DISCLAIMER:

Every character, potion, creature etc. that you recognize from the books belong to JK Rowling.

The other characters, potions, creatures etc. belong to me.


Sorry that I didn't update sooner. I had a writers block. Finally that one is over, but I still have exams coming up, so I'm afraid that it will take a while before my next update! I want to thank everybody for reviewing my story, I love to get feedback. This chapter is the longest one so far, and I hope you like it.

CHAPTER TWELVE

"I'll just put them on your desk. Well, enjoy your meal," Filch said fearfully.
He didn't see Hermione who was still standing in front of the closet.

"Yes, thank you Argus," Harper said quickly.

Filch hurried out of the classroom. Hermione could only stare at her teacher. True, she had had doubts when Harper told her that she wasn't a vampire, but now Hermione was convinced that she had lied.

"Miss Granger…Hermione, I can explain," her teacher began.

"Can you?" Hermione asked angrily.

As Professor Harper walked toward her, Hermione moved backwards, trying to distance herself from Harper.

"You don't understand."

Still retreating, Hermione covered her neck with her right hand; her left hand tried to reach for her wand.

"For Merlin's sake, I'm not going to bite you!" Harper snapped. "If I wanted to bite you, I would have done already done so."

Hermione's back was now against the wall. Her wand pointed towards her teacher. Slowly, Harper walked back to her desk, trying to calm Hermione down.

"Please try to understand," she started. "I couldn't tell a student, if everybody knew then…"

"Then what?" Hermione interrupted her. "Does Dumbledore know?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer. How could he not know about it?

"Of course he does," Harper answered. "All the teachers know, and I can tell you that not everyone was happy having a colleague who is a vampire."

"Can you blame them? I can understand they don't like to have a colleague that feels like a child in Honeydukes." Hermione told her.

"I do not drink human blood. Do you honestly believe that Dumbledore would have hired me if I did?" Harper explained. "Why else would Filch bring me pig's blood?"

Hermione didn't know what to do or say. As if on cue, there was a knock on the door and Professor Dumbledore entered the classroom.

"Miss Granger, please lower your wand," he said when he saw the Head Girl's wand was still pointed towards her teacher.

Slowly, Hermione lowered her wand.

"She knows," Harper said softly.

"Then it's time that we should talk," Dumbledore said, and they talked.

They talked for about an hour. Dumbledore explained about Harper's situation. Even though she drank only pig's blood, it was still difficult for the vampire to find a job. It reminded Hermione about Lupin's situation. She then apologized to Professor Harper for her reaction, but she still didn't feel comfortable in her professor's company.

The next day Hermione was having breakfast when the headmaster, when he announced that there would be a Christmas ball. Since most students went home during the holidays, Dumbledore had decided that the ball would be on the evening before their departure. Unsurprisingly, the whole school was ecstatic that there would be a ball. Harry would take Ginny, and Ron had asked Simone O'Connell, a Hufflepuff.

"So, who's your date for the ball?" Ginny asked Hermione at lunch a few days later.

"I don't have a date," the Head Girl replied.

Ginny immediately started to name all the boys who didn't have a date yet.

"You know what you should do?" Lavender interrupted Ginny. "You should start to sleek your hair everyday, like what you did for the Yule ball in our fourth year. Maybe then you could find a date."

"No thank you," Hermione said before leaving the table. She wasn't planning on spending hours just to tame her hair. She had done it once and vowed never to do it again.

"No wonder she doesn't have a boyfriend," she heard Lavender whisper to Parvati. Hermione decided to ignore the comment and left the Great Hall.

That afternoon Ron and Harry were practicing Quidditch, as usual. Hermione had promised them that she would come and watch them. She was amazed that Harry had reserved the Quidditch pitch, yet again, for the entire afternoon. It was something he did a lot; the other houses were not happy with it, especially Slytherin. The boys were concerned that she would spend the entire day inside the castle, reading. Now she was just reading outside. Every once in a while she would look up; that way she pretended to actually watch the boys practice.

"Hello Hermione," she heard someone say beside her.

She looked up and saw Damien standing next to her.

"Hello," she replied.

"Can I talk with you for a moment?" he asked her.

"Sure," Hermione answered and put down her book.

"So, are you excited about the Christmas Ball?" Damien asked her, a bit nervous.

"Not really," Hermione confessed, "I'm only going because I have to."

Since she was Head Girl, it was part of Hermione's duties to attend the ball.

