A/N: I'm probably not going to update for a few more days. I need to update my other stories which I've been neglecting. But this idea was bouncing around my head at work, so I wanted to get it down and to you guys.

I didn't mean to make Ginny sound too bitchy before. She's protective of her family and their feelings, and she's having a hard time seeing vampire-Hermione and human-Hermione as two different people. I wrote it thinking that when you know someone for a long time and they have a dramatic change it's hard to think of them differently (i.e. when a friend has a baby and it's hard to see them as 'mommy' or 'daddy' instead of who they were before. Not the same, but hopefully you see what I'm getting at). She always seemed willing to speak her mind, and patience doesn't exactly seem to be a Weasley family virtue.

Enjoy, and please review!

Ron stretched across two seats after letting Pigwidgeon out of his cage. The tiny owl was now making a nuisance of itself, flying in tight circles making what Harry was sure were supposed to be shrieking noises but came across as rubber-duck type squeaks. His black owl, who he named Siri, hooted softly at Pig and flew out the open window to fly alongside the train.

"Bloody menace," Ron said, batting at the tiny bird.

"You know you like him," Harry smirked.

"Of course I like him. Good Snitch practice."

Harry chuckled. Ron had been returning to somewhat of himself since their trip to Diagon Alley.

"Feels weird."

"What, to be going back to Hogwarts or to have Flitwick guarding our compartment?"

"Both, but I'm glad he is. Those two Hufflepuff girls came up to me again on the train platform."

"Oh, I'm sure you hated that."

"Not exactly, but they never gave me two looks before I was famous."

Harry stayed silent. The last place he wanted the conversation to go was to girlfriends.

"Remember all those times Hermione told us that we'd fail out without her help?"

"Yeah," Harry answered apprehensively.

"We might be in big trouble, mate," Ron smiled sadly.

Harry's mouth upturned in a half smile. "I still can't believe McGonagall is making us take Defense Against the Dark Arts still. Can't we just haul Voldemort's body and a few broken horcruxes in there and get graded on that?"

Ron laughed. Harry smiled. He hadn't heard Ron give a hearty laugh in ages. It sounded wonderful.

"Seven thirty-two, you should get going," Alice muttered without looking at her watch.

"Going where?" Edward asked. His sister was singing 'I know a song that gets on Edward's nerves' in her mind, not concentrating on what Hermione had planned. They had been like this for a week, whispering together, running off into the woods, changing the subject whenever he got close, and Alice thinking of anything she knew would keep him out of her head. He had seen much more of Jasper than he ever wanted to see in the past few days.

"Trust me," Hermione said, standing and walking towards the door. "It's going to be pretty cool."

"Get moving or you'll miss it," Alice admonished lightly.

"We're going, we're going," Hermione sighed, grabbing Edward's hand and rushing out the door.

"Going where?" Edward repeated himself, irritated she had kept her Occlumency up without falter since she had learned of his ability.

"You'll see," she said, dashing into the woods. Edward quickly caught up and matched her pace.

"Normally when either one of you says that it winds up badly for me. And you've done a good job of keeping everyone else out of the loop. I wish Emmett was here, he'd tell me."

"No he wouldn't, because he wouldn't know. We're that good. And besides, you'll get your wish soon enough. Alice said 'his arrival is imminent'."

"Alice's sense of time is somewhat skewed. In case you didn't notice, she's a vampire, too."

"Really? Huh. I had forgotten all about it."

"Funny. Could you give me a hint as to where you're taking me? We're not going towards the spider nest, we're not going towards the castle, I don't know what else there is out here."

"Dragon den."

He skidded to a halt. "Seriously?"

"No," she her voice carried back to him with a faint laugh. He growled and bolted after her, she had slowed to let him keep up.

"That wasn't nice."

"For you. I found it pretty funny."

"There are dragons in England?"

"There are dragons all over the world. Shows how good the Ministries of Magic are. You have no idea, and you've probably hunted in ones territory."

"We're talking fire breathing, big, scaly, winged things, right?"

"No. They're the size and temperament of Labrador puppies," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "Of course they're big and mean."

"Emmett would die to hunt one of those."

"Yeah, probably," she said, coming to a clearing. "An animal whose hide is nearly impenetrable, who can rip you apart and breathe the fire needed to finish you off. Yeah, sounds like ideal prey." She walked to a precise area in the clearing and sat down. He went and sat next to her. The view was amazing. They were sitting atop a mountain, the rays of the setting sun hitting their backs and lighting the view for miles in the valley below. A large lake was nestled in the bottom of the valley, surrounded by trees. What looked to be a large road of sorts snaked along the edge of the lake lazily, emerging from behind a large group of trees they could see about three miles of it before it curved around the next ridge and out of sight.

