Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Blood and Magic	By : ryulabird Category: Harry Potter Crossovers > General - Misc Views: 23972 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: HP belongs to J.K.Rowling and ABVH belongs to Laurell K.Hamilton, and Marvel Comics. I own neither and make no money off this.

Chapter List
- 1-Blood and Magic
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Night Walk
- 5
- 6
- - -

Chapter 6- A Night Walk

Harry glared at the pavement as he tried to ignore the click of heeled boots keeping pace behind him. Despite his insistence that he was going home and Jean-Claude should stop following him, the vampire had continued to shadow him as he walked out of the District. It was getting to the point that Harry worried the sun would have to rise before he could duck unseen into an alley and disapparate.

"Have you decided how to spend your evening yet, mon sorcier?" Jean-Claude called out behind him.

Harry sighed and stopped walking to turn around and glare at the vampire. "For the last time-- no! So, stop following me!"

"And leave you to walk through such a dangerous area of the city alone?" Harry could swear just from listening that Jean-Claude was grinning, but his face wouldn't show so much as a twitch. "I could not be so callous as that, mon sorcier."

"I can take care of myself," Harry said through clenched teeth.

"I'm quite sure, mon sorcier, but I have already offered you my services for the night." Jean-Claude's lips quirked in the smallest of grins. "I would be remiss in my manners to leave you unattended."

Harry let out a huff of irritation. "Well, then how about you 'attend' me by going away and leaving me alone?"

Jean-Claude's grin grew wider. "Alas, if I were to leave your sight, how would you know I was doing as you bid me?"

Harry felt a headache coming on and raised a hand to rub at his forehead. "Well, it would be a lot quieter."

"Ah, but you are the one so eager for conversation, mon sorcier. If you wish me to attend you silently, you need only say so."

"I don't want you attending me at all!" Harry snapped. "And you're the one who started talking! I told you I was going home, you keep asking me stuff!"

"Of course I would ask what it is you intend to do when you are walking so determinedly down a dark and empty street, in the industrial section of town, far from any cabs to return you to your far off home," Jean-Claude said with an almost exasperated tone.

"Oh." Harry blinked. "Right, a taxi...."

"Yes, mon sorcier, a taxi," Jean-Claude said. Then he gave Harry a penetrating sort of look. "Did you not intend to take a cab home? Have you some other means of returning to your farm?"

Harry shook his head. "No, no I don't." They stared at each other, Harry awkwardly and Jean-Claude with a disbelieving gaze.

"Well, then," Harry said and rubbed his neck tiredly. "Er, where would a taxi be at this time of night?"

Jean-Claude shook his head lightly. "Mon sorcier, we have been walking for over half an hour, long since passed out of any commercial district, and yet it only occurs to you now that you should have stayed in an area with traffic?"

Harry glared. "Look, if you won't stop 'attending' me, you could at least be a little more polite about it. And anyway--" Harry shrugged and started walking back the way they had come. "I was mostly walking just to get away from you."

Jean-Claude's eyes narrowed to slits as Harry passed him.

"My apologies that my company has not been so pleasant for you, monsieur," Jean-Claude said coldly. Harry paused to glance back at him. "However, I think allowing a fool to wander as he wishes with nary an ill remark and offering little more than a teasing jibe when he realizes his own folly, far exceeds the expectations of mere politeness."

Harry's eyes widened with each word falling from Jean-Claude's mouth and by the end of his snide comment, Harry was about as furious as when the vampire had called him 'naive.'

"I told you about a dozen times to go away!" Harry snarled as he whirled around to face the vampire fully. "Wasn't that enough of a clue to you that I didn't want any company?"

"A weak protest, if that," Jean-Claude said mildly, turning to lean against a burned out lamp post. "You clearly longed for some companionship, given that your best objection to my initial intrusion in your solitude was to strike up a conversation about my... health."

Harry glared. "And the number of times I told you I was going home so you could bugger off were, what exactly? Some sort of backwards plea for you keep me from feeling lonely?"

"That, or at best, a poor disguise for the dark intentions of a young man, capable of setting vampires on fire with magic, wishing to wander the vampire district unobserved."

