Author's Note: I hate to say it… but I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own Twilight. …There would have been a lot more slash pairings in both of them if I did.

Disclaimer: This story is based off the one-shot Never by seventhSINwrath, said author knows I'm working on this story and I have her full permission to do what I will with the plotline. Hopefully she enjoys this first taste in the prologue.

I'm not going to give you a listing of the pairings, because quite frankly…that would mess with a lot of my plotline – Not even seventhSINwrath knows all I've been planning. Nor do I really plan to share.

I will not claim to be a Civil War buff, but I will state what history I do put in the story will be based off research I'll be doing in my limited time. …I think that's all I need to 'disclaim'.

Thank you to Lucifer's Advocate7 for his impromptu BETA'ing of this chapter. I think this second posting is much better than the original.

"Hey Jasper,"

Jasper turned his head to the side to stare at the beauty next to him. The world around them seemed to be hazy in the heat of a Texan summer day, yet his best friend could be seen with such clarity it almost frightened him.

"Yeah Harrison?" he murmured, tilting his head back to stare up at the bright cloudless sky as he watched a light breeze move the leaves of the large oak tree they had moved under to escape the midday heat.

"Did you ever wish you weren't ya know…human? Like a bird, I think if I could be any creature I'd be a bird." The lilting voice of the young man laying just inches from his own body seemed to slide over him like a caress; he had to close his eyes, nearly over come with the desire to return the same caress with his work-worn fingers.

He had been in love with his best friend for so long, it was painful, but it was a pain he would gladly suffer through to remain at his best friend's side. He knew it was wrong, or at least that was what the pastor at church said…but how could love be wrong? They were best friends, they were blood brothers – had been ever since they made the pact behind the woodshed when they were barely ten years old. How was loving Harrison as a man be any different?

"…I remember Mr. Taylor talkin' about those uncivilized peoples over in…India I think. He was tellin' me about something called re- reincarnation...Something about how when you die, if you're good you're reborn. When I die, I want to be reborn as a bird. A wild bird without a cage, I won't have anything holding me down." Harrison gave a small smile at the thought, laying back and looking content. Jasper couldn't help but smile, even while he was lost in thought his friend just continued with whatever thoughts came to mind.

Things were quiet for a long moment before Harrison turned to lie on his side, his sweat soaked ebony locks stuck against sun-kissed skin even as he attempted to shake his hair free. Those eyes as bright as fresh spring grass seemed to be looking through him, like his soul was bare for Harrison to see.

"I plan on leaving, Jasper. Once I hit my 18th birthday I'm headin' up to Austin and enlisting in the army…Come with me? There's no one I would trust more to protect my back."

"I'll go with you Harrison. Someone has to watch your butt; you've always had such a knack for trouble."

"Jasper, we're about to go to class. Are you up to it today?" The tall, honey haired man jerked out of his thoughts, turning sharply to stare unseeing at his wife, while he tried to pull himself out of his memories of so long ago. Looking at her high cheekbones and angelic features he couldn't help but feel guilty due to how much she resembled his secret love. While Alice was definitely shorter than Harrison had ever been, there were so many similarities he was sure the two could be superimposed over each other and there would be hardly any difference to speak of.

"Yeah. I'll just be a minute longer." He shut the laptop on the desk in front of him, even though he had been ignoring it for hours as he stared off out their bedroom window, not seeing the dreary gray and green landscape that was Forks, Washington, but was instead almost 2000 miles and 145 years in the past in his hometown of Redwood, Texas.

Harrison John Mayes and Jasper Michael Whitlock had been best friends since diapers, or at least that was what they had been told by Jasper's nanny known affectionately as 'Mama Harriet'. Very rarely would the town ever see one boy without the other. Harrison was always at the Whitlock house – Jasper's father had joked that perhaps Harrison was Jasper's twin and he and his wife just hadn't been informed until he appeared at their door one day.

They were one another's confidant, and they knew they could depend on the other no matter what the situation. Even though Jasper couldn't remember much of his human life, he could still remember Harrison at 13, with all of his ninety-five pounds on his five-and-a-half foot frame, tackling the son of the local butcher who dared to make fun of his best friend and beat the snot out of the kid.

Taking one last look out the window he mentally sighed before trying to prepare himself against another day at the crowded high school. Another day, another pointless struggle…life never threw anything unexpected at him anymore.

I don't know if Redwood is truly Jasper's hometown, I really couldn't find any information on that. I tried to pick a small town that is in reasonable distance to Austin…and that was the town I just so happened to pick.

Please read and review! Oh, and to all who do…I've set up a little mini 'contest' on reviewing that's listed on my profile. I think this mainly targets those who have read my other works but anyone is more than welcome to check it out.