A/N: Thanks for reading! I don't have an actor casted as Harper's father yet but I have some ideas in mind. I am also looking for a beta, if anyone is interested please DM me!

Please, please, please review what you think of the story!

Chapter 22 - Ring around the Rosie

~X~

"Do you have episodes?" Was the first thing Harper heard as she went down the stairs to find Tyler. He and Mason had been starting going on these long runs in the woods, they were usually gone for hours at the time. Tyler usually tried to coach Harper into joining him, but he was way too fast for her, an hour in and he would be so far ahead of her that she couldn't see him anymore.

"I mean what happens exactly?" Mason urged on, trying to help Tyler through the rough time he had right now. Something about Richard's death had shaken him up, and anger was starting to burst forward more often than not. What usually happens after a big event of built up frustration takes 10 seconds of mild argument nowadays.

Harper stopped herself from going down, wanting to listen in more closely to what they were talking about. Tyler didn't really talk about this stuff with her, she just assumed it was a 'guy' thing. Mason also seemed like a great guy after getting used to him around the house, ever since William had left some days ago to tour America for a while, the house had had a weird mojo in the air. He didn't push to talk or get to know her, he wasn't mean or weirded out by her place in the family either. They got along, as well as any 'fun uncle' and teenager did.

"Starts out normal, I get angry.. typically over nothing you know? I'm an angry guy, then it just amplifies and I.. go off" Tyler huffed. Harper nodded along, that was exactly what she had seen him do. It was good that he wasn't lying or trying to avoid the subject. She felt rather proud that he felt confident enough to talk about it.

"Blackout?" Mason asked.

"Yeah" Tyler sighed. "It's like I go blind with rage"

Mason took a deep breath, as if he was preparing to present something big and controversial. He was anxious and then asked. "And Harper? Does she do the same?"

"What are you talking about?" Tyler's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Harper herself was confused at the top of the stairs, wondering why he would even bring her into this conversation at all.

"Well maybe she feels the same way you do sometimes-" Mason tried to explain, but Tyler butted in fast.

"Harper has no bad bone in her body. I have never seen her angry… at anything" Tyler stated with a dead serious tone, even though it was a lie. She still held a grudge and deep rage towards the Salvatore brothers. It wasn't quelled by Bonnie's attempt and neither would any attempt do her justice until they were out of town for good.

"Hi guys!" At that point Harper came down the stairs to defuse the conversation. Mason looked like he wanted to ask more, probing the subject, but couldn't now that they weren't alone anymore.

"Hi Harp, sleep in late?" Tyler asked after he took a sip from his water bottle. He looked tired for the first time in weeks, all thanks to Mason's workout routine.

"Yeah! I'm going to meet Matt-" Harper started to explain, but stopped as a loud rumbling was heard from the outdoors. The trio quickly moved to the entrance, only to see a motorcycle roll into the front of the house. And if the motorcycle itself wasn't impressive and intimidating, the man riding it surely was.

The man was as tall as a tree, probably taller than 6'3 by just eyeballing it. His body, covered in tattoos, was lean. Yet his arms looked like they could bend metal without breaking a sweat. Dressed in a worn leather vest, white wifebeater and jeans, matched up with heavy black boots. As his helmet came off, his salt and pepper hair showed off his age. It was straight and cut in no particular style, his full bushy beard was the same way. He looked like a man no one wanted to mess with.

"Hello, I'm looking for Harper? Harper Bellrose?" The man stepped away from his bike and walked up a couple of steps on the porch, stopping to take his Ray Bans off. His voice sounded familiar, and Harper realized that this was the man from the phone call she had gotten, warm and uncertain. Almost as if he was shy in the way he spoke.

"That's me" She mustered up the courage to take a step forward, only to have Tyler's arm stop her from walking any closer to the man.

"Oh.. Hi.. um.. fuck" The man stumbled with something in his pockets, trying to fish something out of them. At the same time both Tyler and Mason grew more and more impatient.

"Dude, who are you?" Tyler asked and held Harper back, sending her a stern look to not talk to the old man.

"My name is Magnus, Magnus Rivera.. I got a call from Sunny a while back, telling me stuff about Harper and.. Henry. I just wanted to meet her" The man said and shifted his gaze between Mason and Tyler, before finally landing on Harper. His warm eyes were copies of her own, and Harper just felt it. Like a little 'click' inside of her heart.

"Y-you are my father?" She squeaked out, voice heavy as she couldn't really control her emotions. The man did an awkward chuckle before walking up the rest of the steps to tower over the teenagers.

"Yeah" He said and Harper swallowed hard before she looked at Tyler for help. When he didn't say anything, in pure fear of what that massive man would do, Mason took the lead.

"Come on in" Mason said and motioned them all inside, at the same time reaching for his phone.

