"There must be something!" Harry said as he slammed the dusty old volume that he was reading shut spraying a large amount of dust in my direction.
"I don't know there might be somewhere, but it's not here." I said closing the book that I was reading and picking up another one which looked no more hopeful than the one that I had just put down. It was the night before the Christmas holidays began and Harry and I were hauled up in the library researching for ways to help him give Rose her life back. It's not that I mind being in the library I love it, to see all those books that I have never read before stacked up on those shelves! It's a rush, well for me anyway. Since Harry and Rose came back from the woods together after their broomstick ride Rose had told that she was a Vampire, she didn't want us to be left in the dark about who she was any longer, Ron freaked out but after a while Harry managed to calm him down. A few days after that Harry came to me asking for help, he gave me the outline of what he and Rose had talked about, no exact details, but I understood, she wanted to be human, to be human for Harry.
Since then Harry and I, and Ron on sparse occasions have been researching, looking for ways of granting her with human life again, but so far we have found nothing. There was a hit in one or two books towards an old scripture from over 3000 years ago, but there seems to be no documented account of it anywhere, though to be honest we haven't got much past the school library. Rose of course doesn't know about this, that's another thing that makes it harder to research we have to wait for moments when she's not around which is a lot harder than it sounds as her and Harry are almost inseparable. We have nearly torn the whole library apart, we've looked in the restricted section and everything!
I think Harry wanted to give her human life as a Christmas present or something but it looks like he won't be able to, in a few hours we are leaving to go to Harry's house where we will be spending the Christmas holidays, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Rose and me. The Weasley's are coming over for Christmas day as well as Lupin and Tonks, and so is Rose's family, but I don't think the Weasley's know what they are. Sirius is coming back just before Christmas but we don't know when exactly, he was coming to stay and then continue on his travels, Harry told him about Rose, but I don't think he told him everything either...I'm getting worried about how this is all going to end and on Christmas!
Enough worrying though, I've got to do one last sort through these books before we go just to check that we haven't missed anything. Harry had lapsed into and angry silence flicking the pages over with such force that I'm afraid that he might rip them. "Hang on!" I say catching a glipse of something on one of the pages that Harry angrily flipped past.
"What?" He said suddenly alert and hopeful. "You seen something?"
"I think I just might have." I said reaching over to take the book from him and flicking back to the page. How did I not notice that! "The symbol." I say staring at it transfixed.
"Yes?" Harry asked looking at it. "What is it?"
"I've never seen this before." I looked more closely at it squinting.
Harry groaned. "Hermione I know you like to broaden your horizons and all but could you do it another time please!"
"Harry I'm not just trying to broaden my horizons, I think this could have something to do with that text mentioned." I said glaring at him from over the book.
Harry turned read. "Sorry." He said sheepishly.
"Just give me a minute, I might be able to work out what it means." I squinted back at the symbol on the page trying to work out what it was, but I had no clue, it was nothing like I have ever seen in my ancient runes books it looked more like Egy-
"That's Egyptian Mione." A gruff male voice sounded suddenly behind me making me jump.
"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed as he got up to hug his godfather. "What are you doing here?" He asked as Sirius sat down at the table taking the seat in between Harry and me after chucking the books off the chair.
"I thought that I would pop in and take a look and see what Moony's office is like." He chuckled.
"Sirius, what did you mean that this was Egyptian?" I asked pointing to the symbol in the book too engrossed in trying to find out what it was to actually welcome him.
"The symbol its Egyptian, and nothing that you would learn at school." He laughed looking down at it again.
"What does it mean? And how do you know what it is?" Harry asked back on task and excited at the prospect of finding out a possible way to find the solution that we had been looking for.
"It's the Egyptian symbol for The undead. And why shouldn't I know it young Harry, my talents are not just confined to mischief you should know that." Sirius grinned again before picking up the book and scanning the page. "Why are you looking at stuff on vamp's anyway? You're not thinking of joining the ranks of the undead are you?" He said looking between us slightly worried. "Because let me tell it's not all eternal life and beauty, their mindless fiends interested in looking for their next meal, you would feed off you're closest friend if you saw them." Sirius said shaking his head and looking grim.
