Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Hermione Granger-Weasley, Professor at Hogwarts, was on her way to a muggle family, on an errand Hogwarts Professors often had to do before the start of a new term. Informing the parents of muggle-borns that they now have a witch or wizard in the family, helping them get adjusted and get supplies from Diagon Alley.
She got out a piece of paper, on it was written in Headmistress McGonagall's neat handwriting “Pont Street 7, Ivashkov family, Ariana Ivashkov”. The houses in the street looked like Victorian residential buildings; they were very nice, thought Hermione. In front of number 7 she halted, took a deep breath and climbed the stairs to ring the bell.
The door opened and she was greeted by a very handsome young man, with the most perfectly wild, messy hair that she had ever seen, the messiness seemed too precise to be a coincidence. His eyes were impossibly green, even greener than Harry’s. Hermione had never seen Harry’s green eyes outmatched. He smirked oddly, with his mouth closed, not showing any of his teeth.
“How can i help you, beautiful?” he asked in an American accent.
Hermione, realizing that she is staring, blushed red and looked away. The pet name didn’t lessen her embarrassment.
“I am looking for Mr. and Mrs. Ivashkov.”
“In regards to what, may I ask?” he leaned against the door frame, looking down at her still grinning.
“Well, I-we have to discuss something about their daughter.” To Hermione's astonishment his grin vanished, he looked around, leaned in and looked at her left cheek. As his green eyes looked her up and down, it felt like he was looking right through her. He took a step back inside, a silent invitation for her to come in. Once again he looked around as if searching someone on the street and closed the door.
“Castil!” he says a little louder but not loud enough for someone outside the entrance hall to hear.
“I am sorry but you have to be searched.” At the statement a man appeared. He was shorter than the first but much broader. He had brown hair and was wearing casual workout clothes. As she watched him she saw his shoulders stiffen, any amusement in his features vanishing. He now looked very on edge, as if he would tackle her to the floor at any moment. “This is our guardian, he will be conducting the search, I hope you understand.” The man with the messy black hair said.
“Well I don’t have anything to hide.” Hermione says, smiling sweetly up at the first man. He just nodded and the other man moved towards her.
“Feet shoulder width apart. Spread your arms to the side.” He orders as he starts to search her.
Even Hermione, who had never been searched before, could tell he was being very thorough.
He didn’t find anything, except her wand.
“What’s this?” he asked, holding out her wand and she thought she saw recognition in his eyes.
“That is part of the reason for my visit.”
The men shared a look and led her into a wonderful living room with an open dining room, the atmosphere of the room was relaxed and it was decorated neatly. A lot of pictures were on the walls and shelves as well as many, very old looking books.
In the garden a few children were playing. At the dining room table there were two children and a woman seemingly doing homework.
“Declan, Ariana go play outside with the others.” All three looked up; the children got and moved outside without questions. Hermione’s own children would have asked a thousand questions and said that they do not want to go outside.
“What is the matter?” asked the woman. She was very pretty with long blond hair and brown eyes and there was a silver tattoo on her left cheek, of what looked like it may be a lily.
The smaller man handed Hermione her wand, she took it in her hand, wielding it.
“A wand.“ Her eyes fell on Hermione. “Yours? Did Jaclyn send you?”
Hermione was utterly confused, she was here to talk to muggles, she was prepared to be accused of being a liar, to get screamed at, but not for this. Not to get searched. Not to get interrogated. What a strange family, she thought.
“How do you know about the wizarding world, you are muggles! And I don’t know a Jaclyn.” exclaimed Hermione. She couldn’t stand not knowing something. With a gesture the woman signaled her to sit down, which she did.
The dark haired man, by any chance Mr. Ivashkov, sat himself next to the blonde woman, the other man remained standing.
“Tell me why are you here and I will tell you my story” the blonde suggest, she guessed Mrs Ivashkov.
“I am Hermione Granger-Weasley, a Professor at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Your daughter, well I assume your daughter, Ariana Ivashkov got accepted at Hogwarts, she is a witch. At Hogwarts she is going to learn how to control her magic, to improve it and reach her full potential. Later she can get a job in the wizarding world or in the muggle world. Muggle is a word for people without magic abilities.”
Both parties in front of her eyed her up and down.
“She is telling the truth.” The man stated calmly.
“Sydney Ivashkov” the blonde extended her hand to Hermione and smiled.
“Adrian Ivashkov” the man mirrored her gesture, “and that thing behind you is Eddie Castile, don’t expect him to be anything but stoic.” his smile from before was back but his eyes still seemed worried.
“It is nice for you to come here and to tell us this story, but…” she gave the wand back, “My daughter isn’t going anywhere.” She was still smiling but her tone became very cold.
