A Vampire Legacy

Chapter 9

Author's notes: Well, here we are with a new chapter! I took a few days off to really look at where I want that story to go and I'm afraid I'm not the kind of author able to make more than a basic plan and stay true to it. Generally my ideas come and go during the day and when I'm sitting in my chair in front on my screen, it all comes out. So let's look at the statistics this time! 67 reviews, 305 followers, 223 favourites, 10 C2 communities and 9 811 views. Damn! It's astounding! Thank you very much! Well, nothing else to say. On with the show.

At the required hour, Harry appeared from the shadows in full uniform in the middle of the deserted common room. With his backpack in place, he started to fiddle with the straps to pass the time. He didn't have to wait very long as the other first years that were looking like zombies were starting to assemble into the common room. When everybody was here except the blond boy, what was his name again? Ah, yes! Malfoy, they followed the Prefects back to the great hall. Harry wasn't hungry; he already had a good breakfast before shadow travelling back to school this morning. It was really his favorite power, it beat been struck into the traffic every morning. Grandpa Vlad wasn't sure if more of his own abilities would show up in Harry, so he made a point to drill the boy to master what he could already do. He also had a theory that Harry's level of power would skyrocket to new highs if he voluntary fed of human blood. Not with the purpose of stanching the thirst, but for greedy reasons. But he was kind of two minds about that. Alucard really liked the boy and teaching somebody who looked up to him was nice for his ego. But could he really condemn his innocent descendant to walk the same path he took? That one would require serious thinking.

Back to Harry, he sat a bit further than his year mates along the long bench, sipping some hot chocolate. Then he suddenly heard some severe cussing in his head. Those bad words made him smirk in his cup. Seems Alucard found out about his latest prank. Harry had switched his ancestor's wine bottles mixed with human blood in it with tomato juice and animal blood, beef to be precise. Vlad couldn't stand the taste of animal blood and a real vampire couldn't eat food anymore. They could only drink blood or alcohol laced with the liquid of life in it. So Harry had just played a mean prank on his grandfather. Breakfast was going splendidly when someone, Theodore Nott, asked him with a sneer on his face, which was really weird to see on an eleven years old kid,

"Why are you wearing that piece of muggle garbage, Potter? It's already bad enough that you shame the noble Slytherin House by being a filthy half blood; you have the disgrace of using something like that? Get rid of it. Right now. It's an order from your superior."

Theodore was "weedy" and "stringy," indicating that he was tall, thin, and perhaps weakly built. Contrary to Harry who was well filled, tall for his age and his shoulders were already starting to broaden. The hybrid looked at his interlocutor with his piercing green eyes for a while. The other boy seems rather sure that Harry would obey. He would be disappointed. Harry then decided to answering is interlocutor in a bored voice

"I don't care what you have to say about me, my ancestry and what I chose to use. I don't care about all the blood purity nonsense you and others seemed to spout. I have better things to do with my time than cow tow to people I just met. What I do with my things is my concern, not yours. There's only three people who can order me to do anything and you are not one of those. You are in no way, shape or form superior to me, so bugger off."

Harry didn't say anything else, but by the sniggering he could hear and the muffled conversations around, he could deduce that Nott just failed his attempted power play, badly. Not that he cared about that, really. He was here to see if magic was worth his time, if not, it would be back to regular school in a heartbeat. Suddenly, a quite embarrassed Draco Malfoy finally joined his other fellow first years to the Slytherin table and he seemed quite peeved with two rather large boys, something about not waking him up and their duties to their sworn lord. Bah! Breakfast was almost over when the Heads came down from the staff table to distribute the class schedules. Snape did raise an eyebrow in seeing his "muggle" backpack but both knew it wasn't against the rules to have such an item, so he didn't say anything after giving him his schedule. Surprisingly he got thanked for the act. Against tradition it was to have a muggle backpack, perhaps, against the pack mentality of the magicals stuck into the Victorian Era to overlook muggle progress, most probably. But having one wasn't an enforceable infraction against the school rules, wasn't on the list of prohibited items and it wasn't against the school charter. In fact, it was easier, in his opinion, to carry the books and the writing equipment around than with a classical book bag that others seem to prefer. Since this year the new directive given to the House Elves of putting all the potions instruments and ingredients into neatly labelled closet storage near his classroom would finally be enforced, it would be far less chaotic. No longer will the students be required to bring between classes an encumbering cauldron and all the materials required. He also had to tip his hat in his mind toward the boy. It was not every day that something managed to render all the Heads of House and the Headmaster totally speechless as they were last night. Not that he would ever tell the boy that, of course. He may not be a copy of his dead father, but better not giving him any ammunition just in case. One less dunderhead to look after was always a welcome gift.

