CHAPTER SEVEN:

Hermione's POV:

After the hectic few days before the wedding, it was a relief to actually wake up in Alice's arms with my pixie vampire relaxed and calm beside me, not vibrating with barely contained excitement. "Morning," I say, sleepily, and she smiles at me, dreamily.

"It was such a success, wasn't it? I just know it was! Everyone loved it!" I laugh at the enthusiasm in her voice, and shift slightly, so I'm resting my head in the crook of her neck.

"Yes thanks, I slept well." I tease her, and she pouts. "What? I'm excited!"

"I could tell." I remark, somewhat dryly. Alice giggles, bouncing up and down slightly. I groan- so much for the not vibrating with excitement. "Merlin, you're like a toddler on a permanent sugar high- where in Godric's name do you get all that energy?"

"Can we do something fun today? Pretty please?" Alice begs, pouting slightly. I roll my eyes.

"Toddler. Sugar high." Alice giggles again, before moving so she's on top of me, faster then I can blink. Her icy lips trail from my throat, lower, and a familiar, hollow throbbing causes me to groan slightly.

"Alice!"
"What?" she purrs, licking her lips, "don't want to have some fun?" The throbbing increases tenfold

as I look into her smoldering green eyes.

"Let me at least get a hangover potion first, sweetheart." I say, squirming so I'm in a sitting position, Alice basically straddling me, and flicking my hand in the direction of the bathroom. A potion soars over and I catch it, downing it with a grimace.

Feeling the slight pounding in my head leftover from the many glasses of champagne I'd had last night fade, I tossed the phial onto the bedside table, ignoring the slight clattering noise, and turn back to face Alice. "So, where were we?"

Alice grins and opens her mouth, only to be interrupted by the shrill ringing of the doorbell. "Seriously?" I groan, and Alice shifts off me, pout increased tenfold.

"We could pretend to not be home?" she suggests. I seriously consider it for a moment, and the doorbell starts ringing again, twice as loud, and I groan.

"Amplifying charm," I explain glumly to Alice, before rolling out of bed, half stumbling over to the closet, grabbing a dressing gown I'd bought the other day, much to Alice's frustration- it was floor length and fluffy, colored bright pink with white spots. It was incredibly cozy, and incredibly unfashionable.

She gives it a dark look, even as she flounces out of the room, over to what had been a spare bedroom, but Alice had converted into a massive closet- the one in our bedroom, apparently, was not up to scratch.

I make my way to the front door, knowing Alice will join me in a few moments, and open it to greet the irate witch standing on my doorstep. "Morning Ginny." She scowls at me, hands on her hips.

"It's nearly twelve o'clock, Hermione." She snaps.
"And?" I ask, confused. Ginny swells up indignantly, in a manner that reminds me of her mother. "And don't you remember what you promised to do?" I shift uneasily.

"Um... no?"

"I'll give you one hint," she snaps, before thrusting her hand in my face, showing me her engagement ring. I groan.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ginny, I was going to ring you, postpone this until another time-" I start to explain, but she interrupts me.

"If you don't want to go look at wedding cakes today, like you promised me, then just say it, don't start making excuses!" she huffed, glaring at me.

"I don't want to go look at wedding cakes this weekend." I instantly replied. Ginny glared at me.

"Well too bad!"

"Don't you have a job or something?" I ask, irritated. Ginny's job, a recent thing post her graduating Hogwarts, was as a sport's writer for the Daily Prophet. Already, I'd been hearing good things about her talents in turning the Prophetinto the new standard in sports reporting. My phone went off then, and, hoping for a miracle, I fished it from my pocket, hitting answer.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Cullen?" The voice on the other end asks. The voice is smooth, and slimy, the sort that sends shivers up your spine, shivers which I push away.

"Uh, speaking," I say, after a second of confusion- I still expected to be called Miss Granger, or Miss Granger-Swan.

"I'm ringing in relation to your inquiry into the acquirement of two rare items," the voice said, and excitement flared up inside me.

"Have you managed to locate either of them?"

"So far I have been able to locate one of the items. Would you like to arrange a meeting for later today?"

"Yes," I respond instantly, "does Diagon Alley work?"

"I'll book a private room in the Leakey Cauldron for one o'clock," the voice states, "tell the barkeep you're meeting with Mr. Smith."

"Okay." I respond.

"I'll see you then." 'Mr. Smith' replies, before the phone goes dead.
Ginny is still glaring at me, but Alice has appeared, and she's eyeing me with a curious expression.

