Harry was going to get through this mostly by not thinking about it. Whenever he thought about the battle tomorrow he felt the overwhelming need to just tuck everyone into his cabin, lock the doors and keep them safe.

Maybe put on a Star Wars marathon and feed them all pizza.

Which would be a terrible choice.

Obviously.

Apparently Star Wars was a bit of a mixed bag.

And Jake would break out somehow anyway.

The whole group had gathered at the cabin after a day to themselves and between Esme and Harry they had made sure that everyone had something to eat.

Even the revenants had some new blood to try, Harry had picked up some Graphorn blood which was apparently delicious.

Snow had come down heavily the night before and it had blanketed Harry's cabin and the surrounding woods in a layer of sparkling white. There had been a couple of frosts and flurries in the last couple of weeks but this was the first snow to settle.

Crookshanks was sulking but Harry had spent the day wandering through his woods with Jasper, marvelling at the transformation of the familiar forest into something that felt more than magical.

"The first snow I ever saw was my first Christmas with the Cullens." Jasper murmured, eyes fixed on the glimmering blanket that covered everything in sight. "Snow always makes me feel welcome now. I barely remember the warmer winters in the south."

The clouds had broken, soft bright light dappling through the trees. And Jasper sparkled.

Harry caught his breath.

It was beautiful. He was beautiful.

Jasper looked back at him and Harry just smiled and kissed him. His mate.

The walk through the snow lulled him into serenity. The occasional flash of colour in the undergrowth and the distant sound of birdsong was the only sign they weren't alone.

The day passed too quickly and the calm joy he'd found with Jasper didn't linger. Too soon, Harry was back in his cabin and surrounded by people who could die tomorrow.

Harry sighed, he was going to have to get over this overwhelming need to hide people from danger. He had been perfectly happy swanning into a Basilisk den with only a 12-year-old Ron and a brain dead teacher as back up.

That had gone terribly and had almost resulted in all of them dying but in the end they had all been fine. Well, not so much Lockhart, but Harry very much did not feel bad about that.

He had submitted his memories of the incident to the ministry after the war so at least the rest of Lockhart's victims had gotten their recognition. Late recognition and for events they had no memory of. But recognition none the less.

People had stopped talking about 'poor Lockhart's career being cut short in such a tragedy'.

It was worth the media circus purely for the fact that Mrs Weasley burnt her signed picture.

He was off topic.

They had finished going though the final battle plans, everyone had their friendship bracelets, he'd upped the wards on the cabin so nobody would be entering without a direct portkey and he'd finally caved into peer pressure and picked up a Nintendo switch to distract those that would be cabin based tomorrow.

Harry wasn't worried about Emily and Billy but Bella had a startling ability to attract trouble. Hence this whole situation in the first place.

Which had started with a baseball game?

Muggle sports were confusing but Harry was reasonably sure that they didn't usually result in a cross-country manhunt and some kind of blood feud.

Most of the time at least.

He could count on Emily's steady common sense to balance some of the chaos, Harry smiled at her across the room where she was attempting to convince Seth to eat some of the vegetables from the buffet.

Harry should probably tell her that Seth had already consumed his weight in broccoli-cookies but Seth wasn't in Harry's good books at the moment. He had cheerfully pointed out to Jasper how fragile normal human heads were and now Jasper wanted Harry to wear a protective helmet tomorrow.

Like he was a 5 year old riding a bike for the first time rather than an actual adult with experience thank you very much.

So Seth could eat all the vegetables Emily was basically force feeding him. He was just lucky that Harry was holding off the rest of his revenge for after the battle.

Jasper was lucky too, if he made one more attempt to subtly measure Harry's head he was going to be fighting tomorrow as a canary.

Emily, Billy and Bella had spent a lot of time at the cabin this week, they were the support team so Harry had run through the whole cabin showing them how to use everything. He had even run through his potions cupboard with them in case they needed to deal with any injuries.

He figured it would be a good idea for them to know which ones were pain potions and the right dosages, which potions they shouldn't mix and basic instructions on how to use the ones that might help. He had stocked up on plenty of blood replenishers and Skelegro. They needed to know when they should step in and when to just wait for him or Bill to help.

They would do their best.

If it wouldn't massively increase the risk of wizards paying far too much attention to the area he would have called in some favours and gotten some real healers in.

He trusted Bill not to say the wrong thing to someone and bring the weight of the ICW down on the revenants. The list of other people he trusted to do the same was very small. Most of his friends were terrible at keeping secrets.

And most of the favours he could cash in were with law enforcement officials and there were certain things they would just have to report.

The Cullens had already accidentally broken their treaty dozens of times and a quiet conversation with Carlisle earlier in the week had revealed just how much revenants were not prepared if the ICW decided to take an interest.

