More violence I'm afraid - but nothing gory, just a few punches etc.
Also, for those dubious about the 'no slash as yet comment' I haven't really decided but if I did include anything it wouldn't be weird or a major part of the story.
I've taken a couple of creative-liberties with this chapter as I'm not sure some of the dark creature technicalities are right. Bear with me though – it shouldn't detract from the story too much if they're wrong. Thanks!
Ooh and also some more swearing.
Enjoy!
oooooooooo
A Cold Green
Running
All Harry could hear was his own heavy breathing. He was unable to tear his gaze away from those dark watchful eyes. It wasn't like a staring contest with Snape though, Harry felt like he actually couldn't physically wrench his eyes from the vampire's. They were an electric blue and as deep as the lake outside, but they seemed to cut into his soul. They were transfixing.
Harry's palms rested tensely on the cold stone floor and he tried to judge how fast he would be able to get up and make a run for it. The large man didn't move from his position – it was unnerving how unnaturally still the dark creature was standing.
With a burst of adrenaline Harry threw himself to his feet and mid turn he broke into a sprint. He heard the heavy flutter of a cloak behind him and raced for his life down the deserted corridor. Flying past the corridor that led to the Great Hall he heard the buzz of battle still ongoing. Ignoring this, however, he dodged sideways and ran as fast as he could still manage down a smaller side corridor where he slinked behind a suit of armour and stopped, trying to catch his breath quietly.
There was no sign of the vampire.
Harry tilted his head backward slightly and let out a sigh of relief. He hated the feeling of being chased like that – it was no fun being the prey.
He tensed suddenly, hearing a very slight footfall behind him. Turning around in a whirl designed to catch whomever it was out, his eyes widened in surprise – the vampire was standing right there, the same watchful smile playing on his face. How had he managed to get back here so fast? And without making a sound?
Trying to back up the corridor as inconspicuously as he could while the vampire just stood there, he turned and attempted another run. To Harry's horror, however, before he could make it to the end of the corridor the looming shadow that had swept up behind him crashed down like a wave, sending both figures sprawling across the floor. Harry struggled to find his footing, but the vampire's large hands held him firmly in place.
Harry let out a panicked yell and kicked out as best as he could, kicking the creature in the leg hard. He got a disgruntled snarl in reply before he was lifted upwards as if he were a rag doll. A small part of the young Slytherin marvelled at how much strength the vampire had.
"Don't run, boy."
The accent was thick and Harry had trouble recognising it. Was it Russian?
Harry struggled against the strong grip that the vampire had around the scruff of his robes but he was pinned hard against the wall and unable to move.
"You're not going to get anywhere."
The panicked green gaze locked onto that of the large vampire's and Harry continued to struggle aimlessly.
The vampire smiled and closed the gap between their faces, studying the squirming boy in his hold.
"What's your name, boy?" He asked softly, leaning to the side to inhale Harry's scent.
Harry frowned uncomfortably. He couldn't get over how much of an enigma the vampire was. It was as if he were talking to an animal… but an animal in human form. Harry had never experienced anything like this before.
"That's none of your business." Harry growled out, straining at his captors grip once more.
"It is my business," The vampire said, making eye contact once more, "I like to know where my meals come from."
Harry's face paled considerably in light of this statement and the vampire's smile widened. Those silvery-white teeth glinted in what little light reached them this far down the corridor and Harry found his gaze lingering on the vampire's face.
Hadn't he learnt that a vampire's face was it's most sensitive feature?
He could see the large creature eyeing up one of the many cuts on his face with a hunger Harry had never seen reflected in a human expression before. It scared him and he drew his head back as far as he could.
His captor, however, had other ideas and seeing his young charge's discomfort he grinned, leant in and tasted some of the blood on Harry's face. His tongue followed the route of the blood up Harry's cheek until he reached the cut itself. Harry could tell the dark creature was savouring the taste and he felt a sickened squirm in his stomach as he strained away from the touch.
When the man finally withdrew Harry let out the breath he had been holding and prayed for an escape route.
