Chapter 59: Dancing?
After that, the four of them continued to talk for a few moments about various topics until Pandora insisted that all of them should go dancing together.
"So Xeno, are you going to dance with me or not?" said Pandora with a pout.
"Sure, like every year, we have to show off our dancing" smiled Xeno, the instant he said that she nodded effusively and happily.
" What about you Sev, are you and your cousin coming?" asked Pandora hopefully.
"Well, actually I never danced... although I guess I tried once, but then never again," said Severus sincerely as he remembered that neither as Vader nor as Snape had ever danced, of course, Lily tried to teach Snape but that ended quite badly...
No, it wasn't because Snape was bad at dancing, but rather that he was simply too clumsy around Lily, especially when he was pressed up against her, which prevented him from being able to do anything right.
Yes, Snape couldn't stand being pressed up against Lily while dancing, it was too much for his heart...
And since he knew that he might want to do something he would regret later, he preferred to avoid dancing with her, after all, he considered his friendship with Lily the most important thing, even more, important than his feelings or happiness.
"Oh, no problem, just follow Xeno and me," Pandora said confidently.
Severus smiled amused and nodded in agreement, he was confident that he could learn quite quickly, after all, he dealt with more complicated situations than this, besides if he couldn't learn a few simple dance steps when he had learned the different forms of Jedi lightsaber combat then it would be rather pathetic and sad of him... a total mockery.
Hermione was going to politely decline despite a part of her wanting to go, but before she could respond, Pandora grabbed her wrist and dragged her onto the dance floor.
"Come on, I don't want any of us to leave this party without dancing," said Pandora.
And that's how they all ended up going dancing together.
On the way to the dance floor, Severus saw that Amelia was still talking to the members of the Ministry and decided not to interrupt her, if she wanted to, she would join him on the dance floor.
Once on the dance floor, Severus watched Pandora and Xeno dance, he was... how should I say it... he was... shocked...
Yes, the dance of those two was undoubtedly quite different ...., it was clearly something original and unique..., of course, Severus decided not to learn from them or much less copy their moves.
Although the two of them clearly looked happy and enjoying themselves dancing in their own way, something Severus could respect... but not imitate.
Anyway, he turned his gaze to the third person in their group, Hermione, she certainly danced in a more common way and seemed more in keeping with the rest of the people around her, still, she seemed pretty tense, she was almost like a droid moving.
Severus may have never danced before, but it didn't necessarily have to be an expert to know that none of the three of them danced " good", of course with Xeno and Pandora's dancing it wasn't something he could tell if they were dancing good or not, as it was simply different to anything he knew.
While sighing, Severus watched the couples dancing around him and decided to follow the ones he thought danced better.
It was only a few moments before Severus got the essential, he decided to put what he saw into practice, he dragged Hermione to dance with him as Pandora and Xeno were in their own world as they danced.
Hermione was impressed with how well Severus seemed to move while dancing, she had seen how at first he just stood there looking at his surroundings and only a few moments later he was dancing in a similar way to the rest, he even seemed to improvise... and she admitted that he was good at it.
The four of them spent some time dancing, and Hermione frankly admitted that she really enjoyed it.
Of course, she blushed furiously when the music slowed down and Severus placed one of his hands on her waist and the other on her hand.
She was thankful that Hogwarts had taught them the basic steps of slow dancing, otherwise, she would have been in a really embarrassing situation.
Hermione's cheeks were tinged red and she looked away from him as they danced.
" Well, I didn't think you were the dancing type," Severus joked as he saw that she could follow his steps quite well.
"Why? it's quite normal for anyone my age to know the basics"
"Yeah, well... I thought you were the type that would rather use your time to read than to learn these things."
"I see..., that's not at all wrong, I learned only because there was no choice" she admitted.
"Uh-oh, well, It's not a bad thing," Severus assured her.
In fact, he was like that and it didn't seem like a bad thing, now he just decided to do it to pass the time and not look like an idiot while dancing.
"You know, if I didn't actually know you, I would really think you just wanted to make me feel good saying that," Hermione smiled.
They spent the rest of the time dancing to a variety of songs, clearly having fun.
Pandora and Xeno at times tried to convince them to learn the way they danced as well...
But that would never happen as both Hermione and Severus found an excuse every time to avoid joining them in their unique dance.
Finally, the four of them stopped as another slow song began and they left the dance floor to stand near the table they had been at earlier.
Each of the four was in a good mood.
"Heh, I told you two that would be fun," Pandora said, smiling at them as she leaned wearily back in a chair.
Xeno began to search through his pockets.
" It seems you were right," Severus said with a small smile and Pandora smiled back at him before raising an eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" she asked Xeno.
Xeno held up a finger silently telling her to wait while he continued to search.
After a few seconds, he finally pulled out a small notebook and started saying nonsense, though Pandora seemed to understand him as she made several suggestions that he wrote down in the notebook...
Yes, Hermione and Severus still wondered what the hell those two were talking about.
