AN:
English is not my native language, that's why some Beta readers are helping me: Hodgeheg, Twilight684
REMEMBER, if you want a PREVIEW of the NEXT CHAPTER before I upload it, write a review and I will send it to you. Remember, the review must be signed so that I can answer your review.
I focused on my mission that night and I used the shadows to get to Cardiff. The room in which Lucian, pretending to be me, had agreed that I would meet them was in a place in the center at Westgate Street. The owner was a vampire who used to say it was neutral, so it's the best place to meet with the representatives of the two clans, although it is very likely that the meeting will end very...violently.
As I walked in the private room I realized that they were angry. Firstly, because I have requested to meet with the representatives of the two clans at the same time. If I met them at the same time I would have an advantage over them and they would not be able to dissuade me as they desired. And secondly, because I was late-much later than it can even be considered polite and they weren't very patient, and I wasn't going to apologize.
There were four-two from each clan. One was Stephen Harris, one of the newcomers of Mithras. He was a Ventrue, of course. He was accompanied by what was obviously a brainless bodyguard Brujah-I knew it because of his clothing; he was wearing leather clothes with studs. Across the table, sitting on it, there was a young Lasombra, centuries older than me but younger in blood matters. He also brought a bodyguard, this was a Tzimisce; his disfigured face full of piercings left little doubt about which was his clan of origin.
"Good evening, gentlemen," I greeted them seriously while I occupied the chair at the head of the table. They had left it free for me to have a false sense of security and so I thought that I would be the one who would make the decisions. Unfortunately for them...that was what I was planning to do. "I have assembled with you at the same time because in this way I will not waste my time discussing something that has no solution. You can tell your respective masters that I'm not going to join any of them."
"It's not so easy, young man," Harris objected. "This world in which you have just entered isn't as easy as your sire had told you. You have to choose sides."
"He hasn't given you a proper education. The best thing you can do is join Mr. Moncada so that he can teach you the art of our clan," the young Lasombra pointed.
"It is you who doesn't understand. I'll not discuss anything with you. I'll not join anyone. I'll respect the basic rules, those common to both sides, for the very simple reason that they are useful for my purposes...but I'll not do anything else. I'll not be Mithras's nor Moncada's puppet. I'll do what I please and nothing else."
"Stupid brat!" the Brujah shouted and banged on the table, breaking it in two pieces "That's no way to talk to your elders."
"Relax, Giscard!" Harris protested.
"Don't worry, Mr. Harris." I got up. "Besides, I was already leaving." I turned toward the Lasombra. "If I may, I have something to tell you. Tell Monçada Lara sends you her greetings, and she already has the piece that you requested." I turned my back and left.
As I left the pub I thought that it had been too easy. Obviously the trap hadn't allowed them to react, but I had expected a little more resistance, some more attempts to convince me of joining them. I heard the pounding of a hammer against a bullet a few feet behind me and I immediately bent down. I watched, smiling as the bullet passed through where my head had been just seconds before. I already knew that it had been very easy. They had decided that aggressive negotiations would be more effective.
An arrow was thrown towards my heart but I moved quickly to the right, still smiling, and I confronted my attackers with confidence. Isabel had taught me that I should take advantage of the coldest part of a vampire, forgetting that I had a heart. Harris and the Lasombra were the only ones attacking me. Probably the Brujah and the Tzimisce were busy fighting somewhere else trying to decide who was the one who would take my body at the end of the battle.
Harris shot at me with his gun again, but my feet moved quickly to get closer to him and to snatch his gun. I didn't need too much time, I only needed 10 seconds. The gun flew out of his hand as soon as my right foot kicked him hard in his wrist, breaking it. I hit his chest with my shoulder and I heard how his sternum broke. I pulled out the dagger that I hid in a holster strapped to my ankle and I sliced his neck easily.
