Interview with a Vampire

By melodia04

Summary: Harry is failing English and is given one last chance to save his grades and graduate. HPDM

A/N: Hello! Here's the first chapter! I'm working hard on this story. Really hope you like it! Please, please, please review! They're the only ones keeping me writing!

Deepest thanks to angel wing sky for beta-reading this story!!

Chapter 1

"Believe me Professor, I passed my term paper! It must be somewhere there in that pile!" Harry explained, trying hard to catch up with Professor Snape who was carrying the piles of term papers in his hands.

Snape stopped. "Potter, this is not the first time you said you submitted your work. And I'm not a fool to believe in any of your pranks. Now, shoo, before I finally put that flaming red mark on your card." Snape snapped, leaving Harry in utter disbelief.

As you can see, Harry Potter is not the smartest student in Hogwarts; in fact he is not smart at all. He never cared, really. All he wanted is to finally get out of school, get a job and live peacefully on his own. He was wrong all the while because he could never, ever, get out of school with flying red marks.

He didn't give up; he still followed Snape all the way to the faculty room. The teacher was annoyed, and sighed deeply "What exactly do you want?" Snape seethed.

"I want you to see that I passed my term paper." Harry said.

"But it's not here."

"It's there! I swear I put it there! Lemme check!" Harry said, taking the pile from Snape's hand and placing it on a table.

"It must be here…" he muttered as he rummaged the different folders wishing that a Harry Potter is written on one of them. Snape is waiting patiently beside him, a smile slowly making its way to his face.

"I told you." Snape said lazily.

"But Professor, I swear I really passed my paper. Believe me!" Harry pleaded.

"I already heard that, now go home."

"But Professor, just this once. Give me a chance. I promise in the name of the founders of Hogwarts that I'm telling the truth." Harry said raising his right hand.

"And who are the founders of Hogwarts?" Snape sneered.

"They're Godric Gry-" What's the name again? "Godric Gryndiloo--"

"Enough. How dare you vow in the name of people you don't recall! I mean, people you don't even KNOW! Now, go away! Unless you're so thick." Snape shoved.

"Professor! You know it's not entirely my fault that my term paper is lost. Could you give extra work instead?" Harry was not used to begging, especially to their terror English teacher, Severus Snape. But just this time he had to for the fear of spending another torturous year in Hogwarts.

"Thick, aren't you?!" Snape bellowed.

"Come on, Professor. I know you hate me," And we share that mutually "and you wouldn't want to see me anymore. If I graduate this year, I'll be out of your sight. I promise!" Harry finally said. It was nothing of a bargain seeing how tough Snape could be in relating to his students.

"Potter, I do not give high marks to students whom I want to graduate immediately in hopes of eliminating them from my sight. That is such a crude comment. Now, get out of my sight!!" Snape shoved Harry out and shut the door of the faculty room.

Harry has had enough.

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"What do I do now?" He whined to his friends, Ron and Hermione.

"You know mate, it's your own fault." Ron said, munching on his Skittles.

"He's right. Harry if you want to graduate you should have started making an effort since you were in first year. I can't believe I'm reminding you the same thing year after year!" Hermione followed, getting some Skittles from Ron.

Ron is nearly an airhead as Harry but ever since he started courting Hermione, his study habits changed dramatically. He became really studious in hopes of impressing her. And now that they're an item, they're as close to being the smartest couple in school. It's a shame to be called Harry's best friends.

"I know, I know. What can I do? No matter how hard I try, things won't just register in my head! I'm not smart! I'm an airhead and I'm going to repeat high school! Hah!" Harry rolled his eyes, getting his own share of Skittles.

"So did you really do your term paper?" Hermione asked.

"Of course I did! I toiled over it for a month! I can't believe it's just going to be ditched that easily!" He pounded his fist on the table.

"What's it about?" Ron asked.

"Ghosts." He said in a low voice.

"Ghosts? If it was good, I think it would give you are very considerable grade. Mine was a proposal for the increasing depletion of the ozone layer." Hermione proudly recited.

"Yeah right, so what did Snape say? Did he give you extra work?" Ron asked.

"I begged him to! But he hates me, you know that." Harry answered.

"Maybe you should ask him again. He's not that bad." Hermione said. The two guys narrowed their eyes at her.

"What?"

"I'll try again tomorrow." Harry said dejectedly.

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"Please Professor; I'll do everything you want! Just don't fail me yet! Uhm, I'll repeat my research paper!" Harry pleaded first thing in the morning before his classes started.

"What makes you think I'll give you extra time to finish your unfinished term paper?"

"Then I'll do a different one! I know! I'll do something you haven't taught us yet!"

