Harry, Draco and Ron: Vampire Hunters

Chapter XV. All debts must be paid.

The night was black, was no use holding back
'Cos I just had to see was someone watching me
In the mist dark figures move and twist
was all this for real or some kind of hell?
6, 6, 6, the Number of the Beast
Hell and fire was spawned to be released...

- Iron Maiden, "Number of the Beast".

The Great Hall was furnished vividly for the Leaving Feast and the students were slowly pouring in. The most evident group of all were the six students that were walking in a tight group, split into pairs - Harry with Cho, Ron with Hermione and Draco with Lavender.

They have situated themselves on the very end of the Gryffindor table, ignoring everyone else's questioning looks, especially the ones Draco was receiving - and that Lee girl he mentioned was the one who had that particular "If looks could kill, they might" face directed at Lavender. Apparently, she had her own plans for Draco and Lavender ruined them.

Both Draco and Lavender ignored her and, just as everyone else in the Hall, turned their heads towards the staff table - Dumbledore was about to give his usual end-of-year speech.

"Another year has passed at the school," he started, "And what a year that was! The events of this year have once again shown that, no matter what those who deny that the Dark Lord Voldemort has indeed returned say; this will not make the threat go away."

He paused and observed the students. They all were looking at him with a mix of terror and admiration - those who did not trust his words last year understood their mistake and the ones that did trust them have received even more respect for him.

"Six students were kidnapped from this school by his minions, and, by sheer luck and their own courage, they have escaped," he continued, the loud gasps of shock and terror echoing through the Hall, "And those people shall remain anonymous, for their own interests," he added, despite the fact that some heads were now turned towards the six students sitting at the very end of the Gryffindor table.

"And he himself is now in hiding once again, betrayed by the very ones he made an alliance with. They will probably not pursue him, but I am not as sure about the end of the vampire attacks, for it was indeed the person Voldemort allied with who was behind them--"

"Me," said a cold voice. Despite the fact that Reilak said that single word with a rather quiet tone, it was nevertheless heard by all. He and about twenty of his minions were standing near the entrance to the Hall.

Harry's hands dropped below the table, and, actually, so did the hands of the other five. They knew something like this could happen, so they were ready. Their heads were still turned to the daywalker and his servants. The vampires were draped into black clothing, not a single piece of skin exposed to the threat of daylight, and Reilak, being a daywalker, was the only one without a mask on his face.

"And now I shall bring my act of unholy retribution upon those who deprived me of the chance to rule the world," Reilak announced with the same cold voice, but now it had an emotion in it, and a strong one at that - hatred.

Harry looked around swiftly. The ones he could count for sure on were few - all who attended the Duelling Club, the Quidditch team, most of the Animagi... He suddenly got a very nasty idea into his head.

"Kill them all!" Reilak commanded as his minions drew their black swords. The students started panicking the very same moment, and the havoc this created had let Harry and the others get up from the table swiftly, wands and swords out.

"We stopped you before, Reilak, we'll stop you again!" Harry yelled.

"Oh, Harry Potter," said Reilak, amusement in his voice, "I've been expecting you and your friends to pull something like that off."

Instead of bothering to reply, Ron charged forth upon him. Reilak drew his sword in a swift movement, blocking the flight of Ron's paladin blade.

Harry jumped onto the table, yelling "Blaise!"

"What, now Potter?"

"Grab this!" Harry yelled, throwing The Ring at Blaise.

"What's this? This is not time to propose!"

"Put it on, you idiot! And Transform!" Harry yelled, swinging his sword to stop a vampire from beheading poor Colin Creevey. The vampire's severed arm fell onto the floor and withered away instantly. Harry swung his sword again, the vampire's chest cut open, the flesh withering away as the blade cut through it.

The teachers and other students were fighting back against the vampires as well, but only the three boys that held the magic swords could do any serious damage. Out of the corner of his eye Ron saw O'Brien being killed by some vampire, the Duelling teacher's blood dripping from the undead's black sword.

Draco had wounded two more vampires, and was now trying to behead one of them, who was sporting only one arm, but it was the sword arm, unfortunately for Draco. A deep cut appeared on his left arm, forcing him to wince.

Suddenly a loud roar and several thuds shook the Hall. Hermione was the closest to their source - a manscorpion? And one that had Blaise Zabini's face!

