It was Christmas evening as Lila and Severus prepared for the Yule Ball. Since they were only chaperoning the event, it wasn't really proper for them to get all dressed up. The couple showed up to the ball in their normal teaching attire.
They arrived a half hour early at 7:30 to help finish setting up for the ball. "Aguamenti!" Lila said as she filled up an empty punch bowl with water. Severus was using his wand to hang some final decorations when the first few students started to arrive. Lila walked over to him.
"Are you excited?" she asked.
"Excited for what?" he looked at her with a genuine gaze of confusion.
Typical pessimistic Severus, she thought as she walked away.
She was at the entrance to the ball, greeting students and directing them where to go when Severus appeared behind her.
"Yes," he said. She turned around to face him. Looking over her shoulder, eye brows raised, at the new students arriving, "yes I am excited to spend my evening with you." He flashed a teasing smile and looked her in the eye.
She smiled at him and turned back around to continue greeting the students.
Eight o'clock rolled around as the four contestants and their dates got into position for the ceremonial first dance. Lila, Snape and many other professors and students circled around to watch the eight of them dance. Lila waved at Cho, who was being held in position by Cedric, before the music started. Lila was happy to see her at the ball no less with the very handsome Cedric.
After the four couples had been dancing for a short while, Dumbledore invited Professor McGonagall to dance. The crowds cheered. Snape followed suit in asking Lila to dance with him. Nearly all of the students gasped when the two stepped out onto the dance floor. Many students were surprised to see Snape dancing, especially the Malfoy boy.
"Our old Professor Snape has gone soft, boys," the blonde haired boy sneered to his associates.
Snape glared at the young boy as best he could while dancing. He tried to convey anger and disappointment through his expressions. He knew Draco could be rash, but that didn't excuse him from insulting the professor.
"Just ignore it, Sev." Severus was just as conservative when she attended Hogwarts, but she still didn't like how everyone else thought his dancing was so unbelievably out of character. "He doesn't know you." They couldn't possibly understand she thought. She empathized with Severus. She felt terrible knowing how labeled he was. It was like the whole of Hogwarts had put him into this stereotyped box, and now they were scolding him for leaving it. They were reprimanding him for trying something new and although this enraged Lila, she knew they weren't the problem. She knew, by what he did next, that it was Severus who needed to work on his confidence.
Snape couldn't stand being gawked at and teased any longer. Dancing in front of strangers was one thing, but dancing before his students and colleagues; people who he would see again and could very well tease him about his performance, was different. He immediately exited the room in the middle of the dance, and left Lila standing by herself amongst the children who continued dancing. The students didn't know what to do; many sympathized with her, especially Cho. A caught off guard Lila fled the dance floor in the opposite direction that Snape did. She could not believe the amount of embarrassment he just put her through.