Ryan ignored Tori's thoughts and listened to Bella. He nodded, sighing. "Well," he whispered. "That clears it up. Do you have any questions, Harry?" he asked. He himself had some but he didn't want to ask them; he was afraid they were too personal.

Jasper smiled at his wife, bringing her hand to his lips and sighed. He felt everything everyone was feeling, and that was a lot of things. He tried to block out Edward, knowing he felt horrible, but he couldn't. His powers didn't work that way. "I think we should go inside and maybe she'll come to us," he whispered.

"Do either of you have questions?," Bella asked.

Harry listened to the story. He could tell that there was a lot more to it than what was just told. His face didn't display much expression, except his eyebrows were pulled together, a sign that he was thinking hard. For some reason he wasn't really absorbing the story too deeply; his thoughts were all over the place. He answered, "Uh...not that I can think of right now. Except: What are we going to do now?"

"Avoid them at all costs," Bella said, her eyes locking with Harry's. "I need your help. And Ryan's."

"I'll help you," Ryan nodded. "I'm created for the sole purpose to protect against them," he growled, "and I will help you Bella. You can count on me."

"Thank you Ryan. That means a lot," Bella replied, nodding.

"You're welcome," Ryan grinned, winking at her and leaning back on his chair. "Does your parents know where you are?" he asked her.

"I'm not exactly sure...I never told them, if that's what you mean...," Bella said.

Ryan nodded. "Understandable," he sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "What about Jacob? Have you seen him lately?" he asked, trying not to be too personal.

"Not since Edward defeated Victoria...," Bella said.

Ryan smiled lightly at her. "I see," he sighed, licking his lips and crossing his arms around his chest. "Should I give you two some privacy or something?" he asked.

Bella stopped looking at Harry and looked at Ryan as if she had been snapped back into reality.
"Uh...why?," she asked, her cheeks flushing.

"No reason," Ryan grinned. "Just wondering. I could search the place and be back in thirty minutes if you like," he said.

"Oh, um, do whatever you like," Bella said.

Ryan shrugged, tying his boots. "I could," he sighed, getting up and leaning against the door frame. "Don't do anything while I'm gone," he smiled, going upstairs and searching.

Bella's cheeks were still flushed. Her eyes glided over the floor, unable to meet Harry's.
"Well then," she muttered.

As Ryan left, Harry called out to him, "Don't make any noise in the entrance hallway! There is this nasty old portrait that will screech her head off." He wasn't expecting Ryan to leave, not that he minded. "Wow," he said to Bella, "just when I thought all of the excitement was done in my life, you showed up." You could tell by the way he said it it wasn't meant in a mean way; there was a smile in his voice. When he was sure Ryan was gone, Harry looked over at Bella, really looked at her, though she didn't meet his eyes. "I'll help you, Bella. I may not be a werewolf or a vampire, but I'll do anything and everything I can, whatever it takes."

Ryan laughed, rolling his eyes and going upstairs, trying not to make much noise. He could sense the tension between Harry and Bella; the good tension, though. So, feeling like an intruder, he decided it was best to leave before he felt like a third wheel. He went into the bedrooms, sure that there wasn't anything there (he would've heard it if there was something there), so he went into a room, shut the door, sat his watch alarm for thirty minutes, and layed down on the bed. Yawning, he went into a light sleep, waiting for the time to come down.

"Thanks a lot, Harry," Bella said, taking his hand. "All this...it really means a lot to me. It's nice to know someone cares..."
Her eyes locked with his, causing her breath to catch in her chest.

"Of course I care, Bells!" Harry exclaimed with a smile, "So how about you start breathing again and we'll go do something. I can show you around the house if you want, but there's nothing really grand to see." He didn't really know what to do, so he just suggested the first thing that popped into his head, but he was open to suggestions.

"Sure," Bella said. "Show me."

"Okay," Harry said as he helped Bella to her feet. "We're in the basement right now, where we spent most of our time when we held Order meetings and lived here over the summer, or visited. This is the dining/meeting area and the kitchen is over there," he led her across the room towards the stairs, pointing out the different areas. They climbed up the stairs. "This is the entrance hall. I think Walburga's- that's Sirius's mother- portrait is asleep. That's good, because she starts screeching every time a muggle born or "blood traitor" is in the house," Harry explained. He pointed out out the formal dining room and said, "We never used this room at all, just cleaned out the cabinet." He led her up the stairs, not pointing out the house elf heads. Entering the drawing room Harry said, "This is the drawing room. That's the Black's--a pure blood wizarding family--tree. You got blasted off the tapestry if you did something the family didn't like, that's why all the holes are there. So what do you think? Homey, huh?" It wasn't quite as bad as it was when Sirius and the Order inhabited it because Harry and his friends spent some time here over the summer and cleaned a little, but it was still a joke to call it homey.

"Oh yeah, real homey...," Bella said, her eyes on the tapestry.

Edward looked at Alice and Jasper with a distraught expression. ”She knows we’re here by now… She’s got to. I just, I just wish I could know how she was reacting,” he said, his golden eyes looking down to the floor. He was trying to keep his face a clam mask, but it didn’t work as well as he hoped, as it was twisted in pain.

He nodded to Jasper, knowing that just standing there wouldn’t do a thing. “One of the wolves, Ryan, was lying when he said that he didn’t know where Bella was. She’s in the Gryffindor common room...” He paused, and picked through the minds of those around him, trying to find out where the common room was. After a few moments, he said, ”It’s in that tower right there,” he pointed, We’ll come to a portrait hole, and say the password, which I don’t know yet, then, we’ll see if Bella’s there.”

Jasper nodded. He grabbed Alice's hand. His heart ached, as if Alice had disappeared like Bella. He felt Edward's emotions as if they were his own. "Come on, the sooner we find her, the better," he said. If she was no where to be found, a plan was formulating in his mind. It was a rough draft of a plan, but he thought it was alright. He nodded once more, trying to calm the air around them.

Ryan sat up abruptly. He had a strange dream...vampires, werewolves, they were all fighting. He shook it off, shoving his feet into his shoes, and looked at his watch. His 'sleeping time' was almost up. He could sense the two looking around. He wondered about this place; it seemed lonely. He sighed, waiting groggily on his watch alarm to sound off.