Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Twilight do not belong to me. I simply like to play with them.

Blue Hour

Chapter Two

"Cheating!" Emmett bellowed. "Esme!"

"That's it; go run crying to Mother," Jasper taunted as he high-fived Edward.

"Sorry, Emmett," Esme apologized. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Fine," Emmett barked out and stormed back to the pitcher's mound. He wound up his arm and prepared to pitch at Jasper. The Civil War veteran only grinned as he raised the baseball bat high, muscles coiled tight.

The ball flew forward with lightning speed, only a blur as it raced towards Jasper. The bat drew back and connected with the ball, giving out a sound similar to thunder. The ball arched towards the far end of the gigantic temporary baseball field.

"Alice, yes! Catch it!" Emmett cried out joyfully as Jasper groaned. The diminutive vampire ran to catch the ball. It started to fly into the woods when Alice suddenly stopped, letting the ball go.

"No! Alice, what are you doing?" Emmett moaned.

Edward? Carlisle sounded concerned. Is Alice alright?

Edward immediately opened his mind to Alice's. The baseball game they had been playing had distracted him from the other's thoughts and now he honed upon Alice's.

Oh, he's so cute! Alice squealed in delight.

Edward was surprised at the intensity and quantity of visions Alice was experiencing. The future kept changing, not settling on one outcome. The only constants were two men and a small green-eyed, black haired child.

He saw the handsome man raging in their own living room, chucking chairs everywhere while Emmett laughed at him. The man with the amber eyes talked to Carlisle many times, often with a serious look on his face. The little boy playing with Jasper and Rosalie. A big birthday cake, light with half a dozen candles and the handsome man was helping the boy blow them out while the rest of them were gathered around. The amber eyed man playing a game of chess with Jasper. Esme trying to feed the child. "It's no use," She sighed and looked at Edward. "He won't listen to anyone but you, Edward."

Then, as soon as the visions started they stopped. Reeling from the avalanche, Edward tried to catch his breath, ignoring for the moment that he didn't need to breathe. He froze, trying to comprehend what he had seen. What did this mean?

"What's going on?" Rosalie called out, annoyance coloring her tone.

"Oh, Rosalie," Alice exclaimed breathlessly. "You're going to love him."

"What?" Jasper looked between Edward and Alice. "Alice, love?"

"Apparently," Edward managed to say. "We're going to have some visitors."

"Visitors?" Jasper repeated warily.

"This sucks!" Emmett complained. "Will someone please explain what's going on for people who can't read minds or see the future?"

"Edward will tell you," Alice chirped. "I've got to ready his room!"

With that parting shot Alice raced away to their home, her thoughts already filled with decorations and color themes. She was debating what would be better- red and gold or emerald green.

Edward stared dazedly after her, until he realized everyone was waiting from an explanation from him. He cursed his sister and vowed to pay her back.

Taking in a deep breath, he turned towards his family and wondered where to start.

"So, let me get this straight," Emmett said. "There are going to be two guys dropping by on us, a little kid with them," He looked towards Alice for confirmation and continued after she nodded. "You don't know why they're coming to us, but we're going to love them anyway?"

Alice squirmed in her chair and nodded furiously, a wide grin breaking over her face.

…I don't like this… Jasper was worried. What if my control slips up around them? How will I resist their blood?

…I must make sure they will be comfortable here… Esme, as usual, was thinking kind thoughts.

Edward sighed and resisted the urge to massage his temples. His family was not usually on edge like this. The curiosity about the strangers was driving Jasper crazy, compounded as it was by his family's curiosity.

Rosalie's thoughts indicated she was wary about the two men but impatient for the arrival of the child. It seemed that the bond Edward had witnessed in the visions between the child and Rosalie was already forming.

"Alice?" Carlisle asked softly. "Can you describe to the amber eyed man to me?"

