CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Summary: After completing her Masters in Potions and Herbology and adopting her godson, Teddy Lupin, in the wake of his Grandmother's death, Hermione decides a change is in order. She packs up their belongings, says goodbye to their loved ones and moves across the pond to La Push, where she meets a handsome man and his strange friends.
Disclaimer: I do not own canon events and characters, they belong to J.K Rowling and Stephenie Meyers. 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.
Monday 16th January 2006
"Hermione, what are you doing here?"
She turned around and amongst the students mulling around the grounds, Jacob stood looking surprised to see her there.
She smiled at him. "Good morning, Jacob, I was just running a few errands, and one of them required me to be here, I was just leaving."
He moved closer to her, Quil hovering behind him and he frowned when he saw the file in her hand, the file that had Embry's name on.
"What's that?" he asked, looking down at the file.
"Oh, I was just collecting some work for Embry, he's been under the weather lately and we're not quite sure when he'll return to school."
"How do you know that? I've been trying to contact him for over a week, and there's been no answer at his house." He eyed her strangely.
"Yes, his mother has recently taken a post up in L.A. She'll be gone for the next six months, not wanting to take Embry away from his school and friends for a temporary position, she had made me his legal guardian until he returns. Unfortunately, he's been ill and hasn't been able to attend school. The reception around my house is terrible, I'm afraid." Before he could question her further, she spoke. "I best be getting this work back to Embry, we don't want him falling behind, now do we?" she smiled and then quickly left the school's grounds.
When she was out of sight, she apparated back to the house.
"A little warning, next time," Embry jumped, almost spilling his orange juice all over himself, she shrugged in reply.
"I have your school work for you," she told him, handing it over to him and taking the tea Sam offered her with a smile. "Has Jacob called you?"
"Yes, I haven't answered since I don't know what to say to him. Why?"
"I ran into him on my way out of the school, he's suspicious."
"Of course, he is," Embry spoke, not sounding the least bit surprised. He sighed. "What should I do?"
She shared a look with Sam. "You can call him, just stick to the cover story."
Embry nodded. "I'll do it later, right now I want to know what the plan for the day is."
Sam and Hermione shared an amused look, whilst Paul and Jared hid their smirks behind their coffee mugs. For days now, Embry had been pestering Sam to allow him to go to the office with them, so he could see the property and just what it was he and pack did on their work days.
"Sam, Jared and Paul are going to work with Teddy, since they only have meetings booked in for today and they can get some prep-work done for Wednesday. I'm going to finish the last of my potions and get the order sent off and you, my dear wolf, are going to do your school work, since I went out of my way to travel to your school and get it for you," she smiled sweetly and he scowled at her.
"You teleported, you were no more than fifteen minutes., It would've taken longer to drive there, than it did for you to get there and back."
"First of all, I apparated there, and secondly, you may now be a member of the pack with responsibilities that are far more troubling than you deserve, but you are also a sixteen year old, and hell will freeze over before I allow your education to suffer." He blinked, whilst his pack mates sniggered.
He scowled at them before turning his attention back to Hermione, a childish pout taking up home on his face.
"Please, Hermione, let me go to the office."
She looked at him blankly.
"That only works on me with Paul and Teddy," she told him. Jared and Sam chuckled as Paul scowled at her, along with Embry. "School work, go do it, now."
"Fine," he grumbled, standing up and leaving the room, but not before stealing Paul's plate and dashing out of the room.
"Hey!" Paul yelled in outrage, chasing Embry through the house, heavy footfalls were heard on the stairs, as was a door slamming and Paul shouting in anger as he banged on Embry's bedroom door.
"I love my life," Hermione said with a smile.
Sam's arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her against him and he placed a kiss to her forehead as she snuggled into him.
"You're happy?" he asked quietly.
"I'm so very happy," she told him softly, smiling at the sight of Jared exaggerating his awe at what Teddy was very intently babbling about, and listening to the sounds of Paul and Embry arguing over who got the last of the bacon.
"And it's all because I met you."
