As Strong As We Are United
Chapter 27 – Irritating Snape
As Cat and Lena reentered the Scooby common room, they saw Professor Dumbledore having a discussion with the resident Scoobies about the teens training. The aged headmaster rose to his feet, when the two women entered the room. He walked toward them, extending his hand. "Ah, Madame Rago, it is an honor to make your acquaintance," he said to Lena. "Madame Giacinta spoke most highly of you."
"You know Madame Giacinta?" asked Cat, thinking for the first time in years about the headmistress of Victoriana Academy. She supposed that magical community was relatively small, so many of the headmasters and headmistresses may know each other.
"A dear old friend," replied Dumbledore. "When Wesley came to me to help him find information about the whereabouts of your friends, he only knew their first names. I spoke with Madame Giacinta, and she was delighted to provide both names and addresses."
"Now, Madame Rago, I want you to know that you are welcome at Hogwarts for as long as you wish to stay, and if there is anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable, all you need do is ask."
"Actually, headmaster, there are two things," replied Lena. "First, please call me Lena. I would appreciate if my reputation were not to proceed me here. Second. . ."
After quickly introducing, Charlie and Spike, Cat and Lena spent nearly a half an hour explaining the 'See no evil, Hear no evil' spell they had created in school and how they believed that it could help them keep their plans hidden from Voldemort.
"A senior project?" mused Dumbledore. "That might be an interesting requirement to put into place here in the future. But that is not the immediate priority. I will inform Severus Snape, our potions master, that you are to have access to the potions lab and stores. Might I recommend that you contact your friend first thing in the morning. With the time difference, she will likely not need to experience the fainting effect that Professor Bolgya did, when you contacted her."
"Thank you, headmaster," replied Lena gratefully.
"Call me Albus," replied Dumbledore. "Now, I must ask both of you an important question. Are either of you able to cast a strong Imperius curse?"
Cat, knowing that Dumbledore was attempting to find people to help with the students training, answered immediately. "I'm sorry, headmaster. I have never had the cause to attempt it."
He turned to Lena. "Isn't the Imperius curse illegal in Britain?" she asked uncomfortably.
"It is in usual circumstances. However, I have written permission from the Ministry of Magic for its use in NEWT level Defense Against the Dark Arts training," explained Dumbledore. "I am hoping to find nine people willing to help in the training of some students over the next few weeks."
"Well then, yes, I am proficient in its use." Cat raised an eyebrow at Lena, debating if she wanted to know why her cousin was proficient in the use of an unforgivable curse. Lena rolled her eyes. "I told you that I've been working on certain protection potions. We do have to be able to test them. I'll admit that most of my testing has been on lab animals, though I have learned that my graduate assistance can do a mean Irish jig under the Imperius curse. And before any of you ask, the success or failure of any experiment is highly classified."
"Would you be willing to help us this evening?" asked Dumbledore.
"Absolutely," replied Lena.
"Good," added Dumbledore. "Now we have Lena, myself, Genevieve, Severus, Narcissa, Moody, Remus, Kingsley, and Tonks. We will begin after dinner. And, speaking of which, we should probably be making our way to the Great Hall."
Oz had added an extra seat beside Cat at the head table. After Dumbledore made a brief announcement about their guest, Lena sat beside her cousin. "So who is everyone?" she asked.
As they began eating, Cat explained to Lena who each of the professors were and their areas of expertise. Lena seemed especially interested in Snape. "So, he's the obnoxious one?" she asked. Cat nodded. "He definitely has that bad boy sex appeal going for him," Lena noted.
Cat choked on her pumpkin juice, as did Willow, who was seated on the other side of Lena. "What?" Lena asked. "He is. Don't tell me that neither of you have noticed."
"I'm gay," replied Willow, hoping that was enough of an excuse.
"So?" asked Lena. "I'm straight and I can still tell you when a woman has sex appeal."
