Bloodlust

The man stepped closer and they could clearly see the resemblance; he had the same face as Snape, which was looking at them disdainfully, but his eyes were a brilliant green. His silky black hair was no longer greasy or in his face, but hung down his back in a tight ponytail nearly down to his toes.

"Well?" Said the man, testily, "I haven't got all night!"

Snape instinctively pulled his hood to better hide his own face. When he spoke, his voice was an octave lower than normal, "Ah, yes, our papers, um…" He rummaged through his robe, as the others made similar searching motions while stealing worried glances at one another.

"Well?"

"I... er... we must have left them..."

"Where?"

"Uhhh..."

"At our room," Raven blurted out, "at the Three Broomsticks." Snape crossed his fingers, hoping it existed.

"At the Three Broomsticks, I see," the man with Snape's voice said silkily. "Well then! Perhaps we should go down to the Three Broomsticks and get them, shall we?" Snape could almost imagine the triumphant smirk on his face, "Come along, follow me!"

They walked behind him, each of them looking at each other worriedly. What would this Snape do if they didn't have their papers? Deanna kept a suspicious eye on him, for he was the vampire she had sensed, but they all seemed to have an unspoken understanding that they needed to find out a little more about this world before making their intentions known. Anything less would be reckless. Thorne got between them and the Snape-Vampire and began to purr loudly. It took them a minute before realizing he was creating a noise buffer so they could plan what they were going to do.

"Snape!" a sharp voice called. The unmistakable click, click of high heels hitting pavement carried easily through the night air, and in a few moments another figure emerged. It was a woman this time, wearing heavy black robes and a deep green pendant. The angry clicking slowed as she neared the group, and when she stopped in front of Snape her features became more evident.

Crimson red lips, painted or otherwise, were most prominent on her pale face. Annoyed, she shoved a wisp of black hair behind her ear and addressed the vampiric Snape.

"You haven't checked in lately. Over an hour late. The group was becoming worried; one of our best members, lost, killed, captured. I was sent to find you."

A mocking tone crept into her words, but as soon as she had finished speaking she shivered, taking away some of the bite of her speech. He scowled and turned to face her, wishing to put this trifling problem to order immediately.

"Lestrange, don't be stupid. I am not --" he sneered now "-- required to check in like a mewling child every hour. Do you really think I am unsafe at night? Besides," he continued, his tone becoming more pointed, "I have been occupied."

"Like hell you've been 'occupied' with this shoddy group for an hour, Snape," the woman replied snappishly. "And why would I want to come out here after you if not under orders?"

"Simple. You do not trust me."

A sinuously evil smile touched Lestrange's lips, and she laughed aloud. In the empty streets of Hogsmeade, the unnatural laugh echoed slowly into silence, and she looked at Snape with an amused expression.

"You're absolutely right, Snape. I don't. Where are you taking them?"

"The Three Broomsticks. They claim to have left their papers there."

Her smile widened, revealing perfect, white teeth. The absence of any deformity made the woman seem even more twisted. She appeared to revel in the others' growing discomfort, and peered at them all the more closely.

"I will accompany you there, of course. I'm sure there will be no problems locating the papers there..." Lestrange turned back to the vampiric Snape with a knowing smirk and an excited gleam in her eyes.

Suddenly, where once sat a simple house cat was now a juvenile Draven cat. Snape and Lestrange gasped for a moment before composing themselves. Even though Thorne was young, the tops of their heads barely reached his shoulder. He smiled to reveal rows of sharp teeth.

i grow weary of this game, he purred into everyone's mind. it appears that my brother may have been wrong on how lax you security is... Thorne stretched out, his wings spreading and his dagger-like claws tearing into the hard ground.

"What is this? What's going on here?" snapped the Vampire-Snape, his eyes glowing in anger.

Thorne narrowed his green eyes at him. i suggest you don't take that tone with me, he growled.

"We meant no disrespect," Lestrange smiled through clenched teeth, "There have been security breaches as of late..."

which is why i was sent to test you, Thorne rumbled, his mental voice dripping with disgust. i am moonslayer bloodstone, brother of shadow bloodstone, and these -- he jerked his head to indicate Raven, Deanna and Snape -- are my... pets.

Thorne turned his poison green gaze on the three companions. play along, he added in a private message.

"Your... pets? You let them wander around unchecked?" The green-eyed Snape scoffed, his eyebrow raised.

Thorne snarled and in a movement much too quick for anyone to follow, Snape was on the ground, with the Draven cat's paw on his chest, his claws pressed against the vampire's neck. One move and Thorne could have easily decapitated him.

you need to learn your place in the food chain, vampire, he hissed. right now i am at the top -- Thorne pressed his claws in a little deeper, drawing blood -- and you are at the bottom.

