A Place to Call Home
First Days...They Always Suck
Disclaimer: On the new book that just came out, did anyone see my name anywhere on it…no didn't think so.
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, I'm really surprised at the positive response I've got for this story. I hope this one is up to everyone's standards. Also, reviewer acr brought up some interesting points in her review. Most of them will be answered in this chapter, but there will an explanation at the end. Finally, if there are any questions, comments, or criticisms: please review!
Draco brushed his hair out of his eyes as he nervously waited for his first class to walk in. It was both a curse and a blessing that his first class would be with the first years. He would be able to see Harry again, but then again, he had to deal with Harry too.
Draco shifted on the desk. It wasn't that Harry was a bad kid. He wasn't…not at all. He was smart and funny and sweet, not to mention caring and…it was just that Harry knew how to push all of Draco's buttons and he knew that Draco wouldn't touch a hair on his head.
Sighing, Draco jumped off the desk and walked over to a stone wall, resting a hand on it. It had been over a century since he had set foot in Hogwarts. The last time he had entered had been to complete his final show of allegiance to the up and rising Dark Lord. His mission? To kill one Lily Evans, a rising young star who had enthralled a vicarious young James Potter who happened to the son of one of the most prominent light families. It could have been a crushing blow to the light…and Draco was never happier than now that he failed.
Draco rested his head against the rough wall. He didn't have many happy memories within these walls. He could only hope that Harry's were more pleasant.
"Relieving the past?"
Draco turned, wand out, before relaxing it at his side, "Severus. Shouldn't you be at breakfast?"
"Shouldn't you?" the man smirked and stalked into the classroom, "Nervous?"
Draco sneered at him, "Why would I be?"
Snape shrugged, "Why should you. I, personally, would be enraged. As I recall, the students of this school didn't react too kindly when they found out you were a vampire during your fourth year."
"Well, I don't hold grudges."
"Really. So there's another reason you turned to Voldemort other than your burning anger at the bigots in this school? Is that why you've finally come back, to seek revenge?"
Draco remained silent.
"Or, perhaps you're just besotted with that lively young Potter. You seemed so comfortable last night. I believe you were smiling."
Draco stiffened, "I have no idea what you're talking about, but-"
"Does our Lord know that your blood donor is none other than Harry Potter?"
Draco hissed, "Get the fuck out of here before I do something I regret, Severus."
Snape laughed, a dry sound, "As you wish."
He swept out of the room and Draco kicked the door shut behind him, swearing under his breath. He was going to have to-
"Um…professor?"
Draco looked at the shut door and strained his ears to hear the muffled sounds behind it. They seemed to be arguing. He turned and checked the clock. It was 8:45. Who would come fifteen minutes early on the first day to their first…Hermione. Grinning wryly, Draco swung open the door and let Hermione, who was pulling along a protesting Ron and Harry, into the room.
"Why boys," Draco said sternly, "one would think you didn't want to be here."
"We don't," Ron whined, "I didn't even get to finish breakfast. Hermione grabbed me by the ear and dragged me over here. Harry wasn't any help at all. He just stood there and laughed while Hermione-"
"Are you all right, Draco?"
"-and then, you know, I had to dive back towards my plate. I thought I'd at least get some bacon to carry with me," Ron ranted on, unaware of the other conversation, "since the eggs were a little runny and the toast kept leaving crumbs on my shirt, but-"
"Perfectly fine, Harry."
"-fell straight into the cereal, and then the twins hooted and spelled some banana slices to follow me around until Hermione finally…ARE YOU GUYS LISTENING!"
"Er…yeah, Ron, of course we are. I was just asking Draco why he was-"
"Professor?" a young boy peeked around the door, "Is this our Defense Against Dark Arts class?"
Draco instantly turned his attention away from the trio and smiled, "Yes, come on in."
Students filed into the room one after another and Harry, Ron and Hermione quickly took their seats right up front. Soon all the students were quietly fidgeting in their seats as they waited for Draco to begin the lesson.
Draco smiled encouraging at the students and clearing his voice began speaking, "Hello everyone, to your first class as wizards. This is Defense Against Dark Arts and I will be your teacher, Professor Malfoy. First I'll call roll, then we'll just have to see what you've learned from your parents about Defense. Now let's see…Abbott, Hannah?"
