I'm kind of amusing myself talking about how warm it is in summer for our boys, because if like me you're British, you'll know we are currently having thunderstorms instead of sunshine.
Also, as a side note - I was chatting to one of the readers about this story, and he asked why the basilisk venom thing is a slow process. If you too, are wondering that, in the first draft of that Chamber chapter, it was supposed to do something immediately, but when I was reading up on the HP Wikia about them, there was something about it having long lasting effects if you don't die from the bite. And that inspired me to string it out more. (i love when people inbox me on here, almost as much as I love reviews!)
-YDHP-
"Last three vaults. Then you can sever ties to your mother completely, all legal obligations fulfilled." Draco nodded up at his godfather, chewing on some scrambled eggs. Vlad was still on edge, his skin still highly aware Harry had been wrapped around him before, but his mind full of Harry smiling and wrapping his arm around a blushing Draco.
Harry not being gay would be one thing, but Vlad wasn't sure he would ever be able to cope if Harry did date guys but just wouldn't look at Vlad. It was unfair of him, he knew that, but the mating instincts didn't care about fair. Ingrid had admitted she had felt 'the pull' - the feeling they got when they realised. She wouldn't tell him who, and he wouldn't push her. It could be anyone really, the call didn't always start the first time they met their mate - it had taken over a year for his instincts toward Harry to awaken, and even then he was pretty young for it to happen.
Hermione had written in their linked journal the previous night, and Vlad had got Harry to send Hedwig with the portkey to Malfoy Manor to her home - they would be back from the first vacation the following day (they had visited her grandparents, but they were going to France in a couple of weeks), and she wanted to visit. He had written all the instructions in their journal, so even were the letter intercepted, nobody would know what it was for and how the portkey would work. That may have been paranoid of him, but the portkey was illegal and Vlad's powers not public knowledge, so both should be treated with care.
"Everyone ready?" Snape stood, holding the timed portkey while Bertrand was prepared for the sunshine and the vampires took their nausea potions. "Yeah, lets go." This would be their last trip to Diagon Alley until their Hogwarts letters arrived, though Vlad and Ingrid still had a couple of days at Malfoy Manor afterwards before they had to head back to Stokely. The first vault was something of a sticking point, full of things that felt like they shouldn't be there. Draco deliberated over it for a while, then agreed to request aurors raid the vault and remove anything dark. That meant they were waiting around for an hour until aurors could make it, and Harry hid out under his invisibility cloak - the goblins didn't care for aurors, and would not likely say anything.
"You realise possessing these items is a crime young Malfoy?" Draco looked concerned, but Snape and Bertrand quickly pointed out Draco didn't own these - his father had, and as soon as he found the items, Draco had reported them. "Take them away, I don't want this stuff attached to my name or my vaults." This meant the aurors insisted on hanging around to see the last two vaults, casting scanning spells all over the place before they were satisfied enough to leave with their pile of items to sort. Bertrand nodded to say they were safe, and Harry reappeared from under his cloak. "Why did I have to hide?" He grumbled from next to a pile of clearly hand crafted mirror frames, which Draco had amused himself at Bertrands lack of reflection in.
"Because while we aren't specifically hiding you, the aurors would want to know why you're here. Easier to get rid of them." Vlad tried to placate his friend, who eventually shrugged and went back to sorting through a pile of leather cases. "Some of these have potions vials in, not that I'm mad enough to open the stoppers." They, like many things, went into Vlad's backpack, cushioning spells layered to ensure they didn't break in there while they finished working. By the time they were done with all three final vaults, it was well past lunch and Ingrid was close to hexing them if they didn't get out soon so she could eat.
Draco happily signed off the last of the paperwork, now solely in control of his own vaults, though as his guardian, Severus Snape would have to sign off on any purchase over a certain amount or of controlled or rare magical items. "You're a free man Draco. Now lets get food before Ingrid kills us and eats us." Draco chuckled, relief clear in the relaxed set of his body. They stopped off at a sweet store in Diagon Alley for a stockpile of junk food, then portkeyed back to Malfoy Manor.
