Chapter 186. The School Ball. Part 3. A Closing.
The celebration had gradually gained momentum. More and more couples made their way onto the dance floor, joining the other students and a few teachers.
The evening was genuinely lively. The children laughed and chatted happily, and some were making a considerable dent in the various delicacies laid out before them, fare that wasn't served every day.
The Gryffindors were particularly notable in this regard: their table had been refilled, and a good half of the "lions" were seated around it.
Lucky had decided he wasn't going to be left behind, and so, with what appeared to be great effort, he heaved himself upright and returned to the "battlefield," this time operating with considerably more stealth.
He could have shifted his attention to other tables to attract less notice, but the kitten's motivations had less to do with Severus's instructions and more to do with personal grievance.
More than once, Gryffindors had tried to pour things on him, swat him, hiss at him, and insult him.
This was simply his uncomplicated form of revenge.
Severus himself wasn't particularly concerned. He watched the performance with vague amusement, quietly laughing to himself at the various individuals who were trying to locate him among the other students.
Beyond that, he was monitoring Dumbledore, who at that moment was speaking with the Minister of Magic in the latter's office, and the Minister had not disappointed.
He had grasped what "Ihiros" meant quite quickly: not hard to do when you were being told almost directly where to look.
And it was entertaining to watch the flustered Minister's expression when the conversation turned to the "flogging" that "Ihiros" had wanted to award him.
Judging by the flicker of amusement in the old wizard's eyes at that moment, Dumbledore had apparently wanted to witness exactly that reaction.
Within about an hour, Brusser returned with confirmation that the rats had been sitting right under their noses, two blocks from Ministry headquarters.
They hadn't moved against them yet, waiting for Minchum's order.
The operation was set to begin at six in the morning.
That didn't entirely suit Severus: he had wanted to get a proper night's sleep, and now he'd have to be up at six to keep an eye on certain individuals he simply couldn't afford to lose.
Sipping cherry juice, he let himself sink into a quiet melancholy, recognizing that this was the second Christmas in a row that had ended in deaths.
The old principle held: once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.
To avoid a third, he made a private promise that next year's celebration would be considerably more low-key and peaceful, and above all, bloodless.
While he sat lost in thought, he noticed a familiar pair approaching and let Regulus see him.
"There's still a full hour left in the evening. You could have stayed out there a little longer." He smiled at the two aristocrats as they settled beside him, and at the pair of Slytherins who had spotted him from across the room and were now heading his way. "Well. Now they've noticed me."
"Why don't you leave, since you weren't planning to take part in any of this anyway?" Regulus asked with a smirk, then added with a grin, "Call it punishment for putting me in an uncomfortable position. You have no idea how unpleasant it is when people stare at you without even trying to hide it. It was only thanks to Miss Greengrass that I managed to relax at all."
At his words, the girl went slightly pink.
"Not bad at all." Severus's wand appeared in his hand. He made a small circular gesture and murmured, "Aprotos." In the same instant, prompting a sour expression from one and a surprised look from the other, the approaching aristocrats froze mid-step, then veered off in different directions. "But you still have a great deal to learn before you can trap me. Did you think I didn't notice you deliberately walking slowly and steering us past my most devoted admirers?" He tucked his wand back into his sleeve with a satisfied smile. Regulus snorted in irritation. Layla, unable to help herself, coughed twice into her fist to cover a laugh.
"What was that spell?" the wizard asked.
"My own invention. A disorientation charm; it works only on those I target and wipes me from their memory for one hour." At those words, the aristocrat looked at Severus with undisguised astonishment. Creating a spell was an enormously complex and painstaking undertaking, requiring extensive knowledge across many disciplines and countless trials and failures. Some wizards never managed it in years of trying. For the first time, she looked at him the way one looks at a genuine prodigy, in the best possible sense.
"Could you teach me?"
"Too much effort. It would take far too long to explain, and I doubt you could use it at full capacity: it demands enormous control and mental precision. One mistake and you could turn not only an enemy into a fool, but an ally as well. There's some chance of doing the same to yourself. Still want me to teach you?" The smile on Regulus's face wavered, and after a few seconds he shook his head in resignation.
"In that case, no."
"As you like. I made the offer."
"Would you teach me?" Both pairs of eyes turned to Layla, puzzled. "I've always had a strong aptitude for Legilimency and Occlumency. I had mastered both by my third year." She said it with pride, lifting her chin slightly.
