TITLE: Blood and Potions - Section One: Of Snakes and Night Skies
ABBREVIATED TITLE: BaP:S1
Part: 8/? ("Stealing is a crime…")
AUTHOR: Cardinal Syn/Jamie Carlson
RATING: PG-13 for Language and Adult Themes
SPOILERS: Misc. Harry Potter spoilers
DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and all things HP belong to JK Rowling. Not me. The characters Lilium Beryl, Liam Crescent, and Nii Nah Maxwell belong to me.
NOTES: Dhampir is one of the many spellings for a creature that is half-vampire and half-human. Also, this is a "continuation" of my first Harry Potter Fanfiction, "Searching for Acceptance", (which wasn't very good in my eyes, but I'm trying harder here!) and contains the characters Liam and Nii Nah, introduced in S4A.
WARNINGS: Language and adult themes.
PAIRINGS: Hints at Ron/Hermione, Snape/OC (original character), and a one-sided Liam/Nii Nah later on
MAIN CHARACTERS (in order of most prominent in the story): OC (original character) and Severus Snape; Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco Malfoy, Liam and Nii Nah Maxwell; Albus Dumbledore and the other teachers at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry
FANFICTION.NET SUMMARY: Albus Dumbledore has taken it upon himself to hire a Defense Against Vampires specialist, who accepts with great hesitation - as she is a dhampir herself.
EXTENDED SUMMARY: Albus Dumbledore has decided that it is time for Hogwarts to have a fulltime Defense Against Vampires teacher, and has chosen a renowned vampire specialist. But this vampire specialist is a bit hesitant to take the offer as she, herself, is a Dhampir; half-vampire, half human. When she decides to turn down the position, something interesting happens that changes her mind, and makes her decide to stay....

A/N: Apologies for any mistakes in relevance book-wise. I still need to finish reading what books are out, and it has been almost two years since I finished reading even the first book. Feel free to correct anything in a review, or email me at vampgirl0009@yahoo.com with notes about mistakes, whether it be name-spelling or whatever. (Kindly put "Your Harry Potter fanfiction" in the subject, and copy-paste the offending line, paragraph, or word and tell me what I did wrong. The same goes for reviews!) This story, I hope, is better than Searching for Acceptance was. I rushed S4A.

On another note, I figure I might as well tell you now (though I didn't bother to in previous parts, which I apologize for - I'm an idiot, ignore me). Most of this will be through Lilium's P.O.V. (Point of View to anyone who is new to Fanfiction Jargon), until I get to a point that would be useful to be through someone else's P.O.V. Eventually and at intervals, you will get things from Snape's P.O.V. Also note that this is more of a focused third person view, as I will almost NEVER write in First-Person. It's a pain in the @$$.

Chapter note: This one doesn't have a lot of Lilium, but centers around the Slytherins and Nii Nah. So the title was taken form a quote from Severus instead of Lilium =)

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Blood and Potions - Section One: Of Snakes and Night Skies
PART EIGHT -
"Stealing is a crime…"

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"Isn't it vampire's bane?" asked a timid Hufflepuff. Lilium smiled gently.

"So-called vampire's bane isn't a vampire poison," she said. Professor Snape glanced at her from his desk.

The children from Lilium's Defense Against Vampires Class were currently all in Professor Snape's dungeon classroom. Dumbledore had arranged with Severus to allow Lilium to conduct her herbs and potions section of the class in his room, even with his aid. It had taken Lilium a full three months to get a hold of the needed herbs and other items, as Professor Snape couldn't be bothered to loan her any.

Now, Lilium was discussing herbs with her favorite set of students, the set with the Gryffindor-(plus-one-Slytherin) group in it.

Lilium addressed the whole class. "Vampire's bane doesn't really exist - in fact, the plant called vampire's bane by those ignorant of its real properties is a mint hybrid grown in the wild," she said. "I'm not going to use its actual medical name here, as it is a very problematic herb."

"Is that because it doesn't poison vampires, but harms humans in some way?" Draco Malfoy asked, hopeful. Lilium smirked.

