A/N: Oh dear, has it really been that long since I posted the first chapter of this fic? I sincerely apologize for the wait, but I can give you a very valid excuse in one very simple equation:
School + Work + Massive Writer's Block = Quite a While Without Updating.
But my muse seems to have decided to grace me with its presence once more, hopefully for a while this time!
Thank you all for the awesome reviews last chapter!
Please Enjoy!
"My heart is ever at your service."
-William Shakespeare
Chapter 2 - Pierced by Hunger
"Harry?" A short pause. "Harry?"
"Mmm?" said Harry distractedly, exercising his mind-reading powers on Professor Flitwick by trying to see what he was going to say before he said it.
"Harry Potter, look at me right now," whispered Hermione sternly without stopping her note-taking.
Harry shook his head and blinked a few times to clear his head before giving Hermione his full attention, his eyebrow quirking at the expression of concentration on her face. He had to have seen that expression on her face countless times, but never before had it been so eye-catching to him. There was just something about it that drew him to it and made him want to never look away.
"Harry, look at me and focus," she snapped, obviously a tiny bit insulted.
"Sorry," Harry apologized with another shake of his head to clear it. "Focusing now."
"First off, you need to breathe," she said. "Almost every girl in your classes stares at you the whole time, and I'm sure at least one of them has to be smart enough to notice that you aren't breathing." Harry nodded and took an exaggerated breath, the air feeling foreign and stale in his lungs. "And second, you need to pay attention to the sun. It's been getting closer and closer to your desk this whole time. If that one girl is smart enough to notice the breathing thing, you can be sure she'll put two and two together when you start screaming in agony and clutching the piece of you that was burnt."
Harry almost jumped back in fright as he noticed that the sunlight streaming through the nearest window was touching the edge of his desk. He didn't want an experience like the one he had had this morning to ever happen again. Other than that Harry was sure Hermione was overestimating the female population of Hogwarts, but she seemed too snappy at the moment to tell her that and plus, better safe than sorry, right?
"Breathe," Hermione hissed.
Harry quickly took in a breath, feeling like an idiot as he did so. There was no way in hell that that could've looked natural in any way. But he felt more than saw Hermione relax next to him, and he really noticed as her pulse slowed down just a bit to a normal rate.
It was surreal to Harry, the powers he had gained. There was the mind-reading, of course, but there was also his heightened senses and strength. He could see even the darkest corner of the room clearly and could taste everything on the air including peoples' breakfasts just from their exhalations. And those were the two senses affected the least (besides touch; that didn't seem to have been affected at all). He could smell moods, that's how he really knew Hermione was feeling a bit irritated, he could smell that Professor Flitwick's wand had a unicorn hair core, could smell the overwhelming blood nestled nice and safe just under the skin of the 15 students and one professor in the classroom. He could hear Malfoy, who was on the other side of the room, breathing as he stared listlessly out of the window, could hear a fly buzzing just outside said window, could hear Hermione's pulse throbbing at her throat, carrying her warm blood up to her brain to oxygenate it.
And he could feel.
He could feel the magic thick in the air, thrumming as it manifested and dispersed around the various magic-users in the room. He could feel the overwhelming power laying at ease in his own body, waiting to be released and wreak havoc on all near him. He could feel the muscles and tendons tensing and relaxing in Hermione's wrist as her quill flew across her parchment. He could feel Lavender Brown staring at the back of his head, feel her intent should she ever have the chance to have her way with him. The implications and revelations this new-found power brought…it was amazing.
It was terrifying.
Hermione, trying to quickly take notes, hurriedly flipped her piece of parchment. A little too hurriedly, in fact, as she didn't have the best grip on the parchment and ended up giving herself a paper cut. Harry's breath caught in his throat as he smelled fresh blood for the first time, his mouth watering as he imagined it filling his mouth and sliding down his throat.
Stop it! he commanded himself, gripping his desk so hard in an effort to refrain from thinking of sucking Hermione's blood that his desk cracked up the middle, his hands the only thing keeping it from falling apart. The sound of the wood of his desk splitting rent the air like a gunshot, startling Professor Flitwick so much that he almost fell off of the chair he was standing on.
"Mr. Potter?" he asked, confused and in shock as he saw what his student had done with his bare hands.
"M-magical discharge," Harry said hastily as he pulled out his wand with a shaky hand. He would've been sweating from the effort had it been possible.
