Disclaimer: Not mine. Did you really need telling that?

Author's Note: The first chapter of my first fanfic – very much a work in progress. I hope I've ironed out most of the mistakes in here, and I apologise for any that remain. Reviews HUGELY appreciated. (Re-posted to try to correct horrendous formatting…)

Chapter One – Lady Vampiress and the Restricted Bacon Rituals

Hermione pushed her hair back behind her ear, as she sat at the battered desk in a corner of the Library. She was surrounded by piles of heavy tomes, and was writing notes on a piece of parchment with her right hand, while her left held open another ancient book. Her eyes flicked quickly over the lines, her hand occasionally shifting as she made notes with her quill. She didn't stop her rapid scanning when she heard a pair of footsteps approaching, or when a person sat on either side of her.

A pale thin hand picked up the pages of parchment that were already covered with her neat words and began flicking through them. Hermione, however, didn't react until another hand, slightly larger and lightly freckled, placed a bacon sandwich on the page that she had been reading.

"You surely don't think that Madam Pince didn't notice that, Ronald Weasley?" she hissed.

Her friend shrugged, unrepentant. "If Madam Pince has eyes, she'll have realised that you've been in here since eight this morning, and missed all your meals. Honestly, we're doing her a favour. Think of what Pomfrey would say if she just let you collapse from hunger in here."

Hermione shook her head at Ron, before taking the sandwich and stowing it, more prudently, under the table. It was a kind thought, but Hermione couldn't help reflecting that only Ron would consider a skipped breakfast and lunch as basis for concerns over starvation. Once she was sure that the librarian hadn't noticed the food, she ate it cautiously. It was a good thing Madam, Pince wasn't all-seeing, really. There were more than a few questionable texts in the stacks on the trio's table.

"How was the game? I heard you won." Hermione addressed this to Harry, on her other side. He was still reading her notes from the day, occasionally comparing them with those from the last week, which were piled high under the desk. He shrugged at her question, but as she kept staring he relented and answered.

"Okay. Ron and Ginny played well. Have you found anything new?" Harry's voice was determinedly low, and he focused on the table as he spoke. Hermione wished that she could hug him, like she would have done last year. After Sirius died, though, he had drawn his personal space around him like a cloak, rarely relaxing even with Ron and Hermione. Now, after all the talk…it was rare that he looked anyone in the face. Both Hermione and Ron were pinning their hopes on this research to give them the answer. Otherwise, they couldn't see what they could do for their best friend.

"I think that we've found most of the details for this. But…we really need to get books from the Restricted Section. Two of the spells needed can only be found there, and some of the notes on the potion are too vague. Restricted books should give a better idea of the effects, as well."

"Effects? We know the effects, don't we? Better control for Harry, a bit of magic bleeding over into us to get rid of the overload, and that's it – hip hurrah and butterbeers all round."

"This…parts of it at least, Ron…they're dark arts. The way that the charms need to be combined will affect the results, and these books won't talk about that. Besides, the authors of these books haven't tried to do more than one at once. Harry? Can we do it tonight?"

Harry fixed her with his dull green eyes again. "Fine. I'll fish out the cloak."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. He was going to help. It was hard, now, to tell what he would be willing to do. Hermione had made herself encourage him to sneak to the kitchens or Hogsmeade, just to stop him sitting, night after night, in the same seat in the Common Room, staring into the fire where he had talked with Sirius. Now, he moved to the seat at the end of the desk, where the books from his personal research were still laying from the previous night. Since he came back to Hogwarts in September, Harry had been obsessively researching Occlumency, possession and hunting for any reference to the Veil that they had seen in the Department of Mysteries.

Ron grabbed a clean sheet of parchment and scrawled a note on it, passing it over to Hermione. She read it, frowned, and wrote a reply.

So how's it going really?

Have you got ANY idea how complicate and dangerous this is? Two archaic rituals, one after the other…there's no way to know if the second will even WORK, and I don't want to think about the side effects. From what I've read, we may have a major problem…I'll tell you after I've read the books we're getting tonight.

How was the match? Really?

Not good. If the Snitch hadn't flown right in front of him, he wouldn't have caught it. And the team are all bloody IDIOTS. Even Ginny's scared of him! Kirke and Sloper are practically too scared to protect him from bludgers. They might try to vote him off the team.

