The rest of treaty negotiations had quickly dissolved into a game of catch the Harry so Billy can ask the Harry questions. But luckily the Harry had a Buckbeak.
Or at least he had a Buckbeak once he apologised for calling him a chicken. And caught him a rabbit. And gave him pets.
All of which was quite difficult to do with a whole pack of wolves attempting to catch him.
But Harry had way more experience than they did. He knew the terrain better. He had a wand. And somehow, he also had pixies on side.
He was pretty sure that they were less on his side and more on the side of causing chaos which, to be fair, was almost always his side.
Harry dodged a wolf as he watched another one be taken out by a pie to the face. Harry wasn't even sure where the pixie had got the pie, it didn't look like one of his.
His best bet seemed to be dodging, his seeker reflexes and judicious use of protego was serving him well as there was no way he'd win against supernatural speed without some advantage.
He had taken half the pack out with jelly legs jinxes and if Jake would just stop nibbling at him he would be able to pause and appreciate the sight of five wolves flopping around his garden like drunkards.
He was going to have to rescue Embry from the devil's snare at some point but really, the wolf should have known better than to follow Harry under his own cabin. Besides, the snare was juvenile at this point, even the local rabbit population was managing to get loose.
Harry eventually made it on to the back of Buckbeak and a couple of seconds later he was soaring over the top of the cabin.
"It's been lovely seeing you all" he shouted down. "See you all soon I'm sure, it's gonna be an early night for me, school tomorrow."
He had to adjust their distance upwards because whilst the wolves couldn't fly they could certainly jump, really high.
"Don't worry about the dishes." He yelled at Emily who was way too polite to be hanging around with a wolf pack. "They will literally wash themselves."
He gave one last wave to an exasperated looking Billy and winked at Jasper.
And then he went for a proper fly.
Merlin, it had been a while.
Harry pressed himself along Buckbeak's back as they twirled and dived above the forests of Olympic National Park.
Flying with Buckbeak was different to being on his broom, he had no direction, he went where Buckbeak decided to take him. It was exhilarating, bending and dipping and then just soaring. The rush of wind in his ears and the brush of it over his face.
Hours later man and Hippogriff circled back around to the cabin, and something felt settled in Harry.
He had family here, family who knew he was magic and accepted him anyway. Family who was willing to work with him. Family who hadn't hesitated before they claimed him as theirs.
Harry's heart felt full with the possibility of the life he was building here.
He could be happy here.
Monday morning was punishing, Harry had stayed up later than he should have just riding the high of flight and family and now he was quietly regretting his hubris.
He didn't need as much sleep as he used to, less and less each year.
But he still needed sleep if he was expected to face High School again.
He beamed at Jasper when he entered the English classroom and nudged Jasper's foot with his when they sat down.
"Harry!" Eric settled in the seat on his other side. "You're alive! We were half convinced you'd died of Dickens exposure."
Morgana, last week had been long. He could not be further away from thoughts about Dickens, he glanced over at Jasper who just smiled at him.
A long but ultimately good week.
"He's not quite managed to finish me off," Harry joked back, "but if I have to read any more, I might the job for him."
He wasn't entirely joking. The class schedule said they'd be moving on to Austen this week and if there was one more mention of the dreaded D word Harry might just leave.
Eric chatted amiably about an upcoming marvel film he was excited to see and Harry was reasonably sure that he managed to hide the fact that he hadn't read a comic since he was 10 and Dudley had thrown one of his Beano annuals at his head.
Luckily Mr Mason was ready with another save and Harry was quickly growing to revere his English teacher's impeccable sense of timing.
The next hour was spent close reading passages from Sense and Sensibility and trying not to make eye contact with Jasper when he read the soppy bits.
History passed mostly in a blur, he was really going to have to sit down and work out what the cold war was about if he was going to understand any of his lessons. Emmett kept nudging him and winking every time something vaguely magical was mentioned.
The Salem witch trials were up next week, Emmett was going to be unbearable.
Maths was easy and when Harry finally walked into Chemistry he could have kissed Alice who was sitting in Methuselah's usual seat and staring up at annoyed teenager innocently whilst he tried to get her to move.
"You are a life saver." He muttered, resolutely ignoring the puppy dog eyes he was getting from Menthol.
Alice just blinked at him lazily. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Alice turned out to be the perfect chemistry partner, she actually listened to the teacher rather than filling every waking moment with gossip, and he left the classroom actually understanding more about chemistry than when he went in.
Harry clapped her on the shoulder as they got up to leave, "You are the best chemistry partner I could ever hope to have."
And if Melbert caught that and looked sulky that was very much not Harry's problem.
