Xithion's Gift

Xithion's Gift

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Chapter 1:

Secret of the Vampire

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"Oi, Remus! What have you done with your family jewels?"

The werewolf turned immediately towards James, a sharp gaze in his amber eyes. It maybe would have been more threatening if he hadn't been standing in the middle of their dormitory, dripping water, clad in only a towel that was wrapped around his slim hips. "Excuse me?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Oh, don't take it that way, you perv," said the bespectacled boy, who had known even before speaking how his words would be taken. "I meant of course that old necklace of your grandmother's. As far as I remember, you've never taken it away. So, where it is now?"

"James's right," Peter said, now looking at the werewolf and noticing the absence of the object in question. "I've never seen you taking it away, aside from the full moons. Have you lost it?"

"No, I haven't," Remus said, walking to his own bed. They could well see the countless scars on his pale skin, and couldn't suppress a shiver each. Opening his trunk, somehow managing to keep the towel from falling, Remus took out a small box. "See?" he said, opening it. "I still have it, well and safe."

The other boys glanced at him. They saw him putting his fingertips into the box and then raising them again. This time, there was something on his hand. A golden chain, with a small but elaborate crucifix of the same metal hanging on it. Remus brought it up to lips to place a soft kiss on it -- merely a learnt habit, with no religional meaning -- and then replaced it in the box. "I'm still keeping it, I just don't wear it."

"What? My, my, Remus, you bad little boy," laughed James. "What will your grandmother say now?"

The werewolf shrugged, starting to dress himself. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "But I'm not wearing it. It's so... girly." At this, they all gaped at him. Being thought girly had never stopped Remus from wearing his necklace. He'd got it from his dear and beloved Muggle grandmother when he'd been just a little boy, and had always kept it on his neck ever since, well, other than at full moon nights, anyway.

"Don't believe him," they heard Sirius's voice from the fourth boy's bed, where he'd been lying, appearing to be asleep but obviously not so. "I bet he's just got a boyfriend who's teasing him about it. You know him -- everything for the family, unless it's for love. Nothing else would make him abandon the necklace."

"Woah, is that true?" asked James with a broad grin. "Little Moonie has a boyfriend? Oh, this has been truly waited for! Who ever might take somebody who's more interested in books than in kissing?"

"Another bookworm, I'm sure," Peter joined into the teasing. "Hey, maybe he's turned straight and is now dating Pince! Wouldn't that be rich?" Then, the three other boys laughed, while Remus flushed.

"Now, let's not tease our poor Moony anymore," James said, grinning broadly at the half-dressed, heavily blushing werewolf. "He'll tell us when he's ready. Won't you, Moony?" he asked then.

"Of course I will," the werewolf replied quite honestly. "But not yet. Certainly not yet."

"Ooh, secrets! Big, dirty secrets! Who would he keep in dark from us? Maybe he's dating some Slytherin and we don't know of it?" suggested Sirius, now sitting up with a broad grin on his face.

They all laughed. If any of the others noticed that neither Sirius's nor Remus's laughter was all that genuine, they at least never commented on it. These two boys, however, were soon both deep in their thoughts.

Sirius didn't want to share his thoughts with the others -- which was rather surprising, considering that he'd always been the most talkative of them all. These thoughts, however, were not something he could share.

The fact that he no more wore his small golden crucifix was not the only recent change in Remus. Maybe it was the only one James and Peter noticed, and at the very least it was the only one they had commented on, but Sirius never missed anything, and he'd noticed more. Like how Remus no more ate garlic bread, even though he used to love it before, and like he was even paler than before, which was saying something. Like how he spent much less time outside than before, and slipped away at odd times, often at night.

And then there was the fact that he no more had his old school bag, the one on the edge of which his mother had embroidered a wild rose pattern. It might have looked girly somewhere else, but in the corner of Remus's black leather school bag, it oddly hadn't been so, instead being a symbol of masculinity and wildness. Now Remus had a new schoolbag, one with no embroidery patterns. There'd been no reason for Remus to change his bag; he'd loved his old one, and, as far as Sirius knew, he hadn't accidentally broken or lost it. In fact, he could swear he'd seen it in Remus's trunk just some days earlier.

What bothered him most was not some particular one of these signs of strangeness in his friend. Instead, it was the fact that they all now applied to him -- and that they had all appeared immediately after they'd returned to Hogwarts from the summer holiday, half of which Remus had spent in some unknown location.

