Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Twilight.
Rosalie's POV
I prided myself in the fact that out of every member of the family I am the only one that has never fed off of a human, the only one that had never lost control of my inner beast. Even Carlisle and Esme had slipped up when they were newborns, but when I opened the door to Harry's hospital room I could feel the need to kill rip through me like a tidal wave and I didn't even try to stop myself as I ripped the foul smelling horse woman from the bed where she had been trying to suffocate the still weak boy and flung her into the wall before making sure that the young man that seemed to have my entire family wrapped around his too small fingers was alright.
His eyes were overly large as he looked up at me while taking large breathes and tears started pouring down his face as his eyes swiveled around to see his aunt still glaring at him from where she had slid down the wall. "You tried to kill me!"
I had to grip the railing at the side of the hospital bed almost hard enough to bend the metal as I turned to look at the true monster here. Her eyes were filled with rage and just a touch of insanity as she stumbled to her feet and let loose a glare that could burn holes through cement. "I never wanted to take a freak like you into my normal house but I had no choice; those other freaks wouldn't let me get rid of you. I left you at orphanages and in back alleys and they always put you back into that cupboard before I woke up the next morning. I should have just let Vernon drown you like he wanted to and then I wouldn't have had to feed and clothe an abnormal child like you." The woman began to turn purple as her voice raised even more and she started flailing her arms like a mad woman, seemingly unaware of the large group of nurses that had gathered outside of the room. "Your mother was a worthless freak whore that married a rich freak and spawned you without thinking about anyone but herself. Then she and that husband of hers got themselves killed and we had to take you in and you caused us nothing but trouble. We had to spend money that should have gone to buying presents for Dudley on you, we had to feed you with food that should have gone to Dudley and all you did was spread your filth with your very presence."
"You're nothing but a burden, a freak; no one could ever love something as foul as you." The woman seemed to delight in the sob that her comment caused. "All you will ever be good for is manual labor and being a whore just like your mother."
I felt something inside me snap as I found myself standing nose to nose with the filthy excuse for a human; she proved that many humans weren't worth the dirt on my heels. I had barely remembered to move like a human and my voice had just enough of a growl in it to cause the blood to drain out of the woman's face. "The only disgusting freak here is you; your very presence causes my stomach to roll. You are pound for pound the ugliest thing that I have ever had the intense displeasure of laying eyes on and your personality is every bit as foul." I could vaguely hear the mummers of agreement from the watching nurses. "You are nothing but an ugly shrew that was probably jealous because your sister was everything that you aren't; pretty, intelligent and kind. She married a man that was well off and loved her while you married the first creature that asked you on a date and bore that brute of a son that does nothing but laze around and try to bully those smaller then he is. Women like you should all be neutered, because you are the farthest thing from a mother that could possibly exist and you don't deserve to even have the ability. I can honestly say that you are the worst excuse for a woman that I have ever met and I hope that you get everything that's coming to you ten fold."
A masculine voice drew my attention to the doorway to find that not only was my family there, but Chief Swan was there as well and he looked anything but pleased. "Ms. Cullen, one of the nurses called me and told me that this woman seemed to be having an episode and said some very damaging things and I would like to hear them from you as well if you don't mind coming with me to the station as I book her for disturbing the public."
I looked back at Harry only to find that he had lost consciousness sometime during the conversation and one of the nurses was checking over him and gave me a small smile to let me know that he was perfectly okay; physically speaking anyway. No one could hear their own aunt say something like that without having some kind of nasty reaction. "I don't mind at all; this woman has done far more then disturbing the peace and I would love to tell you all about it."
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Remus' POV
Moony was raging in my head as I looked down at the sorry excuse for a man lying against the wall under the fairly large crater he left when he hit it. To think that Dumbledore had the gull to leave my baby with this thing and his family was more then enough to make my blood boil. Harry was one of the kindest individuals that I had ever met; he seemed to accept everyone for who they were and only got offended when they attacked someone for something that wasn't their fault. During his third year he smacked Ron on the back of the head when Ron had picked on a first year Slytherin just because he was a Slytherin.
I turned and left the doorway of the house without a backward glance as I got back into the local taxi; barely noticing the pleased gleam in the man's eyes. "I need to get to the hospital as fast as you can manage."
