Hogwarts Ball - Concert and Dancing

[fi_admin]

Date: Saturday, 03 March, 2001
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Hogwarts
Rating: PG
Characters Involved: Anyone who wishes to attend

Comments

Re: 19:14

[mostfalldown]

Fern had been quick to join the dance floor when the Weird Sisters had begun playing. It had been so long since she'd ventured to London's dance clubs-- long before the war had truly started. As she danced amidst the small crowd hovering around the stage she realized how much she truly missed it. She also realized just how out of shape she was now from what she once had been. As she pushed her way from the dance floor she told herself it was the heels of her shoes that had done it.

When she finally reched the edges of the great hall she took a moment to smooth the layers of her black and gold dress, the undermost clinging to her legs as she moved. The once perfect curls of her strawberry blonde hair had already started falling, something that was only made worse as she brushed the locks away from her face. It was in such action that she would catch sight of a familar face.

She would offer Bill a smile when their eyes met. Rather than rejoin the mass dancing to the song, she closed the distance between them. After all, it had been some time since he'd last ventured into the Leaky on a shift of hers.

"You going to hide in the corner all night?" She asked softly, the slightly laughter of jest in her words.

Re: 19:14

[billthedefender]

Maybe ten years ago he'd have been up the front, hair wild from the energy of the dance floor. Ten years ago he'd have lost the night and the morning to the pulse of the music. But ten years changed people and awful lot.

The fair haired girl was familiar and when he partnered her with his whisky, her identity became clear. He hardly recognized her wound up and wrapped up in such a package.

"I'm going to try." Bill replied, although there was a smile to his voice and his eyes, even if it didn't twist his lips.

"Having a good time out there?" He asked, genuinely curious. He wasn't out there himself, may as well live through her a little. "It sounds great." Yes, once upon it was his scene, he'd even had himself a pair of Dragon Hide Pants at one stage... The white shirt and black pants had been a better choice for tonight.

It took all this time for Bill to actually remember his manners (Merlin her needed to get out more) "This is a the first and probably the last time it'll be me asking you this question, rather than the other way around, but can I get you a drink?"

Re: 19:14

[mostfalldown]

Fern laughed softly at his answer, bowing her head just enough to hide her smile behind a curtain of hair. She shifted her weight between her feet as her eyes fell momentairly to the floor. It was an action, she would tell herself, was to work out the ache she felt in her calves and not the nervous energy she felt. She always had such confidence behind the bar, it was her sheild.

"Come all the way out here to hide," she mentioned with a shake of her head. "I'll never understand the likes of you male folk."

His offer had managed to amuse her. It would show by the way her face lit up with the smile that stretched nearly ear to ear. "As much as I would like to see that, I'm goin'ta decline. Thank you, though."

Her fingers had managed to grasp the edge of the golen ribbon, twirling the thick piece of silky fabric between her fingers. "I was, yes. Why don't you come have a dance? It's wonderfully exhausting!"

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

He chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Looks like I did, to my credit, you're one of the first people to come my way tonight." Bill understood shields, his own foul mood acted as his, most of the time. Being angry was so much easier than any other of his emotions.

By the time she'd declined his offer, he'd polished off the last of his drink and leant over to set it down on one of the tables. "No problem." Bill was ready to wish her goodnight and make his exit when she posed her question.

Bill couldn't help wonder if she knew just what she was doing, right down to the twirling of her ribbon, there was a time he'd have been taken in by that, but now it had little effect. "Sure, then I can say I came and I danced." Shrugging off his jacket Bill slung it over the back of a chair and rolled up his shirt sleeves.

"That's if I still remember how..."

Re: 19:30-ish

[mostfalldown]

The smile on Fern's lips grew at his acceptance, if that was at all possible. The smile had already tried to claim her face entirely before he had said yes. And she bounced! She indeed bounced when he said he would dance with her. The ribbon was abandoned as her hands folded together. At that moment, she looked less like a nervous woman and more like a little girl whose father had just bought a teddy bear for.

"Oh isn't not so hard!" She remarked. "You put too much stock in it! It's like sex or riding a bike. You'll remember."

Though she expected him to be completely caught off guard by her comment, she still held her hand out to him. One might think that she hadn't said anything at all.

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

She looked young, Bill could only assume ten years younger then him and she looked a little bit too happy to be dancing with him, of all people. There was rarely any trust issues in his marriage, Bill was a furiously loyal man and Fleur knew that. Something about comparing sex with dancing didn't quite sit well with him. Maybe it was just that Fern might have once just been his type. "Come on, kid." Bill rolled his eyes, offering her a polite arm in response to her hand extending to him.

Ah touching, something he'd started to avoid as best he could since the attack. Although there were exceptions to the 'No Touch' rule, dancing with young women wasn't usually one of them. But, he'd already said yes...

This had been a formal dinner, so he'd brushed his hair back and tied it in place, but now the mood had changed and Bill reached back to release the curtain of red hair, glad to have something to hide behind.

Re: 19:30-ish

[mostfalldown]

"I haven't been a 'kid' for a while." Fern remarked as she curled an arm around the one that Bill had offered. It was a light touch-- her palm resting on the inside of his bicep and her fingers pressing just barely into the soft cotton of his shirt.

