Jon - I did briefly mention at the end of that chapter - the AK didn't work fully because Vlad isn't human. I had that chosen back when Chosen One Shots was just Chosen. I figured since they are scared of pointy wood and garlic bread, I could give them a pass on the AK killing them? As for Harry making Vlad strip off to show the scar, the events in the graveyard won't be widely known, because nobody wants the vamps surviving AKs getting out - or Vlad being a vampire. That would be a spoiler, but that'll be covered in this chapter anyway. And finally, I can survive all the missing line breaks in the world for your wonderful reviews!
VampireHarry the 2 - thank you! And welcome to my big gay story!
Apologies if this update is a day late, but I've written like... 20,000 words of fanfiction in the last four days and my brain is fried, so I might have mixed up my days.
-YDHP-
His chest ached constantly, but Vlad only had to remember it was in place of Harry being killed by the curse to cope with the pain. That didn't stop him enjoying the pain relief potions, or being happy the bruises stopped throbbing in time with his pulse though.
"How you doing?"
His mate, beautifully unharmed from their near-death experience in the graveyard, dropped into the chair next to Vlad's hospital bed.
"I'll live. It hurts less than it did this morning. I'm hoping to be ditching this place tomorrow, I hate the hospital wing. Is everyone else ok? Wormtail had months, hell, he had years to gather intel on you, which means Riddle has probably worked out it was me in the graveyard with you. Did you find any books on Little Hangleton?"
Harry blinked as he absorbed Vlad's rapid cycling of questions, not wearing his glasses when it was just the two of them in the back room - there were a couple of sick second years in the main wing, so Vlad and his dark curse injury were hidden away.
"Yeah, we checked everyone is ok. Fred and George are keeping an eye on the map, the Minister for Magic is coming over tomorrow, and Bertrand and Severus are working on how to protect everyone at Christmas. Anyone Wormtail thinks we might be friends with at least, particularly muggle borns since their parents won't be able to put up wards on their homes. And yes, but nothing in there about the Riddle family except that they were nobles or something, and totally normal humans. I'll have to search for more recent stuff to find the connection."
Nodding, Vlad pushed himself to sit up properly. It hurt, but his back got stiff staying still too long - it was one of the reasons he dreaded future coffin sleeping. Harry stole some of his leftover pudding from dinner, grinning with chocolate icing smeared at the side of his mouth and Vlad had to look away to resist the temptation to lick the wizard.
"Can you get Draco for me? I need to ask him something, but Madam Pomfrey will lynch me if I try to leave."
Harry nodded, stealing more of his food and heading off, passing Bertrand at the door. Once it was closed behind him, Vlad knew the drill and magicked off his shirt. Bertrand's superior senses meant he could tell how well the bruises were healing with just a look, and apparently considering the depth of them he was on the road to recovery.
"How are you feeling, pain aside?"
"Harry's alive, the pain was worth it. However, I don't know how I'm alive. I told Harry it was because I'm not human, and he believed me, but I think I was more surprised than him I survived it."
Bertrand shook his head, keeping an eye on the door in case Draco or some nosy student appeared.
"It's true, Avada Kedavra curses do not kill a vampire. They would fail to kill a born werewolf too, though not a bitten, because they weren't born to be immortal the way our kind are. As you can see, your body still sustained damage, but no, a killing curse would not actually kill you. That's not a widely known secret, but as neither is your vampirism, keep your clothes on and the secret should stay as such."
The door knocked a minute or so later, making Vlad jump and hurry to pull his t-shirt back on, groaning in pain as he did so.
"Oh, hi Bertrand. Harry said you wanted me, he said he was going to stay and keep Hermione company so she didn't come and yell at you again."
The tutor nodded in greeting, then left Vlad to talk to his friend.
"What's up?"
"How much have you heard?"
Vlad wasn't really supposed to divulge this information, he knew, but based on who his parents were, it was probably very relevant to him and Vlad felt he deserved to know. Plus he needed something from the blond.
"Not much, everything's all hush hush and Harry said he couldn't say until tomorrow, but everyone knows something is off, since the dementor guards have been doubled."
Oh, Harry would love that. Still, he had been learning to fight them before, so Vlad hoped the foul things wouldn't be able to hurt his mate again. Realizing Draco was waiting for a reply, he focused back on the topic at hand and not on Harry. Mostly.
"Take a seat, this will be a surprise I guess."
Draco sat, and Vlad sort of wished he had a camera to memorialize the jaw-dropped gape of the usually composed Malfoy junior when he uttered the words "Voldemort is back".
"There's a lot I can't tell you, but you're the first to hear this after me and Harry got back from the whole soirée. Obviously you have to keep it quiet, Dumbledore is handling how the info comes to the public at large."
"Of course. What did you need from me that necessitated telling me before everyone else?"
