Chapter twenty-five

It took me two more weeks to finally be able to Apparate without splinching, and land where I was supposed to. When I turned up just on the small stone that marked the landing point and realized I hadn't splinched, I jumped in the air with joy, right into Edward's arms. Since last week we hadn't bothered with the shield charms, so he'd run to me as soon as I'd apparated.

He kissed me, lifting me in the air, making me giggle. I glanced at Toby over Edward's shoulder and saw he was beaming at me.

"Good work," Toby said, and this time I felt it was true. "You still have to prove you can do it more than once in a row to be able to do the exam, but it's a good start."

The exam. I frowned and Edward put me down, raising his eyebrows questioningly. I just shook my head, looking down and picking up the stone, rolling it in my palm. Toby had told me I'd have to pass my Apparition exam once I'd be able to do it and there would be a member of the Apparition commission, apart from Toby, who would then give me my licence. I was already nervous about it.

Meanwhile, in our regular lessons, we'd managed to go through all the spells from my Transfiguration and Charms books, now concentrating fully on defensive spells. That brought us to discussing the Dementors again on Tuesday afternoon.

"I know it's possible they'd appear in a battle but…" Toby sighed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, "I'm not sure I can teach you the spell that repels them. I mean… I'd like to but the truth is, I've never learned it myself. I never needed it. I studied the theory last night though, so maybe we can work with it somehow…"

I listened to him, trying to supress a smile. "It's okay, I already know the spell."

"You do?" Toby looked at me rather dubiously. "It's a very advanced magic, Bella. When did you learn it?"

I shrugged. "Harry taught us in the DA meetings."

Toby stared at me blankly. "When did he learn it?"

"Well, when the Dementors guarded the school, they affected Harry really badly. He asked Lupin to teach him how to defend himself," I explained and then added, "He was thirteen."

"That's… impressive," Toby said, clearly astonished. "So, you can produce a Patronus too?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but… I've never done it against a real Dementor. Harry said it's much harder to think of a happy memory when you're around them."

"Did Harry ever use it against them?"

"Yes, he used it when he and his cousin were attacked by Dementors one summer."

Toby tilted his head, frowning. "Hang on… there was a hearing because of his use of underage magic, wasn't it?" I nodded again. "I read about it, but they didn't specify the spell he'd used in the papers." He straightened up in his armchair, glancing out the window and then looked back at me. "Can you show me?"

Even before he finished asking, the Cullens and little Sarah started gathering in the living room, curious as always. I rolled my eyes, turning back to Toby. "Shouldn't we go outside?" It was getting dark outside and I could hear the rain pounding on the window glass. I didn't really want to go there.

"We can stay here," Toby decided, and I moved to the more open space below the staircase, pulling the wand out of my jeans.

I could feel all their eyes on me but tried to ignore it. It was quite easy to think of a happy memory – I had a lot of them since I'd met Edward and even before that there were a lot of happy moments at Hogwarts. I chose the memory of the moment Edward had said he loved me for the first time. Closing my eyes, I remembered how it had felt to finally hear those words and waved my wand. I wasn't that good at nonverbal magic yet, so I said the words aloud, "Expecto Patronum!"

When I opened my eyes again, I saw a silver mist shooting out of the tip of my wand, taking shape of my usual patronus. There were gasps of awe around me, but my eyes automatically found Edward. He was staring at the silvery animal with his mouth open.

"It's a mountain lion," Edward said, sounding strange.

"Yeah, it's always been like that," I said with a shrug, not really understanding his reaction.

"It's Eddie's favourite animal," Emmett sniggered from his spot beside the back door, where he stood with Rosalie.

"Favourite as… you like hunting them?" I asked Edward, frowning.

He nodded slowly, still watching my patronus that was gliding around the room. I waved my wand again, making it vanish, and Edward's eyes snapped to me. He flashed to my side, taking my hand. "Does it always take this shape? For everyone?"

"No… everyone has a different patronus. I'm not really sure why…" I looked at Toby questioningly, but then realized that he didn't know much about this spell.