Can they vote off their captain?

Not really, but they can make it impossible for him to carry on. It's practically that bad, now. They only don't now because I'D make their lives hell.

It would help if he looked like he cared that they all whisper about him, rather than being so…closed in.

I tried to get him to stay for the party, but he wouldn't. He won't want to go to dinner tonight, either.

We can get food from the kitchens and force him to eat something, at least. I doubt he's eaten since yesterday, either.

Hermione put her quill down and flexed her cramped fingers.

"Have either of you done that transfiguration essay? McGonagall isn't going to cut you any slack, despite…everything. You could do it now."

"And you'd rather supervise our efforts and do the extra reading than carry on with the research." Harry's voice was slightly hoarse, as it always was these days, and Hermione had to suppress a wince when she heard it. McGonagall and Dumbledore knew about this, she was sure. She'd even spoken to the transfiguration professor about it, but still they said that nothing could be done to protect Harry from the dreams which caused him to scream so much that he damaged his voice. Ron had said that, one night, the silencing wards that Harry set about his bed as a matter of course had failed. All of the boys in Gryffindor Tower had been woken by his cries, and this just added to everyone's discomfort around the Boy Who Lived.

"There's only so much you can read about – this – before your mind rebels. And I've been reading it all day." Hermione cursed herself the moment the words left her mouth, because Harry had immediately looked at the floor, no doubt feeling guilty that she had had to.

Ron, thankfully, picked up on this quickly. Hermione shot him a grateful look as he replied.

"Sweet Merlin! Finally, something Hermione gets tired of reading! And it turns out that you are a mere mortal, after all."

"A mere mortal who might not want to help with your essay now. Besides, get that done now, and tonight we can start learning some of these charms we'll need."

"Right, oh evil taskmistress. Okay, so…Theories of the transfiguration of inanimate objects into living creatures…How on earth am I supposed to answer this?"

"Did you even listen to the lecture, Ron? Harry, are you going to write the essay now, too?"

He nodded shortly, and moved again so that he was sitting next to Ron. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and opened her own textbook.

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After visiting the kitchens, where Hermione and Ron had nagged Harry into accepting a baked potato from Dobby and eating it, Ron and Hermione headed up to the Room of Requirement, while Harry went to Gryffindor Tower to get his Cloak. Hermione took the lead of walking up and down the corridor, concentrating on the room they needed.

Please, just a place where we can practice, with the runes already there so that we don't need to draw them out, where we can practice this in private, where it won't all go wrong…

As they walked through the door that appeared, Ron's jaw dropped. It was a large room, roughly as large as it had been when all the DA members had used it, and it had familiar-looking cushions around the walls to sit on. In the centre of the room, however, was a large bronze cauldron that sat squarely in the centre of a pattern of runes and lines. Hermione studied them, then pulled out yet another piece of parchment and began copying them down, trying to ignore the sight and sounds of Ron eating the cream cake that the house-elves had slipped him as they were leaving the kitchens. Once the sketch was complete she took two more sheets of parchment out and transferred the diagrams onto them.

Harry arrived a few moments later, and his eyes widened as he took in the room.

"So, this is what it will look like?"

"Yep, though we'll have to draw it out ourselves on the night, of course. Here, I've marked on these sheets the bits you'll have to draw. We need to have them memorised for the night." Hermione handed them each one of the diagrams.

Ron frowned as he took his. "But, if the room provides them, why do we have to draw them out? Less chance of a mistake if we use these, surely?"

"Firstly, drawing it out ourselves gives the ritual more chance of succeeding because it shows such clear intention. I don't think we should use chalk, either, I'm sure I read about potions that were used in ritualistic markings in the past, and that would be much better considering that we're not entirely sure that the two rituals will combine properly-"

"And the second point, Hermione?"

"Oh, sorry. Secondly, Ron, we can't carry out the rituals here. There's too much background magic in Hogwarts, and it would interfere with all of ours that will be flying around. Raising Power with Rituals advised that it's done in a place where there isn't any spell residue, to avoid side effects."

"So we can't do it then." Harry sank onto one of the cushions and wrapped his arms around his knees pensively. "There's nowhere around here without magic."

