An Aberrant Phenomenon ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇᴅ

Howard stood in the center of the Owlery, the hood of his robes pulled back as his bright red eyes stared up at the owls above. The rain pounded against the building and the wind whistled through the windows, but his heightened senses were still able to pick out the soft hoots and ruffling of feathers. His lips twitched with every shift of their movement. The roll of parchment stayed clutched in his hand, Howard’s original intention of the day. 

He thought he was ready, he had tried to prepare. A full plate at breakfast and a blood pop for good measure. However, as soon as he entered the building, the thirst came with it. Above him, nestled in their nooks, rested hundreds of potential prey. Maybe one of the school owls? Surely they wouldn’t miss just one. It’s blood would hardly be meal, bitter to the tastebuds. The hunt would be lackluster, but Howard was a predator and turning down an easy meal went against his nature.

He shook his head, trying his best to clear his mind. Today wasn’t the day. He couldn’t resist. Howard’s thoughts were becoming jumbled. That’s when his ears heard the click clack of foot steps approaching the tower. Shit. Then a thud. The young Dhampir turned to face the door, an inhale through the nostrils. 

Howard’s eyes went wide, his pupils narrowing to pin points. His hands flew to his mouth to stifle the hiss as the fangs plunged through the flesh of his gums. No! No! NO! He grabbed the sides of his head, pressing against them hard as he shook it back and forth. The smell was intoxicating, as sweet as a muggle would find fresh baked cinnamon rolls, as savory as a prime cut on the grill. It was the smell of human blood. His hands moved to his own throat, squeezing in a futile effort to suppress the beast within. As the door began to open, his predatory instincts kicked in, squashing any attempt to keep them at bay. In one deft move, Howard flung up his hood and silently scurried back into the shadows. 

Aurelia could have sworn she heard hasten footsteps that weren’t hers upon stepping foot into the owlery. Upon surveying the especially dimly lit surroundings of the owlery, Aurelia assumed that she either misheard the odd sound for something else. It didn’t matter, even if it were otherwise, she was only here to deliver an owl to her Mother.

At the sight of her owner, Aspen flapped down and perched on the rim of the birdbath. Taking good care of her pet was always one of Aurelia’s priorities and so she did the routined inspection of her talons and wings. However, the abrupt flapping of her wings gave away that something was wrong. Aspen’s eyes were wide and alert and whenever Aurelia reached for her massive wings and she would back away with an exasperated hoot. It was most likely that her owl did not want to make the trip in the heavy rain.

“Rustig aan, Aspen.calm down in Dutch” Aurelia muttered under her breath, she usually spoke to Aspen in her native tongue though was unlikely that these animals understood any language at all regardless of the language besides trained commands. Aurelia held out the envelope in front of the large bird for her to take and deliver. But suddenly sound had made her turn in the direction of where it emitted. Aspen must have heard it too as a she let out a loud caw and grab the envelope forcefully, snipping a bit of the skin on her knuckle with her sharp beak and causing her to flinch. With that, Aspen took off from the window and into the pouring rain.

Aurelia sighed as she examined her finger which aspen had unintentionally bitten. Like her knee, it was bleeding. She still couldn’t fathom why Aspen was acting in such a way, as if something spooked her. It could not be the rain that caused her atypical skittishness. Then Aurelia felt it, a sudden unsettling feeling in her gut that made the tiny hairs on her neck stand and goosebumps to prickle on her skin. Perhaps it was the cold but regardless of what the eerie feeling was, it urge her to leave. Turning on her heels, she started towards the door of the owlery. The owl had been sent and there wasn’t any reason to stay any longer.

Howard crouched, frozen on the spot within the shadows. Had he been as feral as he once was, the young woman before him would most likely already be dead. His creator had taught him control and with it came patience. To wait for the perfect moment to strike. However, she had done nothing to help him suppress the blood lust that consumed him now. It stripped him of his humanity, darkening his soul and dulling the light within. Had he been in his right mind, Howard may have recognized the brunette that stood in the dim lights of the Owlery, but he did not. 

As his target outstretched her arm, Howard made ready to pounce. His hands reached out, laying flat on the ground in front of him. He would use his superior strength to push himself forward and lunge towards his prey. As he prepared for his attack, the darkness within him oozed out of his pours. Whether it came from some deep recess in his mind, or perhaps from the corrupted soul within his body, it leaked out of him like a noxious gas. Howard should have controlled the defense mechanism as releasing his aura would only make his presence known. However, Howard was “new” and beginners make mistakes. 

