"Vampires are a Class A beast. They are characterized by purple skin and red eyes, hair and nails. Vampires often travel in packs but are more likely to travel by themselves or with one companion. Vampires are still believed to convert their victims to vampirism via biting their necks and injecting their venom into the unfortunate human's blood stream.

It would appear that most vampires go mad after a few years of draining others dry, but like many of our theories, this has yet to be tested. For this reason, vampires are thought to be imbeciles.

Vampires are extremely powerful. Their claws are capable of slicing through nearly any substance including iron. They also appear to be able to perform some sort of short distance apparation which was previously thought to be impossible by anyone other than a practiced wizard."

-Durus Sanguinus, Vicious Bloodsuckers and Where to Find Them

-:-:-

Unfamiliar voices drifted on the very edge of my consciousness.

"...two days...still out?"

"...how old...?"

"Interesting. All the other ones we've caught have been purple."

"...scarred face. Yeah him."

"...Sire, maybe? What about his Dam?"

Were they talking about Mr. Crepsley?

"Can he talk?"

The voices grew a little clearer as I began to wake up.

"Dunno. We think the his companion may. He called him 'Darren'."

"What's the adult's name?"

"He's being uncooperative."

Definitely Mr. Crepsley.

"He seems to be very worried for this one's safety."

'Why would he be worried about me though?'

Suddenly the events of the past day came back and slammed into me full-force. There were people surrounding us and pointing weird sticks at us and speaking in some sort of foreign language that made bolts of light shoot out and-

"Oh, look! He's finally awake."

I blinked and screwed my eyes up against the bright light above me. My eyes came back into focus and I could see the faces of my captors.

"Hello, little one. What is your name?"

The strange person spoke to me slowly and carefully like one would to a dog or other animal they were trying to soothe and I didn't appreciate that one bit. The four people surrounding me were dressed in white robe-y things and and ridiculously shapeless, ugly hats. I ignored the condescending woman's question and tried to sit up, but my wrists were bound to the table with thick iron manacles.

"Sorry, love. Those are there for your own safety. We can't let you escape and hurt somebody. We'd be in big trouble if we let you drain anybody," the first speaker, a woman, said.

"It probably doesn't understand what you're saying. None of the others did. They just snarled and spat at us like rabid animals, they did," he snorted and pulled a piece of my hair. "This one looks enough like an animal. Hasn't he ever had a haircut or bath?"

I balked before glaring venomously at the man. I didn't look that bad. I mean, sure a haircut was probably long overdue, but I had taken a bath last time we had access to enough water to take one and that was only two weeks ago. Okay, maybe I was a little grimy, but that's not necessarily something you point out like that.

"It's always a good idea to make sure that your subject is actually incapable of understanding you before you go and insult them like that," I snapped.

"He can speak! I told you so."

"Ooh, write this down!"

The first woman got too close to my face for comfort. I tried to squirm away, but the handcuffs held me back.

"What can you tell us about your kind?"

I turned my head away, silently refusing to answer. One of my observers flicked their stick at me and I found myself frozen from the shoulders down, forcing me to look at them.

"What the bloody hell did you do to me?"

I thrashed furiously against my invisible bonds as the strange people closed in on me, trying to continue their questionnaire.

"How old are you really?"

"What is your relationship to the older male?"

"Where do you hail from?"

"How were you converted? We couldn't find any marks on your neck, but there are some strange scars on your fingers. Is that how you were changed?"

"Are there many others?"

The list went on and on. Finally, they seemed to get fed up with my stony silence.

"Do we still have some Veritaserum? That could work."

The condescending-tone-lady balked.

"B-but we don't know what kind of effect it could have on him! He could-"

"Just get it. A drop or two shouldn't hurt him."

One of the other people scurried off and returned a few minutes later with a clear, shimmery liquid in a glass vial. From a distance, it looked like water but up close I could just barely detect the acrid, sour scent that also seemed to be coming from my handcuffs and from the people around me, now that I thought about it.

The person with the vial inserted a pipette and drew out a few droplets of the not-water. The white-robed person closest to my head moved to pry my mouth open. My eyes shot open in fear as I realized what they intended to do. I bit down hard and the person-a man-screamed and yanked the bleeding tips of his fingers away.

"It bit me! The little bugger!"

The others gasped in shock and horror as I spat out what I could of his gloves and skin. His blood tasted foul.

"Forget the serum! Just put him back under!"

I screamed for my mentor still struggling fruitlessly to escape. "No, don't touch me! Mr. Crepsley! Mr. Crepsley, help me!"

The only one who wasn't busy with mystery liquids or missing fingers swished their wand over my eyes and spoke something in that language I still couldn't place and I was overwhelmed by a feeling of calm as black crept into my vision and I sank back into unconsciousness.

"Mr. Crepsley...help me, please."

-:-:-

"That's quite the powerful pair of choppers he's got there. Are you sure he's safe to send to school?"

"Hagrid is trustworthy and has a knack for taming wild creatures. If he can tame a Hippogriff, he can deal with a vampire cub."

"What'll we do with the other one then? They could pose a real threat together."

"We'll keep him. Sanguinus wanted to see how a less feral one would react to certain situations."

"Like separation from the cub?"

"I was thinking something a tad more extreme."

"You can't mean-"

"Of course we won't really do it. He's too valuable a specimen. But the other one won't know any better, will 'e?"

-:-:-

Dundunduuuun I'm evil (also the jerk from the first chapter is Sanguinus).