AN: I don't own anything except the general ideas but nothing originating from Harry Potter belongs to me in any way shape or form. A few characters you don't recognize are mine, but not much.
Prologue
Throughout time man has tried to look forward, to be aware of what will come to pass. Sometimes man will become so obsessed with the future that the present will be overlooked.
Horatio Evans was not one of these men. Horatio believed in living the present to its fullest. It was that quality that attracted the vampiric society to him. He had a flare for life that very few were lucky enough to possess, and it led many vampires to wanting to possess him.
One such vampire was a man by the name of Severus Morambath Draug of the Wolven Clan, known by many as The Commander or as The Demon Prince.
Severus cornered a young Horatio outside a pub one evening. He had watched the twenty year old for sometime and planned on bringing him into the blood that night.
But that was not how history had decided to write itself. Severus couldn't bring himself to destroy the light in Horatio's eyes and so he let him live. From that day on, Severus vowed to watch over Horatio and not allow any other vampire to destroy what he had dubbed as "pure innocence."
As for Horatio, the near death experience with a creature he knew could not be of this world changed him. He held onto the flare for the present, but he added to it planning for the future. He settled down and grew up. He married a good woman and she soon gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But he always felt he was being watched. At least once a week he dreamt of the other worldly creature, but instead of the creature aiming to kill him, the creature fought other beasts and protected him. Each dream ended with the thing-man giving him a smirk.
As for the many vampires of the area, they maintained their interest in Horatio, but it wasn't for the original reasons. Over the years, it became obvious that Severus cared for the human. Severus was infamously powerful and near untouchable, but a sure way to get to him was to go after his human. Severus knew he'd have to leave the shadows soon.
That day came all too quickly. Horatio left his workplace late one evening. He took a short cut through lesser known streets to get home.
He regretted the decision as soon as he saw five men wearing cloaks like the ones he frequently saw in his dreams. One of the men made to grab him as another unsheathed a wicked looking blade, "We're gonna cut you up nice for your protector. Make him see we have arrived in this city!"
"A simple written notice would have sufficed," A tall man at the entrance of the alley said as he slowly made his way to the group. One of the men not restraining Horatio pulled out the oddest looking pistol he'd ever seen, not unnoticed by the hooded man, though.
Hood-man clucked his tongue in disappointment, "I thought you said you had 'arrived,' thought you meant business and you pull a gun the moment you see me. You are arrogant children trying to play an adults game," he looked down, shaking his head, "Let the human go and deal with me with honor," he all but spat.
"Stay away from us demon! Or-or we'll knife your human right now!" the man with the pistol said, his gun nearly shaking out of his hand.
"You disappoint me," Severus said in a tone filled with sadness as he lowered his hood, "I thought perhaps I wouldn't have to kill you, but you leave me no choice."
Severus moved in a flash, snapping the necks of two of the assailants before any of them could react, he went for the one with the knife next but not before the gun man succeeded in launching three bullet like syringes into his side. He hissed in pain but paid no other mind as he used the blade to slit the throat of its owner then launching it into the chest of the gunman.
One assailant remained breathing, using Horatio's body as a barrier between the protective vampire and himself.
"So you've arrived?" Severus snarled, "I'll let you live, but only so you can tell your clansmen that no one touches what is mine; I care little of what they do otherwise in this city, that is the prince's concern, but touch what is mine again and I'll hunt down you and every creature bound to your blood!"
Severus stood tall as the terrified vampire ran away whimpering. He could see Horatio gaping at him, recognition clear in his eyes, but as he tried to speak he could feel the poison taking root in his veins. His weight became too much to support as he dropped to his knees. The last thing he knew was a pair of arms lifting him from the ground and a panicked voice asking him what was wrong.
He woke up in some sort of basement; he could smell that musk and mold of an old house. He could also smell his human upstairs. 'He saved me,' he thought to himself, a part of him touched that his human brought him into his home when he was in need. Another part of him wondered how the hell his human could be so stupid as to bring a stranger-or worse yet, a man who'd tried to kill him in the past- into his house, to offer him care when he just saw that person kill four others and scare the shit out of a fifth. Even though he only killed them to protect Horatio, himself, it was still risky.
Severus got up from his cot, a quick survey of the room confirmed his suspicions, and it was indeed a basement. It was at that time that Horatio came down from the stairs, stiffening when he noticed Severus was not only awake but up and walking as well. Severus could smell the fear rolling off of him in waves.
"I came down to check your bandages," Horatio said, trying to keep his voice from belaying how nervous he was.
Severus raised an eyebrow at the word bandages. Looking down, he noticed the absence of his shirt and the presence of whit gauze wrapped around his middle. Slowly, never taking his eyes off Horatio, he moved back to his cot and sat down.
After a moment, Horatio cautiously picked up a stool from near the bottom of the stairs and placed it close to where Severus was sitting. He slowly moved his hands to where the cloth was fastened, prepared to move back should anything seem to anger the creature before him.
"Those needles left some pretty nasty holes in you, I was afraid they'd get infected. I didn't think it'd be wise to take you to a hospital seeing as you're not exactly human-"
"What makes you think that?" He asked smoothly, quirking an eyebrow at the clearly frightened to unhealthy amounts human.
"Well- I mean- you- How could you be?-I mean-"
"Don't worry yourself unnecessarily, your assumptions are correct," the human let out a sigh of relief.
"Well I wasn't exactly sure what they put into you," Horatio explained as he started unwrapping Severus' bandages, "so I gave you some general antitoxin but I wasn't sure if it would help or-," Horatio stopped talking when he removed the last of the bandages.
"The marks- they're gone!" Horatio exclaimed, clearly baffled.
