Title: Dance Fever and Some Bad Dreams
Muse here: This chappie is GOOD!!! REVIEW PEEPS!!! I'll send any reviews right on over to my friend!
Disclaimer: It's sad but true……I do not own Draco or any of the other Harry potter characters. However I
do own Malcolm Riley and Mrs. Shnopsie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter 7: Dance Class!!
……go to a happy place…….bunnies, butterflies, pretty birds…….
"Hermione Granger, Roger Ferrin"
A Ravenclaw? I looked over to the Ravenclaw boy who was stood up. Not bad. I couldn't help smiling at
the fact that Malfoy was not my partner. Looks like I got off easy.
But when I stood up and was about to take the arm of Roger Mrs. Shnopsie said abruptly,
"Oh dear me!" She laughed a little to herself, "I'm sorry. Miss. Granger you're partner isn't Roger it's……"
Oh no. Don't say it, don't say it, please don't say it. I pleaded with her with no words only with my eyes
briefly letting her eyes penetrate my mind,
"Draco Malfoy."
"What?" Draco shouted. Pansy, who was sitting with her Slytherin friends let out a wail,
"No! My poor Drakey-poo!"
It didn't really come as a shock to me that he was my partner. Somehow I knew that Malfoy was going to
be my partner. I just never wanted to admit it. I felt Roger's arm slide from mine as he took his seat once
again.
"You and Miss Granger are to be partners in this Dance Class, Mr. Malfoy. I don't know how I can make it
anymore clear." Her voice was hard but she had that twinkle in her eyes and a grin on her mouth, "Now
will you please escort Miss Granger to the other side of the hall?"
Draco stared daggers at Mrs. Shnopsie before walking over to my side and actually holding out his arm
for me. All the while his cold eyes never looked away from Mrs. Shnopsie.
I looked at Malfoy's arm to Mrs. Shnopsie pleading with her one last time. But she simply waited for me
to put my hand through Malfoy's arm.
I looked up at Malfoy, who to my surprise was staring straight back with those icy eyes. Tucking my hair
behind my ears so I could stall touching him. But I had to do it. Everyone was staring at us and I wouldn't
shake off the attention until I just let Malfoy guide me to the other side of the hall.
Carefully I put my hand through Malfoy's arm and started walking. I hated that Shnopsie lady! She had
ruined the class that had me excited the entire summer.
Malfoy waited till I was sitting and then took his seat on my left. I could feel his eyes sweeping over me
once or twice while the rest of the students were getting their partners. And the funny thing was that I
seemed to blush.
I could actually feel the heat rising into my cheeks. This was horrible! You should not be blushing! This is
Malfoy! Not Malcolm.
After everyone was now on the opposite side of the room, Mrs. Shnopsie tossed the scroll up into the air,
snapped her fingers and it disappeared in a wisp of smoke.
"Now class, I would like all the couples to find a spot near the center of the Hall. Before I had time to
heave a sigh of despair Malfoy actually grabbed my hand and pulled me in the dead center of all the
other couples.
What we he trying to do?
Once everyone was out on the dance floor, Mrs. Shnopsie began to direct, "The first thing you must learn
in this class is……trust. You must trust your partner."
It took as much will power I had not to burst out laughing at this point. Trust Malfoy? Trust a Muggle hater
who would no doubt become a powerful DeathEater one day. Not going to happen.
"Yes. Trust is the key to a dance partner relationship. So the first exercise that some of you might be
familiar with is called the fall-catch. The girl will stand with her back to her partner and fall back without
worry and her partner will catch her just in the knick of time."
Oh this is going to be just peachy. Ferret Boy is going to drop me, obviously.
"The girl in no circumstances will step back and catch herself. That is her partner's job. Does everyone
understand?"
All the students nodded, "Then have at it!" She waved her hands in the air.
I turned to Malfoy who was already standing behind me smirking, "Shall we?" I rolled my eyes and turned
my back to him. Closing my eyes I let the tips of my toes come off the ground and fell back.
Down....
Down....
.....And just as I thought I was bout to hit the floor I felt Malfoy's strong arms catch me. I opened my eyes
and there was Malfoy looking straight at me with not so much a smirk but a playful grin.
With him this close to my face I caught his sent. Whoa! Did he smell good or what! What? No! I
panicked and for reason decided that jumping up would solve everything.
Mistake number one.
I had collided my head right into his, "Oy! Watch it Herm- er- Granger!" Draco massaged his forehead. I
could have sworn I saw him tearing up but my head was in too much pain to laugh at him.
I swayed on the spot for a second collecting myself. Wait a second. Had Malfoy almost called me by my
first name?
