YokaiAngel - I cannot remember the last time I heard badass used! Thank you very much!
shadowcat200 - I can't answer to confirm or deny without handing out a big bag of spoilers for... most of year four? so you'll have to hang on for the ride! There isn't a set day, no. I aim to update weekly but I also sort of lose track of days of the week... If I had to pick a day it would be Saturday. Maybe Sunday... And obviously thanks for the review!
-YDHP-
Draco Malfoy was a werewolf.
Harry was still struggling to get his head around that. He couldn't imagine what Hermione and Draco were going through, and this was all on top of keeping it a secret from the rest of the school. Draco was jumpy, desolate and it was lucky the school year was almost over, though they were trying to work out how to deal with his first full moon. The only thing Harry found almost funny was that his 'brother' now ate like Harry - heavy on the meat, followed by a lot of sugar.
Professor McGonogall had given Draco the freedom to decide if he was going to tell the other three of their dorm mates, which was still an unresolved issue as they packed up for the Leaving Feast. Harry folded his clothes mechanically, an unopened letter from Sirius and Remus - Vlad said he had sent their professor to the other escapee - weighing on his mind.
"First day of the week. Drink this."
He looked up to see Vlad pushing a slightly smoking glass into Draco's unresisting hand.
"It doesn't work the first transformation. You know that."
"Hermione's orders. Take it up with your girlfriend. And my sister, since she's the one who helped make it."
Harry supposed that was as close to acceptance as Ingrid would offer - from a vampire to a werewolf, that was still a big deal. He watched as Draco sipped it, cringed and sighed.
"Seven days a month for the rest of my life. Allergic to silver! I'm a Malfoy, this is madness. Then there's the joy of tearing myself to shreds every full moon. Premature aging. Limited life expectancy."
"I said I was sorry."
Vlad was still carrying a metric tonne of guilt for 'letting' Draco get turned, and while Harry sympathized that Draco had every right to be upset about the turning, he probably shouldn't be complaining to the one who had stopped him being eaten alive. He caught the blond boys look of realisation as Vlad turned away, shoulders set in a hard line.
"You know I don't mean that. You didn't put me in that clearing, and you certainly didn't have to come and save me."
"So you've said. I still wasn't fast enough to stop it happening."
Neither got chance to say more before Vlad left, though Harry would bet his Cloak Vlad was waiting in the common room for Harry anyway. Draco watched after him, downed the rest of his Wolfsbane potion and left the cup on the middle table for the house elves to pick up. It was still smoking slightly, even empty ad Draco swallowed some pumpkin juice from the nearest bottle.
"That was gross. Unfortunately, any sort of labouring or sugar has been found to make it useless. Alas, we should get going before Vlad has a coronary down in the common room. You all packed?"
"Yep, just Lily's tank but she's currently sleeping in it."
Tonight's pyjamas and tomorrows clothes were each folded on top of their trunks, as they weren't leaving until the morning. Flipping open the Marauders Map, Harry gave the route to the Feast a cursory scan to check for the students out for him. Most of them were already near or in the Hall for now, and the ones not present were... in Severus' quarters.
Harry did muse the man had been exceptionally uptight lately, even more so than usual. It could well be put down to his adoptive son almost dying, and permanently afflicted with a chronic... disease wasn't the word, but Harry wasn't sure calling it a curse was fair on Draco. Or Remus. Who Harry was still ignoring the letter from. Which was a little daft, because Harry had taken two weeks to write to him to begin with, and had only managed to write "you're a werewolf?".
He understood Vlad not telling him, even though the vampires had to have known since the Hogwarts Express. It wasn't his secret to share. Remus Lupin had no excuse, especially after his song and dance about Vlad being a vampire.
"Harry? You unpacking up there or something? Everyones gone down."
He checked - even Vlad was on his way down to the Great Hall, accompanied by first year lions. Checking his Cloak was tucked into the charmed pocket of his jumper, Harry wiped the Map and pocketed it.
"Sorry, I was doing a hazard check. All good. Let's go."
Draco gave him a bemused look, rubbing at his left forearm where the bite would scar forever. No magic could heal it, and concealing charms would wear off faster due to the 'cursed' nature of the scarring. When they were discussing that in the Hospital Wing at Draco's check up, Ingrid had smacked them both around the head, then proceeded to use her muggle make-up collection to conceal it almost flawlessly. When the thicker ridges of tissue were stretched out flat as Draco grew, he could probably completely cover it.
If only all the effects of that night had been so easy to deal with.
Vlad went trekking through the Forest with Hagrid several times, cleaning up the argentalium powder and checking for further traps. He also went to befriend the Thestrals that had saved all the innocent lives that night. Harry had gone a couple of times, and Vlad had mocked Harry for watching the raw meat Thestrals ate with a longing look. He stopped going after that, satisfied Vlad could take care of himself against some relatively tame creatures if he had handled six werewolves.
"Congratulations to you all for surviving your exams this school year, and for the efforts made towards unity. I urge this attitude to continue the next school year also. Please continue to excercise caution, particularly against threats outside these walls."
The Headmaster may as well have said 'don't get killed by Voldemort', but the message was clear all the same.
"Strive to stick together, each and every one of you. Those who seek to break us can only do so if we allow it. And now, on to the Feast!"
Feeling a little like he was reeling from whiplash at the sudden topic changer, Harry watched as food materialised before their eyes. Vlad was still low judging by the way he picked at his vegetables, but Harry and Draco's appetites knew little limit and they both ate far, far too much.
"Honestly, I don't know where you put it all. Even Mr Posh has picked up your wolfing down everything in sight. He does have slightly better manners though."
Dean pointed out, and there was a very tense moment where Draco choked as he said the word "wolfing", which was played off shakily by the blond saying - hoarsely, after coughing up a potato - that he that he didn't realise he was 'Mr Posh'. Dean sheepishly returned his interest to his burger, and everyone tried not to notice George spreading blackberry jam on her steak. Harry didn't understand her at all. And she had ruined a perfectly good steak.
"George, seriously?"
"What? People put apple in sausages. That's properly weird."
Jason looked perplexed, but laughed shortly after a few seconds. The twins were still quite unsettled by their adventures, and had a whole new hero worship for Vlad. Left confused by her bizarre logic, everyone went back to ignoring George and her strange food habits.
His dreams about Solace Slytherin had not gone, but most of them had been fairly tame so Harry had taken the last two weeks dreamless sleep free. Even if he had still ended up seeking Vlad out in the early hours twice. Vlad never complained, never let on to the others and always kept his curtains closed. Still, his dream that night was utterly unsettling in a whole new way.
"What do you mean, the Malfoy boy lives?"
"I mean, My Lord, your plan to have him before the wolves out on the full moon was successful. However, respectfully, the fact the youngest vampire could cross the line was unaccounted for. And Greyback lured the children out too, drawing further attention to us and our plan."
"Crucio!"
He watched dispassionately as the underling twisted and screamed in pain. Vladimir Dracula was becoming a serious threat to his patience. Though invisible, he had suspicions about Potter's survival of the Killing Curse being down to the vampire boy taking the hit. Or there was more to the irritating urchin who had evaded his grasp... No. He didn't miss things. Impossible.
"The vampire boy shows promise. Leave his sister be, as undoubtedly an attempt on her would drive him further away. If we turn him, then Harry Potter will be mine solely through cunning. Brute force is so uncouth. Order the Hogwarts students to keep watch on Potter and the Draculas, but not to outright attack. I have plans. Stress my displeasure for orders not obeyed. Dismissed."
The morons hanging on his every word scattered, and he summoned Greyback to him. The beast had some utility, blood thirsty and soulless, but he was at best a rabid dog who could use a wand.
"My Lord?"
"Crucio!"
Even in human form, his sounds of pain were howls. He held the curse for longer than usual, savouring the agony beneath his wand. Eventually he had to stop before the half breed became little more than a drooling sap.
"I warned you Greyback, to follow the plan. So why am I hearing that the attack on the Malfoy boy was interrupted, discovered even, because of your idiocy and gluttony?"
"I c-c-can't h-help myself, My Lord. Children are j-j-just delicious."
The tremors wracked him, but even through the pain it was clear he was thinking of getting to feast on the flesh of a young human.
"I t-turned the Malfoy boy."
"Oh? And yet you failed to kill him? Crucio!"
More agonised howls. Pushing just past the edge of most humans endurance, he released the curse again.
"The D-d-dracula boy." Gasps for air, then a wet spitting sound as the werewolf coughed up blood. "He set my head on fire, then burned me with s-s-silver. The response to escape was instantaneous. I-I-I realise my failure was unforgivable all the s-same."
Tracing one pale finger around the carved wooden detail of his thrones armrest, Voldemort contemplated the words. Greyback was too easy really, excessive pain and empty promises and he jumped at the chance. Snapping his fingers, a fresh set of robes were tossed next to the trembling wreck on the floor. Only the amusing images and explanation for the new burns kept Greyback alive that night.
"Do not fail me again. Leave."
Why was he surrounded by idiots? He needed a better class of follower. While the vampire plan slowly laid itself out, he turned his attentions elsewhere. When the time was right, he would go for his best lieutenants.
Shaking, sickened and feeling the phantom pains of the Cruciatus curse, Harry woke in quite a state. When he inevitably ended up seeking Vlad, the other boy was still awake, staring up at the canopy of his bed until Harry's face appeared through his curtains.
"Bad dream?"
"Riddle. Cruciatus."
Vlad knew Harry felt the curse when it was used in his dreams, reaching to his bedside table for a painkiller. After a second, he also pulled out a dreamless sleep. Harry was resistant but Vlad eventually coaxed it down his throat, and Harry was asleep almost before he was horizontal again.
"Where's Harry?"
"I don't know, it's too early for thinking. Breakfast!"
Harry really needed to start closing his bedcurtains, so their dorm mates wouldn't wonder where he was constantly. Groggy with the sleep potion, he found Vlad looking far too alert for the morning hour, clearly waiting for him to wake up - Harry was lying half across him. Cheeks heating slightly as he constantly invaded his friends space, Harry rolled over to free Vlad.
"Seamus was up and dressed before Vlad. Isn't that a sign of the apocalypse?"
"Hilarious Neville. I struggled to get to sleep last night."
Harry lay awkwardly hiding until Vlad reappeared, dressed and with Lily wrapped around his neck.
"Rooms clear. I'll pack her tank and wait for you in the common room."
"Wizard, the vampire is insistent I relocate to his backpack with the furball."
"It's only for breakfast Lily, we're leaving today remember? Anyway, Phantom is always warm."
His familiar huffed, then slunk down along Vlad's arm. At Harry's nod the vampire produced his backpack from the side of his bedside table, which Phantoms furry head was visible in. Lily slithered in, definitely larger than the start of the school year as Vlad joked he may have to increase the enlargement charms.
"Is the vampire insulting me?"
"No, he's complimenting your growth spurt. Go to sleep Lily, I'll be back after breakfast."
As he dressed, Harry realised he actually had some muscles now. Not a lot, but all the Quidditch and eating and puberty seemed to finally be doing something for him - the shirt he put on fit snugly around his arms, rather than hanging slightly loose on his matchsticks like before.
"Are you sewing up there? Come on, we're the only Gryffindor students up here. Rumours will be rife."
"Be honest Vlad, they already are."
But they aren't true. I want them to be.
Vlad felt the ache in his chest, passing it off as his scar when Harry came down to find him swallowing a painkiller. He had seen Harry thinking he had been preventing Vlad leaving his bed that morning. He had, but not physically. Vlad just couldn't bring himself to move an inch when his mate looked so beautiful curled up against his chest. It was lucky Harry was out of it on dreamless sleep, or he probably would have noticed Vlad's heart doing backflips.
"Look who finally decided to grace us lesser mortals with his presence."
"Shut up and eat your kippers Seamus."
George was feeling tame this morning, the most extreme part of her breakfast being a bacon-crumpet-pancake sandwich. Given that Harry and Draco were apparently fighting for some kind of sausage eating record, Vlad felt exceptionally normal with his cornflakes.
Out of the corner of his eye, Vlad caught Bertrand looking very confused. Following his eyeline, he saw their Potions professor excusing himself from the meal early, though that could have been for a multitude of reasons. Still, Bertrand should probably have known about it.
As they were leaving by portkey again, they had their trunks shrunk down and pocketed, and Bertrand made the run for Vlad's backpack through the empty halls - far quicker than Vlad, and much less likely to be followed than Ingrid. Hermione waved them off, saying she needed to go see her family was safe but would be at Malfoy Manor soon, clinging to her boyfriend in a way that made Vlad jealous he couldn't do the same to Harry.
"Go before it's suspicious, we have to leave earlier so anyone who checks the train realises Harry is long gone. Take care of yourself."
They were all sort of looking away to give the couple their 'moment', but Ingrid's expression reflected Vlad's feelings perfectly. Both stood painfully close to their mates who didn't, who couldn't want them.
"Come on."
They hurried through a side tunnel to the dungeons, better to avoid the Slytherin students starting to finish breakfast. Coming out a corridor away from Snape's quarters, they kept a wary eye out and Bertrand gave the password to allow them entry.
The quarters were empty.
"Where is he?"
"Hold on."
Harry produced his Marauders Map, watching the ink spread, thin and spider-like from his wand until Hogwarts was revealed. Bertrand and Ingrid were faster, so they scanned it before shaking their heads.
"He's not on the Map at all?"
"Well he can't be at Malfoy Manor either. The alarm spells would have told me... Ingrid, do you have that detection spell?"
He watched Ingrid mentally inventory where the information was, then she rooted through her inside pocket and produced a sheet of parchment. They had wanted to find better ways of detecting who had been in the dorm or anywhere near Harry, and Ingrid had found a spell that detected magical signatures, a sort of after effect left by using magic.
"Stay here."
Thankful he had been the one to get the portkey from Professor McGonogall, Vlad quickly popped himself to Malfoy Manor. The wards were different, he could feel it. Looking around the room, he spotted the house elves all stood in a line, some with injuries still healing and Dobby clutching an envelope.
"Master Severus requested you have this Master Vladimir."
When Vlad touched it, it split into two - one said Vlad, the other said Bertrand. Pocketing them and thanking the elf, Vlad cast the spell. Severus Snape's signature was there, but dim. He had been there, but used very little magic.
"Do you know if anyone else is here?"
"Just us Master Vlad. The bad men left. We was told to say nothing more, it be in the note."
"Alright. Thank you. Can you heal yourselves? That looks painful."
"We was ordered not to."
"Well, I'm ordering you to do it. Many white furnishings, blood will stain."
A flurry of high pitched squeaking conversation and bursts of light ensued, and Vlad felt better seeing they were all healed and hopefully no longer in pain.
"I'll be back soon, is the silver room set up?"
"Indeed. Master Draco will be contained."
"Alright. While I get the others, I need every book on werewolves, Wolfsbane potion and ingredient interaction you can find in the Library, stacked and ready. Don't worry if it takes up much too space."
Certain he was about to be yelled at, Vlad popped back to Hogwarts.
"Malfoy Manor is clear. Now. There were visitors. And we were left these."
Handing Bertrand his envelope, Vlad flipped open his own. There wasn't much written for him - a quick itinary for how the wards were changed to bar Severus' own entry - to ensure nobody could come along for the ride. And a second note with Draco's name on, which made Vlad wonder if he had been prepared in advance. Had he known something was happening?
"Here."
Draco flipped the parchment open, scanning it in blatant confusion.
"Definitely him that wrote them?"
Vlad would have answered Harry, but Bertrand did it for him.
"Absolutely. The last lines of mine are essentially instructions to keep watch over Draco, and he wrote them in French. He may well stake me for saying it, but I don't think Severus ever admitted to anyone he liked when I spoke my native tongue to him."
"More than I ever needed to know, but fair point."
"Mine's a warning not to try and find him, for my own safety. Why... why would he do this?"
"Not here. Let's go to the manor, we can talk there and I can ensure the wards are right. I don't trust Hogwarts security much right now."
The portkey carried them along, landing heavily in the foyer and suddenly besieged by house elves.
"The library be all set up as you asked Master Vlad!"
"Master Draco should we prepare meals yet?"
Harry was the one to subtly ask them to hang back, and possibly make some calming tea for Draco.
"From what I can feel, they are all as he said. I might recast a few, but I think we are safe enough for now."
"Why would he leave?"
Vlad didn't blame Draco for being upset - in the space of only a couple of years he had almost been killed by his parents multiple times, fought to have a parental guardian who actually cared for his well-being, only to be seemingly abandoned again.
"I don't think he had a choice."
Draco turned panicked grey eyes to Vlad, clearly itching for an explanation. Any explanation.
"He set this up, all of it. Taught Ingrid to make Wolfsbane for you even though it wouldn't work first full moon, recast the wards, left notes. Best guess is something to force his hand was used, and he did his best to mitigate the upheaval."
"I concur. He signed over Draco's guardianship and vault controls to me, which can't have been easy. Particularly with the goblins, who don't exactly like me."
"But what? What could force him to join the bad guys? He would die first, surely?"
Harry had a good point, but right now they needed to convince a newly turned werewolf not to get himself killed trying to find his godfather.
"We won't know until we find him, but that's going to be tricky right now. I think... I think we have to wait to go after him. If they were going to kill him, Voldemort wouldn't have done it in secret. He would have made an example of it. Wherever he is, he's alive. We will find him Draco, just, not right now."
The closest to Draco, Harry steered him into the next room, Bertrand following. Vlad looked at Ingrid, wishing he didn't have to say it.
"Be careful. If Draco gets any hint of you know what with you know who" he felt ridiculous but Draco's senses were sharpening, he couldn't risk them being overheard as he whispered "what do you think he's going to assume?"
Ingrid's jaw tightened, and Vlad knew better than to expect an answer. At least, one that didn't include several threats and expletives in Romanian. If Draco had any inkling of Ingrid and Bertrand, he would assume that had driven his godfather away. Vlad doubted that completely - Severus Snape wouldn't abandon Draco for the sake of his boyfriend having a vampiric link to Ingrid. He would kick Bertrand out and continue on with his life. Still, Draco was emotionally devastated, logic wouldn't come in to it.
The rest of the morning was quiet, trunks settled in rooms, and familiars left to roam. Phantom still showed no adverse reaction to Draco, clambering into his lap and purring. Apparently even as a werewolf, he could still be totally not evil to the insane little Bastion.
"When do you have to leave?"
"Tonight. Told dad everyone was leaving in the afternoon. Need to find a cleaning charm that masks the smell of werewolf or he's gonna go bats."
"Hold on, I have one. Father hated the smell but occasionally visited the werewolf fight rings at the full moon. The ministry has supposedly stopped them all, though I doubt it myself."
"That's disgusting. Thanks."
Draco scrawled out a charm on a napkin - laughing to himself about defacing it - which Vlad mumbled to himself a few times before Ingrid and Bertrand both sniffed him. That was a little strange.
"Yeah, I'd say that works."
Ingrid cast the spell over herself, and Vlad resigned himself to Harry smelling like werewolf on occasion forever now. As he couldn't hate Draco - Draco didn't care he was a biter, and it was Vlad's fault for not being fast enough to save him from being bitten.
They recast the cleaning charms before they left, after Ingrid watched Draco drink that days dose of Wolfsbane potion and Harry hugged them both goodbye. Even against Ingrid's protests.
Thru portkeyed to Stokely Castle, and Vlad felt the now expected pain in his chest, but even so he noticed Ingrid rub absently at her own. He knew what it was, the sense of a hole ripped clean through lungs. Ingrid may not need her lungs anymore, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.
"Want one?"
Vlad held out a painkiller, trying to make as little a deal out of it as possible so Ingrid wouldn't feel mocked or belittled, weak for needing to dull the pain. She eventually took it, grimacing at the taste. It was one of his stronger potions, which Vlad realised he now lacked a brewer to make more of. Bats.
"Vladdy! You've finally come back to me! I could have wasted away and you would know nought, abandoning me all this time for that wretched school."
Grimacing, Vlad stood as his father patted down his face and pinched a cheek, exclaiming he had grown ("a whole inch, now he's the same size as the first year girls!" from Ingrid). Vlad was growing - he was currently the tallest in their dorm, but that was vampirism, the others would catch up as they reached maturity. He would just reach his majority sooner.
"Dad, we've been over this. Once I'm seventeen and graduated, you'll see me more often for all eternity, but I have to go to school."
"Yes, yes, whatever you say my son. Renfield! Prepare something edible for once!"
Rolling his eyes as the adult vampire draped his arm around Vlad's shoulder, cooing and going on and on and on, Vlad's heart, mind and soul were all back at Malfoy Manor with Harry.
-YDHP-
And we are done with Year Three. Year Four will be continued here, Year Five will not. But that's a while off yet!