Jasper stared down at the blood on his hands, Jacob was scrubbing at it with snow, removing the blood that was already starting to burn him.

Jasper should care that his hands were stinging and raw, it was feeling he hadn't had in over a century, but his mind was blank as he stared at the forest floor.

Someone had wrapped Harry in a coat, covering the bright red wound on his neck and the mangled mess that was his arm but leaving his face clear.

His eyes were closed and his face was peaceful, for all of the violence of his death Harry looked like he could be asleep.

A single stripe of blood left by Jasper's hands and the deep pool of scarlet spread on the snow made it clear that this wasn't peace.

Jasper sobbed, he felt like his heart was cracking and breaking. He'd always thought that metaphor was melodrama but maybe melodrama was what he should have expected when his heart was literally made of stone.

Tears were running freely down Jacob's face as the teen frantically washed at Jasper's hands and in that moment Jasper would have given anything to be able to cry.

But the tears would not come and Harry was dead.

Edward was muttering something frantically to his family behind him but Jasper couldn't make out the words.

Didn't want to make out the words.

He couldn't reach Harry in time. Couldn't reach Harry at all. The wards stopped him just short, close enough to count every eyelash.

Close enough to watch Victoria's teeth break skin.

Close enough that he could hear every breath that stuttered from Harry as his life was sucked out of him.

Not close enough to help.

People were still gathered in a loose circle around where the last newborn had brought Harry back through the wards. Embry, Quil and Seth were stood in a makeshift guard around Harry's small form.

Jacob released Jasper's hands and immediately they both stumbled back over to Harry.

Jasper gently brushed his hand through Harry's hair, pushing the chaotic locks back from his forehead.

He closed his eyes, Harry's hair was so soft against his fingers but nothing about Harry should ever be this cold. This quiet. This still.

Harry had dropped his shields before he died, giving Jasper a glimpse of the blazing source of warmth that was Harry. This wildfire of fierce affection. All of this love just for Jasper. Brighter than anything Jasper had ever felt.

And then, guttered like a candle, there was nothing left.

Jasper sobbed.

But the tears would not come and Harry was dead.

Harry sat up, rubbing his hands over his face.

Maybe he if he ignored everything he could pretend this wasn't happening.

It had never worked in the past but who knew, maybe he was due some luck.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU VISITED

No of course not. Nothing in his life had every been easy, why would it start now. He kept his head down and groaned. "This is a really bad time."

DEATH WAITS FOR NO MAN

"Yes, you said that last time."

WISE WORDS BEAR REPEATING

Harry finally uncovered his eyes and noted that he was naked. He sighed heavily. "Can I have some clothes?"

OF COURSE MASTER

Harry glanced down and he was now wearing a black three piece suit. He looked back up at the skeletal figure in front of him, apparently a matching three piece suit.

Right, that was on brand.

They stared at each other silently for a moment.

"So, how've you been?"

I HAVE BEEN SATISFACTORY, I AM SATISFACTORY AND I WILL BE SATISFACTORY

Harry hummed. "Good to hear, good to hear."

Now he was dressed and had decided to actually have a conversation he felt awkward on the floor. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around the white void.

Yep. Just as white and voidy as he remembered.

He touched his neck, uncomfortable as always to find a new scar that felt decades old.

He sighed and sat on the bench that materialised next to him. "Do we have to do the whole mysterious and vague thing or can you actually tell me things this time?"

YOUR FUTURE IS YOUR OWN MASTER

His future was always his, sometimes he just wanted his future to be someone else's problem.

YOUR MAGIC IS CHANGING

And then there was that.

He'd panicked the first time but at this point it was pretty bloody obvious his magic was changing, he hadn't been this good at wandless magic twenty years ago and not all of that could be explained by practice.

And then there was the whole ward thing.

"Okay." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Does that change anything?"

NOT YET MASTER.

And that there was the reason he hated coming here.

Because there was no further information and Harry was not built for this kind of anxiety.

There weren't any books, no wise man with more information, Harry was on his own because according to Death there had been no Master of Death before him and there would be no Master of Death after him.

It was unclear if there would even be an after him, Death was a bit vague on that point.

"Right, well then." Harry made himself comfortable, no point rushing things when time didn't mean anything. He hummed and flicked some imaginary dust off his new fancy suit. "Fancy a cuppa?"

The slow return to consciousness was always more painful when he'd bled out. Something about blood returning to desiccated cells just hurt in a whole body kind of way.

He was really quite cold.

He was still struggling to work out what the sounds around him meant but he was reasonably sure he was still in the clearing.

Then a voice came through clear.

"Jasper, Jasper, listen to me." Edward's voice was low and urgent. "I don't think Harry's dead."

Urgh. Why did it have to be Edward? And why did he have to right?

Jake's voice came through clear as well, he must be close by. "Why do you keep saying that?" Close by and very angry. "Harry is dead-" His voice cracked.

Harry had really fucked up here.

There was keeping a secret because it was an important secret.

And then there was getting so used to keeping an important secret that you completely forget to tell the people you love.

