This is the story of another young family whose life is destroyed by Voldemort, even after his defeat at the hands of the infant Harry Potter. Of course, the fact that the husband is a vampire plays a large part… Much like Harry's story, the child is the only one who escapes destruction. Ariel will grow up to face many more challenges, though not necessarily from the Dark forces.
Dasyra (her mother) is from Northern England and her "father," Kaylin is from Ireland (though he is descended from Transylvanian peasants.) Dasyra's mother was a witch, her father a muggle. She worked in the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Being Division. (Kaylin helped her get this job, and Dasyra was often called upon to help in situations where vampires were involved.) She died in a particularly nasty incident involving a vampire and some DeathEaters (some of whom were vampires).She had been called to the scene because a rogue vampire had been seducing and then feeding off young muggles. This was a few years after Voldemort had been stopped, so no one expected what happened next. Dasyra appeared at the scene in time to distract the vampire before he bit into his victim. Not pleased with the loss of his meal, the vampire threatened her. Before he could do anything besides swear, two men came out of the shadows towards them...
Dasyra gasped. She had recognized one of the men! It was her husband, who had abandoned her years before to join the DeathEaters! "No, wait. I would like to talk to her." Kaylin said, gesturing to his fellow vampire to stay back. Dasyra felt her face drain of color. Years before she had learned that this man, whom she had thought she loved, was simply not human. "No, no please...stay away...please..." She sobbed, knowing that he would show no mercy. She knew that he was a DeathEater, she could identify him to the authorities, and she could not be allowed to live. "Please...what about our daughter...no... please...!" Tears ran down her face as she backed up slowly, knowing the futility of the gesture. Her magic would not help her here; his partner would surely disable her before she could complete any spell.
Dasyra had met Kaylin on a holiday to Ireland when she was in her fifth year at Hogwarts. They swiftly became friends and began to date each other. She thought him to be the kindest, smartest, most gentle man she had ever known. But all that began to change after they left school and decided to get married.
It was just little things at first. He would lose his temper over some petty issue and they would start arguing. But they never stayed angry for long and he was always very sorry about it later. Finally they decided to have a child, hoping it would bring them back together. He was really the one who wanted a baby, and she agreed. She knew though, deep in her heart, that a child would not solve their problems. Because Kaylin was infertile (he was dead after-all), they arranged for a mutual friend to get Dasyra pregnant. (Sirius Black was the lucky man…) When their daughter was born, Kaylin was all smiles for them, when the baby was four days old; he gently bit her, as they had agreed, in order that she be granted the abilities and long life of a vampire. But soon after, he returned to his normal moody self. Two months after their daughter's birth, matters came to a head.
Dasyra had just made breakfast for herself, and a lovely blood pudding for Kaylin's dinner, when he came through the front door with a bang. Dasyra was so startled by the sound that she dropped the glass she was holding and it fell to the ground and shattered. Kaylin turned towards her, his face a mask of fury. "You stupid cow!" he cried, glairing at her. "What did you do that for?" Dasyra shrank back in fear. They had argued many times before, but never had she seen such a look of malice on anyone's face, let alone that of her husband! The man she had thought she knew and loved. Kaylin strode over to her and grabbed her cruelly by the shoulders. "Think its funny to annoy me with noise when I already have a splitting headache?" He shook her. "Timed it just right didn't you!" She tried to protest that it was an accident, but Kaylin was hearing nothing but his own ravings. And indeed, they were scarcely the ravings of a sane man. He continued to blame her preposterously for all sorts of imagined wrongs she had done to him. He called her a slut, saying that she had been sleeping with other men when he was away, saying that she didn't care about him any more, she was still with him only because she was too lazy and stupid to support herself. When she finally gathered her courage to shout back at him, to try and make him listen to reason, he slapped her across the face, hard. Finally he wound down enough that she could get a word in edgewise. She spoke softly, fearing that he would strike her again. "Why? Why do you hate me?" Kaylin suddenly seemed to take notice of what she was saying. "Hate you?" he snorted. "As if you're even worth hating. No, I'm just moving on to bigger and better things." He released his hold on her shoulders. "No," he repeated. "There's nothing special about you, I hate everybody now." He smiled an ugly smile, and Dasyra was shocked at how it transformed his face. How could she have thought she loved this monster? "See this?" He pulled up his sleeve, and Dasyra could see a brand new tattoo on his forearm. It was a skull, with a snake coming out of its mouth. "This is a symbol of freedom. Freedom from worrying about what your woman will think when you don't come home, freedom from those stupid muggle protection laws, freedom from caring about anything and anyone." His voice dropped on the last word, and Dasyra barely heard it. All she could think of was that mark on his arm. The mark of a DeathEater... Before she could think to stop him with a spell, he had transformed and flew out the kitchen window.
That was the last she had seen of him...
...Until this minute, during what she knew where the last minutes of her life...Kaylin approached slowly, menace in his every movement. "Aren't you glad to see me Dasyra? After two long years?" He smiled, and Dasyra could see he reveled in her fright. She could only shake her head in mute terror. "Come now, there's no need to cringe like that." He reached out to touch her face, and she froze, not daring to move, hardly breathing. Slowly he tilted her head back, until her throat was bared. "Ah yes. You may be pleased to know that no where else have I found such a delightful neck as yours, such a fine, strong pulse..." His voice faded to a whisper. Dasyra could feel her heart racing, and although she could only see the stars in the night sky above them, she could almost see the yearning look on that face, the face that she had once kissed so tenderly. A yearning for her blood. "Now, Kaylin, we cannot afford to linger here too long. Best finish her and be off. We can stop elsewhere for your prey tonight." The other dark wizard finally spoke from the shadows, and Kaylin's attention was diverted for a moment. "I suppose you're right..." Kaylin agreed, but he could not help but throw a last glance of longing at the vein in her neck. He released her head, but did not step back. Instead his face suddenly closed on itself. Abruptly he pulled her close to him, Dasyra, shocked by this did not struggle. He whispered in her ear, "Ahh, Dasyra, I almost wish it didn't have to be this way." Then he released her and walked back to join his compatriots in the shadows. "But, this is the way things have turned out." "But... there's still time...we...we can make it work! I'll forget anything ever happened...please..." Dasyra pleaded, though she knew it was in vain. "Please...I need to live...my child..." Her voice faded. Kaylin seemed not to hear her beseeching words. "And, I will live awhile longer...there will be others..." And he turned and faded from her sight. Whether he left then, or stayed to see the deed done neither she, nor anyone else, would ever know. As Dasyra saw him turn she closed her eyes, and made a last, desperate plea to whatever greater power was listening. "Please...take care of my daughter...Ariel..."
There was a great flash of green light, a horrible scream, and she was gone.
When the authorities came, in response to a muggle who had seen a strange green light, they found only Dasyra's body, and the body of a young muggle, drained of blood.
The caretaker, who watched the young Ariel when her mother was gone to work, took care of the child until suitable arrangements could be made for her to go to an orphanage.
"There seems to be more an' more orphans about these days." The old woman had commented sadly to her cat, as she watched the child sleeping. "At least others have family to take care of them. I don't know if this poor mite even has that much." Still murmuring to herself, the old nurse walked to the kitchen, her cat at her heels.
And so Ariel, who would come to be known as Viper, went to live in an orphanage before she was three years old. It wasn't a bad place, but it was not the same as being raised by a loving family. The year she turned four she was taken to live in a foster home. The Anderson's child had died in a childhood accident, and so Viper was raised as an only child, with no knowledge of her mother's demise, or her father's betrayal.