Bloodthirsty Dragon

Draco Malfoy was in his 7th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was what most would call the 'prize jewel' of Slytherin. He was arrogant, aristocratic, aloof, rich, good at sports, a wondrous performer, and he was a Malfoy. He had been the hero of the last Quidditch Inter-house Cup Championship, out-smarting Harry Potter with a Wronski Feint, catching the snitch first, and winning the cup from the Gryffindors for the first time in three years. He hadn't wasted anytime letting Potter get over his sad lose, either. In fact, he drove the knife into his gut and twisted it the first chance he got, like any true Slytherin would. Draco Malfoy was the perfect definition of a Slytherin.

There was just one fault; one flaw.

Draco Malfoy was a vampire.

Now it may sound strange that the seemingly perfect Slytherin had any flaws, let alone one so grand. But, it was true. Over the summer, Draco had been transformed by a powerful vampire, painfully so. He had grown paler, if that was possible, and his eyes had gone from their beautiful silvery-blue to black as the raven's. But, to those who didn't know about Draco's transformation, he looked more or less the same.

But, when Draco had been transformed, keeping his appearance inconspicuous was the very least of his worries. He needed blood; he craved human blood. How was he to survive at Hogwarts for nine months when he'd be thinking of his classmates as his next feast?

At home, his father, Lucius, had supplied him with enough blood to keep him satiated, but his blood source was at the mansion. Quite a problem had arisen.

Draco had settled with the simpler, yet quite unsatisfactory, solution. He could survive off the small animals that lived in the Forbidden Forest. But, what of his cravings? He couldn't just randomly kill a student every once and awhile, panic would arise. That was the last thing that he wanted. After much pondering, Draco figured he could sneak into Hogmead every so often and pick out a random traveler who hadn't been there long or was just about to leave. It would not do to arose suspicion in the Ministry or panic in the town and school, so this was the safest way of doing things.

And, for the first few months of the term, all had gone quite well. Draco used a nifty little potion he had mastered over the summer that allowed the drinker to become invisible for a few hours. He kept a hefty amount with him and would use it to slip out of the castle at night to hunt in the forest without being seen. And every now and then, when he could afford taking the risk, he'd slip out in the dead of night, transform himself into a raven and fly into Hogsmead. He'd pick out a random traveler, lure them into the hills and kill them.

For his sake, Draco wouldn’t drain them completely. Instead, he’d save a portion of the blood of his victim in a leather pouch to drink later. The small amount was enough to somewhat calm his wild craving for human blood, even if only for a short while.

But, try as he might to avoid it, suspicion did arise within Hogsmead. As the disappearances had been of travelers, they thought little of it at first. But, when it came around to the time of the disappearances, they had to think about it. Why would so many travelers just disappear from Hogsmead in the dead of night? It didn’t make much sense. Thankfully, for Draco, none of the townspeople had connected the disappearances to a vampire.

At least, none of the townspeople did.

Draco soon began to have suspicions of his own. Those began one chilly winter afternoon in Potions. The dungeons were colder than usual and people could see their breath as they rubbed their hands together near the fires and pulled their cloaks tightly around themselves. Draco was forced to take breaths, which made him less able to concentrate. Professor Snape was lecturing the class on Death Potions and, as Draco already knew a great deal about them, he was bored out of his mind.

A fly buzzed around Goyle's head and Draco occupied himself by coaxing it towards the fire with his mind. Finally, having lost his amusement, he had it throw itself into the fire.

Draco found a bit of amusement when everyone around him jumped at the pop caused by the tiny creature and looked around for the sound, causing the rest of the room to look around for what everyone else was looking for. Snape, who had his back turned and hadn't noticed, continued his lecture, forcing those who were looking for the cause of the sound to turn their attention back to the front of the room and taking notes.

Moments later, Draco could feel someone's eyes on him. The eyes did not lift their gaze like the others had. In fact, he felt as if the eyes were trying to see through him or read him. Draco, feeling great unease, spun around and looked about, but everyone was busy taking notes.

"Mr. Malfoy," Snape said, causing Draco to spin back around. "Is anything wrong?"

Draco shook his head. "No, Professor. Nothing is wrong, nothing at all. Sorry, sir," he mumbled.

Snape gave Draco a concerned and slightly questioning look, then nodded in understanding. "Then I suggest you try to keep your attention up here, where it belongs, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said.

"Yes, sir," Draco mumbled, nodding but paying no attention as Snape continued.

Draco heard a few Gryffindors sniggering and he heard Ron Weasley, who was seating just behind him, mumble to his friend Harry Potter, "Yeah, that's all Snape's little pet gets. A slap on the wrist and a warning. You'd have had 50 points taken away from Gryffindor and a detention before you could say 'sniditch'."

Draco felt a twinge of annoyance, he hated Harry Potter, but the thought of someone maybe knowing what he was occupied his mind much more than thoughts of how to kill Harry Potter did. He was relived when he didn't feel the eyes on him for the rest of the hour, but still it did not lessen the worry at all. He spent the rest of the hour pondering whether the person who had been watching him knew what he was or not and pretending to take notes.

* * * * *

Draco was jumpy for the whole of the following two weeks, feeling the phantom eyes on him more often than not. It didn't help any that he was dreadfully thirsty and desperately needed to feed. His supply from his last kill was diminishing quickly and Draco could not find a single moment when he did not feel the phantom looming about. Because of this, he couldn't take the risk of rekindling his supplies without the being caught.

