Story Notes!

Hi everyone…..and once more, I apologise for leaving the last chapter on such a cliffhanger…. Hopefully this chapter will make up for that! ;-)

Please do remember that this story is completely AU, the backstory that Rodolphus tells in this chapter is one that we have made up ourselves and attempted to weave into canon as much as we can. Some of that was easy, some of it required a little stretch of the imagination, but we hope you like it all the same!

Thank you to my wonderful writing partner champagneandliterature, you are the most patient, wonderful person in the world, I'm fully aware that I must drive you bananas at times with my mad ideas but you always know which ones to listen to and which ones to bin, I literally couldn't do this without you.

Thank you as well to HwaetWeGardena for the awesome pre reading, your detailed critique of this chapter was mind blowingly amazing. I appreciate you so much!

Finally, thank you to all the people who have read this story so far and left Kudos, a comment or a review…. I'm a little behind on replying to AO3 comments but I will get there very soon and we appreciate every single one we get! :-)

So, without further ado… here we have chapter four….. And there are some rather surprising people showing up. P.S….. I hope you all like the end section!

Back in two weeks with another chapter.

Lots of love, Claire, (Phoenix! XXxx)

Translations

Milaya...Pretty/lovely girl

Kotenok...kitten

Moya lyubov...my love

Solnechnyy...sunshine

Chapter Four, Revelations.

"Wh- what do you mean, no?!" Hermione held her ground as Antonin Dolohov spun around to glare violently at her. He had tried to scare her away, and it seemed that her refusal to leave had shocked him to his very core. He raked aggressive hands through his hair as he stared at her with wild, panicked eyes. "You can't stay! Not without- Merlin, Milaya! I thought you were supposed to be sensible-"

Hermione bit down on her lower lip and glared defiantly back at him. "And I thought your control was snapping in ten seconds' time. Well, ten seconds have passed, yet you're still in one piece and standing here arguing with me."

"Yes, because you've lost your entire... bloody... MIND!" Dolohov raised his voice with each word he spoke, then jerked away, moving with inhuman speed over to the far wall of the cottage where he stood staring out of the window into the pitch black night. One of the crows landed on his shoulder, and he stroked it absently while shaking his head. "How do you expect me to control myself? You don't understand. You need to leave here because if you don't-" he broke off to turn around and bare his teeth, making Hermione's whole body quiver once again, "you'll be feeling these on your bare skin, and by then, it's too late. There'll be no escape at that stage. You've said it yourself, Solnechnyy svet, I'm a murderer. I've done wicked things, and you hate me because of it. If you stay with me now, I'll never let you go."

"Are you sure you're thinking straight here, 'Mione?" Harry asked awkwardly, his wand still pointing menacingly at Dolohov. "Because I really do think we should go."

"I'm thinking perfectly straight, thank you, Harry," Hermione insisted, stubbornly pushing at him until he dropped the arm he was restraining her with. "And we're not going anywhere just yet." She switched her gaze back to Dolohov, resolving to speak to his back since he had turned away from her again. "You said you'd never hurt me, and, for some reason I believe you. I want to know why I'm feeling this way. If you're truly giving us this impossible decision, I want it to be an informed one. You started this. You captured us, kidnapped us, assaulted us, and I want to know why. I want to know everything. Then I'll decide if I'm staying here or if I will let you Obliviate me. This will be on my terms."

Finally, Harry dropped his wand and let out a huge sigh which seemed to break some of the almost unbearable tension in the room. Hermione looked up and around, blinking in surprise. She had been so caught up in her exchange with Harry and Dolohov that she had almost forgotten Rowle and Pansy were there. Pansy merely looked amused by what was happening, but Rowle's shoulders were shaking with poorly suppressed laughter, and Dolohov, who was supposed to be one of the most dangerous men in the country, dropped his head into his hands in despair. "I did tell you she's infuriating," Pansy said conversationally. "I mean, I tried, Ant, I did try to warn you-"

The vitriol with which Hermione was about to let rip at Pansy was cut off by Rowle, who could control his laughter no longer. Hermione gazed at him in bewildered surprise as he wiped tears from his eyes then clapped Dolohov heartily on the shoulder.

