Harry, Draco and Ron: Vampire Hunters

Chapter XIV. The Staff and the Swords.

A dark march lies ahead;

Together we will ride,
Like thunder from the sky.
May your sword stay wet

Like a young girl in her prime;
Hold your hammers high...

- Manowar, "Hail and Kill".

They met each other pretty fast, as it seemed. Probably it was due to Draco's keen sense of smell. Or his will to get back to his girlfriend.

Either way around, the two small teams met and quickly exchanged kisses and whatnot. Harry was studying a rough map of the castle he had managed to grab from one of the Death Eaters.

"I know the way now!" he exclaimed, "Let us go forth and save the world!"

"Where'd you learn this stuff?" Draco sneered, "This is what cool heroes say: Time to kick ass and eat bubble-gum! And we're fresh out of gum!"

"That was 'and chew bubble-gum', you idiot," Hermione replied, grabbing the map out of Harry's hands and taking the lead.

"Now you've got her pissed, Malfoy!" Ron exclaimed cheerfully, being glad that it was not him who's the centre of Hermione's wrath.

*****

The door to the Ceremonial Hall was bolted shut, as it turned out.

"We blast through!" Draco exclaimed, "We don't have time to wait!"

"Yes, we do," said Harry calmly, "We must not be seen as long as possible, otherwise we'll have Voldemort's Death Eaters on our tails."

"Look! Over there!" Ron yelled, pointing. There turned out to be a door not-so-well hidden behind one of the tapestries.

"That's one of the things I love in old buildings!" said Draco, "There's always an extra way in!"

"What, there are more things you like in architecture?" Cho asked with a grin.

"Of course! There's also towers to snog in, nice small rooms with door that can be barred to shag in and of course high walls so that no-one can overtake your fortress!" he replied enthusiastically as Ron and Harry cut down the tapestry that portrayed a knight returning home to his beloved one.

"Stop seducing my girlfriend and get on with it, Malfoy!" said Harry, pointing at the door.

"Girlfriend?" Cho asked of him, an expression of interest on her face.

"Yes, you don't agree?" he asked.

"On the contrary!" she replied as she pulled him closer and they kissed.

"Hey!" said Ron, interrupting them, "Malfoy's opened the door already! Let's go!"

Both of them blushed and the small army that they were proceeded into the dark hidden hallway...

*****

"Wormtail, is everything ready?" Voldemort asked of his servant.

"Al-almost, master!" stammered Wormtail. He had put the Staff onto the altar in the middle of the room, the Death Eaters standing in a semi-circle on one side of it and the vampires - on the other.

"And now we shall do what this Staff was long destined to!" Reilak chanted, "Bring death to all the corners of the Earth and let the undead rule the world!!!"

Voldemort stopped dead in his tracks. Did he hear the vampire right?

"And..." he suggested. Reilak looked at him with a look of disgust.

"And no human shall interfere with my plan!" he said as he waved his hand forth as if ordering his minions to attack, as the vampires drew their swords at once, the black steel of their curved blades glittering maliciously in the torchlight.

It was a massacre as the Death Eaters hexed away at whatever was moving, thus killing some of their own, while the vampires, being able to feel mortals amongst themselves, cut through their mass like a warm knife through butter, severing limbs, fingers, wands and sometimes even heads, their mouths open. While they could not bite the Death Eaters, since the victims would become the hunters, vampires as well, they still could drink the blood that they spilled...

Voldemort looked panicked.

"You betrayed me!" he yelled, standing near his makeshift throne, the last symbol of the just-destroyed rule, it was the only safe island in the sea of blood that the vampires spilt from the Death Eaters.

"And you expected otherwise? Never trust a mortal if you're a vampire... And never trust a vampire if you're a mortal!" Reilak laughed, his voice ringing in the Hall and echoing off the walls.

*****

"I hear battle," Draco whispered, "A fierce one at that. And someone is laughing... Reilak."

"You sure?" Harry asked. They were still in the hidden passage, and, according to Harry's memory of the map of this place, which was not entirely accurate (as the real thing was in Hermione's hands), they were close now.

