"Family is not an important thing. It's everything." ~Michael. J. Fox


Chapter 11- The Search Begins Alice's POV

"So," Jasper said, glancing over at me as we ran through a patch of trees. "I know your favorite color, and I know your favorite subject in school. What else should I know about you?"

"What else do you want to know about me?"

He thought about it for a moment.

"What is your favorite flower?"

"I know it's cliche, but I like roses. Roses and lilies."

He paused again as he thought of another question.

"What about your favorite gemstone?"

"Alexandrite," I said automatically, looking at my ring.

"Is that from Remus?" he asked quietly.

I shook my head.

"It's from Fred and George. It was supposed to be my Christmas present, but George gave it to me to see if it would cheer me up for a while….Fred picked it out. "

He didn't ask me anymore questions for a while.

We slowed our run into a walk in another patch of trees.

Jasper took my hand, and pulled it to his face, studying the ring.

"It's a beautiful ring," he said, moving our hands back down to our side.

"Thank you," I said, smiling at the ground.

"I didn't upset you earlier, did I? When I assumed Remus gave it to you."

"I think you know the answer to that," I said, still smiling.

"I just want to hear you say it," he said, pulling me to a stop in front of him.

"You didn't upset me, Jasper. Don't worry about that."

He smiled.

"Good."

I looked around the forest.

"How far would you say we are to Massachusetts?"

He thought about it for a moment.

"If I had to guess, I'd say about an hour away."

He listened closely for another minute, then grabbed my hand.

"Come with me. I want to show you something."

We ran in the opposite of the direction we were originally going. As we walked further West, I began to hear the sound of rushing water.

"I found this place a couple years ago when I was passing through here."

He pulled my hand as we slowed back down again. I could feel his excitement radiating off of him.

"I didn't realize where we were until you asked about how far we are from Massachusetts."

He paused, and stepped behind me, placing his hands over my eyes.

"Jasper, what are you—"

"Trust me, Al. Please?"

I smiled and sighed.

"Okay. I trust you."

"Keep walking forward," he said in my ear, with one hand on my shoulder while the other remained covering my eyes.

I could see flickers of someplace green. I assumed whatever it was, was the place Jasper was taking me to.

"Please tell me you're not searching in the future, and ruining my surprise," Jasper teased.

"I can't help it," I said, placing my hands over his. "You're making decisions, and I'm getting used to you being around."

I patted his hand as I spoke, which seemed to make him chuckle. The sound of rushing water grew louder and louder, then suddenly Jasper wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to a stop.

"Open your eyes," he murmured.

He moved his hand and I opened my eyes.

There was a wide river that was quickly flowing passed us. At the very end of the river, there was a wide waterfall. Inside of the river, there appeared to be water lilies growing. There were purple ones and red ones.

"Jasper, it's beautiful!" I said, stepping closer to the edge of the river.

I sat on the edge of the river, and he moved next to me.

"I thought maybe I could do something to cheer you up."

I grinned at him.

"You have."

I leaned over, and pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you, Jasper. I know this is all a lot to take in, but thank you so much for being patient with me."

"Of course," he said, giving me for a small squeeze.

I pulled away from him.

"Are you through with your questions?" I asked, grinning.

He shook his head.

"I haven't even gotten through half of them."

"Well go ahead. Ask away," I said, laying down in the grass. I took off my bag, and laid it on the ground beside me.

"Would you want to go back to Britain one day?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"Unless James dies, I'm not sure I can go back and I promised Helen and Tobias I wouldn't try looking for him."

"So say that he died. Would you want to go back?"

"Of course. I think Harry and George would like you, so I'd want them to meet you."

"How do you know they'd like me?" he asked, as I closed my eyes.

"Because they'd like anybody who makes me happy, and I think they'd like you because you're the first person I've been in love with since Remus."

Jasper was quiet for a moment.

"Tell me more about Hogwarts," Jasper said. He sounded closer than before.

