Chapter twenty

Later, when I was snuggled against Edward's chest in his bed, a thought crossed my mind. I was still tracing the diamond, now settled against my chest.

"Edward?"

"Mmm?" He sounded like he was deep in thought but when I lifted my head to look at him, he was smiling down at me. "Do you think... do you think that she would have liked me? Your mom, I mean."

"She would have loved you. I'm sure of it." He kissed my nose, still smiling.

"What was she like?" I asked, snuggling even closer to him. I remembered him telling me about his human life and that he didn't remember much of it, but I still hoped for at least a few more details.

Edward was quiet for a minute but just as I was about to lift my head to look at him, he spoke.

"She was... beautiful. We had the same hair and eye color. I remember the sound of her laughter the best..." he trailed off and when I looked up at him, I saw he was staring ahead, his eyes unfocused. "She... liked to bake, I remember she smelled of cookies..." Then he closed his eyes, shaking his head. "I can't remember anything else," he finished with a sigh and opened his eyes again. He smiled sadly at me and I immediately felt bad for making him sad.

I cupped his cheek and kissed him. Then I frowned, remembering something he'd said. "What was your eye color?" I'd never thought of asking before.

"Green."

I tried to imagine Edward with green eyes and sighed. "I wish I could see that." An idea crossed my mind then. "Do you have pictures of you as a human?"

Edward nodded slowly. "There are a few. But they're all in black and white."

"Oh… of course," I mumbled, mentally cursing my stupidity.

"But I have a painting of me and my parents when I was sixteen," he added, making my eyes snap to him.

"Really?"

He nodded again. "I keep things like that in the attic. It would look weird in this room, according to Esme and Alice, not to mention what it would look like if I ever had a human visitor in here."

I laughed. "Can I see it?"

"Sure."

He stood up in a flash, making me blink in surprise. He smiled apologetically, offering me his hand to help me to my feet. Then he led me out of his room and up another flight of stairs. We stopped under a trapdoor which I eyed curiously. Edward pushed a button on the wall and the trapdoor opened and a wooden, sturdy looking ladder slid down.

I looked up. The room was lit but I could see nothing but wooden ceiling and walls.

"Ladies first," Edward said, waving for me to climb up. I looked at him uncertainly and he laughed. "Don't worry, nothing will attack you, I promise."

I rolled my eyes at him and started climbing up the ladder. Once I was up, I moved to the side to make room for Edward and looked around.

It was a big room, taking up the whole floor. The ceiling was low, but it was still high enough for me to not having to stoop. The walls and the floor were made of light wood and there was a lot of old furniture, paintings, and a few statues. A lot of boxes and even some chests took up a quarter of the room, but they were all neatly organized, not scattered around like they would be in any other attic. All the things looked to be in a very good shape, there were no cobwebs or even dust in here. It reminded me more of a gallery than an attic.

Edward appeared behind me, taking my hand. He led me to the back of the room. I could see it already. There, on the back wall, about six feet tall painting was hanged, framed in a thick golden frame. In the middle of it sat a very beautiful woman with bronze hair and on her left stood a tall, strict looking, dark-haired man.

My eyes were drawn to the boy on the right. In the painting, Edward was shorter than his father – it looked like he'd grown between the time the painting was made and the day he was changed. He looked a lot like the Edward I knew but different at the same time. Even though none of them were smiling, he looked more carefree and his beautiful green eyes were lit up with his youthful innocence. His hair was smoothed back, probably with some kind of hair product, but there were still a few strands that were loose. That little detail made me grin.

I leaned forward, trying to find any imperfections on his face. I frowned. Even though in the painting he stood straight and faced ahead, I could see something slightly different about his nose. "Did you have a… crooked nose?"

Edward laughed softly behind me. "I think I broke It when I was little. I don't remember what happened though…"

I turned my head to look at him. He was smiling down at me, but his eyes were… curious. I stood up on my tiptoes, kissing the tip of his now perfectly straight nose. I grinned at his chuckle and turned back to the painting, finally focusing on his eyes.

They were a brilliant shade of green and even though I was sure that the colours of the painting must have been slightly different than the real thing, it was still as close as I would ever get to seeing Edward's human eye colour.

I felt Edward move and when I turned to him, he was holding a small stack of old-looking photographs. I gasped as I saw what was on them. They were obviously the pictures of him as a human he'd told me about earlier.

Edward handed the pictures to me, taking a small step back. I looked at the photographs with fascination. There was a picture of a little boy, no more than one year old and I was surprised to see his hair was sticking in all direction even back then. There were more pictures of Edward as a child up to when he was maybe fifteen years old. His parents were in some of them, his mother more often than his father.

