Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's note: Well, this is the second chapter. I hope that long-waiting time will be repaid with the fact that it's quite long chapter (it is almost 5000 words). Oh, warning - there is some POV-switching in this chapter. I'll try to post next update on Monday (2nd September). Now answers to the questions in reviews.
moon - In the romance category I would say that there will be some more... serious feelings but no relationships like that (maybe in the background). If there will be some relationships than they will be like Harry's and Alicia's - merely light relationship. You will be able to see at the end of this chapter that someone has more-than-light feelings for someone but I will not make them an item and I'll certainly not focus on them. Trust me :)
Drew - If there will be romance then it will be very light. Read my response to moon's review to see what I mean. And about 'Last Will'. Although the story won't be finished, I have idea for a fic that has very similar beginning but a really different plot inside of it. But that's talking about distant future :) I still have to rewrite 'The New Powers' and write a sequel to it :)
Thank you to all of you who reviewed!
It seemed impossible for him. And yet, there it was, castle, school of magic, his home. Ehh, he couldn't get all-emotional now. He saw Hagrid and followed him. He found his team and four of them went inside of the boat. Andrew was going to the school with other students. A sudden thought struck Harry - why didn't he just Apparate here earlier? Slowly they started sailing to the school.
As they arrived Harry once again looked at everything there. It all looked so different with his new eyesight. Soon, he was walking along with the first years and his friends from Department. Few minutes later they were standing in front of Professor McGonagall. Hagrid waved them goodbye.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. Sorting ceremony will begin in few minutes. It's a very important because, while you're here your house will be like family for you." Harry looked in James's direction who was frowning Not very surprising Harry thought. "You will sleep in your dormitory, spend free time in common room and have lessons with your friends from the house. You also earn house points…" Harry stopped listening to McGonagall's talking. After all he knew everything about this.
Few seconds later Professor took them to the Great Hall. As far a she knew they really were transfer students. Dumbledore was supposed to tell her who they really are, later. Harry glanced at the first years who looked really nervous. He was probably equally nervous few years ago.
Doors of the Great Hall slowly opened. The first years walked in and then his team followed. It still looked marvellous. Thousands of candles and the bewitched ceiling were incredible. This place didn't lose its appeal even after years of time.
Harry saw as McGonagall called nervous first years, one by one. Harry wondered how could he be that small. He also noticed that Slytherins got the highest number of kids. After every first year was sorted Dumbledore stood up and the Great Hall quieted instantly.
"This year we will have four additional 7th year students. They are all from Durmstrang Institute of Magical Arts [Does it go like this?]. I hope that you will welcome them kindly." Dumbledore was probably the only one in this school who now knew that the new students weren't who they pretended to be. McGonagall started reading the list again.
"Clark, Frederick." Harry chuckled a little. Fred went to the stool and put the hat on. Not surprisingly after few minutes it shouted out…
"SLYTHERIN!" Cheers rose from the Slytherin table. Fred looked a bit grumpy. No wonder, Harry thought, I would also be grumpy if I would have to spy on the Slytherins.
"Clark, Harold." Harry went and put on the hat. Immediately a silent voice started whispering into his ear.
"And who do we have here?"
"You know me well."
"Oh my, shouldn't you be sorted into Slytherin?" Harry immediately told the hat what he thought about being sorted into Slytherin.
"You know I have to be in Gryffindor."
"Oh yes, you have to. Well, I won't do anything to get your mission failed. GRYFFINDOR!" Cheers rose from Gryffindor table. Harry put the hat on the stool and headed to his old table. Few seconds later he found empty place. He sat up and saw that others were already sorted. Dumbledore rose again.
"Welcome to Hogwarts this year. I don't have anything to say except, tuck in!" He sat down again. Harry unfortunately couldn't join the feast. He got up and used a cloaking charm on himself. It wasn't invisibility charm. It made everyone ignore him and think of him as an unimportant element of the background.
