Life at the Cullens fell into a routine faster than Harry would have ever believed possible. The Cullens certainly weren't a normal family, but they were a family nonetheless. As such, they came with their own quirks and habits that Harry picked up on fairly quickly. Carlisle and Esme were the rocks, sure and stout. When Carlisle was there, he was happy to answer any and every question Harry might have, no matter the subject. Being as old as he was, he had a wealth of knowledge to draw on. Esme was the quintessential caring mother, at least as far Harry had always imagined the quintessential caring mother to be. She took extreme joy in cooking for him, although he had managed to convince her to let him handle his own breakfasts and lunches. Most days. Alice was the most outgoing of the Cullen 'children', and large portions of his day were spent dodging her attempts to corral him into a car and drag him off to the Cullens' personal tailor. Emmett and Edward were extremely similar, at least as far as Harry was concerned. They watched TV with him, played games with him, helped him dodge Alice, took him for blisteringly fast piggy back rides and generally did their best to entertain him. Of all of them, Harry interacted with Jasper the least, something he considered to be a shame. He enjoyed Jasper's soft-spoken, southern accent, and for some reason he always felt calmer around the Vampire. As for Rosalie, she was his favorite. Of all of them, she was the most consistent in her time with him. At least once a day, she would plunk him in the passenger seat of her shiny, red convertible and treat him to a joyride that would have the world's worst speed demon wetting his pants. It would almost always be followed up by an unhealthy meal that would have curled Esme's lip, something Harry suspected was the only reason Rosalie was indulging him.

Today, though, was a particularly special day for Harry. He had been with the Cullens a month. A month of the best summer of his life. Of joyrides and laughter and in-jokes and delicious meals and more of a family atmosphere than Harry had ever experienced in his entire life – even at Hogwarts! A month of learning incredible new things, a month of practicing magic he thought he would surely forget over the summer at the Dursleys, a month of chipping away at his homework with Edward's help. A month of sleeping till noon and staying up till one, watching scary movies with Emmett and Alice. A month of being taught how to throw knives by an infinitely patient Jasper. A month of absolutely no contact whatsoever from the world he had left behind.

And that, unfortunately, was the sticking point. It was the single dark cloud hanging over him. This summer had, so far, been the best of his life. The only time he had been this happy had been at Hogwarts, and, if anything, he was even happier here since he had an absolutely horrid series of summers to compare it to. But, however happy he was here, he knew that it wasn't his home. Nothing had been said of Harry's future with the Cullens. He knew that Carlisle had agreed to house him for the summer, at the end of which he would be returned to King's Cross station and sent back to Hogwarts. Beyond that, Harry had no idea what would happen. But he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Hogwarts was waiting. He had six more years at the school. It was a fixed fact. And to have had no contact at all from any of the friends he had thought he'd made was starting to weigh heavily on the young man's mind.

It was made worse by the fact that he had hardly been idle all that time. He had sent five letters to Ron and four to Hermione, all through Hedwig who had, bless her soul, been working like a trooper. Harry didn't know exactly how international owl post worked, but Hedwig always returned within a few days, and she had never come back with any of the letters he'd sent out, leading him to believe that they had simply gone ignored. Harry had even sent two separate letters to Hagrid, and the giant man's silence had hurt Harry particularly deeply. His first ever contact with the magical world and arguably his first friend, and Harry had not heard so much as a peep from him.

Oh, Harry didn't let it show. He put a smile on his face, and he laughed at Emmett's terrible jokes and laughed harder at Edward's witty responses to them. He rolled his eyes at Alice's latest badgerings, and pleaded with Esme to stop spending so much money on meals he was only going to eat once! It wasn't hard, really, to put on an act. He was enjoying his time with the Cullens immensely. But, deep down, he was hurting, and he was beginning to believe he had not been nearly as good at hiding it as he had thought.

Harry had only woken up a few minutes ago and, like normal, he'd gotten straight out of bed and began to head downstairs. He always made himself a light breakfast before he showered and properly got ready for the day. Today, though, he hadn't made it to the kitchen. He hadn't even made it down the stairs. Halfway to the staircase, he had overheard Edward, Alice and Rosalie having a hushed conversation just underneath the banister. He had stopped, careful to be absolutely still. If there was anything he had learned in his time here, it was that it was exceptionally difficult to hide something. The Cullens heard everything. It seemed particularly difficult to get anything past Edward and, to a lesser extent, Alice.

Careful to hold completely still, Harry even went so far as to hold his breath. He was listening intently, for he had heard his name.

