Chapter twenty

"What exactly is your problem, Edward?" I finally asked while making lunch the next day. He had said barely two words since last night.

"Nothing," Edward mumbled but continued staring through the window as he had been doing for the last twenty minutes.

"It's about the school, isn't it?" I said with a sigh, putting the lasagne on a plate. I took the plate and walked to the table where I sat next to Edward and started eating. We were alone, Charlie had to be at work this weekend.

Edward sighed and turned his gaze to me. "You want me to protect you," he started quietly. "Yet you want to stay home alone all the time, while I won't be able to watch over you."

"I can stay with Esme if that makes you feel better," I suggested. It would be nice to get to know her better. "And Alice would see if something was about to happen." He just continued staring at me, his expression unreadable. "It's not just about my safety, is it?"

A flicker of embarrassment crossed his face, but he quickly composed it. But his lips were tightly pressed together. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. After a few seconds he sighed and looked down at his hands. "We won't be able to spend much time together anymore," he finally admitted.

I rolled my eyes and smiled, putting my hand over his. "Don't worry. We'll still have afternoons and nights and weekends together."

"I know," he said and looked up at me. "It's just… I'd finally started actually enjoying the school. With you there, I was no longer bored. But now it will be the same as before. Endless boredom." He grimaced but the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

I felt sorry for him. I'd never realised what he and his siblings had to go through every day at school. They couldn't learn anything new since they had done it so many times. Unlike Carlisle, who actually helped saving lives, they had to suffer through the same long hours of nothing but boredom over and over.

After lunch Edward drove me to his house where another lesson with Toby was supposed to start in an hour. I'd planned to ask Toby about what to do with my school problem. I still didn't know what the official reason for my leaving school would be. I had been trying to think about it since Charlie told me about the missing papers but so far came with nothing plausible. I didn't want it to be too complicated because that would create more lies and poor Charlie would have to deal with all the questions.

Esme was thrilled when I asked her if I could stay with her while everyone was at school. Though I suspected Alice had already told her. Just as I thought about her, Alice suddenly appeared by my side. She gave me a brilliant smile, took me by the hand and with an excited, "Hi Bella, come with me!" she dragged me toward the stairs. I barely had time to register Edward's amused expression.

"What is it, Alice?" I panted, confused, as she impatiently walked up the stairs in a quick human pace with me in tow.

"You'll see!" Her excitement scared me a little, but I didn't ask further and let her lead the way.

She took me to her bedroom and there I could see a pile of brand-new looking clothes laying on the bed. I looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Alice?"

"Sorry, Bella, but you are in desperate need of new clothes," she announced, not sounding sorry at all. She strode to the bed and started spreading various kinds of jeans, t-shirts, and skirts on the bed's surface.

"Alice!" I moaned. I stayed by the door with my arms across my chest. "I can't afford these."

"Don't be ridiculous, Bella." She rolled her eyes. "I already bought them for you. It's a gift."

"You can't give me clothes, Alice!"

"Why not?"

"Because…" I hesitated, thinking of the right reason. "Because it's too expensive and we've known each other for just one week!" It was ridiculous, and I felt my face going red.

"It feels like much longer," said Alice, completely at ease. "And money means very little to us. And I didn't have a chance to give you anything for your birthday."

"How do you know when my birthday is?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Well, I don't know the exact day, but you told Edward you couldn't do magic when you'd arrived here and now you can. So it must have been in September." I didn't ask how she knew this. Maybe Edward had told her. Or she had seen me telling him which seemed more likely.

"I wouldn't argue with her, you know," said a voice behind me and I turned to see Jasper entering the room. He smiled and winked at me and then he slipped past me quickly, heading for another room that was attached to their bedroom. He gently touched Alice's arm when he was passing her and then disappeared behind the door.

"So, try them on," Alice ordered, and I obeyed with a resigned sigh.

I spent the rest of the hour trying on Alice's – or rather mine – new clothes. All of them fit me perfectly. After I tried every piece of clothes, Alice pulled several boxes out from under the bed. It turned out to be shoes. I glared at her but before I managed to say anything, she sighed and turned her head toward the door.

"Toby's going to be here in forty-six seconds," she said, and I breathed out in relief. She noticed and narrowed her eyes at me. "We'll continue with this when your lesson is over." I scowled at her but then I turned and strode out of the room with her at my heels.

Just when we reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard the familiar crack that announced Toby's arrival. This time he brought Angela with him. We all settled ourselves in the living room, the rest of the Cullens joining us, except for Carlisle, who was in the hospital, and Rosalie, who was suddenly busy in the garage.

