Harry was confused, to say the least. He was in a rather dull and dreary placed, that looked exactly like Hogwarts... only empty, and less bright, somehow. There was still color, of course, it just seemed that nothing was quite as alive. For a while, he had thought he had heard Draco's voice, but that had faded away, and he couldn't hear anything, or anyone, now. On the bright side, however, Harry no longer felt the fatigue of going too long without blood, and the blood lust that he had feared had entirely disappeared.
"Hello?" He called, "Hello-o-o?"
Nobody answered. Harry had expected that.
He was passing by the first floor bathroom, the one where Moaning Myrtle lived, when he heard a wailing sound. Harry sprinted to the bathroom door, shoving it open and bursting into the lavatory.
Moaning Myrtle was flying about the bathroom, screaming her head off. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, finally, he thought, something normal... well, as normal as it can get, around here.
"Myrtle!" he called. Unsurprisingly, she didn't hear him, seeing as she was caught up in her own self-pity.
"MYRTLE!" he called again. The ghost looked up, surprised.
"Myrtle, where are we?" Harry asked. Moaning Myrtle had stopped sniffling, and even her voice was not in the least bit whiney, or sad. Instead, her voice was full of wonder, and confusion.
"How did you die?" she asked.
Harry was confused, and stated as much. "I'm not dead."
Myrtle laughed. "You're just in denial! I can tell, you're dead, otherwise, you wouldn't be here!"
"Where's here?"
"Well, here is the world where the living can't go! A ghost world! Just for us dead folk!"
Harry breathed in sharply. Dead world? That's not good.
But how did I die? Harry wondered to himself. This place looks somewhat familiar... And then it hit him. It seemed familiar because he had been here before.
"But how did he end up there, Headmaster?" Draco asked, still in shock from being told that Harry was in the realm of the dead, but not actually dead himself.
The old man had that annoying twinkle in his eye which usually signified that he knew exactly how it had happened, but wasn't about to tell you.
"Think, my dear boy. He's in a shadow world. How do you think he ended up there?"
Draco thought about this for awhile. The answer was so blatantly obvious that it wasn't coming to him.
And then he knew.
Looking at Dumbledore, he said, "It was when he –
"- shadow drifted," Harry said, finally realizing when he had been here. When he had shadow drifted, this is where he had been for those few minutes that the shadows had absorbed him.
He tried to shadow drift again. If that form of transportation had gotten him into this mess, then it could most certainly get him out. Harry soon found out that this was just wishful thinking.
"But how? Whenever he shadow drifted before, he always came back! Why's he stuck now!" Draco practically yelled.
"Maybe," Dumbledore paused, as if thinking, "it had something to do with the lack of blood. Or maybe, with the blood itself..."
Draco ran out of the room to find Blaise, not pausing to say good day to Albus. Dumbledore, however, did not mind, he was smiling after the boy. When the blond had departed from his office he turned to Faukes, shaking his head slightly.
"Do you see it in his eyes, too Faukes?" He asked the bird, who gave one short, sharp note, and nodded his head in agreement.
"I can tell that Mr. Malfoy is fighting his fate... and Harry..." Dumbledore trailed off sadly, "They're bound to be together. The vampire in Harry desperately needs a mate, and Harry needs someone who loves him, not as a savior or super hero. Our young Mr. Malfoy is a perfect match... and I think he is beginning to understand, although he will never admit it, isn't that right Faukes?"
The bird again bobbed his head up and down, his intelligent eyes never leaving the headmaster.
"Harry won't be so willing to have Mr. Malfoy in his life, I believe... but the fates decreed the two together, and I believe that Draco is the only person who can save the young Potter from the Umbra world..."
Faukes gave a piercing screech into the office, and Dumbledore turned his face towards the window, looking out into the sky, which was dark and dreary.
"Yes Faukes, I feel it, too. Something will happen, and soon. All we can do now is wait."
The bird also stared out the window. It began to rain.
A/N: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! I have almost forty reviews! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get FOURTY REVIEWS! So I am SUPER happy! Thank you everyone!
Also, I know a lot of people said to make my chapters longer, and I know this one is really short, but the one after this is longer, I promise! So I'm sorry for the short chapter!
Oh! I almost forgot! Thank you for Wyccegurl who reviewed one of my other stories for telling me that I have been spelling Zambini wrong, it's supposed to be spell Zabini! So I'm really sorry about that, and thank you so much for pointing out for me! If I've been spelling anything else wrong, please tell me! (I think I've been spelling Faukes wrong, but I'm not sure).
