Chapter 31: The Vampires' Letter

Harry awoke to the clattering of students moving around, then fell back to sleep again. When he awoke next, it was quiet. Everyone was obviously in lessons. Ron was nowhere to be seen, but some food lay on the table – breakfast. Harry got dressed, then helped himself to it. Ron came in just as he finished.

"She's named him," he said gruffly, putting on his cloak.

"What – oh!" replied Harry. Ron glared at him. "Er – what's he called?"

"Ryan Cyrus Weasley," replied Ron, not looking at Harry. Then he stood up. "We're going."

Harry nodded, put on his own cloak, and started for the door.

"Don't forget your broomstick," said Ron, still angrily.

"What?" said Harry, then noticed his Nimbus lying by the bed. Someone had obviously brought it up, presumably the same person who brought the breakfast. Harry would've been prepared to bet any money it was Dobby, had he been feeling anything like betting.

The two young men walked in silence down to the station, where a steam engine was waiting. It was covered in black, peeling paint – nothing like the finery of the Hogwarts Express. Ron and Harry climbed into the driver's cab as they were asked, and the train started to travel south. 

Professor Gabriel said that he could see their reasons for leaving, but deducted twenty-five points each from their personal tallies. Harry dropped to eighth and Ron to tenth place. They had barely said a word to each other since the night before.

Over the coming weeks, they were each waging a silent war. Both of them wanted to have as much fun as possible out of lessons, but neither wanted to be together or even be in the same room. If Harry was the first to the common room Ron would spend his time in the dormitory writing long letters, and if Ron was first Harry would go onto the pitches and mess around on his broomstick in various sports. Rudolf tried to bring them back together and while Harry was quite keen to be on speaking terms again, Ron seemed reluctant to even try to be nice to Harry.  He had started avoiding Rudolf as well.

Harry tried getting through his lessons as well as he could, but the absence of support from his best friend meant that his marks were not as good as they should have been. February turned to March, and still Harry and Ron argued silently. Harry tried telling Ron that he could use Veritaserum, but Ron wouldn't listen. His results were being hampered even more than Harry's.

On the twentieth of March Hedwig brought Harry a letter. Just from looking at it, he could tell it was one of the strangest he would ever receive. It was a scroll, and tied with a thick cord of what looked like the hairs of an animal bound together. It was made of parchment as usual, but the parchment was not well constructed – there were bits of meat still stuck to it in several places. Harry wondered who had skinned the animal. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he, as a trainee Auror, should open such a suspicious document, but his curiosity got the better of him and he ripped off the cord and unrolled it.

It was covered in words of what looked like a reddish ink, but smelt of dried blood. Wondering for a moment if it was a death threat, Harry started to read.

He was surprised to find that it was not in English, or even in a Latin script, but in what looked like Cyrillic. He bent closer to it, brushing his hair back behind his ears as he did so, and attempted to decipher the strange letters. After the first few words he had the answer: it was Vampirish. He read through it, translating words where he could, and guessing where he could not. He managed to build up a fairly good idea of what was being said, which he wrote down on a piece of regular parchment for reference:

Telkarr and his Kinsmen salute Harry Potter:

You have done a great many kind things in the past, and we would now like to ask for your assistance once more. As you no doubt know, there has always been great rivalry between the vampires and the goblins. The goblins of Gringotts Bank, who came recently to collect our taxes to the Ministry, are scheming to find some way to force us to leave our home, and have discovered the charm barriers that you have erected. They refuse to believe that a human put them up, and are planning to tell the Ministry that we have used wands illegally. We beg you to come to our aid as soon as possible. We will pay you well.

Harry had no intention this time of sneaking out without permission. It was the weekend, and students were allowed to leave the college if they so wished, but Harry decided it would be best to tell Professor Gabriel first.

He found the Deputy Headmaster in his office as he expected. The senior Auror was quite willing to let Harry go, as long as he didn't get into too much trouble. "It'll be some good experience for you," he said. Harry thanked him, left the building, and Apparated.