The weekend passed too quickly, the cabin being full of friends made it feel like home in a way that only the Gryffindor common room had ever matched.
Now they knew where he lived and knew he had a 50 inch TV he had a feeling he was going to get a lot more visits from his new friends.
Monday morning was bright, the remains of summer appeared to have decided to make an appearance for his first day at school in too many decades.
He spent longer in front of the mirror than he had it years. Trying on various t-shirts until he settled on one with the Jurassic Park logo (he'd been to a dragon reserve, Jurassic Park could totally happen) and a flannel button up. He even tried to do something with his hair but gave up when everything he did seemed to make it worse.
He was 43, for Merlin's sake, why was he nervous?
He'd been asked to come in early to go through his new timetable and get a quick tour of the school so by 7am he was stood in an almost empty carpark playing with his car keys and trying to work out where reception was.
"Hey!" Harry turned to see a cheerful blonde boy walking towards him. "You must be Harry? They asked me to come give you a quick tour before I take you the office."
The boy's hair was gelled into messy spikes and he smiled politely as he proffered his hand. "I'm pretty much friends with everyone so I can help you get settled in."
Harry got a sinking feeling in his stomach. This felt very familiar.
What was it with blonde boys and handshakes? Hopefully this one would be less of a dickhead than Malfoy.
Harry shook his hand and tried to smile instead of grimace, he didn't want to accidentally offend this one too.
"I'm Mike by the way, we don't have a lot of new students so we don't have an official welcoming committee so I volunteered." Harry hoped his smile looked grateful.
American Draco then rattled off a seemingly endless amount of information about the school, sometimes remembering to point out buildings but mostly focusing on where he and his friends hung out, who said what to who where, that place where Taylor had almost run over Bella.
What a weird thing to point out as a landmark.
Maybe this was the anti-Malfoy, here to be annoying by being too nice.
Matt or Mark or whatever didn't seem to notice that Harry had yet to say anything and part of him wanted to see how long it would take.
"Of course, Bella will probably be sitting back with the Cullens now they are back in town. I don't get it, I was talking to Jessica about it and apparently she's back with Edward but I saw her at work the other day and she didn't say anything about it so maybe she's still single."
Jesus what was with this Bella girl? She seemed to attract obsession.
The guy was concentrating so hard on listing the ways that Bella could still be single that he managed to walk directly into the glass door of what looked like it might be reception.
Maybe a version of Malfoy with Crabbe and Goyle already wrapped in? Harry shivered. He was reasonably sure he'd just thought himself into a new boggart.
Other students were arriving now, so Melbert awkwardly tried to pretend he was just opening the door for Harry and gestured him through with a quick see you in class.
Twenty minutes later he was pushing his way through the doors of what he hoped was his English class, Mervin really hadn't been clear on the layout. He had no idea where any of the toilets were but at least he knew where Jennifer Emory and Will Hunt had been caught making out after the spring dance last year.
It was still a better orientation than Hogwarts where they released gaggles of eleven-year-olds into an ancient castle with things that could in fact kill them with no instructions or map. It didn't take much to outpace Hogwarts when it came to basic health and safety.
Sometimes Harry felt like the worst thing that happened to Wixen was magical healing. It was like because they knew most things could be healed with a bit of skelegrow and a couple of charms they forgot to do anything to prevent those things from happening.
There were no consequences to breaking bones so really, why bother making sure all the steps on a moving staircase hundreds of feet in the air would stay in place.
He remembered Hermione's horror when Neville had told them about being dropped out of window by his uncle. Harry had shrugged that off because his Aunt and Uncle hadn't exactly held back on threatening his life and he wasn't quite sure what was normal. Ron and Neville hadn't seen it as a big deal. Magic just fixed things for them, no consequences to what would have probably ended with Neville dead and his uncle in prison if they had been muggles.
It helped that Wixen were literally harder to break than muggles, Hermione had tried to explain it once. Apparently, their magic caused them to grow more dense, their bones were harder to break in the first place and magic innately helped speed up healing.
It explained a lot about his time with Dursleys, he'd looked up a couple of things after school and he was pretty sure he wouldn't have actually lived until he was 11 if he'd been a muggle. Concussion was meant to have some pretty serious side effects and until he got good a dodging Aunt Petunia had regularly hit him with a frying pan.
As he looked around his new class he couldn't help feeling really old, on one hand he probably would have felt old even when he was still actually 17. He had very much already been an adult in every way that mattered. He couldn't remember ever being this young.
On the other hand, he was 43 and probably older than the teacher.
Every eye was fixed on him as he introduced himself to the guy at the front who was hopefully the teacher and not just an unfortunate looking teenager.
Mr Mason was wearing faded tweed that reminded him of Remus, he even had the same worn leather elbow patches. That combined with his friendly smile made Harry hope he'd like this class. "Everyone, this is Harrison Black he will be joining us, please make sure he feels welcome."
"Hello." Harrison nodded at the dozen or so people he was going to have to suffer through Dickens with and made his way towards an empty seat at the back. A couple nodded back, one brown haired girl at the front squeaked and waved. Harry was determined to avoid whatever that was.
He was sat next to a quiet dark-haired boy who quietly introduced himself as Eric before he was handed the plan for the semester by Mr Mason and sunk into his first literature lesson. They were doing Oliver Twist later on this term. Oh joy.
The next hour passed quickly, apparently this lesson was focused on reviewing the previous year, key terms and running through essay writing. Harry was relieved that he grasped most of what was going on, just a couple more books for his reading list.
History was interesting, it looked like they were covering the cold war and Harry finally got his explanation of communism.
Maths was brilliant, the numbers made sense and the teacher was good at explaining the bits Harry had struggled with from the textbook.
