Chapter Four

I Wanna Dance with Somebody

Spinning through the town

Sooner or later the fever ends

And I wind up feeling down

I need a man to take a chance

On a love that burns hard enough to last

~I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Whitney Huston

Rose stood in front of the mirror and had to stop herself from twirling. Ever since she was a little girl, every time she put on a puffy dress she always felt the overwhelming urge to twirl around so that the skirt lifted and twirled with her. However, in this instance, twirling around like a gleeful little girl would send the wrong message. She was supposed to be against this dance totally and completely. Gleeful twirling did not fit with that.

She was still surprised that she was even going to this dance. She hadn't originally planned on going; she was against this whole crazy Valentine's thing that had taken over Hogwarts. That included the stupid Valentine's Day dance. But once Carly put her mind to something, it was extremely hard to resist her. That, and if Rose was being completely honest with herself, she would admit she hadn't fought that hard against it.

Ever since the start of the week, Rose had been curious about -and after letter number three consumed by- the secret admirer notes she had been receiving. She hoped that whomever it was that was sending them would be at the dance, and would, in some way, shape, or form, make themselves known to her. While she loved herself a mystery, this one was proving harder than most to solve and she was really looking forward to having the solution.

That, and not Carly's annoying prodding and less-than-subtle suggesting was the reason Rose was standing in the poufy royal blue dress and letting Carly fix her hair and makeup. Rose was not that much of a pushover.

"Perfection!" Carly exclaimed as she took a step back to survey her work. "You look gorge, Rosie! Whoever note dude is, he's gonna loose it when he sees you!" Carly clapped her hands a few times in excitement, then turned on her heel and began working on the other girls.

'This night had better be worth it,' Rose thought as she turned to find her shoes.

Scorpius Malfoy sat stretched out at the table his friends had claimed. He told his friends he'd hold down the fort but now he was regretting it. Sitting all by himself at the large table while his friends danced was starting to make him feel rather lonely.

He scanned the crowd for the hundredth time, hoping to see the smiling face of the girl he'd spent the better half of two years infatuated with. He knew he was getting his hopes up, waiting to see her; this was definitely not something she'd show up to willingly. But hey, a guy could hope.

He was just about to give up hope and go find Albus and hopefully talk him into leaving, when a group of giggling girls in various shades of Ravenclaw blue entered the Hall. His attention immediately shifted to the red-head in the middle wearing a stunning dark blue dress and a surly expression. He followed her and her group with his eyes as they made their way through the crowd in search of an empty table.

"Hey!" Scorpius' focus was broken by the arrival of his friend Bellamy Zabini. Scorpius turned to look at his friend begrudgingly.

"All done dancing, Bell?" Scorpius asked.

"Nah, but we all decided that you need to get out on the dance floor. Your obvious staring at Al's cousin is getting a little sad." Bellamy said it with such little emotion that Scorpius was momentarily taken aback. He sputtered for a moment before he could respond.

"How? What? No! I wasn't." Bellamy only laughed at Scorpius' attempts at forming a full and complete thought.

"Don't try to deny it, Malfoy. We all know you've got a serious thing for her. So either get off your arse and ask her to the dance, or keep 'holding down the fort.' Either way, stop staring at Al's cousin with hungry eyes or he'll come hex you something fierce." Bellamy patted him on the shoulder as he stood to leave.

"Shove off, Zabini," Scorpius muttered as his friend returned to the dance floor. Though he did have to admit, Bellamy Zabini had a point. He'd spent the past two years pining over her and it was time he did something about it.

Taking a moment to gather his limited courage, Scorpius stood slowly and began weaving through the crowd in search of the red-head in the royal blue dress.

Rose sat at a table with her friends, who were talking animatedly about how fabulous and amazing the dance was. For her part, Rose was staying out of her friends' merriment. It was partly because she didn't agree with them and partly because she was preoccupied with scanning the crowd. She wasn't sure what she was looking for; she just hoped she'd know it when she saw it. If she didn't find it soon though, she'd be mighty upset that she'd come to this celebration of insanity.

"Oh! This is my jam!" Carly exclaimed as a new song filled the room, "Come dance with me Rosie!" Carly stood from the table and grabbed Rose's hand, not giving her much of an option.

Once on the dance floor, Rose did her best impression of a statue as Carly tried her best to make Rose move. Rose was having none of it though. She had agreed to come to the dance, not actually participate in any activities. She was here for one reason only, to find out who her mysterious note writer was. She could easily do that from the table. She did not need to be out on the dance floor, did not need to dance, in order to accomplish it.