He went to the Gryffindor tower. He read the Fat Lady's mind and gave her the password. He chuckled to himself when he realised that he indeed, could read mind of painting. Immediately the way to the tower opened. He couldn't think of anything else except 'Its good to be home' as he headed to his dormitory.
He found his bed and fell on it. Immediately he felt so heavy and lazy that he would welcome the sleep with bright smile on his face. However he wasn't going to rest. After few seconds he heard a silent 'click' sound in his head. It was a sign that someone wanted to engage him in telepathical talk.
"Yeah?"
"Harry, it's me James. Bolton told us to meet him in the dungeon. We have to get introduced to the Protectors."
"Sure."
"I mean it! Get over here, NOW!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
Drowsily Harry got up. He always liked to sleep as a vampire even if he didn't need to do it. He used a little bit of magic that made him more awake than he would be normally after ten coffees and ran to the dungeon with astonishing speed. No human could possibly see him now. If he passed someone, the person would feel him as wind.
Corridors passed in astonishing speed. From his vampiric gifts this was the one he was probably enjoying the most. Running with speed beyond limits. It felt like flying on broom (although he could fly without it, that kind of flight gave him really creepy feeling - he didn't like it). After few seconds the dungeons appeared in his view. He immediately stopped and proceeded with normal walking speed. Few seconds later he saw Fred waiting for him.
"Let's go." He told him. Fred then pressed few, seemingly random, bricks on the wall. Few seconds later the wall seemed to become translucent and then it disappeared completely. Harry walked inside of the room. There were all mages' teams here plus about thirty other people. They were Protectors residing in the school. The room looked a little like miniature Great Hall, except it had two tables instead of four and the tables were few times smaller. Harry sat next to Fred at the end of the table where others mages were. Harry looked at the opposite table. There were several students there. He noticed with surprise that Draco Malfoy was also there. Dumbledore was sitting in the same place where he used to sit in the Great Hall. He rose.
"Welcome today on this grand meeting. I have requested additional defence force from the Ministry. They helped us instantly sending very well trained people. We have fifty Aurors on school grounds that will be residing here for whole school year. Fifteen unspeakables used new defence spells and additional wards at the school. But the 'elite' is gathered here. Twenty-five mages, five of them will be working undercover…" Harry oozed off as Dumbledore continued to talk. He told them how to recognise mages (mages had a very small mark on their left wrist - blue lightning bolt, it was invisible to anyone but those who were placed under special charm, or those who could be completely trusted by the mage). He also paid special attention to those five who would be working undercover. That meant Harry's team. Dumbledore also said the he will set up a training room for them. Harry didn't really listen to Dumbledore. He could later use a memory charm on himself to listen to it if it was important. He scanned with his eyes the Protectors, just to remember their faces later - if anything happened.
About half an hour later the meeting ended and he was free to go. Few people already left the room. He also did that. A good night sleep would do wonders for him now. He was now walking slowly to the Gryffindor tower. It wasn't a long time till Ron, Hermione and Ginny caught up with him. These three were in the Protectors.
"So you're going to be in Gryffindor tower." Hermione stated.
"Yes."
"How long are you working for the Ministry?" Hermione continued.
"Two years." She exchanged glance with Ron.
"Can you… possibly know where Harry Potter is?" Harry stopped. She looked at him with hope visible in her eyes. He looked her directly into eye and replied without showing any kind of emotion.
"This is none of my concern." He turned his back on her and started walking again to the tower. She whispered to him in broken voice.
"So you know where he is. You just don't want to tell us."
"Why do you think so?"