"Wormtail has been around Hogwarts a while, he knows who Harry is friends with, and probably who's muggle born and most vulnerable. I wanted to ask how you felt about giving a few of them emergency portkeys to Malfoy Manor. Since that's the safest place outside of Hogwarts and Gringotts."
Draco agreed immediately - so long as Vlad gave him veto power over a list before anyone actually got magical ward-passing entry to his home. The list was small really - the first year Gryffindor muggle borns, the lion-snake twins, the Weasley twins and Ginny - their siblings and parents could all apparate nearby already, and the boys in their dorm plus Hermione.
"Thanks Draco. I would just hate to put people at risk because they were friends with us. I can't work on them until I get out of here anyway, and I'm going to see if there's a way to programme it to DNA or magical signature similarity, so nobody can steal them to get at you, or Harry. You are still ok with Harry living there right?"
"I probably wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you two, of course I'm happy to help out. It's hardly fair I'm the safest just because you and Severus warded my home, and I already told Harry - he's like the brother I never had."
Cocking his head, Vlad thought back to summer at Malfoy Manor.
"When did you say that to him?"
"Remember when we were flying, and you and Ingrid were looking at us like we were idiots even though you can both fly pretty well? It was then. Why?"
Vlad distinctly remembered that instance, when he had seen flushed cheeks and mid-air hugging and it had made the mate bond inside him thrum with jealousy. He felt much soothed now, finding it much easier to accept Harry wouldn't see him that way because he was straight - the prospect of Harry liking boys and not Vlad made his chest ache far worse than even the curse had.
"Harry never mentioned, but I think that was one of the nights he had a nightmare so he probably didn't get a chance to tell me. Doesn't matter."
Draco took his owl order form for a jewellery store in Recreation Alley - they were known for making pieces that could be charmed with protection magic, so Vlad hoped they would work for portkeys too and necklaces were fairly innocuous, so they wouldn't seem too suspicious. Thanking his friend again, Bertrand checked in on Vlad as Madam Pomfrey came by with his evening potions, but Vlad didn't take them immediately. He knew they would knock him out, and it wasn't curfew yet, so he was pathetically yearning for a visit from Harry.
When it got to an hour past their curfew, Vlad told himself to get a grip and downed his potions, blissful dreamless, painless sleep taking him away. When he woke, expecting his tutor to be patiently awaiting him waking up to check his healing, Vlad instead found Harry eating bacon and reading a book in the chair next to his bed.
"Morning sun... No, morning moonshine. You'll never be sunshine, too vampire and all."
"Morning. Shouldn't you be in class? What time is it?"
"Half nine, late for you but that'll be the potions. And no, Dumbledore told me I was to stay here with you in case anyone unsavoury - that was his word, not mine - came in ahead of the Minister today, to stop us talking about Riddle returning. So I have yesterdays class and homework for you, courtesy of Hermione, and we are not allowed to leave the Hospital Wing unless it suddenly becomes full of dragons or dark wizards. That was McGonogall who said that."
Sleep haze lifting, Vlad chuckled and reached for his morning painkiller resting on the bedside table.
"Guessing they don't know you could probably talk the dragon in to setting fire to dark wizards, with your snake tongue and all."
Harry offered to leave when Vlad had to get his bruises looked at, but Vlad couldn't help enjoying Harry's eyes fixed on him, regardless of the reason right now.
"They are starting to change colour, you'll find them going multiple shades of yellow and brown, but that's supposed to happen. How's the pain?"
"Beautifully medicated away, might even risk having a shower today."
Bertrand shook his head as he left Vlad to eat his breakfast, surreptitiously watching Harry out of the corner of his eye and feeling content in his mates presence. They worked on their Transfiguration essay until lunch, chatting quietly and ignoring the nerve-wracking idea of what was happening later that day.
Draco dropped in to talk to Vlad during lunch, clearly under orders from Hermione to check on his health and homework. He also had a book on connecting spells to people, brought in by Dobby from Malfoy Manor.
"If you need a book from the library, call Dobby when you're alone. He's the one who's catalogued the new additions, he knows it better than anyone. Except maybe Bertrand."
They shared an amused look, and Vlad quashed down some guilty feeling. The vampire was dating Draco's guardian/father figure, and it was clear he saw the vampire in a good light. He didn't hold out hope that everyone would come out of the mate issue unscathed, and he hated that. He hated even more that Ingrid or Severus and Draco getting hurt wasn't the top concern in his life - the lunatic after his mate took priority right now.
"Why Jacob and Jason? Their mothers a witch isn't she?"
Vlad shrugged, working on the list of people who would get emergency portkeys while Harry was out flying - with Bertrand watching him, just in case - that afternoon.
"Put it this way - if George was my sister, I would be taking bets that at least one of those two would be my future brother in law."
