Green & Gold

Wednesday, September 5th, 2003

Jasper felt a jolt of excitement burst through him when he and his siblings parked at their high school and he saw a familiar, glossy red car.

“Harry’s back!” Alice squealed excitedly. “He’s going to eat lunch with us, so everyone be on their best behavior!”

Jasper shook his head in exasperation at Alice. She had abruptly walked out of lunch on Monday, her golden eyes unblinking, murmuring something about ‘going to check on her friend’. She then told them that ‘Harry’, because apparently he was Harry to Alice, would be joining them for lunch on Tuesday. Alice had been moping quite spectacularly when Tuesday morning rolled around, starting at about four, when she suddenly announced that Harry wasn’t coming to school on that day and wouldn’t make their lunch date after all.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Emmett grimaced as he considered the act they’d have to put on for the lunch period. “Won’t he be curious why we aren’t eating?”

“Hmm...” Alice scrunched her forehead down as she searched ahead to lunchtime. “Nope!” she eventually declared. “He won’t eat either, no matter how much Rosalie nags him.”

“Why is Rosalie nagging the new kid?” Edward asked with a sideways glance at Rosalie.

Rosalie clearly hadn’t explained to Edward about whatever odd thoughts and emotions that Harry Potter evoked in her.

Not that Rosalie had shared with Jasper why she reacted so strongly either-

’Mind your own business Jasper.’

-but for Alice to see her nagging the new kid to eat? That was peculiar.

“Probably because the kid looks like he can’t afford to miss any meals,” Emmett said, winking at his partner, causing her emotions to switch from a speculative wistfulness to a more sensual emotion that made Jasper cringe.

He really didn’t care to know about the emotions the two of them shared with each other.

“Perhaps, like the Grinch, my heart has grown three sizes,” Rosalie smirked as she gracefully got out of the car. “Or I simply want Alice’s new friend to live long enough to race me.”

Alice and Emmett laughed at that, even Jasper curled his lips in a smile. Rosalie was devastatingly competitive and lived for fast cars.

“Come on then Alice, let’s go see what exciting new things we can learn about in Sociology,” Edward ruffled their sisters spiky hair and they left for class together.

Jasper and Rosalie trudged off towards English much less enthusiastically.

“What are you drawing today?” Rosalie asked Jasper quietly as they took their seats amongst their noisy (and happy, always so happy) classmates. It was a joke between the two of them, as in every class they shared Jasper always sketched something new.

It was better than thinking about the scents surrounding him.

“Probably trees again,” Jasper lied smoothly. “If you would like a piece of paper to draw as well you’re welcome to it.”

Rosalie turned her nose in the air, as Jasper had known she would. Rosalie was talented at many things, art was simply not one of them.

Jasper shifted his body slightly, just enough that Rosalie couldn’t easily see what he focused his attention on today. The same subject he had drawn multiple times since the first day of school.

Harry Potter.

Jasper drew him slowly, focusing on the details that his perfect recall reminded him of. The muscles that shook in his hands. The outline of a red burn on his neck, an old scar perhaps? The way his black curls stuck to his forehead. The silver lightning bolt scar in the center of his forehead.

No matter how many times Jasper drew him though, he couldn’t get it just right.

He couldn’t accurately portray the agony in his eyes. The way he held himself as if preparing to be struck in some manner. How his hand flew to his pocket at loud noises, only to flex and hang limply at his side instead of grabbing anything. Nor the way that he only appeared more his age when Jasper saw him flying in and out of the school parking lot, his cheeks flushed with adrenaline and his eyes sparkling with pleasure.

And if Jasper couldn’t draw him perfectly, then he would just keep trying until he did.

“Lunch is going to be weird,” Emmett murmured to him and Rosalie at their shared table in third hour AP History.

Another joke of a subject. The history books rarely portrayed events accurately.

“Why?” Jasper asked. He knew why it would be weird for him, Harry Potter sitting at his table would likely send him in another emotional tailspin, but he couldn’t imagine why Emmett wouldn’t be pleased. He was always complaining about not having any friends.

An odd sentiment since Jasper was perfectly happy not cozying up to the humans who made his throat burn so hotly.

“That kids weird,” Emmett said, his lips moving quickly enough that their teacher never noticed the conversations the three of them shared. “I saw a kid accidentally push him in the hall last week and he turned even whiter than us and bolted in the bathroom, thought he might be sick.”

Jasper frowned at that, another instance of Harry Potter’s overly active fight or flight response.

