Chapter IX: A Break From the Vampire
A week went by, and the news on their vampire began to dwindle. All of the vampire lessons were coming to an end and all of the professors resumed to their previous lesson. On a cool, sunny day Dumbledore send for Lucid to come. When Lucid came, he and Dumbledore had a long talk.
"Thank you for coming," said Dumbledore. "Nothing has happened since last week and I need to know, are we safe from this vampire?"
"You are wise to contact me. I can tell you that I don't sense the vampire here, but he is a few miles away. You shouldn't be bothered by him again," said Lucid.
"How are you sure?" ask Dumbledore. He lend towards him with concerning eyes.
"Vampires only come to an area if it has a purpose being there," answered Lucid.
"But what brought it here to begin with?" Dumbledore began pacing back and forth
"That I do not know," answered Lucid.
"Do you know who was the vampire?" asked Dumbledore.
"I don't know either. Vampires can only sense other vampires; we cannot identify whom we are sensing, but I do know that it's a he," answered Lucid
They left Dumbledore's office and began walking the corridors. A class had ended and students were hurrying off to their next class.
"Did you tell your students?" asked Lucid. He passed by Ernie and Susan from Hufflepuff. They gave one look at Lucid and then quickly ran away.
"I only told my Head Boy and Girl and the prefects," answered Dumbledore. "I also prepared everyone with lessons on vampires."
"That's good," said Lucid. "So I'm asuming you are going to resume the term?"
"Yes I am. Now that I can owl out I'm going to ask the Ministry to send Aurors. I don't want to lower my guard. Even though the vampire is miles away, it is still close to the school and I can't risk having an attack here."
"I understand," said Lucid. "Just make sure you ask for Pure Bloods."
"I will," said Dumbledore. "Thanks again for coming."
Lucid bowed his head, "If you need any more help don't be afraid to ask."
"I won't."
Lucid said his farewell and covered his head with a hood. Dumbledore watched as Lucid disappeared in the crowed of students.
On a blistery Friday, Harry had managed to reserve the Quidditch pitch for an afternoon practice. He and the team were eager to get out of the castle and into the air. But Professor McGonagall still told him that if he didn't get at least two professors to watch them practice then they couldn't practice at all. Harry asked if she could be one of the professors, but she said no.
"I'm sorry Potter but I have class at the time. You must find someone else," replied McGonagall.
So Harry thought up of two professors that would, and quickly went to ask Emmett and Hagrid. They were very delighted when Harry asked them and agreed. When the afternoon came, Harry knew that his team didn't want to do drills for an hour or more, so he had them scrimmaging against each other. They took the scrimmage serious and pretend they were playing a real match.
"Let's pick it up a notch. We're playing Slytherin next week, and they are the team to beat this year," said Harry.
The team didn't complain and gave 100 percent effort for the remaining practice. When practice ended, Harry stayed behind and put the equipment away. When he was through, he walked back to the castle with Emmett and Hagrid.
"Thanks again for watching us practice," said Harry.
"No problem Harry," said Hagrid.
"Yeah, what are friends for," replied Emmett.
Harry smiled at them and asked, "So after watching us, do you think we can beat Slytherin?"
"Of course," answered Hagrid. "With that hard hitting Donny, it's a shoe in."
"You know Donny is very strong for his age," said Emmett. "Does he work out?"
"I don't think so . . . well I mean I've never seen him working out. Maybe he's just naturally strong," suggested Harry.
As they were nearing the castle Hagrid said his good byes and headed back towards his hut.
"Hagrid I thought Dumbledore told you to move into the castle during the lock down?" asked Harry.
"He did, now there is no more threat," said Hagrid and he continued to this hut.
"Emmett," asked Harry as they continued with their walk," what did Hagrid mean about that?"
"Early in the week Dumbledore got news that the vampire was no longer at Hogwarts," answered Emmett. "He will bring Aurors to guard the castle, but everything will be as it was before. In fact Dumbledore will be granting a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow."
"That's great, but how come McGonagall told me that I needed two professors to watch us practice?" asked Harry.
"The vampire is not on the grounds of Hogwarts but is near, and since the Quidditch pitch is quite away from the castle the vampire can still get you. Dumbledore just want his students to be safe that's all."
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Saturday morning and all of the students were excited with their Hogsmeade trip. In the Gryffindor Common Room Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Donny were the only upper classmen left. They all quickly put on thick robes and left together to the Main Entrance.
"Where should we go first?" asked Harry.
"Do you guys have your costumes yet for the ball?" asked Hermione.
"No," answered Harry and Donny.
"Well that settles it," said Hermione.
When they got outside, they saw the carriages were waiting and once they were all in one, it began taking them to Hogsmeade. As soon as they entered the village, they went straight to the costume store. There were a lot of students in there. Apparently they too were all looking for a costume for the ball.