~X~

An hour or so later, Carol had arrived home to find Magnus sitting in one of the living rooms together with the trio. The woman almost passed out as Magnus introduced himself, but then went fully into her mother hen mode.

"You understand.. Mr. Rivera-" Carol sat down on her new usual spot by the bar globe. Her positions were within reach if she needed to let out some steam.

"Magnus, please" The man had taken off his vest and hung it by his armrest. It didn't help much with his hard exterior, he still looked like a biker. But he tried his best to be as formal as he could. He wasn't used to the stirling white and fancy setting of the Lockwood manor, as his home back in Tacoma was at best described as homely.

"Magnus, that I want a DNA test to confirm this. And even then I won't let you take her away just because of a potential match'' Carol stated with a firm tone. That was set in stone, nobody would waltz into her life and take Harper away from her. That girl needed her, Carol had told herself over and over while contemplating what to do now that Richard was gone.

"I understand perfectly ma'am, I just want to get to know her.. that's all I ask" Magnus said in a polite manner and took a sip from his coffee cup. Harper had scrambled as a host to make everyone calm and collected, so she made coffee. A lot of it. The regular sized mug looked tiny in Magnus' hands though, and it made Harper giggle the more glances she took of it.

"Do you have any place to stay?" Carol asked, trying her best to at least seem nice. Mason rolled his eyes, even after years of not seeing Carol, he could still see right through her.

"I sleep in a motel at the edge of town" Magnus nodded and picked up a key from his vest pocket. The key looked a bit rusty and the red color of the room number was faded. Harper knew that it was a cheap one, her mother had often met clients there that didn't want to be seen around town.

"He can sleep in the Bellrose house!" Harper suddenly exclaimed from her spot on the couch next to Tyler.

"Harper-" Carol sighed, not wanting to argue with her sweet suggestion. But the man was old enough to take care of himself.

"No one lives there anyways, and if he is my father he deserves to know about everything he missed. It's all in there" Harper stated and looked at Tyler, who slowly nodded in agreement. He was still in too much of a shock about the man being here at all to voice his opinions about it.

"Look kid, I really appreciate it, but it's too much," Magnus said and placed his cup down on the coffee table, looking into Harper's doe like eyes. She was scared of losing him. Even the mere possibility of him being her father terrified her to the very core, but she was already attached.

"No it isn't, please stay there for now" She stated and dug out her keyes from her back pocket. Her keychain was filled with both so many keys and small momentums from different geeky fandoms she was a part of. A heavy tardis jewel, a Hufflepuff emblem and a rose from Beauty and the Beast. Tyler always complained that she had too much stuff on it. But she loved every single one, and she had no regrets taking the key to her childhood home off it and handing it to Magnus.

"Fine" Magnus huffed and took the tiny key out of Harper's tiny hand. He himself had a much simpler keychain with two, now three, keys on it.

"Should we go there now?" Harper asked and stood up from her spot, looking more and more excited by the second.

"Harp-" Tyler protested, feeling wary of Magnus and her being alone after just an hour of meeting each other.

"The carnival event is tonight, why don't we go there tonight. Have some fun?" Mason suggested and looked between all the adults to confirm the rather good idea.

"You up for it?" Harper asked with hope in her eyes. Tyler had to admit, she hadn't looked this happy in weeks. Even after her dates with Matt. And it felt good seeing her now with new energy to keep walking through the doom and gloom that was Mystic Falls.

"Sure, why not.. I've never even been to a carnival before" Magus said.

"Cool!" Harper said and smiled before rushing up to her room to get changed into a warmer outfit for the outing. With her gone, the Lockwoods all stared down Magnus. Little to no effect as he didn't really care about them, but still.

"Look man, you are huge and scary so I won't bother being threatening, but she is my sister and she has been through hell this year. Don't you dare break her heart" Tyler stated and looked into Magnus eyes. They were warm, just like Harper's, and he felt the same feeling in his heart as he did when he looked into hers. That he was home, he was with family. Tyler shrugged his head to break out of it, coughed, and went upstairs to talk to Harper. Carol followed suit, walking into the study to call her lawyers to get this process going. Leaving only two men left.

"So.. Which pack are you from?" Magnus suddenly said, looking at Mason. He had felt the scent of him ever since he stepped off his bike and didn't know if he felt relief or suspicion about having an unfamiliar family pack around his daughter.

"One down in Florida, a small new one.. not of importance" Mason said, knowing exactly where this conversation would be heading. "I guess you are from the original Tacoma pack?"

"Nah, we are a family from California that moved north after some nasty territorial bullshit. The Tacoma pack is alright, we don't bother them and they don't bother us" Magnus huffed, still feeling the exhaustion and stress from years of werewolf politics. His family was an open and loving one, taking in strays left and right. Which was uncommon and often frowned upon by established packs, who had thrown those people out for a reason. This all led them to move away from the constant harassment and fighting.

