Pale

Note: YAY! Sarah is writing again, my schedule is still cramped but I am thrilled to be writing D's world once again! Hm….I keep telling myself my crossovers will be subtitle and yet…I just can't help myself, lol. Harry Potter just keeps clawing it's way into D's world. Okay so I am toying a bit with the happy go lucky ending at the end of Deathly Hallows, but ah well….nobody was happy with " all is well" anyway.

Chapter Five: Messages

" If only angels could prevail we'd been the way we were, Johanna. Wake up Johanna, another bright, red day. We learn, Johanna, to say goodbye." - Johanna (Reprise), Sweeney Todd

D was the first to awake, moving carefully from Mina's embrace. He stared silently at the circular clearing that they lay within; the expression upon his face was quite unreadable, although there was a hint of sorrow in his eyes. The trees had grown, changed, died and been born anew since the last time he'd laid eyes on them, and the plant life was sparser, as well as utterly different, yet it was undeniable that this location held a significant meaning for the Hunter. Gently he pulled himself fully from the embrace of his sleeping mother and rose toward where his horse was tethered. He reached under the beast's saddle, and pried his slender fingers into a thin crack into the metal work. It was a hidden compartment that was filled mostly with spare daggers, medical supplies in the event that he needed to help another and a wide assortment of books.

The book that D pulled free from the clutter was a bejeweled book that looked more fitting for a museum than an aimless Hunter. He returned to Mina's side and carefully opened the book. Dust clung to the pages, yet other wise the book was in good condition, it had been exceptionally well cared for over the ages. The seller had told D that it was an ancient translation of a story book from a time well before that of the Great Poisoning, but D had bought the fairy tale book merely as a curiosity. It went by the title of Tales of Beetle the Bard. The fables told within the were whimsical, and ridiculous as most tales of the Wizards had a tendency to be, yet there had been one tale that had sparked the Hunters interest enough to keep it with him, at least for now.

The book fell readily open to the story he sought out, The Tale of the Three Brothers. His eyes swept swiftly over pages, although the words had long before been burned into his memory. The invisibility cloak. The Elder wand. The Resurrection Stone. Each was a relic that had been cheated from Deaths hands, each an object of truly coveted power.

D's eyes however did not linger long on the words that spoke of the coveted relics, but moved downward toward the middle of the story. He lightly touched the ink of the dreaded sentence he'd been seeking as though willing it away with the sweep of his hand. The ink however did not disappear…yet it did move.

Suddenly minuscule little words written in a frantic script appeared within the left margarine of the page. The words multiplied and soon were actually pushing aside the words already printed on the book to make themselves known. His expression was only of minimal interest. Wizards were few and far between these days, as they had a habit of breeding only with the limited numbers of their own pureblooded kind, nowadays only their books remained behind. To the avid book collector it wasn't at all uncommon to run across a book that behaved in ways such as this, D himself had once spent near five days in the spell of a book that you literally could not stop reading.

However the reason these words had chose to remain hidden until the time of D's chance touch upon the page became soon clear.

These will likely be the final words that I, Harry James Potter, will ever put to quill and parchment. I don't even know if anyone will read them, I am just following orders at this point. The Seers told me to write to whoever you are in this book. I don't even know where to start, what I am supposed to say, and why I have to write this letter in the book that was translated by my dead best friend, but I suppose I should do it anyway.

I guess I will start from the beginning. It has been fifteen years since the Great Poisoning as we call it now, since the nuclear war that has left life on Earth crawling in the shadows. The way I understand it is that the world was divided the day the bombs fell, the first group is the Muggles, or the non magical folk. They scurry about, terrified, starving, poisoned and helpless in this terrible place the world has become. The second group is the Wizards, and I am their appointed leader. I didn't want this position really…I lost so many I loved the first time I lead my people, and once again I have lost most everyone. We have some hope at least, we've found ways to make the Earth habitable and we try to help the Muggles, yet they'd sooner kill us and brand us freaks. Lastly there are the dark ones. They are the demons, the wraths, and all the monsters imaginable that have crawled out from the dark corners of the Earth, they were prepared for humanity to destroy themselves in a nuclear war and they are lead by a monster far more terrifying than any I have known. I have heard of many names for him. Vlad the Great, the Dracul Lord, The No Life King, Alucard the Nobel but to me he is known only as his birth name, Vlad Dracula. After all, I learned long ago that fear of a name is only fear of the thing itself.