"In seventh year?" Professor Flitwick asked skeptically. "Do you want detention for lying on top of detention for deliberately destroying school property?"
"Please, professor," said Hermione, her worry not having to be faked at all, "he-he's just discovered this morning that his aunt that he lives with died."
Harry could just smell how frightened Hermione was at lying to a professor under the smell of her succulent blood. Her bravery almost redeemed the fact that she had caused the problem in the first place.
Professor Flitwick immediately apologized and asked Harry that he just fix the desk.
"No problem, professor," Harry replied with a very forced smile. "Reparo."
A massive amount of magic welled up in him and shot down his arm toward his wand. He tried to stem most of it, fearing that he may actually have a very dangerous magical discharge occur within the next second, but he was too late, it was too far from his own magical core. So he did his best to funnel it, fortunately succeeding in forcing all of it to go through his wand, which started vibrating from the unorthodox amount of magic coming from its master. He felt his spell slam into the desk under it, fixing it and any knick or dent in it. The remaining magic shot into the ground and Harry could feel it fix every crack in the stone floor of the castle within a five-foot radius of him. Luckily, nobody noticed anything out of the ordinary, most of it invisible to those who weren't specifically looking for it (or feeling it due to recently-acquired vampire powers).
"Holy Merlin," Harry breathed, staring at his wand as if it was something he'd never seen before and effectively distracting himself from Hermione's blood for a second.
"Harry, how?..." Hermione started to ask before coming up with the answer on her own.
But those two words brought Harry's attention back to her and he immediately stiffened up. As Professor Flitwick continued on with lesson, Hermione whispered, "Are you alright, Harry?"
"Heal your paper cut, Hermione," said Harry through clenched teeth.
"What?" she asked, not expecting that response.
"Heal your paper cut now…please," Harry added to show that it was urgent.
Hermione quickly snatched up her wand, finally catching on to why Harry looked like he was doing his best to restrain himself from doing something rash. She made a mental note to think more like a vampire when Harry was around as she healed the paper cut.
"Sorry," she whispered as Harry visibly relaxed.
The class ended and Harry and Hermione left together while Ron stayed back to receive extra homework from Professor Flitwick for doing so poorly on his last quiz.
"So you're hungry then?" asked Hermione, concerned.
"Bloody starving," said Harry.
"We'll have to figure something out," said Hermione.
"Please be quick," Harry replied as they arrived at the Great Hall.
They went in before Harry could remember about the sun being excruciatingly painful. As soon as he realized what he had done he cringed, throwing his arms above his head in a vain effort to shield it. Then he slowly relaxed as he realized that there was no pain, he wasn't burning!
He looked up at the sun in the Great Hall's ceiling in awe as Hermione grabbed his hand and dragged him to Gryffindor Table, careful to avoid the sunlight streaming through the windows.
"For Merlin's sake, Harry, act normal!" she scolded him under her breath. "No matter how close to the real thing it is, that sun is artificial, manufactured by magic! Now breathe and pretend to eat, Snape's looking at you."
Harry cast his eyes down at the table and put food on his plate as he inhaled and exhaled in what he hoped was an accurate re-creation of breathing. He felt guilt flood him as he smelled the worry and anxiousness exuding from his best friend. He knew that's why she was being snappy, and it didn't help that he was making it worse by making stupid mistakes. He opened his mouth to take a bite from a leg of chicken and felt his fangs extend. He quickly bit into the chicken as his eyes snapped to the staff table, where Snape was eyeing him suspiciously. He gagged and coughed up the chicken as it hit his taste buds, his once-favorite lunch item now tasting much like he would imagine a bag of dung would.
What is Potter up to this time? he heard as he made eye contact with Snape once more. He could barely hear his professor's thoughts over the din of the students in the Great Hall.
"Hermione, why is everyone so loud?" Harry shouted as he continued to focus on reading Snape's thoughts.
Hermione's words were drowned out by the cacophony and Harry could just make out Snape's thoughts. An apparent aversion to sunlight…a disdain for chicken…hmm.
Snape narrowed his eyes at Harry, who did the same back. Harry's eyes widened, however, as Hermione grabbed his arm and, with a surprising show of strength, hauled him to his feet. As soon as Harry's concentration was broken the sounds grew in intensity and a plethora of smells assaulted his nose, completely overwhelming his senses. He doubted he would've been able to move had Hermione not been steering him towards the exit. The last thing he saw in the Great Hall were Dumbledore's piercing eyes meeting his, Snape leaning over and whispering something in the Headmaster's ear.
