Future Slash.

Labelled horror under a recommendation :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or YuGiOh

Chapter Six

The night passed rather uneventfully except one of them was put on a watch, that rotated after a brief discussion in hush tones so as not to wake Isis or Odion or alert them that anything was amiss. The fact Harry's mouth had erupted in blood again when the window incident occurred was the topic of discussion before they attempted to get some sleep in. They weren't quite sure why, but they had a feeling it was to do with whatever was following Harry, and whatever was following Harry had something to do with the odd mail he'd received. Harry himself ruled out the other wizards and Death Eaters he spoke of as a cause for what was going on, but didn't rule out that it may have been to do with the homicidal "Dark Lord" maniac that could have sent the beast to kill him, since he could not breach the perimeter. Harry just got odder by the day and they were starting to wonder if they had bitten off more then they could chew when it came to befriending him. Ryou wasn't quite sure why they took care of Harry, because in reality that's what they were doing. But the more he thought about it, the more he could liken the odd boy to himself. Ryou considered himself to be a nice person, just a nice person with issues. Okay, they were 3,000 year old semi-homicidal demonic issues, but he would never characterize himself by the dark attitude of the Millennium Ring. Harry was just the same, on the surface he thought it was due to a medical condition, which in reality was complete dominance over a natural element which became the accidental key into learning just how special Harry was. A wizard that defied death a couple of times, with his own personal repertoire of enemies. Maybe that's why they kept Harry, nice as he was, there was a strange comfort in knowing someone both stranger and with the capacity to be of equal dangerousness to them, if not more. It was about 3:00AM and Ryou was awake, Marik awoke shortly after because it was time to change night shifts since none of them wanted to risk that weird thing coming back and catch them unprepared.

They both decided to stay up, watching Harry twist and turn in the bed. They continued their tired, hushed conversation - pausing now and then to observe the frost creeping up around the window and the white snow that had appeared on Harry's lashes. His exhales of breathe being different to theirs, turning into ice cold mist as he slept open-mouthed. Ryou was strangely captivated by it. Marik found it odd to see, but was not quite held by as he was by the vines of frost crawling up the glass.

"He's not so bad," sighed Ryou quietly "-I feel a bit sorry for him though."

Marik let out a noncommittal noise, but his expression demanded Ryou elaborate. There was lots of reasons one could feel bad for Potter, and he wanted to know which one his friend was getting at.

"He's got so many issues, and I really don't think his relatives like him - plus he didn't have any friends around here before us, must be hard," was all Ryou said.

"Don't like him? You can say that again. The first time he coughed blood was when I went over, but his Aunt was more concerned about the vase then him," said Marik, frowning as he remembered it. He didn't comment on Harry's lack of friends, reminded of his horrible first impression he'd made.

"Maybe we should keep him over here," suggested Ryou quietly.

"I mean, just until the summer is up, I'm not up for protecting his relatives if they hate him that much - but if he stays there, won't he be in danger? You saw his face when that - thing - was at the window. If it wasn't for us, it could have probably got to him," said Ryou, and Marik could tell he could put a lot of thought into this and was a little surprised. He knew Ryou got on with Harry and was on kinder terms then he was, but he didn't know that in such a short amount of time, Ryou was concerned.

"You have a point," said Marik "-but we should probably tell Isis and Odion what's going on, right from the start. Don't want them getting a nasty surprise from that...thing," he said, worrying about his family. Ryou's expression shifted - he hadn't even thought of that, he always assumed the Ishtars were able to protect themselves but in reality it was Marik with the most power to do so.

Then, they heard another noise at the window, and they sprung up from their place - shaking Harry awake.

The window violently opened itself, making the sound of a thud echo through the room as something crawled in. It was a flurry of robes - not what they'd encountered mere hours previously. Something seemed to make the very air itself crack, heat crawled into the room and the frost on the windows melted into warm drops of water that wet the walls and the carpet in small trails.

Harry let out a sleepy groan of dissent as he felt someone pull him by the shoulders and drag him from the bed but drop him due to his bodyweight with an uncomfortable thud.

"Sorry!" squeaked Ryou, trying to pull Harry as far away from the window as Marik dealt with what had barged into their home.

Harry blinked the tiredness out of his eyes and brushed the snow from his lashes. Looking up at the apologetic teen, he stumbled to his feet and moved behind Marik once more, for the same protection.

