Chapter Four: A Long-expected Party

Disclaimer: JKR, Scholastic and Warner Brothers own the words and images belonging to the Harry Potter universe. The Tolkien estate, its various publishers and New Line Cinema own the words and images belonging to The Lord of the Rings universe.

Thanks, as always, to my alpha/beta team of morethansirius and sshg316.

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How'd I get myself into this? Hermione looked around the small dining room off the Great Hall. Somehow, the Muggle Christmas party she had planned for the book club meeting in her sitting room had turned into a full staff Christmas party for the purpose of introducing Edward Beekman to James's colleagues. Minerva had not forgotten Hermione's offer to help, and once she and Severus had found a spell to allow a Muggle access to Hogwarts, Minerva had asked Hermione if she would consider turning her small party into a bigger one.

James's wife had offered to help. Jasmine was a Muggle-born witch and did understand Muggle Christmas customs. Their six-month-old son took a lot of her time, however. So Hermione was taking care of the final preparations herself. She had overseen the placement of the Christmas trees, the decorations, the party favours, and the arrangement of the room. There was a small space for dancing since Arthur Weasley had found a way of charming a CD player to work at Hogwarts. Hermione had a selection of Christmas CDs that had been gathered from Muggles that she and Jasmine knew.

She and Jasmine had overseen the preparation of the food, giving the house-elves specific instructions about the Muggle recipes. There were a variety of sandwiches, including hot beef, cucumber, and tomato and watercress. The food and drink came in Muggle and wizarding varieties: cheeses, crackers, candies and cakes, fruit and fondues, wines, mulled mead, Firewhisky, holiday punch, and eggnog.

The arrangements taken care of, Hermione went off to get dressed for the evening. She had decided to wear Muggle clothing, since she had suggested it to her book club members, but when she went shopping for a holiday party dress, she knew that many of the current fashions would shock her colleagues who were used to witches being covered by robes. She chose instead to wear a vintage dress in holiday green velvet. The boat neckline and tight sleeves to just below the elbow seemed demure enough but were offset by the fitted bodice and the plunging back neckline. Looking at her reflection in the full-length mirror, she decided that she liked the green organza cummerbund that seemed to cinch her waist in. She wore a faux diamond pin that matched the accents on the cummerbund. Wearing her hair up showed off the back of her dress with its deep "V" cut.

Fairly satisfied with how she looked, she made her way down to the small dining room. As hostesses, she and Jasmine had decided to be there early enough to greet the guests as they arrived. She noticed several people in the room. Oh no! It must have taken me longer than I thought to get ready. Looking again, she realised that half of the people were Jasmine's family, and the other three were Minerva, Septima and Pomona, who had promised to arrive early in case of last minute emergencies.

Feeling a little better, she walked over to Jasmine and James and the third person in their party, a man dressed in a gray suit, burgundy shirt and silver silk tie. That must be Edward. Wow, he's quite a bit better looking than James, and James isn't exactly bad looking. "Hi, James. Hi, Jasmine. I hope you weren't waiting long."

Jasmine replied, "No. We just got here ourselves. Hermione, this is James's brother, Edward. Edward, this is Hermione Granger, the Charms professor here at Hogwarts."

Hermione held her hand out to Edward Beekman. "Hello, Edward. It's nice to meet you."

Edward shook her hand, replying, "Nice to meet you, Hermione. I've heard a lot about you, but no one told me how stunning you are."

Yeah, right. She looked at Edward carefully to see if he was teasing her. His admiration seemed sincere, so she smiled and said, "Thank you. I'm not sure why you would hear a lot about..." Just then, she noticed Minerva, Pomona and Septima all watching her conversation with Edward with avid interest. Those three just couldn't take a hint. "Ah, you've been talking to Minerva, I expect." She looked at her three friends, eyebrows raised. They sent sheepish glances her way.

Madam Hooch and Firenze arrived, followed shortly by Professor Binns and Sybill Trelawney. "Time to greet our guests, Jasmine," Hermione said. As she walked towards the newcomers, she passed by Septima, Pomona and Minerva. "I will speak with you later," she said with a meaningful look.

