5 hours earlier

"I can't believe this is actually working." Harry thought to himself as his body was being levitated toward the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, unnoticed by his passing classmates.

He was not sure where he was exactly, he didn't dare open his eyes while he was still in the presence of his Headmaster, who currently believed him to be asleep, under the effects of the dreamless sleep potion.

At first, he had been angered by the old man and his attempt to slip him the potion, but then he had seen the opportunity and he had seized it.

It was almost insulting to his intelligence; did Dumbledore really think that Harry would mistake dreamless sleep for a calming draught? As if he had not been confined to the hospital nearly enough times to recognize some of the potions that were more frequently used in that place.

He was not some kind of potions expert, not by a long shot, but he remembered if there were two flavors he could recognize anywhere, dreamless sleep would be one of them. The other one would be skele-grow, the nastiest brew he had had the displeasure of meeting.

The moment he recognized the potion in his mouth, he pretended to swallow, making sure to keep any of the stuff from going down his throat, and collapsed on the floor, discreetly taking out his wand on the way down. Hidden by a few feet of paperwork, he spat it all out and muttered a quick cleaning charm as silently as possible, before pushing his wand up his sleeve and holding it in place with his wrist.

The journey was long and irritating, as he was forced to try regulating his breathing and showing no emotion on his face, or else his plan go to waste. He knew that Dumbledore would not listen to him, he probably didn't think what Harry saw was true.

So, Harry would act by himself, he would escape from the Hospital Wing, get to London, find the abandoned church from Voldemort's memory, and warn the vampires of his eminent betrayal, somehow.

He knew it was probably stupid to rush into it, especially since it would take a while for the vampires to be betrayed, but he had a lot in his mind and wasn't ready or willing to deal with it.

The first step was reaching the infirmary, so he waited patiently and tried to occupy his mind on nothing to avoid his face betraying any emotion and blow his cover.

Around a minute later, he heard Dumbledore call to Madam Pomfrey, telling her that Harry was not hurt, just sleeping, and leaving her instructions to watch over him, lest he escaped again.

He was floated over to the bed and then softly deposited on it. He just laid there, as motionless as a rock, waiting for the perfect moment to put his half developed plan into action.

Two and a half minutes later, said moment arrived.

Madam Pomfrey had been walking around the beds, probably fluffing pillows or something, until her footsteps stopped for a second and then picked up. Harry opened one eye to see the school nurse walking briskly towards the back of the infirmary, and the small door that probably lead to her personal chambers.

Harry waited until the door to her office closed before sat up and looked around, after verifying the coast was clear, he moved out of the bed and ran to the exit. He stopped for a moment, looking to back to check on the nurse, she was still nowhere to be seen, pulling one of the big wooden doors open by an inch to check there was no one around, before slipping out and carefully closing it behind him.

Once he was out, he made his way to Umbridge's office taking great care to ensure he was not seen or followed.

Reaching the door of her office, he was surprised to find it still unlocked. The inside was still pink and sickly gay, it was pretty much the same, not a clue about the struggle that had occurred here a short while ago remained, the only difference Harry noted, with no small amount of satisfaction, was the removal of the "Headmistress" sign on the desk.

Stepping around the desk, he grabbed the little pink pot filled floo powder and tossed some into the fireplace. At once, green flames roared into existence and he turned to place the pot back. He saw the disgusting plate collection with cats painted on them, all looking at him hatefully, and decided to do something he had been dying to do since the first time he walked into this room for his first detention, he took out his wand, pointed it at the plate-covered walls and "Reducto!", blasted a great number of them into pieces, the remaining cats looked frightened and began running out of the edges of their individual dishes, bunching together and crashing against each other. Aiming for the biggest cat congregation he found, he repeated the spell "Reducto! Reducto! Reducto!" until only one remained, with all the surviving cats mewing and hissing angrily at him as he walked over to them, took it off from the wall, and smirked at them as he took a few steps closer to the window.

The cats went berserk as they looked madly for an escape of their unavoidable doom, but there was nowhere to go for them, as Harry lazily flung the pink plate out of the window.

He waited for a couple of seconds until he heard the distinct sound of breaking china to let out an almost evil cackle.

Wiping a tear from his eye as he regained his composure, he wondered what else he could possibly do to ruin the toad-woman who had forced him to carve 'I must not tell lies.' into the back of his hand. He had the scar to prove it, and more than enough witnesses who would most likely claim had always supported him now that he was not "delusional and unbalanced" ,as the Prophet had labeled him, anymore.

But then he remembered that the bitch was still in the forest, hopefully being brutally sodomized by the centaurs, "ugh, I did not need to picture that" he thought as the disgusting mental image came to him.

Shaking himself out of that particularly unpleasant train of thought, he stepped into the fire after exclaiming "The Leaky Cauldron!"

His world was swallowed by flames and he spun quickly as he caught glimpses out of some fireplaces on his way. He wasn't very fond of this sort of magical travel. He preferred brooms or flying, old-looking muggle cars.

