Hey, look! It's the Potions Classroom!

[October Cricket]

"Hmm?" October glanced around a moment, looking for the source of the noise, before spotting Severus. She padded softly over to him, an expression of muted pleasure stuck to her face, "Hello, Severus. I thought you would come down here sometime."

[Severus Snape]

"The day I don't come down here is when the moon turns red, you know that. What brings you down here?" Severus' eyes burned with curiousity.

[October Cricket]

"I...ah...I actually wanted to see you..." October could feel her cheeks turning red. She tugged on her ponytail, as she always did when a bit nervous. Hopefully, in the low light, Severus would not notice the color that had sprung unbidden into her face.

[Severus Snape]

"Oh? What about?" Severus squinted at October; in the dim light it was hard to see her face, yet he got the feeling she was nervous.

[October Cricket]

"Oh, um, nothing. It's just I haven't seen you around in a while and I like being with you, Severus. I just wanted to see you." October said before really thinking about it. The moment passed the words through her lips, she was tempted to smack herself upside the head. She had said too much.

[Severus Snape]

"I like being with you too. Look, I'm sorry about the ball. I didn't think you'd go, but I was wrong," Severus was thankful for the dim light. Taking a breath to steady his voice, "WouldyouliketogotoHogsmeadewithme?"

He groaned inwards, "Uh, what I meant was, uh..." He was never this tongue-tied before, so why now of all times?

[October Cricket]

October had understood well enough the first time, and, to be honest, she was a bit bewildered. So, did this mean Severus would have gone to the ball with her had he known she was going? The fourth year had been so utterly convinced he did not think of her in such a way. After all, what would Severus want with a scrawny, short, pale-as-death, plain-looking girl with prematurely greying hair? She had always imagined Severus would rather chase after someone beautiful, like...like that pretty red-haired girl she'd seen James fawning over at the ball.

She stared at him for a moment, "You want me to go to Hogsmeade with you?" She asked, just to confirm that she had heard him correctly.

[Severus Snape]

He tried not to blush, "Yes, I would very much like for you to go with me....to Hogsmeade."

[October Cricket]

October smiled brightly. She imagined she must have looked pretty foolish then, standing there without a word and grinning as though she were mad. But...it didn't really matter, she supposed, "Of course I'll go with you, Severus. In fact, I don't think anything would make me happier." She replied, barely restraining herself from embracing the boy.

[Severus Snape]

Severus just managed not blushing again. He did allow himself a small smile, though. He had finally managed to ask a girl out, without embarrasing himself too much. "I'll meet you tomorrow? At the Three Broomsticks?"

[October Cricket]

"Alright. That's fine with me." October nodded lightly, still smiling, if a bit lopsidedly. Part of her was screaming that this was to good to be true, that he was probably just asking her out to make someone jealous or something of that sort. But another part of her was screaming just as loudly 'Who cares! Severus asked you out! You've been wanting him to since second year! He finally noticed you're a girl!'

[Severus Snape]

"Okay," Severus looked at the classroom door. "You think they're gone by now? I was going to get some ingredients for a potion, and I don't need the world watching me. You can, though," he added quickly.

He was trying to distract himself from the fact that he might be on an official date tomorrow, so he wouldn't chicken out. But he also didn't want to upset her, incase she might find an excuse to not to go or find another boy to occupy her time. He didn't want anything to spoil tomorrow, and he would do anything in his power for it to go smoothly.

Severus had been wanting this chance since the very end of second year when he looked up one day in the Great Hall and noticed how beautiful her eyes were and how her hair gleamed in the fading sunlight....

Snap out of it, you dolt! He shook his head and walked into the classroom, witnesses or no witnesses.

[Mimi Lockhart]

Mimi tramped down the stairs into the dark corridors of the dungeons, humming a little tuneless song to herself and carrying a brand new broomstick under her arm. She stopped just outside of the Potions classroom, having spotted the person she was looking for, “Hey, Toby!” The Hufflepuff fifth year called, her generally loud voice bouncing around in the hallway as an echo before fading out.

[October Cricket]

October looked up when Mimi suddenly came barging down into the dungeons, brandishing that broom as if it were a blade, “Oh. Hello, Mimi. You look a lot better.” The Slytherin replied, “You got the new broom, I see.” October’s eyes dropped the shiny, obviously new broom her friend was so proudly sporting.

They had recently had a discussion about the business of new brooms when Mimi had come to her, nearly in tears, over a borrowed one she had snapped clean in half. Before Mimi had fallen suddenly ill and fainted, the two of them had devised a plan where Mimi bought a new broom of the same type and switched it for the one she had broken.

[Mimi Lockhart]

“Ha! This old thing? Nooo, this isn’t new at all!” Mimi said, bouncing happily up to October, “This is the broom I broke when I accidentally flew it into the Whomping Willow. I fixed it! Didn’t I do a wonderful job, Toby? You can hardly tell it was ever broken!” The fifth year shoved the broom into the younger girl’s hands so that she could get a better look at the thing.