In Cold Blood

By Becca

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise and most things you don't

Author Notes: Sorry about the short chapter but it seemed like the perfect place to finish it. I'll get the next one up soon...Oh I'm sorry about any mistakes you find too but its 11.18am and I haven't been to sleep yet so I can't be bothered checking over it. If there are many, then I'll go over it tomorrow and replace the chapter. I just wanted to get this one up because it's been so long since I updated.

Chapter Thirteen

The reunion of parents and daughter could not be called beautiful. If anything it was tense and extremely uncomfortable. Celeste and Armand refused to leave her side unless Anéthiel herself asked to be left alone, they would not allow her to be alone with her birth parents though and Harry could see that she was deeply grateful for that. The Elven warriors had been stationed around the castle since they arrived, checking everywhere for signs of malice towards their king and queen.

Harry offered his shoulder to Anéthiel for if she ever wanted to talk to him about anything but other than that pretty much stayed out of the way. He found himself wandering across Hogwarts grounds at night and hunting on his own. He didn't mind in the least, his family were all with Anéthiel and he would be there too if he didn't feel quite so uncomfortable. The elves were here to help him in the war, it wouldn't be appropriate nor would it be fair to get involved in something that is between Anéthiel and her parents.

He sighed as he stared up at the stars, once again sat out by the lake as he lost himself in his thoughts. It had only been three days since the arrival of the elves and Anéthiel was at least speaking civilly now to her birth parents. As for Raven and Marius, when they weren't with Anéthiel or teaching lessons, they were down in the dungeons playing with some potions. Severus, Dumbledore, Remus and Sirius had all been held up in meetings for the last few days while trying to decide what to do next, and what Voldemort himself was planning.

Ron and Hermione were still not speaking to him much, only in passing and so Harry had never felt quite so alone. Oh he knew he was being stupid, he knew that he would be quite welcome by his family's side day in and day out, but they had been together for so long that it showed, sometimes he felt like an outsider and yet he knew they loved him as much as he loved them. It was complicated and very confusing, he decided as he climbed to his feet and shook his head.

He walked back to the castle slowly and decided to find one of the family to spend the evening with, if just to alleviate his stupid fears. The first place he headed to was his family's quarters. He pushed the door open without knocking and smiled when he saw Celeste, Armand, Anéthiel and Raven sitting quietly with books open, though none of them looked as if they were reading. Not one of them looked up or acknowledged his arrival and he arched an eyebrow before shrugging and moving through to the kitchen.

"Anyone want to come hunting?" he asked when he had a drink. Celeste looked up and smiled briefly before shaking her head and turning back to the book.

"No thanks, we've already been today," she said and Harry frowned again. He hadn't seen them leave the castle in days, let alone today. He shrugged it off again and turned to his brother.

"Raven, do you want to go and try out some of your pranks?" he asked, knowing that if anything was going to get the vampire moving, it would be this. Raven shook his head and Harry arched an eyebrow. Well, this was definitely working, he thought sarcastically. "Does anybody want to go and do anything?" still nobody answered and he sighed in frustration. "Where's Marius then?"

"He met a girl in Hogsmeade when we went to show the elves around earlier. He'll not be back tonight" Celeste muttered absent-mindedly, she looked up from her book again and studied him carefully. "Is there anything wrong?" she asked and for a minute, he had the attention of the three vampires and the elf but he just shook his head with a smile.

"No, no I'm fine. I'm off hunting, see you later" he said and then slipped out of the door again before she could say anything else.

He ran through the forest, trying to run off some of his frustration. He couldn't see why his family had gone hunting and then off to Hogsmeade without him. Not after they had spent so long watching him so carefully and making sure he didn't leave the castle alone. He had never felt more of an outsider as he did now and yet he was sure they loved him, nobody could fake love quite that convincingly now could they?

He shook his head and moved deeper through the trees and into the shadows that seemed to beckon him. No, they were just preoccupied is all, he couldn't blame them now that the elves had come and probably wanted to take Anéthiel back. That was it. For some reason, he couldn't convince himself of this and he sighed again, he saw the tail of a wolf disappear into the darkness not so far ahead of him and he glanced up at the moon once, to check it wasn't full before shooting after it.

