Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did you would know it. Story title is a song by H.I.M. Chapter title is song by The Cranberries.
The first week of Christmas vacation Mina spent all her time in the library, knocking out her holiday work. Her last day there, Barret Scabior slipped into the chair across from her; Mina, expecting Sirius, continued to write her essay without lifting her head.
"Black, you need to leave Severus alone, I am not, nor will I ever be, your 'girl'. There is a reason I requested Slytherin house and it had everything to do with avoiding you." Scabior chuckled
"You really asked for Slytherin to get away from Black? He must be heartbroken." Mina choked and lifted wide purple eyes to him.
"It's not really your business is it?" Scabior smiled.
"No, I don't suppose it is, but I do have something to discuss with you." Mina narrowed her eyes and deftly gathered her books.
"I'm not interested, Scabior." He laughed again and slid his fingers gently around her wrist.
"Do you know why I enjoy being a thrall?" Mina twisted her wrist from his hand and stood.
"I don't care to have this conversation." She rounded the table and Scabior slipped an arm around her waist using her movement to twist her into the bookshelf behind him, his hands resting on either side of her head. He lowered his head so his own red streaked brown hair blended with her mahogany curls.
"It's the best high a human can get; teeth piercing flesh, the rush of blood; the heat and desire flushing throughout their body; the power to take and be taken, to have and belong, to own and be owned. Thralls are willing supplicants, Mina. I have other masters, it's true, but do you know what it would mean to me to be owned by you?" Throughout this whispered conversation Mina's animal rose beneath her skin. Her eyes brightened as he continued to describe the intimacy of a vampire's bite. She bit her lip even as heat suffused her skin. Her bag slipped unheeded to the ground beside them and almost against her will her arms rose to slip over his shoulders. Scabior smiled and shifted his own hands down around her waist. Mina's smiled as her fingers threaded into his hair.
"Do you know why you will never be my pet?" Her voice was suddenly full cadenced and washing over him causing him to shudder. She leaned closer and he, in true submissive fashion, let his head fall back and to the side, allowing her access to his throat. Mina laughed and placed a gentle kiss on his neck. "Answer me, Scabior." He moaned in disappointment, but remained as he was, his fingers biting into her lower back. His voice was raspy when he spoke.
"No, Lady." Mina smiled and licked his neck softly.
"Because you have already been tasted. If I take a human thrall, I am going to take someone untouched. Someone that I get to break." He shuddered against her.
"Please, Lady, please." His voice was begging his fingers tightening. "You need to feed, it could be years before you find one worthy. I know my master wanted to offer me, but make use of me without a debt. Allow me to offer myself to you." He dropped to his knees before her his dark blue eyes pleading, her silvery eyes boring into his.
"I can not take what you offer me, Scabior." Her fingers tightened in his hair her second hand drifting to gently cup his face. "If I had fangs, the second they pierced your skin, your master would know. It's not something that can be hidden, you understand, yes? Blood never lies." She lowered her mouth to his her eyes holding his captive. "You would have to break with your coven, and they don't let their thralls go." She placed a light kiss on his lips and slipped from him, stooping to grab her bag. As she straightened his hand slipped around her wrist again.
"No teeth then, Lady. A cut can yield just as much blood." Mina looked back at him.
"Why do you want this so bad?" Hoping to seek a reward for his honesty he answered quickly.
"Because you're special, you are like a holy grail. You are a god among gods." Mina stiffened slipped her wrist from his hand before latching her fingers back in his hair, jerking.
"How do you know what I am?" Her voice shifted into a low croon, a killer's voice.
"I serve the Council vampires. Lady Jessinia spoke of you and Lord Falion ordered me to offer myself to you. He hardly uses me, only twice; mostly I'm an errand boy. Please Lady, I will give everything that I am." Mina sighed and released him reaching into her bag and retrieving her pills. She took several and put them away.
