Excentryke's Musings

Title: Secret Agent Man
Author: ExcentrykeMuse
Fandoms: Harry Potter Series / Twilight Saga
Pairings: Charlie Swan/Harry Potter
Rating: PG
Word Count: 5.2k
Warnings: minor homophobia, Edward is being Edward, we don’t like Edward, Bella isn’t paired with anyone (sorry, not sorry)
Author’s note: Harry was born in 1980 making him 25 in 2005 when Twilight takes place.  Bella is 17, Charlie would be about 35/36.  Scorpius Malfoy is born in 2006. Also, gay marriage wasn’t legalized in the United States until June 26, 2015.
Prompt for Rebecca who wanted Harry Potter/Charlie Swan. A Harry who is not having vampires around his stepdaughter and a Charlie in the know but has also fallen out with the Tribe due to them not liking Harry (because of his magic?)

Secret Agent Man

Bella groaned.  Charlie had to pick her up at the Port Angeles airport in his cruiser.  He tried to give her a hug, but she shied away from it.  That wasn’t much like him anyway.

“Where’s your new girlfriend?” Bella asked as they were driving down the winding road to Forks.  She knew that Charlie had a new woman in his life.  Renee had been complaining about it, saying Charlie had only done it to make her jealous.  In Bella’s mind it had certainly worked.  A week after Charlie had started dating his “mysterious someone,” Renee had agreed to marry her current boyfriend—Phil—in order to one up Charlie.

Charlie seemed a little uncomfortable.  “Back at the house,” he admitted, “getting dinner ready.  Um, he cooks.”  He was decidedly looking at the road.

At first, Bella didn’t catch it.

The new girlfriend cooked.  That was great.  That meant Bella wouldn’t have to.  Then it clicked in her head.  He cooked.  He.

Bella swung around.  “You’re dating a man?” she gasped.

Charlie whistled between his teeth.  “That’s right,” he admitted.  “His name’s Harry.  I didn’t tell your mom because I didn’t want her to go on about how she was so good she’d made me gay.”  He rolled his eyes but kept his gaze on the road.

Bella considered this.  Charlie hadn’t had, to Bella’s knowledge, a single girlfriend all of Bella’s life.  Harry was the first—significant other.

“Did Mom make you gay?” Bella asked, confused.

Charlie did not even glance at her.  “Nope.”  Just a one word answer.  The silence stretched between them.  Bella wasn’t going to get anything out of him.

“Well,” Bella tried, “how did you meet?  You and—Harry?”

“Harry’s an agent for Interpol.”  Bella blinked.  What?  “There is a family in the area that is on probation and Harry has been sent to make sure they stay in line.”

“Is that usual?”

“In extreme criminal cases,” Charlie allowed, turning onto a side road.  “Everyone thinks he’s one of the bakers at ‘Just One Bagel’ though.  No letting on at school.”

“So, Harry’s law enforcement.”

“Yep.” Charlie popped his ‘p.’  He was definitely happy and trying to hide it.

“That’s how you met then.  He came over and informed you—or—whatever.”

“Exactly,” Charlie agreed.  “Officially, I went to the bakery and he flirted the hell out of me and he moved in less than a week later.”

Bella’s eyebrows shot up.  This Harry moved in less than a week later?  Really?  He must really be something.

“Who’s his target?” Bella asked, hoping she’d get an answer.

“That’s for me to know and you to wonder,” Charlie told her.  “He’s not the first agent Interpol has sent, but he’s certainly lasted the longest.”

“How long has it been?”

“Nearly a year.”

They were now turning down the road where the house was.

“And if he goes back?” Bella asked carefully.

“Well, then Harry and me will be having a conversation,” Charlie told her, parking the cruiser next to a green Ford pick up truck that looked like it couldn’t have more than three thousand miles on it.  “That’s from Harry.”

Bella looked over in confusion.  “What’s from Harry?”

“The truck.  He thought you might not like me dropping you off at school.  He cycles to the bakery and nearly everywhere around town.  That’s why he got you a truck, in case he ever needs to put his bike in the back.”  He waggled his eyebrows at Bella.  “Be nice.”

“I’ll be nice,” she promised, hopping out of the car.