"Lena," whispered Cat. "The man does not have sex appeal. You just have some seriously warped taste in men. Besides, isn't he too tall for you?"
"Or to greasy?" asked Faith, who was listening to the quiet conversation.
"My dear cousin always liked short and greasy men. She dated most of the midget mafia in school," explained Cat.
"Hey, most of those guys were about as smart as a box of rocks, but they did look good," replied Lena indignantly.
"No," argued Cat. "They looked short and greasy."
"Well, maybe I've decided to broaden my horizons," Lena retorted.
"Yeah, to tall and greasy," joked Faith. Willow remained strangely quiet, wondering if just maybe she had found a woman for Severus. Of course she abandoned these thoughts quickly, when Lena rose and stalked over to the potions master to introduce herself.
"Your cousin isn't exactly normal is she?" Faith asked Cat.
Cat shook her head. "The worst part is that if she introduced herself properly, he might actually be civil to her. But I know her. Her idea of flirting is to irritate the hell out of a man, until they have no other recourse but to let her have her way with them."
Shannon poked Dawn and nodded toward the head table. "What do you suppose Lena is discussing with Snape?" she asked.
Draco, who as usual was perched beside Dawn eating from her plate, replied, "I don't know, but I don't think I have ever seen him look so uncomfortable."
"He looks more nervous than I used to in his class," noted Neville from across the table, where he was sitting with Ginny.
"I don't get why she walked over to him in the first place," commented Shannon. "Who would want to talk to Snape if they didn't absolutely have to?"
"Some women have strange tastes. Maybe she goes for dark and brooding," replied Dawn.
Everyone sitting around her shared looks of revulsion with the exception of Hermione. "Lena is one of the top potions masters in the world," she informed the group. "She probably just wants to talk about work."
"How do you know that?" asked Draco curiously. "She didn't seem to want anyone to know what she does for a living."
"Her name was on the luggage tag attached to her suitcase, Lenora Luisa Rago. She has written quite a few articles in the journal Passions for Potions," Hermione explained.
"Whoa," said Draco in awe. "That's Lenora Rago. She's really done some cutting edge work. They say she does a lot of classified work for the American Ministry of Magic. Somehow I thought she would be a lot older."
"I hope we get to see her do some work," added Hermione. "She wrote this great article about the rhythm of potion making. Apparently, she does most of her work to music."
"I read that article too," said Draco. "I tried it once. Snape had a fit. I broke a whole bottle of powdered root of asphodel trying to flip it around."
"Good thing, you aren't in Gryffindor, or you would have had detention for a year for that," quipped Shannon.
The teens returned their attention to watching the uncomfortable potions master.
Lena purposely walked toward Snape. She conjured a chair beside him and sat down. "We haven't had the chance to be introduced. My name is Lena." She held out her hand.
Snape was taken aback that anyone would so purposely introduce themselves to him. "Severus Snape," he hissed, quickly shaking her hand before dropping it.
"So, Sev, what is it that you do here?" asked Lena, batting her eyes slightly.
"I am the potions master," he replied tersely. "But, I am sure that your friends have already told you that."
Lena rolled her eyes. "It's called small talk, Sev. But if you want to go a different route, that's fine by me. We could try pickup lines instead. What's your sign? What's a nice guy like you doing in a place like this? Is that a mirror in your pocket? Because I can see myself in your pants." Snape choked on his pumpkin juice.
"Is this your idea of humor?" he sneered.
"It's my idea of getting under your skin a little," replied Lena matter-of-factly.
"Since you don't know me, why do you have a reason to get under my skin?" Snape asked in a low voice, wondering if any of the other professors had put her up to this.
"Because I find you damn sexy," replied Lena, her voice equally as low. Snape jumped back from the table, knocking his silverware and napkin to the floor. He practically fled the room at a run.
"That went well," mused Lena, oblivious to the silent giggles that Sprout and McGonagall were sharing.