"-take 'no' for an answer, today," Edward was saying. "He needs a distraction"

Rosalie huffed. "You don't actually think he's going to enjoy it, do you? He hasn't been dodging it for a month just for our amusement."

"Like it matters," Alice responded. Harry had a mental image of her waving her hand flippantly. The image matched her tone of voice. "He needs to have some money spent on him. God knows he hasn't had enough spent on him."

"Keep a lid on that kind of talk," Edward told her sternly. "He hates when you say things like that."

"Right," Rosalie drew the word out. "So you want to stick him in a confined space he can't escape from with Alice for several hours to be used as her personal dress up doll? I'm sure that'll cheer him up."

"I'm not that bad!" Alice squawked.

"It doesn't matter if he doesn't like it," Edward replied. "At least he'll be upset over something other than his friends' radio silence."

Silently, Harry frowned. How had Edward known? Harry supposed he could accept that his efforts to come across perfectly happy had failed, but to know that it was specifically because he hadn't heard from his friends? It wasn't as if Harry had a journal where he wrote this stuff down, and even if he did, Edward was not the type to snoop in it.

They were silent for a few moments, and when Rosalie spoke next there was such an undercurrent of anger in her voice that Harry suspected she had, had to take a moment to collect herself. "'Friends'," she said with a scoff. "Little bastards. Where do they get off?"

At that moment, Harry's body decided it couldn't take it anymore and exhaled the breath it had been holding. It was little more than a light huff, barely audible, but all sound from the floor below him stopped immediately. Harry blinked, and Alice was in front of him, smiling widely. Harry tried to look as natural as possible.

"Harry," she greeted happily, not at all fooled. "Listen, after you have breakfast, be sure to wear your best clothes. We're going to Seattle today."

Immediately, Harry protested. "Alice, I don't-," he began.

"No!" Alice cut him off. "We're going. That's final. Just think, it's one day and then you won't have to hear me nag you about it anymore."

Harry rolled his eyes. "What so you can move onto something else? My hair, maybe?"

Alice tilted her head and ran her pale fingers through it idly. "Well, it could use a little work," she commented.

"Alice!" someone shouted from deeper into the house. It sounded like Rosalie.

Alice huffed. "Oh fine. Just trust me, Harry, okay? It's gonna be a fun day."

She gave him a cute little wink and vanished.

_(*)_

It was not a fun day.

Alright, well Harry supposed that was being a bit unfair. The time spent with Alice herself had been remarkably fun. Harry enjoyed any and every bit of time spent with any of the Cullens, and Alice herself was arguably the most laid back of any of them. The time spent under the attentions of the three separate tailors that Alice had drug him too had most certainly not been fun. Harry had been poked and prodded and measured and maneuvered endlessly. His body was contorted like a mannequin's into various poses as fabric was hung off his limbs and wrapped around his extremities. Harry was extremely glad that the Cullens had gotten him at least somewhat used to casual physical contact or Harry expected he would have been cringing and wincing throughout the entire ordeal. What felt like hundreds of fabrics were shown to him for no reason whatsoever as it was Alice who made literally every decision. The fabrics were all light grays and deep blacks with occasional splashes of green or silver thrown in, something Harry was not a fan of, being a Gryffindor. At the very least they had never been combined together. Harry's only personal request of the day was at least a few articles that included one or both of the Gryffindor colors.

And, though he was loathe to give Alice the smug satisfaction, Harry would admit that he was rather fond of the wardrobe she had crafted for him. It was lots of perfectly cut button downs, made of soft fabrics. He had turtleneck sweaters and long-sleeve t's. Scarves of deep red and rich gold. His pants were all absurdly comfortable slacks with a bit wider of a color range. There was white and a gray and tan and black and blue and even a few deep greens, reds and purples. Harry had, at the end of it, looked at it all, rather impressed. Not only did it all look good, it also felt amazing to wear. And, what's more, Alice had done him an enormous favor. Having no knowledge whatsoever of fashion and color combination and what works and what doesn't, she had seemingly built his wardrobe around the ability to mix and match any top with any bottom and it come out looking wonderful. Truly, Harry had never worn anything like it in his life.

All told, the trip had cost more money than Harry thought his vault had, and it had taken the better part of seven hours, not counting the lengthy rides to and from Seattle. Harry had thanked Alice so often, she had actually started to threaten further shopping trips if he didn't stop thanking her. It had worked, but the gratitude he felt for her and the Cullen's kindness had shown brightly in his eyes.

