Part 3-Upon
Disclaimer: The vampire information and that little tidbit about werewolves were from a series I read. 'The Vampire Diaries' by L. J. Smith and some parts of her 'Night World' series. All the information were taken from these books so if some of them is different from what you've always known, sorry but this is information that I've taken from my own sources.
Note: This chapter is based on Hermione and Ron but it is very important. If you chose not to read it, well in the future chapters if things come up and you don't understand why, it's because of this chapter. This is a purely information chapter, quite boring but important nonetheless.
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Hermione grabbed a book from the shelf and threw it on the table, along with a pile of scattered books already taking residence there.
Ron was sitting in a chair by the table, starring absentmindedly at nothing specific.
"Come on! I know it's in here somewhere," said Hermione.
There was no reply or response from the red head sitting at the desk.
"Ron, snap out of it and help me! Do you really want Harry to change? If we don't get to them in time-" Hermione shook her head. There was no way she was going to be able to continue that sentence.
"Harry, Harry can't change," said Ron sounding as if he was almost afraid to speak.
The brunette gave him a sympathetic look. She understood because the four of them had known each other for as long as they were willing to remember. It was the support of one another that had helped each of them move on from their own personal hidden past. They all had something to hide and it was the secrets that kept the four so strong together. They loved each other because they understood what was needed to deal with those of an unhappy past, but it was the respect they had for each other to keep their secret to themselves that made their bond so strong. They never pushed, they never shoved, they never accused and they never misunderstood. They always cared; they were always there, always willing to give and never expected to receive. They always knew and yet were in the dark. It was just how their friendship was. There was no pestering, no forcing, no unreasonable requests. It was having the secrets that allowed them to trust each other.
As far as Hermione could remember, Harry had always been there for Ron. There were secrets between the two that not even Hermione knew about. That was just the way they were. Of course, there were things between Harry and Hermione that Ron and Draco didn't know either but that was beside the point. It had hit Ron hard when it was revealed that Harry was still alive, and was about to change over. Change over to something they had all been fighting. One thing that was evident between the four of them though was that these creatures, the ones they were fighting, were connected to each and every single one of the Night Hunter's past.
Yet, knowing just that much was enough for all of them. It was reason enough for one to risk their life for another so at least one of the four members could go on living, pushing the past behind them. This had been the unspoken goal between the four, at the beginning anyway. If three of the members were to die during an assignment in helping the last member forget the past, it was enough. The three would have died absolutely complete in knowing they had achieved that. Now that relationships and love had formed between the four, they wanted everyone to be happy and to live through this because they loved each other so much that it would hurt too much to leave one behind.
Though they don't show it now but when Harry had first disappeared from them three years ago, Hermione and Ron were torn apart. Harry meant a lot to them, just as much as they all meant to each other. Though the two of them knew that nothing could compare to what Draco had felt, they still hurt. In a way, even knowing that Harry was still alive, they were all still mourning, still sad that they had lost three whole years with a strong part of their group.
"Ron," said Hermione with the gentlest voice she possessed. "Please, just help me search through these books. I know you don't like reading but please, do it for Harry?"
The red head was staring out into space again but he nodded slightly. "For Harry," was all he spoke before he snapped out of his trance, picked up a book and started noting down anything he could find relating to vampires.
Three hours later both of them had a small piece of parchment each with information about vampires written down.
"Alright Ron, that's all my books. Are you done with yours?"
The red head nodded while quickly scribbling a final note.
"Alright, let's begin," said Hermione looking down her list of facts she had taken. "I've got that garlic does nothing to keep them away. Neither do fire, water, and ice. Those are all myths."
Ron nodded. "Mirrors, their reflection is still there. A mirror is supposed to reflect someone's soul but it doesn't matter, their physical form is still there. The reflection of the soul is also a myth."
"Alright, well I've got that stakes and sunlight really work and are most probably the only ways to kill them."
Ron nodded in agreement. "I've got that they cannot fly. They are not really bats. If anything, they turn into an animal. But most of them can only turn into one animal at a time unless they have been taking a powerful life source. Powerful life source meaning the entire life, drinking a human dry. Those vampires are the most powerful. For some reason, drinking human blood is not enough; it is the very last jerk of blood, that last drop where the soul is, that really amplifies the power. The more powerful they are, the more abilities they have."
"What type of abilities?" asked Hermione.
"Vampire abilities, like being able to blend into the darkness better, being able to move faster, definitely stronger as in able to hit better, accuracy, sharper senses, faster transformations into their animal forms, some really powerful ancient vampires have been known to have the ability to control the elements."
