Everything that you recognize is the property of J.K. Rowling.
And thank you to my lovely Necromancer Friend for editing all this for me :)
Chapter 1
Hermione
"The Yule Ball is meant to be a welcoming for our guests. You will make them feel accepted and you will treat this practice with the respect I expect you to treat the actual dance. Do not forget that the reputation of this school is depending on you NOT acting up."
Hermione, Harry, and Ron sat in Snape's dungeons, listening to Professor McGonagall discuss the importance of the upcoming Yule Ball. Professor Dumbledore had informed them of this meeting just the day before, at the dinner feast. Instead of afternoon classes the Gryffindors and Slytherins of fourth year and older were to have dance lessons in the Dungeons, whilst the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had dance lessons in Professor Flitwick's classroom. They were mandatory, and the younger students all got to laze the afternoon away, because most of the professors were occupied.
The Yule Ball was only a little over a week away, so most people knew who they were going to go with by now, but some still didn't know how to dance. Clearly, Hogwarts was rectifying that. No one knew if the newcomers knew how to dance, but it was assumed that they did, because Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were both more traditional in their teachings than Hogwarts was. The Hogwarts teachers wanted to make sure that they didn't end up looking silly because their students didn't know a simple thing like dancing.
Hermione found it surprising how large the potion's room could be when all the desks were magicked out and the lamps were lit to their fullest. It was like a whole new room, and it seemed that even the cold draft that was typically wafting through the dungeon had been exterminated.
Professor Snape was in a corner, looking very uncomfortable, clearly not enjoying the transformation to his classroom.
"You will NOT embarrass this school, will you, Mr and Mr Weasley? McGonagall rapidly turned to aim her pointy spectacles directly at Fred and George, who had been attempting to dance a cricket on one of the Slytherin fourth years' heads. They zoomed the terrified cricket back to them as soon as the professor's eyes were on them.
"We would never dream of it, Teach", Fred said with a toothy grin, holding the cricket in between his fingers. With a slight glint in her spectacles, Professor McGonagall had transformed the cricket into two small golden birds, that flipped around their heads, nipping at their ears.
The entire room laughed, and Hermione stifled a giggle. McGonagall flipped her wand and the birds headed out the window. "Now, if we may get onto business." McGonagall's curt voice cut through the room, silencing it instantly. "We will be teaching you to dance. This is as noble an art as dueling to the Wizarding World, which many of the older Wizarding families have kept up with. But there are still many of you that aren't accustomed to the graceful art of dance."
An icy cackle rose through the hall and Hermione knew the sound immediately. "You expect the people in this room to be graceful?" Draco Malfoy was sitting on the other side of the room finding absolute hilarity in this concept and talking under his breath to his friends, who in turn would laugh along with him. "It's a good thing that you're a transfiguration teacher, 'cause we're going to need to get rid of all these trolls in the room."
"That's enough, Mr. Malfoy." McGonagall scowled at the blond, who in turn became quiet. As much as he liked to make fun of Gryffindors, their Head of House still scared him as much as she scared everyone else.
Why was it always Slytherin? Hermione had to wonder.
"I will be pairing you up by height", McGonagall stated as she grabbed the arm of a squirrelly boy from Slytherin. As she moved over to the other side of the room, she offered his hand to Katie Bell, who looked at it like it was a rodent. Seeing the exchange, she explained, "There will be pairs of one from each house, because we are trying to convey that we are a family, here at Hogwarts and you will learn to deal with each other, at least for the time being."
Hermione froze, as did most of the Gryffindors.
The Slytherins had a different response. There was shouting and screaming. "I'm not going to touch them." "They don't even bathe!" "They'll make us look bad!" "Who knows the difference between a Gryffindor and an imp?"
"You will dance together, and you will deal with it. Some semblance of decorum is the mature response. And if any of you would like to attend the dance at all, you will be quiet and not make a fool out of all of us." McGonagall was clearly talking through her teeth at this point, but she still managed to silence the entire room.
McGonagall was walking down the rows of students, grabbing a disgruntled Gryffindor here, a spluttering Slytherin there. Hermione, standing with Harry and Ron, all looked completely dumbfounded. They gave each other sidelong glances that seemed to ask the same question.
