I'd first like to apologise for the delay in chapters. I've been trying to get it perfect for you because, hey, it's the most requested chapter I've ever had so there is a lot riding on the following. Also, welcome new followers!
Hermione knew that it was going to happen one day; the clashing of two worlds. It was an inevitably that she really loathed. Why did she have to tell her boyfriend a secret that would both break the law and freak him out? She shouldn't have to.
Of course Remus and Tonks had been pestering her about it for the past week (ever since Bella had left for her honeymoon) and she had yet to give in.
He was a wolf, a natural shapeshifter though he believed himself to be a werewolf, and it would be hypocritical for him to name her a freak but it was an outcome that was entirely too possible. She'd done the equations, she didn't just take Arithmancy for the fun of it - Merlin no. Okay, partly yes. But majority of the equations said that it wouldn't end pretty.
She just had no idea how… ugly, things would get. And she didn't like the idea of not knowing.
"Hermione, you okay?" Charlie asked, poking his head round her doorframe and peeking in. He'd knocked first to check that she was decent and only looked in once she'd confirmed it. "It's nearly eleven and you're still in bed." It was a Saturday and Charlie had decided to stay at home and watch the football - Billy was supposed to be being dropped off by Jacob and then her friend would pick her up and take her back to his.
"I'm fine," she mumbled, her head pounding. It wasn't a hangover and her pain relief potion was downstairs but moving was too much for her at the moment.
"You don't sound fine."
"It's just my magic; it's acting weird and hurting," she assured him, massaging her temples and waiting for the wave to pass. She recalled stories that Arthur told them of when Molly had magic-aches. They weren't very rare and there wasn't anything to cease the pain or the waves, but they occurred when the soul changed.
The soul changes almost everyday, slightly affected by day to day actions and choices - witches and wizards only ever felt these aches via a slight sting through their veins - like a bee sting. The huge changes were what called the bordering migraines. When Molly married and bonded - the first day after their wedding, the magic-ache had them in bed for half an hour - though how Arthur hinted, they stayed in bed longer afterwards anyway. When Remus got bitten, his magic-ache lasted over an hour, the whole process of soul and genetic changing being extremely painful for the young boy.
She just wanted to understand what on Merlin's Earth had caused this hell of a magic ache. The pain had been bordering on two hours now; longer than a bonding and longer than a genetic change.
She hated magic right now.
"What's going on with you?" Charlie asked, bringing Hermione's attention back to her Uncle.
"Just the magical equivalent to a migraine. I should be fine in a minute?"
"Should be?" He didn't look comfortable at her word choice. Neither did she.
Her magic sorted itself ten minutes after Charlie went back downstairs which both relieved and worried her. The magic-aches never took that long and she was definitely going to have to do some research and talk to Tonks, Remus and Molly. She just hoped that they had the answer for it.
"Hermione!" Charlie called, "Jacob is here. You feeling any better?" Instead of shouting down the stairs, she ran down them and stood on the bottom step, grinning at her Uncle when he pecked her on the forehead awkwardly. He wouldn't say or show it, but he'd been slightly concerned about her. "Good. You can go now." He winked at her and she chuckled, blowing him a kiss as the two young ones walked out the door to Jake's car.
"You been feeling rough this morning?" Jake asked as he started the engine and shifted it into gear, moving away from the house.
"Yeah, just a migraine but I ached all over and didn't really feel like moving."
"And it was definitely a migraine?" Jacob asked sceptically, offering her waggled eyebrows when she looked at him questioningly.
"Are you suggesting that Paul broke into my home last night and had mind blowing sex with me whilst my Uncle - a Police Chief - was only down the hall?" She laughed at Jacob. "I wish!"
He pulled a disgusted face that resembled one of sucking a lemon, and she only laughed harder.
"It was just a migraine," she reassured him.
Hermione hadn't even said hello to all of the Pack members present before she'd been dragged off - really quickly - to the trees and pinned against one with a large trunk, Paul's body pressing her against the wood.
