Harry, Draco and Ron: Vampire Hunters

Chapter VIII. Draco's daring escape.

And I see that lost look in your eyes,

Confusion, I don't know what I should do,

Confusion, I leave it all up to you...

- E.L.O. "Confusion".

Waking up in the morning was pleasant. Actually, he felt unusually warm, which was very rare for the Slytherin dungeons... A sweet smell, so familiar, yet unrecognizable was in the air...

He had a vivid dream, a dream involving a beautiful blonde girl he studied in the same year with, yet never noticed her, that girl was the one he spent the entire party with, talking, joking, drinking... Yeah, they were drinking a lot, he thought as he felt the after-effect of drinking yesterday creep in - hangover. And then he remembered that in the end of that dream he was in bed with that girl, and they...

He woke up. Opening his eyes slowly, the sun shining through the large window... Window? There were no large windows in the Slytherin dungeon!

He jerked himself up, rubbing his eyes. He was not in the Slytherin dungeon, even worse; he was in a place that would be fit only for one House - Gryffindor, for that repulsive red colour was all over the place. He felt movement on the bed on his left, and turned to see what it was.

Next to him lay that girl he dreamt of. The smell was explained at once - perfume. Upon closer inspection, his dream-love turned out to be none other than that Gryffindor girl, Lavender Brown!

The hock in his eyes was even larger than the one in Lavender's, as at this very moment she did what he did - look to see what was the reason for the movement in the same bed. They both stared at each other for a moment or two, not saying anything, as their mutual relationship was broken by someone else.

"Lavender, are you up..." Parvati started as she walked into the room, but stopped abruptly, noticing a certain Draco Malfoy in the same bed as her housemate.

He looked at Parvati with one of his Malfoy-patented "If looks could kill you'd be ash by now" gaze, then swiftly removed himself from the bed, quickly noticing that he at least was wearing underwear, though he was unsure if Lavender was. That would be a dishonour to the family name - caught in the act with... with... a Gryffindor!

Only now he had noticed that Parvati herself was not quite decent - that nice navy blue string-like underwear she was wearing revealed more than it hid. She, however, was more occupied with finding out what the hell was he doing here.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked angrily.

"Listen, I... Er... I don't remember," he admitted finally, feeling, for the first time in his life, the terrible feeling that shame was, "But don't take it wrong, if anything did happen, your friend is in no less trouble than I am, so you have a reason to be quiet!"

Lavender seemed to have finally regained the wonderful gift of speech.

"Get. Out. Now," was all she could force out of her self, as Draco, swift as a lightning bolt, dressed up, noticing that only Parvati and Lavender were here... And it was early morning...

"Where's that know-it-all mudblood, Granger?" he thought, "Probably shagging Weasley, I bet!"

After dressing up, he darted to the door, but before he opened it he blew Lavender a kiss.

"I'll be back as soon as you need me, honey!" he said in a sing-song voice. Parvati froze in her tracks, open-mouthed and, obviously, deeply shocked. Lavender blushed violently and waved him a good-bye, the blanket sliding off her...

*****

He closed the door, his eyes closed, a look of deep relief (and pride) on his face.

"Well, even though she was in her underwear, it still doesn't mean anything... But the size of her..."

He could not finish his thought as he opened his eyes only to come face-to-face with a certain Hermione Granger, leaving the fifth-year boy's bedroom, half-dressed. Though he couldn't get a nice look of all that a fifteen-year-old boy would like to look at, especially when matters came to half-dressed fifteen-year-old girls, he still had an evil jest upon his lips.

"Had a nice night, eh Granger?" he asked, his eyes flashing the usual "I'm a Malfoy, you're dung" look for a moment or two.

"I see you had one as well yourself!" she spat in reply. The jest and the look were instantly wiped from his face.

"Damn, Granger you don't tell no-one about me, or I'll tell everyone about you!" he said triumphantly as he darted down the stairs in a flash.

"And where the hell have you been?" Lavender and Parvati asked in unison as Hermione entered the fifth-year girl's bedroom.

*****

Down in the Common Room, traces of the party were still evident. The most vivid scene of all, though, was not the pile of various bottles that seemed to once contain various alcoholic stuff, and not the pile of what definitely was a jumble of male and female clothing, but the idyllic scene of a certain Virginia Anne Weasley sleeping, all dressed, on the sofa, being in the embrace of an also sleeping Seamus Finnigan.

Having contemplated this for a moment or two, and thinking of all the horrors that will befall that Finnigan kid once Ginny Weasley's brothers will find out about this, Draco pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the sweat from his face, not noticing that he dropped a certain something onto the floor, then put the handkerchief away and sneaked out through the portrait hole...

