Cursed Halfway to the Grave

Chapter 1

t had been almost 5 years to the day since Harry, now going by his birth name Hadley, had moved to Licking Falls, Ohio.

He had stumbled upon an old, weathered barn that had been lovingly renovated into a spacious and grand house during his search for somewhere to escape to outside of the UK. The property, sprawling over 5 acres, was filled with enchanting rows of overgrown cherry trees, their branches reaching out like welcoming arms. When he first saw the isolated location and the quaint town nearby, he knew it was meant to be his home. The peaceful serenity of the orchard seemed to call out to him, promising solace and seclusion from the chaos of the outside world and protection from those who might search for him.

While he had moved to Ohio alone, he certainly hadn't stayed that way for long.

Saint Mungos Hospital was attacked on the 1st anniversary of the end of the war by Death Eater Wannabes. Bad enough on its own, but it was also the hospital that Hermione was kept at and Ron practically lived in since Hermione was there. Both of them were fine, but it still wasn't safe enough in magical Britain. He had extended the invitation to Ron to move into his home, but he hadn't actually expected him to accept.

Their friendship had been fractured during the war and after the massacre at the Burrow, Ron had cut off pretty much all communication with Hadley having blamed him for everything that happened during and after the war, especially when Hadley had turned down a position with the Aurors.

But Ron and Hermione moved into his house in Ohio and lived off of his money. Ron rarely went out into the nearby town, but when he wasn't caring for Hermione, he fixed up the orchard.

Hadley did not tell Ron about his status as a half-vampire. It was better that way, but he did have to explain why he looked so different. Explaining to Ron that his Mother had another man's child who wasn't her husbands was an awkward situation Harry never wanted to repeat. Unfortunately for Harry, he was fate's whipping boy.

Two years after Ron and Hermione had moved into his house, Harry was taking in another stray that he hadn't wanted anything to do with. His cousin, Dudley, ironically got into a severe car crash, lost his job, and his fiance left him before he called Hadley as a last resort to keep him from living on the streets.

Even though the spiteful part of Hadley wanted to say no, he couldn't do that. So Dudley moved to Ohio and into Harry's house. More explanations were given and once Dudley recovered from his injuries he started to help Ron in the Orchard and enrolled in the local community college.

Hadley may have inherited a fair amount of money, but he was supporting three other people including Hermione's medical bills and Dudley's school costs. So he had to find a way to make money again while having only an elementary level of muggle education and an incomplete magical education. His new job fell into his lap quite by accident.

Hadley had gone out to a bar because he had not wanted to stay in the house listening to both Dudley and Ron berating him yet again. It had taken years and several bad relationships to discover that he was gay and had absolutely no desire for females. So when an attractive dark-haired man with stunning blue eyes approached him to buy him a drink, Hadley was all for it. Something niggled at him in the back of his mind but he had ignored it, trying to enjoy doing something normal like flirting.

The man, Daniel, invited Hadley to join him at a club across town and Hadley said yes ignoring the bad feeling in his gut.

They took Daniel's car since Hadley didn't know where the club was. 15 minutes into the ride, Hadley's bad feeling was getting worse. They were driving further away from the town and seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, not that that was hard to do in Ohio.