"I need your advice, Toby," I said as soon as he sat down on the couch. He raised his eyebrows but motioned to me to go on. So I told him everything about the school and the transferring papers. "I don't know what to tell the rest of the town," I said in the end, feeling a bit stupid that I couldn't think of anything by myself.

Toby looked thoughtful, stroking his chin with his thumb.

"I think you should keep it as simple as possible," he finally said, confirming what I'd thought would be best. "Angela told me your mother lives in Phoenix?" He said it as a question.

"In Florida," I corrected him. "But she still owns our house in Phoenix."

"But the Phoenix address is the one you gave the school?" he asked, and I nodded. "Good. Then you should officially say you're moving back to Phoenix. You can say your mother missed you or fell ill or something. It's up to you."

I could see several problems with that. "But the principal would know the real reason. And I wouldn't be able to go out of the house."

"But he doesn't know the real reason, does he?"

"No, he doesn't." I said with a blush.

"Well, you can say that the papers are on their way, but you will have them sent to Phoenix. End of story. No one will ask anything." He paused for a few seconds and then added. "But we can keep an eye on the principal for a few days, just to be sure."

"I can watch out for any suspicious rumours," piped up Angela.

"So can we," said Edward, and Alice, Jasper and Emmett nodded.

"Good," said Toby with a smile and I had to smile too. It really was quite simple.

"But I still won't be able to go out," I pointed out.

"And how often do you go out now?"

"Um…" I hesitated. The truth was that except for school, the grocery store, and the library, I rarely went out. "But I come here. Someone could spot me on my way here."

"Not if you travel the magical way." Toby was still completely at ease and even though it should calm me, it had quite the opposite effect.

"But I still can't apparate!"

Toby rolled his eyes. "Is Apparation the only means of magical transport, Bella?" I stared at him. I didn't have my broomstick and I couldn't imagine getting a Portkey every time I needed to go to the Cullens. Toby patiently waited for me to finally get something obvious.

My eyes wandered around the living room while my mind was trying to find the obvious answer, when I noticed the big fireplace in the corner. I slapped my forehead. "The Floo Network!"

Toby and Angela grinned at me while the Cullens looked confused. I explained how the Floo Network worked and asked for their permission to have their fireplace connected to the Network which Esme excitedly gave. Toby then promised to arrange it with the Congress as soon as possible. Angela offered to take me to a place where I could buy the powder and any magical stuff I'd need. We agreed to go tomorrow.

After that we began our lesson. Toby asked if I had practiced emptying my mind and I admitted that I wasn't very good at it.

"Do you think meditation would help?" I asked, wanting to hear his opinion.

"Sure," he said. "This is actually a great idea. Don't know why I didn't think of it myself."

Glad to have his approval I was determined to start with meditation as soon as possible. Until I was capable of at least the basic nonverbal magic, Toby decided to go through defensive spells with me. I had already showed him my Shield charm and he wanted to practice that one further. Before we went outside to practice though, he wrote me a list of defensive spells he wanted me to try on my own in my leisure time.

Once we were outside, we positioned ourselves just like the last time. This time Edward volunteered to try and get through my shield.

"No way!" Emmett protested loudly. "It's still my turn! Bella didn't manage to fend me off last time!"

"You already had your turn," said Edward and streaked past me to stand next to Toby.

"That's not fair!" shouted Emmett and I rolled my eyes. They behaved like they were ten years old.

"Boys!" Esme reprimanded them, but she was smiling.

Emmett scowled at Edward for a few seconds but then he just shrugged and went to stand next to Rosalie, who had come out of the garage and was now leaning against the wall of the house some distance apart from the others with a seemingly disinterested expression.

Although Edward wasn't as big and strong as Emmett, he was much faster and broke through my Shield easily. Instead of bringing me down like Emmett had done last time, he stopped right in front of me and gently embraced me with his arms, kissing me lightly on my cheek. I blushed which made Emmett and Jasper snicker in amusement. I ignored them.

We practiced with various members of the Cullen family. I managed to fend off Esme and Alice but failed repeatedly with Emmett and Edward. Rosalie had refused to participate but continued to watch and Jasper had said he didn't want to risk getting too near me. I knew it wasn't personal – at least in Jasper's case – so I was fine with it.

After I finally managed to fend off Edward (Emmett was still too strong for my shield), we tried the Disarming charm. At first, I thought it would be easy because I knew this spell really well. But I'd never practiced it with moving targets which turned out to be a lot more difficult. Toby pulled several dolls out of his bag and then enlarged them, so they now represented dummies with fake wands in their hands. He then made them move in various directions. At the end of the day I was lucky to disarm one of the dummies, feeling completely exhausted.