As he walked alongside Alice into the cafeteria, he noticed that Edward and Bella had decided to sit separately to the rest of the Cullens.
A questioning eyebrow to Alice got him an answer. "They still have a lot to talk through and time away from the rest of us." Harry didn't think he was imagining Edward's shoulders tensing. "Edward needs reminding that lying to a romantic partner is never a good idea and making decisions on their behalf is never going to go down well either."
Jasper had filled Harry in on the whole, surprise tickets to Jacksonville to visit your mother for a weekend and quietly get you out of town whilst there's a vampire hanging around thing.
He was shocked they were still speaking at all, Bella reaction had apparently been explosive.
Bella was far more forgiving than he was, but then Bella was still young, she probably had less resentment built up.
A lifetime of people trying to make his decisions for him had left Harry with very little sympathy for people who stole other people's agency.
Harry glanced at Alice who had paused in their way across the cafeteria, they were stood between two empty tables, halfway between Alice's family and the doors to the backfields.
"Will you sit with us?" Alice asked politely, gesturing over to her usual table.
Harry hesitated, glancing outside towards the appealing opportunity to take some time to himself, and then back at the table with the Cullens.
The table where he had accidentally outed himself last week and set off the whole chain of events that lead to him having a strange new relationship with a revenant who was currently looking at him with very hopeful eyes.
Goddammit, Alice lightly chuckled at him, and he glared. She knew she had him as soon as he looked over.
It was going to take some time to get over the whole prescience thing.
He grumbled but headed over to the table, trying to ignore the joy on Jasper's face and the smile that was already pulling at the corners of his mouth.
"Hello Darlin'" Jasper murmured as he sat down and Harry could help but smile back at him, amused to notice the matching lollipops all the Cullens were sporting.
"Hello lovely man." Harry sent back, focusing on memorising the warm smile on Jasper's face when Harry leant on his shoulder.
"I missed you."
"It's been 3 hours."
"I still missed you."
Harry had a feeling he looked besotted but was struggling to hold on to any reason why that might be a bad thing.
He caught Angela's eye over Jasper's shoulder, and she looked like she was about to explode she was grinning so widely. When she saw him look over, she waved and gave him a thumbs up.
His face was tomato red, he could tell from the general burning heat and the way Anglela was cooing. Merlin, Spanish was going to be unbearable.
Looking back at Jasper he couldn't help feeling it was worth it.
Lunch passed quietly and Harry was quickly getting used to the way the revenants could casually pick up on any conversation happening in the cafeteria. He felt absolutely no shame at the running commentary he was getting of Edward and Bella's conversation.
Apparently, Edward had done this whole making decisions for Bella thing before and it had resulted in a dramatic chase scene across Volterra to stop the idiot from committing suicide by Volturi.
Harry rolled his eyes so hard he almost gave himself a headache.
This kind of thing could only happen to teenagers, and it was ridiculous that one of those teenagers was over 100 years old.
"So what, he just threw away his phone and ran straight to the Volturi to beg for death?" Edward was looking tense over on his table with Bella but Harry didn't particularly care.
"Yep." Alice looked embarrassed but Harry didn't know why, seeing the future was always going to be complicated. She could be forgiven for making a mistake it was the whole not checking it thing that confused him.
They probably could have called anyone in town and got a full low down on everything that had happened in Forks in the last ten years.
Just call the diner and ask them to hand the phone over to any resident.
"And when they said no he was just going to go sparkle in front of some tourists?" Harry was struggling to picture what the whole sparkling thing really looked like. They hadn't had a sunny day in Forks since the revelation of that particular tidbit and Jasper was being shockingly closed mouthed about it.
It might have something to do with how hilarious Harry found it.
"They would have killed him." Emmett grunted, "It was on their home turf and they would have had to kill witnesses inside the wall of their own city." He glanced at Harry. "And potentially have had to deal with angry wizards on top of that."
Harry nodded, as suicide plans went it wasn't the worst one he'd heard. That dubious award went to Seamus Finnegan who had once threatened to drown himself in a barrel rum if he had to watch Ron and Lavendar PDA all over the place for one more second.
They had spent a lot of time trying to distract themselves from the blatant snogging by attempting to turn water into rum.
The explosions had been magnificent and as a bonus it had stopped the snogging for a blessed 20 minutes whilst Ron tried to put out the fire on his bed.
"What a moron." Edward was definitely twitching now and Bella was giving him a concerned look. "So Bella is giving him another chance?"
Emmett nodded in confirmation, too busy unwrapping another lollipop to answer verbally.
