Chapter 57

"Within vampire society there are three different kinds of vampires that you will find. The first are ghouls, humans who have been transformed into vampires by ingesting the blood of a vampire after having their blood ingested first. Ghouls are essentially mindless slaves who can do nothing but obey the commands of the one who turned them. This kind of vampire is incredibly weak against light. They are the ones who will usually burst into dust if introduced to sunlight."

Harry nodded his head as he followed along with her words. He could not help but find the knowledge she was giving him absolutely fascinating. How many people could even say they learned the truth about vampires straight from the source?

"The second kind of vampire are the dhampyrs, the most common type of vampire. They are vampires who have been born to a human and a vampire. Sunlight will not kill them, at least, not right away. The longer they stay out in the sun the weaker they become. If they stay out to long, the sun will weaken them to the point where they too will burn and crumble into ashes like their less intelligent counterpart, but they can survive in the light for a time."

"I take it there is another class of vampires?" inquired Harry. "One that you belong to?"

"That's right," Selene's fanged smirk sent shivers down his spine. "The last class of vampire are the pure-bloods, the rarest and most powerful of my kind. We are not affected as much by the vampires many weaknesses. Sunlight does not bother us, crosses and holy water only weakens us to a degree, silver is what we are weakest against, but even that will not outright kill us."

"This is because, in the most technical of terms, we are alive."

Leaning forward, Selene reached over and grasped one of Harry's hands in both of her own. The young heir to the Potter fortune's cheeks flushed red. It was unknown if he had any intention to speak when he opened his mouth, or if he was just gaping, for Selene continued right where she left off.

"You can feel how warm I am, yes?" she asked, causing Harry to absently nod. He could feel how warm she was, it was like his hand had been wrapped in a fleece blanket. "Vampires are usually very cold, because the blood in their bodies does not circulate. This is because their heart is not beating, it does not pump blood through their veins and arteries."

"Pure-bloods are different. While our hearts do not beat, our magic is very active within us. It's constantly acting like a heart would, regulating the flow of our blood and pumping it through our bodies. This is also why we do not need as much human blood as a normal dhampyr or a ghoul would."

"I see," Harry whispered, trying to ignore the feel of Selene's warm hands covering his own. "You mentioned that pure-blood vampires are very rare."

"Extremely rare," Selene stated. "A pure-blood vampire is a vampire born of two vampires. Vampire births are exceedingly rare because we are not actually alive. How can a non living entity give birth to child? It shouldn't be possible according to the laws of nature, which explains why we are so rare. We exist outside of the natural order. Because of this, there are only twenty seven pure-blood vampires currently in existence, and many of them are very, very old." She gave him a smile filled with pride. "I happen to be the first pure-blood born within the last sixteen hundred years."

Now that, Harry found impressive. He knew from his research that there were rare magical species, some of which were said to be so rare most believed they were extinct like Griffins and others that were just exceedingly rare like the Phoenix. From what she was saying, pure-blood vampires were so rare they could actually be classified in the same category of scarcity that the Phoenix was.

"That's impressive."

Harry wondered just how many people had ever met a pure-blood vampire in recent times? The way Selene had made that comment about being the first pure-blood born within the last sixteen hundred years (1,600 years), made it sound like all the other pure-bloods were incredibly old. He imagined beings that old have probably shunned society by this point, preferring to live alone or with their covens or whatever.

"I know," Selene's voice was exceedingly smug. She was definitely proud of her status. Not that she didn't have a reason to be. "Of course, seeing as there are twenty seven of us, we're not quite the rarest creatures out there."

The look she gave Harry had his body stiffening instantly. It was that expression with the half lidded eyes and smirk that screamed predator he had seen when they first met.

"Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. Well known throughout much of the world for surviving the supposedly unsurvivable killing curse," Selene's thumb began caressing the back of his hand, sending all kinds of strange shivers through his body. "That's an impressive resume, amore. Not even a pure-blood such as myself would be able to survive getting hit with that curse."

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