OKAY so I have good news as well as bad news. I did have 3 lengthy documents full of outline for this story but it was a beast and a new TVD/HP plot bunny kind of took over one night and well, this happened. Its the same concept, just starts a bit differently, but I'm publishing all of it, whatever I had, scenes written out, time period gaps, etc. broken off writing basically. I'm tired of this story being my double-edged sword; I love it too much to change everything and I haven't been able to edit the new one either cuz of it so I'm just giving y'all whatever I had. It's a bit wild, so like strap in, ig.

Here goes nothing.

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January, 2000 - 1st to 5th - Once Hermione gets the assignment, instead of rushing in, she stays and does research first. Decides to have a snoop around Mystic Falls as that's where he was planning to go after getting news of Katherine burning in a church there in 1864. Decides to contact Elijah as a backup plan. Katherine was Bulgarian and she sends an owl to Krum to ask if he knows someone who can do some top secret investigation for her inside Bulgaria for the whereabouts of a vampire.

6th - Tells everyone else that it's a project for the Department of Mysteries. Draco and Harry know that something's off and they know she is outright lying when she says she might go to visit her Mom's brother in Seattle. They call her out but she says nothing to deny it and just lets it be. Harry is about to confront her out of worry, but Theo intervenes saying it's official Ministry business and Kingsley knows so don't worry. Nobody questions how he knows this.

7th - Talks to Kingsley about pushing her request to getting her the wand permit in the MACUSA and everything as quick as possible so she can leave and start. Kingsley sighs and says unfortunately we can't do that for your quick poke around because technically you're a bad choice for this mission as you're too famous and the Americans won't be too happy even with the knowledge that you're there to handle trouble. Plus they will blame us for Klaus and the files because he's technically from Britain - the technical aspects of his citizenship won't matter to them, not to mention going undercover into muggle territory is very dangerous over there because it's not just frowned up but also illegal in most states. Until they have better proof or a real problem that requires handing, his meddling will have to wait. You're on your own because this is a secret mission, you need to get the permit in a fake name or something - I'm sure Zabini will be a big help.

Hermione is disappointed but makes do. Asks Blaise to arrange a wand or a permit or whatever she can use there properly.

10th - Blaise arrives to meet her at the airport and gives her a wand and permit and tells to keep it secure and call him if something goes wrong and that it doesn't include an apparition license unfortunately. Hermione swears furiously but thanks him. Goes straight to Lockwood Estate on the same night.

Has record her cover story several times - she's a civil war enthusiast and a historical researcher and she's doing a course in Whitmore College and decided to take a trip down to the town to check out some displays at the Lockwood Estate.

When she goes there, however, it's busy with preparation for the Masquerade Ball and everyone's there. Mason comes across Damon instead of Stefan and when they're talking, Mason suddenly looks at Hermione and goes completely still. Damon is distracted by his sudden panic.

Mason goes suddenly lax, his eyes fixed on something on both his left, "What the fuck?"

"What?"

Mason makes to stand up but Damon tries to tackle him but Mason is looking panicked now and focusing his hearing towards the pair at the front doors of the house, almost batting away Damon's hands irritatedly. Damon doesn't give up so easily but Mason just holds his bicep tightly and concentrates on the pair, "Fuck, Damon, man! Listen. We can do this later. This is more important."

Somehow the emergency in Mason's eyes and voice forces Damon to believe him and he focuses on the conversation.

"-just a student of Historical Sciences at Whitmore, Mam. I had a senior who was from this town and he told me about the collection of documents and history you have in your archives. I was wondering if I could have a look?"

"Oh of course, dear. Any particular time period you're interested in? Yknow this town has a very rich history."

"Oh I know Mam. I've researched about it quite a bit. I'm most interested in the 1860s - right after the town was first founded yknow? I've read it was a time of much political upheaval. The Battle of Willow Creek, for example."

Damon dared a glance at Mason, who looked confused. He himself was a bit preoccupied that a British college student was seemingly interested in the history of this damned town and that too the years when he was turned. No, Damon Salvatore didn't believe in co-incidences.

"Hermione Granger is not a student of Historical Sciences," Mason said condescendingly, "And she's definitely not a student at Whitmore College."

Okay so a British teenage stranger was interested in this damned town. Mason looked at Damon like he was supposed to share his feelings of disbelief but at his blank stare, his face cleared, "You don't know who she is."

"And why am I supposed to know her?" Damon didn't like when he didn't know things. And Mason Lockwood needed to answer him quickly if he wanted to live.

"Because she's dangerous. Extremely dangerous. There was a pack I used to run with in Florida. Three British werewolves told me stories about a war brewing in Britain and how three kids were responsible for ending it. The stories were so crazy that if I didn't trust that guy with my life, I would laugh at the things he said."

Damon was very much intrigued and Mason's demeanour only seemed to prove his words. His voice was still low and panicked was his body was tense and twitching and casting looks up at the house, as if he expected trouble any second.

"Well, let's go see what she's upto then. Have a little chat."

As he began walking towards the house, Mason grabbed his arm in a tight grip before Damon slapped his hand away.

"No way. Look, I'd do the same if my sister-in-law wasn't in there. But it's too dangerous to be reckless right now I have to think about Tyler."

Damon stared at the werewolf he was slightly regretting talk at all. He didn't need this family feelings crap binding him down to shit.

"Look, let's be smart. I don't want to drag Carol into this. Let me distract her and you do the questioning. I'll be downstairs in Richard's office and I'll keep an ear out if anything goes wrong."

*Damon meets Hermione*

"Yknow it's bad manners to snoop."

"And it's even worse manners to sneak up on a person. Hermione Granger."

"Damon Salvatore."

They shake hands and he notices her reading his face for a reaction he doesn't give, then raises an eyebrow as soon as their hands touch. She looks down and comments, "Like the original settlers. Nice ring." Before letting go.

Wondering if she was somehow implying she knew about him, Damon followed her as she moved away, noticing her warm clothes.

"Thanks but I think you'd get arrested by the fashion police way before me if we're going there because cardigans? Really?"

"Oh its just because I'm always cold no matter what."

"Well I could provide some heat if you lose this hideous scarf."

He moved right behind her, momentarily guided by his desire to make her as uncomfortable as possible. He pressed himself into her slightly so that their bodies were just touching and then moved her scarf back over her shoulder, exposing her neck. Her breathing quickened slightly and she turned around, blushing furiously and he brought a finger to her cheeks, fascinated.

How could someone so soft and warm be dangerous? His ears zeroed in on her fluttering heart as he stared at the deep chocolate pools blown wide with lust.

She made to take the scarf from his hand, her surprisingly cold fingers making him tilt his head in curiosity. He grabbed her hand before she could pull away and felt her inhale sharply as he brought her small, pale and worn hand to his face. He wanted more than anything to smell her blood but instead, he stroked a thumb at the inside of her wrist, iliciting a delicious shudder from the girl now trapped under him.

He could almost smell her arousal now and a part of him, a very small part of him, wished that there would be fear mixed with it but he shook his thought away as he stared in the dark brown depths watching him calculatingly.

Just as he was about to close the distance between them and taste those inviting pink lips, his eyes fell on her neck and the sight of the faint pink scar stopped him short. It felt like everything came rushing back - this woman was supposed to dangerous, and apparently someone had held a knife at her throat at some point in her life.

As his eyes travelled over the scar, so did his fingers and it seemed to jerk the woman into reality. She drew a sharp gasp before pushing herself forward and for a second their bodies were perfectly aligned. And then she moved away.

Damon tried not to mourn the loss and blinked a few times to get rid of the urge to pin her back beneath him, instead following her movements deeper in the archive hall.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No. It was a small mishap but we all don't have quick healing."

He froze mid-step. Okay so now she was just being direct. No hints. She knew. He wondered if he should be less or more worried and what Mason's reaction would be. He tried to pinpoint the sounds of Mason and Carol on the ground floor - they were still talking about Richard.

"So you know. Who exactly are you and why am I not supposed to kill you?" He asked non-chalantly, folding his arms in an attempt to keep a grip on his thoughts.

"Ah, a little quick to the kill are we! Well, I told you my name and I'm a supernatural researcher looking for information on a vampire who died in Mystic Falls in a fire during 1864. Katerina Petrova, although I expected she went by Katherine Pierce at that time. I need to know what she was doing here, where and how she died and everything else."

Her hearbeat didnt say she was lying and she wasn't looking at him pityingly or meaningfully or any other signs that pointed to her knowning about him and Stefan being involved with Katherine.

"And why exactly do you want to know?"

"Oh I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to tell. Don't worry I'm not looking for her to turn me or anything I'm not that stupid. Believe it or not its for a research project thingy - I'm just here doing my job."

She turns around finally, expectantly, "So? Any idea?"

He's speechless and unable to decide what he should or should not tell her, so he stalls for time and information.

"What would I get in return for that information?"

Hermione looks pleasantly surprised, "What do you want?"

"Oh, I don't know, if you're really a supernatural researcher and as esteemed as some of my friends seem to think, you should have some answers to my burning questions of the day."

"I don't like to overestimate myself so what kind of burning questions?"

"Questions about a moonstone. Ugly, white rock."

He didn't have to wait for an answer to realize that the woman knew something. Her face lost the politely interested look and her eyes grew sharper and looked at him, assessing carefully. He needed information she had and if he had to tell her a few things about the bitch in return, why the hell not?

"How do I know you even know something?"

"Katherine Pierce turned me and my brother in 1864."

He can tell she's interested and believes him, "Look, the moonstone isn't even that important -"

"Aw, you're a really bad liar honey don't even try."

"Why can't you just tell me and let me be on my way?"

"What? Out of the goodness of my heart?"

"Look, this is a bloody day trip and I don't have a place to stay if I get late so forgive me if I'm not in the mood to chat about a moonstone that's been lost for ages!"

Damon tilts his head, considering her words and realized too late that the woman's surprisingly quick for such a bad liar. He doesn't remember walking towards her but she's standing right in front him again, looking small and soft but staring at him as if trying to read the information from his mind, "Do you know where the moonstone is?"

Apparently the answers there in his face because she looks faint as she puts a hand on her head, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Well, where the hell is it?"

Damn raises an eyebrow at her and she deflates, "Right right. You want to do an information exchange. Alright, well. Is there someplace we can sit and talk? Private? Safe?"

"Uh, yeah. Shall I lead the way?"

Then she raised an eyebrow and looked at him like he had two heads, "I'm insulted that you would think me stupid enough to get into a car alone with a vampire I met five minutes ago."

"Well now, I'm insulted." He frowns unhelpfully at her and tries not to pout too obviously. She rolls her eyes.

"I'll contact you and we'll set up a meeting with other people present. We'll both be allowed one other guest."

"I thought this was a day trip."

Now she looked at him with open trepidation from the door, considering him carefully for the first time, like a threat before replying. Damon had the feeling that she was making a decision about trusting him.

"The moonstone changes things."

After this is over, Damon catches Mason on the ground floor and says, "Look you warned me about Granger, so I'm gonna do you a solid and have a polite conversation instead of oh, I dont know, tying you to a chair or something. We know you want a moonstone and that you're in cahoots with Katherine so the real question is why does Katherine want the moonstone?"

"Kathy doesn't want the moonstone for herself I'm getting it for me. It's the one that binds the werewolf curse to the full moon, if we get the moonstone and break the curse, we don't have to turn at all."

"And why the hell would Katherine, a vampire, want that?"

"To help me. So that I don't have to turn. Look I know you're a vampire but this feud is stupid. I didnt have anything against you until you stabbed me so we're even. I just want to.. I just want to not become a monster every month, risking innocent lives, even if they're yours. I hate it!"

"And you think Kathy really wants it for you? That she has no ulterior motives? She will snap you like a twig the minute she has the moonstone, Mason! She's a manipulative bitch and does't love you! So stop being her fucking lapdog and grow up! Stop being so delusional. And take it from someone who's been there - I know she's very believable but she is using you. She has never cared about anyone else other than herself and her own interests. She's a manipulative bitch and the sooner you accept that and move on, the better it's gonna be for you."

Mason is rather shocked, but says, "No. She loves me." though its much more uncertain. Damon then looks at him with so much pity in his eyes that he believes then and there but doesn't say anything.

"I lock myself up every full moon so you don't have to worry about anything. I don't want another death on my hands. I hate all of it - I don't enjoy it. I just want it to end." And he leaves.

Damon grabs him before he can leave, "I can't let you leave without knowing where the moonstone is. How do I know you're not gonna hand it over to the bitch?"

"I won't. It belonged to my brother and I'm not handing it over before hearing what Hermione has to say about it."

When Damon doesn't release him, he sighs, "Trust me, Damon." And Damon knows that he doesn't but lets him go anyway because it makes some sense.

Damon informs Stefan about a new player in town and that he has potentially made peace with Mason. Mason texts Tyler about leaving town and tells them to tell Katherine he's dead or she's going to hunt him down. Damon taunts you're scared of her? He says no, I know her. And I know I'm no match for her. It's called being smart and clearing your tracks. Damon and Stefan agree and Mason says he'll stay there till the meeting with Hermione, Damon informs about her condition. He says I don't mind I have to know what the moonstone is exactly before I can leave this all behind me. They all agree. Jenna stabs herself cuz of Katherine. Mason takes out the moonstone and keeps it with himself for safekeeping until they need it for Masquerade.

11th - Hermione, in the meantime, knows that the moonstone binds Klaus' curse and that the presence of the Moonstone and a vampire at the same place does not bode well. It would only be a while before the rest of the ingredients are slowly gathered. She goes back to London and starts researching Hybrids and stuff but there is no info. Asks Dominic Denfliar, the werewolf Remus helped in 5th year, who has been in contact with Harry and her boss at the office Jeffery Jameson. Lavender tracks his whereabouts and sends him a letter to meet Hermione. He shifted to America for a while with others because of Umbridge and her hateful laws.

14th - He arrives and she asks him if he's heard anything from his friends in the States about Elijah Mikealson and his plans and whereabouts because they know that's how third parties get in touch with Klaus. He says no but swears to help them and find him. Hermione is thankful and after two days of looking around archives and researching in books, she decides she'll go over and talk to Damon Salvatore and Co.

16th - She sends Damon an owl in the morning of the Masquerade Ball, saying that she will be at the outskirts of the house they met at exactly at midnight. From there they will go to the private place he wants. And to pour water on the letter if he not is okay with the time and place and to throw the letter in fire if he is. Damon tells Stefan and Mason this and they're sort of weirded out.

S2E7 - The rest of the events are almost the same Tyler accidentally kills the girl at the masquerade ball while the rest are busy trying to trap Katherine and Mason is in hiding because of her. Damon is busy locking up Katherine so Stefan goes with Mason to receive them as nobody else is really free or knows about her. Hermione comes on time with Luna, taking an international portkey, who she borrowed because she has the ability to keep her mouth shut and is useful if it comes to a fight. Stefan and Mason are not impressed or feel much threatened but Hermione decides that's good cuz they both look kinda dotty.

17th - After introduction, In the car, they ask if Katherine really did turn Stefan and Damon and he says yes. And Luna says, "Wow, this is much less scary than I thought it would be." Mason is looking at Stefan like 'What the heck'. Hermione its clear, is trying to ignore Luna. "Where's Damon then?" "He had something to do, sorry about that. He'll meet us at the house."

"I hope everything's alright?" "Yeah, of course." "He's sad, Hermione. And hurt - i think he might have broken up with someone. His aura's all dark blue." "I'm sorry who are you?" "Oh, I'm Luna Lovegood. It's a pleasure to meet you. I can tell you're a vampire. And you're a werewolf. It's a family curse, isn't it?" "You're a what?" "Uh, yeah. I'm a werewolf. How did you know that?"

"Nevermind that now, Luna. Just drive bloody faster." She snaps, looking almost worried.

Damon is there where they arrive, "My brother bring you safe and sound? And the dog didn't bite I hope." Mason only rolls his eyes at the joke and Stefan doesn't even bother.

"Yes, yes everything's fine. This is my friend Luna Lovegood. Ignore her if she says something you don't understand, we have very important matters to discuss."

"And it's lovely to meet you, Miss Lovegood." Damon kisses her hand and Luna smiles brightly at him. "Oh thank you!" Then she stage whispers to Hermione, "I quite like him." who ignores her and Damon's smirk.

Before they enter the house, Hermione does the spell, "Homenum Revelio." and nods before stepping in.

"You didn't mention you're a witch." Stefan accuses Hermione while looking at Damon who shrugs, looking a little more serious.

"Yes, I suppose I didn't. But you know now. If you could get over your shock and get to matters at hand, please?"

"Right. This way. Drink?"

"No, I'm underage" at the same time Luna says, "Oh yes please."

Hermione puts a hand on the bridge of her nose, "Luna Lovegood, you are one year younger than me. Sit. Down."

Luna heaves a sigh and says to the room at large, "She needs to let go a little." Then sits quietly, crossing her legs indian style after removing her shoes. Stefan raises his eyebrows at Damon and Mason just stares. Hermione only rolls her eyes.

"Are our terms still the same? One of you needs to get out of here." She raises her eyebrows at them and Mason concedes, then turns around hesitantly and says, "I've heard a lot about you actually. Did you really end a War at seventeen years old or was that just some stuff the guy I know said to pull my leg?"

Hermione looks at him like she's very tired of being asked this question, but Luna replies readily for her, "Oh yes, we did. We didn't expect anyone here to know about it, though. You see, before he could expand overseas, we got rid of Vol - "

"That's enough, Luna. Now do you need an autograph or what?" Mason reddens, Damon snorts and Stefan tries to look away from the conversation.

"No, it's just that - that he said things are a lot better for werewolves there because of you lot. So thanks, I guess."

"Oh." Hermione looks pained now as she stares at her shoes and Damon can suddenly imagine her as a seventeen year old, shy but fierce and dangerous. Quick as a knife. Even Luna has no answer to that, she smiles a little sadly as she slips her hand into Hermione's, who jerks a little at the touch.

"You're welcome." She says eventually and surprisingly, her eyes look a little teary from where he's standing. She's blinking a lot though and gives Luna a watery smile before smiling warmly at Mason, "It was nice to meet you, Mason. I hope we'll get to talk more later."

After he leaves, she turns to Damon suddenly business-like, "Right. So the moonstone. What do you want to know?"

"Why is it so important that so many people are after it? What's this werewolf curse that's bound to it? Is it even true?"

Hermione takes a deep breath before speaking, "The moonstone binds a powerful curse on itself, yes. But it's not the werewolf curse or anything. The curse bound to the moonstone was cast upon a very old vampire. The man had the werewolf gene from his father but when he became a vampire, the killing a human part triggered his werewolf curse and he became a vampire-werewolf hybrid and very hard to kill, as a result. But he was sort of insane so they tied his werewolf side to the moonstone with a curse. He wanted to break this curse so he created fake records of the werewolf curse because that would get two species of supernatural creatures to look for the moonstone. What better way to find a shiny rock, eh?"

Damon and Stefan looked both stunned and surprised by this information. Damon is blinking quite fast and whistling but Stefan recovers first, "And how do you know this?"

"Never you mind that, all you need to know is that it's true. Now my turn. What can you tell me about Katherine Pierce's shenanigans in Mystic Falls in 1864, besides turning you both, that is?"

