A/N: Thanks for reading! I really think that Max Martini fits as Harper's father. Thank you so much CJ/Oddball for the suggestion!

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

Chapter 23 - Blood is thicker than Water

~X~

Harper woke up with a smile on her face. Yesterday had been a really good day for her. The test results had come back, and with lawyers and a judge present, it was finally revealed that Magnus was in fact Harper's biological dad. Despite that Carol and her legal team had made a deal with him, granting him no status as legal guardian. But he was free to be in her life as he wished. With Harper's consent of course, if she deemed him a threat or bad influence on her life she had the right to push him away for good.

So far everything had been going great. Harper hadn't been attacked by any vampires, she and Magnus were really starting to bond. As did she and Mason, even if he still acted a bit odd around her and Tyler sometimes. She was also starting to get the hang of school, slightly higher grades than before, much to Carol's delight.

Everything was starting to piece together. Even her powers seemed to grow day by day. She had read her mother's writing word for word, religiously. Glowing with happiness as the thoughts and feelings she had were being justified. She wasn't crazy, she wasn't a freak.

Harper Bellrose Lockwood was a proud seer, and she no longer would let anyone trample over her. Sure she had no supernatural strength, nor speed or immortality. Not spells or the skill to listen to nature and be connected to it. But she had other means to make her just as wonderful as any other being in the supernatural community. Because she had the stars and the unknown on her side, lending her the power to do incredible things. Sadly for seers, that wasn't much outside of the realm of past, present and future. No psychic attack abilities here folks!

And she could now look into the future without being so afraid anymore, and the voices inside of her head held no pain when they spoke to her. But she had accepted the fact that gloves were needed, otherwise the risk of invading someone's privacy or seeing a random person's whole life flash by could scar a seer deep. Harper had chosen to take some of the gloves her mother had left behind, thin silk ones in all colors. But she mostly used the black ones. She wore them all the time.

The only mystery left were the tarot cards, crystal ball and the box. She hadn't touched either, out of the sheer fear that her mother had written about in her books. Not even Sunny wanted to open that box, and she only used her deck when the person she read wanted it and she was getting paid to do it.

Harper didn't want to follow her mother's footsteps, so she kept them hidden deep inside of her closet.

~X~

It was Mason's and Magnus' plan to separate the teenagers for some alone time that day. To finally tell them the truth. It had been some time after the carnival that they mutually agreed to help each other out to ease them into the mentality of pack life.

Magnus was no alpha, just a beta to his old man back in Washington state. They were a rather huge pack, by today's standards, and one of the worlds strongest remaining packs out there. Then of course there were the wolves of California, New York, Texas and Florida, several younger and medium sized packs at best, not really as formed together and unified as the Washington one. And last but not least, Louisiana, but none had heard from them in years. They were vicious and loners to begin with, not making any effort to keep contact with the rest. Plus the fact that they lived near vampires by the dozen, no pack wanted to go down there to visit.

The Riviera pack was one of the four 'families' connected to the Tacoma pack. The other three being mostly from Tacoma or other places in Washington. Each family had an alpha and the four alphas made up a council over the whole state. The Rivera family still had Magnus' father as the alpha, and Magnus' older sister was set on taking over that role as their dad was soon too old to even get up from his bed without help. Magnus had no problems about being a beta whatsoever, but now it rested upon his shoulders to break Harper into this life. And introduce her to the long lost family she never knew she had.

She had taken Tyler's car over to the Bellrose house, where Magnus had been staying all this time. He had gotten some serious heartache seeing pictures of Harper and Henry as kids. He wished nothing more than to turn back time and meet them back then, to be a real father to them from the start. Harper had told him everything about Henry, what kind of girl she had been, and she sounded lovely. He was proud of his girls, and vowed to protect Harper with his life if he must.

"Dad!" It had been an easy thing to start calling Magnus her father, the longing in her heart for a family mixed with the news of him being her biological parent made it all too easy to accept him as her own.

"Harper darling, come here" Magnus was sitting by the rundown garage beside the big house. It hadn't been properly managed in a decade, he guessed, and prayed that no rotten wood would collapse now that he started to use the space for his bike.

The girl slammed the car door and ran up to him, hugging the giant man. With a chuckle, he lifted her body off the ground, making her squeal in delight. It was a rather odd thing, to feel such love as she did now for the first time. She felt warm and fuzzy, like she had been missing a part of her life all this time. And now it was finally found.

