And Chosen Two Year Three hit twenty followers! The same amount of people are reading each chapter as they did with Y1 and Y2 but less followers... WHAT IS THIS MAGIC? Do some of you just loiter and get excited when you see an update?
-YDHP-
"Try not to get attacked by that slug, ey Vlad?" Seamus mocked, as he had been doing almost continuously since their Care Of Magical Creatures incident involving a disagreement between the hippogriff claws and Vlad's arm. Vlad glared at their dorm mate, changing his wool too and from a slug for a few minutes while Harry tried. If Seamus' wool suddenly reared up and covered his face in slime, well, Harry didn't see Vlad do a thing. After a few solid hours of practice, drinking replenisher and practicing again, Harry was slowly getting a handle on his magic trying to make everything snakes. Vlad had been endlessly patient, waving his hand to change each snake back to wool and stopping Harry pulling his hair out in frustration.
Lily had nothing to offer other than to suggest Harry talk to Samael, but he wasn't lifting the suspended animation sleep for such a small thing - Samael deserved better than being woken for a few minutes only to be put back to sleep. "What are you doing while we're at Healing? Other than reading again." Vlad shrugged, fiddling with a stray thread on his jumper. "I have to go talk to Hagrid. See if its gonna be too dangerous for me to keep taking COMC. Like if there's gonna be a class where we get up close with a unicorn, I can't go." Harry nodded, understanding they were in the courtyard for morning break and Vlad couldn't say "telling our teacher I'm a vampire" outright.
The unicorn thing was interesting though, remembering first year detention in the forest and the weird burn mark on Vlad's hand. Little things started to make sense over time. Trudging up the stairs to Healing class, Harry actually enjoyed this one. Even if half the time they learnt about potions, but the different ways different spells could be used to heal the body were amazing. He and Hermione were paired up to practice bandage charms, used to splint broken bones either to straighten the bone before healing or if they weren't confident/competent to heal the bones themselves and needed a medical professional.
Madam Pomfrey only scolded them once for making the bandages fly around instead of wrapping neatly around the 'injured' limb, and they both got excited to hear they would be working on practice dummies with realistic injuries the next month - they weren't going to actually injure each other but some charms could only go so far on theory. "What have we got now?" Hermione rolled her eyes, pointing out Harry had his very own schedule to check. "Yes, but you have it memorized in three days." Grinning happily, Harry got his answer.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts. Now we've done a couple of simpler lessons, I'm hoping for a little more practical stuff. Lupin seems good, don't you think?" Harry nodded, packing his healing books back away - Vlad carried his books for their common classes, but now they didn't take all the same Harry actually needed his own book bag again. Though with the addition of the pouch Vlad gave him for his birthday, Lily didn't take up too much space when she wanted to spend the day listening in to his classes.
"How did it go?" Vlad shrugged, looking ambivalent about whatever reaction Hagrid had had to the revelation. Following him in to DADA class, Professor Lupin surprised them all by saying "You won't need your books, just your wands." He was stood next to a rattling wardrobe, which several students looked wary of. "Now, would anyone like to venture a guess as to what I have in here?" Hermione raised her hand, while Vlad was squinting slightly as he looked at the angry-seeming furniture. "Hermione?" Lupin was a strange teacher, wearing old fashioned cardigans and calling students by their first names - the others wore robes and called students Mr or Miss followed by their surname.
"A boggart sir." Lupin beamed, nodding. "Correct! Now, can anyone tell me what a boggart looks like?" Vlad had his hand up amongst a couple of others for that, and it looked almost like it took their teacher great effort to call on the boy vampire stood next to Harry. "Vlad?" The other students lowered their hands, turning to listen to Vlad. "Nobody knows, because when seen by any actual eyes it becomes the thing that person or creature fears the most. Thats why they are usually drawn as clouds of mildly intimidating smoke in books."
