Warning

This story is not suitable for readers under the age of seventeen. It contains sexual content, including some non-consensual, and may offend some readers. If this subject is offensive to you, please do not read this story.

Chapter 18 - Ghosts and Slytherins

Halloween was a wonderful event at Hogwarts. Back in her 'muggle' days, she had always enjoyed the images of bats, ghosts, ghouls and goblins at this time of year, but it had been a world apart from the place where these could become real.

Hagrid's pumpkins were every bit as fantastic as he had promised, carved with intricate faces, which moved and winked, and filled with tiny candles that cast flickering shadows around the Great Hall. The night sky of the ceiling was shrouded with thousands of bats flying above their heads.

As always, the food was spectacular, appearing onto the wonderfully decorated tables, covered with pumpkins and candles. A group of first-years were sitting a few feet down the table, and she smiled at a rather nervous- looking boy, who had found himself trapped in conversation with a talking skull that was perched in the center of the table, containing a black candle. He smiled back timidly, then blushed a deep red and looked away. She thought back to her first Halloween at Hogwarts and shuddered, remembering the Mountain Troll in the bathroom - it certainly seemed to be a night for strange events!

The entertainment from the ghosts at this time of year was always very enjoyable, and this year was no exception. They had surpassed themselves by writing a play entitled "All's Well that Died Well", which they presented after dinner. It had an intricate plot, which somehow managed to encompass the death scenes of every ghost in the room, with the exception of the Bloody Baron, whose life, death and bloodstained appearance were still a mystery to all. The play received a marvelous round of applause, and the ghosts celebrated with a circuit of the hall, mischievously chilling the younger pupils by flying through them.

Dumbledore stood at the end of the play, clapping loudly, and thanked the playwrights and actors. He then announced that the staff had a special surprise for the students. "We have decided to break with tradition this year (after all, what are traditions for, if not for breaking?), and end the Halloween festivities with a dance!"

At that, a door at the side of the hall opened and a group of - well, Hermione assumed they must be musicians - entered. They appeared to have been human at some point in their past, but were now skeletons with flesh hanging loosely from them. It was not a pleasant sight. Dumbledore's cheerful "I would like to introduce our band for this evening - 'Dead, Not Buried', " was met with dubious applause, but when they started to play, everyone warmed to them fairly quickly. Their music more than made up for their strange appearance.

Everyone seemed to think the dance was a wonderful idea - especially the fact that it was a surprise - it saved everyone the problem of having to have a partner for the evening, much to Harry and Ron's clear relief. As the tables magically moved to the sides of the room, Hermione glanced up at the staff. Snape was engaged in conversation with Professor Flitwick, and she couldn't see his face clearly. She smiled to herself, doubting that he would appreciate this change in the entertainment - he wasn't exactly the dancing type!

It was Dumbledore who opened the dancing, with Professor McGonagall, but after a little while, the students joined in and the Great Hall was filled with swirling couples. Ron and Harry swept off to find partners, and Hermione was approached, a little nervously, by Neville.

Thankfully, his dancing had improved somewhat since the fourth-year's Yule Ball, and he didn't tread on her feet more than half a dozen times. Hermione looked around as they danced. Harry and Ginny looked like a very sweet couple, and seemed to be dancing together rather closely, while Ron was being steered round the dance floor by Parvati Patil. She again looked towards Severus, but was surprised not to be able to see him at the edges of the hall. She eventually found him in the one place she didn't expect - on the dance floor with Professor Sprout.

Other people were obviously surprised by this as well, and both Ron and Harry commented on it between dances. "At least he's not smiling," muttered Ron. "Then I really would be worried!"

Hermione was asked to dance by a lot of boys that night, and was never without a partner. Alistair Baddock asked her to dance twice, which she accepted, both braving the sneers from Draco Malfoy and his cronies. Alistair was a quietly spoken Slytherin, and rather shy - both unusual characteristics for that house - and she enjoyed dancing with him. She also danced with Harry and Ron, although Harry seemed in rather a hurry to get back to Ginny.

With a smile, Hermione noticed that some of the staff were happy to dance with the students. Professor Sprout was dancing with a tall fifth-year Hufflepuff, and Madam Hooch asked both Ron and Harry during the evening. By far the most amusing couple of the evening was McGonagall and Dennis Creevey, although Hermione thought that she and Hagrid probably looked just as funny. The unexpected turn of events was very pleasing to Hermione, as it meant that she would be able to dance with Severus, and judging from his expression as he glanced at her while dancing past with Professor McGonagall, he was thinking the same thing.

It seemed that he wanted to tease her first, though. She had sat down for a few minutes, to catch her breath after a dance with Terry Boot from Ravenclaw, and was chatting happily with Ginny about the merits of Harry's dancing, when the tall figure of the Potions Master loomed over them. He was carefully keeping his face expressionless as he towered over the two sitting girls. He nodded and spoke. "Would you care to dance, Miss Weasley?"

Ginny managed to hide her nervousness very well, thought Hermione, as she stammered a quiet, "Thank you, Professor Snape," and he led her out to the floor. Laughing inwardly, Hermione approached Professor Flitwick, and the two couples were soon dancing next to each other in the middle of the hall.

The tap on her shoulder was what she had been waiting for, and she turned to face the man she loved. "Miss Granger, would you like to dance?"

She smiled, carefully avoiding letting her face give too much away. "I would love to, Professor."

It was exquisite torment. To be so close, but not be able to hold him next to her made her ache. And yet, there was something exciting about it too - to feel his presence, but know that no-one else could know. Why am I torturing myself like this, she wondered? They talked quietly as they danced, careful not to look like they were enjoying the dance too much. All reserve and civility, as far as anyone else was concerned - the passion in Severus' eyes was for her alone to see.

"You look beautiful," he told her softly. "I couldn't resist wanting to dance with you."

She squeezed his hand and told him how surprised everyone, including herself, was to see him dancing so much.

"Well," he replied, "I could hardly ask only you. I had to dance with other people or it would look suspicious."

This had been her thought, exactly. "I know," she told him. "That's partly why I wanted to dance with so many people. I've even been dancing with one of the dreaded Slytherins."

"Twice," he muttered. Hermione might have worried at the sharpness of his voice, but she knew it well enough now to recognize the teasing in his tone. "Baddock! I never did like that boy!" His hand was on her waist and she felt his fingers surreptitiously caressing her as he changed the subject. "It's all I can manage not to pull you close and kiss you right now."

A tantalizing thought came to her. "Well, we were wondering whether we should let people know about us," she said. "That would certainly be a dramatic way to do it!"

There was a smile at the corners of his lips. "I'm not sure that high drama would be the ideal way to go about that, but I can definitely see the appeal!"

Tempting though the thought was, they simply danced. Hermione wanted very much to go to his room that night, but the castle would be alive much later than usual, and it would be difficult to get there without being seen. As the music died, she said quickly, "I'll come down to the dungeon tomorrow night after dinner. I need to work on my project, but later - how about another dance?"

He nodded politely to her, as he had with his other partners. "Until tomorrow, Ms. Granger."