3- Blood Bonds Soul

Harry's first meeting with Lupin went along the lines of two friends not having seen each other for a while.

The older man had picked Harry up at the Great Hall after breakfast and they were walking to Hogsmead in the direction of Madame Rosmerta's where Lupin had rented an apartment for his stay while training Harry.

"Um, have you seen Dumbledore lately?" Harry wanted to satisfy his curiosity, but didn't know how to break it to the werewolf.

"Yeah, just yesterday, why?

"Well, I have this feeling he isn't sleeping well. I do know that he is really busy and all, but he has always had a lot to worry about. Just lately, I mean, this week, as I didn't see him over the summer, he seems… drained. Don't you think so?"

"Well, a bit, I suppose. But I trust Dumbledore to know what he's doing."

Harry was reassured a bit. Although not the way he seemed to have expected. If Lupin had also noticed, then his hunch had been true.

They entered the tavern and Madame Rosmerta came to great them. Lupin ordered some tea for upstairs and asked Harry what would he like to have.

"I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to serve exquisite whisky for you, Harry," the woman smiled knowingly at the boy.

He tried to smile back: "Doesn't matter, I will have tea, too."

"What was that all about?" Lupin gestured for Harry to sit down and inquired.

"Thank God! At least one person who doesn't read the paper with annoying regularity!" Harry exclaimed.

"Well they don't write anything apart from some sensational bullshit anyway. And even if they do write something about the most serious matters, it is always only partially true. I happen not to understand which part," Lupin grinned.

"Well the evening before yesterday me and Draco Malfoy, we went to some pub here in Hogsmead and got drunk. The next morning it was all over the papers," Harry tried to cut it short.

"You and Draco, huh? I had the impression that you two didn't get along that well to go out drinking on a school night," Lupin smiled at and thanked Madame Rosmerta as she levitated the tea and some biscuits in the sitting room.

"We still don't. We still are mean at and abuse each other, but with him I can be true. I don't have to play the nice guy of Gryffindor or pretend to like things I don't."

"But don't you have Ron and Hermione or have you fallen apart with them?"

"Ron's not talking to me, but that's because of the drinking accident, I don't know what's gotten into him. With Hermione everything's kinda' fine. But I can't swear around her, not about teachers or stupid classes or assignments. It's just… She is one of Them," Harry gazed at his reflection in the yellowish liquid of the fine scented tea.

"Them???" Lupin appeared dubious.

Maybe he thinks I'm loosing my mind, too.

"You know, those people who wait for me to save the world from the Darkness. All the school seems to think I'm some kind of hero. They have always believed it. Just now it seems to be closer than ever. With every minute I just feel some dread pushing in through the glass of the windows. I can't even sit still in classes anymore."

"And Draco Malfoy doesn't think you're going to save them?"

"No, I don't know, nor do I care what he thinks about it all. He does get angry at me every time I mention myself dying. But that's exactly the thing about our conversations as rare and short as they might be. With him there is another world. He was the person I met before getting to Hogwarts this year. Even in the first year, if I come to think about it. On Moday we missed the train together. He somehow symbolizes the Muggle part of the world, my summer, the carelessness."

"So you go drinking with him just to call each other names and talk about how good it is to be young and carefree, right?" Lupin smirked at Harry, showing him exactly how naïve he sounded.

But maybe there is more to that, it can't be that feeling that free as I do with him doesn't mean anything…

After the lesson Harry came back to Hogwarts and decided to go for a long walk in the upper floors that were deserted most of the time and try to draw conclusions from the conversation.

--

Draco had a problem; he wasn't quite sure whether he was on the fifth or the sixth floor. He was trying to make his way through the empty corridors, looking for any hints that would give away the real way back to places he did know. He wouldn't admit to himself that he had spent too long in the Muggle world, always following the signs and posters that gave directions, all things were laid out on a silver tray there, but here he was again on his own. And he would also never admit that he had grown to hate being on his own.

He mounted a dark staircase, wondering that maybe over every summer break Hogwarts rearranged itself, but he had never taken up walking that far away from the dungeons so that he wasn't quite certain about any of it.

He came out in a light, curved corridor, one wall lined with windows.

