A/N: About what the Weasley boys did to the butterbeer...it was an idea I thought might get ugly fast. I apologize in advance for what happens here, but it's the Way Things Must Be…sorry to all who like Donaghan. Thanks to all who review this and don't hate me. Here you go.

Chapter Ten: The Terpsichora Potion

"What did you put in this butterbeer?" Donaghan demanded of the Weasley boys.

"Just a potion we got from our dads again."

"What does it do and am I going to be ticked off?" Julie looked more despondent than angry about the spiked glasses.

"Calm down, Julie, it only lasts twenty-four hours or so."

"And it only creates what we call the McGregor Effect."

"McGregor as in that wizard who grew toenails over six feet long?" Julie asked in horror, pulling off her shoes.

"No, McGregor as in that Muggle movie you had us watch."

"You don't mean Fight Club?"

"No, Moulin Rouge."

"You're going to sing."

Donaghan looked like he could kill them there.

"I'm cancellin' practice. You're off the team."

"But Captain!"

"No buts! These pranks 'ave gotten completely out o' control."

"Donaghan, maybe this isn't quite all that bad."

"I'm sick of their playin' tricks, Julie-girl. It's only for a week, an' we've got na games."

"Still, taking them off the team is way too harsh. I'm sure they didn't mean it meanly, just as harmless fun."

"Yeah, Captain,"

"We meant it as a joke on you."

"You two, that is," Tim chipped in with a smile.

"Oh, y'know that we're datin', then, do y'na?" The Captain gave the Seeker a sheepish grin.

"My father gave the game away after our last class."

"Aw, tha's alrigh'. You two are only on probation, but it's for a week."

"Yes, Captain," they chorused respectfully.

"Julie-girl, since I've cancelled practice, y'fancy a walk?"

"Sure. I don't want them to see us if we do start singing."

"My feelin's exac'ly." They left the room.

"You don't really think we'll start singing, do you, Donaghan?"

"Naw, they're jus' yankin' our chains to see what we'll do."

"Where are we going?"

"The Astronomy tower, I jus' assumed."

"I've never been there."

"It's quite lovely, you can see sunsets an' lots o' stars. There's a great view on the whole o' the Hogwarts grounds an' I though' y' migh' like it, so I asked Professor Cassio if I could have it all ter myself t'night."

"Then you were planning to cancel practice anyway?"

"Well, not exac'ly, I kinda thought we could just fly up there on broomsticks after practice's done. If'n y'd rather, we could jump out this window here."

"I think that that would be a lot of fun. Accio Firebolt!" Julie called. Her faithful broomstick appeared a moment later next to Donaghan's.

"Did yeh do that without your wand, Julie?" Donaghan asked her suspiciously.

"No, I was touching it, I didn't point it over there."

"Tha's kind of scary, y'kna that?"

"Isn't that how wands work?"

"No, Julie. Mos' people have to point them at somethin' ter make it work, not just touch the handle and say 'Accio' an' there it is."

"Maybe my broomstick just likes me, then." Donaghan smiled as she patted it. "Good broom."

"Y'kna somethin', Julie? Y're silly sometimes."

"Yes, when I'm not being sarcastic and nasty-like."

"You're cynical and beautiful, you always make a scene-"

"You aren't!"

"You're monochrome delirious, you're nothing that you seem."

"Don't!"

"I'm drowning in your dizzy noise, I want to feel you scream,"

"No!"

"Everything you are, falls from the sky like a star, everything you are, whatever-ever you are."

Julie gave up and tried not to pay attention, but Donaghan was singing and he sounded great. It was a little bit humiliating to be the object of it, so she responded in kind with the next stanza. By the time they stopped singing at one another they had flown up onto the tower and landed there.

"I can' believe we actu'lly did that na'."

"I am so going to turn those cousins' hair dark blue."

"No, flamin' 'lectric pink for Tom an' make Tim's blue. They won' match an' that'll tick 'em off worse anyway."

************************

"Donaghan," Julie asked a few minutes later, "do you think this can really work?"

"What can work?"

"Us seeing each other. I mean, you just cancelled practice and that's not like you. It's also probably a little odd to date a fifth-year in seventh- year."

"Not that odd. An' y're the only girl who plays Quidditch for Gryffindor."

Julie gave Donaghan a look sufficient to make it clear that she did not find that to be a good remark.

"That, an' y'are one of the funniest people I've ever known, plus y're pretty, an'- I'm losin' points, aren't I?"

"Sort of, yeah." Julie ran her fingers through her grown-out bangs and let them fall, unconsciously reminding Donaghan of her father and why this could never work. "See, I like you because you're a good Chaser and you're funny and you're handsome, too, but... what I'm saying is, is that all we really are? I mean, I like it, but..."