The two of them rose, personal conversation apparently over but instead of coming back to join the Cullens they headed towards Angela, joining Megalith's table in the opposite corner.
"Hmm." Harry considered them where they were now sat at the table, curled towards each other over Bella's lunch. Everything that made up Edward was focused on Bella and a week ago Bella had been the same.
Now Bella was smiling at Edward, chatting to Edward, he was still her focus. But she was also smiling at her other friends. Chatting to her other friends.
Whatever had happened in their relationship aside, Bella had clearly decided that it was time she focused some of her attention on other people.
Harry felt far more optimistic about their odds now Bella wasn't staring at Edward like a love starved puppy. Maybe something had reminded her that she was a person outside of her relationship with a weird muggle vampire.
Edward clearly wasn't there yet. He was basically ignoring the rest of the table to stare at Bella and only responding to direct questions.
Harry rolled his eyes and projected a thought towards Edward. She might like you better if you make an effort to actually talk to her friends.
Edward flinched and looked over at Harry wide eyed.
Right, he probably shouldn't have done that.
But Edward squared his shoulders and after a momentary pause turned to talk to Angela. It showed he had better taste than he usually managed, he'd picked out the best person at that table. Angela was an actual angel.
An angel who was now grinning at him brightly whilst Edward whispered something to her. Angela was apparently getting some kind of low down from a too delighted looking Edward.
Angela mouthed something that looked shocking like "Baking?" at him.
Fuck.
"If I kill your brother, would you be willing to testify that I had just cause?"
"Of course, darlin'"
"Ooo Harry the teenaged witch versus Edward angst-ridden adolescent. That I'd pay to see that."
"Emmett! Don't be mean, Edward isn't angst-ridden he's…"
"Go on. I'll wait."
"Well, he's not angst ridden."
"Harry and Jasper agree with me."
"So do I."
"So does Rose."
"He's just had a rough couple of years, there's no need to be so harsh on him."
"Alice. He literally attacked another student for no reason a week ago. If I'd done that Rose wouldn't let me forget it for decades."
"Try centuries."
Harry tried to muffle his laugh into his jacket sleeve but judging by Edward's glare he wasn't particularly successful.
"Speaking of things we'd all like to see did you make any progress on those necklaces?" Emmett was leaning forward with the demeanour of an under-exercised puppy. All energy with nowhere to go.
"Oh shit yeah." Harry smacked the table in front of him. "I finished those on Friday."
The revenants all stared at him in disbelief, and he blushed. It was quite an important thing to forget but Harry had been panicking about family dinner at the time, he had his reasons. "I'll bring them over tonight when we go ward up the Swan's."
Harry quickly finished his lunch whilst the revenants pushed things around their plates, Jasper was just posing with a can of coke which Harry stole as they headed to Spanish.
"No wonder you all look like catalogue models, you spend your whole life just posing with things."
Jasper looked deeply affronted which just made Harry laugh harder.
Jasper sniffed and raised an imperious eyebrow. "I think you'll find that we're far too sophisticated for catalogues."
"I don't know, I think you'd be top tier at selling cardigans. Got that whole pale and interesting thing going on." Harry poked at Jasper lightly and still managed to hurt his finger. He needed to stop doing that.
"Well, you guys are adorable."
Harry smiled at Angela as she joined them, easily linking her arm through his. Something Hermione used to do between lessons to stop Harry and his permanently terrible sense of direction from leading them astray.
It made something happy and warm settle in his chest as they walked cheerfully arm in arm across campus, Harry's other hand happily cradled in Jasper's.
Angela spent most of Spanish grilling them about their first date, something that expanded Harry's Spanish vocabulary for food at the same times as it increased the temperature of his face by several hundred degrees.
It also led to the discovery that orc in Spanish was el orco which was never going to stop delighting Harry.
By the time Angela and Harry abandoned Jasper to head to gym they were attempting to translate one of the poems from Lord of the Rings to increasingly terrible results.
"All the Spanish words sound too lively for this level of landscape description. The elves would be too cheerful if they were Spanish."
"Maybe I'll study Elvish as my next language." Angela mused, tapping her fingers on the cover of Harry's copy of Lord of the Rings.
"Yes, I'm sure that will be just as helpful in your life as Spanish."
"You say that, but my cousin goes to all sorts of conventions, I bet he speaks Elvish."
"Well, at least you'd have one person to talk to."
Angela handed back the book and nudged Harry slightly with her shoulder. "You and Jasper seem happy so far."
Harry found himself grinning without really knowing why. "He's great."
Angela smiled at him softly, "I'm glad."
"And his salted caramel fudge is incredible."
"Of course."
"So really I might as well keep him around."
"Quite so."
