Only a month and you guy's get an update. Hmm . . . I might just think about making this a habit. Maybe. Anywho. This is a rather short chapter but it's passes the time and we get to finally see Harry and Edward together without avoidance or glaring. So cheers! Also I added what I like to call a little short at the end, just because I love Teddy so much. So Enjoy. And remember, reviews remind me to update, so keep those coming. And I'm always open to ideas, questions, comments, or someone pointing out thing I might have overlooked!
Pairings:
Harry/Edward (duh!), Alice/Jasper, Esme/Carlisle, Rosalie/Emmett, Draco/Jacob, Luna/?, Bella/Blaise, Neville/?, Paul/Seth (I'm allowed to keep some pairing secret)
Disclaimer:
This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, MT Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, Little, Brown and Company, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: I've posted the first two chapters of my original story on FictionPress so feel free to check it out. It's called Murdering Perfection and I have the same pen name.
I wrote the song so if you wanna use it you must ask! It's my copyright!
Chapter 12
Harry's shaky fingers reached upward toward his hair only to be slapped away immediately.
"Stop touching it," Draco growled, glaring at Harry's refection in the mirror. "You're going to ruin everything I've done already."
Harry sighed and clutched at the edge of his shirt to keep his hands away from the hair the blonde aristocrat had painstakingly styled for him. Draco huffed and strolled out of the bathroom with a shake of his head. Harry's eyes skittered upward to his reflection and he bit down on his lip, trying to keep the panic from his face. He practiced his smiles and neutral expressions, but it didn't do much good. He still thought he looked rather goofy and pathetic.
Honestly, he shouldn't be this nervous. He'd been on a date before. Granted it had turned into a utter fiasco and his date had run away in tears. But this was different. Firstly, Edward literally couldn't cry. And seeing as the vampire had been the one to ask him out Harry didn't think Edward had the right to be crying at the end of this anyways.
Secondly they were mates. This was supposed to be fated to work or something like that. So really, there was no reason to be nervous.
Harry looked at his reflection again. The relaxed smile he was going for looked rather shaky and he was way too pale to be healthy.
"Okay, breathe," he told himself. And saying it out loud helped to calm himself somewhat. And really, he was behaving like he was about to walk to his death.
Harry winced at that thought.
Okay, not the best thing to think seeing as he had actually done that before. Shaking his head, Harry lifted his hand toward his hair in an unconscious gesture.
"Don't even think about it Potter," Draco's voice called suddenly and the blonde was back in the bathroom, glaring at Harry in an oh-so-familiar way. Harry dropped his hand and grinned at the aristocrat.
"No decorum whatsoever," Draco muttered as he pulled Harry up from his seat. Those silver eyes ran up and down his body with a speculative look. Harry almost started shifting but a single glare had him freezing in place. Finally, Draco said, "You'll do for now," and pushed Harry out of the bathroom.
Harry rolled his eyes at the behavior but felt suitably calmer. As annoying as Draco could be sometimes, the pureblood was perfect for dressing people up for special occasions. Not that this was a special occasion. And that was proven by the fact that Draco allowed Harry to wear a pair of jeans. Granted they were fairly new and didn't have that comfortable worn feel to them that Harry liked, they were still jeans.
The two walked down to the living room where everyone else was gathered doing their own thing. Neville was the only one to look up when Harry entered and the former Gryffindor gave Harry a reassuring grin. Harry grinned back and then dropped to the floor beside Teddy, which earned him an annoyed hiss from Draco that he suitably ignored.
Harry allowed the action of playing with his godson calm him further so that by the time he felt a small tingle run up his arm, announcing that someone was just on the outside of his wards, he was ready to tackle this date. Taking a deep breath, he gave Teddy a bright smile and then Apparated out of the room.
Harry appeared right outside of the gates that protected the manor, almost landing right on top of Edward. The vampire started at the loud cracking sound and blinked a couple of times before he managed to collect himself.
"Oh, sorry about that," Harry apologized, his face turning red. "I didn't mean to startle you. It's just a whole lot faster to Apparate than to walk. It would have taken me a whole ten —"
"It's okay, Harry," Edward told the rambling wizard. Harry blinked dazedly when the vampire smiled at him and he barely registered that they were moving until Edward was helping him into his Volvo.
