Hello children! This one's a wee bit late, and a teensy bit shorter, but here's to hoping y'all enjoy it! Thank you so much for the reviews, etc - I really appreciate all your support, and the guest reviewer: I'm really glad you pointed out those mistakes, I'm always looking forward to some constructive criticism, there is no better road to perfection. I hope you like the changes I'v made in the previous chapter, and this one too!

Guys, I'v tweaked Ch 5 a bit, nothing special, but I hope you enjoy this one! Happy reading!

Chapter 6

Hermione was at a loss for words. She wasn't sure what she was doing, or how exactly it had come to this. Wait, she knew the second one. The reason why she was stuck in a car with Elena Gilbert and Caroline Forbes, both of whom were not speaking a word; was one Alaric Saltzman.

She had gone to the Hospital to check on Jenna, who really did look like she had stabbed herself; Hermione at least found no marks near her neck or signs of struggle on her anywhere. Elena had been there, and Jenna had just woken up, mostly trying to forget what had happened, as she was very embarrassed by it. Caroline had been there with Elena, and Alaric had just arrived, when Jenna was trying to make Elena go home and rest, as she had been there the whole night. Jenna and Caroline seemed happy to see her, but Elena and Alaric, who she had just been introduced with, kept exchanging worried glances.

Alaric had then suggested that Elena should go to the Grill with Caroline and Hermione, and try to relax somewhat, while he stayed with Jenna. Elena seemed unsure, but Caroline had grabbed on to the idea like a lifeline, and now here they were – driving to the Grill in her car, and she couldn't find a topic to break the awkward silence.

Hermione knew she was bad at socializing. She had never gotten along much with girls at Hogwarts either, or at least pre-war, because not many of them had 'keep your best friend alive' as their number one priority; Hermione's priorities discounted the overly girly things that they preferred like make-up, general gossip, or the accursed Divination for the girls of her dorm. And she'd never had friends outside their little circle, so this was becoming excruciatingly awkward. What exactly had she been thinking when she agreed to this again?

"So Hermione, how's your research going?" Elena said finally, and Hermione subtly sighed and saw Elena rolling her eyes at Caroline in the mirror, who had undoubtedly been trying to make her talk for the past two minutes since they had got in the car.

"Oh, it's going well Elena. Jeremy helped a lot but I'll probably have to talk to Alaric about a few things I'm unclear on. After Jenna is discharged, of course." She replied, remembering how Alaric seemed so taken with Jenna.

"Oh, Jeremy helped you out? I didn't know that." Elena stated, frowning and Hermione found herself swearing mentally. Was she supposed to even tell her that? Did Jeremy tell her things? God, she had no idea about the ins and outs of their relationship.

"Yeah, I luckily bumped into him at the library a few days ago. Just took one day of his time, but it advanced my research pretty quickly. I hope – you're okay with that, right?"

"Oh yeah. Don't worry about it. I just didn't know he had met you because he didn't mention it. He needs to talk to more people anyway. Make friends…" Elena trailed off, looking out again, and Hermione saw Caroline grimacing at her from the mirror. Oh, so Jeremy was not a good topic?

"Okay... So, Caroline. How's your Mom?" Hermione said instead, and suppressed a wince as Caroline's face changed in a matter of seconds.

"She's okay, actually. We were able to clear it up, no grudges held or anything." Caroline said eventually, and from her defeated tone of voice, it seemed that things had probably not gone very well with her. It must've been something related to her vampirism. Or that accident that Stefan and Mason had been talking about.

"That's good. So how's Stefan, Elena?" She said after a thought, hoping they would have resolved their fight, or whatever it was, by now. Elena looked at her with a frown, as a pained look crossed her face. Not then.

"We broke up." Elena said steely, the 'Not that it's any of your business' went unsaid with her tone.

"For good." Caroline added complacently, but it didn't seem to effect Elena, as the sad look never left her face.

"I'm sorry." Hermione said sincerely, parking carefully as they reached the Grill.

