Chapter 01:
"Bloody hell!" Ron crooned from his bed, his hand flying to his head. "Can someone ask the idiot whose hammering my head to stop it already!"
"Language RONALD," Hermione whispered out of habit.
"Oh goody! They wake!" Alice sighed, clapping her hands happily.
"Now that you're up, care to explain what happened Mione?" Harry asked as he pushed his body to sit up on his bed. Esme immediately moved beside him and straightened the pillows behind his back.
"Just give me a minute before that," Carlisle said calmly. "I need to check your vital stats and make sure you are all okay. So, what is your last memory?"
"Hermione asking me to duck?" Harry said after some thought.
"Running in front of a bloody brute of a creature," Ron answered, shrugging his shoulders in a way to show as if it was a daily occurrence.
Carlisle then turned to Hermione, only to see her eyes closed in thought. We were running. I cast the spell. And then there was that vampire with… WAIT! "Where are we?" she asked instead of answering Carlisle's question.
"Forks, Washington State," Rosalie sneered.
"FUCK!" the three strangers swore, then the two boys looked amused at the girl and chuckled.
"See that Harry? We finally rubbed off on her."
"Oh hush you!" Hermione glared at her best friends and immediately started to curb her panic while sorting through her thoughts.
Okay, first things first! "Why are your eyes amber?" Hermione fired her question and looked at every vampire around with a venomous stare.
"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked guarded.
"Mione, that's not a particularly polite question," Harry furrowed his brows and looked at her.
"You think?" snapped the biggest one of them all.
"Why aren't your eyes red? And if you do not answer me immediately, I will wipe out your coven," Hermione said acidly as she slyly moved her hand towards her arm to feel for her wand and was happy to note that it was still strapped to her arm holster there, under her full sleeved t-shirt.
The vampires looked at each other. Figuring they already knew their secret, Alice gave a friendly smile to Hermione and said in her musical voice. "Because we feed off animal blood, not human blood."
Hermione checked everyone's eyes again and sighed, her final protection bubble around Harry and Ron sliding off as her strength finally lapsed and she fell into a heap on the bed she had laid on.
"Maybe we should get some food in the first," Esme suggested, looking at the three thinning teenagers.
Working around the feeble protests of the trio, Esme quickly heated the ready-to-eat meals that Alice and Jasper had stocked on just after bringing the trio in.
"What is that?" Ron asked curiously, pointing at the microwave.
Harry sat down between Ron and Hermione and explained all about microwaves that he knew to Ron, while Hermione discreetly used her legilemancy skills to read the minds of the vampires. Only when she was sure they had no idea about their identities and were in no way whatsoever connected to Voldemort, did she finally look at the table laden with food.
Harry wordlessly and wandlessly cast a series of inspection spells on the food and when he was sure it was all unaffected and good for consumption, he gave a subtle nod and the three finally began eating. Within minutes they polished off the seven ready meals on the table, much to vampires shock. The way they ate had the vampires wondering about their last meal.
After the table was cleared, the wizards turned in their seats and looked at the vampires, before Harry turned to Hermione and asked again. "Care to tell me what we are doing in Forks, Washington? The United States of bloody America? How Mione? Why? You realize we are in the middle of a war back in England right?"
Calculating about what and how much to tell the vampires, Hermione finally decided to trust her instincts that were telling her that this coven was trustworthy and divulged as little as she could without outright lying.
"We were being chased by snatchers so I brought my friends and myself to a place none of us had visited before. I had seen a picture of that clearing in one of our friend's library. It was part of some correspondence and I kept the image in my mind, knowing I could use it as a safe place when the need arouse."
"The snatchers were almost upon us so I used an old piece of magic and brought us here. I only did not know it was halfway across the world. You see the location wasn't mentioned in the pic.."
"Magic?" a soft feminine voice said from the doorway. "Did she just say magic, Edward?" Bella turned to Edward and asked.
"Didn't I ask you to drop her home?" Rosalie groaned.
"I tried. She insisted on coming," Edward shrugged.
"Aren't you whipped," Hermione smirked at the vampire by the door and he looked up to see her and then everything stopped for him. He felt a tug somewhere deep within himself followed by an overwhelming need to hold the girl in front of him, to keep her, protect her, hold her and love her.
Jasper blinked at Edward's emotions and turned to look at the young girl inspiring them and a small smile tugged at his lips. At least I don't feel like ripping his mate apart and feed off her! But Jasper kept his new findings to himself, he thought it best to let Edward take things forward the way he'd want to.
"Yes, he kind of is, and I find it extremely adorable," Bella smiled and walked closer to the trio of friends. "So, you can do magic?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes, I am a witch and my friends are wizards."
"Unbelievable, isn't it?" Bella asked flushing happily.
"Really? You are standing amidst a coven of vampires, and you find the idea of magic unbelievable?" Ron smirked crookedly.
"Oh yeah, that," Bella blushed in embarrassment.
Hermione looked from the blushing Bella to Ron who just shrugged in confusion.
"Where are my manners! I am Bella, Bella Swan," Bella offered her hand to Ron first who shook it and introduced himself, "I'm Ron. Ron Weasley."
"Sorry," Hermione blushed in embarrassment too and looked at the Cullen family. "Guess we didn't start out with the obvious too. I'm Hermione Granger and these are my best friends Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley." They all nodded at the Cullens and suddenly Jasper perked up.
