A/N: a series of Collins ":::::" indicates a switch in Pov or a jump in time.

Recap: Not knowing what else to do, Draco leaned over and gave Potter an awkward hug. At the comforting touch, Potter's eyes opened. Draco released him slowly. Potter looked up at Draco curiously. "Malfoy? Are you all right?" Draco looked at him quizzically; "I should be asking you the same question."

Chapter Ten

As we go through life, many things surprise us. You might believe that something that happened to you is the most surprising thing possible. Perhaps you won a great award that you didn't think you deserved. Or perhaps you were thrown a surprise party and your best friend, of whom you haven't seen hide nor hair for three years because she lives two thousand miles away, greeted you at the door. There are bad surprises as well, like finding out that the pervert next door has a pair of binoculars and knows when you change clothes with your blinds open.

However, looking back on it, we all realize (or should realize) that all of these things could have been predicted. You probably did deserve that award and, as for the party, if you looked hard enough, you would have noticed the conversations that ended much too quickly when you walked into the room. Plus, "just fetching some wine for dinner" shouldn't take the same amount of time as a trip to and from the airport when flights are delayed.

And really, what do you expect from leaving your blinds open while you're changing!
All in all, I think, we must concede that none of those things are more surprising than waking up in the arms of your archenemy.

Unfortunately for him, that's exactly what Harry potter woke up to.

He was so surprised and so oddly confused, that the only thing he could think to do was to ask Malfoy if he was all right. Malfoy looked at him quizzically.

"I should be asking you the same question." Malfoy replied.

"Why?"

Malfoy cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, for one, you were screaming loud enough to be heard over a silencing spell, which is damn near impossible. Two, you were sobbing very loudly. And three, well, look down." Harry did. Malfoy's pajama clad chest was spattered with blood. The same blood that was still running down his own chest. In an instant, Harry had shoved himself backward, away from Malfoy, off the bed, and on to the floor on the other side.

:::::::

Draco was startled at this sudden movement. Untangling himself from Potter's blankets, he started to stand to go see what was wrong with Potter and explain why... well... why Potter had woken up in that position. However, before Draco was fully upright, Potter's voice came from across the bed.

"Malfoy! Don't move! Stay there!"

Hearing the pain in the voice, Draco disregarded the words, stood anyway, and moved to the place where Potter had disappeared. What he saw there froze him solid in his tracks.

:::::::

When Harry fell backwards off the bed, he immediately curled up in a tight ball and started to rock back and forth, trying to control the blood lust. Unfortunately, for both he and Malfoy, it had been more than three days since Harry had last fed.

Despite the pain of fighting off the blood lust when it was this strong, Harry still managed to yell at Malfoy to stay away. Maybe, just maybe, if he didn't see anyone else, if Malfoy stayed, he just might be able to...

Malfoy stepped around the edge of the bed.

Damn it.

:::::::

Draco looked down in horror. Potter was curled up in a tight ball, rocking back and forth, hair in his face, covered in blood. And there was something else...

Potter had fangs.

The instant Draco realized this, he backed away. That appeared to have been a bad idea, though, because Potter, obviously some kind of vampire, sprang to his feet. As Potter advanced, Draco noticed the twin flames of hunger dancing in Potter's eyes.

Yep. Definitely a Vampire.

Draco spun around and dashed through the bedroom door. He sprinted through the main room and into the bathroom. With the wand that was, amazingly, still in his hand, Draco performed every locking spell he knew. Forgoing all shreds of dignity, he hid, trembling with fear, behind the Jacuzzi- sized bathtub. It was only then that he realized something. Hiding would do no good. First of all, the vampire could find him simply by the blood on his shirt. And second of all, the walls were covered in mirrors.

Oh shit.

With a loud crash the door burst inwards. Apparently the vampire didn't care about wands. Knowing that the vampire could see him, Draco prepared to vault over the side of the tub when the vampire came around it.

The vampire leapt straight over it instead. As it turns out, however, even vampires need practice. The vampire sailed right over Draco's head and landed in the shower. Not waiting to see if the vampire could get out (it had hit the wall and there was a large dent so it probably was a bit dazed) Draco dashed around the tub and into the main room.

It was a good thing too. If Draco had been facing the shower when all the glass burst out, he would have sustained serious eye damage. As it was, he could feel the blood running down his neck and soaking the collar of his shirt.

Damn. That vampire didn't need anymore encouragement.

Once in the main room, Draco leapt over the longer of the two couches and ran for the door. Before he could make it, however, the vampire was in front of him. Draco wheeled around and headed for the nearest bedroom door, but, once again, the vampire cut him off.

Knowing there was going to be no escape, Draco backed up into the center of the room. Desperate, he tried to use magic.

"Impedimenta!"

No effect.

"Stupefy!"

No effect.

Spell after spell, Draco tried. None had much effect. It was only after he had run out of spells, that he remembered, from something his father told him once, that vampires couldn't be harmed by physical spells. All right then, he would risk Azkaban, he would try the only mental spell he knew.

"Imperio!"

