Obviously for this, Leah arrived earlier than in the books and Carlisle and Esme never left so they weren't separated.
"Oh Merlin," Hermione breathed, turning into Paul's embrace as he rubbed a hand down her back. She could handle it, she'd handled worse, but this was so close to home.
"What's going on?" Alice asked, appearing at Hermione's shoulder and barely even scrunching her nose in disgust at the smell of the wolves. "Jacob, can you change and tell me, please?" He shook his head, fur flopping over his face and Alice tried to hide her annoyance. "Why not?"
"He has to stay in contact with Seth and Leah," Paul answered. She turned to look at him and Hermione was extremely thankful that he'd pulled on the pair of jeans that Jacob had kicked off. "A howl could mean multiple things: a confrontation with the other Pack, a heated argument between the siblings or a wild creature thinking they can take us on."
"That happens?" Hermione asked, eyebrow raised. He shrugged.
"Rarely but there is always that one cocky mountain lion that things he can run the show."
"Anyway," Edward interrupted, "the long story short is that the Pack think Bella's become a problem. They foresee potential danger from the… from what she's carrying. They feel it's their duty to remove that danger. Jacob and Paul were the first to disband from the Pack and came to warn us, Leah and Seth followed shortly afterwards."
"Where are they?" the vampire asked.
"Out, patrolling," Paul told her. "If we go out there, assert our new territory then they know that we're here and ready to protect you guys. They'll also know that if they pick up our scent then we are more than likely to pick up theirs as well and be able to alert you."
"Awesome!" Emmett exclaimed. "We have our own guard dogs." Jacob growled at him in annoyance but Paul only chuckled, causing the wolf to stare at him in disbelief.
"I told you, they aren't so bad," Seth offered as the conversation Jacob was experiencing was shared between their link. "Even Paul thinks so."
"It's ridiculous!" Jacob growled. "He was Mr. Anger when Bella arrives and now he's Mr. Let's-Laugh-At-The-Leech's-Jokes." Edward snorted in amusement at Jacob's thought and he turned a glare onto him. The mind-reader drew confused looks but he shook his head, indicating it didn't matter and he wasn't going to share.
"All's clear on the western front," Seth offered, distracting Jacob from the conversation that they were having right next to him.
"They might loop around," he replied.
"Meet you in the middle," Leah told him. "Beat you there." Jacob rolled his eyes at the siblings and returned back to the current conversation.
"I can set up wards," Hermione was saying. "It'll give them a bit of a reprieve and allow them to rest. I'll know when anything supernatural passes it and if they're intention is to cause harm, they won't get through it."
"Sounds good but what if they find a way around it?" Jasper asked, his posture tense and stiff, resembling those who'd experienced war. Hermione was standing the same too.
"There isn't a way around it," Hermione confirmed. "It's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible," Jasper countered.
"Getting around my wards is," Hermione snarled, her voice taking a defensive tone and a frown plastered on her face. "I trust them with my life."
"You may trust them but I'm not willing to trust them on my family's lives," Jasper admitted. "Magic is never foolproof."
"It depends on the spell and the caster and you fucking know it!" By now, everyone was standing there, watching the pair like it was a tennis match, their heads switching between each angry contestant. Paul's face was furious and it was apparent that he wanted to shout out and protect her but Hermione's hand on him was the only thing preventing him from getting involved. Yet another sign that he'd changed since imprinting.
"Hermione, I mean no offense," Jasper placated, seeing the sparks from her hair and the fire in her eyes which could mean that an anger-magic outburst was going to occur any moment. "But what if situations change?"
"Such as?" Her fists and jaws were clenched, a clear indication that she wanted to beat the shit out of the leech but was holding herself back.
"What if they come to us to talk? Speak to Jacob and Paul and the others to try and get them back home but they refuse. An argue starts up and for some reason, the others decide they want to attack. They're through the wards and they hadn't had the intention of starting a fight."
Hermione's jaw was dropped and she glared at the vampire before tugging on her hair in frustration. "Really? That's your reasoning? Do you take me for a fucking idiot?" He gaped and tried to backpedal, much to the amusement of everyone else. "I survived a bloody war where everyone on the opposing side wanted me dead because I existed and you think that I couldn't consider someone having a change of heart?"
"Errr- yeah?"
"Urgh!" she screeched through gritted teeth. Paul rubbed her shoulders to calm her down which worked; she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her eyes shut and sighed. "If someone was to get through and change their minds about harming us, they immediately get stunned and are unconscious for the following three hours."
Jasper was silent for a few moments, staring at the calming witch. "Oh," he spoke at last and she chuckled, rubbing her forehead.
"Yeah. Oh."
"Sorry," he apologised. "I had to be sure." She waved him away and leaned back into Paul's embrace. "Go to your room, get some sleep. I'll make you an apology breakfast in the morning."
