Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, or the competition So You Think You Can Dance or the idea of the choreography!
Reviews: Thanks Nicconicco, beautifly92 and LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL for your reviews! Also, annaRAWR,TheFlyingCat ,Rachelli,phantasyphoenix I'm so glad you like my beauty and the beast idea! I always found it very relevant to their romance hehe:P Thanks for reviewing! AlexandraOzera I totally agree, no one can be mean without a hidden motive! And thanks so much to my faithful reader and reviewer Beccasucks!
AN: I hope you guys like this chapter! Had a bit of a writers block for it. Please read and review! Constructive criticism and any ideas, all welcome:D Thanks for sticking with me till now. I went to watch a local production, Ballet Under The Stars, last night. The pas de deux was gorgeous!
Chapter 8. Stealing Your First Kiss
"Shit!" Draco cursed, storming through the portrait hole into his shared room.
"What now?" replied Blaise resignedly. He was lifting weights casually on the bed.
"I'm such a bastard."
"I honestly don't see why that's a bad thing."
Draco glared and Blaise just shrugged.
"I just had breakfast with Granger," Draco admitted heavily.
"No bloody way. You are a bastard."
"Yeah, and it actually was going swimmingly until I ended things badly." Draco decided it best to omit the part where his thoughts went all soft and mushy on the Gryffindor. "I decided to leave and I mindlessly said something along the lines of 'I don't want to be seen together' and obviously she took offense and was angry, the stupid, defensive muggleborn. And instead of being the suave gentleman I usually am with the ladies, I lashed out and damn, she's going to screw up my competition!" He also chose not to mention how he had been on the brink of spilling the beans and explaining everything to her.
"Aw shit."
"Thanks, that made me feel all whole lot better," Draco said acidly.
"What can I say? She's a Gryffindor, she'll feel so guilty for giving you lip that she'll come over and beg for forgiveness."
Draco secretly felt that Granger would be more likely to kiss a hippogriff than apologise but he felt inclined to agree.
"Maybe."
Hermione apparated straight into her room, startling Ginny who was stretching on the floor.
"Merlin, Hermione! You gave me a shock. Anyway," she chattered happily, "You were away with Malfoy for ages! You even missed lunch! So how was it? He really isn't that bad right? He's got the looks, the charm, and he's very witty when he's not using his dry humour to be insulting. Did you two hit it off..." Ginny trailed off as she took in Hermione's expression.
"It was horrible," she confessed. "I couldn't help it though, I was just so angry! I thought we had built some sort of camaraderie over all that talking. I thought it was all good, but then he got up and wanted to leave and was so brusque all of a sudden. And I just snapped, I don't know why. Ended things with this whole verbal sparring match and I said some mean, mean things to him that, now that I think of it, I shouldn't have said. Damn, something about him just infuriates me sometimes. I don't understand him."
"He's a boy, hon," informed Ginny with an all knowing air.
"Of that I am well aware," Hermione said dryly.
"No," Ginny replied loftily, reveling in the rare instance that her knowledge bested that of her friend. "Draco Malfoy is a boy. That means that though he's more afraid of his own feelings than he is of a flesh-eating threstral."
"Right." She plopped down on her bed and let her body sink into the comforting soft mattress. "Damn, since it's my fault for provoking him, does it mean I'll have to apologise?"
"No," Ginny snorted, sounding a lot more like her own feisty self. "He's a Malfoy. Since when do any of us say sorry to him?"
Hermione did not reply and instead stared up at the ceiling. It really is my fault, she thought. All he said was that we didn't want to be seen together. And that's what we had agreed on in the beginning and all I just had to flare up and pick a fight. But he is a bloody annoying prick. Riding on Harry's coattails indeed! Where on earth did he get that idea. Indignant she rolled over on her side. He's full of rubbish. Let him be the first to come talk to me, the conceited pig.
"That's the way," Ginny approved.
Hermione stuck her tongue out at her, realizing how she had spoken her thoughts aloud again.
Draco apparated into the dance studio, not looking forward to dancing with Granger. She hadn't spoken to him since their disastrous breakfast meltdown two days ago. They were finally going to start on the choreography today and having a silent, and sometimes abrasive partner was not something that appealed to him. Elphie was just getting started.
She clapped her hands twice. "Get into your pairs!"
Granger stalked over to him rolling her eyes.
"Good morning to you too!" He quipped and recieved a scathing look in return.
Elphie instructed them to do a complicated sort of split jump and then the girls would be lifted straight up in the air by their partners and then be flipped over.
"Besides stretching and getting you muscles warmed up, it will also help you trust your partners." She gave Draco a pointed look. "Which would be especially helpful for some of you."
Draco was miffed. It was hardly his fault, it was Granger who treated him like a brick wall. Elphie demonstrated the sequence, Blaise lifting her up in turn. "Now it's your turn. Go on!"
"You'll have to talk to me sometime, Granger," he said while watching her execute a perfect split jump that he couldn't help but admire but then grimaced when she pulled up short of leaping into his arms. He could see her eyeing him warily. Draco sighed to himself. If she wasn't going to trust him to lift and flip her, then Elphie was going to come over and give them an earful. Not that he cared, really, but it would also mean that they would dance terribly at this week's competition.
"I'm not going to bite you," he wheedled. "Or I just might, actually..." Granger's eyes widened and he decided that annoying her was the best way to get a reaction out of her. So he continued.