The whole time Draco had been firing off spells, the vampire had been circling closer and closer with a smirk playing around its lips and maniac glint in it's eyes. Upon being hit with the Imperius curse it stopped and stood still.

Stay there, Draco thought. Stay right there.

"No thanks. " Replied the vampire. It could, apparently, throw off the Imperius curse.

Damn it.

Draco lunged at a nearby table, grabbed it, and held before him in a defensive position.

When the vampire simply laughed, Draco knew he was in deep trouble.

"You know, Draco, do you mind if I call you Draco?" the vampire laughed again. "No of course you don't mind. Well, you know, you wouldn't be in this position if you had paid attention to me back in my room. However, I can't say I'm displeased. I've only tasted wizard blood once before." There was an evil glint in the vampire's eyes that gave Draco the only warning he got, although, through the whole speech, the vampire's eyes seemed to show the smallest hint of internal struggle.

Once more the vampire lunged and once more Draco dodged it, dropping the table. As he dodged, he came up against the back of the portrait guarding the entrance to the main room. It was at that moment that someone swung open the portrait.

Draco fell backwards out of the room and landed hard on his arse in the corridor at his headmaster's feet.

::::::::::::

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, holder of a whole list of important titles, and the only man Voldemort ever feared, knew something was wrong the moment he awoke.

He had, once again, fallen asleep in his armchair. Both Poppy and Minerva had been lecturing him consistently for thirty some years about this.

Anyway, Dumbledore knew to trust his instincts and so he carefully stood up and walked to the edge of his candle-lit office. He soon reached a specific silver instrument, bent down and fiddled with it for a moment before straitening and staring into a crystal ball at the top of the instrument. Silver clouds swirled in it for another moment, before condensing into a picture. Within the space of three seconds after the picture solidified, Dumbledore was walking briskly past the great stone gargoyle that guarded his quarters.

Really, Harry could have told him that he needed to feed tonight.

::::::::::

As soon as Draco realized whose feet they were, he was on his feet and behind Dumbledore. As Dumbledore walked into the common room, Draco made sure to keep the headmaster between the vampire and himself. This proved unnecessary as said headmaster, upon seeing the vampire, muttered something and silver coils shot out of the end of his wand and wrapped around the vampire, completely incapacitating him.

As the vampire struggled feebly on the floor, Dumbledore turned to Draco. There was a twinkle in the man's eyes as he reached into his robes.

"I imagine tonight's been rather a shock for you?" Draco nodded, but then quickly stopped at the pain in his head. Dumbledore looked at him with worried eyes and gestured for him to turn around. Draco did so and, with a wave and whispered spell, Draco felt the pain disappear.

"Now, if you'll sit down for a moment, I need to tend to Mister Potter."

Draco nodded once more and, after righting a capsized stool, sat down to watch the proceedings.

Dumbledore propped the still struggling vampire against the back of a couch. Removing something, it resembled a quaffle, from his robes, the headmaster forced the vampire's head up. After a muttered spell, the silver coils around the vampire's mouth disappeared. However, before the vampire could so much as take a breath (not that it needed to, being undead and all) the quaffle-like thing was forced against the bared fangs.

As its fangs pierced the ball, the vampire's face relaxed into an expression of ecstasy. It was only then that Draco realized that the face had been contorted in pain.

Merlin, he was glad he wasn't a vampire.

As the ball deflated, the person draining it was once more recognizable as Potter. The look of hatred and hunger that signified the vampire was gone. The emerald eyes no longer burned with green flames and, when the completely deflated ball was removed, Draco watched in fascination as the fangs retracted and Potter licked his lips to remove any traces of blood, for blood it surely had been. He was startled out of his staring by Potter's voice.

"Uh, Headmaster? You can let me free now."

With a wave, the silver coils vanished. Harry stood gingerly, wincing at the stinging from the cuts all over his chest. Dumbledore looked pityingly at him before walking to the hearth.

"The house elves will not come in here, for their own saftey, except when the two of you are in lessons. As such, you will have to deal with the fire mostly on your own. Incendio."

Dumbledore reached into his robes again and retrieved a pinch of floo powder, which he threw into the now blazing fireplace. The flames roared up green.

"Madam Pomfrey's Office." Dumbledore stated as he shoved his head in. After a few moments, he pulled it back out. Shortly there after Madam Pomfrey emerged with a bottle of pink stuff. As soon as she caught sight of Harry, she shoved him down, into a couch and proceeded to rub pink stuff all over his chest, completely ignoring his protests.

"Madam Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey! MADAM POMFREY!" she glared at him.

"Yes Potter? I can hear quite well you know."

"It's just," Harry started to blush, "I can do this myself, thank you." She ignored him and he was starting to put up with her when she noticed the blood seeping through his pajama bottoms.

"Those'll have to come off dear." She said as she moved lower. Harry squeaked and jumped up, out of her reach. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Poppy, it would be better if you gave him the bottle and let him do it himself."

Draco was fighting hard not to laugh as a brilliantly pink Harry took the bottle and walked stiffly to the bathroom. Dumbledore, eyes twinkling, muttered a swift incantation and the rooms righted themselves.

