Well folks, this is Pt. 1 of what you've been waiting for. I sure hope you enjoy it. I couldn't keep putting it off - especially with two amazing Brits passing away earlier this week, both of whom are featured (sort of) in this story... well, here's to them. And for Bowie's memory, I suggest you put on "Win" from the album Young Americans. It is, after all, Severus' favorite song... ;)

Half an hour after the dance had begun, Severus was finally making his way up towards the main floor of the castle with his Slytherin friends, Emma Vanity walking alongside him. Avery had wanted to pre-game again, and had pressured Severus into taking two shots of vodka before they headed to the Great Hall. Feeling quite a bit buzzed, he nervously tried to flatten the wrinkles in the silver button-up he'd decided to wear. Mulciber's robes and pants were definitely a tad bit too long, and the robes nearly dragged on the ground as Severus tried to keep his shoulders as upright and straight as possible. Luckily, Emma had seemed rather pleased with his choice of clothing, as she had decided to wear green and black dress robes herself, with a beautiful ebony colored necklace to spice things up.

To be honest, they made quite a nice-looking pair. Nonetheless, it had taken very little time for Severus to realize that he was a bit of an accessory. As they had left the dungeons, Emma had suddenly grabbed his hand and moved closer to him. "Quick, act like we're a couple," she hissed as they approached a pair of dateless and rather troll-like 7th year Slytherin boys lurking near the landing of the steps. The sulky teens glared at the couple as they passed, and immediately after they had rounded the corner, Emma let go of Severus' fingers. "What was that about?" he ventured to ask. "Oh," Emma's face reddened. "That Goyle – well, he's a real brute and I didn't want him to talk to me – us, I mean." Severus didn't feel terribly offended, as he had been wondering all week how he could have scored such a pretty date. "Ah," he said. "Does he bother you often?" Emma looked over, as if she was appreciative of his empathetic inquiry. "Yeah, kind of," she said. "But don't worry, he never does anything if I've got other people around."

Severus took in the scene as they entered the Great Hall – the tables had been pushed to the edges of the room, the music boomed overhead, and for an added flourish, Professor Flitwick had evidently charmed the ceiling to rain tiny white and blue music notes which melted away when they landed. As they walked through the threshold of the doorway, a sinking feeling settled in the pit of Severus' stomach. Not more than a few strides in front of him was Remus Lupin, spinning on the dance floor with his date. Severus couldn't help but notice how handsomely dressed the Gryffindor was, and he nervously straightened his borrowed robes. "Do you want to dance?" Emma asked loudly over the sound of the music, currently a Frank Sinatra number. In all honestly, Severus did not want to dance, but at that moment, Remus turned his head and spotted Severus. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and Severus could not ignore both the flicker of excitement as well as the flicker of pain in the boy's bright eyes. With regret, he quickly turned away to face Emma. "Uh, yeah… but it's less crowded over there," he said, awkwardly taking her arm and leading her as far from Remus as possible.

"Ouch!" Marianne yelped as Remus mis-stepped and trod on her foot. "Sorry," he said quickly, trying to fall back into the rhythm. He had been distracted by the entrance of Severus Snape and his date. The pair looked quite nice, and Remus appreciated Severus' taste in subtle colors – the black robes with just a garnish of emerald and the silvery grey shirt beneath looked sharp. Sadly, as he tried to make eye contact, the Slytherin turned away and pulled his date through the crowd and out of Remus' line of view.

