Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: Reviews make my world go round =D. I am so so so so so sorry. You would not believe the weekend I've had. The internet guy just left and now I have internet back. Again I'm so so so so so so so so sorry.

To KyuubiChild717: Leon Zabini is Blaise Zabini, ya know that one that shows up with Malfoy in the last movie?

To Kyu9930: That's seriously the nicest compliment I've ever gotten on my work. Miranda Flairgold's last unfinished fic drove me crazy and I just got a bunch of ideas about how she could finish it until it was like 'okay now I have to post something.' Tell me if it seems I'm drawing on her ideas too much please, but I think I'm going to stick with the Harry obsessed with lightning thing.

The rest of the week blurred by. He had all his normal classes and Parseltongue tutoring with Professor Alexei during what would have been his last period. Elemental class was solely control at the moment, but he knew why. Lightning elementals could lose themselves in their magic. This was dangerous for two reasons. First of all once they lost themselves into the magic they'd never be able to get back to their body. Second it drove whatever magic they were doing to continue until it depleted their magical core and their natural magic killing the creator as it drove the lightning into a storm. As it was for a lightning elemental was the most important skill to learn.

Necromancy was interesting. Dante and Raven had joked that their instructor had gotten his brains eaten out by zombies. Their teacher was an extremely scatterbrained djinn, which was uncommon in itself. When he'd asked Scarlet she said the professor had even forgotten to come to his own class a few times. Luckily he wasn't scatterbrained enough to forget proper safety measures when it came to a raising. Students were always inside of a protection when a raising was taking place. Dante had actually done a couple of raisings already. According to the professor he'd shown as much talent at Necromancy as his father, (it seemed all the teachers knew who Dante was despite the white hair) and told him he could probably go for a mastery in Necromancy. As tempting as the offer was, Dante was slightly more interested in a double mastery of Cruor Sorcery and Animus Sorcery. Mostly because both would keep him alive during his search for Horcruxes and the subsequent battle with Voldemort. Not that he was telling anyone why he wanted to have a mastery in both of those subjects. He would've chosen Void Magic above all, but there were only a handful of people proficient in Void Magic, and they didn't need titles like a Master's to know how good another Void Magic wielder was.

Today was Sunday, and Dante was getting ready for a special animagus session with the Animus professor. She expected anyone who had a second or third animagus they didn't have under control to come to this session, and all the ones after until they had all their animagi under control. He didn't know Professor Stella-Maris well enough to have analyzed her character yet, but he did know she wasn't one to be crossed. Theodore Lebeau had already gotten her into a temper and had ended with him hanging from the Animus Sorcery spire for a day and a half. He hadn't seemed to learn his lesson though, so Dante, Raven, and Dmitri were hoping for a round two with something far more embarrassing. Dante had run off to Animus Sorcery immediately after breakfast. In the classroom were three others he didn't recognize and Theodore.

"For the last time Mr. Lebeau you do not have a second animagus form. The uncontrollable urge to transform comes from the poor control you have over your mole form." Dante stifled a laugh; Theodore had a mole as his second form? He wondered what his animagus mark was as the boy stormed out of the classroom. "He's lucky I like his father. Otherwise he'd be the first fatality for the school year. Let's see what will I do to him this time?" Dante had a suggestion,

"Could you do something that lasts a few days? Like make him mute for a few days, or blind, or deaf." The professor smiled at him happily,

"That's an excellent suggestion Dante. I can't believe I didn't think of that myself. I'll deal with that tomorrow though, for now I'd like to talk to you all about your animagi forms. To start with I'll be using privacy charms so that you don't know what the others' forms are." The three groaned, knowing each others' animagi would've given them a head start on that contest. "Rules are rules. I'll start with Mr. Roux." She then proceeded to coach them through on their form individually. Dante had been the last to enter, and he was the last she spoke to.

"My familiar thinks my second form will be reptilian if that is any help." She nodded.

