Disclaimer: I own nothing (except for Kaisha and the vampire clans). JKR is God! Please don't sue me, all I have is a (rather extensive) collection of Buffy books and $11.31 to my name!
A.N.: I'd like to send out a huge thank you to all my awesome betas…without them there would be no story to tell. Also, I must especially thank Missy Hallan, for her wicked ideas, and Evil Amy, for being the best Beta a gal could ask for.
Go Your Own Way
Chapter One: Beginnings and Ends
If Harry had hated Snape before, it was nothing compared to the deep-seated loathing he was currently feeling towards the Hogwarts Potions Master.
Nearing the end of Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Professor Severus Snape had returned to his favorite pastime: making life as difficult as possible for Harry Potter, fifth year Gryffindor and (on many occasions) savior of the wizarding world.
Snape, it had seemed, had recovered quite well from the shocking discovery of Lord Voldemort's return to his former glory, if glory was indeed the appropriate word choice in this situation. Currently, Snape was using (a very unwilling) Harry as the "volunteer", upon which the class was testing the potency of this week's Potions projects: Tantus decresco; a shrinking potion, and its counter potion, Aliquantulus amplifico; an enlarging potion that the class was using as a makeshift antidote. As Harry found himself rapidly shrinking to the size of the average Cornish Pixie, only to be enlarged to the rough size of the half-giant Hagrid minutes later, he felt a sudden empathy towards Alice and her misadventures in Wonderland.
It was clear that the students of Slytherin house felt this was the best Potions class in their entire Potions career. Not only had Harry Potter, their long-time nemesis, been diminishing and expanding for forty-five minutes straight, but thanks to the combined efforts of Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan, Potter was only able to use his severely burnt tongue (Seamus had a tendency to set fire to objects one wouldn't have normally thought flammable) to speak in a high pitched voice, somewhat reminiscent of a chipmunk. That was, of course, provided that chipmunks could speak. Harry didn't think that they could, but, well, the more odd something sounded, the more likely it was possible in the wizarding world.
When the class let out an agonizing ten minutes later, Harry's tongue still felt particularly raw, but, gratefully, his voice no longer sounded rodent-esque. True, it was a little higher than normal, but he was sure that the effects of the potion should reverse themselves entirely within the hour. Harry and his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, both fifth year Gryffindors as well, quickly packed up their quills and Potions text and hurried out of the dungeon class room as fast as possible. The trio was always in a hurry to leave Snape and Potions far behind them, preferring to spend their time in more emotionally healthy environments. Like Satanic ceremonies. Cock-fights. Mr. Bean marathons. Anything was healthier than Snape's class.
As they wound themselves along the endless corridors, hallways, and staircases that comprised the labyrinth that was Hogwarts, heading to their most frequented destination, the Hogwarts library, a familiar voice called out to them. "Ron!" came from the petite redheaded girl, walking at a hurried pace behind them.
It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister and treasurer of the 'Harry Potter Fan Club'. Or at least, she had been. Harry wasn't sure anymore exactly where things stood with him and Ginny, but he was pretty sure that she no longer worshipped the ground he walked upon as she had when they had first met. Harry liked to think that they were friends now. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had basically been inseparable over the past year. Dark times tended to bring wizards together, and Ginny was entered into the fold as if she had always been there. Hermione, after all, was a girl, and Harry supposed that there was only so much that she could talk with Ron and himself about. Ron also didn't seem to mind that he was spending his social time with his little sister. Family seemed very important to the Weasleys these days, as it was with most of the wizarding world.
Harry had stayed with the Weasley family twice now, and both times Harry felt more at home with them than he ever had been living at number four Privet drive with the Dursley's. Mrs. Molly Weasley had treated Harry as the son she'd never had, who had quite a bit more leeway than all six of her actual sons. Although Bill and Charlie, the two eldest Weasley boys, were living in Egypt and Romania respectively, they were still very much a part of the everyday life of the Weasley family. Since The Dark Lord's return, daily owls had kept Bill and Charlie in constant contact with Mrs. and Mr. Weasley. Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny all still lived at The Burrow (the Weasley's chaotic home) although Percy was seldom seen, as he was always under a lot of pressure with "important work for the Ministry." Likewise, on Harry's first visit to The Burrow, Ginny sightings were as elusive as those of Percy on his second visit. Ginny was so nervous around Harry that she had trouble being in the same room as him. Thankfully, the awkwardness between Harry and Ginny had dissipated in the years following, and now Harry considered her to be one of his best friends.