"If you didn't have any clue of his whereabouts you would simply tell us 'No'"
Harry could feel now his temper raising. It was unfortunate thing he had to cope with. He didn't know why but ever since he became vampire, he had many mood-swings and he got angered very easily. Additionally he was extremely short-tempered in stressful situation. "Let me tell you something Ms.Granger. What Harry Potter is doing now or where he is has nothing to do now with you. You haven't seen him in two years. He could be completely different person now. He could be a werewolf or a vampire, just like me. What would you do then? What would you do if he turned dark? If he was now Death Eater? Or if he defeated Lord Voldemort and took his place? Hmm? What if he didn't want to have anything in common with you? Have you ever thought of that?" She stared at him with tears in her eyes. In moments like this Harry truly hated his job. But he had to do it. They couldn't know who he was really. Harry walked away now determined to just go and not listen to her, cursing himself silently for his twisted emotions.
"Harry would never turn dark. He knows that we would accept him even if he turned into non-human." Harry turned around and looked at them. He whispered to himself.
"Sometimes I hate this job." He pointed his hand at them and muttered.
"Obliviate." Their faces took blank looks. They didn't remember anything from this conversation. Harry ran with inhuman speed to the dorm before they could spot him. He found his bed, lay down and fell asleep.
~ - ~ - ~ - ~
3rd person, Ron's POV
Ron thanked God that he thought about using some kind of memory-charm protection. Three of them drank a potion against memory-charmes. It was a very powerful one but it worked for very short time (10 minutes) and you couldn't take second dose for next 24 hours. He was also glad that Harry lost his temper in very short time. But that meant the he could possibly know something about disappearance of his best friend.
They got the idea from Hermione. She thought that if anyone in the world knew something about Harry's disappearance then it would be Dumbledore. He gave them a hint that Harry is training to be 'more than normal wizard'. Hermione later researched it and came with idea that Harry might have become either mage or a enchanter (a wizard who focuses his magic through touching things he wants to use magic on instead of using wands). They quickly assumed that training to be enchanter wouldn't make any sense for Harry. And then they discovered that the only known place where mages were trained was Department of Mysteries. They couldn't hide their enthusiasm when they heard that mages from department would be coming to guard Hogwarts. After all there might be a mage who would know something about Harry or would be Harry.
Harold Clark was their 'guardian' in the Gryffindor tower. He was the mage they would see everyday and Ginny sort of assumed he would be helpful. It was Ron who thought about some protection measures.
And again Ron analysed Clark's reaction to the questioning. 'This is none of my concern.' What was that supposed to mean? This was not his job to tell few kids where their best friend is? Yeah, probably that was right. Hermione then told him something that was plaguing Ron's mind since the statement was told. And then he freaked out telling some sort of scenarios about 'What could Harry be doing at the moment?' And then 'Sometimes I hate this job' Why? Why did he hate to erase their memories? If there were nothing to do it he would erase their memories to get rid of them without showing any kind of emotion.
All in all, Ron's mind was an avalanche of ideas, thoughts, memories and analyses.
~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Back to Harry's POV
Harry woke up the next day very early. It was time to start his job. He sincerely hoped that no one in the Gryffindor house would be involved with the dark side. He got up and took a shower (he didn't need to take one but it always made him feel better). He went to the gym to train a few things.
There were some other people already there. There was his whole team except for James, few Protectors and Aurors. He trained the spells with which he had problems. About two hours passed when almost every mage and protector was there.
Much to his dismay Ron and Hermione were there also. He wasn't in mood to talk to them so he continued his training. He noticed that Fred got much better in controlling his vampiric powers. He was a lot faster, stronger and better with his mental power. Harry hoped that his magical powers grew equally stronger. Fred approached him after few minutes.
"Want to duel?" Harry eyed him curiously. Fred never wanted to duel with him. It was always Harry who dragged him into duel.
"Sure."
~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Hermione's POV
"Want to duel?"
"Sure."
Hermione eyed the two of them with interest. She also noticed that mages looked like they were… glad? Happy? No, it couldn't be this emotion. She approached random mage and asked her.
"What's going on?" The mage eyed her. Hermione felt like she was x-rayed.
