Summary: SSSHG, AU, Hermione meets a subservient pale man in the rainforest and decides to adopt him.
Prompt: Hermione is a wand-waving Lethifold that can take human form. No one in the Magical World knows. Also, Death Eaters taste bad but are very nutritious.
Beta Love: Dragon and the Comfy Pillow, Dutchgirl01 and the Upside Down Budgie, Commander Shepard, King of Steak
A/N: Blame pointed at KIT-10NotK-9
Lethifold
Now, this is the law of the rainforest,
As old and as true as the sky,
And the Lethifold that shall keep it may prosper,
But the Lethifold that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk,
The law runneth forward and back;
For the strength of the Lethifold is family,
And failure is when the family does lack.
The hunt is the right of the hungry.
One hunts when the stomach grows still.
Do not hunt when the stomach is bulging,
Lest others remember your kill.
The old must share with the young ones,
The young just temper their needs,
For food must be shared with the family,
Lest one grow strong as another bleeds.
The vampire is the partner of the Lethifold,
And only they may take one from their home,
But the right of the Lethifold is to test them,
Lest their dreams be nothing but foam.
The gift-right is the right of the vampire,
To gift a Lethifold to their prospective mate,
To test the foundation of their Obsession,
And provide protection to the sharer of fate.
The mate-right is the right of the Lethifold,
To judge the vampire's mate,
To test them for the strength of their character,
And confirm that their love truly rates.
The Lethifold is a creature of Darkness,
The Lethifold is a creature of Light.
The Lethifold meets in the middle,
No truer friend to have in a fight.
Now, these are some laws of the rainforest,
And many and mighty are they;
But, the ones who rise and prosper,
Are the ones who bow and obey.
—Inspired by Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
I was born in a rainforest in the Amazon, like most things people don't know about. The rainforest was big, after all, and there was a lot of stuff people just didn't know about there.
There were a lot of things to eat there and even more places to hide. I was tiny, so hiding was sort of a given profession until I was old enough to not be taken by surprise by a hungry harpy eagle, jaguar, caiman, anaconda, piranha, or what have you.
Mind you, they wouldn't have gotten much nutritional value out of me, but it sure would have put a few holes where holes did not belong.
With age came stamina, improved speed, and the blessed ability to levitate, and with levitation came curiosity in spades. With this expansion of my once-limited world, my parents were hard-pressed to keep me in the nest.
And I was itching to explore instead of lurking in the shadows hoping my parents would bring me back a meal.
To curb the incessant curious streak in their offspring, my parents had me latch onto them as they went hunting, and that did make things more fun. They were much faster than I was, and I learned the lay of their territory far easier. They also knew the best hiding places to stalk the next meal and taught me how to "petition for services" by taking up a specific waving posture in a shady place, where animals would come up and open wide, allowing us to clean their teeth of debris and snacks. There were all kinds of tasty snacks wedged in between teeth in the jungle. To some, they would be called parasites, probably, but for me, they were most definitely tasty snacks.
Just my size, too.
My mum taught me how to fish without getting eaten myself, and that opened the door to fresh food in pretty much every place there was water, but she also taught me how to avoid getting snagged in nets and fishing lines, or getting snatched by bigger fish with a "if you're smaller than me, I'll eat you" philosophy.
Fortunately, Mum was there to rescue me when I bit off more than I could chew, and I became a highly skilled bass predator. But my mum also taught me that if you clung to the bigger fish such as the arapaima, that could lead to snacks.
I was all about snacks, so this became my favourite pastime.
I grew pretty fast those first few years, gaining more surface area and effective tools of mastication. All my baby teeth fell out in a catastrophic moult, and I hid under my parents in utter mortification until new ones grew back in. I didn't know at the time that my new teeth would grow back in, and I thought I was going to starve to death.
I'm sure my parents were amused by it, having seen it all before, but to me, it was like the world was ending!
It was during one of these catastrophic moults that we practised the age-old art of shape-shifting. My parents did it to appear like different types of clothing hanging out on trees or other such things. It often got them picked up and carried off to other places where food lay in abundance.
My parents taught me that unlike our more heathen relatives that would lack patience and eat anything that came in range, allowing ourselves to be transported to other places could lead us to better food opportunities, so it was better to be patient than to just eat anything that moved. They also taught me that taking out the less than loved specimens often made others happier, and happier transports equaled more food opportunities.
I was not going to complain. My parents had taught me that patience was rewarded with great food or at least lots of food. Sometimes the food wasn't that great. Maybe it was something they were eating.
I ate a poison dart frog a few times as a hungry youth, and it tasted awful, but it gave me a venomous hide and some neat colours to morph into, so it turned out to be a great thing! It just—tasted bloody awful.
I'd made a point to eat one if I found one in a different colour configuration from time to time, but I was pretty sure I had all the colours covered now. I wasn't going to turn down a new colour if I found it though.
One time, I snapped up a bird that had fallen from a tree, having fallen from some other predator's hungry mouth. I ended up being able to sprout feathers, so I learned that you could become what you ate.
At least, I could.
My parents weren't sprouting feathers and hooves, but maybe they just didn't want to. Nothing really messed with my parents, so they didn't exactly need to shapeshift into more than just random clothing.
With the rise of my latest moult of teeth and gaining of size, my parents decided I didn't have to stay with them all the time anymore, so I did quite a bit of exploring on my own. If I did stumble across a big meal, however, they always seemed to find me in time to share in it. I didn't mind. They'd always provided for me, so I wasn't going to be greedy.
Fires always provided more than enough food for a variety of predators, sometimes even taking the predators themselves. A roasted anaconda made us plump and lazy for a good month.
That was a lot of food.
After a few years, my parents taught me that sometimes there were very specific sorts that came to the rainforest that did not live there. They wanted to take us out of the rainforest and into the world, but we had to test them to make sure they were defective in some way.
Pairing up with some weakling was not going to lead to ample snacks, and lack of food made us cranky.
But how did you know if someone wasn't defective?