Saturday 21st January 2006
"Jacob, what are you doing here?" Hermione blinked, at seeing that Jacob was stood on the other side of her door.
"You said that if we ever wanted to stop by we could," he replied, shuffling on his feet nervously.
She stepped out of the house onto the porch and she shut the door behind her. He frowned at the action.
"I did, and I meant it, but you and I both know that's not why you're here," she told him, wrapping her cardigan around herself more tightly, to defend against the cold of the freezing mid-January weather.
"I'm here to see Embry," he said. "He said I could visit."
She sighed. "You may visit with him, but not just yet."
"Why not?"
"He's still sleeping," she lied.
"It's two in the afternoon," he eyed her strangely.
She smiled at him sadly. "Yes, and he's still not very well, the illness is taking a lot out of him. He's quite contagious at the moment and I wouldn't want you to contract the illness, it's not pleasant."
"He said he was getting better."
"He is, he's getting much better, it shouldn't be much longer now and he'll be back at school," she said truthfully, because Embry's control over his phasing had improved immensely over the last week.
It seemed that after seeing Hermione's transformation at the full moon, it put things into perspective for him and he was able to find a way to ground himself, to keep himself from phasing. It didn't take him as long to phase back either and before long, he would be doing it as effortlessly as the rest of the pack.
"But we can't risk it, I'm sorry," she told him, and she did mean it, she was sorry that Embry had been taken away from his friends, but it couldn't be controlled. And to be honest, if Embry had the choice, she was confident that he would choose becoming a wolf, because that gave him a pack and a family.
"Come back next Saturday, hopefully Embry will be up for visitors by then, you can join us for dinner," she gave him that friendly smile, that for some reason, calmed him.
"Us?" he questioned.
"Us; myself, Embry, Sam, Jared, Paul and Teddy."
She saw his eyes dart to the door and he shifted once more, The difference between Hermione and the pack was that although the wolves' senses were stronger than hers, even if hers were enhanced due to her lycanthropy, Hermione was able to pick up the changes in a persons' pheromones, if she were stood close enough that is, and from Jacob she was picking up worry, distrust and fear.
"Why would they be here?" he grumbled.
She frowned. "They live here."
"What?" he blurted out, his eyes wide and mouth ajar.
"They live here," she repeated.
"But, why?"
"Sam's my boyfriend and Paul and Jared are my friends, more like my little brothers actually. They moved in not long before Christmas."
"But you said Embry lives here now."
"He does, what has that got to do with anything?" she asked him, her eyebrow arching and he took a step back. She sighed. "Look, Jacob, appearances can be deceiving and anything that you may have heard about my boys is more than likely to be a lie. Don't believe everything you hear. I best go and check on Embry, if you want to visit and join us for dinner next week then my offer still stands. I'll hopefully see you next week."
She stepped into the house and closed the door behind her.
"That was a close one," she muttered, peeking out of the window to see that Jacob was walking down the beach.
She sighed, before summoning the shopping bags and she apparated straight to the office.
"Will you stop doing that?" Embry jumped, effectively spilling his drink over his lap and scowling at her. Teddy giggled and clapped his hand, whilst the others chuckled at him.
"You get used to it," Sam commented, shifting Teddy on his lap so he could pass over a cloth so Embry could wipe up the droplets of cola that had splashed on the floor.
"You should be used to it by now, it's not my fault you're jumpy," Hermione shrugged, walking over to the fridge, flicking her wand as she walked past Embry and drying his clothing from him.
"You've been shopping?" Jared asked hopefully.
"I have, seeing as you've eaten through all the food supplies I only purchased on Wednesday," she said amused, as she proceeded to put away the shopping in the fridge, freezer and the cupboards.
"I also made lunch," she told them, flicking her wand and the steaming shepherd's pie appeared in front of everyone on the table, after conjuring it from the house.
"Thank God, I'm starving," Paul muttered.
"You've only been here for four hours," she raised her eyebrow at him.
"That's four hours without food, Hermione!"
"Oh, give me strength," she sighed, and the others laughed.
