Chapter 4
Her right arm is aching.
Hermione heard them first before she opened her eyes and saw blurry images leaning down on her. “Carlisle, she’s awake!” 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑙𝑒?
She hears the sounds of footsteps and faint hints of voices while she waits for her eyesight to clear off. Upon succeeding, she saw familiar faces that she last saw years ago. The girl with the pixie haircut smiled gently at her; exactly the same smile she used to show her before. “Hey ‘Mione.”
“Alice,” she whispered, furrowing. She doesn’t understand. They are in America, she was supposed to be in London. Earlier, she can hear them talking. She can also hear…
Her heart started thumping fast. She felt her blood rushing to her cheeks as she remembered who exactly was the owner of the voice pleading her earlier. It’s the voice of—
“Hermione, thank God you’re awake.” Her thinking came to an abrupt stop when a voice suddenly stopped as its owner entered the room. She looked at him. 𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑙𝑒.He smiled at her. “Rosalie already called your friends, Bill and Fleur Weasley, they’ll be here soon to check on you. How are you feeling?”
Upon hearing the couple’s name, her eyes widened and tried to abruptly sit up, only to be stopped by Carlisle and Alice. “Hermione, you can’t do that. You need your rest.”
“Alice?” Hermione paused to look at her thoroughly to see her loving smile and turned her eyes to Carlisle to see the same smile. “Carlisle.” Her eyes began to water upon seeing them again after four years, and soon, tears fell free from them and a sob escaped her throat. “How… How…”
At her loss of words, she felt the cold arms of Alice gently embracing her and rubbing her hands unto her arms. “It’s alright, Hermione, it’s alright,” Alice said as she lay Hermione’s head on her shoulder and let her cry there.
“Hermione!” Bill and Fleur ran to her as soon as they entered the room. Bill immediately walked around her and held his wand to check her for something while Fleur sat down in front of her.
“Are you okay now, ‘Ermione? Do you feel anything funny, painful? What?” Fleur hurriedly asked her after the firm hug she gave her.
“I feel fine,” she murmured. “Why are Alice and Carlisle here?” She asked as she roamed her eyes around and her eyes widened. “No! Why are we here? Why are we in America?”
“Remus brought you ‘ere, ‘Ermione,” Fleur rubbed her hands on her arms as a way of comfort. “For your zafety.”
“Hermione,” Alice called her attention. “Rosalie, Esme, Emmet, Jasper, and the pack are downstairs, together with your godfather, and your friend, Harry. Would you want to go downstairs and meet them?”
Hermione looked at Fleur, Bill, and Carlisle, and at their supporting nods, she smiled and agreed. Fleur helped her to stand up and looked at her intently. “Remember to take it eazy, yez, ‘Ermione? We wouldn’t want you to faint now, no?”
With her nod, Fleur assisted her by holding her arm as they walk with Alice and Carlisle behind them, until she was met by another loving pair of golden amber eyes and dark hair. She smiled. She knew this tender smile really well. “Esme,” she whispered.
“Oh, Hermione.” Esme gently clapped her hands on her mouth before crossing the little distance to hug her frame. “You had us worried over there.” She cupped Hermione’s face and looked at her thoroughly, as if studying her. “You’re so beautiful,” she whispered and once again admired her lovingly.
“I missed you, Esme,” she breathed as her eyes welled up with tears once again, quite remembering the moments with the family from when she was younger.
“And I, you dear,” she replied, stroking her locks before holding her other arm to assist her. “Let’s meet the others, yes?” She nodded.
They succeeded going down the stairs after a few careful minutes, and were immediately assaulted by the hugs of Rosalie and Emmet.
“What have you done to yourself, little girl?” Rosalie scolded her lightly after the hug while Hermione’s still stock with the hug with Emmet.
“Rosalie, she just woke up!” Emmet decided to defend her before turning to look at her and playfully morphed an annoyed expression on his face and failed. “But I don’t remember letting our little sister put herself in danger, Hermione Jean.”
Hermione frowned with their words. Confusion began to flood her mind, adding to the question of how she got to America. “What… do you mean?” Suddenly, her confusion and burdened emotions suddenly felt lighter and warmer. She turned to Jasper. “Jasper?”
“Let’s go to the sitting room, Mya,” Jasper said and offered his hand for her to cling on. Still confused, she held unto him and walked with them.
“‘Mione!” She nearly fell backwards when a head of raven mess of a hair attacked her with a tight hug and tears fell on her jumper.
“Harry!” She shut her eyes tight as she hugged her best friend back. He’s okay. He’s fine. He’s safe. She doesn’t know what she would do if she lost him too.
She let herself remember as she melted into Harry’s warm embrace. She won’t be able to handle another loss. Her parents and Cedric’s death were the last deaths she would ever experience from this war, she promised. She opened her eyes to see Remus staring and smiling at them knowingly before closing her eyes again, only for the air to smell exactly like the scent she longs to smell once again.
𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑠. 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦. 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠. 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒.
v
She opened her eyes and there… she saw him.