Harry felt his mouth fall open in shock. "What? Y-you actually think I went to the vampire district so I could set someone on fire? I-" Harry waved an arm at the vampire before him. "Then how come I haven't set you on fire? You'd certainly deserve it at this point!"

Jean-Claude laughed. "Hardly, mon sorcier." He stared at Harry glaring at him, then shook his head and laughed again. "If your business was not to harm anyone, and you no longer felt like spending time in the district, then why did you continue walking there? Why did you walk past my club? Why walk all the way out here, with me following, if not to have some company?"

"I told you," Harry said with a blush and clenched jaw. "I was walking away from you! I just forgot about the taxicabs, alright?"

Jean-Claude quirked an eyebrow. "You have not gotten very far away, mon sorcier. I think, perhaps, you have simply not been trying to escape me." The vampire straightened from the post and walked closer to Harry. He looked down at him and smiled softly. "I think, perhaps, you are lonely."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, for Merlin's sake.... Look," he said, trying to put as much force into his voice as possible, "I was only a bit distracted because tonight has been, well, rather disappointing for me. But even if I were lonely, I would still not be spending my time with you."

Jean-Claude's eyes widened and the soft smile vanished. Then he snarled at Harry and cool magic blew through the air, like wind. "I truly did not think my presence was so intolerable, monsieur."

Harry glanced nervously about as the vampire's magic twisted and wrapped around them both. He shifted back a few steps and flicked his wrist so his wand fell out of its holster.

"I told you over and over to go away!" he snapped at the vampire.

Jean-Claude laughed. "You claimed you would return home and then wandered off like a lost little lamb!"

Harry's spine snapped straight and his face flushed as he shouted out, "I am not a lamb!"

"Indeed?" Jean-Claude said. "Then where have you been walking all evening, if I may ask?"

"I told you! Away from you!"

They both stood glaring at each other, while Jean-Claude's magic chilled the air until Harry started shivering. When Harry raised his left arm to rub some warmth back into his right, Jean-Claude sighed and turned away from him. The magic swirling in the air faded and the summer heat fell back onto Harry like a weight.

"Very well, monsieur," Jean-Claude said. "I apologize for causing you such discomfort. I will not trouble you again."

Harry snorted. "You're acting like I hurt you?"

Jean-Claude glared at him cooly. "Are you claiming to have not insulted me, monsieur? That this is not some elaborate revenge for my earlier offense?"

"No!" Harry said, glaring back just as harshly. "I just wanted to be left alone! And you stalked me because you were ordered to! Not because you were worried about me being lonely!"

"Ordered, monsieur? To follow you into an area of abandoned warehouses after you announced your ability to burn me with sunlight?"

"Not you specifically," Harry muttered. "And yes! Why else would you refuse to leave me alone after I asked you so many times to go?"

"Perhaps because I truly believed you were lonesome and felt compelled to offer you some comfort after you had offered me some?" Jean-Claude said with a lifted eyebrow.

"Oh, please!" Harry snorted and crossed his arms, wand still held carefully in his right hand. "The only reason you even talk to me is because that master-of-the-city vampire told you to!"

Jean-Claude looked at him speculatively for a few silent moments, then sighed and rubbed his eyes as if tired.

"I think, mon ami, it would do us both well if you were to know that the Master of the City is no longer interested in you."

"What do you mean?" Harry let his arms fall to his sides.

Jean-Claude gave a sardonic shake of his head before looking over at him. "Aside from the fact that your brutalization of me after I 'fed' from you was seen as an uncompromising rejection of my Master's offer, another witch, of sorts, approached her with a desire to serve in the capacity you were wanted for."

"Wait-- really?" Harry asked.

"Yes. So you needn't worry that I, or any other vampire, will continue seeking your services for our Master. You have made your stance on the issue quite clear," Jean-Claude said, and his lips had that slight twitch to them that indicated the beginning of a smile.

"So, you..." Harry trailed off suddenly, remembering the shouted argument from only moments ago.

"I walked with you for no reasons other than my own."

"Oh."