Stefan is about to answer but Damon interrupts, "Wait. My questions aren't over. What is Katherine's connection to this moonstone or this curse or whatever?"

Hermione looks at him very hard for a few seconds, like debating with herself about something, "'What is Katherine's connection?' I take it she's alive then? Didn't die in a fire in a church then?"

"Nope. Don't worry though, most people had that misconception for a lot of years. Me included." Stefan says, getting a drink and sitting facing her.

"Oh not me though. I had the misconception that she was trapped in a tomb underneath the same church and was desiccating all these years, when she was actually out living her life, not a care in the damn world. She especially did not care about me, the guy who spent 145 years in love with her because he thought he would finally save her from a tomb she wasn't ever in."

Damon's voice is quite cherry, and Luna's voice is quite serious when she says, "You hide your pain very well but I don't think you should do that."

Hermione, who has been looking at him with shock and pity, snaps out of it.

"Wow. right, well. i'll tell you about Katherine's connection but first - did Katherine have this moonstone in 1864? Or… Or now?"

Damon and Stefan exchange a loaded look, it feels like they're getting at the heart of the matter now, "She had it in 1864 but she gave it to George Lockwood in exchange for his help to fake her death when she left. And well, now, when she didn't have it she was actively torturing people over it."

"Merlin's hairy bollocks and balls! Motherfucking cunt fungus! Fuck! Goddamn fucking fuck."

Hermione is freaked out as fuck as she swears at the top of her voice. Luna has scrunched up her nose as she shouts and Hermione removes her scarf and jacket and makes herself a drink while softly saying, "Fuck me. Fuck. Fuck. Merlin fuck."

Damon and Stefan are extremely confused and decide to wait it out. When Hermione's had two drinks, she mutters, "Fucking Bourbon." and Damon looks affronted but Luna takes out a small flask from her jacket and taps Hermione on the shoulder.

As soon as she sees it, she almost tears up again, "I love you."

Then she pours it all into a glass and gulps it, before sitting down and putting her head into her hands. Her hair, which has come loose is very frizzy and looks on the brink of jumping to life on their own.

Damon clears his throat and Hermione looks up, before taking a tired sigh and rubbing her hands all over her face and blinking furiously, before staring at him expectantly.

"It was our turn. And I have a feeling it's our turn to freak out. What's Katherine's connection to the moonstone?"

Hermione's shoulders loose some of their tension and she leans back a little bit, but Damon is already sure that whatever will come out of the woman's mouth will not be good, but he tries to keep his hopes up. In vain apparently.

"The ingredients to breaking the curse are a vampire, a werewolf, a witch and a doppelganger and since Katherine was the Petrova doppelganger, she ran away with the moonstone before they could break the curse and turned herself into a vampire before they could sacrifice her."

Damon's ears were ringing. Surely, he had misheard Hermione?

"I'm sorry, are you saying the doppelganger has to die in order to break the curse?"

"Yes, why? There's not… there's not another... ?"

She apparently didn't need to finish her question in order to read the answer on their faces. She leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes in defeat, muttering one last final, "Bollocks." Then the blonde spoke in her least airy voice yet, "I suppose, from the looks on your faces, it's no use asking if there's a witch around, is there?"

That must've been pretty clear from their faces too because she stood up suddenly, all business, "Hermione. We have to inform the American Ministry. I'm going to write to Blaise to arrange a meeting with the Head of their animal department. I'm going to need a quill and parchment from your bag."

Hermione takes out a quill and parchment, almost working on autopilot and Damon and Stefan see her arm disappear into the bag and a concentrated expression on her as she mutters, "Right. Meeting with the head, talk to Dominic, talk to Harry and oh God, how is your witch? Is she capable of this kind of magic? Does she know what she's doing? How skilled is she?"

Damon and Stefan exchange surprised glances again before Stefan replies, "She's okay. We think she can do the spell but shouldn't we be working towards not - "

"Yes, we should but if a witch is unable to do the spell, she could die. And I can't have a poor newbie witch die because I didn't fucking do my job properly."

"I guess that rules out killing the werewolf. They are rather hard to come by."

"Absolutely not. And they're not as rare as you think. Anyway, the hardest to come by is the doppelganger. If word, no - when, word gets out of this tantalizing combination, everyone who has ever wanted to make good with Klaus will be after the doppelganger."

"I'm gonna check on Elena, see if she made home safe." Stefan said, going off in the other direction to call Elena, while Damon focused on the name drop.

"Klaus? That the name of the old vampire?"

"Yes, listen. I need to go and do a lot of work. You have no idea how big and dangerous this whole thing is. Just, please try to keep everyone alive and… and just. Fuck, I don't even know where Katherine is. She could be running around - "

"Hey, Katherine's sealed in a tomb, so don't worry about her causing trouble. I sealed her in myself." Damon tries to calm Hermione and just holds her slightly, comforting in her presence as she is in his. Nobody else is around, until Stefan comes in, looking panicked.

"Elena wasn't picking up so I called Jeremy. He said she's not home."

Damon exchanges a worried look with Hermione, who presses her hand to the bridge of her nose.

"Luna, when you're done with that letter, I want you to write another one to the Floo Authority. Actually just write to Madam Edgecomb. Tell me when it's done."

Luna makes a humming noise but doesn't look up from her place. Stefan looks at Hermione and so does Damon.

"You both go try to find her. Luna and I will be gone by the time you're back but I'll keep in touch, don't worry. And we'll work on creating a faster communication method too."

They send a patronus to Blaise he comes and takes them to Blaise's place.

17th (Day) - S2E8 -

Mystic Falls: In the meantime, at Mystic Falls, the other guys wake up Bonnie at night and leave to get Elena. Mason texts Tyler about going out of town so he's not worried - they don't know that Tyler is a werewolf yet. They find out in the morning when Caroline comes by to inform Damon before school and he's missing and she finds Mason, surprisingly alive. He wants to go help Tyler but Caroline says don't underestimate Katherine and stay put - I'll help him, I promise. Mason tells her about Damon and Stefan gone to rescue Elena and Bonnie and Jeremy catch her up on the rest. When back, the rest learn about Elijah from Elena, and it's confirmed that what Hermione told them is true to some extent. They also realize Katherine turned Caroline and even Tyler cuz she wanted to present the full package to Klaus. Rose doesn't come to Mystic Falls and goes back to Slater in Richmond instead. Stays with him for a while, trying to figure out her next move. Caroline spends the next days talking to Tyler, telling him about everything supernatural and how to deal with the curse and transformation, at least what she knows and Mason's diary that he told her how to find. Tyler knows about Damon, Stefan Bonnie etc.

18th - Hermione's letter arrives that she's meeting a Ministry official the next day and wants to visit them right after it so are they okay with guests staying over for a night of the 20th? She wants to hear about if they've found Elena and hopefully meet her and the witch. Follow the same procedure as before to confirm or deny conditions. Damon does and informs everyone this time (Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, Ric, Jeremy, Tyler) about Hermione and all she told them about the curse and Klaus, which causes Elena to postpone her thoughts about interviewing Katherine.

19th - In the meeting, Hermione discovers that Klaus has struck a deal with Head of Dept that he will use his Hybrid army for the Ministry to take care of any stray magical creatures and obliviate people. It's obvious that they will break it but the way the Head is so convinced, Hermione smells Elijah's involvement.

20th - Hermione comes back with Blaise and introduces him two days later..

Blaise apologizes for the inconvenience as Hermione doesn't like side-along apparation and hasn't got her license yet. Damon says side along what now? Hermione says teleportation. We'll talk on dinner, alright? Invite all your trustful people and we'll explain the situation, alright?

They have rescued Elena three days ago,

They call over Mason, who has decided to stay because of Tyler and the moonstone, Bonnie, Stefan, Elena, Caroline and Alaric. Jeremy is with Tyler helping him decompress.

Short Introductions -

Damon - "Scooby Gang, may I present the reason for this family meeting - Miss Hermione Granger and her companion Blaise Zabini - witch and wizard extraordinaire, they are here to help us with our Klaus situation."

Caroline - "You mean the situation they put us in?"

Hermione - "You mean the situation I made you aware you were in the middle of?"

Caroline - "Says you with no physical proof. I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude but all we have is your word that the Sun and Moon Curse is fake, the records are fake."

Hermione, looks at Caroline for a while, then finally nods - "You're a sharp girl. I appreciate your concern and I'll make sure to send over my proof, but there will be a few steps involved to get the documents out of Britain. They have protective spells on them and everything."

Caroline smiles appreciatively, then moves forward and shakes her hand, "Caroline Forbes." Elena and Bonnie share a glance - a girl that Caroline likes in the first try. Wow.

"Miss Mystic Falls, control-freak in life but weirdly well adjusted vampire in death, newest addition to Damon Salvatore's sire line and Katherine Pierce's probably not last kill." - Damon, putting hands on Caroline's shoulders and leading her in.

Hermione raises eyebrows but continues in, when Ric shakes both their hands, "Alaric Saltzman, history professor by day, vampire hunter by night."

"Former vampire hunter." Damon says, pouring a scotch and handing it to Ric, who slaps his back just as he's about to drink, "You sure about that?" Damon just smirks and rolls as eyes.

"Elena Gilbert. The petrova doppelganger aka the reason everyone's in this situation." Elena says, with a wave and a self-depreciating smile.

Blaise says, "Gilbert? As in Dr. Grayson Gilbert?" Exchanges a quick glance with Hermione, who has narrowed her eyes at Elena.

Caroline and Bonnie and Elena exchange glances and say, "He was my Dad, he died a year ago. Did you know him?"

"Er, no. I just read his name somewhere I think. In a medical journal or something."

They all can see the lie but Bonnie moves it on, "Bonnie Bennet, the witch."

"Ah. Nice to meet you. We're going to help you hone your skill set in a few days if everything goes according to plan." - Hermione says happily. Bonnie smiles, then picks up the food, "I heard you've been travelling for a while so I had the foresight to bring a Thank You in advance package."

"I like how you think." Blaise says, abandoning his spot where he had been sitting looking bored and grabbing the food, then smells the burgers, then declares again, "I like how she thinks."

As they settle on the sofa, Hermione and Blaise choose to sit on the armchairs pulled close together, and open their packs while everyone gets settled around them - Caroline, Mason and Elena on the couch on one side, Bonnie and Stefan on the other and Damon remains standing by the bar, while Ric sits on the arm of Bonnie's couch. They watch as Hermione picks out tomatoes from her burger and Blaise picks out pickles then swaps the plates on which they've kept the vegetables, then start eating.

"So, care to enlighten us about your progress with your Head of Animals or whatever ?" - Damon

"So, the thing is, ultimately, you're on your own to stop Klaus because the American Ministry has given him official permission to perform the spell to break the curse because he's told them he'll use his Hybrid army to do good or some bullshit. I tried to reason with him but he's convinced - "

"Hold on, hold on. American Ministry? There are people in the government who know about this stuff?" - Bonnie

"Wait, he's planning to make his own hybrids?" - Stefan

Blaise - "Okay, there's a community of magical people living in secret with normal people for centuries and we have our own secret government and everything, it's called the Ministry of Magic. Now we both went to the American Ministry because this is their jurisdiction, technically - "

"But I'm a witch! How come I don't know about any of this?!" - Bonnie

"Girl, you might be pretty as hell, but you interrupt me again and Imma have to turn your hair blue." - Blaise

"Easy, player, get to the point." - Damon, irritated.

"Bennet witches are pagan witches, that is, you channel your magic through nature, spirits, death, your ancesteral line, etc. But we are different types of witches - we don't need to harness magic through anything else, we have our own magical core within our bodies so we just tap into that to do magic. It makes us much more powerful, but also more dangerous." - Hermione

"So you're like witch version 2.0." - Mason

"How come we're stuck with the outdated version?" - Damon

"Better than being Vampire 2.0." Blaise mutters under his breath and the vamps hear but before Damon can address it, Hermione has spoken.

Elena and Bonnie look ready to pick a fight but Hermione beats them to it, "Hey! That's not fair. Pagan witches have existed just as long as us. And in some ways, they're much more powerful because they can create covens and chanel each other and stuff - "

"Okay, okay! Let's get to the point! Your government people aren't helping so what exactly are we supposed to do? They barely saved Elena from that Elijah dude the other day - " - Caroline

"Wait, did you say Elijah?" - Hermione

"And we're not really supposed to help technically, Granger. This is out of your scope too, yknow." - Blaise

"Yes, I know. Did you say Elijah? You took her from under Elijah's nose? How?" - Hermione

"What d'you mean how? We killed him." - Damon, confused about the importance of Elijah.

"But you can't kill him. Not with a normal wooden dagger. He doesn't stay dead that way." - Hermione, alarmed again.

"But who is this guy? Those vampires who kidnapped me were terrified of him too. Who is he?" - Elena

"He's their one way ticket to get to Klaus. He's a paranoid man and he only entertains new people through Elijah, his brother." - Hermione

"Dude's got a brother?" - Mason

"Yes, and he could be more dangerous than Klaus if he's pissed off. I daresay, you might have made it on his list." - Hermione

Damon and Stefan exchange a look, uncomfortable look, "But I staked him and saw him dessicated with my own eyes!"

"Well, then, if you can't kill them with a wooden stake, how the hell do you kill them?" - Stefan, ignoring Damon

"Well then he didn't dessicated for long. Feel free to go check the place again. I'm sure you won't find a body. And I don't think you can kill them, frankly. The only thing that can weaken them or anything was a white oak tree and they burned it down centuries ago." - Hermione

"Wait, that's not possible. Despite all the weird supernatural stuff, nature always finds a way to maintain balance. So there's gotta be some way to get rid of them. And why are they so special? Why can't they be killed with normal stakes?" - Bonnie

"I suppose that would be because they're the Originals, aren't they Hermione, love? The Original Vampires. You're after the Original Bloody vampires and you told me this was a freakin field project for the Department of Mysteries." - Blaise to Hermione, voice slightly rising and accusing.

"It is." Hermione says, with the air of 'this is not the place to have this discussion', "And I thought I specifically said 'Secret field project'?"

"Draco's gonna flip. You know that right?" - Blaise

"He is not." Hermione says, like it's the final word and she will hear no more, "Because you're not going to tell him."

"I wouldn't count on that." - Blaise, raising his eyebrow threateningly.

"Well, then I wouldn't count on you retaining your ability to have children." - Hermione, taking out her wand and flipping it casually.

Everyone else coughs and snorts as Blaise eyes the wand for a minute, "Fine! Fine! Make me lie to my best friend! Fine!" He raises his hands exasperatedly, clearly done with the situation as everyone tries hard to hide their laughter.

"Hey, you all can laugh all you want but I've seen that witch do things that would that would make you people dessicate on your bloody couches outta fear." - Blaise, irritatedly, as he pours himself a drink.

Damon scoffs, before narrowing his eyes, "Please help yourself to my bar."

"Thanks, mate." - Blaise, grinning.

"Alright, enough. Can we get back to these Original Vampires? Is that name literal or what?" - Alaric

"Yes. That is very much literal. They're the first vampires in existence and every vampire that exists now is sired indirectly from them. Their story is actually very interesting but we, unfortunately do not have time to indulge in fun story telling. I have work to do. Just because the American Ministry's refusing to help, doesn't mean ours will too." - Hermione

"Wait, you're not saying you want to carry out your stupid mission illegally on foriegn soil? We know the man loves you, but Kingsley won't be able to save you from the entire ICW if you're caught." - Blaise

"You mean if we're caught." Hermione, raises an eyebrow, then smiles sweetly.

Blaise scoffs, "You can't be serious."

"I totally am. If Klaus becomes a hybrid, he's going to be even more out of control than he is now. Even more unkillable, if that's possible. And I can't let that happen, so I'm going to convince Kingsley to let me run with this mission. Yes, legally," She says, as soon as Blaise opens his mouth to counter, "I'll ask him to have a talk with the American President and if he's convinced, good. If he's not, we'll be doing him a favor anyway so he can't really blame us."

"You're assuming he's going to be able to talk sense into Banewood." - Blaise

"I'm not! It's just a necessary precaution to take so that we can work in this country freely without Ministry wizards swooping in to arrest us every second. The President will know what we're doing and that we're not a threat, what we're attempting is for the greater good of - " - Hermione suddenly shuts up at the look Blaise gives her then.

Everyone else is a little confused but Hermione is quick to begin again, "I'm sorry you know I didn't -"

"No. I know. So we talk to Kingsley and hopefully legalize the shit we do here. What else?" - Blaise is quick to abandon the topic but everyone saw the look on his face.

"As much as I love being on the outside of a conversation, you wanna clue us in?" - Damon

"Uh, yeah, I second that. You stopped making sense about five minutes ago." - Elena

"Same." - Caroline

"You lost me at Kingsley. What the hell's a Kingsley?" - Stefan

Hermione and Blaise take deep breaths, before Hermione continues, "Right. So the thing is, it's not totally legal for us, yet, but we will help you with this Klaus thing. We'll try to figure out a way to stop and for us to even, like, have a chance of helping, we need to be able to use magic in America. So we're going to get our Prime Minister to talk to the President about this and in the meantime, we'll do everything we can on our level to help you guys." - Hermione

"You're on speaking terms with the Prime Minister?" - Alaric, properly surprised.

"We're talking about the Prime Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, a dear friend, and the American President of Magic, Balon Banewood, a political hardass. Not the muggle ones, mate." - Blaise

"Muggle?" - Bonnie

"Common, love. That's a word we use to describe normal, non-magic people. Like my man Ric here." - Blaise

"And other than that, I talked to a werewolf friend of mine to find Elijah so that we can get a head start and maybe come to some sort of arrangement with him or something. Or kidnap him, or - I don't know yet -" - Hermione

"You already got in touch with Denflair?" - Blaise, tilting his head, "Nice. I hope I get to see him."

"Are you talking about Dominic Denflair?" - Mason, sitting up.

"Yeah, you know him?" - Hermione

"Well, yeah. He's the one who helped me through my first transformation and told me all that stuff about you guys. And I've heard a lot of stories." - Mason, looking meaningful and questioning.

Blaise smiles for the first time that night, like properly, "Well, they're probably all true. Denflair's a good man. He doesn't exaggerate."

Mason whistles, looking awed at Hermione, who looks most uncomfortable and is blushing, "Did you really - "

Blaise laughs out loudly, getting up and thumping Mason to sit by his side on the arm, "Any questions that start with that, mate, the answer is probably yes. But we're not here to discuss those things. Save the hero worship, huh? Let's get back to our to-do list. Granger?"

"Yes, yes. Other than that, I need to go through my research again to find something related to that white oak tree - maybe soil from the place or something, I swear I read something. Alaric, Damon said you're a researcher too, d'you have any leads about where we can look for such stuff?"

"Actually, I think I might have something. There's an old Lockwood family legend about Original something something and tunnels. I'm gonna need to look into some family journals or something tomorrow. I'm almost sure I've read something about Originals, I just can't remember properly. I'll get on it tomorrow." - Mason

"And I haven't really heard of these Originals anywhere in Isobel's research. Worst gets to worst, we'll have to contact Isobel and ask for her help." -Ric, looking at Elena.

"That's a last resort though, right? I don't really want to face her again." - Elena

"Yeah. Neither do I." - Ric

"Okay, no idea who Isobel is but it sounds like a good enough start at least. Also Bonnie, you need to work on your magic, like I said the other day. Once Kingsley gives us the green light, I'll send Harry and Luna to teach you some more -"

"Hey, I could teach her!" - Blaise

"Zabini, you're a terrible teacher." Hermione deadpans.

