Desiring Other Times

Chapter 9 – Infection

Disclaimer: What has two legs, two arms, a head and owns Harry Potter? Joanne Kathleen Rowling, of course! Does my name look like J. K. Rowling? NO!

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. If my parents had ever wished for me to love them, then all they had to do was send me away for long periods of time, rather than have me living with them for years on end. In my time at Hogwarts, my displeasure with them has waned – it all seems so childish now – and I've only been here a term.

My brother? Well, I might seem him at breakfast, at lunch, at dinner, sometimes in the library, but we hardly ever have to talk to each other these days. It's like he lives on the other side of the world, and the few occasions I have been in his presence for extended periods of time have hardly degraded my opinion of him. Sometimes, at the most inopportune of moments, I find myself thinking of him with familial fondness.

Sometimes, I think I might just love my family.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Mr. Potter. I've heard so much about you. Nothing terrible, of course." Lucius Malfoy extended a hand and I shook it. He smiled even wider at my firm, confident handshake, as if I had proven myself capable of being something more than a mindless sidekick for his son.

"Welcome to Malfoy Manor. Draco assures me that he will ensure you enjoy your time here." He looked at Draco pointedly, who momentarily seemed a little panicked but then a confident cocksure expression plastered itself to his face.

"Certainly, Father. Guests of the Malfoy family never leave unsatisfied." They looked at each other in the eyes for a few moments, like a battle of the wills.

Lucius smiled. "Dobby!" A house-elf with large floppy bat-like ears and bulging eyes appeared with a crack. "Take Mr. Potter's luggage to his room." Lucius ordered, and Dobby bobbed, grasped my trunk and disappeared away with it. I noted that Dobby's fingers were bandaged, as was other parts of his body beneath the pillowcase he wore.

"My house-elf," Malfoy senior explained rather redundantly. "If he ever gives you trouble, send him to me." I nodded absentmindedly as I gazed at the rather extensive property. Off in the distance, I could see some servants trimming the hedge.

"Come, let me show you your room." Malfoy senior led Draco and I into the mansion, up several flights of stairs until we reached the second to last landing, with five floors below us, seven floors in total. He led us down the left-hand side corridor. "This," He gestured at a door that had a plaque with 'Draco' engraved on it. "Is Draco's room." Malfoy senior then pointed to the door directly opposite it. "This will be your room."

I smiled at the plaque on my door with 'Harry Potter' written on it. It was a nice touch, and I knew that the Malfoy family wouldn't stop there at impressing me. Pushing the door open, I realised it wasn't a room: it was an apartment. Immediately through the door was a round table with several chairs about, and several shelves of books lined the walls. Opposite the door from where I had entered was another one, which opened up onto a very large bedroom. One entire wall of the bedroom was a giant window that looked over the Malfoy property. To the left (if you had just gone through either the entrance to my apartment or to the bedroom) was a door in both the bedroom and the first room, which opened onto the bathroom. There was a rather expansive shower, a giant bath which looked more like a pool and was lined at the edges with many taps that were labelled things like 'Rose Petals' and 'Red Bubble Bath', a toilet, a spray sink and a large mirror.

"I hope you find it to your liking, Mr. Potter." Malfoy senior paused. "May I call you Harry?" I nodded.

"Well, Harry, it's almost ten. Perhaps Draco would like to show you about?" Draco nodded. "I'm afraid I must take my leave – there are some affairs I must deal with." With that, he swept out, leaving Draco and I behind in the small library they had turned the vestibule of my apartment into.

"I'll show you our Dining Room, first." Draco led me downstairs, then he took me to the Duelling Chamber, then the Library, then the Quidditch Pitch out the back. Privately I wondered what all the other rooms were for – it seemed like a waste of space to not have anything in them.

"This whole floor is our storeroom for Potions ingredients. The floor below has Rune Chambers, Potions laboratories and a room for meditation." He looked at me expectantly.

"You know, you could probably open an Academy here and you probably wouldn't notice the extra people." I joked, and Draco grinned.

"I've thought that before, and once I asked Father if we could do that, then I wouldn't even have to go to Hogwarts." He shrugged. "But Father and Mother aren't home all the time, and he said that he didn't like the idea of complete strangers running about the place."

