With their individual missions completed, the regroup at Grimmauld Place commenced at nine o' clock where they exchanged their success stories.

Vladmiran reported that the Vampires of the Difforg clan were being stowed safely with their own kind, who currently lay in wait for news of the summoning, "as soon as word reaches them, they can be at the site instantly. The British Vampires will take longer to arrive," he said.

"My Aurors will all be here by midnight," Alexa reported, her arms folded across her chest, "they will be able to sense any disturbance caused by the portal and will be there moments after reaching our airspace. I will not know precise numbers until they arrive, for now it could be three or thirty."

"That is well, considering the Chimeras will be summoned at midnight," Serenna interjected, "the hunter didn't know where."

"Is he dead?" Alexa asked, to which her sister-Vampire nodded, "good, that will return our element of surprise. I will study the Map some more. It should show the portal's location. Any dimensional disturbance will be impossible to hide. We'll be out to battle soon enough."

So, their waiting game began.

An uneasy silence descended on the Order of the Phoenix as everyone waited with baited breath for the call into action. The musty old clock in the hallway counted down every minute unbearably loudly, chiming out the hours before midnight.

Ten o' clock came and went, and still Alexa stared into the swirling depths of the Field Map, its caeruleum glow stinging her eyes as she sat in the darkness.

But the mystical Map told her nothing. The focal points shone clear and true, but this time she didn't want to know where they were. The atmosphere was irritatingly clear, almost peaceful.

With a growl of impatience, she swept the crystal off her desk, letting it thud onto the floor as it emitted an indignant wail of irritation. She buried her head in her hands and stared into the dark crevices of her fingers, searching her tired, muggy brain for something she could possibly have missed.

Her fingers clenched and unclenched and her skin began to dampen as a cold sweat descended over her. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps and her heart fluttered wildly in her chest.

She could feel the pangs of hunger beginning to gnaw at her again, more powerful than before and more difficult to ignore. Her eardrums echoed with the sound of many beating hearts, saliva swamping her mouth as she imagined the units of fresh, sweet plasma going to waste in their worthless, inferior bodies.

Stop it! her inner voice screamed at her, this isn't you!

However hard she tried to block the taunting sounds of human life from her ears, the worse her cravings became. She wanted to snap their necks, twist their arrogant, self-important heads off their shoulders and suck out their blood until they were nothing but dried-up husks, a shadow of their former selves.

Her hands began to tremble and she grew faint as she battled with her inner self. Then a new scent engulfed her nostrils, one that was sweet and pure and untainted. It drove her to dizzying heights and also made her descend into torment. This blood was innocent and uncorrupted, someone who existed outside Alexa's natural food of choice. It belonged to a virgin - the epitome of innocence.

Alexa sniffed hungrily at the air, her eyes darting about the room as she searched for the source. The girl was close, no more than two miles away. The scent was too strong to be any further. Sixteen and perfectly aged.

The hunting instincts within quickly consumed her, transforming into the pangs of starvation. Doubled up in agony, Alexa waited as the invisible knives being stabbed into her gut retracted.

Her instincts were screaming in her ears, feeding her all the information she needed, but they were more powerful than anything she had ever experienced.

During a recreational hunt, Alexa could chose her target freely based on the grade of wickedness, but everything that she was taunted her, commanding her to go after this fresh, new blood and leaving her no room for contradiction.

She tried to battle from the brink of corruption, her weakening mental voice trying to convince her that she could fight these new cravings, but that voice was eventually lost in the deafening midst of her new and persuasive inclinations.

She felt the demonic hormones steadily consume her normal self, plunging her soul into darkness. Alexa felt as if she was falling and spinning into oblivion but could do nothing to stop herself. Eventually, the darkness corrupted her essence.

Very slowly, she raised to a standing position, her eyes glistening manically as the evil thoughts bathed her renewed and pain-free mind.

She did a twirl on the spot, revelling in how energised she felt. Her limbs were bubbling and twitching with anticipation, her magic more responsive than ever.

Whatever pain that was left behind from the poison spores was gone and she was as sadistically happy as she had ever been.

As Alexa marvelled at her sudden transition, she felt her belly give a great grumble that seemed to echo about the room. She patted it, as if it were a baby gestating, and gave a frown,

"Hungry," she muttered with a theatrical sigh, "and cooking is out of the question."

