A/N: Hello again! So now the real action starts, though I know I've been annoying what with leaving constant cliffhangers...but I never claimed I wasn't.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy.
Warnings: Same as usual
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Twilight because if I did I would be rich, but alas, I'm just a broke high school student
Esme heard the children get home from school, and immediately smelt the human with them. She smiled and combed her fingers through her hair before heading downstairs.
The boy was standing awkwardly in their foyer, and looking around. She had no doubt in her mind that he was looking for possible escape routes.
"Hello. You must be Hadrian." She said, smiling at the startled gasp that escaped the human's lips as he turned to face her.
She instantly saw where abuse could've been present. His shoulders were tense, his collar bones were sticking out underneath his t-shirt, and his hip bones also looked to be protruding from the hem of his jeans.
She winced when she noticed that Rosalie wasn't wrong about the scars littering the boy's arms, though none of them were as concerning as the one on his left forearm.
"Uh, yeah." The boy mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck. Esme smiled and realized that maybe her suspicions of the wizard were unjustified.
She wasn't about to trust him though. Not completely.
"Why don't you come to the living room? We can talk there." She started out of the room knowing that if he didn't follow her, her children would make him.
Hadrian followed the older vampire into the living room even as he tried to ignore the five pairs of eyes that were glued to the back of his head. He could almost feel them judging him, waiting for him to make a wrong move, waiting for him to do something that could justify getting rid of him.
He shook his head slightly, and pulled up a mask of confidence. Even if he hated his situation, he needed to tell them...though to be fair he wasn't quite sure why he was doing it because it would most likely end up with him being hunted down by XJ as well.
He could almost hear Hermione chiding him about his hero complex, but he pushed himself away from that thought before he could get too far.
He missed Hermione enough as it was.
"Take a seat, Hadrian." The oldest vampire said, gesturing to a room full of white furniture. Hadrian smiled at the sincerity of the offer, but didn't bother to hide his uneasiness either as he sat himself down on the couch.
"Thank you." He mumbled, feeling awkward looking up at the still standing vampires who had decided to form a semicircle around him.
"So, I heard that you have something to tell us?" Esme prompted, finally taking a seat herself. Hadrian held back a groan when the rest of the vampires decided it was time to sit down too, because now he had Alice on one side of him and Edward on the other.
"Yeah." There was a silence for a moment.
"So get on with it." Rosalie snapped, rolling her eyes as she leaned into Emmett's chest.
"Fine." Hadrian grumbled, pulling his knees up to his chest. He remembered Moody telling him that it was a defensive position common to abused children. He remembered wondering why Moody was the only one picking up the hints that he dropped. "But I want some answers too."
"Of course." Esme smiled. Hadrian nodded his head, happy that she was at least pretending to be compliant.
"The only thing you need to know is that there is someone out there who wants to kill you." Hadrian started, belatedly realizing that he probably should've thought about how he was going to explain himself before he came here. "Well, more specifically, a Krusnik named XJ wants me to help him kill you." He watched as the vampire family stiffened a bit, despite the fact that he was sure that Edward had told them all about what he had discussed with him earlier that week.
"What-what is a Krusnik?" Alice asked.
"Uhm, from what I know, they're basically like a vampire's vampire. They suck the venom, or whatever the hell it is you guys have, out of you." Hadrian shrugged, folding his hands in his lap.
"They're powerful." Esme said, drawing attention away from the obviously anxious boy. "I've never encountered one before, but I know that they're essentially the same as us with the added benefit of shifting into an animal."
"And, you know, they can fly." Hadrian snarked, already getting fed up with how dramatic they were making this ordeal. He wanted to get this sorted out, live past next Sunday and maybe get his life back on track...or rather, get Hadrian's life back on track. Harry was a whole other problem.
"You made contact with him, Hadrian?" Jasper asked. Hadrian shrugged.
"Yeah, I mean he approached me in the woods and we talked."
"Did he say why?" Alice questioned.
"Why he's going to kill you? No, but it'd be bloody great if you could think of a way to get rid of him before he kills me." Hadrian retorted, finally deciding to mention that the Krusnik threatened him. Maybe it would give the vampires some incentive to get on with the questioning so they could figure out a plan.
"Why would he kill you?" Emmett asked, earning a blank stare and a raised eyebrow from Hadrian.
