Chapter Three
3 Years Later
"Al, you need to go see Sai!" I called walking into the Aurors department of the Ministry.
"Oh, oh someone's BUSTED!" Fred called from his office.
"Says he who is tied in the worst possible way!" I retorted with a laugh reminding him of his pending nuptials.
"Now marriage is not being tied, its being hand cuffed." Scorpious said exiting his office to join the conversation.
"That is so true cousin." I laughed, our relationship had improved since he had been assigned as my Auror partner. Rose and Scorpious had gotten together halfway through our first year out of school. They were incredibly happy as were Matthew and Molly who had followed suit not long after.
"So what brings you down here Black?" Scorpious asked.
"Major assignment, we have a meeting in an hour." I laughed handing each of them a copy of the task file which I knew none of them would read.
"More paper." Fred groaned as I dumped it on his desk.
"See you in one." I said and made my way back to my office.
"Ivy, what happened to the paperwork on the Giant meeting?" James asked as I walked in.
"Did you check the file Jim, that's generally where it ends up oh wonderful team leader." I said sassily. James and my relationship was one of the few that really hadn't improved too much.
"I checked there Ivy." he said as I leand back in my chair and continued to read my new task file.
"Well obviously you didn't look properly." I said with a sarcastic grin.
"Ivy now is not the time for your sarcasm or smart arse antics." He said with a slight growl.
"Oh really?" I asked putting my task file on my dest and folding my arms.
"Ivy, its not in the file." He said as I wandered towards him stopping inches in front of him snatching the task file from him. I opened it and flicked a couple of pages to find the papers he was looking for.
"Happy?" I asked as he looked down at me I could feel his warm breath tickle my face.
"Ivory?" He muttered tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.
"Hey bro!" Al said cheerfully walking into my office.
"Al?" I questioned quite startled.
"Oh shit!" Al said quickly as the others began to file in.
"What?" Scorpious asked sitting casually on my desk.
"He's doing it again." Al said quickly.
"Doing what?" Fred and Matt said in unison.
"The eyes at Ivory!" Al hiss at the boys.
"No way dude you need to get laid!" Scorpious said to James who scowled and threw a death glare at Al.
"I don need to get laid Scor, I am perfectly happy how I am." James commented.
"Whats this about a lay?" Rose asked as the girls walked in.
"Nothing." I said hastily shuffling papers.
"Fibber, James was doing the eyes again." Fred said to answer her question.
"Was not." James whined.
"Was too!" The other four boys chorussed.
"Your dad is swamping us Ivy." Molly said falling into an armchair beyond exhaustion.
"Oh please a drunk chimpanzee could preform most management tasks." I say and the girls begin to snicker "He's behind me isn't he?" I finish.
"That would be a yes." Dad said from behind me.
"Right." I say before going to sit on my chair.
"So team whats the four one one?" He asked looking proud of his muggle reference.
"James was doing the eyes at Ivory again." Sai said absent-mindedly.
"The task Saioa." Dad said giving James the once over.
"Oh the task." She said dragging it out slowly.
"Well speak or be spoken to?" Dad said folding his arms casually.
"Do we have to?" Saioa and Rose whined.
"The more you complain the longer god will make you live." Molly chimed.
"The TASK!" Dad yelled turning to me.
"Right, we have a vampire." I said looking at the others for support, clearly I wasn't going to be getting any.
"Uh, yeah." The boys chorussed helplessly, they hadn't read their task files.
"Fine, I'll do the de-brief AGAIN!" I growled at the rest of them.
"Oh I'm glad there is a volunteer." James smiled.
"Volunteer my arse," I muttered before continuing "Not just any vampire though, we have the most powerful vampire in the world on the hunt for magic." I stopped and looked at Scorpious who had two pens in his mouth immitating fangs.
"I am Count Dracula and I vant to zuck your blood!" He laughed with a fake russing accent and everyone except me laughed.
"No Count Dracula you nugget." I said seriously.
"What sort of nugget am I?" He paused thoughtfully "Cause if you don't mind I'd like to be a gold nugget." He said and the boys snickered.