She moved over to the desk and tipped the contents of the drawers onto the floor, searching through the papers, "how could I possible have survived without the most basic torture equipment?" She heaved another sigh and gazed out of the window, looking casually down at her belly, "it looks like it's take-out for you. Now, where will we find a decent meal?"

A low knock appeared from the door, which creaked open to reveal Harry, a stupid, hollow grin on his face,

"Hey," he said cheerily in a voice that sliced through her nerves and turned her stomach on its head. The sentimentality was enough to make her vomit.

"I said a decent meal," Alexa muttered with a roll of her eyes, "consumed with misery and grief. You wouldn't fill me for an hour."

Harry frowned, "what?" he asked, picking up on her dangerous mood.

Alexa took a step towards him with a too-confident swagger, "what?" she barked in a mocking tone, "can't you figure anything out for yourself, or do you need precious Dumbledore to tell you what to think of how to breathe?"

Harry opened his mouth in shock, grasping for words that never came. Her eyes were red instead of emerald and her whole manner had transformed.

The confidence was coming off her in waves, but it no longer consisted of the energy she used to project. She was so sure of herself and the words that spilled from her mouth were pure poison,

"What's happened to you?" he asked as she twirled a lock of hair in disinterest, "this isn't you. It's the Vampire within trying to take control again."

She let out a single laugh, "or could it be that this is me, just a version that is sick of your lost-boy crap?" she snarled, "I mean, how many times can one person blame the death of his parents for every little tantrum and every inferiority complex when you're just simply inferior?"

Harry battled against the tears that sprung to his eyes as her cruel barbs cut into his hide, disturbed and hurt that she would say such awful things, especially after their little tender moment.

He tried to convince himself that it was as he'd said, and it was her Vampire side talking, but it was still Alexa, "how could you say that after we...?"

"That little lip-lock?" she scoffed, "grow up, Harry. You honestly think that I could be moved by a schoolboy? And a weeping, dripping one at that? No, I just gave you a taste of what you would never have."

"I can't believe you could be so cruel," he mumbled, his eyes cast down.

"Hello, Vampire!" she exclaimed, flinging her hands out in emphasis, "or is your IQ too low to understand a word longer than four letters?"

"Alexa..."

"Good, good boy!" she interrupted cruelly with an evil grin, "at least you've grasped the concept of proper nouns. Be careful your head doesn't explode."

"Stop it!" he shrieked in exasperation, unable to withstand her evil remarks. He covered his ears with his hands to try and block out her laughter, each peel a knife in his heart, "why are you being like this? You aren't the Alexa I know!"

"Maybe you just never knew me," she hissed wickedly, "if it bothers you so much go and whine to someone who will pretend not to ignore you. Silly little immature Harry Potter, attention-seeking again because he has no one left in the world to love him. You think you're something special because of that scar, don't you? The great Harry Potter always knows best. But all you are is a foolish, spoiled brat who has been given more attention than he's worth, and all because mummy and daddy are rotting in their graves."

Instead of dissolving into a fit of woe as he really wanted to, Harry managed to filter some strength from her cruel monologue, seeing the creature before him for what it was,

"Now I know you aren't her," he said in a voice wrapped in iron, "my Alexa would never speak of my parents - her friends - that way."

She let out a blood-curdling laugh, "you presume to call me 'yours'? How small-town you are, it's almost funny. As I recall, you never had me at all."

"Maybe not, but I was close to Alexa. I know Alexa and you aren't her. You aren't even her Vampire side."

As he continued, he noticed the red in her eyes beginning to flicker and fade, letting more of the emerald shine through. She grew confused, looking around at the mess on the floor and then squarely at him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, brow furrowed as her shoulders began to sag, "what happened?"

"Alexa, I think you are possessed by something evil," Harry said, "we need to get you to Dumbledore. He may be able to help." He tried to take her arm but she pulled away from him.

She shook her head, "don't be ridiculous, I have work to do. But first I need something to eat."

As Alexa tried to move towards the window, Harry pulled her back but she was the more forceful, "no, no food yet. Talk to Dumbledore and then eat."

A part of her wanted to do what Harry said - a part that was telling her it was imperative - but the strong scent of an easy kill lingered in her nostrils.

She was half starved. How could she expect to fight the Chimeras and Voldemort's forces with such an empty stomach?

