Green & Gold

Thursday January 13, 2004

Harry pushed his glasses up as he pinched the bridge of his nose wearily. Why, why, did things like this always happen to him? He bet that Ron could move to America and not become friends with a vampire clan, Neville definitely could, maybe even Luna.

Well... no. Luna absolutely would immediately become friends with a bunch of vampires.

But would she get a crush on one? a mean little voice whispered snarkily in the back of Harry’s mind.

He thought she might. Luna was a bit odd.

Except... Except Harry couldn’t really say that fairly since he was also certain that Luna would immediately recognize all the classic signs of a vampire. Pale skin, grace to put any dancer to shame, more beautiful than a human could ever be...

“Why are your eyes gold?” he blurted out loud when he realized that the major sign of a vampire was missing.

Alice was on the other side of the room, a safe distance away as they had just attacked each other. But since Alice was trying to actually bite him, Harry didn’t feel too badly for sending her flying across the room. And he didn’t care how far away she was, if she was in the room he was keeping his wand in his hand.

He was oblivious, not stupid.

Jasper, on the other hand, was standing behind the chair that faced Harry’s sofa. He looked nearly as confused as Harry was feeling, but Harry imagined that he at least looked a lot better in his confusion than Harry did. He opened his mouth to answer, but Harry cut him off with another groan.

“I would give anything for a drink right now,” he said honestly. He felt a bubble of hysterical laughter threaten to overwhelm him at the admission though, because... well he was a drink to the vampires in the room, wasn’t he? “Oh god.”

Harry pushed his palms beneath his glasses in to his eyes and lost his vision to stars as he tried to consider a time where he had gotten himself in to such a completely idiotic situation.

...forgetting the cloak in his first year and getting caught sending ‘Norbert’ to Charlie; resulting in a detention and near death run in with Quirrelmort.

...not just lying to Dob- the house-elf when they said either he could agree to not go to Hogwarts or they would ruin uncle Vernon’s dinner party.

...Aunt Marge.

...’Roonil Wazlib’.

Depressingly, Harry realized the list could go on and on.

“Here.”

Harry uncovered his face (and somewhere Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, and Severus Snape were all grinding their teeth to dust that Harry had covered his face with his hands while in a room with a vampire who just tried to bite him) and saw Jasper sliding a glass tumbler across the wooden coffee table to him. A glass tumbler filled with an amber liquid that Harry was sure hadn’t been there before now.

...vampire super speed.

Merlin. Harry was an idiot.

“Cheers,” Harry held the drink up then threw it back, constant vigilance be damned. It’s not like they could kill him if there was poison in it.

That thought, of course, triggered another bout of hysteria that Harry couldn’t push back down. He let out a small chuckle, which turned in to a long episode of manic laughter, which, because life was truly terrible sometimes, led to a crying jag that Harry couldn’t shake.

“I think he needs another drink,” Alice murmured from her place against the far wall.

“I think you should keep quiet,” Jasper hissed. Though he did tentatively refill Harry’s drink.

Harry eventually felt the hysteria in him start to recede and embarrassment kick in. Embarrassment he only felt for a moment before he relaxed and slumped down on the couch, back to where he was before: exhausted and confused and, if he was being honest, more than a little hurt.

“Did Alice even have an interview for college?” Harry asked Jasper, firmly ignoring his friend(?) and speaking only on Jasper (who he actually wasn’t sure if he was his friend as well because he did conveniently leave just in time for Alice to try and bite him).

“No,” Jasper said softly.

So it was all a sham. Just a plot to turn him.

Harry spotted the glass that Jasper must have refilled and he sipped it for something to do while tension filled the room until it was nearly suffocating.

“And the eyes?” Harry asked. He kept his gaze on the glass, unwilling to look up at Jasper to see what emotion his eyes held.

“We don’t drink human blood,” Jasper answered quickly. “The diet of animal blood causes our eye color to turn the golden hue that you’ve seen in our family.”

“Hmm.” Harry hummed and finished his drink. He tilted the glass from side to side as he considered his next question.

