Watermark

Chapter 3

A/N: I'm seriously trying to make this happen again. I started this chapter in London and finished her up on the train to Paris while my sisters screamed at each other about soccer.

I woke early in the morning to the scent of bacon. It didn't smell quite as good as the house-elves made at Hogwarts, but it was as close as a human being could possibly get.

I got dressed quickly and stepped gingerly down the stairs, afraid to make too much noise and disturb the silence that had fallen overnight (save the sizzling of the bacon in the kitchen). Much to my surprise, it was Bella in the kitchen making breakfast, not Charlie. She laughed easily at my dumbstruck look.

"Charlie offered to make us breakfast, but unless you ever suddenly want a reason to miss school, I wouldn't eat anything he makes. He already ate and left, so take all you want. He's been going in early a lot lately, with all the animal attacks." She was obviously nervous about Charlie's safety, the way her throat caught on the last two words.

"I'm sure he'll be all right, no need to worry about him." Charlie had been chief in Forks for years, he was a very competent officer. But I understood the worry a daughter would always have for her father. "So when does Edward pick you up for school?" I asked, loading bacon and a small stack of pancakes onto the big blue plate Bella had handed me. "What does he drive? What is he like?"

"He's… intense," Bella decided. "He drives a silver Volvo, and I'm warning you, he'll probably drive it fast. Edward cares about me a lot, and he cares a lot about his family. They've moved around a lot for their dad Carlisle's work, so they haven't really kept any friends from school, they're really tight-knit with each other instead. It's just easier that way." Her speech seemed a little rehearsed, but I didn't think anything of it at the time.

"What does Carlisle do?" I asked, picking apart my pancakes with a fork.

She smiled, playing with her last piece of bacon. "He's a doctor, a really good doctor. He travels every few years to work at new hospitals. It's his way of giving back to the world, and he really loves it." We sat in silence for a moment, then—"Oh! You asked when Edward will get here, he'll be here in maybe five minutes, get all your stuff together, we'll be early—"I was out the kitchen and back upstairs grabbing my things before she could finish her sentence.

Backpack, yes. Folders, planner, yes. Pens, pencils, yes. I rushed down the stairs when I heard a car pull into the driveway, and Bella ushered my out the door and locked up behind us. A boy was leaned against a silver Volvo, and I had to do a double take. He had eyes dark as Snape's, skin like snow, and an excessively handsome mug. I felt a prod at my mind, and I slammed up my barriers. He did tilt his head slightly when he could no longer find my thoughts, and I narrowed my eyes at him. His brows lifted almost imperceptibly.

Bella rushed from the front door down to the car, having missed the little nonverbal exchange. "Hermione, this is my boyfriend Edward; Edward, this is my cousin Hermione," she introduced.

"Nice to finally meet you, Hermione," Edward said, extending a marble-smooth hand to me. "I've heard a lot about you," he added as we shook hands.

"Only good things, I hope," was all I could say, trying to control my heartbeat. Ice cold, mind reader, beautiful, a buzz of dangerous magical energy about him, marble smooth, dark eyes—vampire. He stiffened, and I knew suddenly that I had thought the word too loud, had almost screamed it mentally in my panic, and I surely wasn't hiding my fear well from him. He knew that I knew. I swallowed down my fear and continued exchanging pleasantries. "Bella's been telling me a lot about you, too."

He smiled, but his eyes were hard. Yes, he definitely knew that I knew.

In the car, the three of us made easy small talk. Places to eat in Forks, places to go in Port Angeles, teachers for me to avoid, the ones I couldn't but should complain about anyways.

"What electives are you taking, Hermione?" Bella asked. "I'm sure they looked at your classes from your old school, but a lot of them aren't offered here."

"Oh?" Edward asked, not particularly focusing on the road in front of him. Bella was right, he was a careless driver. But then, what did he have to worry about? Only crashing into another car and being faced with a bunch of bleeding Muggles, the reckless bastard. "Lots of specialty classes in England?"

"Scotland, actually," I clarified, "and yes. Horseback riding— "Quidditch—" some advanced chemistry— "Potions— "and a very lovely botany course." Herbology." Charlie warned me that some classes wouldn't be available here, but I'm honestly very excited. I love learning, and I'll gladly take whatever is offered here." Probably the most honest and genuine sentence I'd said all morning.

"I love learning, and I'll gladly take whatever is offered here." She had stopped looking nervous when we started speaking about school, and I could tell that she was being genuine. The girl was probably a massive bookworm, just like Bella—was that why she had figured me out so quickly? No one else had had such an immediate recognition, and no one else had buzzed the way she did. Just as humans feel instinctively that vampires are threats, I could feel in my bones, in the bottom of my non-beating heart, that she was a predator of some kind. Her small, strong frame was something to be afraid of, and I had no idea why.

