CHAPTER THIRTY:

Hermione's POV:

I bit back a groan of frustration, as I tried reaching my magic core, visualizing the magic stream down my arms, my fingers, to my wand... only for it to slip through my fingers. It was like trying to catch a fish in the ocean with my bare hands... before I became some kind of bizarre vampire hybrid, of course. That would probably be easy now.

I was sitting cross-legged in the garden of the Cullen Mansion. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since the completion of my disastrous turning, and subsequent horrifying discovery that I couldn't use magic. After hunting, talking with everyone- the Cullens, my witch and wizard friends, Leah and Seth, and enjoying some quality "bedroom time" with Alice, I'd made my way outside to work on accessing my magic.

Closing my eyes, I take slow, deep, unneeded breaths, clearing my mind. In this state of calm, I can clearly feel my magic, warm and electrifying inside me, can picture it, can taste it right on the tip of my tongue, but my wand stayed cold in my grip.

I let out a snarl of frustration, as I lose patience and try to access my magic again, only to have my wand not even spit out sparks. "Hermione?" I hear Alice ask, timidly, and I open my eyes, turning towards my mate.

Every time I look at her, she takes my breath away. She is perfection, pure and absolute perfection. Her glossy black hair reaches below her ribcage now, and splashes freely down her back like a sheet of liquid ebony. Her muscles were light but well defined, giving her a sleek cat-like air, and her eyes are brilliant jewels, the purest, most perfect green I've ever seen, and her beauty is otherworldly.

"You're staring," she murmurs, and I blink, surprised, realizing that I was frozen, drinking in the sight of the woman I loved.

"You are too." I retort, smiling, and she smiles at me, revealing perfect, glistening teeth.

"I can't help it, you're... stunning." I rise effortlessly to my feet, with an effortless grace that I'm yet to adjust to. Alice flits over so she's leaning up against me, and her soft gaze meets mine. "Are you still having trouble with your magic?" she asks, quietly. I sigh and nod.

"It's there, it's just..." I run a hand through my hair, frustrated, a part of me noting that this seems to be a habit I've retained from when I was human, "cut off from me."

Alice looks worried, and I can basically feel the guilt leaking off her. She blames herself for the loss of my magic, just like she blames herself for the nightmarish ordeal that was my Turning. "It's not your fault, treasure." I tell her, sternly, for the hundredth time.

"I'm that easy to read, hm?" she smiles, bleakly. I cup her face and kiss her, fiercely.

"You saved my life. Even if I can never use magic again, it will always be worth it." I tell her, sternly. I feel like shuddering as I think about the curse Lucius used on me.

I've seen the entrail-expelling curse used on someone else before, and it was horrible. Doge's stomach just exploded outward, it was like a Muggle grenade had been released inside him. His intestines curled from his body like snakes, his skin had paled to milk white, and his body had dropped bonelessly. He was dead in less then a minute.

Alice nibbles her lip, still looking so sad and conflicted.
"I still feel awful. Your magic... it meant so much to you. It means so much to you." "But you mean more." I tell her, honestly.

"Aw, that's so sweet." I hear Emmett snicker, and I shift to glare at him over Alice's shoulder. He just snickers more.

"Shut up Emmett." Alice grumbles, not bothering to turn around. Her face then brightens. "At least the Occlumency shields are still working. Leah says hers are too. Edward still can't read our minds." She smiles happily. I smile back.

"Occlumency doesn't require a spell, it just requires magic and concentration." I explain, "Legilimency's different. Legilimency has to be cast. The Occlumency shields I built in my mind, in all our minds, will remain until I either die, or my magic is stripped away."

My voice turns somber at the thought, and I resist the urge to shudder. Alice hugs me tighter. "Can you turn into a bird still?" Emmett asks, curiously, and I tilt my head slightly.

"I don't know, I hadn't thought of that." I admitted. "An animagus transformation doesn't require a wand, and I still have my magic I just can't access it... my body's also human enough to change so I should be able to Turn." Closing my eyes, I focus on the transformation.

I felt my body shrinking, my fingers fusing together, my nose and jaw elongating to a sharp point. My clothing disappeared at the same time as my eyes shifted along the sides of my head and feathers sprouted from my skin.

