Chapter 1: Harry
Harry stared at the red hair of the girl sitting in front of him in class. It was a nice auburn red but not quite the same as the bright, beautiful fiery red of Ginny, his fiance, and he couldn't help but let his mind wander to thoughts of her every time he sat in this class. It was only a few weeks into the semester and Harry was just starting to feel settled in America. As the professor droned on about American colonies and settlement, Harry let his mind wander even more, thinking back to the events that led him here...
"I'm sorry Harry, but that's the final decision of the Ministry," said Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister for Magic, in his booming voice. "We just don't feel an 19 year old wizard, whatever life experiences he or she may have, is really fully qualified to join the ministry. Unless you have plans to overthrow me as minister?" he added with a boisterous laugh and a wink.
"No sir, of course not! I like the simple life, you know me" answered Harry, smiling, though he was a bit annoyed by the answer.
"Ha! Well, here's the deal; you and Hermione can join the ministry, after a few more years of study and training. Being a top ministry official isn't all wand waving, you know. We'd really like to expand our international magical cooperation division and we've been thinking of sending a few wizards abroad to the United States to study American muggle culture and lifestyle. What do you think?" asked Kingsley.
Harry knew this wasn't a demand, but a real request and that Kingsley truly did want him to join the ministry soon, and work his way up just like every other wizard. Harry felt he had plenty of "life experience" to go on, but he couldn't argue with Minister Shacklebolt. After some discussion Harry and Hermione agreed to go to a university in America with one stipulation- Hermione's boyfriend Ron had to be allowed to come with them.
Ron wasn't accepted into the muggle university, but he decided to come along for the ride anyway and moved the States with the other two, taking classes at the local community college and working part time in a muggle coffee shop, The Green Griffin. The three of them shared an apartment together near campus and were meant to live as muggles as much as possible, something Ron often had trouble with having never lived as a muggle before.
Harry was studying muggle American history and government, while Hermione was studying muggle law and business. The ministry had helped them apply to the University of Washington (not hard, since they both had top marks in school), register for classes and get an apartment. They were also each given a muggle bank account and driver's licenses, although Hermione was pretty nervous about driving a car. Kingsley had even personally accompanied them to the muggle airport in London and sent them off with a hearty "best wishes" as the three of them jetted off to Seattle in August to settle in for their American muggle adventure.
Ron had been ecstatic the whole plane ride, marveling at everything from the drinks carts to the tiny bathroom and wondering outloud and often (much to the annoyance of Harry and Hermione) "how does it stay up in the air?"
"Hello? Anyone there?" the redhead in front of Harry had turned around and was trying to get his attention.
He snapped out of his train of thought, "Hello, sorry I kind of zoned out there during the lecture!"
"It's okay," said the redhead "the professor just directed us to form groups of three and discuss the article we were supposed to read for today. We have two and you looked alone so we thought you might like to join us." she explained, indicating the guy sitting next to her, who had also turned around to look at Harry.
Harry glanced at the guy with a start. He was more of a man than a college kid, and was rather large and muscular with dark hair and very tan skin. Harry speculated that he might be of Native American heritage, he looked very similar to Native Americans he had seen in the Muggle movies he had watched at the Dursley's growing up. He looked at least several years too old to be in college.
"Hi I'm Jake and this is Nessie" he said.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Harry, Harry Potter," replied Harry, pleased that they didn't look shocked at his name or stare at his scar like everyone he usually met did. Muggles, and especially American muggles, had no idea who he was, and it was kind of nice to just be normal for a little while.
"Nice to meet you, too! My real name is Renesmee, but everyone just calls me Nessie," Nessie explained brightly, "so, what did you think of the article?"
"Errrrr" Harry said "well to be honest, I kind of forgot to read it."
"No big deal! We can talk about something else! Tell us about yourself, you're from England?" Nessie replied curiously.
"Well yeah," said Harry "I'm from England."
"Cool!" replied Jake "we have another friend from there, but I think he's a little bit older than you" and he glanced at Nessie with a knowing smirk. She rolled her eyes. "So, what's your story? How did you end up here in Seattle?"
"Well," Harry answered "I'm here with my two best friends. My friend Hermione really wanted to go to law school here and learn about American law, so we all applied, two of us got in and we decided to move here together! We thought it would be fun to live abroad for a little while and have an adventure." This was the cover story they had agreed on, keeping it simple so people wouldn't ask a lot of questions.
"How fun! We love adventures, too!" said Nessie "we were talking about going to New York for college, to try out the East Coast life, but both of our families live in Washington and we just wanted to keep close to home so we ended up here!"
Harry noticed her use of the word "we" as Jake reached over to take Nessie's hand and smiled. "Oh, so you guys are dating?"
Nessie nodded and smiled. "Hey, do you want to meet up for lunch after class? We're planning to go to the student union to the food court."