"Who was that?" she asks.

"I'll explain later," I tell her, not really wanting to go into my slightly shady deal with 'Mr. Smith' in front of Ginny. Both give me suspicious looks and I roll my eyes. "It's called a surprise for a reason, Alice." I tell her, "I never got you a wedding present, after all." Her expression immediately brightens.

I turn to Ginny, giving her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, but I really have to meet this person. Are you going for a muggle cake, or a magical one?" I asked, "because if you're going muggle, I'm sure Alice will be able to help you."

Ginny's scowl melts away slightly, and she gives Alice an assessing look. "How good is your French?"

"Perfect," Alice assures her.

"Excellent. We're going to France." Ginny smiles, "apparently they make some of the most divine wedding cakes in the world."

"Oh they do," Alice immediately assures her, "I mean, obviously I haven't tasted them, but they look

fabulous. I wanted to order one for Rosalie and Emmett's fifth wedding, but nobody else wanted to." She pouted at that.

"Maybe because none of you could actually eat it, sweetheart?" I suggest.

"Oh hush you!" Alice scolds me. Ginny then frowns slightly.

"Right, that reminds me- you're a vampire."

"That was very impressive of you, Ginny." I say, and she rolls her eyes at me.

"I mean, I forgot she can't go in the sun without lighting up like a disco ball." Alice's eyes went blank for a second, and then she smiled.

"I checked, it's overcast. I'll be fine." She then pouts slightly. "And I prefer the term sparkling like a diamond. It sounds more enchanting." Ginny laughs.

"Wicked. Today's going to be fun."
"I need to get dressed- enjoy France, you two." I tell them.

"Actually, I'm going to pick up Luna first, and Alice still has to get dressed," Ginny says, checking her wristwatch a gift from me, to her. I bought one for Arthur the next day, he was so enraptured by the 'strange muggle time-measuring device'. "I'll be back in twenty minutes." She states, before twisting and disappearing. Alice turns to me, a sly smile on her face.

"We should shower together- saves time." She states. I laugh, nodding. "Sounds perfect, treasure."
-

I stride into the Leakey Cauldron, dressed in a pencil skirt, white blouse and blazer, stockings and black heels. My expensive-cut travel cloak, dark sunglasses covering my face, and hair charmed straight, shoulder-length and black, gave anyone looking at me the impression of a perfectly anonymous business woman.

"I'm meeting with Mr. Smith," I tell Tom, the barkeep, my voice carefully crisp and charmed lower and huskier then my real voice.

"Of course," Tom smiles, directing me to a back room. I resist the urge to shiver slightly as I walk in, feeling the power of the wards wash over me- nobody would be able to eavesdrop on this room.

'Mr. Smith' was dressed almost identically to me- professional and expensive. As Tom backed out, shutting the door behind him, I took off the sunglasses and placed them on the table, sitting down across from the light-haired man.

"You have the payment, I assume." He states, raising his eyebrows.

"Two hundred galleons to add to the one hundred galleon deposit," I reply, coolly, pulling out a bulging pouch and sliding it across the table.

'Mr. Smith' smiles at me, greasily, pocketing the pouch and then rising to his feet, producing a small velvet pouch that he slides across the table. "For you, Mrs. Cullen." He states, bowing slightly, before striding out of the room.

"Bloody hell." I mutter under my breath, exhaling noisily. I let the tension flow out of my body as I grabbed the pouch and shoved it into the pocket stitched to the inside of my cloak.

'Mr. Smith' was a wizard one could hire, for the right price of course, to procure information and items. A private investigator, of sorts. 'Mr. Smith' cost a fortune, but he was the best- Fleur had helped me get in contact with him, he occasionally worked for Gringotts, acquiring different treasures for the goblins. He was, quite conveniently really, very up to date with the advances of the muggle world, hence the cell phone.

I'd hired him to help me find two separate items- one being a very special ring, the other The Codex- the lost journal of Nicholas Flamel, the creator of the world's only Philosopher's Stone, and one of the most prestigious and sought after texts in the entire Wizarding world.

A text that could hold the secrets to the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. If you wanted to live forever with your vampire bride, the Philosopher's Stone was one way to do it.

-

I apparated back home and went straight to my study, removing the charms altering my appearance, then opening up the manila folder.