Who had done what to the human?

Rosalie must have been thinking similar thoughts as Jasper because she leaned her head closer to the boys’, an unneeded precaution as no human could hope to hear or understand them, as she replied.

“You don’t think his parents are... well,” Rosalie lifted one brow, even as her eyes flashed with anger. “I mean... he’s the kind of kid that Carlisle would report to the police if he showed up at the hospital looking and acting how he does.”

Jasper felt an ache fill his chest, probably just residual emotions from Rosalie, as he agreed with her assessment.

“You think his parents are beating him?” Emmett demanded quietly. “Damn Rose. I bet you’re right. There’s definitely something wrong in that kids life.”

“What do we do?” Jasper asked his siblings.

He knew what he’d like to do. He’d like to sneak over to the Potter house and dispatch of the humans who were beating their child.

He questioned his own suddenly vengeful mood at that thought.

Why was this human dragging out these responses in Jasper and his siblings?

Who was he to make Jasper envision murder for the sake of vengeance, as opposed to greed?

“We find out for sure and then if Carlisle doesn’t handle it, we will.” Rosalie flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she stared at them both with a stubborn set to her jaw. Jasper immediately nodded his agreement, and even Emmett cracked his knuckles threateningly.

“How do we find out for sure?” Jasper asked Rosalie. He had no idea how one would even begin to decipher a problem like that. He had never even considered becoming so involved in a humans life before.

“We talk to him,” Rosalie sighed in exasperation at the boys’ perplexed expressions. “Get to know him? Ask him about himself and have Jasper feel how he reacts? Duh.”

“Good idea babe,” Emmett grinned at Rosalie, easily placated by the simple plan. Jasper would have grinned as well, except he doubted if it would be as simple to unravel Harry Potter as Rosalie thought it would.

And it wasn’t.

Lunch simply left Jasper with more questions than answers about the mysterious human.

“Harry, you remember my siblings,” Alice beamed as she led Harry to their table.

“Hello,” Harry nodded politely, his eyes tight as he sat on the edge of the seat Alice waved him to.

“Hello Harry,” Rosalie smiled kindly at him. “Aren’t you eating?”

“Aren’t you?” Harry quipped back, his emotions annoyed and amused.

“Touché,” Rosalie laughed warmly.

“Ooh, we’re causing a commotion,” Alice declared happily. The six of them glanced around the cafeteria and saw that they had attracted multiple sets of eyes when Harry joined them.

The new kid with the weird and unfriendly Cullen/Hales?

What a scandal.

“They can piss off,” Harry muttered as he sent a dark look across the cafeteria, fearlessly meeting each nosy students eyes until the others shifted them away in shame.

It wasn’t that it was brave to make eye contact with the other humans, it was just that Jasper could sense how anxious Harry felt at the attention but he faced it head on regardless.

“They don’t care for us much,” Edward smiled apologetically at Harry. “They probably don’t understand why you would want to eat with us.”

“Then they’ve never been pestered by your sister,” Harry sent an already fond look of amusement towards Alice. “She’s bloody persistent.”

The rest of them chuckled at that, Harry clearly had good instincts when it came to judging people.

Even if he was unknowingly seated at a table with five vampires.

“Since we’ve all decided that school lunch is unhealthy and disgusting, why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Rosalie suggested to Harry. “You’re from England, right?”

“Er, yeah.” Harry’s emotions changed to some of wariness, fear, and sadness. “What’d you wanna know?”

“Why’d you move here?” Edward asked him curiously. It was a good thing that Harry seemed to avoid looking straight on at Edward as much as possible, since the way Edward squinted at Harry with frustration was certainly not polite human behavior.

“To experience American culture,” Harry said, his reply automatic and stiff sounding.

A lie.

“Does your family enjoy it here so far?” Rosalie asked him.

Sadness. Grief. Agony. Pain. Self-Hatred.

“Does your family enjoy living in Forks?” Harry raised a brow at Rosalie and Jasper bit his lip to prevent smiling at his response.

Harry was cheeky.

And evasive.

“We do,” Alice jumped in eagerly. “Our father, Carlisle, works at the hospital and he loves it!”

“He’s a heal- doctor then?” Harry asked.

“He is,” Edward confirmed. “What do your parents do?”

Jasper realized why Harry’s emotions were so grief-filled when he replied bluntly;

“They’re dead, so not much I suspect.”

