Author note: Hey readers! I know I'm late (like usual), I finally got hold of my lovely beta so here is the chapter without all the bothersome mistakes in it.

Chapter 9

Harry

I looked down at Lemani's pained frame on the bed in the Cullen's spare room and I felt sadness well up inside me. I had dreaded his arrival but now I couldn't remember why. He seemed frail, laid out on the king-sized bed like he was. Vulnerable. How could I have been afraid? I knew better than to judge by a look but I couldn't help but trust him already. It was like a pull, and I was helpless to resist.

Both the female elves had tear tracks on their faces and Mat seemed uncharacteristically serious. It was lucky that Carlisle had been the one to find him. Ella looked up at me imploringly and I closed my eyes in resignation. I resisted the urge to sigh, not trusting that the sound wouldn't get caught in a well of emotion in my throat.

I gave my wand to Sirius who, in his dog form, had joined us upon hearing the news and he took it noiselessly. This kind of magic was tricky and it could be dangerous to have my wand on me. I felt pressure against the back of my calves and turned around to see a chair behind me, courtesy of Siri once again. I sat down and pulled the chair with me as close that I could to the bed. Siri used his magic to gently move Lemani closer to the bed's edge and I settled my hands on his bandaged stomach.

I closed my eyes. This was one of the tricky parts. I had to get to a certain state where I would be able to feel Lemani and myself at the same time and since he was not human or a wizard it was going to be difficult. I breathed in and concentrated on myself, bringing myself to a state of meditation. I could feel my body and all the little things that made it alive, I felt warmth against my palms. I distantly heard the bedroom door opening but it was unimportant to me at the moment. What was important was the body I could now see with my mind's eye. My mind saw long hair, a pointy nose and ears, a tattoo behind the neck, long limbs, and a lithe but muscled and perfectly balanced body. I breathed in with Lemani and breathed out at the same time as he did. I had achieved the first level.

Our breaths were one and the same now and our hearts beat together as well. We were two but we could be one and the line between us was getting difficult to feel. I was still myself but I could be him. I was him. We were one.

All of a sudden I felt pain bloom in me, my skin was on fire with it and I had to force myself to breathe deeply to be able to think at all, much less clearly. My whole world was centered on the pain I couldn't escape. Tears ran down my cheeks uninhibited as I tried to see past the screaming of my nerve endings. I couldn't stand it anymore. I wanted it to stop. I had hurt before but this was so much worse even if I couldn't understand why. I tried to concentrate on something else but there was nothing but this agony. It had to stop! It was too much. I couldn't…

I felt a cool hand on my shoulder and suddenly the pain was more distant. I concentrated on the feel of chilled skin as it moved to my neck and started to slowly massage the back of it. The pain was ebbing away and I let a relieved sigh escape. Oh, I could still feel it, but it was apart from me now, I had finally succeeded in erecting a shield between us. Now that it was done I could see all the different wounds that littered his body. I started on the healing.

After what seemed like an eternity, there were only the small bruises left and I was feeling completely drained. I was looking carefully through our link to make sure I hadn't forgone anything important when I felt a brush against my consciousness. It was light and definitely not human, or vampiric for that matter. I focused on Lemani but he was still deeply asleep. It brushed again before I felt it link with us. Or more like with me as I realized it had already been linked with Lemani. What was it? The link with them both was abruptly severed. 'What the bloody hell?' was the last thought I had before darkness took me in.

Edward

I caught Harry as he fell off his chair, his face as white as mine. I looked up at Carlisle and he shrugged. This was out of his league. Straitening up with my precious load, I readjusted Harry in my arms before going to my bedroom to deposit him gently on my bed.

It had been two hours. He had worked on that dying elf for two hours. Two hours of tense wait, his face becoming paler and paler as his body sat less and less strait. The other elves had waited in silence and Carlisle and I had loathed breaking it. So we stood, still as statues, as Harry exhausted himself to his task.

