I accidentally cut off a paragraph or two when posting the last chapter (Don't ask me how, I've no idea…) but that's fixed now. There were no vital plot points added, so you don't need to go read it now unless you really want to. :D
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Chapter 6: Vampires, Part II
Harry didn't manage to fall asleep again after waking from his dream. He just stayed under the covers.
He didn't know what he was going to do.
What would he be if his wand was taken away? If he no longer was a wizard, but a vampire? He didn't have anywhere to go. There were laws that made it hard to find a place to live- nowhere near muggles, which ruled out nine tenths of the world, and if he lived near wizards he would need to tell his neighbors what he was. Somehow he didn't think that would go over well.
Maybe, he thought, I shouldn't wait for them to find out.
After all, if no one knew that he was a vampire, no one could do anything about it. He wouldn't have to register. He could keep his wand.
He'd be a runaway. People would look for him. Ron and Hermione would miss him.
But then- they would miss him if he had his wand snapped and was sent away, too.
The idea was absolutely mad, but he couldn't stop toying with it.
He had to have somewhere to run to, that was the problem.
At some point during his brooding, he must have fallen asleep, because suddenly it was dawn, and far too bright.
It's speeding up, Harry thought, wincing a little at the light. How long did he have until he was fully a vampire? He hadn't even thought of it; he'd need blood. Blood and no sunlight. It wasn't going to be pleasant.
He went to see Madame Pomfrey, and she gave him some of his potion.
"Try to have some," she said. "But don't force yourself.
He looked at it, and took a small sip. He couldn't bring himself to take two.
Madame Pomfrey gave him a sad look, but took the remaining potion away.
"I've examined the chocolate bar," she said. "There's quite a bit of strange magic in it, but nothing that looks like a curse."
"Oh."
"I wouldn't advise eating any more of it. It's possible that the magic in the chocolate bars was interacting with the curse, and making it difficult to identify. I'd like you to bring the rest of them by later today."
"Alright."
There was a moment when he almost blurted it out. It would be easy to tell her that he knew exactly what had happened to him. He didn't, of course. He had plans forming, however vague they still were. He still had some hope of getting out of all of this without having his wand snapped.
He didn't go to breakfast. Instead, he went to the library. Madame Pince gave him a suspicious look as he came in, but ignored him once it was clear that he wasn't going to talk loudly or ruin any books.
He needed a place to run. Were there any havens for magical creatures? He didn't think he had it in him to run off into the Forbidden Forest on his own, but if he could find some-
But there were already vampires in the Forbidden Forest. Vampires who might have advice. Vampires who might know who had bitten him- and why.
Vampires who could very well be the ones who had bitten him.
No. It was absolutely insane. He wasn't going to do that. He couldn't.
He left the library after only a few minutes, and decided to skive off all of his morning classes to go outside. Whether he ran away or stayed to be expelled, there was no point in spending another minute in Potions being insulted or listening to Binns drone on about goblin rebellions.
It was far too bright outside, and unseasonably warm for November. He went to the broom shed, took out his Nimbus 2000, mounted it before even getting fully out of the shed, and zipped along the ground at high speed for a few meters, toes grazing the grass until he was off, spiraling into the sky.
He hardly ever flew on his own. It was always for Quiddich or Quiddich practice. And that was fun, too, but it wasn't the same as just floating. This was the most relaxed he had been since he'd first set foot in the Hospital Wing this year.
He circled again in the sky, and noticed a figure running across the grounds from the forest. He couldn't make out who it was from this height, so he went closer.
They were running faster than he had ever seen anyone run. It wasn't anyone he recognized- not from above, anyway. A boy, in second or perhaps first year, judging by his size, with dark hair. He was running as if his life depended on it, but when Harry looked back, he didn't see anything following. Then he looked further, and saw the forbidden forest.
Probably took a scare, he thought. Should have listened to the warnings at the beginning of the year- it isn't safe in there.
He watched the boy enter the castle. Well, he seemed safe enough now. He'd probably learned his lesson.
Harry returned to flying, doing a loop and letting out a whoop of joy.
It was mid-afternoon when he returned to the castle. Everyone had gone to their afternoon classes, so Harry had Gryffindor Tower to himself except for a couple of seventh years snogging in the common room. They gave him a dirty look as he walked through, but he ignored them.
He thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye as he walked into his room, but when he looked around, there was no one and nothing there. But the curtains around his bed had been closed. He walked over, opened them, and saw a note on his pillow.
You have a lot of questions. We can answer them. Come to the edge of the Forbidden Forest by 4 o'clock. We'll find you.
He looked at the clock. It was only fifteen minutes until four. There was no time to tell anyone. If he was going, he had to leave now. And he was going; wasn't this what he'd been considering, just this morning? He was going to talk to the vampires.
