Creep.

“Masquerade! Masquerade!” Reese chanted marching around our room. I giggled as I flopped onto my bed. Reese was in her dress an hour ago, and waiting impatiently for Draco to come get her. Reese was in a dark red dress that fell to her knees. It was a red version of Marilyn Monroe’s dress, she paired it with black converse and pinned a bunch of band buttons to line the halter strap. She looked beautiful.
“Where’s your mask?” I asked looking her over again. Reese stopped dead.
“I don’t know...” She said quietly before freaking out.
“Dude! I don’t know!” She yelled running around my room looking for her black mask with red harlequin diamonds on the left side. I shook my head while pulling myself off my bed. I walked to the mirror and began putting rollers in my hair.
“Found it!” We both looked at each other.
“Make-up check.” She screamed running at me full throttle. I glanced at her eyes and lips before giving her a thumbs up.
“Good.” I replied as she pulled her mask over her face.
“Della! Della look!” Reese and I both looked over to the door to see Leigha run in. She stopped dead and looked at us.

“Oh you look pretty...anyways look!” Leigha yelled while spinning around. She had her hair pinned in a bun, with a few loose curls falling out. When she faced us she had her side bangs falling over her left eye. Leigha jumped up and down in excitement.
“It’s green!” She screamed twirling around again, green sparkles blinded us as she spun. Her dress hit the floor and had a corset lacing up the back.
“I swear I thought your boobs were going to fall out.” Reese laughed pointing out Leigha’s dress had a swoop neck that swooped a bit too much.
“That’s the plan.” She smiled devilishly while pulling on her plain white mask.
“Where’s Em?” I asked repositioning my mask onto my face.
“Stuffing her bra.” Leigha joked. Reese smacked her lightly as we waited. Within a few minutes Emily jogged in the room, pulling up the skirt of her dress so she wouldn’t trip over it. Emily was a crisp white vision. She was in a strapless wedding dress with a bottom that puffed out and cascaded to the floor.
“Where’s my shoes!” She yelled, her dark eyes looking around us. Her eyes were heavily made up into black cat eyes and her nails matched. Her brown hair rippled down to her back in a silky river of tamed curls.
“Ah!” Emily yelled looking at the clock, “he’s going to be here in ten minutes!” She jumped across her bed and looked under it.
“Found them!” She screamed holding up a pair of black ballet shoes. She slipped them on her feet and stood in front of us, placing her beaded black mask onto her face. We all looked at each other and smiled.
“Looking good ladies.” Emily beamed, her white teeth sparkling in the light. We all did a cheesy group hug before Draco knocked on the door.
“Wow.” He breathed once he saw Reese. She smiled and danced over to him, pulling his mask over his eyes.
“Wow yourself stranger.” She smiled kissing him cutely before taking his hand.
"Della, why aren't you dressed?"
"She is being stubborn that's why!"
"I'm not going."
"YOU HAVE TO!" Everyone screamed in unison.
"I can't deal with him right now, okay?"
"No not okay, I spent a month looking for reverses, spells, potions and worked my ass off on this potion!" Emily screamed.
"We all worked our asses off, you're fucking going!"
I fell back onto my chair in front of the mirror and glared at myself. I basically had soup cans in my hair, I had a green facial mask on and I was in track pants, tank top and a grey hoodie.
"I'm not exactly dressed to go."
"You can show up before twelve…just as long as you kiss him." My stomach turned and did multiple flips.
"Fine." I wiped the mask off on my sleeve and pulled it off. Oh god.
“Ya, anyways See you later my sexy slaves!” Reese, yelled allowing Draco to pull her out of the room.
“Oh Della, take this at exactly eleven-o-clock. And kiss Snape when the clock strikes twelve.” Emily explained handing me the vile.
“Thank you fairy godmother.” I side smiled pushing the vile into my bra.
“Anytime Cinderella.” She cut herself off once her date came to the door. She smiled widely as he almost lost all knowledge of how to breathe.
“You...wow...you look amazing, Emily.” He smiled outstretching an arm to her.
“Thank you, John.” She smiled back and they left the room, Emily looked back at us and mimed a scream. Leigha and I gave her thumbs up as they walked upstairs.
“Notice how I am the only one dateless?” I asked turning to Leigha. She gave me a puppy dog pout and hugged me close to her.
“It’s only because the boys were too scared to ask you to the dance.” She cooed stroking my hair.
“Well hello, stranger. You clean up mighty fine.” A girl smiled walking into the room. Leigha smiled back happily and ran over to her, attacking the mystery girl in a hug.
“You’re not too shabby yourself.” Leigha turned to me and gave me a sympathetic smile before slightly waving, letting the girl guide her out of the room. I fell onto my bed and looked around. I don’t want to go alone. My mind wandered, dreaming about Severus walking into the dorm and sweeping me off my feet, forcing me to go to the dance. I shook that disturbing image out of my head and looked at my dress. I guess I was more excited to dress up then to go dancing. I pulled myself lazily off the chair and slowly walked over to my dress. I pulled it into my arms and hugged it close to me, it smelled like home. My Mums vanilla perfume still lingered on the fabric. Tears brimmed my eyes as I tossed the dress back on my bed.
Tonights going to suck. I turned and glared at myself in the mirror, I walked over to it and pulled my make-up out of the drawer. I guess since it's a dance I should put extra effort into my appearance. I put on some base, and finishing powder, which honestly made my skin look like flawless porcelain. Lowering myself into my chair I brushed on black eyeshadow, then a thick line of black liner on my top eyelids. I was beginning to get excited by watching my face transform. I swiped the bottom lash line of my eyes with eyeliner before putting on my mascara. My lashes nearly touched my eyebrows. I brushed my cheeks with a soft pink blush and stared at my face. I truly did look like a doll, but something was missing. I rummaged around in my make-up case before finding my dark red lipstick. I glided the stick across my pale lips, painting them crimson. Now I was done. Glancing at the clock I noticed it was already nine. Quickly I pulled the rollers out of my hair and let my red curls fall to my waist. I sprayed the curls with hairspray and pushed my bangs to the side before fixing them in place as well. Jumping to my feet I ran to my dress and pulled off my track pants and top. I slid my dress on and reached back to pull up the zipper, however my hands brushed someone else's. I screamed in surprise and tried to jump away.
"Hold still." I obeyed…not because I wanted to, but because I was scared.
Fingers brushed my hair over my shoulder gently, his breath on my neck was enough to make my knees tremble. Slowly, the zipper of my dress glided up and hands rested on my shoulders. Then he disappeared. I think Im going to throw up. I ran to the garbage and dry heaved. Snape just saw me in my underwear. Shit he knows what my dress looks like! I unzipped my dress, still feeling the teachers touch lingering on my back. Running to my closet, I pulled out a plain black dress, it was strapless, laced up at the back, with a tutu bottom…A little too slutty for the dance but who cares. It's not like the skirt was up my ass. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was now ten. Fuck! I pulled on the new dress and pulled Leigh's red mask over my face. I ran out of the room bumping into someone on my way up the stairs.
“Sorry.” I muttered not bothering to see who it was, I already knew. In silence we walked up to the ballroom together. Snape was oblivious that it was me behind the mask. And I intended to keep it that way. The music playing was all instrumental, all the teenagers waltzed around the room smiling with their dates. I felt like such a loser. I was the only person alone. I dragged myself to a bench and sat down. Snape began to walk around the dance floor, hitting any guy’s that had their hands far too low down girls back. Maria was dancing with some random grease ball, she was gossiping about how I was most likely lesbian with Leigha, then called Leigha a dyke. Anger rose up in my throat as I heard her gossip more about my friend.
“I guess Della is too embarrassed to be seen here, I saw Leigha Oli frenching some ugly girl behind the castle earlier, Must've broken Della's heart.” That’s it. I jumped from my seat and stalked over to Maria.
“Can I cut in?” I asked sweetly, staring into the greasy guys eyes. He nodded and let me begin to dance with Maria.
“Well hello.” Beaky giggled slipping her hand to lie on my ass. I moved her hand back to my back and stared her down. Her face went blank.
“Maria, you are really horny right now.” I began. Maria bit her lip and nodded.
“You want Dumbledore.” She nodded again.
“You need him.” Maria bit down harder on her lip.
“Make him yours by twelve.” I said breaking away from her and stalking back to the bench to watch the fireworks. Maria walked over to Dumbledore and began to push against him and grind her hips on him, disgusted he pushed her off and began to tell her she was being inappropriate, I laughed as she pushed her boobs together.
“I need you!” She moaned. I began to laugh harder at my work.

