Authors Note: Please note that this chapter contains a little PG-13 material. Next Chapter will be far worse. I might even have to rate it R. Please read and review. I would love to know how you guys think the story is coming along.

Chapter 12: The Blood Ritual

Harry hadn't heard one word out of Rayne since he had performed the spell that morning. It was as if she had gone into shock. He thought she had just needed time to come to terms with everything. Little did he know that she hadn't completely told him all the information he needed to know. Rayne knew she had to figure out a way to tell him fast as she was sure that Hermione and Ron were in the Library at the moment figuring out exactly what strange spell Harry had just cast. It would only be a matter of time before they came barging into the common room asking Harry if he realized what he had done. Which ,of course, would end up in Hermione spilling the details, which, Rayne had "accidentally" left out.

"He's gonna hate me." She thought to herself.

"Why?" He asked out loud.

She jumped. All the excitement of the morning had made her drop her guard around him. She was so busy thinking to herself that she didn't think to block her thoughts. Of course Harry would figure it out and sneak in. She had taught him well after all.

"Well, while the Soularia Bindora spell helped us find each other and branded me as your soul mate, there is one tiny detail I believe I might have left out." Rayne started trying to sound innocent.

"What do you mean might have...I have never seen you do anything that wasn't intentional. You don't just forget important details." Harry gave her a disbelieving look.

"OK, so it wasn't accidental, I purposely left out a little detail. I had to be sure that you found your soul mate first before I went and told you what else you have to do." Rayne admitted.

"Spill it, Rayne." Harry was getting impatient. It wasn't like Rayne to keep secrets from him.

"There is the minor detail of this ritual." Rayne started slowly

"What kind of ritual?" Harry inquired uneasily.

"One that will bind our souls, even in death." Rayne replied carefully.

"Who says anything about dying?" Harry questioned, getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"This is war Harry, one of us might die and then all this would be for nothing. The power has to come from both of us, if one of us dies now, the war is as good as over." Rayne said quickly. Harry could tell she was getting nervous.

"How will this ritual help us if one of us dies?" He was gently prodding her for information.

"It will bind us together. We will become part of each other and even in death we will be able to call upon each others powers." Rayne replied.

"I see." Harry said not sure about where she was leading.

"And there is just one more thing." Rayne added quickly trying to slip it in.

"I knew it! Things are never simple with you." Harry said agitatedly.

"Well, hear me out on this." Rayne said gently.

"I'm waiting." Harry said impatiently.

"Well, no one can kill us if we are already dead right?" Rayne said matter of factly.

"WHAT!!" Harry screamed in shock at her words.

"Just answer my question." Rayne said quietly.

"Right, but how is our dying going to save the world." Harry was practically screaming.

"Simple, Harry, I want to introduce you to some one." Rayne said calmly.

A dark figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows near the fireplace. Harry could see that it was a female, with long brown hair, and piercing blue green eyes. She looked pale, almost dead.

"Harry, I would like you to meet Alana Solara, my mother." Rayne said softly.

Harry stood in shock.

"I thought you said your mother was murdered." He said quietly.

"She was." Rayne practically whispered back.

Harry couldn't think straight all he could get out was a single word.

"Explain." Harry sputtered.

"When I told you Phoenix murdered my mother I was not lying to you. He did, the problem with his plan was that he couldn't murder someone who was already dead. Phoenix thinks he has everything under his control, but he is wrong. He had no idea, and honestly neither did I. I didn't find out until last year, when she appeared to me in a dream. She said when the time was right she would find me again. She found me again about two months ago, again in my dreams, and told me what you needed to do." Rayne explained.

"No one knows I exist, except for you and Rayne and the vampire who helped me become what I am." Alana told him, her voice was calm and eerie. "And I, in turn have come to help you."

"Wait, you're a Vampire. That is why you couldn't be murdered?" Harry asked.

Harry was slowly piecing together what they were asking him to do.

Rayne, never being the one for patience, decided to cut to the chase.

"Harry, we have to perform a blood ritual that has never been attempted. One that will damn our souls for eternity and cost my mother her life if that is even what you can call it, but will save the world. I know this is asking a lot, but it is the only way. In a way I am glad it was me that was chosen, because can you imagine trying to explain this to an innocent girl who has no idea what she has gotten herself into? She'd be out the door faster than you could say "war"." Rayne said.

