DISCLAIMER: Woe is me

Okay, guys, I'm really sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out '^_^ In my defense, it wasn't technically my fault. You see, I was grounded. Ah, yes, the evils of having computer access taken away. T.T

Anyhoo, cuz of that, I typed this chapter up real fast for ya as soon as I could! I hope you enjoy.

Also, I read back through my first two chapters and was amazed by how many mistakes I had missed :( So I edited them, and I'm gonna repost them. Just thought you'd like to know ^_^

Vick and I were nearing Privet Drive once more, though he had had to slow his pace and shorten his stride as to allow me to keep up. I swear, he was too tall for his own good. As we were about to round the bend, I stopped him and pulled out my invisibility cloak. "We need to put it on." I told him, and he looked at me like I was insane, what with suggesting that we both huddle in a silvery piece of fabric together. "It's an invisibility cloak," I explained. "We can't be seen going into or leaving the house, or else the wizards protecting me will stop me from leaving."

He 'Ahh'-ed and moved closer to me, along with hunching down a bit so we could both fit, rather comfortably I might add, under my cloak. With the necessary precautions taken, it was easy work to make it into the house, the time just half past eight.

Once we entered the house, through the back obviously, I slipped the cloak off of us, making us visible once again. I began to lead him up to my room so we could fetch my things when Uncle Vernon stopped me. "What do you think you're doing boy? Who is this and why is he in my house?" amazingly, his face was already purple.

"He is a friend of mine, you would probably call him 'my sort', even though that's not quite the case. As for why he's here, he's going to take me away and I'll never be coming back." I answered his questions in succession. The thought of my leaving seemed to appease my uncle enough that he didn't complain about having Vick here.

"You're really leaving? And never coming back?" Vernon asked eagerly. I nodded my head in confirmation, feeling sad inside. Of course I knew that my relatives hated me, and don't get me wrong, I hate them too, but it is depressing when your only blood relations want to get rid of you so eagerly. All the while, Vick was looking between me and my uncle with the most peculiar look on his face. "Well, get going then." Was the last thing Uncle Vernon said before he turned and waddled back to the living room to watch the telly with Petunia and Dudley.

I once again blazed the way toward my sad excuse for a room with my vampire friend right behind me all the way. "Here we are." I announced needlessly when I stopped in front of my door and opened it. Vick stepped in first, presumably so he would have longer to take in the place that I had lived for so long. Sadly for him, there wasn't really much to see, especially since I had already packed.

I waited while he took in the room; my bed taking up the majority of the space, my desk in the corresponding corner, the window with the age-yellowed curtains, and finally my trunk, packed and waiting with Hedwig in her cage sitting on top. "Kind of quaint." He said, though I could tell that it wasn't meant as an insult.

"Yeah," I agreed, "But it's better than the cupboard." I commented, and Vick whirled around to stare at me incredulously, his eyes filled with his unspoken question. "They kept me in the cupboard under the stairs for ten years until I right before I went to Hogwarts. They only gave me this room because my admittance letter was addressed to 'the cupboard under the stairs' and that really freaked them out, so they moved me." I further explained.

"That's horrible!" Vick said in disgust. He obviously couldn't imagine having to live like that himself. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, you are all packed, aren't you?" I nodded silently. "Good," he continued. "Then let's go. I'll get the trunk, you get the owl."

"Her name is Hedwig." I informed him, knowing that Hedwig didn't like being referred to as 'owl.' As it were, I did as Vick said and plucked the cage off of the trunk. I was about to warn Vick that my trunk was incredibly heavy when he easily hoisted it up making it look like it was feather light. I gaped at him, but then felt stupid for forgetting that Vick was a vampire. Talk about duh.

I followed him to the back door once again before he stopped and lowered the trunk and turned to face me. "Ok, so how are we going to do this? Both of us can't fit under the cloak with this stuff." He stated.

I thought for only a moment before coming up with a suitable solution. "How about I wear the cloak along with Hedwig? At least that way it will seem like you're alone, even though it will be a bit suspicious that you're coming out of my house with a trunk. Still, I doubt the Order will do anything."

"Yes, that will work." He agreed before asking, "The Order?"

I sighed and explained. "The Order of the Phoenix, actually. They fight against Voldemort."