Apparently you attempted to eat them.
That kind of went against the grain of what they had taught me when I was younger, but apparently there was a difference when someone came to the rainforest looking for YOU. Then, you had the right to test them.
But then what? How did you know if you could trust them?
My parents said I'd know.
So vague.
One day, I was dangling from a branch doing my best jaguar digesting impression when a ruckus caught my attention.
Things that belonged in the jungle were only noisy when they wanted attention. Usually, unless you were trying to tell everyone exactly where you were like a colourful parrot or annoying monkey, keeping low was a matter of survival.
"You stay here, idiot," the tall, domineering man said. "I'm going to get the best Lethifold out here for Lady Dominga, and you will keep this camp nice and comfortable for when I get back."
"Yes, Master," the pale man beside him said, keeping his gaze lowered. The larger man just snarl-scoffed and stormed off into the rainforest like a drunken jaguar. I'd never seen a jaguar get drunk, but if I were to imagine it—
Meanwhile, the one he had left behind was busy making a camp. Clearing an area. Tent. Fire. All those things I'd see other humans do—but in the most obnoxiously flamboyant advertisement of "Hello, I'm here" kind of way. Not exactly a hunter sort of setup.
I was, admittedly, quite curious.
I slowly came closer, hiding in the shadow of one of the clay pots. Unlike some of the other "visitors" in the jungle, this one had a pleasant scent. Clean, like running water. A slight musk that was subtle that reminded me of a lurking jaguar—and ancient earth.
There was a giant pile of some sort of fruit near him, but he wasn't eating it. He would cast a look towards it, grimacing as if he was fighting some need, and then I sensed that need—hunger.
I knew it well.
But—if there was food, why wasn't he eating it?
The answer came soon after when that drunken jaguar came storming back to camp, decked the other man into the brush, bared his fangs and ate the entire pile of fruit, leaving his companion nothing.
"Go find yourself a rat. I want to be alone for now," the drunken Jaguar-man snapped.
The other man cast his eyes down and disappeared into the rainforest.
This guy—was a total wanker.
I drifted off to follow the other, less rude of the pair.
I found him with his fangs sunk into a forest rodent, but it was hardly a meal, even for me. He discarded the rat's carcass with disgust, obviously unhappy.
Well—that was still a snack.
I approached slowly and enveloped the discarded snack, making it disappear.
He was watching me, still as a rock.
He was still hungry. I could sense it.
Maybe—
I zipped off into the rainforest, finding the grove of naturally growing fruit that resembled the ones I'd seen in the camp.
I found them easily. They were in a grove that none but those like myself knew about, hidden and cut off from the rest of the rainforest unless you could fly. And then seep into the cracks of the mountain.
Fortunately, I could.
I wrapped myself around a few of the biggest fruits and tucked them into my "pockets" making them disappear into the place where "things went until I needed them later." I didn't question it. The fruits never went bad. They never fell. And if you plucked one, another showed up later. But, as far as I knew, nothing around here actually ate them. They were a remnant from a time when ancient people gave them as offerings to the gods. Gods who wanted blood, not water.
I zipped back to where the man had been, and he was still there, eyeing the spot where I had eaten his discarded rat.
I moved closer and then evicted one of the fruits at his feet.
The man startled as the giant fruit thumped into his boot.
He looked at me.
I looked back at him.
He took the fruit and sank his teeth in, and within seconds, that fruit was just a desiccated husk, and that husk turned to dust in moments, leaving no evidence it had ever been there.
His eyes were slightly crimson, but I could still feel that desperate hunger in him.
Welp—I did have a horde of them inside me.
I evicted another fruit from my "pocket" and he fell upon it with all due haste as if desperate for it, but perhaps also, to ensure he ate it before that other guy came around—
I couldn't blame him. That other guy was a real wanker.
That feral, desperate hunger abated in him, but just in case, I gave him one more, and this time, he took it less like a starving beast and more like a rational sort, taking a moment to savour the juice. He still drank it down fast, and the rind turned to ash.
"Thank you," he said.
I liked the sound of his voice.
I approached. I reached out a bit of myself, and he gently lay his hand on me.
It was warm and pleasant.
I liked it.
His skin was less sallow-looking, his body more filled out instead of skin stretched over bone. I moved into his lap, and he stroked my body in a pleasant way. I made a strange sound I'd never made before.
I purred.
I liked this one.
There was a crashing sound, and I zipped back into the shadows as the drunken jaguar returned, grabbed my new friend by the neck and slammed him into a tree. "Go seduce me some live dinner, boy. Bring it back unspoiled."
The subservient man nodded silently and staggered away as the brute snarled at him. I felt a cord between them. This brute and my new friend. Unlike the bond between myself and my parents, he was domineering—rude. Authoritarian.
I definitely didn't like him.
When my friend came back, he had a female with him. Her eyes were glazed, a strange entranced look on her face.
The Brute fell upon her with a snarl, drinking her down as my friend staggered backwards, a look of horror on his face. Shame.
In the rainforest, there was no shame in killing for food. If you were hungry, you had to survive. But when you were a glutton—that was not okay. It was better to share a carcass with others than make yourself explode trying to pack it all in yourself. And for me, sharing with my parents was more than fair. They shared with me. It was logical.
The jungle was full of hungry mouths, and even the little bits could be eaten by insects and small things—and eating those small things when my belly was already full was bad manners.
This brute was chock full of bad manners. He didn't belong in the jungle, and he most definitely did not belong out there, either. If he was hoping to lure one of us out there with him, he was going to be super frustrated.
No one wanted to be under the heavy foot of—that.
The brute flung the body away like a bit of trash. "Get rid of it, and cut off the head so it doesn't rise."
My friend took the body in his arms and staggered away with it.
If you've ever tried to dig a hole in the jungle floor, you'd probably be pretty frustrated. First, you have to get to it, and every place around here was covered in twisting roots and thick plants. My friend laid the body out on the ground and placed a hand on their crossed arms.
