(TW & AN: Drug use in this chapter. I was listening to Vois Sur Ton Chemin by Bennett, Dernière Danse by Indila, Bel Mercy by Jengi, Scarab by Vairo, Smells Blood by Kensuke Ushio, and Eternal Rave by Fyex, for the vibes while writing this one.)
Only Holy Water, Violet Orlandi
It comes from a place of love
When I say that I love you more than myself
And I love the way you put me
The way you put me through hell
Baby, I'm your disease
Show me how to pray on my knees
I'll keep you company
No need to cry, baby, I'm here
Only holy, only holy
Only holy water could keep us apart
It comes from the pure desire
Of feeding off of you and you feed off of me
Turn me on or turn my head around
Like father Karras did
Avalon and Eris both looked grey when he and Ginny returned to their seats. While Harry figured their faces had something to do with the news Avalon had just received, Eris was openly scowling at him, his eyebrows twitching as he whispered in Avalon's ear, her eyes growing wide and flicking to Harry.
'What's that about?'
'I do not care at this point,' Tom thought, requesting that Cassiopeia refill his glass.
Crabbe and Goyle re-entered the tent, the latter looking grey but sitting down anyway.
"It was your turn, right?" Ruby said to Harry, who shook his head.
"I'm not doing it," he told her, openly scoffing before he reigned in his expression.
"It was my turn," Draco said, extending his arm.
She seemed genuinely upset before she turned her attention to the blonde and took his blood. Pollux swallowed it, closed his eyes, and straightened his back.
"Money, power, success, fame…" he said, and Draco grinned.
"All adjacent to you," he continued, and the Slytherin's face fell.
"What? Adjacent? What?" He scowled, "I'm already rich. People know who I am. Terrible fortune teller. You were smart not to do it," he muttered at Harry.
Tom was focused on Reed, who had still not spoken a single word, though no one seemed to notice.
"Reed," Tom said, and she jumped as though bitten, "Tell me, I am curious; why you have not joined the discussion this evening?"
"Oh, because she's talking in our heads!" Ruby chirped, and Reed's mouth fell open.
"What? You said it wasn't working anyway?" She said, shrugging at the girl with the shaved head.
"Ruby!" Reed exclaimed, revealing a heavy Scottish accent, "Control your mouth, oh my God."
She looked mortified, glancing at Harry like a dog that had done something wrong.
"Talking in your heads?" Tom asked Ruby, zoning in on the weak point. Pollux was busily recorking his empty potion bottles with intense concentration.
"Yeah, she doesn't like to speak out loud, right?"
"Excuse me, do I know you?" Reed snapped at Tom, who smiled slowly, peeled his eyes from Ruby and inclined his head at Reed.
"You are in my tent, attempting to enter my mind. Do I know you?" Tom summoned the curse. Crabbe choked a scream and scrambled from the pillows towards the tent entrance, so Harry pulled it back in and grimaced. Pansy went for Crabbe, once again gone from the tent.
"Alright, then, settle down," Cassiopeia sighed, sitting forward from her lounging position.
"He's just getting through his fear of you, you know?" Goyle said, scowling at Harry before he followed Pansy and Crabbe out.
Draco watched him, face carefully schooled, while Pollux continued to cork the second vial meticulously. Reed watched him with eyes wider than Ruby's. Cassiopeia tipped the bottom of Harry's drink to his face, and he absently took a sip.
"Alright. I'm sorry I tried to enter your head. It was obviously rude. And I was trying to get your blood for Pollux because it's all the poor bastard can think about. I practice mind magic. Not the Imperio Legilimency Occlumency lacey bullshit. Real mind magic."
"So, you were attempting to control me," Tom glared, but Harry heard his interest.
"Well, when you put it like that… Pollux is harmless. I've seen his whole brain. He likes blood. He wants everyone's. I know that sounds- I mean to most people- but he's just curious."
Throughout her admission that she was trying to use mind control on him, Eris kept his eyes glued on Harry, glaring.
"Are you doing that to anyone else in the room?" Ginny asked, frowning at Reed.
"No. Look, I'll go. Let's go," she stood up, and Ruby reluctantly followed her.
Pollux stayed on the ground, corking the third vial, "No."
"We'll have to drag him off the floor; he's made up his mind," Reed said.
"Come now. Sit down. Drink. Ignore this limpet," Cassiopeia said, refilling their abandoned glasses to the brim with magic. "Bit of etiquette advice: Don't do mind control."