"No you are a chicken nugget." I said simply and everyone burst into fits of laughter.
"Why?" He groaned.
"Because your a chicken shit." I said simply and again everyone laughed.
"Why do I keep giving you lot cases your a bunch of idiots." Dad asked himself.
"Because we aren't evil." Sai offered helpfully, referring to the fact that the other four teams were bit snide and had a reputation for not being the nicest people in the ministry.
"Constantly choosing the lessor of two evils is still evil." He sighed.
"Right, so back to the most powerful Vampire." James said clearing his throat.
"Yeah what are you doing?" Al said sarcastically rolling his eyes.
"Well does anyone know who that is?" I asked and the room fell silent.
"You know I don't hand you a copy of the task file to use as doodling paper." I said with a sigh.
"Dracula?" James said I could tell he was guessing because his left eye flinched.
"No, Dracula had a daughter, her name was Mary." I paused "Mary Dracul was a young inexperienced vampire who fell in love with..."
"Edward Cullen!" Rose, Said and Molly chanted with a swoon.
"Cullen is a fictious character." I groaned.
"Your just jealous that he found love." Molly said with a grin.
"You are happy though." Rose pointed out.
"No, really I cry myself to sleep because I LOVE being single!" I yelled and took a deep breath.
"Really?" the girls asked quietly.
"No," I paused "Mary fell in love with a Strigoi family member." I finished and looked at the others.
"Vladimir Strigoi to be exact." a new voice came entering the room.
"Correct." I said glancing at the new comer.
"Our relationship was passionate, nearly killed me twice." He said dropping himself into an armchair.
"Excuse me did you say our?" Molly spluttered.
"Certainly did." Vladimir smiled his teeth were of perfect alignment including the two fangs which sat evenly at either side of his two front teeth.
"That would make you like two thousand years old." Sai exclaimed.
"Well aren't you rude." he said, he didn't look a day over twenty.
"Sorry." Sai said going red as she was embarrassed.
"Little did I know that Mary was a stealer." He said looking at me. "She stole my powers with my consent in order for us to have a child. Stealing a vampires powers is an interesting topic. When it comes to breeding you can not breed a biological child without your partner having had your blood. From this blood your powers are slowly decrease over a period of nine months whilst the child grows. You are however left with one power, you can not choose the power you are left with nor can the mother choose the final power that they give. Example I was left with my immortality, in order for that to occur Mary had to give her immortality up. Not long after the birth of our daughter Mary fled with Venitia. One hundred years on and I came across Venitia, she had been trained to steal, not just vampiric power but she had somehow mastered the complex matrix DNA between vampires and witches and wizards, and was also able to strip them of their powers, litterally rendering them a muggle." Vladimir stopped and looked around the room.
"It was at this time that I took the liberty of using some ancient magic to bind her powerless for years. Unfortunately I couldn't master the DNA complex so she still had her Wican ability, but without her Vampiric Majick she couldn't steal anymore and I could rest easy. Until twelve months ago when things started to go funny agian." He stopped and looked at me.
"It has taken the department one year to work out what the hell was happening to our kind in the West of Romania at the dragon camp. Wizards and witches would show up and then disappear, when they eventually reappeared if they were lucky they had no recollection of their previous lives and no idea what magic was." I paused before continuing "So here we are on a hunt for a vampire muggle style." I finished if we were in a movie you could have heard the crickets and an eerie breeze as we all sat in silence.
"So you want us to go hunt a vampire with no magic, garlic, a Christian Cross, and bells to catch it?" Rose asked in all seriousness.
"Don't forget mirrors." Sai said.
"Its a vampire hunt not a beauty pageant." Rose laughed.
"Magical creatures second class, Vampires have no reflection." Sai said rolling her eyes.
"So you want us to go hunt a vampire with no magic, garlic, a Christian Cross, bells and mirrors?" Rose said looking at dad.
"And holy water." Molly added.
"And holy water?" Rose finished.
"Well technically they ward off vampires, but yeah pretty much." Dad said and smiled.