"Look's like you've met your match here, mate. Nearly a thousand years I've known you, and this is the first time I've ever seen you speechless!"

Dolohov looked utterly conflicted as he shook his head yet again. "I'm not speechless. I'm just failing to convince myself that I'm not absolutely, royally fucked right now. I can't do this, Finn. I can't hold back any longer. I'm going to get Rod. In the meantime, explain what you can, and for the love of eternity, keep them here!" Finn nodded once, and Hermione blinked as Dolohov apparated sideways into a cloud of swirling black smoke.

Hermione exchanged a glance with Harry, and they both looked back at Rowle, who had finally, just about managed to control his laughter. Even Pansy looked more amused than Hermione ever remembered seeing her. "Alright, Potter," Rowle said, still sniffing slightly, "drop your bloody wand. It's no good against me anyway. I'll not hurt you, not unless you do anything stupid."

"And you?" Harry asked, switching his gaze suspiciously to Pansy, "How do we know you won't try to hurt us?"

Pansy looked incredulous. She gave her multicolored hair a dismissive flick and wrinkled her nose. "Oh, will you relax, Harry? I already tried to sell you out once and that didn't work, it looks like I'm going to be stuck with the pair of you now anyway, so I'll be a good girl. I promise not to hurt either of you." She scooted the three wands that were still lying on the floor towards her with her foot, then stared at Rowle as she picked them up. "Did he just apparate away without his wand?"

Rowle rolled his eyes as he walked into the open plan kitchen, "Wouldn't surprise me. Who knows what he can do when he's in a temper. Actually, don't answer that. I do know. Tea? Coffee? Firewhisky? Blood? Wait," he put his hands up in surrender, "that last one was a joke. Don't stun me, please!"

"I think water will do, thank you," Harry said, still sounding highly suspicious, "I'd rather keep my wits about me tonight."

"Same," Hermione agreed as Pansy gestured idly to the sofa, and she and Harry sat back down.

"What on earth are you doing, 'Mione?" Harry hissed furiously once Pansy had followed Rowle into the kitchen.

"Finding out what's going on!" Hermione answered as Harry, now that the pressure was briefly off, ruffled his hair and started to fiddle compulsively with his glasses, "I can't ignore how he makes me feel, Harry, it's impossible! If I walk away now, I'll never understand what's happening. And I've been having dreams, I've not told you about them because of their nature, but I just know they're connected with him. I've not come across any mention of anything like this in any book, ever. I don't understan-"

"You won't find any of this in a book Granger," Rowle said as he set glasses of water on the table beside them, "sorry, love, I wasn't eavesdropping. It's just that I've got enhanced senses." He gestured to his ears while Pansy rolled her eyes.

"You can't keep secrets from either of these two," she said in an almost friendly way, "they hear everything."

Rowle grinned cheerfully. "You won't find this in a book because our particular vampyre species, vampyre with a Y that is, is not documented in the overworld. The vamps you find in your textbooks are a different species, and even then, most of them only exist in legends."

"So where did Dolohov go?" Harry asked, staring at Rowle with abject dislike in his eyes.

"Out," Rowle replied dismissively, returning Harry's disapproving look with interest.

Harry flushed. "So we're what? Just expected to wait until he deigns to come back?"

"Ah, he won't be long," Rowle said, winking at Hermione and deliberately lifting his lip to show a hint of his own canines. Hermione's whole body shivered in response and Rowle grinned in triumph. "Ahha! So it works with me too. You are susceptible then, Princess, even without-"

"Alright. Rowle, explain," she demanded, ignoring the grin he gave her in reply. "And don't call me Princess. As Harry said, we could have you both arrested and locked up for life, and if you don't start talking soon, we might just do that! So stop bloody smiling at me, you-" she broke off into a breathy moan as he licked his lips and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I always did like feisty girls," he grinned, then laughed as Pansy swatted his arm. "Alright, alright. Keep your hair on Granger." He sank down into the sofa, sat forwards and regarded Hermione critically. "It's Finn by the way. I think we should be on first name terms, it's likely going to be a difficult night. Our species of vampyre carries a specific type of aphrodisiac in our bodies. Some people are susceptible to it, some are not. It would seem that you are. I already explained how you and Antonin are soul tied through the curse he tried to kill you with, and it would seem that the attraction between you is particularly powerful because of that. If Antonin bit you, it would only cement the already strong bond between you both. As for the rest of us who aren't already soul tied to a human, well, we have to ensure that we can feed. Think about this, if our feeding from humans was unpleasant for the humans involved, our food sources would soon dry up. As it is, our venom makes the whole process much more, shall we say, pleasant for the human involved, and therefore our mates stick around. Don't they, darling?"