*****

Navigating through the empty hallways was quite easy actually, as most of the prefects were too drunk (having that workaholic Percy Weasley out of school certainly was a relief) to patrol now, and it was late enough for him not to be considered out-of-bounds in matters of time if he ran into Filch or his pesky cat. He made his way to the Slytherin dorms in no time, blessing whoever made it so that all kids below fourth year were still asleep because of their age, all above fourth year were still asleep because of last night, and what the fourth years were doing in the shower room (according to the nasty sounds, both girls and boys were there) he did not even dare to wonder about, the only thought on his mind - making an impression of his bed being well-slept-in.

Having accomplished this task, he retreated from the Slytherin dungeons as he had nothing to do there, and decided that eating might be an interesting idea. His head still ached, but at least not as much as that time he went to a Death Eater party at the age of thirteen... He had a headache for a week after that party...

*****

Harry Potter, however, woke up quite easily, as there were no girls in his dorm (anymore), no hangover to worry about (he didn't drink that much, though he still had trouble remembering what he did and what he did not do last night) and he was sleeping in his own dorm after all.

After he showered quickly, he thought to dress up, but a small glittering object (and, as a Seeker, he was trained to seek out small glittering objects) that lay next to Ron's bed attracted his attention.

It turned out to be a hairpin. Even more than that, it had its owner's name in very fine letters on it.

"H.M. Granger," it said.

"I didn't know Hermione's middle name starts with an 'm'," he thought, before his head started working in the right direction,"but what, in the name of Merlin, is Hermione's hairpin doing next to Ron's bed???"

He cast away all naughty thoughts (and, frankly, there was quite a lot to cast away) and neatly and quietly put the pin into the breast pocket of Ron's shirt.

Having dressed, he descended down the stairs...

*****

... The same scene that Draco Malfoy marvelled at was still there, so Harry decided that this day will be devoted to saving his friends' lives from death by overdose of embarrassment.

"Wake up you two, you want Ron to catch and murder you viciously?" he whispered, shaking Seamus awake.

"Wha- whe- who- Oh, Harry, it's you, mate. I thought you were Ron and he came to kill me for sleeping with his sister!" Seamus replied as he rubbed his eyes.

"Not yet, only me, though I'd recommend you hurry up with covering up whatever you did here, unless you want to die a most horrible and painful death," said Harry as he shook Ginny awake as well.

Having solved that problem, he had already turned to leave, but noticed yet another small glittering object on the floor.

"Seems that there are quite a lot of small glittering objects people tend to lose lately," he thought as he picked it up.

It was a prefect badge that bore the crest of Slytherin house. Having cast away the thought of anybody from Slytherin crawling in here to kill him, he considered that the reason of having a snog (or a shag) was the reason for this to be here, and slowly came to the conclusion that Draco Malfoy was the only one good-looking enough for someone to want to snog (or shag) him. Unless people here had a perverted look at beauty and wanted to snog (or shag) Millicent Bullstrode instead, of course.

He pocketed the badge and made his way down to the Great Hall, thinking of what should he eat...

*****

Malfoy was also there, looking very... disoriented? And missing a badge by the way.

It took Harry a minute or so to put two and two together as he stopped seeping his tea and turned to Malfoy.

"What's up, Malfoy? Lost your badge, Mr. Prefect?" Harry asked pointedly.

Malfoy looked onto his own chest, found nothing, reached into his pocket, found nothing again and made a face.

"What do you care, Potter?" he asked finally.

"Well, as long as you're not a prefect - and without a badge you're not - I can break your nose as much as I want, so I was wondering..." Harry started.

"Cut it short, Potter, I've had a very shitty morning, so..." Malfoy looked annoyed.

"Looking for this?" said Harry, raising the hand with the badge he found clutched in it.

"How'd you... I mean... Where'd you get one, Potter?" Malfoy asked, his eyes darting around nervously.

"I found it... In a certain place... And I want to know if it's yours."

"Ye- I mean, no, I don't know who's it is," Malfoy lied, he was sweating now. They were alone in the Hall after all; he could simply Obliviate Potter, then blame it on his drinking last night...

"Alright, I'll take it to McGonagall then, unless you want to tell me something..." Harry said meaningfully, a glint of evil in his eyes.

"No! Wait... I... I'll tell you if you give it back."

"Start talking then."

"You know, Potter you'd do well in Slytherin with such a mind..." Malfoy started, but was cut short by Harry.

"Yeah, that's the same thing the Sorting Hat told me, but I refused. Now tell me," said Harry, ignoring Malfoy's surprised look at the words about the Sorting Hat, "how did your prefect badge get into our Common Room?"

"Let's make a deal, it's very secret, so..."

"Alright, tell me something else, something more interesting."

