Thank you again for your reviews! I love hearing about your reactions to the story :)

When the sun started to peep up over the horizon, Edward was still perched at the top of a tree in the middle of the forest. His golden eyes stared unseeing, as his mind went over what he had heard the day before.

Up until then, Edward had always thought they were on the right side of the war.

Voldemort had promised them what the so-called 'light side' was reluctant to do: give rights to magical creatures. He had wanted to rid the world of potential threats such as muggles finding out about the wizarding world. Although Edward didn't agree with all of his ideas on muggles and muggleborns, he could still see where he was coming from. He'd heard of several cases where whole villages of muggles had been obliviated thanks to the parents of muggleborns excitedly telling all of their neighbours about the wizarding world. His family worried about exposure on a daily basis too.

However, now he thought about it, he hadn't exactly been sad, or even angry, when the famous Harry Potter had killed their leader. If fact, he'd secretly been hoping to finally have some peace. In a way, he was almost grateful to the boy.

However, the remaining death eaters wanted revenge, and revenge they would have. Naturally the vampires, along with all their other allies had been drawn into it too.

After hearing the barbaric thoughts in the head of his own father, he thought that maybe he had been wrong. The older vampire had been thinking about a raid he was planning at a wizarding settlement in Seattle compromising mostly of muggleborns. Although, 'raid' was probably to neutral a word; the images in Carlisle's mind had been more along the lines of bloodshed and ruthless slaughter.

Carlisle had always seemed so compassionate and loving, especially with his job as a doctor, but now Edward could see the cold reality: he was bloodthirsty and sadistic.

How had he not seen it? He felt so stupid. He'd had access to the older vampire's mind for decades, but he'd never seen anything that indicated how cruel he could be.

Knowing what he knew now, there was no way that he could continue to follow his adopted father like a loyal sheep. Maybe James would be on the other side? There was no way he could do this alone.

Sirius woke up to the smell of frying bacon, and eagerly bounded downstairs.

When he reached the kitchen, he threw himself onto a chair and announced, "I'm going on another job hunt today, so I think I'm gonna need LOTS of bacon!" He just hoped he would actually find something today, as he'd had no luck whatsoever so far.

Harry chuckled. "Good! I hate being the only one suffering during the day."

Sirius pouted.

"Cheer up Padfoot." Harry said, pushing a plate of bacon in front of him. "We can both moan in the evenings over how rubbish our days have been."

The animagus hummed his approval. He licked his lips and stared at the plate longingly, wishing his godson would hurry up so they could start eating.

When Harry sat down with his own plate of bacon, they tucked in, settling into a comfortable silence.

Pushing his empty plate to one side, Harry turned to his godfather. "I should warn you, I'll be home late tonight. I've got a tutoring session."

The animagus wrinkled his nose. "Tutoring?"

"Yeah." Harry sighed. "I can't believe we forgot that I was so behind in muggle schooling."

Sirius smacked his palm against his forehead. "Urg I'm such an idiot! How could we not think of that?"

"It's alright, I'll just have to put in some extra work. Besides, it's not as if I desperately need good grades anyway." he said, attempting to reassure the older wizard.

Laughing, Sirius agreed, "Yeah bank of mummy and daddy has set you up well."

Harry glowered at his godfather and headed upstairs to get ready for school, calling over his shoulder, "Your turn to wash up!"

At the beginning of biology Edward did his best to get James up to speed with the current topic. Despite his rushed explanation, the other boy seemed to understand, and looked more confident about the lesson ahead.

Once Mr Banner set their work, the class started up hushed conversations. Remembering that he hadn't seen James at lunch, Edward questioned him about it.

"Well, I couldn't exactly sit with Jess after the mess at lunch yesterday." Harry grinned despite himself.

The vampire laughed. "True." he agreed.

Harry turned his attention to the diagram in front on him, and attempted to fill in some more of the labels. When he'd done as many as he could, he pushed it across the table towards Edward, biting his lip nervously.

Edward was pleasantly surprised, as he had only needed to correct one of the labels. "You're a fast learner." he said to James approvingly.

Harry flushed. He was still unused to praise, especially after all those years of Snape being rude about even his best potions.

Noticing that James was becoming uncomfortable, he turned the conversation back to lunch. "You know." Edward started casually. "You could always sit with me in the cafeteria." Then he winked, and said "I don't bite."

Fighting the snort that threatened to burst out, Harry admitted, "I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable around your family." Suddenly he realised that it could be taken the wrong way and added, "It's nothing against them: I'm just wary of people I don't know."

Edward didn't mind: he himself now felt uncomfortable around his family. He was just eternally grateful that he was the one with the mind-reading ability, as he knew he'd find it hard to mask the disgust that now filled his thoughts.

He was startled by a prod on his arm. He turned to James startled, until he realised that he'd zoned out, and not given him a response.

"Sorry" he apologised sheepishly. "I understand. I think I could tear myself away from them to keep you company over lunch."

