Harry and Merope and the Mystery of Forks

Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own any of these characters, only the plots and situations that you do not recognize.

A/N: I'm currently on vacation and have not had much alone time to get the creative juices flowing, so my apologies. Perhaps if I can find a few minutes a day the rest of the week, I'll be able to write and post this chapter by the time I get back to my home.

A/N2: I have not proofread this chapter, since I decided to not add it to the story.


~DELETED CHAPTER~

Harry's trip back to Forks was obviously quick and uneventful; however, upon his arrival he found Merope, the Cullens, and the Pack in a state of preparation for an apparent battle. Apparently they felt that he was taking too long and were making plans to come rescue him. Not even Merope had noticed his return, though she was the only one that could truly sense his location.

Harry gave them a few more minutes to notice him before he cleared his throat and asked, "I take it you missed me?" Which, of course, caused everyone to freeze in their motions before he found himself with an armful of Merope and an earful of various voices mixed with reproachment for taking so long and relief that he was back safe and sound.

After Merope had finished snogging him breathless, she exclaimed, "Harry, I know you can handle yourself, but I wasn't even this worried that time you disguised yourself as me and allowed yourself to be kidnapped by Grindelwald!"

Harry shook his head with a gentle smile on his face as he lightly kissed her on the lips and said, "After all the years we've had together, you still have doubts in my abilities, even knowing I cannot die?"

Merope pouted, "I know in here," pointing to her temple on the side of her head, "that you're very capable of taking care of yourself from anything, but it's here," pointing to her heart, "that has the problem trusting that you're always safe and sound."

At that declaration, Harry gently pulled Merope to himself and just held her in the safety of his arms until the tension in her body began to fade away. Then she pulled away with a self-depreciating laugh and said, "I know I'm being silly," as she wiped away the tears that had begun to fall down her cheeks.

Shaking his head, Harry brought a hand to her face and wiped a tear away from her cheek as he gave her a loving smile. "On the contrary, it warms my heart that even after all our years together that you can still find the emotion to worry about me. If I had had any doubts of the depth of your love for me, that would have cured me of any doubts I might have had."

Merope just leaned into the touch of his hand still on her face in answer.

Sam cleared his throat then and asked, "Is there still a threat to the Pack?"

"The threat has been neutralized. Aro, Caius, and the unredeemable factions of the Volturi are no more, the remaining part of the Volturi Coven were all basically being held against their will." Harry said as he turned his attention to the Pack and the Cullens, telling everyone about what he did in Italy and the responses of the surviving members of the Volturi.

At the conclusion of his tale, Harry added, "By the way, Marcus was interested in coming for a visit, so we may see him in the future."

"Marcus left the Volturi?" Carlisle asked incredulously.

"Well, not so much left, more like freed from," Harry nodded. "It seems that Chelsea's gift of bond manipulation was able to tie Marcus, the wives of Aro and Caius, and many others to the coven against their will. When Chelsea was dispatched, they were freed from the false bond. It turns out the wives of Aro and Caius were not even their true mates. I'm sure there's more of a story there, but as Aro and Caius are now both dead, we likely won't find out exactly what that was."

"Well, perhaps Marcus will be able to enlighten us when he comes for a visit," Carlisle said.


The next several weeks passed uneventfully and the next thing Harry knew, there were only two weeks left of the school year. Merope decided she was going to attend "summer school" so she could work far enough ahead to skip a grade, because she refused to remain in the school by herself after Harry and all of their friends had graduated the next school year. So it was decided that she would attend summer school, while Harry dealt with the illusion of their older siblings, Evan Potter and Meredith Grant.

Since Harry would be "of age" during the summer, Harry and Merope made plans for Evan and Meredith to officially move to Seattle to cut back on their commute to college for the next school year and Harry and Merope would be legally emancipated.

During the planning process, Merope pointed out, "You know, I think it would probably be better if we arranged for them to have an accident at some point during the upcoming school year. I don't quite fancy continuing the illusion of having adult family members for the duration of the time that we plan to stay here."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. We may need to work on our acting skills though, because it's going to be suspicious for the local folks here if we can't show the proper emotion." Harry responded thoughtfully.

"I'm sure it will all work out." Then changing the subject, Merope asked, "Do you think it's time to take that hex off of Mike?"

Harry shrugged and said, "I think I'd rather wait until after graduation. He still occasionally tries to start stuff the few times he manages to catch me alone."


A/N: So after mulling this over, I'm not too thrilled with how this chapter went, so I've decided to upload it into my deleted scenes.