It was hard to believe that she was free as she stood on the platform in front of a bright purple steam engine with hundreds of other people milling about her. Free. The word seemed so forbidden, sinful, and rebellious, but it was something that she had wanted her whole life—since before she could remember. She had never tasted true freedom until she had murdered the monster that had controlled her whole life, the vampire Marius Markus.
Unlike other seventeen year old girls, not only was Magdalene Markus a witch, but she was a half vampire—the daughter of one of the most notorious and frightening vampires of the age. Magdalene felt that her life story was rather boring, and she never realized how important it was. She didn't like to think about it. It was just a memory of pain and violence, something she didn't want to think about or hold close to her.
Her mother had been a young English pureblood witch, Elizabeth, who met Markus and fell in love with him. Because vampires are considered demons of the night it is often hard to believe that they, like humans, can also fall in love. It was especially hard to believe that a vampire such as Markus would be capable of such an emotion as love. Whether he loved Magdalene's mother, or simply lusted after her, Magdalene didn't really care—nor did she really want to know. She couldn't believe that her Father could ever love anyone but himself, and her childhood was proof of her belief.
When Magdalene was only five years old, her Mother died while trying to give birth to her second child. The boy was born dead, and Magdalene wasn't sure if her Mother had died of grief or of physical complications during the birth. Markus didn't seem to be sorrowful at the lost of Elizabeth, and was never troubled by his daughter who he had named Magdalene despite his wife's argument.
After Elizabeth's death, Markus paid less attention to his daughter, a half bred vampire, and more attention to the numerous amounts of lovers he kept in his bed. The life a vampire was usually a ravished one, and Magdalene was raised in a rich environment. Breaking free of such a world was not difficult for her; she much preferred the life she found, as a witch, after she left her Father's home.
Magdalene never knew freedom until that day she left her Father's house. She had grown up in the house, with a private teacher to teach her spells and studies of magic. She always studied hard to hide from her Father and keep her mind off of the things he put her through. Magic was her escape—the closest thing she had to it anyways. She very rarely was outside, her Father walked around in the daylight, he just couldn't be in it for long periods of time, so he liked Magdalene to remain in doors as much as he did. Her Father, if he ever paid any attention to her, did so when he was in a drunken stupor—either thirsty for blood or quite full of alcohol—and the attention she received was not desirable. Magdalene had learned to clear a room if her Father came in thirsty or drunk. She had scars from his fangs on her neck, arms, and shoulders, and numerous scars from where he shaped crude designs into her skin.
Markus had hated Magdalene for the fact that she was a witch, another reason why she was sure that he never loved her Mother. To Markus, witches and wizards were the worst enemy of vampires—more dangerous then humans. Witches and wizards not only viewed vampires as demonic and dangerous, but they viewed them as non-humans. Vampires were hunted by Aurors, dark wizard catchers, more brutally then werewolves. Any half bred vampires, like Magdalene, were considered dangerous half breeds, and had very few rights within the Wizarding society. Magdalene was convinced that the only thing that kept her alive over the seventeen years she spent at the Palazzo del Te, her Father's home, was her Father's hatred for witches and wizards. He could take his aggression out on her whenever he felt the need to.
Now, Magdalene was no ordinary witch, obviously because she was part vampire, and she was nor ordinary vampire because she was half witch. It is important to understand what vampires were like to understand Magdalene's condition.
Vampires of the time, despite the fictional stories like Dracula, were not horrid night creatures that took the form of bats; rather, they were creatures that required blood to survive because their bodies did not produce enough. A vampire did not need to kill to survive, he or she simply needed to drink blood to keep themselves healthy, but there are always extremist and Markus was one of them—he often killed his prey, draining them completely of their blood. Vampires also could go into the daylight. They preferred not too because of their poor complexion, and they avoid fire at all cost. They can be splashed with Holy Water—nothing with happen to them; a crucifix will not frighten them away from you, and they think that garlic is rather tasty. Vampires are immortal creatures. The only way to kill them, if you are hunting them, is to cut off their head or stab them through the heart with wood. They also had some form of physical magical powers, involving the mind, that were tied to their emotions. They could be telekinetic, telepathic, empathic, have the power to conjure objects, and in some very rare cases Seers. It depended on the vampire, and their parentage, as to what power they had. Markus, being from the longest line of powerful vampires was capable of telekinesis, telepathy, and conjuring.
Magdalene, being half witch, did not inherit all of the vampire qualities from her Father, but she did require blood in small proportions and she usually took it into her system through an IV because she did not grow fangs with her thirst. Magdalene hated the fact that she had to drink or pump blood into her system to stay alive. She hated that she had to steal blood from blood banks, or from another human, to stay alive, and she wished that there was some way to cure herself. Magdalene was not immortal; rather she was almost half immortal. She aged very slowly, and once she hit the age of seventeen it appeared that she wouldn't look any older. She was also capable of empathy, to feel others emotions, telekinesis, and conjuring. These powers she had been trained to use correctly from one of her aunts, her Father's youngest sister.
Growing up had not been a pleasant experience for Magdalene and after seventeen years of taking her Father's crap, her temper finally broke. Markus had been in the middle of one of his endless rages—this time because he had no blood in almost three days—and he was taking it out on Magdalene. It was while he was yelling over her, holding her down in front of him, pulling her head back by the hair, that she realized that she was better then him. She was not something he could walk over and she wasn't going to let him anymore—more importantly she wasn't going to let him take her blood.
It took barely a second for Magdalene to conjure a wooden staff in her hand and shove it through her Father's body. Markus pulled back with a scream of pain and anger, throwing Magdalene away from him like a rag doll. Magdalene watched with horror, and some happiness, as her Father's body began to convulse and twitch. A fire erupted over his heart, where the staff was sticking out of him, and slowly his body began to burn. It turned to ash, and fell in a pile before Magdalene. It was then that she felt freedom. It was then that for the first time in her life she could live.
Everything that had happened in the last seventeen years didn't seem to matter anymore to Magdalene. This was the start of something new—her life would be amazing from here on out, and she vowed to herself that she would be nothing but happy.
She owed a lot to Albus Dumbledore, and would be eternally in debt to him. He had given her the chance to live happily, and finish off her education, so she official could be recognized as a witch. He also was promising her a future—graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would help her find a good job in the Wizarding world. Dumbledore also was accepting of her medical condition, and hoped that having her studying at Hogwarts as a seventh year would help her learn to handle it on her own.
If there was one thing Magdalene was afraid of in her new life, it was anyone finding out about her condition. She knew, from what her Father and Dumbledore had told her, that wizards wouldn't be very accepting of her. There was nothing she wanted more then to live in a peaceful world, happy and free.