Jasper and his siblings looked at the human with sympathy, all of them likely considering how they had lost their own human parents.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Jasper said gently. He sent a subtle wave of peace towards Harry, unable to bear his emotional pain much longer. “I lost my parents as well.”

Harry sent a look of surprise towards Jasper, his emotions fading slightly as the peace washed over him.

“I thought you just said your Dad works at a hospital?”

“Do we look like we’re all biologically related?” Emmett chuckled. “Carlisle adopted us.”

“Carlisle is my, Emmett, and Alice’s uncle by marriage. He and our aunt, Esme, took us in after our parents passed,” Edward lied smoothly. “Rosalie and Jasper are twins-“

Agony so strong that Jasper thought he might choke on it.

“-and they lost their parents young and were adopted by them as well.”

“Oh.”

Sadness. Sympathy.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said softly. “That’s rough.”

“It happened a long time ago,” Jasper said, desperate to reassure him, though unsure as to his own motives why. “We’re very lucky to have Esme and Carlisle in our lives.”

Grief. Overwhelming grief.

“That’s nice then...” Harry tapped the table in an erratic rhythm, his hand trembling slightly as he did so. Jasper and his siblings exchanged quick and confused glances.

This wasn’t normal human behavior, surely?

“How are your classes going Harry?” Rosalie asked him. She had been planning on asking who Harry resided with, but the pain in his eyes made her eager to find a more cheerful topic to discuss. Besides, it wouldn’t be hard to figure it out on her own.

“Brilliant,” Harry snorted and his emotions were more amusing now. He was irritated, embarrassed, and frustrated.

“Have they gotten easier?” Alice asked him, smiling at her new human friend.

“Er... a bit,” Harry shrugged.

Another lie.

“Which classes are you having problems with?” Edward asked. “We’re in the same grade, Alice as well, maybe I could help you with your studies?”

“All of them?” Harry ruffled his hair in a self-conscious action. “But I’m fine, I just... er... classes were a lot different at my old school.”

Amusement. Grief.

“Ooh! I know!” Alice clasped her hands on the table with excitement as Jasper saw Edward’s lips twitch at whatever Alice was thinking. “Harry you should come over this weekend! We can study together! And I bet Carlisle and Esme would love to meet you!”

Harry blinked at Alice, his large green eyes wide with surprise.

“You want to help me study? Why?”

“Because you’re my friend and that’s what friends do,” Alice said firmly. “No excuses. You’ll just give in anyway. Come over Saturday, no-“ Alice blinked unseeingly for a moment, too quickly for human eyes to notice. “Sunday,” she corrected herself. “Bring your books and we’ll study! It’ll be fun!”

Harry sent the others a nervous look, his eyes lingering on Edward and Emmett-

Pain. Anger. Grief.

“Alright then,” Harry nodded, smiling slowly at Alice. “Thanks, that’d be great.”

Alice beamed at her new human friend, pleased with the acceptance she must have anticipated. With a bit of the tension broken, the six of them discussed lighter topics. Though Rosalie looked scandalized that Harry knew next to nothing about cars.

“Horsepower?” he blinked rapidly at Rosalie. “I thought it used an engine?”

The rest of the week carried on much in the same way: Harry sat with them during their lunches, and Jasper thought about him constantly.

Edward couldn’t get a clear read on his mind, only general topics. Alice evasively denied seeing Harry in ‘any important visions’. Rosalie looked for him in the hallways, smiling warmly every time she saw him. Emmett growled at kids who mentioned ‘that weird new kid’ too loudly near him. And Jasper tried to help him out with subtle pushes of peace and tranquility when they passed in the school and Harry’s emotions burned Jasper’s insides like a plunge in ice water would feel to humans.

At lunch, Harry never commented on their lack of appetites, and they never commented on his. Though, when he next showed up on Thursday, Rosalie rolled an orange across the table to him.

“They’re good for you, since you don’t get much Vitamin D in Forks.”

Harry felt confused, and needlessly nervous, but he accepted the orange with a shy smile of gratitude.

“I like the weather here,” he said. “My friends and I went to Florida this summer and it was miserable. I dunno how people live like that.”

Rosalie had radiated waves of smugness as Harry slowly ate half of the orange, and the rest of them jumped in with questions about his travels.

Apparently Florida had been too bright. California too hot. Las Vegas too noisy.

All sentiments Jasper fervently agreed with.

“You would like Tennessee,” Jasper told him. “The mountains are beautiful.” Harry had sent off a brief feeling of longing, before it was replaced again by his usual never ending bitter feelings of agony. Though, Jasper liked to think to himself that those feelings were just a little more muted when he ate lunch with them. Even without Jasper’s assistance.

