Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or TrueBlood. Just the characters I made up, and this storyline.

-

"Did you hear?"

"They're trying to keep it a secret, but you know Hogwarts. You can't keep secrets here."

"Yeah, I know. Wow…I can't believe that happened."

"D'ya think he just left for a few days? I mean, how could that happen?"

"He probably went home to visit."

"He would have come back by now, and there are classes, you know."

"Who are they talking about?" Ron asked me in annoyance.

"I can't figure out from all of the people talking. No one's saying a name," I said.

Harry, Ron, and I were straining our ears for any information about what the newest gossip was when Hermione came running up to us. "Guys, did you hear? Draco Malfoy's gone missing!"

-

"Have the aurors found anything?"

"No, headmaster. They've been looking, I've been looking, his parents have been looking. No one can find him."

"Severus, this does not settle well. Not well at all. Have you contacted the vampire king of England or the sherrif of Area two?"

"The Minister has," Snape answered.

"Why not the vampire queen of Scotland?" Minerva McGonagall asked.

"Because he went missing in England, but I suppose we should ask her, as well…alright, contact the aurors. This can't become another Chamber of Secrets situation. We can't have students going missing, not with that vampire on the loose. He already got Fred Weasley. I hate to do this, but it's for the safety of the students…put a ban on the school. No one is to leave without an escort after dark, no one is to come back from visiting home after dark, and Hogsmeade trips will have a time limit. Please inform the other house heads and put posters up all over the school. I will be monitoring the floo network."

As professors Snape and McGonagall left his office, Albus Dumbledore looked grave.

-

"Missing? How could Malfoy be missing?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "By getting up and leaving the school, Ron."

"Well yeah, but…how long has it been?"

"What I overheard from the professors was he's been missing for four days. That would mean he left Sunday, the night before we went to visit Fred and George. He went to visit his parents because of some engagement party of a cousin and never came back. His parents said he was supposed to come back to Hogwarts that night, but he went missing sometime during the party."

"Maybe he ran away," Ron said.

"That's what most people think," Hermione replied, "but with that vampire Mickey running around, anything's possible."

"Best not to think about it," was my input. But really, I was a little worried. This was the man who saved my life during The War.

"Yeah. He's not worth thinking about too much." Leave it to Ron to say something like that…

And so, we left it alone, but the school wouldn't. You know people. They love gossip. They eat it up and spit it out differently every time. I heard things from Malfoy disappearing to Malfoy being abducted by aliens to Malfoy being turned into a werewolf. I rolled my eyes at every one and continued going to classes. Eventually, it died down because the professors stopped talking about it in the hallways. That was a stupid move to begin with. They should have known they'd be overheard. Ah, well. Time for herbology.

I saw one of my best friends and sat down next to her. "Hey Luna."

"Oh hello, Ginny. How are you?"

"Sick of all this talk about Malfoy." I chuckled.

Luna smiled. "Oh look, Professor Sprout is here."

I shook my head and smiled at my odd friend. The truth is, she's not crazy. She just has such a positive, mellow outlook on life that even if she didn't believe something was real, she would talk about it as if it were. She believed that anything was possible, and she treated life as such. Her closest friends were those who took the time to get to know her, and Harry knew her best.

She looked up at me with interest, and I forced myself to think about something else. The plant what was wiggling in front of me. My, what a strange plant. What pretty leaves. Why was it wiggling? What made plants wiggle? What made them animated? Well, apparently that's what we were learning in class, today, and apparently, Luna found my thoughts funny; I heard her chuckle. Yeah – she definitely knew what I was thinking, somehow. I looked back at her and noticed that she was paying attention to the professor. Whew. That was close. I don't know if she actually could read minds, but she sure made me believe it.

Luna turned her head and smiled at me, then turned her attention back to Sprout. I shook my head. She was just too weird sometimes. There was something different about her, and I think that's why most people thought she was odd; because she knew things she shouldn't know unless she is told. I wish she'd confide in me, but I understand the importance of a secret.

-

It was Sunday night, and I was doing my homework in the library. I had potions tomorrow afternoon, and we had a test, but I wasn't worried. I excelled in potions. It was why I was Snape's favorite student. I was currently doing my transfiguration homework. I had to write two and a half feet of parchment about transfiguration throughout history. I already practiced transfiguring my textbook into a cat and succeeded…after a LOT of work.

