Le Frère de Sang

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GENERAL DISCLAIMER - I do not own any of the characters used.

NOTES ON THE CHAPTER - Again this is still pretty much introducing you to the Harry of this story and his relationship with Blaise. We learn a bit more about them and they are establishing a relatively normal life for themselves - as normal as it gets with this version of Harry and Blaise.

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“HARRY! Where’s my bag?!” I groaned and let my spoon fall into the bowl as I stood up from the breakfast bar. I moved out of the kitchen-diner and moved down the corridor towards Blaise’s room. I stooped down and picked up the book bag Blaise had strewn on the flat floor since he bought it.

“Here.” I threw it at him as I entered his room and he only just span around in time to catch it. Had he not been a half-vampire he would have been hit in the face by it, luckily even half-vampires have quick reflexes. He snatched it from the air and threw me a small scowl.

“Where was it?”

“Exactly where you left it, on the floor in the corridor. Why am I the only one who worries about keeping this place neat and tidy?” I groused to him, trying to hint to the fact that since we bought the flat a month ago I was the only one who tidied, cleaned and kept the flat in good order.

“Sorry, I’ll try to be more considerate and help but I’m so used to room service and house elves that you shouldn’t expect miracles.” I groaned at him slightly even as he patted me on the shoulder as a sorry before moving to pack his bag.

“I should never expect miracles if it’s going to make my life easier. What do you want for breakfast?” Blaise stood straight holding his bag in one hand while he looked around his very untidy bedroom obviously searching for something. With a cry of victory he dove down and picked up a pen from inside a pile of what I assumed was dirty washing.

“Breakfast...um...I’ll just have cereal. I fed last night from my guest so I just need to satisfy the human side for a few days.” I nodded in relief, if he’d fed last night when he went clubbing alone then it would explain why he got in so late and why his room smelt of sex. I suppose his guest left before I got up.

“I’ll sort your breakfast out then but you need to shower quickly or we’ll be late.”

“Sure, sure.” Blaise muttered distractedly and I left the room and headed back towards the kitchen. I didn’t want to be late for our first day of school. It was going to be bad enough that we didn’t know any of the subject material because we’d be attending muggle school, let alone being late for it.

We’d decided that, after three months of staying in various hotels all across the country and doing as we pleased, that we needed something more structured to occupy our time with. At first we’d thought to get jobs but then found nobody wanted a couple of teenagers who weren’t at school and had no qualifications. After discovering that there was only one way forward, school. It had taken another two months to find a city we wanted to live in, find a place of residence and apply to a school.

That was how we ended up in St. Louis. It was a nice enough city, had one hell of a night life. Blaise and I didn’t go to the most popular clubs though we’d heard about them. We’d heard, for example, about a place called the Circus of the Damned, a popular attraction. We’d also heard about Danse Macabre, a very popular dance club. While I was getting better at holding my shields up when faced with such large crowds we didn’t want to risk going to such large establishments such as those.

We both enrolled at Seckman High School, which took people from Grade 9 through 11. Blaise and I, despite being seventeen and sixteen respectively, would be entering into grade 10. From what I understood that grade was the equivalent to year 11 in English schools and even though we were a year, or two years in Blaise’s case, older than the others in the class we’d still be behind them intellectually.

“Blaise, breakfast!” I yelled to him after placing his bowl full of cereal on the table. I resumed eating my breakfast and Blaise shortly came into the kitchen and slumped into the seat next to me.

“God, American schools start so early! I wouldn’t even have been awake by the time we are supposed to be in school!” I gave him a humorous smile.

“Need your beauty sleep hm?” I teased. Blaise’s upper lip curled in dislike.

“I’ll have you know I’m very handsome and don’t need beauty sleep. I just like the comfort and warmth of my bed. Course I like my bed even better when it’s got other people in it.”

“I can’t see why that’s a bonus, other people tend to kick and punch.” Blaise dropped his spoon and I smirked at him as he glared at me.

