Title: Sanctuary

Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel

Pairings: None at present

Story Summary: Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord, but the wizarding public couldn't handle a vampire as their saviour. After the war, an outcast Harry discovers Sanctuary, and the millennia-old vampire that is its keeper. A part of the magical world that Harry never suspected existed is opened to him, and Harry takes the path towards a new Destiny.

Setting: HBP-compliant. AU. Seventh year.

Author notes:

I owe influence to the "Apprentice Potter" series by Draco664, and have drawn upon the magical history invented in "Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C." by Aaran St Vines, the 'definitive history of the beginning of magic' as one reviewer put it.

The conversion rate used here is roughly I galleon 5 pounds.

Reviewers, I ask you: should this story be eventual Harry/Hermione, or eventual Harry/Luna? I don't promise to go by the most votes, but I will take them into consideration.

Oh yeah, and I love writing dialogue for Snarky!Fanon!Snape. It's so much fun!

I hate flashbacks, but this seemed the easiest way to begin.

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SANCTUARY

PROLOGUE

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The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your tears wash out a Word of it.

"The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," Edward Fitzgerald

oo o0o oo

(flashback)

Harry was walking back to Privet Drive a short while after sunset when he was abruptly seized and something stabbed him in the neck. Harry flailed frantically, but his attacker held him tight as the blood was sucked from his veins.

Suddenly the person let him go, choking. Harry spun dizzily to see the man fall t ohis knees, eyes wide and strangled gargling noises coming from him, before he unexpectedly burst into flame.

As the ground rushed up to meet him, Harry's last thought was, 'hah, didn't expect basilisk venom and phoenix tears in my veins, did you?'

(end flashback)

oo o0o oo

(flashback)

Smiling cruelly, Voldemort cast the spell to disperse Harry's glamour.

The battlefield grew silent as one by one the combatants noticed Harry's pale skin, rage-red eyes and the fangs currently bared in an angry snarl at the laughing Dark Lord.

"Now they all know the truth, Harry!" he cried, triumphant. "Do you really think that you'll be accepted now that the world knows what you are? Look at them, Harry!"

Harry didn't need to look. The growing scent of horror floated on the air. He kept his eyes on Voldemort.

"Now everyone knows that their precious Boy-Who-Lived is a vampire!"

"Then there's no reason for me to hold back," Harry said quietly, and in a blur of vampiric reflexes attacked for the last time.

Afterwards Harry turned and slowly gazed over the assembled faces. Aurors and Order members, hostile and suspicious; Ron, angry and afraid. Hermione – and his heart clenched painfully – looking at him in frightened horror. McGonagall, walking forward, her face stern.

"Mr Potter," she said stiffly. Harry could smell the incredulity and agitation that belied her composed exterior. "We are all grateful for the service you have done us, but I am afraid that the Ministry forbids vampires to attend Hogwarts."

"Such a convenient excuse, professor," Harry said sourly. "Very well. For the record, my parents and Dumbledore would be ashamed of you."

She recoiled as if struck, but Harry was already walking back to the castle to collect his things. He left that evening, the scent of angry rejection in his nostrils and the faces of all those he had believed to be his friends floating in his mind.

(end flashback)

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