The Law of Unintended Consequences

Chapter 11

Of Dresses and Schemes

A new threat emerges...

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.

Four Days Later Wednesday December 12th, 1974

Severus swore as he bundled himself to go to Hogsmeade; he was sure that, sometime in the past four days, someone had had to have used the Imperius curse on him to make him be so stupid as to agree to help Lily shop for a dress for James-bloody-Potter. 'Why the hell did I agree with her!? CURSE that infernal, pleading look of hers! It should be outlawed if it was strong enough to make me want to help her clothes-shop for her to IMPRESS POTTER!' After uttering a string of curses in such profusion that he was sure that, if Slughorn had heard, he would have had detention that night for sure, he calmed himself down.

'OK, don't forget, you are the Half-Blood Prince; you MIGHT lose the battle, but this is not a battle like those arrogant dunderheads think, but rather a war. As Potter clearly has made an advance in gaining Lily's affections, it is time for me to counter it with a move of my own to gain her interest.' He then sighed, cursing mentally. 'It appears that I can no longer afford to go on waiting for her to wise up or me to work up the nerve, rather I must show her just how much that she means to me. Otherwise, I could lose any chance before it begins.' He grimaced as he pictured him waiting until the point that he confessed to her and she showed her wedding ring.

'OK, before I do that though, there are some preliminary moves I can do; Black was stupid to try to make someone jealous by using a girl, but there is nothing wrong with trying to show off my best side at the ball. I suspect that Mary Macdonald might be willing to go with me as friends, just to avoid having to deal with Black's so-called 'wooing', so I shall ask her to go with me I believe.'

Severus then said aloud, "No matter what, I will not miss the ball this weekend, even if I have to go without a date."

He heard a chuckle behind him and swore under his breath as he realized that Arcturus had heard him, then Arcturus said to his surprise, "Severus, the reason I laugh is because the idea of you being unable to find a date for the ball this weekend is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Even though we didn't exactly announce it to the rest of our house, everyone has a pretty good idea of what happened the weekend before last; your popularity is most assuredly on the rise, you can be sure."

Severus raised his eyebrow, then said sarcastically, "Really? And I suppose that practically every woman in Slytherin is interested in taking me to the dance, but was too shy to say..."

Arcturus chuckled, then replied, "Close, but not quite. Most of them just pieced it together over the last couple of days, so they haven't really gotten interested until now, but still, I myself have a good five witches who told me that they would be willing to pay good galleons if I were to take them to the ball Saturday, and those are just the ones who went up to me."

He then continued with a sigh, "Unfortunately, I think that you got the best of the lot aiming after you; you know Lucius' cousin? Selene?"

Severus thought for a moment. "Hmm, long blond hair, blue eyes, large breasts and a near-permenant false smile?"

Arcturus laughed. "That's the one! Word in the dorms is that she is seriously interested in you for some reason, although I am unsure why she is so interested. It certainly can't be your personality"

As Severus sneered, faking fury, he thought to himself. 'Interesting, although it is merely for social climbing, it would certainly give me someone to take to the ball if Mary doesn't want to go. It certainly wouldn't make me feel guilty, as they would be using me as much as I would be using them, UNLIKE what that blasted Black did to that Sabrina girl! It is strange though that Selene would be interested in me, even considering my newfound popularity. I had better be careful...'

James was pleased as he thought about the little trick he had done yesterday; he had been studying for a History of Magic exam when he overheard Mary and Lily conversing about a topic that he found quite interesting. Apparently, the two of them had been planning a little shopping trip in Hogsmeade today, and they had been talking about the dresses that they would be purchasing for the ball, but, unfortunately for them, said dresses weren't cheap at all. James immediately owled the only major provider of fine evening-wear, Lady Bella's, and let them know that any purchases made by Lily Evans, Mary Macdonald, Sabrina Percival and Severus Snape were to be billed to the Potter account in Gringotts.

He knew that including Mary and Severus on the list would definitely make Lily happier, and the fact of the matter was that he felt guilty about what Sirius had done to Sabrina; she had been bawling her eyes out for two days after he dumped her. Apparently, she had truly loved him after all, so he felt it was only fitting that he make it up to her for the rudeness of his best mate. As for Mary and Severus, he knew that Lily would have purchased the clothes for them anyway in her name, so it was no real additional cost for him to include them as well, and Lily would likely be impressed.

'Heh, besides, it will be extremely funny when they find out just what Ms. Macdonald has planned for her so called friend; now there's a true Gryffindor girl who knows the way things work!'

Flashback Three Days ago Sunday December 9th, 1974:

James watched as Sirius finished explaining the most ridiculous and complicated revenge plan he had ever heard of to Mary, who had long ago placed her finger to her lips and frowned deeply in concentration. Finally, she adopted an almost unreadable expression and said calmly,

"So Black, let me get this straight. The point of this is, I tell Severus that I will be attending the ball with him, but I will really be letting you take me there, correct?"