"Is Katherine still in the picture?" She asked Caroline curiously as they got out, but Elena's shoulders tensed as she heard. "Stefan told me." Hermione added hastily as the three made their way into the Grill; both Hermione and Caroline's eyes going automatically towards the bar.

"Katherine is not in the picture in any way. Stefan made clear he wasn't interested in her anymore." Caroline said, as they took their seats in a booth in the corner. "And when did you meet Stefan?"

"We met at the Lockwood's the day before yesterday. We didn't chat properly or anything, but he seemed like a good guy." Hermione replied, ignoring Caroline's jab - hopefully, they would be over this part of their relationship quickly.

"Yeah well, he is. But sometimes you just have to let it go because too many things get in the way." Caroline stated, looking meaningfully at Elena, who looked back at her silently, not making any move to acknowledge her point.

Hermione's thoughts turned to her and Draco, and how their relation had been short-lived because Ron couldn't get over himself. She looked at Elena, who still looked quite upset, and decided it was time for a change in conversation. Girls were always the same, it shouldn't take much time to distract Elena.

"That's true. That sort of thing happened to me too - and Caroline's right. It's better to end it before it gets messy." she said off-handedly, and sure enough, it took all of two seconds for both Elena and Caroline to perk up interestedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was it recent?" Elena said carefully, as Caroline ordered drinks for the three of them.

"Well, it was some months ago, but sometimes it is hard to get over. So don't worry Elena, it'll be okay with you too." Hermione smiled at her, and Caroline nodded vigorously at Elena.

"So who were you, relatively speaking? Elena, Stefan or Katherine?" The blonde inquired, and Hermione smiled at the comparison. Ron was nothing like Katherine, and Draco and Elena – she barely suppressed a laugh at the thought.

"I was in Stefan's place. My ex and current boyfriend hated each other for years, and to be fair, I hated Malfoy for years too, before we got over… those things."

"Wait, you hated each other for years? How old were you?" Elena said skeptically, as Caroline's phone beeped suddenly.

"We knew each other for about… seven years before we started dating? Yes, seven years we studied in the same school, hated each other mostly, and the only conversations we had were spent insulting each other." Hermione smiled, remembering the days till fourth year, when the most of their concern was to survive the latest year and adventure. And in the meanwhile, not to give Malfoy more bragging material or anything to get him started on the annoying 'My father...' rant.

"Aw that's cute." Caroline sighed, and Hermione snapped back to the present, as memories of Ron and Draco snapping at each other also came forward to her mind.

"Yes well, we weren't meant to be anyway. Later, he couldn't get over the fact that I was still best friends with my ex and they constantly-"

"Wait- you were best friends? How does that happen?" It was Elena who interrupted her this time, and Hermione was glad to see that they were getting somewhere, even though it was on the expense of baring her private life to the two. Something that any reporter of the Prophet would die to get their hands on.

"We were always best friends. We'd been friends since we were eleven, though Ron was no better than Draco. It took him four years to realize I was a girl, then another two to realize he was attracted to me, then another year to find the balls to say it."

Caroline and Elena both laughed at that, and Hermione found herself smiling. "So what happened then?" Caroline asked, after her and Elena had stopped giggling. "And when did you realize the same about him?" Elena added.

"Oh I knew since fourth year. Ron was just thick and totally tactless when it came to girls. We wasted a few years that way." Hermione recalled slowly, her mind going back to Lavender and the Sixth year drama. It still gave her chills to think what would have happened on Ron's birthday had he not been in Slughorn's office the time he was poisoned. Caroline's phone buzzed again, and she was forced to bring her mind back to the present again as the blonde frowned at her phone, but snapped it shut again.

"Anyway, we kissed and dated for about… a month, before we decided it wouldn't work." Hermione continued, sipping on her drink, wondering if she could slip in a few mouthfuls of Firewhiskey without the girls noticing.

"Oh, why? You lost interest?" Elena asked.