"I don't know your master, his name isn't related to one of the eight. I don't need your blood right now, Scabior. I don't have fangs and won't require blood for years yet. There are too many unknowns and I don't trust you." He started to speak, but she raised her hand to silence him. "I will think about it, in the mean time, earn my trust, Scabior. Find your independence. Then maybe I will want you." She jerked her wrist free and swiftly rounded a corner and then left the library.
Behind the shelf in the opposite direction, Sirius Black glared at the still kneeling Scabior. He felt rage surge and with little thought he rounded the shelf and jerked Scabior's head back.
"You will tell me what you know and you will leave her alone." Scabior smirked.
"Does it eat at you to know that I know things about her you could never know?" Sirius grinned then, his eyes cold as he raised his wand.
"I am a lot of things, Scabior, but I am also a Black. Just because I'm in Gryffindor doesn't mean I don't know how to make you talk."
It was three days later when Sirius Black finally cornered Mina. Mina was on her way to the great hall for breakfast when the Black Heir slipped his arm around her waist and whisked her into a hidden passageway. Mina, his scent informing her who he was, stiffened and spun out of his quasi embrace, and put as much distance as possible between them.
"What do you want Black?" He smiled but said nothing for several long minutes before swaggering across the room towards her.
"I had a chat, with a family friend the other day." Mina straightened, aware of the many possibilities that fit such a statement.
"It must have been a bracing conversation for you. I'm glad you were able to bond, but I fail to see what that has to do with me." Sirius chuckled and slowly walked towards her, completely nonchalant, his hands in his pockets. Everything about him indicating laxity, aside from his eyes; his eyes held her like prey and Mina's animal rose to the challenge before she could credit it.
"Tell me about the pills, Mina. A muggle remedy in a magic school, obviously you are something special." He was so close to her now and she fought the urge to flea or fight.
"It's a genetic disorder, nothing else." Sirius stopped placing his hands on either side of her head and leaning down his mouth hovering over her ear.
"And Scabior's fixation with you, Lady?" Mina hissed and ducked intending to slip away but he lowered his arm to block her escape and crowded closer to her. Mina fought the reaction her animal demanded, her eyes flaring silver her voice falling to that husky cadence that sent awareness rolling down Sirius' spine.
"Leave this alone Black, you don't know what you are asking to know." Sirius smiled and knelt before her, his pupils dilating with excitement.
"Is it true Mina? Are you a vampire?" Mina growled.
"I told you to leave it. Why won't you listen to me?" He shifted closer to her on his knees.
"I can't Lady, I couldn't walk away from this even if I wanted to. Ever since I saw you, every time you touch me, I ache to be closer. Please Lady, let me matter to you. Let me amount to something besides a disgrace." Somewhere along the way Mina's hands had risen to his face, her books forgotten on the ground. She knelt before him and cupped his face.
"Sirius, this will kill you. You can't ask me to. What you want will end in death, one way or another. You would hate me, Sirius. You would resent the life this would give you." Sirius laughed and raised his hands to her forehead, slipping his hands along her hair and framing her face. His hands stopped on her neck his thumbs shifting along her cheeks.
"Any life besides the one I lead now is preferable Mina. I am not some thrall looking for a higher ranked master. I'm untouched, all I want is you; only you." Mina's animal buffeted her and she smiled at him a predator with her prey.
"Be careful what you wish for Black. You never know what you will get." Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but the shifting of the curtain behind him caused a low growl to sound from Mina. Quicker then should have been possible Mina was on her feet. Her hands dropping from Sirius and her silver eyes pinned on the intruder, Rabstan Lestrange. He leaned against the wall by the curtain.
"Well isn't this cozy?" Mina's silver eyes narrowed and one of her hands rose to caress Sirius' hair in a soothing gesture, master and servant.
"This is a private conversation Lestrange. Do you need to learn the same lesson I had to teach Lucius?" Rabstan chuckled.
"I am here because a first year said you might be in trouble. I didn't expect to find two second years cozied up so very intimate. I know Scabior is half blood, Mina, but he is mad for you. Do you know I gave him direction just an hour ago and he told me to fuck off because he serves no one? He hasn't been the same since I sent him to the library. Now I find you here, cozied up to a blood traitor. Is pureblood the preference?"
