"This is war, Severus. We all have to make sacrifices."
"I don't see you sending anyone else to be eaten alive by a vampire." The younger man was absolutely livid. "Do you know – Do you have any idea what you're asking of me?!"
"No one can create appearances like you can, Severus." Sighed Dumbledore.
"That's what you're sending me to do there, then? Act a tragedy to make her heart crack with pity for our poor children?"
"We need an ally, Severus."
"A bloodthirsty vampire is the best ally we can get, I'm sure." The man spat angrily, stray strands of his inky hair wildly flipped into his face.
"End of discussion, Severus. We need her help in this war. Don't question me any further. Besides, Alyssa is an old friend of mine, and as far as my recollection goes, she gave up human blood long ago."
The next evening, Britain was consumed by a heavy thunderstorm. The rain was pouring down as if the heavens themselves had opened, and an occassional flash of lightning struck in the distance. There, on a small hill, a long distance behind the village of Berryoakland, stood a giant stone mansion. The high ornate windows were dark, and all the local inhabitants believed the house had been deserted for at least half a century. Belonged to a local nobleman, they said, and rumour had it that the ghost of the dead gentleman still hunted the site – how else could the villagers explain the occassional shrieks and cries that resonated from the mansion all the way to the village?
This particular night, a man's silhouette could be spotted through the heavy rain. The man had his travelling cloak on, and had to walk up the hill slightly bent against the rain and wind. Finally, when he reached the house, he opened the door a crack and slipped inside.
The silence outside was deafening. The darkness embraced his entire form, broken only by the occassional light from the lightning. He knew she had to be there. He assumed she was probably hiding. Not wanting to appear like a burglar, he lit his wand and called: "Hello?"
Then, suddenly – he didn't know when or how – his wand flew out of his wand, and he found himself pinned to the stone wall by six silver dagger which flew out of the darkness enveloping him.
"Well, well, well." Said a haughty, bored voice. The torches on the walls lit up, casting a dim light on the majority of the hallway. Clack clack clack was the sound of high heels on the stone floor and there, from the shadows in front of him, emerged a very tall figure. She looked like a human woman, but Severus knew in an instant that she was a vampire. Her skin was ivory white, she had red lips and long incisors – which could only be seen while she talked. Otherwise, she looked as if someone had taken her out of a Muggle fashion magazine: long, red-dyed hair, makeup, a black leather jacket, tight black trousers and knee-high boots. Her face was pretty, her chin pointy and her dark blue eyes were sharp, but her expression was bored with a slight tinge of annoyance.
"Look who's come to snoop around here." She said lazily, her chin thrust forward, and folded her arms.
"I'm not snooping." Severus objected angrily, trying to wriggle himself out of the unexpected imprisonment of his own overcoat being pinned to the wall behind him. He even tried to use wandless magic on them. Nothing.
"And a liar, too." She said with a smirk. "Just like all the others."
"What others?"
"Seriously, you didn't think that you alone had the clever idea of going here and trying to find me, did you?" She said, her face plain bored, her voice ringing with contempt, "that's so like all the humans I've met, thinking that no one was as brilliant as they were… So naive and big-headed. A shame, really. They would have made really good wizards… Too bad." She brushed a stray speck of dust off her sleeve, looking as disinterested as ever.
"Are you suggesting that you ate them?" He ventured a bold guess, trying to conceal a slight tinge of panic in his voice. Severus Snape was good at concealing. But even the Spymaster himself couldn't but show a certain degree of alarm when faced with a possibility of his life being ended on that very spot.
"Maybe." She said, her heavy lidded eyes examining something on her nail, not bothering to even look at him.
"I'm not here for my own sake." Severus said carefully, his dark eyes fixed on the vampire's face. She finally looked at him, her eyes narrowing, her red-painted lips stretching into a smirk. She took a few steps, so that she was now looking directly down at him, being a foot taller than himself.
"F'course you're not, Pumpkin." She smirked, and reaching towards his throat with her pale and slender hand, he momentarily shivered as he thought she would kill him right there and then. Instead, she took one of the silver daggers that were still pinning his robes to the wall behind him, and all the other daggers followed suit and unpinned him on their own.
"Let's go." She wheeled around and started towards the main staircase, clutching the daggers in her hand.
