Tiniest Wish: Pas de Trois, Part 21.

Rating: G

Summary: Severus has made big changes in our little waif's life but has he made enough changes? And… how far will new friendships go to further these changes? Italics – flashback.

I wish to extend a cordial invitation to attend the Globe Theater in London
for the night of July thirty-first, from six pm to the natural end of the festivities.

We will be celebrating the twelfth anniversary of the birth of your student,
Harold James Potter, Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter.
The young lord's birthday party will be celebrated with a costume ball highlighting
the ballet recital of young Lord Potter and his companion, the young Lord Malfoy.

They will be performing the battle scene between the Nutcracker Prince
and the Rat King, with the guest of honor performing the title role.

In light of this, if it is to your convenience to attend, please RSVP
by visiting Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley to be fitted for your costume.

Yours Sincerely,
Lady Narcissa Malfoy

Pas de Trois

Fumbling with the chinstrap of the odd tall that Lady Malfoy had called a shako, Harry tried to still his expression to hide his nervousness as the ghostly make up artist finished putting on the last touches to his make up. It wasn't the ghost that was making him nervous though. In his first year at Hogwarts, Harry had become accustomed to seeing ghosts, though never this close up, and he'd never been touched by one before, which was a funny, chilling kind of feeling that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Kind of like the way he felt about his birthday party.

He was thrilled that she would want to throw one for him, and touched that she went to so much trouble, but that worried him a little too. No, that worried him a lot. She had gone to a lot of trouble, and even rented a stage for him and Draco to dance on. What if no one came? Outside of his suitemates, he really couldn't say that he had too many friends. Not that any of his year mates or even the older students treated him like the kids had at the muggle school he had attended with his cousin, it was just something about being in dorms and houses. People from different houses didn't seem to want to spend time with each other, and a lot of them really didn't treat the other kids in his house well. So, he really didn't think anyone would show up except maybe his aunt, uncle, and cousin, who wouldn't miss a chance at a free dinner, even if it was for his birthday.

He thought Professor Snape might, too; he hoped he would, but when the professor visited he had said that there was quite a bit to get done before the beginning of school, so Harry had been afraid to ask him to take more time off than he already had. As it was, the Professor had already taken the extra time to check on Ahhsitha just because Harry had asked him, too.

"Young Sir, if you continue to readjust the chin strap, I will have to continue to re-apply your make up giving me no time to spend on your companions'." The ghost chastised softly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Harry blushed and jerked his hand away."

"It is no trouble; I am after all a professional. I have been preparing actors and dancers to step out on the stage for over four hundred years, and have seen many far more nervous than you."

"You have?"

"Of course. There have been many young actors to grace this stage with hands so sweaty that they could not hold the rails to climb the steps. Others were so frightened that they took to drink before they mounted the stage, and so some of the finest tragedies became sad comedies, and greatest comedies a tragic farce."

"Oh." Harry murmured softly as he thought about how strange his Uncle Vernon would act after a few drinks. He could easily see how that might throw things off.

"Now, turn." The ghost circled her finger over his head until he faced the mirror and stared at himself in surprise.

"A finer Nutcracker Prince, I have never seen." The ghost assured him with a soft smile before departing to do Draco's make up, he assumed.

When he was finally alone, he reached out curious fingers to touch his image in the mirror. He couldn't believe it. He really did look like a prince of some kind. It was the the wonderful costume that Lady Malfoy had specially ordered from Madam Malkins, and the make up, of course, but he did. He looked almost like a prince.

"Almost," a familiar voice murmured softly from behind him, seeming to read his thoughts. Darting his eyes up in surprise, Harry couldn't believe it when he saw his Professor dressed in a costume that while it wasn't identical to his looked very, very much like an adult version of his costume.

Professor Snape wore a shako, too, with a taller plume at its top. His coat was more ornate than Harry's and shorter, ending above the waist, but they were both in the same navy blue with gold lacing across the chest. Their tights to, had been constructed similarly so that they looked like breeches with short boots. The only major differences between their costumes was that the Professor was wearing a half cape over his shoulder and Harry's coat ended in tails.

"Sir?" Harry asked in surprise before darting over to hug the professor, only realizing barely in time, that doing so would mess up his make up.

"Harry," Severus answered with a smile and squeezed his shoulder with understanding. "You look very much the Prince."

