Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: Hey, i'm sorry i couldn't respond to all of you reviews, just know that i greatly appreciate them all, and try to reply as much as possible:) They really make my day. So, without any more, here's the chapter!

Warnings:A bit of swearing. That's all. Really.

Strange Occurences

It was cold. And hard. The sensation was…strangely familiar, as if he should remember it but only from a dream. It was very much like a dream after all, like being stuck in limbo.

He could both hear and feel his heart beating almost pathetically in his chest, stuttering on, the beat echoing in a hollow manner.

His eyes stared out unseeing, making him sure that they were glassed over. His limbs were sprawled, as if he were a limp doll that had been thrown in a fit of anger and never picked up.

He couldn't tell where the cold came from. He was somewhat aware that it washed up from beneath him, but at the same time it was inside of him too, leeching away at his insides, turning them to ice. And the air, the air he was under was chilling too, cooling his skin.

The hardness was easier to identify, it was the smoothness of the paving stones, a slight dip where the stone had been cleaved jutting into his back, pressing up against him. The force below and the force above, it felt like he was being compressed, not even his lungs could inflate anymore.

He roughly heard himself gasp for breath, like a fish that's been thrown out the water for far too long, loosing all will to continue to struggle on.

He was supposed to run….

Had he stopped, was that why he was laying here like this?

The need to run was fading, along with everything else. Why had he been running…?

He couldn't remember.

He felt a cold caress travel down his neck slowly-it almost tickled. It was a while before it hit the stone and pooled out around him; it was water then?

Was it raining, it didn't feel like rain…

No, no, it was red. The red that made him run…yes that was it.

Wasn't blood supposed to be warm though, why was it so cold? He had liked the cold before-it was soothing.

But now, now he was sure that he hated it.

Harry awakened with a gasp; eyes wide as he quietly attempted to still the small shivering that wracked his frame, it was making the sheets quiver.

Burying his face into the pillow, Harry was happy to find that he had managed not to make a single sound.

He had nearly completely forgotten about the dreams. He hadn't had one in days, and with all that was going on, he had been adequately distracted to simply dismiss them.

This one had been by far the gentlest, though for Harry, it had been by far the most frightening.

He could still feel the lingering cold it had brought, and the horrible sensation of vertigo remained.

But worse however, was that he recognised that feeling. It was the same he had felt on the night that he had first seen a Death Eater; the day that he had died.

In the dream, or whatever it was, he was dying.

The thought of reliving the experience made him shudder. He inhaled deeply into the pillow, glad when he found that it still carried a remnant scent of Draco on the fine cotton.

Why was he dreaming these things? He didn't understand, they had started even before he had met Draco. He was sure he didn't have an active enough imagination to come up with them.

With a saddened sigh, Harry at length pulled himself up, coming to sit with his knees up, chin resting on folded arms.

Mind clouded with morose thoughts, Harry stared out the window, frustrated to see that morning was breaking already; he wasn't ready to face Hermione and Ron and their questions. He wasn't ready for them to ask about Draco either. And he most certainly wasn't up to facing Hermione's wrath for slacking on the job.

Especially for a job that technically, cost him his life. Not that she knew that of course.

It was several minutes later, when a rather jarring crash was heard from downstairs, signifying that the guests were up, effectively pulling Harry from his stewing thoughts.

He gave a heavy sigh and was just about to haul himself out of bed when a pair of strong pale arms surrounded his waist, pulling him back against a flat chest.

Harry let himself be pulled, but gave no sign or expression as Draco started to kiss his way down his throat, or nuzzled lightly against his ear.

"Mmm, darling, it is far too bright to be up and about just now, let the mortals be for now…"

Draco's normally seducing purr was raised to new heights by the slight huskiness added from sleep, and he gently nipped at Harry's jaw, intent to pull his minuo back into bed.

He was subsequently rather shocked when after initially leaning into the embrace, Harry suddenly pulled away from it; easily breaking the blonde's hold on him and began searching for clothes strewn over the floor, seemingly completely unaffected by Draco's advance.

For the first time in perhaps a century or more, Draco's thought processes came to a complete halt.

Did his prey just…?

The last time that someone had not been distracted by him had to have been….actually, in fact, this had never happened before!

Ever.

