The Devil wears an Angel's face

James woke up early, and headed downstairs to find three people sitting on the counter of the inn's kitchen while playing some sort of strange card game.

"Hi", he waved, and three pairs of eyes moved to stare at him.

A man around his own age with blonde hair and wearing a women's skirt and a stained white shirt, jumped off the kitchen counter.

"Hi. Did you want some breakfast? A drink? I was just about to make some tea?"

James nodded, "Yes to the tea, Thank you."

The man stuck out his hand for James, who shook it in return, "I'm Peter. These are my mums- Lydia and Cora."

"I'm James Potter", he smiled back.

He sat down at the table, and a pot of tea landed in front of him. The three people were still sitting on the counter.

"Did- Who put that there?"

"Oh, I did," Peter said.

"How? It just- landed here and you're over there… did you throw it? You've got good aim."

He grinned, "No I didn't throw it."

He then muttered under his breath, lifting out his arm and a bowl of sugar flew over to James.

He startled backwards in shock, "You're a witch!"

All three of them seemed amused.

Lydia looked at him, "Most people here are."

"What about vampires?"

The two women shared a look with each other, silent to his question.

But Peter was eager to talk to him, "There's quite a few. I mean the place was founded by a vampire after all. But really there's such a wide variation of different people here… why are you here? We don't really get visitors. Other than people who know people that moved here, and even that's pretty rare."

James didn't know quite what to say. In a room of witches, it was unwise to reveal himself as a hunter- even if he mainly hunted vampires, not witches.

"A friend. Of mine. I'm visiting them."

"Oh, who is it? We probably know them." Cora said.

"...Lily. I'm actually meeting her today, at 10."

Peter looked up, "Oh! Lily Evans?"

"Uhh… yes?"

"I know her! We're close friends."

James hoped it was the right Lily.

A couple of hours later, James found himself pacing in his room. He was meant to be meeting a load of vampires soon. And who knows what else. A meeting of the monsters.

There was a knock on the door and he opened it to see Lydia standing there.

"Your friend's here."

"Oh, thank you."

He grabbed his satchel and shoes and ran down the stairs to see Lily waving to him by the door.

"Lily! Hi!"

"Hi James. Ready to go?"

"Yeah, just let me put my shoes on."

She nodded and waited, when Peter appeared from the backdoor.

James' eyes widened and he whispered to Lily, "please say your last name is Evans?"

"Yes, it is."

He sighed in relief, "Peter! Lily's here."

Peter spotted them and came over, "Lily! How'd you know James then?"

She lifted the corner of her mouth, "He's the vampire hunter."

James' eyes widened as Peter just nodded and started putting his own shoes on. Afterwards, he grabbed his cloak and tied it around his shoulders and made his way to the door.

"You coming?" Peter asked James, still sitting on the steps with only one shoe on.

"What's going on here? You're coming?"

Peter grinned and nodded, "Of course. You know Sirius? The vampire you came here to hunt? I'm their best friend."

"But… you're a human. Right?"

Peter nodded and Lily opened the door for them to leave.

"See? Another human so you can feel comfortable."

"You're a human too." James said.

Lily hummed, questioning, "I guess."

At James' confused expression, she carried on.

"I'm a witch. So, I guess I am a human but I can just do magic as well."

"But… you're a healer?"

Lily smiled, "Potions, Potter."

Peter turned to James, "You really don't seem to know much for a hunter. I thought you were meant to be the expert."

James shrugged, "Hunter's don't really do the research needed. We have other people we work with that are the experts in the supernatural. I just hunt them."

"How many have you killed?", Lily asked.

James looked at her, and shook his head, walking a little further ahead. But she grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"How many?"

James' nerves grew as he answered, "I don't know. A lot. I've been hunting since I was a child, my family are all hunters. So, I don't remember. It's all mostly vampires, that's what we specialise in."

Lily nodded stiffly, "Stop killing."

"What?"

"You should stop killing as soon as you see someone supernatural. Not all of us are evil."

"I'm starting to get that."

They stared at each other, Lily's gaze softening into a small smile.

Peter rolled his eyes and nudged Lily, "You're sickening", he handed her a broomstick.

They were standing in the town centre, by Lily's hut.

"What are you meant to do with that?"

Peter grinned, as Lily ignored him and hopped onto the broom, leaving her floating off the ground.

"You can fly?" James uttered in shock.

"Witch, Remember? Get on, Sirius' place is pretty far to walk."

James excitedly climbed on the back, Peter hopping on after him. Lily then set off, flying over the top of the trees as they reached the woods.