"Go where?" He asked dully.
"To my real home, Pumpkin. You coming?" She said, not even bothering to look back at him. Slumped against the wall, he quickly pulled himself firmly back on his feet and falling back into his usual marching stroll, he quickly caught up with her. She offered him her hand, her dark blue eyes gleaming, and as soon as he took it, they disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
"How come we were able to Apparate? I thought you put anti-Apparition wards on that ruin." Was his first question, even before he had the time to look around.
"Vampires don't Apparate, so the wards don't work on me." She said casually, giving a sly smile.
"So how did we get here then?" Severus asked, his eyes fixed on the strange creature that so looked like a human woman but he knew she was another magical species entirely. Still, he couldn't help feeling captivated. She was too pretty, too handsome for any magical creature to look like this.
"My way." She smirked again. Then she extended her hand in an elegant swoop and said: "Like what you see?"
"It looks like some sugary plum baroque style chateau." He said, and instantly regretted it – he should have paid more attention to his choice of words because the last thing he wished to do was to offend his strange host.
To his relief, she tilted her head back and laughed, her sharp fangs glistening in the – wasn't he mistaken? – light of the electric chandelier, which was made of crystal to complement the rich decor of the sitting room in which they were standing.
"Sugary plum? My choice of furniture might be on the rococo side of the spectrum, darling, but that doesn't mean I have no taste at all. In fact, this is my family's original furniture." She patted an opulent-looking escritoire: "I got this from my uncle when I was nine. Anyways, back to business – tea?"
A steaming china pot appeared on the massive ornately-crafted oak dining table. He now noticed that the main sitting room was in fact a large dining room.
"Well, don't look so confused, a vampire has to pay her mortgage, too!" She bristled, and sitting across the table opposite to him, she folded her arms.
"I wasn't confused, I apologise if my exterior suggested otherwise." He said sternly, sitting at the edge of the velvet cushion of his ornate chair and sipped at his tea tentatively. "I was merely admiring your taste in tables – your taste in other decor is still vile." He said, not taking his onyx eyes from her.
"You intrigue me." She bent forward, and casually propped her cheek on her hand.
"A few wizards would have the balls to challenge me in my own house… Alone… With no one else to know if something happened to them or not…"
His lips curled up in a sly smirk, his black eyes slowly consuming hers. "If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it long ago. You certainly wouldn't be bothering with serving me tea first."
"You're right. Besides, the tea would dilute your blood so it would taste like a packaged soup anyway."
"You don't drink human blood. You drink animal blood."
"Dumbledore knows everything about me, when did I even have a chance to frighten you?" She moaned.
"The first few seconds maybe?" He suggested with a slight jerk of his head.
"If he hadn't told you I didn't drink human blood, would you have been afraid?" She asked, almost pleading, with a new speck of hope in her voice.
"I might." He shrugged his shoulders. In fact, he said it only to make her feel better. "But I certainly wouldn't let it show."
"The Spymaster indeed." She grinned, her sharp teeth glistening in the light from the chandelier. "Don't think you are the only one informed here, Severus Snape." She almost spat the last words and she was now smirking as much as he did. Just the way she said his name was enough to make his heart race – he didn't know why.
"Just look at you, you're a treat. Why did you come to me, Severus?" She rolled his name on her tongue so deliciously, so sweetly, and then she got up from the table abruptly (his hand clutched his wand tightly), turned her back towards him and cast him such a meaningful side glance he felt entranced and challenged at the same time.
"The old man needs your help." He said simply.
"And you?" Another side glance. "You don't need my help, Severus?"
"It's not a question of what I need." He barked.
"I take it for a no, then." She said, and her red lips curled up into a smile again. "Tell me, Severus, am I repulsive to you? Do you find me… abhorrent?" She fixed her eyes on him. Struck by her sudden questioning, his mouth went dry: "I– I don't–"
"That's why it took him so long to convince you to do this, didn't it? The old man is weak – too weak – to go, so you acquiesced only because he insisted, didn't you? If you had your choice, you would gladly run a garlic-infused silver sword through my bosom, would you?" Her eyes were flaming and merciless. "You would loathe to be even remotely associated with me, wouldn't you?" She whispered, and her words hit his face like a freezing blizzard.
