Chapter One

Not Normal

Ok, so this is my first attempt of a chapter fic; I could use all the help I can get. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, I claim nothing. I tried to think of a way to make a believable H/D story and then I realized that in the HP world it just isn't possible to work in Harry and Draco. I stuck to everything but HBP never happened. Ok, here it goes!

It was close to midnight on the gloomy street known as Privet Drive. It is always a gloomy street; it is always gloomy and quiet for every resident but Harry Potter. For Harry Potter, not one stay at Privet Drive had ever been quiet, not since Harry has turned eleven.

This particular night was the boy named Harry Potter's birthday and he had stayed awake all night thinking about it. Ever since his discovery of the wizarding world, the magical world, he had wondered what it would be like to be of age, to use his magic outside of school. So Harry had laid in his bed tonight, counting the minutes to twelve o'clock and thinking about such things as passing his apparating test and what hex he would use first on Dudley, his whale of a cousin.

Harry only had five minutes to go and he was getting really anxious. Would he feel different? Would it be a physical change too? Would he glow for a while! No one had ever told him if anything ever happened when wizards came of age. Harry watched the clock and started counting when it turned 11:59. Sixty… fifty-nine…and so on until he was to ten. At one his heart did a little flip and he lay motionless waiting… waiting… nothing.

So, that was it? Well, that was no big deal. He got up off the bed and walked to his desk where he retrieved a piece of wrinkled parchment and a pen, since he had broken his last quill after he got pissed at his potions essay and had artfully thrown it at the wall. Harry began his letter to his two best friends:

Dear Ron and Hermione,

I don't know where this letter will find you. Since Voldemort was defeated a few months ago… I'm still fine, Hermione, really, no emotional back-lash… I realize that you are not at the Order headquarters. I just turned seventeen a few minutes ago and I honestly don't feel any different. I mean, what is supposed to happen? I really hope you are having fun; the Dursly's are being tolerable, I'm really bored and…

Harry stopped writing; he had just felt a shooting pain in his head. Maybe he was just tired? Harry shook his head and tried to concentrate on the letter but then a wave of pain so powerful hit his body it took all his training for the battle to keep from screaming. It was like his blood was on fire, his head was being crushed, and his teeth hurt like they were all being pulled from his head with an invisible pair of pliers.

Harry wasn't sure what coming if age entailed but he knew this was not normal. He struggled to stand up since at some point in time he had fallen to the floor. He grabbed the pen on the desk and hastily finished his letter:

wave of pain just hit

not normal

need help now

please hurry

Harry looked up to find Hedwig in front of him with worried eyes. He some how managed to tie the letter to her leg and whisper, "hurry" before he fell to the floor with a groan. The pain was intense and every where. Harry closed his eyes and gritted his teeth; that hurt even more because his gums and teeth were so sore. He didn't know how to make the pain stop or what was wrong with him and all he could think was that he was dying from some disease, muggle or wizard he didn't know.

Harry made it to his bed on his hands and knees, crawled in and curled into a ball. Another flash of pain hit seconds later and he screamed into his pillow before he passed out completely with the thought that whoever Ron and Hermione told was going to find that savior of the wizarding world huddled in a ball on his bed, dead.

A bright light? Voices? Those were never good signs. Harry decided that he didn't want to open his eyes yet. If he was dead, he wasn't ready to face it and if he wasn't… he wasn't ready to face them.

"Harry. Harry." That sounded like Madam Pomfrey? Why was he in the infirmary at Hogwarts? Was that his heaven? Hogwarts? Was he a ghost?

Harry opened his eyes to find the medi-witch and Dumbledore looking at him with worry lines all over their faces. In fact, Dumbledore's' hands were shaking with worry.

"You gave us quite a scare… your friends were in a right state… and then when we found you… never in my life… my goodness…" the medi-witch was checking him over as she babbled. She was spelling and prodding and poking. Finally, after affirming he was well she exited the room and he turned to the Head Master.

"Sir?" it was all Harry had to say as he saw Dumbledore sigh he new he wasn't going to like what he heard.

"Harry, before you were conceived, your father was in an accident." Harry looked at Dumbledore in puzzlement.

"An accident, sir? Like a car crash?" Harry was a little confused… ok, a lot confused.

"No, not a crash Harry, he was attacked, in a way…" Dumbledore seemed to be looking for words.

"By an animal?" Harry prompted.

"No. No. Not an animal, a Carpathian." Dumbledore looked at the confused look on Harry's face and took a deep breath. "Back when Voldemort was powerful, wild creatures, other nasty things, were becoming prominent, showing up more, coming out of hiding. Your father was fighting in a battle with the Order when he was bitten. You see, Carpathians are like vampires, but they are not, they look like humans, and they are in a way."

"Sir, you are not making much sense." Harry knew his voice was slightly aggressive.

