PercyPowerful - I always try to answer reviews, Because I appreciate every single person who takes the time to write one for me! Don't forget, even in Canon with JKR they experience a horcrux early on because Tom Riddles diary. And regarding character deaths... I will never confirm or deny, because that's all part of the fun!

TheSchimmer - thank you! I'm so glad you enjoy Chosen Two so much!

I would like to say get used to this more frequent upload schedule, but I'm not mentally stable enough to promise that. For now, enjoy?

-YDHP-

They were mostly quiet over dinner, and agreed to another early night - they had more Gringotts trips to do. Vlad indulged in the enormous bath, enjoying the green bubbles most of all until he realised why - they reminded him of Harry's eyes, and that was just a little too obsessive even for him. All but vanishing the bath in his haste to get away from it then, Vlad pulled on pyjamas and lay in his bed, staring up at the canopy. He was supposed to be getting a hold on these feelings, and they only seemed to be growing stronger. Phantom crawled up to his face, nuzzling his jaw and curling up on his chest with a paw resting over his heart, clear eyes focused on his.

"What am I going to do furball? This isn't going to go away." He nearly leapt out of his skin when the door knocked, sitting up carefully and waving his hand to open the door. Harry's face peered around the wood, Lily wrapped around his wrist as he stepped in. "Everything alright Harry?" The wizard shrugged, pushing Vlad's door closed behind him and sitting on Vlad's desk chair. Waiting for Harry to explain why he had come ghosting into Vlad's room, he stroked Phantom absent mindedly.

"I... I don't know. I feel like I don't know who I am anymore. After everything that happened this year, with Samael and finding out about Voldemort being my grandfather somehow... It's a lot to take in and I think these changes are beginning." Harry went straight into it once he found his voice, not even seeming to notice Lily slither down his leg and up to Vlad's bed. At a loss as to how to answer immediately, Vlad quietly called "Dobby" and asked the elf to bring them tea. Harry gravitated towards the bed then, sitting down at the end and sipping at the hot brew.

"What changes do you mean? There's nothing obvious." And Vlad would notice first, given how much time he spent looking at Harry. Harry finished his tea and placed the cup down before he said anything else, rolling up his sleeve to show the scar on his arm. It didn't seem any different, but Harry placed Vlad's hand over it. "Cold, right?" Vlad nodded, it still felt scaly but it also felt ice cold to the touch, though he still felt Harry's heated skin under the rest of his hand and swallowed thickly. "I thought nothing of it for a while because it's summer, but I feel too hot all the time, I actually enjoyed the cart rides at Gringotts because there was so much cold air."

Vlad racked his brain, searching for a cooling charm and casting it on Harry, who visibly relaxed. "If the changes are gearing you towards... snake like, then maybe you're just a little more cold blooded. I'm going to be the temperature of a corpse in under three years, I won't judge you." Harry snorted, and Vlad fought to keep the "so we'll feel the same" comment behind the filter between brain and mouth - Harry didn't need freaking out like that. "If you're ever in need of a cooling charm, let me know. Just keep an eye on it, you may end up needing warming charms in winter." Harry nodded, running a hand through his scruffy hair, making Vlad's hands itch to follow their path.

"I don't know where to start, with the other thing. My entire family is dead, I don't see aunt Petunia having answers on Voldemort fathering her sister and I can't ask my mother, or her mother. I don't even know their names, other than the last name Evans." Vlad pondered that, then remembered the bloodline list Bertrand had made - Harry must have been really thrown by the grandfather part to have missed that. Holding out a hand to summon his backpack, Vlad was glad he had thought to organise everything into folders, boxes or bags. "Your fathers parents were Aaron and Victoria Potter. Your mothers parents were Christopher and Rose Evans. Explains Lily and Petunia, girls and flowers."

Harry looked surprised, then understanding dawned as Vlad handed over the parchment. "They died before she was even pregnant with me. Both sides of my family died young." Harry's voice was hollow, making Vlad ache with sadness and an urge to do anything to alleviate the pain in his eyes. Levitating the tea tray over to the desk, he carefully shifted closer and wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders. It was a trigger, and Harry broke down in tears, clutching Vlad tightly as he cried.

"I don't want to be related to him." Any hope there had been a mix up somewhere had been quashed when Samael responded to Harry down in the chamber, so Vlad could only try to help Harry come to terms with it. Because clearly, he hadn't yet. "I know, but you are so much more than him." Letting Harry cry it out against him, the sobs slowly quieted and Harry's breathing evened out until Vlad realised his mate was asleep. And surprisingly strong, Vlad couldn't prise off the iron grip around his chest. Not that he really wanted to, but at least he had tried.