"Thats interesting." Rose said thoughtfully.
"Define interesting?" Dad asked her.
"OH GOD OH GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Rose yelled and I snickered.
"Never taks life seriously, nobody gets out alive anyway." Dad said casually shrugging his shoulders.
"Somebody duct tape his mouth." Rose said rolling her eyes before leaving.
"Excuse me whats Duct Tape?" Vladimir asked.
"Ever seen Star Wars?" James asked and Vladimir nodded "Duct tape is like the force, it has a light side and a dark side and it holds the world together." he finished looking pleased with himself.
"Oh I get it now." Vladimir said to James as the others filed out of my office.
"Well boss what time do wish to have a brain storming session?" I asked James who was standing quietly.
"Tomorrow morning at oh nine hundred hours." He said curtly before disappearing.
"So I guess I should come to that meeting then?" Vladimir said.
"I have a question before you go." I paused and he nodded "Strigoi is the most powerful vampire family known for their notorious hatred of our kind. Why are you helping us?" I asked.
"When you have been immortal for over three thousand years you mellow with old age." He said simply before also leaving.
I sat at my desk and glance at the paper that was spread across the table.
"Gotta hate paperwork." I grumbled picking up my quill and continuing to fill out my field report.
BING! You had to love the installation of muggle technology. Well it was based on email but it was called Wizmail, your clipboard was charmed to send and recieve mail between people within the ministry so that you weren't up and down at random intervals trying to find them.
From: James Potter
TO: Task Force Five
Subject: Brainstorming
Team,
Brainstorming at 0900 hours tomorrow morning.
JP
Kind Regards,
James Potter
Head of Task Force Five
I laughed at his email signature and tapped reply all with my wand.
From: Ivory Black
To: Task Force Five; James Potter
Subject: RE: Brainstorming
Oi JP,
Get rid of your wiz signature you twit!
Be there or be square!
IEB
I hit send and returned to my field report.
BING!
From: Saioa Chang-Wai
To: Rose Weasley; Ivory Black; Molly Weasley
Subject: Drinks
Heading to Leaky C for a few drinks after work. You in?
Sai
I replied saying I was in and read over my field report one last time before signing it and head to James office. I knocked instead of barging in like he did to me.
"Yeah?" his muffled voice came from behind the door.
"Just me can I come in?" I asked as politely as possible.
"Yeah." he grunted and I entered wandering over to his in tray.
"Whats that?" he asked as I dropped my report in the tray.
"Field report for the last task." I said simply turning to leave.
"Hey Ivory?" He called just before I exited.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Do you um, wanna get dinner some time?" He asked hopefully.
"Um, sorry but your lucky I can be civil this long!" I snorted and he laughed.
"To true." He said with a genuine smile. I continued on my way without another word. I had a slight skip in my step as I passed Rose's office. She cocked her head slightly giving me an eye. I entered Sai's office where Molly stood with her arms crossed casually.
"Well, well whats got you all chirpy?" Molly asked with a smile.
"There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." Rose said entering and closing the door.
"Oh is it the boss again?" Molly said raising her eyebrows.
"I vote yes." Said said closing the file shw as reading.
"Its got nothing to do with him." I growled.
"Love is blind." the other three chanted in unison.
"If love is blind why is lingerie so popular?" I grumbled throwing a handful of Floo Powder in the fire and making my way to the Leaky Cauldron. It wasn't like I was attracted to James, I mean he is ruggishly handsome with his hazel eyes and floppy black hair that never sat right, but however it fell usually made him hotter, OH MY GOD THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING!
"Whats this about an apocalypse?" Rose asked as she exited the fire after me. Oh shit I'd said it aloud, I marched towards the bar. Tom smiled at me and I smiled quickly back.
"Give me a double shot of your strongest Fire Whiskey." I said downing the double shot and feeling a burining sensation down my throat and into my stomach.
"Woah ease up turbo, whats going on?" Molly asked as they all stood next to me.
"I think, I think I may have done something stupid." I said slowly and in a low tone that only the four of us could hear.