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Charlie's POV
I could hardly keep the grin off of my face as I drove to the station with the Dursley woman mumbling from the backseat with Rosalie Cullen sitting in the front looking for all purposes like she was getting a ride to the nail salon. I had been prepared to find just about anything when one of the nurses from the hospital called me up almost frantic about 'the crazy Dursley lady'. I thought that I would find the woman ranting and raving without anything to stop her, not backed up against the wall with the iciest members of the Cullen family telling her off. I'm actually looking forward to hearing everything from her point of view.
The ride was rather short, after all Forks is not the largest of towns. Dursley had to be almost physically dragged through the station before I left her in the stations only holding cell and ignored her complaints as I led Ms. Cullen to one of the more comfortable interrogation rooms and made sure to pull her chair out for her. Something about her always struck me as old fashioned and ladylike.
"Now Ms. Cullen I would like for you to go over everything that you can remember." She sat back in the chair slightly and seemed to take a moment to calm down.
"I was on my way to Harry's room to check on him; at least one member of my family checks on him every day other then my father and it was my turn. As I neared the room I had a very bad feeling and started moving a bit faster when I heard something that sounded like muffled screaming." I felt a lump land in my stomach like a lead weight. "I rushed into the room to find that that foul woman was actually trying to suffocate the boy with his own pillow and I threw her off of him and into a wall before checking to make sure that he was okay. The woman then started to rant about how she had never wanted to take him into her home but that she was forced to by 'the freaks'. She mentioned that word and others like it several times as she proceeded to tell Harry that his mother was a whore that married a rich freak and then got herself killed. She also mentioned that she should have let her husband drown him when he was a baby. The worst comment that she made was the one at the end that I'm sure you heard and I refuse to speak such filth." The look in her eyes told me exactly how greatly those last words had managed to anger her, not that I could blame her.
"Thank you very much, Ms. Cullen. If I need to ask you anything else I'll be sure to give you a call." She barely waited for me to finish before she stood and made her way into the station proper, most likely to call one of her siblings to give her a ride back to the hospital.
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Remus' POV
The ride to the hospital was blissfully short as the taxi pulled up to the front door with a slight squealing of tires. The driver took the money that I handed him without even checking to make sure that it was all there. "You need to be careful now, those Dursleys are some of the foulest people this town has ever seen and there are still two left for you to run into. Make sure that if you throw them into walls that none of the nurses or doctors sees you do it." He pulled away without a backward glance and I spun on my heel to enter the sliding glass doors to the small hospital.
The nurses were gathered in large groups at several parts of the main area of the waiting room and seemed to be slightly unhinged and as I neared the closest group they looked up at me simultaneously. "Is there anything that we can help you with, sir?" The oldest nurse was the one that spoke up as she stepped to the front of the group. She reminded me of Poppy.
I took a deep breath to calm Moony before I even tried to talk, no sense scaring the woman after all. "Yes, it has recently come to my attention that my other half gave our son to one of our friends as they couldn't have children. Unfortunately they were killed many years ago and he was given to people that he should have never met. His mother," it took everything I had to keep a straight face, "has been incapacitated for over a decade and has just now come back around and I would like to take custody of my son."
The woman's eyes seemed to light up with hope. "Would your son happen to be currently named Harry Potter?"
"Yes, our friends were Lily and James Potter." It didn't surprise me that she immediately knew who I was talking about; this town is so small that he is the only child that I could really be talking about.
A smile lit up her face and I could tell that I had just made her day. "That's wonderful news; the only reason that we haven't been able to press charges against the Dursleys is because we didn't want to have to place him with an orphanage. If you submit to a DNA test and it proves you are the father then we can place him with you."
Something in my stomach started to turn violently. "What kind of charges will you need to put on the Dursleys and why is my son in the hospital to begin with?" The look on her face was one that told me that whatever she had to say was something that I was most certainly not going to be happy with. I had thought that maybe he had broken a bone; he does have a tendency to get into trouble without any outside help.
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Carlisle's POV
After Rosalie left with Chief Swan the nurses gravitated back towards the entrance after making sure that the boy was stable. The rest of my family, barring Jasper as he couldn't be around the blood in the hospital, crowded into the room to make our own assessment of the health of the little human boy that had managed to wrap us around his finger without hardly saying a word.
