Chapter Thirteen
Three weeks had now passed since Demetri and Felix had left on their mission. To say that Hermione was worried about her friends being away for so long and not hearing anything from them, was an understatement. Every time she was in the dome room and the big wooden doors opened, she would sit up straight and look over, hoping to see her two friends waltz in. When it wasn't them who came through the doors, her shoulders would sag and she was filled with disappointment and worry. All she hoped for was that they were safe and would be back soon, for she missed them greatly. The Palazzo just wasn't the same without the two of them winding her up and keeping her on her toes.
The rumours about Hermione and Demetri were flying around the Palazzo, several times she had been asked if Demetri was courting her. She just smiled sweetly whenever she was asked this, and replied to them by saying it was hard to court her when he wasn't here. This only added to the speculation further, for she neither denied it nor admitted to it. Leaving everyone to wonder and talk.
Since Severus had taken away Marcus's memories, he had completely turned into a new person. He looked much happier and younger, he seemed to have more drive and energy about him as well. Even his clothes and hair looked less drab. He just seemed like a totally new Marcus.
During their lessons Hermione got to know him better. He was kind and caring before, taking her under his wing and being considerate of her previous lifestyle as a witch. Nothing on that front had changed. But what had changed was his sense of humour. Before his memories were taken away he seemed bored and indifferent all the time, somewhat introverted because he didn't want anything to do with life any more. His life had ended the day his beloved Didyme was murdered. But now since he no longer felt the grief and pain at having lost her, he became more extroverted taking an interest in the other guard members, conversing more with them, and generally being much more approachable. Hermione even noticed his funny sense of humour as well, she had never laughed so much than when she was in Marcus's presence.
The Volturi guard members had all been forewarned by Caius and Aro about the sudden change in Marcus. They explained to the guard members what the dark wizard and Hermione had done, making sure that they understood that it was his choice to do it. They also told them that any mention of Didyme would result in punishment, as they did not want their brother hearing her name or the fact he had once been married, in case it triggered his memories.
They had no way of dealing with this sort of thing because as far as they knew nothing like this had ever happened before. So they didn't want to take any chances when it came to their brother. He was happier and seemed to be in such a better place than he was and they would do whatever it took to keep him like that.
The guard members didn't know what to think by the sudden change in one of their leaders. They had known him for so long as the quiet withdrawn one out of the three, so seeing him so happy and outgoing had been unnerving. Three weeks later and they had all come to accept this new version of Marcus.
Hermione's studies with two of the leaders were going well, she had not yet started her lessons with Aro for he wanted to wait until Demetri and Felix had returned, for some unknown reason. With Marcus she was learning all about the history of the Volturi and the War between them and the Romanian Coven. She enjoyed these lessons and found them truly fascinating.
He taught her how the Volturi first came to be, with Aro and Marcus meeting not long after they were both turned. They met one another and almost at once formed a close bond together. Apart from their creators, they didn't know any other vampires until they had found each other.
Once they had established a steady friendship, they then met Caius and his wife Athenodora who were travelling around the world trying to avoid capture from the Romanians. Caius had been a vampire longer than either Marcus or Aro and when he found Athenodora they realised they shared the mating bond, and so travelled all around the world together after being married. It was during their travels in Greece when they first met Aro and Marcus.
Caius instantly felt attracted to Aro's words of hope for a better vampire world and taking control from the Romanian Coven, which was the largest in the world at that time. His plan was to gather as many powerful vampires as possible and overthrow the Romanians. Caius found Aro's plans a little farfetched and ambitious at first because they would take many years to put in place and implement. But he liked the idea of becoming a leader to this coven and so agreed to join.
Although Caius did not have any physical powers like Aro or Marcus, Aro liked the fact that when Caius disliked or even hated something, he would do so with a passion he had never before seen. This Aro found was a useful tool, for Caius had the power to use this hateful passion and use it to manipulate situations weakening them or strengthening them to their advantage, depending on what exactly the situation was. So with his ambition and passion Caius soon became the third leader of the Volturi.
