A/N: As always, you guys are so amazing, the alerts, the favs, the reviews, all of it, is so so appreciated. Your reviews really encourage me to write consistently even as we get towards the end. Enjoy, read and let me know what you think.


"I'm in too deep, and I'm trying to keep, up above in my head, instead of going under,"

-In Too Deep

They had continued to practice after that moment when she kissed his cheek. Much was left unsaid between the two of them. Instead they focused on drawing out the emotions and sharpening their technique. On Wednesday night's group practice Josie had cried in delight when she saw them perform their free style tango for her.

"It's like a dream, it's gorgeous, it's beautiful. Keep practising and doing whatever you're doing you two. And perform the dance exactly how you did it for me now on Saturday night and you may just end up being the winners." Josie gushed. She stared happily at her students.

"Thanks Miss," Sirius had said quietly. All he wanted to do was dance with Lea. And dance, and dance, and dance.

The Marauders kept a sharp eye on Sirius as he worked through his homework, it was as if he was in a daze and stared emptily into space during their lessons. Most of the professors didn't seem to mind as Christmas Break was approaching and the Winter Formal drawing nearer.

If Lea felt any different to him or towards anyone really, she kept it well hidden. She was just as cool as ever, preferring to work solo in the library when she wasn't practising. Sometimes Sirius passed by her in the library, but he never stayed, he gave her a small wave and then disappeared.

She may be very good at acting as if everything was fine, but on the inside her mind was going haywire. Her list of problems just seemed to be growing bigger by the minute.

Problem Number One: She had to perform a dance in front of the entire school on Saturday night and wasn't quite sure if she could do it.

Problem Number Two: She was performing this dance with Sirius.

Problem Number Three: She was performing this dance with Sirius, and she may like him.

Problem Number Four: She wasn't sure if she liked him or not and was having a tough time trying to sort out her feelings.

Problem Number Five: Sirius was acting much differently around her than he ever had before. She almost wished he was acting like an egotistical maniac around her, he was easier to deal with then.

Problem Number Six: If she did like Sirius, how was she supposed to decide whether or not to put their new found friendship on the line? Was she even ready to pursue something?

Problem Number Seven: If she did like Sirius, and decided to pursue more than a friendship, and she was ready to take the next step, what was she supposed to do to let him know that?

Ugh she needed help.

Lea knew, she knew that she shouldn't over think all of this that she just be herself and let things take it's time and run its course. But she was impatient and it made her antsy and edgy leaving things up to the big guy who ran the world or to karma. So in the interest in science and human psychology, Lea decided to give a little push to direct the course in a direction she wasn't even all that sure she wanted to go in. BUT it was in the interest of science and her mental well being, and sometimes you just had to throw caution to the winds and put some controversial hypothesise out there.


Sirius could have killed Lea. He could have happily killed her, bring her back to life, and then kill her again.

She was torturing him. She was evil.

She so good at being evil.

On Thursday night, she had shown up at McGonagall's empty classroom for practice in a pair of sweatpants, and a sports bra/tank top. Except the tank top cut off a few centimetres above her belly button which left Sirius to drink in her bare midriff in all of its smooth, toned glory. Goddamn her.

They had finally picked a song on Monday night's practice to perform their dance to and ever since then they had been practising to that with the exception of tangoing to The Stooges on Tuesday night.

Eight weeks had turned them from horrendous dancers to graceful, confidant, amateur ballroom dancers. They weren't perfect and they were nowhere near to dancing like the professionals did, but for a pair of seventeen year olds, they danced pretty damn well after eight weeks.

Sirius was extremely proud of himself for maintaining his composure. He focused on dancing and perfecting their moves. He focused on portraying the emotions he felt appropriately and realistically. He found himself surprised that he wanted the audience to find their dance realistic in it's emotional portrayal. He wanted the audience to care about the unspoken story.

Still, he was a guy and he had hormones so he revelled touching her skin, his hand gleefully spanning her midriff, feeling the softness of her skin. He brushed his fingers over her hipbone and she giggled and lost her concentration, stopping the dance.

"Don't touch me there! I'm ticklish!" she said. Sirius snorted inelegantly.

"I'm serious Sirius, unless you want to loose a finger or two, you best not touch me there," she warned.

He rolled his eyes and swung his arms out, stretching them. "Where else are you ticklish?"

"Ha! Like I'd tell you that. Otherwise you'll just tickle me in all of those places!"

"No! How do you know that? What if I want to know so I can know not to touch you there?" he challenged. She just looked at him with flat eyes.

"Stay away from the hipbone. And don't even try to discreetly find out other places where I'm ticklish by innocently touching them, using the dance as a cover-up for your devious explorations!"

