Hey guys, sorry for the long wait… been caught up in school work recently, but I have finished all my assessment exams now (Yey!) So here you go, the next chapter, enjoy! :)

And just one more thing I want to say before you read on…

*****IT IS MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!*****

I can finally start my driving lessons!!!! WeeeeHeeeeee!!!!!!! (Sorry, I know it has nothing to do with the story, but I just feel like saying it out loud :P)

Disclaimer: Nope. I don't own them… but since it is my birthday today, will anyone kind enough to get me them for my birthday present? Pretty please? (Begged with puppy eyes)

P.S: The girl that Darren saved before... I changed her name from 'Vianna' to 'Arlene' coz I am not really satisfied with the name 'Vianna'. Sorry about the confusion :P


Searching in the mist…

My head hurt like hell when I got up the next morning. The lump was still there. I looked around the dormitory and Harry and Ron were not there. Guess they didn't want to wait for me anyway. I got dressed quickly and went down the hall by myself. Harry was sitting on one of the tables with the others. I walked passed them, trying not to look, and found myself an empty table and sat down, eating silently. Then someone sat down opposite me.

"Care if I join?" I looked up and found Arlene, the girl I saved from the spider incident.

"No, just sit anywhere you want." I said simply and got back to my food.

"Why are you not sitting with them?" Arlene asked, jerking her head in Harry's direction.

"…I had a little fall out with them yesterday." I replied. Yeah, they discovered that I'm a vampire and they're scared that I will suck their blood so we fell out…

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

"It is OK."

"You know, you can hang out with me for today if you want." She said, sitting down.

"Thanks…" Then I continued eating. We didn't speak much because:

1. I was looking down on my food all the time 2. I just wasn't in the mood to chat.

I finished and looked up. She was staring at me curiously.

"Have you finished?" I asked.

"Oh yes. I am just waiting for you."

"Er… thanks…"

"Well we should get going then… the first lesson is transfiguration, right?" she asked.

"Er…yes."


After morning lessons Arlene went with me to the great hall to have our lunch. I found myself more talkative with her now. We talked about a lot of things while we were having lunch. My bad mood from yesterday was fading away. After eating, we remained seated and chatted for a bit. I looked more closely at Arlene, who was talking beside me. Wow, I just found out that she was quite pretty…

"Darren? Are you listening?" Her voice jerked me out of my trance.

"Er… Yeah?" I found her looking straight at me with her beautiful green eyes.

"You know…" She shifted closer to me. I blushed.

"Yeah?"

"You are quite a good looking guy…" She said, leaning towards me.

"I beg your pardon?" I was a little bit taken back by what she said.

"I mean… I like you…." She said as she leaned closer to me, closing her eyes, until her lips were no more than 5 centimetres between mine. Is…is she trying to kiss me? I stared at her lips. They were a little plump, as if they were full of something sweet… attracting and inviting... Without any more thoughts, I leaned towards her and kissed her.

Then suddenly I felt glares. I saw in the corner of my eye, Harry, Ron and Hermione staring. Damn it.

I jerked my head back instantly. Arlene opened her eyes and looked at me, confused.

"I-I am sorry." I said, still trying to look at Harry from the corner of my eyes to see if they were still looking. Arlene noticed and followed my gaze.

"You don't want them to know, do you?" she asked.

"……"

"Tell me." She demanded, staring into my eyes. I tried to avoid her glare but I couldn't.

"No…" I lied. "I just don't think I am really ready for this kind of thing yet… you know, I don't really know you that well…" I mumbled.

She sighed. "Well, I guess you're right." She said, shifting a little bit further away from me.

"I am so sorry."

"It's fine, I know how you feel. We have still got time together, and you and I can know each other better…" she smiled.

I gave a relieved sigh, and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione turned their heads away from me.


[NOT IN DARREN'S POV]

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the great hall having their lunch.

"I still can't believe Darren is actually a vampire." Ron muttered as he ate.

"Shh!" Hermione hushed him. "Don't say that out loud! We are not allowed to tell anymore, remember?"

"I don't bloody care! I think everyone has the right to know the fact that he is a vamp…" Ron exclaimed but Hermione stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth.