Only I had to restrain myself when I saw tears running down my little elf's face after the first fifteen minutes. He was obviously in pain, his back rigid and face scrunched in a grimace. After a little while a small whimper had escaped him and then I couldn't hold back anymore. I had put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He had seemed to relax then if only marginally. So I had tried to soothe the tension and massage his neck. And it had worked, I had felt the tension in his neck drain and a sigh had escaped his kissable red lips. I had felt needed then, and it had warmed my cold heart. It was so strange how with nothing more than a sigh he could rock my world and force me to feel again.

I carefully pulled his shirt off his lithe form and I went still for a moment as I saw the collection of scars covering his torso. Most of them had to have been very painful. How could a seventeen year old young man have so many of them? Even as an elf he couldn't be more than thirty years old, could he? I didn't know a lot about elves and I intended to look into it. I shook my head before I unbuttoned his trousers and put the heavy blanket on top of his half naked form. He would be more comfortable that way. Damn, but it shouldn't be so difficult to resist stroking his exposed skin.

I turned to the chair where I had put his shirt down so I could at least concentrate on something else but it wasn't there anymore. It was nowhere to be seen. That was strange. Well, I would just have to lend him a shirt when he woke up. I sat down and took the book I had been reading on magical creatures from my nightstand. I settled for the wait ahead.

I was deep in my thoughts when I heard him move for the first time. He turned on his side and then settled again. I looked at him for a little while, his features relaxed in sleep as his hand curled into the blankets. I returned to my book. It was a very interesting reading if only for entertainment. I didn't think I could trust half the things this book enunciated as facts. My mind was made when I read the small chapter on vampires. I sure didn't know we were supposed to fear garlic. And I could see myself perfectly in a mirror, thank you very much. And why the hell would I fear some water?

He turned again. His brows were furrowed, mouth slightly open. The dream he was having didn't seem very pleasant. I checked to see if I could read his mind but he was still out of my reach. Oh well, I could understand his need for privacy but it did put me on edge. He turned onto his back, and then turned again. I stood up and as silently as only a vampire could achieve, I made my way to the bed. Sitting on the edge, I looked down at him, feeling indecision. What should I do?

The decision was taken from me when in a surprising show of speed, I found myself on my back with a groggy looking brunet straddling me, fist raised in the air. He blinked.

"Edward?" he asked sleepily.

I was too stunned to reply. He lowered his fists and the tension seemed to suddenly drain from his body. I caught him with one hand on his chest and the other at the back of his neck as he toppled onto me. I lowered him to me slowly and he sighed as his head finally rested on my collarbone, his warm breath tickling my sensitive neck. He moved around a little until his head was in the crook of my neck and his hand fisted in my hair.

"You're not moving." he informed me in a tired murmuring voice.

He moved a little on top of me again so his body was half lying on the bed and half lying on me and sighed again when I snaked an arm around his waist and cradled his head against my neck.

"Thank you" he murmured just before his breathing evened out as he fell asleep again. I didn't know how Elves were supposed to behave but his actions were always very confusing.

I don't know how long we stayed like this. He slept peacefully and I could only think since my book lay forgotten on the chair I had been sitting on previously. So I daydreamed since vampires couldn't really dream. I remembered my happy times with Bella. When it was just the three of us in our small house in England and she would laugh at my spoiling our child. That was before she started to close off, before she started those secret missions of hers. She had always needed to save everyone, even those that didn't need her help.

Bella had put herself in danger without thinking of the consequences and it had worked for a little while. Her successes had made her confident, too confident. She had encountered the Volturi in one of her escapades and she must have thought she could take them on.

When I had found out about her latest mission I had run to find her like I always did, except that that time I had been too late. The only thing left of her had been our wedding ring and a small medallion I had given her. She had either abandoned us or she was dead. Either way Bella was truly gone, and I had had no way of finding her. I had even asked a vampire whose talent was to find people but he had been unable to locate her. It was only some time afterwards that Jacob had told me what had happened since she couldn't tell me herself.

