Ok, so this took me a while to get finished. Why, you may ask? Well,
frankly I had it written out the day after I posted chapter one but I LOST
it before I had a chance to type it up! Then out of spite I refused to
work on it for a few days. *grins sheepishly* Well, anyway, I remembered
I wasn't doing this for me, but for you all, so I got back to work and re-
wrote it.
Hope you all enjoy. (The first version was better though... *grumbles*)
OH YEA! I FORGOT THE DISCLAIMER LAST TIME!! Well I own nothing except the story plot and my character and my creatures (will be mentioned in this chapter) which all came from my rather deranged mind. (This goes for the rest of the fic so you won't have to see it again.)
Just Another Year at Hogwarts
Chapter 2:
A few hours later, Hermione let out a weary sigh. She had been pouring over her book, 'Magical Cures' looking for a bite that resembled the one she had seen on the young witch. Hermione knew she must have been a witch, she had, after all, apparated from somewhere. 'Not an easy task mind you, what with all the spells around the school. It must've drained the last of her energy on the spot. That's why she apparated in mid-air and simply collapsed afterwards.' Hermione thought. 'She's obviously a learned witch, meaning she is at least a few years older than I and either she's very powerful, or she's dabbled in the DA.' Hermione stopped there, she didn't want to continue down that track just yet.
She flipped another page, already having looked through Annihilators to Shriekers and everything in between. The book was well over six thousand pages long. It contained loads of information on all kinds of bites, hexes, illnesses, poisons, etc. Her eyes looked over a page with some distinctly gruesome looking bites. (They looked more like there were chunks of flesh ripped out, as if the victims were being eaten, to Hermione.) She was just about to pass a page depicting several kinds of vampire bites when one caught her attention. Hermione looked at a bit closer. The man's face was one of pure shock and pain, and he had four holes puncturing the area between his neck and shoulder. 'Just like that girl! This must be it.'
She looked at the caption underneath it, and it was written in small, and rather neat letters;
kiss of the day-vampire. See page 1131.
She flipped the twelve pages before stopping at a fairly clean and yet old- looking page. 'Must not be referenced very often.' she thought looking to the title. It was in the same print as the caption, except much larger. It read:
"Day Vampires
This particular vampire is extremely rare, and any cases involving one must be taken VERY seriously. Only four cases have been reported in the last 200 years. There are no records of these beings before then. Not much is known about them except that the can walk both night and day, hence their name, 'Day Vampires' The most famous of the four cases was in 1830, when they were able to capture one of them for testing. Much was learned from this one specimen. It was found that their saliva is what carries the 'disease'. If a victim of a day vampire is not sucked dry (unto death) the victim will themselves be turned. As can plainly be deduced, these vampires rarely forget to finish off their prey. They also found that they only feed on the new and full moons. However, it is on the new moon that they come into what has come to be known as, 'blood-lust'. They kill anyone and anything that crosses their paths for the sheer pleasure of it. It was on a new moon that twenty people were killed and that the day- vampire, know only as Rousseur, was able to escape. The witches and wizards who had been working on him had, however, managed to create a potion that would probably cure this 'blood-lust'. Unfortunately, they were never able to test it..."
The page went on a while longer before she read that they had instructions on how to make the potion from left-over notes on the following page. Hermione's eyes lit, and she turned eagerly to page 1132. She looked down, and face-faulted. Page 1132 was missing, someone had ripped it out!
Meanwhile at the Hospital Wing:
Said witch was placed in a separate room from the students, so as not to cause an up-roar. Madam Pomfrey was not happy about this at all. Letting some random witch into the school, one so mangled and with a vampire bite no less! She had to hand it to Dumbledore, he had really gone mad this time. She was even more surprised though to find out that it had been none other than Professor Snape who had insisted upon keeping her here until she back on her feet!
Madam Pomfrey looked down at her. Her arm upper left arm was bandaged as was her torso and the base of her neck where that hideous bite-mark had been. What could be seen of the girls skin was mostly covered in large, slowly healing, bruises and she still looked deathly pale. Her beautiful, mahogany brown hair hung limply off one edge of her temporary bed. Madam Pomfrey sucked her teeth at her own heartlessness. The girl did look in terrible state and she felt awful for ever thinking of turning her away. After all she had seen many a strange thing in her days working under their current headmaster.
Her mind wandered back to the day the girl had been rushed in.