He was flung face-first to the ground in front of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. He picked himself up and exited the building before someone noticed him. Luckily, the place seemed rather empty, and the only one who noticed him was Tom, the bartender and owner of the place.

He walked outside and wondered for a moment how to get to the old church he had seen in his vision. He remembered there was a park, from which he could see a huge clock tower, and he had to take a left at a bar called "Epiphany", or something like that, then he should be able to see it.

He decided to look for the clock tower, he had seen it before somewhere and he knew it was in London, he just didn't know where exactly. He could walk around and ask people if they had seen a huge tower with a clock on it, or he could look for the bar and not sound like a complete retard or an idiot tourist, or he could just take a cab.

In the end, he went back inside and asked Tom for a couple of pounds, which the toothless bartender graciously provided, and took the first cab he saw, asking it to take him to the bar.

"Aren't ya a bit young to be drinking, lad?" the cab driver asked. Looking at him with a critical eye.

"Oh, I won't be going into the bar, I am meeting someone nearby." Technically true.

The driver didn't look very convinced, but began driving nonetheless.

As Harry gazed out through the window, he realized had not seen that much of muggle London before. He saw thousands of people, happily walking around the streets, minding their own business, oblivious to the danger that lurked in the shadows, unlike the wizarding population, must be right now, or would be in a short number of days, when the news of Voldemrt's return spread around.

"Finally", Harry thought, as the clock tower came into view; and just a few moments later, Harry paid the driver and stepped out from the cab. Right in front of him stood a regular looking bar, red brick walls and a neon sign that read 'Epiphany, for men', which was currently turned off.

He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on what to do next, Voldemort had taken the first alley to the left and turned right at the end. So he did just that

The smell of old, half-decomposed garbage assaulted his senses as he walked across the alley, he considered casting a Bubble-head charm on himself, the Ministry should be in too much chaos right now for anyone to notice a small bit of underage sorcery, right?

By the time he had decided not to take unnecessary risks, he was looking at an ancient church-like building.

He walked down the street, with a small sense of unease in his gut. He had a bad feeling about this, but he still climbed the relatively short wall and jumped down on the other side.

Harry made his way across the courtyard and up some stone steps up to the main entrance and found the side door Voldemort had taken, which was closed again and he couldn't use magic to open it.

Looking around for a moment he wondered how he was supposed to get inside, he figured he was kinda useless without magic, his body was scrawny-looking and he had never bothered to work-out or something, but it wasn't like he could use physical strength on a duel now could he?

"Well… Perhaps not on a duel, but this door on the other hand…" he pondered for a second "Ah, what the hell", he took a step back, and pushed himself forward with one foot as the other rose and smashed against the door with all his lower body strength.

Nothing happened.

The door stood exactly the same, almost taunting him in its undamaged state. He took some steps back, and ran full-speed ahead. When he was like 6 feet from it, he jumped into a horizontal position and used both feet to pound the door.

He fell painfully back to the floor, but was satisfied to hear the wood splinter. Sitting up again, he saw the door was splintered and cracked. "Not so tough now, are you?" he thought.

He repeated his first kick, and the door burst open. As his foot connected, the most wonderful feeling ran across his body, relaxing and adrenaline injecting at the same time, "I definitely need to that more often." Heart pounding and breathing heavily, he walked in.

There wasn't anyone waiting for him, as far as he could tell. He took a moment to observe his surroundings, in case someone was waiting to ambush him or something, constant vigilance and whatnot, before walking behind the altar.

The cross hanging above him changed, adding wings and a skull with a flaming crown, and there was an old looking book and a cup filled with some red liquid.

It smelled like wine, that wasn't right. The cup was supposed to be filled with blood. Wasn't it?

"What was it that the pale dude did?" he concentrated for a moment, trying to remember every detail he could have missed, "Oh, that's right". He looked around, searching for anything sharp or pointy.

He found and empty bottle of beer lying around, and after smashing it against the wall, he walked back to the cup.

He placed his hand right above it and sliced his finger open, wincing slightly at the pain, to let a few drops fall into the red liquid.

After a while of nothing happening, he sucked his finger and wondered what he was doing wrong. "Maybe it needs more blood?"He put his hand in place again but this time he cut the palm open.

A bigger number of drops fell into the cup and he held the hand there until it was mostly red. "That should be enough." He opened the book on the marked page and saw it was some kind of journal.

It was surprisingly well kept, and the writing did not seem to be that old.

Five hundredth day since D-day number 4, I should really come up with a new name for important days.

N.T.S.: Run it through with big brother.

It seemed to be an interesting read, perhaps he could look through it on the way out, but right now he had something to do.

Someone must have noticed his absence by now, and if they went to Dumbledore he would immediately know what he was up to and deploy Order members to search for him.

Passing seven pages forward all filled with paragraph after paragraph of whatever the owner had lived through, and then went two pages back.

The previous text had vanished and in its place, a pair of fangs had replaced it, and in the middle of them, the cross hanging above his head was drawn.

He picked up the goblet and after a quick "God, I hope this works.", he emptied it into the image.

