The Reason

Chapter 3

'I don't wanna waste another moment saying things we were never meant to say. And I take it just a little bit, I... hold my breath and count to ten, I... I've been waiting for a chance to let you in. If I just breathe... How do you fill the space in between? Oh no, everything is alright, breathe, every little piece of me. You'll see, everything is alright, if I just breathe. Well it's ours, so overrated, not saying how you feel, so you end up watching chances fade and wonder in which way. And I... give you just a little time, I... wonder if you realize, I... I've been waiting till I see it in your eyes. If I just breathe... How do you fill the space between? Oh no, everything is alright, breathe, every little piece of me. You'll see, everything is alright. If I just breathe. So I whisper and I'm hoping you hear me... Do you hear me? If I just breathe... How do you fill the space between? Oh no, everything is alright, breathe, every little piece of me, you'll see, everything is alright.' "Breathe" ~ Michelle Branch

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When Harry entered the classroom, Draco was already there, sitting gracefully on top of a desk.

"Finally," he drawled.

"I'm right on time," Harry protested.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. I have a plan of action. We need to know more about all of this, and obviously what we need to know isn't going to be just lying around on the shelves - we're going to need the Restricted Section. So for now, we switch nights sneaking into the library and going through the relevant books we can find in the Restricted Section."

"That's your awesome plan?! Research?!"

"First of all, I never said it was awesome, and second, at least it's a plan. All I know about vampires right now is from Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and you probably don't know much more. So unless you want me to stake you right now, then yes, research is our best option."

"You're right. I'm sorry. So who goes tonight?"

"I will, but I'll need your Invisibility Cloak, just in case."

"Okay, then I'll see you tomorrow."

Harry handed him the Invisibility Cloak and was surprised to find that it wasn't hard at all to give the cloak to Draco, even though it was one of his most important possessions. For some reason, he had already begun to trust Draco completely. Maybe it was because Draco held Harry's life in his hands, so what did a mere Invisibility Cloak matter? He pushed the thought from his mind and turned to leave, but something stopped him.

"Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

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Draco made his way slowly down the hall, enjoying his new freedom. He had been out of his dormitory past curfew before, but he had always had to be careful. His father may have been rich, but he had refused to buy Draco an Invisibility Cloak, saying that it was too expensive for the fact that it was just a toy. Besides, according to his father, Malfoys were naturally stealthy and it would serve him better in life if he learned how to blend in, sneak around, and escape tight situations on his own, without the help of some silly toy. So now Draco felt a sense of incredible liberation, and he wanted to do something crazy, like break a suit of armor or kick Mrs. Norris, but he didn't dare - there was too much on the line. All he could do was walk slowly to make sure he enjoyed his journey as much as possible.

He had just reached the library when a voice called his name, scaring him half out of his mind until he realized that it was just Harry.

"What?" he snapped, trying to keep his irritation under control.

"Watch out for the books - some of them scream. There's a spell you can use to find out if they do or not - you say 'relevar' and if the book glows blue, then it screams or something, and if it glows white, it's safe."

"Okay, thanks."

"Be careful; if you get caught, we're dead."

"Yes, Potter. Go to sleep, why don't you?"

Harry grinned - he had scared Draco half to death when he had spoken. Finally - Draco had scared him several times, and he didn't even seem to realize it.

As Harry fell asleep, Draco was walking through the Restricted Section pulling down any books about vampires he could find. After checking each one with Harry's spell, he pulled open the first, grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill from his robes, and settled in to take notes.

After three hours, he was practically ready to go insane. The books were old, the print was faded and the pages were brittle, and the script was a flourishing Old English type writing that was very difficult to decipher. He sighed and moved on to the next book, the third out of fifteen.

He fell asleep around six in the morning, exhausted beyond anything he had thought he could feel.

He woke up an hour later, Harry's voice frantic in his head.

"Draco, where are you? People are worried about you because you aren't at breakfast and you weren't in your room this morning. Are you still in the library?"

"Yeah, I'm getting out now," Draco said, as he shoved the books he was finished with back on the shelves, grabbed a few new ones along with the three that he still had left from the previous night, and rushed out, making sure the Invisibility Cloak was secure.

He had just reached the door when Madam Pince, the librarian, pulled it open. Draco waited until she had passed him and then slipped out and walked as quickly as possible to the Slytherin dorm. He dumped the books under his bed and covered them with the Invisibility Cloak. He crawled into bed and fell asleep immediately.

