Disclaimer: I own only the obvious, the rest belongs to JK Rowling.

Authors Note: I really had no idea that it was two months since I last updated! Oh, my! Hope you like this chapter and thanks to my wonderful betas Tabitha and Lexi-formerly Katy999.

Authors Note2: This is the un-betaed version. The correct one will be up as soon as my betas have finished with it.

-Chapter Eighteen-

Hermione woke up sometimes next afternoon. She blinked at the white ceiling of the Hospital Wing for some time before she managed to get at least a vague outline of what had happened last night.

She sighed. Quis was a mystery that she just couldn't get her mind off of, and she wasn't so sure that she wanted to get her mind off of him either. It was all so confusing.

Looking at the bracelet that the demon had given her. It looked quite ordinary now as the sunlight hit it from one of the windows, but last night it had... well, looked like pure magic materialized. Intricate patterns went all around it, and a golden 'Q' was set at the top. She traced it gently, smiling to herself.

A voice from somewhere behind the curtains startled her out of her thoughts.

"Come on Madam Pomfrey!" Ron's voice exclaimed. "We've got to get her homework to her or else she'll go bananas!"

"What he's trying to say," Harry's calm voice explained, "is that if we don't give Herm her homework right now, you're going to have two new patients in here by the time she's done with us."

"Oh, alright, but don't be too long - gods knows what she went through in the Forbidden Forest - and try not to mention anything about it."

There were hurried footsteps, then Ron and Harry appeared by her bed. Ron dumped the workload at the bedside table, then sat down on the bed. Harry sat down in a chair.

"Cool bracelet 'Mione." Harry said calmly.

Ron gently grabbed her arm and lifted it so that he could see. "Damn, where did you get it? It must be worth a fortune! What's the 'Q' for? What happened in the Forest? Why weren't you in classes yesterday? How the hell did you end up in the arms of an Angel?"

"One thing at the time, Ron." Hermione laughed. "I'll tell you the whole story, just calm down." And she did just that. She told them about the flash of light she had seen, the long search through the Forest, the dream she had had in the summer and meeting Quis. "Oh, you two would just love him!"

"Herm, he's a demon. Evil. Dark Arts. Any of this ring any bells?" Harry asked.

"He's not like that Harry, he even gave me this bracelet so that I could call up on him if I ever needed help." She stuck her wrist under the green- eyed boy's nose. "Trust me on this, ok? Quis even protected me through the night and got Mayon to carry me here."

Harry seemed to think over it for a long time. "Alright, I'll lay off for now. But if there's even the slightest chance of him hurting you, tell someone at once."

"Of course Harry." Hermione sighed happily. "How much is the clock?" she asked.

Ron looked at his watch. "Oh no! Harry! We have five minutes to get to DADA!"

"See you later Herm!" Harry grinned to her and hurried off, Ron at his heels.

The bushy-haired girl smiled. She really could not imagine her life without Harry and Ron in it.

Harry was like the older brother. Even in first year he had protected her, and she had seen a glimpse of what he could be capable off every year since, but his talents had really bloomed in fifth year. There was a certain deadly grace about the way he moved and the green eyes shone with wisdom. She could see why Voldemort wanted him out of the way.

And then there was Ron. She wasn't sure about him. Oh, she did love him, though she wasn't sure if it was completely platonic. He always protected hers and Harry's honour, and he had a great mind for tactics and he really did look cute when he frowned over a chess board... wait a minute, where did that thought come from?

Hermione shook her head and leaned back on her pillows. She decided to let it go for now and picked up the first assignment that she had to finish. She wasn't ready to go down that path yet.

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To say that Cian had been surprised when Athan and Zev suddenly had showed up in his rooms, was an understatement. There had been a moment or two of panic when Athan and Zev had met up with Mayon, but the Dark Angel had somehow managed to calm the two freaking vampires enough to tell his tale.

When Cian had asked the two black-haired men why they were there, they said that Harry sent them, and, lookie, lookie, at that exact moment a cry for help had reached them. Zev, Athan and Mayon had quickly followed the cry to its origin and had yet to return.

