Nope, still don't own.
So this chapter makes over 100,000 words and near 7,000 views, it's all a little overwhelming, you're all awesome.
To my reviewer talking about the Draco/Ron switch, I promise there is more to it than throwing a stake in the works housewise, and the fact I never loved Ron.
Dark Serpent Cat, I'm confused where you got the question of Harry's grandmother from, but I'll clarify that she is still Lily's muggle mother, no mystery there. Except how Voldie got in there to begin with *evil laughter*.
On we go!
-YDHP-
Peering around and finding an empty hallway, Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out of his bag and pulled it on. Hidden, he continued following Ginny. The same shudder he had felt before hit him, realising Ginny was going in to the 'haunted' girls bathroom. It would be too obvious to actually go in after her, he may be invisible but the door would still open. Pressing himself against the door, he heard nothing for a moment. Then running water, and he tried to tell himself Ginny was just going to the bathroom and he was being super creepy. Until he heard wailing, loud sobs and "this is MY bathroom!" which he presumed was the ghost said to haunt the bathroom. Trying to convince himself nothing was happening, Harry went to step away but the sound of grating metal caught his ear. Straining his ears, he didn't hear anything else but footsteps. If Ginny tried to leave, she would walk right into him.
Hurrying to step backwards, the floor splashed beneath him and Harry looked down to see there was water coming from under the door. He could go in with that excuse, or leave it for someone else to find, maybe a teacher to figure out what was going on with Ginny. Before he could make a decision, he turned to find Vlad and Hermione stood looking at the wet floor. "This could be trouble, reckon Harry is nearby?" Vlad seemed to look around more intently before looking right at Harry. No, he was looking at the door the water was coming from, Harry was invisible. Pulling off the cloak and amusing himself with their looks of surprise, Harry shrugged. "Am I really so predictable?" "You know you are. Quick, hide that and move, there's people coming." Not questioning it, Harry ducked along a side corridor and his two friends followed him. "What are you two looking for me for anyway?"
"We saw you weren't at dinner but Lockhart was. So, knowing you like we do, we figured you may be in trouble." "Charming. I was on my way down when I saw Ginny go into that bathroom, I was just about to decide on following her in when you two showed up." Twin looks of understanding crossed their faces, and they kept moving rather than get caught hanging around the flooding bathroom. Harry did catch "why won't this door open?" but they kept going, heading down and down to the kitchens for food since he had missed dinner. "Did you feel it?" "The bathroom? Yeah. Pretty sure I heard the ghost in there tell Ginny it was her bathroom though." The elves were more than happy to let the trio sit down, ply them with a ridiculous amount of food and fall over themselves to help "the friendly little masters" before going back to whatever they were already doing. Vlad and Hermione sat eating leftover treacle tart and drinking juice while Harry enjoyed a big plate of steak pie.
"That's Moaning Myrtle, she doesn't haunt by halves. Nobody uses that bathroom, it's impossible to go with her crying and floating right in front of you." That did sound unpleasant, Harry supposed it was good no male ghosts haunted their bathrooms. Finishing his pie and starting on some strawberry ice cream, Vlad seemed to realise they hadn't asked if he had found anything out. "Obviously you didn't follow her, did you hear anything?" "Just Myrtle, and water but that didn't surprise me when I stepped in a puddle. And I think I heard her move something around, kind of metal. No clue, could be rusty hinges or a dodgy pipe." They made to leave, but not before one elf tugged Vlad's trouser leg until he bent down so they could put a bunch of cakes and sweets in his bag. "I think we visit them too often if they know Vlad's bag is magically expanded." The two boys chuckled at Hermione's words, and they hurried to move up to the tower before they missed curfew.
Waving Hermione up to her dorm until the morning, they headed up to their own dorm and Vlad got a face full of furry familiar. "Think she missed you?" "Mmmbe" Vlad was muffled by Phantoms fur, trying to dislodge her from his face. "Yes, I missed you too!" That seemed to placate the critter, and she finally let Vlad relocate her to his shoulder so he could see to put his bag down. "You wouldn't know it was a school feast tomorrow. I think the elves are feeding us up to use as Christmas Turkey substitutes." Draco looked on in amusement as Vlad 'unloaded' the junk food, but he took a cake and some chocolate cauldrons all the same. "Who cares? It's cake!" Seamus indulged himself again, and Harry wondered how the boy wasn't overweight with how much he ate. "Careful Seamus, Vlad might have poisoned it with his secret Slytherin evilness." Draco's tone was light but his eyes hardened - Seamus had accused all three of them of being evil.
The Irish boy shrunk a little under the collective gazes of his dorm mates, but gamely swallowed his mouthful of cake and stood up. "I overreacted, and I'm sorry. Friends?" Vlad looked a little wary, but he took the outstretched hand. "Friends. Now I have to go wash my hands, thanks Seamus." Looking down, he saw Vlad had icing transferred to his hand from the shake. Which Phantom decided looked delicious and scooted down Vlad's arm to lick his palm. "Phantom, you aren't helping, I still have to wash that." Neville shook Phantoms light up ball at her, an effective distraction that allowed Vlad to escape to the bathroom, taking his nightwear with him and Harry heard the shower start as the door closed. "You too guys. It was just freaky seeing you talk to the snake, but none of us are dead and Vlad still helped with our homework. And brings food. I don't really think you're secretly evil." Draco declined the handshake, as Seamus was still sticky and Harry moved to check on Lily, effectively hiding his face falling at the reminder of his new found heritage.