The loneliness got to me after an hour. I grew tired after Maria got sent away for a drug test after grabbing Dumbledore’s “wand and sorcerer stones.” I stood up and began to walk out of the ballroom. I found myself hiding in a bathroom stall, hearing things I really could’ve done without. Some girl was making out with an older guy, shoving him around and letting him pull up her dress. They were fondling each other, causing me to gag at each gasp. I begged for someone but me to come in and interrupt the attempt at sex. Answering my calls the door flew open.
“Twenty points from HufflePuff!” I covered my mouth, Snape was in the bathroom.
“Get out!” He ordered, I heard the teens scamper away. Snape began to check the stalls. Uh-oh. I looked at my cuff watch to see it was eleven-o-clock now. Quickly I chugged back the potion and hid the vile back in my bra before Snape pushed open my stall to see me sitting there with my knees drawn to my chest. He turned away and walked out of the bathroom. Asshole. I got up and brushed myself off, checking my make-up before I walked back out to the Ballroom. Snape was nowhere to be found, but I did get to see Emily smiling widely with her date, that made my night suck a little less. I drifted back to the bench to see a masked man sitting there, he looked up at me, but didn’t smile in acknowledgment. I waved at him and sat down beside him. He didn’t speak to me, but he was definitely looking at me every now and again. I stopped caring after the second time, at least the dress got some attention. I looked at the clock again, it was eleven-thirty. I stood up to go look for Snape, but the stranger stood in front of me and extended his hand. He still didn’t speak, I looked into his eyes. It was Snape. My heart launched into my throat, what was he up to? I took his hand and let him guide me around the dance floor. He pulled us close, breaking the three foot rule. I rested my head on his chest letting him twirl us around, for such a stiff man, he wasn’t bad. My eyes wandered to the clock, it was now ten minutes to twelve. I grabbed Snape’s tie and looked into his eyes, his breath caught in his throat as he looked back at me. I led him from the ballroom and down to his bedroom, I pushed him onto his bed and looked into his eyes again, before I could speak the clock struck twelve. Snape pulled off my mask and forced his lips to mine. I kissed back, feeling more and more disgusted. It was working. Once I felt completely normal I pulled away and stared at him. I felt horrible, I felt like I was tearing him apart, I was going to be free. So why did I feel so bad?
The music from the party streamed in to his room, the song was muffled but it fit the mood pretty well.

I don't love you…like I did…yesterday.

I stared down at Severus.

"I don't love you…"