Blood and Magic

Chapter One: Moving

"Well," Harry glanced from the collapsed barn to the partially dilapidated farmhouse. "This… will take some work."

The sales rep fidgeted tiredly behind him. He'd made her take him all over and around the city, turning down every house, apartment, flat or summer home she'd had on her route. This was literally the last property in her file and there was really no hope that he would buy it. After passing over a fully furnished mansion with a pool and 20 acre property, there was no way the odd British man with a supposedly large wallet would go for an abandoned, desolate property in the middle of the woods, an hour's drive from the outskirts of the city…

"Hmmm," Harry tilted his head as he watched a few more shingles fall off the slanted roof. "This is the last property you have? How much did you say it was?"

"Fifty-five," the realtor said shortly.

"That's in thousands, right?"

"Yes," she sighed. She was only waiting for the man to pass this place up too, so she could go home and call the whole day a waste.

"Well, I suppose that's not too bad considering how run down it is," Harry thought out loud.

The realtor huffed quietly to herself. Nearly fifty acres of land even with a broken down property, only $55,000? That was due more to the location- in the middle of the woods, at the end of a dirt road, and miles from the nearest paved street, with the most convenient access to the city taking you in a giant loop around a nearby preservation. After all, these days people had a tendency to just scrape a property and build their own. She really couldn't wait to get home and take a bath; and to think, the day had started out so promising, with such a handsome and rich client….

"Well, alright, I suppose this'll do," Harry turned from watching the old farmhouse collapse in on itself to nod at the woman behind him.

"Wh-what?" she asked in confusion.

"I said I'll take it. So, where do I sign and who do I make the check out to?" Harry replied cheerfully.

The sales rep stared at him. "Y-you want to buy it?"

"Sure," Harry shrugged. "I like the woods, and it's not as bad as it looks, really." Behind him, a few more shingles fell to the ground and one whole corner of the roof sank a few inches lower.

"O-okay…"

And that was how Harry Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World, Most Eligible Bachelor (as voted by Witch Weekly), and most famous wizard in the world, moved to America.

- - -

Nearly three weeks later found Harry busy moving furniture and such into a slightly more habitable farmhouse-- meaning the roof was no longer in danger of falling in and the walls could withstand a high wind. Harry had worked hard on fixing the place up without spending an outrageous amount of money-- meaning he did a lot of it himself. Three weeks was about the time a contractor had given him for the full fix-up to be done with a team of professionals working, but Harry had managed to do almost as much work in the same time-- meaning he'd cheated and used magic.

Harry decided that so long as the work got done, it didn't matter how it happened. Besides, what fun was getting to do magic out of school if he didn't take advantage of it?

Of course, that wasn't Harry's only reason for doing so much by himself with magic. He'd needed to attach spells and wards to the house as well, and the books he was using all agreed that home protections worked better if they were laid down as the building they attached to was built, rather than being added on later. It was too late to seep spells into the foundation, but Harry did the best he could digging around the house, replacing walls, relaying floors, and re-shingling the roof himself after a construction crew put up the framework.

Once that was done with, Harry moved everything he needed in and turned his efforts to the barn. It was half the reason he'd bought the place. The reason Harry had decided to leave Britain was because he had a few unexpected... pets. Thestrals. And one thing the dark winged horses preferred was a forest. One thing Harry preferred, if he had to live with the creatures, was a remote place to keep them.

He didn't particularly mind having the thestrals with him, they were alright, really, and the four that had decided to tag after him were trained. But an unfortunate side affect of having the creatures show up at his London flat, was most of the wizarding world crying death and doom once they
heard he was being stalked by the ill-omened beasts. And then receiving several hefty fines from the Ministry for not properly charming the thestrals so muggles didn't notice the dead-looking winged creatures. Then, once he had, the muggle government had given him several hefty fines for having four horses in an area that didn't allow them.

It was essentially a no-win situation, and when rumors started up about simply exterminating the "wicked creatures following the poor Savior around", Harry decided it would be best to go off where no one knew him, and where, hopefully, no one knew what a thestral was either. The only place that fit those criteria was America. Or, certain parts of the Americas, to be exact.

The reason for this was due to the era of European colonization. When Europeans first came to the so-called "New World", many local wizards, already wary of stories of European witch burnings, banded together and established "safe-areas" with powerful wards against muggle invaders. The majority of these areas were scattered throughout the southern continent, as the magical groups there were already largely united, culturally speaking. The safe havens on the northern continent unfortunately weren't fully established until the late 1700s due to fighting between different tribes, and so, they ended up being mostly on the western half of the continent, the local people having already been forced out of the east. Then, when European wizards began to immigrate to the Americas, they mostly stayed in the areas claimed by muggles. Meaning they stayed almost exclusively on the eastern coasts.