"Familiars are never wrong about animagi forms, but that might be your third form instead. No what is your primary animagus?"

"A kitsune." She nodded and frowned.

"How many tails?"

"Six, every tail after will grow out in two years."

"Well that's going to be a bit of a problem. You're what we call a kitsune soulled human, and as far as I know none of them have ever survived growing out a tail. Also you won't be able to control your other animagi until you have control of your kitsune, in other words. You can't control your other animagi until you have all nine tails, but you're not likely to survive that long in the first place. I honestly have no idea what to do. Who's the head of your tower?"

"Professor Alexei. I'm going to die because of my animagus? You're kidding right?" She shook her head,

"I'll message Alexei right now." Dante nodded and the Professor grabbed a crystal from her desk and concentrated for a minute. "He's on his way. In the meantime would you mind showing me your animagus form?" Dante shook his head and transformed into his white fox form and ran around the room for her to observe. Eventually Professor Alexei walked in.

"Hello Dante, Stella-Maris." He nodded at both of them and asked "What seems to be the problem?" Dante looked at her.

"His animagus form. He has a secondary form, but the kitsune soulled have to have a nine tailed animagus in order to work on their other forms. He said his next tail will generate in two years, but humans never survive the growth of another tail."

"Are you suggesting he be turned?" She nodded, and Dante grew worried. He didn't want to be turned. Vampire culture was not one he'd adjust to easily, and if he was turned he'd be subordinate to whoever turned him. Alexei looked at him amused, "Dante calm down you're projecting. I don't know what you're so worried about, you can't be turned anyway."

:: Why not? :: He shrugged.

"I'm not entirely sure about the mechanics of it. All I know is that your body will reject the change and then try to force out its next tail, dying in the process. That would be a waste of a student with excellent potential. As for dying when you generate a tail, that's not entirely true. It's just that the kitsune soulled humans carry a curse as old as time. There is a way to survive, I just don't think you'd be interested in the sacrifice."

:: What is it? ::

"First of all you'd never be able to have a child. The line of Merlin would effectively end with no hope of another descendant. Second you'd be immortal, and not a normal vampiric immortal. You'd never be able to die no matter how close to death you were. You'll watch as your friends die and age, day in and day out until the realities fade. You'll be frozen at 23 for the rest of time. Third you'll never be able to enter Earth Reality again, I'd imagine this won't be too much of a problem for you though. Fourth you won't be human anymore, I'm not entirely sure, but I think some of your morals will die with your humanity. Granted if you're attending Aether I think you've already lost those particular morals. Still you'd be a kitsune in the form of a human instead of the other way around. Lastly the angels will come after you. They won't be happy you defied their curse, and they'll be even less happy about your identity. I don't know if this will actually be cause for worry or not, as the angels with one minor exception never leave the ruins of Olympus. Also I think once they knew you they'd really like you, they do after all respect power, and if they can overcome their prejudice about your family they'll love you. Angels would be great allies, Aether would know. One of our professors is an angel, maybe you should take his class next year."

:: Why would they curse kitsune soulled humans? ::

"Well that's actually a very good question, and I need to do some more research before I give you my answer. Now transform back to human, I think you've shown off enough for one day." Dante tried to transform back, but found that he couldn't.

:: I can't! ::

Alarmed at the prospect of losing his favorite student this year Alexei cut a few runes into the area around his eyes and looked at the white kitsune with glowy gold eyes and growled at him. "A magical block? Dante can you please tell me how you ended up with a magical block in your core?"

:: What's a magical block? Or rather how does it work? ::

"It's a piece of illegal magic that even Aether wouldn't teach. Its main purpose is to stop a child's accidental magic, but in the process it generally drains out their magic until they have none left. I can't think of any magical being or human who would put a magical block on a human child though. Especially since accidental magic only comes out when children are in need of something, unhappy, or in a life threatening situation. It would have had to be placed when you were very young. " Mer snaked out from under a desk and hissed at Professor Alexei,

The magical signature smells old. The person who placed the block was nearly 150 and is recently deceased. The block is currently in the process of unraveling. Dante shook his head, 150 years old and recently deceased huh? Three guesses who it was and the first two don't count. Alexei nodded at her.

