So... This story unexpectedly became a multi-crossover, I'm afraid. Fear not, Alaric and Dana still are the main focus. But I had to case in a few more Hogwarts AU, you know, instead of writing three hundreds others crossovers. There will be 16 (canon-wise dead) characters out of other stories, all in all.

I might have made this story into a mostly killer AU, now that I think about it...

And, yes, sue me if you don't agree, but I watched ASH: Hotel for Matt Bomer only, and yes, I do like John Lowe.


Chapter 4: Noah's Ark

Alaric looked away as soon as he spotted Dana in the corridor. If he was lucky, she hadn't even realized he had been looking at her a moment before that.

It wasn't as if he had been looking for her, anyway.

For a moment he feared that the girl would reach out before the beginning of class. When she didn't, he guessed Dana had no reason to. They may have known each other in another life, but that was it, wasn't it? They had no friends, no family in common. They weren't even part of the same House. For all he knew, Dana had no interest in repeating the errors of lives past.

Even back then, Alaric Saltzman's and Damon Salvatore's friendship had not been an usual one. They had gotten to know each other through the alleged murder of his wife Isobel. They had started by playing / hating the other. They had not become friends because of their personalities, far from it. They had become friends because, in the end, they were the only ones who cared enough about who the other one truly was, under the lies, under the masks.

Here, in this world, they didn't need any of this. Ergo, they didn't have a reason to care.

The professor of Defense against the Dark Arts opened the door to the classroom, and Ric moved to the front row, on the left side of the class. Not right in front of the teacher, even out of sight most of the time, but not in the too-noticeable back row either. A place where he was usually left alone...

If not for Joshua.

Alaric would have sighed loudly, if it hadn't made his displeasure a bit too obvious. Say what you want, Alaric Saltzman had always been someone polite, as long as his interlocutor wasn't threatening someone else. Or, you know, as long as the other one hadn't presumably murdered his wife.

Good point, he wasn't married yet. Hence, no one fit in that category. Yet.

Ric looked up, and yeah, Daniels was still there, his bag on the desk, but not sitting. Weird. The boy should have have more than enough time to settle down. Why wasn't he...?

Alaric unlocked his brain to the rest of the scene, and soon enough he caught on. Joshua wasn't sitting next to him, because standing right before the boy, there was a slytherin girl. A girl who was glaring, hard, at the ravenclaw boy.

Dana didn't even look at Ric, no, she had her eyes locked on the mousy haired boy next to her fellow worlds-traveller. Grey eyes, a small scar under the left eye. She had a feeling she should remember him for the future.

As soon as the boy broke their staring contest, and tried to move towards the chair, the girl spoke.

"Scram."

It wasn't especially menacing or anything, but she sounded so sure of herself, so certain of her right to send him somewhere else, that Daniels only glanced one last time at Alaric. Then he shrugged, got a hold of his schoolbag, and moved to the other side of the classroom, to sit next to a ravenclaw girl with blond hair and green eyes.

Dana was a bit surprised by the unfazed reaction of the boy, but she didn't let it affect her in any way. She had better things to consider. One of which was named Alaric Saltzman, and had been ignoring her for the past hours. Damon wouldn't have let that slide by. Dana wasn't going to either.

She sat down, and waited for the lesson to start, eyes side-locked on her former friend. She intended to pay attention to Professor Quirrell, of course, but Ric mattered more.

About a quarter of an hour went by like that. Dana spied on Alaric, Alaric feigned to be deeply absorbed in his notes, and Quirrell stuttered as he was supposed to be. Truth to be told, Ric had no need to stare so intently at his notes, but it just so happened that if he looked up and turned around to watch the teacher when there was nothing to write, the first thing he'd see would be Dana's face.

It wasn't really that he didn't want to talk to her. It was just that, perhaps, it'd be for the better if they kept away from each other. Maybe, they wouldn't be caught into problematic events if they did so.

On the other hand, Dana didn't seem to share his point of view. If she had, she'd certainly wouldn't be sitting right next to him. It simply wouldn't be logical.