"Oh, good. We'll want to hear what you think of Edward," the irrepressible Septima answered.

Hermione chose to ignore that response. She followed Jasmine and went to speak to the newcomers, welcoming them and inviting them to help themselves to the refreshments.

Bathsheba Babbling and Poppy Pomfrey arrived. Hermione spent a little time responding to their complimentary remarks about the Christmas decorations. They headed toward the food table. Hermione turned back to the door and saw Severus walking into the room. He had dressed in Muggle attire, wearing black trousers and a black cashmere sweater with green flecks in it. His graceful stride was even more pronounced without his billowing teaching robes. Oh my...

"Good evening, Severus," she said with a smile, trying very hard not to let him know she had been watching him walk.

He shook her hand but lingered with her hand in his as he glanced at her dress in appreciation. He actually smiled at her. "You look lovely, Hermione."

"Why, thank you, Severus." Hermione felt herself blushing a little and turned away quickly to point out the food and beverages.

"Where is that music coming from?" Severus asked. "That doesn't sound like the WWN."

"No, it's not," Hermione agreed. "Arthur Weasley figured out how to charm a Muggle CD player so that it doesn't need electricity to operate, so we're listening to Muggle Christmas music."

"It's certainly an improvement over Celestina Warbeck's Greatest Hits for the Winter Solstice."

Hermione laughed. "I agree. I was thinking of sending a selection of Muggle Christmas CDs for Ron to take home to the Burrow with him this year. Maybe Molly will become a convert."

"And give up 'a cauldron full of hot, strong love'? That's asking an awful lot," Severus responded with mock seriousness.

"You're probably right, but it certainly can't hurt to try."

At that moment, Ivy Turner walked in. Hermione saw that Ivy had noticed the good-natured conversation she and Severus were having. Ivy hurried to Severus's side. "Good evening, Severus." She smiled warmly up at him. Turning to Hermione, the smile disappeared. "Hermione," she barely acknowledged.

"Hi, Ivy." Hermione had to work to give her a genuine smile and to find something nice to say. "Your robes... I've never seen anything like them."

Ivy preened a little. Ivy's green dress robes were unique. The collar fit closely around her neck to just below her jaw where the back half suddenly flared out around the back of her head and reminded Hermione of nothing more than the wicked queen in the Disney movie Snow White. She wore a green velvet cape that stood straight out from the shoulders as though an iron rod had been threaded through the fabric. "I had them made from my original design," Ivy said proudly.

"Oh?" Hermione tried not to laugh. "How creative you are, Ivy."

"Thank you." Ivy's voice finally sounded gracious. "Severus, would you escort me to the food table?" Ivy grabbed his arm, accidentally jabbing her shoulder into Severus's arm, and steered him away from Hermione.

Jasmine came up to Hermione. "What on earth was that get-up?"

"Ivy's own design," Hermione said, biting her lip to keep laughter from bubbling up.

"Poor Severus. I hope his arm doesn't get bruised." Jasmine giggled, and Hermione stifled a laugh.

"Hermione," Edward called. Both Hermione and Jasmine turned to see Edward walking towards them. "No one is dancing. Why don't you and I get the ball rolling?"

"Okay," Hermione answered.

They walked to the dance floor, and Edward took her in his arms. He was a pleasant dancer. "What is it you do, Edward?" Hermione asked.

"I'm a solicitor."

"That's interesting. Before I started teaching here, I worked at the Ministry of Magic for Magical Law Enforcement. I worked in the department that deals with the laws and regulations regarding interactions with magical creatures."

"You need special laws for that?"

"With the large numbers of magical creatures and the differences in intelligence, intent and information...or misinformation...we know about them, it is really important to have rules in our dealings."

They danced for a bit in silence. They had been joined on the dance floor by Argus Filch and Sybill Trelawney. Argus isn't a bad dancer, thought Hermione in amused surprise, but I'm not sure how well wizarding dance steps go with this song. Ivy glared at the dance floor before practically dragging Severus out to dance. "What made you want to teach?" Edward's questions quickly drew her attention back to her partner.