Merlin, Bill was going to be so angry with him.

"I'm telling you, he dropped his shields! I could hear his thoughts! He's coming back, he-"

"Edward, stop it." Jasper's voice was hoarse and broken and Merlin, Harry hoped he never heard Jasper sound like that again. Now Harry was starting to get feeling back he could feel Jasper's tight grasp on his fingers.

He tried to twitch his hand but his motor control hadn't caught back up with his blood flow yet.

And then there was the fact that Jasper was now holding his hand hard enough that he could feel the bones starting to crack.

The nerves were coming back online now so that wasn't fun.

"Jasper-" Edward cut himself off as Harry took his first rattling breath. It was bubbly in an unpleasant way and Harry was desperate to cough but didn't have enough muscles back online yet to try.

"Was that-" Jake's urgency made his voice squeak and if Harry hadn't so firmly fucked this up he would be making a note to make fun of him for it.

"Harry." Jasper's warm hands were in his hair and Harry vaguely knew there should be something strange about that. "Harry, please."

Harry concentrated on twitching the fingers in Jasper's hand, and he took another weak breath.

He could hear the gasps of people around him but he was focused on the now trembling hand holding his.

Two more breaths and he managed a low hum.

Three more breaths and he could finally cough and the rush of oxygen as his throat cleared finally allowed him to blink open his eyes.

Jesus that was bright. He groaned and closed his eyes again.

Someone was whispering and was abruptly shushed.

He tried again and blinked open his eyes squinting past the brightness until he slowly focused on Jasper's face.

Merlin he was going to be apologising for this for the rest of his life, Jasper looked rumpled and beautiful. And so gloriously happy in an incredibly devastating way.

Jasper's blonde hair was sticking up at angles that would make a Potter proud, his eyes were dark gold and red rimmed. The was blood dried in small spots across his face and his sleeves were coated in what Harry was realising was his blood.

Someone had washed away the worst of it but Harry could still see the edges of burns on Jasper's wrists.

His mate.

After another few breaths Harry managed to push his hand up to cup Jasper's face, his hands were warming now and Jasper's face was starting to feel cool again against his palm.

"I'm so sorry." He gasped. "I should have told you."

"That you can come back from the dead?" Jake yelled from a couple of foot away. "Yeah, no fucking SHIT Sherlock. What the fuck Harry!"

Harry grimaced. "It wasn't deliberate, I honestly forgot."

Jasper sighed from above him but when Harry looked back up at his face it was full of exasperation rather than the expected fury. Jasper was smiling at him so he didn't mind that Jake was cursing a blue streak behind him.

A couple of minutes and a couple more expletive filled rants from Jake and Harry was finally sat upright again.

He looked around the clearing and found himself the focus of a lot of attention. Varying from joy, presumably that he was alive, and anger, presumably that he had died in the first place.

He smiled apologetically at the wolves, Jake and Embry rolled their eyes but Seth smiled back at least.

The Cullens looked less conflicted, he supposed they were slightly more used to the concept of continuing to live on after dying for a bit.

Even Rosalie smiled at him.

The clearing was littered with the comatose bodies of the newborn army and Harry was struck again by how lucky they were that their traps worked. They had barely managed even with the traps reducing numbers.

He glanced to his right, "Did someone dose Riley? I only got him with a stupify and a body bind."

Edward nodded, gesturing with his water gun to the still unconscious teen.

Harry looked around for the one unfamiliar face, the small teenaged girl that he vaguely remembered carrying him before he died. He groaned as he pulled himself to his feet, ignoring Jasper's attempts to keep him seated.

He reached out a hand to the new face, "Hello, thanks for your help earlier, I'm Harry."

The small girl tentatively gripped his hand lightly with just the tips of her fingers and shook. Harry could feel the pressure even from the lightest of touches from her fingertips and remembered musing months ago about how the Cullens must practice shaking hands.

Maybe they really did use fruit, judging by the girl's face it was an active effort to not crush his hand.

An effort he appreciated, Jasper had already managed quite a lot of accidental crushing.

"I'm Bree." She whispered, ducking to hide her face in her hoody.

"Lovely to meet you." Harry smiled brightly at her. "We haven't quite worked out what we're going to be able to do to help your friends yet but in the meantime we need to get them somewhere safe so we can work out our options." He glanced at the bodies strewn across the clearing and in particular eyed some of the limbs Rosalie had been enthusiastic about ripping off.

He sent a glare her way and she just whistled, still holding some poor teenager's leg. "Okay so first things first if you start putting the right limbs with the right people I'll start reattaching, then we can get them in the tent and take them back to the cabin."

Jasper hovered over his shoulder. "Harry are you sure you-"

Harry waved him off and used his other hand to summon both wands, his familiar phoenix feather wand untucking itself from where it had managed to get lodged in a tree. "Don't worry love, this isn't the first time I've died. I'll be back to normal in no time."

If you counted being unusually tired, cold and hungry for a month or so as normal but Jasper didn't need to know that at precisely this moment.

The rest of the group dispersed with barely a murmur to get to the task of matching newborns to their limbs and Harry released the remaining chains with a flick of his holly wand, tucking the elder wand back into his calf holster.

