By the time Harry and Bill made it to the meeting the next evening Harry was severely regretting ever committing to go to high school.

The day had passed with the unbearable slowness that Harry associated with the endlessly boring summers of his teen years. It was now the middle of October and everyone was cooing over something called a pumpkin spiced latte.

Harry wasn't a fan. Over a decade of being forced to drink pumpkin juice at most meals had left him with a vague aversion to pumpkin flavoured anything.

Harry really didn't understand the appeal.

Even now the smell of pumpkin made him feel slightly nauseous.

Lauren was waxing lyrical about a new pumpkin-based pop up in Port Angeles that she just had to go to, and Harry felt like pulling off his own ears if it would mean he didn't have to listen to any more petty teenager bullshit.

He was going to die of boredom, and it was going to Starbucks' fault. Starbucks and the unfortunate fact that he was 43 years old and had no patience left.

Chemistry was interesting at least, now he could actually hear the teacher. Mr Banner had a way of making the textbook make sense and Harry was finally starting to understand covalent bonds.

Spanish had given Angela a chance to slip something to Jasper that looked suspiciously like a list of date ideas decorated with hearts.

But now he was sitting comfortably opposite Carlisle, another mug of Esme's perfect tea cupped in his hands and he felt relaxed for the first time that day. And he had finally stopped blushing.

He leaned on Jasper as they waited for the last of the wolves to turn up. He couldn't claim it was for warmth but it was comforting nonetheless.

Edward was still trying to glare at him, apparently one night separated from Bella was enough to undo any goodwill Harry had earned by giving out the necklaces.

Harry didn't have to worry about it though, the revenant was wilting under steady eye contact from Bill.

Bill had been less than impressed by what Harry had told him about Edward's mind reading adventures and just as horrified as Harry had been that Edward was using his time as an immortal creature to watch his teen aged girlfriend sleep.

If he was that jealous of Bella being able to pass time whilst unconscious Harry was quite happy to help him achieve that state himself. Violently if he needed to.

Harry had texted his group chat with Sam and Billy last night to check it was okay to let Bill know about the wolves, the response had been a yes from Sam and an alien emoji from Billy followed by a confusing series of hearts and wide eye emojis.

He was going to assume that was a yes.

The living room was surprisingly peaceful which was, of course, to blame when Bill started to get bored.

"So how old are all of you guys anyway?" Bill looked at all of them, blue eyes wide in a way that might look innocent to anyone who hadn't met Fred and George in their heyday.

Harry shivered with an old fear and not so subtly loosened his sleeve so he could draw his wand quickly.

A quick round of answers from the room revealed Rosalie and Emmett as the youngest at 108, Alice at 122, and Esme at 128.

Carlisle coughed and shifted in his seat. "Erm, I turn 383 this winter."

Harry raised his eyebrows, he knew Carlisle was old but not that old. He was trying to remember enough history to work out what had been happening in the 1600's but he'd always been terrible at dates.

Thinking about it he wasn't even sure where Carlisle was from, his accent was American but that didn't necessarily say much when you were almost 400 years old.

Maybe Carlisle remembered the Dodos before they 'went extinct'.

Hermione had wanted to set out to steal a Diricawl the moment she found out they existed. Just so she could show her parents that Dodos were alive and well. He and Ron had convinced her that picture would be fine as Diricrawl were notoriusly hard to catch. The whole teleporting thing made it difficult.

Harry was pulled out of his Dodo musings by a sudden sense of dread.

"And you?" Bill smiled at Edward in a way that would make anyone sensible worried. It set off no warning bells for Edward as he continued to regularly prove himself to be an idiot.

"I'm 122." Edward proffered, glancing between Harry and Bill. He was suspicious at least.

"And you're dating an 17-year-old?" Bill voice was deceptively mild.

Bill had clearly decided that Edward baiting was going to be a new form of entertainment for him.

"We're waiting before she turns."

"Of course."

"If she turns."

Bella was glaring at Edward now.

Edward was looking panicked.

Bill just let the silence sit.

"Bella is very mature for her age." Edward suggested, glancing over at Bella.

Bill just hummed.

If Edward just left it there he might come out of this intact.

"Renee, Isabella's mother, says she has an old soul." So much for that then. "And she basically parents both her parents. She cooks for her dad all the time and cleans up the house." Bella was bright red and still glaring. Harry wondered if Edward was aware that his granddad card was showing. "She reads a lot of Austen and she likes classical music."

Such a romantic description of the one he loves.

She's secretly old, her parents are not good at being parents and she will make a good housewife to me, the vampire that doesn't eat or sleep.

"She is also right here." Bella was glaring at both of them now but still mostly at Edward. It was hard to glare at Bill when he was smiling at you.

The silence was clearly killing Edward and Harry was happy to see that everyone was wearing their rings so he was probably operating in an unsettling (for him) silence.

Bill just quietly stared at Edward who was looking at his rapidly reddening girlfriend with increasing concern.

Harry could see him grasping for something, anything to say.