"How are you?" He asked as he settled her back down on the ground. He walked back to his little stool beside his harley, getting himself busy once again with upkeep.

"Great! I finally finished the stupid history assignment. So now I'm all free for the day" She stated and walked over to the rickety old work bench inside the garage. Jumping up on it to have a space to relax.

"That's my girl.." Magnus mused and fiddled with his tools. It was pretty obvious that he had something on his mind.

"What is it?" She asked, she chuckled lightly but in her stomach a sort of sick worry was taking root.

"No no.. it's nothing.. just.. shit" He took a deep breath. Talking about stuff wasn't really his thing. "I have something to tell you. It's about my family… well.. your family" He stated and turned around to face her.

"Okay? I want to know everything about your side of the family. Sunny never told me anything about hers other than the town history" Harper had stopped using mom or mother for Sunny a few days back. She was her family, but by no means did she meet the qualifications to be called a mother. And calling her 'the woman who birthed me' just sounded cruel. Harper sat there and waited for her father to speak, he looked really conflicted over what he was about to say.

"Here's the thing.. we come from a line of werewolves" Magnus stated plain and simple. Harper's eyes grew big, and her mouth hung open. But she said nothing, nor did she laugh in his face. The old man was tense and his face was dead serious. He was telling the truth.

"I'm a werewolf?" She rasped out, suddenly having a hard time breathing. What did that mean? How could that even be possible?

"Harper, Harper! Breathe darling, breathe" Magnus rushed to her side and took a hold of her as the poor girl tried to cope. Almost slipping from her spot on the workbench in the process.

"I'm okay.. please tell me more" She said as she looked up at his face from her mushed spot in his arms. He held her close and took a deep breath, ready to tell her everything.

"I come from a long line of wolves, back in Washington. Hah.. You have two aunts, my sisters Maria and Linnea. And a handful of cousins, as well as grandparents. Who already loves you by the way, and wants to meet you more than anything-"

"I'm psychic," Harper interrupted him with a shaky voice. Tears were welling up in her eyes. Scared what he would say to that, but she needed help. Now more than ever as her world was once more being turned upside down.

"What?"

"Sunny, her side of the family were psychics.. seer.. I can see into the future" Harper tried to keep it as simple as possible and straight to the point. Magnus' eyebrows furrowed together in deep thought.

"That doesn't matter darling.. hey, look at me" Magnus stated at took a hold of her head to keep her gaze firmly on him.

"You are probably both if that's the case, because no one with at least one werewolf parent goes without that gene." He brushed some of her brown locks out of her face "And that's okay, you probably won't activate the curse anyways. You will be normal, or I guess as normal as a seer can be" Magnus chuckled, as if he was so certain of the future that it would be a joke to suggest anything else to his daughter.

"It's a curse?"

"It's a long story" Magnus stated and looked down at his watch, they were not late, yet. Both of them had promised Carol to help her in the new park today. There had been an agreement between the two adults that Harper would still keep the Lockwood name, and all of the duties that came with being a public figure of sorts. But Harper just shook her head.

"We've got time" She said and jumped down from her spot before heading inside of the house. The teenager didn't leave any room for a 'no' or a 'later'.

~X~

Later that Evening

After that eventful day with her father, including her telling him everything she knew about her mother's lineage and history, she was finally back at the Lockwood manor. She had now switched to her usual pajamas, and was ready for an early bedtime to escape Carol and her crusade. She hadn't sounded happy when Magnus had called to excuse them out of working at the public event. But Harper didn't care, she had too much going on to please her right now.

It was as she was passing through the foyer to go up the stairs when she spotted a blonde figure on the other side of the door. "Caroline?" Harper asked more of herself than anybody else, and opened the door to her friend. The new vampire looked exhausted and defeated, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Can I stay with you for a while?" She asked, waiting to be invited into both her friend's home, and her friend's arms.

"Sure.. what happened?" Harper asked as Caroline was fast to take a hold of her, lightly crying on her shoulder. The brunette felt bad that she hadn't gone to the park, obviously she had missed something important to her friend.

"It's my mom, she knows" Caroline whispered out, still hugging Harper as she started to cry once again. Tyler chose this moment to come down the stairs to see what was going on, with a confused face he stared at them.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, not sure if he should be involved in this matter. But Harper smiled kindly at him and pulled back from Caroline to meet her eyes.

