12 December
Dear Jasper,
First off, Happy Christmas. At least, it will be around the time you get this letter. I wish I could get you something, but I'm not really in any position to be doing any type of shopping. I'm going to have to owe you something. Give me a few suggestions, and I'll see what I can make happen. I don't know exactly when I'm going to be done with what we're working on. To tell the truth we are no closer to our goal than the last time I wrote you, with one glaring exception. Ron is gone. He got frustrated with our search and decided to leave. He wanted me to leave with him, but I think that what I'm doing is too important to not finish. I have to stay the course until Harry and I find everything we're looking for. I just never pictured something like this. I knew that things would be hard. I knew we were ill-prepared for what lie ahead, but I never thought that this would be the end of our friendship. It just seemed like it was meant to be all three of us, together until the task was over, and we were all safe. But I'm starting to get a growing sense of unease about what lies ahead. Even if we accomplish our mission we've got a fight ahead of us. Our brethren are already out there fighting, and right now it appears they are losing. Our news from the outside has been somewhat limited and dated. Save for the way I'm getting letters to you we've cut ourselves off from the outside world. I could get news the same way I get your letters, but I'd rather not. The more I read about death and destruction on the outside world, the less sure of my future I become. Some days I do so desire to take you up on your constant offers to just leave this place and move in with your family. I'd love to just spend a day sitting and watching the trees, the mountains, the wildlife... or watch the moon over the ocean while sitting on a cliff. The pictures you sent of all those places give me a reprieve from my current situation. I could never express enough gratitude for that.
I know you are anxious, and from the tone of your letters it seems like you're itching to come over like some white knight and rescue me from my current situation, but I implore you to please stay where you are. Exchanging letters is risky enough. I live in constant fear that one of them will be intercepted and you and your family will be in as much danger as I, and I feel horrid for even risking it. We are communicating the safest way possible, but there's always risk. And as such even Aunt Arabella doesn't know where I am. She just knows where to leave the mail for me to find. And she is quite loyal and reliable, stating she'd rather die than give up what she knows about Harry and I. But I did have to promise to look after her cats if that happens, and frankly my Crookshanks prefers to be an only kitty.
Perhaps the weather is making me feel like the world is pressing in, perhaps it's just the darker days with little food, but I feel the need to say this Jasper. It may alarm you, and it will probably only serve to make you even more ready to come over and find me, and I want to remind you that I'd much rather you stay in America. But I wanted to say that your letters have truly been my lifeline. Some days I'm not sure how I keep going, and those are the days I know I can pull out the pictures you have sent me and the letters you have written and gain the strength to know I can go on a little longer. I know that I may not make it, and that there is a good chance that one day the letter you receive will be my last. I will do my best to survive, but I have also prepared to give everything, including my life, for this cause, and if my sacrifice can keep someone else alive it's a sacrifice I'm happy to make. In case this letter is the last, I want you to know that I feel a connection with you that I haven't ever felt with someone, not even Harry or Ron. With them I feel a dependence, almost like feeling taken advantage of at times, but I never feel that with you. You seem to get such satisfaction just receiving a letter, and I find it fascinating and humbling at the same time. Please never lose that passion for such a simple thing like opening a letter or reading a book a chapter at a time. Never forget that, no matter your past or your emotions that you have meant all the difference to this girl's life. I will thank you for every moment I'm still on this earth.
Love from Hermione
She sealed the letter, wrote the return address under 'Arabella Figg', and dug into her bag for the beat-up looking box, just big enough to hold the envelope. She slid the letter into the worn velvet-lined interior, cast it one last look, then closed it. She would check once an hour to see if Mrs. Figg had picked it out of the identical box she had safely stored in her house. Mrs. Figg, happy to be of help to Hermione even in the extremely limited capacity, would pick up the letters and place them in the mail. When a letter from Jasper arrived she would put that in the box, and send it to Hermione. Jasper was sending about one a day, and Hermione knew Mrs. Figg usually picked up her mail around eleven thirty, so she would check the box about five minutes after that. But unless he was replying to one of her letters Jasper's were pretty much all the same- please leave, get out of there, come live with my family or in a hotel or in Tahiti for all he cared as long as she got out. Or, they were begging for her to let him come, to help, to do whatever he could to help save her life. Begging him to stay was only keeping him held back so much, and she wasn't sure how much longer he would hold out. She speculated that he hadn't shown up only because he had no idea where she really was.
