21. You'll Bawl

One morning in December, Snape had all the Slytherins gather in the common room.

"Quiet, everyone, settle down," he called out, and the room fell silent. "I have an announcement to make."

You're retiring! Callie thought to herself with a smirk.

"As is tradition with the Triwizard Tournament," he went on, "Hogwarts will be holding the Yule Ball on Christmas night. It will begin at eight o' clock and end at midnight, and it will be held in the Great Hall. Dress robes are required. The ball is open only to fourth-year students and above. Third-years and below may accompany an older student as a guest. I expect, as always, exceptional behavior from all of you, particularly as we will be joined by our foreign visitors. Don't make a fool out of our house, our school, or myself."

He stood in silence for a moment, and when nobody did anything, he said, "Why are you all just standing there? Dismissed!"

They all went about their ways, grabbing up their book bags or running to the dormitories to collect them.

"Warbeck!" he called out, gesturing her over.

"Yes, sir?" she said.

"I want a moment in private with you."

She followed him to his office, wondering what she could've done to piss him off now. "You're not going to ask me to the ball, are you?" she sassed.

"Funny you should say that," he said. "Took me a while, but I do think I've finally come up with the perfect punishment for you. One last painful shot. Once it's complete, you'll be free to spend your Saturdays however you wish. Isn't that merciful of me?"

"You're not going to let me go to the ball, are you?" she guessed. Damn it. After more than a year of waiting for Neville to make a move, it had crossed her mind that the ball provided a perfect opportunity to ask him for a date.

But Snape replied, "Now that would just be cruel. No, on the contrary, I'm very much looking forward to seeing you there."

"What's the catch, I don't have to show up in my skivvies, do I?"

"Do you really believe I'd subject everyone to that torture?"

Callie rolled her eyes. "Go on, then," she said.

Pausing as if for dramatic affect, he explained, "You're to attend the ball with Theodore Nott. You will walk in with him, sit with him, dance with him, and leave with him."

Of all the things she might've expected, that wasn't one of them. "Wh- What? Why?"

"Because you'll hate it," Snape replied. "And that will bring me great pleasure."

"Why him?" she asked.

"Figured he wasn't your type."

That was true. Theodore Nott probably wasn't anyone's type. He had a sort of pointed face, rabbity buck teeth, and bad skin. Personality-wise, he was the kind of boy who kept to himself most of the time. Although he appeared to get along well enough with Malfoy - she had seen them conversing a few times - he didn't seem to have a lot of friends, if any.

But the fact that he wasn't exactly a catch wasn't her biggest problem. It was not being able to ask Neville to the ball that got her.

Sighing, she said, "Please, Professor. Anything else. Nott isn't going to want to go with me anyway."

"I didn't think so either, so I sweetened the deal."

"How?"

"That's no business of yours."

She would've guessed it way a payoff, but Nott's family had money.

"Please?" she begged again after a moment. "I'll do anything, I swear, just..." She trailed off.

Snape met her pleas with the coldest, most unsympathetic smirk she'd ever seen. "Don't worry, Warbeck, I'm sure Longbottom will understand when you tell him you've already accepted another boy's invitation."

Callie's mouth dropped open as she realized just how cruel this arrangement was. "Oh, you waited for this just to get us both. You knew the Yule Ball was coming, you said it's tradition."

His dung-eating grin became slightly more pronounced.

She went on, "But you think I'm not going to tell him you're making me go with Nott?"

"Oh, I know you will. Maybe he'll even believe it." He paused. "Then again, I might question the sincerity of a girl who spent every free moment with me, but gave no indication I was anything more than a friend."

Callie gaped at him. Bloody hell, he was a God damn mastermind, playing right into the boy's self-esteem issues.

"Look on the bright side," he went on. "Chances are he won't even have to endure seeing the girl he fancies with another boy. Nobody wants to attend a dance unaccompanied."

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Damn that man straight down to hell!

Callie dreaded seeing Neville for the rest of the day, but if Snape had told the Slytherins about the ball, surely McGonagall had told the Gryffindors. If he did plan on asking her, she didn't want to let him go on thinking there was a possibility, or drive himself mad trying to build up the courage to do it.

It suddenly occurred to her how conceited she sounded. What Snape had said about her never giving any indication that she liked Neville was true for him too. Though Snape had referred to her as "the girl he fancies," they'd been alone countless times and he never so much as tried to hold her hand. Never asked her to Madam Puddifoot's. Never been caught checking her out. Maybe he thought they were just friends.