"Gee, I don't know. He told me it'd be perfectly fine if I told the family of vampires he was planning to murder all about his intentions." Hadrian was only slightly sorry for being nasty, though he knew that prior to fifth year, he would've never spoken to anyone aside from Malfoy that way.
The war had hardened him and everyone else who had fought in it. He had a lower tolerance for stupid questions, and despite how much he tried to fight against it, he still wasn't comfortable in crowds.
That was at least one good thing about Forks; it was never crowded.
"Oh." Hadrian rolled his eyes at the large vampires answer, but he couldn't help the slight smile that twitched at the corner of his mouth. Something about the boulder of a creature was endearing, but he couldn't figure out what it was, aside from his disposition.
"Is that all you know, Hadrian?" Esme asked, drawing attention back to more important matters. Hadrian nodded his head, but didn't move to say anything. "We'll need to tell Carlisle about this tonight when he gets home. For now I don't want any one of you going off alone. Hadrian, you too."
Hadrian's eyes widened a bit as he stared incredulously at the vampire. He turned his head and looked to the younger vampires and saw that none of them looked overly surprised by this.
"What?" He chided himself for his lack of eloquence, but felt it necessary to find out what she was bloody talking about. He was a wizard; he could take care of himself.
He always took care of himself.
"XJ is after you now too, you said." Esme said in way of explanation, but when she saw Hadrian's mouth open in protest she continued. "I don't care if you think you can take care of yourself, I don't want to have to explain to the Swan's why their relative is dead."
Hadrian huffed, but knew the point was moot. He had all of his classes with at least one of the vampires anyway, and that begged the question of what the hell they wanted him to do when he went home.
"So what am I supposed to do? I don't know if you haven't noticed, but I don't live here." He briefly wondered why he was being so sarcastic, but in the end he put it up to talking about stressful things in a room full of vampires. A room full of vampires that may or may not like him; he wasn't sure.
"It's up to you, but if we are going to start formulating a plan, you should be here so you can be a part of it." Esme said, smiling slightly. Hadrian wondered if she could tell how uneasy he was because by the look on her face, she could.
It must be a mum thing, because Mrs. Weasley was like that as well. She was always able to tell when he was having a bad day.
He shook himself and turner his attention back to the thing at hand. "Yeah, I guess."
He was pretty sure the tone of his voice depicted his real sentiments towards this arrangement, but the vampires didn't seem to care.
"Well then, before we go on any further you said you have questions?" Esme asked. She was well aware that she was the one leading the conversation, but even Alice seemed reluctant to speak with the wizard. Esme assumed it was because even the slightest mistake might send the wizard running.
"How do you feed in a town this small?" Hadrian asked immediately. To be honest, he didn't care, but he wanted to work his way up to the question he really wanted to ask.
"We feed on animals." Emmett answered, deciding it was about time he contributed to the conversation.
"Okay. Why do you skip school on sunny days?" He knew the answer from defense against the dark arts, but they didn't know that.
"We sparkle. Like fairies." Alice chirped, and Hadrian was once again reminded that the smallest vampire did indeed remind him of a pixie.
"How do you know about wizards?" Hadrian was going to ask a few more nonsensical questions first, but curiosity and impulsivity got the best of him.
It must've gotten the better of Esme too, because the older vampire looked lost in her thoughts.
She seemed to shake the memories away, but Hadrian still saw the judging look in her eye, like she was deeming if he was trustworthy or not.
Eventually a determined look settled on her face and Hadrian knew he was going to get an answer.
"Carlisle and I lived in the outskirts of London a little over seventeen years ago." Hadrian had a feeling he knew where this story was going. "There was a man, a wizard called Voldemort who was attempting to orchestrate a civil war of some sort between two different types of wizards, or something like that. He had followers called Deatheaters, and they were the recruiters."
Harry saw the woman take a deep breath, and noticed by the look on her children's faces that they had never heard the story before either. "They came for Carlisle and I as well as the other vampire we were staying with. They wanted us to join them, but when we refused there was a massacre. Wizards are powerful and we are not quick enough to avoid their spells. Only me, Carlisle and a few other made it out alive."
Hadrian saw that the vampire was getting stuck in her own memories again, and if her memories of the first war were anything like his of the second, then he knew that they were bad.