Laying back down carefully, Vlad was sure this was all sorts of a bad idea, but one night when Harry had come to him didn't make him a bad friend, right? Phantom and Lily were both curled up together at the end of the bed, but both had eyes on Vlad with Harry wrapped around him like an octopus. He was absolutely certain they knew what Vlad felt, and desperately hoped the protection stretched to magical familiars - nobody but Vlad could tell Harry they were mates. Oh, he had no doubt Harry could work it out if he had a clue about mates, and that others could too. But nobody could tell Harry, and he hoped that counted with Lily or Samael too. Phantom obviously couldn't tell Harry - only Lily understood the fluffy nightmare.

Falling asleep almost unbelievably fast, he had never slept as well as he had with Harry's arms wrapped around him. "I'm in so much trouble here" he mused to himself, trying to think of an adequate thing to say before he shook Harry awake. He was no closer to an excuse before Harry was stirring, looking at Vlad in confusion and pushing himself upright. "This isn't my room." Stomach flipping slightly at how cute his mate was half asleep, Vlad nodded. "You are correct. You came in to talk last night, remember? And kind of... cried yourself to sleep. Even unconscious, you're surprisingly strong so I just went to sleep."

Harry didn't sense anything really amiss with that, stumbling out of Vlad's room blearily. Lily hissed as he left, but Vlad was sure the two would be reunited quickly. He needed to shower and change, as Bertrand would be able to smell Harry on him, and it was a moment he wanted to keep to himself - for Harry's privacy as much as his own. Putting food and water down for Phantom, he pulled out a shirt and trousers, rinsing Harry's scent off his skin and feeling colder, lonelier. Drying off magically and dressing quickly, Vlad made sure his backpack was as well stocked as ever, made a mental note to request anti-nausea potions from Snape and scooped up the two familiars, heading downstairs.

The Potions professor was one step ahead of him, placing potion vials in front of Vlad, Ingrid and Bertrand. "I am not so affected, and apparently neither is Mr Potter. They should last until lunch, I have more for future trips if you continue to suffer adverse effects from the Gringotts carts." Drinking it down gratefully, it tasted horrendous but washed away easily enough with pumpkin juice and porridge. Harry looked relieved to find Lily looped around the back of his usual dining chair, hissing in greeting and eyeing Vlad oddly for a second. Hoping his eyes said "I didn't tell anyone you slept in my bed", Vlad kept his eyes on the table until they were ready to reach for the timed portkey again.

The potions definitely helped, as all three vampires were visibly less winded by the hurtling carts and breakneck speeds, and they cleared two more vaults with very little work. "This one can go to my vaults, I'm quite fond of most of these paintings and sculptures. I may decide to redecorate Malfoy Manor. The other vault is full of gaudy, tacky nonsense. My mother should enjoy it." Snorting into his hand at the way Draco maintained a straight face as he said that - he took the gold for himself from every vault so far, there was one automatically assigned to Narcissa, plus her allowance for being the Malfoy wife - Draco had no say in that, any more than she could stop his inheritance and it didn't really make a dent in the obscene fortune he now controlled.

The next vault they visited had a dragon guard, and Harry refused point blank to even pick up the clanger, and Vlad followed his lead. This dragon didn't even blow flames at them, sniffing the air and if Harry had to put words to it, he would say this dragon recognised him. Perhaps they could hear each other, communicate in these deep caverns. Hissing quietly at the dragon, it relaxed further under the soothing sounds. "That's so cool, that they seem to understand you." Vlad was watching, wide eyed and awestruck and not treating Harry any differently for them having slept in the same bed, Harry clinging to his vampire friend even in slumber and with the growing suspicion Vlad was gay, since he had never so much as looked at a girl.

Shaking away the memory - if Vlad could push it aside, so could he - Harry hissed out thanks at the dragon, and followed the others into the next vault. "Ok, I'm starting to think we could fit Hogwarts into some of your vaults." The vault was enormous, high up and lined with literally dozens of bookcases. "We are not going through every book, either shrink the bookcases down or use the organising spell to separate them." Vlad actually sulked at Draco, but Vlad and Severus shrunk down the bookcases and stacked them carefully in a trunk. The other items were mostly jewellery, vintage clothes and priceless antique boxes, all of which Draco signed over to his mother.