I let out a triumphant screech as I spread my wings, launching myself into the sky. I was different then before, I still had my vampire eyesight in this form, my lungs didn't require air, and my heart wasn't beating in my chest. And I was stronger. I could feel the speed I was moving at increase to the point where the world should be a blur around me, but I could still pick out every single detail. Another triumphant screech, and I angled my body back around, soaring over to Alice and Emmett, pulling up several feet above the ground then changing back, the smooth transition ending with me gracefully on my feet.

"I wish I could do that," Emmett moaned, with a pout. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Go play with Teddy or something. Preferably far, far, far away." Alice snipes, and Emmett's pout deepens.

"Are you saying you don't want me here?"
"Yes." Alice and I answer as one. He huffs, pulling mock-hurt expression.

"Fine then." He says, before disappearing back into the manor. Alice turns and gives me a cheeky grin, her eyes sparkling in mischief.

"You look really hot right now," she purred, her fingers dancing over the skin of my arms.

"So do you," I whisper. The autumn colored dress she's wearing is rippling and fluttering in the slight breeze, the silky curtain of her hair shining under the sun. I lean forwards and wrap my arms around her, pressing our lips together.

"You scared me to death, you know." She murmured against my lips. "Or more to death." She corrects herself, before clinging to me tighter, her lips moving with an intense passion. As her hand slides under the t-shirt I'm wearing, I wonder whether or not I should remind her that I can't perform any silencing charms anymore. When her hand cups my breast, I decide not to look a gift aethonan in the mouth.

It was soft and loving as we rolled on the grass together, our clothes scattered around us. We took our time, kissing every inch of each other's bodies, exchanging gentle caresses and deep kisses.

When we re-dressed, Alice wrapped her arms around me, making a slight purring noise like a content cat. "I love you." She said, her beautiful voice bell-like in its perfection.

"I love you too." I respond, as we walk into the mansion. Emmett's sitting in the lounge, in front of the TV. Teddy's on his lap, bouncing excitedly. A children's show is playing, and both Emmett and Ted look equally as entranced and entertained by it. Bella's sitting on a couch, further away, with Elizabeth on her lap. I frown for a moment, worried about having my sister, the newborn vampire, so close to my human godson, when I notice the shimmering around Emmett and Teddy, and realize that there's a barrier in place.

Hearing us enter, Emmett turns around and faces us, an evil smirk on his face. Beside me Alice stiffens. "Oh crap," she whispers, and I deduce that she's just figured out that there were no silencing charms up to prevent our vampire family hearing us making love.

"Yep." Emmett snickers. Alice groans, burying her face in her hands. "Oh crap!"

"Yes, we've established the existence of excrement," Bella speaks up, sounding a touch annoyed, "do you mind not swearing in front of the children?"

"Sorry," Alice apologizes, half-heartedly, before basically fleeing the room, embarrassed. Emmett's shaking in silent laughter, and I give him a venomous look which does absolutely nothing to negate his amusement.

"Hermione, are you coming?" Alice asks, poking her head back around the door as I make no move to leave the room. She determinedly doesn't look at either Emmett or Bella.

"She certainly did, and several times, from what I heard." Emmett pipes up, and if Alice could blush I knew her face would be bright red.

"Stop talking!" I warn him.

"Why?" He counters, "don't want me to talk about how you had her go wild on the hippogriff, ride your broomstick, show you her Chamber of Secrets, let your basilisk to slither in, Whomp the Willow, visit your restricted section, let you stir her cauldron, take you to the Shrieking Shack, turn into Moaning Myrtle, duel with your wand, take a trip in your Forbidden Forest, make your mandrake cry-"

"Okay, first," I interrupted, "you've been hanging out with George way too much! Do you even know what any of that stuff means? Second, you do realize that half of those aren't even anatomically possible for Alice and I, right?" Emmett arches an eyebrow.

"What do you mean not 'anatomically possible'?" he asks, with a cheeky grin, "haven't you ever heard of a dil-"

"Shut up Emmett!" Four voices speak at the same time- Alice, Bella, Rosalie and myself.

"Never!" Emmett proclaims, before gulping slightly as Rosalie gives him a narrow look, moving her gaze deliberately from the toddler on his lap, then to Elizabeth, then back to him.

"Evil!" I mutter, before making my way over to Alice, following her as she walks towards the front

door. It's Bella and I's nineteenth birthday today, and despite the fact we're technically now eighteen forever, Alice is determined that we celebrate it, and has planned a rather extravagant party with plenty of gifts, including a house for Bella and Edward.