"I recognise… something in your blood." The Russian vampire muttered almost to himself.
Harry realised that if there were any moment to attack, this was it. His hand searched out the necklace sitting protectively around his neck and he withdrew it as stealthily as he could while the vampire still stood thoughtfully licking his lips.
Thankfully the necklace was still in the form of a sharp lightning bolt – trying to attack the large man before him with a drip of silver on a chain would have been decidedly harder.
"It is of no matter, I suppose…"
Those dark eyes locked on his again and the gleaming fangs moved in on Harry's neck. With a yell Harry wrenched the chain from around his neck and brought it slashing upwards across the pale face before him.
The hands holding him in place were dropped in a second and a howl of pain broke the silence of the corridor as the large man withdrew. Harry, holding the necklace tightly in his hand, threw a punch at the bleeding vampire in anger and watched in satisfaction as the dark creature fell to his knees holding his face.
The distraction allowed Harry to disappear off down the hall once more, this time without any immediate pursuit. That didn't stop his pace from being fast though and as he rounded the corner a jet of blue light splintered the wooden panelling that ran along the wall and caused him to dodge down in a panic.
Eyes wide, Harry looked back to observe the sight of a very enraged vampire on his knees with one hand outstretched. Thoughts flickered across Harry's mind - the vampire could do wandless magic? Was that even possible?
Without stopping to consider this fact too long, he threw himself around the corner where he spotted a large shadow looming slowly at the end of the corridor. Considering his situation for two seconds Harry sidestepped hurriedly to where he knew there was a secret passageway.
As a little light fell on the creature up ahead Harry realised it was a werewolf. And rather large one at that. He almost froze right there – why were there so many dark creatures in the castle? With a last sidestep Harry made it to the portrait he desired. It seemed it was just in time too, as the werewolf had noticed him and stood alertly, ears flicking to attention.
Pushing his way into the passageway and out of harms way, Harry jogged along it, the exhaustion of the previous few hours catching up with him all of a sudden. He stopped halfway along the dark cold stone passageway and slid down the wall slowly, absorbing the feeling of the cold stone against his tired skin.
His gaze fell to the necklace that lay broken in the palm of his hand. Frowning he noted that the lightning bolt had gone - instead the pendant had taken the form of a curving half-moon.
"Strange." Harry muttered to himself, holding it before his face to study.
He sat fixing the lock that he had broken earlier and soon repaired it to a good enough state that he could return it safely around his neck. The reassuring weight of the pendant returned to his chest and he felt revitalised.
"…not possible… what about the students?"
"The students would not be affected, I assure you…"
Harry sat upright and tilted his head to follow these new raised voices. Where were they coming from? Crawling silently on his hands and knees he made his way down a narrower part of the passageway that he'd never explored before.
"I still think it's too risky a spell to use."
"What choice do we have? It's not going to hurt anyone except those that we choose it to."
"But it's a dark spell!"
"Don't be ridiculous. It's a light spell – it's designed for use against dark creatures for goodness sake!"
Harry frowned and listened against the back of the portrait that must have been hanging in the room these men were inside. A little light filtered through the pores in the canvas and Harry knealt down to see if he could make out who was speaking. He heard a door open and a lot of muffled intense voices.
"They're everywhere now. I had no idea it was a full moon tonight…"
"Let me fight them! You know I'm good at defense! I can defend us!"
Ben. Harry scowled.
"Don't be silly dearest, you won't have to fight them alone." Harry recognised his mother's voice.
"There really is only one option isn't there?"
"I'm afraid so, James, we were just discussing-"
"Then it's one hundred percent necessary that we use the spell – who knows how many students are being bitten as we speak! We've no time to lose!"
"I know, but…"
"There is no 'but' – we have to do this now. It's the Grenulum Incantation or nothing."
The Grenulum incantation? Harry racked his memories of defence methods that could be used against werewolves…
"Fine, I suppose we must… I just-"
"It's for the greater good." Ben's voice interjected, "Your debating is just going to cost us more lives!"
