A/N: A dedication: This one's for you D.R.H.; you wanted Lupin so I give you Lupin with attitude! C.I.T.A. xxx
"Vell, vell, vell," mused the vampire, "Vot a vonderful surprise," it clapped its skeletal hands together and let out a low, sly laugh.
James stepped forward suddenly and bellowed a curse at the calm vampire; there was a loud bang and thin snake-like cords flew from the end of his wand, the creature however merely swept them away with bored gesture with his wrist, "Now, now; don't be silly! Your magic von't vork on me!" the vampire mused as it advanced on the two teenagers.
Sirius had a sudden idea, he grabbed the wand out of James' unresisting hands and along his own wand he made a crude cross shape and pointed it at the vampires face, "Hah! Back you monster!" he cried triumphantly. The vampire however covered its eyes with a pale hand and laughed softly, Sirius lowered his cross disappointedly, "Oh come on," the vampire sighed, "Vot is that supposed to do? Am I supposed to scream and disappear in a puff of smoke? How stupid are you?" the vampire laughed again and James felt his temper rising, he glanced at his friend, Sirius' hands were clenched in anger.
The vampire stepped quickly towards them and with surprising strength in its thin arms picked both boys up by the collar of their robes and pulled them close to its sallow face, "Zis is the first vampire you have met?" it asked conversationally, the boys nodded with some difficultly, "Vell, ve vouldn't vant you to think of us badly..." the vampire lowered them gently and bowed unexpectedly, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Vilhelm Von Dussledorf, 1821-1845...and onvards I suppose." Vilhelm laughed softly at his little joke, "Vot, pray are your names?"
James looked at Sirius who looked back with a look of shocked horror on his face, then at the vampire.
"Vell?" he asked politely smiling, James muttered his and Sirius' names so quietly the vampire didn't hear, "Vot vas that?" the smile still on Wilhelm's calm face.
"J-James a-a-and Sirius..." James stuttered a little louder.
"Excellent!" exclaimed the vampire loudly making both boys jump, "I should like it if ve spoke for a vhile and then," Wilhelm grinned widely, exposing his pointed teeth, "ve can dine together..."
Back at Hogwarts Peter and Remus were eating lunch in the Great Hall; Remus was eating very little, he was worried about the sudden disappearance of his two best friends but also the full moon was approaching and without Sirius and James the ordeal seemed a whole lot worse. He was still angry with them for their prank that had lost him his Prefect status but he missed them greatly.
"Where are they?" he moaned, his voice a mix of worry and frustration. He glanced at Peter expectantly but he was taking unusual interest in a piece of bacon. Remus sighed, Peter was getting on his nerves, he had evaded talking about James and Sirius' disappearance and when Remus had questioned him directly he had began talking erratically about the weather...there was something Peter knew that Remus didn't...
The school, of course had been looking for the boys, but it wasn't unusual for them to go on escapades every so often so the search was somewhat slack. This irritated Remus even more. The bell went for the next lesson, Peter leapt up and waited for Remus but Remus was in no hurry, he slowly packed his things up and eventually followed Peter out of the hall.
They had Potions now and were making their way down to the dungeons when Peter laughed suddenly, "It's a lot quieter without Sirius and James isn't it, Remus? I could get used to this!" Remus looked at him in shock, Peter was usually quiet around Sirius and James but now they were gone he seemed to have a new lease of life; Remus knew Peter favoured him over the other two but they were his friends too, he shouldn't have been talking about them like this, Remus was getting a little irritated, "I wonder where they have got to though, have you any ideas Remus?" Peter laughed again but Remus stayed silent, his fists clenched slowly with growing anger, something about Peter's tone that suggested to Remus that Peter knew exactly what had happened to his friends; he could feel the animal inside of him trying to get out...Peter oblivious to his friend's mounting annoyance continued,
"I do hope they don't come back anytime soon...they always seem to suck the fun out of school, being the best at everything and all," Peter glanced smugly at Remus to see if he had picked up the clue he had given him, but instead of looking into Remus' face he came face to face with Remus' fist.
The punch knocked Peter to the floor, a thin trickle of blood running down his lip, "Remus you hit me!" he squealed in shock,
"Believe me, Wormtail, I could do a lot worse!" hissed Remus dragging the stunned Peter to his feet and pinning him against the wall, "You know where Sirius and James are don't you?" snarled Remus, pressing his forearm against Peter's throat, "tell me!"