Didyme, Aro's biological sister, was turned next by Aro, who hoped that she may have a power like him that could be useful to their newly growing coven. She did have a power, one that made people happy, but Aro found he had no such use for it. After she had turned, Didyme and Marcus felt the mating pull and soon married. After Didyme, Sulpicia joined after Aro had persuaded her to marry him. And with this the Volturi Coven was born made up by the three leaders and their wives. They soon left Greece and travelled for a while before finally settling in Volterra, making it their home.
Once they had established themselves they went traveling in search of new and powerful vampires. They met Chelsea who became an essential part in the Volturi, manipulating vampires into joining, who may not have done otherwise. She brought with her, her mate Afton who was not nearly as powerful as she was, but Aro made certain allowances knowing how powerful and essential Chelsea was to the Volturi's existence. If it hadn't been for her then Marcus would not have been with them today.
They continued traveling and grew in numbers, as the next vampire to join the guard was Corin, whose power was similar but not as strong as Chelsea's. She had the power to make people feel content in the Volturi, so that they wouldn't want to leave either. She stayed mostly in the tower with Sulpicia and Athenodora, as after Didyme's murder the two wives were sent to the tower and Corin was there to make sure that they were content in staying there not wanting to ever leave.
Because of Chelsea's power the three Volturi leaders were then able to recruit Demetri, Renata who was the personal body guard to Aro as she was a shield. And then Heidi, who had the power to attract both vampires and humans to her, like a moth to a flame.
Aro had been watching Felix for a while, noticing his impressive strength as a human being and so therefore turned him. He had been glad he did because although Felix had no powers as such, his physical abilities and battle strategies were the best in the vampire world. He was second in command to Caius in the guard, and together they were the ones who devised all their battle plans. Felix's strength as a vampire was triple what a normal vampire was, so he was the best defensive weapon that they had.
Santiago joined the Volturi at the same time as Felix for he had a similar power, although not as strong as Felix's. He too had no powers as such but again his fighting skills were impressive.
But Aro's most prized members of the guard were one of the last to join the coven. They may have been the youngest members of the guard but they were also the deadliest. Jane and Alec were saved by Aro and it was thanks to their abilities that made the Volturi the most powerful and imposing coven in the world.
They had been the original sixteen members of the Volturi, and after they had recruited seventeen other members, who did not have powers as such but could help fight in battles, and with the death of Didyme it meant that the Volturi guard had thirty-two members in total, making it the biggest coven in the world.
Aro turned others so that they could spread around the world telling new vampires about this new powerful coven who were taking over. It was because of this that the Romanian coven, who were called the Dacia, the largest and oldest coven in the world at the time before the Volturi, became aware of a potential threat against them. Other covens had tried and failed to overthrow them, so they were not worried when this new threat arose.
The Dacia began when smaller covens got tired of fighting with each other. So they called a truce and decided to form one large coven. They were all ambitious and wanted nothing but power and to seek riches. They became greedy and it was because of this greed and power hungry ambition they had, that the Romanian coven grew to the size it was. They did not care about being kept a secret, in fact they flaunted their immortality in front of humans, who would often bring them sacrifices and riches in order to please the vampires, and have their lives and villages spared. The Romanian coven drove fear into the hearts of humans, and enjoyed having power of them.
It was because of them that news and stories about vampires spread throughout the human world over the years. Even in modern history vampires, although most of the information on them had changed and was normally incorrect, were still a popular story of legend.
The Dacia coven didn't have the kind of powers or talents as the Volturi and believed more in strength and in numbers. They felt safe and secure in their leadership and didn't feel the Volturi were a threat at all, because they only had a small group of coven members. It was this belief that lead to the Dacia's downfall and eventual destruction. They had underestimated the power of the Volturi and entered into a War they believed would only last a day or so, instead it was a century long War.
