I, London Man, did NOT write this story. This was written by Frosty. I am just hosting it because EF was going to cancel their account. EF allowed me to have them on my site so people can read or reread them if they wanted.

I did NOT steal this story. Also, I want to thank Frosty for letting my host their stories.

Chapter 53: Grimmauld Place

Harry Potter and the Setting Sun

Disclaimer: HarryPotter by J.K. Rowling, the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer and all related materials belong to their respective owners. This is non-profit fanfiction.

Warning: This story contains slash.

Chapter Fifty-Two – Grimmauld Place

Harry wasn't fond of portkeys. He'd only experienced them a few times before: the trip to and from the Quidditfch World Cup and the trip to and from the graveyard where Lord Voldemort regained his body. Portkey equates to Death Eaters in his mind. And Cedric Diggory.

Much like apparating, traveling by portkey isn't very comfortable. While apparition feels like being forced through a rubber hose, portkeying feels like being tossed about by a towline attached to the back of one's navel. For all that wizards and witches could do, they seemed somehow incapable of creating a comfortable means of instantaneous transport.

The eight vampires and two wizards were deposited on a darkened street corner. Harry was relieved that he managed to stay upright; he chalked that minor miracle up to his enhanced reflexes. No one toppled over when they landed, but Alice let out a giggle and asked if they could go again.

Alastor Moody began to inspect the street as soon as the group arrived. His artificial eye was spinning wildly in its socket as he checked for any signs of danger. It irked Harry that the Auror wouldn't simply ask to vampires if they could hear or see anything.

Although the corner was dark due to a broken street lamp—very convenient and likely caused by the Order to provide a discrete place to transport in and out of—the rest of the little lane was well-lit. The aged headmaster reached into his pocket and brought out a silver instrument about the size of a large pocketknife. He raised the device high above his head and flipped open the little device's cap. Once opened, he began to aim it towards the lights down the street. One by one, the street lights flared before the illumination was literally sucked into the device, leaving only an extinguished street lamp behind.

Once the street was totally dark, the headmaster put the silver device back into the pocket of his robes before motioning the assembled group to follow him.

With his vampiric eyes, Harry was able to make out the house numbers of all of the residences. Number 12 was noticeable absent. At least, it was until the group got within a dozen meters of it. Then, the terrace house magically popped up between numbers 11 and 13. The surrounding houses seemed to be pushed aside to make room for the group's destination while, at the same time, appeared not to move in the slightest. It was a bit disorienting to watch.

There was no handle on the front door of Number 12. Instead, the headmaster simply raised his wand and gently ran its tip down the front of the door. As the wand traveled on its downward path, the vampires could all hear a number of locks releasing. Once unlocked, the door swung open of its own accord.

The interior of the house was dark and solemn. The dingy carpet was threadbare and the chandelier and gas lamps cast uneven light into the room that the door opened into. The entryway was small and could barely hold the ten new occupants. Aside from a large, ugly umbrella stand that was pushed into a corner by the front door, the only thing in the entryway was a portrait obscured from view by a set of moth-eaten black curtains. Harry knew that it was a portrait behind the curtains because he could hear its occupant softly snoring. Directly opposite of the front door was a narrow staircase leading downstairs. A second staircase, this one leading up to the upper floors of 12 Grimmauld Place, was positioned to the left of the door. Off to the right was an opening into what appeared to be the only other room on the ground floor, though Harry couldn't discern what the room was from where he was standing.

"Headmaster?" the distinctive matronly voice of Molly Weasley called from the narrow staircase opposite of the door. The woman's head of thinning red hair soon popped up into sight. "Is that you? Oh, Harry! You came!" the woman cried cheerfully when she caught sight of the group of cloaked figures next to the headmaster. Although she couldn't tell who the cloaked figures were, she knew that there was a chance that Harry and his new family would be attending the meeting and so quickly deduced who the newcomers were.

When the youngest vampire's named was called, the sounds of movement erupted from all corners of the house. Several witches and wizards were soon galloping down the stairs while others began taking up positions in the little opening from the other room on the ground floor.

The commotion awoke the portrait hidden behind the black curtains. A female voice began screaming vile obscenities. "Filth! Mudbloods sullying this ancient and noble house! Death will come to you all! Vermin! Traitors!"

Sirius Black pushed his way through the throng of people standing at the entryway to the vampires' right. He rushed to the black curtains and began hushing the portrait. After several attempts, he managed to get the painting's occupant be silent once more. The dark-haired wizard then turned and looked at the eight cloaked figures expectantly.

Realizing that neither Sirius nor any of the other Order members could tell which of the cloaked vampires was him, Harry made his way to the front of the group and pulled back his hood. It was the first time any witch or wizard aside from Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody had seen Harry post-transformation. Several of them were unable to restrain their gasps of surprise as they took in his pale, angular features and dark eyes. While he still looked similar to Harry Potter, his appearance was distinctly different. Distinctly not human.