His eyes widened as the splash was swallowed by the drawing, not a single drop staining the old pages, and once the cup was empty, the fangs were painted red, and snapped shut. He placed the cup back on the altar as before his eyes, the altar grew in height and width, until a tall gate stood in front of him, with a white arch and black doors.

His breathing was fast and his heart was pumping away at full speed as he opened the door and stepped inside. He was standing in a huge chamber, completely made of stone, and with a small door on the far side.

The place seemed ancient, there was dust everywhere, and it looked completely empty, it was dark and the only light in the room seemed to come from him, thus putting him in the spotlight so he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched.

As he moved across the room, he noticed what looked like tunnel exits along the walls, he had a bad feeling about them, as if suddenly water would start pouring through them and he would drown.

He ended up running al the way to the exit as fast as he could; he opened it, rushed inside and shut it quickly behind him. He was now in a dark hallway, even darker and creepier than the camber he had just crossed.

"Calm down, Harry. You have been in worst places, remember?" Harry took a deep breath and began walking, a bit faster than normal, until he came to a large circular platform, which didn't seem to be touching the walls on any side.

He looked over the edge and he heart skipped a beat.

There was absolutely nothing underneath it, he was apparently on the top of a tunnel, and the platform in front of him was suspended on top of nothing, with a long way down to go.

"This thing worked for them, so it should work for me, right?" He took a cautious step into the platform, ready to jump back in a second should anything happen.

To his slight relief, nothing happened, and he eventually reached the middle, where a stone cylinder stood, with a gear-like thing on the side.

He walked up to it and inspected the circular object; it was a disk, made of stone, with holes on the edges.

He spun it clockwise all the way, and the platform began its descent.

"Ok, now, what am I going to tell them? I can't just walk in and crush their hopes for freedom and expect them to believe me."He had some experience with politicians and according to it; the chances of the vampire ruler listening to him were rather slim.

He passed many other hallways on his way down, but he was too busy thinking of what to say and how to say it to notice them.

All too soon, the platform stopped at the lowest level and he stepped out of it. The two guards were looking at him, he guessed with a perplexed look, he had to guess because their armor covered every single inch of their body and he couldn't see their faces.

He raised his hands over his head, palms out and extended, in a show of not meaning any harm.

They just stood there watching him, not even dropping their stance at the sides of the great doors.

He took a step forward, and the guards leapt at him. He only had time for two steps back before one of them threw his spear at him from the air, Harry spun sideways and the spear left a tear on the back his jacket, years of dodging punches and playing seeker at quidditch had sharpened his reflexes quite a bit.

By the time he ended his dodging maneuver, there was one vampire guard in front of him and one behind him, cautiously coming closer.

"Wait! I just want to talk to your… er… king?... about something!" he said uncertainly, come to think of it, he hadn't thought about what to do "I don't want to fight or anything." That didn't seem to convince them, so he decided to add a bit more.

"You are all in great danger and I need you to at least hear me out!" That never worked for his Divination professor, when she made her predications of terrible doom, but he was planning as he went anyways.

The guards froze in place for a moment, they were the perfect statue, and Harry thought they weren't even breathing. After a couple of tense seconds, for Harry at least, the guards seemed to judge him as a minor threat to their king, because they simultaneously returned to their passive stance and one walked over to retrieve his spear while the other just stood there, watching Harry.

When the first one returned, they stood on his sides and waited for him to proceed. Harry walked forward nervously at first, but when they didn't attack him again, instead just choosing to advance at his same speed, he strode a bit more confidently at the doors.

When he reached the entrance to the throne room, each vampire opened one door with one hand, while the other held the spear in a guard stance.

"These guys are certainly well trained, they even move at the same time!" Harry thought as he entered the same room he had entered in Voldemort's memory. It looked even more awesome in person, he thought to himself.

The place was huge! About the size of football field and he couldn't see the ceiling. The walls were decorated with some weird-looking patterns and there, at the opposite end of the room was the throne, made of gold and stone, it didn't look very comfortable in Harry's opinion.

The vampire had seen in the vision was seated on it, and the couches were gone, apparently he wasn't going to get the same treatment or respect than the Dark Lord.

No one moved for a minute. So Harry decided they were expecting him to go first.

He walked in what he hoped looked like a calm and confident way towards the opposite end of the room, he looked around as if admiring the place and stuck his hands in his pockets, half of the reason was because he thought it would make him look cool, the other half of the reason was to keep them from shaking and hiding the fact that they were starting to feel sweaty. The fact that his wand was in his right pocket was just a welcome bonus.

When he was close enough to the important looking vampire, he stopped walking and looked at him for a second.

"You met with someone a short while ago." It wasn't a question, but it wasn't an accusation either, just a fact. Harry hadn't bothered with presentations, he was sure the vampire knew who he was, and if he didn't, it was all the better for him.

"That someone made you a proposition." He said in a calm, clear voice. "A proposition you accepted."

The vampire was looking at him with an amused expression on his face, and perhaps just a bit appraising.

