The first thing Hermione felt when she woke was her head trying to break off for another branch. Groaning, she opened her eyes, wincing at the bright light that she was assaulted with. After remembering what had happened, her first action was to reach for her bump, checking that there was no damage. Feeling the magic she had put in the dress still working, the witch sighed in relief and tried to move.

It took her a little but soon she was on her feet and looked around at where she was. The area was caged off, and looked to be a store room of some sort. In one corner, sitting on a storage box, was Hugo, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, they didn't hit me that hard," the man looked over at Hermione, "How about you?"

The witch didn't answer; she was too busy looking in at his most recent memories. Hugo had been working for the Fellowship for a year now, ever since Isabel had said she would never change him, and hadn't even been hit in the head, "You betrayed the woman who loves you dearly. And your friends call vampires monsters."

"She was never going to change me so that we could be together forever, she never loved me, so I worked out that I was nothing more than a fuck toy to Isabel and came to Steve. He allowed me to come in with open arms, even allowed me the privilege to get back at her and her nest by being a spy for the church."

"Is Godric even here?"

Hugo nodded, "Yes, he will be sacrificed when the sun rises in 6 hours."

As fast as possible, Hermione had her wand in her hand, "Stupefy."

The red light hit Hugo dead in the chest, making him slumped forward, cracking his head open on the concrete. Grateful she still had her purse on her, the witch found a scrap of paper and a pen. On it she wrote Eric a note, 'Eric, Hugo is to be treated as my prisoner, and I have claimed the rights to punish him. I am fine; going in search of Godric now, will hopefully only be an hour. See you, Hermione.'

"Portus," Hermione tapped the parchment then used a thumb tack to stick it onto Hugo. 5 seconds later, he vanished and the witch unlocked the gate.

The basement, or wherever she was, was rather large and it took a while before the brunette came across a room. Walking inside, Hermione was stunned when she saw a teenage boy sitting and reading a book, "Godric?"

Had Hermione blinked she would have missed the vampire close his book and stand in front of her, "Who are you?"

"I'm Hermione Potter, and I was sent to find you by your childe, Eric. He is very worried about you, as is the rest of your nest."

"You are bleeding," Godric stated, "Please, sit."

"Oh bugger," the witch took a seat on the bed and began searching through her bag, pulling out 3 vials, passing two over to Godric and downing the other, "Urgh that is disgusting. If you could please smear some of the purple potion onto the wound first and then the brown one."

The vampire nodded, first find the large slice, "How did this happen?"

Hermione hissed as the Wound-Cleaning Potion did its job, "Fucking Gabe belted me in the back of the head, knocking me out. Bloody lucky I had the foresight to charm my dress so that my twins weren't hurt, or I'd kill the arsehole."

"There," Godric passed back the vials and sat across from the witch.

After putting her potions back in her bag, Hermione took a good look at the vampire. He was no more than 16 when changed, which tugged at the witch's heart as a waste. The same height as Eric, 6 foot 4, with short flat deep chestnut hair and forest green eyes. He was muscular but not thick, and his arms were highly tattooed, many of them were runes that she recognised. There was marking that was not a tattoo, and Hermione easily recognised it as a branding, about the size of her hand, and in the shape of a lightning bolt, visible on his chest.

It was the look in his eyes that Hermione noticed most, it was the look that her love had just before dying in her arms, he was giving up, "You weren't kidnapped were you?"

"No, I offered myself as a sacrifice to help mend fences between humans and vampires."

"Why though? Your death would do nothing but destroy a lot of vampires who respect and care for you, there will always be humans that hate and fear, it doesn't give a rat's arse if the one they fear is a vampire or not.

Godric sighed, "You do not understand, neither do the others that sent you. I have been alive for over 2000 years and killed many people for the sake of pleasure, not food. I want to be able to forget the things that have made me a monster and seek forgiveness from those I have killed."

"You aren't a monster. I have laughed in the face of a true monster, and you are not one. You said it yourself; you seek forgiveness from those you have killed. I swear to you, once you have passed on, as long as you are repentant, you will be forgiven," seeing his disbelief, Hermione tried another tactic, "Despite not knowing me, would you consider me a monster?"

"No"

"And yet I have personally killed close to 20 people, and do not feel the slightest bit guilty about their deaths. Am I now a monster?"

The vampire was shocked but still adamant, "No."

"Then why are you if you are guilty for those lives that you have taken? A wise man once told me that your past can never be changed but you can use it to prevent the same things happening in the future. Do you understand?"

"I believe so but how can you be so sure that there is another side?"

"My husband. He witnessed it and told me all about it before ending up there. I have to believe that he wouldn't have lied to me and that he is watching down on me from above, assisting me with my troubles," Hermione laughed, "You seem to have the same mindset, sacrifice yourself to save others."

Seeing that he had saddened the woman, Godric asked the obvious question, "What exactly are you?"

"I'm a witch and we need to get going," stand and holding open her arms, "I'm going to take you back to Eric even if I do it by force."

It was obvious that the witch wasn't joking, so Godric moved into Hermione's arms, wrapping his own around her. Both were aware of the shots of energy that went through them at their touching, but ignored it as Hermione apparated away, the vampire's arms barely flinching at the uncomfortable sensation.