When Harry turned back around, he was met with what should have been the most amusing sight the entire week; Draco looking wide eyed- an expression he had never seen on the older vampires face before, at any point.

Yet truthfully, Harry just found it…cute. Draco looked a lot as if he had just missed a step on a flight of stairs.

Unable to resist his newfound advantage, Harry leaned forwards to place a kiss on the immobile vampire's nose and quickly swept out of the room, calling out only, "I'll sort them out!" as a farewell.

Draco was sure he had just missed something rather vital, but for the life, or rather death of him, he couldn't figure out what.

Bleary eyed and still rubbing the sleep from their eyes, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were bustling around the house, fruitlessly attempting to find something edible for human consumption.

The search had led them to something that Hermione presumed may of once been a kitchen, or perhaps a rather large pantry of some sort; it was light, airy and pleasantly wide windows gave an equally pleasant view of the gardens outside.

It was somewhat of a hazy day today; the clouds were covering the sky in a bright white blanket, though the effect was a little smothering, and the plants had large drops of glistening condensation nestling on them; the window sills were even dripping.

Ginny only spared the scenery a passing glance however, and made straight for the cupboards at the far end of the room.

She wrinkled her nose as she pulled on the rotten wood; the only thing making it look presentable was the light green paint that was slowly peeling off the front.

Her expression turned to a full out grimace as she was met by nothing more than the sweet smell of decomposition and some neglected insect carcasses.

She let the cupboard door fall shut with a muffled slam, and whirled around.

"There isn't any food anywhere."

Ron looked over at his sister confusedly.

"Of course there isn't, no one been living here in years. At least," he said, lowering his voice slightly, "nothing's been living here that needs to eat."

Hermione shook her head exasperatedly, "That's not what she meant Ronald. Hasn't Harry been staying here for nearly two weeks?"

Ron's eyes widened in comprehension.

"Exactly, I wonder if he hasn't been eating properly?" murmured Hermione to herself worriedly.

"Who's not been eating properly?" asked a voice.

All three occupants jumped and turned to face the door, surprised to see that they hadn't heard Harry come in; he'd never been that graceful.

Ron simply shook his head in reply, but Hermione would have none if it.

"You Harry. If you've been here for so long, how come there is absolutely no food in the entire house, hmm?"

Harry unconsciously took a step back at her accusing glare. Whether it was from apparently not eating, or from the implication that he hadn't been living here, which was really rather plausible, he wasn't sure.

"Erm, well, I guess I just got…distracted. I ate when I was hungry, it's not like I've been starving myself or anything!" Harry defended when Hermione's fierce glare got harsher.

The woman in question clicked her tongue.

"I suppose we'll just have to go shopping later. Now, seeing as you're here, it's an opportune time for you to start showing us around."

"W-what?" asked Harry surprised.

"What do you mean, show you around?"

Hermione's eyes narrowed once again, and both Ginny and Ron took a step back, out of range.

"Well, considering you have been distracted, we have some work to do, now don't we?" she asked, her voice purposefully light.

Harry felt his anger spike, and gave her a cool stare of his own.

"What do you mean by me being 'distracted'?"

Hermione let out a strangled groan of frustration.

"Oh, don't try to play me for a fool Harry Potter, we all saw that…man last night. No need to explain what you were doing instead of working. Now-" she added when she saw Harry about to interrupt, "I know it's not completely your fault, but you can't expect me to really believe that nothing unusual has happened while we've been gone do you? I was here when Dumbledore explained it to us. People have died here Harry, so don't you expect me to believe you!"

Harry simply stared in shock as the bushy haired woman breathed heavily, out of breathe due to her angry outburst. Blinking in surprise, Harry didn't answer. It was all perfectly true of course.

"Now," said Hermione, still breathing harshly through her nose, "let's take a look around the house then shall we?"

She started to walk out of the room, but Harry quickly darted forward, grabbing onto her arm. She immediately stopped at the contact, jerking forward slightly and glancing in shock towards the pale hand holding onto her sleeve, and then towards Harry.

"Harry?" she asked quietly.

Harry gave her a wan smile, before tugging her over to the small circular table, positioned rather nicely in front of the tall windows.

He placed her unresisting form in one of the spindly chairs and took a seat himself across from her. Glancing up, he took note that her brown eyes had softened and were now looking over him in concern.

