Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Middle Earth.

Warning for this chapter: Erm... Hmmm... How about... blood? Pointy things stuck into unsuspecting vampire-teens? Life weary, somewhat stupid elves?

The Dark Wizard and the Curse of Immortality

Chapter 4 – The long Dark

Appart from the gurgling of the river it was quite silent. Most other beings would have been unsettled by this almost complete silence, despite the many trees and reed, bordering the river, in which animals should have been hiding. Harry was used to the fauna fleeing when he was close though. He was beginning to suspect that vampires had always preferred human blood for the simple reason that most other beings seemed to be intelligent enough to recognise such a danger when it was near.

He was sitting in the high, untamed grass framing the water, resting not really his body, which didn't need any rest, but rather his mind. He thought about everything that had happened so far and two more or less conflicting needs seemed the most urgent to him at the moment.

There was on one hand his more or less weekly need of blood, that was proving to be quite hard to satisfy in a world without blood banks and willing donors. He either needed to sharpen his hunting skills and learn how to make prey of wild animals or... He stopped thinking in that direction before it could truly form into mental image of him abducting humans. "This is not an option," he thought somewhat unnerved that the thought had even ocurred to him.

On the other hand there was his need to be among living beings. Harry was no fool. He knew enough about vampires to know that many had been driven into insanity by the isolation imposed on them by the persecuting mortals and quite often themselves.

The dark and rather dirty man sighed, leaning forward to look at his blood and dirt-smeared reflection, smiling in mild amusement when he remembered that Hermione told him that muggles believed him to have none. "Ironic really..." he mused wryly, "I myself have never been fond of vampire stories." He cupped the water into his hands. It was icy, but he splashed it on his face and rubbed the dirt off, despite the temperature, knowing it wasn't enough to be truly harmful to him.

Watching the water settle again, he decided, that although his clothes were still filthy and his hair still tangled with mud, he looked decidedly more human than a moment ago. Refraining from using a spell to clean his clothes, because, after seeing the savage riders, he had come to the conclusion that this country was populated by people who did not care too much about hygiene and him walking around in immaculate clothing would only draw additional unwanted attention.

He took off his bag, that must have made from a rather sturdy material or charm, as it still didn't look battered. Using it as a pillow, he lay, looking at the blue sky. There was a more immediate problem to pursue, than his thirst and his loneliness. Where should he go next? He hoped he had more or less left the land of those riders behind, when he crossed the river, but he could of course not be sure how much ground the city, from which they obviously came, governed.

He couldn't follow the river any more. It was leading into a deep dark forest, which he could tell from this great distance, he didn't want to venture into.

"Well, walking in a random direction usually takes you somewhere, right?" muttered to the empty air.

He simply headed farther in the same direction, noting that the imposing forest stayed firmly on his left.

Now and again he found the poor remains of long-abandoned villages and he got the impression that this part of the country had been all but deserted by humans. No doubt the desertion of this area had to do with the forest. The dark and fearsome man himself did not want to draw any nearer to it than necessary. The trees seemed to warn him to stay away or he would not live to regret it. He took the silent threat to heart, hurrying to make it to more populated regions, but a good while later he found his way blocked by yet another river. It too came from the unsettling woods, but what truly caught his attention and gave him some relief was that the trees seemed to thin out farther ahead on the other side of the river.

Now he was confronted with the problem of the river acting as a natural barrier though. The former river he had been able to cross easily, because there were a few bridges made of stone, but this was a far less populated area, so it didn't really surprise him that he couldn't see a bridge as far as his eye could reach.

He gnawed on his lip, knowing he couldn't use magic to solve this problem as he didn't know how much longer it would take him to catch something drinkable. "So how am I supposed to get across?" he wondered sullenly. The water was undoubtably icy and he was by no means a good swimmer. Actually he was slightly afraid of it, although he was too proud to admit it even to himself.

He tried measuring the river with his eyes. He should be able to do it."After all my physical powers have all been increased by becoming a vampire. I shouldn't have trouble doing this..."

He reached out with his hand to check the temperature of the water and although the cold made him wince and draw his hand back immediately, he knew it wasn't too cold to cause problems with the unheated and unmoving blood in his body.

He tucked a little harshly on the straps of his bag and on sudden inspiration cast a water repellant charm on it, in fear that whatever was inside would be damaged by water. He truly didn't like the prospect of swimming in the frosty, deep river but his mind wasn't forthcoming with other options.