There was an intense stare between the two, and Harry wondered exactly what their animosity was. Maybe the teacher didn't like vampires, and if any teacher was informed of vampires ahead of time, it was the DADA teacher. "Correct. Five points to Gryffindor for an informative answer." Nudging Vlad with a grin, his friend lit up when Harry congratulated him for earning points. "Boggarts aren't affected by most charms or shields, but there is one charm specially designed to fight them. Without wands please. Riddikulus!"
Vlad didn't actually say it, Harry noticed - he didn't always need a wand so he might accidentally fight the floor beneath his lax hands. "Now, two things worth noting. Can anyone tell me the advantage we have over the boggart?" Hermione raised her hand quickest, getting called on again. "There's so many of us, the boggart won't know what to change in to as so many people will have different fears." "Correct Hermione! Take another five points." Hermione flushed happily, and as he looked Harry noticed she was standing next to Draco. He wondered how long until that became more.
"I once saw a boggart undecided on whether to turn into a headless zombie or a flesh eating slug. In it's confusion, it turned into half a slug. Not remotely terrifying. And the second thing to remember, what really finishes a boggart is laughter. When you cast your charm, take the thing you fear the most and turn it into something fun." At the realisation they were going to do this as a class, half a dozen students - including Vlad and Draco - backed away almost instantly. "If you don't wish to face the boggart in front of your peers, see me after class for a private attempt." Vlad, Draco, Neville, Hermione and two Slytherin students quickly moved aside, observing without participating.
One Slytherin student ended up at the front of the class, holding their wand up like a sword as Lupin waved his wand and the wardrobe door clicked open. A low sort of growl left the wardrobe, a sniffing nose followed by large paws coated in thick black fur crept out - a wolf. "Come on Blaise, make it funny!" Blaise held his wand out, hand surprisingly steady. "Riddikulus!" The wolf rolled on it's back, tongue lolling out and shrinking down to become a puppy as it wriggled. "Excellent! Parvati!" A sound like a whip-crack sounded and the puppy was replaced by a huge, blood stained mummy.
Its empty, hollow eye sockets turned to Parvati, then it's bandaged limbs started moving stiffly towards her. "Riddikulus!" The mummys bandages unravelled and it tripped over, head rolling off to boot. "Fantastic! Seamus!" The crack sounded again, and the headless mummy was replaced by a greenish coloured woman with floor length black hair, matted and dirty looking. Her mouth opened unnaturally wide, a high pitched wail filling the air - a banshee. A few sounds of encouragement jolted Seamus out of his shock, and his charm cost the banshee her voice.
"Justin!" The curly haired Hufflepuff boy stepped forwards, the boggart replaced by a huge snake that reared up, hissing angrily but the sounds made no sense to even Harry - this wasn't a real snake. As it bared it's fangs, the charm turned it into a huge jack-in-the-box, and Harry watched as it became a severed hand that scuttled along the floor before catching itself in a mouse trap, a huge rat that tripped over it's own tail and got tangled up, then a zombie that dropped all it's limbs and looked confused, but the next one made Vlad shake all over. Lavender Brown stepped up to the pile of pieces, and the boggart cracked again before standing tall, all pale skin and long black hair, dark circles under it's bloodless, red eyes and the thin mouth opened to reveal fangs. Sharp and pointed, and dripping with blood.
Lavender stopped dead, unable to work through the fear and Lupin intervened, somehow shoving the boggart-vampire back in the wardrobe and locking the door. "I think thats enough for today. Everyone take a piece of chocolate, and I want an essay on the strengths and weaknesses of Boggarts for next week. You six, please stay." Harry joined the waiting ones - he hadn't gotten a chance yet and would have waited with his friends regardless. "Miss Patil, kindly escort Miss Brown to the hospital wing for a calming draught." The teacher really was shaken.