"The elements like?" questioned the brunette.
"Like the weather."
"Why would they do that?"
"Because there is a way they can stay out in the sun without getting burned."
"How?"
"It's with a jewel. It's blue and it's called the Lapis short for Lapis Lazuli. They can wear it as a decoration on their finger, around their neck, wherever. As long as the stone is on them it gives them protection against the sun. So the point of controlling weather would be so they can make the weather cloudier and therefore be more powerful during the day."
"Why would they want to come out during the day?"
"I'm not sure, but this is not something well known to vampires out there. It was a secret for the really powerful and elite groups to make other vampires feel inferior to them. Though even if they knew about it, I doubt they would care unless they wanted to live a human life. There have been recorded incidences where a vampire, forced or renowned, chooses to live among humans to feel like they have their soul back. Though there is no record of any of them living after they had been found out either by humans or by vampires who don't agree with their way."
Hermione nodded and jotted this point down onto her own little note pad.
"How many maximum animal forms can they take?" asked Hermione.
"Three at the most. Even for the most powerful of vampires."
Hermione nodded again and took note.
"Well, have you got information about running water?" asked Hermione.
Ron shook his head.
"Well, it's basically stating that vampires are not allowed to go over running water. It's because it's a flow of purity and goodness. Water is pure, there is nothing contaminating it. Therefore something evil enough to take life from living creatures is not pure enough to be allowed to cross running water."
"How does that help?" asked Ron.
"I don't know, maybe it will come up. We need to know these little facts Ron. We need to know everything there is about our enemy. We will not just go into this unprepared."
How they had escaped all those werewolves after Sirius had taken Draco and disappeared with Harry was a question neither two could answer. After the three of them had left, the werewolves attacked. Luckily there were not that many, this might have been because Hermione and Ron had been working hard to get rid of as many werewolves for the past three years as possible. They had used silver and burned as many werewolves as possible. In the end, both Ron and Hermione had been able to hold off the werewolves and take cover in their cabin in the woods once more.
A few of the wolves had been cured. This was because there was a way to change werewolves back to humans. It was a fact that if one of their ligaments was cut off - it didn't matter which ligament, as long as one was taken off under a full moon - then they would turn back into a human. Some chose to die afterward because once the curse was removed they were able to remember all the evil they had done. This caused a lot of traumatic reactions because this certain pack of wolves had been circling around the same few villages and sometimes the werewolves would have attacked their own loved ones. Once realizing something like this, they didn't feel like they deserved to live anymore.
The two had been silent for a while until Ron chose to speak again. "Invitation," he said.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.
"They need an invitation to enter a house. Well, a living area anyway – a place where humans eat and sleep is a living area. But there is one problem with this; werewolves and vampires don't need to be invited by the people living in the house. As long as someone invites them into a house, they are in forever."
"Sirius said he knew where we lived. Why haven't they sent anyone after us then?"
Ron shrugged. "Maybe he had other plans for Draco."
"Then what about now? I'm sure he would have at least told a werewolf by now, and we both know they are all after us."
Ron shrugged again. "I guess we should try and find cover somewhere else soon. But my bet is that they don't care anymore. Sirius looked at Draco as a threat because he wanted Harry. We are not as much of a threat to him as Draco was. We don't matter, which in turn could be a good thing. If we ever find a way to save both of them, well the vampires won't be expecting us because they didn't care enough."
Hermione shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Vampires can read minds. The stronger the vampire the stronger their mind reading powers become. They'd be able to sense us coming."
"So they'll be able to track us down?" asked Ron.
"Not only that. They have the power to control minds. They could take over our minds and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Ron, they could turn us against each other," explained Hermione.
"There is a way to stop it though. I didn't read the mind control part from the book so I don't know where it fits in but there is a type of plant, Verbena Officinalis, more commonly known as Vervain, which can help humans keep their own state of mind from being taken over by vampires. We could probably find some around here somewhere."
Hermione nodded. "There's more, though," said Hermione looking at the most important part of her information, "the process of the change."
The brunette noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the nervousness that took over the Ron at the mention of the change.
"Vampires actually do not change others by using the saliva in their mouth. It takes more than that to change someone. To change a human into a vampire they need to exchange blood. Not only once though, multiple times, mainly three. Each time the human will lose more of their soul to the darkness. Each time there should be a waiting period for the human to regenerate a bit more blood for the exchange, unless the vampire gave more blood than the human did. A Human could be an inch from death but the moment the exchange occurs, they will recover. However, part of their soul is gone. Sometimes it can come back but then the human would end up dying in the end. It is not a loophole for medical help, it's a curse. No matter what happens, a small part of the soul would be gone and there's no way of getting that back. So there is hope for Harry, not much but there's still hope. If Harry is rescued and taken to heal, using his own blood to take over the vampire blood, the poison in the vampire blood will slowly disappear and he could be human once again."
