Harry, Draco and Ron: Vampire Hunters

Chapter IX. The Wolf and the Dreams.

My father was a wolf, I'm a kinsman of the slain,

Sworn to rise again,

I will bring Salvation, Punishment and Pain,

For the Hammer of Hate is our Faith...

- Manowar, "Hail and Kill".

The next morning Harry walked up to McGonagall when he saw her in a hallway.

"Professor, I have to talk to you."

"Yes, Mr. Potter?" she asked, stopping to look at him.

"In private, if possible..."

Her face became very strict suddenly, as it usually did when matters were grave. The last times he needed to talk to her, he was telling her the Philosopher's Stone was about to be stolen (and then rushed off to save it), or something else. She had to talk to him before he made any more rash decisions.

"Alright," she said. "Come to my office then, after the next lesson."

*****

"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked after Harry came in from Care of Magical Creatures. She was sitting at her desk, her usual "I'm kind to you for now since you're a Gryffindor and the team Seeker, Potter, so make sure you stay in line" gaze in use. Harry swallowed at the sight of it.

"Professor, there is one thing, a suspicion I have... And I wanted to make sure if it is true or not," said Harry, not sure how to make this less awkward.

"What is it then?" she asked, the gaze still there.

"Professor... Is Draco Malfoy a latent werewolf?" Harry asked finally.

"Hmm... Did you tell anyone else about this... suspicion of yours?" she asked thoughtfully instead of answering.

"Nobody, professor," said Harry earnestly.

"Alright, I'll tell you, but only if you keep this a secret. Yes, Mr. Malfoy is a latent werewolf. Was there anything else you wanted to know?"

"No, Professor," he replied, muttered a quiet "Goodbye" and left.

*****

He was walking down the hallway, heading to Arithmancy, thinking. So, Malfoy was a latent werewolf after all. That explained the wolf in his dream, the fact that Malfoy ignored wounds and his bad temper as well. What it did not explain was why Lavender allowed this strange Slytherin bloke to spend the night in her dorm (even if nothing happened as Malfoy claims... and nobody can prove that)...

But that was not the most important question on his hands. If McGonagall did not find out that the ring can make Harry see the truth (he was not sure of it being the future, since Malfoy's parents in his dream, albeit dead, looked just like they did when he saw them at the Quidditch Cup, but maybe it was just a mental association?), then the change it makes in him must be raising some kind of inner Divination power or something like that.

He cast those thoughts away as he realised that he reached the classroom already.

*****

"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked suddenly. She was sitting at the same desk as him for she was helping him catch up on the studies.

"Er... I can't tell you. Not that I don't won't to... McGonagall made me swear I won't tell anyone," Harry whispered back as Professor Vector was explaining some complex theoretical question that incorporated complex calculations, the blackboard was all covered with strange symbols, so that one not familiar with the teacher could think this was the Ancient Runes class.

"Alright then, if she said so..." Hermione whispered, turning away. Harry had a strange feeling that she did not believe him.

*****

The first tier of the Tournament started yesterday, and the giant Tournament statistics board stationed at the entrance to the Great Hall was constantly visited by those who wanted to be up-to-date with the news. So far, only three duels amongst the fifth-years took place, as Draco Malfoy defeated Justin Finch-Fletchley, Padma Patil knocked her own twin sister out of the running and Terry Boot was crushed by Ernie MacMillan.

According to the board, the first duel Harry was to take would be with...

"Blaise Zabini? That loser? That'll be an easy fight, Harry!" Ron exclaimed cheerfully.

"Yeah, and I wouldn't be cheering like that if I were you," said Harry. "You're up against Millicent Bullstrode."

The next phrase that Ron sent out into the surrounding air was not suitable for listening for children under the age of fourteen, and since there was quite a lot of them around, Hermione was forced to take two points from Gryffindor in order to restore peace and order in the hallway by invoking the magical force of justice.

*****

Animagus trainings were quite a lot of fun - even though all of the fifth-year potentials were now studying together. Harry was quite surprised that despite Parvati did not get a positive result, her twin sister, Padma, did. That, and the fact that Padma beat Parvati in the Tournament, definitely did not make it well for Parvati's self-respect, he was already feeling sorry for making her look like an idiot when he made her clear up the whole Ginny vs. Cho issue.

