CHAPTER FORTY-TWO:
Hermione's POV:
When I leave the room Leah's staying in, I spend a few minutes wandering around, looking for Alice, before she practically blurs over to me, pulling me up into her arms and spinning me around. "Bella's letting me do her wedding!" she squealed, her voice bright with excitement, "and I'm a bridesmaid!" I laughed, and locked my legs around her waist, hugging her tight.
"Looks like you've got lots of planning to do." I smiled at her. "How long has she given you?"
"Until August thirteenth." Alice beamed, before frowning slightly, "it's not long, but I can pull it off."
"Definitely." I agreed, as she placed me back on my feet, and I kissed her forehead. "Let's go to the kitchen, I promised to do some taste-testing for Esme."
"Cool." Alice beamed, dancing after me. I make my way to the kitchen, where Esme's lined up rows and rows of food- it reminds me of a smaller version of the House Tables in the Great Hall, all covered with meals. A small lump rises in my throat.
"So, what are we going to do for our wedding?" Alice asked, as I pick up a fork and start sampling.
"Well, you can choose the location, I guess, and the cake and decorations and all that stuff," I mused, "if you want to, of course," I added, "I just thought you liked that sort of stuff."
"You thought right, oh wife to be." I laughed
"I'll have to introduce you to the wonderful world of dress robes, of course," I pulled a slight face, "and we'll pick them out together, and I can ask Minerva to be the minister."
"The person who bonds us, right?" Alice confirmed, and I nodded. "So it's like a wedding, except we can only invite people who know about magic." She said. I winced slightly.
"I'm sorry, Alice."
"Don't be," she smiled, "I've got Bella's wedding to show off my insanely awesome talent, and ours to spend time with the people I love most."
"That's really sweet." I smiled at her, my heart warming.
"I'm so excited!" Alice is just about bouncing up and down on her heels.
"I can tell."
"Any of that stuff edible?" she asked, scrunching her nose slightly as she looks at the spread Esme prepared.
"It's actually really good." I said, honestly, "especially the calzones- they're really sweet." Alice pouted.
"Sweeter then me?" She asked, teasingly, and I laughed.
"Impossible." I tell her, and she grins and reaches up on her tiptoes and presses her lips against mine.
A loud crack interrupts us, and I pulled back from Alice slightly, surprised and a touch annoyed. "Harry, what are you doing back?" I asked, without turning around.
"Um, Hermione? That's not Harry." Alice said, in a hushed voice, staring over my shoulder, her eyes narrowed infinitesimally. Confused and wary, I turn around, then my eyes widen, taking in the sight before me.
"R-Ron?"
My other best friend looks just the same as I remember. His once lanky build has long-since filled out, and all the baby fat is gone, replaced by wiry muscle His face is hard as he looks at me and Alice, our arms tangled together, pressed against each other's body, and his eyes are flat with anger.
"Hermione. Something you forgot to mention?" he asked, in a horribly calm voice that gave away just how angry he was.
I resisted the urge to gulp slightly, instead I summoned my Gryffindor courage and smiled at my irate best friend... the one who fell in love with me. "Ron, this is Alice. She's my soul mate. Literally." I introduced Alice.
Ron instantly started bristling, and I groaned mentally. Dammit! "That's a vampire, Hermione." he stated- loudly.
"Believe it or not, I noticed that my girlfriend was of the undead variety." I said, sarcastically. We'd both gone on the defensive, me turning to mockery, him turning to anger.
"How could you just forget us?" He demanded. I ran my hands through my hair in exasperation. With Ron and I's friendship, we seemed to walk the precipice between love and hate. At the moment I wanted to push Ronald off the precipice and onto the sharp pointy rocks below... but that's neither here nor there.
"Ron, the only us is you, me and Harry! We're best friends, and that's all I want! I'm gay, for god's sake!"
"Hermione... can't you just give us a try?" he pleaded.
"There. Is. No. Us!" I repeated, "There will never be an 'us'! Ron, I was going to break the news easier, but the fact is I'm in love with Alice, she's in love with me, and we're getting married."
