Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. If it were we would be celebrating a very different epilogue, you know. Anything you recognize from Twilight movie or book belongs to Stephanie Meyer and Summit Entertainment. The legends about vampires and their explanations are taken from "The Twilight Companion" by Lois H. Gresh.
A/N: Chapter 5 here, I hope you will enjoy the conversation in it. I added something from an outside source here about vampires, and will keep doing so in the next chats they will have. Hopefully you'll like it ;)
Thanks to my great beta Gingercat!
The Cold Ones
Chapter Five: I'm Not Scared
"I know what you are" I whisper, my voice breaking.
"Then say it. Out loud" he encourages me. I don't. Saying it makes it all more real.
"Say it" he urges me on. I finally turn to look at him.
"A vampire"
--
"Are you scared?" he asks then. I can hear how anxious he is in his voice. It is still velvety, and charming, but the anxiety is clear in it.
I look up at him, meeting his eyes. "No"
"Then ask me the main question. What do we feed on?" he tells me. I can see that now that I know what he is, he feels the need to prove to me that I should be fearing him.
And he is right, because vampires are very dangerous creatures. A human has basically no chance against a vampire, that I know. But if he wanted to kill me, he would have already.
"You won't hurt me" I say to him, looking at him almost with defiance. It's key that I make him understand I don't fear him, because I can see that while he is doing what is rationally right, warn me against himself, he is really scared of me distancing myself from him.
Then something comes to my mind. "Shouldn't you be burned by sunlight?" I frown. That's what I've always known of vampires…that they come out only at night because sunlight hurts them. And while Harry and his brothers don't come out in the sunniest days, they attend school regularly on most days.
He chuckles, then grabs my wrist and starts leading me.
"Where are we going?" I ask, and he lifts me up, pulling me on his back. I automatically close my arms around his neck to keep myself on him.
"I need to show you something" he tells me. Then he takes off at vamp speed, running through the trees. I can barely make out the huge trunks around us, as he takes the turns at breakneck speed. In a few minutes, we are out of the forest but on the other side of it, not toward Hogwarts but toward a Muggle village. The sun shines on a nearby hill, peaking through the clouds, and in another few minutes, while for a human it would have taken at least an hour, we are there.
He lets me slide down his back, and I steady myself as my feet reach the ground again. Then he takes off his robes, and opens his shirt, stepping into direct sunlight.
"This is why we can't go out in direct sunlight" he says, turning toward me. "It would be obvious how different we are"
I gape at him, at his sparkling skin, like a million tiny diamonds were on it. I was in awe, and couldn't stop myself from saying that.
"You're gorgeous" I whisper, and he scowls at me.
"Gorgeous? It's the skin of a murderer!" he spats, turning away from me, and stepping out of the sunlight. I move to follow him, and reassure him that I don't see him as one. He seems really pained by what he is.
"I'm a murderer" he repeats.
"I don't believe it" I stubbornly say, walking closer to him.
"That's because you believe the deceit. It's a camouflage. I'm the deadliest predator on Earth. Everything about me draws you closer. My voice, my appearance, even my smell with its pheromones" he explains, trying to convince me of what he's saying. He then scoffs.
"As if I need that. As if you could get away from me" he bellows, and starts darting back and forth around me at vamp speed, so fast that I barely see him move before he stops again on my other side.
"Or if you could fight me off" he growls, taking a nearby small tree with his bare hands and pulling it out of the earth, then flinging it away, far away from us. "I'm made to kill" he finally says.
He's clearly showing off his abilities to scare me off, because he feels he has to for my safety. Well, he's sorely mistaken. Hermione Granger is not easily scared, and I know that if he had wanted to kill me, he would have already, so I trust him. I just have to let him know that and convince him of it.
"I don't care" I say.
"I've already killed" he says, almost desperately trying to make me see how dangerous he is.
"I don't care" I stubbornly reply.
"I wanted to kill you. I've never craved so much the blood of a human before" he reveals, moving closer. He gently touches my cheek with his hand.
"I trust you" I say, revelling in the touch.
"You shouldn't" he softly advices me, still caressing my cheek. How can he be a murderer if he is so sweet?
"I'm here. I trust you" I try to convince him, and he suddenly moves away. Then he turns, and looks at me.
"Me and the Weasleys, we are different from other vamps. We only feed off animals. We know how to control our hunger. But you…your smell…is like a drug for me. It's like you're my most addictive drug"
I feel a shiver going down my spine at his words, at the intensity of his stare when he spoke them. I then move closer to him.
"Why did you hate me at first?" I ask. I have to know.
"I hated you because I craved you too much. I still don't know if I'll be able to resist" he admits, turning away. I move again in front of him. "I know you can" I whisper, and move closer to him.
He moves away, and I follow him. We stop in front of a big tree.
"I can't read your mind" he says, abruptly turning toward me. He chuckles, as I lean on the tree trunk, and puts his hands on both sides of my head. "You've got to tell me what you're feeling"
"Now I'm scared" I blurt out. He pulls back. "Good" he mutters. I roll my eyes and move toward him again.
"I'm not scared of you. I'm scared of losing you. I feel you will disappear" I admit, taking his hand. He lets out a deep breath, and looks into my eyes. "I should"
"But you won't?" I tentatively ask. He smiles, and moves closer again. Looking tenderly at me, I think he might be going to kiss me. He speaks again then, softly. Almost needing.
"You have no idea how long I've waited for you" he admits, pushing a strand of hair out of my face. I feel my heart thumping faster in my chest at his words.