“I did that once! You wouldn’t even have been in my bed if it hadn’t have been for your nightmares!” I laughed at him.

“Whose bed were we in?” Blaise didn’t retort, just swatted me on the arm.

We finished breakfast in comfortable silence then Blaise kindly offered to do the washing up while I had a shower. I dressed in loose jeans with a long sleeved white shirt under a red t-shirt decorated with black lines. Blaise had decided on a white tank top beneath an open black short sleeved shirt and black trousers.

I pulled my hair back into a low pony tail but immediately after finishing some of my hair came loose and hung around my face. Some of it even fell back to my shoulders; I obviously needed more practise at doing my hair. Still, it didn’t affect my looks, so Blaise told me before we left. In fact, his comment was ‘you are handsome borderline pretty, and your hair shouldn’t be confined anyway’. He has something of a hair fetish. I just like it long because it’s more manageable.

We arrived at school, got given various introductions and lead to a classroom. We were assigned to somebody called Jules as a guide around for the day as she was in each of our classes. We were made to give an introduction to ourselves at the beginning of each class and in every class our introduction got shorter.

“Hi I’m Harrison Black, I’ve not long moved to St Louis and this will be the first time I’ve been to school.” Blaise introduced himself as Blaise Zabini, my half brother, and informed everyone that he like dancing, reading and being active and loathed manipulative people, hierarchy and alarm clocks.

By lunch time Blaise was pulled into the popular crowd and, though I was given no invite, I was dragged along with him. He was buzzing with the attention and had already begun flirting with several of the girls. I could tell by the way his eyes wandered over the muscled ‘jocks’ that he was more than interested in the guy’s too but didn’t want anyone to find out about that yet. I would have preferred to not sit with such a loud and boisterous crowd but I wouldn’t leave Blaise.

I pulled out a book from my bag and put it on the table in front of my lunch. I flipped it to the beginning of the chapter we’d been on in class and tried to work out what the heck it was saying. Biology, there was so much to learn.

“God Blaise, I didn’t realise your brother was so keen on working!” I glanced up and saw the girl who had spoken draped over Blaise’s shoulder staring at me with contempt. It was better than awe and fear but not by much. I scowled and went back to my book. I pushed more energy into my mental shields.

“Well and truly I should be studying too ‘cus I didn’t have the foggiest clue what Mr Jacks was talking about. Harry’s got the right idea but I’m a little distracted at the moment by the wonderful company.” From the small satisfied sound the girl made I knew Blaise’s comment had impressed her greatly. Blaise seemed to have that way with people; his natural hypnosis helped him as well.

I read a little further into the chapter before I had to close it because the noise level in the hall was distracting, not to mention people bustling around and knocking into me. I put the book into my bag and I felt someone hit the back of my neck.

Humour. Foreign humour and happiness blasted through me. It bubbled and popped with warmth but it was foreign, it didn’t belong.

“Sorry mate!” I saw a jock give me that half-hearted apology and turn away laughing with his mates. He’d hit me on purpose, I’d picked up on his emotions by accident. I pulled my book bag onto my lap and tried to push away the foreign emotion. I was about to put my lunch box back into my bag when I felt something else. Boredom. A dull and all consuming emotion that was quickly followed by loathing which felt like poison in my stomach. It settled inside me simmering menacingly in my stomach and feeling vile.

Pain shot through my head and I felt one of my mental shields collapse. Panic surged through me; I couldn’t lose my shields now especially not here. I tried to build up the shield again, putting all my concentration into it but another emotion followed quickly by another then another distracted me and broke down another shield.

“Harry? Harry, are you okay?” I felt a hand on my shoulder. Worry surged through me, swashing like water in a cup when held under a tap fully open. It seemed to hit all boundaries within me and rebound back on itself. “Harry!”