Ten minutes later, Draco placed the roll of paper back on the table and jumped back on his desk. He leaned backwards and looked appraisingly at the first year students sitting in front of him. Harry smiled and gave him a discreet thumbs up.
Draco grinned and started, "Okay, class, today…"
Harry breezed into lunch after two more classes in History of Magic, and Transfiguration.
"Hey Harry, over here!" Blaise called from the Slytherin table.
Harry turned to Ron and Hermione; "I guess I should go sit with my house. I'll see you after lunch at…"-Harry checked his schedule-"Charms…it sounds interesting."
"Yes. It's supposed to be one of our most useful class." Hermione said, excitedly.
"Whatever." Ron stretched, "I'm starved. See you all later."
"Bye Harry." Hermione chirped.
Harry smiled as his friends skipped off towards their respective tables. Then he waved and held up one finger to the other first years at the Slytherin table. Harry crept back towards the entrance hall and sidled out the door, back into the hallway. Harry would go to lunch, but first he'd find out what was bugging Draco this morning. It was probably nothing more than nerves, but still…
Harry hadn't seen Draco at lunch, so he was guessing that the vampire was hiding out in his classroom. At least, that's what Harry hoped, if Draco was in his rooms, then Harry would never be able to find him.
Harry walked towards Defense classroom and knocked on the door. When he didn't get an answer, he pushed open the door. Draco was inside, drinking a glass of red wine.
"Remind you of blood?" Harry murmured quietly.
Draco's head came up slowly, "Harry! What are you doing here?"
"I knocked, but no one answered." Harry replied.
"Well Harry, usually when that happens, it means that the person behind the door doesn't want to be disturbed." Draco said slurring.
"I'm a disturbance?" Harry asked coyly.
"The biggest one." Draco said, grabbing him and dumping him on his desk, "Did you lock the door?"
Harry pushed him away, wrinkling his nose, "Are you drunk?"
"Please Harry. I'm just slightly inebriated." Draco said, placing his fingers on Harry's robes.
"A bit too inebriated for me"-Harry shoved him away gently-"What's up with you today? You never act like this around me."
"Yeah well I don't usually drink wine around you either, so how would you know?" Draco said, not budging.
"I wouldn't, but you don't drink, period. And- Draco, I mean it, STOP!" Harry snapped.
Draco sighed melodramatically stopped unbuttoning Harry's high shirt collar; "Fine"-he flicked Harry's hair out of his eyes-"You're so touchy today. School not agreeing with you today?"
"You aren't agreeing with me today. I'm going to go; I'll see you later when you're not acting like such a bloody prick." Harry slid off the desk and quickly walked towards the door, before Draco could stop him.
"Harry," Draco whined, "you know, taking care of you is such hard work."
Harry stopped and turned, "What do you mean by that."
"Well, you know, I've always got to make sure that no one hurts you and watch your back cause…well, you're so naïve that I'm afraid you'll just walk off with someone, and its sweet and all, but it's rather troublesome."
"Troublesome!" Harry's shoulders drew together, "Well if I'm so troublesome, then maybe you should just leave. I can take of myself…not that you could do much of that, the way you are right now anyway."
Harry stalked towards the door and opened it, but before he could step outside, Draco was there, slamming the door closed.
Harry barely stifled a gasp, "I hate how you do that."
"Yeah," Draco swept him, protesting, off his feet, "that's why I do it so often."
"Let go!" Harry yelped.
"You really are troublesome. Don't worry though"-Draco placed a chaste kiss in Harry's hair-"I love you anyway."
Harry stopped struggling, shocked and let Draco sit him back on the desk, "It…it…you have to be smashed to admit that to me?"
"Yeah, I'm that screwed up." Draco said drunkenly
Harry smiled at him and loosened his green and silver tie, "You're thirsty?"
"You're really nice." Draco said, pulling down his shirt to reveal two faded holes.
"You're not drunk are you?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"What makes you think that?" Draco asked, smiling against Harry's neck.
"'Cause, no drunk is so focused on one thing." he murmured into Draco's hair.