"Harry Potter! I know of you. Didn't you defeat a dark wizard a couple of decades back?" Jasper asked snapping his fingers.
"Barely. He is back and out for my blood. There's unrest in the entire country. We were in hiding trying to work our way to ensuring his defeat when Mione decided to dump us here," Harry glared at Hermione who looked down at the floor in shame.
"Oh, don't blame her. If it hadn't been for her, you would've been captured and locked in the dungeons of a dreary manor while a mad lady would've tortured her," Alice chastised.
"WHAT?!" Harry, Hermione, and Ron spoke together.
"Yes, I saw that bit first and suddenly the vision changed mid-way and I saw you all fall out of nowhere here," Alice said. "It's the first time something of this sort has happened with me."
"You're a seer?" Harry asked skeptically. Alice nodded.
"Do you.. do you mind if we see your vision?" Hermione asked with a shiver in her voice, making Edward want to hold her close and comfort her.
Alice shook her head and Hermione detached her wand from the holster in her arm and muttered a spell pointing her wand at Alice and removed the silvery thread of her vision's memory. "Harry get the small pensive from my bag."
Sniggering, Harry summoned Hermione's beaded purse and pushed his entire arm in the tiny thing, much to everyone else's amusement. As soon as he found the pensive, he pulled at it and brought it out. Ron muttered the spell to open it and Hermione put Alice's memory in it and the waters swirled and the three wizarding folks bent over the pensive.
Edward saw Hermione's hunched back stiffen and immediately turned to his sister. With a meaningful look, he had her play the vision in her mind for him and he understood the reason for Hermione's reaction. He saw Hermione being tortured on the floor of a dark room by a crazed-looking woman who then carved her ivory flesh. Unintentionally, a feral snarl escaped him. Seeing his reaction, Alice immediately stopped the memory and in a flash was beside him, her hand on his shoulder to offer comfort.
The three youngsters came out of the pensive within moments, the girl looking deathly pale while the boys looked livid with anger.
"I'm gonna bloody kill her. That bitch!" Ron screamed, fisting his hands.
Harry hugged Hermione and rubbed her back, a slow color gradually returning to her pale parlor. "We'll get them all Mione. I promise I'll end this," Harry whispered in her ears but all the vampires heard him with their enhanced hearing anyway.
Slowly Hermione brought her hands around Harry and returned his hug and Ron joined them too. Edward fisted his hands to keep away. Having one male hugging the tiny witch was difficult for him to see, having two was downright unbearable. Funny how I never felt that for Bella in all these months.
"I think it was the Malfoy Manor," Hermione said, remembering the Malfoy insignia hung on one of the walls. "We need to go there," she finally whispered when she felt her thoughts return in a more systematic order.
"What! Are you nuts?" Harry jumped a foot in the air.
"What part of the torture made you think – oh hey that looks nice, I must get myself some of that?!" Ron asked angrily.
"It's not that.. did you not see it? Olivander, Griphook, and Luna were in the dungeons with you. Without us, they're doomed. And we need to get back anyway. Bellatrix kept asking 'what else we had taken from her vault' which means she is hiding something in her vault! We need to get into Gringotts and get that thing! Griphook being a goblin can help us with it. We need to go back…"
"Hermione!" Harry kissed her forehead. "You are brilliant! Like always!"
"No.. no I'm not. I am just highly logical and see what others oversee," Hermione said modestly, making both her friends grin and kiss her on her cheek.
"Now, where have we heard that before?" Harry chuckled.
"Apart from every time we say she's brilliant?" Ron laughed.
Blushing, Hermione looked away. Edward smirked. She just saw herself being tortured and she's smiling? He heard the same though echoing in his family's mind.
"So what now?" Ron asked.
"Back to England, I guess?" Hermione shrugged her shoulders.
Edward sent a panicked look at his sister and she immediately intervened. "I think you need to take a moment to consider the consequences of your decision before diving in the deep end again."
"We need to save our friend," Hermione said automatically.
"Some friends," Ron snorted and Hermione quickly slapped him up the head.
"Be nice Ron. Her father outing us has nothing on her. And he did it only because she is captured."
Chastised, Ron looked at the floor. "Maybe I could go to Romania and speak with Charlie? See if he can get a word in the Order to check for what's happening with them all?"
Harry and Hermione nodded and Ron spun on the spot with a loud crack and disappeared. "NOW! He left right now! Without even discussion his trail or anything?" Hermione was aghast.
"What's the point of planning anyway Mione? We plan, we reach, then all the hell breaks loose. This way it's only him, even if something happens to us we can't give out information we don't have."
"Right," Hermione rolled her eyes. For a hero, Harry really could be thick sometimes. "Like we don't know his destination."
Harry shrugged. "Now, about Malfoy Manor."
"Do you know the layout of the place?" Jasper asked, moving towards them. His earlier life quickly coming in to play.
The magical teenagers shook their heads. "Then, do you know anyone who can help you with it?"
Harry and Hermione thought hard before the answer dawned on them. "Dobby!" they exclaimed simultaneously.
They really were too much in sync to speak together so often, Esme thought with a small smile.
A pop rang through and a small child-like creature came into the sitting room of the big house.
"Harry Potter called for Dobby?" he spoke, much to everyone's fascination.