1 More Unknown Condition, 1 More Wound for Every Reason Why

Warning: This story is rated M for reasons other than sex and swearing. It will be extremely dark for Hermione's character and a bit graphic at times. I suggest you pass on this one if seeing a hard, cold, ruthless, closed off, and sarcastic portrayal of Hermione bothers you or if a bit of blood and guts just isn't your thing because I have no intention of changing it.

Disclaimer: I unfortunately am not the owner of the Harry Potter series or the Twilight saga. I'm just playing with the characters.

For the life of me I couldn't tear my eyes away from the Dark Mark on her left forearm. I stood, eyes transfixed on Isabellas' milky-white skin, as the vile serpent slowly slithered its way in and out of the skull. The undulating movement of the snakes coils seemed to be taunting me. Every few seconds it would idly flick its forked tongue in my direction as if it were pointing out my obvious inability to protect the members of my family.

My jaw clenched tightly in response because that stupid snake was right.

I had failed and my innocent, muggle parents had been cruelly slaughtered. My innocent, muggle uncle had yet to be accounted for. And my innocent, muggle cousin had been branded. I felt so...actually no words would ever be adequate in describing how I felt about what had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

My eyes closed as some of my suppressed guilt leaked out.

My parents were dead and sweet little Isabella had been injured because of me. Both by the very people I had been protecting them from for all these years. Because of me, Isabella now has a disgusting magical blemish on her pale body. Such a tragedy. Someone like her shouldn't have been branded with the mark of those who would rather see her dead than alive.

Thoughts such as those swirled around in my head for several seconds before I was able to reign my guilt back in so that, once more, anger was the dominant emotion ruling my being.

A vicious rumble began deep down in my chest cavity. It vibrated so fiercely that I could do nothing but let that animalistic, wolfish growl push its way past my lips. I had no way of tempering it into something more humane due to the pure fucking fury coursing through my veins. I quickly dropped Isabella's arm, afraid of breaking her fragile bones with my lycan strength.

I stalked over to that blasted, window. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I found myself staring at a half-dried, half-dripping dripping message written in the blood of a loved one.

'Isabella screams so pretty. I can't wait to show her your favorite spells.

B.L.'

"Fuck!" I snarled as soon as the taunt about my time beneath her wand registered.

My mounting anger caused me to lose the tenuous control I had on my magic. Sparks and waves of energy began shooting from my fingertips. In one of the wild pulses, the vampires were able to break out of my wandless hold. I couldn't regain enough restraint over myself to reinforce the spell, so I watched as they all rushed to Isabella unhindered. They all looked at me from their defensive positions around her body...assessing whether or not I posed a threat.

"Who was the woman that hurt Bella?"The blond that radiated compassion earlier questioned in as polite a tone as he could muster with a low growl vibrating in his chest.

"Bellatrix LeStrange. The most dangerous dark witch to exist in a century. She was the Dark Lord's right hand in battle during both of the wars he waged on magical society. She is a wanted criminal by the Ministry of Magic for over one thousand counts of murder among other things," I spat.

"And who are you?"

"Isabella's cousin, Hermione."

My reply to what appeared to be the coven leader came out sounding strained due to my struggle with my emotionally charged magic. I couldn't lose control. If I did, if I just let go, I would likely obliterate the entire house and everyone inside. My eyes slipped closed as I concentrated on my breathing.

In.

...

Out.

...

"We assumed Bella didn't have any family other than Charlie and Renee."

In.

...

"Well, you know what they say about people who assume."

Out.

"Whether or not you're her cousin doesn't matter. I want to know why you're going on about witch's and magic," the heavily muscled brunette growled.

My eyes popped open at his tone and an answering growl passed my lips. Didn't the vampire realize how close I was to loosing it? Couldn't he have asked without throwing in the threatening growl which brought my wolf closer to the surface?

"I'm going on about witch's and magic because I am a witch. Meaning I was born with the ability to perform magic. And yes, in case you missed the memo, magic does exist. How the fuck else do you think I got in this room without any of you vampires sensing my presence?"

"Do all witch's posses creepy eyes and growl?"

"No," I snarled.

"You are very angry," the scarred, curly haired one interrupted what was sure to be another question that would undoubtedly piss me off further. He slowly straightened from his crouch as if he perceived that I wasn't a threat. "But it is not directed at anyone in this room. Underneath that you feel great sorrow, love, relief, guilt, and self-loathing..."

"Was there a question in there somewhere, Sparkles, because I assure you that I know perfectly well how I feel," I sneered with narrowed eyes.

"I was just makin' an observation, Darlin," He placated as he tilted his head to the side and examined me.

That head tilt and penetrating stare sent all of my control right out the window. I hate being stared at as if I'm some freak that doesn't belong. Frankly, I was too angry and out of control from the stress of the past twenty-four hours to care about their sparkly arses or their asinine questions any longer.

I whirled around and punched the nearest wall as hard as possible. Satisfaction welled up inside me as I watched a small fist sized portion crumble. With that bit of release, I was able to calm my raging magic enough that it receded back into my body. But it still wasn't enough to satisfy my baser instincts. I raised my fist again, ready to let my wolf release more of its pent-up fury on something inanimate, but my cousins trembling sob of "Hermione, what did she do to me," stayed my hand.

Slowly I turned until tri-colored eyes met teary brown. My gaze then flicked to meet the black orbs of the eight vampires who seemed to be begging me for an answer to that question as well.

"She...Merlin, Isabella. That vile bitch branded you with the Dark Mark."

My cousin gaped at me then stared down at her own arm in disbelief, "This is how the Dark Lord identified his army? But it's just a tattoo. A very...painful tattoo, but it's still just a stupid tattoo. Why are you so angry?"