"Harry, what's the matter?"

He must look worse than he thought, he mused, for her to use such a soft voice like that.

"It's just- it's just that your right," admitted Harry, "there, there have been things that have happened here."

It was now perfectly clear to him that he couldn't keep everything silent, or at least, he had to give Hermione something. If he did, she would be less likely to dig any deeper. He didn't have to lie; just omit certain aspects of the truth.

He never once occurred to him to actually tell her, to be truthful with his friends about his new condition of acute vampirism. They merely couldn't find out; simple as that.

Bad things would happen if they did, surely.

Unbidden, Harry let tears gather in his eyes, just enough to make them glisten slightly.

Hermione's frown increased and she put a hand onto his in a way to comfort.

"What happened Harry?"

Harry shook his head, "I-I don't want to talk about it. You don't need to know. It's just that," he bit his lip in hesitation.

"Go on," encouraged Hermione softly.

"If-if anything were to happen, it would happen at night, I can assure you of that," whispered Harry.

Hermione nodded receptively.

He wasn't lying, not at all.

"And I really-really don't think its a good idea to just go off and explore on our own you know."

"So what should we do?" questioned Hermione in soft curiosity.

"Just-just…" said Harry just as gently.

"Yes?" said Hermione, almost eagerly.

Harry gave a sharp sigh of frustration, as if he didn't know how to express himself.

He gave Hermione a hard stare.

The look didn't make her shiver. She wasn't lying.

"Hermione, you-you really shouldn't have made them stay here," he finally murmured softly.

Her eyes went as wide as a frightened deer's, "What?! Why?"

Harry merely shook his head.

"Never mind," he muttered in reply.

Behind them, Ron shifted uncomfortably, he and Ginny left out of the conversation. Both red heads gave a sidelong look to the other and determined the same thing.

"Well then mate, if you say we shouldn't go wandering around, I'll take your word for it. Still, we have the rest of the day ahead of us, so what do you think we should do?"

Hermione looked distinctly disgruntled but finally nodded along in acceptance to the idea.

Harry swallowed as he saw three heads turn his way, waiting for him to make a decision.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

"Er…"

"I have an idea."

All four occupants of the room jumped simultaneously, even Harry. Looking over his shoulder he was unsurprised to see it was Draco who had managed to seemingly appear out of nowhere.

"Oh? And what is your fine suggestion?" asked Harry irritated, he was really beginning to get annoyed at how that stupid vampire could still sneak up on him like that.

Draco smiled pleasantly, probably perfectly aware of what his darling charmant was thinking.

"Well, I was thinking that perhaps you should show your most wonderful friends, what exactly has been distracting you so much."

"Draco!?" shrieked Harry, feeling scandalised as a blush made its reappearance, pink dusting over his cheeks.

His infuriating sire raised an amused eyebrow in reply.

"My, what are you possibly thinking of, that is making you blush so exquisitely like that? I would absolutely love to be able to recreate the effect."

Harry spluttered once again.

"I was merely referring to that found godfather of yours- I have absolutely no idea what you were thinking of," he said smoothly.

"Oh," said Harry softly, feeling the pink flush to red in embarrassment. But really, was it his fault, considering that Draco was always flirting so God damn much?!

"Godfather?" asked Ginny in confusion.

Jerking away from his thoughts, Harry saw equally quizzical looks directed his way from Ron and Hermione too.

"Well," said Draco, sounding disgustingly satisfied, "I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time visiting him."

"Huh?" asked Harry intelligently, "I don't even know where he lives!"

"Of course you do, he left his address when he left Severus's, remember?"

Harry shook his head slowly, face blank with incomprehension.

Draco sighed, perhaps a little dramatically, and pulled a small piece of paper out of nowhere.

Too used to Draco's little quirks, Harry simply roughly snatched it out of the blonde's hands and inspected it.

"Oh."

Draco felt his smirk momentarily melt into a smile at the little word, reminded of all the other times when his little charmant had said the exact same thing; always looking absolutely adorable when he did so.

Just like now in fact.

With a last fleeting glance over to Harry, Draco let himself saunter out of the pantry, leaving his minuo to deal with the situation.

He did say he would deal with it after all.