"Nice ring, Potter!" the abomination growled, its pincers cutting a nearby vampire in two halves at once.

"What did you do?" Draco yelled to Harry. Both were fending off vampires that lacked one arm or the other.

"The Ring! I've thought that something like... like this would happen!" Harry yelled back, finally killing the undead that was in front of him. So did Draco, who swiftly turned around to a muffled yell of his name. A girl's voice, though not Lavender's.

He turned around just in time to see Lee getting a nasty sword wound across her lower abdomen, and he slashed away at the vampire that did it. The undead withered away as Lee collapsed onto the floor. Time seemed to freeze for Draco as he heard (or rather saw) her call out his name. He jumped to her, dropping onto his knees.

"Lee, please, don't! Not here, not like this!" he kept saying, his hands tearing her robes open to check the wound. The cut was awfully deep and probably lethal.

"Draco..." she whispered. Even though those words would be barely audible in a quiet place, let alone this chaos, he heard them - werewolf hearing was keen indeed, "Before... Before..."

"Lee, don't talk, you need to save strength!" he protested, tears streaming from his eyes. Tears? He never had a girl dying on his arms before, and a girl that he had a liking for... Well, not like for Lavender, but still...

"I want... you to... know..." she whispered, "I always... loved you, Draco... M-malfoy..." she added as she pushed herself up from the last of her strength, her cold lips barely touching his. Almost instantly after that, her body went limp in his hands, her head falling away from his face.

Like a true animal, he threw his head back, a beastly roar making its way out of his throat.

"Lee!"

He jumped up, his sword almost jumping into his hand as if it had a will of its own, and he charged onwards. It seemed that he had spent less than a minute on his knees next to Lee who died right here, on his hands, yet he felt his weariness fade away as its place was taken by pure bloodlust. The fight was almost over as only three vampires remained, and Reilak was still fighting with Ron, who was steadily growing weaker under the strong attacks of the undead one.

Finally, he was thrown back by yet another attack, and, as Reilak drew his sword back to finish Ron off, Dean hurled himself at the vampire, trying to do at least some damage. He failed as the vampire grabbed him by his collar with his free hand, and, despite Dean's struggling back, pushed the boy's neck next to his fangs. Dean went limp instantly, and once the vampire did his evil, he tossed the boy's body aside, as an empty bag.

In the meantime, Draco, Hermione and Blaise finished off the remaining vampires, and everyone's attention was turned to Harry challenging Reilak, and losing his sword in a quick flick of the vampire's blade.

Harry looked up at the vampire, who had his sword pointed at him. A jest crawled onto his face as he saw something behind Reilak's back.

"That's the oldest trick in the book, boy. You expect me to fall for it?" the vampire hissed.

"Yes," Harry replied simply as Reilak looked down at the sword tip that was now protruding from his chest. As Ron pulled his sword out of the vampire's back, Reilak fell forward onto his knees, Harry quickly removing himself from under the body of the undead one.

"What... the..." were Reilak's last words as he withered away into dust as well.

*****

The losses were accounted for in the next several hours - the Great Hall was virtually destroyed, several students killed by the vampires, though the loss of five was nothing compared to what it may have been if Harry and the others were not ready and Dean...

"He's affected," Hermione stated.

"What? Speak in English, please!" Ron replied angrily as he bandaged up his left leg.

"He was bitten by a vampire. That means he... he..."

"Will become one as well," Draco stated coldly. He was like that since the end of it all, "but Reilak was a daywalker, so will be Thomas."

"This means..." Lavender took a breath in, "He'll drink blood?"

"Like Blade," said Harry with a weak smile, but only Hermione nodded in reply.

"What?" Draco asked of them.

"A Muggle culture reference. He won't have problems with being out in the sun, or garlic or anything like that. He will die of age sooner or later. But he will still need to drink blood, though daywalkers, if properly prepared, might be able to suppress the thirst and quench it with donated blood," Hermione explained, "I've done a bit of research while you all were getting bandaged," she added under the questioning glances.

"Let's hope everything will be okay," replied Harry.

Blaise came up to them.

"Thanks, Potter. Where'd you get this ring anyway?"

Harry glanced sideways, where, behind Blaise's back, Ginny and Seamus walked by, hand-in-hand.

