Chapter 10

"Isn't it a lovely night?"

Draco was quivering by the time Harry's question had left his mouth. He didn't move, didn't breath. Harry stared at him, not smiling anymore. Harry's eyes were suddenly very lost, his mouth dangling open, and his fangs visible. It took Draco a minute to realize Harry wasn't breathing.

'Oh, God,' thoughtHarry, as he took in Draco's terrified expression, he could hear Draco's heartbeat pounding in his ears.

Draco was completely abashed when he saw Harry's face suddenly fall; a red streak ran down from the corner of his eye. Harry let out a broken noise; something between a sob and a cry of pain, and in the blink of an eye was on the other side of the room, his eyes wide, and hands clutching his hair.

Taking the opportunity to stand, Draco moved very slowly, positive he was still in danger, and inched further away from Harry. His Slytherin instincts kicking in, he fell into the shadows of a pillar, and moved nearer to the door.

Draco crept closer to the exit, eyes never leaving Harry, who hadn't moved an inch. Draco abruptly broke into a dash, resisting screaming as he ran, to the door. As his hand touched the knob, Harry was suddenly in front of him. Draco gasped loudly, but didn't let go of the knob.

"Draco." Harry no longer spoke predatorily, but urgently and sorrowfully, "I'm sorry." Draco stared at him a minute, taking in the red smears running down his cheeks and his round eyes, before sprinting full speed to the Slytherin Dorms.

Draco wasn't sure he would ever get Harry's stricken face out of his mind.

XXX

Harry angrily wiped the blood from under his eyes as he trekked slowly back to Gryffindor Tower, he spoke softly to himself, "What is wrong with me?

"A month ago I would have killed Malfoy without a care in the world. Then I would have gone back to the hideout with Angeline, and we would have fucked for the rest of the night and slept through the day.

"What a great life I had."

Though Harry would prefer to remain nonchalant about his return to the wizarding world he couldn't help the ball of panic sitting the bottom of his stomach. He felt very much like he had the day after he had been turned.

That memory was a very difficult one for Harry to relive. After all, Angeline had taken humanity from him, and pushed him into a dark world of murder and blood and pain.

'And sex,' Harry smirked at this thought, that part had certainly not been so horrible.

Harry allowed himself to wander until he lost track of time.

A streak of sunlight came through a window that was twenty or so feet above his head, missing Harry, who gasped harshly and began sprinting in all his vampiric glory, by mere inches.

Harry ran until he'd reached the Gryffindor common room, barking the password at a half-asleep Fat Lady, who seemed less than pleased. Harry dashed, making no noise, into his dorm.

Ignoring his roommates (though, he was happy to note that while Dean and Neville were both in the communal restroom, Seamus and Ron had yet to wake) he pulled the potions Snape had created from his trunk and downed them swiftly.

Relief flooded him, the room was slowly filling with daylight, and though Harry no longer felt any pain, the sun felt uncomfortably warm and humid on his skin, which nearly glowed in its translucent white.

Harry changed his robes in preparation for Transfiguration, and made his way down to the Great Hall. Sure, he didn't need breakfast, but it was always good to keep up appearances. He strolled through the common room and out the entrance, barely pausing to register the other people looming about, he continued on his way until he realized…

"Oh! Oh," the pig's blood.

Harry stopped, looking back the way he came, contemplating whether or not he should return to the dorm, where the vial of pig's blood Dumbledore had given to him for his first day of school was tucked safely is a pair of mustard yellow sock in the trunk at the foot of his bed.

A smirk grew on his face, no matter what had happened with Draco, no matter any sliver of humanity that had slipped into his conscious, first and for most: Harry Potter was a monster. There was no way a silly school full of silly human children was going to let him forget that.

Continuing on his way , Harry thought to himself, 'You would do well to remember, Harry Potter, that Angeline is your maker, and your life, before anyone else, belongs to her.'

He nodded, 'I must never allow myself to be so distracted by a human again. I am not human; all of these people are merely sacks of water and blood that are there for my taking. Their pointless mortal lives will end eventually anyway. '

Harry grinned remembering Angeline speaking nearly the same words.

'I may as well stop their suffering.'

XXX

Harry was one of the first students in the Great Hall; one other Gryffindor, a handful of Ravenclaws, two Slytherins, and four Hufflepuffs were his only other company.

Harry didn't eat, but reclined as far back as he could manage on the wooden bench, hands gripping the seat, he let out an exaggerated sigh.

Harry made eye contact to a little blonde Hufflepuff, 13 or 14, from across the hall. Her mouth fell open, eyes wide; Harry smiled seductively and raised an eyebrow at her.

The girl looked as if someone had dropped a million galleons in front of her, or as if someone had told her that her entire family had been killed in a fire, Harry couldn't really tell the difference anymore. Harry licked his lips, eyeing her; she turned bright red, a piece of chewed food falling from her open mouth.

Another Hufflepuff, a skinny, brown haired, boy looked at her confusedly from her left side; he looked up, following her gaze to Harry.

The boy paused for a minute, before glaring at him suspiciously, and tapping the girls shoulder and talking to her quickly, sparing Harry very displeased glances every so often.

Harry huffed, disgruntled with the boy for ruining his fun.

People slowly began filtering into the hall, and taking their established stop at their established tables. Harry noticed as everyone sat in the same places they had sat at the feast last night, and probably the same places that they had sat for years before.

'How very mundane.'

Were all humans this boring? There was no way Harry would be able to waste his time in this hole learning. He couldn't take this dull feeling in his stomach. He would hate to have a schedule memorized of what he did each day.

'This is simply not going to work.'