"Right. I won't. I—I couldn't, anyway," she said, sitting back down, frowning sheepishly at Harry. Ruby sat back down beside her and smiled at the floor.
Avalon and Eris whispered into each other's ears again, and Harry felt like Tom wasn't interested enough in that development.
"It's getting late, Harry. We'll be going soon. Who's got the Grave Dust?" Cassiopeia said, and Avalon guffawed.
"What is that? Why do you keep saying that?" Harry asked.
"Someone has Grave Dust?" Draco said.
"Oui, someone has Grave Dust. I did not intend to supply everyone; I have enough for five at best. I am doing it, so four. Rabble amongst yourselves," Avalon said.
"I'm sorry, what are we talking about?" Harry insisted.
"I'll do it!" Ruby said, putting her arm up. Reed rolled her eyes.
"A newborn baby has approximately one cup of blood in its body," Pollux said, putting the empty vials in his pockets.
"Drugs, Harry," Cassiopeia told him.
"What?"
"Do you need further clarification?" The vampire asked.
"I'm in," Draco said, and Avalon grinned, then winked at him.
'What's Grave Dust?' He wondered.
'Drugs, Harry,' Tom smirked, nearly undetectable.
Avalon had gotten up to search a cupboard, returning with a small wooden box.
"It makes you feel étonnant," she told Harry, "Like you're in the clouds. Not dangerous, despite the name. Well, the danger is in not wanting to stop, of course. When you sleep afterwards, it is like you're dead. I like it. Some people find it… Anyway, the fun is before you sleep. Pretty hallucinations. Sometimes people say they see ghosts, but I have never."
"I have a proposition; hold a spot, Avalon," Cassiopeia got up fluidly and dragged Harry—drink in hand, with her into his room.
"So, I can't take drugs," she told him as she muted them, "Nastiest part of vampirism if you ask me. But if someone is drunk or on drugs… And I fed on them…" She raised her eyebrows.
"Do you mean? Me? No. I'm not doing drugs? I'm a little bit drunk. A medium bit drunk," he sipped his drink and didn't know how many he'd had. He decided he liked firewhisky.
"Oh, come on, like you haven't had the week that's earned étonnant clouds. Like I haven't, dealing with your crap."
'I mean,' Tom began in his head, and Harry frowned.
"Harry, come on, Harry, I've done so many things for you, like saving your life multiple times. I'll heal it right away, I'll barely take any, I've eaten. Please?" She clasped her hands together and mock pleaded.
"You are being a child," Tom said.
"And you're assuming I'm going to do it," Harry added, swigging his drink and coughing.
"Oh yeah? Know many kids who beg for drugs directly out of your veins?" She crossed her arms and stomped her foot, making Harry dribble firewhisky.
"…. Fine. Privately," Tom said before Harry realised he wanted to.
"Ahhh! Yes! Thank you! You're so much cooler than him I'm being so serious," she pulled him back out, the sitting room still missing Crabbe and Goyle, though Pansy had returned.
"A volunteer for the drugs!" she said, holding his hand up.
"What kind of a professor is this," Ruby said, and Draco cackled, startling Ginny from staring at Harry.
"For a start, she ripped that vampire's head off at the table last night," Pansy said.
"Oh, I thought I recognised her, didn't I think it?" She asked Reed, who scrunched up her face.
"The drugs, please, Avalon?" Cassiopeia repeated, reaching for the box.
"Alright, merde," she scowled and opened the box.
She took a velvet pouch from within it and revealed a small, glittering black rock to place in Cassiopeia's waiting hand. The vampire giggled while the necromancer gave Ruby, Pansy, and Draco theirs. Ginny had been frowning at Harry the entire interaction, and so had Eris, though he was sure there was another reason for that.
He was dragged back into his room, his pulse picking up as he swallowed the rest of his drink, gasping while it burned. She picked up his free hand and dropped the little stone-like drug in his palm, grinning.
"Have you done this before?" He asked her.
"I have. It's a good time. The hangover is a bit crap, but it's worth it. You'll be fine; don't give yourself a heart attack."
"I feel like I should get something in return for this deal," Tom said.
"Yeah? Like your life? Last night? Knob," she huffed and crossed her arms, "Typical renegotiate at the last second of you."
"We spar. Weekly. More, if you have the time. I need to fight. I am not good enough."
