~Chapter 13~
Blood Lust
Lily glanced at her brother rather nervously as the group of seven sat in the common room, near the best windows. James was watching Lily and Rayleigh quite intently but he didn't speak. Either Rayleigh was oblivious or she was doing a fantastic job of ignoring him. She was rather intensely reading her History of Magic book, quite more intensely that the subject dictated. Rose was explaining to Albus why Mars couldn't be Trine Mercury as they poured over their Astronomy homework.
Jack and Hugo were supposed to be working on their own homework but they had broken out a set of Wizarding Chess and were having a great time playing. Lily turned to Rayleigh, whose finger was touching the page of her book. She was staring at a page in the book. It was of Lily's father standing over the lifeless form of Rayleigh's grandfather. Lily looked at her.
"You did know, didn't you?" Lily asked her quietly. Rayleigh glanced up at her and nodded.
"It's just until you see it, it just feels different, so distant," Rayleigh murmured. She read the caption and turned the page, looking at a more pleasant scene. It was pictures of her grandfather when he was a student at Hogwarts. Tom Riddle had been a handsome boy, before the evil consumed him.
"Aren't you going to be late for Professor Krum's flying lessons?" Rose asked as she glanced at her watch. The four first years jumped up, realizing today would be their first lesson.
"We're already late!" Lily cried as the four abandoned their belongings in the common room and sprinted to the Quidditch pitch.
"You are late," Professor Krum said rather gruffly. The four joined the other first years on the pitch and spent hours trying to summon their brooms and ride. Some of the students with older brothers and sisters were better at it, but nearly everyone had made progress. At the end of the lesson, only Rayleigh remained earth bound.
"I don't understand," Rayleigh said as she and Lily headed back to the common room. She seemed rather upset.
"Well, flying isn't always easy, Rye. Sometimes it takes longer," Lily said as she threw herself into a chair near the fireplace. Rayleigh tossed herself in the chair opposite of Lily. Rayleigh threw her arm over her face rather dramatically.
"What's up little ladies?" Albus teased as he approached them. He offered them some of his sandwich, of which both girls turned down.
"Rayleigh had some trouble flying," Lily said. Rayleigh groaned.
"That is an understatement," Rayleigh moaned. "Professor Krum said that he has seen rock fly better than me."
"Which really isn't all that correct, since Rayleigh technically never could get her broom summoned, much less mounted, and flown," Hugo teased as he walked by with Jack. Rayleigh rolled her eyes and cursed Hugo's shoes to be tied together. "Hey!"
"Sorry, habit," Rayleigh laughed as she bent down and to untie his shoes for him the old fashion way. "I don't know the reverse curse."
"You mean counter curse?" Rose asked as she, Albus, and James joined them. Rayleigh looked up at them grinning.
"Yeah," Rayleigh said as she pulled the last of Hugo's laces free. Hugo laughed and tapped his shoes, them tying neatly. Rayleigh made a face. "That's just lazy."
"So says the girl whose shoes never stay tied," Hugo teased as he glanced at Rayleigh's untied trainers. She laughed and shrugged.
"I am not really a fan of shoes," she admitted as Hugo tapped her shoes and they tied themselves. She picked herself up off the floor and sat back down. James nudged her to scoot over and he sat down next to her.
"So, do you want to talk about it?" He asked her quietly as Hugo and Jack went on and on loudly about their flying skills. Rayleigh looked at him confused.
"About my shoes?" Rayleigh inquired.
"No, about what you said at dinner a few nights ago," James pressed. Rayleigh gave him a look that she had hoped would have come off as playful indifference. It looked a little more like uncomfortable panic.
"Not really," Rayleigh said flippantly as she pulled out one of her text books. She began flipping towards the middle and pulled out a piece of parchment.
"So, it is true then?" James asked her. Rayleigh made a noncommittal noise and began writing. James spread his hand in the middle of Rayleigh's paper, causing her to stop writing.
"What?" Rayleigh asked him. She glanced around pleased to find that everyone was still engrossed in Hugo and Jack's retelling of the flight. Lily was scowling at James.
