YokaiAngel - points for speedy reviewing as ever, thank you!

You - that's cool, i know filler chapters aren't exciting but they are important, this one should be less filler.

Almonda - thank you! Hope you didn't die of boredom catching up. And don't worry, I hated Susan too but yes, it was part of Harry's development and he needed the comparison to his perfect vampire boyfriend!

I must confess I suffered horrible writers block writing all through this week. So if it's terrible I apologise. Content warnings for abusive situations... pretty much throughout. Nothing explicit but substances/violence/sexual assault is mentioned.

-YDHP-

"That woman is insane!"

"Happy Easter to you too?"

Vlad glared, but there was no real venom in it as he dropped heavily onto his bed with a groan. Everyone had left that morning for Easter, and Vlad had just returned from his last secret lesson with Tonks that term. Apparently she was even more eccentric in private lessons than she was in normal DADA classes.

"She had me practice transfiguring furniture into things to hide behind, then shot me with bat bogey hexes because she has a twisted sense of humour. Shoot a vampire with bats."

Draco was snickering over in the corner, receiving his very own glare from Vlad. Harry approached his irate boyfriend carefully, sitting on the bed next to his prone form and Vlad immediately turned toward him, smiling.

"Is this where I find out the thing Hermione has been unreasonably giddy about for weeks is you two?"

In all honesty, Harry had forgotten they hadn't told Draco yet in that moment - he just wanted to comfort his tired looking boyfriend. Vlad was no use to the conversation - Harry touched his hair and Vlad melted in place, looking to all intents and purposes like he was asleep.

"Yeah. Hardly anyone knows though, and for now I want it to stay that way. We would have told you in summer, I wasn't trying to keep you out of the loop. Ingrid and Hermione only know because they are freakishly smart and observant. Aside from them... I think Vlad's star Quidditch player ex is the only other one to know."

Harry didn't mention the dreamy blonde girl who found them kissing in the Forest. That was too embarrassing. Draco considered his words, then nodded.

"Fair enough. Don't blame you after the madness from when him and Krum came out."

"Exactly. Besides, my life is basically for public consumption and I wish it wasn't."

"Shouldn't have survived Voldemort then."

"Yeah, totally on purpose."

Vlad's eyes had opened at Draco's comment, finding Harry's own and scanning for discomfort or concerns. Seeing he was fine, Vlad nudged his hand with his head to resume hair-petting, his powerful magical vampire boyfriend about as dangerous looking as Phantom right now.

"Hey, Vladdo! You've done the Arithmancy homework right?"

Vlad cracked an eye open, narrowing it as Draco disturbed his relaxation.

"Obviously."

"Explain question three? It just doesn't make sense to me."

Harry knew Vlad sort of wanted to tell him to go away so he could sleep, but the vampire would never turn down someone asking for help - especially someone who had tried to adamantly refuse help after being taught such a thing was a weakness for years. So he gamely sat up, rubbing tired eyes as he headed over to Draco's bed and started explaining complicated sums and formulas that made Harry's brain hurt.

"By the way, Viktor managed to get permission to use the training field to fly because he has had no time to practice. He's invited you both to join in."

Harry felt excited already - he hadn't had a decent chance to fly in a while. Draco too looked enthralled, even while he finished the homework. Vlad even looked happy, but Harry suspected that may be because he 'felt' Harry's sudden upsurge of emotions.

"Not you?"

"No no, he invited me. But I didn't want to. I'll sit in the shade with Ingrid and she will make sarcastic remarks and threaten to disembowel me for making her go outside whilst stealing my sweets. And you two will be the air with a professional Quidditch player and the Weasley twins. Plus whoever else he asked."

"Mostly Durmstrang students I expect, since most students are home for the holidays. Which is good news for library use."

"You could go home and have access to a whole library with no disturbances."

Draco pouted, finishing his last equation with flourish before carefully setting aside the parchment.

"Vlad can't leave. So you won't leave and Bertrand shouldn't leave. So I either take Vlad's tutor for a week and a half when he needs him and spend a lot of time alone, or I stay here and complain a bit but everyone important is here."