They didn't even have a way of contacting each other consistently and it was down to individual revenants to let the people they bit know about the rules.

Because that was clearly working.

No census, no intercommunication, no real justice system.

Apparently the Volturi just waited until someone did something stupidly egregious and then stomped in and killed everyone involved.

Fantastic set up for a form of government. Harry was sure the ICW would agree.

As far as he could tell from some cautious enquiries the only reason the ICW hadn't taken an interest so far was that the ICW was reasonably convinced there were maybe 50 revenants. In total. Globally.

As soon as they realised there were more than 50, substantially more, the revenant community was going to suddenly have a wizard problem.

The Cullens only had regular contact with the Denali clan over in Alaska and there was apparently a bit of rift forming there at the moment.

Something to do with one of their boyfriends trying to kill Bella and then being killed by the pack. Apparently when Carlisle had asked them for help against the newborns they had offered help only if they were allowed to eradicate the wolves in exchange.

A clearly reasonable response made by completely rational people.

Completely rational people who were the only other vampires, according to Carlisle, that didn't constantly run around murdering muggles every week. The Vegetarians.

Honestly if the ICW, or Merlin help him, MACUSA got anywhere near his little group of idiots it would be all over. The ICW had become more proactive since the whole Voldemort thing and they were very unlikely to leave it alone, especially if they realised Harry was involved.

And if they found out about the whole Edward attacking him thing it would be bad.

Which they would because it was Harry and of course they would and then Harry would have to send Edward into hiding to protect him from overenthusiastic law enforcement.

Whilst also trying to stop the ICW from just deciding to eradicate all revenants.

Harry wanted to keep that can of worms firmly closed.

For now.

Anyway, he had better things to think about. Like the package that had arrived this morning. He was going to ignore all of future Harry's problems and focus on anything else.

"Emily!" He called out gesturing the exasperated woman over. She had finally given up on Seth and was now scooping salad on to Colin and Brady's plates. The two 13-year-old wolves looked deeply relieved when Emily looked away and quickly grabbed their plates and headed back towards the new gaming set up as soon as she was properly distracted.

They did eat some of the salad though.

Emily made her way over, the last couple of weeks of forced proximity had meant that Emily had become a little bit more comfortable around Harry but she still looked like she didn't know what to make of him.

Harry wasn't offended, sometimes Harry didn't know what to make of Harry.

He smiled at her and proffered a small jar. "Sorry this took so long, I was always a middling potions student and this one has some quite volatile ingredients in it that I promised Bill's mum years ago I would stop trying to use. An incident in 2014 left me without hair for 6 months and she yelled at me." Emily smiled slightly but made no attempt to interrupt. "Did you know how incredibly annoying it is not to have eyebrows? I looked surprised for months and eyebrows are shockingly necessary to keep a surprising amount of stuff out of your eyes."

Emily laughed lightly and Harry caught Sam looking over with a besotted expression on his face. Cute.

"In any case, this is for you." Emily looked confused but took the jar from him when he offered it.

She was too polite. Never just accept something unknown from a marauder.

He hadn't done anything to this one, but clearly he was slacking on the pranks if people were trusting him this much.

"Oh, um." Emilly looked back at the jar. "Thanks?"

She would have to learn to be more careful if she wanted to keep her current hair colour in the future.

But for now Harry was far too excited.

Emily was just staring at the jar.

"You just need to apply it to your face."

"Right." She seemed even less sure. And still wasn't opening the jar.

Harry frowned, and glanced over at Jasper who was making a winding motion with his hand. He frowned at him until Jasper mouthed "Keep Talking."

Oh, OH! Right he hadn't given any context here. No wonder she was confused. "Ah, this is something I ordered just before the treaty negotiations it took some time to get here and honestly I forgot about it until it arrived this morning."

Emily was still looking at him blankly and Harry was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he had never actually mentioned this to Emily.

He was suddenly realising that he hadn't actually asked Emily if she wanted any help with her scars. He could feel his face reddening as he stumbled into this somehow completely unexpected conversational quagmire.

Well, shit.

"I'm really sorry I should have asked before I ordered it." He rubbed his face. Emily might be perfectly fine with her scars, the way Bill was with his but she also might be mortified if he even brought it up. And Harry didn't know because Harry was an idiot and had gotten so excited at the thought of helping that he had forgotten to even ask if she wanted help in the first place.

He was idiot.

More of an idiot than usual.

Welp.

"IboughtyousomemagicalscarreductioncreambecauseIthoughtyoumightlikeiteventhoughIjustrealisedIneveractuallyaskedifyouwantedtoreduceyourscarsandyoudon'thavetotheyareperfectlyfineobviouslyonlyIusedtohaveareallyobviousscarandIhatedthewaypeoplelookedatitandnowIamreallysorryI'veoffended-"

"Harry"

Oh thank fuck she was still smiling.

