"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Flashback


Despite Harry reassuring Sirius multiple times that he was perfectly capable of walking himself to school, he was currently standing by the gates with an anxious godfather in tow. He surveyed the odd jumble of buildings that made up the school, and instantly missed the grandeur of Hogwarts.

"Doesn't really compare does it?" commented Sirius mournfully.

Harry shrugged noncommittally. He squared his shoulders and turned to his guardian to say goodbye. To his surprise and embarrassment he was roughly gathered up into a bear hug. "Gerroff" he mumbled, pushing Sirius away. He looked around, and noticed that many of the pupils going through the gates were staring and whispering urgently. Still, he thought gratefully, at least they weren't malicious. Yet.

"Bye Padfoot, good luck with the job search" he said before he lost his nerve. Lifting his chin in a fashion that would have made Malfoy proud, he walked towards the reception.

Sirius watched him go, alternating between peering fretfully at his godson's back and glaring at the gossiping students. Once Harry was out of sight, he reluctantly headed off towards the town centre to begin a long day of job-hunting.

When Harry arrived at the reception, he started to introduce himself but was interrupted by Mrs Cope. "Don't worry dear, I know who you are. People have been talking about your arrival for days now!" She peered over the top of her glasses at the pile of paper on her desk. She then extracted one and handed it to him. "This is your timetable for the year. If you need any help, don't be afraid to ask me."

He thanked her, and turned away, casting his eyes down the sheet of paper.

Timetable for James Black: Senior year

1st English with Mr. Mason
2
nd Government with Mr. Jefferson
3
rd Trigonometry with Mr. Varner
4
th French with Madame Fabre

Lunch

6th Biology with Mr. Banner
7
th Gym with Coach Clapp

He looked worriedly at the lessons. English should be fine, and gym couldn't be harder work than quidditch training. When spying on Malfoy, thinking he was the Heir of Slytherin, he'd needed to learn some French so hopefully he wouldn't look completely stupid in that lesson. Unfortunately, he had no clue about the rest of the subjects. He'd definitely have to get a tutor if he didn't want to look like a complete imbecile.

Suddenly the bell rang to signal the start of the day, and Harry jumped, hurriedly rushing to English.


The first few lessons whirled by in a confusion of blank faces and incomprehensible information. He battled with allomorphs and heteronyms in English and learned that the muggle American government system was nothing like the Ministry of Magic.

Trig was one thousand times harder than Potions, and even more boring that History of Magic. The only thing he could remember in any clarity was a girl called Jessica drooling over him in a revolting manner. However, since she was the only person all day to approach him, he accepted her invitation to sit with her at lunch. As much as he wanted to be by himself, he didn't need to draw unnecessary attention to himself.


When he entered the dining hall, his nostrils were instantly assaulted by a smell that he assumed must be the food. He screwed up his nose in disgust, and found himself longing for the feasts that Hogwarts always provided.

Over the din of chatter and cutlery scrapping against plates, he heard the high pitched tones of the girl from Trig. "Jaaaames, over here!" He managed to pick her out in the crowd, and saw that she was frantically waving at him.

He sighed in resignation before making his way over to the girl. On the way, he got an uneasy feeling. He sensed around him for anything unusual, and was shocked to find a hum of magic coming from the opposite corner of the hall. Piercing green eyes shot in their direction, and as they settled over the group of 5 students in the corner, only one thought was running through his mind; they weren't human.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a pair of golden eyes turned and stared at him in horror. Harry panicked and desperately tried to erect an Occlumency barrier. Snape would undoubtedly ridicule him for his effort, but weak barriers were better than nothing. When he felt a faint prod at his mind, he knew that his suspicions had been correct. While attempting to tighten his barriers, he glared vehemently back at the creature.


The rest of the Cullens looked expectantly at Edward. They knew from his sharp intake that he'd heard something worrying in someone's mind. They following his line of vision, and looked in confusion at the new student. All they knew about him was his name, which wasn't unusual, as they had no interest in the lives of petty humans.

With bated breath, they fixed their gaze on him and waited for him to speak.

