Jon - you must have known! Psychic fans... I feel special. I know everyone probably feels bad that Harry is clueless, but I promise I have the plan for that completely set down. They are still only little bats remember! Not that your idea isn't adorable but I think it would be torture for poor Vlad (not that I'm any better to him, obviously teehee).

I'm much better at reading fanfiction than I am writing it! I still get surprised anyone reads my stuff, but I love writing even if I suck at it so I shall continue to toss this nonsensical babbling disguised as stories into the internet! I look forward to your next review, complete with Hermione stomping and corniness galore haha.

VampireHarry the 2 - thank you! I shall endeavour to continue this 'good work' you speak of, personally I think my stuff is 99% nonsense.

-YDHP-

Christmas was approaching, bringing with it Harry managing several minutes at a time where his eyes looked 'normal' to everyone, though he couldn't maintain it yet. But Voldemort was back, and Hogwarts was at a loss. The headmaster had made an announcement three days after they crash landed in the Chamber of Secrets, fresh from escaping Riddle and his band of madmen. Vlad stared in the mirror, his dorm mates sleeping, and traced the scar on his chest. It stretched mostly down the left side of his torso, essentially encompassing his heart and he actually loved that - he had Harry's scar over his heart, it was perfect in a morbid sort of way.

It wasn't a Riddle-reciever the way Harry's was, but it did twinge at times and he got periodic surges of agonising chest pain, mostly when he overworked his magic but sometimes for no reason. Madam Pomfrey had given him a couple of stronger painkillers than he could brew, and a list to Professor Snape of what, when and how many Vlad could take over the holidays, because there was no question they were going to Malfoy Manor for the holidays.

Buttoning his pyjama shirt back up, he sighed and went back to bed, about to draw his curtains around to read by wand-light since he couldn't sleep. His chest tugged, the way it only did for Harry, and he waited for the pained sounds of Harry's nightmares. Sure enough, a minute or two later he heard a shuddering sigh, a brief sobbing breath and Harry sat bolt upright, eyes flashing in Vlad's bedside candlelight.

"What... what are you doing awake?"

Harry hissed the words quietly, wiping sweat from his clammy pale face.

"My uh, chest was hurting."

Harry realised they were talking openly about a secret, slipping from his bed to sit on Vlad's, the usual drawn curtains and silence spells done in seconds.

"Let me see?"

Something about his mate telling Vlad to take his clothes off was impossible to ignore, both their wands lit to fill the space as Vlad unbuttoned his shirt, hoping Harry wasn't noticing his slightly shaky fingers.

"What was it tonight? Sorrow?"

"No. My mother."

Since the graveyard incident, Harry had frequent nightmares now - he took dreamless sleep sometimes but couldn't take it indefinitely. The worst was a chilling, vivid night terror of his mothers murder, knowing the colour of the spell, the face of his mother and now the face of his grandfather - her father. He always let Harry start those conversations, because sometimes he wanted to talk and others he would threaten to hex Vlad for asking. It sounded horrific, so he didn't push his mate.

"Yours is bigger than mine."

They both busted up in childish laughter for a moment, all the pain and stress melting from Harry's face for a beautiful, brief few seconds over the double entendre.

"Yours would have been up close and personal, concentrated. I was what? Eight or nine feet away at least."

Harry nodded, perhaps emboldened by Vlad constantly touching his forehead scar, his lightly tanned fingers stood out starkly against Vlad's pale chest as they traced the scar gently. Swallowing thickly, Vlad fought away the dreams he had where Harry would continue and things would get hot between them, but Harry took the sign as negative and backed away, leaving him bereft of his mates touch.

"You finish the portkeys?"

"Yeah, just need to put some unbreakable charms on the chains and write the password stuff, then I'll get them to everyone before we leave for Christmas."

"How did your dad take that you weren't coming home for Christmas? Again?"

