Snape was turning into an overprotective father-to-be. He never let her out of his sight and made sure she had enough vegetables and fruit at the dinner table. He even suggested that they’d move out of the dungeons to make her more comfortable, but she settled for a few adjustments to his rooms. She liked his dungeon!!

After a week, the entire school knew about the renewal of their relationship, but nothing more. They wanted to tell their friends and colleagues about their engagement and the pregnancy at Christmas. Tori knew that it would be difficult to keep it a secret for much longer, especially if Snape kept carrying on like he did. She had a talk to him about fussing over her and he had looked a little hurt, but agreed to give her some space.

So things were pretty much back to normal when the day of the reception arrived. It was the Saturday before Christmas and the decorations at Hogwarts were already in place. Tori loved this time of year and made long walks with Snape in the snow, after he had cast a warming spell of course, he couldn’t let her catch a cold!

Tori had chosen a deep-blue, low-cut dress for the occasion and felt her cheeks reddened when she walked out of the bathroom and saw Snape waiting in his chair, his mouth dropping and his eyes growing bigger.

“You’re not going in THAT, are you?” he gasped. He was mesmerized by the curves of her breasts popping out of the velvet fabric, barely covering them.

“Of course I’m wearing this dress. Don’t you like it?” She whirled around and stopped right in front of him, slightly bending forwards, displaying a tempting view.

He growled and reached for her, grabbing her by the waist.

“You temptress! When we get back, I’ll teach you!”

“Oh, only when we get back?” She looked disappointed and he sighed.

“Alas, I’m afraid we would miss the entire ceremony if I were to start on what I have in mind…”

She giggled and looked him over.

“Well, you look very handsome yourself.” He rolled his eyes.

She looked at him again when they stepping into the fireplace. He did look good today. He wore black boots, a pair of tight black trousers, a long black shirt with wide sleeves that were tightened around the wrists, a leather belt with a silver buckle that made his shirt look like a medieval tunic and a long black cloak hanging around his shoulders to top it off. Yes, he did look rather dashing, especially after she had loosened the top three buttons of this shirt. He let her do it without arguing, but managed to slip a shawl around her neck. She raised her eyebrows. He shook his head and said: “You wouldn’t want me staring into your dress the whole night, would you?” Then he took some floo powder, said “Ministry of Magic, cloak room” and they disappeared into the green flames.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was also getting ready to go to the reception. He would be there on official business, since he was the one that would be handing out the Order of Merlin. It would be a splendid celebration. Although Harry and Ron hadn’t been successful in locating Lucius Malfoy, he believed it would only be a matter of time. He hoped both young wizards would make it to the reception tonight. Then he thought about Severus and Tori. Those two kept amazing him. Just when he had thought all hope was lost they got back together again. He knew Severus had proposed to her. The Bloody Baron had overheard and hadn’t been able to keep the news to himself. He was glad that they were reunited before knowing about the pregnancy. Now he was sure they both wanted this engagement and he would do nothing to stand in their way. He knew some headmasters didn’t allow married staff, and he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it either, but if any couple could make it work, it would be them.

Dumbledore had been so immersed in daydream; he had forgotten what time it was. With a shock he realized he was late for the ceremony and headed for the fireplace. Just when he was about to step into it, green sparks appeared and Harry and Ron emerged from the flames. They stumbled into the room and Dumbledore had to calm them down to get a sensible word out of them.

“We missed! We’re at Hogwarts!”

“Where are Severus and Tori?”

“The reception…has it started yet?”

Dumbledore had a lot of trouble to say something since they were talking in confusion. At last he managed to get Harry to explain to him what was going on.

“We found the place where Lucius has been hiding. Some shack in the swamps. Anyway, he was gone when we got there, but we found this on the table.”

He had rattled and needed to catch his breath when he showed Dumbledore what appeared to be an extremely wrinkled issue of the Daily Prophet. It was the one that had Snape and Tori on the cover. Their faces were mutilated with something sharp and a red circle of what appeared to be blood was drawn around the article. Then his eyes fell onto a highlighted section that mentioned the reception.

“He’s going to the Ministry! That’s where you were heading, right?” Dumbledore seemed to panic.

“Yes, we know that wands have to be left in the cloak room. It’s the ideal moment for and attack; they’re all defenseless.” Ron cut in.

“Everyone has left. The ceremony must have started by now.” Dumbledore sighed. “We must get there as soon as possible and we will NOT leave our wands at the reception desk.” They stepped into the fireplace together, Dumbledore called: Ministry of Magic, Ballroom!” hoping they would get there on time.

Tori had never been to the Ministry of Magic. When they stepped out of the fireplace, they found themselves in a spacious hall. A large chandelier was hovering above their heads, the candlelight reflecting on the marble floor. They joined a queue in front of the cloakroom. When their turn came, they both handed over their wands.

“Can I take your cloak, sir?” the witch behind the counter asked.

“No, I’m keeping it on.” Snape answered and turned around, his cloak swirling over the floor. Tori couldn’t help noticing the look of longing in the girl’s eyes. She followed him quickly and put her arm through his, making sure everyone, especially the women, knew he was taken.

As the entered the ballroom, Bill Weasley came up to them.

“Hey! So you’ve decided to show up after all. I think they’re going to start soon. Just waiting for Dumbledore I guess.”

“He’s not her yet?” Snape sounded alarmed, but Bill didn’t look too worried.

“He’ll be here. If you like, you can join Shannon, Draco and myself. They’re over there with Alastor and my father. I was just looking for Ron and Harry.”

“You think they will come?” Tori asked.

“I’m not sure, they haven’t found Lucius yet, but Harry said that they would try to make it. You know your friends wouldn’t want to miss your moment of glory.”

“Oh Bill, please!” Tori laughed and started to walk towards Shannon.

Arthur Weasley looked very pleased.

“Ah, the stars of the evening.” He gave her a little wink and took her arm.

I’ll escort you towards the stage. When Albus arrives, he’ll give a little speech and then both of you have to go on stage where he will present you with the honorary title and you will receive the Mark of Merlin as an honorary medal.”

They followed Arthur to the left side of the stage where they had a good view across the room. Suddenly they heard a hissing sound coming from the fireplace behind them.

“Ah, that will be Albus now; I’ll go and inform the committee we can start.”

Arthur left them when the green sparks appeared in the fireplace and a cloaked figure emerged from the flames. Tori stepped forwards to help him out, but drew back when she saw that it wasn’t Dumbledore.

It happed so fast.

Lucius Malfoy jumped out of the fireplace and clenched his arm around Tori’s neck. He pulled a rope from his sleeve, touched it with his wand, mumbled something and forced Tori to grab it. In a split second, Snape understood he was not going to strangle her with it, but was turning it into a portkey. Before Lucius could escape with Tori to Merlin-knows where, he had jumped on top of them and grabbed a piece of the rope. At that very same moment, all three of them disappeared.