Chapter 8

Carlisle Cullen has been alive for more than 300 years; and because of that, he's not easily fooled. Or at least, he thought so. He almost denied the truth, almost pushed away the facts but curiosity got the best of him. He just had to ask.

"It's her. I saw her." He whispered as two pairs of golden eyes stared back at him. He looked at them weakly.

"Are you sure Carlisle?" Alice, his daughter, asked skeptically. "How come I didn't see her?"

"Yes. The scent, the face, the voice…. All her." Carlisle breath out, as two audible gasps could be heard from his two companions. "As for your sight, Alice, I do not have a clue why… Their world is much more different than ours. You can't possibly predict anything with their magical barriers."

"Is she… Did you ask her how she's been?" Esme, the most passionate woman Carlisle Cullen know, asked.

"No. but we talked under pretenses that we just met. I-I.. It all makes sense. I knew she was special I just didn't how special she was. A-and her scent… she smells just like them –the wizards, their blood is sweeter than humans... more potent." The patriarchal figure of the Cullen family rambled on. He felt a hand on his tensed shoulder and looked up to meet the same golden eyes of his wife.

"We'll find her."

Carlisle shook his head. "I don't think she wants to be found."

"What do you mean?" his wife asked again, her expression a broken one.

"She's…different. More confident and intimidating." Carlisle voiced out his earlier observations. "She's blonde now by the way but I think it suits her more. Her eyes are different too."

"Blonde?" Alice chocked out. "What do you mean blonde? Platinum? Dirty? Or.. or –"

"It doesn't matter Alice!" Esme chastised her daughter. "Blonde or not, she's still Bella."

"you're right.." responded the pixie vampire. "But what about Edward?" Alice called out, worry in her voice. "What would we tell him?"

The doctor looked at her steadily and pursed his lips as if he doesn't like what he's about to say.

"Nothing."

…..

Draco Malfoy woke up with a start. He heard his sister shouting his name from the hallway and felt his stridor breathing. He was soaked in sweat and felt like he was about to get sick. He slowly got up from his bed and walked to the joint bathroom that he shared with his sister. He washed his pale face with cold water and looked at himself in the mirror. Even though he went to bed early last night, there were bags under his eyes and he looks paler than usual. He combed his hand through his hair and tried to forget that disturbing dream and continued with his morning routine. He dressed himself in casual clothes and searched for his sister. He found her at the kitchen cooking something. Bella looked over at him and smiled as he sat down on the stool.

"Good Morning."

"Morning. What are you doing?" Draco asked.

"Cooking breakfast of course." His sister responded as she served him eggs, bacon and hotcakes. "Want some juice or tea?"

"Tea please." Draco answered. He observed his sister move through the kitchen with perfect steps and calculated movements. "Since when did you learn how to cook?"

Bella drank some coffee before answering. "Why at school of course. In America our dorms are different. We have a kitchen and laundry area. Besides our magic, we don't have anyone taking care of us. We have to learn to tend for ourselves. Our professors told us that it helps build our character."

Draco looked at his sister horribly. "Isn't that enslavement?!" he sputtered.

Bella laughed at him and shook her head. "It's called being independent."

"But you already are independent…" Draco argued. His sister has always been the one that anyone can count on. Even for one's life.

"Yes. But it also teaches us to blend in with muggles." Draco nodded in understanding. Maybe that's why his sister managed to live with muggles for so long. He took a bite from his breakfast and he looked at his sister approvingly. Bella beamed in satisfaction.

"It has been forever since I cooked for someone." Bella said. His brother noticed the sad tone in her voice and reached for his sister's hand. "Then from now on, I'll always stick by your side so you could always cook me delicious food." His sister laughed whole heartedly and pinched his cheeks, much to his irritation.

"As much as I want my baby brother by my side, I can't always cook for you. You need to learn how to cook for yourself too you know." Bella said teasingly. Draco looked at his sister sourly. "You're kidding right?"

"No."

"Not even a little bit?"

"Nope."

"Bellaaaaaaa"

"From this day onward, you Draco Malfoy are going to learn how to live like a muggle!" Bella announced as she ran away from her raging brother.

…

"What the bloody hell are we doing?"

"we're washing the dishes."

"Yeah I get that. But you know there's this really good spell that-"

"I know that spell. But isn't this more fun?" Bella blew bubbles at her brother's direction.

Since the argument that morning, Bella stayed true to her words and promised to teach her brother the ups and downs of living like a Muggle. It was fun for most part like cooking and watching TV but Draco drew the line when it was time to throw the trash and wash the dishes.

"No. This is disgusting and degrading of a wizard."

"No." Bella answered patiently. "It teaches you that you need to clean up for yourself."

"And besides, it's not only you that hates washing the dishes. I also hate this chore." Bella confessed.