"I'm sorry," he apologised to the corpse. "I cannot defy my master. You did not deserve to die."
Suddenly, a series of dark swaths dropped from the jungle canopy and landed on the corpse, hissing and grinding as they quickly devoured the corpse.
This was not my parents.
These were the heathen relatives—invading territory lines out of hunger.
They didn't seem to be satisfied with just the corpse of the unfortunate, and they rose up to attack my grieving friend.
Rage filled me.
His hands were kind.
He did not deserve to be eaten!
I rose up, expanding my body in a display of power. I was well fed. I was lithe and fit. I was no mindless beast that ate anything within range.
They lunged at him—
I fell upon them, hissing and snarling.
This one—was MINE!
I exposed all of my venom-coated teeth and fell upon them, biting and grinding at their bodies with nothing but wrath.
Their emaciated bodies did not have the same immunity to the venom as I, and they were twitching on the ground, soon becoming paralysed. But I wasn't done.
They had attacked my friend.
I never wanted them to do it again.
I devoured them all.
Utterly.
Completely.
My next awareness was his kind hands gently stroking my body, and I felt that purr start up in me. My friend.
He was okay.
He was shaking a bit from the commotion, and I slithered up his body and enfolded him in myself, keeping my teeth sheathed. I then examined his tattered clothing, and I concentrated, turning myself into something that resembled it, laying across his back like a tattered cloth cape.
Someone had to protect him.
I wasn't going to let him get eaten by my wayward heathen relatives.
My friend slept in a small tent during the daytime, while the brute slept in some strange tent that was much bigger on the inside than the outside.
Well, fortunately, my friend had me!
I expanded myself and made myself more floofy, snuggling around him and cushioning his body from the unforgiving jungle floor. He snuggled into me tightly, a soft sound of relief exiting his throat as the tension in his body simply left.
I settled in around him, and for the first time in my life—I dreamed.
"This was my home, once," my friend said as he looked over the rolling hills of fertile ground. "When I was mortal. I am Mihail. It is the only name I know. I was sold as a child as a slave. Sold to my master when I was pretty, and then Turned to be his slave eternally."
I curled up in a ball of "cloth" in his lap, enjoying his touch.
"Even that name, he would not let me keep. He named me Sanguini. He had me seduce men and women and bring them back to him as food for power or sex—for everything. While I was only permitted to feed on rats. Food fitting for slaves."
"It kept me sufficiently weak, unable to resist his demands. Just strong enough to do his dirty work. The work of slaves."
He sighed. "That hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Those who show signs of resistance are soon killed. My weakness keeps me alive. Useful."
"This is the talent that has kept me sane," he explained. "Dreams. Here—I remember home."
I warmed to his hands, approving.
I liked him. Like seemed like such a small thing. It was more. I wanted to see him succeed. I wanted to be there when he did.
Was that what my parents had said? That I would know?
Well, I knew I wanted to be with him.
I kept bringing my friend fruits from the hidden grove, and he grew stronger. The Brute was getting more and more frustrated.
None of my brethren were going to touch him with a starving caiman on a spear. Nope.
But one day, Brute was more annoyed than usual, and he took Mihail by the throat. "Where is my live dinner, boy?"
I knew where that dinner had gone.
Mihail had let her go.
She'd been a tourist—not even from the rainforest.
He'd hoped to find another, but—
The next group of people had been larger with several armed men.
Not exactly an easy one to seduce.
The brute beat him—throwing him against the trees and ground like he was nothing at all—and Mihail took it because to do otherwise was to be killed.
Desperate to help him, I concentrated—
Until I stood on two legs, naked with just a wild bush of curly hair between me and the sky.
"So you aren't worthless after all, boy?" Brute snarled, throwing him down on the ground.
He stormed toward me, not even bothering to be subtle, and he grabbed me by the throat, his fangs already fully extended. I let him come in close until his stench made me want to gag.
Which for my kind would be a strange effect since we normally don't tend to do that sort of thing.
When he was close, his eyes closed as he bore down on my neck, I returned to the form I was born to, enveloped his head, and devoured it, layer by screaming layer until only the bone remained.
With the removal of his head, which I snapped off so I could enjoy the soft mushy brain matter that was a sort of delicacy, his body fell to the ground, and his power—all that power he'd been using to lord over Mihail with exploded outward and went into my friend.
He reached out to me, and my first instinct was to hiss and guard my brain food, but this was Mihail—my friend. I gulped down the rest of the oily matter and slithered up his body and warmed.
And he did something I did not expect.
He shared that explosion of power with me until it settled in me like it had settled in him.
I grew a few more feet of "fabric" and burped.
Mihail laughed and cuddled me close. "You wonderful, wonderful creature."
Wanting to be equal in this share of power, I radiated the collected power I had been devouring since I was born, sharing with him what he had shared with me. There was a flood of heat and magic and the sound of running water and rustling leaves.
FWHOOOOSH!
Suddenly the sexiest male Lethifold I had ever seen in my life was staring back at me.
I rustled.
He rustled.
We chased each other through the jungle until we were spent, nestled together in the great shade of the jungle tree roots.
He had gained the ability to be like me.
And I—somehow—had gained the ability to look human. Well, mostly.
Neither of us were really human, anyway.
But we could, at least, look it passably.
I taught him the rainforest. The hunt. The way of shadows and the rules my parents had taught me.
He taught me language and magic—how to use those powers he had shared with me.
We left the rainforest, my parents so proud, and we travelled the world. And when the more annoying of his kind came looking for him, we'd disappear into the shadows or dangle in plain sight from someone's laundry line.
We both enjoyed their frustration.
And I found I enjoyed this strange, human form. As long as it was with him.
With him, it felt right.
No one else had his scent or the feel of his touch.
And when he drew his claw across his neck to share his blood—his power, his life—with me.
Of course, I took it.
It could be no one else for me.
