AN: As I mentioned in the True Family AN I have decided to pick the story back up, and in doing so I've done some reworking. I hope that this is as well received as the original was. :)

Sookie hummed as she watched her nephew sleep, wondering what he was dreaming of. His mind was quiet- and not just when he slept but all the time. She found that it was soothing and it gave her time to contemplate just what had happened in the last couple of days. Finding out about the kid had been… shocking, because she had never known that there was a possibility that he existed. Having an older sister was something Sookie had never imagined, because frankly Jason was trouble enough for her.

As she petted his hair, soothing the beginnings of a nightmare she decided that the journal had started it. Her mother had left a journal detailing her life in Bons Tempus with the child she had abandoned abroad when she was 15. That child had been her older sister, Lily Evans. Gran, bless her heart had no idea that her daughter-in-law had another child, let alone one so young while she was an exchange student no less.

Lily had kept the journal, even researched into what life her biological mother had gone onto lead- including a note on her marriage into the Stackhouse family, and her son had found it one day while he was going through his mother's personal items. Lily had died shortly after she had married and had a child. The teen had shown it to his friends in passing, but hadn't reached out himself. Apparently his life was too dangerous to consider contacting anyone, even if he had desperately needed family. Sookie was familiar with the feeling of needing to protect her family from things that they wouldn't understand. So she couldn't even fault his decision.

They had only found out about Harry when Grans had received a letter from one Hermione Granger, detailing her would be great grandson's life, because there was no doubt that had Sookie's mom kept Lily she would have been considered family. She had never seen her gentle Grans so pissed off as when she had finished reading about her post humorously adopted granddaughter's murder and her great grandson living with his life constantly being threatened and abused. They had never gotten to know one part of their family, and the other wasn't in a good place, that couldn't keep happening obviously.

Within a week the Stackhouse family had gotten full custody of the 16-year-old wizard who had finally defeated a threat he should have never been up against. While most of his society was praising him, there were some whispers that he planned to go dark, and that would go nowhere good. A member of their government had helped the American family get him out of that place before people started baying for his blood.

The Stackhouse's would protect him now. He was with the remainder of his true family- and they would teach him that family wasn't like what he had been left to. Family didn't hurt or belittle you- they protected you and elevated you when you needed it. They encouraged you. She felt a breeze blow past her and looked up to see Bill, her vampire boyfriend, standing there. She hadn't seen him since they got Harry, so it was a bit of a surprise.

"Who's the boy, and why is he in your home?" Bill asked roughly, his eyes narrowed on the prone form suspiciously. Sookie glared at his tone. Harry had enough of people talking down and assuming the worst of him in his life. She wasn't about to let Bill add to that without saying something. And if he ignored her warning… she would choose her family over the supernatural.

"Don't call him that, you'll make him have nightmares and that's the last thing that he needs right now. Harry's my nephew, apparently mom had a child at 15 when abroad for an exchange program and just abandoned her to the system there. Lily, which was her name, died before she was 20, and Harry was her only child. He hasn't had a good life between the society over there and the family that he was sent to live with. Lily's adopted sister and the woman's husband abused him severely when he was growing up. Grans is trying to do what she can to help him now that he's somewhere safe finally." She murmured in reply, still stroking her nephew's hair as she made sure to keep her voice low. Bill growled at her reply, sounding upset by what she had to tell him.

"How old is he, and what do you mean by his society?" He asked, coming into Harry's room via the window without asking. He had permission to come into her home of course, but with Harry here she was going to have to lay down some ground rules obviously. Sookie couldn't imagine that the teen would feel safe if he knew a vampire could just come into his space like this.

"He only looks 13, maybe 14 at the most and that's being generous." Sookie closed her eyes tightly at those words, trying to calm herself as she remembered what the too small boy had been through in his life. She knew that Bill didn't mean to be rude, or at least hoped so, but he didn't really need to know everything about her family, did he? This was starting to feel off, but she would need to have something more before she did something. She had invited the supernatural into her life, and had seen how dangerous it could be. And that was without what she knew of her nephew's people even. Harry's secret were for him alone to reveal, so no matter the questions Bill may ask she wasn't going to be the one to explain her comment. She would answer the basics for now though.

"He's 16 years old Bill, that's how bad it was where he grew up and no one there thought to remove him. The adults in his life either failed him, or had plans that we haven't even fully explored in regards to his person. If his best friend hadn't sent Grams a letter those. Things would have killed him!" She hissed, the familer fury in regards to Harry's life easily rising and hiding her discomfort at his prying. Bill growled as he came closer and the child's sweet scent filled his senses, something in it having a sort of drug like effect on the vampire though he didn't quite register that fact right then and there. All that he could think of was the question of how anyone could have harmed this child. Even with his history the answer eluded him, and perhaps that should have been his first sign that Sookie's cousin was as special and unique as she was. That would be his mistake.

"He's safe here Sookie, you know that." He assured her, noticing her anger and feeling like he should reassure her. She nodded at his words, brushing her hand through her nephews hair again.

"I never knew about his mother- knowing her is a chance that I lost because my momma didn't want a child when she was so young, but he's blood Bill. He should have grown up laughing and playing, but instead he was beaten and manipulated. I want to sooth his hurt, his pain. I want to see him smile and laugh. He's been here two days, but not once has he smiled at us. He flinches away from any contact that we try to initiate, and he honestly believes that we'll turn out like the woman he called aunt before and her family. It breaks Grams heart to see him that way, and mine too." She murmured softly, choosing not to talk about his abilities. With the off feeling she was getting from Bill right now it was for the best. He didn't need to know that Harry had any sort of abilities.

"It's only when he sleeps that I can really get close to him because he's always on guard when he's awake. I don't know how to help him because I've never had to go through the things like he had, but I want to. Dear Lord I want to help him learn how to be a kid his age more than anything right now." Bill nodded at her confession, sitting down in a chair close to her. She tried to ignore the way that she wanted to stiffen. Bill didn't know Harry from Jack- and the longer he stayed in her nephews room the worse that off feeling got. Sookie didn't like it, considering she was dating the man right now.

"That's how family feels when one of their own has been hurt. You'll help him Sookie, I know ya will." He murmured- seemingly promising her that she would succeed. It was only that feeling that kept her from taking it as he said it. She nodded again, not knowing what else to say. Asking him to leave would bring all sorts of questions that she wasn't ready or prepared to answer. That or she would have a surely vampire standing watch outside the house all might, and she would get no peace at all. This was truly the lesser of the two evils, at least tonight.

She would set boundaries tomorrow night, when they were not in a child's room where any argument or protest could wake said child. Sookie owed that much to her nephew- since she wasn't exactly supposed to be in here watching him herself. The two watched the sleeping boy for the majority of the night, Sookie calming any nightmares that tried to overtake the world-weary boy and Bill just sitting there- a look that was too much like calculation in his eyes. It did nothing to easy the growing discomfort in Sookie.