"Jasper is 179!" Distraction was the better part of valour apparently.

"And Harry is 43, long past the age of maturity in any culture." Jasper offered, his tone light but his eyes were burning as he stared down Edward. Harry silently cheered him on.

Bill eyed Jasper for a moment before switching his focus back to Edward.

Good, he glared at Bill for a moment just for good measure. Only Harry was allowed to make fun of Jasper's age.

"It's still a bigger gap." Edward pointed out sulkily before glaring back over at Bill, "anyway, I don't see why it's relevant to you."

Bill shrugged, "I have daughters." He raised an eyebrow at Edward, daring him to interrupt. "I just remember my daughter at that age. She was more serious than most kids her age but she was still too young for me to be happy when she started dating." Bill picked at his nails and sent a smile over to Harry. "When she was 17, she started dating a friend of the family, they dated for two years and they both swore to both me and the boy's father that they were going to be together forever."

Harry snorted. He remembered that, Morgana. He'd never seen a relationship with so much drama.

"Are they?" Bella asked quietly, cutting off whatever Edward had been about to say. "Are they still together?"

"After 2 years they decided they were better off as friends and went their separate ways. Not before they yelled at each other a lot, called each other names and tried to bring their families into it."

So much drama.

Bella looked stricken and her blush rapidly paled but she reached out patted Edward's hand lightly.

Maybe there was hope for them.

Edward sniffed. "Just because your daughter initially made a mistake doesn't mean that Bella and I aren't perfect for each other."

Bill laughed. "I would be careful who you call a mistake, sometimes people aren't right for each other and there's no shame it that." Bill glanced at Harry who just rolled his eyes. "As for Victoire's teenaged beau, he's grown into a wonderful man. With Harry and Andromeda as parents he had no chance to be anything else."

It was Harry's turn to shift in his seat.

"Teddy," he offered, when the Cullens turned to look at him as one. Even Bella was staring. Only Jasper didn't move, the revenant content to continue gently threading his fingers through Harry's hair. "He's my godson, I helped raise him alongside his maternal grandmother."

Edward had shut up at least.

"Your son you mean." Bill kicked Harry, "He'd beat you if you introduced him as anything else."

"Yes, well, son of my heart even if he isn't mine biologically speaking." Harry grinned at Bill. "Did you hear he managed to dye George's hair yellow?"

Bill snorted. "Of course, he did. Kid's a menace."

Edward was gaping at him and Harry was suddenly very glad that he had already told Jasper about Teddy, this would be very awkward if he hadn't.

He was too much of proud dad not to have shown Jasper all the pictures Andromeda had sent him over the summer when the revenant was over on Saturday.

Perhaps it wasn't a traditional first date activity but it had been a long time since Harry had had someone new to show off his favourite ball of excess energy and too much mischief to. He had been planning on going back for his first visit over Christmas to surprise Teddy at their usual family get together but now that felt too far away.

"You have a son?" Rosalie whispered the question, her voice heavy with something Harry didn't recognise.

Harry glanced at Jasper who just smiled sadly, oh dear.

Delicate ground then.

"I do." Harry smiled gently at her, "He's 25 now and doing an apprenticeship with one of Bill's brothers."

"One of your brothers" Bill corrected quietly but he didn't interrupt further,

Harry pulled out his wallet and shuffled his seat over towards Rosalie, he proffered the picture in his wallet to her. "This is him at his graduation." Teddy was wedged between Harry and Andromeda in his Hogwarts robes, great hall buzzing with people behind him, smiling happily and waving at the camera. His hair was flashing between black to match Harry and Andromeda and yellow to match the colours on his tie. "He was lucky he inherited his dad's smarts, otherwise he never would have passed. He did even less work at school than I did and he has the same trouble magnet tendencies. Luckily he also inherited his mother's charm otherwise I reckon I would have been called up to the school a lot more frequently."

Bill laughed. "His mother's charm and the ability to turn into someone else as he walked away from the scene of the crime. That boy avoided so much trouble by pretending to be a different student."

Rosalie was smiling now which Harry took as a win. Soft and gentle looked surprisingly at home on her face. "Wizards can do that?"

"Teddy can at least. He's a metamorphagus, he can make himself look like anyone with enough concentration." Harry thumbed another picture from his wallet and knew he had his proud dad face on, Teddy would be mortified. "This is one of his favourites, it was one of his mother's favourites too." The picture showed Teddy turning his nose into a beak, quacking and then laughing as his face returned to normal.

Harry smiled down at the picture.

He missed Teddy.

He'd left Teddy and Andromeda with his new address in case of an emergency (and with strict instructions to keep that information from the Weasleys no matter what kind of emergency they made up in order to check in on him). They wrote to each other weekly. It wasn't enough.

Maybe it was a good thing that Bill and Kreacher had found him, he was long overdue a home visit. The plan had always been 6 months no contact but that was seeming weirdly arbitrary now he was actually in his new life.

The worry had been that he would build a proper life if he was always popping back to see Teddy. Wouldn't let himself.

