Green & Gold

Tuesday January 18, 2004

Jasper hated high school. He hated lurking in the halls, trying to be unobtrusive. He hated turning in flawless assignments that he wrote in half of a second. He hated hearing the humans chatter about a new addition to the school, and feel their fluctuating emotions at the trivial bit of excitement.

Mostly, Jasper hated that the last new student to have arrived at Forks High School was very obviously not speaking to him.

Jasper had returned home early Saturday morning and immediately had Rosalie snarling, snapping, and screeching in his face.

‘How dare you?!’- He didn’t know.

‘You could have taken his magic!’- He knows that now.

‘You are an unforgivable idiot!’- He knows.

‘You hurt him.’- And that one hurt Jasper as well. Because he knew that too. He didn’t need to use his gift to understand that. He’d seen the proof in Harry’s devastated, and furious, green eyes. Harry had filled the room with his emotions, so strongly that even Alice could read them clearly. Jasper didn’t know if Harry was exceptionally emotional or if the strength of which he’d always sensed his emotions came from his magic.

The magic that had been just as stunning and surprising of a revelation as it really hadn’t been. Jasper had no idea that there were truly witches and wizards in the world. He imagined they were truly as fictional as humans thought vampires were. But he knew Harry was different from other humans, something unique. And he was right, Harry was literally magical.

Not that the distinction on what caused Harry’s strong emotions mattered though. Because when Jasper got to school Monday morning, silently riding with Edward and Alice and attempting to block out Edward’s very loud emotions of disapproval and disappointment, he found that Harry had decided that pretending Jasper didn’t exist had been his best plan.

“Harry, may I speak with you?” Jasper had jogged up to Harry, who was radiating some type of hypermanic glee as he climbed out of the bright red convertible’s passenger seat, ignoring the door and simply climbing out over the top of it. Jasper imagined that Rosalie had picked him up early and took him for a ‘my brother sucks let’s drive way too fast as a consolation prize’ joyride this morning.

He bet Harry had laughed joyously the whole drive.

Harry’s hair was mussed up from the wind and he’d never looked so painfully attractive as he did just then. Jasper was stopped from getting too close to Harry by Emmett, who climbed out of the backseat and quickly stuck his arm out in warning.

Harry’s glee turned in to anger, hurt, confusion, embarrassment, when he looked at Jasper. He scoffed, a truly scratching noise of disdain, and linked his arm with a smug, furious, protective, affectionate, Rosalie to walk away.

“Leave them alone,” Emmett said, not unkindly. “The kid’s all sorts of unhappy with you, and we both know that Rose is pissed. I’d just give them some space to cool down, alright bro?” Emmett punched his shoulder lightly and gave him an unimpressed shake of his head before he too ran off to catch up with Harry and Rosalie.

“We can be outcasts together,” Alice said hopefully, stepping up to Jasper’s side silently.

Jasper looked down at Alice’s remorseful and apologetic face, “I am not speaking to you until Harry speaks to me.”

He knew Alice felt bad for her actions, she felt truly terrible with every emotion inside her, but that didn’t make him less angry with her. He’d told her not to try and turn Harry, but Alice always thinks she knows what’s best and where has it landed him? Two of his brothers and his sister are angry with him. Carlisle and Esme ‘aren’t mad, they’re just very disappointed’. And Harry isn’t speaking to him.

So no, as much as Jasper recognized his own mistakes, he wasn’t going to talk to Alice right now.

In Jasper’s fourth hour sociology class, he imagined just leaving. Not putting up with pretending to be a human teenager, not feeling the mixture of excited human emotions, angry vampire ones, and the sole wizard who it felt as if he’d filled the school with the depth of his hurt. Though, perhaps Jasper had simply became incredibly in tune with Harry’s emotions so they spoke the loudest to him.

While Rosalie whispered a torrent of insults under her breath in their fourth hour period, Jasper put real thought in to leaving. He could go to Alaska; go visit Tanya, Kate, and Elena. Jasper could imagine it all too easily, it would be simple, quiet, and peaceful, but it would also be cowardly. And Jasper was a lot of things, but he’d never been a coward.

As soon as the bell dismissed for lunch, Jasper debated on suffering through a silent meal with his siblings or escaping to the solitude of Edward’s car during the next hour. He only hesitated for a moment before he decided that refusing to cower applied to lunch as well.

