Sealed With Lies by Alexannah
Summary: Snape puts Harry under a magical leash to keep him out of trouble. But unbeknown to him, Harry has been turned into a vampire, and the leash is causing far more harm than good. Terrified of losing his friends, Harry would rather starve than risk the truth coming out.
Categories: Teacher Snape > Professor Snape, Misc > Keepers of the Snitch Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore, Hermione, Remus, Ron, Sirius
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Snape's a Bully, Snape is Controlling, Snape is Desperate, Snape is Mean, Overly-protective Snape, Snape is Stern
Genres: Angst, Drama
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe, Runaway, Spying on Harry! Snape, Vampire!Harry, Vampires
Takes Place: 3rd summer, 3rd Year
Warnings: Suicide Themes, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 21 Completed: No Word count: 32255 Read: 127357 Published: 03 Feb 2015 Updated: 22 Jun 2015
A Footnote by Alexannah

When Harry examined himself in the mirror, he surmised that he didn’t look any different. Well, maybe a little paler, but there was nothing that would immediately identify him as a vampire. Examining his teeth, he realised that he could make his incisors grow at will—the rest of the time, they appeared normal.

Well, that was a relief. Visible fangs would have given himself away in a second.

He still felt hungry, so drank a second vial of blood and hid the rest in his trunk. “Come on then, boy,” he said to Snuffles. “Let’s get you some breakfast.”

He ventured downstairs, Snuffles at his heels. Tom was happy to rustle up a hearty meal suitable for a dog, and Snuffles dug in eagerly. Harry hesitated when offered his own breakfast—did vampires eat? For the sake of appearances, he tried it, and was relieved when it tasted fine.

His mind on the blood upstairs, he figured it would only last him a couple more meals—he needed to find some way of getting more, today. Once they had both finished eating he looked down at the dog and said, “Hey, Snuffles, no chance you could help me find some more … of what you brought me?” He spoke quietly but was still reluctant to say the word out loud.

Snuffles thumped his tail on the floor, and immediately took off for Diagon Alley, Harry following. He led him through Diagon Alley and then turned into Knockturn Alley. Harry hesitated, bad memories of the last time he had been down this place—but needs must. He put on his cloak and his hood up before taking a single step inside.

After a couple of heart-thumping minutes navigating through shifty-looking shoppers, Snuffles stopped in front of an apothecary. Harry braced himself and pushed open the door.

Normal apothecaries were creepy enough in Harry’s view, with all the things in jars, but this one sent a real shiver up his spine. The man behind the counter was moving some of his stock around. Harry really didn’t want to go up to him and ask for blood—and then realised with relief that he didn’t have to. There was a whole corner filled with it.

Harry counted the vials. Assuming two per meal was normal, what was on the shelves would last until about a week into term.

“Excuse me?”

The shopkeeper looked up. “Yes?”

“Do you have any more of this?”

“No. That’s all our stock.”

Harry nodded. “Right. I’ll take all of it.”

The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow, but started packing the vials up for transport, counting as he did so. “That’s … two hundred Galleons, please.”

Harry gaped. “How much?”

“It’s not exactly easy to get hold of, you know. Young ones,” he muttered. “Do you have the money or not?”

Harry checked his moneybag. “I need to go to Gringotts. Can you hold it for me till I get back?”

Somewhere between the apothecary and Gringotts, Snuffles vanished. Harry was disappointed, but figured he would turn up again like he had before, and withdrew enough money from his vault to pay for the blood and keep him till the beginning of term.

He turned the problem over in his mind as he made his way back. Two hundred Galleons, for less than a month’s worth of blood? How on earth could he afford it? All right, he had money now, but it wouldn’t last forever. Plus, he would have to find a way of getting it while he was at Hogwarts. What on earth was he going to do?

He would have to explore that option once he got there. Maybe there was an owl-order service for vampires? He would have to tell Hedwig not to deliver at breakfast, if that was the case. Otherwise …

Harry bought the blood and sneaked the lot into his room at the Leaky Cauldron, putting it in his trunk with the rest. Well, at least he knew he was sorted for the rest of the summer.

