Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Vampire Diaries.

Not dead, who knew? Moved across three states with 7 cats and three dogs...never doing it again...

Klaus could feel the rush of adrenaline through his system as he ran in his wolf form for the very first time in his very long life. He could feel the wind flowing through his fur and the grass underneath his paws, it was everything that he had been imagining for a millennium but it paled in comparison to the thoughts rolling through his head about the little brother that made it all possible. Henrik was the youngest, the baby, the one that had never been healthy but never let it get him down. Every day when Henrik was alive was filled with laughter, even when he was trapped in bed with his illness. Klaus could remember long days spent inside their little house, telling Henrik stories from the homeland just as vividly as he could remember curling up with him in the shade of the white oak tree when Henrik was having a good day.

The entire night passed in a blur to Klaus and the dawning of the sun did not force him to transition back into his humanoid form. There was no overwhelming urge to turn back but he pushed himself to turn anyway, there was a little brother to relearn all about after all and a whole new race to sire. He would never be alone again.

Elijah was, of course, waiting to guilt trip Klaus the moment that he threw some of his spare clothes at him. Greta always made sure to keep at least a couple of spare sets on her at all times, just in case he decided to be a little messy with his meals. "Did you have fun?"

Klaus shrugged on his clothes and grimaced as he thought about just how irritating Elijah would probably be about their littlest brother, his track record with his siblings was not exactly the best even if he had their best interests at heart. "It is good to know that I can control the shift, I changed because I wanted to, not because the sun came up. Now, on to more important matters." Klaus watched with some perverse pleasure as Elijah's left eyebrow rose in his signature questioning pose, it was something he actually missed about his uptight brother. "How long were you going to keep Henrik's rebirth from me? Did you actually think that you could keep him away from me forever? That I would allow you to?"

The look on Elijah's face was half fear and half anger. "The werewolf pup must have told you. He is a warlock, not an Original. You cannot lock him in a coffin and hoard it just because you don't like the way that he chooses to live his life."

Klaus bristled and started for the house without looking at Elijah when he began to match his pace. "I protect our siblings from being killed, from falling to Michael."

"Michael, he hasn't been heard from in decades." Elijah did not want to contemplate what their father would do if he knew that Henrik was alive again. His reaction would be extreme, but whether it would be extremely positive or negative was unclear. Their mother was sugar covering poison but their father was a bare blade, always sharp and used for both offense and defense.

"Michael is in a cemetery in Charlottesville, chained and starved. If I had a stake from that damn tree he would have been dead a long time ago. Even now I know that he would come right after me again if he was able to." Klaus began walking back to the, admittedly impressive, mansion of his younger, much younger now, baby brother. "I do not trust him not to come after the rest of my siblings just to get to me. His hatred for the bastard that I am is completely irrational at this point. I wouldn't trust him within a hundred miles of any member of our family."

Elijah followed with a contemplating look on his face. "Do you think that Michael would really be a threat to Henrik? His grief over Henrik's death was all encompassing, he forced Mother to break the laws of nature to protect the rest of us afterwards. Michael's fear of death overrode even his distaste for you until you began to turn."

"Michael hated that Henrik wasn't the strong boy that he wanted and he wasn't the warlock that Mother wanted either. He was always sick, never strong enough to learn the sword, never capable of lighting candle from across the room. He was the representation of everything that Michael hated: weakness, childishness, and a lack of desire to be the biggest, strongest warrior. Henrik accepted his weakness and instead made the most of his good days and let the pain of his bad days go without dwelling on them. He was constantly oppressed by his weak body, but his spirit was undampened when Michael thought it should be crushed."

"That does sound a lot like my Harry." Both Originals turned toward the voice to find Sirius Black leaning against a tree at the edge of the wards that they could feel humming right along. "Harry has been through a lot in this lifetime and now he has another slightly shorter life rolling around in his head that was just as painfilled and difficult as the one he has now. He is nothing if not determined to overcome every hardship." Black tapped his wand against the tree and both Originals knew that they would now be free to cross the ward lines. Klaus made to speed off but stopped at the curious tilt of Black's head. "Harry has never had caring family members in his memory of this life. We weren't able to care for him when he was young and the family that was tasked with his care failed in ways that make me wish that I could have five minutes with them without protective wards covering their house. Even his memories of being Henrik and having all of his siblings around him cannot overcome his independent nature. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can wrap him in bubble wrap and hide him away, he will not allow you to protect him from the world." Black's lips curled at the corners. "Be prepared to have him attempt, and probably succeed, in protecting you though."