Chemistry was a disaster, he ended up sat next to Mork and the boy continuously chatted in his ear. By the time the bell rang he was considering seeing if he could change his schedule already, he hadn't learnt anything about chemistry but had way too much information about Malfoy-lite's social circle and who was dating who.
Unfortunately, that meant when it was time for lunch, he had zero chance of escaping and was dragged internally kicking and screaming to Mendelson's table.
He was quickly introduced to Mitochondria's friends and he was immediately swamped. It turned out Quil hadn't been exaggerating and girls really did like English accents.
Jessica was the girl from his English class who'd squeaked, she was intense and chatty and every time she laughed she glanced over at Michelin to see if he was laughing too.
Lauren was aggressively blonde in a way that actually hurt his eyes and was constantly low-level bragging about her parent's money as if it was a personal triumph. Female Malfoy. Oh, how his day was improving.
Angela seemed nice, she was in his chemistry class and she seemed friendly and quiet. If he saw her in any of his other classes he was making a bee line to sit next to her, anything to avoid the growing cloud of annoying blonde people.
Taylor, who had apparently almost run over the mythical Bella, was mostly concentrating on consuming as much food as possible as quickly as possible. He occasionally dropped in to say something about basketball but as Harry was incredibly unlikely to ever be tall enough to play that sport, he most ignored Harry. Another potential seat mate then.
Harry could see Eric sat at another table with a red head and was determined to not get stuck at this table ever again.
Finally, there was Bella. He'd heard a lot about her from Jake and a little about her from Moonbeam. And he had been excited to put a name to the face.
She was picking at her food, nodding occasionally when Jessica or Angela said something to her. She seemed to have strategically placed herself as far away from Malcolm as possible which Harry thought was sensible if she was aiming to maintain sanity long-term.
She looked up briefly when he was introduced but then seemed to spend her time either staring at her unappetising sandwich or an empty table across the cafeteria. Her face was impassive, she only seemed to smile occasionally at Angela and Jessica.
She seemed quite boring really, not sure what Jake was so invested in, she'd said barely two words since he'd sat down.
However, he took his newly minted cousin responsibilities seriously. It was time to put a line down. He'd seen enough high school films now; he knew what a shovel talk was.
Harry waited until Marvin had to take a breath and took advantage of the brief silence, "Bella was it?"
Bella seemed vaguely panicked to be addressed but she nodded.
"Aren't you friends with Jacob Black?"
She blinked before nodding again. "Um, yes. Jake and I grew up together." She seemed conflicted about whether she was going to tuck her hair behind her ear or hide behind it. "His dad is really close to mine."
Harry waited to see if she'd say anything else about the boy, she'd been in constant contact with for 4 months before she dropped off the face of the earth. The boy she'd built motorbikes with, the boy who'd saved her from drowning when she jumped off a cliff for no clear reason.
Nope. Apparently not.
Macaroni decided to stick his oar in, 60 seconds of silence was just too much. "Is that that kid who came with us to the cinema a couple of months ago?" Bella nodded again. That seemed to be her thing. "He was really weird. I felt bad leaving you guys alone after I got sick, was worried he might do something. I don't know why you invited him Bella, he gave off weird vibes all night."
Bella seemed to be willing to comment on that at least. "Jake would never-"
"What do you mean weird?" Harry interrupted glaring at Marshmallow, his focus switching quickly between the man who just insulted his family and Bella.
Angela glanced at Bella. "Jake seemed lovely when we met him. Jessica, do you remember? You said he was funny." Harry was definitely bagging a seat next to this girl, she was great.
Jessica sniffed but didn't say anything to indicate she agreed or disagreed.
"Well, it weird isn't it." Manfred seemed to look around for support, only Lauren nodded at him, her nose wrinkling with disgust when she looked at Bella. "They're like family, they basically grew up together and there he is acting like-"
"Jake didn't do anything I don't know why you're acting like he did." Bella turned away from Minestrone and that part of the conversation was now over judging by her face. And his. Bella had more power over this group than it initially seemed - that was probably why Lauren hated her.
She just levelled Harry with a raised eyebrow. "How do you know Jake?"
Harry finished glaring at Misery before turning to Bella.
"I'm his cousin."
Harry could almost hear the gulp from Mayonnaise.
"I didn't know he had any cousins from England," Bella said.
"Neither did he until I introduced myself to Billy. It's been wonderful to get to know my family." Harry paused to glare at Misandry again. "Family means everything to me."
The rest of the table cringed, Lauren appeared to be torn between glaring at Bella and sending beseeching looks at Harry. Angela looked mortified. Taylor was eating his 3rd sandwich.
An awkward silence settled over the table. Bella bit her lip and glanced over at the empty table again, Harry guessed that might have something to do with the missing boyfriend. "Is he okay?"
"You should ask him yourself." Harry wasn't going to be a go between for whatever she had to say to Jake.
"He won't answer my calls."
Harry scoffed. "I wonder why."
Harry stood abruptly; he wasn't sure what her deal was but he was done with whatever this was for now. There was only so long he could spend talking to teenagers before he felt like pulling out his own hair.
"Lovely to meet you all, have a nice rest of lunch." Harry left the cafeteria and headed out to the field; he was going to soak up as much of the last dregs of the summer as he could.
Half an hour later he heard the bell ring and reluctantly uncurled himself from where he'd settled with his chemistry book trying to make out what they might have covered in today's class whilst Mud-for-brains was telling him all about last year's spring dance. Merlin.
Spanish was great, no Murphy in sight and he grabbed his new seat next to Angela who seemed relieved when Lauren had to redirect to sit next to somebody else.
Angela was brilliant at Spanish. Harry had enough vocabulary to keep up a conversation, but his spelling was atrocious, and he had no idea what all the tenses were.