"It's beautiful," Edward murmured, eyes darting all over the valley.

"It is," Hermione muttered, gazing intently at where the road started.

They sat for three or four minutes before something emerged on the road. Immediately Edward realized that the road was not really a road, it was a set of train tracks. A long, scarlet train was moving steadily across their field of vision.

"The Hogwarts Express," Hermione explained, watching what looked like a toy train below them. In the distance they could hear the rumbling of the wheels on the tracks and the chugging of the engine.

"That's the train you rode to school on?"

"Yes." There was a long pause. "I'd give anything to be on it right now," she wiped her eyes as the train disappeared around the bend leaving only a trail of smoke to indicate it had been there in the first place.

Unable to think of anything to say he pulled her into his arms.

"It's stupid of me, I know," she muttered angrily.

"No, it's not. You want to be with your friends, your family, you want to have a normal life. It's completely understandable."

"Edward, it's not that I don't like you, it's..."

"That you like Ron."

"No! I mean, yes."

Edward pulled away and stared at the smoke floating lazily skyward.

Hermione pulled her legs to her chest and gazed away as well. "I love Ron. I'll always love Ron. But as a best friend. We did have a moment at Hogwarts, hours before I was bitten, but we hadn't really been together like that before. I admit, I was interested, and in that I did hope and dream for a future with him, but my heart wasn't completely his. I don't give it easily, and I could see myself giving it to him, but it was too soon. And since this happened I've been thinking. So I won't say I don't love Ron, because I don't want to lie to you. But my love for him has changed. And I think I'm starting to fall again, and that scares me. How many times can you find something you think is true and the final one and have it taken away from you?"

Edward's mind flashed immediately to Bella. He had done some thinking that night after they returned home from Diagon Alley. And he realized that he was starting to love Hermione in much the same way he loved Bella. That he wanted so much more than the hand holding and the occasional hug. And he wanted, more than anything, Hermione to feel the same way. Bella had fallen for him without any questions asked, even when she found out what he was, because she was confident about her feelings. Hermione was overly cautious about her feelings, nothing was in stone, not even in her mind, because she was afraid.

"I want you to understand, Edward," she said, taking his hand. He didn't pull it away. "I want you to know why this is so difficult for me."

Before he knew it she had opened her mind to him, and she started letting her thoughts and memories flow to him. She thought about all the most pivotal moments in her relationship with Ron, anger and jealousy about Lavender, hope, nervousness, confidence followed immediately by disappointment about Slughorn's Christmas party, rage when he left her with Harry, anger and a bit of joy at seeing him return, amazement as he helped her destroy a horcrux, elation as they kissed in the hallway, and, finally, overwhelming terror as she felt him fall on the battlefield. And all throughout love, as a friend, as a brother, as a boyfriend. He thought she would close her mind back up here, but she continued. His face came swirling into view. Hope and fear when first seeing him, confusion at his constant hand holding, affection as his lips brushed her forehead in Diagon Alley, and most recently the beginnings of the same sort of love she felt towards Ron.

Her mind closed back up, but she said nothing. She returned to hugging her knees to her chest, rocking slightly, biting so hard on her bottom lip that had she been human she might need stitches. He stared at her in awe, and knew that her heart was torn.

He moved closer to her and put his arm around her. She lifted her face to him. "You understand why this is hard for me, right?"

"Better than you know," he answered. "And it's your decision, Hermione. I want to be with you, but if your heart is in another place I want you to be happy."

She didn't say anything, rather she leaned slowly towards him. Hesitantly her lips were on his. The kiss was slow, she was testing herself, he knew she was analyzing her emotions. But that didn't make him want to stop the kiss. The feeling was back, spreading from his lips across his face, until his whole head felt warm and human-like. She started kissing him more passionately, leaning into him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He held her to him, feeling the warmth rush over his body.

Her mind was suddenly back open, but this time the thoughts were much more vulgar. He pulled away, and looked at her face. She was confused an upset as her mind shut itself off.

"What's wrong?" she asked, sounding disappointed.

"You were losing control," he smiled. "It's sort of a newborn thing. Well, I can't exactly blame it on newborns, Emmett and Rosalie have the problem quite often themselves. They get going and can't stop. I didn't want you to do something you weren't prepared to do."

If she could have flushed, she would have. She knew her mind had inadvertently opened back up, and she was just realizing what she had been thinking about.