Pansy's answer was cut off by a crackle followed directly by a pop, and suddenly the cottage was engulfed in thick black smoke. Hermione blinked as it cleared, waving it away from her face with her hand even though it didn't smell in the slightest.

She looked up at the four people who had just appeared in the room and gasped as Harry jumped up from the sofa in shock. Dolohov had returned, but he had also brought three other people with him. Hermione's heart leaped into her throat yet again as she stared numbly at two men she recognized as the Lestrange brothers, one of whom was currently holding hands with Luna Lovegood.

Luna Lovegood, who, like Pansy, had disappeared from the Magical World eight years ago, with the official word being that Greyback had savaged her to death while she was held captive at Malfoy Manor. Hermione was starting to think that Greyback had been given a rather worse reputation than he deserved. "Good evening!" Luna said, beaming widely as she looked between Hermione and Harry.

It took Hermione almost a full minute to respond. Luna let go of whichever brother's hand she was holding, her smile faltering as both Harry and Hermione stared speechlessly at her. "Are you two okay?" Luna asked, eyeing them both in concern.

"Luna?" Hermione said weakly, "if that's really you, tell me why you were reading the Quibbler upside down the day we first met you?"

"Oh oh!" Luna said, clapping her hands together and bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet, causing her waist length, semi braided hair to bounce wildly, "I know this. I remember that day very well! It was because of the quizzes, of course!" She beamed as if truly happy to see her old friends. "And Ronald was a little unkind to me about it, and you Harry, you could see the thestrals, but you didn't understand why, and Hermione, you were nice to me, so was Ginevra and we rode back to Hogwarts debating where Hagrid was because Professor Grubbly Plank was ferrying the first years across the lake in his stead.'' Luna smiled brightly again as Hermione stood up to cautiously accept the hug she offered.

"What on earth happened to you, Luna?" Hermione asked, still hardly able to believe her eyes as the blonde girl turned to hug Harry. "We thought you died in the dungeons at Malfoy Manor. That's what we were told anyway!"

"Yes," Luna agreed mildly, "that was the official story. But no. I didn't die. I just chose to join this world instead of going back to the overworld when I was freed. Rabastan looked after me so well while I was held in the dungeons, you see? We became friends, and there was nothing much in the overworld for me to return to, so I chose to join his world instead, and to fight the rest of the war beside him and Rodolphus."

"But how did you even know about their world?" Hermione asked, staring at Luna in abject horror. "Are they vampires too?" She used her hand to gesture to Rabastan and Rodolphus then clapped it over her mouth in shock, "are you a vampire? did he- I mean, I thought this was all supposed to be an enormous secret?"

"Oh, it is!" Luna nodded. "I'm not a vampyre, Hermione, but Rabastan is, and so is his brother. He didn't turn me, that's not what they do. We just formed a close friendship while I was inprisoned. One day Rabastan came to me when he'd been injured in a fight. He collapsed in the cell beside me. I asked him what I could do to help, and he told me he needed to drink my blood. Well, I was a little surprised because it seemed to be such an unusual request, but then I thought, well, why not? So I let him, and it felt rather nice. Also, it sorted him out right away. After that, he explained what he was, and well, there's a thing about vampyre mate bonds, you see, and because he'd drunk my blood directly from my body, we were already half bonded. We started dating, then eventually when he and Rodolphus could rescue me safely, they brought me here, into their world."

"You started dating? In a dungeon prison?" Harry asked skeptically, "a dungeon prison that you couldn't leave because your boyfriend held the key?!"

