A day off

It was yet another morning and Gaude was slowly waking up to a smell of freshly cooked breakfast, something he was quite used to thanks to the elves taking care of it. Groggily, Gaude made his way to the dining room and the adjoined kitchen to get a look at what's on the menu when he saw someone that was the right size for a house elf, but instead of a maid or butler uniform was wearing a black night gown with white lace decorations and cute bows.

Gaude instinctively reached into his pouch, looking for antidote for lesser poisons, something that he had stocked up on after he had suffered through heavy indigestion after eating the breakfast cooked by Amanda.

"Good morning, Gaude!", she said with a smile a normal person would need a magnifying glass to notice.

"Morning, Mandy!", Gaude replied cautiously. "What are you doing?"

"Breakfast for you, I have to earn my place in your house somehow."

"Hey, I've told you many times already. You're my little sister, by blood, no less. There's no need for you to lower yourself so much. Just let the elves take care of it." Gaude truly had asked her to take it easy, but still, she got up early and tried her best to make breakfast.

"Just take a seat and relax, it'll be ready in a moment."

Gaude wanted to tell her to take her time, maybe even call it quits altogether. He was very willing to wait until the elves made a meal for him instead, but unfortunately, it seemed that Amanda either had a deal with them or had charmed them.

A moment later, there was a portion of fried eggs and bacon in front of him and two slices of toast.

There was only one part of the breakfast that Gaude felt confident about, and that was the toast, courtesy of the toaster that he had personally calibrated to produce a very specific shade of golden brown. Fortunately, Amanda had enough sense to not readjust the timer.

With encouraging and worried glances from Amanda, Gaude finally picked up the utensils and went for it. He knew the risks, but somehow, this situation reminded him of his past life, how his daughter had tried so hard in the morning.

The eggs, while they had a solid yolk, didn't seem burnt. However, as Gaude took a bite, he felt like he had just taken a teaspoon of pure salt – the eggs were covered in it. As for the bacon, it looked and felt soggy, extremely soggy and soft, very unlike a proper piece of bacon.

Amanda was still standing next to Gaude, waiting for his reaction with bated breath. It didn't look like she was going to have her own breakfast without getting Gaude's opinion on her efforts.

Gaude suppressed the face of eating shit and started his appraisal: "Well, you've improved, that's for sure." Amanda seemed happy, but suddenly, sensing a 'but' coming, her smile quickly turned into her usual pout.

"But you'll have to ask the elves for guidance, especially on how to properly season the eggs and bring the bacon to the pinnacle of perfection."

"So, you're saying it's still no good?", Amanda asked dejectedly.

"It's better than before, but truthfully, it's still not edible by human standards.", Gaude replied, trying to instill as much positivity as his frozen heart could into his criticism. Due to how cute she was with her perfect gothic loli looks, Gaude didn't have the heart to just shatter her will to pursue culinary endeavors.

"Humph!"

With a pout that was close to setting a new world record, Amanda took a golden chalice from a pot of warm water and drank from it, leaving her upper lip much bigger than it usually was. Well, that's what it looked like anyway, the warmed-up blood sticking to her face due to her being a bit too vigorous in her first sip.

Gaude just gave her a look of discontentment and she took out a handkerchief to wipe her mouth. She pocketed the now bloodstained cloth and they continued with their respective meals.

Gaude decided to invest some time into looking up ways to enrich Amanda's diet, he thought that it would be way too boring to only drink blood for every meal for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, there wasn't all too much on the additional items that a vampire could eat mentioned in the book Gaude had read. He would've been surprised if he'd bought one that was written more recently.

Somehow, Amanda managed to pace herself so that she finished the chalice of blood at the same time that Gaude finished struggling through his breakfast that had the excess salt removed.

'Even if you're considerate of me, I won't allow you to drink my blood!', Gaude thought. 'Besides, I'm just getting started. I have to get that taste out of my mouth with my real breakfast.'

"I'm done with Mandy's cooking! Bring me my roasted lamb!"