I first encountered Dracula a year ago, after hearing rumors for years that he and his band of vampire thugs were terrorizing the frightened Muggles scattered across the Frontier. I set out to try to gain peace, and now I find myself fighting back my last tears as I write this strange letter. Near everyone I have ever loved is dead, the last thing I did before writing this letter was bury my wife and daughter after pounding stakes through their hearts. I know well what Dracula intends and I fear with humanity in such a hopeless state that we as a whole will be powerless to fight it. The vampires seek to feed their never ending lust for blood by enslaving all of humanity to get it. And how can humanity possibly fight? Spells are useless against most of the demons of the night, and few have weapons. Soon, the dawn of a bloody new age will break, an age ruled by vampires.

I have done everything in my power to stop Dracula, and I guess that's why I am writing this letter. I have failed, and I know it, The Seers tell me that fate is certain to bring about a warrior, a chosen one born of Dracula's own lifeblood to defeat him. I have charmed this message solely for his eyes. Perhaps only a vampire or dhampir as they are calling the half blooded vampires can face Dracula. I know only of two possible weapons that might defeat the vampire leader. The first I am sure you have read about in the book your holding, the Deathly Hallows. The second is far more mysteries, and that is Horcruxes.

Horcruxes are not as complex as you might think; a wizard can obtain immortality through them by severing their soul and containing it within a vessel or object. So long as that object remains whole than the wizard can survive death, although they would require a new body. But it seems as if Dracula is far wiser than my old enemy. I have no idea how many horcruxes he has, I have learned only of two. The first is a wooden goblet, the second merely a ragged old cloak. You can see the problem this causes, his horcruxes could be anything at all. Yet there is something far more terrible as well. I destroyed one of the horcruxes. I decimated the goblet before I shoved a stake into his heart…and Dracula only laughed as he stood there completely unfazed. He should have died a mortal death, the power of horcruxes grants only the soul immortality, not the body…yet there he stood. I fear with all my heart that Dracula had found a way to tamper with the spell to make himself, his body, truly incapable of destruction.

As for the Deathly Hallows, they maybe the last hope against battle with Dracula although I mastered them purely by chance. The Elder Wand I still have in my possession, and intend to be buried with it, if I get that honor that is. I hope legend will tell that I have broken it of it's power, but if Dracula kills me tonight than that is not so and the wand shall pass to him, in fact I fear that is his plan. The Resurrection Stone I lost long ago, in the forest outside of Hogwarts although no such place exists now. I have passed my Invisibility Cloak to my son, the only one who remains of my loved ones. Perhaps if just one of the Hallows can be found than one might have a chance against Dracula, the master of Death.

I don't even know if these words will help…if any eyes shall ever read them, or if I have said anything at all of help, but I have tried.

Yours in fellowship,

Harry Potter

D raised his face from the frantic last words of the long dead wizard, his expression blank as always. He laid his left hand upon writing as he read it a second and third time, until at last a wizened voice spoke up. "So…were going after the Deathly Hallows then?"

"Don't be stupid." D answered shortly. "I intend to kill him with my own sword, not with legends of magic."

"Might be the fuck of a lot easier, but oh no…you never listen to your babbling hand."

"I am no wizard. If you're not going to say anything of interest then just shut up."

"Well what the hell do ya wanna hear?" the symboite grumbled, " The writing is clearly magic, and judging from the slant of the writing it was clearly written by a man in deep fear, could have been the ol' Boy Wizard, but I never met the guy, so I can't be sure."

"It seems his effort was wasted. Apart from the name of the vessels I have learned nothing I did not already know."

The hand moved convulsively as though it were trying to shrug, "Guess so. At least the kid tried."

His attention was pulled from the useless message when he caught sight of his mother's fitful stirring across the way; she struggled to pull herself into a sitting position beside her son. Her pain was glaringly obvious now, she looked positively corpse like, save for the fierce fire that remained burning in her eyes. D gently pushed her shoulder so that she lay back down on the ground beside him, "Don't move Mother, your very sick."

