A Place to Call Home

As Draco was easily reclining on the abundant branches of a verdant tree; a small bespectacled boy was gawking at him. He had on raggedy, dirty clothes that fell far past his wrists and ankles and a mop of messy dark hair that wilted into his eyes. In startling contrast to his dark hair were his large gleaming green eyes that flicked uncertainly from the boy resting in the lush branches of his favorite tree to the other numerous youths waiting for him to pick up a ball that had been kicked too far.

"Harry!"

The diminutive lad turned at the sound of his surname and fairly ran back towards the cluster of boys waving their freckled, tanned arms, completely forgetting the ball he had come to get. He smiled as he reached them, showing straight clean teeth. Then he raised his hand in greeting, and flopped down in the copious grass beside them.

"Hey mate, where's the ball?" asked a fiery red head, grinning at him.

Harry cocked his head in confusion, hair swinging to the side and then, "The ball! Oh Ron, I forgot all about it, because-"

The rest of the boys broke into peals of laughter including Ron's two older brothers, twins, Fred and George.

"Seamus...Dean...hey Ron, stop it. This isn't funny. I saw someone up there!"

The group fell silent at his words and Fred and George took out their wands cautiously, serious for once, and eyed the surrounding areas.

"Ron, go get Charlie and Bill, they're helping some of the girls get a head start of their spell work."

Ron scampered towards the giggling children in the distance, presumably to ask where the girls and his older brothers had gone off. In the meanwhile, Fred had drawn Harry to his side and back a little, protecting him. George held his wand out threateningly and brandished it, urging the other two boys backwards as well.

"Go on home, Seamus, Dean. We might need you to get your fathers. You too Harry, Mum will be worried if we're not home soon and you can tell her what's going on."

Seamus and Dean sprinted off, apparently spurred on by the seriousness of the older boys. Harry however, refused to move. He had a good idea who it was in the tree and if it was, it would be even more dangerous for the villagers if he went into the town. Only known witches and wizards were allowed into the village, like the old sage Dumbledore, who came at least once a year to name and test the newborn children. It was he who had brought Harry to live here in the village with Ron and his loving family.

Other wizards or witches were promptly thrown out unless they had proper authorization, like Harry had when he was brought to the Weasley's swaddled in cloths, bleeding from a now healed over lightening scar. Harry barely even remembered that night. He was only three. He remembered a bright light, green like his beautiful mother's eyes and then...darkness. He had then woken up, carried in someone's arms as they dutifully kept him amused and happy until he was dropped into Molly Weasley's welcoming lap.

That had been four long years ago. Now he was a thriving seven year old. He had explored the village's boundaries to his heart's content along with his best friend and surrogate brother, Ron, and a book smart girl named Hermione. Together, they knew almost as much about the village as the twins. They knew all of the special places where one could find ripe berries or juicy strawberries. They could find all the best places to fish in their bubbling brook, but they had never ventured beyond the village borders.

The one time they had tried passing the boundaries, they were stopped before getting halfway past the first stonewall. It seemed that the villagers had put up alarms to stop inquisitive children from doing the exact same thing that the trio was about to do. Then they were brought home and punished for even thinking of trying to leave the safety of the township, because they knew the dangers that lay waiting for them outside the village walls.

There were small settlements of hidden wizard villages like this one, but there were far more Muggle cities that populated the earth like a overgrown race of rats. And Muggles didn't like wizards, in fact, it was well known fact that they had tried to burn them. The only truly safe place was Hogwarts, school for young wizards and witches. Dumbledore, the headmaster, came once a year to take children of age, eleven, to this magic school for training. They went for seven years, until their magical training was complete and they could finally settle down on their own.

They had also been told horrible tales about dangerous dark creatures, including the ones who had killed Harry's parents...Vampires.

Vampires were the other reason that wizards chose to hide themselves. Recently, a new race of vampires had come into being. They were wizards who had turned into Vampires, but could still use their magical powers. It was a combination of the powerful and mysterious and it made Vampires all the more dangerous. One Vampire, called Voldemort, had risen above all the others in terms of power and soon he came to rule over the other Vampires. The wizards were frightened of this sudden rise in strength of the Vampires and the two sides lived in an uneasy truce of many years.

Then, finally, war broke out.

The war was brief, but bloody, with wizards still trying to hide their existence from Muggles and Vampires not caring a wit either way. Soon, though, the wizards had rebounded and formed the Order of the Phoenix. A secret group of fighters dedicated to defeating Voldemort, which Harry's parents were apart of. They had lived everywhere, disguised as Muggles, which was dangerous but also a good strategy, because if Voldemort wanted to target a member of the Order, they would have to sieve through thousands of likely Muggles.

Unfortunately, the plan fell through when concerning Lily and James Potter. Their best friend had ratted them out and they had ended up dying, leaving their only legacy in the form of a small baby boy, Harry. No one really knew what had happened that night. All they knew was that somehow, someway, Harry had beaten Voldemort. They had fought and Harry had won. Not for good, because Voldemort was still terrorizing their world, but Voldemort was scared of the boy, possibly of some unknown power that the petite boy possessed.

Throughout the years that Harry had lived with the Weasleys, there had been quite a few attacks by ambitious Vampires trying to kill the affectionately named, Boy-who-lived, but all failed because of the Weasley's, especially Ron's, fierce protectiveness and Harry's own intuitive thinking and meager wand work. Anyone could tell that Harry was going to be a great wizard when he grew up and was allowed to go to Hogwarts.

Then Ron ran up, red in the face, with Charlie and Bill trailing behind him.