Harry felt a flush crawl across his face, making the already heavy heat of the evening even more unbearable. Jean-Claude's smirk only added to that feeling.

"Um, well," Harry fidgeted a bit before resolutely striding off down the street, deciding it would be best to simply ignore the vampire for a moment. "Sorry about that then."

"Oh, indeed?" Jean-Claude said as he began walking behind him. Harry could swear the vampire was enjoying his embarrassment.

"Yes, alright?" Harry said quickly, telling himself to stop flushing like a nitwit and get over it. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, I'm sorry I was rude to you, and I'm sorry you didn't bother to tell me about this earlier, alright?"

"Ah, so it is my fault you mistook my kind gesture for manipulation and insulted me?" Jean-Claude caught up to Harry's side and watched his face so intently Harry felt his face heating up even more.

"Yes, actually." Harry kept his gaze locked ahead of him, refusing to acknowledge either the vampire's staring or his crimson face. "I was really worried about what was going on and you following me when I thought your master might still want my help just made it worse!"

"But then, why visit the vampire district at all? If the Master had still wanted your allegiance, or felt slighted by your rejection, every vampire in the city could have been instructed to restrain you for a meeting."

Harry froze and turned his head to stare at Jean-Claude. "I... well...." Harry coughed into his hand and continued walking. "I didn't really think it through all the way."

"Clearly."

Harry stopped again to glare, but Jean-Claude only smiled pleasantly at him until, with a roll of his eyes and a huff, he started walking once more.

"But I still wonder, mon sorcier, what were you looking for in the District if not company?" Harry frowned at the quiet tone Jean-Claude was using. "A distraction perhaps?"

Harry slowed and looked over at the vampire beside him. "No, I... just didn't feel like going home."

"But you were not in the mood to find some quiet, out of the way place to be on your own." Jean-Claude was staring back at him, his face a pleasant mask but his eyes seemed to burn as they watched him. "You say you left University City because it was crowded, yet you sought out more crowds to immerse yourself in. Why?"

"I..." Harry blinked and slowly came to a stop as if his feet had turned to lead. "I just... didn't want to think, I guess," he said finally, a frown creasing his face as he bowed his head to look at the pavement.

"About what, mon sorcier? Surely there cannot be more troubling you than vampires at the moment?"

Harry glanced up to catch a soft smirk on Jean-Claude's face and realized suddenly, the vampire was actually trying to comfort him. He frowned at the thought and looked away.

"I don't know," he said. Beside him, Jean-Claude raised a hand to his chin as if in thought.

"Then, perhaps we can find something to distract you, mon sorcier."

Harry's gaze swung back to stare at the vampire. "Like what?" he asked.

Jean-Claude gave a small smile and held out his hand. Harry glanced at it suspiciously.

"What did you have in mind?" he asked slowly. Jean-Claude's smile widened and rather than continuing to hold out his hand, he gestured instead for Harry to follow him. Harry did so with only the slightest hesitation because, if he were honest with himself, he did want to be distracted.

Several blocks later the streets became busier and Jean-Claude somehow waved a taxi over to pick them up. Then they were taken around and past the vampire district, leaving Harry curious as to what exactly Jean-Claude had in mind.

Unlike their last taxi ride, Jean-Claude politely stayed on his side of the seat, gazing out at the city lights as they passed by. Left to himself for the ride, Harry found he was oddly excited. He would never admit as much to the vampire, but he was grateful for Jean-Claude's efforts. He knew perfectly well he tended to turn somewhat nasty when he was restless and worrying. It was a wonder his friends were ever able to tolerate him at times like these, never mind a strange vampire.

They soon came to a stop at the corner of a wide car park. Stepping out after Jean-Claude shooed him off as he paid the tab, Harry saw beyond the pavement and the trees surrounding it, the Gateway Arch, glowing practically white in the darkness, lit as it was by spot lights.

"I thought the arch closed for the evenings," Harry said as soon as the vampire stopped next to him.

"It does, mon sorcier, however, I find the night view to be far more stunning than the day view," Jean-Claude replied while leading Harry over to a path through the trees.

