Dance With Me

He led her firmly by the hand into the middle of the floor, couples parting around them. As they reached the center, Professor Snape wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and they began to dance. He leaned down slightly and pressed his cheek to hers as they swirled around. Hermione started to look around them and noticed the staring begin. She giggled slightly and wrapped her arms more snugly around his neck. She put on her best \"dreamy\" face, though it was hard to control when Harry and Ginny actually stopped in mid-turn and openly stared.

\"This plan seems to be working so far,\" he whispered into her ear, right next to his mouth. \"I see at least five couples that have stopped dancing entirely, and the rest of the group just seems to be staring.\" Hermione giggled as though he had just said something wildly romantic, and he grinned back. As they revolved, Hermione noticed Ron lunging at she and Snape. Harry held him back with one arm and seemed to say, \"Wait.\"

Suddenly the music stopped. Apparently the hired DJ had even picked up on the shocked vibes and had forgotten to start another song. Hermione had a sudden thought as all of the couples came to a halt without the music.

\"Just keep dancing,\" she whispered into Snape\'s ear. \"They\'ll think we\'re so enraptured that we don\'t even notice the music.\"

\"I\'m beginning to think, Miss Granger, that you should have been placed in Slytherin house. Perhaps the sorting hat was wrong.\"

Hermione just grinned widely and nuzzled her head into Professor Snape\'s neck. He bent his head to hers and inhaled deeply the heady scent of her hair.

\"Nice touch,\" she whispered into his neck.

\"Anything I can do to add to the realism,\" he replied. \"What on earth possessed you to come up with this idea in the first place, Miss Granger?\"

\"Well,\" she said, considering, \"I was bored. I hate Valentine\'s day, but I felt obligated to come to this stupid ball. Then I noticed that you were the only other person here without a partner...So I figured you would be as bored and miserable as I was and thought you might be interested in breaking up the monotony and causing a little bit of scandal.\"

\"Makes sense,\" he answered into her hair, \"I just thought that after all of these years of my ill-treatment in class, that you would be afraid to come within a classroom-length of me.\"

She giggled again. This was beginning to be a nasty habit, and she guessed a side effect of being held so tightly by her teacher. \"I didn\'t always hate you as much as I did in the beginning,\" she explained. \"In fact, as the years went on, I began to appreciate you, if grudgingly at first. You were the only one of my teachers who really bothered to challenge me. Then, once the Order was formed, I figured out that you really didn\'t hate anyone as much as you let on. You just set some interesting expectations. Plus, I suppose that since I\'m being honest, I ought to also tell you that I find you more than a little attractive.\"

He pulled his head back and looked her full-on in the face, searching her expression for truth. He found it in every element of her face. As he pulled her body back to his, she felt as though it was closer than before, if that was possible. He did not reply immediately, so she decided that he was considering this bold admission and seized the opportunity to look around. Everyone else had stopped dancing, though the DJ had finally managed to get another song on. They were all staring openly at the couple, including the seemingly smitten Dumbledore and McGonagall. Since Hermione and Snape had been so involved in their conversation, they hadn\'t noticed that someone had cast a spell over their heads. A spell in the form of a heart, formed from red smoke was drifting over the couple.