"Well, Rabastan didn't hold the key," Luna looked surprised, "because the cells lock by magic, but also if he'd let us out, he would have been killed for sure. So it wasn't really his fault that I was held in there. He certainly made my stay more comfortable. But yes, we did start dating, although I'd call it more mind dating than actual dating. I'd close my eyes and lay my head in his lap, then I'd listen while he told me stories of all the places he's been and the things he's seen. He's quite a lot older than me, you see. Under the circumstances, it was the best we could do, but his descriptions were so vivid it really felt like we were in the tropics, or the arctic, or swimming under the sea."

"Most people would have chosen to take her to a restaurant or for a walk on the beach on an imaginary first date, to be fair, Bass," Rowle said, making Luna laugh.

"Rabastan is a little different from most people," Luna said. "But so am I. I like that about him a lot, and sometimes you, Thorfinn, are too cheeky for your own good." She nodded once, as if that settled the matter, then turned back to Hemione and Harry.

Hermione glanced at Harry, who looked just as uneasy as she felt. A million questions bubbled around in her brain but now didn't seem the time to voice them all. "Well, it's lovely to see you again, Luna," she said, doing her best to keep the surreal conversation on neutral ground.

"Thank you." Luna smiled serenely, then stepped back to let Hermione see past her to the other men in the room. It appeared that Dolohov had left entirely, and Hermione realized that without him around, her head had cleared considerably. She still felt affected by Finn and Pansy but the attraction only seemed to reach overpowering heights when Dolohov himself was close by.

She focused instead on the Lestrange brothers. They looked alike, yet different. Hermione had only ever seen either of them in the heat of battle, and in that environment both of them had been terrifying. She remembered watching Rabastan fire wild spells around the Department of Mysteries, giving little care as to who they hit, while Rodolphus, by contrast had been cool, calm, and utterly lethal with the accuracy of his spells, rather similar to Dolohov himself.

"Let's sit, shall we?" The man who wasn't currently embracing Luna said, settling himself on the sofa next to Pansy and Finn, while Luna and Rabastan simply sat cross legged on the floor. "You're considering joining our cause then?" Rodolphus Lestrange asked, raking his sharp, obsidian eyes over Hermione and making her shiver uncomfortably.

"No," Harry stated. "Absolutely not."

"Fine," Rodolphis inclined his head lazily. "See yourself out. Someone will Obliviate you on your way."

"Harry's going to hear you out," Hermione insisted, taking hold of his sleeve and tugging his arm to keep him in place.

"Harry's a fucking auror," Pansy exclaimed. "I think we should be obliviating him regardless!"

"Harry's Harry," Luna said as if that finalized the matter. "He's no threat to us. Antonin, are you okay? To be honest, you look a little peaky-"

"Can we all stop discussing my character and whether I may or may not be a threat to your very existence please?!" Harry exclaimed, sounding exasperated. "Since Luna's just accused a vampire of looking peaky, we've established who I am, and that I'm not going anywhere, can one of you just explain what the hell is going on?"

Hermione closed her eyes against the wave of fresh arousal that Dolohov's return to the room had caused. She looked back at Rodolphus and was yet again shocked by the way he was looking at Luna. His gaze was filled with genuine affection, and it made his strikingly harsh good looks seem somewhat softer. "Yes. I will. Get comfortable though. It's quite a tale. It begins almost twelve hundred years ago, with a little mistake on the part of my ex wife."

"Ex?" Hermione queried as Harry darted his eyes around the room like a trapped animal trying to keep all of its predators in view, "you mean you've divorced Bellatrix?"

Both Rodolphus and Finn laughed. "Not quite. It's not really that simple. Neither of us is able to stroll into the Ministry and ask for a divorce, it might raise some eyebrows, to say the very least. Since we can't divorce, and neither of us has yet succeeded in killing the other, we'll just say we're estranged." Rodolphus glanced over at his brother who looked amused. "Technically, we are still married, although I have very definitely moved on." His eyes flitted once more to Luna as he spoke. "But this story goes back to the time before my wife and I met. You see, at the age of twenty three, my dear little Bellatrix met a demon who had broken through the veil that separates our earthly realm of existence from the otherworldly realm of gods and demons."

Rodolphus paused, waiting until Hermione and Harry had nodded uncertainly. "The demon turned Bella for its own amusement, then it slipped back through the vortex, leaving Bella alone with no understanding of what she had become and no sire to turn to for help. So, she managed as best she could. She figured out how to survive and fed on people, draining them then leaving them for dead for a number of years. She survived. She existed. But she was desperately lonely. One night she met a handsome young man who went by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle. I believe you two are familiar with him?" Rodolphus broke off, smirking slightly as Harry's eyes flashed fire.

