Two teenaged wizards were sprawled on the living room floor of their home, each attempting to finish their first night's worth of High School Homework. When at last they managed to put away their math and history textbooks, Draco pulled an assignment sheet close to them both.
"This is due on Wednesday, Harry. We should probably start it now."
"Fine," Harry agreed. "But let me bring Teddy down here, ok? I feel guilty after leaving all day."
He got up and retrieved the child from his crib in an upstairs room. Remus' son was asleep for a nap so Harry placed him in a playpen that he pulled next to their work area.
"Alright," he began grabbing a pen and notebook.
"Family- Tree- for- Potter…
…
… "
"Draco?"
The Slytherinwas already scribbling in his own notebook: his pen flying a mile a minute, the heading "MALFOY" clearly visible at the top.
The blond head looked up at Harry.
"I may not be proud of my family, Harry, but I am very proud of my heritage. That is something about me that I don't want to change. Don't worry, I am muggle-izingoccupations and such, but I am keeping my family tree intact." he said his stubbornly, with unmistakable pride in his voice.
"No, that's not what I was going to say. I just don't know much about the Potters- besides my Dad of course. D'you think that I'd be allowed to make a sort of improvised tree?"
"I don't see why not," Draco answered him. He scowled, drawing a line to connect siblings
"ANDROMEDA NARCISSA BELLATRIX "
"Good," said Harry, and he began to write.
Two hours later, the boys each had one poster board and a box stacked against the wall of the living room. Neither had asked the other what their final project looked like, and they had not discussed their possessions.
Draco had suggested that they empty and shrink their Hogwarts trunks to use as their boxes, and Harry had thought it was a brilliant idea. They would already be labeled with their initials and would personalize their presentations a bit more. The boys had a fun time clearing out the old trunks- sorting parchment scraps, broken quills, and forgotten letters before shrinking the cases to a fraction of their original sizes.
After dinner, Harry was playing on the floor of his bedroom with his godson and Draco was shooting sparks into the air with his wand.
"Alright, Malfoy! Let's go for a walk before you burn the house down." Harry was exasperated.
"Oh, excellent!" said the blond boy excitedly. "This was worse than Binns' class."
He whistled through his teeth and Razor bounded into the room with a harness held between his strong jaws.
"Sometimes," Harry thought, "That panther behaves more like a dog."
Razor, upon noticing the snake tank that Harry had constructed within one length of a wall, immediately raced over to it and placed his over-sized paws on the glass.
Anaklusmos loudly voiced her disapproval of having a large furry head in her face.
::Calm yourself, Ana.:: Harry scolded her. ::Just ignore him.::
Draco suppressed a shiver and fastened the harness and leash to Razor's torso.
"You know, that is really so much cooler when it's you speaking it."
Harry didn't have to ask him to clarify the statement as he strapped Teddy into the Snuggly on his back and snapped his wand to a holster on his wrist. Draco also snapped a holster into place and the wizards left the house.
"Where should we wander?" Harry asked his companion. He smoothed the cap that covered Teddy's head.
"I dunno, let's just head toward the village."
Being eight thirty in the evening, there were few people walking around the village of Forks, and the wizards were glad to explore without an overwhelming number of curious passerby. Instead, when they sat outside of a small ice cream shop to enjoy a snack, only three boys approached them.
If you can all them boys, the Hogwarts alumni thought.
They were more like solid slabs of muscle and meat that stood about 6.4', towering over Harry's 5.6' and even Draco's 5.7'
Draco gave his familiar a nudge in the ribs as the panther raised his hackles and growled deep.
Razor was always trying to act tough, but being forever trapped in his adorable "awkward cub" stage, his attempts at intimidation were laughable.
Much to Draco's dismay, the remaining three chairs at their plastic picnic table were drawn out and occupied by the large males. He felt for the want hidden up his sleeve, saw Harry do the same, and made to get up and throw away his empty bowl and spoon. He ignored the invaders.
"Hey, Hey! Where are you going?" a boyish voice called at him, and he gave Razor's leash a sharp tug. The panther would not move and was keeping Draco firmly planted in his char. Draco thought this was extremely odd. Usually, he and razor agreed on everything, but in this case, his familiar would not take his eyes off the boy who had spoken.
