[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Hogwarts.
...
...
"You ready...?" Pandora asked, as the nighttime glow shone through the glass ceiling of the Room of Requirement, indicating it was night, and she hadn't returned to her dormitory.
She looked at Severus, smiling as she saw him approaching her, while he responded by raising an eyebrow.
"What is this?" he murmured. "I thought it wouldn't be something so important..." Snape said, after all, Pandora was wearing a silver dress fitted neatly to her body as if she were heading to a grand party—looking quite beautiful, by the way—while her white hair was curled up elegantly.
"But you're ready, aren't you?" she asked, looking at him and seeing nothing wrong.
Snape wasn't even wearing his Slytherin uniform but rather a hoodie with trousers that Muggles would wear on a normal day—these were clothes that wizards typically didn't own.
She had spoken with him as soon as he returned to the school after the trouble at the Notts' home, saying she wanted to see a place and needed his help. Snape had agreed to help her. She said it had to be very late, when everyone was sleeping, and they'd need to leave the school. But she... hadn't said anything about clothing, and Snape assumed it would be something away from prying eyes, which didn't seem to be the case when Pandora was dressed as if for a party, even more prepared than she was for Professor Slughorn's gathering.
"Well, anyway..." Snape changed the subject. "Where are we going?" he asked, as she gave him another smile.
"Did you know that tonight, as every year, there's a ball held by ghosts that reside at the school? Except no students are allowed to attend." She spoke as if revealing a huge secret.
"And you want to go there?" Snape remarked.
"Of course. Would you come with me?" she asked excitedly.
Snape nodded. He had already told her they'd go out, but he still scratched his head a bit.
"You know the ghosts fear me, right? I'm sure my presence might ruin this so-called ball," he said.
"We can talk to them. I'll let them know you aren't evil or going to hurt them, like they scream around when they see you," she said calmly.
Snape, however, wasn't sure about that—after all, he'd already strangled a ghost early last year—but Pandora hadn't finished speaking.
"Besides, I heard they have many portraits there. You're looking at portraits throughout the school... or even leaving to look for them. Wouldn't it be good for you to see them too?" she suddenly said, noticing Snape showing a spark of interest hearing that.
"I hadn't thought about it that way. Fine. Let's visit the ball," he said, breaking into a smile. "Where is this place?"
She looked at him thoughtfully.
"I can't explain it exactly. It's close to the castle, but you'd need to see it. We can go outside," she requested, and Snape nodded.
"All right. Let's do this the old-fashioned way," he said, without even changing clothes.
"Dobby," Snape called, as the house elf appeared before them.
"Master! Miss Pandora, you look very pretty, so you're going out with the Master?" he asked excitedly.
"No... I mean, yes, anyway, take care of things while my shadows will be working on brewing potions the rest of the night. We'll return in a few hours," Snape said as Dobby nodded, knowing how much his Master liked taking care of things.
Severus then moved towards the outside.
The door manifested itself in the middle of an empty wall in the corridor on that floor, and it opened, with Snape stepping out wearing his hoodie, and Pandora following right behind, fully prepared for a ball.
Snape looked around the corridor and saw no one, though he could sense some faint echoes of footsteps in the distance due to his enhanced hearing. He waited for Pandora to step out before the door closed, camouflaging itself with the wall, disappearing.
"HM?!" Pandora was startled as Snape surprised her, suddenly picking her up princess-style right there.
"Hold tight and try not to scream," Snape said, looking down the corridor, and Pandora couldn't even respond before he simply dashed forward. She was startled and grabbed his arm with all the strength she had, placing a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.
Snape quickly ran to the end of the hallway before spotting a Hufflepuff student—judging by the uniform, perhaps a sixth- or seventh-year—who was patrolling the corridors. Snape approached swiftly without making any sound to alert him and turned aside, starting to run along the wall so fast it defied gravity.
"Who?!" As Snape passed through the corridor, the student felt a sudden breeze against his back and immediately turned around, but saw nothing beyond an empty hallway. "I guess there must be an open window somewhere..."
Snape continued running along the walls, silently advancing.
He went on until he found a window, softly landing with Pandora before opening it and leaping onto the school's roof, as they were already on the upper floors. Using his telekinesis, he carefully closed the window again.
Snape landed on top of the roof and began observing the castle's surroundings.
"It's cold..." Pandora murmured, surprised, finally managing to breathe as she looked up at the night sky above them while the breeze blew gently against her.
"We need to find the place now... Is it here? Can you see it?" Snape asked while Pandora checked the ground and quickly shook her head.
"No," she replied.
"All right, hold tight again. Try not to scream again," Snape said calmly before flexing his knees on the rooftop and simply jumping toward another tower, dozens of meters away.
Pandora was stunned as her heart nearly burst from her chest with that jump; after all, she wasn't used to such adrenaline, especially when they were dozens of meters above the ground.
They softly landed on another roof, and Snape quickly looked toward another part of the castle, flexed his knees once more, and then leaped again, advancing toward the main part of the castle, where the large corridor connected classrooms, the library, and dormitories, aiming for a better view of the school's interior.