Vlad shrugged, trying not to think about Harry's proximity to his bare torso or the angry letter his father had sent - even with Draco's gracious and brave offer to let him visit. That was when he realised the blond had known all along Vlad and Ingrid were biters, and just had never cared.

"I told him, Hogwarts is seven years and we're immortal. He can see me all he likes when I'm done learning to control this magic inside me."

Harry nodded, fumbling with his own necklace - unglamoured, just like his eyes and that was a rush, how Harry didn't feel like he had to hide with Vlad. If only he could be as open with his mate himself, but some things were better left unspoken. Like Vlad's body reacting in all sorts of ways it shouldn't, surreptitiously laying his pyjama shirt over his lap just in case.

"You should get to sleep. I've got dreamless sleep if you need it?"

Harry shook his head, face looking kind of tense and confused.

"Can I... Would you mind if I stayed? I can't take dreamless sleep again but I don't want to be alone. Sorry, that's weird. Forget I said it."

Harry was already trying to leave, and Vlad reacted instinctively before his mate could escape, gripping his forearm and feeling the tingle along his own at the feeling of Harry's cool skin against his palm.

"It's fine. Stay."

He was going to suggest widening the bed so Harry didn't feel compelled to lay too close to him, but the wizard was already lying down, leaving Vlad with little choice but to face away from him if he didn't want anything amiss to be noticed. Harry fell asleep within minutes, but Vlad spent about half the night shivering pleasantly with each warm breath sliding across the back of his neck. He didn't want to sleep all that much, just in case this was all some delusion and Harry hadn't asked to stay near him.

Lily woke them, slithering onto Vlad's bed in search of her wizard and fixing Vlad with an all-too-knowing stare until he turned to shake Harry awake. Harry looked so adorable waking up, sleep-ruffled hair and confused glances as he realised he was in bed with Vlad.

"You have a visitor."

Harry looked down to see Lily resting against his leg, hissing sleepily and stroking her scales for a minute or two.

"She said everyone is still asleep, I should escape before they think somethings up."

Vlad got no chance to protest, though he had no reason Harry wouldn't be scared by as the warm tingles vanished, leaving half his bed cold and empty. Once Lily slithered away and he was unobserved, he shamelessly indulged in the scent of Harry on his bedsheets for a pathetic few seconds, then dragged himself to the bathroom.

The others were just stirring by the time he was done cleaning up and dressing, the portkey pendants in his pocket as he headed down to the Great Hall. Phantom made an appearance, clambering up his clothes to bump his face with her whole head and purring. Giving her an affectionate stroke, she leapt off and barreled out of the front door when Hagrid came through it for breakfast, winning a booming chuckle from the large man who waved in greeting at Vlad.

"You're up awful early."

"Yeah, I'm a Ravenclaw in disguise. Shhh."

Hagrid made another loud, echoing sound of amusement as he strolled to the head table, while Vlad joined George at the table, the only first year awake at the Gryffindor table.

"When the others are awake, come find me outside so I can give you guys your Christmas gifts. I'm off to enjoy the snow."

George nodded, inhaling several food combinations Vlad was unsure about - bacon and maple syrup, porridge and ketchup all washed down with tea she poured some orange juice in to. At his perplexed expression, she grinned around a mouthful of eggs, thankfully swallowing before she spoke.

"Don't knock it til you try it!"

Grimacing slightly, Vlad swallowed the last of his pumpkin juice and waved at the Weasley twins, who were flanking Harry, on his way outside. They joined George at the table, and he amused himself imagining their reactions to her flavour mixing. The grounds were empty, coated in snow and it made him feel oddly peaceful as the snow crunched beneath his feet. Hermione found him there, holding a toast-and-bacon sandwich in one hand and a flask of tea.

"Could not watch that girl. Eggs and strawberry jelly Vlad. Jelly!"

Chuckling as he took a warming sip from the offered flask, Vlad hunted through his pocket for Hermione's portkey necklace. Hers was copper, a little open book with a witches hat on the pages. Not too ornate, but quite fitting he thought.

