AN: Okay, a short chapter to get me back into the swing of things.

Nobody was particularly hungry after watching Alucard's abrupt bisection, though he appeared no worse for wear. The trio was stunned silent, dangerous magical creatures weren't supposed to be able to make it into Hogwarts...right? They upped the security since that troll attack first year and even then Quirrel had let that into the dungeon.

The students wandered out of the great hall and continued towards their classes uneasily, still reeling from the events of the day. They hadn't even made it to their first classes yet. In their minds they could hear the iager's howling in the distance.

Their first class for that day was DADA, and they were still wondering whether this was a blessing or a curse. Alucard had seemed almost… upset? ...annoyed? ...accusing?, they couldn't tell, but he certainly wasn't happy when he had spoken to Dumbledore before leaving the hall. Classes had been fine so far, but Seras had left the night before and there was no longer a buffer between them and Alucard's sour mood.

As they were internally cringing at their imaginings of what class would be like, Harry nearly ran squarely into Luna who was staring intently at a wall. He moved back a couple quick steps.

"What is it, Luna?" Hermione asked.

It was as though Luna hadn't heard her.

"Luna?" She repeated, mildly perturbed by the lack of response. The golden trio looked at the wall, wondering what she was so focused on. They approached closer to shake her shoulder to get her attention and noticed that her lips were moving.

"What is it?" Hermione repeated again, hoping for more of a response as she shook Luna's shoulder slightly to get her attention. Shaking her seemed to have no effect, though her mumbles became audible.

"Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody poor:" Luna's airy mumbles reached their ears.

The trio was now very concerned, Hermione shook her more harshly, "Luna, snap out of it. What are you saying?" Hermione said sternly, "Snap out of it, you need to go to class."

Luna was completely unperturbed.

"Come on Luna," Harry joined Hermione, "This isn't funny."

"And mercy could no more be, if all were as happy as we." Luna continued unhindered.

Harry, Ron and Hermione startled as the wall changed in their peripheral vision. Well, not so much changed, they supposed, there were now words written on the wall in a glistening crimson font that had certainly not been there previously.

Are you brave dear Headmaster?

With skin of fragile alabaster

Ensconced in flimsy walls of plaster

See my face, you'll run much faster

We'll not be found in fields of aster

Nor on lands charted by cadastre

Heed my words or face disaster

The castle will crumble to the last pilaster

Cowardly old magic caster

For even dead I'll serve my master

"Well, that's certainly ominous," Harry muttered to himself.

Luna looked to him, "Hmm," she started airily, "You can see the Snarbuls too?"

The trio, though relieved she had finally broken out of her trance, couldn't help but wonder what she was talking about. Did she not see the poem?

"Strange they would be here though. They are known to eat the ripples of between," Luna continued. "Don't let them in your ears, they can be quite damaging." She skipped off, leaving the trio more confused than before. The tardy bell rang, and they flinched. Who knew what Alucard would do to them for being tardy. Distracted from the poem, the spun on their heels and bolted through the now empty halls towards class. They looked back and were simultaneously shocked and relieved when they saw Alucard near the wall, looking at it with a disturbingly contemplative expression. They were glad he found the wall distracting as well. If he wasn't in class yet, he wouldn't know they were tardy.

Something glinted in the doorframe as they bolted through the door into the classroom, causing all the other students to flinch. They looked back, but there was nothing there until Alucard strided through the door. The class was shocked, he never used the door, but he seemed distracted. Alucard glanced around the classroom and his demonic smirk returned to normal when his eyes landed on a glistening red smudge on the wall in the corner of the room. The smear was near the ceiling, where nobody but spiders could reach. But, Alucard had returned to his normal demeanor, and the class sat in rapt attention, not wanting to anger the unstable professor.

Alucard looked around at the students, his insane toothy grin back in full force. He hissed something, seemingly to himself, as he stalked to the center of the room.

"Change of plans," he announced, "We will be learning practical combat."

The class wasn't sure what the plans had been, but this was at least good. They could learn to defend themselves. That was what DADA was supposed to be about anyway, right?

"The presence of iagers both follows and brings death. As we encountered one this morning, understanding them and being able to combat them has become immediately relevant to your survival. What do you currently know about iagers?" His grin had gone from its usual insane smirk to a predatory bloodlust that was infinitly more disturbing.

The students looked to each other. Even Hermione looked lost though.

A student ventured nervously, "Do they have anything to do with the Grimm? I thought that was just a symbolic omen in divinations though…" they trailed off.

"So, you know basically nothing," Alucard concluded looking around the classroom, "I suppose I'm not surprised," he huffed.

Several students hunched, ashamed at the the tone. They truly felt inadequate. Hermione was on the verge of tears, interpreting disappointment from the now blank expression of their professor.

"I suppose I can't fault you though," he continued, and the class looked up hopefully, "documentation is undoubtedly sparse."

Hope turned to confusion, and a brave Slytherin piped up, "Why?"

"I believe that I've previously mentioned that history is written by the victors?" Alucard prompted and several heads nodded quickly, wondering where he was going with this, "then it follows that where there are no victors, there is no history."

Ice ran through their veins as they tried to come to terms with what the professor meant. Were iagers really that bad? It hadn't seemed too terribly powerful, certainly not as bad as dementors. And if they were so bad, what did encountering one during breakfast mean? How could something be so terrible that their presence hadn't even been documented? The bloodthirsty smirk was back in full force as he heard their thoughts.

Harry, however was staring at his hands tucked in his lap. No victors, he thought…

One breath...two breaths…

He recalled the stalemate between himself and Voldemort. A stalemate had no victors right?

No, a stalemate had two victors. I all depended on how you defined victory. Alucard wouldn't have thought of the loss over a petty dispute, or even a few lives as a defeat. No, no victors wasn't a stalemate, no victors was the grimm assurance that not only were there no victors now, it meant that there could be no victors from that point forward.

A stalemate, he concluded had two victors, or at least two potential victors. Two sides remaining to fight another day, or make peace another day, or stare at their hands as they twiddled their thumbs, he almost laughed to himself.

An execution, a victory over one, justice served in the most absolute method. A massacre, a war for a cause, a victory over many. A genocide, a victory over even more. All words for loss...all words for victory, given just a slight variance in perspective. Was there even a word for a conflict that had no victors? He wondered. No, there wouldn't be, would there? His smirk became hollow and mirthless, there would be nobody to invent it.

He wondered how Alucard knew so much about their existence.

One breath...two breaths…

Alucard broke the long, contemplative silence wearing a smirk tinged with insanity. An expression Harry was coming to understand better than he would have wished.

"Iagers are attracted to vast quantities of death and despair. The don't come from anywhere, they come from the nowhere. Where there are no victors they spawn from the nothing to devour the hopeless remains." He paused to look at the student expressions. Unsurprisingly, they were looking a bit green.

He continued, "Physically, they are incredibly powerful and they travel in packs. The more death, the larger the pack," he paused again to look around the class, "they never travel alone." The class gulped. "Fortunately for you, they are weak to magic and are incredibly averse to traveling on grounds saturated with magical power." The students looked relieved until Alucard removed his glasses to meet their eyes,

"Unfortunately for you, whatever called the iagers is always more dangerous than the iagers themselves. Iagers do not exist outside of war-torn anguish-ridden landscapes. They are the ravens that pick the eyes from a bound man. Whatever called them brought enough pain, suffering, madness and death to resonate through the planes and call the iagers from the void, the nothing, the hollow world."

The class sat in stunned silence.

"Practice your offensive and defensive spells, next class we're going on a field trip." He concluded, and dismissed the class with his usual smirk.