AN: This is basically a prequel to "Thanks for the Flowers". Hermione and Severus are the same age in the same time period and everything. But this takes place before their whole "I heart you" drama. They are at a ball and poor little Severus is contemplating asking Hermione to dance. The question isn't "can he ask her", it's "how should he ask her". Let's find out! :)
The whole thing was stupid. Nobody actually enjoyed going to balls anymore. Even the Victorians probably hated dancing. There was no point to it!
Except that it gave idiotic little boys an excuse to put their grubby paws all over any girl they could convince to "dance" with them. It didn't even look like dancing, just hormonal teenagers groping each other.
It was horrifyingly undignified, that's what it was!
Except... he couldn't help but think about what it would be like to ask her to dance with him. He could hold her all night and... and make sure those vile little inbreeds know that she was off limits to their groping. If anyone was going to be groping her- he stopped that thought immediately.
Severus hated going to balls... but Hermione loved to. And he would do anything for her, just like she would for him. Gods, she had even snuck into the hospital wing after he had an "incident" with Potter and his gang. She almost never broke the rules, but broke a few that night. She brought him his favorite foods from the kitchen and stole another pillow for him from one of the closets. Then they played wizard's chess, even though she was terrible at the game. It turned out to be one of the best nights he'd ever had while stuck in his hospital bed.
So if she would do that for him, then he should do this for her. Unless she didn't even want to dance. His stomach dropped. If he asked her to dance with him and she turned him down, he would never be able to look at her ever again. He mentally chided himself for even thinking about dancing with her. But then he thought, why bother going to the ball if you don't want to dance?
His eyebrow quirked in wry amusement at the irony. Why bother, indeed.
Severus didn't know, but Hermione had been waiting for him to ask her to dance ever since they walked into the Great Hall. It wasn't odd for them to go together, but they didn't necessarily go together together. Neither of them had any other friends, and they weren't going to go without the other, so naturally they both went to the ball.
After about thirty minutes of standing in the corner, drinking punch the color of a swamp, he was desperately thinking of a way to ask her without sounding so... desperate. He just knew that if he opened his mouth, he would manage to sound like he was begging to touch her like some lecher.
He couldn't tell that her eyes were watching him curiously as he was turned away from her. With a quick sigh of exasperation, Severus finally glanced at her and said, "If you would like to dance, then I will dance. With you."
Even though it was not really asking her to dance, he still felt like his whole body was on fire waiting for her response. He refused to look at her. So he tugged on the curtains, as if testing the fabric. As if that was a normal thing to do at a ball.
He missed the goofy smile on her face as she watched him with the curtains. Therefore, he took her silence as rejection. Hermione was... rejecting him. She must be mortified that he even asked her to dance. They had never danced together before, but it wasn't like he was asking her to marry him.
Except... he could admit that he had thoughts of them being together in the future and all that.
She wasn't just refusing him, she was ignoring him. Severus had no idea which was worse, since they both hurt him deep in his chest.
Well if she was going to ignore him, then he would just pretend that he never even asked her to dance. So he mumbled about the color of the curtains and the tassels on them.
There. Now he didn't care either.
Except that he did. He especially cared when he felt something pulling on his robes. He looked down and saw a hand.
Hermione's eyes were the color of rust tonight. They were practically sparkling when his eyes reached hers finally. She smiled up at him and tugged once more on his robes. He fully turned around to look at her.
His dress robes for the evening certainly weren't the best of the best, but they fit him almost perfectly now and he still hadn't managed to get any holes in them. But Hermione... her dress was amazing.
He didn't know that she picked it out with him in mind.
It was green, that's all he could really say about it. She looked beautiful. And she was wearing Slytherin green. He got that funny feeling when she smiled again and found that he was smiling back. Even though he had no idea why either of them were smiling when she had rejected his offer to dance.
With that thought, his lips fell into a frown. He watched as hers did the same.
"Oh," was all she said after a moment. Then, "Severus. You think I turned you down? I do want to dance with you! Of course I do. I've-" she hesitated and shyly grinned at him. "I've been wanting you to ask me since we first stepped into the Great Hall."
He so wanted to give her a silly grin of his own, but he held it back just barely. Without sounding like an idiot, he cleared his throat and said, "Well then. Shall we?" He briefly bowed at the waist and held his hand out.
While concentrating on keeping his hand from shaking from nervousness, he almost lost his composure when she put her hand in his.
"I'd love to, Severus." Hermione beamed up at him before adding slyly, "Unless you plan on further examining those lovely curtains."
He couldn't stop the laugh that burst out of him. Gods, he loved her.
They stayed on the edge of the dance floor, out of the way, in their own private little area. He didn't know how close he should be to her, but she decided for them anyway. Her head was resting on his chest and their arms wrapped around each other.
Making sure to keep his hands from roaming into forbidden areas, he finally relaxed and let his chin rest on top of her head.
Both of them closed their eyes and just swayed with the music. Nobody bothered them. Nobody harassed them. It was a perfect little bubble of contentment and peace. It wouldn't last forever, they both knew that.
Except... they didn't know that tonight would just be the beginning of their forever.
Edited: 7/2/14
AN2: Oh Lordy! The cheese of this story! love it! lol Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this mini prequel whatever. I giggled when I thought about young Severus being so nervous that he was testing out the curtains... at a freakin' ball! He's so adorable :)