"It's your Christmas gift, but it's no good not telling you how to work it before then. You know I made Harry a portkey necklace, yes?"

Hermione nodded, beaming at it when he explained the whole thing and flushing when he implied she would spend a fair amount of time at Malfoy Manor anyway.

"Not interrupting are we?"

Jacob and Jason were both grinning cheekily, bundled up much more against the warmth than Vlad was - he had a warming charm cast on his Weasley jumper from last year, which barely fit now but it was standard December wear by now.

"No. Just explaining her christmas gift, where's George?"

"Here!"

The curly haired bundle of energy leapt up at Vlads other side, wide smile and cheeks flushed with cold, she was a ray of sunshine and happiness constantly. It was exhausting just to watch her energetic bounding sometimes.

"Right. I'm trusting you guys not to abuse these, they are for emergencies only. And christmas gifts, but enjoy an early gift. They won't work in Hogwarts, I can't bypass the wards like that" Harry's only worked because the Chamber was warded seperately and it technically belonged to the Slytherin descendant now "but if something bad were to happen, you and your family need to touch them like this" he wrapped a hand securely around Hermione's "and it'll pull you guys to Malfoy Manor. Which is warded very, very well."

George had a small sun charm, Jacob and Jason had moon and star. They each put the necklaces on, looking confused but happy.

"They have a second safeguard in place, in that they should only respond to either me, because I made them, or people you share DNA with. Just in case you were worried they could be used by bad guys."

"Why us?"

"You remember Dumbledore saying Voldemort was back? He wasn't lying. And one of his followers has been in Hogwarts, and since he's after Harry, we know he knows who Harry is friends with. So muggle born students, who's families won't be able to ward or apparate and stuff get these. You two, because you're like me and Ingrid and I guess I feel extra protective. So shush and use them wisely. Remember, they have to be touching the necklace or your hand over it."

He repeated this with Ginny and her twin brothers a few minutes later, adding that their parents and Percy could obviously apparate, but they were welcome to take refuge at Malfoy Manor too. He had given the twins identical cauldron charms, and Ginny had an owl, because he thought she would like it.

Vlad had gotten himself and Ingrid one, just to blend in. Ingrid had a bat, obviously - Bertrand had his own portkey for Malfoy Manor, and the vampire wasn't a necklace type. Vlad's was a phoenix, he couldn't place a finger on why he liked it. Aside from knowing Harry's patronus was a phoenix, but he was pretending that wasn't true for now.

"A Malfoy offering protection to Weasleys. Man Vlad, you don't half make the world around you weird."

A savage, brutal snowball fight stole the rest of their morning, a couple of cut cheeks on shards of ice healed by Hermione and Vlad cast warming and drying charms on them all as they went in for lunch. It was almost completely distracting from the knowledge Harry was having his morning tea with Remus Lupin, and the wizard still didn't know the man was a werewolf.

His chest started aching again, not too bad but it would usually get worse before it got better. Suppressing the urge to rub at the scar, he clung to the reminder of how he got it - saving his mate. It didn't do anything for the pain, but it always made him feel better anyway. Harry was alive because Vlad had this scar, any amount of pain was worth that.

Why? That was the question on Harry's tongue when he woke next to Vlad. It was a loaded sort of 'why' though. Why had he asked, all whiny and sweaty? Why had Vlad let him? And why did it help? Quashing the questions, he hissed a heartfelt thanks to Lily for waking him before they were found that way and escaped before Vlad could start thinking he was weird.

Remus noticed his slightly off mood, but Harry just shrugged it off and mumbled "Voldemort" to deter the protective professor. He nodded understandingingly, handed Harry the biscuit tray with a smile and turned the conversation to a tricky subject - Sirius Black.

