Granger + Danger, Swan + Wand

Author's Note: Hope you guys are enjoying it. :) I'm having one heck of a time writing it. I love these girls and doing a slash about them is heavenly. ;) Stay tuned. It'll get steamy pretty soon.

Chapter 2:

The Ministry had Hermione and Harry sweeping the forests of Devon, England, looking for a boggart that had been terroizing muggles on camping trips. They'd been searching for it since early that morning and now it was getting dark. Still no sign of the bugger.

Hermione stopped walking and ran a hand through her hair. She took out her wand and charmed her hair into a braid that ran down her back. Her brunette hair mostly stayed out of her eyes that way, save for the wisps that danced around her face. She flicked her wand, "Lumos minima," she said and a small light appeared at the tip of it. She turned to Harry. "I'm beginning to think that we'll never find this boggart," she told him.

"Yeah," he came around a tree pulling spiderwebs off of his glasses. "I'm beginning to think that too. I don't even really know where we're supposed to be looking."

"I feel the same way actually," Hermione sighed. "I'm rather afraid of what we will find. Have you thought about what you fear now that the war is over?"

Harry took his glasses off and wiped them on his t-shirt. "I haven't. And I don't know what the boggart would show. Maybe it would be best if you face it 'Mione."

"IF we ever find it," the witch said, and held her wand out in front of her. "Let's split up."

XXX

Bella liked the night time the most. She felt alive, in a manner of speaking, when it was dark. She could see just as well in the darkness as she could in during the day. Perhaps better. Sometimes she wouuld stand out by the pond and watch the late night wind push the lily pads around on the surface of the water. She could hear an uncountable amount of nocturnal animals stirring, and had the ability to stand still and not react. Her self control increased every day and she was to the point that she could go outside at night unaccompanied and stand among nature, unafraid of losing her mind. It had been nearly a year since her transition and though she worked constantly on her progress, it was painstaking and slow.

Tonight a new scent was carried on the wind, something fragrant and sweet, like the honeysuckle that grew outside of her father's house back in Forks. It perked her senses in a way that was unfamiliar to her. Bella closed her eyes and breathed deep. She could practically taste the scent now. It was close. She could feel the sticky sweetness of it floating in the air, in the way only a vampire could. It wasn't an animal. Her eyes snapped back open. She scanned the line of trees that petitioned the sanctuary and it's concealment charm from the rest of the world. She knew that if she stepped into the forest, she would risk being seen, but she couldn't resist getting closer. She had to find out where the smell was coming from.

Winchester and Richmond were inside. Richmond was in his study and Winchester was in the library, reading through his collection of imported first editions. She didn't have to worry about them. She crept into the forest, absolutely silently. She didn't have to move slow because she could be blindingly fast and completely stealthy simultaneously. However, she wanted to prolong the hunt. She wanted to take time.

Bella stepped easily around the trees. She sidestepped without any effort. In life she had been incredibly clumsy, but as a vampire, all of that was left behind. She radiated agility and grace. There was barely any of her human qualities left in her. The flaws had been replaced by unspeakable power. She went further into the forest until she couldn't hear the water sloshing in the pond anymore. The aroma got stronger until Bella's mind was overtaken with it. She had drank only the one glass of blood and it had barely satisfied her hunger. In the sanctuary, her eyes stayed a constant shade of red. Now her heart pounded. She took a step towards a tall oak, and then jumped swiftly, fifteen feet up into it's branches, perching effortlessly above the forest floor to wait.

XXX

Hermione hadn't heard anything in over an hour. Harry and she had split up and he'd taken the north part of the forest. She'd headed south. The ministry had told her that there was a sanctuary cloaked in the heart of the forest but neither one of them had came across it yet. She had no idea what the sanctuary was for but the ministry suggested that they did not try to find it. She'd read at least a hundred books on magical craetures since she'd become an Aurour but nothing seemed too dangerous to handle. Not for someone as skilled with magics as she was, or as powerful as Harry was. They weren't worried regardless.

But there was a chill in the air that Hermione couldn't quite shake. She stepped over wet, plastered together leaves, and kept a mental map in her head of the trees she's passed. She knew that if she were to get lost, she could send off a quick blast of magics to alert Harry, but she wasn't afraid of getting lost. She took a deep breath. It was more like she was afraid of being found. She could feel something watching her and it brought chills to her skin, prickling her arms and legs.

XXX

Bella saw her the second that she came into view- a girl around her age. Medium height with a braight of wavy brown hair. She was beautiful in this intimidating way. The honey-suckle scent hit her like a wave. It was radiating from the girl. Nothing that a human could smell but it was enough to drive Bella mad. She closed her eyes again, tried to focus her thoughts, to seperate hunger from curiousity. But they were so interwoven that she was quickly losing her control. She opened her eyes once more and let them lock onto her target.

The brunette stood with a wand in her right hand, holding it out before her, the tip of it illuminated only enough to light her way. She stood proud, but alert, with one hand at her side, and her legs far enough apart to break into a run at the hint of danger. She had on light blue-jeans that followed the curves of her legs exactly, and a tight, light blue sweater, over a white undershirt. The way the fabric laid on her chest wasn't something that Bella normally would have noticed. But nothing was normal anymore. Every breath that she took made her head spin faster. She watched the girl take another tentative step forward, and as she did, a gentle breeze pushed through the trees and wafted up to Bella. What Bella smelled was extremely feminine and overwhelming. It was a delicious scent, one that made her mouth water. It was unlike anything she'd ever came across as a human, and completely unfamiliar territory for her as a vampire. She tightened her grip on the tree branch and told herself to stay calm, to resist.

She watched the girl walk beneath her branch and as she passed directly beneath her, Bella held her breath.

"I know you're here Boggart," the brunette said and lifted the wand up higher. "You should show yourself now, you know," she said matter-of-factly, "And I'll make it a quick capture."

Her voice was like milk, smoothly poured into night air. And her accent was perfectly annunciated and all of her words were pronounced with the sort of ease that only a proper British girl could have. Bella couldn't handle it anymore.

"A quick capture?" she said, "Can you guarantee that?" This was the first time Bella had spoken to anyone but the Tranquils in over 10 months. Her words were almost unpracticed. She didn't know how to speak to humans anymore, especially this one.

The girl beneath her whipped around. "Lumos Maxima," she hissed, and her wand exploded with light, lit up the entire clearing. Bella was fifteen foot up though, and out of sight. "Why don't you come down here," the girl said, fear not obvious in her tone. "Let me see you..."

Bella nodded. "Alright." She lept, landed easily on the grass, ten, maybe twelve feet away from the girl. She felt powerful, strong, intimidating.

"You're not a boggart then," the brunette stood up straighter. "So what are you?"

"What are you?" Bella echoed. "Answer me first."

XXX