Blood Bound: A Vampire Tale
Disclaimer: Everything concerning Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling. I own nothing, nor is this done for any purpose except my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of anyone reading this. There is no attempt to make any profit.
I wish to extend a grateful thank you to my beta readers, Amanda and Prof Roz. Any mistakes left in this story are due to my last minute revisions. A special thank you to Strider, your stories provided the solution to a difficult problem.
A/N Conversations in italic print are telepathic in nature.
Chapter Eleven
Harry and Hermione Apparated back to their lair in Sheffield. Hermione had only a little time before the dawn; she spent it preparing her research for the following evening.
Harry spent the night searching for dementors while Hermione poured over the notes she had taken. She tried to correlate the material in her notes with her school texts on charms. After the first night, she knew that she had set herself a daunting task. Harry returned from his hunt; he had taken enough blood for Hermione. He was disappointed in his inability to find any more dementors and the two of them decided to move on.
The next night they flew to the town of Lincoln. It did not take long to determine that there were no dementors in the area. After only three days they prepared to leave.
The next town on the schedule was Nottingham. Lupin had told Harry that the dementors infested the foulest places on earth. Harry was not sure what he meant. He and Hermione had examined some very nasty places in the industrial cities they had searched. Now they also searched the nearby Sherwood Forest. Evidently, Lupin had not meant trash dumps, bogs, or swamps.
His meaning became clear when Harry finally found a few dementors. The monsters were infesting one of the shoddier areas of the city. The dementors inhabited the rundown places where the poor and downtrodden victims of despair tended to gather; the slums and near prisons, places where people could only dream of something better. The dementors came to steal even that meager comfort from them. When Harry figured out what was going on his fury knew no bounds. It only took a few minutes for him to annihilate the dementors.
In Nottingham they began to establish a routine for their nights. The first thing they did was to make sure their clothes and cloaks were clean; often they would take advantage of an inn to shower each evening. They shared the duty of doing the laundry. Once they were sure that their clothes were clean, they would get the blood they required to survive. In practice this was often coupled with the hunt for the dementors. They usually ended the hunt just after midnight. Hermione had changed her tactics. She still fed from criminals, but each night she would change the area. No longer would she make them confess immediately, now she planted a suggestion that they would wait for a week or two before they turned themselves in. When they returned to their lair they would practice the magic from their textbooks and try to find some way to overcome the detection spells of the vampire hunters.
Nottingham was fairly small, but since they also searched the forest it was a fortnight before they moved on to Leicester. The Romans had founded the city. While it was an industrial center, it lacked the heavy factories of the other areas.
Now that Harry had a better idea of where to look for his prey, he had hopes that the search would go faster.
Hermione sat alone in the vacant store that had become their lair in Leicester. Harry had flown off into the night. She had come to a dead end in her search to find a counter spell for the detection spell that the vampire hunters used. She knew she was going to need more information. It was now well into September and she knew that Hogwarts would be in session. Harry had said that they could try to get into the library again if she needed to, but at this point she was not at all sure she was desperate enough to try.
Her thoughts turned to Harry. He had been different ever since the wedding. He never intruded into her reveries about her former life; he had complemented and encouraged her whenever he could. Even when she was hunting he was never far away. She had been grateful when he had warned her about the vampire hunter, but he had made no further mention of the incident. He had been somewhat withdrawn until he realized that she was not angry with him for forcing her to continue her vampire existence.
She realized he was paying more attention to her. She wondered why; if they were still alive she might have hoped he wanted to be more than friends. As it was, he had no one else. It made her a little curious as to what he was feeling, but somehow she was not very motivated to find out. The grief that had once been so sharp was not producing the melancholy she would have expected at this point in time either. She wondered what was happening to her.
As she brooded, her hunger was growing as well. There was an uneasy awareness stirring at the edge of her conscience. It was a faint, growing enjoyment of the hunt for blood and a secret, wicked pleasure that came when her fangs met the resistance of soft flesh. She delighted when it gave way and the warmth of the blood ended her discomfort, making her feel alive for a time. Hermione covered her face with her hands; if she would have been breathing she might have sobbed in fear about what she was feeling. There was no doubt; the vampire within her was changing her, and she knew that she did not like what she had the potential to become.
Suddenly, she felt Harry approaching. She shoved her feelings deep inside of her mind and took a few moments to change her expression. She did not want to give Harry an excuse to probe her thoughts.
When Harry returned she felt his disappointment; he had not encountered any dementors this evening.
"Harry, why don't we take a break from hunting the dementors? I know it isn't your favorite place, but may we check out the library at Number Twelve? My original research has reached a dead end and I need more information."