"Does she know-"

"Not if Sunny didn't tell her" He stated and fished out his flip phone from his pocket. Still nothing from that front. He had gotten a few messages from his family back in Washington, but they could wait a bit longer.

"Are you planning to?" Mason asked, pulling Magnus away from his thoughts.

"Of course, she needs to know the truth"

"Good she will need it, because she isn't even showing the normal signs of being a wolf, she will be heading out to deep waters if she activates it" Mason stated, happy that his theory was true, but also scared of what might happen if something were to happen with the teenagers.

"It's different for women, especially young girls, they don't have the same rage as we do" Magnus obviously knew what he was talking about, and sure, Mason was new to the whole 'pack' thing. Being the alpha of a group of misfit adults was obviously different from being the alpha of a family pack. He had never dealt with a teenage girl before, much less a teenage wolf.

"Take care of her, Tyler told me some stuff about Harper. It's not good" Mason stated with a serious note. He would probably be the one to break him into the news of the vampires and the rest of the story later on. But both of their priorities were set on their families first.

"Fuck" Magnus groaned, not liking the tone of Mason at all.

~X~

At the Mystic Falls Carnival

It was late in the evening, the party of four had done several rounds around the carnival. Matt had joined them and Harper had challenged the guys on different booths, surprisingly they won at almost everything. They were like her personal superheroes, there to save her day. It felt amazing as they walked around together, dare she say normal. No visions, no voices, no tingles in her fingers.

That was the newest of her supernatural side peeking through. Her mother's books had really helped her a lot with understanding herself more and the things that were happening inside of her. The emotions, the headaches, the dreams. Everything just made sense now. In a way, she wasn't really a pro yet, nor had she unlocked anything majorly awesome about herself.

From her understanding both her and Henry were seers, born from a long line of Bellroses that had been taught and actively practiced 'the art of the mind'. As her mother had written. And it wasn't so much different from magic in itself. Magic comes from nature, pure and raw power surged through witches to balance the world of the supernatural. Seers, or psychic, belonged to the cosmos. The stars. Their minds connected with the unknown in a way witches could reach for, but never truly understand and master as naturally as a seer. And apparently the closest nature related being that brought a bridge between witch and seer was a banshee. But her mother said that those were even more rare than werewolves these days.

She had shown these books to Tyler, and he guarded her secret like any good brother would do.

"So what do we do now?" Harper blinked a few times as she had been stuck in her mind palace, not really doing anything but drifting along the guys as they went around the colorful park.

It was very pretty and amazingly organized, lights and color everywhere. The smell of popcorn and cotton candy in the air. Laughter was heard from every direction. Harper loved this, this was her type of scene.

"I don't think I can carry another bear" She chuckled as she lifted her arms, filled to the brim with one gigantic pink bear from Mason, five smaller bears from Magnus and about twenty or so knick knacks that Tyler and Matt had won for her. Including another key charm.

"Cute" Matt huffed and helped her unload some bears onto him, she could do nothing but protest as she would otherwise drop everything onto the muddy floor. Suddenly a booth in the distance caught her eye.

"Oh armwrestling!" Harper said and nudged her head in the general direction. Tyler smirked in a particular smug way and looked between the two adults in their company as to challenge them.

"You think anyone can beat me?" Tyler asked as he walked up to the guy standing as 'champion'. Harper was so excited that she almost started to drop stuff from her arms, Magnus was quick to swoop in and steal away the rest, the large pink bear and the knick knacks for safe keeping.

"No chance" Harper laughed as she gave the rest to Magnus with a smile, the old man took everything without complaint as he wanted nothing more than to make sure she had a good time. Matt shyly reached for her hand, which she happily took. They all looked on as Tyler took on guy after guy, getting more and more hyped up as the time went on. No one seemed to be strong enough to beat him.

Magnus huffed as the baby wolf got arrogant, he had encountered countless guys like him before in his pack. It was nothing new to him. He looked down at his daughter, there was no uncertainty anymore, to him the DNA test wasn't needed. His own little wolf would soon enter a world with those arrogant bastards around every corner. As a wolf from the Rivera pack, she would get a target on her back pretty quickly by most other werewolf males, even with the blonde by her side.

"Okay cocky, I bet I can take you" Mason snapped as he got tired of Tyler's continuous victory streak. With an arrogant smile the teenager accepted the challenge. The guys locked their hands in a harsh grip, their match so intense that everyone seemed to get more excited as the Lockwood boys' faces twisted as they used more and more of their strength. Finally, just as the table seemed to crack beneath them, Mason overpowered and won over Tyler.

"Is that it?" Mason asked, engroused by the cheering around them. Even Harper was clapping besides Magnus and Matt, who looked upon the two with disbelieving eyes.

"He is the champ, who wants to go next?" Tyler huffed and looked around, ready to just leave the booth and go home.