"Maybe it's a teenage thing." Draco mumbled as he washed the last plate and wiped his hands on his apron, which his sister insisted he'd put it on.

"Okay." Bella said while looking at a piece of paper. "We're gonna head down to the market to buy us some food and to stock this place up for Christmas."

"When you say market, as in the Wizarding?" Draco asked his sister cautiously.

"Of course not. We're spending our Christmas the muggle style." Bella answered brightly.

"Can I just die right now?" Draco groaned as his sister dragged him out the door.

She managed to get a hold of his brother who was desperately attempting to run away and disapparated them to an alcove at a wet market in the nearby Italian town. Bella looked on with alert eyes and as soon as a group of villagers passed by, she quickly joined them, pulling her brother with her.

"You ready?" Bella asked her little brother.

"No." Draco answered as he saw a middle aged lady holding a butcher knife and chopping heads of fishes.

"Relax." His sister comforted. "Just act like you know what you're talking about."

"What exactly am I to say?" Draco hissed.

"Well for starters we'll be buying some fish, chicken and fruits." She reached something in her purse and pulled out what looks like a grocery bag. "Here, hold this."

Bella entwined her arm to her brothers and directed them towards the woman behind the fish stall. His sister greeted and talked to the lady in fluent French discussing merlin knows what. Draco eyed the fish that's staring back at him with judging eyes. He turned his attention back to his sister.

"Draco. Pick whatever fish you like. The lady said we have a discount as long as you take a picture with her." He looked at his sister with an appalled expression.

"The hell-"

Bella stepped on his shoe.

"Of course. I'd love to." He chocked out. The lady stepped out from her stall and shouted something to a young man. He took out a weird looking camera and shouted something back.

"Draco, say cheese!" His sister laughed as the woman beside him planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek and squeezed him. He heard the camera go off and a sound of approval from the young lad.

In that moment, Draco Malfoy wanted nothing more than to burn his skin and scrape it off.

"Merci!" His sister shouted back happily as two large fishes were wrapped on brown paper. Bella gave the fish to her brother who dumped it in the grocery bag.

"Did you just sell me back there?" Draco glared. Bella looked on the stalls with interest, ignoring her brother.

"Well the lady was ripping us off so I have to do something don't I?" replied her sister mischievously.

"You could've just asked for a discount!" he shouted angrily.

"oh right." His sister said, realizing it just now. "oookaaay. What's next?"

The Malfoy siblings managed to buy fruits and chicken without any more distractions. While buying chicken, Draco was able to get a discount from a lovely couple who spoke English fluently. He copied what his sister did and was even able to get a bag full of freshly baked bread.

"It's a gift!" says the couple.

The Malfoys thanked them and waved goodbye. Draco smiled to himself despite where he is. He thought muggles are disgusting, un-mannered peasants but his sister showed him a different side to what the Dark Lord was saying. Some of them are actually nice and polite, generous even. Maybe that's just what the world is, some are good and others, bad. The two found a small café just outside the market and rested there for a bit. The waiter approached them and asked for their order.

"Two cups of tea, please." Answered Draco politely to which Bella smiled. She patted her brother's hand, indicating how proud she is at that moment.

"So, what do you think?" Bella asked while waiting for their tea.

"It's… different." Draco replied, choosing his words carefully. "They're different but we somehow have similarities with them." His sister nodded in approval.

"You're right. They may do things the hard way but they're just like us. They just happen to have no magic that's why they do their own way." Bella explained.

"And we do ours." Draco concluded.

"Yes." Bella smiled as she thanked the waiter who placed their tea on the table. Her eyes twinkled as she looked at her brother while sipping some tea. He was innocently observing the people in the café. She was so proud of him today. He managed to interact and endure with the world of muggles and that's a really huge step considering their background.

"Bella… What is that?" Draco asked out loud, pointing at a flat shiny object a young boy was holding. The little kid was sitting with his parents two tables away from them and he was concentrating very hard on the screen of his gadget.

"oh. That's an Ipad." Bella answered. "It's a modern muggle technology wherein you could store games, movies, music and other stuff."

"Movies?" Draco said. "Like the ones we watched on a television?"

"Yes. But with an Ipad, you could watch it whenever you want." Bella answered happily, proud that her brother actually said television out loud.

"Not bad." Draco murmured as he drank his tea.

After finishing their tea, the two explored the town. While walking at the large plaza, they realized that more and more people were wearing red cloaks and shouting chants as they go along towards the clock tower.

"Why are they wearing cloaks at this time of day?"Draco asked, confused yet again to another Muggle tradition.

"I think there's a festival." Bella answered while directing the two of them in a less crowded place. "They're celebrating the founders of this town, I guess."

