Rose Among the Thorns: The Third Evans Sister
By Jedi Blu, Lady at Large
Standard Disclaimer Found Here: I don't own any and all things/people/creatures/candy/ghosts/etc that you recognize from J.K. Rowling's world-renown series of books. Nor do I own any rights to the book/movie The Princess Bride, which belongs to the esteemed S. Morgenstern (who is really William Goldman).
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Costumed Couples
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Rose studied herself in the mirror of her dormitory, biting her bottom lip anxiously as she surveyed her costume. It wasn't much, and she had needed Lily's help with some of the charm work to make certain nothing faded away or vanished before the Masque was over.
"Stop fretting, dearie!" the mirror cackled. "You look wonderful! Who is the lucky young man escorting you? Pureblood, I hope."
"No one you'd know," Rose replied to the mirror, not really listening to what it had to say. Slytherin Mirrors were notorious for gossiping and giving idle flattery whenever they could. It was common knowledge that you never trusted inanimate Slytherin objects anyway.
The costume Rose had made, and Lily charmed, was a clever one. In fact, those who did not know Rose well would hardly recognize her. She had chosen to dress as a character from one of Petunia's recommended novels, only published two years before and probably not very well known. Still, it was creative.
The book told a fairy-tale-like story, but had enough bumps along the paths of the plot to make it almost comedic. It was, actually, one of the cleaner novels Petunia had read and it was simply called The Princess Bride. Rose had been hesitant to crack open the pages of the book, readying herself for another bit of smut from her muggle sister. It had been a pleasant surprise to find characters within who were not intent on wooing and bedding each other, but there were tales of revenge, pirates, giants, evil princes, sword fights, miracle healers, and while the heroine was a bit of a ditz at least she admitted it within the first few pages.
So Rose was dressed, charmed, and bewitched to look like the character description of Princess Buttercup. She wore a dark, forest green gown and had charmed her hair longer, and turned it completely blonde for the evening. She had also found a way to dim the few freckles across her face, giving her a paler and purer complexion. She wore high heels, making her taller and more regal. The costumed was completed with a wreath of pink and yellow buttercups for a crown.
Tucking her wand in a pocket the lovely, enchanted gown offered, Rose was ready to leave her dorm. The other girls had left some time before so that the quieter member of their group had been able to prepare herself without disturbance. She started for the common room, where she was certain Severus would be waiting, and tried to settle the butterflies in her stomach. A ball, a masque ball, and Rose was going! It was something right out of a fairy tale so, of course, she should have expected something like it at Hogwarts.
Rose entered the common room and immediately began casting her eyes around, looking for Severus; she found one, lone figure standing at the fireplace with his back to her. The form was tall, but due to a long black cape he wore it was difficult to tell that the boy was thin and rather young. Not wishing to wait for him to notice her, the girl cleared her throat softly.
Severus Snape turned, but he looked hardly himself. He wore clothing that was entirely black, almost as normal, but with subtle differences. He wore a seaman's shirt, which was slightly billowy, black leather gloves, black leather boots, and tightish breeches with a silver sword at his side. The cape spread across his shoulders and then down his back slightly below his knee, giving him the allusion of being a slightly wider, more muscular person. His mask was a bandana, which covered his slightly hooked nose, worn atop his head with holes cut for his eyes. His eyes were another story, they had been charmed a different color; eyes that were gray-blue, the color of the sea after a storm. His hair had also been hidden in the bandana, so it did not matter it was black instead of the blonde his character bore. Yes, Severus was a book character from The Princess Bride as well; Severus had been neatly conned into dressing the part of the hero, The Dread Pirate Roberts, or Wesley the Farm Boy's alter ego.
For a moment, Rose hesitated as she surveyed him and - queerly enough - felt a new onslaught of butterflies rushing to and fro in her stomach. He was no Sirius Black, but Severus Snape could cut a figure almost as handsome as the aristocratic Gryffindor when he chose, it seemed.
She was snapped from her rather embarrassing thoughts when Severus made an impatient gesture. "Well? You going to stand there all evening or come with me?"
Rose hurried the rest of the way across the room, her eyes darting to the clock on the mantel. The hands of the clock, serpentine shaped, pointed out that they would be arriving almost an hour after the masquerade began. "Oh, Severus, I'm sorry I've made us late!" she said, darting a glance in his direction before hurrying for the Slytherin exit.
She was so busy being embarrassed by her own thoughts that she was completely missing the appraising - and admiring - glances that the young man at her side was darting her way. Although he may never admit it aloud, Severus was completely pleased by his escort for the evening. Indeed, almost any male at Hogwarts that night would have been happy to have Rose Evans, who looked decidedly older and sophisticated, on his arm that night.
Severus caught up to Rose as they left Slytherin House and reached out to take her arm. She stopped so abruptly in her tracks that both of them nearly went tumbling but Severus regained his balance.
Cheeks aflame, Rose turned her quizzical expression to Severus. "Shouldn't we hurry? We're going to be very late."
He shrugged and offered her his arm, which shocked her almost too much for her to take it. "No reason to kill ourselves getting there. I'm not in a hurry."