Which was a terrible mistake. Because when Jasper had considered which option would be more bearable, seeing Alice seated alone at their usual table had not been one he’d foreseen.

“Just us today,” Alice grimaced when she saw Jasper approach. “They’re going to sit over there-“ Alice inclined her chin to an empty table on the opposite side of the cafeteria, “-but we clearly aren’t invited.”

Clearly.

Jasper grit his teeth as he sat. It was hard not to be angry with Alice. It would be so easy to blame her entirely for the mess he found himself in. But- Jasper blew a lock of his blonde hair off his face in a defeated huff- Jasper hadn’t seen any flaw in what Alice did until less than 48 hours before she did it. So it was also hard to stay angry with her. Especially as she was his only friend still interacting with him.

“Us rogue leeches have to stick together,” Alice gave Jasper a weak smile, apparently seeing the dissolution of his anger already.

“Are we rogue now?” Jasper asked her dully. He wished he could go back to two weeks ago when the table he was at now had been filled with his family and his...

His family and Harry.

“That’s what Harry called us this morning, I heard him in the hallway. He told Edward that he wasn’t going to let ‘two rogue magic stealing leeches’ drive him from Forks when he’d finally gotten moved out of remedial classes.”

Jasper’s lips twitched slightly, he’d forgotten that Harry was being moved to standard classes. Harry had worked hard for it, and Jasper was proud of him. Especially since he realized now that Harry’s poor education must not have been due to ignorance or a lack of trying, but he had probably studied at some type of school for magic instead of any human courses.

“Also Carlisle wrote him a letter saying Harry had been in the hospital the last couple of weeks,” Alice said, seeing that any Harry-related news would be welcomed by Jasper. “So Harry didn’t get demerits for missing while we... were gone,” she finished weakly. Jasper nodded his head in acknowledgment, but he went still as saw the rest of his siblings, and Harry, enter the cafeteria and claim the table Alice had indicated.

Jasper had never cursed his enhanced senses as much as he did in that moment. He was able to clearly hear as the human teenagers began gossiping in hushed whispers about why the Cullen’s weren’t sitting together.

”They always sit together!”

“You think they got in a fight?”

“I thought Harry and Alice were best friends?”

Jasper could even hear as one of the girls, the curly haired girl who occasionally spoke to Harry in the hallways and who had invited him to a party once, whispered a running commentary to the new girl seated beside her.

”The blonde over there is Jasper’s twin sister Rosalie, the beefy one beside her is Emmett. And they’re together, like together-together. It’s so weird. And the one with the red-tinted hair is Edward, he’s handsome, of course, but none of the girls here are good enough for him,” Jasper and Alice shared a small smile as they’d both heard the offended disdain in the human girls voice. “And the shorter one, with the gorgeous green eyes? That’s Harry, he’s British.”

Jasper clenched the table with his fist, unintentionally shredding the wood beneath his fingers, at the adoring tone the human girl took. He twisted in his seat to find her in the crowd, intent of feeling her emotions-

Lust.

“Ignore her,” Alice whispered quietly. Her calm emotions were soothing once Jasper used them to smother his flare of jealousy.

It didn’t matter if this one human girl was enthralled with Harry. He didn’t belong to Jasper.

“I’m going outside,” Jasper said shortly. He strode out of the cafeteria as quickly as he could without drawing attention. He didn’t even hesitate when he passed the table with the rest of his family and not a single one spared him a single glance. That didn’t mean it wasn’t particularly painful to be rejected by people he cares for so deeply, but as he wholly deserves it, he would accept it.

Jasper debated on returning to class for the day, but with the mood he was in he had no desire to punish himself further with the human emotions that were battering down on him. He assumed that Alice would see his decision to return home, but he went ahead scrawled a quick note in perfect penmanship and left it in Edwards car before darting to the tree line and running home.

By the time he arrived at his home, he felt ashamed. Had he not just decided to not hide away like a coward? Jasper had been the youngest Major in the United States history. He led human armies of hundreds of armed men straight in to battles they knew many wouldn’t survive. He led vampire armies twice that size in to battles ten times as bloody and vicious. Jasper fought in wars that would make the strongest of men weep in terror to even imagine. He’d personally killed more humans and immortals than the bubonic plague had.

And he was hiding.

Like a coward.

Luck was on his side in a sense though, as his house was empty and there was no one to witness this shameful cowardice. Carlisle was likely at work at the hospital, and Esme was either spending his lunch break with him or sitting in on one of the many charity board meetings she spends her time on.