"You're wearing shorts today. Trying to catch my eye? You know I always thought Krum was a tad too dense for you. He was only just part of your facade, wasn't he, to hide your secret, very secret, extremely forbidden desire to get with this." Noting that Granger's expression was growing progressively more furious, he smirked, a long, drawn out, superior Malfoy smirk. That did it.
"Draco bloody Malfoy!"
"And she speaks."
Granger's face took on a mutinous expression.
"Look, I'm not going to drop you. As much as I like the idea of letting you fall and hit your muggleborn ass on the floor, I'm not going to do it. I need a partner to dance with, for one. And, I'm too strong, muscular and toned to drop you. Honestly, I'm Draco Malfoy for christ's sake. And I'm warning you if you don't get yourself over here so I can throw you- I mean flip you, Elphie is gonna come over and you'll be scolded." He singsonged the last line.
"Fine," she snapped. She did a grande jete and flung herself into his arms with abandon. Draco, though surprised, caught her in his arms effortlessly, flipped her around as she arched her back and lifted one leg and finally lowered her gently to the ground. He suddenly became very aware of where his hands were resting, the planes and curves of her body. Shaking himself, he jerked his hands away as if her body was a red hot poker.
"Well done, you two! See what happens when you let go of control, Hermione? And see what difference it makes when you handle your partner delicately and with care, Draco?" Elphie gave the an approving nod.
Granger squeaked. "Yes."
Draco remained mute.
Elphie gave them a couple more exercises to do, involving a lot of leaps and leg extensions, fortunately not requiring them to work in their pairs. By the end of the one and a half hours, every dancer was sweaty, limp and sprawled out ungainly on the floor in some form of cool down stretch.
"You can take a 15 minute break," she told them cheerfully, once again oblivious to their pain. She got a bunch of moans of assent, no one lifting a finger from their positions.
"Then, you will come back and start learning your new choreography!" This got the dancers more perked up. "See you in a few!"
Hermione muttered a few choice spells to refresh her tired body. She had gotten a quick drink, and now was leaning against the panel of mirror with her name, waiting for the ferret to make his grand entrance so both could start on their choreo. She didn't have to wait long for him to stroll in, and queerly enough, he strolled in alone.
She had made up her mind not to talk to him, as she didn't want to apologise and she was still simmering from their fight. However Malfoy had seemed to have long forgotten their little spat and spent his time trying to make small talk, which in his case meant annoying her to death. She had finally cracked when he made some asinine comment about her having a crush on him, which was, like everything else he said, completely absurd. But since Malfoy was apparently so chipper and unaffected, she too could let bygones be bygones.
"You took long enough," Hermione informed him.
"Sorry to keep your highness waiting." Malfoy inclined his head in return, while tapping his wand on the mirror and saying his name. The panel slid aside, allowing them access to their dance studio. They looked around and quickly spotted the portrait. Once again, it consisted of a man and a woman, dressed in baggy sweatpants and t-shirts, wearing sneakers. The darkskinned lady looked hip, with crazy, frizzy black hair pulled back with a rainbow coloured hairband. The man had a close crew cut and had beautiful skin, the colour of milk chocolate.
Hermione chuckled and nudged Malfoy. "Check out the shoes."
She watched him bite back a laugh when he noticed the other couple's neon pink trainers.
"I'm George and she's Addy. We'll be teaching you your new lyrical hip hop routine!"
Addy picked up where he left off. "For this dance, there's actually going to be a storyline behind it. You," she pointed at Hermione, " Are desperately in love with him." She pointed at Draco and he smirked arrogantly. "He's your boyfriend, husband, your pick." At that Malfoy's expression developed to one of horror, but Hermione could not revel in his distaste because she too was experiencing similar feelings. "However, he is a workaholic, completely, entirely, obsessed with his work and this breaks your heart."
"We expect you to really get into character," George said earnestly, "It will add a lot of feel and give your dance more meaning. So, Draco, Hermione, lets get started!"
Malfoy had to carry a briefcase in this dance, and in the beginning of the dance, it involved Hermione dancing up to him, jerking his shoulder and throwing and stepped on that very briefcase. That was alright, but he also had to kiss her cheek. Malfoy, kiss her! She shuddered involunarily, even though she couldn't help but marvel at the smoothness and cleverness of the movement. Her hand would be lifted up and he would slide his chin down the length of her arm and give her a peck on the cheek, and then she would have to do a body wave away from him.
"Eurgh, Granger," Malfoy said, on learning that he would have to do that. They practiced for the first time, Hermione feeling very stiff and uncomfortable as she felt his chin on her arm. She worked on not scrunching up her face in disgust as he kissed her cheek but to her extreme shock, she found that it wasn't that bad. His lips were soft and warm and they barely grazed her cheek, leaving a tingly sensation behind. Stunned, she almost reached up to touch her cheek before she remembered she was dancing and she was supposed to move away after that.
"Sorry for stealing your first kiss, bookworm," the ferret had teased immediately.
"That was not my first kiss!" Hermione insisted indignantly.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of." Malfoy gave her a roguish wink.
"Malfoy!"
"So you had prior experience?"
"Yes!" she answered vehemently.
"Touchy, are we," he mused.
Their instructors watched their playful banter with smiles on their faces. It amused them to see their charges trade insults so quickly and offhandedly. "Those two will do well," Addy observed.
"Seriously, twitchy little ferret, why don't you migrate to china and die there."
"I'm touched you care so much about my welfare, Granger."
"Oh honey," Hermione had replied, laying it on thick. "You know I have your best interests at heart." She gazed at him with a mock passionate expression.
George nodded knowingly. "Those two will do very well."