"Pfft. That's not true." - Blaise

"You set Ginny's hair on fire as punishment when she couldn't remember the name of a rune." - Hermione

"That's… not… It was an accident. Look, I can control myself. Please?" - Blaise

"Not inspiring a lot of confidence, Professor." - Bonnie, raising an eyebrow

"Fine." Hermione says, exasperated, "You're living on the same continent at least so that's a plus I guess. And it will help that you'll stay here and Damon can keep an eye on you." She looks meaningfully at Damon, who gets up and bows, "As my lady commands."

Everyone just rolls their eyes, as Hermione shakes her head, "And I will send Luna anyway. She knows most about earth magic. She'll be of lots of help but I'll have to get Harry to talk to McGonagall to let her out of Hogwarts for a few days."

"Good luck with that." Zabini snorts.

"And last of all, I have to get your fireplace set up with the Floo Network." Hermione says, finally standing up and moving towards said fireplace.

"Fireplace? What is the Floo Network, exactly?" - Stefan

"Oh, it's a method of travel for us. We can throw some powder in there and the flames turn green and you can go in, say the name of a place connected with the Network and come out of the fire at the other place." - Hermione

Everyone else is raising their eyebrows in disbelief.

"You know that fire's one of the ways to kill a vampire, right?" - Caroline, in utter disbelief.

Hermione snorts, "Yeah I get it. It's hard to believe. Needs some getting used to. Took me a while too if I'm being honest, I was convinced I was going to burn to death at least the first four times."

"Muggles are weird man." - Blaise

"Hey hasn't Katherine has been running from Klaus all these years. Wouldn't she have looked for some way of killing him?" Ric says suddenly, having been quiet all the time.

"That's a brilliant idea. That's another angle to try this from, but will she co-operate? I thought you locked her in a tomb or something?" - Hermione

"I think I'll go talk to her." - Elena

"No it's too dangerous." - Stefan

"Nope. No way." - Damon, then continues on, "She is a lying manipulative bitch who cannot be trusted. She will spin up some story or most probably bargain useless information to get herself out of that tomb. That is a dead end, it's no use wasting Your time over."

"But I want to talk to her, I want to know her side of the story - especially how she managed to survive so many years running from this Big Bad Vampire." - Elena, getting up and looking at Damon

"What you gonna ask her for pointers?" - Damon scoffs

"No, I'm going to pretend that I know nothing about any curse or the details of it and that I'm just poor helpless Elena looking for answers without my saviors The Salvatores by my side. She loves to gloat at me it's her favorite thing to do and I'm going to let her." - Elena

"And you're hoping she'll slip up?" -Damon frowns at her, blinking.

Elena raises her eyebrows and shrugs 'Yeah'. Damon makes an I'm impressed face, then looks at Stefan for permission and so does Elena.

"Okay, but I go with you and stay out of sight, in case she tries anything." -Stefan sighs.

Damon rolls his eyes, "Fine. Mason and I can look for leads in the family journals, Stefan can be on Elena patrol -"

"Actually, I need to be with Tyler to help him prepare for the transformation. He's kind of freaking out and not taking this well at all. Any pointers, you guys?" - Mason to Hermione

"Actually, there is a potion - I don't know if Dominic's told you about it -" - Hermione

"Wolfsbane yeah, but he said it doesn't work on non-magic werewolves like us." - Mason

"Oh. Well then…" - Hermione looks at Blaise for help, who's drinking his alcohol carefully, before replying.

"I have a potioneer friend. I'll write to him about modifying the potion for muggle use. Maybe he can come up with something." - Blaise, sounding unsure.

"But it will still take more than a month. So this one, at least, you're gonna have to do it the old fashioned way. I'm sorry, we'll make sure we're better prepared for the next one, I promise." - Hermione, holding Mason's hand.

"Thanks, Hermione." He smiled gratefully at her, then turns to Damon, "I'll stop by and give you all the journals I can find tomorrow morning. And you guys need to be indoors before sunset tomorrow, okay? It's his first time and it's gonna be hard enough."

Caroline, Damon and Stefan nod, and Hermione catches Caroline's eye, motioning her to come with her, "You seem the most logical one out of the vampires so I'm going to burden you with something, alright? A… a little side mission that you can't tell anyone about yet."

Mason is leaving and waves at them as they are outside, but Elena, Bonnie, Damon, Stefan and Ric are busy discussing plans for tomorrow. Blaise has followed them out but is keeping an eye inside, presumably to observe if anyone is trying to eavesdrop.

"Can I trust you, Caroline? This is about the welfare of your friend Elena and her brother."

Caroline looks wary but nods curtly.

"There's an old secret society in Whitmore College called Augustine. They've been experimenting on Vampires from a long time. And those two being as old as they are, could have come across it and been victims any point in time, so I can't risk telling them."

"Risk telling them what?"

"We used to study all this in school, okay? And I was researching for the sake of homework when I came across the active societies and their known members filed in the updated archives. And that's where I saw the name Grayson Gilbert."

Comprehension dawns on Caroline face, quickly replaced with horror and disbelief, and Hermione intervenes quickly, "I know. Elena is your friend and she will be most hurt by this if it's true but you can't tell Damon or Stefan because in case they were victims at any time, they probably hold big freaking grudges. Trust me, those experiments are horrendous and you can't trust Augustine vampires to be logical or sane when it comes to revenge."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Caroline looks scared now, really worried.

"I'm telling you because I want to confirm that my worst fears are not true. I want you to go to Whitmore and check if there's any proof of Grayson Gilbert's involvement, but go only when you have a little time. And be discreet. And tell me before you go so that I can help you spy or… or send someone with you when you go. I just really really want to be wrong this time, for Elena and her family's sake."

Caroline seems to taking it all rather well, Hermione casts a look at Blaise, who of course, has been listening in. He gives her a single thumbs up, so they weren't heard. They were alright.

"Okay. Okay, I'll… I'll try to take some time and check this out. This is the worst thing, Hermione! I'm terrible at keeping secrets!"

"Oh damn. Anyone who admits that really is terrible. Well then, just tell someone you can trust not to repeat it or someone who will help you with this. I have a lot more on my plate right now or I would go myself. And I also want someone Elena trusts to have the proof, not one of us."

Caroline looks at her and nods in understanding, "Thanks. I know you don't really have to help us with Klaus and I don't really understand why you're still going out of your way to do this so yeah, thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome. Now let's get inside before I fall asleep on the banister."

" - Gilbert journals? Maybe there's something in there we've missed before." Ric was saying to Elena as they put on jackets etc, looking ready to leave.

"It was nice to meet you, Elena." Hermione says and there's something in the way Elena looks at her that she doesn't like. She smiles but she can tell it doesn't reach her eyes.

"You too, Hermione, Blaise. Thank you for all your help on this. I can't…"

"It's alright. I'm just doing my job." - Hermione

"Which is what, exactly?" - Damon

"I'll tell you in detail one day when I'm not in immediate danger of collapsing on your rug." - Hermione

"Yeah man, I'm really wiped too. Somebody care to show me where I'm crashing?" - Blaise

"This way. Goodnight, Elena. Bonnie, Ric." - Stefan

"Goodnight Stefan." Elena says to Stefan's back as Blaise turns around, "Be ready for your lessons, little witch!"

"Can't wait, Professor!" - Bonnie

"Night BonBon. Night Elena. Drive safe, O Gaurdian Angel." - Damon says earning a jab in the ribs from Ric, "Don't call me that."

"Goodnight. Bonnie, Elena, Ric. I'm already sorry for subjecting you to Blaise and his terrible flirting." - Hermione smiles

Damon puts an arm over her shoulders as they all leave and turn back to laugh and shout their greetings. She shoves his arm off and he deliberately puts it back again. Then she just sighs.

"Where is Blaise' room? Please lead me to it. I don't want to get lost in your big house." - Hermione, flinching when Damon's arm moves from around her.

"Oh. Didn't know you were… involved." Damon says walking up the stairs.

Hermione tries not to cringe, "We're not. I just can't sleep alone. It's a problem I have."

Damon hums and puts both his hands on her shoulders this time, somehow being more comforting as he steers her towards the room, "I guess being responsible for ending a War at such a young age will do that to you."

"It's an unwelcome side-effect, yes."

They reach the room whose door is closed and somehow Damon's hand has ended up in hers.

"Well, you're welcome to be my roomie if you get bad dreams or something." He says, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and enjoying the way her heart seemed to speed up with such a simple gesture. He had missed this.

"I don't get bad dreams. We drink Dreamless Sleep in new locations to prevent nightmares." Hermione's answer is rehearsed but the way her heart is beating is not. Damon notices more and more of her freckles, wondering how they're growing closer and how the hell freckles can look so aesthetic on someone's face. Before he knows, he's staring into those wonderful, intelligent eyes of hers again and her scent has overwhelmed him and he can think about nothing but how good and soft her lips would feel against his.

But she seemed to have had a change of heart on the way as she turned her head slightly and pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth.

"Goodnight, Damon."

And then the door has opened and she's gone and he's reeling from the intensity of the feelings her innocent little kiss has revived in him. He rubs his chest slightly, willing his heart to calm the fuck down.

Breathing a deep sigh, he goes back to his room, keeping his ears peeled for every sound, and he's rewarded with their bedtime conversation.

"Who's taking the bed?"

"It was your turn today. Changing locations doesn't change things. We're still taking turns."

"You sure - "

"Seriously, Zabini?"

"I mean I could take - "

"Zabini, I swear to Merlin - "

"Alright, fine, fine. Just trying to be a gentleman."

Hermione snorts undelicately and there's noises of the two getting ready for bed.

"I think that Damon dude likes you."

Hermione groans, probably with a brush in her mouth, "Can we please talk about literally anything else, Zabini?"

"Fine. How much d'you think Denflair told that Mason guy?"

"I don't know, to be honest. I really like Dominic and he's not an exaggerator so I think Mason's reaction was more because of not having seen any other magical creatures. He's new to this, isn't he?"

"True, true."

"I really hope he didn't tell the werewolf story."

Blaise starts sniggering, "I can't believe how they would react to that, Granger. You escaped a bloody werewolf at thirteen years of age. If I hadn't seen that memory myself, even I wouldn't believe it."

Hermione groans, "Shut up! You do know they have very acute hearing senses. They can hear us if they concentrate hard enough."

"And I have a feeling you know someone might be trying to eavesdrop." Blaise is teasing her, because of him.

"Zabini, you know who taught Ginny the Bat Bogey Hex right?"

Silence, finally broken by slight thuds as Zabini probably stomps to bed like a scolded child.

"Fine. Fine. I'm gonna have words with my girlfriend, yknow. You shouldn't be out flaunting about that information. She's supposed to be the best at that hex."

"I'm not saying she's not, I'm just saying remember who you're messing with. I will hex you in your sleep if you piss me off and you know I don't bluff."

"Yes, yes, learned that the hard way, I did. I still wish Dominic told the daring escape on a motherfucking dragon story! Can you imagine -"

There's soft thump, probably of a pillow hitting Blaise's face and he keeps laughing.

"Give me my bag. I need to take the potion."

There's silence again as she probably looks for it in her bottomless bag.

"You know, you'll be taking it 5th night in a row. Why not just forgo it tonight? I'm here and Stefan and Damon seem like nice blokes. Bloodsucking, but still nice blokes. They won't - "

"I can't risk the nightmares. You know that. You know how I… You know I can't."

"Everyone has them, Hermione. It's not anything to be ashamed of. Everyone has them and everyone knows and they don't - "

"Goodnight, Blaise."

He heaves aloud sigh, giving up, "Goodnight, 'Mione."

21st - S2E9 (Liz gets attacked, Katherine flees with moonstone after trapping Elena)

Hermione leaves with the car in the morning, saying she will take a portkey back with Luna today and work on all the things they talk about. Stefan and Bonnie have already left with Elena and Damon and Blaise are left alone bored discussing traditional vampires and their sire lines until Mason drops by with the journals. Then they get to work when Mason drops off journals.

Mason and Caroline spend the day telling Tyler everything they discussed at the meeting and that it will be okay, but he has already called Jules. He says it's not a problem but looks worried a bit. Damon and Ric sift through the Lockwood journals for information on how to kill an original while Bonnie and Blaise practise. Jeremy looks for the Gilbert journals for any mention of anything after being filled in by Bonnie in the afternoon when she takes a break. That's when Stefan calls her for help.

Katherine tells Elena that Pearl knew of a way to get rid of Klaus but she never told her because it was what she kept against her. If only they had someone who could talk to the dead. When Elena implores her, she says Isobel found me, so she'll be able to find Klaus. Katherine manages to get Elena inside the room and holds her hostage until Bonnie lifts the spell on the tomb. And if anyone else wants to come in to save her, they're welcome. Damon is surprised when his phone rings - I thought you guys didn't have phones. Blaise says no that's just Hermione and Harry cuz they live in a magical house so electricity doesn't work there. No use of keeping a phone that doesn't work, huh? Bonnie says not to tell Damon so he doesn't and just leaves. Damon is suspicious.

With Blaise's help, Bonnie is able to lift the spell but Katherine bites Bonnie and escapes while the rest are busy. She opens the werewolf cellar to slow them down.

Liz gets attacked by Tyler while she's on rounds and she's found by Blaise, who apparated off with Bonnie. They find her body lying still. Bonnie calls Caroline and Blaise works on her injuries. Stefan and Elena have hopefully fled.

When Caroline arrives and tries to give her vampire blood, it doesn't work. Blaise says yeah I thought that would happen. I've done the best I can - I've stopped the bleeding and sown the wounds. From the looks of it, this is a very lucky escape, because he didn't bite her, just mauled her with the paws. It will scar but she'll live otherwise. He calls Damon and tells him tho he gets pissed he doesn't leave the house.

They take her to Damon's and Blaise says he'll go to his apartment and get his medical kit to treat her injuries a little better. Ric takes his car to find Stefan and Elena. Caroline is being convinced by Bonnie and Damon to tell her mother about them when Liz gains consciousness.

"As much as I hate to agree with Damon, you're gonna have to do it sometime, Caroline. She's been exposed to this twice! We can't take anymore risks!" - Bonnie

"You know how she will react Bonnie. And don't go on the high road now because you remember how you reacted -" - Caroline

"Caroline, this is your Mom. And the Sherrif of the town - " Damon

"I just don't understand why we can't give her vervain and make her forget like last time!" - Caroline

"Because this is not the time to dwell on your insecurities, Blondie. She's your mother, what are you afraid of?" - Damon

"I don't really see the point of your involvement in this Damon. And please don't pretend it's because you care about me or my mother. The concept in itself is laughable." - Caroline

There's a second's pause and then the sound of a body being slammed against a wall with a shout of 'Damon!' from Bonnie and Liz sits up but nobody notices.

"Contrary to popular belief, Blondie, I do happen to care about a handful of people in this town. And while you might not be on the list, your mother is. And the longer she doesn't know, the more danger she is in." He slams her again but she slaps his arm off and tries to fight but suddenly stops as she notices her Mom looking at her.

"What are you talking about?"

Sheriff Forbes knows from then on and agrees to keep their secret what with Katherine running around, new witches and wizards present on the scene, one of who saved her, Tyler and Mason Lockwood being werewolves, Tyler Lockwood having attacked her on his first night as a werewolf, a hybrid they were supposed to be quaking in fear from and her daughter, one of her classmates and one of her friends being vampires.

She's helped into a room by Damon after Blaise has done everything and told everything in short while Caroline listens.

"Caroline, how… how did it happen?" She sounds tired and wary at the same time.

"You remember the night they rounded up all those vampires and Caroline, Matt and Tyler got into an accident?"

"Well, the accident happened because Tyler got that weird headache too. And you remember how they told us Caroline didn't look so good and there was a chance that she would…"

"Yeah, I remember." She sounds choked.

"Well, we decided to give her my blood to heal her injuries and that's why she recovered so quickly."

"So who killed her?"

"It was Katherine. She just likes creating problems, I guess. It's a long story and anyway, she killed Caroline in the hospital and she wasn't in good shape when we found her."

He laughs suddenly, "I remember saying she won't survive as a vampire but you've raised a strong girl, Liz. She's actually really good at managing it somehow."

"Still, keep her away from me please. I need to…"

"She's your daughter, Liz. She's still the same person."

"I know, I just…"

"Need some time. Yeah. Well, I'm the same person too, so y'know feel free to call for help and I'll try to keep you updated on all our supernatural adventures."

Damon sees Caroline on his way out and expects a word or nod of thanks but she just gives him a look and leaves. Then he remembers what exactly he had done to her and is tortured by the thoughts from then on and all night.

22nd -

LONDON: Hermione and Luna have reached back to London/Hogwarts and Hermione writes to Kingsley to talk to him about the situation brewing in Mystic Falls. Then she spends the day going through her archives looking for a mention of the white oak tree or stake or other weaknesses. Harry interrupts her and asks what she was doing in America with Blaise and why she needed to take Luna. He clarifies that McGonagall told him.

She sighs and tells him that it was supposed to be a small intelligence gathering mission for the Department of Mysteries about this really dangerous vampire but she stumbled upon the information that he's planning something big. And he's convinced the American Ministry to let it happen.

Harry is shocked but forgives her quickly and asks for details and she tells him about meeting Damon and Stefan and Mason and the rest of the people and the curse that Klaus wants to break and that he's convinced the head of the department to go along with it. He knows that Banewood is not on good terms with Kingsley but she tells him she's already written to him to convince him to at least inform the Americans about the situation. If they wanna ignore it, they can, but she's not the type who can ignore a situation pointing south.

Harry smiles and says yeah I get it. Well, this is all really dangerous and hectic so you want me to do anything? She says no but then she says yeah if you could get their fireplace attached to the Floo Network quickly and discreetly, that would be quite good. They decide to go to the Ministry the next day together to get both these things done. She also belatedly tells him that she needs Luna out of Hogwarts so he's gonna have to come up with a cover story for McGonagall. Everyone knows Harry hates lying to McGonagall.

AMERICA: Elijah finds Rose, Dominic Denflair and Slater at his apartment and compels them to tell the truth about what they know about those vampires that rescued Elena. Dominic finds them first and Rose tells that she knows Stefan through Lexi and that she got the tip from Slater, who was tipped off by a tomb vampire who decided to escape from Mystic Falls. Elijah finds them then and Dominic, who hasn't specified the reason for his visit, goes quiet. Then he compels Rose and Slater to tell everything and he's unable to compel Dominic who makes up an excuse to visit him - ie. Find his pal Mason who has been missing from a few weeks since he went to Mystic Falls. Slater asks if he can be allowed to document what he has found out and Elijah looks at him for a full minute before compelling him to forget he came by or had this conversation. Then he leaves with Rose and Dominic and tells her she has two options - she has his forgiveness and she has a chance to earn his gratitude as well by helping him make sure his plans for Elena come to fulfil. Or she can leave with no strings attached and he will let her go. He will give her the day to sleep on it and come tomorrow, but if she decides to run before telling him personally, then she will be back on his hit list. She agrees to talk tomorrow.