“And you guys thought, what? ‘Hey this kids got no one to miss him, let’s bite him’?” Harry tried to speak calmly, perhaps even pull off a Draco Malfoy level sneer, but the hurt that he felt from his friends’(?!) betrayal caused his voice to tremble. He clenched his wand tighter in his hand and looked down at his socked feet while he spoke.

“No, I swear to you it was not like that,” Jasper said immediately. “I- we thought that you would be happier if you could join us. We just wanted you to be a part of our family.”

Harry couldn’t think of a reply to that, so he just stayed quiet. That didn’t sound malicious, but...

But he wasn’t really in a forgiving mood at the moment. He’d nearly just been bitten by a vampire because he was stupid enough to think they were his friends on a trip together.

“May I ask you a question now?” Jasper asked.

Harry met his gaze and shrugged his shoulder, Statue of Secrecy apparently didn’t apply here anyway.

“You can ask,” he said shortly. Harry tried to clamp down on the anger that was starting to replace his hurt, but he’d never been good at controlling his temper.

“What are you?”

That softly, almost reverently, spoken question is what pushed Harry’s anger to the boiling point. He leapt to his feet and glared right in Jasper’s face, sparing one scathing look towards Alice, when he answered.

“NEARLY A DAMN SQUIB! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU ALMOST DID?” Harry threw the glass in his hand at the wall, the sight of it shattering soothing a piece of his anger. He tapped his wand against his thigh, sending off a set of red sparks, which had Jasper and Alice gaping in awe.

Which actually made Harry quite a bit angrier.

“QUIT LOOKING SO BLOODY IMPRESSED WHEN THAT,” Harry set off the sparks again for emphasis, “IS WHAT YOU NEARLY TOOK FROM ME!”

Jasper didn’t look cowed by Harry’s shouting, he didn’t look away from Harry’s heated gaze- he just sat there and let Harry scream in his perfectly passive face.

“Magic,” Alice breathed. “You have real magic?”

“Until you try and bite me again,” Harry snapped. “Then I’ll be a bloody squib forever.”

“What does that mean? To be a squib?” Jasper asked quietly. Harry’s anger ebbed away almost as quickly as it had came on and he let out a bark of laughter before sitting back on the sofa.

“I’ll tell you if you give me that bottle,” Harry inclined his head at the bottle by Jasper’s feet. “And you should sit.”

Jasper didn’t even hesitate to hand Harry the bottle and sit in the chair he had been standing behind. He did it so eagerly that Harry was able to see it was actually a little too quick and smooth of a movement to be human. Harry drew the moment out as he drank directly from the bottle Jasper placed on the table.

It’s not like any of them were getting any older.

“A squib is a person with magical heritage but no magic themselves,” he said curtly, keeping his word. “Now, I want to know everything,” Harry narrowed his eyes at Alice and Jasper both. “I want you over here where I can see you.” Harry pointed the bottle at Alice and directed her to the sofa beside Jasper. “And if you even twitch in my direction I’ll burn you to death, agreed?”

“Agreed,” Jasper said calmly, either unafraid or unaware that Harry could end his life existence with one spell. “May we ask questions as well?”

“Did I drag you on a trip with the sole intention to ruin your life? No. So no, you can’t.” Harry felt a painful twinge of dejection at stating their actions so baldly, but he ignored it in favor of taking another drink. Alice moved to the seat Harry indicated very slowly, with both her hands up palm out by her chest. Harry waited until she was seated, both of them in his direct line of sight now, before tapping his wand on his leg (ensuring they were very aware that it was a threat) and asking his first question.

“Did you really not know I’m a wizard?”

“No,” Jasper said immediately. “We knew your blood had a unique scent, but we didn’t know it was magic.”

“I told you he smelled like power,” Alice muttered.

“What d’you mean I- I smell weird?” Harry had intended on asking something different for his next question, but their comments threw him off.

“Your blood smells differently than other humans,” Jasper told him. “Not badly, it’s just unique.”

Harry squinted at him, unsure if that was the truth or not, but decided it was hardly important at the moment.

“When I first introduced myself to you, and said my name was Harry Potter, that didn’t mean anything to you?”