Jasper hadn’t slept in nearly 170 years, but he felt incredibly weary. He spread himself across his red comforted bed and closed his eyes, pretending to rest. He breathed in and out deeply, his body finding no relief in the action but a psychological one in the familiar motions.

If he could sleep, would he dream?

Would he picture raven hair and glowing green eyes?

Would they be clouded with anger and pain or be light with joy and laughter?

Jasper laid there, a perfectly still statue, for hours that passed by quickly as he let his imagination run wild. He would have been content to lay there until he had to return to his personal purgatory the next morning, had it not been for a crunch of tires spinning too quickly in the drive. The low purr of the motor told him it had to be Edward’s car, though why he would he spinning back out of the drive, he couldn’t imagine.

He could feel someone’s emotions, Alice’s, loud and clear from his room-

Fear. Dread. Grief.

Jasper moved so quickly that it was merely a moment after deciding to do so, and he was in the drive by Alice’s side. Her round face was pinched and drawn and her eyes were unseeing as she faced the spot where Edward must have just left.

“Alice- what is it?” Jasper shook her shoulder in an attempt to decipher the danger she must see to look so horrified.

“It’s-“ Alice blinked once. “It’s Edward. He’s leaving.”

“What?” Jasper had been withdrawn in his mind when they arrived, and had missed sensing Edward’s emotions but him leaving clearly wasn’t a good sign. “What happened?”

“The new girl,” Alice spoke tonelessly, her eyes still looking at something Jasper couldn’t see. “Bella Swan. Edward’s- he- I- He was going to kill her.”

Jasper jerked away from Alice in surprise. Edward? Carlisle’s first son who had followed his vision so closely, aside from a few years of rebellion? Edward who had no patience for Jasper when he first began the lifestyle and struggled?

“Is he leaving to go kill her?” Jasper asked Alice rapidly. He had no attachment to this human, and he would never want to fight with his brother, but if protecting the girl meant not having to disappear from Forks, from Harry, then he’d do what needed to be done.

“No.” Alice blinked again and seemed to come back to the present when they both heard Rosalie’s car approach. “I didn’t see it until it was almost too late. He’s going to Tanya now. I don’t know what happened.”

Jasper tapered down on the unfair thought that the same brother who radiated disapproval so strongly this morning, and who ignored him throughout the day, was the one who ran away today.

Jasper and Alice stood still, side by side, as they waited for the rest of their siblings to arrive. Any feud, justified or not, was pushed to the sidelines when their family was in danger. And if Edward had even considered killing a human for a moment- there was a danger there.

The anxiety and stress streaming from Rosalie’s car in nearly visible waves was staggering. Though, once the car turned in the drive and Jasper heard the rapidly beating heart and cold scent of Harry’s blood, it was apparent that all three occupants were sharing the same emotions which is why it was coming on so strongly. Rosalie gripped the steering while in a grip so tight it must be sheer will alone that kept her from crushing it. Emmett was running a hand through his brown curls over and over, a nervous tick of his. And Harry was gnawing on his lip, silently watching as Rosalie skidded to a stop four inches from where Jasper stood.

“What. The. Hell. Was. That?” Rosalie hissed at Alice, the car door slamming as she exited. “Why did Harry say that Edward nearly killed that new girl?”

“I didn’t say nearly killed,” Harry said quietly as he once more climbed over the car door. “I just said his eyes went black and he looked ready to kill when we saw her.”

If Edward’s eyes had went black, it was a much closer call than Jasper had realized.

“Well?” Rosalie demanded from Alice.

“I don’t know,” Alice said. “I just- I was sitting in fifth hour and I thought I got a glimpse of Edward...” she glanced quickly at Harry and chose her words carefully, “Edward attacking Isabella Swan and leaving no witnesses-“

Alice had a vision of Edward murdering an entire room of children?

“-but that went white so I assumed Harry messed it up somehow, which is a good thing,” she told Harry quickly. “And then Edward’s future kept changing over and over until we finally left the school. He just slammed the car door and it suddenly changed to him going to Tanya’s.”

“He was going to kill her?” Harry asked. Jasper kept a curious eye on Harry as he seemed to pull himself up (determination.anger.protection.) and square his shoulders.

Apparently, Harry Potter was a defender of the weak. And in his confident stance and the determined set of his jaw, it was obvious that Harry Potter was also a soldier.