“None of this ‘marriage is only between a man and a woman’ crap your mom likes to pull,” Charlie told her.  “I will not have you disrespect Harry in my house.”

Bella put up her hands in surrender.  “Didn’t even cross my mind, Charlie,” she promised.  “We had a lesbian couple in eleventh grade.”

“How progressive of you,” Charlie snorted, walking her inside.

The house smelled heavenly, like freshly baked bread and simmering cheese.  “Is that homemade garlic bread?” Bella asked, shoving her bag to the side as she walked into the small kitchen.

A tall man with messy black hair and glasses was just now opening the oven and pulling out a tray of cheesy garlic bread.  “Oh, hi, Bella!” he greeted, quickly setting down his tray.  Bella got a quick look at him.  This man was too good looking for her dad even with a scar poking out on his forehead.  He didn’t look like the James Bond type in his low slung jeans and battered henley, but he was definitely out of Renee’s league as well.  And he was British.  Interpol had sent someone who was British with a hot accent and everything.

“H-How old are you?” Bella stuttered, her brain not exactly kick starting at the gorgeous man in the kitchen.

“Twenty-five.”  He shrugged.  “A little young for Charlie, admittedly, but age is just a number.”  He went back to the stove and began to stir around what looked like pasta carbonara.  “I did hear a rumor Phil Dwyer is twenty-seven.”

“He-He is,” Bella admitted, blushing.  She pushed her long hair behind an ear, uncertain exactly what she should say.

“Not your type?” Harry asked, looking over and grinning.  “Too much of a sports player?”

“Mom was upset with Phil having to travel so much.  I thought I would give them space,” she defended.

“I thought I’d get out of London,” Harry told her, now placing the garlic bread in a bread basket Bella never thought she’d see in her dad’s house.  “It was getting too crowded there.  Everyone wanted me to marry my best friend Ron’s younger sister.  They had it all tied up in a bow.”  He shrugged.  “I’d never much fancied girls.  For me it was always Beauxbatons students.”

Bella could hear Charlie come down the stairs.  “Are you telling her about how you were in love with foreign exchange students?”

Harry winked at her.  “Only the boys,” he promised in a whisper before taking the carbonara off the stove.  “Dinner!” he called.

Charlie came in and kissed Harry lightly in such casual affection that it confused Bella, but she quickly went and washed her hands before sitting down at the table.

What Bella hadn’t been expecting was for Harry to share a room with Charlie.  It should have been obvious.  They were living together and there were only two bedrooms in the small house.  One was obviously for her, which Harry had decorated in blues and greens, which she appreciated.

The first day of school, she was all shiny and pretty to the other kids—except for Edward Cullen who looked at her as if she smelled.

Harry was at the house when she got home, it seemed like his shift at the bakery ended at 2pm, and he asked her how it was.

“Cullen was a little weird,” she admitted.

“Which Cullen?” he asked, his voice trying but failing to sound casual.

“Edward Cullen.”

“What did he do?”

“I had to sit next to him in Biology,” Bella explained, “and he acted as if I smelled bad the entire time.”

“Smelled—bad?”

“Yes.”  Bella came and sat next to Harry on the couch.  “I even smelled my hair to check.”

“Huh.”  Harry looked uncomfortable for a minute but then forced himself to relax.

Bella was quiet for a few minutes, just letting Harry thumb through a magazine, when she admitted, “Everyone was gossiping about them.”

“The Cullens?”

“Yeah.”

“It is odd how Dr. and Mrs. Cullen adopted all those children.  It’s like me—practically being your stepfather with our small age difference.”

“—Yes,” Bella agreed.

“But we have Charlie in the picture to make it legit,” Harry was now saying.  He turned the page.

Bella looked at the magazine.  It seemed to be for brooms.  How odd.  Maybe Harry was really into housework.

“They’re all—together,” Bella now said carefully.  “Together together.  The Cullen children and the Hale kids.”

Harry’s eyes flicked up to her.  “All except Edward, I’ve heard.  What do the kids say to that?”

Bella blushed.  “I’m pretty sure Jessica wants to be his girlfriend even though he probably turned her down based on what she said.”

“Perhaps Jessica is better off given that he thinks your strawberry shampoo smells bad.”  Harry raised his eyebrows.  “Odd, that.”