No, he definitely was even higher up than the sixth floor. He even got dizzy while looking down to the lake and the Forbidden Forest, and the mountains of Scotland that were stretching till the horizon.

Then he heard voices. And the crash of a glass breaking.

Although that could never, in no reality or world be a good sign, he still made his way to the noise.

"Stupefy!" a man's yell, followed by a woman's giggling.

Any help was better than no help at all, God he had really lost his touch, Draco took a look around the curve of the corridor.

It was Potter. No surprise there. Anyone breaking glass and shouting around without anybody in sight had to be Potter.

The boy looked like he was struggling against something. After a closer inspection Draco found out that it was a ghost. Of a woman.

She was holding him against a wall, how could that be possible?

After a second thought Draco found out that Potter himself was cowering into the wall, trying to get away from the ghost as far as possible. Apparently, even if it meant crawling backwards into a solid stone surface.

"Found yourself a girlfriend, Potter? Too bad she's a ghost. Or maybe you're that desperate," he leaned against a wall, leisurely looking at the broken window that had let strong and freezing wind in the corridor. The stupid Gryffindor had attempted to stupefy a ghost, idiot.

"Get away, Malfoy!" Potter screamed at him. The girl ghost looked at the blond boy.

"Ooh, he's pretty," she was gazing at him with a dreamy expression on her transparent face.

Then she left Potter alone, now coming rapidly towards Draco, who was fidgeting nervously. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Stop! Leave him alone." Potter yelled at the ghost. She turned around, a surprised look on her face. "Malfoy, run away!"

"What?! No way! I'm not missing this in a thousand years! The Boy Who Lived To Shag His Girlfriend The Ghost. Or The Dead? Which one do you think is better?"

"I'm not a ghost!" the girl screeched. "I'm a vampire!"

"Yeah right, try telling that to a Hufflepuff, you'll be luckier there," Malfoy snorted.

"I am a vampire! Okey, a vampire ghost, but still I am no ordinary ghost," the girl really looked offended. Maybe she wasn't dead for that long to get used to it, so instead she tried telling obscene stories…

"Since when do vampires have ghosts, huh? That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard," Malfoy noticed that during his little interaction, Potter had come closer.

"How do you restrain a ghost, Malfoy?" he whispered.

"How should I know?! If I did I would have gotten Peeves away from my underwear drawer a long time ago," Draco sneered at the black haired boy.

"Oooh, don't you both dare to ignore me!" with this announcement she attacked Harry.

The ghost got fully absorbed in the boy's body and when Harry opened his eyes the next time, they had become radioactive green.

"Oops, shit, gotta run, bye," and Malfoy turned for leaving, but Harry shook and stretched out and the ghost emerged again. The boy fell to the floor, panting as if after a long run.

"Oh, you're so strong, I find it sexy how you're fighting me," the girl loomed over him as Malfoy got to Harry to help him. No, not help, he just wanted to check if everything was okey and the other could still show him the way out of this weird part of the castle.

"Get away, Malfoy, don't you hear what I'm telling you?" Harry said, but the ghost disappeared into his body once again.

"Bye," Malfoy got up as quickly as he could, but Harry grabbed the hem of his cloak. In the farce, Draco just slipped out of it ran back to the stairs and down them as quickly as he possibly could. Harry was dead on his tracks, or maybe it was the ghost…

Malfoy didn't have time to ponder how to address the being that had now become out of the previous Golden Boy, he vaguely remembered passing an abandoned classroom on his way and made for the door. He managed to emerge in the room, but couldn't close it due to the pressure of Harry's weight and strength on it. The creature succeeded in breaking the door open and throwing Draco on the floor with the force.

"I'm so hungry, you can't even imagine, pretty boy," the ghost girl said using Harry's voice in the lowest tone possible.

In no time Draco was being pressed against the wall in most awkward of positions. One Harry's leg was squeezed between his own legs, giving an uneasy pressure to his groin, given the situation, and also successfully preventing him from moving the lower part of his body, except maybe for wiggling his legs what Draco was now doing in a hope to hit Harry, but the boy didn't even seem to register the pain that was supposed to arise. The ghost had also managed to pin his right arm to the cold stone wall behind him, that Draco, dressed now only in his white school shirt, could feel in all it's coldness. So for the time being, the blonde was not going anywhere.

