"Vampires."
The following scene would be amusing to watch, if you weren't within the room where you very much in danger. Hermione had grabbed Bella's hand, pulling hard and causing the taller girl to go stumbling out the front door onto the porch. Hermione, in a way of adding further protection, placed a shield bubble – wandlessly – around the two of them and got herself into a defensive posture, getting ready to grab her wand at a moment's notice.
The vampires all panicked. Emmett stepped forward into a crouch, hissing and protecting Rosalie who was crouched behind him in the same posture – the same went with Alice and Jasper as well as Esme and Carlisle. Edward was the different reaction, standing at her shield's edge, a focused look on his flawless face as he pushed against her mind.
"I can't read you," he exclaimed, eyes wide and confused. "Why can't I read you?" Hermione huffed and stepped backwards, closer to Bella who was moaning about her bum being bruised. "Please, don't leave, we can sort this out," he pleaded.
"Edward!" Rosalie hissed, eyes narrowed in frustration. "She knows, the Volturi aren't going to be happy and they were angry enough as it is with Bella. We're going to die!" Bella came to action at that statement, clambering to her feet awkwardly and gripping the arm of her smaller cousin.
"No, Hermione, we can't let them!" Hermione shot her a look before returning her calculating gaze back to the vampire family; Bella recognised that look, it was always one she wore when she was extremely curious and it normally resulted in her being locked in a library. "Hermione, they've never hurt me!" Hermione pulled her glance away from Edward and turned, looking her cousin up and down before narrowing in one a silvery mark on her right forearm. She growled and Bella fidgeted, pulling her arm free. "They didn't do that; I was being hunted and they helped me," she explained. "Honest."
"When was the last time you snacked on a human?" Hermione questioned and Carlisle stepped forward, speaking for the family.
"I myself have never done so but many have struggled with this diet as have many members of my family but Jasper is the newest to our diet." He noticed Hermione's furrowed brow – one he assumed was confusion – and elaborated. "We feed on animal blood." She nodded, rolling her eyes as if she already knew that, which she couldn't have.
"Pfft," she waved her hands to dismiss the comment. "I know that." She tapped her chin in thought and noticed the defensive postures that were yet to relax. "Relax, i'm not going to hurt you." They glanced to Edward out of the corner of their eyes and he shrugged, still not able to get a read on her. They turned their glances to Jasper who gave a slight nod. He sensed her feelings were true. "I take it you have human food to snack on seeing as we were invited here for dinner, i'm famished!" Hermione dropped the shield that nobody but her knew was up and walked into the house, smiling a bit awkwardly and still a bit tense.
"Of course we do dear," Esme reassured, bustling forward to make the girl feel at home and acting the motherly person that she was. "Would you like carrots or peas with your beef?" Hermione smiled, following her into the kitchen.
"Oooh, i'll have a little bit of both if it isn't too much trouble." The two quietened down as they got further away and the remaining vampires turned to Bella who merely shrugged.
"I didn't know that she could recognise one on the spot," she defended, snuggling into Edward's embrace. "We haven't spoken for like four years and recognising the undead wasn't one of the skills we discussed since her return." Rosalie shot her a glare and stormed upstairs at vampire speed, Emmett following after a grin at Bella. Jasper hovered by Alice's side who looked extremely worried.
"I didn't see this coming," she hissed, hands fluttering around her nervously. "I can see her but only barely, she's like a blurry video in my head, as if someone filmed her but was shaking the camera so much that mainly colours are recognised but sometimes I can make out her face." She sighed heavily and leaned on Jasper. "I can see humans because I was one and I can see vampires because I am one – mutts I have no clue of seeing but i've never experienced a blur before."
"That's because she's a witch," Bella piped up, grinning as if the answer explained everything.
"So Hermione," Emmett started, watching the girl who was playing with the meat on her plate. "Bella here says that you're a witch." The small girl choked on her peas and glared at her cousin who blushed in response and focused on her own dinner. "I didn't know they were real." Hermione snorted and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm eating dinner with vampires, a presumably mythical creature, and you're telling me that my kind doesn't exist?" His face turned amused and he barked out a laugh.
"Yeah, does seem kind of stupid thinking back. What can you do?" He asked eagerly, ignoring Rosalie's huff and eye roll.
