Amelia Bones was telling Severus Prince a story about a trip she had taken with her family to Argentina and how her proud brother had been robbed of his belongings only minutes after they had arrived in the country and they were both laughing as they entered the party room.
"Ah, Miss Bones, and finally, Mr. Prince, how nice of you to join us!" said Professor Slughorn immediately as they entered the Feast Hall.
There were only a few people already seated at some of the tables, including a happy Pandora along with her partner who was conversing energetically with two very pale men, but Severus knew from the Force that these two men were not so simple as they unlike most humans had a deep connection to the dark side. ...also something about them seemed so strange..., he guessed that they were vampires and the other man at the table seemed to be some kind of wizard writer, but this one had nothing strange about him unlike the other two, just an average wizard.
Apparently, they were among the first to arrive.
As they entered Slughorn slapped him on the back and said some nonsensical things that Severus mostly ignored and Amelia pretended to listen attentively just to be polite.
A few minutes of torture passed in which they conversed with the professor.
It was a relief when other students and guests began to arrive, distracting the annoying professor.
The only thing Severus respected about the man was his skill with Potions, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he surpassed him... if he hadn't already.
As usual, the feast began with a huge feast with several round tables, surrounded by high-backed chairs, all made of intricately carved birch solids, the honey walnut veneer impeccably polished, giving off the general ancient and luxurious aura beneath the majestic copper chandelier.
Professor Slughorn had prepared several sets of silver cutlery and plates with enchanted crystal goblets for automatic replenishment when empty.
Severus scoffed slightly at the absurdity of all these lavish and sumptuous Victorian decorative designs.
Most of the male guests wore elegant suits while the women could be seen in full Regency dresses in different colours, a few witches like Amelia stood out by wearing more original clothes.
Severus and Amelia did not escape from the torture of having to listen to Professor Slughorn talk non-stop for long as when some guests who worked at the Ministry of Magic began to arrive, the Professor quickly introduced the two of them to these guests.
Then the professor gestured to the two of them, indicating that they should sit at the empty positions at one of the tables.
Severus sighed and agreed to sit with Amelia, then he looked carefully at the people at the table, there were not many, less than ten people.
Almost all members of the Ministry of Magic who were former Slytherin students along with some former Ravenclaw.
Severus shifted his chair and moved a little silently away from them while Amelia, contrary to him, approached them with quite a bit of enthusiasm for conversing with these people.
Well..., for Amelia this was a great opportunity as she was able to start a conversation with future colleagues.
After all, she had intentions of joining the Ministry of Magic as an employee when she finished Hogwarts.
Amelia nudged Severus with her elbow, forcing him to look up, eyebrows arched questioningly.
She nodded towards the Ministry members and discreetly gestured for him to join the conversation as well.
The two of them had already spent some time talking to these people, but Severus barely participated in the conversation, only answering the occasional question.
Severus rolled his eyes, giving her a small smile that told her that he clearly didn't plan on exchanging many words with these people.
Amelia gave him an amused smile back, she already knew that he wouldn't care or be interested in such things, but she at least wanted to try.
She already knew that he would leave at the first excuse he could find.
Severus's eyes roamed the various tables along with all the people attending the feast.
Most of them had already gotten down to business with the splendid food, the drinks, and the constant praise for Professor Slughorn.
Finally, Severus' eyes fell on Hermione who seemed to be sitting alone and bored in one corner of the room as she was pecking at the food on the table she was sitting at.
He had to admit that she looked rather lovely in the simple white dress she was wearing.
Severus was frankly surprised that Hermione didn't seem to even stand out among the other witches... it was as if the other wizards in voluminous robes didn't notice her for some strange reason that he couldn't understand.
Because clearly, she looked far more attractive and interesting than most of the witches present.
Severus glanced at his partner beside him, Amelia, apparently lost in her fruitful conversation with the Ministry employees.
