Disclaimer: Alas, 'tis true. All characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not I. *dramatic sigh*
 
Warning: This story contains SLASH…if you don't like it, don't read it.
 
Pairing: Harry/Draco, eventually
 
Spoilers: Probably for all books 1-4, and a wee bit for book 5
 
 
~~~~~~~~
 
So it's better this way, I said
Having seen this place before
Where everything we said and did

Hurts us all the more.

– Sarah McLachlan, Full of Grace

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Darkness

Harry groaned as he regained conscious. A wave of nausea swept over him and he rolled over, releasing the contents of his stomach into a nearby rubbish bin.

Cringing, Harry wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Harry stumbled back over to the bed he had woken up on and looked around for his glasses. Sighing in relief, Harry put them on, but was surprised to find that instead of clearing up his vision, they made things worse. In confusion, he removed the lenses and put them back on several times before realizing that his vision, for some unknown reason, was now perfect. Harry placed the glasses in a pocket before surveying his surroundings.

 The unfamiliar room was totally dark, save for a small black candle burning in one corner of the room. There was a single window, but it was covered with heavy black drapes, so even if it were day, no light would have penetrated the room. The bed was covered by a black gauzy canopy and carved with eerie, ghostlike figures that seemed to be screaming it terror. Harry ran his hand over the engravings, lightly brushing his fingertips over their terror-struck eyes. He moved his hand down to the bed's red silk sheets, Against one wall was a large mahogany dresser with a gilded mirror resting on top. He walked over to stand in front of the mirror intending to examine his bedraggled appearance.

However, when he stood in front of the mirror he was horrified to discover that he had no reflection.

Harry did not even realize he had been screaming until he felt someone shaking him, telling him to stop yelling.

Stunned into silence, Harry looked up and saw his attacker from earlier. He knocked the man's hands from his shoulders and jumped backward, eying him warily.

His attacker chuckled quietly. "Come now. Is that any way to treat your sire," the man said, smirking.

Harry shook his head, inclining it slightly in confusion. "I'm sorry. My what?"

"Your sire. You're a vampire now. I'm the vampire that made you. My name is Virgil." The man stepped forward extending his hand. Harry realized that he had backed up far enough that he was effectively pinned against the wall. Harry tensed, preparing to fight his way to the exit of need presented itself. The man was clearly insane if he thought that he would just accept his hand. Not to mention that the stranger seemed to think that Harry was some sort of vampire.

However, when he tried to raise his arms, he found that they were effectively pinned to his sides. He was trapped.

"What have you done to me?" Harry asked fearfully.

Virgil laughed harshly. "I haven't done anything to you, dear boy. I have bestowed a wonderful gift upon you. You should be thanking you."

Without thinking, Harry scoffed at the other man's comment. "You've got to me kidding me. Thank you? You murdered me. Turned me into some sort of…monster." Harry spat out the last word, looking with disgust and hatred at his attacker.

Virgil stepped closer, raising a hand to Harry's face. Harry winced, expecting some sort of slap as retribution for his insolence, but the blow never came. Instead, Harry merely felt the whisper of Virgil's fingers along his cheek before his sire brought the hand to his own cheek. Harry gasped as he watched him make a long, thin cut along his own cheek with a fingernail.

Harry watched the blood well up against Virgil's pale skin, and felt his mouth begin to water.

"Come to me, my child." Virgil spoke softly, but with a deep intensity that compelled Harry to obey him. He barely even registered that movement had been restored to his limbs. He remained totally focused on the tall, dark man before him.

Harry reached up, gently lowering Virgil's head to his own level. He slowly brought his mouth to his sire's cheek and, without thinking, licked the blood from his skin. He felt Virgil's hand come up to entwine in his hair. Virgil directed Harry's mouth toward his own and captured it in a rough kiss.

Harry's eyes shot open in surprise before fluttering shut as he succumbed to the kiss, completely entranced by his sire's thrall. He felt Virgil's lips bruising his own, his hands roughly yanking his head back as he deepened the kiss. Then he felt a sharp pain, and Harry felt his mouth flood with his own blood. Virgil consumed him, possessed him as he sucked the blood from Harry's mouth.

Then the kiss was broken. Harry fell panting against the wall behind him. What the hell just happened? he wondered to himself, looking up at the smug face of his sire.

"Are you hungry?"

The question awakened Harry from his shocked stupor and he stared at Virgil in confusion. "Excuse me?"

Virgil gently repeated the question. "Are you hungry? You must be."

At his sire's words, Harry realized that he was, in fact, starving. Since the nausea had abated soon after he had woken up, the feeling had been replaced by one of extreme hunger. He licked his lips.

Virgil laughed. "I thought so. Just a moment." He left the room, but returned almost immediately, dragging something behind him. He threw it down on the bed and Harry saw that it was a girl. She was about his age, with long blonde hair and blue eyes that looked up at him, wide with fear. She was gagged and bound at the wrists and ankles.

Harry backed away from her, sickened. He looked at his grinning sire in bewildered anger. "What do you think your doing?"

"Feeding you, of course." The older vampire moved quickly over to Harry, taking his arm. He forcibly directed the horrified Gryffindor over to the bound blonde.

Harry resisted and attempted to pull away, but he was no match for the other vampire's strength. "This is sick. You want me to…kill her?"

He felt as if he would throw up. Harry had seen enough horror movies that he knew what Virgil wished of him. He was near faint with hunger, but to satiate his hunger meant he would have to kill the girl. Harry shut his eyes, trying to block out the site of the helpless girl, but as his sire pushed him closer, his resolve weakened.

He moved closer of his own accord as the sound of her blood pulsing through her veins and the smell of her fear washed over him. It was too much.

Harry groaned as he gave in, pulling the girl up off the bed. He roughly wrenched her head to the side and, feeling his canines elongate, sunk his teeth into her neck.

Oh my god, Harry thought to himself. It was the most incredible thing he had ever experienced. As her blood rushed out through the wounds he had created, flooding his mouth, he could taste her innocence and her fear and it overwhelmed him. He felt the very moment when her heart ceased beating.

Harry retracted his fangs. He cradled the body in his arms and traced his tongue over the bite marks, humming softly to himself. He dropped his victim's corpse when he felt his sire's hand on his shoulder. He looked up into Virgil's approving gaze.

"Welcome, my child." Virgil almost whispered the words, but he spoke them with an intensity that made Harry shiver. "Welcome to the darkness."

~~~~~~~~

Harry strode gracefully down the street, his raven hair blowing slightly in a non-existent breeze. Over the past several days, Virgil had opened his eyes to a whole new world. He had seen a whole new side to the night. While as a human he had appreciated the night's ability to provide him with a certain amount of solitude, now he was truly a part of the night.

Harry stopped as he arrived at his destination. He smirked, then sauntered up the driveway of number 4, Privet Drive.