See the Light

Chapter 7

The Ministry of Magic building in London was quiet at this time in a morning. A hooded figure approached the security desk, heels clicking against the cold, stone floor as he walked.

"Wand please." said the watchman drearily

"I do not posess a wand." said the hood.

The watchman looked up and eyed the cloaked figure warily.

"Wha' business would you be 'avin 'ere today sir?"

The cloaked figure did not reply immediately. The watchman couldn't help but shiver, nor could he stop goose-bumps from spreading and the hairs on the back of his neck rising. Finally the figure answered.

"Nothing that concerns you."

The watchman ignored the bad feeling in his stomach and stood. He was slightly shorter than the hooded figure, but refused to be intimidated by a man who wouldn't show his face.

"Well then sir, I'm gonna 'ave to ask you to remove yesself from these premises."

The hooded figure laughed. "Excellent, excellent! You remembered the speech!" He clapped and the watchman was thrown off-guard. I do enjoy being 'removed from the premises' but today my friend, I am afraid it is you I shall be removing."

When Sanguini had finished feeding from the watchman, he placed the body back into the guards chair and propped his magazine up. It looked like the watchman had simply fallen asleep on duty. The vampire chuckled and wondered who would find his body. He wouldn't be around to find out as Sanguini had more pressing matters to attend to; the lack of results in his compromise with the Ministry in finding his sons, in particular, Harry Potter.

Sanguini made his way over to the lift. They were locked this early in the morning and the key could be retrieved from the now deceased guard. Sanguini snapped open the doors and eyed the panel of buttons and levels on the opposite wall.

Level Six: Ministerial Lounge, Conference Suites 1-5, Offices for the Senior Undersecretary, Court Scribe, Speaker of the House, and the Minister of Magic for the United Kingdom.

He smirked and pressed the ornate number six, ignoring the dull, female voice reminding him that Level Six was a Security Classified Area.

Albus Dumbledore sat quietly in the 'Planning Room' of the Order lamenting on his relationship with Potters, past and present. He had always been quite fond of James and Lily; Lily perhaps more so, and he had been more than fond of Harry. The young man was incredible; nothing he could ever do would surprise Albus, mainly because he believed that no feat was impossible for the young lad. His biggest regret though, was that he had never noticed when Harry and Draco had changed. He wished now that he had known; he could have kept the boys safe! Now he was in a position more precarious than any he had ever been in before.

He could defy the ministry, resulting in the take over of the school and the arrests of Order members and more than half of his teaching staff. He could give Sanguini false leads, resulting in Sanguini massacring thousands in his hunt for his 'sons', after which the Ministry would get involved and demand the above consequence. Or he could do as he was, and hunt down the boy he swore he would protect, the boy he had given the most powerful tool he knew, all the while knowing that he was betraying more than his own morals. He knew that Harry was currently pitted against him, and his baiting of the youngest Malfoy would not help him at all. But Sanguini was getting restless and he felt it was better for Harry and Draco, two immortals, to be dragged back than have a rogue vampire. For the past eight years, Harry had been the Ministry's man for rogue vampires, and now they knew why he had been so good at destroying them. Of course, when one of his colleagues had noticed what Harry was, the Ministry had demanded the assistance of the Wizengamot, and that of Albus Dumbledore. Any refusal would be seen as treason at worst, aiding and abetting at best. Call Albus selfish, but his position of favour in the Ministry was not something he would give up, not after he had given up so much before.

Albus put his head in his hands and was soon immersed in a memory of long ago.

"Albus, you must promise me that when the time comes, if it is Harry, then you will do everything in your power to help him." Bright emerald eyes bore into his own, and for a moment Albus stumbled. Lily was hinting at something, although hints were not necessary. Albus wondered how Lily knew, but almost immediately banished the thought. Lily Potter was nothing but thorough, and if she thought she could protect her son, she would have researched every possible way. Including, apparently, old wives tales, passed on through generations of Potters and fairytales for Wizarding children.

"My dear," he replied, laying a consoling hand on her shoulder. "I would do, even if you had not asked."