He tells Dominic that he doesn't believe him and he knows from his sources that he's close with Lavender Brown from the British Ministry so he's skeptical of his excuse. Dominic proves tougher than we give him credit for and says yes, they did call me and they wanted me to find you. They want to have a meeting with you about the situation in Mystic Falls. Elijah hums and tells him, very well. I am interested in what Miss Brown has to say - I will be happy to meet them here in Richmond, wherever they may please, but be warned - if I discover that this is some kind of elaborate scheme or plan, I cannot gaurantee that I will not tear through you, your friends and their families.

MYSTIC FALLS:

Mason and Tyler have taken over the Lockwood Journals, with Tyler updated on everything and having apologized to the Sheriff at length and having talked to Caroline, which Damon eavesdrops on and also gets caught by Stefan doing. He takes it defensively assuming Damon wants to kill Tyler and they argue about it but Damon just tells him to back off that he doesn't need babysitting.

Blaise calls over Andromeda saying they don't have to linger in the unknown when they have experts available, after Liz is a bit freaked out. Teddy is handed over to Blaise because he doesn't calm down for anyone else. Blaise is indisposed for the afternoon, with Caroline helping. They talk about types of werewolves, vampires, their bites and differences and effects on Liz. They talk about Remus and Tonks and a bit about the war and how they died. Teddy changes his hair to pink when he hears the names. They have fun while Andy checks over Liz and talks to Bonnie, teacherly types, with Liz awake and Damon and Stefan supervising.

Ric is with Jenna, who is excited about a new writer coming to town who wants her help while Jeremy and Elena are working on the Gilbert Journals, looking for stuff the whole day and sort of chilling a bit after yesterday's madness. They decide to look around for the moonstone since the spell is down but don't find it and realize that Katherine has ran away with it, again.

In the evening, Andy has to be driven back to the apparition point in a nearby village. That's when Bonnie decides to leave and Stefan decides to drop her off but Damon intervenes, realizing he'll be alone with Caroline and Liz. Stefan and Bonnie both notice the look towards Caroline but just frown and go with it like 'Okaaay'. Stefan and Caroline are chatting when Elena and Jeremy come over to discuss Katherine and the moonstone she stole. They wonder if it's worth contacting Isobel again and Stefan immediately says yes. Elena expresses her distrust but they eventually decide it's a matter for another day but Stefan and Elena make up and are together again while Caroline goes to sleep, trying hard to tune them and Damon returning out. Blaise comes late but just silently talks to Damon and leaves for his place, leaving the car there for Hermione to use.

23rd -

LONDON: Harry and Hermione go to the Ministry to talk to Madam Edgecomb and The Minister respectively. They discuss on the way that Harry plans to get Ollivander to write a letter to ask to borrow Luna. He'll write her an internship certificate later. Harry is more successful than Hermione and needs house documents to install the international Floo, along with permission from American Floo authorities. It's a bit of a pickle but Harry says he'll do the legwork if she keeps him posted on the action. Hermione has less luck with trying to convince Kingsley to talk to Banewood. He says the situation is pointing south but it's legal so they can't do shit. She shouts at him a bit but he throws her out rudely, but she thinks she's laid the groundwork for him to butter on. Harry sighs but agrees to talk to him and that he's reasonable and will agree, not to worry. They get a letter from Denflair with the Elijah update and one from Blaise with the Liz attack and Andy update, along with Katherine and the moonstone. They ain't happy and decide to get another illegal portkey tomorrow. Harry promises to keep things calm and keep working on this side and to expect a Floo guy come by in a few days. Hermione goes back to her search for the white oak thingy.

MYSTIC FALLS: Elijah is in their lives now, and makes the deal with Elena, when he asks her how far she's willing to go to save those who she loves. He also says it can't be easy with the wizards trying to much things up. Kind of manipulates Elena against Hermione a bit that she is trying to interfere in his plans and that it's important for the sacrifice to happen for him to be able to kill Klaus. She recognizes the manipulation for what it is and tells Stefan later she trusts Hermione still.

Rose also arrives but nobody makes the connection that she could be working for Elijah. She says the Lexi thing and spends more time with Damon while they both pretend they know nothing about Klaus, but her information is much less solid than Hermione's but the fear factor puts it in perspective how lucky they are to have Hermione. They ask about how she got to know about Elena where she lies about Slater being dead. They don't dare to discuss it in front of Rose tho, cuz they can't tell if she can be trusted. She does begin a thing with Damon though, because she's interested, that night.

Bonnie and Jeremy meet Luka and the father in the same day and he teaches her to connect, she doesn't mention Blaise, smartly. But nobody makes the connection there either. Caroline, Tyler and Mason try to get inside the cave they found mention of in the Lockwood journals but can't get in so recruit Ric for it while Elena is staying out of everything so that Elijah doesn't suspect anything. Ric sees the paintings/drawings and decides to start research tomorrow.

In the evening, when Elena comes to tell about Elijah to Stefan and Damon and Rose, who pretends to be scared, Elena mentions Hermione and Rose perks up, since Elijah didn't tell her shit about it. They try to pass it off but Rose is too smart and informed and asks 'Hermione Granger?' and they're all sort of shocked and she can tell from their faces.

'She's a friend of a friend.' Damon says but Rose give him a skeptical look and then looks between them, 'Do you even know who she is?'

'How do you know her?' Stefan asks, and she looks a bit fearful again.

'I don't know her. I know of her. And there are a lot of stories. Don't tell me you've never heard of the Wizarding War in all of your years as vampires.'

'I mean… what kind of War are we talking about? Like the World War or a small civil war in a gated community halfway across the world?' - Damon

Rose sighs, 'Of course. It never spread to America either time so your ignorance makes sense. What I don't understand is what is Hermione Granger doing here? In Mystic Falls?'

'Well, we don't really know if we can trust you with -'

'Oh, you're right. You shouldn't tell me. It could be dangerous if I know.' - Rose

She doesn't elaborate and delves into a troubled silence which is broken by an owl from Hermione that says that she will be coming back tomorrow to check up on things and that she's bringing a gift for them.

They're a bit cheered by that and the looks on Rose' face when she looks at Damon is like she wants to come clean about the whole thing but controls herself with difficulty. Damon catches up but thinks it's just fear and lets it go.

Ric has clicked a few pictures on his phone and arrives at the boarding house to show them and inform that they'll start working on it tomorrow. Rose looks more troubled but Ric is cheered by the news that Hermione will be back tomorrow so things might get a bit easier.

24th -

MYSTIC FALLS:

Hermione arrives in the morning, some time after Blaise and Dean. She's surprised to see Dean and Blaise explains that he wrote to Neville regarding it and he and Dean have already talked about it a few times and all they can do with it and how so they talked again and Neville said Dean could have a look at their blood and figure something out. Dean and Blaise are almost mates but mostly just civil. Haven't met much outside of parties and stuff. Dean is decent at potions, but more importantly he's into mixing the muggle stuff.

They gather at the Boarding House and call Mason and Tyler over. Dean extracts some blood and does some spells which gives him info about the type of werewolves, venemous or not and to who, ways to be killed or break the curse, effects on humans, effects on vampires, effects on witches, etc. Then he hums and says they could try to modify the wolfsbane potion - he's sure it can be done but they'll need to go meet Neville and Slughorn because they're the experts with the ingredients, but he's sure he can come up with something that will make the aconite adapt better with muggle blood.

They ask for a day to pack and stuff and they agree that they can come back with Hermione and stay with Harry for the time, he won't mind. They are both excited to see more magic. Dean leaves after some chat and food with Blaise, Tyler and Mason at the Grill. It's more of a what to expect and arrangements talk. 'Let's talk arrangements over lunch, yeah? I'm hungry with all the apparating.' When they meet back up, it's at the Grill and Tyler and Mason arrive later:

Blaise and Dean are in deep conversation when Tyler and Mason approach. They catch the last part as they sit down -

"Oh come on man, you can't tell me they just run around on the ground with one ball and you can watch that with interest."

"It is interesting to muggles. They don't know about the flying broomsticks or I'm sure nobody would watch football. Here, he'll tell you - Tyler, right?"

At Tyler acknowleding nod, he asks, "You play football Tyler?"

He frowns and nods, "Yeah, varsity. Why?"

"Would you prefer a sport that includes flying 50 feet off the ground on broomsticks while passing three balls amongst one another and shoot them through hoops for goals?"

Tyler looks at him like he's joking but when neither of them answer and Mason just shrugs blankly with smirk, "You're serious? That's an actual thing?"

He watches as a huge grin spreads on Blaise' face, "Of course it's a thing. We have teams and shit and the World Cup will be here soon too. If you like the thought of that, just wait till you see it. Absolutely glorious."

Tyler makes an impressed face and shares a look with Mason who's grinning too, "I heard a lot about that game - Quidditch, right? - from Dominic. He was nuts about it too."

Blaise and Dean seem to serious up a little at the name and Blaise hails a waiter while Dean looks at the menu, "I think I'm good with two burgers and fries? What do you think guys?"

They wait until everyone's placed their orders to get started again and it's Mason that breaks the silence, "So do you think you could show us this game sometime if we get time with everything else?"

"Yeah, I think so." Blaise replies before Tyler interestedly chimes in, "So what exactly are we stepping into, guys? Things sounded hostile for werewolves in your world from what Mason told me."

Blaise and Dean exchange a glance at that before Dean folds his arms and sits back, almost like distancing himself from the conversation.

"Look, I try to stay away from the politics of it all but knowing Harry Potter And The Core Gang gets me dragged into many situations. One of which was my name under this stupid headline." He rolls his eyes as Blaise snorts, "Ah, I forgot they mentioned you under it too."

"Yeah. Anyway, as someone who's living more on the ground, I'd say you're safe as long as it doesn't come up in conversation with any outsiders. It's not exactly an everyday conversation topic either unless Umbridge brews some shit up again."

"Yeah, and knowing her, it won't be long either." Blaise comments.

"So yeah, I'd just suggest. Keep your head down when you're public. Your problem is not being werewolves for now - it's being unaware of the magical world and being seen in public with Harry or one of us. That attracts people quickly so I'd avoid doing that. Otherwise, you're all good."

Tyler and Mason digest this while Dean turns to Blaise, "I should stop by Grimmauld to let Harry know about them, right? Kreacher will need to prepare the rooms."

"Better you deal with that elf than I." Blaise says with a shudder, "He gives me the creeps, no matter what Hermione and Harry say."

"Hey at least he calls you Master Zabini. I'm just the mudblood friend." Resentment is heard clear in Dean's voice but Blaise immediately snaps, "Don't. Call yourself that. I hate it when Granger does it too."

Dean raises an eyebrow at the behaviour as Tyler butts in, "Mudblood? What does that mean?"

"Mudblood is a curse word. It's used as a derogatory term for muggleborn people - ie. people who have no magical parents, as in whose parents were normal. There are types of wizards after all. And Dean and Hermione are both muggleborns."

"And proud of that fact. Someone else calling me mudblood won't change my outlook on what I am and supposed to be." Dean almost sounds defiant but Blaise just looks at him for a few seconds before averting his eyes.

"It's still an abusive word." He mutters but Dean just shakes his head as Mason frowns at them.

"Does your blood status matter that much in your world?"

"It used to." Blaise says, and Dean looks like he would interrupt but Tyler is bored with the topic.

"And this Harry person? Do you guys trust him?" He asks before much more can be said and it seems to distract Dean as he lets out an incredulous laugh.

"If there's anyone you can trust in this world, it's Harry Potter. He and Hermione are best friends and they live together too. So she'll be accessible to you guys."

"It helps that there are a shit ton of secrecy charms and spells on his house, so it's the safest place to be other than Hogwarts." Blaise adds as their waiter brings their order and he waits until the girl leaves before adding, "By the way, how are two muggles supposed to get through all of those spells?"

Dean makes a noise of realization before swatting it with one hand, "Neville has this potion in the works that lets your blood imitate a normal wizard's. It's for getting through enchantments undetected. It's not patented yet but it'll work."

"And how do you know that it works? How would that even work?"

"Well it works, because he might have tried it on a guinea pig or two and I don't know exactly how it works, but he developed it from the polyjuice potion. You add a bit of a normal wizard who you want your blood to copy to make it work."

Blaise raises his eyebrows as they eat, "Sounds complicated. Longbottom's cleverer than we ever gave him credit for."

Dean scoffs into his food, but doesn't say anything. Mason grabs the opportunity to get more information about Harry.

"Harry sounds generous to let two strangers crash in his house. Anything else we should know about our new host?"

Blaise shrugs, "Not much to know. He's a simple guy when he's not being hunted by the press or ridiculed or threatened or playing Quidditch. He is absolutely nuts on the field. I still don't know how he sees that well in the air with glasses."

"True dat. But also watch out for the small stuff, just in case. He's too kind and polite to say it but he doesn't like doing dishes so make sure you do that yourself. Don't run on the stairs and don't ask him too many questions about himself, he doesn't like talking about his life. And stay out of Kreacher's way - he'll mutter and insult you a lot but he's really old so just ignore him."

"And when he offers you Treacle Tart - always decline, it's one of the few joys in his life and he secretly hates sharing it." Blaise chimes in.

"How do you know that?" Dean asks, incredulous and laughing.

"We were talking about how much we love Treacle Tart one day." Blaise clarifies in an obvious way and Dean laughs harder.

"How do you even know about the dishes and the stairs thing?" Blaise asks trying to get the heat off him and Dean just shrugs, "I lived with him for seven years."

Blaise ahs in realization, "Ah, I forgot you were roommates in school. What was that like?"

"You were roommates with him at school?" Tyler asks interestedly, and Dean nods, "Yeah, we lived together till like three years ago, so I still remember all the things. And it was more normal than you think, Blaise. We got used to the scar hurting randomly after a few years. He tried so hard to hide it but he's shit at keeping a lid on his emotions."

"You can say that again. His face is like an open book." Blaise nods in affirmation.

"So you all were in the same school?" Mason asks them both this time and they reply together, "Yep." and "Pretty much."

"And that girl that came with Hermione the first night, er - Luna something, I think? Her too?" - Mason

"Luna was here?" Dean asks Blaise, who shrugs, "I thought she was at school."

"Hermione must've snuck her out somehow. But yeah, she was with us too. Just one year younger. Her and my girlfriend are both in their last year now."

Dean chokes on his food and Blaise thumps him in a concerned manner, "You alright, mate?"

He drinks a glass of water before replying, "I thought you and Ginny were over?"

Blaise seems to realize that Dean is an ex of Ginny's and his face takes on a bit of stony facade, "My bad. I forgot. The place is crawling with her exes, to be fair. And yeah, we're over. Slip of the tongue. It's going to take a while for me to…"

Mason and Tyler feel a bit awkward but decide to focus on their food as they realize the situation. Dean is staring at Blaise for a second before he answers, "Yeah, she has that effect."

They delve into an uncomfortable silence before they realize they are done with food. Tyler clears his throat before asking, "So you guys went to check up Sheriff Forbes? How is she?"

After that the guys update them about Liz before Dean leaves and they decide to go to the school to meet up with the rest of the people.

He and Blaise go to meet Liz at the station before lunch while Tyler and Mason are telling Carol some story and he does a couple of spells at her too. She's not happy. Blaise asks her about talking to Caroline but she becomes stoic.

Rose stays out of their way and after they leave, Damon quizzes her more about what she knows about them. She doesn't know Dean and Blaise but she knows Hermione and tells some rumors about, breaking out of a bank on a dragon back, breaking into the Ministry, forming illegal defense clubs at school, basically being an overall badass. He says sounds more a criminal but asks why she didn't meet her if she's such a fan. Rose blushes but is also worried about Elijah, but doesn't let it show, saying I don't know, I'm shy of meeting new people now. Being settled feels weird already, etc. Besides, there will be time later. Damon wonders why she doesn't ask more about what they're planning but she just goes silent and he thinks she's just overwhelmed.

Tyler spends the day saying goodbye to everyone and Mason too, while packing at night.

Elena and Stefan and Bonnie and Caroline and Matt and Jeremy are at school. Blaise goes to surprise Bonnie at school and they meet Caroline and Elena and Stefan too and he updates them on the Dean situation and the result of Liz' checkup. Caroline's face falls but they decide to go back to the Salvatore House and discuss details, not here.

Ric is out exploring and babysitting Elijah.

It's almost evening when they arrive, and it's a much bigger bunch - Liz, Tyler, Mason, Caroline, Elena Bonnie, Jeremy, Stefan, Damon, Blaise, Hermione. Rose stays out of sight because she doesn't want Liz to know either.

Damon has already updated Hermione on Elijah being in MF out and about and that Ric is babysitting him:

'Where's Alaric, your history teacher?' - H

'He's babysitting Elijah and Jenna - ' - D

'Is that safe? You said this guy is dangerous -' -Liz

'I'm sorry, you are?' - Hermione interrupts Liz with furrowed brows as everyone is slowly settling around the room.

'Sherrif Elizabeth Forbes, Caroline's mom.' - Liz shakes her hand and Blaise' as he makes an 'ah' noise, 'You look way too young to have a daughter her age.' Liz blushes and catches Caroline's eye but looks away quickly. Damon doesn't miss it.

'Yes, yes, Liz is a fine woman the whole town knows it, now can we settle down quickly? Bourbon, Liz? Like you said, my usual drinking buddy is busy.' - D

'No, Damon, I'm still on duty, I'm going to leave here as quickly as possible, so if you could all get on with it?' - Liz rolls her eyes as she folds her arms and stays standing in a corner.

Caroline and Stefan and Mason have already poured some and Caroline, Elena, Bonnie and Tyler and Mason and Jeremy have already taken seats:- T, C, E and B, J, M. Stefan and Damon remain standing by the bar and Hermione and Blaise stand with their backs to the fire.

Everything gets a bit more serious, and there's a moment's silence before Stefan speaks, 'Elena, you want to tell everyone the reason you think it's safe for Ric and Jenna to be around Elijah?'

Elena sighs before replying, 'Elijah offered me a deal that I'll keep myself safe so that he can use me as bait for Klaus and eventually kill him and in return he will ensure the safety of everyone who is important to me. And it includes all of you so I don't know what you're complaining about.' Her voice rises towards the end when everyone exclaims protests.

'Wait, Elijah said he wanted to kill Klaus? Are you sure he said that?' - Hermione's voice drowns out everyone else' and they calm down to hear Elena's confused reply, 'Yes, he said it. Why? Do you think he's lying?'

'No, I don't think so but I can't be sure. It's just unusual.' - H

'Why? How do you know what's usual for this guy? What else do you know about Elijah and why are you not telling us?' - Damon talks as he moves closer to the group and perches himself on Caroline's sofa.

Hermione looks irritated as everyone looks at her, 'Look, I don't know the guy - I just know he's sort of second in command to Klaus and has been for a few hundred years. That's why it's unusual. What will it take to get you off my bloody case, Damon? I'm trying to help you guys here, in case you've forgotten.'

Before Damon can counter, Caroline has jumped in, 'She's right, Damon, we need to focus on the facts here. How is it going on your side, Hermione? Did you have any luck talking to your Prime Minister and stuff?'

Hermione looks like she's waiting for Damon to counter again before replying with a second's hesitation, 'No, not too much luck, but I have a friend working on it. We should at least be able to alert the American Ministry that this is happening. If we're lucky, we might even be able to convince them to send some backup in some extreme situation but that's way into the future. More recently, though, I got Dominic to get in touch with Elijah and he's agreed to meet us. For now, we're going to use that to our advantage and find out more about his plans.'