"We should get back home," he smiled at her.

They ran, hand-in-hand, back through the woods, slowing only when they saw the lights from the house come into view. As they entered the clearing something very large came rushing at them. Edward crossed his arms and looked expectant.

Hermione instinctively drew her wand, and shouted "Protego!" Her shield charm was so strong that whatever it was thrown backwards into a tree on the other side of the clearing, knocking it over. They heard growling mixed with a few chuckles as the thing launched itself again at them.

This time she didn't need to shout the incantation. The thing was hoisted into the air by it's ankle, staying still long enough so Hermione could finally get a look at it.

"Who is he?" she poked at the intruder with her wand.

"That would be your brother, Emmett, and the ambush would be his idea of a joke," Edward replied.

"Would have been funnier if she fought fair!" Emmett snarled, but he smiled. "Hey, Hermione."

Hermione leaned over so her head was almost upside down. "Hello, Emmett," she smiled pleasantly. "Didn't Esme teach you it's not nice to attack strangers?"

"You're not a stranger. You're family. And you can let me down anytime now."

"Give me five good reasons."

"Rosalie will give you five good reasons if you don't. They're attached to her palm, and they're forming a fist."

"They're forming a fist because I told you no funny business with her!" Rosalie stomped towards them. "I have half a mind to let her leave you up there."

"Have her send you up here. We could have all sorts of fun."

Rosalie muttered something even they couldn't pick up as she turned to Hermione, arms crossed. "Nice to meet you," she said, keeping her arms still hugging herself tightly. "Mind dropping him. Preferably on his head?"

"Liberacorpus," Hermione muttered, and Emmett dropped towards the ground, turning and landing catlike next to Rosalie.

"You and I should do this again sometime," he smiled widely as he shook Hermione's hand. "Without the stick."

"The wand never leaves my sight," Hermione smiled. "But I have a few more tricks you can try to get past." The group started towards the house, Rosalie keeping her distance from Hermione and Edward visibly surly.

"No thanks. Don't feel like being turned into a frog or something."

"It might be an improvement," Rosalie muttered as they all sat in the living room.

"I told you it would be best not to attack her," Alice said.

"You could have warned me about the magic thing," Emmett beamed at her.

"I could have, but I would have missed a really fun show if I have. I haven't seen Esme laugh as hard as she did at the look on your face as you were hoisted into the air."

"Ah, yes, let's encourage her to wave the stick around and flaunt it," Rosalie rolled her eyes.

"What's the matter with my magic?" Hermione asked, looking towards Edward, who was glaring angrily at his sister.

"It's nothing you've done," Rosalie replied bitterly. "Edward just has a tendency to bring unfavorable women around."

"Unfavorable?" Hermione asked, getting angry.

"She is a vampire, that is all they'll care about," Edward hissed.

"No, they'll know that she has magic and they'll stop at nothing to have her!" Rosalie shot back.

"Do you think she can't protect herself against them?"

"It's not her I'm worried about!"

"I'm sure that she'll be more than a match for the lot of them."

"I'm so glad then. Glad that we'll have to move as a group, hunt as a group, be within her eyesight constantly so they can't pick us off when we're alone."

"They wouldn't do that. They'd risk turning her against them."

"You underestimate their abilities."

"You overestimate them."

"You did this last time, too. You're blinded by what you feel for her, you can't see what danger it puts us in."

"There is no danger."

"Not yet."

"Could someone explain what's going on?" Hermione interrupted.

"Rosalie is afraid that you're being here is going to bring the Volturi coming to town," Alice whipsered.

"Who and why?"

Edward explained quickly about he Volturi. "They'll want you because you're Magic. They'll want you for their guard. Probably put you in a place of honor."

"And if I say no?"

"They'll tear the family apart one by one until you say yes," Rosalie mumbled.

"They won't," Edward said at the look of horror on Hermione's face. "They'll probably be too afraid of you to want to make you mad. Vampires and Those with Magic know about each other and fear each other, you're bound to have friends who know how to take them down and can do so, and you can protect yourself from their gifts."

"And when her friends are all dead? Who will help her then? Do you think she can protect herself and all of us from them and their whole guard?"

Edward stayed silent.

"I wouldn't want to do anything that would hurt any of you," Hermione said, looking around the room.

"We won't get hurt," Esme smiled at her, sitting next to her and rubbing her back in assurance.

Rosalie growled in frustration and disappeared towards her room. Emmett stood and followed her.

"What happens if they do come for me?" Hermione whispered to Edward.

"We'll think of something," he replied with a small smile, kissing her forehead.