"No. Not exactly, we just… wanted different things from life, I guess. And it ended being too platonic between us." Hermione shrugged as Caroline finished her drink.

"Well, it was nice to see you again Hermione. But Elena, I just got Mrs. Lockwood's message, they need us at the school." Caroline said, and Elena pouted.

"But I'm on holiday today!" She whined, and Caroline shook her head, chuckling.

"Yeah nice try. If I'm getting roped in, you are too." She said, and got out of her place, while Elena followed suit, making a face.

"It was nice to see you Hermione. I hope we can catch up some time later." Elena said, and Hermione smiled at the pair of them, as Caroline said goodbye as well.

Hermione watched the two leaving with a sense of disappointment - their reason sounded like an excuse to her ears. And just when she thought they had been making progress too - girl bonding. As the two left the Grill, a waiter approached her with a drink. "From the gentleman at the bar, Miss." He said, pointing towards the bar, at a man who had his back to her. It took Hermione a minute, but she recognized Damon from his hair, even though she had last seen him about a week ago.

She sighed, nodded thanks to the boy, and sipped the drink he had brought, wondering if she should even talk to him after he had avoided for so long. But who was she kidding – she needed leads where she could find them; of course she couldn't pass up on the opportunity to talk to him. His brother had dated Katherine at some point, he was as good as she would get until she could meet Stefan. Finishing the drink and grimacing at the burn, she reluctantly moved towards the bar, taking a seat beside the dark-haired bourbon-loving guy.

"What do you want?" She said glumly, turning towards him. It struck her again – how unfairly handsome he was for a dangerous vampire.

"Nothing. Just wanted to listen to your woes of ball-less ex-boyfriends on a more personal level." He said, turning to her with a disarming smile.

So he was listening. Hermione grimaced to herself as she realized Damon could have been the one who messaged Caroline.

"Yes sure, Damon. Because there's nothing better for us to talk about than that." She said sarcastically, even though it was true on some level, as they would only play question-and-dodge because of all the secrets in the way.

"That bad?" he said, raising an eyebrow, smirking infuriatingly. He probably knew how uncomfortable she was, the git, that's why he kept pursuing the stupid topic.

"No, it wasn't. But I'm not about it talk about it with you. You've been avoiding me for a while - I'm not particularly in the mood to entertain you. So how about we come to the point? Again, what do you want?" She insisted, her tone baring no emotion except boredom.

"Fine, if you're in such a hurry, I'll get to the point. How do you know Katherine?" He said, turning to her seriously, no hint of a smirk on his face. If she didn't know better she would say he sounded upset, but that could be just her own brain overanalyzing things again.

And wait, why was he asking her about Katherine? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around?

"I – I actually don't know Katherine. I was about to ask what you knew about her." She said carefully, and watched as he frowned.

"But you mentioned her to Stefan." He said, pointing to her with a glass, and she gave a short, skeptical laugh. What in Merlin's name was he talking about?

"Yes, I mentioned her. I never said I knew her. I'm looking for information myself."

"What kind of information?"

"I want to know what happened in 1864." She said, and watched as his face changed suddenly, and he looked away.

Hermione was confused, to say the least. A moment ago, she had felt like they were getting somewhere – he wanted to know about Katherine, she wanted to know about Katherine. They would share information and be on their merry way – it was a win-win.

And just like that, on the mention of 1864, they were back to square one. This proved that something had happened – something that he knew about. But obviously wouldn't tell her easily.

"Well, do you know anything or am I wasting my time?" She inquired again, hoping this wouldn't end up being a waste of time - like every conversation with him seemed to be.

"Why do you want to know?" He said, frown back on his face. Hermione groaned internally - why couldn't he just tell her? Why was the idiot so paranoid?

"I – Academic curiosity." She replied and Damon snorted, "Yeah, that got old fast."

Before she could figure out what he meant by that, he had moved in closer, face right in her front of her and looking into her eyes intensely.