A tray with a roasted lamb, at least ten pounds of juicy and perfectly seasoned meat, barely clinging to the bones appeared in front of Gaude.

Seeing that, Amanda forgot her vow not to speak to Gaude for the rest of the day and she shouted in bewilderment: "Hey! Just how much can you eat?"

"A growing man needs to eat a lot, otherwise I'd turn out short and scrawny.", Gaude replied.

Once he finished eating, he spoke: "I'm off for a sparring session, do you want to come too?"

"Nope, I want to look after the creatures with Hagrid. They're fluffy."

'If that's your reason, I can't really argue.', Gaude thought, thinking of a different type of fluffy creature, one that had left early that morning.

"Alright, have a great day and don't get in trouble!", he said instead.

Finally, Gaude returned home, with a frustrated expression and a few bruises that were still healing on his face.

"No good?", Amanda asked, already somewhat clued in on what he could've been annoyed about.

"Yeah, no good, I wasn't able to get my ranking up by a single spot. I'd wonder what those bastards in the top ten are eating, but I already know the answer. Damn assholes. They should take it slow every once in a while!"

"Do you have to try so hard? You're still a child, you know, you should have fun instead!", Amanda rebutted. She was looking at him with her patented and copyrighted baby bat eyes, trying to turn Gaude into a obedient human being.

She was right, of course. Recently, all Gaude had been doing had been either work or training, the last time that was somewhat like a break was when he went to that road trip with Irma and even that had a purpose of its own.

"Fine, I guess I can take a day or a half off.", Gaude agreed after a while of futile resistance. Her mental attacks were simply too sneaky and powerful for his Occlumency to block them.

"There's a fair in town and tomorrow is supposedly cloudy the entire day. Oh, I'll invite Irma too, she's going to need a break too. Can't have her getting stronger when I'm resting."

The following day was spent doing various activities. The visit to the house of horrors turned out to be the most boring one yet – the jump scares were so mundane and slow-moving that none of the three reacted to them. When a vampire with its fangs and wings out popped up, however, Gaude almost demolished the attraction before realizing it was just a replica.

Irma and Amanda seemed to be still at odds with each other, as they were throwing an occasional wary glance towards the other, when they thought the other wasn't looking. From a distance, it almost looked like two teens too shy to directly speak to each other, if one failed to notice the hostile undertone in those glares.

Next was the shooting booth, as Amanda had been staring at the prizes since the moment they had passed it on their way.

"Which one do you want, Mandy?", Gaude asked.

"That one.", she pointed at a plush panda bigger than she was.

"Alright, I'll get it for you, just wait here for a moment."

Gaude, no stranger to such booths knew well that the only way they could really profit was rigging the game. That was the reason why he was already using the supersensory charm and revving up telekinesis even before the airsoft gun was handed to him.

There were three opaque plastic bottles lined up and the man said: "Five quid and you'll get four bullets. All you have to do is shoot down these three bottles."

"Got it.", Gaude said. He paid and got four bb slugs, loaded one in, took aim and fired. The shot was way off aim towards ten O'clock, there was no way it would've hit normally.

"Ohh, too bad, try again!", the man in the booth shouted enthusiastically.

So, instead, Gaude aimed off and hit a bottle dead in the center. Other than making a sound of getting hit, the bottle didn't even move.

"Almost, it definitely grazed a bottle. You'll get it down on the next try, I'm sure!", came the booth owner's encouragement.

Next was a shot into the bottle's cap, making it wobble, but it stabilized soon after, a sure sign that it was weighed down.

"Yes! That's the spirit! Just aim a little higher and you'll get it down!", the man shouted enthusiastically. The only thing Gaude would get at that rate would be a chance to pay the man for four more slugs.

Gaude loaded in the final slug and in an instant, turned around and aimed way off, almost in the opposite direction in fact. Gaude had noticed a few metal surfaces in his surroundings that would make what came next a little bit more believable, after all. An instant later, he pulled the trigger.

"Hey, kid, watch where you're pointing that thing, don't want to hurt the people here!", the booth owner shouted out, panicking a little.

