Spider's Blood

Chapter Five

Harry stopped as soon as his feet hit the floor and he stared at the girl in front of him. Her long black hair looked very messy pulled into a quick ponytail she had no time to give effort to. Her blue eyes looked tired, dark shadows of near purple weighing her entire face to a frown.

"Hello, Zora," Harry said.

"Oh," she replied in surprise, "Harry! What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same question," he replied, allowing his face to harden into an uncaring appearance he had seen on Draco more times than he could count.

She took in the evil glance, her face softening slightly as she replied, "Umm...is Snape up there?"

"Yeah...they're all up there," Harry replied, concentrating on his expressions.

"Oh...ok," she replied, nodding her head, smiling nervously.

"So where were you last night?" Harry asked sternly.

"Last night? Oh, I was...reading...studying actually...for Transfiguration, Draco can tell you, he was with me," Zora explained.

"Draco wasn't in his common room last night...he said so himself," Harry replied.

Zora's eyes went wide and if it were possible her face turned even paler. For a brief moment, Harry felt a pang of sympathy for the poor girl. Her eyes looked like they were about to slam shut or fall out of her skull completely and her color looked like she hadn't seen the sun in days. She breathed very heavily before standing straight and mustering her strength, "I have to go see them now if you're through."

Harry stepped aside and watched Zora step onto the staircase and disappear. The ugly gargoyle gave a grunt and closed over the hole in the stones. Harry peered at the wall for a moment before he turned and continued back to the common room.

Hermione and Ron were anxiously waiting for Harry by the fire. Of course, it appeared they had been waiting for him at one point, but decided to occupy themselves with more boyfriend-girlfriend activity while no one else was in the room.

Harry gave a sigh and loudly cleared his throat as he averted his eyes to the paintings on the walls.

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione gasped, "didn't see you there. What happened?"

"They asked me where I was and if I saw anyone," Harry replied, sitting on the overstuffed red couch.

"That's all? Just questions?" Hermione persisted curiously.

"Well, Snape didn't seem too happy, but yeah...just questions," Harry replied as he tiredly rubbed his eyes under his glasses.

"How odd," Hermione thought out loud, tucking her hair behind her ear as she always did when deep in thought. "Well...there's one thing to do now, Harry, get your invisibility cloak. We're going to the library."

"What for?" Ron asked, a slight squeak in his voice.

"Well, we need to figure this out. Someone or something stole blood from the school...that's not something that happens everyday, Ron, and we need to find out what did it."

"Why us? Why not let Dumbledore and the others do it? Why can't we just sleep this one time and let the experts take care of it?"

"Because they think it was a student...a prank," Harry said at Ron's shoulder. "Hermione's right, whatever it was wants blood, it's only a matter of time before it attacks someone."

Hermione gave a nod to Harry and then looked at Ron's face, judging or possibly glaring, Harry couldn't tell which.

"Fine...get the cloak! But when I get a Howler, I'm sharing it with the two of you!"

Hermione gave squeal of glee as she ran up and kissed Ron's red cheek and continued her smile.

"Please...do not be doing anything when I come back," Harry said as he rolled his eyes and began quickly walking towards the dormitories.

"You stepped on my foot!" Ron let out as they moved through the perfectly silent hallway.

"SHH!!" rang in twice as loud as they continued their slow walking. The trio hadn't realized how much they had all grown since their first year at Hogwarts. The cloak was designed for one fully grown adult, not three. Harry's shoulders were wide and muscular and Ron was heads taller than the other two hidden in the cloak. Hermione struggled the whole walk to not be pushed out of the back of the cloak by her two best friends.

It seemed to talk at least an hour for the three to get into the library in one piece. The doors creaked slowly as they pushed themselves into the library. Harry peered cautiously through the watery material before throwing it off and breathing in the clear air.

"Ok...we got in, now what?" Harry asked, looking back over his shoulder to Hermione.

"We look...find out creatures and people who are known for stealing or needing blood...potions where it is needed. I'll check the restricted section."

"Why do you get to check the restricted section?" Ron asked.

"If we are caught I'll get in trouble, if you or Harry get caught, we'll all be in trouble. You two are a known pair, you never go anywhere without the other. I'm sorry but you don't, Ron Weasley, and don't give me that look! Plus, I know what I'm looking for...I'll be out in five minutes."

Before Harry or Ron could reply, she had turned and disappeared into the darkness.

"She's gonna be in there a while," Ron said after a long silence.

"Probably," Harry replied.

"We should start looking for that...stuff," Ron added.

"Probably," Harry replied.

"We're gonna get caught," Ron added with a laugh.

"Probably," Harry replied.

