If I were JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, then yes, I own HP and Twilight. Unfortunately, I'm not either of them. :(

CHAPTER 5

That evening, Edward heard a voice.

It was a completely unfamiliar voice, and yet it was speaking to him, calling his name; he realized half a second later that it was somebody's mind he was reading. He sat up, listening hard; the speaker had called his name, after all.

Edward.

It came from outside the house, soft and faint, like whoever was speaking to him stood far from the house, but near enough for him to hear her. In a flash, he was up from Bella's bed and looking out her window; his eyes discerned a cloaked figure in the woods, unable to come nearer due to the little witch's wards. Those wards allowed him to enter earlier that night, sensing no danger from him, but it had given him a hard time. He frowned; this figure could mean trouble.

"What?"

A soft whisper, but the figure seemed to have heard; he shifted slightly and Edward narrowed his eyes slightly. It was another vampire, an unfamiliar one.

I have come... to give a warning.

He remained silent, waiting, his face impassive. What warning could be greater or clearer than the ones the wizards had left above Angela's house?

That girl you call Elizabeth... is more than she seems to be.

"I know."

She is more powerful than you could ever imagine, even more powerful than your coven.

Edward simply nodded. He knew this too; Elizabeth exuded a great magical aura, one he did not care to test.

And she will bring great harm to Bella. A very great danger. And with four of your coven gone... What could you do to protect her?

His eyebrows rose in slight surprise at this. He had been suspecting her of being a member of the wizards aiming to recruit them, but he didn't think she would attack Bella, especially since she had taken pains to put up wards around their house. He made a small, disbelieving noise, but his suspicions towards Hermione grew nevertheless.

With a quick, fluid movement, he jumped down from Bella's window and walked towards the stranger, stopping a few meters away, still within the protection of the wards. He could see the slight shimmering of the air where the invisible walls were.

"Who are you?"

A friend. We vampires unite against the wizards.

"How do you know about Elizabeth?"

A low chuckle of amusement.

Elizabeth? Is she really Elizabeth?

He remained silent, a frown forming on his face.

She's using you, Bella most of all. And now that they have started to move, she has no further use of Bella; she will dispose of her soon.

"How do you know all this? Do you even have any proof?"

Tell me, Edward. Where was she when Angela Weber was attacked? Ask your precious Bella. And tell me this; can you read her mind at all?

Edward didn't reply, but a feeling of dread started spreading throughout his body. A slight chill hung in the air, and though his vampire skin couldn't feel it, the implications of what the figure said caused him to internally shudder as cold anger manifested in him.

"You're accusing her of killing the Webers."

The stranger merely shrugged, the rise and fall of his shoulders clear to Edward even in the dark.

You can read my mind; you know whether I am lying or not.

It was true; Edward sensed no hints of lies in his words. But there was something, something that didn't feel right, as though he was missing something although he could read everything the stranger was thinking. And right now, he seemed to be thinking only of their conversation.

She will move two days from now, kill Bella on their way home from school. You must stop her at all costs.

"Why are you telling me this?"

We help each other against the wizards. And Hermione Granger has done me a very grave sin.

A few minutes passed with neither vampire saying anything. A gentle breeze brushed past, and the rustling of the trees seemed to laugh quietly.

"I need more proof."

The figure nodded. A few seconds of silence... and suddenly, Edward was assaulted by several scenes flashing rapidly through his mind. Memories, but not his own - the stranger was showing him everything.

A huge fire burning in Germany's Black Forest. Smoke and flashes of light everywhere. Snarls and shouts of foreign words rent the air. Vampires being ripped apart and thrown into the fire. Utter chaos reigned. And suddenly... a pair of black shoes in front of him.

"Those who defy the Dark Lord... will not be allowed to live."

Another vampire snarled and dashed forward, only to be thrown back and slammed into a tree trunk less than a second later by a jet of bright red light.

A cold, low hiss snaked through the air, cruel and dangerous. It was enough to strike fear into the hearts if all the remaining vampires.

Harry Potter... now... Hogwarts.

"Yes, master."

A loud crack, and the single figure disappeared. It was amazing, really, how a single person had managed to kill several members of a vampire coven. He looked around. Out of the six members, only three of them remained.

"Harry Potter... you will pay for this."

The next images showed flashes of scenery, of various humans being hunted, of running, running quickly towards their only clue as to their family's murderer. Hogwarts.

