Author Note:

Longest chapter so far coming up, hope y'all like it, it's a bit sporadic but I hope it makes sense, if it doesn't feel free to point out problems and I'll do a rewrite, ok.

***

Narcissa had taken the oversized seat in the library, the windows light shining through onto her pale skin. She had aged so much since Harry had last seen her. There were dark bags beneath her swollen red eyes and her face was pale and peaked, creases and frown lines etching their way through her paper-thin skin. He wanted to comfort her, to put a friendly arm around her and tell her everything was going to be all right. But deep down he had no clue as to whether everything was all right, so such comfort would be a very hard lie to make. He kept his eyes on the two new vampires, Alice and Edward, watching their every move with caution. He may, for a reason he could not fathom, trust Carlisle, but the other two seemed to be more frantic about their situation. Alice seemed to be beaming, her words light as feathers dancing in the breeze. Edward, on the other hand, seemed grave and war-worn, his deep golden eyes hard set in his sculptured brow.

"So you say that they have Bella, Esme and my baby in a house somewhere, but you can't tell me where, you can't tell me why and you can't tell me how you knew where we were?"

Edward was starring at Narcissa, who squirmed under the cold gaze.

"We're not trying to interrogate you, Mrs Malfoy; we just want to know what you know." Harry quickly added, relating to the feeling of being in front of a firing squad.

"I…I…" Narcissa looked from stony face to stony face with hints of fear. Carlisle, watching her grow more and more tense and hearing her increasing heartbeat, stepped in front of Edward's hard eye line, blocking his fixed gaze.

"I believe you, Mrs Malfoy. It is all right, but we need to know everything. Is there anything more you are forgetting, anything you may have left out?"

Carlisle's soothing voice seemed to work, ceasing her squirming and relaxing her hunched shoulders. She really was looking older. Her hair, which once had been strong platinum, was now dank looking and greyish. Harry could not help but feel sorry for her. She had been the only person to look away as Draco and Harry continued their affairs. She had made it clear that, though it was not a good thing, she would easily shut her eyes to it and pretend that it was not happening, something he knew Draco would forever be grateful to her for.

"I can't tell you any more than what I have already said. They are planning on taking down the new established orders, and the old ones. The female, Elizabeta, is planning a full scale war against the main vampires. The…Voturri I think she called them…"

Alice looked from Carlisle to Edward, her mouth opening, but Carlisle threw a quick glance at her and her mouth closed, her eyes now on Harry for the first time.

She cocked her head to the side, like a bird, and looked him up and down. Then, with very quick and precise movements, looked to Edward and darted from the room.

"She needed to go and get something", Edward told the room, "She'll be back shortly. But back tot the matter at hand…"

Narcissa rolled her shoulders and sat up straight, hands placed in her lap, like she was at school or in the presence of lower company.

"I have said all I know, or at least as much as I can remember. There are a few things I need to be filled in upon, because for some reason I cannot process them fully. First of all, how did that house elf hear when I called for Dobby?"

Harry's mouth fell open.

"You called for Dobby? Why?"

"Although he is no longer a servant in my household, Potter, he cans till here the call of old masters. If he chooses, he may answer them. If he does not wish too then he is fully within his rights not to. A connection between house elves and their old masters is a strong bond, that cannot simply be severed by a sock."

She looked into Harry's eyes then, the old distain curling the corners of her lips firmly downwards.

"You didn't, did you Harry?"

Edward looked at him and Harry shuffled from side to side. Edward read minds, of course he would be able to tell what Narcissa was thinking, and whatever it was definitely made Edward very amused, because his face had vanquished the darkness which had crossed it for a moment, his eyes filled with a mirth similar to Alice. Thank god Carlisle had told him about his children's gifts, otherwise he would be utterly confused. Edward laughed and then returned to the task, the realisation of the situations gravitas enveloping him once more.

"That doesn't answer my question, however, Potter, how did that other house elf hear Dobby's commands?"

"Dobby was very close to Winky. I think they may have even loved each other in the end; I'm not too sure how that sort of love works between house elves, for that you would have to ask Hermione. But my theory is that by creating this strong bond they also take on each others shifts, if you will. They take each others work loads, their lives almost. And when Dobby died, Winky threw herself into Dobby's work, which would include any work related to his previous family. You, Mrs Malfoy, were the last family Dobby worked for. I can only assume that when he connected to you, he became solely yours. This meant he would always be at your disposal. With Winky connecting to him, she took that call too. Now she works at Hogwarts, as did Dobby, for a wage, as did Dobby, and she is forever connected, in part, to you, as was Dobby."