Jasper drew his brows in while Alice shook her head. “Should it have?” he asked Harry.

“Not to you,” Harry said rudely. “So nobody told you who I am- was? Or put you up to this?”

“I’m afraid this was our own terrible plan,” Jasper said. Harry imagined that he could see some remorse in his eyes and in the gentle voice he used, but he wasn’t much in a forgiving mood.

“Why would you think someone put us up to it?” Alice asked. She leaned forward and cocked her head curiously at Harry, “And who are you?”

“None of your damn business,” Harry muttered, taking a drink. He had nearly hoped that someone had put them up to this. There were probably hundreds of witches and wizards that would find it hilarious to make him a squib; death eaters who escaped prosecution, families of those who Harry killed, or just sympathizers looking to take a jab at him. But instead it was just Harry thinking he had found friends who tried to do this.

“Your whole family knew what was going on? Rosalie, Edward, everyone?”

“They did not,” Jasper said. “Rosalie will probably tear my head from my body when she sees me.”

“Good,” Harry sneered.

“Harry, Jasper didn’t want to turn you,” Alice said quietly. “He said not to, but I thought it would make you happy. You shouldn’t be mad at him.”

Harry carefully thought through what all had been said so far.

“When did you change your mind?”

Jasper, to the little credit Harry was willing to give him in the moment, didn’t pretend to misunderstand Harry’s question.

“Two nights ago.”

Harry scoffed and got to his feet. Two nights ago, Jasper was planning on biting Harry and letting his venom destroy the magic that flows in Harry’s veins. He kept his wand in his hand as he started throwing his clothes and variously scattered belongings in his duffel bag.

Some trip with ‘friends’.

“Don’t leave,” Alice said once she realized what Harry’s intentions were. “We’ll go. You stay here and we’ll get you a plane ticket to go wherever you want. You can drive the car to the airport and fly out in the morning.”

“I’m not getting on a damn plane again,” Harry muttered. “And I’m not staying here.”

“Can you travel with magic?” Jasper watched Harry zip up his bag with an almost desperate sort of sadness in his eyes, but Harry was stoutly ignoring looking at his face. He didn’t know if he was more angry than he was hurt, but he was definitely something.

“Watch me,” Harry snarled. He hefted his bag up on his shoulder snatched the now half-empty bottle off the table with his free hand. He sent one last glare at Alice, and one more slightly softer one at Jasper, before he turned on the spot and disappeared with a loud CRACK.

By the time Harry made it home, he was miserable. He had debated on apparating to the Burrow or Grimmauld, just hiding out there for a while, but all his important belongings were in Forks. His dads cloak, his photos of his family and real friends, and Sirius’ bike.

Plus, if Hermione or Molly found out he’d apparated while nursing a healthy buzz, he’d never hear the end of it.

It wasn’t until Harry was laying facedown across his bed that he had a thought that nearly brought on a new wave of hysterical laughter: Hermione.

“Bet she knew too,” he muttered in his pillow. Hermione probably figured it out right away because she was a genius and Harry was an idiot. Though, why she wouldn’t have told him that his new ‘friends’ were vampires was beyond him. Harry made a drunken vow to himself that he would call her when he woke up and get some answers from her as well...

...and because life was truly, truly, terrible, especially to Harry for some reason, that night he dreamt of glittering golden eyes filled with remorse.

Harry woke a few hours later, and for one very blissful moment he forgot about the events of the night before. For one very brief second, it was just another night of waking up too early and too alert.

Then he remembered about Alice and Jasper and it all came crashing back down on him.

“Stupid vampires,” Harry groaned. “Damn magic leeches.”

“Your trip wasn’t much fun then?”

Harry flipped off his bed and smacked his face off the wooden floor hard enough to start a small trickle of blood. He ignored the throb of pain in his nose and quickly got to his feet and brandished his wand at the smirking blonde leaning against his doorway.

“Get out,” Harry said. “I’m not in the mood just now.”

Rosalie threw her hair over her shoulder, an insulting show of how little she was afraid of him, and just continued smirking.