"Have you ever met any?" I asked confused by his behaviour , it was strange to see Sirius not in a good mood.
"No, if I had I doubt that I would be alive." He paused for a moments before continuing. "But an old friend of mine has, brutal it was ripped to shreds that poor guy." Sirius looked grim for a moment before looking up at the two of us. "So what are you doing with these books?"
Harry hesitated and so did I, after what he had just said I don't think that it would be incredibly bright to tell him that we were looking to help Harry's new girlfriend who just so happened to be a member of the undead club.
"Erm..." Harry said looking at me. "Class project." He tried.
For a second I thought Sirius would see right through this feeble lie, but he didn't. "Anything that I can help you with?" He asked grinning.
"Yes, do you know what this symbol of the undead means." I asked pointing at the symbol again.
"That..." Sirius said thinking. "Well there is this document that's over 3,000 years old, around the time when that symbol would have been used."
"I know, we read something about that document but no details about it, there was nothing in any of these that would give us any information on what the document contains or where we could find it." I said in despair, we had been going round in circles.
"Of course you haven't you're looking in the totally wrong place." Sirius said.
"What?" Harry said confused. "This is all there is on vampires where else are we supposed to look?"
"You could start at papers with Egyptian symbols on, the document that you are looking for is supposed to have instructions to return the being back to human life, like give back the soul of the person." Sirius said leaning forward slightly.
"Soul?" Harry and I said together.
"Yeah, don't you two know what happens to people when they get turned into vampires?" Sirius asked back. Harry and I shook our heads, we didn't think looking up what happens; we concentrated upon looking for reversal. "What happens is basically this, when a vampire bites it injects venom into your body to replace the blood that it takes out, usually vampires just suck the person dry till they are dead, but if they want to turn them they keep the person just alive enough for the venom to travel round the body. Once the venom gets into your body it's a painful process as it changes you, it kills you then brings you back, but the most painful thing is that you lose your soul, that's nothing to do with God or anything the muggles believe, it's the part of you that tells right from wrong, gives you remorse, that kind of thing, it's the part of magic that everyone has in them, when that is removed you don't feel remorse, your an animal I guess." Sirius finished leaning back in his chair.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked looking confused.
"Yep 'fraid so." Sirius said looking slightly grim again.
"Thanks Sirius, you were..." I said looking at Harry's downtrodden face. "You were a great help."
"No problem." He said getting up and starting to walk away. "I think I may go and find Mooney now, surprise him. See you two later at home, can't wait to meet your girlfriend Harry from what you've said she sounds great." He gave Harry a clap on the back before walking out the Library.
We sat there in silence for a few minutes pondering over what Sirius had said, Harry looked glum, it couldn't be true, there was no way that a vampire was just an animal with no sense of remorse, Rose did feel. "Harry..." I said quietly. "Sirius is wrong, he must be, Rose, she's nothing like what he described."
"I know." Harry said looking up. "I think we better go, it's getting late, the others will be wondering where we are." He said picking up the book he was reading, closing it and placing it back on the shelf where it belonged.
"Harry I'll clear up, you still have a few things to pack." I said looking at his sorry face.
"You sure?" He asked.
"Yeah, go." I said, Harry walked out, I went over to the shelf where he had placed the book, I took it back out and put it in its correct place. I walked back over to the table where the book with the Symbol was still lying open, I closed my eyes, trying to ignore what I was about to do, I heard the ripping, and there it was the page with the symbol on it in my hand and the book still on the table.
//Harry//
'What Sirius said must be rubbish it can't be true!' I thought as I walked through the deserted corridors alone. 'She's no animal, she has remorse!' there must be something that I can do.
"Hey Harry!" I heard a voice behind me. I turned to look at who it was. Oh god it was Colin! I continued walking acting as if I had not heard him. "Harry, Harry!" He continued to all after me, I could hear his feet they were running. I could no longer ignore him so I turned around to look at him.
"What do you want Colin?" I asked politely waiting for that moment where he would hold up his camera, but he didn't, instead his handed me a piece of parchment.
"This is for you, it's from Dumbledore, he wants you to come to his office." Colin said panting.
