The Muggleborn Vampire: A Dramione Story

Chapter 7: The Story of You

Hermione woke up buried under an unformiliar but brilliantly sort blanket on an unfamiliar but comfy black leather couch. Utterly confused that she wasn't in her dorm room, she stood up, stretched, and took in her surroundings.

The room around her was a spacious sitting room with a stone fireplace, two matching arm chairs that were obviously a set along with the couch she was on, dark wooden side tables and coffee table. The wall beside the front door was flanked with a very-much-in-use desk housing organized stacks of parchment, quills, and inkwells. There were two closed doors towards the back right of the room, presumably leading to a bedroom and bathroom. In between the two doors, about a six foot distance, housed a bookshelf built into the wall and reaching far above her head to the ceiling. Hermione fondly caressed the spines of the tomes in front of her, and her heart was filled with glee to see that the books were probably older then her.

Promising that she would revisit the bookshelf if she had the chance, Hermione crossed to the far left side of the room, the last corner to be explored. There was another closed door, leading to who knows where. Lastly, she found herself in front of a doorless archway, but she was unable to pass through. The magic of heavy wards waft from the room and trickled her arm hair. What little she could see into the room was blurred and looked out of focused, like trying to look through a foggy mirror.

"That's the kitchen. I've temporarily warded and disillusioned it in order to keep you sane for the time being."

The sound of a closing door and a male voice caused Hermione to spin around in suprise, startling her away from her musing over the archway. She could feel her teeth bare and her canenines elongate at the sudden intruder.

"It's ok, it's just me. I should have known better then to frighten you like that."

Hermione looked confused as she saw Professor Snape entering the sitting room from one of the doors flanking the bookshelf. He was wearing his normal frock coat and trousers, but was missing his teaching robes. His hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and the base of his skull.

"Professor Snape? What are you doing here? Where is here, anyway, and why am I here?"

"Why don't you have a seat and we can talk about this."

After sitting back down on the couch and watching Snape sit down across from her in one of the chairs, the teacher pulled out a familiar piece of parchment from his pocket and another, much older sheet. Looking at the parchment in her professor hands, all the memories from the last two days began seeping back into her mind.

The day before her sixteenth birthday.
Truth or dare and butterbeer.
Pain, lots of pain.
Waking up in the hospital wing, drinking red wine...no, not wine.
Goblin's smell so bad...

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. "Oh Merlin, I'm a vampire." She looked up quickly and saw the eyes of her professor. Another gasp. "And you're my father!"

"Now that we are all familiarized with recent events, I wanted to talk to you about that last fact." Snape layed the hereditary test on the coffee table between them, allowed by the unknown piece of parchment. "It is true that I am your father, though I didn't know it was you. I assumed you would be about this age, but was unaware of your identity until the same time you were made aware of your parentage."

Hermione sighed and studied her hands in her lap, remembering her worries from yesterday. "I'm sorry I yelled at you when we found out. I thought you knew and was being purposefully cruel."

"You are forgiven and I am sorry for yelling back." This caused Hermione to glace back up at Snape, who was watching her with calculating eyes. "Though I will not apologise for being a strict teacher, I...do regret the personal insults towards your personality and appearence. It's a necessary part of...well, that is a topic I would like to postpone for a later date of you don't mind."

Hermione found herself momentarily speachless. How unusual it was being asked to forgive her normally git of a teacher, one who usually acted too proud to even admit that he made a mistake. And what was this about his actions being a necessity?

"I-I accept your apology too, sir." She knotted her fingers in her lap nervously. What an odd conversation she found herself in.

"Sir?" She asked after a few moments of awkward silence. "Who's my mother? Is she a vampire too?"

Snape wiggled in his seat and cleared his throat. Hermione had never saw her professor this uncomfortable before. "I... never actually knew your mother's identity. I was hoping the hereditary test would shed some light on the matter, but I was unaware that an individual could be listed as 'anonymous' on such a document."

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed and she found herself squinting at her...father. "Pardon?"

Snape sighed and raked his hands over his face. "May I proceed with the honest truth, so we may avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary anecdotes?"

"Please do."

She studied Snape's face as he thought about his next words in great length. She was unaware his face could get any paler then it normally was. "Your mother...was a woman of the night. We met at a brothel geared specifically for vampiric males seeking a mortal female presence. I don't normally frequent myself in underground facilities of the like, but I happened to come across it in a particularly vulnerable point in my life. We met once and I never saw or spoke to her again. A year later I received a letter from her stating that our encounter resulted in the birth of a baby girl... you, evidently. She stated that she was unable to take care of you in her current position and took it upon herself to put you up for Muggle adoption. She forbid me from searching for you and threatened me with your death if I didn't agree to wait until your sixteenth birthday to look for you." Not being able to meet her eyes, Snape blindly offered Hermione the letter from 'Bethany' and became fascinated with studying the toes of his dragon hide boots.

Hermione dumbfoundedly grabbed the parchment and glanced at the curly handwriting, though she found her eyes were unable to focus on actually reading any of the words before her.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, if she would have informed me, I would have never let her place you up for adoption. I had always dreamed of having a family of my own, even if it was as a single vampiric father. I'm unsure if I was even in any state of mind to actually raise a child back then, but I would have given my life to make yours worthwhile. I was devastated when I found out I couldn't be there to raise you and I prayed to every available god that I would find you and be able to care for you someday.

I don't expect you to accept me right away, with me being a royal git and a Death Eater, but I do hope you will give me a chance."

"I...I need a moment to think things over." Hermione ran her fingers through her hair, and rested her head in her arms, "this is too much ingormation to digest all at once."

"I understand." Snape stood and released a puff of air. "The bedroom beside the kitchen will be yours as long as you need it. Feel free to take those parchments to look at if you like. And I'll get you a glass of blood."

Hermione opened the door a few minutes later, two pieces of parchment held under her arm and a glass of O- in her hand (she couldn't tell a difference between the types of blood yet, but Snape insisted that O- was the best.)

She crossed the room to place the cup and the parchment on her bedside table, then returned to her door to close it. Before she could, though, she spotted Snape standing at the fireplace across the room. Though his back was towards her, she could see that he had both hands resting on the mantle and his head was drooped to watch the fire. He looked like a broken man, and Hermione feared that he truly was.

"Professor Snape?"

His head twitched towards her but his eyes never left the fire.

"Thank you, for everything." Not expecting an answer, she turned back into her room and closed the door behind her.

"You're welcome, Hermione." He replied to her door.