"Ahh." Was Vick's only reply. He picked my trunk up again and opened the door to leave, so I took that as my cue to don the cloak, making well sure that it completely covered myself and Hedwig alike, before I followed Vick out the door where we slipped through the back gate in the fence and cut through the neighbor's lawn. I stuck to him like glue as we headed left down the street, turned right at the end, and left at the next junction.

I was beginning to wonder where we were going when Vick finally came to a stop in beside a very expensive looking shiny black car. "You can take the cloak of now, Harry." He said as he pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked said car. H popped the trunk as well and gracefully slid my trunk into it, then pushed another button on his key, which caused the trunk to close by itself.

To top it all off, when he instructed me to put Hedwig, still in her cage, into the back seat of the car, the door opened up instead of out. To say I was impressed was an understatement.

Once Hedwig was safely in and situated, I moved up to the passenger side of the car and proceeded to open the door, which lifted up as well, and slid into the smooth leather seat that waited. The interior of the car was just as impressive as the exterior, the seats done with the finest quality leather money could buy, and it had a magnificent speaker system that just made me want to blast some rock music, mostly because I'd never done it before. "Nice." Was the only word I was able to choke out, but even that didn't do this car justice.

Vick smirked. "It is, isn't it? Cost me a pretty penny too." He said with a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin.

"I figured as much." I replied, still in awe. Vick started the engine, and I listened contentedly as the high grade engine purred into life. He pulled smoothly out of the space where the car had previously been parallel parked, and zoomed away, seeming not to notice the speed limit. Well, that or Vick just disregarded it all together.

"Umm, where are we going exactly?" I asked, curious of our destination now that I had finally pulled my attention away from the car itself.

"North, to an old town called Westmire. It will take about two hours to reach from here. There aren't any other vampires living there besides myself, but there are several others in the surrounding towns." He glanced at me with a wry smirk. "All of us, it seems, are attracted to the old style buildings that are prominent around there. I bought my mansion there just because of that. I can't wait until you see it! You're gonnna love it, I swear so on my name!" he said, excited.

The way he talked about his home got me excited too, and I began to wonder if the architecture was anything like that of the Hogwarts castle. It would have been amazing if it would. It was then that Vick slid a CD into the stereo system and hit play. We were soon surrounded by a relatively loud, pounding beat, and I could honestly say that I enjoyed the music, although I had no clue as to who the artist was. As Vick drove, I admired the passing scenery while the time passed in a comfortable silence. Well, silent if you didn't count the blaring music.

After nearly an hour of that, I reached up and turned the music down low so we would be able to speak

"Hey Vick," I started, making sure I had his attention before I continued. Once he glanced my way, I did just so. "What exactly comes with being a vampire? I want to know exactly what I've signed up for, if you don't mind."

He chuckled at me. "That's the first time I've ever heard of volunteering for the change being put that way before, but I suppose you do have a point. Very well, I'll start with the physical characteristics."

"Just like in vampire lore, you will become paler. That is caused by the thinning of our blood. We do still have as much of it as we did before, but it just tends to remain more in our core body, congregating more so around the heart than anywhere else. There still is blood constantly circulating in the rest of our body, just not as much as there would be in a human."

"Our nails are also stronger and sharper than those of a human. You'll notice that you're nails will start to grow a bit faster as well, and you'll definitely have to be careful when you're around humans so you don't accidentally slice them open." I shivered at the thought of accidentally cutting open Ron or Hermione. "They're stronger than steel, too, so you can deal a lot of damage with them. On that note, the easiest way to cut then is to slice then off with another fingernail, or bite them off." He said, apparently feeling to need to inform me of proper vampire nail hygene.

"Next, I'll tell you about our eyes. In our natural state, our eyes are slited, comparable to a cats, and the color of our eyes is accented, almost to the point of where it looks like they are glowing. It's really neat; I'll have to show you sometime. Of course, the same thing will happen to your own eyes. When we get angry, our eyes are overlaid with various amounts of red, spreading out from the pupil. If you're annoyed, then only a slight ring of red will show, but if you are completely and utterly pissed off, then your entire eye will be overtaken by red. As it were, a lot of vampires train themselves to be impervious to anger as to not allow others to literally read the emotions in their eyes. This can only happen when the vampire's eyes are in their natural, slitted state, though."