“I just came to make sure you got back safely. Alice called me and said you ‘disappeared in thin air’,” she quoted with one hand. “But I’d happily stay and help you plot revenge against those ‘damn magic leeches’.”

“No,” Harry said shortly. He snatched a black shirt off his dresser and held it up to his bleeding nose. “Go away.”

“I brought breakfast,” Rosalie ignored Harry and shook a box of what looked and smelled like donuts. “I had to break in to the bakery for them, they don’t open for another two hours.”

Harry glanced at his watch and saw that it was just a little before three, which made it... eleven at Hogwarts. Hermione and Ron were in classes for five more hours.

Harry rolled his eyes at Rosalie’s pushiness as she continued holding the pink box out as an offering.

“Are you going to try and bite me?” he demanded. Jasper said that none of the others had been involved in their mad little scheme, but Harry wanted to hear it straight from their mouths first.

“No, and I will tear the limbs off anyone who tries,” Rosalie said firmly before shaking the box again. “Come sit and talk little wizard.”

Harry might be oblivious sometimes, but he liked to think he had good instincts on occasion and his instincts were saying that Rosalie could be trusted. He swiped the rest of the blood off his nose and gestured for Rosalie to lead the way to his kitchen.

“You guys are bad at boundaries, aren’t you?” he asked when Rosalie made herself entirely too at home on his sofa.

“A side effect of having an eternity of time on our hands,” Rosalie said nonchalantly. “Here- this one has sprinkles.” Harry eyed the caramel frosted donut she gave him warily, even going as far to sniff it (much to Rosalie’s amusement), before he took a tentative bite.

“Sooo... How was Egypt?”

Harry snorted and sat on the opposite end of his sofa.

“Aside from that little snag of your sister trying to bite me, great,” he said drily. “I didn’t care much for the airplane though.”

Rosalie laughed and shifted to lean back against the armrest, her legs curled up beneath her and facing Harry now. Harry moved a bit to mimic her position, once more wondering how he hadn’t noticed the grace that all the Cullen’s shared.

“Tell me how shocked Alice was when you threw her in the wall,” Rosalie said. “It’s so rare to surprise her, I wish I had seen it.”

“I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head,” Harry grinned a little despite himself. “Jasper too when he walked in.”

Rosalie threw her head back and laughed, her laughter so genuine that it made Harry chuckle too.

“Alice is a psychic,” Rosalie said. She flicked imaginary tears of joy off her cheeks with her manicured nails. “But she can’t always see you, so I bet you really caught her by surprise.”

“She can see the future?” Harry asked dumbfounded. “There’s nothing about that in any of our books.”

“Well there’s nothing about you in any of our books,” Rosalie countered with. “And not all of us have abilities like that. Alice is a psychic, Edward’s a mind reader, and Jasper an empath.”

“An empath,” Harry repeated deadpan. “He just- what? Literally plays with peoples feelings?”

“Yep,” Rosalie popped her red lips on the word.

“Wow.” Harry really had nothing to say to that, he just sat in a shocked silence while Rosalie played with her nails. Rosalie let him absorb that information for a short while before she finally spoke up again.

“Jasper sounded miserable,” she said casually. “I’m guessing you ended your sweet little romance and broke his frozen heart?”

“There was no ‘sweet little romance’,” Harry blushed furiously. Had Jasper been able to sense his feelings and toyed with them? Laughing with his family when Harry occasionally caught himself staring too long or smiling too hard at something he said? Just mocking the ‘human’ with the crush on the gorgeous vampire?

Merlin.

Embarrassing.

“It was just a game, wasn’t it?” Harry said hotly. “Very funny, ‘let’s make him think we’re his friends while we play with his dumb little feelings. We won’t bother telling him what we are, oh no. We’ll just burn out the magic in his blood because he’ll be happier that way.’ Great game,” he spat.

Rosalie watched Harry’s rant just as blasé as always. Her eyes had softened, but there was no pity on her face either. Which was one of the many great things about Rosalie- she just said what she thought and didn’t care if it was hard to hear or not. Despite that though, Rosalie Hale was one of the kindest people Harry had ever met with a huge heart and a stubborn soul.