He stepped forward into the piercing cold waters, as it splashed merrily against his calves, soaking his shoes and the hem of his robes. When the water reached his chest he was almost to the middle of the river and he knew he was lucky to have found a shallow spot by mere chance.

Taking another step, his foot suddenly found no ground and Harry swung his arms widely in surprise, as he lost his footing. He started kicking his legs and using his arms to make clumsy swim-movements, but that only served to let him sink slightly slower than a stone. He let out a frightened yell for help that was cut off and turned into gurgle as he sank under the surface.

The vampire reached the riverbed a second later and he was still kicking in panic, trying to reach the surface. Long moments passed and he fell to his knees slowly, closing his eyes.

After a moment or so he snapped them open again. "I'm an absoluteidiot!" he thought as he realised that he didn't need to breathe and could therefore hardly drown.

Not that that made the situation any less awful. Trying to get used to the stubborn feeling that told him he was or rather should besuffocating, he closed his eyes again.

With a determined, although due to the muddy ground unsteady and slow stride, he moved forward, until he felt that the ground was rising again, leading him out of the depression he had stumbled into.

Scrambling up a slick slimy rock, he found himself braking the surface again. Suddenly as air encompassed him again he realised how important it was to him, despite his lack of physical need for it. For a minute he simply hung onto the slick surface of the rock, relishing in the prickling feeling of cold wind on his skin, until he stemmed himself up. He struggled to get away from the shore with his clothes clinging to him, making moving a very unpleasant affair. Shivering he almost wanted to get back into the water, because it suddenly seemed as though it had been less cold than outside. He knew that he would never go anywhere near deep water again if he could somehow help it though. This had been a horrifying experience.

It was a muddy and bedraggled vampire that continued on his way. He didn't want to use another charm to clean himself, because he feared he was truely reaching his limits and coming close enough to the river to clean himself with water was completely out of the question right now.

When the sun finally rose he reached the borders of a very different forest than the other darker one.

In the moonlight the trees shown a silvery colour and had glowing leaves. The ground underneath his feet was not covered with the thorned underbrush he knew all too well from the Forbidden Forest, but covered with still healthy-looking fallen leaves with lush grass and flowers peaking through. He noticed with even greater surprise that he could hear animals. Few of course as most things would be sleeping at this hour, but there were animals none the less.

Passing the first smooth trunk he thought it was as though they knew he was not as bad as their instincts might tell them. "Or they simply never had to fear anything here and don't recognise the instinctual fear of me that they are feeling," he thought somewhat guiltily.

Harry soon had other thoughts running around his head though. He was having a feeling that someone was watching him. Something was hiding in the trees, watching him. He was sure and the cursed wizard could tell it was not the animals that were watching him so keenly.

There was a sound to his left and before he fully spun around in that direction he could feel people land on the ground all around him, blocking all chance of escape with bows drawn threateningly.

Suddenly one came forward, holding himself in such a way that he was unmistakably the leader of the bunch. Harry first assumed it must be one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, but it was actually a man of slightly androgynous beauty and he felt himself blush at his earlier assumption. The people surrounding him looked very much alike with their high cheekbones, long legs, fine, blond hair, pale skin and lean, yet muscular bodies.

What really struck him though was that the man looked at him with a disgust and hate that was unrivalled even by Snape.

Harry put one and one together and figured the person in front of him knew what he was. "I'm slowly beginning to suspect a certain old coot has been tattling." This scared Harry a great deal, because he knew he had left Isengart far behind and if Saruman's lies had already reached this far, he was in greater trouble than he first thought.

The man approached him cautiously and finally said curtly his eyes burning with distaste as he examined him: "We are here to escort you to the Lady of the Woods for questioning. You will be blindfolded before we set out."

"So he thinks I'll just follow him like a good puppy? How naive..."

The man came closer and seemed to tense more the closer he came to him, just like his companions, who although wearing emotionless masks, strengthened their grip on their intricately-carved bows. Harry smiled all but innocently when the man stood before him, producing a black piece of cloth. If the blond had been a lesser man Harry was sure he would have trembled, but as it was the man could have given every Slytherin a run for their money. His face was perfectly masked with his dislike for the undead creature in front of him. As the man raised his arms to put the piece of fabric over Harry's eyes, he reacted almost as fast as the soldiers had appeared earlier, grabbing the man by his shoulder in a hard grip he spun him around to shield his front with the man. Immeadiately he felt the almost anticipated excruciating pain of several sharp, long objects, piercing into his back. He screamed in pain and unconciously increased the pressure on his victim, who only gasped as his bones protested loudly.