Draco nodded instead of responding.

"Wands and swords out," Draco ordered, "Time to show what we're made of."

"Blood, bones and a bit of flesh?" Ron asked.

"No, muscles, steel and hatred!" Harry replied, the same malicious glint in his eyes as in Draco's.

The door that led from the passage into the Hall was found and they stumbled out.

The scene in front of them was horrifying - blood everywhere, chopped up remains of Death Eaters all over the place, someone's brains spilled onto a wall, someone else's head pinned to a table with a broadsword made of the black steel the vampires used.

Reilak was sitting on Voldemort's throne, his minions in a semi-circle in front of him.

"I have warned him. He and his servants ran from me. I warn you now. Leave and live, or stay and die."

"We're staying!" Draco yelled, his blade glittering an emerald green colour.

"Then you're dying! Kill them!" Reilak yelled.

The vampires drew their swords once more, charging forth.

Harry found himself suddenly being surrounded by an army of black-robed black-blade-swinging vampires, their precision and strength unmatchable. He swung his sword around himself in a full circle, severing several arms in the process, the limbs he cut off falling onto the floor and withering into dust instantly. He felt their blades hitting him, cutting his flesh, yet he felt no pain. He had only then noticed that his ring was glowing in an eerie acidic green light and realised his mistake. He shifted at once, his hooves touching down onto the floor with a quiet sound.

He jumped into the air, igniting his hooves, propelling himself forwards and seeing that others were faring relatively well.

Draco got cut up pretty badly, but his werewolf blood protected him from dying on the spot from so many wounds, at least for now. Several already-crippled vampires were still trying to reach him and Harry saw how Draco beheaded one of them in an elegant horizontal swing, the vampire's body withering away at once.

Hermione and Cho stood side-by side, hexing away, thus keeping the vampires at bay for now. Lavender was cornered and wounded badly, but Ron had just cleaved his way through to help her.

Harry turned down, setting a couple of vampires on fire. They ripped their burning cloaks off of themselves, but one did not manage to do it in time as his flesh caught the fire, he collapsed onto the floor, yelling, turning into ash that was evaporating into nothingness on the spot. The tables have turned, as it seemed, the hunted became the hunters.

Harry dropped down in front of Reilak and shifted back, his eyes a glittering with the same acidic green as his ring.

"You shall die now, vampire," he said coldly. It was not an insult, not a provocation; it was just a cold, emotionless, simple and straightforward statement.

"We'll see about that!" Reilak responded, drawing his sword. Harry could swear he looked into the very eyes of death at that moment, as it was the very same sword he saw in his dream... The sword Ron was killed with, the same runes, the same shape... But this was not the same place. Telling himself this, Harry rushed forwards, trying to reach the vampire, but Reilak was too fast for him as he cut Harry's arm.

Harry winced, hearing a voice from behind.

"We're coming, Harry! He's alone now!" Ron yelled.

"Some other time, some other place, but you will die, Harry Potter!" said Reilak and disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Lavender asked. Harry saw that her robes were now but loose stripes of well-cut-up material, the flesh visible through the cuts covered in her blood.

"Portkey, I suppose. He can't apparate, no vampire can," said Draco, "Everyone alive?"

"Barely," said Harry with a faint smile as he sat down on the blood-covered floor to rest.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Ron asked.

"A simple yet effective plan always proves to be perfectly functional," Hermione said, "I suggest we take a leaf out of the Death Eaters' book and borrow a couple of their Hogwarts-attack-plan Portkeys."

It was all set now - Hermione, Lavender and Cho were leaving via the first one and Harry, Draco and Ron - via the second one.

*****

He woke up in the Hospital wing, yet again.

"How... Where..." he tried to ask, but he could not say much, he was weak.

"Relax, Harry, it's all over," he heard someone say. Dumbledore.

"Professor, I..." Harry tried to say, but failed, yet again.

"You did a marvellous job, staying alive in there. The Staff is safe now, the Ravens took it back to their fortress," said Dumbledore, "It will now be reinforced with Aurors in case Voldemort or someone else--"

"Reilak," Harry said grimly.

