A/N: Well, here we are for the sixth night, and I say this with a sort of sadness and excitement: Once this chapter is over, we are nearing the end of the story. But fear not, readers, for I will write more fanfic. It's in my blood, so to speak. And I know you're going, "Well, you could have pulled it out longer if you waited a week or so between chapters, Lady Lelani!" but I am on a roll!
Chapter Six:
The clock chimed loudly as Hermione looked out the window, watching something in the distance. Of course, they had a similar clock to the one in the Weasleys' former house, one that instead of numbers and hands, had pictures of members of the residents and what they were doing or where they were at the current moment. One of the hands were fixed on "Home," one had simply gone blank and ceased to move, and another was on "Traveling."
Cho apparently seemed to notice this, pointing to the clock. "What's wrong with the clock? It must be wrong."
Ginny shook her head. "That clock's never wrong, Cho."
"It has to be. It's got Daphne under traveling. Last I checked, she was upstairs, fast asleep." Luna frowned as she studied it.
Hermione grumbled and moved herself from the position on her chair, making her way up the stairs, and opening Daphne's door, before slamming it shut again.
"The clock's right. She's not there." She ran over to the patio door in her room, and twisted it. "The patio door's unlocked. She must have run off when we came in."
Ginny let out a low groan and slapped her hand to her forehead. "She must have heard us talking and freaked out about it. But there aren't that many people who will help an eleven year old girl save her vampire cousin, putting it into perspective."
Cho raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Oh, I think there's one person. She was a delinquent when she left the school, and she probably still is."
Harry sighed agitatedly. "You mean that girl, Paulina Marino, don't you? The one who spray painted the girl's bathroom in Abigail's first year?"
Luna giggled slightly, but was cut off from a stern look from Cho.
"That's her alright. She lives about fifteen minutes from here."
"And you know this how?"
"She sent up fireworks on November 5th last year for Guy Fawkes, magical fireworks I may add."
Luna nodded excitedly. "I remember those! They were pretty…but against the law," she added hurriedly after Hermione shot her an angry look.
"Should we go to her house now, or do you think she may have already left?" Ginny yelled over the clock chiming again, with Daphne's position now changing to "Away."
Cho narrowed her eyes. "I'd say she'd already left."
"So this," Paulina announced as she parked the car and opened the rusty gates with a squeak, "Is the mansion I was talking about. It looks like it was a pretty nice place in its heyday," she commented, looking at the ruins of the mansion as she pushed the rusty gates open again. "God, you'd think these would have been oiled more in their lifetime!"
Daphne slipped out, trying to not disturb Trianne, who was still sleeping her head off, except as Daphne got out, she whispered, "Someone's watching you," causing Daphne to close the door somewhat awkwardly as it locked behind her.
"Did she talk in her sleep again?" Keziah said, looking at the shaken Daphne, who nodded. "She does that a lot. Don't freak, it's probably just a dream she was having."
Daphne let of a gasp of relief. "She really scared me; I thought she was going all Seer on me for a minute then."
Keziah laughed. "No Seers in our family, Daphne, just Quidditch players."
Paulina called them over to what appeared to be the remnants of a basement, or maybe a cellar. "Now what I don't get is what these initials stand for. There's a V, an A, and an M. Any ideas you two?" she looked up to the two after studying the M mark intensely.
"There appears to be bloodstains and ashes on it, and there's a hole close by it. Watch your step." She added to the two who were coming over to her, stepping over the cracks leading to the hole nearby.
"I'm with you on this Paulina, I don't have a clue. Maybe it stands for the owners of the house?" Daphne replied as she raised an eyebrow as she looked at it.
"That's weird even by magical standards," Keziah retorted. "I cannot think for the life of me what charms require only initials to protect a house. Normally you need full names for a charm like that to work. And it's not a hundred percent."
"It was just a thought, Keziah."
"I know it was. But charms don't usually work that way, at least not in my experience."
"Maybe the owners of the house weren't witches and wizards?" Paulina interrupted, looking at the two. "This could have something to do with Abby, you know."
"Um…how, exactly, Paulina, does it have to do with my cousin, when you said this happened a few months ago?" Daphne asked as she raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Maybe the vampire who turned her is related to this place somehow," Paulina thought out loud as she played with some of the twigs and leaves that had fallen onto the ruins. "Maybe they know what happened here. Or they could be just as clueless as us."
