Author's Notes: Dum dum dum dum!!! ::trumpet sounds:: I am so back and ready for action! And you are ready to read this babay and then review it, aren't ya? ::nudge nudge, wink wink:: Sorry it's taking me so long; I got really stressed and then got a writer's block attack. But come on, you can't tell me that you have better things to do than read my stupid story!!! Can you?

Nope. Not mine. None of it. JK Rowling's. Got it? Good.

Harry was lifted off the ground, not by the will of his own, and moved forward slowly back towards the place where Rebecca and Hermione were sleeping. Chills crept down his spine hauntingly. The vampire was close behind him, andin a perverse wayits presence was comforting. He had someone to watch over him. He belonged. All those feeling he'd been hoping for his whole life were suddenly pouring over him, all at once.

"We hear you've been busy," it said, its deep voice clear and resonating.

"Yes," Harry whispered. He was ashamed of his own submissiveness, but there was nothing to be done.

"Two new breathren... Very interesting choice. Most young ones choose to feed before they allow any others in. But then... You are not like the others."

He frowned. "How am I different?"

"You just are. And always have been."

Itwasn't enough of an answer;Harry needed more. He needed answers. Why him? Why had the vampires chosen him to initiate over all the other people at Hogwarts? They could have had Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in the world. But he'd been the one pulled out of the crowd. Somehow he was different than everyone else. It couldn't just be that bloody scar on his forehead, could it? He looked up at the vampire frustratedly. Just because his mother had protected him when he was baby? There was nothing incredible about him other than his mother's dying wish. Now even that was fading away.

"Why?" he found himself asking.

The vampire continued its glide through the forest. "All will be explained in time."

"But... I don't understand, I--"

"As we said, you must wait." Its voice grew even colder, if possible. "You trust us, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then be patient, Brother. Be patient."

And Harry was patient, though reluctantly. The forest seemed to shift around him as they in essence glided over the thin, rough path he'd made. He wondered where they were going to go, of course, but he tried to press the thoughts of that from his mind. In all honesty, he was a little afraid of the vampire, even though he knew he shouldn't be. They were family now. It was just... Those instincts from before, those human survival instincts, were still resisting this change. He shook them away.

"Erm... Rebecca and Hermione... They're right ahead," Harry told it in an attempt to be helpful.

The vampire seemed amused. "We know."

The soft sounds of sleep traveled to their ears, and his feet slowly touched the ground. He walked towards them, prepared to wake them, but something stopped him. His brother, without a word, glided past him, and the two girls rose off the ground, still sleeping. Harry glanced up at it in surprise.

"It's best not to shock them," the vampire explained.

Harry nodded compliantly, somewhat beside himself. That restraint that had made him afraid, had made him pull away from it was fading fast. "Where are we going?" he murmured as his feet lifted off the ground.

"Home."

Harry wasn't sure if he was dreaming or awake, unregistering or alert. He wasn't sure of anything anymore. All he felt was the rush of the cool wind on his face, and all he saw was the creature gliding through the air beside him. It was all he needed to know. He didn't stop to think of what was happening to him. Even if he had, he wouldn't have understood. This was all beyond his comprehension, in some strange, alien sense. Everything he was experiencing was unfamiliar to his semiconscious mind, and yet, he was sure he'd seen it all in a dream. If he'd had enough energy to piece the empty fragments in his mind together, perhaps a new understanding would come to him. But as it was, he glided along, enjoying the distant numbness that filled his body.

They veered to the left, he registered that much. The ground below them was a blur of dark greens and shadows and blackness. He could see Hermione and Rebecca beside them, breathing quietly, still asleep. His consciousness slowly came to him. How could they be sleeping? Couldn't they hear the rush of the wind as it hit their faces? The sound of a pack of wolves in the distance? Despite himself, Harry felt a slight urge of emotion, the one that he used to know as fear. Those wolves sounded dangerous. He'd thought he'd overcome his fears of them with Lupin... Suddenly he was ashamed of himself for feeling it, for feeling anything remotely like what he used to feel. He turned his face away so the vampire couldn't see him.

"Don't try to hide," it said firmly after a few moments. "We know what you are feeling. We can sense it."

"I'm sorry," Harry told it, "I didn't mean to. I just--"

The thing nodded, cutting him off. "We know. It takes time to rid yourself of the stench of humanity. We cannot remember our own beginnings. In time, you too will forget. You will be complete. In time."