"Moonslayer... um... sir?" Lestrange piped up, trying to gently draw his attention. She might have personally enjoyed it if the Draven cat had killed Snape, but she had been told to bring him back in one piece.

Thorne looked up at her, his eyes narrowed in fury. She gulped and continued. "I assure you, he meant nothing by it... They had no papers, and policy states that if there are no papers --"

your stupid human policies do not apply to me and my kind... he hissed before taking his paw off Snape's neck. The vampire glared at the Draven cat with intense hatred and loathing, but said nothing as he stood up and dusted himself off.

now, if you are finished wasting my time, we will be leaving. Thorne glared at Raven, who nodded slightly before leading the others away from Hogsmeade and into the forest. Thorne sat there waiting until they were out of sight. He then turned his eyes on Snape.

next time we meet, vampire, i suggest you keep that forked tongue of yours on a leash... he hissed before disappearing into the shadows.

He caught up with the others a short distance away.

c'mon, he sent to them as he coiled one of his tails around Raven's wrist. i know a safe place where we can rest. it's not far from here.

The subdued group silently made their way through the forest until they reached a small cave.

The adrenaline rush of the events of the day began to wear off and Snape suddenly felt so… empty. He stared into the fire as if looking at it would help fill him with a kind of non-physical warmth. It didn't work. He still felt drained. How had he gotten himself into this? Oh right, Dumbledore had asked him, in his indirect way. Sometimes he wondered why he cared so much about what Dumbledore thought of him. After the events of today, he certainly couldn't deny, even to himself, that he cared.

That still stunned him. Out of all the things he was afraid of, that was the thing which the room had chosen to create. How could Dumbledore's trust mean that much to him? He thought back over the years. He could see it now, like he never had before. It almost seemed laughably obvious. Who had he turned to when he realized being a Death Eater was not a wise career move? Dumbledore. Why had he risked his life all those years as a spy? Dumbledore. Why had he gone down the rabbit hole and ended up in this godforsaken world? Dumbledore.

It still didn't answer his question of why Dumbledore's trust and friendship mattered. Is that what it was? Was Dumbledore really his friend? He thought hard, progressively moving backwards in time in his mind. He couldn't remember ever thinking of Dumbledore as anything other than a colleague. But then again, professors don't normally risk their lives on a regular basis for their headmasters.

So Dumbledore was Snape's friend. When had that happened? Again he thought back, all the way back to his darkest hours, when he finally decided he had had enough of being a Death Eater. Why had he thought Dumbledore would truly believe his story of reform? He realized with a start that Dumbledore had impacted his life even earlier than that.

Snape had almost been twelve. A Hogwarts second year, or, he would have been, if he could have. All he knew was that there were people not allowing him to attend school. They said it would be too dangerous. But then, he remembered a man with a long graying auburn beard had visited their house. It was almost Snape's twelfth birthday when Dumbledore showed up at the door (at almost nine p.m.) and talked long into the night with his parents. He couldn't hear what they were discussing -- not that he cared much anyway -- but they finally called him down from his room.

"Severus, you'll never believe who this is!" He mother said, beaming at him.

"Who?"

"Hello, Severus," he said, shaking the boy's hand. "I'm Albus Dumbledore. I'm the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Snape's pale young face scowled at the mention of school. "So? I don't go there," he said pointedly.

But Dumbledore smiled kindly at him, "That's exactly why I'm here, Severus. Would you like to go to Hogwarts?"

"I'm not allowed. Because of my… condition." He scowled again; it was sad to see one so young make a face like that.

"But would you like to go?"

"Yes."

"I thought so," He smiled, his eyes twinkling, "Than I promise you. You shall go."

Thorne had settled close to the fire, Raven curled up against him. He watched her for a moment, comforted by the sound of her quiet breathing.

Raven squirmed slightly in her sleep, as memories that she had locked up long ago began to creep into her dreams. She could hear her father's thundering voice, as she tried to run away from him. Her legs wouldn't move, she was trapped..

Raven began whimpering softly in her sleep, and tears leaked from her eyes. Thorne made a worried chirping noise as he nuzzled her, hoping to offer some comfort, but it didn't appear to be working. He was tempted to wake her up, but she had been so weak and exhausted that any sleep was a blessing. He sighed and licked the tears from her face, before settling down to take a nap.

I'm not a murderer, Deanna thought sulkily. The room was nothing but a lie. She kicked at a stone and sent it into the fire they'd made in the cave, sending up a small cloud of embers. She watched them float down again.

It was a slow day (or night, rather) in the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, vampire division. Deanna drummed her fingers on the stack of parchment beside her desk. She hated slow days with nothing but paperwork to do. She hated paperwork. She looked up at the clock, nearly three in the morning. She yawned and shoved her paperwork aside. She needed to stretch.

