A Different Kind Of Hero

ok . i have posted 3 i now have four:

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CHAPTER FOUR: Letters and Plot Thickener

“We’re back,” Draco called as he hung up his robe. Noticing a forgotten blood splatter on the hem of his thick black pants, he quickly whispered, “Scourgify.” The dark Gryffindor at his side quickly did the same to his robes.

“Where’d you guys run off to?” Granger’s voice carried from the kitchen. “Year tea is cold!” Harry dashed into the kitchen without meeting Draco’s eye. He was being very quiet; Draco only hoped that Harry wasn’t too upset about what they’d done a few minutes ago. It was only on Draco’s insistence that Harry had taken that girl. The green-eyed vampire had hesitated for far too long; Harry’s victim had nearly died of fright in his grasp by the time he decided to bite. He’s still too compassionate for his own good. Doesn’t he realize he’s a predator now?

“Tea. Right,” Draco said noncommittally, sauntering into the kitchen. Not like tea is going to do Harry and I any good. Harry was leaning against the window, tea in hand, looking very empty despite being full. Draco paid no mind to the mortals in his presence, whom he only tolerated in case he needed an emergency dinner. The pale Slytherin slid to Harry’s side and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Cheer up,” he whispered.

“I’m a murderer,” Harry breathed. It was so quiet, Granger and Weasley couldn’t have possibly heard him. “First that boy, now those women.” Think fast…

“But they’re still alive,” Draco purred, leaning onto his boyfriend’s chest. “In your blood and in your memory.” Harry remained closed to the world. Irritated by his boyfriend’s emo behavior, Draco kissed his way up to Harry’s ear and drew a sharp squeak from the Gryffindor by biting into Harry’s sensitive cartilage.

“Oi! Lovebirds!” came a sharp bellow. Hissing in surprise, both vampires jumped away from each other, eyeing Weasley (and his eye) with bewildered expressions. “Let the owls in, won’t you?”

Draco felt stupid as he turned his gray eyes back to the window, against which three owls were scratching impatiently. He’d been so busy molesting Harry that he hadn’t even noticed the guests. “Right,” he said numbly, opening the window wide. It had barely registered in his head that these were school owls until Granger gave a soft squeal of glee.

“Our Hogwarts letters!” she exclaimed, bobbing her unusually untidy mess of brown hair. In unison, the owls landed on the table and extended their parchment-laden legs.

“Three of them?” Weasley whispered. Draco felt a sinking feeling in his gut. Either the school owls had found Harry, or Headmistress McGonagall had overlooked his now widely publicized vampirism. Harry stared numbly at his sleeping snake necklace while Weasley and Granger quickly relieved the owls of their burdens and offered them some water.

“Mine,” Granger muttered, flipping over one piece of parchment. Her gentle brown eyes had a peculiar sparkle in them that Draco hadn’t seen since that one time she’d bopped him in the nose. Perhaps she always looked like that when she received her Hogwarts letters; Draco had no idea. “And this one is yours, Ron.”

“The last one’s for you, Draco,” Weasley said carefully, holding out the last slip of paper. The blond frowned, taking the parchment, hoping against hope that the Headmistress knew what she was doing. “Do you reckon McGonagall’s gone nuts?”

“It’s possible,” Draco assured Weasley, turning the paper over to read it. His eyes skimmed the page. A list of the courses he’d registered for, a list of the books and supplies he’d need, a brief notice about how security’s been stepped up another notch… not a word mentioning what they would do about Draco’s unusual un-lifestyle. “Okay, it’s quite likely.”

Harry said nothing, keeping his gaze on the ground. Either his lovely new snake necklace was behaving oddly, or he was bursting to say something but unsure of when and how to say it.

“Too bad my new eyes can’t see into McGonagall’s brain,” Weasley said cheerfully. Granger chewed her toast with a most peculiar expression. She failed to notice that the sleeve of her robe had a large smear of strawberry jelly on it.

“Perhaps the Headmistress doesn’t know that you’re undead?” Granger ventured to guess, trying not to look at Harry.

“It doesn’t matter either way,” Draco sighed. Harry’s eyes flickered up for a split second before turning away again. Granger, Weasley, and the owls stared blankly as Draco pocketed the parchment. “I can’t go. I’d feel like a real git if I left Harry here alone. It’d be like abandoning a puffskein kitten.”

“How, exactly, do I resemble a puffskein kitten?” Harry queried, stunned out of his dour mood. He looked almost scandalized at being compared to a purring ball of fluff. Draco smirked and pulled the miffed Gryffindor to his gray sweater-clad chest, making sure his chilly breath tickled Harry’s sensitive ears.

“You’re cutest when you’re rubbed the wrong way.”

Granger and Weasley made up for Harry’s inability to blush. Weasley was the first to snap out of it. “But won’t it be kind suspicious if you withdraw from Hogwarts so suddenly?”

“Not as suspicious as skipping sunlit classes or preying upon my dorm mates.” The blond vampire allowed his thoughts to drift. “Not as suspicious as murdering the opposing Quidditch team on the field.” He hesitated for a moment, then allowed his patent-pending smirk to sneak back onto his face. “Then again, people have come to expect that of me…”

“Arrogant git,” Weasley coughed.

“And just imagine,” Draco continued, raising his voice slightly, “if they caught me in the restricted section, trying to find any information that might help bring Niles and Voldemort down. That’s what the two of you are going to do in my stead.”

That certainly shut them up. Draco smirked. “We have a mission now, you know. Regaining our humanity and slaughtering the Dark Lord wanker.” Silence fell around the table. Yes, Hogwarts would be a good place to find ways to hunt both Niles and Voldemort.

Harry broke the silence. “Thanks for the mental image,” he groaned, wrinkling his nose and massaging his forehead in disgust. He was clearly imagining the horrors that lie under Voldemort’s robes. Granger and Weasley suddenly groaned as well. Draco smirked. It was so tempting to push his power into their minds, force them to see obscene images of Voldemort- but after a moment’s thought, he realized this was just too disgusting, even for his superior mind.

He swiftly dismissed his thoughts of Voldemort’s sexual anatomy by pouncing at Harry and kissing his catch. This seemed to effectively erase the nasty image from Harry’s mind as well, and the dark-haired wizard laughed and leaned into Draco’s sweater-covered chest. The master of the house smirked triumphantly. I’ve erased both Voldemort and the murdered bible-thumpers from his mind without a single spell. In your face!

“Ahem,” Weasley coughed. “Do you have to do that in front of us?” Draco withdrew, his smirk failing. Why do Weasley and Granger have to be such prudes? Draco thought with annoyance, overlooking the fact that he was far more of a prude than they could ever be. He wanted to request permission to snog behind Weasley’s back instead, but he kept his snide to himself. Abashed but not blushing, Harry pried himself from Draco’s grasp and pretended to speak in Parseltongue to his sleeping necklace.

An awkward silence had completely taken over the room.

The former Malfoy fidgeted, wanting to continue the discussion about researching vampires (or at least continue kissing Harry) but every noise suddenly seemed ten times louder than before and any sudden movement would make people stare at him. Granger, her cheeks flushed red, opened her mouth to say something but quickly shut it. Weasley looked around helplessly for a moment, then promptly began staring through the table. It seemed nobody wanted to be the one to start the conversation again.

Draco leaned against the counter and watched Harry do absolutely nothing. He couldn’t stand this kind of silence. The pale pureblood gathered his thoughts, tried without success to catch Harry’s eye, and opened his mouth to speak, but-

“This is just stupid,” Harry spontaneously cut in. All eyes, magical or owl or otherwise, turned to him. For a moment, Harry quailed under their gaze, but the (idiotic) Gryffindor spirit within him flared up and he only smiled. “Draco, dropping out of school! It’s just stupid, even if you’re a bloodsucking social reject who can never show his face under the sun again.”

It took everybody a moment to digest it. Granger was the first one to look pissed, followed quickly by Draco and Weasley.

“This, from the guy who wanted to skip seventh year to chase inanimate objects?” Harry’s smile wavered for a moment.

“You know damn well that those horcruxes are more important than-”

“What do you want me to do?” Draco snarled, ignoring Harry’s obvious attempt at crushing his ego. “Leave you here all alone to destroy my house and starve?”

“No, of course,” Harry whispered. Something in his voice suddenly sounded wicked and strange. Draco didn’t like the wicked glint that had overshadowed the innocent sparkle in his boyfriend’s green eyes. Granger and Weasley seemed to notice it too. Even the owls turned away from their tea to stare at Harry incredulously.

“What are you planning…?” Weasley asked slowly.

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but Granger hissed, “No, you idiot!”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” Harry sputtered. Draco would have laughed if Granger didn’t have that look in her eyes.

“Oh, but I DO know,” the witch whispered. “You’re going to sneak into school to just to be with Draco and do research, aren’t you?”

“No!” Draco and Weasley barked at the same time. Draco bit back a snarl. That freeloading wanker stole my words! But he quickly calmed himself down again. It wouldn’t look very good on his part if he ripped open Weasley’s throat right in front of Harry.

“Yes,” Harry replied with ease. “Similar things been done before.”

Draco took a deep (and unnecessary) breath. Sneaking into Hogwarts is a task far easier said than done, a fact he realized in sixth year. “You really are turning into a dark wizard.” Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned away from them.

“Just because I borrow ideas from dark Wizards, that doesn’t make me one.” Granger seemed to look nervously to her left. Draco assumed it had something to do with her borrowing the idea of the Dark Mark to make her enchanted coins.

“No, but using the Petricrusectum Incendimortalus just might make you a Dark Wizard,” Draco whispered. It was a spell Harry had invented in a split second of pure rage and only used twice; the spell that petrified a victim, inflicted Cruciatus-like pain, and carved a dark mark on the person’s chest with green fire. Harry pretended not to hear.

“I already know a perfect hiding place,” Draco’s beau continued brightly. “One where, even if someone knew where I was, they wouldn’t be able to reach me.”

“The Room of Requirement?” Draco scoffed. “Someone will find a way in. It’s used more often than you think; you noticed when I occasionally hid in there, but it’ll be even easier for someone to find out you live in there you if you never even leave the room.”

“I’m not that stupid,” Harry snapped. “I’m talking about a place that only a Parselmouth could enter.” Though his plan suddenly become crystal clear to everyone in the room, Harry paused for drama and let a lizard-like grin consume his youthful face. “The Chamber of Secrets would make an excellent year-long hideout.”

Granger shook her head, staring at Harry with wide eyes, completely blown away. Ron’s eyes were narrowed; he was clearly trying to see into Harry’s mind and failing.

“Don’t be stupid,” Draco muttered, for lack of anything else to say. “You can’t seriously live in the chamber for a whole school year.”

“Why not?” Harry shrugged. “The place is huge. I can find a nice little corner to conjure a bed in, and I can sneak out at night with the invisibility cloak to see you guys and visit the library.”

“What about Moaning Myrtle?” Granger asked unexpectedly. Draco gave her a curious look.

“What about Moaning Myrtle?” the master of the house asked briskly. “How is she involved in this?”

“She lives in the bathroom that leads to the Chamber,” Granger explained, her features becoming calm once more despite Draco’s slight agitation. “Even if Harry’s invisible when he enters and leaves, she’s bound to notice if the sinks start shifting around again. I don’t think you can wipe a ghost’s memory.”

“I’d have to let her in on it and make her swear to keep it secret,” Harry mused. Weasley, flabbergasted, simply shook his head and said nothing. “Hey, don’t just toss out the idea like yesterday’s Daily Prophet. Tom Riddle managed to live there for a school year, even when everyone was in a panic searching for the Chamber of Secrets and the Heir of Slytherin.”

“Tom Riddle was an evil genius,” Weasley explained, emphasizing ‘genius’. “He was loads smarter than you are now. You’re not the Dark Lord, Harry!”

“Yet,” Draco coughed innocently.

“Just because it worked for him, that doesn’t mean it’ll work for you!” Weasley continued haughtily. “He didn’t have to drink blood or do research! He didn’t have to change his clothes, or shower, or even go to the bathroom! He didn’t have to meet other people to plan things. He never even had to leave the chamber, since he had Ginny to do all his dirty work for him.”

A light died in Weasley’s blue eyes for a brief moment, and Draco frowned, recalling that Ginny Weasley had died when the Death Eaters destroyed the Weasley home. Died right along with the Weasley parents, Bill and his fiancé, and the twins. That’s how war goes. Weasley slid down in his chair, letting his fiery red hair fall over his darkened eyes. “It’s a lot easier to hide a diary than it is to hide a person.”

The fell to nearly unnatural silence once again. Granger’s eyes were misty; the witch was clearly lost in her memories of Ginny. Harry’s eyes had also grown dark and distant. Though Draco had no fond memories of the witch Ginny, or any of the Weasleys, the morose silence unnerved him. He had no idea how to change the subject without sounding rude. A year ago, he would have happily laughed at the fall of the Weasleys, but now he knew what a painful thing it was to lose one’s family.

A loud screech came from just outside the window. Draco almost laughed at the welcome interruption. Another owl! Draco didn’t even bother looking toward the window; he just flicked his wrist at the latch, popped the window open, and let the bird fly in.

“Another Hogwarts letter?” Granger gasped, also welcoming the change of mood. “The ministry couldn’t possibly know-”

“It can’t be for me,” Harry hissed, staring at the letter as if it would explode with bubotuber puss. “It can’t be. If they knew I was here, they’d be sending Aurors, not class schedules.” Weasley whisked the letter away from the owl and allowed the bird to join it’s fellows, who were by now gathered around a cup of tea and hooting softly as if gossiping.

“It’s not for you,” Weasley whispered, before even opening the letter. “It has that warning on it that first years aren’t allowed brooms…”

“It must be a mistake,” Granger said firmly. “The owl must have gotten lost on its way to a first year.” Draco shifted his eyes to the spotted brown bird, who didn’t look lost at all and seemed to feel quite at home drinking Harry’s tea. There was a sinking feeling his gut, but he couldn’t organize his scattered suspicions into anything rational.

“No way!” Weasley gasped, staring at the opened letter as if it were a Monster Book of Monsters.

“What?” Harry, Draco, and Granger asked at once, crowding behind Weasley’s back. The red-haired wizard lowered the letter and fixed his suspicious eyes on Harry and Draco.

“What did you guys do last night?” he asked harshly. Silence reigned for five uncomfortable seconds. Harry had a peculiar look on his face, as if a snake had just asked him why Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

“Just went walking,” Draco said swiftly, cutting off Harry just as the Gryffindor opened his mouth. Suspicion danced in the eyes of the mortals. Draco couldn’t help it but notice Harry’s hand creeping closer to his wand.

“Did you invite Niles’ daughter to live here?” It took a moment for Draco to register the meaning of these words…

“No, I didn’t. Why would I? You didn’t either, did you, Harry?” The Gryffindor shook his head, bright bottle-green eyes betraying his confusion.

“Then why, exactly, have we received a letter inviting Adonis Chiku to attend Hogwarts?”

He’d barely finished talking when someone knocked loudly on the front door.

OK, this is the very long awaited chapter 4!

all be happy now!

DG

Excellent!!

so whens the next one coming?

AWESOME!!

Next one will come when my sister can get her lazy butt up and start writing it =] she's currently busy with exams, stoopid teachers put em at last minute at her skool. =]

and ty ty ty for the feedback!

Tell your sister to get off her lazy butt please and that sucks she has exams. Teachers shouldn't give them at last minute!

lol

A very sincere apology as i've also been busy. my stupid english teacher gave me two assignments at the same time. and i have to hand them in soon. >🙁

but, ill try and write more of all my stories!

Same here though it wasnt English class it was History Class lol

and yet again i get banned from the comp. this time until october 1st. sorry

it is okay as long as you post soon after or on the same day

yer i hope. i can get some maybe in when i manage to sneak on the comp. or when im at school. i'll take me a bit, cauz its all off the top of my head for some of these.

Jess has promised to write the next part asap. she's currently overseas doing something with school. =] she took my laptop with her, bish.

I will try and write some myself, but she has the whole plot line so ... yeah. It was all on my laptop AND SHE STOLE IT!

That's kinda funny... sucks for you though, sorry.

^^totally agree

-has moment.- hmm, she might finish it in a few weeks/months. knowning Jess, she'll take as long as possible, just to pee everyone off.

now i ish angry. But, i thank you for your feedback. and yes, i have been slack with my Salem De Beers, and A Random Hp Story. Sorry.

-runs- DON'T KILL ME. I'd rather like to R.I.P

Rot In Peace...

I'll post asap. well, what Jess thinks is asap.

OK..... killing hmmm..... sounds interesting.... lol.... we I won't kill you...

yet.