"Can we play Fact or Fiction?"
"What in Merlin's name is that?"
"Well, sir, Muggles have a lot of myths and horror stories about vampires, and since I'm a Muggleborn, or I was yesterday, that's where most of my knowledge about the subject comes from. We haven't covered much of the subject in DADA or Magical Creatures either, and I had been more focused on other topics to cover in my free time. Please, Professor?"
Severus Snape studied the girl sitting in the hospital bed beside his chair over his glass of AB+. He had just returned from his meeting with Dumbledore and had came to keep an eye on the young vampire and to imform her of the presence of the Gringotts Goblin in an hours time. He had found her curled in bed nursing the basically empty bottle of blood. He left her briefly, only to return with another bottle of the crimson liquid and decided to join her in drinking.
"Fine, I guess they don't call you an insufferable know it all for nothing."
"Only you call me that. And I hate that name."
"If the shoe fits, wear it."
Granger rolled her eyes at him and took a sip from her cup. "May I start now?"
"Fire away."
"Do we burn in the sun?"
"Yes, we can be perminatly scarred by excessive exposure. I have made my own formula of impermeable sun screen, though, and I will make sure you are well supplied when you are permitted to enter the grounds."
"Can we turn into bats?"
"If your animangus is a bat."
"Do we need to sleep in a coffin? Or hang from the rafters upside down?"
"Only if you're into that. I find that a normal bed is much more spacious and I am not a fan of sleeping with blood rushing to my head."
"Uhh...do we sparkle in the sun?"
Snape looked at her with such a dumbfounded expression that Hermione had to fight back peels of laughter threatening to pass her lips. "Why in the Hell would we sparkle?"
"I don't know. A Muggle author thought we might."
"No wonder vampires are one of the most unaccepted creatures in Muggle and Wizard society. Drabble like that would surely get us killed without thought."
She chuckled as she drank more blood from her glass. She felt like she was sipping red wine with a good friend. "Speaking of being killed, can we be?"
"Of course. Any creature can be destroyed." Snape leaned back in his chair and sat his chalice on the bedside table. "Avada Kedavra still works on us, though we aren't technically as alive as the spell's normal victims. We can be starved to death, or burned alive."
'Yikes.' Hermione shivered, not liking this topic at all. "No stakes to the heart or bulbs of garlic needed?"
"Our skin is indestructible to non-magical weapons, and we heal faster to cutting curses and the like." Snape answered. "And garlic just makes our mouth feel tingly."
"Bummer, I'm actually a big fan of spaghetti."
"Not any more."
Hermione found herself chuckling again and was quite surprised to see small laugh lines around the professor's eyes when she was all of a sudden smacked in the nose with one of the worst smells she'd ever encountered. "What is that?"
"Goblin." He answered, his nose crinkling slightly too. "That's why we don't feed off of them. They're blood smells awful, as do many other magical creatures. Wait until you smell Lupin. It's the worst wet-dog-smell you'll ever meet."
Hermione fought against physically plugging her nose as the curtain around her bed was opened, revealing a plump, smartly dressed goblin carrying a breifcase. "Greetings Mister Snape, Miss Granger. I am Plankard, a representative from Gringotts Bank. It has been requested of us to perform some inheritance tests?"
"Indeed." Snape answered. "Miss Granger just went through her creature inheritance even though we assumed she was Muggleborn. I assume you'll be able to clear this up for us?"
"Of course, sir." Plankard summoned a side table from another hospital bed and placed a sheet of parchment on its surface. "If you will please place three drops of blood on the sheet, Ma'am." He looked up at Hermione expectantly.
She paused for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. How was she supposed to draw blood if she was impermeable to knives? 'Oh wait, I'm a vampire!' She mentally face palmed as she trapped the skin of her thumb-pad between her upper and lower canine teeth and about whooped in success as a thin ribbon of blood formed at the small cut she created. She hovered her thumb above the parchment and allowed three drops of blood to fall before drawing the wound to her mouth for a few moments before she realised it was already beginning to heal. "Cool!"
She saw Snape roll his eyes at her excited remarks as the three of them watched black words begin to seep from the spot of blood on the paper.
Legal Name: Hermione Jean Granger
Biological Parents: Severus Tobias Snape and Anonymous
Adoptive Parents: Michelle Lee Granger nee Scheuller and Gregory Allen Granger (Divorced)
Blood Status: Half-Blood
Creature Inheritance: Vampire
Mate: Unknown
"WAIT A MOMENT!" Hermione gasped, feeling lightheaded for a moment. "You're my father!?"
Snape looked up at the panicked eyes of the girl, desperately wanting to reply sarcastically or maybe even feel insulted by her reaction. But all he felt was relief. "It's been twenty years, but I finally found you. My princess."