Upon entering the great hall, the four Gryffindors were greeted with an amazing sight. The candles were still there illuminating the room, however the light wasn't quite as bright, giving the room a more mysterious feel that perfectly matched the Halloween theme. The usual long house tables were gone and in their place were a multitude of smaller round tables. A large space had been left in the centre of the room as a dance floor and this was where most of the Hogwarts students were currently stood mingling.
The group made their way over to the large gathering of students and were greeted rather excitedly. Harry was the focus of most of the attention, not to anyone's surprise, and he was soon overwhelmed by the onslaught of students trying to start up conversations with him. Luckily for him it was at this point that Professor McGonagall stood upon the dais and called for everyone to take their seats.
Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny found their way to a table as the headmistress began her speech. Once she had finished she announced the beginning of the ball which, in true Hogwarts fashion, began with a banquet. The food was predictably delicious but light, leaving the students fully able to dance the night away afterwards. It was during this time that the four friends were finally able to catch up properly.
"So, what's auror training like? Is it as exciting as you imagined?" Ginny asked.
"It's exciting yeah, but a lot of work," Harry replied, "nothing less than I expected though."
"Speak for yourself mate," Ron laughed, piling his plate with food. "It was a bloody shock to me; I'm enjoying the break while I can."
"Well you'd better suck it up, Mum would freak if you suddenly decided to drop out."
"Oh have a bit of faith in your brother would you Ginny? I'm not going to drop out, it might be more work than I thought but it's worth it."
"I know, Sorry Ron." Ginny giggled. "You know we're all proud to have a soon-to-be auror in the family." Ron huffed at this, but his cheeks reddened slightly at her remark.
"So 'Mione, what's it like being back at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, "Not too boring for you I hope."
Hermione looked up from her plate, having been silent throughout the conversation to that point. "Oh, it's not bad at all. It's really nice being back actually, I'm just glad they gave me the chance to be here."
"I still don't know why you didn't just take the NEWTS without going through all the exams," Ron laughed. Hermione sighed having answered the question too many times.
"I just want to feel like I earned them. I can't take them without feeling guilty. Not that I think any less of either of you," she added hurriedly looking from Ron to Harry.
"We know that 'Mione, don't worry." Harry smiled, waving off her concern.
"But surely you know all this stuff inside out by now, how do you not get bored senseless doing the same thing all over again?" Ron mumbled through a mouthful of food. Hermione went to answer but Ginny caught her eye before she could. She had a wicked smile on her face and Hermione suddenly felt very fearful of what her friend had in mind.
"Actually," Ginny began, "Our lovely Hermione here is kept very occupied these days, she's far from bored."
The boys looked from Ginny to Hermione, thoroughly confused. Hermione shot Ginny a glare, but knew her friend was just doing what she couldn't. Getting it over with.
"What the heck does that mean?" Ron asked.
"She means I've taken on extra studies. An apprenticeship to be exact." Hermione fiddled with her serviette, not enjoying the turn the conversation had taken.
"Oh well that's brilliant! Just something we'd expect from our over achiever," Harry joked. "So, who's the lucky professor?"
Silence reigned over the table as Hermione reduced her serviette to a crumpled ball.
"Professor Snape."
More silence. Harry and Ron just stared at their friend, clearly wondering if they heard her right or if they had somehow misheard 'Flitwick' as 'Snape'.
"You've got to be pulling my leg here 'Mione." Ron half laughed, "You are joking, right?"
Hermione shook her head.
"That was my reaction too, but trust me she's serious." Ginny interjected, sipping on her drink.
"But he's a bastard! An absolute arsehole!" Ron looked over to Harry, "come on back me up here mate."
Harry nodded solemnly. "I've got to agree with Ron on this one Hermione. He might have ended up being a good guy but he's still got a rotten attitude."
Hermione sighed, knowing her friends wouldn't be accepting this very quickly but decided to try and show them her point of view.
