Chapter 5

Dumbledore pulled his hand back and looked at the vial – the clear/transparent liquid was gone and the elongated, glass bottle was now completely empty. Smiling, he turned to the girl in the chair in front of him and looked at her. She was glaring back at him and if looks could kill, Dumbledore would have been worse than dead.

-"Now that you have drunk the Veritaserum, Miss Granger, you are going to answer a few questions. Firstly, what-"

- "Veritaserum? That's Latin for "truth serum". So you thought you would interrogate me by means of a useless potion? You old coot, you aren't serious, are you?" Solene asked still glaring at the old man whose eyes had widened considerably. She didn't even need to turn to see that McGonnagal had a similar expression on her face.

- "You…You… You should be under the effect of the potion! This was one of Severus' strongest samples!" Dumbledore practically shouted at the young vampire.

- "You idiotic old man. Can't you see? I'm a vampire! V-A-M-P-I-R-E! A vampire! You have apparently never heard of us, otherwise you would know that I was one", she said, shaking her head as if she was disappointed by Dumbledore.

- "You….are a vampire, Miss Granger? How? Why? It wasn't supposed to be like this! You were supposed to be raised by your adoptive, muggle parents! I didn't take you away from your mother just to find out that you are a vampire!", the wizard was practically fuming by the time he finished his little rant and all he got was an amused look from the young vampire in front of him.

- "Well, I don't know if you know, but my "parents", as you called them, were killed. I have a far better father now and I don't even regret becoming a vampire" She told her enraged captor.

Dumbledore was really at a loss of what he should do. Not only was he for the first time clueless, but he was also having problems keeping his temper down. How could it have come down to this? Harry, his Golden Boy, the savior of the wizarding world, was a werewolf and Hermione, the girl who had an immensely important job yet to fulfill, was a vampire. Could it get any worse than this?

- "Headmaster!", came the familiar voice of the schools Potion Master from the stairs leading to the dungeons. Of course, he had to ask….

- "What is it Severus? It better be important" the white-bearded headmaster snapped at the man clad in black. 'So this is this "Severus"' Solene thought as she continued to look at the headmaster in amusement.

Severus Snape was a tall man, had black hair, parted in curtains around his oval face, accentuating his black eyes and as if that wasn't enough black, he was wearing a long, black, button up coat and black, knee-high boots. To Solene it appeared as if an oversized, greasy dungeon bat had entered the room and briefly she wondered if this man could perchance be a vampire like her. He had pale enough skin to be one and the fact that she couldn't smell his scent irritated her to no end. 'That old coot would be happy to know that his lame potion had at least some effect. But why did it have to be the nose? It could have been the taste buds on my tongue, but no, of course the potion had to neutralize my sense of smell. This is definitely not my lucky day….' She thought as she tried again and again to catch even a whiff of the newcomers scent.

Meanwhile Snape was silently wondering what had gotten the headmaster so angry and so he looked around for the source of trouble. It didn't take him more than 2 seconds to find it: there was a girl sitting in a chair in front of the old wizard, looking smugly at him. 'What in the name of Merlin did that girl do to anger him so much?' he asked himself when suddenly his nose became overwhelmed with two new scents. He quickly looked at the girl and immediately knew that she was not human – she was a vampire. Quickly he tried to locate the second scent – a werewolf. Soon he found that it came from the cell to his left, the lycan inside hidden from his view by the cell wall. What were a vampire and a werewolf doing in the dungeons of Hogwarts and how could a mere girl, vampire or not, anger the old coot? 'I hear your thoughts, Severus! Better say what you came to tell me before I loose what little of my self-control remains!' shouted and angry voice in his head. Damn! He had let his

Occlumency shields down!

- "Calm down, Dumbledore. If there were any students in the castle right now, during the summer vacation, you would positively frighten them. Anyway, I just received a letter from Ragnok about you-know-what from you-know-where" the potion master said, first glaring at Dumbledore and then glaring at the girl, as if he was blaming her for the old man's temper.

- "Really? Severus, take Minerva and let her see what the letter says. I have a few things to take care of down here", he ordered the two professors in a monotonous voice.

Without a word the two teachers left the dungeons as quickly as was possible with all the stairs.

- "What did that vampire girl say to get him in such a bad mood?", Snape asked his colleague.

- "What! You knew Hermione was a vampire? How? You didn't even enter until a good 2 minutes after she said that" the Transfigurations professor inquired.

- "You obviously forget what I am, Minerva", Snape answered, obviously annoyed about her question, "and you still haven't answered me", he reminded the middle-aged witch.

- "Ah, well, I don't know. It can be either the fact that the Veritaserum didn't work on her, or that she is a vampire and not a human OR, and I think that this is the reason, that she called our dear Headmaster an "old coot". Which one of these do you think provoked Albus' fury?"

- "Knowing him? Probably all three. Still, to call him an "old coot" in the face….very brave of her" he answered truthfully, although he completely agreed with the vampire girl – Dumbledore was definitely old and he secretly wondered when the man would finally go senile.

The two professors continued their walk to the Headmasters' office, which was on the other side of the castle, far away from the dungeons.

Meanwhile, back in the dungeons, the topic of Snape's and McGonnagal's discussion was pacing the dungeons back and forth, trying to calm his nerves down. This was going to be more difficult than he had planned. Oh, and what he had planned! But now with this new development he would have to reconstruct parts of his plan. First, though, he would have to deal with the young vampire and young lycan. Taking a deep breath, Dumbledore stopped pacing and turned to the bound vampire, releasing her from the ropes, quickly putting her back in her cell (her feet and hands were, again, surrounded by the yellow light) and locking the door tightly.

- "Well, young lady, it seems that I have some work to do, but make no mistake! I will be back soon enough and then we will finish out interrogation – whether you choose the easy or hard way is up to you. I can only pray that you pick correctly. That goes for you as well, Mr. Potter! Now, good day", and off he went - up the stairs and to his office at the far side of the castle.

Slowly relaxing, Solene looked at the boy-lycan in the cell opposite hers and to her surprise found him looking at her in respect and awe.

- "That was bloody brilliant what you did to the old man! By the way, nice choice of words – old coot. I think it fits him perfectly", Alex complimented her achievement a few moments ago.

- "Nah, he didn't even give me a chance to really show him a good choice of words" she said, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. Then, after a few seconds of silence, both started laughing and, for the first time, a vampire and lycan had fun – together.