This chapter has been updated and re-formatted with intention of improving clarity. I hope it is now a lot easier to read.

DISCLAIMER - I do not own anything taken from either Harry Potter or Darren Shan.

Chapter 2 – Childs Play.

Harry, Hagrid and Luna had gone to recce the intended subjects of what Hagrid had dubbed 'Project Vampires.' Professor McGonagall had after all insisted that they take no unnecessary risks where student's safety was concerned. As such they needed to follow the intended subjects for a few days in order to see how they reacted. Then it could be decided how the students would carry out the study. The three had been following the Vampires for several days now and had noticed one thing that would be highly important to the study. It appeared that the older vampire had a very strong protective instinct for the cub, so much so that the cub although he thought he had free reign was actually under close observation at all times. Harry and Luna needed to know how the tall Orange haired vampire would react if he perceived a threat to his cub. Although it was not their intention to rile the vampires during the study where children are concerned accidents can and do happen, so a contingency plan needed to be set in place. It was for this reason that Luna had just laid a trap for the cub. Now the three wizards looked on waiting to see just how strong the older Vampire's paternal instinct was.

Darren's POV

Darren was storming away from the Cirque in a foul mood, Mr Crepsley had been ordering him about again and Darren was fed up of it. He knew he had to follow his master's orders but why wouldn't Crepsley give him any personal space? Recently Mr Crepsley had been shadowing Darren's every movement and had forbidden him to go out in the daytime. Darren had no idea as to why Mr Crepsley had taken all his freedom away but he wasn't about to risk being punished by asking him about it. He suspected if he did ask the older vampire that the only result he would get would be a swift clip around the ear and to be told, "the only way to deal with a rebellious half vampire was a good old stake through the heart!" One thing he was sure of was that he wouldn't get told why he couldn't go out. Darren was sick of it, and he wasn't taking it anymore. He was sure he could survive without the grouchy orange haired vampire so he had left as soon as Mr Crepsley had retired to his coffin. He had no idea where he was going just he was getting away from old grumpy back in his coffin.

Darren was so caught up in himself that he missed the strange smell in the air that night as he walked through the forest. He stepped into a clearing, there was an enormous bang. Darren jumped back with a start and fell straight into a deep pit that had been dug behind him. As he fell he was bound from head to foot by steel ropes that had appeared out of thin air. He landed in the arms of a gigantic man who was covered in hair, the man grabbed him in a vice like grip and ran off into the distance with a child screaming at the top of his lungs.

Evra, Darren's best friend at the Cirque, had heard Darren's screams for help and immediately ran to wake Mr Crepsley who had just fallen asleep for the day.

"Calm down Evra and tell me what happened," Mr Crepsley said as he was roughly shaken awake

"Mr Crepsley quick, Darren stormed off into the woods in a temper and I think he has been kidnapped." Larten Crepsley jumped out of his coffin faster than the eye could see

"Damn that child, I told him to stay inside when I am not with him. Stupid stupid child, he will not sit down for a month when I get hold of him!" With that Mr Crepsley flitted out of his tent to Darren's last known location in order to start tracking the kidnapper. He would now have to follow the trail by daylight which had done nothing to improve his mood.

"Why did I have to pick an assistant that has not two brain cells to rub together" he snapped out loud even though he was alone.

Harry POV

Hagrid arrived back in camp a few minutes later with the cub vampire still screaming at the top of his voice, only he was actually only managing to shout at a normal talking volume.

"I got 'im, had to put a silencing charm on 'im to shut him up, only it didn't work so good." Hagrid stated as the cub shouted

"HELP! MR CREPSLEY HELP" again and again. Harry knew that if they stayed where they were it would be only minutes before the adult vampire found them. Luna had just sent a patronus telling him that the adult vampire was hot on Hagrid's trail despite it being daylight. They couldn't have him find the cub so easily, they needed to study how the vampire would react to the thought of his offspring in danger, and they couldn't just rely on the heat of the moment reaction they were getting right now.

"Hagrid quickly we have to leave bring the cub here and hold my hand we're going back to your hut." Harry said. Hagrid scooped up the young vampire, who by now had stopped screaming and was whimpering in terror, and grabbed Harry's arm. With a faint pop the trio disappeared into thin air and instantaneously they were hundreds of miles away in Scotland. It would take the orange haired vampire days to get here even with the speed they had observed him to possess, plenty of time for Luna to trail him and study his behaviour.

Harry sat with Hagrid in his cabin, the cub was there too but inside a magically reinforced cage in the corner of the cabin. Harry had to cast an incredibly strong charm on the cage to stop him breaking out but after a few hours the cub stopped trying to break out and sat on the cushions Hagrid had put out for him. He was now silently crying.