"Harry is a vampire, and Fred a half-vampire. They are both very powerful with their magic and vampiric powers. They are quite equal. Duels between them are intense, fast and you can see a great deal of cool magic. Want to watch them?"
"Sure." It would be interesting to watch two vampiric mages duel.
"I'm Alicia by the way."
"I'm Hermione. Are they going to duel here?"
"Well, not exactly. They're going to use a special spell. It will transport them to a battlefield. They can duel without rules there - they can use killing curses on each other, disintegrate each other etc. but after the duel ends they instantly regenerate themselves. They also feel all the pain. We can watch them but we will be out of body - like the rest of watchers."
"How can we go there?"
"Look, the spell goes like that. They touch tips of their wands and say an incantation. You just think 'I want to go there' and you will be watching them."
Hermione looked at two guys who were now chanting a very long incantation. Few seconds passed and they froze in place and were surrounded by golden bubble. Hermione thought 'I want to go there' and she immediately found herself floating above some kind of land. In was absolutely flat and as far as Hermione could see the ground went into infinity. The ground was green but there was no grass there. It was completely flat and hard like bricks. Few seconds later and two fighters appeared and along with them many spirits watching the duel. Hermione floated to Alicia and asked her why weren't they moving.
"They are going to use some Blood Magic."
"What?"
"Blood Magic is a type of magic which involves blood of all kinds of creatures. It's pretty complicated and as a human you can't use it - your blood is too weak. But it's very powerful. See? They can pierce their skin at will. And look - the blood isn't pulled down by gravity - it's floating. They can make symbols with it. Well, after they make the symbol it ignites and forms into an orb. It then starts floating around you and when you want to use it you just take it and use. They're starting to use it now."
Hermione saw as both of them started drawing in air a pentacle. It ignited, formed into an orb and started floating around them. Hermione saw as Harry started forming few circles and every one of them started floating around him.
"What are these spells?"
"Pentacle is gigantic wall of fire and circle in amplifying of an spell. Harry is famous for this second one."
"Why?"
"Well, normal person can (of course not with their own blood) amplify the spell to make it about 5 times stronger. But it's different with Harry. He has an extremely powerful amplifying spell. But he says that it's very tiring. It makes the spell somewhere around 100 to 500 times stronger. Well as I see they start real duel."
~ - ~ - ~ - ~
Harry's POV and now on we continue here
Harry looked at Fred who stood with calm confidence about sixty feet from him. Few orbs containing powerful Blood Magic flew around him. An aura of power surrounded him. For the first time in his life Harry thought he might actually lose a duel to Fred. Fred eyed the orbs flying around Harry with little fear in his eye but quickly regained the calm posture.
Before Harry could do anything a fireball sizzled brushing his shin. He dodged it just in time because second fireball already flew in the direction. He started to shout out a spell but he got hit with another fireball in his stomach before he could finish the incantation. He flew away seventy feet with scorched stomach, which, not surprisingly regenerated itself after a moment.
"Sh*t, he got really tough."
"What, Harry? So weak suddenly." Came Fred's mocking voice few hundred feet away. Fred barely had time to think about something when his brain was attacked in avalanche of his worst memories. He put his palm on his forehead and tried to clear all of his thoughts. No chance. Harry was simply too good with mind control stuff. He would have to fight remembering all of the worst things that happened to him in life. He barely dodged the Avada Kedavra Harry cast.
Harry had his wand out. He often used it even if he was a mage.
"Avada Kedavra Avada Kedavra Avada Kedavra Avada Kedavra Avada Kedavra"
Fred ducked swiftly the spells and reappeared on Harry's right side. Before Harry had time to react he was hit with Cruciatus.
He fell on one knee and willed the pain to go away. Maybe a few seconds passed and it was no longer there. He stopped finding the worst memories in Fred's brain only to replace it with making him think that he heard screams from every direction and every place.
Fred now noticed the way Harry moved in this duel. He shot one spell in Harry's direction and immediately another in the direction he anticipated Harry to move. His predictions were correct. Harry dodged the spell but was hit with the second one and he was immediately paralysed.
