Harry and Merope and the Mystery of Forks

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own any of these characters, only the plots and situations that you do not recognize.


Chapter 14

"Shouldn't you be freaking out right now?" Sam asked Bella, with a look of confusion on his face after hearing her extremely understated response to finding out monsters were real.

Bella started to sit up to better converse with everyone, but Edward wasn't ready to let her go yet and gently stopped her, wanting to make sure she was truly all right to sit up. Bella rolled her eyes and shoved his hands back, which caused Edward to blink in surprise because she normally would not have had the strength to do that.

"I'm fine, Edward. Actually, I'm feeling pretty great considering I was just bitten by a vampire that I didn't even know existed when I woke up this morning." Bella said with incredulity. Then she sat up with a speed that was noticeably quicker than a human would have been capable, but still slower than a vampire.

"Well, Harry, I see that at least some of your theories are proving to be correct," said Carlisle with intrigue flashing in his eyes.

Harry shrugged and Merope patted him on the arm and said with a smile, "It's mostly due to our years of experience and vast knowledge of the magical side of things that we are able theorize with any sort of accuracy."

"Exactly how old are you?" Bella asked curiously.

"Hmm. Not really sure anymore. We tend to not keep track of our true ages anymore, seeing as how we don't actually age, we just charm ourselves to age. I was 120 years old the first time I time traveled and met and married Merope," Harry said as he scratched his chin in thought, not seeing the way the wolves' and Bella's eyes widened in surprise. "We've time traveled together at least twice together, staying for at least 120 to 150 years both times. Then we came here, which is completely different from the world we came from, as there is no magical community to speak of in this world."

"You're probably older than Carlisle," Emmett said in amusement.

"I guess technically speaking, I've lived more years, but I've only time traveled as far back as the 1920s. I imagine we might decide to explore the medieval times one day, but that will take extra planning." Harry said.

"Why would it take extra planning?" Rosalie, who had been pretty quiet up to this point, asked.

It was Bella who answered, "I'll bet it's because they'll want to make sure they can read and speak Old English enough to blend in properly."

Harry smiled and nodded, "While that's true, Bella, we also have the ability to just appear undetected and invisible, we call it stealth mode for convenience, and we could spend an indefinite amount of time observing and learning that way before we were to reveal ourselves to the people there."

"Oh, then why?" Bella asked curiously.

"I'd just rather brush up on the history of the time period before we go," Harry said, "that is, unless we get transported there unexpectedly, which is not entirely out of the realm of possibility, sometimes I have a strange sort of luck. But I'd just like to be more knowledgeable about what is to be expected, etiquette rules of the time, manner of dress and speech, and so on, which means studying what the non-magicals have preserved of medieval history, as well as what the magicals have."

"Perhaps that should be our goal of study while we're here, Harry," Merope said enthusiastically, "we could go to college to become historians."

"If you've lived so many years, why haven't you done that major before?" Emmett asked curiously.

"Mostly because we lived mainly in the magical world," responded Merope. "That's not to say we knew nothing of the muggle world" — "Meaning the non-magical world," Harry piped in before Merope rolled her eyes at his interruption and continued speaking without missing a beat, — "as we would venture out into that world frequently, but this is the first time we have ever chosen to haven an education in the muggle world."

"If you want to get technical, this is the first time either of us had chosen to actually go to school at all, since we began to time travel, though, Merope was basically homeschooled, so this is her first time in a structured school at all." Harry added thoughtfully.

Curiosity peaked, Jasper asked, "How were you able to establish yourselves without starting out in school?"

"Oh, we had the Goblins of Gringotts forge our identities," Harry said nonchalantly.

"Goblins?" Sam asked in wonder.

Sighing, Harry said, "Look, unless we reconvene at my home, we will never be able to get through our explanations of the magical world before Bella needs to return home. Not to mention the fact that we're going to need to work with her to get her used to her new abilities, so that she can blend back into the human world without the humans becoming suspicious."

"How could being at your home help?" Bella asked curiously.

Sam grinned, "Harry and Merope have a time compression room."

