Bella was stiffly wrapped around Nessie when he came in, and only turned angry, betrayed eyes on him when he stepped fully into the room. She kissed their daughter on the head gently and sent her off, though it'd be futile as Nessie had the enhanced hearing of a vampire.
His wife rose fluidly and crossed her arms, looking at him with dark confusion in her ruby eyes.
"I can smell him all over you," she said flatly.
"Yeah," he replied, not bothering to make excuses.
She exhaled sharply, glaring at the floor. "You can't keep doing this to me."
"I know," he replied.
"You're married to me!" she said, coming closer, voice rising. "You made vows to me! You were supposed to stop with him!"
"I know."
His bland acceptance only seemed to fuel her negative emotions further. "So stay away from him! Or, better yet, send him away!"
"He's powerful, he can help with the Volturi—"
"I don't care how powerful he is! He can't protect our family if we don't have a united family to protect!"
"He's not here to protect our family!" he argued. He couldn't part with Harry again, not when he'd just gotten him here. "I asked him to come here for Nessie. She's the Volturi's priority, and her safety is my priority."
She stared at him in disbelief. "What are you saying?" she demanded, voice calm with a steely undertone. "Are you pretending you don't know that they're just using Nessie as an excuse to come and force you, Alice, and Jasper to join their guard? Are you pretending that, now, we aren't your priority?"
"Of course, we are!" he said, frustrated, fists clenching uselessly at his sides, anger building up in him at her complete lack of understanding.
"I don't believe you," she replied flatly. "You run out to see him when he magically appears? You go off with him in the woods somewhere, and come back covered in his scent? Your priority seems to be restarting your relationship with him and forgetting about the one you have with your wife and daughter!"
"Nessie has nothing to do with Harry and I," he said, doing his best to keep his voice even. His fists were clenched so hard that he thought he might have heard his skin crack.
"But Nessie has to do with you and me. I don't want…" she paused suddenly, and breaking eye contact as she worried her lip for a fraction of a second before releasing it and looking back at him. "I want us to be a proper family, Edward: you and me and Nessie, and Carlisle and Esme, and Alice and Jasper and Rosalie and Emmett…and Charlie and Jacob. Harry doesn't fit anywhere in there." Her red eyes begged him to understand as she came closer and stiffly uncrossed her arms to hold his wrists. She started to bite her lip again as her pinkies caressed his knuckles.
"He could," he said frostily, his desires warring within him to pull away from her and shout or take her in his arms and murmur endless apologies. He never did like arguing with Bella, though most of the time, it had been when she was human and thus on the subject of her safety. He knew he always had a very good chance at winning those arguments, given how much of a magnet for trouble she was, but he wasn't sure if he could force her to see his point of view this time.
"Edward," she sighed, "I know how you feel. I loved you and Jacob at the same time. But my love for you was, and forever will be, stronger."
"That's different. Jacob's imprinted. He doesn't see you in that way anymore. So there cannot be a relationship between the two of you."
Her grip tightening minutely around his wrists as she glanced away, seeming irritated. He thought about how much easier this would be if he could read her thoughts.
"And I guess," she spoke lowly, "if I asked you which one of us you loved more, I wouldn't like the answer."
He fought not to groan. "Bella, I've already told you, both of you, that I love the two of you equally."
"What has he done for you?" she burst out, her hands disappearing from around his wrists, taking a step back to make sure he was able to see the full extent of her displeasure. "I know that he helped you back…" her hand cut a wave in the air, "whenever. But you don't need him now. That dark period of your life is gone. We're starting a wonderful forever together, with our daughter and the rest of our family. Why do you need him?!"
Irritation coiled in his every muscle. "I've explained this to you before, Bella: a vampire's love is eternal. I cannot stop or suppress my love for him," he stressed. "And to be honest, I have no desire to."
Anger colored her beautiful features. "And I know that vampires don't like having their mates taken away from them."
"No one's taking me from you!" he couldn't help the rise in his voice. "I love you," he declared hotly, taking a step towards her. "I have no desire to leave you ever again."
"But you love him too!" she shouted back, fists balling up. Her breathing hitched for the briefest of moments, as if she wanted to cry, and the guilt welled up in him, the automatic reflex to make her happy kicking in. "How can you not understand how this upsets me? I know you hated that he left you a few months ago. I know you want him to stick around! What if he asks you to go back to England with him? Would you go?"