Twice now, she had come close to kissing him - once in Myrtle's bathroom at the end of the previous year, and then in the dungeons the night she punched Malfoy. But he'd never tried to kiss her.

You think I'm pretty? she'd asked him.

It's... not really a matter of opinion.

So he admitted she was pretty, but that didn't mean he was attracted to her.

"Christ, I hate this," she sighed to herself. Why couldn't she fancy Ernie Macmillan or Justin Finch-Fletchley or Michael Corner? At least they were forward.

"Hey, Cal, wait up!" Neville called from behind as she made her way towards the Great Hall.

Shit.

"Hey," she greeted. "How'd it go with the species switching?"

He shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Managed to turn the guinea fowl into a guinea pig, but it still had feathers."

Callie chuckled. "Mine still had the long legs and neck," she said. "I don't know what I did wrong."

The two made it to the Great Hall without any mention of the Yule Ball. She wondered if he even knew about it yet. Of course, she had her answer when they came to the Gryffindor table.

"I can't ask him!" Lavender Brown was saying to Parvati Patil as Callie and Neville sat down. "Boys are supposed to ask girls. If they don't, it means they don't like you."

"Well, in that case, maybe he'll think you don't like him if you don't ask," Parvati argued.

"Oh, bloody hell," Callie exclaimed, "whoever it is, just spit it out."

"Wouldyougototheballwithme?"

It was Neville who had said that. Callie's heart sank. She hadn't been facing him, and a part of her actually hoped that was directed at Parvati or Lavender. But both of them were staring at her, waiting for her response.

Callie would've killed to not have had to look up and see that red but hopeful face. However, she owed him the courtesy of at least looking him in the eye when she rejected him.

Meeting his gaze, however, she found herself unable to produce the words. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came. She could see his hope draining with every torturous second that passed - and then she was up and running out of the Hall.

Bolting into the first empty room she found and slamming the door, Callie burst into tears. God damn, you, Snape! she thought. That man was You Know Who levels of cruel.

A few minutes passed before she heard a knock on the door. "Callie?" Neville's soft voice called out.

Wiping her tears, she said, "Yeah?" fearing they'd all just return when she saw him again.

He stepped in and closed the door, bowing his head as he leaned against it. "I'm sorry," he said.

He was sorry? "Wh- Why?" she asked in disbelief.

"I shouldn't have asked, I..." he trailed off.

"No, you shouldn't have," Callie said. "'Cause I'm already going with someone."

His face fell even more than it already had. He honestly looked like he might cry too. "Guess I should've figured," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a sad, ever so slight smile. "Someone like you doesn't stay on the market long. Who is it?"

Bitterly, Callie explained, "Snape is making me go with Theodore Nott. That's my punishment for last year."

Neville looked a bit bewildered, before he asked, "Who's Theodore Nott?"

Rolling her eyes, Callie replied, "He's a Slytherin. Dark hair, bad skin, doesn't say much?"

"Oh," Neville said, placing the name with the face. "How can he make you go with him?"

"Because he's Snape. I don't think I had the option of saying no."

Again, Neville bowed his head, biting his lip.

"Neville," Callie went on, "I swear I'd never go with him if Snape wasn't making me. I don't even know that guy, really. I don't like him."

He nodded and said, "I get it."

Covering her face with her hands, she said, "Oh, God. I'll explain to Parvati and Lavender. I didn't run away because you asked me. I did it 'cause I knew this-" she gestured to her tear-stained face "-was coming."

"Why're you crying?" he asked.

"'Cause I didn't wanna hurt you."

"You didn't," he said. "I should've... I should've asked if you already had a date."

"It's not a date," Callie corrected. "It's... an obligation."

They stood in silence a moment, Neville still with his eyes on the ground.

"I would've said yes," Callie said. "If you'd have asked me before... I would've said yes."

He hesitated a moment before saying, "I just thought, since you and I are friends..."

Friends. "Right," she said. "Makes sense."

"We're still good, right?" he asked. "I didn't... make it weird?"

She shook her head. "No."

He let out a breath. "Good. Great, so... let's just forget about this."

Callie didn't want to forget. As much as it had pained her to have to say no, the fact that he'd asked...

Since you and I are friends.

"Yeah, sure," she said. "Deal."