Author's Note: I'll be updating more often in the next few weeks, but please be patient with me. I've been getting writer's block whenever I sit down to type. Please comment, favorite, like, and most of all, enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Fairy Tales

Dear Sam,

I got the news about Matilda. I'm so sorry. I wish I could be by your side during this rough time. The Order is doing everything in its power to get Matilda back. We have narrowed down places where Matilda could be to five. On a much lighter note, I was hoping you would like to go out to dinner. I could pick you up from the Hogwarts gate and take you out New Year's Eve. Dress fancy.

Harry

I quickly grabbed a quill and parchment and wrote my response.

Dear Harry,

I'd love to go out to dinner on New Year's Eve. I do want to remind you that we're at war with people we don't know we're fighting. Please choose a place that's safe for you. Many wizards and witches want to kill you. Thank you for trying to rescue Matilda. Take care!

Sam

I gave the letter to my barn owl. Margaret flew out the open window of my bedroom. It would be nice to get out. Just forget about the worsening war. The Weaslys were attacked yesterday at their home. The only injury was Molly cutting her arm, and that healed quickly. I went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of firewhisky and a glass. I poured myself a glass and drank it all right away. Immediately I felt a little better as the alcohol blurred my thoughts of war. Sighing, I went to table with my glass and started grading papers.

"I never thought of you as much of a drinker, Sam." Ginny said. She was at the opposite side of the table as I was. I just starred at her darkly.

"You'll be surprised to find that you don't know me." I said. I finished my glass and went to get another one.

"What do I not know about you? I've been living with you for four months and only ever saw you drink at the Halloween party. What's changed?" Ginny asked. I didn't answer until I got back to the table. I sat down my glass and went by Ginny's side. I pulled up my left sleeve and she gasped.

"Thought you should know." I said. I pulled my sleeve back over the small Dark Mark Samuel had given me. He did it the same night he raped me.

"You're a Death Eater?" Ginny exclaimed. She stood up, grabbed her wand, and put it to my neck faster than you could say Death Eater.

"Of course not. The Carrows taught me how to be like them, I never really wanted to become one. But I had very little hope that year. I was as close to death as you could get. I needed a way to defend myself from Amycus." I said calmly. Nobody ever saw my dark mark. I always covered it up. It also helps that sense Samuel did it and not Voldemort, it was very small.

"They must have taught you more than dueling!" Ginny yelled. Her wand dug deeper into my neck. It was getting hard to breath.

"You think I let him do this? You think I wanted this? Look at it! It's smaller than most. Do you really think I would let Voldemort do this to me? No! Samuel forced it onto me!" I growled. Ginny stepped back in shock. I grabbed her wand and hugged her. She hugged me back. When I knew she was calm enough and wouldn't attack me, I gave her back her wand. She went to her room.

"I hope she understands." I muttered. Grabbing the bottle of firewhisky, I refilled my glass and tried to grade papers. I couldn't think straight, though. My guess is I had too much alcohol, so I went to bed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When I woke up, I felt awful. It wasn't from drinking, it was from Ginny. I don't know what got into me last night. I can't believe I scared her like that. She wasn't even in her room when I checked. I got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall, relieved to see Ginny there. I sat down in a chair as far away from everyone as I could get.

"Sam. It is not my fault those things happened to you. You shouldn't be taking your anger out at me. And next time, don't scare your apprentice half to death. She's too scared to even tell us what's wrong." Came a lazy, drawl from behind me. I was on my feet before I knew it. My wand was pointing directly at his heart.

"How about you care for your friends when they are upset after seeing bad memories instead of screaming at them to get a grip." The shocked look on his face only motivated me. "Stay the hell away from me, Snape, or you'll regret it!"

"What is it that scare Ginny?" he asked quietly as he grabbed me wrist when I tried to walk away.

"She didn't even trust me. Just like I don't trust you." I said. I slapped him in the face as hard as I could and walked away, leaving him to stare daggers at my retreating form. I had made a fool out of him in front of some of his students, who happened to be filming our little chat. Wonder what the kids will think of me now.

The rest of the day went by really fast. Ginny wouldn't even speak to me. I miss her all ready. I heard someone knock on the door, so I went to see who it was.

"I can't believe you, Sam! You ruined your chance with Severus!" said the annoying Poppy.

"Did I forget to tell you I have a date tomorrow?" I asked. I blocked the door so Poppy couldn't slip past me.

"What?" she screeched. "A new year's eve date? It's with Harry, isn't it?" when she asked the last question, her eyes turned icy.

