Catalyst
The world was like a cast-open book. Everything bled ink across the pages, black and blue on white and yellow. He felt himself be broken, felt a quill snapping, felt Sectumsempra bleeding out on the bathroom floor. There was a basilisk's fang in his arm and a black heart pulsing in his hand.
He plucked the poison from his veins and cast Fiendfyre.
…
He came apart in bits and pieces: Harry James Potter lived at Number 4, Privet Drive. He was perfectly normal, thank you very much.
'Freak,' said the pig, the whale, the giraffe.
'You can come live with me,' said the dog, but then Death claimed him.
'You're as sane as I am,' said the moon, gifting him a cork to keep the wrackspurts away. She'd given him the recipe cocooned in a lullaby.
'Just because it's all in your head doesn't mean it isn't real, Master,' said Death. He wrapped Harry in a cloak of water spun to thread.
'Look at him, he's catatonic. It'll be a mercy,' said the lion with the family that had been broken in the act of loving him.
'He's not stupid, give him a chance,' said the swan, 'Stay the night at my place, if you want.'
He'd forgotten his name, but he remembered being led to the edge of a veil that whispered Harry, Harry, HARRY.
He could never forget the feeling of magic coursing through all his cavities, casting him whole as swiss cheese.
.oOo.
It was strange how quickly it became normal, living with someone who refused to leave their property. He'd walk around, mumbling and waving his stick in the air; that became normal too. Alice made a game of doing their grocery shopping without a list. They all settled into a different kind of life.
Esme came to work with Harry every day now. After a week, he started doing little things around the house again.
Bella wasn't sure why she felt so relieved to come home to freshly ironed laundry. She'd gone to hug Harry when she'd found it and he'd almost met her eyes when he smiled.
Classes were getting more intense, and Mr. Varner kept getting worse. Once, when sitting at the kitchen table with Edward explaining the same question to her for the third time, Harry came by to watch. He just stood there quietly, peering at the pages. She left the book out for him. The next morning over breakfast, she wasn't surprised to see Harry doing strange things with imaginary numbers.
"Your school is very limited," he said while putting a teaspoon of salt in his coffee.
Bella grinned, fetching him the sugar and a new cup.
.oOo.
"Are you sure about this, Bella?" Charlie loved his daughter. He knew she didn't like baseball. He didn't want her to come back in a sour mood after dropping the bat on her own foot.
"I'll just watch. It's the American pastime, you know." She pulled on her parka.
Her cap was crooked. Charlie fixed it, tucking a flyaway strand behind her ear. "Be careful, Bella."
"I'm always careful," she said, and then she was off.
"That's why I worry," he murmured at the retreating headlights. At least the truck was getting some use, he consoled himself. Tonight, he could kiss Harry on the couch without worrying about their daughter coming in.
They'd settled down for a movie Charlie had no intention of watching when Harry sat up.
"What is it, honey?"
Harry shook his head, getting to his feet. He put his hand in his hoodie pocket like whenever he was nervous. "There's a storm coming," he said. He'd been talking more lately, but it was usually riddles.
Charlie listened for the thunder anyway. "You're not worried about your trees, right?" Then he heard the car doors and Bella came crashing into the house.
"I don't want to be trapped here," she cried. "Just let me go." Charlie couldn't speak, he felt himself breaking. For fifteen years those words had kept rattling around his head.
Harry placed his hands on Bella's shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. "Don't lie to us," he said. "Charlie deserves better."
He watched Bella shatter like a bullet. Charlie wanted to move, but his knees were shaking. He didn't remember sitting down, but he'd never forget the sound of her sobs. The yellow parka drip-drip-dripped onto the linoleum floor.
"You're going to stay right here with your father, where you belong," Harry said once the tears ebbed. "Edward, you can come in. Please call Alice for me."
Charlie wondered for how long Harry had been lucid. He hoped Harry was lucid, not running on instinct and terror.
They watched Harry put on Bella's raincoat, plus her cap. "Sorry," he said when some of her hair got caught in the clasp. He walked outside barefoot, in a circle around the house. Protego totalum, Salvio Hexia, he said, and Cave inimicum. His eyes were glowing. When Charlie looked at him, Harry held his gaze.
"Don't leave until Edward tells you it's safe," he said, cradling Charlie's face in his warm, warm hands. He kissed Bella's head, then Edward's. "I'll come back soon," Harry promised, and left.
.oOo.
The house had never felt so small before. She didn't know how Harry had stayed indoors for a month, when she could barely stand two days. Bella moved from one room to the next, feeling Edward watch her.
"I love you," he said, and Bella smiled back feeling utterly, terribly helpless.
It was like that time in the locker room, or the time Harry was having a fit in the kitchen. Bella remembered when Renée had announced she was falling in love, remembered feeling left behind. It welled inside her, like Jessica's spitting I don't want your pity—but her friend had never said what they could do to help instead.
Bella felt impotent, useless, good for nothing. All she could do was pace, but that made Charlie feel worse. Charlie, whose boyfriend was out there facing down god-knows-what.
Harry, who hadn't left the house in a month after shorting out a hospital building, Harry with his oversized sweaters and flour on his hands, Harry who called Bella our daughter. That same Harry was in Phoenix fighting a vampire.