I looked up as the hand shook me and found myself looking into Blaise’s brown eyes. I found my breathing was accelerated and my hands trembled but just his look calmed me. The scar on my hand warmed, sending comforting heat through me.

“What’s the matter?” Blaise asked in a low, clear voice.

“I’ve got a headache.” I replied quietly. I knew he’d hear whatever I said because of his vampiric senses and he nodded his head in understanding before hooking a hand under one of my arms.

“Come on, you need fresh air and some peace.” I allowed him to pull me up and make our excuses. We left the hall and went outside though the school grounds didn’t allow me much peace either; there were just too many people. I pulled the hair band out of my hair, hoping in vain that releasing my hair would release some of the pain. As I said, my efforts were in vain and now I had long hair dropping forward over my shoulders and curtaining my face.

Blaise steered me around the back of the school where the ground was muddy and it was all shady making the air cooler. Not many people were there and Blaise tugged me over to sit on a bench underneath a large tree.

“Your shields fell?” Blaise asked me pushing some of my hair behind my ear so it wasn’t flopped in front of my face.

“Mm.” I nodded and closed my eyes trying to calm myself. I breathed through my nose and out through my mouth. I slowly calmed down and Blaise stayed very quiet. I cleared my mind, refusing to allow any other thoughts to float into the forefront of my mind by concentrating solely on my mental landscape as Blaise had taught me.

When I was first learning occulumency from Blaise I’d had trouble finding a landscape that was easy to picture and draw up from my memory. Blaise had told me the landscape couldn’t be something I made up, it had to be personal to me, something I’d seen or been to. It had taken me ages to find something, I’d tried to summon memories of large places like Hogwarts but they were too complicated. Eventually I’d thought of my cupboard under the stairs. It had been the one place I was safe at the Dursley’s because, despite being able to hear my family, none of them could get inside the small cupboard so I was always out of reach. My cupboard became my mental landscape.

I put up invisible walls to stop people getting inside the door and reinforced the shields that allowed the cupboard door to unlock. Those were the only ones that hadn’t fallen in the lunch hall. I pushed up the shields to the maximum and retreated from the landscape. No foreign emotions filtered through, not even Blaise’s and he was touching me.

“Better?”

“Yeah.”

“Why’d they fall Harry?” I shrugged and fiddled with the sleeve of my shirt.

“I dunno, I guess I was stressing about everything and then I got jolted by someone and because he hit me nearly full on I got a blast of his emotions and from there things just got worse.” I tried to explain.

“But we’ve been in clubs with people pressed up against us and your shields didn’t fall then.”

“No they didn’t but I wasn’t stressed when I was in the club was I? I like clubbing, dancing is easy now. We are in a strange place, packed with people and with the threat of exams hanging over our heads, I’m stressing. My shields just crumbled a little, its better now. Besides which, we’ve been in school 5 and a half hours, we never club for that long. My shields aren’t used to being continuously up at max for so long. I should have thought of that before. I usually let them down at the flat because of all the wards we have around the place.”

“I see. Well, we’ve only got two more hours left, can you wait that long?” I nodded and rubbed my forehead slightly.
“I don’t suppose you have any pain killers on you?”

“Nope, just have a blood replenishing potion.” I rolled my eyes and made to stand up. Blaise caught my wrist and pulled me back down. “Harry...”

“Yeah?”

“About the exams...earlier I kind of pulled information from the teacher’s mind. I did it in Biology. I didn’t understand any of the mumbo jumbo being babbled about so when I got eye contact with Mr Jacks I just raided his mind and copied his knowledge on his subject. I can push a copy of the knowledge into you when I next feed if you like, it would help you unstress.” I stared at him completely dumbfounded before his words caught up on me.

“You raided his mind?! Are you insane! You can’t just do that to people!”

“Oh please don’t give me a lecture on morals. I know it was wrong. I was frustrated!” I glared at him. “If we were at home I would have used the spell to copy knowledge from a book straight into my brain but we weren’t at home and I was desperate, I didn’t want to look like a complete idiot so I pulled the teacher’s knowledge. I won’t do it again, if it makes you feel any better.”