'Well, that sounds easy.' Bonnie says with the air that implies it's going to be anything but. Jeremy snorts.

'And in the meantime, we've got one of our guys working on a potion to help with their transformation.' Blaise waves in the direction of Tyler and Mason. 'And we'll be leaving tomorrow to help them because this is something that they've got to invent with our blood as base so..' - Mason

'What about that cave you guys found? Ric told me this morning.' - J

'What cave?' - H

'Tyler and Mason found a cave beneath the Lockwood property and they weren't able to enter it so they got Ric to take some pictures. It looks like old drawings and we were supposed to start researching it today but we also needed someone to keep an eye on Elijah and Jenna so -' - Stefan says, taking out his phone and showing it to Hermione, who hums as she looks and passes it to Blaise, who frowns at it - 'Send that to me, will you? And any more that you find. We'll start working on this too. Maybe get Theo on it. It's not runes, Hermione, is it?'

'No, I don't recognize a single one, but maybe something else they find is. I was avoiding bringing in Theo, yknow, with everything…' - H

Blaise shakes his head at her worried look, returning the phone to Stefan, 'Nah, he could use the distraction I think. Get his head working another way.'

'Okay, but only if you're sure, Blaise.' - H. Blaise just nods silently, before turning back to everyone, 'We're doing everything we can to figure this out politically but we have another issue that's more important - Katherine ran away.'

There's a brief collective groan, 'She ran away with the moonstone, again.' - D

'But I thought you said you have it?!' - H

'We did and it was locked in the tomb with Katherine. But when she ran we didn't realize she took the moonstone too - we went back and checked again yesterday and it wasn't there.' - Elena

'Oh come on.' Hermione grumbles and finally pours herself a drink, making a face at the bourbon again until Blaise pulls out a flask. She gives him the same thankful look.

'Let me guess, now we've got to track her down?' - B, with emphasis on we. Hermione rolls her eyes, 'Obviously, Zabini. She could be anywhere on the earth and these guys have enough going on. Besides, I don't want to think what would happen if she gets to Elijah or Klaus before we find her.'

Blaise sighs heavily before pouring himself a drink from his flask that doesn't look like it's finishing, 'Back to Zabini again.' He drinks heavily before looking at Hermione, who has a forlorn expression on her face.

'You know what this means, Granger?' - B

'Of course I bloody know what it means, Zabini. Why the hell else am I drinking?' - Hermione snaps and he immediately puts his arms up in a peace gesture. 'So… should I call him or will you…?' He trails off at her expression but everyone else is exchanging glances.

'Sorry, who are we talking about?' - C

'We, friends, are talking about one of the most pompous prats you will ever have the pleasure of meeting.' - B

'Pleasure.' - Scoffs Hermione into her drink.

'Miss Granger here is extremely… critical, of said prat because the two have recently broken up, for reasons best known to them and by that I mean that everyone within listening five miles of their breakup fight knows -'

He ducks just in time as Hermione flings her glass at him, surprisingly well aimed. She's fuming and he's laughing to titters among their audience, while Liz tuts and Damon and Stefan exchange a look with raised eyebrows.

'Nice shot. But -' He ducks again as she shoots a spell this time, causing a large boil to appear on the wallpaper right behind his head. He looks affronted and asks in a highly affronted voice, 'What were you trying to do to me?' Hermione just raises an eyebrow, looking completely calm but her tensed jaw and defensive posture giving her away.

Elena wisely and hurriedly moves the attention off them, 'What - who - why is this guy important anyway? For finding Katherine, that is.'

Hermione shoots her a thankful look while silently repairing the wallpaper and the glass. Everyone is staring at her, or the wallpaper, or glass with their mouths hanging open, until Blaise' voice snaps them out of it.

'Right. Well, he's important because a) he works in the administrative department and hence knows the most amount of people, b) he's working on opening a hotel chain in many parts of the world and hence has innumerable contacts literally everywhere in the world c) he's rich as balls which helps to speed things along especially in a manhunt and d) everyone knows he still loves Hermione and won't hesitate a second before following her into War.'

Blaise looks like he might regret what he said, but Hermione has gone from pink to red while her expression remains unreadable. She robotically pours herself another drink in the silence, before downing it and turning back to Blaise.

'That's the last time you will mention Draco Malfoy. Ron will do it instead.'

'Herm -' Blaise tries to reason but Caroline wisely cuts him off, 'What about that other guy, Theo? Can't you get him here so that we can work out those drawings in one place and quicker?'

'Yeah, surely that's a priority now that Elijah's living among us?' - B

'Okay, but Hermione, do you really think we should distrust Elijah's promise? I got the feeling that he wasn't the type to bluff. He actually meant it.' - E

Hermione takes a breath to calm herself as Blaise admits defeat, 'I think I know what you mean, Elena. Unfortuantely, I think everything rides on this meeting with Elijah. Once I meet him, I'll know more what we're getting into.'

'Yeah, when is that happening, exactly?' - Stefan

'I actually have no idea. I'm meeting Dominic tomorrow and I'll know more then. What about your magic, Bonnie? Has this tosser helped you at all?' - H

Blaise only rolls his eyes as Bonnie smiles, 'He tried, but I think it isn't happening while we're here. It's too busy and hectic and dangerous. I think it would be better if we went somewhere quiet and practised there.'

'You have anything in mind, Granger?' - B

Hermione purses her lips in thought, 'I sold my parents' house and Grimmauld is too small.'

'So is the Burrow and my place.' - B

'Hogwarts?' - H

'Nah, too illegal. McGonagall won't have it. Plus I doubt Bonnie's magic would even work with the castle's magic overpowering everything.' - B

'Hog's Head?' - H

Blaise snorts and gives her a 'come on' look. 'Alright alright, grasping at straws here. Why not the leaky?' - H

'Too crowded. And let's be honest, I'm too recognizable there.' - B, Hermione rolls her eyes.

'Um, not that learning about all your weirdly named magical places isn't fun, but um, would my family's lake house work?' - Elena

Caroline and Bonnie agree enthusiastically, while Mason asks Blaise, 'Hog's Head?' at the same time Damon asks Hermione, 'The Leaky?' They exchange a look before looking uncomfortably away as they both try to answer.

'The Leaky Cauldron. It's the most crowded pub. Sort of like your Mystic Grill. Mostly everyone goes there.' - H

'And the Hog's Head is the exact opposite - nobody goes there but that means it's too easy to have your conversations eavesdropped on and to get caught doing illegal shit, as Miss Granger here found out in her fifth year.' - B, dropping an arm over Hermione's shoulders.

'It wasn't illegal at the time. It became illegal the next day. And we were all just having a conversation about… about… school, alright?' - Hermione replies hotly and shrilly that catches everyone else' attention, namely Elena, Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline, Tyler, Mason and Jeremy's. Liz was already listening to them.

'Alright, if we're reminiscing high school activities now, does it mean I can leave?' - Liz

'Ah, yes Sheriff.' Stefan, Caroline and Blaise escort Liz outside after Damon winks her goodnight before turning back to their discussion. Nobody notices that Blaise and Caroline arrive back a minute or two after Stefan as she tells him to get this Draco Malfoy on their case anyway, since Hermione needs to see that it's bigger than her and need all the help they can get because they can't underestimate Katherine.

Mason, Tyler and Jeremy are discussing what to expect in London and telling Jeremy about Harry. Bonnie and Elena and Stefan are trying to figure out what all they need to take to the Lake House and for how long they should go. Elena proposes taking Stefan to keep an eye on things and Jeremy just to keep him out of trouble, but not to tell that to him. Bonnie and Stefan agree with this plan.

Damon, in the meantime, is talking to Hermione, trying to get more info about the high school club.

'What was it for? And how did it become illegal the right next day after you formed it? Isn't that fishy?' - D

She seems a lot more relaxed now that the big conversation is over and is leaning on the table to better talk to him.

'Of course it was fishy. But we already knew that old hag was against us and watching our every move so it wasn't much of a mystery why it happened.' She scoffs.

'Old hag? Terrible teacher deserving of the name I suspect?' - D

'Dolores Umbridge. That old toad. We're still trying to get her thrown into Azkaban - the wizard prison (she explains of his look) -' - D

'Wait, did you say Umbridge? Is that the same woman Dominic kept going on about?' - Mason interrupts interestedly, walking over to them and refilling his glass. Hermione fashions herself a pouffe to sit on that nobody else much notices, but has Damon and Mason exchanging a glance and shrugging with a 'Never gonna get used to that.'

'Yeah, it's that same wench who thinks werewolves are half breeds and deserve to be chained up in forests permanently, or killed, preferably. She's made it so hard for them to find any kind of normal jobs or even earn enough to sustain themselves! It's horrible.'

'And she was your teacher in school in your fifth year?' - D

'Our years work different. We start at eleven in first year so we were fifteen in the fifth, but yeah, she was our teacher at the worst possible time. She actually forbid us from using magic while learning defense and said we just needed to learn the theory and we would pass. As if!' - H

'Talking about Umbridge?' - Blaise blends seamlessly into the conversation while Caroline does the same. Almost everyone but Hermione notices then.

'Who else?' Hermione replies irritably into her drink as Blaise copies her movements and fashions himself a seat too. Damon and Mason catch each other's eye again, but before they can ask Blaise is talking to Hermione.

'Had any luck with convincing Madam Abbott about getting her in front of the wizengamot?' - B

'No,' Hermione sighs heavily, 'but Hannah was friends with Neville so we're trying that angle. We just need to get her name on the record and then I'm going to obliterate her and every one of her stupid laws and anything that can be remotely connected to her in any way.' Hermione's grip on her glass is very tight and her voice is full of unmistakable anger.

Stefan catches Damon's eye behind her back and Blaise catches Bonnie's as he's sitting sideways. Mason notices Tyler and Jeremy quit their discussion.

'It won't be that easy, Hermione. You'll need witnesses and -' - B

'Witnesses?' She scoffs, standing up, 'Witnesses? Half of the students in our year have 'I must not tell lies' branded on their hands! Scarred forever, Blaise. And Harry is one of them! We have plenty of witnesses and if that's not enough, I'll talk to Firenze -'

'Firenze? Hermione come on! Centaurs are proud creatures, yes but they're not vengeful. They don't interfere in the matters of humans as a rule! And Firenze has been banished from the herd from years, you know this.' - Blaise is standing up too now and Hermione is very agitated, walking in front of the bar and towards to living area to and fro.

'Yes, but if I talk to him once, I'm sure -' -H

'That you'll convince him to go back? Yes, I'm sure you will, but then what? You're subjecting him to Bane and the rest of the herd who consider him a traitor for helping Dumbledore. They're going to kill him.' -B

'No, no they won't -' -H

'I give up. No seriously, Harry told you, you saw them yourself all those times and you're still so fixated on getting them out in front of -'

'You're getting me wrong.' Hermione is deathly calm now, and has stopped pacing and is just standing facing Blaise now, 'It's not about the centaurs. It's about making sure Umbridge gets what she deserves. A lifetime in Azkaban.'

Blaise goes quiet and just shakes his head and presses the bridge of his nose as Hermione turns away from them all. Everyone else exchanges looks before Mason breaks the silence again, 'So I take it she really deserves Azkaban, whatever that is?'

'Yeah, what is that?' - C

'It's the wizard prison. It's a fortress on an island in the middle of the sea. It's guarded by the darkest creatures known to mankind. Dementors.' - Blaise' movements are a bit robotic and his face is set because of the argument. You can tell he's trying not to let his frustration show.

'Dimenters?' - Elena

'Dementors.' Hermione corrects her unconsciously, still with her back turned. 'They suck the happiness out of you.'

'They suck -' -B

'Wait, happiness? How can you-' -J

'They suck happiness? How?' - C

Stefan, Damon, Tyler, Mason and Elena are just speechless.

'Yes, they suck the happiness, hope, joy, faith and every other positive emotion and memory you can think of from your brain, until you're left with nothing but negative memories and emotions.' - Blaise' voice is matter of fact and he seems almost uninterested in the topic as he stares off into the distance. There's an uncomfortable minute when Hermione finally comes back to her seat and Blaise seems to relax a little.

'That's not true.' - Mason tries to joke finally but Hermione and Blaise' looks are too serious.

'Nobody has seen how they do it because nobody who has looked beneath the Dementor's hood has lived to tell the tale. A dementor typically looks like a dark figure shrouded in a black cloak and hood and it only removes the hood to administer the dementor's kiss.'

'The Dementor's -'

'Kiss. Yes. That's what they call it when they suck the soul out of your body and everything that makes you yourself ie. all your memories are taken away and you become a shell of yourself. A dementor more or less.'

There's a deep uncomfortable silence until Hermione snaps out of it and takes a sip of her drink again.

'And these… things, they guard your wizard prison?' - S

'Yes, but our current Prime Minister is planning to let them off their duties and establish a normal wizard guard instead of these vile… creatures.' -B

'Which is why I want Umbridge to be sent there as soon as possible. She deserves to live her whole life surrounded by them. She doesn't even deserve the nothingness that comes with the kiss. Just years of pure torture inside her own head.' - Hermione elaborates in a such a calm, cold and hardened way that everyone looks at her in new light and Blaise shoots her an unreadable look.

'Is Umbridge the reason you're against the demolishing of Azkaban?' Blaise asks after a while and Hermione hums quietly as he nods thoughtfully. 'Have you told this to Kingsley?'

When Hermione shakes her head, she looks at him as if in a trance, 'He might be able to figure out a solution to make Umbridge's life hell anyway.'

'No, he's under too much pressure by the Wizengamot after his announcement for the plans. It's just another thing on his plate - I won't bother him about it until I have an alternate solution.'

Blaise just shakes his head with a small smile as Elena leans forward from her seat, 'This Umbridge woman - what has she - I mean, does she really deserve -'

Hermione and Blaise have both replied with a curt yes before she's even finished with her question and Hermione finally snaps out of it and notices the questions in everyone's eyes as she turns around, now with her back to the front door and Stefan and Mason, as Blaise non verbally moves his seat next to her. Damon and Mason catch each other's eye again but seem to decide that it's again, not the time.

'So what are her war crimes?' -S

'Besides campaigning to kill werewolves and goblins and elves and everyone else who isn't human?' - H

'Oh including witches and wizards with mixed heritage. Like, only people with both magical parents are real witches and wizards and the rest stole 'magic' and hence should be killed.' - B

'Wait, you can steal magic?' -J

'Nope. And almost everyone knows this. You can channel it but not 'steal' it.' -H

'And not to mention all that blood purity crap was bullshit. Look at this woman, she comes from a muggle family - not a drop of magical blood in sight from generations and she's easily the most brilliant and the most feared witch in the country.' Blaise smiles proudly as Hermione blushes slightly and mumbles shut up into her glass.

'I'm not kidding - the newspapers call her the Brightest Witch of her Age.' - B

'And now it's getting out of hand. We were talking about Umbridge.' - H

'Ah yes,' Blaise' face falls on being reminded but he continues, 'So yeah, she's responsible for the killing of… I don't even know… probably thousands of muggleborns - people like Hermione - they were hunted for sport under her time in Law Enforcement, it was unreal.' He looks disgusted at thought and drinks more to distract himself.

'Of course, there's all of that along with the crimes inflicted on fifteen year old students. In detention during her time as teacher, she made kids carve I must not tell lies on their own hands.' -H

'Wow.' Elena breathes.

'What the hell.' Tyler says, gulping loudly while Caroline looks sick.

'And she did it to my best friend. Almost constantly. For a full year. You can't expect me to not hope for her long and excruciating death.' - H

'I would've killed the person who did that to Stefan.' Damon looks like he's in deep thought when he says it, but there are surprised glances thrown his way.

'Or Ric.' He adds, still in thought.

'Any of you if I'm being brutally honest.' He says eventually, not meeting anyone's eyes.

'How did your school principal allow this to happen?' - Elena asks, more to take the focus off Damon, but meets his eyes understandingly when they snap to her.

'He had other things on his mind.' Hermione replies with a clenched jaw but before anyone can follow up, Stefan has spoken up.

'If these… dementi-things are so well at doing their jobs, why are they being replaced?' - S

'It's more complicated than that, man. Dementors aren't exactly under the Ministry's control, per say. They're not being paid or anything - they've just attached themselves to this old decrepit building and infested it and wizards have just conveniently used it as a prison for ages now. We can get rid of criminals easily and Dementors get a good constant food source.' - B

'And the trouble is that this arrangement only worked as long as they didn't have a better offer. Dementors are naturally cold and rotten creatures and they like to spread it like a disease and when someone else offered them free reign if they did his bidding, they went out of Ministry control and started breeding and attacking people at random and there were many mass breakouts as a result. Obviously, the Ministry sees their faults and wants to replace them with actual guards now.' - H

'But who would want to spread such a thing? That's horrible.' -B

Hermione and Blaise exchange a glance and Blaise' is more panicked but Hermione doesn't seem to notice.

'There was this Dark Wizard - think of him as wizard hitler. His whole campaign was based on the blood purity bullshit too. He only died a few years ago. There's been two wizarding wars because of him and we've faced too many casualties to count -'

'Both sides, have faced too many casualties.' Blaise interrupts in a slightly louder voice than needed and Hermione tilts her head in acceptance.

'Right. Both sides. His name was Lor-' -H

'Shut up!' - Blaise stands suddenly, his drink shaking in his hands and Hermione looks at him, a little irritated, 'It's been -'

'I don't care how many years it's been, Hermione. And I get it was a… a symbol of rebellion and defiance for you people to say his name but it meant something completely different to us. So just… don't, alright?' -B

They can see Blaise breathing easier when he opens his eyes and notices Hermione nodding, even if it is with a set jaw. He downs his drink and pours another, looking for something in the bar.

'Mate you want to help me with something stronger?' He calls out to Damon who nods and goes to help him.

'So you guys weren't on the same side of this war?' - Stefan decides to ask the uncomfortable question and surprisingly, Blaise laughs a bit hysterically.

'If you'd told me in fifth year I'd be swapping war stories with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger would be dating Draco Malfoy and I, Blaise fucking Zabini would be dating Ron Weasley's firecracker sister Ginny, I would've told you you've accidentally dropped into the wrong dimention.'

Hermione laughs too then, 'Do not let Ron hear you call Ginny that, he's already not very happy that and by the way, I thought you guys were on a break until she finishes school?'

Blaise smirks a bit of a love sick smile then that everyone can recognize, 'Who are we kidding? She's the only woman for me. Fuck Weasley.'

'I thought you already are.' -H

There's a splatters of coughs and giggles and groans and a disgusted face by Blaise on that comment.

'I think that's our cue to leave.' Bonnie says and moves off the sofa with Jeremy. Tyler also realizes what's happening and moves to bid everyone goodbye.

'We'll drive up in the morning around six? Is that good?' Mason is asking when Tyler joins him by the door.

'Yeah, definitely. Just make sure you have a good night's rest because we're meeting Neville and Dean tomorrow itself after dropping off bags at Grimmauld Place.' Blaise is saying in a reassuring voice.