"Y'aren't sure we feel more than friends would, eh?"

"Yeah. I just don't think that...there's no chemistry, y'know, it's all just friendly type."

"I felt the same way, but I didn't think tha' you did, Jule."

"So we should just be friends?"

"I think tha'd be a good idea. I wanted to tell you I didn't quite feel correct, but I didn't want to change things if y'did, y'kna?"

"That was my take on things."

Julie smiled quietly and leaned a bit. "Still, it was nice to have you kissing me when I was hurt."

"An' it was good to kna' my broken arm scared y' like it were y're own."

"I'd still feel that way, even if we are just friends."

"I'd still kiss y' when y're hurt, if'n y'd like me to."

"So- friends?" They shook on it.

"Friends, Seeker." That was all. They stopped dating then.

**************************

"Professor?" Donaghan asked, knocking on the open door quietly. Severus looked up from his desk at the Scottish boy.

"If you're asking to marry my daughter I will kill you dead right where you stand, Chaser."

"No, sir, I just wondered when the N.E.W.T.s would be."

"May twenty-seventh like every year. Is there a reason why you look as though your owl's died?"

Donaghan was silent and for an instant Severus was scared that he'd guessed correctly. Instead Donaghan cleared his throat and told him quite calmly:

"Julie and I are just friends now, sir, so you know."

"Has she upset you, have you left her, you were fine today!"

"We were talking and she thinks she likes me as a friend. I agreed with her, there wasn't a fight or anything."

"Then why do you look like you're going to cry? Answer me, McPhersen!"

"I love her!" Donaghan shouted, then paused and looked frightened –this was her dad. "I mean like, I do like her."

"And you lied because she doesn't want to date you now?"

"I would rather lie than lose her completely, sir."

"Does she have any idea that you feel this way?"

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"She broke it off?"

"Yes, sir, but don't tell her I told you this. Please, Professor, I can just be her friend for now."

"I can't believe Julie would do that to you."

"She doesn't know I lied, sir, I'm sure she can't."

"Alright. I won't tell her you like her, so you stay her friend. If you want her back that's your problem; I won't tell her."

"Thanks, Professor. I don't think I'll get her back."

Severus was confused by the encounter with the Gryffindor. The boy thought he loved his daughter, that was plain enough, but had lied rather than hold too tight and lose her thus. Julie was also not interested in dating him. Was it because of the words with the Weasley boys? Snape was starting to regret that he'd teased her so. He also knew he had to talk to Hermione. How many Gryffindors had lied rather than hold her too tight, he wondered. Was this just an oblivious tendency to break hearts very gently that his daughter had? Or did she really not want to date Donghan?

He was answered when he saw his wife at dinnertime.

"I understand that Julie's just friends now with Donaghan?"

"Yeah, she didn't think they had any chemistry."

"You knew she would break it off?"

"Of course I did."

"I saw that Chaser and he's heartbroken."

"Is he- -what?"

"He seems to have agreed with her so as not to lose her friendship. He also thinks he loves her."

"Oh, dear, I was afraid of that." Hermione sighed and poured them each a glass of pumpkin juice. "Julie isn't challenged by a boyfriend like Donaghan and she's gotten bored just like I did with Viktor Krum. And aside from how he feels, she handled things beautifully."

"He just seemed so despondent and sad tonight."

"And well he should be, he's lost her forever now or so he thinks and there's no way to get her back without making her realize he lied to her. He also knows that she doesn't feel the way he does and unrequited love's always a terrible fix."

"Well I know, dear. So we should just let this by?"

"I think it'd be best, considering how she is. Right now she's still getting used to even having us, so we don't want her thinking she can't trust us to keep out of her personal life."

"I reserve the right to be furious if she does what you did with your friend Ron."

"What'd I ever- -oh, that. I don't think she will. Ron's not really the type for us studious girls."

"He's not really the type for any female I've met yet."

"Oh, I don't know, his girlfriend seems to find him alright, I've heard."

"Who is she?"

"He won't say. I think it might be someone we've known for years."

"Speaking of, Malfoy owled me to say he'd be here- -right now." The Slytherin was walking through the Great Hall toward their table. "Can he eat with us?"

"Of course."

"Hello, Severus, Hermione, how're you both?"

"Great, Draco, come sit with us." Severus grinned and Hermione jokingly forced a smile.

"Thanks, but I've already eaten, guys. I heard this terrible rumor that a Gryffindor won the Seeker's Medal last month. Can this yarn be true?" Malfoy was grinning even as he drawled sardonically.

