Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—
Severus didn't see Harriet again until Monday at breakfast in the Great Hall.
He presumed that she had taken Teddy back to his grandmother the previous day.
As he glanced over at the omega that morning while they ate their meal side by side, the look in his dark eyes was surprisingly gentle.
Severus could still smell the scent of those warm cookies mingling with the sweet aroma that drifted off of Harriet's skin.
Severus could still feel the soft weight of her against him as she leaned on him while she rested, silently relying on him to protect her.
Severus could still hear the tenderness in her voice when she had spoken to Teddy.
His eyes narrowed as he watched Harriet nonchalantly finish her breakfast.
Severus Snape wasn't the kind of alpha to overstep his bounds, and so, he was determined to learn the facts, once and for all.
Did Harriet truly have a mate….or had she told Elion Dacre a falsehood?
Severus hoped with all the remaining parts of his heart he had left to give that Harriet Potter was a liar.
—
In the pause between breakfast and the beginning of class for the day, Severus held his once weekly meeting with the other heads of houses.
Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, and Professor Flitwick all stood in the headmaster's office as Severus peered at them from behind his desk.
It was an odd and unlikely situation that they faced.
The headmaster wasn't supposed to also be a head of house, but no other staff member had stepped forward to lead Slytherin in Slughorn's absence.
Severus was aware that he might project a bias, and so, he attempted to listen to the others' concerns and offer what leniency he could on their requests.
The meeting passed by relatively quickly.
Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were slow to make many demands or raise issues, but Gryfinndor had something important to discuss.
Severus could see McGonagall's eyes glinting as the meeting began to teeter towards conclusion.
"Is there…...something else…..you'd like to speak about, Minerva?" Severus drawled.
"Actually, yes, Severus, there is." McGonagall nodded.
Severus held up his hand in a silent gesture to prompt her speech.
McGonagall nodded and began, "As you know, tensions have run high in our world since the war. The students and their interactions with each other are no exception to that."
Severus listened silently.
"The students in Gryffindor house want to ask the headmaster for a ball." McGonagall stated flatly.
"A…...ball?" Severus repeated, barely moving his lips as he spoke.
"Yes." McGonagall nodded, "After the rousing evening they had during last year's Triwizard Tournament, the students are anxious to replicate the experience that the Yule Ball offered. I would have dismissed the idea, but I've considered it Severus, and I think it might not be so terrible, after all. It could foster fraternity between the houses."
Severus frowned for a moment while he thought.
No, a ball would be a disaster.
He despised social occasions anyway, and holding another silly dance at the school would only create more needless work to decorate, coordinate, and chaperone the willful youths that resided within the stone castle.
But, another facet to the prospect presented itself as Severus contemplated Gryffindor's inquiry…...
McGonagall shifted on her feet, certain that Headmaster Snape's answer would be "no".
"Very well." Severus replied.
McGonagall blinked in surprise, but Severus added before she could speak, "I'll grant Gryffindor's request, however….this ball will be held as you said, with the intention of fostering fraternity between the houses. Every attendee will have a date or they will be denied entry. This rule will also apply to all faculty and staff who wish to be present."
"Thank you, Severus." McGonagall nodded, then she boldly asked her friend, "You're well aware that my husband has been gone for some time now. It may present a positive image to the students if you and I attend together, as the heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin houses. What do you say?"
"It will be my honor, Minerva." Severus replied with a passive nod.
The meeting was adjourned shortly after and Professor McGonagall glanced at her old friend once more before she left the room with Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick.
Severus was very satisfied as he smirked to himself.
By holding a ball and adding the stipulation of mandating a partner, Severus would guarantee that Harriet would introduce him to her alpha, if she had one.
Severus was glad that McGonagall had asked him to go with her.
With McGongall standing beside him, he would feel less lonely when Harriet walked
into the room with her mate.
Severus was certain that Harriet would gladly bring her lover...it would be unheard of even for the laziest, bonded alpha to let his omega attend such an event alone.
In his haste, Severus neglected to consider the other possibility.
What if Harriet Potter was a liar?
—-
The upcoming ball was scheduled to be held on the second Saturday of September, exactly two weeks from the date it had been announced.
Excited murmurings swept through the school like a virus as every student and even several members of the staff greatly looked forward to the exciting occasion.
Severus never spoke to Harriet directly about it, until one rainy Wednesday morning, the week before the ball, when he stood in his potion supply closet, gathering ingredients while his assistant waited behind him.
"...Headmaster?" Harriet asked.
"Yes, Potter?" Severus murmured while his eyes scanned the shelves in search of lavender root.