"Well you've never seen a drunk vampire." Draco said, tilting Harry's head.
Harry snorted, "I think you- oh…"
Draco swiftly sunk his teeth into Harry's neck, gently sucking out his thick blood. Harry stopped trying to talk and instead, shut his eyes and mouth tightly and clung to Draco, pulling down on his robe. He buried his face in Draco's shoulder as a now normal dizzying sensation came over him.
"Draco…" he whimpered.
Draco's head lifted, blood dripping from his fangs, "You alright?"
"Fine." He gasped.
"Good." Draco leaned forward and returned to attention to Harry's neck.
"I'm sure there's a very good reason for this; in fact I'm dying to hear it."
Draco and Harry quickly jerked away from each other and looked towards the door. Framed by the doorway, was Snape, smirking down at the two of them.
"Professor Snape!" Harry said weakly, "Why-"
Draco hissed and stalked forward, lifting his wand, ready to disable Snape for good, when he spoke.
"How quick is your wand work, Draco? Are you quicker than an uninhibited vampire? Can you curse me quicker than I can get to young Potter over there and break his fragile neck?" Snape asked casually.
Draco froze, wand halfway up.
"I thought so." Snape sneered.
"I can take care of myself!" Harry said hotly.
Snape turned to him, "Quiet, you insipid little boy. You should have died years ago, but your worthless family would throw away their lives for you. Don't make the redhead's sacrifice in vain."
Harry paled, "You…you killed-"
"Don't talk to him." Draco snapped, standing in front of Harry, "if you have anything to say, direct it to me."
"Draco, he-" Harry began.
"Quiet Harry."
"If only I could control my students the way you control your toy." Snape drawled.
"Harry is not a toy." Draco growled.
"Please, that's all that Blood Donors are. That's what you've always thought of them, isn't it, Malfoy? I remember-"
"What," Draco gritted, "do you want?"
"Nothing. I'll just expose you Draco. To the school and Voldemort. Sad, because the students really seem to like you and you always were Voldemort's favorite." Snape leered at him.
"NO!" Harry threw himself around Draco. "You can't do that, please! I'll do anything." he cried out hysterically.
Snape raised a brow, "Really…would you be willing to go somewhere with me?"
"NO!" roared Draco
"I'll go anywhere!" Harry babbled, pushing him aside.
Snape chuckled with mirth, "Well then, you have till eleven before I tell the entire school and then come for him. Why don't you try explaining to the dunderhead what he just did."
Snape smirked at the two figures once more and then languidly left the room, closing the door behind him. Draco swore and picking up a paperweight from his desk threw it at the closing door. Then he rounded on Harry.
"Do you have any idea what you just did?" he said, barely controlling his anger.
"I…"
"YOU JUST COMPLETED TWO-THIRDS OF THE BLOOD DONOR RITUAL WITH SNAPE!" Draco shouted.
"W-what?" Harry asked, shaken.
"Don't you remember?" he said, groaning.
…
Then he spoke, now with a soothing velvety voice, "My name's Draco…do you want to come with me? It'll…be fun." Unknowingly the grip on Harry's shoulder tightened just a bit.
Harry shuddered; his mind was in a haze and judging by the look on Ron's, he wasn't doing much better. Harry tried to clear his mind. He knew that this was one of Vampire's tricks, but for the life of him, couldn't figure out how to put an end to the spell. He closed his eyes and unwillingly drooped his head against Draco's arm. He couldn't feel Draco's smile, but he did feel the shooting pain from Draco's grip on his arm. The lancing pain made him lift his head and stare at Draco. He repeated his question.
"Will you come with me."
Harry's head sagged downwards and belatedly realized that there were three steps to becoming a blood donor to a vampire. First you had to agree to go somewhere with one of them and then they would ask your name and mark you, which would make you theirs for as long as you lived. Harry shook his head, trying to edge away from the vampire who was so close that he could feel the puffs of breath emitting from his quiet chest. Harry groaned.
"Yes…yes…I'll go wi…"
Draco sneered, nudged Ron out of the way, and gathered the smaller seven year old in his arms, cradling the boy gently against his chest. Then he stood up and started to walk away, striding towards the woods in an haughty way, leaving a prostrate Ron sitting in the distance.