"So you're saying that once Harry exchanges his blood with Sirius one more time, his soul will be lost forever?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, there's one more thing."
"What?"
"Harry needs to die."
Ron's eyes went wide. "What do you mean die?"
"I mean, after he exchanges the blood he needs to die in order for the entire process to go through. Then his body will come back to life once it has been rested or enough time has passed."
"You mean, after all that, Harry won't only be a vampire, he would basically be a dead body taking life from humans?"
"Yes. Oh, but you've also forgotten that vampires can take blood from animals as well. Those who were changed unwillingly actually have a choice. Though they would be the weaker of the vampire race, they would feel better about themselves. It's a way of living out their situation as best as possible."
"Harry wouldn't want that," said Ron sounding almost as if he was telling himself rather than Hermione.
"The old Harry wouldn't. But the new one doesn't know what to think. The new one doesn't know how to think. He's been brainwashed."
"How was he brainwashed?" asked Ron.
"Well, seeing as how vampires have the power to control the mind, Sirius could have easily erased Harry's memory. Problem is that it's been three years. Therefore there must have been a reason why it took so long for Harry's memories to be erased," said Hermione slowly trying to brainstorm a solution in her head.
"Hermione?"
"Yes Ron?"
"What if Harry didn't want his memories erased?"
"You mean of the past? Why wouldn't he? I mean, if I could forget everything I knew up until I met you guys I would."
"No, I mean, what if there were other memories or something else that was stopping him."
"Like what?"
"What if, Hermione, what if Harry and Draco are soul mates?"
"What would that have anything to do with this?" retorted Hermione sounding absolutely uninterested.
"Haven't you read up on soul mates Hermione?"
"No. It's just a bunch of nonsense. A soul mate doesn't exist. It's what lovey dovey couples say to make their lives more bearable."
Ron rolled his eyes. Hermione never really took anything to heart unless it was written in a text book and proven to be true. Of course, soul mates have always been theory. A theory that has never been proven. Only believed by those who really felt that they were truly soul mates.
"Well anyway Hermione, soul mates start an entirely new discussion topic which I swore I would not get into. Especially with you. Anyway, what if Draco and Harry are soul mates and it was the bond between the two of them that was holding Harry's memory for so long."
Hermione pursed her lips, absolutely not believing a word of what had just been said, but in order to keep her husband entertained she would continue to humour the ridiculous theory. "Then why would it just stop holding if the soul mate bond was so powerful?"
"What if Harry lost hope? What if something finally snapped in his head and after having waited so many years to be rescued he gave up. What if he thought Draco didn't care about him? What if- what if he thought Draco didn't love him anymore?"
"If the soul mate bond is as strong as you say it is then wouldn't Harry have been able to feel the bond between them fade? Wouldn't Harry be able to tell that Draco still loved him?"
"Not if Sirius is a really powerful vampire. If he was powerful enough, he might be able to twist that bond in Harry's head. Twist it so that he made Harry think the love had turned into hate or that the hope was gone."
Hermione gave Ron a really worried look. "That seems a bit far fetched Ron. I mean, there are so many 'what if's'. So, what if all those 'what if's' are wrong? Then what explanation would there be for Harry's sudden change?"
Ron had hoped it wouldn't have to come to this. " Hermione, what if Harry and Sirius made love?"
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Well that could be a possibility. I- I mean, well," she stuttered. This had never even occurred to her and frankly it scared her too much to think about. It had always been Draco. Since Draco had joined it had always been Draco and had only been Draco. The same thing when it came to the blonde. So it had never even crossed her mind that it could happen. "But why would Harry want to do that? If he still loved Draco he would never do that and I know he still loves Draco."
