Chapter Zero

Defy not the Heart
Disclaimer: All things Harry Potter belong to JKR and all things Twilight belong to SM.
Slash: EC/HP
Warnings: abuse violence
Summary: Harry comes to Forks as a patient for Dr. Cullen. He was only supposed to stay until he healed enough to go back to the war. Will he discover a reason to stay?

Preface/Prologue

Edward was standing as still as a statue at his bedroom window. His nose inches away from the glass wall. He’d been standing there for three hours without blinking lost in the medical journal Carlisle was reading. It helped pass the time in the endless night hours.

He felt his sister Alice’s vision pulling at him. He ignored it until she spoke.

‘Edward, don’t look, don’t pry and don’t answer yet.’ she sounded more hesitant than he had ever heard her. ‘We’ve never spoken of it and none of us would ever ask, but I’ve just had a vision. Two of them actually. In one you go to school tomorrow and meet a girl. Her blood will sing to you. Eventually, you marry and turn her. You are together for years. Nice normal and safe. It’s a good vision of your future.’

Edward caught his breath and had to force himself not to rip into her mind. To not be alone. To have someone of his very own. He had always hoped but never really dared to dream of it.

‘In the other you leave after you meet her and you stay away until next school year. Carlisle tells them you are sick, you repeat the school year so you are not in classes with her. Edward, when you come back you meet a boy. He brings war and pain. He needs you so much. So much love Edward.’

He heard her sigh, such a human sound. ’I can’t tell you which to choose. The girl is independent and will be your equal in all things. She will take to Vampiric life as if born to it. She is what is expected for you. All these years Carlisle has pushed you towards female and never really thought to ask. If you choose the boy the world in general is less accepting. The family though, won’t blink an eye. We all just want you to be happy. Obviously you can be attracted to females as you are - content with her.’

Her thoughts had started to ramble, though still directed at him. Somewhere inside him, where the monster lived, a deep clinching and shaking started. A mate. For him.

‘I can not see the path ahead with him. Decisions still have to be made. But I can tell, he will be your Everything. I want this for you Edward. I will not lie. But it is your path to choose.’

He thought about staying -meeting the girl -having that life. He would finally be content. He thought about leaving. He would be alone. He never dealt well alone.

He worried what the others would think of him. He wrapped his arms around himself. He had never said anything about the females that Carlisle had paraded in front of him. Hoping that eventually he would stop, and he had. Emmet would torment him. Rosalie would sneer, but then she was always sneering at him. Esme? Would Esme be disappointed in him as his own mother was? It was one of the few memories he had of his real mother. Her disappointment in his declaration that he would never marry. It influenced greatly his desire to march off to war. In that time it just wasn’t the done thing and coming home a war hero was the only way she could forgive him his stain on the family honor. He curled in on himself until his forehead touched the glass in front of him.

But no, Esme loved him as he was. He knew somehow that she would want him to follow his heart. A year on his own. War and pain, Alice had said. The boy needed him. Would it be worth it? “Alone.” he whispered too low for anyone but Alice and Jasper to hear one bedroom over.

‘Jasper and I could come with you. It would still work out.’

Contentment, safe, normal. “Worth leaving?”

‘Worth everything.’

“Pack.”

tbc...