"So . . . um . . . where are we going," Harry asked when they had driven out onto the road and away from Forks.
"Port Angeles. I thought I could show you around," Edward said, peeking over at Harry's face and posing the sentence as a question.
"That sound's fun," Harry told him with a chuckle and Edward visibly relaxed. "Are we going somewhere specific to eat?"
"Nope. Since it's you're first time, and I don't actually eat, I figured you could pick the place."
That made Harry brighten a bit. It was nice to know that although Edward had done the asking he was letting Harry choose a couple of places.
The next couple of minutes were spent in silence. Harry had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, questions he'd been gathering ever since Edward had suggested this date, but he wasn't sure when was a right time to start asking them. And he didn't want to pry. He wasn't sure exactly how far his relationship with Edward went anyways.
After all, this . . . thing between them wasn't exactly following any normal timeline. There was that rather . . . intense first meeting, and then the weeks of ignoring the vampire, and then the kiss in Carlisle's office . . .
"What are you thinking about," Edward asked suddenly and Harry turned to him to see that the vampire was staring at him with probing eyes. A slight sliver of panic raced up Harry spine when he noticed that Edward was still driving and yet wasn't watching the road!
"Hey, watch the road would you! I don't fancy dying today." Edward chuckled a little at that but complied. "Anyways," Harry said on a sigh, "I was wondering . . . can I ask you a few things?"
"Sure, you can ask me anything, Harry. I have nothing to hide from you." Harry blushed at the words and the way Edward practically purred his name.
"Well . . . um . . . what's it like? Being a vampire?"
This seemed to be a hard question for Edward, Harry reasoned. His entire face seemed to close off and his hands tightened on the steering wheel.
"I . . . can we come back to this later?"
"Sure," Harry agreed immediately, not wanting to sour the mood so soon into the date. "When where you turned?"
"1918. I was seventeen."
"Oh, so you're not that old for a vampire," Harry commented and so it went.
Everything was going exceptionally well, Harry reasoned later on as Edward guided him into a little diner. Both the car ride to Port Angels and the walk around the small city was spent in a relaxed atmosphere. Harry quizzed Edward on light topics, like what his favorite color was and what kind of things he liked. Edward answered them all patiently, even getting into some of the questions when they broached subjects he felt intensely about.
Harry was finding it hard to not like Edward. The more he learned about the vampire the more Harry wanted to know more. It was like an insatiable curiosity. But Harry was enjoying unraveling the mystery that was Edward Cullen.
And Edward wasn't really all the complicated to begin with, which was really surprising when Harry thought about the previous people he dated. Not that it was really fair to compare Edward to them because they had both been girls. And Edward most certainly was not.
Cho had been rather unattainable. Thinking on it now Harry wasn't completely sure what he had seen in her. She was rather emotional, although brilliant especially given that she was a Ravenclaw. But she had clung a little bit too much to the past and Cedric and Harry just hadn't been able to handle that. Other than that, Harry hadn't even really known the older girl. Sure, he knew she was smart, and she was on the Quidditch team, and she was pretty. But besides that . . . nothing.
And then there was Ginny.
Ginny was a whole other can of worms. Harry had known her. He had seen her grow up. He had saved her. And she had been Ron's little sister. Harry had liked her well enough, but Harry supposed his attraction had been how safe she was. He was already a part of the Weasley family so it had been easy. But Ginny had been too much of a . . . girl for Harry. She had always complained about her hair and how it clashed with just about everything. When she wasn't playing Quidditch she had always been in some volume of Witch Weekly.
And she had bragged.
She had bragged all the time about how she was with Harry Potter. It's hadn't been to the point where many people noticed, but it had been a subtly kind of bragging. She was ever so often slid into conversation that Harry was her boyfriend.
So really, when Harry had broken up with her it had been kind of a relief, although it took till after the war to realize how much of a relief.
But Edward wasn't anything like that.
For one thing he didn't know that Harry was famous, and if Harry had his way it would stay like that. For another thing Edward was very . . . careful. He complied to Harry's wished but only after he gave it some thought. Harry knew that if he ever said or did something Edward didn't like Edward would let him know.