Harry wondered if Jean-Claude had ever actually seen the day view, but thought it best not to comment. He'd made enough of an ass of himself for one night.

"Well, I suppose it does look nice all lit up like that," he said instead. Although he did think this was turning out to be a rather dull distraction.

Beside him, the vampire laughed. "I meant of course, mon sorcier, the view from the top of the monument, not of the great Arch itself."

"But... it's closed for the evenings."

"Yes, mon sorcier, what of it?" Harry couldn't be sure on the dark path under the trees, but he felt the vampire was smirking at him.

"It's closed, so we can't go to the top, obviously," he said, frowning as he did.

"Not from the inside, obviously," Jean-Claude said mysteriously. Just as Harry was about to remark that there wasn't any other way to get to the top of the Gateway Arch, the vampire shushed him and looked carefully around the clearing the path had led them to.

Before them, the cement path widened out to encompass one of the arch's enormous legs, easily wider around the base than a fully grown giant. Though the memorial park was dark and nearly empty, there were still multiple spotlights all pointing up at the arch's graceful curve, bathing the ground in a soft white light, and a few tourists were wandering about the wide field admiring the glowing monument.

Jean-Claude watched the people walking past, then, as one couple walked around the arch and another group turned to look over the river, he reached for Harry's arm and ran with him up to the base of the closest leg of the arch.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked in shock, almost stumbling as Jean-Claude dragged him forward.

"Hush, mon sorcier, or we may get caught," the vampire said with a grin thrown over his shoulder. Then the next moment, they were in the air.

Harry gave a shout as they hit the side of the arch with a thump. Jean-Claude only pulled him closer, placed a hand over his mouth, and leapt again. Harry struggled a bit until the vampire had to drop the hand from his mouth to grab a firm hold of his shoulder, and in that time Jean-Claude had brought them both more than half-way up the side of the arch. Harry knew better than to struggle more and turned to watch the ground rush away from them as Jean-Claude ran higher and higher up the side of the steep structure.

Finally, Jean-Claude made one last lunge that propelled them over the top of the arch's curve, landing with Harry on the somewhat flat apex. As soon as he was released, Harry spun to glare at the vampire.

"What the hell!" he demanded, voice torn away by the wind, but the vampire had surely heard because his smile widened and he waved an arm over the edge of the arch.

"Do you not like the view, mon sorcier?"

Drawn by his gesture, Harry's gaze turned out, over the edge of the arch, to the city below. He blinked and forgot for a moment to be angry with the vampire as he stepped a little closer to admire the view.

The city was glowing gold, street lamps and buildings all lit up together and reflecting off the pavement. The whole city was stretched out before him, fading from a river of light to faint, flickering pinpricks, like stars, in the distance.

Jean-Claude stepped beside him smugly, also staring out at St. Louis in admiration.

"It is lovely, is it not, mon sorcier?"

Harry glanced at him. "Well, yes…. I take it you do this often?"

The vampire's lips curled at the ends. "As often as I find myself needing a few moments alone and unobserved."

"That doesn't work if you bring someone with you." Harry met Jean-Claude's gaze pointedly.

"Unless I wish to share the solitude and beauty with one who might have need of it himself." Jean-Claude gave a small smile with no sign of fangs, then turned to look out at the city, clearly offering Harry some space.

Harry stared after the vampire for a few moments, confused at this unexpected kindness. He had been rather rude to him after all, and something like this, a place that was isolated, quiet, and, to be honest, beautiful as well, where he was simply offered the chance to sit and relax, well…. No one had ever done that for him.

He hoped the vampire wasn't trying to butter him up for another chance at his blood.

The wind from this high up was cool and untamed by trees or skyscrapers and Harry found it pleasant enough that he decide he might as well stay and enjoy it. So, with one last glance at Jean-Claude's still back, he walked to the edge and sat, legs dangling over the side.

The view was beautiful, like a sea of golden stars, the buildings were dark enough that they faded away, became almost invisible in the wash of light. It reminded Harry of flying over London, which made him wonder suddenly why he hadn't considered flying as an option tonight. Flying had always been a freeing and wonderful experience for him and he hadn't flown in weeks, so taking a night to celebrate should have been the perfect opportunity for a broomstick ride. So why had he gone walking in the city instead?