"I'm not going to deny that he can be a bit abrasive,"
"That's an understatement," Ron choked.
"In your opinion, fine. But you can't deny he's brilliant at what he does. On a purely academic basis Professor Snape was by far the best choice. I can learn so much more from him than anyone else."
"How'd you even get to be his apprentice in the first place? Did you actually go out of your way to spend more time with that greasy git?"
"No, Ron. He asked me. You probably don't know how significant that is but trust me it would have been incredibly idiotic of me to not accept the first apprenticeship he's offered to a student. Ever."
"Well I don't like it. He is a legendary twat and I don't like the idea of you being with him alone for god knows how long."
"What could you possibly be afraid of him doing? He's a professor, Ron. Does that not mean anything to you?"
"He was a death eater, Hermione. How about that? Doesn't that mean anything?"
"Oh for goodness sake, you know as well as anyone else it doesn't. Not anymore." Hermione was feeling thoroughly riled at this point. She was the only one who ever seemed to have any common sense when it came to Professor Snape's allegiance. Thankfully for her the first dances were just beginning and she happily stood from the table to escape into the growing crowd of students on the dance floor.
Well that went brilliantly. But in all honesty Hermione hadn't expected anything less from the boys. They were stubborn. But she knew they'd come around, they'd have to. Hermione took some time to look around the room, wondering if the man himself would have shown up. They had spoken briefly about the ball during their sessions together and he had seemed less than impressed with the idea of chaperoning a bunch of teens at a party. Hermione was sure he would have found an excuse to avoid the festivities all together, however as her eyes swept over the room they landed on the figure of the dark imposing man stood sulking in the corner.
As if sensing her gaze, Professor Snape's eyes snapped up to meet hers with a scowl. She almost felt embarrassed, like she'd been caught staring and so tried to ease the tension by flashing him a small smile. Unsurprisingly he did not return the gesture and instead turned away to continue glaring at the wall.
Hermione sighed and walked fully onto the dance floor as the first dance began. It was a traditional wizarding dance, one that had you spinning around the room from partner to partner. It was fun, the music and rhythmic movements doing wonders to improve her mood. By the time the song was finished she felt much more relaxed and decided to seek out her friends again. This was a night for them all to enjoy together. They wouldn't see each other again until Christmas so she wasn't about to let it go to waste.
When Hermione returned to the table she found only Ron there, swirling his drink.
"Where did Harry and Ginny go?" Ron looked up surprised to see her back so soon.
"They just got up to dance,"
"Oh, okay." She sat down next to him. They sat in silence for a while before Hermione finally spoke again.
"Did you not want to dance?"
"Not right now, no."
"Okay."
They continued to sit there, watching the other students mingle and dance. After a while Hermione sighed, seeing only one way out of the situation.
"I'm sorry Ron, I didn't mean to get so riled up." It sounded forced and Hermione knew it, but Ron relaxed instantly, his face breaking into a grin.
"Don't worry 'Mione, I know you'll come around eventually so you're forgiven."
Hermione bit her tongue to stop herself from shouting at him. The boy really could be dense at times. She watched as he downed the rest of his drink and stood up, offering her his hand.
"Think I'm ready for a dance now," he declared, pulling her up from her seat and dragging her back to the dance floor. They found a space just as a new song began to play and he pulled her into a ballroom position.
They swayed to the music amid the sea of students, and it was nice. Hermione enjoyed the dancing and she found her irritation falling with each step. However, her peace did not last long as she felt Ron's hand slowly slipping lower down her back. And that didn't feel right at all.
Hermione tensed, jarring the two from their rhythm.
"Are you alright 'Mione?" Ron asked concerned.
"Um, yeah. Fine." She answered hesitantly.
"You don't sound fine. You in pain? Need to sit down?" He started looking her over as if to find an injury of some sort.
"No, no really. I um, you know what I just don't really feel up to dancing anymore."
"But we only just started," Ron looked dejected and held onto her tighter.