He bowed his head, still embarrassed. Harry had always been impatient. It was part of his nature. And he felt more and more unsettled as he flew alongside the vampire and the girls, waiting. Waiting. He just wanted the waiting to end; he wanted to know why he'd been summoned other than the obvious reasons. This creature had said that he was different from other wizards... Harry wanted to know how. There were too many unanswered questions rushing through his head for the silence to be acceptable. His stomach turned; he ground his teeth together in anger. Where was he going?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of flying, they were brought to the ground slowly, landing in a cove in the forest. The sky was slowly beginning to lighten, and Harry glanced at it uncomfortably as he was brought down into the dark, damp shadows. There was safety down here. He should know that. His breathren wouldn't bring him here unless there was guaranteed safety. Otherwise the vampires could exist here at all. So he breathed out slowly, relaxing as his feet touched the ground. He hadn't realized how tense he'd been while up in the air.

But he was lowering still, sinking through the crumbling, wet dirt. He shot an alarmed glance at the vampire, but it remained perfectly calm as they fell through the first layer of ground, and Harry tried to mirror this calm. At first all he could see below was pinpoints of light in a sea of darkness. But, as his eyes adjusted, he began to see... to see... creatures, vampires, his breathren, all around him, as if greeting them. They were in a cave, lit slightly with dripping red candles that rested on cracks in the cave wall or on the floor. He'd half-expected to see caskets down here, but there was nothing of the kind. There were openings in the walls that seemed to lead to other rooms; there was no way to tell if they actually did yet. The dark hooded creatures slowly approached the four, forcing Harry to grab a hold of Rebecca and bunch closer to the vampire in fear, even though he knew he shouldn't be afraid.

"Welcome, Harry Potter," one of them said, but none of them opened their mouths to speak so he couldn't be sure which. "Your coming here will serve the great purpose of our time."

"And what purpose is that?" Harry asked, slightly impertinent. His impatience and fear was wearing on his common sense.

"Come. We will show you."

In one sweeping motion, all at once, including the vampire who had brought Harry to this place, turned to face one of the cave walls and purposefully moved in that direction. Harry, after dartingly glancing at Rebecca and Hermione, followed, and was surprised to see that the girls continued to hover beside him wherever he went. The thought filled some chauvinistic part of him with a strange kind of glee, of power. He smiled at them as he followed along. He would finally get some answers to why they had come after him and the first place. He could finally get some closure to the end of his human life and start on with his next. And he was ready.

But nothing could have prepared him for the sight he would next see.

The vampires cleared away, gathering on either side of a enormous bed. It had a huge, dusty bedspread in combined hues of gold, red, purple, and black. Harry's eyes followed the thin form of a body up to the face at the head of the bed, and breathed in sharply. It was a vampire, clearly a vampire with it's dim red eyes and elongated teeth, but unlike the others, this vampire wore no hood. Dread made its way through him. Its face, barely ressembling a human's, was withered and bone white and gray in parts, no color reflected in any part of it's face besides its eyes. Those bloodred eyes met Harry's slowly, and without it having to speak a word, Harry knew that he was supposed to approach it. The other vampires bowed, and he realized he was probably required to do the same, so he shakingly reclined his head before moving towards the bed. The vampire, when it spoke, had a deep, rasping voice, but a female voice nonetheless.

"Harry Potter, you have come at last. My messenger has brought you, as he promised."

"Yes," he whispered, shivering slightly as he stopped beside the bed. Something about this particular vampire spread a chilling fear through him.

"I am glad. I assume you now know why you are here."

Harry began to shake his head, but after looking at her for a moment longer, it began to dawn on him what was happening to her. "You're dying."

Her creased face stretched into a smile, or however much it could look like a smile with those long teeth reaching beyond her lips. To him it looked more like a grimace. "You're bright." She seemed pleased. "I have long been waiting for this day."

"Why?"

The smile fell from her face. "Because, boy, today is the day I finally meet my heir."

"Me?"

"Yes," she hissed, annoyed at his ignorance.

"In all respect, why me?" Harry was surprised, but not so surprised that his questions could go unanswered. This rush of information that he was assumed to know was puzzling, to say the least. And he needed to know. He needed to know as much as she could bear to tell him.

"The prophecy," she grumbled. "Didn't they tell you anything?"

He shook his head slowly, but was somehow relieved to see real human emotion in a vampire. It made him feel less disgusted with himself for still having so many.

"Many years ago, 17 years, I believe, it was foretold by a woman in a pub that you, Harry Potter, would destroy Lord Voldemort, or he you. This is known in some circles in the wizarding world. The part of the prophecy that your headmaster consistently seems to forget is the the most important to us." She smiled that dark grimace again. "It is the only important part of the prophecy at all."

"What did Trelawney say?" Harry's heart somehow managed to both jump and sink in his chest. Dumbledore had kept even more from him than he'd ever imagined.

"You are to replace me as head of the Vampira. You are to become legend, Harry Potter, both in this world and in the wizarding one. You are the only one who can take my place. The prophecy cannot lie. Evil defeats evil. No matter what your silly wizarding world has told you, good will never conquer." Her eyes narrowed. "You must make a choice. I suggest you choose wisely."