Lily stared at him for one long moment. "No Albus. Forgive me, but you would not have given up what I am asking you to. I wonder if you will even do it now. I am willing to do it myself if you won't. And then we will pray that I survive long enough for Harry to take it from me."

Albus didn't reply to that. "And what of the other objects? One will be of no use to him without the others."

Lily didn't move. "The last will be easy for Harry to find. Once he has what I am asking of you, and what James will leave him, he will find it."

Albus had always wondered about that, but James would never let him near it. Albus could never decide if it was the result of a guilty conscience or protectiveness of his family.

"How is James?" he asked, changing the subject.

If Lily noticed, she didn't mind. "He's with Harry. I think he's scared that we're going to lose him. But I think Harry's going to be losing us."

Albus sighed. Lily was perceptive; he had thought it was more likely that Harry would grow up without his parents. He didn't confirm her suspicions.

"We will protect you, Lily, all of you."

Lily said nothing, but continued walking. Her footsteps were so light that he could hardly hear the crunch of gravel below her feet. Her pale skin stood out strongly in the moonlit garden, and for the first time in Albus' memory, her blood-red hair wasn't her most striking feature. Her eyes, burning with fierce intensity and protectiveness chilled him.

"When you come to cast the spell with Sirius, I'll give you the cloak. Make sure he gets it Albus, and the others. He has inherited more from me than his eyes." she smiled slightly. "He has a horrible temper, and I can't imagine that you would want him to find out later that you have ignored his mothers last request."

Albus had to admit that the girl was good. She held the white picket gate open with a benign smile, her apron smudged with flour; she was the purest portrayal of an innocent housewife he had ever seen.

He stepped through the gate before he answered her.

"I promise, that if it is Harry, I will do everything in my power to help him." He sighed. "Including passing on the cloak and the wand. But Lily, I cannot promise that I will pass him the stone, because I have no way of knowing I will."

Lily smiled a genuine smile. "Albus, that you would give him two of three is enough for me. Thank you, ever so much."

Albus withdrew from the memory and stared forlornly at the Elder wand on his desk. He reached into his robe pocket and pulled out his old willow wand. Vowing that he would reach Harry first, he dimmed the lights in his office, before retiring to his room, Elder wand still motionless on his desk.

Edward and I arrived back to an empty house, something which only served to exacerbate my foul mood. A note on the kitchen counter told us that the vampires had gone hunting and the humans had returned home.

"Fan-fucking-tastic!" I snapped, kicking at the Esme's coffee table in frustration. "I've just realized that I am not a hybrid, mutant soul and I can't figure out why not, and they aren't here! That's it! Fuck it! I'm going home!"

Edward smirked. "You make it sound like you want to be a hybrid, mutant soul."

I growled, biting my tongue to prevent Edward form learning some of the classier British swear words. To say the kid was over a century old, he was incredibly sheltered. I did think them, which defeated the purpose of my not saying them.

"What is a-"

"Something girls have that you don't. Although at times I wonder." I snapped. "But it doesn't matter, because I'm leaving. I'm going to figure out what is wrong with me, and if you see any wizards, tell them to jump off a fucking cliff!"

I kicked the table once more for good measure before storming out. Being so riled up in a room with a mind-reader thwarted my plan. He made a grab for me, but I dodged. I wasn't the youngest seeker in a century for nothing. My reflexes were good as a human, but they were brilliant as a vampire. Or some mutant hybrid thing.

At that thought I lashed out. And punched Edward square in the jaw.

He stepped back, cradling his jaw. Perhaps it was a bit more powerful than I thought…

"Oh shit Edward! I'm so sorry!" I paused while he rubbed his jaw. "Actually, I think it serves you right."

He dropped his hand and stared at me for a few moments. Just as I started fidgeting, he pounced.

"You little bastard!" I almost laughed at how unnatural the words sounded coming out of Edwards mouth, until the punched be in the gut. I doubled over, clutching my stomach. Edward stood back, admiring his handiwork.

I growled as I straightened up. With a battle cry I launched my attack.

