Chapter 4

Summer After 5th Year

Over the years on board the ship, Severus had changed. Since he no longer needed to hide when the sun was up, he had developed a tan. It was as if he was no longer a vampire.

Some part of Severus felt like a coward for having run when people were fighting. Even though he had not wanted to join the war, he knew what he had done for the Death Eater children, and the others helped him through any crisis of conscience he had.

Also, he had wanted nothing to do with Dumbledore or his organization,

because the old wizard was

manipulative and the group followed him blindly.

He did not want to be a Death Eater, his only other option, because Voldemort was a murdering, half-blood bastard.

That was not what Severus was, even with his vampire problem, because he did not commit murder, unless he absolutely had no other choice.

Many people assume Vampires are blood-sucking monsters, however, in many cases that is very far from the truth. They need to drink blood to survive, unless they had Snape's potions, but that did not mean they killed.

Vampires usually find mates before settling down, but, if they do not, then they need to drink from people, using their hypnosis. The person does not die because the vampire stops when they are full, so no one is seriously hurt.

There are good vampires, like Severus, but, unfortunately there are also evil vampires, just like there are good and evil humans. However, the Ministry had declared Vampires dark, as well as Werewolves, and other creatures. The prejudiced purebloods that ran the Ministry made the regulations, thinking of them as half-breeds, scum or dangerous beasts.

They were not considered beings, but creature, a lower, very insulting classification.

However, it was mostly all forgotten when Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, as a baby. Most people were happy to put out of their minds, anything concerning Vampires or Werewolves.

Dolores Umbridge, undersecretary to the Minister, was extremely angry as the new attitude put her hard work to waste.

She had been annoyed, as she had been so close to getting all the half-breeds executed. So, what did that brat, Harry Potter, do? Defeat the Dark Lord. Then, Crouch was out and Fudge was the was the new Minister. It meant that she had to start from scratch in convincing Cornelius Fudge to her side.

For twenty years, the toad-like woman had campaigned for the death penalty for all dark creatures, but the best she gained was disenfranchising the werewolves. The vampires would disappear before they could be caught. They couldn't hold jobs, except in the muggle world, and that would often backfire on them.

Finally, she thought her time had come when after Harry's fourth year, he had claimed that Voldemort was back. Just before Harry was supposed to go back to Hogwarts, Umbridge had tried to kill him off, with Dementors, but he successfully fought them off.

She would have settled for his being expelled, but it did not work out for her. Not only did the boy not get expelled, thanks to that interferring headmaster, he was allowed to return to school. He did not even get suspended. Again, her work was for nothing.

She did not care if Voldemort was back she wanted her revenge for her all work being put to waste. She had spent her life in the ministry convincing them that half-breeds should be executed.

Her chance came when, after Harry was acquitted at his trial, Fudge wanted someone inside Hogwarts, she got him to appoint her to the position.

She got satisfaction in giving Harry detentions, trying to make him react in pain to her blood quill, but he had refused to give her the satisfaction. He never once showed he was in pain and that annoyed the witch to no end.

At the end of the year, she caught the boy using her floo, after she had banned all floo use, so she threatened the boy with veritaserum to find out about Dumbledore's secret weapon. When that did not work, she threatened to use the cruciatus curse.

At that point, Hermione opened her mouth and told Umbridge that she could show her the weapon in the Forbidden Forest.

Umbridge knew that if she could find Dumbledore's weapon, Cornelius would do anything for her. Jumping at the chance, she demanded that Harry and Hermione to take her to it.

Uneasily, the toad followed the teen into the Forbidden Forest and she freaked when they were confronted by centaurs. The two teenagers left the DADA professor with the "half-breeds" she feared.

Later, she was then taken to St. Mungo's.

Harry was sent back to the Dursley's for the summer. A few weeks after he arrived at Privet Drive, he received an owl from Professor Dumbledore, telling him his Godfather was alive, as they had managed to get him from behind the veil. Then, Dumbledore let the happy teen know that he was to stay inside his family's wards stopping him from going to Grimmauld Place. He was also told not to write to anyone, and

that Dumbledore told his friends not to write him.

Harry had been so annoyed when he had read this, that his hatred for Dumbledore grew to enormous proportions.

First, he dumps him at the Dursley's, where he was safe from Death Eaters, but not from his relatives who abused him.

Second, he knew he was nothing more then a pawn in the old man's war.

Third, he knew that Dumbells, his new nickname for his unfeeling headmaster, had thought if he rescued Harry from his horrible family that the young man would be forever in his debt.

He knew why Dumbbells was making him stay all summer; he either wanted Harry to beg to get out, or to make sure his weapon was thankful when they did get him out. He knew that Remus was bound to have told Dumbells about the cat flap and Tonks the state of his room.

Of course, he soon began realising, they had told Dumbells and the Headmaster had given them a cock and bull story. They, of course, believed it and backed off, never bringing it up again.

It was thought that Harry would never question anything the old conniver said.
Harry was far from that person, wondering what they wanted in return.

He soon found out; a hero to die for them.

The thought that his friends were once again living in Grimmauld Place with his Godfather tore him up inside. How could they? They knew how much he would give just to have a family of his own. His friends were spending more time with his own Godfather than himself. And Ron wrote about how great Sirius was to be with.

Harry,

Hey, it's great here in Grimmauld place. Dumbledore told us we are allowed to write one letter to you, so Hedwig will be bringing this. Sirius is so cool and I'm having a great time with him. He is telling me stories about his and your father's time at Hogwarts! Your dad rocks! So does your Godfather! And Moony! He pranks the Slytherins! He showed them, he is even going to show me how to spell their robes gold! This is awesome. Sirius led one of the Slytherins to the womping willow nearly got them eaten by Moony, pity it didn't work.

Sirius is even letting me use your dad's school broom! Apparently, he was able to get some stuff from the Potter vaults! In addition, he is even giving it to me to keep! I have a better broom, but I've decided to keep it, it's really nice. Sirius even got me a broomstick servicing kit! Now I can look after my brooms.

Anyway, I have to go; Sirius is going to show me some new cool moves he learned. I'm glad he doesn't miss you, or I would not be having fun, he was all sulky last year. Anyway, he is much better than Fred and George.

Ron

Harry stood there, tears coursing down his face, his heart felt as though it had been torn into millions of different pieces, so that even the best puzzle solver would not have been able to put it back together.

Harry could not stay cooped up in the room any longer, so he ran and ran until he could run no more. Being beaten and bruised did not help him any, even though some of them were in the process of healing, while others were new.

When he stopped, he found himself at the seaside, and, even though it was quite a bit away from Privet Drive, it was still warded against Death Eaters. He had never been there, the seaside, as he was watched too closely by his relatives. Their feelings were that allowing him there would make him happy, and Harry was never allowed to be happy.

It was beautiful, was all Harry could think, as he sat down and took his shoes off letting the feeling of sand run through his toes, as he tried calm himself down.

It did not work very well as he was still crying, unable to believe his godfather had given his best friend something of his father's, the father he never knew. The father he had gotten nothing from, except for his invisibility cloak.

Sobbing silently, he wondered what everyone would think of him, if they knew at school, that his godfather had given his friend his father's broom. He knew he would find out, because Ron would tell them all. After all, Ron was that kind of person. Bitter tears continued to run as Harry hid his face extremely angry with his godfather.

"Why are you crying?"