He and Marianne danced through the next couple of songs, by which point James and Lily had returned from their date in Hogsmeade. From the looks of it, James must have been on his best behavior because both of them seemed quite jolly and it looked like they were dancing a bit closer to one another than "just friends" likely would be. Sirius, too, was shimmying his way over to the group of them, catching the eyes of a couple giggly 4th year girls in the process. As he approached, Marianne suddenly broke away from Remus, her face pink from dancing. "Hey, sorry – I just spotted my friend and I want to talk to her real fast. We can dance more in a bit?" Remus shrugged. "Yeah, sure." He was actually pretty relieved, because McGonagall had just played two slow songs in a row and the smell of Marianne's cherry lip gloss was beginning to make Remus feel nauseous. "Looks like James is having a good night, eh?" Sirius smirked. "How are you two getting on, anyway?" he continued, winking slyly and gesturing towards Marianne as she slipped away towards the side of the room. "Oh come on," Remus said wearily. "We're just having fun. There isn't much to say, really." In fact, Remus had noticed that Marianne really had cooled off a bit in terms of her interest in him, or at least it seemed that way. She had been chirpy on their walk down to the Great Hall, but had not been giving him any suggestive looks or acting as bubbly as she had been a week before. "Anyway," Remus continued. "Where's Peter?" Sirius shrugged. "I think he's lurking by the drink table right now. He almost asked a girl to dance but then he chickened out. Poor kid, man. He needs to loosen up." Suddenly it seemed a mischievous thought crossed Sirius' mind, because he smiled wickedly and leaned in towards Remus. "Speaking of drinks," he muttered, reaching into his robes and producing two small flasks. "I brought you something, you perfectly proper prefect. Loaded these up with firewhiskey – here, don't be a prude," he shoved one of the flasks into Remus' hands, before unscrewing the top off of his and taking a quick sip before tucking it back into the inside pocket of his robes. "And don't let McGonagall catch you with it! Now look, I promised Alice McKinnon I'd dance with her… I'll catch you in a bit."

Remus tucked the flask into his robes and decided it might be wise to get out of the dance floor, so he wandered over to where Marianne was catching up with one of her Ravenclaw friends. He leaned back against one of the large tables and observed the crowd of moving bodies. The teacher's table had been moved out of the way as well, and the platform upon which it normally rested was designated for the professors to dance. McGonagall was luckily the one currently responsible for switching the discs on the player, and therefore Remus took the opportunity to take a swig from the flask Sirius had given him. The taste was sharp yet pleasantly warming. Gazing back out over the crowd, Remus spotted Severus and his date dancing among a group of Slytherins at the far end of the dance floor. Despite the residual pang in his heart, Remus smiled from the edge of the dance floor as he watched Severus successfully twirl his date, albeit a bit awkwardly as she was a rather tall girl. To his surprise, Severus glanced over a moment later and flashed a sheepish grin in the Gryffindor's direction. Remus' heart skipped a beat – this was the first time Severus had acknowledged him in a week, and it sent a thrill through his body to think that Severus still had at least a friendly interest in him. He returned the grin and winked at the Slytherin.

"Who are you winking at?" Peter had suddenly appeared at Remus' side, and was giving him a curious and somewhat suspicious look. Taken by surprise, Remus felt his face turn a bit pink as he quickly tried to concoct a story. "Well, there's a girl over there –" he said slowly as he gestured across the dance floor to a group of Hufflepuff girls who were luckily a straight shot behind Severus and his date. "Not that I'm interested –" he added quickly, as Peter frowned and looked quickly over at Marianne who was giggling with a friend nearby. "No, I was winking because… well, one of those girls told me she thinks you're cute," he lied. Peter's eyebrows sprung up on his forehead, and he glanced quickly over at the group. "You're kidding. Who?!" he asked in a hushed voice. "Uh, well, I don't know her name, but the one with the braids…" Remus picked the girl who was clearly dateless and who had not been asked to dance all night. She was a bit pudgy, but she had a pretty face and cute blonde braids done up in a bun. Peter squinted over at them. "Oh… she's a fifth year I think. I don't know her name. She really thinks I'm cute?" Remus felt a bit odd playing match-up, but he couldn't drop the lie now. "Yeah – well okay, she didn't actually tell me directly, but I heard her at the drink table telling her friends she hoped you would ask her to dance. She was definitely talking about you, though." It was Peter's turn to blush, but even as his face grew pink he straightened up a bit, puffing out his unimpressive chest a little. Remus smiled. "I think you should ask her, mate." Peter looked at him, a flicker of fright in his eyes. "Really?" Remus nodded solemnly. "Yes, really – it's your chance!" he said, and patted Peter on the shoulder, who glanced around nervously. "Wish me luck," he said fearfully, and with chest still puffed, he strode across the room towards the girls along the wall. Remus watched with bated breath as Peter approached the girl, who looked surprised and looked around as if it could not be possible he would want to talk to her. After a brief exchange of words, her face turned bright red and she nodded up at Peter, who awkwardly extended his hand. Feeling relieved, Remus watched the new pair of dancers head towards the dance floor, and he winked at a relieved and smiling Peter as the two of them briefly made eye contact.

