The next few days passed fairly quickly, for Harry. He mostly kept to
his room, reading books left there by Mr. Fisher. Diana had agreed not to
tell her parents anything about what happened between them the night of
Harry's arrival.
So it was that November became December. Thinking back, Harry realized that only a month had passed since his battle with Voldemort. It felt like years.
When Diana got home from school, she came into Harry's room, the curtains all tightly drawn, and found him writing. She looked over his shoulder.
"It feels as though I've been asleep for years," she read. "And they've awoken me."
"I was lost," Harry said, simply. "You and your family found me."
Diana laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Thanks. I always...we always will."
She left, citing a need to change out of her school clothes. Harry wondered just what their relationship was becoming. That Diana needed him was apparent. He was her confidant. She was his. But she seemed to think that there was romance there, too.
"I'll have to nip that one in the bud," Harry muttered.
Harry picked up the black tinted glass on the side of the desk. It held a bit of pig's blood. Diana had shown him a convenient butcher's shop near their house, and he'd taken to frequent, sunset visits to the place to replenish his store of blood. When Diana returned, the skirt and collar of her Catholic school had been replaced with a pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt.
"You want to go out and do something?" Diana asked.
Harry raised an eyebrow and looked toward the window, where the sun was still glowing behind the thick curtain.
"Right," Diana said. "No sun."
"Not unless you want to walk around with a cinder for a friend," Harry said.
"I've never had a vampire for a friend," Diana said. "It's so restricting."
Harry glanced at the door. Diana picked up on it and smiled. "Don't worry," she said. "Mom's not home yet, and Dad is engrossed in paperwork. You could drop a bomb in the house and he probably wouldn't notice."
"It's not that I don't trust your parents," Harry explained. "It's just that I don't think they'd understand. At least, not the way you do."
All at once, Harry wondered whether he was the one with romantic feelings. A month away from Ginny...and already, this. Maybe their relationship wouldn't have lasted even if he'd stayed.
Harry banished that thought at once. Relationship or not, Harry knew that being around Ginny and the rest would be too difficult for him to bear. He was better off here. Here with Diana, whose affectionate gaze seemed more and more appetizing to Harry every minute.
Appetizing...? That was the vampire half. Had to keep a lid on that one.
"Wow," Diana said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Your face just went from shock, to understanding, to shock, and back to understanding, all in less than a minute."
Harry's eyebrows raised. "I suppose it did," he said.
"Want to explain it?" Diana asked, resting her head on top of her hands.
"I think you've already heard the most of it," Harry said. "Just remember...I'm off limits as far as romance goes."
Diana's smile faded. "Yeah," she said. "I understand. It doesn't seem fair, though."
"No, its not fair," Harry agreed. "But that's the way it is."
"It shouldn't be!" Diana burst out.
Harry hadn't expected the outburst. "I know that," he said, trying to sound calming. "But we can't change the way things are."
Diana calmed down in a hurry, though Harry doubted that it was his efforts that achieved the feet. "I guess that you're..." she began, but her eyes fluttered shut halfway through. "Oh," she said. Then her eyes opened. "Oh!" she said. She bolted.
"Dad!" she yelled.
Harry followed her, wondering what was going on. "Diana?" he called, but she was already down the staircase. Harry followed, moving quickly and quietly.
