Beginning note: For non- Regency Romance fans, a domino is a long hooded cloak, usually satin, that men wear over normal evening attire with a mask in lieu of a costume at a masquerade.
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Go to him. Go to him...
Lorelei flung off her covers and raced through her quarters, out into the corridor, launching herself into Severus' arms when he stepped out of his rooms. She loosened her hold enough to view his face. "I had a dream...shadows...I'm so worried for you."
Nameless fears made her desperate for reassurance that everything would be okay. She drew his head down to hers. What Severus thought of her frantic kisses and pressing as though she were trying to climb into his skin—his hands were moulding, stroking. Perhaps he didn't mind. His lips seemed reluctant as they pulled back after a final soft kiss. Sliding the straps of her gown back up her arms to rest again on her shoulders he said, "The...matter...that I must attend, will not keep me from you. Shadows will be dealt with and I will be at the ball tonight."
She returned to a fitful sleep and at breakfast, Lorelei wondered why she bothered when the man who made getting up early worthwhile was somewhere else putting his life in danger.
"Worry will not add a single hair to your lovely head, I'm afraid." Dumbledore seated himself beside her and sighed when a bowl of porridge appeared. "Nor will it add bacon to your plate when house-elves think you should have a healthier diet."
She gave a reluctant smile. "I never thought it would. Sounds like a Muggle saying."
"But true nonetheless."
His assurance gave Lorelei hope. "I'll remember that." Since he didn't seem interested in his porridge, she asked a question that had nagged at her for ages. "Why did you really make me wait seven years?"
"Before hiring you? Don't you know?"
"No, unless seven really is a number of completion."
"Oh, it is, but my true reason was more...like making a specific kind of potion. One that takes time for the ingredients to ripen and at the peak of bloom they are harvested, combined together, and gently simmered for maximum effect." His eyes twinkled. "Need I tell you what kind of potion, I've been brewing—figuratively speaking."
"No! No that's not necessary, thanks." Professor McGonagall had entered the room, and the last thing Lorelei wanted was for her to overhear anything about Severus, or love potions.
That evening, inside a cosy restaurant in a wizard section of London, Lorelei was pleased she had opted for good food and comfortable surroundings. Haute cuisine would've made Tonks uncomfortable, and her friend might have asked the server where the rest of the food was.
"Snape is coming to the ball?" Remus asked.
"Of course. He just had to do something first. Severus will meet us there." To distract the couple from their curiosity, she asked Remus, "You received the domino?"
"Yes, thank you. It's a very unusual colour. Greyish brown would you call it?"
"The shop assistant said it was 'wolf pelt."
Remus looked at Tonks, who grinned but didn't say that he'd find out soon enough why his domino was that particular shade.
They lingered over coffee and chatted with the owner who came over to ask how they'd enjoyed their meal. On their way out, Lorelei saw two men trying to convince the Maitre D to give their party a table without a reservation and recognised the identical redheads. She deduced that the good-looking man with a pony-tail and earring standing nearby with an older couple was their dashing brother Bill.
Lorelei pulled Tonks and Remus to the side. "See the Weasleys trying to get in? Well, the twins invited me home for dinner once, to impress their older brother, and I couldn't go."
"So you want to swan over, chat the boys up, and give them something to lord over brother Billy, is that it?" Tonks asked.
She would have phrased it differently, but— "Yes."
"We'll wait outside," Remus said.
The Maitre D was a stiff upper lip sort of bloke not susceptible to their legendary charm or the hint of bribes. Fred and George reported the news to their mum, who, as expected, was not pleased.
"Arthur, why didn't you remember to get a reservation? It's Bill's birthday—what are you doing Fred!"
He'd been pretending to doze off. "Sorry Mum, rants have that effect. You were saying?"
"It's Bill's birthday!"
George told Bill, "Oh, you're a birthday-boy."
"You should have told us," Fred said. "We had no idea." He fingered his chin. "Hang on, Mum did mention something about it."
"Once," George said.
"Or Twice."
"A Minute."
"All Week," Fred said. He and George had perfected that patter on Percy, who was now He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned-Or-Mum-Cries.'
"Do us a favour and shut up," Bill said.
George cried, "Mum, Bill told me to shut up."
"Oy, Fred, he told me to shut up, too."