"Stefan wants a go!" Every eye turned to none other than Damon Salvatore, pushing his brother towards the table where Mason was standing. Harper immediately tensed, locking eyes with the vampire that almost ripped her throat out.

"Harper, are you alright?" Magnus asked, looking between Stefan and his little wolf. Stefan furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the massive old man talking to her, but then stared down Harper with a look of remorse, regret.. and something else. Something she couldn't really pinpoint with all the things going on around her.

"Fine" She said and broke eye contact with the vampire to look up at Magnus. "I'm fine" He didn't believe her for one second, but dropped the subject for now as Mason was about to compete against him. Matt, knowing that Harper had a huge issue with his ex new boyfriend squeezed her hand gently, as to say that she was not alone and that he would protect her from the creep.

"Go Mason!" Harper shouted as the two guys went at it. Mason and Stefan seemed really close, and Stefan himself looked shocked and surprised as Mason overpowered him and won. Tyler and Harper cheered at his victory when he turned away from the table and walked up to them. Meanwhile Stefan was quick to retreat back to his brother.

"Thanks Harper" He said as he gave her a high five. Tyler shook his head in disbelief, not understanding how his uncle could go up against a vampire like that.

"Let's go to a food stand, I'm starving" Harper derailed the thoughts of everyone around them as she started to walk away from them. The guys quickly followed her, their bellies also rumbling.

~X~

Later that Evening

All it had been, was a quick trip to the bathroom before the car ride home. Both Tyler and Mason had gone off on their own before they all would go home together in the same car and Harper felt the need to pee. Nothing else.

But as Harper had hurried her way into the building, her whole demeanor changed. She got this feeling in her belly and she slowed down, it was a feeling she had felt before. Her mother had written about it, though the power had no name nor any real importance to it, it was a type of intuition that many had. Even normal humans. It was human instinct mixing together with untapped powers, mixing to form a way to warn the body that they were walking into something dangerous.

Harper opened the door to the girls bathroom, only to find her best friend Caroline crying hysterically with blood all over her face.

"Caroline?" Harper took a shaky step forward, the blonde looked up and let out a shriek. Which only scared Harper more.

"Harper?!" Caroline asked, tears still stuck in her throat. Harper was gaping, her mouth wide open as she stared at her friend.

"Oh my god" She gasped, realizing what was happening to her friend, she felt it in her bones, and could once again hear the whispers in her head. Caroline was a vampire.

"I didn't mean to hurt anybody! I really didn't" Caroline frankaly stood up and walked up to Harper "Please don't be scared" She hugged herself, rocking herself back and forward "Please.." Harper didn't know what to do, her best friend was a supernatural being that could kill her at any moment. Even her powers did nothing to sate her distress.

"I… I believe you.. okay?" Harper said with a shaky breath, trusting her heart for once. This was Caroline, her Care. The girl who had helped her through many hurdles and dark times, it was time to do the same. "I believe you" Harper tried to take a step closer to help with the blood.

"I c-can't.. I can't get close to you Harper" Caroline stated and pushed Harper away. "What if I hurt you, I'm a vampire! Bonnie already hates me" She said loudly and once again started crying.

"You won't.. I just know it" Harper said, taking a deep breath before deciding to hug Caroline."There we go.. shhh" She muttered as Caroline cried into her shoulder. It was working, Caroline wasn't biting or even nibbling at her veins. Harper knew her friend was stronger than that.

"Caroline I have more towels-" Suddenly the door burst open to find Stefan, holding dark towels he probably stole from a locker room down the hall. The man stopped and looked at the brunette, holding a baby vampire like nothing unusual was going on. "Harper"

"I should go.." Harper realized that she needed to leave and let the much older vampire handle the situation. She didn't want to, what if something goes wrong with Caroline and she isn't there to help.

"No! Stay" Just what Stefan was afraid of was happening. Caroline wouldn't let something she normally finds comforting go away, that amplification made everything worse. Harper would most likely be crushed by Caroline if she didn't let go.

"I can't Care, not with him-" Harper tried, but Caroline was quick to jump in. Sensing her friend's distress.

"Did he do something to you?" The blonde stared at Stefan with overprotective malice, as she could see how Stefan too had some skeletons in his closet. Just like Damon.

"Care, calm down okay? He.. Stefan didn't do anything, I'm just a bit scared right now" Harper played as best as she could on a smoothing tone and comforting smiles. She knew that her friend could snap at any moment. "Everything will be okay, I know it" Harper stated with a firm tone before turning around towards the door to walk away.

"What can you see into the future or something?" Caroline shouted after her, a teasing tone to her voice.

"Yeah, something like that" Harper looked back with a smirk and a wink. Before closing the door behind her. Her heartbeat was steady, her hands were a bit clammy but that was about it. She sighed in relief, everything would be okay.