(V)

The Bunkhouse was eerily silent with Elena and Stefan crowded together on the sofa, Bonnie, with her arms around a Luka that was hugging himself around his waist, on the loveseat and the others standing around various points in the room. "I find myself a little out of the loop here. Somehow Harry found a way to keep Klaus, who was using my body as a suit, from needing to kill Elena. All of you decided to go after Klaus anyway because of Jonas wanting to save Greta and Jeremy killed Jonas for trying to interrupt the ritual, which would have killed everyone except for Klaus and Elijah." Alaric could not believe that this was what happened when he was out of commission. The only reason that he hadn't gone to Harry's house after he woke up with the world's worst headache was that the last time he had been conscious Harry had been spending a lot of time with Damon at the Bunkhouse. "It sounds to me like Jonas was more than willing to sacrifice all of you in a bid for revenge, so I'm not seeing why Jeremy is the bad guy."

Luca shot to his feet with Bonnie trying to pull him back down without success. "My father is dead!"

"And my wife was killed and turned into a vampire by Damon Salvatore and she has since betrayed all of us and tried to get me killed." Alaric could feel the anger that he had been bottling up since finding out his wife left him to become a vampire rising to the forefront. "People who get involved in things bigger than they are put themselves in danger. If Jonas would have succeeded in firing that weapon at Harry in the middle of a ritual then all of you would be dead, would that have been better? Rituals require complete control and concentration and the slightest slip would have caused all of that magic to be released without a purpose. Jeremy saved all of your lives by taking one. What you need to decide now is whether you want to continue to put yourselves into danger or if you want to stay safe and make a bid for happy." Alaric looked around at each of the group: Elena looked guilty but determined, Stefan met his eyes steadily but looked just as determined as Elena, Bonnie didn't look away from Luka who was staring at his hands, and Jonathan merely met his gaze calmly before nodding. Alaric sighed and walked out of the Bunkhouse without looking back, it was too early for this much drama.

(V)

"Maybe he's right, maybe we should just let it go and let Klaus do whatever he's going to do away from Mystic Falls." Elena couldn't get the sight of Jeremy holding the gun aimed at Jonas out of her head. Every time that she closed her eyes she could see the bullet flying in slow motion and Jonas falling with blood pouring out of his chest. There was something in Jeremy's eyes that left her feeling cold inside. "Every time that we try to go against Klaus something goes wrong and someone gets hurt."

Luca shook his head and dropped back down on the couch. "Klaus has been ruining the lives of witches for centuries. He picks the strongest members of a coven or a family and twists them around to serve him. Now he is a being that goes against the very balance of nature and it is the duty of witches and warlocks to restore that balance by removing him."

Jonathan leaned against the buffet and poured himself two fingers of scotch. "How, exactly, do you expect to get rid of an Original that is now a hybrid? He won't burn in the sun, the tree that might have the power to kill him is gone, and he has multiple warlocks, witches, wolves and vampires on his side. This includes his Original brother, who also cannot be killed and the warlock that broke a thousand-year-old curse without following any part of the ritual that was supposed to be the only way to break it."

Luca ran his hand over his head and started to pace in front of the fireplace. "Father and I never really liked working with a vampire to find Greta, especially the brother of the vampire that took her. Whenever we could we would acquire books from different families to try to find something that we could use in case Elijah decided to go back on his word or if we needed a plan b for Klaus. One of the families had some references to an Original witch and Mystic Falls as the origin place of the Original vampires. Some of them mentioned the Bennett family in particular." He looked over at Bonnie from where she was still sitting on the loveseat. "If I could go through your family's grimoires I might find something that might give us a clue about the Original curse and maybe some weakness that they have that we don't know yet. We have to try to restore the balance."

(V)

Harry stretched as he entered the informal dining room and grabbed the glass from the table and drained the orange juice in it all at once. The house elves obviously knew that he had used a lot of magic last night and had made sure to put all of his favorites out for breakfast, along with enough for four wolves who would probably be trotting in any moment, Klaus' magic users, Sirius and another twenty or so people just in case. "Thank you for the breakfast." There was a feeling of happiness from the elves, wherever they happened to be at the moment, and he sat down with a sigh before digging into the food with a smile.