He could hear the wolves coming up the drive and he tucked the pictures back in his wallet, Rosalie looked disappointed so he whispered, "Come over this week, I have plenty of his baby pictures back at the cabin. He was adorable."

Rosalie beamed at him and for moment Harry was breathless. Merlin, she was beautiful. The world was lucky she didn't smile often. Empires would crumble.

He smiled back reflexively and Rosalie went to mutter something at Emmett. He looked back at Jasper and found his boyfriend looking back at him with a small smile on his face. Rosalie may be the most beautiful person he'd ever seen but Jasper was something else entirely. The wave of affection that swelled up in Harry was momentarily overwhelming, Harry reached out for Jasper's hand and squeezed it tight.

Luckily, for Harry's ability to keep his hands to himself, Jake was there to break the moment with whatever it was he had found to yell about this time. He clattered in through the door, ignoring the eye rolls from the rest of the wolves when he pushed through them to yell at Harry. "What's this I hear about a brother?!"

Ah, yes, that would do it.

Bill laughed and flicked Harry, "Nice to know you never talk about us."

"Harry," Jake whined, "You said you were an only child!"

Harry snorted at Bill's puppy dog eyes. "I am."

"He's not." Bill said at the same time.

Jake looked between them, clearly unsure who to believe.

"I have no blood siblings."

"That doesn't mean you don't have any siblings."

Harry rolled his eyes at Bill but conceded the point. "I have a lot of chosen family."

Bill snorted. "As if anyone would pick Percy."

"Maybe I prefer Percy, Percy doesn't stalk me transatlantic-ly."

"As far as you know." Bill wiggled his eyebrows at him.

"How many brothers do you have?" Jake interrupted.

Bill looked Harry directly in the eye. "Six."

Harry couldn't argue. "Six brothers. If you count Percy." He paused, "And a sister."

Bill and Harry shared and long look and Harry found himself blinking rapidly. Bill thankfully took back the conversational conch and continued. "Mum says Harry's her easiest child because she doesn't remember his birth and she never had to change his nappies."

Harry wrinkled his nose at him. "I'm the easiest child because I actually clear up after myself, not like you and the rest of the great unwashed."

"Pfft, that's overrated. You know she loves fussing. She'd like you more if you were messier. I think she prefers you because you're the only brunette, breaks up the ginger in family photos." Harry grinned at him, Molly had insisted Harry stand front and centre in most of the family portraits for the last 20 years for exactly that reason. That and he was dramatically the shortest but Harry preferred sticking to the positives.

Even all the various children of the Weasley clan had outgrown him at this point. It was very depressing.

All of them had learnt not to mention it to his face.

Harry pulled himself out of his thoughts and waved between his old relatives and his new ones. "Anyway, Bill meet Jake, he's my cousin. Distant relative of Sirius' on the less crazy side of the family."

Jasper seemed to want to question that last statement but Harry wasn't about to get into the Black family madness, no point giving Edward more ammunition.

Harry continued with the introductions and Bill politely nodded and smiled at the people in the rapidly filling living room. Harry may hate modern design but he couldn't argue that the Cullen's sitting room was far better suited for large groups of people.

Or at least it was after he and Bill started conjuring seating.

Jake seemed particularly happy with a dramatic wing back Bill transfigured from a knut so Harry already knew what he was getting him for Christmas.

There was far less awkward hovering than there had been the last time this group were together and the wolves seemed to be happy to dig into the incredible spread that Esme seemed to conjure from nothing.

The lady was magical.

As soon as everyone settled Carlisle took to the floor, "Greetings friends, thank you for coming on such short notice. We unfortunately have some bad news regarding the rogue vampire presence in Forks." He paused and nodded towards Alice. "Alice had some insight into the recent spate of murders and disappearances in Seattle. She can't see Victoria but she can see what she's doing through lieutenants. Victoria is building an army of newborns in Seattle, or at least, she has convinced someone else to."

The silence following this pronouncement was deafening. Even with Harry's shitty hearing he could hear people's breathing.

Well that was shit news. It had been pretty well summed up over text but hearing something said out loud always gave it more gravity.

They needed a plan.

Carlisle was looking at him hopefully.

Harry sighed.

"Right." Harry said, "How long have we got?"

"2 weeks," whispered Alice.

"How many do you see?"

"Twenty including Victoria."

That didn't seem so bad on the face of it, there were about twenty of them in the room. One each?

But Jasper's face was telling him that this was dire news so clearly he was missing something.

Harry nodded reassuringly when Bella looked at him and a quick glance around at the room told him that people were already not feeling confident.

He looked over at Carlisle, "Do you have anyone else you can call on for help?"

Carlisle looked taken aback for a moment but eventually he nodded. "I will send out some messages, we can at least call on our cousins in Alaska."

"Okay." Great, the revenants he had been introduced to via a detailed description of their sex lives. It was sure to not be awkward at all. He turned to Jasper. "What can you tell me about newborns?"