By the end of class, she was laughing at his attempts to conjugate and helping him work out how to tell their teacher Mrs Goff that he one day aspired to be a raunchy romance author. Translating exactly what he potentially wanted to write in his imaginary romance novels lead to an expansion of both of their vocabularies and close encounter with the school firewalls.
Apparently, Angela's grandmother on her dad's side only spoke Spanish and whilst her mum didn't speak any if she wanted to keep up with her dad's side of the family Spanish was a must. She was telling him a story about a time she went to visit that side of the family when the bell rang and they walked together towards Gym to continue their conversation. Apparently, her cousin accused her of speaking like an elderly woman on purpose just to be creepy. She was confused until she realised she had picked up all her grandmother's mannerisms and it freaked out her cousin when the voice of his Abuela came out of his kid cousin.
Harry was describing his own first adventures in French where he'd originally learned from the caretaker of a local family only to realise he'd picked up a really thick accent and no one else understood him.
Cygnus Black the first would probably hate being referred to as a caretaker but his first lessons from the Black family portraits had truly left him with atrocious accent. It had taken months of coaching from Fleur before he was remotely understandable.
They separated for the changing rooms and Harry felt like he'd found someone who could actually be a good friend. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad making friends at school even if he was deeply out of practice.
Harry was about as bad at Basketball as he expected but unlike most of the school he still had a sports background. He was quick and physically fit. His hand and eye coordination had always been good and had only been honed over his years hunting down dark wizards.
It just made no sense to him that he had to bounce the ball to move, and it was ridiculously easy for the taller guys to mark him when he barely came up to their chests.
The first time someone body checked him they regretted it.
Taylor seemed to have taken a liking to him, even if he was terrible at the actual game he was still very competitive. Harry had enough stamina to keep up with him and Taylor seemed to relish the challenge of trying to exhaust Harry's endless energy.
By the time gym was over both of them were sweaty messes but to Harry's satisfaction it was Tyler who called it quits first.
"Jesus dude, what are you? The Duracell bunny?"
Harry was enjoying the post-exercise endorphin rush so much that he didn't even prank Tyler when he ruffled his hair.
Well, not much. He still glued one of Taylor's feet to the bench in the changing room, but it wasn't a permanent glue. Just to keep him there long enough for Harry to get a head start to the car park after he ruffled Taylor's freshly styled hair.
Before long Harry was back in his lemon and waving cheerfully at a disgruntled looking Taylor as he drove home from his first day of school. He'd call that a success.
Tuesday morning was drizzly and grey, the weather he should apparently expect for most of the year now according to a gloomy Jake. The camping shop owner had happily informed him that Forks was one of the rainiest places in the US and he got the feeling he was meant to be impressed rather than horrified.
The second day started much like the first one except this time he was pulling in at the same time as everyone else. The car park filled up quickly and Harry was starting to understand why Jake made fun of his car.
It certainly stood out.
It was better than the deeply ugly silver Volvo that was currently pulling in. His lemon was one of the newer cars on the lot as it was less than 10 years old. Most of the cars were typical for teenagers, functional. Bits rust and chipped paint jobs were typical.
This Volvo was brand spanking new and whoever owned it clearly had money to spend and had still chosen this personality free monster. Shame. Harry was going to get himself a bell and walk behind it shaming whoever had bought such an imagination free car.
His recent watch through of Game of Thrones with Jake was clearly affecting him. He couldn't help it, he missed dragons.
He was busy pulling out textbooks from the mess that was the back of his car when the owners of the car got out and he froze.
Because those teenagers were not human.
There were five of them, the driver of the car was male and looked about his age with reddish brown hair. There were two blonde ones, a girl and a boy. The other girl was a brunette, tiny and almost elfin. And the brunette male was huge.
They were all beautiful.
But definitely not human.
It took a moment for Harry to work out what about them was setting off alarm bells, and then the driver took a barely discernible breath and Harry realised none of the rest of them had taken a single visible breath since they got out of the car.
They were too still; he could see them shifting weight from one foot to another, but it looked choreographed. He watched as the elfin one reached up to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and then seconds later the blonde girl made exactly the same movement.
Exactly the same.
They all had the same colour eyes.
They were all similar levels of pale but facially none of them looked related. Sure, the blonde ones were similar looking on a superficial level but even from halfway across the car park he could see they weren't likely to be siblings.
So why did they have the exact same skin shade and eye colour?
He watched still frozen as Bella almost skipped over to them from her red truck. She tucked her hand into the elbow of the driver, and he smiled down on her.
Ah so this was the famous Edward. And his… family?
He'd spent decades listening to his instincts, they had gotten him through a war. On top of that, years of training in the Alastair-Moody-approved auror academy and 30 years hunting dark wizards had left them pretty well tuned. And every single one of his instincts was telling him those were creatures and not humans.
Were The Cullens fae?
He reached out tentatively with his magic, feeling around them but not directly touching. No magical signature lingered, nothing on the ground around them or their car.
Non-magical or very good at hiding it.
The wind shifted, blowing steadily from behind and one of them immediately stiffened. The tall blonde one had been talking to the small brunette but when the wind changed, he went unnaturally still and looked up too quickly for Harry to look away. Their eyes met.
Golden. Golden eyes.
Harry was transfixed, for a moment his instincts quietened, the wind seemed to pause, and all he could do was look at the boy across the car park.
Seconds later the rest of the family seemed to catch on and four more sets of golden eyes looked across at him. They looked sharp and predatory, their thin human act stripped away when they stared at him.
Shit.
Vampires.
Nothing else moved like that. Muggles vampires? They had none of the shadowy magic Harry associated with the vampires he'd met previously.
Vampires nonetheless.
He forced his hands to continue moving and pulled his last textbook into his bag, mechanically lifted his bag over his shoulder and deliberately turned away from the coven of bloody vampires that had just pulled up at his new muggle school.
