A/N: Thank you all so much for the amazing reviews! You have no idea how much they mean to me!
Chapter 10 - Pierced By Death
Harry sat in the chair trying to focus on anything but the copious, yet lessening, amount of blood flowing from Lupin's wounds. Hermione's heart was pounding at an incredible rate, her eyes darting back and forth between Greyback and Harry. Greyback was standing over Harry, smirking at him. Harry sat calmly, his eyes not leaving Greyback's. To look away now would be to admit defeat.
"So what should we do with you?" Greyback asked, Harry wincing at the smell of decomposed flesh on his breath. "Wouldn't be much fun to call the Dark Lord just yet. It would probably be better if we taught you some manners first."
"Let me teach you some, first," said Harry quietly. "Brush your teeth every once in a while."
Hermione's eyes widened right before Greyback punched Harry square in the jaw, not fazing him in the slightest. Harry looked up at him boredly, as if to say, 'Is that really the best you've got?' making Greyback growl in anger.
Harry didn't bat a single eyelash when Greyback pulled a cross out from around his neck, though he felt the tickle of a slight foreboding. "The crucio may cause more pain, but inflicting it in different ways not only causes more than enough, but is much more entertaining to watch," he said almost to himself.
Harry clenched his jaw as the werewolf pressed the cross directly against his forehead, the pain agonizing but not nearly at the level of the crucio. He could feel Hermione's fear pulsing through him and her eyes affixed on him horror, her urge to cry out almost as unbearable as the pain Harry was feeling. Then it relented as Greyback pulled back, chuckling, the cross smoking in his hand. Harry groaned as forehead immediately began healing itself.
What scared Harry at that point wasn't the fact that they were be being tortured, but that there was no motive behind the torture. If they were trying to get information from Harry, he would've just told them and killed them. But Greyback was doing it purely for fun. There was no telling when the torture would end.
Greyback picked up Harry's bloody katana off the floor and inspected the blade, softly whistling.
"Nice sword you got here, Potter," he said, grinning at the bound vampire who was looking at him boredly. "Mind if I give it a test run?"
Harry sighed and closed his eyes, grunting as the blade entered through his stomach, slicing his innards to ribbons before exiting through is back, missing his spine by mere centimeters. Harry tasted blood in his mouth as Greyback slowly pulled the katana out, twisting it slightly, making Harry's nerve endings scream out in pain.
Harry glared at Greyback, who grinned nastily back at him. "Does it hurt, little Potter?" Greyback mocked. "You going to get angry?"
Harry chuckled. "I'm just marveling at the fact that you're such a pussy that you refuse to fight me head-on," he said, spitting the blood in his mouth on Greyback's robe and boots.
Greyback growled and backhanded Harry so hard across the face that the force knocked both him and the chair over, Harry's head spinning as he saw spots in his vision.
Stop being so reckless, a voice said in Harry's brain. He thought it was his inner vampire until he recognized the voice with the next sentence. As long as you don't get yourself killed, we can get out of this.
No, Harry's inner vampire disagreed. He felt Hermione blink at him, surprised. We must stall until night falls, which will probably be in about forty-five minutes. They're stupid enough to fall for it and you two are smart enough to pull it off…well, Hermione is, at least.
Hermione didn't respond, leaving Harry to believe that she hadn't heard is inner vampire. Then, as two strong hands lifted Harry's chair up and sat it back down roughly on its legs, Hermione finally, weakly responded, Go through torture for another forty-five minutes?
Focus on keeping the torture on yourself, the inner vampire said to Harry. If they start on Hermione, things could get out of hand.
Right, said Harry, trying his best to refrain from sighing internally. I'll do that.
When Harry focused on Greyback, he was grinning down at him, blood on his knuckles. "So vampires can bleed," he said happily with a crazy glint in his eye.
And for the first time, Harry truly began to question Greyback's sanity. He was enjoying this way too much. Harry grinned at him, blood leaking even faster from his mouth. "Punching me while I'm in the chair doesn't change the fact that you're a pussy," he said condescendingly.
Harry grunted as Greyback slammed his cross through the back of his hand, doing his best to remain calm as the holy object sent agonizing pain radiated from his hand. He could feel it melting its way through his hand as Greyback said, "You think I'm that stupid, Potter? I may have pride, but I won't let it endanger my life. I know you could probably defeat me head-on in a fight."