"Gryffindor love fest. Gross."

Ingrid's voice sounded from the door as she let herself into their dormitory, followed by Fred and George Weasley who came bearing gifts in the form of a kitchen-raids worth of chocolate and pastries.

"Look what we found."

"Vampires wandering dark corridors Fred."

"Very dangerous George."

"I will hex you both."

The twins fell silent immediately, closing the door behind them and taking seats on one of the three vacant beds each. Taking one of the little cupcakes and beginning to peel the paper wrapping off, Vlad looked up at their visitors.

"So... did you come here for something in particular?"

Harry immediately didn't trust the malicious smiles on the three older students, lifting a sweet jam filled pastry from the pile as the sugary scent tormented him.

"Well, Vlad's third task is a month away"

"And he might die."

"No offence Vlad."

"Yeah, we're rooting for you"

"But since he could be dead soon"

"And since he's nearly fifteen, take that as you will"

"We decided he needs a rite of passage."

Reeling from the twins back-and-forth speaking, Harry watched as George reached inside his pocket, pulling out two large blue bottles.

"Let me get this right. You snuck into the dorms... well, Ingrid did, to get me drunk, in case I die in the third task?"

"Pretty much. Fred, the cups?"

Harry knew from Remus that Draco would probably fail to get inebriated even if he drank both bottles that now could be read - 'Firewhiskey'. But the twins didn't know he was a werewolf, so he was stuck either being visible as sober, or faking drunk.

Not to place aspersions on his boyfriend as being future prefect material, but Harry honestly expected Vlad to say no. Of course, he wasn't accounting for one thing - competitive Dracula siblings. When George had filled the shot glasses, handing one each around to everyone, Vlad and Ingrid didn't say a word to each other - just lifted it and downed the shots like they were water.

"Are we missing something?"

Vlad blew the faint smoke of his drink out like a lazy dragon, wiping his mouth and turning the glass upside down. Ingrid didn't beat him to that, scowling as Vlad smirked and turned to answer Draco.

"Dad has made us do this before. See who holds it better. Vampires can get drunk, but it has no long term effects, so we've done this since we were kids."

Everyone else looked a little thrown - that would be considered horrendously abusive and dangerous behaviour. Just because it wouldn't make them sick long term didn't make it ok. Vampires or not.

"The worst that ever happened was me falling asleep in a graveyard alone back in Transylvania. And Ingrid threw up on dad's best cape. He didn't love that. Then Ingrid left for school and we didn't do this much."

"Vlad, weren't you like... nine when Ingrid started Hogwarts?"

Vlad nodded, rolling his eyes as Ingrid refilled their shot glasses without actually touching the bottle - levitation facilitated her laziness greatly.

"Yeah, so?"

"So a drunk nine year old alone in a graveyard doesn't concern your dad?"

The vampire shrugged, downing the next shot but Ingrid beat him to the tipped glass, placing her finger and thumb in the 'L' shape on her forehead and Vlad stuck his tongue out immaturely. Vlad had never mentioned any of this before. Harry hadn't had a great childhood, but the Dursleys had never gotten a pre-pubescent Harry drunk for essentially amusement. Looking down at his own glass brimming with slightly smouldering liquid, Harry downed it and immediately hissed at the burning sensation.

He watched at least five shots of powerful alcohol disappear into each Dracula sibling before the twins got bored watching and joined in, tipsy before the first bottle was empty while Vlad, Ingrid and Draco looked totally fine. Harry had only drunk two himself, not liking the way alcohol sat in his stomach and wanting to keep an eye on Vlad's emotional state. The dorm door opened and the twins immediately threw themselves to the ground, cradling the whiskey bottles dramatically as the dorm permitted a pyjama clad Hermione.

"I knew you were up to something, I could hear them giggling from the common room!"

Knowing they were caught - and close to drunk by the time they swallowed their next shots, the twins crawled along the floor to her.

"Don't tell on us Hermione!"

