Ok, before we even start this I would like to say thank you to everyone who actually reviewed these chapters! It was nice to find that people were giving feedback but I feel like I'm now going to disappoint a few people.

I am very sorry that this chapter is short. I understand that since I've keep going away for a while you all want to see longer chapters, stuff worthy of having to wait so long for it and I feel like a bit of a let down because I'm not really keeping up with that. But I promise the next couple of chapters will be longer. Which is also part of my other news.

This story is nearly finished. In fact there will only be TWO more chapters (I promise you and myself) in this story and perhaps an epilogue. You will probably all kill me for how I end to finish this because a major character does not make it, unfortunately. I cried a little too when I planned it, but I will say no more.

I'm afraid I don't know when the next update will be because I'm doing my GCSE's. HOWEVER, I only have two more exams left until I am finished with Year 11 forever! This means I will have more writing time on my hands although I seem to be writing more and more fanfics and will hopefully be finishing and reposting some of my old ones, but we will see. Anyway, I'm sure you all want to actually read this chapter instead of reading me waffle on with excuses as to why this is a kind of filler chapter before the end (I swear, will give longer updates).

Disclaimer: I do not own Darren Shan or Harry Potter. It would be awesome if I did.

Darren's POV

I paced. It was one of the dullest things I could possibly be doing at this moment in time but it was all I could think of doing. Not much was really going on at the moment. Well, nothing that I was really interested in anyway. Steve was talking to his vampaneze, telling them that they would be leaving that night and Voldemort was off prattling to his death eaters (really confusing name because as far as I knew it was impossible to eat death) about how he would win this war and rid the world of Muggles. I got the feeling that my father had been whispering in his ear for a long time. Did he always have a back-up plan?

It didn't matter at the moment. I just hoped that Harry would find the message I left for him in the book earlier.

It was interesting, finding out what these powers entailed, especially now that I had all this time on my hands perversely. It was almost fun if you didn't count the fact that I was playing with deadly forces which could possibly destroy the world if I let them get at me. I had discovered that any shadow was mine to control and it had taken some time to perfect the art of getting one particular shadow to be able to leave a message. I wasn't sure why I picked the book. It just seemed like a sensible thing to do. Leave a cryptic message in a cryptic book made sense to me, if maybe perhaps not to the rest of the world. Getting writing materials for my shadow to write with had been simple. My dormitory mates had huge stashes of quills and spare ink for use throughout the year. I only felt a little guilty for stealing some of Ron's, not that either of us was particularly friendly towards each other.

This prison, whilst annoying, was also rather helpful. I was able to see that Vancha spent most of his time under my bed (a little creepy considering I thought he slept in the dungeons. Why was he even under my bed in the first place?) And that Ron actually hated me because his family had bad dealings with rogue vampires. I shuddered at that thought and hoped that this rivalry would come to an end after this war. I knew that trouble was coming. This was only the calm before the storm.

I paced up and down again, my attention fixed on Sirius and Voldemort. The death eaters hadn't done anything to Sirius yet but I got the feeling that they were leading up to something. They were setting a trap, luring Harry in to kill him. And with few voices of reason behind him and Evanna unable to directly help (although the fact that she was trying to find a way out for me made me think that I wasn't the only one who had inherited our father's cunning), he would most likely make a wild run for his godfather. I could understand since Sirius was Harry's last relative (the things you find out from asking portraits and stalking ghosts. I was amazed at how chatty they all were. You would have thought that someone spoke to them in the last hundred years or so) but it didn't stop this course of action from being brash and under-thought. Harry had no plan and had no warning of what my father was actually planning. And I had a horrible feeling about what was coming.

One, two, three, four… One, two, three, four… Four paces were about as far as I could walk before being engulfed by darkness which, although not scary, was not exactly comfortable. I might have powers over shadows but it still didn't mean that I was completely at ease in the pitch darkness. Just as I turned to pace another four paces a light filled the darkness.

Darren… It was Evanna! Her voice sounded far away, which gave me the funny feeling that I only had a short amount of time before I would never be able to leave. This in mind I rushed at the light, without a second thought.

Third Person

Ron was feeling sorry for himself. Harry and Hermione had rushed off somewhere after Harry had some dream about Sirius and neither had bothered to include. They had muttered something about the Forbidden Forest, Hermione trying to get Harry to listen but Harry, as usual, was having none of it. He had shouted at her and run off, Hermione following, both forgetting to even think about him. Ron felt as if he had been let down.

He scowled as he found himself in the library. Of all the places he could end up, he ended up in the library! He hated the library! It was where Hermione spent most of her time and where he and Harry and Hermione had had some of their greatest moments. And then that bloody vampire had come in and split them apart. Ron couldn't believe that he had lost so many friends recently. No one was bothered about Ronald Weasley anymore. He was just the one that used to hang out with Potter. He one who had fallen out of favour. They spent all their time wandering around with the vampire who didn't spare a thought for Ron or his feelings. Some Prince he thought.

As Ron turned to leave he was almost ploughed over by someone trying to get into the library. Ron let out a shout as they both went tumbling to the floor.

"Watch where you're bloody going!" Ron shouted, before realising that the person he had been shouting at was actually the vampire he had just been thinking about. What was his name? Darren.

"Huh?" he said, looking around and frowning as he didn't see who he probably wanted to see. "Oh, sorry." The vampire reached out a hand which Ron ignored and pushed himself to his feet.

"If you're looking for Harry and Hermione they ran off. Kept muttering about Snuffles. Thought you would have been with them," Ron muttered spitefully, a tiny amount of glee entering his heart from the fact that he hadn't been the only one left behind. Apparently, Darren didn't think this was good news.

"He did WHAT/" he shouted, his eyes wide. Ron stared at the frantic look that he was being given as the vampire took him by the shoulders. "How long ago?"

"Don't touch me!" Ron cried, struggling to get out of the vampire's grip. Darren loosened his grip but didn't let him go.

"How long ago, Ronald?" Darren growled, his eyes glowing red slightly. Ron gulped, getting the feeling that this was dangerous territory.

"I don't know! An hour ago maybe…" He trailed off, unhappy that he didn't know any more than that. Darren took a deep breath and let him go.

"I need your help. And so does Harry," he added as he noticed Ron beginning to inch away. Ron stopped then. Harry might have forgotten him but he wasn't going to forget his friendship with Harry just yet.

"What is it?" Ron asked, an old worry about Harry clawing its way out of its hole in his chest.

"Voldemort has Sirius," Darren said, ignoring Ron's flinch and questioning look. "It'll take too long for me to explain how I know that so you'll just have to trust me. The point is that this is a trap. The vampaneze leave tonight and Voldemort plans to attack tomorrow, but if harry knows about Sirius he'll just attack now. And Voldemort has an entire army of death eaters out there!"

"I'll help but please!" Ron cried. "Stop. Saying. His. Name!" Darren looked confused but said nothing, taking off down the corridor, a nod of understanding to Ron. Ron didn't say anything else and simply took out his wand and ran after Darren. For the first time he wasn't afraid of the vampire. In fact, now all he wanted to do was help him save Harry.

Yeah, all I can say is please review. I actually update faster with reviews than without them. No joke.