...if Rosalie Hale was even her real name that is.

“What a load of garbage,” she sniffed. “Firstly, I am your friend. As are the rest of my family, if you’d still like us to be. Secondly, I doubt very much that Jasper was toying with your feelings, he’s annoyingly enamored with you and he likes to consider himself a gentleman. And,” Rosalie raised one perfectly sculpted blonde brow at Harry, “it’s not like you told us what you are either.”

“Well I’d be arrested if I told a bunch of muggles I’m a wizard,” Harry defended himself, ignoring that bit about Jasper being ‘annoyingly enamored’ by him. “What’s your excuse?”

“We have laws as well,” Rosalie explained. “The Volturi is our ruling government and if they discovered we had told you what we are then you would either have to be turned or killed. We wanted to spare you that.”

Harry scoffed, “You maybe,” he allowed. “Alice and Jasper clearly didn’t give a damn.”

“Alice and Jasper were operating under the impression that you would be happy if you could be a part of our family,” Rosalie said. “They’re idiots, and I’ll still happily rip them apart if you’d like, but they did have nearly noble intentions. Although, I think Jasper also just wanted to keep you around for an eternity.”

Harry very awkwardly pinched apart the donut, leaving crumbs all over the sofa, unsure what to say or do in the moment and needing something to do with his hands.

“Can I see magic?”

Harry looked up at Rosalie’s softly spoken question and laughed at the unbidden glee in her eyes.

“Aright then.” Harry pulled his wand out of his jumper pocket and tried to think of something brilliant for Rosalie (who he thought maybe was actually his friend) to see first. He briefly considered showing her his patronus, but he didn’t much want the reminder of his parents to spoil Rosalie’s excitement. Instead, he tapped the table beside the sofa they were sharing with his wand and heard Rosalie’s gasp when it transformed in to a snuffling pig.

“More, can you do more?” she asked breathlessly. Her eyes were alive with an excited light and she giggled when the pig let out an obnoxious little oink. Harry laughed and nodded, he’d never been around someone entirely new to magic that was so enchanted by it.

Harry spent the next couple of hours transforming, summoning, and vanishing various objects in his house while Rosalie cheered him along with each spell he silently cast.

“That’s amazing!” Rosalie said. Her typically aloof demeanor had entirely vanished around the time Harry charmed the clock on the wall to sing out cheesy poems. “You’re incredible! Can all wizards do this??”

“Er...” Harry scratched the back of his neck and shrugged, “a bit, yeah.” In truth, Harry didn’t know any wizards who were able to channel their intent in to silently cast spells, sometimes wandless and sometimes not. And he’d personally either dueled or witnessed a duel from the three most powerful wizards he’d ever known.

“Are your friends all magical too?” Rosalie asked.

“Yeah.” Harry started reversing the enchanted items back to muggle ones as he talked. “That’s what the school I was at before, Hogwarts, was. Just a place for witches and wizards.”

“Which explains why biology is such a strain,” Rosalie said knowingly. “Why would you need to know molecular interactions when you have real magic?”

“Exactly,” Harry agreed. “Will you tell me more about you though? When were you turned? Why do you not drink human blood? Have you always been in the clan with the others?”

“Well, since you did make me this charming trinket-“ Rosalie held up the glass rose Harry conjured for her with a smirk, “-I suppose I can answer a few questions. I was born in 1915, in Rochester, New York. I was turned in 1933, barely 18 years old.”

Harry felt a brief flash of irritation that Rosalie had been immortalized forever at an age he’d never reach. But he ignored it to eagerly hear more about her true life.

“Carlisle changed me,” Rosalie said. “He told me about how he chose to live, and I have never drank human blood even once in my life.” Harry heard the pride in her voice at that. “You’ll have to talk with Carlisle to hear more about his vision of vegetarian vampires, I wouldn’t do it justice. But I’ve been a part of Carlisle’s family,” she stressed the word, “since I was turned.”

“What about the others? Did Carlisle turn them too?” Harry asked.