Fifteen minutes before the start of their first class, which was Charms with Professor Flitwick, the Fifth Years Slytherin Prefects collected all the First Years and guided them to Flitwick's classroom. A ghost would be waiting for them after class to guide them to their next one. This arrangement would only work for the first week, after that they were expected to find their own ways to the classes in time. They were also encouraged to explore the castle in groups during the week-end with an older student at least in each group. Each class they had during the day was heavily focused on theory, which was normal as everybody needed a solid base on which they could expand afterwards. Harry took his notes dutifully, his pen literally dancing across the pages. Integra had been smart about it, labelling his notebooks by subjects to have organized notes. If she hadn't intervened, he would surely have taken his notes for all his subjects in one notebook until it was full and then it would have been a nightmare to revise. He did make himself stand out in class without trying though, as each House was sitting on one side of the classroom, not mingling with the others, except him and Hermione. They had decided to sit together in classes shared between their Houses. Nobody had said a word against it, but he could feel Nott's angry glare and Malfoy's too. Not that he had talked to the guy, but after his remonstrance towards his...friends? Followers? Employees? Honestly he wasn't sure; this morning at breakfast, he had a feeling that the guy was thinking that he was already some sort of authority within Slytherin House. And the classes were only just beginning; couldn't they have waited a while before trying to make power plays? On the lions' side of the classroom, a tall gangly redhead with second hand clothes and freckles all over his face was trying to glare a hole between Hermione's and his head for daring to sit together. It would seem that this guy was buying into the Houses rivalries already, on the first day to booth. He mentally made a note to be ready to defuse the situation without making too much of a scene. After been so close of his grandfather, he could literally smell the drama! He didn't want to break the tenets of Slytherin and land himself into detention when it wasn't worth it. Once class was over and everybody was out, the redhead, Ron, stalked towards them with a furious pace and went directly into Harry's face. Not content to be into his breathing space, he took the lapels of the hybrid's robes, pushed him against the wall and with a voice willing itself to be intimidating and failing miserably he then said

"Let me make myself very clear Potter. So clear that even a slimy snake like you will understand. You are nothing more than a filthy traitor to the Light! You are The Boy Who Lived! You were supposed to be in Gryffindor, not in Slytherin! But no, you just had to become a dark wizard! What would your mum and dad think? They gave their lives for getting rid of You-Know-Who! You should be ashamed of yourself! Now listen well! Granger is off limits. In fact, every other Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs is off limits. Snakes sit with other snakes, nobody else! And they are not welcome with anybody else!"

He went to continue his tirade, but Hermione, independent strong willed Hermione, cut him off

"Honestly, Ronald! Mind your own business! I can sit with whoever I want and it's not..."

She was violently cut off by Ron who turned around and slapped her across the face! Furious, he then yelled to her

"SHUT UP BITCH! You are a traitor to the Light! There are no dark wizards who didn't come out of Slytherin! You will do as I say and stop hanging out with those Slytherin scum's or I will make your life hell for the next seven...Urk!"

Ron's rant was cut short by a powerful hand that had snaked subtly his way to his throat and squeezed just enough to cut a bit of his air supply and get all his attention. When he was forcefully turned toward Harry, it was to see menacing glowing green eyes glaring at him. Not willing to pick a fight on his first day, Harry contented himself to dump Ron on the ground without saying a word and went to help Hermione who was cradling her red cheek and was restraining herself to not cry. He helped her on her feet and hugged her, making round motions in her back with his hand. Ron was becoming redder and redder and was just about to explode when somebody clearing its throat behind him made the furious redhead turns around, ready to give whoever interrupted his, in his mind, justified tirade a solid piece of his mind. Behind him was the terrifying sight of a very mad Professor Filius Flitwick who had come out to see what the commotion was about. He had come out just as young Mr. Weasley had slapped Miss Granger and called her a traitor. He was about to intervene quickly to not have a blood bath on his hands when he saw the Potter boy's eyes had started to glow in an unholy manner, quite similar on how a high class vampire's eyes would in some situations, but it seems that the boy had good restrain and a good head on his shoulders for he only went to incapacitate his attacker before seeing to his friend. With an unexpected strength coming from his small body, Flitwick seized Ron by the arm pits and put him on his feet forcefully. Once done, he didn't free the boy who had started to resist after the Charms teacher seized him with reasonable force by the shoulder, but he was soon cowed by the teacher's furious glare. With a voice full of authority he then barked out loud to the crowd

"Stop staring! All of you, to your next class before I start taking house points! Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley, come with me!"