"Yeah, you're up for a Disney movie marathon?" She asked and Caroline giggled with a nod. Harper knew exactly what would cheer her up. That's why she had gone here, instead of staying at the boarding house with the Salvatores and Elena. That, and the fact that she blamed both of those guys and stupid Mason for starting a fight at such a public event. She had already reported back to Katherine, even if she didn't want to.

"Again?" Tyler scoffed with a tired smirk of his own.

"Yep" Harper nodded and started to pull Caroline up the stairs for her bedroom.

"Sure.. I'll bring the snacks" Tyler called after them, before heading into the pantry down the hall.

"My hero!" Harper shouted, to which Caroline laughed even more. She started to feel light again, happy. She felt bad for not really keeping in contact with Harper for the last few days, but didn't know how to really say sorry.

Inside Harper bedroom, the girls settled on bringing the mattress, pillows and blankets on the floor. So that her new TV would feel like a movie screen at the cinema. As Caroline was making their new little haven, she spotted a photo on the side of Harper's bed. Which she hadn't seen before.

"Who is he?" She asked, as she took the delicate frame and showed it to Harper. The man was old, and looked like a real outlaw biker. He wasn't really handsome enough to be a secret crush, nor did he resemble any celebrity that Caroline knew of.

"...That's my dad.." Harper said and took the frame from her with a small smile, she had taken this photo the day of the court hearing, they had gone out for ice cream to celebrate, and the photo was him, Carol, Tyler and her laughing as they all saw the cameraman get pooped on by a seagull as he took the photo. Tyler and Harper nearly choked on their treat, while Carol tried to hide her amusement. Magnus was laughing with a big smile, finding the whole thing perfectly hilarious. The only one that was missing was William, who had sent her a postcard from Toronto a week before that.

"Your dad?!" Caroline shouted, loud enough for everyone in the house to hear.

"Shhh" Harper said as she almost felt the need to cover her ears. "Yeah, he came here a while back. We have been in court and everything"

"How could you not tell me this.. I thought we were-" Caroline started to feel angry, unnaturally so and Harper felt an argument coming from a mile away.

"Okay calm down. I didn't tell you because you have been going through some major change in your own life right now" Harper stated with a small smile, taking Caroline's hand before putting the photo back in its place on the nightstand.

"And second, I kinda wanted to keep him to myself. Away from the supernatural world for a while" Ha! Jokes on her, her father had been born into that world. Harper sighed as Caroline calmed down, her face relaxing when she realized that Harper had only tried to be kind and respectful of the distance she herself had put between them.

"I understand.. sorry" The blonde said and hugged her friend sideways, feeling happy that Harper stood by her side.

"No problem, friends?" Harper giggled as she walked back to their new cozy movie seats, Caroline smiled and followed her.

"Best friends"

~X~

Elsewhere, around Midnight

"So this Harper?" Katherine said as she pulled away from her lover's face, happy that the pieces were finally moving into the correct places. Sure, she was a tiny bit sad to see this handsome face die. But a girl needed to live, not just survive anymore.

"She is a nobody.." Mason sighed and moved away from her back into his seat. Feeling uncomfortable talking about the teenager that had been nothing but kind and patient towards him, even in times when Tyler himself was weary. He had tried to be as sneaky and calm about getting the stone as he could, but now his nephew started to notice his erratic asking.

"A nobody who just seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.. all the time" Katherine said, remembering what Isobel had told her about the girl. Back in the day, the Bellrose's had been distant and off putting, even as founding family members. They kept to themselves, while accepting all of the vampires in town and helping the witches the best they would while trying to survive themselves. She found them admirable, they too went on with survivors' instinct and knowledge beyond what she could even imagine. She found herself curious to talk to this Harper, to see what use this seer would have to her.

"Ignore her, she is just a human '' Mason stated, which made her raise her eyebrow. He was lying to her. Interesting.

"Fine, if you say so" She shrugged, smirking at her new plan forming inside of her pretty little head.

Back at the Lockwoods, everyone was finally sleeping but Caroline. Who kept checking her phone over and over for any news coming from Elena and her boys. But nothing ever came. She looked over at Harper, sleeping soundly hugging one of her pillows, but then gasped as the brunette's eyes opened. White as milk, almost shining in the darkness of the bedroom. With a voice that didn't sound like her best friend at all, Caroline heard three words over and over coming from her mouth.

"Moonstone.. Curse.. Niklaus"