"Thank you for showing me these," I said as I looked up at him. He'd been watching me intently the whole time. He nodded and I gave him back the pictures. He returned them back to the drawer of an old looking dresser that was standing against the wall.

"It's your turn now," Edward said, turning back to me. Seeing my confused expression, he added, "To show me your childhood photographs."

I could feel my face heat up. "That's not a good idea," I mumbled, knowing there were some pictures I'd rather Edward never saw. Like the ones from the short time I'd been forced to wear braces when I was about seven.

"That's alright," he said with a shrug. "I can always ask Charlie. I'm sure he'll be happy to show me."

I glared at him, knowing he was right.

"Why are you smirking at me, Emmett?"

I put the fork with a stripe of bacon in my mouth, narrowing my eyes at the huge vampire, who was leaning against the fridge in the Cullen's kitchen, the aforementioned smirk still firmly on his face.

"Did you have a good night, Bella?" he said, waggling his eyebrows at me and ignoring my question.

I frowned at him just as Edward entered the kitchen, throwing a glare at Emmett. He walked over to me, kissing the top of my head. "Ignore him."

Edward's words only made me more suspicious. "What's going on?"

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?" said Emmett with an evil grin. Right then, Edward flashed to him, trying to push him out of the kitchen. Emmett didn't move an inch.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to supress the blush that had started creeping into my cheeks. "What did I say?"

"Nothing, sweetheart," said Edward with a forced smile. "Are you finished? I thought we could – "

"It was a very interesting – " Emmett had jumped in but didn't get very far because Edward clamped his palm to Emmett's mouth.

"Edward! Emmett!" Esme's voice called from the doorway and they both jumped from each other, looking like schoolboys caught fighting. I had to laugh at their suddenly innocent expressions. "No fighting inside," Esme added sternly.

Before I could inquire more about my sleep talking, something happened. The golden Galleon I had been carrying in my jeans all the time, started to burn. I jumped up, taking it out of the pocket, and held it out before me. The whole room had become quiet as I read the words shining brightly on the bottom of the coin.

3 long taps, pswrd: Moony

I opened my mouth but at the same time Alice appeared in front of me with my radio in her hand. She placed in on the table and I pulled out my wand, tapping the radio three times with it. I was only vaguely aware of Edward now standing behind me with his hands on my shoulders.

"Good evening our dear listeners," said the familiar voice of Lee Jordan from the tiny speakers. "I apologise for disturbing your Christmas dinner, but we'd had to deal with some complications that involved a lot of Snatchers and burning of our former safe place." I gasped. "But no worries, my dear listeners. A little bonfire can't stop us from giving you the truth."

"I like this guy," said Emmett, clearly amused, but he shut up after seeing my glare.

"Tonight, it's only Royal here with me. Our second correspondent, Romulus, is hopefully enjoying Christmas dinner with his family. We won't disturb your family dinners for long, but we do have a few bits of information we thought you'd want to know. So as usual, I welcome here our correspondent, Royal. Hello, Royal."

"Good evening, River," said the deep voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"We start with what happened last Saturday on the train from Hogwarts to London. A student has been taken from the train by Death Eaters. Can you tell us more about it, Royal?"

I held my breath, dreading the next words.

"Yes, River. The student that was taken was the daughter of Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna." I closed my eyes tightly, burying my head in my hands. It was only thanks to Edward's fingers that were soothingly massaging my shoulders that I didn't break down completely.

With my head still in my hands, I listened to Kingsley's words.

"The students that witnessed the kidnapping said that the train had stopped suddenly somewhere in the middle of woods and a pair of masked men barged into each carriage. When they found her, some of the other students tried to stop them but they were knocked out. Luna was hit by a stunning spell and they took her out and disapparated."

"Do you think they took her to make Xeno stop writing his praising articles about Harry Potter?" asked Lee.

"Yes. We'd thought something like that would happen, if he hadn't stopped supporting Harry that openly. It was bound to happen, and he'd been warned about this danger."

"But he didn't listen."

"No. Apparently he thought he could protect her at home and that was probably why they took her from the train."

"What do you think they're going to do with her?" I could hear an uncertainty in Lee's voice and tried to concentrate even more on Edward's fingers on my shoulders.

"I don't think they want to kill her. They need her so they could threaten Xenophilius and they need her alive. They will probably hold her somewhere and blackmail her father to do what they want."

"Well, let's hope she's okay," said Lee in a heavy voice. "Anyway, we have some more news for you, dear listeners. You have a few very reliable contacts at the Ministry, Royal. And I heard there were some interesting rumours."

