Harry dragged his feet into the great hall, his eyes half opened, and wobbling precariously. He finally made it to the Gryffindor seat, and slumped down ungracefully into his seat. Slowly, he put a few bites of food into his mouth, before barfing everything up.
Ron (and most of his other house mates) backed away from the table, disgusted, and someone cast a cleaning spell, to get rid of the mess. New food appeared, and students began to eat again, looking worriedly at Harry.
"Harry...?" Hermione began softly. Harry grunted, to show he was listening.
"Are you okay? You look a bit..." Hermione trailed off and Ron added, "Under the weather."
Hermione nodded her agreement at Ron's statement.
Harry sighed, "Yeah, I don't feel so great. I think I'm gonna skip lessons today, okay?" he croaked.
His friends agreed that this would be the best course of action, and Harry wobbled out of the great hall, never noticing that Draco and Blaise had watched the whole drama from across the hall.
"What do you suppose is wrong with him?" Draco laughed. He made up his mind to go and see what was up with Harry before class.
Blaise just shrugged, Draco never noticed the strange glint in Blaise's eyes as he watched the sick vampire leave the dining hall.
Reaching up carefully, Blaise put a finger almost lovingly to the place on his neck where Harry had fed from earlier, smiling gleefully, the evil look in his eyes never leaving.
Harry, meanwhile, was lying on his bed, wondering what was wrong with him. It had something to do with Blaise's blood; he just wasn't sure what was wrong with it, or how it could have affected him this way. Did Blaise know what was happening? Was this all intentional?
If Blaise intended for this to happen, what's his motive? Besides the fact that he's Slytherin, of course, Harry mused to himself.
Of course, thinking about his state, at the moment, and wondering if it had anything to do with drinking blood, he began to speculate about how he became a full fledged vampire, instead of a hybrid.
Dumbledore had expected it might happen, which was why Harry was called into his office on the day he watched movies in the room of requirements. Even Dumbledore, however, didn't know why. Why was the big question.
Harry sat up suddenly.
Did Blaise have something to do with it? He pondered. Harry quickly dismissed the thought. You couldn't bring out someone's vampiric side without very good control of your magic and extensive knowledge of black magic. Blaise may have some knowledge of black magic, and moderately good control of his magic, but he was not capable of doing something this big.
What about Voldemort? His mind asked. That was always a possibility. Voldemort would have enough knowledge of the dark arts to pull something like this off... He would also need a body, though. Voldemort didn't have one of those.
Unless... Harry stopped short. Unless Voldemort did have a body, or he had found a new host.
Harry got up suddenly, running towards Dumbledore's office. Halfway there, he stopped and shadow-drifted, instead. Blending with the shadows, mingling his good and dark into one, always changing form, he moved faster than light, and more silent than the dark. In less than a second he was at the gargoyle that led up to Dumbledore's office. Barking out the password, he shadow drifted yet again into Dumbledore's office.
"Harry my boy! What brings you here?" Dumbledore said, turning away from Faulks to look at Harry. He gasped at what he saw. Gasping was a rarity for the aged headmaster, and it almost made Harry chuckle, if he wasn't feeling so worn out. Shadow drifting probably hadn't been the best idea...
"Harry, what happened? How are you feeling?" Dumbledore asked, concerned.
"I think someone at school is working for Voldemort," Harry blurted, before falling over, unconscious.
When Harry woke up, Blaise was standing over him. Harry tried to shove him away from the bed, he wanted nothing to do with the boy, but Blaise stood his ground, and Harry was still weak from lack of blood, and his mysterious sickness.
"Harry, you need food," Blaise chided him, sounding, to Harry, sickeningly patronizing.
"Not from you," Harry said his voice raspy.
Blaise looked taken aback for a moment, before chuckling softly. "You need blood, you're not thinking clearly," to Harry, Blaise sounded almost panicked that Harry wasn't going to drink any blood.
Harry shook his head weakly. Blaise was right, he did need the blood, but it wouldn't be from Blaise.
Luckily, Madame Pomfrey came over at that exact moment. "Harry, do you need anything?"