~*~
Just as Madam Pomfrey was finished cleaning up her patient, Dumbledore walked in. 'Good, it's about time...' she thought before noticing Professors McGonagall and Snape following close behind.
"Madam Pomfrey, I expect you know what is afflicting her?" Dumbledore spoke in his usual calm tone.
Madam Pomfrey looked at him, almost making a face as though she was debating wether or not to tell him, "Well," she began, "for starters it looks like she was escaping someone. Dark Magic involved I'm sure." She said this frowning. "She won't be waking any time soon I expect, and..." words almost failed her as she felt downright ridiculous saying it.
"Well? Come now we haven't got all day." said Professor McGonagall. Something was clearly on her mind and she seemed to have other business to attend to.
"Yes, do tell us." came Snapes cold voice. He was clearly angry.
Madam Pomfrey half frowned before returning her eyes to Dumbledore. "She's been bitten, by a day-vampire." There, she had said it, now all she waited for was to be called a complete mental case who obviously could no longer handle her job.
Both McGonagall and Snape looked positively shell-shocked.
Snape actually gaped for a moment before snapping his mouth shut, and immediately turning it into a sneer of sorts. "But that cannot be. Those are extremely rare; the last case was reported over 150 years ago. You can't possibly-"
But Dumbledore cut him off, "No Severus, she is right. It is what I expected."
Now it was Madam Pomfrey to be taken aback, she had imagined he would think along the same lines as Snape. Everyone had gone quiet.
"There was a potion," Dumbledore broke the silence once more, "Severus... I do believe you should know the one I'm speaking of... I would like you to prepare some," he paused at the look on Snape's face, "that is, if it is alright with you. I understand that you may not want to try it on her..." He said, eyes twinkling as he looked into the fathomless black of Snape's eyes.
Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall shared a look, but said nothing in respect to the short exchange.
McGonagall turned to Dumbledore, "Albus, if you no longer need me for anything I must be going."
"Actually I need you to put together some new rules to ensure that our students are safe..."
~*~
The conversation trailed off in Pomfrey's mind. That had been two days ago she mused as she looked out the window as dusk was falling over the crisp autumn afternoon. 'Professor Snape must have had some kind of history with her...' And she wondered when, and if, there would ever be a relatively normal day here at Hogwarts. 'Not a chance.' She smiled.
Ron and Harry came into the Gryffindor common room looking happy if not a little tired. They were talking about Neville's incident that morning near the lake. He had been trying to impress this 5th year Ravenclaw girl before, well one could guess.
They had barely taken two steps towards on of the couches when Hermione rounded on them. They looked startled for a moment by the look in her eyes and Ron was about to say something when she cut him off completely.
"We need to talk," she began looking around the room before continuing in a whisper, "Just not in here."
The common room was now filling with Gyffindors as curfew had been changed to an earlier time. Harry and Ron exchanged looks as she turned to get her books.
They took that as their cue and ran up to get the invisibility cloak. Stuffing it under Harry's robes, they came back down to find Hermione ready and waiting for them with a few hefty books in the crook of her arm.. They still had an hour before curfew so no one questioned their leaving. They weren't going to take any chances though, this being their sixth year, they had learned that one could never be too cautious. Without another word they left through the portrait hole.
In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (they had officially made it their places to discuss private matters such as this because it was the only place they had away from prying ears.) They all sat around, both Harry and Ron looking as dazed as thought Hermione had throttled them with one of the massive books.
"Are you sure 'Mione?" asked Harry. He was still a bit skeptical about the whole thing.
She simply rolled her eyes, "Of course I am! I wouldn't be wasting valuable study time if I wasn't."
"So you mean to tell us, that not only is there quite possibly a deadly vampire-"Ron was again cut off.
"Day-vampire." She corrected.
"Right," he continued, "nearby, but that there's one right here in the HOSPITAL WARD!?" Ron's voice had risen so much towards the end of his phrase that he had begun to sound hysterical.
"Yes, now keep it down!" Hermione hissed at him, "Someone might hear us if you keep shouting like that!"
"So what do you suppose is going on?" Asked Harry, now deep in thought.
"Well we could always try to get something out of one of the teachers." Suggested Ron.
"Yes, and we also have to find that potion, it may come in handy." Said Hermione determinedly.