As wizarding communities established (or re-established in the case of the local wizards) themselves, magical governments set up only in the areas inhabited by magical people. The indigenous magical people formed their own nations on the western side of the northern continent (or throughout the southern continent in one case, forming the fourth largest magical nation in the world) and the immigrating magical people formed their own nations on the eastern side.

What this meant for Harry, was that there was a large swatch of land, following the Mississippi River all the way from the source to about a hundred miles north of New Orleans, that had no witches and wizards at all.

It was for him, in a word, perfect.

No one would bother him about being the "Savior of Wizard-kind", no one would cry over how he was "such an unlucky boy" to have survived Voldemort only to fall prey to thestrals, and, out in the middle of nowhere, he wouldn't get fined for having horses-- normal ones or winged omens of death.

Now he only needed to fix up the barn so the thestrals would stop wandering around the forest, terrifying the local bird population.

- - -

"No, Hermione," Harry sighed tiredly. "I'm not having any problems. America is really nice. Peaceful."

"You mean there aren't any witches or wizards around to bother you!" Hermione's voice came exasperatedly over the phone. She and Harry had been keeping up long-distance calling since Harry found out he couldn't have a floo installed in his new home. "Too far from the main network," was the excuse given. Ah, well. Harry thought having muggle telephones installed was much more convenient-- no one could randomly walk in during a call, for one thing.

"Yes, and that's what makes it so peaceful here!" Harry told her.

"I'm not so sure though, Harry," Hermione said. "I saw the news from the muggle States. You live in St. Louis, right?"

"Well, just outside of it, technically." He had a bad feeling he knew what news she was worried about.

"You haven't run into any vampires, have you, Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly.

Harry sighed. He was right. "No, Hermione, I really don't think they have any reason to come see me--"

"Oh, but this is a big change, Harry! There are so many more of them in America now, and they can move about however they like, and who's to say they won't go about telling other people's secrets?"

"I thought only wizard vampires knew about wizards, Hermione?" Harry said in an effort to calm her down before she ran off to one of his other friends about this shocking new development. Honestly, why did her parents have to let her use their phone and their computer? The wizarding world was so cut off from the muggle world, it had already been two years since the "new" law Hermione was worried about passed. Harry had only found out about it because he moved to America, and now, unfortunately, Hermione had discovered it as well....

Vampires had been declared legal. Harry wasn't entirely sure what they were declared beyond that-- they didn't have the full rights of citizens, and so far there were too many confusing court cases debating whether they were legally "alive" or not-- but they were now considered people. Which meant they could walk about in, well, not in broad daylight, but at night, and they couldn't be randomly killed without a court order of execution.

The most surprising thing about the whole affair, as far as Harry was concerned, was finding out muggles had known for the last fifty years or so that vampires were real. Werewolves too, and witches... weird witches that didn't seem to do much, but they had magic, so surely that counted. So, why was the wizarding world still behaving as if all things magical were a huge secret that must be kept from muggle eyes at all cost?

"Well, yes," Hermione admitted. "But, they can still sense wizards, Harry, even if they don't know what they are!"

"Right, so none of the vampires around here know what I am, or what to look for. Besides, I don't exactly socialize much, Hermione, so I still don't see what the problem is."

"But when they were hiding from muggles, they were careful about investigating anyone that felt odd, in case that person turned out to be a vampire hunter! Now, they don't have to hide, or worry about getting killed, so they might seek you out because, because, they smell you or something!"

"Are you saying I smell bad, Hermione?" Harry said jokingly. "Can you smell me all the way in England still?" he laughed.

"Oh, that's not what I meant!" Hermione huffed. But Harry could hear the smile in her voice and knew he'd succeeded in calming her down a bit.

"Don't worry, Hermione," Harry said soothingly. "I am careful. I stay on the farm at night and you visited me a month ago, you saw what a good job I did on the wards."

"But they weren't specific to vampires, Harry-"

"No, they were specific to harm." Harry reminded her. "Anything that tries to harm me or anyone in my home, whether they're a vampire or not, will not be able to pass them. I think that's a mite safer than something specific to just vampires."

"But, you could layer a new ward in, and then you'd be even safer, Harry-" Hermione tried.