Bill was right, he just attracted trouble.
He hadn't even started day two yet.
He somehow made his way to his literature classroom, his nerves jangling as he concentrated on every sound or sense of movement behind him. They didn't seem to be following him, hopefully he could shrug off the staring as a normal teenager thing.
He had just been staring at a pretty boy across a car park. Didn't have to mean anything.
Pretty boy.
He sank into the seat next to Eric and buried his face in his hands.
Merlin's beard.
Harry had just started to relax; Mr Mason was at the front looking cheerful and blessedly normal, the class around him were settling into their seats chatting lightly about the latest episode of Bake Off, their plans for lunch and who had done the reading.
Then Mr. Blonde Vampire walked in, nodded at Mr Mason and locked eyes with Harry who had just removed his hands from his face.
He was very tempted to cover his face again, however suspicious that would look.
He just looked back calmly, pulling his occlumency barriers close and tried not to actively flinch when the vampire took a seat at the next empty table.
He was within 3 foot of a weird muggle vampire and he whilst he was pretty sure he could defend himself he couldn't do that without blowing up the muggle life he was building for himself here.
Merlin's saggy left testicle he was fucking sick of his Potter Luck.
Jasper comforted himself with the fact that this was his last year. One more year and then they could head off to University where he could take the lowest contact hours option, probably philosophy this time around, and avoid humans again for a while.
His family's emotions whirled around him in a comforting fog, boredom from Rosalie, muted excitement from Alice, contentment from Emmett who was nuzzled into Rosalie in the back of Edward's Volvo. Yearning from Edward, 8 hours without his girlfriend and the man was falling apart. Pathetic. Jasper flicked his eyes over to meet Edward's, laughing at the glare and continuing to taunt him with his thoughts.
Jesus he was glad he didn't have Edward's gift. He'd take emotions over thoughts any day, no one should have to listen to whatever went on in Emmett's head for any extended period of time. Edward cringed and looked back at Emmett who was now staring adoringly into Rosalie's eyes.
Yep, emotions were far easier at least he didn't have to listen to that.
They pulled into the car park and Jasper glanced fleetingly at a bright yellow jeep pulled up the front of the school, whoever the new person was certainly had a specific sense of style. He could see there was even a lemon hanging from the dashboard.
He breathed in carefully and tried to ignore the rush of emotions coming from every side, the first day back was always overwhelming. He had been relieved when the weather prevented them from coming to school yesterday. There was still the excitement of a new school year hitting him from every angle but it was at least slightly muted by the first wave of homework and the monotony that was already setting in on the second day of the semester.
Carlisle had warned them there would be a new student in their class, Bella had mentioned to Edward that the new student had been spotted around town by Charlie. Carlisle had passed on all of his office's gossip, there had been a lot, not much got past the notice of the nurses at the hospital.
He had arrived at the beginning of the summer; he was orphaned and had built a cabin in the woods east of town with his inheritance. He was English and apparently very polite. The hospital staff already approved of him although Charlie had apparently noticed some slightly erratic driving. And a slightly wonky stop sign.
Sometimes Jasper missed the days where gossip, especially small-town gossip, wasn't a necessary early warning system for threats to their family. Integrating with humans had turned them all into spymasters, tucking away information on their neighbours and listening to every rumour.
But then he remembered Maria, he remembered the newborn army and he focused on everything he'd gained by joining this coven. A family was worth having to deal with filtering through gossip. Worth having to fight overwhelming thirst with emotions battering him from every angle. Some days it felt more worth it than others.
Bella made her way over to their group and Jasper held his breath. Smiling lightly at Alice when she glanced over to check on him. Yes family, was worth anything.
And he had almost broken theirs once already.
Bella, on the ground bleeding, Jasper dragged out of the room his teeth bared and eyes black.
Leaving town.
Edward's slow depression, his emotions battering Jasper like waves of sucking darkness.
Edward's suicide attempt.
He took a slow breath in, Alice's hand firmly in his, as the burning ache returned to the back of his throat. Having smelt her blood on the open air it was almost worse to be around her now, but knowing what it would do to his family was all the focus he needed to continue to take breaths.
Alice leaned in, "Nothing bad on the horizon, no blood, no death." She smiled gently at him when their eyes met and Jasper sent her a wave of gratefulness. Meeting her had been one of the best things to ever happen to him.
Being a vampire was lonely, when he left Peter and Charlotte he hadn't expected to find another friend he could trust let alone someone who would so quickly became like a sister for him.
Alice had been a godsent the last couple of weeks, always knowing when he would need reassurance most. Reassurance that he wasn't about to break things all over again.
Alice hummed, eyes distant. "Something good is coming. Can't tell what it is yet."
She patted him lightly on the shoulder her eyes still distant and her brows gently furrowed.
Not for the first time Jasper wondered if being able to see glimpses of the future was a blessing or a curse. It kept their family safe but concentrating on the present would always be difficult for Alice.
The wind shifted as he tried another breath and a new smell hit him.
Ozone and flowers. Crushed grass after rain.
He looked up immediately, forgetting for a moment to slow down to more human speeds and he met green eyes across the car park.
A boy was leant over the front seat of the startlingly yellow jeep, seemingly frozen. Wide eyes and messy ink-black hair, he seemed so small from this distance swamped in a red pullover.
Jasper's whole body clenched as every instinct told him to rush across the car park. He didn't know why, he just needed to be closer and he braced every muscle in his body to keep himself rooted to his current spot.
He couldn't break this for his family. Not again.
He felt Edward's panicked glance as that thought echoed through his mind but couldn't rip his gaze away. As one the rest of his family turned to look at the green-eyed boy.