Interesting……
Mrs. Shnopsie's voice interrupted my thoughts, " Not bad! Not bad at all! The next exercise is one of
balance and communication. Now judging from what I have seen today at the beginning of class, you all
are pretty good at chatting each other's ears off. But the kind of communication I am talking about does
not involve your lips, tongues, or teeth……but your eyes."
I didn't like where this was leading……
Mrs. Shnopsie snapped her figures and just as the scroll had appeared a bouquet of smooth white sticks
came instead.
"All the boys, please come up here and collect one white stick and then go back to your places next to
your partners" The boys did as was told and retrieved a stick to their partners.
"Some of you are wandering what on earth can a stick have to do with balance and communication? The
answer is…… everything."
She's crazy. This sums it up. I have a psycho for a dance teacher!
"What I want you to do is put this stick in between you and your partner so it is parallel to the ground.
You and your partner must hold the stick with your stomachs and only your stomach. Both of you will
have to put a little pressure on the stick but not so you are jabbing the stick into the belly of your partner,
After you have accomplished this you will start to walk around the room. You may not mouth words to
your partner. You may not discuss where you will go before you put the stick between you. The only way
you will communicate is through your eyes, which will not leave your partners."
Her twinkling eyes swept the faces of the class again, "Understood?" and once again all the students
nodded. Over the rustling of feet Mrs. Shnopsie called, "I expect to hear no voices!"
Without notifying me Draco brought the stick just above my belly button and since he was taller than me
rested it just under his belly button.
I could hear Mrs. Shnopsie's footsteps coming closer to us and I looked over to her. Mistake.
"No, no, no, Miss. Granger. Look at him not me. You guys have set the stick up nicely. So once you lock
eyes you may begin walking.
Hesitantly I brought my eyes up to Draco's iced blue ones. And from that second where our eyes
met……
……I hated him even more. For the first thing he did was to force a giant step forward without warning.
And the stick jabbed me and dropped as I backed up, doubling over in pain,
"Ow! You jerk why didn't you give me some kind of sign or something?!" Draco snatched the stick from
the floor and sneered,
"You heard the woman, Granger. We aren't allowed to give each other signs."
I grabbed the stink out of his hand and poked him with it, "Well she also said not to jab at your partner!"
"Aw, you know me Granger. Never doing what I'm told, ain't that right Goyle?"
Goyle who was partnered up with a teary-eyed Pansy, made a grunting noise, which Draco took to be a
yes, "See. Now are we going to do this stupid thing or not?"
I looked over to Mrs. Shnopsie who was just watching us, with a amusement written all over her face, like
we were on TV show or something.
"He called your exercise stupid, Mrs. Shnopsie!"
She shrugged and responded, "I never said it wasn't."
When I turned back to Draco who let out a loud, "Ha!" right up in my face. I couldn't take it anymore, "By
the way, nice hair Granger."
That was it! First he practically stabs me with a stick and now he's making fun of my hair, which I had
tried to make look nice for Malcolm!
I stepped up to Malfoy and kicked his shin. Just like that. To my satisfaction he shouted in pain, "Hey
that's not fair! You can't do that!" He barked grabbing his shin with both hands.
I stooped down so I was face to face with him, "Sorry Ferret boy, I just needed to prove that you're only
human." And then I flicked the tip of his nose.
"Argh!"
If anybody who has gotten flicked in this place by another would know that the tip of the nose is one of
the most sensitive parts of the body -besides the other obvious part of a man's body.
But I didn't think he deserved this……yet.
Malfoy stood up rubbing his nose. I could now see that he was most defiantly tearing up.
"Bloody hell, Granger. That hurt!"
"I'm sorry, Malfoy."
Not really.
"I feel better now. So let's just get this over with, ok?" in truth I did feel better. I felt like I had
accomplished something by making the great Slytherin prince tear up because of a flick of the nose.
"Fine." Draco grabbed the stick back and set it up between us.
Keeping our eyes locked I could feel Draco taking a step forward by the gentle push from the stick. I
obeyed and took a step backward still keeping the stick in place.
We must have walked about five yards when Mrs. Shnopsie spoke in a gentle voice so as not to disturb
the concentration radiating in the room,
"Now. I am going to come around to each couple and try to break their concentration. Those who are the
last standing will get a prize. So keep on doing what your doing. But watch out for me. For I quiet stealthy
when it comes to sneaking up on people……"
Mrs. Shnopsie's words seemed to drift away to the back of my mind as I wondered what was so different
about Draco's eyes. They didn't really look any different……
Then it struck me. They were warmer then they had been in the hall to Potions. It was like he had
dropped his guard. Was I dropping mine?
Draco cocked his head just a tiny bit creating a group of soft blonde stands falling around his eyes.