"Sure!" said Harry, "I'm actually meeting my friend Hermione there, too, do you mind if she joins as well?" "Of course, we don't mind," responded Nessie "the more the merrier!"
After class the three of them headed off to the student union together. Nessie and Jake held hands and kept glancing at each other, sometimes Harry thought they were nodding slightly and he found it kind of odd, almost like they were having a conversation without talking. They picked a table and Nessie excused herself to the restroom. While Jake was checking his phone, Harry took his wand out under the table and sent a patronus message to Hermione so she would know where they were sitting.
"So," Harry started awkwardly, "how did you and Nessie meet?"
"Oh, um, we met in school" Jake answered, glancing up from his phone. It sounded like he wasn't telling the whole truth but Harry didn't press the issue. Just then Hermione showed up, plopping her pile of books and the table with a huff.
"I cannot believe how much reading I have to do for this class!" she exclaimed "besides the textbook, we have a full-length novel each week plus articles! Oh, hello…" she paused, looking at Jake, "I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"
"I'm Jake," he said with an easy grin. He seemed like the kind of guy who was always relaxed and at ease, never taking life too seriously.
"Pleasure," said Hermione, glancing at Harry with her eyebrows raised. He knew she was also thinking just how old Jake looked.
"Oh hey guys!" said Nessie as she walked back from the restroom and sat down next to Jake, "you must be Harry's friend Hermione! I'm Nessie. You guys wouldn't believe what I just saw in the restroom! As I was walking in, a big silver animal ran in and disappeared into one of the stalls! It was kind of like a silver kind of ghost! Like a big silvery deer ghost. I've never seen anything like it!"
Harry and Hermione exchanged shocked glances. Muggles couldn't see patronuses.
"Oh weird," Harry quickly said, he could feel his face turning red and struggled to keep it as normal as possible. "So Jake was just telling me how you guys met," he said at the same time as Hermione said "So how long have you and Jake known each other?" to Renesemee. Everyone laughed and the tension was eased, but Harry knew he and Hermione would have to dig deeper into this later.
"Oh yes, we met in high school," answered Jake, and again Harry has the feeling he wasn't telling the whole story.
"That's nice," said Hermione "here in Seattle then?"
"Oh no, we grew up in a small town called Forks. It's in the Olympic Peninsula, all the way on the other side of the mountain range." said Nessie "Although technically Jake grew up on the Rez, but it's close enough anyways, like 2 seconds away!"
"Fascinating! I'd love to hear all about life in your American small town! It must be so different than living here in Seattle!" inquired Hermione.
Jake looked at her dubiously "Yeah it's fine, pretty boring though. Not like living in England, I'm sure!" he said, trying to change the subject. "Tell us more about that!"
"Oh well, it's probably about the same as living here except we drive on the other side of the road! You know, cinemas, cappuccinos, high school dances, spotted dick"
Jake spat out the soda he was drinking. "Spotted what?" he choked out.
"Spotted dick," answered Hermione dismissively. "It's a dessert, you know like custard and treacle tart."
"We don't have treacle tart here, either" said Nessie "What's it like?"
"What! No treacle tart?! It's my favorite. It's the best! I can't believe you don't have it here!" exclaimed Harry. Then he checked his old broken watch, out of habit.
"It's 1:30" said Hermione "we should probably head out, I need to go to the library before my next class. It was lovely to meet the two of you, hope to see you again soon!"
Hermione got up and Harry followed. "See ya next class" he waved at Jake and Renesemee.
Hermione walked briskly towards the library, Harry doubled his steps to keep up with her while still trying to hitch his bag on his shoulder. "Well that was interesting," she said.
"Interesting? She saw my patronus! She saw it Hermione! And you know as well as I do that regular muggles cannot see patronuses. Do you think she's a witch? Maybe she's a witch and he's not a wizard so she didn't want to talk about it in front of him?"
Hermione pursed her lips. "I doubt it Harry. If she was a witch she would know what a patronus is, and wouldn't have brought it up at all, let alone acted so surprised! Besides, according to the American Wizards Act of 1940, all witches and wizards have to be registered as such with the Magical Congress of the United States, and I checked the registry before we moved here and there are definitely no witches named Renesmee in the Pacific Northwest!" she concluded with finality, leaving Harry in shock, again, at how much research Hermione had done on any given subject.
Harry raised his eyebrows, "So how many witches and wizards are in this area?" he asked casually. He was secretly hoping to meet up with some American wizards and maybe start a pickup game of quidditch one day.
Hermione looked at him knowingly. "A fair few, and the name of their hometown sounds familiar so I think there is at least one in Forks. But, remember Harry we're supposed to be keeping a low profile here! No, she's definitely not a witch, but there is something there, some reason she could see it..." she trailed off in thought, "well, I'm off-"
"To the library!" Harry finished for her with a smirk, "Alright, see you at home later!"