Emmett looked rather amusing as he towered over Harry's unconscious form and placed his hand on his forehead. "He's running a bit hot."
A growl rumbled its way out of Edward's throat. "That's not surprising considering what he's been through. The mere thought that a human like his aunt could attempt to kill her own nephew after he was placed in the hospital for pneumonia is more then enough to drive anyone's temperature up."
I could tell from Edward's tense posture that it was taking all of his willpower to stay in the room with us and not run down Chief Swan and kill Harry's aunt. I've watched him carefully over the last couple of weeks and while I think I already know why he's even more attached to the boy then the rest of us it's something that he will have to tell the family on his own.
"It certainly doesn't say much for humans as a whole." Esme seemed fairly distressed at the thought and I wrapped my arms around her from behind and smiled slightly as I felt her relax against me. "No matter what race of people you look at you'll always find some that are good and others that stray towards the darker side of the spectrum." It pained me to watch as my family's remaining faith in the goodness of humanity was sorely tested but hopefully this experience would make us stronger.
I made my way to the bedside to look down on what I suspected was going to be Edward's other half. He was such a small child and looked like he would break with the slightest pressure but that couldn't be true with all the young man had likely lived through and yet he didn't seem to be nearly as cold-hearted as most abuse cases turned out to be. Hopefully Jasper or Chief Swan would find some way to get Harry out from under the Dursleys without him ending up in an orphanage or worse.
I was broken out of my thoughts when one if the older nurses bustled into the room with determination and casually moved both Emmett and I out of the way before drawing a vial of blood from the boy while everyone in my family other then Edward and I held their breath. "Is there something that you need to check his blood for?"
The nurse turned to me with a smile that I was not expecting to see with everything that had happened this morning. "There is a man here that is claiming to be this young man's biological father and we need the blood to test him. If the test is positive we will be able to file charges on the Dursleys without worrying about where the boy will end up afterwards. Apparently his wife gave the child to a friend of theirs without even telling him that they had had a child and he just now found out from his wife that recently came out of a fairly long period of incapacitation, the poor man wouldn't say anything more about that, and confessed to the whole thing. Since it would mean that the boy isn't even related to the Dursleys it wouldn't be that hard for the father to take custody."
"He's a very polite middle aged man named Remus Lupin. He looks like he would make an excellent father." The nurse glanced at the clock. "Sorry, I need to get this blood to the carrier before he leaves or it will have to wait until tomorrow to be sent to Port Angelus and this really can't wait too long." The nurse bustled out of the room without noticing that she was leaving my family stunned and motionless.
Alice broke the tension with one of her tinkling laughs that seemed to break everyone out of their individual dazes. "Jasper is going to have a fit when he hears that the answer to the whole problem was right under his nose."
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Jacob's POV
I walked into the hospital without a second thought and made my way to the room that held the boy with the emerald eyes. Even with the words I had managed to get from him we would still need somewhere for him to go before Charlie could do anything at all and it was eating me alive inside. I also needed to apologize for forcing him to tell me those things in the first place.
I froze in my tracks as I rounded the corner to the hallway where Harry's room was when I seemed to run into a wall of a horridly sweet smell that burned my nose and I knew it was the Cullen's. It's definitely a smell you never forget and I can't believe that I missed it before and that no one else seemed to catch it. I tried to breathe out of my mouth, which didn't help all that much, as I continued to walk toward his room with a grimace.
The only ones that were missing from their little family were the blond boy that always looks like he has a migraine, Jasper I think, and the other blond, Rosalie. None of them looked the least bit surprised when I opened the door. The big Neanderthal looked at me like he was trying to decide if he could take me in a wrestling match. The rest of them didn't seem too interested in me being there though the bronze one, Edward, seemed to be battling a smile for some reason. "Is there a reason that you all decided to hover over him or is it just the only thing you all have to do in the lovely town of Forks?"
Dr. Cullen looked over at the bed with a look that set me on edge. "Apparently Harry's aunt snapped at the negative feelings of the people in town and decided that it was his entire fault that none of them liked her. She came to the hospital and tried to smother him with a pillow and thankfully my daughter Rosalie entered the room to stop her before she succeeded in killing the poor boy." I could feel the anger bubbling up and had to grab the arm of one of the nearest chairs to keep from punching something. "The shouting that ensued drew the entire hospital's attention as well as Chief Swan. He took Harry's aunt into custody and Rosalie went along as a witness."
