I do not own Harry Potter or gain anything from writing this other than the opportunity of expanding on an already brilliant universe for my own entertainment, and hopefully yours.

CHAPTER 9 - TENEBROUS PARTY

Harry was in a predicament. He has been in many life or death situations in the past, but it seemed likely this wasn't something he would get out of unscathed. Three sets of eyes were on him, another set in the corner, rolling in annoyance.

'Well you see-'

'Harry will obviously take me,' Luna Lovegood interrupted serenely. 'We've been together since the beginning of term after all.'

'The thing is-'

'Well maybe, but I have known him since first year,' Susan argued heatedly, 'and we have a lot of time to make up for in a romantic sense.'

'It doesn't really-'

'Well you two are too busy bickering anyway so he can just take me as a friend, right Harry?' Hannah Abbott said calmly.

'We could just-'

'How does that make any sense?' Susan cried. 'It's just a waste of a good date!'

'If you'd just listen-'

'How would taking me be a waste?' Hannah snapped. 'Just because I don't bend over at his whim?!'

'I would never-'

'I do think that makes a rather large difference actually,' Luna said dreamily. 'It is Harry's favourite position after all.'

'It is?' Susan asked eagerly.

'GIRLS!' Harry said loudly, making them all turn toward him, eyebrows raised.

In a panic, Harry did what he always does when he had no clue what he was doing.

'Er, Hermione,' he said desperately, 'what should we do?'

Hermione looked up from her book for only a moment before she looked back down.

'It's simple really,' Hermione said in a bored voice. 'What do you think Professor Slughorn would say if you showed up with three dates?'

'Er, he'd probably just laugh and say I'm brilliant I suppose,' Harry said with a furrowed brow.

'Exactly,' Hermione said in finality.

Harry turned back to the three girls who had thoughtful expressions on.

'What do you think?' he asked tentatively.

'I suppose that's fine,' Susan said with a shrug.

'I think it's rather brilliant actually,' Luna said airily.

'I don't know,' Hannah said with a frown. 'I don't want to be part of the Harry Potter foursome rumour.'

'It doesn't have to be a rumour you know,' Luna said absently.

Hannah shot Luna an angry look but the Ravenclaw just hummed serenely and pretended not to notice. Which perhaps she didn't. Harry however turned back to Hermione.

'Why don't you take Hannah,' Harry suggested, making Hermione look up sharply. 'As friends,' he added quickly. 'That's what Tracey and Daphne are doing, and you already said you weren't interested in finding a date.'

Hermione mulled it over a bit then glanced at the hopeful Hufflepuff.

'I suppose that makes sense,' Hermione said, turning back to her book.

'Great!' Harry said. 'It's all settled then.'

On the night of the Christmas party Harry and Hermione walked down to the great hall to greet their friends. Harry wore black dress robes made of Acromantula silk that shimmered as he moved. His hair was slicked back in a failed attempt to manage it, though according to Hermione the effect was quite dashing. Harry had a sneaking suspicion she had just given it up for a lost cause.

Hermione wore a very pretty peach-coloured dress, her hair pinned back to create a simple but attractive look. They walked arm in arm and received many jealous glares from girls. Jealous of Hermione or else just jealous of not being invited to the party.

They arrived at the same time as the two Hufflepuff girls who were both looking quite striking. Susan wore a wine red dress that complemented her lighter red hair nicely without clashing. The dress was skin tight from ankle to chest, with straps around her arms, leaving her shoulders bare. Harry had a difficult time tearing his eyes away from her ample cleavage but when he did he found an equally stunning Hannah. She wore a golden cocktail dress with a matching gold shrug. Her blonde hair was styled over her right shoulder with one eye being mostly covered.

'Wow,' Harry said, genuinely impressed. 'You two look amazing.'

'You don't look half bad yourself,' Susan said with a coquettish smile.

'You both look really nice,' Hannah said with a genuine smile. 'Oh you look great too Luna!'

Harry and Hermione turned to see Luna walking toward them wearing a pretty silver pleated dress that swayed around her legs as she walked. She marched right up to Harry and planted a quick kiss on his lips before grabbing his arm.

'You all look very lovely,' Luna said dreamily.

Not to be outdone, Susan gave Harry a kiss of her own and grabbed his other arm.

'Yes we all look smashing,' Susan said impatiently. 'Let's go!'

The five of them made quite the procession walking to Slughorn's office. The looks of jealousy Hermione and him were getting earlier had nothing on the shocked slack jawed looks Harry was getting for his two beauties on either arm.

'Harry my boy!' Slughorn cried as they entered the party.

