Angela Weber and The Half Vampire of Hogwarts

Angela Weber and The Half Vampire of Hogwarts

Chapter 7: The Black Family

It was the night before Saturday.

"Angela!" Theo waved me over to where he and a couple other students stood at the mouth of an empty hallway.

"Yes, Theo?" I asked looking warily at his friends. There were three of them. Two were boys and one was a girl. One boy was a third year from Gryffindor, the girl was a first year from Hufflepuff, and the other boy was a fourth year from Slytherin. Their names were Ethan Cook, Derek Aaronson, and Miranda Jones.

"These are my friends Ethan, Derek, and Mira." he gestured to each of them. They all looked surprisingly similar. They each had the same light skin that wasn't far from Bella's skin, and they all had the same smooth black hair. Their eyes were variant shades of green.

"Hello." I greeted them.

"We'd like to show you something." Theo told me. I stared waiting for him to explain, but instead he guided me to a door concealed behind a curtain. He unlocked the door with a small silver key and pushed me inside.

Inside the room was a long rectangular library looking place. There was a raised platform in the center of the room. For every two bookshelves there was a desk.

"What is this?" I asked confused.

"This is the Black Room." Theo answered, "It was built after the Black family donated a bunch of money to the school."

"Why do you have the key to it?" I asked at once.

"Ethan, Derek, and Mira are all descendants from the Black family." he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Really?" I was shocked. This meant they were all related to Sirius Black somehow. Sirius Black – the escaped convict.

"The Black family extends all over the world." Miranda – I mean Mira – explained, "I think there's even some in your town, what's it call Spoons?"

"Forks." Theo corrected.

"Whatever." Mira shrugged.

"The Black family? Forks?" I stuttered. Jacob Black.

"You mentioned there was a pack of animagus in La Push," Theo said, "Animagus-ness runs in the Black family. Ethan, Derek, and Mira are all animagus."

"Really?" I looked the up and down searching for some kind of change. Theo nodded in reply.

"What do you change into?" I asked, curious now.

"How about a demonstration?" Theo suggested. Ethan's face lightened. He seemed pleased at the chance to show off.

"Sure." I agreed quickly.

"Me first. Me first." Ethan shoved Derek out of the way and elbowed Mira playfully as he made his way to the platform. "Three... Two... One!" he clapped his hands together and suddenly he was a gigantic bear. It was a wonder how he could still stand on the small stage when he was so big. He clapped his huge furry paws together dramatically and was a young boy again.

"Derek?" Theo gestured to the stage. He shrugged and stepped up. He didn't try to put on a show. One moment he was himself and then he'd shrunk into a fox, but not just a fox – a two-tailed fox – which were magical foxes that can breathe fire.

"Fascinating." I breathed as Derek took his human form again and leapt off the platform.

"You're turn Mira," Theo pointed out. She didn't even bother to go to the stage. She just sighed exasperatedly and became a huge black panther. Its sleek fur looked soft and wonderful. I smiled at her, and she quickly became a humanoid again.

"Amazing." I whispered.

"It is impressive." Theo agreed. Then something occurred to me.

"When you're in you're animal forms can you hear each other's thoughts?" I asked. I remembered Jacob and his pack could do that.

"Yes, actually. They are technically a pack." Theo answered for the others.

"Amazing." I repeated, "How did you all meet?" I wondered if they knew Theo was half-vampire.

"Uh..." Theo hesitated, "Well, I was... um... hunting when I came across Ethan's scent. He'd transformed into a bear and gone running... Well the scent was that of a bear, but more human." he hesitated again, "It smelled tasty." he looked down with shame as he admitted this, "I ran after him. But when I got close I realized the scent was too human. I stopped myself from hunting just in time. Ethan had seen me and changed back. It was easier to stop myself when I saw he was human. But, of course he'd seen enough that I had to explain. We became friends after that." Theo smiled, "But this was all before I ever went to Hogwarts. Once I came to here Ethan introduced me to his very distant relatives."

"Wow." I commented. I looked around, "So are you like a club or something?" I wondered.

"Sort of." Theo answered. Then he sighed, "I guess we should explain." He pulled up a chair for me and then a chair for himself. The others followed suit.

"My father isn't a good vampire, Angela, he's not even a vegetarian. I still don't know how a wonderful person like my mother had fallen in love with such garbage," he shook his head in disbelief, "My father wasn't too happy when I left him to go to Hogwarts. My father is a rich and powerful vampire. He controls a cult of his own, and the Volturi leaves him alone because he's sort of part of them. He and his cult are like a miniscule free-lance Volturi in some ways. Only he doesn't give out punishments to rule-breakers or any of that, no, he only conquests other vampires and makes certain human cities his own so that he can feast."

