Author: Once again, I don't own most of these characters.
I have another note for you now; the lapis lazuli ring idea is from L.J Smith's 'The Vampire Diaries." I rather liked that idea so I decided to use it.
Note: this entire chapter is in Harry's point of view (P.O.V)
HARRY'S P.O.V
Harry watched as that strange Mia girl left the house with her equally strange Master and that 'Lestat' character. He was beyond surprised at how the girl had talked to him, as if he annoyed the hell out of her even though they'd barely had one conversation. But the feeling was mutual. But where in the world were those three going? It was barely one in the morning!
Mrs. Weasley was just about to shoo him, Ron, Hermione and Ginny upstairs when he turned to Professor Dumbledore and asked, "Professor, can I have a word with you?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Of course, Harry. Join me in the kitchen, won't you?"
Harry followed his headmaster into the warm kitchen and they both sat down in chairs that materialized with a wave of Dumbledore's wand. "Well then, Harry. I'm sure you're wondering who our eccentric guests are?"
Harry nodded. "Yes, Sir, I am." He answered.
"Well then. To be blunt they're all vampires. Maharet, Mael, Armand, Lestat and Marius are all members of the Coven of the Articulate."
Harry stared at him for a moment. "The Coven of the Whatnow?"
Dumbledore chuckled. "The Articulate, Harry. They are a group of ancient vampires-currently situated in New Orleans- that was formed to defeat their Dark Queen, who wanted to destroy all males." He said with a very slight chuckle.
"Ok…" Harry said at length. "But there were more than just those four, what about the other two? That Mia person and her 'Master'?" He asked.
"They are also vampires." Dumbledore answered. "Bu from what Lestat has told me, Orion, that is, Mia's Master, has not been with the Coven for many centuries."
"So they're all over a hundred years old?" Harry asked, quite amazed.
The Professor nodded. "All but the fledgling Mia; she is just over 16." He said. "But anyway, they will be spending their days in the cellar of the house. That is," Dumbledore raised is brow, "if that is alright with you, Harry."
Harry was surprised that Dumbledore was asking his permission. "Err, sure I s'pose." He answered.
"Ah, excellent." Dumbledore said standing up, Harry did the same. "Well I'll be taking my leave now. And you should get to bed before out dear Molly carried you up the stairs herself." He chuckled and walked out the kitchen door.
A few minuets later Harry was up in his room that he shared with Ron. Hermione and Ginny had been waiting for him, they were sitting on Ron's bed and he had been on Harry's when he, Harry, had entered the room.
"So what'd Dumbledore say?" Ginny asked as soon as he walked in the door.
"Well," Harry began, sitting on his bed next to Ron. "He calmly explained to me that their all vampires."
Hermione nearly fell on Ron's bed. "They're what!"
"Vampires." Harry repeated. "Most of them are part of some huge coven in America, 'cept for that Mia girl and her Master, Orion I think his name is."
"How many are there exactly?" Ron asked.
Harry thought for a moment. "Well there are those five guy ones, Mia and the woman. So about seven all together." He said. "Their all staying in the cellar during the day."
Ginny shuddered. "That's rather…creepy..." she said.
"Well you know," Hermione began. "Not all vampires are blood thirsty monsters. Only a few and they all seemed pretty nice."
"I didn't like that girl much." Harry said. "She had quite a mouth on her."
"Well it's expected she might be a bit grumpy after a few hundred years if existence, Harry." Hermione said.
He shook his head. "Dumbledore said she was only 16, all the others are in their hundreds."
"Wow, imagine being only 6 and a vampire." Ron said.
"YOU LOT BETTER BE IN BED!" Mrs. Weasley's voice rang through the house and Hermione and Ginny quickly bid the boys goodnight and scrabbled out of the room.
Ron yawned and climbed off Harry's bed and into his own. "Let's just hope we don't get attacked in the middle of the night." He murmured tiredly.
Harry snorted into his pillow. "Fat chance of that." He muttered, before extinguishing the candle.
The next morning, Harry awoke early. He yawned and looked at his watch to see it was only six thirty. He groaned, but knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep, so he got up and dressed, but quietly so not to wake up the snoring Ron.
Harry went started down the stairs and went into the kitchen, hoping he could get some breakfast before everyone else woke up. Instead he walked in to see an extremely pale looking Mia. She sat at the table wearing a black tank top and boy shorts; she obviously didn't expect anyone to be up for a while. On her eyes she wore a pair of dark sunglasses and a cigarette dangled from her hand.
"Hang on." Harry said after a moment. "Aren't you a vampire?"
Mia, having not noticed he was there, jumped about a mile. "Jesus, you sure know how to give a person a heart attack!" she snapped. "And yes, I am a vampire." She took a drag from her cigarette. "You point?" she asked exhaling.