Ron and Hermione took their seats across from him. Interesting, because having just returned, Harry thought they would both be dying for a spot at his side. His eyebrows shot up at their cautious eyes, 'So that's how it is,' he thought, before speaking, "Hey, guys."

Their caution didn't waver.

Hermione was the first to speak, "Why, hello, Harry."

Then Ron, "Yeah, hey, Harry."

Harry blinked, 'Oh, brilliant. Just fucking brilliant.'

He did not want to deal with this, he could barely stop his eyes from rolling. Feeling defeated, he spoke "Why are you saying my name like that?"

"Like what?" Said Ron, eyes still narrowed to slits, "Like what, Harry?"

Hermione looked very much the same, "What do you mean, Harry? We're just saying your name. I mean, that is your name, right Harry?"

'Unbelievable. Ruddy unbelievable. What a lot of fucking idiots. What, I'm an impersonator? Seriously? Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Hermione used to be the smart one, didn't she?'

Harry was lost in his thoughts, a quizzical look on his face.

"Uhm, guys? What are you talking about?" Neville was speaking from Ron's right side, looking confused.

Ron shrugged, failing miserably in his attempt at looking sarcastic, "Well, Nev, Harry here is just acting a little off, wouldn't you say? Seems a bit different, now doesn't he? WELL. Just wondering what that is about, now aren't we?"

On her part, Hermione seemed a bit peeved and embarrassed at the way Ron was handling the situation, "We're just looking to understand your behavior, Harry. What's happened to you?"

Harry nearly couldn't hold back the urged to leap across the table and throttle the little human moron, "I told you, Hermione, it's been a very long and difficult five months for me. I've been through a lot. Anyone is bound to change after that."

Still unconvinced, 'of course', but dropping it for now, Ron and Hermione filled their plates and began to eat.

Hermione stopped mid-raising her fork, and looked at Harry oddly, "Aren't you eating?"

'Mother fucker.'

Harry smiled indulgently and picked up a piece of buttered toast, taking a bite and holding back his gag reflex, he chewed slowly and then swallowed painfully. He continued this procedure until the toast was gone.

Saying a quick goodbye he walked gracefully from the hall, before breaking into an all out run into the nearest bathroom and proceeding to puke the entire contents of his very unhappy stomach into the toilet.

XXX

Hermione watched Harry stiffly say goodbye and march out of the hall.

He had done absolutely nothing to deter her apprehension. She and Ron were going to get to the bottom of this. Did Dumbledore know about this? Did he truly think this person was Harry? She'd have to talk to him. Maybe he set this up.

Surely Dumbledore would know what was going on.

She turned to Ron, "I'm sure Dumbledore will know what's going on."

Ron's mouth was moving around an enormous bite of sausage, he struggled to chew, and when he finally managed to swallow he nodded and said, "Sure, 'Mione. Let's talk to 'im after Transfiguration."

XXX

'What the fuck. What the fuck! What the FUCK. What. The. Fuck. WHAT THE FUCK?"

Malfoy's were not meant to deal with situations like these. This was too much. A vampire. A bleedin' vampire! This was horrible.

Draco stared intensely at Harry from the Slytherin table. He didn't look at him. How could he not look at him?

Draco rubbed the spot on his neck where Harry had bit him during their…Well 'a throw of passion' is what Draco's mother would have called it, he supposed.

Harry had healed the wound directly after the incident itself, but Draco swore he could still feel it. Like it burned or something akin to that.

'Oh, what the fuck!' Harry was walking rigidly out of the hall, looking stoic and ill.

What could he do? Draco's mind wandered to his options, 'I mean, Merlin! Do they know about this?' helookedtotheheadtablethoughtfully, but they seemed undisturbed, 'Should I tell someone? Does Dumbledore know? I mean, he has to, right? There can't be a fucking vampire in the school he doesn't know about, yeah? Alright. I should go to Snape! Then again, Snape might just get Harry thrown out immediately. Well, as he should be! He's a vampire! I mean, really.'

He nodded his head, decision made.

'Draco. I'm sorry.' Harry's shattered face flashed through his mind.

"Shit," he muttered.

XXX

Transfiguration was hell. Absolute hell.

Harry was not up for this. Not at all. It was sunny, and the windows were killing him, a gnawing ache in the back of his head was growing with every second in the classroom.

McGonagall was spouting incantations and wand waving advice, but Harry really couldn't see the point. He'd gotten a new wand, as Angeline had destroyed his after his turning, but it really wasn't the same. He hoped it was losing his wand that made him lose interest in magic, but it could be that he was just legitimately bored with it.

Harry closed his eyes, completely exhausted. He would never get used to being awake in the day.

Harry sighed in relief when the class was dismissed. As he stood to leave the class, with other warm human bodies walking past him, he suddenly felt very awake.

Harry felt his pupils dilate, he snapped his mouth shut as his fangs elongated. The hunger hit him out of nowhere; Draco's blood had been enough to sustain him until now. He stopped breathing as he made his way out of the classroom.

For whatever reason Ron and Hermione had dashed as quickly as possible from the class the moment they could, Harry considered himself very lucky, as he wasn't sure he could stand another of their accusatory conversations.

As hard as he tried not to breath, Harry couldn't help the scent permeating his nostrils as he moved through the hall. He walked past Draco, who openly stared at him, eyebrows knit together, taking in Harry's tense features. Harry refused to make eye contact and brushed past Draco swiftly.

As Harry made his way out of the school and onto the grounds, he felt no better than he had. The sun beat down on him, unfiltered now, and made him feel like he would collapse at any minute.

He was so hungry.