AN: Happy New Year my dear readers!!
Okay, two things:
1. I've got a persistent plot bunny running amok in my mind with a Vampire Hermione!! It'll be a crossover between HP Twilight... SO... Whom would you like me to club her with? I am keeping it open for Voting... do let me know in the reviews..
Voting on till the 31st of Jan... I'll tally the votes and pick the hero for our fav Gryffindor witch!
I'd prefer either Sam or Jacob since they are the Alphas and having an alpha with a vamp shud be fun to write but I'm open to any of your suggestions as well...
2. I'm thinking of bumping the rating of this one to M... What say you? Do let me know...
Chapter 22:
Hermione was never one to believe in all the divination baloney, yet somehow Alice managed to talk her into giving Draco-sodding-Malfoy a chance to prove himself, a chance for his mother and him to make a place in Andromeda's and Teddy's lives. Thereby terribly twisting and overlapping their own lives with hers.
F-ing brilliant!
"Why, oh why did it have to be the ferret boy? Why couldn't Andromeda's sister have been Neville's Grandmother? I would've happily welcomed him in my life, even adjusted a little to let him have some time with Teddy... But NOOOO! It had to be the stupid snake-boy.. from the deranged pits of the hellish dungeons! I swear to Merlin, if he so much as looks at Teddy the wrong way, I'll break his nose! AGAIN! Yes.. Yes.. that'll be nice.. dislodge his nose, and then maybe kick his shin while he's distracted and then run. Hmm.. if only I knew hand combat I could've broken a few ribs too. Oh damn! How could I forget? I could just use Lockhart's bone vanishing spell and send him to St. Helena's here to lay on a bed for weeks re-growing all his bones! Oh that is perfect!" Hermione was ranting to herself, walking beyond the Cullens' front porch.
Every vampire inside heard her clearly though and shuddered at her maniacal words.
"Do you really think she can vanish bones?" Jasper asked surprised.
"Amazing! They even have potions for re-growing bones! Wizarding medicine I tell you, is absolutely brilliant!" Carlisle smiled his beatific smile, his eyes glinting with his urge to learn more of the new world of medicines.
Chuckling, Edward stepped out. "Hermione, how about I make you a cup of tea while we wait for him?"
"Yeah, if you are plotting ways to kill him, there's no point in coming here for the meeting. The reason I advised this was just so it wouldn't come to blows but if you continue this.." Alice's lilting tones mirthfully warned her from the inside.
"Step in, sweetheart, the sky is about to break any moment now," Edward held his hand out for her to take.
Just when Hermione was wondering exactly when and why Edward had started calling her that, a faint pop came from across the clearing and out stepped a handsome platinum blond.
Hermione turned sharply to face him and he stopped in his steps, his eyes narrowing and zeroing on Edward who was still stood on the porch with his arm outstretched.
"You realize there's a vampire standing right behind you, beckoning you to him?" Draco asked with his usual drawl.
Hermione pulled in a long calming breath and glared at him. "Really? You don't say."
That stopped him short. "Why are you fraternizing with a vampire?"
"We're good friends. In fact, it's not just him but his whole family. They are helping me with Andromeda and Teddy," Hermione shrugged.
Draco's eyes darkened, but nothing apart from that gave away his inner anger. "What do my aunt and nephew have to do with them?"
"Carlisle, their coven head, or father as they like to think, is Andromeda's treating doctor. She is suffering from a muggle illness but since I can share wizarding medicinal knowledge with him, we are combining the two and working to better her condition. Whereas for Teddy, Rosalie, a member of the coven who loves kids, babysits him for me when I am at the local muggle school."
"So in essence, you leave a witch who can't yield her wand and her little grandchild who is too young to even hold one, in the care of a species who are known for their bloodlust?"
"Get this straight Malfoy, I will not tolerate a word against my friends here. It is only because of them that I am even giving you the time of day, but I..."
Whatever it was that Hermione wanted to say was lost to the wind as she felt a sharp tug pulling her forward, her eyes widened when she realized it was Draco who was pulling her to him with a softly muttered wandless spell.