He was stiff and he groaned as he straightened up, flexing his back until it cracked.

Whilst the rest of the group seemed happy to leave a recently resurrected Harry alone Jake would be harder to shake. He was glaring from a couple of feet away.

"I am sorry. I should have said something." Harry offered.

"You should have." Jake's arms were crossed in front of his chest, "You spent the last two weeks panicking about everyone else dying and you didn't once think to mention that you can come back from the dead."

Harry shrugged. "I just try not to think about it." Jake's glare didn't recede and Harry hesitated for a moment before he sighed and continued. "Jake, when you die there is going to be an afterlife waiting for you. I've seen it, or at least, I've seen the way through. Spoken to people who've travelled through."

Harry swayed slightly and leaned into Jasper for support. "When you die you're going to see your mum, your dad, eventually all your family and friends. You'll see them all again." Harry took a deep breath. "The day my best friends died I was in the same room as them."

Ron and him had just finished a shift, they were working their way to the top of the Auror department and had just been tapped for a unit forming up at the ICW. They both knew that Harry's name was a big reason for the tap, they would be the youngest members of the unit by a couple of decades, but Harry had given up on protesting.

He dealt with all the shit bits of being famous, if his fame was going to get him and Ron a dream job then he wasn't going to sweat about it.

He slumped further into Jasper and looked around the clearing at the clearly listening group of annoying supernatural creatures that had somehow become his family over the last few weeks and months.

Was he really going to tell this story now?

And then he looked at Jake.

The 16-year-old who had woken up a year ago and found out he was something inhuman, something full of rage and power that could hurt the people around him if he wasn't careful with it.

That he had a duty now.

It didn't matter that he was 16, that he had his own problems, challenges and heartbreaks.

He had a duty to help and protect the people around him.

And Harry had just dragged him into his first proper fight. He had watched his friends be hurt and injured. And they had won, against all odds they had won. And then had watched his cousin die.

Watched Harry bleed out whilst he couldn't do anything to help.

And then he had comforted and looked after Jasper. Had been doing his best, continuing to do his duty to his cousin's mate.

Jake deserved a full explanation.

Harry closed his eyes and he felt his voice go to a dead monotone. "We'd had some good news at work so when Ron invited me back to his for dinner I was ready to celebrate. We get off shift, grab a couple of nice bottles of wine, and head home to tell Hermione the news."

Jasper was stroking his hand through Harry's hair and Harry felt pathetic for how much he needed that right now. 23 years hadn't done much to soften this.

Harry tried to smile but from the look on Jake's face it wasn't a reassuring smile.

"Turned out Hermione had been planning her own celebratory dinner that I was now gatecrashing." Harry swallowed. "Her and Ron had been trying for a couple of months and Hermione-"

He squeezed Jasper's hand.

"She was pregnant." Abruptly Harry needed to sit down, he settled heavily on the snow, accidentally pulling Jasper down with him. Jake followed and Harry found he couldn't look at him. But he could feel his eyes. Felt like he could feel all of their eyes.

"They were so happy." Harry knew this smile was bitter. "They wanted me to be godfather and they were talking about names. Rose for a girl. Hugo for a boy."

"Beautiful names." Jasper murmured and Harry nodded.

He stared down at his hands.

"Ron and I had been tracking down a new deatheater sect, they were trying to resurrect Voldemort, there were a few of them that sprung up after the war and Ron and I had been on this group for months." Harry drew in a shaky breath. "We'd just done a raid and we got the whole of leadership in one swoop. It was a big part of why we had been ready to celebrate."

The whole clearing was unsettlingly quiet.

"But we didn't get everyone and they had a ministry contact who was happy to supply Ron's address when some of the group we missed decided that they wanted to get revenge."

One of the things that the neo-deatheaters had learned from the war was how effective muggle weapons could be. Ron and Hermione had the best wards money could buy, Harry had insisted. Only Grimmauld place was safer. From wizards.

"The bomb went off midway through dinner."

An improvised pipe bomb. Easy enough to make when you could transfigure all the materials.

"All I remember is a scream and a flash of bright light."

Another scream and flash of light to add to his Dementor visions.

"I woke up in a familiar void. This time it wasn't Dumbledore or anyone I knew. He told me I was the Master of Death. Told me I was different now. Told me a lot of things that I refused to hear. I knew Ron and Hermione were dead and I wanted nothing more than to follow them." Jasper's hand tightened around his shoulders and Harry pressed back, wanted to say he was here now, that he would always be here, always wanted to stay. But he couldn't say that. Not always.

"He told me I couldn't."

A familiar surge of anger drove away the tears.

"I couldn't- wouldn't ever be able to follow. That path isn't for me apparently. I'm never going to see my parents again, my godfather, my best friends, all the people I've lost over the last 43 years."

Harry could feel tears forming at the back of his throat but he refused to let them choke him, blinking rapidly against quickly watering eyes. "And you, your dad, all my friends here and back home. My son." Oh Merlin, Teddy. He closed his eyes tight for a moment. Taking a shuddering breath. "All of you are going to go to this place I can't ever follow to."

