Chapter 1
February 13th
Snape’s POV:
Severus pushed open the door to his quarters. He looked around the room. The Restorative Draught was bubbling away and would need stewed mandrakes added in 45 minutes. The Blood Replenishing potion and the batch of Veritaserum were ready to be bottled. Severus took out some vials and poured the potions into them.
He cast a quick Tempus and saw that it was 02:13. He knew he should wait to finish adding the ingredients to the potion, but he had a migraine.
Not that he’d let the students see, of course. He sneered at the thought of them finding out.
The only reason he hadn’t screamed in front of them was the copious practice he had in withstanding the Cruciatus.
He muttered Status over the Restorative Draught, which would leave it exactly as it is for 24 hours maximum. Severus cast numerous charms, hexes and jinxes over his door to prevent someone from entering without his permission. Severus went over to his cabinet and grabbed a tumbler of Ogden’s Firewhiskey. He thought about the next day, grimaced and drank the measure in one go.
Tomorrow, he’d have to deal with giddy, lovesick, heartbroken and silly students. Thankfully, no student was a sufficient dunderhead to act that way in front of him. He may have gotten… nicer since Voldemort’s death, but he hadn’t turned into a giddy first year. Now, he took points from anyone, regardless of which House they were sorted into.
He grimaced, sneering at the thought of what… “festivities” Dumbledore had planned. “Probably singing Cupids with flying heart-shaped letters”, he said to himself. He was glad that he didn’t have a reason to care about Valentine’s day. Nobody ever sent him anything, and he liked it that way.
Severus put away the bottle of Firewhiskey, cast Scourgify on the tumbler and fell into bed. If he had known that at that very moment in the Room of Requirement, he was the subject of a game of Truth or Dare, Severus Snape wouldn’t have felt so smug.
General POV:
The Room of Requirement buzzed with the low murmur of conversation. They’d been invited to participate in a game. Even though they would have denied it if asked directly, they were all excited to see what would happen.
They were all 8th years, students who had wanted to repeat their 7th year at Hogwarts. There were so few students that Dumbledore had removed the Houses. Instead, he had put them all in their own Common Room in the Room of Requirement, with the obligatory separate dormitories for boys and girls.
There had been tension at first, as people got used to living with those they had considered enemies last year. But after a month, that has eased, and now they all chatted to each other.
There were only twelve 8th year students. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Terry Boots, Padma Patil, Hannah Abbott, and Susan Bones had returned. It was Lavender and Parvati who had invited them to the game. They had all agreed, with various enthusiasm levels, and were now waiting for the game to be explained.
Lavender stood up and clapped her hands. Everyone turned to look at her.
“Alright, I’m sure you’re curious about the game I suggested?”
Various answers of “Yes”, “Of course”, and “Will you get on with it?!” were heard. Lavender grinned and gestured to Parvati. She stepped up beside Lavender.
“So, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day-” Parvati was interrupted by cheers from the girls and groans from the boys. She stood with her hands on her hips until they died down.
“Are you finished?” she said, pretending to be angry. No one said anything, although she saw Hermione elbowing Harry and Ron in the side.
“Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and most of you will be getting something from someone”, Lavender continued. Some people were nodding; others, like Draco, Pansy and Hannah, were looking confused.
“What does that have to do with us playing a game?” asked Susan.
Parvati grinned.
“There are some people who have never gotten anything for Valentine’s Day”, she said. “We have that list here”, she broke off, holding up a hat and waving it around, making sure everyone could see the pieces of paper inside. “We thought that we should set a good example for the other years and make sure someone in this list has a day of romance they’ll never forget”. Lavender giggled as almost everyone now had looks of confusion on their face.
“Tomorrow, one of these lucky-” Parvati burst out laughing at that. Lavender could barely keep the grin off her face “people will have a lovely Valentines, courtesy of our game of Truth or Dare”.
“So, we are going to dare each other to do something to someone, with a romantic theme to the dares?” Pansy asked, a smirk breaking out on her face.
“Exactly!!” said Lavender, joining Parvati in her laughter. She saw the other girls beginning to laugh; the boys were grinning and rubbing their hands together with glee.
“What if you don’t want to do a dare?” asked Hannah. “There has to be a consequence”.
“Maybe you have to tell everyone an embarrassing secret”, suggested Hermione.
Harry and Ron stared at her.
“What?” she said. “That was the consequence when I used to play Truth or Dare over the summer holidays”.
“Makes sense,” said Terry.
Lavender and Parvati looked at each other and nodded.
“That’s not a bad idea”, said Parvati. “We’ll have a vote. All in favour of Hermione’s suggestion, raise your hand”.
After a few seconds, Lavender, Parvati, Hermione, Draco, Pansy, Blaise and Hannah raised their hands.
“Seven for, five against,” said Pansy. “Hermione’s suggestion stands. Now, who’s going to receive our little… romantic gestures?” asked Pansy. A smirk broke out over her face, and she let out a little cackle, reminding everyone that she had been sorted into Slytherin
Pansy wasn’t the only one smirking now; everyone except Ron was giggling like 5-year-olds, smirking or making some gesture of excitement.
Lavender held out the hat to Padma.
“Would you do the honours?” she said in a mock-serious voice.
Padma grinned, grabbing the hat from Lavender. She dipped her hand in, swirling it around before grabbing one. She handed Lavender the hat and tapped the piece of paper with her wand.
A voice that sounded like Dumbledore was dueting with a Mandrake said the name "Severus Snape".
Next: Severus starts his Valentines day in an unusual way - but sure, it's only the morning. This kind of carry on can't continue throughout the day… right? Right? RIGHT? *evil giggle* *Oh yes it can* *insane evil giggle / cackle*