The air was thick with anticipation and was hard to breathe with all the excitement gushing through the corridor, as the students buzzed with the knowledge that the first dance lesson was about to start, and the identity of their teacher revealed. The Gryfindors were delighted that both the 5th and 6th Years had their free period together, but the high spirits were considerably dampened by the fact that they also shared it with the 6th Year Slytherins. 'Bloody typical,' thought Ginny as she leant her back against the wall and glared past Liza at Pansy, who was currently draping her arms round Draco's shoulders. Pansy never really had much to do with Ginny, of course she always laughed at Draco's 'Weasling' jokes, which was of course painful, but it was more Pansy's constant baiting of Hermione that made Ginny despise her so much. If she ever got a chance to show her up, she promised herself she would.

Silence fell on the students like a steel blanket, almost sounding as loud in Ginny's ears as the rabble before, and she knew that it could only mean one thing. She made a slight attempt to look over the countless heads, but quickly found it was unnecessary, as the heads were parting, clearing the way for…

"Woah..."

Mumbled Liza, as the figure emerged. Piercing topaz eyes were the first things to strike her, and her own brown eyes flickered up to the short grey hair and she smiled in instant recognition. Madame Hooch strode through the corridor with the same focussed confidence that she had on the Quidditch pitch. For some reason, that struck Ginny as odd, as if she had half expected Hooch to be as raw-footed as Krum off a broom. But, Ginny reminded herself, it seemed that Hooch was also a dancer, which needed all manners of grace, so her basic abilities to walk needn't be that fascinating.

The students watched in stunned silence as their dance tutor unlocked the classroom door, stepped inside and held the door open for them. No one moved. Her hawk-like eyes suddenly grew more dangerous and her mouth thinned. There was a moment's hesitation before they all began to file in and occupy the seats. When the stragglers finally entered, Hooch closed the door and turned to the class. They stared back at her with varying degrees of fright, respect, and disdain (if you counted the Slytherins). She gave them all a withering look before speaking clearly,

"And how exactly do you propose to learn dance with your backsides planted in chairs?"

They looked at each other and rose, moving to the front of the class, which was clear apart from the teacher's desk. When the centre was empty of students, Hooch strolled casually to the middle and flicked her wand towards one side, then the other. As she did so, the desks and chairs slid across the floor to slam into the walls, with just enough force for some to lodge partly onto others, leaving a respectable sized dance floor. The bang sent a shock through the class that seemed to wake them for the first time since seeing their teacher, and whispers broke out throughout them until Hooch clicked her fingers and had their attention again.

"As most of you will probably know, I am Madame Hooch. My usual exploits include coaching and monitoring the Quidditch teams, but this year Dumbledore has requested my expertise in a slightly different field."

Ginny smiled to herself. It seemed that Hooch had become no more modest than the last time she'd seen her. The brilliant thing though, was that however comfortable Hooch was with preaching and demonstrating her own talents, she completely lacked vanity. She was simply saying she was an expert at certain things, was because it was true, and for that, she had everyone's respect. Hooch undid the knot holding her cloak in place and threw it onto some of the piled chairs, revealing a high-necked shirt with very baggy sleeves that thinned suddenly on the wrist, and plain black trousers. She looked more masculine than ever, Ginny though, as she turned to face them.

"Dancing is the expression of emotion through movement. Now I expect that most of the expression you show to be as blank as some of your faces here today, but please believe that I will make every effort to allow you to fill your highest potential. This means that I will be spending more time with some of you than others, and rather than moan…"

She said loudly, as some of the girls glared at her and whispered to each other at her last words,

"…You will just have to prove yourselves to me, won't you? Now, Dumbledore has requested that I teach you the Waltz for the main event, and then a Latin dance of my choice for the closing, where he plans to make it more informal for the last hour or so, after you have revealed your faces. However I would like to get some variety in, so I will teach you all the Waltz and those I feel ready to move on, will progress to the Quickstep, which takes equal amounts of talent but is none the less more steps to learn. We will discuss the Latin dance in a few lessons time. For now, posture! Onto the floor! In lines, if you please, boys and girls separate, all facing the centre!"

She swept to the side to allow the students to form lines, boys and girls facing each other nervously with a gap in the centre, Ginny taking her place somewhere in the third, middle line of girls, on the outside. Hooch then walked in between them and faced the boys, drawing herself up, raising her right hand and her left hand in front of her, both crooked at the elbow. Her head leant back and tilted to the left and her back was bent very slightly backwards in a gradual curve, her posture so delicate and light, she looked as if she could be snapped with ease. Ginny tried her best to copy, hoping that one day she would look that comfortable dancing.

"This, ladies, is your pose, you must never, EVER, change it throughout the dance. Some moves will require varying head and hand gestures, but you must return to this exact position. Ballroom dancing needs a perfectly sturdy yet delicate frame. I do NOT want to see any variations of this pose. I am only going to explain this once. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Miss."

Came the unanimous reply. Ginny smiled as she formed the position with the other girls, Hooch definitely knew what she was doing, studying the professionals in her book could tell her that much. Their tutor released her pose and walked along the lines, adjusting arms and heads and height quite roughly where need be. When she was satisfied she moved to the boys, and faced the girls, who had to stay in their position until she said otherwise, though most eyes moved to watch what the male part was. Hooch matched the same position, but the arms were switched, the back straight and the head facing forwards. Ginny marvelled at how different the pose made her look; previously she looked like a strong breeze would bend her out of shape, whereas now it looked like rolling boulders couldn't make her falter.

"Gentlemen, this is your pose. Same rules apply. Yes?"

"Yes, miss."

The whole lesson followed in much the same vein, where they practised walking normally and then snapping to attention in their pose at a moments notice. They all started at one side of the room, and those who got it were moved to the opposite side to watch the others, those who got it second time were moved, etc, and those who really struggled had to perform it several times before Hooch let them go. Ginny was moved the first time, much to her delight, but was amazed to see that in the few others that joined her there was only one boy. None other than Draco Malfoy.

She was torn for a moment between loathing that he should be good at anything, and awe that he danced at all. She would've thought that far too an embarrassing pastime for him, but then perhaps being an aristocrat of sorts, his parents would've paid for lessons. It was known as something that the 'upper class' did, anyway. But his evident smugness put a grimace on her face and before she could look away, he saw her looking and raised an eyebrow, showing his surprise at the fact she had done the pose as early as he, so she simply pouted angrily at him and turned to watch the other 'dancers'.

Half an hour later (it should've been a quarter of an hour later, but some of them had been having a lot of trouble, luckily Liza had been let across after about 15 minutes) they all stumbled out, slightly subdued with the knowledge that this was going to be a whole lot harder than they anticipated. Ginny, however, practically bounced out the room, ignoring the glares from the Slytherin girls.

"How'd it go?"

She asked Harry, catching up with him and ignoring the murderous glares her brother was passing to the floor, and then to her. Harry shrugged, looking uncomfortable.

"Not much better than the last time I danced really. At least we have a proper teacher, Madame Hooch eh? Who'd have thought it? Of course, my confidence isn't helped with that git showing off all the time."

He said, motioning towards Malfoy, who had just brushed past them.

"Hmm."

Ginny hummed in agreement, though she secretly wondered how much he really knew about dancing.

Next lesson, we shall see.+

And with that thought she entered the grounds for Herbology.

(A.N - Stay on for the next chapter, and I promise at least a paragraph of completely irrelevent, gut-wrenchingly cringey moments XD )