Well, here's the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy! Make sure to review, ok? =)

Disclaimer- I don't own anything except for my plot and my OC, Andy.

"Speaking"

"Thinking"

"Sounds"

"Text reading"

Harry Potter Point of View

"Hermione, can't we go yet? It's almost supper time." Ron groaned. He had his head lying on an open book, using it as more of a pillow than a research item.

"Not yet." Hermione said, eyes glued to the page she was reading. With a frustrated little huff, Hermione snapped the book closed and reached for the next one in the pile. Ron groaned. Harry was becoming frustrated as well. So far, there had been no useful information on vampires in any of the books they had pulled from the shelves, and he was close to giving up. Of course, that was when something caught his eye. It was a painting of a young woman and a man, standing side by side. Underneath it was the caption "This man, believed to be a Vampire, was left by his fiancé when she learned of his true nature. It is believed that he flew into such a rage, that the village she resided in was left in ruins, all its inhabitants left for dead."

"Hey, guys, check this out." Harry said after reading the paragraph that went with it. "This says that this guy was a vampire, and that he killed his fiancé, her two six year old nieces, and their whole village when she left him. After that, he just disappeared. No one knew where he went to for about 90 years. Then, fifteen years ago, they found him again and performed something called 'Legilimency', which can apparently make it so that people can read minds. This guy was apparently mental, so they didn't get a lot out of him."

Harry faltered, as he read a bit ahead, his brow crinkling in slight confusion.

"What is it, Harry?" Hermione prompted gently, curious as to what the book said.

"Um…well, this says that they learned that there are no children vampires, and that they discovered in his mind that there are something called 'Half', but they're not sure what that means." Harry told his friends uncertainly, chewing on his cheek thoughtfully.

"But…if there are no children vampires, then…that kid in the cage isn't one?" Ron asked, voicing all of their thoughts. "But how can that be?"

Hermione shook her head slowly. "I'm not sure, Ron. What does it say happened to the vampire, Harry? Surely they must have learned more…."

"It just says that the vampire died. They used some kind of curse on him to keep him from escaping and also to get him to talk and reveal what he knew. Apparently…well, apparently a vampire's body doesn't take to spells the same way a regular human's does, and something went wrong and he was killed."

"That's horrid." Hermione breathed, eyes wide. Ron nodded in silent agreement. "But…what do you think is going to happen to that boy? Is he really a vampire?" She asked aloud, although it seemed to no one in particular.

"I suppose there's only one way to really find out; we have to go and talk to him." Harry said in a quiet voice. "After all, my dad's Invisibility Cloak ought to still fit us all."

"But Harry! What about Sirius Black?" Hermione hissed nervously, even though she herself wanted very much to speak with the boy.

"I'm sure Black hasn't gotten past the Dementors, 'Mione." Ron said soothingly, while Harry nodded his head.

"Well…alright then." The bushy-haired witch said reluctantly. "But you have to promise to be very careful Harry."

"I will be." He promised somberly.

"It's settled then! Now, can we please go get something to eat?" Ron begged his friends. Together, they rose and headed towards the Great Hall to enjoy their meal.

Darren Shan Point of View

"This sucks!" I groaned, rolling over and over on the grass. I felt like a child throwing a tantrum, but I didn't really care; no one was around to see it after all. I had to stop when I hit the bars, facing the outside and getting a clear view of the shimmering lake. The sun was just beginning to set, and I was getting restless. My aching, empty belly wasn't helping my mood either. "How long has it been since I ate anything?" I wondered as I stared out. I winced as I heard my stomach growling furiously.

"Shut up already." I muttered to it as I looked away from the lake and the sun, and instead turned to the ceiling of my cage. It only rumbled louder. "What do I do now?" I wondered aloud. Of course, no answer came to me.

I lay there quietly for a long time, until the sun had set and the only light came from the moon and stars high overhead, and from the faraway pinpricks of light that illuminated the windows of the castle. About fifteen minutes after darkness had fallen, I heard the noises of people heading in my direction. It was easy to tell they were trying to be silent by the way they let out little nervous, hissing breaths whenever one of them made a loud sound. I glanced out through the bars and was surprised when I saw no one there. I could smell them and hear them, but I couldn't see them, even with my vampire night vision. It was a bit unnerving.

"If you want to sneak up on someone, then you should work on being quieter." I said aloud, hoping that someone would answer me and assure me that I wasn't going entirely insane. Immediately, the sounds stopped. For a few seconds, all was still and silent, and then, with a flash of silvery fabric, three people stood in front of me.