Ginny had finally caught up to the three of them. She wore an excited look upon her face, and it seemed she was more than a little out of breath as she began to talk to them. "Ron," she repeated, "it's Dad. He's sent us an owl. Wants us all together to read it."
"What's happened? Is it Charlie? Bill?" gasped Ron, suddenly worrying for the safety of those family members not currently attending Hogwarts; all but the twins, Ginny, and himself.
"Ron," Ginny said in her most soothing tone of voice, "it's nothing like that. It can't be. Dad sent the letter with Errol; he wouldn't have trusted old Errol with some thing so urgent. I expect the letter's several days late already. Poor Errol, the bird's behaving as if it's just flown the circumference of the globe with a whale attached to his leg! "
With this, Ron looked much calmer than he had only seconds earlier. "Right. Good point, Gin. I've said it before and I'll say it again: that birds a bloody menace!" Harry found this exclamation rather funny, as Ron seemed to believe there was something wrong with almost everything their family owned, including his own owl Pigwidgeon, who had now been called a "Bloody Menace" so often that the misfortunate bird was beginning to question whom Ron was addressing when he called out to "Pig". As curiosity was rapidly replacing the fear in Ron's brain, he decided to probe Ginny for a bit more information. "What's this letter about? Why do we all have to be together to hear it?"
"Dunno what it's about, but it must concern the lot of us if he wants us together to read the thing." At that she gave Ron a pained expression, clearly indicating that he should get his arse in gear because she was dying to find out what their father had written them.
"Right then. Sorry, Hermione. Guess I won't be hindering you as you work towards another perfect test score," Ron teased, sending Hermione a wicked smile.
"What are you talking about?" interrupted Ginny, looking somewhat baffled. "Hermione and Harry are to come, too. Dad wrote for everyone to be there, including these two. Now let's go. Fred and George are waiting for us, and you know as well as I do not to leave those two on their own with something important. They've more than likely already blown the letter up in an attempt to turn it into a Howler."
* * * * *
Kaisha was hungry. Truth be told, Kaisha was pretty much always hungry, only, now, she was more hungry as she was bored and had nothing to take her mind off it. Why did her father always insist on Kaisha attending the clan meetings? She never actually said anything in them, and she paid even less attention. Yes, Sorin Koshchei was head of the Koshchei clan, and she, Kaisha Koshchei, was his only child, but she really didn't think that her presence at these meetings helped anything at all. In fact, more often than not she was a hindrance. The speakers would often stop in the middle of a long diatribe about the rights of vampires in the magical world, to explain to her the most simple of concepts. She supposed now that she was an adult, she should probably start paying attention to these sorts of things, but Kaisha, who more often felt like she was twelve rather than twenty-three, had no desire for anything political in her life. She was bored with it all. There were so many other, more exciting things that she could be doing.
Today Charlie was working with Mittens, her favorite dragon in the entire colony. Kaisha had been there when the Swedish Short-snout had hatched. She was the one the dragon had first seen, and she had been the one to name it. Kaisha had been deprived of a pet of her own during childhood, and found comfort in an imaginary kitten named 'Mittens'. When the dragon hatched, ten year-old Kaisha had felt that the differences between kittens and dragons were only skin deep, and had decided to name the dragon Mittens because of this. At her age, and after several years of close contact with dragons, Kaisha now knew that kittens and dragons did not share very much in common, and, infact, the only thing linking the two was the fact that dragons enjoyed eating kittens.
Kaisha had always been very interested in dragons. She figured that was just what happened when you grew up next to the largest Dragon Colony in Europe. Well, 'next to' was a bit of an exaggeration. 'In the same secluded valley as' would probably have been the more accurate description. As a little girl, Kaisha had spent countless hours hanging around the dragon camps, listening to the men and women as they worked with the dragons. Kaisha had learned a lot that way, but she had learned even more when they had let her help; the burn scars could attest to that fact. Kaisha had spent so much time down at the dragon colony that she had almost become an unofficial member of the crew.
She longed to be outside in the early summer air working with her set partner, Charlie Weasley, attempting to tame the untamable. It was difficult work, but Charlie never made it feel like any thing but fun. They had been working together for just over two years now, and she considered Charlie her closest friend. After all, Charlie was one of the few people in her age bracket for several hundred miles. There were not a lot of children in the clans, and there were even less in the colony town. Kaisha had grown up at the Dragon camps, and, when Charlie arrived at the camps a few years ago, she had been delighted with the prospect of having someone her own age there. Charlie and Kaisha had worked side by side since his first day, and she had treasured every moment of it.
She loved working with the dragons, pretending to be a normal wizarding girl, and she hated that she had to give up time spent with Charlie and Mittens for a boring clan meeting. As she sat there, lost in her own thoughts, two words jarred her out of her reverie.