Edward had been right, it seemed. Whether or not he had enjoyed every second of his and Alice's shopping trip – and he certainly hadn't – he had not thought at all about the situation regarding his friend. Even now, mere miles away from the Cullen's home, Harry's thoughts were otherwise occupied. They were occupied by the beautiful faces of the most unlikely group of people Harry could have possible imagined taking him in. To think that one of the greatest senses of belonging Harry had ever experienced had come from a group of Vampires. Wizarding Britain and its prejudices would eat their shoes if they ever found out the Boy-Who-Lived was living with Vampires in America, and Harry found that he quite liked that.

It struck Harry then that he had been with the Cullens a month. No, that wasn't right. That had struck earlier that morning along with his depression regarding his friends. No, it struck Harry that he only had two more months to spend with the Cullens. And it also struck him that he didn't feel like that was anywhere near enough time.

"Alice?" he asked suddenly.

She turned honey-gold eyes upon him. Harry was surprised to find that his heart rate didn't even stutter at this. He had spent hours in the car with various Cullens, and no matter how long any of them spent looking away from the road, the car never so much as drifted. "Yes?" she asked.

"Thank you," he told her. Then, seeing the flash of annoyance in her eyes, he hastily continued, "I-I don't mean for the clothes! I mean-well, I mean thank you for those too, but that's not what I meant. I just meant-well, thank you. Really, I'm thanking all of you. This…this has been the best summer I've ever had. And one of the best months of my life."

A soft, gleaming smile alighted on the pixyish Vampire's face, and she reached out to stroke his cheek with the back of her finger's. Most boys Harry's age would have shied away from the touch, annoyed and that wasn't to mention the icy temperature of Alice's hand. Harry, if anything, leaned into the touch.

"I'm very glad, Harry," she said. "We've all greatly enjoyed having you."

Harry didn't want to argue, but he couldn't help the face that flashed through his mind. "Jasper," he trailed off. It was true, really. Jasper interacted with him he least of any of the Cullens. He would play games with him – mainly chess or card games – and he would recommend him books and if he was feeling particularly daring, he would teach him some hardcore survivalist skill he seemed to be unilaterally proficient in. All that said, he never touched him. Jasper was always careful to maintain a distance of at least ten feet, and even that was only if someone else was in the room as well. If it happened that Harry entered a room with just Jasper in it, Jasper would immediately leave.

Alice, though, was already shaking her head. "He loves you," she assured him. "Between you and me, Jasper always wanted a little brother. I think he was miffed when we met Carlisle and he became the youngest."

Harry frowned. "Isn't he older than most of you?"

Alice shrugged. "There's a thousand ways you can judge a Vampire's age. How old they are physically. How old they are actually. In the Cullen house, you're aged by the order you joined the family. And that makes Jasper the youngest. So he's very happy he has you to mentor now."

Alice said the last part with a delighted, impish smile. It was a smile she reserved for Jasper or talking about Jasper. Harry remained unconvinced. "But," he tried, only to peter off. He tried and failed again, "He just…"

Alice sighed slightly. "Being a 'vegetarian' is hard, Harry. It gets easier, but it's always hard. And Jasper's the newest 'vegetarian' in the group. He isn't keeping his distance because he doesn't like you, Harry. He's keeping his distance because he does."

Alice turned the car into the driveway then, and the discussion was over. Harry worried he may have offended Alice by talking about her partner, but if he had she gave no indication. She looked at him with the same smile she always did as she popped the trunk and glided out of the car. There were a hundred bags packed into the BMW's trunk, and even a Vampire would have to take multiple trips. Harry managed to gather six bags on each arm and strain his way into the house and up the stairs. Inside his room, he plopped the bags down on Edward's throw couch, careful not to crumple or crush them. Alice had been very explicit about the danger of creases in his clothes.

By the time he finished that and turned around, Alice had deposited the rest of the bags on the floor, having already made multiple trips to and from the car. With all of her dancer grace, Alice pranced across the room in three large strides and pecked Harry on the cheek as was her wont.

"Thanks for being such a good sport today." She smiled at him once more and was gone.

Harry sighed happily, staring out through the doorway into the empty hallway. Looking around at clothes likely nicer than anything anyone at Hogwarts shy of Draco Malfoy had ever worn, Harry supposed it hadn't been an entirely bad day.

Then he turned around and came face to face with a short, leathery, bat eared creature with eyes the size of tennis balls and a dirty shawl for clothing. "Harry Potter!" the creature said reverently.

"What the hell!?" Harry exclaimed.

_(*)_

Next Time: A 'conversation' with Dobby and a family meeting