"Harry!"
A voice screamed out, and Draco turned, half-smirked, and saw a small bushy haired girl running down the inclining hill. She tripped over herself and went down but soon picked herself up and screamed Harry's name again. Harry wrenched himself upward, almost freeing himself from Draco's grip and completely freeing himself from his trance at the sound of the girl's voice.
Instantly, he began struggling to free himself from the vampire's hold. The girl screamed again and taking out her wand, she shot something directly at the two of them. Reflexively, Harry's hand shot out and grabbed the circular object. As soon as Harry touched it, Draco hissed and dropped the boy. He backed away from him, glaring and then turned, looking wildly at the surrounding area.
Then, decisively, he reached out and grabbed an awakening Ron who was pulling himself to his feet. Then with Ron under his arm, squawking furiously, he spun back towards the girl and muttered something under his breath. She immediately froze and then dropped.
Harry cried out, still clutching the piece of garlic that she had threw at him, "Hermione!"
"Shut up boy! I know your name and you've agreed to come with me. That constitutes a blood donor. I won't have anyone else now. Find me by midnight or your friend dies."
…
Harry shuddered, thinking back to that upsetting day, "Yes, I remember. To constitute a blood donor, you have to know the donor's name, make them agree to come with you and…oh bloody hell."
Draco raked a hand through his hair, "We have until midnight. Then he'll come to finish the ritual."
"I'm not letting another bloodsucker at my neck." Harry yelped, covering his neck, "Can't we disrupt the ritual?"
"If there was a way to do that, then you'd have done it four years ago." Draco answered waspishly.
"Well…well, can't I just keep away from him until midnight? I can go grab a piece of garlic from the kitchens or something." Harry asked.
"He'll have safeguards up in case we try something like that." Draco muttered.
Harry threw his hands up, "How is this even possible? Doesn't Snape have his own Blood Donor? Why does he need me?"
Draco rubbed his temple, "Okay, sit down"-Harry sat on the edge of a desk worriedly-"Vampires don't need Blood Donors. They'll be fine if they drink from at least one person a week, but a vampire's stronger if they drink from one person that they're bonded to, daily. I'm guessing Snape wants a Blood Donor, because he wants to build up his strength."-Draco smiled weakly-"That, and your blood is especially sweet. Vampires can smell it a mile away."
Harry looked at him, "Is that why I became your Blood Donor, because I smell nice?"
"No, not really, I was just running out of time."
"Oh great, and I was worried it was something stupid like my scent." Harry asked.
"Listen Harry," Draco said, mustering up a smile, "depending on the strength of your bond with your former Blood Donor, you can go without blood for up to six months. It's kind of like the latent protection magic that your mother put on you"-Draco shook his head wryly-"My six months were up…to the tee."
"You loved your previous Blood Donor that much?" Harry asked softly, "So much that you'd come so close to dying for her?"
"I feel the same about her as I do for you." Draco said evasively.
Harry tried to smile, but failed, "Draco…we're in deep trouble, aren't we?"
Draco lowered his head, then gruffly, "I have a plan, but it's a little messy."
Harry shrugged, "It can't be that bad."
"Harry," Draco looked at him considering, "it might need you."
To Be Continued…
ACR: I hope that most of your questions were answered in this chapter, but if not, here's my ten-minute spiel. Regarding Draco's age: I think explained this last chapter, I'm drawing some knowledge from a well-known series on vampires called Cirque du Freak. Like the vampires in the book, I made Draco age at a tenth of the rate of humans. That means that he'll age one year a decade. Since he was turned at a very young age, he had a very long childhood and even after all this time, looks very young. Physically, he looks like someone in their late teens or early twenties. Maybe I should have called him a teenager instead. Nice catch! Also, as for your other question regarding how Draco was going to drink Harry's blood if he wouldn't see him for a year, I figured that Dumbledore would make some exceptions for the unique situation Harry and Draco are in. Blood doesn't have to taken directly from the donor. If Harry and Draco stored up blood, then Draco could have a little everyday. Plus going a couple of days without blood won't kill a vampire with a donor, just seriously weaken them. Again, nice catch.