"That's this Sirius' place? It's giant! And it's only them living there?"

"Yep", Peter replied, "Their brother stays round sometimes but only once every while. Most of the time it's just Sirius there."

Lily landed over the castle fence, right by the front door.

James frowned, "That must be awfully lonely. Here all by yourself all day and night."

A voice spoke up from behind them, "I didn't know you cared that much about how vampires felt."

James swirled round and saw the vampire walking over to them.

"Hi."

He raised an eyebrow, "Hello, James."

Peter pushed open the door, "Come on."

They walked inside the house, the vampire taking the lead with the rest following behind him. He knocked on a large door, not waiting for an answer before walking inside.

"I could've been naked, you know." Sirius said, lying down on a chaise longue.

The vampire sat down at the desk chair, "Why would you be naked when you knew we were coming at this time?"

Sirius shrugged and sat up, Peter and Lily sitting down next to them.

"I don't really own a clock, or a watch… maybe I should get one."

Lily rested her arm on their shoulder, "You probably should."

Sirius nodded before their eyes focused on James.

"Hunter!" Sirius stood up, "I'm so glad you could make it."

"Um… thank you? What actually is this?"

Sirius grinned, "Working out how to kill my family, of course."

The vampire lifted an arm up, "apart from me."

Sirius rolled their eyes, "Apart from him."

"And Andromeda", Lily added.

They groaned, "And Andy."

"And Alphard", Peter added.

Sirius pouted as the vampire shook his head, "Alphard died. Our Mother killed him a few weeks ago."

Peter muttered, "That's a shame, I quite liked him."

Sirius turned back to a bewildered James, "You must be very confused, hm? I doubt Reggie told you anything."

James turned to the vampire, "your name is Reggie?"

He glared, "It's Regulus, don't call me Reggie."

"Cute."

Sirius snorted, "This is disgusting. Where's Marlene?"

"I'm here!" Marlene shouted, coming through glass doors that led to a garden.

Her eyes instantly snapped to James, "Human. Can I drink him?"

Lily shook her head with a sympathetic look.

Behind Marlene were a group of other people, two of them putting flowers in each other's hair.

Sirius gasped, "Did you pick my flowers?"

Alice walked over to them and handed them a moonflower.

They grinned and started to twiddle it between their fingers.

"Frank? Alice?" James said, instantly recognising the two.

Frank smiled and ran over to James to hug him, "Potter! What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here? We thought you had both died?"

Frank stuck out his fangs, "I mean I guess I did. I got bit, mum kicked me out and Alice and I found this place."

Lily leaned forwards, "You know each other?"

"Frank taught me. I was his trainee when I first became a hunter."

Regulus rolled his eyes, "Can we please now get on with this meeting?"

Dorcas squished into the desk chair next to Regulus, "Calm down, you're so grouchy."

"I am not!"

Mary sat down in the middle of the room; closing her eyes, she conjured a projection of a 3d map of Purcaster.

Sirius bounded over, "Right. This is mine and Reggie's home town. Our parents' place is here, and is heavily guarded with about twenty vampires. More than half the town are also vampires and they travel a lot to bring back humans for our family to survive. Our entire family lives there and we're all extremely powerful."

Marlene snorted, "Have a little humility."

"They're not exaggerating."

"All of us will be fighting them. But we have to wait for the right moment. Regulus found out that in a couple of months, all of our cousins are leaving to find more humans, as well as a large portion of the town. That's when we need to strike. However, since a lot of us don't know how to fight a vampire, we've brought in another hunter to help. A good one. To help plan the attack and train to fight."

"That's why you got me here? You have Frank and Alice, they know how to hunt." James said.

Alice spoke up, "We haven't trained in years. Not since we left, 10 years ago. We need your help."

James clicked his tongue, thinking, "Alright. But what about all those people the vampires capture. They'll kill them."

Regulus shrugged, "Irrelevant."

"So many innocent people will die if you wait that long."

"Who cares. I'll kill them myself… Can I kill them myself? I'm kinda thirsty."

Dorcas groaned, "I hate hunters so much."

Peter put his hand of James' shoulder in sympathy, "We can help the people after we kill the family. The vampire's won't kill them until they get back to Purcaster."

James nodded in relief, "Thank you."

Peter sent a small smile to Regulus, Marlene and Dorcas, when James looked away.

Sirius jumped up, "Alright. Jamesie! You can stay here if you want, we can get to know each other. Apparently you think I'm lonely up here all alone."

"You definitely are", Mary grinned, vanishing the projection.

"I'll stay here, why not."

Regulus stood up, "Everyone can leave now."