Harry sighed, the only possibility of escape besides torture now gone.
"Hmmm…" Greyback mumbled to himself, pulling a vat of liquid over as the cross finally burned all the way through Harry's hand and fell to the floor with a clatter, his hand beginning to heal instantly. Harry had no clue what the liquid was until Greyback dipped the katana in it and pulled it back out, grinning nastily at Harry. Holy water. "Let's see how you like this!"
Harry actually screamed as Greyback slammed the sword through his forehead, the holy water penetrating and burning his brain as the blade exited through the back of his skull. He cried out and fought his restraints as hard as he could, snapping several bones in the process. The pain of his broken bones was nothing compared to the pain splitting his head open, though. It was like magnifying the pain of the crucio by a hundred and focusing it purely on the brain. He could feel Hermione crying beside him, horror pumping through her veins. That calmed Harry more than anything as the Holy Water finally dissipated into nothing. Greyback removed the katana and Harry groaned in a mixture of pain and ecstasy as the wound closed.
Only for him to grunt again as the katana, after being submerged in Holy Water, sliced through his forearm, chopping off the lower part. Harry's vision went fuzzy as he looked down at his severed limb, which was already slowly reattaching itself. It definitely was an odd thing to see a piece of his body not attached to the rest.
"Stop it!" Hermione cried hysterically, making Harry's eyes widen.
His temple throbbed as Greyback backhanded Hermione, making her fall to the floor with blood running from her lips and nose. "No!" Harry cried, straining even harder at his bonds.
Greyback picked Hermione's chair up and slammed it back down on its legs, Hermione looking up at him fearfully. She was straining at her bonds too, and grimaced when Greyback gently grabbed her hands to stop her resistance. "You aren't trying to escape, are you love?" he asked teasingly.
He licked her cheek and Harry yelled, "Get your hands off of her, you dirty bastard!"
His magic was swirling around him, threatening to overwhelm him, dark strands of power floating in front of his eyes. Greyback had his eyes on him, watching him as he began to apply pressure to Hermione's hands. "This is going to be much more fun than torturing you," he said quietly.
Hermione cried out as Greyback crushed her right hand, breaking all the bones in it loudly. Harry's magic was swirling around him, threatening to blow everyone in the cathedral to bits…which would have been fine if Hermione and Lupin weren't right next to him. "Greyback," he said in a low voice, his eyes slowly turning blood-red.
Greyback turned and looked at him, a condescending smirk on his face. "It doesn't matter if you awaken," he sneered. "You're never going to break free."
As Greyback started breaking Hermione's fingers on her left hand one by one, making her cry and scream in pain, Harry tried to give control over to his inner vampire.
Please! he begged, leaving his brain wide-open for the more vicious, ruthless side of him.
He could feel the vampire doing his best…he just didn't have enough power. I'll lend you as much as I can, he said, more power surging through Harry's body as Greyback slammed his fist on Hermione's left thigh, shattering her femur. Hermione immediately passed out from the pain, her body going into shock as Greyback frowned at her.
"What's the point in torturing you if you're not even awake to enjoy it?" Greyback inquired of her. He shrugged. "Guess it's your turn to die then," he said evilly.
Harry took in a deep, reflexive, unnecessary breath as Greyback grabbed a proffered shotgun from one of his cronies, the sound of the pump being cocked deafeningly-loud in the silence. Greyback leveled the gun at Hermione's face and Harry desperately struggled at his bonds, his eyes widening as he finally broke free of them with the extra power his vampire had given him.
Then the sound of a gunshot tore through the silence.
The sound registered in Harry's ears and he whipped his head over to look at Hermione, who was still breathing. Then he looked at Greyback, who was still standing in the same spot, half of his head missing, his brains and blood plastered all over his shirt and the floor and wall. His lifeless body fell to the floor as a stain-glass window was crashed in and Jean-Claude came flying into the cathedral, guns blazing, round after round tearing through the surrounding werewolves. He was pounced on immediately by a large amount of wolves, and by the time it took Harry to get back to his senses, Katerina and a few dozen other vampires had joined the fray.
