Third Place - Action/Adventure

The target snapped up behind him and Harry turned immediately and put two bullets in the head before he ducked, rolled to the side and then shot at another target, this time aiming for the heart. The sound of the blasts echoed throughout the large room but Harry didn�t pay even the slightest bit of attention to them as he turned sharply once more and threw a knife over his shoulder while he shot another. The knife sliced through the air smoothly and then sank into the neck of another cardboard target while Harry was already moving on.

A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned in that direction and fired one shot after the other before he dropped his guns to the floor, swirled around to dodge a return blow and then pulled his sword from his belt. Metal clashed against metal immediately and the grin on Harry�s face never once wavered as he stared into the eyes of his attacker. He mock saluted with his free hand before he pulled back and feinted left and then changed tactics, switched hands and then sliced through the air as he attacked the right hand side.

The attack was blocked smoothly and Harry had time to pout before he was pushed back as his opponent grinned and started to move forward with a speed that was impossible for the mortal eye to keep up with. Harry deflected the attacks with ease and he left an opening on purpose, only to pout again when his little ruse wasn�t accepted. Perhaps he had done that one too many times.

The attack came faster and with more force and Harry was hard pressed to keep up with them as he was pushed further back while he tried to block the blows. In the blink of an eye, his sword was flipped out of his hand but he didn�t pause to be concerned about that as he ducked the point of the opponents sword that would have pinned him to the wall and he rolled around, shifting his weight until the dagger that he held up his sleeve was in his hand, he turned around swiftly and pressed the knife against the others throat. He had done this with more speed than a mortal was capable of and his opponent was still facing the wall where he had very nearly defeated him.

"I do wish you would teach me to dodge bullets like you do, Da. No one else in this place can do it, and it bloody fucking hurts," he said with a cheerful smile as he stepped back. His father, Ivan Corvus, turned to look at him with amusement and he took the dagger from his sons hand before he lifted him up easily. Harry wrapped his legs around his father�s waist to get his balance and then he looked around the room for the first time and smiled smugly when he saw all his attacks on the cardboard targets had hit where they were supposed too.

"You have improved greatly my son," Ivan said as he looked around with appraisal and Harry rolled his eyes before laughing.

"Well, it has nearly been a full year since me and you fought against each other. Besides, Pa is a real good teacher and I am nearly eleven now you know," he said matter-of-factly and then giggled when his Da rolled his eyes with mock horror

"Really...? I would never have guessed... I wondered why you kept showing me those magazines with circles around certain items and then with arrows pointing to each one in four different places. I thought you were merely appreciating the mortal creations." He teased and laughed again when Harry pouted. His ran his hand through his son�s hair and then smirked before throwing him up into air and catching him with ease. "You�re not too old for me to do that, you know," he said as Harry giggled again.

"Da!" he protested as he flew across the room, and grinned when arms snatched him close and he saw his Pa, Dante, had arrived. Harry turned back to look at his Da and then sniffed mockingly, his face completely serious. "You�ll crank my style!" he said, imitating his Pa�s usual reply to something he didn�t like. Both adults looked at each other and then cracked up laughing and Harry grinned as his words had the desired effect.

"Did you know that our son here is nearly eleven years old, my dear husband?" Ivan asked with a feigned surprise as he crossed the room and pressed a kiss to his lover�s lips before taking his son back into his arms.

"I think I�ve heard him mention it once..."

"Or twice..."

"Or perhaps a hundred time..."

"In the last day alone..."

"Da! Pa! I�ll tell Aunt Cerelias!" Harry interrupted with a pout and he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at them both forcefully. He grinned as his fathers� rolled their eyes again, knowing that his Aunt could, and would, snap at them for centuries if she felt like it. He wiggled out of his Da�s arms and retrieved his guns; he put the safety back on them before he placed them in his belt along with his sword and his daggers.

"Come on Har, its dinner time now. Do you want to hunt or just drink what we have here and go later?" Dante asked as he held out his hand. Harry slipped his hands into both his Pa and his Da�s and allowed himself to be led out of the room while he contemplated.

"Later I think... can I open a present now?" he asked hopefully, looking up at the older vampires.

"Harry, it isn�t your birthday for another two days yet," Dante said with exasperation but Harry just grinned at him and tugged on his hands.