We settled in a place made fertile by the volcano, creating our own bit of rainforest paradise far from my original home. We brought trees from the Amazon and planted them, nurturing them until the trees were laden with plump fruit—the key to survival in a world surrounded by "off limits" food. People paid more attention as time went on, to disappearances. While Mihail never drained a human to death, always leaving them with pleasant memories and sending them on their way with a pint or two less in their system, he knew the fruit would be the key to a more civilised race of vampires.
We created variants of size and flavour from the more traditional blood to more exotically "normal" flavours like actual fruit and foods.
He made a delicious "sangria" and a business was formed.
Pale-faced customers would come from around the world and buy cases, barrels, casks, hogsheads, and everything in between of either the juice or its fermented favourites.
Our blood fruits were better than anything the vampires had known before: those sad little fruits I'd seen on the table in the rainforest.
They never gave me a second glance. Perhaps, they figured I was just another vampire freed by the Brute's death. Perhaps, I was one of Mihails' "slaves" to them. I didn't really care what they thought. He always treated me as an equal.
A kink in the armour came when another "Brute" showed up at the shoppe with his subservient "slave" at his heels—treated like no more than rubbish when they weren't actively being used and abused.
The other "slave" gave Mihail a familiar look. Desperation. It seemed to be the way of vampire society at the time. You were either powerful and had slaves or you were the slaves. I could tell that Mihail knew this one—and when I searched the memories of his shared past, I knew that this one was the slave of a once prominent Roman aristocracy.
Unlike Mihail, who was plucked for his looks to influence the next meal, this other was chosen as muscle to keep all of his other slaves in line. Someone who had once held power as a mortal and subjugated for "fun".
Tobias was his name.
Their brutish masters had mingled, making their slaves entertain them in whatever ways pleased them.
Brute the Second was apparently just as ill tempered and entitled as Brute from the rainforest, and he demonstrated this by toppling over the kegs of fine sangria as he took Mihail by the throat and wiped the counter off with his body.
"What is this SWILL?" Brute the Second roared. "This is not the blood of virgins! This is of no value to anyone!"
I ran forward instinctively, and the neanderthal grabbed me by the neck and squeezed.
Now, had I been fully human or vampire, perhaps this would have intimidated me, but I had no bones in my true form. Only many, many rows of teeth set in a highly flexible body primed and ready to digest anything. I was fully grown, now, and I could digest bone as easily as flesh.
I smiled at him, and Brute the Second snarled in my face, squeezing harder.
Tobias looked like he was going to protest, but Mihail stopped him.
Mihail knew what was going to happen. He'd seen it already.
I launched onto Brute the Second's head in a flurry of grinding teeth. He screamed and flailed.
I masticated his head down to the brain and enjoyed that deliciously oily grey matter. He wasn't using it, so I might as well enjoy the flavour.
I was bigger now, so I moved on to devour the rest of him.
Waste not, want not.
His power flowed through me like I was carrying a sun, and I knew I had to share with my bondmate or I'd probably explode, and the mess would ruin our grove of bloodfruit.
I reached out to him, and he pulled me close, helping absorb the power of this second Brute in our lives. But, as if testament to Tobias' significance, Mihail reached out to him, holding out his hand.
Tobias put his hand in his, and the power was shared between all three of us with a great shuddering BOOM!
And then I had two rather sexy male Lethifolds giving me the heated look that demanded cuddles.
Don't mind if I do!
I'm not sure if this was how my parents met, but I sure wasn't complaining!
We expanded the orchard and the business, and Tobias was far more intelligent than his Brute had given him credit for. He had an even temper and a fine control of his power that allowed him to pass as human. Even in the daytime, which was pretty impressive.
And, now that we all shared power, so could we.
Tobias said he had learned it to hide his power from his Brute, and it must have worked since he was around the same age as Mihail. He had soft, warm hands, and I would indulge in some serious lap possession when I was feeling super cuddly.
Both Mihail and Tobias had the most comfortable laps.
The business became a vital lifeline to many a vampire, and unlike their brutish Sires, they never denied the needy if they weren't as rich as other vampires with investments going back to prehistory.
Our business, however, had given us more than enough to invest in many areas, and we even attracted the attention of goblins.
Goblins made great friends!
They had contacts all around the world, knew investments like no other, and they had ways to smuggle bloodfruit products into places that couldn't even support a tree.
So, we started a project of building and moving our orchards to the well hidden Goblin Nation, a place that was, happily, underground save for some piped in sunlight much like the dapples through the rainforest. With a little help from a certain Lethifold, we created our paradise anew—underground—with the goblins, ensuring the best security for our crops and our investments.
And, as if to prove that we'd made a wise choice, the volcano near our old orchard blew its top and covered the entire area in ash and molten rock.
We took that as a sign that we'd made a great decision.
The growing underground rainforest and orchards were going to be a great place to have a clutter of babyfolds—eventually. Whenever my biology decided it was ready for such things.
I had no idea when that would be.
There was another great advantage to living with the goblins. They had the occasional burglar that would attempt to barge in where they didn't belong, and, well—
You know me. I loved snacks.
Even the bad tasting snacks usually had a reserve of Dark magic inside, and that made it worth the cloying taste of nasty liquorice. We would settle on the corpse and share the feast and the magic, and our power would grow.
The goblins were happy they didn't have to spend an obscene amount of galleons on dragons.
We were happy.
The victims, well, they were invariably idiots anyway.
Tobias said one day that we needed to merge into the local magical school and learn human magic, or, rather, learn what was current. Times changed, and magic became more streamlined and refined. Less gesticulating. Chanting. Circles. Moon phases. All that rot.
The business was self-maintaining, and Mihail said he would tend the fort until we could "go get educated like a mortal" and he would take the fast pass via blood sharing when we came home on hols.
So, Tobias became Severus. I became Hermione, and Mihail just used Sanguini and said he'd come visit when some bloke named Slughorn held a party. Some wizard that liked collecting talent for his own fame.
We'd see him during the hols, and I'd have to learn how to be a boring magical human.
At least Tobias would be nearby. His calming presence would keep me from eating someone.
Maybe.