Sirius stood then his hand slipping along Mina's arm. Mina's eyes shifted to his and he lowered his mouth to her ear.
"Let me handle this, Lady. Go to breakfast, I'll follow shortly." Mina's eyes narrowed as she weighed these instructions and she deftly shook her head.
"We go together." He nodded and turned, his spine straightening with the movement and defiantly met Rabstan's gaze.
"If that was the case, you wouldn't rise to the occasion, would you Rabby?" Rabstan stiffened and growled.
"You dare, Blood traitor Brat?" Sirius chuckled and slipped his arm around Mina's waist pulling her against him. His smile was dark, hinting at the darkness that frequently flowed in Black blood.
"I don't have too." He started forward and Mina moved with him. They easily passed a still floundering Rabstan and entered back into the hall. The couple had barely crossed the threshold of the great hall before Mina was pulled from Sirius' arms by Remus.
"What did you do?!" His voice dropped in cadence to a guttural growl as he whisked his pack mate behind him. Mina slipped her hand down his spine with a low murmured
"Remus." The werewolf obeyed the command with a flinch before dropping his eyes to the young vampire. His attention on her, Mina smiled. "It's fine Remus, nothing I couldn't handle." Remus studied her eyes.
"You're sure?" Mina nodded.
"Everything is fine." Her eyes shifted to Sirius. "Remember what I said Black, and leave Severus alone." Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"La-." Mina hissed.
"I am not, nor will I ever be your girl, do not press this and leave my friends alone." Her voice sent shivers down Sirius' back and he nodded before turning jerkily and heading for the Gryffindor table. Mina sighed as she watched him go and lifted silver eyes to Remus. "He knows, more the he should and he doesn't know what he's asking for." Remus studied her and nodded before hugging her close and lowering his mouth to her ear.
"But he's what you want?" It was more a statement then a question. Mina smiled sadly.
"More then I should." She turned from him and walked slowly toward the Slytherin table taking deep breaths in order to calm herself. When she reached the table she assumed a seat between Severus and Scabior, the latter of which frowned at her and leaned over to whisper in her ear. She nodded and turned to Severus to pass on the secret. His mouth twitched and the three Slytherins began chatting as they ate. Remus turned toward his own table and moved to sit with his own friends.
The winter holiday saw a new pattern emerge for the rest of the school year. Scabior, having taken Mina's words to heart, rejected his own mentor and joined Mina as a near permanent fixture when time would allow. Severus split his time between following the mold and staying close to Mina and studying with their Gryffindor friends. Sirius spent his time watching Mina, to the point of obsession. Remus kept his pack mate close and acted as a buffer for Mina as often as possible, when his housemate was concerned. Time, in all its varied intricacies, inevitably moved forward.
Mina's birthday fell in March and on the night leading into this annual event at Midnight, she felt a shift in her that would have startled her awake, if not for the gentle presence of Drago in her mind. Beyond her understanding of that moment She found herself in a small replica of the Slytherin common room. The mist-shrouded room glowed a faint purple as opposed to the sea green she was accustomed too and cautiously she rose to pace her surroundings. She had just reached the exit to the rest of the school when the door opened and Drago smiled down at her. Mina shivered a bit and moved back from him.
"Why are you here?" Drago chuckled and glided into her common room and assumed the chair that Lucius had favored.
"You are displeased to see me, pet?" Mina shifted uncomfortably before him both yearning to climb into his lap and despairing at the want to do so. His eyes glittered as he reached for her wrist. She gasped as he pulled her forward and into his lap. His hands rose to her face in a gentle gesture of love before his lips grabbed hers in a far too adult, but very short kiss.
"I bring you a gift, my sweet." Mina stiffened and tried to climb from his lap, but he did not allow it. Mina scoffed and struggled against him.
"What gift? He let her climb from his lap and waved a hand. It took her some minutes to recognize her father floating in her common room.
"The gift of dreams, my precious girl." Mina blinked, unaware that her white eyes studied his red ones in skeptical interest.