"Lord Voldemort wishes to arrange an assembly between his Death-Eaters and the Strigoi Clans," said her Father. A hush fell over all present at the meeting.
"And what did you say, Sorin?" questioned Goran Viscovic, head of the Vurkodlak clan.
"I said I would discuss the prospect with the other clans, and I would let him know what we have decided." Sorin always operated under the pretense that the opinions of the other clans mattered greatly to him, when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The Koshchei clan ruled over most of the vampire clans with an iron fist. The oldest and arguably the most powerful of the Romanian breed, the will dominated the weaker clans. Clan heads, such as Viscovic, found themselves virtually the puppets to Koshchei puppet masters.
There were, however, other clans outside the immediate sway of the Koshchei. Kaisha had only heard of these clans in passing, as there was very seldom any interaction between these clans and the Koshchei. Kaisha had heard of the Carmarilla clan; a clan of fierce female vampires who were not born but made, and who lived deep in the forests on the other side of the valley.
Kaisha naturally looked down upon this group. A clan of made vampires was obviously going to be much weaker than the Koshchei, who could trace their lineage all the way back to Dragomir the Wizard, the father of the Romanian Vampire strain.
Koshchei blood was the purest, and had the highest potency of Dragomir's remnant magic. In fact, Kaisha herself had been the first made vampire of the clan since Dragomir himself. This fact was seldom mentioned though. The made daughter of Sorin was never questioned in relation to the inferiority of made vampires for fear of Sorin's wrath. Sorin, if he had not killed the offending questioner on the spot, would have argued back that so strong was the magic of Dragomir within him, that Kaisha would have been granted the strength of any born vampire.
The Romanian clans were sired by Dragomir Koshchei, a creature who had once been a human wizard. Dragomir traded his soul for the gift of immortality. Legend claims that it was the dark god Chernobog himself that had made the trade. Who exactly it was does not matter, what matters is that it happened.
Dragomir's soul was the essence of who he was, and it flowed throughout his entire being. As his soul was taken from him, it left Dargomir's body empty of the blood in which it ran. To compensate, he was forced to drink the blood of the living to obtain the matter to carry the oxygen throughout his body. Dragomir became known as Dragomir Koshchei, the deathless.
Although he was content to live forever, Dragomir was not content to spend it alone. Before he had been made, Dragomir had been in love with a village girl named Vassilissa, but she spurned his affections as she was in love with another. If there was anyone the vampire would wish to spend eternity with, it was Vassilissa. On the day that was to be her wedding day, Dragomir fed on her, forced her to feed off him, and she, Vassilissa, became the first made vampire. Vassilissa swore she would have her revenge upon the vampire, and set out to find Chernobog and find some way to obliterate Koshchei.
When Vassilissa left, Koshchei, alone again, resolved to make more of his kind, and made seven other vampires, which became the origins of the seven clans. Dragomir and the vampire Mirela had born a child together, thus starting the Koshchei clan of Dragomir's biological descendents.
Years passed as Vassilissa searched for Chernobog, when finally, she found him. The dark god, who was responsible for all things evil, refused to give up his prized possession, and Vassilissa turned to the light god, Belobog, for help. Belobog told her that Dragomir's soul had been hidden in an egg that was beneath a tree on the top of a mountain, and if she were to find it, the only thing to do would be to destroy it. For only by destroying it would Dragomir Koshchei die. The journey was difficult, but eventually she found the tree, dug deep into the ground, and found the small egg containing the vampire's soul. Vasillisa immediately crushed the thing beneath her feet. This act, while killing Koshchei, also had one major significance; it rendered all those of the Vampire's line mortal. Thus, the Romanian Vampire was born.
But being the desendent of a human born line of vampires did have its perks, thought Kaisha. For one, Kaisha and the rest of the strigoi were not harmed by the sunlight as many of the other vampire races were. Kaisha was free to roam the Earth as she liked, by sun or by moon. The other races of vampire did not have this option, since they did not have the human origins, but then, the other races of vampires were immortal. Kaisha was sure that this was a fair trade. She would rather have a full life temporarily than an eternal half-life any day.
Not all of Kaisha's clan held her views. Her father most certainly did not. He viewed their mortality as a weakness; a curse placed upon the Strigoi. Why should they die, while others of their kind did not? To Sorin, they were not full vampires, but a breed of tainted humans.
The debate had droned on for another half hour, but it was all in folly. Sorin had already decided that they would at least meet with Lord Voldemort, and see what sort of proposal he could make them. Sorin had heard of his powers in the beginning, and was now anxious to meet him upon his return to power.