How were they supposed to dance with Slytherins for a week?
Professor McGonagall was getting closer to their section.
"Miss Granger. Mr Malfoy." Hermione snapped up. She must have heard wrong. McGonagall must be talking about something else. She couldn't be paired with Draco Malfoy.
"You mean you want me to dance with that? My blood objects just being in the same room." Malfoy's cold voice rose above the ruckus. At the sound of that, Hermione's gaze dropped to the floor. She'd heard it all before, but that didn't mean it didn't still bother her.
"I'll get you for that Malfoy!" Hermione lifted her head. Oh great, they had developed an audience. Bloody hell, Ron was staring down Malfoy, wand pointing at his throat. Malfoy responded by drawing his own wand.
"You won't insult her again!" Harry hopped up right behind Ron, to back him up. And even Neville was standing, however there was no wand in his hand. A blush of thankfulness crept onto her cheeks. She had great friends.
"That is ENOUGH! Malfoy, Weasley, and Potter, fifty points from each of you! This is what is what I meant when I said that you will NOT embarrass us! I understand that you have your differences but at least, for now, you shall pretend to be one, respectful student body." Her words were said as an order, with so much malice that everyone looked a little lost for words for a few moments.
"She just shouldn't have to deal with that." Ron said, almost as a whisper.
McGonagall shot him a look. Ron sat. "If Ms Granger has an apt reason for not being able to dance with Mr Malfoy, she will do the mature thing, and tell me after class. But, as I'm fairly certain, there is no such reason, is there, Ms Granger?"
The last thing she wanted to do was dance with Draco Malfoy, but as Hermione looked up at Malfoy, she saw a smirk form around his pointy face. At that moment, the only thing she wanted to do was wipe it off his face. Emboldened, she stood up and said, "I have no reason not to dance with Mr Malfoy"
Malfoy's smirk turned into a tight line beneath his nose. Before he could say a word, however, McGonagall said, "Now that that's settled, may I continue to address the rest of the class?" It wasn't a question: She was daring someone to speak.
No one did.
When everyone had partnered up and McGonagall was the only one smiling, she waved her wand, and music began to play. "Boys, one hand on the waist and girls, one hand on the shoulder, please." She was pulling Snape out of his corner and was modeling what they were supposed to do, correcting Snape's hand placement as she spoke. There were a few giggles scattered around the room at Snape's obvious disdain, but when his scowl deepened and he turned it towards the students, everyone quieted.
Malfoy stood up and headed towards Hermione. She gritted her teeth and clasped her hand on his before he could make a comment. They went out onto the makeshift dance floor and as the Slytherin reached for her waist, he muttered, "Don't fall on me, Granger. These are good robes."
Holding her tongue, figuring it was the easiest way to make the afternoon go by faster, she placed a hand on his boney shoulder.
Draco
She was actually touching him. With her filthy little hands, she was touching him. He must tell Father about this; how much this place was really going to the dogs. Dancing with Mudbloods, who would have heard of such a thing? McGonagall was clearly mental.
It was unbelievable that Granger had stuck with him, just out of spite, though. He was sure that as part of the Golden Trio, she probably could have gotten out of it. Everyone knew that she was McGonagall's favorite. But she had agreed to it. Draco didn't want to admit it, but that was a bit impressive.
He caught a look at a very distressed Pansy Parkinson, trying to make sure that her and Weasel-bee didn't actually have contact. He laughed to himself at the funny picture it made. As if his silent laugh commanded her, she caught his eye and threw him a look. It was not a nice look. As if he had chosen this and that he actually preferred to be partnered with the Gryffindor Princess?!
McGonagall was talking again. Explaining something about where the feet were supposed to go before the spinning. Salazar help him, he already knew this garbage. Every respectable Wizarding family knew how to do these silly dances, already. And yet, he was forced to relearn with a member of the Hermione fucking Granger.