I blinked, wondering why Malfoy senior had allowed for me to be here. Perhaps it was because I was a Potter and hence had connections in high places to people that were on the 'Light Side'.

"Well! Do you want to play a game of Quidditch? We can invite some friends over so we have enough players."

I nodded. "Sure, why not. None of my friends play Quidditch much, though, and Jeremy's currently… busy." Draco smiled, probably relieved that I hadn't insisted on inviting my brother.

"That's ok, I'll just make a few Floo calls. You remember the way to the Pitch, right? The broom shed's off to the side – I'll meet you there."

I nodded, then walked off as he went to call up his friends. Once down at the Pitch, I entered the broom shed and perused through the many brooms. Five minutes later, Draco came in, pulled down two Nimbus Two Thousands and handed me one. Outside stood Marcus Flint (the Chaser and captain of the Slytherin team), Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Adrian Pucey (another Chaser on the Slytherin team), Kent Bletchley (Keeper), Terrance Warrington (another Slytherin Chaser), Martin Montague (a Beater who sometimes played reserve Chaser) and Blaise Zabini.

"We'll play five a side, with one Beater, one Seeker, two Chasers and a Keeper. What positions do you want to play?"

Vincent and Gregory were to play as Beaters. Marcus, Adrian, Terrance and Martin volunteered to play as Chasers, while Kent and Blaise agreed to play as Keepers. "Well, that leaves Harry and I to play as Seekers." Draco looked at all of us. "Okay, Crabbe, Flint, Montague, Bletchley and I will be on one team. Goyle, Pucey, Warrington, Zabini and Potter on the other."

We zoomed off, and I revelled in the freedom of flying, eyes already searching for a glint of gold. Draco was swooping in and out between the players, doing his utmost best to be in the way of the Chasers on my team. Vincent and Gregory spent their time hitting the Bludgers at each other, occasionally managing to send a Bludger out to attack.

Warrington and Pucey swerved out of the way of Malfoy, and made to shoot for the goals, but Bletchley managed to catch the Quaffle at the tips of his fingers. In one particularly sharp swoop, I spotted the winged golden ball flitting about Draco's team's goalposts. Unfortunately, Draco was closer, much closer, and I couldn't risk racing for it. Slowly, carefully, I swooped closer to his side of the Pitch, glancing every now and again to make sure the Snitch was still there.

When I decided I was close enough, I broke into a dive, and Draco hurriedly chased after me. Wrapping a little magic about me, I smoothed my descent and stretched a hand out almost carelessly to swipe the gold ball out of the air.

We landed, and Draco congratulated me for a good game. Flint thumped me hard on the back (I do believe he was intending to incapacitate me before I managed to get on the Ravenclaw team), and we began play again. And again. Every few games or so, we would rotate positions, and I found that a Seeker's narrow concentration on the Snitch wasn't exactly a good idea for a Chaser, as I unintentionally fouled the other team a lot of times. Being a Beater was also hard, but certainly less daunting than playing as a Keeper. I could only imagine how scary it would be to have three players closing in on you, and trying to guess which goal they were going for.

Noon rolled round and Draco took us inside for lunch. Several varieties of fresh salads and club sandwiches, an extensive range of beverages as well as a large mango pudding were laid out on the Dining Table. Apparently, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were eating out. Digging into the food, we chatted about what we were going to do for the rest of the holidays. Eventually, Vincent and Gregory went home, as did Adrian and Terrance. The only ones left (apart from Draco and I) were Marcus, Martin, Kent and Blaise.

Marcus glanced at me. "You trust him, Draco?" Draco nodded.

"Of course. I was interested in Harry before, but it was really Snape who suggested I try and befriend you. And you know Snape – he can read minds and all, so I'm sure if we can trust Snape…" I was surprised that Snape had told his students that he knew Legilimency. Or perhaps he had only said he could read minds?

The others grinned in an almost feral manner. "Of course. Well. As you might have guessed, almost all of us are the sons of people who were suspected to be Death Eaters. Whether or not our parents were followers of Voldemort is neither here nor there – what we-" Marcus swept his hand at the others. "-do is learn things that might not be so… legitimate. I think that the rest of us here should agree with me in that considering Snape and Draco vouch for you, that we'd like to invite you into our little… clique." The others nodded, and Marcus looked at me expectantly.