"You may have the afternoon and evening off, but tomorrow morning will be an hour of homework, and two hours potions practice. Miss Granger is not due until the afternoon, yes?" Snape informed them over lunch, leaving them to finish sorting the last of the books after confirming Hermione was due after lunch the next day. Ingrid had to make a decision about continuing with potions after this year - she would transform on her sixteenth birthday, and that was before the end of fifth year for her. It would be for him too, but that was almost three years away for him.
They spent the evening after dinner in Draco's room - he doubted many would believe Ingrid willingly got into a pyjama party with three Gryffindor boys - eating sweets and talking about Sirius Black, and stopping Phantom stealing the cauldron cakes. "So this guy killed thirteen people? And escaped from the inescapable prison?" Draco was the only one raised in the magical world, and so he was the fountain of information on the matter. "Yeah, blew up a street and killed twelve muggles and a wizard. One of his best friends at school." Vlad watched as his friends shoulders tensed, wondering what more there was.
"Who was the friend?" "Peter Pettigrew. He went to school with Black. And..." They were all on tenterhooks as they waited, Vlad's mind making connections as the grey eyes flicked to Harry. "He went to school with your dad too. Was his best man at their wedding. He's... he's technically your godfather." Harry bolted out of the room, and Vlad gave it half a minute before he went after him, but Harry was already coming back. "You got that newspaper?" Draco called an elf to fetch the issue of the Daily Prophet, the one with Blacks face splashed across it.
Harry dropped the photo album Vlad had asked Hagrid to make on the bed, spreading the paper out next to it. "Wow, Azkaban really makes a difference." It wasn't easy, but they could see just about that the hollow, screaming man in the paper was the laughing, handsome wizard stood next to Harry's father in a wedding photo. "What aren't you telling me Draco? There's more." Vlad and Ingrid watched on in amazed silence as Draco's shoulders shook, looking terrified of Harry's reaction.
"He got your parents killed. He was the secret keeper - it's a thing called a Fidelius Charm, where you hide a secret inside a person, so only they can divulge it. It's like binding the secret to your very soul. Sirius Black was the secret keeper for the Potter home, so if You-Know-Who could even see that house, Black gave them up. Pettigrew went after him, accused him of getting his best friends killed and Black blew him up. Hold on" Draco disappeared, leaving the Dracula siblings with a shaking, silently crying Harry staring at Sirius Black next to his parents.
"Here. Original newspaper article. My father kept it, death eaters turning James Potters best friend was practically celebrity news to them." Vlad leaned over to see it, the article talking about how the muggles explained it away as a gas pipe explosion - they were huge, it must have been carnage - and how Peter Pettigrew had a posthumous Order of Merlin, and all they found of him was a finger. "Blimey. He was laughing?" "Hysterically. Even as they arrested him. Didn't put up a fight." Harry was still silent, taking in this onslaught of information about his parents.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Harry's voice was hollow, rough and a brief desire to hex Draco for causing it spiked before Vlad mastered his instincts. "Because I didn't want to be the reason you look so devastated." Draco looked terrified, and it almost seemed rational when Harry growled, and several objects around the room started shaking. It was almost vampiric, and Vlad had to fight a kind of thrill before he approached Harry, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down Harry, you'll regret it if you hurt him." Harry glared at the offending hand, but didn't shrug him off and visibly worked to reign himself in.
"I'm going to bed. I need... I need to try and get my head around all this." It was brave, Vlad thought, of Draco to stand up and speak again when Harry turned around. "Purple vial in the bathroom cabinet is one dose of dreamless sleep. If you need it." Harry didn't turn around, but nodded shortly and disappeared to his room. Vlad was desperate to follow him, but Harry obviously needed to be alone. He probably wouldn't sleep that night though, worried Harry might need him again.
By the time he got back to his room, Harry was fighting tears. The man escaped from Azkaban had been directly responsible for his parents death. And Draco had known that, and never told him the truth. He understood, rationally, why Draco had hid this. But rationality was not strong right now. He could feel it, emotions bubbling hot beneath his skin and he had made Draco's room rattle. He hadn't had much uncontrolled magic since he started at Hogwarts, not like Vlad. Maybe Hermione would know something - he looked forward to seeing her, someone free of vampires and sleeping together and secrets. For once, Harry craved a little normality.