A new song had started (some terrible wizard-band cover of a Beatles song, it sounded like), and Remus suddenly noticed that Severus and his date had left the dance floor. He looked around hastily, and spotted them near the drink table. Severus was lingering a few feet away from Emma, who was chatting with a friend of hers and pointing across the room at a group of Slytherin boys. Remus felt this would be a good chance to try and initiate a conversation, but he had not taken two steps before Marianne grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her and her friend. "So," she began, speaking a bit louder than even the volume of the music warranted. Remus noticed that both girls' faces were a bit rosy, and he had a suspicion that she and her friend had been sipping a little firewhiskey during the break from dancing. "So," she began again. "We want to know about that friend of yours." Remus didn't know what they were talking about. "Who, Peter?" he asked. Both girls laughed. "No! The handsome one, that Sirius Black," Marianne giggled. "What's he all about, anyway? He's always getting into trouble…"

Surprised, Remus faltered for a moment. Yes, it was quite clear that the girls had been drinking something. He glanced around the room and finally spotted his friend being reprimanded by McGonagall for something. "Oh, Sirius – well, yeah, he's a troublemaker for sure. But not a bad guy. Not at all. He just likes to have a fun time, you know. He's really a bit more rowdy than me, I'll admit." Although Remus felt it was a bit inappropriate for his date to be asking him about another guy, he thought this might turn out to be another match-making opportunity. One that would be much more beneficial for him.

Severus was feeling extremely awkward as he and Emma danced through a handful of songs. He was actually doing pretty well at avoiding her toes and keeping up with the motions, but he knew that their pairing was the talk of a number of his peers. And, at least coming from his goonish friends, it wasn't very polite talk. Every time they got a chance, they would make lewd gestures behind Emma's back and waggle their tongues in Severus' direction. He tried to avoid looking over at Avery, who had spent the entire last hour taking turns leering at Severus and Emma, and leering at the girls he thought were the hottest.

Additionally, Emma had, without warning, led Severus into a twirl and Severus had successfully completely without falling over or breaking his grip of her hand. In a moment of impulse, he had instinctively looked over at Remus and grinned, and Remus had winked back. The thought that Remus was watching him was embarrassing enough, but it was the fact that his subconscious mind had wanted to look at the Gryffindor that made him feel uncomfortable. He had been trying desperately all week to suppress his thoughts of the shaggy-haired boy, and yet at night he had been unable to push thoughts of Remus' naked torso from his mind. It had been tormenting him, and he was unable to completely work out the conflicts in his heart. The truth was, he had never had such a meaningful connection with any of his other peers – even Avery was a rather shallow friend, despite their having lived together for five and a half years. In his heart, Severus knew he wanted to talk to Remus, but he felt hopeless about the outcome. How would it ever work out between them? He shook his head as he almost lost his footing, and redirected his attention to keeping up with Emma.