"They're idiots," Severus muttered as he leaned back against the tree and let me lean against him.
"How do humans survive this—adolescence?" I asked.
"Blind stupid luck," Severus mused. "At least in my time, if you were stupid, you ended up dead. Now, it seems like stupid survives longer and gets to breed."
That didn't seem very logical to me, but then, Lethifolds were hardly human normal for society. We ate our problems.
"This lot seems to be trying to become the next generation of brutes," I observed.
"These idiots are different," Severus said. "They are bullies but they don't have the clout the Brutes did. They have looks as humans go and money, but they are not as politically strong and socially heavy handed as my old master or Mihail's. It was a different sort of dance."
"It produced you two," I noted. "And I like what I have."
Severus smiled. "Well, you aren't exactly a normal of your species either. Not that either of us are complaining."
I smiled back at him.
"Hey kitten," that Black character cooed. "Why are you spending so much time with that greasy git when you could be having fun with me and my mates?"
"Ah, Black," I cooed like a sycophant. "I prefer my men greasy and intelligent rather than limp and stupid."
Pettigrew sniggered, and Black punched him in the face. He stormed off in a huff as Pettigrew nursed his broken nose.
Severus looked at me with that eyebrow rising straight into his hairline.
"What?" I said. "I do have certain preferred traits."
Severus snorted into his book, leaning into me, and I snuggled back.
School was a pretty strange experience, but at least we had each other.
"Whatever does he see in her?" I asked, truly horrified by the cloying scent of flowers that made me want to go jump into the marsh, roll around, and eat a few poison dart frogs.
Severus shook his head. "She's pretty, somewhat exotic," he said. "Red hair, green eyes, freckles. I think—that it's more attractive to males of this time."
I wrinkled my nose. Such scents were out of place for me. It wasn't like the strong scent of the orchids of the high trees from my home where moths would come from miles around just to get at their nectar. It was suffocating.
She wasn't alone, either. Females would douse themselves in their perfumes and be blind to its eye watering stench.
"Don't eat her," Severus said, flipping a page in his book. "You might end up smelling like that forever."
I cringed and went back to reading. That was a horrifying thought.
Someone had spiked the punch.
I had no idea with what— a lust potion, perhaps.
People were feverishly snogging everywhere—but for Severus, this was a serious problem.
Vampire lust involved a very specific cocktail of blood, sex, and more blood. Often shared.
Lethifold lust was—well, I really had no idea. I'd not had the drive to create babyfolds yet. That switch hadn't been turned. But I did know that the human form was a pleasurable way to enjoy such things—when randy teens weren't going down on each other all around us.
Severus's hands were balled into fists as he dug his claws into his own palms to resist the effects of the potion. He was panting, and his fangs were emerging.
This was bad.
Super bad.
Tobias was the absolute master of control. Take that away, and he was a soldier and an expert killer.
I pressed up against him, inviting him close, and he fell upon my mouth with a primal growl. I felt his fangs against my tongue and lips. Shuffling us towards the concealing curtains, I shifted into my natural form, swaddled him in restraints, and moved as fast as my levitation allowed, carrying him into the depths of the Dark Forest.
It wasn't a rainforest, but it was better than the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
Tobias groaned into my mouth. "I need you."
"I'm here," I reassured him.
Tobias was an attentive lover. He and Mihail were always considerate, observant beings who wanted me to feel as much pleasure as they did. I never felt pressured by them. I never felt bad about it. If anything, they taught me that the human body was pretty nice for such things.
Tobias' fangs were extended, and he was struggling to remain in control, but I took his head and drew it to my neck. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm willing."
He clutched me with his arms as his fangs met my throat, and that rush of pain quickly turned into pleasure.
He growled against my skin, his body trembling, and he drew a claw to his neck to share his blood and pleasure with me.
I pressed my mouth to his offering, allowing his passion to pour into me, and our bodies did the rest.
We awoke much later, entwined under the roots of the great oak, apparently having spent ourselves so extensively that we'd gone Lethifold and puddled together in the cool shade. Groggily, we half-slither floated back to Hogwarts, using the shadows to skip from one place to the other. While the sun could no longer hurt us, we were used to stealth, and nothing screams weird quite like two random cloaks floating around in the daylight without their people.
As I settled into my bed, I didn't even notice that no one else was there.
SCANDELOUS PREGNANCIES HAVE EMERGENCY MARRIAGES IN THE FUTURE!
"Congratulations, Miss Granger, you are not pregnant," Poppy Pomfrey said as she gestured for me to leave the infirmary so she could test the others waiting.
Lines of distraught witches waited anxiously for their test. Almost all of them that had attended the party were pregnant.
Fortunately for a lucky few, they were either away from the punch bowl or not fertile at that particular moment. By whatever grace of the gods who were watching, at least the younger students weren't affected, having attended parties in their respective common rooms.
It was probably good for their minds, anyway.
Mihail, Tobias, and I had been mates for a long time. We were not prudes to sex, but seeing all those horny teenagers going down on each other in front of Merlin and everyone—it was enough to make one vomit.
As for the teachers—whoa, boy.
Most of them looked ready to flay those responsible.
Did that meant they—
Yup. No. I didn't want to know.
There were just some things a Lethifold like me really didn't need to know.
Judging by Severus' expression, he didn't want to know either.
"Thank you, for—helping me last night," he said awkwardly as we snuggled with our books under the tree.
"It was hardly torture," I said, smiling at him.
"It was not—planned. I could have hurt someone, and you didn't allow it to happen. I thank you for that," he said, his gaze haunted.
I placed a hand to his cheek. "You and Mihail have always been there for me. It was a pleasure. Quite a bit, actually. I'm just glad no one saw us escape into the forest."
He chuckled. "I'm starting to think that every vampire needs a Lethifold to keep them out of trouble."
"Well, they need to find their own. I'm taken," I said with a cheeky grin.
He laughed. "I am glad of you. Truly. It never ceases to amaze me what a priceless gift you are."
