Minerva McGonagall headed for the dungeons with her mind set. She was going to turn Severus into the handsomest man in the room tonight and, even better, nobody would recognize him. She reached his door and knocked crisply.
"Who is it and what do you want?" a grumpy voice echoed from within.
Without hesitation, Minerva walked right on in without a formal invitation from Severus. "Have you forgotten already, Severus? I'm here to masquerade you for the ball tonight."
She found him lounging in a chair reading a thick, heavy book. "I had hoped you were merely joking about that, Minerva."
"Nonsense. Now stand up and let's get started."
Severus begrudgingly agreed and let the torture begin. For his disguise she had planned for him to appear as a 7th Year. In no time at all, even the professors would have been fooled by him. Placing a charm to make certain the costume stayed place until midnight might have been a bit much, but she wasn't taking any chances. Furthermore, Minerva wasn't finished yet. She had a few more things to take care of. Before he knew what hit him, Minerva had placed several well aimed charms. She smiled to herself. At least she would be somewhat pleasant and lift these charms when he was doing what he was supposed to do that night.
Severus Snape was annoyed to say the least. Minerva had gone way out of line with her "disguising." He was totally unrecognizable – he could pass for one of the students in fact. And even worse, Minerva had placed an un-removable spell on the entire costume that wouldn't wear off until midnight.
But no, the witch had not stopped there. Before he could protest, she had placed several complex charms on him. As he stared at her with his mouth open, he managed to question her as to what exactly she had just done.
"Oh, nothing really. I just made sure that you would dance a few times tonight."
A few times was an understatement. Minerva's charm had made damned sure that he danced with somebody every twenty minutes. Minerva danced with him once, but afterwards turned him down saying, "Go find some nice young witch to dance with, Severus." There was that emphasis on 'young' again. She knew, didn't she?
He danced with Professors Sinistra, Pomfrey, Hooch, and Sprout, but even after all that, only an hour and a half had passed. There was still at least two more hours of this torture and none of them would dance a second time.
He meandered over to the punch table to get a drink before the charm triggered him to ask somebody else. So far, he had asked someone to dance plenty within the allotted twenty minutes. Snape knew better than to let the time run up and see what Minerva had in store for him.
As he made a quick glance over the room, he quickly found a girl who wasn't hideous and promptly made his way over to dance with her. Lucky for him, the next song was rather short and he was free for another twenty minutes. He would have to find an awful curse to place upon Minerva, maybe even one that could last all summer to pay her back for this.
Too soon his twenty minutes were up and he almost grabbed a girl and dragged her out onto the dance floor. Unfortunately for him, this was a long slow song and he found his thoughts drifting to inappropriate places. I should think dancing with Hermione would be something different than dancing with this girl. She would engage her partner in stimulating conversation between dances. And she would be so soft and warm to hold while swaying back and forth. A sudden upbeat drum set interrupted his thoughts as the song changed. He hastily bowed to his partner and stormed off. He should not be thinking like that at all, but ever since that detention he couldn't stop thinking about her. Even after witnessing the kiss between her and Weasley, some small part of him hoped it hadn't meant anything to her.
This is foolishness, he thought to himself. He repeated the mantra he had been trying to drill into his head like a broken record. She is a student; I am a teacher. She is a student; I am a teacher. And it would work for awhile.
Until that little voice spoke up and ruined it. Not for much longer.
He growled in frustration causing confused looks from a nearby couple. Snape tried his famous sneer, but it was to no avail. Without the greasy black hair, the pointed nose, and billowing robes, it just didn't work.
Wanting to sit down before having to get up and dance again, Snape searched for an empty table, but there was none to be found. He finally settled on one in the corner of the room that only had one girl sitting at it. He felt a strange pull towards this table after he set his eyes on it. Nonsense. At any rate, she could be his next dance. Heck, if he was lucky, maybe she wouldn't mind dancing with him the rest of the night.
Though he could have approached her silently, he purposefully made some noise so as not to frighten her. She curiously looked up to see who it was, but made no effort to talk to him or anything of the sort. Very out of character for him, he said hello to her.
She said hello back, but did not attempt to continue the conversation. They sat in awkward silence for a minute. She's very beautiful, he thought to himself.
Tell her that, commented that voice in his head. Perhaps this voice had a point. He could be a student once again. Nobody knew who he was here. Maybe for just one night he could forget that he was the Greasy Bat of the Dungeons or Snivellus. He could be normal.
And you can pretend that she's Hermione, that sly voice interjected.
Shaking his head to try and rid himself of the irritating voice, he turned to the girl. "You look very lovely tonight."
The girl turned to him with surprise written in her face. A blush crept up on her cheeks. "Well, thank you. Are you enjoying the masquerade?"
The compliment seemed to work, Snape thought. She's started to talk now, but what answer should I give? Yes, or no? "It's been alright so far. The concept of a masquerade is an interesting choice. For all we know right now, you could be a Gryffindor and I, a Slytherin. An interesting situation we could be in come midnight."
This seemed to spark an interest in the girl and she started off into a multitude of what-ifs. Severus found these interesting for awhile, but then he realized that his twenty minutes was close to being up. He didn't want to appear rude and ask her to dance by interrupting her, but every time he thought she was finished, she jumped into something else before he could get a word in edgewise.
While she babbled, he wondered who the girl was. When he attempted to use Legimency on her, he got no reading whatsoever. She must be using Occlumency. She's skilled to be blocking her mind so well while going on and on about this Slytherin and Gryffindor mess.
Finally, with a minute to go, she reached for her glass to take a sip of punch. Severus leaped at the opportunity. "Would you like to dance?"
She smiled and accepted immediately. They made their way to the dance floor and Severus noticed the surprise on her face when he took her right hand in his left the old fashioned way to dance. The song following was another slow couples dance, but Severus found that he didn't mind so much. She continued to talk, but they soon found themselves talking on other fascinating subjects. Potions, Arithmancy, and countless other theoretical topics graced their lips for many dances following that one. When they grew weary, they absentmindedly began strolling about the gardens never ceasing conversation, nor noticing that their hands were still entwined together.
The two finally settled on a bench surrounded by rose bushes. Snape was dumbfounded by this girl. Throughout the conversation his mind wandered to who it could be. Surely there was only one student, but dare he dream it was her? Surely not. It was probably some alumni the Headmaster had invited.
Their talking slowed as they let themselves sit in a comfortable silence. Severus allowed himself to gaze at the stars and noticed one shoot across the sky as the clock struck twelve.
Minerva smiled to herself. She had lifted the twenty minute curse when she noticed Severus and Hermione leave the hall for the garden hand in hand. If we're lucky, the graduation this year could prove interesting.
A/N: Many of you have commented on how our two heroes might have recognized each other. Well, Minerva and Hermione each were dead-set on completely disguising the two love-struck protagonists respectively. Voices were changed, facial bone structure; anything you can think of was charmed to appear different.
I'm sorry to those of you who were hoping to find out what happens when the clock strikes 12 (so Cinderella-ish . . .), but I thought it would be interesting to do a chapter on each person's point of view. I quite like the way it worked out. Hopefully the next chapter will be out before the New Year. (Hopefully!)
With that being said, I wish everybody a very Merry (Happy) Christmas and Happy Holidays!