Hello all! First off, I want to apologize for how long it has taken me to put this chapter up! Please forgive me! Next, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to MONLIGHT-97 for being my 100th reviewer! *dances joyously* for that, you get a virtual cookie and (if you want it) a request for the story. Thanks again!

Well, I hope everyone likes this next chapter.

Disclaimer- I do not own Darren Shan or Harry Potter. I only claim my OC, Andy.

"Speaking"

"Thinking"

"Sounds"

"Text book reading"

Harry Potter Point of View

As soon as the twilight fell across the grounds, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville met up in the Gryffindor common room. There were only a few other students there, namely Fred and George Weasley, who were huddled together in the corner making plans for one prank or another. When they noticed the group, they simply winked and waved them off, sensing their fellow Gryffindors' trouble-making intentions. Without a word, the five left.

They made their way through the corridors, trying to be as quiet as possible. Harry had brought his invisibility cloak, but it was quite obvious that they would be unable to fit all five of them under it. Nonetheless, it was comforting to know it was there, just in case. Miraculously, the Gryffindors somehow managed to make it out of the castle without being caught or seen by anyone but a nosey portrait, who had followed and scolded them for a short while. When she realized the group was ignoring her though, she had given up and left them alone. A sigh of relief escaped all five pairs of lips as they exited the castle. They glanced at one another, silently asking if the other was ready to do this. There was no sign of uncertainty in any eye and so they silently made their way towards the cage.

The cold metal was glinting in the dim light of the rising moon, making their path to it clear. On the dark grounds, nothing stirred but the grass moving slightly in the light breeze. As they neared the cage, though, Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck and arms rise. He could feel eyes on him, coming from the forbidden forest, but he couldn't see what it might be. Quickly, he shook it off. They had work to do; a life to try to save. Finally, they were standing by the bars. Darren looked so small, almost disappearing into the shadows cast by the cage. Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Ron, and Harry all stood silently for a moment, staring in a kind of sick fascination at the vampire boy. It reminded Neville vaguely of his own parents, back when their minds had first been broken; they had not been able to eat, and had been slowly wasting away. Blinking back tears, Neville said "Come on, you lot! We've got to help him now."

Awakened by the sudden break in the silence, they all began to move.

"Locomotor Darren." Hermione said, using a spell she had looked up in the library as soon as it had occurred to her that they wouldn't have been able to get to Darren as he was. The vampire was levitated a few inches off the ground and floated towards them. His body was limp, and Harry felt his breath catch in his throat when he saw that the boy's thin chest showed no sign of rising and falling. Beside him, Ginny suppressed a tiny sob and Neville stiffened as they noted the same thing. Hermione's hand was trembling, and she let out a little groan as she leaned on Ron, who rubbed small circles on her back soothingly. His face was emotionless and lips tight, eyes trained on the small body that was moving closer.

Then the boy drew one long, shuddering breath. A relieved sob was heard. "We have to hurry!" Ginny cried, pulling out her own wand and using it to make a cut across her index finger. From the forest, Harry heard a rustling noise like something was nearing them. He ignored it and instead quickly asked Ginny what spell she had used to make the cut. The redhead told him, and he pulled out his wand and made an incision across his own finger.

Hermione had moved Darren so that he lay on his back, practically pressed up against the bar. She kneeled down and reached through the bars to gently open his mouth. Ron kneeled beside her, arm still around her trembling form despite the obvious blush that was turning his ears red. Ginny put her non-bleeding hand on the older girl's shoulder. Hermione looked up at her with watery eyes and Ginny motioned for her and Ron to stand. They obliged and Ginny, Neville, and Harry took their place.

"Make sure-sob- that you d-don't let his m-m-mouth touch your c-cut." Hermione told them, her voice trembling as she put her wand to her finger and then to Ron's. "He's a v-vampire, and I'm not s-sure how people are turned, so we've got to be careful."

"We're all nutters." Ron muttered dryly at her comment, but still moved forward to give his own blood to the vampire. If she had heard him, the bushy haired witch made no indication of it. As they reached their hands through the bars, a second if uncertainty made the five children hesitate. That is, until Neville let out a small growl, reached into the cage with his other hand, held Darren's mouth open with one hand, and made sure that a few drops of blood dribbled into the boy's open mouth.

Immediately, Darren stirred, if only slightly. Harry put his hand above Darren's face and squeezed his finger to allow a steady trail of blood escape it into the vampire's mouth. Ron went next, and then Hermione, and finally Ginny. The effects were almost immediate, even if they were only slight.

"Crepsley, what're…." he mumbled, his words slurred and quiet. His mouth was stained red with blood and his cheeks were a little flushed. He looked better, though, and the small group that was hovering worriedly by his side let out a sigh of relief. The boy continued to mutter unintelligibly as Neville questioned uncertainly "Should we…give him more?" the others were silent, wondering if a vampire could have too much blood. Finally, Harry nodded slowly and reached out to drip more blood into Darren's mouth, which was quivering and moving rapidly as he spoke to someone who wasn't there. As soon as the blood reached it's target, Darren's eyes flew open. Lightning quick, his hand darted up to grab Harry's wrist.

