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All is fair in love and war

a story written by Grace Robin

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Chapter 6 – Forbidden dance

"Man this party is a drag," complained Ginny for the seventh time that night.

"Ginny; have some patience, like I'm having with you right now. The party isn't even meant to start for another quarter of an hour,"

"Well, still, I wish that there were some interesting guys here,"

"Don't worry – cool guys come fashionably late. Or at least that's their excuse," Hermione stated with as straight a face as possible. But Ginny couldn't help but laugh.

Just at that moment, in walked two guys. The way they walked and talked, it was as if they commanded attention to them. Within seconds every girl in the room was looking at them – and every girl was being looked back at. The main boy out of the two stopped for a second, with the second boy following in suit. The first ran his hand through his bleach blonde hair, then he nodded and walked with the second straight towards two unsuspecting girls.

"And how are you lovely ladies this evening? Ready to party?" asked the first.

"Well I certainly am!" squealed Ginny, a little too happily.

"Then you are certainly in luck, as my friend and I are looking for partners to dance with tonight, and we thought we would ask you two first," at this comment Hermione got weak at the knees. She didn't know what to do. All she wanted to do was dance with this totally handsome guy (or at least from what she could tell with the mask in the way), but her body had different ideas. It felt like it was going to collapse. And to Hermione's dread, she did.

As quick as lightning the first man captured Hermione under the arms just before she hit the floor; then he pulled her up to him and held her in his arms.

"Well I guess I will be dancing with you then," he said with a smirk in his voice. For some reason Hermione felt like she knew this boy, especially his voice. But she was too shaken up by her nearly painful crash to think clearly.

"Umm, sure, why not?" said Hermione, trying not to sound to keen. In the background she heard Ginny's sigh sadly, but quickly the second man spoke to her.

"Will you do me the pleasure of dancing with me? I know you may have had your heart set on my friend, but I can be charming too," stated the second, his voice full of mystery. Once hearing this, Ginny giggled and agreed to dance, but Hermione felt she knew this boy as well. "Well, as long as she enjoys herself" thought Hermione to herself "And anyway, she needs some space from Harry. I think they've been spending so much time together they are starting to fall away from each other."

After a short while of flirtatious chat, Hermione, Ginny and their partners heard music start playing. During their conversations Hermione had asked the boys their names, and with some deliberation, they said their names were Zach and Toby.

"Hey, Hermione, lets get onto the dance floor and show these novices how to dance," said the mysterious Zach

"Umm, maybe in a minute. I'm not a very good dancer, you know,"

"Oh, never mind that – I can make you a good dancer in less than one minute," said Zach, as if desperate to dance.

"How about the next dance? Then we have like another 3 minutes to get to know each other. Sound fair?"

"Okay, as long as we can go get a drink; I don't want us to get thirsty while dancing the night away," and so the couple walked over the bar to order drinks, while everyone else danced. As the song came to a close, Hermione finished her lemonade and Zach threw out his beer bottle.

"Ready to dance now?"

"Well, I guess it's better to face your fears than to run away," and so Zach pulled Hermione onto the floor, next to Ginny and Toby.

There had been pop and RnB music playing for a bit over half an hour. The foursome were enjoying themselves immensely, but Hermione was still a bit shy with her dancing. Ginny was throwing out all the big moves with Toby she had even kissed Toby on the cheek. "Uh oh," thought Hermione, but she was soon distracted by Zach and the catchy music.

Out of nowhere, Latin music began to play. Hermione was saddened by this – she had just gotten the hang of one dance style (well, sort of), and now had to move to another. But before she had much time to think, her partner had her right hand clasped in his left, and her left hand posed on his shoulder. They were now facing each other, and Hermione's heart beat was rising steadily. But none so much as when Zach placed his hand precariously low on her hip, almost touching her ass. Over the speakers came the DJ's voice, and the music stopped.

"Yo yo yo my peeps! Now is the time for those serious couples to do your thang in the Tango. All those who don't know the Tango, get ready to see the dance of forbidden love played before your eyes. Peace out!"

Hermione's heart was screaming out. She shouldn't be dancing the Tango with a stranger – and what about Chris? But it was too late. Her partner was shuffling her into the middle of the dance floor, telling her to just follow him and add a little bit of passion, flavour and fire. "Oh great, that'll be easy with someone I don't know," Hermione thought to herself, but let him go through with the dance anyway.

As the music began to play again, Hermione looked up into her partners eyes. There, before her, was passion – spreading from his eyes to Hermione's, tingles running up and down her spine. What was this feeling? And was it right that she wanted to feel more of it, and never let go of it? Hermione couldn't pull her eyes away from this strangers eyes. As they began to dance, whenever they swivelled and were no longer looking at each other, all Hermione wanted to do was to pull his face towards hers so that she could keep staring in the the silvery pools that were mirrors of this man's soul.

After going through a few basic moves, Hermione had the basic drift of the dance. Out of nowhere came skill she had never had before, and soon enough, only Hermione and Zach where left on the floor. Bu they didn't even notice.

