14

The next day, Harry Potter was the Chosen One. Well, Potter was always the Chosen One but that particular day, he was chosen.

From his sock – Snape smirked at the Gryffindor when Potter blushed as he had to reveal the sorry state of his socks to the public, there were holes in the sock and it was much too big for Potter's foot, Santa's golden number 14 looked out of place – the boy hero pulled a big sack of tiny shoes and a miniature phonograph.

"What's that supposed to be?" asked Potter's faithful sidekick, Ronald Weasley.

The brains of the Golden Trio chuckled. "It's obvious, Ronald," Granger admonished. "We got a dance!"

"How can that be a dance?" Weasley could be thick, Snape had to shake his head.

"I'll show you. Harry, hand me a pair of shoes! – Girl's shoes, you dolt!" Granger whacked Potter over the head with the pair of black gentlemen's patent leather shoes he had given her and which had immediately grown to the appropriate size when Granger touched them. "Any of you boys need shoes size," Granger checked, "5?"

A blond boy a little down the Gryffindor table cried that yes, he did! Granger gave him the shoes and held out her hand for girl's shoes which she was hurriedly handed. Only they stayed small.

"I'm afraid the magic works only once for everyone of us," Malfoy remarked. He had come over from the Slytherin table and held out his hand for his shoes. Potter tried to hand him stilettos, but Malfoy didn't fall for it. He pulled back his hand and glared at Potter.

"If Hermione has to wear boys' shoes," Potter growled, "you get these!" He held out the stilettos insistently.

"Merlin, do you have any brains in there?" sighed Malfoy. "You," he pointed at the blond boy who had taken the men's shoes from Granger, "come here!" The smaller blond obeyed. "Now, Potter, give him the shoes you want Granger to wear!"

"But she can't go in his shoes!" cried Potter. "They won't fit!"

"Idiot," hissed Malfoy. "If her shoes fit him, his will fit her!"

"Who are you calling an idiot!" cried Potter and Weasley was up beside him in an instant.

"Nobody who doesn't deserve it!" sneered Malfoy.

Meanwhile Granger had handed the tiny girls' shoes she was holding to the younger Gryffindor was now the proud owner of a pair of elegant silver dancing shoes. "Boys," she admonished, "don't spoil Santa's gift by quarrelling! Harry, give Draco proper shoes! You can give me some and I'll help you hand them out since the magic doesn't work for me anymore."

It took the students all of 10 minutes to give everybody present a pair of dancing shoes. Snape's were elegant and a little old-fashioned but they went excellently with his preferred style of robes.

When the last pair of shoes had been handed to their owner, the tiny phonograph grew to normal size and started to play.

Dumbledore clapped his hands and the house tables and benches vanished, sending some students to the floor rather abruptly.

"Minerva," cried the headmaster, "do me the honour!"

The deputy headmistress complied and the old witch and wizard went waltzing between their stunned students.

"Pansy!" cried Malfoy. The Malfoy heir had, of course, learned how to dance from a young age. The Malfoys frequently hosted balls and no member of the family would ever be caught lacking abilities on the dance floor. The blond youth performed a formal bow to ask Parkinson for the dance and she, being a pureblood witch, granted the dance with a little curtsy.

Other couples followed their lead. Snape hurried to ask Septima for the dance before anybody else snatched her away. The witch giggled delightedly and off they were. Snape may not be a pureblood wizard but he had made a point of getting the same education he had been entitled to if his mother had not been disinherited by the Prince family for marrying a muggle. Septima, no pureblood either, turned out to be a fan of traditional education, too. She performed all the little hops that distinguished wizards' ballroom dancing from muggles' perfectly.

By the time the first piece of music ended, more of half of Hogwarts' population was dancing. Those who weren't, looked unhappy. They wanted to dance but didn't know how.

"Why don't we make this a dancing lesson?" suggested Dumbledore. "Mr Jenkins, choose a partner!" The Hufflepuff boy who was standing closest to Dumbledore obeyed. "Now what you do…"

Everybody who knew how to dance took a couple who didn't under their wing. Snape ended up teaching Thomas of Gryffindor and his partner, a much younger Ravenclaw. The boy had waited too long to choose a partner and by the time he did, all the girls his age had been asked already.

The Ravenclaw was a talented dancer though and teaching them was easy because the girls had no qualms to pull and push Thomas where he was supposed to go.

From the corner of his eye, Snape watched Malfoy trying to teach Potter and a redheaded Hufflepuff. More than once the girl had to calm Potter down and hadn't it been for her, Snape was sure there would have been jinxes flying about.

If Potter was dancing with that Hufflepuff, where was Weasley's sister? Snape had thought that she and Potter were an item! The potions master craned his neck and Septima once more proved to be an intelligent witch. "Longbottom," she informed him. It seemed the walking disaster had snatched Potter's girlfriend from under the Chosen One's nose, and the girl didn't look unhappy at all. No wonder, Potter seemed to have been born with two left feet, while Longbottom moved gracefully on the dance floor.

The dance lasted until lunchtime. Once again, Dumbledore had cancelled all morning lessons. Snape was not going to complain. Waltzing and tangoing with Septima was certainly better than teaching a sixth year potions class. He only feared that they were all going to pay dearly for the missed lessons after Christmas.

Around noon, everybody had had enough of dancing and after lunch, the students returned to the classrooms without complaint. Snape had a Hufflepuff – Ravenclaw practical class that afternoon. It was delightful since both houses were diligent brewers and there were rarely any problems with them.

In the evening, Septima came to Snape's quarters and they shared a glass of wine and spelled one of Snape's potions vials to play tango music.