With telekinesis, Gaude accelerated the slug and allowed it to ricochet off the surfaces, then guided it straight into the cap of one of the bottles. This time, the bottle fell over, leaned on another bottle and with a little help from Gaude, soon all three of them had fallen over with an imperceptible sound of sand getting thrown around inside.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this thing.", Gaude said, looking at the rifle.

"Impossible!", the man in the booth shouted, his face reddening.

"Only as impossible as an empty plastic bottle not even flinching after taking a direct hit.", Gaude said. "Now, give up a prize."

"Oh, big sis, do you want something as well?", Gaude then asked, as an afterthought.

"Yeah, why not, just pick something for me.", she replied. Originally, Irma had no intention of getting any of the plush toys from the booth, but seeing how heavily rigged the entire thing was, she wanted the man to get humbled by a notch.

"Alright, I'll go for that one there.", Gaude pointed at the big panda's equally sizeable friend.

After paying the required sum, this time he just loaded in three slugs at once and pulled the trigger. Now, normally, such a thing would never work and might even end with jamming the gun, but with telekinesis, it was easy as pie.

Before the booth owner managed to even react, Gaude had pulled the trigger and three pellets shot off, hitting three bottles simultaneously. With a 'small' push from Gaude, the bottles toppled over all at once.

"Yeah, I think I've got the trick to using this thing.", Gaude commented.

Once the prize was handed over to Irma, Gaude turned to the booth owner once more and said: "It would be best if there weren't any issues with the gun not aiming right or the bottles refusing to go down, if you catch my drift. Otherwise, I'll come back and do the shooting for everyone that wants a prize."

For some reason, Amanda seemed to have returned to her pouty habits again, as instead of exchanging glares with Irma, she was now looking at the large plush bears alternately, comparing them. A moment later, she compared a few other things and her pout deepened even more, before turning into an almost-smile, as she seemed to remember something important.

Next was the rollercoaster. Sure, it was fast and fun, but for Gaude, the only thing that caused him to worry was the lack of control. The rollercoaster had much less variation than a ride on a broom. For Amanda and Irma, they were screaming out loud, not used to such fast travel through air and especially doing it upside down, held in place only by a padded contraption.

The worst moment was when a person in front of Gaude decided that they didn't like their breakfast after all and decided to evacuate it into the air. Gaude nearly broke the statute of secrecy by casting a shielding charm at that moment, only to remember in time that the use of telekinesis was much stealthier.

They spent the entire day like that, with Gaude ending up using the scrubbing charm on himself in a bathroom after a particularly large cotton candy had been laid to rest in the graveyard of Gaude's enemies next to the lamb from the morning.

During the entire day, Amanda had been carrying around the giant panda with one hand and her enchanted parasol with another, not getting a single beam of sunlight on her, even when some did get through the thick layer of clouds.

Too soon, the evening came. The trio left the fair after sunset and, instead of taking the house elf express home, Gaude decided that it would be a good idea to walk their way back.

However, suddenly, everything around them got way too quiet, and suddenly they were surrounded by people whose eyes were glowing red. Even more notable, however was the fact that their fingernails had turned into sharp talon-like claws and their canines were sticking out from between their lips.

"Vampires!", Irma growled, avoiding the enemy's gaze, intimately familiar with most of the abilities of the creatures thanks to hours upon hours of sparring with Amanda. During that time, Irma had even learned to hold back her instinct to tear Amanda to shreds though a lot of effort and Gaude was almost willing to leave the two alone together.

"There's no need for violence.", Gaude said, looking at the encirclement of a crowd of vampires that looked like they intended to violence the three of them a whole lot. Yet, his words and actions didn't match. Draconic scales covered his wrists and forearms up to his elbows and suddenly, there was a certain walking stick adorned with a dragon coiled around the handle in his grip. A flick of both of his hands later, the thin, silvery blade of a sword was in Gaude's left and a wand in his right hand, the scabbard exchanged for eight throwing stars.