"A secret."

"All right. Want it back?"

"No, thank you. I've seen enough of it already," Harry replied with a grin, "Just be careful, it seems to have a will of its own."

"No problem, I can handle this!" Blaise replied, turning around to leave, but stopped and turned to Draco, "Oh, and Malfoy - good job."

Having said this, Blaise walked off with the Ring.

*****

They sat in one compartment on the way back - Ron, Hermione and Ginny on one side, Draco with Lavender in his lap, Harry and Cho on the other. Talking, joking, though not very enthusiastically, as there was an air of strain in the compartment. The attack of the vampires on Hogwarts meant only one thing - the school was not safe anymore. Even though they repelled it, the very idea that someone might just magic themselves in was creating a tense atmosphere in here.

*****

Once they got to King's Cross, their group was just standing on the platform, as if waiting for something to happen. Finally, Draco and Lavender said their "Goodbyes" and walked off together. So did Ron and Hermione.

Harry looked at Cho and she looked back at him.

"It's not for long, you know," she said, "Not forever. Just two months."

"Yeah, two months..." Harry repeated absent-mindedly, still unable to tear his eyes away from her.

They kissed, putting all their emotions into that kiss - the hate to Reilak, the compassion to Dean's problem, the newly-forged friendship with Draco and his love for Lavender, Ron's love for Hermione and her love for him, and, finally, their love for each other. Once they finally separated from each other, they walked off into the Muggle World hand-in-hand, pushing their trolleys in front of themselves.

*****

Draco and Lavender were walking down the platform.

"This Lee girl..." Lavender started, "Who was she? To you, I mean?"

Draco's face became lit up by a weak smile for a moment.

"A crush... Stupid, really..."

"A crush? The great Draco Malfoy has a crush?" she asked in surprise.

"Had a crush," he corrected, "I'm no less of a human than anyone else, you know."

"And... what was she like?"

"Kind. Caring. Beautiful," he said, making a short pause after each word, then turned to Lavender, who seemed to be on the verge of exploding with jealousy, "Just like you," he added as he kissed her.

*****

"So, what plans you have for the summer?" Ron asked.

"Well, I thought that I could see what's waiting for us in the upcoming year and--" Hermione started, but Ron cut her off quickly.

"What? Study? What about... about..." he paused, as if out of breath or lost for words, "me?" he finally asked with an accusing tone to his voice.

"Ron... Of course I remember about you, just it's that we can't forget the studies and--"

He cut her off before she started going on about the soon-to-come (in two years!) N.E.W.T.s by simply kissing her. She had no choice but to kiss back.

*****

"Who's that girl?" Vernon Dursley boomed as Harry walked up to him.

"Her?" Harry asked, finally realising that his uncle was asking about Cho.

"Yeah, that Asian girl. The one you're staring at," Vernon replied pointedly.

"She's my..." Harry paused. Could he tell uncle Vernon if she was his girlfriend? Well, if he'd say that she was not, he'd be doing a horrible crime... "She's my fencing partner," he replied with a grin.

"Fencing? As in swords?"

"Yes. Here is mine," Harry replied, patting the shapeless package that lay on top of his trunk.

Vernon chose not to say anything else during their entire way back. This all looked like a normal start-of-summer-vacation-for-Harry-Potter type of setting, except that Harry's mind was more obsessed with thinking of what happened to Voldemort when Reilak turned on him...

******

"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.

Voldemort cringed at these words. He, the Dark Lord Voldemort - a mortal?

"Come, Wormtail!" he yelled as the two dark wizards and the three surviving Death Eaters Apparated out...

*****

"I see you have failed, Voldemort."

"It was the vampire, master. He betrayed--"

"He betrayed you because you were too dumb to trust him. He was quite correct - never should the undead and the living trust each others. Your blunder is now being corrected as Reilak storms Hogwarts."

"But--"

"And he is now dying. From a sword of a paladin."

"Master?" Voldemort's voice showed panic.

"Leave now. It seems that the main problem of your existence is the unquenchable thirst for revenge against this Potter boy."

"Yes, master."

"Then he shall die. And his friends as well. Do you at least know where they live?"

"I--"

"Alright. My servants shall correct this mistake. Get lost, right now."

**********