I felt excessively tired that night as I roamed the castle grounds, stretching my great black wings. The cold winter air gave me a chance to think, to clear my head of the distraction of all the young, virgin blood inside the castle.

I sat upon the wrought iron battlement, crouching between the devastatingly tall spires as I stared back at Hogwarts, it's gleaming windows shining like jewels in the magnificent Gothic structure. It felt as if I were in one of the elaborate tales the count used to weave, of Impalers from Wallachia and great wars, of lost love and revenge, sorrow and grieving, and the splendor of life followed by the beauty of death.

It felt as if I were in another world, corrupt and beautiful.

My conversation with Dumbledore weighed heavily on my mind, as did what I saw in the pensive. It raised innumerable questions in my mind, few of which had answers. The few answers I was able to deduce only raised more questions, both deep and superficial.

I wondered about Dumbledore, his relationship with Gillert Gindlewald, and his relationship with the Count. Something seemed off. I had never before in my life seen the Count bow before anyone, I had never before in my life head him be subservient to anyone…but still, he bowed before Dumbledore, he had called him 'Master'…

I stretched my wings in the cold night air, ice crystals crusting my wiry black hair as it fell over my shoulders, wrapping loosely around the wrought-iron fence below my feet. In the forest behind me I could smell the animals moving around, the wolves of the forest sniffing just beyond the tree line, and beyond that, the soft, black presence that I had felt when I had arrived with Dante.

I turned my back to the castle, looking into the trees with a smile. This was my hunting ground now.

Animal blood is never as satisfying as human, and hardly the healthiest option. For a human, it would be like taking vitamins rather than ingesting tangible food, but blood is blood, and in a tight situation, it was all I had. It would keep me alive.

I finished hunting, no closer to enlightenment than when I started, but feeling considerably more powerful now that wolf-blood coursed through my veins. I took a deep 'breath', stretching my stiff muscles as I stood in the knee deep snow, stained crimson beneath me. I heard a sniffing sound and turned, looking into the face of a great, grey beast with a noble face and sun-colored eyes.

It was not afraid, despite the wolf blood staining my hands crimson, it's comrades laying dead around me in the clearing. It approached me slowly, it's muscles rippling beneath it's shaggy dark grey fur. This was not an English wolf, it's stature considerably greater than the ones I had killed, and it was old. Very old.

The fur on it's muzzle was graying around it's whiskers, it's once grand, thick fur looking shaggy and patchy, yet there was an unspeakable, indescribable dignity to this creature despite it's condition. It was a noble creature, to be respected and feared.

It's eyes never moved from mine as it circled me, as if appraising me with it's wise, amber eyes. It's shoulders dropped and it snarled before slinking away, it's tail vanishing into the slight mist that was starting to cling to the trees. I arched my back, a deep laugh erupting from my mouth. I didn't feel timid and shy anymore, I didn't feel the need to be subservient to anyone. I would free myself from the chains that bound me, and I would find the answers I needed.

I took to the sky, turning to the castle and swooping around to the infirmary, it's large windows cutting large squares of light in the sky. I landed on the sill, peering in. I could see Anna sitting beside Dante's bed, talking to him, a black-bound book balanced on her knee as her hands moved over his chest. I could smell garlic faintly, the stench repulsive as it wafted towards me.

I rapped sharply on the glass panel with one graying fist, gaining Anna's attention. She dropped the book in shock standing up and staring at me. I waved tentatively, motioning for her to open the window.

Upon recognition, she opened the window. I struggled past the panel, squeezing my wings in as tight as physically possible and landing with a soft 'thump' on the pads of my feet.

"Integra…?"

"This, Anna, is a vampire's true form…" I said, stretching my rumpled wings. Anna flinched slightly as the flesh-covered appendage narrowly missed her head. "How are you doing? How's Dante?"

"I knew that vampires could shape shift but…" She ran a soft hand along the cartilage of the wing, her fingers dancing over the small hooked nodule a the end. "What's your wing span?"

I folded my wings against my back. "It's a little under six meters…"

She made an impressed sound, and I couldn't help but feel a surge of pride. I had never shown anyone my vampire form in such a casual situation, certain that anyone who saw it would be afraid or repulsed, but Anna wasn't phased at all.