"Minerva was very persuasive about teaching young minds not to be prejudiced. That was what the Voldemort Wars were basically fought over."

"According to her, you played a key part in the war."

"I never really looked at it that way. I was just helping my friend, and I was trying to protect myself and my family."

"You're a Muggle-born like James, then?"

"Yes, my parents are both dentists."

They continued to get to know each other throughout the rest of the dance. They both enjoyed the research aspect of the law and the chance to fight for the rights of the underprivileged. A love of history was something else they both shared. The dance ended very pleasantly.

After their dance, Edward said, "I'd like to dance with you again, but I promised Jasmine I would dance with her because James doesn't like dancing. Maybe later?"

"Later would be fine." She gave him a smile before she walked over to the refreshment table and picked up some food and something to drink. She looked around for a place to sit. I might as well face the interrogation now. She went to sit with Pomona, Septima and Minerva.

Septima asked, "Well, what did you think of Edward? You two looked very nice together."

"He is very nice," Hermione responded. "He was charming. I think he's going to ask me to dance again later."

"Nice and charming? That's it?" Minerva asked.

"What did you expect after one dance? He's nice, and we have some things in common."

"Now, dear, don't be irritated with us," Pomona urged. "We just want to see you happy."

"I know. You're all very good to me, but I'm certainly not going to be pushed into a relationship. If it works out, fine. But, please, no pushing."

Septima nodded. "We'll try to be good. Right, ladies?" Pomona and Minerva agreed.

Just then, Severus approached their table. "Hermione, would you care to dance?" A sudden gleam appeared in Minerva's eye. Hermione ignored her for the moment and said, "Sure, Severus." She gave Minerva a quick glare as she got up from the table.

She and Severus walked to the dance floor, and he held out his arms. Hermione stepped into his arms, and they began to dance. Why didn't I notice if Edward's hands were warm? Her hand felt cocooned in his, and the warmth that she felt through her dress from his hand on her back seemed to spread to her toes.

"You've done a marvellous job on the party, Hermione," he commented.

Hermione hadn't realised how deep his voice sounded until now when his mouth was so close to her ear. Suddenly, her senses seemed to be attuned to him. He smells like new parchment, and herbs, and... something else. What is it?

"Hermione, are you all right?" Hermione suddenly noticed she'd been taking deep breaths through her nose, trying to ascertain what Severus smelled like. Stop that before you make a fool of yourself!

"I'm fine, Severus. Thank you. Jasmine and I had a good time planning the party together."

They danced silently for a moment. Still lost in the spell of her senses, she didn't know that she had been rubbing one finger of her hand on his sweater, enjoying the softness of the cashmere. That is, she didn't know until Severus moved his hand slightly so that his thumb was caressing the skin of her back at the lowest point the plunging neckline left bare. Suddenly all Hermione's attention was drawn to that spot on her back.

What is happening here? Hesitantly, Hermione raised her eyes to Severus's face to find his dark eyes looking into hers. Her stomach gave a little flip at the vulnerability she saw there.

"Hermione?" Severus asked softly.

What should I do? What is happening here? Hermione's thoughts were whirling. She bit her lower lip, confused.

"This is unexpected, isn't it?" He was looking at her with one eyebrow raised, a hint of humour in his eyes.

"Yes. I'm barely beyond thinking of you as my professor." I hope he doesn't feel insulted by that.

"I hope you've gone beyond thinking of me as your professor, or this could be awkward," he replied.

Hermione gave a nervous, little giggle. "Well, I've begun to think of you as a friend since our take-away dinner."

"So have I. I was expecting this to be a dance between friends."

"I don't know..." Hermione stopped, not knowing quite what to say.

"I'm guessing that you would like some time to mull things over. Is that right?"

Hermione gave a little nod.

"Good, because I would, too. Is that okay?"

Hermione gave him a relieved smile. Severus gave her a small smile in return. He pulled her closer as they danced, his jaw resting lightly against her hair. Hermione relaxed and let herself enjoy the dance. She smiled slightly. I'm not telling the "mother hens" about this.