The five Gryffindors were asked to wait in the office upstairs while the Slytherins had their turn - Harry suspected that was to keep their secrets more than the Slytherins though. "Any of you who wish to go alone?" All five shook their heads, led down and Hermione stepped up first. As the wardrobe opened, Professor McGonogall stepped out of the wardrobe, tutting and shaking her head at a piece of paper. "Miss Granger, you have failed every single class. Nobody has ever shown such poor grasp. You are hereby expelled from Hogwarts!" He saw his friend tear up, her hand shaking as she raised her wand. "Ri-ri-riddikulus!" The boggart started laughing, in a wholly unbelievable manner for their head of house, who threw the piece of paper up in the air and it exploded into confetti. "Of course I was just joking! You graduate early for such high marks!" It continued laughing, a little unsettling.
Hermione stepped back, taking the chocolate handed to her and sitting down heavily, wiping away a couple of stray tears. Neville went next, and Harry was intrigued. The boggart turned into his grandmother, who towered over him with a deep scowl. "Your parents would be ashamed of you! Worse than death they suffered, and for you? Waste of perfectly good magic you are!" Neville wasn't even fighting, his wand clattering to the floor and Vlad quickly summoned it when the professor pulled the crying boy away. "Draco!" The young Malfoy stepped up next, and the boggart split into two, forming his mother and father together.
"You're such a disappointment! Should have killed you when I had the chance!" "You cost me the chance to have more children, and this is how you come out?" Draco looked about to cry himself, but held up his wand and managed to say the charm with more conviction than Vlad expected. "Riddikulus!" His parents turned into monkeys with blonde wigs, scratching their heads and the boy actually managed to laugh. The boggart flickered, and the teacher congratulated Draco. "Excellent work! And rather fetching may I say."
The rest of their class seemed to have fairly... tame and normal fears, but the few of them who has stayed behind had some really dark fears. Only he and Harry were left, and Vlad knew what his was going to be. Offering the teacher a sort of desperate look, he asked Draco to take Neville to the Hospital Wing. Truth be told, Draco looked like he could do with it too. "They know about you then?" He pointed to Harry and Hermione. Vlad nodded, turning to face the monkeys currently chewing on their wigs.
Closing his eyes, swallowing thickly and trying desperately to think of anything that would make it better, Vlad squared his shoulders and stepped into the boggart range. It noticed him, turning and twisting into his most terrifying nightmare. Harry lay dead on the floor, blood still leaking weakly from the puncture marks on his neck but most of it had been drunk, a messy red stain around Vlad's fanged mouth. "No! R-R-R-Riddikulus!" The boggart changed again, Vlad on the floor while Harry held up a stake, aiming it straight for Vlad's heart -
A body his instincts recognised as Harry pushed into his side, shifting the boggarts focus to Harry while Vlad clutched his chest, fear still cold and rushing through him. The room fell cold, and Harry's screams filled his mind again. Struggling to look up, Harry had fell to his knees in front of a boggart-dementor, clutching his head. "Accio Harry!" It was a bizarre way to pull his mate free, but Vlad hadn't worked out how to stand up yet and he had to get Harry away from that thing. The cold feeling lifted and when he looked up, the wardrobe was closed again.
"Right. Well. No more practical boggart sessions for this class I think. Eat some chocolate, do any of you need to go to the hospital wing?" Vlad wouldn't let go of Harry, using his free hand to take the chocolate and cram it into his mouth. Maybe if he rotted his fangs enough he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever. "I wouldn't hurt him, I swear." He wasn't even sure who he was talking to, watching as Harry's eyes cleared and he looked around. "Where's the dementor?"
Letting his mate go hurt, but Vlad knew Harry would get suspicious if he didn't let him sit up. "Boggart. Your boggart was a dementor. How do you feel Harry?" Harry chewed on the chocolate held out to him, shaking his head. "Cold. Was I out long this time?" "Barely a minute or two. Your friend here pulled you out of the way, and the boggart is back in its box. Do you need to go to the hospital wing?" Harry shook his head again, standing up and Vlad copied without being aware he was moving.