Still enjoying the rush of cold air, he could feel the sun prickling heat along his skin when they stepped into the main reception room of Gringotts - in spite of the air conditioning spells Harry could feel blowing past them slowly. They stopped for lunch, and then the two adults surprised the four teens. "You four may amuse yourselves, Severus and I are going to investigate the more... fringe shops for some research material." "Knockturn Alley, you mean?" The two nodded, all of them keeping their voices down.

"A vampire and a Slytherin. Suppose they won't really question you being down there. How long?" Draco conversed with his godfather, agreeing to meet back outside the Leaky Cauldron in two hours time. "Oh, that reminds me. These are yours, and if you argue I have to fill in more paperwork. So deal with it." Everyone looked at Draco oddly, when he produced vault information in each persons name - Severus was unsurprised, and Bertrand had clearly been pre warned by his partner. Harry and Vlad stared at their new vaults, shaking their head at the blond boy. "You've literally seen my ridiculous amount of gold, and we are a) only half way through and b) not counting the business investments. I wouldn't have made it through this year without you guys, so just let me do something back. Plus, it means we can go shopping while they go doing evil stuff."

His godfather glared at Draco, but the blond boy shrugged and smiled. His grin widened when Ingrid kissed him on the cheek, pale skin flushing and Harry just knew the other boys in the dorm would hear about this. "Don't get too excited, she will still hex you all the same if you try and touch her." Vlad chuckled at Draco's flushing face - they both knew in spite of his typical boys response to Ingrid, it wasn't her the boy had his eye on. Draco hadn't said it, but there were few secrets in the Gryffindor boys dorm.

"So, where shall we go?" Vlad prompted when they headed back out, noticing Harry's discomfort and waving a silent cooling charm over him. Gratefully smiling, Harry shrugged and noticed Ingrid was rather quiet. "We should probably go get some new clothes, so Harry can ditch the stuff that doesn't fit him and I'm outgrowing my casual jeans." Luckily, Draco knew where they could go for more casual attire in Diagon Alley. Ingrid instantly migrated over to everything black, though she picked out a deep, navy/midnight coat that admittedly suited her pale skin and blue eyes well.

Harry stuck with plain t-shirts, jeans and casual trousers for Hogwarts, constantly encouraged by Draco to actually use the frankly ridiculous amount of money he had given them each. Vlad fought more jumpers than anyone reasonably should own, and a couple of shirts in a shade of blue that brought his eyes out brilliantly, surprising Harry somewhat for noticing. Ingrid had similar colouring, so it was a similar comparison he supposed. "You should buy more green, you may not be a snake" Draco's words made him shudder inwardly "but it suits you." Vlad nodded his agreement, laughing when Draco picked out a t-shirt with a Slytherin emblem on.

"No thank you. I've picked out a green shirt, and a couple of t-shirts with green on. Now stop harassing me, clothes shopping is awkward." Shooing Draco away, they each paid for their stuff and the shop worker offered them shrinking charms, allowing everyone to pocket their purchases. "Still got an hour, lets hit Quality Quidditch Supplies. I want to check out the new Firebolt!" Vlad and Ingrid both rolled their eyes, but reluctantly followed the excitable Quidditch players. "Damn, this is a nice broom. Can I justify it when I'm not on the team yet?" Harry shrugged - he had no place to tell Draco he could or couldn't.

He could gently encourage his friend though. "Treat yourself, celebrate. You'll make the reserve Chaser on that broom alone." Draco wavered for a couple of minutes, then ended up going to purchase it regardless. Harry picked up a jar of broomstick polish, because he loved his Nimbus 2000 but it could do with some love. He caught Vlad looking at the Quidditch books, picking out one on the charms that went into the sport - flying charms on the brooms, the speed behind a snitch. That's what he told Harry was in it anyway - Harry was more interested in the playing than the way it worked mostly, because flying was amazing and exhilarating, and he was damn good at it.

"I need new scales, using them for potions and healing takes its toll." That was the most Ingrid had spoken to them in hours, though he had seen her talk to her brother. "I better get a new set then, keep one for Healing and one for Potions." Vlad ate up their remaining time in the store that sold things like telescopes and star charts, picking up a lunar calendar "because it looks cool" and the teens just about made the deadline time to meet their teachers/responsible adults.

