CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Summary: Hermione is running. She is running from rogue Death Eaters bent on revenge, the fame that surrounds her after the war and an overbearing ex-boyfriend and his mother, insisting that they marry, regardless of her ex being a cheating weasel. She finds a quiet town in the States and meets a handsome young man, one that gives her a new outlook on life and a new love. The kind of love she had craved.
Disclaimer: I do not own canon events and characters; they belong to J.K Rowling and Stepenie Myers. I am not making a profit from writing and posting this fanfic. As for the descriptions of appearances for the Twilight characters, all my research is based on the books and not the movies.
Saturday 24th June 2006
"Let go," Hermione called and they did as she asked, yelling profanities and screaming as they fell to their inevitable death, and then they hit the ground, with 'omphs' landing on their backs.
They groaned and looked up to see Hermione practically walking in thin air, slowly floating down to the ground, though she looked to be struggling with Jacob who was bobbing about.
They caught him just as the spell broke, five feet from the ground.
"Good catch boys," she said, wiping at her forehead. She then turned and headed to the tent which came into view, and Embry and Sam gawked and gave noises of surprise as they entered the tent for the first time. "Paul, spare room," Hermione spoke, heading in the direction and he nodded, causing Embry and Sam to share a look of confusion.
They entered the room to see Harry pacing back on forth, wearing odd shoes, a pair of old flannel bottoms and a t-shirt, whilst a no-nonsense healer stood to the side, going through various potions that had been set up on the table.
"Hermione, thank Merlin," Harry all but shouted and he rushed to her and hugged her, whilst Jacob was placed on the bed.
"I'm fine Harry, thank you for coming so quickly, I know it's daft o'clock back in England."
He chuckled at her, running his hand through his bed hair.
"Miss Granger, I'm Healer Nichols," she shook Hermione's hand and then turned to Jacob, whom was obviously the patient. "What are we dealing with?"
"A newborn vampire got their arms around him and has shattered every bone between his left clavicle and knee cap; the rest of his bones on his left side are broken, and he may have a few broken bones on his right side, I didn't check since I was focused on the more severe injuries."
"How is he still alive?" she spoke amazed.
"He's a shape-shifter with accelerated healing abilities, I arrived not ten minutes after the incident and his body was already healing, I had to immobulise him, put him to sleep and petrify him in order to stop it. He is also the strongest member of the shape-shifting pack, which aided in his survival."
"Incredible," she muttered, pulling out her wand. "Is one of you the leader of your pack?"
"I am," Sam stepped forward and her eyes widened, noticing his size.
"Yes, well then, I can't see any reason why I can't heal him. Just how accelerated is your healing?"
"A cut can heal within minutes, broken fingers and toes no more than twenty, broken arms and legs, anywhere between a few hours or day or two depending on the severity of the break," Sam answered and her eyes widened further.
"Well, judging by what you say your healing is capable of, coupled with what I know magical healing is capable of, your friend here should be fully healed in no longer than a week. The problem we face is his healing abilities. If your bones are able to heal breaks like you say they are, I may have to keep re-breaking the bones until they heal in the correct position."
"The Immobulus is likely wearing off now, if not has already. It would probably be easier to remove the shattered bones and re-grow them entirely with Skele-Gro, and his body can do the rest."
"Just what I was thinking, Miss Granger, well done," the healer said with a nod. "Right then, I suppose we better get started, we don't want this young man to be in pain now do we? Clear the room please, Miss Granger, would you mind staying?"
Hermione nodded and Harry led the three pack members out of the room and into the living room.
Harry gave a yawn. "Make yourselves at home; Hermione would kill me if I didn't say that to you. I'll be right back, I promised to keep my girlfriend informed," he said, leaving the tent.
Sam and Embry looked around intrigued whilst Paul went to the kitchen, found himself a glass and took the orange juice out of the cupboard where he knew Hermione kept it. After pouring himself a glass, he put it back and then went back over to them, plopping himself down on the arm chair.