"Oh"

"Come on. I saw a convenience store up ahead." The eldest sister grabbed hold of her brother, afraid that they might get lost from each other and trudged their way to a nearby grocery store. Once inside, Bella took out the paper she was holding earlier and gave this to her brother.

Draco looked at the piece of parchment with curiosity. "Here. Find all the items listed and after that, we'll go home."

He scanned the list remembering what each one looks like. Eggs, bacon, mayonnaise, milk, ice cream, marshmallow, chocolate bars, butter, cheese, bread, popcorn? What the hell is a popcorn? He looked on further to the list. And a soda?

Malfoy slowly walked inside the grocery entrance where a young guy as thin as a twig and as awkward as Neville Longbottom appeared. He gave Malfoy a smile and greeted.

"Good afternoon sir! Welcome to Vampiro Mart! Home of the jolliest vampire shoppers."

"What?" Draco asked.

"Here, grab a cart and you're almost on your way! Have a great day!" The guy said all too brightly for Draco's liking.

Not knowing what to do, Draco looked at the guy and asked "Is this mine? Do I keep it or is there some payment I must transact?"

The guy looked at him patiently and smiled brightly. "That's yours sir. Won't you need that?"

"For what?" Draco asked blankly.

"For shopping?" The guy answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Draco, feeling stupid for even asking, cleared his throat and continued his way toward the store. He first spotted the eggs and the bread and placed them in his cart. He ticked off his list and felt happy that he was able to find two items immediately. Okay. Bacon. What does bacon look like? Draco thought to himself. Isn't that what I ate this morning? The brown thing?

While looking, he spotted a familiar word on a bottle. "Soda." He read out loud. He looked at his list again and grinned at himself. So that's what a soda looks like. It's in a bottle. I wonder if muggles drink this?

He put two large bottles of soda in his cart and pushes through an aisle of condiments. He found the mayonnaise, cheese and butter easily. At this rate, Draco felt he was succeeding. He ticked off the three items he found on his list and moved through another aisle. He saw a woman in her late thirties looking through a variety of boxes. As he comes closer, he read the box. 'Tampons'. He stopped for a second and looked at his list if there were tampons listed. All the while checking his list, the woman noticed his presence and looked at him weirdly.

"Excuse me?" A girl in her early twenties asked. She wore the same uniform as the guy at the entrance and wears a smile that could actually tear off her face. Draco gave her a charming smile that he knew too well that could send her heart running for a marathon.

"uhh.. Can I help you with something sir?" The girl stuttered, too engrossed to the charms of the Slytherin Prince.

"Why, yes actually." Draco answered confidently. "I was wondering if you could help me find these items?"

The girl leaned closer to Draco and looked at the list. She read the list out loud.

"Well, you could find milk and ice cream at this section…" While saying that, the girl wrapped her arm around Draco's and dragged him to the aisle she was pointing. He tried to let go of the girl's grip but to no avail, the bitch held on.

"…And at the end of it you'll be able to find the bacon."

"Yes, yes. I think I could find it on my own."

The girl still hasn't let go.

"Oh. Non sense! I'll come with you. You might get lost!" Draco stopped and looked through the whole store. They only have 6 aisles and 2 cashiers.

"No… really…" he said looking for his sister. Where is Isabella?!

…

Meanwhile, Bella was just outside the convenience store licking her bubblegum flavored ice-cream and enjoying the stall she found that's selling trinkets for the festival. There were light sticks, red cloaks and even banners. She even found these weird sunglasses that looks like your eyes are falling out.

"Merci!" She said at the lady that could probably pass as a witch smiled her toothy grin at her. She looked around trying to find her brother. Where is Draco?

…

Draco almost ran towards the cashier. The girl kept following him wherever he went and he didn't have the patience to play muggle anymore. He reached the cashier and hurriedly dumped the items into the counter.

"Good Afternoon sir! Do you have a Value Vampiro Mart card?" Asked the lady cashier.

"Ah what?" Draco asked despite his state of hurry. "Nevermind. I don't have one. Can you just hurry?"

The lady did what was told and pulled out a weird handle. She hovered it over the items one at a time and a 'beep' sound would go off. Draco was fascinated, he'd have to admit.

"Sir? Sir!"shouted the girl from before. Draco being reminded of his situation pulled out a bill and didn't wait for his change. He grabbed his groceries and ran out of the store.

"Sir! Your bacon! You forgot your bacon!"

….

Bella saw her brother ran out of the store and she immediately ran towards him. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to shadows.

"Bella! Where have you been—"

"Shhh!" His sister covered his mouth and remained close to the walls. A few seconds later she scanned the crowd, trying to look for something.

"I think I lost them. Let's go home." Bella panted.

"Them? Who are you running from?" Her brother asked in bewilderment.

"Vampires." Bella whispered, staring at the brick wall in front of them.