And Edward wasn't all the concerned with material things, although Harry believed that had a little to do with the fact that Edward had been alive for a little over a century.
But besides all that Edward was simple. He didn't dwell too much in a person's actions but instead in the thoughts behind the actions. Harry supposed that was a just a perk of being a mind reader. And Edward was inherently good although he didn't believe it much himself. But Harry knew good people didn't often realize they were good . . . like Neville.
"So it's occurred to me that I'm doing a lot of the talking on this date," Harry observed after they had been seated in one of the booths by the window. Harry had picked one that had a wall to his back and a window looking out at the front of the building with the door in his sight. It was a habit he had never learned to break.
"Aren't you going to ask me anything?"
Edward looked a little surprised at the question.
"Well this is supposed to be for you to get to know me," he commented in a mute voice, folding his hands on top of the table. Harry tilted his head to the side to study him.
"Hmm . . . that it is," he finally agreed. "But seeing as this is a date, I thought you might want to get to know me also." Harry dropped his head a little and peeked shyly up at Edward. "That is if you want to."
"Of course I go," Edward told him, leaning forward over the table. "You captivate me in ways you will never understand. I will always want to know about you." Harry blushed darkly at the admission and was more than a little grateful when a waitress arrived to take their order.
"Hello, I'm Sara and I'll be your waitress for the evening. Can I start you off with something to drink," the teenage girl questioned, looking between the two of them with a bit of an awed expression. Edward waved for Harry to go first and the wizard pulled the menu close so that he can peruse his options.
"Um . . . can I have a . . . uh . . . lemonade?"
The girl nodded and scribbled that down on a pad before turning to look at Edward. Harry could see that she was straining herself to look professional, but a blush was already coming up to stain her pale cheeks.
"I'll have a water," Edward told her politely, flashing her a small smile before going back to his Harry staring. The girl blinked for a moment before scrambling away to put in their drinks.
"No need to give the girl a heart attack," Harry muttered with some amusement, watching Sara race around the corner. He chuckled a little when he saw that she was fanning her face with her notebook.
"It's involuntary," Edward said distractedly. Harry rolled his eyes before looking over his menu. He could feel Edward's gaze burning into his skull and he was trying really hard not to let that affect him too much.
"What's a cheeseburger? Is it any good?"
Harry looked up at the sound of laughter and scowled at his date.
"I'm sorry," Edward apologized. It's just that . . . well I never met a person who didn't know what a cheeseburger was."
"Well I'm glad I can be a source of amusement for you," Harry pouted, pulling the menu up so that he didn't have to see Edward's face. That vampire was grinning a little bit too much of his enjoyment.
"So, tell me what it's like to grow up in a magical school," Edward asked as a way to sooth Harry feelings. It worked. Harry dropped the menu and then launched into a long winded tale of the great castle that was Hogwarts and the people that resided in it. By the time he was finished Sara had come and gone again with his order – of course Edward didn't order anything.
"Hogwarts sounds like an amazing place," Edward commented when Sara had run off. "I wish I could have seen it."
"Maybe you can one day," Harry told him. "You're a magical being now so you should be able to see it."
"And you would take me," Edward asked probingly. Harry hesitated for a moment, thoughts about why he hadn't been back to Hogwarts and why he was in America in the first place running though his head.
"I would," he finally said slowly. "But not anytime soon." Edward looked like he wanted to ask more about that but seemed to decide not to. Harry was glad. While he wouldn't outright lie to Edward about anything he didn't want to be put in a position where he would have to tread carefully. And he certainly didn't want this date to be ruined by guilty non answers.
It seemed that Edward was taking this new freedom to question Harry a little over the top, not that Harry mind very much. But Edward's questions were more probing and insistent than Harry's had been. Harry spent the rest of the evening and the car ride back home describing Surrey, London, Diagonal Alley, and Scotland whenever Edward asked. And when he wasn't giving details he was telling Edward little snippets of his adventures at Hogwarts and the people he called friend. Harry only just managed to get away with not talking about Ron and Hermione, but he was sure Edward had noticed the little catch in his voice whenever he had to omit them from a story.
By the time Edward pulled up in front of the Manor gates, Harry was feeling just a little bit weary.