He took his invisibility cloak with him. He knew that, realistically, it wouldn't hide him if he got into trouble. But he'd be damned if he walked into danger with no protection at all.
He left the note where it was. If he didn't come back, at least Ron and Hermione would know where he was.
He walked down the stairs to the common room, and barely noticed when the seventh year boy said "Merlin's balls, will you stop walking through here?!" and hastily helped his girlfriend rebutton her blouse.
He was going to meet the vampires.
All too soon, he was standing at the edge of the forest. He paused for a moment before walking in. This was so stupid. How would he even know where in the forest to go? It was huge. They could be anywhere.
But he kept walking, and found himself stepping over branches and ducking under tree limbs as if he'd walked this way dozens of times. Maybe he had. Memory charms were strange. Some things didn't seem affected at all by the fact that he was missing months of time. Maybe he'd been here over the summer, when they'd bitten him.
He pushed through a woody bush and was suddenly in a small clearing. Sunlight beamed down, brightly enough to make his eyes hurt. There was utter silence.
"Hello," said the man on the other side of the clearing. He was standing in shadow, dressed in dark robes and a cheap plastic pair of sunglasses. Even so, Harry recognized him immediately. He was the boggart-man.
"I expect you don't remember me," the man said, taking off his sunglasses. He stared at Harry with a little too intently. "My name is Galba."
Harry didn't say anything.
"Come here," Galba said.
Harry remained where he was.
"Oh, honestly. I'm not going to hurt you. No one is. Come- have something to drink."
"I'm not sure I want anything that you're offering."
"Not yet, perhaps. In a few days, though, you will." Galba's smile was oily.
Harry had taken an immediate disliking to the man, but he'd already come this far. He walked to the other side of the clearing, and followed Galba. They walked for a few minutes in silence, until they came to a small village. There were a dozen squat stone houses. Galba led him to one, opened the door, but did not follow him in. When Harry looked behind him, the door was closed. The very definite sound of a key in a lock followed.
Inside, sipping a cup of tea and reading a book, was Professor Lupin.
"Professor Lupin?" Harry said.
Lupin looked up, and an expression of utter dismay crossed his face for a moment. "Hello, Harry," he said. He closed his book and set his tea down.
Harry walked across the room. "We all thought you'd been kidnapped by Sirius Black," he said. "But- you're alright?"
"I'm fine," Lupin said. But whatever he said, he had an unhealthy sort of color to his skin, and his face was a bit pinched, as if he hadn't been eating enough. "And I was not taken entirely against my will."
"Then- you're with them? The vampires? You want to be here?"
"No," Lupin said, his expression darkening a bit. "Once I was here, I realized that the goals of my captors- our captors, now, I suppose- were incompatible with my own."
"What goals are those, then?"
Lupin's eyes darted briefly to the door, as though he were afraid of someone hearing.
What have they been doing to him? Harry thought. The Lupin of a few weeks ago had been confident but unassuming; now he seemed almost frightened.
"They're going to start a war," Lupin said. "A war between humans and nonhumans. They think it's the only way to gain rights for themselves."
"Oh," Harry said. "Isn't that a bit excessive?"
Lupin shrugged. "They don't seem to think so. They say that they know for a fact that things are only getting worse. They say they have a time-traveler advising them. I can't imagine that's true."
"They don't tell you a lot, then," Harry said.
"No. They don't think they can trust me."
Harry sat at the table across from Lupin. "You should eat more," Harry said suddenly. "You look very thin. It looks like they're feeding you."
Lupin barked out a laugh. "Perhaps you should take some of your own advice," he said.
Harry shrugged, unwilling to talk about becoming a vampire in front of someone who obviously wasn't very fond of them.
"Are you hungry?" Lupin asked.
"No. I'll- I'll wait. I… had a big lunch."
Lupin took a sip of tea.
"I'm not entirely human myself," he said, conversationally. "It's why they thought I would be sympathetic. You see, I was bitten by a werewolf when I was a child."
"That's why you could meet with them- with the vampires- safely, then," Harry said. "You're immune."
"Yes. The one and only benefit to my condition."
There was a long moment of silence. Lupin took another sip of tea.
"I think they knew, somehow, that I was catching on to what they were doing to you," Lupin said after a moment. "There must have been something- a question I asked, or a comment I made- something that told them I was putting together the pieces."
Harry said nothing.
"They questioned me for several days about what you had worked out," Lupin said. His face was calm, but as he lifted his tea, his hands shook slightly.
"I'm sorry," Harry said.
"It isn't your fault. And it hasn't been terrible, since then. They leave me alone. They fill up the kitchen every week."