The First Vampire sighed and entered the classroom. He really needed to have a long chat with Potter and ask him to stop manipulating his vampires to the boy's own needs. Though, even if he was reluctant to admit it, the young man deserved respect. He was even more discreet than Dumbledore!

"Alright, class, today we're going to look into the subject of harpies. Now, who here can tell me how many species of harpies we have in the world today and where to find them?" he looked around the room. Harry was sitting in the back looking slightly bored. Several other students had raised their hands eagerly, and to the surprise of all Neville Longbottom was one of the first to do so. "Yes, Mr Longbottom?"

"There are four types of harpies," Neville said more confidently than expected. "The howling harpy, the claw harpy and the stare harpy aren't dangerous, though stare harpies can be extremely annoying. And last there's the wild harpy, which is extremely dangerous as it won't stop following its prey until the person is dead."

"Very good Mr Longbottom, do you perhaps know where these four can be found?"

"Um, in the forest of Norway, Sweden, Russia and Siberia, and in Canada."

"Harpies really seem to be your subject, Mr Longbottom, care to tell us why you're so interested in these creatures?"

"My uncle Bobby was annoyed by a stare harpy for several decades before she decided that he wasn't worth her affection." Neville answered and the class snickered.

"Oh, my, quite a situation you uncle got into." Cian couldn't help but chuckle. Life at Hogwarts was never boring, that was the only thing you could really count on in this castle. "Okay, class, I want you to read the part about harpies in your books and start writing a two foot essay on it. I want it in by next Defence class. And Mr Potter, please come with me." He smiled to his students, and entered his office.

Harry followed the immortal into the other room and sat down. "Is something wrong?" the Gryffindor asked.

"Could you please stop manipulating my vampires around? Please? Look I'm even begging you here!"

"What do you mean Cian? I just suggested that Athan and Zev visit you while they were here, is there a crime in that?"

There really should be laws against looking so innocent while being so deviously evil as Potter was. Cian took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, he was really beginning to loose his patience with Harry, and if the boy didn't stop manipulating the vampires around he was going to do something drastic.

"Please, Harry, listen to me now. I won't even begin to guess what you need vampires for in your Game, but please ask us before doing something that could involve one of us directly. I'm beginning to loose track of all the really dangerous vampires out there, and that's because I'm concentrating on trying to counter your movements to some degree. And either way it's grating on my nerves. So if you don't stop it - or tone it down - I'm not going to take blame for what some vampire do to you. Vampires, Harry, do not like being manipulated or told what to do. You can ask us for favours and then we'll see, but stop manipulating us!" at the end of the tirade, Cian's golden eyes had started glowing, and Harry could feel the power the First Vampire possessed.

'You better agree to this Harry.' The voice spoke up. 'He is right you know. Vampires absolutely hate being manipulated and governed over.'

"Alright Cian, I'll stop manipulating you around, though I hope you won't mind it too much if I slip up now and then?" Harry asked.

Cian snorted and the power in the room diminished. "You slip up? Bah, that'd be the day!"

Harry chuckled and didn't bother to correct the vampire. Together they headed back to the waiting class. Ron shot Harry a curious glance but Harry shook his head and mouthed 'later'. The rest of the class went by calmly and soon the sixth year Gryffindors headed off to Care of Magical Creatures wondering if they'd live to see lunch.

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Harry sighed and tuned out Hagrid who was droning on and on about phoenixes. He had borrowed Fawkes for this lesson, and the fiery bird was sitting on his perch watching the combined Gryffindor-Slytherin class with black, bottomless, wise eyes.

'I don't think I will ever understand vampires.' He thought to himself.

'I practically created them and I don't understand them,' the voice told him comfortingly. 'So don't worry, you're not the only one who doesn't under stand them.'

'I am sooooooo happy to hear that.'

'No need to be so sarcastic.' It mumbled grumpily.

'By the way, how's the Mayon-Bianca romance coming along?' Harry asked as Hagrid began to tell the students about Fawkes.

'Not very well.' The voice replied sounding worried. 'Bianca is fuming and Mayon is off on a mission along with Athan and Zev to save another vampire. I'm not sure if they actually managed to save him yet.' The voice was quest for a while. 'You want to help me play matchmaker?'

'Why should I stick my nose into others business?'

