A/N: Half-term is nearly over, and my little boy has been at his Nana's today, which is why I've been able to write this a wee bit earlier for you.
I've made up a bit further into this chapter. I wanted to legitimise Hermione staying in La Push and decided that a B'n'B would be the better option, then tried to research if there was ever one mentioned in the books to get my facts straight. I couldn't find anything, so I made it up.
I've got so many ideas for this story, I'm far too eager to get writing!
Thank you for your reviews, favourites and follows. It means a lot to me.
I do not own Paw Patrol or anything else mentioned in this story. My son is a little bit obsessed, so I had to put it in somewhere. That scene wouldn't leave my head until I wrote it.
Chapter 3: The Cullens
The mystery of Edward's golden eyes couldn't, in fact, wait for later.
But Hermione had to wait for later.
Throughout the entire drive to the Cullen house, Hermione's mind wouldn't shut off over the meaning of his irises. She knew he wasn't a werewolf, the gold in their eyes was slightly different and didn't stay the entire time. Vampires had red eyes – she had met enough during the Final Battle, and one at a Slug Club party to know so much – so ruled that out, despite the coldness of his skin. He wasn't a merperson, for reasons painfully obvious.
That also ruled out silkies, sirens and merrows.
Neither was he a veela.
He wasn't an angel, they didn't exist.
Hermione tried telling herself that he could legitimately have golden eyes, and there wasn't anything magical about Edward at all.
She couldn't outright ask him about it. It was rather rude and it would leave her answering more questions than she was comfortable with when she asked him what sort of magical blood he had.
She had a Statute of Secrecy to uphold after all.
America might be more lax with the Statute than the British, but they still had her filling out forms and paperwork to confirm that she wouldn't tell anyone about her magic, unless they are magical themselves, and would keep her wand-waving to a minimum unless alone.
She daren't think about the fine she would receive if she were to break the Statute.
When Edward pulled up outside his family's house, Hermione barely managed to hide her shock.
The house was massive. There was a garage, while Edward didn't park his car inside, and two floors built above it. The floor-to-ceiling windows on the front side of the house allowed Hermione to see a very well decorate home within, while the wooden accents that made up the rest of the outside walls helped the house to blend with the trees around them. Hermione wasn't sure she wanted to know how much it cost to build the house – because it was clearly a modern build compared to the slightly older houses she had passed in Forks – nor did she want to think about how many rooms the house had, or how much it cost to decorate it so modestly.
It was stylish. It was classy.
It oozed money.
It was everything she imagined Edward was when she first met him. Stylish, classy, rich as all fuck.
The house had serious Malfoy vibes – if you discounted the fact that she knew what Malfoy's house looked like now, thanks Bellatrix – and hoped to Merlin that Edward and the rest of his family weren't as snidey and pompous and everything else that snively blonde prick was.
Edward gave her a small smile as he led her up to the front door. Hermione managed to clamp her mouth shut, lest she embarrass herself.
"Esme designed the whole house, and Alice helped to decorate. They've both got quite the Interior design eye." He told her as he opened the door for Hermione.
During the drive, Edward explained to Hermione all about his family; how he, Alice, and Emmett had been adopted by Esme and Carlisle when they were younger, and Jasper and Rosalie (twins and respective partners of Alice and Emmett) lived with them too. They were one big happy family. She could tell from the love radiating from Edward's eyes as he spoke about them, that he really did care about his adoptive family.
"We're home!" Edward called, closing the door behind Hermione and offering to take her coat.
Reluctantly, she handed it over, eyeing the mud stain on the bottom of her coat that she was itching to remove. She'd just have to wait for later.
A flurry of movement met Hermione as she was suddenly embraced by a small, excited body that she assumed was Alice. She met Edward's amused look with wide eyes and hesitantly patted Alice on the back.
"Um, hello?"
"Oh, would you just look at you!" Alice proclaimed, grinning widely as she let go of Hermione but still held onto her hands as she examined her. "Aren't you gorgeous! I just love those shoes, you'll have to tell me where you got them!"