Even before Edward could reach the duo with his spurt of vampiric speed, Draco had Hermione wrapped in a single arm and he apparated them out with a crack.
Fear like none he'd ever felt took a grip of Edward. He shouted to his family for help and told them what had happened even as he continued running through the woods, looking for any trace or even a faint smell of Hermione's. Oh, why the fuck am I not a tracker?!
All the Cullens except for Rosalie and Esme who were at Hermione's place with Andromeda and Teddy followed Edward out, each using every power they had to find Hermione, everyone wondering if she was even in the woods at all.
Even while running, Alice tried to get her psychic powers to tell her of Hermione's location. Trees.. she saw a lot of trees.. but where? Was it even in Forks or were they in some woodlands elsewhere?
Meanwhile, Draco had spent the night combing through Forks. Thankfully it wasn't too large a town so he had easily seen the whole of it in preparation for his meeting with the Golden Girl the next day.
It was going to be a screw-up, he knew and he was pretty sure she knew it too but she'd said her new friends insisted on it so she had given in, and he'd been only too happy to see his nephew earlier than anticipated.
Draco had Harry in his pocket when he'd spoken to him back in England but Potter had warned him that the final decision would be Mione's, he scowled remembering Potter's face as he had said that.
His magic had felt off at her school, but not with something he couldn't handle, so he'd thought her sheer vibes of hatred were making that happen; he hadn't given much anything any thought that day, too keen only on making Granger see him as the new man he was, so she would grant him access to his own nephew.
Then, he'd walked in on her talking with a fucking vampire! Not just that too, but she'd stood there, as tall as her little frame would allow and looked down at him when in the same breath informing him that a vampire coven was responsible for his only extended family's well-being. Fuck the sodding Gryffindors!
So, he'd summoned her with a spell that could at best be considered a part of grey magic and apparated out, with the Hermione Granger imprisoned between his arm and chest.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing, playing with the safety of my family?" he growled in her ear.
As soon as she felt the hard ground beneath her feet, Hermione pushed Draco hard, as away from her as possible and brought her wand out and had her tiny yellow birds attacking him.
"Oh, grow up!" Draco cancelled her jinx with one smooth wave of his wand, without bothering with any incantation. "They might be enough to scare the company you usually keep, but I'm not that easily scared, especially after the horrors I've seen the past few years."
"You have no right to judge anyone, Malfoy, especially after what you've done the past few years."
"I did it for my mother, Granger, and if it comes to it all over again, I'd do the same to keep her safe. My father, just like the Dark Lord, was not one to be crossed. My mother would've paid for my mistakes and I'd rather die than let anything happen to her."
Oh, Hermione did the perfect mimicry of a fish.
Draco was standing a few steps away, with his head tilted to the side, as if considering something, "You're still the bleeding heart championing the causes of the lesser magical beings," he noted, as if to himself rather than to her.
"They are my friends, Malfoy. They've helped me immensely, and I won't have a word spoken against them. They are good people, and if you give them a chance you may actually even make a friend or two."
"With vamps? No thank you, I think I'm good."
Bloody ferret! "How have all your prejudices served you so far, you idiot? Just... be sane for once and give them a try! They don't even drink human blood and you know as well as I that our blood doesn't appeal to them!"
"That's not true. Our blood appeals to few of them..."
"Yes, about 7.38% of the entire vampire population finds our blood irresistible, I know!" Draco snorted in his mind, not even surprised she knew the exact figure. "...but they aren't from that tiny group! We did blood wards around my house in their presence and not one of them tried to drink any of us dry."
"You willingly bled in front of vampires? Gryffindor bravery be damned, this is just plain stupid!" Draco narrowed his eyes, like hers, his eyes too were sparking with his anger.
"Gah! Just give them a try or get lost! I don't want to indulge in this pitiful fight with you anymore!"
Draco gritted his teeth hard enough to make a vein in his head pop continuously as he fisted his hands and in a last ditch attempt to calm himself, he hit a tree trunk. Hard. All the fucking cards were in her hand! He either made peace and buried his survival instinct or he would never get to meet his aunt and nephew! "That's not really a choice, is it?" he mumbled under his breath and looked at Hermione again who was seeing him like he was all kinds of foolish.