When Edward Cullen wasn’t in school the next day or the next, it was Harry that Bella told.  It was kind of—weird.  He was definitely Charlie’s househusband: cleaning, cooking, even making Bella’s bed for her… but he seemed more like the big brother that Bella never had.  Perhaps it was because they were so close in age and he didn’t grope Charlie in front of her (unlike Renee and Phil who would have massive make out sessions in Bella’s direct line of sight). 

“Three days?” Harry asked, this time checking a roast in the oven. 

Bella was sitting at the kitchen table doing her homework.  “And all the Cullens just kind of—look at me from across the parking lot,” Bella admitted.

“Huh,” Harry wondered before he took off his oven mitts and sat down next to Bella.  He waited a moment before he admitted, “I contacted my—counterpart in Alaska and Edward’s gone up there.”

Bella gazed at him in horror.  “The Cullens are the crime family that’s on probation?” she whispered although there was no one to hear them.

Harry slowly nodded.  “Their—relatives, who are also in the business—are hiding out in Alaska.  Edward Cullen has gone up there.  He’s been sighted.”

“Why’d he go up there?” Bella wondered.

“My counterpart is keeping her ear to the ground,” Harry promised.  “Our mandate is to observe, not to infiltrate.  We’re not going to get it from the,” (and here he hesitated) “horse’s mouth, so to speak.”

Bella leaned closer.  “Why is England involved?  We’re in Washington State.  They’re American.”

“Carlisle Cullen is English.  His hometown is London,” Harry told her carefully.  “Besides, I work for an international organization that has targets across the globe.  I could easily have been posted to Tunisia.”

Bella blinked.  “But if you’d gone to Tunisia, you’d never have met Charlie.”

Harry smiled to himself.  “That’s true.  Charlie was unexpected.  I never expected to date one of the locals.”

Nudging him, Bella told him wryly, “He is law enforcement, too.”

Laughing, Harry grinned.  “That he is.—Never thought I’d go for another officer.”  He waggled his eyebrows at Bella.  “Any of the high school guys catch your eye yet?”

“No,” Bella sighed.

“There’s time yet,” Harry promised.  “At your age, I was in the closet lusting after a boy who bullied me.”

“Bullied you?”  Bella honestly couldn’t see it.

“We were nasty to each other,” Harry qualified, “always getting in fights.  It was probably hormones, now, come to think of it.  He’s married with a child on the way.”

Bella lifted an eyebrow.  “Keeping track of an old flame?”

“Not at all,” Harry promised.  “His wife, Astoria, sent me a,” (and here he hesitated a moment again, as if choosing the correct word) “letter telling me when she was sure.”

“Friends with the wife, then, are you?” Bella teased.

He swatted her.  “Old schoolmates keep up with each other and everyone seems to want to keep up with me.  It’s a nightmare.  I have a,” (and here another small hesitation) “post office box in London that gets forwarded here.  It takes over a fortnight.  They know I’m on assignment and can’t write back, but they keep on writing anyway.”

Bella looked down at her hands.  She didn’t really have any friends.  Not back in Arizona, and she was having trouble connecting here.  Then, thinking, she suddenly asked, “Why haven’t I seen anyone from La Push?”

Harry hesitated.  He glanced into the Living Room, even though Charlie clearly wasn’t home, and then leaned in, “The Tribal Council doesn’t approve of my position.  Charlie was told to make a choice—I told him it was fine, I could walk away, I didn’t expect anything from him, but he chose me.”  He gave Bella a small, sad grin.

Bella looked at him strangely and blinked.  “The Tribal Council doesn’t approve of your position?” she repeated.

“They don’t approve of the entire organization,” he further explained.  “It’s all—politics.”

Bella was shocked.  “Tell me about it,” she whispered.  “Does that mean I can’t go to First Beach with the other kids?”

“No,” Harry told her firmly, reaching out and laying a large, firm hand gently on her arm.  It felt warm and comforting there; familial.  “You can certainly go to First Beach.  Their quarrel is with me and Charlie.  If anyone on the Reservation gives you any trouble, then let me know and I’ll sort it out.  You’re not part of this quarrel.”

