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Harry made his way back to Gryffindor Tower after his first Legilimency lesson with Lupin. He was still feeling very out of sorts, very shaken by the visions he had seen. Rounding a corner in the Great Hall, he bumped into Ron.

"Where have you been?" he asked.

Ron's eyes were rather red-rimmed and he looked very tired. "In the Library – I swear, Harry, I've never worked so hard in my life," he said, rubbing his temples. "Don't know what's gotten into me. Maybe Hermione has finally rubbed off on me after five years."

He dropped his bag and swore as everything rolled out of it and scattered across the floor. "Accio!" said Harry, helping to pick up bits of parchment, bottles of ink and a few tatty quills. They stuffed everything back into the bag, bending over to retrieve the last few books. As Harry bent, his scar suddenly seared agonizingly. "Ouch!" he said, rubbing it frantically. Ron looked at him cautiously.

"Again?" he said. Harry nodded. His scar burned again, and he could faintly hear high, mocking laughter in his head. Automatically, he used his Occlumency skills to clear his mind and block any intrusive thoughts.

Suddenly, there was a small commotion from behind them. Harry pulled Ron into the shadows below the marble staircase. Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore came rushing past, heading for the dungeons.

Waiting until they had gone down the stairs, Harry motioned to Ron. "Come on – let's follow them," he whispered. Ron shoved his bag into a small alcove and padded along behind Harry on silent feet.

Reaching the dungeons, they crept along until they could hear voices. They were coming from Snape's office.

"So, it has finally happened," Snape said slowly. "Karkaroff is dead."

Harry and Ron gasped. Karkaroff was the headmaster at Durmstrang, and had also been a Death Eater. He had, however, turned his back on Voldemort when he betrayed several Death Eaters to the Ministry – resulting in them being sentenced to life terms in Azkaban.

"They tortured him first, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly. "He was subjected to many hours under the Cruciatus curse, until his mind broke and he was of no more use to them."

There was a stunned silence. Harry and Ron glanced at each other, shocked. Then Snape said: "So, I suppose you think I'm next?"

"Well, he has vowed to kill you, Severus," said Professor McGonagall. "Harry heard him say as much."

"I do not take Potter as seriously as you do, Minerva," sneered Snape. "I believe he is an attention-seeking, arrogant little boy and his dislike of me would certainly prompt him to say something like that."

Harry had to bite his lip to stop himself from screaming abuse at Snape.

"I believe Harry," said Dumbledore quietly. "And I would say that the death of Karkaroff only underlines what he told us. Severus, I don't want you leaving the school grounds for any reason whatsoever. Hogwarts is the only safe place for you at the moment."

"I will not take imprisonment lying down, Albus!" said Snape furiously. "I am not Sirius Black, to cower in the background while others do the work."

This time, Ron had to hang on to Harry's arm to stop him from bursting into the office and smacking Snape's head. "Shh!" he hissed. "Get a hold of yourself, Harry!"

"I will ignore that comment," said Dumbledore, sounding angry for the first time. "You know the circumstances surrounding that situation, and you also know that I hold myself responsible for the consequences. However, you will obey me on this, Severus – you will not leave Hogwarts unless I have deemed it safe to do so."

"Professor Flitwick will be here in a few minutes to perform a series of Concealment Charms on your office," said Professor McGonagall. "We believe it is the best way …"

"Concealment Charms! And how are you going to conceal this?" Snape spat. "It has been getting darker and darker – he knows exactly where to find me!" Harry gathered that Snape was referring to the tattoo of the Dark Mark that was burned into the forearm of all Death Eaters.

"Severus, I am going to insist that you do as I ask for the moment," said Dumbledore. "Come, Minerva – we have arrangements to make."

Harry nearly fell over Ron in his rush to get away from the office door. Spotting a cupboard a few meters down the hallway, they scooted into it and closed the door behind them just as Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore emerged from Snape's office.

The cupboard was obviously an additional storeroom for Snape's Potions ingredients. It was full of jars of slimy things and packets of weird powders, and it had a particularly foul smell. Room was also scarce – Harry found himself in too-close proximity with Ron's armpit. As soon as it seemed that the coast was clear, Harry opened the door cautiously and peered out.

They sneaked up the stairs and back to the Great Hall, where Ron retrieved his bag, and maintained their silence until they were in the corridor leading to Gryffindor Tower.

"I reckon Snape's just full of bravado," said Ron firmly. "He knows that Voldemort's after him – that's got to scare the life out of him, no matter what he says!"

