November Snow

t w e n t y - f i v e

All Slytherins gathered in the assembly room, sitting there and waiting as we were told. The girls and I sat on one side and all the boys huddled together on the benches on the other side. Filch pushed in a large phonograph with Mrs.Norris sitting patiently on the side of it. He grunted and scowled at the sight of students. For someone who worked in a school, his hatred for students was a bit too much. Then, Snape walked in. Now I knew what was happening. All morning, Fred and George had never stopped teasing Ron about his dance with their Head of House. Not to mention the dress robe he got from his mother. Poor him.

"As you all already know, the yule ball is a tradition of the Tri-Wizard Tournament." He said with his slow, monotone voice "Personally, I think it is not necessary, but many other teachers including the Headmaster love the idea. And you must know that the Yule Ball is not a party." He shot a look at the boys "It is a dance."

All the boys groaned, some buried their faces in their hands. The girls, however, most of the were very interested. I looked over to my side to see Juliette's eyes glued on Zabini and further to my left, Parkinson giving the oh-so-seductive glances at Malfoy. I shook my head.

"Silence." Snape said, they all went quiet "As the Head of House of Salazar Slytherin, I will not tolerate any humiliating behavior from my students, for they are the representatives of the host school. Therefore, this is a dance class to make sure none of you make that idiotic mistake. Any questions?"

He looked around, seeing everyone completely silent, gave a nod and then looked straight at me.

"Miss Avery, would you like to help me?"

I stood up slowly, feeling utterly uncomfortable since everyone was staring at me. I approached Snape and he bowed as the same time as I curtsied. Then, he took my hand in his hand, his other hand on my waist and mine on his shoulder. He was tall, making it quite hard for me to reach, but we had done that thousands of times ever since I was a little girl and he taught me how to dance at Christmas.

Filch turned on the music and the soft, relaxing melody filled the whole room. We started dancing, carefully and gracefully placed our feet forward, then backward, then swirled around. We danced for a short while, enough for an illustration to those who didn't know how to dance.

"Everyone come together and practice." He said.

All the girls hopped on their feet, the boys groaned but slowly stood up, looking for a partner. I looked around for someone available, Juliette was already with Zabini, many other couple had formed and danced clumsily, watching their feet. As the direction I was looking had no one available, I turned around to see Malfoy standing behind me.

"May I have a dance?" He bowed, smirking.

"Of course." I curtsied, obviously felt the contagiousness of his smirk.

He took my hand and placed his other hand on my waist, I placed my hand on his shoulder. He pulled me closer, I could feel his breath on my face at times. Then we swayed to the music. He sometimes would take glances down at his feet to know where he was going, and after three times, I stopped him.

"Malfoy, if you want to dance, look at the partner, not your feet." I lifted his chin up so he could look into my eyes "Trust your instinct. You won't step on my foot."

Malfoy began to get better. His move was much more confident. His eyes glittered with pride at his new skill.

"See, you're not that bad." I smirked.

"I never took you as a dancer." He said.

"I did it every Christmas until two years ago." I shrugged "I had experiences dancing with someone taller than me."