"Who else loves me, Poppy? If Severus loved me he wouldn't have said those things." I said. I slammed the door closed before she could say anything else. I quickly locked the door and put a few enchantments on it. I don't want anyone breaking in. I went back to reading my book on my couch. Ginny was sitting there waiting for me.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" she asked. We both knew she was talking about my dark mark.

"Truthfully, I forgot about it. It's not a normal dark mark, so I don't feel any pain from it. It's almost like a muggle tattoo. Plus, I didn't feel it mattered much."

"Does Professor McGonagall know?"

"Yes. She is about as snoopy as Poppy."

"Nobody is that bad. People can't sink to that level."

"You just said people can't sink to Poppy's level, so does that mean Poppy's not a person?"

"You know what I meant!"

"You're forgetting how stupid I am!" I said as I threw a pillow at her. She threw it back at my face and we started a pillow war. I called a truce when she took the pillow I was using and started whacking me with the pillow she had and the pillow she took from me.

"Are you doing anything for New Year's Eve?" Ginny asked. We were sitting on the floor, exhausted from our pillow war.

"Yeah, Harry invited-" I didn't get to finish. Ginny's face had gone white before turning red.

"Harry invited you out?" she asked, shocked.

"Wait a second. Do you like Harry?" I asked. I never paid any attention to who people liked during the second war. Didn't really think it mattered at the moment.

"Yes!" she screamed. Her voice then got very quiet. "Wait, you didn't know?"

"Well, I could sort of tell, but I didn't know for sure. I thought it was just because he's Ron's best friend and that's why act strange around him. Plus, I was, in fact, trying to stop the Dark Lord."

"How'd you do that from Hogwarts?"

"By keeping all of the kids safe. If I hadn't been there to torture, who do you think Amycus would have tortured?" I asked. I stood up and pulled Ginny to her feet. Her red face had become its normal color once again.

"Thanks, Sam, for keeping the children safe." Ginny said. "Now that you know who I like, will you tell me who you like?"

"Sure, why not. But if you ask him out on a date, I'll kill you."

"Don't worry, I'm not that mean."

"Good. I like Severus." I said. The shocked look on her face was priceless. Who knew someone could look that much like a fish? I guess you learn something new every day.

"What. You like Snape? Why do you act as if you hate him? Is this why Poppy keeps annoying you? Sense when have you liked him? Do you know if he likes you? How could you like a bat?" she asked. I had no idea someone could ask questions so quickly. Better answer all of them. I guess sometimes you learn two new things every day.

"Yes I like Severus. He's a complete jerk. No, it's not why Poppy's annoying me about him; she doesn't even know I like him. I realized I like him Christmas Day. I do not know if he likes me, and I don't know how I could like a bat, but I do." I said. I made sure to answer all of the questions in order, otherwise, I could have confused Ginny.

"You have to be kidding me!" Ginny exclaimed. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone as long as you don't tell anyone about Harry."

"I think everyone can tell you like Harry, except for Harry."

"Yeah, because he is too busy looking at a certain professor."

"I do have incredible beauty." I said, striking a pose that made us fall over in laughter. It was almost like Matilda was just asleep in the other room and hadn't been taken by the Death Eaters. Stupid war.

"Well, we have to go teach Hagrid. He's greatly improving. Is it his seventh lesson?" Ginny said as she walked towards the door.

"Yes, it is. Now come on, we don't want to be late." I said, following her to the door. We walked around a hallway before coming to the door of the classroom we were using for Hagrid's lessons. Ginny's right though; he is improving a lot. By the second lesson, we had covered all of the transfiguration units he missed. In the next three, we did potions. He struggled with chopping the ingredients. His huge hand couldn't hold the knife at a good angle for chopping. In the next one, we did herbology. He seemed to know a lot about herbology, so Ginny and I decided to do only one class on it. Today, we're starting defense against the dark arts.

"Ello Sam and Ginny. What are we doing today?" Hagrid asked. His beetle-black eyes glittered with friendliness under his mane of hair.

"We're going to be starting the defense against the dark arts units. You probably know most of this stuff through experience, so Ginny and I are not sure if we'll take one or two days on it." I said. The desks in the classroom had been cleared to make room for Ginny and me to teach. It was much cluttered besides the open area.

"Do you know what a Bogart is, Hagrid?" Ginny asked. The rest of the lesson went on smoothly. We went through Bogarts, vampires, werewolves, gnomes, hags, ghosts, gargoyles, imps, pixies, gindylows, blast-ended skrewt, inferi, dementors, and a variety of other creatures. Sense Hagrid knew about most of them, we went through them all very quickly. Soon, the three hours of the lesson had gone by and I was back in my quarters. I pulled out a book called How to Create Homemade Spells and sat down on the couch and read through it. I've been trying to make my own spells, but none of them seem to work.