The main task of the trainings was to teach them focus their minds on the transformation, to channel their inner magical energies and... well, transform.

Nobody could manage anything decent until Hermione accidentally made her hair turn black. The problem was that she could not remember how she did it and she had to cope with being black-haired for two days straight until she managed to turn things back to normal.

After that the things went uphill - Hermione was going around and explaining how she did it in very complex words, making everybody's head hurt, yet some who somehow managed to wrest the meaning of her words from her words also started to make progress like changing their hair or eye colour.

"Nice trick to know for those running from the law," Ron observed, "but how in the name of Merlin will that help us?"

"I'm just sharing my own findings," said Hermione before storming away.

"Way to go Ron, you did it again," said Harry grimly.

"Did what?"

"Made Hermione feel miserable for being smart. I suggest you go and ask for forgiveness until she changes her mind about being good, joins forces with you-Know-Who and helps him take over the world!" said Lavender, her eyes pitch black from another attempt at mind-focusing.

Ron rushed out at once, making Lavender giggle in the usual girly way, but when her gaze accidentally fell upon Malfoy, she became silent.

Despite the fact McGonagall tried to convince them that focusing the mind on the process is the way to go, most seemed to be focusing on other things instead. Goyle, for instance, managed to turn his own hair into caramel via an unknown method, and reverted it back an hour later.

Harry was not making any progress at all, with the wand or without it, and now was just spending time in a more productive manner - he was wondering what the devil Malfoy was doing here.

"Well, I suppose since pure-blood werewolves can change on their own, he needs the practice as well," he thought, "Though I don't know what McGonagall will say if he achieves the man-wolf form before the actual wolf. And what will the other students? Hmm, that American saying 'scared shitless' is the word here, I think."

Wondering about changes had made him feel a strange new sensation. Just in case, he glanced at the mirror that was standing on one of the desks.

"What the..." was all he could think before Lavender, who was sitting the closest to him, let out a yell of something sounding like a wild mix of terror and surprise. Out of the mirror a bird's head was peering intensely at Harry, and by the small fact that it had a lightning-shaped scar on the forehead, green eyes and black feathers he figured out that it was him. Experiencing the presence of wings on one's back turned out to be a strange feeling, and Harry was quite unsure if he agreed with its existence.

"Looks like Mr. Potter did it!" McGonagall announced cheerfully. "Now, Mr. Potter, would you mind changing back?"

Harry was already wishing to say something like "I'd like to, but I can't!" when his mind jumped again, just like it did after those strange ring-created dreams.

"What was I thinking of when I transformed?" he asked himself.

"Fear? Not quite... Malfoy? Hell, no! Then what?" he thought, trying to answer his own questions.

"Come on, Mr. Potter, transform back!" McGonagall said impatiently.

"Wolves? No. Transformations..." he thought when the same strange feeling came over him. The mirror claimed that he was human again, so did his feelings.

"Yes! I did it!" he yelled in triumph as most people present (except the Slytherins, but that was logical) hurried over to congratulate him and ask how he did it. He answered "Thank you" to the first and "I don't know, honestly" to the second.

At that very moment a red-faced Hermione and a slightly embarrassed-looking Ron entered, their faces being of the "We're sorry we're late, we had er... urgent matters to discuss. Yeah. Really!" type, but nobody noticed their arrival; at least nobody appeared to have done it.

"What's up? What's with all the cheering?" Ron kept asking.

"Harry! He did it!" someone yelled happily as if she (or was it he?) did the transformation herself (or himself after all?) in response.

"Did what?" Hermione asked.

"He transformed!" was the reply.

*****

"And now, the next duel of today, Harry Potter of Gryffindor House versus Blaise Zabini of Slytherin house," Lee Jordan, who was the one doing the comments, announced.

The duel was short, and, as Ron put it later, bloody. Nobody understood if he meant that it was cool or that it was too violent, as Harry cut Blaise's left forearm pretty deep, sending a lot of blood into the air, accidentally getting some blood onto the audience, actually, with his sword. Blaise retaliated to that with a nasty hex & swing combination, Harry dodged the hex, but the sword left a deep cut on his right upper leg. The fight was over in moments after that as Blaise did not expect Harry making a comeback after that.

"And Harry Potter of Gryffindor House wins through the smart use of a Stunning spell!" Jordan announced merrily.

