What if

The Ball

WARNING: Smut incoming^^ I've been slow-burning this long enough. Also, art included and it's NSFW! Consider yourself warned and proceed with caution.

#-&-HP-&-#

The week went as well (or as bad) as one could have expected with all the preparations and "hype" for the upcoming Ball. It was as if studying simply stopped to matter, especially studying for Potions. Severus snapped at students to keep quiet at least ten times a lesson and the work they delivered was either sloppy... or just none. It's safe to say that at least three people each lesson left the class with an additional punishment essay. Severus already dreaded going through them as they started to pile up - to the point that he pretended not to notice most of the misbehavior that went on, just to save himself some sanity.

Snape didn't care about the Ball at the start, he knew it was coming even before taking the job, but by Wednesday he already despised the event. The universal overexcitement and giddiness were annoying when it came to students and was just utterly dreadful when it came to staff members. I mean just imagine Minerva McGonagall humming a tune while doing a barely plausible chaînés across the hall. You can't? Well, so couldn't Severus till he saw it with his own eyes. And Minerva was among the more down to Earth ones, so you can guess the horror that the rest of the staff was.

Severus also knew in advance that he will, unfortunately, have to be present, therefore he bought the suits for both himself and Harry during their shopping trip. The last time he wore a suit was for Potters' funeral, which he attended under the safety of obscurity charms and only went to pay his goodbyes when everyone left. He never wanted to use that suit again, so he had to buy himself a new one.

Black was his go-to color, black suit, black tie, black shoes... and he would purchase a black t-shirt too if the shop assistant didn't force "at least a grey one" on him. Harry's suit was very much in style like his except the boy looked "adorable" in it, or at least that's what everyone kept saying, so it must have been so.

Harry was swept along by the ongoing atmosphere in the castle. He tried on his suit several times that week and even asked Snape to teach him to dance...

Well, let's just say it was the last straw and before the kid had the chance to find a safe hideout he received a very big and very undeserved tongue lashing. The incident resulted in triple pudding serving, an extended bedtime and an actual bedtime story from Snape, so in the end, the boy felt quite vindicated.

Other than that one unfortunate slip-up, Harry was on his best behavior. Severus wasn't sure whether it meant that Potter didn't feel safe enough to act his age anymore, didn't want to lose Gryffindor more points, or simply didn't want to displease his guardian. He decided not to dwell on the boy's motivations and just enjoy it while it lasted.

Harry seemed to be quite excited about his new school and supposedly even made a friend. Severus was, of course, more focused on the academic side of things, but nevertheless, he was happy that the boy managed to form connections with children his age, too. Snape picked the school for wizarding children so that Harry didn't feel the necessity to suppress his magic anymore. Of course, it came with the level of attention that might have been not entirely welcomed by the shy child, but since he already had all that in Hogwarts, the boy got accustomed to his fame fairly quickly.

...

Despite Harry's gentle probing, that 'it was probably time' and that 'they should be going, right?', Severus managed to delay the inevitable for a good half an hour before finally caving and taking the child to the Great Hall, where the Ball had already started. They could hear the dance tunes of modern music all the way down to the Dungeons, and Harry was practically bouncing off walls all the way up.