Peter did nothing but splutter frantically, "TELL ME!" roared Remus, his voice echoing around the corridor but again Peter said nothing, in fact he began to cry. This time Remus really lost his temper, "YOU CALL YOURSELF A FRIEND? YOU ARE A PATHETIC, LITTLE RAT! TELL ME – OR I'LL MAKE YOU TELL ME!" Remus whipped out his wand and pointed it very close to Peter's face.
"Ok...I'll tell you, Remus...for you..." sobbed Peter, "They went to Hogsmeade..." he looked up at Remus as though that was it, Remus wasn't convinced. He pushed his wand closer so that it was a fraction away from Peter's forehead, "Ok, ok...they went to Hogsmeade...to look for the vampire..." Peter trailed of into a fit of frightened sobs.
"MISTER LUPIN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Remus looked round, still in shock at his friends' stupidity, Professor Jigger, the Potions Master was standing in the corridor, obviously attracted to Remus' shouting, the elderly professor had a look of horror on his face as Remus was pinning Peter against the wall so hard the boy's feet had left the ground.
"Release Mister Pettigrew this instant!" cried Jigger, Remus was more than happy to comply, with a furious glare at Peter he removed his arm and the spluttering child slid down the wall and hit the ground heavily. He grunted and fainted theatrically.
Without a second glance at either Professor Jigger or Peter, Remus stormed off towards the passageway entrance to Honeydukes.
"Come back!" cried Jigger at Remus' back futilely, "COME BACK!"
Remus wasn't listening he was angry, in fact enraged. His friends had gone to look for a vampire! But the Daily Prophet had said that it wasn't only a vampire but it was Wilhelm Von Dussledorf, maybe if they had paid attention in their History of Magic class they would realise what that meant. And now, as usual, Remus was the one who had to go and get them out of trouble. He was so angry that as he passed a suit of armour that was singing 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' happily he sent a curse that melted the armour into a twisted blob that shrieked, "Good tidings we bring..." and fell silent with a strange gurgle...
"So, James, vot brings you to my...lair?" asked Wilhelm politely as he sat himself down on a crate of sweets. James sat himself down as well, just out of reach of the vampire, "We thought we'd come to collect the thousand Galleon prize for your head," he said in a voice that was much braver than he actually looked, Sirius groaned under his breath and looked at the vampire; Wilhelm hadn't even blinked he continued to look James directly in the eyes until James reluctantly broke contact.
"Vot about you, Sirius?" asked the vampire still looking at James who shifted uneasily in his seat, "Did you come for, ah, my head?" Wilhelm laughed softly and finally turned to face Sirius; Sirius felt suddenly cold, the vampire's electric blues eyes were bright and unblinking, and incredibly unnerving. Sirius swallowed nervously but said quite loudly, "Pretty much, yeah," the vampire smiled broadly but remained silent. The three of them sat in the dark silence for a while and Wilhelm looked at them in turn with his penetrating eyes, suddenly Wilhelm shook himself, "I am being rude, you must vant to know vot I intend to do vith you two," the sly grin came back to the vampire's face in an instant, "you must understand, boys that I cannot let you back from vhere you came, you vould just tell everybody vhere I am and zen they vould send all sorts to come and get me...so vot to do vith you..." the vampire grinned again exposing his pointed teeth, "Hmmmm...vait here," Wilhelm disappeared into the shadows and immediately Sirius turned to James, "What are we gonna do? Maybe we should run for it, back down the tunnel and – "
"Are you crazy!" hissed James, "we can still get this thing!"
"I think you're the crazy one James, magic doesn't work on him,"
"Yeah...well a stake to the heart might work, Professor Styx says that's one way to kill them..."
"Mmmm...steak..." Sirius' dog counterpart took over suddenly.
James cuffed him around the head, "Cut that out!" he snapped, "We have to find a way out of this."
"I am afraid to say there is no vay out of this, boys," Wilhelm's voice came closer and the vampire appeared out of the shadows, he was carrying three red lollipops. With a faint laugh he threw one to Sirius, one to James then he sat down and opened the last one for himself, the boys stared dumbfounded at the vampire as he started his lollipop, "Vot?" he asked defensively as the boys stared at him, he glanced at the lollipop, "oh...blood-flavoured...vot can I say?" he grinned almost sheepishly.
