No Vampires At This Table

It'd only been a week after the Headmistress made her startling announcement and already rumours had flown around the school about who was or wasn't the vampire. Linette believed that if the vampire were here they would be wiser to keep in hiding rather than out amongst the general population. She also believed that was exactly what they were doing because so far the only new people she'd seen around the place were all first years. Not likely to be a vampire in amongst them in her estimation but she was more than happy to be amused by rumours and accusations.

This night Linette looked up and down the Cerisier table before deciding now was a good time to ask her question. She cut into her slice of meat before asking conversationally, "so have any of you come across anyone with pointy teeth?" She then delicately placed the lamb into her mouth and chewed whilst waiting for a response of some sort.

This whole vampire thing had August on edge and he was terrified. He tried not to show it, but that was a hard thing for him to do. Ever since the announcement of the vampire, just about everything scared the poor second year. He always had someone with him, he refused to go anywhere alone.

When the older girl spoke up about seeing anyone with pointy teeth, a cold chill went down August's back. No, he had not seen anyone with pointy teeth but there was someone out there that was the vampire. He wondered if someone had seen the vampire. What if they were at this table at this very moment and heard the older year speak out? "N-no, but have you?" August looked around the table nervously. "Have you ever thought that maybe the vampire can hear you?" He said in a hushed tone.

Talking about the vampire did have an effect of sorts and Linette felt a stab of guilt at making one of the younger Cerisiers nervous. "Not at all," she replied. "Of course if I were a vampire hiding in a school I'd be very careful about showing my teeth."

The boy did have a point but Linette shrugged it off. She looked up and down the table. No-one appeared to be avoiding the food which to Linette would have been a tell-tale sign. "I think if it's anywhere in this room it's at the Montagnard table." She craned her neck for a better look at the other table and turned her attention back to the younger boy. "I suspect there is no vampire in here at the moment. They drink blood and being in here would draw attention to the fact he or she was not eating the food."

The poor second year was terrified of this creature and the chaos that came along with it. The rumors were all over and it was hard to get away from them. There had to be a new one everyday, maybe two on occasion. "There's so many rumors going around that you never know what's the truth." That statement was true for many other rumors too, besides the vampire rumors. "I think everyone wanted a hand in the vampire business and spreading rumors was the way to do it."

"If the vampire is at the Montagnard table then my cousin is there. Do you think she's safe?" The older girl must be right, why would a vampire draw attention to itself by being around food? "If the vampire isn't here at the moment, then where could he or she be?" The thought sent a shiver down the boy's spine and he could only think of the worst. A poor student could be getting their blood sucked at this very moment and none of them would know!

Linette nodded in understanding. "That is the trouble with rumours. Usually they're completely wrong." She had been one of the guilty ones for making it up but considering she'd been in the commentators box at the time it was hoped most if not all the school had figured out she wasn't being serious. "Or they could just be wanting to have fun. Maybe teasing someone or something like that," she suggested. "My advice to you is don't take anyone other than the headmistress too seriously."

"I'm sure she's perfectly fine," Linette assured him. "Hiding out in a class room or something," she suggested. "There are many places for a vampire to hide when the entire school population is eating." She did wonder though how the vampire managed to find anything to sustain it when there had been no confirmed cases of students or professors having been bitten.

August knew not to believe the rumors, but he couldn't help but listen in to all the gossip. He didn't really buy into all the rumors, but they did scare him. He scared himself by thinking about the vampire and what it could be up to. "I don't believe the rumors, but there is a vampire going around and that's enough to scare me. The rumors just make it worse, you can't walk down the hall without someone talking about the subject." He just hoped the vampire was caught soon.

The vampire must have been hiding out, there was no one not eating the food. "What if the vampire is eating food and just pretends to enjoy the meal? When in reality, they hate it and want to spit it out. That would be believable. Don't you think professors could be searching for the vampire while we eat cause they know the vampire doesn't like human food? So, maybe to fit in, the vampire began to eat human food. I wonder if it would make him or her sick." August's imagination always got the best of him and he always thought of the what ifs.

The poor boy obviously looked scared out of his wits and Linette felt some remorse for bringing up the subject in the first place.  "I do believe that it'll be captured soon enough thus we won't have anything to worry about."  She wasn't quite sure if she believed that herself but she needed to do something to allay his fears.