Harry rolled his eyes in the darkness. His father and brother had a way of winning arguments and debates by always bringing up the 'greater good'. It seemed that whatever they wanted, if they just argued the point from what they knew the majority of people would recognise as the 'best for everyone' then they had everyone around their little fingers.
Plus there was the fact that his brother was such a fucking drama queen.
"Then I'll do it right now."
"Be careful, James."
Wasn't the Grenulum incantation the one where all werewolves in the desired area were basically killed by their own intolerance to silver? Harry was sure it was some sort of transfiguration spell where any trace of the iron vitamin in their bodies was transformed into silver. That was a horrible spell, even for those dark creatures…
Harry scratched his head, before wincing as he came across one of his many wounds… surely that wasn't it… they wouldn't cast that here would they? The sight of the bodies would probably traumatise his schoolmates more than a werewolf bite would. Something else was bothering him though and he couldn't put his finger on it…
"Remus!" Harry said in realisation, jumping upright and violently misbalancing.
Outstretching a hand to right himself Harry assumed the portrait to be sturdier than it apparently was and his whole weight went through the back of the picture. He just heard the almighty ripping of canvas and was aware of falling a couple of feet before hitting the ground unceremoniously with a thump.
Oh well, he was involved now.
"Remus!" He shouted against, stumbling to his feet, "You can't perform that spell! You'll kill him!"
The look of astonishment on the faces of those in the room at his appearance would have been enough to make him laugh normally, but at this point in time he wasn't in the mood for laughing.
"Harry?!"
"Yes, remember me? Your other son. The one who you just sold out to Voldemort!" He said hotly, his anger getting the better of him.
"Harry dearest, we thought we'd lost you." His mother said emotionally, moving towards him with her hand outstretched.
Harry shot her a glare – he had no time for this.
"You can't use that spell on the werewolves. You'll kill Remus." He said solidly to his father who stood scowling at having the spotlight stolen from him.
"It's a necessary sacrifice." Ben said loudly, mirroring his father's words from earlier.
"Just like me I suppose?" Harry deadpanned with a raised eyebrow.
"You know we didn't mean it like that dear, we would have saved you…" Harry's mother said dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.
"You're not dead, are you?" His father asked impatiently, expecting that one sentence to prove his point, "This spell is necessary to save all those lives outside. Are you going to allow your classmates to die for the sake of one man?"
"But he's your friend!" Harry said in astonishment, "You could at least find a way to move him out of harms way!"
"We don't have time, Harry." His mother said sadly.
Harry scowled, seeing right through her false sincerity.
"He's-"
"He's a werewolf who should have remembered to take his potion tonight. It's his own fault he transformed and put himself in this position. Now shut up an sit down while I perform this spell." His father snapped, pulling out his wand and rolling up his sleeve.
"You can't do this!" Harry yelled angrily, "Stop him!"
He appealed to the two men he had heard talking earlier but they both just shrugged and waved his protests away carelessly.
"Fine." Harry snarled, shoving his way past a disgruntled Ben.
"Where are you going, Harry?" His mother asked frantically.
"To find him." He said angrily, throwing the door open.
"Don't be an idiot." His father snapped, "Get back in here."
"Father, why should Harry get to go and I have to stay here?" Ben whined, sounding much younger than his fifteen years.
"Because I care about you, whereas I don't particularly care what happens to him." Harry's father replied harshly.
Harry's eyes met his father's stare and without a word he turned his back on them all and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
He didn't know whether to scream or to cry. Part of him felt a relief that his father had finally said it outright but the other part of him was still young and felt completely distressed by the news.
It was ridiculous really. Why couldn't he have had a normal family like everyone else? Why did it have to be so hard to get along with them?
Without realising it, Harry had stormed halfway up the corridor surrounded by a cloud of dark thoughts without even checking where he was. There was no possible way he'd be able to find Remus before his father cast the spell. Plus there was the fact that he was still unarmed.