"It is such a lovely night, mon sorcier," Jean-Claude said, startling Harry. The vampire had sat down a bit away from him, also daring to dangle his legs over the edge. "Yet you still look so solemn. May I ask what has you so distracted?"

"I don't know," Harry said quietly. "Just, thinking about some things.... Remembering."

"Remembering what, mon sorcier?"

Harry looked over at the vampire and was struck with an overwhelming urge to tell him everything. All the things he worried about but couldn't ever speak of with his best mates. Who would Jean-Claude tell after all? The Daily Prophet? The wizard community two states east? What would it matter if he did? Wizards didn't put much store in anything magical creatures had to say, even if it involved personal secrets of the "Vanquisher of Voldemort."

"Just..." Harry blew out a frustrated sigh. "Okay, so I had this girlfriend--"

"Ah, d'un amoureux d'ennui," Jean-Claude said with a smile. Harry thought it looked rather smug.

"What does that mean?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as Jean-Claude only shrugged.

"It is often one's relationships that cause difficulties in life, mon sorcier. Is that not so for all people?"

"I doubt anyone else has relationships as messed up as mine," Harry muttered darkly.

Jean-Claude chuckled. "I am certain every young person feels the same at some point in their own lives."

Harry glared at him. 'Young person?' Everyone the vampire met was a 'young person' to him!

"We broke up because I realized I was using her to get close to her family," he said shortly. "Then she had the gall to act as though I was a naive little child who didn't know how adult relationships work-- as if it's only expected for a mature adult to manipulate someone they say they love but don't."

"Ah," Jean-Claude said. The vampire went still and his face lost the teasing smile it had a moment before. But Harry wasn't finished.

"She acted like I was the one at fault for not continuing to pretend she was the one I wanted! One of my friends told me she'd been expecting me to propose, and I ruined it for her! Why is it more adult to want to be married to someone who doesn't love you?" he said furiously. All the buried frustration from the breakup just spilled out of him.

Harry had thought he was fine with the way things ended. He didn't mind what she'd said, because really he'd said some pretty awful things himself. He didn't mind that it'd taken Ron and the Weasleys a few days to talk to him again, because Ginny was their family, not him, and that was how things were. He didn't mind being uncomfortable around happy couples now, because they weren't the problem. He could also usually avoid them.

But, Ginny hadn't spoken to him once since then. He'd visited the Weasley's, he'd exchanged letters with everyone he knew, but Ginny didn't look at him, didn't reply. She just pretended he didn't exist, and that hurt.

"I suppose, mon sorcier, because it may be the adult thing to do, but not truly the mature thing," Jean-Claude said. "I wonder though, do you not love her?"

"What?" Harry asked, frowning.

"You say you both broke up because you were using her, yet she still wished to wed you, so really it was you who broke up with her?"

"Well," Harry paused. Ginny had been very eager and vocal to proclaim his character flaws as ample reason for her to break up with him as soon as she realized Harry was serious about not staying with her, so he'd just considered the thing a mutual decision. "I don't think she wants to marry me anymore."

"But she did," Jean-Claude said, watching Harry as he thought about it.

"Well, yeah."

"So you could have continued to use her had you wanted."

"But I didn't want to!" Harry said angrily. Jean-Claude held a hand up.

"So does that not mean that you love her at least somewhat?" he asked.

"Well, yeah, sure, I loved her, but not the way she wanted me to," Harry replied with a snort.

"Why not?"

Harry huffed and lay back on the cool metal of the arch. "I don't know, she was... well, brave and powerful and lovely and smart, and she could be funny sometimes and she invented some of her own spells." Harry grinned as he thought of how much fun he'd had with her, laughing at some comment or dueling together. She'd been one of his dearest friends. Then he frowned as he remembered more.