Jasper answered quickly. "They are far stronger than a fully matured revenant, they operate on instinct and thirst drives them. They are deadly."

Ominous. Not an organised army then, he wondered how Victoria was planning on directing this army where she wanted it.

Oh. The rogue vampire.

"Well, we know why they broke into Bella's home. Victoria will need a way to point them in the right direction, scent will do that I assume."

Bella paled and clutched at Edward's hand. Edward looked sick.

"They will be mad by the time they reach us if she is using Bella's scent to taunt them." Jasper warned,

"I think that makes our strategy pretty clear. We need to take advantage of any disorganisation and used their instincts against them." Harry said slowly. "We need to lead them away from Forks."

Alice looked at him sharply before her eyes went distant. Saying that aloud had changed something then.

They all waited a moment before Alice tentatively nodded. "It's not completely clear but I don't see any humans dying." Her sympathetic glance towards Bella made it clear that Bella was not included in the human group when it came to the whole no dying thing.

Bella was staring at him blankly and Harry winced. In fact a lot of them were looking him and Harry was very aware most of the battle experience in this room was concentrated in him, Jasper and Bill. Jasper was looking at him knowingly, as was Sam. "We will need to use Bella's scent to lead them if we want to choose our own battlefield."

Edward exploded out of his seat, leaving a stunned looking Bella behind him, her hand hovering where his had been seconds before. "Bella will not be BAIT."

Harry closed his eyes, only for a moment, this was not the kind of strategy he preferred but 20 years of hunting the dangerous had made him more willing to embrace the pragmatic play.

Edward was not in the same boat as Harry, he might not be in the same navy, and Harry couldn't really blame him. Edward continued, his voice low and hard. "Bella, we should leave now, we can head to Jacksonville. Let Harry deal with these newborns if he's so eager to sacrifice you."

Harry rolled his eyes. Well that was just stupid. Nevermind, Edward wasn't on a boat. Too stupid.

Bella glared at Edward. "Yes, because trying to drag me to Jacksonville worked so well for you last time."

Edward lips pursed together into a thin line. "I just want you safe."

"And I just want you to stop trying to make decisions for me."

Harry sighed and looked at Bill who was looking at Edward with his lips curled. Edward was going to want to stop talking pretty soon unless he wanted a Bill-style talking to.

He didn't know when Bill had decided that Bella was his problem but there was no backing out now.

"You can't be planning on letting him use you as bait!"

Bella glared. "I don't know but I'm going to at least hear him out."

They glared at each other.

Edward sat back down abruptly, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring over at Harry. He gestured with is hand for Harry to continue.

"Right, well-"

"Hey Harry." Oh dear. Not quick enough.

"Yes, Bill?"

"Does your treaty say you have to protect these guys from all threats?"

Harry sighed. He should have known this was coming. "No. Not explicitly." He glanced apologetically at Jasper. "Just provide support in the event of an attack. Full protection to the wolves but the Cullen's weren't interested." Or more accurately Edward had been actively against involving Harry in 'family' business.

"Right." Bill glared over at Edward. "So tell me again about your plan to leave my brother to clear up your mess?"

The room was quiet again.

Edward was silent.

"I will be helping." Bill raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Treaty or not, I'm not exactly going to stand around and do nothing."

Now it was Bill's turn to sigh.

"Harry, we've talked about this. You don't have to run around protecting everyone from their own consequences."

Edward snorted and they both ignored him. Bella tapped Emmett and Emmett leaned around her to punch Edward.

Oh Harry was totally stealing that. Emmett could clearly be bribed. By the smug look on his face he might even do it for free.

Jake laughed and gave her a high five. Good to know that those two were friends again at least.

"That's not what I'm doing."

"It kind of looks like that's what you're doing. Hermione would have said this was your saving people thing."

Harry glared at him. This was not the time to bring that up.

"Hermione would have agreed that this is worth doing." Calling on dead friends wasn't going to stop him from saving live ones.

"Harry, think this through-"

"Bill, I don't need to think this through. It's the right thing to do." Harry could feel his voice rising and he couldn't seem to make it softer.

"Hermione-"

"Hermione is dead." Harry's voice abruptly cut out. And he pressed his lips together to keep in the vitriolic outrage he wanted to rain down on Bill for saying her name. Trying to stop him from doing something that was the right thing to do with her name.

Jasper pressed his hand gently over Harry's knee and just as quickly as it had arrived he felt the anger bleed out of him. For a moment he panicked that Jasper was using his gift on him but when Jasper looked at him he saw nothing but sympathy.

Bill looked stricken.

"I'm sorry Bill, that was uncalled for." Harry cringed, shoulders rising up near his ears. Another soothing squeeze from Jasper and he was back to normal heart rate again.

Bill shook his head but remained silent.

"I have made a home here, the people here are family. Friends." He didn't glance at Edward. "Most of them."

Bill nodded. "I know."

"I have to help them." Harry was suddenly very aware that they were having what had turned into a very personal conversation in a room full of people. "I have to help."