The boy's eyebrows rose, shockingly calm in the face of five staring vampires. Usually, they were careful to avoid focusing this much on a human, it tended to send their fight or flight instincts haywire. The boy just calmly pulled a textbook from the front seat and pushed his bag up on to his shoulder. He glanced over the rest of Jasper's family and Jasper missed the boy's gaze with an ache that astonished him.
Then the eyes were back on him, for only a second, before the boy turned. Closing the car door behind him and locking it with a flick of his keys.
And then he walked away.
Not even a glance back, as if he hadn't turned his back on five predators. Jasper felt like his thoughts were falling, slippery, through his fingers. If he had a heart beat it would be racing, as it was his head was pounding.
"What the fuck was that?" Rosalie growled turning to glare at her 'twin'.
He was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open, but he didn't want to look away from the boy walking toward the main school building, in order to check.
Rosalie's anger spiked, when the boy disappeared into the crowd, Jasper finally turned to look back at his sister.
"What just happened?" Rosalie's teeth were audibly grinding together.
Jasper just gazed back at her; he was sure confusion was evident on his face. When Rosalie was angry it always seemed to thicken the air, he was usually the one to promote calm, but he couldn't get enough of a grip on any of his emotions to project anything.
Alice was looking inwards and shaking her head, "Nothing, I don't see him anywhere."
Edward was frowning, "I can't find him."
Bella was looking between all of them, "Who?"
Jasper focused on her, she'd been here yesterday. At the moment she had more information than any of the rest of them on the boy with the violently green eyes. "What is the new student's name?"
Bella seemed to be shocked that it was Jasper that answered her. "Harrison, Harrison Black."
"Harrison."
He knew his name. He didn't know why that was so important.
"Jasper." Edward touched his shoulder and Jasper glanced over to him from where he'd been transfixed on the corner he'd seen the boy disappear around. "What happened?"
He didn't know.
"I don't know."
He walked towards the corner following the scent that still hung in the air. For the first time since he had started attending this school his breath in didn't hurt. His only focus on the lingering notes of lightning and rain.
He ignored the whispering hissing of his family and followed the boy who smelt like a summer storm.
God was smiling on him today; they shared a literature class. He wouldn't have to find any excuse to be in the same room.
The boy looked up when he walked into the room, Harrison held eye contact for a moment before he focused on the board at the front of the room.
Jasper sat carefully at the desk next to him and revelled in the opportunity to breathe in the air of the classroom. Harrison's black hair curled messily around his ears, his sweater was thick but clearly old with a large letter H knitted on the front. The collar was stretched and gave Jasper a glimpse of a milky white collarbone, a delicate neck.
His skin was almost too clear, unblemished in a way that didn't look natural. He pushed up his sleeves and took out a pen, focused entirely on whatever Mr Mason was saying. He was slim but Jasper could see whipcord muscle revealed on his bared forearms, his hands were compact. Sturdy.
He looked so touchable.
Jasper had never wanted to touch a human like this. Had never understood Edward's fascination with a creature that was so clearly breakable.
For all that he remembered being human he had been something else for too long, it was hard to see humans as anything other than frustrating temptation. Especially when sometimes all Jasper could feel from Edward when he was around Bella was a terrible all-consuming thirst.
He didn't feel thirst for Harrison. He mouthed it silently, ducking down to stare at the blank desk in front of him to hide his focus.
He could hear the blood rushing through Harrison's veins, the steady pumping of his heart. Now he was close he filled his lungs, sorting through the strangely charged smell of his blood. It didn't make him hungry; it didn't even really register as food on some level.
He couldn't keep his eyes off him. The was something fascinating about the way he fiddled with the spiral bound notebook in front of him, smoothing his fingers repeatedly over the paper.
Harrison glanced at him once, a quick flick of his eyes when Mr Mason turned back to the board.
When their eyes met Jasper got the first whisper of emotions from him, he hadn't noticed their absence until he was hit with a quick flashbang of fearfrustrationconfusion. Harrison's face gave nothing away, none the turmoil he had inadvertently broadcasted to Jasper. Jasper had frightened him.
Fuck.
Of course, he had.
He stared down at his hands and focused on making himself less threatening. Keeping his eyes down and keeping any tendrils of his gift close to his skin, pulling them back when they reached for the boy on his left.
Which they did constantly, reaching out to wrap around the boy and soothe. He pulled on them ruthlessly.
When the class ended Jasper just watched from his seat as Harrison rose and without looking back walked out of the room.
The morning passed in a haze of confused, anxiety. In his lessons he barely responded to the teachers, guessing at the answers they wanted when they asked him questions. It was working up to a point, but he was still getting concerned looks. He couldn't focus on anything.
His mind going over and over the snatched glimpses of Harrison he had already collected. The way he'd brushed hair out of his eyes. The way he held his pen, it looked unfamiliar in his hands like he wasn't used to the shape of it.
He walked to lunch on autopilot, moving slightly too quickly, blinking slightly too little. He got some startled glances from a couple of students before Edward was suddenly beside him, a heavy arm over his shoulder pulling him back to a normal pace. A laugh ringing out that diverted attention back to Edward and away from Jasper's strangeness.
Edward leant forwards to whisper in his ear, a smile fixed on his face like he was about to tell him a joke. Edward's voice was pitched low and rough, 'Pull yourself together, if you don't calm down you will draw attention."
Jasper smiled as if he got the joke and tried to relax his shoulders. Holding his breath to eliminate the tantalising lingering scent on the air, his lungs too full of Harrison for that too make much of a difference.
Edward used his arm around Jasper's shoulders to guide them to their usual table. Jasper was trying to take in as much of the cafeteria as possible trying to locate him. He wasn't sat at any of the tables as far as he could see, and Jasper suddenly felt bereft.
As soon as they reached the table Bella leaned forward to whisper, "He went straight outside." She glanced at Edward before she continues. "Yesterday he spent most of lunch reading a chemistry textbook. Angela told me she saw him walking in from the treeline."