"Thank you Mer, Dante you seem to know who placed the block on your magic. That information might help me with removing the block." He looked at him expectantly.

:: I think it was Dumbledore. ::

Alexei started, "Why would he put a magical block on you? Don't the humans think you're their only hope against Voldemort?"

:: I was one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Dumbledore believed I had to die in order for the horcrux to be destroyed. Another thing is that Dumbledore doesn't always do the proper research before he does something. How many books are there in Earth Reality that say why magical blocks are illegal magic? ::

"None."

:: There you go. Now can you undo the block? ::

"Don't be stupid. Of course I can. As if a senile old man can cast stronger magic than me. I'm insulted Dante." The kitsune snorted.

:: Can you hurry up? The longer I stay the more questions Raven is going to ask when I get back. If he can manage to get his hands on an Alumni record I think he'll figure out who I am. ::

"You should be nicer considering I'm doing you a favor. Be aware that all favors after this will have a price unless I decide to be nice. What are you going to do when he figures it out?"

:: Hope to God he understands why I didn't say anything, and ask him to keep quiet about it. ::

"You need an actual plan Dante."

:: I know I know, I just can't figure out what I should do. ::

"If it helps any I doubt he'll really care all that much. As far as anyone connected with Aether is concerned Dante Black is your true name and Harry Potter is just an alias."

:: That's not really what I'm concerned with. ::

"Oh that's right you're more worried about the insane megalomaniac terrorizing most of Europe. You're paranoid that he'll find out that you attend Aether and he'll come storming up here past our impenetrable defenses and wards to fight you before you've managed to destroy his remaining horcruxes."

:: They said the Titanic couldn't sink Alexei. ::

"The Titanic was sunk by an impressive iceberg created by angry ice fairies. It wouldn't have sunk had there been no magical interference. That's a terrible analogy Dante, try another one."

:: Hogwarts was supposedly the safest place on Earth. ::

"Humans don't know the meaning of safe."

:: You sounded like Theodore Lebeau for a moment there. Troy was said to be impenetrable. ::

"Don't compare me to that insect. You wouldn't believe how annoying he's been. Said no self-respecting vampire would obey a human's orders. I'd like to see him try to defy Morgana. As for Troy, there really was no accounting for the gullibility of the Trojans."

:: I'll get back to you on the analogy thing. Are you planning on doing anything to him? I promised Remy I'd tell him if anything really funny happened to his brother. He was pretty bummed out about missing Professor Stella-Maris hang him from the spire. ::

"Ah yes the better Lebeau. Do you suppose he'll seek revenge against whoever kills his brother?"

:: Well yeah he probably will, but not for the reason you'd think. He's just waiting for a sufficient reason to do it himself. At the rate Theodore's going I'd say he'll only have to wait for the end of the year. ::

"In that case I think I'll stay out of it. I need a vampire's soul for a project I'm working on. Maybe I'll take his little sycophant girlfriend instead."

:: There's the famed vampire cruelty. Honestly and Raven wondered why I would never become one of you. :: Alexei shook his head,

"You're being rude now; shut up and sit in the circle. Do you have any of your blood in vials?"

:: After your warning that you'd rip out the entrails of any student who didn't? Mer can fetch them for you. :: Said snake was already coming back with several vials of his blood.

"Looks like its about to save your life. You should quit your grumbling already. It's not my fault you have a knack for trouble that is second to none. Now you should never have any occasion to use this, but with your track record pretty much anything goes. Pay close attention." Alexei drew runes in the ground around the circle in Dante's blood. When he was done he opened one of his veins and added a couple drops of his own blood. The runes each flashed a different color and Dante started to feel a little dizzy. He nearly passed out, but used his magic to keep himself awake. He tried to shift back and ended up as a human again.