I looked cautiously for the Lasombra. Surely he was hiding in a dark place, hoping that Luc had been negligent in my education about the use of the shadows. Suddenly some tentacles emerged from a garbage can to attack me…but unfortunately for him my sire can be accused of many things but he can never be accused of being negligent in something, much less in teaching his only pupil to master what is rightfully his.
I intercepted his tentacles with some others that I have concocted that were obviously more powerful. I found him in a corner and I could see that he was carrying two crossbows. He was surprised to see me because he thought that I was being immobilized by his tentacles of shadows.
I quickly traced an arc in the air with my knife and I left his throat exposed with a single slash. None of them were totally dead. They would only die if their bodyguards took longer than necessary to finish their fight or if they finished the fight with enough thirst to drink from them...but that was not my problem.
I stepped into a dark alley and with a wave of my hand I caused the few lights that were there to shut down. I entered the shadows to return to my chamber to change my clothes. When I got to my chamber Lucian wasn't there, so I undressed and got into the pond. I located him in Gryffindor's common room, playing wizard chess with Ron. He smiled when he felt me, but he continued his conversation.
"You were telling me that Draco was a capricious and spoiled boy, how is he now?"
"More or less the same." Weasley shrugged. "You've already seen what he did before-he only knows how to use curses... Anyway, lately he is behaving very strangely. I guess that the accident had something to do with that. He used to go everywhere with his friends from Slytherin, Crabbe and Goyle-they seemed to be his bodyguards..." He smiled. "The truth is that he needed them because he was a real coward. Now it almost seems that he has become a recluse, except when he spends his time with Hermione of course."
"They seem very close," Lucian said.
"Yes, it seems that they are," Ronald repeated, frowning. "Both have changed a lot this year..." he sighed resignedly. "She seems happy with him, that's why I don't want to say anything to her. I usually try not to stand in what she wants."
"Yet you love her more than how she appreciates you."
Direct as always.
"I know...but I understand that she doesn't love me in that way... What happens is that it twists my guts to know that she is with him," he protested. His bishop destroyed one of the pawns and got dangerously close to Luc's king.
"But you just said that he makes her happy... I don't understand." My mentor looked confused while he eliminated the bishop with his tower.
"Before he treated her like trash just because her parents were not wizards. The Malfoys are elitists who think they are superior to others because in their family tree there are no muggles. They consider those who have some muggle ancestor inferior to them. Hermione doesn't have any wizard relative in her family. She found out that she was a witch when she received her Hogwarts's letter. For years Malfoy has insulted her and he treated her as if she were scum." He looked confused at my mentor, "Now he treats her like a queen, he looks at her as if she is the only woman in the world, he has given her a very expensive necklace and…well, you just have to look at her face when she gets down every morning to know that they make love every night." He shivered and moved a knight without focusing completely on the chessboard.
"My sister says that he doesn't have scars on his body," he muttered. "I think that the dragon brainwashed him with fire because I assure you that Malfoy is very different from how he was before."
"At least he has changed for good, right?" Luc said.
"Yes, yes...but I'm worried. What happens if the change is temporary? I don't know... What happens if he suddenly remembers how he was before the accident and he starts treating her badly again?" He looked worried. "I think Hermione would take it badly."
So that is why he hadn't protested, because he saw that she was happy with me. I guess now I understand his reaction better...but that doesn't mean that I'm going to befriend him-he is still in love with my girlfriend. He relates my change of attitude to the accident but I guess more than one will do the same since no one could explain the change otherwise, and it makes me smile to know that he is upset because Hermione is happy with me-especially in the mornings.
Ginevra and Potter approached them and sat near the two players.
"Who's winning?" Ginerva asked, amused.
"I'm afraid, Mademoiselle, that we are matched" Luc replied smiling.
"Really?" Potter approached and examined the chessboard. "Are you losing faculties, Ron?"
"No, we just were a little bit distracted," my mentor explained. "I guess we can leave it like this, Mr. Weasley."