But it was not the suited faceless beast that they had encountered mere hours previous.

"Harry?" hissed Ryou quietly, eyes never leaving the uninvited guest.

Harry didn't say anything, he remained mute - for he had no link with the person in the room. He seemed to generate their own atmosphere, and stood tall enough that a jump would have resulted in a severe head injury from the ceiling. The robes it sported were long and traditional, a deep reddish black and an almost medieval appearance to the upper shirt and overall dated yet fitting look. He had sunken red eyes, but not unusually so - with high cheekbones, sharp nose and unforgiving expression, unhidden by the brown locks that fell gracefully to his shoulders.

Marik had the Millennium Rod raised as he did before, ready to attack, but the man smiled - revealing pointed teeth. Ryou glanced at Harry's expression, Harry was fishing for his wand that he couldn't quite find and then looked up and glared from behind Marik.

"Vampire," snapped Harry - all of his senses went off and told him on some sort of primal based wizarding instinct.

"Harry Potter," it said, warmly - Marik glanced between the pair. Of course, he wanted to lunge for the thing, but Harry beat them to it. It was like watching an animal crawl out from it's nest and go into an instinctual attack mode. If either of them asked Harry how he did what he did, he probably wouldn't be able to tell them. It felt like a pure reflex that he was pulling water and perspiration from the bodies and air and sending a small, but targeted stab of ice into the face of the vampire. It was done in a single reflexive arm movement, but Ryou had never seen the feeling move from someone's face so quickly. Harry's hair seemed to be tipped with transparent, sharp spikes of frosts at their ends. The vampire seemed moderately impressed, but side-stepped the blast with mockingly slow ease.

"How the hell did you get in here? We didn't invite you in," was the first stream of words to come out of Harry's mouth and the first directed at the intruder.

The vampire tilted his head, vaguely amused that Harry saw him as the threat. Though he was pleasantly surprised that the boy knew at least something about the standard vampire - that they could not breach a mortal premises without permission. A rather ancient protective magic that was weaved into the universe, to protect mortals that were not over-lorded by magical beings, decreed that vampires could not pass through a mortal threshold. Vampires, being the embodiment of both sin, evil and lack of mortality, could only cross the safety and love within the walls of a mortal home if humans allowed them in. Allowing sin into their lives. It was like an ancient metaphor in a way, though really it's an example of natural blood wards in their purest and simplest form. That love had the ability to stop them raw in their tracks.

"Not an ordinary vampire," said the man wryly.

"I don't care how you got in here, but we're taking you out," snarled Marik.

The vampire looked mildly alarmed at this and took two steps back, holding his hands up to a surrender.

"Oh, you entirely mistake my reasons for being here," Harry gave the vampire an icy look.

"What possible good reason could you have for being here? Did Voldemort send you? I don't even know how you breached the blood wards-" rattled off Harry until the vampire stopped him raw.

"I was able to breach the blood wards because you are in no danger from me, on the contrary Harry Potter. My coven have a vested interest in keeping you," the vampire did not add alive onto the sentence, the whole thing made Harry uneasy. He noticed Ryou had changed - and though Ryou spoke of his other side as had Marik, Harry had yet to see either of them make an appearence. He had no reason to believe they'd lie about having schizophrenic alternate evil personalities for the simple reason of who would want to lie about that? Though his kind faced and nicer of the two friends, was looking sharper featured and rather cold. Not like Ryou at all.

"What - are - you?" not-Ryou asked.

The vampire ignored the question totally, but the Millennium items seemed to be fending something off, like an invisible attack. Unfortunately, Harry did not have this protection, Yami Bakura's eyes flitted to the frost boy after this realization only to see Marik doing the same - reaching the same conclusion. Harry's feet were taken the him in slow steps towards the vampire. From the glazed look in the greens of his iris's, Harry was no longer completely within his mental faculties because the possessed walk over to the vampire was one of somebody being controlled. Pulled in. That seemed to be what the Millennium Items were naturally deflecting. The vampire had his hand extended out for Harry, eyeing him down with a predatory expression.

"I have come merely for the frost boy, and you care for him Shadow Wielders, do you not?" asked the vampire.

Marik blinked, now if the guy meant harm - he was doing it slowly and neither he nor Ryou were the target. Harry seemed to be falling into the man's arms rather quickly, until for a moment, Harry seemed to fight it, life returned into his eyes and his fist tried to connect with the vampire's face.