At lunch on Friday, Rosalie brought Harry another orange and Alice gave him a silver canned human drink.

“Extra caffeine,” Alice grinned.

Jasper didn’t think Harry needed more caffeine, as shaky as his hands constantly were, but Harry thanked the girls quietly and consumed both offerings while they all talked.

Alice, Emmett, and Edward grilled Harry on his likes and dislikes-

“Favorite sport?” Emmett asked.

“Qu- er, football?” Harry answered quietly. “Or soccer I guess? My roommate called it football. It had the black and white ball and the big nets?”

Jasper didn’t think Harry had any idea what a soccer game was, as he felt embarrassed and confused when Emmett eagerly began discussing the current teams.

“What kind of music do you listen to?” Edward asked him. They all groaned in genuine distress when Harry said he’d been listening to Nickleback in his car radio.

“We’ll introduce you to real American rock music this weekend,” Jasper laughed.

Which startled his siblings. Except for Alice, who puffed up with a superior grin.

And during the second half of their lunch on Friday, Harry turned the tables and began asking them questions.

“How long have you lived in Forks?”

Alice truthfully told him that they moved to Forks in the summer of 2002.

Alice and Jasper had anyway. The rest of their family had lived here before, but that wasn’t something to tell a human.

“What d’you guys do for fun?”

An easy question to answer. Edward plays instruments, Alice designs clothes, Emmett plays sports, Rosalie works on cars.

“I draw a bit,” Jasper told him. “And I write.”

“What kind of stuff do you write?” Harry asked, his emotions curious.

“Mostly historical fiction.” Jasper’s siblings grinned at the genre he told Harry. If the Southern Vampire Wars counted as fiction, then it would be truthful. But they had been real, and Jasper had the scars and memories to prove it.

But he smiled slightly at Harry as he declared Jasper’s hobbies to be ‘wicked’.

Despite Harry’s mild relaxation around the Cullen/Hale’s, none of the ‘older’ three forgot about their initial concerns about his home life. Concerns they shared with Carlisle and Esme Friday after school.

“Something isn’t right!” Rosalie stamped her foot with frustration. “I’m telling you Carlisle, something terrible happened to him and nobody’s doing anything!”

Carlisle frowned as the rest of his children agreed with Rosalie.

“Who does Harry live with?” he asked.

“Nobody knows,” Emmett said. “Kid’s a mystery.”

“And you can’t read him at all?” Carlisle asked Edward.

“Not really,” Edward closed his eyes as he thought. “Sometimes I’ll get a brief thought, random stuff, but then it’s gone before I’m really even sure he was thinking it. When I focus I can sometimes get a general idea of what he’s thinking, but nothing specific.”

“And you Jasper?” Carlisle turned his puzzled, yet calm, face to Jasper. “What are his emotions like?”

“Horrible,” Jasper said bluntly. “Most of the time it feels like I’m being stabbed in the chest with them. He’s just...” Jasper hesitated, suddenly uncertain if he wanted to break this humans trust by sharing his private emotions with his family. “He’s just not happy,” he equivocated.

“Hmm...” Carlisle rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he considered the situation. “Would you all allow me to witness his behavior for myself on Sunday before we go further?” he asked them. “If I believe there is a basis for abuse, I can speak with Chief Swan and the on-site counselors at the hospital. I will not allow a child to suffer, I swear.”

None of them could doubt the sincerity in Carlisle’s voice and they all readily agreed, Emmett and Rosalie feeling relief as Carlisle stepped in to the picture.

Yet... Yet Jasper had a niggling feeling of worry plaguing him as he relaxed in his room that night. It wasn’t until Alice knocked on his door that he realized he had already decided on his own course of action.

“He’s home,” Alice said. “I can’t tell if you’re going to speak with him or not, but I can see that you’re not going to hurt him.”

Jasper nodded gratefully, the subconscious idea he had been toying with solidified, and he lithely jumped out his bedroom window, an easier path to take than explaining himself to the rest of the household. He ran quickly through the forest that separated their home from the town of Forks, his eyes cataloguing every animal whose path he crossed despite the darkness of the late hour. Jasper slowed down when he reached town and slipped in to hunting mode. Except this time, he wasn’t hunting a scent to harm or drink or kill, but rather to... to what? Protect?

The last thing the human needs is a vampire protector.