"No, thank you," she declined, laughing freely. "I've already been warned about your cooking. After all these years with nothing to do and you still can't perfect the art of food making."
"Oi!" The small group laughed and Hermione released a small yawn. "Go to sleep."
"I will," she agreed, starting to walk up the steps and to the doorway of the house. She turned around when she realised she was alone. "Paul, you coming?" He looked at Jacob who nodded and the two disappeared into the house, Hermione's giggling being the only sound left behind. They followed their progress with their ears to her room which was suddenly silenced and they all rolled their eyes.
"At least we can't hear them having sex," Alice mused. "I mean, we all know they're having it but it makes all the difference."
"Just gives us something to tease them about in the morning," Emmett suggested, rubbing his hands together in delight.
"It won't bother them," Jacob muttered which Edward translated for them. "They're too in love to care. They even tease each other about these things. Anyway, I'm going to cover for Seth. The kid did morning patrol this morning."
"Come back in the morning," Edward told him. "We'll get you some food and you can eat whilst we go over some things and then you can sleep."
"Sure thing," Jacob promised before bounding away and relieving Seth.
When Hermione woke up the following morning, it was to an empty bed and room; Paul had left during the time that she was asleep and she couldn't hear him downstairs. It didn't mean he wasn't there but with the amount of vampires and his temperament, it was a surprise that he was so quiet.
With a sigh she threw the duvet off of her and shuffled around the room, grabbing some clean clothes and pulling them on before throwing her hair in a ponytail and making her way downstairs.
"Good morning," Alice greeted, a large plate of steaming food in her hands a grin on her face. Hermione instantly filled with dread and eyed the room's occupants. "I made you breakfast on behalf of Jasper." Said vampire had appeared at Hermione's elbow and she felt him trying to calm her down. It wouldn't do for her to be on alert too much and accidentally smash something.
"What's happened?"
"Nothing's happened," Alice denied; if Hermione hadn't had to experience Order members constantly trying to keep her away from information and have to deal with Death Eaters and Harry Potter then she would've taken the lie for face value. But she had dealt with all of the above and it didn't matter how smoothly Alice lied, Hermione saw straight through it.
"I take it bad, don't I?" she asked, nabbing some bacon from the plate that Alice was still offering and chewing on it thoughtfully. "Whatever has happened - and don't deny that something hasn't - whatever it is, I take it bad."
"Why don't you eat something, dear?" Esme asked politely, motioning to the table that they were sat around; every vampire was present bar Rosalie and Carlisle though Edward was in the doorway looking tense. "You need to eat."
"Edward," Hermione started. "What happened?"
"Don't worry about it at the moment," he told her. "Eat."
"I can't believe that after decades of being able to lie, you still can't dodge an issue without it being suspicious. For Merlin's sake, Alice! You can see the future, couldn't you see how I'd instantly know if you all coddled me like this?"
She shifted on her feet, the only sign that things weren't okay with the vampire. "I can't always see you," she confessed as if it was a big secret. "I knew that you reacted bad but I couldn't see if we managed to prevent it completely."
"Well, you haven't," Hermione told her. "Has something happened to Bella? Has she got worse?"
"Well, she hasn't got better," Emmett spoke, taking the lead as he noted everyone's discomfort. "She's asked to see you, if you want."
Hermione paused, looking at them all before walking past them all - ignoring the breakfast that Alice was still trying to shove in her hands - and walked into the room. It looked nothing like it did when she went to bed; the furniture had been shoved out of the way and her cousin was curled up feebly on a narrow hospital bed which was placed in the centre of the room. The room was starting to resemble a hospital room, with monitors strapped to her and the lights flashing. There was also an IV which was emitting a constant dripping sound which would be enough to drive her insane; she didn't know how any of those with super hearing could stand it.
Rosalie was fussing with her as she choked uneasily on air and Carlisle stood to the side, looking at some of the monitors with an uneasy face.
"Bells," Hermione greeted. "I hear you're causing trouble." It was a weak attempt at lightening the atmosphere but ever since they'd been children, apologising had been difficult between the pair.
"You know me, Hermione," she replied. "I just can't help myself." Hermione smiled weakly, thinking back on all the times that she would get in trouble over menial things. "Don't look at me like that."
Hermione blinked, focusing herself from her thoughts and onto her cousin. "Hmm?"
"Don't look at me like I'm going to die any second." Hermione clenched her jaw and stuffed her fists into her jean pockets, not even bothering to smile in return. "Oh come on, lighten up." The moment she finished speaking, she was wracked with a coughing fit that had her crowded by a fussing Rosalie and Edward whilst Carlisle carried on checking the monitors and inspecting the IV.
Hermione took one last look before whirling and storming out of the room.
"Where are you going?" Alice asked quietly, walking up the stairs behind her.
"To find some way to help."
I do believe that next chapter is the first plot twist. I hate to think about how many of you will give me grief.