"His office?" I asked confused looking at the parchment, I opened it, there was one word written there in curly green hand writing 'Bubblegum'. "Is this a joke?" I asked looking at Colin.
"No, he gave it to me just now as I passed the gargoyle down there, asked me to give this to you." Colin said. "Harry are you in trouble or something?" He asked his eyes gleaming with excitement.
He thought he was going to be getting the inside scoop on why I had been called to Dumbledore's' office, like I would tell him even if I knew. "Colin, trust me if I knew you would be the first to know okay." I said folding up the parchment and putting it in my pocket. "Which gargoyle?"
Colin pointed me to the one, I walked up to it feeling slightly stupid, I assumed the password was 'bubblegum' even so I felt quite strange at saying it in the middle of the corridor. "Bubblegum." The gargoyle jumped aside and let me though to the winding staircase that brought me up to a oak door which I knocked at.
"Come in." Said the voice behind the door and I entered. "Ah Mister Potter take a seat." Dumbledore said welcoming me in and gesturing to the seat in front of his desk.
I sat down looking at the sleeping portraits on the wall above Dumbledore's desk. "You wanted to see me sir." I said looking back at him.
"Yes I did Harry, may I call you Harry." He asked smiling.
"Yes." I said confused.
"Thank you, I just always think that first names are right for these kind of meetings." He said folding his hands. "Sherbet lemon?" He asked signalling a bowl on the side of his desk.
"Erm, no I'm fine." Maybe Ron was right that he was out of his mind.
"Now Harry tell me how exactly do you feel about Rose?"
I stared blankly back? He was asking me about my love life! I opened my mouth to tell him that it was none of his business before deciding to be truthful, there must be some reason for him to be asking about this. "Well...I love her." I said going a bit red, this is not the kind of conversation that I would like to be having with my headmaster.
"Good, good." He said smiling. "Now you want to give her her life back?"
"How do you..." Dumbledore held up his hand.
"Harry I know a lot more than you might think, and I want to assist." He stood up and walked over to a cabinet and took out a slab of stone. "I believe you wanted this." He said placing the stone on the desk and beckoning me towards it.
I looked at it, it was fully of symbols I had no idea about, then I saw the one symbol in the top corner. "This is about the undead." I said quietly not wishing to believe it.
"Yes, took me about a while to track it down but its here." He smiled at me again and I couldn't help but smile back.
"I don't know what to say, thank you."
"Don't worry about it Harry, it's the least I could do for Rose, she deserves a life, a full life." He paused. "Now let me tell you a little something that your godfather missed out about vampires." He sat down again and so did I. "Now, quite a lot of them are how he described them, mindless killing machines, but some, some have a little bit of themselves inside, those are the ones that have remorse and feeling. They usually group together as a family and create strong bonds, some find soul mates who are the ones they will been drawn to for eternity." He paused again and looked at me. "It seems that you are Rose's, I knew there was something guiding her to here, her magic was calling to Hogwarts and I replied by bringing her here and now I know why. Destiny." He stopped and looked down at the stone again. "Harry you now have to decide if you want to risk everything for her."
Did I want to risk everything for her? "I do. I'll do anything it takes, just tell me." I said standing up.
"You do know there is still a chance that she could say no? She could decide to be with her family." I nodded.
"But I have to try don't I?"
"Yes, yes you do." Dumbledore got up and walked round the table. "To return a vampire back to human form you have to pass four tests, one of knowledge, one of bravery, one of faith and one of love." He looked hard into my eyes, it felt as if he was penetrating though me. "Are you ready?"
"I am?" I said hoping that I was.
"Okay, read this." He handing me a sheet of parchment that had words written on it.
"I call upon the underlord, the keeper of the keys and the angels in the heavens, here me now, enslaved in eternal life no more, drinker of human flesh no more, I call upon thee to release thy hold and bring back the soul from the earth below." The office started to shake, there was a ripping sound and out of nowhere a swirling portal opened.
"Harry go now! Before it is too late!"
Without knowing where I was headed I walked into the swirling mass of darkness before me and I was swallowed up by hell. Harry