Author's Note: Harry's little adventure as a wizvamp continues.
Feel my Fangs
Chapter Six - Sythe's Hidden Fortress
Harry was wandering in the outskirts of a hidden valley. Muggle-repelling wards and wizard traps surrounded the valley. Getting into the core of the valley would be difficult, even for someone with wizvamp abilities.
"Getting into Lord Sythe's stronghold is a suicide mission," stated Paula. She was following Harry because he made an interesting subject. Every now and then the old vampire would check a box in her notebook or write some illegible comment. Harry's behaviour and his unforeseen abilities were an endless source of amusement for her.
"I'm special," Harry replied arrogantly. "No trap, no ward and no old geezer vampire can stand before me. And anyway, I think that it's supposed to be my first lesson: getting into enemy territory."
"It's only your life," Paula shrugged. She checked the box beside 'foolishly suicidal.'
Harry walked up to the edge of the cliff and looked down.
"You know, in an archetypal situation, you would plunge down heroically and then miraculously develop wings," said Paula. "It would be marvellous, don't you think?"
"Trying to induce me into doing another idiotic thing again? Don't think I don't know about your little experiments," Harry said scathingly. "The last time I listened to you, I ended up with green skin and an extra pair of arms. So forgive me if I pretend I didn't hear your suggestion."
"What foolish sentences are you uttering?" Paula smiled innocently in that wise-old fashion only people four-centuries-old can achieve. "I was merely commenting on the stereotypical echo of the current situation."
Harry snorted. He turned away from the cliff and faded into the greenery.
Satisfied, Paula tucked her notes under her arm. She walked to the side of the cliff and stepped onto the invisible bridge that linked the side of the cliff to Lord Sythe's stronghold.
"The boy is going around the valley after all," she laughed serenely. "What a delightful start! I hope Stanley isn't too hungry."
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Lord Sythe was bended over his working table, scribbling away in his journals. The tiltle was "Lord Sythe's encounter with a wizvamp." Like Paula, he was very interested in the progress of one Harry Potter.
He didn't bother to look up when the door to his study was suddenly swung open. The only person who could manage it without suffering debilitating injuries was Paula.
Sythe grunted a greeting. Paula plopped herself down into the sofa and made herself at home.
"My dear Sythe, would you like to wager on how long it'll take the boy before he cracks your fortress," she suggested.
"No."
"He missed the invisible bridge but he's domesticated your dragon," Paula said, dropping the bomb. "It's quite the feat."
"WHAT?" Sythe looked up suddenly. "What did he do to Stanley?"
"I'm still processing the data from that exploit so I can't exactly tell you yet," Paula said.
"Ok, so basically you don't know," Sythe frowned.
"I'm not admitting to anything," Paula sniffed. Her eyes widened as she looked at the window. Harry sitting on the back of the Stanley the Dragon was approaching at a phenomenal speed and didn't seem to be about to stop despite the giant glass windows of Sythe's fortress.
"Is it me or is it getting darker suddenly," Sythe said, looking up from the papers on his desk.
"Oooh. Look out Sythe," Paula said.
The Harry-dragon complex slammed through the windows, sending glass flying everywhere, the sound of the crash exploding in the study.
The vampire head council barely had time to throw himself under his desk when a huge shard of glass embedded itself where he had been sitting milliseconds before.
With an agile slip of the leg, Paula flipped the couch she had been sitting on in front of the incoming dart-like glass shards.
When the glass had finally settled, the sound of the crash was replaced by the banshee-like scream of the whipping wind infiltrating into the room.
In the midst of chaos, an unscathed Harry leaped off a tough-skinned dragon and walked to the desk under which Sythe was hiding.
Harry crouched down and found himself at eye-level with the head of the vampire council.
"Well, did I pass?"
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Harry was sucking on blood-flavoured liquorice. His little adventure had almost sucked him dry of energy. Harry was used to just blast his power around. He was good at causing things to explode, crushing obstacles and flinging multiple objects around.
But when he encountered Stanley the Dragon, Harry couldn't get himself to kill the super cutesy blue dragon with the gleaming scales. So Harry set out to entrance the dragon before the latter decided it wanted Harry for lunch.
Concentrating his power and manipulating magic in such a subtle way wasn't that draining but it was the scale on which Harry had to concentrate that proved to be the challenge. Hypnosis has to take into account the outer mass of the subject and a dragon is much, much larger than say the pre-pubescent teens or young women who were Harry's usual victims.
