I don't know how to classify this story. What if?, AU… don't know. It's not intended to be a Hermione/Snape romance story either, though you can see it as you wish, of course. It's just something that popped up in my head as I watched the movie. So, yes, this is movie-verse or what's its name. Don't take this story too serious, ok? Just enjoy it. (I could have made mistakes, by the way, for English is not my first language. I would be really glad if you point them out. Thank you.)

I do not own Harry Potter.

Dancing with a Gryffindor

"Ron, you ruined everything!" she screamed at him with all the strength of her anger and delusion. She could barely hear Harry asking Ron what had happened as her two best friends walked away up the staircase just as she, her whole body suddenly much wearier, collapsed on the same steps.

She took off her shoes, freeing her aching feet and just cried everything out. There was another girl crying not too far from her, she was being comforted by what appeared to be her best friends, but Hermione remained there alone. For a long while.

The other girls left quite soon, probably accompanying their friend to their dormitories. Hermione stayed. The music in the Great Hall kept on, song after song. She thought about the other girls dancing there with their boyfriends or just friends, thought about Ginny. She could picture her dancing with Neville. And Padma and Parvati. They surely had both found another partner and were now enjoying the Ball. And she was alone on a staircase, crying because of a…

"Just what is a young woman like yourself doing crying outside the ballroom, Miss Granger?" a deep voice, a way too familiar deep voice, inquired.

Hermione did not even looked up at him. She would not have seen him, anyway, through the thick mist of her tears.

"He's an idiot", she answered laconically.

"Krum?" asked Snape then.

Hermione shook her head decidedly. "Ronald", she said.

From the sound Snape made at hearing her answer she could clearly picture his smirk. "You're in this state because of Weasley?" he said punctuating the name with an acrid tone of disgust and incredulity as if he did not deem Ron worthy of her distress.

Hermione did not answer, but she rapidly wiped off her tears with the back of her hand and looked up at him. She realized then that he was not wearing his usual black coat, but only the white shirt beneath it. He probably had took it off because of the heat, just like Harry and Ron did. He did looked kind of weird, she thought, without his black wizard robe. He did not look like the sour, stern, bat-like teacher she knew, more something like a common human being.

"Where is Weasley now?" Snape asked.

"Went to the Common Room with Harry," she answered, sniffing.

"And your Bulgarian partner?"

"Drinking with his friends".

"Damn, Granger you really have a taste in picking your men!" he exclaimed.

"I have never picked men before!" she exclaimed. For a moment she wondered what could Snape know about picking up someone for a ball, he, the most feared and hated and lonely teacher of the school.

"May I have your hand Miss Granger?"

Hermione looked up straight at him, shocked. "What?".

"Your hand, Granger. Do you want to dance or not?" he repeated, annoyed as if he was talking to a dimwitted.

Hermione looked bewildered at the hand he was holding out to her, then she shyly took it and let her teacher ease her up from the staircase.

"Wait, wait", she said suddenly, "my shoes" and she was about to crouch down again to put on her shoes, but Snape stopped her.

"You don't need them", he said. Hermione glanced up at him, questioningly. "I won't step on your feet, Granger. Believe me."

She was startled to realize that a timid smile had made its swift apparition over her lips. She sniffed again and very shyly leaned her right hand over his shoulder. This was utterly weird. She was touching a teacher, Snape of all!, and she found absolutely nothing different in him than any other person she had touched in her life.

"Closer, Granger". His voice startled her out of her thoughts at the same time as his arm encircled her waist and drew her closer to him. Her nose was mere inches away from his chest now. She was quite certain she was blushing down to the tip of her toes right now and her gaze, out of her embarrassment, stared steadily at the narrow gap between the upper two buttons of his shirt. The sight of his skin and the merely perceptible breath touching her brow only managed to make her blush even more, if possible.

Then, the professor elegantly guided her into the dance following the muffled sound of music coming out of the Great Hall. Hermione obliged him, letting herself being led by her Potions teacher. She felt herself loosing up, her feet began moving on their own merely brushing against the cold stone floor. She thought, just for a second, what Ron or Harry would have said seeing her dancing with Snape, she could nearly pictured their horror-struck and outraged faces in her mind.

"What's so funny, Miss Granger?"

Hermione looked up suddenly at her partner and could see herself smiling back from two deep black eyes.

"Nothing, I was… I was thinking about what would Ron and Harry say if they saw me dancing with you, sir", she answered honestly.

Snape raised his eyebrows in a most scorning expression. "They would probably have the shock of their useless lives, and the sight would haunt their dreams until their dying day. Provided they don't die on the spot".

Hermione smiled. She looked at him again and for the first time since she had known him as her teacher, she saw a man. Not a horrible, scary simulacrum of the Boogie Man, who existed only to torment children, but a whole flesh and blood person who just have his feelings, his story and his private life like any normal person in this world. She wasn't dancing with Professor Snape, Potions teacher and Slytherin Head of House, she was dancing with a man who had been kind enough to ask her for a dance when her best friends had just left her. Well, to be honest she wasn't sure Harry had actually understood what was going on, he had just been dragged away by Ron.

The song slowly came to an end and as its last echo resounded in the corridor, the Professor stopped. His hand left her waist and he took a step back.

Hermione felt herself being suddenly released from inside a soup bubble, a plop and it was all over. She glanced at her teacher, uncertain. She was actually enjoying dancing with him, why had he stopped?

"You should really go find your Champion now, Miss Granger", Snape said, hinting at the Great Hall with a slight movement of his head.

"I…" she started, her eyes darting between him and the Great Hall where another song was beginning.

"Go", he urged her, "I don't want to be seen dancing with a Gryffindor". Hermione thought she saw a shadow darken his features as he said that, his eyes became even more black. She quickly put her shoes on and headed toward the Great Hall.

"Thank you for the dance, Professor. I really did enjoy it", she said, smiling politely. She was being honest with him.

Snape looked at her blankly for a moment, than a small, crooked smile appeared on his face.

"I wouldn't worry about Weasley if I were you, Hermione. Idiots are idiots after all", he told her.