Green & Gold

Do wizards have normal human diets?

We like treacle tart and the souls of pixies.

Are pixies real too??

Yeah but they’re mean as hell. When were you born?

1834

That’s old.

I have the immortal body of a 19yo and the soul of a 170yr old.

When’s your birthday?

I don’t remember. Summertime I think. Do you know every magic spell?

LAWL. I don’t even know how to answer that. But no. Probably not.

It’s ‘LOL’, and your turn.

Do you have a lot of vampire friends?

Outside of my family? No. I have two, Peter and Charlotte. Are you trying to sleep or have you given up?

That’s your question?

It is.

Given up. How fast can you run?

Faster than you can drive your car.

Seriously?

Want to race little wizard?

Harry hadn’t been able to think of a real reason not to, and he was interested in seeing how fast Jasper could run, so he texted back:

You’re on leech.

When Harry pulled up to school later that morning, he was wide awake. Jasper hadn’t been kidding when he said that he could run faster than Harry’s car could move. When the needle on Harry’s dashboard hit 110 and Jasper was barely in the lead, Harry had felt exhilarated. He was annoyed that he lost, of course, but it had been brilliant just pushing his gas pedal down as hard as it could and flying down the open road as the sun was beginning to rise.

“Next time I’m using magic, we’ll see who wins then,” Harry muttered to Jasper when they’d gotten to school. They didn’t finish racing until six, so Jasper had just waited around at Harry’s until it was time to leave for school. Rose didn’t look too impressed when they pulled up together in Harry’s car, but Harry knew she’d get over it quick.

“Whatever you say Harry.” Jasper gave him a bright smile over his shoulder as they split up for their separate classes.

It was a smile that had Harry distracted clear to his fourth hour class. It was only the sight of Charlie Swan’s daughter hunched over her desk, a curtain of wavy brown hair blocking her face, that Harry remembered his plan for the day.

Harry quickly took the empty seat beside her and nodded when she looked up at his arrival.

“Hello,” he said politely, if a bit stiffly.

“Hello.” Bella had a low voice, one Harry thought she made lower by the soft and shy tone she spoke in. “You’re Harry, right?”

“Yeah. We’re actually neighbors,” Harry told her.

“Oh!” Bella sat up straighter and recognition animated her face making her brown eyes a bit more alert and warm. “You’re ‘that Potter kid’ then? Char- my dad talked about you.”

“Oh.” Harry didn’t know what to say to that so he just shrugged, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Bella smiled tentatively. “He says you’re a bad fishermen and a worse driver.”

“Well he’s never given me a ticket,” Harry pointed out as the bell rang to signal the start of class.

“Chief Swan plays favorites,” Bella whispered conspiratorially.

Harry didn’t have a reply for that either, especially since he suspected it was true, so he just shrugged and turned so he was facing the teacher.

He didn’t really have much of a plan here. He knew that yesterday when Edward crushed the desk in biology and his eyes turned pitch black that it had something to do with Bella. Harry had spent the entire class period clutching his wand and preparing himself to stop Edward from killing Bella if he even sniffed in her direction. Edward had looked strained and furious all through the class period, never relaxing his tightly wound muscles once. But he made it through the class, and when he rushed out to apparently try and get his schedule changed, Harry caught up to turn in his ‘sick note’, Edward looked possessed. He’d frantically told Harry he couldn’t read her mind, asking if she was a witch, and Harry had admitted he wasn’t sure. But then they ran in to her again, in the administrators office, and Edward fled again, so Harry very awkwardly made an excuse for him and introduced himself.

Harry wasn’t the arrogant toerag that some people thought he was- but he did know that he’d never once introduced himself to a single witch or wizard that didn’t have some sort of reaction to his name. Even the foreign students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had known of the Boy-Who-Lived. But Bella just blinked normally and gave him a polite greeting.

So, no. Bella Swan wasn’t a witch. She was just a normal girl, if a bit boring and plain, who was almost killed by a vampire for no better reason than Emmett’s guess that ‘she smelled really good’. And Harry wasn’t okay with that.

The only real plan he’d made was to try and be friendly with her so that it was easier to protect her from Edward if needed. And as awkward as that conversation had been, it was a step in the right direction.

His ‘plan’ now in progress, Harry absently copied the information from the WWI PowerPoint his teacher went over while he thought about Jasper.