He snarled furiously at the people now watching, expecting him to fall to the ground any second, "If you do that again I'm going to kill him! Now let me go and nobody is going to be hurt, understand?"

It looked to him as though they didn't, because they didn't batt an eyelash, although they gave furtive glances in their blond leader's direction, who had still not stopped his struggling, but although he was decidedly stronger than a normal human, he had not nearly enough strength to break out of the vampire's vice-like grip. Harry began walking backwards slowly although he could feel another round of arrows enter his back. As it was still screaming with the pain of the first volley, he could almost ignore it anyway. "Those idiots are digging their own grave!" he thought miserably, as he had to start making a concious effort to keep his instincts at bay.

There was the sound of metal against leather and he had less than a second's time to pull not only himself put also his hostage out of harms way, as the sound of air being parted roughly followed. "Are you crazy! You would have killed your own guy!" he yelled at the man, who was brandishing his sword in fear and now there was no denying it; the formerly seemingly emotionless squad was terrified. Harry was amazed that he had still been able to dodge that swing and was able to talk without serious problems. He was just now beginning to realise what vampires could truely do. He wasn't even spitting blood although he had internal wounds that would have easily killed a mortal on the spot!

Seeing no other way, he abadoned his hostage and throwing all caution aboard simply ran as fast as he could back to the edge of the forest, having to duck under various swords in the process, receiving shallow cuts and losing many strands of hair and only managing not to lose any body part, esspecially his only unreplacable one, by pure luck.

He heard the alarming sound of arrows being nocked and he figured that he would soon find himself in a bloodbath, but the yell of "Daro!" which he assumed was a command to shoot, only followed the sound of weapons being replaced in their holders. They started persuing him though and they were fast and persistent. He tried once or twice to gain speed, but he couldn't run like he normally could with the arrows jarring against each other, whenever he moved. He was actually very proud of himself for still being able to move at all and not simply giving in to the monster within him, yet.

So hoping to lose his persuers the conventional way Harry turned in the direction of a mountain range in the distance.

"I'm stranded on the World of weapon-wealding idiots," he hissed furiously, trying to keep from thinking about the many arrows stuck in every – if he were mortal- vital part of his body, that was accessable from his back and sides. It was on this journey that he for the first time truely understood just how resourceful vampires were. He even gained a little ground on the mortals.

When he drew closer to the mountains he became aware of a delicious scent drifting up from what he could swear was the ground. He was unsure what it smelled like though.

Finally he found the place the redolence was coming from. It was a small hole between two rocks, which he could just squeese through. Hoping his persecutors didn't see him, he sank to his knees, letting his legs dangle from the edge and finally wholely descended into the darkness. It was deeper than he thought it would be and although the entrance was small it largened soon. Deciding it would be better to hide deeper in what he realised was not a small crevice but a cave, he climbed down.

When he finally reached the bottom of the cave, he couldn't see a thing despite being in his vampire form. He could tell though that he had greatly underestimated its size, as his ears could tell him by the long-lasting echo of his feet touching the floor and the sprinkling sound of the small stones he had lousened from the wall. He also found what was giving off the delicious scent, he had smelled even from far above. He finally let go of his humanity and drank greedily from the thing that must have died a rather gruesome death not too long ago.

His need for blood must have been great indeed, he decided a short time later, as the delicious scent and taste turned out to have been an illusion created by his thirst and gave way to the most disgusting thing he had ever smelled and drunk. He didn't stop though, but gulped down the disgusting liquid of the dead something. He was still too thirsty and he knew he would need it once it came to plucking out the feathered appendages from his back via magic.

When he found no more of the thick, far too metallic-tasting blood, he scrunched his eyes shut steeling himself. He took out his wand and muttered the incantation of a strong banishing charm, crying out in agony as the arrows were blown from his body. The pain was his least worry in the next moment though, as an ear-splitting screech joined his voice. "Oh, shit... Of course! Bloody corpses don't fall from the sky!"

He hurriedly scrambled up from his kneeling position and tried to see despite the complete lack of light in this depth. Seeing the futility of that attempt, he sniffed trying to pick up the scent of whatever had killed the something he had just drunk from, but the air was filled with the strong odor of said victim. Suddenly there was a scraping noise to his right and he whirled around in this direction, swinging out his fist. Another scream very much like the former shattered the silence of the caves, as his fist connected with rough leathery skin and he could feel bones break under his knuckles.