"Yes. If you don't mind, I'm going to sleep. Good night," he said before getting up and leaving the room.
"Something's wrong with him. I'll go and talk to him." Potter kissed Ginerva as a goodbye. "Goodnight, Ginny. Lord Deveraux."
"Good night. I think I'll stay here a while with this funny invention," Lucian said while rearranging the distribution of the pieces, but the pieces started to move alone, it seemed that everyone of them had an assigned place. "You aren't going to your bedroom, Miss Weasley?" He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You must be very tired after all that exercise." He was not referring precisely to Quidditch practice.
"Can I talk with you, Lord Deveraux?"
"Of course." Lucian gave her a charming smile and leaned back on the sofa with elegance, paying her full attention. "Sit with me and please, call me Luc."
"Okay, Luc." She obeyed and sat next to him. "What's wrong with Draco? Since the course started he is different, and something tells me that it's not only because of the accident. And I don't believe that, with or without magic, doctors would have been able to erase all the scars that he would have to have after almost dying under the blaze of a dragon."
"You're a smart girl, right?" he said.
She just smiled.
"I suppose you've noticed something else and you may even have your own suspicions... Why don't you tell me which are your suspicions? I will simply tell you if you're right. That way I will not be breaking his trust."
And he wasn't breaking any promises, bloody elusive vampire.
"Well, the theory is a bit odd and I'm not quite sure of it... He doesn't eat anything since the course started, he has a slight intolerance to sunlight, he has left the Quidditch team... Also I noticed that he has a great concern for Hermione's diet. I thought it was strange that he insisted so much on certain foods, so one day, I asked the school nurse what would someone achieved eating a diet rich in them...and she asked me if I knew someone who had anemia. But I began to believe in this stupid hypothesis when one day, I realized that Draco wasn't reflected in the windows of the common room. Nothing important at first, but it caught my attention."
She looked at Lucian.
"It turns out that they were on the same couch, and she was on his lap. I could see Hermione in the glass, but I couldn't see him... It was as if she was hanging in the air." She looked towards the window and she probably saw a very similar scene to the one she was describing. My sire also has no reflection, Isabel does, but we don't. I cursed myself for being so careless, but then I remembered that Luc had made the same mistake... No, my damn tutor had it all planned. He had realized Ginerva's doubts and he decided to give her all the clues she needed to discover me. "You have no reflection..." she whimpered worriedly and then looked into his twinkling blue eyes, those eyes that couldn't be associated with a vampire…at least not with the ones of the movies, books or even the ones of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes.
"Tell me your hypothesis, Ginerva... I'm looking forward to answering your questions freely," he urged her with his velvety voice.
"But you eat, and today you have been peacefully under the sunlight..." she moved a few inches away from him.
"Please, I just need you to ask me the question..." he urged her again.
"He's not a vampire, right?" she asked in a whisper.
"Do you think there would be a big inconvenience if he really is one?" he asked her in a sweet tone; he was dazzling her...as I had done at the beginning with Harry.
"Well... He... Does that mean that he is feeding from Hermione?" she asked, scared.
"No, what happens is that the bites can be very pleasurable for both parties...and sometimes you cannot contain yourself." Lucian reduced the distance between them to approach her neck. "I think you can get an idea..." He lightly kissed the love bite that Harry had made on her shoulder. "Just multiply the pleasure several times and maybe you can get to imagine it." He looked into her eyes, hypnotizing her with his words... "Do you want to know what your friend feels when he bites her?" he whispered, lust loading each word.
"Yes..." Geneva gasped.
"But I can't... I promised your headmaster that I would not bite anyone..." His lips were almost on hers, tempting her to say the words that would allow him to bite her without breaking the promise he had made to Dumbledore.
"Please..." the poor Geneva begged, totally defenseless against Lucian.
"Okay, but just this once and you can't say anything to your boyfriend... You can't tell anyone." Of course, she wouldn't say anything.
