Chapter 7
Feeling Whole
The man ran up to me faster than my eyes could register. He grabbed my hand away from my face and held them in his.
"Isabella?" The man asked with disbelief, his eyes wandering all around my body. "Is that really you?" He asked hopefully. I nodded slightly.
Suddenly, I felt him wrapping his hands around my waist so strong I thought he was going to crush me, but I didn't care. My hands wrapped around his neck and I buried my face in his messy bronze hair. I smelled him and held him, trying to make my brain believe that this encounter was real, not just my imagination. He twirled me around, holding me even closer than before.
"How I've missed you." He whispered into my chest and I couldn't help but smile. An unintentional chuckle emerged from my mouth.
I had so many questions running through my head, as he did, I was sure. Was this really happening? How did he become a vampire? How did he even manage to survive? What were the chances of him and I reuniting as vampires in 1928 Chicago? What was he doing before tonight?
"I still can't believe I'm holding you right now," I said instead. We had a lot of time for questions, forever, in fact. I wasn't going to let him go anymore.
"Someone's coming this way." He said angrily and in a second, the world around me was turning. I was still in Cedric's arms, but we weren't in the woods anymore.
As a familiar scent hit my nose, I let Cedric out of my grip and looked around. I was back in my house, standing in the living room of it. Cedric let go of me when he noticed the lack of my grip around his neck. He put me down and looked at me.
"How did you know where I lived?" I asked him surprised.
"You live here?" Cedric laughed. "This used to be my house once."
"When?" I asked suspiciously.
"1918."
I gasped. Cedric looked warily at me. My mind was running 100 miles per hour. Everything made sense now. My old room, the books that were now in the bookcase. How I felt when I thought about Carlisle's new addition to the family and why Carlisle stopped mentioning him a year ago.
"What is it, love?" Cedric asked.
"You're Edward." I looked at him, hoping my theory was right and I wasn't making a fool of myself.
"How…"
"Carlisle. We used to travel together, I left in 1918, but he still writes me." I spoke.
"Carly, the black owl, it's yours, isn't it?" He asked and I nodded. "Carlisle thinks of you a lot, I just assumed Bella was one of his witch friends. I could never imagine, it was you. If only I knew before, we could have reunited sooner."
I hugged him again and spoke: "We are together now, and I'm never planning to let you go now."
"So, should I call you Bella now?" He smiled at me. "I didn't know you preferred that name."
"When you died," I felt like someone stabbed me in my heart when I said those words. "I couldn't be called Isabella anymore, it just reminded me of you so much."
"I'm sorry."
I shook my head and cupped his face in mine. We looked at each other's eyes for a few minutes, until I closed the distance between us. Our lips touched and I felt a strong current running through my body. His lips were soft and warm and moved with mine. I breathed in his scent and opened his mouth with my tongue. His tongue met with mine and I couldn't hold myself any longer. I wanted him, all of him. Cedric shared my needs, as he pinned my body to a wall and started kissing me more passionately.
I moaned as his lips traveled from my mouth to my jaw and down to my neck. I threw my legs around him, and his hands traveled lower down my waist, into my hips. He growled and ripped my dress from the front.
We were lying on the floor, our bodies still entwined. My head rested on his chest and I was listening to his breathing, trying to copy it. I felt complete now, my heart was whole again. All my troubles, my grief, my worries disappeared, there was only love, hope for the future, and immense passion left.
I remembered our first touch in the Potions class, our first kiss on a late afternoon in a Hufflepuff Common Room, our first time together in the bedroom of his house during summer break. All of these moments were imprecise and dull. This night was sharp and definite, our bodies collided so perfectly like we were more in sync with each other than before. The best night of my vampire life.
