Dearest Readers,
I really hope you like this! If you don't, go read something else. NO FLAMES PLEASE. Honestly, if you can write something better, you go do that first and THEN flame me. Once you do, I will accept you critics and whoever. Thanks. I do however, take constructive criticism! So if you have something constructive to say, then by all means, say it. Remember, I said CONSTRUCTIVE! Thanks. With that over with, if you do not support these pairings, LEAVE. I'm giving you a fair warning. This fanfic contains these pairings: Harry/Luna, Ron/Hermione, and Draco/Ginny. Perhaps some other pairings if I'm not too lazy. Well then, with that all over with, ENJOY!
Summary:
When Hogwarts school starts holding night classes after the disappearance of two students, Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspect something is wrong. But when they find out the shocking truth, they are torn between telling the parents of the children or taking the other side. What happens when you choose to be safe or sorry?
The Thirsty
Chapter one:
In the small house that laid on number four privet drive that rolled down little winging town, an abnormally "magical" teenager lay sprawled across his little mattress. He was wishing that tomorrow would come sooner. This teenager's name was Harry Potter, not the boy who lived, which was what people of his own kind called him constantly. He heaved a sigh merely thinking about it. So much had happened in the years that he had attended Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry and he often wondered what would have become of him if it had never happened. The messy haired boy never really fit in at his old school. He was just invisible to everyone else because well... he just was.
And in that boring moment a tapping noise reached his ears and he looked up; glad to have snapped out of that train of thought. His snowy owl, Hedwig had brought him a letter. Harry walked over and opened the window quietly in fear of getting caught by his aunt and uncle. He knew his aunt wouldn't betray him, (because of Dumbledore) but she would let Vernon beat him to a bloody stick. Hedwig glided in and into her cage, knowing very well tomorrow was the day Harry would leave to King's Cross train station.
Harry put his hand underneath her beak and she dropped the letter and afterwards bit him affectionately. Then he shut the cage and locked it quickly before hiding the letter. He slipped it underneath the squeaky, loose floorboard next to the mattress. Meanwhile, his obese and resentful uncle Vernon came stamping in and whispered harshly, "Boy, tomorrow you leave us for your sixth year, correct?" The frightened teenager nodded, "Yea. And you're taking me to King's Cross right?" His legal guardian peered at him with an icy stare through his beady eyes, "I wish. Tomorrow is also the day that Dudley is promoted to be a junior at his new school because the old one is closing and his grades were advanced. Petunia doesn't care but Dudley has requested that you come. So you will not be going but coming with us... the ceremony ends at 2:30."
"But, sir! If I miss the train, you'll be stuck with me ALL YEAR LONG!" Harry wined, trying to convince the large man in front of him to take him but it was of no avail, "No, Dudley wants you to be there and so you will be. And there will be NO MAGIC, do I make myself clear?" The teenager seethed inside with boiling spite towards Dudley but agreed; he was only sixteen, where was he to go? "Yes sir, very clear." "Good, now you'll have to wear something nice, Petunia will get something." Vernon muttered and then left the room; apparently he wasn't all too happy about it either. Harry groaned but his attention turned back towards the letter.
He cautiously lifted the floorboard and slid his hand in the empty space underneath it. The boy reached and groped until his rough hand felt the wonderful texture of a parchment envelope. He then grabbed it delicately and put the floorboard back in it's place. A small slicing sound erupted from the envelope as it was being torn and a small sliding noise sounded when the letter was taken out. Harry looked at it curiously, the handwriting was extraordinarily neat, but had an odd feeling about it, the loops in the cursive were not thin but wide and it looked... friendly but warning. This was exactly the same content of the letter.
Dearest Harry,
I know about your cousin's promotion and how he wants you to go, however, we need you at Hogwarts and I will come and get you. Be waiting tonight by your window and be ready. We won't have much time. By the way, your owl Hedwig is very charming.
Sincerest Wishes,
Luna Lovegood
Harry stared at the note blankly for a moment; he just received a letter from Luna? Not that he didn't like Luna, in fact he liked her quite a lot. She seemed to be the only one he could talk to about his life and she would understand completely. She too was affected by the dementors he had learned when they were talking on the train home. Hermione and Ron were prefects and Sirius had just died, so she sat with him. Over that time he had gotten to know her a bit more. She too had horrors in her past. She had seen her mother die; she cleaned her house, did all the chores, and watched her father form a gradual, yet steady addiction to alcohol. She was a lot like him in ways he didn't even know yet. Blinking out of his thoughts, the teenager packed all his things and put Hedwig's cage by the window.