"Well it's a big castle in Scotland, and it's surrounded by a forest on one side, and a giant lake on the other. Fred, George, and I spent a lot of our time by the lake."

"What about the forest?"

"Well I liked the forest, but as a student, it's forbidden. That's why we call it the Forbidden Forest. I think the only time I went inside it as a student was to help Hagrid."

"The groundskeeper right?"

I nodded.

"He was my friend too."

Jasper had asked me about my other friends aside from Fred and George. I had named Hagrid, most of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Cedric Diggory.

"Tell me about him."

"Well he's half-giant, so I never really came up above his waist. Hagrid has one of the kindest hearts you'll ever come across, for humans and monsters alike."

"Monsters?"

"Hagrid kept an assortment of creatures as pets."

"Like?" he pressed.

"He had a three-headed dog, a dragon, hippogriffs."

"He had a three-headed dog?" Jasper asked, astonished.

I nodded.

"He called him Fluffy."

"Fluffy," Jasper repeated.

I opened my eyes and he was staring back down at me.

"What?" I asked as he started smiling.

"You sound like you had an interesting life."

I smiled too.

"I did. I still do. I'm happy again," I said, reaching up to touch his cheek. "Although, I still haven't fully convinced myself you're really here."

His smile grew.

"Still convinced I'm an angel?"

"Whether you're here or not, you'll always be an angel to me."

I looked up at the sky. The sun was still poking out of the sun.

"What are we going to do? When we get to Massachusetts?"

"Do you want to go to sell those potions first, or would you rather see if we can find the Cullens first?"

I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

"Don't leave it to me to make decisions," I mumbled. "I'm indecisive."

Jasper laughed, and moved my hands from my face.

"Please make this one, for me?"

I looked into his crimson eyes. Something about the way he looked at me, and about the way he spoke, made me want to give him anything he wanted. It was never like this with Remus. With Jasper, everything was different.

I exhaled deeply, and closed my eyes again.

"How about we go clothes shopping for you first, then to sell the potions, and then to the police station. I'm not sure how Muggles find people. So I'd assume we start there. They have all the information on people right?"

"You still want to do that clothes thing?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? I told you, Helen and Tobias gave me more than enough."

He frowned at me.

"I don't want you to go through all that trouble for me."

"It's not trouble, and nothing you say will change my mind."

I looked at the sky again. Jasper watched as I extended my arms, stacking one hand on top of the other. It was about 2:45.

I sat up quickly.

"We better get a move on," I said, grabbing my bag and putting it back over my shoulder. "I don't know what time the shops close here."

Jasper paused as he stood, and into the pond and grabbed one of the red water lilies before holding it out to me.

I grinned as I took the flower.

"Thank you," I said, quickly placing protection charms on the flower to keep it from crumbling when I tucked it away inside my bag. "It's beautiful."

He smiled at me as he took my hand and the two of us began walking.

"Alice?" Jasper asked, as we walked through the forest, making our way back to the main road.

"Hmmm?"

"Are you happy here?"

"I've only been here for a little over a week."

"But so far? Are you happy?"
I nodded without thinking.

"It's different here. I like this place. Being here with you."

I turned away from him, but he reached out and grabbed my hand.

We started running then. Hand-in-hand, going down the main road as the clouds disappeared. We didn't talk for a while. We ran in silence, and neither one of us felt the need to break that silence. We left each other to our thoughts.

I thought about the differences between the short time I had been with Jasper, and the six or so years I had been in love with Remus, including the year before we got together, and the two years after we broke up. With Jasper, we didn't feel like we had to fill the silence with small talk. With Remus, silence was awkward. We always found some way to fill the silence, either through music or talking.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that in the end of mine and Remus's relationship, I didn't feel the same pull that I had in the beginning. The same pull I felt now with Jasper. I couldn't figure out why I fought so hard for the two of us, or why it angered me when he married Tonks. Even though the pull was stronger with Jasper, I was still scared that I'd wake up, and this life would disappear. My angel would disappear.