“Wonder if there’s some sort of guide,” he said thoughtfully, forgetting Snuffles wasn’t there. “Like a book you can buy called Becoming a Vampire For Dummies.” He sighed. Maybe Hermione would know of something …

He hesitated. Was asking her really a good idea? For that matter, was telling either her or Ron what had happened a good idea? He loved his friends and was fairly sure they loved him; but—but the vampire last night had been so insistent. Tell no-one. Considering what they were being taught this year, Harry could easily picture their friendship with him turning into fear, into rejection.

A lump arose in his throat and he sat down shakily, somehow feeling much lonelier now than he had ever felt since discovering he was a wizard.

What would happen if they knew? Would his best friends in the world really turn against him?

“Oh please, no,” he whispered, a tear escaping down his cheek. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if that happened.

Ron had been raised by wizards; he had grown up hearing all about vampires and—as far as Harry could tell—how they were Dark creatures; evil; dangerous. Hermione … she’d avoided that, and she was smarter; maybe she could see … but Harry wasn’t certain. And that thought scared him.

Harry dug out his Defence book again, and found the chapter on vampires.

Vampires are highly dangerous Dark creatures, he read, his heart sinking, with something of a reputation in the Muggle world. They appear as human beings, though usually pallid, and like werewolves can be either born, or made through a bite. Vampires live on blood, which is sucked from their prey’s necks by way of retractable fangs.

“Or bought from an apothecary,” Harry muttered.

Many myths about vampires’ strengths and weaknesses abound even in the wizarding world. Vampires are physically stronger than humans—

“I’m still human!” Harry half-shouted at the page. “I am!

—but claims that religious artefacts can ward them off are false, and garlic is toxic only in large quantities. Vampires do, however, like werewolves, have severe adverse reactions to silver.

Good to know. He’d have to look out for that.

They do not flee from the sunlight, but do prefer the night and have extremely good nocturnal senses. Vampires are extremely difficult to repel, and only trained vampire hunters should ever attempt to kill them.

Harry’s mouth went dry. Vampire hunters? There were such things as vampire hunters? This was legal?

There are, however, several spells that can be used to defend yourself against a vampire attack, detailed below. Spells such as Petrificus Totalus can also be useful, although disarming is often pointless as the vampire’s weapons are innate. It is however important to note that many vampires who were Turned from wizards, can and do use wands; in these cases disarming would help but not end the threat. If a vampire is deprived of blood for too long, they become physically weak akin to dehydration or starvation for humans, and can die.

So, how long was ‘too long’, Harry wondered.

He read through the five different spells below. They all sounded pretty painful. Three of them resulted in a dead vampire. And the frightening thing was, they didn’t look very difficult to learn.

He scanned through the text again, trying to take in the information, and this time saw something he didn’t notice the first time—a footnote, located after the mention of Turning through a bite.

When a human is Turned, they lose their soul. The reason this is not like the result of a Dementor’s Kiss is because the vampire is not the body; it is a Dark spirit that invades in the soul’s place. Whilst memories are retained, the person that once resided is lost.

Harry read the tiny print a dozen times before it sunk in.

“No,” he whispered, eyes prickling again. “That—that can’t be right.”

He had no soul? No! Surely—surely he’d have been aware of losing it! But apparently not.

He’d lost his soul.

But what did that mean? What did ‘lost’ mean? Destroyed? Or moved on like if he were dead? Or something else entirely? If he died, would he just cease to exist? Would he ever get to see his parents again? He believed in an afterlife; most wizards did. Or was his soul already there, with his mum and dad?

Harry wiped his face furiously, head swimming with questions, and glared down at the book which provided no answers. A footnote? His soul was only worth a footnote?

Suddenly furious, Harry snapped the book shut and threw it was all the force he could muster at the wall.

And then he was crying properly, for the first time in years. As far as he could tell, he had died; and it wasn’t at all how he had imagined it. And he cried because he was certain, now, that there was no way he could tell anyone what had happened to him.

He was truly alone.

To be continued...


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