He hadn’t really planned on talking to him again so soon. He supposed this was just more proof of his idiocy to give too many chances to people who may not deserve them... Except...

Except he thought maybe Jasper did and it wasn’t just because Harry privately found him rather good looking.

Before Egypt, Harry would have said Jasper was his best friend. They’d done tons of things together and always had a good time. Jasper was both good at keeping up conversations and good at listening. And Jasper’s apology had seemed genuine. Harry would have to explain to him at some point that he never wanted someone to keep something from him because they ‘thought it was the best thing for him’-

’And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die.’

‘So the boy... the boy must die?’

-because frankly Harry had enough of that in his life already.

Harry had also realized, standing in the middle of the Cullen’s as they planned on protecting each other from danger, that... well... these may be the only people in the world whose funerals he’d never have to attend. He could hardly be mad at Jasper for wanting to make Harry immortal when Harry had spent more nights than he could count in Grimmauld Place considering which of his friends he would keep around forever if he could (he was pretty sure it would be Ron, only because an immortal Hermione would probably learn enough magic to eventually become the next unstoppable Dark Lord and Harry didn’t really care to do that twice).

His magnanimous attitude towards Jasper hasn’t stretched out to Alice just yet since it was her actual teeth right at his neck.

He knew he’d probably forgive her, she probably knew it too, but it didn’t have to be today.

Or maybe it would.

Because Harry came in the cafeteria after fourth hour with Jasper and went to sit at the new table he’d claimed with Rose, Emmett, and Edward yesterday and saw Alice sitting by herself, her head bent over morosely and her shoulders slumped.

“You know you’re being played, right?” Rose asked when Harry sighed and turned to go to Alice’s table.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure,” Harry shrugged. It didn’t matter if Alice was being dramatic though. He wasn’t going to let Alice just sit by herself while he sat with her siblings. Harry knew how it felt to sit alone, feeling friendless, and it was miserable. So they sat down and Alice looked up, her eyes were round with what Harry was positive was fake surprise.

“Oh, are you guys sitting here?” she blinked innocently at him.

The edge of Harry’s lips twitched at her performance, it was very good.

“You didn’t see this happening?” he asked.

Alice smiled at him, and Harry knew he was going to have to forgive her too.

“I didn’t know if it was a vision or a dream,” she said sweetly as she fluttered her eyelashes theatrically causing the rest of them to snicker.

Alice caught Harry’s eye mid-way through lunch and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ and he went ahead and forgave her. Alice was one of the few people who Harry wouldn’t outlive, what was a few second chances when compared to that?

***

Are there more magical creatures besides pixies?

More than I can list in one text.

What’s the craziest one you’ve ever encountered?

I fought a dragon once.

YOU FOUGHT A DRAGON?!

Technically I outflew a dragon, but it was definitely trying to fight me so it counts. I flew on one once too. Do you really sparkle in the sunlight?

Yes, but let’s go back to the fighting a dragon thing.

It was for a contest.

Did you win?

I’m gonna try and sleep, see you in the morning.

During the time Edward was in Alaska, life had improved drastically in Harry’s opinion. He was spending more and more time at the Cullen house, being almost constantly grilled on magic by the intensely curious vampires. Carlisle especially was fascinated by all things magic and his enthusiastic questions reminded Harry of Arthur Weasley when he was asking about muggle stuff.

Harry got to watch as Emmett and Jasper fought and rough housed, no longer hiding their speed and strength from him in the privacy of their property. He was impressed as Jasper easily dispatched his much larger brother over and over again. Emmett was clearly stronger, but Jasper was faster and smarter. Harry hadn’t noticed it before then, but Jasper was a natural fighter. In fact, Harry thought that Jasper could be a natural killer if he wanted to.

Harry had teased Emmett when they were done though, ‘razzing’ him for losing, and generally being annoying.

“You’re not even scary,” Harry laughed at him. “Some vampire you are. I bet I could beat you.”

Emmett smiled sharply and cracked his knuckles, “Game on little brother.”

Which was just the response Harry wanted.

The entire family came outside to watch, with various expressions on their perfectly pale faces.

“Don’t hurt him,” Esme told Emmett sternly.

“As if Harry’s not about to kick his ass,” Rose laughed.

“We’ll see about that.” Emmett growled threateningly, but Harry liked his chances.