Carlisle arrived shortly after six and was clearly disappointed when he saw that we'd just finished with today's lesson. Toby reminded me of my homework, and we arranged another lesson for Tuesday afternoon. Then he took Angela's hand and they both disapparated.

On Sunday morning I drove to the Webers to meet Angela for our shopping trip we'd arranged yesterday. Edward had been disappointed when I told him that I wanted to go alone with Angela. Even worse was Alice who just refused to accept the possibility of a shopping trip without her. It wasn't that I didn't want their company, but as Toby had told us, it would raise too many questions among the other wizards and witches because everyone would recognize vampires too easily. And since the situation about the Cullens wasn't a common knowledge yet, it was safer to go alone.

Mrs. Weber greeted me with a relaxed smile and invited me in. "Good morning, Bella."

"Good morning, Mrs. Weber." I smiled back and stepped inside.

"Please, you can call me Amelia," she offered and led me to their living room, which looked very cosy and was dominated by a huge fireplace.

"Amelia." I nodded slightly and then looked around. "Where's Angela?"

"Still in her room getting ready." At that moment a boy about ten years old ran into the room being chased by another boy, who was clearly his twin. "Stop running around like lunatics!" She chastised them with a stern look. "Have you cleaned your room yet?"

"But Mom!" They both started to protest but when they saw her expression they quickly turned around and ran out of the room.

"Are they magical too?" I asked, turning back to Amelia.

"Yes," she said with a proud smile. "They have both showed signs of magic and keep bombarding me with questions about the school."

"It must be hard for Angela." I couldn't help feeling even more sorry for her.

"Well, she says she doesn't mind," Amelia shrugged. "And I believe her. She's like her father a lot – calm and accepting."

"Well, I can't really do anything about it, can I?" said a voice behind me and I turned to see Angela wearing a bright smile and a backpack on her back. "Hey, Bella."

"Hi, Angela."

We hugged and Angela walked straight to the fireplace. I followed her with a last glance at Amelia, who said goodbye and walked out of the room.

"Okay," said Angela, grabbing the pot with the powder from the mantelpiece. "The name of the place is The Western Square. You do know how to use the Floo, right?"

"Sure," I reassured her and stood right next to her. Angela then took a handful of the powder and stepped into the fireplace. She then threw the powder onto the hearth, shouting, "The Western Square!" The flames engulfed her, and she was gone. I followed right after her.

After what had seemed like several minutes, I stopped rotating and hit a solid surface, burying my feet into ash. I opened my eyes, which I had closed to prevent the ash from getting into them and stepped out of the hearth. I dusted the ash off my clothes and looked around.

I was standing in a restaurant, that was nothing like the Leaky Cauldron in London. It was clean and looked very much like an ordinary muggle restaurant, except that a few of the customers wore robes, though clearly more modern ones than what I knew from Britain. Perfectly round tables were scattered around the room, on each table was a light blue tablecloth. When I looked properly though, I could see that there was a moving picture of a flying silver dragon on each of the tablecloths. The same dragon was painted on the wall opposite the entrance.

Angela, who was standing a few steps from me, smiled when she saw me looking around. "We're in the Flying Dragon," she explained. "We can stop here for lunch later." I nodded eagerly. The smell of something delicious was coming from the kitchen.

We left the restaurant and found ourselves in a large square with a big stone fountain in the middle. There was a statue of a man in the middle of the fountain and water was gushing from his hat. The square was clean and bright with many various shops surrounding it. Angela tugged my sleeve.

"The big golden building over there is the Bank," she said pointing at said building. "You have to change your money before you start shopping."

I nodded and let Angela lead the way. I was quite curious what the American wizarding money looked like.

The Bank wasn't run by goblins like in Britain. There were wizards and witches in light green uniforms sitting behind the long marble counter. Angela told me that the vaults were somewhere behind the walls but that no one, except for the bank employees, knew what they looked like. When someone wanted to withdraw money or other things, they just gave their request with a code to one of the employees and they did it for them.

Angela directed me toward a young witch whose seat was marked with a golden plate that read "Exchange". The process was the same as I knew from the Gringotts. I gave the witch some dollars and she weighed them on a brass scale. She then filled the other bowl with the matching amount of silver coins. At last she poured the coins into a leather pouch and gave it to me.

"Would you like to open an account in our bank?" asked the witch with a pleasant smile.

"Um," I hesitated but before I could continue, Angela stepped to the counter muttering "No, thanks," and dragged me out of the building.

"What are you doing?" I asked, confused, once we were outside.