"Please?"

"Get up you idiots."

They scrambled upright, hiding the bottles rather too obviously and Ingrid silently summoned the bottles from their hands.

"Do I even want to know?"

"They tried to get me drunk... think they've gotten themselves drunk and discovered Dracula hold their drink."

Hermione rolled her eyes, looking at the still mostly full bottle in Vlad's hand as Harry wondered more about Vlad's upbringing.

"I'm going to pretend I know nothing."

Draco ended up leaving with Hermione to hang out in the common room, possibly wanting to avoid notice of his alcohol tolerance. Ingrid stayed to watch the twins get progressively more smashed, eventually falling asleep in some rather inelegant positions on the floor. Vlad was very unhappy about letting Ingrid walk back down to Slytherin alone, eventually compromising by watching her get back on the Marauders Map, having scanned it to see the school was already mostly empty anyway.

Despite probably having imbibed half a bottle of Firewhiskey in total, Vlad didn't appear even slightly affected as he walked steadily to brush his teeth, then levitated the twins into individual empty beds before getting in to his own. Harry wavered about whether or not to join him, not wanting to out their relationship to the twins but also wanting to talk more about what Vlad had mostly brushed off as not terrible parenting.

"It's fine."

His thoughts must have been written on his face, as Vlad nodded towards Harry's bed and got settled into his own. It bothered Harry, left him feeling unsettled as he changed quickly and climbed into bed. He hadn't drunk much, but his stomach sat heavy. All in all, as he closed his bedcurtains to try and lessen the noisy snores of drunk redheads, Harry felt less than brilliant.

"I don't want to hear excuses! Find her and exterminate that half breed abomination."

Salazar Slytherin waved off his underlings, each hastening to run away before he changed his mind and fed them to his Basilisk. Of course, they didn't know that would be their fate... nobody knew of Samael but him yet. His bringer of death.

Sorrow was dead, died at his hand when she refused to stop consorting with muggles or give up her daughter. Solace on the other hand, still lived. A melding of his noble pure family line and something barely more than a beast with words... unthinkable. He had set up all manner of magic around the old home where Sorrow had fallen to his wand, lest the half breed child go back in search of her mother.

He shuddered with nausea just thinking about such things, dwelling instead on the memories of his many attempts to correct his sister. He had tried for years, back when even as children, she had refused to listen to their parents and would play with the Muggle children outside. Their father would blame him, as though Salazar was supposed to control his younger sister when she was clearly defective. It was bound to happen eventually, their parents should never have tried for an heir and a spare.

At first he used his words, tried to talk her round in the hopes of at least avoiding being cursed by his father. When she refused to listen, Salazar tried to use his fists the way their father did to their mother. But no matter how many bruises Sorrow would rub healing balm into her face to heal, even the broken arm that, judging by her favouring the other, had never healed right... Sorrow still said the Muggles were their equals, refused to play muggle-baiting with the other children that came over while their parents wanted to 'socialise'.

Salazar didn't understand what that meant as a child. All he knew was that he was favoured by many over many because of his eloquent speech, magical abilities and rare ability to speak to snakes. So when his father summoned him to the 'adult room' at ten years old, Salazar went excitedly, the envy of all the other children.

What he saw confused him. Only one of the adults there was a woman, and the men were laughing and jeering, taking turns to grope at her and passing her around the room like a ragdoll. His father made him stay, made him watch and told him

"This is what Muggles are for. But if you don't fix your sister, they will."

Salazar didn't understand much of what was going on, but the woman was crying and when they were done with her, she was left on the ground as they walked over to the drinks table. Sorrow was only small... that didn't seem right.

His father extended invitations for him to join the adults again, but Salazar refused, claiming studies and wondering what to do about Sorrow. When their mother sent her away to a finishing school for witches to ensure she would be refined for when she was sold off in marriage, Salazar felt safe to leave.

