Prince Charming
Chapter Two
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or any character from the Harry Potter books. They all remain the property of J. K. Rowling.
Many thanks to SlytherinFan15 for creating the character of Anne. I selected her last name, Browning, because it's my mother's maiden name.
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Anne knew she should be heading back to her room in Gryffindor Tower but somehow couldn't tell her feet to move in that direction. She stood rooted in place because her mind was churning so rapidly that if gray matter was milk her brain would be butter. She had wondered what Professor Slughorn wanted to talk to her about but had never expected to be put on the spot like that and trapped into promising to invite Snape to the Winter Ball.
Now that it had actually happened she still didn't know where she would come up with the courage to find Snape and go through with extending the invitation. The butter in her brain turned to butterflies in her stomach as Anne considered how far outside her normal range of behavior she'd have to step to ask a boy—any boy—to go anywhere.
Lily was the sun, the outgoing one, shining bright in the center of the social sky. Anne was a moon, only glowing with reflected light and glad to spend half the time in the shadow of her more popular and confident friend. And Snape, well Snape was so intimidating, so dark and brooding and aloof, that she didn't know how she'd summon the strength to meet his eye, let alone talk to him. On top of it all, he was a Slytherin and despite herself, or maybe because of her inherently straightforward nature, she had trouble abiding the sly and calculating outlooks so typical to members of that house.
Snape, at least, did not go out of his way to be cruel to other students like so many other Sytherins. Come to think of it, perhaps that was because he was so often the target of cruelty inflicted by other students, particularly four of the less mature members of her own house and Hogwarts home.
Anne thought back to her arrival at Hogwarts when the Sorting Hat was first placed on her head. The Hat's words when she donned it were permanently written in her memory.
"Hmmm…" the Hat mused.
"This one is not easy to call."
"Not Slitherin… no, not at all."
"Solid enough for a Hufflepuff,"
Sharp as a Ravenclaw, or
Do her hidden depths of bravery
Make her—Gryffindor!
Lily had come right after her on the list of new Gryffindor First Years and from the time they'd sat next to each other at the Gryffindor table that exceedingly magical evening the two of them had been best friends. Anne treasured the Hat's words—far more than were offered for most students—and had drawn on them when she needed to be particularly courageous, such as the time last term when she'd followed Lily's example and put Sirius Black in his place when he tried to turn Snape's hair bright green by spiking his pumpkin juice with vertleberries.
Summoning her inner reserves of bravery, Anne realized that the only way she'd be able to go through with it was to get it over with right away, before she lost her nerve like a Keeper afraid of the Quaffle. She shifted from foot to foot, still standing in front of Professor Slughorn's door as she considered where she would be likely to find Severus at this time of day. He could be in the Slytherin Commons room, but since all the Fifth Years had been assigned major research projects on the earliest history of Hogwarts and its influence on International Wizardry that were due at the end of the week, the odds were good that she'd find him in the library. "All right then," she told herself, in the words of the anonymous wizard who'd ghost-written so many fine plays, "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."
"Are you lost, Miss Browning?" said a deep voice immediately behind her. Anne had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she obviously hadn't heard the soft steps of someone coming down the corridor. As startled as she would have been if one of the butterflies in her stomach had popped out of her mouth, Anne turned around to see Severus Snape standing less than three feet away. He was carrying half a dozen oversized and quite dusty books under one arm.
"I'm not lost," Anne said. "I looked for you in the library and when I couldn't find you there I came over here to see if you might have been helping Professor Slughorn in his office."
"I was," said Snape. "I was supposed to bring him these," he said, raising the books a few inches. "Professor Slughorn asked me to bring them by his office at 4:30 this afternoon."
"I must have just missed you in the library," said Anne, fighting off more butterflies.
"I thought of looking for you in the Potion's Laboratory…" Anne went on.
"And why would you be looking for me?" Snape interrupted, glancing around with concern as if to confirm that James Potter and his posse weren't about to materialize out of the masonry and caste a tangletongue spell on him.
"Because I wanted to invite you to come with me to the Winter Ball," Anne blurted before her innate shyness could win out.
Snape's brow furrowed and one eyebrow went up, as if to suggest she was teasing.
"I'm serious. I'd appreciate your company," said Anne. Her shyness finally conquered her courage and caused her to look down at her feet instead of meeting his eyes.
Snape rubbed his chin and considered the invitation.
"Very well," said Snape, a bit stiffly, "I accept."
"Thank you," said Anne, shifting from foot to foot. "I look forward to it."
"As do I," said Snape matter-of-factly. "Now please excuse me. I'm late for my appointment with Professor Slughorn." He knocked on the door to the professor's office with his free hand and they were both surprised not to get an immediate response.
"Just a moment!" came Slughorn's voice after a few moments.
Anne, who was still looking down at the floor, saw a flicker of motion from the bottom of the door. It took a few moments to register that what she'd seen was the rapid withdrawal of the receiving end of a pair of the sensitive eyes and ears of a set of Extensible Mickeys, one of Zonko's top selling items and a favorite of nosy busybodies across the Wizarding World.
Anne said goodbye to Snape and hurried off down the hall so that Professor Slughorn wouldn't catch her still dithering in front of his door—though she was quite sure now that her meeting with Snape outside the Professor's office had been no accident and Slughorn had been well aware of her presence.
Where the social development of his finest student was concerned, Professor Slughorn clearly left nothing to chance.
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