Who was this phantom that stalked him? Why couldn't he figure it out? He could feel their aura, so why couldn't he read it? Draco's power, him being such a young power, was surprisingly strong, much stronger than it should be at his age. Aura reading was usually such a simple task for him, so why couldn't he read this one? Draco was also talented in mind reading, but the risk of blowing his cover kept him from trying this. Draco still had hope that his phantom didn't know what he was.

But, beside the risk of blowing his cover, there was also the risk of someone noticing that he was weakening. As he couldn't hunt, he was reduced to only the little blood he had saved, and that was only enough to calm his cravings, not satisfy his hunger. He could feel his strength dwindling. He got dizzy when he stood up and he had to fight to keep himself from collapsing when he walked for even the shortest distance.

Lita, a Slytherin 7th year with long black hair and pale skin who had transferred to Hogwarts from Durmstrang in her 5th year, was Draco's best friend. As they had been friends since childhood, Lita was the only soul in the school that Draco trusted with his secret. Lita found herself, often, helping Draco get from class to class, as when she came she made sure her schedule was identical to his, or holding him back in the Common room at night, which they had both deemed unsafe for Draco now, from jumping on one of the students and draining them.

Draco, with the aid of Lita, reluctantly walked into the Potions classroom, earlier than usual. They were both surprised to see that five Gryffindors, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley, who had been moved up into Advanced Potions, were already in the classroom. Shaking it off, Lita turned to Draco and lightly pulled him towards a table on the opposite end of the room. "So," Lita whispered as she and Draco sat down among glares from the five Gryffindors on the opposite side of the room, "are you trying to freeze to death?" Lita shivered as a draft of cold air passed through the room and pulled her cloak tightly around her. Draco, on the other hand, sat on the table top, cross legged and cloak-less.

"No," he replied, his voice in the same whispering volume that Lita's had been. "I can feel the phantom's aura when they are around and it's easier for me to read it without my cloak."

Lita snorted. "What a load of bull," she said, looking up at Draco. "You forgot it, didn't you?"

"Yep."

Lita shook her head in amusement. "You're more forgetful than I am," she laughed.

"Don't get used to it," Draco said, smiling at her. "This was a 'I-was-in-a- rush-and-accidentally- left-it-on-my-bed' sort of thing. It's not like it'll start happening every day."

Lita nodded mockingly. "Sure," she said sarcastically. "Don’t worry, Draco, I believe you."

Draco ignored Lita's last comment and looked over at the five students seated at the other end of the room. A mischievous grin crossed his lips and a malicious glint shined in his eyes. He looked back at Lita, who was grinning back at him. "Wanna have a bit of fun?" Draco asked.

"Sure," Lita said. The two friends got up and crossed the room, Draco feeling a bit less dizzy this time. "Well, well, well, what have we here?" Draco said in mocking tone as he sat on the table next to were the five glaring Gryffindors sat in much the same manner as he did across the room.

"Shove off, Malfoy," Harry snapped.

"Feisty one, aren’t we, Potter?" Draco said calmly, not moving from his spot. "I haven't said anything mean or cruel or down right not nice yet, have I?" he added defensively, giving Harry a hurt look.

Lita smiled as she leaned on the table that Draco was seated on. "Yet being the key word, Malfoy," Ron said, narrowing his eyes at Draco.

"Aww, I have the feeling you don't like me," Draco said in a fake hurt voice. Lita hid her smile and turned her back, shaking from the effort to keep from laughing.

"Well, you actually got something right, Malfoy. Congratulations," Hermione growled.

Lita spun back around, the smile still across her lips. "Look who's talking, Mudblood," she said. Lita smiled triumphantly at the effect of these words. Draco jumped in front of her as Ron jumped at her and Harry growled, "You take that back!"

Draco, using what little strength he had, shoved Ron into the table where Hermione sat. Draco stumbled back himself, weary from his efforts. Ron regained his balance and shot a deadly look at Draco. "Go be a dick head someplace else, Malfoy!" he growled.

Draco smirked. "Language, Weasley. Especially when speaking before a professor." Draco smiled as Ron spun around and came face to face with Professor Snape.

"Mr. Weasley," Snape said silkily, "I hope you understand that I will not tolerate such language inside my classroom. That will be ten points from Griffindor and a detention."

Ron gasped. "A detention for that!?" he cried. "What kind of bull-"

"And ten more points for talking back to a teacher!" Snape snapped. "Perhaps that shall teach you to hold back on your tongue wagging." Snape spun around and exited the room. Draco and Lita laughed. "My, my, Weasley," Draco sneered. "You really must learn to control your temper. Or maybe think up something a bit more creative than 'dick head'." Draco turned on his heel and walked back to the table across the room, Lita stumbling after him, using every bit of her will power to resist the urge to drop on the floor and bust up laughing.

"Nice going, Draco," Lita said as Draco plopped down into his seat.

"Throwing him back like that really took it out of me," Draco sighed. "I really need to feed."

"You, know, I could-" Lita began.

"No," Draco said sternly. "You will not go hurting yourself to help me, understand?"

"But-"

"No," Draco said in a 'there-will-be-no-more-discussion-on-the-matter' voice.

"Draco, what's wrong?" Lita asked. Draco had frozen suddenly in his seat. He could feel the eyes on him again. He looked around the room quickly, but the only people there were the five Gryffindors.

'Oh, no!' he thought. 'Oh dear Goddess of the Damned, no! It's a Gryffindor!' Draco breathed heavily and looked at Lita. "Lita, the phantom… the hunter… it's one of them!"