Bill sighed and looked at the ceiling, rest his head on the back of his chair. "Mum is gonna kill me."

Harry laughed lightly. "We don't have to tell her."

"She always finds out."

They smiled at each other.

Harry turned back to the room. Jake looked upset, as did Embry, Quil and Seth. They had heard enough about Hermione to know how much it hurt. How much it hurt that she wasn't here.

Telling him off for getting involved whilst simultaneously planning meticulously to make sure they all came out alright.

But Harry had 23 years experience planning for himself now. He could do this.

"We don't have to use Bella but if we don't we will be letting go of our biggest advantage and potentially allowing newborns to run freely through Forks' population." Harry glanced at Sam whose face was hard. He had feeling if Bella didn't volunteer the pack Alpha was going to be very displeased.

Carlisle looked vaguely horrified and Harry was getting the feeling that despite his long life Carlisle hadn't been closely involved in much combat. "We will have to consider that this situation might bring the attention of the Volturi, and Bella had not yet been changed." Calisle murmured.

Edward was tenser than Harry had ever seen him.

"Yes, we will have to take that into account." Harry looked over at the wolves. "Clearly you don't need to be involved."

Sam glanced around at the other wolves and the room was quiet whilst the wolves had some kind of a silent conversation. Harry was pretty sure that that the telepathy thing was only when they were wolves so this was was mostly twitching eyebrows and intense eye contact.

Sam nodded. "We will help."

The rest of the wolves burst into conversation and Harry could hear Emmett already making bets on how many newborns various people might take out.

That caught Quil and Embry's attention and that was going to be a trio from hell.

Bella looked at Jake and then back at Edward and opened her mouth before firmly shutting it again.

Harry watched fascinated, what on earth was happening there?

She looked down, devastated, her lower lips starting to wobble. Then looked back at Jake and then Edward.

Bella was clearly having a breakdown.

"I'll do it." She yelled.

Harry almost laughed and the rest of the room fell silent.

He schooled his face before she looked at him.

"Thank you Bella. We will make sure you're safe." Harry glanced at Jake who was looking proudly at Bella. Oh dear. "We will need to find an area we want to lead them too. Ideally one that doesn't take them near anywhere populated."

Jasper looked at Sam, "We could go scout some options tomorrow evening?"

"I have some areas in mind." Sam nudged his second, "Jared knows the ground in this area best."

"For reasons." Jared murmured. "Reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with us scouting you."

Sam just rolled his eyes and Carlisle smiled.

"That would be great." Harry hesitated for a moment before he continued. "Ideally we need somewhere open enough that they have to approach us over open ground but with enough cover at one end that we might be able to hide our exact numbers. If we can funnel them towards somewhere we can fortify all the better." Most of the people in the room were nodding but Edward was still glaring.

Harry felt like rolling his eyes but unfortunately he found himself commiserating. He did understand where Edward was coming from, he just wanted the person he loved to be safe.

The guy could be less sulky about it though.

"We should get together for some training session. See if we can work out some strategies to work together."

More nods.

More glares.

"I'll come up with some exit strategies and medical options."

Esme looked happy at that but it was apparently a step too far for Edward.

"And who exactly put you in charge?"

Harry had already reached his sigh quota for this evening so he just ground his teeth. "Happy to hear any suggestions Edward."

Edward looked towards Carlisle and his eyes turned beseeching. "We don't even know this man."

Carlisle was calm but he looked conflicted. "Edward, Harry is helping us. He has valuable experience-"

"So he says."

That deserved another eye roll but he was reaching his quota on that as well.

Bill chuckled and Edward switched to glaring at him.

The rest of the room was quiet. This time Jake looked like he wanted to get popcorn, Embry somehow already had popcorn, Bill was going to end up with a fan club at this rate.

"With all the supernatural stuff I forgot that you guys are muggles! You have no idea who Harry is." Bill laughed a bit louder, "Oh George would love this."

"Which is exactly why you will not tell him where I live."

Bill gave him a sly wink and Harry glared back.

"Bill."

"Did you know that Harry headed up an army aged 15?"

Well. That was overstating it a little bit. DA was a motley crew of 28 other teenagers, hardly an army.

"Or that he fought a 80ft long Basilisk when he when he was 12?"

And it had only been luck and a phoenix with an incredible sense of timing that meant he survived.

"Bill."

"Ooo, or that he once out flew a dragon, stole hostages from mermaids and escaped a terrorist all in one terribly designed school competition?"

He had made it through that whole deal because of meddling death eater.

"Bill."

"Or that he literally the most famous wizard alive?"

Unfortunately he couldn't argue with that one.

Harry buried his head in his hands. "Bill." He groaned.

Bill seemed to take the disbelieving looks personally.

"The top selling book in the wizarding world last year was the 17th unofficial biography of Harry Potter." He was counting things of on his fingers. He had so many fingers, dammit. "Hundreds of wixen children get named Harry every year and someone once tried to sell me some of his hair."

Harry looked up horrified.

"Don't worry it wasn't genuine."