Bella nodded.  She wasn’t quite sure, but if Harry said it was okay, then it was okay.  Harry didn’t lie to her.  She had spent less than a week living with him and her dad, but she knew Harry wouldn’t lie to her unless it had to do with work.

The day Edward Cullen came back, Bella was confused.  He was sitting in Biology, eagerly looking at her, as if nothing had happened.  She glanced over at Mike, for reassurance, and then went and sat down.

She knew the Cullens had committed mass murder or laundered money or something, and it technically wasn’t Edward’s fault, he was only a high school Junior, but she shouldn’t get caught up in Harry’s investigation.  She didn’t want him to have to explain that to his superiors, so when Edward said, “hello,” she pointedly ignored him as if he smelled bad.

They ended up having to work together on their biology project, but after trying to share the microscope twice, Bella just took it and did the work herself.  Edward could check it if he liked.  She didn’t care what he thought.

When she came home from school, Harry was in the kitchen (per usual), making a lasagna.

“Charlie’s never eaten so well,” she commented, leaning in the doorway.

Harry looked up and smiled.  “I know.  I don’t think he’s really had a home since he was a kid and,” (here he shrugged) “I like to give that to him.  Now that you’re here, you’re the missing piece of the puzzle.”

“Do you think people think we’re playing house?” Bella asked carefully, coming in.  “Lauren asked me if it was true you lived with us.”

“Lauren–?” Harry let his voice lilt up.

“Mallory.  Lauren Mallory.”

“Odd,” Harry commented.  “I have a Susan Mallory who comes into the bakery.  I’ll have a little chat with her in case she’s her mother.  The other kids should know that I live with Charlie.  It’s been eleven months.”

Bella shrugged.  “I think Lauren is jealous that Mike and Ben are all over me.”

“Making trouble then, is she?” Harry asked with a glint in his green eyes.  “I know the type.”

Bella came and sat down.  She waited until Harry was finished with his cooking and put the lasagna in.  She had already begun on her Biology homework, and she looked up, biting her lip.

“What is it, Bells?” Harry asked.

“Edward Cullen was back in Bio.”

Harry looked surprised.  He hesitated and then, holding his hand out in a sign to wait, he said, “give me a sec, okay?  Let me go just make contact.  If Charlie calls, tell him dinner is at six, per usual.”

“Are you calling Alaska?” Bella asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Harry told her.  “I didn’t get any notification that he left, which means he might know we’re watching him—at least up there—and gave us the slip.  I’ll be right down to hear all about your bad smelling shampoo in five/ten minutes tops.”

Bella nodded and went back to her homework.

She heard Harry climb the stairs (at a sedate pace, he wasn’t rushing), she heard him close the door, but then everything went silent.  She didn’t hear the murmurs of him on the phone or his footprints as he walked around.  It was all just quiet. 

Looking up at the ceiling, Bella wondered at it, but went back to her work.

Seven minutes later, she heard the door open, and Harry came back downstairs.  Sitting at the table, he smiled at her.  “We’re investigating,” he told her.  “He shouldn’t have been able to leave without us spotting his car.  It is rather—memorable.”

“Some Volvo,” Bella threw out.

Harry gave her a look.  “—So.”  (She looked up.). “How weird was Edward Cullen today?”

“Are you reporting this?” Bella asked carefully.

“No,” Harry promised, reaching out and laying his hand over hers.  “I don’t care what high school students do in Bio class.  I mean,” and here he gave her another look, “I care because it affects you, but the higher ups don’t care.  I would never use you as a source, Bells, unless you told me you saw something you shouldn’t have, and then I would offer you protection.”

Bella let out a breath in relief.  “Okay.” 

Harry squeezed her hand and let go.  “So, what did Edward do today?”

“He looked like a puppy who wanted me to scratch behind its ears,” she told him, exaggerating to show just what she thought of Edward Cullen’s behavior, “and then he said ‘hello’ and tried to talk to me.”

Clearly looking surprised, Harry asked, “Did you talk to him?”

“I pretended he smelled bad.”

Harry was stunned for a moment, but then began to chuckle to himself.  “Give him a taste of his own medicine!  I like it!”

She smiled back at him.  “I thought so.”

His eyes twinkled behind his glasses.

She went back to her homework.  Harry went back to the lasagna.