Yes, a house. Esme and Alice designed it- it's an adorable place, really, and the bedroom is my favorite. Before all of this- the wedding, the pregnancy, Lucius- I'd become involved in the decorating and charmed their bedroom ceiling with a spell similar to that used on the roof of the Great Hall at Hogwarts that mimicked the sky.

As Alice darted around inside the small house, putting up the finishing touches, I wandered into the bedroom and looked up at the ceiling. The sunset was literally cut right out of the sky, with streaks of dusky pinks, deep blues, and brilliant shades of orange and red.

I start thinking about casting the same charm on the roof of Alice and I's bedroom when the realization of being unable to access my magic hit me again, and a wave of grief flooded my body.

No magic... any witch or wizard's worst nightmare. My magic had been a part of my life since I was born, and I felt almost naked without it. Maybe Alice heard me make some kind of miserable noise, because she appeared beside me and wrapped her arms around me.

We stayed in that position for what seemed like forever, but was really only around ten minutes. The sound of Alice's phone broke us apart, and Alice fished the slim, sleek device out of her pocket, her eyes darting over the screen. "Elizabeth's asleep," she informed me, "time to go surprise Bella."

I heard Edward murmur "finally", as Alice we reached the Mansion, and Alice skipped into the lounge room. Bella was standing, cradling a sleeping Elizabeth in her arms, watching my niece as if she was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen.

As Alice held out her hand, Bella seemed to automatically shift Elizabeth to her right arm so that she could open her left, and Alice dropped the key to the cottage into it. It was an everyday brass key, with an oversized pink satin bow tied around it.

"Happy birthday!" She squealed, and Bella rolled her eyes.

"No one starts counting on the actual day of birth. Your first birthday is at the year mark, Alice." She informed my wife, whose grin turned smug.

"We're not celebrating your vampire birthday," she informed my sister, "Yet. It's September thirteenth, Bella. Happy nineteenth birthday you two!"

"No. No way!" Bella shook her head fiercely and then shot a glance at the smug smile on her husband's face. "No, this doesn't count. I stopped aging four days ago. I am eighteen forever!"

"Don't bother arguing, Bella." I advise, an easy smile on my face as I watched Alice completely disregard my sister's protests as if they were nothing, and Bella's indignant, horrified expression as she did so.

"Whatever," Alice rolled her eyes at Bella's protest and gave a quick shrug. "We're celebrating anyway, so suck it up." For a moment Bella looked as if she was going to start complaining, then she sighed.

There was rarely a point to arguing with Alice.

Alice's grin grew impossibly wider as she read the acquiescence in Bella's eyes.

"Are you ready to open your present?" She sang.

"Presents," Edward corrected, pulling a long silver key with a much less gaudy bow, this one blue, from his pocket.

"Why is it just me?" Grumbled Bella, "Hermione's human birthday is today too."

"Yes, but Hermione's present is waiting for her at our house." Alice explains with a quick shrug. Bella sighs.

"Fine."

After a brief argument between Alice and Edward about whose present Bella should get first -which Alice won, no surprise there- Elizabeth was shifted into Esme's arms, and Alice started to lead the way.

"Is it outside?" Bella asked, curiously.

"Sort of," Alice said, pushing her forward.

"Enjoy your gift," Rosalie said. "It's from all of us. Esme especially."

"Aren't you coming, too?" Bella asked, as she realized that no one had moved except her, Edward, Alice and I.

"We'll give you a chance to appreciate it alone," Rosalie said. "You can tell us about it... later." Emmett guffawed and I had to bite back my own laughter.

A confused Bella followed us as Alice led the way, through the forest. When we got close to the house, Alice covered Bella's eyes with her hands after a brief bickering with Edward about theatrics.

As Alice revealed the surprise, I couldn't help but smile too. Here it was, the culmination of our work. There, nestled into a small clearing in the forest, was the tiny stone cottage, lavender gray in the light of the stars.

Bella's eyes were wide as she stared, and Alice started babbling nervously.

"Don't you like it? I mean, I'm sure we could fix it up differently, if you want. Emmett was all for adding a few thousand square feet, a second story, columns, and a tower, but Esme thought you would like it best the way it was meant to look." Her voice started to climb, to go faster. "If she was wrong, we can get back to work. It won't take long to-"

"Shh!" Bella finally manage and Alice pressed her lips together and waited. It seemed to take my twin few seconds to recover.