"Patil wears navy blue."

"What?"

"At the Welcome Feast, you seemed to be obsessed with what underwear Patil wears, so... navy blue, strings, very sexy, really," said Malfoy.

"And how the hell did you find that out?" Harry asked, a look of shock on his face.

"Secret of the trade..."

"Alright. Let me say it then. Provided you saw what underwear Parvati really wears, you must've been in the fifth-year girls' dorm, and since you were hanging out with Lavender last night, I suppose that you two had a very good night..."

"Yeah, so did Granger, so what?" Malfoy sneered, obviously hoping that this will make Harry give his badge back. His dream was to be shattered painfully though.

"I know already, so relax," said Harry coldly.

"Weasley Jr. sleeps with Finnigan," said Malfoy.

"Know that as well."

"How? Had a threesome? Twice?" Malfoy asked, his face being one of disgust.

"Secret of the trade, as you said. Alright, you can have your badge back," said Harry generously and threw Malfoy's badge at him. "You can tell me nothing else new as I see."

"You'd really do well in Slytherin, Potter, really!"

*****

When the rest of the school went down to breakfast, they had noticed that Harry was sitting with a triumphant gleam in his eyes while Malfoy's face was one of defeat.

"What did you do to him?" Hermione and Ron asked at once when they came down. Together, hand-in-hand, as Harry noticed.

"I'll tell you only after you tell me what you two did last night."

"He told you?" Hermione asked in horror.

"Who? Who'd you tell? How'd you know?" Ron asked of both of them.

"Yes, he told me as well, as a pay off for return of his badge. He forgot it at the scene of the crime," Harry told Hermione, winking. "I knew before that since you two left evidence," he reached into Ron's breast pocket, pulling the pin out. Hermione grabbed it at once.

"Now, how exactly did Malfoy know of us?" Ron asked pointedly.

"He was in the same situation, and he and Hermione ran into each other on the stairs, I suppose," Harry explained.

Having said that, he left a mouth-open-in-shock Ron and a laughing Hermione at the table...

*****

He ran into Cho in the corridor.

"Hey, I was wondering..." he started, "...since we're all good friends and a bit more now, would you tell me..."

"Yes?" she asked.

"Didanythinghappenthisnight?" he machine-gunned out.

"What?"

"You know..." he made a meaningful look with his eyes, "...sex," he added in a whisper. "I didn't drink much, but looking at what other people did tonight, I was worried that..."

"Relax, Harry. Whatever happened between us this night, sex was not one of those things, I'm sure," she said.

"Good," he said as he reached out to kiss her...

*****

"Alright, this is time for us to choose our team captain," Alicia Spinnet announced as the Gryffindor Quidditch team was sitting in their dressing room.

"And I suggest we hold an election!" Katie Bell added.

Everyone agreed, as they took small bits of parchment, writing names on them.

It turned out that the twins, Angelina and Katie voted for Harry, while Harry and Alicia voted for Katie.

"So, Harry, I suppose you'll be the captain then," said Katie.

"Alright, but I'll be as bad as Wood, I must warn you," he replied.

"No, no, then we want Katie!" the twins yelled at once in mock horror.

"It's alright, Harry. I suppose we can live over that," Angelina said...

*****

...Three hours later, when the training was over she was already sorry she said that. Harry trained them to the death almost, the twins unanimously agreed that Wood at least brought success into the team and that they'd be captains themselves, anything but not Harry.

"Relax, we'll get the cup this year, I promise!" said Harry earnestly. "And for now, we have to run the tests of who will be our Keeper!"

So the next day the ad that said that the Gryffindor Quidditch team was looking for a new Keeper was hanging at the Common Room...

*****

"Alright, your tests are in," McGonagall announced, "and I shall be calling out your names (only those who were detected to be capable, of course) and then your result!"

"Brown, Lavender! Hawk!"

"Granger, Hermione! Panther!"

"Potter, Harry! Er... That's interesting! Gryphon!"

"Weasley, Ronald! Pegasus!"

The crowd cheered as the four who were named were the happiest ones around.

"I can't believe it, I can't believe it!" Lavender kept yelling, as Ron and Harry were just shaking hands with everybody and Hermione was receiving friendly pats on the back.

"Oh, and Potter, I want a word with you after the lesson," McGonagall added...

*****

...After the lesson he came up to her.

"You wanted to talk to me, Professor?" he asked.

"Yes, Potter. Your ring... It's quite peculiar... You see, its power is that it changes the soul of a person. While it is worn, its wearer becomes a darker (in terms of good and evil, that is) person that he or she really is. That explains your er... behaviour changes. I would like you to pass the test once again, with the ring this time."

"Why?" Harry asked, he clearly hadn't seen the point.