"But she was also vindictive and judgmental and thoughtlessly cruel. She could call someone a friend but insult them behind their backs. She held grudges over matters that didn't even involve her!" Thoughts of how she'd brush off Neville and Luna came to mind, as well as the number of times she'd been offended on his behalf-- flattering when he was younger, but quickly becoming annoying as Harry grew out of his own sore skin. He found he forgave much easier than she did, and he didn't appreciate her defense nearly as much as he once had.

"I didn't really realize how much about her I disliked until she wanted to have sex and then I just," Harry stopped. It was difficult to talk about this as he'd never had an opportunity to talk to anyone about it. Could never talk to anyone about it-- or at least, not anyone alive. "I think, she uses sex as a weapon," he said.

"Oh?" Jean-Claude said softly.

"I didn't want to have sex with her," Harry said quietly, "but she wouldn't let it go. She kept bringing it up and cornering me and talking about it and... it was like she thought if she could just make me do it with her once, I'd never want to leave her."

"I see."

Harry couldn't stop frowning now, thinking of Ginny seriously instead of trying to forget about her brought up all the reasons for breaking up with her that he'd been pretending weren't real.

"She went out with a lot of the boys in my year at school and, I never thought there was anything wrong with that, but now I wonder what was going on. Some of the things she said...."

"What do you mean?" Jean-Claude asked.

"Well, she was a witch... too," Harry caught himself just in time, "and sex can be used as a focus in some magic and... I think she wanted to use that sort of magic on me," he finished uneasily.

Jean-Claude was silent for a time, staring out over the city while Harry stared up at the empty sky. Funny how the more 'stars' people made on the earth, the more stars in the sky vanished. Only one or two faint pinpricks of light could be seen in an ocean of black.

"So you broke up with her because you discovered she was trying to manipulate you?" the vampire finally broke the silence.

"No. Yes..." Harry sighed. "I don't know." He rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "I wanted to break up as soon as I realized I didn't want to have sex with her-- when I realized I was willing to pretend to be her boyfriend enough to kiss her, but not any more than that. Then she just...."

"Would not allow you to simply walk away?" Jean-Claude supplied.

"Yeah."

They were silent again and Harry laced his fingers to cushion his head while he thought.

"You are truly an interesting person, Harry," Jean-Claude said after Harry was starting to get comfortable with the silence. Harry glanced over at him. "You are very young, but you treat life as one much older."

"Huh?"

Jean-Claude smiled at him, a smaller and simpler smile than the ones he'd given before. "I believe most young people would not have reacted quite so maturely to realizations such as yours. Most would likely continue on pretending they were in love, simply because the thought of such manipulations of emotion or sex would not occur to them as being evil. Or worse, they would believe themselves able to control such things. You did neither."

Harry frowned. "I don't get it, how could anyone think controlling a loved one like that is okay?"

"Ah, but you said you did not love your fair Ginny."

"Not the way she wanted me to." Harry shook his head and sat up. "But I still loved her as a friend. I didn't want to do something so horrible to her."

"Was it so horrible though?" Jean-Claude asked. He seemed oddly serious about the question. "As long as she was happy with you, would she truly be suffering?"

"Of course it's horrible! It's lying!" Harry stared at him. "Controlling someone by pretending you love them is just wrong! I couldn't do that to a friend and I wouldn't do it, even to someone I hated!"

"Alright, mon sorcier," Jean-Claude said, a hand raised to placate him. "You have made your point." Harry sat back and kicked his legs over the edge. He hadn't meant to get so upset. "However, I do wonder then what caused your thoughts to turn to this girl?"

Harry blinked. "Um...."

Jean-Claude stared at him while Harry tried not to blush too badly, so embarrassed at the thought of admiting he'd run away from a hot date spot. Finally, the vampire turned back to the city with a sigh.

"I truly had not intended to bring up dark memories for you," he said.

"What?" Harry asked. Jean-Claude turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Surely this is why you were so, curt, with me before, mon sorcier," Jean-Claude said.

Harry's eyes widened. Oh yeah.... He'd forgotten that Jean-Claude's entire reason for meeting him before was to manipulate him with sex. Whether he wanted to or not. "Well, it's not really your fault, and I am sorry," he said carefully.

