Moonrise || Harry Potter Twilight Crossover || FanFiction

Chapter Thirty-One: Hermione's POV

"Okay." Bella agreed, and Edward helped her stand up as she swayed slightly.

"Let's go, love." He smiled, and they left the room. This time I don't try to hide my eye roll, and Carlisle chuckled.

"We'll do the transfusion around a day and a half before the battle." He said, "That gives it the most opportune time to mix with your blood, but the scent still stay strong."

-

"You know, we've never talked about what we're going to do... after." Alice spoke up, as she braided my hair.

"After?" I frowned, lazing outside in the rare sunlight, enjoying soaking up the warm rays. Beside me, Alice is sparkling like a diamond, looking even more radiant then usual.

With all the stress of the approaching Battle, Alice and I decided to steal a few hours away, and made our way to a nice secluded part of the forest, where we could just enjoy each other's company- and by that I didn't mean that we were planning to have sex, just that we wanted some privacy.

"Mm. After the Battle. We've never talked about what we're going to do." Alice said, and I closed my eyes, pushing away the cloud of darkness threatening to rear up inside me.

After the Battle. The way she worded it... it felt like the conversations I'd have with Harry and Ron, inside the tent, as we hid and planned, day after day. 'What do you think you'll do after the final battle?' Every time our answers would change. Harry said he wanted to play Quidditch professionally, then he said he wanted to run some kind of shop, some kind of business, then he moved on to wanting to be a Healer. Ron always spoke about being a Keeper, maybe helping out at Fred and George's place.

And I spoke about maybe going into the Ministry, wanting to change different laws such as the Department of Magical Creatures ones, or teaching at Hogwarts, or working to find ways to introduce different muggle inventions to the Wizarding world.

The thing was, although we never said it out loud; we never actually expected we'd ever get the chance to do any of those things. It was a game we played that was somewhat akin to what you'd buy if you won the lottery. We all expected that we wouldn't make it through the War. It was the sad truth, something we had never talked about, but had all accepted.

And now, as Alice talked about 'after', it brought back the reality of the situation. This was a Battle to the death. All it would take was one slip-up, and then I could lose her, lose the one thing that really made me feel like living since the War was over, and I lost my purpose.

A chill seeped into my bones, despite sun's warm rays, and I turned around in Alice's arms and gripped her shoulders, tight. She opened her mouth, surprised by my actions, most likely to ask what was wrong, then her eyes met mine, and she faltered.

A part of me wondered what she saw that made her freeze. Was it the darkness, the desperation, the fear?

"Stay with me," I pleaded, holding her tight, feeling tears well in my eyes, "stay with me and don't you ever leave me, Alice! Promise me!"

Alice pulled me closer, against her chest, and rocked us back and forth gently, as the tears spilled over. "It's okay, I'll never leave you." She promised, her voice gentle, soothing. "I love you, Hermione, I love you so, so much."

"I can't lose you, not when I just got you." I said, burying my face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. "I've lost too much."

"You'll never lose me, sweetie." She breathed, her cool breath brushing against my ear, "I'll never leave you. We're going to fight together, against Victoria. I refuse to be separated from you. I want to stay with you forever, my darling love."