*****

Hermione was to duel Malfoy, and that was not a nice piece of news. The duel was tomorrow, as it turned out, and Harry and Ron were trying to get her mind off of it, all to no avail.

Ron himself was to duel Millicent tomorrow, just before Malfoy would duel Hermione, but he was keener on making sure Hermione isn't panicking. Harry was unsure if this was because these two were a bit more than just friends lately, or with the fact that Ron finally noticed he wasn't the only one around that has problems.

"There's one thing I have to warn you of, before you duel tomorrow," said Harry when they settled down in the Common Room.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"The thing bugging me on that Arithmancy lesson, remember?" he asked.

She nodded, while Ron looked close to his usual "I'm left out of everything again" state.

"Well, even though McGonagall told me not to tell anyone, I just have to tell you before you duel Malfoy," said Harry. "He is a werewolf."

"What???" Ron boomed suddenly. "You mean he..."

"Shh! McGonagall will kill me if she finds out I told you!" hissed Harry, interrupting his friend's shock. "He's a latent, remember that lesson in DADA?"

"We had a lesson on latent werewolves? In DADA?" Ron asked with disbelief in his voice.

"Yes, but you were too busy sleeping through Hermione's speech on them," said Harry.

"So what do I do then?" Hermione asked, the look on her face describable only in one way - terror.

"Stay calm and rely upon your spellcasting skills," said Harry in a pep-talk manner. "I just wanted you to know that he probably will be able to dodge anything you send at him, not to mention sword use... He was very well with a blade without this and now he's... well, he's deep trouble, if you know what I mean."

*****

The next day came faster than anyone expected as Hermione grew less and less calm while Ron was starting to panic about his own duel.

"You'll do fine!" Hermione yelled after him as he was walking into the arena.

The fight was a long one, as Millicent was not too keen on letting Ron or his sword close, but not very good at aiming her spells as well. Finally, Ron discarded the sword and knocked her out with a couple of Stupefy spells.

"Great job! Ronald Weasley of Gryffindor gives his House one more successful victory!" Jordan yelled.

*****

"Stay calm, control yourself, remember all the spells you can," said Harry, doing that pep-talk again. After all, he was the one who made her feel like that, so he was the one to comfort her now, wasn't he?

"Alright..." she replied. Ron kissed her, muttering something like "Good luck" and she went up to the arena.

Malfoy was already there, wearing his Quidditch protection gear, just without the robes and the broom, a sabre in his hand.

"Ready to die, Granger?" he sneered.

"I bet you tell this to all the girls you meet!" she replied angrily. Malfoy stole a quick look at Lavender, then turned away. There was something about this girl that made him not insult her... What it was, he did not know, but somehow he felt that someday he would have to have a talk with Lavender, and it will not be concerned only with that Halloween night.

"And now, the next duel, Draco Malfoy of Slytherin house versus Hermione Granger of Gryffindor House!" said Jordan, his magically magnified voice echoing off the walls.

Hermione picked a simple and lightweight short sword as her weapon; she was not intending to use it for other purposes than defence, after all. As the bell rang, signifying the start of the battle, she sent a hex in Malfoy's direction, but he dodged it easily. It was like a game of cat & mouse as Hermione was circling the arena by backing away from and hexing at Malfoy, while he was dodging the spells and simply decreasing the distance.

After a short while it seemed that he had already grown tired with this as he suddenly charged forth, ignoring the pain-causing spell, and swung his sabre at her.

Surprised by this attack, Hermione tripped and fell backwards, landing quite painfully on her backside, though unscathed by the blade of Malfoy's sabre. She got up quickly, hexing away, that forced him to back up as some of her hexes hit him.

"Take that!" she yelled as she suddenly thrusted her sword forth, obviously hoping that it will hit him, but he jumped to the side suddenly, his sabre's tip leaving a cut on her robes, yet not reaching the flesh.

She cast away the torn robes, revealing that she was wearing the school uniform underneath, her blouse already soaked with her sweat.

"Ooh, looks like Hermione's in trouble!" said Jordan, though everybody seemed to ignore the always-biased commentator's words as Malfoy's sabre flew through the air, cutting Hermione's wand hand just above the wrist, forcing her to release the grip on her wand. He then simply cast Expelliarmus on her; the spell sent her falling down, her wand speeding into his fingers.

