Hi Guys, Girls and Non-Binary Friends,

Thank you so much to all the readers who read, commented, favourited and subscribed to this story. You bring me so much joy. I won't lie, this chapter has been giving me grief so please let me know what you think!

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Enjoy!

Rebella xx

Hermione finished the school day with no issues and went home without seeing Edward again for the rest of the day. She decided to not go over to Cullen's house although she had been invited, she hadn't explicitly said whether she was going to attend or not. She also wanted to give Edward some space after her behaviour earlier. She had noticed that since she transitioned, she found it harder to hold back, and she was much less… she guessed she would say polite but she wasn't entirely sure. She felt as if she had been a bit rude to him, but she questioned Alice about it later and she just laughed and said he would be fine. She guessed the tiny vampire had seen something in her future, but she was not one to rely on divination, even if the divination was the form of pretty accurate visions and not stupid prophesies.

Hermione decided to head straight home and attempt to get some potions done for the Magical Hospital's she provided for. They had a Magical Community in every state of America and of course most provinces in Canada, this included Hospital's. She was providing potions for Griffin Medical Centre in Seattle and for Hydra Community Hospital in Portland, Oregon and Valhalla General Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. These were the closest hospitals to her which she could provide with decent potions and not ones that are mass produced. She created the improved potions patented by Severus Snape. When he passed away after she had attempted to save him, he told her to take all his Potion and Defence Against the Dark Arts books. In them held new spells and potions, she spent the first six months of her new life filing patents for each one. Nobody knew it was her of course as she was doing it all under a different name, but finally Severus got the Hero status that he needed and could live on through his teaching of others. Although, she thought to herself happily, he was probably rolling in his grave about his inventions being used to educate people.

When she entered her Potions room she noted that most of the potions that she'd left to simmer were now nearly completed and so set about finishing off the final touches to the batches of Skele-Gro, Dreamless Sleep, Pepper Up and Blood-Replenishing Potions. She also had previously made batches of Burn Salve and Calming Draught. These were all to be placed into baskets and evenly distributed to each care facility.

She was just placing the Skele-Gro into phials when the sound for her fireplace went off meaning somebody was attempting a Floo call. She waved her wand to make the phials continue to fill themselves without her being there and raced upstairs to her fireplace. Waving her wand at the mantle it opened and flashed green briefly before Harry's face showed up in the fireplace.

"Hermione, how are you? Haven't spoken in a while. Heard you'd finally settled down in one place." Harry said smiling at his best friend.

"I'm fine thanks Harry, been very busy. I started Muggle School to better blend in. Found another family of Vampires in the area. They are also Class B, before you go getting yourself worried." She smiled at him when she saw his eyes widen at the later comment before going to interrupt.

"Hermione, are you sure?" He queried.

"Yes, Harry. Their Coven Leader has been Class B since his change. He only turns those on the verge of death and encourages them to also refrain from the Class A diet. He is a very nice man, and his wife is amazing also. Their children go to school with me and they are amazing. It's nice to be able to have friends again. I haven't had that in a long time Harry." She sighed sadly looking at her friend.

"I know how hard this is for you Hermione, but we miss you. Would it be worth coming back and trying again? It's been six years. Your control has gotten so much better since then. You're even able to go near Muggles and not have any incidents."

"Yes Harry, Muggles. Not anybody with a whiff of Magical Blood. That's what my vampire self craves. Muggles do not sing to me Harry. You do. Ron does. Ginny does. Everybody in the Magical world sings for me. I can't risk it. Especially with the children. I couldn't bear it." Hermione whispered.

"I tell them about you, you know. They love the stories of Aunt Hermione and her adventures of how smart you are and the places you've been. They read all the postcards and letters you send. James asked me if you could send him, Albus and Lily letters now that he can read and write." Harry said,

"Of course I will, Harry. Make sure to keep sending me photos of them. Of Ron's children too. Rose must be at least five now right?"

"She turned six a couple of weeks ago actually. Sorrel and James decided it would be a great idea to charm her cake to bounce away when she attempted to blow out the candles. For the two of them being only four years old, they are much more tricky than the twins used to be." He said smiling, "Speaking of twins, Lavender is pregnant with twins again," Harry told her. Hermione smiled, Lavender was a very busy woman. She currently had five children under six. Her most recent being her fifth child Dahlia who was currently 10 months old. Hermione believed they were attempting to beat Mrs Weasley's record. So far they had; Rose, Sorrell, the twins, Ren and Jasmine aged two and finally little Dahlia.

"Oh really. Seems I dodged a bullet there didn't I." She laughed.