"I was wondering…...if you'd consider allowing people to attend the ball without bringing a date?" Harriet inquired quietly.
Severus gave up his search and turned around to face Harriet.
"No." Severus replied coldly, "The purpose of this entire affair is to build fraternity between houses. Students and staff will bring a date to the ball or they will not be permitted to enter."
"That's a shame, sir." Harriet said sadly, "I would really like to attend."
Severus straightened his lengthy spine as he peered down at Harriet from his place in the closet.
He boldly decided to prod, "Come, come, Potter. Surely your mate can be bothered to accompany you for a few hours?"
Harriet blinked at Severus like he was speaking in another language and she shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "I…..I don't have a mate, sir."
"Really?..." Severus sneered.
"Yes, really, I don't have a mate." Harriet frowned.
Severus grit his teeth and bent towards her, just as he had done in that exact same spot several years ago. He hissed forth the words that Harriet still remembered falling from his lips in that exact, memorable cadence, "Don't….lie….to me."
"I'm not lying, sir!" Harriet exclaimed with a laugh of disbelief.
Severus's expression was severe as he moved even closer towards Harriet and scanned over her with his black eyes. Their noses were almost touching as he whispered to her in a low tone, "I heard you tell one particular prefect from Slytherin house something quite different when I was ill…..I'm no fool, Potter. There was nothing wrong with my ears that day."
Harriet blinked for a moment and then she gasped in a quiet exclamation as she realized what Severus meant and the reason behind his unusually icy behavior towards her since his mysterious illness.
So he had heard her brush her would-be suitor aside that day in the hallway….
"What I said to Elion Dacre was designed to spare his pride and nothing more. I have no mate, I'm telling you the truth!" Harriet snapped back at Severus in a hushed whisper.
Severus stared at Harriet questioningly for a moment as Harriet gathered her courage.
It was a brazen thing for an omega to do, but Harriet had a lot more nerve than most.
She stared back at Severus and swallowed before she asked, "Would you like to….Would you like to go to the ball with me, sir?"
Severus raised an eyebrow.
He didn't know what to say.
He knew she wouldn't be asking him that if she had an alpha waiting at home for her.
By the time Severus started to realize just how poorly he had miscalculated the situation, Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick walked past on their way to their own respective classrooms, and they both overheard bits of Harriet and Severus's conversation.
"Potter." McGonagall addressed Harriet.
Harriet whirled around and McGonagall asked her with narrowed eyes, "You don't have a date for the ball? I find that hard to believe, you were always so popular in your years as a student!"
"Those days are long gone, Professor." Harriet replied with a bittersweet smile, "I was actually just asking the headmaster about that…..I don't have a date, no, and I hardly think it would be appropriate for me to go with a student."
Severus watched in horror as McGonagall found words faster than he did and spoke, "Well, I'm afraid Headmaster Snape and I have already agreed to go together, Potter-"
"-But I'm looking for a date." Professor Flitwick interjected with a smile at Harriet.
Harriet looked over at the shortest member of Hogwarts' staff and Severus's mouth fell open in despairing shock.
"I'd be happy to take you to the ball, Miss Potter." Professor Flitwick graciously told Harriet with a polite nod.
"Oh, thank you, Professor!" Harriet replied, mirroring the respectful nod he gave her, "That would be….lovely!"
Severus watched McGonagall and Flitwick walk away and he stared after them with his face twisted into a mask of sadness as if they had absconded with his chance at happiness.
"Headmaster?" Harriet asked.
The disheartened alpha shook himself out of his regretful thoughts and frowned down at Harriet.
Severus was usually a master of schemes, he wasn't entirely certain how he had managed to bungle his most recent so badly.
—-
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that every student from every house was counting down the days until the ball.
Some more than others…..
In the Slytherin boys' dormitory, Elion sat in the middle of the bedroom that he shared with his closest friends, stirring the cauldron in front of him while three of the other boys watched and one held an ancient book open to a tattered page.
"Aren't your arms getting tired?" One boy asked as he watched Elion, "You've been going for nearly an hour now."
"My arms don't get tired because I'm a genuine alpha." Elion huffed, "What's the next line on that page?" He asked the boy who was holding the book.
"It just says 'stir until bubbling', that's it." The boy holding the book shrugged.
Elion grimaced but he kept going, tirelessly continuing his motions as he moved the ladle through the smooth top layer of the cauldron's contents to churn its insides.
