Chapter 14
"Wow," George groaned, "That was amazing. Best meal I ever had, and I grew up on Mum's cooking."
"I know," Fred agreed, leaning back in his chair, "The house-elves really outdid themselves this time."
George gave a weak chuckle. "Better not mention that to Hermione, eh?"
"Come on, you guys," I said, tugging on Fred's arm. "Dumbledore wants to move the tables."
They both got up, but Fred immediately fell back in his chair. "I'm too full, Angelina. I can't even move," he whined.
"Well, too bad, idiot," I hissed, "I told you, Dumbledore's about to move the tables. So unless you want to get crushed against a wall, which, I have to admit, I'd like to see, only then I'd have no one to dance with, you have to get up."
"Fine," he said grumpily, and stood just as Dumbledore waved his wand. The tables flew to the walls of the hall, and a stage appeared.
I rolled my eyes. "You're such a baby."
"Heard it before," he grunted, "But, really, where's the fun in being mature?" He said it as if it was a dirty curse word.
All of the sudden, Maya gave a shriek. "Oh, Merlin! It's the Weird Sisters!"
As loud as she was, I doubt many people heard her. The whole hall had exploded with yells of delight and wild applause. The Weird Sisters entered, jumping up on the stage and grabbing the instruments that were laying on it.
I clapped excitedly, having grown up listening to them on the radio. I couldn't wait to hear them live.
The only person who didn't look excited was Kenneth Towler, but, really, what else could you expect? He went on and on about how awful they were for a while, with Patricia sort of nodding her head vaguely, and the rest of us ignoring him completely.
The champions and their partners had been led out into the middle of the hall, which was now cleared of tables. Harry looked even whiter than before. (I was starting to think he was a bit of a wimp, no matter how good of a Seeker he was.) It was painfully obvious that the girl he was dancing with was steering. Roger Davies had a dazed look on his face, and he kept tripping over Fleur's feet. She was looking kind of annoyed, but he seemed oblivious to anything except how pretty she was, leaving me to reflect that I'd never fully appreciated what a real idiot he was until that moment.
The other two pairs looked like they were having the time of their lives. Cedric Diggory was dancing with the Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, although I couldn't for the life of me remember her name.
Standing there, watching them, I realized for the first time in a while that I could be out there, dancing with Fred, instead of them. I'd entered the Triwizard Tournament earlier this year (legally and beardlessly, unlike the twins), but the Goblet of Fire had chosen Cedric over me. It had upset me a lot at first, certainly more than I had ever told anyone. I couldn't believe that an oversized cup had decided that Pretty Boy Diggory was braver, stronger, smarter, and a better champion than me. I mean, I was a Gryffindor, wasn't I?
I got over it though, and while Cedric wasn't my favorite person in the world, I supposed I was happy for him.
More couple had joined the dance floor now. Dumbledore was dancing with Madame Maxine, and Moody with Professor Sinistra, who looked very nervous, which, I had to say, was completely understandable.
Other students had started dancing as well. Elizabeth pulled Gabriel out onto the dance floor, and Thomas asked Leanne bashfully if she wanted to dance with him.
A minute after they'd left, George looked over at Maya rather nervously, "Um, so, d'ya want to dance?"
She giggled, which I thought was rather stupid, and off they went, leaving me looking over at Fred, who said, "C'mon, then!"
I felt rather disappointed, although I didn't quite know why, but nodded anyway.
We started to make our way to the dance floor, leaving both Katie and Patricia looking rather dubiously at their dates.
We walked right past Ron, who was sitting in a sulky silence next to his date. The girl had to be Harry's date's twin, as they looked identical.
"Cheer up, Ron," Fred said cheerily, "You look like Aunt Muriel's just-"
"Shut up," Ron muttered, looking at the ground. His date rolled her eyes.
Fred just shrugged, and we kept walking.
"What were you going to say?" I asked. "Died?"
"Came for a visit," he said briskly.
I laughed. "I do feel bad for Ron though. I mean, Krum's not exactly a good rival, and those dress robes really are bloody awful."
We had reached the edge of the dance floor now, but moved no further. A very slow song was playing; I could see George and Maya swaying back and forth across the hall.
Fred stopped and laughed nervously. "If you think those are bad, you should have seen mine and George's."
"What the heck are you talking about?" I said, laughing, not altogether sure where this joke was going. "Aren't I looking at them?"
"These?" he said, fingering his plain black robes, "These are my everyday ones. You didn't notice?"
"You wore-"
"Yep," he said, unabashedly, "But really, what was I supposed to do. They were yellow, Angelina! Yellow!"
Not sure whether to be amused at the thought of yellow dress robes or horrified that I'd only narrowly escaped having a date wearing them, I just said, "So why didn't Ron do that?"
"Why doesn't Ron do anything?" Fred said, "Because he's a prat."
"You don't mean that," I said, a little distractedly, suddenly spotting Alicia dancing with Eric. Her whole face was glowing. I didn't think mine was doing that. "He's your brother."
"Exactly."
We fell into silence. My stomach was all twisted up in knots. I kept looking over at all the dancing couples. Why weren't we dancing? Did he not want to dance with me?
But he'd asked me….
"Fred-" I said finally, but just then, the song changed to a much faster one. It was an older song, one that I'd always loved, but at that moment, I didn't want to hear it.
His face, which I'd hardly realized was tense, suddenly split with relief as the notes got faster and faster. "Yeah? Let's go."
We walked past Katie and Franklin, who were now dancing. Katie had a smile on her face, it looked plastered there, fake as the Leprachaun gold. I caught her eye, and gave her a questioning look. She just shrugged.
"Merlin, this is fast," Fred said, as we started to dance, or rather, awkwardly move from side to side. We were about two feet apart, not even holding hands. "I really did eat too much."
Was he hinting that he didn't want to be out here, with me? All I said, though, was, "Yeah, you're going to be way out of shape for Quidditch next year."
"No way. I get too much exercise running from Filch."
"And McGonagall and Snape."
"Yeah, and… well, all the teachers, really, I suppose. Anyway, it won't matter," he said, grinning confidently, "I'm going to be Captain, so no one will be able to yell at me anyway, even if I started flying like Percy."
"What's Percy fly like?"
He didn't miss a beat. "Like a half-blind dragon that's just had its wings cut off."
I had to think about that for a minute. "I don't even know how to picture that."
"Like I said, he's a Towler with red hair, not a real Weasley at all. I mean, I guess Ron and Ginny aren't very good flyers, but Bill was decent, even if he never played for Gryffindor. Charlie was a star, obviously. George is identical to me, so he's naturally amazing, and I'm going to be the second Captain in the family."
That brought me back to what he'd said before. "Oh, get off it, Weasley. You'll be Captain the day Snape adopts you and George. I mean, you can't even muster up the energy to dance, and you think you can be Quidditch Captain?"
At that, he started to dance, so wildly that the couple on our left jumped back, startled.
"Now who doesn't have any energy, Angelina? You look like a sleeping flobberworm."
Laughing, I moved to imitate him, just as Harry walked past us with his date, on his way towards Ron.
The Weird Sisters played faster and faster, and soon both of us were nearly out of breath, but we kept going. Nearly a five foot ring of empty space had formed around, although the hall was rather crowded. Every one seemed wary of getting hit by one of our flailing limbs, which, I had to admit, was entirely possible.
Too bad for them.
Hello, all!
Just in case anyone was wondering, I do know that Ginny is a brilliant flyer, but you have to remember that Fred didn't know that at this point. Personally, this is my favorite chapter that I've written in a while, probably since the ninth one, so I do hope you like it. Please continue to review!
-Julie