"Enough!" She snapped. Then her facial expression changed from serious to disgust. "EWWWWWW!!!!! You hand licker!" she yelled as she pulled her hand away from Ron's mouth, wiping his saliva on the table.

Ron giggled. "Wow…that works... I will do that from now on if you put your hand over my mouth again." Hermione gave him a death glare.

"You know Darren," Harry suddenly said, making Ron and Hermione turn to him. "He's not as evil as he seemed… I mean, he had never hurt us or anything… I felt guilty leaving him alone… and, you know, we don't really know anything about vampires, do we? They might not be what it said in our textbook, right? "

After Harry spoke, Hermione and Ron went quiet.

"… I guess Harry is kind of right…" Hermione broke the silence. "Last night I actually saw tears in his eyes when he blurted out at us… I could tell, by looking in his eyes, that he treated us as friends…"

"Well I doubt that, Hermione. Look." Ron jerked his head towards his left. Harry and Hermione turned their heads in the same direction. They saw Darren sitting with Arlene, and they were…

Kissing.

"I can't believe this." Hermione said, still staring.

"Now you guys know the truth about him! He fell out with us yesterday and he is now flirting with a girl, and bloody ki-kissing! I think he is quite glad to get away from us coz we won't disturb him anymore from girls! By the way I think he only cares about her blood!" Ron exclaimed.

"Guys I think he saw us. They stopped." Harry said.

"What a faker." Ron quipped. "Let's go. I don't want to see him anymore. And I have to warn Arlene about him."


Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing outside Hagrid's hut, waiting for Hagrid to come.

"Oh where is he?" he said he would be here at 6 o'clock!" Ron grumbled.

"Be Patient Ron! It is just 10 minutes! Can't you put up with it?" Hermione snapped at his side.

"It is getting dark now and the Forbidden Forest is right next to us! There are monsters in there, MONSTERS!"Ron exclaimed, stretching out on the word 'monsters'.

"Oh don't be such a scary cat! Sometimes I wonder if you are just a girl dressed in a boy's clothes!" Hermione quipped. Ron's face gone red.

"It's ok Ron. The creatures won't hurt us unless we go in the forest. Hagrid is probably late for a reason. Maybe he had some work to do. I bet he will be here in any minute." Harry stated.

"He better be… I don't like it when it is dark in here, and it is freezing!" Ron shivered and crossed his arms in front of him, trying to get warmer.

They stood there, looking around for any signs of Hagrid. The only thing they didn't notice was, something, or even someone, was watching them with evil red eyes somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, waiting for a chance to strike.


[DARREN'S POV]

Me and Arlene was heading towards the Great Hall for our evening meal. School was not that bad at all today. Arlene was accompanying me all day long. I started to feel a little 'something' for her…

Just as we were in front of the entrance of the castle, I saw Ron running towards me across the courtyard, face terrified.

"HE-HE-HELP!!!!" He ran over, grabbed my shoulders and started to shake me violently.

"Whoa! What's going on?" I asked as I held his arms, stopping him shaking me.

"Ha-Ha-Harry an-and He-Hermione…The-they're…" He was panting so badly that I couldn't hear a word he was saying, but I could tell that he was in shock.

"Calm down." I said, waiting for him to retrieve his breath. "Now tell me what happened, slowly."

"It… it kidnapped Hermione!!!!" he said, voice still shaky.

"What kidnapped her?"

"I-I-I don't know!! It…or he! Pu-purple! All over him! And those horrible red eyes… he just appeared from nowhere and…and dragged her into the forest!" Purple and red eyes. The vampaneze. They are in Hogwarts!

"What about Harry? Where is he?" I asked, voice getting louder because of panic.

"He-he went after them and told me to get help!" Shit. I have to go help them.

"Take me to the forest. Now."

Ron hesitated. "It-it is too dangerous to go by ourselves! Shouldn't we tell Dumbledore or anyone first?"

"We have no time! Harry and Hermione are in big danger!" I blurted out.

Ron stared at me for a second, and nodded slowly. "This way." He led the way and I followed.

"Darren? What's going on?" Arlene asked. Oh God, I forgot about her.