Still, he thought somewhat mournfully, he really didn't like having to usher Harry out of the house in the process, but alas, he had things to do.

It would probably be good for the brunette anyway.

"So, um, where are we going again?"

Harry gave a sidelong glance to Ginny, who was huffing slightly in an effort to keep up. She had a scarf, no doubt knitted by her mother, wrapped around her neck, and her red hair was getting blown in various directions by the wind.

Frowning slightly, Harry turned around to see the rest of them appearing rather windswept as well.

"We're going to visit a man called Sirius. We met up purely by accident, but as it turned out, he was my godfather," admitted Harry.

Her eyes sparkled at the knowledge gifted on her, and she muttered a small "Oh," from beneath the wool of her scarf. Her cheeks were flushed red and she kept sniffling slightly as they walked briskly through town, as her nose was running.

The others were really in the same sort of state. He himself didn't feel the cold at all. In fact, the most uncomfortable thing for him was the bright light, which was reflecting rather painfully off the white blanket of cloud; it made his eye's sting.

Harry consciously slowed his place slightly, as to let the others catch up when they turned onto the corner of Vinegrove Road.

Hermione caught up last, along with a hardly winded Ron, clutching a stitch in her side.

"For God's sake Harry, why did we have to walk so fast?"

Harry merely shrugged, trying to cover up his embarrassment; he supposed he had just gotten used to the speed he now had, even at walking pace.

"Well," she huffed, as she straightened up, "this is the right place, what's the number?"

Harry felt a stab of irritation at Hermione for taking control like this, as if it were no more than another one of their little 'expeditions' but her brown eye's were expectant, and so he dutifully pulled the by-now-rather crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

Smoothing it out, he said, "Its number forty five, so it should be on the right hand side."

Hermione nodded smartly, and glanced around, before her gaze alighted on the correct number, and she promptly marched up to the front door. She was almost acting as if she were about to give an interrogation.

She paused on the second step, and deftly turned to face Harry, who had been following after her in bemusement.

"Now Harry, I may sound a little harsh, but I'm sure you know that I just want to make sure that he's not going to disappoint you, we all know how lovely the Dursley's were after all. You understand, don't you?"

Harry stared at her, noting distantly the warmness behind the steely glint in her gaze. He really couldn't do anything more than nod, slightly disturbed with the fact that though such an action in his defence should have usually warmed him to the core, he now felt practically apathetic. What the hell was going on?!

Before he could dwell anymore on the subject however, Hermione had already rung on the doorbell, and was waiting impatiently for an answer. Harry half hoped that Sirius wasn't home, it was unfair to him to have to deal with Hermione so early in the morning, especially with no prior warning. The rest of the group stood behind them, all a safe distance from Hermione.

The door swung open and the warm countenance of Remus opened the door. His amber gaze travelled over the various young men and women on his doorstep, all of whom he had never seen before, giving him hard looks, when he saw a slightly uncomfortable Harry standing off to the side, smiling apologetically.

"Oh, hello Remus, these are, ah, some friends of mine…Sirius wouldn't happen to be in would he?"

Remus blinked in slight confusion, before he decided against addressing any of the others, and decided to just speak to Harry directly.

"Why yes he is, he can be quite lazy sometimes, there's really no where else he would be in the mornings," said Remus, sounding oddly resigned.

He appeared tired, Harry thought, but then again, dealing with Sirius all day long would probably do that to a person. Being a werewolf also most likely didn't help the bags under his eyes. He vaguely wondered when the next full moon was, and was a little startled to hear a small voice from the dark recesses of his mind say, 'a week tomorrow'.

Creepy.

Harry smiled on the outside. "Yes, that seems like him, even though I've only met him once," he laughed slightly, and he paused to give Remus another remorseful look, "I'm sorry to disturb you so unexpectedly like this, but would you mind if we came in, I'm afraid that they want to, er, talk about some things."

Remus raised a questioning eyebrow, but Harry merely shook his head.

The werewolf gave the others another appraising stare, and upon seeing Hermione's fierce gaze, nodded.

"Of course, I'm sure Sirius would be delighted to see you all, though I am slightly puzzled how you know our address."

Harry felt himself twitch, that bloody, fucking, stupid vampire! When he got back, he and Draco would be having a long, serious talk about…well! About everything!