"So," Edward asked expectantly after a bout of silence. He turned to look searchingly at Harry and his brows arched with the unasked question.
"I have to admit that this was a good idea. I had fun tonight," Harry answered truthfully with a soft smile. And he had had fun, despite the questions toward the end that had hurt just a little bit.
"Enough fun that you'll invite me inside," Edward asked a little teasingly.
"And here I thought you weren't a traditional vampire," Harry said back, managing to keep the blush that wanted to rise to his face back. Edward blinked once before letting out a low chuckle and Harry felt embarrassment curl in his stomach when it occurred to him that Edward's question hadn't been as innocent as he had assumed.
Harry managed to stumble out of the Volvo before Edward could open the door for him. He glared at the vampire for trying anyways, because he most certainly wasn't a bloody girl. Even still, the embarrassment clung and started shifting into nerves. The walk to the gate seemed to stretch, giving Harry too much time to think on exactly how good dates usually ended.
Again he chastised himself on feeling nervous. It wasn't like he had never kissed Edward before. Hell, they had done a little more than kiss before.
And maybe it was the memory of the first meeting that was causing the nerves.
It was to be expected. Every time Harry so much as touched Edward he lost all control over his body. And if that wasn't a terrifying, nerve-wrecking idea then Harry didn't know what was.
The cool press of fingers against his cheek shocked Harry from his thoughts, and he realized with a jolt that he was at the gate and Edward was alarmingly close. The vampire was gazing at him with such a long look – a look Harry had once saw Remus give Tonks although he hadn't noticed it for what it was at that time.
Harry swallowed thickly and he moved closer as Edward's entire hand came to curl around his cheek. The wizard wasn't completely conscious of his actions but he supposed that it didn't really matter when in the next moment his lips were pressed against Edwards.
And the kiss was just as mind-numbing and electrifying as the very first time. Heat speared low in Harry's stomach and an ache seemed to spread across his chest. He swayed closer and Edward's arm came to rest lightly on his lower back. Harry's hands went upward, first gripping the vampire's shoulders and then sliding into all that thick bronze hair.
Harry wasn't sure how long they stood there, wrapped around each other and kissing deeply, but Harry knew that he had never felt so alive. And when Edward had finally let him go and Harry had Apparated straight into his house – appearing in Teddy's nursery – Harry could still feel Edward's lips against his.
The Savior smiled quietly to himself as he gazed down at his godson's peaceful face, and felt like Fate was finally smiling down on him for once.
"Hello everybody," Ms. Abel said into the microphone. "Are you ready for Fork's 1st Annual Music Competition?" The audience let out a loud cheer and Ms. Abel grinned at them all. She then went on to explain the rules and as during the auditions, Alice twirled on stage when she was called out.
Harry watched all of this from backstage, grinning as the audience sucked up both Ms. Abel's and Alice's combined enthusiasm.
"This may be a bit of a shock to you, but I am completely jazzed," Draco's voice suddenly floated over to Harry. The brunette turned to look at his former enemy, noting the shock on the man's pale face. It was amusing to see, but not more amusing than what Draco had shyly told him before they had entered to school. To think the aristocrat was the mate of a shape shifter!
"This is more exciting than my expeditions with Daddy searching for the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks," Luna practically squealed, bouncing up and down as she clutched her guitar to her chest. She looked very much like a normal girl right then, but that could have something to do with the fact that Alice had dressed them all up for this event.
"What's a Crumpled-Horned Snorkack," Edward inquired, looking at Harry for some explanation. Harry shrugged and wasn't surprised when Luna then went into an in-depth explanation on everything that was the mythical creature she sometimes searched for. Edward listened to her with muted shock and Harry could practically hear the vampire's mind whirling away.
Harry laughed at the two of them before peeking around the curtains once more, this time to look out over the audience.
He immediately caught sight of Bella seated in the front row. She was sat in-between an empty seat for Alice on side and Blaise on the other. Neville was also there with the girl shape-shifter, Leah Harry remembered her name being, taking the seat beside him and looking around with an irritated expression. There was also Seth, Paul, Jacob, and Billy Black. All of the shape-shifters looked only the slightest bit tense given their proximity to their natural enemies. Jacob and Seth were probably the most relaxed out of the bunch. All of the Cullen's were there, not that Harry expected anything else. Not only were they the sponsors but Edward was performing. Teddy was sitting calmly in Rosalie's lap, looking around with muted glee and sucking on his fingers.