I turned back and shouted. "I'll meet you in the Great Hall later! Please don't tell anyone about this!" Then I went, leaving her standing on the spot mouth half-opened.


I followed Ron to the entrance of the Forbidden Forest and we walked in. The forest got darker and foggier as we walked deeper in. The color of the trees and grass seemed to turn into a grey colour because of the mist covering them. Ron looked around worriedly. I presumed that he was scared.

"Darren…" He spoke suddenly.

"Yes?"

"Er…I just want to say…Thank you…and sorry."

"What for?"

"For coming to help… I thought you didn't care… I thought vampires are…"

"It is OK Ron." I cut him off, and smiled at him slightly. "I'm sorry for not telling you guys as well."

Then I looked around, looking out for any signs of Harry and Hermione, or the vampaneze. The forest was very foggy so we could only see a few metres in front of us.

"There is no way we are going to find them in here… and I think we are lost." I stated.

"Lost?" Ron's eyes widened. "Bloody Hell! I don't want to be stuck in here! Creatures will attack us!"

"I am sure we will be fine… I am a vampire, remember? I am stronger than humans…" I said but I stopped suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked.

"Shhhh…I think I heard something." It was a scuttling noise. I looked around, alerted. The noise grew a bit louder and I realized it came from behind us. I turned around and I saw what seemed like a large thin sheet of black (it looked like a blanket), covering the earth, appearing not far away from us. I couldn't see what exactly it was because of the mist.

"Wh-what is that?" Ron asked with his shaky voice.

"I have no idea." The noise grew louder and louder and the 'blanket' moved towards our direction in a quick speed. A few seconds later I could see what the 'blanket' really was. Spiders. Thousands…even millions of them, crawling towards us. Ron screamed.

"Run!" I shouted, dragging Ron, running in the opposite direction of the spiders. Oh Jesus Christ! I know I like spiders but you don't have to give me millions of them!

"I-I-I thought you could control sp-spiders!!!" Ron shouted as he ran along with me.

"Yeah but not with millions of them!"

"Bloody hell! Are you attracted to spiders or anything? Everything with you includes spiders!!! Spiders in DADA class, spiders in Hagrid's class, and spiders now…" he started to moan as he ran.

"Oh just shut up and keep running!" I got annoyed by him. "Save your breath for running instead of moaning at me!"

We ran as fast as we could for a few minutes. I could see Ron couldn't keep up with me anymore. Shit. The spiders were still chasing us. This is weird. It seemed that they were trying to lead us somewhere by chasing us in different directions. Then we saw a cave ahead of us. We stopped, wondering if we should go in or not. The spiders caught up and surrounded us in a semi-circle around the cave. Then they stopped.

"Looks like they want us to go in…" I said and looked at Ron. He didn't say anything because he was still panting from the run. He looked up at me, face in a horror expression and shook his head violently.

"N-N-NO!!! I-I remember he-here! I-it is wh-where A-A-Ara-Ara-go…" I was confused by what he said. Just as I wanted to ask him to repeat that again, the spiders which were surrounding us crawled closer, making the semi-circle smaller. They were getting impatient. Ron let out a cry and grabbed my arm.

"Look, Ron, we have two choices, either being eaten alive by these spiders or go in the cave." I said simply.

He looked at me in horror. "Is-is there a-a-a th-third choice?" He asked me shakily.

I rolled my eyes. Without answering him, I dragged him into the cave. The spiders followed. The cave was pitch black but I managed to see a little dot of light in front of us. So this was a tunnel, not a cave. The tunnel stunk and I could feel bats or something flying over our heads. Ron hadn't let go of my arm. I could feel him shaking. The dot of light grew bigger. I walked faster, still dragging Ron with me, and walked out from the end of the tunnel. Then I froze.


Like the ending or not? I bet everyone has got an idea what Darren saw when he went out from the tunnel :)

Wow…this chapter took me absolute ageeeees to sort it out… and I am not so happy about it… please review to tell me if it is good or bad (might want to rewrite it if it's bad), but I don't mind flames! So please R&R! Thanks :)

***I have written an oneshot about Darren before I updated this chapter, anyone interested to take a look? (Called "Attractions")