Harry tucked the book back in his bag and his buoyant mood carried him the whole way through gym, even being hit directly in the face twice in volleyball couldn't squash his mood.
It did mean he was slightly bleeding as he left the court, but the nosebleed stopped after a couple of minutes and Harry only mildly resented Taylor for hanging out to check he was okay. He was trying to be a good friend and was completely unaware that his presence was stopping Harry from just fixing his own nose.
At least his blood wasn't going to attract a revenant's attention, with Bella being as clumsy as she was it was astonishing that she hadn't been murdered by someone because of a paper cut. Or a grazed knee.
Or a volleyball to the face.
His blood, unappetising as it apparently was, still managed to get him an anxious Jasper outside the changing rooms when Harry emerged.
"It's nothing." Harry waved away the hovering revenant. "Seriously, I'll fix it when I get home."
"Harry." Jasper almost yelled. "Your nose is broken. We should take you hospital immediately."
Harry rolled his eyes at Jasper before he double checked the empty corridor and aimed his wand at his face. "Episkey."
Harry's nose straightened with a snap and immediately stopped bleeding even if it still left his eyes watering, Harry used a quick cleaning charm to get rid of the blood and then just raised his eyebrow at the now speechless Jasper.
"Come on then, I'll give you a lift to the Swan's in the lemon. Just got to pop home first and grab those necklaces."
2 hours later Harry leaned against a tree just outside the Swan house desperately trying to get his breath back. He wasn't sure how Jasper's non-magic would react to touching the ward stones he'd built for the Swan's house so he'd had to lug the massive hunk of rock into their backyard by himself.
Levitation charms always thoroughly fucked with his rune schematics and he'd never got the hang of the runic array that prevented it.
Maybe he'd have to try learn that again at some point, this stone was ridiculously heavy.
However, there was nothing to prevent him from using magic to do the hole digging.
He shoved the rock into the hole he'd created with one last heave and lay panting on the ground for a moment. "I hate wards."
"So you said."
"Do you know why I hate wards?"
"Because they make no sense, they are out to get you, they were created by evil wizards specifically to fuck with you-" Jasper was numbering Harry's reasons off on his fingers.
"I hate wards because wards suck."
"Ah, of course."
Thankfully the worst bit was over. The perimeter stones were much easier to place and about 1/100th of the size.
By the time they'd done a quick circuit of the property Harry had finally got his breath back.
Edward, Bella and Alice pulled up just as they got back to the front of the house, the Volvo looked particularly obnoxious alongside Bella's rusted truck.
A distant roaring announced that Rosalie and Emmett were approaching, and a bright yellow sports car sped up to the house, it's engine loudly purring.
Harry stared at it with his mouth open.
"Why on earth would you drive the silver monstrosity to school if you've got that?!"
Jasper smirked. "It draws less attention, so we try to drive normal cars to school."
Harry just snorted and called out to Rosalie and Emmett as they got closer, "I knew there was a reason I liked you two."
Rosalie just smirked but Emmett looked delighted at the compliment.
Harry tossed a small bag at Edward as he walked round his car. "The necklaces are in there." Edward cradled the velvet bag in his hand for a moment before he carefully opened it and quietly distributed the necklaces.
As each of the vampires donned their necklaces they breathed in deeply, looking around themselves in astonishment.
Alice was staring open mouthed at Bella. "You just smell like a person."
Bella seemed unsure how to take that, but she was rescued from having to respond by the sound of sheer delight that came out of Edward.
He was taking deep breaths, alternating between his mouth and his nose as he tried to take in everything at once.
"Bella." He gasped. "Bella, please."
He reached out a hand towards her which Bella hesitantly took, her face a curious mix between hopeful and cautious.
Edward pressed his lips to her hand and breathed deeply. "Bella, you smell wonderful."
Bella smiled at him, but she looked disappointed, and her free hand was fisted in her jacket pocket.
"Like Freesia and Lavender. Like rain on a hot pavement. Like a warm cup of tea." Edward took another breath in and finally opened his eyes. "And you don't make me thirsty at all."
What a line.
Merlin's beard Edward was corny.
Harry was really trying to remind himself that this was an important moment for them as a couple. Up until this point Edward had constantly wanted to eat Bella whenever he was around her so her smell not making him hungry was a good thing.
A really good thing.
Except as soon as you said that out loud it just made it sound so deeply insane that they spent any time together at all.
It was like Romeo and Juliet; it made no sense until you reminded yourself that the main characters were teenagers and therefore idiots.
Bella flung herself at Edward and hugged him tightly.
Harry just had to wince, there is no way that hadn't hurt.