"Our eyes also turn red when overcome by bloodlust as well. It's one of the dead give-aways that a person stalking you at night is a vampire, not just some psycho." He grinned at me, exposing his fangs, and I couldn't help but shiver. "Coincidentally," he continued, "We are overtaken by bloodlust while we are hungry, and after we've partaken in an incredibly large meal, but these two forms of the lust are different. The first is rather obvious, but the second comes from the high we get after taking in too much blood."

"Also, a vampire can control when and how much their eyes turn red when they want, to trick someone into thinking something about the vampire that isn't true. However, this only works when the vampire in question is not feeling an annoyance, anger, or bloodlust of any sort. You got me?" he asked.

I nodded slowly. "I think so. Please continue."

"Alright. Onto new abilities then. A vampire has inhuman speed, the ability to move so fast that their appearance blurs, and we often cannot be seen by a human while moving at these speeds. It comes naturally to us, so that concept shouldn't be too hard to grasp, especially after you get a chance to try it for yourself. Next is our strength. It isn't nearly on par with our speed, but strength isn't what we are built for. In all honesty, most magical creatures are stronger than us, though we are superior to humans. We are able to fight and win against nearly all magical creatures because of our quickness. Even if the opponent is stronger than us, if they can't hit us, then it does them no good. We, to the contrary, have no problem connecting with our targets and can take them down with our natural weapons, claws and fangs, or any other weapon we have on our person." He smirked. "You'll find that we vampires have a bit of a liking for nearly every sharp object and normally keep several on our person at all time."

I was hanging on Vick's every word, thinking that being a vampire was going to be greater with every sentence that came out of his mouth. "What about the blood drinking?" I prompted.

"Ah, yes." He said, considering the topic. "We don't require too much blood to live, its only necessary once a week before we start to feel the effects of going without. Us not having blood is rather like what happens when a human is starved. Our physical condition decreases bit by bit until we would finally die. It doesn't matter if the blood is fresh, though that is what most of us prefer, it can be bottled blood, but that usually has a stale taste to it. You don't have to kill the person you feed off of, but you don't have to keep them alive either. Weather you kill your victim or not is up to you. We can eat human food as well and most of us do, just because we enjoy the taste of it. It does nothing for us nutritionally and is not needed for survival, but it is a pleasure we don't want to give up." He looked horrified for a moment. "Could you imagine what life would be like without chocolate cake?" he whispered in fright.

I laughed at that comment, rather heartily too, because it was incredibly funny to me. It wouldn't normally be, but after discussing such serious and important topics, it just had that effect. Vick smiled warmly at me and waited for me to quiet before he continued with his lecture.

"The last thing I'm going to explain to you for now is our ability to transform into animals. We can transform into exactly three different animals, though not of our choice. These animals are already predetermined by fate. For example, my animals are a raven, a fox, and a mountain lion."

"Are these transformations anything like an animagus'?" I asked him.

He glanced at me. "Just so you know, I was born a muggle before I became a vampire, so I'm not completely sure of all the wizarding terminology, so if by an 'animagus' you mean a wizard who can transform into an animal, then yes, you are correct."

"That is all I'm going to tell you for now, but at another time, I will tell you about all the immunities we have, and the kind of magic we posses. Yes, we have magic as vampires, but it isn't like that of a wizard. It doesn't involve incantations or wands, but it is more restricted than what wizards do as well. Along with all of that, I will tell you about a few other random things we can do, or occasionally not do, respectively. For now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride."

I once gain laughed at his last comment. The way he had said it made him sound like a conductor on a train. I had been laughing a lot lately, and it was all because of Vick. I guess he was right about him being a good judge of character, because we were already well on our way of being fast friends.

Another question struck me then, so I asked away. "Are wizards really prejudiced against vampires?"

Vick sighed, a thin smile creeping onto his face. "We are, technically, dark creatures and as I said before, a lot of vampires, myself included, do kill our victims." My gaze swiveled to him, horrified at what he had just said. "Hey, now, don't look at me like that. I just said that we kill our victims, but we don't do it all the time. That would be too noticeable to the general population, so we normally let our 'food' live. To you, killing will seems wrong, am I right?" I nodded. "Well, another thing about becoming a vampire is that you have less of a regard for human life. Humans just start to seem more like food as a whole, so you don't mind feeding off of them, or taking the occasional life. Coincidently, this also makes it easier for us to kill the humans that we dislike as well. That is one of the reasons we are disliked by wizarding people."