With a dark sigh, Harry resigned himself to at least hoping he would come across Remus by accident… and not get bitten…
He crept along the corridor that he was currently in, hoping with all his might that the Death Eaters had decided to stay in and around the Great Hall. Turning the corner he froze. There was a figure in the distance.
Harry stood as still as he could, clenching and unclenching his palms unsure of what to do. The glint of white gave away the fact that the man was a Death Eater but he looked injured or something. The man walked with a slight limp and occasionally stopped to right himself against the wall.
Considering the state of the man, Harry could probably hit him over the head with something and that would be that. Nerves getting the better of him as the man gradually approached, Harry decided a punch would have to do, and he envisioned his father's face atop the dark robes.
The figure made it to the corner where Harry stood ready and with a last deep breath Harry threw all his weight behind his one punch.
It hurt – the thud of his fist hitting the man's face knocked the figure to the ground and shaking off the pins and needles in his fingers Harry leapt on top of him. This wasn't perhaps the best idea, because although the man was not that broad, Harry was still by no means large enough to hold him down.
"What the hell are you-"
The snarl stopped as the man found his wand and Harry was lifted off his feet in a sharp shower of red sparks. He hit the wall solidly and had to cough several times to catch his breath where he had slid to the floor.
"Potter!"
Dazed, Harry looked up at the wand pointed at his face.
The man took off his mask and lowered it slowly.
"You!" Harry growled.
"I should deduct points for you hitting a teacher." Snape told him darkly, touching his face where the punch had connected.
Harry allowed himself a satisfied smirk at the bruise that was already beginning to show. This rapidly turned back into a scowl as he remembered why he hated Snape so much tonight.
"A teacher? A teacher who knocks their students out cold and hands them over to Voldemort?" Harry asked angrily.
"It's not as if I had much choice in the matter." Snape muttered, "You're too much like your father – why weren't you hiding and panicking like everyone else? You just walked right into me."
"I had no idea what was going on!" Harry snapped, "In fact, I still have no idea what's going on."
"Most of the Death Eaters have dispersed now. But the Dark Lord has decided to leave the werewolves behind." Snape said with a scowl as he rubbed his face tiredly.
Harry sat scowling at his teacher who still held his wand directly at him.
"That still doesn't explain why you were so keep to hand me over. Why didn't you just leave me in the corridor?" Harry asked.
Snape ran a finger along his lips thoughtfully, eyeing Harry up as if deciding whether or not he was worthy of such information. Harry just sat with his arms folded moodily.
"Perhaps," He said, weighing his words carefully, "I had considered the fact that you weren't happy here…"
Harry frowned. He hadn't expected an excuse like this.
"What?"
"Well, maybe in the heat of the moment I-"
With a sudden yell of surprise and with what felt like a bookcase falling on his head Harry found himself thrown sideways by a heavy paw, with claws that tore at his robes. He landed heavily at Snape's feet where the potions master was already directing a barrage of spells at the large black werewolf before them.
He couldn't feel his arm, but backed up behind the cursing teacher rapidly and pulled himself to his feet. Scanning the immediate area he spotted a suit of armour several metres away and with a mad-dash he ran to it and ripped it's arm off – tugging out the sword and throwing the arm itself at the werewolf that had pinned Snape into a corner.
The metal bounced off the creature's thick hide, diverting its beady gaze towards him instead.
"Shit." Harry muttered, trying to manoeuvre the sword into a decent attack position with the use of one arm as the werewolf slowly advanced.
He was sure he heard Snape call him an idiot but swept back and forth with the sword all the same. It seemed to deter the werewolf for a minute or so, but one strong swipe of the beast's arm sent the sword clattering across the stone floor.
Several spells bounced off the werewolf's back as it advanced on Harry but they seemed to make little difference. Harry could feel himself sweating profusely now. So he'd survived Voldemort and a vampire tonight already, but he was going to be finished off by a werewolf? That was rubbish, he thought helplessly.