We stopped again about five minutes away from the Massachusetts borders.

"You know," Jasper said, "I was thinking. We don't have to do all this stuff in one day. We can do the clothes shopping today, the potions stuff tomorrow or the next day, then go to the police station sometime after that."

I thought about it for a moment.

"I like that idea. I've spent so much time moving….I wouldn't mind staying put for a while."

I looked into his crimson eyes.

"If we're doing the clothes shopping today, I'll have to change our eyes."

He eyes my wand cautiously.

"It won't hurt. I promise," I said.

He nodded, and I moved his hand to my shoulder.

"I trust you," he said.

"What color?"

"Brown," he said quietly.

I put the wand against the corner of his eyes. I focused on his eyes changing color, and suddenly the crimson faded into a chocolate brown eyes. I smiled as I looked at him.

"What?" he asked, panicked. "Did something go wrong?"

"No," I murmured. "Nothing wrong."

I traced under his eyes as I grinned.

"My angel is more human now."

It felt more real now. Like he wasn't going to disappear.

Jasper grinned, and I waved my wand again, and a small rock turned into a handheld mirror.

"Can you hold this for me?" I asked, extending the mirror to him. He gladly took it, and held it at eye level as I turned my wand into the corner of my own eye. I watched as the blood red eyes slowly faded into the same mud brown eyes I had as a human.

As I looked back up at him lowering my wand, his grin grew.

"You had beautiful eyes," he said.

I smiled.

"They're certainly are a step up from the red eyes. They terrified me. I didn't look like myself."

I laughed as I shook my head.

"We'd better get going. Before the spell wears off. We have about an hour and a half before the brown starts to fade, and by the second hour, they'll be red again, so we'll probably have to do it again before going into the motel."

Jasper took his hand off my shoulder, and took my hand again.

"Let's go then."

We took off again, moving quickly to the border of Massachusetts. We had decided we wouldn't be staying in Salem, but in the city of Peabody which was a little over five minutes away from Salem. The sun seemed to be disappearing again, behind clouds that just barely seemed to cover the sky. .

When the trees stopped, Jasper and I stopped running. We were just outside of Peabody.

"Why are you nervous?" Jasper asked, as I began fidgeting with the sleeve on my shirt.

"I haven't really been anywhere without Helen and Tobias. I didn't go into the Muggle world often in my human life."

Jasper took my hand again.

"You've got me now."

He squeezed my hand and I instantly felt calmer.

"There we go," Jasper said as we started to walk. "That's better."

When we entered the city, Jasper started leading me to a nearby store.

"We don't have to get a whole lot right now," Jasper said. "If we're still looking for Helen and Tobias by next year, I'm sure there will be many stops along the way."

"We need enough that lasts for two weeks," I said. "At the end of the first week, I wash the clothes you wore that weeks, and so on."

Jasper looked at me carefully.

"Have you lived like this before? Always on the go?"

I shook my head.

"No. But I had a plan for everything. I always kept a bag packed with two weeks worth of clothes, potions. I always had back up everything. Except for my wand. There's only one of these."

"Can wands break?"

I nodded.

"They can. They are still wood after all."

"Have you ever broke yours?"

I shook my head.

"No, I've had the same wand that I've had since I was eleven. I have always been careful. When I wasn't using it, it was in its holster or its box."

"Box?"

"Well it's more a case than a box. The case it came in when I bought it."

"You've kept that for eleven years?"

I nodded.

"Most people threw it away. I didn't. I still have it. In my bag."

We walked quietly again, heading into the center of the town.


Okay, I know there's not much to this chapter, but it's more to fill space and give a reference for time between the previous chapter, and the chapter after this. I also wanted to put this chapter in specifically for the scene with Alice and Jasper in the woods. I had a dream about it and figured I'd put that part into a chapter.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

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