"They were all lies" at this, the vampire frowned. Confused or angry, Harry did not know, he was busy thinking of the best way to break the bad news to them and hopefully get back out in one piece. "Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort," there, nothing like one last 'fuck you' before going down "is planning to use you and then betray you, once either you outlive your usefulness or demand something in return."

The vampire looked at him with a frown on his face, "How do you know this?" he said "And why would you tell me? How do I know you are not merely wishing to protect the Ministry of Magic?"

Harry looked at him wonderingly, the vampire looked like a man in his early 30's, he was tall and apparently well-built, but his cloak kept Harry guessing, his face was aristocratic and pale, his eyes were between very clear blue and grey, and a dark ring around the iris, his hair was black and at a regular length, swept back and but not reaching his shoulders.

"I am Harry Potter." Harry replied, a bit more confident now he was at least being listened to, "I share a… connection with Voldemort, I saw his memories of coming to this place and everything that happened inside his head." he hoped this vampire was a particularly open-minded one "And lately I have been targeted by the Ministry about as much as your kind has, so I owe them nothing."

After a few seconds, he replied "I have heard of you, boy-who-lived. But the question remains; why are you warning me? If you have been attacked by the minister, do you not want him to be… removed?"

Harry knew what he was talking about, "Yes, I do." he briefly wondered how to make him understand his point of view "But should the Ministry fall, the people would be at chaos, and Voldemort would have to find some way to place himself on control of the country. He doesn't want that, he is not planning to do that, he just wants all who could or would oppose him taken out so he can fill the empty spots with his followers or people under the Imperius."

"Firstly, I don't want him to win." He wondered what would happen if there was a Voldemort supportive Minister, he would end up in hiding or in another country, aimless and alone. "Secondly, I have a slight hero complex" he said with a small smile on his face "and I feel a constant need to help people; especially people who are being manipulated or used without their knowledge by someone like Voldemort."

The vampire looked at him confused "Are you saying you care about my people? Why would you care about monsters like us?" he said slightly angrily "Why help us now, when your kind has done nothing but hunt and kill us 'dark creatures'?" he made quote signs with his fingers.

Harry wondered where this was coming from; he hadn't done anything to offend him had he? Perhaps there was a story involving the ministry and discrimination behind him "Because I do not care what everyone else thinks. I don't give a damn about what people consider to be dark creatures." He decided to add some personal background to make his point a bit more believable. "My father's best friend was a werewolf, and he was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts professor I have ever seen. The nicest person I have ever met is a half-giant." He was searching his mind for anything else he could use at this moment, "I am friends with a house-elf I freed from his previous master, he is a bit crazy but his heart is on the right place. I was saved by centaurs twice now." He was quickly running out of ideas. "I helped a hippogriff to get out of a tight spot once, and in return it helped my godfather…"

His voice broke as he remembered the time he had met Sirius, he had wanted to kill him at first and was fighting to save his life a couple of hours later. Sirius Black, troublemaker to the end. And he was a troublemaker to the end, to his end.

Harry shook his head; the vampire had noticed his downcast expression and was looking curiously at him. Thinking of anything else he could use at the moment, he came up with an image of a young woman of breath-taking beauty, with pale, creamy skin and long platinum blond hair, "And I am friends with a veela from France that I met two years ago." Not that true, but he was sure he had made a lasting impression on her, if competing in and winning the Tri-Wizard Tournament hadn't, materializing not ten feet from her clutching a body and saying the most feared dark wizard had come back from the dead definitely had.

He was returned to Earth by the voice of the man before him, "I will take your words into account; should I decide that what you have said is true, I will establish contact with you somehow."

Wow, that went well.

"In the meantime you will get yourself out of here and I highly suggest you don't inform anyone in any way of this place, otherwise… there will be consequences. Did I make myself clear?" he looked positively dangerous right now. Protective of his people, good.

"Don't worry, I won't." Harry said as he turned around and walked the long way out of the room.

The guards, which had been frozen in place, closed the doors behind him but stayed inside the room, leaving him alone outside of the throne chamber. As he was walking to the lift, he realized something.

His luck was never this good. Everything had gone so smoothly, so complication-free, it almost seemed… too simple.

Harry laughed out loud at this; he was getting paranoid at such a young age. Of course his luck was good now, but it had been terrible a day ago, or two, he wondered how many days had passed since the Ministry incident.

The elevator was not in place when he arrived at the where it was supposed to be waiting for him; he looked up and saw it was way above him, descending. He looked towards the spot the guards had previously occupied, remembering the way they had greeted him, and the fact that they hadn't spoken a word since his arrival. He still wondered how they did the perfect synchronization thing. Where they telepathic? Or maybe they had some way to communicate with each other without speaking, it had to be something to do with the armor, Harry couldn't even see their eyes.

That had to be it, their armor had all sorts of enchantments to let them see clearly and communicate soundlessly, that explained why he had been allowed inside, they must have informed the guy on the throne and he told them to let him in. They also must have had some physical ability boost on their armor; they had jumped like fifteen feet in the air and some ten or twenty across.