"So are you or aren't you?" James asked. Lily looked at him enraged and stood up, snapping her book shut.
"Rayleigh lets go upstairs," Lily snapped. Rayleigh raised an eyebrow at her and nodded. Rayleigh followed Lily upstairs to their shared dorm room.
"Is something wrong, Lily?" Rayleigh asked as she shut their dorm room door.
"My brother, that's what is wrong," Lily said as she tossed her books up on her bed. "He can't just let things drop. He is so eager to have someone who knows what it is like to suffer as he suffers."
"You can't blame him for that," Rayleigh said gently. "No one wants to be alone in this."
"It's not the same, Rye," Lily said. "What he has and what you have is different. He doesn't understand that."
"Not many people do," Rayleigh said rather knowledgeably. She stretched out on her bed. "People learn that I am afflicted, and they assume that it can only be werewolf. You never hear of girls being afflicted with anything, because we are believed to be inferior."
"Rubbish," Lily said laughing. Rayleigh smiled.
"I know! History doesn't have many mentions of females with afflictions because it is believed we are too weak and we don't survive the infection," Rayleigh said.
"That's obviously wrong," Lily offered. Rayleigh laughed and nodded.
"Serious, but we know the truth," Rayleigh said. Lily nodded.
"Girls are just smarter," Lily said.
"Yes, like my mom had to register me with that department at the ministry, and even though she is a Squib, she knew to invoke my rights to privacy," Rayleigh said.
"Is it hard?" Lily asked suddenly. Rayleigh pondered this question a moment.
"Well, sometimes it is. I think part of it does make it easier. I mean, I guess the part where I never hunger for like-blood," Rayleigh said hesitantly.
"Yeah, I knew about that," Lily said nodding. "My mom works in the department and I remember her telling me about rare instances where an unlikely person is inflicted, such in your case with you being female. You hunger for the testosterone driven male blood."
"Yeah," Rayleigh agreed, nodding. "Thus why I have been finding it harder and harder to be here, especially when it is getting close to when I need that forsaken potion. There are so many boys in this school; it could drive a girl insane. I have to be doled out sustenance, which is infuriating. Not many people realize that it is just as important to my growth and development as anything else."
"If you want, we could sneak down to the hospital wing after dark and raid the blood bank," Lily offered laughing. Rayleigh laughed.
"Yeah, because cold, store blood sounds so appetizing," Rayleigh said as she shook her head. "Too risky, we might get caught."
"Awe, come on, Rye, live a little," Lily taunted. Rayleigh had to laugh.
"Fine," Rayleigh agreed.
Dressed in their night gowns, and armed with only their wands, Rayleigh and Lily snuck out through the portrait hole and headed to the hospital with the eeriest silence, their bare feet soundless on the stone floor. Rayleigh felt Lily take her hand and the two ran toward the double doors.
"I came here a lot with my mom, so I know the spells to get in after dark," Lily bragged as they headed through the door. The girls headed through metal doors to where there was cold storage. Rows and rows of blood products were in neat little trays.
"Wow, there are so many!" Rayleigh said with a hint of greed in her eyes.
"So, do you have a preference? A, B, AB, or O?" Lily teased as she flipped through the bags.
"This doesn't bother you?" Rayleigh had asked suddenly while she perused her choices, much like someone may chose a fine wine. Lily looked at her curiously.
"Why would it? You are my best friend. Sure, it is a little unusual, but I have been living with unusual all of my life," Lily said shrugging. She grabbed a bag and tossed it to Rayleigh. "Can you tell which are male or female?"
"No," Rayleigh said sighing. She put the bag back. "They process the hell out of this stuff."
"You prefer organic?" Lily teased. Rayleigh grinned and shrugged. Rayleigh turned to leave and was startled by James who was standing against the door frame, arms crossed. He was quiet, just watching.
"What are you two doing down here?" James asked as Lily hid her hands behind her back.
"Sleep walking," Rayleigh lied. James' face told that he didn't believe a word of it.