He had picked the dreamless sleep vial out of the cabinet, but he hadn't taken it yet, rolling the little glass tube in his hand and watching Lily investigate the best places in his room to hang from. "Lily?" He hissed quietly, not wanting to startle her intense study of a coathanger on the outside of his wardrobe. "Yes wizard?" She stretched out her head, indicating Harry should retrieve her - he wasn't sure how she got up there, now he thought about it. Retrieving her and sitting on his bed, Harry tried to word his thoughts.
"Is it wrong to be mad at Draco for not telling me about Black before?" Lily flicked her tongue out thoughtfully, contemplating his question as she stretched out and coiled back up more comfortably. "No. But don't hold it against him, he has been otherwise very good to you. And the vampire boy has hidden things from you before. They act with your best interests. Explain why you feel angry, but let him know you forgive him." Lily didn't question whether or not Harry would forgive him, knowing it wasn't in his nature to hold the grudge.
Not totally aware, Harry ended up knocking on Vlad's door quietly again. He wasn't actually all that surprised to find Vlad still awake, the vampire boy seemed to always know when Harry would need him. "Tea?" Harry nodded, watching as Dobby appeared, vanished and reappeared with a tea tray. "Master Harry's favourite biscuits master Vlad!" the squeaky voice explained, and Harry smiled a little as he saw the iced snitch biscuits that were a speciality of the Malfoy house elves. "Thank you Dobby. That's all, sorry for waking you at night."
"No no, house elves prefer short sleeps multiple times. We get much of our cleaning done at night!" Dobby popped away then, leaving Vlad to make their tea - again, remembering the way Harry liked it. "You always know how to help me, even when I don't know what I need." Vlad shrugged, fixing his own tea now. "That's what friends are for. Did you want to talk, or just drink tea together?" Harry stared down into his drink, trying to piece together what he wanted to say.
"I can't stay mad at him, because then I would have to still be mad at you for knowing about who my grandfather is and not telling me right away. Lily set me straight, I just figured it couldn't hurt to have a cup of tea with my favourite biter. Except Ingrid, obviously." Vlad laughed it off, but Harry saw the flash of hurt and realised - he heard that plenty from their other friends. "I'm kidding. I can see she's attractive, but I don't drool over her. You might have noticed." Vlad nodded, his smile almost convincing. Searching for a better topic of conversation, Harry settled on tomorrow.
"You excited to see Hermione again?" The blue eyes lit up then, genuine affection for their female friend apparent. "Yeah. I mean, me and Ingrid go home in a couple of days and probably won't see her again unless we go see her for school shopping. So will be good to be here to see her. Hope she remembered to tell her parents Professor Snape will be apparating her back and not scream when she reappears in their home." Chuckling as he downed the rest of his tea, Harry shrugged. "I don't know, if Bertrand could apparate it would be hilarious to have a vampire drop her off in the middle of the day."
Vlad conceded his point, smiling around a snitch biscuit and periodically vanishing the crumbs Harry got on his bed. "Thanks for listening, and not thinking I'm weird. I'm gonna go take that dreamless sleep potion, I'll see you in the morning." Vlad got up as Harry turned to leave, but after he seemed to hesitate for a second the boy vampire headed into his bathroom. Harry let himself out, feeling relaxed in spite of not having actually talked much with Vlad. He hoped his friend forgave him for the slight about Ingrid, he must hear that all the time really.
"How are you so far ahead on your homework? Do you do nothing else?" Draco was surprised at how much of their summer homework Vlad had already finished, done with the Transfiguration, Charms and Herbology essays already. "I just like to get all my work done early, then I can do extra reading and I picked up some good books in Diagon Alley." Harry smiled to himself over his Transfiguration homework, watching Ingrid almost dismissively helping Vlad with his Potions essay. "If you do that, you'll blow up your cauldron. Always Griffin feather first, especially before unicorn hair." Vlad scratched out his incorrect writing, fixing his mistake and thanking his sister.
