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They were playing Marco Polo, which was ridiculous because Jasper knew neither he nor Edward needed their sight to pinpoint exactly where his fiancé and his fiancé’s best friend were quietly giggling as they gracelessly sloshed in the shallows of La Push beach. The four of them were just killing time as they waited for Jacob and the rest of the pack to finish their training and join them on the beach. They were going to have a bonfire and roast the five dozen hot dogs Harry insisted on bringing with them. It was adorable how this novelty hadn’t worn on Harry, and he was just as jazzed about this invite as Jasper imagined he was on his first bonfire trip. Although Jasper had been forbidden from the beach back then, he vividly remembered Harry’s childlike excitement as he recounted the evening. Luckily, due to the new truce, Jasper was now welcomed on the reservation.
Edward was another story. Bella had needed to pout, bargain, and beg just to secure him a begrudging invite as well. If it wasn’t already clear that Bella was a Slytherin, her successful campaign of taking Harry aside and expressing how hurt Edward felt about being left out — thus guilting Harry into reluctantly championing Edward’s inclusion -— sealed the deal.
Jasper soaked up the pure contentment of his fiancé. All of them were too engrossed in frolicking in this sublime setting to notice the police cruiser that pulled up to the beach. Jasper didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until he felt a wave of confusion behind him. He knew that Edward caught a similar train of thought, as he opened his eyes and turned towards… Charlie Swan. Shit. He looked gobsmacked.
“Edward, Jasper, what? How?” He sputtered, before taking a deep breath, gathering himself. “Explain.” Jasper knew he was trying to sound intimidating and if he wasn’t trying to level that tone against two war veterans and a…-- well, Harry would have called him a broody prat-- it might have worked.
Jasper waited for his mind-reading brother to jump in, unfortunately, he, too, seemed to be frozen in shock. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised when his too-calm darling decided to attempt an explanation.
“I’ll level with you, Chief Swan. I can’t explain it. It’s ah… classified. I would be breaking at least two laws if I gave you an honest answer — and as a cop, I am sure you can appreciate the importance of not um… not breaking those.”
Jasper tensed, preparing to intervene by pushing a wave of calmness at Chief Swan when Harry continued. ”The laws say we can’t tell you how Jasper and Edward can..” Harry smirked back at Jasper “Sparkle.”
Jasper sighed, only his Harry would take the opportunity to tease him in the midst of diffusing a crisis.
“What I can tell you is that a lot of the things that you assume are not real may or may not exist. Fairies, dragons, wizards, goblins, trolls, vampires, gr-”
Bella apparently thought this would be the appropriate time to jump in with “Werewolves, can’t forget werewolves!”
“Oh right! Yeah, werewolves, hippogriphs, giants… Well, the point is a lot of magical or supernatural things may or may not exist. And it is against the law for me or anyone else to confirm or deny the existence of any of these things. So… yeah I think that’s it. So…so… Jacob, Billy and the rest of the boys are gonna be here soon and we're gonna start a fire and roast our dinner if you want to join!”
Harry cheerfully finished his explanation while moving towards the beach and Charlie with Bella. Jasper sighed, how Harry thought he could deflect with hotdogs was beyond him. He also moved toward the beach, making plans to call Hermione who he was sure could remove this afternoon from Charlie’s memory. Charlie quickly stepped back to increase the distance between himself and Jasper. Harry caught this movement and directed his full attention towards Charlie.
“Oh, I guess maybe my explanation wasn’t good enough. Look, Jasper, Edward, and I are not er…dangerous or anything. Sure, we may or may not be able to do things that you thought were impossible. But I am still the bloke who comes by on Tuesday with Teddy to watch basketball. Jasper is the “boy that’s too polite” that “I am too young to be settling down with”.
Harry winked over at Jasper, and he put his hands up in an I-come-in-peace gesture after finishing his air quotes. “And Edward, yeah sure he’s a prat who your daughter is way too good for, but he wouldn’t hurt her, and if he did you know I would help you." Harry directed this second wink to Charlie. "Make his body disappear. Feel free to fill in the blanks on what Edward is any way you want. Personally, I would assume Edward is a troll.”
Harry gave a sheepish grin to Bella. “You have to admit it fits… He’s dumb, boring and I could kick his ass when I was 11.”
Charlie stared at Harry, still wearing a stony expression. If Jasper hadn’t sensed his amusement he would be racing to place himself in between Charlie and his all too blasé fiancé. Charlie finally started chuckling, he directed his attention toward his daughter.
“That’s why I said you should marry Harry, Bells. He’s a straight-shooter. While I might not trust Edward” Charlie gave a hard look to his shimmering soon-to-be son-in-law “at all. And to be clear, I trust you a lot less after discovering this…” Charlie turned back and smirked at Harry. “Shiny secret. I want you, both of you, to be happy. So if I have to deal with minimal information, and my imagination I will be okay with that. But if either of you ever need to tell me anything, just know I am always here, and would break a dozen laws for either of you.”
Charlie snapped his stony expression in place as looked at Edward. “But you should know I would also break a dozen laws to make you pay if you ever hurt them. I am not afraid of a freakn’ fairy.”
There was a weighted pause, broken when Harry erupted in giddy laughter. “Freakn’ fairy, I am gonna have to tell Paul about that! That’s amazing Chief, way better than anything we’ve called him before.” He then started to move towards the pit, waving to Charlie to follow him. “Come help me figure out how to start this fire without burning down the forest.”
As Harry and Charlie walked away, Jasper heard Harry whisper to Charlie. “I am so happy you caught us, now you can join us for Weasley Christmas — just pretend everything is normal and we can have a lot of fun!”
When Charlie responded with “Whatever you say son,” Jasper didn’t have to be an empath to sense the overwhelming joy that instantly consumed Harry.