"Now, Mister Malfoy," Dumbledore turned to him after Harry returned (covered in pink paste that, again, nearly made Draco burst out laughing) and Madam Pomfrey had left, "Do you care to enlighten us as to the exact details of what happened here tonight?"

"Alright."

Harry started to protest but, at a look from Dumbledore, he was quiet.

"Harry, I will give you a chance to explain your side after Mister Malfoy gives his."

Draco couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Clearly Harry thought Draco was going to lie about something, although Draco couldn't, for the life of him, think what that might be.

"Draco, if you would be so kind." Dumbledore smiled at him. Carefully not looking at Potter, Draco started talking.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore, sir, after you left we split up without talking. Then, about half an hour ago, I woke up. I thought something was wrong so I checked my room and this room sir. I then checked Potter's room."

"Why, did you check Mister Potter's room?"

"I don't know sir." Potter gave a derisive snort. "Honestly, sir, I found myself at his door and before I truly thought I had opened his door." Draco stopped to collect his thoughts and organize his feelings about when he had gone into that room.

"What did you see, Draco?"

"Potter," and now he rather tentatively met Harry's eyes. Wait a moment! When had Draco stated to think of Potter as 'Harry'? Filing this odd turn of events away for future reference, Draco continued. Harry, no, Potter's eyes betrayed nothing. "Potter, you were twisting around and screaming. I could hear you past the silencing charm-" Dumbledore interrupted. Looking at Har- Potter Dumbledore asked quickly

"What silencing charm?" Harry went to his bedroom and came back out with a carved wooden cross, which he handed to Dumbledore.

"Hermione gave it to me this summer, after I told her about..." he trailed off, looking at Draco, who got the hint and continued on with his story.

"I could tell that Potter was having a night mare and I tried to wake him up. I tried to pour water on him using magic but there was some kind of shield spell." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he realized why Draco had been so... damp when he fell into the hall.

"Potter started scratching at his hands and chest and they started bleeding. I tried one more time to... shake him awake. It worked, but when he saw the blood he fell off the bed. I-" this time it was Potter who interrupted.

"I did not fall, I deliberately pushed myself away to keep from changing and it would have worked fine if you had stayed on that side of the bed when I told you to!!"

"I thought you were hurt or something and I thought it was my fault!! What else could I do!?!"

Harry stared in shock.

"You wha-!"

Dumbledore interrupted

"Please. Harry. Let Mister Malfoy finish his tale." Draco took a breath. He hadn't meant to say that.

"When I walked around the bed, he was curled up but I could see his face. I saw the fangs, backed up, caught his attention, and he chased me." Dumbledore's eyes were still twinkling.

"How did your injuries come about?"

"At one point, we were in the bathroom and Harry had jumped into the shower stall. As I was running with my back to him, Harry broke out and glass went flying."

"Is that all, Draco?"

"Yes sir."

"Harry, I'd like you to tell me your version of events. Start with your dream." Harry visibly paled. He took a deep breath and started.

"It was just a nightmare, headmaster, I don't remember most of it." Both Dumbledore and Draco knew Harry was lying. Draco gave a derisive snort, but the headmaster let it be.

"Continue, Harry."

"Well, when I woke up..." Harry looked at Draco, then deliberately left out the whole... hugging thing "I asked Malfoy why he was there and he told me to look down. When I saw the blood, I pushed myself backwards, off the bed, away from him. I tried to fight it but I hadn't fed for a bit." Seeing Dumbledore about to ask a question, and knowing what that question would be, Harry continued.

"Honestly Professor, I completely forgot about feeding when I came to Hogwarts. Anyway, I told Malfoy to stay away, which he didn't, and the sight of something living, something breathing, something with a beating heart, a heart sending sweet blood throughout their body... I couldn't take it. I, how did Hermione put it? Oh yes. She said 'When the blood lust is upon you that strongly, you cease to be Harry Potter and you become The Vampire.' That was how she put it." He turned to Draco.

"Look, Malfoy, I'm sorry for that. I tried to fight it. I just couldn't. I wasn't strong enough. I think I should have told you, given you some warning. It wasn't right of me to keep a secret like that when we're living in such close quarters. My only excuse is that we are enemies and I didn't want you to know anymore about me than could be helped. I'm sorry."

At that point, Draco made a decision. Looking to the headmaster for confirmation, he saw Dumbledore nod.

"I think I'll leave you two to it. Don't stay up too late now, you both have classes in the morning. Goodnight."

And with that, he left. Harry immediately turned to Draco.

Damn it, Draco thought, I'm calling him Harry again. Ah well.

"Malfoy? What was that look you shared with the headmaster?"

Draco took a deep breath.

"What would you say, Potter, if I told you I had a secret that was as big, if not bigger, than yours?"

Harry gave him a contemplative look.

"I'd say, get talking."

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A/N: Hi every body! Sorry it took so long. School, traveling, friends, and a boyfriend got in the way of this chapter. Now, however, school's out, I'm home, my boyfriend's on a six week trip :( and I'm grounded from my friends.

The next chapter (draco's secret) should be up soon. Thanks for reading, and Review!

Please & Thankyou,

-Leif