Angel From My Nightmare (Vampire Knight) *Takuma/OC*

04. Unsuspecting Victim

Now that she actually had Hamlet in her hands – well, room if she was being technical; she didn't actually carry the book with her everywhere she went – Harry felt much happier. She was a very fast reader and could easily sit with a novel for hours at a time. Most books never lasted her long at all. But when it came to a few of her utmost favourites, she much preferred to savour them. Hamlet, of course, was one of them.

And when she tried to savour books in this way, she ended up with a lot more free time than when she did her usual speed reading. Most people just saw Harry as a bit of an odd bookworm, but she still enjoyed doing other things. Really.

When the following afternoon rolled round, Harry realised that it was already two weeks since she'd started at CrossAcademy and that she hadn't done any of the drawings she'd promised to do for her best friend, Kotani, even with being at a different school. He'd said that there was no rush, that she could mail them to him whenever, but she felt she should have at least made a start on them by now.

So that afternoon, Harry had put Hamlet aside, gathered all of her drawing materials and Kotani's notes together and headed down to the Day Class library. She'd already thought several times before that it would be the best place for drawing, since it was generally so quiet. That and she'd have a lot more space than the tiny desk that she and Yoko had to share in their dorm.

But when she got there, she found the library to be unusually busy. They had some mock tests on Monday. Did that mean that all of these students were doing some last minute cramming before then? Harry was grateful she'd already done her revision earlier in the week. She didn't think she'd be able to handle the pressure of leaving it so late.

She grabbed the only empty table near one of the windows and laid her bag on top of it. She was just about to sit down when she heard a familiar voice on the other side of the bookcase beside her. She peeked round the corner to see Kara Tsukiyama sat with several other girls at the far end of the library. Harry didn't recognise any of them, but she was glad to see that Kara seemed to be feeling better since their visit to the Night Class building.

"Kara?" Harry gave the girl a small wave and made her way over to their table.

Kara smiled when she saw her. "Hey, Harry. Nice to see you again."

"You too." Harry noticed that the other girls were all looking at her so she gave them her usual introduction. "Hi, I'm Tamashi Harima. But everyone just calls me Harry."

"Harima? As in Mr. Harima?" the girl with glasses asked, looking up from the textbook she'd been reading.

"He's her father," Kara answered helpfully. "Harry, these are my friends: Danielle Rothson, Rin Takeda, Megumi Nakano – who prefers to be called Meg – Juni Hasimoto and Shiori Itou."

"It's nice to meet you all," Harry greeted them politely.

"My, my..." The brunette who Kara had introduced as Meg got up from her seat and stalked towards Harry. "You have such pretty eyes."

"Oh... Thank you," said Harry, surprised and a little embarrassed.

Meg leant in extremely close until their faces were only inches apart, staring deeply into her eyes. Harry shifted uncomfortably. Why were all the girls here either overly friendly or bubbly? But then Meg simply winked at her and whispered, "Gorgeous", under her breath before pulling away and returning to her seat.

Harry had no idea what had just happened. Still feeling dazed, she returned her attention to Kara and tentatively laid a hand on her shoulder. "I, um, wanted to make sure you were feeling okay. You seemed pretty out of it yesterday."