"So let's get as much done before we do," Ron said as he turned and faced the towering shelves filled with books.

"All right...I'll take potions, you take people," Harry said as he moved toward a row of shelves. Ron stood for a moment, puzzled, before heading in the opposite direction.

Harry dragged a finger across the many bindings along the shelves as he held his illuminated wand in the other. He chose some especially old and grimy looking books, but found no mention of blood anywhere in them. Harry reasoned that any blood involving potions would be kept in the Restricted Section of the library and Hermione would find it.

Harry hated research; he liked discovering the answers himself. Although, knowing what was ahead of him was definitely a positive part of anything he encountered. He thanked his lucky stars that he had Hermione on his side, aiding him in anyway she could. He was sure she'd find the exact book with the exact reference that would explain everything and all their problems would be solved. If such a sentence, a reference, a book did not exist, he also knew that they were doomed to the unpredictability that he so dreaded.

He took in a very deep sigh, yawned a little, and continued his checking. He let his feet slowly stroll over to the famous wizard and witches section in search of Ron. There was no familiar flame topped boy, only an endless row of books and books and books. Harry continued to gaze at the bindings, each different and yet all the same. He kept his finger grazing over the books until his finger turned from the cold of the late autumn night around him to warmth. Harry peered at the black binding and pondered for a moment. The book seemed as if it had just been placed back on the shelf after being held for a very long period of time. Curiously, Harry removed the book from the shelf. It was a completely black book, save a red spider etched on the cover...Zora's book.

"Harry!" a voice struck his ears, causing Harry to jump and perk his head up.

"Ron! Don't scare me like that," Harry sighed with relief, pointing the black book warningly at Ron.

"Sorry, Hermione's found something," Ron replied before disappearing from the row.

Harry peered at the black book in his hand before following Ron's direction to the study table in the center of the library.

Hermione was sitting, hunched over a book, and Ron at her side holding his illuminated wand at her ear. She was tracing each line of the page with her finger as she read, sighed, and continued reading.

"What've you got?" Harry interrupted.

Hermione continued to scan the page before turning it around and sliding it across the table to Harry. He took the book, his wand inches from the page and read.

"Vampires are known throughout the world as coming from Transylvania, where their ancestors first originated. Vampires live off the blood of animals and humans alike in order to keep their own flowing. Vampires fear the sun..."

"You think it was a vampire?...In Hogwarts?" Harry asked, tearing his eyes from the page and studying Hermione and Ron.

"It makes sense," Ron admitted. "I mean...that was a lot of blood."

"Leeches...bats...parasites...that's it! That's all that live on blood, other than vampires. A bat couldn't have stolen all those bottles, it's impossible."

"In Hogwarts? How did they get in? And how did they get out? There are barriers all around...and security."

"And passageways no one knows about...and they live in the forest, people have seen them."

"It's the best answer we've got so far," Ron chimed in.

"I think we should keep looking," Harry said to Hermione. "And you," he added as he turned his eyes to Ron, "stop agreeing with her just cause she's your girl."

"I'm not!" Ron said defensively. At first Ron's face was hard and set, then his eyes began to shift from Harry's to the table, his eyebrows began to twitch in deep thought, his cheeks softened with his mouth, and he let out a sigh of defeat.

"Ron!" Hermione let out, "you can't agree with him!"

Ron's blue eyes turned from Hermione to Harry and back and back before he became frustrated and said, "Oh! I don't like this! He's supposed to be in the middle our sides, not me between you and him! I'm not in the middle of this! I refuse to choose between my best friend and my girlfriend! No! It's a bad soap opera and I won't be part of this!"

At that, Ron stormed off, throwing his arms in the air, towards the shelves of books on Divination.

"See what you've done?" Hermione said angrily.

"Me? What did I do?"

"You hate it that he's on my side because I'm right!"

"You're not necessarily right about this, Hermione, and he's only on your side because you're the first girl to let him snog you when he likes!"

"That's not true! And you're jealous because we have each other and you're girl found someone else and you're new one is a blood sucking fiend!"

Harry let the slight blow about Ginny scathe him to be dealt with later and his mind chose the latter part of her statement to stick.

"What are you talking about?"

"Zora, you stupid git! Don't tell me you didn't make the connection. Don't you find it a bit weird: She never eats, she doesn't have care of magical creatures (which is outside), she's never gone to a Quidditch game, the only time we've seen her in daylight is with glasses on-."

"See? We've seen her outside, she can't be a vamp-"

"Sunlight bothers them, Harry, it doesn't kill them! Only a steak through the heart'll do that. Plus that thing with Snape, you said so yourself!"

"I could've been wrong and so can you!" Harry said as he pointed the black book at Hermione as he had Ron only a few minutes before.