Harry pondered her request for a few minutes. "Okay. When would you like to leave?"
"We're all packed. Unless you have something you need to do we can leave right now."
Since their encounter with the vampire hunter Harry had begun to think about security. "Kingsley may have someone watching the neighborhood; we'll have to be very careful." They disillusioned each other after Harry shouldered his backpack, "See you at Grimmauld Place." He gave her a small smile, spun on his toes, and vanished with a small crack.
When Hermione arrived in the neighborhood a few moments later she found Harry standing silently examining the area with his vampire senses; there was no indication of anyone else being aware that they were there.
They entered the hallway quietly, the drapes in front of the portrait of Sirius' mother were open, but she seemed unaware of their presence. Hermione hoped that she would be unable to detect the undead.
The first thing Harry did was to find a hiding place for them to spend the day. By unspoken consent they would not use the bedrooms they had used before. Even though the Order had abandoned the old house they could not be sure the members did not use it from time to time.
Harry instinctively avoided the basement because that was where Kreacher had stayed for so many years. They picked an unused guest room on the third floor and spent the rest of the night cleaning it.
After arising the next evening they made their way to the library. Harry still did not possess the knack for research that Hermione did. While he did enjoy reading, the endless cross-referencing that Hermione did became boring if he did it for too long. The main problem here was the material that they found on charms was very general, most of the books contained charms of the household variety.
Hermione was disappointed, but she tried not to show it. "Well I guess we will either have to go back to Hogwarts or contact Fred and George for more information."
"I'd rather contact Fred and George, but it's too late to go to Diagon Alley now. Don't you need to hunt?" he asked.
Hermione nodded. Shortly, they were on the streets hunting for blood. The neighborhoods in the area were largely deserted. Hermione was beginning to wonder how far she would have to go, when she became aware of a faint sobbing coming from a dirty alleyway. Motioning to Harry, who was keeping watch from his Firebolt, she pointed him toward the alley.
At the end of the alley she saw the crumpled form of a young woman, her clothes had been torn and she was bleeding from a severe beating. Hermione crouched next to the girl and scanned her thoughts, not that there was much doubt about what had happened. Moments later Harry touched down and the two of them gently picked up the shivering form.
It did not take long to locate a hospital. Standing outside the emergency entrance Harry used his vampiric senses to scan the emergency department. He located a person who was daydreaming. Because of the nurse's state of consciousness he was able to plant the thought that there was an emergency just outside. The vampires drew away at the sound of hurrying footsteps, and in moments the alarm had been raised. Harry smiled his approval of Hermione's actions, and her face softened with a smile of her own.
As they walked from the hospital, Hermione located a burglar attempting to force his way in to the back of a pub. Although he had nothing to do with the young victim Hermione had discovered in the alley, she was not inclined to be gentle, and he was plagued by nightmares for the rest of his life.
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The next evening a faint chiming interrupted George's preparations for bed. Fred was out with Angelina Johnson; their on-again, off-again relationship was on for the time being. A glance out of the window revealed two cloaked figures standing across the street. A flick of his wand opened the front door of the shop.
By the time he reached the first floor, the vampires were already inside and the door was closing behind them. "Good evening. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" George asked politely.
Harry drew a ragged breath; "We were hoping you might be able to help us with the magic the vampire hunters use to detect us." His voice was hoarse with disuse.
"I've tried examining all the revealing charms I could find, but I can't create a counter-charm," added Hermione. Her voice was hollow and somewhat deeper sounding than George remembered.
George grinned, "We're way ahead of you, my friends, and we were hoping to see you again." He went to the lab and returned with a small box. "Take these."
Harry took the box from George. In it were two small amulets on long chains. "These will beep when a vampire hunter uses the detection spell on you. The reason you couldn't find a counter spell is because the charm isn't based in revealing magic. The spell is a derivative of ancient tracking magic that originated in the United States. The vampire hunter that developed it is from America; his family used to be hunters and trackers two hundred years ago, now he collects bounty on the vampires he kills for the Ministry."
"How did you get the spell?" asked Harry.
"We didn't, your ex-girlfriend did. Dad invited Carstairs the vampire hunter to dinner. We needed to find out what the Ministry told him about you two. You best be careful, Ginny is considering a career in vampire hunting. Asked all kinds of questions, Carstairs was only too happy to spill his guts. The slimy git thinks she's the type to be successful at the trade. Brave, smart, and determined; that's our Ginny."
Hermione looked disturbed, "Does she know that we're…"
"No, and she won't from us. She may change her mind; she can be flighty sometimes. But, Harry, you and Hermione left a big hole in her life; she's trying to move on. It's not been easy for either her or Ron."