"Dante is having some problems with the methods I'm using." Anna said quietly, her attention falling back to her charge as we stepped towards him. "I managed to find a crucifix in Hogsmead yesterday, and the garlic seems to be making him sick, though it seems as though his teeth aren't as sharp as they used to be…"

I rounded the edge of his bed, getting full view, but staying a decent distance away form him.

"The garlic is enough to keep me away…that's horrible!" I gasped, covering my nose with my hand. Dante looked sick, his cheeks sunken and his hands horribly knobbed despite his young age.

"Ah, Integra…I am glad you came!" Dante said, sitting up slightly. He seemed unnaturally weak, and his dark eyes were barely open.

"How are you feeling, Dante, answer me truthfully."

"I'd feel better if you came closer." He said, forcing a smile. "The only thing better for a man than one beautiful woman is two."

"Enough of the 'beautiful women' bollocks, I can't come closer. The garlic is getting to me…" I said softly, sitting down on the railing of the bed across form his. "How do you feel."

"Ah, I feel terrible, signorina! This garlic and…" He motioned to the rosary around his neck.

I was quite shocked to see him cross himself after saying this, but I nodded nonetheless, exchanging glances with Anna, who had retrieved the black-bound book from the place it had fallen.

"Do you feel nauseous, Dante?"

"Si, Integra, I feel terrible!"

"He hasn't been able to eat solid food, either…" Anna said quietly, looking at me with a blank expression. I looked down at my bare feet.

"Is that so?"

Anna nodded and my shoulders fell, turing back to Dante. "Have you felt any pain?"

"Si, it's all over my veins…like fire…"

"If you still feel pain then it's a good sign." I looked at Anna, and she nodded.

"You should probably get some rest. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be in to check on you in a few minutes." Anna said, clutching her book to her stomach.

"I'll take my leave, Dante. Good night." I said with a slight nod, standing up and turning back to the window. Anna grabbed my hand before I could leave.

"Meet me in the Library in one hour."

I nodded, looking deep into her eyes with a smile. "You read my mind."

XxX

The Library was completely dark when I opened the door, back in my 'human' form and clothed in a thick sweater.

The moon filtered in through the plate glass windows, casting an eerie light across the dusty books and abandoned quills. I found a table, draping my book bag across the back of the chair and turning back to the books. Anna was late, but I wasn't particularly offended. She had a way of knowing things about me, a way of knowing when I was in turmoil and needed alone time.

My fingertips moved along the books, ever-searching for answers. I smelled Anna's scent coming closer, the door opening quietly and shutting behind her.
"Integra, are you here?"

"Yes, I'm back here." I called. I was almost to the restricted section, staring at the shelf across from it; the Vampire section. I felt her coming closer, rounding the shelf at the end and leaning against the barrier of the restricted section.

"What do you make of Dante?"

"He's a flapper." I said simply, reaching up and grabbing a book that seemed relevant to my research. "What do you think?"

"Be serious, Integra." Anna said, grabbing another book from the shelf and looking down at it. "I'm worried about him."

"I am, too…to be honest." I said, looking plainly at her. There was something in that room that night, a cold chill like an adrenaline rush, the same feeling that one has when they fall in love.

"I saw… Madame Pomfrey showed me his injury…I saw what you did."

"It's terrible, isn't it?" I said quietly, looking down at the book in my hands. "What I did to him…"

"How did it happen, honestly?" She asked, her hair the color of molten silver in the pale moonlight as she led me along the isles of shelves back to the table.

"I came across someone in the cemetery in Cheddar, someone I thought I couldn't trust. I was going to shoot him but Dante intervened. I accidentally shot him, and when I smelled the blood…"

"You had an automatic reaction to the scent of blood, is that what you are saying?" Anna asked plainly, looking at me from over the top of her glasses.

"I turned on my friend like an animal."

Anna sat down in silence, opening the book in her hands. I remained standing.

"Yeah, you did." Anna said with a poisonous bluntness. "But there's something more to this than that."

"What are you saying?"

"Dante has scars on his neck. I don't know of you'd seen them or not. I saw something very similar to it on your neck…and I know it doesn't come with being a Vampire, but it may come from one."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I want the whole story. I want to know everything that happened." She said, reaching into her backpack and handing me a notebook and a muggle pen. "Write it down, all of it. I think he was bitten by a Vampire long before you came in."

