CHAPTER NINETEEN:

Hermione's POV:

After the La Push incident I didn't know whether to comfort Bella or throttle her, so I settled with both. Her vampire wasn't very happy with me chewing her out, but I ignored his growling and did it gently. Bella was very apologetic, and after I finished lecturing her, I let her cry on my shoulder.

That Monday afternoon pretty much set the tone for the rest of the week. I had to ring Leah and post-pone dinner with her family for Saturday night, because I was so swamped with schoolwork.

The Cullens, Bella and Charlie quickly learned to stay out of my way while I was studying or doing homework. I was starting to panic that I'd been overconfident in my assumption that I'd easily be able to catch up when I found myself slipping several times and writing down information relating to the Wizarding world.

Not to mention, it felt bizarre not using a quill, bottle of ink and parchment. Despite what I thought when I first went to Hogwarts and found it archaic, old fashioned, I found myself missing it.

Harry, well used to my panic regarding schoolwork, was wisely giving me my space. While he was sleeping at Forks every night, he'd started his Healer training at St. Mungos, apparating there in the morning, leaving him busy studying at night.

Alice managed to corner me on Thursday afternoon and told me that under no circumstances was I getting out of our date on Friday, so despite my worrying about a physics paper that was due on Monday, Friday afternoon I found myself dressed nicely in skinny jeans and a tight, peach colored blouse, waiting on Alice's arrival.

I'd used a liberal amount sleekeazy potion to untangle my hair, somewhat, the process vividly reminding me of the Yule Ball, and my subsequent (now broken) promise never to bother using the stuff again. Once my hair was reasonably straight, I had braided it.

Bella had laughed at me when I tried to apply make-up and ended up stabbing myself with the eyeliner, and smearing the mascara on my eyelid. In the end, I ditched the muggle method, and used a few beauty charms I'd picked up from living in the same dorm as Lavender and Parvati for six years.

Alice pulled up outside the house at a quarter past four, perfectly on time. After Bella had left me behind at the reservation with no means of contact, Alice had found a spare phone in her mammoth house that she'd given to me, with all the Cullen's numbers, as well as Bella's, programmed in. I had the slightest suspicion that Alice was lying about it being an old phone, seeing as it was in impeccable shape and a recent model, but I knew the Cullens were loaded, and it was nice having a way to contact Bella.

"Ring me if something feels even the slightest bit off, or you need advice, or... well, if you need anything, okay?" I make her promise, several times. She rolls her eyes at me.

"Relax, Edward will be here, and Harry's arriving back in forty-five minutes." She reminds me. Harry's worked out a routine where after his training, he apparates back to Port Olympia and catches a bus back to Forks, as to avoid suspicion. With the time differences between England and America, his body clock's all of rhythm, and he sleeps so much that I don't have a flying partner at night anymore.

I climb into the passenger seat of Alice's brand new, bright yellow Porsche, and she beams at me. "Hi Hermione." She greets me.

"Hey Al." I return. Alice looks like a supermodel, albeit an incredibly short one. She's dressed in a short black skirt, knee high boots, and a skintight sweater. Honestly, she looks perfectly edible.

"You look beautiful." The tiny vampire tells me, and I feel my cheeks warm slightly as I blush.

"Thanks. You do too- obviously." I lean back into the soft leather, enjoying the new car smell, as Alice drives through Forks, at least twenty miles over the speed limit. "You're lucky I know your reflexes are like lightning." I tell her, as the speedometer twitches past 110 on the open road, leading to Port Olympia. Alice's laughter is like bells.

"You have the sexiest accent, you know." She smirks, wiggling her eyebrows in my direction.

"You wouldn't find it so sexy after living in Britain for eight years," I rebut, returning her lascivious look, "personally, I find it very common place. Your Yankee accent however..." I trail off, licking my lips suggestively.

Our flirting has become somewhat of a game and a tease at the same time. While complimenting each other, Alice tries to make me blush and I try to make her show the vampire equivalent of blushing- some kind of loss of control. Alice has it much easier- while I blush easily, trying to make a vampire react is hard. Very hard. Which makes every victory that much sweeter... and hotter, I can't help thinking as her eyes darken slightly, her pupils dilating, her gaze stuck on my lips.

"Better concentrate on the road, love." I murmur, in my huskiest, most thickly accented voice. Alice's breath hitches, and her eyes, now pitch black, move up to meet mine, as she slams down the breaks.