"Why do you want to know so much about Katherine? What are you doing in this town?" he said carefully, and immediately, Hermione felt a tug at her mental wards. His voice was ringing in her brain, and she found herself opening her mouth to answer, before she suddenly realized what was happening, and the voice was gone. She blinked twice and Damon was still looking at her expectantly.

Before she knew it, she had let out a peal of laughter. She giggled uncontrollably, as she realized he had tried to compel her and failed, because she knew the theory of Legilimency and Occlumency a bit too well. The feeling of overcoming compulsion felt like that of passing a test, especially one that Damon was expecting her to fail spectacularly.

When she looked back at him, he was staring at her, completely confused. "Nice try." She breathed, taking a sip of her drink and calming down.

"You can't be compelled." Damon said dismally, gulping down his drink. This was when it occurred to her what had actually happened. Damon had tried to compel her to tell what she was doing in the town and why she wanted to know about Katherine, instead of just asking her nicely. Or telling the truth and just giving information.

She grimaced as realization struck – trust was going to be her only friend when dealing with these people. On the other hand – this confirmed the theory that he was a vampire. Well, at least there were no doubts about that now.

"I'm honestly hurt that you wouldn't just ask simply. I wouldn't have minded telling you." She said finally, trying to smile at him glumly as she got out of the seat. He looked up confusedly as she moved to leave, "Where are you going?"

"Home." She said, like the answer was obvious, which it was, and Damon frowned at her for a second, before looking down, grimacing.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make it back to your house that first day." He said in a rather small voice, not meeting her eyes, a frown etched on his face as he looked anywhere but at her.

"I'll forgive you, if you tell what you got caught up in." She replied fairly, with a bit of a smile, sitting back down and ordering another soda.

Damon raised his eyebrows at her, but she shrugged - it was upto him to answer. "Fine, Stefan and I got into a... tiff with the Sheriff and Mason Lockwood." he stated, and Hermione's brain launched into overdrive as she once again thought everything over. Idly, her hand searched her jacket for the little flask of Firewhiskey she always kept with herself, as understanding dawned. So that was why Damon wanted to kill Mason. Or was that incident Mason's payback for trying to kill him? Well, it didn't matter, because obviously-

"Mason didn't survive for long after that tiff, did he?"Hermione asked, finally digging out the flask and pouring two sips in her glass half full of soda. She turned towards Damon when he didn't answer, to see him looking at her drink curiously, an eyebrow raised as she tucked the flask back safely in her pocket.

"Mason... has left town." He said finally and Hermione flinched.

"He's dead, isn't he?" she said, and Damon looked at her uncomfortably, probably not liking her reaction- "More or less." he admitted.

Hermione grimaced at once, but nodded - at least now there wasn't a werewolf present in the town, unless she figured out what Tyler Lockwood was. She focused on her drink for a while, and Damon was probably staring at her because she could feel his gaze - it was an uncomfortable sort of twisting in her stomach, and she had the sudden desire to shiver.

"So, Ms. Granger, are you going to tell me why you want to know about Katherine?" Damon said after a while, turning to her with a smirk that lightened up his eyes, tone suddenly sugary-sweet and flirting, like she had come across the first time.

"I would love to tell you, Mr. Salvatore, but unfortunately, I cannot. You, on the other hand, can probably tell me more about her?" She replied, voice saccharine sweet, but Damon shook his head.

"Uh-huh. I probably can. But trust works both ways, Ms. Granger." He said with a sweet smile, and Hermione found herself blinking for a second as her thoughts braked suddenly at the way the smile made his eyes a bit lighter. That wasn't fair – what he could do with a simple smile.

"Fine." She said, turning away, adding more whiskey to her drink and taking a sip slowly as it soothed her throat, "Ask me something other than those two questions."

"Hmm. Okay, how about what do you know about Katherine?" Damon inquired finally, and she pursed her lips – that wasn't very difficult.