To distract himself from the quite aggressive PDA that was now happening in that corner Harry turned to the rest of the Cullens who were also staring at Edward and Bella with a sort of fixated revulsion.
Except Alice, Alice looked delighted.
"So- how 'bout those seagulls?"
"What?" Emmett turned to look at him.
"The football team?"
Emmett continued to stare at him. "You mean the seahawks?"
"Oh yeah. Them."
"What about them?"
That stumped Harry, he wasn't entirely sure where the conversations was meant to go from here. "Are they… happy?"
Emmett shrugged. "Maybe?"
"Er… good then?"
"Yep."
"Yeah."
Bella and Edward were now kissing, and Harry was starting to feel weird about being stood here.
"I'm just going to go finish up prepping the wards."
"I'll come with you." Jasper stole Harry's hand again and tucked it with his into his pocket.
"Er, yes, we'll come too. To help."
"Alice?"
"Hmm?"
"Want to come with us?"
"No I'm fine here."
"Right."
"Right."
Half an hour later Harry was ready to go so the revenants did a quick couple of rounds of rock, paper scissors to decide who was going to go get Bella.
Emmett groaned and dramatically covered his eyes before he went back to the front of the house.
Bella was bright red when they arrived back at the ward stone hole but she still had a tight grip on Edward's hand.
Edward was a prick but Harry couldn't help be relieved to see Bella looking so happy.
"Right, just come lay your hand here. I'll need a little bit of blood to tie you to the wards to make sure you and Charlie can always enter and then the rest of it is going to be intention based. Keep out anyone intending harm on someone inside." The revenants had flinched at the thought of blood being spilled but quickly shut up when Harry glared at them. "I'll tie myself to the wards as well, because it needs someone magical to anchor them."
Bella nodded and Harry grabbed his potions knife from his bag, he sterilised it with his wand and handed it over. "Just a little nick on your palm."
Bella made a small cut to her hand and together Harry pressed their hands to the warding stone. He pushed his magic into the stone and quickly muttered spells under his breath as he gestured with his wand in the other.
He felt the rush of magic leave him and the runes carved into the stone briefly glowed before a line of protection snapped into place around the property.
Harry pulled back their hands and quickly healed Bella. He brushed off his hands and quickly reburied the stone doing his best to make the ground look even and undisturbed.
"Erm, Harry?"
Harry hummed whilst he smoothed over the last of the earth.
"Harry I think the wards might have worked slightly too well."
Harry looked up.
It was just Bella, the vamps had disappeared. He glanced around, he would have thought Jasper would have said goodbye at least.
And then he saw them. Sprawled in various places on the ground the other side of the property line.
He looked down at the ward stone.
"Oops."
"For the last time, I didn't do it on purpose!" Harry yelled. Edward had been pestering him for the last 20 minutes and Jasper was surprised it had taken this long before Harry exploded.
Edward was pacing the property line and making a nuisance of himself whilst behind him Emmett was poking the invisible barrier with something that looked like joy on his face.
"I love magic", he sighed happily.
Jasper smiled at him. "Me too."
"Do you think they'll stop arguing any time soon?"
"Only if Edward stops complaining."
"So basically never then."
Jasper just hummed.
Rosalie wandered back over from where she had been fixing her hair, the sudden expulsion from the Swan residence had left her less put together than usual and some habits were hard to break.
"Do we try and interrupt them?"
Harry was now yelling at Edward about Elder Furthark runes and sympathetic arrays and Edward was trying to yell back about not being able to watch his girlfriend sleep. Which of course led to Harry yelling at him about how creepy that was.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Alice was hovering behind Emmett, watching fascinated as the invisible barrier flexed and pushed back against Emmett's hand. It wasn't quite solid but seemed impenetrable despite that. "That doesn't work out well for us."
Jasper just sighed and stared over at Harry, he looked so gorgeous when he was angry, and Jasper was very aware that this was going to be a bad thing for him in any future arguments they had.
Maybe if Jasper just never looked at Harry when they argued he might be able to actually be coherent.
Alice gasped and focused back in on the argument.
"What is it?"
"Just wait." Alice whispered staring at an open space on the ground next to Harry.
As far as Jasper could see it was just more grass.
"Look here you overgrown lumpsucker, I don't give a single shit how you want to spend your evenings, however creepy I find it. My wards have recognised your kind as dangerous to the Swans, so they are keeping you out! Instead of moaning about it like a child take a moment to be grateful for the fact that your girlfriend and her father are going to be completely safe behind these wards." Harry finished this diatribe by poking angrily at Edward's shoulder before loudly swearing and shaking out his hand. "Merlin's balls you are frustrating! If I didn't know better I would think you were some kind of magical creature sent specifically to annoy me."