"Thank you, Sir."

"There's only one thing missing."

"There is?" Harry could hardly believe it. When they were being fitted, Lady Malfoy had been very strict with Madam Malkin, specifying down to the button how his costume would look.

"Yes, you need, a hausse cols… a French gorget." Severus explained when it was clear that Harry didn't recognize either label: "It is a special plate that European officers wore during the Napoleonic era to protect their throat, but as it happens, by some chance, I seem to have an extra one on hand that I believe will fit you, perfectly." The professor slipped his hand beneath the half-cloak and pulled out an ornately embossed gold plate with a design that he had seen somewhere before.

Staring at it intently, he studied the moving design until he suddenly remembered where he had seen it: in Neville Longbottom's family handbook on the lineage of ancient houses. As he up at the professor for confirmation, Harry was tightened with emotions and he couldn't manage to get the question out, but the Professor understood as he always seemed to and answered Harry's question without even needing to hear it.

"Yes, that is the Prince family crest – from my mother's family. When matters are settle officially, I will be able to commission an heir ring as you will be heir to my estate as well, but until then I wished for you to have a symbol of our family. It has been charmed feather-light, and I will cast a sticking spell to hold it in place so it doesn't disrupt you while you perform."

"Thank you, Sir." Harry answered almost breathlessly. He wanted to tell the professor how much the gesture meant to him, but the large lump in his throat seemed to be blocking his attempts.

"You're very welcome, Harry." Severus replied around a lump in his own throat, and gently took the plate back to fasten it at Harry's collar.

"Perfect. Now you are the Nutcracker Prince." Severus murmured with amused smile at the pun as he turned Harry back to the mirror. Harry glanced at it briefly, but as handsome as the piece was, he couldn't keep his eyes away from the firm visage that was staring down at him with glistening dark eyes. It was only after he had stared so long that he felt like he was being rude that he mentioned something he had noticed seconds before.

"Your hair's in a pony tail."

"Would you like yours to be in one, as well?"

"I would, but it's too short." Harry complained softly.

"It needn't be." Severus suggested, as he knelt in front of Harry and blocked his view of the mirror, "You can use the metamorphic talents that you use to cover your scars, without requiring a specific spell. You've changed the length of your hair before."

"I was asleep then, though." Harry protested uncertainly.

"True, but you have also used it consciously before for something more complex. Would you like to try it?"

Harry nodded.

"Very well and close your eyes. Good." The professor coaxed as he slipped his fingers into Harry's locks, "Can you feel my fingers?"

"Good. Now, I am going to pull very, very lightly on your hair, and I would like for you to imagine that your hair is going to extend like the tendrils of your little devil's snare plant to follow my fingers."

"Like Bernice?" the child asked, trying to picture the thin shoots that the plant Madam Sprout had given him sent out when she was hungry.

"Yes, just like Bernice's runners. Quiet your mind as we've practiced and try to imagine that."

Hoping he wouldn't disappoint the man, he closed his eyes wished for his hair to lengthen with all the nerves and energy that had been pent up in him the past several seconds.

"Uhmm…Hi." Another voice sounded from the door just as he had the image of Bernice's tendrils captured in his thoughts.

"A moment please, Miss Tonks." Severus commented over Harry's shoulder before he glanced back down at his charge… and future son to note with surprise that the child's hair had seemed to take his explanation very much to heart and was curling around his fingers like growing tendrils of black silk.

The professor sighed with gentle amusement that he could still be surprised by the child, extracted his fingers from the curls that seemed to want to cling for a moment, and commented, "That's enough, Harry. Any longer and it would not have been appropriate for a young man of your age. Head of a Noble and Ancient household or no."

When the child's eyes flashed open with the astonished realization that he had followed the instructions, Severus's amusement dimmed softly – saddened by Harry's lack of confidence, but that was soon lightened by the child's hopeful tone when he asked if he could see.

"A moment." Severus delayed as he took a tissue from a box on the dressing table, transfigured it into a black silk ribbon that he used to tie the child's hair back. Curling a finger under Harry's chin, he turned the child's face back and forth until he was satisfied that the boy's hair would not distract him during the recital, then met Harry's eyes to be sure the child saw his satisfied nod before he rose and stepped out of the way.