"Your antitoxin must have done wonders, Horatio," Severus stated while smiling at the other man's befuddlement.
The man tore his eyes away from the miraculously clear skin, "How do you know my name?"
"I know a lot of things," Severus disregarded Horatio's question, "Why did you give me shelter?"
"You were injured saving my life, what else would I do?" Horatio said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Perhaps in a better world it would be, Severus mused.
Severus stood to leave, "Well regardless of your reasoning, I thank you. Those years ago I didn't kill you because of the light in your eyes, now I see you also carry it in your heart. I give you my friendship."
"Wait," Horatio said, standing as well, "Don't go yet."
"Do not worry, my human, now that you have seen me, I will not disappear. We will be in touch."
With that, Severus teleported out of the room, leaving behind a stunned Horatio who now had to explain to his wife where the man who was in their basement, the man he absolutely couldn't bring to the hospital even though he was bleeding on their carpet on the way in, had gone to without using the only exit in the room.
True to his word, Severus did not disappear from Horatio's life.
The deaths Severus dealt out in response to attacks on Horatio lessened the amount of vampires who chose to challenge Severus considerably. It became ordinary for Severus to pop in on Horatio to do nothing more than chat or to dine with the human family. Severus couldn't, nor did he desire to describe why he enjoyed and continued his friendship with the human. When asked by one of his clansmen, he merely stated he held a fascination for the human condition and left it at that.
As time went by, he came to genuinely care for the steadily growing human family. In the beginning, if they got sick, he would slip drops of his blood into their drinks to get them better. He only ever gave blood to Horatio and his eldest son, but with this sort of medicine, they began to change. They didn't turn into vampires, but they ceased being mere humans. Their aging seemed slower than their other relatives and their senses were sharpened. When the first grandchild was born, Severus stopped gifting his blood. He noticed that while the child did not resemble a vampire, it definitely inherited several characteristics from him.
Some vampires were gifted with "the sight." Judging by his dreams, it was a gift Horatio was already predisposed to, the vampiric blood only strengthened it.
Nightly, Horatio received visions of a young man plagued by an overwhelming burden to eliminate a darkness. In the end the darkness would always swallow him whole and destroy him.
Night after night, he saw the different tortures the boy was forced to live though; every morning he woke up in tears. Finally, on one evening he mentioned it to Severus; telling him about the boy he knew was his great-great-grandchild. Horatio didn't know how he knew, but he was convinced the boy would survive if he had someone to look over him, a guardian. The boy was always so alone in his dreams.
"Please Severus; there must be something you can do for my grandson. You are immortal; you will be around when I am no longer here. You can watch over him," Horatio tried to obtain an agreement from Severus to save his boy from the darkness.
"Horatio, you are my friend, and your family is important to me," Severus began, "but it is not my place to interfere in the lives of mortals."
"That didn't stop you from interfering with mine," Horatio practically shouted.
Severus' instincts told him to punish the human for thinking he was allowed to scream at him, but he kept himself in check, "Horatio, I will not change my mind," Severus said, keeping the demon within him from showing as much as he could.
But the demon wanted out, Severus normally dark brown eyes shifted to completely black as the demon sought for dominance over the vampire. Horatio saw this and decided to appeal to the demon if the vampire wouldn't help him.
"Severus, you've told me your demon requires you to feed on souls in addition to the blood that all vampires need. In exchange for promising to protect my great-great-grandchild, I offer you my blood and soul." Momentarily Horatio thought Severus would accept, he saw the demon's eyes widen in hunger, but then the black pits shifted to an electric blue, shifting faster than Horatio had ever seen in the eighty plus years he'd known Severus and signaling the vampire's anger at the suggestion.
"How can you offer me such a thing?" Severus questioned his human as he stalked menacingly towards him, "You know better than most what lengths I go to in order to control my demon. I spend half my time paying for something I had no control over. When those demons abducted me into hell and used me as their guinea pig to see if a demon with a soul was possible, I was sentenced to a life of barely managing to protect that soul from damnation, and you offer me a chance to do exactly what makes that side of me stronger?"
"But you've said you must feed on souls in order to survive, if I willingly give you mine it is one less innocent you must destroy," Horatio argued.
"And what about the guilt that will eat away at me for destroying someone I love, turning them into nothingness? No, I won't do it. I reject your offer," Severus shouted, barely maintaining control over the various beasts within him.
"Please, Severus, the boy needs you. I don't know what else I can do," Horatio pleaded with Severus. Horatio was no longer a young man, but he begged on his knew clutching the coat of the never aging man before him.
The offer tempted Severus so much it scared him. He yanked his coat from the grip of the old man and stormed from the home of his human friend before teleporting away. He couldn't trust himself to retain control of his demon in the presence of a willing soul any longer.
He left his friend in shambles, unfortunately it was the last time he'd ever see the human alive. Plagued by the nightmares in addition to the symptoms of old age, Horatio succumbed to death at the age of one hundred two.
Severus was overcome with guilt at leaving Horatio like he did. He loved the human dearly, as if they were blood brothers. One early morning, three weeks after the funeral, Severus visited his human's grave.
He stood before the headstone, still as the death around him. He wore his customary black jacket, the same one Horatio once clutched to, in addition to a black button down and black dress slacks. His silky black hair was pulled back reaching to a point in the middle of his upper back, revealing all the strong lines of his face. A single tear fell from his dark as night eyes.
"I will protect your child, Horatio. I will protect him just as I protected you, my human. Goodbye, my brother."
He stood there for several more hours without moving a single part of his body, a beautiful statue.
He knew he would keep his vow; he'd die before breaking it.