Ron's face turns an odd shade of puce, his mouth opening and shutting several times. At some point he starts spluttering, but I can't make out what he's saying. I give him a dark look. "I've never actually witnessed someone devolve into a gibbering idiot before, Ron. Thank you. My life is now complete."
His mouth snapped shut and he glares at me for a moment, then the anger drains from his face and sadness replaces it. "I love you Hermione." He said, in a voice that cracks slightly. I feel myself soften.
"I love you too, Ron. But not like that. Maybe if I was straight we'd have a chance, but the fact is I'm gay. Completely and utterly gay. I'll never like a male that way." I tell him gently. He sighed, then opened up his arms. Sensing the storm's over, I hurry forward and huged him, tightly.
"We're always going to bicker, aren't we?" He said wryly, as we parted.
"We wouldn't be us, otherwise." I tell him, a small smile playing on the corner of my mouth. "We'll work through this- don't be a stranger anymore, Ron. Promise me."
"Huh?" he asked, confused by my wording. I rolled my eyes at him, affectionately.
"You daft moron. It means keep in touch."
"Oh," he gave me a sheepish smile I remembered so well, "right."
"Now that that's over, Ron I'd like to officially introduce you to my fiancé, Alice."
Alice glided forwards, her face a touch wary as she looked at Ron. I watched as they shook hands, extremely tentatively, trying not to smile.
"If you hurt Hermione, me and Harry'll hunt you down." Ron suddenly says, surprising me, and I whacked him across the back of the head. "Oi!" he exclaimed, indignantly, rubbing his head. "That's allowed! It's part of the best friend deal- we get to threaten any and all of your girlfriends!"
"Do that again and I'll feed you to Fluffy." I tell him, and he grinned.
"I don't have a half bad singing voice, you know."
"One of Aragog's cousins, then." I countered, smirking when he actually paled slightly.
"Bloody hell, don't even joke about that!" He scowled. I gave him a smug look.
"Ooh!" Alice suddenly exclaimed, and I turned to face her.
"What is it?" I asked. She giggles, somewhat reluctantly.
"Bella and Edward just broke the news of their engagement to Charlie!"
"Oh god! How'd it go?" I cringed, picturing the train-wreck.
"Edward didn't get shot, so we should consider that win." She snickered.
"I can see you're busy here," Ron spoke up from behind me, and I turned back to face him, feeling a touch guilty that I'd already forgotten his presence. Alice is like that, she has such an intense, fulfilling presence, that I don't need anyone else, not see or hear anyone else. All that exists is her.
"Sorry Ron, you just came at a bad time." I apologized, before frowning slightly as a thought hits me. "How'd you know how to find me, anyway?"
"Harry." Ron answered, before giving me one last look, filled with a touch of longing. "I should go now." He said, quietly.
"Yeah." I agreed, while mentally plotting how to kill Harry. "I'll see you later, I guess."
"Bye Hermione." He said, his face carefully schooled in an expression that doesn't reveal too much of his hurt, before he twists and disappears with a pop.
"Wow." Alice said, staring at the place where Ron had been standing a second ago. "Is he bipolar? Because those were some pretty serious mood-swings."
"Sorry sweetheart, just a teenage boy." I sighed, before walking over and slumping on the couch. Alice plopped down next to me, and curled up by my side, the way she seems to like to. I wrapped an arm around her, and sighed again.
"What's wrong?" Alice asked, her voice gentle.
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to fix what I had with Ron," I admitted to her, "we can't really be friends, not until he finds someone else to fall in love with."
"How long has he loved you?" Alice asked, curiously.
"I don't know." I sighed, "I didn't realize until too late." Alice lets out a small hmm-ing noise.
"You Swan girls have complicated love lives." She commented. I shook my head.
"Not me. There's only one person in this world that I'm interested in spending the rest of my life with."
"Oh? And who's that?" Alice asked, with a small smile.
"You, treasure." I tell her, leaning down to kiss her nose, "nobody but you."
