon as the last part of the word fell from her lips the box flew open and dissolved, the memories it contained snapping into place where they belonged. Satisfied she whispered her "finite" her eyes snapped open and she stood up placing her wand on the X still visible on her cousin's head watching as it slowly disappeared and drew her wand pulling the purple mist back into her own mind before pressing the tip of her wand against her own X making it disappear too.
She jumped a bit when Bella snored and rolled over, stifling a giggle she started to leave the room before she stopped and pulled the covers off her shoulder looking at the bandage covering the stitches she had, shaking her head she covered Bella back up and headed down to the back door seeing a tempus floating in the air, she glanced at it and gasped, she had been in Bella's mind for almost 50 minutes! She crept forward grabbing at the shimmer that was Sirius's arm, she heard him sigh quietly in relief and led them out the door before locking it behind him. She felt him give her a hug before he disapparted with a quiet pop, she followed suit but headed to their new home. Once she landed in her room, she finited the disillusion and the obvolvere before going into her closet and pulling off the clothes she was wearing trading them out for a pair of fuzzy pajama bottoms and a tank top, she pulled her hair out of the ponytail and quickly put it into a side braid before she headed to her bathroom and brushed her teeth and washed her face. As she walked through the closet she dug in the bottom drawer of her dresser and pulled out an extra blanket and pillow, she headed back to her room and transfigured her chair into a small plush cot and she climbed in covering up with the blanket and falling asleep almost immediately with a smile on her face, happy she had gotten her family back.