Harry didn't have to wait long for Maddox and Greta to slowly make their way into the room with slow measured steps and one eye on the way forward and one on the walls. Harry could imagine what Sirius had likely told them about the house, most of it is true but there's no reason to make them terrified of the house, not when the occupants were more than enough of a deterrent. "Good morning, don't worry too much about whatever Sirius told you, the house only attacks someone that attacks me here, so hopefully it will never have a reason to turn you into goo. The breakfast is fresh, and I would recommend getting a plate before the wolves make their way back in and start in on it, less growling and snapping that way." Harry watched with a smile as they both chose places close to the other head of the table, probably where they thought that Klaus was going to sit.

Jeremy was the next person to make it down the stairs with the same clothes on that he was wearing the night before and dark circles under his eyes that indicated that he probably hadn't slept much, if at all. "Morning."

Harry hummed and watched as Jeremy practically fell into the chair on his left. "May I offer some advice?"

Jeremy looked up from his coffee, black and steaming. "About what?"

Harry took a few bites of his waffles and leaned back. "I was eleven the first time that I killed someone." Everyone's eyes shot to him and he could imagine the thoughts that were rolling around in their heads at that revelation. "It was actually one of my teachers. He was a follower of a dark, insane warlock that had been after me since I was born. The man played the stuttering fool and tricked everyone into thinking that he was completely harmless and attacked me when he had me alone. My mother cast a very powerful ritual when I was a baby to protect me that powered itself with her soul after she died. That protection made my touch powerful enough to burn through his skin and turn him to ash. I held my hands against his face until he died, and his body was completely destroyed. I don't think that I slept for weeks after that without seeing him die. In the end, it was actually one of my school rivals that helped me get over it. He told me that I needed to focus on what was saved rather than what was lost. Was the death of one man that would have killed many worth losing sleep over? I think it was partially what he said and partially the shock of having him try to comfort me that helped me get over it." Harry could vividly remember the awkward way that Draco had tried to make him feel better, looking like he couldn't believe that he was doing it but determined to have his rival back in fighting form. "Was the death of Jonas more important than saving everyone in that clearing? If he had fired the ritual would have gone out of control. I don't know if my magic would have killed me but everyone else, including Elena and her friends, would have been killed. I'm not even sure if Klaus and Elijah would have been safe from it. While the loss of life was regrettable, there was more gained than lost."

Jeremy looked into his cup for a minute before downing it and refilling it. "Kill one to save a thousand like in that one movie, right?"

Harry had no idea what movie he was talking about, but nodded anyway. "The Greater Good is a term I'm not that fond of, but in this case, it does help. As long as you always understand the consequences of your actions and never turn against someone innocent you'll never have to worry about going too far."

"A good bit of advice." Remus looked better than normal, the advantages of having a pack. Tyler grinned and ruffled his hair before plopping down on Harry's right with a groan while simultaneously grabbing a roll. Mason shook his head and sat next to Tyler, reaching for the coffee. Remus took spot next to Jeremy and sighed. "Sirius should be collecting Elijah and Klaus."

"Done and done my favorite canine." Sirius strolled in with a bemused looking Elijah and Klaus following him as Damon rounded the corner from the upstairs and there was a minor stare down as Klaus eyed all the full spots next to Harry before making his way to the other side of the table to the spot in between Greta and Maddox. Elijah straightened his suit jacket before taking his own seat, Damon just smirked in Klaus' direction before he and Sirius took their own seat. "So, why did you think that it was a good idea to tell Niklaus that Harry was our Henrik reborn?"

Tyler grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Figured that it was safer to have that particular secret out of the bag in case things went pear shaped with Elena and her little group."

Klaus shook his head and downed the conveniently placed glass of scotch. "It was a better plan than letting me find out on my own afterwards. At least this way I had a little more time to get used to the idea beforehand."

Tyler downed a couple of pancakes, at the same time. "Yeah, you got to have the whole destructive temper tantrum in Alaric's apartment, in Alaric's body, instead of having one in Harry's house, where the Peverell ancestors would have turned you inside out and painted the walls in your entrails."

Jeremy scrunched up his nose but continued to eat his way through his plate anyway. "That was a great image for breakfast jackass."

Mason laughed and shoved a waffle in his mouth as Tyler grinned unrepentantly. "It sounds perfectly alright to me. Might be the whole werewolf thing though."

"Do you think that the Elena Gilbert fan club is going to lay low and just let this whole thing go?" Damon swirled his glass and smirked. "I can see my brother letting it go to protect his little Katherine replacement. Luca is going to go to the whole revenge plus balance of nature thing and he'll pull in dear old Bonnie. Bonnie will lure in Elena which will draw in Stefan and Jonathan will likely hang around to make sure that Elena pulls through whatever stupidity that the group decides on."