"Nothing, James," Lily said as she slid the bag back onto the shelf. Lily joined arms with Rayleigh and the two of them headed out of the cold storage room. James glanced around at the bags of blood that seemed to cover every wall. Curiosity sunk in, but he knew that this was not the time or placed to interrogate Lily or Rayleigh. He followed them into the common room.
"Stop right there, ladies," James said as Rayleigh and Lily prepared to race up the stairs to their dorms. James signaled for them to sit on the couch in front of him. Rayleigh threw a look at Lily, but they sat anyway.
"It's late, James," Lily whined, appealing to his protective big brother side.
"I want to know what you two were doing down in the blood bank," James said as he sat down across from them. He crossed his arms loosely and looked at the two little girls that sat before him.
"Not my place to say, really," Lily said rather defiantly as she studied her finger nails. She didn't meet his eyes, knowing he had a way to read minds without actually knowing how to read minds.
"Well, I guess we can sit here all night," James said as he sat back. Lily and Rayleigh shrugged; prepared to stick it out all night should they need to. James looked at his watch, disappointed to find an hour had passed. Rayleigh and Lily seemed rather enjoying of James' frustration.
"Go to bed, but this isn't over," James said finally. He looked at Rayleigh rather intently. "You know the full moon is on Halloween Night, right."
"You are so ignorant," Lily laughed at him as the girls ran up the stairs. "As if the phases of the moon affect you."
"Shh, Lily," Rayleigh laughed as the girls disappeared in their dorm room. James headed up to his room and pulled out from his trunk a book his mother had given him when he had questions about why he was the way he was. He carried it back to the common room and read the information on his condition. It didn't make sense. Female or not, if Rayleigh had the same affliction, she would be sensitive to the full moon, as he was. He searched the passage for the information, eager to learn anything that he could but there was no more information to be learned.
Werewolves, infected by serum in blood of other werewolves, are always sensitive to the full moon and will change. Wolfs-bane potion suppresses the blood lust, but does not prevent a change. The change always happened on the full moon, regardless of gender of the werewolf. Though unlikely, female werewolves can reproduce offspring of untainted blood but often taint their youth within the first years of life. It is not known if an offspring of a male werewolf but untainted female will have the qualities of a werewolf.
James yawned and flipped through the pages rather distractedly. He glimpsed over various other horrible blood-tainted afflictions, but didn't read any other afflictions carefully. He tossed the book aside, confused, and covered his head a moment. He sighed and pulled the book back into his lap.
Vampires, inflicted by a bite and draw of another vampire, are nocturnal creatures in their natural state. Driven by blood lust, males will attack without disregard for the like-like repellant of blood. The anti-vampire potion, created with blood among other things, does not prevent blood lust, but for the well restrained vampire will ease the discomforts of unfulfilled blood lust. Though extremely rare, there are suggestive records that there have been female vampires, but only a small handful of confirmed reports. Usually these weak links in the success of vampire lineages are eradicated by their creators, or by sheer mishap. Most vampires are created by accident, as more likely than not, a vampire will drain its prey of all its blood and not allow its victim to feed off its own tainted blood.
Considered a male affliction, it is uncertain whether female vampires can or will reproduce healthy offspring. It is known from the small amount of confirmed cases that females do not suffer from sensitivity to light like the male counter parts and are of discerning of the like-like repel and while still suffering from blood lust, female vampires will choose not to feast if male blood is not available. As with any other blood-taint, once a person is infected by one condition, they can not contract another condition.
James read the last line three times, to be certain. He wondered if he had been wrong about Rayleigh. He had thought that she, like he, was a werewolf, but now with the new information he had, it seemed more likely that she was a vampire. The book contradicted that as well, stating that there were so few females that suffered that infliction. It was the only thing that made sense.
Tired, James went upstairs. He had so many thoughts running through his head, uncertain what to think or believe. Whatever Rayleigh was, he was determined to find the underlying cause of it and quickly. Even if his sister wasn't in trouble or danger, he felt a drive to know the information. He placed his book in his trunk and climbed into his bed, certain that the more he knew the better off he would be.
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