But Rose, her cheeks hot and butterflies trying to fly right up her throat, wished he wasn't so sedate. It made her feel abnormal. She was so wrapped up in her own personal turmoil that the entire way to the Great Hall, where the Ball was being held, she never once noticed the openly admiring glances sent her way by her one and only 'friend.'
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Lily stood with one of her friends, Alice Trickle, and Alice's date Frank Longbottom. Frank was a Hufflepuff and Alice a Gryffindor, but they got along astonishingly well. They were dressed to match, slightly. Frank wore all green and looked distinctly amphibious that evening while Alice wore what she called 'a country-princess's gown;' a denim, sleeveless dress and a tiny silver crown. "After all, you wouldn't expect stuffy city princesses to speak to lowly frogs, would you?" she had reasoned. They were both rather clever, making excellent marks in most of their classes - "Except potions," Frank would tease Alice. "You just don't have the knack for it." Oftentimes she would tease him right back, "At least I have only a green thumb, like most people, but all your fingers and toes seem to have that discoloration problem." Everyone in the school knew that Frank had a very strong, very strange, affinity with plants.
Lily had come that evening on the arm of her date, a seventh year called Markus Fitzhenry. He was a Beater on Ravenclaw's Quidditch team, and a favorite with the ladies. At the moment he was on the dance floor with his little sister, Angela, having begged a moment away from Lily to appease 'family relations.' He really was a sweetheart, though a bit bookish for Lily to be really interested in him. He was dressed as a Native American, he had the darker skin coloring and pulled it off well, while Lily was dressed as a cowgirl in boots, white Levis, a green-checkered shirt, bandana, and white hat with two toy revolvers on either hip. She was, according to all the boys who laid eyes on her that evening, the most dazzling cowgirl they had ever seen. Fortunately, in the United Kingdom, they seldom saw American cowgirls.
Across the room, leaning against the wall and glaring daggers at Markus Fitzhenry, was a young man dressed in a most intriguing costume. James Potter was dressed up like a Faun, with the exception of short deer antlers rather than small goat horns. Leaves made up his mask, and he wore no shirt - as a Quidditch player he managed to pull off that feat despite being only fifteen. James had asked Lily, more than once, to go out with him only to receive the cold shoulder or a rather scathing response. He had hoped when Sirius mentioned he was going to ask Rose Evans to the masque that would give him an inroad to Lily. Unfortunately, the younger Evans completely and wholeheartedly turned Sirius down - which had been unexpected to say the least. So James came to the ball stag - a lone male.
Sirius had indeed found another date, one Harmony Haynes. They were enjoying themselves a great deal, dressed as Merlin and Morgan le Fey, and were probably the most beautiful couple there that evening.
Peter was spending all his time at the refreshment table, hitting on any girl who was unfortunate enough to come near him. He was dressed, unsurprisingly, in his best robes with nothing more than a simple white mask as costume. Peter was not at all creative, and at times members of his own year and house could do nothing more than roll their eyes at him in frustration. How he got into Hogwarts at all was sometimes a mystery.
Remus, though weak from the recent full moon, found himself happily engaged in conversation with an 'enchanting' Ravenclaw prefect; Ella Frell, who looked the part of a gypsy princess in stunning purples and reds which didn't at all compliment Remus's Robin Hood costume.
With the ball going very well only an hour into it, the teaching staff at Hogwarts was well pleased. Especially the Headmaster, who was dressed in shredded brown robes and carried a tin cup, with the odd costume choice of a vagabond.
When two more students slipped into the room, arm-in-arm, they were barely noticed at first. As people became aware of them however, the new couple became a point of slight interest in conversations.
"Who were they? Which house were they from? Was anyone missing from such-and-such house? No? Then who -?"
Lily spotted Rose and hurried to her sister with a wide smile, her green eyes glittering into the near-mirror-image eyes of her sister. Severus stiffened, but not noticeably, when the Gryffindor prefect stopped to chatter amiably with her younger sister. He did not, however, relinquish Rose's arm.
"It turned out beautifully, Rose!" Lily exclaimed upon reaching her sister. "You look wonderful." Then, to his utmost surprise, Lily turned her gaze onto Severus Snape and favored him with one of her brightest smiles. "And you, Severus! You look very dashing; you make a wonderful heroic pirate."
Realizing Snape had been somewhat stunned, Rose accepted the compliments for both of them. "Thank you, Lily, I'm glad you're such a kind critic. You make quite a cowgirl, by the way." She beamed at her sister, then smiled as someone came up behind Lily. Markus Fitzhenry cut a good figure next to the oldest Evans girl, so all in all the four standing there seemed to compliment each other well.
Too well.
James Potter was glaring from his place against the far wall; Sirius Black was doing the same from the dance floor. Remus Lupin was wrapped up in a conversation, and Peter Pettigrew was too busy stuffing his face to pay attention to anything.
But the look Potter and Black exchanged was significant, and could not at all bode well for Severus Snape.
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To My Reviewers: I am not able to access my reviews at this time so I do not have the capacity to respond to anyone individually. I will rectify that in the next chapter, I promise. :-) But I sincerely and heartily thank those who have continually made the effort to let me know that they appreciate this story and are enjoying my amateur-style-writing. See you again next week! Probably next Wednesday/Thursday. With Independence Day being celebrated in the United States (where I live) I'll be quite busy over the weekend. Thank you for your patience!
-JB-