A night in the Hospital Ward was long, cumbersome and boring as boring could be. Severus spent his time thinking of ways to improve the Potions he was working on creating and imagining he was playing the Cello. The boy would be losing Scrabble right this minute and he was stuck here. The consolation was that he wasn’t among the riff-raff that comprised Gryffindor House. In the middle of the night Severus still wasn’t asleep. He was thinking of the horrible thing he was to be witness to in the next evening. A date with Cho Chang. The girl had been all over him. There was only one thing to do and that was to detract her interest in him in some way.
After finally getting to sleep in the small hours of the morning, Severus was rudely awoken by Madam Pomfrey who notified him he was fine and could leave. There was a note on his table, and it was from Chang informing him she would meet him by the Fat Lady portrait at six. He got changed and out of bed and decided to go to the Library for some light reading and research. Sitting in the corner with a large pile of books, Severus immersed himself in a world he was comfortable and familiar in. The good thing was that his reading voice had remained the same as it always was, his deep and silky tones. He dreaded to think what reading might have sounded like with Potter’s voice whining along. In a moment of indecision, however, he realised this inward comment was slightly unfair. He remembered all too well how his voice had been as a teenager. High, awkward and stilted, Severus had never been good with words.
He went off to the Gryffindor Common Room after several hours and after talking with Weasley and Granger for a few moments had a shower. They didn’t actually seem that surprised he had spent the day apart from them. And Severus thought the Potter boy’s minions never left his side! There were only a few minutes to go before Cho arrived and Snape messed about with his hair style. He gave up on making it neat and so opted for the reverse, knowing how popular this was these days. He made it as messy as possible. The result was that it was sticking up all over the place. Perfect.
The clothes he had selected were fairly bland and innocuous but he did his best to spruce them up by letting the shirt hang loose, rolling up the sleeves and wearing his pants as low as they could go. Now he looked like a typical teenager, complete disregard for neatness. He took a look in the mirror and had to say he looked like a scruffy ruffian, but a fairly stylish one. Now to start on his plan.
He said goodbye to Ron and Hermione who were giggling and smiling to themselves and went out the portrait hole.
*****************
Cho was already waiting holding a large picnic basket.
“Cho, baby!” Severus said with a grin.
“Hi, Harry!” the girl replied nervously. “So, are you ready?” Severus nodded and led the way. He didn’t offer to hold the basket, he didn’t wait for Miss Chang, he just steamed on ahead. “Uhh, Harry wait up, yeh?” she called.
He stopped, turned around and looked back. He grinned once more and gave a beckoning hand gesture. “Are you tired because you’ve been running through my mind all day?” he asked. As he looked at her expression he tried to gauge how creepy a statement she thought that was. She seemed taken aback by it, so he hoped she was becoming suitably turned off by his behaviour. “Didn’t you hear the latest health report? If you get puffed out so easily, you need to up your daily intake of vitamin me.”
The good thing about working in a Secondary School, Severus mused, was that you got to hear so many terrible things teenage boys were wont to say when attempting to attract the female sex. All of them failing miserably.
“Harry, are you okay?” Cho asked, looking somewhat distraught.
“Better than ever!” Severus replied, coming closer. “I’ve been wanting to get you to myself for ages so that I could just be me.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
“Why aren’t I what?”
“Being yourself?” Cho asked, walking forward frustratedly once more. Snape shrugged and followed her.
“Any ideas what we’re going to do on our next date?” he asked, seemingly innocently.
“How are you sure there is going to be a next date?” Cho asked increduously.
“Come on, Cho. You like me, don’t fight it,” Severus said doing his best to keep a straight face. He actually failed and decided a small smirk would be better anyway. He was hoping for fireworks so he wasn’t especially pleased with her next answer.
“Yes, I do like you, Harry. Maybe we can go to Hogsmeade together?” she replied. Severus shook his head as fast as he could.
“Promised Ron I’d scout out the back streets with him. We’re looking for a good place to … conduct certain business.”
“Oh? What kind of business?”
Severus smirked again and tapped his nose, “Strictly confidential.” In his experience, there was nothing teenage girls hated more than boys who had secrets they refused to tell. This was, of course, in complete contradiction with the mystery element girls loved so much. He was sure this fell into the first category, however, when Cho turned her nose up slightly and looked away.
They started walking down stairs and Severus decided this was the right time to do the foolish “impress the girl” tactic and jumped on the stone bannister, walking down with his arms outstetched. “Stop that! You’ll hurt yourself!” Chang screamed.
“Eh?” Severus asked. He jumped back down and attempted to put his arm around Cho’s shoulders. She fended him off.
“Stop behaving like a child.”
“I am a child. We’re children, Cho, come on, loosen up!” Severus crooned. One look at her face told him what he hoped. His plan was working without flaw. Cho Chang disliked him very much.
“I thought you were different from the other boys, Harry, but you’re just the same!” she exclaimed fiercely. Severus didn’t do anything, although he had the persistent urge to nod. “I don’t want to go to the lake with you anymore,” she said and stormed off disgusted.
Severus smiled to himself. Crisis averted, and he hadn’t even had to go on the actual date. Three months without Cho Chang breathing down his neck. Once more he had the small moment of guilt where he felt it was cruel for the boy to have a budding relationship well and truly smashed, but he consoled himself that things would have been worse for Harry had he welcomed the girl’s advances. Just contemplating the horror that would be in consequence of such improper actions allayed any fear he had that he had done the wrong thing. Anyway, for all he knew, Harry might actually have behaved like such a git had it been his chance.
He went back to the Library to do some more reading. Suddenly he remembered. It was Minerva’s birthday party this evening! He had completely forgotten about it in the hustle and bustle of the transformation. He hoped Dumbledore would be keeping an eye on Harry.