"Fulk!" Remus heard Lux cry out the moment the two men appeared in the Potter home. She stumbled over her feet, rushing towards her father, and wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. "Oh my God, Fulk!" She sobbed into his chest, voice muffled.

"Lux…" he breathed as he embraced her. His eyes were fixed downwards, staring at the top of her blonde head, his fingers finding their place in her hair. "Good Merlin, Lux, what happened?"

She shook her head, and Remus could tell by the strange sounds emitting from her that she was crying. Lux Erzsebet had been reduced to tears for the second time in front of him, and both times had him more confused than he'd ever been in his entire life.

Of course, he was wondering the exact same thing as Ingelger — what the fuck had just happened? A vampire had broken in, a vampire with some sort of vendetta against Lux…the woman had said something about someone called Philip?

No, Remus reminded himself, she wasn't a woman. She was a vampire. There was a major difference. He hadn't killed a human, and it had been essentially self defense. He'd been saving Lux's life. That vampire was going to kill her.

His stomach churned nevertheless.

"Would you care to rehash the events that just took place, Mr. Lupin?" Dumbledore requested, taking a small step towards him. "You seem to be in a much better position to do so, compared to Miss Erzsebet here."

"I…I don't really know." He shook his head. "This vampire came in — she claimed she was a friend of Lux's. Then she attacked James — shit, is James going to be okay?"

"Mr. Potter will be fine."

"He won't become a vampire?"

"To become a vampire, you need to die within twenty four hours of being bitten, or consuming vampire blood. As long as Mr. Potter stays alive, he will be alright."

Remus let out a sigh of relief, a brick falling from off his shoulder. At least one thing was okay. If something had happened to James…his mouth went dry at the thought.

"I'm so sorry." Lux murmured into Ingelger's chest, though Remus wasn't sure who her apology was directed it. "Fuck, I'm so sorry. I didn't know…I didn't think she'd find me here."

"It isn't your fault, Lux." Ingelger responded, rubbing her back.

"It is!" She insisted, a crack in her voice. "Snape found out, I only just remembered. It must've been him. He must've told them where I was. Oh my God, if someone had been hurt…"

"What did Snape find out?" Remus asked, though no one answered him. "What's going on? Why are vampires after Lux?"

"Everyone is safe, Miss Erzsebet." Dumbledore explained calmly, his hands folded in front of him as he spoke. "You needn't worry about that. Mr. Potter will recover."

"What exactly does Mr. Snape know, Lux?" Ingelger asked, his jaw clenched, a sudden anxious aura radiating off of him.

"He knows what we are." Lux sniffed, finally retracting her face from his chest, and looking up so their eyes met. "I'm so sorry, Fulk."

"Severus Snape knows?! For fucks sake, Lux, why didn't you tell me?"

"Knows what?" Remus demanded, though he was once again ignored.

She wiped away a stray tear with the palm of her hand, though it did little to cover up the fact that she was crying as though she'd never been in a state of greater sorrow. "I…I don't know. I was scared you'd get angry."

His jaw shifted, his icy eyes flickering towards Dumbledore, then at Remus, and finally back towards Lux. "I'm not angry. How could I be angry right now, after what just happened? I'm just thankful you're alive."

"I'm so sorry." Lux bawled harder, and Remus felt something shift in his chest. Despite the utter confusion that had his mind warped, he had to physically restrain himself from dashing over to the blonde girl and wrapping his arms around her like Ingelger was. Something in him was itching to comfort her, to bring back that smile he'd seen on her only twice. It was the same instinctual urge that had kept him from fleeing with his friends back to Hogwarts just minutes earlier, the same urge that had caused him to save Lux's life by killing that vampire. It was something primal, something he hadn't a clue how to explain.

So, he focused his attention towards Dumbledore instead. "Can someone please just tell me what's going on?"

Lux hiccuped, turning towards him. "You don't understand? You don't…"

"Don't what?"

She shook her head, looking back at Ingelger with wide eyes. "We could erase his memory. All of their memories. This needn't ever have happened."

"Like hell you will!" Remus protested, whipping to look at Dumbledore. "Headmaster, you can't let them—"

Dumbledore held out a hand, stopping him mid-sentence. "No one will be losing their memories today."

"But—" Lux went to argue, but cut herself off when Dumbledore gave her a sharp look.

"No one will be losing their memories today." He repeated with more sternness, though his tone remained overall kind. "Mr. Lupin, I'm sure Professor Ingelger would be happy to explain what just occurred tonight. However, we may want to return back to my school, before any more conversation takes place. As I've been made aware, there are members of that so called Coven outside of the Potter home right now, and if they realized their member did not make it back out alive, I fear they may seek retribution."

"They need to be invited in." Ingelger frowned.