He was surprised by the question. He'd never even entertained the thought of returning to England, even if it would mean picking up where he and Harry had left off, rekindling the life they had made together. "No," he finally said. "I wouldn't." He didn't mind England; the weather was quite similar to Forks, but in the magical world, the prejudice against Creatures was daunting. And he couldn't bear to leave his family behind.
"And would you ask him to stay here?"
"No," he answered immediately. Harry, he knew, would never agree to it. His two partners were like water and oil, their personalities and inherent rivalry too strong to mix, or even coexist under the same roof. And Bella would never agree to it either. She'd see him – already did – as a replacement, and would change for the worse. And he couldn't even begin to fathom the effect it might have on Nessie; the tension around the house, between her parents, would be unbearable. He fought the urge to sigh. He knew he'd have to give up one of them, but he couldn't bear to leave Nessie. He wanted – needed – desperately to be part of her life, to experience being a parent.
"What are you planning on doing with him then?" she demanded, obviously not placated by his answer, crossing her arms across her chest protectively. "Have all the sex you can with him while he's still here? We haven't been married for four months and already you're having an affair."
"Bella," he sighed, and honestly didn't know how to answer her. Of course, he wanted to express his love for Harry in all ways possible, just as he wanted to with Bella. But he understood her hurt, her humiliation. She must have thought she wasn't enough for him, despite having given all of herself and the gift of their precious daughter. The realization made his unbeating heart ache, and he stepped forward and took her stiff form in his arms. "Harry changes nothing in our relationship," he murmured into her dark hair. She sighed against his chest, and he instinctively rubbed her back soothingly. "I know it's difficult to believe after everything I've put you through, but I love you, more than I've ever loved you before. I didn't think that was possible, but it's true. Harry won't be around much longer; let me spend this time with him, and I'll spend the rest of my existence making it up to you."
She tangled a hand into his hair and pulled him down to rest their foreheads against one another. Her cold breath ran pleasantly across his face as she defrosted little by little. Sighing, she spoke a little bitterly, "When I imagined my life as a vampire, I never imagined having to go through any of this."
He kissed her nose. "His time here will go by in the blink of an eye, in the grand scheme of things. To be honest, I don't expect to see him again."
"Really?" she asked, intrigued. "Why?"
"He has…other commitments back in England," he said, not wanting to tell her that Harry was conflicted about reprising their relationship. He didn't want to say it aloud, make it more real.
"Is he cheating on his wife, too?" she asked dryly.
"It's not that kind of commitment," he said, even if he didn't know if Harry was married, or had a significant other. Shame coursed through him, but he forced himself to continue to speak. "He's important in his society."
She sighed again. "I won't ever forget this."
"The aid that he's giving us? Or our relationship?"
He received an irritated look. "Both, I guess. But mostly the latter."
He nodded. "I understand."
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm still mad at you," she admitted. "But I still love you."
"I love you," he echoed reverently, and brought her perfect face up further and pulled their mouths together for a kiss. Their lips met harshly, splitting open by the clash of their teeth, and the kiss turned heated quickly as her tongue darted out aggressively to lick his lips over. He allowed her to dominate the kiss, occasionally challenging her, knowing she needed reassuring that his love for her was indeed there and stronger than ever.
Their rhythm fluctuated between languid and vigorous, never losing in its heat and intensity. Thrill and pleasure shot through Edward's body with each movement, and he knew Bella was feeling it all too.
After a few seconds, Bella pulled away from him. Her eyes glittering in want and love and confidence, and her hair was mussed, and she had never looked more beautiful or desirable. Even so, Edward found himself missing the blush that would appear on her cheeks when she was human, and the way her lips would swell after too much activity, enticing him to continue. His mind went to the color in Harry's face and he immediately felt guilty.
"We'll continue this tonight," she promised, slipping from his grip with a happy, seductive look.
He smiled back and tried to forget Harry.
The first of the recruited witnesses were starting to arrive at the Cullen residence. Edward greeted them before bringing them inside to meet Bella and Nessie. As expected, they were all fascinated and immediately won over by his little girl, and, after a bit of convincing, agreed to stand with them against the Volturi.
Still, Edward found himself worrying. Even with all the new arrivals, plus the Quileute pack and Harry, the Volturi guard would easily outnumber them two to one. And their array of gifts was expansive and would be difficult to get through.