"Apothecary, then back." Severus spoke shortly, leading the teens to the apothecary - helping Draco and Vlad fill their kits for Potions, Harry and Ingrid for Healing and choosing out several things for himself. Before they could even think about it, Severus was reprimanding them. "Do not magically shrink potion kits, it's bad for the ingredients." Vlad let everyone load their things into his bag, pretending to groan under the weight as though it wasn't charmed to be light. They got back to the Manor soon after, unloading potions gear and going to put their clothes away while the adults did... actually, Harry had no idea. Probably to do with the weird locket.

Vlad and Ingrid were nowhere to be seen when Harry was done hanging up his new clothes, Draco no more in the know until they tracked the Dracula siblings down to the library. "What are you doing?" Vlad looked up from the pile he was working on. "Organising that mammoth trunk of books. That trunk is for double copies, which there's quite a few of." Ingrid was organising them alphabetically, periodically casting the charm to reshuffle them as more were added.

"We'll organise them by subject and whether or not they are useful or illegal later. For now it's just making it a more manageable amount." Harry and Draco sat down to help, since they had little else to do until dinner and the grown ups were busy. The two looked surprised to find the four on the floor of the library, surrounded by books possibly even older than Bertrand. "A lot of these copies are valuable, I'll donate some to Hogwarts and sell the rest. Aside from the ones that shouldn't be found in my possession." Harry had a lightbulb moment for that.

"When the Weasleys come back, hand them over to Mr Weasley. He'll trust my judgement on you if nothing else, and he can get them dealt with at the ministry." Draco nodded at the idea, separating the donate, sell and dispose piles before a house elf appeared to call them for dinner. "We'll finish after dinner, leave the library as is Wink." "Yes Master Draco!" They did resume sorting after dinner, making a decent dent in the trunk and agreeing to finish tomorrow.

Laying in his bed, Harry was still surprised he had gone to Vlad in the night, but Vlad didn't seem to be holding it against him. Nor had he judged his friend for breaking down crying, or been offset by the new changes Harry was finding from Samael. Then again, they were best friends. Maybe that was normal for best friends, he had never had friends before Hogwarts.

Another round of nausea potions and clearing vaults later, Harry noticed Vlad and Ingrid conversing quietly out in the gardens while Draco took the chance to test out his new broom. Up in the air, away from eavesdropping range, Harry inclined his head towards the Dracula siblings. "Do you know what's up with Ingrid? She's been real quiet lately." Draco looked over, then shrugged and his broom jerked - the Firebolt was much more sensitive than his old Nimbus. "No, but then she's not exactly known for sharing. Vlad's the only one she opens up to, and even then not always. I don't know, I don't have siblings."

Harry could sympathise, being an only child. "Fair point. Vlad's the only boy in our dorm that isn't an only child isn't he?" Draco cocked his head, thinking. "No, Seamus has a five year old sister. Dean's a Muggle born, my parents only wanted a male heir, and you and Neville were both raised by people other than parents. I kind of see you like the brother I never had though, so there's that." The pale cheeks flushed as he spoke, and Harry carefully flew closer, wrapping an arm around Draco. "I can see that. I'm not calling Snape dad though." Draco shoved at him playfully, his face horrified when Harry pretended to fall off his broom. "Come on, I'm a seeker. I don't fall off unless I want to!"

When they next looked down, Ingrid looked to be comforting Vlad a little. The two disappeared indoors, and Harry realised it was nearing dinner time. The cool air racing past as they flew kept him from overheating, and as evening fell the air was less heated. When he made it to his room, a lukewarm shower later Harry was lay across his bed, hissing to Lily. "You feel more like me wizard, cooler skin and lower heart rate." It wasn't just his imagination them. "Yeah, I thought that too. The scar on my arm is coldest of all." Lily slithered along to the scar in question, wrapping around the widest part of his forearm, tongue flicking out to the ridged skin.

"I agree. The skin here tastes more snake like too. Scaly, like me." Harry wasn't about to lick Lily, then the scar to check so he took her word for that. "I'm changing Lily, and I don't know what I'm turning in to. What if this brings out a darkness I inherited from... him?" Lily slithered to his chest, cooling around herself to look at Harry with her surprisingly bright, inquisitive eyes. "You are not dark wizard, I can sense darkness. You are unique, but that would always be true even without Samael. If you don't trust yourself, trust me. We are bonded, I chose you."

Stroking the bright green scales, Harry smiled. "Thanks Lily. I'm glad you chose me."

-YDHP-

Should only be one more chapter before back to Hogwarts, but lots happened so hopefully you don't feel it's too dragged out?