Bonnie and Stefan are chatting and Jeremy and Elena are talking about how much they can trust Hermione and Blaise to send Tyler and Mason to them. Jeremy says they're gonna be living with Harry and Hermione in the same house so it wont be too difficult. Elena is convinced by him and by how relaxed Mason and Tyler look. Caroline is looking anxious while standing behind Tyler and Damon is listening to them talk, like the rest.

'And make sure to keep your cellphones off in the house. The magical frequency and cellular frequemcy dont match and they just end up fried. That's why I don't own a cellphone. But you're okay outside the house and if it's an emergency, Harry's going to be there and well, I suppose he'll run you through the rest of the emergency plans there. Don't worry though, we have the best security otherwise. What have you planned for tomorrow, Blaise?' - H

"I don't know yet, Granger, but I'm trusting Longbottom on this, dare I say it.' -B

Hermione hits him on the arm, 'Mean!'

'Alright then, I guess I'll see you guys later.' Mason says and moves on to shaking hands with everyone. Tyler hugs Bonnie, Elena and half-hugs Jeremy and Stefan. Only nods at Damon and hugs Hermione last, whispering a thanks to which she smiles. Mason shakes hands with everyone and everyone is surprised when he pulls Damon into a forced hug, who exaggeratedly rolls his eyes before extracting himself as Mason quips, 'You're not as bad as you try to come off, Damon. I'm glad I didn't fall for it.'

Damon doesn't really understand how to respond until he says, 'Just get out.' There are hidden smiles.

Caroline leaves with them with a wave to everyone else and 'See you guys tomorrow.'

Bonnie turns to Blaise as soon as they're gone, 'Would you mind terribly if we had babysitters with us on the trip?'

Blaise frowns and exchanges a glance with Hermione, 'No, as long as they leave the drama here. We need to focus properly. Zero distractions.'

Bonnie looks at Elena, who speaks, 'We were thinking Jeremy and Stefan could accompany you. Having Stefan around will be extra protection and Jeremy…'

'Can help with boredom and moral support.' Jeremy offers cheerily coming up behind Bonnie.

'Yeah, I don't think that's a bad idea. Hermione?'

'You're the boss of this one.' She shrugs as Damon leaps off the bar table, 'And you're going to leave me behind to mop up all the messes in your absence?'

'I'm sure Ric and Caroline and Elena will be upto the job anyway, but you're free to help them. If you want.' - S

Damon looks at him for a few seconds, before moving away with a 'Fine. But our witch better be juiced up good. What is the limit of this kind of magic even? I mean how have you not ended world hunger if you can just make things appear out of nowhere? And how have I never come across one of you guys in my literal hundred and fifty years of existence?' He aims his last questions at Hermione and Blaise.

Elena yawns largely just then and Stefan decides to take her to bed, wishing Blaise a good trip while dropping them off and to tell them when they're back so they can go to the Lake House.

Blaise says, 'Look, I am too tired for this discussion today but I promise, sometime else I'll explain everything. I just can't go to that place today, man. It's already been too much.'

'Right, we taking the same room as last time?' Hermione asks briskly and Damon nods as Bonnie and Hermione wave goodbye with Blaise and Jeremy patting on the back.

He calls out a soft goodnight to them both before retiring to bed where he realizes Rose is sleeping, or at least pretending and he can't tell.

25th - Damon later asks him in the morning how much he trusts Dean. Blaise replies cryptically about War making you look clearer at things like loyalty. Damon scoffs that he's been through War and it didn't really help him. Blaise says not the World War, Damon, something much more close to home than that. I'll try to explain it some other time. I can't get into that today.

In the morning, Damon and Mason make sure to ask, 'So what's the limit on this magic thing?' remembering their glances from last night. They all talk in the kitchen as Hermione has decided to make breakfast. Hermione also asks Tyler and Mason to keep a closer eye on Harry as she might not be living there much. She tells them to look for change in sleeping patterns and how much he shouts at Kreacher and how much he's drinking or isolating himself, how much he's missing work and if he's taking his breakfast. It's small things but she worries and he silencios his door so you can't tell about the nightmares - the only clue to that is if he's refilled the coffee jar. So keep an eye out for that. They're a bit overwhelmed and she can tell and apologizes but they say it's okay and they'll try to keep up. Mason hugs her thanks and winks at Damon over her shoulder when he frowns. Tyler just says thanks first but at the end of round of hugs from everyone, hugs her too. Caroline isn't very happy.

Hermione also suddenly remembers that they could get a painting in the house to make messages easier till the fireplace and Blaise says the easiest would be just getting Nigellus' protrait from Dumbledore's office but Hermione says 'Nah', biting her lip, 'Harry won' take too well to that. You'll have to figure something out.' and Blaise just nods thoughtfully before leaving.

Damon and Hermione have a heart to heart in the morning after everyone leaves. They don't have much to do that day and Rose has snuck out in the night but Damon doesn't really worry about it during breakfast. After their discussion post breakfast, he does wonder aloud and she presents herself but introductions are short lived as Dominic arrives at that time. Rose is frozen and doesn't understand what he knows but he ignores her in favor of Hermione and when Dominic hesitates somewhere she comes out and says it about Elijah and her and that she hasn't reported a single thing yet so she's willing to double cross him:

Damon turned to Hermione as everyone left, belatedly noticing the sounds of Rose showering in his room. The witch is staring at the car in the distance until it disappears before turning to him and giving a nervous smile.

He smirks and moves to the bar as he hears her small feet pattering behind him and the telltale sound of Hermione digging out her beaded bag, 'How long are we supposed to wait for your guy?'

'He did say he'd meet me today so let's see. I told him the address already so he'll be here soon enough.'

He watches as she moves to the chair by the fire and beckons him, 'Here. Try this. I thought I'd introduce you and Rick to magical drinks at least. Not very magical in themselves but it's what we drink.'

'Ooh interesting!' Damon exclaimed, rubbing his hands together and seating himself on the chair opposite. He pops open the bottle when she does and takes a swig of the sweet liquid. He sloshes it around his tongue as he nods, 'That's not very bad.'

'It's what we started drinking as kids. I know you prefer the harder stuff but it's more difficult to carry. I have to be careful with delicate things in this little guy.' She says, affectionately patting her bag.

'What is it really about for you?' Damon says unexpectedly, 'I get that you care about your friends and family so you'd want to protect the world from Klaus. I understand that. But I don't see any immediate ramifications for you. I mean, there's nobody you care about here so spare me the sad story about your job I'm not buying it. What else is going on? Why are you here, now?'

Hermione looks at him in surprise for a few moments before gathering herself and taking a sip. Damon realizes that he hadn't presented himself as aggressive enough with his question - she seemed hardly fazed, let alone scared. Only surprised.

'It's nothing quite as scandalous as you're imagining, I'm sure. It's more about the politics for me than anyone realizes. Umbridge's whole campaign against other creatures is based on stories like Klaus. Just one werewolf out of control and she slams them all. Just one vampire out of control and she slams them all. It enables her to go on with her hateful agenda and Klaus will target wizards once he's unlocked the curse because of how everyone has treated magical creatures till now.'

She sighs then and looks at her drink, 'I would love to let it be and let the world burn for people to realize that people like Klaus are their fault. But the ramifications of Klaus breaking this curse are just too dangerous for my family. They'll be too difficult to handle or control or explain. So I have to stop this, no matter what.'

When Damon doesn't respond, she looks away deep in thought again and he asks eventually, 'These laws affect your family? Like that baby that smelled like a werewolf?'

'Ah, Teddy?' She says with the brightest smile he has seen, but it falls quickly. 'Yes, Teddy is the biggest reason. He's a half werewolf and half metamorphmagus - those are people that can naturally change their appearance at will. You have to be born a metamorphmagus but you can't inherit the werewolf gene unless you belong to a cursed bloodline. So Teddy doesn't have the gene but his father was bitten by a werewolf and that caused him to become one. He was… well, he was really close to all of us. They both were - Teddy's Mum and Dad, but…'

She sighs deeply again after a pause, 'Anyway, Harry, my best friend, is Teddy's Godfather and Andy, who came around the other day was his grandmother on his mum's side. So we're all a well mixed up bunch and I can't afford to let Umbridge get away with anything else in case she finds a way to go after Teddy.'

'It's my biggest fear, that she's going to find a way to just… take him away from us. And it terrifies me.' She adds with a last chuckle. Damon hums quietly and they both sit silently for a minute before he hears Rose come down the stairs quietly.

'I have a friend who I would like you to meet.' He says, standing up as Rose enters the room and Hermione gets up and shakes her hand. Rose' eyes are big from wonder and Hermione is a little confused at it and looks at Damon. He smirks unhelpfully, before tapping Rose on the shoulder.

'Hermione, meet Rose. Rose, Hermione, though I think you said you already knew that.'

'You already know me?' Hermione says, politely confused but bordering on suspicious, and Rose blurts out of a bit of shock, 'I grew up in St. Austelle in the 1450s and I was turned soon after so I know about the wizarding world and everything that comes with it.'

'Oh.' Hermione says with realization and her faces almost closes off immediately. Damon is surprised he can tell, it's so subtle but it's there.

'Yes. I used to wander at night in search of victims in the nearby villages and I ran into a wizard who took me in and sort of helped me through things. I've never forgotten his kindness and the old ways.' Rose says complacently, as if trying to reassure Hermione that she can be trusted. Damon gets the distinct feeling that she's trying to make a good impression.

'And what about your more recent wanderings?' Hermione asks, her eyes still pinched in the same way and her hands folded. When did she even get her wand out?

'Trevor and I were too busy running from Elijah our whole life to work for him. Or help either side, actually. No matter where our loyalties lied.' Rose continues and she's moved a step closer and he can tell that Hermione's shoulders have relaxed a little.

'All I want to tell you about that time is that I'm sorry you had to go through all of those things at such a young age. I cannot imagine what it would've been like. And if everything I've read about is true, you're a real hero.'

Hermione looks a little pink, but defensive as she stares at Rose with an unreadable expression

'Thanks, I suppose. It's nice to meet you. Where did you two even meet?'

Hermione's eventual question is answered with the sound of footsteps from the front yard and as they all turn, a guy with curly hair and beard, played by Felix Goati, enters, wearing a rundown hoodie and jeans and hair everywhere.

'Dominic.' Hermione exclaims and Damon watches as the guy's eyes rest on Rose for a second too much before Hermione has shaken his hand, 'I'm so happy to see you. I was so worried something was going to go wrong.'

'It almost did.' Dominic replies, flashing Damon a glance, but he doesn't bother introducing himself.

'Ah before we start, Dominic, this is Damon Salvatore and Rose and guys, this is Dominic. He got in touch with Elijah on our behalf and set up the meeting.'

'Um, yeah. That's not exactly how it happened.' He looks at Rose while saying this and she breathes a deep slow sigh, before looking at Damon.

'So I might have lied about a few things, Damon. The thing is Elijah asked me to spy on you and Stefan so that he knew what you were upto.'

Damon has blurred over to her in the next second, staring her down with unmistakable anger, 'He did what?'

Rose inhales sharply, a bit startled as Hermione pulls out her wand discreetly and so does Dominic. Rose starts talking immediately.

'I haven't been to see him so I haven't told him anything yet. And I'm not going to - as soon as Dominic showed up at Slater's shop, I already knew which side I was on but Elijah got to us before we could talk about anything. Please, Damon you have to believe me.' She started talking with her eyes closed but she's pleading a bit when Damon has moved to the bar in anger.

He's shaking his head and has a murderous expression on his face as he downs his drinks, 'Believe you? Like I did the first time you came waltzing in here with your fake story about Slater being dead?'

'No that was different. I had no idea what happened to Dominic after meeting Elijah and I wasn't sure what to do. I had to look out for myself so I had to agree to come here. But now I know and I can make my own decision. Dominic knows this - I was ready to help him then too.'

They all look at Dominic, who has pulled out a fat cigar and is trying to light it, 'It's true. She agreed.' He speaks out of the corner of his mouth.

Damon walks over and points at the couch, 'Sit. I'll deal with you later. You first. What does Elijah have to say?'

Dominic looks at Damon for a few seconds, assessing him and deciding if it's worth the time to fight him on his tone and decides to let it go after looking at Hermione, who has rolled her eyes.

'When I got to my guy, Slater, Rose was with him and I told them I needed to contact Elijah. She told us that his lead for some Elena Gilbert worked out and Elijah forgave her but killed Trevor and now she had nowhere to go. That's all we got to when Elijah showed up. He compelled Rose and asked her the reason for her visit but he couldn't compel me so I told him that I'd come to find Mason. He gave Rose an ultimatum and then told me that he doesn't believe my story because his sources have told him that I'm close with Lavender Brown from the British Ministry.'

'Shit.' Hermione mutters, putting a hand to her forehead, 'We have to warn her. Then what?'

'Then he asked him what I was lying about and I told him that the Ministry people want to have a meeting with you about the situation in Mystic Falls and he said he's ready to meet when we are and that he will tear apart our families if we try to trick him in any way.'

He pauses to take a long drag as Hermione contemplates and Damon paces.

'This is the perfect time to -'

'No.' Hermione gets up and cuts him off immediately, 'No, we are not doing any tricks this time, at least. No, I need to figure out what exactly he's up to with this deal with Elena before we go ruining things with a hasty plan.'

'But we won't get another chance like this with Elijah on neutral ground -'

'No, Hermione's right.' He's interrupted by Rose this time, who gets up too, 'Elijah is a man of his word, no matter how twisted he likes to make it. It's good if we don't piss him off first - he's even reasonable at the best of times because he has his own set of morals and rules. It could work in our favor if we're careful.'

Damon stares at her before muttering, 'Whatever.'

'How's it gonna happen then? Where? Who else is gonna go with you?' He asks Hermione and Dominic answers from his chair, exhaling smoke as he goes.

'I've canvased the area already. There's an abandoned warehouse near Wickery Bridge. It's near enough in case things go south. And I'd say just two people with Hermione should be fine. Elijah has two people with him almost all the time as well, so.'

Hermione nods, agreeing, 'Right, so Dominic is one and the second can be Blaise when he gets back.'

'Blaise? Why not me?' Damon asks, affronted and Hermione rolls her eyes again, 'Because even if I trusted you to not have a chaotic plan to upset things, which I don't by the way, we can't show Elijah that we're working with you guys already. If he comes to know this, he's going to look at us as the enemy already. We need to keep this little alliance a secret for as long as possible so we have the upper hand. Rose can feed him false information in the meantime.'

'I can try. He can compel vampires. That's why I was putting off meeting you people, Hermione. And I didn't come back last night until you'd had the discussion and things were over. I don't know anything so he can't compel anything out of me about that at least.'

Hermione makes an impressed face but Damon looks away frowning, 'That makes a lot of sense, what you said.' He says to Hermione, completely ignoring Rose. She shakes her head at his petulant behaviour.

'Can it be anyone other than Blaise? We sort of need to do this today. I'd rather not wait another two days for things to get going. And I'm not sure Elijah will appreciate it.' Dominic points out, and Hermione grimaces at the realization.

'How about Liz? She's human.' Damon presents but Hermione shakes her head, 'No, she's still connected to you guys. I can't explain that connection without doubts creeping up. Dyou think I can borrow Andy for an evening, Dom?'

Dominic raises his eyebrows and slowly puts down his pipe, 'Andromeda Tonks nee Black? Is there a chance that Elijah might know her?'

'I'm not sure, but I'm sure he'll have heard of her if he has that many 'sources' in the Ministry. She's good at all those intimidation tricks too, right?'

'Im not sure they'll work on an Original vampire but it makes our side look good, so why not?'

Hermione nods and looks at Damon, 'I guess Andy's coming back.'

'I'll go and inform Elijah if that's all good?' Dominic asks and walks out of there after throwing his pipe in the fire at Hermione's nod.

Hermione bends before the fireplace and seems to be looking for something and Damon and Rose exchange a look before Rose goes over to her, 'Um, can I help you?'

'Oh, no I was just looking for the artificial fireplace blocker to make sure it's not blocked so that we have an easier time setting up the Floo. It would've helped immensely in a situation like this.'

She gets up and dusts herself off and explains off their tired looks, 'I have to take an illegal portkey to get back to London and ask Andy to show up. I'm sure she'll come but it's more important to get a babysitter for Teddy so we'll work that out and then I'll have to take another portkey here back.'

'What exactly is a portkey?' Damon asks confusedly and Hermione smiles slightly before answering, 'It's a simple object that's charmed to disappear in one place and reappear at another at a specific time, taking with it whoever else is touching it. It's a very unpleasant way to travel long distant - it's almost like your body is being forced through a pipe. You get used to it after a while, though.'

Damon makes an impressed face, 'How else can you travel in your magical world?'

'Well, it's mostly the fireplace. Almost every house is connected through the Floo Network so just throw some powder and step into the flames and call out the name of the place. It's the simplest, but after that there's the Knight Bus for public transport and Brooms and Thestrals etc for like daily short distance travel in the skies and portkeys for long distance travel. Otherwise, we just teleport from one place to another but doing it overseas is a bit risky - healthwise, so we don't do that.'

'Weird, right?' Rose jabs Damon playfully and he swats her hand away.

'Well, I better get going. Long journey ahead. I'm really going to need a good night's rest after this. See you in a bit, guys.' Hermione says and waves at them before turning on the spot and literally disappearing.

'Come on, that is cool!'

Hermione leaves in the afternoon and Damon and Rose decide to come up with a fake story for Elijah that excludes Hermione etc and Damon also tells her to drink vervain because he remembers it helped Katherine when she ingested it. He also texts Stefan that Hermione is meeting with Elijah today and Stefan tells Elena, but comes from school early.

Elena, Bonnie and Caroline talk about it but half an hour later she gets a call from Stefan to join them and they all go and they all tell them about Rose' story and what Hermione and Dominic and Andy are doing. Caroline is not happy with this and Bonnie says I trust Blaise more than Hermione because I think she's working another angle. Elena says she trusts Hermione and that they've trusted them with Tyler and Mason so they should trust them now and Rose has also shared some stories.

Stefan is not convinced and neither is Bonnie or Caroline, the last two saying they would be more comfortable if Blaise was going. Damon shuts down the argument saying there's nothing we can do but sit tight and wait for them to get back because they're already on their way. Stefan gets in his face that he's trusting Rose, who's admitted to betraying him and a guy they know through Mason of all people. We barely know the guy.

Damon ignores him but Stefan says, the only reason they went is because you let them so you do trust Hermione blindly with this. Damon gets irritated and says, 'So what if I do? I can't find a fault in her logic when she explained things so I'm gonna stick it out in my room, if you don't mind.' And he leaves, along with Rose.

Elena just shrugs and pulls out homework while Stefan belatedly follows Damon to ask about Rose' story. Ric is still spending the day with Jenna and hasn't taken any part in the festivities.

Rose' story is that Damon is more paranoid about the deal than Stefan and he's trusting Elena while Damon is trying to dig up things about the originals from old texts and is looking up the curse and other things. Everyone else seems to have let it go but him but it's alright because he has an aggressive reputation. Stefan is happy with this story and leaves them to their devices.

LONDON:

Hermione leaves at 12pm and arrives there at 5pm and curses, realizing she just lost 4 hours and decides to talk to Andy straightaway. It's raining so her hair gets pretty bad but Andy is more caught up on things than she lets on and says she knows about the new boys who are living at Grimmauld from Harry because he said he might need assistance sometime so she'll leave Teddy there. It will give the boys something to bond over. And she insists that hermione's appearance needs work for the meeting and gets her to shower and hydrate before doing a little bit of makeup.