The newborn took a moment to examine the reactions of the onlookers. Ron and Hermione were shocked, but, to his great relief, neither appeared upset. The same couldn't be said for Ginny Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt; they both looked very upset. Minerva McGongall and the rest of the Weasleys—Arthur, Molly, and Charlie—looked at Harry in surprise and awe. Sirius and Remus looked hopeful at Harry's presence, but seemed unphased by his transformation.

"Hello," the newborn greeted the mostly slack-jawed occupants of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Everyone was speechless for a moment. "So, you deigned to join us, did you Potter?" a snide voice came from the room off to Harry's right to cut through the silence. The vampire could recognize the voice of Severus Snape anywhere.

"Well, there wasn't anything good on television tonight, so we didn't exactly have anything better to do," Emmett said from behind Harry. Most of the wizards and witches didn't get the joke, but Hermione Granger cracked a smile.

"Perhaps we should move this into the dining room," the headmaster suggested.

"Sure," Sirius said enthusiastically as he moved forward to clap Harry on the shoulder.

The dining room was far larger than Harry had expected it to be. The room was fairly narrow, but it was very long. The newborn vampire and his family gathered at one end of the enormous table that dominated the room. Sirius, who was initially headed towards the far head of the table, promptly switched course and positioned himself very near the vampires. If he wanted to sit any closer, he'd have to actually sit in Harry's lap. And Harry believed the Edward would have a thing or two to say about such an event.

There were a total of 21 individuals filling up the dining room up to the brim. The immortals occupied one end of the room while the wizards and witched dominated the other. The entire thing reminded Harry of a negotiation or a treaty signing with the way the two groups remained segregated from one another.

The vampires were positioned at one end of the room with Carlisle and Esme sitting at the foot of the table. Alice and Jasper sat to their left, Edward and Harry sat to their right, and Emmett and Rosalie were standing at their back.

Albus Dumbledore sat opposite Carlisle and Esme in the seat that Sirius was originally heading towards at the head of the table. Snape and Moody were standing behind the headmaster in opposite corners of the room, each sending the other hateful glances. Minerva McGonagall was acting as a buffer between them.

The space between Harry and the headmaster was filled with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and the pink-haired witch that Harry had met at the Burrow some weeks before. The tall black wizard that had accompanied Dumbledore to the Weasley house several nights before, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was standing behind Lupin with his arms crossed. Molly, Arthur, and Ginny Weasley all sat opposite of Sirius and his companions with Hermione, Ron, and Charlie standing behind them in the little opening that led back to the entryway. Ron and Hermione were sending Harry hopeful looks. Charlie, by comparison, was looking almost sympathetically at Harry, as though he felt sorry for him.

"It's good to see you," Sirius said quietly to Harry as the rest of the Order members filed into the room.

"You too," the dark-haired vampire said with a smile. His response, in return, prompted Sirius's face to split into a broad grin.

"I want to apologize for the things I said the last time we saw each other."

"The headmaster told me. I forgive you. And I understand why you acted the way you did, even if I don't like it. I freaked you out a bit with the whole sudden appearance and the marriage thing," Harry said with a slight shrug and a laugh.

"Yeah," Sirius said. He laughed as well, but his laugh was louder and deeper than his godson's. "And, I want to thank you bringing Reggie's body back. He . . . I always thought the worst of him. Dumbledore can't give me details, but he said that my brother died fighting for our side . . . and I just . . . well, thanks."

"You're welcome," Harry said as his smile grew broader. This sort of meaningful and heartfelt exchange, he thought, was the way his first reunion with Sirius should have gone.

"I believe that we should begin with introductions," Professor Dumbledore interrupted.

One by one, the vampires all pulled back the hoods on their cloaks. Edward looked at Harry and gave him a reassuring smile to urge him to begin.

"Um, well, you all know me by now. This is Edward, my husband," he said as he took the bronze-haired vampire's hand under the table. "My parents-in-law, Carlisle and Esme are at the end with Emmett and Rosalie behind them. The girl with the goofy grin is Alice and next to her is her husband, Jasper."

Most of the vampires simply nodded their heads when they were introduced, but Alice, of course, had to be different. "I like your hair," she said enthusiastically to the pink-haired witch.

"Nice to meet you all," Sirius said warmly to the vampires once the introductions were finished, much to the very visible disapproval of Mad-Eye Moody. "I'm Sirius, and this old cad on my right is Remus. The girl who looks like she's got Bubblegum in her hair is Nymph-"

"Tonks!" the girl shouted. "Just Tonks!"

Sirius laughed at the witch's outburst before going through and introducing the rest of the people in the room. When he was finished, the headmaster took back over.

"Now then, we have a very important matter to discuss this evening. As you may have noticed, I have purposefully excluded certain members of the Order this evening because of my desire to keep this matter very quiet. We will not be discussing these matters with anyone not currently present."

"If I may ask, Headmaster: why are the vampires being included?" Kingsley asked. His face had softened considerably since first seeing Harry, but his voice still carried a bit of an edge to it.

"I feel that it is very important to include Harry and his new family in this discussion. They are working with me on a very important project and have my complete and implicit trust. They, like the rest of you, are here for this meeting because I believe that it is one of you who may come up with an answer to our dilemma," the old wizard replied. "Now, Severus, if you will."