There was a popping sound and suddenly the space Alice was staring at was filled with strangest creature Jasper had ever seen.
It was wearing what looked like a tiny three-piece suit made entirely from dishcloths, it had large eyes and even larger bat-like ears. Harry was staring at it open mouthed with dawning horror.
"Master summoned Kreacher?" The little thing looked absolutely delighted to see Harry but its expression turned sour when he looked at the rest of them. "Why is master with such foul, dirty muggles?"
Even Edward was speechless.
Alice giggled.
Harry covered his face with both hands. "Kreacher. We talked about this. My name is Harry, I am your employee, not your master. And don't be rude to my friends."
The creature nodded back slowly. "Of course, Master."
Harry groaned.
"Master hasn't been eating enough," the little figure moved closer to Harry and poked at his leg face set in a faintly disapproving frown. "The weezes will be very disappointed in Kreacher, very disappointed indeed that Kreacher let Kreacher's master get so thin."
Harry went completely white.
"Kreacher, please tell me that you aren't going to tell the Weasley's where I am." There was real panic in Harry's voice and Jasper wondered why Harry was so against the Weasleys knowing where he was. From Harry's stories from school the Weasley's had basically been family to him.
"Of course not Master, not if Master does not wish it."
Harry slumped with relief, "Thank Merlin."
Jasper frowned at his mate, when Harry said he was hiding from the wizarding world he hadn't realised he meant the entire wizarding world.
"Kreacher doesn't need to tell them now, he already sent them a message before he left." The creature (Elf? Brownie? Some kind of tiny demon?) looked entirely too satisfied when Harry groaned out loud.
"Dammit Kreacher."
"Maybe if Master hadn't told Kreacher to listen to the filthly blood traitors-"
"I told you to stop calling them that."
"-then maybe Kreacher wouldn't have had to be listening to their orders."
There was a cracking sound in the forest behind them and the Cullens turned as one to face the new threat. Edward even hissed; his brother was clearly even more stressed than he was letting on.
A tall ginger man stepped out of the woods, he was clad in a long coat made from some kind of leather that Jasper vaguely recognised and holding a stick in front of him in a loose grip.
The scars that covered his face sent Jasper's instincts into overdrive and before he was aware of moving, he had placed himself between the newcomer and Harry. The rest of his family fanning out next to him.
"Now really Harry, is this how you greet your brother?" The man called out in a cheerful voice, superficially he looked relaxed but Jasper could see the coiled tension in his shoulders.
The man gripped what Jasper slowly realised was a wand, pushing the leather of his coat aside in a casual motion that freed his legs so he could move freely. A coat that was made of the same strange leather that made up Harry's favourite jacket.
This was another a wizard. And judging by his red hair and casual approach this had to be a Weasley.
"Merlin damn you Bill, how long have you been bribing Kreacher?"
Bill was grinning at him and Harry was finding it really hard to maintain his glare.
Harry met Bill for the first time at the 1994 Quidditch World Cup and then he had been Ron's slightly intimidating older brother, already an adult, already a curse breaker. The earring and leather jacket had made Bill seem terrifyingly cool.
The next time couple of times he'd met Bill he'd been on the other side of the line that separated Harry from the adult members of the Order of the Phoenix.
And then he'd been attacked by Fenrir on one of the worst nights of Harry's life.
And then Death Eaters had attacked his wedding.
The only real basis they had for a friendship at the beginning was shared trauma and a similar sense of humour.
Fortunately, that was a perfectly good basis for friendship. Harry didn't want to think about what kind of state he'd be in without Bill's steady presence over the years.
Even if he did have a habit of showing up and grinning at him like this. The bastard.
"What did you even offer him?"
"Didn't have to offer him anything." Harry glared at Kreacher who was staring up at him smugly. "Who are all these guys?"
Harry finally noticed that the Cullens were still vaguely poised around him. He should probably feel happy that they so quickly leapt to his defence, but he couldn't stop himself from snorting.
"They are… friends from school?"
Jasper looked at him.
"Good friends?"
Jasper raised his eyebrow and Harry sighed.
"This is Jasper, he's my boyfriend."
Bill actually cackled and clapped Jasper on a shoulder before cautiously skirted the revenants, wand still poised. He pulled Harry into a bone breaking hug and Harry hugged him back tightly. Bill bent to whisper into Harry's ear. "You know these guys are vampires right?"
Harry laughed. "Yep, weird muggle vampires who can hear everything you just said."
"Ah that's a relief." Bill released Harry and turned to smile cheerfully at the Cullens. "Nice to meet you, weird muggle vampires."