Hermione pushed Harry into an empty classroom and he (metaphorically) sighed in relief.
"That better?" Hermione asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Loads," said Harry, clutching his head as the spinning slowed down. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," said Hermione, her cheeks gaining an almost unnoticeable pink hue. If Harry hadn't been so hungry at the moment he probably wouldn't have noticed. "I think the lesson learned here is that you need to avoid big crowds until you've learned how to control your senses."
"Why are my senses so much better though?" asked Harry, hoping there would be a good (and helpful) reason.
"For a couple reasons, the first and foremost being that vampires were designed to hunt humans," said Hermione. "You're smarter, stronger, and your senses are much better than they were when you were a human. Basically, your strengths are greater than our strengths and you have strengths where we have weaknesses."
"Okay…" said Harry slowly, making sure he understood what Hermione was talking about. "And the other reason?"
"Despite your raised intelligence, you're more…primal now, more driven by whims and urges," said Hermione, her frustration mounting as she tried to think of how to explain it to Harry better. "You're closer to nature now, more a part of it. Humans have grown distant with it, lost touch. But vampires are highly in tune with nature, with the Earth. You gain energy from it."
Harry could feel Hermione growing more and more anxious, so he tried telling a joke to calm her down just a bit. "So I guess that makes all of us a bunch of tree huggers, eh?"
"I never said it was necessarily that kind of relationship," she replied, her eyebrows furrowing in thought. "It's more like you gain energy from the darker, more evil side of it. Oh, I don't know how to explain it right, I don't think anybody but a vampire could."
A scowl was on her face and a bit of hair had come loose from her messy ponytail, making her look harrowed and more than a little downtrodden. It pained Harry to see his friend so, especially on account of his well-being. He very lightly gripped Hermione's upper arms and said, "You need to calm down, Hermione. Everything's going to be fine, just you wait and see. This is going to be no problem…a piece of cake."
"No it isn't, Harry," said Hermione exasperatedly, voicing Harry's true opinion. "This is going to be very difficult, both you and I know that."
"That doesn't matter one bit," said Harry stubbornly. "Whatever mess we get into we come out the other side clean as clean can be, both you and I know that."
Hermione finally cracked a smile and said, "You do have a point there."
Harry smelled her anxiousness and worry decrease quite a bit to be replaced by an already-dwindling spike of happiness. "Geez, I thought I was going to have to grab you a calming draught."
Hermione blinked a few times and her eyebrows snapped back to their furrowing as she quickly said, "What did you just say?"
Harry gulped, holding his hands up in front of him in a plaintive gesture. "N-nothing, just kidding."
"Be quiet, Harry," said Hermione, not paying any attention to him whatsoever. "Calming draught…potions…that's it!"
Harry, utterly perplexed at this point, said, "What's-"
"I'll see you after class!" Hermione called over shoulder as she hurried in the direction of the library, already out of the classroom.
Harry headed up to the Gryffindor common room for his free period while Hermione went to the library, where Harry knew she would be spending the rest of lunch before going to History of Magic. Harry found it easier to apply himself to his homework than ever before, and he had finished a good chunk of it by the time students began returning to the Gryffindor common room.
"Harry!" Hermione shout-whispered from the portrait hole, waving him over as her eyes darted all over the common room. Harry could smell the anxiety and…elation?...she was emitting. "Harry!"
Harry glanced around as though there could possibly be another Harry in the room before standing up and following Hermione to an empty classroom, not noticing the nosy and jealous eyes tracking him from a dark corner of the common room. Once inside the classroom Hermione cast a locking and silencing charm on the door, granting them complete privacy.
"What's this all about?" Harry asked her as she gently set her school bag on the professor's desk.
"It's…about…" said Hermione slowly and distractedly as she dug through her bag, "…stupid extension charm…these."
Hermione pulled out several flasks of blood-red potion, expecting that dramatic introduction to be enough to convey her plan to Harry. Harry, in return, just stared at her blankly because he was not familiar with the potion at all.
"Erm…what…what are those?" asked Harry slowly, unsure where Hermione was going with this.
"Blood-replenishing potion," replied Hermione excitedly.
Harry's eyebrows furrowed as he digested this piece of information. "For what?" he finally asked.
Hermione scowled at him. "You're still hungry, are you not?" she asked.
"Well, yeah," said Harry. "Who are we going to be feeding that to?"