Harry quickly scooped up his sword and went to join the battle, then looked back quickly to find Lupin already tending to Hermione. Lupin met his eyes and nodded towards the battle, telling Harry, 'Go for it.'
Harry grinned and clenched his teeth, lunging at the nearest werewolf as his battle lust surged through him. But a severed arm came out of nowhere and smacked him right in the face, sending him stumbling to the ground. Harry furrowed his eyebrows at the arm as the battle raged on around him, vampires and werewolves doing their best to rip each other to pieces. On the arm was a familiar mark…
Harry's eyes widened. It was the Dark Mark. And not only was it the Dark Mark, but it seemed to be significantly darker than it normally was, signifying that Voldemort had been called. Harry had no doubt that one of the werewolves had called Voldemort right after Greyback had half of his head blown off.
Harry jumped onto a rafter above the battle and surveyed it, doing quick calculations. The vampire and werewolf numbers were pretty close at this point, meaning Harry had to whittle the enemy down a bit before Voldemort showed up.
He launched himself down into the fray, ducking a swipe of a paw immediately before springing back up and slicing the beast's head off. Another wolf came at him, snapping its jaws about one inch to the side of his head, which he moved at the last second. The katana came up and slammed through the werewolf's windpipe and spinal cord, the wolf falling to the ground lifelessly as Harry spun around a another. The next wolf was just about to be killed when the cracks of apparition suddenly split the din of the battle, a multitude of wizards and witches in masks showing up with wands ready.
Harry narrowed his eyes at the man in the front. Voldemort…
The vampire in front of Harry suddenly exploded, plastering him with blood and innards as he saw Voldemort get ready to cast the same spell again…at him. Harry rolled to the side as the spell blasted into the floor, sending marble floor flying through the air. A Death Eater came into the path between Harry and Voldemort, wand raised at the vampire master. Harry grinned and Shadowalked behind him, nothing visible happening to the Death Eater from his comrades' eyes before he slid to the floor in miniscule pieces, blood pooling on the floor.
Harry twirled, lunged, ducked, and spun in concentration, avoiding numerous dark curses that went slamming into walls, vampires, werewolves, and other Death Eaters. Harry could hear Voldemort yelling at his Death Eaters to step aside so he could finish off Harry, who collected a bit of remaining magic his katana and sliced it through the air. A giant wave of focused energy blew out from the path the sword traveled, killing a dozen Death Eaters as they were sliced in two, blood and innards spilling out on the floor.
The path to Voldemort was now cleared. Harry stared him down, doing his best to refrain from clutching the point that his recently-severed arm had reattached. It hadn't healed enough to properly deal with that sort of strain yet.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Harry could see Katerina flipping and spinning all over the place as she struck the werewolves with well-placed blows, each hit she inflicted incapacitating or killing. Jean-Claude had a pump-action shotgun that housed silver-infused bullets in his hands, looking nothing like the calm, knowledgeable advisor that he was as he blasted gaping holes through werewolves, splattering their gore everywhere with a wild glint in his eyes and a feral grin on his face.
Harry and Voldemort sized each other up, the latter grinning as he realized that Harry was severely weakened at the moment. "Harry Potter," he said just loudly enough to be heard over the cacophony of the fighting. "Are you prepared to die?"
Harry looked down at his hand, which had dark, twinkling magic shrouding it along with the katana. He had collected all of his magic into the blade and his hand, knowing that he really only had enough strength and time for one decisive blow. He wouldn't last ten seconds in his current condition.
Harry took one glance at Hermione, who was stirring, gave a feral cry, and lunged at his arch-nemesis.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Hermione coughed and moaned as she woke up, Lupin hovering anxiously over her. She tenderly moved her fingers, sighing in relief when she found her hands were no longer broken. She went to move her leg but Lupin stopped her, saying, "I've just healed it, Hermione, but you'll have to wait for it to properly set and knit before you put any type of pressure on it."
For some reason Hermione could barely hear him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on why. "How did we escape?" she asked quietly. "Where's Harry?"
"We haven't escaped!" Lupin cried back as the background noise, which Hermione just noticed for the first time, picked up. "Harry's facing off against Lord Voldemort!"