Harry shrugged helplessly as he looked back up at Jake who sobbed, shoulders shaking as tears were running freely down his face. "So yeah. I try not to think about it because whenever I do all I can think about is how I'm going to have to watch all of you leave me."

The clearing was silent and Harry suddenly desperately wished it would be in any way reasonable for him to just disapparate to a bar somewhere. Somewhere with loud music and nobody who knew him.

That familiar emptiness got better though, when Jake hugged him as tight as he could, lifting his feet clear off the ground.

Harry relaxed into the hold, knew this was Jake saying everything he couldn't say out loud and Harry gently patted his shoulder as Jake shook.

When the shaking stopped Harry started to realise that breathing was becoming difficult. And something else that he was going to have acknowledge.

Tight for Jake was a little to much for a regular human body to take if he was being honest. "Jake. Breathing" He managed to choke out and Jake's grip loosened. "And Jake, I love you but please, for the love of god, put some clothes on."

Jake rapidly dropped him, blushing heavily and backing away, which of course sent Harry careening in the other direction.

Jasper was quick as always and plucked Harry out of his free fall and tucked Harry back against him.

Harry wheezed lightly and waved off Jake's apologies, "It's fine, I'm fine. It's fine Jake, you literally can't kill me." Harry winced, maybe a bit too soon for that joke. "Time for me to get to reattaching some limbs I think."

And if Harry was overly concentrated on healing cracks and sticking bits of revenants back together for the next half an hour no one was going to mention it.

And if they did he would ignore them.

He was struggling with eye contact but was happy to work alongside Bree who was almost as determined as he was to see her friends with all the right parts back in place.

As the final newborn was levitated into the tent, both legs reattached, Harry was ready to have a nap. He tapped the tent to fold it away and tucked the little package it became into one of his expanded pockets.

Ignoring the vaguely horrified look on Bree's face. "They're fine. I promise."

"If you say so." She clearly wasn't convinced.

But Harry did not have any words left now so she could remain suspicious.

"Right." He glanced around the clearing, the group had done a decent job at clearing up the remaining blood and detritus. He summoned the loose chains and ward stones into the same pocket as the tent and decided it was future Harry's job to actually come and clear up the now disarmed traps and the full set of wards.

It wasn't like there were any other revenants around that he had to worry about getting trapped in the wards.

And Harry at this point in his life really should have realised that thoughts like that had a tendency to immediately hit him in the face with unintended consequences.

This one didn't even wait until Harry had finished thinking it before everything went to shit.

Alice gasped which was always a terrible sign. "I didn't see them coming." She glanced around in a panic. "The Volturi, Jane, Alec, Demetri and Felix. They're minutes away."

"Merlin's saggy ball sack." Harry was so done. Jake snorted and Harry glared. "Don't tell your dad I said that."

This had already been a long day, he was so not ready for politics. He summoned a Pepper Up potion from his pocket, downed it and ignore the exclamations when steam came out of his ears.

"Right well, wolves you're going to have to leave or hide." Harry glanced at Seth and Sam, "Definitely leave if you are in anyway bleeding. Head back to the cabin and warn the others. Tell Bill I'll send a patronus if we need back up."

Even Harry could smell the blood coming from the injured wolves. Sam had a long gash running down his thigh and Seth's head was bleeding.

Sam shook his head ruefully but wrapped his arm around Seth, "See you back at the cabin then." He smiled at Harry. "Glad you're not dead."

Seth eye's still had a spark of humour as he grinned over at Harry. Seth was the best. "Yeah you might even say today has been SERENDIPITOUS!"

Seth and Sam disappeared in a blaze of colour and Seth's jazz hands.

Harry snorted.

"Harry." Jasper was looking at him again with those eyes. "Harry you should go too."

Harry glanced over at the rest of the Cullens. Carlisle was doing a really good impression of someone who knew what they were doing but Harry's previous experience with the Cullen's negotiating power didn't leave him feeling optimistic.

"I'll be fine Jasper." Harry smiled at Jasper. He would be. Probably.

It wasn't like he had much of choice, he wasn't leaving the Cullens alone for this and all the other sensible people were already back at the cabin.

Harry mentally listed out the things he knew about the approaching Volturi.

The Cullen's last interaction with the Volturi had left them with an ultimatum to turn Bella or collectively be murdered, and they hadn't done it yet. Harry would support them not doing yet because being frozen as a teenager was a nightmare he wouldn't willingly inflict on anyone.

And he was reasonably sure that the revenant sort of freezing had an impact on brain development. Or it could just be that Edward was naturally an idiot. Either way he was unwilling to risk it now Bella was turning into a person he might grow to like one day.

The Volturi's approach to dealing with rule breaking was historically scorched earth and the Cullens were technically under their rule. If the Volturi decided they needed to execute everyone then the Cullens wouldn't be able to argue.

Harry glanced at Alice who was looking about as nervous as a revenant could look.