"Face it: we don't know anything about her!" Hermione continued, ignoring the book. "Then all this blood goes missing. You don't find it the least bit odd?"

"It's odd, of course! Everything in this school is odd! There's no way a vampire could enter Hogwarts! Dumbledore wouldn't allow it!"

"There was a basilisk here before, and a werewolf, and God knows what else!"

"Don't bring Lupin into this! He didn't do anything wrong! And what was that before about Ginny?"

"Oh please, like you didn't know she was in love with you until she went with Neville. Now you want her so bad you can't stand it."

"Ok! First of all, you know for a fact I had feelings for Ginny last year, before she even started dating Neville...and how did I go from being with Zora to Ginny in five sentences?"

"You know what I mean!"

"And why did you bring her up anyway?"

"Because...this is an argument and that's what you do in an argument...you bring up things!"

"Oh, well! Then allow me! I seem to recall a certain comment from a certain frizzy-haired girl a few years ago being made about, I believe it was, a 'sexy Draco Malfoy', am I right?"

"You said you'd never mention my diary again!" Hermione said after a gasp. She quickly looked over Harry's shoulder to see if Ron was in earshot to hear the accusation. "And what does that have to with this?"

"What does Ginny have to do with this?"

"Nothing!"

"Exactly!"

"What?" Hermione asked. Her hands went to her temples as if nursing a headache.

"Take the cloak for when you're finished, I'm going back to the common room," Harry said with finality as he turned and left the library.

His shoes made quick and fast thumps on the stone floor as he walked faster and faster through the halls, filled with anger he couldn't let out. Instead of turning back and continuing his rampage on Hermione, Harry turned his body and headed for the stonewall. He felt the black book slip from his fingertips, but did not stop to listen for the hit on the ground. Instead, he pounded his fists and kicked his legs against his until he felt a stream of blood dripping from his left hand. He backed up from the wall until he hit the one opposite, holding his left hand in his right, staring at the crimson river gliding through his palm. His breathing deepened as he crouched down into a ball.

"She can't be!" his voice echoed angrily inside his head, "it's not possible!"

His voice continued his thoughts, bringing up images:

"She never eats" came Hermione's defiant tone, and a picture of Zora sitting at the banquet table, pushing her food around her plate with her fork.

"Glasses" came next with a picture of Zora's dark frames and lenses covering her eyes as they sat by the lake only the previous day.

"And that thing with Snape" rang in as Harry envisioned Zora standing in the dungeon. Her eyes flashing at Snape as he simply stood and stared, not saying a word.

A vision of Zora standing there, her lips red with blood and two white fangs peeking out of her mouth entered his mind, making his body shiver as with a silent breeze. He saw her standing at the foot of a bed, staring at the quiet dreamer. Her eyes no longer their brilliant blue, but a horrific red coloring them, her stained lips spread into a smile with her fangs protruding into deathly points. Her raven hair flowed behind her as she inched closer to the bed. Her lips opened more and she brought them down on her victim. The sleeper's blue eyes flew open and her mouth opened to scream but no sound escaped, only a gasp. The red blood mixed with the poor girl's fiery hair as the girl closed her eyes and fell back into sleep.

"Ginny?" Harry's voice escaped as his vision continued. Zora's eyes seemed to pierce at him as she smiled, Ginny's blood staining her lips, she was laughing now. Harry's eyes flew open and he stared at the stonewall across from him, a streak of his blood now dry stared back at him. A cold sweat ran down the side of his head as he struggled to calm his breath.

"Not...possible," Harry choked out as he stood on his feet. He walked to the opposite wall, avoiding the blood stain from his hand on the stone, and retrieved the black bound book and continued his walking.

Harry's shoes continued their clumping against the stone floor as he walked to the common room. He carefully nursed his bleeding hand as he listened intently to the sound of his footsteps. Having the vivid daydream only moments before, Harry's senses were keener and twice as sensitive as before. He stopped his feet in mid step and listened. There were no hidden clumps behind him, no secret demons following him, he was in Hogwarts...nothing to be afraid of.

Harry shook his head and quietly chuckled to himself as he picked up his step again. He peered around each corner, silently wishing he had taken the cloak and left Hermione to defend herself, but then he quickly threw this idea out of his head. He couldn't wish that on anyone, not even Draco on a bad day could he honestly wish for someone to deal with expulsion.

