Vampire Chronicles Book 2: Catharine Riddle

By Gaz Destiny

~*~Halloween~*~

~*~10am~*~

"So, how out of place do you think I'll look?" Rena asked with a smile as she pulled her short (A/N: she can control the length of her hair on a day to day basis, normally though it is long) hair into a ponytail.

"I'm going to say really out of place," Sirius said looking at her short black mini skirt, white blouse, black leather duster, and matching black leather knee-high boots.

"Thought so," Rena answered her smile now small, but perfect on her face, as they climbed into the carriage that would take them into Hogsmead.

"If you knew you would, why did you wear it?" Sirius asked still trying to figure out why she was wearing it.

"Because, I found this path last time I was there that will take us right into a muggle village, and I need to buy some new records, without looking funny to them, you know, in cognito," Rena said as the carriage came to a stop at the entrance of Hogsmead.

"What?" Sirius asked, knowing the word, but not used to girls using it.

"In disguise, hold on," Rena answered touching her wand lightly to her jacket turning her skirt and blouse into a long black silk robe and her duster into a black dragon hide cloak. "That's better, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Sirius said opening the carriage door and climbing out, before helping Rena, who was about to jump, out.

"Good, so where's the best place to get candy, I'm in the mood for a major sugar rush tonight," Rena asked.

"There's this great candy shop, Honeydukes, and then there's butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks," Sirius said.

"Great, what are we waiting for?" Rena asked as the carriage pulled away.

"Nothing, come on," Sirius said leading the way into town.

"Is there any chance we can stop by the Shrieking Shack, I've heard of the vampires and werewolves said to live there or at least stay there around the full moon," Rena said making Sirius do a brief double-take. Then, going on, she said, "Vampires, such interesting creatures, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed grateful that she had turned her attention to vampires instead of werewolves.

"But it's only because people know nothing of them truly, once people have realized everything there is to know, though there are people that already know all there is to know at the moment, the vampire will hold no common interest except to prove as the immortal pests of society," Rena said before laughing. "I just sounded like some book worm didn't I? I hate when I sound like that."

"No, it's ok, usually when people talk like that they make no sense, you at least made sense," Sirius said as the started walking towards Honeydukes just a few shops down.

~*~

"You're right, these butterbeers are delicious," Rena said sipping happily at her butterbeer at their seat in the Three Broomsticks.

They had spent over a half hour in Honeydukes, Sirius showing Rena every single treat they had. Finally the left, their pockets much lighter than they had been when the two entered, and a bag of candy in each one's hand. Suspiciously, Rena had bought quite a few of the blood flavored lollypops, passing it off by saying that they tasted like strawberry in vanilla ice-cream, knowing full and well that Sirius didn't believe her.

"I told you I was always right," Sirius said confidently not noticing as Rena zoned out.

"Take my hand, maybe there will be a day, when you will understand, everything in my life," Rena sang under her breath.

"That's pretty, is it a muggle song?" Sirius asked looking up from his drink.

"No, it's not a song, not yet, at least I don't think so," Rena answered softly, her eyes closed as she took in refreshing deep breaths.

"You don't think so?" Sirius asked confused.

"Yeah. Sometime songs come to me, this one comes more often than others," Rena answered with as soft smile as she finally opened her eyes again and took a long sip of her drink. "Different parts at different times, someday I'll put them all together."

"And what part was that?" Sirius asked with a small laugh.

"The beginning and the chorus," Rena said simply. "Strange enough, it never comes to me unless I'm alone."

"That is kinda strange," Sirius agreed. Quickly adding, "I mean that it came now."

"It's probably telling me I can trust you," Rena said with a laugh. Adding even quicker than he had, "Or something like that."

"Yeah," Sirius said suddenly feeling the uncomfortable-ness of the moment.

"Is there a robe shop here? I need some new robes for Christmas, I wore my green robe to the Christmas party last year and I need a new one," Rena said a few seconds later as she finished her drink.

"Yeah," Sirius said moving is previously emptied glass away from him.

"Then lets go, now, we only have two hours before the Halloween feast," Rena said. "It won't take that long for me to pick up what I want, and you probably want to meet up with your friends by now."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed a little sullenly.