He waited for about a half hour and wondered how she knew about Dudley's promotion and how he wanted Harry to go, it was odd. However he didn't have much time to think on the subject because a scary and grotesque looking creature carrying Luna on it had arrived at his window, and before he could ask questions, Luna shoved him on the creature with her and they flew off. The wind warped through his already messy hair and he yelled to be heard over the wind, "WHAT IS THIS THING?" Luna stated calmly, "Don't shout, it hurts him! This is Eftemie! He is a Gargoyle! The others have your things so don't worry!" Harry was still puzzled but shrugged it off, for some reason he really trusted Luna and so he didn't ask anymore than that.
He looked up at the night sky that was sprinkled with stars and blessed and basking in the comforting light of the crescent moon. Luna too, looked up and smiled while closing her eyes, "Isn't it beautiful? This is when the lunar faeries come out and dance! If we're lucky, one might come up! They're usually very shy though." And almost as soon as she'd said it, millions of faeries could be seen twirling and flying in the night. Each had their own blue and sometimes blue-green or blue-violet glow. Some selected few even had a sliver glow and their wings were all spectacular, but each unique. Harry's eyes wandered over to Luna, to whom a silver faery had landed on her forefinger and she held it up close to her face. The light shone brightly on her face and enhanced the gorgeous look of pure joy, wonder, excitement, and mysterious love that she was wearing. Strangely enough, more faeries each came up and flew around her. Their sparkling dust trailing around behind them, and now Harry just focused on her. She was absolutely thrilled to see and even touch these faeries!
Something about her seemed different, her eyes were always wide in fascination, but he never really noticed what a wonderful silver they were. They shone so brightly, reflecting many deep and well meant emotions. Her pale skin was now tinged with some pink as the wind and faeries blew around her, and then he noticed her small smile, so calm, but so meaningful. And it was just then that Harry began to ask himself how he had never noticed all this before. Come to think of it, she looked a little like Malfoy himself... except that her hair was a dirty blonde, and well... his look looked way better on her. Something about her was different though. Something was unusual... something he just could not place. Maybe it was that her hair was neater and curlier than usual. Or maybe that her laugh was a bit deeper. Maybe it was her voice? Whatever it was, he still could not tell.
Soon enough, they all landed upon an old stone castle, which was vaguely familiar. Yet, Harry had never seen it before. "What an odd feeling," he thought. Eftemie's strong wings blew up a breeze as he landed and Luna helped the boy who lived off, "Okay Harry, I suppose you want an explanation... These are gargoyles, and this is where they all perch before sunrise. I asked them to help us out because this isn't too far from Hogwarts." Harry was very curious indeed, so he asked, "Why do they perch here before sunrise?" The blonde girl laughed, "Why? Harry, they're gargoyles, so when the sun rises, they turn to stone!"
This caused the boy to blush and then he caught a glimpse of a statue. It was of a beautiful woman who had tears steaming down her cold, stone face. Her hair was long and her arms were out stretched towards the horizon and her face held a lost expression. Harry was afraid to ask yet another stupid question, but Luna had already caught it by look on his face and pulled him closer so she could whisper in his ear, "Harry, that is Eftemie's love, Voletta Esmay. She used to live in the castle and fell in love with him as he fell in love with her. It was sort of a love and hate relationship because the others began to trust her more than him and he was jealous. But in the end, her parents saw the love before they did and moved away. On their last night, before she left, she held onto him crying, about to admit her feelings and then the sun rose. You can't touch a gargoyle when the sun rises, Harry. If you do, you turn to stone... like she did. Eftemie has been searching for a cure for over 3000 years but hasn't found one yet. It would be best if you did not speak of her." It took a while for the teenage wonder to understand what she said but then he nodded and the rest of the gargoyles landed.
Harry could finally see them. There were two girls, and two guys, (excluding Eftemie) and the girls gently placed his stuff down. They looked like twins, but the only thing that was a difference was their eyes. One had piercing green, and the other had lightning yellow. They both had very long, strait hair and long heart shaped faces. They also had pointed noses along with full, pouty lips... and they reminded him greatly of Ginny. The only thing was they looked about ten years older than they were and didn't have freckles. Just cold, light blue skin. The one with golden eyes smiled at him and held out a hand for a hand shake, "Hi. I'm Luminita and this is my sister, Evangeline. We're glad to see you... what's your name?" Luna laughed softly as Harry looked at them confused, "Don't you know that already?" This made Luna laugh harder and Evangeline shook her head, "Nope. If you're famous or something, I apologize, but people that are well known to wizard kind are never told to us. We don't get along all too greatly with mortals as you can guess." The boy who lived nodded, "Oh. Well I'm Harry Potter. Glad to meet you." The two boys scoffed and Luminita sent them a glare, "Shut up you two. No one asked for your opinion. Sorry, Mr. Potter. This is Elendin and Teshitan. They're the idiots of the clan. Forgive them, they have no manners at all, I'm afraid." Luna laughed a little more and hugged the one called Elendin, "Aw, they're sweet to me." Evangeline rolled her eyes and hugged Teshitan, "Well, they may be idiots, but they're cute idiots I'll admit."