One final time his eyes glanced at the ancient story book, it appeared to have returned to normal and this time he found the sentence he'd been both seeking and dreading, "….but she was distant as though separated from him by a veil, and she suffered."

Mina attempted a brave smile, "I am sorry my son, I did not realize where we were when I asked you to stop." Her eyes crossed quickly across the calm little clearing they lay within. D knew well the words his mother were actually saying were "I am sorry, it appears as though soon I am going to die in the very clearing where you first realized you were in love with your dead wife."

He regarded his mother with a stony expression all the same. "How did you realize where we were?"

"She showed it to me of course, she told me all about it."

D made the utmost effort to hide the sadness that crossed his eyes, "The land beyond the veil is not much different from this one, is it?"

Mina nodded slowly, "It's almost the same, yet softer and kinder…it's like…well...I suppose it is heaven although I never thought my soul could pass through heavens gates." She hesitated a moment before speaking, "Luna is very kind, nurturing and beautiful, so like and unalike you. It's easy to see why you love her."

"Loved her." He corrected quietly. "She's been dead for over 2,000 years now. The world has moved on without her and so have I."

At this Mina pulled herself fully into a sitting position and glared at her impassive son, "How dare you say such a thing Dracula Murray!"

D's eyes flicked like steely embers although whether that was from rage or mere shock at hearing the name he'd denied for millennia was unclear. "I believe it was you who never told me to love another, that love was all an illusion."

Now it was Mina's face that contorted with hurt.

"You have no idea how much I wish I listened to those words, I listened to them for more than 9,000 years before I let my guard down. I assumed that he'd stopped looking for me, perhaps even forgotten you or I ever existed. As soon as I dared to believe that he took her, he took everything I ever cared for away from me and cursed me to this existence for the rest of his immortality. Don't tell me the words I've built my life around were lies, Mother."

She flinched, her sallow face paling even further with his icy words. "I am sorry D, but I was wrong. It was terrible of me to raise you thinking that way, I was…I was so vulnerable, and so betrayed after I left your father. I didn't understand…He hurt me worse than any woman can ever imagine. Yet even when the binds of my life were cast aside I saw that I indeed did still love him, despite his madness and his cruelty. Love still triumphed. In the end that's all that makes this life and the next worth living, makes it more than just an illusion. Love and to love."

D chose not to acknowledge these words however. "Why did father bring you back to life?"

Her lips trembled, "As much as he loved me still I fear he did not do it for himself."

"You're a trap set for me, I am quite aware of this. He would never just give you freely over to me, even if he thought it might grant him my mercy. The question is how do I spring this trap?" D mused aloud more to himself than anything else.

Mina shook her head, her gaze telling D clearly that she had no idea.

"You can recall nothing about coming back to life? No books, spells or objects of any kind?"

"No."

"And yet you seem to remember the land beyond the veil."

At this a helpless tear slipped down her cheeks, "It's not natural for the living mind to recall the splendors of what lies beyond this mortal coil. You see that I cannot bear this world; everything is so bright, harsh and cruel here. The wind in the trees is frightening, the way I see your face has changed pains me beyond words. I cannot bear this any longer nor can the body that I own."

"Is it your own?"

She shook her head, "I don't understand…I look, and I move as I did in life, yet I feel as if I am moving within a transparent vessel that is only housing me."

D nodded thoughtfully, carefully regarding her words. "I have seen the world that lies beyond this one as well. When in hibernation most of my kind will cast their consciousness into the simulated worlds that dwell within their coffins, yet I wanted only to see what lay beyond this land. To see you, and to see her again. But I don't recall any of it. Nothing more than a fragment within a dream that felt far too real, and leaves me in agony when I wake."

Mina nodded softly, "If you could recall what life was like the land beyond, than life here would truly be unbearable."

D shifted closer to her side and pulled her into his embrace, lightly stroking her hair. He could feel each bone within her arms and her rib cage, and the coolness of her skin was quite alarming. "Are you hungry Mother? I don't have any human food, but I could always find you something like I did when I was little."

"No…I can't possibly eat. Let's just let it happen, I won't be long now."

D knew well what she meant. "I have missed you. Every day of my life I have thought about you."