"That, they do. But a lack of invitation will not prevent Adelais or one of the others from burning the Potter home down, with us all inside, now will it?" Dumbledore stretched a hand out. "Come, you three. I will apparate you back to my office, where your friends are waiting. Then, we can have a nice chat, yes?"

Mr. and Mrs. Potter, followed by James, Peter and Sirius were all seated across a round wooden table in Dumbledore's office, all on chairs that couldn't have been in any way comfortable. To Remus's surprise, James was conscious, leaning against his mother with drooped eyelids, though still awake, and jolted upwards at Remus's arrival.

"Shit, Moony, you're okay!"

Remus simply grinned at his friend in response.

Sirius, on the other hand, leapt to his feet, rushing past Remus and over to Lux, who was still stumbling around, struggling to regain her footing from the rough apparation. In an instant, his arms were wrapped around her, holding her tight. "Luxie, you're alive!"

"It'll take a lot more than Mathilde to kill me." She sniffled, hugging him back without an ounce of hesitation, like she usually possessed.

Remus's stomach churned, though he couldn't tell if it was at the mention of the vampire he'd murdered, or the fact that Lux was so quickly warming up to Sirius.

"I shouldn't have left. I should've stayed — I tried to go back to help you, but Peter wouldn't let me. I'm so sorry."

"You're sorry?" She sputtered, shaking her head rapidly. "I'm sorry. I never should've come with you, I nearly got you all killed. I'm so sorry. Oh Merlin, James, I'm so sorry."

James gave her a weak thumbs up in response.

"Will someone please just explain what the fuck happened?" Peter ran a hand through his hair, and Lux and Sirius broke apart their embrace, though Sirius's hands remained on her waist.

"Language, Peter." Effie scolded gently.

Remus bit down on his lip, glancing at Lux, who had stopped crying, though her typically pale face was now tinted red. When no one said anything, Remus spoke, though he wasn't quite sure why. "Lux wanted to erase our memories. That's how bad whatever the truth is."

"You did?" Peter frowned, looking over at her. "Why would you want that?"

"I…" She began. "I'm sorry."

"That seems to be your word of the night." Remus said.

"Lay off her, mate." Sirius snapped. "She's had a rough night."

"She's had a rough night? Look at James! He nearly got mauled to death!"

"Yeah, until Lux saved him!" Sirius argued.

"She wouldn't have had to save him, had she not attracted that vampire to the Potter's home in the first place!" Remus continued, before turning his focus towards the blonde girl. "Lux, out with it. Now. What the actual fuck just happened?"

Her eyes welled with tears once again, and a pang of regret ran through Remus. Maybe Sirius was right, maybe he shouldn't shout…

Lux glanced over to Ingelger, their icy eyes meeting, before he nodded.

Then, she spoke. "We're vampires."

The room went dead silent.

Effie Potter hiccuped. Fleamont sat up straight, and James fell out of his chair and onto the floor.

Remus's heart stopped in his chest, as everything he knew about vampires swarmed to the front of his mind.

They couldn't eat human food, could they? Lux wasn't anorexic, she simply couldn't eat the foods they always badgered her about. The slip he'd come across in detention — it wasn't an ancestor, like she had claimed. It was hers, because she'd been a student at Hogwarts in the 1600s. And that kiss…when he'd bitten on her lip…werewolf bites were lethal to vampires. But since he wasn't in his werewolf form, it must not have killed her, simply knocked her out.

But the sun…how the fuck did she and Ingelger walk in the sun?

"Holy shit." Peter was the first to break the silence, his eyes wide and flickering between the pair. "How is that possible?"

"Well, you see, when someone is bitten by a vampire, or consumes their blood, then dies within twenty four hours—" Ingelger began, but Dumbledore cut him off with the raise of his hand.

"There is no need for sarcasm, Professor Ingelger. "

"He asked." Ingelger shrugged.

"What are you doing here, then?" Fleamont asked, his tone oddly kind, considering the situation. Almost as though he was curious, in a polite sort of way, like one may as a foreigner what brought them to the United Kingdom. "Shouldn't you be…well…I don't know, wherever it is vampires spend their time?"

Ingelger smirked. "We're on the run from the Coven. A group of vampires we've angered. Headmaster Dumbledore offered us safety from them here at Hogwarts, in exchange for our promise to side with him, in the upcoming war against Voldemort."

"We don't know there will be a war." Effie piped.

"There will be." Dumbledore said sternly — perhaps the most stern and sure he'd been in the entire night. "And we will need all the support we can get. Voldemort will want vampires, and I have no doubt he will seek out the Coven, to join him."

"They won't." Lux spoke up. "I don't think Adelais would willingly give up power, joining with that Voldemort bloke. She'd want to be in charge."

"Nevertheless, Voldemort will be seeking out vampires. We know he's searched for giants, and werewolves already. With Lux and Professor Ingelger on our side, we stand more of a fighting chance."