The owl would be first to mark his presence as it flew down from its perch to meet its owner. It shifted uncomfortably, flapping its wings and made a hasty retreat. Next would be the his target.  She turned quickly on the spot and went to make her exit. Now was the time. She was exposed! Howard’s muscles flexed as he jumped forward. He would close the gap in the blink of an eye. Reaching out his hands would grasp her head. One reaching around to hold her jaw, one grabbing and handful of hair from the top of her head. With a sudden jerk Howard pulled her head to the side, his elongated nails possibly digging into her flesh.  His lips would meet the skin of her neck, the nerve endings searching for the pulse. If she did not react quickly enough, his teeth would bite hard into her neck piercing the blood vessel. His mouth would quickly fill with the vibrant blood of the young woman, and as he swallowed a feeling of ecstasy filled every fiber of his body. It was overwhelming. His mouth pulled away from the wound for just a moment. “Gahhh!” The grunt of pleasure filled the room. 

The gryffindor was seconds away from the doorway when all of a sudden, her hair was yanked backwards and her head was forcefully twisted to the side, causing her to let out a distressed yelp. The witch had not an interval to comprehend the situation when a harrowing pain scaled up the side of her neck. Surely, the thirteen year old’s first reaction to the agonising torment was to scream and thrash in a desperate attempt to break free from her attackers grasp. Regardless of what she did, her strength was nothing compared to that of the Dhamphir’s.

Fortunately, for her, in that short moment as those fangs detached from her skin, her mind snapped into the defence mechanism that was drilled in her through her training. Neck. Bite. Blood. This was none other than an assault of a blood thirsty Vampire. Her Grandmother, her superior at Monster Hunting, was not kidding when she described the bite of a vampire’s to hurt excruciatingly, not to mention the nails digging inches into the side of her jaw. However, there was no need for more analysis nor was there time. If she wanted to live up to her aspirations and battle more monsters, she would have to obviously, live. It was now or never, life or death. In a split second, despite all that pain, she stuck her hand in her pocket, her fingers connected with the smooth wood that warmed at her touch and she pulled it out swiftly. Gripping onto her wand tightly, she screamed with all her willpower, “Lumos!”

If the spell failed, it could mean the very end of her, she would slowly bleed to death from a punctured vascular under the mercy of a vampire. Most people, if they were in her her situation would opt for a much more offensive spell, but not Aurelia for she was one who knew a Vampire’s weaknesses like the back of her hand. Today was not the day where she would take her last breath as a blinding luminescence emitted from her wand, illuminating the dimly lit owlery in sheer white light.

The taste of the blood, the smell of it, the way his body absorbed it energized every cell of his body. Howard had forgotten how magnificent it was, only tasting it once in his short life as a Dhampir. Yes, normal food would sustain him, but it was nothing compared to the how his body reacted now. The monster inside of him burst forth from its cage, roaring in pleasure as the blood slid down its throat and into its belly. The euphoria would however cause Howard to slip, making the one mistake any predator mustn’t ever make. He gave his prey a moment to defend itself. 

As Howard made his way back to the open wound his vision would focus on the tip of a wand. He only had time for his eyes to widen in shock before the spell was cast. “Ahhhh!!!” Howard bellowed in pain as the blinding white light from the Lumos charm hit him directly in the face. He immediately let go of his victim, fangs retracting Howard staggered backwards, clutching his face as the once pale skin turned a deep red. Little puffs of smoke would leak through his finger tips as the flesh was scorched. The pain was overwhelming, he went weak in the knees and after a bit of a wobble, Howard fell onto his back, his head smacking against the stone floor. 

Howie slowly opened his eyes, his vision slightly blurred as he reached for his face. Pain tore through his head as he gently touched the damaged flesh. “Owww!” The injuries to his face were quickly forgotten as the boy rolled to his side, clutching himself in the fetal position. It wasn’t a physical pain that caused him to double over. It was a sense of dread, as if suddenly everything had gone wrong in the world. It was a crippling depression. The emotional response was astounding. Howie wanted to scream, cry, vomit, anything to release this horrid feeling that tore through his chest. He reached out, pawing at the ground, eventually able to bring himself to his knees. It was in that moment that his red eyes would make contact with hers.

It took only a moment before Howie recognized her, Aurelia, and only a moment more to realize something had gone horribly wrong. The young brunette was bleeding heavily from jaw and neck. “A-A-Aurelia...” Howie stammered as a shaky hand pointed at her wounds. “You’re injured...you’re bleeding.” He sputtered out in between ragged breaths. “What’s happened?!” As Howie blinked his mind would answer his own question. As his eye lids fluttered the images came back to him. A swift strike, a plunging of the fangs. Howie’s hands shot up, palms facing outwards in the universal sign of surrender. “Oh god! Oh no!” Tears streamed from his eyes as the realization of what he had done gripped him. 