"Me too," Damien told her. "That's why I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go with me." There was an uncomfortable silence. "Since we're Head Girl and Head Boy, I figured we could go together."

"Sure, sounds like fun," Hermione said. She didn't really want to go with Damien, but at least she had a date now.

It didn't take long before Hermione regretted her decision to go with Damien. Damien started to hound her everywhere, in the library, in the corridors. At first he reminded her of Viktor Krum, who had followed her because he wanted to ask her out. After a while though, he started to remind her more of some sort of stalker. She knew that he just wanted to become friends with her; the poor boy was just trying too hard. Hermione wished she could talk about it with Harry and Ron, but she was afraid that they would overreact. After Damien had asked her out, they had abandoned their Quidditch practice and asked her if he was bothering her. It was like having two older, overprotective brothers.

It was late one night when Hermione was walking back to her dorm. Snape had collected a lot of dirty cauldrons and it took Hermione until midnight to clean all of them. It was past curfew and she hoped that she didn't run into Professor McGonagall, who had to patrol the halls. Also, Hermione, especially didn't want to run into…

"Hermione, is that you?"

Damien Daniels. Damien also had to patrol the halls on Wednesdays.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked her.

Hermione explained to him what had happened in detention. Damien looked suspiciously at her.

"I'm not sure if I should believe you," he said.

"You could ask Professor Snape what happened," she told him, not really understanding why he didn't believe her.

"You sure have a lot of detentions with Professor Snape," Damien noticed.

"I know," Hermione said. "Look Damien, I'm really tired and…"

"I'm sure you are," Damien interrupted her, mockingly.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked confused.

Damien crossed his arms. "I mean to say that I think I have figured out how you've managed to become Hogwarts' best student."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. "Are you implying that I do things like THAT in order to get a better grade?"

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if you did," Damien snapped at her.

"I don't know how you managed to pass your OWLS, but I studied for mine," Hermione said.

Without saying another word to the Head Boy Hermione continued on her way to her dorm. Why was Damien acting like that? He seems like a jealous boyfriend, Hermione thought. How dare he accuse me of something like that!

Hermione spent Saturday entirely with Ron and Harry. Now that she had her own dorm she didn't see them as much as before, something she missed. The trio sat down outside and talked for a while.

"So, are you still going to the ball with Damien?" Harry wanted to know.

Hermione shrugged, "I think so."

"You think so?" Ron asked.

Hermione told her friends what had happened in the corridors. How Damien thought that she used her detentions with Snape to improve her grades, and that she had just walked away from him after she had denied his false accusations. That night was the last time that Hermione had spoken to him. Consequently, she wasn't exactly sure if they would still go to the ball together.

"What a git!" Ron exclaimed.

"We'll find someone else for you 'Mione," Harry told her.

"You don't have to do that," Hermione said immediately, "I'm just going to that stupid ball because I have to."

"Are you sure?" Ron asked. "You can always come with me and Simone, and be my second date."

Hermione started to laugh, "Your second date? Ronald Weasley are you planning on starting your own harem?"

"I think he wants seven wives, one for every day of the week!" Harry chuckled.

The three friends joked about Ron and his seven wives for the rest of the day.

Hermione's good mood vanished on Sunday. Apparently, Damien had started to spread rumors about her. She had first noticed it when she was sitting in the library. Two Ravenclaws, a boy and a girl Hermione didn't know, were talking about her.

"Well I wasn't surprised to hear it. It does explain why Granger always has the highest grades," the girl said.

When the girl had mentioned her name, Hermione hid herself behind the large bookcases. The two Ravenclaws didn't see her but, unfortunately, Hermione couldn't see their faces.

"It sure does," said the boy, "and it gives a whole different meaning to the term 'Head' Girl."

The boy and girl started to laugh.

When Hermione was visiting the lavatory, also she heard two girls talking about her.

"So do you think it's true?" the first one asked.

"I've heard him say it myself," the second one said.

"Who? Snape?" the first one asked loudly.

"No, of course not!" the second girl exclaimed. "Damien, I overheard him talking to Melissa Beretta. He caught Granger when she was sneaking back to her room and…"

The girl's voice faded as she left the lavatory. Slowly, Hermione came out of the toilet. This was not good. This was not good at all.

On Monday it was difficult for Hermione to pay attention to her classes. She wondered if the rumor had spread any further. Of course it did, she thought, this is Hogwarts and news like that travels faster than you could say Quidditch.