Hermione gasped and sat upright, Lupin catching her before she fell back down again in pain. She grimaced but sought Harry anyway, her eyes anxiously meeting his as he glanced over at her. Then he gave out a cry and darted at Voldemort, who was ready.
"Harry!" Hermione cried as the dark wizard slashed his wand through the air, slicing Harry's sword arm off at the shoulder.
Everything seemed to go into slow-motion as the arm landed right by a stunned Hermione, who glanced at it before looking back at the figure of its owner, who had blood spraying the wall from the wound. Everything seemed to go deathly silent just in time for Hermione to hear, "Avada Kedavra!"
The spell slammed straight into Harry's chest, sending him flying back to crash against the stone wall, his lifeless body crumpling to the floor.
The fighting had stopped as everybody stopped to watch the progress, then Katerina yelled, "Hermione, get him out of here!"
Hermione was frozen, though, her eyes not leaving Harry's crumpled body, blood leaking from his mouth and arm.
He can't be dead…
Voldemort, already holding his arms up in victory, double-taked at the vampire general's words, his attention going back to the vampire master's corpse. He raised his wand to blow the body to smithereens, yelling an inaudible curse as the battle resumed, now doubled in ferocity.
He's not…he's not dead…
A werewolf's corpse flew in out of nowhere to intercept the curse, nothing left of it except blood-stains on the walls after Voldemort's curse was through with it. She could hear nothing but her name as Lupin screamed it from right beside her, though it seemed that he was calling from an incredible distance. Her eyes hadn't left Harry once, not even when Lupin began shaking her roughly back and forth.
He's really dead…
"Accio Harry!" she heard him yell, and in her confused state she just barely managed to get a grip on Harry's severed arm before the rest of his body arrived, spraying them with gore.
Lupin yelled, "I'm apparating us!"
The last thing Hermione saw before leaving the battle was a pack of four wolves smother Katerina.
They were in a forest, though Hermione could still hear the sounds of the battle from far off. "Hermione, press Harry's arm against his shoulder!" She didn't respond, her eyes staring at nothing in front of her. "Quickly!"
When she still didn't respond, Lupin growled in frustration and blasted her with water, making her sputter and blink. "Get his arm back on!" he yelled frantically.
Hermione, who was unsure about what was going on at this point, quickly complied, though half-heartedly. "What's the point?" she asked thickly, realizing with surprise that she was sobbing. "He's dead!"
I'm never going to see him again!
"He's not dead!" Lupin yelled, pointing his wand at various points of his former student's body. "But if you keep crying instead of actually assisting me he's going to be!"
"B-But, Voldemort," Hermione cried, breathing becoming more and more difficult as her throat closed. "He…He…"
Lupin grabbed Hermione's shoulders, looking into her eyes with a wild look in his own. "When Harry was turned, he died!" he said incredibly quickly. "Use your brain, Hermione. How could the killing curse kill him if he's already dead?"
Logic. Now that made sense. Hermione shook her head, taking in short, shaky, relieved breaths, a watery smile on her face as she saw Harry's arm slowly reattaching itself.
Lupin began speaking again. "Now, what Harry is in danger of dying of right now is blood loss. While it's incredibly for rare for it to happen, it is possible. Vampires live purely on blood. Their blood is different from ours, moving through the body even though the heart isn't pumping it, so he's still losing it." He took a deep breath. "Do you have any blood replenishing potions?"
"Just one," Hermione said meekly.
"Okay, multiply it quite a bit and get ready," Lupin said. As Hermione did as she was told, Lupin continued. "It doesn't work on vampire blood, so I'm going to force him to wake up. He's going to attack you." Lupin pointed his wand at Harry. "You're going to have to let him drink a lot of your blood. Meanwhile, I'll hold the both of you up and give you your blood-replenishing potions, got it?"
As soon as Hermione nodded, Lupin said, "Ennervate."
Before Hermione even saw him open his eyes, she cried out as Harry's fangs tore through her skin. His bottom teeth were pressing against her throat, threatening to crush it as her hands desperately scrabbled at his back. "Calm down, Harry! You're drinking from Hermione!" she heard Lupin yell.
Harry didn't relent at all, only growling and tightening his hold on her. She couldn't breathe and saw black begin to encroach on her vision. At least she would die saving Harry…
"Harry, you're killing Hermione!" Hermione faintly heard Lupin cry.