Malfoy raised his hand with the two wands clutched in it, letting out something that sounded like a barbaric battle cry three times. After the third one Harry realized that even if it was a battle cry, it was his own last name, for "Malfoy!" was the word his long-time enemy was yelling.

"Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it just happened - Hermione Granger is out of the running!" Jordan said mournfully.

*****

"I can't believe it!" she yelled through tears. "I just can't bloody believe it!"

They were back in the Common Room; most students already went in to sleep, so Harry and Ron were the only ones to see her in such a state.

"Come on," said Ron, "even Harry couldn't've beaten him!"

"Hey! By the looks of it, I'll have to, since we're the two strongest ones by the stats," Harry protested.

This did not help Hermione's self-respect though, as she was crying, tears streaming down her face.

"Hey..." said Ron, sitting down onto the floor in front of her. "Calm down, everyone fails sometimes and, frankly, it was about time for you..."

But his words were cut short as she jumped up from her seat suddenly and darted up the stairs.

"Here we go again..." said Harry, mourning over the sanity that he was losing faster and faster every single day.

*****

The next two weeks went past in a daze as Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors tried to convince Hermione that yes, bad stuff happens, but she was not paying attention. Leaving first from lessons, coming in last, though not late, it seemed that she was spending all of her time in the library now, even eating there, though madam Pince was strictly against such behaviour.

"Either she's trying to commit suicide through overwork, or we must expect her to steal the Cloak and the Map to get into the Restricted Section," said Ron. "At least it looks so."

"I'm afraid you're right..." Harry replied as he observed Malfoy following Lavender into an empty classroom. He dared not to think what was to happen, but expected that it made Malfoy seize all the activity of getting into the Gryffindor dorms again.

*****

"Listen, there's one thing I wanted to talk to you about..." he said.

"Yes, Draco?" she asked, sitting down onto a chair.

"Draco?" he gave a hollow laugh. "Since when we're on first name terms?"

"Since you woke up in my bed, Mister."

"About that..." he started, unsure of what to say. Actually, he had planned the entire talk out, but her words have crushed the plan into very tiny bits that were now floating about in his head.

"Listen, I don't want trouble, and you probably don't as well, so why won't we just..." she started, but was cut short by his words.

"...Kiss?" he suggested, moving closer.

"Er... That... That was not the er... exact... thing... I was about to say..." she stammered, trying to stop him as he leaned over her, his hands embracing her...

"But who cares..." she added after they finally broke the kiss...

*****

The next Animagus lesson was significant because of two things: Hermione was absent and Harry had the Ring on. It did not feel alien now, he did not faint or anything, but he had to know what his other shape was, since McGonagall did not seem too eager to share this knowledge with him... Ah, that thought meant that the Ring did have an effect after all.

He sat down at his usual place, and spent a few minutes watching the others. Ron was already doing progress, though he could not always shift back with ease, Blaise Zabini's shape turned out to be a scorpion ("Who's surprised?" Ron asked), Malfoy did master the wolf form first and Padma Patil's form turned out to be a wolf-like dog, though a dog nonetheless.

Finally, he sent his thoughts in the direction he figured out - he had not to force himself, but think of himself as a transformed person... New yells of shock were heard all over the place as he felt that he had hooves. No wings. No feathers. A mane and a tail though. The mirror revealed him to be...

A black horse-like creature with emerald-green eyes that glowed, the scar still on the forehead, the mane and tail looking as if they were made of fire...

His mind jumped to a page in that book Hermione gave him for his birthday... He knew what this animal was. A Nightmare.

**********

A/N Well, here I am again! Sorry for the non-existence of other lessons, but I thought that if I'll write them in as "nothing happened in Potions Class" you'd probably laugh me up, so I did not. Yes, Malfoy does act like a two-faced git, but who thought of him otherwise? Sorry kids, but Cassie Claire's fics aren't canon (yet). When (if) they will be, you'll have to make a large mental note - "AU, that one".

So, the exams are history, as I passed the last one today (getting top marks in all), so I'm free as a bird... for now. And I've submitted two more fics: one, entitled "Moments of "Time"", to Astronomy Tower, and the other, by the name of "Harry Potter and the Cyberpunk Nightmare", to Schnoogle. Let's hope they're up before this chapter!

Thankies go to my beta, RavenclawMistress, the kind people that review my fic and the overly-tolerant people at Schnoogle that let my fic exist under the roof of their House. Yay!