~~o~~0~~o~~0~~o~~

A week later, the book club met to discuss Book Three. Christmas holiday was coming, and the staff members were wearing down. Hermione herself felt a bit unprepared for leading a discussion. Preparing for the Christmas party had taken more time than she had planned. Thinking about the Christmas party in the week since...particularly one special dance...had kept her rather more preoccupied than she had anticipated.

Ivy had told her rather coldly that morning that she wouldn't be attending the book club that night as she had only committed to one meeting per month for this Muggle club, and the Muggle Christmas party had fulfilled that requirement. Hermione had expressed her regret that Ivy wouldn't be able to be at the meeting, but privately she thought, hugging herself to contain a little thrill of excitement, Maybe she has some reason to be jealous after all. Then she had covered her mouth with one hand to stop herself giggling like some hysterical teenage girl over her first date. Get a grip, please. You're in the staff workroom. Anyone could come in at any moment. Besides, all this is very preliminary; nothing has been decided or really even hinted at. Okay, so there's a definite mutual attraction, but that might not turn into anything else... Taking a deep breath, Hermione had decided that the best thing to do would be to go to the privacy of her office as soon as possible.

Somehow, she managed to get through classes and to the book club meeting without embarrassing herself. The discussion at the meeting covered a wide variety of topics without very much organization, as had become the norm. The Ents were discussed in some detail. Although some magical plants had rather highly developed instinctive systems, such as Mandrakes or Whomping Willows, none had the intelligence and longevity that the Ents seemed to have. Pomona enthused at length over the imagination of Tolkien in coming up with these wonderful trees.

Septima enjoyed the hints of romance to be found between Aragorn and Eowyn and the Ents and Entwives. Hermione hoped that Septima wouldn't be too disappointed over the fact that there was so little romantic development in the story. She determined to buy Septima some good romance novels for a Christmas present. She also began to wonder if it would be possible to show the book club the movie adaptations where the romantic element seemed to be played up quite a bit more. Hmmm, The Return of the King is due out in theatres any day. She set that aside to be thought about later.

The discussion then moved to the themes of death and new life and how they were developed in the characters of Boromir, Gandalf and King Theoden. Hermione was thrilled that they were finally talking about some of the deeper aspects of the story. When they started talking about the dual nature of good and evil in the character of Saruman, at first...remembering their discussion about Dumbledore and Gandalf...she worried that this might strike too close to home for Severus. He seemed to be enjoying the discussion and the debate over the finer points of the story, however.

Eventually the discussion wound its way down, and Hermione pointed out that the first Friday of January was the last Friday before school began again. Did they want to put off the meeting until the second Friday or go ahead and meet as scheduled? They chose to meet the first Friday as they were mostly planning to be back by that point to be getting ready for the next round of classes. After mentioning that Book Four followed Frodo's and Sam's progress, she wished them a good final week of classes before the holidays.

She was glad that Severus appeared to be taking his time about leaving, waiting until he was the last book club member left in Hermione's sitting room. "That was a good discussion," he said.

"Yes, it was a lot of fun to talk about some of the themes of the books."

Severus came up to her and taking a gentle hold of her chin, he raised it to look into her face carefully. "Are you all right? You look a little tired."

Hermione gave him a rueful smile. "Don't we all? I'll be glad when this next week is over and Christmas break is here."

"Indeed." Severus gave her chin one final caress before walking over to the table and sitting down. "What are your plans?"

"I'll be here for the first few days until all the Gryffindors have gone home. I don't have any students staying the entire holiday, do you?"

"No, my last Slytherin leaves for home on the 22nd, and then I plan to go home for a few days."

"So do I. I'll stay at my apartment for a bit, probably visit Harry and Ginny, Ron and Luna, maybe the Weasleys. I'm spending Christmas with my parents."

"What are you doing Christmas Eve?"

"Oh, nothing much. Probably I'll go to Mum and Dad's and watch Christmas movies. We usually attend a Christmas Eve service. What will you do?"

"Well..." Severus took a deep breath. "I've been mulling things over this past week. Have you?"

Hermione felt a little breathless, too. "Yes."

"Would you spend Christmas Eve with me?"

"I'd love to."