Everything stopped for a moment, even Harry's pull on her blood, then he became gentler with her, feeding from her as he normally did. Lupin tipped some potion into Hermione's mouth and she swallowed it, replenishing her own blood so Harry could drink even more. She sighed and hugged him, relieved that everything seemed to have turned out well for the time being. He was alive. Alive even though she had seen the killing curse hit him and seen his crumpled, lifeless body at the base of the wall. That had been the scariest twenty seconds of her life. Everything in her body was thoroughly exhausted, what with the torture and emotional trauma of thinking Harry was dead. She didn't know what she would've done…
Harry drank enough blood to fill five human bodies before detaching from her neck, smiling at her tiredly afterwards. He opened his mouth to say something, then his eyebrows furrowed and he collapsed back against the grass, asleep before he hit the ground.
"Harry!" she breathed, her eyes scanning him for any more injuries.
"Relax, Hermione," Lupin said wearily, collapsing on the ground in exhaustion next to Harry. "His body and mind both need to fully recover before he'll wake up for good."
Hermione was still hyperventilating, tears still pricking her eyes. She reached out a shaky hand and cupped Harry's cheek, giving him a watery smile.
He's really alive…
Hermione sniffled and wiped her eyes, chuckling at how silly she was. He was alive, so why was she crying? She buried her face in his chest and took a deep breath through her nose, relishing in his smell. Despite how much had changed, his smell hadn't been altered even one iota.
She draped an arm over his stomach and cuddled up to him, his body, although not warm, effectively blocking the gentle wind. His arm instinctively came up around her shoulders and pulled her closer, his head tilting down a little in her direction.
Hermione smiled up at him before letting her eyes close, feeling more at home than she ever had in her life. She loved this man so much it hurt. She could only hope that maybe, one day, he might feel the same.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Harry's groggily opened his eyes, moaning as he felt that his chest was a bit constricted. Then he frowned and looked down.
The problem wasn't that it was constricted. Hermione's head was on it as she slept peacefully, her arm wrapped carefully around him. He smiled up at the ceiling and relaxed into the soft mattress of his bed, letting comfort swallow him. He was in his room back at the castle.
His eyes shot open as his body shot bolt upright, waking Hermione as her head fell out of its sleeping position. Memories were rushing back at him faster than he could handle.
"Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly, her eyes darting to various points on his face to find out what was wrong.
"Hermione?" he responded, looking at her oddly. "I-I'm so sorry."
"For what?" she whispered curiously.
He swallowed hard. "I…I didn't want you to die too." He tried to stave off the tears. "I'm so sorry," he choked out, hugging her hard.
He quickly held her at arm's length, though, when she began laughing. "Harry," she managed. "Neither of us are dead."
"But…" Harry replied, confused. "Voldemort, he…"
"You're a vampire, Harry, which means you've already died," Hermione explained. "You couldn't die again from the killing curse."
Harry stared at Hermione for a long moment, doing his best to understand what she was talking about. "How did we get out?" he asked.
"Lupin apparated both of us," she said. "Though I don't know where we are or how we ended up here."
Harry smiled, relieved. "We're in the Master's quarters in the castle," he said, pulling her back down with him as he lay down again. "We're safe."
"Good," Hermione said, not moving from her comfortable position on Harry's chest. Although he couldn't see her face, he felt her shudder mentally. She remained silent, though, so Harry decided he would give her as much time as she wanted to share what was on her mind.
After five minutes of comfortable silence, she finally spoke. "Harry…" she began nervously.
"Yeah?" he responded quietly.
She shifted so she was propped up on one elbow, looking down at his face. "When you…" she began before taking a deep breath, "…when I thought you were…dead, I-I…I didn't know how I was going to go on. It was the scariest moment of my life." She swallowed and continued, tears stinging her throat. "Never do anything that reckless ever again."
"Hermione…" he said, unsure of what he could say to make her feel better.
"I thought…I thought I would never be able to tell you," she said, doing her best to smile at him through her tears. "I love you."
Harry's eyes widened slightly and his body tensed. "You what?"
Hermione hugged him hard, burying her face in his neck. "I love you," she breathed, tickling his skin.