"Yes. As you all might remember, Dolores Umbridge, the Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, made an announcement back in September about having the means of tracking down all the Muggle-borns that are hiding abroad."

"Oh, yeah," said Lee darkly. "That caused quite a panic amongst those that have friends or family members that had managed to escape the country."

I gulped. I'd never even thought about what my friends in Britain had thought about this. The Weasleys must have been worried about me. I frowned. I should have let Ginny know I was okay. But then… she'd never asked. Apart from the birthday message, I hadn't heard a word from her.

Kingsley went on. "For a long time, we didn't know what Umbridge had done. Until about two weeks ago, when she was overheard arguing with Corban Yaxley, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." There was a long pause. "Apparently, Umbridge had found a vampire with the Gift of tracking people. According to the witness that heard the argument, the vampire had been sent abroad at the beginning of October and she haven't heard from him since then."

"Wonder why," said Emmett with a smirk.

Ignoring Emmett, I leaned closer to the radio, wanting to hear what they thought had happened.

"What do you think happened, Royal?" asked Lee.

"Well, there are really only two options. Either the vampire found their targets and decided to betray Umbridge and have them for themselves… or someone or something stopped them."

"There are not that many ways to kill a vampire," Lee pointed out. "It must have been either another vampire or a very well-trained wizard. Anyway, I wholeheartedly hope that the vampire was stopped and that our friends out there are safe."

"So do I, River, so do I."

"Now, let's move on. As usual, we have a list of people that have gone missing…"

As Kingsley started to read the list, I looked up from the radio. For the first time I noticed that all the Cullens were here, gathered around the table and listening quietly with me.

"I have to let them know," I blurted out. Everyone's eyes snapped to me.

I quickly thought what options I had. Sending Agnes was out of the question. I would not put her in danger. I'd seen her only a few times since I'd started dating Edward and it was only when he'd gone hunting. I refused to put her under more stress.

That left only one option. My eyes slid down to the Galleon that was lying on the table in front of me. I knew how to send a message to just one person and I needed to be sure that the person would have the coin on them. And since Lee had sent the message about Potterwatch about ten minutes ago, there was a good chance he had the Galleon nearby.

Grabbing my wand, I slid the Galleon closer to me and closed my eyes, trying to think of what to write. The message had to be short but clear. I still felt all eyes on me when I opened my eyes, but I ignored everyone and, having finally made the decision, I took a deep breath and started tapping on the coin with my wand. After a few moments, the message was shining on the bottom of the coin.

The vamp's dead. BS

The Potterwatch was still on and Kingsley was just finishing a list of recently killed people (thankfully there weren't any names I recognized), so I gave the coin one more tap. It shone brightly for a few seconds and then the writing was gone.

"… so, with the sad list of recently killed people –" Lee started saying but then let out an audible gasp. There were a few seconds of silence and then we heard Lee clear his throat. "I'm sorry for that but I've just received a very unexpected message. It says that the vampire that was sent to bring back all Muggle-borns that are hiding abroad, is indeed dead. The message doesn't say how the vampire died but I must admit that knowing our friends out there are safe is a huge relief. What do you think about it, Royal?"

"It is, of course, a relief, as you said, River. It also seems that we might have a very powerful ally abroad."

"Yes. I'm sure that all of you, our dear listeners, are dying to know who sent us the message. And even though there wasn't a full name, I think I have an idea who it was." I held my breath, hoping he wouldn't say my name. Maybe I should have kept it completely anonymous. Lee went on, "But, we will not reveal the identity of the sender. I'm sure you all understand our reasons."

I let out a long, relieved breath.

"So, it's time to say good night for now," said Lee, his voice slightly more positive than a few minutes ago. "Have as good Christmas as possible and keep faith."

The radio went quiet. I looked around, spotting Carlisle standing next to Esme by the kitchen counter. "Do you think I did the right thing, sending the message?" I asked, uncertainly. I knew it was too late to worry about it now but maybe I should have asked for their opinion. After all, it was them who'd killed James and Victoria.

"I think so," said Carlisle, giving me an assuring smile. "Just imagine how much your friends must have been worried."

"Yeah, that's why I decided to do it," I said, feeling guilty again.

"There's no point in feeling guilty about it, Bella," said Jasper from the doorway.

I looked up at him. "I should have thought of it – "

"Maybe," Jasper interrupted me, "but you can't change that, and you told them now. So, stop feeling guilty, please." A wave of relief and calm washed over me, and I chuckled, rolling my eyes at him.