“Yeah, don’t ever do that again. You’ll have to teach me that spell you know, I didn’t even know there was a spell to pull information from a book straight into your head.” Blaise looked confused.

“How didn’t you know it? Granger used it all the time in the library when she thought no-one was watching. How do you think she knew so much so quickly? Nobody could absorb as much as she did without cheating, even with the amount she liked to read.”

“I never knew...how did...why did she...never mind, I don’t want to think about it. It’ll stress me out and I’m strained enough already. The spell, will you teach it to me?”

“Sure, but you should only use it for a little amount at a time, like a chapter every day. Too much information all at once requires a lot of brain power to manage. If your brain is working on sorting the new information then it won’t be able to hold your shields. One chapter every night as soon as we get home should give you plenty of time to digest everything and give your brain plenty of time to recover.” I nodded my head in understanding.

A bell went inside the school and we both looked over at the building. The thought of going inside and facing both the school populace and the lessons weren’t so bad now. If I was going to be able to understand quicker than I originally thought then I wouldn’t feel so stupid for so long.

“Come on, if we get to class quickly we can snatch seats next to each other.” Blaise grabbed my forearm and dragged me inside behind him.

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I rummaged through the cupboards desperately, knocking things over in my haste. Once I finished in one cupboard I slammed the door shut and tore open the door on the next cupboard.

“What’re you looking for?” Came a voice from behind me. I didn’t even bother to turn at Blaise’s voice.

“Pain killers, that spell gave me another head ache!” I whimpered out, the pain in my head nearly unbearable. No pain killers in that cupboard, I slammed it shut. Reaching for the next cupboard I was about to tear open the door when hands grasped my hips and pulled me backwards. My hands fell from the air and slammed onto the worktop. “Blaise!”

“Calm down Harry, don’t speak so loud. We haven’t got any pain killers because you used them all up yesterday, remember?”

“Damn.” I groaned putting a hand over my forehead and closing my eyes. Blaise laughed and I felt his breath on my neck. “Your girlfriend’s in your room and you are coming onto me?”

“That’s incest, I’m not into that but I am hungry.” Blaise whined slightly. I rolled my eyes then groaned at the pain that caused me.

“What about your girlfriend, she’ll be expecting you. A feed would take too long.”

“Not at all. She’s having a bath, a nice bubble bath in my en suite. She’ll be at least twenty minutes in there and a feed would only take five to ten. Please Harry?”

“I’ve got a headache Blaise. I’m not feeling well...” I tried to get out of feeding him. I didn’t want the added pain and nausea caused by a feeding along with the pain of my head ache from the absorbing spell.

“If I take enough that you become drowsy then you’ll sleep the pain away. Please Harry? I haven’t fed for two days and I’ve been playing Basketball in the sun, you know how that drains all my energy and all the power I get from a feed. Please?”

“Fine, but let me get into bed first.” Blaise released my hips and stepped back away from me. I flicked my eyes over his form before walking towards my room stripping as I went.

Once in my room I pulled out my pyjamas, a pair of Gryffindor red cotton bottoms that were so long they made folds at my feet and a matching button up shirt. I pulled back the covers on my bed and slid under them settling myself on my back with my head on the pillows. My hair fanned out behind me so I lifted my head and pulled it all to one side of my head so none of it would be in Blaise’s way.

“Comfy?” Blaise enquired and I nodded to him. He immediately climbed onto the bed and then, after trying to settle on me by straddling me, he hit my legs. “Open your legs. It’s easier to feed when I’m not folding myself over at the waist.”