"Fasicadil." I said. This was the only spell that even got close to working. It was a spell that would see if someone's lying. It produced a light blue light that only the person who said the spell could see. If it turned brown, than the person was lying. If it turned purple, than they were telling the truth. I'm going to use it on Harry tomorrow to see if he likes Ginny or not. Maybe I'll even use it on Severus to see if he likes me. But then I'd have to ask him, and that would be weird.

"How's the spell going?" Ginny asked as she walked in the room. Looking at the clock, I saw it was almost nine. She had been tutoring students in the classroom for the past two hours.

"Good. It's a truth spell. Can I test it out on you?" I asked.

"Sure, as long as it's not dangerous and you don't tell anyone else my deep, dark secrets. How does it work?"

"I'll say the spell while you're talking. You won't be able to see the light that is produced. The light will start out light blue. If it turns brown, that means you're lying. If it turns purple, you're telling the truth. Now say something!"

"I think hot chocolate is okay, but I'd rather have a hot cup of tea." As Ginny said this, I whispered Fasicadil. It turned brown.

"Liar!" I said triumphantly. I know it worked because Ginny loves hot chocolate more than anything else.

"Correct. Can you teach me that spell?" Ginny asked. She looked wondered by the thought of using it. "You'll teach the rest of the Order, right?"

"I'll teach some of them it eventually. But yes, I'll teach you." I said. After she had mastered Fasicadil, I headed to bed. Tomorrow was New Year's Eve and my date with Harry.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This is a nice restaurant." I said. Harry and I were sitting at a table for two at a small, fancy restaurant called Le restaurant de Londres. It was very beautiful. I noticed Harry staring at me.

"Oh, um sorry." He said when he noticed me watching him.

"You haven't had much experience with women, have you?" I asked, smirking. His blush was hilarious.

"I've only dated once before, and that was with Ginny. She's awesome…" he started going on about Ginny and I quickly realized that he liked her. I didn't even have to use Fasicadil. When we finished eating and were standing outside, I decided to tell him what's best.

"Listen, Harry, you are a wonderful guy and any girl would be lucky to have you, but you're in love with someone else." I told him, grabbing his hands in mine.

"Who?" he asked, confused.

"Ginny, of course. You haven't stopped talking about her sense we sat down. But thank you for dinner." I said. I kissed him on his right cheek before apparating back to Hogwarts gate. It was eleven fifty. I headed to the great hall, where everyone was, waiting for the clock to strike midnight while listening to music. Severus quickly came up to me.

"Sam, I apologize for the mean things I said. I tried to tell you before, but you wouldn't listen. When you looked at me with that anger in your eyes when you threatened to attack me, it reminded me how I lost Lily, one of my only friends. I never apologized to her, and that's what ruined our friendship. I don't want that to happen to us. Do you forgive me?" he asked rather quickly.

"Who are you and what have you done with Severus?" I asked, smirking.

"Is that a yes I hear?" he asked, returning the smirk.

"Of course. You know I can't keep a grudge. It's just too hard." I said. I pulled him into a hug and he hugged me back after a moment. Wow this is nice. A slow song came on as we pulled away from each other.

"May I have this dance?" he asked in his lazy drawl. He offered me his hand

"Of course!" I said. I grabbed his hand and he led me to the dance floor. We made excellent dance partners for each other. Believe it or not, but Severus is a very good dancer. We flew in the small space we took up in the back of the room. The song suddenly stopped and people started counting down.

"Ten…Nine…Eight…Seven…" Everyone yelled. "Six…Five…Four…Three…Two…One… Happy New Year!" Balloons fell from the sky and people started kissing. I turned to Severus and kissed him on the lips. He kissed me back. When I pulled away, there was a slight blush in his cheeks.

"Happy New Year, Severus." I said as I turned away from him.

"Happy New Year, Sam." He said back. Before I could walk away, however, he asked, "Did you enjoy your date?" I turned back to him.

"Truthfully, no. We're both in love with someone else." I said. He raised an eyebrow as I said this.

"I know Harry's in love with Ginny, but who is it that you're in love with?"

"I'm looking at him." I said. Where did this courage come from? He looked shocked for a second, but then smiled. He has such a nice smile. He quickly pulled me in close and kissed me on the lips.

"I feel the same way." Severus said as he broke away from me. "Goodnight, Sam."

"Goodnight, Severus." I said. It was my turn to stand there like an idiot, staring at him as he walked away. Sometimes fairytales do come true. However, I know things are going to get tough as we head deeper into the war. Suddenly, a spell hit me in the heart and everything turned black.

Author's Note: Don't worry, Sam's not dead! I'd be mad at myself if I killed her off this soon. There will be many more chapters to this story, so stay tuned!