Someone came in ten minutes later to check for him once more, and he didn't even open his eyes.

He finally woke hours later in the darkness, starving. Thankfully, according to his watch, dinner had just started about fifteen minutes ago. He went down without even combing his hair or changing clothes, hoping it would help make his "sickness" more believable.

Crabbe and Goyle nearly fainted with relief when they saw him - they never did anything without him, and they didn't really know how to anymore, so a day without him was torture for them.

"Okay, something is definitely going on," Hermione said. "Look at Malfoy. Not only did he not show up for any classes today, now he's not even bragging about skipping class, and he looks like hell. I've never before in 6 years seen Malfoy look like hell."

"Well, he didn't look too awesome after I threw all of that mud on him in fourth year, and he was howling like a baby when Buckbeak hurt his arm," Harry said calmly.

"You know what I mean; he hasn't brushed his hair, and his clothes are so wrinkled that I'm sure he hasn't changed them in at least a day."

Harry looked over at Draco for the first time, and felt a twinge of guilt at what he saw; Draco did look like hell, and it was all his fault. He managed to tear his eyes away and push his guilt out of his mind.

"Well, I'm fine, so obviously it has nothing to do with me, and I don't really care what Malfoy looks like," Harry said, suddenly feeling rather irritable.

Hermione and Ron exchanged a look and dropped the subject.

Harry was quiet and withdrawn the entire day, and when he went to bed, Ron wasted no time telling Hermione about Harry's late night adventure the night before.

"He's hiding something, I know it," he finished.

Hermione sat in silence for a minute. "Ron, maybe it's not anything serious. Maybe it's something personal, and Harry just doesn't want to tell us. He's always told us everything when it's serious - the Sorcerer's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, Sirius, everything. I don't think he would hide something dangerous from us. Let's just wait a few days."

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"Draco? We need to meet, same place as before, okay? Right now."

Draco flinched - Harry sounded pissed off.

"What happened? All you had to do was research, and you can't even do that!" Harry burst out angrily the second he walked in.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but it's a little more complicated than you think. Staying up all night reading while blocking my mind at the same time is not exactly easy. So I fell asleep for one hour - what difference does it make? I still got tons of research done and no one found us out, so there's no harm done."

"You're right, I'm sorry. It's just that Ron and Hermione were a little bit suspicious - they think you're trying to poison me or something, and your weird behavior just seems to confirm their suspicions that something's up."

"Now I'm trying to poison you?! Nice to know I'm so loved around here."

"Anyway, why did you have to block your thoughts? Is what you found out really that bad?"

Draco smiled slightly. "No, I just got tired of your dreams about Ron invading my head and breaking my concentration. And then there was that dream where you and I were in the Forbidden Forest and you weren't wearing anything, and you kept begging me to keep you company, and I kept trying to leave, but you wouldn't let me..."

"Kept asking you to keep me warm is more likely, if I wasn't wearing anything - and I'm sure you jumped at the chance. But I can see how that would make it difficult for you - you're already so attracted to me that you can't think when I'm in the same room."

Draco stared at him for a moment and then laughed, surprised that Harry was in such a good mood.

"Whatever, Potter. You wish I was attracted to you. But I don't want to dwell on your unrequited love, so let's move on to my research."

"Change the subject Draco, but you can't change the truth," Harry said with a grin.

Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out several pieces of parchment from his robes. Harry laughed, completely unused to seeing Draco look so studious.

"Okay. First of all, I got all of the basic information that's pretty common knowledge - vampires hate crosses, holy water, sun, but not garlic, that's just a myth. I did find out quite a bit of new stuff that might be helpful.

"First of all, although vampires like blood, they don't actually need it to survive. Vampires can go for centuries without blood, and when they do have to drink to stay alive, animal blood will suffice. This is such a little known fact because for a vampire to abstain from blood, it would require them to have a conscience, and to have a conscience, generally you need a soul, which vampires don't have. I also confirmed that, as I told you before, vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies - so be careful around Lupin.

"The most important thing that I found out was that there are three ways for a vampire to be sired, or created. The first is the most familiar - the sire drains the victim almost to the point of death and then replenishes the victim with his blood, completing the transformation in one quick ceremony. The second one is where the sire drinks the blood of the victim three times, but on the third time, he uses the first method to finish the transformation. This method ensures that the newly created vampire is completely under the control of the sire.