Mina smiled weakly and nodded her head, "I know. And I was with you every day. Always by you side, in your heart." She paused a moment, knowing her tormented son would have rather gone the rest of his immortality without hearing the next words. "And Luna is with you as well, even though you've blocked out her face."

D's body tensed, "I have not. I have searched for her guidance for years and heard nothing."

"Your heart must be open to receive her guidance D. She cannot speak to you when you cloud your senses with drugs and self damnation. You block out her love with your own hatred of yourself."

"No, your wrong." he replied steadily, "I don't hate nor love myself at all. I am nothing more than just a dhampir that's harder to kill than any other with a mission before I am ready to accept death. What I think of myself had no bearing onto the world."

"No...D..." Mina fought once more to protest him, moving forward to touch him, but she crumpled backward, clutching her chest as her heart clinched and pounded in protest of the work that it had to do. She screamed against the pain, although that did nothing to alleviate it. D rushed once more to her side, and laid his left palm against the hammering heart within her breast. Perhaps the symboite might have done something to soothe its rhythm, that was if the body that housed it not been so fragile and corrupted as whatever was housing Mina's soul.

"Remain still, Mother." he tried to soothe uselessly, but now she appeared to be seizing with pain that had flared through her chest, all of her limbs and her protesting organs. She coughed violently, bright blood staining her chin and the top of her snowy white gown. Tears of anguished and fright mingled with the sweat on her flushed cheeks.

"Help me D...oh God, please help me!" she screamed through her agony, and D understood the words quiet plainly.

He gently wrestled her to lay flat on the ground, and pulled free a slender dagger from his belt. "Goodbye!" she gasped.

"Goodbye Mother." D whispered as he drove the dagger into her breast, fighting the traitorous sob that threatened to overtake him.

Mina gave a single, rattling gasp before the light in her eyes faded quickly away as though it had never been, and she slumped limply in D's arms. Her hand has tighter lightly on his wrist as though in thanks of his before her eyes closed once more to the world, hopefully this time it would be forever.

Slowly D released her and laid her back onto the grass. His vision was clouded with a haze of blood that he tried furiously to blink back, yet the tears kept threatening their fall. He took the time to sooth back her sweat tangled hair and arrange her limbs so that it appeared as though she merely asleep.

Surely she'd been a trap laid for him, a terrible trick created by his father, another implement of torture. But why hadn't the trap sprung yet? D had been there, waiting calmly and almost patiently for his father to appear, for that illusion to shatter, yet here Mina lay as lifeless as she'd been for millennia. Why hadn't the trap sprung yet?

D leaned down and pressed one final kiss to his mothers forehead, than he twisted away with short pained cry as something bit into the side of his neck. His hands flew to the wound, finding its source immediately. He found that he was holding a syringe in his hands, one of the two that remained of his supply of self concocted destruction. He cast the needle aside and struggled to stand, to overcome the languor that was surging into his body. Already D's muscles were resisting him, but through willpower alone he managed to stand and pull free his sword.

There was no enemy to be found, there was nothing save for the birds that flitted uncaring though the sky and Mina's lifeless body.

But Mina's eyes were opened. Her hand had clearly moved from where D had lain it before, it was higher, high enough to have stabbed D as he leaned over her body.

"Mother…" he hissed through his teeth and forced his legs to move closer.

Mina rose from were she lay and pulled the dagger from her breast as though it were a mere splinter. Yet she wasn't Mina, his mothers face could never have twisted into such a cruel, insidious expression as it now wore. It looked for a moment as though her features were being violated before they changed completely. The pale face became rather dull in its appearance, her dark eyes became two lifeless, dark pools, her lips were marred by a distinctive cleft like scar. Now it was a half starved woman that wore Mina's bloodstained gowns, rather than the gleaming matron that should have been. The top of her gown exposed two poorly inked white roses across her breasts. The flawed girls face was positively gleaming with joy as she watched D succumb to his own drug, his sword slipped easily from his grasp when she carefully batted the blade away. His knees buckled and he sank almost too easily down onto the ground.

"Asenath?" he murmured, the word was neither disbelieving nor vengeful as he said it, merely a cool statement of fact.

"You had this coming for a while now D." she answered back, her voice as cold as the Hunter's as she watched him until his eyes were closed and he moved no more.