It was a bit of a wait before they were able to go on stage. There were thirteen acts total and they were number seven. The first act was a solo one that was decent enough but Harry thought the girl was overstretching herself just a little bit by trying to hit notes that weren't in her range. The two after that were both bands that played some pop songs that Draco complained hurt his ears. The three after that kind of messed together in Harry's mind so that he honestly had no idea what had been played. And Harry completely zoned out on the sixth performer as the nerves finally caught up to him.
"Breath," Edward told him as he rubbed his hands up and down Harry's arms in a calming move. "This will be easy. You're a natural and the song will be great. They're going to love us."
"Okay," Harry agreed, taking deep calming breaths. "I'm okay. Just a little bit of nerves." But Edward continued to rub his arms until they were called on stage, and Harry was grateful for that. When he walked out onto the stage he was significantly calmer and as soon as he touched the MIC all his nerves fled away.
"Hello everyone! We're the Hogwarts' Wolves and this is our song Watch Me Go," Harry shouted into the MIC as the cheers died down. He nodded at Draco to start the count and on the count of three all four of them jumped in with one blasting note. Luna and Harry then jumped into a intricate rift that had practically the whole audience jumping to their feet with a loud cheer.
Harry grinned at Edward before leaning into the MIC and belting out the first verse.
"It's like a curse that binds me
Constantly holding me down
I can never be free from this burden
That seems to always follow me around
I was put up on their pedestal
For they think I am their only savior
I'm here to be their hero
Therefore I must be on my best behavior
They don't seem to understand
That I just want to be left alone
I want to lead a normal life
Yet their tabloids keep following me home."
Harry broke off and allowed Edward and Luna to pick up the chorus just like they had practiced. He played a couple of rifts and moved around stage like he had seen some bands do on the internet.
"Why can't they see
The child who hides inside of me
Just crying out loud
Just wanted to be free
But they don't want to see
What's inside of me
All they want to know
Is the Savior that they rode
Well they can stop riding me
Cause I'm gonna be free
From all of them and my enemies."
Harry jumped back in again, taking up the verses. They did this for the majority of the song, Harry back off whenever the chorus came up.
"Trapped in this hate filled world
They locked the door and took away the key
They don't think of what could happen
They didn't try to understand what would become of me
Making me watch as the world went on
And one by one they slowly faded away
Never will I be able to see what's beyond these bars
Never will I be let out of this cage
Never to see the sun shine another day
Wallowing in self-pity
Something I thought I would never feel
Stuck in this sick illusion
Not even knowing what is real
And they can't see
The child who hides inside of me
Just crying out loud
Just wanted to be free
Cause they don't want to see
What's inside of me
For all they want to known
Is the Savior that they rode
Well they can stop riding me
Cause I'm gonna be free
From all of them and my enemies
And I watch as they turn their faces away
Because they don't want to see what they've done
But it doesn't matter anymore
For in the end their selfishness has won
And they don't want to know
They don't want to see
That slowly they destroy
The small child inside of me
They stripped me of my innocence
They took all of who I am
And you what hurts the most
It's that they don't even give a damn
But I'm sure that they understood
That I was only just a kid
A kid they still threw into a war
Yes, I'm sure they knew damn well what they did
And I bet they can feel it now
That ugly, dirty thing called guilt
I'm sure they can see clearly now
Just exactly what they helped be built
They turned me into a soldier
A weapon so that they could win
They used me in their war
Right up until the very end
And now they don't want to know
The monster that I've become
I can see now in their eyes
That their war was not completely won
I know now that they can see
The child that hides in me
Just crying out loud
Just wanting to be free
I know that they can see
The thing inside of me
But still they want to know
Just the savior that they rode
And when it was all finally over
When that horrid war was won
They turned their backs on me
Ashamed to see what they had done
Yet still they did it again
They put me above them
Forcing me to watch as they turned on me
Even those I had once called friend
They turned me into something ugly
Once I had won their fight
And now I just want to scream
For I know they know of my plight
For I know that they can see
The child who hides in me
Just crying out loud
Just wanting to be free
And I know that they don't want to see
What is still inside of me
For all they want to know
Is the savior that they rode
But they're gonna stop riding
For I'm gonna be free
From all of them and my enemies
Just watch me go
Cause I'm gonna be free
From all of them and my enemies
Just watch me go
At this point Draco was the only one playing and Harry pulled the MIC stand real close, letting his voice drop and flow out over the crowd.