"Yeah, unless…" said Harry thoughtfully.

"What?"

"I've never trusted Snape. I know Dumbledore does, but I've never seen any evidence that says he's not still working for Voldemort," said Harry. "Maybe that's why he's not scared – maybe he knows he has no reason to be because Voldemort won't kill someone on his own side."

They reached the Fat Lady, who was snoozing lightly in her portrait. "Password?" she said sleepily, opening one eye.

"Collywobbles," said Harry, and the portrait swung forward. Going in to the common-room, they found it almost empty, but with Hermione working steadily away as usual, barely visible behind a tottering pile of Arithmancy textbooks.

Sitting on either side of her, Harry and Ron hurriedly told her what they had just heard. Hermione looked thoughtful.

"I wonder why Snape's taking this so lightly?" she mused. "If I were him, I'd be shaking in my boots."

"Can we even be sure Snape is totally with us?" said Harry immediately. "I was just saying to Ron that I'm not convinced, even if Dumbledore is."

"Hmm," said Hermione. "Let's keep an eye on the situation, shall we? I must say, although I have faith in Dumbledore, I personally think Snape is a bit of a dodgy character."

Ron rolled his eyes. Trust Hermione to be a master of the understatement.

***

Two days later, before breakfast, Harry was called to Professor McGonagall's office. On his arrival, he found the other heads of houses, plus the three other Quidditch Captains. Malfoy, captain of Slytherin's team, sneered at him from the other side of the office, but Harry got smiles from Zacharias Smith from Hufflepuff and – to his amazement – Cho Chang from Ravenclaw.

"Hello, Cho," he said, a little awkwardly. "Congratulations – I didn't know you were captain this year!"

"Well, I'm the most experienced player the team has got, after Roger Davies left last year," said Cho, not quite meeting his eye.

"Right, let's get down to business then, shall we?" said Professor McGonagall briskly. "We have decided to have a friendly match to kick off the season, a week before the Quidditch Ball. This will give anyone," she winked imperceptibly at Harry, "who might get injured time to recover before the festivities."

"Why?" demanded Malfoy.

"I beg your pardon, Mr Malfoy?" said Professor McGonagall coolly. "I would appreciate it if you referred to me as 'Professor' or 'ma'am', if you don't mind."

Malfoy had the good grace to blush slightly. "Sorry, ma'am," he said. "I meant, why are we having a friendly match beforehand? We've never done it before."

"It is not for you to know why, Mr Malfoy – just to participate," replied Professor McGonagall. "On with the proceedings. We need to decide which houses will play against each other. Captains, please come forward and produce your wands, please."

She had the captains place the tips of their wands together, and then murmured: "Opposo".

Out of each of the wands came a smoky animal, each representing the Hogwarts Houses: a lion, a serpent, a raven and a badger. They hovered in the air, slowly revolving. Then slowly, they grouped themselves: the lion with the serpent, the raven with the badger.

"So be it," said Professor McGonagall. "Ravenclaw will play Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor will play Slytherin. The games will take place the Saturday before the ball – times will be posted on the general notice board by the end of today."

As they left the office, Malfoy sidled up to Harry. "Be afraid, Potter, be very afraid – I hear you've got an almost entirely new team!" he hissed. "We're going to wipe the floor with you…"

Harry looked disdainfully at him. "Bet we're better than the duffers you've got, even though you've been playing together for longer," he shot back. "See you in the hospital wing, Malfoy."

Seeing the hem of Cho's robes whisk around the corner, Harry sprinted after her. "Cho?" he called.

She stopped and turned, looking at him questioningly as he skidded to a halt beside her.

"Listen, Cho," Harry said hesitatingly. "We're going to be bumping into each other a lot this year, what with DA meetings and Quidditch. What do you say we bury the hatchet – friends?" He held out his hand.

With a look of immense relief, she shook it. "Yeah – thanks, Harry," she stammered. "I'm really sorry about last year …"

"Nothing to be sorry about," said Harry, relieved. "That's the way life goes, you know? Listen, I'm going to see if I can grab some breakfast before class – I've got double Defence Against the Dark Arts first. See you!"

Belting headlong into the Great Hall, he threw himself into a seat between Ron and Seamus. As they were nearly finished breakfast, Harry quickly dished up some porridge and ate it as fast as he could, explaining to Ron about the match between Slytherin and Gryffindor between mouthfuls.