Somehow, every conversation I had with Edward Cullen ended up with us rolling around on the floor. I ignored the innuendo my own brain came up with. Not gay Harry I reminded myself. This time, the stupidity of it all caught up with us before any major damage could be done.

Edward winced when he saw Esme's glass coffee table in shattered pieces.

"I'm gonna die." he groaned.

I shrugged and repaired it. "No you're not."

"No." he lamented. "I suppose not. Well, seeing as you have decided to stay I want to talk to you."

I had a couple of arguments against that. "I never decided I was going to stay. And didn't we just talk? If you had any sense you would be banishing me away. I told you that I was a trained Buffy, and you pretty much cozied up to me more!"

Edward grinned. "Call me a risk taker, but I don't think you would try to hurt me. Well apart from just then. And that time when you messed in my mind."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Edward's grin grew a little wider. "Emmett."

Damn. The brawny one. Edward had discovered my fear of his brother before I altered his memories. At least I had some sort of survival instinct: Be scared of man who wrestle bear. "True. But what about your natural aversion to wizards?"

"And my natural attraction to vampires."

I snorted. "We both know that's a load of bullshit. Vampires are naturally suspicious of other vampires outside their coven. That's why Malfoy hates you so much."

Edward tried again. "Flattering, really. How about my natural attraction to mutant, hybrid things?"

I shook my head and smiled. "That's ridiculous. Nobody has a natural attraction to oddities. Well, except Luna Lovegood, but she is a class of her own. I win."

He shrugged. "Perhaps."

"Face it!" I said. "I win! There is absolutely no reason for you to like me. Or me to like you. And so for that reason, I will have to assume that you just like me for my incredible good looks." I made a Blue Steel face and Edward laughed. No! No, no no! No more flirting you pillock! "That or the pair of us are just plain masochistic."

Edward shrugged again "Perhaps. Or perhaps it is the story of the lion who fell in love with lamb."

"Who's the lion?" I asked suspiciously.

Edward laughed. "I've yet to figure that one out yet. Let's just agree that we are mutually deadly to each other."

I eyed him suspiciously. He smiled his silly little half smile and I gave up, for now. "The lion who fell in love with the puma. And I dibs puma."

"Agreed."

Jessica Stanley glared petulantly at the receptionist. Her dislike of the woman was increased ten-fold when she refused to help her.

"All I want to know is if Harry Potter has been brought in here at all tonight."

The woman was unperturbed. "I can't tell you that love." She returned to chewing her gum loudly. Jess winced at the smacking sound her lips made around her overly glossed lips. She couldn't decide what was worse: the horrible noise or the horrible colour lip-gloss she was wearing. Jess smirked wickedly when she noticed the tell tale sign of plastic surgery wearing off around her crows feet. Cheaters never prosper.

"I appreciate that, but my friend called me and told me to come in. I'm just worried. I can't get in touch with any of them now."

The receptionist stared at Jess for a long moment. Finally, she moved to the filing cabinet behind her. Jess' heart leapt; maybe now she would get some answers.

Her heart sank when the receptionist returned with a nail file and ignored her.

Jess stood there, and refused to allow herself to fidget. She wanted answers and she was going to get them dammit!

The receptionists filing missed a beat. Jess continued glaring at the obstinate woman, smiling to herself when the rhythm of the file against nail became fractured.

The receptionist finally snapped, throwing down the file and standing up with a huff. "Look, love. I can't tell you if Harvey-"

"Harry." corrected Jess irritably.

"-Whatever- I can't tell you. I appreciate that all that peroxide might have gone to your head, but I am not saying anything, love."

Jess bristled at the peroxide comment. How dare that bitch, with disgustingly cheap hair extensions, a bright orange tan, purple eye shadow and red lip gloss give her lip about her hair colour.

"Point taken Barbie." she said.

The receptionist looked about ready to launch herself over the desk. "What the hell do you mean by that?" she snapped.

Jess smiled. "Well, love, its just your nose is plastic, your boobs are plastic, your eyebrows have been lifted to your hairline and your cheeks filled with so much collagen that I'm surprised your face hasn't set permanently."