"You are in hiding, Bella. You can't have an account in a bank unless you want to be found," Angela explained patiently. "They would be able to trace you down if you had a record with your name and address in it."

"Oh," I muttered, feeling like a criminal.

To distract myself from unpleasant thoughts I opened the pouch and pulled out one of the coins. It looked really strange. It wasn't round like any other coins I knew. Instead it was octagonal with a number one on it and an inscription that said "One Dragot". I turned the coin on my palm several times to have a better look at it.

Angela watched me with an amused expression. "So, where do you want to go first?"

"For the powder, I think."

We found the shop that sold the Floo powder and other aids used for magical transport in an alley between a bookstore and an apothecary. Although it was a small shop, the old wizard behind the counter didn't seem to notice us until I was ready to pay.

We spent the rest of the morning in the bookstore. It was divided into two sections – one for schoolbooks and the other for the rest. I bought a few books about defensive spells and a few about spells and curses for daily use.

While we were sitting at the restaurant eating our lunch, Angela told me, that we were actually in Los Angeles and that there is another magical shopping place identical to this one in New York under the Statue of Liberty. This place was inside Mount Lee hidden behind the Hollywood sign, specifically behind the letter W. It had been there long before the sign was created, and the wizards were afraid that the square would be found, even though it was magically protected, or that the entrance would be destroyed. Fortunatelly neither happened and muggles remained happily ignorant of the magical world.

"Since we are inside of a mountain, how is it that I can see the sky?" I asked, because I could clearly see the sun and feel its heat on my face.

"It's not the real sky. The roof is enchanted so it reflects the current weather," Angela explained.

"Oh, I should have thought about it," I laughed and then added, "It's the same in the Great Hall at Hogwarts."

In return I told her all about the Diagon Alley in London. I had to admit, though I didn't say it aloud, that I liked the Diagon Alley better. Although this place was neat and bright and certainly magical, it didn't have the old-fashioned charm I'd liked so much.

After lunch we visited a few more shops. I bought a few bottles of butterbeer, my favourite wizarding drink, and a bottle of Firewhisky for Charlie. I was disappointed when I found out that Quidditch was not very popular in America and therefore there was a very limited supply of racing and sports broomsticks in the Sport Supplies Store. Angela was surprised that I was so interested in brooms, so I told her about my short Quidditch career.

"But… it's dangerous!" gasped Angela. "And totally barbaric."

I was a little miffed when she'd called my favourite sport "barbaric" but then I laughed because her concern reminded me of someone. "You sound like Edward," I said, rolling my eyes. We both laughed.

"He really cares about you, you know," she said, while we were sitting on a bench by the fountain, enjoying ice cream Angela'd bought for both of us.

"Yeah," I mumbled, savouring the rich strawberry flavour of my ice cream.

"What about you? Do you care about him too?" she asked hesitantly. I turned to her and saw that she really seemed to care.

I lowered my eyes, so I was staring at my lap now. "Yes, I… I think I do," I stammered, feeling the blood flooding my cheeks. It was the first time I confessed my feelings for Edward to someone. I'd never even fully admitted them to myself; I'd always kept putting thinking about it off, too afraid of what I would find out. I certainly couldn't bring myself to tell Edward when he'd confessed his feelings for me. I still felt bad about it.

"What are you going to do about it? He's a vampire and you're…"

"Human," I finished for her with a grimace. "I'm aware of that," I almost snapped at her. Then I shook my head and sighed. "Sorry. But I don't know, Angela. I can't even bring myself to think about it. I keep telling myself that there are more important things to think about."

"But you will have to think about it eventually."

"I know. But not yet." I looked at her, silently pleading her to drop the subject.

She nodded and then smiled slightly. "If you want to talk about it sometimes, you can always come to see me, you know that, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Angie." I smiled too, feeling grateful for her accepting and calm nature, as her mother had so accurately put it.

When we finished our ice creams, we decided to return home. We went back to the Flying Dragon, and I waited for Angela to step into the fireplace first. After she vanished in the flames, I followed right after her. I closed my eyes, threw the Floo powder on the hearth and after shouting "The Weber Residence!" I let the flames take me back to Forks.

Once I felt the solid ground under my feet again, I opened my eyes and climbed out of the fireplace, wiping the ash off my clothes.

"Bella!" I heard a familiar velvet voice and before I could blink, I was held in a tight embrace. I squirmed, trying to pull back so I could look at Edward's face. His voice had sounded upset.

If his voice had sounded upset, it was nothing compared to his face. His expression was full of anger, fear, and horror. "Edward, what hap – "

"They're coming, Bella," he whispered. "They're coming for you."