"I know almost next to nothing about her, bar the obvious." She said, giving him a meaningful look, and he nodded in a 'Yes, yes' manner. "So that, and the fact that her whole family was massacred by a psychopath. And also that she's probably very clever and good at hide-and-seek if she's still alive."

She watched Damon as he digested that information, blinking rapidly. "I… didn't know that." He said slowly.

"Clearly. Drink?" She said, offering her glass, which he looked at it suspiciously for a second before taking. He sniffed it once, before downing it and Hermione tsked as his eyes flew open comically, and he coughed a bit.

"What is this stuff?" Damon said skeptically, slamming the glass in front of her and lightly rubbing his chest as Hermione laughed silently at his reaction.

"Shouldn't have drank it all at once, honey." She giggled at him as he rolled his eyes at her, but sobered up quickly, knowing that he would be drunk very soon now. "So your turn now?" She asked, and Damon smiled up at her teasingly.

"Nope. Sorry. I still don't trust you." He grinned, and she grimaced, shaking her head again. She should have known this was coming - he was, after all, a sneaky bastard.

"But you can trust me, you know. I don't know how to make you realize that." She remarked, standing up and frowning at him thoughtfully. What could she do to make sure of that? What had she not tried yet – except telling him all her secrets that would get her executed by the bloody Ministry?

"It's earned, 'lil Brit, it's earned." He slurred quietly, turning towards her and she saw his eyes unfocus for a second before he blinked at her again.

Right. He was drunk. The firewhiskey had just sped up the job. She watched as he turned to the bar - knowing he would pass out any second. She should've made sure he was found by the right people, but right then, she couldn't care less. He was being difficult - he deserved it.

Hermione turned around and walked outside quickly, sighing. She had one last shot to avoid an undoubtedly awkward conversation with three vampires in her living room. Making sure she had the packets in the back seat of the car, she desolately drove towards the Post Office, her mind still on the stubborn and paranoid drunk vampire she had left on the bar.

"…perhaps you take pride in being an insufferable know-it-all…"

"…there are more important things. Friendship and bravery…"

"…Merry Christmas, Hermione!..."

"…WHAT ELSE DID YOU TAKE FROM THE VAULT…"

"…you filthy little mudblood…"

"…ten points from Gryffindor for being a know-it-all…"

"…Hermione, you're back!..."

"…I get it. You choose him…"

"…WHAT ELSE? ANSWER ME! CRUCIO!"

Hermione woke with a gasp, body and the sheets beneath her covered with sweat, her heart beating like she'd run a marathon. There was a throbbing pain in her left forearm and her head was pounding in her ears. Or was it her heart?

Images flashed in front of her eyes, the bedroom not visible to her as she breathed deeply, trying to fight the overwhelming fear of being hit by the Cruciatus any second. A few minutes passed before she could see her surroundings clearly and make out the ornate ceiling of her bedroom, which was unnervingly similar to that of Malfoy Manor; and dispel the torturous thoughts from her mind.

She tried to roll over but pain shot through her arm – she pushed her sleeve up gingerly, dreading to see proof of what she was almost sure had happened. And sure enough, the scar on her arm was smarting, a faint red tinge on the edges, looking like a fresh wound ready to bleed.

"Great." She muttered thickly, and tried to close her eyes and mind to the unpleasant memories that the horrible mark summoned.

She grudgingly opened her eyes again when the feat was proved impossible, and pushed herself off the bed, staring around the dark bedroom. Walking slowly to the large windows, she pushed a curtain aside to see that it was the crack of dawn. Great, now she wouldn't be able to sleep at all.

Hermione stretched languidly and yawned, and the scar seared painfully again. She cast a disgusting look at the thing marring her arm, the presence of which even the best Healers of St. Mungos's had not been able to explain. Ron had remarked once that it was almost like Harry's scar, and she recalled how disgusting it had made her feel, later realizing that was how Harry had felt like most of his life. It was supposed to fade after that bitch's death but no, as fate would have it, it didn't.