He pressed a tender kiss upon my temple, and we went back to our studies while the whole of Hogwarts shook with the sound of a furious Lily Evans screaming, "YOU BLOODY WELL GOT ME PREGNANT, YOU FUCKING WANKER!"
Ah, amore. Yikes.
Short of the long list of wandpoint weddings that happened following that debacle, life went on at Hogwarts. The teachers soon found out where the spiked punch had come from, and it turned out to be an interaction between a more innocent potion that had been laced into the punch with the magical perfume that the majority of the females at the ball were wearing. It created astonishingly strong pheromones and resulted in a dramatic increase in hormones—and so much more.
The females wore the perfume to be attractive.
The punch was spiked to lower the drinker's inhibitions—
And the rest was utter chaos.
As for Severus, well—once the two chemicals were combined they became airborne, and he was not immune. It also explained why he had come down with the control problem without having partaken of the punch himself.
It was a good thing we were already mates. Many stories of raging vampire hormones ended up with the male vampire putting his arm through a wall to strangle someone on the other side for even looking at his non-bonded-yet mate.
Vampire society was—complicated.
Some of the families were considering yanking their now-married children out of Hogwarts for home-schooling, and I suppose we would see the results of that after the winter hols. Once all the weddings and punches were done flying in all directions.
Apparently, not everyone that had been dating a significant other was getting married to them.
Drama.
So much drama.
"I've never seen Horace look so uncomfortable," Mihail noted from where he was leaning against the window sill as we joined him. "So many married couples, even amongst his partygoers. It makes for more drama than a Greek or Roman theatre."
Severus rolled his eyes.
"Normally, it is all about wanting what one doesn't have," Mihail said. "Now it is all about what one has but has now realised they didn't actually want or need."
"Puberty is a curse I am glad to have left behind me along with Rome," Severus said.
"Just to warn you, my loves," Sanguini said seriously. "There is a rising Dark Lord sending out his knights to corrupt and entangle whoever they can in his plans for the future. Be wary."
"The Dark Lord wants married witches and wizards?" I mused.
"Well, the family that fights together dies together," Severus said. "The Romans knew that you fought for your fellow soldier when that soldier was your lover far more fanatically. There is also the—emotional extortion in the case there is a true emotional bond. You may not care what happens to you, but do you want to watch me torture your lover in front of everyone?"
"Lethifold conflict seems so terribly simple in comparison," I said with a shake of the head.
"Eat or be eaten?" Mihail mused.
"It works!" I protested.
"We will keep alert for it," Severus said. "Thank you."
Mihail nodded, feigning utter boredom. "You should go mingle. My human chaperone is coming back to shove a pasty into my hands in the hopes I don't sink fang into some young witch or wizard. How appalling. Does he realise how bad they smell?"
Severus and I laughed as we subtly touched his skin and let him know we loved him before vanishing into the crowd.
Severus and I sat together in a puddle of Dark wizard, noshing on their bones.
We knew everyone that was supposed to be at Hogwarts, and this idiot wasn't invited. Invited people did not skulk about in the dark and attempt to murder a centaur.
The wizard tasted like salt liquorice. It was disgusting.
Still, the magic was magic, and the brain was nice and chewy. So I even shared with my mate.
We made the entire corpse disappear.
The centaur we had inadvertently rescued dipped his hand into the red mud and painted markings on our "fabric" as he called us Herd Friends.
Ironically, the markings looked just like the lines on a poison dart frog.
It must have been fate.
"What do you mean they are invited?"
"They are named our Herd Friends, Albus," Magorian said. "They are welcome in our forest and at our fires with our herd."
Albus' face twisted with confusion. "But—why?"
"Do we need a reason that you can write down, Albus? No," Magorian said. "You will allow them to shelter in our forest as they wish at whatever time. It is their right as friends of the herd."
Albus' face scrunched but he nodded. "Very well."
"Get the hell away from me, James!"
"But, we're married!"
"Not because I had a choice!"
"Come on, Lils! Give me a chance!"
"I will never forgive you for taking away my choice!" Lily hissed furiously, storming away, her hand rubbing her swollen belly. "I hope your parents take you out of school and I never see you again!"
Severus and Hermione stirred their potion as babies cried on the other side of the room. Slughorn had his "special potions set up for pregnant witches" so they wouldn't hurt the child that was nursing, but it also put the babies in the classroom with the other students.
"I really hope a Death Eater tries to invade tonight," Severus muttered as he stirred.
I placed the crushed leaves into the cauldron. "Me too."
Death Eaters delivered themselves like Christmas hams (sans the tasty flavour) quite regularly that year. The staff of Hogwarts didn't seem to notice, but the centaur did because these wonderful examples of Dark wizards and witches would trudge through the forest like it was theirs, try to use their magical tools to fool the gates or walls, and then experience the exotic honour of getting a hungry Lethifold to the head.
The constant flow of magic and tasty, tasty creamy brains did increase my libido quite a bit.
Maybe a lot a bit.
Okay, a lot.
The centaur found it amusing when Severus and I would show up in the morning as a puddle of exhausted Lethifolds hiding in the tree roots.
Did Death Eaters know they were an aphrodisiac?
Who knew—
One day, the foals gathered our limp bodies into a basket and carried us around as they were foraging.
A scream woke us from our post-coital lethargy, and we shot out of the basket like shots, zipping around in an attempt to see what was wrong.
Spiders.
Huge spiders that made the bird eating spiders of my home look like small garden spiders of the UK.
Severus and I shot toward the spiders and tackled them to the ground, removing their heads from the rest of their body as those deadly fangs turned into us instead of the foals.
But we were all too familiar with the venom and poisonous toxins that lived in the rainforest, and our bodies were already inoculated. We ground their heads to paste and devoured them, moving on from spider to spider until many decapitated spiders lay twitching on the ground.
But the biggest prize of all—
The female Acromantula's egg sac, still intact, was still attached to her body.
"They're me friends! Ye have no right!" Hagrid sobbed as the squad from the Ministry came and took the egg sac away as well as the carcasses of the two major adults.
