It has been well over a decade since Enoby "Ebony" Way and Helena "Willow" Johnson ran away from their homes in Southern California. It wasn't long that they were living on the streets before they were discovered by a witch and brought to a special school in England for supernatural beings like themselves. The school was called "Hogswords" - a play on the name of a Scottish wizards' school from a popular fantasy book series. The students called it "Hogwarts" because children have no respect for international copyright law.
Ebony and Willow were social misfits at the new school, shunned by the majority of their peers, but they were able to form close friendships with other social outcasts. Willow fondly referred to their circle of friends as "Slytherin" because - and this can't be emphasized enough - she was quite fond of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series of books. The group included a moody, self-conscious boy who was so used to being called "Vampire" that he no longer answered to his given name; a perky anime fan girl called B'loody Mary; a sensitive, bisexual Croatian of Slovenian descent named Drago; a shopkeeper named Tom who disappeared suddenly under unexplained circumstances; and Jenny. These close friends had many adventures and got into all sorts of mischief, but that is a story for another time.
After graduating from high school, Ebony cut ties with her friends and moved back to California with her true love Drago. The two of them lived happily hidden from the mortals and their world, frozen in time as unaging vampires. Unfortunately, due to her self-imposed seclusion, Enoby was unaware of the nature of the trouble she was about to face.
During Enoby and Willow's four years at Hogswords, the headmaster was a grumpy, over-the-hill curmudgeon named Albert Gendolf. Other members of the faculty included the prim, matronly Siobhan McGill; the harsh, strict "Serious" Spartacus Cerverus; the controlling, fastidious Doris Bridge; the convicted sex offender called "The Snake"; Lumpkin, Snake's partner in crime and sometimes lover who hung around the school despite not officially being employed by them; and the eccentric, self-medicating Sadako "Sinister" Trevolry. Doubts were raised by Professor Bridge about Gendolf's abilities as an administrator due to his advancing age and his contracting of cancer. There were rumours flying about that he had gone senile and had Alzheimer's disease. Ultimately, Gendolf was forcibly removed from his position amid a large scandal (larger than the ones involving drug use and molestation).
Since his expulsion, Gendolf had taken to living underground, both figuratively and literally. Our story opens on Albert spending an evening alone, as he spends most of his evenings.