Sharpened To A Point

Ch. 1: Albino Rose

Harry sighed. 'Finally. Another long day of chores, over." Harry thought to himself. Since returning to the Dursley's after his fifth year of Hogwarts, from dawn to at least four o'clock, Harry was forced to be the Dursley's personal house elf. Around four-or whenever Harry managed to finish his chores- Harry leaves the house to stroll around Little Whinging. He has all the time in the world to do anything he wanted, so long as he's back in time to cook the Dursley's dinner.

Except tonight. Tonight, Harry has the night to himself. His aunt and uncle are going out to eat with some fancy clients of Uncle Vernon's. Dudley was out partying, getting pissed and high.

Most nights Harry just wandered, no set destination in mind, restless because of his nightmares. Every night since Cedric's death Harry's been waking up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat and unable to fall back to sleep. The nightmares usually focus around Voldemort and his victims, like Sirius and Cedric, but lately the nightmares had been pitch black darkness, and Harry felt as if he was on fire.

Tonight, Harry sat at a small playground, gently rocking on the swing set. There was a full moon, and the stars sparkled brightly. Harry stared at said stars, pondering his life and his friends, both here and at Hogwarts.

A rustle from the bushes behind Harry pulled him from his thoughts, his peripheral vision catching something dart away as he turned. Unable to notice anything else strange, and chalking his paranoia to his night terrors, Harry put the incident out of his mind, figuring it to be a stray dog, and stood from the swing.

He began to walk back to the hell-hole he was forced to return to every summer. Harry had spoken to Dumbledore about the beatings and abuse Uncle Vernon inflicted upon the teen, yet still forces Harry to return. Another movement in the shadows caught Harry's attention, and this time he paused.

Harry began to hear footsteps and faint voices, causing him to turn sharply in an attempt to spot who, or what, the sounds belonged to.

For a moment, everything seemed still. Frozen. Then, with a gust of wind, Harry was surrounded by four people. two male, two female. Harry immediately began to formulate an escape route.

"Don't even try, human." A male spat.

This male was tall, standing at about 6'7. He appeared to be about 23, with shaggy brown hair hanging to his shoulders. His eyes were odd though. They were a dark violet. That, coupled with the derisive way he said human like it was filth led Harry to conclude that these, whatever they were, weren't human and because he couldn't sense any magic, he didn't think they were wizards. He could still sense strong waves of power though.

Harry began to fill with fear. He knew he could still use magic though. Over the past few summers Harry has been practicing wandless and wordless magic, because it was undetectable by the Ministry. He had gotten pretty good at it, and was preforming most spells on a daily basis.

Focusing on the coarse, rugged male, Harry shot a stunner, hitting the man dead center. Whilst the other three were preoccupied with their fallen comrade, Harry ran. He ran as fast as he could, headed towards Privet Drive.

Harry didn't get very far though. A few minutes in he tripped over a fallen branch. Not a second later, (certainly not enough time for Harry to question why there was a branch in the street) he was once more surrounded, though only by two, One girl, one boy. The girl stood about as tall as Harry, maybe taller. She had long, dirty blonde hair, and startling crystal ruby eyes. In those eyes Harry could see hunger. Extreme hunger. He then studied the male. This one seemed to be the complete opposite of the one Harry had stunned. He stood at 6'5, and had short cropped blonde hair. His eyes were an unnatural aquamarine. Harry attempted to quickly formulate another plan.

Unfortunately, the strange people were one step ahead.

"Don't even try, wizard." The girl snapped. Harry's eyes widened.

"That's right, boy. We know what you dd back there." The male said.

"Just because you're a wizard doesn't mean anything. Though, I must admit, wordless AND wandless magic is quite impressive. Your choice to run, unfortunately, was not." The male Harry stunned earlier appeared, looking as if nothing happened.

"You startled me earlier, which is why you had the advantage." The male said.

The other female walked up behind the male, a busty brunette with pale lavender eyes. "Quit messing around, Dimitri. Let's just feed and get it over with," she cooed.

"Poor Alicia," the other female teased.

Alicia stuck her tongue out, and Harry caught a flash of sharp, pearly white fangs, and a shiver ran down his spine.

The blonde male noticed, and spoke. "By now you should have realized we're not human."

The dirty blonde girl grinned, sharp canines extending out of her mouth. "That's right. We're vampires."

For some reason, Harry didn't freak out as much as he felt he should have.

"But, then, you're not normal either, are you? You're the famous wizard, Harry Potter. aren't you?" The rough male, Dimitri, asked. A tense silence filled the air as the other three vampires awaited Harry's answer.

Slowly he nodded, ad the dirty blonde girl squealed.

His emerald green eyes widened behind his thick glasses. Harry could deal with the supernatural, (after all, his psuedo-godfather is a werewolf!) and the fact that he could die at any time, but girls were a completely different subject. Girls drove him insane when he tried to figure them out. They could go from loving someone one day to hating them the next! And they could be so dramatic!

"Delia, stop. You'll frighten the poor boy," The blonde male huffed, exasperated. Delia grunted and crossed her arms.

"So are we taking him home and changing him or feeding and letting him live?" Alicia asked. Harry mentally huffed. Shouldn't that be his decision?

As if the blonde male could read his mind, he spoke up. "Shouldn't Harry be the one to make that decision?"