Hermione wears her Ministry robes and so does Andy and they go to Grimmauld where the boys have finished a tour of the house and are nursing butterbeer and Hermione and Andy drop off Teddy, telling them to cancel all other plans for tomorrow as this is a bit of an emergency. They mention they're going to meet Elijah and Tyler and Mason perk up but Hermione has no time. She kisses them all on the cheek at the door and tells Harry to be good and not be overnice and she tells Mason and Tyler to keep an eye on him. Andy mutters, 'She's worse than Molly.' to Harry who only grins. They go back at 8pm.

Andy only kisses Harry and looks at the other two before leaving to deliberately make them nervous, which Harry knows and explains.

Things for Blaise to do:

Talk to Harry about sending a portrait there that has a copy in the house.

Telling Harry to talk Mason and Tyler through the emergency procedures and stuff

Share plans about taking Tyler and Mason to the Three Broomsticks for butterbeer and introduction to Neville and Dean and Hogwarts.

Asking Harry about the Katherine situation and if they should ask Ron for help or Draco and Harry says definitely Draco. Ignore Hermione and say it was I who did it, I'll try to handle her.

Harry gives Blaise the contact of the guy he has to meet in Manhatten to get his fake papers signed for the house to get the Floo set up.

Blaise asks Harry if he has any work at Hogwarts so that he has an excuse to meet Ginny and Harry gives a disapproving look before handing him a letter from Ollivander. Give this to McGonagall and explain that Mr. Ollivander needs Luna for a week or two and everything else it says here. Try to convince her this is true and get Luna out of there. Then drop her off to The Boarding House as soon as possible so that you guys can start training the witch. Tyler helpfully provides the names.

All these conversations are during lunch and exploring Grimmauld, near the end of which Ron arrives with homemade stuff and Blaise leaves immediately, more because he has work.

After lunch, Harry gives the two a tour of the house with Ron, who has arrived to check up on them on his Mum's order and to congratulate Harry on finally taking a holiday from work. As a reward, he gets some cool homemade stuff that he's very happy about. Ron turns down the beer because he has to return to the office and catch up on work. He also has some updates for Harry on Greyback's case to read through when he has time. They talk about Greyback and they also ask Ron that it's supposed to be a secret that they're here getting their help, isn't it? And Ron says yeah this is pretty much how secret it stays. The main people to look out for are my mum, my sister and Seamus and Angelina, who's with George now. They have very weak secret keeping skills so don't worry but they'll be choosy with who they interact, or try to be.

In the evening, after Ron has left, Hermione and Andy arrive, dropping off Teddy and soon after when Blaise arrives, the plan is overturned and he has to Floo to Dean's place and Hogwarts separately because Neville already told Dean. He stays at Dean's as it's the first time it's been and he prefers getting to know Dean's mum rather than take care of a kid, no offense. Harry says, none taken, he's my son, not yours. It's almost dinner time by the time he arrives and he says that he's moved the meeting to lunch tomorrow. McGonagall will have an answer for us too if she's able to fit Luna's schedule around some classes. If she comes back with us, we'll leave here after dinner and I can drop her off and get to Manhattan tomorrow itself. We're already wasting a lot of time. I'll have updates on the whole thing when I return. Just try to hold tight till then. We'll have you both figured out by next full moon. Tyler asks if they'll need the blood potion that maybe works stuff to get inside buildings etc like they said but Blaise says no Hogsmeade has none of those spells because it's only completely wizarding village. People aren't scared of muggles wandering around so no such spells.

MYSTIC FALLS: Hermione's deal with Elijah is pretty to the point. She convinces Elijah that she will find his siblings from Klaus if he allows her to archive the previous 100 years right after the sacrifice. She doesn't plan to let him live after that but Elijah doesn't need to know that. She also doesn't tell anyone else the details of the deal (Dominic is sent away to look after Tyler and Mason and Andy goes back to London) which causes them to pull the rest of the shenanigans like trying to kill Elijah and find the witch massacre site to power Bonnie up. Everyone is mad at her later for doing that but she says we still have to kill Klaus anyway.

Hermione can tell as soon as she lays eyes on Elijah that its going to be either a good relationship or bad.

The man looks sharp as a knife in his formal muggle attire and Hermione is unable to to imagine him in anything less classic. She notices his eyes roving over her and assessing her carefully before he steps forward with his hand outstretched.

"Elijah. What a pleasant surprise Miss Granger." His face doesn't portray pleasure or surprise or any emotion at all as she shakes his hand firmly, pulling out her wand on impulse and placing it on the window they are both standing near.

His eyes follow the gesture but he makes no other move to acknowledge it.

"I had hoped the British Ministry would have postponed this meeting in favor of other… more pressing matters."

"We both know Klaus deserves the caution. What I don't understand is why you're helping him."

A flicker of surprise passes over his face as he walks a few steps closer to her and picks up the wand with one hand.

"Why would you think I wouldn't help him?"

"Because you don't like him. I've read the archives. Almost learnt them if I'm being honest."

He hums gently while rolling the wand in his fingers, like checking it for weaknesses.

"Then you know he has no honor, no rules and no intention of improving himself. I wanted to see him become a better man and the only way I can do that is if our family is by our side once again."

Elijah takes a great deep breath before placing the wand back on the window sill and turning to face Hermione.

"He has daggered all of them and claims to have thrown the bodies in the ocean."

"But you know he's smarter than that. You want to find out where the bodies are."

"And he won't tell me because he does not trust me anymore. I need to fix that."

"By trying to kill him after the sacrifice?"

Hermione exhaled sharply, amused with the actions of the thousand year old original vampire, acting like a kid.

"That's a backup plan. If all else fails." Elijah clarifies, a hint of defiance in his voice, as he turned away and fixes his gaze on Andy standing stock still beside Dominic and at a small gap from two of Elijah's people.

"Which is more likely to happen, thanks to Katerina."

Hermione forces herself to remember that she isn't supposed to know who that is.

"I have no idea who that is and I'm not really interested. I'm here with an offer, I guess I can say now."

"I was informed that Mrs. Tonks had retired as a Healer. Has she joined the Ministry then?"

"No, she's here as a personal favor to me. Would you like to woo her now or do you want to hear my offer?"

Hermione's heart thumped as she watched Elijah turn his head in slow motion. She had expected anger and irritation in his face but all she saw a flicker of amusement.

She continued after he raises an eyebrow at her, "Klaus completes the sacrifice and you hand him over to us for three days immediately after he turns back. We update our archives and in the process, we find your family."

"To complete the sacrifice, we need the moonstone and Katerina has fooled herself into thinking she can repeat history."

He looks at her expectantly then and she realizes what she has to do.

"I'm guessing finding her is my responsibility now?"

"You do have the better resources and more talent on your side."

He says waving vaguely outside, "Another circumstance and perhaps I would've like to be introduced to Miss Andromeda. Do present her my apologies."

"Sure." Hermione says half sarcastically and watches as Elijah's mouth ticks.

Deciding she could push her luck, Hermione turned towards the window again and checked her wand the same way Elijah had.

"Do have all the other ingredients in place? Doppelgangers are hard to come by."

She pockets her wand while asking the question, hoping her face looks indifferent as she waits for an answer.

"Yes, they are. But everything seems to be in place. I'm keeping a close eye on things. Do not worry. It is my intention to avoid bloodshed wherever we can."

"Alright then, I suppose we're done here?"

"I hope it's a one time thing for Miss Tonks. Do take care that little Teddy is in safe hands when his grandmother isn't around."

"Is that a threat?" Her voice was low and full of anger as she stared at the now sharp eyes of the man.

"Simply a reminder that Klaus is not above such stupidity. He doesn't understand or respect witches and wizards and do not expect him to behave in any such manner."

"Well, can't exactly blame him with how wizards have behaved."

Hermione remarks to the surprise of the man and Elijah nods in acceptance.

"Have a nice journey, Miss Granger." Elijah remarks, before walking out of the warehouse, leaving Hermione with her thoughts.

Damon had been trying his

They arrive around 8 and it takes them an hour to hash it out. When they make it back to the Boarding House, Andy has already left them because Teddy, Elena and Stefan are busy, Caroline and Bonnie and Jeremy are doing homework, Ric has dropped off Jenna and arrived with Jeremy and Rose and Damon have been playing chess. Hermione convinces everyone that Elijah is ready to keep up his part of the deal because he really wants to kill Klaus because apparently he killed his whole family and he's pissed. Elijah thinks that he has a deal with us that we won't take any action until and unless Klaus creates any chaos on our land. And that too if we can credibly tie it back to him and Klaus. He thinks we came to know this from our contacts in the American Ministry. You people aren't mentioned at all. I tried to keep the conversation as far away from any specifics regarding Mystic Falls.

Damon immediately says I don't know if I can trust that motive with a look at Stefan and Hermione says it sounded pretty convincing to me and I've been dealing with liars from a long time.

Damon says, yeah but not longer than me, which is why I still think I should've been there at this show and tell. Hermione is frustrated but reins it in while everyone else exchanges looks that Damon is supportive in her absence but not her presence. Hermione says, and Once again I will remind you all that the longer we can keep our alliance a secret from Elijah, the better it is for our chances. And this is not just for Elijah, I'm not sure how much he's informing back to Klaus but I know for sure that Klaus plays dirty. If he finds out the other side has wizards involved, they will start recruiting people for their side too. And then it won't be long before we're looking at another war and we can't let that happen.

Rose agrees with Hermione immediately, We can't risk anything like that, but you realize this also means that you can't be out roaming in Mystic Falls either. You, or your other friend, Blaise. If Elijah really has any credible people in London, he'll know who he is.

Hermione sighs and says yes, that's why when he comes tomorrow, you three need to be ready to leave. I'm not sure what time he'll be here but be prepared, alright?

Bonnie and Jeremy nod while Caroline asks about Tyler and Mason and Hermione said I think they're babysitting a kid right now and we kind of had to postpone their plans of meeting Neville and Dean tonight. I'm sure Blaise will come with more news tomorrow. They seemed to settle in fine as far as I recall. Harry looked happy too - not very bothered, which is good.

Damon and Stefan and Ric have turned away by now discussing if this can be believed and Damon is forced to state that he believes Hermione on this one and Ric says yeah it kinda matches with what I've seen of Elijah on the past two days.

Elena, who has been eavesdropping on the conversation says, 'This is a good thing, guys. Honestly, it's a bit of a relief that we're clear from Elijah's side. The only problem will be if he's able to compel Rose.'

'Yeah, we'll see tonight. If I return alive.' Rose says as Elena's words have caught everyone's attention.

'I'll go with you.' Damon says, placing his glass back and Rose immediately rolls her eyes, 'No you're not. I can handle myself. I'm sure you'll find out if I die anyway. Just maybe think of a backup plan in case I do die and spill the beans in the process.'

'No, the vervain will work. I'm sure of it.' Hermione says with much conviction and Damon frowns, 'How do you know that?'

'Just a gut feeling.' She tries to shrug but she's not great at lying and Damon gets worried that Elijah might have caught her too maybe and that Rose is in danger.

'Alright. See you later, guys.' Rose says and walks out and there's a foreboding silence before Damon places his bottle back with a thump and follows her out.

Caroline, Elena and Bonnie exchange a glance and Care says, 'Are they… a thing?'

'I have no idea.' Elena says, looking at Stefan with raised eyebrows.

Hermione has been looking at Ric and ignoring the comments, 'They're just friends I'm sure. Ric, you've spent the last two days with Elijah, haven't you? What's he like?'

Ric frowns before answering, 'He's very old school and charming when he wants to be.' He says as Damon comes back into the room and pours them both drinks. Stefan joins him and pours for Caroline and Hermione and himself.

'He's playing the writer role well, he knows his history and Jenna likes him. He even made a few jokes and overall pretended that I didn't know he was a vampire. And he does the whole act pretty well. He's doesn't lose control much either, I've noticed. He doesn't get angry or irritated or hungry even. It's weird seeing a vampire so in control. Besides Stefan, of course, but we all know that was bumpy sometimes.'

He makes an apologetic face at Stefan who waves it away, 'But with this guy, it's like he's a master at this stuff. I would frankly like to get to know him, if I met him anywhere else.'

Everyone makes a realizational noise as Ric asks, 'Are we going to wait for Rose to come back or should we get home? Jenna will be waiting.'

Elena and Jeremy agree and get up while Bonnie and Caroline say goodbye to everyone too. Damon just walks out and waits until Bonnie and Caroline step out before calling to Caroline softly,

'Hey Blondie, you got a minute?'

She frowns and turns around and Bonnie copies her, raising an eyebrow.

'Just give me one minute to talk alone?' Damon says to Bonnie, surprisingly polite and she looks at Caroline and waits for her nod to leave.

'What?' Caroline snaps immediately and Damon tries to think of the best way to say it. The silence stretches longer and longer as he tries to think of how to begin and Caroline huffs impatiently.

'I… Um… Uh, I wanted to say that… I didn't mean… When we met, what happened, everything that I did to you. I can't… um…'

'Really?' Caroline scoffs irritatedly, a dangerous expression coming over her face as she straightens up and glares at him. He tries to talk faster and get the words out.

'I can't justify it. There's nothing I can say. It's me. It's the darkest parts of me and you're a walking reminder of what I can be when I'm at my worst and that is a part of the reason why I... Why I am like this with you. I don't want to look at you everyday and be reminded of what I'm capable of. I'd rather just not interact with you, right?'

'But it's not in my hands anymore and I… This is just me trying to put things right in a small way… So I guess I'm sorry for everything I did and said.'

He breathes out a huge weight off his chest and Caroline's expression is unreadable as she stalks closer to him, very unafraid.

'What brought this on?' She has her dangerous vampire voice on which he recognizes and shrugs anyway.

'I don't know. Maybe the realization that you're the daughter of one of my best friends and how much more I would hate myself if she finds out about this.'

He says it a little louder and Caroline tilts her head, like trying to figure him out, 'That's what you expect me to expect from you. A selfish motive, like every other time. I can tell you're lying though. I've watched you doing it enough times to pick up on it. Out with it, or my Mom finds out.'

Damon is shocked at her guts but Caroline is more inquisitive than self-preserving and is still looking at him interested as if 't just threatened him.

'Are you threatening me?' He says dangerously, stalking towards her slowly, but she just shrugs non-commitally.

'Just because I care about your mother doesn't mean you get a free pass to threaten me.'

'It's not because you care about my mother. It's because you used me like a blood bag - a plaything and you expect me to forgive you out of the goodness of my heart. Because you suddenly realized my Mom would hate you if she finds out about your reality?'

'I don't buy it. You messed with my head a lot and you don't apologize for such things unless it's for a reason. Only I think it's not a very selfish one this time. It's because of Rose, isn't it?'

'Do you have a heightened vampire sense for that stuff?' Damon rolls his eyes and moves away from her but she doesn't laugh at his joke.

'Maybe it is. I would just like to find out if it's worth something if I can do this right. With a fresh start.'

'I can respect that.' Caroline says eventually and he looks over at her, surprised.

'I'll tell my Mom eventually though, after we've through this drama. What she does after that is upto her, I can't control it.'

'Fair.' He comments, looking up again, 'More than I deserve.'

'More than you deserve.' She agrees, staring at the stars too, before turning away to leave and then hesitates. He turns to her to prompt her to speak.

'I don't think I can ever forgive you if I'm being honest. It was something that changed me a lot and I don't I'll ever be able to forget that helpless useless feeling I got every time I was around you. So forgive me if I'm not sunshine and rainbows with you immediately.'

'I don't need you to be. I just need you to know I regret it. All of it. You can go on and forget this conversation if you want and go on treating me however you want.'

He turns away after that and she nods, 'Cool. Goodnight.' and leaves.

Rose arrives back that night and says she remembers the whole thing there are no missing pieces and Elijah seemed to believe her. Her and Damon have sex that night while Elijah tells Jonas to keep an eye on Damon even though he gets the feeling that something was off about Rose.

26th Jan:

MYSTIC FALLS:

From the morning, Ric and Elena work on getting the pictures clicked while Stefan stands guard and they retreat to Alaric's place to do the arranging where they figure out the same stuff they figured out earlier.

Jeremy and Bonnie are at school with Caroline, who's now hopelessly stalking Matt and Luca is trying to get into the gang but with no luck it's just annoying to them.

Damon and Rose are at home with Hermione, two of whom are on house arrest because of Elijah and Elijah is still spending time with Jenna. Hermione politely excuses herself to read something before anyone else can say a word and Damon and Rose are left listening to each other. Damon's attention is divided because he's spying on her too and he gets tired of asking Rose about more stories so he decides to go bother Ric cuz he's bored. When he goes to Hermione to tell her, she says no you're going to bring Bonnie and Jeremy and Stefan here instead because I need to teach them about Luna before they leave with her. Damon says Stefan's important for keeping watch on Elena and Rick and Hermione says you do it instead and Damon says no I want to hear about Luna Lovegood and why she's so special. Before they arrive, Hermione has spent two three hours telling Bonnie and Jeremy and Rose and Damon about Luna Lovegood the Awesomeness. Starting with how she was 14 when she helped her infiltrate the ministry because she was a true friend to Harry and all of us, stood by Harry through the hardest time and never wavered in her support, has an open mind about everything and is a very good sport about things. And she's witty and clever and smart. And they all say what's the catch and the catch is that not everything she says or believes is really true. So just… before you go on to plan something with her that involves any questionably named substances, please run it through someone who knows magic. Anyone really, me Blaise anyone else. Because she believes in the existence of things that haven't really been proven or there is any account of. Damon doesn't say much but at the end of it, just stands up in style and points a finger at her, 'You're more close minded than I thought you would be.' Hermione is offended but Bonnie agrees with him and says just trust us, please. We won't try to do anything stupid but you're not really selling her as a role model or even a teacher with that warning and Hermione says no I love her to bits. I wouldn't be alive if not for her, so I trust her with my life. Just not my limbs. And she is a great teacher she's patient and logical and she actually went to the African school of wizardry Uagadou where they teach Self Transfiguration, Alchemy and Astronomy and stuff and those are all important fields in Earth Magic. It's the type of magic that connects you most to your magical core and how to channel it. This will help you out enormously in mastering your powers.

Luna and Blaise arrive around 5 and they are all starstruck and Luna immediately senses, 'Hermione said something about me, didn't she?' 'I may have told them what all Bonnie can expect to learn from you.' Hermione is flustered as usual but Luna only blinks, 'It's alright. I know Hermione sometimes has trouble opening her mind to bigger ideas but we're all different people who believe different things and we accept that about each other.' 'True, we do. And that's why our friendship only gets stronger.' Hermione smiles warmly before enveloping her in a hug, before going for Blaise. 'You got any good news for me?' He says 'Some, but we'll discuss that later. Where are the rest? Some of the council is missing.'

