"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Ali demanded, beginning to attempt to break her captor's grasp around her neck.

"Shut up!" a sweet, silky, female voice demanded. "You're a hostage, now, you're the one without control, and you have no authority to ask anything right now!"

"I can do whatever I want!" Ali said, thinking quickly, she grabbed her right wrist and jammed her elbow back and up, being rewarded with the creak of her captor's ribs breaking. The other girl fell back, a quick gasp for a breath and clutching her side as the sickening sound of bones creeping back together again. Ali took her chance and broke out of range of the vampire's arms.

"Now, we can chat, Rhia, not that I care about anything you say." She said, and dropping into a fighting stance just to be safe.

"Well, you should, considering we are 'sisters', now." Rhianna purred. Circling the other girl cautiously, not planing on offering another opening.

"Yeah, but that's only because you're 'mother' enchanted him into that frickin' marriage. Jordan would never agree to it if he was in his right mind." Ali spat, darting in quickly, flipping her leg up and around in a wheel kick aimed for the vampires chin.

Unfortunately, Rhianna was too quick for her hunter. Her hand flew up with blinding speed catching Ali's foot, twisting it and breaking the ankle. Ali cried out in pain and fell. On the cold stone of the road, Alainna tried to come up with a plan to get back at the vampire. Nothing came to mind that would work with her now-broken ankle. Trading mind-frames, to the one furthest from her hunting-trained one, one that meant she would have to let herself die.

As a vampire hunter, Ali had been trained to fight to the death, never give up, never go unarmed, and be able to master all forms of fighting at a young age. A hunter must always be ready for a fight, be quick, agile, and strong. They could never be caught unaware, or they would be shamed for their foolishness. Now, Ali knew she had failed. She was caught unaware, she was unarmed, unprepared, and she had stopped fighting. She would be shamed forever in her hunting clan, never to be thought of in a good light again from them.

"Ali?" a male voice was calling to her. "Ali, where are you? We need to get back up to the school."

"Harry?" Ali's head spun as she thought of her charge stumbling into what he was never to know about.

"Ali? Where are you?" he asked in response, getting closer.

"Harry, run! You have to get away from here!" she yelled back, not noticing that Rhianna had stopped her attempt to kill her.

"What? Ali, what's-" it was too late, he saw what he had been warned against.

Ali was on the ground, an unknown figure standing over her in a black leather jacket, black pants, and armed with a dagger in her hand, poised for the kill.

"You don't wanna be here," Ali pleaded, "you don't even want to know what's going on. Please just leave."

"What's going on?" he demanded, gaining confidence, even though he was scared to death.

"No, Harry, really, please just leave." Ali begged, tears filling her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. "Just go back up to the school, I need to fight this on my own."

"Why? What's going on?" Harry still pressed on ward, walking into the fight, trying not to show his fear.

Ali noticed her chance; Rhianna was totally focused on Harry now, confused about what she should do, kill the hunter or kill the student like she was meant to. With her good leg, Ali swung around in a circle, knocking the vampire to the ground. The dagger was now on the ground; Ali grabbed it quickly while her opponent recovered. Appraising the weapon as fast as she could, she found it to be forged with magic, powerful magic. Grinning at the stupidity of her 'sister', she gripped the blade tight in her hand, slamming it down into the vampire's heart.

Rhianna gasped, being rendered with no other thoughts beyond the searing pain of the weapon she had carelessly dropped. It took no training for Ali to remember to twist the blade, obliterating the black hole of the non-functional heart. Dark blood spilled forth as the vampire dropped dead.

Ali dropped back onto her uninjured foot. She tried to move the broken ankle with as little pain as possible. The blade was still jammed in the dead vampire's ribs, as the hunter checked over her break.

"Okay, what just happened?" Harry asked confused, coming to help her.

"Long story," Ali chuckled softly, not too bad of a break, thank god. She thought, starting to try to stand.

"Are you sure you're okay to stand?" Harry asked, he knew he heard something break when he was looking for her.

"I'll be fine, it's not a bad break, I've had to walk with worse than this." She chuckled, taking advantage of his offer to support her as she stood. "It kinda comes with the job, I guess. My first mission on my own. Cat will never let me alone again."

"Cat? You mean Catherine, your mum?" Harry asked, helping her to the Three Broomsticks, the closest open place to rest.

"Yeah, about that," they settled into a table in the corner, "I have a major confession to make."

"A confession? Like admitting you've been lying to me?" Harry looked deeply confused. "What could be so big about that?"

"You'd be surprised." Ali chuckled, "I'm not really who you think I am."

She sighed, looking down at the table, tracing the grain of the wood. "My name's Jeshickah, (J-E-S-H-I-C-K-A-H) not Alainna. I'm a vampire hunter; I have been since I was ten years old. My parents were killed and Brooke and me were left on our own. That's when Jordan found us. Catherine, Eric, Jonathan, and him were a clan of hunters. They took us in and taught us to be like them.

"My real parents actually named me Jessica (J-E-S-S-I-C-A) when I was born, and Brooke's real name was Ashley, but when the hunters took us in, they changed the spelling of my name, and Brooke's changed completely, because they couldn't think of anything close enough to use for her. Jordan thought we should take the name of the clan too, so the vampires that killed our parent would have even more trouble finding us."