Harry wasn't sure that was better. He wasn't sure he wanted to know that there was illicit market for his hair that was big enough for fakes to be circulating. That was something else to have nightmares about, seeing 6 other versions of himself had been overwhelming the one time it happened. He really didn't need to experience that again.

The rest of the room was staring at him, Jasper was looking at him with a single raised eyebrow and Harry's face was approaching maximum redness.

"Bill. I am going to murder you."

Jasper was trying really hard not to join his family in gaping openly at Harry. Part of Jasper wanted to dismiss what Bill was saying as a dramatic prank but the pride on Bill's face and the embarrassed horror on Harry's were telling him that all of this was true.

Jasper hadn't even known Dragons were real a week ago and now he could stop picturing Harry fleeing a giant, fire breathing lizard.

His mate Harry, very breakable, very flammable Harry.

He was really trying to focus on what was happening in the room, aware that he would need to contribute.

But all he could think about was Harry dying.

He felt a nudge against his side and glanced over to Alice who was looking at him sympathetically. "I don't see much of Harry but I see a lot of you." She murmured. Harry had finally managed to silence Bill by hissing something at him, Bill's mouth had snapped shut and he was now trying to write things in the air with his wand. Something Harry appeared to be trying to stop by strangling him. "And when I see you, you're happy."

Jasper's heart swelled. It wasn't the guarantee he craved, but it was something.

"Thank you Alice," He murmured.

It was something.

Harry and Bill appeared to have come to some form of agreement because both of their wands were away and Bill was rubbing his jaw ruefully.

Harry still had a pretty flush high on his cheeks as he went back to trying to ignore the way most of the room was still staring at him.

Jasper glanced outside, they still had a couple of hours of light yet. Jasper cleared his throat to get everyone's attention and nodded to outside. "We have time for a first lesson on fighting newborns if everyone wants to get started straight away."

The wolves were eager at least, the rest of Jasper's family was less so. Edward was staring at Harry with an unreadable expression. The rest of the family's emotions had become muffled since Harry gave them those rings and Jasper had been enjoying the break from constant input.

Edward's emotions were still as clear to him as ever and it was clear that he was reevaluating. Jasper rolled his eyes, anyone could see that there was something special about Harry. His brother had clearly vastly underestimated Jasper's mate and unlike the rest of his family, who were delighted anytime Harry surprised them, Edward seemed to take it personally.

Jasper mused, maybe Edward just wasn't used to surprises. He was so used to knowing everything about everyone around him.

Bella was the first person whose mind he couldn't read and she had been willing to share her thoughts, answer questions and ultimately, well, Bella was quite a simple person. Not hard to read even without a supernatural advantage.

But Harry just kept surprising them all, and it was just as much of a shock for Edward as it was everyone else.

Once they were all arranged outside Jasper stepped up next to Harry. "How do you want to do this?"

Harry smiled at him briefly before he looked around at the group, some of the wolves were pushing and shoving at each other but the rest were all focused and ready.

"Let's start with a quick overview of newborns, strengths and weaknesses and then we can go through some strategies for close combat. Actual battle strategy will have to wait until we've chosen our battlefield." Harry nodded to him and Jasper was trying not to show how pleased he was that Harry was willing to rely on him here.

Or how attractive he found Harry taking charge.

From the teasing light in Harry's eyes he had a feeling he wasn't hiding it very well.

Jasper turned back to the group and cleared his throat again, more out of nerves this time, he already had everyone's attention.

"The two most important things you'll need to remember are, first, don't let them get their arms around you because they will crush you and, second, don't go for the obvious kill. That's all they'll be prepared for. As long as you come at them from the sides, or back, or top, and keep moving, they'll be too confused to respond."

Harry watched Jasper lead the session, he was concise and informative quickly running down the specific strengths and weaknesses and identifying where that might play to their advantage.

He used Emmett to demonstrate a typical newborn charge and even Harry was surprised by how quickly the big revenant could move. And even more surprised when Jasper effortlessly skipped out of the way, twisting his body quickly and easily to avoid Emmett's attacks. "They will always go for the front on attack, they are incapable of subtlety when in the heat of battle. You need to keep out of their way until you're ready to disable them."

There was a blur of bodies and Emmett was suddenly held still, Jasper had him from behind, his teeth inches from the larger revenant's throat.

Harry flushed. Jasper was very good.

"I want each of the wolves to pair off with a vampire, the aim is to keep out of reach for a long as possible." Jasper glanced at his family, "Straight up charges only. We'll do more complicated drills later."

There were 2 more wolves than there were revenants so Jasper set them to rotate, leaving himself free so he could walk around and give individual feedback.

The wolves grumbled to themselves as they shucked their clothing and transformed. Esme collected up all their clothing and zipped quickly into the house and Harry had a feeling the wolves would be getting them back freshly laundered.

Harry, Bella and Bill made themselves comfortable on the outskirts, tucking into some of the spread from inside as they watched the flurry of violent movement.