"Harry, it's fine. Thank you." Emily looked down at the jar and for a moment her smile wavered but when she looked back up her jaw was set and her mouth was firm. "Would you help me apply it?"

Harry grinned back her, the relief probably making it slightly more manic that usual. "Of course."

They both ducked into the hallway bathroom that had appeared that morning, Harry assumed that Kreacher got sick of the wolves always using his or Bill's en suite and had taken steps.

Kreacher had a lot of opinions on guests being in bedrooms and by the time the elf was finished Harry would probably end up with a whole additional wing added to his house just to keep nosy wolves out of his pants drawer.

He would have to make sure than any future muggle visitors wouldn't question the floor plan too much, maybe add some external extensions so it didn't feel so unlikely that he now had 3 guest rooms.

He eyed a dresser that he was reasonably sure had once occupied an upstairs bathroom in Grimmauld Place, he was going to have to do a curse sweep when all this was over. He definitely didn't trust Kreacher not to sneak some cursed items in here or there just to terrorise some house guests. Kreacher had a weird sense of humour.

Emily handed Harry the jar. He popped it open and scooped a small amount on to his fingers.

He scooted up on to the dresser, Emily was another one of those infernally tall people but Harry was more willing to forgive her because she was so nice.

"It should only take a couple of applications, it worked a treat on some of my old scars and some of those were curse scars so these ones should react well." She just smiled shyly and turned her face up to the light so he could get a clear view.

"It will probably tingle a bit as it dries and when it stops tingling we can wash it off and then just reapply in a couple of days." Harry got a close look at Emily's face as she closed her eyes.

They really weren't that bad, there were three parallel lines running down her face, they cracked and split like lightening but Sam had done a remarkable job at avoiding her actual facial features.

He probably wouldn't say that to Sam, he understood that it was a sensitive subject. Harry had seen animal attacks before, they didn't tend to avoid the vital bits the way Sam had.

Her right eye and the corner of her lip were slightly pulled by the scarring but Harry had certainly seen far worse. Had had far worse at various points. Her ear, hidden under her hair was slightly mangled but Harry was optimistic as he spread the cream over her skin.

She gasped when it first started to work and Harry, familiar with the way it could start to itch, quickly distracted her with absentminded prattle.

Emily taught traditional weaving and crafting at some of the local schools and was happy to share stories about some of the more interesting things her students had created.

In return Harry entertained her with stories of some of his failed creations over the years.

Harry had made a lot of false starts when it came to house building over the years, it was a surprisingly in demand skill when you spent 20 years chasing after dark wizards. The clean up almost always ended up with Harry building houses.

The first couple of dozen had been terrible. When he finally got the hang of it, and actually picked up some wixen construction books, he felt so bad for the recipients of his first attempts that he went back and rebuilt them.

"Over half of the house's doorways had shrunk to the point that everyone had to crawl into the bathroom just because I'd applied an expansion charm wrong. They were trying so hard not to complain, constantly exclaiming that I had been so nice to build them a house. And really they didn't mind the ominous creaking coming from the roof and the weird sinkhole in the living room was just part of the furniture now." Harry exclaimed, describing his frantic rush back to Japan to reconstruct some houses he'd put up in a Japanese village that had been almost completely destroyed by an end of days cult that had taken over in the early 2000's. "I had to tell them it was a matter of my personal honour before they'd let me fix anything."

When Emily laughed it brightened her whole face to a blinding level and Harry couldn't help but grin back at her as she giggled. "Higher stakes than some of my baskets collapsing at school!"

"I don't know!" Harry protested, "Some of your students sound deranged. A purple and orange basket the size of bath sounds pretty horrifying to me." Harry grinned down at her, noticing some of the cream was beginning to flake. "Has the cream stopped tingling?"

Emily nodded so Harry handed her a face cloth. It only took a couple of passes with the cloth for Harry to be able see the skin underneath and what he saw brought a smile to his face.

Emily pressed the flannel against her face for a long moment, breathing deeply, before she looked up at Harry. "How does it look?"

Harry nodded towards the mirror behind her and smiled at her in the reflection when she turned. Her face went completely slack with shock as she took in her face in the mirror, touching lightly over the remaining scar tissue.

The scars had faded from an angry red to a light silver, they still stood out brightly against her copper coloured skin but the surface of the scarring was smooth. Any stretching at her eye and lips had disappeared leaving her face even as it curved up into another bright smile. "Harry." She gasped.

Harry grinned at her happily, he was going to order more of this stuff as a just in case. He'd given up on his own scars a long time ago and had stopped stocking it. "If you want you can do another treatment in a couple of days, it will reduce the visibility further. I think you look wonderful either way."

Harry handed her the jar as he hopped off the dresser, and nodded towards the door. "I would leave you alone but I know there is someone out there who is probably very excited to see you."