It wasn't like he'd suspected his friend of being a vampire, no. As a werewolf, he was already a Dark Creature, and couldn't be Turned into another. Even if he hadn't known that, the way how gently and easily Remus had just handled his old necklace would have proved it. However, all these signs together might very well mean one thing -- that a vampire had Remus under his control, and was feeding from him.

It would have been perfect, like Sirius had to admit. There was no fear of the blood servant being even accidentally Turned and thus made useless for a source of blood, and any weakness and paleness couldn't be told aside from the usual symptoms Remus got around full moons. Brilliant, even.

Now that he had figured it out, however, he still had two things to do: To find out who was the vampire keeping Remus in their clutches, and to free his friend from that servitude.

And to accomplish that, he would have to follow Remus the next time the werewolf left the dormitory.

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Sirius held his breath as he quietly crept through the corridors under the Invisibility Cloak that he'd nicked from Peter. He had to be extremely careful. Remus had a wondrous sense of smell, and thus he had to make sure that whenever there was some slight breeze from a random corner of the castle he had to have Remus between it and himself. Also, as the werewolf every now and then turned around and glanced around as if to make sure that he was not being followed, he always had to still, hold his breath, and hope that he would not cause the tiniest sound. He almost feared that Remus might hear his heart beating.

At last, however, the werewolf stopped in front of a small room. Hesitating a bit at first, he soon pushed determinedly the door open. Unfortunately to Sirius, the door was closed immediately, before he could slip inside. Cursing inwardly, he pressed his ear against the smooth surface of the ancient door.

"So you came at last," said a vaguely familiar voice he couldn't really place anywhere. "I was already beginning to wonder whether you'd come at all. That you had forgotten me, or something."

"Never would I forget you, love," replied Remus's soft voice. Then there was some shuffling of clothing, and then Remus sighed audibly. "Oh, it's been so long," he murmured quietly.

"Long? We met last two days ago," the other voice replied with a rather tempting tone. "Just how horny are you, my dear?" More shuffling of clothing, a half suppressed giggle.

"No more horny than any normal sixteen-year-old boy," replied Remus's voice, slightly amused. "But that is certainly more than enough. Is it getting too much for you? Too old to keep up with me?"

"Stick your head in your arse," the other voice muttered. "And no, no comments about 'what you'd rather stick up there'. I've had enough of that kind of jokes -- from first-years."

Sirius was slowly starting to relax. It sounded like Remus really had only a secret lover -- not that it would have been good, but at least there weren't any vampires involved. It'd been just his vivid imagination.

Just then, however, he heard a quiet groan from Remus, and then the distant sound of firm sucking. Not thinking about anything else, he dropped the hood of the Invisibility cloak off his head, pushed the door open, and then rushed inside, determined to see who was there with Remus.

However, when he saw the two people inside, he froze. True, Remus was one of them. The other one, however, was what surprised and terrified him, and the thing he was doing.

Lucius Malfoy, the very epitome of Slytherin, was holding Remus in his arms in a way that could be only called loving. Remus was not hugging him back, instead, the werewolf was just desperately clutching on the tall blond's clothes. The reason for this was evident as well. Malfoy's mouth was resting firmly on the base of Remus's pale neck, a tiny trail of blood escaping the corner of his mouth. The Slytherin's eyes were closed, and he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Both had discarded their robes, and Remus's shirt was undone and hanging on his elbows, baring his shoulders and neck to the hungry beast.

Just as Sirius stared at this horrifying scene, unable to move, the vampire's eyes snapped open. In an instant, he withdrew his mouth from Remus's neck, then, under Sirius's horrified eyes, sealed the tiny wound with one lick of his now crimson tongue. He never broke the eyecontact he now had with Sirius.

Remus, however, let go of Malfoy's shirt. "What now, Lucius?" he asked. "I can't believe you're full yet! Why --" He turned around, and saw his frozen friend in the doorway. "Merlin," he whispered. "Sirius..."

But Sirius didn't listen to whatever he was going to say. Instead, he just turned around and started to run, hurrying down the corridor as quickly as his feet would carry him. He no more cared about saving Remus. He only had to escape. Not even in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined that something could be that morbid and terrifying. And what scared him most that Remus had also seemed to enjoy it. The poor guy was probably under some horrifying vampire spell. Like he didn't have enough problems already.

Sirius had to escape before the vampire got him, too. He just had to...

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