"'Mione, God how I have missed you," he breathed before kissing her deeply. Her hands pressed against his chest, trying to push him away but when his hand squeezed her arse, she groaned and allowed her hands to nestle into his hair, tugging harshly which only made his kisses more desperate and hotter.
"OI" Jared called, bringing their attention to people other than themselves. "Some of us would like to eat our food without your little show."
"Some of us would like to eat something other than food," Paul replied before turning his attention to the spot behind her ear that caused her to mewl.
"Some of us are getting sick of your personal displays of affection," Leah snarled, slamming her plate onto the bench with disgust on her face.
"PDA would have sufficed Leah," Seth suggested, sitting beside her. She punched his shoulder in retaliation which he countered with a stuck out tongue.
"Paul," Hermione murmured in his ear. "Let me go. We'll finish this later," she promised. She pressed a quick kiss to his lips before slipping out from beneath his arm and over to Jared and Quil where she snagged a burger from one of their plates and plopped into a chair.
Paul followed behind her and took Jared's plate - the one with the missing burger - and sat down next to his imprint, placing the plate between them so that they could share. It was going to be refilled later on after it was empty but it made Paul feel better about providing for his imprint in his own special way. His wolfish side definitely approved.
"I'll get my own now shall I?" Jared protested but was ignored. "That's great. Fuck you guys."
"Who are you?"
Hermione stopped outside the bathroom from where she was coming and looked down at the little girl who stood before her.
"Who are you?" Hermione countered and the little girl furrowed her brow which made Hermione smile at the cute sight. She squatted down so that they were the same height and held her hand out for the girl to shake. "I'm Hermione."
"That's weird," she said, scrunching her face up as she tried to say it in her head. "'Mione is your name." Hermione nodded understandingly, she'd struggled to say her own name as she grew up as well.
"What's your name little one?"
"Claire," she offered. "Will you play with me?"
"Of course I will sweetie," Hermione replied instantly and was dragged upstairs to a bedroom that was filled with toys. "Is this your room?" Claire shook her head. "So you just play in here with toys?" Claire nodded and shoved a barbie into her hand.
"We're having a tea party," Claire declared and Hermione internally groaned - why the hell had she thought little kids enjoyed books?
"Where's Hermione?" Paul asked the Pack when she hadn't returned from the bathroom for fifteen minutes. He knew that girls spent a long time in there but she never did.
"Playing with Claire," Quil answered around a mouthful of food. "I went up to go and play but she sent me away, saying that she wanted to spend time with her new friend." Quil grinned. "Do you think Hermione sees this as practice for the future?"
The whole pack enjoyed the way Paul's face paled.
"'Mione, where Quil?" Claire asked nearly an hour into their playtime. Hermione had been thoroughly enjoying herself as she spent time with the small girl and though many of the wolves - Paul, Quil, Jared and Jacob - had popped their head in to see if she was okay, she couldn't bring herself to leave.
"I'm sure he's outside sweetie," Hermione told her, putting the stuffed dragon onto the plastic table. "Let me have a look out of the window." Hermione pulled herself to her feet, using the nearby bed as support, and peeked out the window which was facing the garden. Quil was out there.
But so was Rachel.
"What the fu-" She managed to stop herself in time, not quick enough to stop Claire looking at her curiously, but still quick enough to prevent her from repeating. She turned her attention back to the Pack outside and noticed how Rachel and Embry were sitting close - very close - and were being very affection.
Wasn't it only just last week that Hermione had had to threaten Rachel to stay away from Paul?
"Sweetie, let me just go get Quil for you," Hermione mumbled, ruffling the girl's hair as she walked past. Once downstairs, she ran into Emily who clearly tried to keep her inside but the wolf girl finally relented when she saw the determined yet confused face.
Emily watched Hermione go through the rooms with a sigh and leaned back into Sam's chest when he wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. "Paul should've told her by now," Emily whispered, smiling when Sam nuzzled her neck. "She's going to be so angry and confused."
"About what?"