"He sends you this." He said curtly and handed her a roll of parchment. She broke the seal and read it silently.
"So?" He asked flatly.
"I'll think about it." She answered and rolled up the parchment again, all the heat from her voice suddenly gone.
"That's all you have to say?" He asked, not managing to conceal the sound of irritation this time
"Tell your old man one thing: I'll come only when you need me. You, Severus Snape. You, out of all people. You, a spiteful and conceited man with a cold heart and heartless disposition, when you come begging for my help, then I'll lift a finger for you. Get out, and be glad you still have legs to stand on." She waved her hand dismissively, then rolled out the parchment again and her eyes began flitting from left to right as she began reading again.
"Better associate with the werewolves than with your lot." He spat angrily, stormed out of the dining room and slammed the door shut after him.
"I'm disappointed, Severus." Dumbledore said, shaking his head sadly.
"Why don't you go yourself then?!" Roared the younger man, his face contorted in a furious grimace. "Maybe because you're wasted away, Albus?!"
"I just need to hold on a bit longer…" The ancient Headmaster exhaled deeply, "do you have the potion for me?"
"As always, Albus." Severus said, anger still seeping from his voice, and as the Headmaster drank from the steaming goblet that appeared in front of him, he said: "This was never about me, Severus. If I needed Alyssa myself, I could have asked her in a single letter and she would have come in a jiffy. I wanted you to make an acquaintance with her, Severus, because when I'm gone, you will need her. Our side will need her."
"We can take the Death Eaters with ease." Objected the Potions Master, however, a feeling of uneasiness was slowly creeping up his spine.
"It's not the Death Eaters I'm worried about." Dumbledore shook his head again.
"What then?"
"It is my belief that Tom will try to recruit vampires, as well as werewolves and giants. And possibly some other magical creatures as well."
"Do you think he will try to contact her?"
"I'm quite certain he already did."
"Now that's brilliant," Severus spat angrily, "because now she knows I side with you–"
"Alyssa will never reveal your secret." Dumbledore waved his hand dismissively. Severus had the impression that he would become allergic to this gesture in the near future.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Some things she knows about me would make your blood curdle, my dear friend."
"She certainly didn't look old at all." Severus murmured.
"You liked her, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't." The Potions Master snarled. "If you recall, I hate vampires. And werewolves. All this half-human lot, really."
"The dislike of werewolves would be something you and Alyssa would have in common." Dumbledore winked.
"She doesn't like werewolves?"
"Severus, my dear boy, weren't you paying attention in History of Magic? These lads have been waging war with one another since the beginning of time." Dumbledore smiled.
"What's the issue with the other vampires though? Cannot she tell them to support us?"
"I'm afraid that Alyssa herself is rather an outcast amongst her own kind. The other vampires would very much like to see her dead, and wizards would very much like to see her dead, too."
"That's why you two are friends…" Severus murmured. The old goat could offer her the same protection he once offered me…
"Do vampires hate her because she doesn't kill humans?" It suddenly dawned on him.
"Besides other things, yes."
"Why does she refuse to drink human blood?"
"That is a part of her own personal story. Perhaps she will tell you herself one day." Dumbledore looked unusually grave.
"Isn't there a chance you could go back one more time, my dear fellow?" Dumbledore asked gently, concern wrinkling his already-lined forehead.
"I'm sorry, Albus. No." Said Severus.
"You are aware that you are throwing away a great advantage." It wasn't a question. It was a statement waiting to be confirmed. Severus nodded firmly.
Not long after that, the old man passed away. Severus liked to think about it that way. He rarely let the thought of him being his actual murderer enter his consciousness. It was something that he had buried somewhere deep down inside him. He was sure he would regret it deeply someday. But now, he just couldn't think of it. It was too painful. And it pained him even more that he, the murderer of the old Headmaster, took his place not long after Albus died. Since his staying in his old quarters would raise suspicion, he was persuaded by Albus' portrait to move to the Headmaster's Tower. But there wouldn't be a day when he wouldn't regret it.
