Stepping out of the shadows (#Wattys2016)

Stepping Out of the Shadows

Stepping Out of the Shadows: La Mort ne veut rien dire.

Charlie Weasley had never really considered what his death would be like. He was a young and fit Wizard- or at least he had been- so he had never given it much thought. He supposed he was dead now, it wasn't at all like he had expected it to be. Peaceful, he had thought, not painful and more permanent too. He had thought maybe he'd have had a more heroic death, struck down in a blaze of wands as he defended his country or maybe burned by a dragon. Any of them would have been better than dying the way he had in the end.

Almost as if they'd been called his three captors waltzed into his cell with six other teens following behind. It had been a common occurrence for them to come in with their mini Death Eater wannabes and have them practice spells on him while they were lectured on proper torture technique.

Sometimes Charlie couldn't believe that these were the same girls he'd seen blossom into the young ladies that had betrayed them.

"Oh Charlie," Cobra purred. "Stop with all the morbid thoughts. If you really took the time to embrace what we have given to you then you would realise its a gift."

Charlie scoffed, gathering what energy he had left to glare at the evil people surrounding him.

"A gift?" He coughed to clear his throat. "You did this to punish my family and I, don't pretend this is a gift, don't take me for a fool."

Viper's lip twitched slightly in amusement, Charlie always thought that she had done the best at fooling them. Ginny had always had a temper and Luna had always known too much to be as innocent as she seemed but Hermione had always just seemed average and plain. Nothing particularly extraordinary about her other than her brain but over the last few weeks of his imprisonment he'd seen how cruel she could be and how vicious her curses were.

"You're right." She agreed. "It was a punishment and now ze punishment could be over if you were willing to accept our 'elp and become a full vampire, without us you'll suffer. If that is what you want, keep doing what you are doing, but Vampires can't actually die of starvation just so you know." Charlie looked at the girl in surprise, that was a fact he didn't know about them.

"You see Charlie," Viper continued, her voice a mere whisper. "You don't quite know everything about Vampires like you thought. Let me guess, you read we could die if we didn't feed on a human, that we went crazy when the smell of blood hit us and that we 'ave no control over our minds but as you can clearly see and feel you have no want zo suck the blood of zese six mortals behind me, oh you can hear zeir blood, can sense it zere flowing through zeir veins but you don't want to drink it." The six teens looked at their mentors in horror as they became aware that they were mere mortals next to these three Vampires.

Charlie stared defiantly at Viper and her sisters, suddenly a crease formed in Viper's forehead and her whole demeanor changed as she stared at Charlie. Suddenly Charlie was very aware of the fact that she was just a young teen still, and so were the other two sisters. They hadn't been given a chance at a normal life at all really.

Cobra raised an eyebrow as she heard the thoughts swirling through her fledglings brain.

"Charles," He broke free from his thoughts and met the young girls eyes. "You're right we are young still, but zat doesn't mean we want your pity. We 'ave raised from the ashes of the life your leader burned to the ground and we 'ave made a name for ourselves in the Dark Lords army. We are not leettle girls 'ho need guidance to see the wrongs zey 'ave committed, every death we have caused, every action that has caused hurt was done deliberately and of our own free will."

Charlie's mind instantly started going to the atrocities he would commit now he was a vampire.

"You stupeed boy." Boa said, shaking her head in disappointment at the young man. "You know we could 'ave changed any one of your stupeed brothers but we chose you because we thought you would be most opened minded about us. We are not dark because we are vampires, we are dark because we believe in the Dark Lord, sure most Vampires tend to lean more towards the dark but that's because they are much more accepting of us. Dîtes-moi, what would my, ah, prospects be if I were to enter the working world now with ze people 'ho are in charge now?"