Emmett was somehow the first to react and he stepped forward to enthusiastically shake a bemused Bill's hand. "Are you a wizard like Harry?"
Harry felt the secrecy contract burn hot in his pocket and sighed.
"Emmett. You can't just ask people if they're wizards."
Bill was cackling again. More fairytale witch than wizard at the moment, he just needed some warts and a cat.
Emmett looked deeply confused. "Why not? He said he's your brother!"
Jasper sighed and Rosalie patted Emmett sympathetically.
"Emmett. Do you remember that whole treaty thing we signed? The contract you signed to promise that you wouldn't tell anyone my secrets?"
The dawn of realisation was beautiful to behold. As was the immediate guilt.
Harry sighed again. "It's fine Emmett. He is a wizard."
"A particularly good wizard if I do say so myself." Harry rolled his eyes and turned back towards Bill.
"A perfectly good nuisance."
"Erm guys?" Bella poked her head around Edward. "I don't want to interrupt but my dad will be back soon."
Harry looked around at the Cullens who were still stood awkwardly the other side of an invisible line. It was probably best he didn't tell Bill about the whole ward thing, he would only get upset with Harry again. "Er, yes. Hey Bill, wanna come see my cabin?"
"You have a CABIN?!" Bill seemed way too immediately excited about this.
Kreacher didn't seem very happy to hear Harry was living in a cabin but Harry was currently ignoring the house elf so he didn't comment. Just sniffed loudly.
They all headed towards where the cars were parked, Rosalie and Emmett were the first to pull away and the satisfying purr of their engine disappearing quickly into the distance.
Harry felt his face burn as he kissed Jasper goodbye but it was worth it when the revenant smiled at him.
Even if Bill kept elbowing him and winking.
"It was nice to meet you Bill." Jasper waved cautiously at the red head who grinned and waved back. "See you at school tomorrow."
Bill snorted. "School."
Harry flicked him. "Yes, School. I have a new chemistry partner so there is actually some chance of me passing now."
Alice gave him a thumbs up as she got in the car and soon they were left alone on the Swan's driveway, Bella heading inside to get started on dinner.
Bill eyed the lemon cautiously and Harry grinned at him. "Scared?"
"Of this?" Bill looked dubious.
"Kreacher does not like the yellow box."
"Harry does not like Kreacher."
"Kreacher is a good elf, he looks after Master even when Master is very stupid."
"Harry is going to do all the washing up for a week. And the cooking."
"Stupid Master is the worst."
"Stupid Kreacher-"
Bill slapped the back of Harry's head. "Stop being an idiot and take us to this cabin. I've always wanted to stay in a cabin." He rubbed his hands together and breathed on them, breath coming out in a white cloud.
"You're staying then?" Harry sighed.
Bill batted his eyelashes at him. "Apparition is just so exhausting, I couldn't possibly go back to Mexico just yet."
"The centaur thing?"
"Yeah, still ongoing but I'm due some leave so I can send them a message stay for a bit."
Harry nudged him with a shoulder and grinned, ignoring the burst of happiness in his chest. "I'll have to build you a bedroom then."
Kreacher sniffed loudly. "Kreacher will build the bedroom, Master's expansion charms are clumsy."
"I have never been so insulted in my life!" Harry grasped imaginary pearls.
Kreacher just glared at him.
He'd missed the tetchy little bugger.
"Kreacher will meet you at this cabin." And with a snap of his fingers the elf was gone, now Kreacher was close enough he could probably sense Harry's wards. He was never going to know a moment's peace now the elf knew where he was.
"That is the worst house elf in the history of house elves but Merlin does he miss you when you're gone." Bill secured the seat belt gingerly, the lessons from Arthur on car safety had clearly stuck with his children. "We all miss you."
"I know. I miss you all too."
"I'm not going to pretend I completely understand why you had to leave but I'm glad that you seem to be happy." Bill poked him in the middle of his forehead and Harry rubbed the spot ruefully. "Although I can't say I'm delighted you've found yourself a vampire boyfriend. Only you would go hide in the middle of nowhere and find teenaged vampires."
And didn't Harry know it.
"Of course, if I'm going to stick around I'll have to get to know him a bit better."
Harry groaned and pulled out of the Swan's driveway, waving away Bill's screech when he almost took out their mailbox.
"I wouldn't expect anything less."
"And mum would never forgive me if I left without making sure you're at a healthy weight." Harry rolled his eyes dramatically and almost hit a hedge.