However, nobody had mentioned it to her. She had expected a rude comment from Malfoy when she passed him in the hallway, but he just called her a Mudblood, as he always did.

During dinner she sat between Ron and Harry, not telling them about the two conversations she had overheard. While they were finishing their dessert Hermione saw a brown haired girl heading their way.

"Hi Simone," Ron greeted the girl.

"Hello," Simone said, "Ron, I was wondering if you want to help me study tonight."

Hermione snorted, Ron studying. Now that one was priceless.

"Sorry, we have an extra Quidditch practice. We've got a game in two weeks," Ron said.

In two weeks Gryffindor had a game against Slytherin and Harry was fanatic when it came to beating them.

"Aaah Harry!" Simone complained, "You're making him work too hard."

"Sorry Simone," Harry apologized, "but Quidditch is war. Especially when it's against Slytherin." He turned to Hermione. "Are you going to watch us practice?" he asked her.

"I can't. I have detention later," Hermione said.

Simone's eyes widened when Hermione told them about her detention.

"Aaah, too bad," she exclaimed. "I would have loved some company. Who gave you detention?"

When Ron said that Hermione's detention was with Snape, Simone's eyes widened even more. So that's what's going on, Hermione thought, they are finding out if it's true.

During detention she had to scrub cauldrons, as usual. Hermione couldn't take her mind off what had happened. She didn't understand why Damien had started the rumor.

"Miss Granger, focus on your work. Surely you don't want your detention to last until midnight again, do you?" Snape barked at her.

Hermione tried to focus on cleaning the cauldrons. Just when she was scrubbing the last cauldrons, which smelled as if something had died in it, there was a knock on the door.

Professor Harper entered the room, a piece of parchment clutched in her hand and a large grin on her face.

"Hello Professor Snape," she said a bit too cheerfully.

"What do you want now?" he asked coldly.

"I just wanted to give you something because YOU are my favorite Potions Master," she said, still smiling.

He suspiciously read the piece of parchment that Harper had gave him. "No," he said.

"In case you haven't noticed, you don't have a choice," Harper chuckled.

Hermione wondered what was so funny, but she knew better than to ask. Instead, she focused all of her attention on the last cauldron, looking forward to the end of her detention.

Snape briskly walked out of the classroom, leaving the parchment on his desk. Harper followed him out and Hermione quickly walked over to Snape's desk to look at the parchment. It was from the headmaster. In the letter he gave Professor Harper permission to borrow certain potion ingredients from Snape. So that's why he's so mad, Hermione thought. Harper always took Snape's ingredients when he was away.

Soon Harper returned with the black bag she always carried. She began to fill it, humming to herself. Meanwhile, Hermione had finished the last cauldron. Carefully, she started to pile all of the cleaned cauldrons up. Professor Harper had just finished filling her black bag with ingredients when Snape came back from the Headmaster.

"Write them down," he barked at his colleague.

"Why?" she wanted to know.

"I want to know which ingredients you take," he said coldly, "just in case a student wants to make an illegal potion using my ingredients."

He looked at Hermione, who felt her face turning red. Harper started to write down a long list.

"Here you go," Harper said, still smiling.

Snape grabbed the list out of her hands and sat down at his desk, rubbing his eyes as Harper left the room. Hermione coughed a few times in order to get his attention.

"Yes?" he asked rudely.

"Sir, I've finished the cauldrons," Hermione answered.

"Why aren't those two piled up like the others?" Snape pointed at two cauldrons that were still standing in front of the large pile.
"I couldn't reach the top," she explained. "I tried to get them up using a levitation spell, but that only caused the pile to fall down."

Professor Snape got up and added the two remaining cauldrons to the pile.

"10 points from Gryffindor for making a teacher do your work," he told her.

"But I couldn't…" Hermione began.

"Miss Granger, I'm sure you've heard of the existence of chairs," Snape interrupted her. "There is a large amount of chairs in this room and although they are mostly used to sit on, some people use them to stand on when something is out of their reach."

Hermione apologized to her teacher, feeling stupid for not thinking of that simple solution herself.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. A startled Hermione jumped forward, right in the arms of the Potions Master. He held her tightly and neither one of them made an effort to let go of the other person. Without waiting for an answer, the door of the classroom opened and the Head Boy walked in.

"Professor, I came to give you my essay," Damien said, looking suspiciously at the Hermione and Snape. He held up a large piece of parchment.

