It was a rather quiet Thursday, the last in November, that found Holly sitting at her desk reading over an unfortunately small list of possible tutors that Amelia had sent her. With Amelia's letter, there were also three other letters sent by some of the prospective tutors introducing themselves. Seems they were the more proactive type when it came to finding students. That or they were just strapped for cash and needed the job.

"What do you think, Hedwig?" Holly looked up from the collection of parchment to the bird in question. "This 'Implementation' thing sounds pretty interesting. Of the two ritual tutors on the list I kind of want to go with Mr. Borealis, as he seems a bit more relaxed and specialized into the field. Ms. Penn, however, while sounding very posh and refined in her letter claims to be a vampire as well."

Holly listened to her friend's suggestions and comments with the occasional nod. Looking down at the list of names again Holly gave a small sigh and started to write two letters. "Mr. Silverling's Implementation for sure then. I agree with you that Ms. Penn might be the better choice, too. She'll probably be able to teach me about myself more than anyone else I know of. I just hope she isn't as bad as her letter makes her feel. She writes like she's in a Shakespeare play."

"Howdy there, you Tree-Girl?"

Holly was speechless. Before her stood a woman who could easily be mistaken for a seventh year. She was a touch under five and a half feet tall and was dressed in a pair of slightly worn muggle blue-jeans, a pair of black leather boots, dark lavender wool sweater, and a pair of narrow rectangular glasses. She had shoulder-length, tousled black hair and eyes that reminded Holly of a storm cloud. Her letter had informed Holly that the woman was of mixed Japanese and French heritage... And she apparently spoke like a cowboy who was trying to fit in with the English by speaking with a half-assed transatlantic accent from the 1940s.

"Uh... Tree-Girl?" Holly finally managed to ask.

"Yeah, get it? 'Cause Holly is a kinda tree, right?" Crickets. "Look, it ain't important. You're Holly Potter, ain'tcha? That makes me Samantha Penn, just call me Sam, don't bother with titles or nothin'. I've lived long enough to lose all patience for titles."

'Sam' emphasized her last statement by giving Holly a fang-filled smile that reminded the younger girl of her very own; the storm cloud eyes above the smile seeming to have a bit of orange-yellow sun peek through them for the briefest of moments. Looking the woman up and down Holly couldn't help but wonder aloud her next question.

"How old are you, exactly?" Before she could be answered she realized what she just said and covered her mouth with a hand. "Oh! N-not too be rude or anything. Sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"I ain't gotta answer even if ya didn't 'pologize for askin,'" Sam's smile turned into more of a grin. "I don't mind, though. Honestly, I cain't really remember the exact year I was born. Let's see... It was somewhere between Queen Victoria's weddin' and the start of Japan's Meiji era. That gives us, like, a 28-year margin of error though... So I guess let's just say somewhere in the middle of that so I'm a solid 30 years older'n Albus Dumbledore at around 140."

Holly reeled at that bit of information. 140 years old and she still looked like that? Did that mean Holly was going to look like a girl on the edge of puberty her entire, possibly endless life? That... That wasn't something that struck Holly as, particularly good news. In fact, that was pretty bad, all things considered.

"Hey, hey there, what's got you in such a tizzy?" Sam rested her hands on either of Holly's shoulders, her transatlantic accent fading somewhat as she did so. "If yer worried about not ever havin' any bubs then let me assure you that's nothin' but bushwa. I cain't speak for right now, but trust me, give it a couple years and a real simple bit o' magic and you won't just be the cat's meow, honey dearest, you'll be a choice bit of calico."

Blinking in a mixture of confusion and astonishment Holly was again rendered speechless. That... That was certainly English, probably, but so many of those words and phrases had beyond no meaning to Holly that it may as well have been Greek.

"Uh... R-right," Holly stammered out. "I was told we can use one of the empty classrooms for our lessons. This way, please."

Younger led older down the halls of Hogwarts to an abandoned classroom that looked like it had once been used to teach some kind of music class. Not like the school's toad choir, but some kind of stringed instrument Holly didn't know the name of. Either way, it looked like it hadn't been used by anyone to teach in over a hundred years. It had desks and chairs though, so it would do.