I packed up and took a detour, as I always did on Sunday nights, to the Room of Requirement. I would go there to relax and read a book. However, when I rounded the corner into the hallway with the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy, I saw a body crumpled on the floor. Whoever it was, they were struggling and seemed to be in pain. From the grunts the person was making while trying to move down the hallway away from me, he was male. I started towards him and when I saw his hair and half of his face, I gasped.

"Malfoy!" I ran to him. "Everyone's been looking for you! Where have you been?"

"Stay away from me," came his raspy voice. It was full of strain. He took a sideways glance at me and looked away.

I stopped close to him, confused. "But something's wrong with you."

"Since when did you care?" he asked, still hunched over, not looking at me. His right hand was bracing his body on the wall.

My mouth drew into a thin line, even though he couldn't see me. "Look, Malfoy or not, I'm not about to let someone suffer, so get rid of your pride and let me help you."

"This isn't ABOUT pride!" he shouted. "Leave. Me. Alone!"

I should've listened to him, but my will to help people was too strong for my own good. So, ignoring the warning bells in my head, I knelt and put my right hand on his shoulder. The next thing I knew, I was pulled up and shoved against the wall. I saw his face for the first time. His eyes were almost glowing and filled with hunger, lingering over my neck. His teeth were clenched together as if he was trying desperately to keep his mouth shut. Then I saw his teeth. His pointed, sharp, fully extended canine teeth.

"Oh shit," was the only thing I could think of saying. He was gripping my shoulders so hard, it was painful.

"Get out of here." His voice was still strained.

"When were you turned?" I asked.

He looked incredulously at me. "I'm using every ounce of my will power to not sink my teeth into you and you're having a conversation with me?" His fangs flashed when he said 'every,' 'me,' and 'teeth.' I admit, they were kind of hot.

"Well it's important to know when you were turned! Why haven't you gotten some TrueBlood from the kitchens?"

"Because I was forced to turn and was then starved by my maker for three days until I was able to escape, okay? Probably only because he was off turning someone else. I only just got back. The only reason why I have any ounce of self control is because I had a deer before I got back to get to safety and rinse my mouth out. I needed to wait until it's so late that no one's out of bed so I could go get some," he said roughly.

My tone turned to sympathy. "Oh no…so that's where you've been…I'm so sorry. At this rate, you won't make it to the kitchens. You'll go mad." With a little hesitation, I offered him my bare wrist and he looked at me incredulously.

"What are you doing?"

"You need blood, so take it. Real blood is better for new vampires than TrueBlood, anyway."

He looked like every fiber of his body was fighting his impulse to bite into my wrist. He closed his eyes. "Weasley…you don't know what you're doing…" He opened his eyes and began to back away – by backing away I mean taking one tiny step, because that's all his body would allow. But it was a step in his self control's favor.

"Fred and George are vampires. I know a lot more about vamps than you probably do and I'm giving this to you willingly. You saved my life when you took that curse for me. You're bigger than I am; the curse surely would have incapacitated me if it didn't kill me. Now, I have the chance to help you. So just take it. I won't take no for an answer."

Malfoy glanced down the hallway, and I knew what he was thinking, and he was right. Someone might show up. So I thought of a place we could go and not be found, since we were right outside the wall of the Room of Requirement. Sure enough, the door appeared. I took Malfoy's hand and pulled him into the small room before anyone saw us, and before he could say anything. It wasn't much; more like a large broom closet lit by oil lamps. We sat on the floor and I offered him my arm again.

"Weasley…I don't think I'll be able to stop once I start…"

"I'll tell you when I feel weak. You'll stop, I trust that."

"Vampires tend to get…excited when they drink from humans…"

Well yeah. Everyone knew that. But his hesitation was sweet, I thought. "I'll be fine. Nothing's going to happen. Besides, even if I make you wait here and go get you some trueblood, you're so hungry that you'd probably get up and try to look for something."

Then he looked at me with such a heart-wrenching hopelessness in his beautiful grey eyes. There was something I wasn't getting that he had been trying to convey, so he just said it. "I don't want to rape you. There's only so much control I can muster before it's too late."