"Someone else might wish to repeat the Death Eaters' attempt at getting it."

"And the others? Ron... Cho..." Harry asked.

"They are alive and well. Mr. Weasley left this ward just yesterday, while Miss Chang is still here," he waved his hand to his right, Harry turned his head to see Cho sleeping in the bed next to his, her face relaxed and so beautiful in its struggle against death...

"And Lavender? Hermione?"

"Miss Brown is fine, though she needed more help than you two. She's still being healed, and is not to be disturbed," Dumbledore explained, "As for Miss Granger, I must say that she did the best job of all of you in keeping herself whole," he added merrily with a chuckle.

"And Dra... Malfoy?" Harry asked, correcting himself on the way. He had not even noticed when he started referring to the Slytherin by his first name.

"Oh, he is fine. Being a werewolf made him more resistant to any physical damage. He is now among the other members of his House, worrying about the petition they signed..."

"Petition?" Harry asked, an amused look on his face.

"Yes. They decided that him saving you and your friends was a bit too Gryffindor, so they signed a petition for him to be re-sorted," Dumbledore replied, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I suppose he'll be heart-broken," Harry replied with a grin.

"Actually, he seems quite happy with it, saying something about them being not responsible enough and that he might've been killed..."

Harry laughed for a short moment, but then started coughing, his ribs hurt too much to laugh.

"And now you must get some rest..." said Dumbledore finally, getting up.

*****

Two days later Harry and Cho left the hospital wing, but Lavender stayed there for an extra day for all of her wounds to be mended. Seamus was frantic; Ron was still telling everyone that he'll kill him whenever he gets a chance for it and everyone else kept laughing whenever that matter was brought up.

The O.W.L.s turned out not to be as hard for Harry, he passed all the exams lightly, and was enjoying his time now, just hanging out with Cho and the rest of his friends. It turned out so that while they were away, Dean and Parvati found some mutual interest in each other, in other words, they started dating.

Malfoy was, of course, upset when he found out about the petition, he kept saying things like "I can't believe this is happening" and "Why it had to be me?" but no-one took him seriously - the Gryffindors could not care less to lose an enemy among the Slytherins, the same went for Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as well, while the Slytherins themselves thought that they were 'cleaning out the House' and, without his father's support, Draco was now a neutral.

He still lived in the Slytherin dorms, but that was until he would be re-sorted (Dumbledore put it to be at the Sorting on the next September the 1^st), he still was a prefect, though not following the pattern of "You're not in Slytherin, that means you're dirt", as he wasn't in Slytherin himself anymore. He ate at the staff table, as he was neutral after all.

He took points from every House, without mercy and forgiveness. It was justified, of course, as the norms for sizes of points to take were set, but he always took as much as possible, somehow mostly 'accidentally' running into Slytherins doing things worth taking points for.

*****

That made him a bit less of an enemy for Harry and the other Gryffindors, though his paranoid crusade of point-taking was slowly getting on to everyone's nerves.

"Well, he is pissed," Ron said once, "Might as well commit suicide."

"Ron! How can you say things like that! And what if he hadn't saved you then?" said Hermione.

"I'd be dead and he'd be in Slytherin still," said Ron, "Damn it, you're right; I hate it when you're right about things I don't like."

"Who's a thing, Weasley?" came Malfoy's drawl, "Insulting prefects, aren't we?"

"Come on, Draco, give the guy a break!" said Harry.

"Oh, trying to get all friendly with the prefect, eh, Potter? Trying to seek protection from the righteous punishment?"

"Since when do you care about righteous punishment?" Harry asked coldly, wishing he had his sword, here and now, to teach him a lesson or two.

"Since a certain Dark Lord decided he had the right to do it. If he can why can't I?" Draco also wished his word to be here. They both knew that fighting with them was impossible for their swords would not let them, however strange it might sound.

"Because you're human, and he's not!" said lavender, cutting into this. She was a bit (if not to say more) disappointed with him, since after his return the only thing on his mind was his stupid vengeance, nothing else. She didn't like it greatly.

