I would just like to take a moment to thank Sweetie7smiled and hermiony for reviewing. It really compelled me to carry on, and I sincerely hope that it lives up to both of your expectations! Please review as it really does spur me on. x
Chapter two – the visit
Nessie collapsed onto the sofa, and attempted to make sense of the sudden turn her life had taken. Being told that you are a witch is not easily digestible news, even for someone as "supernatural" as Nessie, but the truth was that she did not feel supernatural in the least, instead she felt completely natural being a half vampire. It was all she'd known, and being like this was regularity to her, she wouldn't have it any other way. This whole witch thing on the other hand was something totally unfamiliar and new to her, something completely alien. Jake who had been watching her noiselessly, in order to give her some time to think could not be silent any longer.
"This is great Nessie! You get to go to a cool magic school, instead of boring regular school!" his eyes were brimming with genuine excitement, Jake welcomed anything that benefited Nessie, even if it was at the expense of his own wellbeing. He ignored the searing pain in his chest that foreshadowed the heartbreak, and the hurt he would soon have to endure as a result of her departure.
"What do you mean by "you get to go" Jake?" Nessie said, real terror saturating her voice. Jake looked at her as if he'd misheard.
"Well" he looked down at the letter "it says Miss. Cullen, and unless I've suddenly contracted amnesia, and am now talking to my hand, that would be you." He smiled; she was obviously stunned from the shock of the letter.
"No" she said fiercely "you're coming with me Jacob Black, I am not going to some school millions of miles away without my best friend." Jake looked baffled for the umpteenth time that day.
"Renesmee Carlie Cullen, don't be ridiculous, I can't come with you. I look like I'm a grown man, and besides I can't do magic, which would make it slightly difficult for me to be accepted into a magic school." Nessie shook her head obstinately.
"At this interview, I'll tell professor Dumble-thing that if they want me to go to their school they'll have to let you come. Besides earth to you Jake these are witches and wizards, I'm sure they'll know billions of spells to make you look younger. As for you not being able to do magic" she paused and thought "well you'll just have to pretend won't you?" Jake couldn't help but grin.
"Okay, but if this professor what's-his-face says no, then you'll have to go by yourself Nessie" Jake said firmly.
"Sure, sure" Nessie muttered sarcastically "when dad turns into a wolf."
"I heard that" He fought a smile. "It's for the best Nessie, this is a fantastic opportunity" he said gently, and then sighed. Nessie had a familiarly stubborn look on her face, it was the same as Bella's, and it said "there is no way I'm backing down." Deep down Jake wished he could go with her, but he also knew that it was impossible, and that this really was in her best interest. He let it go for now.
"Come on then, don't you want to share the news with mummy and daddy?" he grinned "want a piggy-back?"
"Duh! You don't expect me to walk do you?" Nessie beamed at him. She climbed on to the sofa, and then onto his back. Winding her arms tightly around his neck, she buried her face into his soft, thick hair that smelt refreshingly of the forest. He strode to the door and opened it, and as soon as he was outside he began to run. Nessie's grip tightened just as he phased, and she smiled as she felt the warm breeze rushing through her hair. The world flashed past in a whirlwind of greens and browns, that merged like watercolour paints into one another. She had an odd premonition that this is what her life was to become, her two worlds fused inextricably together.
Nessie jumped gracefully off Jake's back, and they were both greeted by the same gray owl from the morning, its amber eyes flickering between them. It continued to look expectant, but by this point also a little irritated, as if to ask "are two signatures really that much to ask?"
"Wow" Jake said looking away "it's quite impressive, but just a little creepy."
"I think it's cute" Nessie said "it has the most beautiful eyes." She smiled up at Jake, who ruffled her hair.
"Come on kiddo, I bet Edward has already read our minds, and is dying to hear the whole story again in the form of actual words." Nessie nodded, and they both walked briskly to the door. Jake raised his hand to knock, but before he could, the door swung open to reveal a rather agitated looking Edward.
"Come in, come in" he said quietly, his golden eyes alive with alertness. Something was not right, both Jake and Nessie looked at each other and shrugged. As soon as they walked into the house they were surrounded by a babble of voices, Nessie looked up inquisitively at her father, who indicated that she and Jake should go into the living room. All of the Cullen's turned to look at Nessie and Jake as they walked in, and all of them with the exception of Emmett looked just as troubled as Edward. Emmett just looked plain angry. The most peculiar sight in the room however was the man in the bathrobe; who sat with his hands in his lap, looking completely calm as he murmured a tune. He had a flowing, white beard, and wore half-moon spectacles.
"Uh, what's going on?" Jake said slowly. The man stopped humming, and looked up, a wide grin crinkling his already lined face. He stood up, quicker than a man half his age, and came to stand in front of Jake and Nessie who were looking somewhat shell-shocked.
The man held out a very creased hand, and said "Allow me to introduce myself; I am Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Renesmee shook his hand, and nodded politely; whilst Jake smiled as Dumbledore firmly grasped his hand.
"Please do sit down" the headmaster motioned to an empty sofa, Nessie suddenly felt like a stranger in her own home, as she and Jake stumbled into the seat. Bella and Edward, who were both standing by the door, had identical looks of worry on their faces. "Well first and foremost" began Dumbledore, all of the eyes in the room turned towards him, but he was addressing Nessie alone "I would like to apologise for the owl. You see I had already planned to come and visit you this morning, in order to discuss your extraordinary circumstances. Unfortunately something highly urgent came up, and in order to forewarn you of my arrival I had Professor McGonagall send in a generic letter. How do you feel about being a witch by the way?" Nessie was totally confused at this point, and wanted to know exactly why her entire family was present in her house, rather than answer silly questions, but she answered anyway because this was her future head after all.