"You know, you've been going on about vampires for a while now, but you haven't mentioned werewolves yet," Harry drawled.

Hermione sniffed. "I don't have a problem with werewolves, Harry. It isn't their fault they're cursed. Vampires, on the other hand, feed on human blood by choice!"

"You didn't seem to mind the vampire at Slug's party back at school," Harry said teasingly.

"Well, I had other worries on my mind at the time," Hermione said haughtily.

"Yeah," Harry laughed. "Like running away from a different pest that wanted to suck on your neck."

"Harry!" Hermione shouted, sounding utterly scandalized. Harry laughed and quickly apologized.

"Sorry, sorry," Harry said between breaths. "I couldn't resist. You sound so worried about vampires, but the one time you were actually in a room with one, you acted as though he was as noticeable as a gnat on the wall!"

"Well," Hermione coughed. "It couldn't be helped. McLaggen was absolutely unbearable. Besides, Sanguini was a wizard vampire."

"Who?" Harry asked, startled. He'd meant to get Hermione off track in her worrying, but now he didn't know what she was on about.

"The vampire, Harry," Hermione stressed. "The one at Slughorn's party, he was called 'Sanguini.'"

"Oh. You remember that? You spent the whole night ducking McLaggen under tables-"

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Harry!" Hermione interrupted him. "Stop trying to distract me! Sanguini wasn't as much of a threat to us because he and we were all wizards!"

"Actually, you're a witch-"

"Harry!"

"Right, sorry. You were saying?" Harry said sheepishly.

"Vampires who used to be witches or wizards are different than vampires who used to be muggles, Harry! Just like werewolves that are witches or wizards are very different from the muggle kind! You know that!"

Yeah, he knew that. It had been mentioned in several DADA texts that a witch or wizard's magical core tended to interfere with how vampirism or lycanthropy affected them. Sometimes they could lose their magic, like Greyback had, or sometimes they could avoid "catching" the full curse, like Bill had. But no matter what, they would never be affected by the curses the same way a muggle would be.

Which was why bringing up the vampire from Slug's party didn't dissuade Hermione. He had been a "wizard vampire." Which meant he had originally been part of and choose to remain a part of the wizarding world, and therefore followed wizard law. Of course, there were supposed to be other aspects that were different. For instance, "wizard vampires" tended to be solitary, while the muggle kind seemed to go about in flocks or something. But perhaps the most important difference, was that "wizard vampires" never lost their minds to bloodlust. The muggle kind not only did, but seemed to enjoy it. For werewolves, the opposite seemed to be true, at least, according to Remus.

It was that susceptibility to bloodlust which made Hermione push him to add wards against vampires to his farm. Muggle vampires simply couldn't be trusted to keep their fangs to themselves, and something about magic attracted them. But even so, Harry found he couldn't be bothered to worry about it as much.

"You do know they all like being legal, right?" Harry told her. "If they go around attacking people, they'll lose that."

"And what happens if you defend yourself, Harry?" Hermione said forcefully.

Harry blinked. "Well, I'll come out alive, won't I?"

"But what will the muggles do?"

Realization struck-- Hermione wasn't worried about vampires, not really, she was worried about Harry being alone with muggles....

"They won't know I did anything, Hermione-" Harry raised his voice to keep his friend from interrupting him again. "-I'm not like the magic-users they know about. If worse comes to worse, I'll contact the closest magical government and request some Obliviators come out to help me, alright?"

"What if they kill you first?" Hermione asked quietly. She'd been horrified when she'd first found laws dictating how "witches" were to be treated if they used magic for force- even to defend themselves. It had been a personal mission of hers before, to try and prove how outdated the Statute of Secrecy was in the modern era, and she had been ecstatic at first, when she discovered that muggles everywhere already knew about certain types of magic. America in particular seemed to be ahead of the rest of the world in granting the known magical peoples rights and protection under the law.

But a closer look revealed that the laws only took into account magic done by occultists of varying flavors and that any use of those powers that infringed on another human being's freewill or right to life would earn the offender an instant death sentence. Even if the magic user was defending his or her life against an attacker. The whole thing had been a huge let down for Hermione. She hadn't wanted to think that the witch burnings that inspired the Statute could ever happen today, or to her. But current events proved that wrong.

"They won't," Harry said resolutely. "I won't let them. Don't worry so much, Hermione. I'm being more careful than you think."

"But you're all alone there... The closest witch or wizard to you is nearly four hundred kilometres away!"

"Remember when that used to be the selling point of living here?" Harry said lightly. Hermione chuckled quietly.