"Human? Don't make me laugh!" Ron replied. Only then he had realised the impact of his words - Lavender did not yet know of Draco's being a werewolf, so the situation was reaching its boiling point with lightning-fast speed.

"Alright. A duel," said Harry, interrupting Lavender's logical and explainable question, "You and me, Malfoy, to the death. Your choice of weapons."

It seemed to Harry that time froze for a moment, for Ron's face was a mix of surprise and agreement, Hermione's - pure shock, Draco's - of slow realization of what Harry was leading to, Lavender's - pure hatred, concentrated at Harry. When time resumed its usual flow speed, Lavender yelled at him.

"What? How can you possibly say such a thing! Whatever happens, he still is the only one for me! So, if he kills you, you stupid prat, you'll deserve it!" having finished her yell, she stormed away.

"Congratulations Potter, for winning the annual "He who is in the deepest shit ever imaginable" award!" sneered Draco, for a moment becoming his old self, "Hope you will die quickly!"

He regained his composure pretty fast, though, and rushed off after Lavender.

"I hope you have written a will, Harry," said Ron gravely, "You might've beaten him while he was a mortal, but a werewolf Draco Malfoy is too tough for you."

Harry turned to Hermione, their external voice of reason.

"He's right, Harry. Sorry," was all she could say to him.

*****

They stood face to face on the fighting arena, a broadsword in Draco's hand, a longsword in Harry's, looks of determination on their faces.

Lavender was amongst those watching, her face half-buried in her hands, as she could not stop crying, she knew that one of them was to die, yet she didn't want either to do so...

Ron was looking at the fighters with a look of regret, since he knew Harry was not as good of a fencer as Draco, and besides Draco was a werewolf, that made Harry in deeper trouble than before.

Hermione's look was a mix of the one Ron had with the "I have a sneaky suspicion" one, and Harry thought that he knew why. But he was about to be killed by Draco Malfoy, so he did not quite have the time to ask her if his thoughts were correct.

Harry and Draco raised their swords, preparing to fight.

"Gryphon," said Harry.

"Wolf," Draco replied.

"Nightmare," Harry added.

"Werewolf," Draco confirmed. Harry nodded and they went off.

Lavender kept covering her eyes whenever one of them was attacking, that meant she was only taking very infrequent peeks at the course of the fight.

Cho, who had just walked in, stood by the entrance, watching the scene play out in the middle of the room as her boyfriend was getting murdered.

Harry's face was crossed with a diagonal scar, the left sleeve of his shirt torn, and a cut on his arm followed that tear along almost the entire arm, but he still was struggling.

Draco's face was distorted with wincing, as he had several slashes made across his chest and a nasty cut on his right upper leg, but he still went on fighting.

Finally, Draco made the same mistake as the first time they duelled, leaving his torso unprotected while slashing with full force, and Harry repeated his move, just a little lower, slicing Draco's abdomen open.

The fight was over, it was obvious now, as Draco dropped his sword onto the floor, the blood flowing from the wound Harry just inflicted, he collapsed onto his knees, looking down in pure shock, seeing the hand he just touched the wound with being covered with his own blood. He gave a faint smile in Harry's direction and collapsed onto his back.

Lavender practically howled as she jumped up from her seat, lunging herself at Harry.

"You killed him, you killed him!" she kept yelling, beating her small and gentle female fists upon his chest, he was just slightly wincing whe she hit the cuts Draco's sword made.

"So what?" he asked coldly as he wiped the blood from his sword with his towel. Everyone present suddenly started some kind of a riot, yelling "Murderer! A cold-blooded vicious murderer!" at him.

The only ones still calm were Ron, Hermione, Harry and Cho, as of the six students that knew Draco was a werewolf only five were present and one of them lay like dead on the floor.

"Serves him right, the bastard cut me up pretty good," Harry added as he observed his wounds, Cho hurrying over to help.

