Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or TruBlood in any of its forms.
I was definitely right about Petunia being somewhat less than pleased about me leaving with Sookie. She made very sure that I was aware of just how unhappy was with me and Grandmother seemed to take a secret pleasure in making sure that she dragged me in the house for breakfast with an uncomfortable Dursley family sitting across from me eating with subtle glares thrown my way whenever they thought that Grandmother wasn't looking.
I finally managed to start on the second floor with Sookie sunbathing with a scowl on her face when a rather large pick-up roared into the driveway before the door flew open and a rather angry looking man started toward Sookie. I was off of the ladder and across the lawn before he even made it halfway across and positioned myself between him and her.
He stopped just out of arms' reach and cocked his head like a puppy. "Sookie, who the hell is this?"
"Maybe if you stopped by a little more often you would know that this is our cousin, Harry Potter. He's here with our aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon and our other cousin Dudley. They got here a couple of days ago and are staying here for the whole summer." Sookie lowered her sunglasses just enough to glare at him before relaxing back into the lawn chair. "Is there a reason that you decided to tear over here or were you just feeling a little lonely, Jason Stackhouse?"
The man, Jason, pulled himself to his full height and glared at Sookie, not that it did him any good of course. "I heard tell that you and a pipsqueak, probably this one here, got into an argument with the Rattrays last night over some vampire. The whole town is talking about how the both of you hung off of the bloodsucker all night."
"They are disgusting individuals that would have loved nothing more than to trick that poor man outside and drained him of blood. There is no way that I was going to sit there and let them hurt him." Sookie was in rare form as she straightened her spine and gave her brother a glare that would have done Snape proud. "There is nothing that you can say that will change my mind in the least and I don't even want to hear you try."
It was rather funny to see him gape for a minute before Grams came around the corner of the house with the laundry that she had put on the line to dry this morning. "Well, bless my stars, if it isn't Jason. Why don't you come over here and give your grandmother a hug and tell me why you haven't been coming around."
Lunch was a very tense affair as the Dursleys seated themselves as far away from me as they could get around the small table and Jason watched them with lazy eyes as he drank a Bud from behind me. Everyone was exceptionally quiet until Sookie and Gram got to talking about a local murder after Gram got a call from someone over the phone.
The more they talked about it the more nervous Jason became until he took off with Sookie right behind him. Sookie came back in shortly after looking like she had seen something that she hadn't wanted to, which is the reason I learned not to go poking around where I'm not wanted. Of course that doesn't stop me from hearing what people are thinking at the moment but it keeps the buried secrets right where they belong.
"Come on down here Harry. It's almost time for me to head to work and you're coming with me again. Besides there's not much left to paint up there, if I didn't know better I'd think you were sneaking in a whole crew to paint that fast." Sookie was a sight for sore eyes by evening, I don't think I could have continued much longer. Petunia made sure to glare at me from the bottom of the ladder from lunch to dinner just to make sure that I stayed working at an acceptable speed without stopping. The only thing left is the trim work and I'll need a completely different color for that.
"Sounds like a plan. I can't wait to taste more of Lafayette's cooking, even if he is a little on the strange side." Hopefully the Rattrays will keep to themselves though the chances aren't very good.
Sam felt like a grade A pervert as he sat behind the bar and waited on Sookie to come in to work. For once he wasn't waiting just for the chance to talk to the little telepath but for the chance to see that petite cousin of hers. There was something about the boy that drew on every protective cell in Sam's body in a way that not even Sookie could manage. The boy was far too young for him to do any of the things that came to mind but that didn't mean that he couldn't fantasize as long as Sookie was far enough away from him.
"Hey there Sam, hope you don't mind if Harry sits here for the night again." Sookie chirped from the doorway with her cousin trailing behind her without looking up from the floor.
"Of course not, just make sure he gets something in that belly of his before he naps in the booth and no more baiting of rodents tonight." Sam couldn't help but trail his eyes over the small boy as Harry blushed and slid into the same booth that he had occupied the night before.
I leaned back from the table an hour later with a groan, the food is great but there's way too much of it. The place was just as packed as it had been the night before but the Rattrays were blissfully absent so far. One of the women that had been a waitress the night before was in the pool area drinking with two men talking about pouring her money back into Merlotte's.
A moment before I noticed who had walked through the door I felt a chill crawl up my spine and it looked like everyone else felt it too from the way the whole room tensed. Bill Compton walked through the door as if he didn't notice that every human was looking at him and watching his every move. The only person that Mr. Compton had eyes for was Sookie and she seemed to only have eyes for him as they moved closer to one another and sat at one of the tables in the middle of the room.
I had to hold back a wince as the thoughts of every human in the room turned toward how wrong it was for Sookie to be sitting with and talking to a vampire. Many of the patrons seemed to think it was wrong in a religious sense despite the fact that I am pretty sure none of the religious writings say anything about vampires. The only ones that weren't harboring unpleasant thoughts about Sookie were the members of the staff.