"Yes, your broomstick paid off, Malfoy, very well." Hermione's smile became genuine as she remembered that he'd found Julie her Firebolt XP-550 broom. The blond man grinned back and they started to talk Quidditch.

"So the half-Gryffindor flies like her father, eh?"

"Mercifully, yes, or she'd have met a violent death while she scored a goal with the Quaffle."

"I heard she got ahold of it and knocked them one," Malfoy said airily. "It's always impressive when a Seeker gets an after-foul."

"Apparently that very rarely happens to Slytherin."

"Your friend Potter only did it twice his whole career."

"He's been training our Julie in Seeker things…and although what I know about Quidditch you could fit in a matchbook, it seems to have paid off quite well with her."

"If you like I could teach her to really foul."

"She did quite well knocking our Keeper half off his broom," Severus noted to Draco quite dryly. "It doesn't seem to be fouls that she has a problem with."

"Oh, yes, and I also heard about the mess with Marcus Flint's boy –Matius, was it? Did you beat him senseless or just boot him out?"

"One month detention and he had to apologize."

"Sev! You're going soft now you've got a kid."

"He serves detention with Hagrid and Harry, now."

"I stand corrected, you've grown crueler but in laziness."

"How is Paris with the new Auror Office now?" Hermione asked Draco politely.

"It would be lovely if not for the French people. Bloody Paris has loads of them, can't think why."

"I haven't been there since the summer before third year. It must be nice in the autumn and winter too."

"Aside from work, I like Paris quite well, really. The local alcohols and food are just splendid there." Malfoy said this with a grin recalling absinthe and escargot. Hermione sighed and smiled back now that he was a friend of sorts.

"I hope you don't teach Julie bad habits, too."

"Yes, that Harry's got her studying half the day."

"Hello? Severus? Her mum there?" Draco pointed out, grinning at his now grown ex-enemy. "How are you going to stand it when she starts dating Bulgarians and straightening her hair?"

"She's already dispensed with her first 'Bulgarian', thanks, Draco. And the attempt last week to straighten her hair was a disaster beyond your imagining."

"Wand or potion?"

"Both."

"Neither worked?"

"Even worse," Hermione explained. "She looked exactly like Severus except for her eyes and decided she needed the bushyness."

"That and the potion did make my head itch like a fury, there." Julie had come up behind them with a piece of paper. "I need you to sign this form I would have got in second year –lets me go off to Hogsmeade with Tom and Tim."

"You do anyway."

"But it still needs to be on the record here."

Severus pulled out a quill and signed the form in a sweeping, flourish- filled handwriting. Julie took a look at it and her eyebrows went up quite impressedly.

"Elegant much?"

Her mother signed her name with more normal writing, and Julie signed her own in an owl scratch.

"Crimeny, Starcatcher, your handwriting's worse than my friend Goyle's." Malfoy looked at the form with a joking sneer. Julie sighed, flipped the form over, switched the pen to her left hand and forged her parents' signatures-exactly.

"Well, what's the point in having us sign it then?"

"I knew Professor McGonagall'd check on it. I showed her today I could forge her name and she wasn't amused in the slightest."

Malfoy looked at Julie's hands in amazement then.

"You did that left-handed. Are you ambidextrous?"

"Rather, though my left is good for forging 'cause my right hand goes too quickly."

"An ambidextrous catcher for the Gryffindors, Severus, you have my condolences."

Hermione and Julie cracked up at that. The Snapes wound up laughing with Malfoy the whole evening, until it was close to ten and Severus showed Malfoy to his room in the dungeons then. Julie went with her mother to Gryffindor Tower, where she fed her ferret and white mice and talked with her. A lot of it was about Donaghan, then a little more about the old Muggle orphanages, and some of it was about the Muggle guys she'd fancied before she came to Hogwarts and became a witch. Julie wasn't quite as innocent as everybody'd suspected in the romantic sense, having dated three or four people not very seriously since she turned fifteen, still she most she had ever done was kissing and a little snuggling until she got bored or left. None of them had ever been more than her friends, really, as the physical attractions all died out fairly quickly when she realized that they weren't that hard to keep enthralled or interested. Donaghan was cute, true, but he realy wasn't treating her the way she wanted to be handled, and a little of that was her father's teaching at the same school and a little was her being 'one of the guys' on the Quidditch team. Hermione realized that Julie had no idea that he liked her the way he did.

She did not realize, however, that there was one guy at Hogwarts who did spark her interest, a certain odd Slytherin who wasn't above cursing a girl in fights.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this up, I should have the next one by tomorrow or Tuesday. –J. McN.