OK, that's all for now. I hope this is longer than the last. It is a total of about 5 pages. Let me know what you think. Reviews do brighten me day!
Thanks to everyone who did last time:
WizzFizz-21
RubyFox Jenn
Hope you all enjoy. (The first version was better though... *grumbles*)
OH YEA! I FORGOT THE DISCLAIMER LAST TIME!! Well I own nothing except the story plot and my character and my creatures (will be mentioned in this chapter) which all came from my rather deranged mind. (This goes for the rest of the fic so you won't have to see it again.)
Just Another Year at Hogwarts
Chapter 2:
A few hours later, Hermione let out a weary sigh. She had been pouring over her book, 'Magical Cures' looking for a bite that resembled the one she had seen on the young witch. Hermione knew she must have been a witch, she had, after all, apparated from somewhere. 'Not an easy task mind you, what with all the spells around the school. It must've drained the last of her energy on the spot. That's why she apparated in mid-air and simply collapsed afterwards.' Hermione thought. 'She's obviously a learned witch, meaning she is at least a few years older than I and either she's very powerful, or she's dabbled in the DA.' Hermione stopped there, she didn't want to continue down that track just yet.
She flipped another page, already having looked through Annihilators to Shriekers and everything in between. The book was well over six thousand pages long. It contained loads of information on all kinds of bites, hexes, illnesses, poisons, etc. Her eyes looked over a page with some distinctly gruesome looking bites. (They looked more like there were chunks of flesh ripped out, as if the victims were being eaten, to Hermione.) She was just about to pass a page depicting several kinds of vampire bites when one caught her attention. Hermione looked at a bit closer. The man's face was one of pure shock and pain, and he had four holes puncturing the area between his neck and shoulder. 'Just like that girl! This must be it.'
She looked at the caption underneath it, and it was written in small, and rather neat letters;
kiss of the day-vampire. See page 1131.
She flipped the twelve pages before stopping at a fairly clean and yet old- looking page. 'Must not be referenced very often.' she thought looking to the title. It was in the same print as the caption, except much larger. It read:
"Day Vampires
This particular vampire is extremely rare, and any cases involving one must be taken VERY seriously. Only four cases have been reported in the last 200 years. There are no records of these beings before then. Not much is known about them except that the can walk both night and day, hence their name, 'Day Vampires' The most famous of the four cases was in 1830, when they were able to capture one of them for testing. Much was learned from this one specimen. It was found that their saliva is what carries the 'disease'. If a victim of a day vampire is not sucked dry (unto death) the victim will themselves be turned. As can plainly be deduced, these vampires rarely forget to finish off their prey. They also found that they only feed on the new and full moons. However, it is on the new moon that they come into what has come to be known as, 'blood-lust'. They kill anyone and anything that crosses their paths for the sheer pleasure of it. It was on a new moon that twenty people were killed and that the day- vampire, know only as Rousseur, was able to escape. The witches and wizards who had been working on him had, however, managed to create a potion that would probably cure this 'blood-lust'. Unfortunately, they were never able to test it..."
The page went on a while longer before she read that they had instructions on how to make the potion from left-over notes on the following page. Hermione's eyes lit, and she turned eagerly to page 1132. She looked down, and face-faulted. Page 1132 was missing, someone had ripped it out!
Meanwhile at the Hospital Wing:
Said witch was placed in a separate room from the students, so as not to cause an up-roar. Madam Pomfrey was not happy about this at all. Letting some random witch into the school, one so mangled and with a vampire bite no less! She had to hand it to Dumbledore, he had really gone mad this time. She was even more surprised though to find out that it had been none other than Professor Snape who had insisted upon keeping her here until she back on her feet!
Madam Pomfrey looked down at her. Her arm upper left arm was bandaged as was her torso and the base of her neck where that hideous bite-mark had been. What could be seen of the girls skin was mostly covered in large, slowly healing, bruises and she still looked deathly pale. Her beautiful, mahogany brown hair hung limply off one edge of her temporary bed. Madam Pomfrey sucked her teeth at her own heartlessness. The girl did look in terrible state and she felt awful for ever thinking of turning her away. After all she had seen many a strange thing in her days working under their current headmaster.
Her mind wandered back to the day the girl had been rushed in.
~*~
Just as Madam Pomfrey was finished cleaning up her patient, Dumbledore walked in. 'Good, it's about time...' she thought before noticing Professors McGonagall and Snape following close behind.