"Really, Harry?" drawled the man. It stopped him raw and the glaze returned and the scene made Marik's skin crawl and Yami Bakura looked faintly nauseated from what was playing out infront of him, because there was something decidedly perverse hanging in the air.

Harry wanted to lunge for the intruder - to hurt him, he really did. For his moment of clarity when fighting the super natural pull towards his body, every part of him was screaming to step away from him instead of forward.

His fist had stopped at the voice curved with a tantalizing, foreign pull that made warmth pull through his insides.

He wanted to hurt the vampire.

He's too beautiful to hurt - to kill.

The thought did not felt like it belonged to him. Neither did the feelings. It was stronger then anything he'd ever encountered and worst of all it was a mixture of magical and sensual.

"Harry Potter will die soon," said the vampire, pulling the boy closer to him, and holding him by the face delicately - Harry was so far under his spell that he was unable to blink or gaze away. He looked horrifyingly vacant.

The long, creepy yet graceful fingers of the vampire, pulled at Harry gently by the chin, to have his mouth slightly agape. Operating the Frost boy like he was a porcelain mute doll, it was uncomfortable to watch

"He's already been visited by the curse of blood," said the vampire, and the fires in his red eyes seem to alight as he could smell the coppery taint of blood that had previously been within his mouth. If the vampire could resist his urge to plunge his tongue inside of the boy for the sake of everybody else in the room, he was sure he would taste the hot glory of wizard's blood.

"He's dying slowly," drawled the man, looking back up at the Ring Spirit and Marik.

"You would know this how?" snapped Yami Bakura, it was raw curiosity that he asked - but the vampire smirked regardless.

"The beast that visited your home was not one of ours, but a common enemy. Had my coven not already be undead, we'd have suffered as Harry Potter is suffering," said the vampire.

"Soon, he will be reduced to something so weak, that not even your protection will stop the beast from taking him, and when he is taken, he will die - if the beast's sickness does not take him first," it continued.

"Though your protection is more then we could offer him, I can offer him an extension of his life, you want him to live do you not?" asked the vampire.

They wanted to think he was lying through his teeth, but it felt as though he were not.

"You care for the boy, don't you Old Soul?" asked the vampire - he could practically smell it off the white-haired one, and the Egyptian come to think of it - but moreso in one direction that it made him raise an elegant brow.

Yami Bakura gave him a cold look, he would not take charge for whatever his useless host felt, but he would not contradict it either.

"Get away from him!" Marik seemed to predict what was happen far faster then Yami Bakura did, as the vampire had pulled Harry into him and dove into the nape of his white soft flesh, fangs drawn.

They had cast the vampire out on his ear before he could explain, and really Phasir needed to be there - but his piss poor explanation of things, abrupt arrival and everything else couldn't have been worse timed. But Phasir did not predict that the beast would have moved in as quick as he did - so he had to come in that very same night lest it be too late.

Marik and Ryou, who had been given back control after the danger passed, had to hold Harry down onto the bed. They heard numerous unpleasant grinding sounds coming from Harry's body internally, and Harry was gritting his teeth until he couldn't do it anymore due to the change occurring in his mouth.

For a terrifying moment, his image whited and his body was still.

For one split moment, Harry Potter was dead, as blood jutted from his jugular into the white of the bed.

Both Marik and Ryou looked ill, turning to each other in silence, Ryou about to say something in a rather broken voice until Harry's body shifted.

Harry's eyes opened once more, and silvery breathe exhaled from his open mouth once more as frost began creeping around the room, except within his mouth - were two small sharpened teeth in his upper set, exactly as the intruding vampire's had been. They put the covers over Harry so that his body could change without them looking, because the sounds alone were making them cringe. Even if through the painful change - which somehow Harry was sleeping through - was changing his body, making him taller, paler, thinner or leaner in some places and it was all together too strange and bizarrely intimate to see.

So the two sat in silence, watching the lump under the covers until finally it was still, and there was only soft snoring to be heard.

Finally, Ryou said it.

"So... that guy bit Harry,"

Marik nodded.

"I think there's more going on then any of us know, and I'm getting really confused," sighed Marik.

"I think in the morning, we should go and talk to Isis and Odion," suggested Ryou quietly.

"I think you're right,"