Mysterious Hearts

High Spirits

Severus sighed, pouring a glass of wine as he waited for his wife to finish dressing for the Yule Ball. He had dressed in his nicest and favorite black robes. Fifteen minutes later she emerged from the bedroom, she walked over to where he stood facing the door and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Finally ready?"

"Yes dear," she said rolling her eyes at his droll tone, "shall we go scare the kids?"

"Yes, and hopefully Igor will leave me alone."

Severus placed his glass down and turned to face his wife. His eyes widened, as he looked her up and down.

"What?" she asked blushing.

"You clean up well," he said, liking what he saw. His wife was really beautiful. She was dressed in slivery blue robes and she had gone with a hair color much closer to her natural tone. It was a very light brown, which hung in lose curls.

"I could say the same for you," she smiled, "did you wash your hair?"

"Nymph, you are aware that I regularly wash my hair, and most of the problem is potions residue."

"No need to get snippy," she giggled taking his arm as they headed up to the great hall. They entered the hall before the students and joined the rest of the staff at the head table. The staff and their dates stood up as the students entered the hall. They stood at the head of the room and watched, several very proud, as the champions and their dates entered.

Severus grimaced and clapped politely with the rest of the staff as he watched the first dance. He certainly had no plans on make that much of a fool of himself. He would dance a time or two with his wife, and then go and scare the little children outside.

When he felt it was an appropriate amount of time, he gave into his wife's smiles and consented to dance with her. He grabbed her hand, dragging her from a rather absurd conversation about the merits of muggle candy with Albus and Poppy. Severus led her to a relatively empty corner of the dance floor. His lips quirked into a quick smile when she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him.

They danced the next two slow songs, not noticing the few students that had taken notice of their potions master, and were blatantly staring.

Among these students were two Weasleys, who up until last year had a map that told them all about the castle. They put one and two together, and grinned madly at each other. Another student watching was one young blond Slytherin, who still hadn't gotten used to the idea of Snape being married to his cousin. He grimaced when he saw her kiss Snape's cheek, before the two adults headed to the head table.

Severus waited for a few moments and then decided that it was his duty to frighten all the little children who were using tonight as a time to get a little too friendly.

"Would you care to join me, Nymph," he said with a gleam in his eyes, "as I patrol the grounds."

"For a while," she said. She could use some fresh air; "nothing says romance, like blasting rose bushes in search of snogging students."

"Exactly," Severus told her twirling his wand with long fingers. Tonks just smiled and took a hold of his non-wand hand. Tonks enjoyed the quiet stroll around Hogwarts and Severus got a perverse kick out of causing the kids to jump as he blasted around them. As they were heading towards the great hall, Tonks felt Severus tense beside her.

"Severus," she said worried, "it is the mark?"

"No," he said staring intently in one direction, "it has been getting stronger as the days go by."

"What it is then?"

"The consequences of the mark…"

"I don't follow?"

"Igor," he said as the other man walked up besides them.

"Severus," he said, "I don't believe I've met your date."

"Igor," he said as pleasantly as he could, "this is my wife Nymphadora."

"A pleasure," Igor said pressing his lips to Tonks' hand.

"Nice to meet you as well," she said with a small smile.

"May I have a word with you, Severus in private," Igor said in a serious tone.

"Of course," Severus said, "if you would excuse Nymph."

"I'll be inside," she said squeezing his hand and before giving Severus a quick kiss. Tonks headed into the building and turned to watch the two men walk away. Severus was dressed all in black; he wore it like a shield, and Igor in crisp white. Tonks wasn't sure why, but she felt apprehensive of their conversation.

Once they disappeared from her line of vision, she headed back into the hall. Smiling softly at all the young couples dancing their cares away. After filling a glass with punch, Tonks went back to her seat at the head table.

"Ah, I see that Igor found Severus," Albus said with tightlipped smile.

"Yes," Tonks confirmed, not looking at Albus but at the door that she had entered through.

"Severus knows what he must do, Nymphadora," Albus said taking one young hand in his gnarled ones.

"I know," she said with a sigh, "but I really am hoping that none of this comes to fruition."

"As do we all," he said with a sad gleam in his normally twinkling blue eyes. He stood with her hand still in his, "would you do an old wizard a favor and dance with him?"

"In a heartbeat," she said with a genuine smile, "won't Poppy get jealous?"

"Nonsense," he said; the twinkle returning, "she has been dancing with me all evening, and deserves a break."

Tonks and Dumbledore walked to the center of the dance floor and began to dance when the next song played. They might have looked a little odd dancing there, but Albus was one for being the center of attention; not that anyone could have missed him in his bright red and green robes.

Once the dance was finished and Severus' required time was up, he nearly yanked Tonks' arm off as he pulled her from the room. Once they were in the hall safely away from the hoards of students he slowed his pace down some.

"I need a drink," he said with tiredness in his voice that he couldn't mask. Tonks responded by tightening her grip on his hand and she decided that any questions she might have had would wait until morning.

To be continued…