I didn't want to ruin anything, but I wanted to know more. I needed to know everything about him, all the details.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"When Voldemort's spell hit me, I died. I remember it, I was in the dark for what felt like years, and then I saw a bright light." What he was saying sounded exactly like what I had experienced myself. "I went towards it. I was in the King's Cross Station, my mom was there, waiting for me. She told me the station was the wizarding place limbo, and I had a choice to make. I didn't understand what choice, I was dead, the killing curse hit me in the chest. My mom then explained that something was different for me, that someone has interfered with my death. She pointed to two doors, one was black and when I came closer to it, I felt peace. The other door was steel, and when I came towards it, I felt pain, grief, and misery, but also love, passion and hope. I asked my mom what was behind it, but she didn't know the answer. I was ready to open the black door, the peaceful one until I saw something was hanging from the second door's handle." He smiled and touched the ring that I still wore on my thumb. "Obviously, I hoped that the second door would lead me back to you, so I walked through it." Cedric gave me a soft kiss. "Imagine how weird I felt when I opened my eyes and didn't recognize where I was. Hospital lights, two unknown humans by my side calling me Edward and asking if I was alright. I woke up as a 10-year-old Edward Masen Jr., the son of Elizabeth and Edward Masen's in 1910 in Chicago." He laughed. "Safe to say, Elizabeth and Edward were as shocked when I spoke with my British accent. The doctors told them it was the result of my fall, and that it should go away with time. I had my memories and my magic, but no means to use it. I didn't know anything about the 1910s, especially about the 1910s in the US, so I decided to try and adapt to this new life. I went to muggle school and learned to play the piano, just like Elizabeth and Edward Sr. wanted me to. I was about to join the army when I turned 18, but the Spanish Influenza hit the city. Edward died first, Elizabeth and I were in the hospital together, Carlisle was our doctor. As she was dying, she asked him to save me, which he did, as I'm sure Carlisle told you. I woke up in this house three days later, with no fever, no cough, just painful burning in my throat. Carlisle told me what I was and about my options. At the same time, I noticed I could read his mind. I can't do it with yours though, which is not surprising, you were always hard to read." He chuckled and brushed his hand on top of my head.
"I have a mental shield, no one can affect my brain unless I want them to." I smiled at him.
"What does my gift mean if I can't read my favorite person's mind." I felt him shook his head and I chuckled at that.
"Carlisle hasn't mentioned you for a while now. Why did you leave?" I asked.
"I love Carlisle, and when Esme came along, all three of us lived happily, traveled together, I went to school. Esme liked when I played the piano for her. I left about a year ago, I wanted to do more, the news mentioned more and more murders. I thought I was helping people, only tracking down those with bad intentions; rapists, murderers…serial killers." He said at last.
"Like me," I whispered and looked at him. He gave me a kiss on my forehead.
"I'd like to believe you had good enough reasons."
"Here's your one chance to read my mind." I pushed myself up so I was sitting now. He sat down in front of me, holding my hands. I could see he was excited.
I lifted my shield off of me and started thinking about everything that happened to me after he died. I started with how I felt when Harry brought his body back from the maze, his funeral, and the summer break after that, which I spent wearing only his clothes that I managed to steal from his room at Hogwarts. I showed him the new school year, that bitch Umbridge and the Weasley's pulling pranks on her. I showed him the Department of Mystery and the veil, the beachside where I woke up in 1695, and Carlisle's and mine adventures in Europe. Volterra, my speech that I gave to the Volturi, how I turned into a wolf and came up with a plan for revenge. I showed him Chicago that I remembered, the stink of burning human flesh and disease, my years in New York City and Indianapolis, and what I did for the past few weeks in the new Chicago. I showed him everything that I saw in the past 233 years. When I finished, he had an understanding look on his face.
I gave him a minute to digest all the information, it was a lot. I knew he was bothered by the amount of pain I went through after he died, I knew he felt guilty for his death and what toll it took on me. I hoped he also knew that I wasn't blaming him, in any way.
"My dad, have you seen him since…" He asked after a few minutes.
"I did, my dad and I visited him for a few months after that happened." I smiled sadly at him. "He misses you greatly."
"What about Sirius? Do you know what happened to him?" Cedric asked.