"Devious explorations?" Sirius snickered.

"Okay, so I read a lot!"

"You're a geek." He mocked.

"Shut up! I am not a geek!" she slapped her hands on her hips.

"You're a great big mega geek!" he exclaimed gleefully.

"I AM WELL READ!" she said loudly.

"You're a geek, you're a geek, you're a geek," Sirius chanted. He abruptly stopped when she came right up to him and grabbed his wrists.

"If I'm a geek then you're a dumbass," she said sweetly. Sirius gave an easy grin and effortlessly broke out of her hold and instead trapped both of her hands with his. Then he brought his face close to hers and said in a throaty voice:

"Yeah, but at least I'm a good looking dumbass,"

Lea gave him a deep-seated look of annoyance. However Sirius scooped her up in his arms bridal style and spun them around quickly. He waved his wand over to gramophone to start the music again before discarding his wand on a desk.

She laughed and Sirius let go of her legs and swung her through the air with his arms.

Catching her breath she got into position and began to tango backwards to the music. "You're a cocky good looking dumbass," she said.

"Oh don't worry, I know." He bended her over his arm and slid a hand up her thigh.

"Well at least you acknowledge that," she replied with a twinkle in her eye before he lifted her back up.


While Lea and Sirius were busying tangoing and teasing each other, Lily and James were having a private practice session of their own in the Marauder's dorm. Lily had come up to find James deeply focused in his homework while munching on an apple. Sometimes it surprised her that he ate so healthy. The boy was absolutely nuts about fruit.

He had happily sent his textbooks flying across the room when she suggested they practice their group dance routine by just focusing on their solo part. Josie had all given them copies of the song they were to perform to and James obliged by putting it on the gramophone he shared with his roommates.

Instead of performing a Viennese Waltz, the Gryffindors decided to live up to the qualities of the House they were in and be brave and try to perform a salsa group dance.

Like the other Latin Dances, the salsa was passionate and sensual. However it was also more playful than the Tango or the Paso Doble and it involved a lot of hip and legwork. Lily had first felt extremely uncomfortable, gyrating her hips as Josie had instructed them. But gradually with Josie's patience and Marlene's and Lea's encouragement she became more comfortable and even became more confident in her natural sensuality.

There was a fine line between good technique and being vulgar. The last eight weeks had shown them that line.

James smiled as he felt her hands grip his hips as she continued to focus on the rhythm of the dance. He didn't say much, opting to focus on the steps and his partner. It felt nice to dance with the girl you half in love with.

Whoa, where did that thought come from? James wondered as his mind began to wander away from the dance. That was okay because Lily had taken the lead and she purposely led them around the room.

Sure James had certainly liked her, and lusted after her for the better part of six years. He loved many things about her, like her passion for learning and the tiny freckles that were sprinkled on her nose as if someone had done them by hand. But he wasn't sure if he loved her like that.

Maybe half loved was a good phrase. Or perhaps one third loved was a better phrase.

Focus James! His brain sternly said.

Her body was soft and pliant against his and James really began to feel the beauty of the music playing and the beat instructing him what to do. Her hips swayed side to side as she danced with him. The salsa definitely favoured her and her body, he thought.

She was tall and willowy and her lines were lyrical without effort. One song seamlessly folded into the next and after a while they stopped practising their routine and instead just danced for pleasure.

James decided to take the lead and artfully skimmed his fingers up her arms and tangled a hand in her fiery locks. As she danced with less inhibition, James smiled at her and then ran a hand up and down her spine very slowly and deliberately. To his delight he saw the palest pink stain her cheeks.

She turned so her back was lightly resting against his chest and she rocked her hips from side to side and raised her arms above her head. He ran a single finger down one pale arm and lightly rested his hand on her hip as they moved together in sync. He brushed some of her hair from the side of her face and pressed a kiss to her neck. She hummed with pleasure.

They continued to dance, letting loose and just enjoying each other's company and the feeling that new couples often feel in the first glow of the relationship.

"You know, it's a really good thing we don't talk during our dances," Lily finally said. James gave her a quizzical look.

"Because you dancing alone, with all the little touches and all that, believe me, it's more than distracting!"

James stood up straighter with pride. "I highly enjoy distracting you, Miss Evans," he eyes twinkled good-humouredly.

"I'm sure you do," she breathed as she guided his hands to her hips. Then she placed her own over his and she yielded her body closer to his.

"But believe me, you've been distracting me for the better part of six years!" James said in a little strangled voice. All of a sudden the temperature had increased. Boy was it hot in here.