"I'm ok now. Lets go get dinner. We have more chocolate in the dorm if we need it right?" Vlad nodded, trying to shake off the chill still settled over his bones at the thought of ever hurting Harry. "Right. We could probably even call the elves for hot cocoa if we wanted." Harry dusted himself off and looked around, then asked Vlad and Hermione to wait outside a minute for him. "Are you ok?" "Yeah, fine. Just want to talk to the professor."
Barely biting back a growl of frustration - what could Harry say in front of a werewolf but not his mate - Vlad followed Hermione out. He wasn't Harry's mate. And the teacher had not been anything but polite and civilised and actually a good teacher so far he supposed. Forcing the instincts back down, Hermione placed a hand on his arm. "Vlad, none of is expect you to turn in to a mass killer. I doubt the others would believe you were... you know, even if you told them." Vlad nodded, trying to shake off the memory of the sight. Harry came out a few minutes later, and the trio went down to dinner.
"So what was your boggart guys?" Vlad shrugged at Seamus, pushing his pie crust around his plate - his stomach was still in knots. "If we wanted to share we wouldn't have stayed behind. Some things are secret you know?" Seamus almost flinched, but the boy was rarely serious for long and started reliving his 'taking on' of the banshee. Harry didn't talk about whatever it was he had stayed to talk to Lupin about, and Vlad was half - let him have his privacy and half - tell me tell me tell me. Harry didn't hear either side of the internal debate, quiet the rest of the evening and the elves did bring them hot cocoa to the dorm. Hermione joined them, all thankful for the Friday night and bundled up in pyjamas against the sudden chill September had brought.
Harry had Quidditch try outs, which always had Vlad torn - watch Harry do something he clearly adored, but watch his mate fly like an absolute lunatic with utter disregard for the laws of physics. Still, the pull to watch Harry where nobody would be watching him was too enticing, and Vlad found himself surrounded by the first years who stared at the sky in awe. George had a book of Latin with her, open in her lap but otherwise completely unused as she saw them flying. "Must be magic!" Jacob and Jason were sat together too, "oooh"-ing and "ahhh"-ing when the older players pulled more daring moves.
Harry was miles ahead in skill and natural ability than the two others trying out for seeker, and Draco trying out as reserve keeper seemed to go just as well for him. Particularly on his firebolt, giving him unbeatable speed as he zoomed around the field. "Flying lessons aren't nearly as fun as that looks!" Bella was quiet but apparently a closet adrenaline junkie - Vlad could fly pretty well but he still thought Quidditch looked lethal. They all ducked as a bludger flew all of ten feet above them, a whoosh of Weasley twins flying after it and shouting greetings making the first years laugh.
The other first year boys - Matthew and Davey he thought but should check - were just as star struck, all declaring they would be trying out for the Quidditch team next year. Phantom cared little for Quidditch, stretching out in a patch of weak sunlight and purring when Vlad tickled beneath her chin. "That's it! Thanks everyone, I'll post the new line up by tonight." Scooping up Phantom (he wasn't allowed to leave her on the grounds alone, though she often escaped there anyway) Vlad indicated to the first years they should head back. "Almost dinner, and you don't want to catch a cold your first week!"
Dropping his familiar off - well, she dropped herself out of his hands and scampered off to cause havoc - Vlad was joined by the first years again, listening to them chatter away about all the new magic they had learned. George moved up to let Harry sit with Vlad, cheeks flushed with cold air and eyes sparkling with the joy only flying seemed to bring out in his mate. "You were so cool flying like that! I want to fly like you!" Harry had apparently developed something of a fan in young Matthew, who quizzed him on flying for half the meal, barely stopping to shovel food in his mouth all the way until they left for the common room.