Nonetheless, Harry had forced a thought into the dragon's mind: "Don't eat Human." And once it had lost its insatiable appetite for humans, Stanley the Dragon proved to be surprisingly affectionate and knowledgeable.
Stanley offered to lead Harry into Lord Sythe's castle. The one problem was that Stanley, like birds, did not realize that glass windows had substance.
So they flew right into the study. not out of vindictive satisfaction to see Sythe once again pinned with glass shards all over, of course.That's what Harry had said to Sythe anyway. Whether the head of the vampire council had believed Harry or not was an entire other story.
Harry bit off another piece of the red liquorice. The candy was only half-chewed in his mouth when he fell curled up and fell asleep.
"Tomorrow…tomorrow, I'm visiting the library," he mumbled. "..Wonder how Hermione and Ron are doing…"
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It was the middle of the afternoon. Harry and Sythe were standing in a duelling area.
"I thought you were supposed to show me the library," Harry pouted.
"Yes, I said library but I didn't specify which one," Sythe replied. "This is the weaponry library. There are multitudes of different weapon I've accumulated throughout the last couple of centuries or so. You might find one that suits you."
"What do I need weapons for? I can blast an obstacle away and if for some reason I can't do magic, I can attack them physically," Harry yawned. "I'd most likely be faster and stronger than them."
"What are you saying, fool!" Sythe said harshly. "You must always hold an element of surprise or you'll be too predictable. Do you truly think that the vampires on the council survived all the centuries by relying on the physical advantage that comes with being a vampire?"
"Yeah but they don't have magic," Harry retorted.
"That doesn't mean we're inferior to you," Sythe said. "Duel with me. Talking with you is like trying to reason with a mollusc."
"That is such a random comparison," Harry rolled his eyes. He then grinned predatorily and disappeared from view.
Where Sythe's head had been a second before, Harry's foot swung past, the air whipping behind. Not wasting a second, he used his momentum to slash his other foot onto the ground where Sythe was crouching.
Sythe rolled over and Harry's foot smashed into the floor, leaving a small dent in the bizarre metal that covered the floor of the duelling room. Sythe recovered himself and whipped out a hammer. His back was turned to Harry.
"A hammer?" Harry stared. "I really wasn't expecting that."
"It is wiser to stay silent during a battle," Sythe threw the hammer at Harry, his back still turned. "Talking pinpoints your location extremely accurately.
The hammer passed through the air and crashed into the opposite wall.
"Unless you can project your voice." Harry appeared out of the air and hit Sythe squarely in the back. This time it was Sythe who went flying. Mid-air, he flipped around and landed on his feet.
"Not bad, not bad for a fledging vampire," Sythe chuckled. "This is where the fun begins."
Harry startled a bit at the vampire's maniacal grin before showing his own fangs in a disturbing movement of the lips termed a smile.
Sythe favored a brunt attack to test Harry. He stood, his back to a wall and conjured a various array of weapons. One after the other, he threw at Harry. All the weapons were heavy, sharp and deadly. But not one grazed Harry who was dodging one after the other.
"Is that the best you can do," Harry taunted. "Because you can't expect me not to retaliate!"
Harry grabbed a spear heading towards him, flipped it around and sent it back at Sythe.
Sythe knocked the spear to the side and then had to dodge in surprise when he realized that the spear was followed by cylindric dagger hidden it the shadow of the spear.
The vampire dropped to the ground and several little darts embedded themselves into the wall.
"Sneaky bastard," Sythe marvelled at Harry who had already launched a second attack that involved throwing exploding porcupine-like balls.
The two continued their missile-like combat until Sythe put his hand up, putting a stop to their duel.
"Enough, I've gauged you ability enough to know in which direction to continue your education," Sythe said. "Your creativity in weapons is sufficient but we'll need to work on you air-attacks. Your opponents won't wait for you to gather the energy in your feet."
Harry stopped mid-jump and landed gracefully on the ground. He couldn't stop marvelling at his vampire-acquired strength so he was a bit miffed that Sythe had criticized his jumping prowess.
"By the way, where did you learn all these dirty vampire-hunter tricks. You're one sneaky kid," Sythe said, massaging his upper thigh where wood shards were stuck from one of Harry's attacks.
"Wouldn't you like to know, old man!" Harry smirked before strolling out of the room. He slammed the door behind him.
"Sneaky unchild-like child," Sythe muttered before going on a search for muscle salve.