"Quite the reverse. It is actually a very powerful aphrodisiac. Its effects are far from poisoning someone." She laughed silently to herself at the shocked look on many of the children's faces.

"Oh yeah? And how would YOU know this?" Draco asked, sneering. Lilium smiled at him pleasantly.

"My step-father used to grow it and slip it into the drinks of women he wished to feed upon. It made them easier prey." She felt a minor pang of satisfaction with the disgusted look on Draco's face. "Are there any more questions on vampire's bane?" The students shook their heads. "All right, I think that about sums it up for the day.... Ah, yes, Hermione?"

"Is there such a thing as a poison that effects vampires?" she asked. Lilium closed her eyes for a moment, absently leaning against Snape's desk - far away from where he was sitting, of course.

"The most effective poison to vampires is feeding them the blood of something that had been dead before they got their hands on it, and if it is laced with a human poison it has more effect," she remarked, but her eyes were clouded. There was something more to it than that. Draco caught this look and glanced over at Professor Snape, who was looking at her curiously out of the corner of his eye.

"What about that vampire poison you're supposedly working on?" Draco asked casually. "Father mentioned it." Lilium's head jerked up, and she stared at him. There was a look of cold annoyance in her eyes, which were narrowed slightly, the look causing Draco to shift uncomfortably in his seat. Why was she so touchy about her poison?

".... That is confidential and isn't supposed to leave the confines of the Ministry of Magic, and a few choice sources. I'll have to have a word with Mister Malfoy," she said in a clipped voice. "Class dismissed."

She turned, and walked out the door, her robes swishing around her.

As she gathered her things, Hermione noticed that Lilium's footsteps had made noise. The only other time she had actually been able to hear Lilium's footsteps was back at the Christmas Feast. ~ She must not be concentrating on walking softly when she's upset or distracted,~ the brunette thought.

"Well, what was that all about?" Draco said loudly. "Father doesn't trust her, you know. He says that when he's met her, she'd been very on-guard around him. Acted very untrustworthy." He looked over at Crabbe and Goyle, who snickered.

"Not as untrustworthy as your dad," Harry Potter muttered under his breath, gathering his things. Draco grabbed him by his shirt and jerked Harry around to face him.

"What did you just say, Potter?!"

"That will be quite enough." Professor Snape's voice cut through the sudden excited rabble of the children, egging on a fight. "Go on to your next classes. There will be no fighting in my classroom," he snapped. Draco released Harry reluctantly, and Ron, who had been aiming his wand at Draco's head, lowered his arm slowly.

On their way out, Draco turned to speak to Liam. He blinked at the angry look on her face.

"That was immature," Liam remarked. As she walked away, Professor Snape was the only person to notice the crestfallen expression on Draco's face.

~ Those two would certainly be an interesting combination,~ he thought. ~ I wonder... why was Miss Beryl being so agitated over a remark about her vampire poison?~

At Christmas, he had received a package with instructions to make that particular poison, as well as enough of the ingredients to make one draught. He suspected Lilium herself had sent it to him. But if it was confidential, if she wasn't even willing to speak of it to her own class, why would she send it to him?

Idly, of its own will, Snape's mind drifted back to the necklace she had received on Christmas, of the pendant with the silver snake embedded in emerald.... She had been wearing it since Christmas, under her robes, but Severus could see the finely wrought chain gracing the gentle slope of her pale, slender neck. He frowned softly to himself, before gathering his things and going to his office.

}i{

"GIVE IT BACK!" Nii Nah screeched.

"Give WHAT back?" Pansy Parkinson asked, smirking and swinging the locket she held between thumb and forefinger of her right hand. "You mean this ugly little thing? Who'd you get it from, your boyfriend?" the Slytherin girl mocked, her little group of Slytherin lackeys chortling behind her.

"It's none of your business!" Nii Nah snapped, eyes filling with angry tears as she darted forward in an attempt to get her locket back. She hissed in anger as Pansy threw the item to Blaise, who tossed it to a passing Slytherin boy, who dashed down the hall with it.

