Disclaim Her: HARRY POTTER IS NOT MINE! But I wish he was...
Chapter 26: Mate?
I led the strange woman, Rachel, to the Shrieking Shack. I was worried that I would be more noticeable with another person with me, but she had no problem becoming just as invisible as I was. When we neared the Shack, she got a strange look on her face, and I briefly considered asking what was wrong. Before I had the chance, she spoke.
"You are seeking refuge here?"
I nodded, confused. She grimaced. "This place stinks of wolf(i)" She snarled. She no longer looked beautiful. Her expression was twisted in hatred and her fangs were bared. She looked less human by the second, and I drew back, truly afraid for the first time since my awakening. Her eyes were changing from the cool black they had been to an angry red, and her...presence spread out around her, cold tendrils of darkness choking everything in its path.
Then she took a gasping breath, and immediately withdrew back into herself. It was astounding. She gasped painfully for a few seconds, then stopped breathing altogether, as she had been. She looked at me again, and her eyes were slowly returning to the black I had seen before.
She spoke, and sounded almost apologetic. "But the stench is fading. It has been years since a wolf has resided here. I apologise for that, young Daemon. Vampires and wolves are...not friends. I had a temporarily...bad reaction."
I almost snorted, knowing that if that was a bad reaction, if I ever made her angry, I was screwed. Then it occurred to me that Lupin might take it upon himself to drop in and see if we were doing okay, and it would not do any of us any good if...Rachel...lost it and killed him. I decided to warn her.
"Ummm...Rachel? I though you should know...there's this werewolf, and he thinks it's his job to check up on me, so there's a chance he'l just pop in to say hello or something like that...will you..."
"Will I try to restrain myself?"
"...Yeah, something like that..."
She laughed, though it sounded a bit forced. "I can smell a wolf for miles, young Daemon. The one in the castle is no threat to me, but I will leave if I sense him approaching, just in case."
I sighed softly in relief. "Okay, we have to climb up to the roof to get in. The shack...wasn't exactly designed for people to actually live there."
The tall vampire nodded, and wasted no time scaling the small building and climbing in. I stared for a moment, then hurried after her.
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Once I got inside, I found an amusing scene.
Ron was brandishing his wand at Rachel in a way that might have seemed heroic if she was actually doing anything threatening. Instead, she was standing as far away from him as she could, obviously trying very hard not to laugh in his face. Ginny also had her wand out, but she was to busy staring at the vampiress to do anything with it. Draco was still unconscious, laying on the floor between them.
Ron waved his wand at her some more, not noticing me.
"Get out of here, vampire! You aren't welcome here!"
"Ron," Ginny tried to get his attention, glancing at me. He didn't listen.
"You just wait 'till Harry gets back! He'll show you!" Ron was getting more aggressive, and was waving his wand so vigorously that it looked like he was trying to use it as a sword.
"Ron." Ginny tried pulling on his sleeve, but he took no notice.
"I'm telling you, go away now or you'll regret it!"
"RON!" Ginny smacked him.
"What?"
"Harry's already here."
She pointed. Ron gaped. I laughed.
"Rachel, why don't you wait downstairs for a minute while explain some things to these two?"
She nodded and went down the stairs, smirking at Ron as she went by.
"Harry? Why the hell did you let that thing go! It's a vampire!"
"Yes, and I'm a Daemon, and you're a human. Why does it matter?"
Ginny gasped, and Ron spluttered, grasping for something to say.
"But-I mean-it's-Malfoy's still bleeding! She could have tried to kill him!"
"She would not have. I told her that I had an injured friend, and she promised not to hurt him."
"You trusted it?"
"It is a she, and her name is Rachel. To answer your question, yes. I trust her."
Ginny chose that moment to overcome her shock. "You're a Daemon?"
"Yes."
"Huh." She sat back and looked at me thoughtfully.
"What?"
She made a move as if to rache for my arm, then thought better of it. Finally, she responded.
"Did you kill Professor Snape?"
I fidgeted nervously for a moment, then answered.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I...I don't know. I don't even remember half of it."
She stared at me, searching my eyes for honesty.
"Alright then."