"That's remarkable. I only managed to learn Occlumency quite recently, and it took real effort." Regulus murmured in genuine surprise, remembering how long his sister had worked to drill the correct technique for concealing memories into his head.
"I could teach you for the rest of the year, if you'd like." Greengrass glanced at him with a hint of shyness. He turned slightly pink in response, and when he felt a hand land on his shoulder, he startled visibly and looked at his friend with bewilderment.
"My condolences," Severus said, in a tone borrowed from a funeral eulogy. It took a moment for the full implication to dawn on the young man: a wife who was a master Legilimens. The color drained from his face.
"Stop making me sound like a monster!" Greengrass caught the meaning too, and her cheeks flared red. It was hard to tell whether it was indignation or embarrassment.
At that moment, they heard a quiet cough, followed by a voice.
"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt. Do you happen to know where Severus is?" The pair looked up in puzzlement to see a red-haired girl in a simple, long green gown with bare shoulders.
"And why are you looking for him?" Regulus asked with cool indifference, his entire manner making it clear he had no interest in this conversation.
"I want to ask him something," Lily answered in a firm voice, pressing her fists together.
"Hmm? Ask away." A smiling Severus materialized in the chair beside her, startling her for just a moment before she collected herself.
"Could we go somewhere private..."
"Of course." He rose from the table with a calm nod, and she took his hand and led the surprised wizard toward the dance floor. "I rather assumed we'd go somewhere quieter."
She didn't answer. When they crossed onto the floor, a large number of eyes immediately turned to them: the "trio of idiots" were particularly conspicuous, one of whom was practically burning a hole through Severus's back as the pair joined the others. Strangely, however, he didn't move to intervene. He simply watched with a dark expression, gripping a silver goblet tightly.
Severus was mildly curious about what Evans wanted to say to him, but he held that curiosity in check and chose not to use Legilimency.
"We haven't spoken once since that day," she murmured, the awkwardness of the situation evident in her voice, conscious of his hand at her waist as she looked directly into his eyes.
"True enough. So what was it you wanted to ask, Miss Evans?" A small flash of pain crossed her eyes at the formal address.
She swallowed, pressed her lips together, and smiled sadly.
"Just for tonight, could you call me by my name?"
"Hm? Fine. What did you want to ask?"
"How are you?" Severus's eye twitched, but he answered.
"Excellent. Couldn't be better. But perhaps we could get to the point?"
"All right. What do you think of me?"
"Hm. Nothing in particular." He shrugged slightly, and her smile stiffened slightly.
"I see. Do you hate me?"
"No."
Silence fell between them for several long seconds, until she spoke again.
"You've changed so much." She swallowed and whispered the words. "It's as though there's a completely different person in front of me."
"I found a good teacher. And I understood that following someone around like a shadow isn't the wisest way to live. Are you not glad to be rid of me?"
"I..."
"You were the one who ended things between us. What's done is done. Perhaps it was for the best." He took a step closer, and she flinched. "You found your stag: your boyfriend. And I chose to become the apprentice of one of the greatest wizards alive, to completely change myself, to break away from the pack. I'm even a little grateful to you for it: if you hadn't opened my eyes that day, I might never have achieved what I have now, and I'd still be suppressing everything I was. Aren't you glad?"
"I... am..."
"Wonderful. Anything else you'd like to ask?" He looked directly into her eyes, his expression perfectly even.
She pressed her lips together again.
"Last week, James asked me to be with him. And I said yes." A note of happiness crept into her voice as she searched his face for any reaction at all. But he only looked back at her with that same quiet half-smile.
"That's wonderful. Congratulations. I think you'll make a splendid pair. Though I'm sorry to say I won't be at the wedding. After school, I'll be leaving the country with my teacher. So my congratulations to you both, in advance."
"Thank you." Two tears slid down her cheeks. Paired with the smile still on her face, it made for a strange sight. Any man, even the densest, would have understood everything in that moment. But he didn't.
"Not at all. You seem very happy about it. That's good." The music was fading. "Is that everything you wanted to tell me?" When the music stopped, a handkerchief appeared in his hand, and he held it out to her. "It isn't right to cry, even from happiness, on such a festive day."
"Yes. Thank you." She took it, dried her eyes, and started to give it back. He shook his head.
"Keep it. I take it the conversation is finished?" Lily gave a silent nod. "Then I'll have to leave you. My friends are waiting. Merry Christmas."
"And to you."
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