I was stunned. He sounded so scared. My eyes and voice softened. "Oh, Malfoy. You won't rape me. You're not capable of something so sinister. I may not know you that well, but I know that you're a good person and you would never do that. To anyone." That seemed to soothe him a little. "I trust you."

"Why?"

"I just do. Maybe it's because you saved my life. I dunno. But you're good. I can sense it."

I offered him my wrist for a third time, and he took it. He paused, still unsure, but then I felt his teeth puncture my skin. I sucked in a breath, but the coagulant in vampire saliva was already working; the pain was ebbing away. I must admit…that Draco Malfoy was sucking at my arm was kind of…arousing. Uh-oh, better not go there.

After about two minutes, I started feeling woozy and I told him so; he took big gulps since he had been starved for almost a week, even though he had deer blood on the way back to the school. However much he wanted to continue, though, he exercised that powerful self control most new vampires don't possess and slowed down. With one final swallow, he ran his tongue over the wound and took his mouth away from my wrist. I really hoped he wasn't able to sense that licking my wound had spiked my arousal.

He was very clean about the whole thing, unlike Fred had been when he first drank from George…though to give him credit, he had nearly drained George in order to make him into a vampire, which involved a lot of blood. There is also no excitement when you drink from a family member, so Fred didn't do it carefully like Malfoy did. There was probably some kind of subconscious effort to arouse when you drink from someone you're attracted to. My eyes widened. Was Malfoy attracted to me? I closed that thought as soon as it came to me.

Malfoy didn't even have to wipe his mouth when he fully sat up. His cheeks were rosy, which made him look a little more human, and he looked sated. In the hunger sense, anyway. In the other sense, well…

He leaned into me and breathed in near my shoulder. "Has anyone ever told you how good you smell?" The question startled and flattered me – and the combination of his deep, husky voice and his breath on my skin made me shiver. He pulled away and turned his head so he was looking at me. His breathing was heavier than normal. "If you don't want me to do anything, push me away and I'll stop."

I was so stunned, I didn't really know what was happening until his lips were on mine. I never expected or even thought about Draco Malfoy kissing me, but here we were. It felt amazing. Every trace of my blood was gone, so it was all him. And he tasted wonderful. My lips reacted.

His right hand found my hair and the back of my head and my arms circled him. He pulled me forward to deepen the kiss. Even if this was the blood affecting him, I was going to enjoy it. He gently pushed me down and crawled on top of me. Then he closed the distance between our bodies and I was sure my temperature sky-rocketed. My heart-beat surely did. I could feel his excitement on my left thigh and my body wanted more.

It was then when I realized that if I didn't stop this, it would really get out of control and I would do something I would regret later. He would probably regret it, too. "Malfoy, we should stop," I said, very reluctantly. Although it was probably a good thing, since I felt his fangs graze my neck. It triggered something in me I hadn't known I had, and I wanted him to go further but I was a little afraid that if he bit, he wouldn't stop even if I told him to. He let out a sigh of disappointment, but slowly got off me and helped me sit up. "Whoa," I said. From the loss of blood and my heart pumping from excitement, I felt dizzy.

"You should have some of my blood. To get your strength back."

I was touched by his thoughtfulness. "Thank you." I may know quite a bit about vampires, now, but I didn't know what would happen if I drank his blood, and neither did he.

He sank his fangs into his right wrist and offered it to me. I scooted to the left of him to get into a more comfortable angle and drank. I thought it would be absolutely disgusting, but it really wasn't. His blood was thicker than I was sure normal human blood was and it was kind of sweet, but not as sweet as I expected. However, I was still new to drinking blood. So after a little while, it began to gross me out. I stopped, but my gratitude remained.

"Thank you," he said suddenly. I looked into his eyes. "For helping me."

It was so uncharacteristically Malfoy that I had to replay his words in my head before I responded. "You're welcome."

-

I hope you enjoyed it! I know there's a lot of True Blood elements in this story, but I put it into the Harry Potter category because the story takes place in England and Scotland (Hogwarts), not Louisiana, and Eric only makes one or two appearances. Please review and tell me what you think!