"Do these people know I'm a biter? Because the most obvious way to display the truth is the great big lightning bolt on my chest, but since mines a full hit and not a rebound, they'll want to know why I'm breathing."
"No, and we are trying to keep you quiet. I expect resistance, but the Minister must be informed."
Vlad nodded at the headmaster, grimacing constantly as he rubbed a bruise salve into his chest now he could bear the pressure for a few seconds at a time. The injury was still slow to heal, but Madam Pomfrey knew Vlad was itching to get back to class. Personally, after everything they had gone through with Riddle, Harry wouldn't have minded some time off class but he needed to learn, to train if he was ever to defeat his psychotic grandfather.
Every minute counted now, though he tried not to stress out Vlad while he was recovering from saving Harry's life. Because Harry knew, on some instinctive best friend level, that if he said that to Vlad, his friend would push through the pain and find some way for Harry to start training with his newfound wordless magic, or ways to destory horcruxes that wouldn't involve waking Samael yet until they were absolutely certain Riddle couldn't take control of the basilisk back.
"Ugh, this stuff is so greasy. And it's not even working! Instant healing my -"
"Mr Dracula." The vampire flushed, making Harry muffle a laugh in his hand as their head of house glared at them. "You were hit by a usually lethal curse, and you are healing, just slowly. Kindly refrain from dramatics I usually associate with your dorm mate Mr Finnegan."
Vlad buttoned up his shirt again, having gotten used to being topless in front of the teachers when they had all wanted to look at the second-ever survivor of Avada Kedavra. Ironically, he wouldn't be able to go shirtless around anyone else afterwards, because it was highly likely he would have a scar down the length of his chest in the same shape as Harry's.
"Not like I got changed in the dorms before. No difference except I'm secretly the bat-who-lived to your boy-who-lived."
Harry chuckled, downing the last of his drink now they were ready to leave for the headmasters office. He caught Madam Pomfrey slipping Vlad an extra painkiller vial in case the 'meeting' went on too long, knowing the nurse had an undeniable soft spot for both him and Vlad, and by association Hermione, Ingrid and the Weasleys.
"So, no mention of vampires, surviving curses... what about how we escaped? Neither of us can apparate."
"We used the portkey Wormtail used to get us both there. It's not like he's going to be around to dispute us, and I'm on too many potions to take veritaserum. Lucky for me Madam Pomfrey is under patient-healer privilege to not reveal anything about why I'm on any potions."
The adults all looked at Vlad in surprise, but Harry was used to the vampire having a speedy lie for almost everything. Vlad smiled over at Harry, looking remarkably someone who almost died and was now about to lie to the Minister for Magic. Then Harry remembered he had tripped the same Minister up the year before protecting Draco. Vampires may have some issues with authority, he mused to himself as they sat waiting for the visitors, sipping at an outrageously floral tea set (Bertrand looked especially hilarious with a purple and green monstrosity) to pass the time.
Bertrand and Vlad both looked over towards the door, a full three minutes (he counted, nervous as could be) before Harry heard the sound of the staircase grounding its way up and bringing the (supposedly) most powerful man in magical Britain. Dumbledore stood as the door opened, revealing Minister Fudge and four Aurors - judging by their dark red robes anyway.
"Albus, what is the meaning of this?"
"Ah, Cornelius, you know I would not have summoned you unless it were urgent. Please, sit. Tea?"
The headmaster was far too casual, as though they weren't about to reveal the return of the most evil wizard ever.
"No, thank you."
When Dumbledore went to conjure the Minister a chair, the most grumpy looking author stopped him and pulled out his own wand, creating a severe, steely gray office chair for each auror and a luxurious black armchair for his boss.
If he didn't know better (and he did, Vlad wouldn't be able to do telepathy until he transformed) he would say Vlad and Bertrand were having a silent conversation about which auror they trusted the least, one of the four glaring at Bertrand. Actually, he looked sort of familiar... Harry thought it might be one of the ones who had come to arrest Lucius Malfoy. The one Bertrand had terrified with his fangs. Hiding his face in his cup, knowing if he met Vlad's eye they would break down into giggles, Harry waited.
"So, what is this terrible and urgent business you called me for? You never owl me with good news, have you noticed?"
"You're a busy man Cornelius, I thought you would grow annoyed if I wrote every time we got a new unicorn birth, or the elves outdid themselves on a fantastic chocolate pudding. To business then Minister. Lord Voldemort has returned."
If there was a sound that Harry wished he could have recorded, it would have been the shocked, sputtering, wheezing and choking sound that escaped the Minister, like a firework display surrounded by balloons loosing their helium.
"I beg your pardon? This had better be a joke, though it isn't a funny one."
"I am gravely serious Cornelius. Peter Pettigrew kidnapped these two young boys, performed a ritual to resurrect his master and succeeded. These two were lucky to escape with their lives."
"Pettigrew? Pettigrew is dead!"
