Chapter 15: Time for Rules

The next day started already less tense. As Hermione got up she had no problem getting ready for the day and walking around the house on her own. Since she was up especially early, she wanted to make her breakfast on her own, but this quickly got cut off, when Esme noticed her in the kitchen and took over the task. They sat together and chatted happily away while Esme prepared food.

"So what was your favorite class at school?" Hermione had to laugh at the question. "What is it?" Esme was rather confused by this response, not what she had expected.

Hermione tilted her head and felt a little cocky. "Well you and your husband must think pretty similar, since this was the first question he asked me as well." Well technically he asked about her favorite normal school subject, but it still kind of was the same question, she thought. She tried to recall classes for a moment and then came to a conclusion "I don't know!" She answered and Esme shot her a somewhat disbelieving stare. "No really, everything in the first year was so great and new that I couldn't pick a favorite." She tried to eat between her speech. "My parents were muggles…..non magic humans, so for me magic was completely new as well, if you ignore the little incidents of accidental magic when I was younger."

Esme wasn't sure if she got that right. "What is accidental magic?" that sounded like something that could disturb family peace.

Hermione gave her the short explanation and promised her that this is unlikely to happen when you were old enough to control your magic, which she was. "where is Carlisle at?" Hermione ask, noticing the absolute silence in the house.

"He's in the hospital, catching up on his work." Esme started to clean up a few things that Hermione didn't need anymore. "It's strange when the house is so silent, isn't it?" She said a little sad, but the witch couldn't put a finger on what exactly was bothering the woman. "You never will experience this again as soon as the children are back."

Oh that! She must be missing her kids. Hermione didn't consider that at all. It wasn't like she had any family feeling developed yet and she didn't even know them. But Hermione could easily understand how it felt to miss someone. She missed a lot of people lately and the most important ones would never return to her. She stared at her remaining breakfast and couldn't help but feel the sadness overtake her.

It didn't take Esme long before noticing the shift in Hermione's mood. Time to step in! "I am going to bring some food to a families' friend. Do you want to come along?" Hermione looked up interested. "I could also show you around town a little after that, if you want." She was putting dishes in a basket and covered the food with a kitchen towel.

A chance to get to see the town, and maybe she even gets a chance to grab one or two new books. "Absolutely yes!" she answered before missing her chance.

Not even 20 minutes later Hermione found herself in a red, shiny convertible car, with a basket full of delicious smelling food on her lap. "Who is it, we are bringing this crazy amount of food to?" Hermione asked a little curious. "Someone who knows about your family?". It was hard for Hermione to imagine how the Cullen's managed to live here, work and go to school without anyone knowing what they were.

"Oh no no no sweety." Esme answered slightly panicked. "Sorry we should have talked about this before." She reduced the speed a little. "No one knows what we are, no one except Bella. So please never mention it to anyone or we get into a lot of trouble." She explained and even though it sounded like she was really scared of the consequences she spoke in this soft calm way. "A few people suspect, but you must never give them any hints, okay?" it sounded pleading and Hermione was the last one, who wanted to harm those nice people. She nodded eagerly.

Esme stroke over her cheek with the back of her hand. "Thank you." She muttered a lot more relaxed now. But she mentioned something that confused Hermione a little. "So Bella is none of you? Carlisle mentioned that she's Edwards new girlfriend, I somehow assumed she would be…..well… like you?"

Esme shook her head. "No. She is human. The man we are visiting is her father. I swear I have no clue how this man was able to survive on his own before Bella moved here." Hermione caught the woman rolling her eyes and had to giggle. A vampire that rolls it's eyes annoyed. Ron would never believe that. "She would like to be like us, but that is a difficult topic in our family. Better you don't mention it towards Rosalie or Edward." Esme advised and she couldn't help but try to guess what kind of fight laid behind this story.

Esme pulled the car into the driveway of a house, that reminded Hermione a lot the one in the book 'the secret garden' it looked cute and she could imagine anyone who lived in it being happy with their home. This changed when the door opened. A man that looked quite a bit older than Carlisle or Esme opened the door. He looked tired even though it was still early morning. e looH

"Oh had a long day yesterday, chief?" Esme asked sympathetic. The man nodded with a grunt and stepped aside to let them in. Hermione was a little disappointed by the look of the interior. The outside of the house looked like a lovely family home but the inside looked as if the furniture and décor didn't change for the past 20 years. The wall paint surely wasn't it's original color anymore due to time and life happening around it and a few of the shelfs and tables looked fairly retro.

Esme placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and made her step in front of her. "Who's this young lady?" The man asked in a voice you only use when you are talking to a child. It offended Hermione a little, but she was twelve, this probably counted as child to most people. Hermione wanted to reach out a hand to introduce herself but she had to hold the basket in both hands. "Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you." She said straight forward, none of the shyness around, she held when she met Esme.

The vampire smiled a proud smile. "She's living with us for now, we hope to keep her around." She explained to the chief. "I thought it would be good, if you two meet now, so you know where to place her, if she starts trouble in town!" Esme shot Hermione a playful stern look and it took the witch a while to get the joke.

"Oh you are Police chief then?" Hermione concluded.

The man gave a quick nod "Yeah, So you better behave." He shot her a wink and she had to giggle. Then he took the basket from her and led the way to the kitchen to put it on the kitchen table. Hermione was thankful, the thing got heavier every minute. "I guess you have the space and money to take in another kid." He said thoughtful more to himself than to Esme, who chose to ignore the statement. "Is Bella okay? She didn't call every day, as she promised she would."