Not to mention – and Edward cursed his straying attention from Nessie, and her safety – their vampires guests, save the Denali clan, were all red eyes. He didn't doubt that they could control their thirst, as proven by their being in Nessie's presence, and he had warned them of Harry's presence, not divulging his abilities, and Carlisle had encouraged them to feed on animals as to not attract human attention, but he did worry that one of them might come across Harry in a bloodlust and mistake him for prey.
He sighed. The wizard could take care of himself. He was just that: a wizard, and Edward was still feeling the sting of rejection, remembering the spell used to propel him away from Harry's fleeing broom.
He sighed again, eyes lingering on Nessie as she communicated via her gift with Jacob, who became slightly vacant-eyed as he concentrated on the mental projection. Bella was watching them nearby, a smile on her face. They would be fine if he stepped out a moment.
Edward slipped from the house and headed for the forest. He knew he wasn't a good tracker, but he did his best, drawing Harry's scent from his memories and doing his best to find it somewhere in the air. He was having trouble doing so, and ran along the path that Harry had taken the other day, as he had flown away on his broom, in hopes that he might be lingering in the areas that he was familiar with, though Edward did remember the wizard saying that he wanted to scout the area before the Volturi arrived.
He found himself jogging around for quite a while before picking up even the faintest whiffs of Harry's scent, and immediately scrambled up the tree to inhale it properly. He could only assume Harry had passed by that particular branch on his broomstick.
He followed the scent as best as he could, flitting on branches, and ended up coming across a curious scene: Harry was back on ground level, his hand gripping his wand tensely, pointing it at one of their red eyed guests, Alistair, who was staring back at him with a look both bemused and predatory.
Edward's hackles immediately rose, and he leapt down from the tree, startling Harry, whose eyes flickered over to him for the briefest of instants before resettling on the more immediate danger.
"Is this your strange little human, Edward? He has…such a peculiar smell about him," Alistair asked, red eyes glittering in dark curiosity. His thoughts were going a mile a minute, contemplating possibilities of magic, replaying his memories of being buffeted away by an invisible force over and over again.
"Indeed," Edward replied, coming closer, ready to attack him if necessary. "Alistair, meet Harry. Harry, this is Alistair."
Neither of them moved, the vampire still eyeing the wizard as if he were a puzzle, and the wizard still eyeing the vampire as if he were a rabid animal.
"You some kind of magician?" Alistair asked, attention completely on Harry once more, cocking his head to the side in contemplation. "You haven't even got a hat or a cape. And your magic wand seems a little…flimsy. I wonder if you could still do your little trick if you didn't have it anymore."
"Alistair," Edward warned. "I do hope you weren't planning on making him your meal. You were asked to feed on animals during your time here. Not to mention he's completely off limits."
"Nothing wrong with a little bit of real food every now and then," the other vampire said, leering at Harry in a way that made him tense further, so much that Edward briefly thought that his body might snap.
"If you try anything," he threatened, his body coming into a defensive crouch, "and if Harry doesn't get to you first, I'll take you down myself."
Alistair's eyes flickered towards him, as if sizing him up, before going back to the wizard, who was still holding his wand aloft. "I wasn't going to actually do anything," he finally said, hands coming up in a mocking gesture of surrender. "I was just investigating that intriguing scent." He gave Edward a sidelong glance. "There's something…a little familiar in there."
The teen did his best to not outwardly react as Alistair's thoughts offered him lewd suggestions of the two of them having had sexual relations. "Go away," he said simply, not uncoiling from his stance.
Alistair rolled his eyes before jogging off into the trees.
It was a bit of a tense moment before Harry asked, "Is he gone?"
"He's making his way out of my hearing range." Edward finally allowed himself to relax, and the wizard's arm came down, though he still kept his wand clenched in his hand. "Are you OK?" he asked, coming closer, needing to be sure now that the danger had been averted.
Harry waved him off as he leant back against a tree. "I've been through worse."
"You know he was planning on draining your body of blood, right? And even if he did stop, which wasn't likely, his venom would have been in your system, and you would have turned."
"I have field training," the wizard replied, not seeming impressed by the scenario Edward had spun up. "I know how to take poison out of bloodstreams."
He didn't know what he could say to that. Honestly, his knowledge of magic was somewhat limited, but he supposed that it was magic and that most things were possible. "If you say so."
Harry fixed him with a withering look. "Did you come out here just to quiz me on my abilities?"
