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Harriet Apparated back to her home, too tired to walk all the way back. She really needed to get back in shape, Oliver would have killed her before killing himself if he were to see his once star seeker in such poor form. She switched on the lights in her drawing room and lit the fire as well, she'd be needing it soon enough. From the window she could see into the Gilbert residence where Elena, Jenna and the Gilbert boy, Jonathan? Jack? No, no, it was the same name as that tall chap in Top Gear...Jeremy! The three were hugging it out. The three were clinging to one another while their friends watched on.

Harriet remembered that moment from her own life. It lost its charm when Hermione decided to use a picture of them hugging to remind people of her connections so that she could get a bill to emancipate House elves to pass in the Wizengamot.

She left them to enjoy it while it lasted. As with the honeymoon periods in all other things, this too would pass.

Besides she had much better things to do. Like write Sanguini a letter.

Sanguini,

You wouldn't believe the scene I stumbled upon this night. And before you ignore this letter thinking it's me talking about some silly Muggle thing, I'd like to say that the story ends with the creation of a werewolf and vampire hybrid.

Now that I have your attention, let me proceed. As you might know, tonight is the full moon and I found a body in the forest which had all the blood sucked out of it and two puncture wounds on the neck-

She went on to explain every single thing she had seen, making careful note of the chants and sacrifices used in the ritual and adding little samples of the ingredients she had found, the ash from the fire circles, the crystalline powder and more. The letter was soon sealed in wax, her Peverell and Black rings pressed into it so Sanguini wouldn't just chuck it into the bin like he did most letters and wrote the address of his castle in Floo powder infused ink.

She really adored this method of sending letters, it was so convenient that she wondered why everyone didn't do that and why it was something she only heard about when pondering international Wizarding mail.

Once the ink dried she tossed it into the fireplace, the fire lighting up with the bright green of transmission. She kept a watch, international letters took longer to floo and when the fire finally turned back to its normal yellow orange glow she knew the letter had gone through.

Which was good because she could see the Blond vampire walking down her driveway.

Before he could ring the bell and disturb Hedwig who had just gone through one of her Burning days (bringing her back to life and upgrading her to a moon Phoenix was the best decision Harriet had ever made), she went down the stairs herself, throwing the door open.

"Blondie."

"The name's Stefan. May I come in?"

"Oh you couldn't, my house is warded against any vampires who aren't Sanguini or Prudence."

Blondie, or Stefan as she now knew him to be, frowned in confusion. "I'd like to ask you some questions about what you did back there."

"And I'd like to ask you some questions about your parents' sex life."

"What?" If possible, he looked even more confused.

"I don't want to answer any questions you might have. It comes under the umbrella of family secrets and is an inappropriate question to ask in the same way that me asking if your mother liked to be spanked while riding your father's cock might be an inappropriate question." The frown turned into a growl and Harriet sighed, leaning against the doorway with the ease of someone way, way more powerful than the opponent. "Do remember that what I gave, I can take back."

He stilled. Part of her felt a bit of pity for the boy. On the one hand, while it was family magic, she would very willingly discuss it in her Necromancer circles so it wasn't that much of a secret.

On the other hand, he was just a plain old wannabe 'vegetarian vampire' and that bored her. She could already see it in her head, the type of questions he would ask, 'How did you do that?', 'I've never seen anything like, it before?' 'Why did you wait until the last moment to intervene?', 'Don't you have a conscience?'.

He wouldn't ask the important questions like Sanguini, Prudence or even Marceau would, like 'What did Jenna's spirit feel like?' or, 'You saved a muggle?! Seriously?'

"Okay but why didn't you try to save Elena?"

"You mean apart from the fact that your brother ran off with the body?" She was actually surprised that he asked the question. Maybe not so boring after all. "Well, mostly because I could feel that it was tethered to something at the other end. I'm guessing her uncle?"

He was the Gilbert missing from the touching reunion after all.

"Elena's adopted, he was her biological father."

"Makes sense, the stronger the connection, the easier it is to pull a Frankenstein." Did it count as a Frankenstein if Elena's body wasn't a mishmash of scavenged body parts though? Eurgh, literary references were never her forte. Harriet stifled a yawn and turned to Stefan "Are we done here? Because I want to sleep."