"Er, excuse me, I just saw my cousin among the guests, Amelia, do you mind if I leave you for a few moments to go and greet her?" said Severus shooting Amelia a look that told her he obviously wouldn't be back once she left.
Amelia just rolled her eyes and shook her head.
" Sure it's no problem, Severus, I'll join you later," Amelia nodded with a smile even though she knew he was just avoiding staying with these people at the table any longer.
Severus nodded and said a polite goodbye to everyone present leaving Amelia to continue conversing with them.
Once he was away from them he sighed in relief that he had escaped the torture, it almost felt like when he was Obi-Wan's padawan and had to stand quietly beside him listening to annoying politicians talk or argue about meaningless things.
Finally, he approached the table where Hermione was.
"Hermione, you look fantastic! I didn't recognize you," Severus joked as he arrived in front of Hermione, though he wasn't really lying.
"Severus!, er... thanks... you look good too... er... where's your partner?" asked Hermione a little embarrassed by his compliment.
"Talking to some people from the Ministry" he replied lightly.
"Uh-oh and you don't keep her company?" she asked intrigued.
"I do, it's just that she and Slughorn have kept me busy long enough..., and I just saw you recently so I took the opportunity to get away, though I don't think Amelie would mind," Severus said sincerely.
And Hermione just nodded, expecting something like that from him.
"And your partner?" he asked curiously.
"Remus..., he, well, he preferred to go and talk to some Quidditch players... and you know, I don't..."
"You don't really like Quidditch," Severus added amused.
"Right..." she said with her cheeks a little red.
"By the way, where'd you get that dress?"
"Oh, it was a birthday present..." replied Hermione.
"That's great..." nodded Severus.
"From you, actually," she added.
"Oh, well, I got great taste," smiled Severus amused that the dress she was wearing was probably what she bought when he told her to buy something she liked for her birthday on the 19th of September.
Yes..., he hadn't had time to buy her a present at the time, so he had given her a bunch of galleons and told her to use them to buy herself something she liked.
Hermione just rolled her eyes and laughed a little at how shameless he could be.
Only a few minutes passed and of course, Severus was out of luck, because his walking torture seemed to have gotten to where he was again.
"Severus it's great to see you, I've been looking for you," Slughorn said excitedly, his eyes crossing over Hermione's face.
'I'd rather this man was a giant or a basilisk' Severus thought as he watched him, he really preferred dealing with enemies to having to endure this torture.
Hermione who noticed Severus' annoyance laughed slightly amused.
"Oh and this lady next to you must be your lovely cousin Miss Prince, Hermione Prince, no doubt the descent of the Prince family can be very honoured and talented," said the professor who had only had Hermione in his classes for a while but he had already managed to notice the great potential of the young girl...
Of course, in Professor Slughorn's eyes her talent in Potions was not comparable to Severus', but 12 Outstanding O.W.L.s was more than enough for her to get his attention.
"You know, I graduated alongside one of your Prince great-grandfathers, we both went to Slytherin together, yes, the Prince family has a long and rich history in Slytherin..." he added.
Hermione looked at Slughorn and said, "I'm currently in Gryffindor..."
Despite the fact that she wasn't really a Prince, she felt the need to clarify that.
"That's Slytherin's loss, isn't it?" said Slughorn regretfully.
"Be proud, my girl! I don't think Slytherin or any other house has ever seen a student with 12 Outstanding O.W.L.s before... maybe Ravenclaw but I don't really remember!" he added with a proud smile as if she was his student since childhood.
'Great. Now his attention is on me' Hermione thought with an annoyed sigh and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Severus smirk as if he was amused by her misfortune.
'Hmm... Why do I feel that Severus expected this to happen... although considering my O.W.L.s, this might actually make sense' she analysed.
...
...
"Your cousin is the most brilliant Potionist to ever pass through my class," said Slughorn who was already chatting to Hermione about all sorts of things.
Some time passed and finally, the music started to play, from the different tables in the room several couples got up and went to the dance floor.