The Porsche skids to a halt, and I bounce forward in my seat slightly, gasping as the seatbelt winds me, but then Alice's lips are pressed against mine, her hips straddling mine, and her hands threaded through my hair. I tilt my head back, moaning, as her tongue, cold as ice, trace the shape of my lips, before darting into my mouth.

Our tongues entwine in a dance of passion, and there's a heat building up in my lower abdomen, sending tingles throughout my body. As I pull back, panting for breath, Alice's icy lips travel down to press against my throat, my collar bone, then back up to my lips.

I can basically feel the blood rushing through my veins, can feel every touch, every move, the beautiful, goddess-like creature straddling my lap is making. This feels so right, so perfect.

I let my fingers trail down her sides, then slipping under her shirt to caress the hard, taut muscles of her abdomen. She moans, her hips twitching somewhat, and her hands are suddenly over mine, guiding them higher, so that my fingertips are brushing across the lace of her bra, and the hardening bumps underneath the flimsy, expensive material .

I inhale a shaky breath as Alice tosses her head back and pants, her black eyes glazed.

How beautiful she must look making love, my mind whispers. All wild and uninhibited... Her hands leave their position above mine, to make their way under my sweater, long fingers playing with the hem of my jeans, slipping under in a teasing manner, before gliding up across the skin of my stomach, igniting a path of goosebumps along my flushed skin.

A sudden honking brings us both back to the present as a truck barrages past us, and my cheeks go bright red in mortification as I realize that we're parked in the middle of the road, snogging frantically, with our hands up each other's shirts.

Alice looks similarly chagrined as she slides off my lap and climbs back over to her seat, adjusting her top as she does so. My cheeks must resemble a tomato, even as my groin aches in a most infuriating way. I cross my legs, the movement doing nothing to dull the itch of my arousal.

"So," Alice says, combing a strand of her hair back behind her ears, "that just happened." I laugh, recognizing my own words, before adding.

"Again."

"I'm sorry I lost control." Alice blurted out, looking ashamed.

"I'm not." I tell her, "I'm just sorry that we've probably become a part of the wanking material for the guy in the truck." Alice laughs at that, relaxing.

"That is so not a mental picture I wanted."

"I think it's one he's treasuring." I snicker. Alice makes a face. "So where are we going in Port Olympia, anyway?" I ask, when Alice starts the engine again.

"Movies," Alice smiles, before her face falls slightly, "I hope we don't get there late."

"With your crazy driving?" I snort, stomach crawling a bit as the needle on the speedometer races towards the 100 as Alice floors the accelerator.

As we drive along, chatting about the week, me fretting about the workload while Alice rolls her eyes at me, I pointedly ignore the ache in my lower groin, sticking to the mantra stop thinking about it and it'll go away. With Alice in the car next to me though? Not likely.

Its times like these I'm relieved I'm not a guy, I think, blessing my lucky stars.

Port Olympia seems nice enough, and I was right- with Alice's driving we do make it in time for the pictures (of which Alice seems to find amusing- in my opinion it's no less amusing then 'cinema' or 'movies').

The movie is (somewhat ironically, in my opinion) Alice in Wonderland. Alice, despite my protests, bought me a large bucket of popcorn, and we found seats near the back of the picture theatre.

I enjoyed the opening, and somewhere during the first scene Alice's hand found mine, and the pixie gave me a cheeky grin. I rolled my eyes, but at the same time entwined my fingers around hers.

Everything went well until the battlefield scene, near the end of the movie. I'm not exactly sure what happened, just that my stomach started twisting itself into knots, and my palms started sweating. "Are you alright?" Alice murmured, as her hand was still entwined in mine. I watched the 'Alice' character walk towards her fate, except in my head a similar scene was playing, with Harry walking to his fate, in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.

"No, no, no!" I murmured, the same panic I'd felt back then rising in me now. A wave of nausea washed through me and I gagged, loudly, even as my body locked into place, frozen. HARRY! I tried to scream, to cry, but my body was frozen as I watched him approach the dark, cloaked figure in the clearing.

Voldemort turned, slowly, and his scarlet eyes shone with a vicious glee, his lipless mouth curving into a mocking grin. "Harry Potter, the boy who lived, come to die." He hissed, his voice barely a whisper. None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting: everything was waiting... Voldemort raised his wand, his head tilted to one side like a curious child wondering how to proceed. My body was shaking, sweat was pouring down my sides, as I cursed Harry for doing this, for walking willingly to his death. A terrible fear gripped me as Harry didn't even raise his wand, just stood there, chin held high, a weary hero. Then Voldemort's mouth was moving, and there was a brilliant green light...