"You're giving me a house for my birthday?" She whispered.
"Us," Edward corrected. "And it's no more than a cottage. I think the word house implies more

legroom."
"No knocking my house," Bella responded, instantly, as if on reflex, and Alice beamed

"You like it." Bella shook her head, and Alice's face glowed even brighter. "You love it!" She crowed, and Bella nodded. "I can't wait to tell Esme!" Alice was just about bouncing up and down.

I watched, amused, as Bella's face turned confused as she asked why Esme and the others hadn't accompanied them, and Alice tried to answer without lying, just omitting the part where everyone was expecting the two newlyweds to shag the whole night.

As she led me away, leaving Edward to give Bella the tour, before taking a tour of his own, Alice was bouncing up and down again. "Time for your present!" she said, gleefully, and I let her lead me back to the Mansion, then to the driveway where her car was parked.

The drive back to our house took less then ten minutes, and as I stepped out of the Porsche, I was immediately aware of the small crowd of people inside our house.

I dashed to the door at a speed which should have rendered the world around me to nothing but a blur, and burst in.

"Happy birthday!"

One by one, my family in all but blood came over to hug me, tell me how glad they were that I was okay, then press a gift into my hand.

Harry, Ron, Fleur, Leah, Ginny, George, Molly, Arthur, Audrey, Percy, Romilda, Neville, Hannah, Rosalie, Emmett, Maggie, Jasper and so many others.

It was less of a birthday celebration, and more of a 'thank god you're alive' party. It went on for several hours, before people started to leave. Only a handful of people stayed behind, my vampire family, Fleur, Bill, George and Leah.

"So tell us, Hermione," Bill leans forward, "should we start calling you the Girl-Who-Lived?

Surviving vampire venom... how did you do that? I worked in Egypt- it should have killed you. Severe heart failure, following up to a week of suffering."

"My magic wasn't letting my heart burn," I nod, shuddering slightly, "something had to give- my magic or the venom, and the venom wasn't, so... I made my magic give."

"'ow did you do zat?" An astonished Fleur asks.

"Did you ever do those magic core visualizing techniques when you were a child?" I ask, and she nods. "Well, I... I pushed my magic out of me. It was... it fought me, so hard. It was like a rubber band, it snapped back into me so hard I think if I hadn't already been... well, undead, that it could have killed me. It destroyed the room I was in."

Alice wraps her arms around my middle, resting her cheek on the crook of my neck. "So it's definitely still in you," she said, looking up at me hopefully, with her big, green eyes.

"I'm ninety-five percent sure." I reply. "I swear that I can feel it, I just bloody can't channel it."

"Well, is there a way we can test if you can, you know, use it without channeling it?" Leah asks, with a frown.

"Well," I say, slowly, my mind racing. "There's accidental magic. Magic that happens without using any conduit, or any specific incantations. The easiest way to test that would be... well, accidental magic usually manifests when a witch or wizard is in a life-threatening situation. I could always-"

"NO!" shouted Alice, her beautiful face suddenly furious. "You are not being stupid with your life like that!" That's when she started to cry again, great big tearless sobs that wracked through her tiny body and had me hugging her, alarmed. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed, "I made you lose your magic! I'm so sorry!"

"Alice, sweetheart, I'm glad you saved me. It was a stupid thing for me to say, I won't risk my life just for a chance to see if my magic can still be accessed," I tell her, holding her tight, realizing what it must look like to my little vampire, that I'm willing to risk my life just for a chance to see if my magic still works, for a sign that this state of being unable to use it is just temporary.

"You don't 'ave to do zat anyway," Fleur spoke up, "accidental magic is based more on emotions

then the situation. Feeling an intense emotion should be enough."

"If you let me, I can make you feel an emotion strongly." Jasper offered, and I nodded, gently tugging Alice out of her death grip on me. Taking a deep breath, I lowered my Occlumency shields and nodded to Jasper.

"It has to be a negative emotion. Do it."

A wave of fury rushed through me, blind rage entwined with deep hatred. A vicious snarl ripped from my throat as a red haze marred my sight. Rage pulsed through me, and I barred my teeth, head flinging from side to side as I tried to find the source of my anger.

And then, over on the mantel above the fireplace, the glass covering the framed painting Alice created during Art, back in that class we shared in Forks High, shattered, along with every other glass object in the room.