-
"I can't believe I have to ring Renée!" Bella basically wailed, eyeing the phone with a look of hopelessness. I rolled my eyes at her. I'd apparated back home around half an hour ago, a few minutes after Ron left, so Alice could get back to planning the two weddings and so I could check to see how Bella was going.
It turned out, Charlie had actually accepted the announcement reasonably well- sort of. The catch? He was making Bella tell Renee, something terrified my sister to no end- apparently early marriage was higher up on Renee's blacklist than boiling live puppies.
"Deep breaths, Bells." I told her. She gave me a miserable look, before turning to Edward who's sitting on her other side. "Do you have any helpful advice?" she asked, putting great emphasis on the word 'helpful'. I tried not to smile too hard.
"Rip off the band-aide, love." Edward tells her, a look of sympathy on his face.
"Hate you both." Bella muttered, before picking up the receiver and dialing the number as quickly as she could, presumably before she loses her courage, and putting it on speaker.
"Hello? Is that you Bella?" Renée's voice chirped over the phone. I took a few deep breaths, even as my hands balled into fists.
A familiar anger and sadness washed over me. This woman had thrown me away. She'd given birth to me and given me up. I saw Edward glance at me, out of the corner of my eye, a slightly concerned look on his face, and I forced myself to calm down, and give him a slight smile. He smiled back, dipping his head slightly.
Wow, I startled- had we reached some kind of agreement? Did this mean we liked each other now?
"H-hi mom!" Bella greeted the horrid cow, trying to keep her voice calm. It didn't really work, as evident by Renée's quick reply.
"Bella baby? Are you okay? What's the matter?" Renée asked, her voice worried. I actually had to blink back tears, and fight the urge to get up and leave the room- Bella needed me.
I was surprised when a cool hand found my shoulder, and gave it a gentle squeeze. Maybe Edward really wasn't that bad, I sighed to myself, slumping into his comforting touch.
"Mom, I'm marrying Edward." Bella choked out.
"Well, Bella," Renée said, her voice having instantly calmed down, "I'm a little miffed that you waited so long to tell me. Plane tickets only get more expensive. Oooh, do you think Phil's cast will be off by then?" she started fretting, "It'll spoil the pictures if he's not in a tux-"
"Back up mom!" Bella gasped, "What do you mean, waited so long? I just got en-en..." I had to bite back a laugh as Bella was unable to say the word engaged- "things settled, you know, today."
"Today? Really? That is a surprise. I assumed..."
"What did you assume? When did you assume?" Bella burst out. Renée laughed.
"Oh honey, you're not making my mistakes. You sound like you're scared silly, and I'm guessing it's because you're afraid of me," she giggled, "of what I'm going to think. And I know I've said a lot of things about marriage and stupidity- and I'm not taking them back- but you need to realize that those things specifically applied to me. You're-" I tuned Renée out at that point, and stood up.
Bella didn't need my support anymore, and I didn't want to be in the same room with that awful clot any longer then I had to, even if she was just on the phone. Bella didn't seem to notice, she was too busy spluttering with Renée.
I had better things to do.
Like reading.
-
Peace never lasts. And that's the universal truth.
That's the thought that hit me, anyway, when I opened the front door to see the grim look on Harry's face.
Edward and Bella were out of the house, who knows where. They'd left shortly after the telephone call with Renée, as Charlie had started sulking, feeling betrayed by the woman.
Join the club.
Anyway, a little while after they'd left, Charlie had headed off, presumably to a pub or to Billy's, and Alice was still at the mansion, up to her neck in wedding plans. I was enjoying the peace, flipping through one of Carlisle's fascinating old journals from the 1700's, when someone had knocked on the door.
I could tell I wouldn't like what Harry had to say the second I saw him, saw his expression- it was sad, the deep sort of sadness that usually accompanied death.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" I asked him, my stomach sinking. He was standing in the doorway, his face drawn, and with what looked like a blanket bundled up in his arms.
"Hermione, we have a problem." He said, voice serious. My worry increased tenfold and I stepped to the side so he could come in.