Harry felt like he ought to say something in return, but wasn't sure what. "They left a note for me," he said, "saying they could explain things. I guess they aren't really going to."
It was a very gentle sort of trap. Even now, Harry felt that he could just walk away. But the door was locked, and if he broke through a window, there would probably be vampires waiting to catch him. And even if he did escape, where would he go? Hogwarts wouldn't welcome him for very much longer. It all came back to the same maddening fact: he had no idea what to do next.
"What do they want with me?" he asked.
"I think- and this is speculation, mind you- that they intend to use you as an example. They'll drag you in front of the ministry, or Dumbledore, and say: 'No one is safe from us.'"
"So I'm just… a symbol? Isn't this all a bit much effort for a symbol?"
"I suppose that depends on how many resources they have, and how effective they think this will be. I don't have any idea how much support they have, or how soon they plan to strike. My guess is rather uninformed, I'm afraid."
A key moved in the door, and Galba came in. "Pack up your things, Lupin," he said. "We're moving camp in fifteen minutes."
"I'd like to go back to the castle," Harry said, knowing it was futile. Galba just laughed before walking out the door again. He didn't bother closing it.
Through the doorway, Harry saw that there were several vampires standing around, all wearing those ridiculous sunglasses. They were facing away from the house, watching the forest.
They didn't look like prison guards. They were guarding this little settlement from something outside. Did they expect some kind of attack?
Harry couldn't even speculate on what that might be out there. The forest was full of dangers. He went to help Lupin pack his few possessions.
It was not even fifteen minutes later when Galba burst in again. "We're leaving now. Lupin, you're coming with me. Harry, you wait here- I'll be back in a moment."
The vampire grabbed Lupin and Apparated away. A moment later, he returned for Harry. Side-along Apparition was awful, worse than floo travel. Harry would have been sick when they arrived at the destination, except of course he hadn't eaten anything.
It was very chilly. That was the first thing he noticed, once his stomach settled a bit. It was definitely winter here. The only color was white; the sky was white, and the snow was white, and the two were so close in color that it was difficult to tell where one began and the other ended. The only thing that stopped the landscape from looking like a blank sheet of paper was the footsteps that the vampires had made while they set up camp, and the tents that now dotted the plain.
Harry and Lupin were apparently not expected to help. This was good, because Harry didn't have the faintest idea how to set up a tent.
"This is going to be awfully cold, isn't it?" Harry said to Lupin. He was already freezing; he wasn't dressed for this weather. His teeth chattered. In a way, though, he was almost glad for the cold. Vampires couldn't feel it as much. It was a reminder that he was still human. Mostly.
Then he noticed that Lupin was nearly turning blue with the cold, and couldn't even answer him for the chattering of his teeth. The last bit of Harry's happiness leaked away. So much for mostly human.
"Hey," he said to the nearest vampire, a blonde woman (who was, he noted sourly, wearing a heavy coat and a warm hat.) "It's freezing out here. Could we get some coats, or blankets, or something?"
The vampire shot him an annoyed look, then walked off. Harry hoped it was to find something warm for them.
Sure enough, she returned with two coats. Harry's was brown, warm, and fit him exactly. That seemed a bit strange- there certainly weren't any children around here, so why did they have such a small coat laying around?- but Harry didn't have time to think about it. As soon as he buttoned the coat up, he was being dragged off to one of the tents along with Lupin. The inside of the tent looked more like a house than a tent, and there was a fireplace with a blazing fire quickly warming it.
Harry had finally started to warm up when Galba came in. "Follow me," he said to Harry."
Harry stood. Lupin made as though to follow, but Galba only sneered at him. "Not you, Lupin," he said.
Harry was taken to another tent, this one very clean. Harry recognized it immediately as a hospital of some sort. Not again, he thought with an internal groan. Captured by vampires and he still couldn't stay out of the hospital wing for even a day.
There was an elderly-looking man tidying a shelf. Harry thought for a moment that he was human. He hadn't seen any other elderly-looking vampires. But despite this man's apparent frailty, he too was one. That much was obvious once he turned around.
"Ah," he said. "Harry."
Harry was getting annoyed that everyone here insisted on using his first name. It was off-putting. They were trying to be friendly.
Galba walked out of the tent. Harry was left with the elderly man. The longer they were in the same room, the more forcibly Harry was reminded of a mad scientist- the frizzy white hair was complemented by a white laboratory coat.
"How have you been?" the man said, almost bouncing.
"Er," Harry said.
"Oh!" the man said. "Where are my manners- of course you don't remember me. I'm Doctor Brown. We met this summer. But you can't possibly remember that. I'm in charge of making sure you're healthy and adapting well to your… change."
"My change," Harry repeated. Well, it was as good a phrase as any.