"What do you want me to do?" Hermione asked, pulling her wand out and twiddling it in her fingers. "I can make birds appear and attack you, I could make you float with your head near the ground, I could tickle you." She lowered her voice and leant forward. "Or I could set you on fire." If Emmett could've paled, he would've then but instead he leant back and sized her up.
"Okay short stuff, you pack a punch." She nodded and returned to her food. Once her meal was finished, she leant back and smiled.
"So this whole engagement thingy, all some ruse to make Charlie okay with you spending 24/7 with this lot?" Hermione asked Bella.
"Erm, no. We're getting married."
"Why would you get married to someone who will look like your son in twenty years?" Hermione laughed, her brow furrowed with confusion before smoothing out and turning her face into a blank mask. "Unless you won't look like his mum in twenty years." Bella cringed, sensing the argument to be.
"I love him," she explained, reaching for his hand.
"And I love chocolate but you don't see me going to see Willy Wonka," Hermione countered, her magic crackling around her. "Are you fucking insane? You are throwing your life away! You'll be a monster," she hissed.
"I'll feed on animals too!" Bella protested, looking around the table for some support but none was shown since they'd all had the same thoughts at one point.
"But you'll be a newborn first, a newborn who's thirst for blood is stronger than practically anything. Would you even realise it's me when you drain me dry?" Bella shook, imagining Hermione at her feet, her blood dripping from a wound on her neck. "What about kids Bella? You've always wanted kids and you're going to become the undead before you get that chance." Hermione noticed Rosalie nodding out of the corner of her eye and vowed that she'd follow that up at a later date but now - "Well, thank you for your hospitality and not killing me. You keep my secret, i'll keep yours." She stared at her cousin. "Bella, we're going home now."
Hermione walked from the room, leaving the house and slamming the truck door which Bella didn't hear. "Well, thank you for tonight," she answered tentatively, "I better go." She kissed Edward chastely before running after her cousin and driving away only a minute later.
"I like her," Emmett commented. "She's got attitude."
"She also holds an excellent point," Rosalie added, glaring at her brother before leaving the room.
"Hermione," Bella started as they pulled up in the driveway. She'd known to keep the drive silent. "Please don't-" Hermione held up her hand to get silence but didn't look in Bella's direction.
"Just not tonight, yeah?"
"So Hermione, what did you think of the Cullen's?" Charlie asked at breakfast the next morning and Bella looked up from her eggs, waiting for something.
"They seem like nice people," Hermione replied. "Rich and beautiful, for a moment i'd thought that Bella was marrying him for his money." Hermione and Charlie laughed, chuckling at the thought of good ol' Bella doing something so preposterous.
"I, myself, can't see anything wrong with the family," Charlie added before his face darkened. "Except for that Edward, though that's mainly because she's my little girl."
"Every good side has its down," Hermione mumbled, low enough for Bella to hear but not for Charlie.
The beach in La Push seemed to be the only place that she felt comfortable. It probably had something to do with the fact that Bella never came on to the reserve, even less now that Hermione knew of Jacob's reasoning for going. Bella never told Hermione why Edward hated her going out that way and the witch never asked.
Ever since the dinner, Bella had been uncomfortable around her cousin, always trying to persuade Hermione that everything would be okay and that it was the only way to move on with her life but Hermione wouldn't listen. After fighting in a war for her right to live, she was sensitive about throwing it away like that. Completely understandable.
She often spent her time staring out into the ocean, watching the kids splash around or the young teenagers playing and flirting. Simple lives they held, one she wished that she'd been able to have at their age. Many times at the beach, Embry or Quil would join her – depending on the day, it could be both – and they wouldn't necessarily talk but if they did, they never questioned her about her moods. She liked that about them. It was a lot easier to deal with them than the really nice vampires back at home.
Vampires that she'd have to deal with on a permanent basis if she wanted to see her cousin again. She didn't know when she was due to be changed, didn't want to know and have that deadline set in place but she did know that she was going to have to find a way for Charlie to know because it would break him to lose Bella.
I felt like I rushed through the confrontation at the beginning but no matter how I wrote it, that was how it came out – or worse. I've chosen to just deal with that and move on. I've hit a wall on chapter ten but i've been thinking ahead and i hope you're all prepared for a long ass story - if i get everything i want then it'll be at least forty chapters. Anyway, next chapter will have some more Paul because I miss the handsome bloke. Let me know what you thought, and i'll see you soon!