"What?" The vampires all asked in unison.

"We have a room in our basement that I've created, though I didn't invent it, that can become whatever I need it to be. If I need a bathroom, it will be a bathroom. If I need a battle training room, it will become that. If I need a time compression room, so that time passes more slowly in real time where many hours or days can be passed inside, then…." Harry trailed off, waiting for it to click in the vampires' minds.

"It will adjust the concept of reality in whatever way you need?" Carlisle asked.

Harry smiled and nodded. "Exactly."

"We'll go ahead and go home, so that we can get everything prepared. If we're going to be under time compression for weeks or months, or however long it takes to accomplish telling our stories and training Bella, then we're going to need to get stocked up on food, clean clothing, and sleeping arrangements for those of us that sleep, etcetera." Merope said. Turning to the wolves, she asked, "I'm assuming you three plan to come?"

Sam nodded and said, "Definitely. But I believe we need to return to La Push for a short time to get our personal belongings that we'll need for an extended stay."

Merope and Harry both nodded in answer and then Harry said, "All right. Give us about an hour, and then you can all come over and we'll get started."


Many weeks passed under the time compression setting of Harry and Merope's RoR.

They learned the extent of Bella's changes and abilities, including the fact that she didn't need as much sleep as before, even though she still needed a few hours in order to not be cranky. She was definitely faster and stronger and a lot less clumsy, although she did still have her clumsy moments, rare as they are. She even had quick healing capabilities in the event that she was injured. Surprisingly, she could eat and digest both human and vampire food.

Lastly, they were able to determine that Bella was a mental shield. If she so chose, she could shield others as well as herself and Edward was unable to hear anyone's thoughts, which Emmett and Jasper were excited about because it meant that Edward could no longer cheat during their wrestling matches.

The only thing that they still had no answer for was whether or not Bella was mortal or immortal. Only time would tell whether or not she would continue to age or if she was forever 17.

Rosalie thawed in her hostility towards Bella after about a week in the time compression room. Merope was able to get her to open up with her to work through what her issues were. Part of it was jealousy that Edward could have been so taken with a human, when he had never given her beauty a second look. She didn't even want Edward, she loved Emmett with all of her being, but she was so used to being the most beautiful and sought after woman that she couldn't fathom that anyone could exist that could turn Edward's head, if she couldn't.

Rosalie's other issue behind her hostility was that she didn't approve of a human willingly joining this life. What woman in their right mind would choose to give up the opportunity to have a child? The fact that Bella had been bitten before she was ever given the opportunity to make that choice went a long way in Rosolie's attitude adjustment.

Edward was the only one other than Merope who was aware of the complete reason behind Rosalie's change of heart and attitude, but that was because he was the mind reader of the bunch, or the only one who couldn't control his mind-reading, if one wanted to get technical. He was too much of a gentleman to share her thoughts with anyone, though, for which she was grateful. She didn't want Emmett to feel bad in any way.

During breaks between training with Bella, Harry and Merope shared their stories with everyone via the use of a 3-D pensieve projection that the room created. It was as if they were present inside a pensieve, without having to actually submerge themselves into the memory bowl. It was something that could only happen in the RoR, if they had been outside of the RoR, then the pensieve would have only worked in accordance with the normal rules of magic.

To say that the Cullens, Bella, and the wolves were both appalled and impressed would have been an understatement. Appalled by the way Harry had had to grow up and the bigotry in which the wizarding world was entrenched in; impressed by the way Harry had overcome so many obstacles and did everything in his power to effect change in the world for the better.

Harry had only chosen to share his original timeline and the timeline of the first time he traveled and married Merope, as he didn't see that there was much point in sharing their history beyond that. His meeting with Merope was only implied, rather than shown. Even though it had been many years, he understood it was something that she wouldn't have wanted anyone else to be witness to.

By the time all of the memories had finished playing, they had all developed a new respect for what their friends had been through and all of them were amazed that neither one seemed to be the least bit corrupted from the powers that they had been gifted as Masters of Death.


A/N: Notes on profile.