Their mum was not amused. "Heavens can't you boys be serious for a moment? It's bad enough that you make a living out of perpetual childhood, but this is your brother's natal day!"
"Merlin! Owl the Prophet, George, I reckon big brother's natal day is front page news!"
"Yeah, you know what? Maybe Bill here will be named Most Eligible Bachelor. Wouldn't that be corking?"
"Funny, clowns. Put a cork in it, will you?" Billy looked more amused than irritated, splendid brother that he was.
Fred said, "Hey, George, did Bill here tell you he and Fleur are still seeing each other?"
"What are you talking about?" their mum said. "They're just pen-friends."
"Absolutely spiffing pen-friends, mother dear. Intimate ones." Fred waggled his brows.
Bill said, "I don't see any beautiful women wanting to hang round you two."
"Hello, boys."
The twins hastily closed their opens mouths and turned as one to watch the woman sashaying up to them.
"Fred, you haven't owled in ages." Lorelei kissed his cheeks and turned to his brother. "George, I've missed you terribly."
"How do you know my sons?" Mum said in a tone that practically accused Lorelei of dishonourable intentions toward her little lads.
Lorelei stood between Fred and George. "We've been friends for ages."
The lads' faces were starting to ache from holding back laughter. Mum was looking fit to burst and Bill was put out that he'd been overlooked completely.
Lorelei said, "I know it's short notice, you two, but my mother's having a masquerade ball tonight, and I was wondering. If I send a couple of costumes round...will you come?"
Identical brown eyes met in glee. Yeah, they would! Bill's envy was almost as satisfying as Mum's incoherent sputters of protest. She obviously thought Lorelei was trying to lure her impressionable boys away to an orgy. Not that they'd mind if she did.
Lorelei smiled at their eager agreement. She lifted a hand and the owner of the restaurant rushed over. The twins felt like it was their birthday. She arranged for them to have the best table.
Their triumph was complete when Bill asked during dessert, "So...can I come along with you two to the party?"
Fred said, "Sorry, its invitation only."
"But Mum will be happy to trim your hair for you," George said, as if that could possibly compete.
"Oh yes! I'd be delighted to, dear!"
Together, Fred and George closed their eyes, wanting to fix this night in their memory...forever.
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The party was due to start any moment. Lorelei's mother, Marina, was decked out in full regalia as Aphrodite; her cloth of gold gown was stunning and as carelessly expensive as everything else in the place.
Marina welcomed Remus and Tonks and said, "You taught at Hogwarts Mr. Lupin. Tell me, have you ever thought of going into research?"
Lorelei and Tonks left them chatting on the absurdly long and impractical white sofa. As they climbed from the second to the third floor, Tonks asked, "Ever slide down these banisters? They've got a wicked curve to them."
"I have. The floors are charmed for soft impact, if you'd like to try for yourself."
"Later, maybe. Who's the centurion?"
Lorelei saw her mother's partner waiting on the landing. "This is my friend, Tonks, Jean Luc." She gave him a hug and watched him kiss her friend's cheeks. Tonks blushed slightly. His compelling deep eyes and voice affected lots of women that way. Somehow his baldness was attractive, too. Marina had once confided that she fell in love with him after hearing Jean Luc tell a subordinate, "Let it be done." Lorelei was thankful he and her mother were so happy together, her father being...what he was.
"Marina's in the lounge," she told Jean Luc and led Tonks to her room to change.
Tonks said, "This place is...is..."
"Big? Yes, it isn't very cosy, but it's good for dancing around listening to Orpheus Orbs. I've a collection of orbs in that cupboard over there. Pick one and give it a spin, if you want some music on while we change." Acting as though having a double dungeon sized bedroom was no big deal proved to be the best way to put Tonks at ease.
Tonks held up an orb. "Gaelic Uprising? What sort of group is this?" When she gave the orb a spin, the music projection charm activated and Celtic music spilled out. A woman's voice sang a plaintive song. Tonks' eyes widened. "That's you!"
"Yes. The guitarist is goblin, and my best mate. Piper's a great musician and a good person."
"I'm not disagreeing. I don't believe in prejudice against any magical creature. Ask Hagrid."
Lorelei apologized for her defensiveness. "Most wizards have no idea what goblins are like. They just want them to say yes, ma'am, no ma'am when they're working at Gringott's or making them something out of silver. I get upset about it."