Vlad snorted into his cup, drawing a glare from the Aurors as he placed it back on his saucer.
"He looked plenty alive trying to kill me. Missing a finger, third on his... right hand. He hid in the school as a rat animagus for years, took his chance and portkeyed us from the shrieking shack."
"He took my blood" Harry held up his arm, indicating the faint pink line on his skin but covering the scar from Samael just above it "for some weirdo ritual, then summoned a bunch of guys with the mark on Pettigrews arm. They spent a bunch of time crawling on their knees for him, and Vlad grabbed the portkey and me, and somehow we got out."
The minister spluttered, looking between Vlad and Harry and clearly unsure how to demand they retract what he was not accepting. Especially Harry - he didn't want to be seen berating the boy-who-lived, after placing the dementors at the school to protect him only mere months ago.
"I don't... it's not possible."
"Oh, it's very possible Cornelius. It's more than that, it's the truth. Severus, would you mind?"
Harry watched as Severus stood, grinding his teeth in irritation as he lifted his sleeve to reveal the tattoo etched there. From what Vlad had said, the mark had darkened and moved when Riddle had activated it, faded massively before the 'return'.
"I'm aware you... defected, but as the only one with his mark here, you must be aware we cannot take your word on its changes."
Vlad was eyeing the auror at the back, loitering and watching silently.
"No, he's not."
"Excuse me?"
Vlad pushed himself out of his seat, face only slightly belying the effort it must cost him as he pulled his wand and aimed it at the auror.
"Apologies Minister, would you mind requesting the one with the charming smile lift his sleeves?"
The auror backed up, tripping over his chair and glaring hotly at Vlad.
"How dare you? First you make up nonsense to pull the Minister away from his important work, then accuse me? Insolent brat."
Vlad rolled his eyes, showing his lack of respect for authority as the Minister watched in shock - Vlad petrified the auror, who clearly wasn't expecting it as he offered no defense.
"Doesn't say much for auror training. Point that somewhere else, would you?"
Knowing his friend would do the same, Harry walked over to the auror with Vlad, placing his body between Vlad and the other aurors wands in the (perhaps) vain hope they wouldn't attack him. They both yanked up the sleeves, difficult with the mans arms glued magically to his sides but they eventually managed it. There, beneath Harry's hand, the mark was there, black and angry looking and identical to Severus'.
"I recognised his voice when he was muttering to the others, he was in the graveyard. Surprised he came at all, but then maybe he expected you not to believe him."
Harry grinned at Vlad, hoping to convey how awesome it was being friends with a genius vampire. He kept grinning as he turned back to the other aurors, who all lifted their sleeves automatically - clean, bare skin all around.
"Well, don't just stand there. Arrest him or something?"
Even with that, the Minister left denying everything they had said, complaining about madness and betrayal under his breath. Once they were alone again, Harry looked over at Vlad.
"You didn't hear him in the graveyard, nobody but Wormtail and Mr Evil himself really spoke. So how did you know?"
"I had to use the 'feeling' to find you, the dark mark gives off a particular... feeling. I never had anything to compare it to before, but after that and the graveyard, something about him set my teeth on edge, and he looked kind of annoyed when Professor Snape showed his. I'm guessing secrecy was important? Odd considering where he put the mark."
Vlad dropped heavily back into his seat, fumbling for his pain potion while Harry poured himself more tea, feeling calm as the adults stared at them incredulously.
"I thought your father and his friends were going to drive me mad, but you two alone are as much trouble as all four of them."
They both grinned cheekily, unashamed of themselves - they were good separately, but brilliant together. He was lucky to have such a great best friend. The adults mumbled amongst themselves for a couple of minutes, then they were dismissed.
"Mr Potter, escort your friend back to the Hospital Wing."
Harry nodded at the serious tone, swallowing the still-too-hot tea quickly and standing to wait for Vlad. Harry kept his wand out, but Vlad didn't need his - he only used it to ensure his 'abilities' were kept quiet in front of the Minister.
"So, now what?"
"No clue. I'm banking on Dumbledore making some kind of announcement, but there will be backlash. We need to warn the younger kids not to go around alone, again, and keep an eye on the older students, particularly the pure bloods."
The halls were empty, the 'meeting' timed for during dinner. The missing teachers would have drawn attention, but it meant nobody properly knew the Minister was coming to the school.
"I guess. Lets get you back to the Hospital Wing, and the magic pain killer lady."
Vlad offered him a short, soft smile, then grimaced again and nodded.
"Thank you Harry. For trusting my judgement back there, and just for being my friend."
Harry deposited Vlad back on his bed, then shook his head fondly.
"You saved my life, took that curse after managing to find me in the middle of bloody nowhere. I'll trust you to the ends of the earth. Idiot."
-YDHP-
Aww, my boys are so cute. And so dense.