A/N: Written for the International Wizarding School Championship.
Thanks to my mom for helping me come up with the storyline!
School: Beauxbatons
Year: Year 1
Theme: Elixir to Induce Euphoria
Main Prompt: 1.) Dungeons [Setting]
Side Prompts: 5.) Muffliato [Charm], 9.) Potions Book [Object]
Word Count: 1680
"Hello, Heads! Thank you all for meeting me here! Before we begin, can I offer you a toffee?" Dumbledore asked, eyes twinkling at his four friends and colleagues. Professor McGonagall passed with a tight smile, Professor Flitwick took one, thanking the Headmaster in his high voice, Professor Sprout gladly accepted one with a jovial smile, and Professor Snape gave the sweets his trademark glare.
It was a blustery day towards the end of November, and Dumbledore had summoned the Heads of Houses to his office.
"Now, as I'm sure you all know, the Yule Ball is coming up, and someone is going to have to teach our students how to dance…"
Professor Snape was not in a good mood. In fact, quite the opposite, actually. Today was the day he had to teach the Slytherins how to dance. The very idea that he'd have to deal with that many children, half of which would be giggling, gossiping girls, and the other half moody, unwilling to learn boys, did not delight him.
And to top it all off, he had to finish teaching the Gryffindor sixth years how to make the Elixir to Induce Euphoria, a potion that could make someone irrationally happy if ingested. He had just finished taking thirty points from Gryffindor because of those insufferable twin redheads. The Weasleys had just finished pulling off a stupid prank, and Severus' mood had greatly declined.
Finally, finally, the bell rang, and he ushered out his students, heaving a sigh of relief. He quickly tidied up his classroom, and went to the dungeon next door, where he was to suffer through, er, teach, dance class in a few minutes. Never in his life had he expected this.
He entered the dungeon, cast a spell to light the torches and conjured up a magical gramophone. He had just sat down, waiting for the first of his students to arrive, when he heard a pop from the corner of the room. Severus turned to see a house elf holding a sandwich, glass of pumpkin juice, and a potions book.
"'Scuse me, Master Snape, but Master Dumbledore has told me to bring these to you. He conveys his thanks for allowing him to borrow the book, and hopes that you will enjoy the snacks," the elf timidly said, giving the food and book to Severus.
Severus nodded curtly, and the elf disappeared. He vaguely remembered Dumbledore borrowing the book on the day of the Heads meeting. He was slightly irked to see that one of the pages had been dog-eared. Making a mental note to check what page that was later, he set the book aside.
Secretly, he was very thankful for the food and drink, as he could get cranky, well, crankier, than he usually was when he was hungry. He tore into the turkey, cheese and avocado sandwich, and ate it in three large bites. He downed the pumpkin juice as Draco Malfoy entered with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson hanging off of his arm. Daphne Greengrass wasn't far behind.
Snape set the now-empty glass of pumpkin juice on a shelf, and waited for the rest of the Slytherins to enter. As he watched, he started to feel a bit light-headed and giddy, and couldn't remember for the life of him why he hadn't been more thrilled to teach his beloved students how to dance. The prospect brought a smile to his typically dour face, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by his students.
"Professor, are - are you alright?" A sixth year girl asked timidly, curious about her teacher's sudden change of demeanour, but not wanting to get snapped at.
"Why, thank you for asking, Miss Rosier. In fact, I'm better than fine, I'm ecstatic!" Severus exclaimed, throwing his arms wide open to emphasize his point. He gave all of his students a wide grin. This was going to be fun. "So, as you all know, the Yule Ball is a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament, or as we should call it, Fourwizard Tournament!" He paused, waiting for his students to laugh at his wonderful pun. A few feebly laughed, but most just gave him a slightly weirded-out stare, a few looking at him in pure disturbance, especially the seventh years. "Ah, well, anyway, no one cares about history, won't help you much in real life, let's dance!" Snape exclaimed, glad to have been given this opportunity. "Let's see, Miss Parkinson, may I have this dance?" Severus bowed elegantly to the teen, who looked terrified at the prospect.