After a few additional jumps, Snape nearly reached the level of the headmaster's floor, in the largest part of the castle.
"Let me see..." Pandora said, before pointing at a house with a pumpkin patch, as far as Snape could tell. There were pumpkins decorating the place, even though it wasn't Halloween. Snape remembered that during the Halloween holiday, that spot was surely quite busy. Nearby, there was also a small structure, which appeared to be a caretaker's house or something similar, but not very large.
"It's over there, then? All right," Snape said, refusing to use his black Phoenix for Apparition, and simply began leaping across roofs and walls carrying Pandora. He moved easily, descending from the main tower of the castle before crossing another area, leaving the central grounds and finally landing softly on the grass outside the castle.
It didn't take long to reach their destination after a brief run, with Snape still carrying Pandora. They stopped at the entrance and could see some movement inside, thanks to the lights filtering through the cracks in the door.
Snape put Pandora on the ground, while she used a spell to fix her hair, which had become completely messed up from the run and the strong wind blowing against her.
"That was a bit thrilling," she said, not complaining about how they got there, though still somewhat dizzy as her heart continued beating rapidly.
"Let's go," Snape said, taking the lead as Pandora followed him.
Upon arriving at the door, they were suddenly surprised by a ghost quickly passing through it, revealing his ethereal body the moment he sensed mortal presences outside.
"Go away! You shouldn't be here!" the ghost immediately said, trying to scare them, as some students always attempted to invade their parties.
"Hm?!" However, what he didn't expect was a hand suddenly grabbing his neck by one of those at the door, something that should have been impossible.
He could barely speak after that, staring in surprise at a woman dressed for a ball and a man wearing clothing he'd never seen before. But what was even more frightening was the latter, whose eyes glowed dangerously blue while his hand firmly continued gripping his neck.
"Hey! Don't approach people like that..." Severus said before finally loosening his grip. The ghost tried to catch his breath, looking at him in fear, wondering just what that was.
"Who are you?" he murmured fearfully, sensing a powerful aura emanating from that human—not common magic, but rather the energy of death itself.
All the ghosts knew who Snape was at that point; he was certainly discussed among them, everyone advising it was best not to approach him in the hallways. They even avoided the common room when Snape was present.
"You're him..." the ghost murmured, finally recognizing him.
"Hm? Either way, we're here for the ball," Snape said directly, determined to enter anyway since he knew he might find some interesting paintings to mark new dungeons.
"May we come in?" Pandora asked more politely.
"About that..." the ghost was about to immediately refuse, but upon seeing the glowing eyes of that threatening human, he swallowed hard. "Of course, you can come in. Just give me a minute," he said quickly, going through the door and disappearing.
Snape and Pandora waited for a few moments before the ghost returned, now accompanied by another. Snape immediately noticed it was the Bloody Baron himself, appearing next to the first ghost, casting a cautious glance toward them.
"I heard you wish to join ball number 876. That's somewhat surprising. After all, though it's not impossible to have one or two living people as exceptions among ghosts, since we may have mortal friends, we weren't expecting two students tonight," he continued speaking.
Everyone could sense the nervousness in his voice, his gaze constantly shifting toward Snape, his powerful aura, or even his shadow filled with hundreds of the dead—not ghosts, but something darker—observing, as if awaiting orders from their master. The Baron quickly noticed and remembered he was even more numerous and powerful than he'd previously realized. When he'd seen Snape in a classroom before, observing those powerful beings, he'd immediately wanted to get as far away from that student as possible. Now, standing directly before him, he couldn't help but swallow hard again.
In all his centuries as a ghost, he'd never seen anything like it and feared that human more than anything.
He knew Dumbledore wasn't currently at the school and the present headmaster was merely a fake—otherwise, had it been the real Dumbledore, he would have immediately asked for help, reporting what he was seeing. Obviously, he hadn't done so with that copy of Dumbledore or with other professors, as no one could handle that thing, and he feared Snape might turn against them.
"We won't cause any trouble if that's what worries you. You have my word," Snape decided to ease things up, noticing the ghost's expression. "We're just curious to take a look," he said.
"Yes! I'd love to see a ghost ball. I even dressed up," Pandora said excitedly.
The ghost seemed to swallow hard again before replying:
"All right, all right. You may enter. Just don't be offended by the frightened stares, since it's highly unusual for humans to show up at our balls," he spoke, anticipating many would be startled by Snape's presence. At the same time, he didn't want to offend him, since without Dumbledore present, none of them wanted to antagonize whatever that student was.
"Good. Let's go," Snape said, wanting to see the place. Pandora opened an excited smile.
The ghost entered first, returning moments later to say they could come in. He needed to discuss with the other ghosts what was going on and instruct everyone to behave.
Author's Note:
As you can see... this is a chapter to unwind as we revisit some aspects of Hogwarts again.
-------------Nexts Chapters ----------------
Chapter 187 - Voldemort Begins to Act.
Chapter 192 - The Battle in the Muggle World 05.
Chapter 202 - Orb of Avarice.
Chapter 211 - The News About Severus Snape.
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