She passed the front office where Maleficent Macnair sat filling out the Daily Prophet crossword puzzle, looking quite as bored as Deanna felt. The coffee room was down the hall. She took her time reheating the coffee cauldron as she stretched her legs. Stifling another yawn, she headed back to her office with the mug of coffee.

She heard two people arguing… one she recognized, one she didn't.

"She's out at the moment, sir. You will wait your turn, like everyone else," said a bored-sounding voice belonging to Maleficent.

"There is no one else here," the other voice said in a low, strained sort of whisper.

"Sir, please sit down."

"I've been waiting for nearly an hour. I've filled out all the paperwork. Please... just let me leave."

"Your interview isn't for another fifteen minutes."

"I can't wait that long!"

"You will if you don't want to be breaking Ministry laws on vampire registration."

"Can't I owl you later?" he cried, desperation in his voice.

"All vampires must submit to an interview on the date and time scheduled by the Ministry."

Deanna peered into the room. The vampire was standing over the desk where Maleficent continued to do her crossword puzzle. He held tightly onto the desk scratching the veneer off with his nails.

"Sit down sir, you're breathing on my neck."

'What is she doing?' Deanna thought. Although the vampires back was to her, she could tell he was looking very ill. He needed to leave. He looked as though he hadn't fed properly. She shook her head. It was basic Magical Creature training and Maleficent hadn't noticed yet? Deanna snorted, thinking about all the times in Care of Magical creatures class, how Maleficent had never failed to remind everyone that her uncle worked in the dangerous creatures department at the Ministry. How she had been so outstanding in magical creatures that the Ministry was falling over itself to snap her up…Deanna rolled her eyes. It had nothing at all to do with her uncle getting her the job…nothing at all…

'Let's see how well you really do with magical creatures.' Deanna stood in the doorway and folded her arms. She was finally going to show up that stuck-up witch. This would be a day to remember.

Maleficent brushed her quill to her lips, "What's a five-letter word for a common mixture whose main ingredient is erythrocytes?"

"Blood," the vampire said immediately.

"Oh right... I knew that o--" She couldn't say any more; the vampire had brought his hand to her throat in one quick motion, and there was a sickening crunch as her airway snapped.

Deanna shook herself to clear her head. I'm not a murderer, she thought, Maleficent was a fool. There wasn't anything I could have done.

"Fool," she said under her breath, but now she wondered if that sentiment should be directed at Maleficent, or at herself.

Snape awoke, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up straight. He looked around, and his eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness of the cave. The fire had nearly guttered out, and it cast faint, flickering shadows all around. Deanna was still asleep in her corner and Thorne was softly snoring on his side, but Raven was nowhere to be seen. Snape stood up and stretched, his back muscles popping. He walked out of the cave, gazing around, when his eyes caught a small pile of clothes neatly stacked by the entrance. It was Raven's robe and gloves...

Curiouser and curiouser, Snape thought before walking out into the night.

The woods stretched out in all directions, and Snape took the utmost care not to get lost. He took out his wand and thought, Point me. His wand spun in response to the nonverbal command, pointing due north. After memorizing the position of the cave in relation to the compass, he walked on.

Where was Raven? He was getting agitated. The group shouldn't become separated, he thought she would have known that. While walking, he planned the speech he was going to give her about her irresponsibility in leaving the group and not telling anyone where she was going. And without any clothes! He was wondering what exactly he'd find… Who knew what sort of dangers were in these woods, at once so familiar and yet so strange?

He began to feel uncomfortable himself... the moon was setting, and it would soon be day. He stopped by a tree to put in his contacts. That was when he smelled it. Blood.

Snape walked a little faster, his stomach rumbling in spite of himself. He swore. Without realizing it, he followed the scent. He broke into a clearing where there was a trail of blood and gore. Something had been killed here, and it must have happened recently...

His nostrils flared as he followed the blood trail, until he came to a large tree. Scattered on the ground were freshly stripped bones, most of which were cracked open, the marrow sucked out, and just resting against the base of the trunk was a skull. It looked to be of the rodent family, but it was enormous, almost bigger than his own head...

Suddenly there was rustling in the branches above him. Snape looked up to see a vaguely humanoid, but clearly female, figure crouched on an overhanging branch, holding a stripped bone. A pair of eyes, large and green and set in a face that was a mixture of human and feline features, regarded him with shock.

The creature moved away from him and farther into the woods, keeping to the tree branches. Snape relaxed and brought his wand down to his side.