I wonder if I could get one of those. The lift appeared again and a cloaked figure carrying a load of books and pieces of parchment walked out of it, flanked by another pair of armed guards. He seemed agitated as he briskly moved to the doors back to the throne room and he didn't seem to notice Harry.

The guards, however, did.

One of them stepped down and followed the previous vampire towards the great doors behind Harry, the other one stepped down but turned to look at him, frozen mid-step. Harry was a bit nervous about him, but if his theory about their armor was correct, they would know he was not a enemy. So he shook his nerves away and boarded the lift.

Harry approached the column in the center and proceeded to turn the disk, as the platform began its ascent, Harry noticed something on the floor, he picked it up and noticed it was a newspaper.

Not bothering to look at the front page, he figured it must belong to the vampire who had just left the platform, so he walked over to the edge and called out to him "Excuse me, sir!" the vampire in question froze as he turned around and spotted him in the rising lift, "You dropped this!" Harry added as he waved the newspaper in his hand, papers flew across the air as he jumped up, turned to the guards and shrieked at the top of his lungs.

"Human! Kill him you idiots!" the guards didn't seem to hear him for a second, but in the next they sprung forward again and, same as last time, one threw his spear at Harry.

"So much for smoothness."Harry thought as he flung himself to the side to avoid the incoming projectile.

Apparently they had been holding out on him, as this time, the spear was much faster and it grazed the side of his abdomen, hitting the wall on the other side but not even scratching it, instead bouncing back down harmlessly onto the platform.

Pain was not something new to him, so he was quickly able to get up and take out his wand, Ministry regulations for underage sorcery be damned, just in time to see one of the two guards jump through the closing gap as the lift kept rising.

The gap was closed a second later, the last armored vampire hitting the edge and falling off it. So good news is one of the guards is stuck somewhere and can't do anything about it. Bad news being that the other one is stuck in a circular platform with no exit with you.

Way to go, Harry.

"You don't have to do this." Harry tried reasoning with him, or at least he supposed it was a he. Truth be told, that armor was the exact same size and proportion on both guards so he couldn't tell.

The guard responded to this in his usual way, completely ignoring him, but then he did something he hadn't done before, his head moved to look at something on Harry's right.

Harry was about to look around when he realized that the guard must have noticed the blood flowing on his side.

"This can't be good." He muttered, looking back to the guard with a bit frightened grin, "Hope you just had your lunch break."

The guard was apparently too distracted by the blood to do anything but look at it.

Harry briefly tried to come up with a plan, and decided to stall him to buy some more time. "It is impolite to stare, you know?" probably the worst joke he had ever said in the worst possible time but at least the guard was looking between his face and the blood on his side.

Harry looked up, deciding there was still a long way to go when he failed to see he top, and he doubted his charming personality and brilliantly thought out jokes would be enough to get him there.

The guard shook his head and then crouched slightly, standing diagonally to him and lowering his spear to point at him. Apparently it had decided to follow orders. Well, too bad for him. Harry thought.

Harry bent his knees, not in a dueling stance, but just ready to dodge something fast in case he had to. Looking around he saw the spear that had cut his side lying halfway across the platform.

The guard noticed this, and in the next moment rushed at him, thrusting forward with the spear. Harry barely managed to move his body so the spear missed his chest and went through the space below his left armpit. He grabbed it with his left hand and kept it in place while he raised his wand with the right, the vampire only managed to lift him from the ground before Harry aimed at his attacker's chest and yelled "Expelliarmus!"

There was a white flash and the vampire was thrown back a few feet and his hands flew from the spear but he managed to keep his footing. Harry landed on his feet again, and even though his side flared, he didn't fall down. The guard looked at Harry for a moment, before unsheathing his sword and taking a fighting stance again.

Harry looked at him for a moment while he wondered if he could actually use the spear in his hand for anything, he could use it to block any physical attacks, but he would need both hands, and he wasn't going to change his wand for a spear any time soon.

He tossed it to the edge of the platform and it fell off it. The guard took the opportunity to lunge again, but Harry brought up a shield and the vampire crashed against it as if it were a solid wall. Taking advantage of his opponent's confusion, "Stupefy!" he threw a stunner at him and was satisfied as the red beam splashed on the chest plate, the guy was pushed backwards a bit and he collapsed backwards on the ground.

Harry wondered if he was really unconscious or just trying to trick him, deciding to play it safe, he summoned the spear that was lying on the ground and caught it with his left hand; he walked over to the supposedly unconscious body and used the blunt end of the spear to poke on his chest.

The first few pokes nothing happened, but then he turned the spear in his hand and passed the bloodied tip across his face, he noticed with some amusement that the vampire tried to follow the blood with his head at every pass he made, clearly he could still smell it, but was trying to hide it. Harry was starting to like this guy in all his rookie-ish glory.

Harry pointed his wand at him again and muttered "Expelliarmus" and, as expected, the vampire tried to make a grab for its sword as it flew away. Realizing its cover was blown, he did some kind of back flip and landed on his feet, again taking a fighting position, as if readying himself for a martial arts showdown, Harry had to admire his determination, but he was just half-way up, he could use his wand and take him out for good, maybe throwing him down the side of the lift would do the job, but he wasn't that evil; sure, since losing the last person he considered family he didn't think he could go through life with stunners and disarmers, but that didn't mean he had to be unfair, did it?