The receptionist snarled. Jess ignored her. "And you should probably make an appointment about those crows feet." Jess looked the woman up and down. "Don't worry. Youth and beauty is a fickle thing. But a bit of lipo wouldn't hurt."

"Jess?!" an astonished voice almost shouted. Jess jumped and spun around.

"Harry!" she squealed. The receptionist took advantage of her momentary distraction to launch herself at Jess, propelling her body up and over the counter and slamming into Jess. Both girls went tumbling to the floor, fists flying, nails digging into skin and hair being ripped up. Harry jumped off of the gurney the paramedics were carrying him on and attempted to separate the girls. By the time the paramedics had chance to react, he had both women separated and glaring furiously at them both.

"Er… Harry, you really need to lie down mate. That's what the neck brace was for. You might have a um, spinal injury."

Harry sighed and released the two girls. He trotted back to the gurney and let himself into it gingerly, wincing for good measure. "Sorry Ron." he said, pathetically. Jessica would have laughed if that stupid woman wasn't still glaring at her.

It was obvious who came off better. The receptionist's hair was in disarray, her top torn and her face pulled into a snarl. Jess however, flicked her fringe out of her eyes and glared at the woman. She looked as perfect as she had before the woman had jumped her, and noticed Alice Cullen nodding appreciatively as she was lead into Casualty with her dad and brother.

Jess was about to say something to the woman, but Harry beat her to it.

"That, Madame, was a very bad move. My friend here may just suffer permanent injury and emotional trauma from that incident. Might I suggest that you go back around that desk, fix yourself up and continue working peacefully?"

The receptionist was obviously quite intimidated by someone who escaped the paramedics covered in blood, wearing a neck brace and walking with a limp.

Jess resisted the urge to poke her tongue out, but followed the procession of injured teens, desperately seeking answers.

"What happened? How come I beat you here? What's wrong? Where's Draco?"

Dr Cullen asked her if she didn't mind waiting outside while he examined them. She was about to sit down when Harry asked if it was okay if she came in.

Dr Cullen looked slightly wary but let her in.

Edward and Alice Cullen were sat upright and stiff on opposite hospital beds. The paramedics were lifting Harry onto the last bed in the room when she walked through the door. The ginger haired one muttered something to Dr Cullen too low for Jess to hear. His partner, a frizzy-haired brunette hovered over Harry almost matronly.

Jessica watched as Dr Cullen cleaned the blood from Harry's face, leaving several nasty looking cuts. Questions kept flowing through her mind.

"It was a car accident." spoke Edward suddenly. Jess blushed at being spoken to by her former crush. "Harry was worse off because he was on a motorbike." The way he said motorbike indicated that he didn't think too highly of Harry's exploits.

Harry got that impression as well. "Hey!" he snapped. "I would have been alright if you were driving on the right side of the road!"

Edward chuckled. "I think you'll find it was you who confused the correct side of the road to drive on."

Harry grinned back. "I know what side of the road is the correct side to drive on. The left. Well, that's the side normal people choose to drive on anyway."

"Yes Harry, because normal people like driving their motorbikes into oncoming traffic."

"I'm British!" he whined. His sulking face did a total three-sixty when he remembered his comeback. "Anyway, it's not my fault you like driving like a man possessed! Any one else and I would have been able to avoid a collision, but you were taking that corner way too fast!"

"Too bad your puma-"

"Don't even go there lion boy!"

Their teasing continued for several minutes. The paramedics left, elbowing each other and rolling eyes as they did. Jess had noticed the slight bump on the woman, and wondered if they were together and the baby was his. She sighed, mocking herself for her romantic streak.

Dr Cullen finished cleaning up Harry's less than romantic wounds. His arm was in a sling, his left leg would need setting, half of his face was covered in anti-septic and gauze and more thick gauze was wrapped around his torso. His well defined, muscular torso.

And Jess wasn't the only one looking.