"Thank you, Mister Daniels," Snape said.

He quickly pushed Hermione away and walked to Damien, taking his essay. Silently he strode into his office.

"So, were you 'studying' for your grades again?" Damien spat at Hermione. "It's pathetic that you're shagging a teacher just to get a good grade."

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione hissed, "I just fell forward when you knocked."

The look in Damien's eyes made it clear to Hermione that he didn't believe her.

"I would have thought that the smartest girl in school would be able to come up with a more believable excuse," he told her.

Professor Snape returned from his office, surprised to see that Damien hadn't left yet.

"Mister Daniels, you can return to your dormitory now," he told him.

"Yes sir," Damien answered. "I'm sure you two want to be alone," he muttered softly so that only Hermione could hear his words.

"Five points from Ravenclaw for talking to a student who has detention and another five points for entering a classroom without permission," Snape spat at him.

Apparently Snape had heard what Damien had muttered. As soon as Damien had left the room he asked Hermione what it had meant. The Gryffindor opened her mouth to speak but changed her mind. Snape saw this.

"Miss Granger, what was Mister Daniels was talking about?" he demanded to know.

"I don't know sir," Hermione answered a bit too fast.

"You're a bad liar, Miss Granger," Snape simply said. "You are not leaving until I know what Mister Daniels was talking about."

"Damien caught me last week, when I was walking back to my dormitory," Hermione began after a short silence, "and he implied a few things."

"And what did he imply?" Snape asked.

Hermione started to blush.

"He…um…he implied that we were…" she began, "that we were…are having some sort of…relationship."

Please don't make me explain what sort of relationship he means Hermione hoped.

"And what makes you think that Mister Daniels feels that way?" Snape asked calmly.

"He told me," Hermione said carefully.

"What were his exact words?"

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "He told me that he found it pathetic that I shagged a teacher to get good grades."

There, she had said it. The only thing she wanted to do now was go back to her room and die of embarrassment.

"And what, pray tell, have you done to make Mister Daniels believe that?"

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Why was he blaming her for Damien's lies? This was definitely the last straw.

"What?" She exclaimed, "I haven't done anything. The reason he thinks that is because YOU keep giving me detention!"

"Miss Granger, you have yourself to thank for your detentions, not me," he hissed at her.

"Trust me, I'm not thanking you at all," Hermione muttered before she headed to the door of the classroom.

Just after she opened the door a crack, Snape's hand slammed the door shut. Hermione turned around, gasping for breath.

"10 points from Gryffindor if you don't apologize immediately," he hissed at her, his face dangerously close to hers.

"10 points it is," she hissed back, moving her face even closer to his.

Unexpectedly their lips met in a demanding kiss. A million thoughts raced trough Hermione's mind. She was kissing a professor. And not just any professor, she was kissing Snape! And by Merlin, she liked it!

Slowly, she opened her mouth. Daring him with her tongue to do the same, she kept her eyes closed, afraid to open them. She was surprised and somewhat relieved to feel him respond by opening his mouth. He teased her tongue with his. Hermione didn't exactly know if she had kissed him or if he had kissed her, the only thing she knew was that she didn't want to stop.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Startled, Hermione and Snape both jumped away from the door. Without waiting for an answer, the door flew open. An angry Professor Harper stormed into the room. Her good mood had obviously vanished.

"Snape, you'd better explain this to me!" she shouted gesturing at a vial that contained a dark green substance.

"You may go now," he told Hermione, without looking at her. As quickly as possible she left the dungeons.

That night Hermione couldn't sleep. The events of that evening kept replaying in her mind. It was hard to stop thinking about what had happened. What if it happens again? Hermione thought as she touched her lips. What if it never happens again? It was especially her last thought that scared her.

A/N:

Ok, so I completely stole the drinking pigs blood from the tv-show Angel. I could have come up with something more canon like phoenixblood or something like that, but I had already put up the 11th chapter (in which the pigs blood is first mentioned) when I thought about it.



I stole the 'Quidditch is war' saying from my dad (a huge soccer/football fan). He always says that 'Football is war'.

- Auditoriumnazi: Well, I hope this chapter has cleared things a bit.
- Elvenwarrior1: Thank you!!!
- Romm: Hmmm……it could be, I should re-read my fic. LOL, I don't even know what happened in my own story!
- Tabii: Thank you, I hope that I can update sooner than last time.