"About all of this. And the trigger is all because of Rachel. That girl was threatened only a week ago to stay away from Paul and now that? It's easier to explain when everyone is aware of the imprint. Hermione has no clue about the wonders of our magical life."
"How do you know she'll be angry though?"
"It's what I'd do if I were in her situation," she answered honestly.
Hermione stood on the back porch and looked out at the Pack - all of them so distracted by each other that they didn't know she was there. Paul was laughing with Embry and Rachel whilst Jacob and Jared were arguing about football or something. Quil was eating and listening to Seth go on about school. Leah had left the second Sam had arrived and she presumed it was because of patrols.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked, bringing everyone's attention to her due to her raised voice.
"Babe!" Paul exclaimed, leaving his chair and walking over to her. "I thought you'd left me for ickle Claire." He pressed a kiss to the side of her head but she didn't look away from Rachel who was looking apologetically at her. As if there was a secret being kept and she'd wanted Hermione to know.
As if it was something huge.
"What's going on Paul?"
"Nothing," he answered, looking at Jacob with a confused face. "We're all just sitting and eating." The Pack were slowly looking away from her, trying - and failing - to hide their guilty faces from her at the apparent group secret.
"Do you consistently lie to me Paul? Or is just a new thing?" she hissed through gritted teeth, tugging her arm from his hold and stepping away so that she wasn't within touching distance anymore.
"Hermione, sweetie, I don't know what you're on about."
"I'm not blind," she growled, pointing to Rachel and Embry, both of whom jumped apart like they'd been burnt. "This level of intimacy and comfortability does not just occur within a week. The way they've looked at each other in the past ten minutes is the same way Jared looks at Kim or how Sam looks at Emily." She paused. "In just a week though? Paul, you're not telling me something."
"There's nothing to tell!" he exclaimed. "It's literally love at first sight for them, like it was for us," he insisted, walking forward and only stopping when she stepped back. "Look at them. It's like they were made for each other."
Hermione's eyes flickered to the pair in question; the pair who were holding hands whilst looking at them tentatively.
"Why do you have to question something so beautiful and magical?" Her eyes flickered back to Paul, who was looking devastated, but she'd been in a war and she didn't survive it because she believed everything spouted to her. She'd have been dead before even making it to her first Christmas at Hogwarts if she'd done that.
She studied him, and the wolves behind him. The way their eyes looked guilty and sad, Jared's and Jacob's holding some particular anger at Paul. Paul himself was tapping the floor slightly with his left foot. A tell that she'd seen from the beginning.
She was being lied to; lied to by them all and they just sat there as if it was an okay action to do! She bit her bottom lip to stop it quivering and she cursed the burn in her throat and eyes as she held back tears.
"When do the lies stop?" she questioned, cursing herself internally at the crack in her voice which showed how well she was taking it all.
Paul paled.
"Hermione-"
"No Paul! I've had enough of lies and I want the truth now!" Her hands were shaking with emotion and she knew that if she was holding her wand, sparks would be flying from the tip.
"Hermione, i'm telling you no lies." Jared tossed his head back with frustration and she accidentally let a sob loose.
Before anyone could come to comfort her, she turned away, heading towards Jacob's car with determination that rivaled Harry's when encountering Voldemort. If he insisted on lying to her then she'd go away so he didn't have to lie to her face.
"You're my imprint!" Paul shouted at her back and she stopped immediately, her eyes wide and her face blank. Imprint? What the fuck was an imprint? "You're my imprint," he repeated quieter. "Mine."
Wowee there were more words in this chapter than I expected and I still didn't get everything in my plan down. Next chapter will have the rest of the confrontation down. ALSO, those of you who have dropped date suggestions in my reviews are absolute stars and I will be thanking you all publicly when the time comes for giving me such good help! I think I've decided to include all of them at some stage xD If you have anything you want to see and you haven't suggested it, then do so now or forever hold your peace because i'm going to be hitting a deadline soon where I can not deviate from my plan. These next few chapters, eh, it doesn't bother me as much. Please, as always, review!