A huge castle looming in the horizon. All three vampires headed towards the forest beside it, deciding that it would be best to stay unseen while they searched for a way to get to him. There were wards, wards so powerful they couldn't move close to the castle and had to settle for the forest instead. A few months of living in the Forbidden Forest passed; the once-empty castle came alive one September evening. The vampires stirred; Harry Potter was sure to be one of them.

Two more months passed, however, before they heard anything of significance.

"They say he met a couple of vampires in the Black Forest. Hasn't been the same since."

The vampires perked up and turned to the voices. Soon, two identical-looking students wandered into the edge of the forest, their hair a flaming red. They waited, willing the students to come deeper into the forest. They were surely talking about their coven; no other vampires lived near them back in Germany.

"Hey, I don't think we'll find any Doxy eggs here."

"Can't hurt to try, can it?"

Silently they followed the two, in hopes that they would somehow provide information on the man they were seeking. Their hopes weren't in vain.

"So what do you reckon? Think Harry Potter'll help us win the house cup this year?"

"If he doesn't hang out so much with ickle ronniekins, perhaps. Our dear brother's idiocy might just rub off on him."

"Ah well, better that way than take after Percy."

He puffed up his chest and stood straight, presumably imitating Percy. The other laughed.

"Heard they took down the troll with Hermione Granger last night."

"Right. Ronniekins might just take after us."

"I'm so proud."

Their laughter faded away as they moved farther west, away from the vampires but not going any farther in to the woods. The three looked at each other. Yes, this Harry Potter was most certainly the man they were looking for. Now they had two other names. He will pay with his friends.

The scenes in Edward's mind flashed forward to three years later. He was at party... a pretty extravagant Christmas party, by the looks of it.

"Harry, m'boy, so many people I'd like you to meet!"

He swiveled around slowly to stare at the approaching boy. He didn't expect him to be so young. Surprise, then red hot anger burned in him, but he managed to keep his face impassive. His red eyes bored straight into the boy.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet Eldred Worple,an old student of mine, author of Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires - and of course, his friend Sanguini."

Harry shook Worple's hand and Sanguini nodded, somehow managing to keep his expression bored despite the strong urge to kill him right now. The raven-haired boy was small, his hair a mess, with eyes a startling green. He looked nothing special, and he wondered how this weakling could have defeated his coven. And yet he had been hearing nothing from Worple but the amazing feats of Potter all day, and of his hopes to write his biography. He nearly snorted; if only they knew just what Harry Potter was, they wouldn't be singing his praises so easily.

"... I've just seen a friend of mine, sorry."

The boy left, his blonde date in tow. He watched them leave, following them with his narrowed eyes.

"Hermione! Hermione!"

Ah, so that was Hermione. She too was small, her slender frame all dressed up for the party, but she looked positively disheveled, her wild hair coming out of the bun it was in. He closed his eyes and listened, but they seemed to just be talking of a certain McLaggen, of whom he had no interest in. Opening his eyes, he studied them instead, engraving into his memory what the brats looked like. He would get them back one day.

"Enough."

Edward glared at him, an angry and disturbed look in his face. The man was not lying; these were all truths. He saw it with his own eyes... he saw her with his own eyes. Liz - no, Hermione - was dangerous. He could not deny that any more.

She will come after Bella soon. Get her to come to "your" clearing at 5 on Monday. We'll deal with her then. Do not make her suspicious.

With that, the figure turned and ran back, disappearing from sight a second later, leaving a worried and angry Edward behind.

...

The doorbell rang and Hermione jumped, so engrossed was she in making plans. She opened her door and glanced around; Charlie was at the station and Bella was with Edward. She was alone. Cautiously, she crept down, muttering the same spell she used on Bella's room last night, heaving a sigh of relief upon seeing a very familiar hulking figure in the doorway, and she opened the door.

"Hey, Liz."

She smiled, albeit a strained and distracted one. "Jacob." Unconsciously, she had narrowed her eyes in suspicion; it wasn't out of the question for someone to have taken Jacob Black Polyjuice Potion. But would the effects still be the same, with Jacob being what he is? She shuddered, remembering her second year... and Millicent Bulstrode's cat.

"So... can I come in?"

She blinked, startled, before uttering a flustered apology and leading him in, her cheeks a slight tinge of pink. She glanced out the door and saw a slight shimmer in the air; an indicator that her wards still held. Anybody in a disguise would have been robbed of it the second they stepped into it.

She frowned and a cold chill settled into her stomach. Her wards should have alerted her to Jacob's presence in the first place.

Jacob hadn't missed her distraction. He stopped and laid a hand on her shoulder, startling her out of her reverie.