"Well, look who found some brain power on his travels."

Narcissa could not help herself, the words slipped out before she had time to catch them. There was something so warm and caring about Harry Potter that even if you did not wish to you wanted to mother him, laugh with him, share his thoughts and theories, and answer his questions. She had missed so much, too much, with her own son. But when Harry entered her son's life, as a permanent feature almost, she could not help but soften, even so slightly, towards him. And he seemed to relish motherly banter. She sighed, and then realised that Edward was once again starring at her, but this time with a look that resembled, but was not exactly, pity. She snapped herself out of her train of thought, sitting once again stiff as a board.

Harry simply laughed and nodded.

"My second question is what are you doing here, in this mansion, surrounded by vampires, weren't you supposed to be meeting…someone a few days ago?"

Harry had forgotten all about his meeting with Draco, and he had hoped that Draco would not mention it to Narcissa who, in turn, would tell Lucius. All he needed was an angry Lucius Malfoy bursting through his door at three in the morning to warn him away from his son. Again.

"That , funnily enough, is something we still haven't worked out."

Harry told the story, from the chance sighting of each other at the airport (to which Carlisle had been totally oblivious to, both not realising that they had acknowledged each others presence), to the present moment.

"Well Harry, if you were I, I would not be asking why I was being stalked by a vampire, but what was making it stalk me."

Narcissa now seemed to be in deep concentration and the room around her fell deadly still, the vampires now standing like statues, with the occasional twitch from Edward in Carlisle's direction.

"I have a theory," Alice lightly re-entered the room, a glass of water in one hand and a book in the other.

All looked at Alice, but just as she passed the glass to Narcissa, who took it between her hand and eyed it with caution, Carlisle's phone rang loudly in his pocket.

The ring was persistent and all turned to look as Carlisle tried to ignore it.

"Answer it then, don't you know it is rude to ignore a phone call?"

Narcissa's lips curled into a wry smile as Carlisle took the phone and opened it in one fluid motion.

Suddenly the air changed, the mood switched as Carlisle's face became first hard and pinched, voice on the other end of the phone searching for him, but he not answering. He seemed like a man on fire, and as Edward and Alice listened to what was going on, they two stiffened and look intently at Carlisle.

"Esme?" Carlisle choked out finally, his whole posture totally absorbed in the moment. The voice on the phone was clear and decisive, and Narcissa once again began to nervously shuffle.

"Esme? No listen, I love you, with every second of every day, Esme, stay with me, Esme, where are you? Esme, Esme?"

Carlisle held the phone in front of him, dumbstruck. Within seconds he had let it fall to the floor, his body crumbling in some great weight.

"Did you hear the voice? Before Esme's? Edward, do you recognise it?"

Carlisle held his head in his hands on the floor, his spine seemed to have turned to jelly.

"It can't have been her, she was with the Volturi, why would she break away from the longest standing family of our kind?"

"There is a lot of history between why she joined and what she is, Edward. I better explain…"

Carlisle, his head resting between his hands, looked like a man condemned. Harry wanted to reach out and touch him, to tell him everything was going to be all right. Carlisle began his story, never looking up from his spot on the floor by his feet.

***

"In the beginning, before the Volturi, the original vampire, Draqul, was head of the Romanian clan of vampires. He fell in love with a human woman, Elizabeta. She did not know who he was, and was married to another human man, Jokannan. When Draqul began his courtship, he trapped Jokanaan with three of his vampire mates and they drank of his blood, keeping him weak and unable to find Draqul. Once Draqul had found Elizabeta, she was sitting in her small house in a far off village, wailing for her lover who had been taken by Furies. Draqul comforted her, made her fall in love with him, and both, love crazed and foolish, agreed to bond forever in the ties that bind vampires to the earth. Meanwhile Jokannan had escaped the Furies by their own negligence, fighting over who would eventually drain him dry. He escaped to a local convent and the nun's rushed to the village. There they found Elizabeta, writhing in pain with Draqul over her. Before he had consumed her, Draqul and Elizabeta had consummated their love, as it was in human form he truly lusted after her. She became with child…"

Carlisle glanced at Edward then, and Edward saw the deep sadness in his father's eyes, understanding what Carlisle meant. Harry watched the unspoken discourse with curiosity. Carlisle's eyes glanced at Harry, like he had suddenly found the answer to all their problems, then he took his spot back on the floor near his feet. Harry saw the look that fell in his face as he continued his tale. Something inside Harry squirmed, that look was disgust.