Sorin's voice became more commanding as the deliberations continued, and eventually, his will, as it always had, asserted its dominance. The other five clans fell in line, and listened without complaint to what Sorin had to say.
"It is agreed then. We will respond to Lord Voldemort's request, and allow him to send his ambassadors. When we have received word from him, we will then plan the assembly. Until then, we must think on what we want, and what he may give us. Do not speak of this outside of us; the less who know, the better. Clans, we will meet again soon." It was never a request when Sorin spoke. He did not ask, he commanded. With those final words the vampires departed, and Kaisha, quickly kissing her father on the cheek, hurried off to go find Charlie.
* * * * *
As the quartet hurried up to the Gryffindor common room, Harry tried to prepare himself for the scene that he would be walking into upon their arrival. Ginny had been perfectly correct in worrying for the safety of the unread letter; Fred and George were liable to do absolutely anything when it came to making a joke. Harry envisioned several scenarios of what the twins may be trying to do, from making said letter secrete the foulest smell imaginable, to transfiguring the letter into a bear. Harry even had a clear mental image of the twins flailing their arms madly, gnashing their teeth, and eating the letter, only to spit it at them like wild men. This however, seemed highly unlikely (although not out of the realm of possibility).
After giving the Fat Lady their current password ("spoon!"), the troupe entered into the somewhat subdued common room, only to come face to face with a scene that even Harry could not have imagined.
The twins were seated at one of the common room tables studying. Ron's jaw nearly hit the floor, and Harry was forced to do a double take. Hermione had a glow about her, which couldn't be mistaken for anything other than pride. Ginny, however, was still peering around the room anxiously, looking rather nervous.
"No sign of them… where in the world could they have gotten too? I told them not to-" Ginny broke off in mid-sentence and her gaze followed Ron's trembling finger pointed at the twins. "Oh good God," was all she could manage.
Seated, the twins appeared to be so absorbed in their open text books that they didn't even notice they were being watched. Between them, looking quite untampered with, was the brown envelope of Mr. Weasley's letter. It was still in one piece.
Ginny rushed over to where the boys sat and was sorely tempted to give George a good hard poke, just to make sure they weren't a mirage. The trio followed in tow. "I don't believe it!" exclaimed Ginny. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?"
"Well," replied Fred, "if you think we're playing Quidditch, then you're wrong. We happen to be studying for our N.E.W.T.s." He shifted nervously in his chair and cast an expectant glare at his twin
"'That's right," chimed in George quickly. "Got to do pretty well this year. Gringotts doesn't give business loans to dummies, now do they?"
Ron went an even whiter shade of pale. Hermione, who was absolutely beaming, was quite sure that he wasn't able to form words yet. "I, for one, am thrilled that the both of you have decided to take your academic careers more seriously, even if it is rather late in the game." The twins grinned at each other, as if they knew something that Hermione didn't.
It was at that point trouble began to stir at the other end of the table.
Lee Jordan, looking very flustered indeed, was nearly shouting. "I didn't write that! I swear to God I didn't write that." Curious, people began to wander over, wanting to see exactly what it was that Lee hadn't written.
Lee, who had turned a deep shade of crimson, quickly tried to hide the offending piece of parchment. It was, however, too late. Fred, who was up and out of his seat at the first signs of the commotion, grabbed the parchment, quickly scanned it, and, with a dramatic flare, said,"Lee? What's this? You love Katie Bell?"
Lee looked positively murderous. "Blimey, we knew you liked her Lee, but we obviously didn't know how much!" And with that, Fred held the parchment up for the entire common room to see. All across the page, written over and over again, was 'I love Katie Bell'.
Fred handed the parchment back to Lee, and, moments later, the quill that Lee had used to NOT write the phrase, exploded with a loud bang. The smoke rose quickly above Lee's head and formed the hazy words "Lee Loves Katie".
The common room erupted with laughter. Katie Bell, who was looking rather pink herself, marched straight over to Fred and George, and clouted them both across the back of their heads, and when she spoke, it was with all the fury that Hell could contain. "That wasn't funny! I know you two did something to Lee's quill. Honestly, will you two ever grow up?" Having said all she could (that was acceptable in public), Katie stormed off as fast as she had come.
"She's right," said George, announcing that fact to the entire common room. "Bewitched them ourselves. 'Quirky Quills' we're callin' them. Twelve sickles each. Orders to be placed in writing."
Once the common room had begun to settle down, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins headed back to where Fred and George had been sitting. They sat themselves down, and Hermione, looking rather dejected, slumped next to Ron, who had begun to look more like himself.