"I've fallen for my boss." I said quietly.
"Your dad?" Molly hissed.
"Again stupid person." Rose hissed.
"She means James." Sai said to Molly who's mouth then formed and "Oh" shape.
"See stupid right." I said putting my head in my hands completely miserable.
"Uh yeah." Molly said earning a glare from Sai and Rose.
"I mean no, not completely stupid, maybe a little bit unorthodox but its definately not..." Molly had began to ramble.
"Your point Molly?" I grumbled not looking up.
"The point is, we can't help who we fall in love with." Molly finished quickly.
"Right." I said with a small smile, "Kinda like Rose and Scorpious?" I pointed out.
"No that was a stupid decision." Molly laughed just as Scorpious got within earshot.
"I was not a stupid decision, I was a dilusional one." Scorpious cried indignantly making me laugh.
"Dilusional alright." Rose muttered getting a drink.
"Chin up poppet, my bro is a little slow I'm sure its just a phase and by the time he realises it you will be married with a kid." Al said and I spun to look at him.
"Is it that obvious?" I asked him emphasising the word obvious.
"You know what Rose and Scorp were like before they slept together?" Al asked.
"Yeah "Sexual Tension"" I said with a grin.
"Thats what its like when you and James are together, except much worse." Lily, Albus and James sister said. She was an Auror Trainee at the ministry also, she only had one year left until she was qualified, but she usually hung around with us too. Fred was engaged to Lily's best friend Katie so she had also become a regular fixture.
"Much, much worse." Katie laughed taking a swig of her drink.
"So any suggestions?" I asked knowing what would come next.
"A one nighter, try before you buy." Scorpious said eyeing Rose.
"Ah not likely, may have worked for you but so not my style." I grinned remembering how Rose and Scorpious had gotten together. We had been out to celebrate Rose's birthday and they had stumbled into her room blind drunk and participated in rather loud extra curicular activities all night. They didn't speak to each other for two weeks after it happened and then we locked them in the same room and heard them shout it out. They had been together ever since.
"Make out in the lift." Rose said and I looked at her with a glare she was not supposed to be helping.
"Yeah that's an excellent idea and get watched by the entire ministry." Fred said rolling his eyes.
"Well that's true, what about his office?" Matt said quietly.
"Ew, paper cuts, not the best idea." Molly laughed.
"Well there is always the mistletoe at Christmas?" Sai said with a laugh.
"Yeah and be seen by the entire family!" Lily rolled her eyes every Christmas was spent at The Burrow, they would spend hours eating, playing parents vs kis in Quidditch and laughing.
"Good point Lil, how about again that wall over there." Al said nodding his head towards where James was laughing with a couple of his mates.
"What, you want me to stride over there, push him up against that wall, snog his brains out and then casually walk away?" I say dumbfounded as I'm almost convinced that it could be a good thing.
"Pretty much." The girls chorussed and the boys just smiled.
"Can I have another shot of Fire whiskey Tom?" I called knowing I'd need the liquid courage. Tom served my drink, again I downed it feeling the burning sensation I shook my head with a slight shiver.
"You are actually gonna do this?" Rose asked gobsmacked.
"Yep." I said some what confidently.
"I thought she was joking." Molly whispered to Sai who nodded.
I began to walke towards where James was standing.
"I can do this, no more sexual tension." I muttered to myself. As I reached the opposite side fo the room I looked back to my friends who were all watching the scene intently.
"Hi Ivo-" James started but was cut off by me pushing him against the wall and snogging him senseless, before I knew it he was kissing me back, our tongues entwines in a battle for supremacy his hands rested neatly on my waist. Eventually we broke apart and I casually walked towards my friends. I turned back to him.
"Dinner, tomorrow, seven, I like Indian." I called walking back to my friends who were all coughing and spluttering at what they had seen, some of them were scrambling for a double shot of fire whiskey.
"Well?" the girls asked and I shrugged lightly.
"It was mediochre, lets hope the sex is better. " I said and we all giggled.