"But when you talked about your mother... and you said your father talked about her all the time, and..." I was confused. I hadn't assumed Theo's father was some kind of second Carlisle, but I hadn't thought of him as evil.

"My mother was the only thing he's ever felt any amount of compassion for. I don't think I'll ever understand love for as long as I live, and I'm immortal."

"Not quite immortal, yet. Stupid." Mira sneered.

"I will be soon, only four or five more years and I'll stop aging permanently."

"Whatever." Mira shrugged as if she hadn't cared in the first place.

"Wait, does the Volturi know about half-vampires?" I asked, if they did wouldn't they already be putting together an army of half-vampires, or possibly already have one?

"No, my father kept me a secret from everyone except the main people in his little 'Empire'. He used to call me his ultimate weapon. He'd had dreamed of me becoming just like him so that he could someday rule the world. He wanted to over throw the Volturi and take everything for himself. He's the reincarnation of selfishness." Wow. I hadn't thought about Theo's relationship with his father until now. He must really hate him. I put my arm around his shoulders.

"But you're not." I whispered. I the others could probably hear, but I didn't care. Theo sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. You keep telling me that." he rolled his eyes.

"You never really answered my question." I said, serious again.

"Oh... well... since my dad's all pissed at me and Hogwarts, we decided it was best to come together as – well – protectors of the school. Especially since Sirius Black is on the loose, there's a werewolf prowling the halls as a professor, and my dad is formulating plans to ransack the school, we thought it would be best for all involved if we got together to keep watch.

"We're not doing a very good job." Derek interjected, "We already let Sirius slip right past us! Did you see that toga lady? She was practically torn to bits!"

"...Do you know how that happened?" I asked.

"No, of course not!" Mira's said with biting sarcasm, "Because it's not possible at all the Sirius is an animagus like the rest of us!"

"Oh!" was all I could say. That took me by surprise. None of the news articles that mentioned him had ever said a word about animagus-ness.

"Well, no one, but the Black family could know." Theo said quickly, "The Black family likes to keep it on the down-low," then he glared around him, "for not entirely good reasons."

"Nobody's perfect." Derek shrugged.

"Especially not you!" Ethan laughed; everyone – even Mira – joined in, except Derek. I jumped with shock when I saw Derek smash Ethan nose into his head. Blood started dripping down. I screamed and tried to hold Theo down while I started to get up to take Ethan to Madame Pomfrey.

"Angela, it's okay. They heal very quickly." Theo said, I blinked at him, and then turned back to Ethan. He was straightening his nose – already the blood had stopped flowing. I looked back a Theo who was glaring at Derek. I could just imagine what he was thing "Thanks a lot Derek. That was certainly a first impression I wanted her to have!" I laughed a loud. That was exactly what Theo would say – except he'd probably swear somewhere in there.

"Not that I'm not glad you introduced me to your friends, Theo, but why did you introduce us?" I wondered.

"Professor Weber." it was Mira who was speaking, "Theo's father is closing in on Hogwarts. He and his army might not know exactly where it is, but they do know its in England, and they've narrowed the possibilities down. They're getting closer and closer as we speak. We all need to be prepared, and we want you to help us. None of us have very much magical knowledge, and that'll be our greatest weapon against these dark creatures of evil and undead. Er... No offense Theo." she glanced apologetically towards him. How strangely out of character. In my classes and around school she was always apathetic. Perhaps she cared more than she let on. That would explain why she's in Hufflepuff. The sorting hat always chose correctly.

"Why me? Have you alerted Dumbledore or anyone else?" I asked.

"Everyone else is busy with concern over Sirius Black who is currently rampaging around the school as who knows what. For all we know he can turn into an owl! Plus you're the only person who knows Theo's secret, isn't obsessed with some other thing that's going on, and has a completely valid excuse to be around all of us all the time!" Derek shouted at me. It seemed very obvious when he put it like that. I jumped up excited now.

"So what are we waiting for!" I demanded, "Let's go! It seems there's no time to waste." I grabbed Theo's shoulder with one hand, and caught Derek's arm. Ethan was just as ecstatic as I was and started pushing Mira – forcing her to follow me.

I led them to the Enchanted Forest, which – for months after that – was our training grounds for what would be the defining battle of our lives.