~*~

"It's so confusing, when I turn around, and it feels like the world has stopped, but it keeps spinning round and round," Rena sang as she came out of the dressing room in a tight fitting blood red robe (that really couldn't be called a robe) that had an empire waist, and medieval style collar and sleeves. Then, looking up and seeing Sirius staring at her, she spun around and asked, "How does this look? And  think that I'm going to be wearing it to a party with a bunch of people that I respect in the highest honor, and they respect me the same way."

"Ok, ignoring what you just said, I'd say you look great, not ignoring what you just said, I'd say, what?" Sirius said with a laugh. "And I hate to bug you with this, but that song has struck up some interest in me."

"And you want to know what part that was right?" Rena asked with a smile. "It seems stranger things keep happening. That was the second part, normally it skips around, first time it came in order."

"Then how do you know what order is?" Sirius asked just as Rena grabbed two other robes/gowns from nearby racks and slipped back into the dressing room.

"I don't know, just something tells me what order it is, like the something that tells me it's not a song yet, and that it's my own song that will never be heard," Rena said from inside the dressing room. "Or in this case, that it's not supposed to be heard without some special reason."

Before Sirius said anything, Rena stepped out of the dressing room in a gorgeous gown. The top was a black corset ending in an empire waist that went off to a floor-length black skirt, the sleeves were like before the medieval style stopping just before hitting the ground. Pulling up the skirt just a bit she showed off the black high heels that made her the extra three inches taller (making her the same height as Sirius), the tops of the high heels wrapped up her legs like ballet slippers ending somewhere that Sirius couldn't see.

"So how perfectly delicious is this one," Rena asked.

"It's…uh…it's…it's…uh…," Sirius stuttered, not able to say anything about how gorgeous and perfect she looked in that dress (not to mention totally hot) (A/N: she's not a Mary-Sue if that's what you're thinking).

"Just what I thought," Rena said grabbing a black velvet cloak off a nearby rack, putting it on over the gown, and looking into a mirror to see if it looked right. Thoughtfully, she took off the cloak and walked back into the dressing room, cloak still in hand, mumbling something about buying the dress, and how it'd be good for the final day, or something like that.

~*~

"Wow, that was quick," Sirius said as they walked out of the store ten minutes later, with twelve minutes to spare in the half hour she said that it would take her to buy the clothes. "You want to go by the Shrieking Shack?"

"Yeah, that'd be fun," Rena said as they turned towards the Shrieking Shack and continued walking. Then, under her breath, she sang, "I took a chance, when I didn't understand, something I couldn't have understood, the power that you held."

"What is that, the third part?" Sirius asked taking on of her two bags for her as he noticed that they were obviously heavy.

"Yeah," Rena answered almost silently as they neared the Shrieking Shack. Picking up a little pace, making Sirius practically run to keep up, she said, "I love this place, it has that feeling of safety, protection. I've never had that feeling in any other place."

"You feel safe here?" Sirius asked with surprise.

"Yes, strangely enough, I do," Rena said running her hand along on of the boards across a window. "It's so calm and quiet, then on the full moon it's just the opposite. I love that about the old place."

They stood there, silent, for a few minutes. Then, Rena looked down at the silver watch on her wrist.

"Oh, it's getting late, you should probably go meet up with your friends," Rena said picking up the long since discarded bags.

"R-right," Sirius said obviously not wanting the moment of silence to end, but not obvious to Rena, who wasn't really paying attention to his face or voice.

"I just hate to leave right now, but I should be getting back, the almighty annoying ones decided that I need more training," Rena said with a soft sigh.

"Huh? Training for what?" Sirius asked.

"They don't think I have enough self control, ugh, I wish they'd just back down, I've had more self control in the last year than they had in their life times," Rena ranted more to herself than Sirius. "Excuse me for my babbling, I should be going now, bye."

Sirius had scarcely said bye before she disappeared, bags in hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hey…how'd you like that…I'm a little bored right now….so I'm gonna go see if I can update one of my other stories…maybe start a new one…

Gaz Destiny