Unlike the adolescent human who was not affected at all by the simple wand lighting charm, the effect it had on the dhamphir assailant on the other hand, was severe. As soon as the dhamphir’s grasp on her head slipped, the gleam of light illuminating from the tip of her wand dimmed and Aurelia’s partially exsanguinated body crumpled to the ground. In spite of the circumstances, the wounded Gryffindor surprisingly managed to clamber towards the far end of the room through the stone cold floor to create as much of a distance she possibly could from the beast who attacked her only moments ago.

Blood dripped onto the floor from the puncture wound on her neck leaving an unsightly trail of crimson red behind her. When the wall finally obstructed her from crawling any further, the vertiginous girl then leaned against the wall for support and hugged her knees tightly as the room spun around her. The traumatised thirteen year old shivered, the cause more likely from the immense fear she had just experienced rather than the lack of warmth her own body failed to provide.

Aurelia. At the sudden mention of her name, Aurelia snapped her out of her thoughts and her fearful eyes met with the creature’s vermilion pair across the room. The dhamphir knew her, but the feeling of recognition was not reciprocated until she squinted her eyes slightly to get a better view through the dimly lit surroundings. With his pale skin, a mouth stained with blood, and a pair of red eyes, Howie was hardly recognisable. In her many encounters with the Hufflepuff last term, he was never so much of a threat to her nor was he influenced by blood. Aurelia surely would have noticed if it had been otherwise and the person before her was contrastingly different from the Howie she knew of. He had changed. “When did you become, dhampir?” Aurelia croaked out in disbelief, the words barely inaudible. Her throat hurt tremendously from her injuries.

A trembling hand instinctively inspect the wound on her neck when Howie indicated her injuries and her fingers met with warm icky and sticky liquid as they contacted with the very tender skin. A gasp left her lips when Aurelia finally noticed how much she was bleeding. It was not just a splotch, her hand was soaked in blood. The alarming sight caused a sudden substantial spike in her anxiety, like a flip of a switch, she began to panic once again.

The girl’s heart rate was increasing rapidly, the rhythmic beats thumping heavily in her chest perhaps loud enough to be heard by the dhampir, her eyes darted frantically around the owlery, trying to figure out a way, a way to get out of the distressing situation she was in. There were no possible escape routes Other than the door and the thousands of steps down that followed. At the state she was in, it was not any way possible that she could make it more than a few feet down the staircase without losing consciousness.

Bloody tears. Another factor that confirmed Howie’s identity as a dhampir. Perhaps if Aurelia was in a better condition and was not exceedingly worried about whether her next breath would be her last, the Gryffindor would have reassured Howie that it had only been an accident, and most likely even worry about the bits of soul, his humanity, that was ripped from him when he took her blood. Unfortunately, at the moment, she cared nothing but about her draining life. Every second, every drop of blood was precious. “St...stay where you are, Howie,” she commanded with her wand gripped in her shaky hands. The room was gyrating, a clear sign that it would not be much longer before she lost consciousness. If the dhamphir was to make a move in her direction, the paranoid girl would wave her wand and yell, “Flipendo!” However, Aurelia was very much disoriented and the accuracy of her spell might have been slightly off target.

The bloody tears streamed steadily down Howie’s face, stinging the seared flesh as they rolled. It was not just the guilt of his actions that caused the young Dhampir to cry, but it felt as if his heart was breaking. As if the very fibers of his soul had shattered, leaving him feeling broken. The emotions swung wildly through his chest. One moment would bring a crushing depression, the next a horrible guilt, and then nothing. A terrible emptiness.

Howie wrapped his arms around himself, swaying and shivering on his knees as he attempted to maintain some sort of composure. He had to, at least for just a while longer. Just long enough to get Aurelia some help, then he would surrender to it and face whatever consequence that would follow.

“It happened...over the summer.” Howie answered her through gritted teeth as he attempted to push the sob back down into his belly. “That doesn’t matter now...you need...I need to get you help.”

Aurelia’s moment of curiosity was quickly replaced with fear as her hand made it way to the wound on her neck. A bit of panic would splash across her face. Thump thump. Howie was able to hear her heart pounding in her chest. “Aurelia. You have to calm down.” Howie warned her, the heavy heart rate would only further the blood loss. He released the grip on himself and held his arms up as she raised her wand. “I’m not going do anything...we have to get help. You’re losing too much blood.” 

Howie slowly lowered his right hand, his fingers wrapping around the handle of his wand and began to withdraw it from the pocket of his robes. The wood felt foreign in his grip, the same as it always did since since his transformation. The next moment would depend on Aurelia’s response. If she cast Flipendo, the spell would kick Howie backwards several feet, his body crashing into the stone wall. The wand would scatter away from him, the wood clinking on the floor as it rolled off into the shadows. It would take him several moments to recover.