Harry felt oddly flattered that Edward would be willing to ditch his family for him. He replied, "Well that would be nice, so long as I don't offend your family. I could do with someone friendly to sit with. As you know, I'm not exactly fighting off hoards of people who are waiting to befriend me."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his smile slipped off his face. He was sure that the sting of the betrayal of his friends would never truly leave. Ron and Hermione had felt like siblings to him and it hurt so much to know that they didn't feel the same. So many people at Hogwarts had been desperate to make friends with him, but having everyone leave him alone here wasn't the welcome break he'd anticipated.

Edward looked at the boy's sad expression quizzically, but decided that it was best not to question him. Deciding to change the subject he offered, "Would you like to start the tutoring this afternoon? I could meet you in the library after last lesson?"

Pulling himself out of his depressing thoughts, Harry dredged up a smile, and agreed.

To take James' thoughts off whatever unpleasant tangent they were going in, Edward decided to explain the current topic in more depth.

Thanks to the fact that understanding the information took a lot of his concentration, Harry's thoughts were successfully diverted.

By the time the lesson drew to an end, Harry was feeling much more confident about passing biology. He was incredibly grateful to the vampire for helping him out, as he was shaping up to be a very good tutor.

Esme looked up as the door of her cake shop tinkled softly. A man with wavy hair and a roguish smile stepped over in the doorway, and ambled his way over to the counter.

"How can I help you sir?" she asked pleasantly.

"I don't suppose you have any jobs going do you?" Before she could answer, Sirius continued desperately, "My godson will probably kill me if I haven't found one by the time he gets home from school."

Esme smiled, and began to laugh when he winked at her and added, "And you wouldn't want to be responsible for my death now, would you?"

Another tinkle of the door announced the last remaining customer leaving. After glancing at the clock and seeing that it was almost 5 o'clock, she gestured towards a table. When the man took a seat, she locked the door and changed flipped over the sign so that it said 'CLOSED'.

She grabbed a slice of victoria sponge cake, and sat down, placing a plate in front of her potential employee. "Do you have a CV?"

He handed her a slightly crumpled sheet of paper, and looked hopeful as she scanned her eyes over it. This was the furthest he'd got out of the places he'd visited, but he didn't want to get his hopes up too much.

For something to do, he picked up the slice of cake and took a bite. He closed his eyes in pleasure. He could definitely enjoy working here if he got free cake.

When she read his name, there was a flicker of recognition. "Paddy Black? I believe your godson knows my adoptive son Edward. I'm Esme Cullen."

Sirius fought to keep his expression neutral at the knowledge that she was one of the vamps. How had he not realised!? Some ex-auror he was. However, he thought mischievously, that certainly explained why she was so damned good looking!

Seeing a slight flicker in the man's eyes, her smile faltered slightly. All of a sudden, understanding dawned on her. "I take it you know about us?" she asked softly. When he nodded, she assured him, "If my… condition doesn't bother you, it wouldn't bother me to have a wizard working for me."

Sirius' ears pricked up. "Does that mean you're willing to give me a job?" he asked eagerly.

Making her way over to the counter, she cast an eye over the staff rota. "I'm sure we can find you some hours, one of my staff just got married and moved away."

"Excellent!" he beamed. "Although, I think I'll need to a bit of help with muggle technology. You don't even want to know what a mess I made of our toaster the other day."

Esme giggled, and was surprised to realise that she was actually looking forward to working alongside this man.

Sirius was starting to think that maybe he'd overreacted when Harry told him about the Cullens. Esme was so friendly, and if the rest of her family were the same, they clearly had little to worry about. How bad could someone who worked in a cake shop be? It was hardly the sort of thing a death eater would do. His lips quirked as he thought of his dear cousin Bellatrix in a frilly apron behind the counter.

Thinking for a minute, Esme said, "You'll only need to learn about the till and the coffee machine, but I suppose they could be a bit challenging for you."

Sirius knew a bit about coffee machines, thanks to his godson's daily fix, but he was at a loss with the other bit of technology. "A… till?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh dear!" Esme laughed, "I can see I've got my work cut out with you."

Winking, the animagus responded suggestively, "Oh, I'm definitely a handful!"

Had there still been blood running through her veins, Esme would have blushed. It had been decades since someone had flirted with her, so it was unusually enjoyable to have the attention.

"How about you come back at 9 tomorrow morning? It shouldn't be too busy, so we'll have spare time to teach you the ropes."

Despite being bemused by the muggle expression he hurriedly agreed.

On his way out of the door, he bowed dramatically and declared, "Until tomorrow, my fair maiden!" Seeing her suppress a laugh, he was pleased to note that he definitely still had his charm.

Harry picked a table in a secluded corner of the library and pulled out his books. He was nervous, but also oddly looking forward to his first tutoring session with Edward. Despite the fact that he was a vampire, and potentially an enemy, Harry had started to enjoy his company. As strange as it was, he was the closest thing that he had to a friend.

Edward caught sight of James, and hurriedly made his way over.

"Hey, I thought we could start with trig today, as I'll be with you in bio to help you along anyway."

Harry groaned. He had always hated maths, even at primary school when long division was the hardest thing he'd be faced with. However, he realised that it was a necessary evil, so he opened his maths textbook.