And, apparently, the girl was getting pissed off by his choice to ignore her. Because just as he was writing a nice "nature" in his notes, Alaric's leg was hit by Dana's foot in a totally unasked-for manner. His quill ended its line somewhere in the sky above the "t", and Ric winced. Why did wizards continue to use quills, anyway? Because, yes, they were not simple, usual muggle quills, and had been spelled to be almost as efficient as a pen, but still. A pen didn't need an inkpot.

And that's what they called deflecting. Not good. Not good at all, if the second kick in his leg was anything to go by. Damon had never appreciated being ignored, and Dana sure didn't disappoint.

"Stop that already."

The girl only gave him a look, and hissed back.

"Then you look at me, Ric, or I'll do it again."

The boy was looking at her, right now, but she still kicked him once more, to emphasize.

"And again. And again. And..."

"I got it!"

"Good. Now, why don't you stop ignoring me?"

There was a lot of noise at the back of the classroom, and both kids forgot about their argument the time to turn around and get a look at what had just happened. They weren't disappointed.

The boy sitting next to Draco Malfoy had apparently gotten fed up with the idiot, because right now the blond pure-blood had his nose on the floor, his chair lying on its side behind him. Quirrell hurried to the incident, passing by Alaric on the way. Oddly, it made the ravenclaw boy shudder a bit. As if there was something not quite right with the man.

"Mis-mister Malfoy, a-a-are you alri-i-ight? Miste-e-er Gro-oves, what happe-pened?"

Dana squinted at the other Slytherin boy, one she hadn't yet met other than because they had been sitting at the same table for meals. If she wasn't wrong, he was one of the rare muggle-borns in Slytherin. He was slim, not very impressive or anything, then again, they were eleven years old, so perhaps it wasn't the best time to think about that. Brown hair and eyes, smooth features, somewhere between feminine and masculine.

And, most importantly, a wicked and vindictive glint in his eyes.

Groves gave the teacher two wide and innocent eyes, which made Dana snort.

"He was tilting back his chair, Professor! I told him he was going to fall down, I did, but Draco didn't listen!"

Quirrell looked confused for an instant, and did not notice the fact that Malfoy was trying to protest, but another boy in their House, pretending to help him up, was mostly stopping him from mouthing off. Dark hair combed back, striking blue eyes, a slightly arrogant attitude, but nothing Dana had never done herself. Donovan Lowe, she believed.

Their year was definitely proving to be interesting.

The disturbance eventually died down, and Dana went back to her main problem. As soon as Quirrell was back to stuttering their first lesson, she turned to Alaric, whom she caught frowning at Lowe.

"Something wrong?"

The blond boy shook his head, and looked back at her. Dana could tell he hadn't chased whatever had been disturbing him out of his head. But she really needed to talk to him, and he'd have more time to think about whatever that was, later.

"Now, Ric, about us: why are you ignoring me anyway?"

He looked at her as if he was astonished she even asked. Dana, personally, didn't see why her question was that strange. They were the only ones who truly knew who the other really was. It only made sense that they'd want to stick together. Didn't it?

Alaric didn't seem to think so, on the other hand.

"Do you really want to start our 'friendship' again, Dana? Do I have to remind you why we were friends, in the first place? The deaths, the blood, the betrayals, everything?"

Quirrell walked past them, and they stopping talking for a moment. Dana couldn't help but notice how Ric tensed as the professor passed by. She didn't have time to wonder about it, though. As soon as the teacher was out of hearing reach, Alaric hissed back the rest of his impression.

"I'd think we'd want to start again, without all that! We've got another life, we can't just linger on our past one. And the best way to do that is not to talk to each other only because we were uneasy friends once upon a time."

"Bullshit. I want to be your friend because I appreciated you, not because I'm nostalgic about our old lives, Ric."

"Are you sure of that?"

He really didn't seem to believe her, Dana finally understood. Perhaps he was even doubting anyone would want him as a friend. As she recalled, Alaric Saltzman had never had that many friends. Most had become close to him because of circumstances, not because of mutual appreciation.