"You are telling me, we have to turn into vampires, perform a ritual, Alana will die again and the world will be saved?" Harry said in disbelief.

"Yes." Rayne said with all seriousness.

"Rayne, I..." Harry drifted into his thoughts.

"You need time to process this don't you." Rayne said calmly.

Harry nodded silently.

"OK, I know this is a lot to ask. I will give you till tonight to give me an answer. We are short on time, I can feel Phoenix's aura and it is becoming impatient. Guess that runs in the family." She smile toward her mother.

Alana nodded and they turned and walked out of the room, leaving Harry to his thoughts. Alana turned to her daughter once they were out in the hall.

"Do you feel he will make the right decision?" Alana asked her.

"I hope so, we have come so far, I would hate to let them win now." Rayne said matter of factly.

"You have come a long way, I am glad. This world actually stands a chance." Alana told her daughter.

"Why did you do it? Why did you pretend to be dead?" Rayne asked her trying to get answers to the questions that burned in her mind.

"I am dead sweet heart, just in a different way than you originally believed." Alana said patiently.

"Watching him kill you, and then loosing Skye, was the worst time of my life. If you weren't gone, why did you watch me go through that? How could you?" Rayne asked her voice full of anger.

"Everything happens for a reason Rayne. Would you be here today, if you had known you weren't alone. Would you have worked as hard, or become what you have? I don't think you would have. I needed you to become exactly what you have. In order to do that, I had to let him murder me. And I will give you and Harry the strength and power you need at the cost of my after life. This will save my soul, and saving the world will save yours." Alana told her tenderly.

"I understand, basically this is suicide." Rayne wanted to break down. Everything she had worked for, and they would die anyway.

"I am sorry, that is the way it has to be. "Alana said ruefully.

"Don't be sorry, I have found everything I ever wanted. I will not let you down." Rayne replied with new resolve.

Suddenly they stopped. They had come up to the hallway right before the Slytherin's common room and heard voices. Rayne suddenly had an idea, if she could get one of the Slytherin's alone, she could get an idea of what Phoenix had planned. She looked over and noticed that her mother had disappeared. And then he hit her. Draco Malfoy had walked straight into Rayne, causing him to fall to the floor.

"Solara." He hissed.

"Malfoy." She returned his cold stare.

"I would love to stay and chat, but I have a date." He said rather haughtily.

"I would love to let you run away, but to bad for you, I am not in the mood. " Vereverta." She said softly. And suddenly, Draco was transfigured into a kitchen chair.

"Not exactly what I was going for, but it will do." Rayne told the chair.

She was thinking how silly it would look if she kept standing in the hallway looking at a chair. She lifted it up and brought it into an empty classroom nearby. She decided to try one more time, and pointed her wand at a desk.

"Vereverta" she said and the desk transformed into a large glass box.

Not exactly a cage, but close enough. She threw the chair into the box and whispered a charm that put Malfoy back to his original state. She quickly put a silencing charm around the room. And none to soon because Malfoy started screaming at the top of his lungs.

"That will do you no good. I suggest you sit down and relax. I am not gonna harm you, I just want some information." Rayne said indifferently.

"I will never tell you anything." Malfoy spat.

"Oh, don't worry; you will not have to say a word." Rayne said evilly.

"Legilimus" Rayne said.

Suddenly Malfoy felt strange. He felt lightheaded. He sat down and waited for the feeling to pass. Suddenly memories started to flash before his eyes. The memory of Phoenix telling him about Ginny, the memories of his dates with her, The last meeting Phoenix held. All the information Ginny had been able to give him, everything he told Phoenix. And lastly, this mornings events. As suddenly as the feeling had come, it went away. Draco stood up to see a very angry Rayne.

"You dirty little sniveling weasel." She said through gritted teeth. "You are a scared little puppy following around your master, begging and doing trick in hopes of a reward. Make no mistake, there will be no reward for you except death when he is through." She spat.

"What other choice do I have? Phoenix will destroy Voldemort, and then come for Potter." Draco sneered.