A few hours later I was having lunch with Charlie. Edward had driven me to our house in his car, and I could see that he liked being able to drive me around again. He stayed with us while I and Charlie ate, and I told my dad about what we'd heard on Potterwatch.

"I'm sorry about your friend, Bella," said Charlie, putting his hand on mine. "I hope she'll be alright."

I nodded, glancing at Edward who was sitting next to me, his hand resting on my thigh. I knew he noticed I'd been a little withdrawn the last couple hours, but he'd let me be, not pressing me to talk about it. I was incredibly grateful for it even though I knew he was dying to know what had been going on in my mind.

"You know, if anyone has a chance to get out of it relatively unscathed, it's Luna," I said, making both Charlie and Edward raise their eyebrows. "I mean, I've never seen her upset or angry, even when people laughed at her at school. She was sort of an outsider," I explained. "Always believed in things that didn't exist even in our world. But she just took things like they were. And if she didn't like something, she calmly said it right away. She sort of lived in her own world…" I took a deep breath. "So, if they don't want to kill her, like Kingsley said, then I'm sure she'll be okay."

At least, that's what I'd decided I would believe, otherwise I'd go crazy.

A few minutes later, right after I finished telling Charlie about the message I'd sent to Lee Jordan, I felt the familiar burning of the Galleon in my jeans yet again. I gasped, making both Edward and Charlie look at me questioningly. Was it possible that there was another Potterwatch just four hours after the last broadcast? Had something really bad happen that was so important that they wanted us to know right away?

Before I could panic even further and start thinking about Harry Potter being killed or something like that, I pulled the golden coin out of my pocket. As I looked at the Galleon, I let out a breathless chuckle.

Did you send the message? FGGW

I showed it to Edward and Charlie before the letters vanished.

"Who is it from?" asked Edward, taking the coin in his hand, his eyes fixed on the last four letters. Just then the writing shone even more brightly for a few seconds before it was gone. Edward frowned, returning the Galleon to me.

At first, I'd been confused about the initials as well, but it took me only a few seconds to figure it out. "Well, the W means Weasley, so one of the G's is definitely Ginny. And since she's home for Christmas and she's not allowed to do magic outside of school, I believe she got the twins to send it for her. That's Fred and George."

"The two pranksters?" asked Charlie, surprising me. I had told him about some of the less dangerous things the twins did but I was still surprised that he'd remembered them.

"Yep, that's them." I frowned and my eyes slid back to the Galleon, thinking about what my reply should be. At last, I decided to go for simplicity. And I knew how much Ginny hated when I gave her one-word answers.

Yes. B

I sent it to both Fred and George, not knowing whose Galleon they had used.

For a few minutes, the coin lay still and cold on the table. We all were staring at it and I was wondering, if it had been all Ginny and the twins wanted to know. But I should have known better. The Galleon lit up again and new words appeared on the bottom.

Who killed the vamp? FGG

I hesitated and looked up at Edward. "Can I tell them what you are?" He nodded, so I picked up my wand and pointed at the Galleon.

I have vamp friends. B

The second I send it I thought of something and quickly sent another message.

They hunt animals. B

A few more minutes passed. Then a long one appeared.

That's badass. Are you safe? FGG

I shook my head, half amused, half touched by their concern.

They keep me safe. You? B

Everyone's fine. No wrds from R. FGG

Before I could think of a reply, another message lit up the coin.

Gotta go. Merry Christmas. FGG

Merry Christmas. B

I tapped the coin one last time to send the last words and leaned back in the chair with a smile on my face. It was a huge relief to know that the Weasleys are safe and apparently unharmed, but I wondered how long they hadn't heard from Ron. On the other side I was sure that if their brother was dead, they would have known by now. I was sure Death Eaters knew about his friendship with Harry and You-Know-Who would want to boast about killing him.

For the rest of the day I felt almost giddy with relief. Only the thought of Luna being kept at some terrible place was stopping me from beaming at everyone and everything. To keep my sanity, I tried not to think of her too often.

"You look happy," Edward observed when I climbed in my bed later tonight and pulled me closer to him.

"Well, you make me happy," I said with a shrug, laying my head on his shoulder.

"Let me rephrase then," he said with a low chuckle. "You look relieved."

I frowned and lifted my head to look at him. "Is it that obvious?"

Edward kissed the tip of my nose and smiled. "Yes. I know you worry about your friends, even if you rarely say so. It's natural that you feel happy that you've heard from them."

"I'm worried about Luna though. Too bad Alice can't see her." I hadn't even bothered to ask Alice to look for her, knowing the psychic can't see people she'd never met.