Tears flowed to her cheeks and her chest tightened. Her mouth went dry and everything seemed to disappear slowly as she stared at him. A sob escaped her throat as her senses were ambushed by everything about him. His scent, his face. His fair, now pale complexion, his nose amber golden eyes staring back at her, now holding deep sorrow and longing, now free of freckles that she loved to count each moment she gets, and his lush lips that never failed to express how much he loves her — may it be by words or by kisses.
“Cedric,” she breathed.
She blinked for a moment to see if her eyes were tricking her, and fortunately, it was not.
Her Cedric is here.
Something had changed with him, that’s for sure, but he is still her Cedric. She exhaled a huge amount of breath in a mixture of disbelief and delight. She looked at Harry, Fleur, Bill, and then to Remus. They were all smiling at her knowingly, and Remus… the smile he gave her is like the one he’s always giving her each time he knows she would be delighted in something — a smile only he and her parents know to give her.
She brought her gaze back to Cedric and swallowed a huge lump of air stuck in her throat. She tried to smile but her lips were quivering uncontrollably as her emotions grew huge and more tears came. “Cedric,” she whispered. She slowly started moving her feet forward until her shaking smile dropped when Cedric suddenly vanished in a form of thin air.
She froze. She looked at everyone in the room; the Cullens, Harry, Fleur, Bill, Remus, and other people just now entering the house’s sitting room that she now recognized as the citizens of La Push. The one hard expression suddenly softened when he saw her tears. Neat raven black hair, deep golden russet skin and definitely a huge man walked up to her and enveloped her in a warm embrace, yet her eyes lingered on the open door— where Cedric just came out of.
Jacob seemed to talk but her ears are muffled and she can only hear nothing as she continues to stare at the open door, and then she looked at Remus after freeing herself of Jacob’s hug. “Where did he go?” she softly muttered.
Remus walked towards her and held her arms. He blew a deep breath a few times as if thinking of what to tell her that would ease her feelings. “He just needs to think of a few things, ‘Mione.”
“That’s Cedric, right?” she confirmed, and when Remus nodded, she continued. “What happened?” She started to sob as her emotions took over her completely. “He… he died. Remus, he died,” she choked on it. “Harry saw it. I saw his body. Then how… How…”
Remus hugged her as she seemed to not be able to complete her sentences any longer. He looked around the room and saw everyone pitying the girl in his arms. The Cullens may still be confused with Hermione’s connection with the former wizard now vampire, but they all care for them both and it’s enough to see things as it is. Same with the La Push pack, they are willing to let go of the current treaty to care for their own.
“How is he alive?” Hermione continued speaking, and it is evident that she’s trying to calm down and shush down her sobs and cries. “How was that possible? And why did he left? He didn;t even talk to me,” she sobbed. “He just left. And how is he so fast? It’s like air. I don’t know anyone or any charm that can do that, except—” she stopped.
Hermione’s mind suddenly started spinning as it processed information out of the blue. Moments from when she was young with the Cullens and what happened with Cedric earlier. Before she can even finish her conclusion on her recent train of thoughts, her mouth blurted something out. “Vampire.”
She freed herself out of Remus’ grasps and looked at the Cullens and saw them looking warily at each other. “You’re vampires.” Her mouth went dry at the realization, until she heard Remus’ chuckle beside her.
“Well, if it isn’t for the brightest witch of the age to realize that her boyfriend and his family are vampires,” he chuckled and she frowned.
“His family?”
Remus smiled at her in a reassuring way. “Cedric will be the one to tell you about that, cub.”
Hermione put her gaze down when she abruptly let out a soft cry and held her arm. She looked at it and saw the word harshly carved on her arm, and a few black lines scattering away from it, and her mind ruffled more in confusion. She looked at Remus in panic. “Remus, what’s this?”
“‘Ermione.” Fleur walked up to her and held her arms. The pain is increasing fervorously and she rubbed it more tremendously. The pain feels like something is cutting through her veins slowly starting from her arm and spreading away from it.
“Fleur, what’s happening?” Her voice is shaking and she does not know why. The pain is still increasing and she can’t help the yelp that escapes her throat. Her eyes became blurry with tears as the sounds surrounding her muffled as she focused on the pain in her arm.
“We need to get her upstairs, Remus! She’ll pass out!”
And that’s the last thing she heard before darkness captured her eyes.
—
Edward certainly did not expect to see a wolf look for him inside the woods. He had only left the house for merely a few minutes and it surprised him that out of all the people in their house, it was Jacob Black who came to collect him.
“You shouldn’t have left Cullen.”
“Why? Shouldn’t you be glad I did not go near Hermione? I’m certain that’s what you and your pack of mutts want,” he grumbled under his breath.
“It is,” he confirmed and Edward fought the urge to chuckle bitterly. “But not with Hermione immediately breaking as soon as you left.” A minute of silence followed before he spoke again. “She collapsed.”
Edward snapped his head to look at Jacob when he heard that. “What?”
“Fleur said that the curse will consume her magic until she dies,” Jacob stopped. “Until you leeches… turn her.”
Edward’s lower lip trembled. He swallowed a lump in his throat as the possibilities of what may happen consume him. He may have wanted to turn her for them to live as long as it takes, but it would also mean passing the curse that he loathes to her. And he hates that. He hates to cause her suffering.
Turning her will make her suffer. “I’m going back.”