He found others skilled in the craft of magic, one of whom he found himself almost - almost - questioning his views on magic and muggles for. But when Godric suggested they allow just anyone with a flicker of magic into the walls of the school they, Rowena and Helga built to mould young minds, Salazar - with his fathers words ringing in his ears - tried to sway them to his side. Even ensured that any who he took to educate himself were pureblood. Only one or two indiscretions with immense magical control and power - and at least half blood - slipped through the cracks.

The other three valued lesser qualities while he chose cunning and ambition. True Slytherin traits. When his father said he had purchased his wife, some pureblood wench who barely dared look him in the eye, Salazar focused on siring his heir and ensuring his hidden chamber in the school continued to go unnoticed. He found the old works of Herpo, successfully hatched his very own Basilisk to match the serpents on his house and family crests.

When his wife fell pregnant at last, Salazar was met with the unpleasant news of Sorrow still embarrassing their family. Not even merely half bloods, no, she had to go and lower herself to engagement to a Muggle.

He made one last plea to Sorrow, but she didn't listen. Didn't respond correctly even when he struck her, bones hitting bones making a sickening crunch. Their fathers words, his talk of how his friends would 'fix' Sorrow came back to him. So Salazar took the last chance he had to make his father proud of him. She wasn't small now. It was ok.

To his utter frustration, Sorrow dealt the final blow to the Slytherin name and not only mated with the muggle, she bore his child. He tried to ignore it, to make it clear she was not a true member of their clan but the rumours circulated. He knew people were laughing at him. It threatened his reputation with Hogwarts.

Solace had to die.

Harry barely had time to lean over the side of his bed before he was violently sick, stomach rebelling angrily after he had eaten far too much cake and drank the Firewhiskey that disagreed with him slightly. It wasn't until he could heave no more that Harry realised there was a bucket there, the vomit disappearing a second later and a cool hand touched his sweaty forehead.

"Vlad."

His stinging throat could barely make the word, but he gasped the name out weakly and hoped Vlad wasn't disgusted when he grabbed his boyfriend in a desperate hold. He didn't have to tell Vlad it was bad, Vlad could tell. A cleaning charm removed the acrid taste from his mouth, sweat from his skin and Vlad carded one hand through his hair.

"Here. Water and stomach settler."

The dosed water felt heavenly on his dry mouth, soothed his sore throat and settled his tumultuous stomach at last. There was a quiet sound as Vlad placed the glass on his bedside table, then he sat next to Harry and let him cling to him again. There was a whisper of a kiss across his temple, soothing him further as he soaked in Vlad's unique scent.

"I really wish I wasn't related to Salazar Slytherin."

Vlad didn't push him, just occasionally gently prompted Harry to talk and stayed solid and comforting at his side. He didn't react much as Harry spoke, which Harry actually appreciated - he needed to get it off his chest and Vlad wasn't showing obvious distress that would have made him think twice about sharing.

"That must have been awful. But Harry, he's not who you are. Nobody is their ancestor from a millennia ago. You aren't Salazar Slytherin any more than you are Tom Riddle. You are Harry James Potter, and you are not evil because of who your great great great great grandfather was. You should see mine."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle lightly at Vlad. He always knew how to calm Harry down, scratching lightly at his back in that spot Harry generally melted from. Needing a distraction and still thinking about bad families, Harry turned to his boyfriend.

"Are you really not worried about your dad giving you alcohol as kids?"

"Kind of normal vampire parent stuff. And better than when he tries to make me drink blood. You're using human rules for non human family... my dad was the Impaler of Wallachia, giving his own children alcohol is pretty tame. It also means me and Ingrid never have the whole taboo secret drinking thing. Been there, done that and nobody can get me drunk to impair my judgement. Please, don't worry about me Harry."

"Tough. My job to worry about you."

Harry yawned, and Vlad practically conjured up the dreamless sleep. Harry didn't bother arguing - he would cut his own eyes out before he had a nightmare like that again.

-YDHP-

Consider this the introduction to the darker themes of Chosen Two coming out. Though if it's triggering for anyone reading, there will be little (if any) further mention of sexual assault through the story from here.