Lucian kissed her gently and then approached her neck. He stroked it with his tongue first, eliciting a groan from the little redhead and then he bit her freckled skin, leaving Ginerva totally breathless and surprised in his arms. They were the perfect image of a succubus and his innocent victim. When his lips moved away from her neck there was no trace of the bite in it. He licked his lips greedily and glanced at one of the shadows. It was a clear indication for me to leave him with his prey, which was still concentrated with her eyes closed. I knew he wouldn't harm her so I decided to look for Hermione. She was in her bedroom with Isabel, sitting on her bed and looking anxiously towards the closet.
"Do you think he will take long?" she asked.
"Like I said five minutes ago, I don't know. Nor do I know if they will try to attack or kidnap him or even torture him," Isabel answered wearily.
"You should have gone with him... He should not be alone." She closed her book.
"He had to convince them that he knows how to fend for himself and that he is capable of doing his own decisions, Hermione. If Lucian had gone with him, they would think that he is still his marionette and if I had gone with him you would have been unprotected..."
"But I'm not important, he is!" she protested.
"I think you still don't realize how important you are to him," she said smiling, sitting down beside Hermione. "Listen. I have been observing you two these past days. He's crazy about you. The discussion you had earlier affected him... I guess he hadn't realized how much he cares about what you think until then..."
"Just great! Now if they manage to hurt him it will be my fault because I distracted him with my nonsenses before he left..." she hugged her book to her chest nervously.
"Calm down. I was his teacher. They will not hurt him," Isa smiled when she saw how worried she was about someone as invulnerable as I. "Listen, every time he looks at you without you knowing it, his eyes exude concern and affection. When he moves while you are around him, it seems that he is dancing for you..."
Hermione looked at her curiously.
"His gestures become more elegant and careful; he adapts each of his steps to suit yours. He focuses on breathing at the same pace as you do and you can be sure that if his heart could, it would beat in unison with yours. He doesn't realize this, but anyone with two eyes can see it in his face."
"I think you're exaggerating a bit..." Hermione said hesitantly. She seemed to protest just because she wanted to.
"No. Lucian has also noticed all those things. He even tried to make you understand how important you are to him."
"Lucian doesn't like me, right?" she asked shyly, blushing as usual.
"Yes, dear...he likes you. I guess he can't help being a little rough sometimes. You have to understand that he was a warlord during the Middle Ages... At that time they weren't very considerate." Isabel smiled, amused.
"But he can't help worrying about what that love might mean for Draco... What he told you before he left is true. He will not grow old-he will be seventeen forever... What do you want him to do when you're twenty, thirty, forty? You can't walk down the street in love with a boy of seventeen! If you drink his blood to prevent aging, you'd still be human, maybe a little stronger and with some advantages, but mortal after all. Besides, you wouldn't be completely yourself...you would be something similar to a slave because you would feel the urge to satisfy all his wishes."
"He can turn me into what he is," she murmured softly.
I straightened up when I heard her say that. Does she really think that is the best option? She is crazy, she can't be thinking on becoming a monster like me...
"No, he can't," Isa said. "He loves you too much to do that to you."
"But he is doing very well, and you and Luc have normal lives…"
Isa didn't allow her to finish the sentence.
"No, Hermione. Don't ask him to turn you. The life of a vampire is condemned by the Beast... You would stop being yourself even more radically than if you become his ghoul. What you see of us is only a facade. Maybe Draco is the most human of the three of us, but he still needed a lot of time to adapt himself to his new situation."
"But if he has only a few months as a vampire…"
"Hermione, you have to know..."
No Isa, don't tell her.
"Draco has been studying and learning for over twenty years. One of Lucian's friends can control time. Luc gathered all of us so that we could instruct his cub. Tony took us twenty years back in time so that we had enough time to train him properly, to teach him everything he needed to survive a year here and to make sure that he could be able to face anyone that could try to get him once everyone learned that Lucian had turned someone..."