Ron was silent for a moment then he quickly grabbed a book and flipped through until he reached a page with a small bit of information on. The red head cleared his throat. "It is fact that though some vampires have the power to change into animals, they also possess the power to change into human form." The red head looked up at Hermione. "What if there was another vampire that changed into Draco or something. Then using that form they could have done anything. Made it look like Draco had cheated on Harry or made it look like Draco had died or something. Anything to make Harry think all hope was lost, then Sirius could move in. It wasn't like Sirius didn't know what Draco looked like. He said so himself that he had been watching Draco since the moment Harry had mentioned him. Sirius could have been around here for such a long time, watching and spying on him, then perhaps one of the other vampires was told to change into Draco and, lets say, have Harry walk in on Draco in a rather intimate position with someone else? Harry's heart would be broken and it would have been so easy for Sirius to move in while he's down. The tired Harry who was upset and vulnerable. The Harry that no longer believed that he had anything to live for. It would have been so easy Hermione. It would have been so easy for Sirius to take Harry at the most vulnerable of times, therefore weakening the soulmate bond. Harry's lost hope also weakened his mind and then his memory was easily erased."
This for some reason convinced Hermione – after all the years of trying to get the brunette to understand, or rather believe the theory of soul mates. Even Draco and Harry had tried, when they were here, to get Hermione to believe it, but she was stubborn. She kept refusing to believe unless she was handed some hard evidence or proof that showed the existence of a soul mate.
Ron waited as Hermione pondered everything that had just been discussed between them.
Finally, the brunette took a fresh piece of parchment and wrote down all the important information they had found. "So vampires have the ability to communicate right?"
"Yes they do."
"So what if they were talking to someone who didn't have the power to reply back?" asked Hermione with a new determined tone to her question.
"It wouldn't work. It would be like being at the end of a one way conversation unless they were standing face to face. If you don't have the power to use the gift then you can't use it, that simple. So if it was a really wise vampire it would most likely be to give a human information or to trick them into stepping out of the house so they could strike or something like that."
Hermione nodded as she took notes of what Ron had just said.
"Who was the first(1) vampire?"
"Well, no one's really sure. Some say it was actually a race that died out because there were battles amongst those who lived on earth. There are just so many theories. Some say that there was someone who wanted to live forever and was willing to give up their soul to achieve this. Therefore they took spells from witches and such to complete rituals. There's nothing certain about who was first. I don't think it matters much anymore anyway."
Hermione nodded as she sat back and listened to this. "Can vampires conceive?"
"No. They are not alive therefore they cannot make life; well that's my theory anyway. How do you make something out of nothing? You can't. Though, there were rumours going around about how some vampires fell in love with humans and conceived that way but nothing was certain. No real written proof. This also depends on what type of source you believe. If you think that they were a race then of course they can conceive, how else were they created? But if you believe that perhaps someone had gone mad and obsessed about life then most likely the beliefs are that they cannot have children. For me, I don't think they can. It just doesn't make sense. How could they create something pure if they are impure themselves?"
"But aren't all humans impure? At least when they get older I mean."
Ron nodded slowly in pondering agreement. "But humans don't kill." Ron paused and decided to word his theory more accurately. "Well, they don't take another's life to sustain their own. They don't need someone else's life essences to sustain their own life."
Hermione nodded. "Alright. Let's make ourselves some weapons and figure out where they hide out. It must be somewhere near if the werewolves are under their control. I understand that vampires are fast and they could travel very far in a short period of time but they need to keep a firm grip on the werewolves. The wolves tend to misbehave so tight surveillance would be needed."
Ron nodded. "And I know where they live."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Where and how?"
"How? It was simple; couldn't you tell when you looked at Harry? He had new clothes; they looked like they were fitted just for him, sophisticated. He looked well groomed, therefore that means he is being very well taken care of, which means that there is only one place they could be."
Something seemed to have clicked in Hermione's head as her jaw fell slightly. "The Essence Manor at the top of Sacrifice Tip."
Ron nodded. "Makes sense doesn't it? The village leader told us that it was abandoned around four years ago. Just before the time we arrived. No one dares go up there; well no one's lived long enough to get close to that place."
"That means that there will be a lot of things guarding it. We need to be prepared for darkness."
Ron nodded and looked out the window behind Hermione as the sun peeked through the drawn curtains. "Darkness," he whispered.
(1) First vampire means the original vampire. The very first one who started the vampire race.
Review Replies:
B>fudgebaby: /B> Haha, thanks!
B>lovly elley: /B> Thank you!
B>Pink Cherry Blossom: /B> Haha, hope you liked this information chapter. It's basically the set up for all the other chapters and any questions anyone may have about the way I'm portraying vampires. Thanks for the continual support! loves
B>Just-Human: /B> Hey Cat, I hope this chapter wasn't too boring. No Harry/Draco but this is an important chapter.
B>JadeLilyMalfoy: /B> Thanks! Yeah, I recognized your name. I hope the waiting isn't too bad. Summer holiday's coming up, I'll be posting sooner when y finals are over and done with.