"Because then we'll find out how does a person's character affect his or her Animagus form!" she said enthusiastically. "It means that since your ring makes you feel evil, so might your Animagus form!"

"You mean I could get a second Animagus form?" he asked.

"Exactly!" she said. "You'll pass the test, say, at the next Animagus lesson, alright?"

*****

"What? She what?" Hermione could not believe what she heard. "She wants you to pass the test again, with the ring?"

"Yes! It means I might get a second Animagus form, this is more than anyone can wish for!" said Harry eagerly.

"And you agreed?" Ron asked.

"Yes! What should I have done?"

"I don't know... Think what'll happen if you fall unconscious again?" Hermione suggested.

"Hmm, I haven't thought of that..." he said...

*****

"So, how was your Transfig?" Cho asked when they met again.

"Wicked! I got a gryphon. McGonagall actually said I might have a second Animagus shape!"

"Harry, that's wonderful! I got a raven!"

Harry contemplated the symbolism of being a Ravenclaw and having a raven as your Animagus form, but said nothing as they kissed.

"Sorry, gotta run!" he said, breaking the kiss suddenly. "Or Snape'll kill me!"

"Bye!" she yelled after him.

*****

"So, this is the moment you waited for, ladies and gents, the Tournament of Magical Combat is starting!" O'Brien announced cheerfully. "The rules are simple, really - choose a sword, get your wand, get onto the ring, the first one to have his or her opponent's wand along with his or her own wins! You can sign up with me or at professor Flitwick's office!"

"Great, another fine way to spend time. At least Lockhart was less annoying," said Hermione.

"Come on, it'll be fun! You're the best spellcaster in the year, surely you can beat anyone!" said Ron.

"Oh, alright!" she said as she gave in and they both signed their names in. So did Harry. And, as Hermione observed, did Malfoy.

*****

Harry was sitting at his test, the ring on his finger, the answers he made now completely different from what he answered the last time.

In the background he heard McGonagall tutoring the others on how to focus their minds when transforming...

... He realized what had happened only when he blinked once more, trying to cast the illusion away. He was back into the dream, the dead bodies still there; looking the same way they were three months ago.

He was still who he was as the mirror proved it. It was, however, snowing beyond the window. It was not a common snowfall, though, as the snow was black and the ground was now covered in patches of absolute darkness.

He left the room, unable to bear the presence of the corpses next to him. He walked down the hallway, exploring the temple (he assured himself that it was a temple after all), opening doors and looking around, when he walked into what looked like the local equivalent of the Great Hall - a large hall, with tapestries depicting battles of people dressed in white robes with a huge red cross on them, looking like the knights from a history book he once saw at the Muggle school - the knights Templar.

There was a huge stone altar in the very end of the hall, where the staff table would be in Hogwarts, and on that altar...

On that altar lay Ron, wearing those robes of white with red, a plate mail made of steel on him. A large black-metal claymore was put through his heart, but no blood was to be seen. The sword seemed to go straight into the altar as Harry could not move his friend's body - it was pinned to the altar...

He heard a howl behind him, seeing a snow-white wolf run up to him.

The wolf stopped several paces away from Harry, eyeing him carefully. When their eyes met, Harry saw that the wolf's eyes were not blue, as he thought it to be usual for a white wolf, but grey, the same steel grey he knew and loathed so much...

The wolf jumped at Harry suddenly and that was where he woke up...

*****

"What happened?" he asked once he could. Ron and Hermione were there, so were Dumbledore and McGonagall.

"You blacked out again," said Ron grimly. Harry thought for a moment that he could not look at his friend's face again, not after what he saw.

"What happened with you, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Only if I knew..." Harry replied. This was half-true, half a lie, but he comforted himself in the fact that this lie was necessary... He now knew why Malfoy's test was grey and not green or red, he now knew what the face he saw in mirror meant... And he knew where to look for Voldemort.

**********

A/N Wow. That was long. Another nightmare... Don't worry, it'll all be clear in chapter twelve... Save your questions till then, okay?

Draco got a piece of the action now... Happy, y'all?

Heavy Metal rules! Especially if you listen to it constantly while writing...

"Blood for blood,

Will not of a man but of a god,

Death for death,

You must not rebel but repent,

'Tis your hell,

Can't find your way out well...

Drink your blood,

Drink, procurator Pontius Pilate!" Not a very straight, but a very cool translation (by me!). Have this quote in my head for a long time now... Russian heavy metal band - Aria, the song "Blood for blood" - "_____ __ _____".

Thanks go to all who reviewed, to my beta RavenclawMistress and to all the old-school heavy metal bands out there.

Next chapter: What Harry realized, the Tournament starts into action, the training, Harry's second form... And a bit more.