"Carpathians are an ancient race;vampires descended from them. A Carpathian looks like a human and is actually alive… they drink blood from their mate to live longer. They are not monsters, just humans with weird appetites. Carpathians can be good and evil, just like everything else; some of them chose to side with Voldemort and one bit your father."

"But, what does that have to do with me?" Harry was starting to get anxious about what the headmaster was saying. What was going on?

"Well, it is my belief that when the Carpathian bit your father he transferred a little of his blood and then your father transferred it to you by conception. The change you went through last night was your body getting use to the Carpathian blood in you, which, I believe only made itself known because you came of age."

"So, I'm Carpathian now? I have to drink blood? I have to kill people!" Harry was starting to become hysterical.

"That is not what I said Harry. Listen to me." Dumbledore said in a firm voice, "The only changes you will see are a thirst for blood, which I will take care of. You will not have to hurt anybody. You will experience an increase in power and a pull to find a mate."

"A what?" Harry was really trying to take it all in. He had to drink blood. That was it, that was what Dumbledore was saying. All he had to do was get used to blood. What was a mate?

"A mate, Harry. All Carpathians have a mate. You have very little Carpathian blood in you so the pull to find your other half might not be so strong for you, but if you do find the person, you will know." Dumbledore smiled.

"So, I will be more powerful and I will have help finding my soul mate and all I have to do is get used to drinking blood for all my meals?" Harry was slowly starting to cope; he still had a damn headache.

"I'm glad you have decided to look on the positive side Harry. Now, I have taken the liberty of telling everyone who needs to know about this, uh… situation. I knew that they would want an explanation and I wanted to give you the benefit of not having to answer questions. It will be up to you to tell others." Dumbledore gave Harry one last smile and turned to walk out of the infirmary.

"Sir?" Harry called after the headmaster.

"Yes."

"Are Ron and Hermione around? Can I see them later?"

"Oh, yes. They were both at the Burrow when they got your letter, but have now decided to stay at Hogwarts for the rest of the summer. There are some other students here as well." Harry was sure he saw that old twinkle in Dumbledore's' eyes when he said that. "They will come see you tomorrow. I am sure they are concerned for you. If I didn't know better I would say they were in the library right now and Ms. Granger will no doubt try to brief you tomorrow on everything I have told you."

"Thank you Headmaster." Harry lay back down to get some sleep and get rid of the lasting effects that his "change" had caused.

Harry thought morosely of the weeks following his defeat of Voldemort. How he had thought life would get better. Now, here he was, a Carpathian. Life just seemed to throw things at him more than any other person. Oh, well! Sleep now, think later. With this thought the Boy-Who- Lived- to be a Carpathian drifted off to sleep.

"Hey mate? You up?"

"Ron! Let him sleep."

"Sorry."

"Does he look different to you?"

"No."

"Oh, why am I asking you? Thank you Mr. Observant."

Harry woke up to the sound of his two best friends bickering. He loved that sound. He opened his eyes and reached for his glasses on the bed side table. He then slid them on, sat up, and realized everything was blurry. He took them off and he could clearly see the confused expressions on his friends' faces. That was odd. So, the change had corrected his vision. Harry considered this another plus. He finally turned his attention to his friends, who were looking at him with curiosity and perplexity.

"So, you don't need your glasses anymore?" Hermione was, as always, the first to start drilling him with questions.

"I guess not…"

"Well, we know everything and we were really scared for you but this is not that bad. You don't have any of the crippling characteristics that vampires do so you are like a human that likes blood. You can use us for sustenance if you get hungry. But, you will defiantly find a mate soon and then you won't need us…"

"Wait!" Harry stared at Hermione like she had lost it, "I am NOT going to snack on you or Ron. I won't! I can get use to this and I'm glad you guys support me, it means a lot, but I absolutely refuse to "feed" from you guys." Harry looked at them defiantly.

"Harry, you only need to take from us once, just so we are comfortable with it, just if there is an emergency." Hermione looked rather stern about it even though her voice was light. Harry just sighed and decided to fight it later.

"Do you know if I can leave yet?" Harry looked around for the medi-witch.

"I think you can." Ron was also looking around for Madam Pomfrey, "I say you get dressed and we all leave. I want lunch."

"Of course you do." Hermione patted Ron on the head in a mock-sympathetic gesture and Harry went into the bathroom to change.

The three friends set out for the Great Hall a little while later, ready to catch up on summer happenings, cure Ron's hunger pains, and act as normal as their lives would let them… which wasn't very normal at all.

Ok… what do you think? I'm getting there… maybe? The term Carpathian comes from the author Christine Feehan. Her Carpathians are a little more vampiric than mine but both can be good in a sense. Let me know how you feel about the story. If I don't get a lot of responses I will probably go back to reading and leave fiction writing to the people who know what they are doing. Ash