"I know." Jean-Claude shrugged placidly, smile coming back to his face. "I would only like to make it clear that I am sorry as well."

"Oh, alright." Harry rubbed his head. This was awkward. "Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter anymore anyway, what with your master having some other witch now."

"Yes, although he is not a witch," Jean-Claude agreed with a smile. "He is an animator."

"A what?"

"Surely you have heard of animators before, mon sorcier?" Jean-Claude's eyes held laughter when they turned to him. "You have not always lived so isolated, being attached to phone lines and ice cream as you are, correct?"

Harry glared at him and pursed his lips. "Look, I just don't know what that means in terms of magic, alright?"

"What do you imagine it could mean?"

Harry huffed. "I don't know, someone who enchants objects or something?"

Jean-Claude laughed, startling Harry. The sound of it was thick, almost velvety, and ran down his spine with a shiver. "Oh, mon sorcier, what an idea!" The vampire calmed down enough to look at him. "Have you truly never heard of magic to raise the dead?" he asked with a smile.

Harry felt the blood drain out of his face as he stared at the vampire. "A necromancer?"

Jean-Claude's face fell empty. "What is wrong, mon sorcier? You taste of fear. My Master's new ally is not so powerful to be a necromancer. He is only an average animator, nothing more."

"I--" Harry sucked in a breath and made his heart slow down. "The last time I dealt with a necromancer, he... was a terrible evil. He filled a cave with hundreds of people he killed so he could raise them as an army."

"I had not heard of such an occurence," Jean-Claude said quietly. "I have not heard of any necromancers alive in the world for centuries."

Harry scoffed. Of course a muggle vampire wouldn't hear of them-- most of them started out as witches and wizards! "He was killed before he could attack any large populations and his creations were destroyed with him. As for others, last I heard one necromancer was hiding somewhere in the Russian wilds." Harry shrugged. "Those are the only two I know about from this century."

"How do you hear of such things, if I may ask?"

"Just because I live like a hermit doesn't mean I don't pay attention to the world around me," Harry said.

"Hence your insight to the maneuvers of the factions from the city around you," Jean-Claude said, a small smirk aimed at him.

Harry sniffed. "Okay, so maybe I payed better attention to such things when I actually lived in a city. I'm still getting used to being a hermit."

"Oh, I can tell, mon sorcier." Jean-Claude's smile widened. "You are slowly weaning yourself off of civilization. Once you learn to go a month or more without ice cream, you shall relocate to a desert!"

"You--!" Harry glared at the silently laughing vampire. "Don't poke fun if you don't know what you're missing. Have you ever even tasted ice cream?"

"Alas, no. Such a confection was invented long after I traded human delicacies for human blood. I shall never know what sweetness your icy treat holds!" Jean-Claude was definitely laughing at him, but he also seemed to be having fun, playing up the sorrow of his situation.

Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing.

- - - -

When Harry finally returned home that night (or early morning, depending how you looked at it), the thestrals were already sleeping and never emerged from the barn as he snuck inside. They had continued speaking, turning to more trivial matters, for another hour or so. Then, after carrying Harry back down the arch, Jean-Claude left him and Harry found a dark corner behind some bushes to disapparate.

He thought about the evening and his odd relationship with Jean-Claude as he got ready for bed. He'd thought the vampire was only interested in him because he was ordered to be, or if not, then just as food. But he honestly seemed to be personally interested in Harry himself. Though, Harry couldn't understand why.

As late as it was, Harry still spent nearly an hour in bed, staring at the ceiling. When Harry didn't have to worry about being eaten, Jean-Claude was, well, not so bad to talk to. He was even sort of nice. Especially when he wasn't trying to exude sex-- he could be funny and sarcastic and clever.

But Harry knew better than to really trust him. He was a vampire after all, and vampires only really cared about themselves and their next meal.

Yet even while telling himself this as he fell asleep, Harry couldn't help but hope he would see Jean-Claude again.

- - -

AN: HA! I so too remembered my password! So have a chapter~ and review, so I know this was worth it!
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Blood and Magic