Claimed

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta, Robert for his work on this chapter.

Chapter 16 Hybrid

“The bidding starts at ten knuts for this sallow creature,” the fair-haired man boomed through the cavern, sending several hands up into the air.

Snape scowled, his eyes burning with malice and his sneer practically dripping with loathing. He was hardly in the mood to be some vampire’s plaything, but he imagined a worse fate was being held for Draco. Why the boy felt the need to declare his bond to Harry to a band of menacing strangers was beyond his grasp, but then the young Malfoy had always been headstrong and stubborn.

“Do I hear three sickles, four, how about five?” the man called out again to a new bout of hands. “He looks full of blood, though maybe not very tasty blood,” he shouted, poking Snape, who promptly swatted him away with narrowed eyes. “Surly too,” the auctioneer added.

More hands went up and Snape resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It did no good to get excitable under pressure, and he was not easily excitable in the first. Though he still held hope that he might get to look upon Harry once more before being carted away to a fate that surely ended with his death.

“Sixteen sickles, how about a galleon, do I hear one galleon?” he called.

There was an odd shift in the group and a lithe woman that Snape vaguely recognized from their welcoming party leapt onto the stage and skulked up to the auctioneer. Snape tried to listen to their whispered conversation but heard nothing, then as the fair-haired man’s face fell, Snape began imagining the worst.

“I’m sorry folks, but I’m afraid that lot number eighty-two is off the market by decree of the Shadow Council,” he called out to a sea of disgruntled vampires.

The girl walked up to Snape and pulled him from the stage, leading him along a narrow passage and through a set of heavy doors. “Why didn’t you mention you were a wizard?” she asked as soon as they were alone.

“I wasn’t given much of a chance to speak,” Snape replied, his voice thick with disdain.

“You’ll be kept alive because of it, given to one of the masters instead of one of the lowly you were about to be auctioned off too,” she noted.

“Brilliant,” Snape drawled sarcastically and the girl huffed and led him along toward Draco’s room.

“Your companion is inside,” she informed him upon reaching the door and opening it, gesturing for Severus to enter.

“Malfoy,” Severus growled in greeting.

“Snape,” Draco snarled in response.

“You’ll both be called upon soon, as we hear the Chosen One’s approach,” she told them. “We can’t seem to hear his mind, but the guards all feel his presence walking among them and so we know he comes too. It looks like he wants to save you, or at least save one of you,” she teased and left them alone in the room.

“Why did you tell them I was a wizard,” Snape growled as soon as she left.

“I saved your neck,” Draco shouted, appalled at being reprimanded for saving him.

“You saved my neck from one bloodsucker only to give it up to one more powerful,” Snape corrected him.

“I thought you loved powerful vampires,” Draco replied, drawing the word ‘loved’ out as long as he could stand. “You certainly couldn’t keep your grabby paws off of Harry.”

“I knew Harry as a human, which is more than I can say for you,” Severus replied.

“It’s not as if I had much choice in that,” Draco shouted.

“All the same, I fell in love with him naturally, whereas you hated him and drove him away. You only want him now because you know you’ll die without him,” Severus scoffed.

“That’s not true!” Draco shouted. “I love him.”

“You’re drawn to the bond, not to him,” Severus replied haughtily, relishing in the defeated look in the blonde’s pale face.

They sat in silence for what seemed like hours, but was probably mere minutes, when the door opened and they were led from the room and back through the way they came in.

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Harry missed so much from his old human life; the taste of food, sleeping in a warm bed and dreaming, but one thing he didn’t miss was human slowness and fatigue. The trip to the rebellions encampment would have taken almost a full day and left any human weary to the bone, but for Harry and the King’s guard it was a swift jaunt through the winding quartz tunnels of the Sugarloaf mountains.

When he approached the looming amethyst structure, the council marched out to meet him, their human servants in tow. Harry could feel Draco among them, but he couldn’t see him yet.

“Chosen One, you honor us with your presence,” one of the elder’s called.

“I’m here for my mate, not for tea and pleasantries. Where is Draco?” he asked.

They brought Draco to the front of the council and Harry sighed his relief that the boy was unharmed. He looked tired and dirty, but otherwise fine. “Release him,” Harry demanded.

“Treaty with us and we will let him go,” the elder called back.

“I don’t bargain with murderers,” Harry growled to a sea of hisses and gasps.

“You have been mislead, young one. It is not we who commit murder, but your golden king,” the elder replied.