Screaming for them to give it back, Nii Nah threw herself at the crowd of Slytherin girls who were attempting to keep her from following the boy who had her locket. Shedding her work robe, Nii Nah crouched low, and leaped clear over their heads, nearly bashing her own on the low arch of the doorway.

Nii Nah tore down the hallway, catching the faintest flutter of robe around this corner, smelling the boy's spicy sent here, hearing the pounding of dashing feet there. Finally she rounded the corner, nearly on the boy's heals -

"OOF!"

Nii Nah fell backward, landing painfully on her tail. She looked up to see the angered face of Professor Snape. She had ran into him, the force of her blow knocking the vial of what smelled like Viritaserum to the floor. The vial cracked, but the serum didn't spill.

Hearing the boy's snickers fade as he dashed away, Nii Nah gave Snape a quit "I'm sorry!" before leaping to her feet to chase after the boy. She was stopped when Snape grabbed hold of her arm in a vice-grip.

"Ten points off of Gryffindor for your lack of common courtesy, and another five for being disruptive," Snape growled, his voice low and dangerous. Seeing all chances of getting her locket back slip from her fingers, as elusive as loose sand, Nii Nah broke down in tears.

"PLEASE, Professor Snape, he stole my locket! Please, I have to get it back, it's the only precious thing I own!" Nii Nah wailed. The cat girl's sobs echoed in the stone-built hall, empty of life but for Snape and Nii Nah.

Severus frowned at the girl. She had buried her face in her hands, but he had no doubt that she was sincere. Her small frame shook violently with her grief for her lost locket, making it rather apparent to Severus that she didn't believe he would possibly help her get her locket back. He sighed.

"Thievery isn't permitted on school grounds. It was that Nygel Banks?" Snape asked. He frowned darkly when Nii Nah looked up at him hopefully, but inside he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She was treated badly by many students, not just the Slytherins, simply because she wasn't human. Even Snape disapproved of this behavior.

"Um.. I think so… Light brown skin and black dreadlocks?" Nii Nah asked, sniffling.

"Yes," Snape sighed. "That sounds like him." He had been having trouble with a small group of Slytherin boys who had decided that they could get away with stealing from other students - and even their teachers!

"I suppose he's gone to the common room. Come along, Maxwell," Snape said, turning. His black robes billowed around him. "Where are your work robes, Maxwell?" he asked, realizing she wasn't wearing them.

"I.. *sniffle* had to get leave it outside of McGonagall's room. *sniffle* It would have gotten in the way when I jumped over that group of Pansy's friends." Nii Nah responded, still sounding a bit tearful.

"You.. jumped over them?"

"Uh-huhn."

"…." Walking behind him as she was, Nii Nah couldn't see the small smiled that threatened to force itself to become a grin playing at Snape's lips.

}i{

Draco Malfoy hated Gryffindors.

He hated Harry Potter and Ron Weasley and that know-it-all mudblud, Hermione Granger. And he really despised that nekohito, Nii Nah. But that wasn't simply because she was Gryffindor, but because she got to spend so much time with Liam. If it wasn't for her, Liam would be able to while away her free hours in the Slytherin common room - with Draco.

But even though he hated her, when Nygel came rushing into the Slytherin common room swinging Nii Nah's locket above his head and hooting as if he had won the Qudditch Cup all by himself, Draco felt sorry for her. He was disgusted with himself for it, but he did. Liam was changing him, he realized: not deliberately, but she was doing it.

"Lookit!" Nygel crowed. "I've got that cat girl's locket! Shall we see who's inside, eh?" He stood in the center of Slytherin gawkers and depressed the button on the side.

The locket, a simple silver oval with an equally simple silver chain, opened up to reveal a single moving image of Nii Nah and Liam on the left side, and a note scribbled on the other. The print and image were both tiny, as the locket was barely the size of a large black olive, but Nygel managed to read it.