"My parents were murdered in that war." He said without thinking about it. He blamed his unfortunate need to comfort people through empathy. He'd had enough experiences in his short life that he could be empathetic towards more things than he could be sympathetic.
He was glad the vampires seemed to be happy to leave it at that. Because he wasn't going to give anymore answers anyway.
Edward could feel Hadrian stiffen up when he released the information on the death of his parents and immediately warned his family not to ask. He already had bad experiences with getting to curious about a certain emerald-eyed wizard.
He felt bad for not being overly interested in Esme's story of how she knew of wizards, but he had suspected for a long time that it was something like that. The way she always warned them against fighting with a wizard, or associating with them in general.
Though it did seem that Hadrian had managed to break Esme's conception of them. In fact, he was pretty certain that his mother was already growing protective over the human, even if she didn't seem to trust him completely.
He frowned because he found himself in the same situation. He wasn't sure what made him so desperate for Hadrian's approval, but it was something strong. There was something intriguing about the verdant eyes and pale skin that was littered with scars. He was interested in the way Hadrian's personality worked, how his moods changed and most interestingly, what was in his past.
He wanted to know what lay behind the mental barriers, because they literally sounded like they could kill Hadrian. He shuddered and found himself inappropriately displeased with the thought of the wizards demise.
He really needed to sort himself out. All he knew for certain was that he liked Hadrian and wanted Hadrian to like him too. He also knew that the boy's past was probably bad, but most definetly interesting.
"Most of this conversation has been useless. Can we please figure out a plan so at least we don't get killed? The wizard can fend for himself." Rosalie said, her voice oozing with irritation.
"I have a name you know." Hadrian huffed, though he was hardly offended at her comment. He was sure he could kill the Krusnik, though he didn't really want more blood on his hands. Besides, he'd already killed one mass murderer this year. He hardly thought it was fair that he should have to kill two, when most people didn't even dream of killing one.
"I know. I wouldn't want to wear it out though, so I'll refrain from using it." Rosalie retorted. Hadrian grinned at the sarcastic retort.
"The plan?" Jasper asked, his soft voice cutting through the silence.
"We should wait until Carlisle get home. I doubt this XJ is going to attack today." Esme said. "Hadrian would you care to spend the night?" She offered, already knowing the wizard wouldn't take her up on it. She knew he didn't trust her, but part of that is what made her trust him.
If her were trying to hurt her family he would undoubtedly be trying to befriend them. And now after actually speaking with the boy she saw that he had been through rough times. The body language alone was enough to tell her that. She doubted he wanted anything more to do with violence and drama.
Unfortunately for him, he'd moved to Forks and it seemed that no matter what scenario played out, he would've ended up in the same situation one way or another.
"Sure. I'd love to snooze in a house full of dead things that don't need sleep." Hadrian retorted. Esme saw the kind smile and relatively benevolent, though guarded look in his eyes. She smiled back at him before announcing her leave.
"Why don't you let Edward show you around?" She asked, secretly pleased with the glare that the youngest vampire sent her. She knew that Edward liked the wizard and she was starting to see why. It might be beneficial to both of them if they became friends.
She smiled once more before leaving the room.
"Jasper I need help fixing my car up. The engine is making weird noises." Emmett said, standing up and pulling Rosalie with him. Jasper stood up as well and followed the larger vampire towards where Hadrian assumed the garage was.
"Hey Rosalie?" Alice asked. She obviously wasn't expecting an answer because she continued right away. "I need to go to town and buy a new pair of boots. My old ones are getting shabby." Rosalie stood up without a word and led the way outside, with Alice following her cheerfully.
"They did that on purpose." Hadrian muttered, ignoring the smirk that came to the vampire's face. "Shut up."
"I didn't say anything." Edward said innocently.
"You were thinking it." Hadrian countered, lifting himself off the couch. Edward followed suit.
"You can read minds now?" The vampire asked with a neatly arched eyebrow.
"I don't need to." Hadrian huffed, crossing his arms. He fully neglected to tell the vampire that he master legilimency during his year away from Hogwarts, and not just because that would require revealing his whole life story to the nosey creature.
"I'm sure." Edward said, before making an awkward hand movement that Hadrian could only assume meant to follow him.
A/N: I know I've been evil and haven't been keeping to my regular update schedule, but I've been really busy. I haven't run this through my beta yet, but I'll post that version once I get it back from her. But once again I felt bad for leaving you guys with nothing.