The potions professor glowered at the back of his superior's head before turning his attention to the room. "As most of you already know, Lucius Malfoy was ordered to kill the headmaster last spring. After several clumsy and failed attempts, he finally tried a frontal assault during the last Hogsmeade visit of the year. Not only did he fail in the task, but he died when the Aurors attempted to take him into custody. We have theorized for some time that Lucius was assigned this task as punishment for a previous failure, though we don't know what that failure was exactly."

Harry met the clear blue eyes of his former headmaster and understood instantly: Lucius Malfoy was being punished for the destruction of the diary Horcrux in Harry's second year.

"This theory now seems very probable because Draco Malfoy has been ordered to finish what his father began," Professor Snape continued.

"You're serious?" Arthur Weasley asked incredulously. "From what I understand, the boy is talented for his age, but he is no match for a fully trained wizard. Much less Dumbledore."

"And that's likely the point," Auror Shacklebolt said from his place by the wall. "It's suicide, but much worse. The boy has to know he can't succeed. He knows that he'll either die in the attempt or die at You-Know-Who's hand and he's got months to worry about it. He's not just going to die, he's going to suffer beforehand."

"There is more," Professor Dumbledore said gravely.

"Narcissa Malfoy and her sister, Bellatrix, visited me early last night. I had no choice but to make an Unbreakable Vow to ensure Draco succeeded."

Harry's mind drifted for a moment. He remembered seeing Narcissa Malfoy at the Quidditch World Cup. She was a tall, thin woman with aristocratic features, blonde hair, and an expression fixed to her face that made it look like she'd smelled something dreadful all her life. The vampire could visualize her grasping Snape's forearms as the magic of the Unbreakable Vow bound the two together.

"'No choice'?" Moody asked in a suspicious and gruff voice. "How is it that you had 'no choice' in the matter? You could have just said 'no'."

"He had no choice because I gave him none," the headmaster said in a quiet yet firm voice. "I instructed him to do everything he could to keep his position in Voldemort's ranks. Either he could have exposed himself by refusing the Vow or he could have made the Vow as Narcissa insisted. We can theorize about how this situation could have been avoided, but it would do us no good. What we must do at this point is to figure out how we proceed now that the Vow has been made."

Everyone began to exchange glances and quietly discuss the matter. No one had any great ideas. Most of the whispers were, in fact, disparaging comments about the potions professor.

"What exactly did you promise, Snape?" Sirius practically spat after a few moments.

The potions professor wrinkled his hooked nose in disgust at the animagus before replying. "I promised to help Draco achieve his task and, if he is unable to complete it, do the deed myself."

"Great. Just bloody great," Ron muttered.

"What happens if Professor Snape doesn't go through with it?" Jasper asked.

"The Unbreakable Vow will hold Professor Snape to his promise," Remus said in his slow and cool way. "He will keep his end of the promise, or he'll die."

"Is it really unbreakable?" Emmett asked.

Utter silence met the vampire's question. Then there was some snickering and quiet joking about the question from the wizards.

"What?" the curly-haired vampire demanded. "It's a legitimate question. Just because it's called an 'Unbreakable Vow' doesn't mean it's actually unbreakable. Sometime it's just hype."

"There is a way around the Vow, but it isn't one we will utilize," Professor Dumbledore said hesitantly from his place at the head of the table.

"What is it?" Harry demanded. When it looked like the headmaster was going to refuse to tell him, the newborn pressed the issue. "You used the Unbreakable Vow to protect my family. If there's a chance that it won't hold, then I need to know."

The old wizard opened his mouth and wet his lips before saying anything more. "That is fair enough. An Unbreakable Vow is a very durable spell, but like all magic, it has its limitations. The power behind the spell is three-fold. The Bonder's magic, the magic of the one who makes the Vow, and the magic of the one to whom the Vow is made.

"Under most spells, like the Imperious Curse, the magic begins to fade when the spellcaster dies. Because of the three spellcasters whose magic is pulled into the Vow, it is extremely durable."

"So . . ." Carlisle began hesitantly, "the spell will weaken as its participants die, but not enough for the spell to fade away."

"Yes," the headmaster confirmed. "The magic of any one of the three participants can hold the Vow tight, so the Vow can only be broken by all three parties renouncing the Vow or dying. Or some combination thereof. I ensured the safety of the Vow protecting your secret by shifting Bonders, the one who makes the Vow, and the one to whom the Vow is made amongst the members of the Order. Because the Vow requires all of those who made it to protect the secret and because there are many who are part of the chain whom will never consent to the Vow being broken, there is virtually no chance of your secret being revealed without the Order destroying itself in the attempt."

Harry and his vampire family thought the headmaster's explanation through. He was right; there was little chance of the Vows being totally broken because of how interconnected the different Vows were. There was still a chance, but it had been minimized as much as possible at this point.

"So what's the big deal?" Charlie asked. "The Bonder is a Death Eater and the Vow is held by a woman who is either a Death Eater or an unmarked supporter. Kill Bellatrix and then either kill Narcissa or force her to renounce the Vow."