Lavender was now kneeling over Draco, her knees in the puddle of blood that came from his body, her hands in the blood from the horrible gaping wound Harry's sword left... She was crying, crying like there was no tomorrow. And there was no tomorrow for her without him, not without him...

"Damn, she really loves him," said Ron as he sat down next to Harry, "I wonder, how long he will keep his act up now?"

"Not long," said Hermione, looking at Lavender, who was reaching for Draco's sword, muttering something about lost love and death.

Harry, upon seeing this, jumped up, throwing himself at lavender, pulling the sword out of her arms.

"You don't need to die, not today," he said, she glared in response, "Besides; I doubt that he would approve of that."

He nodded at Draco and she laughed out. Harry's hearty sank, for it was the laugh of the insane.

"And it's you who's telling me that, eh? You, who just killed him, and now you're telling me that he wouldn't approve of it?"

Her face was one of pure hatred. Harry wondered if looks really could kill, because he sure felt that Lavender's gaze was deadly, but his thoughts were cut short by a hollow laugh, followed by coughing.

"Yeah, I wouldn't! Damn, Potter, you hurt me badly!"

"Like you didn't hurt me!" Harry replied as Draco scooped himself up from the floor.

Lavender's face was one of shock now, as she looked at her just-was-dead-and-now-he-walks boyfriend. Draco smiled at her, but she stood up, still covered in his blood, slapped him across the face and turned to Harry, who was grinning.

"Never. Ever. Do. That. Again. Understood?" she asked angrily, "And what're you smiling at?" she added and slapped him across the face as well, then stormed out of the room.

"What'd I do?" Harry asked.

"You killed me!" Draco replied, grinning.

"I suppose you go and explain. You know where to don't you?" said Harry. Draco nodded.

"The password is "Pure soul"," said Hermione.

Draco wiped the blood off himself with a towel and rushed off.

"Now you're a matchmaker?" Cho asked of Harry.

"No, I'd say a heart-breaker," he replied cheerfully and they kissed, she ran her hand through his hair and then patted him on the cheek, he winced.

"What's wrong?" she asked. He pulled her arm aside, showing that she touched the wounded cheek, her palm was in his blood now, "Sorry," she said, kissing him tenderly, trying not to hurt him again...

*****

However shocked the Fat Lady was, she let Draco through when he gave her the password. He rushed up the stairs and into the fifth-year girls dorm, only to see her on her bed, crying.

"Lavender..." he started. She looked up at him, her eyes showing a mix of plead for an explanation and demand of privacy. He followed the first and ignored the second.

"Listen, I... This might be hard, but I am... I am a werewolf."

Her eyes widened as if from shock, she drew back from him.

"Hey! I'm not going to hurt you... This whole... thing... Was Potter's idea really, he made me do it..."

"And you'd kill him if you could?"

"He saved my ass, girl, saved it twice. Things like that can't be forgotten that easily, even if you are a Malfoy... Though I suppose I'm not one anymore."

"Why not?" she asked, he noticed that she stopped crying already. He knew it was a nice way to get a girl's attention from trouble to something else - just talk her out of it.

"Because my parents are dead, killed by the Dark Lord, killed for betraying him. That destroyed the reputation of Malfoys as Death Eaters. Not to mention what it did to me..." his voice trailed off.

She moved back closer to him.

"And you... You change in the full moon?" she asked, feeling herself a stupid idiot for doing so.

"No. You see, I am a natural-born; my father was a werewolf as well, so I have control of my transformations. And over my wolven form also."

"And if we have kids... They'd be..."

"Like me, yes," he stopped for a moment, "You want kids? From me?"

"Is it a crime?" she asked, smiling, the tears stopped in her eyes.

"Even if it is, I'm there to do it..." he said, reaching forth, wiping the tears away, "Though that Lee girl - that seventh year Ravenclaw," he paused, thinking how easily he just spilled the information on his crush (as if people thought that being a Slytherin meant you might not have one) to his girlfriend, "You know - she looks nice and--"

She cut him short as they kissed, the salty taste of her tears on his lips when they parted.

"So, how many kids you want to have?" he asked...

*****