The Great Hall was soon filled with chatter and happy clinking of cutlery and glasses. The children took his new position relatively well, although he could positively feel the seeping wrath of the Gryffindor students on him. He made a mental note that he should break the Red-and-Golden Resistance movement, which essentially meant breaking Weasley and Longbottom. He couldn't risk them causing him too much trouble, or he would be forced to execute real punishments on them – and he would avoid doing that if he ever could. But everything in due time… Severus Snape let out a barely audible sigh of exhaustion and relief and sipped his goblet of mead. So far, everything was going smoothly for him, although everyone could feel the palpable hostility aimed at his fellow Death Eaters from the rest of the sta§ff and from the majority of the students. There were a few of his former comrades, including the ever-disgusting Greyback, but he had to tolerate the presence of the Dark Lord's henchmen for as long as it would be necessary – which would probably be the entire school year, if the war didn't end sooner, that is.
He was suddenly brought around from his reveries by the alarmed cries of the students and staff: in the main isle, between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw table, appeared a faint cloud of black smoke, and shortly after that, a very tall red haired woman, with her red lips and long white vampire incisors shining in the candlelight. The children shrieked, the staff gasped in horror.
"IT'S THE FULL MOON!" She roared at him, her eyes wide, her hands trembling. The majority of the children were still bewildered by the sudden appearance of the vampire, but a lot of the gazes turned to Greyback sitting at the Slytherin table.
No.
Fucking no.
His dark eyes flicked to one of the tall windows. And there, from behind a shifting cloud, appeared the shiny disc of the full moon.
How could I be so stupid?!
Greyback roared in laughter, his voice becoming a vicious howl, and he clenched his fists as his transformation began. The female vampire sprang towards him, possessing perhaps the greatest agility of mental faculties of all people present: she dragged the transforming werewolf forcibly out of his seat amongst the students and pinned him against the floor with all the strength she had in herself. The transforming man struggled, groping against her in blind efforts, his body and mind being still captured by the change from human to werewolf. She held him against the floor tight, and only now had Severus realised she was screaming at him: "Get them out! Get them all out!"
The children surely didn't have to be asked twice. Screaming at the top of their lungs, they turned into a panicking crowd of black robes, willing to trample anyone just to get to the main door themselves first. It took all the collective effort of the staff members to make the panicking organised and safe for the younger students, whilst the older ones had to be shepherded away, so many of them wanted to take a look at the Fight of the Beasts, as it was later nicknamed.
As the Great Hall was emptying, Severus' eyes still lingered on the two wrestling bodies. The wolf had now grown into his full body and power, and with a pang at his heart Severus realised that she was no match for him, because as soon as he regained full control of his body, he flung her into the staff table which broke in half. Turning towards the fleeing children, the wolf was seized again by the vampire who jumped at his back, desperately trying to divert his attention from the crowd of escaping children. The werewolf seized the vampire by her hair, and flung her over his shoulder to the floor, sinking his teeth into her arm. She cried in pain, and rolled away, clutching at her arm. Watching all this, Severus was still standing at the doorway, unsure as to whether he should help or not. He could see that the werewolf was clearly much stronger than the vampire, however, on the other hand, she was much faster. Just as Greyback was turning to him, he heard her scream: "Get your ass outta here, jerk!"
He certainly didn't have to be told twice – but he still stayed behind the oak door, just in case she would need his help. Who am I kidding? He was telling himself. What could I do that she wouldn't have done?!
Peeping into the hall, he could see the thin body of the vampire smashing into things again and again, when she wasn't struggling in the werewolf's deadly grasp. His fangs sank into her skin again and again, and suddenly, Severus realized there was no blood anywhere. It was just her flesh.
She doesn't have any blood inside her…
Just as the werewolf was biting and tearing and scratching and wrestling, the vampire was biting, and tearing, and scratching, and wrestling. However, Severus could see that she was getting worse and worse, whilst he wasn't really that badly off. If something doesn't happen soon, he thought, she is going to die.
But what could he do? It was a known fact that magical creatures could easily defy magic, so as he was wrecking his brain for a spell or a curse that would help, Alyssa got up from the ground for a hundredth time, and taking a daring jump at Greyback's back, her slender hands grasped his head and in the next second she broke the werewolf's neck.
A queer stillness swallowed the scene. And as the werewolf's body thumped on the floor, so did Alyssa's.
"Poppy, quick!"