Another part of my mind-an angry part said, 'so the git has lightened up of the extensive amounts of hair
gel, huh?'
And for a second I regretted saying those words -Wait! I was regretting bad mouthing Ferret boy? What
is wrong with me? I've never had a problem making fun of Malfoy before……
In his eyes I saw what looked like curiosity. I could tell that he was slightly amused by something
because lighthearted laughter played in his eyes.
Lighthearted laughter? No, this couldn't be. This was Malfoy not Ron or Harry. Was it possible that there
was something more to Draco then he let on?
But before I could really ponder about this I felt Mrs. Shnopsie sneaking up. Drat! Now she's going to
make me drop the stick.
Not that I want to keep this stupid stick thing up. Maybe I should just drop the stick and go back to being
mad at Drac-Malfoy -not that I'm still not mad at him! Stupid git.
All the sudden Mrs. Shnopsie popped in my face out of nowhere. But I didn't drop the stick. And it was
then that I noticed to my great disgust that Mrs. Shnopsie might have had a pretty face but man o man
did her breath reek! But as awful as her breath smelled fought the urge to cough into her face.
Mrs. Shnopsie's face disappeared but unfortunately her fowl breath seemed to linger.
Draco must have noticed the God awful smell too because together we shuffled our feet as fast as we
could to another space in the hall that didn't smell like Mrs. Shnopsie.
About two minutes of locking eyes past when I heard, "Ew! They look like they're in love or something!"
Love?!
Malfoy?!
It was then that alarm went off in my head, as did Draco's, and we both jumped back from each other.
Letting the stick fall to the ground with a clank.
A rush of emotions overwhelmed me at that time. Confusion at what I had been feeling, embarrassment
when I noticed that Draco and I were the last ones who hadn't dropped the stick, and anger at the person
who had to spoil everything……
And as much as I didn't want to admit it, I was angry with myself for wanting the 'stupid stick exercise' to
go on.
I looked back to Malfoy who avoided my stare and busied himself with picking up the stick and handing it
to Mrs. Shnopsie. Leaving me to stand there like an idiot.
"And here are our winners!" A polite clap sounded from the students, "And as promised the winner's will
get their prize. Head's up winners and think fast."
Draco and I both looked up as we heard Mrs. Shnopsie snap her fingers twice. Two crystal shapes fell
into each of our hands.
I held it up to look at it properly and noticed that the crystal was chiseled into a rearing lioness. I looked
over to Malfoy and his was a not a snake like I had suspected it to be, but a dragon.
"Good job you two." She said in barely a whisper. She beamed up at the rest of the class, "Good work
today! I would have to say this has been the best class yet! And I can see some people have real
potential in dance. I am going to let you all out a bit early today for socializing sake. I know that this has
been the first day and you all have plenty you want to talk about."
The entire class exchanged smiles of joy. I knew what they were thinking, 'This teacher rocks!'
But not me. She was nosey and annoyingly nice to me even though she probably knew that I didn't fancy
her the way the other students did.
"Until our next class! Adieu to you all!" Mrs. Shnopsie walked out of the hall without even seeing us out.
Placing my prize gently in my pocket I then searched for Ron and Harry. But then to my surprise and
most pure joy Malcolm came up behind me and put his arm around my shoulders!
"Hey Hermione! I'm sorry about the bummer partner." I wandered if Malcolm had noticed that Draco was
standing right in front of me. But my question was answered when Malcolm nodded to Malfoy, "Total
bummer." He said to me, yet still looking at Draco.
Draco flicked off whatever dust there must have been on his crystal dragon, placed it in his pocket, and
then swung his fist right into Malcolm's nose.
Malcolm went flying backward onto his back sliding a foot or two on the Great Hall floor.
Now I knew Malfoy was strong but I never would have imagined that he was strong enough to knock back
Malcolm, who was bigger than him.
"Wow! Sorry, mate, I get these random muscle spasms in my arm from time to time." Malfoy turned to
left without another word.
Odd thing was I sort of, kind of wanted to go after him and apologize for Malcolm. But instead Malcolm
came up behind me dabbing his bloody nose,
"Can't he take a joke?"
I almost laughed. Malfoy take a joke? Not likely. But all thoughts of Malfoy vanished when Malcolm hung
his arm over my shoulder once again and said in his deep voice, "Walk with me."
Without hesitation I strolled out of the Great Hall with Malcolm Riley's arm resting on my shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"What's with all the smiling, Hermsie?" prodded Parvati as she sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"He asked me out again." Padma's attention flipped from her green beans to me,
"Who asked you out?"
"Malcolm." I beamed at myself taking in a deep sigh. After he had asked me -or rather demanded I walk
with him he had asked it again if he could go to the Three Broom Sticks next Saturday. He said that he
would have loved it if we could do it this Saturday but he had to be at the field, helping out with the
tryouts for this years Quidditch teams.