"Mr Hagrid, you are under arrest for the illegal importation of invasive dangerous XXXXX creatures into the Dark Forest near the populated Wizarding town of Hogsmeade," said a stern-looking Ministry official. "You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in Wizengamot. Anything you do say may be given in evidence!"
"YOU MURDERED ME FRIENDS! THEY WERE ME FRIENDS!" wailed Hagrid as they took him away.
As Albus shook his head and accompanied the officials off the grounds to Apparate, two swaths of black cloth lay across the backs of two centaur stallions, their "cloth" bodies glistening with the shiny green venom of an Acromantula.
Old Ways Laws Permit Divorce and Remarriage if Winning Suitor Rules the Duelling Platform!
My eyes narrowed as I saw Severus acting like Lily was both the mangrove forest and a great collection of treetop orchids.
NEWTs were over.
Soon, we were to leave the school and reunite with our mutual love and—
Maybe make a few babyfolds.
"Heh, heh, heh," Black heckled. "Looks like your boy finally decided to throw in his claim to Lil to overthrow her marriage. He'll be duelling all the contenders on the platform along with Pr—James."
I blinked slowly. "It won't work, you know."
"Whatever do you mean?"
"Framing your mate to look like the hero, defeating all the swooning would-be suitors so Lily sees him in a new, glorious light," I said. "Severus will win, and he will demand marriage and all the rituals that come with it as tradition demands."
Black snorted. "You make it sound like you'd encourage it."
I laughed, and I knew it left Black feeling wrong-footed. He wasn't used to being the one facing someone who was confident.
"Oh, I do. Because I know the very first gift he will have to give his beloved and intended as tradition demands to ensure a blissful, harmonious mating and joining with the love of his life."
"You're a weird bird," Black scoffed. "I don't know what anyone would see in you."
I smiled at him. "It's what they don't see," I said watching as Severus kissed the air above Lily's knuckles, and her eyes lit up with the excitement that she would get out of a forced relationship with Potter for someone like Severus who had such high marks and a "bright future" as a master of potions. "Just remember. You encouraged your best mate to duel others to the death on the duelling platform for a fickle female who sees social status and galleons as a measure of worth. A woman who is nursing her child with your best mate while letting multiple cursed paramours kiss her knuckles with an illusion of love."
I levelled my gaze to his. "Remember that, when your best mate is dead and Lily is screaming for help for you to fix your mistake."
Sirius shifted with visible discomfiture as I leaned in.
"Because you didn't just drop the potion into the pumpkin juice, Black," I said. "You did, and you washed your hands in Black Lake and your body in the showers of Hogwarts where the steam carried to every open window— and to the Death Eaters you let in to make yourself look a hero."
Black's face went pale.
I said nothing, but I pulled back from staring him in the eyes, one finger running along my bottom lip in a gesture Tobias and Mihail often used when contemplating how someone would taste. "I recommend that you toddle off and convince Lily to formally accept her marriage to James Potter before the bodies start falling and your best mates kill each other for her hand."
It was then Sirius Black turned to see Lily formally accepting the start of the duelling challenge by dropping her handkerchief to the floor as multiple men dove for it—including Remus and Peter.
Sirius lunged away from me, wand out, and he used a desperate surge of magic to incinerate that handkerchief before it could hit the floor or land in someone's hands.
All male eyes turned to Black as the chaos exploded.
Severus' metabolism kicked in as the brawl went into high gear with teachers stunning students and binding them to keep from hurting each other. He hissed softly, pressing his forehead to mine as his fangs bared. He pushed me up against the tree with a growl as his claws moved down my back.
"I need you," he growled against my skin. "Before I succumb and confess my undying love to a mortal scortum and end up murdering her by throwing my dutiful Lethifold at her to test her worth and have my true mates tear her to pieces starting with her head."
I breathed heavily against his skin. "You say the sexiest things," I whispered. "I am yours and Mihail's, Tobias. Now and forever."
It was then that a certain crimson brocade-patterned Lethifold swirled around us, swaddled us both, and carried us off into the Dark Forest to get some "things" out of our system.
Get in!
Scion Sirius Black Accused of Setting Up Best Mate to Win Duels To Cement Marriage But it Backfires!
Chaos was the breeding ground of opportunity, for not only did it give us some alone time with our beloved mates, but it also provided an opening for the supposed Dark Lord to come and figure out why his people kept being lost in the forest.
Now, unknown to the chaos still reigning supreme at Hogwarts as hormone-fueled wannabe duellists attempted to find reasons to murder each other over the hands of their respective wives and/or husbands, I was snuggling with my mates over the nasty-liqourice-flavoured corpse of the Dark Lord Rising.
Or Fallen.
His creamy brain matter had spurred on a rather furious mating session over his bones. Sans the brain cavity—I totally broke into that.
We could have eaten his bones, I suppose, but we were too full.
It was bad manners to eat when you were already full. Besides, someone, somewhere would want his bones as proof of death, right?
Maybe?
My inner stomachs burbled, and I fluttered with discomfort.
Hhhrlllk!
I expelled a broken ring from inside my body. Tobias bleched up a beaten-up diadem, and Mihail hacked up a locket.
Hrm, those would probably have to be sent to the Department of Mysteries.
I snuggled my mates.
Later.
Priority Lethifold things going on.
He Who Shall Not Be Named's Bones Found on Green of Hogwarts With Broken Artefacts!
HORCRUXES CONFIRMED!
Frantic Search for Remaining Artefacts!
HORCRUXES FOUND: 6 In Total!
Reign of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named Ended!
There was a giggle and soft squeegee sounds as our playful spawn tackled Amelia Bones, the Head Boss of You of the Department of Mysteries, as she gave each one of us a distinctive registration tag and serial number so we'd never be mistaken for a "common" Lethifold.
If such a thing even existed.
