"Are you sure you're not hungry, dear?" Effie asked for perhaps the twentieth time that night, tilting her head as she gazed at Lux with worry written into her expression. "I don't think you've eaten a thing since you've gotten here."
"She has an eating disorder." Peter whispered loudly, to nobody in particular, then jolted when Sirius roughly elbowed him in the side.
Lux shot a glare his way from further down the table, jaw clenched. "I do not have an eating disorder, Pettigrew. I'm just not hungry. It isn't that difficult of a concept to grasp."
Sirius let out a laugh from where he was seated next to her, his hand entwined with hers.
"Suit yourself." James shrugged, grabbing another piece of the meat laid across the table, atop a large white plate. "It means more food for us, I suppose."
"If you're sure, Lux." Effie continued. "I don't want you getting hungry later at night, though. If you do, feel free to take anything from the cupboards — we have loads of snacks, I'm sure you'll find something you like."
"Thank you, Effie. I appreciate it."
"Of course! You're family now — any friend of my two boys is a daughter of mine."
From next to her, Sirius's grin expanded, and Lux felt that ache in her heart once again, just as she so often seemed to around Euphemia Potter. If she squinted hard enough, Effie's grey hair molded into Mary Erzsebet's blonde, and her brown eyes could become blue.
She shouldn't mourn. She shouldn't care. She had all she needed with Fulk, he was a better parent to her than Mary and Elijah ever had been.
But she did, and it hurt, so bloody bad.
"My dear, are you okay?" Effie leaned in, resting her elbows on the table as she met Lux's eye. "You look upset. Did I say something?"
"No, no, of course not." Lux shook her head softly, gulping as she struggled to reset her expression into one of neutrality. "I'm just…not very feeling well."
"Do you need to go to your room?" Effie pressed, but didn't give her an opportunity to answer before she continued, "If you need to rest for the night, it's no worries at all. Fleamont, would you fetch Lux a glass of water? Maybe drinking will help!"
"Thank you." She nodded at Fleamont as he handed her a glass of water, which she tentatively sipped out of. The silence that had fallen between the group was deafening, and even the ever talkative Sirius was shifting in his seat, clearly unsure of what to say.
Lux was more than relieved when the sound of a knock on the door echoed through the room, causing Effie to jump to her feet. "I'll get it!"
"Who the hell could be here at eight at night?" James frowned, peering down the hall from his position on the table. Lux attempted to do the same, but she couldn't quite see who was standing in the doorway as Effie opened it, nor could she hear the conversation that took place until Effie said, rather loudly, "Yes, come in, come in!"
"Who is it, mum?" James called out.
"A friend of Lux's." Effie responded, and Lux jumped to her feet. Did she have friends? Who on earth would've come all the way to the Potter's home on Christmas to see her? Bloody hell, had Lily or one of the other girls decided to come over? Had they brought grapes?
Though when she turned the corner to meet who was standing in the hallway, she would've much preferred Lily and those blasted grapes, over Mathilde.
The vampire appeared just as menacing as she had twenty years ago, with her black hair tied back in a ponytail, and a sly smirk on her lips. Mathilde was in her thirties, though Lux never asked her what her specific age was, nor her time and cause of death. Much like Philip and Adelais, Mathilde's backstory was essentially a mystery.
Lux stumbled backwards, nearly falling over. "What are you doing here?" She breathed.
"Visiting an old friend, of course." Mathilde took a menacing step towards her.
"Luxie, what's going on?" Sirius asked as he stepped into the hallway. "Who's this?"
Mathilde held a hand to her heart in mock offense. "Lux hasn't told you about me? I'm wounded."
"Would you like to sit down for a cup of tea, miss?" Effie said, though her voice trembled with uncertainty.
"I'm all right, thank you, Mrs. Potter. I just wanted to catch up with my friend, you see." She flashed her teeth, and Lux heard Effie stumble backwards at the sight of her sharp fangs, unleashed and ready for feasting.
"Get out." Lux took a step towards the vampire, as she attempted to gather all the courage she had. Her wand was all the way in her bedroom, and she didn't think any of the other wizards in the hope had theirs on them either, so if a fight were to break out, it would be entirely physical. "Get the fuck out, Mathilde!"
"I don't think I will."
"Why are you here?"
She gave her a pitying smile. "You know why. You made a grave mistake, Lux. How hard could it have truly been, to be with Philip?"
"Who's Philip?" She heard Peter whisper loudly, though of course, nobody answered him. The only other person who knew the truth about Philip in this room was too busy staring at Mathilde in pure horror, to say a word.
"Shut up. You don't know what you're on about." Lux warned, reaching over and grabbing a book off of the bookshelf, prepared to use it as a weapon. Somewhere in the background, footsteps clambered next to her, though she didn't dare remove her eyes from the vampire to see who had made their way to her left.
"Effie, what's going on?" Fleamont asked, though of course, Effie had no answer.
Mathilde simply laughed. "You could've spent the rest of your days in the luxury he provided you. Isn't that what you wanted? But no, you craved more. You craved his position. You wanted to lead us, didn't you? You were never satisfied with what you had."
"I didn't crave anything except freedom." She insisted through clenched teeth. "How did you find me?"
She said nothing in response to her question, though the size of her smirk increased. "Did you really think you could run forever?"
"Run from what?" Remus demanded, from next to her. He had been the one to step to her side, when Mathilde had entered, Lux realized. He'd been the one to jump to her defense, it seemed.
"Moony," Sirius began, but Mathilde cut him off.
"You haven't told them?" Her dark eyes grew wide. When Lux said nothing, Mathilde barked a laugh. "Oh Lord above, you've been resting in the home of these humans without telling them? I've always known you were selfish, Lux Erzsebet, but I never thought you were this foolish. Though, how could I assume anything else, after what you did to Philip."