She shrugged, "Oh, I thought it would be something insufferable. Fine. Put it under your tongue."
Harry sat down as Tom threw the crystalline rock under his tongue, where it dissolved like a sugar cube in hot water.
"How long does it -HooOkay-" He pulled in a breath and was sucked into his head. The world stretched away at hyper speed, the room becoming tiny as he fell for hours into his brain, Cassiopeia vibrating in front of him, edges blurred. Green smoke filled the room, making it harder to see her, little as she was, shrunk down to the size of a thumbtack.
"You're so small… Though. Won't your fangs be- be too small?"
Then she was sitting next to him, and he realised he was also the height of a pea, so it didn't matter. He felt her pick up his arm and laughed at how it felt like his limb continued to float entirely away, out through the tent ceiling without him. She bit into his wrist, and he gasped, then giggled, falling back onto his bed and sighing as the pain made its way up his arm as though placed a block at a time, piece by piece, creeping into his head. The strange sensation of his blood pulling out of him made stranger by the drugs, as though she were dragging silk through his veins, tingling on the inside.
She was growling, then she was giggling into his wrist before she spluttered, spat a mouthful of blood onto the covers and laughed, still vibrating as though she were moving faster than time.
She was looking at her hands, then back to him, mouth wide open, blood all down her chin and neck. Then she was up, dragging him to his feet, both swaying into each other and breathlessly giggling.
"Tell me I fucking have to know," she shoved him as she spoke, then pulled him back into her before he fell, "involved? You're involved? What does it meaaan? Who says involved."
Harry and Tom both kept grinning, Tom's mind entirely unlocked, their thoughts intertwined, making him repeatedly gasp as he fought to be aware enough to pay attention to his mind's eye.
"Involved," he parroted, then cackled so hard he slid to the floor, choking on his laughter, weighing nothing as he gripped Cassiopeia's cold arm. She followed him to the rug.
"I like Tom. He likes me more, I think," he laughed again, reaching to swipe at her, connecting weakly with her face. She ignored that he'd done anything.
"He is in denial about being gay and finding me attractive," Tom said, and Cassiopeia licked her chin. He realised he was still bleeding and extended his arm. Instead of healing him, she bit him again, and he slapped the back of her head.
"Oh. Yep. Sorry," she wobbled and repaired the wound, "In denial? Sounds like no one I know."
"I'm not in denial," he said when it was done.
"And how exactly… You're in one body?" She leaned right in to stare an inch from his face, "Tom hates it so much. He's like, 'urgGhhg'." She howled with laughter, wheezing into silence before she took an abrupt breath and said, "Shit, what time is it?"
Harry tried a Tempus, but the squiggles were unreadable.
"…He likes you more, does he?" Cassiopeia vibrated to her feet and pulled him upright with her, still holding his arm.
"Yeah he's super obvious," Harry sighed, then Tom said, "He is a fucking non-stop liar Cassiopeia."
She vanished the blood off them both, her smile huge as she pushed the door open and shushed him dramatically to reveal the chaos on the other side.
Ruby was shouting at an insane volume about her grandmother's penchant for mothballs in every cupboard while standing on the kitchen bench, shooting sparks from her skin. Reed was trying to get her down. Pollux hadn't moved an inch. Draco and Avalon were on the floor, locked in an embrace not particularly fit for public consumption, Avalon trying to remove his outer robes while he stopped her over and over. Both were glowing, white light breaking through their skin in patches. Pansy shrieked when she saw Harry, running at him from the far end of the room and gushing at him, blue fire on her hands.
"Look at this steam? Green steam? Coming off him. Wow, that's lovely. Like that Morsmorde, that was so cool. Same colour as your eyes, you know. Blaise is such a git don't even think about him Harry. He's just jealous," she kept rolling her head in a wide circle, muffling her words when her chin reached her chest.
"Thank you so much, Parkinson. Yes, there is steam coming off him. Please get out of my way," Cassiopeia said, picking her up by the shoulders as if she weighed a little more than nothing and setting her aside.
Ginny had come to inspect him. Eris was still on the floor nursing his drink and staring at Harry as though he'd watched him kick a puppy. Harry didn't much care; his whole body thrummed with pure joy.
"Are you okay?" She asked. She reached to touch him but stopped, watching the steam that was turning his vision the same colour.
"It doesn't hurt, see?" The vampire put his arm up that she was still holding, "We're going now."