"Right!" Sam exclaimed with a clap as Holly sat down at the forward most desk. "Your letter expressed interest in bein' taught both ritual magic and about bein' a vampire. Seeing as how you yourself are one I assume you mean to learn about your new culture and abilities, yes?"

Huh, that's weird her accent is almost totally gone. "Y-yes, that's correct," Holly agreed with a nod.

"Super," Sam hopped up onto the teacher's desk at the front of the room and crossed her legs at the knee. "The latter is a much smaller amount I need to teach, so let's use today to cover that. We've only got until the 19th before you go on Christmas break and lessons become weekly instead of daily. That'll gimme 12 days for your primer on basic ritual magic. At that point you can decide if it's a thing you want to continue and, if so, then I can write up a proper lesson plan for however fast you learn."

Holly nodded excitedly. She took out a roll of parchment, quill, and ink in preparation to write notes. Just as she finished setting down her supplies, however, Sam placed atop her parchment something she hadn't seen in over a year: a notebook and mechanical pencil.

"To begin," Samantha drawled to give Holly time to put her archaic writing tools away and use the more modern ones. "There are many types of vampire found in the world. The majority of these variants feast on the lifeblood of animals and/or other humanoids; humans, goblins, house elves, werewolves, etc. Two sub-categories, however, do not.

"First, there is the Jiang-Shi who feed not on the life through blood but the chi, the breath of life. They are created similarly to a ghost when an obsession or strong unfulfilled desire was not met in life. Unlike a ghost, however, they were improperly buried without the correct rituals to quiet those feelings somewhat. So instead of remaining as an immaterial ghost, they rise again as a Jiang-Shi. Thus, these desires express themselves much more strongly than one typically witnesses in a ghost. Also called 'hopping vampires' the Jiang-Shi's distinctive gait is deceptively dextrous. They are usually extremely gifted in the arts of divination, as well."

Is her accent just faked or something or does she just lose it when in 'lecture mode?'

"Second, is the Vetala who feed not on the breath or the blood of life but the prana, the consciousness or psyche of life. Often referred to as 'memory thieves' or 'masters of many forms' the Vetala has few but powerful unique abilities. Able to utilize the thoughts and memories stolen along with the prana they feed on they, more so than any other, become increasingly dangerous the longer they live. They are especially difficult to find and deal with, as they have the ability to move about as a formless being of pure essence and steal someone's body for their own use. The only way to permanently rid the world of one such being is to find its original body, protected well indeed, and destroy it.

"However, we shan't be covering those types of vampire for now. Perhaps later if you have an interest I can teach you more about our Asian cousins. Instead, we shall be focusing primarily on the blood-based vampires, those typically found in England especially.

"Now," Sam removed herself from the teacher's desk and started pushing all the other student desks to the edges of the room. "While I lecture I shall be drawing out a ritual circle that will allow us to tell exactly what variant you match most closely with. Won't take but a few shakes of a lamb's tail." Holly turned her desk around to face the drawing and Samantha just in time to see the older woman punctuate her strange phrase with a wink.

"Match most with?" Holly questioned. "Can vampires reproduce like humans then and do the variants mix now and again?"

"Eh, technically no."

"Technically?"

"Magic can overcome almost any task claimed to be impossible. By and large, however, vampires can't sexually reproduce. Very recently turned ones can, I suppose, but it's a fairly narrow window, 'bout a week. After that time a vampire's physiology has started to change enough that succeeding at such a goal is nearly impossible. After a month it's actually impossible without the use of a pregnancy ritual. I haven't heard of one of those being used here in at least three generations, though.

"Anyway, there are a few common types of powers that are typical of European vampires. They almost always have an alternative humanoid form and one non-humanoid one. The humanoid form change is sometimes compared to the abilities of a metamorphmagus but it isn't fluid. It's always the same form every time. What that form is changes from vampire to vampire, and sometimes they don't have one at all. It's typically based on what age the vampire was turned and the circumstances under which they were turned.

