"Ugh," Tobi moaned.

"Now, what?" Catherine inquired without looking up from her book.

"Severus," Tobi declared.

"You'll have to be more specific."

"He still likes Lily," Tobi elaborated.

"And…?"

"So, he's my best friend," Tobi declared. "He's not going to go with me to this prom thingy if he's still pretending that that redhead will ever like him back."

"Wait, you, too?" Catherine demanded. She set her book down and glared at Tobi. "You can't possibly want to go to it."

"Of course I do," Tobi responded. "I want to sit there and make fun of people the whole time."

Catherine groaned. "You could just ask Severus," she suggested. Tobi stared at her. "Okay, fine. Go with Sebastian. He probably doesn't have anything else planned, and I doubt you'll even have to beg."

"I can't go with Sebastian," Tobi chided.

"Why not?" Catherine demanded.

"I don't know," Tobi responded. "It'd be weird, and he wouldn't get offended with my jokes like Sevvy does."

Catherine huffed and glanced over at Sebastian, who was dutifully pretending not to hear them. "Well, you've been fawning over Severus for years, and he still doesn't like you like that-"

"Ahem?! I don't like him! How many times do I have to say that? I'm just saving him."

"By dooming him to a dance? Anyway, maybe you should back off. Find someone else to follow around all day."

"Are you suggesting I make him jealous or something?" Tobi dubiously inquired.

Catherine frowned. "Well, not exactly. If you're really desperate, though, I guess you could use your Veela powers on him- Ouch!"

"That's what you deserve," Tobi declared. She thought for a moment. "You know, the jealousy thing might just work. That might distract him from his evil cult friends." She thought for a moment more. "Sebastian?"

"Yes?"

"I order you to pretend to like me," Tobi declared.

"Alright," Sebastian responded.

Catherine raised her eyebrows. "Okay, that's really not what I meant-"

"Oh, you just hate all things romantic," Tobi declared. "I will make Severus rue the day he didn't instantly realize that I'm the best friend he could ever have."

Catherine might have protested more, but she took one look at Sebastian and sighed. "Okay, but I never suggested it."

Tobi shut the closet door behind them. "Okay, in two minutes or so, Severus is going to come looking for me." Sebastian raised one eyebrow. "Oh, shut it. He always walks to Charms with me after I tried to set that one portrait on fire. Anyway, we need to manufacture some undeniable air of romance between us."

"You want me to kiss you in front of the entire Common Room?"

"That might work, but it'd look a little fishy," Tobi remarked. "It would need to be somewhere sort of more private than that-"

"Do I need to get a step ladder?" Sebastian inquired.

Tobi paused. "No. Why?" she suspiciously demanded.

"I don't know, Short Stack," he teased.

Irritation burst across Tobi's face. "No, I don't need one, now," Tobi retorted, "since you sank so low there. Honestly, I am wounded. Oh, don't smirk at me. I really-"

Just then, Severus' voice floated past the door. "Have you seen Tobi?"

"Ugh, he's coming and-" Tobi began as the doorknob rattled. However, she found it rather hard to follow her train of thought.

Actually, she found it rather hard to think about much anything other than that

Sebastian

Was

Kissing

Her.

Taken a bit unawares, Tobi noted with slight embarrassment that she had probably gasped. She closed her eyes, leaned into Sebastian, and stopped thinking. For a moment, it was just them, and it didn't really feel bad.

Then, Sebastian was pulling away, and Tobi opened her eyes. She realized in mild horror that she had gone onto her tiptoes and thrown her arms around his neck. Sebastian straighten up a surprising amount, too, making her feel even shorter.

If she was not already a little pink, seeing Severus' expression certainly would have done it. His blank surprise was quickly melting into horror. "Oh! I didn't-" he stuttered. "I'll-ugh-go to class." He quickly averted his eyes and backed away.

Sebastian grinned, and Tobi smiled lazily back. Well, it was a definitely a success. Her grin widened as she looked at the faces of all the other unfortunate passersby. Her smugness faded only when she noticed that a very horrified Catherine fleeing the scene with a book protectively blocking any vision of the kissing pair.

"Oh, crud," Tobi muttered. "Kitty! Wait, come back!"

Catherine paused before breaking into a sprint for the door. Sebastian awkwardly ran a hand through his hair. Tobi would have found his embarrassment kind of endearing if she hadn't been so worried about never seeing Catherine again. "I'll get her," Tobi muttered before racing after her fleeing friend.

While Catherine had longer legs and a apparently a lot of motivation, Tobi was quicker and had less qualms about knocking people out of the way. Tobi quickly caught up and pounced onto Catherine, sending both of them stumbling as Tobi latched onto Catherine's arm. "Ow!" Catherine managed, trying to squirm loose. "Let go."

Tobi reluctantly released Catherine's arm, but luckily, she stayed put. "You'd think you were the one kissing someone," Tobi casually teased.

Catherine made a very strange that looked like she had swallowed lemonade mixed with some sort of acid. "No. Just no. No. Don't even talk about it."

"Kitty, I just kissed him once," Tobi responded. "To make Sevvy jealous."

"You were making out. With Sebastian. In a closet," Catherine flatly answered.

"It was one kiss, Catherine, and neither of us meant anything by it, and you know it," Tobi admonished.

"But I can't un-see it," Catherine moaned.

"Are you sure you're not homosexual?" Tobi inquired.

"I'm non-sexual," Catherine retorted.

"Asexual, my dear," Tobi corrected.

"I'm not a strawberry," Catherine protested. "You can't just cut off my finger and grow another me." She waggled the fingers on her right hand for emphasis.

Tobi clicked her tongue. "I'm ashamed," she declared.

"Sorry. That was a little harsh. Anyway, if I was forced to go on a date, it would be with a guy," Catherine responded. "So… Straight, but not interested? Now, can we please change the subject? Sebastian's laughing at me."

"Oh, knock it off," Tobi called over her shoulder. "The kiss wasn't even that good."

"Really?" Sebastian responded. "Because, you looked rather-"

"Oh, shut it," Tobi retorted, but a crooked grin was back on her face. "I was pretending, remember? Honestly, I wasn't even top ten."

"I doubt you've kissed more than ten boys in your life," Sebastian countered.

"And you have?" Tobi demanded, turning to face him.

"Boys?" Sebastian inquired. "Possibly."

Tobi's eyebrows shot up, and she gave him an appraising glare. "Kitty ran off, didn't she?"

"Yeah."

"Ugh. Catherine Whitley, you better get back here right now, or I'll-"

This was a horribly bad plan to win back Snape, but it does work out for Tobi in the end. Ember's joke seems a bit horrible looking back, but it was meant to be her trying to casually laugh off the fact that she might have been uncomfortable thinking about her identity. Sebastian didn't talk much, so the fact that he had a good bit of dialogue in this chapter was supposed to be a hint for what was coming next.