"How are they doing?" asked Harry.
"Before they left for Hogwarts they were functioning, got their chores done, and even laughed at our jokes once and a while. They've matured a great deal; take life a lot more seriously now. Ron even asked Luna to help him study. He is a lot more serious about being an Auror, I think he wants to avenge you, Harry."
"What's going on at Hogwarts?" he queried.
"Well, they only have half the students they had before, but all four houses have students in them. They are more informal about the classes, since they have so few. They let students advance at their own pace now. Everyone drills at Defense Against the Dark Arts. The ones from the old DA are acting as tutors. Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna are real leaders at the school. The houses are a bit more cooperative with each other, but some of the Slytherins are kind of on the outside, especially those whose parents are Death Eaters."
"How do you know all this, George?" asked Hermione.
"The staff provides regular updates about what is going on at the school. It keeps the parents from becoming too nervous, plus if something happens the students are informed more quickly."
"What is happening to the Order?" Harry asked anxiously.
"And why is Kingsley Shacklebolt so afraid of us?" interrupted Hermione.
"Ladies first, Harry. Evidently, there was a vampire-wizard some time ago by the name of Vlad Tepes. I suppose he gave the Ministry a good deal of trouble, but I've never heard of him. I think he's afraid you'll be a worse threat than You-Know-Who, given time."
Hermione appeared stunned, "I didn't know Dracula was a real vampire." George could only shrug his shoulders and look puzzled.
He turned to face Harry, "As to the Order, we've reorganized under Professor McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lupin, and Dad. Lupin is still keeping tabs on the Werewolves, seems You-Know-Who is trying harder to mobilize them. For some reason the number of dementor attacks has fallen off in the past fortnight. The Ministry is being tight lipped about it, and something is up. The Aurors have been training with the vampire hunters lately."
"That's because of us. I've been hunting the dementors. We're immune to their psychic attack and I killed a lot of them at Manchester. We realized the vampire hunters could kill them too. Their crossbows should be effective if there aren't too many of them together."
George nodded, the front door opened suddenly as Fred and Angelina entered. She looked surprised to see George talking to customers at that time of night. Her eyes went wide as she recognized Harry. Just as suddenly her face became a total blank as Harry used his power on her.
"We didn't mean to interrupt," said Harry, "We'll just be going now; thank you for everything." He and Hermione headed for the door. "When you hear the door close you will awaken and remember nothing, Angelina. You did not see us, George was here alone." Hermione walked to the door as Harry followed. Just before he stepped into the darkness he said, "We'll contact you again if we find out any more about what the Ministry is doing."
When the door shut Angelina stirred and shook her head. She smiled at George and asked innocently, "What are you doing up this late?"
The twins looked at each other, impressed by Harry's powers, "Waiting up to chaperone my wayward brother, what else?" he smiled. "How about a nightcap?" Angelina nodded and the three of them went upstairs together as two vampires vanished into the darkness.
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Hermione was sulking by the time they returned to Grimmauld Place, "What's wrong?" he asked.
Her shoulders slumped in defeat, "It's just that I'm not used to failing when I attempt something like this. Sometimes in the past year or so, it felt like no one needed me anymore. Ron had that fling with Lavender, you were taking lessons from Dumbledore and then you got together with Ginny. I was feeling left out. Then, when I began to seriously consider doing things on my own, you turned me into a vampire. Now, I just feel so empty all the time." She would not allow herself to acknowledge her growing fear at the sense of pleasure that hunting was giving her.
"Well, you used to have the best library in the world at your fingertips, now we don't have anything. If it makes you feel any better, I feel the same emptiness. Really though, Hermione, nobody can do everything, but you do come very close." Harry offered her an encouraging smile.
Hermione could not quite smile back, but she thought, "Thanks for noticing."
"I mean it, Hermione; I don't know what I would do without you." Harry said truthfully.
The next evening Harry and Hermione held a council of war. They sat, unmoving, gazing into one another's eyes, as they passed their thoughts back and forth. The only light was the dim, blue glow from the tips of their wands.
"What are we going to do next? We set out to destroy the dementors, and we seem to have slowed down their attacks. I know they are still out there, but if they aren't attacking any more what about finding the Horcruxes?" Hermione began. "Do we have any ideas on where to start looking?"
Harry explained his thoughts on the matter to her. He began by reviewing what he knew of the Horcruxes. Dumbledore believed that there were seven; the diary Harry had destroyed in his second year, which had begun Dumbledore's search; the ring Dumbledore had destroyed, which had also cost him his hand; the locket and cup which had belonged to the founders of Hogwarts and were stolen after the murder of Hepziba Smith; the fifth was still a mystery; the sixth was probably Nagini; and the seventh resided in Voldemort's body.
