I don't own Harry Potter.
DZ2's Blood and Magic Challenge.
Plot: Summer holidays are meant to be a time away from trouble, but not when your name is Harry James Potter. Bitten and turned into a vampire, now our hero seeks his survival.
"Eleven. That's when I get off".
A smile slowly grew across Harry's face as the waitress interrupted him with a soft blush. "You can tell me all about that tosser, Harry Potter" she continued with a small shrug as his own cheeks heated up in a blush. "I'm Elara, by the way" she introduced, "See you in ten".
Both of their cheeks bright red, Elara vanished back into the kitchen of Treats Cafe as Harry turned back to face his table. Taking a deep breath as he quickly folded up the Daily Prophet, (Pretending that he hadn't heard Elara's comment about moving pictures), Harry tapped the blanking rune in the corner of the front page and watched as the ink vanished from the entire newspaper.
Throwing the now useless newspaper in the trashcan in the corner, Harry turned back to his table and froze at the sight of the lights flickering across the tracks. Stomach clenching at the obvious sign of magic, Harry shot a glance towards the cafe's kitchens as he compared his options.
He could either go investigate the source of the magic over there and miss his potential date with Elara, or he could go hide in the bathroom and actually have some fun away from magic.
The sound of the bathroom door shutting in his face gave him his answer, as he blinked in shock at his body's ability to dart across the café and take refuge before he realised he was even moving. Glancing down at his watch with a grimace, Harry moved over to the sink and washed his hands, splashing his face and trying unsuccessfully to tame his hair.
"I hope you're not a vain one" Elara's voice pointed out, an amused giggle filling the air as he jumped and almost tripped over his own feet. "I saw you make a runner. You're not feeling off are you?" she asked slowly.
"No, I'm fine" Harry blurted awkwardly, his face heating up in embarrassment, "I just realised I'm a bit of a mess. Wanted to freshen up" he lied in explanation.
Elara just smiled and nodded slowly, "And it's nothing to do with the old man in a dress I saw standing outside?" she asked knowingly making him flush again.
"Added bonus" Harry mumbled sheepishly as Elara grinned at him. "Let's just say I know him, I don't like him, and leave it at that".
Elara simply shrugged at him, glancing over her shoulder back into the café "So I'm going to slip away before I get yelled at for perving on the men's bathroom" she decided, "But if you want I can knock on the door to let you know when the dress man is gone?" she offered innocently.
Smiling at her thankfully, Harry just nodded, watching as Elara closed the door and left him alone once more. Frowning slightly as he turned back to the mirror, Harry scowled at his reflection when he realised his hair was now even messier than it was before. Sighing as he just smoothed his mane down, he couldn't help but think that Sirius would be ecstatic to discover he had a date. Swallowing heavily to force away the flare of pain rolling through his stomach, Harry just stared up at his reflection, flinching as he heard his Godfather's barking laugh echo through his mind.
After patting himself down to make sure his wand was properly hidden yet still within easy reach, Harry chewed on a couple of mints to clear his breath before leaning against the sink and closing his eyes. Please let the wizards in the area clear out, he didn't want to have to deal with anything magical this Summer. His friends had once more promised to write and then done the exact opposite, he had just lost his Godfather after all and he would like to be comforted. The Dursleys, upon finding out that Sirius was dead, had quickly returned to their abusive ways. The only reason Harry wasn't afraid of Elara discovering the multitude of bruises, was because all of Harry's magic was currently directed towards healing his injuries, while keeping them hidden from everyone else as well as him.
He'd like one - just one - night of just being a normal teenager before the magical world sucked him back in like the unforgiving leeches they were.
He didn't have to wait long before there was a knocking on the door and it swung open to reveal Elara standing there with a shy smile on her face. "Closing time. Shall we go?" she asked carefully, making Harry smile nervously back at her before striding over to offer her his arm, "Ooh, a gentleman. I like it".
Grinning back at her, Harry escorted Elara out the door and then faltered. "So where are we going?" he asked hesitantly, "We never got this far ahead in the planning stage" he pointed out as he blushed.
Elara paused for a moment, lost in thought before she shrugged. "I know a pizza place that's open twenty-four seven?" she suggested sheepishly, "It's not the best first date, but I'm starving" she explained apologetically.
Shaking his head, Harry started to lead her towards the stairs up to the street. "It sounds great to me" he assured her awkwardly, not too sure of dating protocol when his first ever date with Cho Chang had ended so miserably.
"It's to the right of the hub, two blocks down" Elara directed as they walked. "But anyway, tell me about this Harry Potter fellow" she pressed.
"He's nobody special" Harry murmured, wishing that were true. "He goes to a boarding school up in Scotland. Has mediocre grades. His best friends are Ron and Hermione, Ron's a chess addict and Hermione eats books for breakfast" he joked, hiding his sigh of relief when Elara giggled.