"No. I just came out here to check on you, make sure you hadn't been eaten by anything, alive or undead."
"I'm fine." He pulled his coat around him tighter, before pointing his wand at himself and muttering in Latin.
Edward knew it was wholly inappropriate, given the conversation he'd had not so long ago with his spouse, and given Harry's irritable mood, but Latin always managed to make his belly coil in the first sparks of arousal; he'd heard it in school of course, but whenever the old language came from Harry's mouth, they were usually followed by pleasure that lasted its own mini forever. Then the significance of his gesture dawned on him. What if Alistair had managed to land a hit on Harry?
"Did he hurt you?" he asked immediately, coming into the wizard's personal space, hands up and ready to be used as ice packs.
"No, he just surprised me. I did hurt my leg a bit, but that was because I fell out of the tree." By the time he'd finished his sentence, Edward was already on his knees, squashing down the arousal that was slinking out of his memory of the last time he'd been in this position, rolling up both of Harry's pant legs to inspect. He inhaled, taking in his fiery scent. Judging by the amount of blood circulating in the left leg, he guessed it was with that one that Harry had landed harder on, and pressed his hands on the knee and goose bumps erupted all over the surrounding flesh in response. "Edward, it's fine. I can get it. And you're getting through my Warming Charm."
"What?"
"Your hands are really cold. And this air isn't helping."
"Sorry. But it's so your knee won't swell."
"I know that, but I can take care of it. Is there a place to sit down around here?"
Edward looked around. "There's a fallen log over there," he said, and picked the wizard up, bridal style.
"What are you doing?! I've got a perfectly good broom I can ride."
His teenage mind couldn't help but to hear the innuendo, and was glad he couldn't blush. "I can get you there faster." Wonderful, there was a sort-of innuendo in there too.
If Harry had gotten the double meaning, he didn't show it, instead simply looking displeased at being carried such a short distance, covered in less than two seconds by vampire speed. Edward tested the wood's strength with a foot, making sure it hadn't rotted, before setting him down carefully.
"Thanks," Harry said, a bit tersely.
"You're welcome." The teenager settled down next to him, watching him run the tip of his wand over his injured leg and speaking more Latin, making Edward tremble minutely. After a moment, the wizard stopped and rolled his pant legs back down. "All done?"
Harry gave him a somewhat self-depreciating smile. "I'll live."
"Good," Edward answered, very seriously. "Now I'll only have to moderately hurt Alistair."
It was there again, that little withering look that suggested Harry didn't appreciate what he was saying. "Why?"
"He hurt you," he replied simply.
"I fell out of a tree, Edward."
"Because he startled you."
The wizard rolled his eyes. "If anyone's going to hurt Alistair, it's going to be me. You know I don't need your protection."
"Yes, I know. But I want to protect you. I am compelled to protect the ones I love."
Those green eyes darted away from his face, all disapproval mixed with guilt mixed with pining mixed with regret. "Edward…"
"Don't," he interrupted. "Please. I know what you're going to say, but that doesn't stop—"
"And I know what you're going to say," the wizard said, sounding weary. "I know you love me. And…" he sighed in frustration, looking at his shoes, "I care about you too. But there are other people involved. And one of those people is your daughter. I'm not doing this anymore. I can't do this anymore."
"We don't have to do anything," he promised, even as his instincts screamed at him in protest. "It's enough to be in your presence."
Harry rolled his eyes and huffed a laugh. "You're such a sap."
Edward regarded him for a moment, taking in the sharp curves of his handsome face. "It happens when you're in love."
The wizard smiled a teeny smile. "Yeah, I guess." The joy faded, and he lifted his head to stare out into the trees, his heartbeat stuttering. "Why'd you leave me?" he asked after a few moments, voice calm, though his heart thumped a tattoo against his chest.
"My memory was tampered with, magically."
Harry frowned, and looked at him sharply. "What do you mean?"
Edward sighed. "Ginny froze my body and tampered with my memory."
"Ginny? Ginny Weasley?"
"Yes. I don't know any other Ginnys," he said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Ginny?!" he repeated, flabbergasted, not seeming to register his attempt at humor. "Are you…" is eyes darted away before resettling on Edward guiltily, "are you sure?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm sure." He did his best to not say it condescendingly. It wasn't Harry's fault that he was blinded by his affection for that woman. And who knew if she hadn't magically tampered with his mind as well? The thought put him on edge but he forced his voice to stay even. "Vampire memories don't fade like human ones do. I remember everything about it. I could tell you that her wand is black and fourteen inches long and that she's got thirty three freckles on her face."