When the Romanians were eventually beaten by the Volturi and their coven was decimated, the only three surviving members of Dacia, were Stefan, Vladimir and Vladimir's mate who all managed to escape. They were so angry and enraged about what had happened and became resentful and bloodthirsty wanting revenge. So they recruited an army with over one hundred members, and once again underestimated the power of the Volturi, because it was during this last War when Aro introduced his two prized members to the vampire world. Jane and Alec obliviated the Romanian army, leaving only two survivors who had somehow managed to escape. They were Vladimir and Stefan.
They hated the Volturi for all that they did and for taking away their leadership and power, and often dreamed of having their revenge. They finally thought they would get it when they heard the story of the Cullen's and that the Volturi would be marching across the world for a fight. But that failed, and so having a taste of what it would be like having their revenge, Vladimir and Stefan decided enough was enough. They would build a stronger, fearsome army once more and take back what they believed was rightfully theirs. Killing all that opposed them. They would not be kind or lenient and would make sure that they did not leave empty handed this time.
Having learned all that information from Marcus, Hermione was intrigued about how the Romanian coven would go about bringing this War upon the Volturi. Surely they knew that nothing in the Volturi had changed over the years, that they still had incredibly powerful members who could easily wipe out their army. So why would they be chancing it again? Unless they had something powerful that the Volturi did not know about.
Aro was clever though, he always knew that the Romanians would never stop attempting to overthrow them. So every once in a while he sent out guard members to hunt down Stefan and Vladimir and spy on them. He kept a close eye on all the Volturi's enemies and those who became too out of line were dealt with swiftly.
What made Hermione even more curious and suspicious was if the Romanians knew about her and her abilities, then why would they try and attack knowing how powerful she was. This thought was troubling her as something didn't feel right, although she didn't voice it out loud to the three Volturi leaders. Not yet anyway.
Training with Caius is what she enjoyed the most however. It felt so good being able to practice her fighting skills again and it didn't take long during her first lesson to realise just how rusty she was.
Caius was an incredible strategist and excellent at fighting, but his role was to observe Hermione, point out her strengths and weaknesses and help her to improve on them. Because Felix wasn't here to be her opponent Caius asked Santiago to help out and fill in.
He was a quiet vampire who kept himself to himself normally. Although he was big and strong, not quite as big and strong as Felix, he was quite shy and reserved. The moment Caius introduced Hermione and Santiago to each other for the first time, she could tell that he was nervous of her. She could see the distrust written on his face and in his eyes and the reluctance in his movements.
During their first sparring match it was like he didn't want to let go and give her his full strength, in case she done something to him in return. As the first training lesson went on Caius, who had been observing, noticed Santiago's odd behaviour. After a while he sighed loudly and asked them to stop.
They did and turned to look at the frustrated Volturi leader.
"Can anyone tell me what was wrong with that?" He asked looking from Hermione to Santiago.
Hermione chanced a glance at her sparring partner, knowing what the problem was. When neither of them answered Caius quickly said,
"The problem is that you Santiago are treating Hermione like she is bone China. Stop it. She is tough and won't break." He grinned wickedly then added. "Well if you fight her well she might." Losing his smile, he looked serious once more as he focused all of his attention on Santiago. "Tell me what has you so cautious around her?"
Santiago looked sheepish then said,
"What if when we're fighting, I make a wrong move that she doesn't like and she uses magic on me? I can't defend myself against that."
Hermione looked at him then replied,
"I do have some control of my magic most of the time you know. It's only when my emotions are at a high level when I tend to lose it a little."
Santiago snorted and turned his head away from her.
"Yeah I've kind of noticed that. Which is exactly my point. What if I get you all angry and you blast me or whatever, I probably won't recover from that?"
Although most of the guard had accepted Hermione into their midst, they were still cautious of her. After all no-one had ever seen anything quite like her before, and after the couple of times she had lost control in front of them, it only made things worse. They had every reason to be wary around her.