Harry turned confused eyes to his guard, who each looked at one another in turn, their gaze eventually landing on Vladimir. “The king wears the amulet, he doesn’t bleed humans,” Vladimir told him.

A chuckle rumbled through the Council and Harry turned back to them. “You have much learn, Chosen One, treaty with us and you will learn all.”

“Release Draco to my custody and I will meet with you,” Harry offered.

The Council all closed their eyes in unison and Harry could see their eyes moving swiftly and erratically behind their lids. When they resumed their gaze on Harry, the elder in the center of the group nodded. “You are honest,” she said and let go of Draco’s hand.

At once the blonde ran into Harry’s arms, lunging up and wrapping his legs around the vampire’s waist. “I thought I’d never see you again,” Draco told him, looking suddenly embarrassed.

Harry chuckled and wrapped his arms tightly around the fragile human in his arms and kissed him swiftly, savoring every second, every touch and every taste. Draco pressed against him, moaning into his mouth, his whole body vibrating at Harry’s languid touch.

When they parted, Harry felt no loss of air as Draco panted, his eyes fluttering shut. “Don’t leave me here,” he pleaded.

“I’ll never leave you again,” he whispered, trailing fingers through Draco’s messy blonde hair. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Draco promised and kissed him again, this time parting due to prompting from Harry’s guard.

“Perhaps you should leave the human with me while you meet with the council,” Vladimir offered.

Harry shook his head without question. “No, he stays with me,” he replied at once. “Always,” he added with a piercing look toward his love.

Draco smiled at him as Harry set him back on the ground, lacing his fingers through his own and they followed the Council into the Amethyst tower.

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“The king is corrupt,” Elizabeth said. She was the central elder, their spokesperson in most public arenas. Her long silver hair shone in the amber light and her black robes billowed in the slight breeze coursing around them.

They sat in a courtyard, gathered around a massive stone table. There was grass under their feet and a manufactured sky offered false dappled sunlight to grace their nearly translucent skin. They each had a human servant who would both nourish them and act as companion and mate. These wizards and witches, for they were all of magical origin, were there voluntarily and truly loved their vampire halves.

Harry sat with Draco leaning against his side, frail arms wrapped around his marble strength. Draco’s weight at his side was a comforting thing and he hadn’t even realized how much he missed the boy’s presence until he was in it once more.

The Shadow Council had introduced themselves; the five men named Linden, Montblanc, Asriel, Giaus and Tipal and the five women; Elizabeth, Alexandra, Laurel, Beatrix and Isabella, all nearly identical, and all ethereally beautiful and wise.

“Crispan was once part of us, the Shadow Council was originally composed of thirteen. All of us came from the various colonies at the time, and all of us were individual leaders of separate kisses,” Elizabeth explained.

“All thirteen of us were called to this place, summoned as if from a higher power,” Giaus added.

“When we arrived here in the mountain, our consciousnesses merged, creating a singular source of light, hope and ruling. We formed this council, and built this city under the earth, all so that we could live a life free from persecution,” Beatrix told them.

“In some ways we’ve grown stronger, but in other ways we have weakened. Our thirsts no longer rule us, but that doesn’t eliminate the need for human blood, so occasionally humans will come among us and feed us by giving some of their blood to our magical population, who create potions for all of us that mimic human blood and it sustains us,” Linden added.

Draco shifted next to Harry, and it took him a moment to realize that the blonde had fallen asleep. He chuckled and apologized to the Council as he let the boy cuddle into his lap.

“Would you like me to take him back to his room?” Vladimir asked him at once.

Harry thought Draco might prefer a nice warm bed as opposed to his stony lap, but he was selfish and didn’t want Draco out of his presence ever again. In the end he shook his head and waved Vladimir away.

“If you’ve found magical means to control your thirst, how does that make you weak?” Harry asked.

“That’s not what weakens us, but it was the catalyst,” Elizabeth answered. “You see, when Crispan realized that he could use the powers of our magical population, he began to grow greedy. He wanted us to harness the magic for ourselves in order to make us all powerful and indestructible.”

“At first he seemed to want it purely for our survival, and why not? As beings sited in human lore and horror legends we were often destroyed if we left the mountain, so in a way it made sense to give us the power to withstand the humans prejudice,” Alexandra added.

“But we are indestructible, or at least virtually so,” Harry said, not understanding how these vampires could ever be afraid of humans.

