Beautiful World

Toni managed to get out of the little fight in Diagon Alley just fine. Apparently, the Death Eaters had been notified of a Noble Heir at the bank that wasn't aligned the Dark Lord, and they wanted to persuade him to join. After they got beat the Death Eaters retreated, and Toni had to endure a lecture from his father on bringing more guards, and maintaining a lower profile in public.

The week passed at a moderate pace. He went to classes, did his homework, practiced his violin, and even made a few business proposals for his father. He developed a routine of arriving for breakfast right before it finished so he could grab and go. He ate lunch and dinner in the kitchens but made a two-hour appearance in the library every night. Granger and Weasley had not approached him for any help all week, so he assumed they were stubborn, too proud, or pissed that their bank accounts were revoked.

He doubted the latter, since Dumbledore had yet to acknowledge the fact that the account was frozen again. He had asked the Goblins to notify him, if Dumbledore attempted to doing any banking from his account again, but it seems as if the aged wizard had yet to return to the bank.

Blaise and Malfoy had a few questions, but it was mainly Blaise asking. Toni figured that Malfoy let the Italian do all the talking so he wouldn't insult him. They asked advice on props, and how much creative freedom they truly had. They also wanted to discuss if it was okay for them to cast just one little illusion to help support their scenes. Toni agreed and told them he looked forward to their performance.

Now that Monday had rolled around again, Toni was anxious to start his mini class. He had a treat for tonight and was looking forward to seeing their reactions. In truth it was more of a treat for himself. He finished his homework, and organized his next theatre assignment for them. Checking the time, Toni left his room and slipped into the kitchens for a small meal. After thanking the Elves, he left to go meet his class.

Arriving at the classroom, he was hardly surprised to see Blaise and Malfoy waiting. He merely greeted them and started setting up for their warm up exercise. After he was finished, he turned around and observed the other two boys talking until Granger and Weasley arrived. Once everyone was there, he began his class.

"Well, I'm glad everyone returned." He had to hide a wince at those words. "Today we will start with discussing the play, then do a warm up, and finally you will present your work. Now, who wants to tell me what they thought of 'Fat Pig'?" he asked. Toni wasn't surprised that Granger raised her hand, but he was slightly interested when Blaise did. "Blaise."

"I think that the play is a tragedy. Helen is this heifer who attempts to accept her weight issue but, like most people, kept falling back on destructive ways to cope. In her case she tried using humour to cover the fact that she still obsesses over her weight. She accepts she's fat and she eats whatever she wants but I think it's more of her lying to herself that what others say doesn't bother her. When she finds this good looking guy who genuinely likes her, she is happy, but he succumbs to society's pressure and they break up. Tragedy all around for Helen. She lies to herself and loses the man who loves her because he wasn't strong enough." Toni was impressed with his insightful answer and mentioned that.

"Anyone think differently than Blaise?" Seeing Granger raise her hand, he sighed at the unavoidable and called on her.

"I agree that it's a tragedy, but more for Tom. He didn't cave to society, he merely sacrificed his love for her, so that she would no longer be made fun of from his co-workers. He was the one truly hurt, and lost the most, because he actually did something for their relationship, unlike Helen." Granger finished in a superior tone.

Toni saw Blaise getting ready to go on the offensive when Granger shot him a haughty glare and knew he had to step in.

"Well… both good opinions, no matter how different they are. Everyone will view a play in their own way. For example, I thought of this play as a melodrama. You had the good guy, bad guy, troubled character, and the outsider. Very classic and cookie cutter to me. Anyways, I think that is enough, but now for the warm up! Everyone stand and clear the desks were going to need space."

Toni set up the magic run CD player, while the other cleared the floor. Once he was finished, he shot them all a mischievous grin before announcing the warm up. "Okay class, our warm up for the day will be- The Cha Cha Slide!"

"The what?" Malfoy blurted out.

"The Cha Cha slide! It's a dance, and all you have to do is follow the directions in the song. Simple really." Watching as Malfoys face became doubtful, Toni turned around and used the remote to start the music.

Sound filled the room as Toni turned around to face his students.

To the left, take it back now ya'll
One hop this time, right foot let's stomp
Left foot let's stomp, Cha Cha real smooth.

Toni followed the steps, and watched as the others stood their ground. "You can with do this here with just us, or I will force you to do it in the Great Hall in middle of dinner." He threatened.

Toni kept dancing as Blaise shrugged his shoulders and joined in.

'How low can you go?' Toni and Blaise faced each other and started slowing moving down.
'Can you go down low? All the way to da floor?' Once they got to the floor they were basically grinding each other but still moving to the beat.

'Can you bring it to the top? Like it never never stop?' The pair started moving up, and once they were standing properly again, Malfoy walked over and joined them for the rest of the song. After all it was a pretty fun song to dance too.

Once the song finished, he restarted it, and turned towards the Gryffindors.

"Last chance to join or tomorrow's dinner gets a show."

Toni was having fun dancing between the two Slytherins and kept laughing that Malfoy seemed to incapable of doing a simple grapevine. Once the song finished a second time, the three boys were flushed and laughing at the silly moves the started adding during the song. Once they had calmed down, he decided it was time for presentations. He passed a bottle of water to each Slytherin and summoned a chair for them to sit on.

"Kay, well Blaise and Malfoy went first last time, so I think Granger and Weasley have that honour this time."

The three of them sat back and got comfortable, but in Toni's case he summoned his bag and retrieved a clipboard with parchment and self inking quill. Once he was settled, he motioned for the pair to start. Toni wasn't impressed with their work. They had chosen the scene when Jeannie confronts Tom about his new girlfriend, and scene where Jeannie and Tom fight over Helen a second time. Not overly different scenes; they had the same emotions, and basically consisted of yelling. There was no difference in personality, and Toni was glad to see them finish.