"Molly will only stop worrying about my weight when I'm round enough that I'll need to be rolled everywhere." Harry still remembered and shivered at the thought of Dudley the beachball shaped toddler. His cousin was a weightlifter now so Harry imagined he was slightly less round than he used to be.
"You're not wrong." Bill chuckled.
When they made it back to the cabin, Bill was very disappointed.
It turned out that Bill had seen the Lake House once and since then had been obsessed with the idea of a cabin in the great ol' USA. Even if he wasn't expecting a magical time travelling mailbox his expectations had apparently been high.
Harry rolled his eyes. Apparently, the cabin in the Lake House was much better. Even though Harry was starting to suspect the Bill had a very different idea of what a cabin looked like.
"Bill it's a cabin, not a bloody lake house."
"I'm just saying, you could have easily built this by a lake, or even better on a lake, and it would be so much cooler."
"And you could have moved Shell Cottage to London, it would be far more convenient." Harry paused to see if Bill would respond to that but Bill was now pretending to be fascinated by the axe Harry still had mounted on the wall. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"It's a cool cabin."
Harry blinked at him. "Don't try to be polite, it doesn't suit you."
Bill snorted. "You're an idiot."
The settled into his couch and tried to ignore Kreacher muttering from the kitchen, Harry may be angry with Kreacher, but he wasn't cruel. He wouldn't try and cook whilst Kreacher was here, if he did it would probably take the elderly elf off to an early grave.
It had taken him over a decade to get Kreacher to agree to being his servant rather than his slave. A house elf required a bond with a wizard to be healthy so Harry was still bonded to the elf but he had convinced him to accept payment at least. Days off were an ongoing campaign as was getting Kreacher to wear anything but tea towels.
Eventually Kreacher came out of the kitchen with two bowls of French onion soup and fresh crusty bread. He eyed Harry as if he was waiting for him to complain but Harry just blinked at him innocently.
The soup was delicious, and Bill happily filled him in on what Fleur and Victoire were up to. Victoire was 23 now and already working her way up in the ministry.
Harry commiserated.
The ministry was still a travesty but maybe there was some hope now, not many people could stand in the way of a determined Victoire. The mix of Weasley stubbornness and handwork with Fleur's charm and bloody-minded determination was hard to resist.
Harry filled him in on what was happening in Forks. The smallest town in the USA with this many supernatural treaties.
"You know you're technically meant to register any treaties you make with the ICW, it's part of that whole special dispensation thing they gave you."
Harry waved dismissively. "Sharptooth deals with that, he files them under boring names so no one notices and sends the copies to main archives in Zurich, so of course they immediately get lost. They are all technically registered treaties."
Bill whistled but didn't say anything else. He'd worked with Sharptooth for years so clearly wasn't surprised at how efficiently the goblin could manipulate bureaucracy to his client's advantage.
They chatted well into the early hours, and Harry was absurdly glad to see his friend looking so happy and healthy. Now Victoire was out of school Fleur was back working with Gringotts so the two got to travel together more often than not. The change showed in the depth of Bill's laugh lines and Harry had never been so jealous that he would never wrinkle.
Buckbeak scratched at the door until he could come demand scritches from Bill. Kreacher kept up a steady delivery of snacks and drinks, stopping to listen in the doorway when Harry talked more about his new life here. He snorted derisively whenever Harry mentioned his muggle friends but listened keenly when Harry talked about the extended Black family over on the reservation.
His muttering commentary about the blood status of everyone involved was surprisingly easy to tune out with practice. Some things were just never going to change. He had at least mastered muttering quietly which was the only real progress Harry could report on that front.
His home was full of family again and Harry was happy to note that it didn't feel dissimilar to when he had the pack here, or Jasper. He wasn't tricking himself; he was actually happy here.
When Bill started to yawn, Kreacher shuffled the both of them up to bed. Harry gestured to the hidden door in his bedroom and rubbed his eyes as he tucked himself under the covers. "Kreacher, I made you a bedroom in there if you want it." It was hidden a disguised barrel in the storage area, Kreacher had always refused to have an actual bedroom. As long as Harry didn't put a proper door on a space Kreacher seemed willing to ignore how bedroom like it looked inside.
Harry and Kreacher both decided that they would ignore the tears in Kreacher's eyes when he called Harry a "Stupid Master" and shuffled off into his new room.
And Harry slept, safe and happy, with good food in his stomach and good company filling his head.
He was woken up at about 6am the next morning by a text from Jasper.
Alice has had a vision of Newborn army attacking Forks, we're telling the wolves now and will be organising a meeting to cover our options tomorrow evening. Will you come?
He blinked blearily at the screen and groaned.
Trouble magnet. Always.
Of course. Let everyone know I'll be bringing Bill.
