The lights dimmed and soft music played. The boisterous laughter calmed. The broad smiles softened. Slowly, two by two, students took to the dance floor, twirling and moving in tandem. Above, the ceiling of the Great Hall shimmered with a thousand stars that were scattered around a slender crescent moon.

In a dark corner, a single lone boy skulked. His eyes were dark and swam with longing and anger as he watched a tall, dark-haired boy invite a pretty, red-headed girl onto the dance floor. They traced her every move as she danced, her expression happy and content. They raked over her velvety red dress and lingered on her eyes.

God, those eyes. Suddenly, they turned towards him and locked onto his. The eye contact stole his breath away, and his heart raced. Even from a distance, they were suddenly the only things he could see. He felt every emotion he saw in those soft green orbs. The same tingly feeling he felt when he first saw her that night caused his pale skin to flush.

For a second, the smile on a face faltered. A sudden, unfathomable emotion flickered in her eyes. She smiled uncertainly as she muttered something to her partner. Her partner's expression stiffened as he replied. Sudden anger flashed in her eyes as they narrowed. Her partner's frown immediately became a smile as he nodded. Breaking free from her, he glared at the boy at the corner who stared back defiantly, his eyes cold.

"Severus," came a voice and he jumped as a hand gripped his. She had come to look for him.

"Lily, weren't you dancing with Potter?" he exclaimed, as his obsidian eyes widened in surprise. She smiled gently and led him to the edge of the dance floor.

"Do you want to dance?" she asked.

"Ye-No," he replied, both startled and on the alert as he scanned the crowd for his fellow Slytherins. He was going to get hexed if he consented to dance with a Gryffindor. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Too bad. You have to. You owe me that much," she said determinedly. Without waiting for his response, she dragged him into the very centre of the floor.

"Let me be your last dance," she whispered as she pulled him closer to her. Severus felt his breath steal away yet again as he felt her hand on her shoulder. His hand snaked to her waist as he inhaled the sharp scent of her hair. A jolt of adrenaline coursed through him and he smiled.

"My last dance," he agreed softly. He lost himself for the rest of the night in her eyes, never realizing that they shone with a radiance that was not there when she was dancing with Potter.

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Severus was on his knees as he clutched the single white lily he had bought from a muggle florist. Tears of sadness and regret coursed down his face. Lily, his precious Lily, was getting married to that arrogant, dung-for-brains James Potter. She was going to take blasted Potter's surname, bear his kids and look after his house.

"My last dance," he muttered, as he placed the lily in a glass case and froze it with a spell. It had a strange, haunting beauty whilst frozen, glittering strangely with ice crystals.

"Lily Evans, you're my only dance."

With that, he left the room.