She watched Edward as he caught a good look at Harry's perfect body. His eyes went unfocused, his face slack. Harry had given him a witty comeback, but Edward didn't seem to be able to put together a sentence. Jess giggled, realising why Edward Cullen never dated girls. He simply wasn't interested.

Unfortunately her giggles brought her to the attention of everyone in the room.

"What?" asked Harry. "What's so funny?"

Jess giggled a little bit more as she figured it out. Edward wasn't the only one checking another male out, but Harry kept a much better composure.

"You two!" said Jess. "It's so painfully obvious!" she launched into a another fit of giggles as Harry and Edward shared confused looks.

Then Alice joined in the giggling. "Think of a song Jessica. Or two lines from a song. And just repeat them over and over in your head. " she advised before she started singing Everlasting Love softly under her breath.

Jess shrugged and joined in.

Edward shrugged. "Modern music. I never liked it."

Both boys went back to staring surreptitiously at each other. Dr Cullen was smiling broadly by the time he reached Alice.

Edward jumped up as soon as his father had finished poking him to sit at the end of Harry's bed. This elicited another round of giggles from Alice and Jess, a larger smile from Dr Cullen and confused faces from Edward and Harry.

Finally, they were all bandaged up.

Dr Cullen left, claiming he had work to do, and that the three patients were to stay in bed. Jess had an hour or so before she needed to be at school.

Jess and Alice sat chatting about shops, styles and trends that were coming in or going out while the boys rolled their eyes and discussed… well, Jess wasn't really sure what they were doing, but it was damn cute. Harry and Edward were lying on the same hospital bed, side by side, Harry's left arm above his head and right across his midriff, Edward mirroring the position. She almost awed out-loud, but kept it to herself. Apart from being overly romantic, she fancied herself a fag-hag. It didn't help being friends with Mike Newton for the past six years; he was as bent as…

"So where's Draco?" asked Harry eventually breaking his almost silent conversation with Edward.

Jess shrugged. "He said he needed to help his friends kid. Apparently this woman couldn't drive and the kid needed taking to hospital."

Harry frowned. "She rang him. On his cell. I think her name was Hermione?"

Jess saw the alarm spread across his face. Alice and Edward were still. Edward seemed to be observing Harry's reaction and Alice was staring into space.

"Oh. Okay. I was just wondering." said Harry, but Jess could see how panicked he was.

"Is there something I should know about Hermione?" She asked waspishly. If this Hermione was some other woman and the kid was an excuse.

"No. I'm just worried about Rose." Harry seemed to sense what Jess was getting at. "Hermione is married. She's got one daughter, Rose and is pregnant with another."

Jess mumbled an apology and stared at her feet.

Harry smiled. "No worries. Malfoy's not that kind of person, although I can understand why you'd be suspicious."

She regretted even thinking Draco would cheat.

"You'd best get to school. You have rumours and gossip to spread." teased Harry.

Jess was about to retort, but thought better of it and snapped her mouth shut. "I suppose you're right." she said airily as she flounced out the door. She popped her head back around a few seconds later. "Hope you're all feeling better soon."

Jess made her way to her car, feeling as if she might have just patched things up with Harry, and found herself a new girlfriend in the process.

Alice had seen that the following two weeks would be mainly sunny, and Jessica had been investigating at the hospital. She was suspicious of Draco's whereabouts (weren't we all), my whereabouts and my state of health. We decided it would be best to cover our tacks. The story was that Edward, Alice and I had been injured in a car accident on our way to school, and Dr Cullen had brought us in with minor injuries. We had to pretend the accident had happened the morning after my actual accident as the night staff at the hospital had already been Obliviated and we didn't want to mess with peoples minds too much. It was ridiculous, confusing and in my opinion pointless, but Alice had fun dressing us up. I think that was her plan all along.