Now he'd brought up something she wasn't sure she had an answer to.  "Good question," she replied.  "Well then I guess the staff are watching all the students and the vampire couldn't try anything in here anyway.  Too many witnesses.  If the vampire got sick then we have no need to worry do we."  She pushed her empty plate aside and looked at the selections available for dessert.

August wasn't hungry anymore. Talking about the vampire had made his stomach do flips and he was sure that his stomach wasn't ready for food. Not at that moment. So, he pushed his plate away and people around him gasped. He had hardly noticed that others around them had heard their conversation and now they were looking at him like he was the blood sucking monster. August shook his head and looked at the older girl. "Hopefully the vampire is caught soon, I wanna go outside and have some fun. Staying inside is so boring and fresh air would be nice."

"I suppose so," August said, but he still didn't feel right about the vampire. As long as the vampire was out there, he was about to worry. He didn't have many friends, but he worried about them a lot and hoped they were okay at every moment of the day. "Don't you worry about your friends? I mean, you don't see them all day so do you worry that they're okay?"

Linette smiled and nodded. "I've spent a lot of time in the indoor garden but it's not the same thing as being outdoors is it? What's the first thing you'll do the moment you're allowed out the palace?" Linette wasn't sure what she'd do but she was sure the Quidditch teams would argue over pitch time. Maybe that's where she should go. See if her prediction rings true.

"I don't let myself worry about them," Linette replied. "They should be able to look after themselves by now." Hopefully. This was one of those times when she was thankful Louise had transferred to Durmstrang. Her younger sister would probably try to make friends with the damn vampire if she came across it. Yes. It was much better that Linette had no younger sister to watch out for.

August hadn't thought about what he was going to do when he was able to go outside. "Uh, I'm not sure yet.." There were so many things to do but they had all slipped his mind. He just wanted to go outside, but there was really no activity that he had in mind. How could he not know what he was going to do once he was out in the fresh beautiful air? Then it hit him. "Oh! I know! I'm gonna go hang out at the stables. Its always fun there."

"Even though they are able to look after themselves, they could still slip up and run into the vampire. They could just be at the wrong place at the wrong time and it wouldn't be their fault at all. It would have to do with luck and if they were lucky enough not to come face to face with the creature." Gus knew that his cousin could handle herself and was smart enough not to going chasing after the vampire, but he was worried that she might get cornered by the creature. "All the vampire really needs is a empty hall or room and a victim. Then the deed is done."

"I don't think I've actually gone to visit the stables," Linette mused. "Maybe I should go there to have a look around." Six years at Beauxbatons and she only just thought of that now? Linette wondered why on earth she hadn't thought to go look around there sooner. "I was thinking of going down to the Quidditch pitch to see which players are in the biggest hurry to get practising. That should prove to be extremely interesting."

Linette nodded thoughtfully. "True but it's a risk we all have and the professors are well aware of that." It was that which made no sense. Keeping students safe by locking them in with a vampire. It would have been great if they were all sent home instead of kept locked in a school with a vampire on the loose.

"The stable is my favorite place to visit, I love the animals." His friend was a major animal lover and because of her August had become a bit of an animal lover himself. "Its a fun place to visit, I'm sure you'll enjoy it there." August had never went to the quidditch pitch unless he truly had to. It wasn't that he didn't like the sport or that he didn't like the outdoors, he just didn't see the point of going there. "That sounds interesting." He would enjoy watching the two teams arguing with one another.

"Well, I can see why they did what they did." Wasn't it obvious? "Well, they're not sure who the vampire is, right? So, by locking us all in here, they'll have a better chance at finding the creature. Because if they let us go home, the vampire would probably leave too. And then who knows what would happen."

"I'll add that onto my itinerary of places to visit whilst outdoors. Stables and winged horses." Six years she'd travelled to and from school in the carriages the horses drew and not once had Linette actually gone to visit them. For shame. She grinned and nodded. "It's bound to be extremely interesting. I might even write something up for the school paper if events happen as I predict." It was a shame her integrity got in the way of making it up if events didn't happen as she predicted. Making stuff up when announcing was different to publishing an article in her opinion.

Linette blinked at the boy's words. Had he read her mind? "You do have a point. 'Vampire escapes due to poor decision on the part of the school staff.' Not exactly the sort of headlines you want advertised for your school. Mind you it'd be just as bad publicity for what's now going on. 'Vampire in school full of schoolchildren.' I bet that's what the papers are full of at the moment." That was where the muggleborn students would have the advantage. Unless they wrote home telling their parents what was happening the parents would be left in the dark over it.