Except Jenna. And Jenna had died.

As had Isobel. And, later on, Meredith had almost died by his hand too.

No wonder Ric was being cautious about his friendships.

Dana wasn't going to let that happen to her, that she could promise. And she wasn't going to let her best friend lock himself away either. Really, he was in a boarding school with a few hundreds of other kids. At one point or another, he'd have to open up.

She was decided to be the first one on that list of future friends.

"We can't know until we try, can we?"

Alaric stared at her, visibly unimpressed. She gave him a blinding smile. He sighed.

"You're going to be stubborn about that, aren't you?"

"I'm aways right, Ric."

"Or so you think..."

He turned back to his notes, but Dana could see a small smile on his lips. She counted that as a victory. And anyway, she'd stalk him out of class, until dinner. He wouldn't be able to ignore her for long if she stayed around.

The class ended without further incidents. Interesting things actually waited for them to be out of the classroom before happening. Maybe Dana loved chaos a bit too much.

The two travelers walked out only to hear Malfoy sickeningly mimicking Quirrell's stutter. Dana, who might have been about to do the exact same thing, suddenly decided she had better things to do, if the idiot was doing it already. Crabbe and Goyle snickered dumbly behind their gang leader.

Then Donovan Lowe, who had been right behind the bleached blonde, grabbed Malfoy by his collar. The pure-blood missed a step, and almost finished on the floor, again. Groves helpfully kept him standing after sharing a look with Lowe. These two didn't seem to actually know each other, but they were weirdly on the same wavelenght.

Crabbe and Goyle, suddenly remembering what had happened earlier, growled at the two other slytherin boys. Lowe and Groves didn't look particularly impressed.

Malfoy tried to say something, probably along the lines of "My father will hear about it", because apparently, it was the best threat he had under his sleeve.

Lowe practically snarled at him.

"I don't care about your point of view on many things, Malfoy. You can be a bigoted racist for all I care. But what I care about, is that you are being loud about it. And I'd really, really like you to be completely silent about whatever you think your ancestry allows you to do, when I'm around. Loud people like you are pathetic, and exasperating."

"And what are you going to do about it?!"

Something cold flashed in Donovan Lowe's eyes, which made Dana recoil, as if she knew that look a bit too intimately. Alaric was right, there was something about the boy – and about Groves, too, as it was. Dana was fairly certain they weren't from their past life, because she'd remember the two, even if as adults. She'd recognize them.

Then again, there could have been others sucked in by the end of the Other Side. Other ghosts she knew nothing about.

This time it was Groves who answered, with a sickeningly smooth smile.

"That, you really don't want to know, Malfoy."

The pure-blood glared at the muggle-born boy.

"I didn't speak to you, Mudblood..."

Groves didn't particularly seem fazed by the insult, even if a few people took a step back. Even those who thought just the same but had more than half a brain didn't stay too close to Malfoy. There was a big difference between thinking such things and saying them.

"Please, call me Root."

Someone coughed in the corridor, behind the small group of first years, and Lowe let go of Malfoy. Dana's and Alaric's eyes immediately moved to the two fourth years Gryffindors standing there. They were so much taller, with their three years difference, than the rest of them that they wondered how they hadn't noticed them before.

One of them had black hair parted on the left, blue eyes, naturally frowny eyebrows, and if Dana remembered anything from her life as Damon, it was that his stance, while seemingly relaxed, in reality spelled danger.

The other wasn't more reassuring, in a way, with his calm blue eyes bordering on grey, and his surprisingly silver hair. He was the tallest of the two, with a posture definitely taken from a military man, which was totally weird considering he was only fourteen or so. Alaric could say he was the kind of guy whom you did not want to anger, because then, all hell broke loose.

And, more importantly, these two felt just like Donovan and Groves – sorry, "Root". What kind of nickname was that, by the way?

The first one smiled at Lowe, amused.