Amelia was, unlike some of the other inept magicals that seemed to plague the Wizarding World, both utterly unflappable and quite talented. Even as she let the babyfolds "maul" her, she had them tagged, weighted, measured, and their moulted teeth collected without our spawn realising it wasn't a game.
Professional.
I liked her.
Amelia was trying to butter up my mates to consider founding a place where vampires and other preternatural creatures could live in peace. It would be connected to the DoM, of course, but it would be, if they agreed to it, a new sort of collaboration. Much like the DoM proper but with more land and an above ground (at least partially) profile. It would be hidden from most Muggles, of course, but it would a bit unique in that it would include both the magical and Muggle living together in sworn secrecy—
Still, they would be allowed to live together.
Tobias and Mihail were giving her that look. The one that resembled the one they used to size up how someone would taste with a slight variation. Subtle, but it was there.
There were a few older vampires about the age of or older than Mihail and Tobias, and they were more likely to think of the whole of the species over personal power. It would require a bit of a Council to keep such Lines in check.
But—as a team—there would be less chances of another Brute rising to power unchecked.
My loves would come around, I think. They just had to make Amelia sweat a little. They had to get their small amusements somehow.
They'd already negotiated to obtain land for a transplanted rainforest (or rather, grown one), set up contracts with the goblins to bring them in on the building and dealt with the financial aspect as well as possible living inclusions, as well as a full staff of talented arborists to ensure the new place had plenty of food for their citizens—both the normal and the bloodfruit kind.
"You want me to sit on a seat at the Wizengamot and be an ambassador?" Mihail questioned, his sigh heavy.
"Well, it is certainly not going to be me," Tobias said. "I make most vampires piss themselves, so I can only imagine what I would do to the Wizengamot. Besides, it's better they don't know my face in case I have to blend in for a few years somewhere."
"Didn't you have enough of that with 'going back to school'?" Mihail asked, amused.
"Enough and more," Tobias muttered, but I knew he wasn't completely put out. It was because of the entire going back to school thing that we'd unlocked the path to babyfolds, at least for me, and no one was complaining about that. In fact, it was looking like Amelia was going to be an aunt whether she liked it or not. Our babyfolds really liked her, and if anyone that wasn't their parents was going to keep a bunch of mischievous Lethifold babies out of trouble, it would probably be her.
"Well, I am going to lure my mate out of the cave with a crate of mangoes and have him give the little ones their checkup, if that's okay with you three," Amelia said.
"Fine by me," Mihail said, waving dismissively as if it didn't matter. We all knew better, but we all trusted Amelia, which was really saying something.
What remained to be seen.
The babyfolds giggled and clung to her, obliviously happy.
Amelia cast her eyes to the unsigned parchments and sighed, shaking her head. She left silently to give my mates time to simmer over the offer.
When they were sure she had left, they leaned in and quilled their names to the parchment, smug faces all.
The gits.
I snuggled between them. It was another new beginning, but it promised to be a great one, and for a humble Lethifold born in the rainforest, I had come a very long way. I had found myself two dutiful mates and prevented a war by eating some idiot whose brain allowed me to get excited enough to produce some babyfolds.
It was probably not what my parents would have done, but I think they would be proud of me and what I'd accomplished.
"I love you," I murmured into Mihail's side as Tobias wrapped his arms around us.
I almost missed the rumble of mischief that passed between my mates just before they flattened me into the Chesterfield.
Bliss.
Far away on the island of Azkaban, the four notorious troublemakers of Hogwarts eked out a life as caretakers for the grounds around the infamous prison—the only place that would hire them with their notoriety at Hogwarts.
They lived with their outcast families in small, modest cottages on the island, surrounded by a barrier rainforest that had sprung up seemingly overnight.
They didn't try to leave through it because Peter had already lost a finger to "something" living in the rainforest, and their one neighbour, Rubeus Hagrid, had walked into the forest to "make some friends" only to never be seen again.
They realised the forest was alive and harboured things they couldn't understand or counter.
Something unseen.
Something hungry.
And Lily commiserated with her fellow wives as their husbands worked the grounds. The witches kept themselves busy trying to make the best of their situation while also preventing their toddlers from wandering into the rainforest to their deaths.
If any of them had any aspirations of greatness before their lives on the island, they had long since been squashed.
Those like Marlene seemed to more content with their lot as if realising that having a home and being out of the spotlight was no small gift. Lily, however, always seemed to think she was destined for something better and had been robbed of it.
But while she was not content with what she had, she, too, never tried to leave through the thick rainforest ring around the island.
Visiting my parents on the new Azkaban island was always a pleasure. My parents happily agreed to be transported to the new forest away from our "heathen" relatives, and they and their new babyfolds took to breaking in the new rainforest to suit their needs. One part wildlife preserve, one part living fence, my parents settled in with aplomb. My newest siblings enjoyed playing with my own babyfolds, and they explored the rainforest together under the watchful presence of my parents.
I smiled, watching my parents teach the youngest generation how to set up "cleaning stations" for clients of the forest, my mum teaching the youngest how to fish without getting eaten. It brought back such vivid, wonderful memories.
It was here, perhaps, a young vampire in might come and cast their hopes to a Lethifold that they might be judged worthy to take one home with them.
Perhaps as a lifelong companion. Perhaps as a gift for their future mate. Perhaps both.
No other Lethifolds seemed to take my path of transformative adaptation—none save our babyfolds, born from parents that shared their power and shapeshifting equally amongst themselves.
But that would be in a future time.
For now, my babyfolds were enjoying life as I had started.
Just a humble babyfold, hoping to survive long enough to make her parents proud.
After so many mortal generations had passed us by, we continued on, defying the labels of our supposed uncontrollable Dark nature.
And if all of these babyfolds grew up, with some discovering the love and respect of a partnership with a vampire, then we had all succeeded in defying the labels given to us by ignorant wizards and witches.
They'd all have to find their own mates, though.
I snuggled with Tobias and Mihail under the mangrove roots.
These were mine.
And they lived fashionably carnivorous ever after!
A/N: Hope you enjoyed your story, KIT-10NotK-9