"This is a dream?" He nodded.
"Every vampire, upon embrace, is given a gift. Gitana is gifted the ability to walk in the day, though it tires her, Jessinia, the ability to read and control human minds though it gives her headaches; And I have the gift of entering, manipulating, and feeding from those in repose, though the effort leaves me weakened upon awaking." Mina narrowed her eyes.
"So you come to me, in my dreams, on the eve of my 13th birthday to do what exactly?" Drago smiled and reached for her again, jerking her back into his lap and sinking his fangs deep into her neck. Mina gasped as the animal beneath her skin stretched and luxuriated in the timeless moments that flowed within fang and flesh. Drago fed for several long minutes, enjoying her submission as well as the heady taste of her blood. When she was sufficiently lost to the lust, he raised his head and laved her wound closed.
Mina only returned to herself when the heady taste of blood slowly dripped into her mouth. Her animal took control before her mind was quite caught up, snatching the wrist over her mouth and latching her mouth over the wound. It was then that she felt the hindrance of her own fangs. Her action caused her to sloppily impale her teeth into his wrist and the extra wound acted as cause for a faster blood flow. She struggled to slow her sucking and adjust to the feeling of fangs in flesh while she fed from his wrist. It was messy, his blood dripping down her chin and onto her neck. Mina, her desire for blood abated, slowly with drew her fangs and watched in fascination as the jagged and crooked flesh of his wrist slowly knitted itself back together. She let her head fall back, her wide silver-white eyes seeking Drago's red ones. She was stunned to find him watching her in amusement.
"Did you have enough?" Mina nodded and blushed.
"I-I'm sorry.' Her eyes dropped in shame and he laughed shifting his arms to hold her gently.
"Don't be, Pet, you could have hardly known, and it was beautiful to watch. This way, when your fangs are fully formed you'll be more aware of how to feed cleanly." Mina nodded and slowly climbed from his lap. Drago smiled indulgently and waved his hand. Mina jumped to find a mirror in front of her. With excitement and trepidation she crossed to the mirror and studied her face. She raised a hand to her fangs, tracing them in fascination. She nicked a finger on one fang tip and then watched her own wound heal. She turned to him with slowly darkening eyes.
"Why can't I have them all the time?" Drago chuckled.
"Because you are young yet." He stood and moved towards her father. Mina followed him. He smiled down at her and took her hand guiding it to rest on the human's forehead. Mina looked up at him confused and he smiled, his own fangs long and still stained pink. "Tonight's exchange was to give you my gift. Now I will show you how to use it."
Mina felt a tug and soon the two were in her father's mind. He showed her easily how to blend in with a dream already in progress, how to extract blood as needed, how to make her victim welcome her, how to wipe memory of her presence. Over all it was an educational experience, and one Mina treasured, her enmity of her male sire softened in this balance of powers.
Eventually, they returned to her dreamscape and Drago hugged her close. "You will have this ability for the rest of your life; Pet. It's useful for travel and fun regardless. This gives you power over others. Use it wisely my Sweet". Mina nodded and he faded from her dream. Mina smirked and watched in mute fascination as her father also faded. She considered the knowledge she now had and turned her mind to organizing. The common room around her quickly shifted to a jewel shop. The people of her acquaintance represented by individual jewel cases, each labeled with a little card and color indicating what house they were in, if applicable. Mina smirked and crossed over to the Slytherin green boxes and slowly raised her hand to hover over Lucius Malfoy's box. She paused and then lowered her hand. She could feel the sun rising, she did not have a lot of time. She turned and exited the dream jewelry shop and began crafting the scenes around her. Lucius' dreams would have to wait for another day.
A/N: You'll notice that the formatting has changed, originally I was going to finish how I started but I really just can't. So there you go lovelies. Additionally, I am going to try to resume work with this and hope to complete though it will be slow going so just please be patient with me, life has away of interfering with even my best plans so there you have it. Reviews warm my heart and hasten this version of shadowed dreams.
-DJR