And she launched herself at me, nearly strangling me with a tight hug. I had been prepared for accusations, fear, and threats. Not this. She was squeezing the air right out of my lungs. I heard the sound of laughter from down the stairs, faint enough that only I could hear it, and I knew that Rachel had been listening in. I slowly and careful pulled Ginny off of me.
"I'll explain more later. Right now, I have some questions that I need answered."
They nodded, and I walked down the stairs to find Rachel leaning commfortably against one of the walls.
"Okay, first things first. What did you mean when you said 'mate'?"
She looked me up an down, as if measuring my strengths and weaknesses.
"Well?"
"You said the boy upstairs was bleeding?"
Frustrated with her continued avoidance of my question, I snapped out an answer.
"Yes, quite a bit, not that that has anything to do with what we were talking about."
She shook her head, disbelief written across her face. "It has everything to do with it, yound Daemon. If what I hear is correct, you have been awake for at least two weeks.After two weeks, you start to get hungry. If you smell blood after this time, you can barely keep from killing the one bleeding. The simple fact that you can be near him without attacking him indicates that he is your mate. Especially if he bleeds often." Here she gave me a look, and I knew that she knew about Draco's 'little problem'.
"But what do you mean by mate?"
"He is your other half. He stabilizes you, and helps keep you in control."
"Does that mean I'll die if I'm not with him?"
"You would not die, but you would become a savage beast. You would not be able to control yourself."
"What about him?"
"He would die."
I stoood there, silent, trying to absorb everything I had just been told. I had a mate. He was Draco Malfoy. Was it just coincidence I had been sleeping with him before my change?
"You think too much."
I glared at the vampiress. "You try dealing with the fact that your entire life has just been turned upside down."
She laughed. "I have already done that, child. Twice."
I could have kicked myself. "How old are you anyway?"
"I do not remember the exact date, but I am somewhere in my three hundreds."
"You forgot your own birthday?"
More laughing. "Yes. I imagine you will, too, after three hundred years."
"Three hundred years?"
Now she was frowning. "Yes. I would wager that with your luck, and health, you could live to be well over eight hundred. Your mate, however...unless he gets control of his...problem, he will not live to be four hundred."
"Wow. Eight hundred years..."
"Yes. It does seem like an eternity now, doesn't it, child?"
"It sure does."
"Perhaps we will meet again. I have a thousand or so years left to live, and I would be disappointed if you did not come and visit me at least once every two hundred years or so."
I could have laughed at the way she sounded. Like an old friend, asking me over for dinner.
"You can even bring your friends, if they are still living. I can almost assure you that they will be."
I nodded, then stopped. "They'll be alive? In a few hundred years?"
"The girl will most definitely be alive. The boy, I am not so sure. But he will live at least two hundred more years."
"How is that possible?"
"The girl...she has been experimenting in things which she has no business experimenting in. I can sense it all over her. But she has succeeded in extending her life a great deal."
My head was reeling. Ginny? Experimenting? With what?
"What about Ron?"
"I can not explain what has happened to him. It might have just been prolonged contact with you."
"What?"
"There is a chance that your magic has been changing him as much as it has been changing you."
"So he would be a Daemon too?"
"Oh, no. He would just be a bit more...aggressive than most. And he would live longer, of course."
I sat down abruptly. "Wow. Just...wow. What am I going to tell him? 'Hey, did you know that being friends with me has given you a longer life span and anger management issues'?"
She smirked. "That would work."
I groaned. "He'll kill me."
"He could try."
"Look, maybe it's best if you leave. Where do you live? Maybe I will come visit..."
She handed me a silver coin. It had the word 'Mayhem' on it.
"If you ever need to find me, or if you just need a good...meal...hold on to this coin and read the word on it aloud. If you like, you can bring whoever you want with you. Just make sure you are holding on to them tight. If you need me...ask for Risika. They will tell you where to find me." She gave me a mysterious smile, and I got the feeling that she was a great deal more powerful, and important, than she had first let on.
I nodded, and she disappeared. She didn't even fade away, she was just...gone.
I stared at the spot where she had been standing for a moment, then went back up the stairs.
I had quite a bit of explaining to do.