"Yes, well," started Hermione, "when we heard that Harry had found his Godfather, we just couldn't get away with not meeting him you see."

Harry nodded weakly.

Remus gave a small smile, the kind that could warm cold coffee, and stepped back to allow them entrance.

"Sirius is in the living room, I'll just make everyone some tea shall I?"

Hermione simply breezed past him and Ron, as he walked in after her, gave a small noise of affirmation, rushing after the bushy haired girl.

Harry quickly hurried after her; no need to leave Sirius to her tender mercies so soon.

He was still in the hallway when he heard voices.

"Mooooo-nyyyyyy, who was at the door!" called out Sirius.

"Oh, hello, I suppose your Sirius Black then?" came Hermione's stern tone.

"Er, yes, yes I am, who are you?"

"Oh, Hermione Granger, one of Harry's friends."

"Harry's friends eh? I suppose you're here about the whole vam-"

Harry had heard enough, and he darted into the living room and called out loudly, "Hey Sirius, sorry to just come in like this, they insisted you see. They only arrived last night, we've been work partners for a long time you know- they had another job elsewhere."

The living room was at the front of the house, the large windows facing the front garden; it was a cosy setting, with plenty of somewhat tattered, but highly comfortable furniture and clean, cool colours. In was…homey.

Sirius frowned at him in confusion, grey eyes swimming in bewilderment.

"Job?"

Harry gave him an uneasy smile. "Yep-job. We never got round to discussing why I was here in the first place did we?" he asked nervously.

Just then, Luna, Ginny, Ron and Colin entered the room as well. Siruis's eyebrows both rose.

"Well, what's this then, the inquisition?"

Ron snorted behind his hand, for indeed, that was an apt description for Hermione when she was chasing answers, but he quickly smothered it when he caught the severe glare she shot in his direction.

Harry, in desperation for something to do, settled himself on one of the two sofas and made rapid inclinations for the other to do the same. Luna breezed past the coffee table to take a seat next to him, cutting off Ginny, who then gloomily sat beside Luna. Colin and Ron sat on the other while Hermione remained perched on the armrest, sizing Sirius up like a hawk.

Harry wasn't surprised that the man began to get uncomfortable and when he glanced at Harry questioningly, all he could do was mouth the words, "I'm so sorry," and then stop drawing attention to himself.

"So, you're Sirius, Harry's Godfather then?" sated Hermione.

Poor Sirius couldn't get more bewildered if he tried.

"Yes," he said slowly.

"I see," said Hermione primly, "and would you like to inform us how exactly you came to be Harry's godfather, and where you've been all this time?"

Ron winced in sympathy.

"Look, it's a long story," said Sirius, finally taking some grasp of the situation, "and while I find it very commendable that you seem to care so much about Harry, I really don't think-"

"Sirius, I think it would most likely be much quicker if you just tell her what she wants. Just explain what you said to me alright?" interjected Harry, seeing Hermione's eyes narrow dangerously.

"Exactly what I said?" asked Sirius surprised.

Harry's eyes widened slightly, but he was thankfully saved as Remus chose that exact moment to come in with a tray of tea, and started to pass round cups. Colin jumped up to help, to which Remus smiled gratefully.

Using the distraction, Harry took the opportunity to grab onto Sirius's arm and pull him out of the room. Only when he was sure that they were out of earshot, hidden behind the doorjamb in the kitchen, did Harry speak.

"I'm so sorry about this Sirius, Hermione's just a bit-"

"I don't mind," said Sirius quietly, "its good to have friends like that, I'm glad for you."

Harry gave him a weak smile, his mind flitting back to his earlier thoughts on the front steps.

"They're much better for you than-than that vampire," continued Sirius gravely.

Harry felt his mouth tighten, and something in the back of his mind hiss threateningly. Yes, Draco could be…infuriating, but well…at this point, Harry truly couldn't imagine what a life was without him. The man was his sire; the thought was unthinkable.

"Yes, well, that's not for discussion today," said Harry through clenched teeth. Sirius frowned darkly, but didn't comment.

"Just, they don't have a single idea about me being a-," he paused, biting his lip, "about me being a vampire, or anything at all, so don't say anything about that okay?"