Once everybody had vacated the area in hurry, he then took direction of the transfiguration classroom and took again the parole.

"I am disgusted by your behaviour Mr. Weasley! Physical violence is not permitted into this school. You are in a lot of hot water young man and on your first day! Even your older brothers Fred and George won't give us headaches so early into the school year!"

When Ron went to defend or justify himself, Flitwick cut him off quickly with a voice that broke no argument

"Be quiet, boy! We will see what your Head of House has to say about such a disgusting behaviour! You should be ashamed of yourself! A man should never sink so low as to strike a woman!"

They soon arrived at the Transfiguration classroom and it was clear that class was in session. Flitwick knocked on the door and when prompted, he opened it. They could see by the size of the students that it was probably a Fourth or Fifth Year class. Minerva raised a brow to the scene of a furious Filius, a red faced young Mr. Weasley, and a Ms. Granger with a red cheek with puffy eyes who was comforted by a stone faced Mr. Potter. Seeing without needing to be told that something big happened and would take some time to resolve, she then set her class to read a few chapters from their book on transfiguration, in silence. Leading them all to her office, once everyone was seated, she gave her colleague the floor. Said teacher was all too willing to explain what happened.

"I had just dismissed the Slytherin-Gryffindor First Year's class when I heard an altercation outside. I went to see what was happening and found young Mr. Weasley here pining Mr. Potter by his robes on the wall and explaining rather loudly that it is forbidden for Gryffindors and Slytherins to associate with each other and for Slytherins to associate with anybody else but them. Of course, that was between all the nonsense of Mr. Potter being a traitor for being sorted into Slytherin rather than Gryffindor. He then ordered Mr. Potter to stop seeing any students of the other Houses. Mr. Potter was not answering to the threats, but when Ms. Granger decided to make her point of view known, Mr. Weasley physically backhanded her across the cheek, called her, pardon my language, a bitch and started spouting his dogma to her. I saw Mr. Potter's signs of incoming wrath and that it was about to degenerate; so I was about to break it up when I saw Mr. Potter's hand reaching for Mr. Weasley's throat, but he restrained himself quite well, he only squeezed enough to make him stop shouting his vitriol before he went to console Ms. Granger. As two of the students are yours, and you are the Deputy Headmistress, I came to find you."

Filius took a deep breath and let out an exhausted sigh. Seriously, the year only just started and the Houses couldn't even get along for twenty four hours? Minerva closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose and darted her furious gaze towards the younger male Weasley, who had enough self preservation to make himself look smaller. Not that it would save him from his just punishment if she had anything to say about it and she did. Deciding to save the dogma for the last, she still could see the physical evidence for herself. Miss Granger had been struck, the mark was still clear. She then looked at Harry Potter into the eyes and she could see the silent strength behind his gaze. He was mad, but not for himself. He was mad for Ms. Granger's, his best friend, sake. Wanting to have the other testimonies in this affair before tacking through the vitriol and zealotry of the youngest male Weasley, she asked Harry first, since he seemed to be the more collected of the three.

"Mr. Potter, is what Professor Flitwick explained is true? Don't worry, you are not in trouble. You did not fight nor retaliate physically or magically, thus are in the clear as far as I am concerned."

Harry put his best thousand miles stare and fixed McGonagall in the eyes before answering

"Yes Madam. Everything Mr. Flitwick said is true. Mr. Weasley accosted me rudely and violently after class and started to accused me of being a traitor, a dark wizard and that I should be ashamed and everything between. Frankly I don't care about the pure blood dogma or the anti dark movement or even the Houses rivalries. Hermione and I have been best friends for years even before knowing about magic. I wasn't about to abandon her because my tie is colored green and silver and hers is colored red and gold. Hermione is an independent girl and after she tried to tell Mr. Weasley off for trying to put us apart, he backhanded her then started to berate her and demand her obedience from her if she doesn't want to have a hellish seven years here. Seriously, what is wrong with the guy?"

He finished with an exasperated shake of his head. Hermione, who was still in shock of have been hit like that by a classmate and ordered like she was a servant or a slave when it was still legal, only acquiesced with a movement of her head when her Head of House look towards her for confirmation. Finally, McGonagall took her predator's gaze toward Ron and ordered

"It is now your turn to explain yourself, Mr. Weasley. Do try to keep a civil tongue in your mouth though. You are already on thin ice, do not make it worse."