Emily rushed for the door before Harry could say another word which meant Harry was in the perfect position to see Sam's face when he saw her.

Happy. Incandescently happy.

But also relieved.

The reminder of the hurt he'd caused his mate was still there but it was definitely easier to look past now. Especially when she smiled like that.

Nothing worse than guilt to sour any relationship, Harry was happy that this might make things easier.

The whole cabin cheered and Jake was quick to hand out drinks to raise in congratulations, even Leah looked happy for Emily which from Harry's understanding of that history was more than a little miraculous.

He was here with his new family and today was a good day. He wasn't even going to question how Jake had managed to break into his butterbeer stash.

Or when Embry had started wearing one of his old leather jackets.

Or where Emmett and Quil had got a packet of tontongue toffees.

Questions could wait for tomorrow.

Everything could wait for tomorrow.

Jasper wondered if he could get away with locking Jacob in a cupboard somewhere. The wolf's pacing was driving him insane and they had a long while to wait yet. The crunch of the snow under Jacob's feet was going to be the soundtrack as Jasper finally lost his mind and murdered his mate's cousin.

Alice was sat cross legged in the middle of the clearing concentrating on any changes to the day ahead, her visions had become more blurred and confused with the wolves around so she was grasping at anything she could wring from the brief flashes she was getting.

Bella was getting in some last minute scenting, walking the treeline with Edward and occasionally rubbing her shoulder against the bark.

Harry had managed to convince her to do some 'frolicking', as he described it, in the middle of the clearing already and Edward and Alice had taken a collection of Bella's clothes and rubbed them on trees on the most likely routes the newborns would take through the forest.

It had been Harry's suggestion to brush her blood on some of the trees on route and Bella had happily donated a couple of vials that morning over a scowling Edward's objections.

The routes they'd chosen wound from every direction but gave a very comfortable gap between incoming newborns and populated parts of Forks. Billy had convinced Charlie to head to a convention with some of their other fishing buddies and the newborns would have to run past them completely to get to the Quileute tribal lands.

Alice hadn't seen any deaths in the general population, focusing on the futures of some of the staff at the hospital was easy with the wolf population concentrated in the clearing, and there was no increased intake to hospitals or reported deaths. So far at least.

Jasper could feel the anxiety pouring off his sister, every time a new vision hit panic would briefly spike and Jasper desperately wanted to know what she was seeing.

Edward was oscillating wildly between rage and concern.

Emmett was excited. Rosalie was bored.

Jacob was driving him mad.

The wolf had stayed over at Harry's last night with Billy in one of the increasing number of guest bedrooms Kreacher kept adding to the cabin.

Guest bedrooms that Jasper wasn't allowed in.

Jasper had been kicked out of the cabin at midnight with the rest of his family and Jasper was getting ready to kick the tiny little gremlin Harry called Kreacher into next week.

The annoying little elf kept calling him 'Harry's biggest mistake' whenever Harry wasn't listening.

And he had hidden all the blood pops.

Jasper was almost 200 years old, it shouldn't be this easy to make him angry. Frustratingly telling himself that wasn't making him less angry. Jasper was attempting to project calm at himself and it really wasn't working.

And then Jacob had turned up to the clearing smelling like Harry, with his arm wrapped around Harry, wearing one of Harry's favourite jackets and Jasper felt like he might explode.

He was aware he was being ridiculous. Jacob was Harry's cousin. Jacob was one of Harry's best friends. Jacob was possibly the straightest person Jasper had ever met.

Jasper would throw Jacob through that tree if he didn't stop pacing soon. The constant movement was driving his anxious brain into overdrive and Jasper just wanted to punch something.

He was actively hoping that the newborns turned up soon just so he could punch something with minimal consequences. Punch a newborn, instead of his mate's cousin.

A newborn who hadn't picked this, didn't know what they were doing and had probably been fed a pack of lies before being sent off to die for someone else's grudge.

Goddamn it he just want to punch something that wasn't going to make him feel terrible about it afterwards.

Maybe Emmett would volunteer.

Before he exploded hopefully.

And then he felt a hand in his. It felt like a plug had been pulled and all the anxiety was draining out of him.

He sighed in relief and smiled down at Harry who was just looking at him with a single raised eyebrow.

"I don't like waiting." Jasper muttered.

Harry laughed. "Yeah, no shit."

"And your house elf hates me."

"My house elf hates everyone."

"Your cousin smells like you and I'm jealous."

That got another laugh from Harry as well as a disgusted snort from Jacob. "Well I can fix that."

Harry wrapped Jasper in a hug, pulling him down until Jasper could bury his face into Harry's neck.

He had the best mate.

Rosalie and Emmett should be jealous because Jasper had the best mate.