Typical- he was the largest of the three.
Sighing, Draco looked at Harry, who seemed very confused by the random visit of the boys, and the aristocrat finally spoke up.
"Who are you, and what do you want?"
Two of the three boys laughed uproariously, and the third silenced them with a look.
"Don't laugh at him! We probably just startled them."
Draco nodded at the stranger sticking up for him, and sneered at the others. They backed up their flimsy chairs, which grated against the concrete sidewalk with an unpleasant sound. Under the streetlight, it became visible that their features were Native American. Draco assumed that the third one was as well. He looked questioningly at that one.
"Well?"
"I'm sorry. My name's Jacob Black. I- well, we, saw you, um, both-" he glanced at Harry, but seemed to only talk to Draco, "and decided to welcome Forks' newest resident-ces…"
He let out his breath in a heavy woosh and ran a hand through his long locks of black hair as though speaking that simple introduction had been terrible work for him. Indeed, it seemed to have been, with all his stuttering and stumbling.
"Jacob Black?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yeh." said the male in question.
"And this is Quil and Embry. We all live on the Quileute Reservation in La Push. And your name is?"
He had been talking to Harry, but oddly only directed his question to Draco.
Harry huffed at being so blatantly ignored, and Quil and Embry snickered again. Draco hadn't noticed anything strange, and was about to introduce himself when Razor suddenly jolted forward and buried his nose into the crotch of Jacob's jeans- sniffing him rather rudely.
"RAZOR!" Draco scolded loudly. He pulled the panther tightly to his side, and to his own surprise, rapped the animal sharply on the nose in discipline.
"I'm sorry," he told the boy. "He never does that. I don't know what his issue is tonight.
My name is Draco Malfoy."
Jacob laughed and shook the pale boy's hand.
"Draco? Awesome name- like Dragon, huh? Well Draco, don't worry about your friend there. I get along quite well with um, dogs and such- he probably just smells another kind of animal on me… um, what is he exactly?"
Draco hesitated for one second too long, and Harry came to his aid.
"Razor is a panther cub, but he's got a genetic growth disorder. A friend of ours trained him up and gave him to Draco a while back. He's got papers and everything. I'm Harry, by the way."
Jacob looked at Harry as though only just realizing that he was actually there. The Gryffindor raised an eyebrow, and Jacob suddenly appeared crushed.
"D'you want to finish our walk with us?" Draco asked the three Quileutes. Harry gaped at him in shock over Jacob's shoulder, and Draco sent him back an "I don't know where it came from, either!" signal with wide eyes, but Jacob jumped up like an over-eager puppy.
"Sure!" he said
"Actually, no-" Embry cut in.
"All three of us have to head back to the Rez. There's something we really have to talk to Jake's dad about."
Jacob's face fell.
"Another time, okay?" he asked Draco almost pleadingly. "Let's hang out. I'll come by on the weekend!"
"Sure," Draco told him. He wasn't sure why it seemed normal for him to talk to this muggle, but he couldn't fins it in himself to say no.
"We should head back anyway. C'mon, Harry."
He clicked his tongue at Razor, who turned away from Jacob and returned to his side.
The two groups of males headed in opposite directions, and as soon as they were out of earshot Jacob jumped on his two best friends, shouting and hooting. The three of them made their way back to La Push shoving, teasing, and laughing with each other.
"Dragon," the largest of the three was thinking.
"That was so random, Draco!" Harry exclaimed when they got back to the house.
"What?" The Slytherin responded innocently. "I was being friendly. Aren't you always telling me to be friendly?"
"Yes, Malfoy. But don't be friendly to the giant ones that look at you like something to eat! Merlin, Draco. Couldn't you tell he was staring at you? He completely ignored me. Don't you think that's weird?"
"Don't be jealous, Potter. Just because I'm attractive…" he placed the back of his hand on his forehead and sighed dramatically.
Harry laughed at his friend's antics.
"Forget it then, mate. I'm just being paranoid. They seemed nice enough. I'm going to bed, see you bright and early!"
With that, Harry carried Teddy upstairs to their respective bedrooms.
Draco knelt down and cupped Razor's face in his hands.
