CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:

Hermione's POV:

"Hermione?"

Alice's voice is quiet, gentle, and I turn to face her. I'm in the forest, perched on the branch in a tree along forty meters high. Less then a week ago this height would have made me so sick I'd have to fight the urge to either vomit or faint. Now, now the height meant nothing, because I knew that my new body could plummet hundreds of meters in the air to the ground, and I'd land on my feet, fully intact.

"Why did heights scare you so much?" Alice asks, as if reading my mind, as she delicately perched herself on the branch next to me, wrapping slim arms around my waist.

"What makes you think heights scared me?" I counter, without any real emotion. Alice gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. "It was an... accident, when I was younger,"-I was terrified, I shut my eyes waiting for it all to end there was no way I'd survive a fall from that height. The wind howled around me as it dragged me back onto the ground, the impact of which would shatter every bone in my body and leave me a bloodstained indentation in the earth. My life was flashing in front of me, it wasn't fair it was so short, I didn't want to die yet- "if my magic hadn't saved me, I'd have died."

"Thank god for magic," Alice looks paler then normal, before she shakes herself slightly. "You don't seem to mind heights when you're in your bird form," she pointed out. A smile danced across my face, as I realized what Alice was doing. Providing a distraction.

Merlin, I loved this woman.
"An animagus isn't just an animal form," I try to explain, "it's similar to the shifters. When you're in

that form, the chemical make-up of your brain is different. Instincts are stronger, emotions are muted... and then there's the fact that I can rely on my wings not to fail me."

"Hm," Alice gives me a thoughtful look. "You ready to talk now?" she then asks, and I sigh and nod.

"Want to know what really says something?" I ask her, and she looks confused for a millisecond about the direction the conversation is going in, but she doesn't comment, just arches a slim, dark eyebrow. "Memory charming my parents to forget I existed was easier than explaining why they needed to leave the country."

"Oh, dear heart," she said, softly, and I give her a tired sort of smile.

"My parents... like I've said before, they didn't react badly towards my status of a witch, but it... it changed everything. They never were the most warm, affectionate parents, but before they knew what I was, what I was capable of, they at least made an effort... you know, there are spells that can turn someone's mind into a prison, making them hallucinate all their greatest fears over and over again until they are hearing smells, seeing sounds and smelling colors as their brains dissolve. There are spells that can literally turn someone's skin inside out, that can boil the acid in someone's stomach, braid together the nerves in their spinal cord or freeze the fluid in their eyes. I can- could do all that with the wave of a stick and a few fancy words."

"Not could, can," Alice corrected me, sternly, "you heard what Mr. Ollivander said. A wand is only a focusing tool. Before wands were in common use, most of the Wizarding had used potions, wandless magic, and Ancient runes. I know that you'll have no problem becoming fluent in whichever ancient language you'll need to, especially with all the extra time you're going to have on your hands now, and you already told me that you're skilled enough in Arithmancy to be able to translate spells and wand movements to runes." Her expression was fierce now. "One day you'll be able to do all that again." She vowed, and then paused, "well, hopefully not any of that per say..." I smile.

"Don't worry, love, I've never used any of those spells before in my life. I just spent an unfortunate amount of time combing through books on the Darkest Arts available to learn everything there was to know about Horcruxes."

I then sigh, and Alice snuggles me tighter.
"I'm sure Charlie wouldn't react like they did," she tells me, softly.

"You can't guarantee that, Alice. And... I'm not risking it, not yet anyway. I want to remember Charlie the way I do now. I don't want him to be different around me. Even though I'm different around him."

With the amount of emotion currently present inside me, I wasn't surprised when tendrils of magic leaked out and caused the leaves around us to rustle where there was no wind.

Wandless magic... if I wanted to use magic again, I'd have to do it wandless. That idea was... intimidating to say the least. Wandless magic was not easy. It was almost paradoxical, in a way, the feelings not unlike the act of pushing and letting go at the same time, like trying to move an object by hand without touching it.

The difficulty was rather obvious.