“She has to attend; if not her magic can get out of hand. She won't be able to control it. It will destroy her and anything around her.”
“Sounds terrifyingly familiar” murmured Adrian. Sydney shot him a glare.
“Well Mrs. Granger-Weasley, may i ask you a question?”
“Of course that is what I am here for.”
“At this school, Hogwarts, was it?” Hermione nodded, “What kind of people are there? Humans?”
“Well yes, of course. We have a centaur as a teacher as well as a half giant, a few students are veelas. But most are magical folk.”
“Wait what? A centaur! You mean half horse half man? These things are real?” Adrian suddenly sat up straighter, “Wait a half giant? How do you get a half a giant, how big is a ‘half’ giant? Half the height of a giant or just a little smaller than a giant or slightly bigger than human?” he now was obviously rambling.
“Really you wonder that that is real? Shouldn't you know better?” Sydney said, interrupting his rambling.
“Mrs. Granger-Weasley,” Sydney started again, “Are there something like vampire?”
“Goodness no, they are uncivilized. They drink the blood of humans. They are dangerous feral creatures!” Hermione nearly screamed.
“See, we can’t send our daughter to Hogwarts.” Sydney smiled coldly.
“Well now we can be sure that the tattoo absolutely has no power over you anymore.” Adrian murmured.
“Vampire.” Hermione whispered in disbelief, she looked at the children playing baseball in the yard, and Ariana, laying in the grass a little away from her brothers reading a book in broad daylight. She remembered everything she learned of vampires.
“That is impossible, she is there out in the daylight she can’t be a vampire.”
“Let me in turn explain our world to you, you should be warned that you can’t tell anything of it to someone else who isn’t already aware of it.” Hermione nodded interested, she never could say no to an opportunity to learn, and secrets, she knew a lot of people’s secrets and always kept them in confidence.
“The Vampires you describe we call Strigoi, they are the undead, they kill their victim for blood and can’t go out in the sun. But there are more types of vampires than Strigoi, Moroi are living vampires, they are born and they die, they don’t kill for blood they use Feeders who are willingly to donate their blood for the high a Moroi bite causes, their fangs do not retract. They are able to go in the sun but it weakens them. They also have elemental abilities. They are taller and slimmer as most humans with pale skin and are considered beautiful by most.” At that Hermione looked at Adrian, who winked at her, making her blush. Damn, he is married, how can he be so flirtatious? Even worse, she is married, how could she be so affected by it? Hermione focused all her attention back on Sydney, who spoke like she didn’t notice anything.
“Then there are hybrids of Moroi and humans called Dhampirs. And through this union of Moroi and human, Dhampirs have quicker reflexes, increased strength, heightened agility, greater flexibility and vast endurance. They appear totally human, where with Moroi you can tell. They get trained to protect the Moroi from the Strigoi, because without the Moroi, Dhampirs wouldn’t be able to sustain their species, Dhampirs aren’t able to procreate with one another. They are sterile as a result of the cross. The Moroi have built a society away and hidden from humans with their own form of government. They have 12 royal families and from one of these families a Queen or King will be elected. Did I forget something?” she asked Adrian and Eddie.
Both shook their heads. “Any questions?”
Loads, Hermione thought to herself and looked from Eddie to Adrian and then to the children in the yard, the girl now sat in the shadows, watching her brothers engaged in a water balloon fight, that looked a little too aggressive for three little boys and one teenager.
“You and him,“ Hermione said pointing at Eddie and Sydney, “are Dhampirs and,” she looked back at the garden, the girl was pale, even now that she looked a little red from sunburn, she was tall and very beautiful with long dark hair and a very slim posture. The boys on the other hand, although still very good looking, were broader and taller, even the youngest one, which Hermione guessed was around six, exhibited a very athletic posture.
“The four boys too, while you,” she gestured to Adrian who grinned, “and the girl, probably Ariana, are Moroi.”
“Correct, but I am Human.” Sydney said looking to her boys. The oldest had two of the younger boys thrown over his shoulders while the youngest tried to hit him with a water balloon.
“Are you his feeder?” Hermione bluntly asked Sydney.
“What no! I am his wife! He would never dare to use me like that!” she said angrily.
“I am sorry, I just thought because you are a human, I am not familiar with your practices yet.”
“It is unusual for a Moroi to marry a human and not another Moroi, we normally don’t even live amongst human, but we are not a normally family.” explained Adrian who seemed a little upset too.
“Well we could arrange for a feeder at Hogwarts I think. She really does need to attend, it would be too dangerous for her not to.” Hermione said, trying to change the subject.