Even Professor Slughorn left Hermione and Severus alone to go to the dance floor with some of the guests.
Although most of the people present opted to stay in their seats and keep talking.
It was then that Pandora and her partner approached the table where Severus was, apparently she had already finished talking to the vampires and the other wizard.
"Sev, I bet you don't know who I've been talking to!" she said excitedly as she approached him.
Pandora was wearing a white dress with green that made her look like a little angel.
"Hey Pandora, well I saw you very immersed in your conversation with those three people over there," he replied.
"Oh, yeah, but two of them were vampires, amazing don't you think?"
Severus just smiled and shook his head amused by her cheerful and energetic behaviour.
"Cough Cough" coughed Pandora's partner.
"Huh, is something wrong Xeno?" asked Pandora.
"Uh..., no, it's nothing, but would you mind introducing us," said Pandora's partner a little embarrassed, after all, he had followed her to this table but she still hadn't introduced him to her friend, and the other young woman next to him, even though he knew who they were it didn't seem polite to suddenly speak without first introducing himself to the person in question.
"Uh-oh yeah, right, I forgot, heh, Sev, this is my good friend Xeno. Xeno this is my friend Sev," she said casually as she smiled.
Pandora's partner coughed again and shook his head in embarrassment.
Severus just grinned in amusement.
And Hermione couldn't help but laugh a little at Severus' friend's behaviour, she already knew that Pandora was Luna Lovegood's mother and she had to admit that both mother and daughter bore a great resemblance, although her mother was certainly more hyper than Luna.
"So..., yes, it's nice to meet you, I'm Xenophilius Lovegood," Xeno greeted politely after regaining his composure and introduced himself properly.
"Severus Prince, I must say it's nice to meet a friend of Pandora's" Severus replied politely, Xeno really seemed to be a nice guy.
Finally, Xeno and Pandora looked at Hermione who was standing next to Severus as if waiting for her to introduce herself.
"Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Severus' cousin, Hermione, Hermione Prince"
"Huh?, Oh so she's your cousin Sev? wow..., you don't have any similarity, hmm... it's like you're not even related..."
Hermione's eyes went wide in surprise when she said that, but Severus knew Pandora would pick up on this.
"Yeah, we may not have similarities, but we are," Severus said lightly winking at Pandora.
After that, the four of them continued to talk for a few moments about various topics until Pandora insisted that all of them should go dancing together.
"So Xeno, are you going to dance with me or not?" said Pandora with a pout.
"Sure, like every year, we have to show off our dancing" smiled Xeno, the instant he said that she nodded effusively and happily.
" What about you Sev, are you and your cousin coming?" asked Pandora hopefully.
"Well, actually I never danced... although I guess I tried once, but then never again," said Severus sincerely as he remembered that neither as Vader nor as Snape had ever danced, of course, Lily tried to teach Snape but that ended quite badly...
No, it wasn't because Snape was bad at dancing, but rather that he was simply too clumsy around Lily, especially when he was pressed up against her, which prevented him from being able to do anything right.
Yes, Snape couldn't stand being pressed up against Lily while dancing, it was too much for his heart...
And since he knew that he might want to do something he would regret later, he preferred to avoid dancing with her, after all, he considered his friendship with Lily the most important thing, even more, important than his feelings or happiness.
"Oh, no problem, just follow Xeno and me," Pandora said confidently.
Severus smiled amused and nodded in agreement, he was confident that he could learn quite quickly, after all, he dealt with more complicated situations than this, besides if he couldn't learn a few simple dance steps when he had learned the different forms of Jedi lightsaber combat then it would be rather pathetic and sad of him... a total mockery.
Hermione was going to politely decline despite a part of her wanting to go, but before she could respond, Pandora grabbed her wrist and dragged her onto the dance floor.
"Come on, I don't want any of us to leave this party without dancing," said Pandora.
And that's how they all ended up going dancing together.
On the way to the dance floor, Severus saw that Amelia was still talking to the members of the Ministry and decided not to interrupt her, if she wanted to, she would join him on the dance floor.
