It had been a few weeks since the winter break ended. The snow outside had receded into patches of frost along the castle walls, and Hogwarts resumed its rhythm—though Caelum found that his own pace had subtly shifted. The encounter with Dumbledore left questions spiralling in his mind, and the time he once spent alone was now often shared with others.
Evran Thorne leaned back in his chair beside him, muttering incantations under his breath as he tried to memorize the wand movements for their next Charms assignment. Bastian Flint, true to his nature, was halfway through a story about his winter holiday.
"...and I swear," Bastian said, voice lowered, "when I opened that trunk, the bloody doxy flew out and bit my cousin's ear! My aunt nearly hexed the entire house trying to get it under control."
Evran snorted. "That explains why you were two days late getting back. Domestic chaos."
Bastian grinned unapologetically. "Bastian grinned unapologetically. "You'd be late too if half your house got fumigated because someone thought doxy spray worked on everything. We had to sleep in the kitchen."
Caelum, listening with quiet amusement, didn't look up from his essay on the theoretical limit of anti-paralysis potions. The table, for a moment, was peaceful—until the distinct rustle of robes approached.
"Mind if I join?"
All three turned. Vesper Blackbourne, clad once more in her immaculate Slytherin-trimmed school robes, stood beside their table. Her long dark hair framed her face, and her grey eyes flicked toward Caelum with deliberate calm.
"Sure," Caelum said, gesturing to the empty seat beside him.
She sat with an air of ease, laying out her books. The boys returned to their tasks until Vesper leaned slightly over the table and narrowed her eyes at Caelum's parchment.
"…Those aren't our assignments."
Caelum paused. "No. The professors adjusted my coursework."
Vesper's eyes gleamed. "Teach me."
Evran blinked. "Just like that?"
Caelum gave a faint smile. "Alright, but only if it's during library hours. I'm not running private lessons."
"Deal," Vesper said without hesitation, already pulling out a spare quill.
Minutes passed in companionable silence, only the scratch of quills and the faint turn of pages filling the space. Then Caelum looked up.
"You said you were interested in vampires, right?"
Vesper glanced at him, quirked a brow. "I did. Along with a few other… forbidden fields of knowledge."
"Do you know anything about special kinds of vampires?" Caelum asked. "Rare bloodlines, or something beyond the usual?"
She considered for a moment, tapping the end of her quill against her lip.
"Well, most of what's known about vampires is in the public records," she began. "There are the feral ones—those that dwell in places like the Carpathian forests. Mindless or half-mad, more beast than wizard. But there are also old vampire families, established covens. The most notable is the one in Romania, closely monitored by the Ministry. They're like the nobility of their kind—refined, civilized. Still dangerous, but not savage."
She looked at him carefully.
"But in the end, they're all the same species. What differs is their behavior—how much they have mastered their instincts. Most of the so-called 'tamer' ones were born vampires or were infected and treated under controlled conditions."
Evran, who had been diligently pretending not to listen, looked up. "Why are you two talking about vampire bloodlines?"
Vesper blinked, surprised, then turned to Caelum. "You haven't told them? About why Avery's after you?"
Evran and Bastian both looked at Caelum with visible confusion.
…
So, he told them—not just about the bite in the Forbidden Forest and the powers that came with it, but also the part he had kept from everyone until now. About how Silas Avery's hostility wasn't just petty cruelty, but deliberate. That the Rosier and Avery families were behind it, targeting him because of something that had awakened in his blood along with the vampirism. Something rare. Something feared. Something they apparently wanted to control—or erase.
Vesper, despite her usually calm expression, visibly tensed. She hadn't heard this part either. Her fingers tightened slightly around her quill. "That explains the kind of pressure my father suspected," she muttered, almost to herself. "If they think there's something ancient in your bloodline... something beyond even the vampirism..."
Evran sat in stunned silence.
Bastian let out a low whistle. "You know," he said slowly, "you really don't do 'normal,' do you?
"Never claimed to," Caelum said, smirking faintly.
"…That explains a lot, actually," Bastian said, scratching his head. "Still—why not just ask the vampires directly? There are some in the Forbidden Forest, right?"
Evran looked horrified. "Are you insane? Different with our friend over here, they're literal monsters."
"They're not all monsters," Vesper interjected calmly.
"From what I understand, the area where the vampires are confined is classified by the Ministry as a sanctuary. Which means there's likely a functioning vampire society within it."
She paused, her tone sharpening slightly.
"But there's a reason it's heavily warded and placed deep within the Forbidden Forest."
"Entering could result in death," Evran muttered.
"Or worse—expelled," Caelum added flatly.
Vesper gave him a glare, nearly losing her composure. "That's not funny."
But Caelum smiled. Just a small, amused curve of the lips.
A silence settled briefly before Vesper narrowed her eyes at Caelum.
"…Wait. You. You're not actually planning to go in there, are you?"
"Not right now," Caelum said. "Not without preparation."
Vesper turned to Bastian, her expression perfectly deadpan. "This was your idea. You deal with it if he gets mauled."
Bastian nearly choked. "W—what? No, hold on—when did this become my responsibility?" He gestured wildly between them. "I said look into it, not walk into a nest of vampires!"
Caelum said nothing, which only made Bastian look more distressed.
"That's not, I mean, you're not seriously considering it, right?" he added, voice dropping slightly. "Because that sounds like a spectacularly bad idea mate."
Vesper rose from her seat, already gathering her books as if the matter were settled.
"I'll see what I can find," she said. "The school archives, perhaps. If there's anything unusual about your bloodline, there might be a record of it somewhere."
With a last look toward Caelum—half warning, half promise—she turned and strode away, her school robe trailing behind her like a shadow.