Bloodsucker

Everything hurt.

Her eyes burned and her jaw ached. Every sense was heightened to hundreds and she couldn’t stop it. She just continued to run. Somehow running didn’t feel like running at all. She was gliding through the dimly light hallways of the castle. Her skin would begin to burn whenever she’d run past a window with the sun peaking in. But she didn’t pay the pain any mind. She just kept running.

She didn’t know how far she’d went or how long she’d been going. But eventually, she found herself in the girls bathroom on the second floor. Her body slammed into the sink and fell to the ground. Her body shook and her mind raced.

All she could feel was anger and sadness. All she could see was Lavenders body.

“Are you alright?”

The voice practically screamed in her ear. She jumped and looked up to find Myrtle above her. The ghost had a quizzical look on her face, eyes peering down at Hermione.

“Y-yes. I’m f-fin-e.”

Hermione put a hand to her chest, trying to slow her breathing. Even in the seclusion of the girls bathroom, she could somehow still hear everything in the castle. The teachers making their way into the Great Hall, students exiting their dorms, house elves bustling in the kitchen. She was sure she could even hear the faint voice of Dumbledore, his whispers harsh and fast.

“Oh no!”

Hermione looks back to Myrtle. The ghost has somehow become even more pale when looking at her.

“You’ve been turned.”

Turned?

“What are you saying?”

Hermione presses the palm of her other hand to her forehead in an attempt to stop the aching pain. The ghost moves closer to Hermione, making Hermione backup closer to the wall of the sinks. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is stuck in its previous gasping position.

“I didn’t think the rumors were true! How did one even get onto school grounds?!”

Myrtles voice booms in her ears. She knew there was no way that Myrtle was screaming or raising her voice in any capacity. But for some reason, Myrtles usual incoherent whispers had become crystal clear sentences.

Hermione slaps her hands over her ears and practically growls.

“SHUT UP!”

She lets out a sob of pain and brings her knees to her chest, burying her head.

Hermione didn’t understand what was happening. All she could remember was the man last night snapping her neck and then waking up feeling like she’d been starved for years. Then Lavender came along and it was like Hermione wasn’t Hermione anymore. All she could feel was…

Bloodlust?

She was just so damn hungry.

She lets out another sob as she thinks. She raises her head back up at Myrtle, who hasn’t moved from her floating spot above Hermione. Hermione drops her hands from her ears and they rest in her lap. She registers the cold wet streaks running down her face and tries to blink them away.

Myrtles eyes meet hers. The shock and confusion had worn off. It had seemingly faded into sadness. Pity to be more exact.

“What’s happening to me?”

Her voice comes out hoarse and pathetically low. She almost laughs at herself. If only her anger and sadness weren’t her primary emotions at the moment.

“You don’t know what’s happened to you?”

Myrtle asks as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Hermione shakes her head and Myrtle sighs. She floats down closer to Hermione and studies her face for a moment.

“Did you kill Lavender Brown?”

Hermione freezes. Myrtles words stab her in the chest and twist inside of her until she’s bleeding out. How did Myrtle know? Did anyone else know? Did they know it was her? How long would it be until they came after her for murdering a fellow student? How would Harry and Ron react to finding out that she was a cold-blooded murder who-

“They don’t know it was you. Dumbledore was alerted to the body about an hour ago. They said McGonagall found her body.”

Myrtles words continue to come out of her mouth in an even and factual tone. But it does nothing to alleviate the anguish that Hermione was feeling.

“Oh god. I’m a murderer.”

She whispers to herself as her hands place over her mouth. She hadn’t been able to fully register what she’d done until that very moment.

A girl was dead because of her. And she couldn’t understand why she even killed her in the first place.

Myrtle pats her knee and shrugs.

“It was bound to happen eventually. You would’ve died if you didn’t feed on her.”

Hermione pauses, thinking over what Myrtle had just said.

“Bound to happen? What do you mean it was “bound to happen?”

Myrtle only sighs and shakes her head.

“It’s been a very long time since we’ve had a vampire student on our grounds and even then, we’ve never had a newly turned vampire on campus. Atleast not since I’ve been here.”