"Give me your hand," she said irritably and without waiting for him to do that, she pulled at his arm and looked on clinically at his bleeding knuckles.
Sighing she pulled her wand out and started muttering a string of spells to heal his hand.
Draco looked at the witch healing him with a frown on his face. She'd always been like this. He remembered, even back in their third year, when that crazy hippogriff had attacked him, she had been the one to make that dubious gigantic professor of theirs to take him to the hospital wing, not any of his housemates. Her. Of course she had punched him in the face for trying to get that same creature executed later that year, but she'd always been a bleeding heart with healing hands.
He was anyway changing so much for his mother, now that his father had no control on them, he could do one more thing for her. Yes, he sighed. He could and he would. He knew, he had to. His mother had asked it of him.
"For my mother's sake," he finally relented. "She really wants to be with sister again and I wouldn't mind having another guy to share all the familial burdens with."
Hermione's face turned all comical at the last bit of his sentence. "You realize the other guy is a five months old baby right?"
"Whatever," Draco shook his head and grabbed Hermione's wrist, apparating them back to the edge of the woods close to the vampires' property.
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"They're back home," Alice suddenly stopped running and turned around, running the opposite way instead.
Edward was overtaking her within seconds and the vampires reached their home in minutes, only to see Hermione sitting on the steps and Draco leaning on the railing.
"You scoundrel!" Edward snarled and had Draco pinned to the railing behind him, with just his elbow lodged perfectly in his throat, cutting off his oxygen supply, even before Draco could get his wand out.
"I'm gonna kill you for that," Edward continued baring his teeth, his voice menacing and eyes shining ferally.
Hermione jumped to her feet and pushed herself between the two. "Edward...! Stop it, you're choking him," she stressed her point frantically seeing the blue tinge Draco's skin was quickly taking up, placing her body between the two and pushing at them both with her hands firmly pressed into their shoulders.
"He hurt you! I'm going to kill him," Edward pressed on harder into Draco's throat.
"EDWARD ANTHONY MASON CULLEN! YOU BETTER STEP BACK RIGHT NOW OR ELSE..." Hermione warned in her no nonsense voice making Edward flinch at the loud shout right beside his ears.
With one last thrust of his elbow, Edward reluctantly pulled his arm back and snarled warningly at the blond again, while his other arm, of its own violation, snaked around Hermione's middle and he pushed her behind his body, shielding her from the young man he considered a threat with a capital T!
"You try something like that with my mate again, blondie, and I swear to God, not even she will be able to save you from my wrath," he whispered softly for only the wizard's ears but Draco probably did not hear him between his loud, panting-coughing fit.
Hermione pushed at Edward, though he did not change his protective stance. Rolling her eyes, she tried walking around him and seeing her advancing towards the wheezing wizard again, Edward snapped.
"And you!" he growled at Hermione, tugging her towards him by her wrist, he threw her over his shoulder and ran back into the woods.
"They need the talk," Alice whispered quickly and softly to the remainder of her family and as a team they walked to the young wizard still coughing by their door. Jasper ran inside their house and brought a glass of water while Emmett helped the wizard stand and Alice rubbed his back.
Draco barely controlled the flinch from the sudden cold all around him, but was thankful for the unexpected hospitality as he tried to right himself, though in the chaos he did not notice that he was left alone with the vampires, and his assaulter and the witch were missing.
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Edward stopped at a small clearing in the woods and put Hermione down by a tree. The past few seconds had shaken her up a little, what with seeing half the forest buzzing past her in a big, blur of green and brown, but as soon as she found her bearings and her breath, she launched a loud rant at Edward.
"What the hell, Edward! Is it a run-away-with-Hermione day?"
"He took you away from me and you were trying to check on his wellbeing!" Edward bit back agitated. "Don't you have even an ounce of self-preservation in you? He could've hurt you. He could've taken you anywhere and I might have lost you forever..."
"I know my way around a wand!"