"What is it this time? Harry, you're scaring me." I tell him, feeling my heart beat faster in my chest. Harry looked down at the blanket and sighed, shifting it slightly so I could see what's inside it. I sucked in a surprised breath.
I recognized the sleeping baby by the smattering of blue hair. My godson, Teddy Lupin, was fast asleep in Harry's arms, and I know instantly that something bad has happened. "Tell me." I whispered.
And he did. "Andromeda's dead."
"Oh god." I whispered, letting myself fall back against the wall. "What... what happened?"
"She killed herself." Harry answered, his voice carefully blank.
Pain twisted in my chest, and I took a few deep breaths. Andi had lost her husband and her only daughter in the War. She couldn't go anywhere without a glamour, because people would glance at her, think she was Bellatrix and try to curse her. I knew life had been hard and painful for Andi, but I thought that Teddy would be enough to give her strength.
Apparently I was wrong.
"When?" I asked Harry quietly.
"Two hours ago. She sent me a letter before she did it, telling me to come straight over. She was dead when I arrived, though. I thought at first she owled me because she wanted me to stop her and ten I read the note next to her body- she owled me because she didn't want Teddy to be left unsupervised for too long."
"Oh Harry," I whispered, blinking back tears.
"Her body was still warm." He croaked, and I reached over to clutch at his shoulder, squeezing it gently.
"What's going to happen to Teddy now?" I asked. Harry looks at me with a bleak expression.
"According to Wizarding law, as his godparents, you and I are his legal guardians." I blink, shocked, my arms falling to my sides with a dull slapping noise as they hit my skin.
"W-what?" I gasped.
"We're supposed to raise him." Harry said, "we're his new... his new parents."
"What? No! I can't do this!" I exclaimed, shaking my head wildly from side to side.
I love Teddy, love him to pieces, but I can't be his parent. I'm not ready to be a parent, not yet!
"Godparents are usually married to each other. Our situation is... rare." Harry spoke through stiff lips in a matter-of-fact voice, "so I guess we'll be alternating which house he's staying at. Maybe one week my place, one week yours."
I resisted the urge to continue wildly shaking my head, denying this. But... I couldn't. Tonks had asked me to be Teddy's godmother. And I'd agreed. Maybe I'd never expected this to happen, but I couldn't let her down- I wouldn't let her down.
An odd calm settled over me, clearing my head somewhat.
"Okay." I told Harry, holding out my arms. Harry hesitated for a second, and then placed Teddy in them. The small infant weighed barely anything, but he was warm. Cozy.
I cradled him to me, even as my mind stopped spinning and started thinking ahead. "You won't be able to look after him. You have Healer training all day and Ginny's still in school. I'm not." I state out loud what I know we're both thinking. "I'm on a hiatus of sorts. So I'm going to have to look after him."
"I'm sorry Hermione." Harry whispered, his voice bleak.
"I know." I tell him, before turning away. "You... you should probably leave. I need to talk to Alice."
"Okay." Harry agreed behind me, and a small pop tells me he's disapparrated. I closed my eyes and focused on the Cullen mansion, twisting on the spot.
I appear at the front door and Teddy, woken up by the uncomfortable sensation of apparation, starts wailing in my arms.
In seconds, several surprised vampires are by my side, staring at the bundle in my arms. Esme, Maggie, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Carlisle. I looked down at Teddy, alarmed. "How do I make him stop crying?" I asked, my voice panicky. I attempted bouncing him up and down like people do in movies, but it doesn't do anything. "Why isn't this working?" I shot the vampires a desperate look when Teddy just wailed louder.
It's Rosalie who lifts him out of my arms and cradles him to her chest, singing to him softly. I watched, amazed, as almost instantly his sobs turn to sniffles.
"Hermione... mind telling us where the baby came from?" Maggie asked, looking annoyingly amused- the other Cullens' expressions seemed to range from curious to adoring.
"Teddy." I answered, without really thinking, still staring at Rosalie as she cradled Teddy to her, her face the softest I'd ever seen it.