Jasper saw a gleam of strength coming from Harry’s eyes and he knew that for the rest of eternity he would never be happy without him.

Which made the fact that Harry was angry with him all the worse.

“Alice, is he going to try again?” Harry demanded. Everyone looked at Alice, who shook her head. Not in denial, but in an unsure response.

“I can’t see past Alaska,” she said. “I don’t understand, why Bella Swan?”

“Why indeed,” Jasper murmured thoughtfully. What could cause one small human to drive the most resolved of his siblings to decide, even for a fraction of a second, to kill a room full of human children?

“Maybe she just smells good,” Emmett shrugged. “But if he’s gone then no biggie, right?”

“Yes ‘biggie’,” Rosalie rolled her eyes at Emmett, but she relaxed as the immediate threat of exposure was gone. “If Edward was tempted to kill her, then she either smells like an all-you-can-eat buffet or he read something in her mind that puts us at risk.”

“Oh.” Harry had been listening intently, but he cut in now, “No that’s not it Rose. He can’t read her mind.”

“What?!”

The four vampires turned to Harry, their faces varying shades of surprised.

“Edward can’t read the girls mind?” Rosalie asked.

“No, he can’t,” Harry said confidently. “He told me so. When we went to try and switch his schedule and turn in my note from Doctor Cullen-“ (irritation.hurt.) “-he asked me if she was a witch because he couldn’t read her mind.”

“Is she?” Jasper asked. He hadn’t even considered that as an option. What if Harry wasn’t the last of the magical entities to move to Forks? He had a brief, and highly amusing, image of the tiny town just being overflowed by mythical beings.

And to think he’d once described Forks, Washington as ‘sleepy’.

“No, she’s not,” Harry answered Jasper, but he kept his gaze averted up towards the sky. “I introduced myself after classes and she didn’t react at all.” Harry shrugged, as if this was definite proof of the new students humanity.

“Kid, no offense, but is that meant to mean something to us?” Emmett ruffled Harry’s hair playfully.

“Not you guys, but trust me, if Bella was a witch she would have done more than just blink at me.”

Jasper considered that-

’I introduced myself and she didn’t react at all.’

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

He also recalled with perfect clarity Miss Granger’s remark during her charming threat-

’Harry is still one of the most universally well-liked people in our community.’

Was Harry Potter a name well-known amongst the magical community?

“So she’s not a witch and she’s not dead, yet,” Rosalie added. “What do we do?”

“Nothing.” Alice blinked rapidly and shook away the sight of the future in her mind. “Edward will be back in eight days and Bella Swan won’t be in danger until then.”

“Bella Swan won’t be in danger at all,” Harry said coolly. His eyes flashed (protection.) behind his glasses and his hand twitched towards the pocket that Jasper now knew held a wand. “You guys said you’re vegetarians, time to prove it.”

“You’re a pain in my ‘arse’,” Rosalie sighed fondly at Harry. “Of course you’d have some sort of hero complex for frail little humans. You know it’d be much easier to kill her.”

“No can do Rose. You can complain about my ‘saving people thing’ with Hermione sometime,” Harry grinned up at Rosalie despite the grief and guilt that Jasper knew he was feeling. “It drives her mad,” Harry said playfully.

Jasper once again felt his own jealousy at the easy way Rosalie and Harry interacted. Of course Harry’s magic would seal his relationship with Jasper’s sister- there was no more perfect of a resolution to her. She could keep Harry with zero threat to his mortality. This was her ideal situation.

“You staying or leaving Potter?” Emmett asked, his interest in the conversation gone now that they had all been reassured of at least eight days of peace.

“Er-“ Harry glanced warily at Jasper for just a moment (regret.longing-EMBARRASSMENT.) Leaving,” Harry said.

“May I drive you?”

Rosalie was in Jasper’s face in an instant, her features twisted with rage at his question.

“You absolutely-“

“Yeah, alright.”

Rosalie spun around to Harry and her features softened to a more maternal sense of exasperation to match her emotions.

“Harry I can drive you,” she said patiently. “This thing with Edward doesn’t mean you have to do something you don’t want.”

“I’m fine Rose,” Harry gave Rosalie a warm smile of appreciation. “But... but if you wanted to pick me up again tomorrow that’d be wicked.” Rosalie laughed and agreed quickly.

“Text me when you wake up,” she told him. “And you-“ she spun around and shoved a sharp nail in Jasper’s chest, a move that raised his hackles immediately. “Better keep your damn mouth to yourself.”