Hermione closed her eyes and exhaled loudly through her nose, though Harry smelled no annoyance from her whatsoever. Actually, unless he was mistaken, he thought he smelled…confidence.
"Colloportus!" Hermione cried as she whipped out her wand again and pointed it at the door.
And it finally dawned on Harry. "What?!" he exclaimed. "You mean…no way!"
"Yes way," Hermione replied smugly, the corners of her lips lifted in a self-satisfied grin. "Bite me, now."
"Yeah right," said Harry, lazily pulling his wand out to unlock the door. "If I'm already having issues just thinking about doing it to any random stranger, why do you think I would ever willingly bite you?"
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione cried, catching a shocked Harry's wand out of midair.
Then his shock was replaced by the beginning stirrings of anger. "Give me my wand, Hermione. This is stupid."
"It's not as if you're changing me or anything," said Hermione pleadingly. "You're just taking a sip-a small bit that's going to be replaced by the potion. Then we can heal the bite mark and nobody-even us-will be any the wiser!"
"You don't understand, Hermione," said Harry with just as much conviction as Hermione. "It's not just about the blood thing. So give me my wand."
"Not until you drink my blood," replied Hermione stubbornly.
"I said no!" Harry shouted loudly, causing Hermione to flinch only the tiniest bit.
"I didn't want to have to do this," she said while shaking her head sadly and pulling out a pocket knife.
Harry watched on in horror as she cut the palm of her left hand, allowing quite a bit of blood to be exposed to the air. Harry moaned at the effort it took for him to restrain himself from attacking her, though he did feel his fangs grow into sharp points, preparing for the meal.
"I said no," said Harry weakly, swallowing the copious amount of saliva that had gathered in his mouth. Her blood smelled absolutely succulent.
Hermione went right up to him and held her hand teasingly under his nostrils, a mischievous smile on her face. Harry's lips parted as his eyelids drooped, the aroma of her blood was overwhelming, Harry moved his head forward as he lightly grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand even closer to him. He could taste it on his lips, the overpowering, sweet, delicious flavor, her blood filling his mouth as he punctured the smooth skin of her neck.
I won't…bite…Hermione! yelled what Harry had dubbed his 'Inner Hero' (which was actually quite annoying most of the time). "I…said…no!" Harry yelled, gripping Hermione's shoulders and pushing her up against the wall behind her to try and scare some sense into her and show her he wasn't kidding.
Except he had forgotten about his vampire strength, resulting in Hermione's head slamming into the wall.
As Hermione fought off the spots swimming in her vision the last thing she saw before passing out was the look of horror on Harry's face.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Hermione woke up groggily, though her head was pounding.
The first thing she noticed was that she was in the hospital wing, the pristine white room definitely not helping relieve her headache. For a second she couldn't remember why she was there or why her head was throbbing, then it all came back to her in a flash.
Harry had accidentally knocked her out, not used to his newly-acquired strength. "Crap," Hermione muttered under her breath as she stood up on unsteady legs, the spinning room doing nothing to help her sense of balance.
She knew he would be too hard on himself, and quite frankly it was all her fault. If she had just listened to Harry and backed off instead of cornering him and attempting to bait him through anger, this never would've happened. She had to get to him before he did something stupid.
"Miss Granger, whatever do you think you're doing?" asked what Hermione assumed was the hazy figure in front of her.
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey. Honestly," lied Hermione, who took a step around the nurse.
And hit her shin on the next bed.
"I'm not letting you go," said Madam Pomfrey sternly. And just as Hermione scowled, Madam Pomfrey added, "Until you drink a headache relieving potion." As Hermione hastily snatched the proffered bottle and drained it, Madam Pomfrey continued. "Nasty bump you had there. How'd you get it?"
So she hadn't spoken to Harry. Hermione smiled at her and said, "No idea, actually. Must've bumped a couple screws loose."
Madam Pomfrey eyed Hermione skeptically, staring at her with surprisingly shrewd eyes, before finally smiling and saying, "Well, just make sure to take care. Have a good night."
"Thanks, you too," Hermione responded before rushing out of the Hospital Wing.
When she arrived in the Gryffindor common room out of breath, it was to find that nobody had seen Harry in quite a while. She pursed her lips in thought for a moment before heading up the stairs to the boys' rooms, where she entered the seventh years' dorm to find Harry frantically throwing clothes into his trunk. He must've been thinking pretty hard to have not noticed her entry even with his heightened senses.
After watching him for a minute, Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes before asking, "Going somewhere?"