"Because I know
They don't want to see
The child they forced to grow up
Way to fast inside of me
For don't you know
I was only seventeen
Luna started up again, laying down the line with Edward jumping in and then Harry topping it off with another rift. He grinned out at the crowd, pumping them back up again before he shouted out the last line, "Now watch me go!"
The four ended the song just like they started it with one last ringing note. The response they received was thunderous. Harry stared out at the audience with pleased shock as he tried to regain his breath. His head was spinning a little bit and he could feel his magic buzzing pleasantly around him.
"Alright everyone," Ms. Abel shouted as she came onto the stage. "That was the Hogwarts' Wolves. Let give it up for them one more time!" The audience did just that. Harry saw Bella jumping up and down with Alice in the front row and he winked at them as Ms. Abel herded them off stage for the next act.
"I do believe we just owned that," Draco drawled with a wicked grin. Harry knocked shoulders with the blonde.
"Better than Quidditch?"
"Bloody straight," the blonde immediately agreed. The group settled down backstage as before, only this time Harry walked around giving out encouragement. It was while he was doing this that he ran into a girl who looked to be a freshman. She was curled up in a chair and hyperventilating something fierce. The way she was acting kind of reminded Harry of Neville before a Potion's class.
"Hey, are you okay," Harry questioned softly, crouching down in front of the girl and placing a hand on her shoulder. The girl let out a small gasp and her head jerked up to reveal panicked blue eyes. "Whoa! Um . . . breathe okay?"
The girl gave a jerky nodded before closing her eyes and trying to do as told. Harry waited her out patiently, not removing his hand. Two minutes later the girl was looking a little bit calmer.
"There, that's the ticket," Harry said cheerfully.
"Thank you," the girl whispered with a light blush. "I . . . um . . . sorry about that."
"Don't think about. Everyone's entitled to their own spot of nerves. When do you go on?"
"Last," the girl told him with a breathy laugh. "And everyone's so amazing. I don't know how I'll be able to close out."
"It's all in good fun," Harry told her comfortingly. "You made it past the Professors didn't you, so you'll do fine." At that he received a grateful smile. "I'm Harry by the way."
"Jack," the girl said back, reaching out to shake the hand Harry held out.
"You're parents named you Jack," Harry asked with great confusion. "Not to be rude but isn't that a boy's name?" Jack laughed loudly at that, her face bright with amusement.
"My full name's Jacquelyn," she explained, grinning widely. "Everyone just took to calling my Jack for short."
Harry let out a low 'oh', feeling mildly embarrassed. But he supposed it was a bit of a success seeing as he had gotten Jack to calm down. And just in time Harry supposed, as he watched one of the stage managers come over to inform them that Jack would be going on in two minutes. Harry walked with Jack to left stage and gave her an encouraging smile when she went out to a round of polite applause.
"Hey everyone, my name's Jack and I'll be performing the cover Use Somebody by Kings of Leon," she spoke into the mike. She glanced over at Harry once before she began to strum the strings of her acoustic guitar.
Harry thought the entire performance was wonderful. Jack had an amazing voice and she knew exactly how to use it. She also had this air about her that just captivated the audience. Harry could see everyone staring at her with wide eyes. The entire auditorium was silent as Jack played and it stayed silent for a couple of minutes when she was done.
And then everyone burst into loud cheers and applause and catcalls. Jack looked suitably surprised but she managed to bow and she dashed off stage. Her cheeks were flushed and her blue eyes gleamed brightly.
"Did you see that," she gushed, grabbing onto Harry's arm. "That did not just happen. Right? Right?"
"That most certainly did just happen," Harry assured with amusement. "And you were worried."
"Thank you so much," Jack then said. "You're awesome."