"You're really lucky that my father let you borrow this, you know." The boy with the book sniffed, "It's priceless…..it's been in our family for years, it works to-"
"-Your father granted my wish because he believes in my cause." Elion snapped haughtily, "The last remaining piece of the Dark Lord resides within the one who defeated him. It's someone's job to claim her, extract that piece, and mount her head above a fireplace after it's done. Since I'm the superior alpha out of us all, that task, of course, falls on my shoulders."
"But didn't you tell us she said she already has a mate?" One boy asked.
"She doesn't." Elion replied confidently. His eyes shimmered as he thought he saw a ghost of a bubble appear in the cauldron.
"...What if she does?" Another boy wondered..
Elion kept stirring even though he glared up at all four of his friends and growled, "Harriet Potter doesn't have a mate. She's a lying, cheating, self righteous mudblood lover. I only have to claim her and take the children that issue from her womb, the Dark Lord can live on through them if that book's words are correct. Then, I'll throw her into the grave like her filthy mother. If she does come to the ball with…..someone…...well, then I suppose we'll have to deal with him separately. I'm not particularly worried about that, though."
"What if she just doesn't want you?" The boy who had remained quiet up until that point asked.
"Why do you think we're brewing this?" Elion retorted.
Elion grinned down into the cauldron and smirked as he watched ominous bubbles rise in the viscous mixture it held.
"When Harriet Potter swallows this, she won't be able to tell what she wants and what she doesn't. Our first night as alpha and omega will be a suitable punishment for the one who slaughtered the Dark Lord~." Elion smirked.
—
Harriet couldn't deny the disappointment she had felt when she had learned that Severus had chosen to go to the ball with McGonagall.
Harriet had stayed purposely silent about the event around her employer in hopes that he would ask her himself to be on his arm that night.
She had become more and more distressed with each passing day as Severus failed to make any such motion, but she was relieved to at least know the reason for his silence.
Harriet didn't blame him.
Severus was a very private person.
He wouldn't want rumors to start flying as to why he had chosen Harriet to be his date for the ball and she supposed that she wouldn't welcome those gossipy whisperings either.
Still, she had been very upset to discover that Severus had heard her talking to Elion.
What had he thought about her after that?
Did he hate her?
He hadn't believed her when she denied it, having a mate, or had he?
Who could tell?
Severus was a master at making his expression completely unreadable.
Harriet just hoped that she still lingered there somewhere, in the labyrinth of Severus's heart.
Regardless, she was thrilled that she and Severus would both be attending the ball.
Perhaps she'd at least have the opportunity to dance with him?
As Harriet stepped into one of the finest clothiers in Hogsmeade that evening, the shop bell over the door chimed to announce her arrival.
Ring, Ring.
"Oh! Hello dear!" The shopkeeper, a middle-aged, plump woman with rosy cheeks, called as she bustled out from the back room and looked at her customer who had wandered in, "Is there something I can help you with this evening?"
"There is, yes." Harriet nodded at the woman with a kind smile, "I need a new dress to wear to a formal event."
"Oh, yes!" The shopkeeper said with a warm smile, "That's our specialty here! Tell me what you'd prefer? A long gown?...A short one?"
"I'd like something very….proper, but alluring." Harriet said as she thought carefully, "I saw outside that you offer personalization services here, and I'd very much like to have that done too, please."
"Oh?" The woman blinked with a smirk, "So you have a mate that'll be seeing your new frock?"
"...In a manner of speaking." Harriet shrugged awkwardly.
"Very well, dear." The shopkeeper nodded.
The shopkeeper took Harriet by the hand and led her to a corner and instructed her to stand on a platform that was surrounded by full length mirrors.
Harriet was still clad in her regular clothes when the shopkeeper opened her palm and held it out to Harriet.
Harriet reached in her pockets and took out a single hair of jet black hue and medium length.
Severus wasn't the only one who could be sly~.
Harriet gingerly placed the hair in the shopkeeper's hand and nodded to the woman.
The shopkeeper smiled and took a step back.
The shopkeeper wrapped that single, black hair around her wand before she pointed it directly at Harriet and murmured under her breath.
A blinding flash of light issued from the wand's tip and Harriet closed her eyes until the brightness faded away.
Her vision blurred briefly, but through the haze, she peered at her reflection in the glass.
Harriet felt the soft rustle of luxurious taffeta against her feet and as she glanced down at herself, and at her image in the mirror, Harriet laughed with delight.
"Do you think that will be to your mate's liking, my dear?" The shopkeeper asked.
"Oh yes!" Harriet replied happily as she stared at her elegant black and absinthe green gown, "I think he's going to love it!"