"Of course!" Alice bubbled. "His hair is a mix between blond and brown. I can't really tell, must be the lighting. He's shorter than the other man. There's…" Alice frowned. "Something different about him, but I really couldn't see what it was. He has a lot of scars too."

A picture flashed in Carlisle's mind and sent shock waves through Edward. It was the same man in Alice's visions. And was not, Carlisle simply picturing the description given by Alice but a true picture of him from memories. Interestingly, the man was much clearer than in the visions.

The man looked much younger in Carlisle's mind, too.

"You know him, Carlisle?"

Everyone turned to look at them. Carlisle smiled. "You don't have to worry anymore, Jasper. Remus Lupin would never mean us any harm."

"Remus Lupin," Alice tested out the word. "Nice name."

Edward shook his head. "I hardly think that Jasper would think of a werewolf as harmless."

"A werewolf?" Jasper shouted. He continued in a slightly less decibel tone. "I thought the Volturi wiped them all out."

"Not all of them, apparently," Emmett commented.

...A werewolf? I didn't see that. But I shouldn't be seeing werewolves anyway…so how… Alice was confused.

"How long have you known him, Carlisle?" Rosalie was curious. "And why haven't we heard of him before?"

"Not long," Carlisle said. "Especially by vampire years. I met him a few years ago in a hospital while we were in Britain. He was teenager then. His parents had brought him in for treatment for a broken wrist he suffered during the full moon. He knew immediately I was a vampire."

Edward saw the first meeting clearly in Carlisle's mind. It had been during the time they had started living in a small town where the fog often obscured the sun. The escalating war situation involving the magical community there had alarmed Jasper and he persuaded them to leave Britain and move to Canada.

He saw Carlisle accepting a request to go to a nearby town and visit the hospital there. Carlisle entered a room where a thin boy was sitting on the examining table. His parents hovered over him protectively.

'What happened here?' Carlisle asked.

The boy's parents exchanged tense looks while the boy (who looked about fifteen) studiously avoided looking at anyone.

'He fell down the stairs,' The mother said, putting her hand on the boy's shoulder.

The look on the nurse's face said quite clearly she didn't believe in such a flimsy excuse. She raised her eyebrows at Carlisle. It was quite obvious that she thought the boy was being physically abused by his parents.

Very soon, due to the mechanisms of the nurse, Carlisle found himself binding the boy's wrist alone. His parents had been lured away to fill forms.

'Remus Lupin, right?' Carlisle asked. He was a bit concerned by the boy's silence.

'Yes,' Remus replied. 'Your hands are freezing.'

'Well, we are having some quite cold weather, aren't we? It seems that-'

'They're as cold as a vampire's hands.'

Carlisle had been alarmed until the boy confessed that he was a werewolf. He had almost killed a student in his school during a full moon two months back. His guilty conscience had been taking a toll on his monthly transformations. Carlisle and Remus had formed a close friendship, with Remus often confiding in the much older and wiser vampire. They kept meeting each other till Remus had to return to school.

It was, Edward mused, not surprising that Remus and Carlisle trusted each other so much in such a short time. From what little Edward saw of Remus in Carlisle's mind, their personalities were quite similar. They both possessed vast reserves of patience and were determined not to give in to the bloodlusts their inner monsters demanded.

"Before he left I gave him my address. But that was before we shifted to Canada. I'm not quite sure how they'll find us," Carlisle said.

"Yes," Alice frowned, the expression looking out of place on her normally bubbly face. "They will have some trouble with that."

"So, what do we do know?" Emmett asked, looking around at all of them.

"Shop," Alice cheered while Jasper tried not to laugh from the sudden despair clouding the room.

"What's taking them so long?" Alice moaned.

"Patience, love," Jasper murmured.

Alice huffed and sank down on Harry's new bed. Three rooms had been prepared for the new guests, but they had shown neither hide nor tail of themselves.