"…Elizabeta grew so fast her body could not control the child inside. Finally the child burst from her, leaving her dead before Draqul's feet. It is believed that for the first and last time, a vampire cried that day, long scarlet tears of blood fell from his cheeks. The village was in uproar, but of course they could not fight the vampire, he was too strong. All decided, for the sake of the village, the child had to be destroyed. Of course, Draqul heard all of their discourse and, taking the child in his arms, he escaped as fast as he could and raised the child, naming her Elizabeta after her poor mother, the most loved of all his mates."

Carlisle stopped again, letting the images sink into everyone's mind. Harry coughed and all turned to look at him. His eyes had filled with silent tears that fell delicately down his cheeks. Carlisle starred in wonder at the man's behaviour, who was he pitying?

"Muggles, and Wizards really, have a story similar to that. It's called Dracula. But normally the vampire is destroyed by people or he disappears into the night. He flies, takes on the shapes of animals. Things like that. I've always had a theory, from what they taught me at Hogwarts, that perhaps the story was based on one small incident mixed with so many other traditions and things and it grew from there. But I didn't know how close it was to…"

Harry wiped his eyes and breathed in deeply, his red puffy eyes causing Narcissa to stand and drape an uncomfortable arm across his shoulder. He was a grown man now, but for some reason he chose to wrap himself in the warm coming from Narcissa's long thin frame. She gently enveloped him in a hug that had been locked away for over twenty years, fighting back the tears she wanted to share with this poor boy in her arms.

"It is very likely that people told the story over generations and it became an epic fantasy. When Bram Stoker wrote the story, he obviously was writing for the people of the time, who still believed in God and the Devil, who didn't have television and things to comfort them so they chose the book. This book, in fact."

Carlisle rose from his spot on the floor and whistled through the library, finally locating a small tattered copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula from the shelves.

"I can't believe I didn't think of it before! How stupid of me!"

Edward looked at him in wonder, Alice nodded, on the same wavelength.

"It isn't just a silly story concocted to frighten! This probably would have helped during…"

"Carlisle, you think that, because you are head of your own coven, you would…?"

"Well yes, I know that my coven is different, but that doesn't mean…"

"Full sentences please, Harry and Narcissa look very confused!"

Alice smiled brightly at the two who had disentangled, but still Narcissa's mothering pressed against Harry's, which had began to slightly tremble.

"Harry, I may be drawn to you because you seem a compatible mate. For my coven. The head of a coven has many mates, look at Aro, although he doesn't call them all his mates he has a certain…affection…for every woman he changes. He selects them, they are chosen and heralded in the coven. Their opinions are counted compared to others that Caius or Marcus may change. They all fit into the grand puzzle which is the Volturi. Up until know, I have always had Esme at my side…."

Mentioning the name hitched in Carlisle's throat and he suddenly dropped to the ground once more. Realisation had finally hit him, and he had been flattened.

"Alice, try to see Esme, now Alice! Now!"

Alice nodded, confusion riddled her brow. The room fell deadly silent as Alice searched. Suddenly she sprang back and held herself against a bookcase.

"I saw a room, it was dark but there were people there, they were….they were…oh Carlisle…they were…"

Alice could not bring herself to say what she had seen and Edward, who saw the images as clearly as Alice, dropped beside Carlisle and whispered in his ear. Carlisle's eyes grew wide and his face, if possible, grew paler.

"No…" He whispered, over and over again.

The room fell so silent that the wind outside could be heard, beating the trees together. Foxes barking at the moon and scurrying though the garden were the only noises Harry could hear. Then suddenly, from his spot on the floor, Carlisle let out a scream, something Harry had never heard, and never wished to hear, from any living creature. It curdled the blood in his veins and he felt the room shake with the ferocity of the sound. It sounded like a man burning, a man in hell. Harry once again found himself close to Narcissa whose face now ran freely with tears. Her knowing eyes looked at Harry and whispered, so soflty.

"Esme is gone."