Alice arrived home, nearly two hours later, and skipped into my study. "Are you ever going to tell me what all this research is about?" she asked, as she slid moved the copies of Theoretical Thaumaturgy and Advanced Arithmancy to the side of the middle of the desk, so she could perch on the edge, her curious eyes flicking over the pages and pages of writing in front of me.

"Are you ready to have this discussion?" I asked her, softly, and her eyes widened.

"Y-you mean... that discussion? The one we've kind of been avoiding because we're both terrified of it?" She asks, nervous.

"Yes. That discussion." I smile without humor, and she bites her lip.
"We have to have it sooner or later, I guess." She murmurs. "Okay, let's do it."

"Alice," I begin, "if I thought it would work, I'd ask you to Turn me. But the thing is, there's no record of any witch or wizard ever been Turned," I hesitate for a second, "Alice, I have no idea how vampire venom would react to my blood, to my magic. I have no idea if my body will accept the change, or fight it. Muggles, their bodies can't fight the venom, but the magic in mine can. Alice... there's a very real possibility that vampire venom being introduced into my bloodstream would... would kill me."

Alice's entire body is frozen, her face a mask of horror. "No..." she whispers, shaking her head from side to side in denial, "no, no, no... I can't lose you!" I lean forwards, grabbing her hand.

"I don't know that for a fact, Alice- it's only conjecture from texts I've read. But there's more then one way to live forever, that's what all this is about," one of my hands releases her, to gesture to the books and papers scattered around me, "remember what I told you about my first year, about the Philosopher's Stone?" Alice nods, somewhat jerkily. "I'm going to make one, Alice. I don't care how

long it takes, I'm going to do it."

"So... today? That's what you were doing, a-and you didn't want to say it in front of Ginny?" Alice asked, nervously.

"It's related," I say, before digging around in my pocket and pulling out the velvet pouch. "But I didn't lie. Today I did get you that wedding present. It's a few weeks late because, well, it took a few weeks for Mr. Smith to find it."

"What is it?" Alice asked, her dark, slender brows drawing together in confusion, as she looks at the box.

"Have you got time? Because it's kind of a long story." I tell her. She bobs her head up and down.

"All the time in the world for you, my darling one." I smile at her, warmly, before starting.

"Vampires have been around for almost as long as the human race," I say, going straight into 'lecture mode', "muggle mythology never managed to pinpoint the true origin of the so-called vampire 'myth', but wizards know for a fact that the first ever vampire was born out of sorcery in Ancient Egypt, created by Khayu-Neheb, a wizard. He created the vampire as a weapon to destroy his enemies, but he made a mistake- vampires were supposed to be beasts that could be trained, they weren't supposed to retain their human intelligence. And they also had other faults.

"The potion he'd created, responsible for Turning a human into a vampire, caused the body crystallize, freezing it in time, but that crystallization also meant that the vampires, well, sparkled under the sun. Like diamonds. Something very inconvenient if you lived in a country that was mostly desert, and you needed a weapon that blended in. So Khayu-Neheb created a series of charms wrought with heka-khase, a form of Ancient Egytpian magic that's mainly forgotten. Most of these charms are lost, due to the fact with the advances in magic, vampires were considered too vulnerable to be of any use, and magical folk lost interest in them, but a few remain. Including this one."

From the pouch I produce a carved wooden ring-box. I open it and Alice stares, wide-eyed, at the ring inside. It's a single band of gold that looks as ancient as it is, though with a few charms I'm sure I can make it appear more modern. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are engraved around both the inside and the outside.

"What does it do?" Alice asked, eyes shining. I smile, gently lifting it out of the box and sliding it

onto her finger, then standing up, still holding her hand, and apparating her outside, to Edward and Bella's meadow, where the sun is shining with gusto. Alice gasps, staring down at herself, and I grin.

"Like it?"

"I'm not sparkling!" she breathes, "holy crap!" I laugh.

"Glad you like it, it cost us a fortune." Alice giggles, and spins around under the sun, her pale skin remaining just that, with no sparkles dancing off her. She blurs over, pulling me into her arms, and spinning me around with such gusto I almost throw up. "Bloody hell Alice!"

"I'm not sparkling," she giggles, planting a kiss on my cheek. I laugh, again, then tug at her finger.

"Take it off, I miss your sparkles." She pokes her tongue out at me, yanking her hand out of my hold, and hiding it behind her back.

"Never!" I smile, before my face goes serious.

"I love you Alice, and we're going to make this work. I swear to you, I'm going to make sure that we'll be together always." Alice's arms wrap around me, and she snuggles up against me.

"I know you will, my heart."