Supernatural encounter

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

Today is finally the day of our outing to Hogsmeade. Daphne and I got in the carriage with Edward and Blaise, but we left them to go our own way.

The phoenix egg hatched a few days ago, at a time when Daphne was in my room 'revising', although this anatomy revision was limited to fondling because she didn't feel ready to lose her virginity yet. It was a shock to see the egg shatter in one go and the baby bird come out during one of our cuddles. However, Daphne immediately took a liking to the little bird and gave him a name, Filberg. Now, she spends almost all her free time to help me take care of the little bird in my room.

A few days ago, I also had the good surprise to receive a message from Borgin and Burkes informing me that my demiguise had arrived. After a new ritual his invisibility came to join my arsenal with the Nundu's deadly breath.

We settle down at a table of the tearoom of Mrs. Puddifoot. Many other couples are already there drinking hot tea and having fun. They bring us a cup of tea as well as a piece of chocolate cake each while we discuss of some things.

"You've heard about the screaming shack. It's a haunted house not far from here, we could go there afterwards." Daphne absentmindedly plays with the spoon resting in her cup.

"What could be so interesting about an old, haunted cabin. We see ghosts every day at the castle."

"But it's going to be fun. Don't tell me you're getting cold feet, Bones."

"Not even in your dreams Greengrass. You win, we'll go see your old house."

We leave the tearoom and head for the Shrieking Shack. Daphne tries to frighten me by imitating ghosts or monsters, but I see well that she is as exited to approach the old building as she is afraid of it. We cross the barrier, and we walk on the path. Daphne stopped trying to scare me and clings to my arm.

"Are we chickening out Greengrass?"

"No... It's just a little cold." I laugh as she sulks.

We are looking for a door, but they are all boarded up with wooden planks. "That's too bad, we'll have to return to the castle now." What a scaredy-cat. Not even ten minutes ago she was being a smartass with her ghostly noises and now she wants to run away.

"I think I remember a secret passage that leads to the cabin. Let's go through it, it'll be fun." I grab her by the waist before setting her down like a bag on my shoulder.

"Sean what are you doing?"

"We'll go faster this way." I start running in the direction of the Whomping Willow. I'm careful not to go too fast for a human but I still go much faster than a normal human.

"Stop! I think I'm going to throw up!" The path through the forest is far from a straight line and the ground is covered with roots and rocks. I can't see Daphne's face, but I can see her trying to hold back her long brown hair.

"Just a few more minutes, we're almost there!"

When we reach our destination, I put Daphne down again. She staggers a bit and looks pale.

"Never do this … again." She suppresses a retch in the middle of her sentence and sits down for a minute to recover on a rock.

When it senses our presence, the tree begins to stir. We are too far away to be hit, but it is amusing to see it stirring up air to try to reach us. After regaining some color Daphne joins me.

"I don't see a secret passage."

"Look closer, between the tree roots." I point toward a hole in the ground. I take my wand out and point it at the tree branches. "Immobilus." The wood creaks for a few more seconds before coming to a complete stop. I take Daphne by the hand as we approach the hole in the ground.

I climb down first and turn to wait for Daphne. "Be careful, it's slippery!" But it's already too late. She loses her balance, and her head hits my torso, causing me to wobble before I fall too. I catch myself with my forearms, breaking my fall. Daphne is lying full length on top of me.

"Um, ... I wouldn't mind staying like this a little longer." Daphne blushes before standing up and hitting me on the head.

"Jerk." I smile at her and we continue down the long tunnel.

We finally arrive at a trap door leading to the interior of the house. After pulling myself up onto the dusty floor, I see that we're not the only ones who like to explore. There are footprints in the thick coat of dust that covers the floor of the Shrieking Shack. I pull Daphne so she doesn't have to get her dress dirty on the floor.

"I wasn't expecting this. All this dust!" It's true that the cabin is pretty damaged by the passage of time as well as the many transformations of Lupin in his youth. There were many holes in the roof as well as in the walls. Some parts of the ceiling had collapsed, letting the blue sky appear above our heads. "No one has lived in this house for a very long time. Well except the occasional persons like us who like to explore. " We continue our exploration of the various rooms of the house. Almost nothing remains of the furniture, a rickety shelf here and there, a library in crumbs. We start to go up the stairs to go to the first floor.

