Chapter 4: Just A Little More Refined With The Ladies
Sean and Hermione walked leisurely up to the panel that had their names scripted on it. As Sean drew his wand to tap the glass, Hermione caught Ginny's eye. Her sprightly red head friend pulled a face and mouthed, "Wish me luck!" before pivoting on her left foot to glare at Malfoy who was lingering behind with Blaise and Iris. "Hurry up, Ferret!" she yelled, her voice echoing around the studio. Everyone turned around to stare, and Ginny had the grace to look properly abashed. "Sorry, didn't mean to yell."
Malfoy raised an eyebrow and stopped walking altogether. "Weasley, best you learn this now. I'm a Malfoy. I don't bloody take orders. You'd be better off thinking twice before shouting at me again."
Ginny looked ready to argue but Elphie intervened. "I know you all may be tired from warm up but time is of the essence. No more idle chatter, go on!" She flapped her hands in a shooing motion and everyone resumed what they were doing previously. Hermione drew her wand to tap on the mirror. "Hermione Granger," she said, feeling a little silly and self conscious. The panel of mirror shuddered, the slid aside, revealing a similar, albeit smaller, dance studio. Hermione shared a companionable grin with Sean as they walked in.
"Welcome, Sean and Hermione! We'll be your choreographers for the week. I'm Melina and he's Mark," a cheerful voice said. Both looked around, trying to identify the speaker, but saw nobody.
She glanced at Sean, he looked as confused as she did. "Uhh..."
"No clue." Sean shrugged in return. Searching the room once more he called out, "Who's there? I'm sorry sir, but we can't seem to see you."
Hermione had been casting her gaze around the room and suddenly she realised who the mysterious speaker was. "Sean, look! Over there!" She pointed her finger to one end of the room, where a life-sized portrait stood, taking up half of the entire wall. The background of the portrait was mirror-like, so no wonder the pair hadn't noticed it earlier. It depicted a man leotard and tights and a woman, dressed similarly. They nodded and waved at their dumbstruck students.
"Will you...will you be teaching us?" Sean ventured.
"Yes, of course we'll be teaching you," the woman, Melinda, answered, laughing.
"But you're, you're pictures." Hermione stated, confused. Sean nodded his head in agreement
"You two are wizards, aren't you. Yes, we are pictures. But we move, we speak, we dance!"
The man chimed in. "We're taking this competition cum learning experience to a whole new level! You now will have to 'watch and learn', literally! No more teachers to position your legs and arms, well, of course if it gets to difficult for you we'll call in Elphie. But we want to stretch your capabilities as dancers. See how well you learn without that extra bit of guidance."
Witch and wizard didn't know what to say.
"Apparently, they're at loss for words," said Melinda.
"Perhaps, they doubt our talent," Mark suggested.
"Well, let's show them a thing or two!"
Out of nowhere, music began playing, a modern slower remix of a pop song. Mark and Melinda began to dance, a moderately paced dance, filled with accentuated movements, graceful extensions of arms and legs and intense looks between partners. Often, Mark would sweep Melinda off her feet and into the air in different positions, effortlessly performing these lifts. Hermione was enraptured by the dance and the obvious chemistry between the two. The dance ended with Melinda executing a perfect series of chaines turns right into Mark's arms, with their faces dangerously close to each other, eyes locked, lips a hair's breadth away.
"Amazing," she heard Sean breathe beside her.
Melinda swept into a elegant curtsy. "Glad you think so." Her eyes twinkled. "So lets get to work!"
Sean and Hermione quickly learnt the first quarter of the dance, and both were having fun. At first they felt a tad uncomfortable at being in such close proximity with each other. Melinda and Mark had insisted that they make it believable, even if it was only the first practice. So they had to gaze deeply into each other's eyes as they wrapped their bodies sinuously around each other. Sean had quickly come up with a funny, yet practical solution.
"You have to make believe," he said earnestly to Hermione. "We can take on alter egos, of sort. Pretend that I'm... Stephen and you're Hermy-" Hermione had to stifle a laugh at that point as she vividly remembered a certain giant who had called her that back in fifth year. Sean saw her expression and misinterpreted it. "I know, Hermy's a really silly name but that's beside the point! Just pretend you're someone else, we're in some parallel universe, and we're madly in love. And when the dance is over, I'll be Sean and you'll be Hermione. Isn't that what dancing is, anyway? When you're dancing, you take yourself away."
Hermione nodded. Dancing never failed to whisk all her problems away. "Alright, let's try out your suggestion."