"DAMN IT, CREPSLEY! I TOLD YOU TO NEVER-" he froze, slightly glazed eyes focusing first on the wrist he was gripping, and then moving up to the face of the boy who the wrist was a part of. Darren blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision. His eyes lit up dimly with recognition. "Harry Potter…." He whispered, head cocking to one side in obvious confusion. Slowly, his grip weakened, and he fell back to the grass as the adrenaline that had allowed him that much strength drained away. Harry extracted his hand from the bars and examined it, shocked to find five crescent moon shaped cuts from Darren's untrimmed finger nails. Darren noticed him examining his hand, and let out a bitter laugh. "You're lucky that's the only wound you got." He stated matter-of-factly.

Darren Shan Point of View

It was true; if I had been as strong as I usually was, his wrist would have been snapped instead of just getting a few little cuts. I didn't bother to elaborate since it would take too much energy, and already I was beginning to feel sick and my head was spinning. From my position on the ground, I had to work a little to focus my eyes enough to see past the bespectacled boy in front of me and to the people standing behind him. I could make out four slightly blurry figures, but that was all. Not exactly surprising considering that, for the moment, my eyesight wasn't much better than a human's.

"What were you doing?" I demanded, turning my gaze back to Harry. He flinched a little, and I wondered briefly if I really looked all that frightening.

"We were trying to keep you alive, Darren." Said another voice, answering my question before Harry could. The one who spoke stepped closer to stand by Harry, and they came into my line of sight. It was a boy. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place how I recognized him.

"Who are you?" I questioned, not quite politely. He didn't seem to mind, either that or he simply didn't notice.

"Neville Longbottom." The boy answered calmly.

"Right, well, that still doesn't answer my question. What were you doing?"

"Um…." The boy didn't seem to know how to answer the question. The others remained silent.

"Oh, for heaven sake!" came an exasperated cry. Hermione broke through to the front of the small group. "We were feeding you, Darren. You were dying, and we were feeding you!"

I stared up at her, eyes wide, before a small mirthless laugh escaped my lips. Those I could see gave me a confused look, and I could easily guess that the others did as well.

"What are you-?" Harry began, but I cut him off.

"You're just like Crepsley." I sighed, looking away from them. "He tried the same thing."

"Crepsley…why does that name sound so familiar?" I heard Hermione muttering to herself.

"Who's Crepsley?" Harry asked me, eyes alight with curiosity and confusion. "You've mentioned him before."

I narrowed my eyes, contemplating whether or not to tell them the truth. Harry flinched back, and I briefly was left to wonder, once again, if these wizards really believed that I was that dangerous. At that thought, I decided that it was better to follow Andy's advice and not tell them too much. He probably knew more about this kind of stuff than I did. However, I did owe them at least a little bit of the truth. They saved me, and now, for whatever reason, I realized that I didn't really want to die. I wasn't even sure why I had been acting like that in the first place.

"Mr. Crepsley is the vampire that turned me into…um…a vampire." I said, stuttering near the end because I wasn't sure whether or not wizards knew anything about half-vampires. "He's the one who I've been living with ever since."

"Why would you let him change you?" asked another person. I recognized her voice as that red haired girl from before, Ginny. She sounded both fascinated and horrified at the same time. Harry looked back towards her.

"He blackmailed me." I answered simply. There was no way I was going to go into detail about it!

"Then why would you stay with him? Why didn't you just run away?" she asked.

"I wouldn't have been able to survive without him." I answered bitterly. "My family thought I was dead, and my best friend…." I trailed off. I really didn't want to talk about this right now! Turning away, I saw the animal carcasses in the corner.

"If you're squeamish, I'd suggest you leave now." I stated, and then began to crawl towards the animals since my body was still too weak to stand up.

"What are you…oh. Oh! Ew." One of them said as I cut the animal and began to feed. I wasn't paying enough attention to know which said it. When I looked back up, I saw with a bit of shock that all five of them were still there. I grinned at them, the sadistic side of me showing for just a moment as I laughed at their expressions when they saw my blood stained teeth.

Just as I opened my mouth to say something vampire-ish to them, I heard a sound. Cocking my head to the side, I strained my dulled hearing so that I could understand whatever was being said. Or rather, screamed.

"Who's Sirius Black?" I asked the people who were gathered around my cage.

"S-Sirius Black?" squeaked a new voice, who I placed as the other red head, Ron.

"Yes, Sirius Black." I said in a slightly mocking tone. "Some lady is screaming something about him being in the castle."

Immediately, the five stiffened. "Harry, you don't think that he could actually be-"

"I don't know, but we have to get back there now!"

And with that, they began to run. I stared at their retreating forms. As soon as they were out of sight, I shrugged and was about to turn back to the rabbit that I held when I saw an enormous black dog dart out of the darkness and into the forest. A chill ran down my spine. For some reason, I was beginning to have a very bad feeling about all of this….

Please remember to review!