Jasper smothered his disappointed and looked around at his family. All of them looked calm, maybe even relaxed to the human eye, but he could see tension running through all of them.
Alice hummed. "I'm in chemistry with him. He seemed pretty on edge."
Emmett nodded, "He's in my history class, he had no idea what the cold war was but seemed weirdly knowledgably on legal procedure."
Jasper smothered the instinctive surge of jealousy that reared when his siblings had mentioned their classes with him. He had already had literature with Harrison. Of course, his siblings would share classes with him.
Rosalie snorted, "Like you're one to talk, I bet he can name more than 2 constellations."
Emmett moaned, "Why would I need to know anything about stars they're miles away, who cares which ones the Romans decided were spiders or crabs or whatever."
"You would know that they are mostly Greek for a start."
Tuning out the familiar argument between Rosalie and Emmett. Jasper looked at the rest of his family.
They were watching him carefully as he sat down, pulling his customary lunch prop of an apple from his bag.
He wondered if Harrison liked apples.
Edward sighed next to him.
As if Edward wasn't exactly like this with Bella, at least he wasn't planning to sneak into Harrison's bedroom and watch him sleep like some kind of overgrown, creepy bat.
Edward glared at him, Jasper glared back.
Oh Jesus he was acting like Edward.
"What is this?" He whispered.
Alice was still concentrating on something else but the rest of his family focused on him.
Emmett was the one who answered. "Pretty sure it's a mate bond Bro."
Well shit.
Of course, it was.
Alice suddenly relaxed next to him and Edward on his other side let out a sigh of relief.
"Today is clear." Alice hummed, "I still can't see him, but I can see us all at school tomorrow with no obvious changes. It was flickering but it's solid now."
The rest of the family relaxed except Bella who was now anxiously buzzing with energy the other side of Edward. "What are you going to do?"
Edward looked conflicted. "That's up to Jasper."
"You will all stay away from him. He's already feeling afraid." That was the only thing he could focus on right now, making sure his mate wasn't scared of him or his family. "I will approach him on my own and the rest of you will stay out of it."
His family just nodded, even Rosalie didn't complain but he could feel the frustration simmering under the surface. Another change to the family.
Bella looked surprised at Jasper's pronouncement. This might be the most she's ever heard him say at once.
The rest of lunch passed in quiet conversation. The rest of them ignoring the comparatively louder conversation between Edward and Bella. Alice occasionally chipping in when they were talking about something that interested her.
Jasper kept his eyes fixed outside, from the window near their usual table he could see the outline of the forest that bordered the playing fields.
When the bell rung he made his way to Spanish and settled into his usual seat. When the door opened behind him he heard a loud, ringing laugh and as he breathed in his lungs filled again with thunder and flowers. Harrison hadn't spotted him yet.
"You say that like you're terrible at Spanish Harry, but you're not you're perfectly good."
The laugh repeated and Jasper finally got to hear him speak. His voice was strong and clear. Confident. "If by perfectly good you mean I'm able to cuss a blue streak but would be hard pressed to order in a restaurant you're bang on."
Angela laughed and took her usual seat leaving Harry to sit next to Jasper. Jasper held his breath. There was no way he hadn't spotted him now and the desks in Spanish were closer together, if he sat, he'd be close enough to touch.
Not that he would. He didn't want to freak him out.
Even in his current state randomly touching someone still felt like a bad choice.
It felt like a small sun had settled in the seat next to him, he felt like he was going to burst with excitement just from being this close.
He forced himself to be calm.
"Hey Jasper, how was your summer?"
God bless Angela Weber.
He glanced over and smiled trying to look as friendly as possible. "Good thank you, lots of time outdoors, how was yours?"
"Great! My grandmother tried that cornmeal cake recipe you shared with me and she said it tasted just like she remembers her grandmother's tasting."
Jasper's next smile was genuine, he hadn't been able to confirm if Angela's family would have been around in Houston when he grew up there, but he was always glad to give someone else a little taste of the past he remembered so clearly. "I'm glad she liked it. It was an old favourite in my family."
Harrison glanced up and he got a flash of amusement.
"Hi, you must be new. My name is Jasper." Harrison made eye contact with him again and the lack of fear in his eyes made Jasper want to take a risk. He extended a hand.
Harrison glanced down at it, confused for a moment before he responded. "Hey, I'm Harry. Just moved here." Harrison's face made it clear that he didn't think this was new information to Jasper but all thoughts were driven out of his mind when Harrison grasped his hand to shake it. "It's nice to meet you."
Harry made it to lunch without fleeing or blowing something up which was frankly miraculous. Not helped by Mousy ignoring Harry's clear attempts to avoid him. Their first chemistry practical caused only lightly noxious fumes, so he'd call that a win.
There seemed to be vampires everywhere.
When he walked into history and found the massive one taking up a desk at the back he almost groaned out loud.
He didn't know what to do. His first thought was that he would just leave. Leave school, leave town.
Thinking about leaving his new family behind made him want to pre-emptively hunt down the vampires that were disturbing the life he was starting to make for himself here.
He took a deep breath. Pushing all his homicidal urges down. It was certainly getting harder, he was getting grumpy in his old age.
He knew it wasn't their fault he had moved to town, they had clearly been here first. Yes, be reasonable Harry, they clearly have first dibs.
He hoped everyone would take him thumping his head on his desk as chemical related anger.
For lunch he walked straight out the other end of the cafeteria, after trying the food there yesterday he had already decided pack lunches were going to be the way forward. He had a ham sandwich and some crisps packed away in his bag.
Along with his latest snack obsession, sour patch kids were a revelation. It was weird that Americans were apparently perfectly happy to eat tiny acidic children, but he couldn't exactly talk. Chocolate frogs were objectively weird if you spent any time thinking about them at all.