Harry reached down and gently tilted her chin up, staring intensely into her wide, glistening eyes. "I love you too," he said sincerely in return, making her smile grow.
He smiled lazily back at her, content until his inner vampire kicked in. Kiss her already, you idiot.
Oh, right, Harry thought before gently covering her lips with his own, kissing her with soft, sweet passion. Hermione melted into him, sighing contently as her eyes drifted closed. How long they stayed there gently kissing each other Harry didn't know, but he decided as soon as they stopped that it was much too short.
"You better not die, Harry," she said, looking into his eyes vulnerably.
He smiled back at her. "I would never dream about it," he replied.
Hermione smiled at him, kissed him once more and fell back asleep with her head on his chest, her heart beating steadily in both of them. Harry felt that his heart too had a use now…it was undoubtedly Hermione's most prized possession.
Because he knew Hermione's heart was his most prized possession.
Once Hermione entered the deepest part of her sleep, Harry gently removed himself from her arms, tucked her in, and gently kissed her forehead. He smiled down at her, his eyes reluctant to leave her sleeping face. He turned around and left the room anyway, stretching as he walked down a long hallway to the throne room. When he entered, it was to find Katerina, Jean-Claude, and Lupin all sitting in conjured chairs, completely silent and healthy.
There was definitely thick tension in the air.
"Harry," Lupin said, quickly standing on his feet.
The two vampires shot him murderous looks. "Master," they said reverently, showing Lupin how it should be done.
As Katerina sat down, she folded her arms and darkly muttered, "The only one allowed to call the Master by his given name is his mate."
Harry could tell Lupin was doing his best not to roll his eyes even without feeling his mood disperse throughout the room.
Harry remained silent, nodding his head at each of them in turn as he went to his throne and sat. He knew there would be a talk waiting for him.
"Tell me what happened," he said simply.
All three began speaking at once, though Lupin and Katerina stopped to allow Jean-Claude to tell the story.
"Well, Master," he began, "after we sent you ahead, Katerina and I recovered our strength as we waited for the rest of the coven to arrive. By that time, the shadows had shifted enough to allow those of us who knew how to Shadowalk to go on ahead. There were twelve of us who went on, arriving at the cathedral just about five minutes before the sun completely fell." He glanced at Katerina for verification and she nodded. "I posted your third, a young man by the name of Henry Thorpe, at the crest of a hill and a sniper. We knew something had to have happened for you if you hadn't made it out by then. We waited for him to shoot, then entered. You saw what happened then, of course. You got hit by the killing curse and we were outnumbered, but we continued fighting for as long as we could to give you time to get as far away as possible. We lost a few, but I think everything ended pretty much as well as we could hope for. That pathetic human Voldemort was impossible to get to, using anything and everything as his shield and apparating when we finally got close. Coward."
"And then?" Harry prompted.
"I was healing you, Harry," Lupin interjected, earning filthy looks from Harry's subordinates. "You were roughed up pretty badly, but with a little help from Hermione I managed. You two passed out a few minutes before the vampires joined us."
"I told the rest of the vampires about Hermione," Katerina said, averting her eyes. "I vouched for your…your werewolf friend, too, and we all agreed that it would be best to take everybody back here. Don't worry too much about Hermione being killed by a vampire, either," she added. "They know full-well what would happen…I made sure of that," she said evilly.
"Thanks, Katerina," Harry said, sinking back into his chair in relief.
He turned his attention to Lupin. "Remus, how were the werewolves changing without the aid of the full moon?" he asked.
Lupin sighed, suddenly agitated. "Voldemort," he said as way of explanation. Then, seeing that Harry needed more, he added, "Voldemort managed to finally brew a potion that alters the werewolf DNA in us and allows us to change at will. We don't really retain much of our human minds, though."
"And now that Greyback is dead, who's the leader of the werewolves?" Harry asked.
"I wasn't there to see which werewolves were killed, so I honestly couldn't tell you," Lupin said thoughtfully. "If I hadn't rebelled against them yesterday, it would've been me…but there's no way now."
Harry looked down in shame, sad that he had cost his friend the position of head of the pack. "I'm sorry," he said.
Lupin smiled at him. "I was more of a lone wolf anyway," he said, now smiling oddly at his former pupil.