"Madam Pomfrey, I expect you know what is afflicting her?" Dumbledore spoke in his usual calm tone.
Madam Pomfrey looked at him, almost making a face as though she was debating wether or not to tell him, "Well," she began, "for starters it looks like she was escaping someone. Dark Magic involved I'm sure." She said this frowning. "She won't be waking any time soon I expect, and..." words almost failed her as she felt downright ridiculous saying it.
"Well? Come now we haven't got all day." said Professor McGonagall. Something was clearly on her mind and she seemed to have other business to attend to.
"Yes, do tell us." came Snapes cold voice. He was clearly angry.
Madam Pomfrey half frowned before returning her eyes to Dumbledore. "She's been bitten, by a day-vampire." There, she had said it, now all she waited for was to be called a complete mental case who obviously could no longer handle her job.
Both McGonagall and Snape looked positively shell-shocked.
Snape actually gaped for a moment before snapping his mouth shut, and immediately turning it into a sneer of sorts. "But that cannot be. Those are extremely rare; the last case was reported over 150 years ago. You can't possibly-"
But Dumbledore cut him off, "No Severus, she is right. It is what I expected."
Now it was Madam Pomfrey to be taken aback, she had imagined he would think along the same lines as Snape. Everyone had gone quiet.
"There was a potion," Dumbledore broke the silence once more, "Severus... I do believe you should know the one I'm speaking of... I would like you to prepare some," he paused at the look on Snape's face, "that is, if it is alright with you. I understand that you may not want to try it on her..." He said, eyes twinkling as he looked into the fathomless black of Snape's eyes.
Madam Pomfrey and McGonagall shared a look, but said nothing in respect to the short exchange.
McGonagall turned to Dumbledore, "Albus, if you no longer need me for anything I must be going."
"Actually I need you to put together some new rules to ensure that our students are safe..."
~*~
The conversation trailed off in Pomfrey's mind. That had been two days ago she mused as she looked out the window as dusk was falling over the crisp autumn afternoon. 'Professor Snape must have had some kind of history with her...' And she wondered when, and if, there would ever be a relatively normal day here at Hogwarts. 'Not a chance.' She smiled.
Ron and Harry came into the Gryffindor common room looking happy if not a little tired. They were talking about Neville's incident that morning near the lake. He had been trying to impress this 5th year Ravenclaw girl before, well one could guess.
They had barely taken two steps towards on of the couches when Hermione rounded on them. They looked startled for a moment by the look in her eyes and Ron was about to say something when she cut him off completely.
"We need to talk," she began looking around the room before continuing in a whisper, "Just not in here."
The common room was now filling with Gyffindors as curfew had been changed to an earlier time. Harry and Ron exchanged looks as she turned to get her books.
They took that as their cue and ran up to get the invisibility cloak. Stuffing it under Harry's robes, they came back down to find Hermione ready and waiting for them with a few hefty books in the crook of her arm.. They still had an hour before curfew so no one questioned their leaving. They weren't going to take any chances though, this being their sixth year, they had learned that one could never be too cautious. Without another word they left through the portrait hole.
In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (they had officially made it their places to discuss private matters such as this because it was the only place they had away from prying ears.) They all sat around, both Harry and Ron looking as dazed as thought Hermione had throttled them with one of the massive books.
"Are you sure 'Mione?" asked Harry. He was still a bit skeptical about the whole thing.
She simply rolled her eyes, "Of course I am! I wouldn't be wasting valuable study time if I wasn't."
"So you mean to tell us, that not only is there quite possibly a deadly vampire-"Ron was again cut off.
"Day-vampire." She corrected.
"Right," he continued, "nearby, but that there's one right here in the HOSPITAL WARD!?" Ron's voice had risen so much towards the end of his phrase that he had begun to sound hysterical.
"Yes, now keep it down!" Hermione hissed at him, "Someone might hear us if you keep shouting like that!"
"So what do you suppose is going on?" Asked Harry, now deep in thought.
"Well we could always try to get something out of one of the teachers." Suggested Ron.
"Yes, and we also have to find that potion, it may come in handy." Said Hermione determinedly.
OK, that's all for now. I hope this is longer than the last. It is a total of about 5 pages. Let me know what you think. Reviews do brighten me day!
Thanks to everyone who did last time:
WizzFizz-21
RubyFox Jenn