"Donovan, be nice, please. I don't want my next letter to Wren to be about how you got a detention on your first day. And I certainly don't want to have to clean up behind you if you break his nose."

Donovan glanced coldly at Malfoy.

"Who says you'd find anything to clean up, Lowe?"

That, Ric decided, was totally ominous, and definitely weird. The two were probably brothers, but who called their older brother by their family name? It was like they were family, but weren't used to it. Or, perhaps, yes, used to being family, but with the distinct feeling that they shouldn't be.

A bit, he realized, as he now felt about his parents in this world.

The tallest fourth year rolled his eyes, and shooed the first years away.

"Nothing to see here, kids. And, Malfoy, you'd better scram. You wouldn't want your father to know how you got your shame handed to you by a muggle-born, would you?"

Dana and Alaric shared a look, and made to walk away. After all, whatever the issues between all these people, it wasn't their business. Even if, an insidious voice in Ric's head whispered, it definitely looked like they weren't the only ones in this strange situation of having a second chance at life. He wondered if they were all from their world too, or if, perhaps, they came from another place altogether.

But "Lowe" the older stopped them with his right arm.

"Except you. Donovan, Samuel Groves, Alaric Saltzman and Dana Salvatore. We'd like a word with you, John and I."

Donovan groaned, Dana wasn't sure why. Groves muttered something about preferring "Root", and "John" looked at him with a sarcastic grin that totally made him crankier. Alaric was a bit wary of this, but at the same time very curious; everything seemed to go with his theory; and it looked like the two fourth years knew too.

They waited for all the others first years to scatter.

Then "John" checked that Quirrell had indeed left the classroom too, and ushered them all back in. The first years in this odd group looked at each other, Dana shrugged, and eventually they let the older boys decide. From the looks they were giving each other, they were suspecting something too, but unwilling to speak first.

It was the older Lowe who spoke first. Or, rather, he handed them black cards with golden words on it. Alaric took his cautiously, ready to inspect and at the same time to drop it should it burst into flames for one reason or another. His experience with magic, in both worlds, did imply caution.

It was an invitation to a "Twice Over Society" club, that reunited every friday evening.

The name was ambiguously implying things, he thought. Ric squinted at the older boys.

"Twie Over Society?"

Lowe shrugged, a small grin at the corner of his mouth.

"We'd have called it Dead Men Club, but John thought it wouldn't be fair to the ladies, not that there were any when we started it. And it might have been a bit suspicious, too."

John snorted at that.

"Sure. Let's call it something as ominous as Dead Men Club, John. McGonagall would have had us checked for mental illnesses. Of course, Twice Over Society didn't stop the Headmaster from figuring it all out in less than two months. But if some other people are suspicious of the name TOSS, at least they don't have the right kind of suspicions."

Dana blinked, insure of who was "John" in the duo. Then she realized they probably shared the first name. John was a fairly common name; besides, she already liked these two better than Mystic Falls' John.

Groves was the one to point out the obvious, when Alaric was trying to figure it out all on his own, Donovan was probably already in the known due to his older brother's implication, and Dana didn't seem to notice the problem.

"Are we actually saying we are all coming from other worlds, different stories, but that for some reason, dying propelled us here instead of putting the lights out?"

The tallest of the Gryffindors smirked lightly at the slytherin boy.

"Exactly, Root. And let me say how surprised I am to see you... well, like that. Last time we saw each other, if I remember well, you were a woman."

This got a surprised shout out of Dana, who stared at Samuel Groves in delight.

"So I'm not the only once who got all mixed up?!"

There was a silence after that, that they spent observing each other a bit blandly. Alaric, on his part, didn't really know what to say at this point. It all seemed a bit too much, frankly. Like, who woke up one day, after their death, to end up in an alternate world with magic schools and a bunch of not-dead-either people from yet another – others? – world?

He did, apparently.

Finally the older Lowe sighed, and took over the lack of conversation.