"I feel like it's going to take me some time to come to terms with it all, I mean it is really exciting and everything, but its just such a big change." She said completely honestly. He nodded sagely, and his electric blue eyes seemed very content with this.
"It's perfectly normal to feel this way, but what would you say scares you the most?" It was as if he'd read Nessie's mind, because she had just been about to plead that Jake be allowed to go with her. She stared at the wall, terrified that this kind, old man would refuse her request "Well it's just really scary to leave everyone behind, especially Jake" she turned to look straight into his blue eyes and said "is there no way at all that he could come?" Dumbledore smiled widely.
"It so happens that he can come" Nessie's heart seemed to physically lighten with happiness.
"How?" Jake blurted out next to her, there was no way this man was going to instil false hope in Nessie's mind. Professor Dumbledore smiled, and extracted a small bottle filled with purple liquid from out of his robes. He surveyed both Jake and Nessie intently.
"I would like to ask both of your permissions so that I may speak for quite a length of time uninterrupted, as this would be the quickest way to fill you in. Renesmee you're grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles have already heard this before, and they may wish to do something else whilst I repeat myself or of course they could listen again." All of the Cullen's stayed exactly as they were. "This could be a lot to take in, but I must proceed. Is that fine with you both?" Jake and Nessie both looked apprehensive but nodded all the same.
"Very well then" he opened the bottle and drank all of the purple liquid "that's just so that I can talk at length without hurting my poor old throat. Well I suppose the first thing you're going to have to know about is Lord Voldermort, best to get the nastiest information out of the way." Jake surpressed a grin, was a man that called himself Voldermort seriously supposed to be scary? He is the darkest wizard of our time…" Jake zoned out whilst this man gave Voldy's history, he didn't really want to know, what relevance did some crackpot bad seed wizard have with anything? Besides he could so easily kill this guy.
"He attempted to murder Harry but the spell backfired, and he was reduced to a shadow of his former self. But now he's back, and we believe he's after Harry." Jake who had zoned in for this last sentence glanced at Nessie who looked spellbound by this story, damn thought Jake I missed something interesting didn't I? "That's not all he's after though" Dumbledore paused" he's after you, and your family too Renesmee. We don't know why as of yet, but one of our informants who acts as Voldermort's follower, overheard him telling someone else that he "needs the Cullen's if he is to win this war" and so it is best if you were to all come to Hogwarts where you can be properly protected." Jake had had enough.
"Hold on – I'm sorry I know you said don't interrupt but I had to. Why can't we just go up to old Voldy's lair and kill him? I know you think we're in grave danger and stuff, but trust me we can take him. Besides" Jake growled "anyone that wants to hurt Nessie needs to be very afraid of what I will do to them."
"Thank-you" roared Emmett, that's what I've been trying to say for the past goodness only knows how long!"
"I do apologise" Dumbledore said calmly "but you can not "take him" because you underestimate the powers of Lord Voldermort. I trust you all know Jane of the Volturi" every head in the room swivelled towards Dumbledore "well she crossed Voldermort's path just once, and then nobody heard from her again." Bella gasped, and Edward looked tormented.
"Alice didn't you see Jane getting killed?" Rosalie said looking genuinely scared for the first time that evening; she had seen the sheer horror on Alice's face when she had had that vision.
"I-I-I…" Alice was lost for words, and looked like she was going to cry "that was Lord Voldermort? He killed her?" she blurted out. Dumbledore sighed and nodded sadly. In that moment, and in the silence that had engulfed the room, everyone suddenly realised that this was deathly serious. Nessie shivered, and Jake wrapped his arms around her.
"I don't mean to scare you Renesmee, you'll be safer at Hogwarts than anywhere else in the world. I promise" Nessie nodded, and Jake smiled gratefully at Dumbledore.
"So what exactly do we do know?" Edward said, his angel's voice marred by pain, he would do anything to protect those he loved.
"Well" said Dumbledore "I have a plan. Clearly neither of you, apart from Renesmee look eleven, but this can be easily remedied with a simple ageing potion. A slightly trickier problem is the fact that neither of you, again with the exception of Renesmee, can do magic. There are people in our magical community that are known as squibs, in other words people who are born into a magical family but can do no magic. We could say that we are taking up the initiative to integrate squibs into the school, so that they are not ostracised from the magical community in the future. So you could all pretend to be squibs, this would then explain why none of you can do magic, and instead of lessons that involve magic you will go to more muggle (non-magic) oriented ones." He turned to Carlisle and Esme "and if you both wouldn't mind, you could be our non-magic professors." They smiled at thought of being teachers.
"How does this sound to everyone?" The Cullen's and Jake generally nodded in agreement. Nessie could not believe how much her life had changed in the space of a day, and was immensely relieved that at least they would all still be together. "Well that's settled then" said Dumbledore standing up. "Oh, just one more thing, he pulled a stick from out of his bathrobe and waved it in the air. Multiple sheets of paper came zooming towards them and two landed on each persons lap. "One is a map to Diagon Alley, whilst the other is a list of the items first years will need. I would have had Hagrid show you the way, but he's taking Harry so I trust you'll all be fine finding your way there." Everyone nodded, how hard could it be? "Well then, farewell until school starts. Don't be late, and no troublesome behaviour will be tolerated." he said smiling at Emmett who pretended to draw a halo around his head. Then just like that he vanished into thin air.