We stay silent for a few moments, before he talks again. "So the lion fell in love with the lamb, uh?" he jokes. I look at him.
"What a stupid lamb" I whisper.
"What a mad and masochist lion" he whispers back. We both smile, and move from there hand in hand. We lie on the damp grass, Harry not caring at all if the sunlight hits his face. I can't help being fascinated by that sparkle.
"So" I ask. "how did the legend of vampires being afraid of sunlight come to be?" I'm curious, so what?
He grins. "It's been you humans who spread it. Particularly, a movie, Nosferatu. Before that, even in human legends vamps had no trouble at all being in the sunlight, although in Dracula he was much weaker while in the daylight, which, by the way, is completely untrue too" he explains with a smile.
I nod, understanding. I guess my geeky side is coming out now, because I notice that another characteristic of vampires, or what I knew of them, is not noticeable in Harry.
"Aren't you supposed to have fangs?" I ask. He nods.
"According to your legends, yes. And, we have them. Only, they are not so big as you would think, and they are not always shown either" he tells me. Then, keeping his mouth open, he wills them to come out.
As his fangs elongate, I can't stop looking, fascinated. Truthfully, they are only few millimetres longer than his other teeth when completely out. Barely noticeable at all.
He then wills them to go back to their normal state.
"We do, however, have razor sharp teeth, and even a cut from those is infective" he tells me. I frown.
"Infective?"
He nods. "When a vampire bites you, there are two chances. One, you die because he sucks you dry of your blood. Second, he stops and then the venom infects you, so you turn into a vampire too. That's how I became one" he tells me.
"What? You were turned?" I ask, surprised.
He nods. "When my parents had been killed, Arthur Weasley took me in. But the problem was that the murderer had tried to kill me too. It was Voldemort, by the way" he says. I gasp.
He bitterly smiles. "So, he tried to kill me but for some reason he failed. Arthur was the first one to arrive, since Remus, one of my parents' best friends, is a werewolf and was not in any condition to come fetch me that night"
"Full moon?"
"I guess" he shrugs. "And Sirius Black, my Dad's other best friend, was so angry… that he hunted down another supposed "friend" of theirs, Peter Pettigrew, who had actually been a spy for Voldemort. Sirius ended up being arrested for killing the rat when all along the "rat" had caused all the problems. Sirius was sent to Azkaban and spent 12 years there. So Arthur was the only one of my parents' friends left who could take care of me, and when he arrived Voldemort didn't want to encounter a full grown enraged vampire, so he hastily cast the Killing Curse on me and then fled, maybe by Portkey, or he Disapparated, who knows. According to Arthur, the curse was supposed to kill me on the spot, but possibly because of Voldemort's hastened casting, it didn't. It was, however, slowly sucking the life out of me"
I gasp at his story, and he shrugs, giving me an half-smile. I can see that talking about the night his parents died, even if he was only one at the moment, is painful for him.
"He brought me here, Poppy did her best but in the end she said there was nothing she could do. It was then that Arthur suggested turning me, and Dumbledore agreed. Remus was not that happy, but in the end he understood"
"What did you feel?"
"Extreme pain. Probably also because being only one, I had a very low threshold for pain back then" he smirks. "But for Arthur, it was worse"
"Why? Didn't he just have to bite you and then let go?"
"It's complicated. When a vamp tasted human blood, we enter into some kind of frenzy, and it's rare to have the will to stop before you kill the one you have bitten" he explains.
"But Arthur managed" I say.
"Both with me, and with his wife. And Luna" he confirms, pulling me closer.
"So he's the reason you don't kill humans?" I ask him. He looks ahead of us, his eyes hard with determination. "Not only that. I don't want to be a monster" he says. Then he turns again toward me, smiling.
"Me and the Weasleys think of ourselves as vegetarians. We survive thanks to animal blood. But it's like a human living off only tofu. Feeds you, but you're never truly satisfied" he explains. "Wouldn't be like drinking your blood, for example" he casually tosses in, and I good naturedly roll my eyes at him, sticking out my tongue.
"The Weasleys can read minds too?" I then ask. He shakes his head. "No, it's only me. But Luna…she can see the future"
"Bet she saw me coming then" I chuckle, and he stands up. "Her visions are highly subjective, because the future can always change" he mysteriously says, before giving me a hand so I can get up too. He then brings us back to the castle at the same breakneck speed as before, and this time I can let myself appreciate the felling truly, as we have had a long chat and settled some important matters between us.
--
As I go down the stairs to the common room, ready to go to have breakfast in the Great Hall, I think back to yesterday.
Of three things I'm completely certain. First, Harry Potter is a vampire. Second, a part of him, who knows which one and how big, craves my blood. Third, I'm definitely in love with him.
As I step into the common room, he's there, waiting for me with his roguish grin. I am surprised, but pleased, as he comes to greet me, and wraps an arm around my shoulders, leading me out of the portrait hole. I can feel the few people in the common room staring at us.
As we enter the Great Hall, many more people are there to witness our showy entrance.
"Look, everyone is staring at us" I whisper. He grins. "Not that Ravenclaw…ok, now he's staring too" he says. I playfully nudge him.
"We are breaking all the rules, but since I have to go to Hell anyway…" he jokes, sitting near me at the table with an arm still draped over my shoulders. I giggle.
That must have been a first, because giggling and Hermione Granger aren't usually in the same sentence. But I truly feel on cloud nine right now.
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