'Because if you don't, both Mayon and Bianca will die. You see, when an Angel finds their mate they have to bond as soon as possible. If they don't they'll both die. And this time it's the real death, as in no coming back.'

'Alright I'll help you, but you take the blame if Mayon gets pissed off.'

'Sure, whatever, now pay attention to the lesson.' The voice replied smugly.

Harry rolled his eyes and looked back to Hagrid. Students were coming up to Fawkes and petting him carefully. The phoenix looked slightly bored, but then he spotted Harry and spread his wings. Pansy Parkingson shrieked and fell backwards when the bird took to the air, and the whole class watched in interest to see where the phoenix would go. They were slightly surprised when Fawkes landed on Harry's arm and Harry started petting it as though they had gone through this countless times before.

"I guess we should be too surprised by this, huh?" Seamus said once they were heading back. "I mean, every creature seems to like Harry."

"Speak for yourself," Harry muttered. He shared a look with Ron, both of them remembering the acromantulas in their second year. They shuddered and entered the castle. Suddenly Harry stopped. Malfoy was coming up from the Slytherin dungeons along with Parkingson and other sixth years. The Gryffindor had almost forgotten that he had promised himself to take revenge for what the blonde idiot did to Hedwig.

"You guys go ahead," he told his classmates. "I have a score to settle."

Ron looked curiously at him, spotted Malfoy and grinned. "Come on," the redhead herded the others towards the Hospital Wing. "Lets visit Hermione."

"But-" Seamus tried to protest to no avail. Ron was determined and soon enough they had disappeared around a corner.

Harry grinned evilly and made himself look small, frightened, insecure - well, generally the way Neville looked like. Then he started towards the stairs that would lead him to the Gryffindor common room. Just as he had suspected, Malfoy and his gang picked up on his fear like a real snake would, and almost as one they turned towards him. Harry made himself look even more frightened, squeaked when the group started towards him and ran off.

It was a wild chase through the corridors of Hogwarts. Harry always made sure that the Slytherins saw glimpses of him and then would disappear. Soon enough the group split up and the Pretender grinned deviously. They had just made his job heck of a lot easier.

The first who was knocked out was Pansy Parkingson. Harry snuck up behind the girl while she was looking after him in a corridor, stupefied her and dragged her into an unused classroom.

The next two to fall were Millicent Bulstrode and Gregory Goyle. The Gryffindor took out a pouch filled with bluish silver powder, threw it in the air and used Air to blow it over to his two victims. Seconds later they fell over, deep asleep. He put them in the same room as Parkingson, and went in search of Malfoy and Crabbe.

The last two Slytherins were going through classrooms and searching for hidden passages.

"Be careful Crabbe," Malfoy said. "Even if Potter looked more scared than Longbottom in Potion class, I have a feeling he's playing with us. Don't underestimate him, and watch out for anything unusual."

Crabbe nodded dumbly to everything Malfoy said and continued to search behind a statue. Harry grinned and quickly transfigured an inkwell into a cupcake. He levitated it and made sure that Crabbe would find it. Everything went as planned. Crabbe saw the cupcake and went to grab it, but it flew out of his reach. The same thing happened the next time he tried to take it, and he followed. Soon the bulky Slytherin was far away from Malfoy and Harry petrified him and put him in the classroom where the others were.

'Now for Malfoy.' He thought and hurried through secret corridors until he found the blonde looking around for his bodyguard.

"Crabbe? Where the hell have you disappeared off to?" he looked worriedly around. "Crabbe? Bulstrode? Parkingson?"

Harry chuckled and made the corridor go pitch black.

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Draco looked wildly around as the corridor was bathed into darkness. Something was really wrong here. He knew he shouldn't have followed Potter, but that scared look on the others face had been too tempting to resist.

Suddenly he saw a weak ghost-like silvery light shining from around the bend in the corridor, and he hurried towards it.

'I really am not liking this silence.' The thought hadn't even finished forming before he heard another set of footstep coming towards him. Draco walked even faster towards the light, his wand clutched in his white- knuckled hand.

he finally rounded the corner and his mouth dropped open in a silent scream.

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Sorry for the long wait. I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner. Please review.

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