Hermione's shoulders slumped down with resignation as she replied,
"Look Santiago I understand how you must feel after everything that you've seen. Believe me I would probably feel the same way as you do, if I were in your shoes." Hermione admitted truthfully. "But I'm not. So all I can really say is that if you don't want to help me practice then that's fine, I can find someone else to help me." She wasn't sure who would help her but she didn't want Santiago to do something he didn't want to do. It wasn't fair on him and it would only impede on her training. She wanted to start learning everything she could as soon as possible, if she was to be ready for the big battle. She was determined that she wouldn't let anything get in her way. Including a reluctant Santiago.
"Hermione as much as I just enjoyed your touching speech." Caius said sarcastically. "That decision is not yours to make. We are here to help you learn how to fight and you cannot do that when your opponent has gone soft." He turned his attention to Santiago and glared at the weak vampire. "I asked you to do this task and so far you have failed at it. You know how I hate to give second chances to anyone, but on this occasion I am willing to make an exception this time." He moved away from them slowly and started to unbutton his black suit jacket before tossing it onto the floor in a heap. He undid the first couple of buttons of his crisp white shirt before rolling his sleeves up to his elbows.
Caius was tall and slender with long blonde hair, he reminded Hermione of a somewhat younger version of Lucius Malfoy.
"Get into position." He ordered, while moving into his own position.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked curiously, knowing how obvious that must have sounded.
"What do you think I'm doing? If Santiago needs some reassurance, then that is what we will give him." He bent his upper body bending in ways Hermione could only imagine doing, before grinning maliciously at her. "Believe me if you don't lose control with me then you will be unlikely to do so with him. I don't plan on going easy on you. Ready."
There was no warning as Caius ran to Hermione, his arm outstretched as he caught her throat and sent her flying down onto the floor with a big thud. Her head bashed off the stone tiled floor and she made an 'offt' noise.
"Come on Hermione you have to be quicker than that." Caius said circling around her, as she slowly rose to her feet.
She glared at him then said,
"You didn't give me any warning." She grumbled.
Caius shook his head at her then said,
"Do you honestly think that when you're out fighting, your opponent is just going to say 'ready let's begin?' They won't give you any warning so why should I. You must always be ready for an attack. Their aim is to kill you, that's it."
His words made sense, of course she didn't expect her opponent to give her any prior warning, but this was training. She just thought that the rules may be a little more flexible in this case. She chuckled slightly then said,
"Constant vigilance." Caius raised a curious eyebrow up at her in question. "One of my friends back home, when he used to teach us how to fight, he always used to say that you should have constant vigilance." She smiled fondly at this memory. Despite the fact that Alastor Moody was a mad bastard, he was brilliant with it and had taught her a lot. Not only that but he also became a great friend to her. She really did miss them all back at Hogwarts sometimes.
Hermione was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see Caius sneak up behind her until he had wrapped his hands around her throat, squeezing just enough to let her know she would have been dead if this was a real fight.
Letting her go he moved around so that he was now facing her.
"Being distracted will only lead to your death. Concentrate on me Hermione. If you can't give this one hundred percent then why are you wasting your time and mine." He said with a frown, the frustration and annoyance etched in his voice.
"I'm sorry I will do better." She promised, hating herself for her lack of concentration. She never had that problem back in Hogwarts. She scolded herself for her thoughts and cleared her mind, focusing only on Caius.
They both got into their defensive positions and this time when Caius ran, Hermione ran too. They leapt into the air, both with outstretched arms as they grabbed each other's shoulders. They stayed in the air before Caius got the better of her, spinning her around before letting go.
She was aiming towards the wall and would have crashed into it if wasn't for her fast instincts. She braced her arms out and used that to stop the crash, but the impact left her hand prints in the wall. She turned her head slightly and found Caius grinning. Disillusioning herself she ran to him before grabbing him by the throat and throwing him down onto the floor. He pushed her hand away and reversed their positions, even though he couldn't see her.
"Very good using this skill, but you are still too slow." He said.