He passed the heart of the forest and went further than he ever had before, not even noticing as he passed across Hogwarts grounds and out of the wards. Finally he caught up with it and fell to his knees gracefully as he sank his teeth into its neck and closed his eyes. The blood fell like silk down his throat and he moaned aloud at the feeling of warmth that spread over him. He heard something behind him and dropped the wolfs body quickly and turned around. He stood for a while, just staring through the trees in the direction he had come from but then he something smashed him on the head from behind and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

------

Harry groaned as he stirred, his head was pounding and he couldn't remember anything after he had finally caught the wolf. What had happened? Where was he? He cracked open an eye but then slammed it shut again as the light seemed to make his head explode. He shifted with his eyes still closed onto his knees and had his forehead pressed to the cool floor of whatever room he was in.

"Well, well, look what we have here. If it issssn't the famous Harry Potter" Harry froze at that voice, he would recognise it anywhere. Ignoring his headache, he opened his eyes quickly and knelt up. Lord Voldemort sat on a throne in front of him and Harry jumped to his feet frantically, looking around but finding no deatheaters. Voldemort stood and walked over to him, almost smiling as he gripped Harry's chin forcefully and pushed his head up so that their eyes met.

Pain exploded from his scar so severely that his eyes watered but he couldn't look away from the Dark Lord, he couldn't break away from that strong grip. Terror filled him and he swallowed hard, trying to stop his hands from shaking. Voldemort lifted his free hand and placed it over Harry's forehead, muttering under his breath and Harry blinked when the pain left almost immediately. Then the hand on his forehead dropped to his cheek and caressed it gently, the smile on Voldemort's face never once faded.

"You have no need to fear me my beautiful boy, no need to fear if you obey me. Do you undersssstand?" he hissed and Harry whimpered, unable to stop himself but nodded quickly. "You and I have sssooo much in common, Harry. Sssooo much pain to ssshare. I no longer wissssh to kill you, inssstead I will have you by my ssside as my heir and assss my lover. I will take care of you, and give you the world, if you obey" he added. Harry closed his eyes and shook his head fiercely, trying to free his grip and back away

"No. No" he whispered but Voldemort still held him tightly and with his free hand he smacked Harry had across the face before crushing their lips together. Harry clamped his mouth shut and didn't even open it as fingers curled around his neck. After a minute, Voldemort pulled away and sneered before literally throwing him across the room.

"You will regret that Harry, my Harry. If you will not join me willingly then I will force you, if you will not be my lover, you will be my whore." He hissed and then pulled out his wand and pointed it at him. "Crucio"

------

Anéthiel sighed and looked from her mother to her father and back again. They were both sitting quietly on the settee in the room with Celeste and Armand. Surprisingly the two vampires and the two elves were getting on remarkably well. They talked together like friends without any of the formalities necessary but there was always a barrier between the four of them and it grew more and more each day.

"I'm happy here," she said eventually as he birth parents stared at her expectantly. "Don't get me wrong, I love you two and I always will. But I'm happy with Celeste and Armand, I'm happy with my three brothers and I love all five of them as if they were my family by blood. I'm free to act as I wish and say what I like. I don't have to dress up and play princess, I don't have any expectations to meet, its just me as I am with people whom I love and I know love me..." she added and then trailed off with a sigh

"That doesn't mean I no longer wish to see you, like I said I love you both and it would be fantastic to see you often but my place now is with the vampires-" she was interrupted by a knock on the door and Severus stuck his head around

"Sorry to interrupt, but have any of you seen Harry?" he asked tiredly. Celeste and Armand turned to look at him abruptly

"He's with you, like he has been for the past four days..." Celeste said but Severus frowned and shook his head.

"No, I haven't seen him at all, I've been in meetings all day with Albus and received a note from him saying that he wanted to spend some time with his family."

"But – we received a note from him saying he wanted to spend more time with you." Celeste said jumping to her feet, her eyes wide with panic. "We saw him last night, he came to see if we wanted to go hunting or do anything with him but we declined. He went off hunting on his own and didn't come back to us, we presumed he was with you" she hurried into the kitchen and came back out with the note Harry's owl had sent her. She stared in horror as the writing turned from the original note into something else, her family and Severus read over her shoulder.

"Perhaps you should take more care of those you claim to love, now Harry is here with me and he is mine. After being alone and rejected by all he knows for the last three days, I don't think it will take much to convince him to join me, do you? He will be my heir and my lover, and by the time you find us he wont want anything to do with you"

Celeste's hands were shaking with fury by the time she finished reading and tears came to her eyes, Armand took the note from her and passed it to Severus before wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer. "We'll get him back, we'll find him soon and we'll bring him back no matter what"