Carlisle had a preexisting relationship with the Volturi but that didn't seem to have helped them last time and from what he said the Volturi's recruitment tactics were aggressive.

And the Volturi wanted Alice, Edward and maybe even Bella.

Wanted them enough that they might be willing to wipe out the rest of the Cullens in order to have them. The side benefit of breaking up a strong covens that could potentially, one day oppose them would be tempting too.

They had clearly managed to avoid tipping off Alice, had kept far enough away to avoid tipping off Edward and they were now arriving an hour after a conflict that, without the help from the wolves and Harry, would have wiped out the Cullens completely.

Yeah, there was no way he was leaving.

"I have to meet them at some point." Harry murmured, tucking his hand back into Jasper's. "We have this whole mate bond thing going, I'm gonna bump into them eventually." Jasper smiled briefly when Harry referred to their bond but he didn't look happy. "Better that we establish some things with them now when we're on our own turf."

Harry pulled his invisibility cloak from his bag, and shoved it towards Jake and Embry. The non-bleeding wolves were looking mulish and Harry knew he didn't have enough time to convince them to leave.

He could just start yelling the words from their portkeys but Harry wasn't going to be the one to tell the the two teenagers who had just gone to war for the first time that they weren't old enough to decide to stick around.

"You two take this, it won't hide all of you because you're all so stupidly tall but it should help." Harry dropped a couple of sound and smell dampening charms on each of their heads and they both simultaneously shivered.

"That feels weird." Jake's voice came out weirdly muffled so Harry was confident the charms were working at least.

"Just make sure you aren't visible." Harry glared at Jake. "They've got a whole thing against werewolves and I don't want to have to spend the next 2 hours explaining to them what an actual werewolf looks like."

Jake nodded and they both headed towards the treeline.

Harry's conversation with Carlisle about the 'Children of the Moon' that the Volturi had apparently spent centuries eradicating in Europe made Harry think that maybe the whole 'muggles don't survive werewolf bites' thing might be bullshit.

It sounded like muggle werewolves just didn't survive the Volturi.

"Emmett, make sure they aren't visible," Emmett trotted after them, poking at Embry until all their visible parts were tucked under the cloak and the rest of them was firmly behind some heavy undergrowth.

"Alice, Edward, let me know when they're in hearing range." Harry started muttering spells under his breath, he needed to change the wards before they arrived. No sense letting the Volturi know that he could keep them in and out at will.

Harry didn't believe in keeping a potential enemy informed of his strengths or limitations unless he was trying to intimidate. Invisible walls were not particularly good at being intimidating and were more just useful to have in your back pocket.

"I'm dropping the wards. Plan is don't piss them off too much but make it clear that their services are not needed. I will let them know I'm a wizard and hopefully that stops them from doing anything too egregious and gives us breathing room to get out of this intact. The wolves only come in when it becomes an all out brawl."

Jasper glared at him.

"IF. If it becomes an all out brawl."

That didn't seem to have reassured Jasper but Harry had to focus on the wards.

He finished just before Alice and Edward raised their hands and their small, oddly formed group waited silently in the middle of the clearing. Bree was hovering awkwardly behind them but Esme had taken the tiny teen under her wing so she at least no longer looked like she was about to bolt.

The four figures that emerged from the trees looked like what Harry had imagined vampires to look when he was a child. Pale with bright red eyes, each of the Volturi were wearing dramatically cowled, black cloaks that wouldn't have looked out of place on a deatheater.

There were no masks in sight, thank Merlin, just matching golden necklaces that each member wore proudly on top of their clothes. It was stylised and ornate but ultimately just a V for Volturi.

How creative.

Harry narrowed his eyes in order to avoid rolling them, more dramatic revenants.

The girl in the middle must be Jane and Harry assumed that the other young looking one trailing her must be her twin Alec.

The witch twins.

Ridiculous.

Nothing magical about either of them.

They walked slowly across the clearing until they were only a few feet away, then they stopped and simultaneously lowered their hoods.

Harry was sure his face was doing something strange as he desperately tried to fight back the laugh because there was no way they didn't have to practice that.

"Impressive." Jane drawled, she couldn't have been more than 13 when she was turned and hearing that level of conceited disdain from someone who looked so young was uncomfortable. "I've never seen a coven escape an assault of this magnitude intact and to clean up so quickly afterwards." The only sign of surprise was a delicately arched eyebrow raise.

Oh they definitely knew this attack was happening and, judging by the way Edward had just gone stiff, they were disappointed to see that all the Cullens had survived.

Or maybe Jane had thought something mean about Bella, it was hard to tell with Edward sometimes.

"We were lucky," answered Carlisle, his familiar polite charm even managed to make him sound sincere.

"I doubt that." Jane responded with a slight twitch of her head.

Harry had to give it to the scary, deatheater vampires. They had their poker faces down. Not a single flicker of an expression on any of them.

The awkward pause was awkward and Harry was struggling against his instinct to fill silence.

"It appears we missed an entertaining fight." The young boy next to Jane smirked, Alec was just as disdainful as his sister but at least he pretended to smile.