Cooking a meager breakfast, washing their clothes, Hermione tried everything to keep herself occupied until eleven thirty-five. She couldn't help but checking early. At five to eleven she opened the box, hoping that maybe the mail got delivered early, that maybe she wouldn't have to wait today, but it was empty. At least her letter was going out today. She re-read the chapter she had read yesterday from the book they were sharing, and at eleven thirty-four the letter was waiting for her in her box. The book landed on her bunk with a soft thud and a small cloud of dust as she ripped the letter open and read through the whole thing in less than a minute. It was amazing how many different ways Jasper could beg for her location, once even trying to trick her by asking her to send some pictures of where she was. After threatening to cut off communication he agreed to back off, but she could tell it was hesitantly. In this letter there were five pictures, different views of Seattle taken from the ocean at different times of the day, from dawn until night. She studied each picture, imagining herself out on a boat, waiting until the perfect second to take each photo.
"And how is he?" Harry's voice sounded, snapping her back to the tent and the cold.
"Who?" she asked, placing the letter and the pictures hastily next to her.
"Jasper. At least, that's who I'm assuming all these letters are from."
"How do you know about..?" she asked in surprise.
"Without admitting guilt, I may or may not have snooped through your bookbag last year looking for your astronomy notes, and I may or may not have found a half-finished letter to this Jasper. And if I did, which you'll remember I'm not admitting to, I'll say that it sure sounded like the two of you had been conversing for quite some time."
As angry as she felt she should be, she couldn't suppress the smile that crossed her lips at her friends antics because it reminded her of her times at Hogwarts. Doing her best to sound stern she said, "You knew, and you didn't ask anything?"
"He was more than ready to do so," Harry replied bitterly, purposely avoiding saying Ron's name. "It's why he didn't talk to you for a while."
"Oh, there was a break in there?" she grumbled.
"He is quite good at giving the cold shoulder, isn't he?"
"I'd rather not talk about him," she replied, tears welling up in her eyes. Harry sat next to her on her bunk, carefully moving her pictures to do so, a supportive hand resting on her arm.
"Fine. Let's talk about Jasper. You seem to be writing him a lot, and I know you've been reading books he's sent you, since I could set my watch by you pulling out that book every day. So, tell me a little bit about him."
"He's American. I met him on vacation in Paris, and he seemed really nice. I didn't talk to him for long, but there was a bit of a connection there when we were talking. Like instant friends, I guess."
"What kind of connection?" he raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked, wringing her hands.
"Is there something, you know, romantic going on between you?"
"No! It's just letters," she replied quickly.
"Is it?" he smirked.
She studied his eyes and bit her lip. "It's not like that," she finally reaffirmed.
"Do you want it to be?" he asked.
Her lip was turning white from how hard she was biting it as she stared down at the pictures. "Harry, would you be able to accept me with someone, no matter wha... who they are?"
"What, does he have three arms or something?" he chuckled.
"No," she laughed, hitting him with her pillow.
"Hermione, if there is anyone out there who deserves someone who makes them so happy that they can have a smile plastered across their face just by looking at some pictures of trees and mountains from a place they've never been and are convinced they never see, it's you. So, in a short answer, yes."
"Thanks, Harry," she smiled, letting him envelop her in a hug.
"Now, can we talk about Godric's Hallow?" he asked.
XXXXXX
"You know, if you keep making the pilots anxious and angry they're likely to just crash this thing into the ocean, and if we have to swim over there it's going to take longer," Rosalie snapped at Jasper, who was pacing up and down the aisle of the private jet Carlisle had rented to take them to London.
"Shut up," Jasper hissed, shooting her a look that dared her to respond. He kicked the graduation cap sitting on the floor, and cursed the fact that he agreed to stay for the blasted ceremony. Damn Alice and her ability to see when he was about to buy a ticket to England. Damn Edward for knowing exactly when he made a split-second decision to run for it when Alice was out hunting with no phone. Damn Carlisle and Esme for always knowing exactly what to say to keep him from running to help her. Damn Emmett for following him around, making jokes about his 'human girlfriend'. And damn Rosalie, just for good measure, for constantly saying that no human girl is worth the emotions that Jasper was subjecting their family to.
In the end he agreed to leave just after their graduation ceremony, which had been held up by some clumsy chick named Bella, the police chiefs' daughter, falling and twisting her ankle and needing some medical attention before the ceremony could keep going. Edward had to suppress a chuckle as Jasper had imagined 'one hundred and one ways to kill Bella Swan' because of the delay. The moment the ceremony was over the Cullens beat a hasty retreat, not that anyone in the town would care, and were in the air within an hour, the whole family heading to London to help find Hermione.
"Your stress is making it difficult to concentrate," Alice added from the back of the plane. She was focusing all her energy on trying to find Hermione, or any hint of the fight that was going on, but there was still nothing. She could get visions from all over England, but when she specifically tried to narrow in on Hermione, her Aunt Arabella, or the two friends she mentioned were traveling with her, she hit a wall. The most she got was occasional glimpses of Arabella, but they were all mundane activities like going to the grocery store or taking a walk accompanied by a lot of cats. And while she wouldn't admit it, she was almost as frustrated as Jasper.