"Miss Dracula, you will be working on antidotes with me. You three will be working on simple first year potions, because somehow over the summer holidays every student seems to empty their brains of basic potions practice. Ingredients, cauldrons and instructions are laid out for you. Begin. If you require assistance, unless it's life threatening wait until I am done with whatever step we are on." It made sense for Ingrid to work on things like antidotes, taking both healing and potions, plus she was two years ahead of them at school, so Harry set up his work station and started on 'potion to cure boils'. He understood what Severus had meant, he hadn't totally forgotten but he was more out of practice on the simple things than he probably should have been.
Lunch was quiet and ravenous, their mornings work leaving the teens hungry and tired. Harry had all but forgotten their visitor when there was a pop, followed by "ugh, portkey" and then "Harry! Vlad! Draco!" all in one excited breath. Hermione jumped on each of them in turn, wild brown curls all over the place. She and Ingrid greeted each other casually, but not quite coldly, and then Hermione joined them in one of the conversation rooms to be filled in over cups of tea and various cakes and biscuits. It was almost grown up of them.
"So you don't know what the locket is? And this escaped convict was a Gryffindor gone bad? There's still almost a month of the summer left, what on earth will you find next?" Hermione had listened, clearly bursting with questions but she let them talk - a case of serious restraint for their excitable and curious friend. "Not sure. The grown ups are researching, and until then we are just working on homework and studying. You should see the amount of books we got from the Malfoy Vaults." Vlad and Hermione enthused about the troves of information rescued from the depths of Gringotts, earning fond and exasperated laughter from the others.
"Hey uncle Severus, did you find anything?" The adults found them in the library, showing Hermione the stacks of books. "We did. We are dealing with a horcrux. The diary was one too, the basilisk venom that destroyed it was a clue." Having next to no idea what Severus was talking about, they all turned to listen rapturously. "And for those us not traversing Knockturn Alley - stop staring Hermione, doesn't sound like a Flourish and Blotts book topic - what's a horcrux?" Hermione closed her mouth as Harry reprimanded her about to question their choice of shopping venues.
"It's an item you encapsulate a piece of your soul in. So long as the horcrux contains that piece of soul, you cannot truly die. It's like... an insurance policy. The fact we have already encountered two, and likely from the same wizard concerns me." They didn't have to ask - Bertrand meant Voldemort. It explained a great deal actually, Voldemort had survived the rebounded killing curse - which was impossible to begin with when Harry did it, but it certainly should have killed Voldemort too. Vlad was the first to recover enough to ask something. "Why does it concern you? Aside from the obvious."
Bertrand sighed and sat down, pulling out parchment and pen. "Excuse the crude approximation of a human soul here. The first horcrux would split your soul in half - or rather, utilise the split of your soul at the time. Leaving the body with half the previous amount." Bertrand drew a circle, which he scored a line through and shaded one hemisphere in. "The second one would include another half, but of the new soul amount." He drew a line in the middle of the unshaded half, shading in that one too and already, the whole circle was now only one quarter of what it had been previously. "If there are two, we can reasonably assume there could be more. And each one" he sliced the last quarter into eighths, then sixteenths "taking another half. As a member of the undead, I must admit even I'm a little unsettled by such a path to immortality."
Vlad pointed to each of the lines. "And each of these is what, a murder and a horcrux split right? So we could be talking about a guy with an eighth, or sixteenth of his original soul? That may say a lot about him, but he had to start whole so maybe not." Even the vampires - who had question marks over their even having a soul - looked a little offset by the idea. "Ok, creepy soul slices aside. Why is basilisk venom a clue?" Bertrand turned the parchment over to the blank side, scribbling his little soul circle and then a thick line around it.
"The horcrux capsule, which could be any object, is impervious to most things. We could drop Malfoy Manor and Hogwarts on that locket, try to cut it in half, set it on fire and submerge it in the deepest ocean. It wouldn't make a dent. It, and therefore the soul inside, has to be damaged beyond magical repair. Dragon fire, fiendfyre, both would work but are very difficult to control. Theoretically, the killing curse may work, but I wouldn't want to risk a rebound if we were wrong. Basilisk venom only has one known cure, and Phoenix tears are hardly an abundant resource. That's why the basilisk venom destroyed the diary."