"This won't take long," she muttered in a distant, almost trance-like voice, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the window and the voices of night yearning for her to come out and dance with them, "I'll be back before they even know I'm gone."

"Alexa no!" Harry shouted, "something is taking you over. You said such horrible things. Something is gravely wrong. We have to do something!"

Never once looking away from the window, she pulled him towards her and then flung him away like a rag doll before disapparating in a shower of bright sparks.

Harry slammed into the wall and fell in a crumpled heap on the floor. He felt the back of his head with a trembling hand but never found the part that had smashed against the brick. A haze of darkness descended over his eyes and he fell into unconscious rest.

The confused, starving Vampire exited the tunnel of apparation in a once-busy London street in front of a dingy looking café.

It was pitch black apart from the glowing street lamps casting a warm, orange channel of light on the paths flanking the deserted road.

The maddening smell of meat was strongest here and Alexa's belly gave a great gurgle of affirmation. Her insides began to cramp painfully as if two invisible hands were crushing her systems together.

Her hunting instincts were dazed and spinning in circles, dizzying her mind to any form of sense.

As the door to the café opened, she heard a low click of a light switch and the shop window grew dark as the girl - a pearlescent, blonde creature - closed the door and locked it with a flick of her wrist. She was the prey tonight.

Alexa followed the glowing young girl from the shadows, keeping out of sight. But the girl was too consumed with an envelope in her hand. She rustled through the contents and the musty smell of the Mint hit the Vampire hard in the face.

Alexa smile to herself in amusement. The girl was too interested in money to sense that she was being stalked, and from her adrenaline levels it was clear that she was still far away from home.

Coupled with her insatiable hunger, the girl was then a perfect banquet for a Vampire whose direction was lost. Alexa was held in a trance by the innocent magic radiating from her prey, a trance that blinded her instincts to the wrongness of the hunt and gave life to her cravings, so that when the girl turned down a dark cul-de-sac, she had no inhibitions and was lost to the thrill of an impending kill.

She turned the corner shortly after and called out, stopping the girl just before she exited the dark path and emerged into a great pool of light, "excuse me!"

The girl turned very slowly, the sudden voice setting her nerves on edge. Her heartbeat increased rapidly when Alexa remained in the shadow and the Vampire's sharp ears detected the silvery tingle of adrenaline secretion into the blood that she desperately craved.

"Yes?" the girl called, "who are you?"

"I was just wondering if you could help me?" Alexa said and then launched herself through the air, colliding with the helpless creature and pushing her backwards into the wall, "that is, help satisfy my hunger."

Her human features morphed into her repulsive Vampire face, her eyes large and sparkling red in her skull and her teeth descending, glistening and sharp.

The pale creature in her grasp was too horrified to utter a sound, the money that had once seemed so important now discarded on the alley floor. The true value of her life was illuminated, but the shock silenced her.

Alexa dragged her prey into the waiting pools of darkness and held her fast to the cold wall, gripping her by the shoulders tightly with great folds of loose clothing clutched in her fists.

The girl's heart raced in her chest, delivering fresh plasma to the body that had only moments to live, the beautiful, fat vein in her neck pulsing as blood coursed through it.

A tiny, almost insignificant whimper reached Alexa's ears, but her instincts had dominated, blinding her and making her single-minded.

Very precisely, she lowered her mouth to the velvet flesh and touched her teeth to the region directly above the vein. She could feel the pulse vibrate through the enamel like a homing signal.

Knowing that she was on target, with a single, sticky exhale, Alexa bit down, her two fangs puncturing the flawless skin and piercing the throbbing vessel.

The girl gave a strangled sob as she felt her life being sucked away and squeezed her eyes shut, a single tear leaving a lonely track on her cheek as the Vampire fed.

Very slowly, she was lulled into her eternal rest, bathing in a sea of euphoria from oxygen deprivation. Her pain faded and then all she could feel was sinking.

Whole units of sweet nectar bathed Alexa's tongue as she drank desperately, not wanting to detach until every drop was filling her stomach with warm satisfaction.

She could feel her victim's heart slowing steadily before the mighty organ ceased to function. The golden wisps of the soul evaporated on the cool night breeze and the corpse became heavy in her grip.

Only when she was sure that there was nothing left to waste did she detach her disgusting teeth with a distant click. Letting go her hold on the barren shoulders, all that was left of the girl fell to rest on the cold pavement.