Remus was still hanging around the side of the dance floor. He had done his best to sell Sirius to Marianne, and he was pretty sure she had become quite enamored by the tales of mischief he had told her. At present, she had excused herself to the bathroom with her friend (where Remus highly suspected there might be a hidden stash of booze). He was feeling a bit buzzed himself, and when the songs changed he spotted Sirius and waved his friend over. As Sirius prounced up, he made a bewildered gesture with his hands. "Oy! Where's Prongs and Evans?!" James and Lily had slipped away, and Remus had had sense enough not to ask where to or why. It made Remus feel strange to think of those two hooking up, since Lily had only barely tolerated James' antics up through the years. He relayed the circumstances of their disappearance to Sirius, who shook his head. "Man, that lucky asshole. I wouldn't mind some action tonight!" The scruffy boy proceeded to slip the flask back out from his robes and take another very long swig of the whiskey within. "Sirius – are you drunk?" Remus shouted over a particularly loud rock song at his friend. Sirius flashed a mischievous grin back at the prefect. "Not yet." His cheeks were noticeably rosier than usual, and his eyes fiery and amused. "Give me another thirty minutes or so," he laughed. Remus shook his head in mock disapproval. "Well, don't get too drunk – I think you may not be completely out of luck tonight if you play your cards right…" Remus proceeded to tell Sirius about Marianne's apparent newfound infatuation.

"Well shit, that sucks for you! She's a real doll. But hey man, I don't want to steal your date!" Sirius exclaimed when Remus had finished. "No, really – go ahead. She likes you more, I think. Plus, she's kind of getting on my nerves. A bit too, well, chirpy for me." Sirius raised an eyebrow at the prefect's remark. "Yeah, you really are nuts. Chirpy is enough to turn you off from a cutie like her? Boy…" He shook his head again, but it was clear that he was considering the situation. "Well if you really don't mind… But where is she, anyway?" he finally said, looking around with an excited grin.

Severus and Emma had finally taken a break, and they lingered by the drink table. As it turned out, Avery and his cronies had sneaked a crate of firewhiskey underneath the table, concealed by the long cloth that draped over the edge. All the Slytherins and a few other students from the other houses knew it was there, but as of yet, it seemed none of the professors were aware their students were imbibing hard liquor. This was likely due to the fact that the professors seemed to be drinking a bit themselves, and were fully absorbed in the merriment going on up by the teacher's platform. In addition, the drink table was in the far back of the room and therefore it was difficult to see what was taking place in that part of the Hall. Truly, the only thing they'd had to worry about was the Hufflepuff prefect Cliff Abastair, who was perhaps the most stuck-up prude in the world. Luckily, Cliff had not come around the table the entire night – Severus suspected one of his "Death Eater" friends was practicing the Imperius Curse on the unfortunate Hufflepuff, but he chose to ignore this suspicion. He wasn't feeling too buzzed, however, as he had only taken a single shot (thought admittedly a rather generous measurement) in the past hour. After his black-out experience at Rabastan's party, Severus was a bit wary of drinking too much.

The movement of a hand to his left made Severus jump, and he looked up quickly to find himself face to face with Remus Lupin, who was waving his hand to snap him out of his stupor. Severus' stomach twisted in anxiety. "Do you think we could talk?" Remus asked loudly over the music. "Sure," replied Severus, feeling rather apprehensive about what topic Remus wanted to discuss. "But maybe not in here – it's hard to hear anything!" The Slytherin looked over at Emma, who was talking contentedly with her friends. "Hey, Emma… it's getting kind of late and I was thinking maybe I'd call it a night. Are you going to be okay here on your own?" He nodded his head over to Goyle, who was lurking in the corner of the room staring sulkily at the crowd of dancers. Emma glanced in that direction briefly, and then up at the clock. "Well, I think I'll be alright – not sure I think 9:40 is all that late but if you want to go, don't worry about me."

Severus looked around carefully, and was relieved to see Avery chatting up a couple of bemused looking Ravenclaw girls. Remus jerked his head to the left towards the hallway leading to the classrooms, and Severus allowed himself to be led out of the Great Hall. He followed Remus down the warmly lit corridor, and they ducked into the second classroom on the right. Severus half-sat, half-leaned back onto a desk near the back of the room, not too far from the door, but also not within view of anyone coming up or down the hallway. Remus followed suit, and sat on a desk parallel to Severus, facing ahead with a solemn expression on his face.