“She wouldn’t have a Guardian with her, which would also be too dangerous.” That was the first words that Eddie had spoken since they got into the living area.
“Well there are several wards and protection spells around the castle, and a bunch of very well trained Professors, she will be very secure.”
Eddie didn’t look pleased.
“Are those wards keeping Strigoi away? What of the alchemists or the warrior of light? When they find out that she isn’t under family or guardian protection, they are going to come for her. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to her.” his voice was calm but very stern.
“I can give you my utmost assurance that in the history of Hogwarts, we have never had any problems with ‘Strigoi’ and these other things. Humans can’t even see the castle. If it would calm you, I attended Hogwarts; I am sending my daughter there and planning on sending my son too.”
“I still agree with Eddie, even if you haven’t had had any problems with Strigoi, it won't eliminate any chance that it could happen.” Sydney said looking unsure. “As for the alchemists, I wish I could say I know they don’t have any information.” She absentmindedly stroked her cheek. “The warriors of light are just too unstructured to have good information on anything.”
“She should decide” Adrian suddenly chipped in.
“What?” Eddie and Sydney exclaimed.
“I said she should decide. It is her life. Sydney, you know as much as I do how awful it is to blindly follow the instruction of parents.” He seemed very serious. It didn’t suit him, thought Hermione.
“Why are all these people after her?” Hermione asked. Her question got very grim looks from everyone.
“Well I said we are not a normal family.” Adrian explained, “First of all, it is a total scandal amongst my people to marry a Human. Sydney hasn’t had it any easier with her family working for the alchemists who hate my kind. She was raised with the belief that we were evil creatures of the night,” he smiled at Sydney who gave him a light jab on the shoulder.
”Well we went against everything and got married. Her father and mine disowned us, but both our mothers stayed by our side. When we had children everything got worse.” he looked haunted.
“It is normal for a couple like us to produce Dhampirs, not another Moroi.” Sydney kept going, “We don’t understand how this could happen. After her birth everyone had special interest in her. Everyone saw her as a guinea pig and wanted to test her. We decided to go into hiding and live apart from his people and mine. Eddie came with us to protect us. He was always a good friend and one of the only ones we could trust. This is why we can’t let her go anywhere. It is too dangerous. His people would treat her like one of them but when the Alchemists, or worst, the Warrior of Light finds her, it would be horrible. I don’t even want to think about it. When she is with us we can protect her, she has her brothers who are training with Eddie to be guardians and she has me” she looked determined to kill anyone and everyone who would dare touch Ariana.
"What are the Alchemists and Warrior of lights?" Hermione asked.
"They are organization of humans who know about the vampire world. The Alchemists help to hide our existence from the humans. While the Warrior of light hunt Strigoi and even sometimes Moroi. Against Dhampir they have no chance because they are to elite for them, but both organization hates vampires and want them dead. When they found out about Ariana, the Warriors wanted her to be out to death. The Alchemists wanted to study her like a guinea pig." Sydney explained full of hate and anger.
“I would never let anything happen to her. Hogwarts is one of the safest places in the world.” Pictures of the Battle flashed in Hermione's vision suddenly and vividly… At least now, she thought.
“I don’t know what it is about you Mrs. Granger-Weasley but I trust you. I don’t know anything about you, but I trust you.” Adrian stated. “I think it is something in your Aura.” he got a faraway gaze.
“I would like a show of these magical abilities you speak of Mrs. Granger-Weasley.” he smiled cheekily.
Hermione drew her wand. Eddie stiffened and Sydney rose abruptly from her chair, causing it to fall over backwards.
“Lumos” the tip of the wand glowed, “Lumos maxima” the light started to move from the tip between them and glowed there.
Both Adrian and Sydney were awestruck.
“How did you do that? I’ve never read of such a spell.” she exclaimed.
“You need to be a witch to master such a spell”
“I am a witch.” and with that Sydney summoned a fire in her palm.
“What?” Hermione leapt to her feet, wand at the ready.
The bell disturbed the two. Adrian got to his feet to answer, very unimpressed by the show in front of him. Eddie seemed torn between keeping Adrian or Sydney safe. Deciding Hermione is less of a threat than the unknown caller at the door, and that Sydney was more than capable of defending herself, with the fireball still in her hand, he followed Adrian to the door.
“Well” Sydney said and let the fireball die. “Ever heard of different kinds of witches?”
Hermione shook her head and lowered her wand.
“PIZZA” Adrian screamed loudly and came in, arms loaded with more than ten pizza boxes. “We have enough for you too Mrs. Granger-Weasley, if you would like to join us.”
“Hermione.” she offered.
“Well, Hermione time to meet our children.”