"Twenty years?" Hermione said breathlessly. "So... Draco is already...thirty-seven?"
"Yes. Lucian is almost twice my age and I'm over six hundred years old, Hermione... I told you, we don't age and we are immortal."
"But...I don't understand. What can a man of thirty-seven years find in me? So...it can't be true, everything you have told me... He can't love me." She stood up and walked to the closet.
"Hermione, Tony fell in love with his wife when she was nine."
Hermione stopped and looked at her with a frown.
"It may not be the best example, but he's the only vampire I know who is really in love with someone," Isa sighed. "Spending twenty years together has allowed us to know a little more about each other. Tony is a pederast, he is not a good person, he is not even close to being a person of how disgusting his life can be... Anyway, one day he told me how he had met Julia. He was walking in Venice when he saw her running after an urchin who had stolen the baked apple she was eating. He says he fell in love with her as soon as he saw how she threw herself over the animal and fought to regain her apple. He followed her to her house and as soon as he could he spoke with her uncle, he bought her and he educated her in the way he wanted." Hermione's horrified gaze made her add, "At that time such arrangements were usual. You have to remember that this happened many centuries ago and that the society was very different."
"So... I don't understand. Are you telling me that Draco is like this Tony?" Hermione sat down on the bed.
"No. I mean that it's inevitable for Draco to be with someone younger than him. He will always be older than those around him. He doesn't see your age, he only sees you and everything you mean to him. And, no offense, but you're much more mature than any girl of your age. You just have to hear how the redhead speaks." Isa rolled her eyes. "Hermione, don't think about Draco's age-forget about it..."
"You can't make me forget that my boyfriend is twenty years older than me, Isa." She looked angry.
"But if in that time the poor boy did nothing but study like hell? For twenty years he has been surrounded by older vampires who has taught him how to survive and more... I believe that in twenty years he went partying only once and that's because that year he had many classes with Tony."
Hermione's eyes widened.
"Calm down. Oddly enough, Draco has a kind of a calming effect on Tony... He behaves better when Draco is around him. I think it's because he was also a magician and because he feels a little identified with Draco."
Well, the closet door is still closed, so I can enter Hermione's room. Although I don't know how she will receive me now that she knows my little secret. She said goodbye to a young seventeen year old vampire and now is going to meet a vampire of thirty-seven years. She will not mind that I'm exactly the same as before; now she knows my age, she knows that what I told her is absolutely true. All the time that I'm with her is time stolen from my long life as a vampire. Thanks Isa for complicating my life.
I left the pond and got dressed, and when I went to grab a clean shirt from the drawer I found the jewels that the other day I had set aside in favor of the ruby. I figured that I would be better received if I gave her a gift. I took the emerald necklace and I put it in my pocket. As soon as I entered the shadows I knew it was a mistake, as it had been a mistake to give her the first one. What seventeen year old boy gives her girlfriend jewelry worth over fifty thousand pounds? What surprises me is that nobody has noticed yet. However, I have to act as if I knew nothing of the conversation that they have had, because then not only my girlfriend will be angry...but also the Assamite, and I don't know which I fear most-the smart witch or the most efficient assassin.
"I'm back!" I entered the room smiling. The two looked at me from the bed with a confused expression. "Problem solved."
"What happened?" Isabel asked immediately. "You've changed clothes." She really chose that day to get me in trouble with her words.
"I decided to change before returning, nothing else." My tone of voice made it clear that I would not discuss anything at that moment.
"They gave you problems. I thought so." She got up and went to the door. "I think I'm going to hunt something now that you're here. Good night, Hermione."
"Good night, Isa."
"Where is the worried girlfriend I left?" I asked with a smile "Have you seen her around?" I joked. "She is supposed to kiss me for coming back so soon."
"Stop joking," she told me seriously.
"Okay, so I guess I won't be giving her the gift that I brought her… Too bad." I looked at her; she was still in bed, now hugging a pillow instead of a book. "What's wrong, Hermione?"