"Yes," Jane's answering smirk confirmed Alec was her twin, they had matching smug faces. How nice. "It's not often we are rendered unnecessary."

Was this normal vampire small talk? No wonder Edward was so weird.

Speaking of Edward.

"If you had arrived an hour ago you would have fulfilled your purpose."

Edward needed to work on his poker face because he was definitely glaring.

"Pity," drawled Jane.

Maybe he had found the vampire version of Draco after all, they were both equally blonde. He would have to hold off judgement until she informed her father of something or if she spontaneously turned into a ferret.

The red eyes flicked past Edward and settled on Bree. "You missed one."

Yeah that wasn't happening.

"She surrendered and we offered her Asylum." Esme stepped forward, trying to draw off Jane's attention.

"That wasn't yours to offer." Charming. Because they were totally here doing their job keeping the peace in the revenant world.

Nevertheless, that sounded like Harry's cue. "But it was mine." He offered, shooting a reassuring grin over to Bree who looked like she was about to crumple into tears. "I understand you are an emissary from the Volturi."

Jane wasn't looking at Bree anymore and her red eyed stare was unsettling. Maybe he hadn't been giving the Cullens enough credit for their attempts to appear human, they were leagues ahead of these guys.

Jane's lip curled as she continued to stare at Harry. "Did you get bored of the old human Edward? Aro won't be pleased to hear that you're consorting with humans again."

"Bella is elsewhere." Edward snarled, the two larger revenants behind the twins tensed and moved closer to them. Bodyguards? Demetri and Felix apparently but Harry had no idea which was which.

"And still human? Caius will be disappointed." Jane simpered. "At least she smells delicious, this one smells inedible."

Harry grinned at her, more a flash of teeth than a smile. Now he knew what his blood did to revenants he almost wanted to see her try.

But Jasper was glaring so Harry should probably rein in that instinct. Remus would have called it his inner James emerging, Sirius would have said it was his fuck around and find out gene from Lily.

Really, he had been damned by genetics on both sides to be the most stubborn human alive.

Alice interrupted before Edward could growl something in response. "The date is set for Bella to become one of us, we need to wait until we can make her disappearance less suspicious."

News to Harry but fine.

Jane paused and turned her eyes back to Harry. "And what about this one? What excuse do you have for him remaining human?"

"He is my mate." Jasper declared from Harry's side, his hand wrapping around Harry's as he started looming menacingly over Harry's shoulder.

Did proximity to other revenants make all revenants go this territorial? Harry rolled his eyes but waved to Jane. "Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Harry." He paused waiting for any of the Volturi to introduce themselves. No luck. "And as I said, it is me offering Bree asylum, not the Cullen Coven."

"And what right do you have to offer asylum?" Jane spat, voice hard and angry but her face was still impassive. Apparently she wasn't happy that the human was speaking. Too bad for her.

"The right given to me by your people's treaty with mine." Harry stated calmly.

"There is no treaty between the Volturi and humans." She snarled, eyes flashing in the first show of emotion Harry had seen from her.

"Ah, but I am not just human." Harry summoned his wand from his holster and casually twirled it between his fingers in a move he'd learned from Lucius Malfoy. Not that he'd ever admit to that.

But it did look suitably dramatic. The Malfoy speciality.

Jane was glaring at him now, clearly unsure how to respond.

"Apparently your leaders don't like sharing my people's existence with the rest of your kind. I am a wizard if that rings any bells." The two bodyguard's eyes widened in shock and they looked towards each other urgently.

Someone had heard of wizards. Good start.

"Ultimately, I'm afraid that means that my jurisdiction trumps yours here."

Ooo, Blondie did not like that.

Harry felt a pressure against his occlumency shields and raised an eyebrow at Jane who was now staring at him with intent. He waited a moment, holding eye contact as she realised her power wasn't working. "I'm sorry, did you want to try that again?"

Jane hissed at him and only her brother's hand on her arm stopped her from launching herself at Harry. "Jane." Alec whispered urgently. "Jane. Don't."

Jasper snarled next to him but Harry couldn't spare his attention for his mate, he was too busy shoring up his shields as the pressure increased.

Merlin, what was it with revenants and their compulsion to test his occlumency shields.

But this lady had nowhere near Edward's level of skill and Harry had been keeping up with his occlumency maintenance.

Sitting in this field fending off mental attacks until she got frustrated and physically attacked him instead didn't seem like a good choice no matter how good his shields were.

They always said that attack was the best form of defence. And well, she was maintaining quite aggressive eye contact. "Legillimens." Harry whispered and he slipped straight into Jane's mind.

Oh he did not like it in here. Her thoughts were violent and spiky, rushing at him in an instinctive defence against his presence. He pushed down hard enough to immobilise Jane and laid calm like a blanket over her mind, just letting her thoughts brush past him.

She would feel his presence but he had done the equivalent of bathing her in calming draught. She wouldn't care about him being there, wouldn't care about anything really, as long as he kept contact.

Alec's hand was still on his sister's now limp arm but Harry instead focused on the two bodyguards who were now looking properly horrified.