"How do you know where she keeps her things?" Sam asked him, eyeing him with a scary look in his eyes.
Paul shrugged. "I've been here before."
"How do you know where her spare bedroom is?" Embry asked.
"I've stayed here before," he replied, his eyes watching for their reactions.
"Why?"
"Because I have."
"If there's anything going on..." Paul cut Sam off with a growl, shocking everyone in the room, including himself.
Paul sighed. "There is nothing going on between us, like I told everyone else, she's made it perfectly clear that I've been friend-zoned and she loves Seth. She would never cheat on him, especially with me. She's helping me to control my anger, and at first I thought she was crazy, but I don't feel angry all the time, like I did before, and it's because of her."
"Again, why have you stayed here before and how do you know your way around her kitchen?" Sam asked.
Paul made a frustrated noise and ran his hand over his face.
"The night Hermione came for me whilst we were waiting for the leeches to arrive, it wasn't because she needed my help with one of her projects; it was because she was helping me. I didn't have food poisoning; Hermione forged the note as my doctor so the school wouldn't suspend me for truanting."
"So why would she forge a note, if there was nothing wrong with you?" Embry asked.
"I didn't say there wasn't anything wrong with me, just that I didn't have food poisoning," he couldn't believe he was going to reveal the truth.
"So what was wrong with you?" Sam asked, his eyes narrowed on him and daring him to lie.
"I was walking down First Beach and I was ambushed. I never saw it coming and I was distracted so I didn't hear anything either. I was stabbed and left to die, I couldn't phase due to shock and I somehow managed to find my way here. I woke Hermione up and she healed me, seeing as there was still part of the knife imbedded in my side. She made me stay the night as she wanted to keep an eye on my wound. She wouldn't listen when I told her of our healing capabilities and she made a valid point. I wasn't at school because I didn't wake till lunch and by then, she had already sent a note to school with Seth. She gave me something to help with the pain and to help with my muscle re-growth and I felt fine later that night."
"Why did this happen? Why didn't you tell us? Who was responsible?" Paul blinked in surprise as Sam's Alpha voice made an appearance.
"I'm not sure who they were exactly, but I do know they were the boyfriends of some of the girls I've slept with, but they led me to believe they were single. I didn't know about the boyfriends. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to. Everything is public knowledge with us and I didn't want the pack to know what had happened. Hermione made Seth promise not to reveal anything; he's kept my secret for me."
"So why did Hermione come for you?" Embry asked him.
"It turns out Hermione called in a favour with that friend of hers, that Kingsley guy, whilst I was still asleep she had gone back to England. When she came for me, she took me to the police station and there was a line up waiting for me, I don't know how, but those friends of hers managed to track down the ones that attacked me and they had substantial evidence too, they just wanted my confirmation that it was them. It's been kept out of the news, but all three of them have been sentenced to jail time and they have to have a psych evaluation." They stared at him surprised. "The night it happened, I wouldn't tell her anything about those responsible and I have no idea how she managed to find them, I told her to leave it alone, but she wouldn't listen. She all but shouted that they were dangerous and if I hadn't have been a shifter, I would've died and it would've been a murder case. She didn't want them walking down the street with how dangerous and unhinged they were."
"Oh my god," there were mutters and they looked up to see that the rest of the pack had arrived, though they weren't looking around the tent, they were staring at him in shock. They had been so focused on their conversation, they hadn't heard them arrive.
Paul growled under his breath. "How much did you hear?"
"All of it," Jared replied, staring at him with a frown.
"Great, now the whole gang knows," he muttered, flopping his head back and he sighed. "I need a drink," he rubbed his hand over his face. "Hermione!" he called, raising his voice so she could hear.
"WHAT?" she called back, she knew he would be able to hear even if she had spoken quietly, but it was a habit, since she wasn't used to being around shape-shifting wolves with sensitive hearing.
"Do you have any of that fire-stuff?" he asked.
"NO, RAN OUT, I'LL GET SOME MORE WHEN I HAVE THE CHANCE, NOW LEAVE ME ALONE, I'M BUSY."