Meanwhile, Irma had gone from a beautiful young lady into a much more ferocious appearance, complete with a long snout full of sharp teeth and long arms made more deadly by razor-sharp claws. As for Amanda, she had grown bat-like wings and sharp claws of her own, eyes already glowing red and ready to strike.

Gaude: "If somebody saw us right now, they'd think we're baseballs."

Irma: "Don't you dare say it!"

Gaude: "Because we'll be hitting a whole lot of bats!"

"Really, Gaude?", Irma said, looking at Gaude disappointedly.

"Yeah, it was so much better in my head.", Gaude admitted.

The next moment, with the sound of air being cut, the throwing stars that had been spinning around Gaude made their move, however, they failed to find purchase as the vampires moved much faster than the shurikens.

Of course, the initial attack was just to give Gaude's flying weapons some momentum, they soon curved and started circling around the trio faster and faster, turning into a whirlwind of enchanted steel. The vampires still managed to dodge them with ease, but they were meant to only serve as a distraction since the beginning.

"Laly, bring in the reinforcements!", Gaude shouted. He brandished his sword and rushed at the nearest vampire and the girls did the same, everyone preparing their claws, or in Gaude's case, weapons for a deadly strike.

Gaude managed to close the distance quickly, partly because the vampire was under a delusion that he could take on a little kid without any vampiric abilities rather easily. Gaude dodged the claws thrust at him with barely a fraction of an inch to spare and slashed at the wing that was coming for a follow-up.

Gaude's sword followed a curved trajectory, going for the vampire's leg next, but the vampire's other hand was already coming in from Gaude's other side so he cast a shield that was barely big enough to block it.

The vampire that had only now realized that it had been cut, stretched out an arm in an attempt to grab Gaude's arm before he could cause even more damage. Meanwhile, Gaude, due to needing all of his concentration for the fight, had already hurled the throwing stars into the ground, intending to collect them later. They had only been used to create an opening for his side and buy a little bit of time.

Gaude let go of the sword's handle, taking control of the weapon with telekinesis only and rotated it rapidly, slicing off the vampire's outstretched wrist. As he did so, he also used his temporarily free hand to tear flesh off the vampire's thigh with his own clawed fingers.

"Argh, you little piece of shit, I'll make sure to drink you dry really slow!", the vampire shouted. Gaude, unaffected by the meaningless babble of an inferior creature, punched the vampire in the face. A crack resounded and Gaude felt a sharp pain from his wrist, but seeing the vampires fangs flying out with the rest of its front teeth, he didn't mind a small injury. What did pique his curiosity, however, was the fact that the vampire's fangs had managed to cut through his tough scales. It seemed that he'd have to be careful around those bloodsuckers.

Popping sounds could be heard and suddenly, the fight had around a hundred people surrounding it from all sides.

"Make sure they don't escape. It's a perfect opportunity for the three of us to get some batting practice in!", Gaude shouted.

An instant later, the sword was once again secured in his grip. Gaude cast a 'Sectumsempra', a spell he had learned directly from Snape, at the vampire he had already mangled. At the same time, he dodged another vampire's strike while using the sword to make the second vampire level with himself by cutting off his legs from the knees.

An instant later, Gaude was swarmed by three more vampires. He pointed his wand at the ground, lifted himself up with telekinesis and shouted: "Glacius Trio!", it was a spell he hadn't practiced enough to be chantless, but perfect for an encirclement situation. Ice quickly spread out around him, even climbing up the ankles of the vampires surrounding him.

Gaude spammed severing charms left right and center, even managing to hit some of the vampires, but with a few mighty flaps of their wings, they tore themselves off from the ground, leaving pieces of skin still attached to the ice.

Gaude sent a flurry of severing charms that he mixed up with red sparks – the first were imperceptible and the second used very little magic while being very visible. The moment vampires started dodging out of the path of the spells after noticing that they were getting cut, Gaude used the momentary lull to do a quick roll out of the encirclement, ending up behind one of the still airborne vampires. An upward slash later, the vampire was bisected from groin to chest, guts spilling out of impromptu vivisection.