"So what does your costume look like?" Donny asked Hermione.
"Mine is a red with a gold mask," answered Hermione. "So what's your costume going to be?"
"I don't know yet," he answered. "But I have an idea."
So they begin looking through each rack of clothes but nothing seems to draw out any attention.
"My god this is boring," said Ron. "I'm so glad that I already have my costume."
"What does your costume look like?" asked Harry as he was still looking.
"Well it's . . ."
"I know," an unpleasant voice interrupted, "You're going as a court jester."
They all looked around and saw Draco. He was holding his costume in his hand.
"Shut up Malfoy," said Ron.
"Make me," he taunted.
Ron began walking towards him, but Hermione grabbed his cloak.
"Don't Ron," she said to him.
Ron turned around and faced Hermione.
"I don't need a mother hen. I can handle this," he said in a low voice. He turned back around and faced Draco.
"Well I can see who wears the pants in the relationship," said Draco. "So Weasel are you going to let that Mudblood boss you around like that?"
Ron just had it with that insult, but before he could have done anything he soon saw Donny taking his gloves off and punched Draco right on the nose. The whole store went quite and all eyes were on Donny and Draco.
"What the . . .?" Draco put a hand to his face and whipped some blood off. He was furious and got up. "Oh you are going to pay." He went to take a punch at Donny, but right when he swung, Donny grabbed Draco's fist and hold it in place. Draco tried to break free, but Donny was too strong.
"Apologize," said Donny.
"What?" laughed Draco.
"Apologize to Hermione." And Donny tighten his grip
Soon the smirk from Draco's face went away and he began to look sacred. A cold sinister feeling was running through Draco's body, and he didn't like that at all.
"I'm . . . s-sorry Granger," Draco struggle to say.
"Good. Now if you ever give her or anyone of her friends any trouble you will be answering to me," said Donny and he released his grip from Draco's fist.
Draco stumbled around for a moment but regain his balance quickly. He pick up his costume and quickly left. When Draco left, all the students went back to looking at costumes.
"Thanks Donny," said Hermione, "but you didn't have to do that."
"I know. I just wanted Malfoy to know that he can't hurt you like that and now he would be dealing with me," said Donny. He gab his gloves and quickly put them back on.
Hermione smiled and placed her arms over his shoulders. They were about to kiss until Harry shouted.
"I found it."
Hermione look over and saw Harry in a dark black cloak and a white mask that covered half of his face.
"Very dramatic," said Hermione.
"Are you suppose to be someone?" asked Ron.
"He's the Phantom of the Opera," answered Hermione.
"This is totally me," said Harry. "I'll even transfigure my glasses to be part of the mask."
Hermione then turned her attention towards Donny and smiled, "Well Donny I guess you're the only one who needs a costume."
"Nope. I already found one." He gave her a kiss and went over to one of the racks. The robe that he pulled out was black and the cloak was black with gold. The mask was also black with gold on the edges. "I think I will look dashing next to you."
"And you are . . ."
"I will be the famous Count Dracula," answered Donny.
So Harry and Donny grabbed the right size for their costumes and headed over to the cashier counter. After they left that store, they went over to the Three Broomsticks for a drink.
"Go find a table and I'll get the drinks," said Donny and he headed off towards the bar.
Harry, Ron and Hermione stood in one place for a moment until Harry found a table by a window. He pointed towards the table, and began leading his friends.
"You know I'm so glad that Professor Dumbledore gave us this Hogsmeade trip," said Hermione when they sat down. "But I wonder what made him come to the decision?"
"Well Emmett told me yesterday that the vampire is no longer at Hogwarts," said Harry. "But it is still near."
"But what brought it to Hogwarts to begin with," said Hermione. "Vampires usually don't bother others unless they have a reason."
"Maybe it was being threaten," said Ron.
Ron then look at Donny as he was coming with their drinks. Donny was caring three mugs of butterbeer.
"Here you all go," said Donny as he placed the hot foaming mugs on the table.
"Where's yours?" asked Harry.
Donny then held a dark bottle, "I didn't want mine in a mug."
They spent most of their time in the Three Broomsticks drinking and talking about what ever came to their mind They enjoyed their time and all of thought of vampires were washed away.
Monday morning came rather quickly and classes were soon to start. After a quick breakfast, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Donny headed towards their Mythology class. Hermione was wondering the whole time they were walking on what today's lesson could be, since Emmett never changed his lessons like the other professors.
"Good morning students," said Emmett as he entered his classroom.
"Good morning Professor Brown," replied his class.
"Well let's start the lesson with a new chapter. Everyone turn to page 59," said Emmett.
"Professor," said Hermione as she raised her hand.
"Yes."