After the first thunderous cracking sound echoed around the forest when Paul and Emmett collided Harry erected a hasty silencing spell and set some alarms to monitor anyone else approaching the area.

"A newborn will always go for the bite attack first but they will crush you to death if they catch you. Your number one priority is to keep out of their reach. Focus on that before you even think about how you're going to make your own attacks." Jasper called out to the wolves after a couple of them were caught trying to sneak through to get a hit in on their sparring partners.

When Jasper told off Jake for going into an attack and getting caught Harry and Bill nodded in agreement. When Bella just looked confused Harry explained. "We are going in with even numbers, we will be doing everything we can to increase our odds but our overall aim isn't only to win or even to kill the other side."

The confusion wasn't lifting. "This isn't an army, and these aren't soldiers." He gestured at the fighting. One of the new wolves glared at him but Harry glared back. "This is a group of friends and family and there is no amount of acceptable sacrifice. We want to win with no casualties if we can and being more defensive in our attacking style means that we are more likely to succeed in keeping everyone alive or at least any casualties to a minimum."

Bella finally nodded and looked back at the fighting, a slick of tension leaving her shoulders.

The sun started to set a couple of hours later and Esme brought the wolves clothes back out, a couple of the wolves sneered and sniffed them suspiciously but most of them were grateful. Even more grateful when Esme offered to cook dinner.

They piled back into the Cullen's living room, collapsing in various heaps. There had been a couple of accidents so Harry healed up what wasn't already healed by their stupidly quick healing factor. Jake was grinning at Emmett when the revenant came over to get the crack in his shoulder healed. Emmett seemed more impressed then upset that the wolf had managed to get a hit in.

"Lucky hit."

"Lucky escape for you, you mean." Jake high-fived Embry as Emmett grumbled good-naturedly.

"Yeah whatever, wanna play smash bros?"

Harry drifted through to the kitchen to help Esme pull together a couple of vats of chilli, he used a couple of magic tricks to get them some freshly baked bread which earned him a brilliant smile.

Later, settled down next to Jasper, scraping up the last of his 3rd helping of chilli Harry felt calmer than he had in years.

War was coming, or at least a battle. Maybe more of a skirmish.

Something was coming in any case.

But here he was, sat with family and friends. Family and friends who were miraculously getting on.

By the sounds of it, Seth and Leah were thrashing everyone in the impromptu Smash tournament and Emmett was moaning like it was the end of the world. Bill was still trying to work out how the controller worked but Embry was at least trying to help.

If you counted yelling at him to mash A as help.

Alice was taking advantage of her wolf-shaped blind spot to practice playing chess without being able to use her gift and was losing admirably to Sam.

Jared was begging Esme for more chilli.

And Jasper was curled up next to him.

The next week passed in a blur, between school and training session even the sleepless revenants were looking a bit worse for wear.

Alice was keeping a firm eye on the newborns, now she had a grasp of their general numbers, and their timeline was holding steady. She was still working around the unsettling gaps that the wolves left her.

Harry only realised mid-week that she was having the same issues seeing him and he ruefully told her about his anti-scrying protections. Now Bill was there, telling everyone stories about Harry and his fame, no one questioned his need for anti-scrying protection.

Or at least they stopped after Kreacher brought him his post. Which he made sure to do dramatically and publicly.

"Kreacher!" Harry groaned, gazing at elephant-sized mound of envelopes and packages that Kreacher had just summoned to their training session. "Why on earth would you bring them here?"

Kreacher just sniffed at him, the batty bastard. "Master will leave his post unanswered forever if Kreacher gives it to him at home."

Harry dropped his head into his hands and groaned again. "I thought you were meant to follow my instructions."

Kreacher bowed to him with a sarcastic little twirl. "But Master asked Kreacher to listen to Mrs Blood Traitor and she said to make sure you got your letters."

"From her. Kreacher, my letters from her."

"It's not Kreacher's fault the filthy blood traitors don't give clear orders."

"Kreacher, take them-"

But the bloody elf was already gone leaving Harry with a mound of post and so many questions.

Maybe he needed an anti-house elf ward. Problem was those were usually designed to keep out other people's House elves and Kreacher's bond with him meant Kreacher could get through any ward he was keyed into.

Which was usually convenient but this time it was the worst.

Sirius had said that Kreacher had been their House Elf since his mother was a child so Harry probably had at least another 70 years of his particular brand of malicious care.

Despite how deeply painful Kreacher was determined to make everything Harry found that he wasn't looking forward to being free of the elf.

He had a habit of growing attached to house elves even when they were trying to maim or grievously injure him so he supposed he was resigned to it at this point.

After Bill prevented him from setting the whole pile on fire they settled down in the middle of the Cullen's living room to go through the pile and remove any curses. Checking the contents for anything malicious.

After realising how much of Harry's fan mail (as Bill kept describing it) was cursed (or more frequently love potioned) Alice was quick to reassure Harry that he should never take his scrying protection down. For her or anyone else.

It did raise some interesting questions about the nature of revenant gifts. Alice, Edward and to some extent Jasper could all be blocked by magical means.