"I think it would be quite interesting – so yes, I would like to join." I added.

They smiled. "Excellent! Well, looks like it's full steam ahead with the plan, right, Draco?" Flint turned to look at Draco, who smirked.

"Of course. But perhaps we should ascertain just how much Harry here already knows about what the Wizarding World calls the 'Dark Arts'." His tone turned disgusted as he finished his sentence.

I shrugged, starting to feel like I was walking in a dream, as everything seemed so unreal. Like standing on the edge of a precipice and contemplating jumping. "I haven't actually cast any of those spells or made those potions or anything like that… but I do know the general theory behind them." They seemed a little disappointed that I had little experience with it, but as the Muggle saying goes 'You can't have you cake and eat it'.

"That's ok. Well, this holiday, we planned, that if you said 'yes', that we would be doing something less 'illegal'." Draco paused for dramatic effect. "We're going to become Animagi!"

My eyes widened – I truly hadn't gotten around to brewing that second potion… "That'd be awesome!"

"So I assume you haven't started?"

"Well… I've taken the one that checks to see if you can become one…"

The others smiled in a way that almost seemed… proud? "That's the way! Well? Are you?"

I nodded. "Excellent – well if anything, this really does prove that you're meant for our little club, Harry." said Blaise, as we were led by Draco to one of the Potions Laboratories.

"I had Dobby brew the Revealer-Unlocker while we were at school, and it should be ready." Draco said over his shoulder, pushing open the door.

Inside, a silver cauldron hung from the ceiling above a fire that roared bright blue. Every so often, the yellow-orange potion would give off a silvery mist that clung to the surrounding surfaces before fading. A small table sat next to the wall opposite the door, with six crystalline cups and a silver ladle sitting on it.

"Well, the books say we take the potion and then we fall into a sort of trance – Father provided the mats for us." On the left side of the room were several royal blue mats that were actually softer than they looked. "Depending on how good you are at meditating, the trance can last for…" Draco flipped open a book, paged through it then found the passage he was looking for. "Shortest time was half an hour, longest has been a week and a half." He looked at each of us in turn. "I for one hope it'll only take a day or so."

We each filled a cup with some of the potion, sat on the mats and raised the cups as if to make a toast. "Cheers," Blaise muttered, and at the same time, we knocked back the potion.

I blinked, and when my eyes opened, I was standing on seemingly thin air that seemed at the same time like grey mist and nothingness. Before me was a giant red sphere – I recognised it as a rather large version of my own magic sphere, and if that was the case, the sphere before me represented my Occluded mind.

Stepping forward (somehow), I reached forward to the sphere, and unlike the real magic sphere I owned, it rippled and parted slightly, allowing me entrance. Moving forward again, I was thrown into the first circle of my mind. Memories (rectangular prism-like boxes) and thoughts (little football like things) floated about, and it wasn't long before I made it to the orange sphere.

Reaching out again, I was surprised when it didn't allow me entry. Focussing on what little I knew of the sphere, I imagined the magical sphere and the process of focussing on a different layer – specifically, trying to remember what it felt like to see through the second layer to the third, yellow layer. And just like that, the second sphere parted a little and I moved through again.

Here, the memories weren't moving about quite so much as they had been in first circle, but the thoughts speeded up a little, and a few emotions joined the mix (far-off glowing lights, like stars). I made my way through the second circle, then the third, and the fourth, and so on and so forth until I was past the violet barrier and in the last circle.

There, memories piled high (along with the Flitwick Files), the emotions became glaring suns, and the thoughts whizzed about so fast they fairly bounced off each other.

Another me stood in the centre admiring it all. He turned when I walked towards him.

"Hello, it's nice to finally meet you." He greeted politely.

"Aren't you supposed to be in my Animagus form?" I asked, confused. The other me ignored my rudeness.

"I am in the form."

"You mean I have the power to turn into myself?" I asked dryly, unamused.

The other me laughed. And I noticed his teeth. "My form's a vampire?" I asked, incredulous. "You mean I'm going to be sensitive to the sun, never eat garlic again and never be able to go to church?"