Once on the dance floor, Severus watched Pandora and Xeno dance, he was... how should I say it... he was... shocked...
Yes, the dance of those two was undoubtedly quite different ..., it was clearly something original and unique..., of course, Severus decided not to learn from them or much less copy their moves.
Although the two of them clearly looked happy and enjoying themselves dancing in their own way, something Severus could respect... but not imitate.
Anyway, he turned his gaze to the third person in their group, Hermione, she certainly danced in a more common way and seemed more in keeping with the rest of the people around her, still, she seemed pretty tense, she was almost like a droid moving.
Severus may have never danced before, but it didn't necessarily have to be an expert to know that none of the three of them danced " good", of course with Xeno and Pandora's dancing it wasn't something he could tell if they were dancing good or not, as it was simply different to anything he knew.
While sighing, Severus watched the couples dancing around him and decided to follow the ones he thought danced better.
It was only a few moments before Severus got the essential, he decided to put what he saw into practice, he dragged Hermione to dance with him as Pandora and Xeno were in their own world as they danced.
Hermione was impressed with how well Severus seemed to move while dancing, she had seen how at first he just stood there looking at his surroundings and only a few moments later he was dancing in a similar way to the rest, he even seemed to improvise... and she admitted that he was good at it.
The four of them spent some time dancing, and Hermione frankly admitted that she really enjoyed it.
Of course, she blushed furiously when the music slowed down and Severus placed one of his hands on her waist and the other on her hand.
She was thankful that Hogwarts had taught them the basic steps of slow dancing, otherwise, she would have been in a really embarrassing situation.
Hermione's cheeks were tinged red and she looked away from him as they danced.
" Well, I didn't think you were the dancing type," Severus joked as he saw that she could follow his steps quite well.
"Why? it's quite normal for anyone my age to know the basics"
"Yeah, well... I thought you were the type that would rather use your time to read than to learn these things."
"I see..., that's not at all wrong, I learned only because there was no choice" she admitted.
"Uh-oh, well, It's not a bad thing," Severus assured her.
In fact, he was like that and it didn't seem like a bad thing, now he just decided to do it to pass the time and not look like an idiot while dancing.
"You know, if I didn't actually know you, I would really think you just wanted to make me feel good saying that," Hermione smiled.
They spent the rest of the time dancing to a variety of songs, clearly having fun.
Pandora and Xeno at times tried to convince them to learn the way they danced as well...
But that would never happen as both Hermione and Severus found an excuse every time to avoid joining them in their unique dance.
Finally, the four of them stopped as another slow song began and they left the dance floor to stand near the table they had been at earlier.
Each of the four was in a good mood.
"Heh, I told you two that would be fun," Pandora said, smiling at them as she leaned wearily back in a chair.
Xeno began to search through his pockets.
" It seems you were right," Severus said with a small smile and Pandora smiled back at him before raising an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" she asked Xeno.
Xeno held up a finger silently telling her to wait while he continued to search.
After a few seconds, he finally pulled out a small notebook and started saying nonsense, though Pandora seemed to understand him as she made several suggestions that he wrote down in the notebook...
Yes, Hermione and Severus still wondered what the hell those two were talking about.
"This... Severus, do you understand anything they're talking about at all?" asked Hermione in a whisper.
"Well..., I still have doubts as to whether or not even they really know what they're talking about."
Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed when he started joking again, but she was smiling a little at this.
She couldn't deny that she quite liked that part of him now, at first it was more awkward than anything else, but now that they knew each other better it was getting to be funny and amusing in its own way.
"Was that really your first time dancing? I mean, well, it didn't seem like it" she asked intrigued.
Of course, Hermione wasn't expecting a full answer from him, but she at least wanted to satiate some of her curiosity as to how he could dance so well being his first time.
" I already said it, I tried it once but it was a pretty awkward situation and I must have only danced for 5 minutes at most" he replied.