Lafayette wasn't even paying a moments attention as he continued to cook with the other man that hadn't really thought or said much of anything so far. The other waitress wasn't paying any attention to anything other that the cute man at one of her tables. The woman tending the bar was more concerned about Sookie's safety than any moral debate. Sam's thoughts were hard to translate, they were filled with growls and the occasionally disparaging comment about bloodsuckers. There was something comforting about the way that his thoughts sound, it reminds me of Remus.
The two little lovebirds spent several minutes talking without paying attention to any of the curious and somewhat spiteful people that weren't even trying to hide their staring and glares. The looks were on par with the ones that I received in second year when everyone thought that I was the heir of Slythrin and that I was going to kill all of the muggleborns in the school. It was only toward the end of the conversation that Mr. Compton made note of the stares and told Sookie that he wanted to fit in before setting a meeting for later that night and leaving with Sookie staring after him with stars in her eyes. It took Sookie a good couple of minutes to realize that everyone's eyes were trained on her and she stood up with a huff and strode into the kitchen without a backward glance. She certainly gets points for being able to stand up to the truly negative thoughts floating around this place.
I awoke to someone shaking my shoulder lightly and I almost shot out of my skin until I realized that it was Sookie. I stretched out and looked over at her, trying to ignore her thoughts about how adorable I looked when I was sleeping. "It's closing time and Tara agreed to give you a ride home while I wait for Mr. Compton to drop by."
I felt the all too familiar tingle up my spine that normally proceeded something really bad happening either to me or to someone that I cared about. "Actually I would rather wait for you to get done, if you don't mind." I unleashed my puppy eyes on her and prayed that they worked as well on her as they did on the Twins.
She looked like she was going to say no for a moment before she visibly caved in. "Alright but would you mind staying in the car so I could talk to him alone for a couple of moments?"
I hopped out of the booth with a smile and patted her on the shoulder before starting to head toward the back door. "No problem there Sookie, you can have the handsome bloodsucker all to yourself and I'll stay in the car like a good little boy." I barely managed to make it out of the door before she came after me with her rolled up apron and a look of false murder in her eyes.
Fifteen minutes later I wished that I had just taken that ride back to Grams with that Tara girl. Shortly after Sam had went into his trailer for the night the Rattrays had shown up and started to make a ruckus and I sprang out of the car when I saw Sookie go down only to join her there. Magic may make me more powerful than most but it won't do me any good if I can't use it.
The 'punishments' that I have received over the years with the Dursleys made the beating from the Rattrays easier to bare but Sookie did not have the tolerance that I had and was far on her way to unconsciousness by the time that the male, Mack, was flung through the air before he hit a tree with an audible crunch. The woman turned around in fear and yelled something that I didn't quite catch before she joined her husband and Bill Compton came into view.
Sookie was pretty much out at this point and it certainly sounds like a good plan to me. The last thing that I saw was the man leaning over Sookie while looking at me with an expression that I couldn't quite decipher.
Bill Compton had been a vampire for many years now though he was by far not the oldest that he had met but he had never come across anything like the two beings that he had moved into the woods and away from the cooling corpses of their attackers. They had both seemed to have a sixth sense that had probably saved him the night before and now they had both been attacked for that act of heroism.
Sookie was a rather pretty young girl that he could honestly say attracted him in a way that no one had since his late wife. She seemed to pick up on things that no one should have known as if she had always been that way while treating him more like a person than anyone ever had. She didn't recoil like most people did nor did she throw herself at him like a streetwalker, it was surprisingly refreshing.
The boy was similar to his cousin in the way that he seemed to view the world but there was something infinitely fragile yet dangerous about him. Part of Bill felt the overwhelming urge to protect him and the other side felt the need to bare himself in submission. His form was feminine but one could most certainly tell that he was male even with the gait that possessed more grace than most. If it wasn't for the sound of his heart beating and the smell of blood running through his veins he could almost be confused for a vampire.
Sookie was in bad enough shape that she would need blood to survive but the boy managed to keep the brunt of the damage to a minimum. It was a lucky, or unlucky as the case may be, hit to the head at the last moment that had knocked the boy unconscious.
By the time that I woke up I felt like someone had hit me with a bludger at point blank range without so much as a by your leave. The world was a giant blur for several minutes before it started to clear and I found myself on the rather girly bed that Grams had assigned to me with a rather frantic looking Sookie leaning over me with Mr. Compton leaning against the footboard.
"Thank goodness, I almost thought that you weren't going to wake up for a moment there." Sookie leaned back slightly and put her hand over her heart. "We probably would have been done for if Bill hadn't have been close by to lend a hand."
Remus would likely have had a fit if he found out that I owe my life to a vampire, way too much bad blood there to go into. "Thank you very much, Mr. Compton. It seems that you are our resident knight in shining armor." The man almost looked ready to blush, if he was capable of such a thing. "I'm sure that, as it is getting rather early, if the view out of the window is to be believed, you should be heading home and we can both offer our gratitude some other time." There's no telling what Petunia and Vernon would do if they woke up to find that there was a vampire in the house. Dudley would just hide behind whichever of his parents were closer and cover his butt with his hands like he does whenever something supernatural shows up.
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