DISCLAIMER- I still don't own either series.
CHAPTER TWO
It would be another week before Hermione was able to start a life in Forks like she'd planned.
She'd gone over to look at the homes for sale and was incredibly thankful that she'd be able to easily re-do the inside to her tastes.
She'd bought the one from the family moving to China because it was slightly outside of town and felt more natural than the other, which was right in the center of Forks.
Her new house was in a meadow in the forest and had a huge winding driveway to get to it. The driveway leads straight up to a huge 5 car garage connected to the laundry room in the house. It's a somewhat large house with a very…bright color scheme.
The outside was a tolerable shade of sky blue with yellow shutters, but the inside had to go; it had to go far away and never return. Hermione couldn't understand how the previous owners had been able to stand it. Every room was a different color; most were pastels, some were neon.
The only positive thing Hermione could say about it was that it was better than the other house, which had a country-western theme.
The best way to change the colors in the house was to just eliminate all colors and start from scratch, so that's what she did. Bella had watched, fascinated, as the bright colors all disappeared and left the walls a boring white.
They'd let Teddy chose what color he wanted to start off with in the new decoration and come up with a color scheme to go with it.
He chose purple, so the house was now decorated with light purples, silvers, blacks, and whites on the walls and the same for items such as couches, pillows, and sheets.
With the open floor-plan that was original to the house, and less gaudy colors, the house was quite comfortable once they were settled in.
It had four bedrooms, all on the upper floor, and Hermione's room was right across the Hall from Teddy's.
After they'd gotten settled into the new house, Hermione had gone back to England and gone through the proper channels in order to begin the process of transferring her citizenship over from the Magical Britain to Magical America. It was a lot easier than going through the muggle governments would've been. Magical governments were rather lax about their security and were very willing to let nearly anyone in.
She and Teddy were now in the United States legally, and that was enough to make Charlie happy.
And Hermione even went and took a test to get an American driver's license, which made Charlie really happy.
Other than house-hunting, Hermione had been working on her main reason for being in Forks. She'd tried talking to Bella, but it was terribly difficult. Bella did have her good moments, like Charlie had said, where she was acting like a normal person, but they weren't all that common. It was usually when you got her totally distracted from whatever she'd been thinking about that she was fully aware of her surroundings.
Most of the time, she was off in her own world; not talking to anyone and not responsive if you tried to start a conversation.
Hermione couldn't get Bella to talk about what was wrong with her. She denied that there even was anything wrong.
Hermione had asked Charlie to tell her more about what had happened before the complete turn-around in his daughter.
"All I've been able to figure out is that a few months ago she went on a date with Edward Cullen; they went to go play baseball with his family. That night she was on her way back to Arizona; she said she didn't want to get attached to anyone in this town. Dr. Cullen and Edward went chasing her to bring her back.
"Last week I came home and found a note from Bella saying that she'd gone for a walk in the woods. I waited a while but she never came back, so I went looking for her on the trail. I couldn't find her, so I called up anyone who would know these woods. It was two hours later when one of the boys from the reservation managed to find her and carry her out. She wasn't reacting to anything at all, only saying 'He's gone.' Over and over again. The only 'he' I knew of in Bella's life was Edward, so I called the Doctor to see if he knew anything about it.
"Her boyfriend, Edward, had decided to leave town and his family and move back to Alaska, where the Cullens lived before they moved here. He took her for a walk in the woods and told Bella he was leaving town and just left her there in the woods! But they were only dating around three weeks, and I just don't understand how it's affected her so badly! It's only been a little over a week, but I'm worried about her health."
Bella would flinch if anyone mentioned this Edward guy around her and she would never talk about him herself. Hermione really didn't understand it either.
Even after the war no one Hermione had known broke down like that and Hermione had no idea what Charlie thought she'd be able to do for Bella.
The only thing Hermione could think to do was become Bella's friend and hope she'd eventually open up and talk about it.
After Hermione had gotten moved into town she decided that she'd like to have something to do during the days. Job options were rather limited in Forks, but Bella had said something about the high school's Art and Talented Drama teachers leaving the school and getting married and moving to Las Vegas a few months ago. Hermione had kept it well hidden through the years, but she was actually a fairly good artist and she was considering applying for the art teacher position. It would take a few falsified documents and a new, falsified, age, but she was fairly sure she might be able to get the job.
