Harry sat bolt upright in his four-poster and stared around the dormitory. He had been awakened from a very amusing dream in which he had turned his cousin Dudley into a frog. The frog had tried to hop away but was too fat and couldn't budge. Harry was trying to remember why he had been torturing Dudley when he suddenly remembered why he'd waken up. Harry had heard a high-pitched scream and the loud crack of splintering wood from somewhere below the dormitory that he shared with the other seventh-year Gryffindor boys.

Harry swung his legs off of his bed and grabbed his wand off his bedside table. He'd hardly gotten any sleep in the last four months since the end of the last school year and wasn't particularly happy about having been awakened at (he glanced at his watch) 3 o' clock in the morning.

Hearing high-pitched screaming in the middle of the night was something that Harry and the rest of the castle had become accustomed to since Dumbledore had been murdered and Voldemort had returned. It was mostly just people having nightmares about Voldemort. Except the scream that Harry had just heard didn't sound like a scream that someone would let out during a nightmare. This one was oddly strangled and in pain, and what about the splintering wood?

After checking to see if any of the other boys were awake and grabbing his bathrobe off the end of his bed, Harry set off cautiously down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. He almost screamed himself when he saw the horrific scene that greeted him. In the middle of the common room, a tall hooded figure stood with its back to Harry, forcing a terrified looking sixth-year girl with flaming red hair back into a corner.

"Ginny!" Harry yelled as he ran across the room towards the figure with his wand raised. The figure turned around and looked briefly at Harry before making a run for the portrait hole. Harry raised his wand and shouted "Immobilus," but it was too late. The creature had climbed through the hole and Harry's spell just seared the hem of its cloak as it was swept through the hole after its owner.

Harry dashed across the room and followed the figure through the hole, but by the time he was on his feet in the dark corridor, it was nowhere in sight. What Harry did see, however, was the wood he had heard cracking. Hanging by one hinge and completely mutilated beyond repair was the portrait of the Fat Lady that had for so long guarded the entrance to Gryffindor tower. Harry was hoping that Filch would somehow be able to restore her when Ginny poked her head out of the now thoroughly exposed hole.

"Is it gone?" she asked fearfully, looking up and down the deserted corridor. She gasped when she saw the Fat Lady's destroyed portrait. "Oh, Harry."

"What're you doing?" Harry hissed at her, trying to push her back through the hole and look around the corridor at the same time. "Get back inside! It might not be gone yet." Ginny retreated resentfully. After Harry had searched the corridor as thoroughly as he could by the dim light that was illuminating from the tip of his wand and was satisfied that whatever had attacked Ginny was not hiding in anywhere around the entrance to Gryffindor tower, he went back to rejoin Ginny in the common room.

"Ginny, are you alright?" Harry crossed to where Ginny was standing. She ran into his arms and was shaking so badly that Harry was sure she must be in shock.

"I'm f-fine," she said. It didn't hurt me."

"What on Earth was that thing?"

"It was a v-v-vampire," Ginny stuttered. She had pulled away from Harry and collapsed into an armchair by the dying embers in the fireplace and was now shuddering and crying, "I was sure it was g-going to k-kill me." She was absolutely bawling now.

Harry rushed over to her. He pulled her up out of the chair and held her in his arms while she cried. "It'll be okay," he said soothingly, "We'll catch it."

"What do we do now?" she asked. She was starting to calm down now and her voice was steadier. "We have to go wake Professor McGonagall."

"Yeah, but we need to wake the rest of Gryffindor Tower first," Harry said to her. "I just scared the vampire off, it could decide to come back, and we don't want any more surprise attacks."

"Right," she consented, "I'll go get all the girls up."

"Good. Tell everyone to bring their wands."

Harry set off back up the stairs, stopping at every dormitory on the way and ushering all of their sleepy inhabitants out with instructions to take their wands and go down to the common room. Finally, after having woken all the boys, and not even stopping to explain to a very cranky Ron, Harry ran back down to the common room and the confused and worried-looking Gryffindors. After instructing the others to wait patiently and keep their guard up, Harry called for all the sixth- and seventh-years to follow him. He led them through the portrait hole and as they all climbed out he motioned for them to turn around and have a look behind them.

The reactions were staggered, some people catching on before others. As people started realizing what had happened, some of them let out little yelps of surprise, some of them looked angry, but most of them looked downright terrified. Hermione actually burst out in tears and as Ron pulled her into a comforting embrace, he addressed Harry.

"What happened here?"

Ginny answered him. "I was sitting in the common room because I couldn't sleep, when I heard something banging outside the portrait hole. I started to go back upstairs and get my wand when the portrait broke open and someone came in. I turned around to look and it was a vampire." At this, almost everyone gasped and most of the girls who hadn't been crying before started to. Harry could see Hermione's tears glistening on the golden Head Boy badge that was pinned to the chest of Ron's bathrobe. Ron had obviously fastened it in a hurry after Harry woke him up, because it was pinned upside-down.

"What did you do?" Colin Creevey asked Ginny anxiously.

"Well," she continued, "I screamed, and as I didn't have my wand, I just sort of ran around the common room trying to get away from it. I didn't want to go back upstairs for my wand because I knew it would follow me and I didn't want it going after any of the other girls. It was backing me into a corner and I was sure I was done for when Harry turned up and frightened it off. Harry tried to jinx it, but it escaped out the portrait hole."

"You mean it's still in the castle somewhere!" yelled Ron, and a fresh wave of fear swept over the group.

"Yes," said Harry. "We need to go wake Professor McGonagall. Half of us should go and the others should stay with the younger kids. Sixth-years, you go back to the common room and tell everyone else what happened. Prefects, I want you and two others to stand guard in the hallway. Tell the fifth-year Prefects that they're in charge."

There was a murmur of assent as half the group went back through the hole. Ginny hung back from the group to kiss Harry on the cheek and whisper "Be careful, Harry," in his ear before following her classmates back into the common room. Harry turned back to face what remained of the group just in time to see the resentful look that Ron was giving him.

"Does anyone else want to stay?" Harry said to the seventh-years, putting aside momentarily Ron's hostility. "It could be really dangerous and I don't want anyone going who doesn't think they're up to it. There was only one vampire in Gryffindor Tower tonight, but who's to say there aren't more - or something even worse - lurking around out there?"

Several people looked as though they would love more than anything to stay behind. Parvati Patil was paler than ever and was trembling from head to foot, Neville Longbottom looked as though he had seen a ghost and was on the verge of tears, and Hermione was still trying to control her frightened sobbing, but no one backed out.

"Alright then," Harry said. "Let's go." And together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, and Lavender set off down the dark corridor to the Headmistress's office.

A/N: If you took time out of your busy day to read my story, please take and extra thirty seconds or so to tell me if you liked it! I will respond to all reviews the next day or even the same day! It takes you less than a minute, but it makes my day!!!