Meanwhile, Irma had jumped at a vampire that had a particularly thick smell of blood emanating from it and punched it in the gut, completely ignoring the claw strikes that were coming towards her. The vampire, with his strikes negated by moving backwards way too fast, hit a friend of his, knocking them over as well.

As soon as the flurry of throwing stars disappeared, Irma rushed at the two vampires that were both dazed by her attack, grabbed them by the neck and smashed their heads together. Just like that, two vampires were knocked out.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Irma turned around and brandished her claws. Five vampires were rushing towards her at once, even flapping their wings as if just running wouldn't be fast enough. Irma rushed at the group, swiping her left hand's claws at the neck of the nearest one and thrust her right at the chest of another beside it.

A vampire's neck was successfully sliced through and another's chest had four small-sized holes punched into it. However, that wasn't the end of it as Irma curled her fingers before pulling her clawed hand out of the vampire's chest, tearing open its ribcage.

Seeing how easily the vampires fell under her hands, she shifted her face and head back to a more human one – the werewolf teeth apparently completely unnecessary for the task and asked in exasperation: "What are these, some kind of white trash? Even Amanda fights better than some of these!"

"Hey!", came an indignant shout from not too far away. It seemed that Amanda wasn't in mortal danger if she had time to pay attention to what others were saying.

Irma's surprise wasn't groundless, after all, the vampires that had showed up were all turned vampires, mass-produced and lacking in the department of special abilities that were characteristic to true vampires that were born and slow to mature.

Even their ability to grow wings was already something that would make most turned vampires jealous – it was a sign that they were turned by a true vampire, and one with decent blood purity at that. After all, in addition to age, a vampire's strength was determined by their blood purity and so was that of their thralls. Yet, no matter how powerful their maker, a thrall was nothing compared to the real thing, even their life expectancy was the same as a more powerful wizard's.

As for Amanda, she was giving worse than she was getting, but a few bloody cuts and gashes were already present on her body – she had been immediately surrounded by ten vampires that were almost hindering each other in their efforts to capture her.

Suddenly, however, the encirclement around her rushed away from her. The reason quickly became obvious – there was a giant spout of fire heading towards her. Seeing the spell heading for her, Amanda ducked down to the ground and avoided it cleanly.

"That was my last big one, I'm out of spell juice!", Gaude shouted. "I'll take two off your back, Irma's going to be free in a moment, too. When we get home, you'll have some explaining to do!"

With whirring and whooshing, Gaude finally appeared as the last of the flames burned out in the air, the magic fueling them had completely run out. As for the reason for the sounds, there were three throwing stars circling above his right palm that no longer held a wand, his trusty sword still firmly in the grasp of his left.

'He's so cool!', Amanda thought, seeing Gaude emerging from the flames like some kind of a heroic warrior there to save her.

"Stop staring and start fighting!", Gaude shouted at Amanda that was still down on the ground with glittering eyes as the vampires were once again trying to close ranks on her.

Suddenly, things took a turn for the worse as red mist started drifting in from the sides.

"I know that smell! That's the Sanguini family! Fight by hearing!", Gaude shouted, already familiar with the scene. There was just enough magic left in him to cast a short-range Supersensory charm onto himself – he wasn't cast it on the others, as he didn't know if it would work for them. Even if it did, chances were that they wouldn't be able to get a good use out of the input.

A few minutes of tearing, cutting, punching and getting hit later, Gaude was bruised, Amanda was battered and bleeding and Irma was covered in blood that wasn't her own. Gaude had redirected the girls with occasional shouts when it seemed they were about to go at each other or him. Around them were approximately twenty-six vampires. The trio couldn't be all that certain as almost half of them were strewn about in pieces of varying sizes.

"Laly, my Marathon bar!", Gaude ordered his trusty elf. As for what a Marathon bar was, it was pretty much Snyckers, it turned out that it was simply named differently in UK during that era. While the scene was gory and all kinds of smelly, thanks to his past life's experience, Gaude had no aversion to it and could eat just fine, as long as he didn't get any of that vampire blood on his food. He had no intention to find out if he'd turn from just ingesting the stuff.