James and Sirius slowly put their blood-flavoured lollipops and sat awkwardly as the vampire gorged himself on his. Wilhelm suddenly looked up and blushed slightly; his cheeks only went a tiny bit pink, "Vhere are my manners?" he asked embarrassedly, "vhere vere ve? Oh yes...vot I am going to do vith you," the vampire grinned broadly again, his teeth were covered in crimson lolly juice, "Vell I von't do anything until the full moon, three days, and then...uh, I think the apt saying here is: I vill suck your blood..."
James and Sirius forgot their braveness completely and keeled over backwards in a dead faint.
"Remus! Remus where are you going?"
"Go away, Peter, unless you want another fat lip,"
"Don't threaten other pupils Mister Lupin!"
"Go Remus!"
"Be quiet, Phillips!"
Remus was running down a corridor as fast as he could to get to the Honeydukes passage, he was being followed by Peter who was nursing his lip, Professor Jigger who was purple with fury and quite possibly the run and most of his Potions class, many of which were avidly cheering him on without knowing what he was doing – or why.
"What's going on here? Professor Jigger what's happening?" Remus stopped suddenly, he knew that voice – it was Dumbledore.
"It's Lupin, Headmaster, he's gone crazy,"
"Now, now Arsenius I doubt that very much, Mister Lupin here is a mentally stable young man," Dumbledore laughed softly, "Remus, would you follow me please?" it was not a request, "Mister Pettigrew go to Madame Pomfrey get that lip sorted and Arsenius please take your class back to their lesson." Dumbledore turned on his heel, beckoned quickly to Remus and walked off down the corridor, Remus followed feeling extremely embarrassed and guilty.
The two remained silent until they reached the headmaster's office and had sat down, Dumbledore sat back and steepled his fingers, "Remus, what were you doing?" he asked calmly.
Remus didn't answer he was concentrating very hard on his feet.
"You know where Sirius and James are don't you?"
Remus nodded glumly.
"Where are they, Remus?"
Again Remus stayed silent and Dumbledore sighed, "Remus, tell me now,"
Remus couldn't argue, he looked up and swallowed, "They've gone to Hogsmeade, sir...to look for the vampire that was supposedly there..." Remus broke off, Dumbledore looked mildly surprised, "Of course," he chuckled, "I should have known."
"Peter knew, sir and he didn't tell anyone...that's why I hit him..."
"Yes..." Dumbledore said slowly, "that doesn't matter anymore however, I will go to Hogsmeade and look for those two fools myself, they should have know better," Dumbledore looked sternly at Remus, "Remus, you are not to go and look for them understand me? I will sort it out...now go back to your common room, don't worry about the lesson, I should think it is almost finished anyway."
Remus stood up and left the office feeling more angry with his friends than before; he was wondering how to get back at them as he walked back, but then he heard Peter cry out, he knew it was Peter instantly, no other boy in the school had a scream like that. Remus rushed around a corner and found Peter sprawled on the floor, with no other than Snape standing over him leaning on a crutch (the snowball had taken its toll). Snape's wand was pointing at Peter, "Well, well, well Peter, with your friends taking a little trip with the vampire, I can get some payback without them bothering me...of course if the vampire sucks them dry they won't be around to see what I'm going to do to you," Snape began muttering a curse, however much Remus disliked Peter at the moment he had to intervene anyway he hated Snape.
"Put down the wand Snivellus," he whispered in a dangerous voice and drawing his own, "Put it down or things will start to get...nasty,"
Snape span round in surprise and gasped quietly, the look in Remus' eyes was terrifying, he managed a strong voice nonetheless, "Nasty, huh, Lupin? That's just the way I like it..." his eyes narrowed, as did Remus'. The two boys raised their wands and Remus began the countdown.
"3...2..."
"Expelliarmus!" Snape fired his curse early and Remus' wand flew out of his hand and into the greasy hands of Snivellus, "Hah! You're so good without your little, buddies, are you?" Snape did some kind of weird jig and Remus felt his temper rising again, the full moon was so close...
Snape finally stopped dancing and straightened himself, "Goodbye...Moony!" he hissed,
"Expelliarmus!" Peter cried from behind Snape, granted the spell missed and ricocheted around the corridor but it wasn't without thought. Snape however broke down into a fit of malicious laughter at Peter's pitiful attempt to disarm him; that was all Remus needed, forgetting his wand completely he charged at Snape with a roar of fury and delivered a blow that knocked Snape out cold.
Standing up calmly, Remus straightened his hair and picked up his wand, then he turned to Peter who was still laying on the ground, Remus reached down and pulled him up with a smile, "Let's go get our friends,"