Chief Swan came and took our statements, and repeated the lecture I had received from Hermione about riding a 'Death Machine'. I was incredibly lucky to have escaped from the wreck alive, and it was probably because I 'jumped from the bike when I realised I was losing control'. Emmett had had fun destroying a helmet, and it took him several attempts to make one look 'realistic'. Alice had crushed and melted a bag of blood pops and smeared it all over us, not stopping until we looked suitably injured. She also set Ron and Hermione (who had returned from England with an excited Rose. Apparently it was her first sleep over) to the task of putting glamours on us, to make our un-injurable bodies look injured. Judging by the look on Edwards face as she dressed us up, he had been her Ken Doll before.

We spent a few hours at the hospital before we were released and advised to take two weeks off school.

Dr Cullen examined us and signed our medical certificates, "Conflict of Interest be damned." he said with a smile.

Edward drove me home that night and promised to come by in the morning. I sat in the front room for hours, waiting for Malfoy to make an appearance. There was no sign that he had been home; a quick check of his room showed that he hadn't ransacked his wardrobe for something more comfortable (he always changed into robes when he got home, something which both amused and irritated me). His room was exactly how I had left it the morning before my accident, after coming in to get his dirty washing.

I checked the woods around the house for him, but there was no sign that he had gone out there. His scent was faint, and Edward confirmed that it was as faint as mine. We had been hunting together last so I knew he wasn't out there.

I had no way to contact him, as Jess had given me his mobile at the hospital and I had no idea where he had gone. He hadn't gone to England, as Ron, Hermione and Rose were all fast asleep upstairs. I sifted through text messages, emails and his recent calls, but nothing gave any indication of where he might have gone. I checked his voicemail, wondering if he had received any messages. I was automatically put through to his greeting.

Welcome to the Mobile Telecom Voicemail Service.

The line clicked a few times and I pressed the one key.

Thankyou. Your greeting is as follows:

"Potter, how does this thing work? Oh right. I don't see why I have to- ugh! You are impossible Potter! Humph, self-glorified- alright alright! I obviously can't answer my… contraption, so if I like you, you may call me back later and I may answer. If I don't like you, you can call back later and I won't answer. Is that satisfactory? What? Why should I tell them to leave their name and number? It's not like I care… Why should I call them back? I don't want to talk to them…" To change your greeting, press one, to edit your privacy settings press two. To return to the main menu, press star.

I shook my head at the confusing system. Eventually I got to the mailbox.

There were no messages that could give any lead as to where he had vanished to.

I watched infomercials for hours with the telly on mute until the sun dawned. Edward turned up, as promised, right as the first light reflected across my side of the earth.

I let him in, and returned to the sofa without a word. I was beginning to seriously worry about him, and kept thinking about the vague excuse he gave to Jess.

Ron and Hermione had taken us to hospital, disguised as paramedics. Draco couldn't have ran off to help Hermione, which begged the question, where had he gone?

"He'll be okay Harry. He's a big boy, and there's not much that can harm him."

I snapped my eyes up to glare at the pale boy across from me. "No, not much. Wizards, yeah, other vampires, yeah, werewolves, yeah, shall I go on?"

Edward raised both hands in a defensive gesture. "I was just trying to-"

"Well don't!" I snapped. "I don't know where he is, why he left or what going on. And it's not just him I'm worried about. It's other people. Innocents. Don't forget what we are, and don't forget that we haven't been living this lifestyle as long as you have." Edward said nothing. "How would you feel if Jasper suddenly upped and left? You'd be stressed and worried too. But then how would you feel if Jasper upped and left when whole armies were after him? You'd be out of your mind with worry!"

Edward nodded. At that moment a silvery patronus burst into the room, making Edward jump out of his seat in fright and me in worry. That was Draco's patronus.

"Potter, don't worry, as I'm sure you are doing. I haven't ran off and joined a cult, nor have I gone wild. I'm fine, and I have some big news for you when I get home. I'll be there in a few hours. I'm just going to see Sev while I'm in the country. And don't worry. We have to less to worry about than you think."

A.N: Er... sorry about the update time? And the dodgy length? I'm going home in nine days, so in a fortnight I should be back to some kind of updating pattern. It was actually a review from zesty-cyanide that reminded me that I still had a fic going. So erm, thanks for taking the time to review (all two hundred and five of you), and I'll be back for good in a few weeks time!