Wincing at the resounding roar that shook the portraits on the walls Harry took the first blow from the claws quite well (so he thought himself) and managed to roll out of it before the monster could use his teeth. However, the second blow came as more of a surprise and Harry found himself flat on his back, eyes swimming with stars and a great mouth of teeth bearing down on him rapidly before he could even work out what had happened.
Unable to do anything but stare at the mouthful of sharp canines heading straight at his throat, he was vaguely aware of a ripple of energy shooting through the air and a further resulting howl of anger and pain before the teeth disappeared.
Harry listened to the stricken howling for quite a while before a pair of hands pulled him to his feet and dragged him into a different room. His ripped robe hindered his movement so he shrugged it off on to the floor as he stumbled onwards.
He shook his head, clearing the fog that had developed and only now realised the full extent of the noise that the werewolf was making. It was awful.
"What happened?" Harry asked hoarsely.
Snape lit several more candles before sitting himself on a stool and studying the scratch on his leg.
"I don't really know, but it would appear someone has attempted a spell to rid us of the werewolf problem." He replied distractedly.
"What!" Harry said, jumping to his feet and immediately regretting it as his vision swam once more.
He was too late – his father had performed the spell before he could find Remus. Harry's fists clenched angrily. He hated his father.
Without realising the extent of his violent thoughts, Harry didn't notice the dark blue glow emanating from his person. He could hear the jars on nearby shelves clinking and clattering together but didn't realise it was his angry energy that was causing it.
"Potter?" Snape asked, eyeing his warily.
Harry took a deep breath and tried to calm himself, eventually drawing his attention back to the room he was in.
"What?" He snapped angrily.
It was a while before Snape spoke.
"Are you going to go back?" The potions master asked quietly.
Harry looked up in surprise.
"Back where?"
"To them. To your family."
Harry gazed at him dumbly.
"I'm not an idiot. It doesn't take a genius to work out that you don't get on. I'm merely suggesting that your energies could be better spent… elsewhere." Snape said, again judging his words carefully.
"Elsewhere?" Harry echoed in suspicion.
"Think about it. There's a man here who you've already spoken to tonight, and I can tell you on good information that he's expressed a slight interest in your abilities."
Harry's big green eyes widened as he realised who Snape must have been referring to.
"But… but I'm not…"
"Powerful? Capable of hatred? Alone?" Snape offered up with a smirk.
Harry scowled.
"I don't want to be a lackey. I'm not a complete sell-out like you." He replied folding his arms.
Snape glared across the room at him.
But, Harry considered, he didn't really want to back to his classmates and his family. Surely whatever he chose couldn't be worse than them could it? The one person he had cared about was now gone thanks to his father so it wasn't like he had to feel guilty about anything. And to get the opportunity to learn alongside one of the greatest wizards of the time couldn't be half bad either. As long as he didn't get himself killed.
"He'll be leaving through the east courtyard soon." Snape said quietly, standing up to leave.
His gaze met Harry's for several seconds before he swept from the room, his limp defeating the dramatic effect slightly.
After a few minutes contemplation Harry had made his decision and he also left the room. The walk down through the halls was a haze of thoughts and his footsteps echoed back at him in a very lonely manner.
That's what he was, Harry decided – he was lonely. Perhaps he would find some people with a similar mindset. Perhaps he would find people who would listen to him for once.
Standing in the shadows under the large stone arch he gazed out at the messy pathway before him. There was definite evidence of a fight having occurred here and Harry wondered how far through the castle the battle had moved.
"Mr Potter, what a pleasant surprise."
Harry stiffened slightly at the voice, annoyed at not having noticed the man's arrival. He turned to face the speaker and red eyes met with green for the second time that night.
"I want to come with you."
Oooooooooo
Sorry about the delay on this chapter but schoolwork had to come first. Hope you enjoyed it all the same though! I'm really enjoying your reviews guys so thanks for those. As you might have realised I'm not going to make a vampire-Harry diversion here so you can let out a sigh of relief! ;)
Again, apologies but the next chapter might be a few days depending on how I go. After that though they will hopefully be much more frequent as I've a week off – whoooo!
Thanks for reading! x