"I don't know Bella," Toby said, confirming my thoughts. "From what I read last night, it's a bit of a mystery. The widely accepted theory though is that it represents something of the person who casts it."

I laughed at that. "I doubt it. I have nothing of a mountain lion in me. They are graceful which I'm definitely not."

"Maybe it has something to do with your Hogwarts house?" suggested Carlisle eagerly, always happy to discuss theories.

"I don't think so…" I trailed off, thinking of the patronuses of all the Gryffindors in DA. "No one in Gryffindor has a feline as a patronus… at least that I know of." I suspected Professor McGonagall might have a patronus cat though, since it was her Animagus form. But I'd never seen it.

"Oh, it's obvious, isn't it?" Alice spoke up, rolling her eyes impatiently.

I saw Edward staring at her, frowning, his mouth slightly open. "It's just a coincidence," he muttered after a few seconds.

There were some frustrated sighs around me, but my eyes were on the two of them. "What's obvious, Alice?"

"It's a clear proof that you two were meant to be together, isn't it?" she said with another eyeroll.

"But it'd been a mountain lion even before I met Edward."

Alice sighed, taking my hand. "How many boys had you dated before you arrived in Forks?" she asked, but I was sure she knew the answer.

"None."

"The same goes for Edward."

"That doesn't mean anything."

Alice huffed, shaking her head. "How would you explain it then?"

"Um… coincidence?"

She looked up at the ceiling with a dramatic sigh and skipped back to Jasper. "Like I said… meant to be together."

"What do you think about Alice's idea that we were meant to be together?" I asked Edward later that night when we were finally alone in my room. He hadn't argued with Alice about it after his first reaction and had been in a contemplative mood for the rest of the afternoon.

He creased his eyebrows and wrapped his arms around me, leaning his head against the headboard of my bed. "I doubted it at first, but… she reminded me of something." He paused, his frown deepening. "For a long time I'd been sure I'd be alone forever. After Alice and Jasper joined the family, I kept asking Alice if I'd ever find a mate. She always said the same thing: I don't know, everything's possible. Seventeen years ago though, she suddenly became sure that I would have a girlfriend one day."

"Seventeen years ago…" I mumbled. "When I was born?" Edward nodded. "So she saw me coming."

"She didn't know when I'd meet you or what would you look like, but she was positive that I wouldn't stay alone forever."

"So you think she's right? That we were meant to be together?"

"Why not?" Edward said with a shrug. "Compared to all those other supernatural things that we know are true…" he trailed off and his eyes suddenly flashed to the door.

"What?" I followed his gaze. "Is Charlie finally home?" Charlie had been held up at work because of a car accident between Forks and La Push. I hoped no one I knew was involved in it, but Charlie hadn't given me any details when he'd called me that he would be late.

"Yes," Edward said, tilting his head. "I think he wants to talk to us, he feels a little hesitant but determined."

It had to be something important because Charlie never came into my room this late – it was nearly eleven. A minute later there was a hesitant knock on my door. I hadn't put the Muffliato spell on the door tonight, so I called for him to come in.

The door opened and Charlie stuck his head inside peering at us. "Um… sorry, I don't want to… disturb you…" he said with a grimace. It looked like he'd been expecting us doing more than just laying on my bed, holding hands.

"Is everything okay, Dad?" I asked, sitting up.

Charlie stepped into the room, scratching his head. He wasn't the beating-around-the-bush type, so he went right to the point. "Sam Uley came to the station today."

"What did he want?" asked Edward sharply. He disliked the wolves even more after the incident last Christmas.

"Jared saw me, Esme and Sarah in Port Angeles couple weeks ago, when we were at the theatre."

"Damn," I muttered and felt Edward tense beside me.

"What did you tell him?" Edward's voice was stern, and Charlie narrowed his eyes at him, not liking his tone. Edward took a deep breath and gave Charlie a short, apologetic smile. "Sorry, but I really need to know what you told him," he said, much more politely now.

Charlie glared at Edward for a few seconds but then straightened up, crossing his arms across his chest. "I said Sarah was a daughter of one of my colleagues and I'd agreed to watch over her that day. And that we'd run into Esme in Port Angeles and she decided to join us."