Hermione had a theory that animating chocolate to behave like an actual animal helped wizarding children become comfortable with eviscerating various creatures for potions ingredients.
It wasn't an unfounded theory. The first year of potions had been traumatic enough without even adding Snape to the mix.
It wasn't a nice day but it wasn't actively raining so he tucked himself under the same tree as yesterday and pulled an old Gryffindor scarf out of his bag to wrap around his neck. He pulled his jumper sleeves down and leant back against the tree.
Literature had been tense, he'd been ready at any moment for Mr. Blonde Vampire to leap at him or another classmate. He had tried as much as he could to concentrate on the board and what Mr Mason was saying rather than the vampire on the table next to him.
The vampire who wouldn't stop staring at him. He could feel his eyes boring into him and after 20 minutes he'd risked a quick glance and caught him definitely staring.
Now he was out in fresh air, the forest calming in ways a classroom never would be. He started worrying about more than the continued survival of his classmates, it was pretty clear that the vampires were trying to be subtle at least. They were part of the community and from what Harry had heard from various sources had been for a while.
So they weren't doing the whole live in a dramatic castle and lure travellers in spiel. He would have noticed more missing persons in the paper.
Maybe he could work with that.
It wasn't reasonable to go around destroying vampires that hadn't done anything to deserve it yet. He'd never got involved with the pureblood rhetoric that vampires were evil, felt too much like their stance on werewolves.
Just like any other creature vampires could be good or bad and he wasn't going to break his 30-year streak of not killing anyone who didn't thoroughly deserve it. Or who tried to kill him first.
They weren't even proper vampires as far as he could tell. He could vaguely remember something about a subcategory of vampires that weren't magical creatures but it had been a long time since auror training. Maybe it had been in muggle studies? Wait no, he didn't even take muggle studies.
Maybe they weren't killing people and if they weren't then Harry would just have to work out how to coexist. He had been doing well with the whole ignoring supernatural creatures so far.
If they were killing people he would wipe them out. Hopefully without outing himself as the only wizard in the village.
Decision made he dragged out his chemistry textbook again, he was going to have to find a way to get Milhouse to stop speaking to him or give up on chemistry entirely. However, much he wanted to make things explode and use the Bunsen burners.
Seamus always had looked like he was having so much fun. He could grow back eyebrows if he needed to.
His focus on chemistry had nothing to do with the confusing revelation that he thought one of the vampires was pretty.
By the end of lunch he was feeling calmer. The vampires weren't going to randomly attack people for no reason, he would just play muggle and see what happened.
Angela caught up with him on the way to Spanish and Harry enjoyed poking fun at his Spanish to her increasingly loud exclamations of his skill.
He blamed how much fun he was having teasing her for the fact that he barely noticed the blonde vampire until he almost sat on him.
He took a moment now the vampire wasn't staring at him to take him in, the vamp's honey blonde hair was tousled, and he wore it past his ears where the light curl made it tuck under his jawline. His shoulders were broad and even curled around the desk it was clear he would be a lot taller than Harry.
Harry would place a solid bet on the creature being older than 17, if he could find anyone to take that bet.
He was lean, bowed over the desk as he was Harry could see the muscles in his back minutely tense.
So he knew Harry was there.
Well start as you mean to go on, Harry cautiously lowered himself into the seat next to the vampire and tried to ignore the fact that if he twitched his leg to the right they'd be touching.
Mrs Goff was writing up some conversation topics and they were apparently doing their last conversation focused lesson, the rest of the week would be focused on Spanish and Mexican history. Harry had spent a couple of months in Mexico hunting down a death cult so had some idea of what the country was like but he'd never been to Spain.
Harry ignored the fact that if he was going to actually commit to the whole be friendly to the vampires thing this would be a good time to strike up a conversation.
He'd never been very good at introducing himself, didn't get much practice in the wizarding world when everyone already knew exactly who he was. Even on his travels most people had recognised him on sight, his one-man international revenge mission had ruined any chance of him going unnoticed in most of the wixen world.
All this to say that he was feeling awkward.
To his surprise Angela saved him from his sudden cowardice and struck up a conversation with the vampire, apparently his name was Jasper.
He was surprised by the vampire's voice, it was low and soft and had a pleasing southern twang to it that Harry was surprised to find he liked.
Who was he kidding, of course he liked the pretty vampire's voice. That was very on brand, Harry sometimes worried that Hagrid's all-consuming fascination with dangerous things had rubbed off on him. He had once had the overwhelming urge to pet a Nundu and it was only imagining Hagrid cooing at the terrifying creature that had made him leave it alone.
He needed to stop calling him pretty vampire even mentally, otherwise he was going to get confused and say it out loud. That would be typical.
He almost snorted when Jasper mentioned the recipe he had shared was a family one.
A vampire family passing down recipes, particularly muggle ones. Blutwurst, Black pudding, blood croissants. It would have to be in a dramatic, dusty tome or it would ruin their whole vibe.
When the lesson started up, he also discovered that Jasper's voice sounded even prettier in Spanish which he seemed to speak fluently. Harry tried to convince himself that it was completely normal to notice that about someone.
Angela had a nice enough voice.
Mrs Goff's voice was nicer in Spanish.
He didn't get the feeling he was even managing to fool himself here.
The conversation flowed easily between Jasper and Angela. Harry kept up as best he could and found himself enjoying the challenge.
When Harry successfully managed to keep up the conversation with them for more than a couple of minutes without any major mistakes Jasper smiled at him blindingly.
Fuck's sake. Pretty vampire is pretty.
"Your accent sounds Columbian, did you learn to speak Spanish there?" Jasper looking at the board and only glanced at Harry when he answered.
