Disclaimer: None of the characters that you recognize belong to be. They belong to Ms. J K Rowlings and not me
Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the extremely long delay. Thank you all for your kind reviews!
Chapter 20
Hermione wrung her hands in anticipation as Professor Starr posted the names of the groups on the new tan bulletin board that mysteriously appeared when the class entered the Ballroom. She got onto her tiptoes and craned her neck to see over the multitude of heads that were blocking her vision.
"Granger…Granger…," she muttered to herself as she tried to spot her name. "Oh! Oh." Hermione's heart sank. Not only was she not with Ron or Harry or even Lavender and Parvati, she was stuck with Slytherins. It was Hermione, Millicent, and Pansy. Of all the people in the class to be paired with and it had to be two that she despised most. She was seriously considering feigning some sort of illness when she remembered she had just been tortured with the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey, and hardly any time to study, so suddenly her group didn't seem so dreadful.
"Well, better get this over with," she muttered to herself.
Hermione made her way over to Millicent and Pansy who were talking quietly with one another in a corner of the room. When she came within hearing distance, they abruptly ceased their conversation to glare at her. Hermione resisted the urge to glare, roll her eyes, and slap them silly and opted for simply standing there.
"Well, let's make this as painless as possible, shall we?" Hermione asked. "We'll just do this stupid dance and never have to speak to each other again, okay?"
The Slytherins waited a few beats before giving the slightest movement of their head in what Hermione assumed to be agreement.
"Okay. What type of dance should we do? Ballet? Jazz? A mixture?" Hermione asked, wishing she had a quill to take down notes.
Pansy raised a perfectly plucked blonde eyebrow. "I suppose we can do a mix. That way we won't get too bored doing these despicable Muggle moves for more than a few beats."
Hermione closed her eyes and counted to five, taking a deep breath and exhaling. The other two jumped back slightly at the feel of her hot breath near their personal space.
"Okay. I'd appreciate it if you would lay off the anti-Muggle comments around me please," Hermione requested. "Anyways, do you want to decide on our song while we're here?"
"I guess so," Millicent said, speaking for the first time. "Go get the song list," she said, addressing Hermione.
Hermione gave Millicent such a look that Millicent actually got up and got the list herself.
"I suppose we could start off with something slow and gradually speed up the beat a bit," Pansy suggested once Millicent returned. The other two girls nodded.
"Hey, we could do a dance to All That Jazz. It would be pretty fun," Hermione suggested. "Listen to it tonight and see what you think."
"We could also use one of the songs from Grease," Pansy said.
Hermione was surprised. "How do you know about Grease?"
Pansy shrugged. "I have my ways."
"Okay. Let me just get a quill and parchment to write all this down," Hermione said, unable to suppress her need to write and ran to Professor Starr.
* * * * *
"Hey, guys," Hermione said, greeting Harry and Ron after class.
"Hey. Sorry about your pairing," Harry said sympathetically. "I lucked out being with Seamus and Neville."
"How about you, Ron? Goyle giving you and Dean any trouble?" Hermione asked looking over at him. Do not look at his lips. Or his hair. Or his smile. Just don't look at him at all! Hermione took her own advice and adverted her eyes to the ground.
"Umm. Its…it's…okay," Ron said, finally settling on an adjective.
"Oh. Well, good."
"Yeah."
Hermione and Ron were fine with one another when they were alone but with Harry or others, it was another story. They weren't sure how to act or what to say. Should they tell Harry about the kiss? The ball invitation? The way their knees grew weak at the sight of their significant other? Well, respectively they didn't know that about each other and would never admit it although it was very true.
Harry gave them each odd looks and tried to catch either one's eyes but they were each, intent on staring at the floor. Harry looked down to see if he was missing anything exciting and found nothing out of the ordinary. He was about to ask about their strange behavior when Ron started a conversation about Quidditch and Harry, being Harry, couldn't pass that up.
* * * * *
Performance Day"Oh, class! I'm so eager to see your routines!"
Professor Starr clapped her hands like a little girl at Christmas time as she gazed across the sea of faces that made up her Muggle Arts and Entertainment class. Hermione didn't know what her Professor would do if the class was actually smiling and looking forward to performing their made-up dances instead of appearing to be attending a funeral. Maybe she would do her own dance.
The past week flew by and it wasn't as painful working with Pansy and Millicent as initially thought. Oh, sure, they still got into arguments at least eight times every rehearsal but with no curses thrown, Hermione would call it a success.
"Now, everyone, sit down along the wall and we'll being momentarily. Any volunteers to go first?" Professor Starr asked.
Lavender's hand hot up into the air and she went to the center of the room with Parvati and Blaise. How Parvati and Lavender got to be partners nearly every time was a mystery to Hermione.
"Ok girls, show us your stuff!"
Hermione happily tapped her foot to the beat of Love Shack, a very upbeat song and watched the girls perform. They were surprisingly in sync with one another with hardly any errors. After their three minutes of fame, everyone clapped and watched as Ron's group was called.
All Star was clearly heard radiating from the magical speakers and they acted out most of the words for a stellar performance that caused a large round of applause.
"Great work!" Professor Starr praised. 'Okay! Hermione, your group is up!"
Hermione took a deep breath and went to the center of the room with Pansy and Millicent on either side of her.
All That Jazz was heard and Hermione took her cue. They each had a chair as a prop to use throughout that song and then went straight to doing cartwheels and handsprings for added effect. They had decided to skip Grease and instead did Dancing Queen followed by RESPECT. Each song lasted about forty seconds and Hermione was pleased with the end result. She felt they pulled off a great chorographed routine, especially for hating each other's guts.
The funniest performance was by far Harry's group. They did utilize he musical Grease and did a rendition of Greased Lightening, chuck full of actual moves from the movie. Hermione had tears from laughing so much. It's not that they were bad; quite the contrary in fact. They were just so out of character, it was very amusing.
"Ok, that's it!" Professor Starr announced once Malfoy and Crabbe performed What's My Age Again. Hermione couldn't of imaged ever agreeing more with them as they sang that song.
"Brilliant class. You all are very talented," Professor Starr said seriously. "I'll see you tomorrow!"
* * * * *
Good? Bad? Tell me! Again, I know four months is a long time in between chapters and I can't apologize more. I am trying to have this finished within a month so I am kind of speeding through it a bit. It's just difficult to get excited about it because this is a 5th year story but with the 5th book out, so much of what I have written will have to be changed. Maybe once I'm done I'll rewrite this whole story. We'll see! Thanks for reading and remember to please review!
The songs mentioned in this chapter do not belong to me, but to their respective artists.