Yet it was with worry for the green-eyed human that Jasper stealthily made his way through town. He started at the high school and followed Harry’s scent through the roads. It seemed like Harry travelled the same path each time, to and from school, making it easy to follow back to his house.

He stuck to the tree lines behind the block Harry’s house was on as he studied where the human lived. It was a small house, red brick with freshly painted dark golden window shutters. It wasn’t hard to identify this as Harry’s house as strong as his cold scent was here, though the car in the driveway helped as well.

Jasper warred with himself on his next actions. Satisfy his curiosity or act in a rational manner? He knew he had lost the battle when his mind reworded ‘satisfy his curiosity’ to ‘check on Harry’s safety’. Jasper silently moved up beside the house, thankful that Harry lived in a one-story, and peeked through the window by the back door.

Creep, he chastised himself.

It was creepy. But he told himself this was to ensure Harry was safe. And to get a glimpse of the humans that he lived with. The ones he had dark suspicions of.

Jasper’s eyes, so perfectly suited for spying in the darkness, adjusted easily as he looked in on what was Harry’s living room. There were two navy recliners, one with an indent that told Jasper someone sat there frequently. There was also a matching sofa, though the cushions were torn off it and strewn about the floor. And photos- there were photos framed all across the room.

Harry, smiling broadly, on a train platform with a bushy haired girl and a red headed gangly boy. The boy and girl had their arms across Harry’s shoulder, and he looked young in this photo, perhaps twelve.

Harry with his arms wrapped lovingly around a girl with long dark red hair. The two of them seated in front of a fire and smiling happily at the camera.

Jasper quickly turned his attention to the next photo.

A man with long black hair, his eyes sparkling with laughter through the photo as he sat beside Harry in a dimly lit kitchen. Harry was looking over at him with joy and admiration in his eyes.

And the last visible one; a baby, Harry probably, being cradled by a man that could only be his father and a woman with eyes the same color and shape as Harry’s.

Though Jasper thought Harry’s were more interesting, more compelling.

As neither Harry nor his mystery guardians were in the living room, Jasper stealthily moved to the next window.

A kitchen. One with a pile of bottles that held various alcohol labels on them. All of them empty.

Did Harry live with abusive alcoholics?

Jasper grit his teeth and moved along to the next window. This one an empty bedroom. The bed made up with a fluffy yellow comforter, a light layer of dust telling him it hadn’t been used in a while.

And the next one, a bathroom.

Finally, the last room that Jasper checked, his stomach churning with guilt at the intrusion of privacy, was Harry’s bedroom.

Which meant that Harry lived alone?

Jasper stored the ongoing mystery of Harry’s guardians to the side though as Harry’s emotions struck him, just as powerful in his sleep as they were during the day.

Harry kicked out, his dark green blanket landing on the floor, as Jasper tried to tamper down the dread that Harry was forcing him to feel. Did Harry have some sort of mental illness? Depression perhaps? Or was this constant agony he felt supposed to be normal for him? Jasper had never in his entire existence spent so much time trying to puzzle out the emotions of anyone, certainly not a human.

“RUN!”

Jasper, despite his inhumanly perfect equilibrium, actually stumbled a half step away from Harry’s window at his terrified shout. He ducked down, not eager to be spotted, as he looked back in the window; preparing himself to defend Harry from whatever was attacking him.

...which was nothing.

Harry was still asleep, his eyes squeezed shut and sweat glistening on his face. His black curls were plastered to his forehead, and Jasper could feel his anguish as torturous as if it were his own. He did the only thing he could think of to soothe the night terror Harry was obviously trapped in. He sent a strong push of peace towards the human, along with joy to inspire a better dream.

Harry’s expression cleared almost instantly as Jasper’s emotional tide overtook him. He turned over on his side, stretching his legs out, and Jasper wondered what dream he was now having that brought on the soft sigh Harry released.

He kept watching, waiting as the sun rose to make sure Harry’s sleep was not interrupted, then headed home after doing one last check of the windows.

Jasper had roughly seven hundred and ninety eight questions about Harry Potter, but he had learned three things from tonight’s terribly invasive excursion.

One, Harry did indeed live alone. There were no humans harming him. Though Jasper doubted that had always been the case.

Two, based on the bottles in the kitchen, Harry’s perpetual hand tremors, and the lack of any other human in the house; Harry was an alcoholic.

And three, Harry had suffered in his life. Suffered so terribly that he couldn’t even escape the constant anguish in his sleep.