"Who the hell is Philip?" Peter demanded once again.
"Shut the fuck up, Wormtail!" Sirius snapped.
Remus turned to look at his friend. "Mate, do you know what's going on?"
Sirius ignored him. "Lux, you need to run."
"No, you need to run." For the first time, she tore her gaze away from Mathilde to look behind her, at the crowd that had formed, all watching with horror in what was going down in front of them. "All of you, get out!"
"There's no use running. We've got your home surrounded." Mathilde grinned. "I'm sure Odo will be very happy to see you again, Lux. Very happy. Though I think he'd prefer not to harm the rest of you, I have no qualms slaughtering the rest of your friends for fun."
"Who are you?" James demanded, taking a brave step forward, despite the sound of Effie calling out his name, telling him to stop. "What do you want from us? You want our money — bloody hell, you can take it! Just let us be! It's Christmas!"
"I don't want your filthy human money." Mathilde spat. "I want Lux Erzsebet's head on a pike."
"James!" Fleamont called out this time. "James, step back."
However, he was too late, as Mathilde leapt forward, and in one mighty jump, propelled herself on top of James Potter, knocking him to the floor.
"What the fuck—" James cried out, though was cut off when Mathilde stuck her fangs into his throat.
"NO!" Effie screamed, rushing towards her son without a care for her own personal wellbeing, but she was too slow, as Lux shoved her way forward and wrapped her arms around Mathilde, yanking her off of James as he cried out. Blood seeped from his neck, but she could tell that it was a shallow wound — he'd live.
"Get to Dumbledore!" Lux cried as Mathilde struggled against her grip. She wouldn't be able to hold off the vampire for long, she was older, stronger, and fed from humans instead of animals. Not to mention that Lux hadn't had blood in nearly a week. "Go through the floo! Quickly!"
James hobbled to his feet with the help of Sirius, who dragged him towards the fireplace, and in an instant, the pair had shot away to Dumbledore's office through the floo powder, Sirius giving Lux an apologetic stare as he did.
She was too busy restraining Mathilde to see if anyone else had left, but she assumed as much, when the room went silent, filled with just the sounds of grunts and moans as the pair struggled against each other.
It didn't take long for Mathilde to overpower Lux, fighting her way out of her grip, and grabbing Lux by the throat. She slammed her to the ground, her knee digging into her chest and her hand gripping her neck, restraining her air flow. Lux didn't need air to survive, but like blood, if she went without it for too long, she'd wither away into unconsciousness.
It wasn't unconsciousness Lux needed to worry about, though, but death itself, her claws and fangs digging into her skin, desperate to yank her down to hell, a place she'd managed to evade for over three hundred years.
As Mathilde reached into her pocket, and pulled out a wooden stake, Lux could practically smell the smoke from hell, the fires burning. She'd burned once, and she would burn again and again, for eternity, her undead body would burn, which was perhaps what she deserved.
"I've waited so fucking long to do this." Mathilde spat, as the tip of the stake pressed against her breast, digging into her skin. Though Lux expected her to plunge the weapon into her, and take her life, she didn't. "Do you know how badly I had to fight, to get the honor of being the one to kill you? Adelais wanted to, of course, and so did that fool Geoffrey. Euphraxia, too, was just itching to get her fangs on you. Odo seemed to be the only one disinterested, but even then, you betrayed him, by leaving him behind, by picking Fulk over him. I'm surprised he didn't want a chance on killing you. No matter. I won the game we played, so I got to kill you."
"A stake seems a bit anticlimactic, wouldn't you say?" Lux managed to wheeze through the grip Mathilde had on her throat.
"I considered setting you on fire." Mathilde admitted, and Lux flinched. "Just like you did to Philip. It would be fitting, really. But—"
Whatever it was Mathilde was about to say, Lux would never know, as the woman was cut off midway through her sentence by a maddening scream emitting from her throat, a scream of pure agony that had even Lux's eyes growing wide and pity swelling in her.
Mathilde's grip on her throat lessened to a gentle touch, before slipping entirely, as the vampire collapsed on top of Lux, her head rolling into her shoulder as she slipped from the earthly realm into the pits of hell.
"What…" Lux blinked rapidly as she pushed Mathilde's body off of her, to find Remus Lupin hovering over the pair, the sharpened leg of a chair in his hand and sweat pouring down his face. It was a makeshift stake, she realized, that he had plunged into Mathilde's back.
"Is she dead?" Remus breathed, face a mixture of red and green as he peered down at Mathilde's corpse.
Lux nodded, feeling just as out of breath as the boy looked. Her throat ached from the grip that had just been on it, and her dead heart pounded from anxiety.
Remus leaned over and threw up all over the Potter's carpet. "Oh my God…oh my God…" He murmured, before heaving more.
"Remus," Lux began, pushing herself onto her shaky feet and placing a hand on his back, rubbing it as he expelled the contents of his stomach. "Breathe, Remus, breathe."
He did as she demanded, inhaling in and out through his mouth as he hunched over, resting his hands on his legs. "Fuck…I just killed someone…" He managed to wheeze, just above a whisper.
"She was going to kill me." Lux attempted to rationalize, though she could already tell it wouldn't work well, that Remus was the type to drown himself in guilt for harming anyone, for any reason. "You saved my life, Remus."
He opened his mouth to say something, or to throw up, Lux wasn't quite sure which, when a snap echoed through the room.
Dumbledore and Fulk had arrived, and while death may not have gotten Lux by means of Mathilde, she couldn't say the same about the headmaster.