"He said he'd come back," Charlie reminded them every night at dinner, not even noticing that Edward didn't eat. "I believe him."
Bella found comfort in Edward's arms as he wrapped himself around her like a marble statue. There was solace in his soft kisses. There was hope in his murmured phone calls. Alice and Jasper were limited by the sunlight, but Harry had donned a wig and was walking around Arizona touching saguaros and singing to the moon.
"They found James in your old ballet studio," Edward announced. He repeated himself when Charlie came in, adding "the building is ruined, but you're safe now, Bella."
The tightness in Edward's eyes betrayed the answer to Charlie's inevitable question.
"Where's Harry?"
They watched Edward swallow. "We don't know."
Then, from outside, they heard a crack, like someone was trying to steal her truck. Edward fell off his chair but Bella was too busy running after Charlie.
Harry was at the edge of the property, sleeves torn and arm bleeding. Bella watched Charlie help him into the house, her heart bursting with worry. Edward was on the phone, but he didn't seem to mind Harry's blood. Charlie helped settle Harry on the sofa and went to get the first aid kit.
"Edward," Harry snapped.
He put his phone down. "I was calling Carlisle?"
"We both know it's too late for that." Harry extended his arm, turning it into the light. There, on the underside, was the unmistakable crescent of a vampire bite.
Bella sat down. She reached out on instinct, holding Harry like the many times he'd held her. She didn't have the faith to whisper the words, 'it's going to be okay, trust me'.
"Edward," Harry said again, his face already flushed with fever. "You protect Bella like your life depends on it. And Charlie. Look after my Charlie."
"Yes, sir," Edward whispered.
Charlie came in then with the kit, but Harry was already pushing himself back up, pushing an apology from his lips. "Edward is taking me with him. I'm sorry."
Bella held her father before he could fall, watching Edward do the same for Harry.
"What's going on?" Charlie said, and Bella never wanted to hear him that broken again.
"Come on, dad." She was done feeling helpless. It was just vampirism, not the end of the world. Harry was special, but he was going to be just fine. Bella squared her shoulders and jutted her chin. "I'm driving us to Billy's for the night."
.oOo.
Alice sat by him, holding his hand as he tossed and turned on the couch.
"I can hear his thoughts," Edward announced after the first day was up. "There's disconcerting latin, and screaming."
"I'm here with you, Harry," Alice said, wishing the future would come sooner.
She watched possibilities in her mind, but they were frustratingly muddy, and in the rare snippets of Harry he was staring back at her with impossibly green eyes. She'd learned not to focus her visions on him too much, and now she didn't know what to do except fret.
On the second day, Charlie and Bella came by with Billy Black and Sam Uley. They all sat in the living room under a blanket of Jasper's calm, watching Harry become something that wasn't human anymore.
"This is a violation of the treaty," Billy Black said.
"Tell me what's going on." Charlie stood by Harry, looking like he was scared to touch him.
Carlisle was at work while Esme, Rosalie and Emmett were hunting. Alice exchanged glances with Edward. She decided to call them home, but her visions showed nothing at all.
"They're all vampires," Bella announced, taking the decision from them. Edward winced. Jasper's calm fluttered.
Charlie just sighed, dropping onto the couch beside Bella. "I thought Harry was joking. Like it was a metaphor or something."
"Harry was a good man," Billy Black intoned. "You will tell us who did this to him, Cullen. We will have our justice."
"He still is a good person," Bella huffed. "Turning into a vampire's a good thing."
Edward groaned. "Not now," he said, so quiet that only Alice heard him.
"We didn't come here for a chat," Sam Uley growled.
Outside, the clouds shifted, letting the last rays of sunlight into the house. Jasper darted into the shadows.
"Okay," Charlie said, turning to blink at Jasper. "Okay. Harry kept saying you don't eat people."
"We drink from animals," Edward explained, then turned to the Quileutes. "A passing nomad wanted Bella. Harry destroyed James, but he was bitten."
"Whose idea was it for the whacko human to fight a leech?"
"Quiet, Uley," Billy Black said. "Harry was a friend."
"This whole thing was Harry's idea." Bella leaned into her father's side. "He did it to protect me," she whispered.
"Okay." Charlie got up and rested a hand on Harry's neck, feeling for the pulse that Alice could hear fluttering. "How long until he wakes up?"
"Less than a day," Jasper said from his position in the corner. He'd know, of course, even when Alice was blind. She smiled, sending him a rush of fondness. "He'll likely be volatile, Chief Swan. We would prefer that Harry stay with us at first, until we can be sure it's safe."
"Okay." Charlie sat down by Harry's head, holding his daughter with one hand and his lover with the second. "Us Swans would like to be alone now."
Alice watched Sam Uley and Billy Black drive off. She went back to her room with Jasper, hearing Edward's stereo through the walls.
It couldn't drown out the conversation below.
"You want to be one of them, don't you."
"I love Edward," Bella said. Her voice was calm and her words measured. "I feel like we could be something amazing, something beautiful like what you and Harry have. I'm sorry, dad. I never wanted to lie to you, or leave you behind."
"Okay." They heard rustling and creaking, the sound of people moving around. "I love you, Bella."
"I love you too, dad."
Alice listened to Harry's heart beating its last hundred thousand beats like a countdown.
This updates every third weekend and is already completely posted on ao3. Thanks for reading!