"I see..." nodded Hermione a little disappointed that she didn't exactly know the reason behind it, she walked over to the table next to her and grabbed a butterbeer.
" Would you like some?" she asked offering him one of the butterbeer glasses that was on the table.
Severus nodded and she pulled out another glass of butterbeer and offered it to him.
Just as Severus reached out his hand to take it, they were interrupted.
It was none other than Olivia Greengrass.
"Severus!"
"This... Olivia?!" said Severus a little intrigued to see his Slytherin housemate suddenly approach them, he knew she wasn't the type to do such a thing without a good reason.
" Excuse me for interrupting, but I need to speak to Severus for a moment... Of course, if that's alright," said Olivia who was wearing an elegant, sexy, blonde blouse with an open neckline along with a stylish black skirt that had a large slit through which one could see her gorgeous, soft, white, and delicate legs.
"Huh?, Uh-Oh no, not at all, you two talk calmly," Hermione said as soon as she woke up.
"That's convenient, thank you, I'm Olivia Greengrass by the way, you must be Severus' cousin, pleased to meet you" Olivia greeted politely.
" Not at all..., yea, Hermione Prince, nice to meet you as well" Hermione nodded with the same politeness.
After the quick greeting, Olivia wasted no time and pulled Severus into a corner to talk about some things in private.
And Hermione was left alone again..., well actually there were Xeno and Pandora by her side, but they were both still in their own world as they talked about things she couldn't understand.
Thinking that maybe Remus had enough of pretending to be so interested in Quidditch to not have to be with her, she dared to hope as she scanned the room with her gaze...
But she was out of luck, as she saw that Remus was still there listening "attentively" to what those Quidditch players were saying.
Hermione was convinced that he didn't like the game enough to spend so much time listening to players talk about their "magnificent and awesome" moves.
In fact, she doubted that he was even interested in Quidditch, it was more likely that everything he knew was just from listening to James and Sirius so much than from being a fan of the sport.
….
….
Lily entered the Feast Hall with Alice and looked around.
The party seemed to be going well.
Everyone was already in their own groups, as usual, but Slughorn took it upon himself to walk around the room introducing different people and making conversations more fruitful.
Professor Slughorn had apparently been at the bottle for a while, he already had rosy cheeks and was strutting around in a drunken but jovial manner.
'Well, here's liquor in somewhere' thought Lily already sensing that she would need it to get through this, even if she wasn't old enough yet.
Slug Club meetings were normally dry and uneventful.
However, today, the feast was in full swing with many guests.
The meeting room was expanded, with several tables around it filled with lavish food and drinks and in the centre a dance floor.
The half moon and stars in the night sky were vivid through the enchanted transparent ceiling, it was a fascinating sight.
Lily scanned the room again and found the person she was looking for.
At one of the tables was her partner chatting effusively with some Ministry of Magic employees and other students.
Apparently, he saw her come in because he raised his head and looked at her with discontent in his eyes.
Lily just gave him an apologetic look, she knew that she had probably given him a rather uncomfortable and embarrassing moment by leaving him alone for so long at the beginning of the party.
And probably the last thing he wanted now was for her to interrupt his enthusiastic chatting with those people..., yes, she would have to wait for him to finish talking first.
"Oh, Alice, Lily, you're finally here, come and join us and dance, the music is great!" said Alice's partner energetically as he approached them.
He was a Hufflepuff 7th year named Benjy Fenwick part of the Order of the Phoenix and a very good friend of Alice's boyfriend Frank, of course, he was now a very good friend of hers as well.
"This, well this sounds good fun! Come on Lily!" said Alice grabbing her arm and dragging her along with her onto the dance floor.
Lily sharpened her ear to listen to the music and found that apparently, they were now passing music from an elitist wizarding rock band.
"I'm really going to need that bottle," Lily muttered and Alice beside her laughed a little when she heard it, but Alice wasted no time and instantly pulled Lily up to dance along with Benjy Fenwick's group.