I made a small sound that said I understood where he was coming from. I mean, if I was a normal wizard, I would dislike vampires for killing humans without caring about it at all. I wasn't sure if I really like this aspect of vampirism, but hey, there was no going back for me now anyway. Surely, I told myself, that if I killed Voldemort, I would be saving so many lives so that it wouldn't matter if I needlessly took a few myself, would it?

"Another reason we are disliked and distrusted," Vick continued, "is that we occasionally have someone quite mad amongst our numbers, or an idealist, if you will, not unlike your Lord Voldemort, who partake in mass slaughter. The rest of us, who are more peaceful, get lumped in with those who we openly agree are in the wrong. In that way, wizards are the most oblivious and conceited race because they cannot see past those who are evil in the race that is the vampire, and judge us all on the actions of the evil ones. I believe it is much the same with the werewolves as well. The wizards, however, see themselves as a perfect race that cannot be damned as a whole just because half their population follows an evil bastard. They're hypocrites, the lot of them, I tell you."

"You know," I said, "I can't help but notice that you seem to be treating me like I'm not a wizard." I commented.

"That's because I am." Vick said, raising an eyebrow at my observation. "You will soon be a vampire, so I will treat you like one. You will have to adjust to being one of us soon enough anyway. Hey, were almost home!" he suddenly said excitedly. "We just entered Westmire! Five more minutes! Yay!"

I stared at Vick. Just stared. One minute he acts all serious and grown up, but the next he's acting like a kid, excited over the smallest things.

"What?" he sniffed, noting my stare. "I can get excited to you know!"

I shook my head, unbelieving. "You need to loosen up, you know that? I'll work on it with ya along with everything else we need to cover, K?"

I rolled my eyes in good-natured humor, which Vick responded to by crossing his eyes at me. It was funny, until the car made a sharp swerve toward the edge of the road. "Vick!" I yelled, holding onto my seat for dear life, praying I wasn't going to die right there, right then.

Vick snapped his gaze back to the road and yanked the car out of its dangerous path just in time. It was a few moments later, when our heartbeats began to even out again, that Vick finally said "Whoops."

I turned to him, disbelieving. "Whoops. Whoops? You almost got us killed and all you can say is Whoops?" I was kind of angry at him, but my attention was soon diverted against my will when Vick said,

"Oh, look, we're here!" I swiveled my head to look at the house, no, mansion in front of me. The only thought flowing through my mind at that precise moment was 'holy fuck, that place is huge!'

I was speechless for a while longer as well as I admired the estate. Lush green grounds surrounded the entire manner with tastefully done landscaping making it look like a scene strait out of a painting. A weeping willow here, several artful boulders surrounded by various shrubs there, it was a beautiful sight. The front grounds only hinted at the magnificent gardens that must lie in the back for private viewing only.

The building in itself was a masterpiece as well. The slate gray stone complemented the black shingles that adorned the sloping roof, along with the pointed tops of the several towers protruding from the roof. There were gargoyles as well, oh yes, many of them, adorning the corners of the building. Incredibly large ornately carved doors with, I could tell even from this distance, decorative knockers, though what they portrayed, I had not a clue. Magnificent windows scattered the side of the mansion in organized chaos, giving the structure a more archaic look, but it suited the design as a whole.

"Well, are you just going to sit there forever, or are you actually going to get out and help me take your stuff in?" Vick joked, already outside, his door shut. I scrambled to follow suit, a blush covering my face at my own ignorant stupidity. In my haste, I tripped getting out, falling down, but catching myself with my hands.

"Ouch, Dammit!" I complained getting up.

Vick, wanting to make sure I was alright, hurried around the car, which, by the way, was parked in the middle of a large, light gray brick driveway. By the time he got here, moving at human speed, I was already up, and assessing the damage I had done to palm. I had cut my left one so it was bleeding. I poked at the coppery red substance with distaste, and then winced at my own stupidity.

"Let me see it." Vick ordered. I looked at him warily. Only an idiot willingly gives a bleeding body part over to a vampire. "Let me see it." Vick repeated, so slowly, warily, I obliged. He quickly grabbed it, being gentle as to not hurt me, and brought my bleeding limb up to his mouth, and then licked it! I gasped, not only from surprise, but because Vick's actions felt surprisingly pleasant. All too soon, or at least in my opinion, he released my hand with a chuckle, and in my daze I noted that my hand had stopped bleeding and was, in fact, completely healed.