Harry caught up to Diana in the study. Whatever she had wanted to say, she'd already said. "Are you sure?" Mr. Fisher asked. "Definitely," Diana said. "He'll be here in any minute!" "Oh, no," Mr. Fisher said. "Harry, I'm sorry, but you need to go, now!" "What?" Harry asked. "You need to go! You can't be here! Please!" Mr. Fisher said. "What's going on?" Harry asked. "Are you in some sort of trouble?" "Our landlord is coming for inspection! He...won't like it if he finds out that you're here," Mr. Fisher said. "Come now, quickly!" The doorbell rang. Mr. Fisher paled. "Think of a cover story!" he hissed at Diana. "I'll go along with it! Anything!" He left to get the door. Harry turned Diana around and studied her face. She was panicked. This was obvious to him. "What...?" he asked, confused over what, to him, seemed like a trivial matter. "I'll explain later. For now, you're a friend from school, and we're doing a project on...uh..." she eyed the Sword of Gryffindor, which was, as usual, strapped across Harry's back. "Medieval weaponry!" she said. Harry slipped the sword off his back. He laid it out on the table, and slipped it a bit out of the black sheath. As the door opened, he launched into a conversation over battle tactics with swords. Silently, he thanked Mad-Eye Moody for all the hours of training that had taught him so much about the sword. Fisher entered the room, his face going from a smiling mask to a look of pleading as soon as the man behind him could not see it. Diana's face brightened immediately. "Hello, Mr. Onde!" Diana said, smiling in what Harry could have sworn was perfect contentment. "I'd like you to meet Harry! He's my partner in history class! We're doing a project together!" "That's nice, Ms. Fisher," Onde said. He looked at Harry, and Harry discovered that his gaze was more mechanical than it was human. When Onde's gaze lingered on Harry's forehead, he became instantly uncomfortable. Onde had been about to leave the room when Harry had caught his attention. Instead, he moved forward to look at the Sword of Gryffindor, on the table. "Doing a project on the Middle Ages, are you?" he asked. Harry responded before Diana could over-act again. "Yes, we are," he said. "This is an old family heirloom." Onde examined the sword for a moment, then looked up. Once again, his mechanical stare bothered Harry deep down. "Very nice," he said. His voice lacked emotion. He left. After a few more minutes of what Harry supposed was inspection, Onde left. Mr. Fisher dragged himself back into the study, looking like he'd survived World War III. "Phew," he said. "That was close." "What was that all about?" Harry asked. "Our landlord, Mr. Onde, is very specific about what is allowed in his buildings," Diana explained. "We wouldn't live here if we could afford better," Mr. Fisher admitted, blushing a bit. "But on the income of a secretary and an obscure veterinarian...well, that's that. Excellent job, both of you. Where'd you get Harry from?" "Huh?" Harry said. "The name Harry," Mr. Fisher said. "It was a nice touch." "Oh, I suppose Jonathan just looks like a Harry to me," Diana said, pointedly. "Oh, that," Harry said. "Uh...yeah, nice touch..." Mr. Fisher wiped a considerable amount of sweat off his brow. "Well, you kids go back to whatever you were doing," he said. "I've still got work to finish." Diana left without comment. Harry followed her, intent on getting some answers. Diana passed Harry's room and entered her own. Harry entered it as well, and shut the door behind himself. "Explain," he said, simply. Diana sat down on her bed. She seemed hesitant, which scared Harry a bit; she was so open about everything else, so what about this required such secrecy? "It's a bit hard to explain..." she said. "It's just that Mr. Onde has been so kind to us, giving us a great deal on this apartment, and we don't want to do anything to upset him..." "The man's been really kind to you," Harry said. Diana nodded. "So naturally, you're deathly afraid of him. Diana, don't try to deny it! I can smell fear, and I was getting a pretty strong whiff when he was around." Diana hung her head in shame. "Whatever it is, you can tell me," Harry said. "I'm just so used to not mentioning it," Diana said. "It's true that Mr. Onde gave us a great deal on the apartment. But he has all these quirky rules. And when he evicts someone..." She stopped. "Okay, I'm going to tell you, but you have to realize that we have no way of proving that he was responsible. Whenever someone leaves his property, they end up dead." There was a pause as Harry absorbed that. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Everyone?" "Oh, we're not completely sure," Diana moaned, near tears. "Otherwise, we'd have gone to the police. But the last few neighbors we've had...the Moore's and John Ecklar, and Mr. Fox...they all left or were evicted, and they all ended up dead shortly thereafter. We wouldn't have found out about it if it wasn't for the fact that we had been friends. After them, we started keeping track. Unofficially, of course. There have been eight cases of families or individuals leaving and dying in the past two years." Harry breathed out slowly and sat down. "No chance that it's all an accident, a coincidence?" "That's the funny thing," Diana said, without mirth. "They've all been accidents. John's car had a freak break failure, and the Moore's burned to death when bad wiring caused a fire in their new home. And all of the accidents happened at night. I think Mr. Onde is a vampire." "No," Harry said, instantly. "He isn't." "How can you tell?" Diana asked. "Some super vampire power for detecting other vampires?" "Firstly, I'd be able to smell it if he were a vampire," Harry said. "Secondly, he just walked out into the sunlight." "Oh, yeah," Diana said, her shoulders slumping at the defeat of her suggestion. She perked up again in a moment. "But maybe he's got vampires who do his dirty work for him! It's perfect! They're the perfect hit men, since they're already dead and their prints wouldn't show up in a search and no one would have been in a position to rat them out..." "Don't forget to breathe," Harry said. "Right," Diana said, not really paying attention to this suggestion. "Okay, so he has vampires working for him..." "Woe, woe, we don't know that yet," Harry said. "Tell you what. Do you have an address for this guy?" "Dad has to drop off the payments for the apartment, yeah." "Well, then, you give me the address, and I'll go and check it out."