"I'm good, Gin, I'm good," he was pulled by the vampire toward the exit while she shouted:
"Big tent! Out of here! Go! These randy fucking…" She kicked Draco in the leg, and he yelped.
"Oh, merde, I dropped Albert! Ginny! Ha! Oh dear, that's not good," Avalon rolled but didn't make it upright.
"He's dead now," Eris sighed.
"His wife left him two days ago aha! Eris! Oh, help me up," she and Draco used each other to struggle off the pillows.
It was loud outside the tent. A beat was thumping in the distance—joined by siren-like voices, and explosions repeatedly lit the sky, making him stop in his tracks and stare wide-eyed as the vibrant colours bled together in the air and the bass made his chest vibrate. Many Death Eaters immediately flanked them; Harry couldn't count. Tom reached twenty, realised he wasn't halfway, and gave up.
They flanked the group, half of them giggling and stumbling, oo'ing and ahhing at the magic overhead. Cassiopeia held him up on one side while Ginny locked arms with him on the other.
"…I don't know why you did that, Harry. We're…" Ginny said, whispering in his ear and making him laugh as it tickled.
"Ginny, I nearly died last night," he said, still sniggering in what he hoped was a whisper.
"And I'm basically a hero," Cassiopeia sighed, "We've earned being very high."
"Right. Right now, of course, the best time to do it," Ginny scolded, and Harry laughed again.
"You always care about me, Ginny. I like that about you," he kissed her head. She scoffed but stopped berating him.
They'd gathered a shouting crowd as they moved through the tent village, held back at wandpoint by their guard. Cameras already flashing, some of the crowd yelling questions with quills and notepads in their hands, drowned out and jostled to the point where Harry wondered if they'd even hear him answer.
He spotted Rita Skeeter and stopped, nudging Cassiopeia.
"That's Rita Skeeter," he told her, holding the whole group up, "She said my eyes are full of… Ghosts. Or darkness? Or bad behaviour? What did she say, Gin? Anyway, my eyes are full of it."
"Well, you're glowing right now; she could rightly say your eyes haveses ghosts. Haveses? You have ghosts," the vampire shouted, then nodded, looking him up and down with crossed arms, still blurred and vibrating.
"What are you guys talking about?!" Ruby screamed at them, sparks shooting from her mouth.
"Ghosts!" Harry yelled back.
Tom summoned a translucent, florescent green snake and sent the large apparition to bare its fangs at the blonde reporter. The reporter screeched and stumbled back into the crowd, vanishing from view.
"Nice," Harry said. Tom grinned before he started walking again, Cassiopeia and Ginny returning to holding him upright.
Draco and Avalon walked while passionately kissing; eyes closed, not falling but seemingly attempting to. Reed held the back of Ruby's robes while she raced back and forth like a hyper puppy, and Pollux held Reed's hoodie, following passively behind her with wide eyes. Pansy was talking rapidly at Harry the entire time, but he'd long tuned her out, and she hadn't noticed.
They rounded a corner, and the music suddenly became much louder, making him pause again. He saw the big tent, aptly named, as it was tremendous. Black and blending with the night sky, it was larger than any circus tent he'd ever seen. The magic in the air was concentrated around the temporary construction, lighting the clearing with colour like a rainbow strobe. Harry was sure his mouth was open.
Cassiopeia dragged him, and he let her. Inside, it was colossal, magically extended to hold tens of thousands of people. Almost an astonishing distance from him was a stage, the people on it visible within a projection above them. Enos, Signy, and Tofa were on the platform, along with a full choir of vampire women, over thirty of them, most of their faces bloodied as they sang in a language he couldn't understand, melodic and hypnotising against the drums and bass of the full band and DJ, making him forget the crowd and how his legs worked.
Magic thrummed overheard around several large, magically suspended, fenced platforms, holding private parties above the expansive crowd. The people were screaming at the sight of him, so enthusiastic that the Death Eaters surrounding them needed to form wards, cutting through the swarm of vampires and Death Eaters.
Ginny held him tight, her eyes gigantic and leaking small yellow gems. Cassiopeia continued to pull him along, and they walked for what felt like an hour through the chaos, occasionally pushing people over as they went, a result of getting too handsy with the wards.
