Just want to remind everybody that i won't abandon this story. Updates may be slow on occasion, maybe drastically slow, but this is my number one priority atm! I'm neglecting stories for this one!
Dinner that evening was a lot better than it had been. Hermione and Bella were talking – it wasn't perfect but it was better and the two girls prayed that it was enough for Charlie. When they saw him smiling out the corner of their eyes, they presumed it was all good and when he didn't start arranging plans for one of them to leave, and so they relaxed and went to sleep easy that night.
That was until the nightmares came.
"Tell me where you got it!" Bellatrix screeched, the crucio strong on her which caused her heels to thrum against the wooden floor. "How did you get in my vault?" Hermione sobbed, shaking her head as she tried to convey her honesty to the deranged witch.
"We haven't been in your vault, I swear," her voice caught on a sob and tears trickled out the side of her eyes and down her cheeks. "We found it."
"Stop lying to me you little mudblood bitch!" Bellatrix shouted, the crucio increasing and she could feel the pressure on her head increasing to the point where she'd thought her mind would snap completely.
"Bella," Narcissa called. "If you want answers, I suggest you get them before you break her." Hermione took a deep breath as the curse ended and she tried to move into a defensive position but was pinned to the floor, Voldemort's right hand woman sat on top of her.
"Last chance to tell me the truth," she warned.
"I've been telling you the truth, I swear," she cried and a scream was tore from her throat when the blade started breaking her skin and muscle till it scratched the bone. It was high-pitched, filled with pain and weakness and her desperate pleas for death were conveyed in the sound that shook everyone's cores and echoed around the large house.
"Hermione! Hermione!" Her body shook and she frowned, Bellatrix was disappearing and she didn't understand why – the torture wasn't finished yet. "Hermione!"
She sat up gasping, her eyes scanning the room for any threat whilst her right hand clenched around the familiar piece of wood. Bella was standing at the end of her bed, eyes wide and face pale as she chewed her fingernails and Charlie was perched on the side of the bed, one of his hands resting on her shoulder since he woke her up.
"Morning," she offered, rubbing a hand over her face and cringing when she encountered the sweat the covered her skin. Bella took a deep breath before perching on the other side of the bed and Hermione was filled with a sense of dread when she saw the faces that they were both wearing – Molly and Arthur had both worn those faces when they'd first encountered her nightmares and had suggested getting help.
She didn't need help.
"Mione," Charlie started awkwardly. "Are you okay?" She chuckled just as awkwardly and nodded stiffly but his face didn't change. "Are you sure?" He ruffled his hair and removed himself from her bed when she nodded again. "Well, right, okay.." He shook his head and exchanged a look with Bella. "If you need to talk about it then i'm here, you know that. If you're that you're okay then i'm going to go back to bed because I have work in the morning." He kissed both her and Bella on the forehead before leaving the room reluctantly.
"He's not that good with these kind of things," Bella offered once they were both alone, settling onto the end of the bed. "He cares, God knows he cares, and he'll rush in to make sure you're okay but when it comes to talking and being emotional, he struggles." Hermione smiled and Bella relaxed slightly. "Do you need to talk about it?" Hermione shook her head and rearranged the blankets around her.
"I've had them before and i'll have them again," she answered. "I'll be fine."
That didn't fill Bella with any confidence.
#
"Is she asleep yet?" Bella asked Edward half an hour after the nightmare had woken them all up. He shook his head and she sighed, snuggling into his embrace. "I'm worried about her," she admitted and he squeezed her gently knowing that this was what she needed.
"I don't even know the half of it but I know she's a fighter."
"She is!" Bella confirmed. "She's been through so much and if you knew then you'd probably pity her and she'd hate that." The two were silent for a few minutes whilst Bella struggled to get to sleep when they heard Hermione moving. Bella immediately sat up but Edward pushed her back down and forced her to try and go to sleep.
"You need your sleep," he informed her and he was relieved when she listened to him. "If she does anything, i'll look after her," he promised her and was satisfied when she settled down and closed her eyes to try to sleep. Hermione, however, was trying to do anything from it and he could hear the rustling of clothing and the sound of laces being tied which indicated that she was leaving.
He met her round the front of the house within seconds and blocked her way. "What?" She asked, her whole body reeking of dejection and her posture showed a lack of fight – nothing like the Hermione he'd been facing lately. "Can't you just go back to cuddling and staring at Bella as if that isn't creepy?"