"Ah. Yes," Rodolphus continued. "I see he's not your favorite person. I understand, neither was he mine. Bella seduced Tom then drank from him as usual, but before she could finish draining him completely, he overpowered her, and from some latent, evil instinct bit her in return. As he eagerly lapped up her blood, Tom the man died and Tom the vampyre was born. Bellatrix became his sire, and they lived together in relative happiness for about a year."

Rodolphus stopped talking to look around the tiny lounge. Hermione followed his gaze to Luna, who was still fussing over Dolohov in the corner of the room, then looked back at him expectantly. Finally, he shook his untidy hair back and continued his story. "Tom, unfortunately, did not treat Bella well. He was masochistic by nature. He abused her, treated her as his plaything, then dropped her like a stone when he was bored with her. He never loved her. Some say he was incapable of love, although that seems rather extreme, I wouldn't know. All I do know is that over time, Bella strayed from his side and fell in love with me."

He broke off again, chuckling at Pansy's horrified face. "Exactly. I knew of her by reputation, and I should have heeded the warning signs. But I didn't. She was insanely beautiful, and I was young and stupid. One night, in my absence and after too much mead in our local tavern, she took my little brother home. She bit him, turned him, then when she woke up in the morning and realized he wasn't me, she brushed him aside without a second thought. Then, she sought me out and did the same to me. She, as our sire, now held immense power over us. She treated us both badly, almost as badly as Tom treated her, but as I said, we were young, and neither of us really minded too much at that time."

Rodolphus sighed heavily. "Then, one day, the inevitable happened. Tom found out what she'd done. I'm told that his wrath shook the world. I'm told that the magical power storm he created was like none the world has ever witnessed. I wouldn't know for sure. I wasn't there, which is probably the only reason that I survived to tell this tale. All I do know is that Tom somehow forced Bella, who was, at the end of the day as much his Sire as she was ours, to banish the pair of us, to surrender her power over him and finally to marry him, thereby putting him onto an equal power footing with herself."

Hermione couldn't contain her gasp. The things Rodolphus was saying all seemed so incredible, yet somehow also very believable. "Bellatrix duly did as Tom demanded, then everything went quiet for the next three hundred or so years. That is until Bella got bored once again. Tom had started to bully her once more. She didn't want to call us back and risk incurring more of Tom's wrath, so she went hunting for a new plaything. She found Antonin and Finn on a dirt road in Siberia. She seduced them, turned them, and pressed repeat on the videotape of history. Tom went mad, Bella banished them both and went back to Tom. Myself and Bass eventually found Antonin and Finn by following our instincts, and we lived relatively happily for almost another eight hundred years."

Hermione reached for her glass of water. Numbly she watched Dolohov leave the room once more. Luna frowned then returned to sit next to Rabastan on the floor, kicking off her shoes on the way. Her long skirt flowed around her, and Hermione couldn't help noticing how peaceful she looked. In fact, she looked happier than Hermione had ever seen her.

Hermione blinked back to reality as Rodolphus cleared his throat and continued. "In the 1920's a young, ambitious wizard rose to power. His name was Gellert Gindelwald. I believe you are also at least partially familiar with his story? Well, Tom thought Gellert had the right idea. He followed him. He supported him, he became obsessed with him. Albus Dumbledore, as you probably also know, stopped Grindelwald's rise to power, and Gellert spent the rest of his years in Nurmengard prison, where he finally died when Tom murdered him.

After Albus defeated Gellert in their legendary duel, Albus became Tom's obsession. Tom was furious. He wanted to destroy Albus for what he had done to Gellert, who was in Tom's mind the greatest wizard that had ever lived. Tom and Bella hatched their own plan to finish Gellert's work and to take over the world. They made vast amounts of polyjuice potion and assumed the identity of an eleven year old boy and girl, which allowed them both to attend Hogwarts school where they could gather information on Albus and start recruiting like minded witches and wizards into a movement that would later become known as the Death Eaters.

