Disclaimer: All characters belong to either Darren Shan or J.K. Rowling.

Sorry if this is confusing but basically in this Darren was never a little person but instead became the lord of the shadows (without killing the world) and Steve is still alive. Darren is living with Evanna and is unsure about returning to the clan as he is now different to them (in story) but the vampires need to make an alliance with the vampires as Steve has joined Voldemort to try and get his own back on Darren. Evanna agrees to send Darren to Hogwarts to help him recover from fighting Steve and becoming the Lord of the Shadows (plus all the other stuff like learning Mr tiny is his dad.)

Chapter 1: you're sending me to school!

Darren's POV

All the stupid stuff I'd done in my life. Yeah that all comes crashing back to you in the Lake of Souls. Except it makes them ten times worse. I didn't want to be the Lord of the Shadows. I wasn't going to be the monster of prophecy. But that was kind of hard. Especially since I had become a lot more sensitive to the smell of blood. Just mentioning it made me hungry. And it wasn't like I hadn't made mistakes with this either. Fangs. A problem that I had thought I would get but had turned out to be legend. Now it was me. And I hated it. I hated myself.

Evanna came to join me outside the cave. We had done a lot of moving around lately. Especially when I mucked up. I found myself feeding a lot more often to stop them from happening. I didn't know whether or not Evanna approved of this but she never said anything.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked. I just shrugged. We were staying in this cave because I had done it again. It was really bugging me that I couldn't control myself. I didn't really like talking any more.

"I thought you might like to know where we're going," she said quietly. Evanna had left me alone all day. I wasn't sure whether she was more worried about me or whether or not I was going to be seen. I hadn't been bothered. Let the Vampaneze come. What did it matter now? The War was over and I was a monster. Man my life is messed up.

"Where?" was all I said. I didn't really care to be honest. I was more interested in being depressed than anything else.

"Hogwarts," was all she said. I stared at her. Was it just me or had she sounded guilty? I wasn't sure.

"Hogwarts?" I asked interested now.

"Yes. It's a school for wizards and witches. I thought you might want to go there as you might make friends. And you need allies." She looked straight ahead. I didn't know how to feel. I thought that I should be mad. She was sending me to a school! And one where I was probably going to be stared at like an animal in a zoo! But what she had said after…

"What do you mean?" I asked bewildered.

"Mr Tiny. He's supporting a wizard called Tom Riddle but he calls himself Voldemort. He's almost unbeatable," she answered. Then she looked at me. "I thought you would be angry that I'm sending you to school."

"I kind of am and not. I am because you did it without asking me and they'll probably treat me like an animal in a zoo. And because I won't know what the hell anyone is talking about. But I'm not because you did it with the good of the clan in mind. And I think that you did it because you want me to stop moping around." I didn't look at her. I wasn't sure how she would react but I meant all the things I said. This was weird because the bad things definitely outweighed the good. But then again they normally did.

"Your right. But you'll be posing as the prince of all of the vampires. They seem to think that there's a king." Evanna seemed amused by the idea of a vampire king. And so was I but it did kind of make sense. If there are princes then why shouldn't there be a king? If only they knew…

"Hmmm… That's the first time I've seen you smile in a week," Evanna grinned at me.

I laughed at her statement even though I knew it was true. "Well maybe it won't be that bad… But really? A school? And you make me look like a stuck up snob? What's that all about?" I hadn't realised how angry I actually was. But I sounded sort of normal not like I had in the past weeks. Weird.

Evanna laughed as well. "Well I can't let you have all the fun. Don't worry I'm going as well." She smiled.

"You are?"

"Yes. I'm teaching the students the truth about vampires. Well… most of the truth." I grinned. Of course she wasn't going to tell them all about the real leaders of the vampires.

Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all…