Hope is quite a fascinating force. It is amazingly strong, yet so insanely fragile, so utterly delicate and dependent upon the intangible. Hope requires a beacon to survive, a grounding point to coax together beliefs and dreams and stir them into a promise for the future.
Such promises, in turn, fuel hope. A promise to oneself that they would make something of their life, for example, becomes a goal, something to hope for.
It becomes something to keep marching on for.
Of course, hope is all the more frighteningly frail when you are dependent on another to fulfill promises for the future.
Such as trusting a fallen comrade to pick him or herself up from the battlefield, to be simply fine. For what can you do? Can you tell a heart to beat in a steady rhythm once strummed? Can you demand blood pound around a lifeless body, bring a flush to pale skin and banish the creeping blue of death from lips?
What can you do but hope that stuttering breath and glazed eyes will even and clear, and ailments will fade away until they are nothing but memories of a time long passed?
You can wail and gnash your teeth, pace and curse, create ingenious inventions to stimulate an illusion of life, even bring a flickering spirit back from the cusp of Hades' grasp.
Yet none of this, absolutely none, can guarantee that a comrade will embrace you once more, a tilting smile will dance upon lively lips or crinkling lines will stem from joyous eyes.
But hope can whisper promises of sweet laughter, startling happiness and the engulfing warmth of both body and soul.
Hope can maintain a seemingly endless stream of murmured oaths as you gaze upon a broken shell of a friend, hope can keep you from falling into rage and suffering as you heart screams and demands retribution.
So there lies the strength and benefits of hope. As does its fragility.
After a while, the once never-ending stream of promises falters, fading in strength for an almost hellish moment before regaining momentum and continuing. This will continue, over and over until hope is naught but an empty, weary croak, brokenly repeating apparently failed promises.
Just like that is how hope's fragility tears it apart. Hope can never deliver, only a tangible force contains the power to do so, hope can only help you bide your time.
In hope's death, it takes something with it. A little part of reassurance and belief in your ailing companion or suffering dreams, and it cuts deeper than any physical wound could hope to achieve.
A promise was entrusted unto that companion, wrapped in hope and belief. It was a promise that was expected to be cared for, maintained and delivered. In the failure to do so, a betrayal was committed, one that could never seem legitimate under logical questioning and rational behavior but one nonetheless.
Wherein the situation hope has been disintegrated, falling in tattered pieces to the more feral parts of the heart yet then the original promise is fulfilled, albeit lately, an almost peculiar thing happens.
The reassurance and belief that had been lost in the companion isn't quite restored, perhaps it retracts the barest amount, or even doubles with irrational resentment and loathing. But all those negative feelings and thoughts rebounds, homes in on their caster and targets the delicate part of the heart guarding self-esteem. The negativity attacks it immediately, sinks harsh claws into any self-positivity instantly and demands that retribution is wrought upon you. For you dared to loose yourself to your doubt.
Rationality is useless upon lost hope. More often than not, it results in the slightest hint of insanity.
So it is, Harry muses, quite fascinating. How a force designed to keep you moving forward is the same that can utterly destroy you.
HPxTxHPxTxHPxTxHP
"He is dangerous."
"And we aren't?" Alice's question was fierce. Snaking out short and brutal, a sure sign her patience was wearing thin.
"Would you risk us all?" Edward hissed, eyes smoldering with rage as he paced the living room with silently brisk steps, the eyes of his family watching his every move from their own vantage points.
"There is no risk."
Their argument had been tortuously dragged over barbed words and stinging accusations for many a hour. The key subject being the safety of the presence of the apparent wizard that Alice and Jasper's potential mate was.
"You didn't see what I did! He is as dangerous as the Volturi! Perhaps even more so"
"Now Edward, be reasonable-" Carlisle began to inject before Edward snarled harshly in agitation. His father sighing as he once more reclined against a wall
"I am!"
"Eddy, it's hardly as if a mere human could destroy us." Emmet cut in, bemusement coloring his tone as it had for all his previous comments.
"Our mate is not just a mere-"
"He is a wizard. They are far more than a human."
"Edward you have never even encountered one! None of us have aside Carlisle! He is the only reason we ever knew of their existence!" Alice snapped, glaring as Jasper sent a faint wave of calm in her general direction, despite his assurances not to influence the debate.