Part of accidental magic was instinctive - wizards and witches apparently grabbed for their magic when distressed. Like Fleur had explained, strong emotion- a fairly good indication of significant distress- roused the magic normally held in quiescent discipline by the wizard or witch. That's why Neville, all those many, many years ago, had bounced instead of getting seriously injured when he was tossed out a window by his dear old Great Uncle Algie. It was also one of the reasons why magical people were far less likely to die in an accident than muggles. And Quidditch played by wizards and witches was dangerous, if fun, while Quidditch played by muggles, if they could figure out how, would be fatal- I remembered reading that in one of the earlier chapters of Introduction to Magical Theory.

Anyway, getting back to the original topic, that was the first part of wandless magic.

The second part followed naturally. Normally, the wizard only calls magic when about to channel it into a spell. So there you have a furious or terrified wizard, pulling his magic up by the bucket loads, and not paying attention to it in the slightest. The magic, meanwhile, is active, and the control that normally molds it into concentrated energy patterns is gone. So the magic just continued to gather 'til even vague, unspecified desires could give it form. Or, more often, a target.

But before that point, that much magic- charged magic, active with anger or fear- concentrated in one place but with only the vaguest direction, usually had effects on the natural world around it.

The hardest part about all this was actually being able to use wandless magic without the emotion.

"You seem lost in thought," Alice spoke up.

"I am... sort of," I speak up, vaguely, only half concentrating on our conversation, the rest of my brain gladly fully occupying itself with every theory and fact about wandless magic I'd ever read, pushing Charlie from my mind.

"And?" Alice prompted.

"And?" I copy her, teasingly. She pouts and it's adorable enough that I lean forwards and nip her lip. Letting out a playful growl, Alice pounces forwards in retaliation, knocking me off balance. I immediately lock my legs around the branch as I tip over, making sure to pull Alice with me. She gives a small squeal as we end up hanging upside down together, Alice wrapped around my torso like a koala bear.

I kiss her, ignoring the fact we're dangling from the tree, before pulling back slightly to smile at her. "I love you Mary Jane." Alice looks confused for a second, before her expression clears and she giggles, getting my reference. Her eyes suddenly go unfocused, and worry pulses through me. That worry fades, though, when Alice lets out another giggle when her eyes refocus. "Everything good?" I ask, and she nods happily.

"Bella and Emmett are about to have an arm-wrestling competition," she explains, "Bella destroys his pride."

Surprised laughter spills from my lips for a short moment, and then my lips are busy as the movements from my laughter combined with the fact I'm still upside down causes my shirt to fall, pooling around my shoulders, fully exposing my breasts, clad only in a satin bra, and Alice proceeds to just about devour my mouth.

When we return to the mansion, nearly an hour later, our clothes are rumpled and my hair is a mess. Emmett, who's sulking while playing with Teddy, chortles when he sees us. Alice gives a little growl while I roll my eyes at the overgrown toddler and go to find Bella.

I'm relieved to see her face is shining. "I take it that things went well?" I say, and she immediately starts chatting, telling me about how Charlie loves Elizabeth- not that that surprises me, it's really impossible not to- and how he reacted really well to everything.

A heavily pregnant Fleur arrives at the mansion some time around four to discuss Ollivander's visit with me, and the conclusions the old wandmaker came up with. Alice perches on my lap as we do so. Of course, the conversation didn't last long, not with Elizabeth in the room, drawing everyone's attention.

"'ave you considered about 'aving a naming ceremony for zee beautiful ange?" Fleur asked, as she gently runs a brush through my niece's hair. Elizabeth's bronze curls reach past her mid-back now, and every time my mention of the possibility of cutting it to a more manageable length was met by horror from everyone but Hermione and Emmett.

"A naming ceremony?" Carlisle asks, looking intrigued as he always does when something new is brought to his attention.

"Oui," Fleur nods, the hand not holding the hairbrush drifting down to rub her stomach, "eet eez a magical ceremony zat eez a tradition in Pureblood circles," she explains, "and a beautiful one at zat."

"I... what do you think?" Bella asks, turning to face me.

"I've never witnessed one before," I muse, feeling myself light up at the idea of witnessing the traditional ceremony I've only ever read about. "I think it would be fun!"