I shook my head no, and he hugged me.
"We will figure it out, but first, how about a shower?" He smiled at me. "You still have some blood in your hair, and well the forest fight…It was dirty."
"You should look at yourself." I laughed and brushed through his hair.
He offered me his hand and I took it. We went through the living room to the front of the house until we reached the stairwell. I only now realized that I never called anyone to fix those yet and tried to contain a laugh when I looked at his face.
"What the hell did you do with the stairs?" He asked.
After we showered and got dressed again, he opened the door to my old room...or his old room. Our old room, I decided. He looked over it with a thoughtful face. He came inside it, still holding my hand in his.
"I understand the piano, but since when do you read?" I asked when we came close to the bookcase.
"This was my way of remembering you. Those are the books I remembered you reading, 'Crime and Punishment', 'Jane Eyre', The Count of Monte Cristo', 'Wuthering heights', of course." He grinned at me. "It's not so bad, I should apologize for threatening to throw it out."
"I knew you would like it if you gave it a try." I grinned.
"I never said I liked it, I said it wasn't so bad. I bought the Munchausen book, but it meant nothing without your poem."
"Let me think..."
I smiled and tried to remember the little poem that I wrote so many years ago.
"My dear Cedric,
My love for you is diametric.
I love you more than I love the books,
My arms are tied to you with hooks.
My heart is yours forevermore,
I hope this book you won't ignore.
So, thank me now
And kiss me now
Before the time will disallow."
We both laughed when I finished reciting it.
"You can stop laughing now, I was only 14 when I wrote that." I elbowed him in the chest playfully and he held me closer, wrapping my hands in his and holding them tight to my chest. He kissed my neck.
"No one has ever loved anyone as much as I love you." He told me.
"I beg to differ." I laid my head on his chest.
We spent the whole day in the house, talking about our lives, I told him about our friends in Hogwarts, and he promised me we would visit England again when the time comes, we would meet with his dad and figure out what happened to mine. We would help Harry defeat Voldemort and save the wizarding world from another tyrant. I wanted to believe that his plans would become true, but after so many years of existing, I didn't want to believe in anything anymore. What happens – happens, just like Cedric used to say.
"How about we go into the wizarding world?" I asked him "In a month or so when our eyes go back to gold."
"You are stopping your hunt?" He asked surprised.
"You made me look at it from another point of view," I spoke. "I used to think my intentions were right, protection of the innocent, saving the muggle world, but I didn't do it for them, not really. My primary intention was revenge, and it wasn't justified. None of the wizards who I killed were in any way connected to you, they were just bad people. How am I different from them?"
"I know what you mean." He looked away. "I thought about it too. I hunted down people with bad intentions, but my intentions were even worse sometimes. I thought I saved more people than I killed, but that doesn't justify it."
I took his hand in mine. "We will figure this out together. Remember, Dumbledore said 'We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, but battle on.' We will have a lot of time to think about our mistakes and the harm we did to those people and their families. It hurts us now to think what horrible people we are, but we can use the time that we have left to undo our mistakes with good deeds, help others, stop Voldemort, rejoin Carlisle and apologize for leaving him."
"I doubt Carlisle would forgive me. I was rude; ungrateful for this life that he gave me." Cedric looked at his feet now.
"He will understand, I know he will. He still writes every few months, even after a decade after I left. He hopes I'm doing good and am safe. You spent a few years with him, I spent centuries, he has a very kind heart." I lifted up his chin and looked into his eyes.
"So, we are going back to the animal diet?" He smiled at me.
"We are." I smiled back. "Tonight?"
In 5 weeks both Cedric's and my eyes started changing colors, we fed most nights to speed up the process. Our eyes were now deep orange in color, when there was no sun in the sky, they could even be mistaken for a light hazel tone, and I thought it was safe for us to enter the wizarding world now. I knew how I felt being without my magic for a few months, but Cedric hasn't had it for nearly two decades! It must have been killing him.
