Chapter 21

After looking at all the pictures and telling Harry about all the places we decided to stay at Mundego Manor. Harry's thinking was that he could train. Since I had been around so long I knew some tricks that even Dumbledore didn't. Right now we were in the library looking for books.

I was up on a ladder while Harry was looking through some desks. "How about Animagus training?" I shouted down to him.

"You have a book on that?" He asked in shock.

"There's a whole section up here." I said with a laugh. I learned how to do that centuries ago just because I was bored. "I can help you even more than these books if you want. I learned that centuries ago." I said.

"Seriously?" He asked. "I thought it took months."

"It can." I said while climbing down from the ladder with the books. "It takes some people years. It all depends."

"On what?" He asked. I smiled at Harry's confused face.

"Well before you can become an Animagus you have to find your spirit animal and that can take a while. Besides, some people don't even have a spirit animal." I said while opening one of the books. "This potion takes a long time to make as well. I could probably make the potion while you're at school and we could do the ritual during the summer."

Harry smiled and then frowned. "I have to stay at the Dursley's during the summer so the wards hold."

I laughed at that. "Harry, Mundego Manor is one of the most protected places on earth. Hogwarts itself is the only thing comparable to it."

"Really?" Harry asked wide eyed. I nodded. "Then I could stay here with you instead of going back." Harry looked so excited that I started laughing. "But wait, are you sure you're okay with this? I feel kind of bad practically moving into your house."

I smiled. "Harry we already decided to spend eternity together. That's even more binding then getting married. Whatever I have is yours, it already says so on our vaults."

Harry's frowned deepened. "You changed the names on our vaults?" He sounded mad.

"No I didn't. It's magic." I sighed, this was always hard to explain. "Vampires mate for life so Gringotts has some kind of magic that senses when we find our mates. It's not permanent until we mate and I turn you but it still marks our intent."

"This is really that big of a deal?" Harry asked quietly.

I nodded. "I know you're only 16 but in my world this is something that you don't think about. When you find your mate's scent you don't think you just take them. You bite each other right where your neck meets you shoulder to mark each other and that bond is never severed. Even if one of them dies the other can't live. Half of them is gone." I stayed silent after that. I had helped more than one vampire kill themselves after their mate died.

Harry lifted my chin so I had to look him in the eye. "So when you first smelt me you wanted to bite me?"

I smiled. "A little. You smelled better than most humans but I have had over three hundred years practicing my control."

We stood there smiling for a couple minutes but then I pulled away. "We are supposed to be looking." I said, teasing him. He laughed and I went back up the ladder. Damn. Her butt looks really good. I should make her climb ladders more often. I looked down and Harry blushed. "So you like my butt?" I said with a laugh.

His blush deepened. "Well at least I'm only looking at your butt." We both laughed at that.

We spent the next couple hours gathering books. Harry had stowed most of them in his trunk and we were watching TV. I was leaning back on Harry and he was holding me. After this morning we both felt very comfortable.

For some reason we ended up watching SpongeBob and we just cracked up. "Why is this so funny?" Harry gasped between his laughs.

"I don't know but it is." I said through my giggles. We continued to laugh until my phone rang. "Hello?" I asked.

"Danielle." I heard Esme say. "I wanted to ask you about Christmas. I know Harry is staying with you so you don't want to be at the shelter but I wanted to ask if you two wanted to come over on Christmas day for a little while."

I turned towards Harry. "Hang on." I put the phone down. "Do you want to meet up with the family for Christmas day?" Harry looked shocked.

"Yeah. I've never been to a family Christmas before." He said.

I smiled and picked the phone back up. "We'll be there and I'll be happy to help out at the shelter too. It seems a shame to break our tradition."

I could hear Esme smile. "Ok. Come over around the normal time and harry can floo over around noon if he wants."

"Alright. I'll see you then. Bye." We both hung up then.

"What shelter?" Harry asked.

"Esme and I cook huge meals every year at times like this and donate them to a random shelter. Since we can't eat it just makes sense to give our food to others." I said, shrugging.

Harry looked at me for a moment before smiling. "I never thought vampires would be into charity work." We both laughed at that. "Seriously though, I didn't think you did charity work considering how old you are."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you calling me old?" I asked jokingly. Harry stuttered but I waved my hand. "When you live as long as I have you see the suffering that goes on in this world. We don't need much to live and the fact that we have more than the people who need it gets to you after a while." I sighed. "We represent so much evil and it feels nice to do good."

Harry pulled me closer. "I know you. You are not evil and I doubt you ever could be." He kissed my hair. I sat there in his arms and for once, I actually believed it.

Sorry for the wait but I just haven't wanted to write. I swear I'll try to update more often.