"You think you know everything, but you have no idea. In fifteen days, all our lives will be over including yours, unless we help Harry defeat them both. You hate Harry, but you hate Phoenix too. Why don't you help fight them, why do you just cower in the shadows of a big bully like Phoenix? Grow some Balls." Rayne yelled at him.

She turned and walked out of the room, leaving Draco to figure out how to get out of the glass tank on his own.

Fifteen days. That was all she could think of. She had to get this plan started now. It takes three days for the change to occur one the vampire bites you, and then there will be recovery time due to the trauma there bodies would go through and today would be chalked up as a total loss due to Harry's indecision. That gave them 11 days if not less to get ready for the war. All she could do is sit back and hope that Harry was going to make the right decision again.

She had finally made her way back to the common room after she had taken a long walk around the lake. When she entered, she noticed that Ron and Hermione were sitting with Neville talking about something. The conversation immediately halted once they spotted her. She knew she had told Harry to trust no one, but over the last few months, she had a feeling that these three were different. They were still Harry's friends, even though he had ignored them, and kept secrets from them. They didn't like Rayne because of it, but they didn't hate her either. They were good people. They were the type of people she was fighting to save. The ones that gave her hope in a better future.

She knew they were talking about this morning. She knew they were curious. She decided to go over and ease there minds.

As she walked up to them, she could see them trying to make it look like they were talking about something else.

"So, um yeah, the Chudley Cannons scored a record 1200 points against this new expansion team." Ron tried to cover.

"Nice try," Rayne said looking at them softly. "I just want to thank you guys for being such good friends to Harry. I wish I had friends as loyal as you guys."

"Thank you." Hermione said with a tone of sadness in her voice.

"Don't worry; it will all be over soon. Harry will fight hard for you guys. I just hope that the right side wins. I want you to know that he doesn't want to be away from you, he just has no choice right now. Please understand that everything he is doing is for you guys. He loves you all very much. You are the only family he has ever had, and even though he will never say it to me, he misses you more than anything." Rayne told them.

She turned and walked away, leaving them to there conversation.

She walked up the stairs to her room knowing that Harry would be there with his answer.

She opened the door, and stopped dead.

The room was covered in soft candle light. There was a table, with roses and a card on it sitting in the middle of the room. Harry wasn't there. She walked over to the table and read the card.

"Happy Valentines Day." That was all the card said. She had forgotten it was Valentines Day. She sniffed the roses and then with the card still in her hand, walked over to the window. There was a beautiful moon over the lake. It looked like a bright light bulb in the night sky, illuminating the lake and the forest beyond it. There were no clouds in the sky and there was a perfect view of the night sky. Rayne let out a sigh. Suddenly she turned; she heard a rustling in the corner of the room. She took out her wand and slowly moved toward the corner, she let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was only Stormy playing with her toy mouse. She looked at the little cat.

"I wish my life was as simple as yours. In fifteen days, the world might be over." she said gently picking up Stormy and walking over to the window, with her purring in her arms.

Then, from somewhere behind her, she heard a voice.

"Fifteen days. I didn't think it would be so soon." The voice said gently.

"Harry, I didn't hear you." Rayne said startled.

"I was taught by the best." He grinned.

He came up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist. He laid a gentle kiss on the side of her neck.

"When do we perform the ritual?" He asked her.

"As soon as possible, we don't have a lot of time and the ritual will take us about four days to recover from." Rayne said sadly.

"Well, we had better hurry then." He told her.

"You are ok with this? It is suicide you know." Rayne said surprised.

"Yes, I know, but if you can do it, I can. I trust you, and I can't think of anyone else who I would rather die with by my side." Harry said gently.

"That means the world to me, thank you." Rayne replied still staring out the window.

"So before we do this ritual, do you have some time for a little Valentines Day romance?" Harry asked her playfully.

"For you I have all the time in the world." Rayne said dramatically.

With that there lips locked and they enjoyed there last night of being Human in each others arms.

Two AM rolled around, and Rayne woke to find herself tangled in Harry's arms. She knew she was being watched.

"I can't believe I am letting my mother find me like this." She spoke to the shadows by the window.

Well, you are old enough to make your own decisions; I am not here to judge you." Alana said with a smile.

"No, you are here to change us." Rayne replied.

"Yes, I am. It is time." Alana said sadly.