I took him to the piano shop the next day that had clouds overcast the sky, and led him through the back door after saying the password to the owner. He didn't recognize me without my vale, which was a good sign. I went into the back and tapped the four keys on an old broken piano, which stood to the right of the bar area, with my wand. A moment later we were both standing in a wizarding alley, Cedric was eyeing the shops with a happy smile on his face. He missed seeing them. Unlike me, he grew up in the wizarding world and only visited Muggle cities when he absolutely needed to. This was the life he knew, the life he grew up with.
"Let's go get you a wand." I smiled at him and led him to the wand shop. The shop belonged to Shikoba Wolfe, who was still alive at this time and working his magic. He wasn't the owner of this specific shop, but he was considered one of the best wandmakers in history and sold his wands in the shops all over the States.
The man at the counter of the shop greeted us with a smile. He asked the same questions that Cosme Acajor asked me in France, to which Cedric had all the answers. We purchased his new wand and left the shop. We were just walking along the alley in silence when I noticed Cedric pause, I followed his gaze and saw what made him stop. 'Quidditch goods and supplies' stated the writing on the top of the shop. It was strange to see Quidditch in the American wizarding place, the game wasn't popular here.
"You want to go in?" I asked him with a smile. "We can get you a broom."
"Only if you insist."
Cedric took my hand and led me to the shop, I smiled and rolled my eyes. He was so predictable. I didn't mind him getting a broom. I always liked when he took me flying, as long as he was the one controlling the broom, of course, otherwise those trips would have been a disaster.
We spent about an hour at the shop. Cedric and the old man with a thick Irish accent were discussing the new brooms, their speed, and maneuverability. I wondered around to see if there was something in the shop that I could give Cedric as a reunion present. I grabbed the broom cleaning kit and a quaffle, so he could play a little bit of Quidditch if he wanted to.
I went to pay for it when Cedric was trying on brooms and testing their abilities. I paid the owner and put my gifts away into my enchanted purse.
"Why do you need two?" I asked when I saw Cedric coming to the owner's desk with two brooms in his hands.
"For you, of course." He looked at me like I was crazy, I returned the look as I was sure he was the one who was being crazy.
"I can't fly."
"Correction." He raised his finger and put it on my lips. "You couldn't fly. You are stronger, your reaction time is a hundred times faster, and if you fall, you won't die." He said the last sentence in a whisper so that only I could hear him.
"This still doesn't mean I have the ability to fly."
"I'll teach you." I hoped he saw the disbelief in his teaching abilities in my eyes. "Oh, come on, Isabella, this would be so much fun!" he persuaded and pulled me closer to him. "Please." He spoke and kissed me.
"Fine." I gave up, shaking my head. Cedric grinned at me and I pulled out the money from my leather pouch.
We left the shop with two brooms, Cedric was the only person in the world who could make me change my mind and I kind of hated that, but in a good way. With him, I was better, not as stubborn, willing to make compromises and discuss things before saying no.
That night Cedric took me out deep into the forest and made me practice flying. I still didn't like it, but I noticed that flying as a vampire was so much easier, I had perfect control over my broom. We practiced every night, and I started getting a grasp on the skill, although I was still not even slightly close to Cedric's ability. I continued our lessons because it made him happy, but I doubted I would ever need or want to use the brooms as a traveling device. Apparation and running were definitely the only two options between which I would be choosing.
We were ready to go back to Carlisle in a year, and after Carly came once again with his new letter, I knew it would have to happen now when we still had the information about his current whereabouts.
For the past year, it was hard to say what we did as we spent most of our time enjoying the intimacy that we never had before. We were adults, no longer students at Hogwarts, no longer living with our parents. I knew that the passionate kisses and other more intimate behaviors would have to be dialed down when we rejoin Carlisle, so we went all in.
The other thing that we spent most of our time doing was developing our self-control, Cedric had it harder than me since I never actually tasted human blood while I was in my human form, but I pretended that close human proximity affected me as hard as it affected me. I hoped this would make him feel better, make it look like he wasn't going through this struggle alone.