Paul snorted at her and then turned his attention back to everyone else, who still looked shocked but slightly amused by their interaction. "And don't mention my father to Hermione."
They all tensed at the mention of him. "Why not?" Quil asked, a low growl coming from his throat at the thought of the elder Lahote.
"Because I don't think she'd let him live if she found out," he spoke honestly.
"And that's the best case scenario," Seth spoke up, entering the tent, with several large pizza boxes balanced in his hands. "She'd see death as too light of a punishment; I wouldn't be surprised if she'd pull a few strings and have him thrown in their magical prison which is guarded by soul-sucking creatures."
"Why are we talking about soul-sucking creatures?" Hermione's voice flittered through the room that plunged into silence as she entered. "What?" she asked, seeing they were all staring at her, slightly awed and slightly fearful.
"We're talking about newborn vampires," Seth spoke from the kitchen, giving her an innocent smile.
She shrugged and turned to the healer that stepped out from behind her.
"I'm confident in saying that you are more than capable of handling this situation yourself, Miss Granger, but if you do require any help, you know where I am. And I dare say you'd make a remarkable Healer, just something for you to think about as a future prospect."
"Thank you, Healer Nichols, and please be discreet about my whereabouts."
She snorted. "Don't be silly, Miss Granger, your location will remain a secret, we wouldn't want Mr Weasley knowing where to find you, now would we?"
She then smiled at Hermione and nodded to the pack and she headed for the exit.
"By the way, Miss Granger, you're too good for him," she stopped and turned back around to wink, making Hermione give her a small smile.
"Before I forget," she walked into the kitchen and dug about in one of the drawers, pulling out a pouch of galleons and throwing them across the room and Healer Nichols caught them. "Thank you for coming so quickly, Harry informed me that you were on your honeymoon."
The healer simply shrugged. "It's not often I get to meet someone with famed achievements and intelligence such as yours, and if the great Hermione Granger needs help, then how can you turn down the opportunity to meet such a person."
"I'm no one special," she ducked her head and blushed. She felt Seth sidle up behind her and he wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into him.
"You are to me," he mumbled quietly, placing a kiss to her cheek and her blush darkened.
The healer smiled knowingly at her. "You certainly have done far better than Mr Weasley." Hermione snorted, that was an understatement. "Does he treat you right?"
Seth looked outraged at the thought of treating her like anything but a princess, and shocked that the woman had asked the question whilst he was stood there, cuddling his imprint.
"Better than I deserve, Harry approves," Hermione said with a small smile, looking over her shoulder and up at Seth. He grinned at the information she had divulged regarding her pseudo brother and he kissed her on the forehead.
"If you don't mind me asking, why do you dislike Ronald so much?" Hermione asked, turning her attention back to the woman.
"Aside from the fact of how he treated you? I have had the displeasure of Mr Weasley being a patient of mine during his auror training," Hermione nodded in understanding, needing no more explanation than that.
"Lovely fellow isn't he?" Hermione asked.
"Delightful," she laughed and she exited the tent, just as Harry walked back in.
"Who's delightful?" Harry asked, looking more awake than he did before.
"Ronald," Hermione answered and Harry blinked, before he started laughing.
"Ron's about as delightful as one of Hagrid's blast-ended skrewts," he spoke through his laughter and she winced in memory.
"A what?" Seth asked confused.
"You don't want to know," something in her voice told him he didn't. "Are you talking to him yet?"
Harry's laughter stopped and a look of disgust filled his face.
"No, I'm not going to, not only did he hurt you, he broke his promise to me."
She sighed. "Harry, you don't have to stop being friends with him because he's an arsehole. He cheated on me and we broke up, I don't want you to be stuck in the middle."
"Hermione, I've took his side one too many times and I saw what it did to you, I won't make that mistake again. You've been a better friend to me than Ron ever has, even after I was a prat to you."
She shrugged. "You had a lot of pressure on you, so I never took anything you said or did personally."