A couple days later there had been a snowfall and Charlie kindly put chains on Bella’s tires so she could drive to Forks High.  It was before school when everyone was hanging out, just waiting for the first bell so they could go into class, when Tyler drove into the parking lot and his van skidded on the ice.

Bella saw her whole life flash in front of her eyes.

She saw Renee marrying Phil.  She saw Charlie laughing with Harry.  She saw her newfound friends in Angela, Jessica, and even Lauren. She saw the quiet kitchen conversations with Harry, who she loved like a big brother.  And then she saw the dark eyes of Edward Cullen staring at her as he shoved the van away with his bare hand, Bella nearly being crushed in the process.

She gazed into Edward’s eyes in shock. 

Did Harry know about this?  Is this why he and his counterparts were watching the Cullens?

She blinked and in the quick second that she closed her eyelids, Edward was gone.

Someone screamed, and Tyler shoved his head out of the window and started apologizing to Bella.  Bella, however, didn’t hear a word.  She was too lost in her own thoughts.  She didn’t fuss when she was put in the back of an ambulance and barely noticed when she was wheeled into the hospital.

“I’m fine,” she muttered to the nurse.

“You might have a concussion,” she murmured, checking Bella’s pulse.  “Dr. Cullen will be in to see you in a moment.”

Suddenly Bella’s eyes shot up, focusing on the nurse.  “C-Cullen?”

“Yes, Isabella,” (how Bella hated her full name) “Dr. Cullen.”

Grabbing the nurse, Bella was suddenly panicked.  She didn’t know how Edward was suddenly beside her, how he was suddenly gone—she definitely couldn’t explain how Edward had stopped the van with his hand—but she didn’t think it was good.  She didn’t want any of the Cullens near her.  “I want another doctor,” she told the nurse firmly.  “I don’t want Dr. Cullen.”

The nurse looked confused.  “He’s our very best.”

The sound of shrieking shoes against the floor drew Bella’s attention and she saw Harry, windswept, in the door.

“I don’t want Dr. Cullen,” she told Harry firmly.  “Tell the nurse anyone but Dr. Cullen.”

Harry glanced between her and the nurse and then came up to Bella.  He placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded, sensing her panic.  “Ma’am,” he said to the nurse, “my stepdaughter has had a shock.  She doesn’t want Dr. Cullen.  Please send in someone else.”

The nurse nodded, Harry clearly being the authority in the room, and left.

Harry went and closed the door behind her.  “Bells, what—”

“Edward wasn’t there,” she whispered as he came back over, “and then he was right beside me, and he stopped the van from crashing into me with only his hand.”  She took a deep breath through her nose.  “And then he disappeared when I blinked.—I know I sound crazy, but I know what I saw.”

“Oh, Merlin,” Harry whispered, grasping her shoulder.  “Bells, I believe you.”

She looked up at him.  “Does Charlie know?”

“I told him even though I broke the law in doing so.”  Harry’s green eyes were dead serious.  “Let’s get you out of here and safely home.”

There was a knock on the door and a man—with pale skin, golden eyes, and bags under his eyes popped his head in.  He also looked like a model.  Harry was handsome, but Dr. Cullen was on another level.

Bella sucked in a breath.  “No—not you,” she demanded.  “I told the nurse—”

“I understand there’s a problem,” Dr. Cullen said as he came in, offering his hand to Harry.

Bella had to hand it to Harry, he didn’t even flinch when he took it.

“Harry Potter, I’m one of Bella’s emergency contacts and her stepfather, as it were.”

He was behaving normally as if nothing was wrong in the world.  As if Dr. Cullen was just another doctor.  And Bella supposed he had to.  Harry was undercover, assigned to watch the Cullens.  Maybe they were aliens from outer space and this was the X-files.

Bella took in a deep breath.  She looked up at Harry and he gave her a reassuring look.

“I don’t want Harry to leave the room,” she bargained.

“Very well,” Dr. Cullen said as he came forward.  “I understand you were in a car accident today, Isabella.”

“Bella,” Harry and Bella answered in unison.  They looked at each other and smiled.  “She hates the name ‘Isabella,’” Harry explained.

“Duly noted,” Dr. Cullen said.