"Be seeing you." The boy said cryptic and almost menacing. She wanted to applaud him for the effort. It was still only a three out of ten though.

Voldemort and Dumbledore had ruined her for foreshadowing and cryptic talk. No one else even came close to surpassing them in that.

"Where are they?" Elijah asked and Klaus was annoyed at his brother's one track mind. After a thousand years Klaus was finally, finally free, and living the way he was meant to, his hybrid form that had been locked up by their mother dear for so long and all Elijah could talk about was the family. Klaus may have hidden them away for the last ninety years but he remembered Elijah tying him to that post so that the curse could be laid on him making him live his torture for a millennia.

He'd have to remind his brother of that. It seemed he had forgotten.

But before he could snap out an answer, whether to pacify him or to rile him up, a ball of fire appearing next to them startled them. The flames were blue and even as Klaus looked at it, he found himself wondering how such a flame even happened to burn so naturally. Surely, this wasn't normal?

A squawk broke him out of his thoughts and Elijah stepped back, "What is that?" His brother whispered and Klaus followed his line of sight to find himself peering at the oddly owl like eyes staring back at him from within the ball of flame. The flames died down to a flicker and he found himself looking at a bird. It looked like a normal barn owl but its feathers ended in the same white flames that had once engulfed it.

Phoenix, he thought, but that didn't make sense. Magical creatures didn't exist, he knew that. Even if that fact that Esther had taught him was a lie, he hadn't come across a single such creature in his thousand years so he knew it to be true, as much legend as the Curse of the Sun and Moon that they'd perpetuated.

It squawked and lifted its leg and Klaus found a letter attached to it which was just... How did it not burn? How did the bird know where to take it?

And who the hell used a bird with mythological properties as a messenger pigeon?

"Is this a prank you're playing?" Elijah asked of him his eyes flicking between him and the owl, jaw tense.

The owl and Klaus snorted in perfect synchronisation. It squawked, a sceptical, arrogant sound if he had ever heard one and Klaus echoed the bird's disbelief with his words, "You give my imagination and the witches in my pocket too much credit to think I could make such a wondrous animal a reality."

Now the owl-phoenix shot him a look and Klaus could almost hear it talk to him, chiding him for his glibness, telling him to stop flattering it. Or, judging by the many flecks of black-blue adorning its body, characteristic of the female of the snowy owl species that it seemed to loosely belong to,telling him to stop flattering her.

Would make sense if it was female. His terrible luck with women was legendary.

"May I?" He asked of the owl-phoenix, and she hooted as he took the letter from her. A ball of flames engulfed her again and when it flickered out there was no one there.

"What does it say?" Elijah asked.

"Patience dear brother," Klaus said and looked over the envelope. The paper was heavy, reminding him of the vellum he once used, a rich colour like that of clotted cream. It was sealed in wax with two coat of arms pressed into it.

'Toujours Pur', read one of the crests with ravens and stars decorating it. The other was a far more plain one, barely a crest, more a symbol. A circle and a line inscribed in a triangle, but it was the words that threw him off. It was like no family motto he had ever read. 'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death'. Who would send them such a letter?

Klaus slid his finger under the flap, breaking the seal and Elijah leaned forward in anticipation. It had been a while since they had dealt with someone outside of their family as a threat. While the Mystic Falls crew were something of a threat, they weren't exactly...interesting. Witches causing pain, humans striking deals, vampires falling in love, it was all very mundane. This was new, this was exciting, thrilling. The paper inside held the same vellum like quality and Klaus unfolded the letter with no small amount of excitement. But as he read the chicken scratch handwriting he grew numb with disbelief.

"Dear Pillow Lips Hybrid and the Man who saved him from the pain spell,

You are both cordially invited to dinner at Steven's Quarry, Sunday, May 2nd. Blood shall be provided so please do not bring your own blood-bags/human juice boxes.

Sincerely,

Harriet Peverell-Potter-Black

P.S.: RSVP not required

P.P.S: RSVP not required because I will find you and kidnap you if you don't show up."

Harriet Peverell-Potter-Black, that was quite a mouthful. But now he had a name to go with the face and power of the witch who had 'observed' his curse being broken. "Well Elijah, looks like we have plans this Sunday."

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