"His mother was a Vampire…" I said, taking the pen and paper from her. "It's possible, but…I'm getting confused…that is too complicated."

Anna sighed, giving me an almost patronizing look.

"What I'm saying is that you might not be the one responsible for Dante becoming a vampire. I think he was bitten by a vampire, then you were bitten by a vampire again…and that's what lead you to attack him."

"What?" I asked, my brain buzzing dully.

"When a vampire drinks the blood of another vampire, they are infected with the Methuselah's Thirst, and go after the blood of other vampires, particularly ones that are of the same race." She passed the book to me, pointing at the entry she had been reading. "You were bitten by a vampire, hence the gash in your neck. Dante was already showing mild signs of vampirism when you guys left Italy, hence the hole in his hand. It was infected with Holy Water, and eating away at his hand. It would explain why you attacked him in the cemetery. You wanted his blood, because regular blood no longer satisfied you."

My mind was reeling from all the information she was feeding me.

"But he would be a Sanguarian, not a Nosferatu. His mother was a Sanguarian."

"That's what troubles me. It would mean that there's another Nosferatu that infected him." she said, leaning back thoughtfully, pulling a second notebook out of her book bag. "But I don't fully understand how Vampire lineages work."

I looked up at her from the notebook she'd handed me, my handwriting already having filled up two pages.

"I wish this was all covered in Dracula, but since it was written from the perspectives of the Harkers and company…" She said leaning back in her chair.

"The Harkers?" I said suddenly, dropping the pen on the floor. "What is with 'Dracula'? How do you know about him?"

Anna looked startled. "Have you never read Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'?"

I stared at her blankly, the blood in my veins quickening. "No, I haven't…"

Anna rummaged through her pack, a frown crossing her features.

"Oh, I left it with Dante…but Integra, seriously, what is your relation to Dracula? You are Nosferatu, according to this book, you fall into that species. Dracula was also a Nosferatu…"

"Vlad Dracula, Count of Wallachia was my Master. He's the one that turned me into a vampire. He's the one that taught me everything I know about being a vampire."
"I hope you aren't joking." Anna said dully, her green eyes flashing softly in the moonlight.

"I'm not…I can take you to his tomb in Hogsmead."

Anna was quiet.

"Dracula was work of fiction." she said patiently, as if explaining it to a very stupid child.

"He was not…he was killed by You-Know-Who's followers years ago…he fought to protect the Living…I didn't know about this 'Harker' nonsense until recently."

"Dracula had mistresses back in Romania that were killed by Jonathan Harker, Mina's husband. Dracula went after Mina to avenge them…"

"I don't know, what to believe anymore. I had been told that his brides were killed, and…" I stopped, anger surging through my veins. "Oh, damn it all!" I slammed my hands down on the table, the wood cracking slightly. "He never told me of Mina Harker, he told me of his 'lost' loves back in Wallachia, that some fuck ass had murdered them, he told me of Abraham Van Hellsing, the famed vampire hunter, but nothing of the Harkers. But I know…damn it all!"

My fingers hooked under the bottom of the table and I overturned it with a mighty crash, splintering the oak with one flick of my wrist. Papers flew everywhere and I fisted my hands in my hair as she looked on.

Anna looked nonplussed, and said nothing to voice her thoughts. An awkward silence befell the darkened library, dust particles and parchment drifting slowly downward through the wintry moonlight like snowflakes. I hadn't let my mouth fly like that in many years.

"Lets just…we need to focus on Dante…" Anna said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper, though her eyes had taken on a slight hardness in the corners.

"Yeah. Let's get on it." I snapped, correcting the table and picking up the papers. I felt angry and betrayed, perhaps blaming Anna slightly for this new revelation. I was also embarrassed at my outburst, and Anna seemed a little more distant afterwards.

But at the end of the night, Anna was still Anna, and we had forgiven all 'transgressions', real or imagined.

XxX

A/n: I've had a lot of time to work on this lately. It's kind if nice but it gets dull after a while. I just cant seem to find the inspiration to pick my other stories back up :/