Harry didn't have a hope in hell to break this spell. Fred bit his finger and blood started flowing out of it. He made few symbols with it and collected the created orbs into one. Then he shot the spell at Harry.
A terrible roar filled Harry's ears. And second later a blow so powerful that not in his wildest dreams he imagined one that could equal this one hit him in the chest. He was flying from it that was sure. But as he quickly realised the paralysing curse no longer worked. He used the flying abilities he had as a vampire to stop himself.
Immediately a feeling of inhumanity and strangely supernatural nature of this gift swept over him. When he wasn't a vampire he sometimes thought how it would be to fly without a broom but now he was sure - he hated it with passion. Still, it was useful sometimes.
He flew down to the ground as fast as he could and tried to plan a strategy. He thought before that Fred could be more powerful than he would expect him to be but he never imagined that Fred could be that powerful. He needed some kind of plan, but he couldn't think of one.
In the meantime Fred already managed to shot several curses at him. Harry barely managed to dodge every one because in meantime he placed a charm on himself that made him much stronger and faster.
Suddenly a thought occurred to him. If I can't beat him with magic, than I could with brute force. He caught the sight of one of the blood magic orbs. Amplification spell. Suddenly the idea formed in his mind. He forced all of the amplification charms he had in one and used the charm again that made his stronger and faster again.
He felt invincible. He could move hundred times faster than before. In the real world this charm had no use - after the effect worn off, person would be tired beyond anything. But here he only had one duel and he wouldn't feel after-effects. He was now moving so fast that Fred didn't even see a blur.
Harry tried to focus all of his magical energy into his fist. Slowly a tingling sensation went through all of his body and concentrated in his fist. He would simply punch Fred as hard as he could. With several his amplification charms and vampiric strength…
He started going in circles around Fred. Even with his better half-vampire's senses Fred wasn't able to see him. In one quick move he came behind him and punched him as hard as he could. And seconds later he was holding Fred's heart in his hand, while his arm was in Fred's body only the forearm and hand was out. The reality faded away.
~ - ~ - ~ - ~
"You won." Fred admitted defeated as they both came back to senses.
"Yeah, I'm unbeatable."
"Try fighting Bolton, we'll see about the unbeatable part." He grinned at Harry.
"You know, I'm really good, but Bolton has something with his mind, you know. No one sane can be that good at duelling."
"Oh, well, what can we do? He's just psycho and that's all."
"Okay, let's get back to training."
"Nice duel." He heard Alicia say next to his ear.
"Yeah, right."
"Fred got really good."
"Unfortunately I got to know that in the hard way."
"I saw. I'll leave you alone now, as I see that someone wants to talk to you."
"Who?"
"Old friend." She smiled and went back to train something. Harry turned around to see that Hermione wanted to talk to him about something.
"Yes?"
"Could I talk to you?"
"What about?"
"Just a… casual talk."
"Sure." He smiled a little. "Do you want to go outside?"
"Okay."
The both walked to the outside. During the walk Harry eyed her with his eyes. He noticed with his vampiric senses few things that would go unnoticed for humans unless you looked really close. She had a little too much red in her eyes, she must have been crying few hours earlier. Harry also noticed that she was much quieter and that his presence gave her strong reminders of long-forgotten memories and emotions. He didn't specially read her mind to sense that - he just sensed it like humans sometimes sensed that someone was behind them even if they weren't able to notice anything suspicious.
"Can you talk about your vampirism?" Asked him Hermione.
"Sure, I got over the kind of 'trauma' after it quite long time ago. I simply accepted it and tried to get out the good sides of it. You know, I'm going to live as much as I want to. I didn't lose my soul. I still have my mind and, although changed, my body. There were many changes but I was made by a powerful vampire enough to have quite big advantages. I came to accept it."
"Did something change in the way you think?"