"Did he believe you?" I asked.

"I don't know. That's why I wanted to tell you as soon as possible. In case there was a problem."

"Do you think there might be a problem?" I looked at Edward. He looked to be deep in thoughts but then his eyes focused on me.

"I'm not sure," he said slowly. "I don't see why they shouldn't believe him, but the wolves don't trust any of us, so Charlie meeting with Esme might look suspicious to them."

"Suspicious how?" I asked, not really understanding why it could be a problem. Charlie's explanation seemed pretty reasonable to me. "They know you know each other and are on friendly terms. And you said they wanted you to make sure Charlie and I don't tell anyone about them." I looked back at Charlie. "Did Sam say anything else?"

Charlie pulled at his moustache before answering. "Actually, he was more concerned about Sarah. He was asking about her a lot, wondering why I'd never mentioned her to Sue." I knew Charlie still talked to Sue on the phone sometimes, even though they hadn't seen each other since Christmas.

"Thanks for telling us, Charlie," said Edward after a few seconds of silence. "I'll tell Carlisle about it and we'll talk about what to do."

After Charlie left, I turned to Edward, frowning. "Do you really think the wolves might do something?"

He sighed, taking my hand. "I don't know," he admitted, sounding frustrated. "I can't go closer to them to hear what they think because of the treaty. But maybe…" he paused, creasing his eyebrows, "… maybe I can check the border in case some of the wolves are nearby…"

"Wouldn't they be able to smell you?"

He shrugged. "Probably. I'd be in our territory though. They wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

"They might get more suspicious," I pointed out.

Edward nodded again. "Yes. That's why I need to talk to Carlisle."

"Are you going to leave now?" I tried to hide my disappointment but of course he noticed.

"I'll wait until you fall asleep," he said with a chuckle, kissing my forehead.

"What about the wolves, though? What if they come here to check on Charlie or something?" They hadn't done that yet but after Sam's visit to Charlie today, they might do it tonight.

"I'll ask Alice or Jasper to watch over you. Or maybe both of them."

The next few nights Edward spent patrolling the borders with the Quileutes territory. I didn't like it much, but I understood that the Cullens wanted to be sure that the wolves wouldn't do anything unexpected. So far it all seemed fine, Edward told me he'd heard them a few times, but no wolf thought about checking on us, though he admitted that he'd caught Jacob thinking about me a few times. I could tell he didn't like that at all.

With Edward gone, Alice started visiting my room before I went do sleep. She was very excited about her and Carlisle's visits to the Magical Congress and told me all about the process of making the vampire potion. According to her, it went quite well. They'd managed to pick the right ingredients and were now in the process of gathering them. It was hard to supress hope after that.

Friday night, Edward finally stayed the night in my room again after Carlisle had decided that the wolves would have acted by now if they'd thought something was wrong. I was glad to have Edward all to myself again. I sighed happily against his lips as we kissed on my bed.

"I missed this," I muttered when he started kissing my throat.

He hummed against my skin and then lay his head on my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair, loving the sound he always made when I did that. My thoughts turned to something I'd been thinking the last few nights when I was alone in my room after Alice had left. Trying to avoid thinking about all the crazy things in my life, I'd focused on my relationship with Edward. Every time I was with him, I'd grown more and more attracted to him. It had started to reflect in my dreams and last night I'd even woken up with my hand between my legs. I'd been hugely relieved that Edward wasn't there at that moment. My moaning in my sleep had been humiliating enough.

Edward must have heard my breath quicken because he lifted his head, looking at me questioningly. "What are you thinking about?"

I felt my cheeks turning red, betraying my thoughts. "Um… nothing?" My voice sounded a little higher than usual, making Edward even more curious.

"Oh really? Why are you blushing then?" he said with a smirk, his right hand slowly running up and down my side. Instead of calming me, it had the exact opposite effect – I felt my skin heat up even through the fabric of my t-shirt.

I took a breath. "Well, I've been wondering if you still want to… um… sleep with me before I'm changed," I said rather quickly, my eyes firmly fixed on the ceiling.