"Did you ever go to church in the first place, Harry?" He asked cheerfully. "And actually, vampires aren't sensitive to the sun, or allergic to garlic, holy water, the name of a god, crosses, all that jazz. We have reflections, and we don't have to be pale if we don't want to be. Sure, we still die if someone chops our head off or stakes us in the heart, but doesn't everyone?"

I frowned. "But…"

"Bad news – we're allergic to air."

"WHAT!"

"Just kidding."

"Good! You had me scared there for a second!"

"But the species of vampire I am means you're allergic to anyone you're not going to ever consider as prey."

A pause, then… "You mean the only people I'll ever be able to physically stand are people I'll take blood from or kill…?"

"That's right."

"Good gods… Kill me now…" I muttered, half-serious. "But… a lot of the students at Hogwarts say vampires…"

"Even Wizarding children are subject to the myths about… 'Dark Creatures'. It's not like we even need to drink human blood – vampires can live on medium rare steaks, you know." The other me joked.

"So… are any of those other things true? Like flight and super-strength and speed and incredible healing and…" I paused.

"Don't you already have those things – well, apart from the flight – with those wristbands of yours? Or were they merely activating a latent talent in you? Or both?" The other me replied. "You're not quite sure, are you? But anyway, I'll answer your question… yes, we have increased strength, speed and healing rates. Flight is a little harder. That is, not all vampires can do it. And while I can fly, I'm just a representation of your form. You'll just have to try and see." The other me paused. "What else? Ah, teleportation, superior vision, increased senses, the ability to better remove the nutrients from your food – that's how we can get stronger by drinking blood, you know – some talent in the mind magics and wandless magic… well, honestly, the only two things you might possibly be gifted with that you couldn't already do already or with help from the wards like the ones on your wristbands are flight and teleportation. And those are pretty big ifs, it's not definite you'll be able to achieve those skills."

Vampire Harry paused again, and I remembered another 'myth' I had heard about vampires. "What about the ability to use shadows? Like making them solid or travelling in them? And immortality?"

The other me blinked. "Oh yes, there's that too… but I'm not quite sure if you can use shadows even if you're in your Animagus form. I mean, I have trouble enough doing it. And immortality is stupid – we're not, we just live longer because our bodies can heal faster and better. Well, let's go through the ones that will most likely cross over to when you're in human form… hmm… strength, speed, healing ability, mind magics, enhanced senses, better metabolism… yeah, that's about it." I was stunned.

"What?" asked Vampire Harry. "You could've gotten most of those even if your form was something as mundane as a wolf! Okay, so maybe the mind magic and healing abilities might not happen, but still, that's a majority of them that are completely and utterly common in Animagi."

Vampire Harry paused, looked off into the distance for a bit then looked back at me. "It's time to go back. I'll see you again, Harry."

I nodded, but then something seemed to tug at me, pulling me out all the spheres until I was in the grey mist, and then…

"Harry? You're awake!" I opened my eyes blearily, and was greeted with Draco's face.

"Awesome," he crowed. "We're the only one's that are awake." I looked about and saw the others still lying prone on the mats, the crystal glasses back on the table. "Oh, Dobby came in and put them back." said Draco when he realised where I was looking. He peered at me curiously. "So, what's your form? I'm a pit viper – a bushmaster."

I looked at him, a little curious. "A bushmaster? How did you know?" At that, Draco smiled a little evilly. Meanwhile, I wondered why I wasn't breaking out in hives. Was I already considering Draco prey?

"Not many people have snakes as an Animagus form, Harry. And those that do… learn how to speak Parseltongue." My eyes widened, and I remembered how every time I encountered snakes, I always seemed to hear voices, hissing, spitting voices. Was I… was I a Parseltongue as well? How could that have happened?

"Well? What's your form? Wait, let me guess!" He stared at me for a bit. "A… hawk?" I shook my head. "A raven?"

I laughed. "Just because your form is your House emblem doesn't mean my form is as well! Try again, Draco."

"Is it a bird of any form, then?" I shook my head.

"Something with wings?" Shake, shake.

