Chapter 14

It was the next night when Russell decided it was a perfect time to attack. Hermione could hear the howls of the wolves in the wind. Hermione clutched tightly onto her wand, her body hidden in the shadows of the living area. Bill and Jessica were tucked away in the kitchen, Sookie in her room. Hermione felt herself immediately move back into war mode. Her instincts were still as sharp as ever, and she was thankful that she maintained training while she was away from home.

Suddenly the door crashed down, the woman known as Debbie Pelt stood in the doorway. Three wolves rushed in, growls leaving their muzzles. Hermione stepped out, her wand pointing to one of them and tossing them backwards into the other one. They whined out in slight pain before bouncing back up and rushing towards her. Debbie stepped inside and caught sight of her. She immediately came at her, her teeth showing and glinting in the light.

"You're that British bitch," Debbie said, Hermione smirking and lifting her wand up for Debbie to see.

"I think you mean witch," Hermione told her sarcastically, making the woman pounce on her. Debbie knocked Hermione to the ground, her wand leaving her hand. Hermione reared her arm up and punched her in the jaw. Debbie's head shot back but then laughed at her before punching Hermione in the stomach. Hermione felt the wind go out of her, allowing for Debbie to punch her on the side. Pain shot through her, but she lifted her leg up between them, kicking Debbie off of her.

Hermione quickly grabbed her wand, but Debbie grabbed onto the hair in the back of her hair, making Hermione cry out in pain. Debbie laughed at her, but Hermione twisted herself around, grunting pain as she pointed her wand at Debbie and blasted her into the wall. Debbie quickly stood up before smirking and running up the stairs. Hermione moved to follow her, but a loud growl stopped her in her tracks.

Hermione turned around to find a large wolf behind her. Fear trickled down her back, but she took a deep breath to keep it down. Blood trickled down her nose from one of the punches Debbie had gotten in, but she just let the blood drip down onto the wood floor. The wolf turned into a man, his body fully nude before her. He had a lecherous smile on his face as he looked her up and down.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this," his gruff voice making her fear rattle down her spine more. He was disgusting looking. He had long oily hair, thick, pinched eye brows and a goatee around his chin. His face was lined with wrinkles and his putrid lifted off of him and entered her nose in waves. She grimaced at him as he took a step towards her.

"Take another step and I will slice you into a million pieces," she warned, lifting her wand and pointing it menacingly at him.

"With that little stick," he asked, his stone patronizing as he took another step towards her.

"Sectumsempra," Hermione hissed, the man crying out in pain as the spell slashed into him. The wounds began to seep and he fell to the floor, unable to move.

"What did you do to me you bitch," he growled out, his hands clutching at the wounds to stop the bleeding. Hermione pointed her wand at him again, a dark look in her eyes as she contemplated what to do next. He looked up at her, fearful of what she would do.

"Putting a dog out of it's misery," she replied before knocking him back and making him slam his head hard into the wall, knocking him out. She noticed blood beginning to seep from the back of his head onto the floor, but all she could do was watch. Blood continued to spill from him, only one spell able to reverse the curse, but she wouldn't use it. She felt a bit hollow at knowing that she was essentially killing a man. She might as well have used the Killing Curse. But she felt no sympathy, no sorrow. He was nothing to her, just a casualty of war.

She turned around and walked out of the room, being drawn to the cries and yelling outside.

~0~0~

Hermione saw Jessica in the clutches of Russell, Bill trying to convince him to let her go. She saw the moment he could smell her, his face twisting into a sadistic grin.

"He kept you alive," Russell said into the air. Hermione stepped out from behind Bill, her face expressionless.

"Let her go," Hermione told him, her voice firm. Russell laughed at her, making a shiver run down her spine.

"You dare to tell me what to do girl," Russell said, his voice full harsh and full of anger, "I am over three thousand years old!"

"I've seen things scarier than you," Hermione told him, ignoring Bill's plea to keep her from stepping out into the night. It was the truth, she's seen a lot of things scarier than Russell Edington.

"Do you fear death," he asked next, using his speed to move in front of Hermione.

"No," was her simple answer. His mouth opened wide, ready to bite, but Hermione silently blasted him away. Russell flew in the air, but quickly righted himself, landing himself in front of her. Russell clutched into her throat, squeezing tightly, enough to just barely cut off her air supply.

"You're either brave or stupid," he said softly to her. Her eyes just watched him as he held on tightly to her throat. She didn't struggle, she didn't try to convince him to let her go. Her eyes were dark, and Russell looked deep into them, as if she were the one to be hypnotizing him, "You've seen war. You've lived through it."

"Yes," she replied simply, a cold dread going through her body.

"You're brave," he told her, his expression full of contemplation, "You're also very intelligent. I can see it in your eyes."

"They call me the brightest witch of my age," she told him, her voice hoarse with the struggle of trying to speak. It hadn't escaped her notice that Bill was no longer there.

"You would do well as a vampire," Russell told her, his grip loosening only slightly. Just enough to allow her more ease to speak.

"I don't want to be a vampire," she replied, the dread filling her even more. She didn't like where this was going at all.

"Why not? You live forever, people respect you, they will cower with fear at your feet. You'll be strong, and fast. Being a vampire is a gift," Russell explained, still holding her form close to him so that he could look deeply into her eyes.

