Chapter 15: The Yule Ball
*****
"Burr! I'm glad we don't have much further to go to get to the school! Who's bright idea was it to walk from the gates?!?" Katie asked, her breath making clouds of smoke in the frosty air.
"Well, if you'd do your warming charm up correctly, the cold wouldn't bother you, now would it?" Ginny responded tartly as she and Alinora stopped and turned to look at their friend. Pulling out her wand, Ginny quickly cast a warming charm on Katie's coat, hat and gloves. She smiled at Katie's sigh of relief as the warmth flowed through her chilled body.
"Aren't you supposed to be the Healer here?" Alinora teased gently as they resumed their walk towards the main doors to Hogwarts. "You, of all people, should know to dress warmly."
"I thought I was! And you two are the ones always calling me a Healer; I've never aspired to that title."
"You should, you know; you definitely have the talent for it." Alinora said seriously as they finally made it to the doors. "No matter, I'll convince you of it yet! To make you feel better though, let's see if Dumbledore will let us use his fireplace to floo back to my place once we're done. Deal?"
"Deal." Katie said with a grin, pulling open the front door.
As they prepared to enter, a coach pulled up and stopped in front of the school. The three glanced as each other, curious as to who was visiting the school tonight, then shrugged and entered the warmth of the Entrance Hall. As Ali passed her, Katie muttered, "See, other people know that it's too cold to be walking…"
Ali simply grinned and pulled her inside, shutting the heavy doors behind them.
Ginny had already taken off her coat by the time they joined her and she was gazing around the heavily decorated hall in obvious enjoyment.
They were there well before the beginning of the ball, as Dumbledore had invited them to join him at the feast as well. He had warned them to come early to avoid the rush of students meeting their dates in the Entrance Hall and had said he'd meet them here an hour before the feast was to begin so they would have time to visit before the evening's festivities. Obviously they had arrived even earlier than expected, since there was no sign of Dumbledore.
They quietly examined their surroundings, smiling slightly at the faint sounds of Christmas carols coming from somewhere in the castle. The resident ghosts, contrary to what one might think, were abnormally fond of the holiday period and likely to burst into song at any moment.
Hearing footsteps from behind them, they turned and saw two figures emerging from one of the dungeon corridors. Snape's figure was immediately recognizable, but it took the three a moment to figure out who the gentleman with him was.
"Draco…" breathed Ginny quietly.
As the two men walked towards them, their conversation ended. Neither seemed overjoyed to see them, and they would've been surprised if they had, but they also didn't appear annoyed.
Alinora stepped forward as they got near and, smiling, said, "Professor Snape, how nice to see you. And Draco, it's been years. How are you? The papers say you've been keeping occupied working on some intense magical research."
"The papers have been known to exaggerate," he commented with a slight smirk, "but in this case they're only slightly exaggerating. I have been working on a personal project for a while now and have finally begun to see results. But I'm sure that's of no interest to the three of you. I hear that congratulations are in order. The three of you have recently gotten married." he stated coolly.
"Thank you. Yes," Katie replied, "We had a joint ceremony in October."
Draco merely smiled at the three before turning slightly to look at Snape. "I hate to cut this short, but I have another engagement this evening and I must be leaving." Turning back to face Alinora, Katie and Ginny, he bowed slightly, "Ladies, it's been a pleasure. Have a nice evening." Swirling his cloak around his shoulders, he swiftly left the room, heading for the carriage outside.
"That was a bit sudden," Ginny mumbled under her breath, "It was nice to see you too." Ali elbowed her.
"Ladies, I'm sorry I was delayed." Dumbledore's voice floated down to them as he descended the staircase behind them. "It was nice of you keep them company, Severus."
"Yes, well, I must get back to my office now. I have a number of details to take care of before…" and look of resigned distaste swept across his face, "the feast and the ball." Bowing briefly, he swept back the way he'd come and descended the stairs to the dungeons.
"Severus is always the life of the party in events such as this." Dumbledore commented slyly, his eyes twinkling merrily. "Now, why don't we go up to my office for a bit as it's about to get quite crowded down here.