Sirius grinned, then replied while nodding, "Yes it is my dear Margaret Macdonald; I know that you are still mad at me for the 'incident' with Sabrina, but this is an excellant opportunity for us to get vengeance upon the prick that deserves it, so what do you say to it?"

Mary smiled mischieviously, then said, "Well, I wasn't sure, but I think that I will have to accept your offer." She then said politely, "Would you like to meet me at the entrance to the common room Saturday at 7 so that you can take me to the ball?"

Sirius only grabbed her hand, kissed it and grinned while saying, "I would be delighted, dear Margaret, to accept your offer!"

End Flashback:

James smirked; he could hardly wait until Saturday, when Severus would get all dressed up to take Mary to the ball, only to be informed in front of the whole school that she had actually chosen to go with Sirius instead, even though he had used her friend to try to make Mary jealous. 'It will positively KILL him, the greasy git! Saturday should be a night to remember, and the best part is that my generosity to Severus will only make it funnier when it all goes to hell around him!'

He chuckled some more as he and his fellow Marauders slowly walked along the road to Hogsmeade, thrilled at the thought of being able to help Lily and make Severus' life hell simultaneously...

Mary giggled as she watched the look on Severus' face; he was learning the 'joys' of shopping with girls. He had a nearly permenant scowl on his face and was complaining constantly with one-liners like "Huh, I must have shrunken a good three feet, because clearly you think I am a house elf!", "Before you ask me if I want to go into that next shop, my answer is 'NO!', so go ahead and ignore me, like before..." and "I wish I had a time-turner so I could go back and KILL the MORON who invented SHOPPING!"; it was really quite amusing.

Luckily, as a wizard, he had access to lightening spells, as the two decided to shop for everything else they could before coming back to the dresses. Mary wondered how he would have survived if he had had to carry all the parcels and bags that they had purchased in addition to being nearly bored stiff by listening them compare merits of various shoe styles and types. Then she remembered that she had had another point to going on this trip with the two of them beyond shopping for the various accessories and such necessary for the dress.

'Mary, focus; unfortunately, Severus is more than a little thick when it comes to the affections of girls who aren't Lily...or girls who are. This means that anything subtle will be less than useless. As such, I need to both demonstrate to him that I am sexy and unattached, and that I want HIM in particular to ask me to the ball.' Casting her eyes around for an idea, she smirked as she saw a particular store. 'Perfect.' She then said aloud,

"Hey guys, mind if we go in there? I was wondering if I could pick up something to go with my dress."

Lily then whispered back at her, "Are you sure that you want to go with Sev into a lingerie shop? I mean, he is a guy after all."

Mary mouthed "I know." back at her and grinned as, for once, Severus showed no signs of complaining about going into a different shop. 'Now then, I have to make it obvious that I am interested, but not make it seem like I am a tramp, so I will have to do this just so...' Batting her eyelashes at Severus and bending toward him a little, she then asked him casually,

"So, Severus, do you have a date to the dance yet?"

Severus, sighing in relief as he was able to sit down on a chair and put down the bags, looked back at her and colored slightly, seeming to have some difficulty avoiding trying to look down the front of her shirt, then he said, "No, but Arcturus said that apparently there are a lot of girls in my house who would like to go with me thanks to our little escapade. Apparently, I have become somewhat popular or something."

Mary had to bite back a groan at the sound of that; if she didn't get him to ask her soon, then he would probably end up thinking that he had no real chance to avoid going alone, and take one of those Slytherin popularity whores. 'Just great, in addition to the fact that he clearly thinks that Lily is a goddess, I have to deal with all of these other women who only care about how popular he is.' Deciding to step her game up a notch, she continued,

"Yeah, I've been having difficulty finding a date...who isn't a toerag. Apparently, Black decided to place some sort of claim on me a while back, and that means that no-one in Gryffindor house is willing to take me to the ball, or anywhere for that matter. You see, he threatened to do very disturbing things to them involving an oven, three house elves, and dinner at the great hall, so they figured that there were better options elsewhere. In any case," Mary held up a pair of silk bras with a lot of lace, making sure the listed size was clearly visible from his perspective. "which of these two do you think is better? Personally, I think I prefer the black one, but which would you like to see me wear to the ball?"

He blushed beet-red and started muttering aloud, "Black...eh...red...32C...uhhhh."

Mary fought back a smile. 'That should definitely do the trick, at least once he stops mumbling like that.' Turning, happy now that she figured that her prey had been caught, she asked Lily,

"So, did you want to get anything Lily?"

Lily seemed to think for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah, I think I am going to go without, you know one of those sorts of dresses where you don't need or want a bra? I think I'll go with that."

As Severus' eyes bugged out, Mary cursed mentally. 'Well, that was definitely a mistake. He will probably start drooling any moment now from trying to picture her sans-bra. Mary you are such a genius! NOT!' Trying to distract him, she said quickly,

"Uh, let's make our purchases and finish up on our list of things to buy. I think the only thing left is the dress, right?"