"Oh, this should be fun," Dumbledore whispered to his deputy headmistress. He rose from his seat. "I am going to go tell Severus that Miss Lena will be needing the use of his potions lab in the morning." McGonagall and Sprout both succumbed to full-blown laughter.
After dinner the nine teens gathered in the Scooby common room for training. Several professors and members of the Order were in attendance as well. Cat was introducing her cousin to everyone. Snape seemed to be making a concerted effort to stay as far away from Lena as possible.
Genevieve explained to the students that they would each pair with one of the adults and work on throwing off the Imperius curse.
Snape was shocked to hear that Lena would be casting the curse as well. "And, why do you know how to cast an unforgivable curse?" he asked her, curiosity getting the better of him.
"I've had to do it in my work," she replied.
"Are you an auror?" asked Snape.
"No," replied Lena, who had no desire to give him any information that was not absolutely necessary.
"You do know that a weak Imperius curse will not be helpful in the students' training. It might give them a false sense of confidence," informed Snape.
"Would you like me to demonstrate my abilities?" asked Lena, pointing her wand at Severus.
"I am highly skilled at throwing off an Imperius curse. You would not be able to affect me." Lena narrowed her eyes at the potions master. He sneered. "Give it your best shot."
"Imperio," Lena shouted. "Tell me you want me," she ordered.
Snape's eyes were momentarily blank. "I want. . ." He had thrown of the curse and was looking daggers at her. "You," he spat, causing several people in the room to laugh out loud. Snape stalked to the other side of the room to sulk.
"That was a wonderful demonstration," stated Dumbledore. "Lena, Severus, thank you so much. Now let us begin. Harry, why don't you work with me?"
Everyone paired off. Harry worked with Dumbledore, Ron with Remus, Hermione with Lena, Shannon with Genevieve, Dawn with Narcissa, Draco with Kingsley, Luna with Moody, and Ginny with Tonks. Poor Neville was disheartened to find himself working with a very sulky Severus Snape.
"On the count of three," said Cat from her seat at the side of the room. "One. . . two. . . three." There were nine separate shouts of "Imperio."
Harry was the first to throw off the curse. Dumbledore was very strong, but then again so was Voldemort, and Harry had thrown of his Imperius curse in the past. "Very good, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Shall we try again?" Harry nodded.
The other students were not fairing as well. Ron was able to throw off Remus' curse, but only sporadically. Draco, who had learned to throw off his father's curses, had a higher success rate than Ron, but it took him several minutes before being able to regain control after each curse. Kingsley assured Draco that given enough practice he would be able to regain control quickly and consistently.
After several attempts Shannon, Dawn, and Ginny were all able to regain control consistently. For Ginny, the ability meant a lot because she always feared that Tom Riddle would control her again and make her hurt the people she cared for.
Moody was having a hard time working with Luna. She seemed to be in the same dreamy daze regardless of whether or not the curse had been placed on her. It seemed that, when given an order that she did not mind, she would do it, but when it was something against her nature she would refuse.
Hermione was having a difficult time. She had never been able to throw off an Imperius curse in their fourth year and had not improved since. Lena finally stopped for a moment and pulled Hermione aside. "You know, when I learned to throw off the curse, I had a really good teacher. He started by giving me orders for things that were most against my instincts to do. It seemed like it made it a bit easier to question and refuse than just something meaningless like jump up and down. Do you want to try something like that?"
"What did you have in mind?" Hermione asked.
"I was thinking about ordering you to break up with Ron," replied Lena.
"How did you know we were together?" asked Hermione, worried that they had not been acting well enough during dinner.
Lena smiled. "When we got back from dinner, the two of you were sitting together on the sofa, and he was playing with the ring on your finger. That's a promise ring if I ever saw one," Lena replied. "So, are you willing to try it?"
"Um, okay. Just if it doesn't work, you have to make sure Ron knows I was under Imperius."
