Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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"Sev......." Lily smiled as she sat at her vanity.
Severus frowned while he paced the floor across from her in brooding anger.
"Harriet's flowers probably came from Draco." Lily surmised as she held the mysterious note in her hand which their daughter had shown them, "I know you've seen the way he looks at her."
"Harriet despises the Malfoy boy." Severus snapped.
"She does.....yes." Lily shrugged, ".....But that wouldn't necessarily stop him from asking her to the ball."
"We should put an end to this before it begins." Severus fumed, "You and I will be at the bottom of the stairs at the time and date specified on that note." He nodded at the paper in her hands.
Lily blinked.
Severus frowned in silent response.
"Sev.....?" She asked.
Severus silently waited for her to finish her question.
".......Surely you haven't forgotten they are...technically....engaged?" Lily asked.
Severus's expression soured as he jerked his head and resumed his slow, calculated pacing while he hissed, "Are we expected then to push them together as children? It is a poor reflection on our school's morals that fourth years are allowed to attend the event!.......The Yule Ball should be exclusive to students in their final term."
Lily smiled softly as she watched her husband pace.
She realized his paranoid anxiety resulted from his love for Harriet and his desire to protect her.
Lily quietly stood and walked over to Severus.
She caught him in his return lap towards the bed as she cupped his face in her hands and gazed into his dark eyes.
Her promise fell from her lips like a sweet, soothing melody, "We'll watch them all night, Sev......They won't do anything foolish, we'll see to it."
Severus frowned as he leaned forward and gladly accepted the loving kiss Lily gave him.
Once she pulled away a moment later, she laughed as she looked into his eyes and smirked, "Besides, we may not have anything to worry about anyway."
Severus furrowed his brow until Lily went on, "She can't stand Draco in the least.....I wouldn't be surprised if she left him standing at the bottom of the stairs and went on without him."
As she leaned forward for another kiss, Severus dreamed of his wife's suggested outcome.
Severus Snape did not take kindly to anyone pursuing his daughter, though neither he nor Lily realized Draco was the least of their worries as far as Harriet's romantic interests were concerned.
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"Why do you look so angry, Dad?" Ellery asked as he sat next to Severus while they each read from the books they held.
"I do not......look.....angry." Severus glowered without glancing up from his page.
"You seem furious." Ellery frowned as he stared at his father scrutinizingly.
"I am not......furious." Severus insisted in a low whisper.
"You're gnashing your teeth." Ellery observed.
Severus forced himself to relax his jaw as his son asked, "Is it because Mum took Harriet shopping for a dress?"
"No!" Severus snapped as he glanced up at Ellery, "I will advise you to devote more attention to your book and less to me if you hope to finish it by the end of the day."
Ellery blinked at his father before they both resumed reading.
It was fortunate that the matter of Harriet attending the Yule Ball was not one of great danger for which Severus needed to uphold his regular facade.
If his disapproving scowl hadn't made his displeasure apparent, his bristled, rigid posture and hunched shoulders would have surely given his true feelings away.
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Harriet's smile was wide and bright as she gazed at her reflection while she stood in front of the shop's floor length mirror.
"Do you like it, sweetheart?" Lily asked as she stood across from Harriet with the enchanted seamstress who had just finished stitching the dress.
"It's......It's brilliant!" Harriet laughed as she looked over at Lily, "Thanks, Mum! I don't think Dad's going to like it though."
"I doubt we'll find a dress your father will approve of....With that in mind, shall we get this one?" Lily asked.
When Harriet nodded, Lily smiled at her daughter and let the seamstress lead her over to the counter to pay while Harriet walked back into the shop's changing room.
Harriet listened to her mother and the seamstress chat outside while she wriggled out of her new dress.
It saddened her to remove it, but she carefully did, button by button.
Sleeveless, with a sweetheart neckline, and smooth panels of flowing silk, the buttons that closed the bodice of Harriet's golden gown were one of the garment's many details that she loved.
Her green eyes and dark hair contrasted with the glistening hue of her dress in a way she hoped her date, whoever he was, would find appealing.
As Harriet pulled her ordinary clothes back on, her heart raced with anxious longing.
She had placed Draco in a secret bin, deep in the recesses of her mind.
Although she had no idea about his face, his voice, or anything besides his wit and familiarity, Harriet allowed herself to daydream that on the night of the Yule Ball, she would walk down the castle's steps in her golden dress and see Tom Riddle waiting for her.
After she and Lily left the shop together, they trudged out into the snowy streets of Diagon Alley.
Lily carried the package as she spoke to Harriet, "Now, remember dear, always be kind, alright?"
