Hey guys back again at last! So this one took a bit of figuring out as I had no idea how I to do the bit at the end hehe got it sorted now though. Yea so enjoy it.

Disclaimer - I do not own Darren Shan or Harry Potter.


Hanging from the ceiling, Darren tried to catch what snippets of information he could from the chattering crowd. He grimaced when he realised that he could not pick apart any separate conversations in the large mix, and – even if he could – what little individual words he could catch were irrelevant to him. Looking over at Steve, he sent him a look both to show his frustration at the task, and his hope that he was having better luck.

Steve merely grinned at him before shrugging, looking back down at the students. Darren sighed in response, taking that to be a resounding 'No'. Even with their enhanced hearing, the chattering of hundreds of students was simply too difficult to pinpoint any relevant information.

The group below them rose to their feet as one, and began to follow a set of older students who began to call out to 'First years' in order to guide them. The students poured out the ornate doors before splitting into their own groups, and the two vampire boys came to a silent agreement immediately to follow a different group in order to find this boy quicker.

Darren scrambled along the walls silently as he followed a silvery green wave of people down several sets of stairs before stopping at a large door in the middle of the damp dungeons. Several times he was forced to hang back in the shadows to avoid detection by the students, but he kept pace with the large group well enough.

Many students shivered from the cold breeze as they piled into a gloomy hidden room behind a damp stone wall. Stealthily moving from one place to another, Darren listened to snippets of conversation before coming to a stop in the shadows near a young boy standing next to two larger boys. "I'm telling you my father thinks that Hogwarts has gone to the dogs, that coot Dumbledore is crazy, and who knows what will happen now that Potter's back."

Darren's ears perked up at the sound of the "Old coot Dumbledore" as it seemed the same as what the masked men in the forest had said, and when he heard the name "Potter" he grinned to himself. It seemed to him that he had struck gold with his chosen group, and he decided there and then to tail this boy in the hopes of finding out more information.

In another part of the castle, Steve had followed the red and gold group to a large portrait on one of the upper floors. At a call from the older student at the fore of the group, the portrait swung open to reveal a large, warm looking room on the other side. Steve waited for the students to enter before slipping through the portrait hole as the door began to swing back into position.

Sneaking around the common room, Steve eyed the three serious looking people by the fire that everyone seemed to be ignoring. Moving through the shadows, he edged closer to listen to what they were saying.

The black haired boy ranted in annoyance whilst glaring at the fire."I just don't understand why they all call me a liar, Voldemort is back and he killed Cedric."

"We know that Harry, who cares what anyone else thinks? If you say he's back then we believe you."

Harry looked towards the red head sitting next to him before sighing. "I know you both do, it's just not enough though, is it? No one is going to do anything about Voldemort if they don't believe he's back, he can just keep killing people."

Steve perked up slightly as two more boys came towards the trio, sensing a fight brewing. "You know, my mam didn't want me to come back to Hogwarts this year."

Harry looked up at the short haired brunet in front of him. "Really? Why's that, Seamus?"

The boy now identified as Seamus fumed before letting out an angry "Because of you, she didn't want me to come to school with a liar like you Potter. Says you're stirring a whole lot of trouble up that don't need stirring."

Upon hearing the last words, Steve grinned to himself, before moving past the group and pushing stealthily out the portrait to search for his brother. He had news to share, their hunt – for now – was over.

Harry jerked back as his argument with Seamus finished, furious with the other boy. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a boy with seemingly white hair. His interest piqued, he temporarily dismissed the argument he'd been having moments before and turned to Hermione. He gave her a questioning look before asking her whether or not there was any new first years with white hair.

"Um, I don't think so... Are you sure you weren't just imagining it Harry?" She responded, bemused by the strange question.

Looking doubtful, he agreed with her. It had been quite a stressful day so far what with everyone calling him a liar – plus, with the little amount of sleep he was getting due to nightmares of Cedric's murder, it wasn't really that farfetched an idea that he mistook or imagined it.

After locating Darren perched on a stone bench, Steve sat next to him before repeating what he had heard and what the boy looked like. Darren blinked to himself as he told Steve about the Slytherin boy and how the words he had said matched the people in the forest. It didn't take as long as he had thought it would to locate the boy, however they still didn't know whether or not he was actually linked to Mr Tiny.

"Well there's only one way that I can think of to figure all this out, and you're not gonna like it." Darren gave his brother a devious smirk, leaning back against the cold stone wall.


So how'd it go? Feel free to leave a review hint hint.

BeautifulNoMatterWhat- No problem you deserved it :) Thank you that would be great haha x Hugs n stuff.

VampirePandassss- Thanks :) I dunno if it counts as soon but it's here now x