Harry coughed. "Could you please not smoke that in here?" he asked fanning his hand in front of his face.
Mia rolled her eyes and ground the lit end into her hand before flicking the snubbed out cigarette into the rubbish bin. "Your point?" she asked again.
"What? Oh yeah. How come you're out during the daytime? Can all vampires go out in sunlight?" Harry asked.
Mia sighed and gestured that he should take a seat at the table, and Harry did so. Mia then held up her left hand to show him that she had a gold ring with very pale blue stones set into it. "This is a lapis lazuli ring." She said. "It enables me to walk in sunlight. Out of the others only my Master has another one, they're extremely rare."
"Then where'd you get one?" he asked.
"I got this from my father." She answered. "Ironically that was before I endured the Embrace."
"Embrace?"
Mia sighed again. "You really are clueless about vampires aren't you?"
Harry nodded. "I've never really had much time to study them." He said a bit grudgingly.
"What do they teach you at that school of yours?"
"They teach me fine, thanks!" he snapped.
Mia held up her hands in surrender. "Whoa, take it easy, I give." She said.
Harry sighed. "Sorry. Guess I'm not in a very good mood." He said.
"That's understandable, I heard a little bit of what you've been through from my Master."
"Why is it you call that Orion guy your Master? Are you his slave or something?" Harry asked.
Mia glared at him. "No, I am not his slave…I suppose you could call me his apprentice, his fledgling."
"So he turned you into a vampire?"
"No, I was Embraced by a vampire called Dominic. He then abandoned me on the street to die." Mia said through gritted teeth.
It was clear to Harry that his was a touchy subject with her. "Sorry for bringing all this up." He said, feeling a bit sympathetic.
Mia just shrugged. "It's alright." She murmured. "I just don't like to think of it. After all I would have died if it hadn't been for my Master."
After a little whiles silence Harry asked, "Do you know anything about the Coven of the Articulate?"
Mia nodded. "I know as much as any vampire. Coven of the Articulate is a group of vampire's in New Orleans." Harry nodded; Dumbledore had already explained this. Mia paused. "Before I begin, I warn you this is going to be a huge history lesson on vampires." She smiled a bit.
Harry nodded. "Well like you said, I'm clueless. So I might as well hear it all." He said.
Mia nodded. "Ok then. Well then, tens of thousands of years ago our Queen, Akasha, rules over Egypt with her husband Enkil. I'm not going to go into their life stories, but to sum it up; Akasha was taken over by an evil spirit and was turned into the first vampire. After that she Embraced Enkil. I can't remember why but about a thousand years after that they were dumped into the desert sun. That's where Marius found them." She paused. "If you recall, Marius if currently asleep downstairs."
"So he's over a thousand years old?" he asked.
Mia nodded. "But Maharet is even older; she was human when Akasha was. Anyway, I'm getting off track. Well, after Marius saved them from the sunlight they went into a deep sleep, vampires often do this when the world gets too much for them. Their sleep lasted for thousands of years and they only awoke about twenty years ago. Akasha had awoken and killed Enkil. Everyone had believed that if either died we all would, but it turned out that it was Akasha that held the Sacred core. To cut a long story short she went around killing nearly every vampire except for those loved by Lestat."
"Why Lestat?" Harry interrupted.
"Because she was in love with him. Many years before she had awoken Lestat had found her and Marius and played to her on his violin, this was enough to awaken her briefly and cause her to fall in love with him."
Harry nodded. "I see..."
"Anyway, when she awoke was when the Coven of the Articulate formed. There are quite a few vampires in the coven, but I'm not in it and I don't think my Master is. Anyway to cut it all short Maharet's twin sister took the Core from Akasha and so now she's our Queen," she concluded.
"Wow." Harry murmured. "That's quite a story. I didn't realize so much went on in the world."
Mia nodded. "Most wizards don't know what goes on among the vampires."
After another moment of silence, Mia spoke up again. "I'd like to apologize for how I acted last night. I shouldn't have been so rude to you. I was in a bad mood because I'd been awake all day and I hadn't fed yet."
"Oh...err...that's ok I guess." Harry said, a bit uncomfortable. He was sitting at the dinning room table talk about why a vampire hadn't fed. Could this get any weirder?
Mia then stood up. "Well, I've wasted enough of your time." she said. "I'm gonna go back down to the basement and se if I can get in a few more hours sleep.
"Alright, I'll see ya around." Harry said, giving her a brief smile as she left the room. To his surprise she actually returned it.
"Yeah, see ya." she replied.
Once Harry heard the basement door close he got up from the table and started to make him some toast.