Yes, at least someone here knew which can of worms she had just opened.

Harry addressed the stiff revenants behind the twins. "Just so we're all clear that attack could constitute a breach of your people's treaty with mine, I don't need to report it but I will if any of you make any further move to attack me or my allies."

He hadn't planned on starting the whole conversation off with threats but they clearly hadn't sent their best diplomats out to help deal with the whole newborn army thing. He would work with what he had.

Alec was staring at Jane's now peaceful face but the two bodyguards were paying attention at least. He would have to trust Jasper to deal with Alec if he decided to do anything about his weirdly calm sister.

"Let's start again." Harry pulled out his wallet and flipped through it for a moment. "My name is Harry Potter and I am a special representative of the ICW." He pulled out the right card and showed it to the other group, with their eyesight he shouldn't need to go any closer.

Emmett craned his neck to see so Harry rolled his eyes and flicked it in the giant revenant's direction rather than putting it back in it's place next to his Costco membership.

"I am Felix," rumbled the larger revenant, "and this is Demetri."

Ah, the small one was the tracker. Demetri would be large by Harry's usual standards but the big one was huge. Even taller than Jake.

Harry eyed Demetri curiously and felt a light brush over his mind. Harry was getting a lot of context to this conversation from Jane's thoughts and knew that this was Demetri's attempt to get a read on Harry's mind so he could track him.

Based on the way Demetri grimaced it was unsuccessful.

Jane was viciously delighted that it wasn't just her gift that didn't work and Harry placed another blanket on top of the first one. Calm was good. Vicious not so much.

"Are you aware of the treaty that the Volturi has with the ICW?"

They glanced at each other again. "We are."

That made things easier. "I am claiming jurisdiction over this attack due to it involving my allies as well as an attack on my person." He gestured towards the Cullens who were all trying not to look surprised. Not particularly successfully.

"I would have been happy to discuss this with your leadership," bollocks but it sounded right, "but after your friend's attempts to attack me I am no longer willing to do that at this time. Any further interference with me or my allies on this matter will result in punitive action." There that sounded sufficiently stuffy for it to sound like diplomacy.

It worked better when he was older looking but he figured these guys could exactly judge on the whole visible age thing.

Felix gave a stiff bow in acknowledgement but Demetri just kept staring.

Well, this was awkward.

He risked a glance at Jasper who was still glaring suspiciously at Jane and Alec. Right. Time to wrap this up.

Before Jasper actually burst a non-existent blood vessel.

And then he heard Jane's next thought and froze. He glanced over at Edward who was now looking horrified at Jane.

"Felix." Harry called out calmly. "When did you arrive in Seattle?"

Harry didn't need Edward's mind reading to know that Felix didn't want to answer that question.

"Felix, are you aware that finding out about a threat to secrecy and deciding to do nothing about it is a severe breach of your treaty with the ICW as well as the statute of secrecy?"

Felix grimaced. "I am aware."

Harry watched the memory play out in Jane's mind, the sick satisfaction that coursed through her when she punished Felix for suggesting that they discuss their options with their leader.

Demetri left unpunished for raising the same concern because he was gifted, valuable to Aro.

The delight that filled her mind when she watched the newborns tear apart the occupants of a burning car. Delight at the thought that this army might be able to destroy the Cullens, kill that bitch Alice who Aro wanted so badly. That pitiful worm Edward had started mooning after, the human whore who couldn't feel the pain that Jane desperately wanted her feel.

She wanted to watch the whole family burn. Burn for daring to be proud and strong and outside of the Volturi.

Harry found his grip on calm disappearing as he watched her meet with Victoria and Riley. 5 days. 5 days to destroy the Cullens or die trying.

Jane revelling in her opportunity to see so many dead, looking forward to the opportunity to hunt any remaining newborns after they had wiped out the Cullens.

Harry's grip slipped and Jane's brain came screaming back online. He pulled back from her mind with a gasp and Jane leapt forward.

Her eyes were full of rage and behind the placid mask there were flashes of something feral and cruel.

There was a cracking sound as Jane hit Jasper, waves of manufactured calm rolling off him in waves. Jane was hanging limply, neck held in Jasper's tight grip.

"I think it's best you leave." Jasper muttered, his grip briefly tightened on her neck and there was a light cracking sound. Alec leapt forward but Demetri was already there to restrain him.

"Agreed." Harry glared at Felix. "Keep her off my territory or I will be forced to take action."

No matter how his future relationship with the Volturi went Harry had a feeling he was going to end up killing Jane.

Something about her was reminding him of Bellatrix and Harry had come a long way since he chased a cackling Bellatrix through the ministry.

He was less worried about killing people who deserved it for one.

The remaining Volturi nodded and Jasper released a snarling Jane over to Felix who immediately dragged her away from the group. From the looks of it Alec was doing something to stop his sister from lashing out at their own team.

Maybe the brother could be reasoned with, he certainly hadn't been the one to force this confrontation. As he left the clearing he merely looked at Harry, considering.

Harry decided he could risk a wink.

Alec smirked and winked back.