James casually traced the curve of her bottom and then ever so lightly danced his fingertips on the sliver skin of her lower back that was exposed because of her tank top rising up ever so slightly.

He heard her sharp intake of breath and then exhaled a deep breath himself trying to calm down his racing and inappropriate thoughts. However he couldn't resist but gently brush the side of her breast and then boldly outlined the entire curve. She was so lovely, he dreamily thought.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by her hand suddenly on top of his, the very same one that had been so bold just moments before. He looked at her ready to be chastised.

However her green eyes had darkened and she looked at him with an unreadable expression. "Want to distract me in other ways?" she rubbed her lips together.

He nodded wordlessly and she stepped back from him and snatched up her wand. He heard the lock on the door click as it locked itself.


Friday crept upon them and there was a palpable feeling of excitement in the air. Sirius had quietly joined Lea at half past five in the morning to go for a run. They ran for half an hour then practised their dance for the remaining thirty minutes. They kept the conversation light, talking about music and magic. When they began their long walk up to the castle afterwards Sirius slung an arm around her shoulder as he had seen Remus do a thousand times. He was pleased when she didn't shrug it off or shoot him a pointed look. He took this as a hopefully good sign that the day would treat him gently.

The day did go well, even Potion lessons were more bearable. The castle began to transform into a winter wonderland as the Professors worked their magic. Holly was wound around the banisters of staircases, delicate glittery snowflakes were suspended in the air, beautiful glass blown golden orbs became aerial light sources in the Great Hall.

Filch often shouted at students to get out his way as he furiously scrubbed down the castle. The portraits from the paintings winced as they gingerly touched their newly pink cheeks.

They had their last group practice that night and Josie waved her hands, quieting them. The Gryffindors looked at her expectantly. She smiled.

"I know you've heard this from Tomas and Professor Longstreet, but I just have to reiterate just how proud I am of you lot. I know that ballroom dancing is not the most exciting thing at the moment, I mean you have people crowd surfing to The Sex Pistols, but I hope you all learned something in the last eight weeks."

Lea's eyebrows rose when her dance instructor, her beautiful, graceful ballroom dance instructor mentioned the Sex Pistols.

Josie continued, "You've all worked hard the last eight weeks, especially in the last two weeks and it shows. Just remember that you're not so much dancing for the points as for yourselves. Enjoy the dances, enjoy each other's company and enjoy the accomplishment that all of you have achieved. I know this sounds cheesy, you may or may not win the three hundred points tomorrow night, but to me, you're all winners."

The group broke out into applause and after that subsided. James raised a hand and Josie nodded at him.

"Miss…we may not have started out too keen on these dancing lessons, but thank you for your time, effort and patience." He said. Marlene nodded and then added, "It was fun, sometimes frustrating, but it was nice to do something that wasn't all magic related."

The others also put in their two bit token of thanks and Josie smiled at them once more.

"All right. So tomorrow the ball will start at eight, dinner will be served at seven for those who are inclined. Your headmaster, Professor Dumbledore will introduce what you lot have been doing for the past eight weeks and then Professor Longstreet will take over from him.

The conditions will be announced to the audience and the judges will be presented. Then each House Solo Dance Representatives will come up to Tomas and I and we will be drawing who performs first.

Group dances will be performed first by each House in the order they were drawn, and then the Solo dances will be performed in the same order."

"How will we be judged?" Remus asked.

"Each dance is scored out of thirty points, each judge will give you a number out of ten. In order to win the one hundred points for the group dance, you must have the highest score out of all of them, and it's the same for the solo dances."

"So we're scored individually on our dances? We're competing on two different levels for the points?" Peter asked just to make sure he had it all down.

She nodded. "Correct. Say if you lot get twenty-eight of thirty, and that's the highest score out of the group dances, then you lot will win the hundred points. If Lea and Sirius receive a twenty-seven and the Ravenclaws receive a twenty-eight, then they would win the two hundred points."

"Aaannnd the pressure is on," Sirius muttered under his breath. Lea nudged his side softly.

"So just relax, don't overstress and most importantly, have fun tomorrow night okay? You didn't learn ballroom dancing for the points,"

"We learned it because we were engaging in inappropriate dancing that bordered on a free show before!" James interrupted. Lily giggled.

"Well, that too, you learned ballroom dancing so you could learn more about people, and your bodies, and yourselves." Josie finished. "Have a good night everyone and see you lot tomorrow!"


A/N: We're getting closer to the dance competitions! *claps hands* but that also means we're getting closer towards the end of the story And no, don't worry, Lily and James didn't do it, I think they just had a good snogging session ;). Be good and review please! xoxoxo