"Hagrid time to go and meet the class I will watch the cub, you need to introduce the project let me know when you're ready for me to bring him outside to meet the students." Harry said and Hagrid left the cabin to meet his project students and explain to them what they would be doing for the whole year. After Hagrid left he started writing down his notes as to what they had discovered so far.

Vampire children seem to exhibit far less magical resistance than the adults of their species. We have also noted that the cub drinks blood far less often than the adult and has to be coaxed to do so. As of yet we are unsure as to whether human blood is essential in their diet or whether it is a cultural preference. Regardless of this neither of the two subjects of this study have drunk enough to cause any significant harm to their victim whilst under our observation.

At this point a small voice piped up taking Harry completely by surprise. The last thing he had expected was for a vampire to be literate, let alone the cub who couldn't have been more than 12 years old, but it was quiet obvious that he was.

"I wouldn't drink it if I didn't have to, it's disgusting. I hate it!" the cub had said. Harry took this opportunity to try and ask a few questions but when he did the cub just shook his head and started crying again and Harry could only get one more thing out of the cub. That was that his clan never killed those they drunk from unless they absolutely had to.

"We are not evil" he had simply stated. Harry continued his notes but scratched off the bit about being unsure if vampires needed to drink blood.

As far as we can tell, Vampires, even as cubs, do require human blood to survive but neither of the two subjects of this study have drunk enough to cause any significant harm to their victim. We have also discovered that Vampires can move about during daylight but suffer rapid sunburn if they do. Interestingly the cub does not seem to be affected in this way. There are many differences between the adult and cub apart from being able to move about during the day and having less resistance to magic, the cub appears to have less speed than the adult. In some ways the cub is not too different from human children, our example can read the written word and speaks with a fair vocabulary. Both father and child show a strong family bond and the father is strongly drawn to protect his cub who will call for help if threatened.

Harry stopped writing here as this was basically all they had discovered. A loud snort issued from within the cage.

"What is so funny?" Harry asked the cub who was now laughing darkly.

"Mr Crepsley isn't my Dad, I hate him, he took me away from my real family and made me a monster! He doesn't care about me either. He has probably given up and found some other mug to serve him by now, oh and stop calling me cub. I'm not an animal I'm a boy, and my name is Darren." It was Harry's turn to snort now and in doing so he nearly missed the tap on the window

"He does care about you Darren that much is obvious, we have been watching you a while now. He doesn't let you leave his side and is currently franticly searching for you. If you didn't care for him you wouldn't have been screaming his name for hours on end now, would you?" Harry replied he said the last two words with his eyes fixed on the boy who was now pouting. Harry had a sudden idea, this study would be much easier if Darren co-operated and the child was not so resistant to magic that he couldn't wipe his memory before they released him. Harry raised his wand and opened the cage then he pointed his wand straight at Darren.

"Come with me Darren, if you run I will stun you and you will be straight back in that cage. Come with me now and co-operate with our study of your kind and you will not be hurt. More than that I will return you to the orange haired vampire this evening. Do we have a deal?" Harry asked.

Darren was obviously unsure of what to do. He would probably get in trouble for revealing anything about himself but despite what Darren had said he did want to go back to Mr Crepsley. Darren came to a decision quite quickly which didn't surprise Harry at all.

"Ok I'll do as you say" he said

Then he added a condition of his own

"I won't fight you, but I might not answer all of your questions."

Harry was fine with this they had kidnapped the boy after all, and he himself would be guarded with his secrets if their roles were reversed, so he simply nodded, took the boy by the hand and steered him outside to the waiting class.

Hagrid was surprised to see the vampire out of its cage and more than a little worried about the headmistress's possible reaction to this but his mind was put at rest when Harry waved his wand and erected a magical barrier around the cub. The vampire could walk wherever he liked but could not approach within five metres of any of the students. Harry's spell had it been cast on a wizard would have stopped the wizard from going within ten metres of the students.

"Ermm Hagrid where is the creature we are supposed to be studying you said Harry was bringing it but that's just a first year with Harry right?" the speaker was a female student with fiery red hair.

"Ginny that is not a first year or even a human" Hagrid was saying

Darren blanched at this as if he was offended and Hagrid continued

"That boy students is a vampire cub, he is a very rare specimen and the only cub we have ever seen. Most vampires can't move about in daylight but it appears cubs can" Hagrid was stopped mid-sentence by an angry outburst from Darren

"Look you massive overgrown hairball, stop calling me a cub! Do I look like a bear or a wolf? No I didn't think so! I am a boy not an animal so stop treating me like one" he shouted he stamped his feet, took a swipe at the barrier and was knocked down on his bum where he once again started to cry. Several of the students, mostly those in Slytherin, rolled about with laughter at this, Hagrid looked like a scolded child and Darren just cried harder.

"Shut it you lot" Harry said and shot a glare at the Slytherins.

He called Hagrid forwards and whispered in his ear.