"Hey where'd Professor Stella-Maris go?" Mer answered him.

She left after she suggested you be turned. Your waves of panic gave her a headache and nearly forced me out of the room as well.

Sorry about that. I'd just rather not spend my life subordinate to someone else.

Yes well next time please contain your panic. Besides even if you were turned I think any vampire would have their hands full trying to keep you subordinate. You're far too independent hatchling.

She's got a point you know. I don't think I could keep you under control and I'm one of the oldest. Dante nodded.

"It's not like it's possible anyway or was that just a lie to calm me down?" He narrowed his eyes at Alexei who rolled his in return.

"It's the truth, and it's the only reason Cyrus allows me to be in the same room as you. Otherwise he'd raise all kinds of hell about vampires and weres staying away from you." Dante was puzzled.

"Why?"

"We've had some problems in the past."

"That's an understatement if I've ever heard one." Dante turned to face the speaker.

"Headmistress!" She smiled kindly at him.

"How many times do I need to tell you Dante? Call me Professor or Morgana. All of my students do. I believe Alexei has a similar policy with his Cruor students."

"Yes Professor."

"Chill out I won't smite you for informality like some people I could mention." She gestured at Professor Alexei who immediately defended himself.

"It is vampire custom for the younger vampires to be unfailingly polite to their elders unless they are allowed to be informal. I grant that right to my students, and that's rather generous of me. Now what business did you have here Morgana? I highly doubt this is just a social visit."

"No you are correct. I'm afraid the first fatality of the first-form students has taken place. Your bloodmagic chambers will need to be cleaned out."

"Let me guess. Mr. Daniels went ahead and performed that ritual I specifically told him would fail while I was away didn't he?" The Headmistress nodded.

"I'll clean out my chambers and tell my classes to be more careful in the future. Not that they'll keep it in mind for very long, but it may put off the next one for a week or two. Dante go to your rooms, get some rest, and refrain from using magic for a few hours. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye Professors." Dante waved and walked into his rooms, which were miraculously empty, and he went straight to bed. He woke up at 5 PM to his alarms ringing. As he'd expected it was Lila and the others,

"Hey guys! Are we heading off for dinner?" He asked yawning. Willow answered him,

"Yes you shouldn't miss two meals in a row. Especially not right now before the deaths start."

"You heard about Daniels?" They nodded.

"The question is how do you know about it? You've been asleep since it happened." Dante shook his head.

"I had a rather crazy morning. You know that class Professor Stella-Maris had with everyone who had two or more animagi forms? Well it turns out not only is my animagus blocking the potential for my second, it's also probably going to kill me in two years. She called in Alexei to figure out how to keep me alive and the alternative he knows of isn't all that appealing, I think I'd rather die. After that I couldn't get out of my animagus form because of some magical block. Professor Alexei managed to break it, but that was my only free favor, and it took a lot out of me. After he was done the Headmistress came in to tell him he had to clean whatever is left of Daniels off his chambers so he dismissed me and told me to head straight for bed. And now here we are." Remy whistled.

"You know all of the interesting stuff happens around you Dante. Who would put a magical block on a kid though? That stuffs been banned for like a hundred years, and it isn't like there isn't a good reason for it. Most of the time it kills the person with the block before they hit their magical maturity."

"I know, but the person who put the block on me, I'm of the opinion he was a senile old man. That or he's obsessed with his Greater Good. Thank goodness he's dead now." Willow smile was strained,

"Well there really is no accounting for senile old men, but more importantly what do you mean your animagus will kill you in two years, and what's the alternative? Becoming a vampire?"