At dinner that night, after Mrs. Fisher was filled in on the details of Mr. Onde's visit, Harry reiterated his plans. When he was done, Mr. Fisher breathed out. "Now, Jonathan," he said. "I know that you want to help, and we appreciate it, but we don't have any proof that Mr. Onde has ever done anything even remotely illegal." "So I'll go and find some proof, one way or the other," Harry said, cringing inwardly at the usage of his fake name. "Worse case scenario: Mr. Onde catches a kid breaking into his offices. I'll wear a mask so that he can't recognize me." "But Jonathan, he'll take off the mask, obviously," Mrs. Fisher said. "He won't get the chance," Harry said. "Anyway, I don't think they'll catch me. If they do get me, and I can't find anything, I'll disappear and you'll never see me again."
Diana was about to protest when she felt a light kick from Harry under the table. Mrs. Fisher's protest went through, however. "But, Jonathan," she said. "I...I don't know what to say..."
"I think that 'no' sums it up best," Mr. Fisher said. "Jonathan, this is...crazy!"
"There's a possibility that your landlord is killing his tenants," Harry said. All three Fishers cringed. "I wouldn't mind knowing if he is."
Mr. Fisher opened his mouth to protest, but Harry cut him off. "Whatever you say, I'm still doing this," Harry said. He rose from the table. "Thank you so much for your hospitality. You've all helped me more than you could imagine."
Before any of the Fisher's could move to stop him, Harry was out the door, the Sword of Gryffindor weighing against his back.
PHEW!! That one came out in about two hours. Pretty damn cool, no? As always, leave all your comments and criticisms and well wishes on the review board. I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!! And face it, baby...you love to make me hear from you. Love ya, kid! Bye for now.
So it was that November became December. Thinking back, Harry realized that only a month had passed since his battle with Voldemort. It felt like years.
When Diana got home from school, she came into Harry's room, the curtains all tightly drawn, and found him writing. She looked over his shoulder.
"It feels as though I've been asleep for years," she read. "And they've awoken me."
"I was lost," Harry said, simply. "You and your family found me."
Diana laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Thanks. I always...we always will."
She left, citing a need to change out of her school clothes. Harry wondered just what their relationship was becoming. That Diana needed him was apparent. He was her confidant. She was his. But she seemed to think that there was romance there, too.
"I'll have to nip that one in the bud," Harry muttered.
Harry picked up the black tinted glass on the side of the desk. It held a bit of pig's blood. Diana had shown him a convenient butcher's shop near their house, and he'd taken to frequent, sunset visits to the place to replenish his store of blood. When Diana returned, the skirt and collar of her Catholic school had been replaced with a pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt.
"You want to go out and do something?" Diana asked.
Harry raised an eyebrow and looked toward the window, where the sun was still glowing behind the thick curtain.
"Right," Diana said. "No sun."
"Not unless you want to walk around with a cinder for a friend," Harry said.
"I've never had a vampire for a friend," Diana said. "It's so restricting."
Harry glanced at the door. Diana picked up on it and smiled. "Don't worry," she said. "Mom's not home yet, and Dad is engrossed in paperwork. You could drop a bomb in the house and he probably wouldn't notice."
"It's not that I don't trust your parents," Harry explained. "It's just that I don't think they'd understand. At least, not the way you do."
All at once, Harry wondered whether he was the one with romantic feelings. A month away from Ginny...and already, this. Maybe their relationship wouldn't have lasted even if he'd stayed.
Harry banished that thought at once. Relationship or not, Harry knew that being around Ginny and the rest would be too difficult for him to bear. He was better off here. Here with Diana, whose affectionate gaze seemed more and more appetizing to Harry every minute.
Appetizing...? That was the vampire half. Had to keep a lid on that one.