"And what does Harry think of Hogwarts?" Elara asked curiously, "Does he like it there?"
"It's my home" Harry confessed softly, "I'd never leave if I could". As Elara grinned at him, Harry found his own smile fading as a thought flickered across his mind. "I never said I went to Hogwarts" he pointed slowly, Elara's grin turning into a smirk as she batted her eyelashes at him, brown eyes swirling into a blood-red that made his stomach clench tightly.
Reacting instantly, Harry shoved Elara away and jumped back, scrabbling for his wand and shoving his hand into an empty pocket. "Looking for this?" she asked innocently, twirling his wand around her fingers. "Oh Christopher!" she called out with a grin, "I got you a gift!"
"Oh?" a male voice asked in his ear, making Harry jerk to the side to see a short blonde vampire standing where he had been. "I do love presents" the vampire murmured as he vanished in a blur, a hand suddenly combing through Harry's hair from behind him, "Such a pretty one too".
Quickly backing away from the vampires, his eyes flicking to his wand still held in Elara's hand, Harry stiffened as he backed straight into another hard chest. "He's a bit scrawny" a third voice pouted as arms wrapped around his chest to hold him still, "He'll hardly feed all of us".
"He won't" Elara confessed simply, as a fourth vampire stepped around into Harry's line of sight. "But we all know Christopher has a weakness for magical blood. So I was thinking that since Treats is going out of business soon anyway, that we could give it a real reason to while he eats gourmet. There were only four people in the café when we left" she continued, "Mr and Mrs Martin, a businessmen and the cook. And I know where the security system is so I can wipe all traces of us from the area".
"Well he does smell like a wet dream come true" Christopher murmured as he appeared in front of Harry with another blur, a hand cupping Harry's cheek as the tip of a white fang peeked out from behind the vampire's upper lip. "So I guess that long as you clean up behind you, I have no problem with us… splurging… once or twice a year" he allowed slowly as he half-turned and held his hand out.
The moment his wand came within arm's reach, Elara handing it over to Christopher who inspected it curiously, Harry's mind started racing and planning. He couldn't take on four vampires at the same time. Vampires were hard enough to fight without them being magical vampires, as these four clearly were. Harry doubted he could take one of them down before the other three drained him dry. And even if he poured as much magic into a fire spell as he could, he'd probably only manage to get two of them before they tore his head off.
"Best boss, ever" Elara sung happily, skipping over to press a kiss to Christopher's cheek. "I promise to bring you back some snacks. We might as well raid the café, make it look like a robbery gone wrong you know?"
"Probably for the best" Christopher agreed, turning again to face Elara, giving Harry the chance he needed to snatch his wand from the vampire's hand.
"INCINDIO!" he yelled, hoping to get both Christopher and Elara with one stream as he thrust his wand towards the two of them.
"How cute" Christopher drawled dryly as Harry blinked down at the pen he was holding in confusion, eyes rising to the wand the vampire was tapping against his nose with an amused smirk. "You three get moving" he ordered, not moving his eyes from Harry's, "I want us gone before the next train comes by".
Oh Merlin… he was going to die here. He couldn't fight off one normal vampire without a wand let alone four magical ones. He was going to be drained dry, left a bloodless husk in some side alley somewhere so no one found his body.
"Actually you're going to be left in some side alley somewhere unconscious and dizzy" Christopher corrected slowly, "As lovely as you wizards taste, you're not worth the effort to kill. The Ministry would be all over my arse if there was any hint that a vampire killed you".
Harry froze again as the arms around his chest vanished and the three other vampires let out echoing laughter and whoops, springing around like overactive children as they made their way back towards the café. "And yes" Christopher added as Harry realised something, "I was just reading your mind, it's rather easy to actually, like your mind has been left open just for me" he purred.
Before he could stop himself, memories of Snape's 'lessons' flashed through his mind, Harry trying desperately to 'clear his mind' before the vampire caught sight of them.
"Well fuck" Christopher declared bluntly with a scowl, "Harry bloody Potter. Just my luck".
"What?" Harry blurted dumbly as his wand was roughly shoved at his chest, quickly catching it and turning it on the pouting vampire.
"I can't exactly eat Harry Potter can I?" Christopher exclaimed, "You people treat us like shit as it is. A vampire eating Harry Potter would cause a nation-wide fucking genocide!" he snapped angrily before pouting again, "And I was looking forward to eating tonight".
"Wait what?" Harry asked, "You're not going to eat me because I'm Harry Potter?" he clarified slowly, wondering if his fame was finally being good for something.
