Vampires are People, Too
by la raconteur
All characters and Harry Potter related objects, places or things belong to J.K. Rowling and the appropriate parties. Leopold Ackerley, thankfully, is mine.
A review or two or twenty would be pretty sweet.
Chapter 1
Everything seemed to be going well for Anthony, until he decided to take a walk down a dark alley and he was attacked.
It wasn't until much later that he found out the attack would change his entire life.
He blamed Roger Davies for the whole incident; he was heading to Roger's flat at the time, and had accidentally apparated to the alley next to the flat rather than the flat itself. If Roger didn't have all his ridiculous Auror security spells all over the place, it probably would have been easier to apparate to the right location. Now, not only did he have to pick his way through a disgusting alley, he was going to be late to poker night, which meant he automatically had to throw ten galleons into the pot.
"I hate Aurors, I really do. Bloody hex happy terrorists, the lot of them," Anthony grumbled, trudging through discolored puddles and around sullied rags. He disliked the ministry in general, actually, and would have given almost anything to move back to America. Not that the American government, or America for that matter, was any better, they were just far more disorganized which meant most law abiding wizards were left alone. Americans were in a heavy state of denial when it came to wizardry and they much preferred to ignore it rather than police it.
Anthony continued to mutter grumpily, trying to ignore that periodic scuttling of the various vermin he knew were inhabiting the alley with him. Discarded periodicals drifted around dramatically, and Anthony couldn't help but notice that the scene wouldn't be out of place in a muggle horror movie.
That was perhaps the last thing he thought about before blacking out and waking up in St. Mungo's.
"Ugh, everything hurts," he muttered, thickly. The lights seemed abnormally bright, the bedding frigid, and all around him people were screaming. "Bloody hell."
"He's awake!" Someone screeched in his ear.
"Not so loud!" He shouted back.
"That wasn't loud!" Someone else yelled. Anthony opened his eyes, roared in pain and threw his arm across his face.
"Shut off the damn high beams, will you?" There was a tremendous amount of noise followed by blessed darkness. Only it wasn't so dark to Anthony, who could see as clear as he could if the stupid lights were still on. Confused, he sat up and discovered his wily friends, sitting around his bed and staring at him with equal parts of concern and relief.
"It's good to know that the attack didn't effect his temperament," Roger remarked, amused. He was still speaking exceedingly loud, but Anthony could stand it a little more now that he fully conscious.
"Attack? What attack? What's going on?" His friends glanced at each other awkwardly, an unspoken argument going on between them. "Someone bloody better tell me." Leopold Ackerley cleared his throat and adjusted his position on his chair.
"Well, you see, my dear cousin," Leopold started, clearing his throat again. "Here, have a lolly." Leopold handed Anthony a darkly colored pop, with a sheepish smile on his face.
"What do I want with this?"
"To get used to the flavor."
"What flavor?" Anthony looked down at the pop in his hand to read the label but Leopold answered his question first.
"Blood. You're a vampire now, Anthony."