I sighed but opened my legs and Blaise immediately settled between them. He pushed his weight onto me and gave me a kiss to my cheek. I pushed my arms up around his shoulders and clutched him to me for a moment or two trying not to think about the deed ahead. No matter how many times I feed him I’ve never gotten used to it. I needed to psych myself up before allowing him to bite me. I breathed in his sent, recognising his shower gel, cologne and natural scent. He stroked the other side of my neck, the side he wouldn’t bite, and my hair while he waited patiently for me. Finally I released my grip on him and turned my head to the side.

“I’m okay now.” I said needlessly. I felt Blaise nod against me before leaning down and pressing his lips to my neck. I tensed before purposefully relaxing all the muscles in my body. I gritted my teeth though. The pain would add to my headache and make me feel sick, panicky and tortured.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better blood brother, you mean so much to me Harry. You are somebody special to do this for me all the time.” Blaise kissed my neck and I let out the breath I was holding.

“I’m nothing special Blaise.”

“You are Harry. I know how much this puts you through. It takes a strong person to do this.”

“It keeps you alive Blaise, I’d do anything to keep you alive.”

“I’d do the same for you, you know that right? I’d give my life for you.” I shifted slightly trying to get it so I could see him but he kept his lips on by my neck.

“The war’s over so it shouldn’t come to that. Are you going to feed? Or are we going to risk your girlfriend catch us in such a compromising situation?” I felt a blast of humour from Blaise and sighed, knowing my shields were falling down slowly. I released my hold on them completely and could feel everything Blaise felt. I could feel his desperation, his affection, his humour, his happiness and his excitement.

“I’ll take as much as I can without causing you damage. Go to sleep after Harry.”

“I plan to, anything to get rid of the pain.” I said in agreement, saying it quietly. Blaise’s mouth opened and he licked my neck several times then he bit down hard and fast. I gave a cry of pain, not even bothering to contain it. He began sucking and I felt sick. Everything inside me rebelled against him being on me and my body completely tensed. I pushed away my gut instincts and fisted the bed sheets to stop myself from lashing out at Blaise. I’d never hit him yet during a feeding but I always feared I would.

Blaise continued to feed, sucking more and more from me. I could feel myself getting colder and my strength left me.

“Blaise...” I croaked and no sooner had I done so did Blaise pull back with a quick lick to my neck.

“Sorry, got carried away. You okay?” I couldn’t nod so I made a tiny sound of affirmation. Blaise grinned but I felt the pain invoke the nausea and I panicked. Gathering as much energy as I could I pushed myself onto my side just in time to throw up all over the floor.

“Oh God Harry...you okay? I didn’t mean to take so much to make you sick!”

“It’s fine Blaise...” I said with a dismissing sigh as I finished spewing up the content of my stomach. I pulled my magic up and pushed it out of my body through a small flick of my wrist. My magic flopped onto the floor and erased my mess; it also touched Blaise’s mouth and erased the left over blood from his mouth and breath. My magic also cleaned my mouth of the taste and smell of vomit and healed my neck so I wouldn’t bleed all over the bed.

“Harry...”

“Go to your girlfriend Blaise, I’m going to sleep.”

“But...”

“G’night Blaise.” Blaise sighed and pressed his forehead to mine briefly.

“Good night Harry and thank you.”

“Mm.” Blaise left the room, closing the door behind him.
I tried to fall asleep but just as I was dozing off I heard a bang followed by a very loud moan. I snapped my eyes open and any blood remaining in my body rushed to my cheeks as I flushed in embarrassment. The moan came again followed by words of encouragement which was quickly followed by blasts of lust and pleasure.

“Urgh...” I moaned pushing my weak body onto my side. Blood inside my body wanted to rush down my body from my cheeks to my groin but luckily I was too weak and too embarrassed to get an arousal. I groaned again and pulled the sheets up over my face, which took a great deal of effort to achieve. Once again I pooled my magic before releasing it to fill the room, making it surround the bed in an impenetrable shield. Immediately the foreign emotions stopped filling my body and moans were silenced. I sighed in relief and shut my eyes again, trying to focus on little things to send myself to sleep.

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