"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in" Christopher muttered darkly, leaving Harry confused at the vampire's rapid mood swings. "Here's a word of advice, little snack" the vampire muttered, "First. Find some proper training in your wizarding mind magics. Your Professor Snape was attacking your mind and tearing it further and further open with every lesson. And second? Stop coming down to fucking vampire territory unless you want to be eaten" he scolded.
"Uh sorry?" Harry offered nervously, still not lowering his wand from where he was aiming for the vampire's chest.
"Oh shut up" Christopher muttered, turning and blurring away, leaving Harry standing alone in the middle of the alleyway.
Glancing down at his shaking hand, Harry collapsed back against the wall and slid to the floor, cursing himself for letting things get as far as they had. He should never have left the house , screw the Dursleys wanting to have a family dinner, he could have stayed up in his room with a sandwich or something. But no… instead he happens to stumbled across a fucking vampire feeding ground and almost get eaten.
He's Harry bloody Potter, why would he expect any different from his life?
As his heartbeat returned to normal, Harry tightened his grip on his wand. He wasn't going to put his wand away until he was back on the surface, and even then he was going to slip it up his sleeve so he could reach it quickly. Screw the Ministry, he'd just been attacked by vampires, if a Muggle saw his wand then they'd just have to put up with it.
Forcing himself back up to his feet, Harry glanced around nervously before starting towards where he knew the stairs up to the street where. He'd take Christopher's advice and never come down here again, not for as long as this night remained in his memory.
A flicker of movement had his stomach knotting up again, a red-haired vampire stepping out in front of him with a smirk. Almost instantly he recognised the vampire as a member of Christopher's group, the one that had called him scrawny and had held him still. "Your boss said I was to go free" Harry blurted, hoping that the vampire would believe him, "He knew what kill me would cause".
"I really don't care" the red-haired vampire dismissed with a shrug, "I'm hungry, and I've never tried magical blood before. Besides, Chrissy is my Sire, he's not my boss".
As Harry's mouth opened to curse the vampire, his hands rose and he snapped his fingers, Harry's body freezing as all his muscles locked up. Straining to fight the vampire's 'Blood Blessing', Harry was helpless to watch as the vampire strode up to him with a smirk. "He was right you know, you smell like a wet dream come true" the vampire whispered as he buried his nose into Harry's neck and inhaled deeply, Harry's mind screaming for him to break free and tear the vampire apart.
"Sorry little wizard, you're not going to break free" the vampire hissed in his air, "Not even Christopher can overpower my Blessing".
His magic rushing and crashing through his body, trying to break the vampire's Blessing, Harry felt the vampire circling him as long fingers pulled the neck of his shirt down to expose his flesh. The Blessing lifted with a crack as pain exploded across his neck, Harry's legs going limp as the vampire held him up. Weakly raising his wand, Harry jabbed it over his shoulder, collapsing to his knees as a wordless spell surged past him to lift the vampire off his feet.
Rolling over and aiming his wand again, his free hand coming up to cover the flesh torn up by the vampire's fangs, Harry watched as the vampire gracefully leapt to his feet only to be thrown into the wall with a loud crack.
"You were always more trouble than you were worth" Christopher's voice drawled from behind Harry, two blurs shooting past him to reveal Elara and another blond vampire who pounced on the red-head. "Tear him apart" Christopher's emotionless voice ordered, Harry watched as the red-haired vampire's head was torn off mid-scream, the blond chucking it into the air and setting it on fire with a wave of his hands.
The pain in Harry's throat died out instantly as hands gently lowered him to the floor, leaving him staring up at Christopher's furious red eyes. "Well fuck" the vampire hissed, "He tore the jugular".
He was going to die… for the second time that night Harry realised he was dying. Only this time he wasn't going to be saved by a nosy vampire reading his mind and figuring out who he was. He didn't want to die, he'd rather be a -
Harry cut the thought off immediately, the look of pity in Christopher's eyes showing that he'd heard it anyway. "You don't have much time left Harry Potter" the vampire whispered, "Make your decision". Still strangely devoid of the pain and the dizziness that he knew he should be feeling, Harry just blinked up at the three vampires now crouching over him.
Harry rolled his head to the side, only just realising that he couldn't move his arms or legs as he bared the other side of his throat to the blond vampire.
As his vision blurred two sharp pinpricks appeared in his neck, not feeling anything like the other bite but instead feeling like he'd been bitten by a bug. As the pain in his neck faded, he felt two hands sliding beneath him and lifting him up, a numb coldness spreading out from the bite on his neck.
"Elara" he heard Christopher's voice say, "Get back to the house and prepare a room. Jared, follow his scent and collect his things from his old home. He's going to be touch and go, but he might make it".
"Goddess help him through this" Elara's voice echoed through the haze and the darkness clouding his mind. "I hope he survives, he's actually rather cute".