"HARRY!" I screamed, struggling against the hard restraints pulling me, moving me. Cold air washed over me, which seemed wrong, because the night I watched Harry sacrifice himself was tepid, and while this air was fresh, crisp, the air during the battle was heavy and filled with smoke.

Confusion filtered through me, disrupting the scene playing out in front of me. A sweet, melodic voice was calling out my name, over and over, and I fixated on the voice, focusing all my concentration on the one sound.

The Forbidden Forest faded around me, the scene replacing it one of traffic, and lights, the oddest bit of smog, and an angelic figure crouched beside me, where I was slumped against the wall of a building.

"A-Alice?" I croaked. My voice felt raspy, heavy, wrong.

"Hey." Alice says, and she tries to smile, but I can see the fear and worry on her face, as clear as day.

"Sorry I ruined the movie." I tell her, sighing, wondering how she managed to escort me from inside the theatre, to out here. I suppose super-strength comes in handy, every now and then. Alice gives me an incredulous look.

"Hermione, I couldn't give a damn about the movie! Are you alright?" She asks, her voice revealing her panic.

"I get flashbacks sometimes." I tell her, reaching out to grab her hand, looking her straight in the eye. "I've had a... trying few years. Sometimes random things trigger me, and I have an... episode."

This is half the truth. Nightmares and flashbacks are just two of the multiple symptoms I've experienced since my time spent in Malfoy Manor, under Bellatrix's 'tender' care. I'm not an idiot- in all probability, I suffer a form of PTSD. And I'm dealing with it, in my own way.

Which consists mostly of ignoring it when I can, and lying about it, even to myself, when I can't, a little voice inside my head accuses me.

"Are you seeing anyone about this? Are you on any medication? Have you talked to Charlie?" Alice asks, in rapid fire.

"Yes, I've talked to an adult, no it wasn't Charlie, and no I'm not on any medication." I answer her, the best I can, while carefully avoiding the 'are you seeing anyone about it' question. She doesn't look particularly happy with my answers, her lips pressing together in a thin line, but she doesn't push it.

"Want to go for a walk along the waterfront?" she says, instead. "The movie's basically finished, and we can just ask Bree what happened at the end- she went and saw it the other day with Jasper."

"Sounds good." I tell her, with a relieved smile. Alice gently helps me to my feet, and I'm grateful for her support. My legs still feel a touch like jelly, and her support is much appreciated.

The waterfront is quiet, calm. Our fingers entwined, we walk in silence, appreciating the beauty of the night. Above us, the sky is a blanket of stars, and I find myself wishing I was flying. And that Alice was flying with me.

"It's such a beautiful night." Alice murmurs, following my gaze. I smile.

"Yes, it is." I agree.

We sit down, near one of the docks, where the scent of the ocean is strong, but not overwhelming. Alice leans against me, and I thread my fingers through her dark, silky hair.

The magnitude of my feelings for her is shocking me. I'm a practical girl, logical to the point of icy. I'm not a big believer of falling for someone I've only just recently met. But Alice seems perfect, like she was made for me, and I for her.

I love talking to her.

I love being with her.

I think... I think I might just love her.

I think some of my shock might have been reflected on my face because Alice spoke up. "What are you thinking about?" she asked, softly. I curled a strand of her silky hair around my fingers and wondered if I should tell the truth.

I've had enough of lying.

"I'm just thinking about how..." I hesitate, not sure how to put this, "how strong my feelings are. About you." I admit, looking away from her, over at the water, as I blush.

"You feel like it was meant to be." Alice says, her voice barely louder then a whisper. "Like you've just found your other half. Your feelings for this basic stranger are overwhelming, but feel so right."

I turn back to Alice, my eyes meeting hers as understanding dawns on me. "Yes." I whisper.

"I mated on you. And I think you just realized that." Alice says, in the most timid, vulnerable voice I've ever heard her use.

"Yes." I whisper again.

"Do you still want to see me?" Alice looks terrified as she asks this, and I realize why- she's just given me a way out. If this is too much, too sudden, too soon, now is the time to run.

If I don't want to be with a vampire, now is the time to get up and leave.

"Alice," I say, looking straight into her beautiful, golden eyes, "will you be my girlfriend?"