"No, no! Lift the arm, lift it!" Mrs Singleton grabbed Blaise arm and moved it further up Ginny's back. "She's not a sack of potatoes, boy!"
Hermione watched with amusement. The dance teacher was a rotund woman with large hands and feet and a bossy way of teaching them the dance. Mrs Singleton glanced round the room and her eyes fell onto Draco.
"You! Blonde boy, you seem to have grasped the basics. Bring your partner over here so we can show the others."
Hermione groaned. Oh no! Draco had been singled out, now they'd never hear the end of it.
"The basics?" Draco answered in a derogatory tone. "I think you'll find I can do more than the basics."
Professor McGonagall stepped over to Mrs Singleton. "This is Draco Malfoy, Mrs Singleton. Lucius Malfoy's son."
"Aah! Well that would explain the ability. Breeding will always show through."
Hermione groaned again and everyone turned to look at her. Draco had a smirk on his face and he raised his eyebrows at her across the room. Hermione turned away. Well at least she now knew who Draco's partner was. Pheobe Hardy was in Ginny's year, she was a quiet girl and not the type that Draco would usually go for. Except in looks, because she was stunning – petite and slim with large, brown eyes and beautiful dark hair that fell in waves to her waist. Hermione didn't know her at all, she had hardly ever spoken to her and as far as she had been aware, Draco didn't know her either. Anyway he must have had his eye on her and so there they were, looking incredible together. Stunning.
Hermione glanced at Anthony and lifted her shoulders. She and Anthony looked good together too. He was a handsome boy, tall and broad and he had lovely eyes. And he was turning out to be a pretty good dancer too. He moved gracefully and had picked up the dance steps quickly. Hermione felt a rush of affection for him and then felt terrible. He deserved better than her half enthusiastic feelings about him.
"At this point you will be in a large circle and this is where we swap partners, first to the left, then to the right. The ladies will always be the ones to move while the gentlemen stay in place." Mrs Singleton was waving her arms around to demonstrate. "We will always change partners using these same steps and then the dance will start again from the beginning. You...handsome boy and your partner with the nice hair...please come here so we can show the others the partner change with Mr Malfoy and his partner."
"That is Anthony and Hermione. Draco's partner is Pheobe," Professor McGonagall said to Mrs Singleton and Hermione could tell she was a little annoyed at Mrs Singleton's inability to use the pupils' names. Mrs Singleton, completely oblivious to Professor McGonagall's annoyance nodded her head.
"Yes, yes...come...come...," she waved her arm.
Hermione glanced round wondering who she had called handsome boy then she realised that Anthony was pulling her to the front. Had Mrs Singleton being talking to them? Hermione sniggered because it would have annoyed Draco that Anthony had been called handsome! And she was the girl with nice hair. She could warm to Mrs Singleton. Mrs Singleton arranged them as she wanted, boys on the outside, girls in the middle. Hermione met Draco's eyes for a moment and he grinned at her. She suddenly realised that she was about to have to dance with him because they were swapping partners. Bloody hell! That was all she needed.
They began the dance, going through the steps they had just learnt and then stopping in position so that Mrs Singleton could show them how to swap. She grabbed Hermione, none too gently around the waist and showed her the steps to move from Anthony to Draco. She then grabbed Draco and showed him where to put his arms around Hermione. Hermione tried to not look into Draco's face, staring at his shirt.
"Lift your head girl, he's pretty enough to look at," Mrs Singleton's forceful voice was in Hermione's ear and she lifted her chin. The rest of the class giggled and Hermione had to fight her embarrassment. "Now move closer. You must stand much closer. Mr Malfoy, place your hand around her, she's not breakable. Hold her like you mean it because we will need her to lean over and you will be her support. That's it, closer...closer."
Hermione shuffled closer and then she felt Draco grab her forcefully and pull her almost right up against him. She tried to think of anything other than her position so near to him but couldn't.
"Now lean...gracefully...not like you're throwing yourself in the river...," Mrs Singleton put her hand under Hermione's back and tried to bend her correctly. Hermione had the temptation to slap her hand away and tell her to stop bossing them around but she restrained herself. The woman was supremely annoying.
"Annoying old bag," Draco whispered in her ear and Hermione tried not to laugh.
"Right, repeat the whole thing again. Start with...Andy," Mrs Singleton said.
"Anthony." Hermione, Professor McGonagall and Anthony himself all corrected her at the same time and Draco chuckled.
"Yes...yes...now start here and now do the steps for the swap. Good...good...," Mrs Singleton did a running commentary as Hermione carried out the steps she had just learnt. She was then in Draco's arms again. She would never admit it in a million years but it felt so much better dancing with Draco than Anthony. He held her with just the right amount of pressure and moved with her gently and confidently. Didn't you just know that he'd be good at dancing? Was there anything he wasn't good at?
"No...no...no, Miss Granger. Lean after the three steps. Don't try and hold yourself up, let Draco support you. I'm sure you can trust him."
"Yeh, right!" Hermione mumbled and Draco smirked at her.
Mrs Singleton was man-handling Hermione again and it was beginning to really annoy her. Draco tightened his grip around her and glared at the dance teacher who didn't seem to notice.
"Right, now hold that position while I show Andy what he should be doing."