"You're no fun, Rose. All I want to do is dance. Can't you give me that?" Carly asked, her voice purposefully sounding extremely innocent and childlike. It was Carly's 'I want something' voice, but Rose had long ago grown immune to it.

"Every other person at that table, except maybe Ella, would have been more than willing to dance with you. You should have known choosing me would not go in your favour." Rose then turned on her heel and headed back through the throngs of dancing students.

"Buzz kill!" Carly called after the retreating copper haired girl. Rose just chuckled quietly to herself and continued through the crowd. She was almost back to the table when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Rose's heart instantly began beating faster and faster. Her breath caught in her throat and she turned as slowly as possible to draw out the moment. Was this her secret admirer? Was the mystery finally going to be solved? She finished her slow turn and her rapidly beating heart halted.

"Michael," she deadpanned, quickly rearranging her facial expression from joy to an utter lack of amusement. Just when her evening couldn't get any worse. "What do you want?"

"I'm just surprised to see you here is all. Thought you'd be at the library or something, avoiding this place like the plague."

"Carly's very persuasive," Rose stated simply. She then attempted to leave but found herself halted by Michael's hand around her wrist.

"How about a dance, Rose? Since you're already here on the dance floor and everything."

"I'm not in the mood to dance, Michael. That's why I'm leaving. Now please let go of my wrist." She tugged her arm to help make her point even clearer.

"Come on Rose, one dance won't kill you," Michael responded, tightening his grip on her wrist. Rose continued to pull on her arm, but Michael wasn't letting her go.

"Let go, Michael. You're hurting me." Rose was beginning to get annoyed at him. However, he didn't respond. He just turned and began pulling her towards the center of the dance floor. Rose attempted to dig in her heels, but the floor was too slippery and she just glided along instead.

Rose continued to try and wrench her arm free, but Michael's grip was much too tight. On her tenth attempt, Rose found no resistance against her efforts and stumbled back with the force of her pull.

She massaged her wrist with her other hand then focused her attention on Michael, who was sprawled on the floor.

"What?" she asked under her breath, trying to process what was happening. Finally, her attention flickered to her right and the scene in front of her became clear.

As Scorpius made his way towards Rose's table, a large group had passed before him and he momentarily lost sight of the table. When he finally saw it again, Rose and her often-excited friend Carly were no longer sitting with the others. He almost considered going up to the table and asking where they'd went, but the thought better of it and turned to see if he could find them on the dance floor. When he didn't immediately find her, he decided to try and get a closer look.

He began scanning the crowd and moving throughout it. He quickly found Carly dancing wildly by herself, acting as if she didn't have a care in the world. He looked around, trying to see if he could spot Rose nearby, but he was unsuccessful. He was about to turn around, when he heard his name being called.

"Scorpius! Fancy seeing you here! You looking for Rose?" Carly asked, dancing her way in front of him.

"How-? What-? No!" Scorpius stuttered, taken aback by Carly's question.

"It's super obvious, this thing you have for her. Nearly everyone knows it, except for maybe Rose. I bet you've been the one writing her those poems."

"How do you know about those?" Scorpius asked, saying the first thing that came to his mind.

"Ha! I knew it!" Carly exclaimed, doing a little dance of joy, "Rose shares everything with me. That's what best friends do." Scorpius was struck dumb and just stood there staring at the short, dark haired girl who was dancing around in front of him.

"Do you know where Rose is?" he finally asked Carly after collecting his thoughts.

"She went back to the table. She's a major buzz kill," Carly answered, dancing off after she'd finished. Scorpius stood for a moment, staring at the strange girl, before he turned and headed back towards the table he'd first spotted Rose at.

He was halfway through the crowd towards the table when a sight out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He stopped and turned to focus on it and every muscle in his body tightened. He marched over to the pair, not even taking a second to think about what he was about to do, or what the consequences would be. When he was within striking distance he pulled out his wand and muttered a spell under his breath. In the next instance, the boy who had previously been dragging Rose by her wrist went flying back and landed hard on the ground.

Rose stumbled back, and then looked around to figure out what had just happened. Scorpius considered ducking back into the crowd before she spotted him, but people were quickly moving away from him. Rose finally spotted him and a look of understanding replaced her previously confused expression.

Scorpius just stood in front of her, looking sheepish. It was Rose who spoke first, breaking the silence.

"We'd better get out of here before a teacher comes," she stated hastily, moving towards him. She then grabbed his hand to lead him away and Scorpius' mind went blank.

To be continued