"Wow," Diana said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Your face just went from shock, to understanding, to shock, and back to understanding, all in less than a minute."
Harry's eyebrows raised. "I suppose it did," he said.
"Want to explain it?" Diana asked, resting her head on top of her hands.
"I think you've already heard the most of it," Harry said. "Just remember...I'm off limits as far as romance goes."
Diana's smile faded. "Yeah," she said. "I understand. It doesn't seem fair, though."
"No, its not fair," Harry agreed. "But that's the way it is."
"It shouldn't be!" Diana burst out.
Harry hadn't expected the outburst. "I know that," he said, trying to sound calming. "But we can't change the way things are."
Diana calmed down in a hurry, though Harry doubted that it was his efforts that achieved the feet. "I guess that you're..." she began, but her eyes fluttered shut halfway through. "Oh," she said. Then her eyes opened. "Oh!" she said. She bolted.
"Dad!" she yelled.
Harry followed her, wondering what was going on. "Diana?" he called, but she was already down the staircase. Harry followed, moving quickly and quietly.
Harry caught up to Diana in the study. Whatever she had wanted to say, she'd already said. "Are you sure?" Mr. Fisher asked. "Definitely," Diana said. "He'll be here in any minute!" "Oh, no," Mr. Fisher said. "Harry, I'm sorry, but you need to go, now!" "What?" Harry asked. "You need to go! You can't be here! Please!" Mr. Fisher said. "What's going on?" Harry asked. "Are you in some sort of trouble?" "Our landlord is coming for inspection! He...won't like it if he finds out that you're here," Mr. Fisher said. "Come now, quickly!" The doorbell rang. Mr. Fisher paled. "Think of a cover story!" he hissed at Diana. "I'll go along with it! Anything!" He left to get the door. Harry turned Diana around and studied her face. She was panicked. This was obvious to him. "What...?" he asked, confused over what, to him, seemed like a trivial matter. "I'll explain later. For now, you're a friend from school, and we're doing a project on...uh..." she eyed the Sword of Gryffindor, which was, as usual, strapped across Harry's back. "Medieval weaponry!" she said. Harry slipped the sword off his back. He laid it out on the table, and slipped it a bit out of the black sheath. As the door opened, he launched into a conversation over battle tactics with swords. Silently, he thanked Mad-Eye Moody for all the hours of training that had taught him so much about the sword. Fisher entered the room, his face going from a smiling mask to a look of pleading as soon as the man behind him could not see it. Diana's face brightened immediately. "Hello, Mr. Onde!" Diana said, smiling in what Harry could have sworn was perfect contentment. "I'd like you to meet Harry! He's my partner in history class! We're doing a project together!" "That's nice, Ms. Fisher," Onde said. He looked at Harry, and Harry discovered that his gaze was more mechanical than it was human. When Onde's gaze lingered on Harry's forehead, he became instantly uncomfortable. Onde had been about to leave the room when Harry had caught his attention. Instead, he moved forward to look at the Sword of Gryffindor, on the table. "Doing a project on the Middle Ages, are you?" he asked. Harry responded before Diana could over-act again. "Yes, we are," he said. "This is an old family heirloom." Onde examined the sword for a moment, then looked up. Once again, his mechanical stare bothered Harry deep down. "Very nice," he said. His voice lacked emotion. He left. After a few more minutes of what Harry supposed was inspection, Onde left. Mr. Fisher dragged himself back into the study, looking like he'd survived World War III. "Phew," he said. "That was close." "What was that all about?" Harry asked. "Our landlord, Mr. Onde, is very specific about what is allowed in his buildings," Diana explained. "We wouldn't live here if we could afford better," Mr. Fisher admitted, blushing a bit. "But on the income of a secretary and an obscure veterinarian...well, that's that. Excellent job, both of you. Where'd you get Harry from?" "Huh?" Harry said. "The name Harry," Mr. Fisher said. "It was a nice touch." "Oh, I suppose Jonathan just looks like a Harry to me," Diana said, pointedly. "Oh, that," Harry said. "Uh...yeah, nice touch..." Mr. Fisher wiped a considerable amount of sweat off his brow. "Well, you kids go back to whatever you were doing," he said. "I've still got work to finish." Diana left without comment. Harry followed her, intent on getting some answers. Diana passed Harry's room and entered her own. Harry entered it as well, and shut the door behind himself. "Explain," he said, simply. Diana sat down on her bed. She seemed hesitant, which