"What was that all about, Razor?"
The cub purred deep in it's chest and butted his head against Draco's palms.
"Yeah, I guess so," Draco sighed. Then he too headed up the stairs toward his bedroom, his familiar trotting close at his heels.
The next morning, Harry left Teddy to occupy himself in the playpen with Dedalus watching at a close distance in the kitchen. Grabbing an apple off the counter, he patted his pocket for his keys and entered the garage. Draco was already there, pulling his helmet delicately over his carefully gelled hair.
"You ready?" he asked. Harry nodded, bit into the apple and straddled the seat of his bike. He pulled his helmet off a shelf and, after finishing his apple, secured it on his head.
As one, the boys kicked the bikes to life and raced out of the garage with a scream of rubber on pavement.
Ten minutes later, they pulled into the student lot side by side. Immediately, the blatant stares and not-so-quiet whispers became obvious. Harry and Draco grinned beneath their shaded helmets. Sometimes, attention wasn't so bad.
Walking into first period English with their helmets tucked under arms, Harry and Draco were surprised to see Alice Cullen standing at the teacher's desk, discussing something privately. Then the girl thanked the teacher and skipped over to a desk on the side of the room. Harry strode up beside her, Draco trailing reluctantly behind him.
"Alice, remember me? I'm Harry. What are you doing in this class?"
"Oh hello, Harry! Of course I remember you." She greeted him with a blinding smile. "How have you been doing in Forks? I just had to transfer to first period English. I used to have it seventh, but some stuff came up, and since it's still the same teacher, they said it was okay. I had no idea you would be here, though! How fun…"
Harry was taken aback by the verbal diarrhea that poured from the small girl. She seemed even more excited than she had at the mall- if that was even possible.
"Oh, that's great then! Welcome to first period. You're seats next to mine, and Draco's on my other side. This should be cool. Forks has been pretty good so far, by the way."
Soon after their conversation, the classroom became more crowded and the class began. The rest of the day passed by, and Harry found himself very jittery by about 4th period. He realized soon enough that it was because he would be seeing Edward. He was frightened by the affect that the boy was having on hi, It wasn't normal to feel such a way toward someone you just met. And yet, Harry couldn't help it.
During 5th period, as he and Draco unpacked their lunches at Mike Newton's table, Harry found himself desperately searching for the object of his confusion, and then- there he was.
Edward was sitting behind his two brothers, almost hidden from the Gryffindor's view, but he could be seen pulling a buttered roll into small pieces. These were then dropped disinterestedly back onto a plastic tray. Catching Harry's searching eyes, he sat up a bit straighter and then winced, pulling at his collar. Harry smiled at him, and he nodded back. Harry focused on the conversation at his own table.
"Edward! What is with you, man? You're attacking that bread. It's not like it did anything to you."
"Shut up, Emmett. I'm just…distracted." He lazily threw the pieces of break back onto his tray and looked up when he felt someones gaze on him. A pair of spying emerald eyes greeted him, and he felt the venom pool at the back of his throat. He sat up a bit, swallowed uncomfortably, and was delighted to see Harry smiling at him. Then the boy turned back to the students at his table.
Edward contemplated the blond boy sitting next to his raven-haired friend. This boy radiated aristocracy and pride, but no thoughts. Edward couldn't help himself, and sent a forceful probe of his mind toward the blond. He saw himself break through a solid metal wall, briefly caught sight of a dark shape on a pale arm, and heard several jumbled thoughts before he was suddenly thrown backward off his seat and crashing against the wall behind him.
The cafeteria was silent, but Edward heard the thoughts of most of the student body. They wanted to laugh at his misfortune, for no one had ever seen a Cullen so graceless. They were terrified of Emmett, who stood abruptly and pulled him to his feet… and they were wondering why one of the newest students, Draco Malfoy, was leaning against his lunch table, holding his head and groaning as if he had the world's worst migraine.
Edward glanced meaningfully at Jasper, and the cafeteria seemed to grow disinterested in the occurrence. Then, he subtly moved a vending machine a few feet to cover the dent that his back had created in the concrete wall.
The bell rang, and everyone moved on to sixth period.
Edward was more curious than ever before.