LONDON:

Blaise introduces Tyler and Mason to Neville and Dean. Dean comes home first straight from the hospital and changes. Turns out everyone working in London has a bag at Harry's place. Dean grabs Neville's Potion Kit which he doesn't keep on him because he doesn't need it as much. They go to the Three Broomsticks and Blaise is excited about seeing Ginny and Luna again, who they have convinced McGonagall to let them accompany. Blaise catches up with the two while Dean and Neville and Tyler and Mason take a separate booth after introductions. Tyler's got his eye on Ginny because she's hot. Neville and Dean talk to Tyler and Mason and ask if they want to be walked through the process, because they are amateurs at this and this is just a blind shot into darkness knowing there is a goal so their opinion or ideas might help. They agree and they explain that they're trying to separate the magical component from their blood so that they can work on the half of their blood that is not magical. Dean translates and says we believe that there's something either missing or a little extra in your genes, medically speaking and we want to be able to figure that out so that we know our subjects well and all experiments we do are on the blood first and not you. So they take a little bit of blood from them both in flasks and Neville and Dean tell them they will update them almost daily, if possible of how it goes on. They might have to visit the castle but if it comes to that, we'll figure out a disguise for you. Not sure if it'll get past McGonagall, but we can try anyway. Neville says and Dean laughs, Oh you already know she's gonna let us do it anyway. Neville just shakes his head like he's being naive.

Harry goes to meet Kingsley in the meantime to convince him to talk to Bane and Kingsley tells him he needs a favor in return. When everyone gets back, minus Dean, Neville and Ginny, Harry is mad because he already tried to interfere at Hogwarts and now he wants me to do the same at the Ministry. Luna says it's his way of caring about you. Harry is stuck in his room and doesn't come to greet them and Kreacher says master has been in his room since he came back from the Ministry. Blaise frowns momentarily before saying, 'I'll go get him for dinner. We have to be off soon.' Tyler and Mason exchange a loaded glance. Kreacher bows and goes to set dinner and Harry stays quiet through the whole thing until Blaise asks how it went with Kingsley and Luna calms him down. He's warmer when they're leaving and more worried about Luna than Hermione, they note. Then Mason asks Harry more questions about Kingsley and what he did or didn't do and Harry admits I just overreact sometimes things get to me more than they should. Tyler says yeah I'm the same. They have drinks and Harry introduces them to firewhiskey while they talk about what Neville and Dean are doing and more about magic.

Blaise and Luna arrive at Mystic Falls in the evening around 5ish and decide to stay there and teach them about Luna before Luna can teach them anything.

(Next full moon is 19th Feb, Sat)

Other random points to include:

When Jules comes looking for Mason and Tyler two days before the full moon, she is informed by Carol that he left town with Ty to go to Florida but they never reached. She goes to Slater for help to track down Mason and Ty because she needs them in the pack but encounters Elijah there who asks her why she's there and she explains and he says interesting. Then he tells her he has the moonstone and she will get it if she does one small job for him. She agrees and returns to the city and gets the police investigation open which is how Damon finds out and contacts Hermione on day2 of her arrival.

Mason and Ty make it back on day 3 ie full moon day and Jules is disappointed in him saying he fraternized w the enemies by being w Kathy and now he's siding w vamps again. Mason and Ty try to get her to come with them to the Shrieking Shack but she just gets pissed and leaves and Rose gets bit like the last time and Damon cries on seeing Hermione (who promises him she looked everywhere and that there is no cure and nothing he could have done) rather than a stranger and Elena leaves feeling jealous, enough to ask Damon about it the next day who says she's a good person and he's trying to surround himself with those. The other people with them are Dominic, Travis Thorne a fifth year Ravenclaw who's particularly violent because of stress and Bernie Campbell a reserved seventh year in Slytherin whose story they find out later. Crookshanks is sent with them and an animagus (mastiff dog) instructor by the name of Tobias who is fast friends with Neville so doesn't ask much questions. McGonagall is not aware that two more people are using the Shack and Ron has sent four aurors for patrols around the village, just in case.

HP Storyline: Kingsley has come up with the plan to get Harry to form his special committee that will look over all current prisoners and reevaluate them. He asks Harry to look over these names for him and find out what he can about them. He's telling him to do this because he's only one he trusts that can be discreet. Kingsley also tells him to hopefully get Hermione on it soon. This is what he asks for in exchange for Banewood. When Hermione is brought over later, it's because Harry gets angry when Kingsley refuses to back her over getting Umbridge into a room because they will slander Dumbledore's name again and he can't have that because it'll make him look bad. He says it's still about politics for him and he's such a politician. Tyler snaps at him because at least Kingsley has the balls to go in the dirty field and clean it up. He's using his mind and all his skill to doing something good for all those people, and the only thing you're focusing on is that he doesn't want anything risking that. You already know how shaky the support is because of his azkaban decision, so you know how much he needs to look good. Have a little respect for people who're doing things you would never be able to do. Tyler's Dad was Mayor and it got a little personal for him and they discuss that too. The magic weakening potion is Mason's idea and recruiting out of Hogwarts for the next few years is Hermione's idea - that way they can keep a look out on the next generations and be in on whatever's happening. Kingsley says I really like that idea. When it's time to inform his Head of Aurors etc about the situation because of presence of Death Eaters, he refuses first because he doesn't have anyone to spare at the moment. Harry asks what's going on and he tells him about the trial rounds he secretly set up at Azkaban for figuring out what it requires. It's only older people so he's playing it close to the chest but Harry says wrong it's just more people who could leak it out because you can't vet them. Then Hermione comes up with the solution - I want to expand the number of departments that hire right out of Hogwarts. And other schools, Hermione adds. To improve connections. Kingsley likes that and agrees and says who they want him to assign for their case and they just say Ron.

Elijah feeds Jenna his blood and asks Elena why she betrayed him and it's Damon fault again for being hasty and they have a fight, but she doesn't know anything and Elijah snaps Jenna's neck to teach them a lesson and leaves. He's very respectful of Elena still but blantantly says this is because of Damon to teach him the importance of teamwork and that he should've trusted Hermione Granger. Elena explains everything to her when she wakes and she decides to complete the transformation. Elena is shocked but Damon promises he will help her learn. They inform Hermione and co. who come back to help them.

They see old death eaters at Mystic Grill and Klaus kidnaps Matt the same day and Hermione can't come so she sends Harry in her place. He's not much help but Klaus recognizes him and rather respects him. He bargains with information about Fenrir Greyback and Harry tries to stall saying they can find him himself but then he threatens to unleash Fenrir Greyback then if they don't stop trying to folly his plans and Harry barters that once everyone sees Matt, they'll rethink their position. Klaus stays quiet then releases Matt and says politely, that's all I can ask for at this point. I do hope you arrive at a decision that benefits all of us.

Death eaters in Mystic Falls make Kingsley officially inform the head of his own aurors. Death eaters sitting non chalantly in a muggle pub especially. The news gets back to Klaus and he gets madder but Katherine reaches him with the moonstone and information about the rest at this point and he learns that Elijah knows and Katherine has been having someone spy on the rest - Liv and Richard who have agreed to spy for Katherine in exchange that she'll set her brother free when she gets the chance.

Caroline and Draco are eventually assigned the duty to find Katherine as she has fled with the moonstone, and they become briefly romantically involved after Tyler has left after the full moon. Draco is only doing it to make Hermione jealous while Caroline is doing it as a rebound. They do end up being fast friends. Draco is interested in this because he wants Greyback for all the miserable times he caused him and his family so the gang informs him, thinking he will put his all in this. They find Katherine, who demands that Stefan come and get it himself, then traps all three of them there with the moonstone and herself and works on getting Stefan to confess that he loved her at one time when he thought her human and pure and that's why he prefers Elena and that's why he hates being a vampire and just wants to feel human, which Elena does for him. They realize that Katherine has told Klaus of their whereabouts already and now he has the moonstone instead of Elijah and that the brothers are paired up again.

Klaus kidnaps Theo via Ron's info because he's pissed they told the ministry and now his deal is in danger - sends him back home to Harry after feeding him his blood, Theo says "Convince your friends to stop sabotaging my plans or all of your friends will end up like this." and Theo cuts his own throat. Draco is not here and neither is Hermione. Harry and Lavender are at home, they cry and can't decide what to do but Lavender helped set up the Floo so she goes to Salvatore House, where Mason and Damon are there. They call Bonnie over to check, telling her not to disturb anyone else yet. She touches him and can tell he's gonna turn. Harry is mad about how he even found him because half the time, even they can't find him and he suddenly remembers that the last person who told him Theo's location was Ron and that Ron hasn't been to work in three days, only sent him a letter saying he's helping Dad fix a car. Harry puts the pieces together and suddenly says shit and leaves to the Burrow to find no Ron.

Harry sees the ghosts of Vicki around Matt and Anna around Jeremy and is able to talk to them and gets distracted. When everyone realizes what he can do they demand answers to the why and Hermione is able to give them about the Other Side but they brush it aside for now

Theo has seen Stefan's face on Tom Avery, the doppelganger who happens to be an old death eaters squib son who was banished. He knows him because he used to travel illegally with the Avery kid, who was in durmstrang but a friend, to america to meet Tom as a distant relative. He knows him and everyone wonders about this a little that how both Stefan and Elena have doppelgangers and what his blood is used for, but decide it's a problem for another time.

Damon and Caroline teach Theo the basics of being a vampire but he's never been good with change or letting new people into his life as he keeps his secrets close to his chest. So Blaise and Hermione are there to help him through it and since he's not doing too great, Hermione thinks it might be good for them to get a house here and get official licenses because only Blaise and Draco being able to apparate here and only Blaise, Hermione and Draco being able to use magic in America is not helpful to their cause at all.

So they call over Harry and Lavender and Ron and Ginny and Luna (who are done with Hogwarts because it is almost July) and decide to get as many of them possible settled in America. Ginny wants to play professional Quidditch and decides to tryout for an American team but George is against it, bring in a current relationship with Gwenog Jones who is friends with Ginny and had her eye on her from the start. Theo loses it a little, he and George don't get along very well, still and tells him he's placing his relationship over his sister's career and they fight a bit but settle. Harry tells Hermione she has developed a saving people thing because she wants to help keep Elena alive and Hermione counters no it's because she doesn't want to unleash a killer hybrid on the world, who is possibly working with Death Eaters. George offers Percy instead of Ginny and they all say no together. In the end they decide Luna will abandon her world tour and shift to Mystic Falls for Whitmore college, at least in name and paperwork, she doesn't have to go there. Theo will register as a vampire in the British Ministry and inform his Gringotts superiors and will continue working there. The Goblins don't really care. Ginny will join a Quidditch team, even if it's temporary and Harry and Ron will get visiting wand and apparation permits on the basis of their status as the golden trio. Blaise, Padma and Parvati already have those and so will Ginny and Luna. Lavender and George can have just the wand permits just like Theo will have. He doesn't need apparation permit cuz he can just run very fast now.

Blaise gets a real estate contact from Draco and sends Padma to find a house nearby and Parvati is sent to the American Ministry to ask about wand and apparation permits on behalf of everyone. It takes about two weeks to do all of this.

Everyone panics and Theo accidentally kills Rick while learning how to vampire but he's thankfully wearing his ring.

Theo turns off his humanity when they find his dad's body who was supposed to be a supreme death eater, but they all had his assurance that he was a loving father and was not prejudiced towards muggleborns and his loyalty was only to Tom Riddle so it's only a matter of time before he shows up somewhere and then they can help him resettle into a normal life. Hermione and Harry and never really agreed with this point of his while Draco and Blaise let it slide because they know how fucked up he really is - like Leopold Fitz type. Ron, Neville and George etc never really weighed but Ginny, who knows a little from Blaise and Luna who can just see it, are on his side. So when his body is sent as a gift by Klaus as an answer to their attempts, he turns it off and ends up killing Jeremy because they're all doing this for Elena and he wants to punish her. She can't really handle it and loses it a little.

In the meantime they are trying to find both Ron and Stefan and Bonnie tries locator spells on both which are not working. Harry etc think there might be wards surrounding the whole thing, that's why.

When they do find Stefan first, it's only to realize that he's been compelled to turn it off as soon as he sees Elena, which he doesn't remember but as soon as they get back, he sees her and tells them all to run, then tries to flee from there but someone petrifies him thankfully and when he wakes up he's emotionless and ruthless and says horrible things to everyone. The only one able to keep up with him is Caroline because she knows him inside out because of being a 're eventually able to get him back.

When they are finding Ron based on Bonnie's location spell, they enter a building that Harry oddly gets the feeling is like the Department of Mysteries and warns everyone there to be very careful and not touch anything as something is seriously wrong. They all pair off - Damon and Hermione, Harry and Elena, Bonnie and Theo, Blaise and Jenna, Ginny and Stefan, Ric and George. Damon and Hermione get stuck inside a Penseive filled with Hermione's memories and are forced to live through a few terrible memories. They come across other objects too - they get locked in a room which contains many weird artifacts, Harry and Elena - one of which ends up being the Pheonix Stone or something like the Mirror of Erised, they are stuck inside it, a room full of boggarts or something is what Blaise (his father just abusing him) and Jenna (her killing Elena and Jeremy and Ric) get. Ginny and Stefan also get drugged by something and hallucinate some weird things or something (Ginny gets stuck in memory of Tom Riddle and Stefan is surrounded with bodies), along with something like the veil where they can hear whispers from the dead but are smart enough to ditch it. (Bonnie and Theo)

Meanwhile Ric and George take the actual door which leads to Ron but they end up running into him while he's running away, bloodied and they emerge into the corridor just as Bonnie and Theo and Hermione and Damon have made it out. Theo isn't in a good state and Hermione is looking over Ron but he brushes her away in favor of Theo who looks near to losing it. Ric and Damon quickly try to look for the others but the doors don't open while someone is inside them. Just as Bonnie is asking after Ron and Hermione is trying to talk to Theo, who's gone numb after hearing his Dad, Ron's door opens and five death eaters come hurtling out. Hermione and Ron both cast a Protego and are able to grab the others and run. Theo hasn't snapped out of it and Damon tries for naught as the shield breaks. Ron's leg isn't too good and he cries for Hermione to duck while Ric and George try some other doors. Bonnie says we need to get out of here and Ron agrees saying we need a distraction. Just as he says it, two more doors open, two more guys come out of one and Blaise, Jenna who moved on first and found Ginny and Stefan come out of the other. Blaise takes the lead and George, Blaise, Hermione are fighting while Jenna and Damon help by vamping. Stefan and Ginny are lying stunned or shocked - it's too soon to tell and everyone is terrified. Ron tries to talk to Theo but it's of no use. Damon is thrown into a wall beside them due to some spell and Bonnie rushes over immediately but Ron spots a death eater in persuit and just disapparates them out of the way, throwing his body over them both. They wake up in the forest with a huge cut on Ron's back, his leg in bad condition and Bonnie splinched. In the meantime, no one notices that they're gone - Hermione, Blaise, George and Ric and Jenna are able to take out the seven guys while Theo Stefan and Ginny lie there. George and Ric try to rennervate Stefan and Ginny and Blaise tries to get Theo back to functioning. Hermione and Jenna find Elena and Harry in a trance sitting in front of the Mirror of Erised with the weird music playing. They manage to get them out but they're pretty shaken. They realize that Ron, Damon and Bonnie are missing and try to find them by sticking together but aren't able to and decide that going back is the best bet at this point. They return home.

Caroline and Draco are eventually assigned the duty to find Katherine as she has fled with the moonstone, and they become briefly romantically involved after Tyler has left after the full moon. Draco is only doing it to make Hermione jealous while Caroline is doing it as a rebound. They do end up being fast friends. Draco is interested in this because he wants Greyback for all the miserable times he caused him and his family so the gang informs him, thinking he will put his all in this. They find Katherine, who demands that Stefan come and get it himself, then traps all three of them there with the moonstone and herself and works on getting Stefan to confess that he loved her at one time when he thought her human and pure and that's why he prefers Elena and that's why he hates being a vampire and just wants to feel human, which Elena does for him. They realize that Katherine has told Klaus of their whereabouts already and now he has the moonstone instead of Elijah.

They get chased by former Death Eaters when gone to rescue Ron during which they get dropped to the Forest of Dean by Ron who found them and rescued them from the room they were stuck in but turns out he remains comatose for a month so they can do nothing but wait for him to wake up. They get apparated to the Forest of Dean which is large af and they just get lost whenever they try to find a way out. Bonnie gets splinched, her arm is almost hanging off her. Damon panics and feeds her his blood muttering "please wake up please wake up BonBon you cant do this to me" and she does and he hugs her and she says ow Im still sore. She teases him about it later and they form a bond while Ron gets better. Damon steals parchment and ink from a nearby village and Bonnie posts the letter and they wait to be rescued for two days cuz Ron broke his wand. They swap stories about the last time he was there and they finally ask about the war in a bit of detail. Ron also tells them that Klaus has wizards working for him, which means he knows they're trying to off him and his plans.

Klaus admits that it angered him that they informed the ministry and got his deal cancelled so he had to rush a bit with his plan of the ritual so he got them all confused and vulnerable right before the full moon. Hermione says it's low play getting rotten death eaters work for him but he says it's technically your fault - if you hadn't stuck your nose in my matters and made Mystic Falls a wizarding den, I wouldn't have had to do all this. He has Liv and Richard kidnap Elena, Hermione and Jenna and Katherine has some fun with them before they all realize. Before they can turn on her, Elijah arrives with Caroline and Draco caught up and informed of the plan that Klaus plans to break the curse next full moon. Harry is the one who makes them realize that Klaus has nothing stopping him so he will break it this full moon so they have to rescue Elena. Hermione, Elena, Ron, Damon and Bonnie are gone. Ric, George, Theo, Stefan, Mason, Jeremy, Harry, Ginny, Blaise, Draco and Caroline are all left and they don't know if Liv and Richard are coming back. Elijah says that will be easily confirmed - he calls them and learns that Klaus means to perform the curse tonight and gives them the location.

They all go to find them but Elena gets killed, so does Theo as the vampire, Jules as the werewolf, and Luke as the witch. Caroline gets bit and Stefan agrees to go with Klaus before Hermione's job has started. The rest disperse and Damon, Ron and Bonnie's letters arrive a bit too late but they all go to get them anyway.

During the search, Caroline and Draco become good friends and Caroline meets Klaus while getting food and they flirt and stuff. Neither knows who the other is and Klaus introduces himself as Nick. They meet twice more at the same cafe and start liking each other. When they all finally meet Klaus, Caroline tries to get him to stop killing Elena, but despite seeing her and realizing it's her, he doesn't stop.

There's a memorial for someone like in Season 4 and there's the same kind of trap with blood and everyone is there. Who dies?

Jenna dies too and so does Jeremy. Matt and The Sheriff and Mayor find out about their kids.

Lexi, and Jeremy are brought back. One of the gang dies and one gets turned - the one who gets turned is Theo.

Damon becomes a big brother figure to Caroline, Stefan and Jeremy and bonds with Bonnie and Ric on power and kinda killing people for a purpose. Caroline and Damon bond because 'It's always gonna be Stefan' and 'It's always Elena first'. Caroline has romantic feelings for Stefan after the Ripper episode and they are fast friends before it even, while Damon and Elena are slow friends despite growing romantically closer. Damon develops feelings for Hermione too but they are always in conflict over Elena as Hermione doesn't believe in her innocent because of Augustine. Eventually, Damon and Hermione just remain friends. Harry has a brief thing with Bonnie and Blaise has an ongoing thing with Ginny, which Ron doesn't approve of. Draco has a brief fling with Caroline after the Tyler episode, mainly to make Hermione jealous. They're both sent to search for Katherine after all.

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So...?