"For example, I was turned at age 20 and was offered the opportunity and took it quite willingly. As a result, while I have since used a ritual to attain the appearance I had at age 18 my alternate humanoid form is still 20. In addition, my eyes turn a swirling mixture of orange, yellow, and a little pink. My hair gets a bit shorter than it is now and my face becomes gaunter as my skin pales and shadows seem to cling to me in lazy pools.

"The non-humanoid form has a trio of things it almost always is if a vampire has it. The most common is the form of a beast. Comparable to an animagus, a vampire is almost always a boar, giant bat, bear, hyena, leopard, lion, shark, or wolf. More uncommonly a vampire can instead turn into a swarm of smaller animals. Usually a swarm of bats, rats, centipedes, leeches, or spiders. The most uncommon of the three common forms is the ability to turn into mist or fog. It's the slowest of the forms, but also the most defensive.

"Nobody is one-hundred percent of what factors decide what your non-humanoid form will be. There are a few theories, but they're about as scientific as magic usually is: not very." Samantha stood from her kneeling position on the floor and looked at Holly with a smile.

"Done," Sam announced. "Take off that goofy robe and get in the middle without scuffing up my chalk lines," Holly swore she just barely heard the older woman mumble something about wizards and their abhorrent fashion sense.

Doing as requested Holly quickly but carefully removed her school robe and set it in her chair. Tiptoeing her way across the rather elaborate circle of lines and symbols Holly made it to the center without issue. She stood patiently as her tutor knelt back down and pressed just the tips of her fingers to the outer most edge of the circle and began muttering something under her breath.

Witnessing her very first ritual was kind of interesting at first, but it quickly got to be a little on the tedious side. All it looked like to Holly was standing around and muttering something. It was later explained to Holly that this was one of the more boring and simple rituals, but it tended to take a while to actually kick in. Sam blamed that on the fact that the guy who came up with it was a drunk and couldn't handle anything complex to speed it up.

Finally, after five solid minutes of nothing, all the salt-infused chalk on the floor started to glow a faint red and shimmer with sparkles of silver-white. Samantha got to her feet and started slowly circling the ritual area as she examined all sorts of swirls and nearly shapeless blobs of smoke that gently rose from various points of the chalk. Her eyes shone with a bewitching understanding gifted to her by the ritual to understand its results.

"Uncommon, but nothing overly rare," Samantha spoke up after a minute or two. "Alternative humanoid form, basis in violence as an unwilling victim will most likely result in very dark red eyes. Parts of your body will appear made of shadows as well. You won't notice much if any, difference right now, but as you get older you'll note that your alternate form will always be about your current size. The extremely short amount of time spent around the one who turned you means your alternate form will be strong and fast, but also incline you slightly towards sociopathic tendencies when in use. On the bright side, you'll be able to go trick-or-treating any time you want... Hm? You were turned by accident?"

"Uh..." Holly fidgeted in place. "I kind of stabbed him in the mouth when he had his fangs in my neck. I thought it was a needle and he was injecting me with something, so I thought to hit his hand. Turns out it was under his chin where I hit instead and most of the blood that ended up all over me wasn't mine."

Samantha chuckled darkly before continuing. "Non-Humanoid form is fog. Nothing remarkable about it, and no additional forms alongside it." She stopped and seemed to take a closer look at one particular pattern of swirling smoke. "Interesting. You've already got a thrall? No, only a partial. A willing one though, that's handy enough, I suppose. You'll be able to borrow their senses and they'll empathically know when you're in need of them but you'll be unable to give them commands."

That bit of information was rather concerning. That could only be Susan, with mention of borrowing her senses. At least it sounded like Holly hadn't accidentally stolen her best friend's free will or anything. Maybe she should stop putting off telling Susan, and maybe Amelia, about that. It was just a little creepy to stumble upon the ability to see through someone's eyes, though.