"Yeah, just like you saved yourself so well when he literally pulled you to him like a piece of metal to a strong magnet and cracked away with you! Like you did so well, when I ran away with you! It only takes seconds, Hermione! And you were too slow! Anything could've happened. I couldn't even trace your scent! Where the fuck did he take you? What happened? Are you alright? Cause if that bastard hurt you, I will peel him alive and even you won't be able to stop me." Edward moved towards her and scanned her face, neck and arms for signs of bruises.
Hermione daren't move. She plastered herself to the tree trunk and stood as rigidly stiff as she could, not giving even a tiny millimeter's worth of sway. Edward was standing close to her, too close, his head bent to examine her, his eyes scanning all the visible parts of her body and she felt the tingles of his proximity right down to the toes of her feet!
But she couldn't control the quickening of her heart, the hitching of her breath when Edward's copper hair brushed against her cheek. He shifted slightly and their noses were suddenly close enough to touch.
Edward stared at the light blush that Hermione was unable to control, while Hermione resolutely kept her gaze lowered, refusing to look at the vampire. Somehow, she just knew what she'd see in his amber eyes if she looked up and she wasn't too sure if she could resist that look in her current state, when he was standing so close to her that one step towards her would have his toned, hard body pressed against her and...
"Stop that!" Edward growled close to her ear.
"I.." Hermione's tongue flew out to moisten her dry lips, "I haven't done anything."
"Your heart's beating too fast. Your breathing's too ragged. Your scent.." Edward ran his cold nose across the juncture of her neck and collar bone, then up her throat, "it's too alluring," he moved his hand to her hip and ran it up her side, pushing at her back to bring her closer to him, "for me to think straight." His hand ran up her back, entangling itself in her hair, then he dipped his head back and licked lightly behind her ear, while he tugged her hair and moved her head to give his roving tongue better access to taste her thoroughly.
"It's getting stronger..." he chuckled close to her ear, making her finally look up at him with confusion in her hazy eyes.
Smirking smugly, he gave her knowing look then bent his head close to her ear again, making her shiver, "The scent of your arousal... it's getting stronger... You're turned on and I'm finding it very difficult to stop myself from doing something about it."
Hermione turned beet-red at that and pursed her lips, forcing herself to take deep, deep breaths to calm herself. "We.. we can't.. I.. I don't want to be a rebound thing..." she said, her hand at his shoulder again, trying to push him away half-heartedly.
He moved his hand to cover hers on his shoulder and sighed, touching his forehead to hers. He pushed his fingers under her chin, making her look up at him. "You aren't and never will be a rebound thing, Hermione. You're my mate. It'll only ever be you. Always you. But I'll wait till you're ready."
"Mate?" Hermione asked doubtfully. Edward simply nodded. "How do you know that?"
"Will you believe me if I say I just do?" Hermione raised her eyebrow skeptically making Edward chuckle. "You know, there's only way for me to prove it to you."
"Which is..?" she prompted.
"Follow your dear friend Luna's advice and shag you senseless. If I mark you, then you're mine, if not," he shrugged his shoulders cheekily, "you'll at least get some stress relief out of it."
"You dolt!" Hermione blushed furiously and slapped his chest with the back of her hand, wincing at the unintentional pain she inflicted on herself, before she started walking briskly away from him.
"You can't run away from me," he said, pulling gently at her hurt hand and inspecting it carefully before placing soft butterfly kisses on each of her knuckles. Then he looked deep in her sinful caramel eyes, his amber ones turning darker like liquid gold, "I'm literally the fastest predator there is," he said, bending his head down and nibbling his way across her jaw, taking care to keep his fangs retracted.
Hermione shivered at the enticing mixture of cold and warm twisting inside her, but shook herself to bring her head out of the daze Edward was continuously putting it in. "Not yet, Edward. Not now, not like this."
Edward snarled in frustration, fisting his hands before he stepped back. "Just don't take too long."
Never one to lose a good opportunity to tease, (hey, she was almost family to the Weasley twins!) Hermione smirked. "Why? Running out of time, are you?"
Despite his extreme frustration of the sexual kind, Edward snickered. "No, my darling, I'm running out of self-control," he replied in a husky voice and picked her up in his arms, walking at a humane pace, grudgingly taking them both back to reality.