"Okay," replied Lena. "Let's do this." They returned to their original positions. "Imperio." Hermione's eyes were blank. "Break up with Ron. Go on. Tell him you never want to see him again," Lena urged.
"Break up with Ron," Hermione thought to herself. "I'm going to break up with Ron. But I love Ron. It seems pretty silly to break up with the man I love." In an instant her thoughts cleared. She smiled at Lena. "It worked."
Neville was having the most difficult time of any of the students. Not only was he unable to throw off the Imperius curse, but he had to endure Snape's taunting as well. "Come on, Longbottom, surely you must have a mind of your own inside that empty skull of yours."
"Imperio. Do a little dance." Neville began to do a deranged sort of jig. After several minutes, Snape lifted the curse. "You aren't trying hard enough, Longbottom. How two such gifted aurors could have you for a son, I'll never know."
Neville was fuming. Snape had gone to far this time. "You son-of-a. . ."
"Imperio. Tell me what a weakling you are," urged Snape.
Neville's eyes flickered quickly. The anger that had built in him helped to break through the curse. "My parents," screamed Neville, "are proud of me." Snape took a step back. He had not expected Neville to throw off the curse at all, let alone so quickly.
"My parents," Neville began again, but stopped. "My parents," he whimpered. "I was there. I saw them." Neville passed out cold on the hard stone floor.
Ginny saw him fall. "Neville," she cried sprinting to his side.
"What happened?" Dumbledore asked Snape.
"When he broke the Imperius curse, he also broke the memory charm that the ministry placed on him as a child," replied Snape, who was actually looking worried.
"Oh dear," replied Dumbledore. "Best we take him to Madame Pomfrey." The headmaster looked at Ginny, who was hunched over Neville's unconscious form. "Would you like to accompany us Miss Weasley?"
Ginny nodded and stood, while Dumbledore levitated Neville. "I think this is enough for the night. We can continue tomorrow." Everyone in the room silently agreed.
Snape left shortly after. Lena made to follow him, but Willow stopped her. "Let me," she said.
Willow caught up with Snape in the corridor. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I pushed him too hard," replied Snape softly. "I hoped that if I made him angry enough he would be able to throw off the Imperius curse. I never even considered that he could break that memory charm."
"Why did the ministry put a memory charm on Neville?" Willow asked.
Snape took a deep breath. "Neville was only three years old when his parents were tortured into insanity. Bellatrix Lestrange made him watch."
Willow's eyes were wide. "That's horrible." Snape could only nod.
The next morning, Cat and Lena woke early. They hoped to get a message to Becca about her notes, before breakfast. Lena swore that it shouldn't take more than half an hour to prepare the necessary potions.
They were surprised to see Hermione, Dawn, Draco, and Willow waiting for them in the common room. "We heard Lena was going to be working on a potion this morning," Hermione explained.
"And we want to witness the way she does the rhythm of potion making," added Draco.
"How did you know?" Lena asked, surprised at the resourcefulness of the students.
"Your name was on your luggage tag," replied Hermione. "Draco and I have both read some of your articles."
"And when they told me about it, I decided it was something I have to see," added Dawn.
"I'm just here to help keep Severus in line," explained Willow. "Don't worry. I won't tell him who you are, but he may guess after seeing you work."
The group trouped down to the dungeons, where a very unhappy Snape was having a discussion with Dumbledore in his private lab. "I hope you don't mind, but I am interested in seeing your unique style of potion making," explained Dumbledore.
Lena smiled broadly, before taking in Snape's cold glare. "You are only here at the pleasure of the headmaster," stated Snape, making it obvious that if it were only up to him, she would not be allowed into his inner sanctum. "Everything you need should be in my private stores." He indicated the large cabinets at the back of the room.
Lena immediately set to work gathering ingredients. She opened the cabinets and starred for a moment. Snape smirked. "If you are in fact familiar with potions making, you will know that everything is categorized by the Septamus System."
