Chapter Ten – Lust for Blood
Horace whimpered fearfully and looked over to Eila. Professor Hiltraud turned around and glared at her sharply. There was a sort of red tint in his eyes that Eila had never seen before. Professor Hiltraud let go of Slughorn's collar, and stomped off angrily. Eila nervously walked up to Slughorn and asked, "Err…Professor? What happened?"
He looked severely shaken and said, "Nothing…nothing. Benjamin is just a bit…a bit angry at me."
"Oh…okay. Well, g'night…Sir." replied Eila, whispering the password to the fat lady and walking in.
Eila was sitting on the couch parallel to the fireplace. She was staring at the wall as if she had seen a ghost.
Rana sat next to Eila and demanded, "You look shaken! What happen?"
"I swear…I swear that Professor Hiltraud…"
"Professor Hiltraud what?" yelled Rana, shaking Eila by the shoulders.
"Well…I saw Professor Hiltraud threatingly Professor Slughorn about something. He said…He said, 'I'd be careful if I were you, Horace.' and I'm pretty sure that I saw a little, itty-bitty, red glow in his eyes…as he left."
"That's it?"
"Well…don't vampires usually have red eyes?"
" …no…" said Rana, now pondering, "Water! Was anything reflective near by?"
Eila shook her head.
"Well…then you can't prove anything. It was probably the lighting. Now go back to bed."
"It's seven 'o clock!" argued Eila.
"Well…that gives us ten hours of sleep, two hours of breakfast, and one hour to get ready."
"Well, I'm going to bed and you can contemplate over your…paranoia. Tomorrow's a late night for me. Adu!"
"I am not paranoid!" Eila screamed as Rana exited to the girls' dormitory. Everybody looked at her strangely as she sunk back into her seat.
It was once again Tuesday, when the group had double Defense Against the Dark Arts. Rana walked into the room. Eila was with her, but she was standing outside of the door, as if she didn't want to go in. Rana stepped back out of the classroom and asked, "Come on!"
Eila looked reluctantly at Rana.
Rana scoffed and said, "You're still not worried about that stupid vampire conspiracy, are you?"
"Well…what if it's true?"
"Do you have proof?"
"No…but I will get some some…soon…"
Rana raised her eyebrow and said, "Okay then…" She walked into the classroom and took her seat. Eila hesitated, but followed her and took her own seat as well.
Eila opened a large book that she had gotten from the library the past night. It was called Vampires: Volume III, The Lust for Blood. Rana looked over to Eila and sighed in disappointment as she got our text book. The class bell rang as Professor Hiltraud came down the stairs. He looked especially malicious today. He had spotted Eila's book as Eila shut it quickly, got out her text book and tried her best to look innocent. He glared at her viciously.
Rana was writing some extra notes down from chapter twenty-three in blue ink. Professor Hiltraud slammed his wand down on her desk and said, "Detention! My office, 9 'o clock this evening!"
"Why?"
"Do not argue with me!"
"Fine…Benji…"
He snorted angrily as he started to write something onto the board hastily: Chapter twenty-one, the History of Vampires.
He said sourly, "Does anybody know who the first recorded vampire was?"
Rana's hand shot up immediately, and strangely enough, Eila's didn't. Rana blurted out, "Countess Elizabeth Bathory!"
"Detention! Speaking out in class!"
Rana huffed and folded her arms angrily, "What the heck? Sour-puss!"
He glared again. It had been at least half way through class. Professor Hiltraud asked, "Who was the last known vampire to be dispatched?"
Eila took a deep breath and yelled, "Yo' Momma!"
"Excuse me?"
"You hear me! Oh and…about your mother…"
"What about my mother?" he replied, actually seeming very calm.
" She's a…a…cauldron bum!"
"Is that the best you can come up with?"
"No! Dragon bogies!" she said.
"Dragon bogies?"
"Your…your mom is a dragon bogie."
"Is that so?"
"…yeah!" she said, trying to sound convincing.
"Well, that's nice. Anyways, as I was saying…" he said, continuing on his lesson. Eila and Rana both looked at each other preposterously.
Eila said to Rana as soon as she walked out of the classroom, "I told you he was a vampire!"
"He's just having an off-day doing. Maybe he's in love—"
"Who'd fall in love with such an aa—"
"Maybe he needs a hug!"
"Well, I'm going to go do research!" she said as she walked off towards the other side of the corridor. "Okay! Bye, crazy!" bellowed Rana across the hall.
Eila had gotten to the empty side of the corridor, when she bumped into Professor Hiltraud. She looked at him strangely, "How…how did you get here from…? You were just…"
"…Do you know where your friend is?"
"Even if I did, why would I tell you?"
"Because she forget her homework assignment."
"Jee, why don't you give it to her in detention?"
"What if she wants to get it done before detention?"
"No, she won't. She's a big procrastinator."
"Listen…do you…know anything?"
"About what?"
"You know…"
"No…"
He scoffed and said, "Never mind…" He had finally given up on getting any information out of Eila.
Professor Hiltraud looked at his watch nervously. He excused himself as he rushed thruought the castle looking for Rana. After a while, he found her looking through some old newspapers in the school library.
The professor sat besides her, reading over his shoulder. Rana felt his hot breath down her neck, "Excuse me, if you don't mind I really wish that you wouldn't breathe down my neck, it's rather uncomfortable."
The professor stepped back a few steps and said in a gruff voice, "You know, I never knew that your neck…has this strange freckle on it."
"Is that so, and why may I ask is it that you are looking at my neck."
"Well, it just took my notice, it looks like it wasn't meant to be there though, as if it were put there by some prankster that wanted to see a huge, disgusting freckle on your…perfect neck. He said as he stroked her neck lightly and he got closer, nearly putting his lips to her shoulder. Rana pulled away, somewhat creeped out be her professor's advances.