Seeing their nods of agreement, he turned and led them back up the stairs.
*****
Later that evening, the three sat comfortably with the various Hogwarts teachers, looking out over the gathering of students. The feast was almost over and it had been just as wonderful as they had remembered them being. As their work was to begin soon, they excused themselves to disappear out a side door to ready themselves for the evening's performance.
"Nervous about being back?" Ali asked them.
"Nervous? No, not really. Though I'll admit I never would've guessed I'd be back in this capacity." Ginny said consideringly. "For the longest time I imagined coming back as a Professor though." She grinned broadly at her friends and twirled around, showing off her sparkly gold dress. "Don't I just look like the spitting image of a serious, dedicated Professor?!?"
"I think the students would love having you," Katie grinned, "Maybe they can convince Professor Binns to 'retire' finally and you could spice up History of Magic…"
"They can only hope." Alinora sighed in remembered exasperation. "Anyway, I think we should be getting back. Surely they're done setting up by now and we can begin."
They did one final check in the mirror, responding politely to the compliments it gave them, before returning to the Great Hall to stand in a shadowy corner and observe the goings on.
Dumbledore was in the process of transforming the feast area into a ball room with the help of the other Professors. The students were milling around in a half nervous, half self conscious way waiting for the music to start.
Alinora was humming softly to herself, going over in her head the arrangements for the evening. As usual, she wasn't paying much attention to what she was humming, with one tune leading into another before twisting into something completely different. It wasn't until she heard Ginny singing along that she realized that the current tune was that of a version of the school song they'd put together years earlier in response to a dare from the twins.
The school song had always been a bit of a free for all. It was sung however the singer felt like singing it, which lead to some interesting variations. A group of them had gotten into a bit of an argument about whether it was possible to have a set version of the song that wouldn't become rote or boring. Fred and George had challenged the three to come up with something to show that it was possible. Their answer had been to incorporate three different styles of music, one per voice, and combine them into something that never sounded like it would work when you were simply told about it, but that sounded quite nice when actually heard.
By now, Katie had joined in with her part of the song and, at the beginning of the next section; Ali stopped humming and added her part in as well. Some of the students were beginning to notice the singing and they began quieting down to hear what was going on. By the time they'd finished their second repetition of the song, the room was almost completely silent and Dumbledore was smiling broadly. As they brought the song to a close, he began to clap enthusiastically and waved them forward towards the newly set up stage.
"Wonderful Ladies!" he cried, lightly embracing each as they joined him on stage. Turning, he faced the curious eyes of the gathered students. "By this time, I assume that you are all quite aware whom we have performing tonight. Hogwarts has had many outstanding alumni over the years and none more so in their own right than these three talented witches you see standing before you who make up the musical group known as The Sirens. I hope you all enjoy hearing their performance tonight as much as I know they'll enjoy performing for you."
Katie shook her head, chuckling, before turning to pick up her instrument and pass Ginny hers. Alinora moved behind her drum set and, checking to see they were all ready, started the first song of the ball.
*****
The ball was half over now. The new material they'd tried out had gone over well and the cover songs they'd done had also been well received. It was hard to say who was having more fun, the band or the students.
Alinora unconsciously scanned the crowd as they performed. It was a habit she'd picked up during their early years when they were just beginning to work with the Order under Moody's guidance. It was second nature by now to keep an eye on what was going on around her and judge the audience's mood. It was also second nature to react to what was going on with the audience. So, when she sensed a fight about to break out among a couple of the students, she didn't think twice before uttering a few quick words in the direction of the imminent altercation. She was happy to see looks of startled surprise flash across the faces of those involved before they turned sheepishly away to resume their previous activities.
Ali quickly forgot about the incident and concentrated on the performance.
*****
"Might I have a word?"
Alinora turned at the grip on her arm and looked curiously up into Snape's shadowed eyes.
"Of course. Give me just a minute…" Ali turned back to finish securing the last of her drums, shrinking it down into a more manageable size before placing it carefully in her pack. "Okay," she said, turning again to look at him, "what's up?"
