Chapter – 7

Lily P.O.V

Sirius handed her the portkey, gave her a kiss on her cheek and disappeared. All in a matter of seconds. He was there, and then, he wasn't. His task for the night was interesting to say the least. Keeping the entire population of the senior school occupied would be an impossible task for anyone other than Sirius.

"He'll just snog a couple of girls here and there and the other boys will be too jealous to do anything about us," Remus had mentioned nonchalantly. "And Peter will cause a further distraction if necessary. He's good at that."

And the matter had been left at that. Lily hadn't complained much. Her task was so much more interesting after all. Dressed in a pair of formfitting black jeans, a dark t-shirt and a leather jacket, Lily looked like one of the bikers in the gangs that often lurked three alleys over from her house. But that was merely the small changes to her appearance.

A bit of make-up here and there, some amount of magic and the person standing there wasn't Lily Evans, it was Lilith Darke – red eyed vampire. Lilith Darke was a just turned, curious vampire, but a vampire, nonetheless. And as compared to werewolves, who were practically the filth of society, vampires were at the height and fearsome.

As she appeared at the center of Knockturn Alley, portkey disappearing into her enlarged jacket pocket, Lily smirked, making sure it was just the right amount of dark to scare everyone away. In the darkness of the alley, her flaming red hair and her red eyes simply caught the attention of every denizen in the sorry excuse for a black market. And they fled.

All except one, she noted. The taller female was almost hidden in the shadows, with her back turned. Lily saw the way the other girl tensed slightly, before turning towards Lily. Cursing at the sight of similar maroon eyes, Lily almost lost her composure and her hold on the glamours surrounding her. Taking a deep breath, she smiled sharply.

The other female nodded once. "Are you a newly turned?"

Her voice was completely normal, exactly like the purebloods spoke. But that hardly meant anything. Lily kept the smile firmly in place. "Yes, I am."

Better safe than sorry. Since she knew very little on vampire culture.

"Ah," the female remained stoic, though there was a slight amount of amusement as well. Someone well known probably, with influence and knowledge about the vampire and wizarding worlds. "I should have figured that out. You have the smell of a human."

Lily almost cursed again. Why wasn't it mentioned anywhere how good a vampire's sense of smell was? God damn the entirety of the aurors if they were hunting a vampire.

Luckily, the other vampire moved on before Lily had to fumble around with an answer. "Spend a lot of time around humans?"

Lily nodded once, as imperiously as she could manage. Hopefully that satisfied the other, whose name she didn't know. "Do I know you?" She asked, the polite words falling from her mouth despite her lack of manners in general. Severus must be rubbing off on her.

The vampire looked way too innocently at her. "Of course not. Nobody does." That sounded sinister. "I'm Aurora Lark. And you are?"

That was an odd name for a vampire, but all of them were probably not named something as ridiculous as Dracula. Mentally shrugging, Lily continued her ruse, hoping the vampire would fall for it.

"Lilith Darke. Pleasure." She said, words clipped and formal. The vampire grinned.

"Oh yes. Of course. So," Aurora wanted to start a conversation. Just what Lily needed. "What brings you to Knockturn Alley?"

"Oh, just buying some books." Lily replied, suspicious and extremely cautious. This was new territory after all.

Normal humans did not go into Knockturn Alley, and even if they did, they wouldn't dare talk to a vampire. Though normal people barely even met a vampire in their lifetime. Just Lily's luck then, to run into a vampire when she was impersonating one.

"Hmm…" Aurora seemed awfully interested in her. And Lily had the feeling it wasn't entirely curiosity. Before the true vampire could say anything else, there was a commotion at the other end of the street. Near Borgin and Burkes. Looks like they were done.

"Would you like to come and check out the commotion?" Aurora asks, a sly smile on her lips. "Or would that be too much blood for you to handle?"

Lily smiled, glad for the escape. "Too much blood, I think." She wrinkled her nose to add to the effect.

Aurora smiled, and the second before Lily activated the portkey, the vampire blurred. "You are a brilliant actress, Lilith Darke. But you cannot fool a vampire that easily. Call me sometime."

And the vampire was gone, so were Severus and Remus by the lack of noise. In a moment, the portkey activated, and she was gone as well.

Knockturn alley was silent again, with its denizens crawling out, now that the vampires were gone. Aurora Lark stood in the shadows curious about the fiery slip of a girl playing a vampire. Perhaps this decade would be interesting after all…

Back at Rola's mansion, Lily grimaced as she crashed into the ground, her landing was obviously horrid. She was distracted from her self-pity by a loud screech. Looking up curiously, she saw a crane staring her down. A neon green crane with a shock of bright yellow hair.

Wondering if she was hallucinating, or in the wrong place, Lily moved further towards the mansion. This had certainly been a disturbing day, so it shouldn't have been surprising that she didn't find any normal human or a normal animal, for that matter.

There was a purple duck, a monochrome peacock, a yellow cow, a pink gorilla. And well, it was extremely disturbing as they were all causing a scene. Entering the mansion was like entering a zoo – crazy, chaotic, hot and stinky. And in the middle of the entire mess? None other than Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew.

Lily closed her eyes in denial and then looked at Severus, her darling best friend who had just walked into the room from the other door. Remus, next to him, looked positively delighted and utterly unconcerned that the entirety of Rola's guests and possibly Rola herself were now a bunch of ridiculous animals.

Severus visibly steeled himself, before speaking out. "What precisely happened here?"