"What?" Emmett asked, confused. Right, 'Teddy' doesn't actually answer where Teddy came from.
"Teddy. His name is Teddy." I said. "And as of about two hours ago, I became his legal guardian." There's another shocked silence, which this time Alice breaks.
"How?" she squeaked, and I turn to her, my expression blank.
"His parents were killed by Death Eaters. He's been raised by his grandmother ever since. Andromeda killed herself two hours ago. I'm Teddy's godmother." I answered, unable to do much but recite the facts.
"Oh god." Alice gasped, reaching out to clasp my hands.
"Poor thing," this was Rosalie, her face horrified, "oh you poor little angel!" she cooed down to Teddy.
"How the bloody hell am I supposed to care for a baby?" I demanded, my voice creeping up towards hysterical, "I'm eighteen! I can barely take care of myself half the time! What in Merlin's name am I supposed to do?"
There was a short silence. One that Rosalie broke.
"Does he have to live with you?" she asked, and my heart started beating faster as I realized where she was going with this.
"No." I say, looking up to meet her gaze, not breaking eye contact.
"So... say if someone else was to care for him, raise him, that would... that would be acceptable in the eyes of your Wizarding laws?" she continued, and I could hear the forbidden hope in her voice.
"More then acceptable." I nodded. The vampires around me are as still as statues, as neither Rosalie or I looked away from each other.
"And if someone offered to raise him? Would you say yes?" her voice was barely a whisper.
"As long as that someone was dedicated to him the way I don't know I can be." I answered.
"So if... if I offered to raise him?" I had to strain my ears to hear Rosalie.
"Then I would say yes."
-
"Wow... that was... wow." Alice commented, when we're back at Charlie's house, "Really, really... intense." I collapsed on the couch opposite the TV and Alice curled up beside me, resting her head on my shoulder.
"I can't believe I was actually a parent... of sorts... for twenty minutes." I half-shuddered.
"Do you not like kids?" Alice asked, curiously.
"No, I love them! And I adore Teddy- absolutely adore him! I'm just... not ready." I explained. "What about you?" I then asked my girlfriend, curiously. Alice nibbled on her lip.
"I don't know... I mean, if I could I might, but... I can't." I reached out and grab her hand, giving it a squeeze.
"You never know, sweetheart. Stranger things have happened."
"A vampire having a baby?" Alice snorted, "sure, that'll happen." I couldn't help but grin slightly.
We haven't discussed the future, outside of the bonding ceremony (a.k.a. wedding), mostly because neither one of us is game enough to bring it up. The conversation will be... taxing. Emotionally taxing.
Witches and wizards live longer then muggles, our life spans are approximately two hundred years, but vampires- they live forever.
In Bella's case there's a quick fix, of sorts. She can be Turned and be with her soul mate forever. But there's no recorded case of a witch or wizard ever being Turned. Why would there be when we have antidotes to vampire venom? When vampires getting close enough to bite us is extremely unlikely?
You'd think some people would be tempted by the fact vampires live forever, but with the prejudice of the Magical world, a witch or wizard was just as likely to want to be a House Elf or a Werewolf, as they would a vampire- in other words, not likely at all. Besides, vampires are incredibly vulnerable and most witches or wizards wouldn't hesitate before killing one on sight, much like a muggle farmer wouldn't hesitate to kill a wolf hunting among his sheep.
If I thought it would work, would I give up my life as a witch to become a vampire? I wonder, absently twirling the silky strands of Alice's hair around my fingers. Yes. I would. I would without hesitating for a second. Because I love the woman curled up beside me more then anything else in the entire world. Alice is my entire world.
But I'd have to be sure before I tried anything. I had to be sure the process wouldn't kill me outright, I had to be sure that there was no other option. Because while Horcruxes were obviously out of question, there had to be other ways to live forever. The Philosopher's Stone had been destroyed, along with all records and notes on its creation, but the fact was it had been created, so it could be created again.
It was a good thing I loved research so much, I thought, somewhat dryly, because I had a lot of it ahead of me