"Um…" Draco sat in his 'thinking' position, where he crossed his arms and looked upwards. "Does it have legs?" I nodded. "Arms?" I nodded again, and he seemed surprised. "So it's humanoid…" he muttered. "A monkey?"

"Nup."

"A gorilla."

"Sorry, but wrong."

"An orang-utan."

"Wow, Draco, I didn't know you knew so many kinds of primates. But no."

"Shut up. A chimpanzee?"

"Sorry."

"A baboon."

"Nuh-uh."

Draco was getting annoyed. "Then what the hell is it?"

I grinned at him. "Well, you'll just have to wait and see!"

"Harry!"

"Sorry, but it really is a surprise."

"Fine." huffed Draco, but then he grinned. "You know, now I'm really interested in what your form is." Then something occurred to him. "You're not a magical Animagus are you? Hang on, what happened when you took the first potion? Did you get dizzy or did you… faint?" He asked, barely controlling his excitement.

I smiled widely. "I'm a magical Animagus." I allowed.

Draco's eyes widened. "That's amazing, Harry! Humanoid… magical…" He muttered, then suddenly looked at me, quite pale.

"A fairy?" I laughed out loud at him.

"A… zombie?"

"No!" I laughed incredulously. "But close. Kind of. Zombies are far too dumb and slow for me."

"You're a vampire!" Draco hissed, awestruck. I chuckled at his expression. "Well, aren't you? Tell me, goddammit!"

Taking pity on him, I nodded. "Merlin… that's…" His expression turned wicked. "Imagine what the Ministry will say if you register…" We laughed, but then Blaise started to stir.

"Shut up! I have a bloody headache and…" He groaned, sitting up clumsily, one hand clutching his head.

Draco went outside, called for Dobby (I could hear him through the thick door, thanks to my newly awakened – or realised – hearing), then came back in half a minute later. "Here," he held out a small vial. "This'll help with your headache." Blaise nodded and thanked Draco, then slugged the drink back.

"Ah… that feels so much better." He shook his head a little, then put the vial on the ground. "Well, turns out I'm a bloody macaw." He muttered, a little disappointed.

"Who cares? At least you have a form and it can fly!" I said, trying to make him feel less dissatisfied.

Draco turned to look at me with a rather devious look. "How about you, Harry? Can't your form fly?"

I glared at him while Blaise asked us what our forms were. "Maybe. I'm not sure. It told me I might not be able to, but it's a possibility."

"What?" Blaise was confused. "Either you can fly or you can't."

Draco smirked. "Oh, but Harry's form is a special case. And I'm a viper." He added, and Blaise nodded approvingly, saying something about the added bonus of being able to speak Parseltongue, which sure beat his form which had no such side-bonus.

"So, what's your form, Harry? Special case…" Blaise's eyes narrowed. "You've gotten yourself a magical form, haven't you?"

I sighed mournfully – at the rate this was going, everyone would know what my form was. "It's a vampire."

Blaise blinked. Then his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. "A… a… a vampire!" He shrieked, clapping his hands to his neck.

Draco and I laughed. "Relax… I'm not going to bite you. Hard." Blaise paled even more.

I turned to look at Draco, then back at Blaise again. "We're going to make everyone take a Secret Oath, right? It wouldn't do if one of us… sleeptalks or something like that."

Draco nodded. "Of course. And you'll have to make one about this group as well."

"No problem with that." While I might have been there to spy on Draco and his family (or so Dumbledore had sent me to do), there was definitely no way I was going to tell them just what I had learned while there. This only gave me an extra reason not to.

Blaise turned to Draco. "We'll all have to make new oaths to include Harry, right?" Draco nodded.

Eventually, over the next week, everyone woke up (Marcus was last, and he wasn't exactly happy that the youngest had woken up first while he, the oldest, had woken up last). Marcus' form was, even more embarrassingly, a cockroach, although we tried our best to reassure him that cockroaches were one of the most hardy of creatures in the world and that people speculated that they were the only creatures that would survive past the Apocalypse. Martin's form was that of a great hammerhead shark. Kent was the only other magical Animagus (although Draco's Parseltongue ability also technically counted), with his form being a Hinkypunk.