Harry nodded, "blood," he managed to say.
Madame Pomfrey nodded thoughtfully, not noticing Blaise, who had backed up out of her line of vision.
"Do you have a donor yet?" Madame Pomfrey asked.
Harry looked at Blaise quickly, deciding he needed the blood right now, otherwise he just might die. Or hurt someone. He decided to risk drinking Blaise's contaminated blood.
He nodded.
"And who is it, dear?"
The name that passed Harry's lips surprised everyone in the room, including Harry himself.
"Draco Malfoy," he said.
Blaise looked fit to kill, and Madame Pomfrey looked stunned. She quickly regained her composure, "I'll get him immediately, then Harry," she said, and sent someone to find Draco Malfoy.
Blaise stormed over to Harry's bed.
"I'm your donor Harry! Me! Not Draco!" He spat the name 'Draco' out as if it were poison. "The lack of blood has screwed with your mind. You must have forgotten that I'm your blood donor."
Harry shook his head. "I didn't forget."
Speaking was beginning to take more effort than Harry wanted to spend on words that meant nothing.
Blaise suddenly whipped out his wand. Harry looked stunned for a moment, and then did the worst possible thing he could have done. He shadow drifted. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a smart move. But this was not normal circumstances. Besides having drunk impure blood, and therefore being in a semi-critical medical condition, Harry had also not drank any good blood to sustain his life, leaving him weak, and altogether almost incapable of performing any magical tasks.
Draco showed up in the infirmary seconds after Harry had disappeared. "Blaise?" he said in confusion.
Blaise pretended to look startled. "Oh! Draco! Did you come up here to see how Harry was doing also?" Blaise had just gotten an ingenious idea.
Draco gave his friend a quizzical look. "You're here to see how Potter is doing? What are you playing at Zambini?"
Blaise put on an innocent look, the one reserved for talking with teachers, "Nothing, I just came to see how Harry was doing. I am going out with him, you know."
Draco looked stunned. "You're his mate?"
"He hasn't said as much yet, but I'm sure I am," Blaise said, puffing up. Although the normal observer might not notice how this small statement flustered Draco, Blaise, who had grown up with Malfoy, knew what he was feeling. In a twisted, very Slytherin way, his friend's silent suffering was giving Blaise an ego boost, and a sick satisfaction.
Draco felt as if he were about to cry, a new experience for him. He hadn't cried since he was a baby, and even then, he had been a rather silent child. He had never had a reason to cry. Even now, the feeling of sadness, and the weight pressing on his heart confused him.
Harry still hadn't returned.
Draco noticed this and asked, "Well, where is Potter?"
Blaise looked about the room, confused. "I... I don't know..."
Draco felt a cold wind, which made him shiver, but not from cold, it was something else. Then he heard it, someone was whispering his name.
"Draco..." The voice was so soft Draco wasn't sure if he heard it or imagined it.
"Help me, Draco, please..." Malfoy was positive he had heard something this time.
"Blaise, do you hear that?"
Blaise shook his head, looking at his friend like he was crazy.
"Who's there? Are you a ghost?" Draco asked.
"It's Harry Potter, help me, please..." the voice was getting softer. Draco wanted so badly to reach out his hand, to feel something solid, to pull Harry out of wherever he was trapped. And what confused Draco the most is that until a while ago, he had never wanted to even think about touching Potter unless it was because he was punching his face in.
"Where are you?" Draco asked again.
"I'm in the shadows..." came the soft reply.
"You're in the-" Draco looked around the room, and it dawned on him.
"You're shadow drifting?" he asked
"Yes, only, I can't stop I..." The voice faded away, and Draco could no longer hear him.
"Harry? Harry? Where are you? HARRY!" He called.
No one answered.
Harry was lost in the shadows.
A/N: yay! At the moment, I have almost thirty reviews! I'm so happy! To answer your question, though Anglachel, Blaise was threatening to tell aboutHarry'ssecret, butI'll go into that more in the next chapter! Thank you, all youpeople who've reviewed! Please keep reviewing! It makes me happy, and I will love you forever!