"Alright, let's move on. We've made that club, John and I, because we found we did need help adjusting once we regained our memories. Especially as said memories weren't all that pleasant. We've got issues, and from what I know of the others, you certainly have issues too. There are a bunch of us, namely, Jocelyn Carter and Gabrielle Shurley, third year Hufflepuffs, James Norrington, second year Ravenclaw, Alexia Branson and Joanna Harvelle, Gryffindors, aside from us. For now, you may feel like you will be alright dealing with this on your own, but believe me it won't last, especially not once puberty gets there. And it's always nice to have someone to talk to."

The other John added, face serious:

"I'm John Rykes, but you can call me Reese. John's the only one who calls me by my first name, as I'm the only only who calls him by his first name, for obvious reasons. It's not like we could get confused about which one of us we're talking to. He's John Lowe, Donovan's... well, in this world, Donovan's older brother. If you need to talk before friday, we're here. But we'll introduce everyone properly at the end of the week."

Alaric really wondered what a proper introduction entailed, in the club they were apparently default members of. Lowe had mentionned issues, which made the blond boy wonder if they all had the same kind of murderous, or at least deadly, issues. Were they supposed to come over and say, Hi, my name is Alaric Saltzman, and a ghost whispered in my ear one too many times, causing me to go crazy and try to murder my friends after I was turned into an Original Vampire? Or, more importantly, was he supposed to talk about his current problem, since it obviously was a remnant of his past life?

One thing was certain: he wouldn't be the one to speak first, friday night. He'd decide what to say based on how much the others would say.

This, Ric thought as they left the abandoned classroom in a daze, was total madness.

He was about to go back to Ravenclaw Tower when Dana grabbed one of his sleeves, effectively keeping him from leaving. Ric arched an eyebrow at her, noticed that Groves and Rykes were going their own way, probably to speak of things from their other life. It made him remember Dana's insistence that they started their friendship again.

The girl grinned at him with pearly teeth.

"Do you want to go to the library, and see what vampires really are in this world?"

Ric tried to give her a disbelieving glare, but she was proud of her idea, and, he guessed, he had no valid reason to refuse. Even if he probably knew all there was to know about vampires in this reality already. It wasn't as if his mother's physician had been a vampire, was it?

Vampires here were surprisingly good healers.

"Oh, come on, Ric! I want to know the differences between our previous selves and this world's vampires! Like, if they are basically the same, which I doubt, considering there isn't anything like partial immortality here, or if they're, I don't know, more like Dracula?"

"I can answer that, actually: Bram Stockher created him after meeting with the vampire Vlad Drakul, father of Vlad the Impaler. It's more than probable that most of the traits, though not all of them, displayed in the book are accurate."

Dana gave him a look that clearly said she wasn't certain if she should be impressed or frightened by his random knowledge of wizarding-muggle interculture.

"Didn't you want to go to the library?"

"Right. Come on, Ric."

And she took his arm in a death grip to be sure he wouldn't escape until they were in the Hogwarts Library. Alaric supposed it had to happen one day, so why not now? Though he'd rather it be later than sooner, it had to happen. Now that Dana had brought it up... It would have been only a matter of time, had he tried to delay the visit to the library.

Dana had to let go of Ric's arm when they reached the library, but she did glare at him to behave, which meant, in this case, to do exactly what she wanted him to do.

Madam Pince, the librarian, observed them sharply as Dana asked where to find books about vampires. She didn't seem to appreciate that children researched the dreaded species for what looked like fun. Then again, Alaric kept an eye on her after that, just in case she tried to give them a heart attack for one reason or another, and she gave the same distrustful look to a fifth year who needed info on minor hexes and their limited uses.

He saw Dana gesturing to him to follow her, and he guessed she had found what she wanted.

But when Ric joined her, the books Madam Pince had told them about weren't there. There was a big hole in the row of books, four volumes missing. Dana didn't look particularly frustrated for all that.

In fact she was grinning like a fool, and pointing at a slytherin first year boy at a nearby table, who, as it was, had the books she was looking for.

"Guess who it is?"