"Yes, yes! But I have seen enough!"
"Obviously not enough!"
"They are murderers! They slaughter all they deem unworthy! Inhuman. We wouldn't have a chance if confronted." Edwards expression faltered the faintest amount, the rage and desperation giving way to pleading and fear.
"Well, isn't someone being melodramatic." Rosalie muttered, reclining against Emmet on luxurious white leather lounge.
"Enough!" Carlisle stepped forward, snapping his arms out either side in a calming gesture, "Alice, Edward, you must stop this. There is much to this neither of you understand. A glimpse into a single mind is not sufficient for you to base decisions upon, even if it was Harry's of all peoples."
"Care to enlighten us?" Rosalie piped up, bored as Edwards eyes narrowed, the usual smooth veneer of Carlisle mind in minor tumult. Thoughts and ideas sprouting of it that Edward could barely make heads or tails of.
"I do not know nearly enough to explain. But know this, he could destroy us but-"
"Exactly." Edward threw in, snapping out of his contemplation.
"Edward." Carlisle warned, his expression speaking far louder than words. "As I was saying, he won't. No more then Jasper would."
Edwards eyes narrowed in on his coven leader suspiciously, the mans thoughts forming into a clear story that was in no way going to help resolve the issue.
"And you mean by that…?" Jasper himself raised the question stirring on the tips of the gatherings tongues. His tone mildly curious, not in the least resentful or even defensive, as one might expect.
"There was a war, part of which you must of glimpsed Edward, it was mainly contained to Britain, but it was brutal. The instigators of the war had drawn many of the outcasts of society them. Outcasts such as Werewolves, Vampires and other creatures coined as Half-Breeds, anything that wasn't completely human." Carlisle paused, lips pursed an eyes distant for a moment for Alice prompted him with a little hum of acknowledgment.
"So when it came to battle, there would have been many fallen "Half-Breeds" you would have seen their downfall at the hands of wizards." He summed up rather anti climatically, although none of them didn't really know what to expect, not even Edward.
"Aren't you supposed to be convincing us to trust the little human?" Emmet asked, hand waving in the air in an unnecessary bid for attention.
"I am." Carlisle placated calmly. "Those felled at the hand of Harry would have wrecked havoc if not stopped. Yet he would have fought alongside others of our kind as well. When the time comes, he will know we are safe."
"But-"
"No Edward, Alice has seen it. A vision of such clarity is all but certain. You know this." Jasper slid in smoothly, drifting up behind his wife a sliding an arm around her waist.
"Say it doesn't." Edward pleaded. Eyes wide in desperation to be heard and understood.
"That won't happen." The reply came calmly and surely.
"You don't know that. Mere hours ago you had your reservations too." Edward pointed out. Jasper's thoughts and opinions had changed radically through the day.
"That was my uncertainty in Harry accepting and joining us, not if he was dangerous." Jasper looked slightly crestfallen at his previous actions but maintained steady eye contact with his brother, barely holding back the flood of emotions he so desperately wished to unleash to calm and sooth his family.
"And those fears just disappeared?" Rosalie injected incredulously. One of her perfectly arched eyebrows raised a minuscule amount yet perfectly conveyed her disbelief.
"They are still there Rosalie, just lessened; I have faith in Alice and her vision."
Edward snorted derisively, eyes rolling.
"Aw, is Eddy jealous?" Emmet said gleefully, a wide, blazing grin creeping across his face.
"Really? I wish to keep my family safe and you believe me to be jealous over a boy who may destroy us?" Edward accused, eyebrows drawn together and forehead creased in almost dramatic agitation.
"No, just that you haven't stopped brooding long enough to go out and get some while Jazzy and Alice will soon be having smoking threesomes." Emmet's grin turned salacious as his eyebrows wiggled suggestively at the aforementioned couple.
"Emmet!" Alice shot out, appalled.
"What?"
"Honey, as crude as the suggestion is, maybe Emmet does have a point?" Esme suggested, one of her first interactions aside observation in the proceedings.
"Are you honestly-"
"Hear me out darling, you haven't found that special someone yet and Alice and Jasper are expecting a third mate, it could stir up some resentment." Her tone was gentle and placating, but Edward could quite clearly hear the raging maternal concern fighting to break out from beneath the calm mask of her face.