"Yeah, spent some time there a couple of summers ago." Ten years ago, and by spend some time he meant work with the South American magical community to prevent several coups. He did spend one night on a beach. It was there or Panama.
Angela piped in, "I heard Columbia been a bit dangerous recently, I'm surprised your parents let you go."
Ah, he had assumed that the small-town gossip would make everyone wary on the topic of parents. Apparently, the local gossips were slacking, or Angela didn't listen to gossip. Wouldn't that be something.
"My parents died when I was young, my guardians didn't really care where I went." He barely paused, swift to change the subject when Angela looked mortified. "Columbia was awesome though, best coffee I've ever had. And Lulada is delicious."
Angela just nodded but Jasper seemed to know the drink and Harry wondered if he'd been to Columbia. Vampires didn't necessarily travel particularly frequently, avoiding sunlight was always an issue and if these vampires didn't have magic they might have even more difficulties.
By the end of Spanish he could say that he thoroughly understood what his desk mates were doing for imaginary holidays, what they thought about last week's bake off result and when they reckoned Millennials would stop talking about the 90's as if it was recently. That one hurt and he was reasonably sure he caught Jasper wincing.
The oldest vampire he'd ever encountered had been 250, he had been completely bedbound. He still looked young on the surface, but his skin had been paper thin and his hair was starting to disappear completely.
The vamp had been bathing in the 'blood of innocents' to keep himself alive. Luckily the local wizards had stalled for long enough with pig blood illusioned to look like it was coming from saintly looking nuns. That had been a weird thing to walk in on.
The whole young but dying of old age thing had made the vampire look like a really creepy, wrinkly baby which reminded Harry way too much of one evening a lifetime ago in a graveyard. The vamp's library had been brilliant though.
Access to more books was well worth some nightmares.
Hermione would have been so proud.
Jasper couldn't be older than 100, his skin was pale but still looked smooth and he clearly had all his hair still.
He was probably older than Harry and still having to go to high school. Maybe he'd have some tips for pretending to be a teenager?
Nope. No telling the vampire that you don't seem to be aging. That would be counterproductive to the whole living as a muggle thing.
How many times had Jasper had to do high school? He shuddered at the thought. Once was proving enough of an issue for him.
Jasper had a class the other side of the school, so Angela and Harry headed to gym on their own.
Harry found himself staring at the vampire's back as he walked away. And maybe his eyes drifted slightly. He was a very pretty vampire.
In the changing rooms Harry finally had time to think.
The vampire was friendly, he hadn't expected the lot of them seem so human. All the proper vamps he'd met previously had been on an aggressive Transylvania kick with the coffins and the spooky castles. He'd asked Ron once why they were so dead set on being Dracula impersonators, Ron had just shrugged and said it was tradition.
The go to explanation for all the weird illogical shit in the wizarding world.
He needed to work out a plan and to do that he needed more information. It would be suspicious if he avoided all of them for no reason. They would probably have some questions if the new kid took a quick and immediate dislike to their whole family.
Jasper was nice enough, he kept trying to remind himself of reasons to not get too friendly.
It was likely to make it harder to hide magic, their senses were insane if he was remembering correctly.
It could open him up to discovery. Supernatural things never existed in vacuums, and he already knew there was something weird going on in La Push. It would draw the attention of someone at some point and he was already involved with Jacob.
On the positive side, it might make it easier to work out if the vampires were doing anything dodgy. Harry was really trying to hold back on going into full investigation mode because that always led to trouble. But a little quiet poking wouldn't hurt.
It might help him avoid Midichlorian more if he obviously had other friends. He needed another group if he ever wanted to eat in the cafeteria again. He wasn't sure what exactly it was that set him on edge around Mushroom, beyond his similarities to a certain blonde ferret. He just found himself on edge whenever he was nearby.
What did it say about him that he would prefer to involve himself with a group of clearly supernatural creatures rather than spend any more time than necessary with an annoying classmate.
Jasper, Angela, and Eric seemed bearable so far. And Taylor if they only focused on basketball.
By the time he'd finished getting changed he was ready to burn out some of his frustrations chasing Taylor around a basketball court.
He wished, not for the first time, that he could just meet new best friends on a train and solidify that friendship by fighting a troll together.
He wasn't that desperate yet, but he knew where he could find some trolls if things got dire.
An hour later, sweaty but happy Harry walked out to the car park. He was still in his gym uniform of a yellow t-shirt and navy shorts, his normal clothes stuffed into his backpack.
The car park was busy, students still catching up with each other from the summer. Small gatherings dotted around the outside benches and cars chatting away happily.
A couple of people vaguely waved in his direction, and he nodded to the couple of people he recognised from classes so far.
Even with this many people milling about the supernatural element were easy to spot. They were too pale even for somewhere with this little sun. And way too graceful.
Most of the vamps swiftly climbed into the silver monstrosity, Jasper leant against the passenger door and he smiled at Harry when their eyes met.
By the driver door Edward and Bella were having an intense conversation, Bella even looked like she had emotions, so Harry figured it was about something important.
She kept looking around the car park for something before going back to whatever Edward was saying to her. Then her eyes settled on him and she suddenly stopped speaking, Harry realised with a start that she had been looking for him.
He narrowed his eyes, why was Bella Swan having an argument with her boyfriend that somehow involved him.
Edward glanced up towards him, eyes just as unsettlingly gold as Jasper's. How anyone thought this was a family of normal teenagers was beyond him.
Harry felt a firm push against his occlumency shields.
What the fuck.
Harry broke eye contact and focused on the car key in his hand, the pavement under his feet, how many steps left before he got to his car.
He was shivering, his breath coming quickly.
What the fuck.
Morgana. He hadn't expected legilimency. He really needed to do some reading. Work out if that was a normal muggle vampire thing or if he was about to be in a lot of trouble.
But first he needed to get the fuck away from this car park.