"Yes, Harry, there is. I thought we could do it in the Shrieking Shack. Well, we can brew the potions here so long as we don't use anything from the room that would vanish when we left."

"No – if we brew them here, then anyone wanting to know what we're doing could walk in on them. Moaning Myrtle's bathroom is still safest." Harry's voice trailed off towards the end of the sentence, as he remembered the horror he had felt when Pansy Parkinson had presented the list in Dumbledore's office.

Hermione nodded briskly, not wanting him to slip into brooding again. She drew her wand and pointed it towards the far wall. "I've found all the charms for the first ritual – we'll only need four. We do have to be precise though, so we'll need to practise loads."

Ron and Harry exchanged a brief amused glance, before drawing their own wands and moving to stand next to her.

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At midnight, Hermione called an end to the practising, saying that no matter how little sleep Ron and Harry could survive on, she needed to be awake for her Arithmancy test on Monday morning. Harry and Ron were relieved as they put away their wands – the charms were extremely complex.

Ron muttered to himself as he tried to remember exactly how to cast each one. "Siblis Sugesto to the right on 'Mione, then to the left on Harry. A large clockwise circle starting from the forehead, finishing with a jab once you get to the top again. Walk anti-clockwise around the circle to where 'Mione was standing. Veritas Expecto to the right, then left. A cross, downstroke first, from forehead to feet. Walk to the next place. Then Gesund Heita Obligaro, right and left. Five pointed star, starting from the forehead and going to right foot, left shoulder, right shoulder, left foot, forehead. And we need to do it at exactly the same time, or it all gets buggered up.""

"Brilliant. And after that?"

"The whole weird cutting thing. You, dearest Hermione, are going to research spells we can use to cut our wrists, then we press them together. We'll need to collect two full vials of the mixed blood, for each of the potions. How am I doing so far?"

"If only you spent as much time on Transfiguration as you have done on this…" Hermione grinned at him. "One vial is for the second ritual, otherwise you'd have to let blood twice. The other vial gets divided three ways and put into goblets…"

"Yeech! 'Mione, you want us to drink our own blood? No wonder you need books on dark arts." Ron pulled a disgusted face and leaned down to stage-whisper to Harry, "Tell you what, lets run off to Australia, and leave Lady Vampiress here to muck about with blood."

Harry smiled for the first time since he had entered the room. "Now why didn't I think of that? Australia, here I come!"

Hermione poked Ron and savoured the brief look of uncomplicated humour on Harry's face, as the trio left the Room of Requirement under the invisibility cloak. Though they were all slightly too tall to comfortably fit under the cloak together any more, frequent use and necessity had forced them to find a way. Ron, the tallest, walked in the middle like a hunchback while Harry and Hermione walked sideways next to him, so as to take up the least possible space. Slowly and crablike, they reached the Library. Ron muttered, "Alohomora", and the lock clicked loudly in the silence. After shuffling through they made sure the door was once again shut fast and locked, before shrugging off the cloak in relief. Ron rolled his shoulders and was rewarded with cracks.

"I swear, that cloak is getting smaller by the day. Are you sure you can't do a lengthening charm, 'Mione? For the sake of my neck?"

Hermione wasn't paying any attention. She was already in the restricted section, reading the titles by the faint light from her wand. Occasionally she would mutter to herself, or take a book down and leaf through it. When Harry headed over to the prohibited books as well, Ron followed him. He pretended to be scanning the titles himself, but when Harry took down a book and opened it, he glimpsed the title: Your Mind is My Mind; A Practical Guide to Legilimency. The next one selected was Blood and Soul Arts – The Complete Guide. By the time Hermione had finished retrieving the books they needed, Harry had purloined three more, and he stuffed them in his bag while Hermione, more carefully, packed away those for the rituals. If he knew Ron had been watching him, he gave no sign of it.

Whispering Nox, the three of them snuffed out their wands and drew the cloak over them again. The Library door opened and closed to the faint protest, "Geez, 'Mione, be careful where you swing those books!"

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An intriguing enough start? I hope so. Maybe it was even intriguing enough that you want to press that review button…or maybe you just want to flame. That's fine too. Even fanfic writers need to keep warm.