She took her seat at the table after finishing packing everything away.
"How was your meeting?"
"It went well," Sam answered. "Teddy kept the others in line," he smiled down at the child on his lap, whilst the three wolves scowled in his direction.
"That's my Teddy," Hermione said proudly, reaching over to tickle his stomach and he giggled.
"So, you've got the contract?"
"I'm not sure yet, Daniels said he's contact us within an hour of him leaving, as he wished to think it over further in private," he shrugged.
"He'd be stupid not to give you the job," Hermione said. "He isn't going to find someone as hardworking as my boys." They all smiled at her, and then she changed the subject. "Jacob came by the house."
"What? When?" Embry frowned.
"Just before I got here. He said you told him he could visit."
Everyone looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, I did say that, but I told him it wouldn't be for a while yet, as I was still contagious."
"Have you been in touch with him since Monday?"
"We've been texting, I've made sure to purposely never answer his calls, he's always been able to tell when I lie, so best not risk it."
"So he just assumed a while meant the weekend?" Jared asked.
"Obviously, I didn't give him a specific date," Embry replied.
"Well he's got one now," Hermione piped up.
"Excuse me?" Sam said, looking both surprised and amused, by the looks on the others' faces at her words.
"I've invited him over for dinner next Saturday, and everyone has to be there."
"But..."
"I said everyone, Paul," she chastised and Teddy laughed at Paul's pout.
"This will at least give me time to put my charms back on the living room and library so nothing is out of the ordinary. And this visitation might alleviate some of Jacob's worry about Embry's health."
"It's alright with me," Sam shrugged.
Jared snorted. "You just want to see if he's going through the change."
Sam didn't bother denying it.
"It's possible," Hermione injected, biting her lip.
"It is?" the wolves spoke together, their eyes snapping to her.
"It is, I think he was taller than when I last saw him," she frowned, trying to think back to that day. "Yes, he was definitely taller."
"He is a growing teenage boy," Paul shrugged.
"What? He's grew two inches in less than a week, because he's a growing teenage boy?"
"I see your point," he nodded, a frown of his own creeping on to his face.
"Any other changes you noticed?" Sam asked.
"He's starting to fill out, and now that I'm thinking about it, I could've sworn I saw two packed lunches, one in his hand, the other in his opened back pack."
They all shared knowing looks.
"This is just great," Paul groaned. "We've barely got Pup out of training pants, and now we're getting another one."
The cloth Embry had used to wipe the floor went flying across the table until it smacked Paul in the face. He blinked in surprise and everyone else burst out laughing, Teddy in particular thought it was the best thing ever.
The ringing of the phone from the reception desk quieted everyone down and they all looked at each other, before chairs were falling towards the ground and everyone was racing out of the kitchen and down the corridor.
Despite them all being faster than Hermione, she beat them to the reception desk by a couple of seconds, and she hadn't even used magic, much to their amusement.
"Good afternoon, thank you for calling Uley and Pack, this is Hermione speaking, how may I help you?" she answered the phone, sitting herself down in the comfortable chair behind the desk.
"Of course, Mr Daniels, I'll transfer you right through, one moment please," she covered the speaker with her hand, and looked at Sam. "Line 2," she told him, and he handed Teddy over to Jared and quickly made his way to his office as Hermione put the phone down.
She strained her hearing, but seeing as it wasn't as sensitive as the boys', she was finding it difficult to accurately hear the conversation. The others, however, could hear perfectly and they were remaining remarkably stoic, much to her annoyance. She couldn't even tell how the conversation was going based on their facial expressions, they smirked at her in response. They had even corrupted Embry.
For the next ten minutes she sat in her chair, her leg bouncing up and down whilst also tugging at her hair
She heard footsteps approaching and when Sam entered through the doorway, she leapt up from her seat, a hopeful look on her face and her fingers crossed. Sam had a frown on his face, which only increased her levels of anxiety.
