Vampyre

Chapter Four
An Interesting Roommate

Hermione spent the next morning in the potions classroom, going over the papers that were left both by Snape and by the various staff members who had filled in for him the last time he’d taught. Most of them she discarded. She had just completed her class rosters when Ron burst into the room.

“So it is true. You’re actually going to be teaching your own classmates.”

Hermione looked up. Harry followed Ron more slowly, a slight limp to his walk.

“Hi,Hermione.”

“Harry! You’re out of the hospital,” Hermione jumped up and ran over to hug her friend and plant a kiss on his cheek, much to the consternation of Ron, who looked jealous.

“Madame Pomfrey let me out just this morning,” Harry replied. “So it’s not a rumor that you were promoted to staff.”

“No, it isn’t. Professor McGonagall asked me to help since there is a shortage of teachers. I took my N.E.W.T.S. yesterday and passed, so she awarded me my certificate.”

“How great for you,” Ron said without much enthusiasm. “I can’t believe she would let you attempt to teach the very ones you attended classes with.”

“I suppose hard times call for hard measures,” Hermione observed. “I would probably feel strange myself if it were one of you teaching class as well, but I intend to do as best I can.”

“You know that the Slytherins are going to ignore you,” Ron said. “Malfoy and his friends arrived a little while ago.”

“Draco is not as bad as he was, Ron,” Harry said. “I’m not sure he learned his lesson but at least he did speak to us this morning.”

“I don’t trust him, Harry. He’s a Malfoy.”

“Since his father was killed, maybe he won’t be as bad.”

“It’s strange to think that both Snape and Mr. Malfoy both are gone,” Hermione closed the class roster book and neatly put away her quills. “Have Neville and Seamus arrived?”

“Yes, they were on the Hogwarts Express with the others. Some of the girls have returned too. They’re upstairs having some lunch in the great hall.”

“I have to say that maybe having you as our Professor might work out okay,” Ron said as the three walked upstairs to have their own luncheon. “You can give us a break with our grades.”

“Absolutely not, Ron,” Hermione replied. “That would be cheating, and it wouldn’t be fair to the others. I expect you to work just as hard for me as you would have done for Professor Snape.”

Ron snorted. He didn’t like the idea of Hermione teaching him at all. She was supposed to be his girlfriend.

“Does McGonagall know that you’re my girlfriend?”

Harry looked sidewise at Hermione behind Ron’s back and rolled his eyes. He’d heard the two go round and round about the same issue many times before.

“The idea has never entered her head, nor will it.”

As they entered the great hall, it was half full with returning students who had come back several days early. Already, the students were sitting at their respective house tables and the few staff members eating lunch were at the teacher’s table.

Hermione sat down with the boys only to be summoned by Headmistress McGonagall with a finger crooked in her direction.

Minerva patted the seat next to her.

“Here is your seat from now on, Hermione. It would not do for you to be sitting with the students. I know that you would rather be with them, but since you are staff now you mustn’t be looked at as being partial to the boys.”

Hermione hadn’t given the idea much thought. Since Minerva had called her attention to it, she saw that now she had put herself in a different category than her friends. She was a Professor now, and they were still students, yet she didn’t feel any differently. Not yet, anyway.

“Oh, one other thing,” Minerva continued. “Molly Weasley sent your cat this afternoon. I had Hagrid place him in your rooms whilst you were working.”

Hermione smiled. She’d missed Crookshanks terribly, but it hadn’t been safe to take him with her over the last few months. She’d sent the cat to spend time with the elder Weasleys at the Burrow, since her own parents didn’t care much for animals.

“It’s going to be good to see Crooks again,” she said, beginning to fill her plate and ignoring Ron’s look of disgust he was shooting her way.

“Mister Weasley does not seem pleased with your new position,” Minerva took a sip of coffee.

“He isn’t.” Hermione cut into a thin slice of roast beef. “He thought I would give him a break on his grades, which I set him straight on right away.”

“Tsk. Goodness knows what is going to become of the boy. Even the twins are still working on their shop in Hogsmeade.”

The twins were readying their longed for joke shop thanks to some help from Harry, who had insisted on becoming a partner. Ron, on the other hand, hadn’t been able to decide what he wanted to do as of yet despite urging from Arthur Weasley. It looked to Hermione like Ron was going to end up in the Muggle Artifacts office at the Ministry if he didn’t get productive.

“His Mum has been on his case,” Hermione replied. “But he isn’t interested in anything but Quidditch.”

“You’re not going to marry him are you?”

“Not a chance.” Hermione poured gravy over her mash and added pepper from the pepper mill. “I’m not certain my nerves could take it.”

“Good for you. I just wish--- oh, never mind.”

Minerva didn’t finish the thought out loud. It had been her intent to say that she wished Hermione had married Severus. The two would have been perfect for one another, with their love of learning.

~*~*~

Crookshanks was waiting for his mistress that afternoon when she returned to her rooms. He purred loudly as she picked him up and ruffled his thick fur.

“Crooks, I’ve missed you.” She planted a kiss on a furry cheek. “I hope you like our new rooms.”

“I detest furry nuisances.” Salazar had finally returned and was looking at the cat with distaste.

Hermione deposited Crooks on the bed, where he happily pawed the green coverlet and curled up in a ball to take a nap.

“Now look here, Mister Slytherin. I don’t mind you being here, but you will have to learn to quit complaining and be civil.”

“I am considerably older than you, child and I demand respect.”

“I am not going to respect you if you keep making smart comments.”

“I am only trying to keep you out of trouble. You heard it, didn’t you?”

“Heard what?”

“The sound of the undead.”

“What sound of the undead?”

“In the tomb.”

“How did you know about the sounds?”

Salazar looked smugger than normal.

“It is the sound of one who is not dead, child.”

“Are we going to argue about that again? I told you the Professor is dead. I saw him with my own eyes.”

“What you see and what is, are two different things, you foolish girl.”

“I know what I saw. And I refuse to stop visiting Professor Snape’s grave because you don’t like me being there. He needs someone to care about him.”

“Severus is going to like you being there very much,” Salazar replied archly. “More than you are smart enough to guess.”

“He won’t know, since he is dead. And if he were alive, I wouldn’t be there because he hated me.”

“Not really. He spoke of you often enough.”

“He did?”

“On more than one occasion, he has told me of your ability to learn. However, he did not warn me of how foolish you are.”

“Quit calling me foolish.”

“Where are you off to?”

“Just to prove you wrong,” Hermione wrapped her cape about her. “I am going back to the tomb to investigate.”

“Hermione, stay away from the tomb. That’s an order!”

“I don’t take orders from Slytherins,” Hermione shot back as she stomped out of the room.

Crookshanks lifted his head and let out a plaintive mew that was not lost on the portrait.

“You are right, my friend. She is heading for trouble.”


Hermione used the back entrance to the dungeons to leave the school, since it was closer to the tomb and the forbidden forest. She was not in the mood to run in to anyone, and Salazar had pissed her off thoroughly.

The tomb was locked, and she jerked at the padlock.

“Damn.”

She fumbled for her wand.

“Alohamora.”

The padlock didn’t budge.

Hermione tried several unlocking spells, all to no avail.

She whirled away from the lock, chewing on her lower lip and thinking.

Click

Shivers ran down her spine as she slowly turned back. Both the lock and the chain had opened, and the door was now slightly ajar.

Determinedly, she took hold of the handle and opened the door. The torches lit as she stepped in.