"When were you going to tell me that you are twenty years older than me?" she asked, straight to the point.
"I didn't think it was necessary. Nobody was supposed to know because of the tactical advantage and that stuff." I approached her. "Who cares how old I am if I will never appear that age? Luc has one thousand and eighty-three years, but I don't think he looks more than twenty five. And some men, when they approach the quarantine, begin to lie about their age."
"Draco, I don't care how old you look... What annoys me is that you lied to me." She buried her face in the pillow.
"I didn't lie, I have only omitted information that wasn't relevant," I replied.
"No, of course... my boyfriend-if I can still call you that-is thirty-seven, he is a vampire and…"
I lifted her face and I sealed her lips with a kiss.
"You can refer to me as you wish, Hermione," I whispered as I put aside the pillow in order to hug her. "And I think this conversation isn't going to lead us anywhere so we can skip it." I kissed her once again.
"How long will you be with me, Draco?" She pushed me with her hands on my chest.
"All the time you want or is convenient for you." I tried to get closer to her but I stopped when she pushed me again. I couldn't get rid of that conversation. "We will be unable to be together when my youthful appearance is too hard to explain." I sighed, "It is something that I accepted when, once I had finished the twenty years of training I returned to meet my parents... They had aged only two months, but it was noticeable to my eyes and on the outside I was the same. My body had become accustomed to the thirst and my mind was full of useful knowledge about my vampire life... It was enough to survive a year between humans, but I was still the same as when I left two days after waking up after the attack."
I sat supporting my elbows on my knees, staring at the ground. "You may not understand what I felt, but...I have almost the age of my parents and it's too complicated. It's as if my body had frozen in the moment Lucian turned me." I leaned back against the mattress. "I don't feel I have that age though… For me it has only been training and study, Hermione... I got up every night to train, I spent days reading about history, I practiced magic with Lameth, Tony and Julia, the only ones who were magicians, or something similar, before they were turned into vampires... I trained with Isa for weeks without even resting a minute. I think I rested only one night and that's because Tony couldn't stand it anymore and he forced me to take him to New York."
I smiled remembering that night. "Actually, Hermione, I still feel that I have your age... I may have a few more skills, but it's not a big deal."
"You are twice my age, Draco. Even more..." she reproached me.
"You have no problem with Isa and she's more than half a century older than you... I think we can leave the subject of years until it is really important."
"I don't make love with Isa every night."
"If that's all you're worried about, we can stop doing it. I have no problem." I shrugged as she looked at me with wide eyes. "I will not deny that it's a shame, but... I can take it if I can still be with you."
"No... I didn't mean that..." Her cheeks flushed again.
"Glad to hear it," I sat up and kissed her lips, "because I was lying." I pressed her against me with one arm while the other hand slid up her thigh under her nightgown.
"You're a dirty old man…" she laughed against my neck.
"I'm a Slytherin after all," I laughed too. (AN: I don't know if this answer makes sense, but in spanish it makes sense because it is a pun. In spanish "dirty old man" is VIEJO VERDE and since Slytherins color is green (in spanish VERDE)... It doesn't really matter, I just wanted ti clarify it)
Hi everyone! I've finally finished my exams, so now I'm going to start working again in my two fics! What do you think about this chapter? Please, write a review and let me know.
Remember, REVIEW = PREVIEW!
This is the review of one of the Betas that Edited this chapter:
Twilight684: Ok, so I love the chapter(as usual) but I just don't get what the big deal is with Hermione finding out Draco's real age. I mean really she shouldn't be all pissed off about that, and dammit if Draco doesn't end up turning Hermione into a vampire like him I'm going to be pissed : / it's obvious she wants him to turn her, and really I see no problem with it. So it will take her some time to get used to it and what not, big deal. At least she would get used to it eventually for crying out loud. *sigh* Sometimes I just want to grab Draco and strangle him.