Instead, whenever she happened to have a particularly bad nightmare, especially about her, it would tear open and start bleeding fresh. Hermione had made sure to stock up on the salve that healed it quickly; and even though she had avoided nightmares for more than a year with the help of special treatment from St. Mungo's, they were coming back slowly ever since she had had that talk with Caroline.

Shivering a bit, Hermione pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and climbed down the stairs to the kitchen to search for the salve. She had a long day ahead – she had finally figured out how to make a vervain bomb last night, and finished with two of Luna's new books. They were… quite interesting, to say the least. Since the Viking legends were true, stories about other immortal beings like Silas, Qetsiyah, the Cure, The Brotherhood of The Five, etc. also had to be true. She was so excited to go through the rest of Luna's books and sort George's products, that she almost forgot what she had done yesterday.

Got Damon Salvatore drunk and most probably blew the only chance at having a civilized conversation with the vampires. Anyhow, she didn't really regret her actions – she'd still give anything to see their faces the first time they realized what she had sent.

Damon was… confused. Yeah, confused would be the right word, unless his pride allowed him to use 'mind-blown by small British girl-something'. There was a loud noise somewhere above him – Stefan. He was talking, something about saving the day probably. Something might have happened to the bane of their normal-vampire-existence Elena and now Stefan was probably up to his hero hair in shit.

There was loud BANG by his side, and he immediately groaned and tried to roll over to get away from the noise as it reverberated painfully in his skull like it was a fucking boom box, but then found himself flying down to the floor, entangled in sheets.

He blinked as sunlight suddenly scorched his eyeballs and he wondered if his ring had reached it's expiry date.

"DAMON!" His brother's annoying voice shouted; he flinched painfully as the inside of his brain lit on fire and he moved his hands to his ears, trying to block it out. He blinked rapidly as something moved and the sun was back in face, trying to gouge out his eyeballs.

"Huh?" What was going on again? His tongue felt like it had swollen to twice it's size – and why was his brain so slow? And would somebody just pull those damn curtains already?

He decided to stand up and pulled the curtains in one swift motion, but that was ultimately a bad idea. Because as soon as he stopped moving, everything around him revolved at an alarming speed. He was about to hit the ground – or was it the wall? – when Stefan was suddenly under him, supporting him from one side. There were several loud shouts of his name from somewhere, all of which struck painfully in his ears. Damn stupid intensified hearing.

With a huge effort, he finally moved a finger to his lips, and pressed it there; his brother seemed to nod in understanding, but he wasn't sure.

Stefan, and the other person on his side, supported him to a bed, hopefully his own, and he sat carefully, blinking around in the room – there were some people standing around his bed. He could make out two brunettes of contrasting size – most probably Bonnie and Elena, and the blonde blur would be Caroline. Rick was on his other side, and Stefan was standing above him.

"Am I dying?" he asked finally, and his voice hurt his own ears – it sounded too hoarse, like a chainsaw, and he wondered if they understood what he was saying. So many people crowding around his bed could only mean that he was probably about to die. There was no other way Blondie would ever visit him.

"What? Alaric found you passed out on the bar – what the hell did you drink?" His brother said from somewhere above him – he still couldn't see properly – and he struggled to remember what exactly had happened.

"Argh... that little bitch." He groaned as he remembered what had happened. That little Brit had so innocently offered him a drink, he had drunk God-knows-what out of curiosity and – and that was the last thing he remembered. She had been rambling on about trust, or something.

"Who? Did someone vervain you or something?" Rick said confusedly, and he frowned again, remembering that he had smelled it before downing it at once like a fucking idiot.

"Brother, get water. For the first time in my post-death life, I feel properly hung over."

So, thoughts? What d'you think?

Firstly, this one's Beta'ed by the lovely lavanyalabelle, please pray my great beta gets well soon so I can shower you all in great updates.

Secondly, I'm uploading a Post-War story that can be traced vaguely to this, please check it out in the profile if you're interested. It'll cover the origins of the gang, hope it gets the same nice response as this one.

See you in a fortnight!