AUTHORS NOTE:

I don't even claim to be good at writing, but sometimes an idea just has to be put to paper. Or.. keyboard. You know what I mean. I don't have someone proofing my stories and I'm sure there will be grammatical or spelling errors strewn throughout. I did my best, I promise.

Also, I don't own Twilight. Or Harry Potter. I wish I owned Harry Potter.. I'd never let him leave the bedroom. Sadly, this is not the case, and I don't make any money from this.

This is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction of any sort of decent length so please review (kindly? Or not. I can take it! Actually I probably can't.) if you feel so inclined!

Warnings: Slash, for now. HP/JB. This chapter is pretty innocent. It is likely it will become.. not..so..innocent. In time.

So without further ado:

PROLOGUE

"Jake..."

"Not now, Seth," Jacob Black huffed, flopping out over the worn brown leather couch of his apartment in Port Angeles.

"But Jake, if we don't find new housemates soon, we won't be able to afford this place much longer," Seth said, a whine in his voice.

"I'll work something out...I can get an extra job or something." Admittedly, though the thought didn't appeal to Jacob, it was far better than getting two random people off the street to come live with them.

"Look, I... I put an ad on the college housing board the other day, and had a few people apply." Jacob raised an eyebrow in response. "They can't all be as weird as the last ones we interviewed!"

"Seth," Jacob replied, letting out a sigh, "we just can't trust people outside of the reservation. I know we're much better at controlling our shifting now but we just can't risk..."

Seth simply frowned in response, before getting up from the armchair he had been slumped in next to Jacob and walking over the dark, worn floorboards to the giant fridge that occupied the majority of their kitchen. He pulled out a bottle of milk and turned to find Jake having slid further off the couch, half his torso now lying across the rug on the floor. He was staring at the ceiling.

Seth found resolve and turned fully to Jacob. "I know you don't want to let anyone in, and that's fine, but Rochelle wasn't from the Rez, and neither was the guy we don't talk about. I can't take too many shifts and keep up with my classes at the same time to pay for this place. Besides, you have barely spoken to anyone since Bella married Edward, and after Rochelle cheated on you, you stopped talking to anyone even during classes, you don't even-"

"I am not obsessed with Rochelle still!" Jacob growled, cutting him out. "Or Bella!"

"Hah," retorted Seth, "Then why do you spend half the night staring at Bella's pictures on Facebook?"

"I'm just checking Cullen hasn't turned her yet..." Jacob sulked, the lie apparent in his eyes.

"Yeah, right." Seth said, closing the fridge and taking a size-able gulp of milk before wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist. "Still doesn't explain why you spend the rest of your time stalking your ex-girlfriend when you're not stalking Bella. You are meant to be studying!"

Seth was pretty sure he heard Jacob let out a whine.

"Look, Rochelle moved out a month ago, and we need to get another two room mates in now. I have finals in two weeks! You start yours in one! I can't be stressed wondering about how we're going to pay our rent when I still have four piles of readings to cover, and I don't want to move back to the Res just yet."

Jacob slowly pushed himself off the floor before pulling an over-sized grey hoodie off the armrest and over his head. "Hah, you try having your girlfriend cheat on you with your other housemate and see how it feels! I'll figure it out, I just need some time," he said, grabbing keys and sticking them in his shorts pocket before heading for the door.

"Jake, I..."

"Don't interview anyone yet!" he yelled, closing the door behind him. Seth's frown deepened as his eyebrows raised in a concerned manner. He heard heavy footsteps as Jake descended the stairs from their apartment, before seeing him speed away running down the street. Seth loved living in their apartment whilst he was studying at the community college. It had four bedrooms and would be considered huge by normal standards, with it's large arched windows and exposed brick walls, but it always felt a little cramped and more than cozy considering the size of the shifters who lived in it.

He loved college life, and tried to encourage Jake to do the same. He knew Jacob said was only studying so that he could make a better life for Billy, but he knew that they both loved zoology equally. Whilst he wanted to be a Vet, Jacob loved researching the species found in the Olympic park. He was a second year student, whilst Jake was finishing his fourth and final year. Seth knew Jake like an older brother but was at a loss. Sighing with the frustration of not knowing what to do, Seth put the milk back in the fridge, before returning to his room to study.

- Oooh. Page Break. -

Jacob's tattered runners pounded the slick pavement as rain pounded down, drenching his clothes, hoodie clinging to his muscles. He always ran through the town to clear his mind, sometimes all the way through the park back home to the reservation. It was his favorite time to reflect on things. Things like Rochelle.

He had met her during his first year of college whilst still living in the perpetual angst of being Bella's second choice, and she'd clung to him the second she'd met him. They'd moved in with each other in second year with.. with Chris, and Seth had come to join them to register for college.

Chris was Jake's best friend at college and probably the first friend he'd that wasn't from the Reservation, and wasn't Bella. Chris was also now known as 'He-who-must-not-be-named' throughout the pack. He'd been the one to steal Jake's girlfriend.

Perhaps she'd been a bit too clingy and he'd had no love for her best friend Jessica. She may have had a penchant for asking for gifts more expensive than he probably could have afforded. They may have fought a little more than a normal couple would have, and the couch did sometimes feel like a second bed, but that was normal, right? He had tried so hard to imprint on her, and love her forever.

But Jake was beginning to think that love wasn't for him.