"HURRY!" a voice shouted in his ear so loudly he nearly dropped his wand. The person who had shattered the pre-dawn silence pushed at Snape's side in the direction of the eyes. "After her! You won't catch her like that, will you? Too slow, you are! Two slow legs, when she has four! Four and twenty black cats baked in a pie... Blood pie! Fly, sky, try, Try to fly in the sky…"

"What?" The darkness was waning and pale light filtered into the clearing through the trees, but had not yet reached into the shadows where odd man stood.

"No, no, listen, don't listen to me, listen. Said the Butterfly. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Bumblebee… dumble bumble mumble crumble fumble …stupid insect…humming humble bumble…"

The man stopped shoving Snape and seemed to float off into his own private world. He started to wander off into the woods again, humming something that was vaguely familiar…

She jumped from branch to branch, determined to get back to the cave unseen. She landed hard on a rotted branch and suddenly lost her footing as it crumbled underneath her and she crashed hard onto the leaf-littered ground.

The creature scrambled onto her feet, hearing the sound of someone carelessly making their way towards her. She shifted to her human shape and realized that she was covered in blood and gore. Raven backed up against a tree, hiding herself in the shadows.

Suddenly an old man crashed through the underbrush and walked right past her towards the cave, mumbling and cackling senselessly to himself.

Raven barely tasted the blood on her lips as she murmurred, "What the...?"

Another shape followed, a little stealthier and more familiar than the last. Snape. Quickly Raven used her claws to climb up the nearest limb of a tree. At first, she thought he was going to pass her as the old man had, but he stopped in front of her tree. He breathed in deeply and a glazed expression came over his face.

Too afraid to move, Raven pressed herself against the trunk of the tree, holding her breath.. Her leg hurt from her earlier spill. Suddenly she lost her grip and slid down the trunk, landing in an ungraceful heap.

She winced and slowly stood up to find Snape staring at her with an intense gaze. She felt vulnerable, embarrassed and exposed.. She wasn't nude but had on the Muggle clothing she always wore under her robes: a tank top, some shorts... They were now covered in blood and gore.

Raven averted her eyes from his as she tried to wipe the blood from her lips and face.

Too afraid to move, Snape stood there, staring. Raven wiped crimson off of her lips, smearing it onto the back of her hand. He watched it. He stared at her hand. Don't move, Snape told himself, do nothing. You will just stand there. Stay put.

'Don't move' became his mantra for an agonizing minute. His higher brain, his sensible self had nearly shut itself off. Only one word rang through his mind. But he knew, if he did nothing, didn't move at all, nothing would happen. He just stared.

Blood. There was just so much of it... His stomach made a very angry noise at him.

"Raven..." his voice came out, strangled and unnatural-sounding, "...do not move."

She found her voice. "What's the matter? You look... odd." Even odder, perhaps, than the old man who had come barreling through the woods a moment ago.

"Contact Thorne and tell them to bring the red vial that is in my traveling cloak, that's the red one that smells of blood... or else bring the hunter…."

Don't move, don't move, don't move

Raven looked momentarily confused.

"I have to tell you ... I'm a vampire," he said, still in that unnatural voice.

"I know, remember?" Raven wondered briefly if he had lost his memory as well as his sense. "What's the potion?" she asked curiously.

Right. She had seen his fear.

"It's Vampire's Bane. It keeps me from... from..."

And then, it began.

In his mind's eye, he could see himself, biting into Raven like some kind of wild beast. Completely amoral. He could feel her life's blood….

I mustn't think this. Snape shook his head to clear it, but his pulse quickened anyway. Don't move, don't move, dammit! Don't move! If you hadn't left your potion behind, this never would have happened... Don't move don't move don't….

"They are still a ways off.." she said quietly, cursing herself for being so messy in her feeding... but it had been so long...

She stepped towards him, and he automatically stepped back.

"If... If you need to feed, you can do so from me..." Her eyes flashed as she held out her arm towards him. "I promise you, you won't hurt me."

"Like hell I won't." Snape's face screwed up in a look of hatred and fear as he remembered himself being bitten, and for a moment Snape thought he had mastered himself. But his thoughts increasingly turned favorably on his attacker, and it utterly appalled and disgusted him even as his thoughts slipped back to blood with a fierce single-mindedness. He shivered and his mouth began to water.

She stepped forward, he stepped back, like some bizarre courting dance.

How long has it been, Snape? Too long? Fifteen years long? Longer even? The last vestiges of his sensibilities began to give way...

He moved.

She held out her arm to him and he couldn't stand there anymore. Maybe, maybe if I just…I will not bite her, he told himself, I'll just lick the blood from her arm… He knew, though, that he would never be able to hold to that.

He stepped forward and took Raven's hand. Licking only. No biting.

That lasted for all of two seconds, for Raven stepped even closer to him, pushing her blood soaked hair away and exposing her neck...

It was just too much for Snape. His higher reasoning flickered and died, and he fastened his mouth to her neck.