"Oh," Harry murmured as he trailed a finger across the mirror image of his pony tail. "It's just like yours."

"Quite." Severus smiled softly at the child in the mirror. "Quite."

"That was beautifully done, Harry." The young woman who entered earlier commented. "Professor, Lady Malfoy asked that I retrieve you and young Lord Potter for your performances."

"Performances?" Harry turned curiously to the Professor.

"Yes, Harry, you are not the only one who will be called upon to perform this evening. It would hardly be fitting to require that the guest of honor entertain the other guests all evening. Lord and Lady Malfoy will shortly perform piece from Swan Lake, and Narcissa has asked that I perform a variation from Paquita. After dinner, Madam Ballalinka has loaned Lady Malfoy several of her seventh year students to perform the remainder of the Nutcracker Suite suite."

"Paquita?" Harry paused trying to remember if Lady Malfoy had mentioned the ballet during any of the practices. He was astonished that Draco's mother had put so much work into his birthday, but felt somewhat better that at least with the other dancers, there would be enough people there to share all the food that Lady Malfoy had ordered the house elves to prepare.

Before Professor Snape could answer his question, the young lady, who was, he finally noticed, dressed in a tutu that seemed to be made from hundreds of brightly colored silk scarves, curtsied and elaborated, "Paquita was a young gypsy maiden, who saved the life of a young French Officer – in this case," she paused gesturing to the professor's costume, "A young French Calvary officer… A Hussar?"

At his nod, she continued, "A Hussar, whom she falls in love with only to later learn, by virtue of a magic charm, which she has worn since she was saved by the gypsies as a babe, that she is the young officer's distant cousin – of noble birth and able to marry the young man she adores. Lady Malfoy asked that we dance a Pas de Deux from the scene where Paquita becomes enamored with the Prince."

"Sir, are you all right?" Harry asked when he glanced at his professor and noticed that the wizard had gone very still and had the expression Harry thought of as his 'Slytherin face' tightly in place.

"What, Child?"

"He asked if you were alright, Professor." The young woman answered with a mischievous smile.

"Yes, Harry, I am fine. Lady Malfoy simply neglected to mention that I would have a partner for the selection that Miss Tonks mentioned. I would have contacted Miss Tonks to rehearse if I had known."

"Oh," Harry murmured softly wondering how Lady Malfoy had forgotten something like that. She seemed to be so focused on such tiny details down to buttons and salt cubits. Yet, she had left out his Haw-sse cols, the professor said, but then he had brought one with his family crest on it, so Harry couldn't help but think that she had left it off for that reason.

Did she maybe have a reason that she left off telling the professor about the change in his performance until the very last minute? It didn't seem like a very nice thing to do when he and Draco had needed to practice for over a week to get the steps down in the right timing.

Seeming to answer his question, Professor Snape commented, "Lady Malfoy has a visc—rather biting sense of humor."

"I like it," Miss Tonks commented, "It puts you off guard, letting you think that you know how the joke will end, only to throw in a new punch line out of nowhere."

"Indeed. Well, Miss Tonks, I believe that I hear the ending strains of Lord and Lady Malfoy's performance, shall we prepare to mount the stage."

"Of course," she answered brightly, taking the professor's arm. "Harry, if you'll join us. I believe Lady Malfoy will tell you what to do once she's off stage, but she would like for us to escort you there so you won't wander off in search of birthday presents, as I hear young Draco did before his recital."

"Yes, Ma'am." Harry smiled, tucking her comment in the back of his mind to tease Draco with later.

As they walked down the short back stage hall leading to the stage, Harry looked around the hall of the famous theater as he had not had the chance to do when Lady Malfoy hustled him back to the dressing room after they had gotten a late start thanks to the Dursleys, who claimed that they had forgotten when they were to drop Harry off for the final fitting of his costume, earlier in the week. While he looked around, he heard Professor Snape and his dance partner talking quietly, but paid no attention until the professor stopped sharply, seeming almost in shock, and asked in a strangled voice, "You knew?!?"

"Of course, I knew. I wouldn't be fit for the auror corps if I couldn't draw such an obvious conclusion from abundant evidence."

"And?" The professor's question startled Harry, but it wasn't really the question that drew his worried attention; it was the uncertainty that he heard in the professor's voice.