She pressed the horn of a unicorn sculpture placed in a niche in the wall. Door doors slid open to reveal a space that made the walk-in wardrobe at Hogwarts look like a broom cupboard by comparison.
A House-elf wearing a cloth of gold tea towel appeared. "Silky is here to help."
Lorelei hugged the elf and introduced Tonks, who said she fixed her own hair by morphing. They changed into their gowns and Silky arranged Lorelei's curls into a classical hairstyle held up with a silver circlet.
"Like mother like daughter," Tonks said. "Which goddess are you?"
Lorelei spread the narrow skirt of her winter white ball gown that left one shoulder bare, "Persephone, goddess of spring and wife to Hades."
"Hades the underworld guy. No wonder you have a thing for Snape!"
"You must have a thing for wolves, Little Red Riding Hood." Tonks looked stunning in a long red beaded gown with a short red satin cloak, complete with hood to accompany it. She had laughed when Lorelei first told her the Muggle tale, but was now clearly happy to have agreed to wear the costume. Her eyes sparkled behind a red beaded eye mask.
The first floor, aside from the spacious foyer, was a grand ballroom. The doors were opened wide on each side of the central staircase, and some guests were still arriving while most were already inside. Across the room, the far doors opened on a gallery overlooking the formal garden. Fairy lights, highly prized since fairies didn't enchant the tiny spheres for just anyone, scattered romantic sparkles across the space illuminated by magicked candles and a enchanted ceiling almost as fine as Hogwarts' own.
Lorelei felt a swell of pride. Marina really knew how to throw a party. Inside the ballroom, a man in a wolf half-mask and brownish grey domino said, "Where's your basket of goodies, Red?"
Lorelei motioned to the dance floor where masked medieval ladies danced with satyrs and nymphs danced with Knights and couples dressed in an array of mythological and historical costumes twirled in a waltz. "Don't stay on the path with me, Little Red. Go off and pick flowers with your wolf."
Her friends joined the throng and Lorelei waltzed with a monk and did a foxtrot with a druid. Taking a break, she chatted to her cousin Ariel, who immediately started bragging about her ickle diddums. A glimpse of two redheads in brown dominos and crimson half masks gave her the perfect reason to break away from the enthralling story of diddums' first broomstick ride.
Two identically appealing faces grinned to see her. They boldly asked her to dance. Lorelei took off her mask, caught a photographer's arm, and asked him to take a couple pictures of her dancing with the boys. He nodded and winked.
The end of the song brought Tonks rushing up, Remus pulled behind by her unrelenting grip. "Molly will have kittens if she sees a photo of that dance!"
"So only show your brothers," Remus told the twins.
After dancing with Remus, Jean-Luc, and several others, Lorelei slipped out of the ballroom and wended her way past the couples enjoying the night breeze to the far, darkened corner of the garden. Mother couldn't have a gazebo—too boring—so she had a false ruin of a Greek temple that allowed one to see the garden over a couple of tumbled walls. Inside, the temple ceiling was bewitched to show an array of shooting stars around the constellation Andromeda. Lorelei had always been fond of the story of the princess chained to the rock and the hero Perseus who freed and married her. Sitting and staring up at the stars which looked like a woman holding out her enchained arms...if she squinted...was a favourite pastime of her youth.
Doing it now made her melancholy, and Lorelei softly sang the song Masquerade. The lyrics about hiding one's face from the world and that if one looked around, there would be another mask behind you, fit her mood. When the last note died away, she closed her eyes in a rush of emotion.
A silky voice said, "I've come for you, Persephone."
She rose from the bench, into Severus' embrace, until—
"C'mon Remus, it's not Grandma's house, but your Little Red thinks it will be a brilliant place for the Big Bad Wolf to gobble her up!"
"Wait," Lorelei heard Remus say. "I think we weren't the first ones to have that idea."
"You're kidding me."
"No, love."
Tonks made a growling sound of aggravation. "What sharp ears you have. Let's try the rose garden."
Lorelei handed her love his white mask that concealed everything but his curving lips. "Come meet Demeter and have a dance before you sweep me off to the Underworld—or beneath the opera house."
Severus brought her fingers to his lips. "It will be my pleasure."
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A/N: The lyrics of Masquerade can sound very melancholy, and the line "Of Elysian peace" reminded me of Hades. (:
