YokaiAngel - don't read fanfiction in class I will not take responsibility for your poor work ethic! Haha.

AnimeNerdX - where did I score a hat trick? I'm so confused.

You - that was an accident! Haha. And yeah, I figured a fair few were expecting it, but it was never my plan. And with the third task (and a chunk of the summer holidays) going to be about Vlad, and a lot of Harry's... I don't know, quirks? Unexamined or unexplained, might be time to focus on those a little.

Guest - not everyone seems to have gotten that far with YD, so I haven't confirmed or denied it officially, but it's canon and I like it!

Guest - thank you! I'm glad you like the story! And I left everyone hanging, don't worry.

SIlvIA ROgUE - well, welcome to the club! Glad you enjoy :)

Ok so I realised last week I updated a day early... what happened was I finished the chapter and got super excited, uploaded it immediately and didn't realise until Friday morning I had jumped the gun... back to Friday again now!

-YDHP-

"Excuse me?"

Harry asked in confusion.

"I take that to mean you were unaware of this fact."

"You could say that. Why exactly am I immortal, if not because I am part reptile?"

"That is unclear to me."

Scrubbing his hand through his hair, Harry sighed. Of course it was.

"When you say immortal... do you mean immortal immortal or immortal like me?"

Vlad was addressing Samael, despite the fact he couldn't understand the serpents response.

"What on earth does your vampire mean?"

"Samael said can you clarify?"

Samael hissed in annoyance for Harry's shortened translation, but most of his attention was on Vlad.

"Well, I'm immortal in that I won't die of old age, or most injuries. But I could die of sickness, stakes, garlic."

"Ah. You will be more vulnerable in your Basilisk form, but only weapons crafted to kill immortals pose a true threat to you. Of which there are very few. That and chickens, obviously."

Harry relayed the answer back to Vlad, still stunned at the sudden revelation of his apparent immortality. It was strange to consider... all this time Vlad had been cheating death because of his latent vampirism, when there Harry was already apparently death-proof himself and unaware.

"Is this why Riddle couldn't kill me?"

"Naturally."

"Wow. I had spent so long worrying... and now I don't have to."

"That I was going to die?"

"Yeah. I've got millenia in my future... provided I survive to transform and don't get slain. Most wizards only live to between one and two hundred. Eternity without my mate didn't sound pleasant."

The more Harry learned about himself, the more it made sense why Vlad had picked him - he wasn't human, wasn't a mortal wizard. Apparently he was a part-snake immortal... weird.

"Now I can literally say you're stuck with me forever."

Vlad smiled like that was the best thing he had ever heard, and Harry couldn't help but be infected by some of that happiness. Even though he didn't quite have the same concept of eternal living as Vlad - he had always known it was to happen, Harry was very, very new at the idea of living forever. Suddenly overwhelmed and weary, Harry used his best puppy eyes on Vlad.

"Can we sleep down here again?"

"If Samael doesn't mind."

The serpent let out a weary sigh, rolled his huge yellow eyes and nodded, slithering over to the sleep room and coiling himself up the right way. Vlad let Harry lead him by the hand to lay in the spot Samael made for them, spent less time trying to get comfortable than before and ran a hand through Harry's hair when they were settled for the night. The next thing Harry knew, he was being gently prodded awake.

"C'mon, we gotta get out of here."

"But it's so much better down here than up there. Up there has homework."

"It also has breakfast."

As if on cue, Harry's stomach growled. Vlad laughed, and even Samael and Lily made amused hissing sounds. Glaring as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes, Harry sighed.

"Don't say a word. Fine. Back to normality."

He stopped to give Samael and Lily some affection while Vlad was ensuring they were safe to leave, though as they were always the first up - neither seemed to need as much sleep as everyone else - Harry wasn't surprised when Vlad signalled it was safe to leave.

Spying George Giles and co already up and her devouring what looked like bananas and bacon, Harry's mind went back to the second task, where somehow someone had thought a human girl was vampire Vlad's sister. Comparing her against Ingrid made him snort into his orange juice, garnering a confused look from Vlad as he ate his apple and blueberry porridge more sedately.

"So... what's on the agenda for today?"

"Nothing specific. You expended energy on two partial transformations yesterday. We are taking it easy."

"Boring. Shall we go see Hagrid?"

"Fine by me. Not just yet though, he's not even here yet."

Harry hummed, biting hungrily into his third bacon roll and wondering if he were cursed with this appetite for all eternity. It would surely either catch up with him or become excessive eventually. And he couldn't really get much bigger without people wondering if he was using strength-enhancing potions. They probably already did.

"What's on your mind?"

Vlad's voice jolted him out of a food-based reverie, reminding him to get stuck in to his sausage and eggs. Checking nobody was listening in, Harry answered.

"Wondering if I'm going to have to eat like this forever. I do not relish the thought of needing enough food for two every meal for all eternity."

"You've taken this weird unknown revelation quite well."

"Yeah, I know. I think it helps that I have someone who'll understand."

Vlad smiled, handed Harry the jug of blueberry juice - ok, so he had a thing for blueberry - and began constructing a mini-pyramid out of the jam pots nobody was yet using. Downing his juice, Harry built himself a quick sandwich and wrapped it in a napkin.

"Ok, I'm done. Well. I am available for leaving the table."

"Outside? It's quiet out, I fancy a walk."

"Do you have your backpack?"

"Shrunk down in my pocket in case you start wasting away in the three and a half hours until they start serving lunch."

"You take such good care of me."

Vlad rolled his eyes, standing up once he was done with his pumpkin juice and waiting for Harry to follow him. He made a note to add more mushrooms to his food in future - fried mushrooms and black pudding improved everything when one was part reptile.

"Let's go sit by the lake."

"The lake you almost died in?"

"Yep. I want Karkaroff knowing he can't scare me."

They sat by the lake, Harry tossing the last crust of his bread into the lake for the giant squid. A tentacle yanked the floating food down into the depths, the spectator stands no longer marring the view across the waters surface.

"So... where is the third task?"

"I'm not sure. Depends how much space we need for it I guess, and we get zero information until the month of the task. Even then... I don't expect much from them on it. Still, at least it's the last one. Just need to survive it."

Vlad didn't even sound all that concerned about it, though Harry knew he was nervous. They spent the morning walking about on the grounds, periodically snacking (that was mostly him admittedly) and not needing to talk much. With a relationship that had such a solid foundation in friendship first, there was no awkward silences to fill and they could just be when together.

Afternoons spent sequestered away in Myrtle's bathroom allowed Harry - and Ingrid when she felt like turning up - to teach Vlad healing and potion work, which he picked up reasonably well. It didn't have a patch on his fire spells though, which Vlad was more adept than anybody at.

"Well, if you break your arm or leg you can cast yourself up. Don't use a Reparo on a bone."

"Even I know that. I'm hoping not to break any bones though."

"I am very glad to hear that. Now... how to disinfect a cut?"

Vlad practiced the spells verbally and with his wand once, then had them down pat silent and wandless. Harry could master spells silent and wandless, but it took many more attempts than Vlad needed. It didn't matter so much - their skills complimented each other well. If one of them wasn't great at something, usually the other was.

"Have you and Hermione done more Animagus training?"

"Not without you. In case we both got stuck... or I turned into a basilisk."

"Yeah... good point. You'll have to learn to manage your forms eventually though."

"Let's get you through the tournament first. I've got a whole lotta time ahead of me."

Vlad smiled, leant over and kissed his cheek - one of the few times he initiated the contact - before standing up and stretching. Harry found himself watching, eyeing the strip of lean abdomen exposed as the vampires shirt lifted up. Vlad noticed, cheeks flushing as he pulled down the shirt and tucked it back into his trousers.

"Spoil sport."

"Uniform code. We have class."

"Fine! You're no fun. Still... at least it's dinner after."

Vlad very maturely stuck his tongue out, picking up his bag while Harry cleaned dust from the bathroom floor off his trousers. They staggered their exits from the bathroom, making it to their next lesson without incident.

"Right! I appreciate that these are sensitive issues for more than one of you, but we have to cover the material. So, we will spend half an hour on this, then the rest of class will be a little lighter. So... who can name me one of the Unforgivables?"

Tonks didn't pick anyone out, only asking those who raised their hands - mostly only Vlad and Hermione at first. Hermione offered up the Imperius curse, and Tonks gave an overview of the curse. Undetectable... except for vampires it seemed. Complete control, could be used to literally kill someone by their own hand. A shaky hand made it's way up when Tonks asked for another, and if Harry didn't know better he would have said the teacher hesitated before calling on them.

"You know one Neville?"

"'C-cruciatus. Torture curse."

Harry was intimately familiar with that one - it filled his nightmares, tore through his pain receptors even though they were only dreams.

"Correct! Cruciatus... it's one of those spells that needs real hatred behind it. To intend to cause pain that death would seem a welcome escape from."

There was little else Tonks could tell them about that one, and she called on Vlad for the last one. He couldn't repeat the incantation itself - with his wandless capabilities, there was every chance Vlad could blow a hole in the stone floor below. Or worse.

"Killing curse."

"Avada Kedavra. And that's the trifecta! Any one of these could send you straight to Azkaban, so... Don't do them. Also they cause a lot of pain anf sadness or death and destruction. So again, don't do that. Now... who's up for some fun hexes? Hmm... Vlad! And... Theodore! Up you come."

Harry distinctly heard Vlad sigh as he was called up, chair scraping on the stone floor for a minute as he went to the clear space and faced up against Theodore Nott. Nott stood zero chance, but then he and Vlad were friends which probably meant he wouldn't get seriously hurt.

"So... any funny stuff you already know boys?"

Being in the frequent company of the Weasley twins... Vlad knew plenty. Nott even looked a little nervous. Vlad lowered his wand, let Theodore go first and took the simple jelly-legs jinx graciously. The two soon devolved into madness, fifteen minutes of bangs and exploding lights later rendering the two almost unrecognisable.

Nott had every colour of the rainbow splattered across his face and clothes from Vlad's paintball hexes, and was stumbling about on tap-dancing feet. Vlad was brushing his constant-growing hair out of his face, and emitting animal noises instead of words, amongst other things.

"Well, that should have lifted the mood. Class dismissed! You two wait, I'll fix you up."

It was dinner, so Harry's stomach demanded he leave Vlad and save him a seat. He managed to shush it (after finding a chocolate frog in his pocket he didn't remember putting there... probably Vlad then) while he hung around outside the classroom door, in a fairly comfortable if not friendly silence with Blaise Zabini as he waited for Nott.

"Nice hex work Dracula."

"I went easy on you Theo, I hope you know that."

"Shove off. See you in Runes tomorrow."

Vlad's attention was quickly back on Harry, deep blue eyes lighting up at the sight of him and the genuine, undoubtable attraction and joy there was a heady, addictive sight. Harry almost forgot they weren't alone.

Then his stomach growled.

"You'll have to tell your secret one day Potter."

Harry looked over at Nott and Zabini, a little confused.

"My secret?"

"Yeah. How you eat like a Weasley but you're built like a house."

Harry tried not to panic. What was he supposed to say? An accidental melding of two very specific circumstances, bloodlines and Basilisk venom?

"Oh. Uh... I don't know to be honest. I'm always hungry and I filled out... I think that makes puberty my secret?"

Zabini surveyed him coolly, then nodded with a small smile playing across his thin mouth.

"Fair enough. Come on Theo. Ingrid will hex us if we're late."

Relieved as they let the matter drop, Vlad caught their attention on the way to the Great Hall.

"Thanks, both of you. I know my sister's hard work."

This time, it was Nott who was smiling.

"No worries. Slytherins stick together... besides, Ingrid is funny."

"Still... I appreciate it."

They nodded shortly at him, then they separated at the doors for their individual house tables. Luckily for the Slytherin twosome, Ingrid wasn't there yet. Her usual spot was vacant - nobody was that brave.

"It's weird how to most people, you and Ingrid are totally different."

"Yeah, but Ingrid let dad raise her with a sense of something to prove. I just want to enjoy the quiet time I have left."

That sounded a little morbid, even for Vlad and his not-long-until-undead thing. When Harry looked at him with questioning eyes, Vlad shrugged and mumbled "tell you later."

"Which is why it's only really obvious you two are siblings when it's the Manor circle?"

"Pretty much. Easter should be good... especially since dad said in no uncertain terms I'm to be home for the summer."

"The whole summer?"

"I think that's what he expects. But I can work on that... with Bertrand unable to leave the manor, it'll be easier to convince dad to let us go. Eventually."

The Hall started to fill up, so the two fell silent about Harry's still-secret safe location over the holidays. He hadn't considered how they would be separated... Hogwarts made him spoiled when it came to seeing his boyfriend. He could only imagine how much harder it must be on Vlad, including the previous two summers where Harry had been oblivious to what he should have seen all along.

"Steak!"

"Honestly Harry, you act like it's been days since your last meal... every meal."

"So does Draco. Lecture your boyfriend instead."

Hermione rolled her eyes, then turned back to her werewolf boyfriend to ensure he was eating with all due decorum. Given that it was dinner at the Gryffindor table... that wasn't much. Between Harry, Draco, Ingrid and Bertrand... Vlad would probably be the only resident at Malfoy Manor not eating his weight in barely cooked meat that summer. And that was only because the elves wouldn't serve them raw meat, though all four of them could eat it no problem.

Huh... not a single resident would be human. Unless by some miracle they found Severus, who was still playing on all of their minds. Hard not to really, when Draco had periodic bouts of sadness and the fact they saw Moonshine sat at the Head Table every day, pockmarked and scarred and not Severus Snape at all.

Or Hermione or the Weasleys came over... which was admittedly far more likely.

"Are you done?"

Vlad was kind enough to wait until Harry washed down two steaks and a mound of potatoes with a huge slice of chocolate cake covered in butterscotch sauce. Plus enough pumpkin juice to drown a kneazle, according to Fred.