Lena looked over her shoulder at Snape. "I did realize that, yes. I must beg your pardon that it is taking me a moment to reacquaint myself with the categorization. I have not used a lab that employs the Septamus System in years. I must admit that I am more familiar with the newer and more logical categorization system developed by Pierce Anthros." Snape's smirk faded.
After Lena pulled all the ingredients she would need and organized them at the table, where she would work, she turned to Cat. "Let's start with Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." Cat nodded and using her wand spun the CD in the air. As the music began, Lena chopped ginger roots to the beat.
"Well, I remember every little thing, as if it happened only yesterday. Parking by the lake, and there was not another car in sight. And, I never had a girl, looking any better than you did. And, all the kids at school, they were wishing they were me that night."
Lena happily sang along to the music, lowering her voice to sing all of the male parts, as she moved on to grinding the moonstone into a finer powder. Cat always enjoyed watching her cousin work and happily joined in on the female parts of the song.
"Ain't no doubt about it. We were doubly blessed. Cause we were barely seventeen, and we were barely dressed. Ain't no doubt about it. Baby got to go out and shout it. Ain't no doubt about it. We were doubly blessed. Cause we were barely seventeen, and we were barely dressed."
Snape looked appalled, not only by the music, but also by the way Lena was bouncing around and appeared to be mixing things at random. Of course he had read her article about rhythm in potions making, but he thought he was seeing a careless copycat instead of the original.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, was amusedly watching Lena and tapping his foot to the beat of the music. Dawn, Hermione, and Willow finally gave in and sang along with Lena and Cat. Draco, who did not know the song, tapped out the beat in the same manner as the headmaster.
Lena stirred the first few ingredients together, as she mouthed the song's baseball analogy with a few half smiles toward Snape. Dawn and Willow were in a fit of giggles at the look on Snape's face. Though not familiar with Muggle sports, he quickly picked up on the meaning behind the words.
Lena picked up a vial of essence of belladonna. She poured a measured spoonful of the powdered moonstone into the vial and re-corked it. She began flipping the vial in the air to mix the two substances, as Cat, Dawn, and Hermione burst out loudly into song.
"Stop right there. I gotta know right now. Before we go any further, do you love me? Will you love me forever? Do you need me? Will you never leave me? Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life? Will you take me away and will you make me your wife? I gotta know right now. Before we go any further, do you love me? Will you love me forever?"
By the second chorus of "Let me sleep on it," Draco was singing along too, and Lena was again stirring the cauldron.
"I couldn't take it any longer. Lord, I was crazy. When the feeling came upon me like a tidal wave, I started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave that I would love you to the end of time. I swore I would love you to the end of time."
During the next beats of the song, Lena poured the vial she had tossed around earlier into the boiling cauldron. As Snape yelled, "No," Lena picked up her wand. "Protego." There was a large explosion within the shield charm. Lena smiled at Snape. "Had to be done," she noted softly, before singing the last verse of the song, and ladling the potion into a vial.
"So, now I'm praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive. 'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you, I don't think that I could really survive. I'll never break my promise of forget my vow. But god only knows, what I can do right now. I'm praying for the end of time. That's all that I can do. Praying for the end of time; so, I can end my time with you."
"Now for the second potion," said Lena, as she lay out the ingredients she would need. Cat began to spin the second CD, while the rest of the group watched Lena begin her work.
"Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain. We all have sorrow. But, if we are wise, we know that there's always tomorrow. Lean on me, when you're not strong. And, I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on. Lean on me. For, it won't be long, 'till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on."
Lena sealed a second vial as the song ended. "You know, that should be our theme song," commented Dawn.
Cat smiled. "I knew a girl in grad school who was very big into everyone having their own personal theme song, ala Alley McBeal."
"So what's yours then?" Willow asked.
Cat smiled. "It's My Life by Bon Jovi. What can I say? I'm a Jersey girl at heart." Cat hadn't thought about her theme song since arriving at Hogwarts. She began to wonder if maybe she should begin to accept that her life was here now.