As expected, Harry whipped around and pointed his wand at Hermione's face, every muscle in his body tense. Once his brain registered who it was he sighed and lowered his wand while Hermione continued to gaze at him piercingly, wishing she could understand why he could be so melodramatic sometimes. Harry sat down on his bed as Hermione continued to stand there with a disapproving frown on her face. Harry cleared his throat a couple times, offering no explanation, before Hermione folded her arms in front of her chest, a sure sign of danger. "I asked you a question," she said quietly, with little sharpness despite how she was standing.
Harry stood up and looked at Hermione long and hard before reaching a hand out to her shoulder. He stopped just an inch away, though to her it seemed like it was completely out of reach. He closed his hand into a fist and slowly lowered it to his side before whispering, "I'm sorry."
Hermione's eyebrows furrowed as she asked, "For what?" in a slightly incredulous tone.
Harry let out a self-deprecating chuckle, the amount of hatred in it almost unbearable to Hermione. "What do you think?" he asked as his tendons began to stand out on his hands from the strength of which he was balling them into fists. "Everything. Hitting your head against the wall, dragging you into my vampire problem…dragging you into all of my problems."
"You didn't drag me," said Hermione softly, pleadingly, her heart breaking as she looked on at her best friend. "I came willingly. We're in this-"
"Together…yeah, I know," said Harry sadly. "You and me."
"And Ron," Hermione added helpfully.
Harry didn't respond for a moment, seemingly waging a war with his own brain. Finally, he admitted, "To be honest, since I'm leaving anyway…I sort of wrote Ron off when he abandoned me in the Triwizard Tournament."
Hermione remained silent following his pronouncement, not sure of how to respond without lying. "Anyway," said Harry, "it was great while it lasted, but-"
"You're not leaving," said Hermione firmly. "And even if you were, it's not as if we'd never see each other again, so there's no point in that 'it was great while it lasted' rubbish. It is great, Harry! We're doing great!"
Harry let out another sad laugh. "Hermione, look at me. I'm a vampire. A vampire who feeds on human blood…and goes to a school full of humans."
"And you've done not a thing wrong yet," said Hermione, turning away from Harry in what seemed like an act of stubbornness but was actually a move to hide her trembling lips.
"I knocked you out!" yelled Harry. "Don't you get it; I'm not supposed to be here!"
"Here is the safest place for you, Harry!" said Hermione angrily as she turned around, not caring if Harry saw the tears pooling in her eyes. "Don't you understand what life is going to be like if you leave?"
"Of course I do," said Harry. "But even if here is a safe place for me, it's not safe for anyone else!"
"Then train yourself in self-control!" replied Hermione. "Leaving's not going to solve anything!
"Leaving will solve everything!" said Harry with absolute conviction as he locked his trunk.
Hermione darted in front of the door. "I'm not letting you go," she said quietly.
"Please move, Hermione," said Harry wearily, knowing firsthand that Hermione's stubbornness was legendary.
Thus, what she said next shocked him. "Not until you tell me the real reason you're leaving."
Harry narrowed his eyes at her, trying to take her attention away from how his instinctive swallow at having been found out. "I did tell you the real reason I was leaving. Now please move."
"Those reasons may have been real, yes, but I want the main reason you're leaving," she said sternly.
Harry sighed, yet held her eyes as he said, "I…I don't want to hurt you again."
"You idiot," Hermione whispered as she shook her head. "Don't you see that doing this is going to cause me more pain than anything you could accidentally…or purposefully…do to me physically?"
"Yeah, but…but…" said Harry, unable to come up with a response.
"But what?" asked Hermione, her voice breaking and her tears finally falling. "You won't have to see the look of pain on my face?" She furiously swiped at her tears and moved away from the doorway, pointing through it. "Just go," she whispered. Harry opened his mouth to say something, most likely an apology, but Hermione said, "You promised me you wouldn't change. You promised you'd stay the same! But the Harry I knew would never back down when the going got tough…the Harry I knew was never a coward. So just go, before I…before I…"
Hermione couldn't talk anymore from the tears burning her throat and as her legs gave out Harry caught her, holding her close to him. She clutched his shirt and cried into it, staining it with her sadness as Harry held her and rubbed her back, promising her he wasn't leaving. Her tears of sadness turned into those of relief and her grip on him slackened, though it felt even tighter than before.