Jasper stayed wrapped in that cocoon of warmth and Harry for as long as he could. Listening absently to the muttered conversations around them with one ear, the other one focused entirely on Harry's heartbeat.

Jasper was counting moments in Harry's breaths so he was slightly taken aback when Alice suddenly rose from her reverie with a startled gasp and spoke quickly into the quiet of the clearing. "It's time. They'll be here soon."

Harry held him tighter for a moment before reluctantly letting Jasper go. Feeling Harry's warmth leaving him felt physically painful, after this he was going to steal Harry for a week, no interruptions.

He pressed a heavy kiss against Harry's lips, Harry's temple, Harry's hands.

Harry went on tip toes to brush a last kiss against Jasper's lips before he pulled away entirely and walked towards the middle of the clearing.

He didn't even have to summon people's attention, the whole group were already quietly waiting for him to speak.

Jasper was going to need to ignore how attractive he found it when Harry took charge because it had the potential to be very distracting.

"Right, everyone knows their places. This is what we've worked for, what we've practised for and we are going to get through this together." Harry's voice was calm and commanding and everyone in the clearing was listening attentively. "The important thing to remember is that I value each and every one of your lives above any number of the incoming army. If you need to kill, kill. Your top priority is to survive. Survive and we win." He made eye contact with each of them and Jasper could feel determination rising in the group. "Remember your portkeys, watch out for each other and try not to get hit by any spell fire."

With that Harry smiled briefly, glancing back towards Jacob. "And try to avoid any traps if you can. You should know where they are by now." That got a few laughs and a dramatic groan from Jacob.

Harry winked at him before his eyes narrowed again and he glared out at the woods. "We make it through today. No matter what we make it through today."

He nodded firmly.

And then he disapparated with a quiet crack.

Jasper did not even consider running after him, couldn't run after him, he was beyond the wards now. Maybe it was a good thing that now the wards were up the only way any of them were leaving the clearing was via portkey.

Meaning Jasper could stop planning mental routes to get to Harry and make sure he was being safe.

Could probably stop staring wistfully over at the woods too.

Probably.

Rosalie was smirking at him.

Jasper was perfectly aware he was being ridiculous.

The wolves disappeared briefly into the tent Harry had set up under the cliff for the wolves to shuck their clothes.

Jacob had scoffed at the idea that they needed privacy, until he realised that the tiny two man tent was somehow the size of penthouse apartment. "It's bigger on the inside." Embry muttered when Harry first set up the tent with a flick of his wand and Jasper had mentally added Doctor Who to his 'watch with Harry list' when Harry's response had been a confused look.

Teenagers went in and giant wolves emerged, quickly shuffling off into the woods to hide along the treeline. Jasper did a quick scan to see if he could pick any of them out. A quick whisper had Quil tucking his tail in but otherwise the wolves were invisible.

Jasper stood ready with the rest of his family on the far edge of the clearing. Bella stood stiff at the back, her breath misting in front of her in quick pants but her expression was stoic.

And then he heard the first rapid footsteps echoing over the icy lake half a mile away, sound travelling clean and crisp through the cold air, and Jasper felt himself fall into a familiar calm.

He couldn't make a clear estimate based on footsteps at this distance but it certainly sounded like more than twenty. He glanced at Edward who was concentrating as he counted minds.

Edward grimaced. "There are 35 of them."

That was terrible news.

But ultimately it didn't change anything.

He nodded grimly at the rest of this family and focused back on the trees.

He had always been calm before battle, even as a human. The few times he'd fought, before he'd been turned, in the minutes before the battle he was filled with an icy calm. It was the reason he'd been chosen to lead, the youngest major in his division. People found his presence calming even in the middle of all that violence and pointless death.

And then he'd been a vampire, leading his own newborn army and his calmness had been honed into a weapon.

And now he'd use it to defend his family.

When the first of the newborns broke the treeline sprinting for them his family held still, resisting the urge to meet the charge.

They held and they waited.

Jasper could see when the scent hit. The newborns focused in on Bella and their eyes went wild and flat. The combination of seeing Bella, hearing her breath and the sound of blood pumping and rushing through her veins. A small vial of her own blood open and clutched in her clumsy hands.

A month ago Jasper would have been hanging onto his control by a thread. Now his whole family could barely notice the scent, too focused on the battle ahead.

No such luck for the newborns who screamed and growled running straight for the edge of the clearing where Bella was stood.

There were so many of them.

Bella froze for only a second before she yelled "Kerfuffle."

And promptly disappeared in a spinning vortex of colour.

This sent the newborns into a frantic scatter, suddenly without direction and with her scent surrounding them in a confusion of different trails they ran in different directions, their charge broken.

And that's when they hit the traps.