Seamus apologising was a surprise, but a welcome one. Vlad only hoped it didn't spark Harry worrying about Voldemort being his grandfather again. They were going to start trying to train his powers soon, seeing if he could access deep hidden magic in his genes. Climbing into his pyjamas, Vlad headed to his bed and picked up the Herbology book he needed to study to keep up on the Mandrakes work. "How come you get to avoid elbow deep in compost and fertiliser Vlad?" "Would you rather do extra potions work and try to file professor Sprouts work? The woman has no sense of organisation unless its packets of seeds I swear. I didn't know I was going to accidentally show off, but apparently if I do well enough with this project it'll get Gryffindor 50 points." That appeased his friends, letting Vlad get back to his homework while the others worked on the sweets pile and tried to stop Phantom stealing the licorice wands (supposedly saved for tomorrow's feast, it paid to be friends with the secret team behind the scenes at school it seemed).
Halloween was an unremarkable day, unless you counted Lockhart talking about how many people wanted to dress up as him. Which Vlad didn't count. He did count the elves popping up a huge pile of extra treats to their dormitory (including extra mice for Lily and Phantom), and Phantom appeared on the head table with a pumpkin charm on her collar and a squeaky bat in her mouth, which Vlad would bet came from the headmaster, who was fond of indulging the little terror. Mostly, he had a general sense of unease about the day, but he tried to convince himself it was just the people dressed as vampires again (Bertrand had gotten multiple compliments for his ultra-realistic fangs - Vlad knew all the man had done was wear all black).
Harry and Hermione noticed his mild distress, joining him sat at the and of their house table and even following when he left early, stomach too unsettled to eat properly. "What's wrong Vlad?" "I don't know, I just feel really out of sorts. Not a huge fan of Halloween I guess." "Me either." Vlad felt guilty on top of everything else then, remembering what Halloween meant to Harry. "Sorry Harry." "Don't worry about it mate." Vlad clamped down on the urge to shudder at that word, Bertrand was still encouraging him to accept the bond but Vlad refused. Which may go some way to explaining why he felt so antsy. Pushing the thoughts away, as he was still certain it was impossible, Vlad did notice Harry looking around in confusion. "What is it Harry?" "Did you hear that?" Hermione looked blankly confused, shaking her head. Straining his ears, Vlad couldn't hear anything. Trying his 'extra' senses, he could feel the sense of darkness he and Bertrand had felt before.
He was about to say so, but then Harry was running up the stairs, hallways deserted as he and Hermione chased after him. Vlad could smell blood as Harry slowed, not very strongly so it wasn't human. "Whoa." "Is that the caretakers evil cat?" Looking at Harry in surprise, Vlad poked his arm and pointed. "Never mind the cat, look at that!" Daubed on the wall, foot high letters spelled out
"THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE".
And they were written in blood, explaining the smell. "What do we do?" Looking down, Vlad saw the floor was wet, but at the edge of the puddling was a trail of spiders. "Wait. Nimmy!" The elf appeared, squeaky voiced and helpful. "Yes mister Vladimir?" Digging a piece of parchment and a quill from his bag, Vlad scrawled out "Second floor. Follow the water. We were never here." and handed it to the elf. "Give that to Bertrand, quickly." "Immediately!" Nimmy vanished, and Vlad pulled the other two Gryffindor students into a nearby classroom and pushed the door closed. "What was that?" "Getting teachers without getting caught there?" Harry nodded in acceptance, and they squatted down out of sight. "What did Harry hear?" "Later, I hear people coming." They all hushed, listening at the door and he recognised Bertrand and Snape talking. "Chamber of Secrets?" "I will explain later. We need to get Albus now." "On it." Vlad heard Bertrand flit away, cutting out the trip there in time.
"Snape and Bertrand?" "They both love books and hate children, kindred spirits. And both love handing out homework." Vlad groused to cover up any emerging suspicions, whatever was going on was only their business. He mimed to be quiet again, and they all fell silent as footsteps approached. He picked out the voices of McGonogall and Dumbledore, though he couldn't make out the words at first. "How did you find this?" "It's blood, how would I not find it?" Practically hearing the cogs in Hermione's mind turning, Vlad turned to cover her mouth and hissed "later". "So it's fresh, recent?" "Very, it's not even dry. And that cat isn't dead." "What are we to make of it headmaster?" There was what he thought was the sound of the cat being removed from the torch holder she had been hung on, and then the headmasters grave voice saying "Mr du Fortunesa is correct, she has been petrified." Cogs turning in his mind now, Vlad remembered that mandrakes were needed to reverse such things. Which was awfully convenient.
"Anything else to add? I don't know how easy scents are to distinguish amongst so many." "The blood is too overpowering, it's too hard to pick anything specific out over it. Apologies headmaster." Vlad knew Bertrand was lying, resolving to quiz his tutor later. "Not at all, perfectly understandable. Best be on your way gentlemen, the students will undoubtedly work out our absence is meaningful and follow soon. The excellent feast can only befuddle them for so long." "Indeed. Good night headmaster." He heard Bertrand flit off, presumably to his own quarters. The students did indeed turn up, trapping them in the side classroom silently for another half an hour before it was safe to stand up. Stretching out stiff legs, Vlad leant against a desk. "What did you hear Harry?" "A voice. It kept saying 'come to me' over and over. What does it mean?" "No idea. I didn't hear a thing. Did you Vlad?" Vlad shook his head, rubbing the side of his neck anxiously. He didn't want to worry Harry further by saying he had felt something dark. Knowing Hermione was going to ask about Bertrand, Vlad almost fell over in shock when she asked "Vlad, are you a vampire?"
-YDHP-
I spent about four hours staring at a blank document trying to write this, watched some Young Dracula and finally found my inspiration again. So here is the fruits of my mental labour?