Melinda and Mark approved of Sean's idea. Although the two worked well together, the choreographers had observed that they had no chemistry. They were good dancers, their technique was impeccable, but they were lacking passion.
"Yeah, give it a shot," Melinda smiled encouragingly at the young witch and wizard.
Hermione shut her eyes and envisioned herself as Hermy, a bold, beautiful, passionate woman, madly in love with Stephen. She fell into Stephen's arms with ease and they moved in perfect precision. "Better," Mark commended. And things went rather smoothly after that.
The same could not be said for Draco, however. He had a rather rude shock from discovering that their choreographers were, shocker! Portraits! And then he had to come to terms to the fact he would have to dance passionately with the Little Weasel. They hadn't bickered at all though, because Weasley had kept her mouth firmly shut throughout the time of which they learnt a bit of choreography. Now the dreaded moment had arrived. They had to dance- together. Merlin help him. He must have grimaced or something, because Weaslette snapped at him.
"I'm sorry its so distasteful an experience to dance with me, but please bear with it and not make that face on the actual day of competition, or we will be out of the running before you can say ferret."
Draco was honestly affronted. He was a Malfoy, and no face he ever made could be anything less than attractive. He informed her on this.
"I suppose you think you're God's gift to women then," she laughed.
"You bet your blood traitor ass I am." He said it with a smirk and a twinkle in his eye, so she would know he wasn't trying to be insulting. Lucky for Weasley, he was in a damn good mood. Maybe it had something to do with Granger being all over him in dance class. He mentally shook himself to clear his head. Consorting with blood traitors and mudbl-muggleborns. The only way he could top that was if he confessed his secret love for Potter.
Ginny chuckled, startling him out of his reverie. " Come on God's gift to womankind, let's get this bloody thing over with." She gestured with her hands to invite him over.
"Ooh, little Weasley said a baaaad word," he mocked.
"And you're gonna hear a lot more," Ginny was quick to reply. And even quicker to add, "Don't think I'm flirting with you, blonde, snobby and elitist aren't exactly qualities I prize in a guy."
Malfoy rolled his eyes and stalked over. The music started to play, a strong, fast paced beat, and he took up his position. Weaslette took up hers. And so, they danced.
The tired, hungry, yet satisfied dancers trooped into the dining hall and took their seats. Parvati, Ginny and Hermione selected a windowside table. Sliding into their seats, they peered at their menus, deciding on ordering simple dishes, loading up on carbs and green vegetables. After speaking their orders to the table, they shared rueful grins. "No more ice creams and cauldron cakes for awhile," Parvati said, speaking what was on everyone's minds. They enjoyed a few minutes of casual conversation before the food appeared on their tables, replacing their menus.
"The house elves are pretty fast," Ginny remarked, and noticing Hermione readying herself to launch into a speech about house elves and rights, she quickly picked up a forkful of pasta and shoved it into Hermione's mouth. Parvati giggled, and the girls enthusiastically dug in, ravenous from a strenuous day of dance. After sating her hunger, Parvati decided to get down to business.
"So...how was it?" she asked Ginny cheekily.
"How was what?"
"Dancing with Draco Malfoy! It must have been heaven, being up and close to his toned body and gorgeous face."
Hermione barely avoided choking on her mouthful of pasta. Ginny enthusiastically patted her on her back, a little too hard for her liking, as she answered. "Well, I can't deny he is deeply attractive, but he's not really my type. Actually, he really wasn't that bad, no seriously Hermione, don't look at me like that. He's actually a very witty guy. Snarky, but funny too. Not half as bad as I thought he would be."
Hermione snorted. "Yeah and I'm the Prince of Egypt."
Parvati ignored her and gushed, "See, i told you! You guys were totally prejudiced when we were in Hogwarts. He's the most attractive man on the planet, and every woman's dream come true."
Ginny looked thoughtful. "I do believe he would agree with you on that." And then she chortled to herself.
Draco, Blaise and Iris happened to pass by their table and Draco overheard snatches of conversation. He smirked. Granger was still as stubborn as ever, refusing to accept that there was a nicer side to the Prince of Slytherin. But apparently, he had won over Weasley, and of course Parvati had always been his own personal cheerleader, even back at Hogwarts. He imagined her going round the red and gold Gryffindor common room trying to convince everyone Draco was not the evil bastard he was always described as by Potty and Weasel.
Of course, he was still the same evil Slytherin bastard. Just a little more refined with the ladies.
A/N: Next up, the first round of competition:D I have likened their performances to certain past ones on So You Think You Can Dance. I'll let you know which dancers they are and post up the links on my profile! Read and Review, thanks!