The rest of this story, as they say, is history. The only thing omitted from that history is that every time a new supporter took the Dark Mark, they were also turned into a vampyre. This army of vampyre Death Eater's grew under Tom and Bella's watchful eyes. Bella finally recalled the four of us, and as she was our sire, and she had never given us our complete freedom, we had no choice but to obey her commands and to fall into place in the ranks. We did her and Tom's bidding with unwilling hearts, but since the alternative was a fate far worse than death, we had no choice but to comply."

Hermione felt as though she had forgotten how to breathe. What Rodolphus was telling them was surely impossible. But, she realized uncomfortably, if she looked at history through a slightly different lens, it wasn't. She glanced at Harry beside her, he looked as dumbfounded as she felt. He was staring at Rodolphus, fiddling with his wand and looking utterly horrified.

Rodolphus grimaced as though what he was about to say next was highly unpleasant. "Things got messy, but ultimately they came to a head during the Battle of Hogwarts. Tom fell, the morning sun caught him during his duel with you, Potter. He burned to ash and we rejoiced. The vampyres that Tom had turned were finally free. With their sire gone, they were beholden to no one. When she arose after the dust from Molly Weasley's curse had settled, Bella was beyond distraught. I made the mistake of locking eyes with her. I'd hoped that she might be weakened, or repentant at the very least, but alas, she was not. I caught the full wrath of her vengeful fury. She flew at me as only a vampyre queen can. She tried everything within her considerable power to end me. She was strong. I only just bested her because I was both physically and magically stronger.

Full of anguish and turmoil, I found, and this is the biggest regret of my entire life, I found myself showing her mercy. Tom had abused her for almost a millennia I couldn't find it in me to end her, even though I had the chance. So that night, I made a deal with the devil herself. At my request, she finally, finally cast the four of us to our freedom, and we melted away into the night.

Now Tom's death left us with two problems. Firstly, Tom's now sireless army was adrift. All being relatively new vampyres, and mostly turned against their will, they needed guidance. They needed support. Bass, Antonin, Finn, and myself took the ones who had never wanted, nor embraced the Death Eater lifestyle with us. These were the "good" Death Eaters, if there ever was such a thing. They had been caught up in a movement they didn't truly understand or support, and they'd had their lives snatched away from them in an incredibly violent way. Some of them were mere children at the time. We taught them how to survive, how to live, and how to avoid detection.

Bella cherry picked the most evil ones for herself and took them with her. Some she gave up on and cast adrift over time, they have all since migrated to us, but a hardcore loyal group remain with her. That group is currently gaining power once more, and we are trying to stop them. There is an ongoing war between our two groups. We have to succeed and claim victory by ending the others. If we don't, Bella will become unstoppable. She learned too much from Tom. She was always cleverer than he was. She was always his brains. She saw where he went wrong, where Grindelwald went wrong, and she won't make those same mistakes herself.

It is written into a prophecy that at Samhain there will be an epic battle. It is foretold that the fate of all of the worlds will be decided on this coming Samhain night. We must be victorious. We must end Bellatrix and her army of evil minions, or the world as we know it will cease to exist." Rodolphus looked around as he paused. The room was utterly silent. Even the crows appeared to be listening intently. "So there you have it. Antonin," he called, "my voice grows tired. I believe you can take the story from here?"

"Must I?" Dolohov replied from the kitchen.

"You must," Rodolphus confirmed. "The personal involvement in this particular case is yours and yours alone to tell."

"Fine." Dolohov stepped back into the room. His brown eyes focused intensely on Hermione and she felt the now familiar pull towards him yet again. He stared at her mouth, dropped his eyes to her chest then looked straight into her eyes once more. She was transfixed. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. "Then I will tell you. Just remember you asked for this Kotenok. I gave you the chance to leave, and you chose to stay."

Hermione nodded, feeling that something had changed. Something about Dolohov felt different. He no longer appeared to be holding back. He stalked closer to her and his intense stare was now menacing, and predatory enough to have Harry scrambling to point his wand in warning once again. "I remember," she said, frowning at the quiver in her voice. "But it was an impossible choice. How could I have walked away? I've felt you, haven't I?" she asked quietly. "Every evening when I've been working nights, I've woken up at sunset, lost in a fog of lust. That's your doing, isn't it?" she barely noticed the sharp intakes of breath all around the room. Lost totally in Rodolphus' tale, she had forgotten that other people were still present.