If she did stop him with her spell, Howie would aim his wand at the nearest window. His hand shook, he could barely concentrate. The depression was crushing, his arms felt like they were made of iron. “Periculum!” He croaked. A few weak sparks fizzled out of the tip of his wand. His arm fell to his side, his head slumped down. Howie closed his eyes. Please, please work. She’ll die. The young boy pleaded with the world. His eyes opened and drifted over to her. Aurelia’s skin was going pale. The blood was flowing freely through the hand that covered her wound. Howie didn’t mean for it to happen, he just lost control, he didn’t want her to die. It was then, just in that moment that a burst of compassion would squeeze its way through the darkness of his shattered soul. He could feel the energies flowing through his arm and down to his hand. With his last bit of energy, Howie raised his wand once more and bellowed, “Periculum!!” A bolt of red sparks would blast from his instrument, soaring out of the window and across the sky. His arm would fall limp to his side, the wand would clatter to the floor before he fell onto his side and curled up in a ball. As he laid there shaking from head to foot, all he could do now was hope someone had seen his signal of distress. 

Despite putting pressure on the wound with her palm in attempts to reduce the bleeding, blood continued leaking between her fingers and down her shoulders. Who knew how deep the dhampir’s fangs managed to impale into her skin. Her heart palpitations were only ever increasing and Howie’s words for her to calm down did little to diminish her current state of panic.

At the appalling condition of her body and the rate of blood it was losing, her vision began to blur, double even and her breathing became laboured. Yet the vice grip on the wand never faltered. There was not a way that she was ever trusting a dhampir with her life. For all she knew, all she wished would never happen, Howie might give her his own blood in order to ‘save’ her. And to be very honest, Aurelia would rather bleed to death than be turned into a blood sucking creature.

The thought of being turned a Dhampir further heightened her paranoia. The amount of blood lost left Aurelia incapable of thinking straight. Incomprehensible thoughts flooded and hurtled around in her head as she struggled to maintain consciousness. At this state,it was unlikely that any attempts of a spell would succeed but in a desperate will to survive, Aurelia waved her wand and cast the knockback jinx at the dhampir regardless of her odds.

Despite her lightheadedness, the spell was produced flawlessly from her wand in Howie’s direction. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the girl’s aim. Perhaps Howie had dodge the spell or the horrendous accuracy was due to her inability to focus, either way, the jinx missed by a fair distance.

However, casting the spell required a lot of effort and Aurelia’s sentience as well as her fight to stay awake began to slip. In a matter of seconds, the room spun unbearably and Aurelia’s world spiralled into an oblivion of darkness. An unconscious body now laid in a small pool of her own blood on the stone cold floor.

@Boniface Murtagh MacTavish@Nadège Benoit
from here on in this thread, i allow further godmod of aurelia’s unconscious body

Howie narrowly avoided the knock back jinx as he fell to the floor just a moment before it was cast. The spell smacked into the stone wall behind him sending the owls into a frenzy. Their hoots and caws tore through the Owlery as bits of straw and hay fell from their roosts. The air moved this way and that as many made for an escape through the windows, while others circled above looking for signs of danger. As Howie lay shaking on the floor, he would look towards where the spell came from. His eyes would find Aurelia’s body crumpled on the floor, a small pool of blood gathering around her.

The Dhampir laid there for a moment, sure that someone would see his red sparks and come to their aid. His insides were revolting against him. He shook in fear as he tried to comprehend what was happening to him. None of it made sense. Mustering his strength, Howie threw one arm out in front of the other, clawing at the floor as he dragged himself over to Aurelia. His own worries would be cast aside as his superior hearing picked up her faint heartbeat. It was slow and labored. The young Hufflepuff began to panic as there was no sign of help. No hurried footsteps or calls from the distance to see what was the matter. She did not have long, it was act now or never. He pushed himself up to his knees.

Howie grabbed hold of the fabric of his robes, where the arm sleeve met the shoulder. His long, sturdy nails and superior strength would easily tear the sleeve and attempt to stem the bleeding with it. Shimmying his arms underneath Aurelia’s body, one arm under her knees, the other cradling her head, Howie stood. Turning on the spot he pushed open the door with his back and made his way out into the cold and rainy night. 

The grounds and the castle had gone quiet as student and staff alike had made their way to their chambers for the evening. Howie’s strength and endurance saw them to the hospital wing with great haste. As he approached the door to the hospital wing, Howie paused. Fear gripped him as he thought about what was about to happen. He would be caught. His crime was a violent attack on another student. Aurelia was gravely wounded, the blood loss severe. Magical care was quick and effective, but she was teetering on the edge. All he could imagine was standing in court, the guilty verdict coming down as the executioner prepared the stake that would soon be driven into his heart. He panicked. Setting Aurelia down at the door, he leaned in to whisper into her ear. “I’m sorry...please don’t die.” 

Howie stood and pounded on the door. “Help! Help! There’s been an attack!” He shouted. Turning quickly, the Dhampir scurried off down the hallway and back towards his dorm room.

RP concluded.