"Well, with Lavender's Werewolf side being quite dominant considering she doesn't actually change, she has a really strong mothering instinct so it does make sense in a way for her to have a 'litter of cubs' as the twins say."

"Bet Ron and Lavender love that."

"Yeah, not so much." Harry smirked, "Fred says thank you by the way." Harry added.

"He tells you to say thank you every time you speak to me." Hermione shrugged with a small smile.

"Well, you did help save his life 'Mione." He said reassuringly.

"Yeah, by taking the hit from the Vampire myself and not letting him get squished by a wall."

"You basically sacrificed yourself to save Fred, Hermione. You had no idea what would happen to you. What you would lose. Who you would lose."

"Well, no I didn't. But I also couldn't bear the thought of George losing his twin…" She sighed looking off towards the side thinking of that day six years ago. "At least I've found a family who I won't try to kill every time I'm in the same room as them." Hermione smiled sadly at her oldest friend. She found these chats through Floo call were sometimes the only things that kept her going during her time being nomadic and roaming around the world. She had previously gotten him a mobile phone so they could text and call that way, but unfortunately with Harry's job as an Auror he tended to get them broken whilst out on raids. After having his sixth one break due to a misdirected curse, she decided she would stop wasting her money on him if he was going to refuse to put a protection charm on it.

"I'm glad you've found somewhere you finally belong, Hermione. We miss you so much."

"I miss you too. Tell Ginny and the kids I said hello. Also, I recently sent some toys and sweets for the children home with Artemis, please make sure they get them." She said looking directly at Harry with a knowing smile. He had the grace to look a bit sheepish.

"It was one time Hermione and you know how I feel about Hershey's…" He defended before continuing, "Artemis arrived yesterday, she is resting with Orion at the moment at home. The kids love the sweets and toys, so thank you. James is currently writing you a letter to send to you if that's okay. His spelling isn't all that great but you should be able to understand." Harry smiled proudly talking about his eldest son.

"Yes, I'm aware. Which is why I decided to send a care package of sweets specifically for you and Ron." Hermione sighed, they never could keep their hands to themselves, "Aww, he's so cute. How is he your kid? I look forward to hearing from him. Hopefully he is more consistent in his letter writing than you are." She snarked cheekily at the dark haired wizard.

"Hey! That's not fair. You know how busy I am 'Mione. It's probably a good thing that you sent the care packages though, maybe Ron will stop trying to steal Rose and Sorrell's sweets now that he has his own."

"He still has the emotional range of a teaspoon I see."

"More like half a teaspoon…" Harry laughed before turning his head around slightly as if somebody was calling him on the other side, he turned around with a resigned smile on his face, "Sorry 'Mione, Rogers needs me for an interview with a suspect for muggle baiting case. I'll call you soon okay."

"Of course Harry, send Artemis to me as soon as you can. I know she probably wants to spend quality time with Orion, but if you don't mind. I need her to deliver some packages to the hospitals."

"Sure thing 'Mione, I'll get her sent to you this evening when I get home. Bye 'Mione, speak soon." Harry smiled fondly before disappearing from the flames.

Hermione sat up and let out a deep shaky breath that she didn't realise she was probably holding during the whole conversation, or at least, it felt that way. She sat there in front of the fireplace for a couple more minutes. She really did miss her family.

That was her curse.

She was forever damned to never be able to see them again in person. The irony was that she could deal with Muggles, which certain factions of her people believed she belonged with, but she felt no connection to them anymore. She missed being surrounded by magic. She missed Hogwarts.

She missed Harry.

She missed her brother. Her best friend. The person who no matter what was pretty much barring a few incidents was always there for her.

Standing up she went back down to her potions lab and saw that the magic had completed bottling up the phials and so she put them into their specific boxes ready for transportation to the relevant hospitals with tags on them before heading out of the room and warding it before heading out of the house and into the forest. She wanted to go for a run to clear her mind.

And so she ran until she couldn't run anymore. She didn't realise what stopped her at first. Once she came to, she realised it was a horrible smell. Something inside her was telling her to turn around and run in the opposite direction, however she decided not to as she wanted to find out what the smell was. She slowed down to a walk and continued down where the smell was the strongest. Godric, what is that awful stench?… she thought to herself. She continued walking for another five minutes before she heard a growl to her left. She turned around slowly and saw a giant wolf. She stopped dead just staring at the wolf. It was pure black and was as tall as a horse. Definitely not a true wolf. Something supernatural. She took a glance up at the sky, the moon hadn't risen yet, and even so it wasn't a full moon. So not a werewolf… She thought to herself. She went to take a step towards it but it growled.

