Manners

When Alaric and I returned my mum was already in the backyard, with an annoyed look on her face. I quickly put my broom in my beaded bag and headed towards her. She shot Alaric a dark glare and didn't even say anything to us, she just dragged us inside and made us sit at the table.

She called Celeste and Lycan down and they were shocked to see us in our state. Alaric and I looked at each other with a worried expression. Alaric sat down at the head of the table. ''So… What exactly happened?''

Alaric opened his mouth but he wasn't really sure where to start. ''Well… Uhh… We went to the feeding house, like you told me. And uhm…'' Alaric turned towards me, I let him continue the story. It was better to just tell them the truth. They would find out one way or the other.

''And when Anthony started feeding, well, he didn't stop. I couldn't intervene and he continued feeding. It turned into a mess.'' Alaric had a guilty look on his face. He clearly felt that the blame was on him, which in part, is true. But they shouldn't have let me feed anyways. Or at least do it right here at home. Then Lycan could control me if I would lose my mind.

My mum facepalmed, ''I knew this was going to happen, I even told you to not let him, but you still did.'' Lycan sighed, ''I know that it was risky, but one thing, was he powerful Alaric?''

Alaric nodded, ''Extremely so, if he had been cool-headed and would be able to keep his emotions in check he would've easily beaten me. It's just that he was predictable due to his rage. He didn't even let Raiden help him.''

Celeste seemed to be deep in thought. ''So you're saying if he could control his feeding than he would also be able to control his power?'' Alaric thought about Celeste's words for a minute ''Yes I think he could control it. Halfway through he seemed to try to read my movements. If the battle had gone on for a little longer than I would've never won.''

''So feed in moderation…'' Lycan added, my mum didn't seem to be happy about this development. She started yelling, ''So he just barely survives feeding, and now we're already considering to feed him again?!''

My step-dad heard the yelling and came downstairs. He had Lucifer in his arms and had a sleepy expression. He had probably fallen asleep while snuggling Lucifer, and I can hardly blame him. Lucifer was a cute ball of comfortable fur.

''What's all the fuss about?'' My step-dad said whilst suppressing a yawn. My mum quickly filled him and he immediately sided with her. Lycan waved him away, ''You know nothing of these matters, wizard.''

My step-dad nodded, ''I might not know anything about vampire matters, but I know of Anthony, and I know of the promise I made with my brother. I'm not letting him endanger himself over matters like this.'' My step-dad said with a retaliating tone.

My mum looked at my step-dad proudly, and I also admired him a little more now. He wasn't the bravest of men, but if he had to protect something. He would sure as hell protect it. Lycan and Celeste were deep in their thoughts.

Lycan seemed to have mocked something up and snapped out of his train of thought, ''We won't let him feed off live people anymore, but perhaps a blood bag?'' Lycan seemed to ask my mum for permission.

She seemed to be mulling it over, ''Alright, but give him small doses first and work up to bigger ones, he needs to be able to control his thirst.'' It was kind of weird being a part of a conversation without really being a part of it. Alaric and I were just watching it go down.

Lycan seemed to be satisfied with that. ''Alright, that's settled, now let's eat dinner.'' Suddenly dinner appeared on the table. I filled my belly until I couldn't walk anymore. Lucifer also helped of course. He helped me eat so a lot of the dinner disappeared into our stomachs.

I was patched up by Celeste but after that I was immediately sent to bed by my mum. She also seemed to be kind of disappointed in me. I knew I had succumbed to my hunger but it wasn't my fault. It was so hard to fight back, the cravings were just too strong. And I would think that she would know that. After all she had killed her neighbour's daughter.

I put Lucifer on my shoulder and went to bed. Another busy day indeed. A really busy one. A lot happened today. Not all good of course. But I was happy that I could ride a broom properly of course. Thanks to the help of Raiden of course, after that little stunt he seemed to be in a long slumber. After all it had taken a lot of magic to stay in the air for that long and my own magic was mostly depleted, so I had to rely on his magic.

I undressed and dressed into my pajamas. This was the first time I finally got dressed in pajamas and did not sleep in my dirty clothes. I fell asleep quickly and was blessed not to have any bad dreams.