"What do we have to do?" Edward asks, curiously- like father, like son.
"You need to choose a Magical godmuzzer and godfazzer, and eet 'as to be at night." Fleur explains.

"I can make Hermione godmother, right?" Bella asks, and Fleur nods, causing my sister to smile before turning to her husband. "You choose the godfather," she tells Edward, who looks thoughtful for a moment, before turning to his adoptive father.

"Carlisle? Would you be willing?"
"I'm surprised you felt the need to ask." Carlisle replies, giving Edward a warm look. -

"What sort of other magical ceremonies are out there?" Alice asks, later, curled up beside me. "So far there's the bonding ceremony and now this naming ceremony?"

"Believe me, there are a lot of different magical ceremonies," I tell her, "Purebloods in particular have ceremonies they've practiced for generations- there's the ceremonies performed on traditional dates such as Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain, then there's different blessing ceremonies and ritual ceremonies... like I said, it's all very traditional. Most witches and wizards don't practice them, as its not exactly common knowledge out there- its mainly just been passed down through the old families."

"Like the Weasleys?"

"I've never actually witnessed any of the Weasleys celebrating," I told her, thoughtfully, "the ceremonies are sort of... like Wizarding religion. Not every Muggle goes to Church and prays and all that, just like not every witch and wizard practice the old ways."

"Why would you compare it to religion?" Alice asks, curious.

"Because it's a wooly branch of magic," I tell her, "like Divination except less completely and utterly pointless." Alice laughs at that, and snuggles closer.

"So are you excited about the naming ceremony? What will we need for it? I get to be there, right?" She questions me, not pausing long enough for me to really answer. I wait until she stops speaking, a sheepish expression on her face, before answering.

"There's a few things that we'll need to bring along, some of the stuff I'm going to have to buy... which reminds me, I've never taken you to Diagon Alley. That's a situation that needs to be remedied as soon as possible." Alice's eyes widen in excitement.

"I get to go to Diagon Alley?" She just about squeals, jumping off the bed and bouncing around like a squirrel on far too many Pepper-Up potions after being hit on the tail with a stinging hex. "Holy crap, I get to go to Diagon Alley!"

-

Alice watched from beside me with wide eyes as I traced along the brick wall with my fingers, tapping the bricks three times once I found the right place, having to work hard to force a tingle of magic to contact the bricks.

I let out a relieved sigh, glad that I wouldn't have to ask someone from the pub to come and open the entrance for me, as the brick wall hollowed into a hole, then dilated and expanded and shivered into a huge archway, revealing the long row of shops with signs advertising everything from live flobberworms, to the newest racing broom model, the Lightningbolt- no need to guess who the namesake for that was. Harry had been unbelievably smug when he learned about it.

There were merchants lining the cobbled pathways, and I gave a mental prayer of thanks for the modified version of the Bubble-head charm Fleur had placed on Alice and I, mostly so I didn't have to breathe in the scent of delicious blood. The scent of blood didn't make my throat burn with bloodlust, or the predator in me cloud my thoughts, like a bona fide newborn, that didn't change the fact that I had been Turned under forty-eight hours ago.

Harry had burst my ego very quickly earlier when I smugly pointed out the fact to him that I was a newborn vampire who wasn't particularly inclined to go on a killing frenzy, and he in return had pointed out that I wasn't actually fully a vampire, and Elizabeth didn't seem particularly inclined towards that killing spree either, and she was literally a newborn, less then a week old, though with her accelerated growth she really did seem so much older.

"This is... this is... it's unreal!" Alice breathes, stunned. I smile at her. "Says the vampire."

"Oh hush you," she says, too distracted to really care about my light jab. Wearing the ring I bought her, what seems like years ago, but in reality was only over two months, she looks like a normal human. Well, not normal, she'll never be normal- an extremely beautiful, but very much not-vampire human.

To keep the ring out of sight, lest someone recognize it, Fleur had applied a glamour to it, at the same time as she applied a glamour to me so that I wouldn't be recognized- though personally I wasn't sure that anyone would be able to make the connection between my new, beautiful form and my human one with just a glance. Every time I saw my reflection I had to pause to actually take in and realize that it was me reflected there, not some beautiful, ethereal stranger.