"I'm not giving in to him, my life's surprisingly been a lot easier when he's not around," she snorted at him.
"Thank you for coming, Harry, you should probably head home, judging by the time difference, you have work in an hour."
"Alright, bossy witch," he said fondly and she rolled her eyes at him, stepping out of Seth's arms to walk over to him and hugging him tightly.
"Ginny wants to know when you're going to visit again, she misses you and she's sorry for how Ron acted at her graduation party."
"It's not Ginny's fault Ronald's an arsehole," she snorted.
"The twins miss you too," he said.
"The twins better be in full body armour when I next visit them," she scowled.
Seth chuckled, knowing exactly what they had done to her, though he wasn't going to complain about what happened when she got back from England. The rest of the pack sniggered too, understanding the turn the conversation had taken, especially after seeing Seth that night. Harry's mouth quirked, knowing exactly what had happened to her cup of tea.
"Trust me, Hermione, every time a brunette walks through the door they get this look of panic on their faces," he said amused and she sniggered. "Oh, and they've doubled their attacks on Ron since the party, not to mention they've got pranks planned for Lav-Lav, they're holding back until after the baby's born and then they're going to make her life hell."
"Wonderful," Hermione rolled her eyes. "More reason for them to hate me."
"It's not your fault; no one can control the twins and their actions and you should know they have plans going as far as two years from now." Hermione sighed and Harry chuckled. "Not to mention, Charlie threatened to feed him to the dragons, Bill's wolf side came out a little and threatened to eat him alive, whilst Ginny screamed the house down like a banshee." She laughed, she missed her friends.
"I'll see you later," she hugged him once more and he nodded to the rest of the pack, who did so in return and he made his way to the tent door.
"You better eat some breakfast when you get back," she warned.
"Alright, bossy, I will."
"You better!"
"I will, promise," he said, looking over his shoulder amused and then he left out of the tent.
"By the way, I may have used an illegal port key to..."
"I'll take care of it!" he called back and then he was gone, whilst she smiled and shook her head.
She turned around, seeing that everyone was staring at her, various amounts of amusement and disbelief on their faces. She shrugged in reply, before snagging a slice of pizza before the others got to it, and then she used her wand to conjure several chairs, so everyone could sit down.
Seth moved the pizza over to the coffee table, which Hermione enlarged for him and she summoned different beverages from the kitchen, and they all set to eating.
"What did the doctor say?" Sam asked, she leaned her head against Seth's shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her.
"Jacob will be fine in about a week's time. Until then he's on bed rest and he will stay there even if I have to use magic to do so. He's under my care now, Healer Nichols and I have discussed the best option available for Jacob. I will have to check up on him periodically, to make sure that his bones are healing in the correct manner of position. If not, I will be forced to re-break the bone and set it in a way that will allow it to heal nicely. Since I will be using my healing spells and potions, it will be far less painful for Jacob than it would be using Muggle medicine. He will likely be groggy and grumpy for a little while, but he's not leaving that bed until I say he can."
They snorted at her.
"She knows what she's doing," Paul muttered, and Hermione's gaze connected with his and she gave him a soft and understanding look.
"Is anyone else injured?" she asked and she looked relieved when they confirmed they weren't. "What happened to Jacob's necklace?"
"It was torn off during the fight," Quil answered her. "Is that why he's injured, because he lost it?"
"Not necessarily, the necklace is not able to protect you from everything, but it is able to lessen the risk of you getting injured. If Jacob had still had the necklace on, he would've likely still been injured, but to nowhere near the extent he is now, as my magic would've activated at the sense of danger and it would've protected him." A crease appeared on her forehead. "I may have to go back to the drawing board and create something more powerful, something that is able to protect you even if you lose it. Maybe I can create a mechanism that will release a surge of magical power that will force your opponent to be thrown away from you, if something like this were to happen again." She rubbed her eyes as exhaustion was beginning to set in and it was after midnight. "Merlin, that's going to be a lot of work, and a lot of magic infusion to carry out."