"There is very little that they would be able to do against Originals but that doesn't mean that they won't try to find a way to overpower us in Jonas' rather large collection of grimoires." Elijah knew that there were a great many spells in the collection but also that none of them would have any effect on Klaus or himself. "I do not know if there would be anything in this Bonnie's family grimoires."

Klaus hummed and scanned the table. "There have been several Bennett witches that I have had contact with over the last couple of generations but the last one that I had contact with is no longer in contact with the others and the only spell that they have that might cause issues is safely with her."

(V)

Grams watched as Luca and Bonnie went through the collection of grimoires that she had managed to find over the past week since Bonnie had told her that they needed them to restore the balance. "What kind of imbalance are you looking to correct?"

Bonnie looked to Luca first but looked determined despite his negative head shake. "The Original family of vampires, one of which is now a hybrid werewolf and vampire mix. We're hoping that there is something in here that will work as a weapon against them."

"I've been through those grimoires more times than I can count and there is only a passing mention of the Original vampires." Both teens shot her a look that amused her more than she would like to admit. "There are only a few mentions of them, mostly about the fact that they were created here by a witch that was friends with one of our line. The first vampires were her children that she subjected to a dark ritual that our ancestor refused to take part in. Unfortunately, that means that she had no idea what ritual was used to create them, only the effects of the ritual. She noted that they were now weak to the sun, but that their mother crafted rings of lapis to protect them. Vervain that grew around the great white oak burned them and the wood of that tree can kill them. They burned the tree down, so they would remain immortal." Grams pulled at her memories of that grimoire, she had shied away from it when she read about some of the spells that ancestor had cast. It was darker than any of their other grimoires. "She gave name to the family: Mikael, Esther, Freya, Niklaus, Elijah, Finn, Rebekah, Kol, and Henrik. Freya had her own family, she did not become a vampire. Esther cast the spell and did not become a vampire and it was the death of Henrik that caused the ritual. The child was killed by werewolves and the father, Mikael, pushed Esther into making him and the children stronger and our ancestor refused to help."

"What happened to Esther?" Bonnie couldn't imagine being so driven to protect her family that she would willingly turn them into vampires, but maybe she hadn't known what was going to happen.

Grams turned toward where she had hidden the darker grimoire and pulled it out with a grimace, she still got the willies from how dark it got in places but was at least glad to know that the woman had not taken part in the creation of vampires. "She vaguely mentions a great fight and Esther's betrayal coming to light and then finding Esther's body shortly thereafter."

"Who killed her?"

"Our ancestor didn't know, she had cut ties with Esther by that point and everyone was terrified of the family of vampires by then. There was a mention of a ritual to protect Esther's body but the page that the ritual was on is gone." Grams could remember the ritual page vaguely from when she was a much younger woman, but it wasn't something that had seemed important at the time as she had her hands full with sit in protests and her numerous run ins with local law enforcement.

Bonnie's brow furrowed, and she gently took the grimoire from her grams to look at where the page was missing. "Who would have taken the page out and why?"

Grams hummed as she thought back to the reason that she was the one teaching Bonnie about her gift. "The why I don't know, but the who is your mother." Grams could remember the way the knowledge of magic had brought her daughter nothing but pain and from glimpses that she had gotten into Bonnie's adventures, it was bringing just as much pain to her granddaughter. The boy that was with her was a warlock and there's reason that witches and warlocks don't intermarry. Magic affects the mind and a non-magic mate preserves the balance and grounds the witch or warlock. Nothing good would come of this relationship but Bonnie would baulk at being told, she would just have to experience it for herself, hopefully she would be the smart girl that Grams knew was there. "Before she disappeared there was something off going on with her. She would disappear for long periods of time and wouldn't tell me what was going on. She had never liked being a witch, but she was suddenly very interested in the family grimoires, this one in particular. I also remember a man that spoke with her shortly before she left, he held himself like old money and there was something about him that set my teeth on edge. It wasn't long after that that she disappeared."

(V)

Jeremy knew that he wasn't going to make it through a whole school day without running into his sister, but he had kind of hoped that Harry wasn't with him when it happened. Elena had been part of the plan that had almost gotten Harry shot and Jeremy could only imagine what would happen if either of Harry's brothers thought that Elena was the slightest bit of a threat to Harry. The only reason that they were letting him out of their sight at all was because Tyler and he had both agreed to keep an eye on him while the brothers 'talked' to Katherine. "Elena, this really isn't a good time."