Hermione contacted Professor McGonagall and was soon the proud owner of a set of a Diploma saying that she'd graduated from an 'alternative learning center' in Scotland and had then taught there for a few years. Hermione wasn't exactly sure how she felt about the whole 'alternative learning center' bit, but she did appreciate that the Headmistress had made it seem like she had teaching experience and would therefore be qualified to teach at a High School, even if it wouldn't be a complicated class like geometry.
Her documents were all easy enough to modify to show that she was 24 years old instead of 20.
She put together a portfolio of some of her art before contacting the school about the opening as an Art teacher. It included some sketches she'd done of her friends while they thought she was doing homework, a painting of Firenze, and a few others that she was particularly fond of. Her favorite was of Harry on the day of the First Task; the sketch showed him in mid-leap jumping behind a boulder as the angered Horntail shot flames that only missed him by inches. She'd liked the sketch so much when she finished it that she'd re-done it as a painting, but it just wasn't as impressive as the first. A close second of her favorites was one that she'd drawn of Teddy while he looked up in awe at Harry's animagus form and stretched his arm out to feel the glorious green-eyed lion's fur just above his nose.
Forks High School was thrilled to have someone apply for the position and asked her to come on in for an interview the next day.
The Principal was enchanted by Hermione's work and the 'vivid imagination' that she showed through the work that didn't exactly fit with the muggle definition of reality. The glowing recommendation from Headmistress McGonagall didn't hurt either. She was hired for the job and was going to start the next week.
.
She invited Bella over for the weekend before she would begin working at the school. Her plan to become a good friend of Bella's had to start somewhere, and Hermione was hoping that a weekend away from Charlie would be a good chance for that.
"Bella, do you have any idea for something fun to do today?" It was Sunday morning now, and they'd been just hanging out around the house since Friday night watching movies or reading the entire time. About the most interesting thing they'd done was work with Teddy on teaching him the alphabet.
"Not really." She replied, uninterested.
"Oh. Well, how about we go to Seattle? Or maybe some other bigger city? Do you like shopping?" Hermione realized that she actually had no idea what sort of things her cousin liked to do.
Bella visibly shivered as she answered "I hate shopping; it's more Alice's idea of fun than it is mine."
Hermione smiled; that was the way she used to be too, before she started to be a little more outgoing. That was when it became fun to go shopping and search for the things she liked and would want.
Maybe Bella just needs to get out more.
"Who's Alice?" Hermione knew Bella probably didn't want to talk about it from the way Bella had closed her eyes, as if she were in pain, when she said Alice's name, but she asked anyway; hoping to get Bella to talk to her.
"She was a friend. I don't think she likes me anymore."
"Why wouldn't she?"
"I ran her brother out of town. The entire family is bound to hate me now."
"Bella, no one could hate you; and if they do then they aren't worth your time. You know that, right?"
Hermione was glad that she seemed to be getting somewhere with Bella now and that she was actually talking about it, but she didn't like how Bella seemed to think the Cullens could hate her. Hermione couldn't imagine how it could be Bella's fault that the boy had left.
But Bella never answered, she just zoned out and went back into her own head. It was scary how easily she did that.
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It was around 1 AM the next morning before Bella uttered another sound.
And it was one Hermione wasn't pleased to hear. It was a terrified scream, and the next second after the scream there was a series of loud thuds starting upstairs and ending downstairs.
Hermione was woken up by the noise and rushed to the source of the noise to discover the problem. She found something she truly wished she hadn't.
Her cousin was sprawled at the bottom of the stairs with an arm and a leg bent at obviously unnatural angles and there were a few bleeding gashes on the side of her head.
One of Teddy's toys was bouncing down the stairs behind Bella. Hermione guessed that Bella must've tripped over it and fallen down the staircase. The gashes were probably from the hand-rail; it was quite pointy on the ends. Or maybe just from the hard wood of the stairs.
Bones and head-wounds weren't exactly things Hermione was qualified to work with, so Hermione couldn't heal her cousin. Bella would have to go to the Hospital.
Thankfully, Bella was still somewhat conscious and able to able to respond to simple questions. Hermione was fairly sure that was a good sign.
It's a good thing Charlie had told Hermione where to find the hospital just off the highway about ten miles out of town.