He decided to take the high road, and threw the spear at the vampire's feet.

His helmet bobbed up and down as he turned between the spear on the ground and Harry's face. Harry just looked back for a while, and then grinned "Are you going to pick it up any time soon?" he asked pleasantly "Or do you want to do this in a more old style fashion?"

The vampire looked at him in what Harry guessed was confusion, so Harry, grin still in place, pocketed his wand and took a boxing stance like he had seen on some muggle movies, and said with a fake accent "Let's do this. Mano y mano, come on, bitch!" as he hopped on his place.

Harry was pretty sure that the vampire wouldn't kill him; he had spared his life twice now, and most magical creatures had some sense of honor.

He forgot that magical creatures could also be easily insulted .So he was quite surprised when the vampire lunged at him and before he could do more than blink, punched him in the gut.

As the air left his lungs, Harry began to feel stupid, for the umpteenth time that day. He stumbled a few steps back before he regained his footing and looked up; the vampire was just standing there, looking at him.

He just stayed there for a bit, hands on his knees, as he tried to regain his breath.

"Ouch." He muttered.

He chuckled a bit once he was mostly back to normal, "Good punch. I guess this wasn't my best idea." He took a deep breath and bent his knees slightly, bringing his arms up again. The vampire was fast and he was strong, but if he could dodge one punch, he could land at least one of his own.

The vampire lunged forward again and brought up his knee to Harry's stomach. Harry managed to sidestep to the left and duck below the backhand flying at his face. He took his shot as the vampire tried to put some distance between them and rose from his crouched position to jam his right fist upwards at his chin.

His vision was filled with a white light for a moment as he grit his teeth to try to keep himself from shouting out.

Note to self, never punch someone who is inside a suit of armor .Harry nursed his hand as he cursed out loud, his hand felt like he had just broke at least a couple of knuckles. He looked down to find the skin red and the beginning of a bruise on each one, little cuts and scrapes on a few.

"Definitely not my best idea." He growled "Fuck! That thing is hard!" He looked at the vampire when he heard him laughing. Make that a: her laughing.

"No fucking way…" Harry's uppercut had not only served to destroy his own knuckles, it had also lifted the helmet half way up the girl's face. He could tell it was a girl because of the delicate looking features of her face, and of course the pair of full, soft-looking lips.

She had thrown her head back and was laughing; Harry was surprised by the absence of fangs.

"Are you a vampire?" he asked her. Vampires were supposed to have fangs, but there was absolutely no way he was being beaten in a fist fight against a normal girl.

She stopped laughing, but kept smiling, as she took her helmet off, completely revealing her small nose, and violet eyes. Her shiny black hair reached perhaps half a foot below her shoulders. She looked like a teenager.

"No, I am just really fast and strong, and like to hang around in an underground vampire fortress, just for kicks, you know." Her voice almost dripped sarcasm, and her face turned serious.

"Don't forget jumping twenty feet into the air." He added with mock seriousness. After you got through the stone-cold… coldness… of her, you kind of had to like this girl.

"Oh, right. Yeah it's just something that runs in my family, along with the freak eyes, just your average girl." She replied, unable to keep the smile from her face.

"Your beautiful, average girl with the freakishly stunning eyes. If I may be so bold as to add." Harry corrected with a sly grin. He figured he had to make Sirius proud one way or another, and if that including flirting and taunting his way to death, then so mote it be.

The girl looked at him perplexed for a moment before bursting out laughing again. "You certainly are something else, flirting with your executioner." She said with mirth in her eyes.

"Aww. Come on baby, you wouldn't kill me, would you?" One week ago, Harry would have been blushing furiously by now, but the blood loss from the wound on his side was helping him remain pale, a bit paler than usual actually, but right now the objective was getting to the top of the tunnel and back to Hogwarts alive so he could get back to bed on his room and probably eat something. When was the last time he had eaten? He had no idea.

"You are cute. Too bad I have to mess up that pretty face of yours." The girl said as she returned to her fighting stance. It was hard to tell if she was joking or not because of her grin and her mirth-filled eyes.

"Are you insane?" he said in a pompous tone "There is no way I am hitting a lady such as yourself, I am a gentleman after all."

The girl was clearly enjoying herself as she walked over to the spear and threw it in air with one foot; she caught it and spun it quickly around her body as she turned to face Harry.

"Show-off" he said, as he drew his wand again. He held it at his side, not really wanting to fight, he had lost some blood and his side was really starting to hurt now.

"Shut up and come here." She said. That was it, he had to think of some, non-lethal way to get out of the situation presenting itself or risk it. His brain was frantic and his hands were perspirating in anticipation.

He smiled again when a light bulb flicked on inside his mind.

Harry did a deep bow, "Your wish, is my command." With eyes closed and his head still lowered, he lifted his wand on his right hand to point at the ceiling, and whispered "Lumos Maxima".