"Yeah I know, I'm sorry I just need to sit down I think." She tried to break free of his grasp but he wouldn't let go.
"'Mione come on, just 'til the end of the song at least," he protested.
"Please Ron, I'm just not up for it anymore okay?"
But Ron still held on tightly forcing her to tear herself away from his tight grip, leaving her arms reddened from the friction, and hurried away from the dance floor towards the edge of the hall. She skulked into the shadows and tried to be as invisible as possible.
Well that was brilliant, well done Hermione.
She huffed slightly, catching her breath and looked around to make sure she had escaped unseen. Hermione slumped against the cold stone wall and let out a long sigh.
What am I going to do?
Hermione tried to gather her thoughts and work out exactly what just happened to make her react in such a way. Dancing with Ron had been nice, enjoyable even. But then he had to try and make a move. The couple had never gone much further than holding hands and even that had felt unnatural for Hermione, she supposed it was no real surprise that him trying to cop a feel was even more uncomfortable. Pieces were finally fitting together in Hermione's head that she'd tried to keep far apart. She didn't love Ron. Not in that way. Like a brother, like a close friend? Yes, definitely, but not as a lover.
But why did she have to run away? It only made the situation worse on both of them. How could she possibly tell him she wanted to break up? It could shatter their friendship, and if she lost Ron, she'd lose Harry too. If things got messy she could end up with no friends left. She had to do it, but how? It had to be soon, she knew that. It would only hurt him more to drag it out for longer than was necessary.
Tomorrow. She'd do it tomorrow, in the morning just before he leaves. That would be best.
Hermione, now set on her decision, straightened herself and decided to head out of the hall for some fresh air before joining her friends again. She began to move towards the doors of the great hall, hugging the walls to keep in the shadows. She kept an eye on the room to make sure no one saw her but in doing so failed to see the large black shape also taking refuge in the shadows and bumped straight into it.
Hermione jumped and let out a small shriek, quickly turning to see what she'd ran into only to meet the eyes of a thoroughly disgruntled Professor Snape.
"Miss Granger." He said, his voice dangerously low, "What are you doing skulking about in the shadows?"
"Professor! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!"
"Clearly" Snape glared at her.
"I was just making my way to the door, I, um, needed some air."
"And practically scraping yourself along the walls was the most convenient way you saw of doing that?"
Hermione scrambled for an explanation but came up empty handed."
"Do I need to worry about my apprentice getting up to no good? I won't tolerate any kind of trouble making, though I suppose I should have expected it with those idiotic friends of yours returning. Though I see they are strangely absent at this moment. Planning schemes all by yourself now?"
"No, of course not! I really was just getting some air, I just needed to be aloneā¦" she trailed off rather weakly.
Snape appraised her for a few moments, gauging her sincerity before his eyes landed on her reddened arms, bruises now clearly showing finger marks where Ron had held onto her.
"What happened to your arms, Miss Granger?"
Hermione immediately attempted to cover her arms with her hands looking to see that they were indeed rather noticeable. "Nothing, it's nothing."
"It certainly does not look like nothing. Come with me, you should apply some bruise paste immediately." Snape took her arm, firmly but gentle enough to not cause further harm, and proceeded to march her from the great hall.
"Professor please that's not necessary," Hermione protested, but it did nothing to deter the potions master.
As the two reached the doors Hermione heard Ron calling out from behind her, but she was unable to acknowledge him in any way as Snape had already dragged her around the corner in the direction of the dungeons.
"Please, Professor Snape it really is nothing. I have bruise paste of my own in my room, or I could get some from the infirmary."
Snape huffed at this, "Yes but my own works much more effectively. Unless, of course, you wish to spend the rest of the night with those marks on your arms." He paused before continuing, softer this time, "I also need to talk with you about those marks, Miss Granger. It is a serious matter for a student to harm another."
Hermione hung her head, understanding how bad it looked, and allowed herself to be lead the rest of the way to the Professor's office. This was not a conversation she looked forward to.