She levitated Bella out to the garage and put her in the passenger seat of the fastest of the many vehicles Hermione owned: Harry's baby, the Canary Yellow Porsche 911 Turbo.
They were halfway to the Hospital before Hermione realized something important. In the panic to help her cousin, she'd forgotten her son alone at the house.
"Bloody Hell! ...That's it; Roxy!" Hermione called.
"Yes, Mistress Potter, what can Roxy do for you?" Said the Potter Family's head elf, who was now sitting in Bella's lap where she'd appeared when called.
Hermione hadn't been thrilled, of course, when she found out about the dozen or so house elves working for the Potters, but when she discovered that they'd been working for the Potters for many, many, generations and had absolutely no desire to leave, and they were very well taken care of, she'd stopped protesting about having them around. Instead, she just made sure to treat them as kindly as possible.
"I need you to go to my new house and watch Teddy for a little while. I don't know when I'll be back, but it might be a while. Can you do that?"
"Definitely, Mistress Potter."
"Thank you, Roxy."
And the elf disappeared with an echoing crack.
Two minutes later Hermione was pulling into the ER drop-off area at the hospital.
She jumped out of her car and ran into the building. "I need help! My cousin fell down the stairs and she's not looking too good!"
A few nurses came rushing over and one asked "Where is she?"
"In my car." Hermione answered and ran back out to the car waiting just outside the doors; she could hear the nurses following.
They managed to get Bella into the emergency room and the nurses immediately kicked Hermione out to wait in the waiting area.
While she waited for news, Hermione called Charlie and explained what she believes happened to him; he said he'd be right over.
Hermione paced back and forth across the room, only able to think 'Bella's never going to want to talk to me or Teddy again. And Charlie will hate me now. I can't believe I've nearly killed Bella!'
It was as if the words were on permanent repeat in her brain.
When Charlie got there and saw her, he just said "Relax, Hermione. Bella's always in the Hospital; she'll be fine." But it sounded like he was convincing himself. He'd been told about the injuries and knew they were pretty ugly.
Hermione doubted Bella was in any danger of dying, but she doubted that she'd be fine too soon. Those breaks really were ugly looking, and quite painful according to Bella.
She couldn't help but feel even worse than she already did when Charlie suddenly started looking around and then asked "Where's Teddy?"
"He's at home."
"Alone! What are you still doing here, then?"
"He's not alone; he's being watched by-" she lowered her voice to avoid anyone hearing "he's being watched by one of my house elves."
"What?"
"A house elf, they work for families in my world." Hermione didn't want to say anything else about it in public where they might be overheard.
"Ok. Are you sure he's alright?"
"He's fine."
They were silent for another two hours before they got news on how Bella was doing.
The news came in the form of one of the most beautiful human beings Hermione had ever seen. She couldn't help but stare at him when the Doctor walked over to Charlie. She noted the odd way that he paused in his walk while going over to Charlie, and how his golden eyes flicked over toward her before returning to Charlie. Charlie didn't notice it; he was too focused on getting information out of the doctor.
"Dr. Cullen," Charlie began "how is she?"
"Bella will be fine Charlie, and I've told you before to call me Carlisle." The doctor was very calm and friendly, so Hermione was fairly sure he was telling the absolute truth about Bella being alright. It let her relax for the first time in hours. "Her left arm and leg were both broken in two spots, and she had three gashes on her head: two on her face and one on the back of her head. Those needed stitches, but not too many; only five, total. And she has a pretty bad concussion, so I'd like for her to stay here for a few days; that way we can keep an eye on that."
"Whatever you suggest, Doct- Carlisle."
"You can go see her whenever you like, she's in room 279. How has she been lately, Charlie? I know all of us, especially Alice, have missed seeing her around."
"Just know that if I ever see that boy of yours he's going to have a lot to answer for, but she's been doing better since Hermione got here." Charlie pulled Hermione into the conversation, he'd probably sensed that she felt a little useless just standing there listening to them.
If the way she's been is better, than I'd really hate to have seen her before.
"Oh, hello Ms…?"
"You can call me Hermione; I'm Bella's cousin." She said, reaching out to offer a handshake.
"Then you can call me Carlisle." He smiled and took her hand.