"She's worried about you," he offered instead of answering her and followed at a normal pace when she moved around him and started walking. "I have to admit that this isn't normal Hermione behaviour." She scowled but didn't look at him. Then she started running and he widened his eyes in shock but ran to catch up with her nevertheless. "Are you fucking crazy? It's two in the morning!" He reprimanded but she didn't answer, instead pushed her legs to go faster.
She was quick and agile, he noticed quickly, with good stamina. He wasn't sure why she was all these things since Bella had told him that she was the kind of girl to read a book than exercise but she was and he was left to wonder about yet another thing. They didn't speak for the entire run though he did receive texts – mainly from Alice who was worried about why he was partly blurry but he dealt with them quickly and the messages stopped when he explained that he was with Hermione.
The run was over two hours later and when they walked back up the path to home, she was sweating and breathing heavily, her eyes drooping from being tired whilst he looked like he normally did with the exception of some mud on the bottom of his jeans which she'd splashed at him. Seemed that she had some sense of humour.
"Thank you," she mumbled around a yawn when she opened the door and he had started to move away. "I know you did it for Bella but it was nice to have someone look out for me." She didn't let him answer but he didn't know what he would've said if she had – she'd never really said a nice word in his direction before.
"Don't think this changes anything," she called through the door. He smirked. He hadn't.
#
"Are you sure that you should be snooping?" Edward asked, leaning in Hermione's bedroom doorway. His fiancée had waited for one minute after Charlie and Hermione had left to get shopping before running to this room. Now she was rifling through papers on the desk as if that was going to help with her in any search.
"Yes!" She answered, reading some letters that stacked neatly. "She's suffering from this past year and I want to somehow make her happier."
"Why don't you just ask her?" Bella looked up at him slowly before snorting and shaking her head. "What?"
"I forget that you don't know her," she responded and clucked her tongue as she shifted through some more paper. "You don't ask Hermione about making her happy or helping her. What you do is sneak behind her back or confront her and the confrontations normally involve shouting and screaming and anger for at least a week. This way is better for her."
"It seems like a bit of privacy invasion."
"She knew I was going to do it," Bella tells him, waving a bit of parchment in his face and he took it between his fingers, reading it. "That's why she left the door unlocked. She knows that everyone sneaks behind her back to make her happier. Her parents, Charlie and I along with her friends." She waited till he had finished reading before taking it and putting it back. "So what do you think?"
"A bike? Really?" She nodded. "Where are you going to get one of them that she'll take without feeling like she'll owe you anything?"
#
"Jake, you still have those bikes that we had last year?" She asked over the phone, shooting her vampire a smug smirk when he answered with an affirmative. "How would you feel about giving one of them to Hermione?"
#
The rumble of a motorcycle had Hermione sighing with envy before looking out the window and seeing Jacob perched on the seat of one, taking his helmet off and swinging his leg off the side. She met him on the porch and whistled. "Sweet ride," she offered, stepping forward to look at it. "Looks a bit old and battered."
"I fixed it up myself," he replied, puffing his chest out. "Bella found a couple when Edward was away last year and I fixed them up." She smiled and walked around it, taking in every feature. "So, what do you think?" She looked at him with a confused frown and he nodded to the unfamiliar truck that was pulling up on the side of the road with another bike on the back. "Fancy going for a ride?"
"What?"
"You heard me. I have my bike, now you have yours. Fancy going for a ride?" He threw the keys to her and she caught them with a shaky hand.
"You got me a bike," she stated. He laughed and she followed him to her bike, watching it be pulled of the bed of the truck with the help of Embry. "A bike. How did you know?"
"I got a call," he answered her and she immediately knew. "Anyway, are we going for a ride?"
#
The bike flew down the road. Though it looked battered and clearly old, she rode smoothly and Hermione felt at home on the road. She started off tentatively, to the amusement of herself and Jacob – as well as Embry, Edward, Bella and Charlie who tried to look stern and angry more than amused – but she eventually got the hang of it and felt like she was flying. She knew that she'd have to get the proper kit to ride it full time, with the help of Ginny of course, but she knew that this was just what she needed.
I loathe this chapter but I needed to get the bike in her life somehow. I haven't written the next one yet which makes me so mad but as i upload this chapter, the document is on my computer and ready to be typed so have no fear. See you soon!