"Is Harry okay?" Ron asked, frantically searching for his best friend.

"Right here Ron. Nothing happened...yet. You'll are right in time." Harry smiled slightly from behind Fred's back.

"Well, jeez, I hope so. Ron, why don't you take Harry and raise the alarm. We don't want to be unprepared if it's another vampire." Bill said joining his younger brothers in front of Harry.

Ron nodded and dragged Harry away, deftly countering the struggles of the smaller boy.

"But Ron, no, let's see what's going on. Come on...please." Harry bit his lip and tried to look endearing, but Ron just snorted and kept pulling him towards the row of houses situated in the distance.

Then, before anyone could do anything, a shadowy figure jumped out in front of Ron and Harry. Both children jerked backwards in surprise, nearly falling over themselves and they heard the person laugh softly. Immediately, Charlie, who was the closest, moved in front of the two boys. He pointed his wand at the intruder, his gaze firm and steady.

"You are intruding on owned lands, stranger. With all due politeness, I must ask you to leave...now." There was an unspoken threat in his words.

The foreigner sniffed at Charlie's words and proceeded to brush small bits of leaves of his clothes. Then he looked upward and the six boys finally got a look at his face. He had glowing gray eyes, a sure sign of a vampire and very pale skin. His blond hair was slicked back, and though he gave an aura of a wise one, he couldn't have been more than sixteen appearance wise.

The group of boys stared at him, an arrogant stranger, standing on their land. Finally Charlie repeated his previous statement and this time the person or vampire seemed to take heed on his warning.

"There is no need to be alarmed. Don't call any others either. I'm sure I can make do with one of you; you all look strong and healthy."

The boys blinked and looked at him blankly. They had no idea what he was talking about, but slowly realization came to them. Harry glared angrily at the vampire. For he was surely a vampire, that was certain, and it seemed that this vampire needed a donor, someone to drink from.

Harry wasn't about to let that happen. He had heard that vampires kept their donors alive for centuries in a painful process and drained blood from them little by little until they finally died horrendously. He didn't want that to happen to his family, he loved them too much and they had already been through so much trying to protect from the countless vampires that wanted to kill him.

Harry stepped forward, but was pushed backward immediately, landing on his rump. He glared up at his older 'brother' George and was displeased to see him giving Harry a disgruntled look. He mouthed, "We'll handle this." and turned away.

Harry pouted from the ground; he hated when other people babied him, but was slightly mollified when Ron knelt down beside him and asked in a whisper, "So what should we do?"

Harry turned his head slightly, but before he could say a word, sparks flew from Bill's wand and the vampire attacked them, pushing all four boys aside with a flick of hand. With another downward sweep of his hand, all four boys slumped down to the ground unconscious.

The vampire rolled his eyes and walked towards the kneeling boys. He stopped and considered both of them for a minute. Then still walking in that slow considering pace he crouched down next to them. Then he smiled gently and placed an arm on Harry's shoulder.

Then he spoke, now with a soothing velvety voice, "My name's Draco...do you want to come with me? It'll...be fun." Unknowingly the grip on Harry's shoulder tightened just a bit.

Harry shuddered; his mind was in a haze and judging by the look on Ron's, he wasn't doing much better. Harry tried to clear his mind. He knew that this was one of Vampire's tricks, but for the life of him, couldn't figure out how to put an end to the spell. He closed his eyes and unwillingly drooped his head against Draco's arm. He couldn't feel Draco's smile, but he did feel the shooting pain from Draco's grip on his arm. The lancing pain made him lift his head and stare at Draco. He repeated his question.

"Will you come with me."

Harry's head sagged downwards and belatedly realized that there were three steps to becoming a blood donor to a vampire. First you had to agree to go somewhere with one of them and then they would ask your name and mark you, which would make you theirs for as long as you lived. Harry shook his head, trying to edge away from the vampire who was so close that he could feel the puffs of breath emitting from his quiet chest. Harry groaned.

"Yes...yes...I'll go wi..."

Draco sneered, nudged Ron out of the way, and gathered the smaller seven year old in his arms, cradling the boy gently against his chest. Then he stood up and started to walk away, striding towards the woods in an haughty way, leaving a prostrate Ron sitting in the distance.

"Harry!"

A voice screamed out, and Draco turned, half-smirked, and saw a small bushy haired girl running down the inclining hill. She tripped over herself and went down but soon picked herself up and screamed Harry's name again. Harry wrenched himself upward, almost freeing himself from Draco's grip and completely freeing himself from his trance at the sound of the girl's voice.

Instantly, he began struggling to free himself from the vampire's hold. The girl screamed again and taking out her wand, she shot something directly at the two of them. Reflexively, Harry's hand shot out and grabbed the circular object. As soon as Harry touched it, Draco hissed and dropped the boy. He backed away from him, glaring and then turned, looking wildly at the surrounding area.

Then, decisively, he reached out and grabbed an awakening Ron who was pulling himself to his feet. Then with Ron under his arm, squawking furiously, he spun back towards the girl and muttered something under his breath. She immediately froze and then dropped.

Harry cried out, still clutching the piece of garlic that she had threw at him, "Hermione!"

"Shut up boy! I know your name and you've agreed to come with me. That constitutes a blood donor. I won't have anyone else now. Find me by midnight or your friend dies."

With that ominous threat, Draco twisted and took off in the direction of the forest, with Harry watching numbly as his best and closest friend, someone who he considered a brother, was carried off into the distance by a horrific creation of the night.

It was only until later that he begun to run.

To Be Continued...