"I see…" Fleamont stroked his thin beard, contemplating. "If they're your friends, then they're not dangerous, I presume?"

"Not dangerous my arse! They're vampires! They eat people!" Peter protested.

"Shut up, Wormy!" Sirius shouted.

"I'd never hurt anyone. Neither would Lux." Ingelger said calmly.

"Hold on…" Remus held up a hand, speaking for the first time since the revelation had been dropped. "Padfoot, did you…know?"

Sirius said nothing, giving Remus the exact answer he was looking for.

"Bloody hell, you knew! You knew this whole fucking time, and you didn't tell me?"

"How could I? That would be a betrayal of her trust—"

"A betrayal of her trust? What about ours? You've been my best mate for years, and now you're fucking around with some random vampire you just met behind my back? You invited her to the Potter's home, knowing what she was!"

"Lux wouldn't hurt anyone! She doesn't even drink human blood, she told me that!"

"Yeah, just listen to the word of a fucking vampire. Because that's definitely someone you should trust."

"Oh that's rich, coming from you, of all people!"

It took Remus a second to understand what Sirius was implying, but when he did, his cheeks began to glow with fury. "Don't you fucking go there, Sirius Black."

"I'm just saying—"

"Stop!" James cried out, cutting them both off. While wobbling, he managed to remain upright as he stood up, his hand resting on the back of his mother's chair to keep him from falling over. "You two, cut it out. Now. Before you say something you might regret."

Neither of the boys said anything, so James redirected his attention to Lux. "You're a vampire, then?"

She nodded slowly.

"Do you want to eat me? Or anyone, for that matter?"

"No."

"Then it's settled."

"You can't possibly—" Remus began, but James held up a hand, stopping him mid sentence.

"If Lux had wanted to hurt any of us, she has had plenty of opportunities to do so, and she hasn't. So unless I'm somehow mixing my memories up from that bite, she saved my life, and all of yours, for that matter. She didn't have to get that vampire off of me, she didn't have to buy us time to run, but she did, and we're all alive because of it."

"You're right, love." Effie said, standing up, though she didn't go to her son, but over to Lux. With a deep breath, as though gathering courage, Effie Potter wrapped her arms around the vampire in a tight hug. "Thank you, Lux."

Lux said nothing, simply closed her eyes and hugged Effie back.

"I'm sorry." She eventually said when they broke apart. "I didn't know they would find us. I just…I wanted to have a nice holiday, with…"

"You don't need to explain yourself, my dear."

"Had I known Mathilde would've found me, I never would've come, I swear. I never meant for anybody to get hurt."

"I believe you. We believe you." Effie stroked Lux's cheek, as visible tears bit at her eyes once again. "Don't we, boys?"

Remus was the only one to not nod in agreement, simply watching with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why did she want to hurt you?" Peter eventually said. "She said something about a lad called Philip. What happened to him?"

Remus noticed that at the mention of Philip, Lux's posture stiffened, her eyes jumping to look at Ingelger, who shook his head gently. "I reckon that is a story for another day. It's been a long day. You all should go to bed. Headmaster Dumbledore and I will work on securing the Potter home, to make sure no vampires come across it again."

"Do you know who Philip is, then?" Remus questioned Sirius as they stepped out of Dumbledore's office. Lux was hovering far behind them, talking to James, who's arm was flung around Peter's shoulder, keeping him upright.

Sirius shrugged, his jaw shifting. "It's none of your business, mate."

"Actually, it is, since we were all nearly killed over it."

"He's a bad man. He hurt Lux, badly. Now he's gone, and his mates want revenge."

"Gone?"

"Dead. Killed."

"By Lux?"

"I'm not answering that."

"I'll take that as a yes." Remus scoffed. "So she's a murderer, yet you still fancy her?" The hypocrisy of his statement was not lost on him, the moment the words left his lips. He was no better than her, he realized, now that he'd killed that Mathilde woman.

For Lux. He'd killed for Lux, to save her life.

Why had he done that? He didn't like her, why didn't he just let her die? He didn't have to become even more of a monster than he already was, yet he had, all for Lux.

"She isn't a murderer." Sirius interjected quickly, face flushed with anger at Remus's words. "Philip had it coming. Like I said, he hurt her."

"How? What did he do to her?" Remus pressed.

He shook his head. "That's not for me to say. Ask Lux, if you want to know so badly."

Remus glanced behind him, towards the blonde girl, who was still mid conversation with James. Her face was still tinted red, and her icy blue eyes swollen from crying. For the briefest of moments, their gazes met, but she quickly looked away.

"Is Fulk her father, then?" He eventually asked, returning his attention to Sirius.

"In all but blood. I don't know much about his backstory, but I know he took Lux under his wing. They're family. Just like us."