"I wouldn't go that far," Harry tried to say but Jack shook her head fiercely, almost smacking Harry in the face with her ponytail.
"You are." Harry shrugged at that, deciding the let the matter drop. Especially seeing as in that very moment he heard his band's name being called out quickly followed by Jack's name.
"Huh."
"Move it Potter," Draco said from behind him. "We're in the top three." And then he swept past Harry without so much as a glance at Jack.
"Does that mean me also," Jack questioned in shock.
"It does," Luna hummed, grabbing the girl's arm gently and guiding her back onto the stage. A low chuckle alerted Harry to the fact that Edward was right beside him.
"Shall we," the vampire questioned, holding his hand out to Harry. Harry blushed brightly as he laced his fingers with Edward and the two walked out onto the stage.
"Everyone put your hands together for our top three competitors," Ms. Abel encouraged with excitement. The audience complied although there was some confusion because there were four acts standing on stage, but no one commented.
"I can't believe this," Jack was murmuring over and over again under her breath. Harry patted her arm comfortingly, but she didn't seem to really notice. The third place winner was one of the bands that had performed before Harry's.
The group shuffled off stage with wide grins and a small trophy.
"Alright," Ms. Abel said to get the audience to quiet down once more. "The winner of Forks High's 1st Annual Music Competition is . . ." There was a dramatic drum roll as Ms. Abel struggled a little with the folded envelope. She pulled it out, glanced at it then looked back at the audience. "It's a tie! The winners are the Hogwarts' Wolves and Jack!"
The audience went wild and Harry saw Jack freeze up before teetering a little bit like she was going to faint.
"Whoa, easy there," Harry said, grabbing her around the shoulder's to steady her.
"I won," she whispered. "I won?"
"That you did," Harry told her. "And since it would be incredibly unfair if the sponsor of this event won the scholarship, we're going to give it to you."
"What," Jack said with wide eyes as Edward passed the large check to her. "But . . . but . . . I'm not even graduating. I'm just a freshman!"
"Well now you have something to work toward," Harry told her rather cheerfully with a wink. Jack looked like she was going to faint again so Edward started herding them off stage.
"Congratulations guys," Ms. Abel told them with wide grins. "Which one of you wants to take the trophy?"
"Jack can have it," Edward told the woman, which made Jack's eyes go impossibly wider.
"Oh no," she refused. "I can't possibly. You're already giving me the scholarship, the least I could do was let you guys have the trophy."
"I wouldn't worry about it," Edward told her. "Alice made duplicates in case something went wrong, so really, we'll all have a trophy." That seemed to calm the girl a little bit and she nodded before telling them she needed to find her family.
"Of course," Harry agreed. "We'll see you tomorrow at the party."
"Oh right," Jack said. "I can't believe I get to go to a senior party! And a Cullen party at that. I have to be the luckiest freshman in the world!" And then she ran off through the crowds. Harry watched her go with a wide grin on his face.
"What a sweet girl," Luna said as if reading his mind.
"Isn't she," Harry agreed before moving off to go find his friends and family.
"Teddy no!"
Draco let out a loud laugh as the sound of something breaking and then childish giggling reached his ear. This had been going on for two days now and the blonde was soaking up every sound of distress Harry made.
At that very moment the little troublemaker ran into the room, his hands stretched out toward Draco and his face sporting a wide grin. Draco scooped him up and turned to the door way just in time to see Harry run in, struggling with Teddy's partner in crime.
The red husky that no one seemed to know what the hell it actually was, was wriggling around in Harry's arms and panting heavily. Both dog – or whatever it was – and wizard were covered in dust and china pieces.
"Theodore Remus Lupin," Harry grounded out. "How many times do I have to tell you that you can't run around in the hallways?" Draco almost laughed at Harry attempt at a stern face.
"Moony," Teddy shouted instead of acknowledging his godfather. Moony let out a loud bark before disappearing into smoke. In the next second Teddy disappeared also.
"Damn it," Harry shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Not again."
"Good parenting Potter," Draco chortled. Harry threw him an ugly looked before storming off to go hunt up his godson and the boy's magical pup.
So there you have it. If you want to know what Teddy's pet it I'll be glad to tell you but if not just know that Hagrid has been experimenting again.