So here he was, in his final year of College, freshly dumped and living with Seth. It was fine, really. He was happy. He didn't care about the bitch. He didn't care that Bella always sounded so happy when he spoke to her. He didn't care that he saw pity in Seth's eyes every time they brought up Rochelle and he-who-must-not-be-named. But if he didn't care so much, why was he crying? Maybe it was just the rain.

He stopped to strip off his shorts and tie them to the leather rope around his ankle, the soaked hoodie discarded near the pavement. Seconds later he shifted and sprinted off into the forest. Life was shit.

Seth could hear the sorrowful howl from the apartment.

- Oooh. Page Break. -

Hermione sprinted up the stairs with a huge grin on her face, as she searched for her best friend. "Harry! HARRY!" she yelled, bursting into the room of his dorm.

"What?!" her raven-haired best friend yelled in reply, his tone joking.

"You'll never guess what, you know how I ap-"

"-plied for an out-of-university exchange year?" Harry finished for her. "And you enrolled me in the same program too? And now we are going to middle of the desert in Australia? Where it's ridiculously hot and unpleasant? And it never rains? And there are no trees? Next week?"

"Well..." she replied deflated, "well, yes, that. How did you know all that?"

"A little birdie told me," he said, eyebrows wiggling, his lips quirking up from their previous frown.

"Damn it Luna! Well, you should start studying in preparation. I've read the creatures they have in Australia are simply fascinating. Really, they have dragons with skin that looks like Opal!" She exclaimed, her tone rapid and far from her usual composed state.

"'Mione, we have at least a month before we have to move! Australian universities have a different term schedule to ours," he explained before mumbling, "and who wants to bake in the middle of the desert anyway."

Ignoring the remark, she continued. "It is always best to be prepared, so I ordered us some books off the Internet! There's plenty to do beforehand, besides we'll have to start looking for accommodation sooner rather than later and - oh! This is going to be so exciting!"

"Exciting eh?" Harry replied, single eyebrow raised. "That means that tonight, we go out and celebrate!"

"We can celebrate when we finish Auror training Harry!" Hermione replied, tone serious. "Besides, Ron is busy doing his healer placements at St. Mungos so there's no one else to go out with."

Harry let out a groan. "Can we not just enjoy our holidays for once 'mione?"

"This is enjoying our holidays! I'm going into town to hit up some bookstores for the items I couldn't find online. It's so frustrating that Flourish and Blott's only sell restricted books in their store! And there's so much we need to catch up on before we leave."

Considering the store was an apparition and maybe five minutes of walking away, Harry rolled his eyes. She was yet to take a breath between thoughts. Harry's eyes glazed over as Hermione began to talk through the exhaustive list of reading she would make them do. He often wished Ron had taken up Auror training instead of becoming a healer. He missed having Ron to distract Hermione when she was in one of these moods.

Life after Voldemort's defeat had been interesting. Ron felt a long standing guilt from not being able to heal Fred after the final battle, and the golden trio had gone through a period of depression, each dealing with the scars of the war. In an effort to recover, Hermione had insisted they all sign up for university, and after a protracted application period (as only Hermione had completed her N.E.W.T.s on time, whilst Harry and Ron had to sit supplementary exams), Ron was enrolled as a healer, Harry an Auror, and surprisingly, Hermione had decided to join Harry.

With the dark lord gone, most of their time was spent investigating dark creatures, but both had found a love of caring for creatures. Hermione had impressed Ron and Harry with her dedication to looking after creatures that were NOT house elves, and all three had settled into university life without much fuss.

Harry and Ginny had realised that their love was forged in the passion of war, and that the flame was quickly extinguished as they became close friends. It had been awkward for both parties after they had broken up, but once Harry had expressed attraction to other men, they had bonded over their mutual crushes.

Ron and Hermione's rise to fame as part of the golden trio meant that they had garnered the same level of attention Harry had throughout school, but had the advantage of being a super couple, and avoided the harassment that had now plagued Harry.

Harry had grown just a little taller, reaching 5' 11", with his ever-lasting mop of pitch black hair which now fell in a much more stylistically tousled fashion, stark green eyes behind his circular-rimmed glasses, and an everlasting five-o'clock shadow. Quiddich had broadened his shoulders and added muscle to his body though he still retained his impeccably fast reflexes due to the Auror training. Whilst he personally didn't notice the changes, it seemed the rest of the females on campus (and a few of the males) had. It led to plenty of... awkward... moments.

A scrunched up piece of paper hit him in the face, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"- still aren't listening to me! Don't think I don't know when you zone out Harry!" Hermione continued. "Now. Australia!"

Just as the sinking feeling began to set back in at the thought of a year in the desert, an owl flew through the dormitory window, landing twin letters in the friends laps. Exchanging looks, they glanced down at the letters, and Harry felt a wave of relief wash over him.

"So," he said, looking back up at his friend. "Looks like we're headed to the States!"

Her eyes widened as she read on "They want us to go next week!" He could almost see her hair gain frizz as she became flustered. "I have books to order! Lists to write! Don't they understand?"

"It sounds fun! They say here we'll get to investigate the forest. Much better than a desert, don't you think?"

In resignation eyes slid back down to the letter in her lap.

Hermione harrumphed. "Forks. What kind of name is that at any rate?"

- Oooh. Page Break. -

So, here's the prologue! Hope you enjoy!