"What were you doing tonight during the show?" At her look of confusion, he elaborated, "What did you do to those two students during the dance? I could tell you must have cast something, but I didn't recognize the spell."
"Oh, it was a reflection charm." Ali said with a smile, though she was a bit confused as to why he was asking. Snape gestured for her to expand a bit on her answer and, with a bit of a sigh, she complied.
"A reflection charm, you know, it reflects actions or motivations back on the person it's cast on. It just helps you see what you're doing and understand why."
As she explained, Snape's eyes had gone wide and his expression had paled even further than its normal sallow complexion. "You cast one of the Mirror Spells?!?" he finally asked incredulously. "I thought those spells had been mostly forgotten by the wizarding world. They're only slightly less dangerous than the Unforgivables. They're certainly not taught in any school that I've ever heard of, including Durmstrang and they specialize in Dark Magic."
Alinora gave him a disbelieving look before chuckling slightly. "And whoever said that I had had a normal education? Besides," she continued, in a more serious tone of voice, "while the Mirror spells can be… a bit dangerous, they're not evil and they certainly don't fall under the Dark Arts."
Snape snorted in disbelief, but otherwise remained silent.
"No, really. Spells aren't by nature either good or evil. Any spell can be put to an evil purpose if that's what the caster wants. The Mirror Spells, as you call them, are dangerous, but the truth always is and that's what they deal with. Seeing things as they truly are. No more shades of grey, just brutally depicted black and white. That's why these spells can be dangerous, not many people are brave enough to face the truth and accept what they see.
"The charm I cast tonight was minor, to say the least. I doubt either of the two involved even realizes that's what happened. In fact, if either of them had thought that they had a true, legitimate reason to fight, the charm wouldn't have had any effect. I can only assume that they didn't have one since they let the matter drop."
"How did you learn about these spells anyway? Your father?"
"Hardly." Alinora snorted. "I don't think my father was always a big fan of truth." she said with a twisted smile. "Unca Gerry was always looking for obscure magical information and we'd discussed these spells when I was little. They fascinated both of us, but, as you said, they've been mostly forgotten. A couple years back though, Gerry was able to track down an old book that explained what the various spells did and how to cast them. We practiced a number of them, until we understood how they worked, but there are some we left alone. Some of them are just as dangerous for the caster as for those the spell is cast upon," she concluded slowly, with a distant look in her eyes.
"I'm glad to hear you have at least a bit of sense left." Snape sneered, looking about back to normal.
Ali simply grinned in response and reached up to pat him lightly on the side of the face. "Yes, well, we can't all be as perfect as you, now can we?" At his scowl, she simply laughed, and turned to pick up the pack containing her share of the band's gear. "I'll see you later, Professor. Coming for New Year's?" She glanced over her shoulder to see his reaction, but his expression had simply gone blank. She shrugged before looking around to see where Katie and Ginny had gotten to.
As she walked away, he made one final comment. "Ali… take care of yourself."
"I always do," she replied softly to herself, "and I don't plan to stop anytime soon."
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As those that run fanfiction have decided to delete my other story, The Magic of Music, (with no warning) for violating a guideline that I was not informed existed, after this I will be posting all updates (as well as reposting my first story) on my personal website. You can get information on that from my LiveJournal account that's posted on my profile page. I also have a Yahoo! Group, Lady_Alinora_list, which you can sign up with to receive updates. Info on that can also be found on my LiveJournal page. You're always welcome to contact me at the email address listed in my profile.
I'd really like to thank those of you who have been reading and reviewing. I'm very sorry it's taken me this long to get another chapter up for you guys. The holiday period was a mess and I've been pretty brain fried. I do want to stress again that I will not be letting this story die away. I have it mostly plotted out; I simply have to find/make the time to actually get it written! That can be amazingly hard to do sometimes. I also plan to continue to read/review those stories/authors that I'm currently involved with and will try to branch out as time allows.
I'm rather hurt/angry/disappointed with the way business has been conducted here, but never with you guys! Thanks!
Alinora