"Oddly high capacity to communicate with animals," Samantha went on, circling once more. "Snakes? Off-theme for a vampire must be a witch thing. Familiars as well, more common but will no doubt get funny looks. Can't do it yet, but good chance you'll one day be able to command spiders or bats. Smaller chance of both. You've been spending almost all your magic on powering runes? Try to find some other source of power for them or you'll quickly become exhausted once you've got a decent number of arrays going at once."

Samantha got to one particularly complex pattern of slightly darker smoke with a perplexed expression. It quickly melted into a look of mild shock and not a little bit of horror but was just as soon back to a more neutral expression. She stopped her pacing around the ritual circle and glanced down at the drawing itself. Not-so-elegantly scuffing the edge of the outer circle the entire light show abruptly stopped and she looked back up towards Holly with a smile.

"Congratulations, you're what's commonly referred to as a 'Menagerie Vampire.' I recommend bonding to several familiars at once, because unlike most everyone else you actually can, as well as getting all sorts of different kinds of familiar. Don't worry overly much if they die. As a Menagerie, you'll be able to incorporate their souls, living or recently slain, into your vampiric nature and summon them forth as shades.

"You'll also be able to bond to some rather unorthodox creatures that normal witches, wizards, or even other vampires can't. Things like magical creatures, sentient constructs, and sapient beings, like thralls."

"I-I can take people I've fed from as familiars!?" Holly reeled with that bit of news. She didn't even know how to or how not to bond with a familiar. She just kind of did with Hedwig. Did that mean Susan was already-

"No, no, no," Samantha waved her hand dismissively like this wasn't all that important. "Only full thralls, and only those that were originally magical. Whomever you have in mind is only a partial thrall. They're similarly named, but really it's better to call the latter 'Partners' instead. Thralls are individuals that you've fully drained off all their blood in a single feeding. Normally you'd think this would result in their death, and it kinda does, but it also infuses their body with quite a lot of magic. They're classified as a sort of partial undead but look and act almost entirely normal. The only differences are that they follow the commands of their master without question, you can see through their eyes, and communicate telepathically with them.

"'Partners' on the other hand are individuals that you've drained entirely over the course of several feedings. This usually takes a few months and almost never leaves them with so little blood that they'd have died. Usually. This type of thrall is usually already a friend or ally, if not some kind of prisoner. Their senses are also yours to borrow and while you're unable to command them unquestionably they'll have a sort of empathic warning system for when you need their help. They tend to get something out of each feeding, too. Pleasure, magic, and a minor buff to their physicality are the usual suspects but you can opt to also give them just a teeny tiny part of your soul and have them be a poor man's phylactery."

"What's a phylactery? And isn't removing part of your soul universally a bad thing?" Holly asked as she returned to her notebook to write down everything being said.

"A phylactery," she began with a glance towards Holly's forehead. "Is a permanent kind of soul jar, a magical... Object that the act of making turns one into a lich. It divorces the body and soul and grants a kind of immortality. The reason doing this with a partial thrall is a 'poor man's phylactery' is because it doesn't make anyone into a lich and doesn't give you immortality. In fact, it actually gives the thrall a kind of immortality. Like lending out your own long life to them for a bit. It's not perfect, but it'll make 'em last a heck of a lot longer than they normally would. I'm kind of a bad example, being a fairly moderately young vampire, but for those of us that are several hundred years old having a friend or loved one stick around for a long ass time can be pretty nice."

Holly took a few minutes of silence to catch up with her notes before looking up at Samantha. "How come it's only a 'kind of' immortality? Are we immortal?"

"Nobody's truly immortal, kid," Sam suddenly regained that weird cowboy accent. Sitting down on top of the teacher's desk once more she crossed her arms and collected her thoughts for a few moments. "We ain't gonna live forever, chances are we ain't even gonna make it to one-thousand. I s'pose it's possible to get that old as a vampire, but it's just delayin' the inevitable. We're all made of stardust, Holly, and not even the stars are forever.

"Now, I know we've got another ten minutes before your next tutor's time is supposed to start but how about we call things for now? I saw something in that ritual just now that I need to talk to Madam Amelia about."