As I turned the car into the school parking lot, I hoped that Alice had seen this coming and had kept the others in the parking lot. I needed them to see Hermione, so that together we could hope to figure her out. She was obviously lying as much as we were—she had to be capable of a lot more than horseback riding. I just needed to ascertain that she wouldn't be a threat to my family. She was Bella's relative, and I did not want to have to get rid of her. Worse, I wasn't sure if I could get rid of her if I wanted to. She just may get rid of us.

I needed to know.

As the three of us got out of the car, I scanned the parking lot for the rest of my family. Sure enough, they were headed our way, managing to look nonchalant while watching us with interest. Hermione was watching us, too. Bella seemed largely oblivious, focusing on playing with my hand, my cold fingers.

"Hello!" Alice cried, breaking the silence. "You must be Hermione! I'm Alice, Bella's best friend in the world and Edward's younger sister. I assume he's told you about us?" I at least had the good manners to look sheepish as I shook my head no. I had been too focused on Hermione's nature to explain my family. "Oh! Well, I'm Alice. You know Edward—over here are Rosalie and Emmett, and this is Jasper." Jasper was watching Hermione particularly closely, but not with hunger in his eyes. He was afraid of her, but enamored. Everyone was afraid of her, but he was enamored.

"You know," she said quietly, "it's very interesting. I've run into a few vampires in a few strange places, but never this many in a school."

I was the only one not taken by surprise by what she said, including Bella, so I was the first to respond. "You've run into a single vampire in a school, then?"

She ignored my question. "And I've never come across a group with the lifestyle that you all seem to have. Very interesting. Bella," she said suddenly, "would you please show me to the front offices? I need to pick up my schedule and make any changes before classes start."

Bella, eyes still wide from Hermione's quick deduction, nodded wordlessly and led Hermione to the front offices. She looked back several times as they walked away, but Hermione only gave one long look before entering the building. She didn't look angry, or even scared any more. The lack of emotion was what made it terrifying.

"How did she know?" Rosalie demanded. "What did you do?" I was asking myself the same thing, but all she had done was see me and she knew right away. "Edward?" she said, slightly louder.

"I don't know. She just saw me and knew, it's the only thought of hers that I've heard. I can't read her mind—not like Bella's, though. I can tell she's there, and I can feel the walls she's built up but I, I couldn't get through them after she realized. I couldn't get anything."

Jasper was still staring at the door through which the two girls had entered the school. "I got everything." Alice gave a small smile.

"She won't hurt us," Alice promised.

Rosalie threw her hands above her head. "What is she?"

Alice shrugged. "She won't hurt us."

"Hermione?" Bella asked timidly as I filled out my formal schedule request. Calculus (simple), Computing Technologies (doomed to be a disaster, but at least I had gotten out of Gym), then lunch. Then Literature (interesting) and rounding off the day with World History (hopefully the best of the day).

I managed to pull my focus away from the worksheet and look directly into her eyes. I had already double-checked that the schedule would work, but I knew that Bella would eventually work up the courage to talk to me about the parking lot, and I wanted her to be able to. "Yes?"

"How did you know?"

Simple question. "Textbook example, almost literally. Well, actually literally if Carlisle is who I think he is. I'd very much like to speak with him about some of his past, he may actually be in a textbook of mine." I shook my head, moving in. "Vampires are well-known in the magical world, and the Cullens are classic. Beautiful, cold, those eyes, that skin, I'd have had to be an idiot not to realize. Not that you were an idiot if it took you a moment to figure it out," I hurried to clarify, "just that they're in my textbooks, and I know they're real, so… it's different."

High school calculus would be a simple course after Arithmancy, essentially multivariable calculus without any of the three-dimensional thinking, instead applied to equations made with runes. Walking into the classroom, I saw several familiar faces from the halls and two from the parking lot. Sitting in the back were Jasper and Rosalie, two of the Cullens. There was a single seat between them, and as I entered, Rosalie pulled her purse out of it and looked pointedly first at me, then at the seat. She looked irritated, and I had no idea what Jasper was thinking, only that he was watching me closely.

I felt a wave of calm come over me; it was odd, like smacking into a brick wall of tranquility. It felt forced, aggressively so. I wasn't sure which of the two was responsible for it, but I had a feeling it wasn't the one with the hard eyes and the designer handbag. This would be an interesting class period.