Jasper didn’t say anything, he just nodded at Harry from the sidelines, his hands in his pockets and his eyes glittering.

Harry felt a bead of sweat trail down his neck once he pulled his wand out. He hadn’t been in a fight, playful or not, since-

’AVADA KEDAVRA!’

‘EXPELLIARMUS!’

-since a while anyway.

But when Emmett grinned at him, resembling a bear with his muscles flexing and his teeth bared, Harry relaxed.

This wasn’t a fight to the death with a wizard. Nobody was going to die if Harry lost. He didn’t even have to win, he could lose and still go home later that night perfectly safe.

“Let’s see what you’ve got kid.”

So Harry showed him.

The two of them fought for longer than Harry thought they would. Emmett was surprisingly difficult to hit with a spell; what he lacked in magic he more than made up for with speed. Emmett darted around from Harry’s spells, occasionally growling or grunting when Harry got him with something harmless, and it took Harry an embarrassingly long time to realize Emmett took the same path towards Harry each time.

When he realized that Emmett was going to charge him head on every single time- it was over with.

”Levicorpus!” Harry flicked his wand at the space in front of him that he was sure Emmett would be in and let out a loud whoop when it hit his mark. The other vampires all laughed when Emmett was hoisted in the air, snarling as he dangled by his ankle.

“Amazing!” Carlisle said. He waved his hand through the air where Emmett was dangling and his smile grew when he couldn’t feel anything. “Absolutely amazing!”

“I told you he’d win,” Rose said smugly to her husband.

“Rematch, Potter,” Emmett grunted.

Harry flicked his wand and smiled blandly when Emmett caught himself with an impressive flip and landed on his feet.

“Anytime, any place,” Harry sang.

Jasper ran up to Harry and threw his arm across Harry’s shoulders.

“That was incredible,” he smiled down at Harry and the small ray of sunlight beaming from the sky gave his face a faint shimmer and made his honey hair glow almost as brightly as his smile. Harry wholeheartedly agreed with him.

It was incredible.

Harry was also slowly working on being friendly with Bella Swan, but so far that just consisted of greetings in the classes they shared. Mike Newton, one of their fellow juniors that Harry was on a casual first name basis with, gave Harry a dirty look every time Bella gave Harry a friendly smile in biology or gym, but Harry just scowled right back. If Mike wanted Bella to talk and smile to him maybe he should go talk to her instead of drooling on their shared desk from behind where Bella sat.

Charlie Swan had stopped by Harry’s house a few days after Bella started at Forks and invited him to dinner. The invite wasn’t unusual, as they’d gone to eat at Patsy’s usually once or twice a month since Harry first moved in, but this time he invited Harry to his house for dinner.

Which had been bloody awkward. Because Charlie did not tell Bella that he invited Harry over.

“Hey Dad- oh. Hey.” Bella was in the kitchen frying something on the stove, fish from the looks of it, and she paused when Harry very awkwardly followed behind Charlie to the warm yellow painted kitchen.

“Hello,” Harry lifted a hand in greeting and cringed at his own lack of social skills. He wished he was more like Ron. Ron could make friends with anyone. Tiny weird kid with messy hair and broken glasses sitting by himself on a train? Instant friends. Besides his obvious crush on Hermione before they got together, Harry doubted if Ron had ever been in a socially awkward situation in his life. It was a real talent that Harry envied.

“Bells, this is Harry,” Charlie pushed Harry towards an empty chair at their scruffy dining table. “Harry, this is my daughter I told you about.”

Bella rolled her eyes at her dad before she turned back to the stove. “I told you we have a few classes together dad.”

“Well you didn’t say if you’d introduced yourselves so I figured I would.” Charlie sat down across from Harry and sniffed. “Smells good, is that fish fry?”

Harry then proceeded to have the most uncomfortable meal ever. Charlie didn’t seem to feel any pressure to make conversation, he just occasionally made little comments here and there while Bella and Harry looked equally confused about Harry’s presence in their kitchen. It wasn’t until Harry desperately looked out the window for something to do and saw the truck sitting in their driveway.

“Is that Jake’s truck?” He was pretty sure the odds of there being two trucks that big, that rusted, and that sturdy looking were slim, but he wasn’t sure why it would be at Charlie’s house either.

“Yup. Got it for Bella,” Charlie said. “Jake seemed happy to get rid of it.”