Ginny quickly snatched the letter. "I'm opening it," Ginny stated after she had ripped the top of the envelope almost completely off. Inside was a rather ordinary looking piece of parchment with Mr. Weasley's distinctive scrawl covering most of it. Ginny began to clear her throat in preparation to begin, when a louder, much more masculine throat clearing began. The sound was coming from the letter itself.
"Ah-Ahem. Right then.
Hullo Weasleys! And of course, Harry and Hermione as well.
I've bewitched this letter to speak itself too you. Rather good isn't it? Pip Ashterburn at the office showed me how to do it-"
"Get on with it, Dad!" interrupted Ron, looking rather annoyed.
"but I'm sure you kids don't care about that.
I'm certain you're all pretty curious about why I wanted to have you all together to read, or rather, listen to this."
"Bloody brilliant our Dad is," muttered a sarcastic Fred.
"Well, I've got some good news for all of you, and then I've got some GREAT news! As you, Weasleys that is, know, last week I had my official Ministry Review Session. Apparently, and I hope I don't sound too conceited in saying this, I'm doing an excellent job."
Harry could almost hear Mr. Weasley blush as he said this.
"Because of this, the Ministry has decided to reward my hard works the only way they know how. I've gotten a raise!"
Ginny gave a little squeal of joy, and Ron let out a loud "Yeah!"
"Don't get too excited now, children, it's not that much. But, it is enough to do something your mother an' I have always wanted to do.
This summer, in a couple of weeks to be a bit more specific, we are going to be visiting Charlie in Romania. As a family. Oh, and Harry and Hermione, Molly and I would be very pleased if you could join us. Don't worry a thing about the cost, we will be staying at the Ministry of Magic's embassy in Întuncare, where Charlie's camp is. We don't actually pay to stay there." Mr. Weasley's voice was absolutely ringing with pride as he said "it's one of the perks that you get for working at the Ministry."
"It's about the only perk," sniggered George. "That is, unless, you feel passionately about the free earl gray in the staff room."
"As for additional costs, we can work something out later. Hermione, ask your parents for permission, and then send us an owl when you know whether you can come. Harry, you might as well ask the Dursleys, but we're not taking no for an answer from them. It's going to be a rather extended stay, as we will be there most of the summer. Molly and I are looking forward to seeing you both.
Well, I had better finish this letter soon, it's getting close to tea.
Much love,
Dad
And P.S.: George. Fred. Your mother and expect to see great things from you this term, ESPECIALLY on your N.E.W.T.s."
The group began to chatter amongst themselves excitedly. A Holiday in Romania? This was just the sort of thing that Harry had been dreaming about. Ok, so maybe it wasn't exactly what Harry had dreamt of when he thought of the summer, but it fulfilled the major requirements; it got him away from the Dursleys.
Hermione began to gush about the 'wonderful opportunity to observe other wizarding cultures'. Ron looked over to Harry, rolled his eyes, and looked at Hermione with complete disgust as she began to list off the books that she would have to take out of the Library to 'read up on the matter'.
Harry expected Ron was a little more than wary of spending an entire summer surrounded by dragons after his experiences with Hagrid's baby dragon, Norbert. Or, more specifically, Norbert's teeth. Harry hadn't minded Norbert so much. It was a giant Hungarian Horntail that Harry wasn't particularly fond of.
Fred and George were busy discussing other matters. "I heard that colony has about half the vampire population of Europe," said George.
"Less, it's gotta be. It's only the Romanian vampires that live in Întuncare. They're watched really closely as well. Dad says they're dead harmless," responded Fred.
Ginny, it seemed, did not agree with this opinion. Ginny, who had previously been most excited at the mention of the holiday, had suddenly gone quite pale, and wore a worried expression upon her face. "What is it Ginny?" asked Harry. He had only once seen that look of fear on her face, and it had been when Harry was in mortal danger in the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny looked up at Harry, and seemed to shake off whatever it had been that was bothering her.
"It's nothing, I just, you know, don't really like vampires much," said Ginny, quietly adding, "they give me nightmares." A deep blush rapidly replaced the paleness of her face.
The silence that followed Ginny's confession only lasted a couple of seconds before Ron loudly exclaimed, "I'm starving! Can't we continue this discussion at dinner, considering that it's probably half over already!"
Harry scanned the common room, to discover that it was empty around them. "I second that vote," he said, as his stomach emitted a low gurgle. And with that, the group headed down towards the Great Hall, still buzzing with thoughts of Romania, Dragons, and Vampires.
* * * * *