I let Alice basically drag me into the Alley, her green eyes bright with joyful excitement, her head constantly rotating as she drank in everything the Alley had to offer. The wonderment on her face

reminded me of Bella's expression when she first saw the Alley, and my own face, over a decade ago.

Diagon Alley was, in essence, an alley. It had one main road made of a cobblestone street upon which hundreds if not thousands of witches and wizards tread daily. This road was inlaid with more roads, small branches that wove an interconnecting path. Alongside the road were large buildings that were spaced so close together there was barely any room between them.

These buildings were shops, stores that sold all kinds of goods that could only be considered magical. You could see everything imaginable, from shops selling cauldrons that could only be made for potions, to shops selling a vast array of different animals such as mice, toads, and owls, to bookstores, and clothing stores whose clothing looked like something out of the fifteenth century, stores that sold potions ingredients, anything and everything you could think of that might be sold in the wizarding world seemed to be here.

It was... well, magical.

"Can I get an owl?" Alice begs, stopping out the front of Eeylops Owl Emporium to give me a pleading look.

"Why are you asking me?" I ask her, slightly puzzled. When it comes to shopping, Alice will buy what Alice wants- this was a fact I had very quickly learned about my mate, which was why I was so surprised she'd actually stopped to ask for permission.

"You have the money," Alice says, giving me a look that clearly states 'duh!'. My willpower isn't enough to stop me from rolling my eyes. "I'll take that as a yes then," my mate says, brightly. Which was how, fifteen minutes later, we exited the Emporium with Alice holding a cage containing one of the most stunning owls I'd ever seen, a caramel-feathered beauty.

"If you call her Caramel, I'm getting a divorce." I inform her. She pouts, before cooing to the owl, who doesn't seem to mind the fact Alice is a vampire- around half the owls in the shop screeched and started fluttering around in panic whenever she got too close to their cages which earned us some very odd looks.

"I wouldn't ever do something that cruel!" Alice says, looking affronted, before cooing at the bird again. It gave me a smug look which made me glare back at it. "Besides, you're an Odette, aren't you beautiful?" The owl- Odette- gave a hoot of approval, bobbing her head, and I narrowed my eyes at the avian Rosalie, who wouldn't let me go near her.

Our next stop was the bookshop, Alice stopping outside to peer eagerly in the window. "Ooh, can I go in there?" she asked, enthusiastically, looking like a child in a toy-store.

"We can go in there- I'm not leaving you unsupervised around books on magic." I inform her.

"What harm can a book do?" Alice asked.

"You'd be surprised. At Hogwarts there are sections of the library that the students can't access without teacher permission because there are books in the Magical World that can potentially kill a person." I tell her, "I know about one that burned people's eyes out. And everyone who has read 'Sonnets of a Sorcerer' speaks in limericks for the rest of their lives. And there was a witch in Bath that had a book before it was confiscated by the Ministry that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed."

Alice looked sickened. "Suddenly I'm a lot less eager to go visit the bookshop." She said, eyeing Flourish and Blott's warily. I laugh at that, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Don't worry, treasure," I say, tugging her in the direction. "I'll tell you which ones not to touch."

Flourish and Blott's was very different to a Muggle book store. Like most of the shops in Diagon Alley, it was far larger on the inside then it was on the outside, nearly three or four times bigger then it appeared. All around the shop were rows upon rows of books, organized categorically by subject; Charms. Transfiguration. Defense Against the Dark Arts and so on.

"What in the- oh this is priceless!" Alice said, sounding highly amused. I turned to see where she was looking and laughed, remembering Harry's mortification the first time he saw what Alice had just laid her eyes on.

In the History section of the bookshop was an entire section dedicated to the Great and Noble Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-And-Saved-The-World. From here, I could see books with titles such as 'Harry Potter and the Dastardly Dragon', 'Harry Potter and the Murderous Muggle', 'Harry Potter and the Wicked Werewolf', 'Harry Potter and the Terrible Troll', 'Harry Potter and the Horrible Hag', 'Harry Potter and the Nefarious Nundu', and twenty six other books with similar titles. On a shelf above all these was an animated toy that looked nothing like him save for the scar on it's head that came complimentary when you bought one of the books.