As her tears subsided she pulled away from Harry, more than a little embarrassed that he had seen her be so emotional, a side of her she hadn't ever really let anybody see. Eventually her tears turned into sniffling as she rubbed her eyes, now itchy and sore from the crying.
Harry, also a little on the embarrassed side, broke the silence by asking, "How would I go about training?"
Hermione, her voice a bit hoarse, replied, "I'm not completely sure, but if I were you I would go into the forest and work on getting to know my own body better."
"So…school, plus homework, plus the stress of trying to hide the fact that I'm a vampire, plus training," said Harry slowly, making sure he got everything. "There's just not enough time in the day!"
"What about the night?" asked Hermione.
"What about it?" Harry asked. "I'll be sleeping!"
"Harry, do you ever pay attention in class?" asked Hermione rhetorically. "I mean, one would think vampires would be cool enough to get a boy to listen." Harry opened his mouth to defend himself but Hermione quickly cut him off. "Anyway, if you had been paying attention, you would've heard that due to a vampire's astounding regenerative capabilities they never need to sleep. They never get tired."
"Really?" said Harry as he held his hands in front of his body and looked down at them, amazed. "That's awesome! I'll start training tonight then!"
Hermione quickly steeled herself for another onslaught before saying, "You can't go training on an empty stomach…"
Harry's shoulders dropped as he let out a sigh. He stood in the same spot for a long moment, thinking, before he said, "Hermione…"
"Please, Harry, you need to feed," said Hermione pleadingly. "You haven't eaten all day! It's perfectly safe! The only thing that'll hurt is he initial puncture; after that you can use your vampire anesthetic. My blood-replenishing potions and a quick healing charm will take care of the rest."
"Hermione, I don't…" said Harry, letting his sentence drop off at the end again.
Hermione grabbed his wrists, looked him in the eye, and quietly said, "Please."
Harry's lips pressed into a thin line as he furiously thought over the potential risks. "Fine," he finally said, knowing he would never win against her.
Hermione summoned her potions and unstoppered them as Harry willed his fangs to extend, finding it much easier to do so now that he was hungry. Hermione took in a deep breath and asked, "You ready?"
Harry nodded stiffly, clearly nervous about what he was about to do. "Go for it," Hermione said, giving him encouragement.
Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly before licking his lips and reaching his arms out to lightly hold her behind the neck and her back, causing her cheeks to heat up a little. She felt the fangs press against her neck, then…
What felt like a sharp pinch as Harry's fangs entered her neck, followed by a feeling of weightlessness and calm as the anesthetic went to work. Oddly enough, as Harry sucked her blood she saw herself graduating Hogwarts as valedictorian, Professor McGonagall shaking her hand as the Scottish professor handed her favorite student her diploma.
Harry was in heaven as Hermione's sweet blood filled his mouth and slid down his throat. It truly was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted. He carefully took his hand away from Hermione's back and grabbed one of the potions before slowly, carefully bringing it up to her mouth and tipping it in. Harry felt her throat work as she swallowed it, and Harry drank a few more mouthfuls before detaching, the taste of Hermione's blood still on his lips and tongue.
Hermione was broken from the vision, though the smile still lingered on her face. She felt her warm blood running down her neck and looked over at Harry to find him staring wide-eyed at it. She could tell he wasn't hungry any more, just appalled as the fact set in that he had actually drank the blood of a human being.
Hermione smiled at him and healed the puncture marks before cleaning the blood off of her skin with a quick swish of her wand, leaving absolutely no evidence that Harry had ever fed from her. Harry was still staring at her neck, staying so still that had Hermione not known better she would've thought he was dead, so Hermione asked, "Everything better, Harry?"
Harry shook his head quickly, ridding his head of the thoughts that had been occupying it, before happily saying, "I feel great! You?"
"Absolutely fine," Hermione replied with a smile.
"I'm going to go out and train," Harry said with determination, his eyes matching his voice.
"Sounds good," Hermione replied. "I'm going to bed. I'm tired."
Hermione left the room, giving Harry one last smile before shutting the door behind her.
Harry jumped out of the window and landed on his feet with ease before darting into the forest to learn how his body worked.
Not once did Hermione's last smile to him ever leave his mind.
A/N: Okay, I know there was quite a bit of drama. And I promise you, right here, right now, that that's pretty much it in that department. I wanted there to be at least a bit, but now that that's behind us all, we can get away from the intro/info chapters and into the action/adventure/romance chapters! Yay, I can't wait!
Thanks for reading and I hope you review!