She used her invisibility to her advantage and shoved her leg up kicking him off of her before standing up. She cancelled the disillusioning charm before running at him before they engaged in arm to arm combat. Caius was fast and obviously skilled at fighting and Hermione struggled to keep up, feeling his fists occasionally catch her face or chest. But she gave it her all.
They were so engrossed in their battle they did not see others come into the dome room to watch. Aro was especially pleased to see her in her glory.
Hermione's concentration was momentarily broken as soon as Aro walked into the room. She could feel him before she saw him and feeling disconcerted by that she lost her focus, causing Caius to sweep her off her feet so that she landed on her stomach. He pinned her arms behind her back and whispered,
"Focus on me and not on the room." Into her ear.
She growled out loud and flung herself upwards with Caius still attached to her. He had her hands still behind her back, so using this to her advantage now that she was on her feet again, she ran her and Caius backwards until she felt him being crushed into the wall. Even then he didn't let her go, so she moved forwards before crashing him back into the wall for a second time.
His grip slackened and she bent forward, tossing Caius over her body, her arms going over her head with him. She felt a slight crack at the shoulder but ignored the pain. She stomped on Caius's stomach until he finally let her go, and just when she thought she had bested him, he grabbed her ankle flipping her around and making her fall face first onto the floor.
She quickly maneuvered herself onto her back, his hands still around her ankle, and with her other foot kicked hard at him until he had let go. Rolling backwards she got back to her feet and got into the defensive position.
"Very nice Hermione but I still believe you can do better." Caius ran to her and jumped into the air, expecting her to do the same thing. Instead she ran and dived underneath him, punching him in the chest. He went up into the air before falling to the ground, his back crashing onto the stone floor.
Hermione made the mistake of bending over him, and using that to his advantage he stuck out his leg catching her in the stomach. She was falling backwards but Caius was fast, he grabbed her by the throat and done the motion of pulling her head off.
"You are now dead." He said letting her go before helping her to straighten up. "You weren't as bad as I thought you would be." He grinned, trying to sort his dishevelled appearance. "You have some really good aggressive combat skills, but you are slow to begin with. Once you get into it you are better but sloppy. Not too bad though. Who taught you how to fight like that?"
She thought back to her time at Hogwarts and smiled fondly at the memory.
"Jasper did, so that I could take on the wolves."
Caius nodded his head in approval. He may be able to tolerate Hermione's wolf friend but that didn't mean he could tolerate others as well. Remus was the exception to that rule. So when he heard about the death of those foul beasts he could not help but feel pleased. The less wolves there were in the world the better as far as he was concerned.
"Good, Jasper is an excellent teacher, but I am better." He turned to Santiago. "See you don't have to treat Hermione like a wall flower."
Santiago simply nodded his head in respect to his Master, although it was clear to see that he wasn't yet fully convinced of this just yet.
That had been her first lesson with Caius and she enjoyed it greatly. After that Santiago took Caius's place as her sparring buddy. He was still cautious at first but as the weeks progressed he became more animated during their matches and helped teach Hermione a lot. After three weeks she was better than what she had been but would still need more work. In Hermione's eyes there was always room for improvement.
Santiago and Hermione also began to develop a friendship as well. It had been tense at first but as they began to get to know each other better, they began to joke and tease each other. Although they were friendly she would never have the type of friendship with him that she did with Felix and Demetri. They were her golden boys.
It was during her third day of training with Caius and Santiago that Helena came waltzing into the dome room, tall and beautiful with a slender figure and slim waist, with long curly red hair. She was human so had sparkling blue eyes instead of the creepy red eyes of the vampires.
Helena had replaced Elizabeth not long after she had been disposed of. Hermione had been told that Demetri and Felix had been given the honour to begin with but since Aro had sent them away to watch over her instead, it was Jane who then got the honours. From what Hermione had heard, Jane had been furious about not being sent to go along with Demetri and Felix so took out all her frustrations and anger out on poor Elizabeth that day. According to the other members, even though Elizabeth had been taken far below into the dungeons, her screams could still be heard in the dome room for hours.