"You're wrong about the clueless part."
Paulina whirled around, Keziah running to her side as she pushed Daphne behind her. It was a man with short blonde hair, who was staring at them.
"Why are you kids up here? You could get hurt pretty easily if you don't what you're doing," he growled as he looked at the two girls, who merely stared at him back.
Paulina hissed in return as she took out her wand and pointed it at him, Keziah doing the same. "We know what we're doing up here, and we can take care of ourselves. We happen to be looking for a friend of ours."
"Wait, you're witches?"
Keziah scoffed, much in the same way her mother had earlier in a different place. "Yes, is that not obvious by the wands we're pointing at you?"
"You were talking about Abby, right?"
Paulina's eyes widened. "You'd know about her how?"
"I know the vampire who turned her, that's how I know her."
Daphne popped her head behind Keziah, her brown hair falling past her face. Unable to control herself from having an outburst, she yelled, "Her parents are going to kill her at sunset if they find her!"
Paulina and Keziah turned around, and Daphne moved to Keziah's right, who looked at her somewhat annoyed.
"I figured it was better to get it out in the open than to let stay there while you two have your Elektra complexes. And I'm well aware that's not what it means, don't correct me Paulina. You know what I mean," she added in response to Paulina's expression who looked as if she was about to say something to correct the child, who had placed her hands on her hips, one of them clutching her own wand. She turned to the man, who looked somewhat disturbed.
"Her own parents are going to kill her if they find her?"
"Yes! My uncle with his whole Hero thing agreed to it, I heard him say it myself!"
"So… you'd be Abby's cousin then?"
"Yes! God, can you not get to the point even faster than that?"
"I'm sorry," Paulina interrupted again, "She's kind of impatient when it comes to stuff like this." She shot a look at the eleven year old, who shot her a look back in return.
"I would be too, actually."
"That doesn't give her an excuse to yell like that."
Daphne proceeded to jump in the air to make her point. "Excuse me? My cousin, who has been my best friend since, oh, I don't know, my birth, is going to be killed by her own parents sunset tonight if we don't find her first! I think it gives me a pretty good excuse Paulina!" She screamed, causing Keziah to cover her ears and Paulina to roll her eyes in frustration.
"Keziah, help me!" someone screamed in the distance.
Keziah's eyes immediately went to the direction of the car. "Oh god… it's Trianne!" She ran over to the car, the three following her, but found it empty and its windows smashed in.
"Shit." She swore as she looked skyward, seeing a familiar mark in the sky, one only her parents had told her about in legend.
"What's that?" the man confusedly said as he looked at the sky. "Is it bad?"
"Oh, it's bad alright," Paulina replied as Keziah brushed the glass out of the car's backseat and opened the door for Daphne. "It's the dark mark. Whoever attacked Abby did this to Trianne as well. We're dealing with the same person."
There was a moment of silence before the man spoke.
"I guess I already know your names. I'm Michael."
"Nice to meet you under such unfortunate circumstances," Paulina replied as she opened her driver's car door and stepping into the car. "I imagine you could take us to Abby so we can give her fair warning? I mean, I would really think she can't make it here herself, seeing as how it's the middle of the day and everything."
"Yes, I think I could. I'll go get my car; she's not far from here, her and Selene."
"That would be the vampire who turned her, right?"
"Right."
Trianne let out a yelp as she was thrown in front of a blonde haired woman, who smiled somewhat viciously.
"Oh, so you're little Trianne? I thought you'd be bigger than that, seeing as how you're almost nine."
Trianne looked up. "Who the hell are you?"
"You shouldn't have such a mouth on you for such a young age. You'll learn soon enough who I am."
Trianne made an attempt to move, but someone restrained her. The blonde haired woman leaned in closer to her, and Trianne could clearly see the fangs of a vampire.
"Someone needs to control their temper," she mocked in a sing-song voice. "Take her away, I'll use her later," she told a person in the room, who proceeded to pick up the kicking girl and throw her in a room off a corridor. The woman let out a small giggle and sighed.
"Children annoy me. I'm so glad I never had any. Yet I do think I'm glad I found these Death Eaters just begging for a leader like me."