"Yeah, there were few changes. First of all the emotions - they are the same, but there's a difference. You see, I'll explain it in that way to you. Most of the people want to find love, solace, and understanding of others. They seek for these things sometimes for whole their lives. However I can say to you, that although I can still feel these emotions, I don't really require them. I would be equally happy to live in the desert with no one to talk as well as I can live in a town having thousands of friends and my soul mate."
"I think I understand. Although there's no problem with feeling the emotions you don't have the need to feel them."
"Exactly. And besides that - vampires aren't blood-crazed. Some, very few of us went insane and now are nothing more than pumps for blood. But they are individuals. Of course I crave after the blood, I lust for it. I am powerful enough to survive without it for long times but it would be like living in celibacy."
"Oh. I never thought about it in that way."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for the most of my life I heard that vampires are just psychos who are mad with lust for blood. Of course, I heard stories about vampires - they are mostly the modern ones, which describe vampires as… well, very much like humans, who can't go into the sunlight and are a little different than us. I see that this fits."
"Yes."
"And what about the matter of being… well, dead?"
"Vampires who were muggles will never, ever change. Let's assume that I'm one and I had long hair in the time of change. If I would want to have short, than I would have to cut them everyday. But with magic I can live almost like a human."
"What are the general vampiric abilities?"
"Well…" Harry started saying. He didn't really want to go into too much detail about this."… they are extremely amplified mental, psychic, telepathic and mind controlling abilities, ability to fly, the whole strength and agility stuff and so on. The older vampire the more powerful he gets."
"How old are you?"
"As in vampiric or human life-span?"
"Both."
"Half year old as a vampire. I was nineteen and half when I was turned." [Remember that Harry had missions in the past?]
"So, if you are as powerful as half-year-old than how powerful is a thousand-year-old."
"I was turned by a very old vampire. He was probably somewhere around 2500 years old."
"Wow. So that means that you have strength equal to 2500 year old."
"No, the maker can only pass half of his strength. You can pass more but you will simply die. And what about you?"
"What?"
"Tell me something about you. I don't know, tell me about your friends, hobby, possible boyfriend?"
"Well, my name is Hermione Granger as you know already. I'm seventeen. I am Head Girl this year…"
"Why weren't you in compartment with other prefects, then?"
"I didn't want to go. As I was saying. I have three good friends now - they are Ron, Ginny and Draco. You saw them already, as far as I know. Ron was my first and last boyfriend in our fifth year. It didn't last simply because I had feelings for other boy."
"Who?"
"Harry Potter, but he's no longer here." Harry tried to remain expressionless. That was really hard considering that this shocked him to core. "I always hoped that Harry would someday return. I gave up my hopes in sixth year. Dumbledore wouldn't tell us anything, no other teacher knew anything. After that time I sometimes wish that I would get the news that he's dead. I would be sure then, and not like this wondering whether he's alive or imprisoned or what." Harry felt really bad now. She was really suffering without him. Harry saw as she blinked back tears. He wanted to hug her and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but he had to remind himself that as far as she knew he was a stranger to her. But an odd thought caught him - maybe she was just trying to get him to feel pity for her and to tell her where 'Harry Potter' was.
"I'm pretty sure that he's there. Whatever he's doing now must be pretty important."
"And just how would you know that?"
"Why would he want to leave his friends if he didn't have anything important to do?"
"I just don't know."
Harry changed the subject from Harry Potter to her. As he talked to her he realised that Hermione didn't change during these two years. She was more mature, yes, but somewhere there she was still Hermione he knew. It saddened him to see that she had feelings for him for so long. Maybe after he broke up with Alicia something would come out of this?
A/N: I trust that this chapter was enjoyable and the cliffhanger isn't that tragic :) Now press this little button in the left corner of the screen and review :)
What in the next chapter? First DADA lesson with our loveable Andrew Bolton, strange creature and Voldie's new favourite potion.