They were both swallowed by an intensely bright flash of white light for a second and he heard a small "Oww". As Harry opened his eyes and looked up. He saw the vampire girl take a step back, covering her eyes with one hand as the right held the spear to the side, tip aimed far at his left.

He dashed forward and pressed his body against hers, placing his left hand above her right to keep the spear from him and circled her body with his right arm between the arm covering her eyes and her torso, wand aimed at the back of her head.

She opened her eyes to find her face a small distance from his, she was struck speechless at the face of her defeat or at the sudden proximity, Harry wasn't sure. Because after biting her lower lip for a second, a look of determination made its way into her face and she grabbed his shoulder, staring intensely into his eyes.

And he found himself absorbed. Their clear purple depths, the pure white surrounding them, the thin dark rings on the edge of the violet circles.

There was nothing but her, no sound but her breathing, no smell but hers, nothing but her face inches from his, and her body pressed against him, he didn't even register that she was covered in a metal casing.

They stood like that for a short while, before the lift suddenly stopped, signifying their arrival at the topmost level.

Partially snapping out of the trance Harry had been in, he grinned slyly again. "Looks like I win." He said, before he did the kind of thing he thought Sirius would do in a situation like this.

He closed his eyes and leaned forward that one inch left, pressing his lips to hers.

He felt her sudden intake of breath and after a moment he heard her moan and felt her kiss him back. His head was filling up with all sorts of ideas of what two teenagers could do while alone in the middle of the floating elevator of a secret underground city as the spear clattered on the floor and her hand flew towards his messy mass of hair. But the metallic gauntlet tapping his head helped him he pushed them back, and touched his wand to the back of her head as he broke the kiss to quickly mutter "Stupefy".

The girl fell unconscious in his arms and he opened his eyes to find her with a peaceful look on her face and her eyes closed. He deposited her gently on the ground and walked out of the platform.

That had been weird. He had kissed before, only one girl but still, this had been in a completely different level. It was like, he had been completely transfixed by her presence and he wasn't able to think of anything but her, he was sure he had felt something similar to that once before, but he couldn't remember where.

And the kiss! That had been amazing, just a soft and simple brush had caused every nerve of him to stand on edge and relax at the same time, the sensation of his lips touching hers had been awesome, addictive and, for some reason... tingly.

He could feel something on the place her lips had touched his, pressure or heat or something, he couldn't explain it.

He was walking across the chamber without paying much attention to his surroundings when he heard something. The sound completely sent him from his happy thoughts to the cold and dark place he was in. It sounded like people crawling, with rather long nails on the stone floor.

He was beginning to get a bit scared; he couldn't see anything but himself and his immediate surroundings. Scrunching his eyes he saw things moving in the darkness, or more likely, a big mass of something moving in the darkness.

"Lumos!" he yelled and instantly regretted it. All around him, coming out of the tunnels on the walls, were what looked like zombie-vampires. Half rotten flesh covered most of their bodies, bones exposed on some areas, quickly crawling in a circle around him and on the walls.

He realized he had walked right into a trap, thinking of kisses and pleasant, tingly sensations while all around him these things lurked, just beyond his sight. And it bit at his concience that he had absentmindedly dug his own grave, and his grave this would be, if he was still suited for a coffin rather than a set of plastic bags; he wasn't so sure judging by the nightmarish abominations scraping and scratching the dusty stone in a circle around him that extended further away than the light from his wand reached.

He was panicking and he knew it.

Get your shit together ,Harry! Vampire weaknesses: sunlight, fire, and what was that other thing? Never mind, sunlight and fire, Hermione used sunlight in first year didn't she?, what was that spell?

He got a glimpse of the eyes of the creatures all around him, they were dead, but they were filled with raw emotion. There was rage, that was the most evident one, but it was not directed at him, burning, screaming, all consuming fury shone through their undead eyes. They were bloodshot and they looked like they had remained open for far too long, layers on some parts had apparently dried off, leaving a rotten... mass... behind.

But it was not directed at him.

The reason was perhaps the unimaginable pain Harry could see in those eyes. And the most disturbing part was that it was just there, brutally chained down by some sort of magic, with no direction but itself, twisting madly into a terrifying vortex, all contained in those never-blinking eyes.

It scared the shit out of Harry.

He pitied these things with a passion, but their increasing numbers and the sight of the gate on the other side made sealed his determination. He shut his eyes and concentrated.

Okay, second best thing: fire."Incendio!" he screamed, moving his wand in a circle above his body. The spell, fueled by panic, turned his wand into an effective flame-thrower, and the fire created a circle around him.

The creatures were blasted back and some were scorched by the power behind the spell, Harry began running for the door, never interrupting the circular motion of his wand. He was almost there now.

All around him, the creatures were leaping at him, some getting blasted by the fire, some being dodged by him, still, every once in a while one would get a lucky shot and it's claws would cut wherever they reached. He saw one of them drop right in front of him and he broke the circle to point his wand at it. "Reducto!" the spell hit the thing with such force that it was split into two pieces, its legs were driven by its previous momentum but when hit by the spell, they twirled in the air and flew behind Harry. The upper half of its body was flung forward into the darkness.