After the other two nodded, Mary quickly did so and the three of them started walking to Lady Bella's. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Mary noticed someone running out of an alleyway. Turning to get a better look, she managed to catch a look of the girl, just before she ran into Severus, sending them both crashing into the ground. 'Oh great, Selene...'

Lily chuckled as Severus fell beside her onto the soft snow in the streets with a thud, then she realized why and scowled. She certainly remembered Selene Malfoy, who was currently a Slytherin fifth-year; while she never became a Death Eater officially, she had been more harmful to the cause of the light than ten of them. As practiced as her cousin was at the art of political manipulation, she had a talent for it that seemed to defy all logic.

Selene systematically made more and more jinxes and curses illegal, something which wouldn't affect the Death Eaters much, but would decrease the combat capabilities of the non-auror Order of the Phoenix members, while doing her best to impede any Order initiatives in the government and finding as many loopholes as possible to arrest all the Order and Ministry combatants that she possibly could. By one estimation, she had managed to single-handily reduce the number of Order combatants by 25% and Ministry combatants by 10% by having them all chucked into Azkaban for various accidental crimes. If one treated them as effective kills, she had, on her own, killed more members of the side of the Light than anyone but Voldemort himself.

In addition to her skills at political manipulation, Selene was also very attractive, even at this young age; she was medium height, slender, had long blond hair, clear blue eyes, a chest in her teens that, even in her adulthood, Lily had envied, and the ability to win over members of the opposite sex that was difficult to match. To make matters worse, she had conveniently fallen on top of Severus, and even now, had her bountiful chest pressed up right against his. Lily then said waspishly, "So Malfoy, are you too heavy to get back up?"

Selene, smiling lightly, got up slowly, then said, "So Severus, how have you been doing? I heard that you managed to brew your Blood-Replenishing potion for Professor Slughorn's class so well, that he wanted to send your recipe to the editors of the book so that they could include it in the next edition."

Lily grinned as, to his credit, Severus said, while getting up,"That was an exaggeration; now, if you will excuse me..."

Selene quickly continued, "I was wondering if you had managed to find yourself someone to go to the ball with you this weekend, because I have been looking for someone intelligent and handsome..." She batted her eyelashes at the last bit, but Severus said coldly in response,

"Listen, Mal-Selene. I am rather busy at the moment, so if you would allow me to get going, there is some shopping that my friends and I are doing together..." He gave a quick, pointed look at Mary and Lily as he said this.

Mary and Lily, with identical smirks, took the cue and said, "So sorry Selene, but we MUST be going. Goodbye now!"

Selene grimaced, but allowed the two girls to lead Severus away, while calling out, "Well, I guess I will see you later Sev-er-us!"

Upon making their way inside Lady Bella's, Mary and Lily started modeling dresses for each other and Severus. Lily was having a bit of difficulty, although Mary seemed to have made her choice relatively quickly, choosing a modest silver dress, which nonetheless managed to show off her legs to great effect.

'Hmm, this one looks nice I think; green to match my eyes, and shoulderless to boot. I'll bet that James' jaw will impact the floor at mach one when he sees me in this!'. When she was coming out again, preparing to model yet another dress for them, hoping that this one would be the one to knock James' socks off, she heard Severus speaking.

"...Would you like to go to the ball wi..."

Upon hearing that, Lily was instantly struck with a sense of nausea, and, running back into the dressing room, she plugged her ears and started humming loudly so that she didn't have to listen. 'Ugh! I do NOT want to hear that...'

Severus snarled as he returned to the castle; Mary and Lily had wanted to spend a little more time in Hogsmeade, but he had things to consider. 'Curse that POTTER! I KNOW that he has something up his sleeve, but why would he help me pay for my formal-wear?' He had been seriously annoyed when he found out that Potter had impressed Lily greatly by setting it up so that her dress, and her friends clothes, were all free. Severus would have probably tried to break Potter's bank, but didn't want to get Lily angry, so he only bought the robes he planned to wear to the ball, and a couple of relatively cheap ones for normal usage.

He still couldn't figure out why James had been so helpful, but he was definitely suspicious of him, and Selene as well. She was well-known in Slytherin as a mover and shaker, and he knew that she never did anything for somebody else's benefit, unless it was Lucius' idea. There were certain rumors going around that she liked her cousin as much more than a cousin, but the marriage to Narcissa had put a stop to her plans. They were probably false, but it was certainly known that she adored her cousin and would do just about anything he asked. Severus considered dealing with her as a very bad thing, as she was very tricky.

His thoughts at the moment were put to rest, when suddenly he saw the malfoy's screech owl, Odin, streaking towards him, letter in hand. Getting the chills for some reason, he opened the letter.

Dear Severus...

Author's Notes: Ooh! cliffhanger! I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, and don't hate me for adding yet another OC to my fic.