"Hey, let's get out of here for a while. It's not good staying in the house all the time." He said with that wolfish grin of his. She let out a half-hearted smile, her mind still troubled. There was something wrong. There couldn't be anything wrong with her wards; she had taken care to execute them perfectly. Though she would never admit it out loud, Hermione was proud of her spell-casting abilities.

"Oh, but, I was studying -"

"According to Bella, you're smart enough. Loosen up a bit, it's a Saturday after all."

At this, Hermione reluctantly nodded and allowed Jacob to steer her out of the house, her expression one of helplessness and slight desperation. She turned to lock the door, intending to stall for a few more moments. When she couldn't delay any longer, she turned and walked down to Jacob... only to spin around in alarm. Someone had breached her wards from behind the house.

"Liz? What's wrong?"

"I... I think I heard a noise from the back..."

Without thinking, Jacob quickly strode to the back, Hermione following close behind.

"No, stay out front. Please."

She wasn't about to let him go alone, but something in his voice told her to stay put. Jacob didn't know what came over him, but for some reason probably the imprinting thing, he knew this wasn't just paranoia on her part. There really was someone there.

He rounded the corner of the house and saw...

A naked Seth standing confusedly in the backyard.

"Seth! What the hell are you doing?"

"Wha - Jake! I don't know! I was patrolling like you told me to... And when I moved closer to the house, I suddenly found myself like this!"

"What?"

"I can't transform back..."

Jacob's eyes went wide with disbelief.

"Are you messing with me? 'Coz that's not funny."

"No, really..."

He frowned. The poor guy looked near tears with panic. He was still young, after all, younger than all the rest of them.

"Well, first put on your clothes... They're still with you, right?"

He nodded, patting a pouch strapped to his leg before pulling his clothes out. He dressed quickly while Jacob made sure Elizabeth was still out front; she was, but she was pacing worriedly up and down, a sort of stick clutched in her hand. Jacob couldn't see how that stick could protect her from anything, and he grinned.

"Jake..."

He turned back to the poor boy staring worriedly up at him.

"You need to get to Sam right away. I'll take you home."

"Yeah... Hey wait. I'm not a kid anymore!"

"No, but I'm still taking you there. Come on."

The two walked back to where Hermione was anxiously waiting, glancing around warily. Suddenly, she smacked herself on the head (Am I a witch or not?) and muttered something indiscernible; almost immediately, Jacob and Seth felt as though something cold had just passed through them. Hermione lowered herself in a defensive stance. Two men approaching. Shuddering, the two wolves rounded the corner of the house and Hermione pointed her wand straight at them, only to hastily stow it away when she saw who it was.

"Jacob!"

He grinned. "Seth here just got lost, nothing to worry about."

She walked up to them briskly and hit his arm in frustration. "Then what the bloody hell took you so long?"

He laughed, not even feeling the force of her blow. "Had to comfort the poor thing. He's never been here, see."

Seth frowned and silently vowed to get Jacob back as soon as they were alone. Hermione frowned, although she now had a good idea of what happened. Seth must have been in wolf form when he approached, and her wards forced him to return to his human form. Huh. At least I know my wards still work.

"I'll be taking this runt back to the reserve. You coming?"

She glanced at the house once more before giving him a curt nod, still quite shaken with worry. Truth be told, she didn't know why she stayed put... but there was something that had held her back. Jacob's heart soared and he led them both to his car, grinning happily.

...

Edward sat at the piano, the sweet notes floating to every corner of the empty house while Bella sat beside him, her eyes closed to the melody. He watched her as he played, admiring the serene expression on her face.

Nobody can ever take Bella away from me.

No. And he would do everything in his power to stop those who would dare harm her. His mind flashed back to the events of last night.

I'll protect you, Bella. He closed his eyes and saw the image of Hermione Granger; almost immediately, hot anger burned deep in him, vowing to stop her.

Phew. I'm one day late... sorry. :( Oh and this hasn't been beta'ed, so feel free to point out any mistakes you find here. :D

Urk. I don't think I'm doing so well... Preparations for college are killing me. I'm gonna be a college freshman in a week! :O

Anyway, I wanna thank Limxuxu09 for providing me with much needed inspiration! Thank you so much *bows*

And... I'm sorry for not replying to each of your reviews personally. I'll get to them right away :D But thank you so much, you guys keep me writing even if I have problems with sticking to one thing for long... You guys are amazing. You managed to make me write so much for a single story. xD