Hermione blushed when he bowed and lightly kissed the back of her hand. The only other person she'd ever known to do that was Sirius and it was a part of the way he was raised, she really hadn't expected that.
But sweet Merlin, he's gorgeous…he's terribly cold, though.
"Hello, then, Carlisle."
"I'm grateful that you're helping Bella. My son was an idiot for leaving her behind. Are you in town for long?"
"I should be; I've just moved into a house on the outskirts of town a week ago."
"That's nice, hopefully I'll see you around someplace other than the hospital."
They probably would've talked for a while longer, but Carlisle had to excuse himself to go back to his patients.
As it was nearly 4 in the morning, Hermione decided she'd better go home and take a short nap before she had school at 8.
She told Charlie that she was leaving and went home.
When she got there, Roxy had Teddy sound-asleep in his room. She told Hermione that he'd been awake when she'd arrived at the house, but he'd gone back to sleep easily.
Hermione figured that he was probably woken up earlier by the noises of Bella's fall.
He always was too quiet to let someone know when he was awake, or when he wanted something.
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6 AM came far too quickly, and that was when Hermione's alarm was set to wake her up.
The night before when she'd first gone to sleep she'd thought that getting up at 6 would give her plenty of time to get both herself and Teddy ready for the day and to get him to the daycare in town where he would be while she went to work at the school.
When 6 came around, Hermione decided that it was way too early to be awake and hit the snooze button rather than get up.
By the time she was ready to abandon sleep it was nearly 45 minutes later than she'd planned to be up.
Well, there went my plan of being early.
Teddy already up and waiting when she got to his room to get him dressed. She nearly laughed when she looked at him.
He'd tried to get himself ready for the day, and he'd done a fairly good job, too.
His little jumper was on backwards and his shoes were on the wrong feet, but other than that it was a pretty good attempt.
The clothes even went well together.
Then again, it's hard to go wrong with jeans and a jumper, which is what he'd put on.
"You did a good job getting dressed, little man. Did you know Mummy was running late and try to help her out?"
He nodded and said "I hear' the beepin'"
Oops. I didn't know my alarm would wake him up, too. I didn't think it would be that loud.
"I'm sorry. You want some breakfast before daycare?"
"Chocolate. "
She giggled a little; He's exactly like Professor Lupin with all the chocolate. "We can't have that for breakfast. How about some porridge, instead?"
He made a face at that."Nooo. Chocolate."
She rolled her eyes. "You can put chocolate in it." She picked him up, cutting off further protests, and carried him down to the kitchen, where she already had his porridge with chocolate waiting for him with a warming charm on it. He was very predictable.
Every morning he would ask for chocolate, and some mornings Hermione would find a way to work it into breakfast for him.
By the time he'd finished making a mess of the dining room and himself, and Hermione had finished using liberal amounts of cleaning charms, it was time to leave ten minutes ago.
In the garage, Hermione looked at the clock on her phone and grimaced.
The faster car it is, then.
She buckled Teddy into his seat in the Porsche and then they took off.
All of their cars had a ridiculous amount of safety spells put on them, and so they were all safe enough for Teddy to be fine in the front seat of the ones without backseats. They were covered in so many safety spells that even if a boulder were dropped on top of one of their vehicles, there wouldn't be a dent.
The daycare was a small place about a mile from the grocery store and welcomed children between the ages of 8 months and 8 years.
Even with such a large age gap there were barely 25 kids there.
Hermione wondered what the other parents did with their kids while they went to work.
Maybe most families have one stay-at-home parent in this town.
By the time Teddy had accepted the fact that she had to go, but would be back later, Hermione only had 20 minutes before she would be late for her first class.
It was a good thing the school was never more than ten minutes from anywhere in Forks and only five from Teddy's daycare.
There were seven periods each day, but all the teachers only had to teach six. Hermione was off for third period. Each period was one hour long.
The only problem might be people, because from the way they were looking at her it was like she was the shiny new toy to kindergarteners. The students were fascinated, it seemed like they thought she was another new student. Even the teachers were being really friendly, and Hermione wasn't the kind to really socialize all that much.
Who knows, though, maybe that'll change?
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Author's note- Was it any good? You should tell me what you thought, maybe in a review?
Thanks for reading,
21ShootingStars.
P.S- For those of you who celebrate it, Merry Christmas. Oh, and Happy New Year!