Esme pulled the towel off of the dishes inside the basket and placed them on the table one by one. "Oh those kids are horrible, they didn't call us either. But They are fine. You know how they are they only contact us, if something went down the hill." She tried to calm him. "I bring you a little more food, so you won't eat this horrible instant stuff!" now she sounded like scolding a kid and the chief looked rather cowed too. Hermione didn't have the feeling as if he would argue with Esme ever. "You can eat the Casserole now and put the Pizza in the freezer." She advised. And as if it was an order he put the Casserole into the fridge and the pizza in the Box below.

"Do you want some ah…..coffee or tea?" Charlie asked, trying to be polite after he just got bossed around. But The woman shook her head, and managed to even make this look graceful.

"No thank you." She declined the offer politely. "I promised Hermione to show her around town and Carlisle will be home early today." She shushed Hermione to the front door. "But if you need anything, feel free to call me. Bella would be mad if we didn't make sure you stay healthy!" The poor man really must feel like a kid, Hermione thought.

…

(Italy)

Alice watched as Rose and Emmet were looking at some hand crafted jewelry at a market booth. On the other side of the street Edward, Jasper and Bella sat down and the boys made fun of Bella's eating habits as she tried to eat something sweet with a lot of powdered sugar on it. Her face was covered in it as well. She couldn't help but smile to herself. This was nice, a vacation in human pace. Sure a few times Emmett got annoyed with it, but she knew that all of them enjoyed it in some way.

The shopkeeper handed her the Cola she ordered and she went to bring it over to Bella. It was just a moment of slipping attention, a second of letting her thoughts wander, and everything it took to ruin the surprise. As she walked over and saw Jasper laughing at Bella, she wondered briefly if things still would be like this with their new sister was around and how she would be like. And while she still noticed her mistake and tried helplessly to make her thought unthought, Edwards head already shot up and stared at her in disbelief.

She still was a few steps away from the table they sat on but she clearly could hear the enraged "What" that Edward let out breathlessly.

How could she let her thoughts slip like that? She wasn't the only one to hear it. Bella stared confused from Edward to her and back and it only took Rosalie and Emmett seconds to notice that something was wrong and walk over to them. As everyone stared at her she only had one support. Jasper came to stand behind her and forced her to move close to the crowd of their siblings instead of standing on the crowded street. "Now you have to tell them" he said in defeat.

He was right, now he had to tell them…..

…

(Cullen's Home)

Hermione decided that she liked Forks. It was small enough to not be too crowded for her taste and big enough to find something new in every corner. Esme showed her the local community places, the school and a food place. The most curious thing was 'the border'. Apparently there was a border in the woods, the Cullen's were not to pass. Esme allowed Hermione to go there, but never alone only with Bella or other humans. This should have puzzled her more, but it just reminded her a lot of the forbidden forest and this made her feel a lot more at home.

On the way back home, Hermione told a little about the forbidden Forest and how Harry had to go there as punishment in their first year.

While Esme was really interested in her stories, those methods made her shudder a little. Who would send a child or children in this case into a probably dangerous magical forest? This seemed rather odd to her.

By the time they got back, Hermione was ready to eat lunch and then watched some TV. This was somewhat comical to her. Her friends were sitting in Hogwarts right now, studying, while she was actually watching cartoons in a very modern living room.

Later she was reading in her Charms Textbook trying to not fall behind too much even without classes, until Carlisle came home from work. She spend some time with him in his study, asking questions about his work, the mysterious border and the local school. He happily answered all her questions and in return asked a few about her own research that day.

Hermione helped Esme making dinner afterwards and when she was done eating the two vampires sat together with her in the living room. It felt like a nice routine already. Hermione felt like she could call this place home.

After a while of relaxing peace. Carlisle turned off the TV and turned to her, causing Esme to look up as well. "We should discuss a few rules." He stated. And Hermione sat up straight, showing that she was paying attention. "We already spoke about this and I was thinking about it during work, today."

Esme pulled a questioning eyebrow up. "Rules?" she asked a little confused. "I mean yes we had rules for the others too, but I think 'don't kill any humans'" doesn't really apply for Hermione." She pulled a bit of rebelling hair out of Hermione's face as she eyed her husband skeptical and the young girl couldn't help but giggle and then instantly feel bad for laughing about the 'don't kill humans' part.

Carlisle chuckled as well, and felt similar bad. "No of course not. I mean things like bed times, not telling anyone what we are, no potion brewing in the bedroom…..things like that".

Hermione looked at Esme. "I think that's a good idea. I am actually a fan of house rules…..even though I had a history of breaking them at Hogwarts" she admitted with a guilty blush on her cheeks.

Together the three of them came up with a nice list of rules:

Rule#1: Don't tell anyone about the family-secret

Rule#2: Don't wander around the woods alone

Rule#3: Bedtime at 9:00pm during week and 10pm at the weekend

Rule#4: At least 4 hours of home study, as long as she's off school

Rule#5: Brewing only in the kitchen

Rule#6: Tell someone, if there is any problem.

Rule#7: Speak up, if the others try to convince you to do risky thing. (You are not as unbreakable as them)

Rule#8: If you need something say so. If we need you to do something do so.

Rule#9: If a door is closed, knock. If it's open you can enter.

Rule#10: 3 healthy meals a day!

Hermione wrote them all down. She would pin them to her door as soon as she had her own room. Her own room in her new home. This felt right.

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AN: Okay so I sped up thing a little so next chapter the Cullen will return home 😉. Since a lot of you asked. NO harry will not be adopted as well BUT I do have plans or him. The reason he doesn't get adopted simply is that I can't imagine Dumbledore letting his secret weapon go anywhere else. Also I will end this fanfic as soon as the whole Adoption process is done, but continue in a second fanfiction with Ilvermorny and some vampire action. Because this was about finding home and family. But no worries it still will be a few chapters, I am not nearly done here.