"You won't move back?" she asked softly.

"No. I do rather like it here. It's quiet, no one knows who I am-- if I want, I can go weeks without seeing anyone at all!" Harry smiled. He'd wanted a secluded home to keep the thestrals happy and had thought he'd be apparating to the city every day to keep from going stir crazy. But it turned out he enjoyed the quiet life as much as they did. The only thing he needed to stay content in his new home was to give himself work to do. He'd started by planting a garden. The garden grew into a field and somehow the cost of raising pigs and goats to feed the thestrals became cheaper than buying meat off someone else. Even with magic, he was kept busy taking care of everything, and somehow, Harry found this new lifestyle actually made him happy. When his friends came to visit him a month ago, they'd barely recognized the cheerful farm-boy he'd become. But Ron had offered him some of his family's chickens because "fresh eggs can't be beat."

"Besides, with the wards I've got up and the thestrals in the barn, there's not much that'll bother me," Harry added happily.

Across the line Hermione sighed. "Fine then. But I do still wish you were closer, or at least had a proper floo."

"Hey, I've submitted a request to designate the field behind the house an international apparition point. Who do you think that's for?"

"Will they actually approve it though?"

"Hmmm," Harry thought. "Probably not. It's too far from the borders of any of the magical nations on this continent."

"You're too far from anywhere," Hermione muttered.

"Oh, it's not as if it's far in wizard terms!" Harry huffed into the phone. "It takes you, what? Half an hour tops to get here from London? And that's only because you have to stop at the U.S. Ministry for customs before you pop over here!"

"If you moved back here, it would only take a moment to pop over," Hermione said sweetly. "And you know how hard it will be for me to travel when the baby gets bigger."

"Yeah, but that'll only be for a few months."

"But once it's born, I won't be able to take the baby Side-Along until it's three or so. How will your godchild visit you?"

"I'll visit, and you know it, Hermione," Harry said sharply. "Not fair, guilt-ing me with babies."

"Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all.

"I'm not moving, Hermione. I like it here," Harry sighed. "But I'll think about adding more wards to the property. And muggle-repulsion charms."

"Really?" Hermione said hopefully. "I suppose that's enough... I just want you to be safe, Harry. It really scares me to think what people there might do to you if they find out you're a type of wizard they don't recognize."

"Actually, just finding out I'm a wizard would bother them," Harry said with a snort. "They tend to call everyone who does magic 'witches' out here. Something about all magic users being related to Wiccan religion somehow."

"I thought there were voodoo witches and animators there too?" Hermione asked in confusion. "How are they related to Wiccans?"

"I haven't a clue," Harry shrugged, even though he knew Hermione couldn't see him. Maybe floos were better for some things. "I think it's just an easy label to use."

"Well, do try not to get involved with any of that, alright?"

"Get involved? Me?" Harry joked. "Not a chance, Hermione. I like the quiet life too much."

"Really, Harry."

"I promise, no vampires, no occultist witches, no were-anythings, no trouble," Harry vowed. "And I'll see you for Christmas."

"I'll call again before then!" Hermione reminded him.

"'Course," Harry said. "You should bring Ron and the others with you next time. Whenever any of them tries to call me by themselves they end up phoning Canada or disconnecting part way through."

"Part way through?" Hermione asked, perplexed.

"You have to teach your husband to stop fiddling with the buttons once it connects," Harry said dryly.

"I had a hard enough time convincing him to stop shouting," Hermione said awkwardly. "It's embarrassing bringing him to my parents' to use the phone. My mother keeps asking me why I married him."

"She's only teasing you," Harry said. He'd seen Hermione's mum interact with Ron before. The woman really seemed to enjoy flustering him.

"Tell that to Ron. He keeps worrying that he's not being a proper husband every time she says something like that."

"So, it'll keep him trying, from now until you're both old and ugly!" Harry grinned. He rather enjoyed when Hermione's mum flustered Ron too.

"Honestly," Hermione muttered. "You're both just as bad."

"So, I'll be talking to you in a week or so?"

"Of course, Harry."

"Okay," Harry smiled. "Say 'ello to everyone for me, and bring someone with you next time!"

"Oh, very well," Hermione sighed. "Take care of yourself, Harry."

"I will, Hermione. Take care of that godchild of mine!"

"Goodbye, Harry."

"Bye, Hermione."
- - -

A/N: Well there it is. Another HP crossover... One I secretly love but can never find enough of. I hope everyone enjoys it!