"Have I done something wrong, Mum?" Harriet frowned.
"No, sweetheart!" Lily laughed, "You haven't done anything wrong at all....But bear in mind you don't know who your date will be yet. Whoever it is though has been quite thoughtful so far and if you do intend to meet them, then no matter who it is, you must be kind, alright?"
"..........Alright." Harriet nodded.
Lily smiled at her daughter as they continued their chat.
It amused Harriet to know her father would absolutely despise her dress.
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Harriet had been right.
As soon as she and Lily returned home, she promptly modeled her dress for Severus and laughed at his scowl of disdain.
"What's the matter, Dad?" She asked.
Ellery frowned as he sat beside their father on the couch, unhappy that Severus was unhappy.
"I shall speak with your mother about the issue later." Severus quipped to Harriet, "Change back into your normal clothes, if you will. There's no need to wear....that.....around the house."
Harriet scampered off to her room while Lily cast Severus a scathing glare.
Later that night, after Harriet and Ellery had gone to bed, Lily trailed behind her husband while they argued in their room.
"Sev, there's nothing wrong with Harriet's dress! It isn't too low cut, she's perfectly covered.....It's not even revealing! What did you expect me to have her wear? A sack?" She scoffed.
"Perhaps that would have been more appropriate." Severus drawled.
He frowned as Lily pouted and asked, "Sweetheart, do you want us to hide her away forever?"
Severus's frown fell as Lily sighed and took his hands, "Even if she had been born with a different destiny, she's a young woman now.....A few more years and she'll be graduating and-"
"-That...is still......far away.....from now." Severus scowled as he dropped Lily's hands.
She laughed as he threw an angry glare at her before he walked over, climbed into bed, and pulled the covers up over himself.
Lily followed him a moment later.
Severus kept his back to her but she wrapped her arms around him to hold him tight after she put out the last burning candle in their room.
"I love you, Sev." Lily whispered into the darkness, "And Harriet loves you....Ellery loves you....Of course I'm glad to see them grow up and do well, but that doesn't make it less difficult either, I understand."
Severus's dark eyes softened as he lay in bed.
Slowly, he rolled over and scooped Lily into his arms before he nuzzled into the crook of her neck.
They slept through the night entangled with one another, in a ball of limbs and hair.
Severus's darling flower had managed to soothe his aching soul.
He continued to learn that a father's heart was often a complicated, painful thing.
When Harriet had put on her golden gown, he had no longer seen a little girl, but a young woman.........and the sight had terrified him.
How could his beloved baby, his little Harriet already be that......that......mature?
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"Oh, Hermione, you look beautiful!" Harriet exclaimed as she watched her friend step away from the canopied bed and reveal her gorgeous, ruffled, pink dress for the first time.
"I could say the same about you, Harriet! That's lovely!" Hermione smiled at her friend's outfit.
Hermione's brown hair had been styled into elegant curls, while Harriet's dark tresses were loose as they spilled over her shoulders.
"Did you buy it at Diagon Alley?" Hermione asked.
"I did, is that where yours came from too?" Harriet grinned.
"No, actually mine's from the muggle world, but I don't think anyone will notice." Hermione shrugged.
"I doubt Ron will care much!" Harriet laughed.
"And I won't care if he does.....Are you nervous?" Hermione asked.
"A bit, yeah, but in a good way, I suppose." Harriet said as she took a breath.
"Well.........shall we go? I'm dying to see who's waiting at the bottom of the stairs for you!" Hermione grinned.
"Yeah....." Harriet nodded, "Yeah, let's go."
She and Hermione walked out of their dormitory together.
They both resisted the urge to laugh out loud when they met Ron in the Common Room and examined his unfortunate, dated dress robes.
Ron and Hermione left first, arm in arm.
Harriet gave them a few minutes to walk down the stairs so she could make her entrance alone.
Once the couple left Gryffindor Tower and reached the bottom of the castle's steps, Ron's eyes widened.
Hermione put a hand over her mouth to contain her cry of surprise.
They didn't notice that Severus and Lily peered out from behind the cover of the nearest stone wall, both eager to see who had asked their daughter to the Yule Ball without signing their name.
A moment later, Harriet didn't see her parents or her friends gawking at the scene as she slowly descended the staircase with her silky, golden gown flowing around her.
All Harriet could focus on was not snarling as she moved directly towards Draco Malfoy, who waited at the bottom.
No one else was close to Harriet right then, but Draco wouldn't have seen a herd of oncoming antelopes anyway.
As Harriet walked towards him with her usually messy hair neatly combed and her golden dress highlighting her developing figure, his grey eyes widened as his mouth hung open in silent awe............