The teenage boy took this time to look at them. Elendin had long hair, about two inches beyond his shoulders in a low pony tail and looked back at him through eyes as sparkling blue as pool water. And then Teshitan had shorter hair than Elendin, but it was still long, about to his shoulders and it was also in a low pony tail. However, he stared back at Harry through ruby red eyes. There was a silence that hung in the air for about two minutes and then they all burst out in laughter.
Eftemie sat in the corner, looking at Voletta's frozen statue. Apparently he was reminiscing about the times he had with her. A twinge of pity flashed in Harry's heart as he felt sympathy for the leading gargoyle. Luminita pulled him to her and smiled, "Here. Let's get you to one of the rooms down stairs. We'll take you to Hogwarts tomorrow night and beat the train there." Harry waited for Luna to come, then walked down the stairs following Luminita to a warm room with a roaring fire and hot tea. He wondered how the tea was already made, but Luminita just giggled and handed him a blanket, "Here. You can sleep on the couch, as all the other rooms are empty. Or filled with pretty much destroyed furniture. Is that okay?" Harry nodded and Evangeline let Hedwig out of her cage, where she landed on her arm and cooed happily. The teenage boy took that as a sign that he could trust the gargoyles. Luna then smiled sweetly and hugged him, "I'm going to sleep down stairs if you need me. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that both the girls left him alone to drift slowly into his own reality... his dreams.
Screams tore the silence in the stone castle as Harry jolted out of bed like lightning and ran to the source of the screams. He gasped as he saw the gargoyles turning to stone. The hero was right about to pull them along when the memory of what Luna had said came to mind, "You can't touch a gargoyle when the sun rises, Harry. Or else you'll turn to stone." So he sat there helpless while he watched the gargoyles freeze into one position. Then he remembered how Luna had explained how they wake up in the night and sleep in the day. He wandered down the stairs and ran to the dungeons to find Luna but could not find her. Panic began to rush through his blood and mind and, having no where else to go, walked back to the couch where he had slept and sat down. Instantly he heard a crunch and jolted back up to find that he had sat on a note for him.
Dearest Harry,
I'm sorry, but I had to head back to Hogwarts alone after receiving an owl from Dumbledore. Hopefully, I will see you soon. If not, Hedwig should know where to find me. Until we meet again,
Sincerest Wishes,
Luna Lovegood
The boy who lived sat back down and contemplated the letter. For some reason he was pained that Luna had left without him. And it pained him that she had said the word "hopefully" when she mentioned seeing him again. Hopefully to him this was all a big joke. However, he took this time to wander around the castle.
The dark, stone hallways were empty, but gave the illusion of being full. For some reason Harry believed it to be Eftemie's magic, and in truth, it was. He peered into the other rooms and saw what once great pieces of furniture were now nothing more than splinters cluttering the cold floor. Once again he got the feeling that this was Eftemie's doing... and once again he was right. He imagined Eftemie unleashing his anger upon the castle and saw that it was not pretty. He thought about the story Luna had told him. The leading gargoyle DID have a reason to weep. Losing the love of your life AND afterlife is a great loss indeed. He found a new respect for Eftemie and hours flew by like minutes as visions popped through his head like memories. Though in reality neither word would be best used to describe them, they were more of day dreams than memories or visions. They were the result when the boy who lived peered at the scattered wood and wondered how Eftemie had felt.
Soon enough, he remembered Voletta's statue and after some fading and melting, he saw Luna within the stone instead of the weeping woman. The teenager was gasping for air, as though perhaps it would stop this disturbing vision. Now here is where the word vision fits, for even though Harry walked away thinking it was his imagination, there was a message hidden beneath the surface of that dream.
(A/N :) And alas, this is where the first chapter ends. I've been working on this for far too long and even though it is short, it has taken too much time. I hope you all enjoyed it! Please do not flame and please do not steal the Gargoyles and Voletta Esmay. They are MY characters and I shall use them some day in a novel. Until then I am content with showing them to you. Thank you all and please read next time!
My Compliments to you fellow writers,
The Empress of Whispers