Ron was fuming. How come nobody was seeing what he was seeing? It was an anathema to him! A snake and a lion, friends? No, it would not happen, not on his watch. Not now, not later, not ever! He would save the naive Muggleborn girl from the blood traitor before she got killed or worse, raped. So Ron Weasley explained his case. How the worst Death Eaters and You-Know-Who's supporters in the last war all came from Slytherin House. How they had almost managed to sink their society, locking the fighting back process by pitting their politicians against their opponents. He even made use of the fact that it was illegal to fight back with potential deadly curses against Death Eaters until they were almost to the point of no return! All of that because of Slytherin Alumni, everything they cherished and loved was almost eradicated. Now, eleventh years later, the figure of hope to the Light side turned to be a traitor to Magical Great Britain and an embarrassment to the Potter family. He was only doing his citizen's duty by helping a naive and uneducated in their ways, Muggleborn girl before she could get kidnapped, and gang raped like many others like her before who had been subjected to that disgusting brand of torture during the war and then killed in horrible ways. He knew better, so she should obey him. He regretted striking her and insulting her, but she should have known better and stick to make friends with the other Houses. When asked how he had obtained his Intel for his surprisingly logical arguments, he then went to tell them how he asked every veteran Aurors and others plethora of freedom fighters who survived the war, who came to the Burrow and where willing to tell him the truth and a few times when he went to work with his father, he had managed to sneak into the D.M.L.E archives when he had his back turned. Needless to say, the teachers where both surprised and horrified that it wasn't baseless anti dark propaganda. But still, good reasons or not, he acted without proof, without the necessary authority to back it up and he still used violence against two students. As it is, Ron did merit himself a deduction of forty points to Gryffindor, a week and a half long detention with Mr. Filch and a letter to his parents would be sent, explaining the incident. He was ordered quite firmly to never hit another person like that again or he would be suspended. He was also told quite clearly that it wasn't his business if people of different Houses were seen in each other's company. After a quick healing charm to her cheek and seeing that she would be alright, Minerva wrote both Gryffindor students an excuse note for their lateness to give to professor Sprout and sent towards the Greenhouses with Professor Flitwick.

She then turned her sight toward Harry again and said in a soft tone of voice

"I am most grateful that you managed to restrain yourself Mr. Potter. With your strength you could have easily hurt Mr. Weasley, yet you made proof of a self restrain never seen on a child of your age. Thank you for that young man. Let me assure you, you won't have any problems. I will talk about it to Professor Snape before he could act on limited information. Let me write you a note and then off to your next class, which is?

Harry answered with a small smile

"I should be in Defense against the Dark Arts with Professor Quirell, madam."

She couldn't stop her smile from forming. He was such a polite young man. Severus was lucky to have him. She still didn't approve of him being a day student, but what could she do? He had access to a way of transportation without restrictions and impossible to ward against. He could leave anytime he wanted with permission or without, it didn't matter to him. She did write up the note explaining quickly that he was in a conference with her and Professor Flitwick so he shouldn't be punished for his tardiness. Once the note written and given, she then cast her patronus and had it guide Harry to his next class. She should hurry back into her own; her troublemaker senses were starting to tingle! While awed by the silver glowing cat, Harry didn't say anything but he was awed by the comforting energy radiating from the silver light.

The rest of the week was calmer. Firsties were still trying to get used to the castle, the classes were still only theory based and it was irking the students something fierce, but no one was brave or stupid enough, depending your point of view, to make it know to the teachers. They were the professionals after all. Though Harry could do without the stuttering and the garlic smell that was clogging his nose in D.A.D.A (Defense Against the Dark Arts) and the ghost teacher in History of Magic couldn't be duller. Had he been more of a rebel, he would have skipped the class entirely, but Hermione's puppy dog eyes and the threat of detentions after the school hours made him stay. He did learn quickly to ignore the teacher and read a few chapters during class though. After a few days, he had met up again with his wagon mates from the train. He was glad to see them acclimate themselves into their new House. Padma was home in Ravenclaw, Susan and Hannah couldn't be more proud to be in Hufflepuff and after Ron's dressing down by McGonagall, Hermione had regained her aplomb in Gryffindor. Seems the girls had closed the ranks between them to protect her from any retaliation Ron could dish. They were becoming close friends and it was great for everybody. Not that Harry wasn't socializing with only them, far from it. Three others First Years Slytherins had been sharp enough to deduce that Harry wasn't in school after class hours and during the week-ends. It was what prompted them to engage the conversation and the fact that he was nothing like the books said.