Since the summer he had begun to consider where to look, since Voldemort collected trophies to represent his victories, it made sense to consider where he had fought his battles. He recounted the night at the cave. Voldemort had terrorized two other orphans there; Harry supposed it had marked some kind of epiphany to young Tom Riddle. He had marked the event by hiding a Horcrux there.
"We thought we had the third Horcrux with the locket, but the note inside said it was a fake. R.A.B. said that he had destroyed it." Harry thoughts were bitter. "You looked in the library for him didn't you?"
"Yes, but the people I found had no connection with Voldemort that I could discover. Have you been thinking about who it might be?"
"What if it wasn't someone important? Are there many wizard families that have last names starting with 'B'?" Harry asked.
"The Bones family, but they've all been Voldemort's enemies. The Boots, I'm not as sure about them, but Terry was nice enough. The Blacks are all gone, Sirius was the last one," Hermione thought.
Suddenly, Harry remembered what Sirius said, "Hermione, Sirius' younger brother Regulus was a Death Eater. Sirius told me that he didn't approve of all the things that Voldemort was doing, he tried to back out and Voldemort had him killed. What if he found out about the Horcruxes and that is why Voldemort had him killed, or maybe he died destroying the Horcrux?"
Hermione's eyes went wide with surprise, "Harry don't you remember when we were cleaning? There was a locket we found that wouldn't open, could that have been the Horcrux?"
"I don't know, I don't remember if it had any markings, but we might try to find it. At least it's a place to start."
"If it's not here, maybe Mundungus has it, or knows who has it," Hermione suggested.
Harry could not believe that the start of the hunt for the Horcruxes could be this easy, and he steeled himself against the bitter disappointment that must come if the locket was not here. He tried not to consider the revenge he would take on the old reprobate if he had stolen the locket. Although, he thought as they made their way to the basement and Kreacher's old lair, Sirius had tried to get rid of all that stuff as junk, could he seriously call it stealing?
The basement was festooned with spiders' webs, since people quit coming on a regular basis the opportunistic arachnids had moved back in. There were several piles of junk in various parts of the room. Hermione began to search close to the door, while Harry went to the pile of old blankets that comprised Kreacher's nest. He carefully searched through them trying not to be too disappointed when he did not find anything but a few old pictures and trinkets.
Hermione picked up on Harry's disappointment, "Harry, the locket wasn't that important to Sirius' parents, and probably Kreacher didn't value it either. Just keep on looking." Taking heart from Hermione's words Harry began searching in a far corner.
It was tedious work as they slowly went through the litter. Harry came to appreciate the grim determination Kreacher had shown in rescuing a large number of items that Harry was sure had made their way into the trash. Kreacher had shown some amazing ingenuity in hiding the items that he had "rescued". Fortunately, many of the items were magical and were visible to vampire eyes, glowing faintly under the rubbish.
Just when Harry had decided that it would have been too easy for the locket to be in the basement, Hermione called to him, "Harry! I found it! Come quick!" She held aloft the heavy, golden locket. This time Harry noted the serpentine "S" on the face. It also glowed with the traces of residual magic.
"We couldn't open it before; do you think it's safe to open now?" she asked.
"I think so, Hermione. It took a while for the soul fragment to drain Ginny enough for Riddle to take form. If we just open it once it should be safe. You don't believe Regulus destroyed it?"
"I don't know," but Hermione looked dubious just the same.
Rather than stay in the musty, old basement the vampires made their way back up to the sitting room. Once more they sat up through the early morning hours trying to open the locket. They failed in all of their attempts until Harry had an idea. "Hermione could you conjure a snake?"
Hermione waved her wand, with a voiceless, "Serpensortia!" She conjured a large, reticulated snake that coiled on the cool floor.
Harry focused on the snake and said, "Hesssh Haaath Sha" while holding the locket in his hand. With a quiet click the locket fell open. Whatever the inside had originally looked like, it was now a blackened ruin. Whether it had been subjected to a corrosive or some kind of magical fire they could not tell. Much as the Basilisk venom had destroyed the diary. Harry was sure this Horcrux was dead.
"Well, Sirius, your brother is revenged; he really did destroy a part of Voldemort's soul. I hope he rests in peace," prayed Harry.
Hermione was looking with relief on the blackened interior of the locket. "That's three down and four to go."
Harry noticed the weakness beginning, "It's almost dawn." Together they started up the steps their hearts lighter than at any time since the funeral. It seemed that they were making some headway at last.