Harry, poised somewhere back in the woods, had been waiting until they were close to the middle of the clearing and as soon as Bella disappeared he sent a pulse of magic through the ward stones arming them immediately.

It became immediately obvious that the traps were live when three of the newborns who had paused their runs to sniff cautiously at the air were swallowed in a flurry of chains. That caused more panic and in the confusion four more revenants were caught and forced completely stationary by Harry and Bill's traps.

Step 1 done.

On to step 2.

The wolves attacked, jumping out of the woods in carefully planned synchrony causing the newborns who were still charging to falter and hesitate. Four more were driven back into waiting traps by the wolves and the rest turned to face the new threat. They charged again, disorganised now, only to be met by rapidly moving blurs of fur that leapt and dodged out of the way of their initial attacks.

Which was the only signal Alice needed to start off step 3, she set off with her super soaker. The trapped revenants were struggling to get out of their chains but all it would take is a friend to help them and any numbers advantage they had gained with the traps would be lost.

So it was time for operation Alice is a Ninja as Jacob had dubbed it, she had proved to be the most effective shot by a long way. She always hit where she aimed and her prescience, even when curtailed by the wolves' presence, gave her a massive advantage.

And she wouldn't be alone. Jasper and the rest of his family finally charged, his coiled muscles springing into action as he leapt into battle. Quickly heading towards one of the older newborns who had started to move towards one of his trapped friends.

The newborn was quick and strong, quickly turning to engage Jasper when he got close enough to grab. Jasper dodged out of the way of the bulky revenant's attempts to grab him, ducking under his fists as the creature tried to rain rapid blows down on him.

Jasper only caught one glancing blow but it was enough to send a rivulet of cracks along his shoulder. That would be delicate for a while and he would have to be careful if he wanted to keep both arms functioning for the rest of this fight.

But experience won out and when the newborn overextended into a lunging bite at Jasper's neck Jasper used his momentum against him. Now off balance, it was easy to drop the newborn into a choke hold. Keeping him stationary enough that the nearby Esme could hit him in the face with a squirt of potion and dropping him instantly.

Jasper quickly swung into his next opponent, a quick glance over the clearing was all it took to register that they were holding their own. Just about.

There were the comatose bodies of newborns scattered across the clearing, he watched Edward shove an off balance newborn into a chain trap and an auburn wolf chased a teenaged newborn directly into another.

But over half the newborn force were still up and fighting and some of the wolves were already looking worse for wear. Jasper heard the distinctive sound of a portkey as the first injured wolf was transported off. A sharp crack told him Bill had done as planned and apparated back to look after their first injury.

Jasper couldn't spare time to worry about who was injured, he had to focus on the next opponent. He waited for his opportunity to strike focusing on the lesson he'd taught each of their friends over the last couple of weeks. Defence first.

The newborn in front of him was older looking than most of the revenants, no longer a teenager, and she was slightly better trained. Willing to change direction occasionally rather than repeatedly commit to the front on charge.

But she wasn't fast enough to catch Jasper.

She growled at him in frustration and charged again, Jasper used a momentary distraction provided by Emmett bodily throwing a different newborn in their direction to dodge closer.

She flinched and Jasper pulled one of her arms off as the woman tried to claw his face. She screamed briefly before Jasper shoved a vial, glass and all into her mouth and slammed her jaw closed with a fearsome upper cut.

She briefly looked like she was about to spit glass back out at him before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell to the ground. Jasper kicked the snapped off limb back towards her comatose body and took another running leap towards one of the wolves who had just been caught.

The wet crunching sound as the newborn tightened her grip on Paul was the only impetus Jasper needed to break into a sprint.

A second newborn was closing in towards the wolf and Jasper could recognise the smell of blood in the air even if it no longer made him hungry. Jasper desperately needed to get to the first newborn before the tiny girl did any more damage to the massive wolf. Before the second newborn reached them.

A bright red light went streaming over Jasper's shoulder and hit the approaching newborn, sending the teenaged boy's legs akimbo in a way that at any other time might have been funny.

It gave Jasper enough time to dose the newborn attempting to crush the wolf and read the word emblazoned on the wolf's bracelet. Jasper yelled "Whirligig" as the second newborn approached on still unsteady legs and the wolf disappeared in another whirl of colour.

Jasper dodged away from the next newborn's charge and took a moment, whilst he was desperately getting out of the way of a different grasping arm, to appreciate his mate's way with words as well as his incredible timing.

Harry was clearly waiting for a blur to become stationary before he fired but his quick spell fire was proving to be a blessing whenever the wolves were caught.

Two newborns cornered Sam against the cliff side and Jasper used Emmett as a launching pad to get there in time to take one out, one managed to get a bite in on Jasper's hand as he thrust the next vial of potion into her mouth.