Alice gleefully danced over, as fast as she could go while mimicking a human, an picked up the one

titled 'Harry Potter and the Banshee's Breath', and opened it up, her eyes darting over the words faster then any human's could.

"This is... this is brilliant!" she laughed. Odette, who was still perched on her shoulder, let out a hoot of amusement. Having bought the entire collection and already read them, much to Harry's mortification, I knew it was a storybook about Harry traveling through Ireland and defeating a banshee. My pointing out the similarities in these books to Lockhart's had had Harry whimpering at the time.

Leaving Alice in the section, laughing over the books, I walked over to the other sections. I remembered my first visit here, and the amount of books I'd purchased.

I had been a bit disappointed to learn that there were no books on etiquette and how one was supposed to act in formal functions within the Wizarding World. When asked, the shop assistant who was giving me a hand had told me, "Sorry, but as far as I know there aren't any books on things like that. From what I understand learning etiquette and whatnot is learned through word of mouth. However, we do have a book on wizarding traditions." That particular conversation had ended up with me getting the book 'A Traditional Look at Wizarding Traditions'.

This time, I was browsing in particular for books on wizarding law, a section which contained everything from 'Magical Misdemeanors in the Modern Law' to 'Unforgivable Curses and their Legal Compunctions'. Alice wandered over to me, after around a quarter of an hour, and cast an eye over the large stack of books I'd already placed in my basket. Her interest was dragged elsewhere by a title that fascinated her, and she picked up 'The Dark Arts: A Legal Companion'.

"I've got that at home if you want to read it," I comment, absently, and Alice arches a dark, slim eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"My fourth year," I explained, "I purchased a large collection of books on wizarding laws so I'd not only know what the laws were, but also be able to find legal loopholes to use if I ever needed to break them." Alice gives me an incredulous look.

"Harry and Ron were such a bad influence on you, weren't they?" "Incredibly so." I agree, not sarcastic at all.
They really were terrible influences.

It was when we were exiting the shop, and heading towards the next shop that had caught Alice's fancy- the Apothecary- that we ran into one of those terrible influences.

"Why don't you look every part the respectable wizard!" I teased. With an outfit consisting of black dress slacks, polished dragon-hide boots, a black silk button up shirt with a larger then average collar, black gloves and a long dark green cloak, for once Harry looked every part the wealthy young wizard he was. He rolled his eyes at me

"Very funny."

"I thought so too," I agree, before asking, "What are you doing here anyway? And dressed so nice?" I'm startled when Harry's face turns solemn.

"Listen, Hermione," He says, serious. "You too Alice." He added, "The day before I married Ginny, Arthur pulled me aside and said: 'Harry, you're like a son to me, and now that you are about to become a married man, I feel that there is something I should tell you about women.' I, naturally, went bright red and started stammering, after all, just because I'm an orphan, it doesn't mean I've never received The Talk. Anyway, instead Arthur just smiled and said: 'Don't worry Harry, not those things- there's some conversations a son-in-law just shouldn't have with the father of his soon- to-be wife. Besides, kids your age probably know more about that than I ever will. No, Harry, what I have to tell you is something you don't know, something I wish I had known myself when I first entered the blessed state of matrimony. There is one thing that I have learned from bitter experience, and I wish to Merlin that some wise older man had thought to tell me this before I married Molly'," here Harry paused, and both Alice and I leaned in, intrigued despite ourselves.

"'Whatever you do'," Harry said, actually shuddering slightly, as if remembering something terrible, "'do not ever argue with a pregnant woman. If she wants you to sort the spices in alphabetical order, you'd better start putting "basil" before "borage". If she wants you to paint a room purple, you paint it whatever hellish shade of purple she has her heart set on. And if she craves dragon sausage for dinner, then, by Merlin, you head down to Knockturn Alley and get her that dragon sausage.' Arthur lived through six of pregnancies, one of them involving Fred and George, so believe me, love, he knows what he's talking about!"

I wrinkled my nose. "Dragon sausage? Really?" I ask, disgusted.