"This," I growled as I stalked around the vampires and pushed her arm so that it was right in front of her nose. "Is not just a tattoo, Isabella. The Dark Lord was a master of the Forbidden Arts: Death Magic, Soul Magic, and Slave Magic. He manipulated them and pushed their boundaries to new heights in the darkest ways possible. This painful little tattoo... is something of his own creation. I'm surprised he even deigned to teach Bellatrix how to cast it. But then again she was fucking old snake face..." I paused as a shudder of disgust passed over my body at that mental image.

"Bellatrix was...was having sex with the Dark Lord?" Bella gasped, looking a bit repulsed.

I curled my lip in disgust, "yeah... Talk about being loyal to the cause."

"Back to the point?" Copper-top growled.

"Right. My apologies. Anyway, as far as we know the Dark Mark is a medieval slave-brand infused with a volatile form of Soul Magic. By branding you with it, that slag tainted your soul in the worst way... She literally sliced a bit of yours off then tied that portion of it to hers and essentially enslaved you to her in the same way she was enslaved to her master."

"I reckon this ain't a good thing, Sugar," Red eyes drawled over the growls of his coven mates.

"I knew it wouldn't be a good thing the moment Isabella said Bellatrix willingly touched her. That vile, loathsome, psychotic bitch would never just touch a non-magical. To her non-magicals are nothing more than scum that exist solely for her to kill and torture. So I was expecting to see cursed wounds or something of that sort... just not... not this. This is a very, very bad thing."

I suppressed an annoyed snarl. If only I'd gotten here sooner. Maybe I could have stopped the bitch. Or something. Anything other than this...

"What does this mean for my Bella? What will a portion of her soul being enslaved to that... that woman do to her?"

"Well, I can definitely say that it will not be pleasant. The Dark Lord invented the tattoo for the sole purpose of summoning and/or torturing his soldiers. That intense pain she is in tears over right now... well it doesn't ever really go away. In fact, it only gets worse from here on out. The Mark hurts when being administered because its slicing up and enslaving part of your soul. Then it will burn with a sharp, stinging pain when the slave is being summoned by their master. If the slave can't respond to the summons, then the pain doesn't go away for days. Then when the caster wishes to torture the slave, they press upon the Mark and pour all of their hate and displeasure into the link. It will cause an agonizing pain that burns deep into the soul... literally."

The vampires stared at me, mouths agape. Bella began to sob harder as what she would be forced to endure sunk in.

"What can we do to make it...better?"

"To be honest,"I said as I gave Isabella's copper-topped boyfriend and his family a solemn stare. The same one I perfected during the war when I had to deliver bad news to soldiers, families, and victims on a near daily basis. "Nothing. At this point, it would probably be considered more humane for us to kill her."

The room filled with the sound of pissed off vampire hissing and growling.

Bella's sobs literally stopped due to the shock of my admittance. "You...you're my cousin. We're family! How can you say that it would be more humane to kill me?"

"I'm just telling them the cold, hard, truth, Bella. Excuse me for not sugar-coating it and telling them that the pain will be manageable because it won't be. We can try, but it will not help all that much. You are a normal human with a normal human's tolerance for pain. That mark was made to be used on a witch or wizard whose perception of pain is vastly different. Witches and wizards can use their magic to temper and adapt to experiencing such intense pain. You cannot. That mark on your arm will grant you nothing more than a slow, agonizing death."

"What if we change her? Vampires are soulless creatures. If we change her then the bond will have to disappear with her soul."

I couldn't help it. I laughed. Loudly with plenty of bitter undertone. The situation we'd found ourselves in wasn't the least bit funny, quite the opposite really, but Merlin this vampires overly dramatic whining about his lack of a soul was so cliche.

"The animal blood must seriously be fucking with your brain," I told copper-top once I'd stopped cackling like a mad-woman. "Vampires are soulless creatures. Seriously? Can you sound anymore melodramatic. Or for that matter, can you get anymore ignorant in regards to your own species?

You know what? Never mind. Don't answer that.

The point is that vampires are far from being soulless creatures. The only living thing on this planet void of a soul is a creature known as the Dementor and believe me you do not want to be comparing yourself to those vile things. So, no, changing her into a vampire will not fix this problem. In fact, changing her would make the problem much worse."

"Is there anything we can do... anything?"

I looked at the heart-broken vampires in front of me. Their faces mirrored exactly what I felt inside and how I knew Charlie would feel once he found out about the situation. The fact that they loved my cousin so completely told me that I should do anything within my power to save her.

Even if it meant I'd have to spend countless hours researching and inventing some crazy new ritual.

The longer I thought about it, the more determined I felt. I had to save her. I had to. Isabella's family, and I don't let my family die if there is anything I can do to prevent it. Though, as various theories and ideas began forming, I came to realize that if I wanted to succeed then I'd have to summon the one person I knew had the most knowledge about the Dark Mark and its effects.

Severus Snape.

As I raised my wand to summon my Patronus and send him a message, I felt the wards around the property shift. Team One's portkey had just dropped them off. I made use of my sensitive hearing to monitor their heart-beats so I'd know whether they were injured or upset. All six familiar rhythms of my comrades seemed to be accounted for and within their normal beats per minute level. Meaning they weren't too stressed out. Leaving... I tilted my head more towards the outside wall of the house, two extra that were both beating quite fast although one seemed to flutter at a pace that wasn't...human.

Odd.

Curious about the extra heart-beat, I began walking towards the door. "A team of my comrades has arrived with Charlie and a spare," I threw over my shoulder as I pushed open the front door and descended down into the Cullens front yard.

AN: Hey guys! I know it's been a really long time since I"ve updated, but if you check my profile you will find that there is a very good reason. No, I'm not back from my HIATUS, this is just a short something I had the time to type up and figured I would share.

I promise that neither of my stories are abandoned!