Cat's thoughts were interrupted by Lena. "You have to be the one to contact Becca. Just take this potion and say her name."
Cat looked at the vial warily. "Why don't you do it?" she asked.
"Because if anything goes wrong, it's kind of important that I'm here to deal with it," replied Lena.
"What's going to go wrong?" asked Cat.
"Nothing," replied Lena. "Just take the potion. I'll give you ten minutes to deliver the message to Becca. Don't waste time chitchatting. You'll see her in another week anyway." Cat rolled her eyes and took the vial from Lena. "Oh, and if I were you, I'd sit down first so you don't concuss yourself on the stone floor when you pass out," Lena suggested. Cat glared at her, before taking a seat on the floor and ingesting the potion.
The next week flew by quickly. The students and faculty were busy with exams. Hermione almost had a panic attack about not having studied enough, even though taking a break to train had been her idea. In the end, however, all of the teens did fairly well on their exams.
While Cat was giving exams, Lena familiarized herself with the castle. Professor Dumbledore offered to give her a full tour. "Are you enjoying your holiday here?" he asked, as they walked toward the library.
Lena nodded. "It's just so good to see Cat again. It hasn't been the same without her. Thank you so much for allowing Becca and I to visit."
Dumbledore smiled. "I have told my faculty members on numerous occasions that any of their friends are always welcome at Hogwarts. Besides, visitors keep things interesting. For instance, I did so enjoy watching you work the other day. How ever did you first discover your method?"
Lena smiled. "I actually got the idea from a Muggle move about this guy who does the whole showmanship thing when making cocktails. I hope to someday open my own apothecary and mix potions for my customers with a little extra flare."
"And do you not like your current work?" asked Dumbledore in an offhand manner.
Lena sighed. "I do like it. It's just that most of my work these days seems to have too many military applications. Even things that could really help the general population wind up classified because of some military use or another. I know that right now the American Ministry is anticipating the war with Voldemort to spill onto their soil. And, I know that fighting against him is right, but who knows what the next war will be or the one after that." Lena sighed again.
Dumbledore placed a hand on her shoulder. "When it is time for you to move on, you will know it," he assured her. Lena nodded.
They entered the library, and Lena's eyes immediately lit up at the sight of so many books. Eventually, Dumbledore left her there to explore on her own. He informed Madame Pince that Lena should have unrestricted access and be allowed to check out any books she might find interesting.
Lena spent several hours looking through the books in the restricted section of the library. She wanted to make sure she had the directions for the blood bonding potion absolutely right, as it had been years since she last made it.
Lena stood on her tiptoes attempting to reach a large volume on the top shelf, when an arm shot out from behind her and retrieved the book. She spun around to see Severus Snape standing in front of her. He looked at the title of the book, Ancient Wizarding Rituals. He raised an eyebrow in question.
"I'm making sure I have this blood bonding potion right," she explained. "It's been awhile since I last made it, and I'm pretty much going on memory." She passed the directions to Snape, figuring that his opinion could not hurt.
Snape read the directions carefully. "I'm not familiar with this potion," he finally admitted.
Lena smiled. "You wouldn't be. I created my last year at Victoriana Academy." Snape looked impressed, despite himself. This woman was beginning to intrigue him, and he found the intrigue to be highly irritating.
"Do you still have ties at Victoriana Academy?" Snape asked. 'Maybe she's a teacher," he thought.
Lena shook her head. "I still talk to some old teachers from time to time, but since I live in Salem, I don't get much of a chance to visit old Victoriana."
Snape latched on to this information. If Lena lived in Salem, she might have studied under Madame Rago, which would at least explain her work habits. "Did you ever study under Madame Rago? She is a professor at the Salem Witches Institute."
"That she is," replied Lena with a small smirk. "But I cannot say that I've had her as a teacher of mine." Snape was stumped. He hated being in the dark about anything, and he had a feeling that Lena was not telling him the entire truth.