Harry took out the second one with a beam of red light and Jasper poured another potion into the unconscious boy's mouth as Sam ran past him to attack a larger guy who was trying to sneak up on Jacob.

They were getting there, Alice was moving through everyone like a wraith. Hitting newborns with potions as she dodged incoming hits.

Edward was using his rapid speed to his advantage and muttering a series of instructions under his breath to the group that kept them aware whenever a newborn changed target.

Esme and Carlisle were a well practised team and aggressively covered each other's backs but their clothes were ripped and Esme was fighting with her knee bent at an odd angle.

Emmett was barrelling through newborns as soon as they were faced away from him, keeping them unbalanced and cautious, he was even using some of the smaller teens as projectiles.

Which was confusing for everyone but seemed to be working.

Rosalie had clearly decided that non-lethal meant anything short of decapitation and was ripping off limbs at every opportunity.

If revenants actually bled this field would look like a horror film.

As it was there was too much scarlet on the snow.

The wolf pack had thinned and a quick glance around the field showed that at least four wolves were missing and the remaining wolves were tired and bleeding.

But there were only 2 newborns left upright and they seemed to almost willingly turn towards Alice in order to avoid Rosalie who was still spinning some poor man's limb in her hands like a baton.

Jasper couldn't blame them.

Jasper let out a breath as Alice finally sprayed the last revenant. The icy cold receded and Jasper let himself relax, thoughts turning to clean up.

And then he heard the double crack of someone apparating a short distance and his only thought was for Harry.

Harry was so fixated on the dregs of the fight in front of him that it took him a couple of seconds to register that the crackling sound he'd just heard was not coming from the battle in front of him.

Luckily his brain had never let not knowing something stop him from reacting.

He apparated before he had a chance to think about why he was apparating.

He reappeared with a stumble twenty metres away, still outside the wards surrounding the clearing but further up towards the cliff side.

He regained his footing and looked up to see two revenants staring down at the spot he had just occupied.

Shit, revenants outside of the ward line was terrible news.

The bright red hair of the female revenant gave Harry a clue on the identity of one of them and Harry had seen enough of the missing posters to know that the second revenant was probably Riley Biers.

The freshman from the University of Oregon that had gone missing over a year ago.

He had a mother and two older sisters who had done televised pleas for more information, rushing from their home in Santa Fe to Washington as soon as Riley went missing one night on his way home from a bar.

He liked baseball and wanted to be architect. He volunteered with a local animal shelter back in New Mexico when he was home from uni. And he'd just tried to pull Harry's heart out of his chest.

Harry's brain had just about caught up by the time he fired off his first curse, clipping Riley with an immobulus he followed up with a full body bind and followed that with a stupify as the revenant started to fall stiff legged towards the floor. Riley fell straight through the ward.

Harry apparated again, just in time, as the red headed vampire had already reached where he was stood, a blur of speed that he had no chance of hitting. He was back over by Riley and sending a stream of spell fire towards Victoria who was dodging with a speed Harry's brain was struggling to register.

He span on his heel to apparate again and just as he felt the magic catch he heard a shattering crunch.

A second later the pain registered, shuddering up his arm in an excruciating scream, as he span into the liminal space between apparition points. He stumbled back as soon as his feet hit the ground and rolled away, tucking his now useless right arm against his body, wand lost somewhere back in the snow.

Victoria had luckily released his arm when she was suddenly pulled into his apparation and whilst he may be missing a working arm Victoria had come out worse. Lingering by compacted snow he had just disapparated from was a single, marble-white leg.

The top of the stump was the unsettlingly smooth texture that Harry was starting to associate with revenants. He was certainly never going to invest in marble counter tops after this.

Counter tops were going to have to wait, because Victoria had already recovered from her first teleportation adventure.

Harry heard someone to the side screaming his name but he didn't have time to check.

Going by the cackling laugh from the demonic redhead it was someone important.

Harry instinctively raised his still broken arm to a defensive posture and gritted his teeth against the pain as he wandlessly summoned the elder wand to his other hand.

His arm was easy batted out of the way by a force that felt like a wrecking ball, another crunching sound was either more bones shattering or the ones that had already shattered grinding together. Harry couldn't restrain a pained grunt before he was left breathless.

White hot pain sliced into Harry's neck as the red coloured blur reached him and Harry was reminded that yes, in fact, there was pain a lot worse than shattered bones.

Well, shit. Only having one leg certainly didn't seem to slow her down.

Victoria dug her teeth into Harry's neck, holding his head back with one immovable hand, the other hand tight around the rest of his nape. The lance of fiery pain shattered his concentration sending all his thoughts of defending himself into pieces as his mind objected to anything being able to hurt this much.

Victoria sucked on the wound and Harry felt the pull of his blood leaving him. Distant sounds of someone frantically calling his name fading into the background as every single one of his senses narrowed on the revenant currently attempting to drain him dry.