A big ray of light infiltrates by a hole in the wall, illuminating the entrance of the room in front of the staircase. The room that contains the four-poster bed and where Harry meets Sirius in the movies.

"Sean, this house gives me the chills. Come on, let's get out of here." She looks really scared.

"I'll just take a look around this room and then we'll leave if you..." Something lunges at me and I feel a sharp object pierce my neck before disappearing. I quickly get up, pressing my hand to my neck. The wound is already closing with my inhuman regeneration abilities, but the artery was narrowly missed, and a lot of blood is flowing from the wound.

"Sean!" I look back at Daphne, she is completely panicked.

I don't have time to worry about what Daphne is feeling, however. I spot a figure in the shadows watching me.

"I'm so sorry but I'm dying of thirst and you both smells so good. I don't think I can let you leave this house alive." The figure moves closer, and I catch a glimpse of my attacker's face. Black veins throb under his bloodshot eyes, blood dripping from his lips as he wipes himself with the sleeve of his long black coat. There is no doubt about it, I am looking at a vampire. One side of his face bears burn marks that he probably received when he bit me in the sunlight.

"You really don't know the mistake you are making. " The vampire smirks.

"And what mistake is that, in a few minutes the sun will be low enough for me to approach you and drain you of your blood. By the time someone find you, I'll be long gone."

"No, it is a mistake because you think I am defenseless. Lumos Solem" I hold out my wand from which a powerful concentrated light beam escapes and I direct it straight at the vampire's face. He lets out long screams of agony as he collapses to the ground for a few seconds before I stop my spell. The vampire lies on the ground, his face on fire but the fact that he is already starting to heal tells me that he is not dead yet. "I think by now you've figured out that it's not us who are locked in this house with you. But that it is you who are locked in this house with me. What are you doing here?"

"Arg, I can't say anything. I would be killed if I ever divulged any information."

"It's funny because if I don't get what I want, that's what's likely to happen."

"Sean, let it go. Let's just go back to the castle. Professor Dumbledore and the others will know what to do with him." I sigh, Daphne is still too naive. I sometimes forget that she only just turned fifteen a short while ago.

"Okay, my girlfriend is way too nice with you. We're going to get out of here and I'll even leave you some blood, so you'll be strong enough to get the hell out of here and never be seen again. In exchange, I want a few vials of your blood and at least know what you're looking for. You can't really refuse, or I'll go digging into your mind to find the answers I want." The vampire seems to hesitate for a second, but he is so hungry that the promise of blood almost outweighs his master's fear.

"All right, you win. I was sent to search the village for a moonstone, it is supposed to free vampires from the sun's curse." So, this is one of Niklaus' minions. I take out from the inside pocket of my dress three bottles that I always keep in case of emergency. I fill one of them with my blood before closing it and rolling it towards the vampire with the other two.

The vampire throws himself greedily on the blood bottle which he empties in one go.

"What, that's all? Isn't there any way to get a little more?"

"I'll leave another one when I leave the room if you behave." The vampire smiled at the news of the extra few centiliter of blood.

"That's very kind of you when you consider that I tried to rip out your jugular." He bites his wrist to refill the two empty vials I sent him and roll them towards me with the vial that contained my blood before he drank it.

I refill the vial with blood before leaving it in the doorway. "Come on Daphne, let's get out of here. We still have to return to the castle to warn the teachers." We start to run towards the trap door in the ground, once in the tunnel we are forced to slow down the pace not to hurt ourselves against the rocky walls.

"Do you think we're safe now?"

"I think so. He's not going to risk killing us when we're so close to the castle. It would draw too much attention, and there's also a major difference in treatment between a vampire who killed two young wizards and a vampire who's snooping where he shouldn't. If one of us ever died, he would be hunted by every auror on the planet until he died."

"Why did you ask him for his blood?"

"Believe it or not, but vampire blood can heal any wound, even one that could be fatal. The only downside is that if you die right after drinking it, you come back to life as a vampire. I plan to keep some in case something bad happens to us."

The rest of the trip was spent in silence and the vampire did not reappear. As soon as we got back to the castle, we informed Snape of what we had discovered and left him to deal with the situation.