On the last day of exams, Professor Dumbledore made an announcement at dinner. The cancelled Yule Ball would be reinstated, but would not be as formal as in years past. Everyone from first through seventh year was invited back to the Great Hall at 8pm for a dance. The dress would be casual, and students were urged to wear whatever made them comfortable. The only tradition that would be upheld was that the ball would be opened by the Head Boy and Girl, who were happy to have an excuse for at least one dance together.
Most of the faculty agreed to chaperone the dance. Buffy and Charlie, however, backed out because they still had several last minute wedding details on which to focus. Faith also declined, saying that after a week of exams, she just wanted to spend a quiet night at home with Robin. Cat was also going to back out because of Lena's visit, but Lena insisted that they all go. She didn't want to intrude on Cat's time with Wesley, and she also wanted a chance to bother Snape.
Harry was the only teen who decided to remain behind. Since he was still not supposed to be speaking to his friends, he figured it would be easier to just extricate himself from the entire situation. Shannon agreed to meet him back in the common room after an hour or two. She figured that at least she would get to dance to some fast songs with Dawn, Hermione, and Ginny. (Neville was still in the hospital wing, receiving intensive counseling from a witch called in from St. Mungo's.)
Ron and Hermione opened the ball. They initially danced with nearly a foot of space between them, but after a few minutes, Ron pulled her against him. She looked at him quizzically. "You can slap me at the end," he whispered. "Just make it look good." She giggled in reply.
"I knew they still loved each other," Lavender whispered to Parvati, who nodded her head in agreement. However, both Gryffindor girls as well as everyone else in the Great Hall was startled at the end of the song, when Hermione stepped back and slapped Ron hard across the face, before stalking off the dance floor.
"Tough break, mate," consoled Seamus. Ron rubbed his cheek, where a red handprint was emerging, as all the other students took to the dance floor.
Draco danced with Dawn for a while, but eventually took turns spinning Shannon, Hermione, and Ginny around the dance floor as well. The three girls seemed to be having a lot of fun much to the amusement of several other students. Draco received several shouts of encouragement from other sixth and seventh year boys.
Wesley was doing the same as Draco with Cat and Lena, spinning them around the dance floor in turn. Eventually, a slow song was played, and Lena excused herself to get something to drink, while Wesley took Cat into his arms and they moved to the music.
Snape was standing by the refreshment table, his arms crossed, as he glared at the students. "You aren't one for fun, are you?" Lena asked, as she walked up beside him.
"This is not my idea of fun, no," replied Snape.
Lena rolled her eyes. "Do you want to dance?" she asked.
Snape looked shocked, then amused. "With you?" he asked.
"No, with the giant squid. Of course, with me."
"No," replied Snape.
"No?" questioned Lena. "That's rude. You are supposed to say 'yes' when a woman asks you to dance."
Snape needed an excuse. He spotted Willow a few feet away, talking to Oz. "I promised to dance with Willow to the first slow song of the evening," he explained quickly, practically running to Willow's side and pulling her onto the dance floor.
Willow looked highly amused at his antics. As they began to dance, she had to make a comment. "I don't think she bites," Willow informed the potions master.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," he replied.
Willow giggled. "Do you remember when I told you that there were women out there who would actually be attracted to your unique perspective on the world?" she asked. Snape nodded. "I think you just found one. So, why are you dancing with me instead of her?"
"There is something wrong with that woman," replied Snape. He knew the excuse was weak, but it was all he could come up with.
Willow smirked at him. "The only thing wrong with her is that she seems to like you."
"Exactly," agreed Snape.
"This is ridiculous," Willow stated. She waved Lena over to them. "Do you mind taking over for me?" Lena was happy to do so.
Willow could not help but giggle, as she left a gaping Snape on the dance floor with Lena. "I really don't bite," Lena was assuring him. "Unless you want me to, that is." Snape was looking paler than usual.