"I'm just wondering, last week all of our professors taught us stuff about vampires and I'm just wondering why didn't you?" asked Hermione.
"Well we will be learning vampires throughout this chapter, but the reason that I didn't change my lesson last week is that I didn't want to give you guys an overload and I wanted to finish my previous lesson. I'd talk to the Headmaster earlier, and he granted me the delay," replied Emmett. "Now turn to page 59."
When Hermione turned to the right page, she notice that the chapter was on demons.
"Now in ancient times it was said that demons were the ones who ruled the world. Demons were the first to speak Latin and they were the ones to create the first spells," began Emmett.
"You got to be joking," laughed Draco.
"Mr. Malfoy this is a mythology class, so try to remember that I'm teaching you myths," said Emmett. "So anyway legends say that demons control the four elements on Earth: fire, wind, air, and earth . . ."
"Uhm Professor," interrupted Donny," there are actually five elements."
Emmett looked at Donny as though he was surprise to see that Donny had said that.
"Professor the fifth element is . . ."
"Life," the both said.
"Sir but aren't there really only four elements?" asked Hermione.
Emmett quit looking at Donny and gave his attention to Hermione.
"Yes there are only four elements, but some theorist and scholars believe that there's a fifth element and that it's life. They believe that because the four elements only exist because of life. You will be learning that in a later term. Okay now moving on, the four elements that the demons control also correspond with the twelve zodiacs." Emmett grabbed his wand and began drawing the twelve zodiacs. "Now each demon controls only one of the four elements. To know what each demon controls depends on the month they were born."
He gave his wand a slight swish and the zodiacs began to move around and formed into four groups.
"Now any demon who are a Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn control the earth. Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces control water. Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius controls air. Aries, Leo or Sagittarius controls fire."
"So only one demon can control only one element?" asked Dean.
"Correct Mr. Thomas."
"What about vampires? What do they control?" asked Ron.
"Vampires are a special type of demon," said Emmett. "They control earth, but they also have the ability of control the other three. However, they cannot control the other elements as well as earth."
"You know . . . Professor Maddox has been teaching us earth spells," said Theodore Nott.
"That's good because legends say that only earth spells work on a vampire and nothing else," said Emmett.
"What do you mean?" asked Ron.
"Wizard slayers never used wizard magic. It was never recorded in history on how any wizard killed a vampire," said Emmett. "But legends goes to say that slayers would only use earth spell elements that a vampire cannot control. So the spell would be either water, air, or fire."
"But what's the different between earth spells and wizard magic?"
"Earth spells are demon magic. That's the truth. They creative them. They are the oldest type of magic. The myth is that wizard magic won't work on vampires because it's not strong enough to hurt them," said Emmett. "And only Pure Blood wizards are the only wizards who can perform earth spells correctly."
"So demons do have magic ability?" asked Lavender.
"Well the demons today do have magic in them, but only a few can actually perform magic," answered Emmett. "Okay now for the demon that we will be learning first are vampires."
The class all groan. They were tired of hearing the same old stuff about vampires.
"Professor can't we learn a different demon?" asked Lavender.
"No. The lesson that I have plan will take tremendous amount of time and so vampires will be first," answered Emmett. He began picking up one of his books, and flipping the pages.
"Professor I have one more question," said Ron as he raised his hand.
Emmett looked up and looked at Ron, "Yes Mr. Weasley."
"What would happen to a vampire if a wizard performed an earth spell on them?" asked Ron.
"Well if it was performed correctly, it would weaken the vampire, but it won't kill the vampire," answered Emmett. "Okay now we all know that vampires are evil right?"
The whole class agreed.
"In legend vampires can be good as well. Just like all creatures there are good and evil. Vampires can be great allies and friends. They are very loyal and to their word. If a vampire ever makes a promise they will honor it until it's fulfilled," said Emmett.
Emmett went on with his lesson about the good side to vampires for the remaining time. When the bell rang, everyone quickly gathered their books together.
"I'll see you all on Wednesday. We well continue this and next week I want you all to read the chapter on Guardians," said Emmett.
The students finished gathering their books and quickly left for their next class.
"Well I guess I won't be seeing you until lunch," said Hermione as she and Donny left the classroom.
"I guess not. I'll see you later," said Donny. He gave her a quick kiss and left.
Hermione caught up with Harry and Ron and they headed towards Transfiguration.
"You know Emmett's lesson was very interesting," said Hermione.
"In what way?" asked Ron.
"Well in all of our other classes we were taught about how evil vampires are. Emmett showed us that they can be good."
"But you got to remember that Emmett is teaching us mythology and nothing more," said Harry. "If vampires could really be good, won't Dumbledore try to bring them on to our side to fight against Voldemort?"
They ended their conversation as they entered their classroom and took their seats. Soon McGonagall began her lesson.