Harry had accepted Wormtail had sold his parents out and Black was an innocent victim in that, but he was reticent to suddenly accept the man as his godfather. They hadn't spoken again since they found out Harry was a parselmouth, with his snake familiar, because Dumbledore had smuggled the escaped convict out before the minister for magic had come to the school.

"He wants to know if it will be alright to owl you? Only at Hogwarts, obviously, because I understand you need to keep your place of security just that."

Supposing Hedwig would probably like something to do with her time, and if he disagreed Remus would only keep trying to convince him, Harry nodded.

"After Christmas though, since we leave in two days and it'll be pointless to start before then."

"Of course. I'll pass on the message. Which reminds me, before you leave, Merry Christmas."

Harry had been thinking along similar lines, having made him a copy of photos of his parents and Sirius Black, complete with a couple of Harry that Hermione had taken with a disposable camera - and Vlad had known how to develop so they would move. Remus handed him a big box wrapped in gaudy wrapping paper with a wry grin, one that promised the gift wasn't so gaudy.

They separated for lunch, the gift shrunk down and placed in his pocket as Harry headed for the Gryffindor table. Remus hadn't brought up the parselmouth or Lily once, and it was a little unsettling if he was honest - he wasn't about to bring it up, but he was worried Remus was waiting for Harry to go 'evil'. And that was before anyone found out Riddle was his grandfather.

His friends were all flushed and grinning, talking about the snowball fight they had had and Harry spotted several now had necklaces on - he knew Draco had given Vlad permission to offer emergency portkeys in case of Voldemort attacks to their muggle born friends and the Weasleys.

"Don't worry, we'll pummel you with snow sometime too Harry. Promise."

Fred grinned - the Weasleys were invited for Christmas fun but they couldn't publicise that was where Harry would be. The knowledge he was leaving Hogwarts for the holidays was out as an undercurrent, to ensure Hogwarts wouldn't be invaded in the search of him while teachers were away for the holidays.

Their dorm mates dashed off for more snowball fights that afternoon, as though they hadn't spent the previous weekend doing the exact same thing. Vlad chuckled as he watched them run off, face falling when they were alone and his hand rubbed at his clothed chest.

"Want your painkiller?"

Vlad shook his head, he didn't like taking them too often and apparently it wasn't a terrible twinge. Harry checked they were alone before sitting in front of a small hand mirror, trying to focus on making his eyes look not-snake. Vlad joked it could have been worse whenever Harry lost his patience with it, pointing out he could be scaly like Lily and Samael. That was generally enough to calm Harry down with a laugh so he could try again.

"You got a handle on Parselmouth, and you've not accidentally turned anything into a snake for weeks. You'll get this."

Sighing grumpily, and getting a cheeky grin from his vampire friend, Harry went back to glaring at his reflection. He still couldn't get it to stay for more than five or ten minutes at a time, but Vlad was right - it was a lot of progress for a short amount of time. Giving up for the day before he got a migraine, he shoved the glamoured glasses back on as footsteps sounded outside the door, admitting a slightly frazzled looking Hermione.

"One day you're going to walk in on someone getting dressed and be scarred for life."

"Or giggly for days if its Draco."

Vlad ducked when Hermione threw a pillow at him, tossing it back more sedately for her to put back on Dean's bed. She was intrigued by Vlad's scar, the only one to know the full story of thr graveyard - they understood the need for secrecy, but Hermione was their best friend, they wouldn't lie to her. Vlad scowled but lifted his t-shirt agreeably, eyes fixed on the door to the dorm in case anyone walked in as Hermione stared avidly at his scar.

"It's always you two. Matching scars and everything now!"

"Any vampire would get a scar like this from that curse. A transformed vampire wouldn't even have gotten so bruised and sore from it. I don't mind it really, not like I strutted about naked before anyway. You packed for Christmas?"

Hermione nodded, helping herself to the christmas cake and flask of hot cocoa on their table - they were never short of food in their dormitory. If Hogwarts weren't full of so many staircases they would probably all be getting chubby.

