Masquerade

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"Absolutely not, Minerva."

Severus Snape leaned forward in his seat across from Headmistress Minerva McGonagall with his arms folded over his chest and dared her with his best glare to say anything else on the abysmal matter. Minerva blinked, then waved the piece of parchment at him furiously, as if it were the perfect justification of her request.

"The Ministry has personally invited you, Severus...you are to be honored for your heroic efforts in the past twenty years-"

"Finally," Severus muttered, uncrossing his arms to reach for his cup of tea. He stared into the surface of the liquid before meeting Minerva's questioning gaze. "I have no desire to parade myself in front of a crowd of ridiculously dressed witches and wizards. While I have always held the belief that one day my accomplishments might make others take notice, I have not deluded myself to the point where I believe that people care about it, one way or another. If Arthur Weasley wants to honor me
in private, then so be it. I will accept it with little protest on the matter. But for Merlin's sake, Minerva, he wants to award me the Order of Merlin at a celebratory Halloween ball! With mandatory costume dress! It is degrading! It is unthinkable for me to attend-therefore, the answer is no, Minerva, and I will not budge on this."

Minerva leveled a stare at Severus, taking several moments to compose herself before she spoke again: "You have no choice, Severus-you will go, be honored, have people fuss over you, and you will even, heaven forbid, mingle with people who actually want to meet a genuine hero of the war."

"That's Potter's job-he's the handsome, debonair, and let's not forget pretentious, vanquisher of Voldemort. Let him handle the publicity-that is to say, if his swollen head can keep up with the strain."

Minerva sighed and buried her face in her hands. "Please don't start, Severus...I cannot bear it. You know nothing of Harry Potter, and Merlin knows you will never know." She straightened, and her eyes held a fire that typically did not bode well for the recipient. "Nevertheless, the argument is over. Halloween is two weeks from today, and I expect you to go to the Halloween ball as a representative of Hogwarts. And yes, Severus, you must be in costume-I will, of course, inspect it before you go." Severus's black eyes locked onto Minerva's angry eyes, and under his gaze they softened marginally. "Just think, Severus-you'll miss the Halloween feast here this year...and it is a costume event as well, which I am insisting that all faculty members participate in. So you wouldn't have been able to get out of dressing up, Severus...and this way, you won't have to put up with 'imprudent dunderheads', as you so affectionately referred to the student body in the last staff meeting." Severus grumbled low under his breath, but conceded the verbal victory to Minerva with a slight nod of his head. Minerva smiled. "Excellent! Now that that is settled, I must go to Hagrid's ...Merlin knows what sort of creature he has to show me this time." Minerva smiled affectionately, and swept passed Severus to the open door of her office. Severus took one last sip of his now luke-warm tea, feeling as he had lost a rather large argument before he too rose from his chair and made for the door.