"I know, but that means I have all day today, all day tomorrow and all day on my birthday to open presents. I really shouldn�t pro... errr... procrastiate you know,"

"Procrastinate," Ivan corrected with amusement and Harry stuck his tongue out before turning pleading eyes back to his Pa. He knew that if anyone was going to cave in and let him do what he wanted, it would be Dante. "What makes you think we�ve even got you presents? You have everything there is to have anyway, and after everything we�ve taught you, you should be able to survive without a playstation..."

"Pa! Tell him! Fine, if you haven�t got me any presents then I won�t get you any and I�ll sulk for weeks and kick your fat ass to space and back," he said moodily and Ivan laughed before sweeping him up off his feet.

"Now if you�re going to take that attitude, then you�ll never see the presents," he said and Harry glared at him before sniffing indignantly.

"You said you didn�t get me any! Fine! I won�t kick your ass, I just wont save it when someone decides they want to kill you again, so there," he said and then stuck out his tongue and grinned when his dad flickered his nose playfully.

"Okay, you can open one present. Only one mind and I�m choosing it!"

Harry grinned as he sat back on his heels while he waited for his two fathers to bring out his present. He had known since he was old enough to understand that he had been adopted by way of a blood ritual and he knew that he would have been a mere mortal wizard if his father hadn�t taken him off the doorstep. According to his Pa, his real parents had been killed by some crazy lunatic wizard who fancied himself something like the penguin from Batman.

The penguin, as Harry had come to call him, had disappeared the night his parents were killed and the wizards had left him on the doorstep of some muggle mortals who never even got to see his face. Apparently his Uncle Noel and Aunt Maeryn had been watching said muggles for weeks before that night and they both said that the mortals were disgustingly normal.

Not once did Harry wonder what his life would have been like if it hadn�t been for his Da, he couldn�t imagine a normal life and he loved his two fathers dearly. The fact that he was a wizard was undeniable considering all the crazy shit he had done over the years. Once, he had made his uncle Noel�s daggers dance around him on their own and another time he had somehow pushed away a bad guy who wanted to hurt him and his Da and had sent him crashing into the wall.

That had been awesome!

One time, when another bad guy had attacked and had managed to snatch him from his bedroom, he had somehow called his guns to him and they had come floating. The man had hurt him though and so Harry had done what he could, and he had killed the idiotic fool without a care. Both his Pa and his Da had been especially relieved at that and they had thrown a little party for him.

That wasn�t the only man he had killed

Killing came natural to vampires, and Harry had been taught how to wield a sword since he was five and a half years old. Two mortals who had dared to try and mug him when he was nine years old and wandering around the streets at dinner time because he couldn�t be fucked with the little idiots at school who kept trying to pick a fight. That thick-headed twat who had snatched him from his room though, was the only immortal.

His fathers returned with a small envelope and Harry snatched it out of his Pa�s hand excitedly and tore it open without pause. He dragged out three tickets and punched the air with his fist when he saw that they were concert tickets to go and see the muggle band that he was currently infatuated with; Evanescence.

"Finally! I thought you were bloody deaf when I didn�t get these weeks ago!" he said as he launched himself into his fathers� arms. Hugging them both tightly and grinning at the indignant looks he was receiving in return.

"Now Harry, your father and I need to speak with you for a minute. Can you just put those down and come up here please?" Dante asked and Harry looked at him curiously for a minute before he put the tickets on the table and jumped up onto his Pa�s knee. It wasn�t often that his fathers asked to speak to him so formally, and when they did it was usually about the clan and about an expected attack.

"Can you remember what we told you about the Wizarding world?" Ivan asked as he pulled his chair closer so that he was sitting directly opposite his son and his lover.

"Yes. You taught me about the differences in rulings and lifestyle. You made me read all those boring laws and stuff until I knew them by heart," Harry replied with a disgruntled frown and his fathers both smiled at him softly and Dante pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

"That�s right. Now, you know that you are a wizard and that you need to learn how to use that magic of yours. On your birthday, you should be getting an acceptance letter into one of the three main Wizarding boarding schools. Your Pa and I think it would be best if you went, and returned to us for the holidays obviously. How do you feel about that?" Ivan asked again and Harry stared at him before twisting around to look at his Pa for a minute.

"But � that would mean I wouldn�t see you! It would be ages! And how would I know if everything was okay here? Who would save your ass?" he asked frantically and Ivan smiled at him again before taking his face in both hands and making him meet his eyes.