Elena gave him her customary disapproving sister glare and somehow managed to herd both him and Harry into an empty classroom with a bemused Stefan following behind to close and lock the door. "You didn't come home last night, and you shot a man Jeremy. When, exactly is a good time to talk about that?"

"He was going to get us all killed!" Jeremy pulled his arm away from Elena and matched her glare for glare. "I'm tired of being the little brother that you think can't handle anything when all of this supernatural stuff is attracted to you like flies to crap. It was your relation to Katherine that drew Stefan here and Damon came to release Katherine and you just had to get involved in all of that mess. Harry has bailed you out more times than I can count, and I probably don't have any idea about what all he's done for you."

Jeremy stilled when he felt Harry's hand on his shoulder. "Jeremy did kill a man, that cannot be changed. I have killed two men in my fifteen years. One was a teacher that tried to strangle me on his master's orders and his master. Both were warlocks who hated anyone who wasn't a member of a pureblooded magic family and the master was the same man that made me an orphan when I was just a little over one year old. It is something that he will always remember but would it have been better to be responsible for the death of everyone in that clearing? My magic is fundamentally different from most but interrupting a ritual like that would have killed most if not all of you. Whatever plan you might think up, drop it. This is your chance to drop out of the cycle of revenge and live at least somewhat naturally with your vampire boyfriend and witchy best friend."

Elena grimaced and Stefan put his arm around her shoulders. "Luca is set on revenge and restoring the balance of nature. Bonnie's family has had contact with Klaus before."

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Witches obsessed with the balance somehow become so deluded that they honestly think that they have some kind of direct effect on nature's balance. Is it honestly that believable that Mother Nature is so powerless that she can't provide for natural balance without the aid of mortals. The vampires were immediately made weaker by Mother Nature to sunlight, vervain and werewolf venom. I am sure that she will handle hybrids just as well."

Elena furrowed her brows and turned from Harry as she tried to project sisterly concern on Jeremy. "You're coming home tonight, right?"

Jeremy rolled his eyes and pushed past Elena and Stefan while pulling a highly amused Harry behind him. "I'll be by to pick up some clothes and my laptop, but I already called Jenna and told her that I was staying with Harry for a bit. I need help with my grades and she was more than happy to see me getting help and making friends."

(V)

"It has been a long time Katerina." Klaus could say that it was a highlight of his more than 1000 years to see the look on Katerina's face as she realized that he had her now. Elijah was conflicted as he always had been when Katerina was present, and Greta looked dispassionate about the vampire that she had fed for this moment. "It seems to be fate that you ran straight into my family and right into my hands."

Katerina looked utterly defeated, it was a look that Klaus, and even Elijah, was enjoying after the long chase. "I take it that little Elena is gone then?"

Klaus smirked as he casually walked to the edge of his little brother's wards and Katerina plastered herself to the wall. "Oh no my little Katerina. She is still very much alive and no longer my concern so long as she keeps to herself. You on the other hand are very much my concern." Klaus casually reached through the wards and moved the somewhat greasy hair from Katerina's face as she stared in horror. "The question is if there is anything that you could do to keep me from ripping you apart limb from limb and spreading the pieces of you all over the world."

Katerina looked to Elijah to find that the normally warm eyes were stone cold to her and Klaus' eyes were just as dispassionate as always. "Surely there is still some part of you that would love to watch me suffer rather than grant me a quick end."

Klaus laughed, and the sound sent chills down her spine. "You do know me so well my dear Katerina. Killing you quickly would be so very unsatisfying after the five hundred years that you cost me along with separation from my brother Elijah that you caused with your manipulations. If you had only followed his little plan to save you it would have never come to this. You would have lived your life as a human and your family line would have been much more lucrative. I do have several things that I think that I could use you for before I tire of your presence."

(V)

"Where are our brothers and sister?" Elijah was somewhat surprised that Klaus was going to allow Katerina to live for now and was hoping that it was due to a good mood that he would be able to take advantage of. "I am sure that Henrik, or rather Harry, would like to see them again and with all of us together with him as his pack we will not have to worry about Michael or whatever Luca and Bonnie will eventually try."

Klaus sighed, he had wanted to just kill the light witch and warlock, but Henrik had strictly forbidden any preemptive strike on the two and it was hard to say no when he pouted. "I already have Maddox bringing the coffins here and then we will see."