Esme had ecstatically gone overboard and nearly purchased an entire grocery store. She was down in the kitchen right now, humming to herself as she put away her new purchases. She was happy that her kitchen was not just a prop anymore but a place where actual food was going to be cooked.

Jasper had been won over by Alice's reassurances that he would not lose control and was trying to calm everybody down by trying to soothe their anticipation.

Shaking his head and leaving Jasper to deal with Alice, Edward went down to help Esme put away the groceries. He eyed the enormous amount of food she had purchased.

"Are you sure this will be enough, Esme?" Edward asked humorously.

"Oh dear," Esme was flustered. "I knew I should have more! But I really don't remember-"

"Relax, Esme. I was joking."

Esme shook her head and put away the loaves of bread. Edward worked silently too, putting away the cutlery in its proper place. Esme's thoughts were revolving round mostly the food and the new recipes she had researched. But gradually her thoughts shifted in a different direction. Edward's been so quiet since we heard of our new 'guests'. He doesn't seem enthused like everyone else. I wonder what's bothering him.

"Nothing," Edward muttered, while Esme smiled tolerantly at him. "You have been rather quiet," She pointed out. "What did you see in Alice's visions that has disturbed you so?"

Edward sighed and wondered whether to confess. He looked away from Esme's searching gaze. "I-," He started. "I saw myself rather close to the boy. Harry, I think his name was. I just don't understand how-," Edward stopped, embarrassed.

"How you could love him so?" Esme asked gently. "There's no need to worry, Edward. From what Alice says, Harry is someone who seems very easy to love. I know it seems very hard to care for someone new after all these years of seclusion from outsiders but it won't seem to strange after a while, trust me."

Edward nodded, a little comforted. He tried to ignore Esme's sad thoughts about his loneliness. She thought, perhaps rightfully, that these doubts would never have bothered Edward if he had someone to love like the rest of them. The lack of a mate for Edward bothered Esme. She wanted him to be happy.

Upstairs Jasper was trying to calm Alice down when she went into a trance that indicated a vision. Edward's head snapped up as he saw Remus Lupin and his companions disembark from a train and start debating their next destination. Edward and Alice were both alarmed as they saw them board a train that would take them in the opposite directions of the town where the Cullens lived. Before Alice and Edward could get anymore information the vision abruptly faded.

"Edward!" Alice cried out in panic.

Edward flew up the stairs, Esme following behind him. "I saw Alice," He reassured her.

"We have to move fast," Alice ordered. "I have to be there, obviously, so I can see what's going on. Edward will come with me."

"What about Carlisle? He would set them at ease. We're not likely to inspire trust in them," Edward said.

"Carlisle's gone hunting with Rose," Emmett informed them. He had been in the garage when he heard Alice's call.

"Edward?" Esme asked, concerned.

"They're close Esme. They've reached Canada," Alice told her quickly. "But they don't know where we live and they take the wrong train and end up somewhere else. But if we leave now, we can catch them before their train leaves. They're not risking flights for some reason."

"So only you and Edward are going?" Jasper didn't like this.

Alice looked around at all of them. "Emmett can come."

"Rose is not going to like this," Emmett muttered under his breath.

Alice jumped up. "Come on, get a move on it!" She urged.

Taking their fastest car; Alice, Edward and Emmett pulled out with Edward at the wheel. Esme and Jasper saw them off; Jasper had flipped open his cell and was trying to get in touch with Carlisle.

"Hurry, Edward," Alice whispered, a frown marring her normally cheerful pixie face. "I have a bad feeling about this. The little boy- something's wrong with him."

Edward stepped on the accelerator.

A/N Notes: - *Looks at amount of reviews for BH. ::chokes::* Okay, apparently people are not tired of EC/HP. Yet. Though I did get a couple of reviewers saying they preferred Harry with Jacob, Jasper, Emmett or even Carlisle.

I have a poll-ish kind of question for you people. How long would you like chapters to be? What chapter length would you prefer? Or are the current chapter lengths enough?