"Malcolm Riley?" Squealed Parvati.
"Uh-huh." I answered with my smile locked in place.
"I have to say Hermsie, that you caught a guy almost as hot as Draco. Well Done!" Padma congratulated
me, "Oh! And I was wondering if you could help me with my Potions homework."
"Sorry. I can't. I have a detention after dinner. You know, because of the little food incident."
"That was no 'little' incident, Hermione." Ron fell into a seat right next to me. I glanced a look at his still
red nose and felt a pin-prick of guilt,
"Sorry about that Ron." Ron waved a piece of buttered biscuit and shrugged off my apology,
"No worries, Hermione."
Beaming again I was distracted from a warm feeling on the back of my neck. I twisted around in my seat
and caught Malcolm staring at me!
This was surreal! Once we our eyes meat he grinned his ever so dashing grin.
But then iciness trickled down my back distracting me from Malcolm. I looked away trying to identify the
person who was sending such a cold vibe.
And what a surprise it was when I found Draco scowling not at me but Malcolm.
What's Draco got against Malcolm? Sure they're both attractive -well Malcolm is even more attractive -not that I think Draco is attractive at all! But it's just what I hear from people like Padma and Parvati and
the rest of the females of the student body.
Maybe it was because Draco was jealous. That's right! Jealous of Malcolm's better looks! That must be
it!
I gave Malcolm one last smile before turning back to my dinner. Not even a detention could dampen my
high spirit of going on a date with Malcolm Riley.
~*~*~*~*~
After dinner, I read my detention slip, which told me to stay in the Great Hall. It was when people started
to stream out of the Halls did Harry enter looking out of breath.
I waved over to him, signaling to come sit. When Harry sat down next to me I caught a sent of rose oil on
him.
Why would Harry be wearing rose……Cho Chang of coarse. Harry dug into an overflowing plate of food.
I decided I'd play the oblivious girl and asked, "So where were you, Harry?"
He swallowed hastily and muttered, " I was out flying my Firebolt. I just wanted to get back in the game.
If you know what I mean."
"I think I know exactly what you mean." I answered dryly, "So do you always where rose oil and put
lipstick on your collar when out flying your Firebolt?"
Harry choked on his mashed potatoes, "It's not rose. It's lilac! I mean -Cho is allergic to roses."
"Oh alright." I laughed. Harry chewed and swallowed again before staring down on me and smiled,
"I forgot to tell you that you look very nice Hermione. With the hair and everything."
I love Harry. Not in the romantic way but in the Big Brother way. He was mine the way I was his. I think
that was why I was a little upset with him for getting together with Cho.
Because I would not longer be the main girl in his life. But over the years I became comfortable with
sharing Harry with Cho.
"Why, thank you, Harry?" I said in mock sitcom style. Chuckling a bit, Harry took out a detention slip
from his pocket and read it,
"I'm supposed to meat here for my detention. So why are you here?"
"I have detention as well. But you weren't there to see what I did at lunch cause you and Miss Cho were
off somewhere." Harry blushed, "But I accidentally started a food fight."
Harry's eyes widened, "No joke?" I shook my head,
"No joke." Harry let another round of chuckles escape his mouth.
"So why are you here then?" I asked.
"Well you know this mourning with the whole Draco thing? Well I got into a fistfight with Draco and
knocked his lights out. However since the greasy git also fought with me……"
How could I have forgotten! But this meant……
"……he also got a detention." I twisted once again in my seat to look across, the now empty Hall, at
Draco who was sitting at his table sipping coffee.
First I had to have him as a dance partner and now I have to have a detention with him?
Unbelievable.
Ta-Da! There you finally got your dance lesson. I know the exercises were weird and everything but Mrs.
Shnopsie is a weird teacher and I needed a way to get Draco and Herm close. So please review and
don't flame. Begging you not to flame. Anyway, Thank you to all my reviewers! I luv you!
~Tinkerbell-06, I am trying not to resort to just using one type of dance style. So you can trust me when I
say that you are going to see dancing of all styles (ballet, jazz, hip-hop, tap……*the list goes on*) ;-)
~Black Angel, I'm glad your enjoying the story and I that you like the way I am making the characters
seem real. I really appreciate it! Keep reading and reviewing!~
~Some12, Thank you for all your support it really helps me write ( believe it or not) knowing that I have
fans that really like my fic~
~Catgirl-13, I do agree. Voldemort is one wrinkly bastard! Thanks for your reviews. Keep them coming! J
~
~Liz (you know who you are, lol) thanks for all your support I could not have done this without ya! MUCH
LUV!