When they landed, the first thing Hermione said was, "You handled that a lot better than Eric and Pam did."

"Really? I must remember to tell my childe and grandchilde that you said that," Godric smiled down at the girl he was holding still, "How does your head feel?"

"It throbs but I can't take many pain potions while pregnant. Thank you for helping me with that," realising that the others would probably be there soon, Hermione then asked, "Do you want me to hide the fact you wished to kill yourself?"

The vampire shook his head, "No, they deserve the truth. Plus, I don't think I will be trying again, you've reminded me of everything I have that is good here."

Hermione was pleased but her eyes drifted to the brand, "May I ask where you got that scar?"

"My maker placed it on me before I was changed; it remained after I became a vampire somehow. Why?"

"It just reminds me of another scar I've seen; perhaps I'll show you a picture one day."

"I would like that Hermione," the pair connected eyes.

The witch blushed lightly; she could see many emotions floating on the surface. Just then the doors burst open and 4 vampires ran in, reminding her that she was still in Godric's arms. Reluctantly stepping out of his embrace, the brunette was held beside him by his hand on her arm.

"Hermione, Godric, are you alright?" Eric asked in a rush.

"I am fine Eric, but I think Hermione could use a pain killer."

Pam rushed to get one and a bottle of water, "What did they do to you? Hugo had a gaping head wound when he got here and he hasn't woken yet."

Downing the pills and half the bottle, Hermione then growled, "Fucking arsehole was a spy for the Fellowship, and he did nothing when Gabe hit me over the head except voluntarily join me in the cage they locked us into. He's stunned and the head wound is from when he hit the ground after I stunned him. I am so sorry Isabel."

The Spanish vampire shook her head, "It can't be true, he would never betray me like that."

"Why don't we allow Hermione to rouse him and ask him ourselves?" Godric suggested, leading Hermione to a couch and sitting beside her.

Stan and Eric ran into Hermione's room to get the man, bringing him back and placing him onto a wooden chair. From her seat, the witch retrained him before hitting him with the reversal. As was the way with the counter-spell, Hugo tried to jump forward from the adrenalin boost. When he realised where he was and what was happening, he began to struggle, "Isabel, let me free please love."

"Hugo did you betray me as Hermione says you did?" The vampire already had a trail of blood tears running down her face.

Seeing that the witch was sitting beside Godric, Hugo slumped in the seat, "Of course not, I would never betray our love."

Eric and Pam growled, "What about the fact you were uninjured by those humans at the church while Hermione was?"

"They did injure me, I can see the blood"

"I did that you arsehole," Hermione spat out at the quivering man.

Seeing that he had no way to get out of his position, Hugo went vicious, "It's all your fault Isabel. Had you simply changed me so that we could be together forever none of this would have happened. The Fellowship gave me a chance to redeem myself."

Isabel slapped her former lover across the face, drawing blood from his now broken nose, "Go to hell. Whoever's prisoner he is can have him."

"Oh, he's mine and we're going to have some fun," Hermione twirled her wand menacingly.

"NO! You can't do this to me," Hugo screamed before the witch simply stunned him once more.

Holstering her wand on her thigh once more, the brunette closed her eyes as she asked, "Anyone have suggestions as to what I should do with him?"

"You could give him to me to punish," Pam suggested.

"I'd like to join you sugar if you get him," the tall Texan drawled out.

"As much fun as that would be, I think I'll just do to him as I did to my parents. Wipe his mind of everything involving Isabel, vampires, and the Fellowship, then send him on his way with a suggestion that he wants to live in Antarctica or something like that."

Godric nodded beside her, "That seems a good enough punishment but perhaps make the location Russia, very cold and he doesn't know a word of Russian."

Hermione sent a soft smile to the vampire she was sitting next to, and then stood, walking over to the stunned man. Going into his mind, the witch erased every memory involving a vampire or the Fellowship, before implanting the compulsion that he wanted to live in Russia for the rest of his life. Pulling out she sat back onto the couch, "Once I enervate him again, quickly put him outside, he'll be fine."

Stan had him over his shoulder in a second after the red beam hit, and quickly slammed the door on the just roused man before taking a seat, "Godric, how did the Fellowship get you?"

"And why did you not escape?" Pam questioned.

"They did not catch me, I tried to sacrifice myself to save all other vampires," the oldest vampire admitted.

Everyone but Hermione gasped, "Why?"

"I have been on this earth for over 2 centuries and the killings had gotten to me. You needn't worry though, Hermione was stubborn enough to show me the error of my ways," Godric reached down and grabbed the brunette's hand, squeezing it thankfully.

"It would seem that Godric has saving person issues, very easy to spot when you've dealt with it for the past 7 years. But he's not going to try again, are you?" Hermione looked at the vampire with a quirked eyebrow.

Godric shook his head, "I've learnt the error of my ways."

Hermione yawned widely, "Oh, my apologies. I think I will be on my way to bed. Should anyone be in need of a place to sleep, I have plenty of space in my room available. Good night."

"Good night"