I was brought out of my musings as I heard my door open but no one seemed to have opened it. Or that's what I thought until I smelled Harry's dog's unpalatable odor. I looked a little lower and sure enough I saw a black head and smart eyes looking back at me. When he saw me looking he barked a little then trotted in, his thick black tail waving in the air behind him. Once he reached the bed, he stood on his back paws, front ones on the bed and licked my face. I scrunched my nose. This was not very hygienic. And it was certainly not very pleasant.

He nuzzled Harry a little and seeing no response, he went back to the thick carpet and turned around at least three times before settling in a sleeping position. Dogs were so strange. I started when I realized I could hear thoughts from said dog. That was impossible. I looked at him and sure enough I heard a 'What's he looking at, that leech? He better not be taking advantage of my pup if he wants to keep all his equipment.'

The dog was thinking.

The dog.

Harry's dog. Was thinking.

I still had a lot to learn from this world.

"He's the one who took me as a pillow."

And I was talking to said dog. Light! What was wrong with me?

The black fur ball looked at me strangely for a moment before his thoughts suddenly vanished just like Harry's had at school today. I heard a knock on the door before Carlisle let himself in.

"I came to check on Harry. Perhaps I can do something for…" His voice died as he saw me in a glaring contest with the dog. "What…?"

"I could hear that dog thinking!"

Carlisle frowned at me.

The dog sighed –sighed!- before his frame seemed to grow and become longer, his black fur changed to black clothes. Then before us now stood a handsome man in his thirties with stylish clothes and a smirk on his lips. His hands in his pockets, he seemed relaxed if a little miffed.

"Oops, looks like I got caught…"

He laughed heartily at the face I was sure I was making. Carlisle's seemed carved in stone. Mat chose that moment to come and check on Harry too. He glided through the door, said a "Hi Siri," and came to settle in the chair I had vacated pushing my book aside with a distasteful grimace. It was only then that he seemed to take in the tense situation he had intruded on.

"What's wrong?"

Ignoring his question the strange man turned to my father figure and smiled crookedly.

"Mr. Bullack?"

"Well, yeah. Hi doc!"

"…How is your son doing?"

"Oh, he is alright, but Remus confiscated my phone after I tried to call you a bit early in the morning when I thought the pup was really ill, apparently coughing is normal for a sick baby…hehe."

Carlisle smiled and seemed to take everything in stride even if a man had just transformed from a dog in front of him.

"I suspect you are what they call an angimanus then?" he asked curiously.

"Animagus. Yes, I am. I had to, to be able to stay with Remus when he changed."

"Oh, yes of course." He turned to me. "Edward, this is Mr. Bullack, Mr. Bullack as you must know this is my son Edward."

"It is very nice to meet you" I said politely. I was still somewhat shocked. He had seen me in Harry's house! He had salivated on Rosie's dress! He… oh damn.

"Haha but we already met a lot of times young man," he said with a smirk and evil glint in his eyes. Oh no, I was in trouble. "I'm Harry's other godfather and guardian," he said with a proud and amused smile.

Harry saved me from having to answer as he groaned and hid his head into the crook of my neck. "Shut up" he mumbled. I didn't think he was actually awake and he sounded very cute right now. I smiled and hugged him closer. "Sorry" I whispered to his ear. He grumbled some more before settling down again.

When I looked back up all three men were staring at me. I glared right back. If they had a problem with me and Harry they had better say so now. Matt surprised me by saying: "He's not thrashing?" I looked at him questioningly. Of course he wasn't. I personally thought it was obvious he wasn't. Sirius seemed to agree with Mat.

"No one can usually be near him when he sleeps. Either he can't sleep or he keeps thrashing around and trying to get free. I think it's a sequel of the war," he said, his usual smirk gone for a moment.

Oh.

What war? If that was true, why wasn't he thrashing right now? He seemed pretty comfortable if you asked me. This elf was turning out to be more and more of a mystery every day. And I never wanted to let go.

Hope you liked it!