Something fell to the ground with a dull thud. There was no sound of something scrambling back up. Angry and surprised shouts in a language he didn't understand, filled the air, closely followed by the increasingly familiar swishing sound of swords being drawn. Then lumbering footsteps thundered towards his general direction. He smirked, realising they could see as little as him with this absolute lack of light, so he used the soundscape to creep a little away from his spot; just enough to confuse them a little, but his foot hit something hard and so sharp that it cut through the fabric of his shoes without problems. He couldn't hold back a slight hiss, as his skin was cut effortlessly. It unfortunately didn't go by unnoticed. There was a triumphant cry and on pure instinct Harry groped around for the handle of the sharp thing he hoped was a sword, cutting his hand deeply in the processs, but still managing to bring it in front of himself, letting his first foe run right into it. The second managed to sneek up on him and gave him a nasty slash across his back. With a lot more strength than he thought it would take, he pulled it out of his either dead or at least unconciouss enemy, clumsily swinging the sword at whatever had attacked him from behind, using his strength to make up for his lack of skill. It didn't earn him one, but two pain-filled shrieks and thuds, but one was decidedly too soft be a whole body and just to be on the safe side he struck for a second time in that direction, which earned him yet another scream although it was far shorter. As he pulled back he was rewarded with the desired sound of something lifelessly hitting the floor.

He listened closely for another enemy hiding in the dark and found a faint rattling breath, coming from the ground to his left. He silenced it with a last awkward hack of his sword and after a while all that remained was a dull echo.

The vampire smirked despite the great pain he was feeling, as he realised that whatever he just killed, now smelled almost exactly like the thing he had drunk from. They were edible.

Much time passed, without anything noteworthy happening in Harry's life and he relished in this. In the beginning he had of course been planning to simply let grass grow over his mishaps, but after a while he gradually grew fond of the place, where he could truely behave normally - at least for a vampire.

He still intended to one day go back up to see the sun again, but that could wait. He wasn't too keen on seeing humans again and these caves that he by now had figured out had been once used to live in and for mining, was an idial place for him. He assumed that the former inhabitants had been killed and driven away by the beasts, he was hunting, as the caves were in some areas filled with skeletons that didn't belong to them, but he couldn't be sure.

For him though it made little difference, so he didn't dwell on the fate of the former cliff dwellers' fate for long, although he found it amusing in an ironic way that he had turned a race that had once eliminated so many of a race into prey. And he had done that quite successfully as well, by dedicating his whole life to the hunt.

When he found a group of the creatures, he now called Cavians, he tried catching one of them alone, then killed it and drank its blood. After continueing this until the whole group was zeroed out, he would go in search for the next unfortunate creatures.

The problem was finding them in the complex cave system. He sometimes found himself deprived of food, until he could hardly think straight any more, so it came as an appreciated surprise, when only half a day after being done with a group of a partnering pair of Cavians, Harry stilled and could hear very faint noises. "The echo of footsteps!" He could distinguish about three different sets. "A small group..." He frowned, noticing that they sounded different than they usually did, but shrugged it off nochalantly, knowing the echo often played tricks on his hearing, so he could never trust it fully anyway.

Licking his lips, he decided to climb to a higher level and seek out his prey.

The dark creature walked on a narrow passage a few metres above the normal path, until he noticed the group was walking in his direction anyway. He crouched and stilled waiting, so if he made a mistake in his earlier estimation of the size of this rout, he would be able to remain unseen and simply let them pass.

He could hardly surpress a gasp of surprise though when a dully-glowing dot of light penetrated the darkness in the far distance.

The creatures seldom carried torches and when they did it mostly meant that it was a more skilled, bigger band, who used them as symbols of power, but staring a little longer transfixed by the light, he could tell that whatever was carried down this corridor was not a flame. It didn't flicker, but remained a steady constant glow instead.

After a short moment listening half-heartedly to his frantic voice of reason, he couldn't help creeping a little closer curiously, throwing all caution out of the window. The source of this light could turn out to be a danger, if the group turned out to be way too large in number.