Harry added it to his list of research topics.

Victoria appeared to have the same sense of drama as most villains. She was planning on unleashing her army on them at Halloween.

Nothing good ever happened to Harry on Halloween and as soon as Alice told the date his mood took a nose dive. Harry could feel the low level tension that always lingered around him this time of year rising.

They found their battlefield, a clearing far enough from Forks that they wouldn't disturb anyone. It was in the foothills of the mountains and one side was protected by a sharp cliff, not high enough to kill a revenant if they fell (if any cliff was high enough for that) but high enough to be inconvenient.

They moved their practice sessions there and Harry set Bella to doing as much frolicking as she could manage in the current weather. By the time Halloween rolled around the whole field would be full of her scent.

According to Jasper it would send the newborns insane.

Any advantage they could get.

Which was why they were currently setting up traps. A combination of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, rune reinforced chains and a small wardstone were all Bill and Harry needed to create some traps with stopping power.

When Emmett, the usual guinea pig, stepped forward to test it he was immediately disoriented by the complete lack of visuals and when the darkness cleared he was trussed up with no chance of escape.

Which is when Jake tried to taunt him and Jasper pushed him into the second trap.

So with a grinning Jasper and two pissed off but completely stationary supernatural creatures Harry was ready to propose his plan.

The whole group was staring at him blankly.

Jake was the first to recover.

"So you don't want to kill them?"

"Not if we can avoid it."

That seemed to stump him.

"How does this draught of living death stuff work?" Sam asked.

Harry glanced at Bill who just shrugged at him.

"It's a potion that sends someone into an endless coma. You don't come out of it naturally, you need the antidote to awaken." When the wolves continued to look at him blankly Harry continued. "Think Sleeping Beauty, instead of a kiss you need Wiggenweld potion. Nothing else works."

"And this works on the vamps?" Jake questioned.

Harry glanced at Jasper who smiled at him encouragingly. "Yes, we tested it on Jasper earlier on this week."

"And how exactly are we meant to get the vampires to drink it?"

Harry gestured to the traps. "I have vials of the stuff made up already." And hadn't that been an unpleasant process, he had gotten substantially better at potions over the years but he still didn't enjoy it. Amazing what an overgrown dungeon bat can do to your enthusiasm for a subject. "If you see an opportunity throw one in a mouth you can do so but I figure it would be easier to feed to subdued vampires."

Some of the wolves were nodding, all was not lost.

Embry raised his hand and Quil punched him. "We're not in school, you idiot."

"I'm just being polite."

"You don't know how to be polite. You're just being an idiot."

"Shut up."

"No you-"

Harry cleared his throat. "Yes Embry?" He quirked an eyebrow at his friend who was still glaring at Quil. Quil who was sticking his tongue out. "Embry?"

"Er, yeah." He paused. "Why aren't we killing the vampires?"

Harry looked at him blankly and then looked back at the rest of the blank faces. Oh. Oh.

"They're people." Harry explained. "Not just vampires or revenants or whatever we want to call them." The whole revenant thing really hadn't caught on with the wolves, they were too attached to their Dracula references.

Embry glanced cautiously at the Cullens. "But they are vampires? And haven't they been murdering people? And they're coming to attack Bella?"

Harry nodded. All true. A lot of people were nodding.

"They are also mostly teenagers." Jasper said quietly. "Homeless kids who no one would miss. Sure some of them might have chosen this but we don't know what they were told to get them here."

"They are coming here to kill us." Sam voice was firm but not accusing, it was more of a question than a statement.

Harry was ready to speak but Jasper got there first.

"I was a soldier on the wrong side of a war once."

Harry choked. That hadn't been what he expected. He hadn't expected Jasper to share this with anyone.

Harry stared at him, he felt like anyone who looked at him now would see all of his feelings for Jasper on his face. Luckily everyone was staring at Jasper.

Except Jasper.

Jasper was staring back at Harry.

In that moment all Harry wanted to do was kiss him. He looked so broken. It was one thing to argue for mercy, it was another thing to bare your worst moments in the hopes of saving strangers.

"My friends and family fought in war because they were told to, they got hurt and killed so I went to war and I hurt and killed in turn. I killed for a cause I knew very little about because I was told it was just. That we were just defending ourselves. That this war was the cost of being free." Jasper laughed bitterly. "History had proved that wrong in so many ways, I was on the wrong side. I was on the wrong side and I had no idea."

Jasper gestured at the traps. "If we need to kill them to be safe I will do it in a heartbeat. But if we can offer a chance at something else I would take it if I can."

The clearing was quiet, the sound of eerie birdsong echoing off the cliff face.

Esme was looking at Jasper so proudly that Harry had to look away, blinking away tears.

Sam glanced at Jared before looking over to Jake.

Jake blinked back for a moment nonplussed but under Sam's continued attention his face settled into something serious.

He looked at Jasper for a long moment and then he looked at Harry.

Jake nodded.

"Okay, if we do this we need to step up training."