Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or world of Harry Potter that JKR so eloquently created.
Professor Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardry was even more crafty than Albus Dumbledore, but in a more amicable way; if she did say so herself.
She was trying her hand at matchmaking, and it was dangerous for the two people involved, seeing as one was a warm hearted fragile woman that wanted to help everyone around her, especially the snarky man that she had risked her life to save seven years ago during the fall of Voldemort.
Hermione Granger, in her third year of teaching Transfigurations, had a heart to heart with her former head of house. Minerva had been gently trying to pry out of Hermione what was bothering her, seeing that the first year she had taught at Hogwarts she had had such fire and passion in her, and over the past two years she had seen it slowly ebb away. The dear girl had been sitting in her office when Minerva walked in for tea. She had her head down on her desk, and when she lifted it, the elder woman could see faint tear tracks upon her cheeks. With little provocation, Hermione had confessed to saving Severus Snape, much to the obvious dismay of the man. She had broken down and told Minerva of her, first, respect for him, second, admiration for all that he had done and his skill, and now some sort of an affection for the man that was bordering on love.
And at seeing the girl's sadness, and repentance for her good deed, Minerva had to intervene. The Headmistress had nearly gone and yelled at Severus for his insensitivity, but decided to make Severus see Hermione as the adorable, intelligent and witty witch that she was. And prove to both parties that Severus' survival was a good thing for them.
So, a masquerade Yule ball, where she herself would pair up the faculty and the few guests that would be attending, and they had no idea who it was that they were paired with. But, of course, knowing Hermione and Severus as she did, they would most likely want to keep their identities a secret. Therefore the stipulation that all teachers must stay to clean up and the enchantments that changed their appearance would end at midnight, half an hour before the dance ended, ensuring that they found out whom they had spent the evening with. Hopefully they realized through out the ball that they had more in common, so that when they saw who it was, they would be able to drop the pretences and berating, and start having a slightly functioning relationship.
The adults would all be dressing as fictional characters from muggle classical literature, and Minerva herself would be assigning the book to each of the teacher pairs. She planed on giving the book "Pride and Prejudice" to Hermione and Severus, hoping that it would give each of them a hint as to where their relationship should go, according to the Headmistress.
Yes, tonight's dance would go very well, Minerva hoped.
Reviews are Love
This is an old story that I found on my hard drive that I decided to fix up a little and post for all of you lovely people. As reviews come in, I may edit some of the content before I post the next chapter. But the story is completely written and will be around ten chapters, one chapter a day. Enjoy!