As the shadows parted slowly, driven away by the dim light, all Harry could do was stand stock-still with his mouth slightly agape, as he beheld what was walking the stone corridor. It was definitely not a group of Cavian warriors, who bore a slight resemblance to the beasts of Isengard with their leathery skin, felted hair and short, overly muscular body. No, although the creatures were not very alike at all, all had -in comparision to the Cavians- light and soft-looking skin, more or less well-kept hair, wore civilised clothing and weaponary and while they did have battle-worn eyes they didn't shine with the malice the cave-creatures's eyes held.

Harry could not believe it, but there was no denying it either, wandering around in the most deadly place he had ever come across were humans.

All the vampire could think in that moment was what they would do once they became aware of his presence. As they came closer he made a rather absent-minded small reassasment: They were all human-like creatures. At least one was definitely not human. It was a big, muscular dwarf.

Surprisingly the company simply passed seemingly not noticing him and the men were almost ten metres away again, when he came out of his stupor and realised that the light would only be enough for them to see a little beyond their feet.

This left him in a difficult situation. He had to decide what happened next. He was not an idiot (unlike the caves' guests) he knew that the light would not only draw his attention, but all of the caves would soon be after the group, as it was an extremely seldom sight and after the Cavians had to eat each other for such a long time, the people were as good as dead if they were found.

Thinking back, recollecting his memories of the companions' nervous faces, he began moving. He was still no monster and would make sure that at least the children left the mines unscathed. "Who in their right mind takes children into a big dark cave system..?" "Somebody who has no other choice," he responded to his own silent question, as he sped up to catch up to the small company.

He rounded a corner they had just dissappeared behind, when a disturbingly familiar noise filled the air and he had to thank the Cavians for sometimes carrying bows, that he didn't make the charming accquaintance of an arrow, which came flying towards his head. Instead he just managed to dodge behind a salient rock for cover letting the arrow splinter on the hard wall it hit. An after the former silence defeaning sound of metal against rock and the resulting multiplied echo stopped everyone from taking further action.

For a second all just stood there stupefied, then realisation slowly sunk in that this must have been heard in a very wide radius. Previous incidents had shown Harry that when such things happened there was only one thing you could do. He whirled around and was about to bolt, when he looked back at the group that had already lost interest in him and was taking the hint to get lost. Unfortunately they seemed to intend to stay on their path and hope for the best... They probably only knew that one way and rather stayed on it and risk a fight than losing their orientation. Not that the vampire could blame them. He mostly strayed around the system of caves, too, but he incidently knew this area more or less well, as this was one of the best hunting places, since food was plenty and he had a good hiding spot. Unfortunately the fact that he had a lot of prey here also meant that these people had lot of foes.

Cursing his hero-complex, which he had hoped to have squished in favour of some sense and agely wisdom long ago, he jumped down from the raised path and ran after the little party of lost campers, yelling, since it no longer mattered anyway, "Stop, you idiots!"

Surprisingly the children did halt out of what was probably surprise that he could speak, which forced the others to head back for them.

Immeadiately weapons of all kinds were raised and the children that the other men had seemingly let tag along for the walk through hell were enclosed in a protective half-circle. With a glare he noticed the dark-haired, clean man, who held a bow, making a mental note to somehow get back at him later. As said man caught the eyes of an old man, who appeared to be the men's leader, he received a shake of the head, which Harry suspected meant, 'No, you are not allowed to kill him...yet.'

"Ask whatever questions you may have later, we are going to receive unwanted company here soon enough, so if you don't want to be some really ugly beasts' dinner I suggest you follow me now!" With that he turned around and ran towards one of the very few safe havens he had created in the caves, dimly registrating that after a short while of silent discussion the group had followed him as fast as they could, probably realising that they had hardly any other choice.

Running along the wall, he searched with a sharp eye for his mark and when he finally found it he only waited for a moment to also let his slowest followers catch up, until he under their doubtful and suspicious eyes, muttered too low for the others pick up, "Hogwarts." The wall slid apart slightly to become a very narrow entrance in the wall. Exasperated when they didn't move immeadiately, he none too gently herded the stunned and slightly (or strongly, not that he noticed) protesting mortals through.

The room was filled with the gasps of muggles, who are subjected to magic for the first time in their life, as they beheld a dimly lit version of the Gryffindor Common Room.

AN.: I am aware that the elves kinda have a shoot-now-ask-questions-later attitude in this chapter, but gods this is war! Do you honestly expect them to go, "Hi, stranger! We have no idea who you are and you could therefore very well be a spy of the enemy, because let's face it Lothlórien and Moria are so out of the touristic business, but come on, let's drink some tea and talk about lots of important stuff you could use against us!"