“I was nearly crushed by a van that skidded on the ice,” Bella explained, “but it just missed me.”

“Did you hit your head?” Dr. Cullen was now getting out his light pointer all doctors had.  Bella let him shine it in her eyes and reminded herself to stay calm.  Harry was right beside her.  “My son Edward is in the waiting room,” Dr. Cullen said as he finished up.  “He wants to see you.”

“Well, I don’t want to see him,” Bella answered, glancing up at Harry who gave her a nod of the head.  “He thinks I smell bad.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Harry added in.

Dr. Cullen looked up from his clipboard and nodded.  “If you think that’s best.”

“I do,” Harry agreed.  “Bella’s been through enough trauma for one day.—Off the bed.  I’m taking you home.”

Then Bella suddenly realized, “My truck.  It’s destroyed.  How are we going to get home?”

“The cruiser.  Charlie’s out there taking statements from all the kids waiting for you.  You’re very popular.”

Bella blushed.

They did go out through the lobby, Bella being patted on the back and even hugged by Jessica, and they went home in the cruiser.  Bella had to sit in the back—behind the bars—because Charlie and Harry were sitting up front. 

“I’m taking away the license of that boy,” Charlie was now fuming.  “He could have killed you!”

Harry glanced in the back and then over at his boyfriend.  “Charlie, we need to have a family conference.  Edward Cullen revealed himself to Bells.”

The car lurched to a halt, and Charlie jerked around.  “Are you okay?” he gasped.  “He didn’t bite you, did he?”

Confused, Bella parried back, “Bite me?”

Harry laid a calming hand on Charlie’s shoulder.  “He betrayed his strength and his speed, darling.”  Harry called Charlie ‘darling’ sometimes.  Bella thought it was cute.  Bella had caught Charlie calling Harry ‘Hare-bear’ once, which made her blush.

Charlie took in a deep breath and looked back at Bella.  “You’re okay?”

“I’m okay, Charlie,” she promised.

Harry gave her a look through the bars.  They had talked about this.  Harry thought it was important that Bella call Charlie ‘dad.’  He said she was lucky enough to have a dad, and not all kids were that lucky.

“Really, Dad,” she added for affect.

Charlie nodded and turned around, restarting the car.

When they got home, Harry sat them down on the couch, Bella on one end and Charlie on the other, and Harry drew up the beanbag, looking funny sitting in it.

“Okay,” Harry said, calling the meeting to order.  “Bella, you have questions.”

“Is this the X-files?” she asked tentatively, glancing between Harry and Charlie, sure she’d got it right.

Confused, Harry asked, “What’s the X-files?”

Charlie chuckled.  “I keep on forgetting you never had a TV growing up.  The X-files is a show about extraterrestrial events and strange happenings that are investigated by the FBI.  It was back in the 90s.”

“Oh.”  Harry thought a moment.  “Not quite.”

“So they’re not aliens from outer space?”

“No,” Harry told her carefully, “they are—creatures” (Bella sucked in a breath) “very much from earth.”

“So they aren’t human.”

“No, Bells,” Charlie told her carefully, “they very much aren’t.  Harry’s organization tracks large groupings of these creatures and makes sure they don’t do harm to the populace.  The Cullens claim not to be harmful to humans.”

“Are you sure?” Bella asked, looking at Harry.  “Edward could crush me if he wanted to.”

“That’s why they can’t know you know or that I’m observing them,” Harry told her plainly.  “I’m going to have to report this incident because it’s very rare for—one of them,” (here he hesitated like he did, and now Bella knew why; he was trying not to tell her too much) “to expose themselves without taking care of the,” (here he hesitated again) “problem.”

Bella squeaked.  “I’m a problem?”

“No,” Charlie told her, grasping her hand.  “But you are going to stay home for a couple of days while another agent from Harry’s organization makes contact and cleans up the problem.”

“Cleans up how?”

“For one,” Harry said, “we’re going to make Edward Cullen switch science classes.  He shouldn’t have any contact with you.”

Then a thought occurred to Bella.  She bit her lip and whispered, “Why did he save my life?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” Harry told her.  “And I’m going to find out.”