"Friendly match, my backside!" said Ron, astonished. "Like Slytherin's ever been 'friendly' to us!" He glared over at the Slytherin table, where Malfoy was in a head-to-head conference with Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe was cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"Well, I'm looking forward to it!" said Seamus. "I'm replacing Lee Jordan as commentator!"

"Excellent!" said Harry, slapping Seamus on the back. "See if you can rattle them as much as possible without McGonagall hexing the tar out of you. Ron, we're going to have to put in extra practices – I'm damned if I'll let Slytherin win this one!"

Defence Against the Dark Arts had been really interesting so far, with Tonks covering a variety of Dark creatures including as hags and mummies. Today, however, was proving to be quite creepy. Tonks had gone so far as to transform into the creature under discussion, and was now sheet-white, with long, lank black hair, bright red lips and a set of dark bags below her eyes.

"Vampires," said Tonks hollowly, ruining the moment by tripping over a box of chalk lying in front of the blackboard. "Really, not the nicest of creatures. Now, whereas a werewolf is a normal person for twenty-seven days out of a twenty-eight day lunar cycle, the vampire never changes and becomes fully human again – once a vampire, always a vampire."

"But aren't they quite easy to kill?" piped up Lavender Brown. "You know – just chuck some garlic at them?"

"That's the stuff of Muggle legend, but it's not that easy in reality," said Tonks. "Firstly, who knows how people become vampires?"

Not surprisingly, Hermione's hand was the first up. "Well, aren't they bitten by another vampire?" she asked earnestly. "And then, they have to drink the vampire's blood in return?"

The whole class shuddered. "Very good, Hermione," said Tonks. "It used to be said that a baby born with a caul, or teeth, was also automatically a vampire. There's no telling how many innocent babies were killed because of that legend. But yes – it has to be a reciprocal thing. Again, unlike the werewolf – who becomes one if he is just bitten by another – to become a vampire, you have to also drink the vampire's blood."

"What if you don't?" blurted Neville, who was looking frankly horrified. "What if the vampire just bites you, but you don't drink its blood?"

"Well, you'll slip into a coma for a few days while the body replenishes the blood it has lost, but then you'll wake up and be normal again," said Tonks.

"But why would anyone WANT to drink a vampire's blood, then?" persisted Neville.

"They don't – but the vampire is a very seductive creature. It persuades its victims to drink its blood through mind control. Only those with very strong wills – such as people who can block the Imperius Curse – are able to withstand the vampire lure."

"You're OK, then," Ron whispered to Harry, nudging him.

"So, how do you kill a vampire then – assuming you can resist it?" asked Harry.

"The old-fashioned way … a stake through the heart," said Tonks. The class was watching her with wide-eyed horror. "But you have to distract it for long enough, or it will be on you in a trice."

She grinned around at them. "And you're not going to believe this – but the way you do that, is to throw a handful of seeds at them."

There was an incredulous silence. "But what will that do?" said Dean disbelievingly. "Are you hoping to get one in its eye?"

Tonks laughed. "No, Mr Thomas – I wish it were that simple," she said. "It's a little-known fact that vampires are totally obsessed with counting small objects. Because it's such an unglamorous thing to do, it's almost totally disappeared from Muggle legend – they've focused on the exotic things such as garlic, and crosses, and vampires turning into bats. But seriously, it does work – the vampire will immediately ignore you and start counting the seeds, which buys you the time you need to finish it off. Today we'll focus on the incantations for producing pumpkin seeds, and then the wand action and incantation to conjure a stake and drive it through the vampire's heart."

After the lesson, Tonks took Harry aside. "Just to let you know, Harry – Remus won't be here this week for your lesson," she said. "He just wanted me to remind you."

Harry opened his mouth to ask why, and then something clicked. "Oh – right," he said. "Is it full moon on Friday?"

Tonks nodded. "He's taking the wolfbane potion as usual, so he'll be fine – he's just a bit useless as a Legilimency teacher when he's got fangs and a tail."

Harry laughed. "So, how d'you think we're doing with the DA classes?" he asked.

"Really, really well," said Tonks. "Bit scary, how much you kids know." She winked at him – after all, she was only a few years older than him. "I've had a few Slytherins asking to join as well. What do you think?"

"Absolutely not," said Harry flatly. "They were the ones we needed to protect ourselves against last term, remember? When they sided with Umbridge? Let them form their own group if they want – I'm sure Professor Snape would be delighted to teach them."

Tonks nodded. "I thought you'd feel that way, and frankly, I have to agree," she said. "I'll let Mr Malfoy know – it'll be my pleasure."