She sighed, glancing up quickly to see how her friend was taking it in. "For the past six years, our clan has been moving around to fallow a coven of vampires. Rachael and Rhianna are from the coven we focus on the most. We've been following them for a long time. I was sent her to protect Hogwarts students from Rhianna. It was s'posed to be my first mission on my own. The party tonight was partially for the clan to check up on my progress, and, well, Jordan was under an enchantment to marry Rachael and destroy our clan. He actually did get married to Rachael, so I don't know what's going to happen now with that.

"I know this is probably a lot to take in but do you have any questions you can think of?" She asked, she looked up, tucking her bangs back. "I promise I'll answer anything and everything I can."

Harry just sat in shock for a moment. "So that's why you were in Hogwarts?" she nodded. "Who were all those people I meet at the party then, if they aren't your family?"

"Brooke really is my sister, Lynn's my best friend, she has been since she joined the clan, three years ago." She thought about the people who had posed as her family. "Jordan is the clan leader, he's first in command. Eric and Catherine are just under him. Eric trains wanna-be hunters as they join, and Catherine assigns them what we call blood-jobs. Jonathan is our spy, he's a vampire, but he works for us, getting everything he can out of a coven of vampires before we go in. Jamey's a little kid we took in last year. His parents were killed by vampires, too. He's too young to start training or anything, I was too young at ten, but I was so angry I took up training anyway. I wasn't considered a hunter till I was thirteen, though."

She sighed at the memory of the last few years. "Jamey's actually the reason behind my scars here," she removed the ribbon from her neck. "I was fighting with Rachael, it was a job Brooke was s'posed to have, I was only meant to fallow along for back-up. I left the night before we were meant to leave. Rachael met me at the door of the kitchen, while I was sneaking out. We fought, and I thought I had her, when Jamey came in for a glass of water. I was caught of guard, and she got a good slash across my throat. Jamey screamed, and Catherine came down to see what was wrong. She fought off the vamp, while Eric, who followed, fixed me up. I was in major trouble and got put on some of the worst blood-jobs, in addition to being out-of-action of any kind for a month or two while I healed."

Harry looked shocked, he thought a dog or something had just attacked her when she was younger. Vampires and their hunters never crossed his mind. "Is that why you were always up in the Astronomy Tower? You were training for this mission?"

"Yes, and I would have told you, but no one was s'posed to know about my true identity." She looked apologetically at him. "I never wanted to lie to anyone, but I had too. Besides would you have believed me if I told you the truth?"

"Probably not, but I don't know what to believe anymore." He shook his head.

"Is there anything else you want to know?"

"I can't think of anything else."

"Well then, I have a question for you." She looked seriously at him. "What would you say if I told you I have to wipe your memory clear of everything involving me?"

"What?" he looked at her with a new form of shock. "I wouldn't know what to say. "

"I have to do this, I can't leave any trace of my existence here, after I leave. It isn't allowed." Jeshickah rubbed a hand across her face, fiddling with her ribbon. "I can leave you with a dream-like memory. You'd remember everything that happened but only as much as you remember any run-of-the-mill dream. Would you want that?"

Harry thought for a moment. "That sounds nice, I'd like that."

She smiled, "Close your eyes," he obeyed. She sent a light blue silk-like tread from her wand into his mind, rearranging his thoughts from actual memories to dreams. "Okay, now when you go to sleep at night, your mind will revert all this back to a dream. In the morning, that's all it will be. I'll walk with you back up to the school, just a second." She wrapped both of her hands around her broken ankle. When she removed them, she had a brace over the break, just strong enough to hold up until she returned to the clan house. She gently eased her weight onto the ankle, testing the strength. "Okay, we can go."



Jeshickah escorted her yawning charge the great oak doors to the castle, giving him a watery smile as she said good-bye, and kissing him softly on the cheek. When the oak doors were closed behind him, she held out her wand again, releasing a navy blue mist-like substance over the enormous castle and as much of the grounds as she could. She removed all memories of her in every mind of everyone at the school, replacing them with false memories of what would have happened if she weren't there.

In the morning, Harry told his friends about his dream. They all dismissed it as only a dream, as Jeshickah had intended. The young hunter had returned to the clan house, and was being congratulated on the completion of her first mission. She was proud of herself, and none of he other members of the clan would have reason underestimate her again. And neither would the vampires she hunted.



Well, that's my story I hope you liked it. Just remember, many very important things are left out of books, so next time you finish a great novel, don't forget to think about what might have happened that the author chose not to tell you. Sometimes those events could have changed the whole view of the book.

Blessed be!

Jeshickah Knight



Author's note: Okay, now, I'm told that my original version of the ending to this sucked, and I had to agree. I really should have tied together the rest of the open ends I left out there, it really didn't make much sense with that ending. So thanks to those of you who've helped me see the terrible work I did on the first draft of the story, I hope you like this version better.

Also, this alternate ending was a lot easier to write. It only took me an hour and a half to write! (the original took a lot longer, with a lot of blocks in between.) So, interpret that as you will, but I think the faster it takes me to write things, the better they turn out to be. I hope you can kinda see that, too.

Again thanks to the two of you (and I know you know who you are) who helped me see the horrible Mary-Sue this was, I really hope this is more to your liking.

Always

Jakki