Ric focused on the dark hair combed back, and yes, he had to admit, the boy was familiar... Probably because he had just left them a few minutes ago. He had probably arrived at the library while Dana was trying to convince him to come.

Dana who, not willing to wait for Ric to figure it out, had just gone to the boy.

"Donovan?"

The boy started, and closed the book he was reading in a jerked move, putting its title against the wood of the table, as if he didn't want them to see what he was looking at. Which, as they had noticed the missing books first, had little to no results except telling them he had a dubious interest in vampire lore. Not that he could have guessed that.

He turned slowly to look at Dana, before spotting Alaric, and squinted.

"Salvatore. Saltzman."

Dana squinted back at him, as if to make a point. Ric wasn't sure what point, however.

"Lowe."

He winced, and relaxed a bit at the same moment.

"Don't call me that, keep it for my brother. You'll see the necessity soon enough, once you'll have stumbled on the two of them a few times. Donovan is fine."

"Then call us Dana and Alaric... or Ric, for that matter. You're interested in vampires?"

Donovan kept his answer short and elusive.

"There were some beings very close to the legend of vampires, from where Lowe, Wren and I come from, even if we called them afflicted."

Alaric's interest immediately perked up. He took a chair next to the slytherin boy, and whispered another question not to be noticed by the watchful ear of the resident librarian.

"You had magic too, in your former world?"

Donovan pulled a face, probably remembering some unsavory moments.

"Yes, but nothing as developed as here. From what Lowe told me, there are like five other worlds he knows of, and four had a supernatural side. Ours, which borders on the basic horror story hidden to most of the population, Alexia's, which is more or less the same but perhaps a bit less chaotic, Reese's, which has no magic at all but went all sci-fi on them with artificial intelligences, Gabrielle's, which is another can of shit on a biblical level entirely, and James', a world of legends from another time. We're a bit like Noah's Ark for the desperate cases."

"Why vampires in particular?"

Donovan didn't look like he was going to answer that question, and Alaric almost dropped it, when the other boy sighed, checked their empty surroundings, and relented.

"Look, if you're here like us, there's a 80% chance you've done some bad shit in your time because life turned on you or another reason. Lowe, me, Reese or the others, we're not bad guys, but some things we did... They don't land us in the good guys category either."

Alaric and Dana shared a look that Donovan had no difficulty deciphering. His words hit a chord for them too. They probably had blood on their hands, and not just a little. Whether it was for a good or a bad reason didn't really matter.

Perhaps it was what decided him to confess.

"Me and Wren... That's my little sister, Wren, in this world at least – we were afflicted. I lived about twenty years festing on the blood of others, because I really didn't care about life, myself, or anything else than Elizabeth, and I didn't even care enough to want to die. Wren stayed like that even longer, and she was just a little girl."

"Just you and your sister? Not your brother?"

Donovan didn't react right away, still a bit surprised by Dana's acceptance of his avowal. He couldn't know how close his words had been to describing Damon Salvatore's life over Katherine.

Speaking of John Lowe, on the other hand, almost made him chortle.

"My brother is another kind of problem altogether, but you'll hear all that friday, if you come. The only thing you have to remember is that, all in all, you never did anything bad in this life, and if you had issues because of something in your past, like Lowe, it's behind you. Sure, you're not the same as the other children here, but you're still an innocent kid. Like you were before everything happened the first time around."

Alaric smiled bitterly at that, unsure if he could really agree with that. Perhaps not in his own case...

"I guess the point is not to make the same mistakes as that first time..."

Dana put a hand on Ric's shoulder. Then she said, so seriously that Donovan wondered at first if she was joking:

"Don't worry, Alaric, I won't kill, or, you know, really, turn your wife into a vampire this time. Which probably should prevent you from becoming a murderous psycho vampire."

The look the blond boy gave her was dry if anything.

"I certainly hope you won't sleep with my wife either."

Dana squinted at nothing in particular, thoughtful.

"I don't think women will be my thing, this time. Damon Salvatore's, yes, but not Dana's."