She led them to another group of masked Death Eaters, surrounding a set of goblets on a pedestal. They stepped aside and Cassiopeia pressed their hands to one of the cups, Ginny and the rest quickly following suit. Harry didn't think he'd recommend using a Portkey on drugs, fighting not to tumble over the railing of the platform right back into the crowd. Cassiopeia fixed him and sat him down on one of the backless bench seats. A table at the centre held a veritable buffet of alcohol. The sound of the crowd and the music were muffled to a manageable volume.
"Haha, Blaise, down there somewhere, you prick!" Pansy yelled.
"Oh, here, I'll make sure he knows where we are," Harry said, gracelessly returning to his feet. He moved to the railing, held it tightly, and shouted:
"Morsmorde!"
The magic was tangible as it flooded out of him, like cool water on his skin. A skull as imposing as the last connected to him until he let go, the great serpent yawning at the crowd, sending them rabid.
Tom reacted physically, summoning the curse up his torso and neck, making Harry gasp. Tom pulled up his sleeve to look at the Dark Mark and made a noise low in his throat, immediately painfully hard.
'…Okay,' he thought, biting his lips together.
'Fucking divine,' Tom thought, flushing Harry with goosebumps, 'Sit down.'
He did as he was told, stomach rolling, face hot. Cassiopeia was dispensing more drinks while Pansy whooped and clapped. He avoided looking at any of them and didn't tune into their conversations, instead focusing on Tom as he accepted his drink—more firewhisky.
He felt him watching as he finally allowed Harry to examine his mind. He could sense him following along behind him, anxiously correcting thoughts as though Harry was in his house for the first time. He found the web made just for him and closed his eyes to see it better.
His heart jumped repeatedly into his throat and back down into his stomach, his magic fizzing on his skin, perpetual chills rolling through him.
'How long have you… Felt this way?' He thought, pulse picking up.
'I wondered if you were attracted to men after the dream about Alicent. When we became one, I knew you were. Then I was… Curious.'
'Curious about me?'
'At first, whether I could… If it was possible for you to desire me. I knew you did, after Dumbledore. Then I realised why I wanted it.'
'Why?' Harry moved past the part where he said it was all a creeped-out experiment, saving it for later.
'I wanted you first.'
Harry released a shuddering breath and put his attention back to the web.
He found the morning of his reveal, what he'd said to trigger the Dark Lord's Legilimency, linked to several red threads. He touched the strand and was jolted with rage, making him drop it.
'Did… Was it really such a big deal? Is it such a big deal that I couldn't-'
'Don't. I know what you think.'
Harry touched the thread again, not flinching away. Fury, wild and withheld from him, laced with guilt and confusion, dwarfing a hurt that seemed content to hide behind it all. It put a lump in his throat, but he didn't let go; he wanted to understand it.
'Why guilty?' Harry wondered, poking at the feeling.
'Who you are.'
Harry swallowed, shook himself, opened his eyes to drain half his glass in one go, hissed, drank the rest, and sent it back to Cassiopeia with the curse, effectively stopping Tom from thinking his next thought. She sent his drink floating back, and he took another sip before he closed his eyes again.
He examined the part of the web that made his insides, the bright fire at the centre. He reached for it, then sank into the heat of it, struggling to remember to breathe. It melted through him like liquid sunlight, intoxicating, rushing him with adrenaline.
'This feels…' Harry struggled not to make a suspicious noise as Tom watched him drink in his obsession, 'I really wanna be alone right n-'
His thoughts were interrupted by a giggling that belonged to no one at the table, from behind him, where no one had been. He turned to see Signy and Tofa climbing over the railing, laughing, dressed in their usual white-tailed dresses, though covered head to toe in blood. Harry looked at his hands, fuming with his magic, like radioactive steam.
"We saw your mark Chosen Boy," one of them said, he was still unable to tell them apart.
"Oh fuck Harry hide it's the hot crazies I'll distract them," Cassiopeia didn't move, and there was nowhere to hide. So, he laughed instead. The sisters cackled, too, while they pulled Cassiopeia to her feet, close to her head on either side.
She turned and bit one of the sisters on the face, making her screech. The other one sank her fangs into Cassiopeia's neck. The dark-haired vampire made devil horns with both of her hands, locked lips with the one she'd been biting, and pulled the sisters by their necks over the railing, trailing red and white fabric as they fell.
"…They're distracted," Harry said.
(AN: Cassiopeia having the wildest week. In a Court of Law, I would deny taking shrooms to write this chapter.)