"Not intentionally," Dolohov said, taking another half step towards her, "in fact, up until now I had believed that you were unaware of our connection."

Slowly Hermione shook her head. "You were wrong. I was aware of something, I just didn't know what it was or what it meant," she whispered, edging closer to the front of the sofa. "I didn't know it was a connection and I certainly didn't know it had anything to do with you."

He nodded. "I see. And now you do know what it is? How do you feel about it now?"

The room was utterly silent once again. One of the crows ruffled its wings, and the sound was shockingly loud in the still air. "Now that I know where the pull is coming from and what it means, I want to follow the pull," she breathed.

Dolohov looked at her in disbelief, then nodded slowly. "Wait for the rest of the facts moya lyubov. Before you make your decision." His eyes were blazing as he turned away then sat down on a dining chair. "When you were sixteen, Hermione, we met for the first time in the Department of Mysteries. We were there on Bella and Tom's orders, as you know, to steal the prophecy that was made about Harry and Tom. What Tom and Bella didn't know was that the four of us," he gestured to himself, Finn, Rodolphus, and Rabastan, "had our eye on a second prophecy, one that was closely related to the first one, and was of much more interest to us. You were in our way of getting both prophecies and in those days, I didn't think twice about killing anyone that got in my way. I hit you with a curse that I had developed myself. A curse that had, until that point, killed every single person I'd ever hit with it. But, you stood up to me. You silenced me and my curse failed to kill you." As he spoke, he inched forwards in his chair towards her.

Wanting to be nearer to him, Hermione also leaned forward then stood up from the sofa. Dolohov's voice was utterly mesmerizing. Somehow the way he was calmly explaining away his first attempt to murder her made it seem slightly less horrifying.

"A mere slip of a sixteen year old girl stopped me in my tracks. Me, an ancient, all powerful sorcerer with a thousand years of magical power and experience behind me. I became a laughing stock. I was furious. I'd never failed with a spell in my life, and I was determined I would never fail with one again. Never had any other person lived when I'd intended them to die."

Hermione watched as Dolohov stood up, and suddenly they were facing each other. She felt herself being drawn further towards him as he, in turn, edged nearer to her. The silence was complete. Harry, Hermione would have seen, had she been able to turn away from Dolohov, was looking horrified once again. His wand was still poised, but he was apparently waiting for the opportune moment to step in.

The room seemed to crackle with magical energy. Hermione froze as Dolohov opened his mouth to speak again. "After that battle, I realized something. I had become aware of you at all times. I could feel you inside of me. When we met again in Tottenham Court Road, I was determined to kill you and to end whatever connection we'd developed once and for all. I wanted to prove to myself and to everyone around me that I was unbeatable, as I always had been. But when I saw you, I was so affected by your presence that my worst fears were confirmed. My failed curse had acted as a soul tie. So, I switched tactics. I told Finn not to harm any of you and, instead, we let you knock us out. When we woke up, you were long gone."

Dolohov stretched his hands up to the ceiling then ran his fingers through his hair. Hermione glanced around the room, but nobody had moved. "The four of us spent much of the Battle of Hogwarts protecting you, shielding you, and keeping you safe. We did the same for you, Harry, and for your little ginger friend. We kept you safe, and in doing so, encountered a small problem with Pansy here. She had cast Avada Kedavra at Finn three times, but he didn't notice because his attention was on keeping you out of harm's way. Pansy was understandably confused, not to mention slightly vexed by Finn's stubborn refusal to die. To keep our cover intact, he stunned her, then, for reasons he could probably best explain himself, locked her in a cupboard to keep her safe. To cut a long story short, she was rather cross when he let her out. She demanded answers and well, here she is. In the six years that followed the battle, I have been obsessed with you, solnechnyy. I've watched you from afar, I've yearned for you. I've thought of you every time I've woken at sunset."

"Hence my dreams," Hermione breathed, stepping closer still and shooting a warning glare at Harry who had just risen from his seat.