"Harry, are you anywhere in there?" he squeaked as the other hand that had once belonged to Potter was slowly trying to unbutton his shirt, but couldn't quite achieve the task, so ripped the garment open. "Harry, please, help, I think the girl in your head is about to rape me… And I thought we were getting along just fine. Help me?"

Malfoy was feeling scared and small. He only now realized how much Harry had grown during the summer, and how little and weak he was comparing to the stronger boy, whose strength the vampire ghost was now fully taking advantage of.

"Pretty boy, I'm not going to rape you. No such nonsense," but Draco didn't allow himself to feel reassured by that because the hand had taken up stroking his neck.

It felt much weirder because it was Harry Potter's body doing all those things; it was also his voice saying all that, in a sexy low undertone.

"Hey, come on, you are able to fight that girl! Don't be a pussy!"

He tried to get the boy away from him using his only free hand, but had only achieved feeling up the other boy's muscles under the thin fabric of the school shirt. Harry almost never wore his cloak.

Be damned Potter for not wearing your cloak. Or maybe be damned for having such a wonderful body… Not the time for fall for the guy.

"Mmm, pure blood, it's been a long time. You are like a candy for me," Harry smiled the most seductive smile Draco had ever seen, apart from the vampire teeth that had grown in the last few minutes, and leaned towards the blonde's neck.

In a terribly cowardly manner he turned his head feeling tears rising in his eyes. He also felt teeth breaking the soft skin of his neck and biting in deeper. He felt like all of his strength and resistance was momentarily drained from his body. And he grew weaker with every moment.

Draco choked on his tears, as his senses suddenly became aggravated to every motion and feeling against his skin. Everywhere on his skin.

This is the end of all things. I'm being turned on by the Gryffindor Golden Boy biting in my neck.

Harry's mouth on his neck felt soft, despite the sharp teeth, and warm. Also Harry's leg felt weirdly satisfying pressing against his crotch. He suddenly thought that, probably, after this, given he lives through, he will belong to the taller boy. Potter's property, marked on his neck. The thought made him shiver.

After what felt like a lifetime, Harry drew back and inhaling a sharp breath, the girl ghost emerged from his body and disappeared.

But Harry's head remained pressed against his shoulder. Draco was in no condition to object. He actually felt good with someone there, with him. Then he realized that the ever brave Potter was trembling.

"Harry?" Draco's voice was weak, but at least he was still alive, although he felt like dying.

"I'm so, so sorry, I couldn't fight her. I tried, but…"

Harry lifted his head and looked into the smaller boy's light grey eyes. His forehead, where his scar was, was smeared with Draco's blood, apparently he had been pressing against the wound unknowingly.

"I'm so sorry," he said again and realized he was still pinning the pale hand with long fingers against the wall and tried to remove it, but Draco entwined their fingers together in a vice-like grip, or something close to that, as he had almost no strength at all.

"No, I need somebody… Don't leave," Draco was in a dazed state of mind, after loosing too much blood, he wasn't also at his right senses when he moved his other hand from other boy's arm to his face, stroking his cheek. He brought Harry's face closer to his own. "Comfort me."

And he caught Harry's lips in a small but heated kiss. For Draco it felt like completion, like a prize after a long contest.

Harry started when Draco's lips touched his, everything tasted of blood. He felt horrible for what he had done to the other boy, he felt like he should be executed, dragged to Azkaban by his hair. But Draco had just kissed him. As if in gratitude.

Their kiss felt like a final part of a connection that had established. Their body's pressed together, entwined and the chests rising and falling together in week, exhausted breaths. It was painful inside, guts clenched by the understanding that they were doing something that was not their decision but was long since destined. And it was bound to end…

Then the kiss was interrupted by both boys feinting in a heap on the dusty floor.

--

A young woman appeared in a large room full of Death Eaters. The middle of the circle the black dressed figures had formed stood the Dark Lord. He looked impatiently at the ghost.

"Well, Miranda? Did everything go as we planned?" the hissing voice of Voldemort made the centuries old vampire flinch.

"My Lord," she dropped to her knees. "The Potter boy fought me. He drained all my power and I had to escape because I could stay in his body only that long."

"Will young Malfoy transform?"

She wavered clearly not wanting to answer.