"Yes. I have a few questions…" Dr. Brown pulled out a sheet of paper. Not parchment, but lined paper. Then he pulled out a ballpoint pen.
Vampires could start out as muggles, Harry remembered. Had Dr. Brown been muggle, then, before he'd been changed?
Dr. Brown proceeded to ask dozen of questions about Harry's diet, sleeping habits, light sensitivity, favorite colors, magical ability, and seemingly any other topic that entered into his head. He made a tick mark next to an item on his list after every question, and sometimes made a more detailed note.
"Do you think about your father much?"
"How is this possibly relevant?" Harry asked.
"I am evaluating your psychological well-being," Dr. Brown said.
"I'm fine," Harry said. "You don't need to do that."
Dr. Brown made a "hrmph!" noise, but finished asking questions. Instead, he read over his list for a moment.
"You need to have some blood sometime," he said. "You're going to starve, else."
"I know," Harry said.
Another hrmph. Dr. Brown went to the other side of the room, where a curtain covered a corner of the room. Harry had taken it to be a sickbed, but when Dr. Brown opened the curtain, he saw that it was actually a living area. There was a bed, a dresser, and a few books. Much of it was in disarray. From a shelf, Dr. Brown pulled down a box, and pulled something out of it.
He brought the item back to where Harry was sitting, and Harry saw that it was a small clear plastic pouch, labeled as AB positive.
It was blood. And it had obviously been stolen from a blood bank.
Dr. Brown handed the pouch to Harry. It was cold. Harry had absolutely no desire to drink it. He merely stared at it for a moment, and set it down on the desk.
"It's difficult, the first time," Dr. Brown said. He picked up the pouch. "I'll warm it up for you."
He went into the living area again, and returned a moment later with a mug filled with warm blood.
"Is this going to speed up anything?" Harry asked. "I don't… I'd like to stay as human as possible, for as long as possible."
"It will speed things up a bit. But frankly, you'll starve if you don't have some soon. You're too thin. We don't need much to survive, as a rule, but there isn't a creature alive that can live on air alone." He got a thoughtful look for a moment. "Well, actually, I suppose that isn't true-"
"But I could wait a few more days," Harry said, cutting in.
"I wouldn't advise it. What would the point be?" Dr. Brown looked at him very intently. "You'll still be the same person after you drink that blood. You will have the same thoughts. You will have the same feelings. Only your body will change- and even then, not by much. You're almost one of us, anyway. And you're dying. You know you're dying. Now, drink."
Harry picked up the mug and took a sniff. It was pleasant-smelling. He didn't want to think very hard about where it had come from, but if he could just concentrate on the taste, maybe… He took a sip. He took another sip.
He finished off the entire mug, and felt full. It was a wonderful sensation. He'd almost forgotten it. And now that he'd had something, he realized that he really had been desperately hungry. He hadn't realized, had ignored it.
He didn't feel ill at all. He felt normal, for the first time in weeks.
There were a few more questions from Dr. Brown, but he answered them without really thinking.
Galba came back and took him to his tent. Harry found that Lupin was taking a nap under a huge thick blanket. The tent was otherwise empty, and Harry wandered it aimlessly. He was half bored, half still reveling in the feeling of health.
A room had been made just for him. It had clothing, all in his size. There was a bookshelf with textbooks and fiction. He hadn't read most of the fiction, but all of it looked interesting. A few of the books had doodles in them.
While flipping through the pages of one, Harry saw that there was writing all over a blank page between chapters.
--
I think they are going to obliviate me. It sounds as if they are going to send me back to Hogwarts- which I'm grateful for, but not at the expense of my memory. So- if you are me, and you are reading this, there are a few things you should know.
They won't try to kill you, no matter what you do. But being locked up isn't fun, especially if Galba is watching you. Try not to make them angry.
Stay away from Galba. He's cruel, and very old, and he kills for fun. When you turn into a vampire, whatever you do, don't turn into something like him. Sometimes I'm afraid that I will. I would rather die first.
If they give you chocolate, don't eat it. It's full of potions that
--
But here, the note stopped, as though the writer had been interrupted.
The note was in Harry's handwriting, of course, though sloppy, as though written in a hurry.
He read the warning about Galba a few more times, and realized that it explained a mystery he had almost forgotten about; the boggart, back near the beginning of the school year. Lupin had said that Harry hadn't had enough of the Occludus solution to block out a boggart. Well, he hadn't; the boggart hadn't been Lupin's at all. It had been Harry's, only he hadn't remembered Galba consciously.
Well. Forewarned was forearmed. He would just have to be careful.
A/N:
Well, NaNoWriMo is over. I didn't get very far with it, unfortunately. I had to allocate my time to Not Failing Chemistry. Oh, well. One more week until winter break!
Please Review!