"That is where you are taking this, seriously?" It was, of course, typical for Esme to fret over Edward romantic prospects, finding every opportunity to needle them into conversation.
"We aren't suggesting your fears are irrational, but have faith. Jasper had been trained to kill and destroy our kind as well, yet he has never raised a hand nor thought against us." Jasper suppressed a flinch at that harsh reminder of his past and earlier distrust aimed at his from the people he had grown to love and cherish. But he added his own to the conversation once more.
"Do you not trust me, Edward?"
"It isn't the same." Edward tore out, reeling in frustration as his pacing stopped and he spun to stare beseechingly at his family.
"He is right." Rosalie threw in, unconcerned but for the beginnings of anger on her perfectly preserved face.
"Really Rosalie, this was almost done!" Emmet groaned.
"Think of the attention he will attract. A wizard. A mortal capable of killing Vampires! Our kind will grow curious, they will investigate, the Volturi may very well come themselves!" Her anger grew, irrationally swelling without any prior warning as she thought of the ramifications of welcoming a wizard into her family. Despite the fact she had been rather removed from the entire situation since Alice and Edward had released their conflicting news in the car journey homeward.
"If the need arises, we will protect a member of the family. We have allies." Alice pointed out, her entire manner having grown non-threatening and lax whilst the heat was of her for a few moments despite the rising tension.
"There you are again! Prepared to have us all slaughtered for a boy you have barely met in the flesh!" Edward exploded. His own manner having grown all the more frustrated.
"I was prepared to die for you when you were only visions in my head!" Alice snapped, eyes ablaze once more, even as her body remained calm.
"STOP!" Esme shouted, an abrupt silence draping over the room at her outburst as her children gazed at her, utterly startled.
"This will keep going on and on, we will keep finding a reason to argue against the happiness of your siblings! But nothing will be resolved, nothing will happen except fighting and resent! And I will not accept that in my house!" Her tongue flickered out over her lips in an entirely pointless, human gesture as she sternly stared down Edward and Rosalie.
"We will give this a chance. We will accept Harry and we will not force him out of Alice and Jasper's lives. Just like we wouldn't force you other half from you Rosalie! Or you Edward, when you fall in love!" She held his gaze for a few long moments. The tension palpable and sickening.
"I don't want to loose the family we have built. He could destroy us." Edward spoke softly, body winding down in defeat even as he pitched one last plea.
"Or he could complete your brother and sister. Is that such a bad thing? Do you wish them unhappiness?" Esme asked gently, watching as Edward expression twisted to horror.
"Never!"
"Then you must let this happen. All of you."
HPxTxHPxTxHPxTxHP
Harry screamed, arching up as a jagged keen tore through his raw, ripped throat. Alice straddled the writhing figure's hips, entrapping his arms by his sides as Harry cried out again, snapping his head to and fro against the sweat drenched mattress.
Jasper hurried to his mates head, gently stilling the thrashing skull, placing his cool palms either side of Harry's burning temple. Pale, elegant fingers splayed down his vividly flushed cheeks as Jasper softly, but firmly, contained Harry's agitated squirming, lest Harry cause himself further injury.
Harry stilled, chest heaving rapidly as involuntary tears, tinged with the barest hint of crimson, leaked from the corners of tightly screwed eyes.
It was hours later, with the moon glowing dimly in the far distance and Jasper silently entangled around her on their bed, physically and emotionally supporting her in the wake of another vision, that Alice contemplated Esme's last words.
Something horrible was going to happen in the midst of happiness, something that she was sure of.
Should she let in happen, would she even have the choice?
Could she dare hope that it wouldn't occur, that she could be granted happiness without having to pay in pain and blood?
No.
There is something to be said in hope's fragility and sheer absurdness. Alice knows that. In all her years she has learnt of how unstable it was, and how heart wrenching it was when it proved fruitless.
She had known many a man to loose himself in the depths of despair when it failed them.
But those men and lost faith in hope, so it in turn, had lost faith in them.
Alice had never been one to loose faith.
What had to pass, she would let pass. And she would make it through, dragging her mates alongside her.
I'M ALIVE
This has been sitting on my computer a while, but I just couldn't find the motivation to get the rest out.
So have a half chapter.
You wouldn't of actually gotten this is Calliech28 hadn't accidently reminded me.
heh, sorry.