Harry looked away, eyes marginally widened. "Well, I've never counted her freckles," he said quietly. "But I do know that her wand looks that way." He stared at the ground, his heartbeat thudding loudly in Edward's ears. "And when you …woke up, you didn't suspect anything?"
"I did," he admitted, "but my theories had never included loving a wizard and being part of a completely different world. The first thing I discovered when I regained consciousness, for lack of a better term, was that I was in the forests of Canada, which was strange, since I'd been hunting down criminals in various cities. I was so confused. I couldn't find out why seven months of memories was missing from my head. The only thing I found was a sock, about a foot from where I'd woken up."
"A Portkey, then."
"It had a floral scent to it: cloyingly sweet overtones hiding a sharper, more acidulous smell. I didn't recognize it then. But I recognize it now."
The wizard continued contemplating the ground. "I dated Ginny," he muttered, crossing his arms.
"I know. It…doesn't bother me," he lied.
Harry looked at him, frowning. "Not even a little?" he asked. "I'd be. At least a bit."
"You had no way of knowing."
"Well," he muttered, looking more upset by the minute, "she did seem a bit more awkward around me. I just thought she'd expected us to pick up from where we'd left off as teenagers…" He nudged some dirt around with his toe.
"And did you?" the vampire couldn't help but ask.
"Kind of. Not really. I wasn't really into it. My head…and my heart…weren't in it. And just when it started working, I realized it just wasn't going to." He sighed and Edward felt bad for being relieved. If Ginny had used magical means to influence Harry, it hadn't been strong enough, or held long enough. "I remember thinking about marrying her and having kids with her," he muttered, more to his hands than to the other man, sounding irritated with himself. "I thought about it a lot."
"Did you, eventually? With someone?" he ventured.
"I've been a bit caught up with work."
He remembered that Harry had been an Auror, which he'd explained as being a magical police officer. "Are you Head of the department yet?"
The wizard gave a brief wan smile. "They've offered a few times. But it's more for my name than my actual merits. Plus I'm not sure it's a position I want."
"Why not?"
"I'd be more of a figurehead than an Auror. I mean, not that I'm not kind of one already, but at least now I'm on the streets, doing something concrete. As Head, it'd mostly be overseeing operations. And my success rate would reflect the image of the department. Not to mention the Minister would probably have me in his office once a week just to try and get me to politically push his agenda. It's not my sort of thing; there's just too much involved. The only good thing would be I'd have a secretary to do most of my paperwork."
Edward nodded. He remembered seeing and experiencing the man's energy and drive, and knew that that sort of power and passion could not be confined behind a desk. Even now, he could see how the wizard fidgeted and longed to be in action in some way.
"What about you?" Harry asked, looking up at him diffidently.
"I've been in school."
"School? You mean, like university?"
"No." He smiled, a little embarrassedly. "High school."
Harry looked bemused before turning away thoughtfully. "I'd like to repeat my years at Hogwarts, I suppose, just to see what it's like to be a normal kid. But without Voldemort breathing down my neck, I think it'd be a bit boring."
"I've been in school since about the 1960's."
"What?!"
He explained why they went to school, how it allowed them to stay in one place for a decent amount of time, and Harry was starting to look as if he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or to be horrified. "And how many times have you gone through high school?"
"Too many," he replied with an exaggerated grimace, and the wizard laughed. He grinned along. "But I've got mostly straight As."
"What do you mean mostly? You must have memorized the curriculum by now."
"Well, yes, but we can't have the humans getting too suspicious."
"And what do you do when you graduate?"
"I've gone to university a few times. I even have a few medical degrees."
A teasing smile pulled at Harry's mouth. "You should have told me I was supposed to call you Doctor Edward."
"Well, technically, I'm not a doctor in this lifetime." But I can play one with you if you like, his teenage mind wanted to add.
"What are you going to do this time around?" He glanced away, and his budding happiness faded. "Raise your daughter, I guess?"
"Yes. I think I can miss out on a few years of schooling this year."
The wizard grinned briefly, before fading away to be replaced by a somewhat embarrassed look. "I still haven't met her," he muttered.
"Let's go, then. Right now. No time like the present."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, alright then."