"Ahh, sure?" She squeaked, allowing herself to be led out onto the dancefloor by none other than her teacher. She looked back, eyes pleading Draco to come and save her, but he only smirked back. She scowled, and turned her attention back to her teacher, who was grinning.
"Miss Parkinson, I assume you know how to ballroom dance?" Snape asked, putting the needle on the record and therefore turning the music on. Pansy nodded. "Good, shall we give a demonstration?" Severus asked.
Pansy hesitantly nodded once again, to the amusement of her housemates. Daphne especially was pleased by this, as Pansy wasn't her favorite person. Snape and Pansy gave a quick demonstration of how to ballroom dance, before letting all of the others try it out. With the majority of the Slytherin population being purebloods, they mostly knew how to ballroom dance without much help. Severus, not wanting the lesson, which was going especially well, to end so quickly, came up with a great idea.
As the last waltz ended, he walked over to the gramophone, took the record out of the holder, and vanished it into the air. He smiled once again at his thoroughly creeped-out students, and motioned for them to sit. "Now that we have your basic ballroom boredom dance learned, why not do something more fun? I have a record here," at this point, Severus summoned another record from the air, "that is music from a little-known group called the Chimaera Trio, but I think you will all thoroughly enjoy rocking out to this. Yeah? Great!" Severus said, singing out the last little bit. He was just so happy that he was given such a fantastic opportunity to teach young minds how to express themselves in such a joyful and amazing way. Oh, did he love to dance. Quickly, he cast Muffliato, so as to not disturb his good friends and colleagues outside of the dungeon. "This is a rock record, so I will teach you some totally hip dance moves. Let's see, Mr. Malfoy, shall we dance?"
"Oh, uh, okay," Draco said, wondering what his Godfather had in mind.
"Fantastic, knew you'd be up for it, Draco! So what I'm going to teach you is something called a moonwalk. Watch and learn, yeah?" Severus said, turning the music on and getting into position. At the first sounds of a loud instrument that was similar to an electric guitar, he was off, seemingly walking backwards. The lead singer scream-sung as the class watched in half-amusement, half-horror, as their Head of House 'busted a move,' according to him.
The song finally finished, and with a flick of his wand, Snape paused the music. He took a quick bow before turning to his Godson. "Your turn, Draco!" He exclaimed, smiling down at the former ferret. The poor boy had no chance to protest before the next song started, and he had to dance. Draco Malfoy, blond bigot, pure blooded, pompous arse, moonwalked.
And he was good.
At the end of the song, he was thoroughly embarrassed, but very pleased to hear how much applause he had received. He smirked at the crowd before sitting down. As it always was in Slytherin, moonwalking became a Davis was next, followed by Blaise Zabini. Just as Vincent Crabbe started dancing, the smile slipped off of Snape's face. The giddiness went away, and his enthusiasm along with it. "MISTER CRABBE, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Severus Snape boomed, silencing the music.
"Uh, moonwalking, sir," he said, attempting to string the sentence together.
"And where, might I ask, did you learn how to do that?" Snape asked quietly, voice shaking in anger. And for the next five minutes, shaking and nervous Slytherins filled him in on how their dance class had went.
In three large strides, Severus opened the potions book he'd lent Dumbledore. The page that had been dogeared was the page for the Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Dumbledore must have slipped it to him in his pumpkin juice. Severus turned back to his class, red with rage. "No one will ever find out about this class, understood?" He asked quietly, inducing fear in all of his students. He was very thankful that he had cast Muffliato earlier, as he didn't want anyone to know what had happened in that class.
Every member of the room nodded. "Good. Now, get out of here. It's time for dinner," he said, once again ushering his students out.
Later that evening, as Severus was poking at his meal, Dumbledore turned to his colleague, eyes twinkling. Every other teacher's head turned to the bat-like man, excited to see what was going to happen, as Dumbledore had filled them all in on his plan.
"So, Severus, how did your dance class go?" The Headmaster asked, innocently.
"Next time there is a Yule Ball, Headmaster, I would like someone else to teach my students to dance, please and thank you," he said with his usual dour expression. The other teachers hid their smiles; they'd figure out how the class had gone somehow, and couldn't wait to tease their colleague about it.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! If you did, please review! I'd love to hear from you!