Edward slowly turned to his family. "He knows."


Harry's mind was going at a mile a minute. This was supposed to be a completely muggle area, so what were these creatures doing here? He desperately hoped they were non-magical, whatever they were. If they weren't his new life could be over before it had even begun.

Losing his appetite completely, he turned on the spot and headed out of the room, ignoring the confused looks that Jess was shooting at him.

As he reached the door, he felt a strong gaze focused on his retreating form. He knew without a doubt that if he turned around, he'd be looking into golden eyes.

Golden eyes… those words stirred some vague recognition in Harry. However, the harder he tried to recall the memory, the more it evaded him. Eventually he conceded defeat and headed outside to get some fresh air.


Walking into biology, his heart plummeted as he realised that the only empty seat was next to one of them. Summoning his Gryffindor courage, he made his way to the desk. When he lowered himself into the seat, he noticed the creature shoot him a look of complete surprise, before it disappeared just as quickly.

Harry pointedly ignored the thing next to him, and pulled out a slightly crumpled notebook and a pen from his bag. He scribbled on the top corner of the first page and suppressed a sigh. After using a quill and parchment for so long, it would take him a little while to get used to a pen and paper again. At least he didn't have to worry about replenishing ink pots.

A clearing of a throat brought him out of his musing. "Hello, I'm Edward Cullen."

Harry turned, and scrutinised him. Deciding the creature meant him no harm at this current moment in time, he decided that politeness was the way forward. "James Black" he said, trying to copy Edward's crooked grin. To Harry's surprise, Edward stiffened.

"Any relation to Jacob Black?"

Harry raised his eyebrow at Edward's obvious discomfort and decided to ignore the fact that he seemed to be surreptitiously sniffing the air.

"He's a Native American, lives on the Quileute Reservation just outside Forks."

Harry shrugged. "Doesn't ring a bell."

An awkward silence fell, which was broken by the arrival of the teacher. Harry felt a wave of despair, as he realised that he didn't understand a single thing that Mr Banner was saying. Maybe the Dursleys were right after all. Maybe he was just a stupid freak. At least at Hogwarts he kept up, but here, in a muggle school he knew absolutely nothing. Useless.

He was brought out of his reverie by the teacher loudly banging down a strange looking contraption on the desk in front of him. He eyed it in confusion, but instantly stopped when he heard a soft snickering coming from beside him. Whipping around, he glared forcefully into laughing golden eyes, which instantly turned apologetic.

"Sorry, sorry" he murmured. "Do you want to go first with the microscope, or should I?"

Not wanting to look like an idiot for not knowing what the retched thing did, Harry pushed the 'microscope' towards the other boy. He watched as Edward reached out to take it from him, and he jumped in shock when a freezing cold hand brushed against his own.

All of a sudden, he remembered.

In second year

Lockhart ran his long fingers through his golden hair, preening as a faint sigh emanated from the females in the room. Swirly his cape dramatically, he began the lesson.

"Vampires" he announced "are what we will be studying today".

At the shocked gasps in the class, his smile widened. "Please get out your copies of 'Voyages with Vampires', which incidentally is own of my own works, and turn to the first chapter 'Identification'!"

Along with his classmates, Harry obediently turned to the appropriate page. He skimmed through the listed features; beautiful pale skin, sharp teeth, red eyes. It was nothing he couldn't have guessed after reading Dracula in primary school, he thought. Then his eyes were drawn to a small sub-section at the bottom of the page.

Vegetarian Vampires.

So-called 'vegetarian vampires' gained their name from their unwillingness to feed from humans. Instead they feed only from animals, which changed the colour of their eyes from red to gold. Not an entirely accurate label for them if you ask me, but there you go. I was fortunate enough to meet one once, lovely fellow…

Present time

In his panic, Harry felt his occlumency barriers crumble to nothing.


'VAMPIRE'

Edward cringed as the thought loudly echoed in his head. The human knew exactly what they were. Before he could think clearly about what he was doing, he jumped up and ran from the room, leaving a trail of falling sheets of paper behind him.


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