"The third method is where the victim drinks the sire's blood on two separate occasions and then the third time the sire uses the first method to complete the transformation. The reason vampires go with this is that the resulting vampire is more violent and bloodthirsty as well as even more deeply under the sire's control than with the second one.

"So, now that we know this, we know what else we need to look for. First, we need to find out what technique your sire us using and how to cure that particular brand of vampirism, and how to control you if we can't cure you."

"Wow. I never knew you were so smart," Harry said with a small smile. "That research was worthy of Hermione! So do you want me to research tonight, since you had such a rough night last night?"

"That's fine, if you want to. Here's a list of the books I've already gone through so we don't go over the same material, and under that is a list of books that I think would be most beneficial."

"Wow, Malfoy, wow. Excellent work. Alright, I'll just grab the Invisibility Cloak, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Have fun," Draco called after him as the door opened and shut seemingly on its own as Harry left under the protection of the Invisibility Cloak.

Draco made his way cautiously back to the Slytherin common room and found himself wishing, not at all for the first time, that he was in the Gryffindor common room where it was warm and cozy, instead of the Slytherin common room. A fire was burning in the fireplace, but it didn't seem to warm even the hearth, let alone the entire room. And suddenly he missed Harry. He was shocked at how well Harry was taking this whole vampire thing, and despite everything, he was still a lot of fun to hang out with. Draco sighed, and opened a new book to take notes on. He had only been reading for about half an hour when it happened.

Chapter 4

'Whose eyes am I behind? I don't recognize anything that I see. Whose skin is this design? I don't want this to be the way that you see me. I don't understand anything anymore in this world that I'm tired of is taking me right up these walls that I climb up to get to your story. It's anything but ordinary. And when the world is on its knees with me its fine and when I come to the rescue I get nothing but left behind, everybody seems to be getting what they need with mine 'Cause your what I need so very but I'm anything but ordinary. Can you save me from this world of mine before I get myself arrested with this expectation? You are the one look what you've done, what have you done? This is not some kind of joke. You're just a kid, you weren't ready for what you did. I think I'm trying to save the world from you, you've been saving me too. We could just stay in and save each other. I'm anything but ordinary. I'm anything but ordinary.' "Ordinary" ~ Train

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The common room seemed to dissolve around him, and he was suddenly in the Forbidden Forest. Standing beside him was a tall figure, covered in a dark cloak with a hood that hid his face from view.

"Drink." The voice was low, cold, very powerful, and frighteningly familiar. He looked down to see the man's raised wrist, crimson blood trickling down his arm.

"Drink. Now."

He fought against the command as hard as he could, and he tried to run, but he found that he couldn't even look away from the blood, warm, inviting blood, much less run away.

"Look at me, boy." The voice was growing angry, and more demanding. Against his will, he looked up.

"Now drink." And he lowered his head and drank, wondering vaguely in the back of his mind why he had resisted. The blood was so good, so powerful, he could drink it for the rest of his life. . .

"Enough!" The voice was sharp and irritated. "Good. Now go back to bed and forget all about this, Potter."

The Forbidden Forest was gone, and he was suddenly in Harry's dormitory, and Ron had just come in.

"Harry, I know the truth. You're a vampire and a murderer, and I'm here to kill you. I have to. If you were yourself, you would understand. I can't let you kill innocent people, I have to kill you first, for your own good."

"You're right, Ron," Harry said tonelessly. "Go ahead. Just tell Hermione and Hagrid that I love them. And thank Draco, tell him it's not his fault. Tell everyone I'm sorry. Thank you for doing this, Ron." Ron pulled out his wand, but before the dream could go any further, Draco ended it.

"Harry! Wake up!"

"Do it quickly Ron," Harry mumbled.

"Harry!"

"What? Is someone coming? What time is it? Oh, shit!"

"Chill out, Harry! You've only been asleep for an hour or so. You were dreaming, otherwise I wouldn't have woken you. Anyway, now we know what method your sire used."

"Which one? How do you know?"

"Your dream was actually a repressed memory from the first time. It was the third method."

"Okay, well, thanks for waking me. Now I know what to look for, and I'll make sure not to fall asleep again. See you tomorrow."

Draco sighed as Harry broke the connection; he shouldn't have told Harry like that. He hadn't realized how painful it would be to learn that not only were you becoming a vampire, you were also going to be a particularly bloodthirsty, brainwashed vampire. But there was nothing he could do now except try to help Harry get out of this situation.