The thought of what that poor woman must have suffered sent shivers down Hermione's spine. The poor woman didn't deserve that to happen to her. Hermione never quite understood why they employed human secretaries, considering their laws were to keep their world a secret. So when she asked Marcus about it he chuckled and said,
"Ahh always the curious one aren't we. The reason why is because the Palazzo dei Priori is a human historical building. So therefore we must put on a human façade to the world. Could you imagine what would happen if tourists walked in and there sitting at the desk was a blood thirsty vampire. Our secret would be ruined."
Hermione laughed at the image Marcus had just painted to her.
"Ok that makes a bit more sense but why do they pick these women for? What do they have that others don't?"
Marcus smiled at her then said,
"That answer is simple, these women know about our world and come here for the sole purpose of being changed. They are young and beautiful and have a pretty face for the tourists so we give them jobs and see how they fair. A sort of test if you will."
Hermione nodded her head in understanding then asked,
"What happens if they fail?" She already knew the answer after what happened to Elizabeth but wanted to hear it confirmed.
"Then they are disposed of. They cannot simply go back into their own world after what they have seen and heard. They know too much and it would be too dangerous for us."
"And if they pass?" She asked.
"Not many of them pass I'm afraid. The truth is Aro only turns them if they have a potential power. In the end their blood is always more valuable than what they as a potential vampire are."
His answer was grim but the truth and Hermione, although she didn't like what he said one bit, was glad that he had the decency to tell her the truth. She respected that more than if he tried to sugar coat things or hide things from her.
So Hermione was surprised that when Helena walked into the dome room that day, she walked straight over to her despite the fact that she was currently in a session with Santiago.
"What do you think you are doing?" Caius asked obviously displeased about the interruption.
Helena looked towards him startled, immediately realising her error.
"I'm sorry Caius-" She began but he instantly stopped her.
"It is Master Caius to you." He said with obvious disgust. Hermione's whole body stiffened at the way he looked down his nose at the woman, as if she was nothing more than dirt on the bottom of his shoe. She knew that look all too well, after having received it many times before for being a muggleborn witch.
"I-I'm s-sorry Master Caius i-it's just that this package came for Miss Granger and I wanted to give her it before she left." Helena turned pleading eyes towards Hermione, but there was nothing that she could do except take the package from the other woman's trembling hands.
"Thank you Helena." Hermione replied.
"You are dismissed." Caius said with disdain. Hermione saw the other woman's lip tremble and while she was retreating Caius moved closer to Santiago and whispered, "Go and dispose of her immediately. Let Heidi know that she will need to recruit yet another secretary. Tell her to make sure that the next one is more competent."
Hermione could feel the bile rise up in her throat at Caius's words. He sounded so cold and heartless, obviously he did not care very much for the lives they took.
Santiago simply nodded his head before following Helena out of the dome room. Hermione half expected to hear her screams but when all she heard was silence, that seemed to chill her to the bone even more. Although she neither understood nor liked these practices she knew that there was nothing she could do or say that would change them. This was one of those things Marcus had spoken to her about before, she may not have to like it but she had to respect their ways.
"Can I be excused as well please, since Santiago isn't here?" She asked quietly, trying hard not to let her feelings show.
"Of course." Caius said trying to be sympathetic and understanding towards her.
"Thanks." And with that Hermione had simply vanished on the spot leaving Caius startled. It never failed to amaze him when Hermione did that.
She returned back to her quarters, the box in her hand. It was wrapped in brown paper and had her name and the Palazzo's address on it. She knew instantly who it was from, as Dumbledore had told her. So tearing the brown paper off, she opened the box to find padding in it. Taking that out, she found yet another box inside and a white envelope. She smiled knowing what it was. Opening the envelope, she read the letter first it said,
Hey Hermione,
How are you doing? First of all, I can't believe you left Hogwarts to go and live with the Volturi. Honestly what the hell were you thinking? We were all shocked by what you done, but honestly we could never blame you for doing it. The Volturi never give up what they want easily so just be careful alright. What we can blame you for though is not saying goodbye to us. I know you had other things on your mind, and I know it must have been difficult saying goodbye to Severus, but we're your friends too. I can't hold that against you though so I guess I'll let you off with a warning. But don't do it again!