Edward moved so he was hovering right above me, his face inches from mine so I couldn't help but look at him. "I'm afraid I can't really sleep with you…," he said, looking amused, but then his expression turned slightly more serious, "But if you mean whether I still want to have sex with you while you're still human, then yes, I want that." He hesitated for a moment. "Did you change your mind?"

"No," I said quickly. "I just… think that we should move forward a little." I made myself look right into his eyes, ignoring my blazing face.

"Emmett thinks we should practice…"

"What?" I squealed, pulling away slightly. "Why the hell do you talk about this with Emmett?!"

He rolled his eyes at me, moving up to lay his head on the pillow next to me. "You know Emmett. I didn't want to talk to him about it. But I couldn't really stop him."

I glared at the ceiling for a few moments before slowly turning my head to him. "Practice how?"

"He didn't really get to the specifics," Edward said with a small smirk. "But I've thought about it… a lot."

"Really?" I moved even closer to him, so my nose touched his.

He nodded. "There's not really much else to do at night," he said sheepishly, making me giggle.

"So… have you come up with any ideas?" I asked, running my hand up his chest to his shoulder.

"Yes… I'd like to see you…" he trailed off, but his hand tugged at the hem of my t-shirt to make his point clear.

I stared at him. "You mean… naked?"

Edward nodded, slipping his hand under my t-shirt and running it up my side. I'd warmed him up when he came to my room, so his touch was pleasantly warm. I shivered when his thumb fleetingly touched my breast. "Just the top… for a start," he whispered.

"I-I'm not sure I'm ready for this…" I stammered.

"You just said you wanted to move forward," he reminded me gently.

"Yes but… I've never done this before… what if you don't like it?" I felt stupid for being so self-conscious around him, but I couldn't help myself.

That made him laugh. "That's impossible, Bella."

"You can't know that… What if… what if I have hairy breasts or something?" I remembered reading somewhere that it sometimes happened. Edward snorted, burying his head into the pillow to hide his laughter. I swatted his arm, scowling. "That can happen, you know? I read about it."

He lifted his head, grinning. "You're being silly." Then he paused for a moment. "Do you? Have hairy breasts I mean?"

"No!" I swatted him again but laughed at the same time. He was right, I was being silly. I sighed, calming down a little. "You first, though. I want to see you too."

He just shrugged and sat up. In what seemed like a nanosecond, his t-shirt was gone. I blinked, focusing on his naked chest. It was toned, but not too muscled; just perfect to me. I lifted my hand and touched his chest, running my fingers across it slowly. I heard him sucking in a breath and looked up at him. He was watching me without blinking, his eyes darker than before.

"Your turn," he whispered, not taking his eyes off my face. His hands slid to my hips. "May I?"

I gulped but nodded, afraid that my voice would reveal how nervous I was. Taking a deep breath, I put up my arms so he could take my t-shirt off. As soon as he did, my arms automatically shot up to cover myself.

"Don't," Edward said, taking my wrists and gently pulling them away from my body. His eyes slid from my face to my chest and then he froze, letting go of my wrists. I fought off the instinct to cover myself again, and the intensity of his gaze was making me a little uncomfortable.

"What are you thinking about?" I blurted out, not able to stand the silence any longer.

He raised his eyes back to my face, a small smile appearing on his lips. "You're so beautiful, Bella. But I can't tell you what else I'm thinking about because it would make you run away screaming." His smile vanished and I noticed the dark, hungry look in his eyes.

I stared at him with my mouth open. I could feel my heart beating wildly in my chest, but I wasn't scared. On the contrary, his words made me want him more than ever before.

Edward cleared his throat and suddenly threw my t-shirt at me. "I think you should get dressed," he said quickly, closing his eyes. I noticed his hands curled into fists and knew that it was too much for him.

Once I had the t-shirt on again, I slowly took his hands, trying to unclenched his fists. He relaxed slightly and when I looked up at his face, I saw he was watching me. "Are you okay?" I whispered.

He took a deep breath before nodding. "Yes, I think so." The corners of his lips twitched. "We'll have to practice this more often."