Edward started off with the basics, explaining 'sin', 'cos' and 'tan' as thoroughly as possible. When he thought that James understood sufficiently, he decided to make some diagrams to test him on.

When he leaned over to grab a sheet of paper, he noticed a bruise on the side of the other boy's face. "What happened there?" he asked, pointing at the oddly coloured skin.

Harry lowered his eyes and blushed. "The blonde boy that I got into an argument with decided to throw a basketball at me in gym."

Edward laughed. "Oh! Who would have thought that innocent little Mike could be so violent?" The mental image of Mike pelting James with flying balls was just too funny.

Glowering at the vampire, Harry pointedly turned back to the textbook.

Suppressing his laughter so as not to upset James, Edward quickly sketched a diagram and pushed it along the table to him.

Using the time it took the wizard to finish the task, he drew up some more slightly challenging ones.

At the end of the hour, Edward was astounded by how well the other boy was doing. It was nice to see instant results, which was something he'd rarely seen in people he'd been forced to help in the past. If James learned everything this fast, he would definitely be an absolute pleasure to tutor. "Same time tomorrow?"

Carlisle had called a family meeting, so the Cullens sat dutifully around the large dining table.

"The Carrows have sent word of our next mission" the oldest vampire said gravely.

Emmett cheered and punched the air in excitement. "About time!" he exclaimed. "What are we doing this time?"

"The wizarding in Seattle is predominantly made up of muggleborns, and our orders are total annihilation."

Cracking her knuckles, Rosalie smiled sadistically. "It's time we got to show some useless humans their place."

"Not that I dislike the idea, but why do this in particular?" Jasper queried.

Carlisle thought carefully about his answer, before saying, "Most of the war is concentrated in Great Britain, but an attack here will show the Order of the Phoenix that we still mean business."

Esme cleared her throat timidly and said anxiously, "Carlisle, you wouldn't mind if I sat this one out would you? You know I'm not fond of violence."

Rubbing her arm in a soothing manner, he assured her that it wouldn't be a problem.

"I've got some other news." Esme started nervously. "The elder wizard is going to start working at the cake shop."

At her husband's raised eyebrow, she hastened to give an explanation. "He was in need of a job, and I thought I could keep an eye on him, and try to gain information."

She hoped that would be enough to bring Carlisle around to the idea. Obviously there had been no ulterior motives when she met Paddy; she had just thought he seemed like a lovely person. She had also thought it would also be nice to be able to act herself around him, and not need to cover up her vampirism.

As Edward caught Esme's thoughts he starred resolutely at the table. Maybe he could find an ally in her, as she never seemed completely comfortable with their missions. It was vital that his family believed he was loyal to the cause, but he like Esme he couldn't go through with this. They'd been given less than pleasant tasks in the past, but he had never had to murder anyone before.

Seeing that his adoptive father still looked unconvinced, he had a brainwave. "Esme, you could make sure that he's doing a shift when the rest of us go to Seattle! That way we should be less under suspicion."

Carlisle looked impressed. "Good thinking Edward."

Esme smiled at Edward gratefully, and upon seeing his pleading look she suggested, "Maybe one more of us should stay here? One of the boys perhaps, so it looks less suspicious than everyone but me leaves?"

"Who do you suggest?" questioned Carlisle, eyeing her oddly.

Edward thought quickly. It was now or never, but he had to make this sound good. "I would be willing to step down from this mission. Like Esme, I dislike the thought of killing others. This way I can ensure that no one will suspect our family, so we will be safe to continue living here."

Although he was still mistrustful of his eldest son's reasoning, Carlisle nodded and then turned his attention to the day of the attack.

When Jasper and Emmett started to suggest possible battle plans, Edward zoned out, trying to think of a way to talk to Esme in secret.

A hushed silence caught his attention, and he looked around to see that Alice's eyes had glassed over. After a few moments, he watched as a huge grin spread across her pixie features. "It will all go perfectly!"

Carlisle looked at her in confusion. "I thought you couldn't see wizards' futures?"

"I couldn't see James'." she corrected. "Although, I have to admit that at first I assumed it would be the same for all of them, so I don't understand why he seems to be the exception to my gift."

Thinking back on what James had told him yesterday. He said thoughtfully, "When we talked about my gift, he said that he can somehow 'block' his mind. Maybe that stops your gift too?"

Nodding, Carlisle agreed. "That does sound like the most likely explanation." Looking at the rest of his family, he said, "I think we will just need to be extra cautious where he is concerned." Once he had their verbal agreement, he turned back to his eldest son, and asked, "Talking of James, how are things coming along with him? Have you made any more progress?"

"We had our first tutoring session today, although he didn't tell me anything of importance." Seeing the annoyed look on the older vampire's face, Edward continued hastily, "However, he's agreed to have lunch with me in the future, so that should give me an opportunity to become friendlier with him."

Carlisle sat back in his chair looking satisfied. It seemed he'd managed to do something right after all.

Then Rosalie sneered. "I refuse to sit with him."

Stifling a sigh, Edward replied, "You won't have to, I will be eating with him alone at a separate table."

"Good riddance!"