We miss you so much and I know we didn't exactly know you long but you felt like one of us, so Carlisle told me to write that if you ever decide to leave Volterra you should know that there's always a place for you here with us.
In the meantime though, the best I could do was this gift. I figured you probably didn't have one and since you're no longer at Hogwarts then there shouldn't be a problem having it.
The minute you receive it I want you to use it straight away. I will be waiting and so will your adopted family. Take care and please be safe.
Alice
Hermione laughed at the letter before tucking it back into the envelope. It sounded so much like her friend. Even when she was trying to be angry she still sounded too nice for her own good.
Going back to the second box she opened it up and pulled out a bright pink mobile phone. Trust Alice to have picked such a girly looking colour, Hermione thought with a chuckle. It had a yellow post it stuck on the back that read 'It is a contract phone and is fully charged. You don't have to worry about anything except keeping it powered up. Don't forget to call us.'
Hermione couldn't help feeling grateful at her friend's generosity. She couldn't believe that they would go to all this trouble just for her. She didn't know what she ever did to deserve them in her life but was so glad that they were in it.
That day she spent hours on her new phone and spoke with all of the Cullen's catching up and telling them about what was happening with her. She told them everything except for what was going on with the Romanian coven. The leaders didn't want the guard to know about that yet, not until Demetri and Felix came back with the two nomad vampires for interrogation, to see if they had any information about it. So she figured that they would find out soon enough.
It was so nice chatting away and listening to Alice's sweet voice. She even told them about Dumbledore coming and taking her away, and how Remus, Severus and Dumbledore came back with her, although she didn't explain the reason why they did.
Alice couldn't believe that Remus would endanger himself like that, and although Hermione didn't say anything about the whole situation, Alice got the feeling that Hermione wasn't telling her everything. But she didn't push it. They talked for hours that day and once they were finished Hermione felt much happier in herself. Just hearing her friend's voices made her feel happier, ever since Demetri and Felix had left.
Feeling invigorated after her long chat, she went into the shower to freshen up, not realising that she hadn't warded or silenced her room like she normally did. She hadn't realised that someone had been listening to her end of the conversation the whole time. Slowly they were gaining enough information on this vampire witch, and soon she would be gone at last.
So now, three weeks later Hermione was once again in her room after just having had a training session with Caius and Santiago. She was in mid conversation with Alice when a knock sounded on her door.
"I'm sorry Alice I need to go." She whispered.
"Alright I'll phone you during the week ok. And Hermione please stay safe." Alice said, the concern sounding in her voice.
"I always am. Bye Alice." With that she hung up the phone and hid it in her beaded bag, just as another knock was heard.
"Coming." She called out.
When she opened the door, a wide smile appeared on her face as she flung herself into the arms of Demetri and Felix.
"Where the hell have you two been?" She asked, pulling back so that she could look at them and make sure they were alright.
"It took a little longer than we thought, and also we're very happy to see you too my little witching." Demetri grinned.
"A little, I expected you to be away for maybe a day, not three weeks." She huffed.
Felix laughed then said,
"It sounds like the little witchling here missed us."
Hermione huffed again and folded her arms across her chest.
"Of course I didn't. So what took you both so long anyway?"
Demetri smiled then said,
"We came into a few little problems along the way, nothing we couldn't handle of course. But you will soon find out all about our little adventure."
She frowned and looked at him quizzically.
"What?"
Felix held out his arm to her and said,
"We have come to escort you to witness the interrogation of the two vampires. You will soon see your very first court session?"
Hermione's stomach twisted at the thought of what she was about to see. Although she was extremely nervous about it, curiosity got the better of her and she took Felix's arm before closing and warding her quarters. This was going to be a very interesting day.