Harry raised an eyebrow at him. "Really, Remus?" he said. "Lone wolf? You're a marauder and that's the best you can come up with?"
Lupin frowned. "I thought it was pretty good," he said to himself quietly, wondering where he went wrong.
"What are we going to do now, Master?" Katerina interjected abruptly, obviously annoyed that all of Harry's attention was going to a werewolf.
Harry sunk back into the chair, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I think…I think we're going to regroup and go attack Voldemort," he finally said. "I want to talk with Hermione first, though."
Katerina and Jean-Claude both began chuckling. Katerina leaned in and suspiciously whispered something to Jean-Claude. At one point he thought he heard, "Has him wrapped around her finger already."
Harry suddenly grunted, clutching his head.
Katerina shot up and said, "Master, what's wrong?"
Harry grinned at her grimly. "Now…he decides…to make…his appearance," he managed before he squeezed his eyes shut.
When he opened them again, they were blood-red and unforgiving. "Idiot," he said. "Doesn't even understand that it's because he rested for so long that I was able to surface." He turned his attention to Katerina, who had her hand on his own. "Move it before you lose it," he said dangerously.
"Master?" Jean-Claude asked carefully. Harry looked close to losing it.
And lose it he did, giving out a cry before picking the throne up with ease and throwing it so hard at the wall that the throne practically exploded. "Idiot practically got us killed!" he shouted. "I can't believe him!"
He turned to Lupin, who was looking at him neutrally. "And you, werewolf," Harry said, pointing at him. "I must…I must thank you," he mumbled reluctantly. "You saved my life. I will forever be in your debt."
"Just take it in the way that I repaid a debt to you," Lupin replied humbly.
Harry pressed his lips together into a thin line as he began debating internally. It wasn't until he had control of the mind that he was able to truly think things through. It was impossible when not in control of the brain.
His thoughts were focused on Hermione and the torture she went through. If she had been a vampire, none of that would have been an issue. She wouldn't have even been captured in the first place.
"Master?" Katerina asked, concerned.
"I'm turning her," he said darkly, striding powerfully for the doors back to his room.
"Excellent idea, Master," his subordinates replied in unison, Katerina Shadowalking behind Lupin and covering his mouth before he said anything stupid.
Harry burst into the room to find Hermione fully dressed, standing by the bed. "I had a feeling you would show yourself soon," she said.
"Enjoy your last few minutes as a human," Harry replied.
Hermione folded her arms. "What exactly is your reasoning behind turning me?" she asked.
He sneered at her. "You being captured and tortured is my reasoning," he said through clenched teeth.
"They caught me by surprise," Hermione said, not backing down.
"There's no such thing when you're a vampire," Harry replied. "I can be sure you can take care of yourself."
Hermione smiled teasingly at him. "So you're doing it because you care about me?" she asked.
"Yes," he admitted with no problem. "As you stated previously, I hold the same feelings as my idiot host."
"You're not going to turn me," Hermione said, back to her previous attitude. "If you give me a chance, I can show you I can take care of myself."
Suddenly Harry was pressed against her, holding her arms still as he went for her throat…
"Fine," Hermione said, stopping him in his tracks. "Just know that I'll never speak to you again." Harry growled. "I'm my own person," she continued. "I don't like people who take that free will away from me."
They stared each other in the eye, neither of them backing down. Finally, after what had to have been five minutes, Harry made a frustrated sound and released her arms. "Have it your way," he said, turning around and angrily heading for the door. "But it's on you if you die and destroy our fragile heart in the process."
Harry slammed the door open and closed angrily, his fists clenched at his sides as he did his best to reign in his anger. He couldn't do it…he couldn't turn her against her will.
He was weak.
Back in the bedroom, Hermione sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking hard about the truth in Harry's words. How was it fair to him if he had more reason to worry about her than she did about him, especially if she could remedy the issue?
It hadn't even been one hour since they had professed their love for each other and she was already confused. She hoped, though, that this confusion was as bad as it was going to get.
Unbeknownst to her, Harry was just outside the door thinking the same exact thing.
A/N: I feel like everything after the battle was rushed, but oh well. I also sort of like it!
I hope you did too! Please review if you can spare the time!