Disclaimer: Props to the author/mangaka of Harry Potter and Vampire Knight. No props to me.
I kind of liked Yukio from chapter 9, so I thought about bringing him into the story later. However, I am hesitant to insert my own character...I don't usually care much for OCs in stories. If I do insert him somewhere along the line, he might just become a day student at the academy...or he could get turned into a vampire as well (maybe by the same guy who turned Harry?). Tell me what your opinion is. To insert, or not to insert...that is the question!
Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful reviews. I love having your encouragement, even if it is only to tell me to write another chapter!
Harry leaned forward against the wrought iron gate, pressing his forehead on its cool, metal bars. He growled in frustration as he slid down to sit in front of the closed entrance.
I really don't want to break in...then the headmaster definitely wouldn't want to help me, Harry thought. Harry considered his options. Well, there was really only one thing to do, in Harry's mind.
"Guess I'll just have to wait here until someone comes to unlock the gates in the morning," Harry groaned out. He really didn't like the idea of waiting that long.
"At least I'll have some spare time to let my magic restore itself," he stated dryly. With a low growl, he resigned himself to the long wait.
He had only been sitting there for thirty minutes when his wounds began to act up again. His act of sitting stationary for this long had caused the muscles in his body to become extremely sore. "Ugh..." he moaned loudly as he shifted in his spot.
His vampire-enhanced hearing suddenly picked up the sound of a twig snapping somewhere deep in the wooded area inside the gate, and Harry sat up straight, groaning in pain as his wounds were jarred by the quick motion. He stared intently at the line of trees, hoping to catch some movement.
Maybe I can find someone to let me inside, he hoped.
Two minutes later, and his roving eyes spotted something moving through the trees. He caught a better glimpse as the figure stepped into a patch of moonlight between two trees. Definitely human, Harry surmised. A girl, I think. Come on, come this direction!
Finally, a young girl emerged from the wooded area about twenty feet in front of him. He could see her clearly now. She had a petite figure, with a light skin tone and dark brown hair that brushed her shoulders in a messy layer cut. She also wore a dark colored uniform, made to look pleasant to the eye and flatter the wearer. A student then, Harry figured. He continued his perusal of the girl, noticing the fighting stick in her hand and the band on her upper arm. It had a Japanese character emblazoned on the white fabric, something about a disciplinary committee? A student with some type of authority, then, Harry thought. Just what I need. This might just be my ticket inside!
"Um...excuse me!" Harry called out politely, but in a carrying tone.
He wanted to make sure she could hear him, but he didn't want to scare her away, after all. She glanced over at the gate, looking confused until she spotted Harry sitting on the ground. The young girl wasted no time in walking over to Harry. Harry could see the tensing of her shoulders and the wary look in her reddish-brown eyes.
She stopped abruptly two feet away from the gate in front of Harry, clutching her wooden stick at her side as if ready to use it if he made any threatening moves.
"Yes? What can I help you with?" she questioned in a firm voice.
It was kind of intimidating, her mahogany eyes staring down into his. Harry didn't like being looked down upon, so he slowly got to his feet, one hand pushing his aching body upward as the other wrapped around his waist. His tired muscles and wounds protested the movement, and Harry couldn't help but let out a pained moan. After what felt like forever, he straightened his spine and stood at his full height of five foot three, letting a rush of air whisper past his gritted teeth.
He looked into the girl's face, noticing that he was actually about an inch shorter than the petite girl. She studied Harry's appearance--his messy, shoulder length black hair, his loose three-quarter length green shirt, the black slacks that accentuated his small waist and slightly curvy hips.
The girl sucked in a small breath of air as her eyes finally met Harry's sparkling emerald ones. She had probably never seen eyes such a color. He had to admit that his eyes were pretty strange looking, even for green eyes. They tended to sparkle brightly at any time, but in the night, they seemed to have an unnatural shine, like he was some kind of animal.
She released a shaky breath, then steeled herself.
"Well? What business do you have with Cross Academy?" she asked hesitantly, her gaze flickering away quickly whenever she looked into his eerie eyes.
Harry looked down, hoping to settle her nerves by not making direct eye contact with her since his eyes seemed to unsettle her so much.
"Sorry for arriving so late, but I need to speak with the headmaster immediately. It is very important that I meet with him," Harry entreated.
"I'm sorry, but the gates are supposed to remain closed at night. You can come back later in the morning. The gates open at 6:30 A.M., and there's a town just a little way back in that direction," she said, pointing a finger to the west.
