A/n: the quote at the beginning of this chapter is of course from "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. The book is great, the movie too, and rumours are that Gary Oldman, who played an excellent Dracula, is going to play Sirius in the Harry Potter-movies! Yay!

This chapter is dedicated to both my brothers, who were – and still are – a great inspiration for the character of Romulus. I can easily imagine the two of them standing on the tower of castle Bran, telling gruesome stories about Vlad the Impaler…

And of course me cheerfully adding details…

Summer of 1977.

"I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome, Mr Harker, to my house."

"Romulus, get your head back in the carriage. We don't want you to fall out!" Romulus withdraw his head after his mother's request.

"Are we almost there yet?" he asked.

"Why don't you ask the driver?" his father suggested. Romulus pulled a face.

"How can I ask the driver if I may not put my head out of the window?" he said innocently. His brother Remus grinned.

"Keep your eyes open. We should be there any minute. Look!" He pointed out of the window, to the distant silhouette of castle Bran.

The Lupin family was on holiday in Rumania, on endless request of Remus and Romulus. They reasoned that they didn't want to go to their aunt in Kinlochleven (Scotland) again, that they did their best at school, that it would teach them more about vampires (like they weren't walking encyclopaedias on that subject), that Remus was sad because he was a werewolf, that Rumania had such an interesting history, etcetera, etcetera. Finally, their parents gave way, and they travelled to Rumania. And now they were about to visit castle Bran, one of Vlad Dracula´s castles. A Rumanian wizard was taking them there in his old carriage. He was also going to show them the castle, at least, that's what they'd made of his words; he spoke with a rather strong accent.

The carriage approached the castle and they could get a better look of it. You could see it wasn't occupied anymore, but it was still impressive, as it dominated one side of a high hill. It was made of red and white stone and had high towers.

"Not quite Hogwarts" was Romulus' conclusion, "but still fantastic."

The carriage rattled through the gate and stopped on the courtyard.

Remus jumped out, with Romulus on his heels. "Wow," he said, "this is so cool, we're really there."

"Look," pointed Romulus, "a tower. What'd think the view is like from up there?"

"There's only one way to find out. We're going up to the tower!"

The two boys ran away and disappeared out of sight.

"Can you climb all the way up that tower?" Mr Lupin asked the old Rumanian wizard.

"Yes" he replied in his weird accent. "Is the highest tower of castle. You have a nice view over the valley there. It is said wife of Dracula jumped off the tower and killed herself."

"Do we really need to go up?" asked Mrs Lupin. "You know I don't like heights."

"I'm afraid so. At least to prevent those two from leaning to far over and fall off."

Mrs Lupin shivered.

~*~

Remus leaned over and looked down to the river which was flowing far under him.

"It makes being here even more fantastic when you realise that, a few hundred years ago, Vlad Dracula himself must have been standing here, perhaps even looking in the same direction as we are," said Romulus, his eyes shining.

"Check this out" said Remus, "look how high we are. There's the road we've been riding on." He pointed.

"How high do you reckon we are?" asked Romulus, leaning so far over that his head was almost upside down.

"To high to do that," said Mr Lupin, who had just appeared. He pulled his youngest son back. "Please enjoy the view in a normal way, with your head the right way up."

Remus looked over his shoulder to his mother, who was still standing near the stairs, apparently eager to go down again.

"Oh c´mon, mom," he said, "you really should take a look, it's wonderful."

"No, thank you," she replied, "I'm the happiest on the ground."

"Tell that to James. You don't want to see him fly in a Quidditch match!"

"Sirius can be happy he can still see him fly for Griffindor," said Mr Lupin dryly.

Remus bit his lip. It was true. Professor Dumbledore couldn't really laugh at Sirius' 'joke'. Quite the contrary, in fact. After James and Snape had come out of the Willow, professor McGonagall had taken them to Dumbledore, and there Snape had told them everything. Of course, Sirius had been more than just told-off. McGonagall had told him that she regretted she couldn't take points off Griffindor, because other students would surely find out why so many points were taken from their house. But, she said, she could at least give him detention, and that was what she did. He wasn't allowed in Hogsmeade for the rest of the schoolyear, he had had to help Filch re-organise his office, and, the worst part of all, in Sirius' opinion, he had had to apologise to Snape. Snape had eventually accepted it, but to say that he simply wasn't on good terms with Sirius is an understatement.

And that was also the case with their parents. The storm over Sirius' head came from four sides. Of course, there was Dumbledore, who didn't look like a funny, kind old grandfather at all (not to mention McGonagall…). Snape´s parents were furious too, but not half as furious as Sirius' own parents. And their anger was matched by what Remus' parents felt. They knew Remus had told his friends that he was a werewolf, but, as Mrs Lupin stated, they'd never thought one of them would be so "enormously stupid". Some people would call it overreacting, but Remus knew that, though he didn't kill anyone, it probably would never be like it was before. Though they pretended not to do so, Remus could feel the Black's and the Potters' conduct towards him had changed since they'd heard he was a werewolf. From a certain point of view, Sirius did destroy something.

Remus' thoughts were interrupted by his father, who said they were going down again. He followed his parents and his brother down the stairs and through the castle, listening to the old Rumanian wizard who was telling them about Vlad Dracula, who lived in the 15th century.

"Some say he was a dictator, and very cruel. But others think Dracula was a hero, because he won many battles for Rumania," he told them. "Dracula is nicknamed Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, because he used to impale his enemies on high stakes."

"Talking about nice hobbies," said Mrs Lupin. She turned to her sons. "I guess you're enjoying yourself?"

"O, very much, mom," said Romulus. "Really entertaining. I read a story once," he said to the old Rumanian wizard, "about some guy who said to Dracula that he didn't like the smell of all those rotting corpses on the stakes, and then Dracula impaled him on a stake which was a bit higher than the others, so he wouldn't be bothered by the stench." Apparently, Romulus enjoyed every word of his story.

"Thank you, Romulus, we didn't need thát kind of stories," his father said.

"But actually, Dracula was wrong about that," Romulus cheerfully continued. "Right, Remus? Did you see Dracula's mistake?"

"Certainly," said Remus, pretending he didn't see the "here-we-go-again"-look on his parents' face. "That guy should have been impaled on a lower stake, because the stench would go up. If he was impaled on a higher stake, he would have been bothered more."

"Thank you very much," his mother interrupted him, as she was talking to the Rumanian wizard, "for showing us the castle. Could you take us back please?"

"Certainly, madam," he said. "This way please." Remus and Romulus exchanged evil grins as they followed him to the carriage.