"You've done more than enough, Hermione," Seth spoke softly. "I don't want you burning yourself out because you're focused on finding a way to keep us safe when we come across a vampire. You still have your own research to do, as well capturing Death Eaters."
"There's been a few more captured," she yawned. "Klaus Montague was caught hiding in Russia and Reginald Burke was found in the Scottish Mountains, not far from Hogwarts which was worrying. They've both been sentenced to life in Azkaban, after they are done recovering from their injuries received from the duelling during capture. That drops up down to nine. Well, the remaining nine Death Eaters are high rankers and the most dangerous, the others aren't on our radar, and there's always going to be someone that wants a Pureblood Utopia, but once these last Death Eaters are taken care of, no one would dare to voice their opinions or do anything about it, so as far as everyone is concerned, the world's a safe place again," she yawned once more. "Does Jacob's father know what's happened?"
Jared nodded. "We made a detour before coming here, we'll tell him the news on his condition when we leave here, but we made sure he knew he was safe here."
"He is, I've got Muggle Repellent Charms surrounding the tent in a two mile radius, as well as Caterwauling Charms, so if anyone approaches that shouldn't be here, I'll know about it, and if I end up being found whilst he's still here, I'll make sure he's protected. I'll place the strongest wards I know around the room in the morning, just to be sure. His father will want to visit," Hermione knew. "It'll be a little difficult getting him here, for obvious reasons his wheelchair can't be pushed through the woods and I've never tried to apparate a Muggle, so I don't know the affects that'll have, plus, I'll have to make him immune to my defences, bloody hell, that's going to be fun," she rubbed her temples and they chuckled at her.
"I'll collect him around lunch tomorrow, so that I have time to check up on Jacob and hopefully I can keep him awake long enough so his father can visit." She yawned.
"You're tired," Seth stated with a frown. She shook her head through her yawn.
"Nope, I'm wide awake," she protested and they sniggered. Her eyes caught the clock on the wall and they widened. "Oh, Merlin's Balls," she cursed, jumping up from the couch and running out of the room.
Each member of the pack looked at her amused and they stood and followed her down the hall.
"Oh, no, no, no," she cried, pushing open the door and running into her potions lab, seeing the smoke coming from one of the cauldron's as the concoction was on fire, the cauldron vibrating dangerously to the point that it moved across the table and was about to topple on the floor.
She pulled her wand, shooting an Immobulus at it and it rooted to the spot, though still shaking with the hot concoction looking as though it was going to erupt, like an angry volcano it spat liquid out, landing on the floor and sizzling and burning the bench underneath it. She sent a spell at the cauldron to stabilize the potion, before hitting it with a Freezing Charm, essentially putting out the fire that licked at the bottom of the cauldron. With one last wave of her wand, the Ventilation Charms on the room activated and the smoke was gone within seconds.
"Bloody hell, I've spent ages on the Polyjuice," she grumbled, moving over to the bench and being careful not to touch the still hot cauldron. She prodded at the strange frozen-gloop with the tip of her wand, scowling at it.
"What is this place?" she looked up, noticing that the others had followed and they were pants at hiding their amusement, though she didn't think they were even trying.
They looked about the room intrigued, Collin and Brady looking as though they wanted to explore and touch everything in sight. Jared and Seth each took a hold of the back of their shirts, obviously seeing the same thing she was.
"This is my potions lab."
"I can't actually believe you use cauldrons," Paul started laughing at her.
"What else would I use?" she asked him with a frown. "Plastic and glass would either melt or explode under the high temperatures I need to brew my potions and rubber is not a viable option for many reasons. Cauldrons are made specifically for brewing potions and they can be purchased in different sizes and metals, each with their own merits and downfalls. You have to replace them regularly as even with the magic used to create them, the potions that are constantly being brewed and the heat eventually wears down the metal, warping it which can ruin your potions and it's dangerous as it can cause explosions. If you'd like, I could ask Percy Weasley to visit, he'd bore you to death on the ideal thickness for cauldrons, not to mention parchment, quill feathers and anything else he finds interesting."