It was very quiet when they entered the house. Edward could hear the thoughts of and smell most of their guests within the building, as well as Jacob and Nessie. The vampires had all been aware of the human coming near the house by way of their supernatural senses and seemed to be mentally speculating. He was pleased to note that none of their thoughts, save Bella and Alistair's, had any traces of guesswork of magic.
"There are seventeen others here," he told Harry as he opened the door. "Just so you know."
"Wonderful," came the bland response, and Edward had to fight to not automatically reassure him of his safety and the protection he would instinctively give.
They entered the sitting room, and all eyes were already on them.
"Hello all," Harry said immediately, with a confidence that Edward doubted he actually felt; he thought the wizard might be feeling more like a piece of meat walking into a kennel full of hungry dogs."My name is Harry."
Edward could see most of them attempting to discreetly scent the air, and stayed slightly in front of the wizard as an instinctive shield as he went around and made introductions, starting with their guests first before introducing his family.
"And you know Bella," he said as they came to stand in front of his wife. Wizard and newborn stared at each other, Harry offering her a brief and very half-hearted smile, and Bella mimicking him dryly.
Edward steered them away quickly. "This is Jacob, Alpha of the Quileute shape-shifter pack." The shifter stepped forward, hand outstretched, broadcasting loud, distrustful thoughts at the wizard who was easily a head shorter than him. Edward could tell right away that Bella had told him exactly who Harry was, thought not what, thank goodness. He knew that Jacob still cared for Bella deeply, though in a platonic way now, and hated that she was getting hurt.
"Hi," the shifter said, shortly, and proceeded to attempt to crush the bones in the wizard's hand. Edward was beginning to glare at him when Jacob suddenly yelped and jerked his hand away.
(He shocked me! He just shocked me! How the hell did he do that?!)
"Quite a grip you have there," Harry remarked, pseudo-casually, eyeing Jacob up and down. In return, the shifter rubbed at his hand and stared at the shorter man incredulously. "But I really do need this hand."
Edwards stifled the urge to laugh, and turned his attention to his beautiful daughter instead, standing at Jacob's side, looking up at Harry curiously, thoughts centering around Jacob and wondering what the stranger had just done to him.
"And this, of course, is Nessie," he said, unable to stop the pride from coloring his voice.
"Hi," Harry said, doing his best to put on a smile. He leaned down to her height and held out his hand to shake, and Edward didn't get the chance to warn him before she reached out and touched his face instead.
The wizard froze, eyes going vacant as he processed the invading thoughts, mouth going slightly agape. After a second, he stumbled back, shaking his head as if he were a dog trying to rid itself of water. All eyes were on him, Jacob's in particular burning into the side of his head, mentally screaming how he'd rip him limb from limb if he dared try anything against his beloved Nessie.
"That was…weird," Harry finally uttered, hands coming up to rub at his temples, face twisted in a grimace of pain.
"Are you OK?" Edward asked. No one else had reacted like this to sharing Nessie's thoughts.
"She kinda ripped through my shields," the wizard admitted, and Edward sent his daughter a brief reprimanding look, making a mental note to talk to her later about asking permission to share before doing so.
Nessie raised her hand as if to share again, before thinking better of it. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I can go through my mom's shield and it doesn't hurt her."
Harry seemed a little bedazzled by her melodious voice, and it also seemed to make him forget about his headache. "It's OK. You didn't know." He gave her a smile. "We can try that again later, if you want."
Nessie smiled back, nodding. Entranced, Harry nodded back.
Harry stared out across the field, feeling nervous and a bit grim. He thought he'd never have to see a battlefield again, let alone one where he had clear disadvantages. Even now his head was buzzing under the effects of a sight enhancing spell to look across at the enemy, standing several hundred feet away. The Volturi were quiet for the moment, but he dreaded the moment at which they would come and attack.
The Volturi boasted quite a variety of misfits. They all looked…well, like vampires, but two in particular caught his eye, a boy and a girl. They both looked similar and very young, maybe having been turned in their early teens, and were incredibly beautiful, like most vampires, and were standing closely to the three leaders. Harry found himself wondering at which point a vampire could no longer be considered an immortal child, and what their gifts were. He could only surmise that it was something unpleasant, given the readily sadistic look on the girl's face that reminded of Bellatrix Lestrange.