"And what is that?"

"Conducting an interview!"

"That will be our lesson for next week, yes."

"Yes?" Harry said, hopefully.

"No."

"No? I'll pick a very special person! Uhm, I'll interview Angelina Jolie or uhm Johnny Depp or I could pick a very good English teacher…" Harry trailed trying hard to win his teacher's favor.

"You're being insufferable. No celebrities. No teachers. No friends. No relatives. No common strangers."

"Then what? An animal? A caveman? A vampire?" Harry is near loosing his thread.

"Interesting."

"What?"

"Vampires."

"No!"

"Are you questioning me, Potter?"

"But Professor! Vampires? Do they even exist?" He looked skeptical.

"It's for you to find out. Since this is just to save your dishonoring grades, the highest I could give you is a B+. Work hard for it. I should know if you just hired some bloody pale man to stick out fangs on his teeth. I need full documentation, that means pictures of the interview proper and signature of the person interviewed. Read your book to see everything else that's needed for this interview report."

Harry swears he could feel blood oozing from his nose.

"You must be kidding me." Harry froze.

"Oh, I need it next week." Harry melted.

"Next week??!"

"Do you have any problems with that? And geez, go to the clinic for crying out loud!" With that Snape walked away to his class.

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"He's out of his mind isn't he?" Harry confirmed to his two best friends while eating lunch.

"Well, if it's the only thing that could save your grades then he's not out of it." Hermione said.

"But how am I supposed to interview a vampire? Do they even exist?" Harry said.

Pity how he's grown quite irritable these days.

"I guess they do, in the encyclopedias there are references of vampires there. There are only a few of them left here. So right now, I'm not sure if they still exist." Hermione said, trying hard to help.

"Harry mate, you can just fake it. Get a bloody pale man to stick out fangs on his teeth." Ron suggested.

Harry laughed.

"That's exactly what Snape warned me not to do. I can't play with this one, it's my grades! I'll be damned to hell if I repeat high school."

"I wish I could help you mate, but I've only ever seen vampires in movies. I think they're fictional." Ron said.

"Did I just hear you talk about vampires?" said a voice.

A girl with bushy blonde hair wearing all black with piercing all over stood beside their table, carrying a tray of food.

"Luna." Hermione turned to her side and greeted. The Goth never really spoke to them ever since.

"Hi." She greeted back.

"If there's something you would like to share with us with your knowledge about Vampires, please do so. Just don't tell me they're extinct." Harry sighed.

"Of course they're not, in fact I know someone."

The three friends eyed her curiously, wondering if she just said something credible. Harry picked it up immediately, a surge of hope running through him.

"Maybe you could have a seat with us." Harry invited.

"Great. I was looking for a table." Luna said and sat beside Harry.

"So who is this someone you know? Still alive?" Harry started.

"Vampires don't die. They just hide themselves and sleep in their coffins until they want to, unless a powerful force is driving them to wake up." Luna explained.

"W-wait!" Ron stuttered, "Are you---"

"I'm not, Weasley."

"Aw, too bad. You see, Harry here is looking for a vampire to interview. Snape's set him out to repeat high school." Ron said.

"So, who is this vampire you know? Can I meet him?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure about that." She munched on a chicken fillet.

"Why?" Harry asked, taking a sip of water.

"Because maybe he's still asleep, last time we talked he said he's gonna rest for a long while. I was 7 by then."

"They sleep for years? That's ridiculous."

"Yeah, but you can check him out. I've got his address. He lives nearby and a caretaker is guarding his mansion."

"He lives in a mansion?" Harry asked. There is a lot to know about vampires yet.

"Yeah. Cool, huh? We were playmates back then. I never really saw him ever since he slept."

"And you're giving me his address?" Harry could not believe his luck.

"Yeah, because you gave me space. I've been walking for a long time spotting for an empty table but people just don't want to sit with me, it's always been like that. Fair trade." Luna said.

The time is 10 minutes before their first afternoon classes starts. Luna wrote down the address on a tissue paper and handed it over to Harry. He read it carefully and somewhat recognized the place.

The four of them finally stood up and carried the trays to the dish counter.

"Thanks Luna, I owe you a lot. If you have problems looking for a table, just track us down." Harry winked.

"No problem." Luna said.

"Bye Luna." Hermione and Ron waved.

So with that, they separated ways and headed to their respective classrooms, until Harry forgot something really important. He ran back and looked for Luna.

"Wait, Luna!!" Harry called. Luna stopped and looked at him quizzically. Harry held out the tissue paper,

"What's the name?" He panted.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry. How could I forget? It's Draco Malfoy."

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