"What are you doing?"

Remus edged away from the pair of bucking and gyrating males who were supposed to be his friends. They had been given a wide berth by the rest of the staring students. Had he known being at the Yule dance would be this embarrassing, Remus would have holed himself in the Gryffindor dormitories with a good book as company.

"We're dancing!" Sirius replied enthusiastically. "Come join us!"

"Uh, I think I'll pass. Why don't you go ask Peter?"

Remus would readily admit that he was too afraid to being up the question of where James and Sirius had learned to dance as they were. The Slytherins had expressions of growing horror and revulsion, and the Hufflepuffs seemed to be caught between being stunned and repulsed – Remus thought that some of them would be repeating the exact movements in their weekly weekend party.

"We'll ask him too, when we spot him, but you can join us in the mean time!" James added.

"I-I have prefect duties. I have to patrol to make sure the younger years aren't out of bed. I'm, uh, filling in for the Hufflepuff prefect. Have fun?"

It wasn't a question of whether they were having fun; rather, Remus doubted anyone else was going to enjoy the Yule ball if they didn't stop. Remus was only glad Dumbledore had a meeting at the Ministry that year, and wasn't present or the Headmaster would, undoubtedly, have joined the Gryffindors.

The real question was whether he needed to subtly stun them, or slip them some sleeping draught. Either one could be chalked up to exhaustion, and probably would be, by the relieved Hogwarts population.

"Aww, Remy. You always work so hard. You should take a break!"

"Right. I'll just go patrol now."

Remus made sure to back away quickly and ignore all James and Sirius' calls for him to go back and 'relax'. He made sure to grab Lily, Alice, and Frank along the way, and the quartet neared the doors of the Great Hall before Remus stopped moving.

"We need to get them to stop."

"You don't say," Alice commented, rolling her eyes.

Frank snorted. "I don't think anyone could have seen that coming. I wish I could unsee it."

"I can't believe they're so irresponsible! This is a school dance, and we're seventh years. Can you imagine the fourth years' impression of their first Yule Ball? It's horrendous, and mentally scarring!" Lily hissed, incensed. "Did you see how pale Regulus was when he saw Sirius?"

A sudden influx of people encroaching on their meeting space had Lily's eyes narrowing.

"Lily, you can't just walk up and stun them!" Alice said in alarm as Lily drew her wand from the holster she had charmed to look like a corsage. Only the prefects had their wands on them, and they had been given strict instructions that it was only for emergencies.

Remus suddenly regretted involving Lily – she had always reacted strongly when James was involved – but he also wasn't sure if he had only delayed the inevitable. Lily's temper had no rival within the walls of Hogwarts, and wouldn't have been tempered by words, but that wouldn't stop Remus from trying.

"Lily, I'm sure we can," Remus began in alarm, before his words began fading in the direction of Lily's stiff back, "figure out another way."

"Frank and I will go do damage control," Alice assured Remus, while cheering broke out on the other half of the hall.

"Our last Yule Dance, and everything is falling apart," Remus muttered, sighing.

"Don't worry, mate. It was memorable, at least," Frank assured Remus.

The Golden Snitch [Uagadou, Biloko]: 12 Days of Christmas – 6 brolgas dancing: write about a character with embarrassing dance moves