"I mean that I will most likely die in two years. No the alternative isn't turning into a vampire. If that were the case I'd probably do it. It's much worse and I'd much rather not talk about it. Besides, maybe there's another way." Raven stared at him,

"You know I looked up the white haired animagus mark. Nothing showed up which means you either lied, or it's incredibly rare. Normally I'd have trouble believing the latter, but this is you we're talking about and coupled with the fact you said it will kill you I'd guess none have ever survived the transition, and it's incredibly rare. Am I right?"

"If I were to go ahead with it I'd be the first as far as I know, and there's a reason for it. Even Alexei doesn't like the alternative and he's a vampire."

"Your unfounded prejudice against our kind hurts me Dante. You sound like a fae instead of a human."

"The main difference being that humans forget about how you prey on our kind and fae don't."

"There's no winning with you Dante. Anyway did you learn anything interesting while you were with the Professor?"

"Yeah he's going to use Amelia's soul in some kind of project he's doing. I'm assuming from his expression that her soul will probably be destroyed in the process. Oh and Professor Stella-Maris is going to do something to your brother soon. She also said he doesn't have his mole animagus under control and he got mad at her and stormed out of the room calling her names." Remy and Raven shrugged,

"No big loss to us concerning Amelia, and Theodore deserves everything coming his way. Now let's get to dinner, today should be interesting." It was tradition at Aether to declare alliances at dinner after the first fatality of the year. It was sad Daniels had died, but it was his own fault for being stupid. At least this way he'd helped provide the entertainment for dinner. They rushed off for dinner.

They arrived just in time. As they sat down at the circular table that had become theirs the fourth-form students started announcing their alliances. Veronique, Raven's sister, would be speaking for both of them, as she was the clan's heiress.

"Vampire clan Chevalier has formed alliances with Quicksilver of the Seelie court, Jared Hunter the werewolf, Scarlett Kline the human, Ara the Dark Elf, Dante Black the human, Dmitri Belkov the djinn, Willow of the Mnemosyne, Manolo Rodriguez the werecat, Remy Lebeau the vampire, Aurora the Wood Elf, Leon Zabini the human, and Lila of the dryads." In turn each of the people called came forward and nodded. At first Dante had thought this system was archaic, but Dmitri had explained that if someone with formal alliances were killed by anyone in any form except an honor duel, their allies would be allowed to seek retribution. He'd had no problem with the system after that. He watched as the rest of the fourth-form students declared their alliances. The eldest goblin also included him in alliances with the goblin nation, which earned him strange looks from his friends and others in his year. When they finally finished calling out alliances they sat down to eat and discuss what they'd heard. Raven decided to be nosy and ask Dante about the goblins,

"Hey Dante how'd you end up as an ally of the goblin nation? They don't like humans, but since the beginning of the year they've been nothing but friendly towards you." Dante shook his head,

"Sorry Raven, I'm not allowed to say." He nodded,

"You have an inordinate amount of secrets for a mortal." Dante smirked,

"Oh so you thought vampires had a monopoly on the mysteriously secretive thing? Hate to break it to you Raven, but you most certainly do not." Then he remembered,

"Hey can you tell me which myths about vampires are false?" Raven nodded.

"Of course, why? I thought you weren't interested in becoming one of us." Dante glowered, "Okay then which myths do you want to know about? Sunlight isn't harmful, but our eyes are sensitive to sunlight. I can eat garlic and drink holy water. I have a reflection. We drink blood regularly and have sharper incisors. We're mostly nocturnal. Anything in particular you want to know?"

"Why do you drink blood? How do you kill a vampire? Why do you sleep so little? Why can you eat normal food?"