"Well?" he tore his eyes from the ground and looked at her. "Oh, Merlin's Sake, Samuel, spit it out, did we get it!" she snapped, not being able to take the tension in the room any longer.
Grins broke out on the boys' faces and a beaming smile appeared on Sam's.
"We got it."
"We got it?" she asked excitedly.
"We got it," he repeated.
"We got it!" she said in disbelief.
"We got it!" he laughed loudly.
"We got it!" she screeched and she leapt towards him, pulling him into a tight hug as cheers from the boys rang out in the room. Happy tears began leaking from her eyes as he hugged her back.
"I can't believe we got," she sniffled.
"What did we get again?" Embry asked confused, everyone turned to face him with identical looks of disbelief on their faces.
He grinned sheepishly. "I was distracted when you explained it to me."
"By what?" Jared asked.
"Food, I was hungry," he shrugged. They laughed and rolled their eyes at him.
"Well, Pup," Paul began, slinging an arm around Embry's shoulders. "We've only gone and gotten ourselves a three month contract with Peter Daniels."
"Peter Daniels," Embry frowned in thought. "Isn't he a property developer? The rich one from New York?"
"Yes, and it just so happens he's taking on a few projects in Port Angeles, he's had meetings with five other contractors, and he came across our advertising and followed it through to our website. We have a three month trial period, and if he is impressed by us, that leads to a one year contract in Port Angeles, and he may even ask us to work on other projects around the country afterwards," Jared explained.
Embry blinked in surprise. "We got it!" he yelled suddenly, making everyone laugh.
"Did he say why he chose us?" Hermione asked, as the boys took Teddy back to the kitchen to finish their food, and she and Sam stayed in the reception area to chat.
He smiled down at her, before wrapping his around her and pulling her against him.
"Aside from the reviews on our website from previous clients, as well as seeing the portfolios of our work, he chose us because of you."
"He what?" her eyes widened and his smile softened. "He's never even met me."
"No, but when he came for the meeting he saw all of the hard work, thought and love you put into this building. And after seeing photos of you dotted about the place, including the one on my desk in my office with both you and Teddy, he asked me about you."
"And?"
"And, he told me that behind every good man, is a brilliant woman, and I agree with him. Without you, none of this would be possible."
"Sammy, anything is possible."
"Now that I've got you and Teddy, everything is possible," he amended softly and she felt tears springing to her eyes. "He wants to meet you."
"Who, Daniels?" she frowned.
"Yes, he's on his way now."
"What!" she shrieked, pulling back from him. "Merlin, look at the state of me, and my hair, I've been in my lab most of the morning, it probably looks like a cloud and I spilt some Skele-Gro on me, I'll have to change. Oh, there's no time to go home and change and..."
"Hermione," he chuckled. "You're a witch."
She was gone from his arms within the blink of an eye, leaving behind a 'crack' and Sam laughing loudly.
"We should celebrate," Hermione said, as she climbed out of Sam's truck and he unbuckled Teddy from his car seat.
"Great idea," Jared agreed, climbing out of his car, along with Paul and Embry. "We should have some Fire whiskey," he suggested.
"I don't Pup could handle it, even with our metabolism, he'll be throwing up after a sip," Paul smirked.
"As I recall, you were the one that looked a little sickly last week, and after only two glasses," Hermione said. Sam, Embry and Jared laughed loudly, whilst Paul grumbled under his breath.
"So much for being ill!"
The laughed stopped immediately and they spun around on the spot, Jacob Black coming into their view.
"Jake, what ar..." Embry started, but he cut him off.
"What the fuck happened to you? They've turned you into one of them? Are you on drugs too?"
"Jacob," Sam warned, his voice deepening and his eyes locked on Embry as his fists clenched by his sides and he began to shake.
Sam handed Teddy over to Hermione, and pushed her behind him, should Embry phase, he might accidentally hurt them with them being so close to him.
"Do you go around robbing old ladies and stealing cars too?"
What happened next, Hermione couldn't have stopped even if she tried.
The clothes ripped from Embry's body.
He shifted into the large wolf.
Right in front of Jacob.