He glanced at his partner. She was staring at McGonagall with rapt attention. She was focusing so hard, the lip that she was biting was starting to bleed. She then looked down at her feet and did a small shuffling movement, as if practicing the move that McGonagall had just mentioned. Ridiculous. She was an annoying little overachiever even at dancing. She looked up from her shoes and Draco sent her a disdainful look. She threw one right back.
"Now that you've seen the four basic movements I'm going to put them together. Watch my footing." The old boiler had explained all the first steps and was now pulling a very angry Snape across the room. This made an even funnier picture than Parkinson and Weasel. Everyone who was watching was holding back laughter. Even Granger, next to him seemed to be smiling a little tensely.
He shook his head at the revelation that him and Granger would ever have anything in common.
"Now." Bugger, Professor McGonagall's voice was commanding. Once she had everyone's attention, she continued, "you will practice with your partners. Professor Snape and I will practice it the first time with you and then we'll move among you, correcting."
The music came on, and in one swift movement, he was leading the mudblood in a circle. He could hear her muttering one, two, three, one, two, three under her breath and scoffed.
She tripped once when Draco put his foot on hers. She couldn't even keep in step. This was going to be a pain. They had only gone around once when her legs went completely stiff in front of his, and she started falling into him. In a ridiculous attempt to catch her, her mouth banged directly into his shoulder. Bloody hell, that hurt!
"Damn, Granger! You finally find something you're not good at?" Draco sneered at her as he pushed her off him, but a quick movement out of the corner of his eye made him turn. He just caught Pansy slipping her wand back into her pocket.
Parkinson had cursed Granger. He internally laughed again. He should have thought of that! He gave a smirk of approval to Pansy, letting her know, that even though she was doing it for her own purposes, it was still amusing.
"Miss Granger! Is everything okay?" Professor McGonagall had come running over to them. "What happened?" She snarled at Draco.
"Don't know, Ma'am. She's probably troll-footed."
"Mr Malfoy, a serious answer would have sufficed." Her voice was ice-cold. She knelt down beside Granger.
She was pushing to her feet, her hand covering her mouth and blood pooling over her fingers. Draco looked sideways at his robes. There was dark, crimson, muggle blood on his nice, new robes. He then tried to look around McGonagall to see what Pansy hit her with. He couldn't tell around everyone.
"Well, Madame Pomfrey should take a look at that." McGonagall was shuffling everyone out of the way, so she could get the girl out from the middle of the pack. "You all have dancing to do, don't you?" She shouted at the surrounding group.
Weasel-dick and Potty were still hovering around, but Draco wasn't the only one to notice. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, I believe your dance partners are looking for you." As McGonagall nodded towards the pair, Draco looked around at the two girls least happy to continue dancing.
When she was able, Granger shot him a look. He could see the glowing fire in her eyes, but the effect wasn't what it could have been, since she still held her hands in front of her mouth. Now, he could see what Pansy had done. Two clearly defined front teeth were peeking out over her chin. He suppressed another laugh. He'd have to give Pansy credit for that one, later.
McGonagall was swiftly walking Granger to the door and Draco whipped around when he heard his name. "Mr. Malfoy, you're coming, too."
They walked in silence to the Hospital wing. McGonagall swept up the bloody mess as it fell from Granger's hands.
When they got there, Madame Pomfrey waddled over to her and lead her to a bed. She started to work magic on her mouth, coaxing Granger's hands away from it.
The McGonagall Hag pulled him over a few beds and said, "What really happened, Mr. Malfoy?"
"I really don't know, professor, I think she just fell." Hell, he didn't want to be covering for Pansy, even though her use of the hex was quite impressive. But he was taught to protect his friends, even if said friend had been being a jealous shrew. He was sure Granger would tattle as soon as she could speak, but, he figured that they'd cross that bridge when they had to.
She pinned him with a stare, but had evidently decided that he was telling the truth and let him be on his way. He made one more glance at Granger before he walked out. She was sitting on the bed, smiling into a mirror, with Madam Pomfrey hovering over her. Probably making sure that the spell hadn't marred her perfect skin. He'd never taken Granger for self-absorbed, but she certainly looked that way right now.
He then turned around and headed towards his common room.