Jason was quiet, somber. "What's wrong?" "Jake said the other Slytherins told him not to hang out with me so much because lions and snakes shouldn't be friends. He's my brother, why does it matter what house we are in?" Vlad smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way, reminding Jason he had a similar situation again. "Not all of them are like that, but the whole house rivalry thing existed way before we were even born. Don't let them tell you who to be friends with, because when we leave this school house places will matter very little. Some just don't see it that way. If you like, me, you and your brother can go visit Hagrid again tomorrow, no lions or snakes stuff. Just cool animals and tea cups bigger than your head!"
Jason nodded eagerly, smiling again now. "Sounds good. I had better get started on my homework." Offering to help out garnered all the first years, and a couple of second years. Hermione could obviously smell homework in the air and joined their impromptu study group, practically glowing with the reminder she was actually brilliant, which some of the younger students actually called her when she helped explain their work to lead them to correct answers. "So shape first, then colour, then material." Jason noted down the 'steps', then set about applying it to his essay. "Correct. Transfiguration is one of the toughest subjects, but if you break it down in to smaller tasks you'll find it a lot easier."
Percy Weasley stopped by to congratulate them on helping young minds get into homework so early on, and George and Davey both fell about laughing when Vlad pulled faces at the head boys back. "He's alright usually, just don't mention being head boy." Ginny nodded in agreement - it was her older brother after all. "Is it true you and" the girl dropped her voice dramatically "Harry Potter faced a professor who had you know who possessing him?" Gryffindors were horrible gossips, Vlad had conveniently forgotten by now. "Yes, but don't ask him about it. Not exactly pleasant memories for us, almost dying and all." Her eyes were like saucers as she nodded, looking over to where Harry was loitering with the others waiting for the Quidditch team listing to be put up.
"Yes!" "Like there was any doubt, you're practically a bird trapped in a human body. Give him flying and he's never been happier!" Draco made it as a reserve from what he heard, Harry the seeker again and the other positions totally unchanged from the year before. "Do you play Quidditch?" Vlad shook his head, pointing out in George's book where she needed to learn what fertiliser was best for which plants. "For fun in the summer holidays sometimes, but no way am I voluntarily doing six am practices and flying in the wind and rain. And Hermione hates flying. There's no books in the sky after all." His friend tossed a balled up parchment at him, reminding him he spent almost as much time in the library as she did. When Bella was falling asleep in her Potions study book, Vlad pointed out the time. The others started yawning as if on cue, tidying up and clearing out of the near-empty common room.
Taking one of the best seats by the fire, Vlad smiled to himself. After years as a little brother, it was nice to help younger students rather than be the target of his sisters boredom. He loved Ingrid, and he was certain she loved him too, just let their father poison her into rarely showing it. "You awake still Vlad?" Harry prompted, and Vlad nodded up. "Yeah, just thinking. Mind full of first year work you know." Harry dropped down into the opposite chair, handing Vlad his pumpkin juice flask with a wink that made Vlad's stomach flutter. "Sorry I was a little... secretive, I just don't want anyone else knowing. Professor Lupin said he'll help me learn to fight Dementors after Halloween, he's too busy before then."
Trying to act understanding and not angry on some level that Harry didn't know he was in danger with the werewolf, he countered his own thoughts with what his boggart had become. Harry brought it up too then. "Is your worst fear really hurting me? Or me you know... staking you?" His voice was low enough to be hidden by the crackling flames, kept lit until the common room was totally empty, and there were only two older students finishing a game of Exploding Snap in the corner.
"You're my" he could say it, tell Harry right now he was his mate and Vlad could no sooner hurt him than Bertrand could eat garlic bread " best friend, and I hate what I am. Of course I'm terrified." Swallowing pumpkin juice to clear the lump in his throat, Vlad found himself pulled to his feet and Harry hugging him. "I trust you. Just keep your teeth to yourself." Heart doing backflips, Vlad nodded when Harry released him. "It's getting late, best head up." Following Harry, Vlad shivered inwardly. He wouldn't tell Harry, he couldn't. Then he really would lose his best friend.
-YDHP-
Have a nice (little bit) early update!