| Jarvey
Join Date: May 2008 Location: Leicester, UK
Posts: 567
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Krysta Hedwig
Sixth Year | 
Chapter 22: The Beast Within
An endless ten minutes passed, uneventful and uneasy. A nervous, uncomfortable presence passed itself around and without the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Young eyes looked to their teachers in desperation and hope.
"What are they going to do?"
Nothing seemed to be happening. Harry looked from one teacher to the next but each simply stood their ground, sending the vampires threatening glances as though just to warn them of the terrible fate they would meet should one of them dare attack a child. Even Krysta Hedwig, the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, and a witch with a birthright to protect the innocent from the un-dead. Harry was becoming impatient.
"Why don't they do something? They're just vampires." He hissed, glaring at Krysta, though she was looking the other way.
"Only vampires? Have you seen a corpse after a vampire has finished with it?" asked Hermione, her voice full of authority.
"No." he bit back. "And neither have you." He added much to Ron's amusement. She scowled and pursed her lips.
"Well as it happens the description I was reading earlier was quite graphic." She retorted then folded her arms in a sulk.
"They're not going to do anything." Ron said, his hands still stuffed in his pockets. "I think they just wanted to spread out to keep an eye on us." He added. The casual tone of his voice didn't mask the concern it was attempting to conceal. The sudden activity had gotten all of their hopes up and they had been met with a bit of an anti-climax.
"Well somebody has to do something." Hermione announced looking determined.
"Hermione, we're trapped in a hidden underground chamber with a hundred vampires surrounding us. What exactly do you…oh yes perfect! And in true form, when faced with a crisis, Hermione reads a book." Ron 's tone was his usual sarcasm and even Harry shook his head in disbelief as Hermione grabbed her bag, sat down on it and began leafing through Heather's 6th year Dark Arts book. Ron raised his arms in the air in disbelief.
"Have you got a better idea?" she snapped glaring up at him.
"Yes, we wait this out and let Krys deal with it. C'mon Hermione, she's been fighting these things for years!" he cried, waving his arm erratically at the nearest vampire. "Don't you think that if there was a way out of this, she'd know what it was?" he asked and Harry agreed with him. He didn't dare say that to Hermione however.
"I think she has enough on her mind right now, and not to be rude about a teacher, but I don't think she's in the condition right now to be handling the crisis." She said quietly not removing her eyes from the text.
"How'd ya mean, the condition?" asked Ron, sceptically. Hermione ignored the question and tried to change the subject.
"You gonna help or not?" she asked calmly holding out a book to Ron. Harry frowned. She'd acted very strangely when asked about Krys. Ron simply stared at the book for a few seconds as though it were a clock that told the time backwards (i.e. completely useless) and eventually took it, dropping to the floor and crossing his legs.
Four hours later, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Heather, George, Fred, Lee Jordan, Neville, Dean and Seamus were pouring through every book they could find. Some sceptical Seventh years had donated their books, though the looks on their faces told Harry that they didn't think they would find anything of use.
Hermione kept looking up at Krysta every now and then but the woman seemed to be in another place entirely. She walked back and forth slowly hugging her waist with both arms, completely lost in thought. People had been standing so long, that even the threat of the vampires could no longer keep them on their feet. Slowly and reluctantly people were beginning to sink to the ground, trying to get as comfortable as they could.
As the hours passed by, soon the only people standing were the teachers, still on guard. Still the Gryffindors read on. Some of the Ravenclaws had joined them now, though they seemed dispirited and one of them told Harry that they were really just trying to take their mind off the evening to come. Harry looked at his watch and saw to his dismay that it was already 2:15 am. He stretched his arms in the air trying to stretch his back as best he could. He cursed quietly as he lost the page he'd been reading and dumped the book on the floor irritably. It seemed to be catching as just a few seconds later Dean did the same thing. Dean was holding his head in his hands moaning. Suddenly he cried out.
"This is pointless!" and threw the book as hard as he could across the room, narrowly missing one of the closest vampires who snarled and hissed menacingly, though didn't dare move any closer. Hermione looked up her eyes wide in alarm.
"What did you do that for?!" she yelled at Dean, her eyes blazing with anger.
"It was useless, Hermione!" he argued back.
"There could have been something in it!" she yelled back. "Something important and now it's over there!". Dean glared at her, his expression fuming.
"Then why don't you go over there and get it!"
"Is that meant to be funny?"
"Well, well, well. Dissention in the ranks." The new voice came out of nowhere, droning in a tone that made every Gryffindor in earshot want to commit murder.
"Go away Malfoy, I'm warning you." It was actually Fred that made the threat, but Malfoy ignored him.
"I don't know how you expect to defeat the Dark Lord. Why, we don't even need the vampires here, you lot are at each other's throats." He grinned at his own joke, which no one else seemed to appreciate.
"Malfoy, if we were trying to defeat the 'Dark Lord' as you call him, all we'd have to do is dangle you on a piece of string, then blast him when he comes out to kidnap you." Replied Hermione and everyone within hearing range burst into laughter. It seemed the rumours of Draco's demise earlier in the year were quite widespread. Draco fumed on the spot but held his countenance.
"And what does a mud-blood like you expect to do, Granger? Throw a book at him?" he asked, his own joke not getting anywhere near the response hers had.
"Believe me, Malfoy, your father's boss is the least of our worries right now."
"I see." Draco droned, not bothering to deny that his father was in league with Voldemort. "You lot are in for a rude awakening." He crooned a knowing look in his eye.
"And what's that supposed to mean Malfoy?" asked Ron who had clearly had his fill of Draco right now. "I don't know what you're so confident about, anyway. I hope you don't think You-Know-Who will spare you from Dracus. Last I heard he wasn't too fond of your family." Ron didn't get the response he'd hoped for. Instead Draco just smiled cruelly, an expression that was characteristic of Dracus himself.
"Like I said Weasley, you're all in for an extremely rude awakening." And with that, several angry and confused Gryffindors staring after him, he turned on his heel and sauntered away.
"They're quite fascinating." Commented Neville in a distant voice. He was reading some passages about vampires in one of the 7th year's books. Hermione nodded without looking up whilst no one else responded at all. "For instance, did you know they only drink human blood?" he asked and Hermione nodded again. "It's because they need it to replace and replenish their own blood, and since they used to be human, only human blood is any good." He explained but didn't get much response. Harry, for one, had already read that passage a dozen times anyway and none of it was news to anyone. There wasn't much any of them didn't know about vampires now.
"In fact…" continued Neville though no one was listening. "Any other blood is poisonous to them. Just like it would be to us if we got it in our systems. The main goal of a vampire's existence is to keep their human body alive. So putting any other blood into their bodies does them more harm than good." He said and Hermione looked up with mild interest and Harry studied her face. She looked thoughtful.
"It doesn't kill them, drinking other blood, but it makes them really weak and can even leave them unconscious until the body can repair itself." Hermione slowly put the book she was reading down and picked up another one. It was the Care of Magical Creatures book.
"Great." Said Ron who was reading the book Hermione had made Harry read when they'd first started researching. "So maybe if we were all Pixies, we'd stand a chance." He muttered sarcastically and gloomily. He'd obviously found the chapter Harry himself had been reading the day before. Was it really a whole day ago?
Hermione snorted a laugh at Ron's comment and then sat bolt upright staring at him as though someone had slapped her around the face.
"What?" he asked, wondering what he'd said to offend her. A smile was slowly working its way onto Hermione's face.
"Ron." She said, a fully-fledged grin had now appeared. "You're a bloody genius."
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