"This... Severus, do you understand anything they're talking about at all?" asked Hermione in a whisper.
"Well..., I still have doubts as to whether or not even they really know what they're talking about."
Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed when he started joking again, but she was smiling a little at this.
She couldn't deny that she quite liked that part of him now, at first it was more awkward than anything else, but now that they knew each other better it was getting to be funny and amusing in its own way.
"Was that really your first time dancing? I mean, well, it didn't seem like it" she asked intrigued.
Of course, Hermione wasn't expecting a full answer from him, but she at least wanted to satiate some of her curiosity as to how he could dance so well being his first time.
" I already said it, I tried it once but it was a pretty awkward situation and I must have only danced for 5 minutes at most" he replied.
"I see..." nodded Hermione a little disappointed that she didn't exactly know the reason behind it, she walked over to the table next to her and grabbed a butterbeer.
" Would you like some?" she asked offering him one of the butterbeer glasses that was on the table.
Severus nodded and she pulled out another glass of butterbeer and offered it to him.
Just as Severus reached out his hand to take it, they were interrupted.
It was none other than Olivia Greengrass.
"Severus!"
"This... Olivia?!" said Severus a little intrigued to see his Slytherin housemate suddenly approach them, he knew she wasn't the type to do such a thing without a good reason.
" Excuse me for interrupting, but I need to speak to Severus for a moment... Of course, if that's alright," said Olivia who was wearing an elegant, sexy, blonde blouse with an open neckline along with a stylish black skirt that had a large slit through which one could see her gorgeous, soft, white, and delicate legs.
"Huh?, Uh-Oh no, not at all, you two talk calmly," Hermione said as soon as she woke up.
"That's convenient, thank you, I'm Olivia Greengrass by the way, you must be Severus' cousin, pleased to meet you" Olivia greeted politely.
" Not at all..., yea, Hermione Prince, nice to meet you as well" Hermione nodded with the same politeness.
After the quick greeting, Olivia wasted no time and pulled Severus into a corner to talk about some things in private.
And Hermione was left alone again..., well actually there were Xeno and Pandora by her side, but they were both still in their own world as they talked about things she couldn't understand.
Thinking that maybe Remus had enough of pretending to be so interested in Quidditch to not have to be with her, she dared to hope as she scanned the room with her gaze...
But she was out of luck, as she saw that Remus was still there listening "attentively" to what those Quidditch players were saying.
Hermione was convinced that he didn't like the game enough to spend so much time listening to players talk about their "magnificent and awesome" moves.
In fact, she doubted that he was even interested in Quidditch, it was more likely that everything he knew was just from listening to James and Sirius so much than from being a fan of the sport.
~~~~~~~
Lily entered the Feast Hall with Alice and looked around.
The party seemed to be going well.
Everyone was already in their own groups, as usual, but Slughorn took it upon himself to walk around the room introducing different people and making conversations more fruitful.
Professor Slughorn had apparently been at the bottle for a while, he already had rosy cheeks and was strutting around in a drunken but jovial manner.
'Well, here's liquor in somewhere' thought Lily already sensing that she would need it to get through this, even if she wasn't old enough yet.
Slug Club meetings were normally dry and uneventful.
However, today, the feast was in full swing with many guests.
The meeting room was expanded, with several tables around it filled with lavish food and drinks and in the centre a dance floor.
The half moon and stars in the night sky were vivid through the enchanted transparent ceiling, it was a fascinating sight.
Lily scanned the room again and found the person she was looking for.
At one of the tables was her partner chatting effusively with some Ministry of Magic employees and other students.
Apparently, he saw her come in because he raised his head and looked at her with discontent in his eyes.
Lily just gave him an apologetic look, she knew that she had probably given him a rather uncomfortable and embarrassing moment by leaving him alone for so long at the beginning of the party.
And probably the last thing he wanted now was for her to interrupt his enthusiastic chatting with those people..., yes, she would have to wait for him to finish talking first.
"Oh, Alice, Lily, you're finally here, come and join us and dance, the music is great!" said Alice's partner energetically as he approached them.
He was a Hufflepuff 7th year named Benjy Fenwick part of the Order of the Phoenix and a very good friend of Alice's boyfriend Frank, of course, he was now a very good friend of hers as well.
"This, well this sounds good fun! Come on Lily!" said Alice grabbing her arm and dragging her along with her onto the dance floor.
Lily sharpened her ear to listen to the music and found that apparently, they were now passing music from an elitist wizarding rock band.
"I'm really going to need that bottle," Lily muttered and Alice beside her laughed a little when she heard it, but Alice wasted no time and instantly pulled Lily up to dance along with Benjy Fenwick's group.
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Well my dear readers, I hope you liked today's chapter,
This week I will upload 6 chapters, maybe 7 since this Fiction reached only 2094 PS this time so it would correspond only 6 chapters, today's chapter is the first of these 6 or 7.
Again, every 300 PS (power stone) this fic has will be a chapter for next week.
Good luck to all of you.