Carlisle wrote in his letter that he was now staying in Rochester; I was going back to the New York State. Cedric and I planned to pack our things and start running by the end of the day. It would take us about two nights to travel such a distance and avoid being seen in public. I preferred apparating, but I didn't know what Rochester looked like and Cedric liked running, so we built our route and were going to follow the Canadian borderline.
"Do you mind coming with me to the Masens' house?" He asked after we were packed and were ready to go. "I just want to grab something from there."
"I don't mind." I smiled at him. Cedric told me that even though Masens weren't his real parents, he grew to love them a lot. I didn't doubt that, they basically raised him for a second time. I knew he thought of Elisabeth as his second mother, the way he talked about her sounded exactly like Harry talking about Mrs. Weasley.
Cedric took my hands in his and apparated us into the house. The room that we were in was his bedroom, I guessed when I looked at the pictures on the nightstand. The ones when he was a baby didn't resemble him at all, and I had my theory about it as well. In my thoughts, the real Edward Masen Jr. died from hitting his head and Cedric's soul was specifically put in this body because of their similarities. To a human eye, they looked the same, but I could see the tiny differences in some facial features. Cedric's eyes were slightly more upturned, his nose straighter and his cheeks less plump.
"How are you feeling?" I asked him.
"I'm alright," He smiled softly at me.
"Did you want to grab some pictures?" I asked.
"No, something else." He smirked and ran out of the room. I wanted to follow him, but he returned just as fast as he left. He was holding his hands behind his back now. "I should have done that last year when I first saw you again in that forest."
I looked at him confused and his smile grew on his face. He stood on his right knee and allowed me to see a small black box in his hand. My hands flew to my mouth.
"You have one of my rings already, will you do me an honor and wear another?" His smile grew larger than before and he opened the box. In the middle laid an extravagant Victorian-inspired domed-oval-shaped white gold ring, encrusted with rows of brilliant facet, sparkling diamonds.
"Cedric," I whispered. "Yes, of course."
He stood up, lifting me and twirling me around.
"We are married already though." I laughed as he put a ring on my finger. He laughed with me as he remembered our 13-year-old selves exchanging candy rings near the Black Lake.
"Of course, how could I forget that beautiful Saturday morning." He kissed me. "I want it to be official. Isabella Diggory. It has a sound to it."
"We might live in the 1920s, but we grew up in the 90s, I will agree to a hyphened name, nothing more." I smiled at him.
"Isabella Black-Diggory. You know, that doesn't have as good of a sound." He shook his head.
"Oh, shut up." I laughed. "Kiss me."
He did exactly as I told him. And we were on our way. Running with Cedric was the best, he copied my speed so we could run hand-in-hand. The new ring sat perfectly on my finger, although I still checked to see if it was there every few miles. While we ran, he told me that the ring belonged to Elizabeth and after Edward Sr. died, she wanted him to have it. The ring was an important part of his life and I promised myself I would make sure I never lose it.
When the sun started coming out, we stopped running and sat in the forest, waiting. The following night we celebrated our engagement with a couple of wolves and elk and ran into Rochester. We tracked down Carlisle's scent to a two-story house. It was bigger than the ones we stayed in before and looked way nicer. Deep brown in color, with a black roof and a stone chimney. The smoke was coming out of it and I noticed a car parked in the driveway. Carlisle drove? Well, it only made sense, he was a doctor, an important member of society.
I noticed both Cedric and I were nervous, I held his hand tighter in mine and we walked to the house. We came to the door and I knocked.
"Who comes so late at night?" I heard a female voice coming from inside the house. Esme.
"I'll go check, dear," Carlisle spoke and I heard his footsteps coming to the door.
My grip on Cedric's hand hardened, as did his, while we waited. A second passed and I could see his shadow coming closer to the door through a small glass tile in it. Another second passed and I could hear him reach for the doorknob. Here goes nothing.
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