scared Harry a bit; she was so open about everything else, so what about this required such secrecy? "It's a bit hard to explain..." she said. "It's just that Mr. Onde has been so kind to us, giving us a great deal on this apartment, and we don't want to do anything to upset him..." "The man's been really kind to you," Harry said. Diana nodded. "So naturally, you're deathly afraid of him. Diana, don't try to deny it! I can smell fear, and I was getting a pretty strong whiff when he was around." Diana hung her head in shame. "Whatever it is, you can tell me," Harry said. "I'm just so used to not mentioning it," Diana said. "It's true that Mr. Onde gave us a great deal on the apartment. But he has all these quirky rules. And when he evicts someone..." She stopped. "Okay, I'm going to tell you, but you have to realize that we have no way of proving that he was responsible. Whenever someone leaves his property, they end up dead." There was a pause as Harry absorbed that. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Everyone?" "Oh, we're not completely sure," Diana moaned, near tears. "Otherwise, we'd have gone to the police. But the last few neighbors we've had...the Moore's and John Ecklar, and Mr. Fox...they all left or were evicted, and they all ended up dead shortly thereafter. We wouldn't have found out about it if it wasn't for the fact that we had been friends. After them, we started keeping track. Unofficially, of course. There have been eight cases of families or individuals leaving and dying in the past two years." Harry breathed out slowly and sat down. "No chance that it's all an accident, a coincidence?" "That's the funny thing," Diana said, without mirth. "They've all been accidents. John's car had a freak break failure, and the Moore's burned to death when bad wiring caused a fire in their new home. And all of the accidents happened at night. I think Mr. Onde is a vampire." "No," Harry said, instantly. "He isn't." "How can you tell?" Diana asked. "Some super vampire power for detecting other vampires?" "Firstly, I'd be able to smell it if he were a vampire," Harry said. "Secondly, he just walked out into the sunlight." "Oh, yeah," Diana said, her shoulders slumping at the defeat of her suggestion. She perked up again in a moment. "But maybe he's got vampires who do his dirty work for him! It's perfect! They're the perfect hit men, since they're already dead and their prints wouldn't show up in a search and no one would have been in a position to rat them out..." "Don't forget to breathe," Harry said. "Right," Diana said, not really paying attention to this suggestion. "Okay, so he has vampires working for him..." "Woe, woe, we don't know that yet," Harry said. "Tell you what. Do you have an address for this guy?" "Dad has to drop off the payments for the apartment, yeah." "Well, then, you give me the address, and I'll go and check it out."
At dinner that night, after Mrs. Fisher was filled in on the details of Mr. Onde's visit, Harry reiterated his plans. When he was done, Mr. Fisher breathed out. "Now, Jonathan," he said. "I know that you want to help, and we appreciate it, but we don't have any proof that Mr. Onde has ever done anything even remotely illegal." "So I'll go and find some proof, one way or the other," Harry said, cringing inwardly at the usage of his fake name. "Worse case scenario: Mr. Onde catches a kid breaking into his offices. I'll wear a mask so that he can't recognize me." "But Jonathan, he'll take off the mask, obviously," Mrs. Fisher said. "He won't get the chance," Harry said. "Anyway, I don't think they'll catch me. If they do get me, and I can't find anything, I'll disappear and you'll never see me again."
Diana was about to protest when she felt a light kick from Harry under the table. Mrs. Fisher's protest went through, however. "But, Jonathan," she said. "I...I don't know what to say..."
"I think that 'no' sums it up best," Mr. Fisher said. "Jonathan, this is...crazy!"
"There's a possibility that your landlord is killing his tenants," Harry said. All three Fishers cringed. "I wouldn't mind knowing if he is."
Mr. Fisher opened his mouth to protest, but Harry cut him off. "Whatever you say, I'm still doing this," Harry said. He rose from the table. "Thank you so much for your hospitality. You've all helped me more than you could imagine."
Before any of the Fisher's could move to stop him, Harry was out the door, the Sword of Gryffindor weighing against his back.
PHEW!! That one came out in about two hours. Pretty damn cool, no? As always, leave all your comments and criticisms and well wishes on the review board. I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!! And face it, baby...you love to make me hear from you. Love ya, kid! Bye for now.