"Okay, now Blaise and Malfoy you're up!" Toni watch the pair walk forward and begin taking random items from a bag. Once they were done the rearranged furniture and got into place. Toni was curious about the minor illusion they asked permission to use.

Blaise and Malfoy had decided on doing a quick montage of the times Tom and Carter were together. They used the illusion to change their shirt colours, but it was a very nicely put together piece. They varied the pieces of dialogue they used to create a rollercoaster of attitudes, character traits, and gestures. They even used a mini basketball and hoop for transitions. When they were switching they would throw the ball, which would distract the audience so they could change shirt colours and continue as if nothing happened. Toni was highly impressed with their work.

Toni got a surprise when after their montage, they stayed up front for another performance. Blaise winked at him before he cast another illusion and was suddenly wearing a woman's nightgown. Laughing he watched as Blaise inflated to look like a giant beach ball, and they started the scene between Tom and Helen talking in the bedroom. Malfoy kept trying to kiss Blaise, but Blaise would push him away and reference whatever was on the T.V, until finally Malfoy gave up and moved away.

Toni knew they were making a farce of the scene but still couldn't help but laugh. Unlike Granger, they did it tastefully, and was entertaining. Her work was just a train wreck. Watching them cleaning up, Toni decided to move onto the discussion part of their performances.

"Okay Granger and Weasley, why did you choose those two scenes?" he asked calmly.

"Well they seemed to have the most action. This was a terribly static play, and I don't understand why you assigned it. I don't think you know how to teach." Granger stated. Toni refrained from rolling his eyes, but briefly considered the option of murder.

"It was to test your delivery of lines. There are many ways someone could have spoken those lines, and implied different things. It was a test to see if you would be creative over the delivery, or just half-ass it like you did. You went for anger in both your scenes which shows a lack of creativity or even vision in your work. They were mediocre performances. Now tell me why you only played Jeannie and not Helen."

"I don't want to play some fat person. That would be absolutely terrible!" Granger screeched.

"Well, I hope you aren't actually serious about magic performance because you would fail before your first audition." Toni spat at the witch. Her ideals were horrid, and prejudice. He chose to direct his attentions on the Slytherins.

"Now Blaise and Malfoy, excellent work. I enjoyed your montage and think that it was brilliant. I also enjoyed how you used the basketball as a transition, and the shirt colour. I would suggest maybe limiting the colours to two or three instead of one for every scene. Just so you don't distract your audience too much, and it takes less magic and concentration if you just keep interchanging them. Plus your final scene was highly amusing. You both have potential for the theatre." Toni smiled at both boys while he put down his notes. He would go over them more in depth later.

"Wait! Why were they allowed to change around the assignment and we weren't? When we did that you yelled at us, but they do it and you compliment them!" Weasley finally spoke up.

"They asked- plus, theirs had finesse." Toni answered simply. Looking at the time, he quickly retrieved the next project and handed it out.

"This is information and reference material on interpretive dance. I also included a story that I want you and your partner to perform. You have all week to develop a dance to tell the fairy tale I have chosen for you. Once again feel free to approach me for help." He quickly dismissed them and left his room for a meeting with his father.

He met with his father and went over the business proposals he made. After a challenging debate with the Cortalioni Lord, they came to an agreement and his father left with more business opportunities, and Toni went to bed with the knowledge that he was almost ready to be the next Family Head.

The next morning everything was normal until dinner time. Keeping his word be cast a spell on Granger and Weasley that made their bodies move to the next song they heard. They kept their right minds and freedom of speech, but they had to dance to the music. The two created quite the spectacle as they moved to the song, and yelled at the same time. Toni had to raise the volume on the music so it could be heard over the colourful vocabularies of the dancers. He watched amused from the doorway as the two danced the Cha Cha Slide for the whole school, and quickly left once they finished.

Thursday night he was taking a walk around the lake when he was approached by Blaise, asking for help Saturday afternoon. He agreed to meet him, and then went back to his rooms. Once Saturday rolled around, he was interested in what the two snakes needed help with and approached the empty classroom they used for theatre lessons.

"So what can I help you with?" he asked them. They explained what they were trying to go for, and that they need help with certain body formations. Toni jumped into the project and helped them until dinner rolled around. By that time the boys had numerous amounts of ideas flowing through their heads, and thanked their teacher. Blaise left quickly claiming he needed to meet Pansy and Toni was left with Malfoy.

"So you are pretty good at the whole performance thing. Have you ever considered it before this year?" Toni asked. He was actually interested in the other boys answer and tried to appear sincere to Malfoy.

"When I saw you as Peter Pan, I admit it caught my interest. Those tights mixed with your dirty dancing from Monday, I can see why Salvo Moretti was so eager to kidnap you." Malfoy spoke in such a neutral tone, the Toni was stuck between horror and shock.

He didn't like thinking about Moretti or his method of escape, and here was this boy he barely knew, throwing it into a conversation like they were discussing Quidditch scores. Toni felt numb as he remembered that incident from a few months ago and quickly excused himself and fled to his rooms.

Malfoy stood in place berating himself for what he said. He hadn't meant to say that. Actually, he didn't even know where that statement came from. It felt like he was just stuck in his head watching someone else talking through his body. After a few minutes of mentally screaming at his actions he left the room.

A figure in the shadows was smirking after it watched the scene. It was fun watching the Malfoy heir act that way to Toni Cortalioni. Mentally taking note of the name Moretti, the figure silently left room. With this new information, there were plans that needed to be made and people to contact.

Lets all give a hand for my beta PeruvianDarkness

Also D.J Caspar for the song

and finally my most wonderful reviewers and readers

your words make me smile a ridiculous amount

Genießen!