Harry made hot chocolate—on the stove and with actual milk—and Bella settled down in her sweats.  Charlie let her have the remote and she found an old movie playing starring Cary Grant.  Harry came in with popcorn after Charlie had left to deal with the repercussions of the accident, and asked who the actor was.  Bella looked at him strangely.  She guessed it was true what Charlie had said, Harry had grown up without a TV and without any popular culture, it seemed.

When Bella went to bed that night, she was ready to finally fall asleep.

What she wasn’t expecting was to see Edward Cullen in her bedroom. 

She screamed Harry’s name.

Charlie appeared with a gun and Harry was brandishing—was it a wand?

Bella pointed at the window.  “He was there,” she gasped.  “Edward Cullen was there and then he wasn’t.  I swear to God!  It wasn’t a-a dream or a delusion.  I saw him.”

Harry went to the window and looked out of it, a bright light coming from the end of his wand.  When he was finished he pointed at the window, muttered some words, and then turned to Bella.  “A sticking charm,” he told her.  “Edward won’t be able to climb back in.”  He blew the light out at the end of his wand and looked at Bella.  “Do you have questions now or do you want to go back to sleep?”

“You’re-you’re a—”

“Wizard,” Harry told her, sitting down on the end of her bed.  Bella now noticed he was wearing some sort of sports jersey with his pajama pants.  Odd, both her parents were with athletes.  “My organization tracks magical creatures.”

“The Cullens are—”

“Magical creatures,” Harry supplied.

Charlie was leaning in the door, having put the gun safely away.  He was looking between Harry and Bella, no surprise on his face.  Harry had told him.  He knew.

“What kind of magical creatures?”

Harry looked over to Charlie carefully. 

Charlie shrugged.  “She’s got to know what she’s up against.  He was in her room.”

Harry sighed.  “Bells,” he told her, “they’re a coven of vampires.”

Bella’s breath sucked in.

“They claim to be ‘vegetarians.’  They only feed on animals.  I’m here to make sure that’s true.”

“But it’s not true,” Charlie interrupted.  “You said those bear attacks were vampires.”

Bella breathed out through her teeth in worry.  Hikers were being attacked by some kind of wild animal and Charlie had been running ragged trying to keep safety up.

“They are vampire attacks,” Harry acknowledged.  “It is worrying.  This,” and now he gestured with his head toward the window, “is worrying.—I need to report it.  A representative will be with the Cullens before school starts tomorrow and he needs to know this happened.”

Bella nodded.  “I’m not sure I can go back to sleep.”

“I have something for that,” Harry offered, “of the magic variety—that is, if you want to go back to sleep at all.”

Bella nodded again.

“Okay,” Harry promised.  “I’ll just go get it.”  He stepped out of the room, laying a comforting hand on Charlie’s shoulder on his way out.

Bella looked at her father.  “You’re-you’re dating a wizard?” she checked.

Looking over his shoulder, Charlie admitted, “I’d marry him too if gay marriage was legal.  It is in the wizarding world, but only between two wizards, not between a wizard and a Muggle.”

“What’s a Muggle?”

“A non-magical person,” Harry told her as he came back in with a vial of what must be the medicine he was talking about.  “This will give you dreamless sleep.  We’re just in the next room if anything happens.”

Bella cautiously took it.  She was out before her head even hit the pillow.  She woke up refreshed the next morning having not had a single dream.  She even convinced Charlie to let her go to school.

The Cullens, however, weren’t there.  Worried, Bella got out her simple cell phone and sent Harry a text at lunch.  He was there waiting to pick her up with the cruiser when she came out after school.

“So what happened?” Bella asked as the car drove away from school.

“You go on with your life,” Harry said.  “The Cullens won’t bother you anymore.  They’ve gone back up to Alaska—for how long, I couldn’t say.”

“And what about you?” Bella asked worriedly, looking between the back of Charlie and Harry’s heads.  “Do you go back to London?”

“No,” Harry told her.  “I’m embedded here.  The Cullens might come back in a hundred years, and I’ll still be alive.”

Bella squeaked.

Charlie reached out to Harry and ruffled his hair at the base of his neck.  Bella sighed in contentment.  She had a what felt like a home for the first time in her life, and now she could worry about the boys fighting over her and not some stupid vampire coven.  All was right with the world.

The End.