"Yes, indeed. You and I are soul tied already. The bond an immortal vampyre makes with their mortal human mate is a similar thing. We are already bonded. The pull I feel to you is already overwhelming. If you stay with me we will bond fully, totally, and irreversibly. The alternative is to continue as we were, but after tonight, I fear that will be impossible to do. So, there you have it. That's the whole story. Every last uncomfortable truth."

Dolohov was barely an arms length away from her now. Hermione could smell his intoxicating scent, she could feel his magic reaching out to hers. She could feel the scar on her chest dancing in response to his closeness. Her mouth was dry. Her skin was tingling, aching for his touch. Her heart was pounding, and she knew that if she walked away now, her life as she knew it would be over. She had never felt as alive as she did in this one moment of time. She was ready. If she was honest, her decision had been made hours ago. Now it was just a matter of acting on it. Her body was radiating with power as she moved.

She took another step forward at the exact moment Dolohov did.

It all happened at once. At the touch of his hand, Hermione's knees buckled. Dolohov steadied her, and she collapsed against his firm chest just as Harry blasted a stunning spell out of his wand. Hermione threw her hand out behind her, and unbeknown to her, her magical power combined with Dolohov's. Their joint power crackled through the air and knocked Harry clean to the floor.

Unseen by Hermione, Luna leapt to Harry's aid while Pansy yanked Finn out of the aggressive pose he'd just assumed over Harry.

All Hermione could see however, were Dolohov's dark brown eyes. Slowly she adjusted herself against him, taking her weight back onto her unsteady legs. His breath ghosted over her face, and she could see that he was still struggling to hold himself back. She needed him to let go. "Are you sure?" he whispered, and she nodded, utterly oblivious to the chaos going on around them.

She waited another single heartbeat. Then his lips crashed down onto hers.

Hermione had never believed that the world could change with a single kiss, but the moment his lips met hers, she knew that it had. The feeling was incredible. Nothing could have prepared her for the desire that tore wildly through her body. She pressed against him, feeling his body hot and unyielding against her own. She tipped her head back, letting him deepen the kiss. She reached up, burying her fingers in his hair as he did the same with her own. One of his hands cupped the back of her head. The other slid down her body to her thigh. He lifted her leg, raised it up and settled it over his hip, then pulled her sharply against him as she pressed herself wantonly forwards.

Acting on pure instinct, she pulled away, totally overcome with need, and pressed her neck against his mouth. "No!" he whispered, "we'll do that later. In private." Disappointed, she tried to pull back, but he just turned her face back to his and kissed her breath away once more. Hermione had no idea how much time passed as they stood desperately holding each other and plundering each other's mouths, but eventually, Dolohov pulled back to stare once more into her eyes in wonder. "You see," he gasped, "it's always been you. Do you now see why I told you to run?"

Hermione nodded breathlessly, missing his kiss already. "And do you see why I couldn't do that?" she asked.

He nodded. "I can't obliviate you now, Milaya. I warned you. This has gone too far. You're mine now."

"Good," she said, stepping back and realizing yet again that they were still in a room full of people. "Harry!" she yelped, shocked to see him lying on the floor with Luna, Rabastan, and Pansy tending to him, "What happened?! She spun around, glaring at everyone else in quick succession. "What did you do?!"

She fell to her knees beside Harry, who groaned weakly. "That was you, 'Mione," he muttered. "Apparently, you didn't want me to stop the pair of you kissing."

"What?" she gasped, staring at Dolohov in abject shock.

"Yes," he confirmed, looking at her with a strange kind of pride, "you blasted a shield back as we touched. Our magic worked together. It was quite impressive, really."

"You, wait! You knew I knocked him out?!"

Dolohov merely nodded. "We. Credit where it's due please, Milaya, We knocked him out. Together."

"Harry!" Hermione clapped her hand over her mouth, "I'm so, so sorry! Are you okay?"

Harry nodded, sitting up to lean against the sofa. "I'm fine, 'Mione, although I'd appreciate it if nobody else stunned me tonight. I'm feeling a little weak now."

"Get him a bed," Rodolphus Lestrange said with a wry shake of his head, "let him sleep it off, he'll be fine by the morning. I must say, though, that was impressive magic. Welcome to our world, Hermione. I'm feeling rather better about this Samhain battle now that you and Antonin are working together on our side now."

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