Forever Knight | By : AdamantEve Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 15409 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
Author’s
notes: Most of the story’s first few chapters (‘cept
the Prologue) pick up after “Half-Blood Prince”, but it won’t be all about year
seven. This is a relatively dark fic, with
vampires and other dark creatures. It starts
out weird enough, anyway.
Standard
disclaimers apply. I don’t own anything
in the Potter-verse. But if I did, I
would be—like, so down with it, dude.
Chapter rating: R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prologue:
Now
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a night like this one
long before when Hermione Granger became the center of his life. He didn’t know back then that was what
happened. All he knew was that she had
appeared at the Dursley doorstep and quite possibly
shifted his understanding of love.
The rain outside the glass window
showed no sign of abating and it was cooler than any of them would have
liked.
Grimmauld Place, though
dependable against heat or cold, was no place for gaiety and good cheer. Even its name bespoke of itself: Grim Old
Place. It was perfect for some things
and totally inappropriate for others.
One certainly would do better not to have a wedding in it. It would feel too much like dooming a
marriage even before it started. It was,
however, perfect for funerals and solemn Order of the Phoenix meetings.
So its function right now was
perfect. There were three black coffins
in the basement and three vampires to match it.
Twenty-two year old Harry Potter
didn’t know why he wasn’t more bothered.
After all, vampires had that reputation of fancying fresh blood,
preferably while it was still pumping alive through their victims’ veins. But he wasn’t afraid. Apart from being strong enough and
experienced enough to withstand their more direct attacks, Harry had complete
faith in the one vampire that reigned in the other two.
They listened to her like she
was some mother to them, or big
sister, if ever there was filial affection among the undead. They made it seem like she was stronger than
them in many respects, which was the reason they “feared” her, but knowing
Hermione Granger, she gave no reason to be feared unless she was provoked. Her vampire boys Lucien and Solomon probably
weren’t so much afraid of her as they were completely taken by her caring nature,
however caring blood-suckers could get.
How funny that even in death,
Hermione won the affection of two hapless boys.
Well, maybe not hapless, and maybe not boys. Lucien was, as Harry understood it, at least
a hundred and fifty years old. Solomon
sounded to be Hermione’s age in vampire years, but he had been turned at twenty
five. Still, the concept seemed the
same. Solomon didn’t know what to do
when he was turned and Lucien had been lost in a sea of bad habits, like
snorting vampire drugs and relying on the wrong sort of people. While it wasn’t exactly like the wide-eyed
Harry Potter entering the Wizarding World and the
indistinct, ordinary-to-a-fault Ronald Weasley with
dirt on his face, there was a kind of twisted parallel to it all.
There was a sound behind him,
but he didn’t turn to look. It was true
when he said he was unafraid. If any one
of them bit him, it was probably just as well.
“Cold night,” she said, walking
up beside him.
His awareness spread over the
room and she became a presence. He
wanted badly to touch her, but she had avoided it since she met up with
them. It hurt him that she wouldn’t even
let him hold her hand.
He looked at her and he could
see the subtle red tints in her bushy brown hair. Her pale skin almost glowed in the darkness
and when she looked at him with her honey-gold eyes, they almost gleamed like
turquoise. She looked like the
perfection of death, and was beautiful for it.
He nodded, tucking his wand
deeper into his robes.
“You should be asleep at this
hour,” she said softly, her own gaze drifting to the droplets on the
window. “The boys and I will guard the
house.”
“I don’t sleep at night
anymore.” It was the truth. He had somewhat reversed the clock of his
body through the years and did sleep
during the day, though never for long periods.
A few hours, maybe. It worked for
him, anyway. Most of the Death Eater
attacks he had the pleasure of being part of had happened at night, so this
reversal of body clock worked out better for him.
She smiled, that hint of fang
taking a bit away from the old warmth in it.
“Try a coffin. Makes sleeping in
the day much better.”
He stared at her, wondering if
she was joking. She half was and she
half wasn’t, but he chuckled in spite of himself. “And I thought Lucien and Solomon had a
twisted sense of humor.”
“Oh, they’re consistently better
at it than I am, but you always brought out the best in me, Harry.”
He faltered a bit, a dull ache
and remembered longing surged inside him at her words. “Did I?
Do I still?”
Her gaze was cold for a moment before
it became filled with such unspeakable sadness.
He wanted to reach for her; pull her into his arms and whisper in her
ear that everything was going to be alright.
He wanted to be that reassuring blanket for her again; have her cling to
him for love, and support and warmth and ecstasy. He wanted her.
Nothing had changed, he thought painfully. He may have been a different man than what he
was five years ago, and many life-altering situations had pushed him to go one
way or another, but his feelings for her had remained constant, whether he
realized it then or not. Now he knew,
and once again he found himself awed at the impact of her presence. She had always made him see things; had
always cleared murky waters of thoughts and emotions. She had been his obsession, after all.
She began to speak.
“There is raging violence inside me,” she whispered in her
strange, ethereal way. “I’m not afraid
of blood. I’m not afraid of death. And sometimes… I’m not even afraid to
kill. That changes a person forever,
Harry. I’m Hermione on the outside. I might even be Hermione on the inside. But my core… my soul… it’s not Hermione
anymore. I’m a vampire; a monster. Some might say I’m condemned to hell.”
He shook his head.
“You’re not a monster.”
“Harry… right now, I can hear your heartbeat. I hear
your blood coursing through your veins.
And I want to taste it so badly…”
She said it like a plea; a sigh of such desperate longing.
He sucked in a breath, his heart beating faster. Her own breath caught. He knew then she was telling the truth, but
how can he be afraid? He was seeing her;
speaking to her, as he’d wanted to for five years. He’d read books and texts about her kind;
wishing and praying that there was some way
he could get her back. Bring her back to
them. And now she was back, but her return hadn’t required a ritual, or a
supernatural summoning. They simply had
a shared cause, one they’d have to fight from different sides of reality.
By all appearances it was still her, but more mysterious;
touched by a beautiful sort of darkness.
His motivated study of vampires had developed in him a
fascination for her kind; a deep, obsessive interest that made him want to
understand what drove their blood lust; what abysmal cultures were they
entrenched in. What were they really like?
Now, looking at her and inhaling her scent. It was almost as if he wanted those fangs of
hers to sink into him. Drink him. She was intoxicating and his desire spiked
like it hadn’t in five years.
He had known lust during her absence; had even given into
it, but what she called in him had always been different; more intense; more
natural and primal. Now it was pulsing
through him again; that urge to take her and love her.
Her tiny smile showed a hint of fang. “It’s just vampire pheromones, Harry. You don’t want me. You just think you do. Lucien and Solomon can make you feel the same
way if they wanted to, fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, they don’t swing
that way.”
Harry looked her in the eyes. “You don’t need to use pheromones on me.”
She took his hand and he laced his fingers through hers,
pulling her to him.
“Feel that?” she asked.
“My skin is cold. It does that
when I need to feed. I warm up when I’ve
drank.”
If she meant to scare him, it wasn’t working.
“Hermione, I—“
Her fingers hovered lightly over his lips. “Don’t say anything. Just don’t.”
And he remembered again, when she had said similar words
to him, but back then it had offered promises.
Now, it offered nothing.
She pulled her hand away from his grasp. “I’m sorry, Harry, but it can’t ever be the
way it used to be.”
He thought maybe it was better if she had ripped his
throat out and drank her fill of him.
She walked away, her footsteps mingling with the shattering
of his soul.
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