“I bet,” Harry grinned. “Billy’s gonna have to let him rebuild that car in his garage now that they don’t have the truck.” Charlie chuckled and Bella’s brows furrowed together for a moment.

“Do you know the Black’s?” she asked Harry.

“Yeah. Billy’s my uncle and Jake’s my cousin.”

“That makes sense, you guys look quite a bit alike,” Bella smiled and Harry had laughed at her sarcasm.

After that it felt like the awkward tension had broken. Harry helped Bella wash dishes and she talked a little about books she liked (‘the classics’ whatever that meant) and music she liked (she did not like Nickleback so Harry was beginning to suspect that Jasper had been right about most people not liking them). She also casually brought up Edward’s behavior on her first day.

“So, is your friend sick? I haven’t seen him since the day I upset him.”

“Who?” Harry grabbed the plate in her hands to dry it. “You mean Edward?”

“Yeah.” Bella sounded casual but Harry could hear the curiosity in her voice so he tried to think quickly.

“You didn’t upset him,” he lied. “He got some bad news at lunch and had to go stay with his aunt. She’s sick.”

Bella looked skeptical, but accepted his answer without too many questions.

As soon as Harry left that evening, he sent a hasty text in ‘the mystical beings group chat’ (as Alice named it) letting the others know what story he used for Edward’s disappearance.

Emmett responded: ‘Wow kid you’re a natural liar.’ Which was both rude and flattering.

The day that Edward returned, Harry had a text from Rose before school:

E’s back. He’s coming back to school today.

Harry had grimaced down at his phone and made sure he had his wand on him when he left. He didn’t want to be in a fight with one of his friends, but he’d burn Edward to ashes before he let him kill an innocent girl.

But he really, really, hoped it didn’t come to that.

“Hey Harry,” Jasper slowly put his hand on Harry’s elbow and led him a little away from the rest of his family after lunch. The Cullen and Hale siblings had been on edge all day and it was grating on Harry’s nerves. They all looked and acted as if a war was going to break out at any minute and it was resulting in Harry flinching for his wand every time one of them even moved.

“What’s up?” Jasper looked uncharacteristically nervous as he waited for a group of students to pass before he spoke next.

“You have your magic wand?” he whispered. Harry grinned at Jasper’s odd term but he nodded solemnly, not sure where this was going.

“Good.” Jasper let out a small sigh. “Alice says that the rest of today looks fine, but... but would you do me a favor?”

“Depends on what it is,” Harry said carefully.

Jasper bent down until his mouth was right beside Harry’s ear, uncomfortably making Harry realize how much taller and fitter he was. He also smelled good. Which made Harry blush when he had the thought and he tried to think of something else before Jasper caught that emotion.

“If anything happens, can you disappear back home?” Jasper whispered. “Just because you don’t smell like food doesn’t mean he won’t try and hurt you if he gets caught up in bloodlust.”

Harry pulled back from Jasper and tapped his pocket with a pointed look.

“You’ll probably figure this out eventually, but I’m hard to hurt,” he smirked. “And I’m not going to disappear when someone innocent might get hurt. Especially not if I can help.”

Jasper looked a bit exasperated, but also almost approving. “If anything happens just scream and I’ll come help as well.”

It wasn’t until Harry was seated next to Mike in Biology that afternoon that he realized why Jasper’s statement had been swirling around in his thoughts.

Jasper hadn’t said it like Harry would need help because he couldn’t handle it; he said it as if they were equals who would handle it together.

Harry watched as Edward made polite small talk with Bella and realized that he’d never actually had anyone who considered him an equal. People who knew him either thought he was amazing or horrible. He was revered or hated. But Jasper thought that ‘just Harry’ was his equal; a partner in a crisis.

It was nice.

***

Who changed you?

Her name was Maria.

Was? Is she dead now?

She’s dead to me.

Oh.

Can you really fly?

Yeah on a broomstick.

Can I see?

I don’t fly anymore. But maybe next time I go to Ron’s you can watch him and Ginny fly. They’re amazing.

You’d take me to go meet them?

Why not?

Your turn little wizard.

Okay leech, what’s your favorite animal to snack on? Do they taste different?

They all have different flavors of the same overall taste. I ate a cheetah in Africa once, I think it was the best meal I’d had.

Probably hardest meal to catch too. Your turn.

Are you famous?

LOL. Goodnight Jasper.

Goodnight Harry.