The Final Dance
Severus scowled and wrapped his black robes around himself more firmly as he gazed out upon all of the students: dancing, lifting one another up into the air, laughing. He detested what he'd never known and despised watching it but Dumbledore had insisted and Severus couldn't help but remember that time when the headmaster had saved him from the darkness, the darkness which he'd been drawn to since all of the trouble with Lily. He'd been so lost then; Rejected by everyone. Even now he felt alone, as though there was no one who wanted him, no one who cared if he lived or died, no one who loved him. That's why he was bitter. It was a mask for the pain.
He saw, out of the corner of his eye, someone approaching him and he stepped back further into the dark corner, attempting to escape their notice. Unluckily for him however it was Minerva and her cat eyes never missed anything. He soon found her standing beside him, gazing out over the floor with him.
"Why don't you have a dance Severus?"
He turned to her, a dark smile lighting up his lips. "There is no one to dance with."
"Dance with me then."
Severus turned back to the floor. "The Headmaster will be over soon to dance with you and I know that's who you really want to dance with."
He saw Minerva blush out of the corner of his eye. So it was true that age made no difference. Minerva had thought that her blossoming romance with the Headmaster had gone unnoticed. Not by Severus, who was always watching, always conscious of what was going on in the lives of those he chose to surround himself with. Even then it was more like a play that he was obliged to sit back and watch, something he had no involvement in himself.
"I'm sure there are other members of staff who would like to dance with you."
"Such as whom?"
"Sybill is standing by herself, why don't you ask her to dance?"
Severus turned to Minerva with wide eyes. "You can't honestly be serious Minerva."
"Well what about one of the students. I'm sure the Headmaster wouldn't mind on this occasion."
"Minerva." Severus' empty, dark eyes stared into her own and a false, sad smile played upon his lips. "Do you honestly think that even if I felt inclined to dance with a student that they would volunteer to dance with me?"
Minerva's heart slumped in her chest as she looked at this poor man, so much younger than he would have anyone believe, broken by rejection and loneliness. If anyone needed love, it was him. She was not the one to give it to him though. She had to stand by and watch this man, so much like a son to her, suffer alone.
Dumbledore arrived then and with one more sad smile from both parties, Minerva was whisked away and Severus was left alone in his dark corner once more, a dark blot on the edge of colourful festivities.
Hermione took one more deep breath as she stood at the top of the grand staircase, trying to fill herself with the strength for what she was about to do. She knew that this was the only opportunity she was ever going to get and that she looked at beautiful as she was ever going to look. Her hair had been magically done, her make-up and her dress: long, blue and sparkling that hung down to the floor.
The song started playing and she knew that soon it would be time:
And dance
Your final dance
This is
Your final chance
Slowly, she bent her head around the corner. Yes, there he was, standing directly across from the staircase on the other side of the room. All dressed in his black garb. Even from here, she could see the sad, empty look in his black eyes. If you looked past the anger it was always there. She just guessed that no one had ever noticed it but her.
To hold
The one you love
You know you've waited long enough
With one last silent prayer she stepped out from behind the corner and stood at the top of the staircase, smiling down at him, across the floor filled with dancers.
So believe that magic works
He noticed her then. His eyes opened wide with shock as he saw the young woman standing at the top of the stairs, a nervous smile playing upon her pink lips and her eyes twinkling with mirth and what else? Love? He didn't believe that she was looking at him but she was, staring straight at him, over the tops of the dancers who were oblivious to what was happening on either side of them.
She began to descend the stairs then, never taking her eyes off him, never breaking that invisible connection.
Don't be afraid
Of being hurt
Don't let
This magic die
She had crossed the floor and was very close to him now. Their eyes had never left each other and he could see for certain now that there was something for him hidden in her eyes that he had never seen before. It was the way Minerva looked at Dumbledore, with that quiet intensity.
The answer's there
Oh, just look in her eyes
She stood very close to him and tilted her head up to him so that they could maintain eye contact. She whispered to him: "Professor?" Without waiting for an answer she took first one of his hands and then the other and then started slowly leading him onto the floor, backwards, with her eyes still glinting as they stared into his own. His own eyes never left her.
And make
Your final move
Mmm, don't be scared
She broke eye contact for one second as she glanced behind herself to see where she was leading him onto the edge of the dance floor. This only intensified the contact when she resumed eye contact once again.
She'll want you too
Slowly, she released his right hand, so that he led her onto the floor, her right hand in his left. Still, their eyes never lost one another. Slowly, as they parted the crowd to reach the middle of the floor, couples began to stop dancing, to turn and stare at the rare spectacle before them but they never noticed. To them, there was only each other.
Yeah, it's hard
You must be brave
Don't let this moment slip away
Slowly, Severus raised his right hand and placed it upon the small of her back. Her dress was cut low at the back and so his fingers touched upon bare skin. Hermione closed her eyes momentarily at the ecstasy that travelled up her spine at his touch before placing her left hand gently upon his right shoulder. Then with one more soft pull to close the space between them, he began to lead her around the floor.
Believe that magic works
Don't be afraid
Afraid of being hurt
The other dancers watched happily as their Potions Master led one of their peers around the floor. Hermione smiled up at him as she let him direct her body and to everyone's utter amazement, he smiled back. It wasn't anything big but it was a small, happy smile, not a smile of sarcasm or at someone else's pain but real, genuine joy at the situation he currently found himself in and joy of such magnitude from someone it was so usually absent from reciprocated around the room.
No, don't let
This magic die
Oh, the answer's there
Yeah, just look in her eyes
The potion's master got a little extravagant then. Taking her left hand which currently sat on his shoulder in the hand which had held her back, he let go of her right hand and spun her away from him, her left hand still tightly clenched in his own. Then he spun her back to face him again. A firm smile was etched in her face. She was enjoying herself.
And don't believe that magic can die
He took her right hand in his left and twirled her first to his right and then to his left. Then their hands broke contact.
No, no, no, this magic can't die
Everyone in the room held their breath as the couple stood staring at one another, their chests rising and falling from the exertion. Then she held out her right hand again and he took it in his left, pulled her in towards himself and twirled her again, to the right and then the left.
So dance
Your final dance
Then back in towards himself again. He spun her away from him again to his right then back in towards him so that she faced him, half a foot away from his chest in its black, buttoned frock-coat.
'Cause this is
He dipped her, his right arm supporting her back and her right hand still firmly clenched in his left, her torso bent over her and his eyes still intent upon her before he pulled her back up to face him, her chin tilted up so that a short, diagonal line could be traced between her lips and his own.
Your final chance…
The song faded out to a finish as the couple still stood staring into one another's eyes, eagerly desiring to be certain of what lay in the others' but suspecting just the same that it was what they dreamed it to be.
After a moment, they noticed for the first time the multitudes of people that stood staring at them and he took her hand once more to lead her off the floor and over to a table, where he asked her to sit and offered to get her a drink. She still sat smiling at him after he had gone and when he returned, they sat and talked and laughed and said things with their eyes that their lips dared not.
Minerva looked on happier than she had ever remembered being, aside from the first time Albus had kissed her in his office on Christmas Eve. Her heart lifted to see Severus finally happy and she grinned even more when she considered the number of weeks that lay until Hermione would no longer be a student. Minerva decided that she would most definitely be her favourite student from now on.
She felt movement beside her. "Do you remember the first time you looked at me like that?" Albus asked.
Minerva smiled to herself. "How could I forget?"