It had been a few days since Severus has taken his distance from her, and he regretted it every bit of his days alone. He missed her company, but he didn't want to grow even closer to her when she threw his friendship back in his face by running of and doing something reckless. He knew it was all for him and he still didn't understand why she would even bother. He kept thinking at the moment by the lake, when he told her to take distance from each other. He saw the hurt in her eyes, he wanted so much to reach out to her and hold her, telling her it would all be ok, but he controlled himself and ran off, for her not to see his silent tears running down his face. Severus snapped out of his gaze when one of his students had asked him something, standing in front of his desk, holding out a vial. "Sir?" he looked down to a young boy, holding out his potion they were ordered to make today. He had chosen a simple one, so they wouldn't bother him that much, with a sigh he looked up and took the vial from him " Very well mister Danren, you may return to your seat and clean up". He set the vial aside and gazed over his classroom… one day, Hermione will be there, 11 years old and probably frightened. The bell went and his classroom emptied, he stood up and went back to his private chambers… he needed to think.
Hermione found herself missing Severus as much as he missed her. But she had her project to keep her busy, it were only a few days until the Ball and afterwards she would return to her own time. She sighed, placing in one of the final ingredients and adding 25 clockwise stirs. She only needed to let it simmer for another 4 hours and then add her own blood. This last was so that the potion would work, although she wasn't quite sure how. All she read was that it needed to be the blood of someone that loved him in order to save him. She knew none other than herself that had loved him, no-one but Lily, and that had ended quite dramatically if she believed him. After setting her potion to simmer she heard a knock on her door. When she opened it she found Minerva standing on the other side of it " Hello dear, I hoped to find you here". Hermione let her in with a confused look " is everything alright Minerva?" She remembered the older witch to come to her rooms a few evenings back to know each other a bit better, although Hermione knew she knew enough of her already. "No dear, I was just wondering if you already had a dress and a mask for the Ball this Friday?" she had a little twinkle in her eyes that matched Dumbledore's.
"Now you mention it Minerva, no, I don't" Hermione knew where this was going and she was happy to get some distraction. "Well then, let's go to Hogsmeade and get you something" she added a smile to this and waited for the young woman in front of her to say something "Sure Minerva, let me get my cloak and such" Hermione turned around and gathered her things. Once she was ready they went to the fireplace and took a handful of floo powder, standing in it and said " Three Broomsticks" and found herself being surrounded with green flames and the next moment was walking into the cozy tavern. A few seconds later, Minerva followed her out and they made their way over to the door towards the street. It was quite busy for a school day, and noticed several seventh years in some of the stores "We gave the older ones a day of so they could come shopping for their clothes for the Ball" Minerva said as they walked into a store Hermione hasn't been to yet, not even in her own time.
After 15 minutes of searching she found something she liked. It was a silk dark green dress with silver treads running a pattern trough it. It had a low cutout back, nearly reaching the rim of her bum. "Oh Hermione, that looks so good, try it on" Minerva ushered her to a stall and Hermione found herself inside before she could say anything. After a minute or 2, she emerged and found Minerva looking at her with her mouth slightly open "Oh my… Hermione, if I played for the girls team I would know who to court" Hermione blushed a bit at this and nodded while silently thanking the person she was once going to be her Head of House. "Wait, we need something more to match it, hold on" and Minerva ducked away between some rows of shoes, coming back after 5 minutes with nice silver high heals, giving them to Hermione "here, try these on". Hermione took the shoes from her, sat down and tried them on. When she stood she felt a bit taller, but it didn't feel uneasy. She walked over to a mirror and gasped at what she saw. She noticed how the dress fitted her body nicely, seeming to stroke her body, like it was made for her alone. The shoes looked sexy on her, making her a bit older. The dress ended right above her knees, and it made her legs look longer. She noticed Minerva standing behind her, talking to the shop manager. Going back into the stall, Hermione dressed back to her own clothes and came out. Handing her clothes to the man she said she took it, along with the shoes. When she wanted to take her purse, she noticed she didn't have any money and felt so stupid " uhhh, I think I better not take them as I don't have any money on me" before she could say anything else the man replied " it's ok Miss, I had word from Dumbledore that whatever it is you took, he will take the costs for his own" he smiled at Hermione while packing her stuff in a bag. Hermione made a mental not to go thank the headmaster once she was back.
They walked around a bit more, finding some nice jewelry and a really gorgeous looking mask and Minerva finding something for herself before heading back to Hogwarts. Once there, the women parted ways, Minerva had some stuff to attend to and Hermione had to check up on her potion. When walking to her own rooms, she noticed a figure heading her way, when she looked up she noticed it was Severus, his head in a book while he walked. When he came closer to her, she swallowed, looked at him, she felt her stomach flutter like some crazy butterflies sprang to live. "Hello Severus" he stopped, walked up and his face softened a bit. "Hello Hermione". It was a akward moment before Hermione started talking " You look good Severus" and before he could reply, she walked of. He stared after her, taking a moment to come back to himself and walked the other direction, not sure what he was reading anymore.
It was the day of the Masked Ball and Hermione had finished her potion the day before. She was getting a bit nervous, she hoped to get a chance goodbye to Severus, but didn't put her hopes up to much. She walked around the castle, seeing the decoration being put up, the hall was decorated with masks, the tables were being pulled to the walls, forming a square so that the middle was free for dancing. When sitting in her room an hour later, she started to work on her hair, wich would take an hour or 2 before it was what she liked. When there was only 1 hour left before the Ball was supposed to start, she started getting dressed, looked herself over in the mirror and nodded her own approval. Sliding on her mask she made her way downstairs…
Severus had been hiding in his dungeons for the rest of the days when he had run into Hermione in the hall. He didn't plan on going to the Ball until Dumbledore had shown up, demanding he was there since he was probably the only one stalking about making sure no rules were broken… aka no students running of snogging. He glanced at the clock and noticed it was an hour before the Ball would start. He walked over to his bathroom and tried to make something of his hair, pulled on his black trousers, black vest with a silver shirt underneath it, took his mask and walked towards the Great Hall. When he was at the stairs leading towards the Great Hall he noticed some male students looking at something, he walked over to investigate but was struck silent when he noticed what they were looking at…
Hermione descended the stairs, although she had a mask on, he knew it was her… she looked B-E-A-utifull.