He could feel his breath leaving him in ragged gasps and the darkness hovering on the edges of his vision told him that it wouldn't be long now. The space between breaths maybe, if he was still capable of breathing.

And then Victoria screamed, recoiling from his neck she looked at him with horror painted across her face alongside his blood. He blinked up at her blearily, she was towering over him now and Harry tried to work out when he had fallen to the ground.

The red haired revenant was a messy eater, Harry noted absently, his blood covered her front. A bright burst of colour that clashed dramatically with her hair. Blood wasn't a good look for her he decided.

He should tell her.

Before Harry could open his mouth to let her know Victoria screamed again and pressed her hands to her own throat.

Rude, he was the one who got bitten, what was she complaining about?

She scraped frantically at her own throat and Harry watched, fascinated, as her skin start to bubble and boil under her fingers.

And then she started vomiting blood.

His blood.

What a waste.

He could feel his own heart beating and he felt like that might not be a great sign.

He sighed and looked at Victoria again who was now frantically scrubbing at her own skin with handfuls of snow. She looked like she might be recovering judging by the reduction in frantic screaming.

Harry glanced over to where he could see Jasper pounding frantic fists against an invisible wall, he was chanting Harry's name. When Jasper met his eyes Harry tried to smile reassuringly but his face didn't seem to be working quite right any more.

Right.

He was dying. That made sense. It was Halloween after all, and nothing good ever happened on Halloween.

His hand twitched and he concentrated on the tip of his wand as he shakily raised it towards Victoria.

Luckily this spell didn't need much wand movement.

He jerked his wand into rough zigzag and choked out, "Avada Kedavra".

The bright green spell whipped towards Victoria hitting her squarely in the chest. Immediately all tension left her form, her limps flailing like a broken doll as she slumped to the ground. Her head hit a rock and Harry watched with a detached fascination as blood began to spread and congeal under her head, bright and jarring against the snow.

The woods were silent except for Jasper's choked sobs and Harry gazed through the barrier at him, the rest of the Cullens and some of the wolves arranged behind him.

Jacob was staring at Harry with horrified eyes and Harry had never seen him look so young. His eyes were round and disbelieving, bracketed by Embry on one side and Seth who was holding up an injured Sam on his other side.

Harry wished the wolves weren't here for this, shit like this could scar a teenager. Harry would know.

"Please, we won't hurt you, we need your help." Edward was calling out. The words felt like they were echoing through Harry's sluggish thoughts. "Please."

Harry could see a figure moving out of the corner of his eye, a teenaged girl, she couldn't be more than sixteen. Small for her age maybe.

Harry hoped she wasn't an enemy because he didn't think his hand would respond to him now.

"Please, you just need to bring him through the ward. Bring him through and I promise you'll be safe with us. Your friends are alive, just unconscious." Edward's voice was low and coaxing. "Bree, please help us."

The words fell like stones in a pool through his mind, sending ripples but leaving no meaning behind for him to hold on to.

He just focused on Edward's voice. It was nice. Calm and low. He could appreciate it now he couldn't understand what Edward was saying.

Maybe that was the trick to getting along with Edward, just ignore everything he says and focus on his calming voice.

Arms wrapped around him and Harry realised that this should probably hurt and it was probably a bad thing that it didn't.

Harry's next blink lasted longer than he wanted it to and when he next opened his eyes Jasper was crouched over him, hands pressed firmly against Harry's neck.

Harry wasn't sure that was a good idea but Jasper looked panicked enough already and Harry didn't want to make it worse by pointing out what his blood had done to Jessica or whatever her name was.

He was struggling to make out sound around the thumping of his heart in his ears but he tried to smile at Jasper.

"Don't worry love." He murmured pressing his face against Jasper's hand. "Don't worry."

"Darlin'" Jasper choked, the hand not pressed to Harry's neck traced down Harry's cheek. "Darlin', please don't go."

Harry just smiled up Jasper, he could feel his breath rattling now and he didn't have enough air left to give Jasper all the reassurances he wanted to.

He could give him something though.

He closed his eyes and dropped his occlumency shields, projecting all the love and peace that he could over to Jasper.

Behind Jasper Harry heard Edward gasp and Harry tried to roll his eyes but his body wasn't really up for moving anymore.

Jasper pulled Harry into his lap, pressing an urgent kiss against Harry's lips. Harry was mildly concerned that Jasper's lips no longer felt cold. Huh.

"I love you Harry, please don't leave me." Jasper against Harry's lips. "Please."

Harry sent another surge of affection towards Jasper.

It was time for him to go.

A familiar cold crept along his spine.

He closed his eyes.

Sound faded.

The press of Jasper's lips against his was a lovely feeling to leave on.

When opened his eyes he stared into blinding white.

HELLO MASTER