"Will they press charges without anyone for Harry to go to if they end up in jail?" My voice ended up coming out as more of a growl than anything else and I noticed that a couple of them tensed at the sound.
Dr. Cullen smiled and chuckled a bit before he answered. "The boy seems to finally have luck on his side; shortly after Rosalie left one of the nurses informed us that there is a man here that claims to be Harry's father. If the test comes back positive he'll be able to claim full custody."
I didn't stay in the room after hearing that, the smell was threatening to make me lose everything that I ate that day and I want to see this 'father' for myself.
I rounded the corner to the waiting room and laid eyes on Harry's 'father'. Every instinct I had was screaming at me that this man was powerful and he knew it. His posture seemed relaxed but there was something about him that set me on edge. His head popped up and I was met with amber eyes that I could almost swear were glowing.
I took a deep breath and closed the distance between us under his unwavering eyes and stopped just short of entering punch range. "Are you Remus Lupin?"
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Remus' POV
The boy that had the gull to stride in here like he owned the place and question me was definitely an Alpha but he has a long way to go before he makes it high enough on the food chain to take me on. "I am, and just who are you?" It took a lot of control to keep the growl out of my voice and from the sudden tension in the boy's body, I hadn't completely succeeded.
"The name is Jacob Black of the Quileute tribe. I come from the reservation on the edge of town." Jacob looked me up and down before meeting my eyes, quite the brave little pup. "I wanted to see if you would make any better of a guardian for Harry than those Dursley things."
The boy took a quick step back as my chest rumbled for a moment before I forced myself to calm down. "He is my son!" I felt the rage flow through me and I grabbed the arm of the nearest chair to ground myself. "The people that he thinks are his parents were some of my very best friends but I had no idea that they couldn't have children because they thought that I couldn't either and didn't want to bring it up. I had to travel to do some work out of the country when my wife found out that she was pregnant and as I had never said anything about children or having them she took it upon herself to decide what to do with the child without my permission. My job was very dangerous but important so she thought that the best option for everyone was to give the child to our friends to bring him up as their own especially as the child already looked a great deal like them. Unfortunately they were murdered on Halloween just a year and a half after Harry was born and my other half was incapacitated. I was so consumed by grief that I didn't apply for custody right away and by the time that I did he had already been placed with those things and I wasn't allowed to do anything about it. My wife just recently came out of it and confessed everything to me and I rushed over here to find my son. Is that enough for you?"
The pup backed up even more and seemed to come to some sort of decision. "You seem to care about him enough, but there are a lot of people who care about Harry and I'm only one of them." He didn't expand on that and walked quickly away from me and out the front door. I chuckled a bit shortly after he left when I realized that he had made very sure to keep me in his sights all the way to the door, smart kid.
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Dumbledore's POV
"The boy needs to be trained; you can't honestly expect him to take on the Dark Lord without any idea what he's doing and still manage to walk away. That luck of his is going to run out eventually." Severus' seemed to be in rare form as he paced in my office and glared at pretty much everything. "I may not like the brat but I don't want him to run out of luck at the wrong time because you decided not to train him for the task that you set him with!"
I stroked my beard and looked at the man that I honestly considered a son. "The boy has had very little joy in his life, his relatives do not treat him as they should but they were the only options that I had at the time. I want him to be allowed to live as a child for as long as possible before forcing him to become a man to save such a fickle world."
The glare that the boy graced me with was the same one that sent quite a few Hufflepuffs to the infirmary every year. "The boy has never been a child, even I can see that he does not truly relate to others his age and often spends time with those several years his senior. The longer that you keep him from learning how to protect himself the harder it is going to be for him to make it to true adulthood. Lily would be furious with you for keeping her baby locked away when you could be making sure that he survived this war whole and relatively unharmed."
This boy certainly knew just where to pick to make the guilt come pouring out. Lily had been like a daughter and she made me swear that I would take care of Harry if anything happened to her and I already failed more times than I am ready to admit. "You are right, as usual, my boy. When Harry comes back to Hogwarts this year I will make sure that he is set up with tutors to help him train and hopefully you and he will set aside your differences for you to join in the tutoring." The stunned look on his face was more than worth it and I covered the smirk with a lemon drop and a twinkle.
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