"Professor, are-are you okay, you are kinda creeping me out…I-I'm only eleven, I'll see you in detention." She replied shockingly as she scooped up her newspapers and ran to the Gryffindor common room.
As Rana walked in she sat down next to Eila and shook "Eila…I'm scared."
Eila looked at her curiously, "Why is that?"
"P-p-professor Hiltraud, he-he just started hitting on me, and I'm not even of age…it's really scaring me." She said as she pushed her knees up against her chest and stated to cry softly, "Why, why me?"
Eila got up closer to Rana and gave her a hug, "Don't pay any mind to him, it's all in your head."
"No, Eila you don't get it, he…he stroked my neck and almost… like necked me, but I pulled away. I'm so confused, what was he trying to accomplish?"
Eila sat with her for a while as she read some of the newspapers that were scattered on the coffee table. "Death eaters, what are those?"
Rana looked at her like she was nuts, "Death Eaters are followers of a rising threat to the wizarding world; and most of these are purebloods, so I need to know more, to see who exactly I can trust."
Rana looked at the clock nervously, it was eight thirty-five and dinner was almost over. She got up, dried her tears, took a deep, cleansing sigh and cleaned up everything before she went to go grab something quick to eat.
Rana walked into the dark, damp room timidly as she sat down with some homework on her desk. She tried to stay calm, but as she sat there, she noticed she was noticeably tense, she breathed a little and clamed herself down. Just then a cat brushed up against her legs. The cat meowed softly and rubbed her legs again.
"Eila, what are you doing here?"
"I came to keep him away from you." Eila said in a squeaky voice as she jumped up on her lap and started to purr.
"Well, can you at least turn into a mouse or something, so that he can't see you unless he looks for you?
Eila nodded ant turned herself into a black mouse and cheered in an adorable mousy voice, "Hooray! I did it! I can turn into a mouse!"
Rana looked at her puzzlingly, "Can you turn into a brown mouse; Professor Benji can still see you."
Eila scoffed in a chipmunk-ish voice, "This isn't easy, you know!"
Rana sighed confidently, "Man, if you want to be espionage, you need to disguise yourself properly." She said as she flicked some of her bangs out of her face.
Eila scoffed again, "I would like to see you turn into a brown mouse and keep it like that for a long time!"
"I'll do it later, now shush!" said Rana, looking back to her homework. She picked up her quill and was about to dip it in her blue ink, but she stopped and corked it. She opened her bag and took out a bottle of black ink, uncorked it, dipped her quill in it, and resumed writing her essay. She didn't want to get into trouble again.
Eila was scurrying around the room. She climbed up Professor Hiltraud's desk and sat behind a large stack of handed-in essays. Professor Hiltraud was grading some papers. He was currently grading Eila's. She was happy to know that she got a perfect score. Eila looked up at Professor Hiltraud. It was even darker than usual in the room. Normally, the windows were always closed, but now, there was hardly any light. It was hard to see even his face, but Eila could tell that he was now grading Rana's paper. She had gotten a perfect score, but Professor Hiltraud was writing a note at the bottom of it; he had not done this for any of the other papers. Eila tried her best to read it: I'd like you to m—
Professor Hiltraud had spotted the mouse. He picked Eila up by the scruff and threw her hard across the room. She slid across the floor until she hit the wall. "Ow!" she squeaked quietly to herself. Rana looked as if she were about to laugh at the mouse. The mouse scurried back up towards Rana and stuffed herself inside her bag. Professor Hiltraud walked up to Rana and demanded, "Stop writing!"
Rana slowly put her quill.
"For detention, I want you to dance!"
Rana raised her eyebrow, "Wait…what?"
"You heard me…"
"You're the weirdest professor I have ever met. I don't like dancing."
"That's exactly why it's your punishment."
"I fail to see the connection between dancing and Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Well…I'm a teacher…"
"Yes, and…?" she asked, mildly confused.
"You will dance won't you?" he asked, his eyes starting to glow a crimson red.
Rana was captured by this. She tried her best to fight it, but to no avail. She replied with a blank expression on her face, "Yes, master."
"Good girl." He replied in a low voice as he began to close in on her neck. Eila, the mouse, scurried out of the bag and bit him on the ankle. He sqealed and grabbed his ankle. Eila yelled as loud as she could to Rana, "Rana, run!" Rana didn't listen, she instead, continued standing there with same blank expression on her face.
Professor Hiltraud picked up the mouse and exclaimed, "A talking mouse? Wait…that can't be a mouse…" he flicked his wand at the mouse as he dropped it. Eila turned back into her normal self. She huffed and folded her arms. She said, "You're a meanie!"
"I'm a meanie, eh? Well, if you tell anybody, anybody, then I will personally suck your scrumptious 'A' negative, little veins dry."
"Just don't hurt my friends!"
"Well, my dearie, you know much too much for me to let you hang out with your little friend here."
"Well, she won't listen to me."
"And I wonder why…"
"You really are a meanie…butt."
"You can't stand up to me, you're just a little girl."
"I'm not little, I'm only four foot, six!"
"Stature is not an issue, m'dear, now I suggest you scurry along and do not tell anyone." He said menacingly, turning back to Rana.
Just then the curfew-bell rang and Rana broke from her trance, "Oh, does time fly, good-bye professor, I'll see you next week." Rana said cheerfully as she bumped Eila's shoulder angrily and cantered out to the hall. Rana shut the door.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ha Ha, another cliffhanger for next week! See y'all here real soon
Thankee vewy much,
Pomegranite and Aluminiumaniac