"I'm not going to hurt you." She said to the wolf. The wolf huffed and growled again. It can understand me! It's sentient! "You know, for a wolf, you're pretty big. Even Werewolves aren't as big as you." She said to the wolf. That comment caused the wolf to stop short. "Huh, so you can understand me. That's good to know." She stated as the wolves eyes opened at the one sided conversation it was having. "So… The smell… That's a… Boundary Line right?" She asked the wolf who slowly nodded, "And the reason you aren't attacking me is because I'm still on my side of the boundary and you'll get in trouble if you do." She added following her instincts with the feelings she was getting towards the conversation. Again the wolf nodded. "Huh. Interesting." She said as she continued walking, the wolf followed her at a slow pace watching where she was going. Hermione suddenly stopped before turning to face the wolf head on causing it to stop suddenly and growl at her sudden movement, she smiled sheepishly at the wolf in apology before saying, "I Hermione Jean Granger, Promise to never cross over into the forbidden territory, so mote it be." As she finished the words her person glowed with the vow settling into her magical core. The wolf stepped back in shock and ran off behind a tree. Not two minutes later a handsome young Native man came out from behind the tree. So, the wolf was a human who can turn into a wolf... Interesting.

"What the hell was that?" He stammered pointing at her.

"That was me promising to never cross over to your territory. It felt like the right thing to do." She said, shrugging before she continued to walk.

"Hey! Don't walk away from me!" He yelled following after her.

"I didn't say you couldn't join me." She said airily waving her hand beside her as she continued walking.

He didn't say anything but continued to follow her. He still held back and stayed out of reaching distance but she didn't take offence, he was probably only a couple years older than she should be. She continued to watch him and she took a quick sniff of the air, it was him that smelt awful, well, to her at least, however she could smell an undercurrent of a familiar smell… Magic. It made venom rush to her mouth at the smell of it, just wanting to take a sip of his blood, however, when she thought about it, the smell of him turned her off. He smelt like a giant wet dog. Not appetising at all.

"So... you can turn into a giant wolf." She stated, looking at the man beside her. "Can you do that at will?" She asked.

"Why do you want to know?" He said abrasively.

"Because I'm curious by nature." She shrugged, "Plus the fact that I've never come across a wolf of your size and that's saying something." She said, "A Three-Headed Cerberus sure, and he was huge, but not a wolf the size of an Abraxan."

"A three-headed what?" He stuttered, "What the hell are you?"

"A Vampire. Now at least. Now I'm just sating my curiosity."

"Didn't anybody ever tell you curiosity killed the cat." He snarked at her.

"If that was true I would have died years ago." She snarked back.

"You are dead though." He answered, stopping short.

"Am I though? I'm here, walking, having a polite conversation with you about how you can turn into a giant dog. My heart may not beat, but my brain still functions, I can still absorb knowledge. I can still feel emotion. Love. Hate. Happiness. Sadness. I just survive off of a different food source. I didn't fail to exist because I got bitten by a Vampire. I still have family and friends who love me dearly. I'm still here. I'm still alive. And I will be until somebody burns my body into a pile of ashes." She answered back as she continued to walk causing him to keep following. She still had no idea why he hadn't turned around and left, but she guessed he was as interested in her as she was in him. "You know, you never told me your name? You know mine as I said it to make the vow."

"Sam. My name is Sam." He answered automatically.

"Nice to meet you Sam." She smiled, "I would shake your hand but I'm guessing that would be pushing it?" She asked, when he nodded she laughed a little.

"So, why can you turn into a giant wolf?"

"To kill Vampires." He said bluntly.

She stopped short and looked at him. Going back to when she first saw him in wolf form. Yes he was large enough to take down a Vampire. Possibly strong enough, and fast enough. But why would somebody elect to turn into an Animagus to be able to kill Vampires.

"Huh. Interesting. Planning on killing me?" She queried genuinely curious about the answer.

"Not unless you do something to deserve it." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well I vowed to not cross into your territory, and I've never tasted Mug-human blood." She said, attempting to cover up her slip. He didn't seem to hear her however, as his head was titled to the side listening to something further in the woods. She also stopped and listened. When she did, she heard two sets of paws - two wolves - heading towards them at speed. Probably to check on Sam. "Sounds like they're coming to check on you. I'll leave you to your evening. It was nice meeting you Sam." She said before running back towards her house.

No wonder she felt a draw to this place. It was a supernatural haven. However, all she wanted to do now was study those wolves. If only she wasn't the one thing they were designed to kill…