"Two random things about vampires, my young ward," he said jokingly, but I knew his information would be true, "are that our saliva has healing properties, and that having your blood sucked can be a pleasurable experience." I blushed at the last part, as any self respecting male who had just felt pleasure from another male sucking his blood, would do.

"Come on, let's get inside." Vick said, grabbing my trunk easily.

"One minute," I replied. "I want to send a letter off with Hedwig quick." And I did just that. I pulled my letter to Sirius out of my pocket and attached it to my snowy owl's leg after I let her out of the confines of her cage. "Take your time girl, and be careful." I told her when I was finished. Her reply was a soft hoot and an affectionate nip to my fingers. With that, she took off into the skies to deliver the letter.

I grabbed Hedwig's now empty cage and followed Vick up the drive toward the mansion. When we reached to doors, I discovered that the knockers were shaped into ornate Celtic knots. They were beautiful, I had to give them that much.

Vick pulled an old brass key out of his black coat, the same coat, I noted, that he had worn the first night we met. It was hard to believe that that was just two days ago, it seemed like much longer, to me at least.

We entered the house and I was once again shocked by beauty. The floors were a black and white marble, which continued in every direction, except for the stair cases, which wound up either side of the incredibly large entrance hall, and were covered with a plush, red carpet, done in a shade that instantly reminded me of the sight of fresh blood.

My gaze then turned to the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, to the decorative items lining the walls, to the tapestries hanging on the walls. It was all so much to take in.

My attention was brought back to Vick when he cleared his throat. He was looking at me, amused once again. "Follow me, I'll show you to the room you'll be staying in." I did just as he said, feeling no reason to disobey.

"You're going to love it. It's much bigger than that hovel you were living in before. Nice, big, soft bed, furniture that matches, it's wonderful, really." The more time I spent with him, the more I came to realize that Vick was accustomed to money, probably ever since he was human as well. I figured he was like Malfoy in that respect, that he wouldn't know what to do with himself if all of his money just up and disappeared on day.

"We're here!" Vick suddenly announced, after having led me up two flights of stairs and down three hallways.

I opened the door, cautiously at first, but then in a greater awe when I actually saw the inside of the room. The floors were a black cherry hardwood, the same color as the rest of the wooden furniture in the room. There were several rugs laid on it as well, done in green, as well as the coverings of the king-sized bed, complete with an array of pillows in mismatching shades.

The room also had a large set of windows, which opened up into a large private balcony, overlooking the magnificent gardens in the rear of the mansion. The heavy drapes, which would no doubt block out all sunlight when closed, were green as well.

I had my own bookcase, waiting to be filled with what I had in my trunk, and, after some investigation, I found that the room was also equipped with a walk-in closet, it was about a quarter size of the room, which was saying something, because the room itself was colossal. The other door led to a bathroom even larger than the closet. It had a cupboard for all of my toiletries, and another one for towels. The shower was humongous, decorated with a pale green tile, with a two foot by two foot part of the ceiling being made up of a gigantic shower head that would rain water down on me. I couldn't wait to give it a try.

The bathtub was impressive as well, the entire thing large enough for me to stand in the water and be half submerged, and I could swim in it as well, complete with Jacuzzi settings. It looked incredibly inviting to me, I could almost imagine the feel of the soothing warm water on my skin.

The walls of each of the rooms were painted a deep, warm brown. All in all, I though the color scheme was a bit Slytherin, but I liked it so I wasn't complaining.

Vick waited patiently in the main chamber as I took my obligatory tour of my new rooms, and he was sitting at the desk chair when I returned from my wanderings. "Do you like it?" he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Like it?" I asked with a laugh. "It's amazing! How could I possibly not like it?" Vick looked relieved.

"Well, now that you've seen where you'll be living, how about we get onto the whole reason you're here?"

I gulped, nervous again. "You mean you want to turn me now?" I asked the obvious question.

"Yes," Vick nodded, his eyes penetratingly serious and glued to my face, watching closely every emotion that passed over it.

I swallowed hard, strengthening my resolve. "Ok," I agreed. "Let's do this."