"Answer me, vampire!" Voldemort yelled and even his ranks of Death Eaters flinched.

"No… I fear not. No matter how strong had the bond been, he wouldn't change," Miranda said, not looking at the noseless face of her master.

"Why not? He isn't vestal, is he? As far as my information goes, he is far from that."

"My Lord, he seems to be protected by a wyvern… he is winged…"

"Shit," Voldemort muttered and the windows exploded.

--

Draco woke up with a start, drawing in a sharp breath that tickled his throat and started a coughing fit. His mouth tasted of potions; the taste stuck to his tongue and was impossible to swallow.

His neck hurt, when he touched it and felt the bandage around it, the memories returned with a crash.

The boy looked around and found himself tucked it one of the infirmary beds. The blue moonlight was shining in through the huge windows, making everything seem eerie.

The most startling realization was finding Potter sleeping in a bed on his right. He opened his eyes and Draco's heart started pounding.

"You alright?" Harry asked in a husky voice from sleep.

Somehow, regarding everything that had happened between them, it was definitely not something Draco had awaited to hear from the other boy. He just nodded: "And how are you yourself? Did I wake you?"

"No, just had one of those Voldemort dreams…" Harry was lying on his stomach, he just clamped his pillow tighter and hid his face in it.

"I think I saw one, too," Draco answered weekly, not being able to comprehend what had happened. Maybe the potions were making him dizzy.

"You did?" Harry turned his face to the blonde again. "With the vampire?"

Draco just nodded, finding the color of Harry's green eyes in moonlight striking. "Yeah, but, you see, I had never seem anything like that. It felt so real, as if I was there."

"That's because you were there, somehow mentally. I have this connection with Voldemort and sometimes I see what's happening around him. But you…" Harry grew silent, not wanting to mention their connection. In fact, he wasn't even sure they had a connection. Maybe Draco had just seen what he had because he was wounded by a vampire because of some stupid Voldemort's plan.

And other than that, he really liked looking at Draco's pale figure in the vague blue light. He was shimmering silver.

"Do you remember what happened?"

After a moment of silence the Slytherin's question seemed to shatter the tranquill atmosphere of both boys gazing at each other.

Harry reluctantly answered, looking steady in Draco's eyes: "Yes, I do. Don't you?"

"No, I do, I just…"

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," Harry interrupted Draco before he would say something he would regret. And if he was right with his hunch the boy wanted to apologize, but Harry felt like the dirty bastard in this case, who had bitten his neck and sucked blood.

He sat on the edge of his bed, having vivid flashbacks of the incident and wanting to shake them out of the head. He didn't want to think about how good it had felt to have someone in his arms. He didn't also want to feel the terror that had gripped him when he had first realized that he wasn't able to fight the ghost anymore.

"It was a mindless thing to do in the aftermath of the attack. And we had both felt weak and wounded…"

Malfoy had sat on the opposite edge of his own bed and was staring weirdly at Harry's mumbling.

"Yeah, well, maybe you felt 'weak and wounded'. Speak for yourself," he announced.

"Right, that bandage around your neck is just an accessory. And the 'comfort me' part was just for fun. The Sexual Afterparty by Draco Malfoy. Everywhere where books can be bought! I see it already," Harry smirked and looked up at the Slytherin whose gaze he couldn't decipher.

"Wow, you should have been in Slytherin. That really stung," on the other hand his voice expressed only awe, nothing from his emotions.

He's just gotten used to being hurt.

"You know what we need, Potter?"

"Huh?" Harry was little bit intimidated by the fraudulent look in the blonde's grey eyes. But he would never admit it. Just as he would never admit that seeing this decadent being in pajamas, with tousled hair, all drenched in moonlight, he was feeling enchanted.

"We need to get drunk!" now Malfoy was madly grinning.

Harry sighed. Some people never change.

"Firstly, we are both two weak for it to end well. And secondly, you alcoholic, where will we get liquor at this time of night? I am pretty sure that we have no hope of getting out of here now. None. Zip. Nada."

"As much as I like your little never-ending tirades, you surprise me with your lack of insight. We are wizards, you ignoramus," Malfoy sneered. "I have my own whisky stack here at school. What did you thing I had in those trunks that was so heavy? Clothes?"

"Good, then summon some and let's get loaded!"