"Let's start with how to kill a vampire as the rest will take more explaining. A stake in the heart will work or you can cut off their heads. There's also a special kind of poison that will weaken vampires, it's made from the Sanguis flower. A vampire's system depends on blood, when you're turned you essentially die and are reanimated under the power of another. In order to keep said body from rotting and to keep it running we need blood flowing through our bodies. We can't produce any of our own so we take it from another person. Strong magical blood can even give us different powers. We sleep only a few hours because after we eat we have to sleep to get the blood running through our bodies. We can eat because as long as we have blood in our system we function mostly like humans." Remy interrupted,

"We don't have to eat food, but we can derive a small amount of nutrition from food and put off our feeding for a little while. Also blood bags won't work, we need fresh blood. The school has prisoners in the dungeons we can feed from, but we can also feed from our classmates if we wish. They probably won't feed from you unless you offer or are willing, as feeding from an unwilling source is seen as barbaric with the exception of feeding from criminal scum. Child molesters are often chosen as blood bags. Understand?"

"Yes thank you, that clears up a few things. Why do they say to be in our dorms at 11 PM then?" Raven and Remy shared an uneasy glance,

"That's when the older vampires have their meetings. They choose the day at random and anyone who stumbles across the meeting will be fed from and have their memories wiped. We're invited starting this week, I'm just waiting for Veronique to give me a time and place. Just stay in your rooms and you'll be fine."

"Can you read someone's mind while you feed from them?"

"Not exactly. We'll get an impression of what they're feeling and how good their Occlumency is. It depends on how old you are. Professor Alexei probably can, but a vampire under two hundred? Unlikely. Still there are ways to protect your mind while being fed from. There are privacy wards that apply even to what goes on in your head. For example if you were thinking about Aether, the vampire wouldn't be able to see your thoughts or root through your brain. Most old families have similar privacy wards for any major family secrets. I wouldn't be surprised if you could use a family name to keep vampires out of your mind. Ask your guardians, it could come in handy someday. Especially with you being you." Dante rolled his eyes and assented. It was time to write to the Marauders, he also had some new information about one of the horcruxes. Apparently it was in the Room of Requirement. The only reason he knew was that he'd tried scrying for the horcruxes and one showed up in the upper levels of Hogwarts. He'd ask Padfoot to try and find it and then turn it over to the goblins. He relayed this message to the goblin who had declared Dante's alliance to the goblin nation.

"I have a message for Ragnok. Would you be able to get it to him?" The goblin nodded in affirmation, "The horcrux is at Hogwarts, I'm sending Padfoot after it. He'll try to get it to Gringotts to be destroyed." The goblin's eyes widened.

"A soul shard? I will get the message to him immediately. Goodbye Mr. Black." The goblin rushed off to get the message to Ragnok. Harry sat down and wrote a letter to the Marauders. He included information about his first classes, the location of the horcrux, his new friends, Mer's greetings, and the mysterious plans set in motion by the Headmistress.

After some thought he decided not to tell his guardians about his animagus form's curse and his impending death. That just wasn't the kind of stuff you sent in a letter, it'd be best if he told them in person. Besides they'd probably just get upset and it'd distract them on their retrieval mission. He was slightly worried about Snape. Padfoot never had the best sense, and from the stories they'd told it was clear that whatever memory modifications his father had done had probably gone horribly wrong and Snape now hated all of the Marauders. He knew that if Snape saw Padfoot alive not only would he report it to his master, but he'd also try to kill Padfoot. Key word being try, Aether graduates weren't easy to kill, and someone who'd only attended Hogwarts would find that out immediately. Just before he was trampled by the angry Aether alumni ready to kill whoever had tried to harm one of their own. There was a difference, an Aether alumnus could kill another alumnus, but a non-Aether alumnus would die if they tried to kill an Aether graduate. Alumni didn't kill each other that often though, it only ever happened when there was a serious breach of conduct. Dante after posting his letter through the Mailing tower headed back to his rooms to study for his Transmutation test tomorrow. He'd deal with Snape himself if it came down to it, but he hoped he wouldn't have to. He also hoped there was some sort of plan that included restoring Snape's memories. Then again Moony often had a back up plan for his back up plans lettered from A1-Z20. Now he just hoped he'd pass that horrible Transmutation test coming up tomorrow. Seriously who came up with tests? Some sort of expert torturer looking for a new way to break the minds of his prisoners?