The sun was setting; three hours later, when it was finally time for the Yule Ball to begin. All the people in Hogwarts were excited to go, as long as they had a date; and most people had arranged dates for the important event. Ron was going with Andrea; Harry, with Hermione; McGonagall, with Dumbledore, and, lastly, Severus Snape was going with Meg Smith.

Harry had picked out his dress robes especially for this occasion, and, even though he thought they weren't really the best, he knew they were better than Ron's were. Ron was trying to cut the lace off the rims of his dress robes, because they were so girly that Harry suspected it might have been designed for a girl. Even though the sleeves on Ron's dress robes looked better after he had cut them, they looked sort of tattered. Harry saw his twin sister looked sort of disgusted when she, Hermione, Harry, and Ron met in the halls next to the room where the Yule Ball was: the Great Hall.

"I hope they have treats," said Ron. "Like Chocolate Frogs, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and they might even have some Honeydukes chocolate there…"

"Can you ever stop thinking about food, Ron?" said Andrea exasperatedly. "That's all you ever say most of the time. I'm prepared to dance almost all night, Ronald, and we're only stopping for food once or twice in the whole night, unless I get hungry again or something."

"Okay, Andrea, dear," said Ron meekly.

The four of them went into the room where the Yule Ball was. Harry checked out all the people in the room; some were already dancing. He noticed Meg and Snape hadn't arrived yet, and he wondered where they had gotten to. Albus Dumbledore was sitting at a table and eating Chocolate Frogs out of one bowl, with McGonagall sitting next to him, looking annoyed. Lockhart and Trelawney were blabbering to each other like the end of the world was coming. Suddenly, Dumbledore stood up and banged his fist on the table again, with a Chocolate Frog jammed halfway into his mouth.

"And now, the Yule Ball will begin!" he yelled. "Professor Binns, start the music!"

The old History of Magic ghost, who hadn't wanted to go to the Yule Ball (nobody had wanted to go with a ghost anyway), started up the music, which was a slow waltz. Almost everybody in the room started dancing. It was getting enjoyable when the doors banged open.

There stood Severus Snape, wearing those red-and-gold robes of his, and hand-in-hand with his date for tonight, Meg Smith. Lockhart almost fell over in Trelawney's arms when he saw her. Her hair was the same as it always was, albeit fabulous, but what was really riveting about her appearance was her clothes. She had on not her ordinary pink robes she wore everyday, but rose-colored robes with gold lining. It wasn't real gold, of course, but pink fit so well with her hair, and she already looked much, much better than Snape, who was grinning like he was the luckiest man in the world.

"Glad you could join the party!" Dumbledore shouted. "It's Severus and Meg!"

The crowd was made to clap, even though not a lot of them liked Snape much, and the girls were mostly jealous that Meg could steal all their boyfriends at the drop of a hat if she wanted to. Most of them thought Snape had used a Love Potion on Meg, since he was the Potions teacher. Snape had gotten her tested for Love Potions, and she didn't have any, so now they thought they were actually in love, because they just hadn't expected him to use a Romance Charm on her.

The Yule Ball went on for several hours. Every so often, somebody would step on their date's toe by accident (even though rumor had it that Malfoy stepped on Pansy Parkinson's toe just to see what she would do to him). All in all, though, it was good, until it was leaving time.

"Did everybody have a good night?" Dumbledore said. "I know I did!" He looked at McGonagall fondly, and she looked at him back, smiling just as much as he was (a lot).

Snape watched Meg closely. He had promised himself he would take the Romance Charm off her when the Yule Ball was over, but she was so pretty…He looked at her, smiling at him, her arms around his shoulders and his around her waist. He knew what he would have to do.

He swallowed hard and said, "Meg, I love you…goodbye."

"Goodbye?" said Meg, looking up at him, her brown eyes rapidly filling with tears. "You mean, do you have to go, or are you…breaking up with me? Severus, are you?"

"I'm sorry," said Snape, knowing he had never, not once in his whole life, loved somebody just as much as he loved Meg. "This will be our very last night together."

"No," said Meg. "I love you, Severus."

"You don't love me." The words hurt terribly coming out of Snape's mouth. Every word was causing him pain. "You have never loved me. I have simply put a Romance Charm on you because I badly wanted a date for the Yule Ball, and I think I've forgotten…but please, Meg…you have to understand me, I love you like I have never loved anybody before. Anybody."

"You didn't put a Romance Charm on me," Meg said, tears streaming down her face. "I'm smarter than that. You're just saying that so I don't get too sad. W-we're over, aren't we."

"We're not over!" Snape yelled. The room went quiet.

"Meg," he whispered. He decided he wasn't going to tell her, he was just going to remove the spell he had put on her, and that would be that. "We're not over."

"Oh, good," said Meg, leaning on him. She raised her voice, and said, "Right now, I have an announcement to make, everyone. I am no longer Meg Smith."

Snape stared at her. What on Earth did she mean?

"I'm afraid I don't quite get your drift," Dumbledore said, who looked as confused as anybody else in the room did. "What do you mean, Meg?"

"Now," said Meg, her grin growing wider with every word, "I am Meg Snape."

"Y-you're Meg Snape?" said Dumbledore, clearly astonished. "Oh…but…but that means you two are…engaged!" Dumbledore's surprised look left him, and a smile took its place. "Oh, Severus, I had no idea! A wedding…gracious, this will be fun!" He clamped Meg and Snape together. "Don't you two worry about a thing! I'll do everything! Just relax, you two…We'll have the wedding one week from now, is that good for you? Good, okay, you two, you'll be fine…"

Meg was smiling, but Snape seemed to have forgotten how to talk. Married? As Meg pulled him into a hug, he looked at her face, which was alight with joy. Just how could he have ever even considered lifting the spell? Yes, he and Meg were going to be married…He turned her to face him and the two of them danced together to their last song for the night.