"I think it was just Tesco," Hermione muttered, looking down at the muddy shoes that once were a brilliant white. "And they're just trainers. I didn't want to ruin my converse in this weather."
"That's rather sensible." Alice smiled at her. "I'm Alice."
"Hermione, nice to meet you." Hermione gave Alice a smile back, somewhat hesitant. She couldn't remember the last time someone greeted her this enthusiastically. She reminded her a bit of Lavender, but only when Lavender was talking to people she actually cared about. It was a little unnerving.
Alice was a stunning little thing with endless amounts of energy. Her skin was just as pale and cold as Edward's, and she had black hair with a pixie cut. It rather suited the sharp, yet elegant, angles of her face.
She also had the same golden eyes as Edward.
Curious.
If they were adopted, they shouldn't have the same shade of eyes.
It was bordering the impossible, which once again set off those alarm bells.
What was she missing?
"Oh, yes! You're Ca-" Alice hesitated at the look Edward gave her. He was glaring and shook his head subtly at her. "You're here to visit family, aren't you? Carlisle was helping by finding their address?"
"Yes, I really appreciate him being able to do that for me." Hermione said to her. She looked around the entrance hall, eyes wide. "This is a beautiful home you have."
"Thank you! Gosh, I'm going to love having you around." Alice suddenly linked arms with Hermione and dragged her off in the direction of the kitchen. "I see you need to change into some clean clothes. Let me just introduce you to Esme, and I'll see if I can find something you can borrow. I think we're about the same size."
"Oh, you don't have to."
"Nonsense. We wouldn't want you to catch a cold while you're wearing those wet clothes." Alice gave her arm a squeeze. "Esme, this is Hermione. Hermione, this is Esme, our mum."
"It's nice to meet you, Hermione." Esme gave Hermione a warm smile from the other side of the island counter. She dried her hands on a tea towel and moved around so that she could embrace Hermione. She was, once again, thrown by the beauty of the woman in front of her.
And those damn golden eyes.
What was in the water this family drank?
"Likewise." Hermione smiled, suddenly overcome by the natural motherly aura the woman in front of her had. It reminded her of her own mother. She was overcome with a sense of home sickness.
Hermione just wanted her mum back.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" Esme offered, sensing that Hermione had suddenly become melancholy. She moved back around to the other side of the island, where a kettle had been put on to boil. "Carlisle, my husband, is British too and insists on having only the best imported. Are you partial to an English Breakfast, dear?"
"Oh, yes please." Hermione perked up at the thought of having a decent cup of tea for the first time in a few days. She really should have thought about bringing some with her. It wasn't like she had to go though a similar customs procedure when travelling via floo than a muggle aeroplane. "Just a splash of milk please, enough to colour it."
"That's just how Carlisle has it." Esme said to her with a secret smile, thinking about how he would have his tea whenever he felt the need to blend in while at the hospital. He never actually drank it, mind you, but the fact that he still made it the way he did before his change was telling.
A little bit of home comfort never hurt anyone.
Besides, Hermione didn't need to know that she had bought the tea from a specialist shop in Seattle when Alice warned them about her arrival.
She knew what the British were like with their tea and hoped that something as trivial as this would warm Hermione to her sooner.
"Here we are!" Alice declared as she skipped back into the kitchen. She held out a pair of black skinny jeans and a long-sleeved purple off-the-shoulder shirt in the softest silk Hermione had ever felt in her entire life.
"Oh, no, Alice, I couldn't borrow these! They seem so expensive!" Hermione tried to push the clothes back at Alice, but she wasn't having any of it.
"Nonsense, Hermione. I don't even wear these anyway, they're a bit too dark for my liking, but I think they will look wonderful on you. I don't even want them back." Alice insisted, pushing the petite witch towards a downstairs bathroom to dress in. "I'll even get your clothes dry cleaned for you!"
While Hermione was changing, Alice walked back into the kitchen with a big grin on her face. Edward and Esme both looked amused at her behaviour.
"I know we said to be nice and make her feel like part of the family, Alice, but I'm not sure that's what I had in mind." Esme told her, trying to scold but instead was trying to hide the laughter. "What a lovely girl. Did she tell you much else about herself, Edward?"
"No, nothing else." Edward shook his head as he leaned against the wall. He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "I still can't read her. It doesn't matter what I do, I'm not getting anything."
"Maybe that's not a bad thing." Alice said to him softly, watching Esme make Hermione's cup of tea just the way she liked it. "Besides, I still want to know how my visions got so messed up with her arrival. She still shouldn't be here until tonight."
"Well, maybe you should ask her when she left. I'm sure there's a reason for it. A perfectly logical one." Edward said to her. He heard the toilet flush and the tap run as Hermione attempted to clean herself up a bit while she was in the bathroom.
He also heard the sound of Carlisle's Mercedes pull up in the garage below them and hoped that he had the information about Hermione's family that she wanted. It didn't take long for Carlisle to walk into the kitchen, knowing that they had company so had to move a lot slower than he was used to. He gave Esme a soft kiss and looked curiously at the mug on the island counter.
"I'm assuming Hermione is still here." Was all he said as he took off his coat and put it on the back of a chair. He undid the buttons on the sleeves of his white shirt and rolled them up to his elbows.
"She's just getting changed." At his curious look, Edward elaborated for him. "I found her sat in mud and the rain just outside Forks. Her truck had broken down and she was trying to call for a mechanic, but I came to her rescue. You know what the signal is like out there, she would have been waiting for hours for someone else to help."
"Yes, you did seem to be my knight in shining armour." Hermione said to him, a teasing smile on her face as she walked back into the kitchen. She managed to dry her hair and pull it into a fresh braid while she was in the bathroom, using a little bit of wandless magic that she knew. She hoped it wouldn't raise too many questions from the family. She noticed Carlisle sat in a chair near Esme and offered a hand for him to shake. "You must be Carlisle, I'm Hermione."
"Nice to meet you, Hermione." Carlisle shook her hand, a wide smile on his face. "I hear you're in town visiting some family?"
"Yes," Hermione blushed, aware of all the eyes on her now. From what she remembered, they were missing Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. "I seem to have lost their contact information on the flight over here. I really appreciate you helping me find them."
"It's not a problem, as long as you don't tell anyone." He gave her a conspiring wink as he pulled a sheet of paper from his trouser pocket. He offered it to her. "I do have to say, however, that they went on holiday yesterday. From her vacation request sheet, it looks like they'll be away for two weeks."
"Oh." Hermione's shoulders slumped as she sat in a seat beside Carlisle. She gave Esme a soft smile in thanks as she placed her cup of tea in front of her. Hermione opened the sheet of paper and traced their address with a finger gently. "That's what I get for trying to surprise them, I suppose. Looks like I'll definitely need that hotel after all."
"You haven't got anywhere to stay?" Alice asked, gasping at the young woman. A hand raised to her chest, as if offended at this new piece of information.
"Well, it's just… whenever I visited them in the past, they always had somewhere for me to stay." Not a complete lie, but it's not like Hermione could tell them that the Wilkins' were her obliviated parents, and the room she stayed in was her actual bedroom. "But I'll be fine. I've got enough money to stay at a hotel or a b and b somewhere. And it's not like I've got to go back to anything, so I can hang around a bit. Maybe actually have a bit of a holiday while I'm here."
"Not the best place to holiday," Edward said to her with a soft smirk, nodding his head to the window where it was clearly raining again. The sky was growing dark, too, but she hoped that it wasn't too unusual for a wet and dreary town like Forks.
"Not much different than Scotland," Hermione mused with a smile. With a sigh, she put the piece of paper in one of the jeans pockets. She gave Carlisle a smile. "Thanks anyway."
"It's my pleasure. Anything for a…" Carlisle hesitated, then smiled. "I'm happy to help."
Hermione picked up her tea and blew on it before taking a sip. This time, a sigh of pleasure pulled itself from her lips as the warm liquid travelled down her throat.
"Merlin, I've missed this." She whispered.
"Merlin?" Alice asked, amused.
"Oh, um." Hermione froze, realising what she had said. Why was she being so loose lipped around the Cullen family? What was it about them that made her lose all sort of decorum and common sense. "It's just something my friends and I say. Some of them were religious, so didn't like us blaspheming the Lord's name, so we came up with this instead after a history lesson. It's just a bit of fun that stuck, really."
"I can take you back into town once you finish your tea." Edward offered. "I'm sure there's somewhere you can find a room to stay in."
"Sure, that would be lovely, thank you." Hermione missed the look that Alice gave to Carlisle from over her shoulder as she peered into her cup of tea. "It is probably best if I do that soon, I need to let my friends back home know that I've arrived safely."
"Don't be a stranger." Esme told her with a wide smile. She placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and squeezed gently. "It's always lovely to have female company."
"I know we'll be great friends too." Alice told her with a bright smile. "I think Rosalie would love you too. We should meet for lunch tomorrow."
"Yeah, that sounds great." Hermione smiled, all thoughts of those golden eyes gone.
The Cullen family were all so lovely and welcoming, there wasn't any way that they could be something magical and sinister.
She just wished she could shut those damned warning bells off.
oOoOoOo
It took Hermione far too long to find a room to stay in for the next two weeks. As it was, she had to go to La Push, the reservation about twenty minutes away, before she found somewhere that was willing to have her stay for four weeks at best.
Joy Ataera owned the rather modest bed and breakfast in the reservation that Hermione found herself staying in. There were only four guest rooms in the building, the other two rooms were stayed in by Joy and her son Quil. Joy was a lovely woman and welcomed Hermione to the reservation just as warmly as Esme. Hermione wondered if it had anything to do with a new face and some female company. She had only been there a night, and already knew that Quil was out with his friends quite a bit.
The night Hermione arrived saw her sitting in the front room of the bed and breakfast with Joy, sharing a Chinese takeaway that Hermione had ordered and a bottle of wine. It was the least that Hermione could do, as Joy was opening her home to her (despite it being a bed and breakfast, it was more like an air B'n'B). The two talked all night about England and the Reservation. There were some stories that Joy wanted to share but said that the tribal chief was the one to better explain the history. Instantly, Hermione's thirst for knowledge was piqued, but knew that she had to wait to speak to whoever the Chief was. She hoped that she wouldn't wait long to mee the Council.
It was currently eight in the morning. Hermione was still in her pyjamas – red and gold checked flannel pyjama bottoms that were a bit too long for her and one of Harry's old quidditch jerseys – and was watching morning television while eating a bowl of cereal. Joy had thoughtfully made her a cup of coffee, as she didn't have tea, but made sure to add more sugar than cream just to take the bitter edge off. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun, her wand keeping the curls in place. She figured she could easily describe her wand as a decorative hair piece if anyone asked, rather than explain how her hair just could not stay tied up for more than an hour without snapping the band.
She pressed the button on the remote, flicking through the channels until she stopped on a children's channel. With a shrug, knowing that nobody was currently home as Joy had to run some errands and Quil didn't come home, she left it on and went back to her highly sugared cereal.
How she wished for something a bit healthier.
"Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol, we'll be there on the double!"
"You know, I never understood why they would let puppies take on those major rules in such a town." An amused voice said from behind her, making Hermione spill some milk down her. She'd missed her mouth when the sound spooked her, milk and cereal tumbling down the front of her shirt.
So much for Constant Vigilance.
"I mean, they've got an adult for a mayor, and an adult as a baker… yet everything else they leave to a ten-year-old and some puppies that can talk. Not very realistic, is it?" The owner of the voice, still very smug for her liking, moved and sat in the empty space on the sofa next to her. She glared at him as she used a tissue to remove as much milk from the front of her shirt as she could. It would need cleaning properly later so that the smell of rotten milk didn't linger.
Quidditch jerseys had a horrible habit of keeping a hold of certain smells.
"You must be Hermione. Mum told me that you would be staying with us for a bit. I'm Quil." He offered her a hand, but when she didn't take it, he barked out a laugh. "I don't bite."
"Not unless you ask him too." Another voice snickered.
This time, Hermione didn't jump as another person appeared behind her, and moved to an armchair that was next to the television set. They weren't alone, though, as another body appeared, this time sitting on an armchair to the side of Hermione. She suddenly felt claustrophobic, boxed in by three teenage boys that she didn't know. It didn't help that they were eyeing her up in amusement.
Quil chucked a cushion at the other voice that spoke, but that smile didn't drop from his face.
"Ignore Seth, it's not every day he meets a new, pretty lady." Quil said to her. He nodded towards the other boy sat next to Hermione. "That's Jacob. He has a bit more manners about him."
"Nice to meet you, I suppose." Hermione said, tucking her feet protectively underneath her. She wished she hadn't come down for breakfast in her pyjamas now and wished that her wand was closer to hand. "Joy said you didn't come home last night."
"Yeah, we sort of crashed at Jacob's. We were up all-night playing video games, sort of crashed in his front room." Quil rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Seth made a comment under his breath, presumably about something that happened during the night. This made Quil growl and launch himself at him. It wasn't long before they were fighting each other on the floor.
"Are they always like this?" Hermione asked Jacob quietly, struck with a memory of Fred and George acting the same during her Fourth Year when the Age Line that Dumbledore drew around the Goblet of Fire promptly turned them into old men. She tried to warn them that the age line couldn't be fooled, but they didn't listen to her.
"Yeah, you get used to it." Jacob said to her with a smile. He offered her hand, and this time she shook it. She tried to ignore the jolt of electricity that shot up her arm at the contact. "Your accent… England, right?"
"Yes, I grew up in Hampstead, but went to school in Scotland. It's not as refined as it used to be." Hermione joked with a faint smile. Her heart ached for home. Jacob gave her a bigger smile, then watched as Quil shoved a laughing Seth back into his seat. She took the time to observe the boys.
They were all quite tall and lean, their light mocha skin a giveaway that they were part of the Quileute tribe that lived on the reservation. They all had dark hair, but had it cut to varying lengths. Quil's hair was curly and fell to his chin. Seth had hair cut short. Jacob's hair was a bit longer than Seth's, but shorter than Quil's, and looked rather windswept despite being inside.
"Do you mind me asking what you're doing out here?" Jacob asked her. Hermione went back to eating her cereal and waited for her to finish. "It's not quite a vacation destination."
"Oh, not at all." Hermione put her bowl on the coffee table and picked up the coffee that she kept warm with a simple warming charm. "I've got family in Forks, but it turns out they're on holiday for a few weeks. I thought I'd surprise them with a visit before I have to go back to school, but I've gotten the dull end of the stick."
"Then why aren't you in a hotel in Forks?" Quil asked, more curious than accusatory. Hermione shrugged lazily at him, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"None of the hotels had any vacancies. I ran into Chief Swan at the café and he suggested this place. I was so thankful that your mum agreed to let me stay." Hermione gave him a teasing smile. "You missed out on Chinese takeaway last night."
"What? No way!" Quil groaned, hitting his head on the back of the sofa. "I love Chinese."
"How come you're on your own?" Seth asked suddenly, sounding as if he'd come to some sort of revelation. "You can't be that much older than us."
"Well, I'm nearly nineteen, so it's perfectly acceptable for me to travel halfway around the world if I wanted to." Hermione said to him, but the tone in her voice didn't hold as much bite as she wanted it to. She felt her heart constrict in her chest again. "My parents.. They-uh-well.. They're not-"
"It's okay." Jacob interrupted her with a smile. He could see the tears forming in her eyes and tried to stop her from saying anything that would make them fall. "You don't need to explain."
Hermione gave him a watery smile as he put his hand on top of hers comfortingly, begging the tears to keep at bay.
There was that blasted tingle again.
"So," Hermione said loudly, clearing her throat. "Tell me about these talking pups that save the day!"