"But I really must speak with him. I don't have much time! I need to ask him about something..." Harry pleaded in an urgent voice, waving his arms around slightly in his agitation, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. He could already feel the thirst for blood coming back, and this time he didn't have enough magic to control it completely.
"Please..." he stressed. "I really need to see him! It won't take long! Please let me in..."
She looked hesitant, like she might have been considering letting him in.
"Please..." he pleaded with her, his eyes shining with unshed tears, desperate.
She shifted from one foot to the other, unsure.
"I really need to see him," he whispered, head down and his hair shielding his forlorn face.
She sighed, shuffling a hand around in her skirt pocket and pulling out a small ring of keys. She inserted one of the keys into the lock on the gate. It gave a low click, and the lock came undone. The girl removed the chain from the bars and opened the gate slightly, stepping aside to let him pass through.
"All right," she sighed. "But I'll have to escort you there. And no funny business...got it?"
"Yes," Harry replied, grateful she was going to give him a chance. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me..."
He quickly slid through the opening and shuffled past her, stopping beside her and waiting patiently as she relocked the entrance. She turned to him before beginning to walk past, saying, "Come on. Follow me."
As she passed by him, Harry caught a whiff of her scent, and his bloodthirst rose suddenly. He jerked his head away in the opposite direction, hoping to calm the call for blood, but his sharp movement caused the wound on his left collarbone to reopen. He let out a sharp cry as it burned relentlessly, his right arm coming up automatically to clamp over the gash.
The girl rushed over to his side, her hands coming up to pet across his arms and shoulders, trying to sooth him.
"What's wrong?" she worriedly asked, her eyes widening in fright. Her hands let go of his shoulders, only to flutter uselessly in the air as she panicked over him.
Harry groaned, his pain-filled eyes glancing up into her worried ones.
"It's nothing," Harry ground out. "I hurt myself earlier today, but it's not too bad. I can heal myself, but it's more important that I see the headmaster."
"All right. If you say so," she said, incredulous.
Harry straightened up slowly, flinching several times in pain. She reached for his elbow to steady him.
"I'm all right now," Harry stated a few seconds later.
The slightly taller girl looked as if she didn't quite believe him, but she didn't say anything to contradict his statement. She kept her hand at his elbow as she began to walk with him to the school's main building.
"Okay," she said. "But let's take it nice and slow, all right?"
"Yeah," Harry replied, shuffling slowly across the lawn with the girl's assistance.
It seemed that Harry's obvious pain had reduced her fear of him; she began to distract him from his pain as she started an almost one-sided conversation. The girl kept telling him about the academy and how long she had lived there, before asking a series of questions about himself. He supposed she didn't feel the need to get those questions answered because she didn't wait for him to talk before she jumped to the next question.
"...and then I became friends with Zero...Zero Kiryu...I don't suppose you've ever heard of him before..."
Harry vaguely followed her conversation as he considered how he would approach the headmaster. Maybe I should ask for the blood tablets straight away...should I even tell him my story since I became a vampire...does he really need to know all that, Harry worried.
"...name? Mine's Yuuki Cross," the girl paused.
He supposed she was waiting for an answer, but he had been lost in thought and hadn't caught her question.
"Huh..." was his intelligent response.
"I'm Yuuki Cross. What's your name?" she repeated.
"Oh...my name is Harry Potter," Harry answered. "Wait...did you say your name was Cross? As in..."
"Yeah, as in Cross Academy. I'm the adopted daughter of the headmaster," she replied with a grin.
"Oh yeah?" Harry responded thoughtfully. "Interesting..."
"Don't I know it!" Yuuki said happily. "It's a really long story of how I came to be in the headmaster's care. Ten and a half years ago, I was found out in a snowstorm by someone...he's one of the night students here now...Anyway, he saved me from someone who was attacking me, and then he brought me to the headmaster...and now me and Zero Kiryu...he's my best friend here...well, we are members on the disciplinary committee! Cool, right?"
She grinned at him, waiting for his response.
"Uh...yeah. But what were you doing out at this time of night?" Harry asked, stunned that she could talk so much without taking a breath.
"Oh, that. As members of the disciplinary committee, Zero and I have to patrol the grounds at night. Basically it's so no fangirls from the day class get too close to the night class," she answered matter-of-factly.