Donovan interrupted, discreetly not to get thrown out of the library by Madam Pince, who seemed a bit too interested in their group for his comfort of mind.

"Wait, you two were vampires in your world?"

Dana winced a bit, suddenly realizing the huge issue that had been introduced during the Gryffindors' welcome speech. Her mind had been on more important things at the time, but now that she thought about it... She surely hoped Damon's past sins really were past.

"And now that I think about it, I'm the one who killed Lexi... Alexia Branson. This is so going to be a pleasant reunion, friday evening. But, while we're at it, I do want to point out that Ric was first a vampire hunter, all the way with the stakes and everything. He wanted me dead very badly, and look at us now! Besties even in the afterlife! Lexi might forgive me too... Right?"

Alaric snorted a laugh.

"I'll go to your funeral, don't worry."

"Thanks for the support, man. Now, why don't we have a look at the vampires from this world? I'm curious. "

The three of them sat down and started reading, comparing notes, Donovan supplying the differences with the afflicted, Dana those about hers and Ric's world.

Vampires, here, were radically different from either of their worlds', they found out.

First of all, they weren't undead or anything, at least, not in the way the children were used to. Vampires were all born that way, they were some sort of para-human magical species. They could have children with humans, but didn't give birth to hybrids. It was more of a fifty-fifty between human and vampire for the child. Sometimes the human children were "part-vampire", but it only meant they had some vampire traits, while still being humans.

They were stronger and faster than a human being, true, but couldn't do normal magic. Their magic was all blood magic, which made them very good healers, as long as they managed not to go for the bleeding injury each time someone came with a cut. Not all of them had that much control. And vampire blood could be used as a fast cure for external and internal wounds, since it boosted the healing of the receiver for a time. It was not, on the other hand, to be used on pregnants women unless absolutey necessary, because it always, without fail, killed the baby.

They healed fast, and an injury could be totally reversed if they drank blood right away. To kill them, one had to aim at the head or the heart, no matter the manner of killing, because they survived everything else. They weren't immortal and lived just as long as a human being.

They didn't fear the sunlight. It only sealed away their non-human capacities, healing and otherwise.

They drank blood to live, that much was true, but, and both Dana and Donovan found that deeply unfair, they barely needed between two and five liters a week. More than five liters a week was considered gluttony. They also ate like everyone else, perhaps a bit less. The two Slytherins grumbled something about needing way more than that not to desiccate, and how it must be easy for the vampiric community of this world to go unnoticed if they had such an advantage.

Their bite mark never healed completely, and could affect the victim a bit, like, by a higher resistance to poisons if you were lucky, or tingling if you weren't, but it certainly had never turned anyone into a vampire in the course of history.

Alaric ignored their complaining, and moved onto the specific looks of a vampire, which had both of them shutting their mouth immediately.

Because a vampire was, in fact, very easy to distinguish in this world. Their looks, sure, didn't belongs only to them, and a few humans looked like that too, but still, if you knew what you were looking for... They were, plainly speaking, gaunt-looking, bordering on pallid, red-eyed, although they usually wore glasses or contact lenses not to be noticed these days. And, a dead giveaway was the fact that they had fangs which did not retract. Nothing completely obvious, but if they opened their mouth large enough...

Dana and Donovan, vainglorious as they were, suddenly decided they were perfectly happy with their own brands of vampirism, and with not being vampires in this life too.

Alaric rolled his eyes, and closed the books.

He had known all that already, but reading it again, here, with Dana next to him, made him feel anxious. He knew he didn't fit in the "part-vampire" category, and there were little to no chance that anyone would suspect anything if he was careful, but he had just discovered that Hogwarts had three other former vampires, a soon-to-be fourth in Wren Lowe, whom he was certain to see often.

When they all headed down to eat dinner, this tuesday morning, Ric had a difficult time hiding his anxiety.

Coming to Hogwarst, all of a sudden, didn't seem like such a good idea.

Unfortunately, he was already here, and he'd have to deal with it.