Jasper grit his teeth. He was reaching the limits of his patience with Rosalie. Harry’s anger was justified, Rosalie’s was beginning to already grow tedious.

“We can take Alice’s car,” Jasper told Harry. “I’ll pull it around.”

Jasper fled to the garage, moving his normal speed as there was no further need to hide anything from Harry. He rolled his eyes as Rosalie whispered harsh instructions to Harry to burn him if he ‘made one wrong move’.

Rosalie was definitely growing tedious.

Jasper pulled the unassuming Mercedes around and waited patiently for Harry to say goodbye to Rosalie and Emmett, merely glowering at Alice’s softly spoken goodbye.

Jasper could empathize with Alice (regret. remorse. love.) but if Harry was willing to at least accept a ride from Jasper, an unneeded one as they had witnessed when he disappeared from Cairo, then Jasper wasn’t going to diminish that on Alice’s behalf.

Harry climbed in the car and slung his backpack to the floor by his feet. He pulled his wand from his pocket and gave Jasper a significant look as he placed it on his lap, his fingers loosely curled around it.

“Rose says I should ignore you for at least the rest of the year, but I think it’s crummy to just pretend someone doesn’t exist (pain.) so I figured we could talk,” Harry said as soon as Jasper turned out of the driveway. “But just so you know, I’m still mad.”

“I understand,” Jasper said. Harry’s emotions didn’t feel mad, they were more wistful, but he assumed this was a bad time to point that out. “I appreciate you talking to me. I would deserve it if you didn’t.”

“Well I have a few questions,” Harry said. “And I figured you probably do too. Not that I’ll answer,” Harry said hastily. “Depends on what they are.”

Jasper kept a straight face as he watched the trees blur behind them and nodded.

“I don’t want to keep secrets from you,” he said truthfully. “And there’s no reason to now. Ask away.”

“You can feel people’s emotions?” Harry asked immediately (anxiety.embarrassment.). “Why- how does that work?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Jasper said, hoping like hell that Rosalie hadn’t made his ability to sound as sinister as Harry’s anxiety made him think she did. “Carlisle believes that some of our human characteristics are amplified after we’re reborn. You know about Alice and Edward- Alice likely always had a good idea of what was coming next, very vigilant and alert to the future. Edward probably was able to read people very well as a human. And I had a gift of understanding human emotions and influencing them.”

“And now you- what? Just feel what everyone around you is feeling?” Harry asked. “And you can change their emotions too, can’t you? Just make them pissed off or happy or... or whatever?”

“If I choose to,” Jasper said with blunt honesty. “Though I typically try and reserve that for special circumstances.”

“What would you consider a ‘special circumstance’?”

Jasper turned to look Harry in the eyes, willing him to believe what he said, “I won’t lie to you. I’ve changed your emotions before (fury.). But never in a way to manipulate your decisions,” Jasper said quickly as Harry’s hand clenched on his wand. “Only to help you relax on occasion.”

“If you ever do that without my permission again I will never speak to you for the rest of your existence,” Harry said curtly.

“Never without permission,” Jasper agreed without hesitation. “Though I’m afraid that your emotions are incredibly loud and I couldn’t stop sensing them if I tried.”

“Brilliant,” Harry scowled. “So what? I’m just constantly screaming emotions at you?”

“Hmm,” Jasper tried to think of a way to explain it that Harry would understand. “It’s more like... like I’m being attacked by a persons perfume. Your perfume is called ‘Harry’, and I can sense the specific emotions, or scents for this analogy, within it. I know it’s your unique perfume, and I can easily pick out the makeup of that perfume. Does that make sense?” Jasper looked away from the road again to watch as Harry thought that over.

“So... you’re saying I have my own perfume of emotions and instead of lavender and vanilla it’s just happy or mad or whatever?”

“Exactly.” It was an exceedingly simple overview of his gift, but sufficient to explain it. “And just as I could never not smell a persons perfume, I can’t not sense their emotions either.”

“I don’t know which is worse, you or Edward,” Harry shook his head. “Actually I do, it’s you. I can block Edward, but I doubt I can you.”

“You can purposefully block Edward?” Jasper asked curiously. “Is it a magic spell?”

Harry let out a bark of laughter, which made Jasper smile slightly even as he was sure he was the one being laughed at.