Daphne Greengrass, was a gorgeous long blonde haired and forest green eyed pureblood that had been raised into pure blood supremacy, yes, but her family weren't Death Eaters. They were famous fence sitters, because they couldn't stomach the atrocities committed by the Death Eaters and the narrow world view of the majority of Dumbledore's supporters. Daphne was intelligent and cunning enough to recognize that Muggle Society had promise, but she wasn't sold for the rest. Tracey Davis was a half blood brunette, a bit taller and stockier than Daphne. She had sky blue eyes and an infectious bright smile. She was also a sports fanatics, be it muggle or magical. She was brutally honest and an adept of logical reasoning. She was also cunning and subtle enough to sabotage each and every power plays made by Malfoy or Nott without getting caught. Blaise Zabini was a closed book. Harry couldn't get anything out of him except that his family was from Italy and the rumours about his mother being a black widow were totally false. She was supernaturally beautiful, true enough, but it was those scorned and rejected suitors who made those awful rumours. His father wasn't murdered; he had given his life to save his family from an attack from a vampire coven. When it was over, Raphael Zabini was dying of blood loss and the coven was obliterated. Blaise was four years old when it happened. The Zabini family were still practicing the Cult of Pluto, the ancient Roman God of the Underworld. He was nice enough and they could debate magic Vs technology for hours though. Many of the pureblood families were pagans, it seems. The Greengrass family were worshipping the ancient Celt Gods as they were from Ireland. Only Tracey and Hermione were from a modern faith. Tracy's family were Catholic. It was a rare thing in Great Britain. And Hermione's were Protestants. The Patils were Hindi, Padma had explained. Harry, in his case, he didn't have a clue. The Dursleys were Orthodox before their demise, he never knew if his birth parents were worshipping God or whoever, whatever and the Hellsing were of the Protestant faith. Vlad was Catholic before becoming a vampire.

So his circle was growing with a few visits from Parvati when she was feeling studious or fed up with girl talk. They did pick Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor. Poor kid was so meek and lacking confidence. Harry told him flat out that he would give him his excess of courage and confidence so he could still be a good Slytherin and Neville then could become a Gryffindor proud of himself. Of course, he and Hermione were attached at the hip; he was often ferrying mail between herself and her parents since he was leaving every night. On her birthday, he took her by surprise, snatching her from the shadows of her common room and sneaking her to her home for a visit with her parents. Needless to say, Emil, Danielle and Hermione were elated.

The only hiccup was his scheduled visit to the Hospital Wing. Trying to convince Matron Poppy Pomphrey that his medical records were true and not doctored in any way was a challenge. Then trying to break her rant about the impossibility of Dracula being still active and his hybrid nature took a visit from the No-Life King in person to explain things. Needless to say, the nurse was scared out of her wits but had proverbial balls of steel for not screaming when he popped out of the wall, humming a song. For his problem of using his magic, it was indeed a block on his magic that had "rusted" for lack of better term. Madam Pomphrey did confirm that the block had been put by his parents because he was a very active baby and they just couldn't keep up with him. The "rust" accumulated was the fact that the block should have been removed years ago, but since their unfortunate demise, nobody qualified could enter in contact with him or his guardians to have it removed. The simple fact that his magic had dived so deep in his D.N.A to awake Dracula's blood by bypassing the block who didn't let much magic out was amazing! With the block removed, his magic was flowing out of him like the wind; it was like it was at his fingertips! He could now feel his magical core; it was as bright and pleasant as the summer sun on his skin! Then after another boring week of class, came the new excitement, flying class! The class was taught by Madam Rolanda Hooch. It was another shared class between Slytherin and Gryffindor. The First Years got along pretty well since Harry was making efforts to fill the gap but there were still idiots and bigots in every House who refused to budge on their positions. He could understand that Malfoy and Weasley wouldn't get along; their family were at the limit of a blood feud. But Nott's comments were very irritating for many people. Malfoy and Harry would never be friends, they were too different to really work well and neither was about to back down to the other, but in the best interests of Slytherin House, they had decided to a détente. They would make common front when necessary but otherwise, they were polite to each other and took great pains to not cause each other grief. Ron Weasley was still stuck in his views and made sure to share it with as many people he could, but it seems he had learned his lesson after he received a Howler from his mother at breakfast the next day.

Madam Rolanda Hooch was a strict but caring witch who worked as the Flying instructor, Quidditch referee and coach at Hogwarts. She had spiky grey hair which was cut short and had piercing, yellow, hawk-like eyes. She usually wore a white button-down collared shirt and black necktie with the Hogwarts crest, under a cloak. Once she arrived to the Pitch, the lesson had begun finally.