Chapter Twelve

When Hermione dropped Teddy off the next morning, he was more reluctant to let her leave than normal. Before she had dropped him off at Harper's house, his hair and eyes were flashing a variety of colors before settling on his normal honey brown eyes and mahogany hair. She was almost too nervous to go to school, but she knew she needed to. So after a very tearful goodbye, on teddy's part, Hermione left for school.

Her morning classes passed without a problem and she was still trying to figure out what Teddy had been upset about as she walked into the cafeteria. The silence is what caused her to look around to see that Edward was not sitting with his family, but by himself a few tables over. When he caught Hermione's eye he waved her over to him. She was confused, which was not a good feeling, yesterday he had warned her away from him and his family, but now he waves her over to sit with him.

With small frown on her face Hermione walked to his table, "What do you need Edward?"

"I have thought about what was said yesterday and you are correct, I don't control you, nor do I control my family. I would like to get to know you though."

Hermione thought about it for a moment before she sat down, "If your family would also like to come over here, they may."

Edward smiled and tilted his head to the side, "They might sit with us tomorrow. They seem to like you, which is strange. I know you have not met Jasper yet, but Rosalie is normally the one who takes the longest to warm up to someone, yet she took to you almost instantly."

"I'm normally not that great at making friends. My two best friends at my last school only became my friends after I covered for them to a teacher. Someone has vandalized the girl's bathroom and they had come looking for me and had been caught. They were believed to have done it, but I told them it was me."

Edward furrowed his brow, "Why would they have come looking for you in the girl's bathroom?"

"Well earlier that day I had corrected a mistake Ronald had made, and he hadn't liked that very much. So when he thought I wasn't looking he began to make fun of me, which in turn made me cry and run off to the girl's bathroom. They were eleven and I was twelve at the time, and a moment after they had entered to see if I was okay they professors came in. I didn't want them to get in trouble for coming to see if I was okay, so I took the blame."

"And what happened after that?"

"Ron, Harry and I have been inseparable ever since. Well until I moved here to be with Char- my father."

Edward leaned forward and placed his chin in his hand, "And why did you move here to live with your father?"

Hermione had to think on that for a second, "After the deaths of Teddy's Parents last year, it had been very hard for us for a while. With my mother always missing Phil, who was off trying to become a professional baseball player, I knew it was time for something different. I had spent summer in England when I was fifteen so they weather doesn't bother me much anymore."

"It is sometimes best to get away from some memories."

Hermione nodded, "Sometimes it was just too much." She looked up at the clock and saw it was time to go to biology. She grabbed her things and stood up but paused when she saw that Edward wasn't following. "It almost time to go to class."

"I won't be going to class today. I believe every now and again it is healthy to skip."

Hermione looked scandalized, "But it's only one hour, and it's your education!" even though he has probably already done this class more than a dozen times.

"I'll be sitting in my car for the hour, don't worry its fine."

Hermione scowled and turned away.

As soon as she entered the classroom she understood why he was skipping. The words 'Blood Drive' were written on the board and there was a cardboard box on top of Mr. Banner's desk. Hermione assumed the needles, gloves and indicator cards.

Hermione hadn't truly been around blood since she had left England. Even while living with the Volturi, she had never smelt the blood after their feedings.

She shakily took a seat at her table and began taking deep breaths. Everyone had suffered from some sort form PTSD and Hermione was no different. The nightmares was really the only thing that she had suffered, but there was one moment when Ginny had accidently cut herself a month after the battle. It had been an instant flashback to Hogwarts when Hermione smelled the blood.

Now it might happen again.

Mr. Banner began explaining what they were supposed to be doing, but as soon as she saw and smelt the blood welling up on Angela's finger, the world began to spin. Screams, she could hear her own screams. Malfoy Manor. The blood running down her arm after Bellatrix had carved that crude word into her arm. The liquid fire that ran through Hermione's body and Bellatrix used the Cruciatus Curse on her.

Hermione barely felt the hand on her shoulder, but when she did she forced herself not to scream and jump away. She had to remind herself that she was in class, she was not in Malfoy Manor. Her arm began to sting as tears came to her eyes.

She barely heard Mr. Banner ask Ben to take her to the nurse. But she had to lift herself and move when he came to her. She knew it was a good idea to get out of the classroom and away from the blood. But what she hadn't expected was Edwards's worried voice cutting through the flashback she was having.

"What happened?" His voice seemed to reach deep inside her and warm her, but she shook it off.

"We were blood testing in biology and as soon as she saw the blood she froze and has been unresponsive since."

Cold hands softly held onto Hermione's face and she looked into the worried topaz eyes of Edward. "Bella? Are you okay?"

Hermione felt her shoulders began to shake as tears became present once more in her eyes. When had she become so weak, she asked herself.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I-I was the one that found Tonks and Remus after they were killed. The blood just brought a flashback."

It was as close to the truth as Hermione was going to tell.

"Why did you go to class then?" Edward asked as he helped me up. "Thank you Ben, I'll take it from here."

"I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I forgot that it was the blood drive today. I would have been more prepared if I had. It was on the papers given to me on my first day."

"It happens to everyone."

"Not to me," Hermione said quietly.

"Come on, I'll get you out of here." And so he did. He charmed Mrs. Cope into letting the both of them leave early, which Hermione was thankful for. Teddy seemed to feel something was going to happen today, and it did. Hermione began to think that maybe there had been a clairvoyant witch or wizard in the Black family line, and now Teddy had inherited it.