“It’s not a ‘magic spell’,” Harry chuckled again as he repeated Jasper’s phrase. “It’s called occlumency (GRIEF.agony.pain.GRIEF.) and I’m crap at it.”

“Edward can’t read your mind very well, so you must not be too terrible at it,” Jasper said. He wished very much that he was in a position to ask Harry about why his emotions flared to strongly at the most obscure of topics.

“Huh.” Harry seemed surprised by that and tapped the dash with his index finger for a moment. “That would have been handy a few years ago,” he said quietly as the grief and guilt in him threatened to choke Jasper.

“Why are you feeling guilty?” Jasper blurted, desperate to push Harry out of the grief, but not allowed to use his gift. His blunt question worked though, because Harry’s emotions immediately switched to embarrassment, shame, annoyance.

“Yeah you’re definitely worse than Edward,” Harry scowled.

“I can’t help it any more than you can help being magic,” Jasper said. He pulled the silver car in to Harry’s driveway and took it as a good sign that Harry didn’t immediately leap out. “Or can you?” Jasper asked. He was incredibly curious to learn as much as he could about magic and Harry’s life as a wizard, but he hoped it would come with time.

“Well I can’t bite someone and make them a wizard,” Harry gave him a nasty look here as a pointed reminder of Jasper’s own transgression “It’s genetic, I guess. But sometimes it doesn’t pass along and then babies are born as squibs.”

“I truly am sorry Harry,” Jasper caught Harry’s eyes and held them evenly. If he only had this one chance to explain his actions and apologize, he would do it right to those green eyes like a man. “I felt your misery, your loneliness, and how happy you were when you were with m- my family,” he’d almost said ‘me’, but caught himself in time. “I thought that you would be happy if you could be a part of our family without any need for secrets. I thought I knew what was best for you, and I was not only arrogant and selfish, but wrong as well.”

Harry kept looking in Jasper’s eyes as his emotions flicked rapidly, Jasper only sensed them as he was already changing them.

“Rose said that you guys only didn’t tell me right away because then I had to either be turned or killed, is that true?”

“It is,” Jasper said. At least Rosalie had said at least one thing in his defense. “If I told you what I was then there wouldn’t have been an option to change you. That is the only reason you weren’t told the very first chance I had.”

“I should have known,” Harry scrunched his nose up. “You lot are too good looking to be muggles.”

The edge of Jasper’s lips curled up as Harry described him as ‘too good looking to be a muggle’. “And muggles are humans?” he clarified. He had assumed so, based on the context of which he’d heard the word twice now.

“Muggles are people without magic, so yeah, normal humans.”

“Are you a ‘normal wizard’?” Jasper asked. He didn’t think he was, he’s fairly confident that Harry must be either very powerful or very important, or both, but he had no real way to confirm that theory without Harry telling him.

“No,” Harry laughed joylessly as his emotions turned bitter and swirled with self-loathing. “I never got to be normal. I’m stuck being Harry Potter forever.”

Jasper saw the opening for the question he had been burning to ask since he first saw the red sparks fly from Harry’s wand.

“So wizards are like us? If you’re born a wizard then you live forever?”

(agony.angst.grief.anger.)

“No,” Harry said, his voice tight. “No we don’t all live forever.”

“Don’t all? Does that mean some of you do?”

(TORMENT.)

“Yeah. Some do.”

Harry didn’t elucidate and Jasper didn’t push him. He tried not to get his hopes up, it would be hardly more than he deserved, but Harry did say ‘some do’.

“I’m gonna go,” Harry shoved his wand in his pocket and snatched his bag off the floorboard. “Er... will you text me if Alice see’s Edward come back sooner?”

“Of course,” Jasper agreed easily. “Thank you for talking to me.”

“Well,” Harry gave him a crooked grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes, “I was hoping that maybe you’re just stupid and bad at making plans instead of being an evil scumbag.”

“I’m incredibly stupid,” Jasper chuckled. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Harry nodded and was nearly to his door when Jasper had a thought.

“Harry?” he rolled his window down and called out to the brilliant wizard walking away from him.

“Yeah?”

“I said I’d text you if Alice sees Edward come back early, and I will, but am I still able to text you other times as well?”

Harry seemed to stare right in to the soul that Jasper questioned the existence of as he stood in the drizzling rain beside his porch and looked in to Jasper’s eyes. Jasper wondered if this is what it would feel like to be judged one day after a death that he would never plan on receiving.

“Alright then,” Harry finally said. “You can.”

“Alright then.”