"'To my only friend in a hostile world, with love, Liam,'" Nygel read. The small moving image was of Nii Nah hugging Liam, who was having a hard time offering a sincere smile for the camera. Nii Nah looked overjoyed in the picture.

"Give it here, Nygel," Draco said, his voice mock-chipper, the undertone laced with his annoyance, which went unnoticed.

"Were this anyone else's, I would, Drake," Nygel said, grinning. He stuffed the locket into the inner pocket of his black work robe. "But this one belongs to that cat-girl, and I'm keeping' it for myself."

"Indeed?"

The voice was low, smooth, and cut through the air like a knife. Everyone in that room knew - and loved - that voice. But they had never heard that tone used on a fellow Slytherin before.

The group of Slytherins gathered in the common room turned to look at the porthole that lead out. Standing just inside of the common room was Professor Snape. And to the shock of every girl and boy in the room, Nii Nah Maxwell was standing just behind him, looking nervous and fidgety.

"Err.. Hallo, Professor," Nygel said, edging toward the back of the room.

"I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you?" Snape replied smoothly, gliding toward Nygel and folding his arms. The boy glanced at Nii Nah, then at Snape.

"I dunno what you're talking about, Prof," Nygel said. He tried to sound chipper, but everyone could hear the nervousness straining his voice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nii Nah caught a glimpse of the stairs to the girl's dormitory. Liam was stalking down them, her narrowed, brilliantly green eyes glued on Nygel. Liam's mouth was drawn into a tight line.

Suddenly, Draco stood from his seat, where he had been lounging in front of the fireplace. He walked over to Nigel and threw his arm around the boy's shoulder.

"Now then, Nygel, no reason to lie is there?" he said in his smoothest conversational tone. He reached quickly into Nygel's robe pocket and procured the necklace. He tossed it to Snape before Nygel could snatch it back.

"DRACO! What the hell did you do THAT for?!" Nygel snapped as Draco slid away from him.

"Because he has inevitably more sense than you apparently do," Snape hissed as he dangled the locket by its chain from his crooked fingers.

"Stealing is a crime that I will not tolerate, even from my own Slytherin," the Potions professor snarled. He thrust the locket back at Nii Nah, who took it with shaking hands. She dashed over to Liam, who was now standing at the base of the stairs, and threw herself into the Lamia's arms. "Detention for you, Mr. Banks," Professor Snape finished.

"But I'm not the one who took it! Pansy did!"

"Ten points off of Slytherin for each of you, then, and detention for Pansy as well…" Snape said, his voice laced with deadly calm. "Ten more if I find out either of you skips detention. You will come to see me tonight after your classes to speak about it, and I suggest you bring Pansy. Come, Maxwell!"

Snape whirled around, exiting through the portal hole. Nii Nah hesitantly dislodged herself from Liam, and followed quickly.

"Why did he do that?!" a Slytherin boy raged. "He took points away from us!"

"Just think of how much worse it would have been if she went to McGonagall instead!" snapped Draco. "Or worse, Headmaster Dumbledore! As it is, we're getting off lightly! Either of them would have taken fifty points off, easy, and you would have been expelled, Nygel. Pansy too!"

Liam walked slowly over to Nygel.

"You and Pansy stole the locket I gave Nii Nah?" she asked quietly.

"… Yeah, we did, you got a problem with that?" Nygel snapped. He regretted it when Liam's serpentine eyes flared.

"Yes, actually. I do." She turned and headed for the still-open port hole. Draco watched her, and followed when she threw a glance at him over her shoulder. As Liam and Draco exited, she called back to Nygel.

"Beware, my child, the poison snake
Who hides inside your bed.
For if he bites you, dear, just so,
By morning you'll be dead."

As the porthole closed, Nygel looked about him. The faces of his fellow Slytherin were angry and fearful.

"'Which hides inside your bed…'" a girl repeated. "Um, I'd watch out for snakes hidden in your bedcover from now on, Nygel…."

For the rest of his life, Nygel Banks would be afraid of snakes. Eventually, he had to transfer out of Hogwarts because Slytherin house was associated with snakes.