Their host's reaction to Harry's two dates was exactly as they'd predicted. Though he did not say a word of greeting to either girl, which irked Harry some. He'd also been introduced to well to do people immediately, as he'd also predicted. The first was Edred Worple, a writer of some sort with his guest, a vampire named Sanguini. The man spent some time trying to convince Harry to let him write his biography. Harry didn't like the way the vampire was eyeing his two dates so he excused himself as soon as he could.

Once they'd managed to escape Slughorn and his scavengers, they met up with Hermione and Hannah. They had harassed looks due to being chatted up by Cormac McLaggen, who apparently failed to acquire a date. So when Harry's group arrived with them he took the bullet and distracted Cormac with Quidditch talk. This attracted the attention of Gwenog Jones, who was interested in having a chat with the Harry Potter. McLaggen soon made the attempt to take over the conversation but Harry mimed hanging himself from behind Cormac's back, which made Gwenog burst out laughing. She then very rudely dismissed Cormac and went to have a chat with Harry who'd moved off to the side.

'Sorry about him,' Harry said, laughing. 'Can be a bit of a tosser.'

'Oh, I have to deal with that type all the time, he's your Keeper then?' she asked, referring to one of Cormac's earlier comments.

'Didn't make the team actually,' Harry explained which made Gwenog snort before Harry changed the subject. 'Just curious, how does scouting work from your world?'

'No offense,' she said sounding like she meant every offense, 'but my team doesn't recruit wizards.'

'Not for me,' Harry waved her off. 'I have three female chasers on my team. Two of them are exceptional, the others great too but still quite young. How do I spark an interest in them?'

Now the captain of the Holly Head Harpies looked intrigued.

'Well give me their names,' she said eagerly. 'I'll tell the scouting office, they'll send someone down at some point to watch them in action. Maybe for your last two games.'

'Katie Bell and Ginny Weasley,' Harry said, waving his wand so a quill and parchment appeared and he jotted the names down. 'Unfortunately Katie's in hospital right now, I'm hoping she'll recover by next game but she's not sure she'll manage.'

'Well we're always looking for fresh talent,' Gwenog said pocketing the parchment. Then her tone turned flirty. 'So, what does Harry Potter do for fun?'

Harry had already taken the opportunity to cast the soul seeing spell on his eyes when he'd pulled out his wand earlier. She was an Earth soul so Harry didn't feel the need to return her flirting; he had enough witches to worry about. He also wasn't sure if he would venture that road even if she was Dark, he did have his heart set on Daphne. There was also the fact that Gwenog Jones was no virgin. Not that she wasn't gorgeous. If Harry hadn't already had two dates then he might have just had to show Gwenog what he did for fun anyway.

'Them actually,' Harry said to her question, indicating his four companions, 'and I'm afraid I should probably be getting back to them. Though the idea of flirting with a beauty like you fills certain parts of my body with blood, I may be murdered if I ignore them. It was lovely to meet you Miss Jones, and thanks again for the scouting help.'

After shaking the very stunned witches hand, Harry made his way back to his dates.

'Hitting on Quidditch superstars I see,' Susan teased when he reached the group.

'Hey, I blew her off,' Harry chuckled. 'You lot having fun?'

'Quite a bit actually,' Hermione said, beaming. 'Thanks for getting McLaggen off our backs.'

'He's a pig,' Hannah scowled. 'The way he was eyeing us,' she gagged, 'gross.'

Harry made a show of eyeing Hannah.

'Well it's not so bad when you do it,' Hannah grumbled.

'Would you like to dance, Harry?' Luna asked suddenly.

'I'm not much of a dancer,' Harry tried but Luna just held her hand out expectantly, 'but I'll give it a go. Is everyone coming?'

He may not have enjoyed dancing in the past, his pathetic show at the Yule Ball being really his only experience, but doing it with four beautiful witches he liked immensely made it much more enjoyable. There was no step, step, glide. No strict movement where Harry would surely make a mistake and stomp on his partner's foot. Just easy going movements with people he'd been dancing with vertically for some time now. Well, other than Hannah, though they moved together quite as easily anyway.

After dancing with the group for a while, Harry begged off to get some punch, the four girls' content to keep dancing with each other. While sipping his drink, Harry took the opportunity to look around the party. He caught eyes with Tracey who was on the dance floor with Daphne, fairly close to his other four friends. She gave him a longing look and a covert wave which he returned.

Daphne turned at her gesture and acknowledged him with a half-smile. They were both wearing fairly conservative sun dresses. Tracey's was a deep blue and Daphne's black. They were gorgeous, Harry needed to fight the urge to just walk over to them and join them for a dance or two. He wondered briefly if the choice in colour was influenced at all by what Harry had told her about their souls. He re-cast the soul seeing spell and looked them over again. He immediately decided that they must have chosen the colours based on their souls. It was a perfect match on both of them. It was a challenge to see where the dress ended and their auras began.