When I woke up I wasn't met with the usual rays of sunlight. When I looked outside it seemed to be snowing. And there had fallen quite a lot of snow, I could see snow spirits having the time of their life, they swirled and twisted in the air and took on any form. Just like how snowflake's work.

I went for a quick shower and got dressed. When I got downstairs everyone was having breakfast, certainly a rare occurrence. The breakfast with the whole family didn't last long though, my step-dad got up and bade me farewell. He threw some Floo powder in the fireplace and clearly said ''Ministry of Magic!''

Green flames erupted from inside the fireplace and he disappeared. It remained to be a strange feeling to see someone erupt into green flames and them not to turn into charcoal. But alas, it was a normal occurrence in this world.

When I finished my breakfast Celeste seemed to be patiently waiting for me. It seemed like I was going to be subjected to her training next. Luckily I was pretty certain I wasn't going to be thrown around again. Unlike Alaric's training, I still felt some bruises from his last training and the whole feeding incident made it so that I had bruises on my bruises.

''We'll be working on your manners young man, do you understand?'' Celeste said with a demanding tone. She looked like my math teacher in my past life. I nodded, I knew not to annoy women like this, they had a… frightening air to them, that's for sure.

''You'll learn to behave like a lord and carry your weight around like a lord, make sure that you are not rude. You're the prodigy of one of the biggest vampire clans out there. You need to act like it, we need to appease our vassal clans. They're a big help in the war that's to come and the one we're still currently waging.'' Celeste said, observing me closely to make sure that I had understood what she said.

I nodded once more, ''Understood ma'am.'' I said politely. ''Good'' She appreciated my politeness. ''First we'll manage your table manners, you eat like a slob. When you eat you need to bring the food to your face, not the other way around.'' She instructed.

I nodded and suddenly there was a plate in front of my face, ''Practise on this soup, show me that you understand.'' Once more I nodded and I started eating just like she instructed. I quite liked this training, free food and no real stress of doing anything wrong. Suddenly Celeste hit my knuckles really hard with a ladle.

''You need to grab the spoon like how you grab a quill, control your movements, they all need to be as effective as possible. No small movement needs to be wasted.'' Celeste said in a harsh tone.

Suddenly training with Celeste was way less fun. If I would get hit by a ladle everytime I messed something up this would be a long day. I handled the spoon just like how I would handle a pen or a quill in this case and Celeste seemed to be happy with how I was acting because I didn't get hit by a ladle.

We also went over the basics of a knife and fork but nothing really worth mentioning happened. All that happened was just me getting hit by a ladle over and over again. When we were done with table manners we moved into ball dancing. Celeste put on some Bach and we started dancing.

And man, I hated dancing. Well at least this weird formal dancing. Normal dancing at a party I was all for. But this was more like studying, I had to properly know the moves and had to know when to lead and when to follow. All in all it was a pain to properly do.

After a while Celeste was finally happy with how I performed and called it quits and gave me a little break. I turned on my discman and Lucifer and I were dancing to Michael Jackson, well atleast, I was, Lucifer was just jumping around me trying to get on my shoulder.

After my little drance break we returned to formal conversation. It wasn't very fun, I imagined that purebloods needed to learn this everyday. And I pitied them, you needed to watch your every word to make sure you don't offend everyone. This way you couldn't really enjoy a conversation.

We talked for a while but finally Celeste approved my conversation skills and I was set free. My mouth was immensely dry, it felt like the Sahara desert had relocated to my mouth. I drank 2 liters of water and calmed down. My brain hurt from all the talking and all the little rules I had to know.

I still had to write letters and such and I had to get my personal stamp but that was for another day. I went upstairs and listened to my discman for the rest of the day and snuggled with Lucifer. I hadn't really regained my magic yet from the last couple of days. I hadn't really had any chance to rest yet and I treasured these comfortable moments alone.

Nilsey popped into my room and called me for dinner. I went downstairs and wolfed down my food and immediately went back upstairs. I was so tired I could barely walk. I got undressed and dressed in my pajamas once again and immediately fell asleep, this time it wasn't a dreamless sleep though...