In order to keep Harry's fear level to a minimum, Harry resorted to looking after the many paintings on the walls. Scenes of summer valleys mixed with the witches and wizards of the world next to dueling dragons and hippogriffs. Harry let his feet slow to a halt as he came to one of the portraits. If it hadn't been so dark, Harry would've sworn it was the exact picture he had seen in his secret hallway. He walked up as close as possible to the portrait. It didn't move or waver, just remained perfectly still. A girl sat in a green velvet chair and an open window showing a pale blue sky behind her. She sat in a red velvet dress, black hair tied back to show he clear face with dark piercing eyes staring back at Harry. Being in the wizarding world, to see a picture that did not move was now to Harry like seeing his first one that did move.

His nose was now inches from the painting, studying every part of it, being drawn into it. A cold shudder invaded Harry's spine, forcing his mind back to the dark empty hallway. He slowly backed away from the painting, not taking his eyes off it, and turned around the corner.

"Fishpole," Harry spoke wearily to the Fat Lady in the pink dress protecting the Gryffindor common room. She looked as though she were about to ask a question, but simply swung open without a word. Harry was grateful, he wasn't much for conversation at the moment.

He stepped into the common room and tiredly searched the large room for the big red couch, hoping he could take a moment's rest before climbing the stairs up to his bedroom. He moved tiredly over to the couch, setting the black book on a table as he walked. Harry settled himself into the deep cushions, resting his head against the back and closing his eyes. The warmth of the fire burned his cold cheeks as he nearly fell off to sleep when a hand on his shoulder startled him awake. He grabbed the hand and squeezed the wrist as he quickly stood from his seat and stared at the girl.

"It's only me, Harry," Ginny laughed, her eyes wide with surprise and amusement.

"Oh! I'm sorry," he said even more surprised now and slightly embarrassed at his reaction. "You really shouldn't sneak up on people like that!"

"I'm sorry," she smiled and sat on the couch. "I was wondering what time you'd be back, I thought you were Ron."

"How did you know we left?" Harry asked, a little worried that Ron was blabbing about their information.

"Oh, please. You three make so much noise it's hard not to notice."

"Did Ron tell you anything?" Harry asked being sure of his friend.

"No, and he's not going to...and neither is Hermione...or you. I've learned that the hard way, whatever you're up to...I know it's a secret and you can't tell me," Ginny replied, almost sorrowful in a strange way.

"It's not that we don't trust you..." Harry reassured her.

"I know," Ginny interrupted, "top secret...saving the world and all that stuff. I know."

Ginny sighed deeply and looked to her folded hands in her lap before holding on out in front of her and taking an expression of fear.

"Anything wrong?" Harry asked worried, it was never good when Ginny was afraid; it usually entailed brainwashing and secrets Harry wasn't up to hearing at that exact moment.

"Let me see you hand," she said calmly, standing from the couch and walking over to Harry.

Before he could offer it, Ginny took his hand into her own and studied it. Harry looked down and noticed it was the bloody hand he had beaten into the stone. A further look showed that Ginny's wrist was now coated in fresh blood.

"How did this happen?" Ginny let out a gasp, seeing the severity of the wound and drawing the hand closer to her eyes. When Harry made no attempt to reply, Ginny only let out a frustrated grunt and went to her room for her wand.

When she returned, she was wearing a bathrobe over her pajamas and slippers, obviously affected by the coldness of the common room. Her wand clutched in her hand, Ginny again took Harry's hand.

"Curo," she whispered and touched the tip of her wand to Harry's hand.

A brief jolt of pain shot through his fingers and then a warm tingly feeling came as if it had been asleep and was just now moving around again. Harry looked down at his hand, the blood was gone, the wound was gone, and there wasn't a scratch or a scar in sight.

Ginny seemed proud of her handy work as she smile at his hand and then his face.

"Six brothers who like to wrestle...you learn a few things outside of school grounds," she smiled before placing the wand in her robe pocket and sitting back on the couch. Harry stared at his hand, pulling his fingers to his palms and back out.

"Impressive," he assured her as he sat next to her on the couch.

"So, I heard you were called in to Dumbledore's office today, that true?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Yes...they asked me if I knew anything about the blood, I said I didn't."

"Who do you think did it?"

In bold red letters, the word "Vampire" peered across Harry's brain and a flash of Zora's smiling bloody lips, but he remained silent.

"Ah!" Ginny said, "I see...that's what you were out for. I won't ask anymore," she smiled, but a hint of disappointment lingered in her eyes.

"When we know for sure...I'll tell you," Harry said quickly. "It might be dangerous if we don't," he added, the image of those red lips on Ginny's pale neck embedded in his mind.

"Thank you," Ginny smiled.

A creak came from the portrait hole. Harry reasoned it was Ron and Hermione and thought it best to go to bed before either could begin an argument with him.

"Getting late," he said as he stood, "get sleep."

"G'night, Harry," Ginny smiled as he crept out of the room and up to his dormitory.