He began his fiery ring again and he had taken two steps forward when he felt something cold and sharp scratch the back of his neck. He jumped forward in wild abandon as he pointed his wand over his shoulder for a moment to incinerate whatever had been behind him, and as he turned on the spot to look at what it was, he felt a number of cold, sharp, pointy things sink into his left ankle.

He let out a pained yelp as he looked down and found the upper body of the one he had blasted a second ago latched onto his leg as if it would save his life, its fangs buried into the flesh of his leg, blood seeping through its teeth and staining his jeans.

Blocking out what Harry was almost sure this meant, he pointed his wand at its head, "REDUCTO!" he roared. The abomination at his feet was blasted straight into Hell, his cranium imploding on itself then exploding becoming nothing more than a disgusting mass of rotting gore and a stain on everything ten feet from them. Blood and gore splattered him and he resisted the small urge to vomit.

He had been bitten by a vampire.

He knew what that meant, he would turn.

It was over.

No. This things were not vampires, they were corpses, inferi perhaps, but not vampires.

Another one dropped and Harry pointed his wand at it and failed to notice how it was blasted apart without him muttering an incantation or a spell leave his wand. These could not be vampires, but if they weren't, why was his leg on fire? Why did his leg feel like it was burning from the inside?

It was just some kind poison, it had to be.

The bite must have had cut his tendon, and standing on it was ridiculously painful, yeah, that was it.

He was almost at the gate when he was brought out of his mind by a stabbing pain in his right arm.

He looked down and he saw another creature, no, another one of the inferi, with its pointy teeth stuck to his wrist.

He looked around, the place was crawling with them, he had to do something quick or he would die. Curious how last time he had been certain he was about to die he had felt so ready to go, almost anxious to get to the other side, and now, he was desperately thinking back to his first year.

The creatures stopped. The one in his arm released him, and stepped back. Harry fell to his knees as his leg gave out.

He lay there for a minute, breathing hard and clutching his leg with his uninjured hand. Pushing the small hamster in the running wheel to its limit as he tried to comprehend what was going on and how he was going to get past the still-growing walls of dead meat all around him.

There was clapping coming from behind him, and the scratching of nails on ancient stone stopped at once.

"Bravo! Bravo!" an irritatingly amused voice spoke from the shadows "What an impressive display! I particularly enjoyed it when you so mercilessly executed the one on your leg, truly, a dramatic moment, I could literally feel the emotions!"

He was about to turn around and raise his wand, spell rolling from the tip of his tongue, when he felt someone step on his left ankle, rather hard. He couldn't hold back the grunt of pain that left his throat as the fire in his leg turned into white hot needles piercing his skin.

"You just don't give up, do you?" the voice behind him half asked, half taunted.

"It doesn't seem to fit me." Harry responded in a gruff voice, his throat was dry as dust and the burning pain from the bites was starting to flow into the rest of his body. He had to do something fast.

"Didn't your master mention something like, do not kill the guy who has just saved all our lives?" he asked the ungrateful vampire standing behind him.

"Yes, you caused quite a racket down there. But no human can leave this place, not one has in almost two centuries, and that is a rule I will not allow be violated." Harry considering making a cheeky comment of exactly what he would allow be violated; but then realized the meaning of the statement.

"Such a pity it was that I was not able to get here in time to stop my creations from tearing you into so many little shreds." He said with mock regret.

"But before that, it has been a while since I've had a proper snack." Then he felt someone pull his head back roughly by the hair and bite into his neck.

That did it, if he had doubted a second ago; he had now been bitten by an official vampire now.

He raised his wand over his shoulder until he felt it connect with what he hoped was someone's throat and gurgled, very unclearly "Reducto!"

He was rewarded with a shower of blood on his hair, neck, upper back and the side of his face as well as his right arm.

And of course the head that landed in the space in front of him.

He raised his wand and again gurgled, "Lumos Solem!" Bright, warm sunlight filled the room along with a hundred shrieks of pain from a hundred creeping creatures around him.

He kept the spell up as he rose shakily and pulled the door open as he stepped through; dropping it once he closed it behind him.

He was at the old church again. He needed to get back, he needed to get to Hogwarts before he bled out, and with the punctures all around him, he very much doubted that he had a long time before it happened.

Still, one didn't get to where he was right now by giving up or listening to the odds, no, you got here on being reckless and stubborn, and one hell of a lot of luck.

He had to get himself to the Leaky Cauldron, and before he knew it, he took a step forward and felt like he had fallen down a narrow tube, his surroundings disappeared from around him where they belonged. He crashed onto a woman with blue hair which quickly turned white as she was starled and then recognized him, shouting for help.

She handled him with care as they slowly dropped to the wooden floor and she muttered reassurances, promises of incoming aid and brighter days to come. Or at least that was what Harry imagined she was doing, as his vision was darkening and his focus slipped from between his fingers.

And then he was out like a light.