The couple kept up the intensity between them, with spins, dips and swivels following the beat, violins playing in the background. The music felt like it was old Spanish music, from movies like Zorro, made for those who wish to express their souls through movement. As the intimacy grew and grew with every guitar stroke, the image of Chris was gone from Hermione's mind, and only thoughts of this mysterious man were left behind. She was afraid of what might become of this dance, but she couldn't help herself, and only wanted to keep up this way of expression. This man brought out the best in her; she had to find out who he was. But not now. Tonight she would have this dance and that was it. It felt like this dance, the Tango, was made just for her and him to experience, and she let it run on and on till in finally concluded.

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'Ha, tonights skeem has worked out well, very well indeed. Wait; what the hell am I doing? I hate this girl! Why am I dancing with her, and why am I so attracted to her. Come on, get your head in the game mate! Oh, and how I wish to kiss those beautiful lips... arghh! Stop it, stop it!!' Malfoy's thoughts were confusing him; and it was very strange indeed. Why did he have such a lust for Granger of all people?

As soon as that first guitar stroke was played, Draco knew the Tango was coming up. Man he was looking forward to this dance. Not only did he get to control her every move, but he got to check out every move her body made. Draco could tell she was uncomfortable with dancing the Tango with a 'stranger', but with one of Draco's sexy looks of lust, she was like putty in his hands.

At first she didn't do all that well; but in less than 30 seconds she was a better dancer than the dance king himself, who had taken years of ballroom dance lessons in his youth. 'hmm, this could get interesting,' Draco thought, and got her to do a series of hard moves that even he couldn't do without a professionals help. After a while he just let the music move them however it like. Meanwhile, Draco saw it in Hermione's eyes – passion, lust and fire. 'Oh, what she and I could do with these emotions – wait, stop thinking like this. Oh, I'll just give in this one time.' They continued their strange dance for what seemed like an eternity, the lust in each of their hearts getting better control over them quicker and quicker until the music ended their dance.

As Draco spun Hermione at arms length out away from him and bowed, Hermione curtsied and they were met by clapping and cheering from the crowd. As the cheering died down and couples came back onto the floor, Hermione was about to let go of Draco's hand when he spun her into him again and said,

"Where the hell did you learn to dance like that?"

"Right here, with you. You could make a really good dance teacher one day," stated Hermione with a twinkle in her eye.

"Well, I'm chuffed, but I don't really have the time at the moment, since I have my own classes to attend to at Hogwarts. Hey, do you feel like doing this again next weekend? The Three Broomsticks manager says that they are going to try having this club open 3 or 4 times a month,"

"Okay, sure. What have I got to loose?"

"Your innocence," Draco sneered, with a humorous tone.

"Ha ha. Man, I lost that years ago,"

"Really?" questioned Draco. He didn't know that. "So you don't mind dirty?"

"Nope,"

"Then let's go make all the guys out there on the floor jealous that I get to dance with such a beauty like you," 'Draco, what are you saying? Never mind, it's just one night - it's okay. No it's not! She's a mudblood! Yes it is, it's fine. Besides, it will help with your plan anyway. Have some fun.'

Hermione giggled in agreement with the statement spoken aloud, and pulled Draco out onto the floor. 'Wow, it's amazing how she hasn't figured out yet that it's me. I guess it means the mask is doing it's required job though. But it's funny how she thinks a guy like me would have the name Zach,'

After a song of getting used to being back in the RnB beat, Hermione and Draco began their show. It started with Draco walking around Hermione, staring her down. She 'ignored' him, then ran to him, arms up and palms open, crashing into Draco's chest. Then Draco spun her around and twirled her away from him. After that he came close to her and slung his arm around her shoulders, fingers playing with her bra strap. Hermione put her leg around Draco's body and he dipped Hermione low to the ground. As he brought his face down close to her face as if ready to kiss her, his eyes wondered down her body along her chest, his spare hand 'stepping' along the path of his eyes. Suddenly he pulled her up and she slid through his legs and out the other side. Hermione jumped up, placed a hand on his shoulder and began to strut around Draco, other hand on hip. Then once back in front of Draco, she put her hand on his face in a caring way, and without warning, slapped him lightly on the cheek. She turned around to walk away, when he slapped her on the ass. Hermione twirled back around in shock and once Draco and her eyes locked, something happened inside of Draco. Out of nowhere, Draco ran up to Hermione and caught her in a kiss, his hands holding her face as if he never wanted to let go. At first Hermione just sat there, not sure what to do. Then her hands made their way up to his head and started kissing back into Draco as she played with his hair. As the kiss continued, feelings were felt by each. Hate, love, lust and more where experienced, and they didn't want to finish this memory, but keep it going forever. Their tongues, battling like they were in a sword fight, wouldn't give up.

Finally, Draco beat Hermione out of pure luck, licked her lips and walked over to the bar. And that was the last thing Hermione remembered of that night, as she fell to floor unconscious.

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