A/N - so, i've tried typing this a/n 3 times now and it keeps disappearing & i have to start over. sigh of frustrations. so - it's short, but hopefully sweet. next ch. will be better. now then - 2 acknowledgments i just MUST send out b/c these are3 of my stellar reviewers...

Popess2: "These new chapters are becoming the highlight of my week! You seriously rule. Okay, enough blind flattery" - ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! WAHOOOOO! Let me just tell you - flattery will get you... EVERYWHERE! in fact, i'd go so far as to say that flattery will get you more chapters! weeeeeee! yes, i can be bought w/ flattery. wow, THAT review - coming from an aspiring editor - wow. there are no words! thank you so much, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Puddlemere United: HEY WOMAN! you know i love ya! i'm so glad you liked the chapters! i've got more planned for your favorite characters! winks

Reyem: OK, you've SO got a deal. NOW all we have to figure out is how we can get YOU big ben & ME hines ward! all we've gotta do is uh... well, yeah guess i haven't thought that far in advance - but we should definitely go get em'! WOO HOO - PITTSBURGH WON THE SUPERBOWL, HERE WE GO!


Chapter 19

You may be under the impression that on Saturday, Lexie stood in front of the mirror, primping, smoothing out every crease in her dress, arranging her hair in an elaborate up-do and delicately lining her eyes and lips so that she looked absolutely perfect for the party that evening… but you'd be wrong.

Lexie spent most of her day bent double over her Charms textbook and notes, wand skewering her long straight ponytail, doing her 'damndest' to figure out exactly how one went about performing a glamour on herself.

A 'glamour', as best she understood it, was a charm which gave the user a temporarily different appearance. This was one of the reasons why Lexie hated charms as much as she did. There were just too many details involved. The grip on your wand, the direction you were pointing it, the motion you flicked it in and the way you said the words.

She scratched her head, wrinkled her nose and tried again, for about the hundredth time today. She reached over and picked up her hand mirror. Still exactly the same. Snape had mentioned to her in class the day before, while pretending to look at her potion, that she would need to glamour herself into looking like she was in her street clothes before arriving at his office, so that no one would be suspicious as to her out-of-the-ordinary attire.

This was a particularly difficult task for Lexie, as she was an absolute terror when it came to charms.

Just then Dru strolled into the room. She paused to look curiously at Lexie. "What're you doing?" she asked in her monotone voice.

Lexie looked up to acknowledge her, "Oh… um…" she looked down at her books, then back to her roommate, making sure Dru couldn't see what she was up to, "Just doing a little Charms homework." She said innocently.

Dru frowned, "We didn't have any charms homework." She said suspiciously.

"Oh… well… I'm just catching up… I'm always behind. You know how I am." She said, hoping that playing to Dru's need to be accepted by her peers would work in her favor.

Dru still looked unconvinced, but returned to her bedside table where she dug around looking for something.

"Well…" Lexie began, slamming her book shut and standing up. I think I'm gonna get a shower."

"Are you going somewhere tonight?" Dru continued her line of questioning with renewed vigor.

"Yeah." Lexie made a split second decision. "I've got to go see a friend in London this evening." she said without looking at her roommate. She always had a way of diverting her eyes to the floor or some nearby floor-level object when she lied. However, if she could fool Snape, well then, she could probably fool just about anyone.

"Did you get permission?" Dru asked immediately.

"Course I did." Lexie said as though it were a throwaway issue.

"From who?" Dru pressed on. Merlin, but she was nosy!

"Professor Snape… who else?" Lexie lied.

"Don't you need to get the headmaster's permission to go off the grounds?"

"No." Lexie said shortly, picking up an oversized bag and heading toward the door. "Besides, that never stopped us before." She said, winking.

Dru looked stunned. "Oh." She said, shrugging and giggled half-heartedly.

"I probably won't be back til super late. Don't wait up for me, OK?" Lexie said opening the door.

Dru simply nodded and went back to digging through her drawer, which now looked as though someone had ransacked it.

Inwardly, Lexie wiped the sweat from her brow. "That was a close one!" she thought as she entered the girls bathroom and sealed the doors with a spell.

An hour later, she emerged. She had, to her amazement, mastered the glamour… well, perhaps mastered wasn't quite the word for it. She still had the same hair-do, and her face had way too much makeup on for it to be believable that she was just going to visit a friend. But on the other hand, she had managed to successfully hide her elaborate ballroom dress. And that was quite an accomplishment, and the most important part.

The most difficult, nerve-racking part of all would be facing Snape. Especially now… especially since she knew that he was looking forward to seeing her, she gulped, in her dress.

She walked off toward Snape's office as inconspicuously as she could manage. Looking around, and seeing no one, she knocked on Snape's door.

"Come in." he said from within.

"Hm…" Lexie thought, surprised, "He's deviated from his typical 'enter'…" she laughed a little and then pushed the door open.

What she saw in front of her was an image that she knew she'd never forget. It would remain stored in her long term memory for the rest of her natural life.

There in front of her, was Severus Snape, standing in front of a full length mirror (!) on the inside of the wardrobe door, putting the final touches on his ascot. He looked positively edible. All in black, as usual, he sported a pair of dress pants, a black vest with silver embroidery over a crisp white shirt.

Lexie felt her heart literally skip a beat. If you've ever been suddenly enamored with someone, then you'll understand how she felt in that moment. He looked so very unlike himself, yet, somehow, just the same as always. The bit of white and silver that he'd added to his wardrobe was refreshing and pleasing to the eye. His hair was shiny as usual, but looked as though he'd spent just a little more time on it. And the ascot, she still shivered years later when she thought of this. "It's so absolutely delicious – so vintage, so classy, and yet, he managed to make it look so… grrrrr…" Lexie thought, her eyes wide in disbelief and, was lust the right word?

"Wow." She breathed, coming inside the room and closing the door behind her. Standing where she was now, she could look properly at his reflection.

He glanced up at her in the mirror and looked at her blankly. Just then she realized how disheveled she herself looked. She glanced down at her appearance and was instantly embarrassed. OK, so she'd managed to performed the glamour on herself, however… her appearance now was rather… well… frumpy. The glamour had her wearing an old pair of faded jeans and an old tight white t-shirt. All in all, not exactly a position she would've wanted Snape to see her in on a daily basis. Come to think of it… it wasn't a position she would've wanted Snape to see her in EVER!

"You look amazing." She blurted out, quickly diverting attention from her attire.

"Thank you for that assessment. May I ask," he said smoothly, turning around to face her. "What exactly is it that you are wearing?"

"Damn…" Lexie thought, "Busted."

She sighed. "Well…" she then explained her dilemma with the glamour… but made sure that she accentuated the fact that she was dressed in something amazing underneath the sub par outfit she was wearing now.

He tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows. "You… are not doing well in Charms, I assume?" he asked sardonically, and he moved closer to her.

"Failing miserably would be more like it…" she agreed.

It was as though everything had gone into slow motion. He came and stood close to her. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and in one moment, one swish of his wand, he'd lifted the charm that had taken her all day to perform on herself.

He took a step back and was equally as astounded at the beautiful young woman standing humbly in front of him.