blood bound

chapter 4: hospital visit

It took less than an hour for the twins to return with Head Auror Bones and three of her best Aurors. Harry thought it was more than a bit surreal to see four highly trained Aurors sneaking into the Hospital Wing like children to see him at his request and know that he had been taken seriously on the stealth issue. Of course it was slightly less of a surprise to see Hermione and Susan with them but still nice.

"Harry, why are you curled up on top of Professor Snape?" Hermione asked carefully, her eyes quickly roaming over both of them to make sure they were alright.

"Its part of what happened when you found me out cold," Harry said sheepishly, mentally wincing at the tirade that she was likely to unleash on him for the impropriety of their new situation.

"Miss. Granger he is well within his rights as a living vampire to do anything he pleases with me as one of his major food sources," Severus pointed out patiently, simultaneously warning the Auror's who were now wide eyed and cutting off one of her lectures before she got started.

"Living Vampires are quietly asked to register with the Auror corps so that we can appropriately assign responders when one is involved. Legally they fall under both Vampire and Wizarding law with certain considerations taken into account on both sides," Amelia explained for the benefit of the non-Aurors. "Regular Vampires have certain restrictions but Living Vampires can live mostly on what we do until they find their mate and their anchor, both of which can be of any species."

"What about organizations that they start? Or anything they were involved with before changing into one? Harry wasn't like this two days ago," Susan asked thinking of the DA and how it could be classified as a club, a class, or an organization depending on how one looked at it.

"Hermione started the DA, not me," Harry pointed out, giving an eerie glare to one of the Aurors that was getting to close to Hermione and kept inching forwards.

"I started it under the laws I found about a Lord having the right to train people who might want to serve him or swear allegiance to him. Its not uncommon to train more than you actually need and allow most to walk away at the end of training to work somewhere else. With your luck and how many people want to kill you I realized that anyone who wanted to work for you or swear allegiance to you would need combat and DADA training, which we weren't getting," Hermione admitted with a deep blush. "A couple of the common born purebloods have actually asked me about it and a few have expressed an interest in taking positions in your household. Even if you hadn't been the Potter Heir you qualified as a Lord when you beat You-Know-Who in battle each time as a baby, at the end of first year, at the end of second year, and last year."

Harry stared at her in disbelief with an exasperated "Hermione!" The deep laugh that came from Hogwarts' Dungeon bat startled everyone and caused Harry to look at the man in confusion. Seeing the broad grin had Harry giving him an annoyed yet pleased growl before returning his attention to the Aurors. The one he'd been watching before had noticeably moved towards them and far to close to Hermione, earning a vicious snarl from Harry. Amelia glanced at him and realized what the idiot had done invading Harry's immediate territory. Rolling her eyes at him she grabbed the back of his robes and physically dragged him away, placing him firmly behind her and keeping him there with a warning glare.

"And this is one of the reasons why we need to pick and choose who deals with a Living Vampire," Head Auror Bones said despairingly, sharing a discrete smirk with her niece who was nodding solemnly in agreement. Harry snorted in amusement and settled back into place, half on top of the potions master who was now shaking in silent laughter.