“Carlisle changed all of us aside from Alice and Jasper who joined our family on their own,” Rosalie said. “We have ‘cousins’, as we call them, who live in Alaska. Carlisle also considers them to be a part of our family, but they were changed by a woman long since dead.”

“Huh.” Harry flopped on the floor and surreptitiously checked the time. He still had two and a half more hours until he could fall Hermione and find out what she knew.

“Jasper and Alice won’t be back until tonight if that’s what you’re worried about,” Rosalie said, having caught what Harry had checked.

“I’m not, but good to know,” Harry scoffed. “I’ll just make sure I’m gone before they get back then.”

“You’re leaving?”

Harry looked up at Rosalie’s soft question and frowned at the genuine unhappiness in the twist of her lips and dimming light in her eyes.

“I was thinking about it,” Harry said slowly. “I just- I mean... if Alice tries to bite me again, or Jasper does, then that’s it Rose. My magic will be gone. I’ll just be a squib vampire, no magic,” Harry explained the term. “And I’m pretty sure it’s hard to kill yourself when you’re indestructible, so I’d be stuck like that for an eternity.”

Rosalie set down her glass flower and crawled on the floor in front of Harry. She grabbed both his hands with hers-

Why weren’t their hands cold? Vampires were meant to have icy skin?

-and looked Harry right in the eyes solemnly.

“I am not defending them, because I think they’re absolute idiots,” Rosalie said, “but I know you don’t have any reason to fear that. Alice said that Jasper had already changed his mind before she pulled her little stunt, and she was very upset at having nearly taken away your magic. Don’t you see Harry? This is perfect!” Her beautiful face was animated as she spoke earnestly to him. “You were already a part of our family, you didn’t need turned to be one of us, only to know our secrets. But that doesn’t matter now, there’s no rules about wizards knowing. Please, even if you never speak to them again, which you’d have my complete support if so, don’t leave?”

Harry thought of what all he had left in England.

Hermione, Ron, Teddy, the rest of the Weasley’s, and...

And that was it. For the good things anyway.

He’d also left behind a lifetime of painful and misery filled memories. And if he left Forks now...

Not even considering any of the Cullen’s who he wasn’t currently furious with, he’d leave behind Jacob, Billy, and the others in La Push that brought him in to their clique and invited him to normal teenage activities. He’d leave behind his house, and probably his car- both of which he was incredibly fond of. He’d leave behind his freedom to be himself here; not Harry Potter or the Boy Who Lived or Man Who Conquered or whatever mad name they’d given him this month, but Harry.

Just Harry.

Would he trade the freedom to be just Harry to return to a place where he’d caused so much death and pain and destruction over two rogue vampires who (supposedly) were trying to add him to their family?

“No,” Harry answered himself out loud sternly. “I’m not leaving.” He shared an ironic grin with Rosalie when he added, “They can bite me.”

By the time Rosalie left, Harry had felt much better about the events in Egypt. He was still hurt at the subterfuges, and he’d cast fiendfyre at Alice before he let her take another bite at him, but in a twisted way it was almost nice that someone wanted Harry to be a part of their family. It was a very dangerous idea and he would have killed her on the spot had she succeeded, but still it was kind of thoughtful.

He was never speaking to her again, but he wasn’t quite so mad anymore.

And Jasper...

Harry had no idea what to do about Jasper. Rosalie swears that he wasn’t using his ‘gift’ to manipulate Harry, but even if that was true- he’d still felt all of Harry’s emotions, hadn’t he? So he knew (Harry’s face burnt even as he thought it) about Harry’s feelings towards him. Which was both embarrassing and curious. Because if he knew, why had he never said anything one way or another? Just- ‘hey Harry quit looking at me so much’ or ‘hey Harry can I kiss your face?’

It was frustrating to ponder the reasoning behind it, but ultimately it didn’t matter. Harry was also never talking to him again.

Probably.

Harry glanced at the fireplace and clenched his jaw, because if there was one person he was absolutely calling, it was Hermione.

And she’d give him some damn answers.

... after he disconnected from the floo that night, Harry thought that nobody ever explained their actions were done thanks to ‘love’ for the rest of his exceedingly long life that he’d be happy.