Harry continued observing them, and locked eyes with the boy. He looked intrigued, scenting the air, but Harry had cast a spell to mask the odor of his blood. He wouldn't want all these bloodsuckers chasing after him after all. The vampire frowned and continued staring at him. Harry stared right back, throwing him a cheeky wink, to which the vampire seemed shocked. Harry smiled at him, until he noticed Edward marching forward. What in the world was he doing?!
Edward thrust out his hand arrogantly and Aro took it. The contact lasted a second, and Aro's milky eyes darted over to look at Bella, then at Renesmee, then at Harry. The wizard stared back challengingly. His stomach twisted into knots. He was certain that the head of the Volturi had just discovered exactly what he could do and what several hundred thousands of others could as well.
Those red eyes fixed on him with an interested smile, and murmured something to Edward, who replied back, though they were too far away for Harry to hear anything. Aro turned his head away slightly with pursed lips, though he still looked thoughtful.
Harry was…irritated.
In the end, there had been no fight. He had had to put up with that insufferable woman's whiny fits for a quick blowjob. Harry sighed. Well, this trip hadn't been a complete waste; he'd been able to get some closure and explanations concerning Edward and their relationship. Still, he refused to stick around. Despite his love for Edward, his hate for his wife was stronger.
"I'm leaving," Harry said, stepping into the house. He was the last outsider there; all the others had left almost straight after the "confrontation", but he couldn't bring himself to; Edward deserved a goodbye, at the very least.
Edward stopped his conversation with Bella immediately, looking crestfallen. He strode forward to embrace the wizard. "Do you have to? You know you can stay here—"
Harry caught sight of Bella's scandalized expression and laughed. "No," he said. "Your wife won't like that. And I won't either. Plus I've got to warn my world about the impending threat of super-powered vampires," he added resignedly.
Edward looked contrite. "I'd like to say the Occlumency worked, but to be honest, I'm just not sure. I locked those thoughts and memories away in a box, and Aro probably received the box, but I don't know if he'd know how to open it. But he'll undoubtedly be intrigued by it, I'm sorry."
Harry nodded, feeling somewhat relieved, but still on edge. He was in the same room as the jealous woman that had tried to attack him – though he didn't quite blame her – and they weren't completely sure if they'd successfully hid the existence of his world from the Volturi or if they'd simply bought them some time. "Thanks for trying. But I'm still leaving." He sighed and opened his Occlumency shields a tiny amount.
Edward's eyes were soft. He embraced him again. "I love you."
"I love you too," Harry said. "Now…how about a quick tumble before I go? I don't know when we might see each other again."
Edward chuckled while his wife made a sharp noise of protest behind him. He turned to her. "We're going to step out a moment, Bella."
Bella didn't have a chance to respond, though the cross look on her face said everything they needed to know; Edward had taken Harry onto his back and they were off.
As soon as he set Harry down, the wizard said, "You know I was just joking, right? I said told you before we weren't going to…you know, be involved anymore."
"But you were very right; we don't know when we're going to see each other again," Edward said, kissing the wizard before he could protest. Harry acquiesced rather quickly.
(SCENE EDITED OUT)
Harry finally released Edward's lips and untangled their bodies, his broad chest heaving. He felt a loss, as he always did when he slipped out of Edward, but somehow the ache felt less severe. Their separation was nothing like their previous one; he knew where Edward was going to be, and more importantly, he knew Edward would be happy.
"I love you, Harry," the vampire said softly, cold hand coming up to cup his face. "I will forever love you."
"I love you, Edward." He paused. These next words were rather difficult to force out of his dry throat. "Be happy with Bella."
Edward's golden eyes glowed with happiness and he gave Harry one final kiss. "I think we will be."
THE END
A/N: Yay! It's over! Sorry for how this chapter looks; my internet ran out and I'm uploading this from my phone, so I didn't put in 's line breaks. And A3O's even more of a pain to format on, but I'm still hoping to put it up there without running up too much of a bill. I'll try to remember to pretty it up when I can use internet on my computer again. EDIT: all fixed now and it is up on A3O.
For Ginny's wand, HP wikia hasn't got much on it, so I took the film prop info instead. And I can't actually remember if Jacob is the proper Alpha of the entire Quileute pack…I do know that the shifters have a permanent peace with the Cullens because of Nessie and imprint law (or whatever) but I don't know if the two packs merged back together and who's actually heading them.
As always, thanks to my reviewers: sad sabrin, 5nfosi, Stoic-Genius, and my cheeky guest reviewer :). You guys made this that much more enjoyable to write and put out there.