"Yeh, Andy obviously needs all the help he can get," Draco whispered in her ear again and although Hermione glared at him she was trying not to giggle. Draco pulled her closer and put his lips next to her ear. "This feels good...having you swooning in my arms..."Hermione tried to wriggle free but he wouldn't let her. "Watch it or Dragon Face will be over, pushing you around again." Hermione laughed again and Draco felt his arm slip. Hermione grabbed him but her foot slipped and she fell further backwards. Mrs Singleton was over in a flash.
"You're position has slipped," she pulled Hermione back again and Hermione felt her temper beginning to flare. The woman was so rough and rude. She was now pushing Draco's arm roughly into Hermione's back and Hermione could see Draco's annoyance on his face. "Lift here...no here..."
"Okay, okay...," Draco snapped and Hermione felt like she was about to join him. His eyes met hers and she tried to tell him to keep his temper. "Old bag," they said the words together in a whisper and then they both burst out laughing. Then suddenly it happened. In a split second Mrs Singleton went from bending over them to bolt upright. She then appeared to fly backwards as if she had been hit by a huge hammer until she hit the large desk behind her and crumpled to the floor.
Draco dropped Hermione who groaned and the rest of the class rushed over. Professor McGonagall pushed through them to Mrs Singleton who was sitting on the floor, rubbing her head and moaning.
"Quiet class!" Professor McGonagall raised her voice over the raucous. "Everyone please return to your common rooms immediately. We will resume dance lessons tomorrow."
Draco was bent over Hermione. "Sorry I dropped you. Are you okay?" She could see Anthony hovering around behind him.
"Yeh, I'm fine."
Without asking, Draco lifted her to her feet. Professor McGonagall had sat Mrs Singleton on a seat and someone had got her a cup of water.
"I really can't think what happened...one minute I was by Miss Granger and the next I was here across the room!" Mrs Singleton was looking white.
"I know it's very strange, try not to think about it. Just rest for a while." Professor McGonagall was soothing her. She turned to Anthony. "Thank you, Anthony. Everyone appears to be okay. I would just like a word with Draco and Hermione."
Anthony left the room, glancing over his shoulder as he left. Hermione felt the usual apprehension as Professor McGonagall lead her and Draco to the other side of the room.
"Do you know what you just did?" she asked. Hermione looked at her puzzled, wondering why they weren't already in detention.
"No. I didn't think I did anything." Draco said.
"Hermione?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"No. I didn't think I did anything either."
"You were in close contact...did you say anything?" Professor McGonagall appeared to be processing something in her head.
"No." They answered, quickly together not wanting to the professor to know what they had been saying about Mrs Singleton. She wasn't so easily fooled however.
"This is important, were you saying anything?"
"We called Mrs Singleton a name," Hermione confessed and Draco shot her a look.
"At the same time? Did you say it at the same time?"
"Yes."
"Were you looking at one another? Like you do when you use your connection?"
Draco and Hermione stared at their teacher suddenly understanding why she was asking all these questions. Was she trying to say that they had used their connection to throw Mrs Singleton across the room?
"We weren't using our connection, Professor. We wouldn't have done that to our dance teacher." Draco said quietly.
"Of course you wouldn't!" Professor McGonagall glanced over at Mrs Singleton who was still sitting in the chair. "But I believe that is exactly what happened. You used you're connection to...move...Mrs Singleton away from you."
"No, we didn't," Hermione protested but Professor McGonagall held her hand up.
"Not on purpose, Hermione. I mean the two of you used your connection unintentionally. You both wanted the same thing, you were in close contact and you spoke together. You both wished for something to happen and it did. You used your connection to get what you wanted."
Draco and Hermione were both staring at her open mouthed. Could they really have done that without thinking about it? They'd flung a woman across the room! That was scary.
"Is that possible?" Draco asked.
"Yes. It's a rare form of the connection. It's called Automatic Interpretation."
"But I wasn't thinking of a spell, Professor. When we've done it before we have always had to concentrate on a spell."
"I know. This is a progression from that. The connection interprets your request. You wanted to move Mrs Singleton away. It found the right spell and did it for you."
"Oh my god!" Hermione put her hand to her mouth in shock.
Professor McGonagall suddenly sat down heavily in a chair. "We are going to have to schedule some more extra lessons. You will need to learn how to control this and how to stop it."
"Why would we want to stop it?" Draco asked.
"Mr Malfoy, what if you and Miss Granger had both wanted Mrs Singleton...," Professor McGonagall leant closer to them "...dead?"
"Dead?" Hermione said loudly, horrified.
"I'm not suggesting for one moment that either of you would ever think that way about anyone. I'm trying to show you why you need to be able to control this. If you had both wanted her dead at the same time, then she would be DEAD." Professor McGonagall was being blunt on purpose to try and get her message across. Hermione had gone a strange shade of white and Professor McGonagall indicated that she should sit down. "I'm not trying to scare you, Hermione and we'll start the lessons tomorrow but I had to make you aware of the possible implications of this."
"Bloody hell," Draco said and for once Professor McGonagall didn't reprimand him about his language.
Let me know what you think, I'm trying to keep the interest going because it's easy for a story to sort of lose momentum and drag out too long. Anway hope you like it - review's would be great. x