Invigorated, with energy coursing through her trembling hands, the Vampire stood back and surveyed the remnants of her banquet. The pretty face that was frozen in the Earth's memory forever and the healthy body, born from flesh to nourish the flesh. She was too perfect for a world that was so dark and unkind.

Just as she was revelling in the satisfaction of a nourished stomach, a sudden stab to her insides took her by surprise, and she clutched her chest as a burning fire radiated out from her stomach.

Terrified of the sudden agony, she looked around for an assailant but the alley was deserted. The pain grew in intensity until it had her on her knees next to her victim, eyes sunken in their sockets. She was forced then to see what she had done in the purity of her agony.

Alexa realised in a flash what her cravings had driven her to as, even in death, she saw the innocence that she had ingested and in that instant, all evil within disappeared, allowing her to realise her deepest mistake.

"No!" she gasped as another stab drove through her. Ingesting virginity was all-consuming.

"Yes, yes," a hissing snarl sliced through the air, "embrace your darkness. Welcome it. You cannot fight."

Alexa strained to look up from her writhing position on the pavement and watched as the ghostly white face of Lord Voldemort appeared out of a black mist that gathered around his body,

"You?" she gasped, trying desperately to hold on to the humanity that was slipping away.

Voldemort gave her a lipless smirk, baring pointed teeth and a charcoal black mouth, "I knew that you wouldn't be able to resist virgin blood when craving it. That was why I had to make you aware of it."

"That was you?" she said in a choked voice, "everything that I've done? Everything that I've wanted to do to my friends was because of you?"

He nodded and began to circle her damaged body like a vulture surveying a fresh carcass, "my attack on Transylvania served another purpose. The Vampire Library of Past proved most enlightening on the subject of the Highs - which you are one of. A drop of virgin blood will make them pliable, but I would never dare imagine what an entire virgin would do to one of ultimate Vampiric goodness. Also, imagine my surprise when I happened upon an ancient spell that can awaken the deadly cravings of a Vampire. Of course it had to be tested and Hogwarts seemed the best target."

"When Professor Sprout found me," she said, fighting for breath as her body began to convulse violently, "then it was you who made me want to attack Ginny and Harry?"

"What I underestimated was your will, so I targeted this Muggle. Your will failed you, Alexa."

"I will never give in to you," she growled, coughing uncontrollably.

"You have no choice. You must give in or die trying. And dying is not an option for me. I need to ensure your continued life and this is the only way I can be sure."

"I would rather..." she gasped, but was suddenly stripped of her tongue as a great wave cascaded around her. It was oddly liberating, but it was all false.

Another convulsion tore through her, but instead of crying she laughed. How beautiful pain was, tickling the body with its green fire and slicing channels through muscles to allow the dark thrills of pleasure to escape.

The last thread that kept her mind in her possession snapped and she lingered languorously in the crashing tides of exhilarating agony.

Her laughs became stronger and the beautiful, black natures of evil consumed her.

"Pain. My old friend. How I've missed you."

She hugged herself around the belly, an expression of pure abandon lighting her face with darkness.

Her hair was tangled with sweat as she stood up and maintained an asymmetrical stance, leaning slightly back over her left hip and grinning malevolently through the strands that were splayed across her face.

Her clothes dissolved, smoking as if set alight by invisible flames. Her magic conjured a new outfit as the other faded; a tight black corset, shoulder high velvet gloves and skin-tight charcoal trousers that skimmed over six-inch heels.

Alexa sensually caressed the costume as Voldemort looked her over with an approving eye.

"How does that feel?" he growled fiercely, sweeping over to her with a flick of his thin robes.

"Much, much better. Pain is nature's cleanser and I am now awake and hungry for war."

"All in good time," he replied with a grin, "you will be able to punish your oppressors soon enough. What of the boy?"

Her smile faded, "the little insect lusting after the Goddess? He will learn the true nature of my power when he finds his life in my hands. His fate will be sealed with the kiss he so desperately desires."

"How fitting," Voldemort laughed, "to be killed by the one he loves."

Alexa shrugged and smirked, her eyes gleaming with ill-intent, "all poetry is written in the blood of the loved. He will never remember love once tonight is done."

Laughing in unison, the evil peels echoing down the alley, Voldemort and Alexa Flock turned and began their walk into oblivion, fading into the black mist that carried them away.