Yours, Fred | f. weasley x reader

Chapter 16: The Dance Class

The following morning, you were all sitting in the Great Hall eating breakfast when Ron suddenly spoke loudly from down the table from where you sat with your friends, "oh look! Mum's sent me something!" You all turned from your conversations and looked down the table as Ron eagerly tore open the wrapping of a large parcel. He pulled something made from a hideous velvet fabric with frills out from the packaging and stood up from the table with it, looking completely baffled.

Fred snickered from his seat beside you and you turned to him, "what is it he's got?"

"Just wait and see," he said to you, looking positively evil as he looked at Ron with his gift. George turned around with raised eyebrows and using some silent communication, Fred confirmed whatever George suspected, making the other twin laugh as well.

"Mum sent me a dress," Ron simply said, and you turned to Fred as you suddenly remembered the extra items on your school list for this year. "Those surely aren't..?" you asked him quietly, trying to suppress a smile.

"Oh they are, and pretty sure our great aunt died in those robes" Fred whispered to you. You turned to him with wide eyes but he laughed, "well probably not, but looking at them would you really be surprised if she had?" You stifled a laugh as Ron continued fretting over the outfit.

"Well it does match your eyes," Harry told Ron as he looked back into the box, "is there a bonnet? Aha!" He pulled a frilly lace cravat with a black bowtie and held it up to Ron's chest.

"Nose down, Harry," Ron huffed half heartedly as he told his friend to mind his business, and then he turned to Ginny who sat down the bench with her friends, "Ginny, these must be for you."

Ginny looked at her brother like he'd grown an extra head, "I'm not wearing that, it's ghastly." Hermione began laughing and Ron turned to her, "what are you on about?"

"They're not for Ginny," she laughed and shook her head, "they're for you!" You and the twins collapsed into a fit of hysterical laughter and Fred nearly choked on his orange juice.

"Dress robes," Hermione explained.

"Dress robes? For what?" Ron asked, completely dumbfounded.

---

"The Yule Ball," Professor McGonagall explained to the Gryffindors gathered in the hall, "has been a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament since its inception. On Christmas Eve night, we and our guests gather in the Great Hall for well-mannered frivolity. As representatives of the host school I expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward, and I mean this literally because the Yule Ball is first and foremost...a dance."

The girls who were sitting on one side of the room all whispered ecstatically while the boys on the opposite side grumbled in annoyance and shook their heads.

"Silence!" McGonagall commanded, quieting the chatter before she continued. "The House of Godric Gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizard world for nearly ten centuries. I will not have you, in the course of a single evening, besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons." You saw the twins turn to each other across the room, and you could just tell that they were jokingly repeating McGonagall's words over and over again to each other.

"To dance is to let the body breathe," McGonagall declared expressively, "inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers longing to burst forth and take flight." You saw Ron lean over to mutter something to Seamus, drawing the attention of McGonagall, "inside every boy, a lordly lion prepares to prance. Mr Weasley, will you join me?"

You had to suppress a giggle as you realised that McGonagall wasn't asking him to, she was ordering him, and his look of fright at her demand was priceless. You made eye contact with Fred who quirked his eyebrows at you in amusement, and you rolled your eyes good-naturedly.