Thinking that their best bet to find Hermione was Alice Jasper tried to take in the calm feelings Carlisle was exuding and sat down, but it didn't stop him from checking his watch every five minutes.
"Nothing," Alice grumbled as the plane touched down. "I saw Arabella Figg out walking her cats but I lost her again, so I can assume she's home, but I can't get anything around Hermione."
"Thanks for trying," Jasper muttered back, frustration evident in his voice. They hurried into the airport to pass through customs. As they were waiting Edward nudged Jasper hard and nodded towards a television behind him.
"...has released information regarding the so-called Dragon that was supposedly seen flying out of the middle of London this morning," a pretty blonde news anchor was saying. A grainy clip of what indeed appeared to be a large, color-drained dragon flapping higher over the city appeared.
The group saw it, what the human eyes couldn't, what the camera quality was too poor to pick up, and what no eagle-eyed witness would possibly be looking for sitting astride a giant dragon that had seemingly popped out of no where. They all saw it, but Rosalie said it- "Are there three people on it's back?"
Jasper stared at the screen, body rigid, eyes unblinking as the footage played again and the anchor gave some lame excuse about a prop getting away from a crew filming in the area. He wasn't sure how, but he knew that one of those three tiny figures was Hermione. When they made it through customs he didn't bother waiting for a cab. Night had fallen- he had the advantage when it came to moving. Edward was the only one with a prayer of keeping up, and within minutes he was pounding on Arabella Figg's door.
"Can I help you?" she asked, opening the door a crack.
"I'm looking for Hermione," he said as calmly and slowly as possible, growing ever more impatient. "My name is Jasper..."
"It's about damn time, boy. Come in here. Bring your family," she said, opening the door wide, grabbing his sleeve, and pulling him into the cat-infested house. "I can't believe you took this long, she should have been dead months ago with that little incident at Malfoy Manor, and earlier today at Gringotts! I would have thought you would have shown up right after that..." she muttered, shuffling to a set of drawers and starting to rummage through them.
"Malfoy Manor? Gringotts?" Carlisle looked at Jasper, who was staring blankly at Mrs. Figg, never having heard these names before.
"Hermione's in trouble," Edward started before he was cut off by the elderly woman.
"Of course Hermione's in trouble! I thought your type were supposed to be able to figure things out quickly," she sighed in exasperation as she pulled up a small compact mirror. "Mundungus Fletcher, you worthless waste of flesh, get over here now."
"How is Hermione in trouble?" Jasper asked, growing more and more visibly agitated by the moment.
"The battle, you idiot boy!"
A wave of panic swept quickly over the room. "Battle?"
"Of course, the battle. Voldemort is attacking Hogwarts," she said, pausing as if she expected this to have deep meaning for her guests, but was instead surprised by several blank stares. "Vol-de-mort," she said slowly as if enunciating the word would cause a sudden moment of realization in the family of vampires. "The dark wizard she, Harry Potter, and the Weasley boy have been trying to bring down for almost a year. He's attacking Hogwarts, and from the limited news I've gotten from Aberforth she's there as well. They're fighting, but Aberforth went to fight, and I don't know what's going on. Where is that bloody coward.. Mundungus!" she shouted into the mirror again.
A split second later there was a loud crack, and the ragged looking wizard appeared in the middle of the room. Edward, who was closest, reached out and grabbed his jacket before he could react to the unexpected number of bodies in Mrs. Figg's house.
"Bleedin' hell, Figgy!" he shouted, realizing he was surrounded by hostile-looking vampires. "I know ya don' like me 'n all, but ter bring me inter a house full a' vampires..."
"Shut up, you worthless ruddy thief!" she said, hitting him with the closest thing to reach- one of her cats. "It figures you wouldn't be fighting at Hogwarts."
"If ya get this 'un offa me, I'll be there in two shakes..."
"What I need you to do is to take these people to Hogwarts. They need to find Miss Granger. Do you understand, or should I repeat it slower?" she punctuated her words with several direct hits from half-empty tins of cat food.
"I'm goin', I'm goin'!" he shot back, using his arms to block tins. He grabbed a throw pillow off the couch next to him, and tapped it with his wand, causing it to glow blue. "Grab a hold," he instructed, trying to scoot away from the vampires who were crowding around the pillow without question. As soon as they were all touching the pillow they were yanked through space, landing in a small village. Mundungus managed to get out of Edward's grasp, moving as far away as he could without drawing too much attention.
"'ogsmeade," he explained to the Cullens with a vague wave, then pointed at a towering castle beyond. "That up there is 'ogwarts. Looks like the protective barriers are down. Ya should be able ter walk righ' in. She'll be in there."
"You're not taking us up?" Jasper growled.
"You-know-oo is in there," he shook his head vigorously. "An' where you-know-oo is, I ain't," he added before disappearing into thin air.