"Don't forget your wand for Christmas when you visit. Bertrand and Snape have found a ward that'll block magical detection so we can keep practicing, and there's a proper training room there."

"Oh, good! Vlad can help me with Transfiguration practice, I can't seem to get the metal to animal ones properly."

Vlad nodded at Hermione, apparently giving up fighting the pain and swallowing his painkiller.

"You can help me with that Charms essay in return, there's only so many times I can write fire and ice charms cancel each other out before I'm just repeating myself."

Two days later, stomachs full of frothy hot cocoa and caramel waffles for the pre-Christmas holiday breakfast, Vlad and Ingrid joined Harry and Draco in Severus' quarters. Hermione was going home, so she could spend time with her parents first but all three would portkey over to Malfoy Manor in a few days, before they went back to go visit Hermione's grandparents.

They had waved off their first year friends and the Weasleys already, sworn promises of secrecy to not tell their parents about the portkey unless necessary. Severus appeared a moment later, his large potions ingredients case carefully placed into Vlad's backpack, amused noises at even the teachers utilising Vlad's cavernous bag being silenced quickly by glares.

"Let's go before Vlad starts twitching with excitement about the Malfoy library?"

Vlad glared at his sister, but Bertrand and McGonogall slipped through the door, Bertrand because he was coming along too, and McGonogall because she wanted to check everyone was together and ready.

"Professor Dumbledore created this portkey, which can take you both to Malfoy Manor and then back here again. Simply all hold it and say" the woman sighed, clearly at a loss with her boss "fizzing whizzbee to return. The password to leave is" she put the portkey down so as not to be taken away by it and rolled her eyes again "cockroach cluster. Enjoy your holidays gentlemen. And Miss Dracula."

The students were giggling at the exasperated teachers, who finished collecting their things, waved to Professor McGonogall and Severus ground out "cockroach cluster" through gritted teeth when everyone was touching the neon green plastic hula hoop.

They landed harshly on the grounds, and luckily Bertrand had thought ahead and gotten his sun protective charms done, because they had totally forgotten as he started smouldering slightly. The hula hoop got hung up by the front door, a swarm of house elves greeting them happily in high pitched voices.

"Everyone go and get unpacked and settled, we will convene for tea and a light lunch in exactly ninety minutes. Mr Dracula, kindly hand over my potions ingredients."

Vlad eased out the case of ingredients, enlarged Harry's trunk for him until the ward was set in place and everyone separated to their rooms to unpack for the holiday. House elves popped up to check if anyone had forgotten laundry for them to do, checking feverently that they had kept the rooms to high enough standards and just generally jumping for joy they were back.

"Master Malfoy was not a pleasant master, we is enjoying the young master and his friends much much more!"

Chuckling, Harry finished shelving his books, hung his clothes and decided he had time for a quick shower. Hogwarts was good, but the Manor bathroom was just... unbelievable. Taking stock of himself, stood in front of the mirror with a towel around his waist, the cut Wormtail had made was completely gone, the circular scar from Samael still there, still scaly and cold.

Without his glasses, Harry focused on trying to shift his eyes back but they weren't cooperating at all today. Scowling, he checked the rest of his face for changing, relieved to find he still looked mostly like the pictures of his father, no Tom Riddle showing in his face yet.

Dressing in some casual jeans and one of the green t-shirts Vlad and Draco had convinced him into buying, then pulling his glasses back on to cover his eyes, Harry reclined on his luxurious bed and waited to be called for lunch by a house elf. He knew dangers were waiting, but they were safe here and he was going to enjoy the feeling for a few minutes, before they added training in magic to essays and potion practice over Christmas.

-YDHP-

I'm so mean to Vlad... I should be sorry really, and I sort of am but I also love the little bits of tension that good old dense Harry is oblivious to. Because lets face it, even canon!Harry is as observant as a brick wall.