Harry really hated fangirls. They gave him the creeps. He had quite a few before he left the wizarding world, and they were very hard to shake off. Like leeches, Harry shuddered.
"Who's this Zero guy again?" Harry asked, trying to get his mind off the thought of leeches. Eh...fangirls, I mean, Harry thought.
Suddenly, there stood a tall silver-haired boy in front of him, a dangerous-looking gun pointed right at Harry. Harry froze as he looked at the gun, then glanced into the boy's face. "Uhh..." was all he could say.
"Speak of the devil...Herii-chan, meet Zero Kiryu," she said excitedly. She only now seemed to realize that Harry had a gun aimed at his forehead.
"Zero! Come on. Put the gun down! Herii-chan came to see the headmaster, not to get assaulted by you. Don't be so trigger-happy!" Yuuki rushed.
Zero hesitated, and Yuuki let out a little groan before walking up to Zero and pulling the arm holding the gun down to his side.
"Just put that thing away, Zero! Argh! You're so ridiculous!" she yelled, frustrated.
Zero's piercing purplish eyes held a hint of red as they drilled into Harry's. Was this boy a vampire? Harry questioned. Harry remembered the way the two vampires in India had turned Level E after being in his presence. He sniffed the air. This Zero guy sure smelled like a vampire. He's stunning enough to be one, too, Harry decided.
"You wouldn't happen to be a vampire, would you?" Harry spoke up softly, a wary look in his eyes.
Zero gave a start, almost invisible, before his shoulders tensed and he growled at Harry. He struggled to bring up his gun again, but Yuuki still had a hold of his arm.
"Sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! It's just...I just had a bad run-in with some vamps a little while ago, and they seemed to think my blood...um...smelled tasty. They couldn't really control themselves...the situation wasn't pretty," Harry hurriedly said, hands waving in front of his chest to ward off the angry Zero. "If you are one, you might want to stay away from me...don't want that to happen again."
"Is that where you got all those wounds from, Herii-chan?" Yuuki asked.
At hearing this, Zero paused. "Wounds?" he questioned.
"Yeah, Herii-chan is covered in gashes, Zero! If two vampires were after him, then he's lucky that's all he has," she answered. She looked at Harry.
"Well? Is that how you got them?" she asked again, expecting an answer.
"Um...yeah," Harry muttered.
Zero looked suspiciously at Harry, but he didn't try pulling the gun on him again. Actually, Zero put the gun away into a holster inside his black jacket. He still looked at Harry in disapproval, but at least no guns were involved. Harry gave a relieved sigh, relaxing slightly.
"Let's take him to the headmaster, Yuuki," Zero stated in a deep, edgy voice.
"Oh, yeah!" Yuuki cried, suddenly remembering what she had been doing before Zero came along.
She smiled at Zero, then turned to help Harry inside the building, Zero falling into step behind the two.
"So, Herii-chan...are you planning to attend the academy? Is that why you need to talk to the headmaster? Because you would look really cute in the girls' uniform...You have such a petite body, but your legs look pretty long...and your hair...I could probably fix it up with a couple of my green hairpins. You'd look so beautiful," Yuuki cried, excited.
Harry bowed his head, a blush blossoming across his cheeks.
"Um, Yuuki-san...I'm...a boy," Harry mumbled, embarrassed.
"WHAT?!" Yuuki screamed. "NO WAY! You're prettier than me!"
Harry just stood there, trying to contain his blushing, his hands twisting together in anxiety.
"It's true," Harry muttered.
Zero looked between the oblivious Yuuki and blushing Harry, a smirk on his face.
"He would look really nice in the girls' uniform, wouldn't he, Yuuki?" Zero stated, relentlessly teasing an already flushed Harry.
"Yeah, he would..." Yuuki stated in a daze. She turned to Harry.
"I really thought you were a girl, Herii-chan. You sure you're not?" she continued doubtfully.
"I'm pretty sure, Yuuki-san," Harry stated dryly, exasperated.
Why do things like this happen to me, Harry whined pathetically.
Harry rushed up to the entrance of the main building, keeping his back to a laughing Yuuki.
"Can we go to the headmaster, now?" grumbled Harry.
The pair caught up to him, opening the large door and letting him pass through, but not before he caught sight of a still grinning Yuuki and a smirking Zero.
Author's Notes: Another chapter written. Next time, Harry has a nice chat with the headmaster. If that conversation doesn't take up too much space, then you might also get to meet the night class. We'll see. Until next time! Aufwiedersehen!