Harry nodded. "Really. I figured that must have been when Molly was expecting Charlie. The point is, I'm here because Ginny has her heart set on ice-cream from Florean's. And I, the ever dutiful husband, am here to get it for her, no matter the fact that I'm supposed to be in a formal meeting with the Wizengamot in under six minutes."

Harry runs a hand through his perpetually messy hair, and I can't help it- I start laughing. He scowls at me.

"Just you wait until you have kids!" He threatened, before making a rude hand gesture and heading off towards Florean Fortesque's, which was now run by Florean's daughter, Fiona Fortesque.

"Do you ever think we'll adopt?" Alice asks, doubtfully.

"Adopt?" I ask, surprised, "we wouldn't need to adopt. There are potions in the wizarding world that let two girls conceive."

"But we're vampires," Alice points out.

"I'm more similar to a vampire hybrid, like Elizabeth. My body isn't frozen, like a vampire's typically is," I correct, taking one of her hands and pressing it against my chest, where my heart beat whispers against her palm, then move it down to my abdomen. "My magic will protect my womb," I murmur softly, "the same way it's protecting my heart, even now." Alice's eyes take on a slight wondering look.

"So you think... one day... we'll actually have our own children?"

"One day." I agree, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her lips, "now let's go get the stuff we'll need for the ceremony."

-

It was a clear, cloudless night and the stars were scattered across the inky blue sky. Above us was the moon in all its luminous glory, and the snowy-white skin of the vampires is glowing under its silver rays. Everyone is dressed in formal attire, all in blues, whites and silver, some of us in wizarding clothing, others in Muggle dress suits and silk dresses.

"Friends, family and loved ones, please join me in completing zee circle," Fleur said, in her lilting voice. Fleur is dressed in floaty silver robes that veil her slender shoulders, and drift around her body. Bella seemed a bit nervous as everyone closed in around her, Edward and Elizabeth, forming a circle

with our hands.

"What bloodline does zis child come from?" Fleur asked as she waved her wand over Elizabeth causing blue smoke to form over the bronze head.

"Cullen." Edward said, voice serious.

"What given names do you bestow upon 'er?" Fleur asked as she waved her wand again, and this time yellow whispy strings appeared in the air, circling my niece.

"Elizabeth Carlie." Bella's voice trembled slightly, but she was smiling. Fleur touched Elizabeth's forehead with the tip of her wand and murmured a soft incantation in Latin. A golden glow erupted momentarily on Elizabeth's forehead and then it disappeared.

"What magical charms do you wish for 'er as 'er godfazzer?" Fleur turns to Carlisle.

"Love and protection." Carlisle says calmly, although his golden eyes are alight with excitement at the opportunity to be a part of the traditional ceremony. A wave of her wand and runes formed on the whispy blanket that hovered above Elizabeth. Fleur then turns to face me.

"What magical charms do you weesh for Elizabeth as 'er godmuzzer?" She asked.

"I wish for her friendship and wisdom." I say, softly, and I feel the magic reverberate through me, and I let out a small sound as my magic, largely inaccessible to me, rears its head, sending out a gentle pulse of magic to join the glowing runes flowing from Fleur's wand as my blessing is bestowed.

"On zis night of zee full moon we bestow zis child wiz zee name Elizabeth Carlie Cullen." Fleur says, "Welcome, Elizabeth."

"Welcome!" Everyone repeated after her, myself included.

The magical blanket of light, runes and smoke, all woven together with pure magic, fell from the air, wrapped its wispy self around Elizabeth, closed in tight around her and then fell through her skin.

Bella leaned down and kissed Elizabeth softly on the cheek, which prompted the circle to break.

"That was amazing!" Alice murmured, from beside me, taking a few steps back with me to give Bella, Edward and the well-wishers some space.

"Rituals are always intense," I murmur back, before reaching out and gently touching the air in front of me. "I can feel the magic everywhere around us, can taste it."

"It's like an energy," Alice agrees, with a shiver of delight. "A blanket of something heady and... and magical!"

"So literate, sweetheart," I tease her gently, agreeing completely with everything she said. And my heart aches with painful loss, at the tantalizing magic, so teasingly out of my grasp.