"Oh. It's you again." I said, trying to sound bored as I got to my feet to look out at them.

"Yeah, it's us again." The dark haired boy I had grabbed earlier said. He looked a bit nervous, but was trying to hide it.

I grinned cruelly and made my voice hoarser and lower. "So you've come back to be my meal after all?" I laughed, sounding slightly insane at how the red haired boy went slightly green and the black haired one paled. This was exactly like people should respond to a vampire!

So, naturally, I was surprised when I heard the girl say "Would you stop that already?"

I stared at her, eyes wide. "What are you talking about?" I growled out. It wasn't quite as effective when my voice cracked halfway through and was accented by my rumbling stomach. I felt a blush crawl up my neck and was thankful that it was cloaked by the darkness of the night.

"I don't think you're as bad as you're pretending to be." The bushy haired girl said matter-of-factly. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way." She introduced herself suddenly. I was so shocked that I didn't respond at first. As if taking my silence as some cue, the girl elbowed the red head beside her.

"Ouch!" he cried out, but quickly said "I'm Ronald Weasley. You can call me Ron."

"And I'm Harry. Harry Potter." The black haired kid said. He seemed a little reluctant to introduce himself. I guess I couldn't really blame him.

"I'm…" I hesitated, unsure whether or not I should give them my real name. "You can just call me Darren." I finally said with a sigh. I saw Hermione smile, but Ron just looked skeptical. I couldn't read Harry's expression.

"It's nice to meet you, Darren." Hermione said, quietly. Somewhere in the dark woods that were behind me, the noises of someone came. I noticed the nervous glances that the three people in front of me shared. It wasn't a frightened look (except for on the red head; he looked terrified!), but more like the looks me and Evra shared when we did something we weren't supposed to.

"You aren't supposed to be out here." I realized, smiling slightly. They didn't have time to answer, because just then a large man approached the cage. He was whistling merrily, but stopped short when he saw the three in front of my cage.

"Eh? Harry, Ron, Hermione? What're you three doin' here?" he asked, scratching at his black tangle of a beard absently. They were at a loss for words, stuttering incomprehensible nonsense that even I couldn't quite make out. The big man just stared at them, but I could see the slightly amused smile on his lips under the beard. After a second, something seemed to come over him. The smile slipped off his lips, and was instead replaced by a slightly opened jaw. "Wait a sec…. HARRY? WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE? DO YOU REALIZE JUST HOW DANGEROUS IT IS? FOR YOU ESPECIALLY!"He yelled angrily, his visible skin turning bright red. I saw the black haired boy shrink back, and identical looks of numbed shock on all three of their faces. Then the big man turned on Harry's two friends. "AND YOU TWO! HOW COULD YOU LET HIM?"

"S-sorry." Hermione squeaked out, and Ron nodded vigorously. I felt confused; was this about me? I groaned a little. Of course it was! I had grabbed him, so the big guy must be worried about him. I kept quiet, trying my hardest to make myself invisible.

"GO BACK TO THE CASTLE, NOW. You're lucky you're not getting a detention." The big teacher guy growled out. Too shocked to protest, his students silently trooped back. Harry was the only one to glance back in my direction. Through the darkness, I could see him hiding some kind of cloth beneath his shirt.

The big guy was silent for a second, watching to make sure they went where they were supposed to go. Then, muttering something under his breath, he turned and left. I watched as he went, and felt my heart drop when I smelt the dead fox he was probably bringing for me to eat. "Shut up." I ,once again, sighed unhappily to my grumbling stomach.

"Hey, maybe when Andy comes, you can ask him to bring you something to eat." I brightened up at the thought. "Don't worry, stomach. You won't be hungry much longer." I said.

The night passed slowly by, but Andy didn't show up. I moped in my cage, counting the hours by scratching tally marks into the ground with my nails. At a little past midnight (from what I could tell, anyway; my time keeping wasn't exactly reliable) I heard someone in the woods by my cage. I looked up hopefully, but it wasn't Andy. It wasn't even another centaur. The one who stood there was an emaciated man in tattered and dirty clothes.

He turned to me and I could see that his skin was like wax, and hadn't seen the sun for many years. His horribly sunken eyes glittered at me from their sockets. We stared at one another for a long, long time. Then, a crooked smile made up of rotting teeth spread across his features.

"So, they've got you in a cage too, huh? Trust me; I know how that feels."