"…and I can breathe underwater – isn't that cool?" bragged Kent, while Draco and Blaise merely smirked knowingly at Kent. A vampire could hold its breath for extremely long periods of time – the healing factor took care of that. When we finally told Kent what my form was, he almost fainted… wait, I take that back. He almost 'collapsed'. The only interesting thing was that my 'allergy' didn't seem be happening.

About ten minutes (and several Secret Oaths) later, we were sitting on the mats again, this time trying to achieve our transformations. During the week, those of us that had awoken earlier had already begun to work on this. Kent and Martin were lying on mats floating on separate tanks, with the mats charmed to let them fall through if their weight changed suddenly.

I was back in the seventh circle again.

"Welcome back, Harry." greeted Vampire Harry.

"Hey."

"So you're trying once again, huh?"

"I'd be quicker if you'd give me a hint."

Vampire Harry grinned. "Well, you didn't really know much about vampires when you first came in here… are you sure you know what it's like to be a vampire?"

I shrugged. "I found a couple of books in Draco's library. They were… enlightening, to say the least."

"I know."

"Then why bother asking! Help me, goddammit!"

Vampire Harry sighed. "As I said the first time we met, a lot of the things my form 'gifted' to you, you could already do. Humans and vampires really aren't all that different. The biggest difference, that makes us know that drinking blood is good for our health, that makes us capable of using more of our body's physical capacity… the biggest difference, Harry, is instinct."

I stared at him. "That's it? Instinct?"

"Hey, don't look down on good old instinct! It's instinct that keeps you breathing when you sleep, remember!"

I frowned, thinking about this newest revelation. Instinct… What would it be like to chase prey, hunting for its blood? To be able to fling myself off a tower and know that I could catch myself? To be able to melt into the shadows and strangle an unwitting victim?

Vampire Harry smiled toothily (I don't there's any other way for a vampire to smile, really). "You're getting there, Harry. Good work."

I looked at him, and then I blinked, and I was no longer in my head.

In the real world, I could feel the difference, even though I hadn't moved an inch. I stood up, marvelling at the sheer grace of my movements, at the comfortable pressure my elongated eye teeth made against the inside of my mouth. Flexing my hands, I held one hand out, palm up, and concentrated. A globe of light appeared almost immediately, without me having to even focus like I used to have to. Even when my improved wandless ability had started to show itself (it was still getting better), it hadn't become this easy. Yet.

Everyone else still had their eyes closed, so I reverted back to my human form, sat down, and started again, this time trying to transform without having to go into the world of my mind.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Author's Notes:- I've been planning for Harry to turn into a vampire for a very long time. Doesn't it seem a little amusing that a bathroom in the Malfoy house has Bubble Bath? I was going through the Harry Potter books and I realised that… there are four chasers in Slytherin. So I made one of them into a Beater that occasionally played as a Chaser. And the whole special clique thing, wouldn't you do it if you could?

1. The mats – so when they wake up they won't be so damn sore from lying on stone.

2. Vampires – like ordinary humans except they have the ability to use more of the body's physical capability so speed and strength are improved (apparently, the human mind puts limits on the body so that you only use up to 20 percent of its potential, so even a weakling could lift a hundred kilograms if they limits were removed), heal faster, better senses, teleportation, flight, ability to manipulate and travel through shadows, a better metabolism that enables them to strip all sorts of things from food (including and not limited to magic), and since the Vampire is a magical creature that is based on humans, mind and wandless magic are improved. The other forms of magic aren't improved else that would be overkill. Other limits imposed upon humans by the mind may also be able to be stretched/broken.

3. Allergy – Allergic to people that aren't prey? It's just so interesting!

4. Draco – what do you know, we have another Parseltongue! I made it so that snake forms are rare, and those that get them technically have a magical form due to the Parseltongue gift. I'm debating on whether or not to have Parsel Magic.

5. Instinct – I borrowed this from Bleach, where the protagonist has to subdue his 'inner demon' so he doesn't go insane. Plus the added bonus of being able to borrow its powers.

Coming up next, Harry manages to get the hang of turning into a vampire, and Draco gets drunk? Okay, so maybe becoming a vampire with all those side-effects is way too over-powered. Trust me when I say I have a major twist coming up that will render almost all that has happened in the last few chapters (and a few more) practically useless to Harry.