The teens sat absorbing the information, looking at the rough sketch Bertrand had drawn. "Wow." Draco summarised the afternoon and evening well. "I don't think I need to inform you this information goes no further than this room." "And yet, Professor Snape, you tell us anyway." Vlad smiled at their teacher innocently, then turned to the pile of books they set aside to hand over to the ministry of magic. "I saw that word, I'm sure of it." He hunted through the stack, pulling out a book with near illegible writing. "It's got a charm to disguise the actual cover, I can't seem to remove it but can sort of see through it." Harry leant closer, squinting and he could kind of see what Vlad meant.
Severus took the book carefully, casting multiple spells that appeared to do very little. "Intriguing, it doesn't seem to be a spell, more like the book itself is protecting it's information. I may have to hold on to this." Draco waved him off, mumbling "I know nothing about it" but it was very unlikely anyone here would turn them in. "It's dinner, lets eat and rest and return to this tomorrow. After your morning homework that is." Severus' tone brokered no argument, and Hermione looked around 71st them. "You haven't finished yet?"
"We've spent most of the last week sorting out Draco's vaults while you visited your grandparents. Mornings for work, afternoons for fun." Hermione still rolled her eyes, excited at the prospect of going through the Malfoy library while the others did homework in the morning. He didn't miss the faint flush of Draco's cheeks when she hugged them all goodnight, before making awed sounds at her assigned room. The faint pink became a red stain on their friends face when - at least after Hermiones door was closed - Ingrid told Draco she was in no way giving up "the best room" to Hermione, ever. As Ingrid was in the Malfoy ladies suite, that was a pretty direct statement.
Their friend all but spluttered, but Harry never heard a denial in there as they seperated for the night. He did catch Ingrid giving her brother a sort of knowing smile, but he wouldn't be surprised if they had had a bet on the two and Ingrid was winning - she was like that. "Night guys." "Night Harry" was parroted back at him before his door closed, and Lily hissed in greeting - she was shedding again, and spent most of the last couple of days sleeping. He wasn't sure if it was a regular pattern of shedding for snakes, but then she was no regular snake.
After she was done bathing in her little snake bowl, she coiled around a branch in her tank and rested her scaly little head on the lip of the tank, keeping eyes on him. "You ever heard of a horcrux Lily?" She shook her head, so Harry elaborated, adding his concerns about why he could sort of feel the horcrux like Vlad and Ingrid had. "I doubt that highly wizard. You imbibed basilisk venom, so if you yourself were a horcrux, you aren't anymore. Perhaps part of the change Samael referenced has made you more sensitive, particularly to the energy of someone from your bloodline, who shares magical traits such as parseltongue with you."
He knew thinking he may contain a part of Voldemorts soul was madness, but it helped to have Lily confirm it. "True. Though it's supposed to put the container beyond magical repair, and we have no idea why my body healed itself. I felt that venom, it hurt. I was dying, and then I wasn't. I'm not waking Samael up to ask, that's not fair on him, but its worth considering." Lily yawned a little, or the closest a snake could do to a yawn, she may have just been showing her fangs for fun for all her knew, and shook her head.
"Then even had you contained the soul shard, the venom would have eradicated it. Not that it sounds likely, a human body is a poor choice of capsule for this horcrux from my understanding. Much easier to put beyond magical repair than an inanimate object. Not to mention sentience, that locket can protect itself but it cannot think, a human or animal can. Moreover, it can move and that doesn't seem logical for something you rely on for your immortality." Lily made more good points, but Harry was thinking of that pie chart soul Bertrand had drawn. If you kept hacking away at a soul, would it be stable enough to even stay together? It was getting deep, and starting to make his head hurt, so Harry swallowed down a dreamless sleep dose again, hissed goodnight to Lily and rolled over to let the potion work it's magic.
-YDHP-
Hooray for an update? I hope.