"Shhh child, you will see us, if it helps we�ll even come and visit at night sometimes if you don�t tell anyone. We�ll write to you every day so that you know we are well, and Dante can watch my back for a while like he used too. I am quite capable of fighting for myself you know," he said and smirked at Harry�s sheepish grin. "You would be coming back here at every available opportunity, and we can�t forget that you will need to feed, and every one else will be mere mortals. You have nothing to fear,"

"I don�t do scared," Harry muttered under his breath with a glare and Ivan grinned before pressing his lips to Harry�s forehead.

"I know you don�t. That�s because you�re strong, and you are so much older than your age suggests. You will, of course, be taking your weapons whether your teachers like it or not... and you will practice. I don�t want a little fat bastard coming home to me at Christmas,"

"Of course not, then I�d be rivalling you," Harry retorted cheekily and then he grew serious again as his unnatural iced over emerald eyes glared at his father forcefully. "They better not try and take me away from you Da; I�ll kill them if they do."

"They cannot. Our blood runs through you strongly, mortals cannot challenge the vampire law that binds us as fathers, and son. They can, and probably will, ask where you have been living and perhaps how you like it here, but they cannot do anything unless you personally say that we are treating your wrongly. You are important to their world... you are important to all three worlds,"

"So you keep fucking well telling me, but you won�t tell me why," Harry mumbled, still not taking his icy glare off his father. That�s another thing he had learnt from these two vampires, how to give someone a look that just had death written all over it. The amount of times he had seen his fathers kill for one reason or another, it always proved to be quite amusing. That was the highpoint of the day when he was forced to attend things like meetings and gatherings, there was always one reason or another for a fight.

Especially between the Janius and the Polumn clans, now they were just plain hilarious sometimes. They shed more blood of both mortals and immortals alike than the other clans put together. It seems to be a sort of contest for them and both of their leaders, who had taken a liking to Harry, seemed to go out of their way to impress and amuse him.

Sometimes that was a contest too.

He knew that if an assassination attack was successful and his Da Ivan was killed, he would be the one to take over the running of the clan, which happened to be the largest vampire clan there was, and so nearly everyone went out of their way to please him. They were determined to call him �little master� though and that irritated the hell out of him.

"You wont be on your own you know, one of the other kids of the clan is a wizard and he�ll be watching out for you, he�ll make sure he�s in the same class as you too.... Even if he is a little older, there is no reason for the mortals to know that," Dante said and Harry looked at his Pa with amusement

"How much is a little older?"

"Only a few years," his pa replied evasively and then smiled sheepishly when Harry continued to stare at him. "Okay, okay, he�s seventy years older than you. But he�s the only one small enough to be taken for a child and he�ll be under a concealment charm, or whatever its called, to make him look eleven, even if he does know everything that you will be taught,"

"You�re sending me with a guard?" Harry asked incredulously and then snickered to himself at the thought.

"There�ll be others there too, but they�ll be hidden from view and no one will know they are there. Not even you, if they do their jobs right." Ivan interrupted and Harry rolled his eyes but didn�t bother to protest, knowing that this was one argument he wouldn�t win. Another thing he had learnt from his fathers: know when to back down.

"Fine, I�ll go. I�ll go to some stupid school and sit there miserable for three quarters of the year, wondering whether you have got your stupid arse killed while dodging my guard so I can go off to shag every female... or male... within my sight." He said with another pout and Ivan looked at him with an arched eyebrow.

"You don�t even know what shag means," he stated dryly and Harry looked at him before sticking his tongue out.

"I do too, would you like me to explain the birds and the bees to you?" he asked innocently and then rolled his eyes when both vampires continued to stare at him. "I said alright already! It sounds like it could be fun anyway," just as he finished saying that, the door opened and Aunt Cerelias came in carrying a large goblet of blood.

"Here you go gorgeous," she said with a grin as she handed it over to him. Harry smiled and stuck his tongue out to both of his fathers before he took the cup and held it under his nose, inhaling deeply with his eyes closed.

"Oi, how do you know she wasn�t speaking to me or you Da?" Dante asked with a playful glare and Harry looked up at him again and smirked

"Because she said �gorgeous� and sorry, but that leaves you two out"



The Heir of Corvus I: The Philosopher�s Stone - Chapter 2

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