Chapter 31
Ginny
After the short dust up in the lobby, the formal was wonderful. We danced until the wee hours of the morning, the only interruption being when Mr Malfoy complained to the Headmaster that we had killed his son and friend's dates. We denied this to Professor Dumbledore of course, as it was really only Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Will and Hermione that had killed their dates, and all agreed that really Hermione and Percy deserved most of the credit.
Once Percy told Professor Dumbledore about the empousa, and it was verified by all present, Lucious Malfoy was pressed as to what introduction service he used and, by Percy, if he had requested 10,000 year old blood consuming monsters as dates for the children. The elder Malfoy left in a huff making comments that he would inform the Ministry of these developments as well as have words with the service, and it was then that Draco confirmed to his father that indeed his date, Kelli, had grown fangs and claws before being dispatched. Draco was quite shaken, as were Crabbe and Goyle, by the events and wanted no more part in any investigation.
It was weird though. All night boys stared at us, and girls looked, well, angry. I guess the "Mark of Aphrodite" really worked. Hermione didn't care, she kept Ron on the dance floor until he was exhausted, then danced with Neville while Ron rested. Poor Neville didn't get a chance to sit down all night. He was by far the most talented dancer, well, other than Will, and during the brief times Reyna wasn't dancing with him one of the other girls was. Will was simply outrageous, dancing with whoever would while Nico sat at our table and laughed. At one point Will was dancing with my mother and Professor McGonagall and both seemed to be having the time of their lives. Will would grab random girls from Gryffindor, and when there were none available the other houses and drag them to the dance floor. He occasionally shouted "No Wall Flowers!" as he did so, and when he and Reyna formed a conga line towards the end of the night, he ran around grabbing anyone he could, female or male, Gryffindor or Slytherin, it didn't matter, to join it.
During slow numbers Harry and I would dance close. He seemed more comfortable with those, or at least he liked holding me close. I prefer to think the latter is correct. We whispered our affections to each other and by the end of the night my lips were chapped with stolen kisses.
Ron and Hermione seemed to be doing much the same. Hermione smiled all night, it didn't seem to bother her at all that she had cleaned the floor with two vampires; if anything it seemed to be a real confidence boost. I knew once the dance was over we would girl talk until dawn, unless of course Ron and Harry had other plans.
The school had cleared out the long tables usually in the grand dining room and replaced them with several round tables along the wall and in the back so that a dance floor was created in the half furthest from the door. A refreshment table never ran short of anything and the music was provided by a witches band from Edinburgh that was quite good. Will sang a song with them, some older American tune about not going back to Rockville; well for a witching band it didn't make sense, but it sounded great and was one of the highlights of the night.
The only time business was discussed, other than the earlier mentioned discussion of the deaths of the vampire girls, was apparently when Hermione, Annabeth and I went to the powder room . This was Annabeth's first meeting with Myrtle, but she handled her quickly by telling her Nico had been asking about her.
When we returned, Professors Dumbledore, Lupin, Percy, Nico and a white owl that had spent the evening otherwise in the rafters were talking. As we approached they grew silent and the last thing we heard was Percy saying "Lets let them have the weekend. There's no real rush." They then dispursed leaving only Percy and Nico, both of whom refused to tell us what the discussion was about. Harry, Ron, Neville and Reyna returned and as the song changed the party started over.
Rachel danced with almost as many people as Will, but seemed interested in none of them. By halfway through the night she and Luna settled down to just Seamus, Fred and George but it was clear there was no spark and they were merely enjoying each other's company.
Jennifer danced constantly. When Leo tired, she demanded Neville, or Will or if they were not available, whoever was about to keep going with her. At one point for a mid tempo number she dragged Professor Dumbledore to the dance floor. She never even seemed to perspire no matter how warm it got on the dance floor.
Piper of course, like Jennifer, had the eyes of every guy in the room that wasn't already attached to one of us carrying the mark. She didn't dance, or really even talk, to anyone outside our circle and like Annabeth only danced with her boyfriend.
Hazel seemed completely lost, as though she had never heard modern music before, or seen contemporary dance. She favored the slow songs only and danced only with Frank, and then pretty much at arm's length. She was like a young McGonagall.
Just before midnight, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson came over to see Harry and Percy, who were seated with Annabeth and myself.
"Hey, uh, I, uh we, just wanted to thank you for seeing through, you know." Malfoy stammered. "I mean, if you hadn't, well, we might be dead by now."
"No problem, its Draco, isn't it?" Percy asked.
"Yes, yes. Draco Malfoy. And this is Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy. Crabbe and Goyle just go by their last names" he smirked. I hate that smirk.
"Have a seat. Well they probably weren't here to kill you. Annabeth and I have had to fight them a couple times before, they tend to follow us around. The first time I met them in fact, Rachel and I had just been accepted to a, uh, muggle school and we blew up a gas line to kill them. Like most monsters they don't have souls, so they just come back. Fortunately it takes a year or two."
"So... what were they exactly?" Pansy asked.
"Well the girls are called 'empousa', they are the precursors to vampires. They survive by eating the flesh of, uh, magicians and such. Your date doesn't require food as far as I know. He was a 'ventus', a demon composed of wind. Jason has a way with him though, the last time he was around Jason he promised to not come around again, so I doubt he knew who the girls were here to attack." Percy said.
"Well, thanks. You, well we've gotten off on the wrong foot, I just, we just wanted to tell you we appreciate it, and I will talk to father to make sure the Ministry doesn't try to give you any crap." Draco said, and he seemed sincere. Needless to say, I didn't trust him.
"No worries. We're just here to have fun and learn until they get our school rebuilt." Annabeth said.
While it was interesting to see that Draco Malfoy could at least fake humility, the real highlight of the night was the song just before Will and Reyna started the conga line. Neville's father approached Will on the dance floor, spoke to him briefly and Will nodded enthusiastically. Will approached the bandstand, waited for that number to end, then spoke to the band, who agreed with whatever he asked. He borrowed the guitarist's guitar, showed the bass and keyboard player the chords, then began a touching rendition of the old muggle song "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" made famous by American wizard and elf Elvis Presley. Had the band known of the request in advance they probably could have gotten Elvis to come play it, he sometimes leaves his retirement home in Switzerland just to get quietly back on stage when there were no muggles about, but of course it was a spur of the moment thing. The muggles think he's dead and are not aware of his magic use, but come on! His stage name tells you he's an elf! His people live to be a thousand and when he retired and faked his death he was only in his forties. Are they really that dense? They probably won't figure out he was elfish anymore than they will about Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande or that guy from the Foo Fighters. Muggles see what they want to see.
Everyone stood quietly while Will's haunting voice sang the lyrics, and chills ran up and down our spine when Frank led his wife Alice to the center of the dance floor and they danced together for the first time in so many years. There was hardly a dry eye in the house as Neville's parents held each other so close and all of us witnessed a love that had survived the impossible.
Then Will returned the guitar, jumped off stage and began an epic conga line with Reyna, Neville's parents and Neville being the first to join. Fifteen minutes later, nearly everyone was in it as it snaked around the room, even Nico was dragged to the floor to join it.
It was truly an epic night.