Jasper let out a breath of relief as the last of the Volturi left the clearing and he turned to glare at his very beautiful, very clever, very frustrating mate.

Harry's smile was bright and open and very, very nervous.

"Harry."

"I didn't do it on purpose." Harry's hands were up in defence. "I was provoked."

"I thought the plan was to be diplomatic!" Jasper glanced at the rest of the family who were all looking concerned. Except Rosalie, Rosalie was looking at Harry with open adoration. Which Harry should find very concerning. Impressing Rosalie was not an indication that a plan that went well.

"She wasn't going to let me get a word in!" Harry exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "Diplomacy was just going to leave us with Bree dead and more questions about where the rest of the newborns went."

Harry pouted.

Jasper shouldn't find that adorable but he did. And now the anxious fear was draining out of him and all he wanted was Harry in his arms. Safe and no longer bleeding, or at risk of bleeding.

It must have shown in his face because Harry posture went from defensive to tired in a instant and he slumped forwards into Jasper burying his face into Jasper's chest.

Jasper brushed his hand through Harry's hair and struggled to focus on the present, the warm skin under his fingers rather than a cold and still Harry in the snow. The Harry he was holding was alive and breathing.

"You're colder than usual." Jasper murmured into Harry's hair, taking a deep breath of Harry he felt the lingering tension leech out of him.

"It take a while for me to get back up to temperature. Bleeding out always makes me cold." Jasper was going to his best to ignore that statement for now.

He thought he was taking it remarkably well at the moment.

Barely any hysteria at all.

It was going to take some time for his mind to accept that Harry was alive. It was going to take time in general to process the last couple of hours.

Jasper knew he wasn't exactly helping Harry to warm up but as Harry didn't seem to mind he wasn't planning on letting go soon.

They stood for long moments, soaking each other in, and it was only when Jake coughed pointedly for the third time that they finally broke apart.

The rest of the group had left, leaving Emmett and Jake as their chaperone guards. And apparently both of them had had enough of all this affection.

At least Emmett was smiling, Jake just mimed a single retch before he went back to pointedly coughing.

"Right yeah fine, Jesus Christ Jake. You're annoying." Harry unwound himself but kept Jasper's hand, sending a glare over at Jake who just mimed retching again. "Just got to go grab Victoria's body and then we can go."

Jasper glanced towards the pool of scarlet he had been doing a really good job at ignoring and grimaced. "We'll need to burn it."

Harry started walking forwards, "Sure."

As Jasper got closer he realised that something was off, the pool of blood around the body was bigger than he was expecting. Was Victoria bleeding?

Harry was also frowning. "I thought I'd imagined that."

Jasper was starting down at Victoria's corpse with a sort of fixed fascination. "Imagined what?"

Emmett came up behind them, his face grim. "That's not just Harry's blood." Emmett had his necklace in his hand, and he took a deep breath in before he put it back on. "Smells like some actual human mixed in with all that electricity."

Jasper looked closer and gasped. There was a wound on Victoria's head. A wound that had clearly been bleeding. Harry crouched down pulling Jasper with him and leaned over the body.

"She's human." Harry poked delicately at her cheek and Jasper watched with amazement when the cheek dimpled under Harry's finger. "She's not a revenant anymore."

"How is that possible?" Emmett asked crouching the other side of the body.

"What does it matter if she's human? She's dead, let's do all the creepy body burning and get going." Jake called over from where he was crouched over Victoria's detached leg.

A leg which, Jasper now noticed, had it's own small pool of blood.

What the hell.

Jasper looked back down at Harry who had his brows furrowed in thought. "The spell I used to kill her is known as the killing curse. It's considered a dark curse and is usually illegal because there is no way of blocking it. I have special dispensation from the ICW to use it in combat situations because of my work hunting down dark wizards." He poked the body again. "I have no idea why it would do this."

"Harry." Emmett was the most serious Jasper had ever seen him outside of combat and he waited until Harry looked up at him before he continued. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

Harry's eyebrows rose but he stared seriously back at Emmett. "I'd say so yes."

Emmett looked down at the body for a long moment before a large, joyful grin filled his face. "Right. Great."

Harry smiled back at him and Jasper had a feeling he was missing something.

Emmett clapped his hands together and got up, scooping both his hands under Victoria's very human body to bring it up with him. "Jake, grab the leg, we need to get this back to the cabin and into storage."

"Ew no."

"Come on, don't get squeamish now it's just a leg, you were already poking it."

"It's someone's leg Emmett I'm not just going to pick it up and wave it around."

Jasper glanced back over to Harry who was smiling over at Emmett who was trying to get Jake to pick up the leg and tuck it under Emmett's arm.

"Come on you'll barely have to touch it. I'll carry it."

"Emmett, this is disgusting."

Harry didn't seem to be interested in stopping whatever was happening. "So we're taking her body back with us?"

"Yup."

Jasper paused to watch Emmett chase a horrified looking Jake who was who was now screaming and failing to put much distance between him and the corpse carrying revenant.

"Why?"

"Because that body is the best proof we have that whatever makes you a revenant is reversible."