~CHAPTER ELEVEN~

Hermione went straight to Professor McGonagall's office. The Head of Gryffindor was surprised to see Hermione.
When she asked if she could help her, Hermione began to explain about the detentions she had just been given.
Professor McGonagall replied that, even though Professor Snape could be unfair sometimes, he had every right to give her detention for her actions.

Disappointed, Hermione went to her detention with Filch. She couldn't decide which was worse: detention with Filch or detention with Snape.
Filch made her polish every trophy in the trophy room, the Muggle way of course.

The next day, she walked to the dungeons for detention as usual.
She just hoped that she wouldn't get another week for running away from Snape the day before.

On the door hung a little note that instructed her to serve her detention with Professor Harper.
Hermione didn't mind this at all, but she was a little nervous around Professor Harper after Ron told her that she was a vampire.
Lupin had been a werewolf, and was completely harmless when there wasn't a full moon.
 A vampire was dangerous at all times, something Hermione knew very well. Slowly she knocked on the door to Harper's office.

"Come in."

It was dark, as always, and Professor Harper was sitting at her desk, grading papers. A glass of red wine stood in front of her. Only it wasn't wine, Hermione realized, it was probably blood. There were a thousand thoughts racing through her mind. What if Harper got hungry after she had finished her glass? Would she attack Hermione? But on the other hand, Hermione had been alone with her professor on more then one occasion and nothing had happened. After Hermione told herself that Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have hired her if Harper posed a serious threat to the students, she felt a bit more relieved.

"Are you alright?" Professor Harper asked before taking a sip from her glass.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thanks," Hermione said, her eyes fixed on the glass. "So, what do you want me to do for detention?"

"Uhm…" Harper had to think for a while. "Well, you could clean the room a bit," she finally said. "I guess that would be a punishment."

It was known to every student that their D.A.D.A. teacher hardly gave detentions, but when she did she made the students serve them with Filch.

Hermione looked around; the office was filled with dust. To her relief Professor Harper allowed her to use magic to do the cleaning.
She wondered why Harper had never cleaned it herself; it wasn't exactly hard to do.

It didn't take the Head Girl long to clean up the classroom and, before she knew it, she was sitting across her teacher, drinking tea.
Harper still hadn't finished her glass of 'wine'. They talked about school, the upcoming quidditch matches that didn't really interest them both and detention.

"I don't even know what people should do when they have detention with me," Harper told Hermione. "When I was at Hogwarts we just got detention with Filch. That's why I always make students serve detention with him instead of with me."

Hermione laughed at this and couldn't help but wonder how old Harper was.
She couldn't be that old if Filch had been at Hogwarts when she attended.

Harper finished her glass and Hermione got nervous again. This time Harper noticed.

 "Is everything alright? You seem kind of nervous."

"Everything is fine," Hermione said a bit too fast.

Elizabeth Harper walked over to Hermione, whose nervousness increased as Harper came closer.
When Harper noticed this, she sat back down in her chair.

"Miss Granger, what's wrong?" she asked in a cold voice.

"Nothing," Hermione said, trying to sound convincing.

"I don't believe you," Harper replied. She crossed her arms and leaned back, waiting for an answer.

Hermione started to chew her lip, not sure if she should explain the reason why she was getting nervous.

"Ron told me something the other day," she finally said after a while. "It's really stupid actually."

"What did he tell you?" Harper asked suspiciously.

"He says…thinks that you…that you're a vampire." There, she had said it.

"Did he tell anyone else?" her teacher wanted to know.

Hermione shook her head. "Just me and Harry."

"Good," Harper said softly, "I don't want the other students to be panicked by a rumor."

"You mean it's not true?" Hermione asked sharply.

Professor Harper started to laugh, "Of course not. Why on earth would Professor Dumbledore hire a vampire?"

The tone she used didn't completely convince Hermione.

"Well, we had a teacher once who was a werewolf," Hermione told her.

Harper waved her hand as she took another sip of her drink.

"That's a big difference. A vampire in a school like this would be like a child in Honeydukes."

"But why are you teaching in the dungeons, instead of on the second floor?"

There was a long silence before her teacher answered.

"I'm sure that the Headmaster has his reasons for that," and with that their conversation came to an end.

After two cups of tea Professor Harper decided that Hermione's detention had finished.

"Would you please hand me that iron box?" Professor Harper asked the Head Girl who was standing by the office door, ready to leave.

Next to the door there was a large closet, which was open. On one of the shelves there was a square iron box.
A second after Hermione walked over to the closet the office door opened.

"Ah, Professor Harper, I've got you a new supply of pig's blood."

Argus Filch walked into the classroom with a large crate filled with bottles.

Sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter than usual. The next one will be longer.

Romm: Uhm….did I miss something? How does she know it?

Auditoriumnazi: Sorry about the paragraphs, but my layout sometimes changes when I upload the file. Interesting name by the way!

Elven Warrior1: Well……I'm not gonna spoil everything yet, but there will be a kiss in the next chapter. (finally!)

Mirjam: Thanks….and you were lucky, you didn't have to wait long this time. :-)