Hermione freezes once again.

“Vampire? What do vampires have to do with this?”

Myrtles previous understanding and even tone had turned into pure annoyance. She rolls her eyes and floats even closer to Hermione.

“Look at the facts, girl. You’re blood hungry, you’re extremely fast, you’re hearing is going crazy, not to mention your eyes.”

Hermione raises an eyebrow at Myrtle.

“Eyes? What’s wrong with my eyes?”

Myrtle floats backwards and gestures to the corner of the room. Hermione turns her head and sees it. A slender and mostly hidden mirror residing in a corner most would miss. She thinks back to second year and shudders at the reason as to why the mirror was so well hidden in the first place.

She slowly stands from the floor and walks over to the mirror. The windows are too high for any good sunlight to trail in but Hermione can still see well enough.

She stares at herself in the mirror. Her eyes reflect back to her. Hermione can see the tears stains drying up but she couldn’t understand what Myrtle was talking about. Her fingers run over her cheeks. What was she missing?

“Just give it a moment.”

Hermione waits and not a moment later, she smells something. Something delicious and savory. She turns away from the mirror, trying to catch the smell again. Her ears perk up and she can hear a slight moan of pain from somewhere in the castle. The scent wavers through the air once again and the ache comes back to her eyes.

“Look.”

Myrtle points to the mirror behind her and Hermione turns.

She must be hallucinating. Her eyes grow beady dark red and the veins under her eyes become prominent, blood shooting through them. She falls backwards and onto the floor, hastily scooting away from the mirror.

There was no way that was real. Maybe someone was playing tricks. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe she actually was dead.

“You see?”

Hermiones fingers tap the cold floor beneath her. Her breath is uneven and she shakes her head. She looks up at Myrtle, who has now flown back up above her.

“I still don’t understand. What….what happened to me?! What am I?”

Myrtle giggles which leads to a snort.

“You’re a vampire of course!”

Hermione blinks slowly. She tries to understand what Myrtle has just told her.

Vampire? There was no way she was a vampire. It would be impossible. Vampires were born, not made. And they lived in covens in the middle of dark forests.

So there was no way. No way at ALL that she was a vampire. Myrtle was just confused. So very confused.

“I’m just surprised one got on campus. It must’ve been one of the special ones. Or a different kind of vampire…”

“You’re wrong!”

Hermione yells back at her. Her chest and still rising and falling unevenly and she can still smell the sickly sweet blood coming from whoever the hell got a paper cut this early in the morning.

Myrtle crosses her arms over her see-through chest and lets out a ‘hm’ sound. Hermione blinks once again and barely sees Myrtle shooting down towards her, scooping Hermione in her arms. Hermione lets out a scream as Myrtle drifts the upto the high windows. She didn’t even know Myrtle could pick anyone up. She’d just thought that they’d fall right through her grasp.

“Let me go!”

Hermione fights against Myrtles surprisingly strong grasp. Myrtle brings them between two windows, firmly holding Hermione to the side of her. Hermione stops fighting her. She reckons that it’s better to follow instructions when she’s fifteen feet in the air and could be dropped any second.

“Put your hand out into the sunlight.”

Hermiones face winces in confusion and Myrtle nudges her on. Hermione rolls her eyes and holds her hand out. The sunlight is a bit farther than she expected. She reaches out further and immediately feels her skin burning. Like her finger tips accidentally grazed the edge of a lit stove.

She yells in pain and jumps back into the shadows. She brings her hand to rest protectively under her chin and Myrtle hm’s in delight.

Myrtle floats them back down to the floor and drops her about a foot above the floor. Somehow Hermione manages to land on her feet. Myrtle continues to float above her, now floating back and forth in the air.

“You can’t even go in the sun!”

Myrtle laughs and shakes her head.

“You’ve got to look at the facts girl.”

Hermione recounts everything once again.

She had drank blood, she couldn’t go in the sun, she was fast, she could hear things from miles away, and her eyes looked like something out of a horror novel.

Her eyes widen as she realizes it.

“Oh Merlin I’m a vampire.”