"The boy has spoken to me and has agreed to be co-operative, he is away from all he knows and is scared. His names Darren by the way."

Hagrid instantly knew what he must do the vampire boy was now to him just another scared first year so he did what he always did in that situation and went to comfort the distraught child.

Darren was sat on his bum crying with his head in his hands. He was very upset and couldn't stop himself from crying. This embarrassed him all the more, vampires didn't cry. Those people kept talking about him like he was an animal and Darren still found the fact he wasn't completely human any more deeply distressing. A huge hand the size of a dustbin lid started patting him gently on the shoulder, Darren lifted his head, and the tears dried up, to find the gigantic hairy man he had just shouted at crouched down next to him with a look of concern on his face.

"Come on lad, I didn't mean to upset ya. Ya names Darren right, I know this is 'ard on ya but ya gonna be fine no one 'ere is gonna hurt ya. I know ya name so you should know mine, I'm Hagrid and this 'ere is Harry." Hagrid said and embraced the small boy in a bone crushing hug. What Hagrid hadn't realised is just how much of an effect this would have on Darren who was crying out for a bit of affection. Since he had "died" and left his parents care, he had received no physical affection whatsoever. Darren burst into tears again, all the harder this time, and buried his head into Hagrid's chest and it took Hagrid several minutes of gently patting him on the back before Darren finally calmed down and let go. No one was laughing now and no one saw a monster anymore just a small boy in need of some attention. Minerva McGonagall who had been watching from her office window had relaxed and felt sympathy for the caged and terrified child. This child was no threat to them that much even a fool would realise.

Whilst Hagrid was calming Darren Harry addressed his class.

"This year we are going to be studying Vampires as part of a research project and this will be your entire NEWT in this subject. We will be leaving the castle to do this as we will not be keeping Darren here against his will." He smiled at Darren "He is here simply to answer a few questions about his race so that we can ensure your safety whilst studying them. So please ask him some questions and remember each of you will be expected to write thirty feet on the species for your end of year assessment. Ginny Weasley addressed Darren first asking him two questions

"Were you born a vampire? Do you drink blood?"

Darren looked at her "No and Yes?" he said the question had been rude and abrupt and so was Darren's answer.

A Ravenclaw girl quickly said "Oh come on that's not fair. One word answers. Don't be mean we've got exams to pass."

Darren understood where she was coming from it was not that long since he had been in school himself but he was not about to reveal too much about the clan. He could however give them something to work with.

"I won't tell you everything I know, and I don't 'have' to answer any of your questions" he said. All the students looked very disappointed Darren smiled "but I will tell you some things. Don't ask me for anything more than I tell you now as I won't answer you and nothing you can do to me will change that. No I wasn't born a vampire I became one seven or was it eight years ago, my reasons were personal and are distressing, I will not share them. The reason I can move about in daylight is nothing to do with me being a child it is because I am only a half vampire. My parents were both human I just haven't been fully blooded. That is what we call it when we turn someone into a vampire. I do have to drink human blood which is something I hate, the thought of doing so still turns my stomach so I only do it when I must. If I didn't drink any at all I would waste away and die. I can keep going on animal blood for a while but not forever as I found out myself a few years back. There is no way to unbecome a vampire but we are not evil and we do not kill those we drink from instead we drink small amounts regularly to control our thirst. If a vampire was to kill without good reason he would be hunted down by his peers and executed."

Darren could have told them much more about himself and his people but he chose not too he didn't know who these people were and although he hadn't been a vampire the clan was his first priority. Besides none of them looked disappointed with what he had said.

Harry POV

Darren had been true to his word, he was incredibly stubborn which reminded Harry of himself a little bit. Despite the many questions that the students asked after he finished speaking Darren could not be persuaded to utter another word he simply sat down and looked very sorry for himself. Harry suspected even under torture that Darren would speak no more, not that he had any intention of doing that, but he didn't think Darren realised that in fact he thought Darren look like he was expecting to be beaten to within an inch of his life for disobeying.

When the class ended Harry was true to his word. He grasped Darren's arm and apparated back to where they had trapped the boy. He told Darren he was free to return to the Cirque and thanked him for his co-operation. Harry then threw his invisibility cloak over himself and as Darren walked away he pointed his wand at the boy and said "Obliviate." Darren's eyes momentarily went out of focus and he forgot everything that had happened since his capture. Harry had intended to erase the capture as well but the vampire blood in Darren proved too much for the magic and it erased exactly half of what Harry had wanted to erase. As Harry returned to Hogwarts he decided they would delay by a week to give the vampires a chance to recover from their separation. He also thought he had worked something else out that would need confirmation. Darren was only half a vampire and the spells cast against him worked but by exactly half their normal potency. They were only working on his human half and Harry surmised that a full vampire would be utterly immune to wizard magic. This meant they would have to be very careful not to rile the vampires they studied.