"I thought you were sure she's alright."

I sighed. "I can't be a hundred percent sure, can I? I just try not to think too much about what they can do to her."

He didn't say anything, but his arms tightened around me. Eager to change the topic, I frowned a little, trying to think of something else to talk about. I didn't feel like sleeping yet. Thinking of not being tired made me remember certain conversation from this morning.

"What did I say in my sleep last night?" I asked, watching closely Edward's reaction.

His eyes widened slightly but he quickly composed his features and gave me a blinding smile. "It's been a long day. You must be tired -"

"Shut up and tell me," I cut in, glaring at him.

"I can't do both."

"Smartass," I mumbled, rolling my eyes at him. Edward chuckled, leaning in to kiss me on my lips. After a moment's hesitation he deepened the kiss, making any other thoughts in my mind evaporate. He rolled us over so I was on my back, Edward hovering above me, supporting his weight on his forearms. As usual, my limbs went automatically around his body, my hands dug into his hair and I felt my body flush as I pressed myself as close to him as possible, feeling every muscle of his body through both of our clothes.

As he started to kiss my jaws and slowly made his way down my throat, the haze that had clouded my mind since the moment Edward's lips touched mine lifted slightly and I realized what he was doing. Willing my mind to focus, I took a shivering breath and tapped his shoulder.

"S-stop distracting me," I breathed out, half wishing he wouldn't listen.

"We both know you don't really want me to," he muttered against my skin and then traced his lips back to my mouth. Gathering all the remaining shreds of willpower, I made my head turn just before his lips touched mine.

Edward pulled away and I glanced at him. He was frowning down at me, his lips pursed in a slight pout. Turning my head back to him, I reached out to smooth the lines on his forehead.

"I can tell that what I said was embarrassing and I know I'll be mortified." He nodded slowly. "But do you really want me to find out from Emmett? Because you know he's going to find a way to tell me and I want to be ready for it."

He rolled on his back, pulling me on his chest. "I can hide you somewhere. He won't find you," he muttered stubbornly but then he sighed. "I'm not going to say exactly what you said, but you may be able to guess..."

I stared at him, nodding for him to go on.

"You – you expressed your desire to make love to me in a very unladylike way." He blew out a breath, turning his eyes to the ceiling.

I continued staring at him blankly for a few more seconds before my mind made sense of his words.

"Fuck," I whispered, my eyes wide as saucers. My face felt like it was about to burst in flames.

"Yes, that might have been the word you used," Edward said, and I groaned, burying my head into his shoulder.

I felt beyond mortified. While I'd used such a language when I was at Hogwarts quite often, I'd always been careful around Charlie and the Cullens, though there had been a few moments when it had slipped. Saying that to Edward made me feel cheap and ashamed, since I'd never heard him curse in front of me. I sometimes wondered if he ever did.

His fingers started running up and down my back in a clear attempt to calm me down. With my face still buried in his shoulder, I mumbled, "Did I offend you?"

His other hand came to my face and he lifted my head, making me look at him. To my surprise, there was a small smile on his face. "No, you didn't offend me," he said, and then bit his lip, almost shyly. "On the contrary, I liked it."

"You did?" I squealed in surprise, making him laugh. "But... you never curse. I thought it would offend you."

Edward shook his head at me, his thumb caressing my cheek. "I don't curse in front of women because I was raised that way and I know Esme hates it."

"Well, I wouldn't mind...," I said, raising my eyebrow.

He chuckled, shaking his head again. "I think one of us should stay decent and since it obviously isn't you..."

I swatted his chest lightly, careful not to hurt myself, glaring at him. Suddenly I gasped, remembering something he'd said. "Who else heard me?" I asked, dreading the answer.

The look on his face told me everything even before he opened his mouth. "Um... it happened early in the morning, shortly after they all had come back from their private Christmas celebrations."

I groaned again but this time I couldn't hide my face because Edward was still caressing my cheek. "Even Carlisle and Esme?"

He nodded but gently pressed his finger across my lips before I could react. "Just so you know, they're not exactly saints either when they're together," he said with a wicked grin and I shook off his finger, clapping my hand over his mouth.

"Don't say another word or I'll have to bleach my brain. Or ask someone to wipe my memory." Ugh! I'd started to think of Carlisle and Esme as another set of parents to me so any kind of thought of them doing more than holding hands was disturbing.

Edward was laughing under my hand and I rolled my eyes pulling my hand away. "Can I have my memory wiped too?" he said when he calmed down a little. "I could do without some images in my never forgetting mind too."