Looking back around the room, he spotted another whose soul matched their dress. Sue Li's aura was a bit lighter then Tracey's and so was her dress. If Harry hadn't been using his soul sight he probably wouldn't have recognized her. Unlike the two girls she had gone shopping with, Sue's dress was anything but conservative. It was a tight cocktail dress that was cut low and high in the most inappropriate of places. She had forgone wearing her glasses and her hair was styled in wavy strands that framed her face and fell just below her bare shoulders. Her face looked different without the glasses, her dark eyes stood out far more. Though the effect may have been accentuated further by her black eyeliner flowing out into a small feathery pattern that turned into the blue of her dress.

She was leaning against a wall with a pink blush and coy smile for who Harry recognized as her date, Terry Boot. He was talking very close to her and if the smile on his face was any indication he seemed to enjoy the company immensely.

Harry chuckled to himself, happy for his friend and turned to return to his dates. Motion caught his attention on the way and he saw Tracey apparently trying to get Daphne's attention, who was walking out of the party. Tracey turned in a panic and caught Harry's eye, she looked scared. Harry didn't waste a moment; he ran out of the party and looked around for Daphne. She was just rounding the corner at the far end of the hall, Harry's soul seeing spell made following her dark aura easy. Even in the dim halls it stood out. He sprinted after her, when he rounded the corner he saw a grey aura ahead of the black, holding open a classroom door to usher Daphne inside. Harry's soul seeing spell was only meant for humans, the grey aura meant one thing. That person was not human.

'DAPHNE!' Harry shouted as he ran after her, she paused mid step but continued on a moment later without turning, 'DAPHNE SNAP OUT OF IT!'

She froze for longer this time, seemingly fighting against taking that next step. The grey shadow came forward to confront Harry.

'What is it you want with this woman?' spoke a silvery voice. 'Is she yours? I seem to recall you had many.'

Harry recognized the creature now as the vampire who was attending the party with Edred Warble. Sanguini.

'No she's not mine,' Harry snapped, drawing his wand. 'She's not yours either. She's her own woman.'

The vampire sneered, his elongated fangs clearly visible, shining like a dangerous beacon in the darkness.

'She was lonely, longing to be with someone,' the vampire explained as if it was obvious. 'I am giving her what she wants.'

'And what did you do to her?' Harry growled immediately. 'She's obviously not herself. Release her from whatever control you have on her!'

The vampire's smile turned feral, its eyes glowed red. The instant it lunged at Harry his wand was out in front of him casting a silent Levicorpus. Sanguini roared in protest as he was lifted suddenly into the air as if by his ankle, swiping clawed fingers in Harry's direction. He felt some kind of attack on his mind as he walked toward the still frozen Daphne but shrugged it off like it was nothing.

'Those tricks won't work on me, Sanguini,' Harry bit out, keeping one eye on the vampire. 'Just stay put while I get your handler.'

The vampire sneered at Harry but he ignored it. The second he touched Daphne's shoulder she snapped out of whatever control she was under and launched herself at Harry in a desperate hug. Her lungs struggled for air and she was unable to form a coherent word.

'It's okay Daphne,' he said calmly. 'Let's head back to the party and we can get-'

He cut off when he saw a motion blur to his right. There was no sound at all, but Harry raised an arm out of instinct and sent a banishing charm at the incoming blur. The vampire went sprawling backwards down the hall though not before his claws dug deep gashes all along Harry's left arm.

Sanguini skid to a halt and charged at Harry with inhuman speed, zigzagging to avoid Harry's pointed wand. It obviously wasn't his first time fighting a wizard, but this was certainly Harry's first time against a vampire. He'd learned the spells to kill them, it wouldn't be too difficult. But he didn't have to resort to killing just yet.

He placed a well-aimed stunner that hit the vampire in the arm, only staggering it slightly but otherwise it was ineffective. Another banishing charm and the creatures advances were reset. Harry got in another three stunners this time, not missing one, then banishing him once more. The vampire charged again, in a rage at being toyed with, charging in a straight line toward him.

Its physical features began distorting. Many of its features were elongating and growing larger, its ears, eyes, mouth, fangs and claws became more bat-like. Harry hit him with one more stunner then using a Bombarda on the ground in front of him, sending him sprawling to the floor. Another series of stunners as it smoothly got to his feet and charged at Harry, a little slower than before. He banished it back again but instead of standing his ground he advanced quickly, firing a constant stream of stunners as he went. Sure enough, the vampire turned in panic and attempted to run away. Staggering now as each stunner made him weaker and weaker.