Sirius folded his arms, "Well, that leaves quite a few holes in my story, that they're demanding me to tell."

"Please Sirius," pleaded Harry.

Sirius huffed gruffly; in a way that Harry somehow knew was agreement.

"Fine, I'll just use the same story that we had to give the police; its not as if they would believe what really happened."

Harry smiled gratefully, though the only sensation he really had was the way his features moved in order to do it.

They both went back to the living room, where Hermione was stirring her tea with a teaspoon with keen ferocity.

Sirius laughed nervously and took a seat on the sofa, happily sinking down into it by a couple of inches.

"Now, let's see, where to start…"

The entire story of Harry's parents and Sirius and Remus's relationship with them took several hours, what with all the interjections, mainly from Hermione and Ron, and the odd strange comment from Luna- which usually took a lot of explaining form their side. However, by the end of it, Hermione was appeased. It was then that Ron started asking more questions, that all of them quickly lunged onto, stories about Harry's parents in their youth, or about Harry before the 'incident'.

These things didn't interest Harry nearly as much as he thought they would have. The discussion left him feeling more uneasy, rather than satisfied and he could only pretend to smile and nod, and laugh when they other's did. His mind felt oddly detached from his surroundings, and he was lost in thought, not paying much attention to what Sirius, know thoroughly enjoying himself, was saying.

He did however, feel an odd longing to go back to the house to seek out Draco. No particular reason why, but without the older vampire's presence, he was beginning to fell…itchy to get back to him. The thought agitated him, and made him pay even less attention to his surroundings.

Hermione meanwhile, had also become distracted from the conversation, though only briefly. Something out of the corner of her eye had snagged her attention like a fish line. Harry had struck her as been acting quite strangely ever since they had been reunited last night, but this time, it was something else. The door to the living room had been left afar, and on the other side laid a full length mirror, glinting through the foot wide crack, nothing strange really about it.

Apart from the image it reflected however. She couldn't quite put her finger on it; it showed the sofa, and the carpet, and the corner of the coffee table…She glanced over to where it faced. Only to find Harry sitting there, a somewhat vacant smile on his face as he nodded along.

Frowning, she looked at the mirror, which didn't reflect Harry at all. How peculiar…

Perhaps it was to do with the light refraction in the room or something, after all there was no other reason why Harry should suddenly no longer have a reflection, was there?

She dismissed it from her mind, and tuned back into what Sirius was saying.

"And then, he went down on one knee, wilted flowers in hand and…"

Unknown to her, Ron had also noticed the mirror behind the door, and who wasn't reflected in it. And he couldn't pass it off as 'light refraction'.

The sky was darkening by the time they were ushered out the house and onto the front steps, they had ended up staying for lunch, and by now it was late afternoon.

They bid their farewells, and Harry felt indescribably guilty when Ginny's sounded warmer than his own, but Remus and Sirius seemed to understand, which really just perturbed him all the more. Was this sudden loss in feeling to do with being a vampire? And why didn't he feel this way about Draco?

They slowly ambled down the road, Harry lagging behind with more than adequate frustration. He really wanted to shepherd them back to the house before the dwindling daylight gave way to the darkness, but all of them, even Luna, insisted on going shopping, as apparently they desperately required food for sustenance.

This had once again made Harry feel troubled. He had his own food requirements to attend to at some point in the not too distant future, and those needs would be rather more difficult with Hermione and Ginny breathing down his neck at all times.

Not to mention that'd he'd need more than just a quickie from Draco next time too. There was always the chance that he may feed off his friends by accident. He'd never lost control before, but he was sure it wouldn't be pretty if he did.

Just another thing to talk to Draco about.

And wasn't that a long list?

Harry sighed to himself, and walked on, hoping that he would manage to get them all back safely, without a reappearance of any violent spirits or sudden deaths.

The wind picked up, and the leaves rustled.

He had a bad feeling about the coming nights.

A/N: My beta said it was short. I suppose it is, considering its over 5,000 words! Sigh. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chappy, things start to get more dangerous, especially as i'm preparing a death (no, it isn't Harry or Draco- stop having angst induced heart attacks). Right, so wait for that, and maybe review for me too? I do love them so very much, i'll make even more effort to reply to all of them this time, promise!