"I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable," Remus apologized, looking down at his glossy black shoes. There was a moment of silence before Severus responded. "I should be the one saying sorry," he finally said in a tight voice, as if the words were difficult to say at all. "I shouldn't have said that to you when I left. And plus, I'm the one who –" He cut off, but Remus had a good guess that the end of the sentence would have included the word "kissed." He looked over at Severus cautiously, noting the somewhat pained expression in the boy's tight lips and furrowed brow. "I mean, I won't lie," Remus said hesitantly. "That was kind of a confusing situation. I mean, if you're not, you know… well, then why—"

"I liked kissing you," Severus admitted quietly, interrupting Remus' question. Remus felt his heart skip a number of beats, and the Slytherin's admission made his brain feel a bit fuzzy. "I – I liked kissing you, too," he said softly, turning his body to face Severus directly. "So I guess I just want to understand…" Severus waved his hand, looking up into Remus' eyes cautiously. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to explain. This is all kind of confusing for me –"

Severus suddenly fell silent and cocked his head, listening to the music echoing down the hall. "I know this one – is this Bowie?" he asked. Remus listened for a second, and a grin broke across his face. "Yeah! Nice call – this is that one song you really liked, if I recall correctly." Severus nodded, a satisfied look on his face. "Yeah, it's called Win… right? This one is really nice." On a whim, Remus stood up and extended his hand towards Severus. "Care to dance?" he asked nervously, hoping Severus would accept. After a moment of hesitation, Severus accepted and stood up, grasping the blonde boy's hand with his chilly fingers. The music was loud enough even here for them to accurately hear the words and the melody, and they moved together in small circles between the tables and chairs. Remus' heart was beating so fast he thought it would burst through his chest, and he couldn't help but move closer to Severus as they moved in time with the music. At one point, they both glanced at each other at the same moment, and quickly looked away over each other's shoulders with awkward smiles on their faces. As the song neared the end, Remus looked back over again at his dance partner, and they locked eyes once more. Severus' gaze was serious this time, and Remus felt the Slytherin pull his body closer – so close that their bodies touched and their hips collided gently. "I think I might love you," Remus muttered softly, and he was relieved to feel Severus' hands tighten on his waist rather than push him away. Severus' dark eyes narrowed, but Remus noticed what looked like tears welling in the corners. "I don't know why," the dark-haired boy said, his voice tight again. Remus frowned compassionately. "Because you're beautiful," he murmured.

"I want you to kiss me," Severus said in a near whisper. Without wasting any time, Remus leaned in and obeyed this request, locking lips with the Slytherin. As their tongues fought for control, he noted the taste of firewhiskey, and pulled back with some effort. "Severus," he breathed, "I don't want you to do anything you don't want to –?" Severus smiled and tugged him back. "I'm not drunk… you taste like whiskey, too, you know." Remus smiled sheepishly. "Okay, but are you sure-?" Severus nodded, half-opening his mouth in anticipation of Remus' own warm lips. As Remus leaned in, he felt cool fingers undoing his belt and unbuttoning his pants, slipping beneath his now untucked shirt. The sensation gave him goosebumps and he moaned. "We should lock the door," Severus muttered, pulling back briefly and flicking his wand towards the locks with a simple incantation. "I want to make you feel good," he mumbled as he returned to kissing Remus' neck and rubbing the Gryffindor's growing bulge. Remus sucked in his breath as Severus dropped to his knees on the cold stone floor. He felt the boy's hands tug his hard cock out from the shelter of his briefs, and before he could say or do anything Severus' warm mouth had engulfed him. The sensation was pure pleasure, and he threw his head back as he leaned deep into the desk. Remus reached down and gently gripped the boy's long, black hair. Severus slowly began to move faster, and his fingers gripped and caressed the base of Remus' cock. It seemed like no time before Remus was on the edge. "Sev – I'm going to cum." The Slytherin did not pull back, but instead took Remus' cock further into his mouth and sped up the rhythm of his hand. This was the last straw for Remus, and he released his load into Severus' mouth, crying out softly in pleasure and jerking his feet as he came.

"God, that was good…" Remus moaned as Severus stood up, pink-faced and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "That can't be all you wanted to do, though," the Gryffindor continued, staring curiously at his friend. "I know somewhere we can go, if you don't want this to end just yet…" Severus flashed a small grin. "Okay. Show me."