“We were not always this way,” Elizabeth said solemnly, as if wishing for a time long forgotten to resurface. “We used to bask in the light of the sun, we used to have extra speed and strength, but not so much that it set us very far apart from very talented humans. We could be killed in many ways, though we did heal very quickly so it did make the act of killing a vampire harder. The only real talent that set us so far apart from humans was our ability to read the minds of others.”

“So then what happened to turn our flesh into stone, to make us burn in the light?” Harry asked.

“Crispan,” the answered in unison.

“He succeeded in harnessing magic and making us indestructible, but it came with a price. We are no longer able to step into the light of day, and we are no longer able to be with humans, who are now far too fragile to couple with us,” Isabella informed him sadly.

“So you don’t-“ Harry began, looking from the vampire’s to their human servants and the council chuckled in unison.

“They are bound to us, but not physically. They feed us, they help us and they love us, but we are unable to be intimate with them,” Isabella added.

“So why are you at war with the king?” Harry asked, ready to get to the point and take Draco away, back to the manor.

“King?” Asriel scoffed. “Crispan is no king.”

Elizabeth placed her hand over Asriel’s and sighed. “Crispan wanted to continue his experiments on our kind: he wanted to do the unthinkable; we all voted against him.”

“Almost all of us,” Giaus corrected.

“That’s true. Kristoff and Emily both sided with him,” Elizabeth added with a haunted look in her eyes.

Alexandra hissed at the mention of the other two and the remaining council members all closed their eyes, calming her instantly.

Harry looked on curiously and Elizabeth, eyes still closed, answered his silent questions. “Kristoff was Crispan’s mate, and Emily was in love with Kristoff. They both left the Council when Crispan did, but when they stood up to him, Crispan destroyed them both.”

“What? How could he destroy his own mate? I could never harm Draco, he’s my whole life,” Harry gasped, feeling a sob work its way into his throat at the very idea of losing Draco. He pulled his beloved close to him, stroking the platinum blonde locks.

“In these parts Crispan is only referred to as ‘the Heartless’,” Beatrix replied.

Harry shook his head. “No, I can’t believe any of this. Why would he have so many followers if he were so cruel?” he asked.

“He binds them to him with oaths, and with the blood dampener potion. He has most of the magical community under lock and key, and will only distribute the potions to his loyal followers,” Elizabeth answered.

“Why does he want me?” Harry asked.

“You are the Chosen One, the only successful hybrid ever made and your action in these next few days will decide the future of all vampires. He wants to control those actions,” she replied.

“As do we,” Asriel added honestly.

“What if all I want to do is take Draco back home? I don’t want any part of this war,” he told them.

“We could arrange your departure once Crispan is handled,” Elizabeth offered.

Harry sat back roughly in his chair and wove his fingers through Draco’s hair. “How do I know who is telling me the truth?” Harry asked, more to himself then to the council, but in answer, they linked hands and Tipal, who sat closest to him and who had yet said a word, touched Harry’s forehead.

Brilliant images filled his sight as scene after scene played in front of him. Everything from their individual journey’s to the final vote to banish Crispan, to getting Kristoff and Emily’s heads sent back to them after their death, it all played out in front of him like a muggle television show.

Harry blinked rapidly once the images had fallen away, and if he had the need to breathe, he would have been breathless. “He’s been trying to create someone like me,” Harry whispered. “He’s been trying but failing over and over. He’s killed hundreds,” he gasped.

The Council nodded in unison. “He’s been trying to glean from your mind how you were created, but he has yet to find it. You guard your mind like no one we have ever come across.”

“I can only see snippets of images in your mind and I am the strongest of us,” Tipal said, his voice was raspy and soft from disuse.

“Will you join us, Harry,” Elizabeth asked finally.

He didn’t even need to think about his answer and nodded at once. He couldn’t let a monster like Crispan continue his rule. “Yes,” he answered.

In a blur of movement, Draco was ripped from his lap and Harry looked around to find Vladimir holding the blonde by the throat, and using the boy’s body as a weak human shield. “He will die for your betrayal,” Vladimir yelled, and started tracing a razor sharp nail across Draco’s throat, eliciting a whimper from Harry’s mate, and growl from Harry’s own throat.

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Authors Note: oooh. Bad Vlad. lol. Well, the end is in sight for this fic. I'm thinking maybe 4 or 5 more chapters. Vampire Harry's for all who review!