"Being a vampire is a weakness," she replied, swallowing hard as Russell squeezed her throat tightly once again.

"Explain," his hissed under his breath, the urge to kill in his eyes, but Hermione would not be deterred.

"You forget the best thing about being human," Hermione began, tears beginning to sting her eyes as images flashed through her mind, memories, "How to love." Russell opened his mouth to say something when all of a sudden his body jerked, sadness and anger filling his eyes. His hand released her as he roared into the night.

Hermione knew exactly what had happened. Eric had killed Talbot. She didn't know why, but she knew Russell was apart of Eric's past, his human past, and he had taken revenge for it. As Russell flew off into the night, Hermione could hear the moans of Bill and Sookie from her room. She sighed tiredly, walking slowly back into the house to her room.

Russell was about to make her a vampire. He would have done it by force, and she wouldn't have been able to do a thing about it. She would have been stuck to him until the end of time, or at least until he released her or someone killed him. She didn't even know if she would have retained her magic if she had become a vampire. She decided that the second she had some down time she would do research into it.

She had quickly packed up her stuff into her beaded bag, knowing she would have to leave soon. She heard Sookie cry out loudly, making Hermione's face scrunch up in distaste. That was where Bill had gone, abandoning Hermione to the likes of Russell Edington, to fend for herself. She grabbed her bag and stepped back out of the house, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath of the crisp night air.

"You shouldn't be out here," Eric's voice said from right behind her. She kept her eyes closed and her back to him, not wanting to disturb the peace that had fallen over her.

"I'll take my chances," she whispered, finally opening her eyes. He was in front of her now, covered in blood, "Oh Eric, what have you done?"

"What I needed to do," he gritted out. Hermione sighed, wrapping her arms around him. He smelled of blood and the ocean.

"Russell wanted to turn me," she said softly, her voice lifting into the quiet night. She felt Eric's arms come around her, his chin resting on the top of her head.

"What did you tell him," he asked just as softly. She squeezed him, before lifting her head up to look him in the eyes.

"That I didn't want to become one because being a vampire is a weakness," she told him, never tearing her eyes away from those mesmerizing blue eyes that drew her to him.

"How so," he asked, and this time Hermione tore her gaze away, resting her head on his chest. She was surprisingly soothed by the lack of the thumping of a heart.

"Vampires tend to forget how to love," she said, her voice a whimper, but strengthened as she continued on, "I don't want to forget the most basic part of who I am. But as I watched him fly away, and seeing you here I realized that it wasn't true. Not all of it anyway."

"Russell Edington is incapable of love," Eric told her, his voice stiff. Hermione pulled away, shaking her head.

"No, he can still love, it was just an obsessive, selfish kind of love that no one should suffer from. I have seen what the incapability of love looks like, and that was not it," Hermione said, her voice firm. She sighed before taking Eric's hands into her own. She rubbed her thumbs into his skin, enjoying the coolness of his skin against the heat of her hand, "You know how to love Eric. You probably won't admit it, but you do."

"What are you trying to tell me Hermione," he asked, not understanding where her mind was going.

She smiled brightly up at him, making his mouth go dry at the beauty and warmth of the smile, "Just that I love you. I was scared tonight. I'm always scared, even if I go through a duel or battle a thousand times, I will always feel that shiver of fear run down my back. But when it's all said and done with, I'm happy to be able to see the people I love another day."

"Do you want to be a vampire Hermione," Eric asked, his voice soft. He didn't want her to be a vampire. She would lose all of the warmth and life that made her who she was. She would do well as a vampire with her intelligence, but she would do horribly as a vampire with her humanity. She would grow to hate herself, and Eric wouldn't want to do that to her. Even if she wanted to be a vampire, he would refuse.

"No Eric," she sighed out, her chocolate eyes filling with exhaustion, "I want to have children. I want to grow old and grey and wrinkled. I want to sit on a rocking chair and pass wisdom to my great grandchildren."

"I can't give you that life Hermione," Eric whispered, leaning down to kiss her hair. He pulled her tightly into his arms, "I can't give you children. I won't grow old with you." He wanted that once, he still did, and it hurt his heart that he couldn't give her that life that they both so desperately wanted.

"I know," she whispered back, holding him tight against her, "I wish you could. I wish we could both have that life. I think you would be a fantastic father. "

"Promise me you'll find someone to have that life with Hermione," he told her, his voice thick with emotion as he pulled back enough to look at her, "Live that life for the both of us." Hermione could only nod, so moved by Eric's words. He smiled down at her, his blue eyes enveloping her like the ocean, and she didn't mind drowning.

"Come on," Eric began, "Let's get out of here."

"Hold on," Hermione stopped him, waving her wand over the area that held her room. She could feel the magic hum in the air, turning the house back to it's original form. Once she was finished, she nodded, and Eric wrapped her in his arms. Taking off into the night sky.

A/N: I am SO SORRY that this chapter took longer than usual to put out. I will have the next chapter up in no time though. I took so long because I had started ANOTHER story (I know, but when the Muses call you answer). It's Avengers, Loki/OC story, so if you're part of that fandom please go check it out! Thank you for all of the support, I love getting your reviews! Love you all!