"Meat. Check. Sugar. Check. I'm good... for now."

Well... after he grabbed an apple for later. Vlad rolled his eyes but there was a fond smile across his face as he fell into step with Harry on the way out of the Hall. He really needed to ask Samael about this freaky metabolism... it was madness.

"Cover for me? I'll be back in an hour or so, but I reckon people might find it suspicious how often us two disappear together otherwise."

Vlad looked put out, but agreed. He cheered up when Harry kissed him, even helped pull Samael's trunk out from under the bed he almost never slept on anymore.

"I'll charm your curtains from the outside, you'll be able to hear who's here. The twins owe me one, I might arrange a diversion."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Hypnotised Filch to forget he saw them hiding dungbombs in a couple of the alcoves near Slytherin when I walked Ingrid back to her common room?"

"Oh Vlad, you rebel."

Vlad grinned, then indicated his head.

"The sooner you go, the sooner you'll be back. Go see your lizard."

"Yes sir Dracula sir."

Harry mock-saluted, hearing Vlad close the trunk behind him. He had set it up so the flaming torches along the wall switched themselves on in recognition... must be magic.

"Wizard."

"Lizard."

"I am a serpent!"

"I know... but in English that would rhyme."

Huge yellow eyes rolled in exasperation, but Samael bumped gently against the middle of Harry's chest, eyes closing as he relaxed when Harry rubbed his snout.

"You normally have your vampire when you visit me now."

"Yeah, but that's because you're all family."

"A vampire and the king of serpents. Strange family."

"I'm a strange guy. Anyway, I'm here now so stop complaining."

Samael probably would have argued, but Harry scratched that spot just under his jaw that turned him into little more than a seventy foot scaly kitten. Lily slunk over to coil around Harry's leg, and it was clear she was growing too - if she wanted, she could wrap around the whole of it and probably crush it to pieces.

Eventually remembering he was supposed to be a fearsome beast, Samael lifted his head up and turned around, leading Harry out to the sunlit 'outdoor' area to stretch out properly.

"You had a question for me? If it is about your immortality, I apologise, but I cannot help you."

Harry didn't bother asking how Samael knew he came down to ask something. Familiars were smart like that.

"Oh, no. I mean... I would love to know how that works but for now I'm still getting my head around it anyway. No, I came to ask... am I always going to need to eat so much? It's getting noticeable, and people are starting to comment on the amount of size I've gained."

If snakes had eyebrows, Harry felt like Samael would be doing that eyebrow raise that seemed to be taught to every Slytherin first day - Ingrid and Severus both had it down to a T.

"I have told you before wizard, you're still in development. When you are 'done', as you call it, you will know. However, a creature like us... it will always require sustenance. You might find eating like a real Basilisk would help."

He had considered that... just not yet.

"Maybe when I can eat in a different form... or my boyfriend has transformed. I'm not sure how much Vlad would appreciate me eating a hunk of raw meat just yet."

Samael laughed, clearly amused by Harry's probably odd thoughts. Nobody else ever had such concerns, he was sure.

"Has that answered your question wizard?"

"I guess so. I'll always need to eat more meat than a human, but this major bottomless pit thing should ease off when I'm done changing. I'm not gonna get much bigger right? I'm gonna have to buy bigger clothes as it is."

"Unsure. Worry not wizard, you will be strong like your vampire."

"I'm more worried I'll be wider than I am tall! Vlad's still taller than me."

"But he is unlikely to ever be as broad as you. Vampires, from what I understand, struggle to gain either fat or muscle size without many years of either gluttony or disciplined physical training."

Considering Bertrand - he was muscly, but four hundred - it made sense. Plus, the vampires they had met when the Dracula's blood tests were being administered had all been weedy, skinny. He wanted to ask Vlad if he had ever met a fat vampire... it would probably be in bad taste though.

"Fair point. Any pointers on how I'm going to master two different forms? It would be rather un-stealthy if I was aiming for crow and ended up a Basilisk."

"As I cannot master any other form... I can only assume the key is learning to focus on your forms, so you can call forth whichever you need. Your vampire may be better advice... since he can transform to either bat or smoke. In the future at least."

"True. I need to learn to master one first. So far I can either get feathery hair or scaly skin. That would make for an interesting combination."

-YDHP-

I know there is much debate over Harry's height in the books... but Gerran Howell is taller than Daniel Radcliffe. So to me... Vlad's taller than Harry.

And not much happened in this chapter... but it's getting there. Filler chapters have a bad rep, but if we skipped all the filler out of a story it would leave us with basically a bullet point list of major events. Which is what I have written down for Chosen Two... it's not quite as exciting that way.