"No thanks," Seth chuckled at her.
"What were you making?" Sam asked her and she was surprised to see that he generally looked intrigued to hear the answer.
"Well, this was supposed to be Polyjuice Potion," she prodded the strange concoction once again and it gave a sound of someone farting and the others sniggered and she rolled her eyes. "Polyjuice allows you to take on the identity of someone else for exactly one hour, it essentially makes you a perfect clone down to height and weight, though your voice stays the same. It's a good tool for disguise and it comes in handy, tastes foul though," she grimaced. "In the words of Mad-Eye Moody, it tastes like goblin piss, I don't know how he knew that and I don't really care to know," she grimaced again. "This has set me back."
"Why? Just make another one?" Quil shrugged.
"I wish it were that easy," she vanished the disgusting gloop and then levitated the now empty cauldron over to the washing station. She then decided to check on the Calming Draught and hoped it hadn't been ruined, since she had been called away.
"There are thousands of potions, and no two are similar for ingredients required and the recipe and instructions that need to be followed. Some potions can take ten minutes to brew, some can take up to six months. Polyjuice in particular, takes a month to brew, that's not including the length of time needed to prepare the ingredients, such as lacewing fly, which has to be stewed for twenty-one days before you can add it to the potion. And some of the ingredients themselves are either expensive, rare or not in season and can only be collected at a certain time of the year, like fluxweed which can only be collected during the full moon, and seeing as the full moon is accompanied by werewolves and it's hard to grow yourself, most don't like going out into the night to search for it, which makes it expensive. I used the last of my boomslang skin and bison hair and they're a pain to acquire too."
"How expensive are we talking?" he asked, looking at her as though she were only going to say a few dollars.
"It depends on the rarity and quality of the ingredient, as well the acquirability of it, but it can vary depending on vendors also. Things such as Venomous Tentacula Leaves are expensive, not because they are hard to acquire or grow yourself, but due to the fact they're fatal. One leaf costs ten galleons, and if I were to convert that into Muggle dollars, you're looking at close to fifty."
"Fifty dollars for a stinking leaf?" Jared spoke in shock, the others looking the same.
"A stinking leaf that can kill and is needed to brew several potions, including some for healing, for which I'm going to have to brew for Jacob since my stocks are low and with his metabolism being as fast as is it, he'll likely burn through the Pain Relief Potions quicker than I can keep up with."
"What are you doing now?" Embry asked as she peered over the cauldron and sighed in relief to see the potion to be lilac in colour, and checking the clock on the wall, she saw that a sufficient amount of time had passed and she could stir the potion before adding some powdered shrivelfig.
"Just completing the next step of this Calming Draught so I can stabilize it for the night," she replied.
"And those two?" he gestured to the others further back.
"Invigoration Draught which is basically a witch's version of an energy drink and Draught of the Living Death puts a person into a deep sleep, making them appear to be dead though they actually aren't. The latter is one of the most difficult potions to brew; I started it the day after I got here and I'm barely halfway through brewing."
"Can I help?" the pups spoke together, practically bouncing on the balls of their feet and trying to wiggle free of the hold Jared and Seth had on their t-shirts.
She looked up from the cauldron and smiled at them.
"Not tonight; it's way past midnight. My supplies are severely low, once I have stocked up, then you can help me, but you have to listen to everything I say, it's very dangerous in here; I have volatile ingredients and potions that can explode for just being exposed to the wrong temperature," she levelled them with a look that dared them to argue with her.
"Tomorrow?" Brady asked.
The pack chuckled at their excitement.
Her mouth twitched, they reminded her of her before the war had started, so eager for knowledge and oh so amazed by magic and potions. But it was summer and school was now over, if the pups were with her helping to brew potions, they would be kept out of trouble.
"Not until after Jacob's healed, I can't risk not being here if something goes wrong." They deflated but nodded in understanding.
"Right then, we should be heading back ourselves," Sam said and his words had everyone saying good bye to Hermione and leaving out of the potions lab and to the exit of the tent.