Once one of the red bursts of magic made him stiffen completely and fall to the ground, Harry cast another Levicorpus, then an Incarcerous. Tying the creature in thick tight rope as it hung in the air.

Breathing heavily and leaving his wand trained on the vampire, Harry cautiously looked back. Standing beside a wide eyed Daphne was Tracey, watching him with a slight smile on her face. A little further beside them were Hermione, Luna, Susan and Hannah. All had their wands out, pointing at the floating vampire. The rushing of footsteps heralded more arrivals and Harry looked back to the hanging Sanguini to make sure he hadn't moved.

'What happened here?' Professor Slughorn asked in a surprised voice.

'Sanguini here was using some kind of manipulation on Daphne Greengrass, sir,' Harry answered, eyes still trained on the vampire. 'He tried to fight me so I had to immobilize him.'

'Harry, you're hurt!' Tracey said in surprise, noticing his scratched arm.

'Just a scratch,' Harry said, but when he looked down at it he saw how deep it was and how much he was bleeding. 'Well, maybe a bit more than that actually.'

'Sanguini!' Edred Worple came rushing past Harry to the still unconscious vampire. 'How dare you behave in this manner?! And after I vouched for you!'

Edred turned to Slughorn, ringing his hands together.

'I'm terribly sorry Horace, he really isn't a bad man. The temptation can be so destroying sometimes; it is a terrible thing really-'

'Get that beast out of this school this instant or I will call the Ministry of Magic to have him executed!' Slughorn snapped. 'Severus, I don't know if you mind escorting them out. I would feel safer if it was you there watching them.'

Harry spun on his heels to see Severus Snape waving his wand slowly over Daphne before Harry looked beside him to Draco Malfoy.

'Mister Malfoy, Miss Davis,' Snape drawled, 'escort Miss Greengrass back to the common room. Miss Greengrass you are unharmed but you must rest. Miss Davis, ensure she gets it.'

And with that he swept off after Edred Worple without sparing Harry a glance. Edred was pointing his wand at the still floating Sanguini and leading him out of the castle.

'Let me take a look at that arm Harry,' Slughorn said tiredly.

Harry looked over to Daphne who was falling into step with Malfoy and Tracey.

'Uh, thanks, Potter. I guess,' Daphne said coldly.

'Anytime, Greengrass,' Harry replied, only a margin less cold.

After Slughorn stopped the bleeding on his arm he ordered him to the hospital wing. Though not before rewarding Gryffindor twenty-five points.

'What happened, Harry?' Luna asked as the five of them walked toward the hospital wing.

Harry retold the night's events from when he'd seen Daphne's strange behaviour when she left the party to when he saw them behind him.

'So you duel vampires now too?' Hannah asked, amused.

'I don't understand why you didn't use what we learned in Defense though,' Susan said, brow furrowed. 'I know you know the spells. You're the best in Defense in the school.'

'Because everything we learned is lethal,' Hermione answered for him. 'They're for life and death situations, and Harry obviously thought he could handle it.'

Susan and Hannah seemed surprised at that. To risk your own life to keep the blood thirsty vampire that was trying to kill you safe was a foreign concept to them.

'I don't know about that Greengrass girl though,' Hannah grumbled. 'She sounded like saying thank you for saving her life and virtue was painful.'

'It was just an act because Malfoy was there,' Harry said, waving the concern away. 'It's more dangerous for them to be close to me than anyone else.'

The collective group seemed to be mulling that bit of information over.

'I suppose that makes sense,' Hermione said eventually. 'Are you sure you can trust her though?'

'Absolutely,' Harry said firmly. 'As much as I trust Tracey and I'd trust her with my life.'

'I hope Draco didn't notice,' Luna said suddenly.

'Notice what?' Harry asked curiously. 'And why was he even there in the first place?'

'It must have happened shortly after you left,' Hermione explained. 'Filch dragged him in front of Slughorn but whatever he was going to say was cut off when Tracey came in yelling about how Daphne was acting strange and she thought it was the vampire. Then she said you went after them. Everyone came rushing out but we didn't know where you were. We found you first, with Tracey, just as you were tying up the vampire.'

Harry looked over at Luna, concerned.

'What do you mean you hope Draco didn't notice?' he asked her.

Luna looked him straight in the eye and said in a very calm voice.

'That Tracey called you Harry.'

Harry felt his blood go cold. Surely that wasn't enough to imply anything was it? Tracey was in a panic at the time, surely she could be forgiven such a minor slip. Though there was also the question of why Harry had rushed to save Daphne in the first place. Harry just hoped that the Slytherin girls were as good as they seemed at playing the game that was the house of snakes.