Dimitri seemed to think it over. Making his decision, Dimitri turned to Harry. "So. What do you choose? Become one of us? Or return to hell?"

Harry was sorely tempted to become a vampire. He would finally be away from the Dursleys. But, there was also a slight chance he wouldn't be allowed to return to Hogwarts. As Harry looked around, he realized he didn't care. If his friends truly cared, they would do everything to keep in contact with him, no matter what. Even if Harry became a creature of the night.

"I want to be a vampire." Harry announced. This time, both Delia AND Alicia squealed, startling the three males.

"So who gets to be his sire? Huh? Huh?" Alicia questioned. Dimitri sighed and the blonde male chuckled. Harry locked gazes with the chuckling blonde, emerald green eyes boring into aquamarine.

"I'll do it," the blonde male volunteered. He leaned in towards Harry. "By the way, I'm Keith."

Harry smiled gently. He felt slightly better knowing the name of the man who would change his life.

"First we'll return home. Don't need to change him in public." Dimitri commanded. Keith grabbed Harry's arm, squeezing it tightly. Harry felt the tell-tale tightening of his stomach leading to Side-Apparation. Perhaps his earlier assumption of the vampires not being wizards was wrong.

A loud crack later, one mister Harry Potter was falling towards the ground. Strong arms wrapped around his waist, keeping Harry from meeting the ground face-first. He turned to look at his savior, who happened to be Keith. A small pink blush dusted Harry's cheeks when the two girls squealed once more.

Harry stood upright, brushing himself off as he took in the surroundings. He was in a dense forest. There wasn't much to go by in terms of landmarks. Harry figured that wherever they were headed was hidden under the Fidelus Charm. Since the vampires knew about wizards, it wasn't to hard to guess that some vampires were previously witches or wizards.

Harry was proven correct when Dimitri handed him a strip of paper with 'Gloven Rose Mansion' written on it. Within a few seconds of reading it, the paper disintegrated into flames. Harry was so enthralled by the small flames that he did not see the reality of the words that had just disappeared in said fire.

A small nudge caused Harry's gaze to snap upwards. Before him stood an enormous, beautiful ivory mansion (more like a castle). The mansion had two tall towers, both wrapped in what seemed to be black rose thorns. The mansion-castle!- was breathtakingly gorgeous.

"Wow...it's so beautiful..." Harry whispered, awestruck. The girls giggled, but Dimitri replied.

"Yeah, it sure is."

"This mansion can hold up to 3,000 people total. It currently holds 1,500 vampires, 500 well-paid donors, and 800 other creatures who use this mansion as a safe haven." Keith explained.

"Donors?" Harry questioned.

"Donors are people, creature, vampire, or human, that are aware, well-paid, and fed off of. Each donor is aware of vampires and the risks. But the pleasure of a vampire's bite is well worth it." Delia answered.

"But if you have donors, why were you hunting?" Harry asked.

"Because we enjoy the hunt more than pacified donors. Also, it was quite difficult to wait. As you can tell, we could, but it is uncomfortable." Dimitri replied. "Besides, aren't you glad we did?"

Harry nodded. In all honesty, he was glad. Glad that he could get away from the Dursleys, finally. Away from the beatings and the abuse. Of course, Harry had no idea if these people would treat him any different than the Dursleys, but he was going to trust them anyways.

"What kind of other creatures usually stay here?" Harry asked, the question having nagged him for a while.

"Usually werecreatures, fey, and half-breeds. Occasionally sprites." Alicia said, her lavender eyes glittering.

"Werecreatures? Does that mean more than werewolves?" Harry said, extremely curious.

Dimitri nodded. "Yes. Let's go now. We're all hungry, and Harry needs to be Changed. Preferably quickly." He then began making his way to the mansion, the others following.

They had landed only mere minutes away, but to Harry, the trip took a lifetime. Every step forward increased Harry's nerves. A hand settled on his shoulder, and he looked up into the kind eyes of Keith. Strange, but kind. Harry was tempted to ask why the vampire's eyes were so...different, but he refrained, not wishing to hold the group up any longer.

Upon entering the mansion, Harry didn't have a chance to ogle, instead was forced to practically chase after Dimitri and Keith. Alicia and Delia had disappeared earlier, most likely to feed.

Finally, the vampires stopped, sending Harry into Keith's back unexpectedly. The male looked back at Harry, amusement clear on his face. Harry blushed and stepped back, attempting to stammer out an apology. Keith only grinned, cutting off Harry's nervous stutters.

Dimitri swung open the door, stepping inside and then allowing Keith and Harry to enter.

Compared to the extravagance of the rest of the mansion, the room was oddly simple. Almost everything, including the bed, was a plain white, or a cream color, Harry noted.

With Dimitri's affirmative, Harry took a seat on the bed as the other two males pulled up a chair.

Keith stared at Harry for a second or two before speaking.

"Ready?" He asked.

Harry nodded. Even as nervous as he was, he couldn't be anymore ready.

With Harry's permission, Keith leaned forward, and with a small prick of pain at the base of his neck, began to drain the life force from the fifteen year old wizard.

A small something tugged on the ends of Harry's consciousness, and when he followed it, he fell into a deep slumber, one he would not awaken from.

Alive, at least.