She followed him onto the dance floor wordlessly. Though it wasn't a particularly upbeat song - not compared to some - it was still a surprise to her when he would assume a proper dance floor. She paused for a moment, in both surprise and the attempt to quell a sudden desire to reach up and brush her fingers through his long, red hair. It looked so soft. But when that moment passed, and she was finally able to uncurl her fingers without danger of wanting to curl them in his hair, she would take his offered hand as the other rested against her back. Even in her heels she was still nearly a foot shorter than Bill, and rather than rest her hand on his shoulder, she selected the area just above his elbow.

"Can I... ask you a question?" Fern asked, stepping just close enough to him to easily fall into step with his lead.

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

Bill nodded his agreement, 'kid' probably wasn't the right term. His arm tensed at the contact, as if involuntary and he forced himself to relax as he moved them towards a less crowded part of the floor.

The tempo had come down enough to dance, in Bill's opinion, properly. He actually smiled at her confusion, shaking hair back from his eyes. "Call me old fashioned, if you want." Settling his arm high on her back, his touch was light, not wanting to force her to come any closer. Holding her hand in his own, he lead the steps with slight awkwardness, much too used to Fleur's dancing style and finding Fern's rather different.

"You can ask, I reserve the right not to answer." Bill wasn't about to put himself in a position he didn't want to be in and agreeing to answer a question before he knew what it was, wasn't a good idea.

Re: 19:30-ish

[mostfalldown]

"Of course," Fern said, lowering her head to hide an embarrassed smile. The curls of her strawberry hair fell around her face. The silken strands tickled her cheek as her attention shifted from Bill's shoes to his eyes once again. She didn't bother to brush her hair back, or even flip it over her shoulder. She'd always found the action rather undesireable.

"Are you really so scared of people?" She asked finally. The touch of her hand on his arm, even her hand in his, was a light touch. A ghost against his skin. She bit the inside of her lip, waiting for Bill's answer. Part of her expected him to roll his eyes and return to his drink. It was a popular recation of the patrons at the Leaky when she'd started asking "her crazy questions."

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

It took great control to keep up the dance steps, although there was surely a break in rhythm at her words.

Are you really so scared of people?

Bill looked away from her eyes, over the top of her head and into space. "I'm not scared of people." He responded with the best level voice he could manage.

He was... Afraid of himself, not anyone else. "I assume most people are scared of me." He shrugged, finally looking back to her eyes. "I don't want to make people uncomfortable." When he walked down the street, people stared at his scars, children were afraid of them, of him. "I'm uncomfortable with people I don't know well, it's nothing personal."

Re: 19:30-ish

[mostfalldown]

Even though Bill's eyes left Fern, her own gaze never wavered from his face. She watched his reactions, the way he fumbled for the best answer to her question and the best way to say those words. In some people, those reactions told more about them than their answer did. But he wasn't one of them. It fascinated her more than it should.

"I didn't take it personally at all," Fern said, a small smile curling the right corner of her mouth as she spoke. "And I've never been afraid of you, or uncomfortable. I bet if we ask most of the people here, they'd say the same thing. Unless maybe you glared at them," she added in attempt to joke. "We all have scars."

Fern took a deep breath as though she were going to say something else, but paused. That embarrassed smile possessed her face again, brining a soft pink to her cheeks. "I'm sorry if I'm being a nuisance. I don't mean to be." She looked down once more to their feet. "It's a bad habit."

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

She was too observant. Most people did their best not to look at his face at all and Bill didn't hold it against them. But was was he going to say? 'Please don't look at me?' No, you couldn't say that to someone, not someone Bill was close to considering friend.

He was glad to see her heart was in the right place and tried to hold back the irritation that accompanied any talk of scars. Because in reality, it wasn't the stars that bothered him, he wasn't that vain, it was what they stood for, about the change in him. "I know." Bill gripped her hand a little tighter, strengthening his hand on her back to bring her a little closer. It was the least he could do.

"Don't worry. You can pull it off." He grinned down at her as took a step back to twirl her in a quick circle. "And I don't glare all that often." Just because he made an effort to be unapproachable, didn't mean he was overtly unpleasant.

Re: 19:30-ish

[mostfalldown]

The tightening of Bill's hand was comforting. Her eyes lifted from the floor, raising up to his once again. Before she could truly say anything in reply, his hands guided her in a spin. The motion, the sudden movement of the air around her, caused her skirt to flare around her. It had been one of the things she loved about the dress so. In the true fashion of any woman unaccustomed to such dancing, the twirl was accomanied by an amused squeal, and by the time she was pulled back into their dancing embrace, she was laughing-- a real laugh that shook her shoulders and glittered in her eyes.

"Good," She remarked. Her hands, which had offered only ghosts of a touch before lost their trepidation. Her fingers curled around his arm while her other hand actually held his. "I think smiles are much more becoming."

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

He chuckled when she squealed, the noise reminding him of happier times, of a worry free life with the woman he loved. "You look very lovely tonight." Bill smiled politely as his hand moved this time to her waist, where it belonged in a dance like this.

"I'd prefer a straight face to a fake smile though." It wasn't that Bill didn't smile, only that he didn't force them. If he wanted to smile, he would but he wouldn't make it come to please anyone else. Not to mention the unpleasant twist of scars that accompanied the upturning of lips, but he was used to that.

"Am I keeping you from some studly boyfriend that's going to come and threaten me to 'Leave his woman be'?"

Re: 19:30-ish

[mostfalldown]

Fern bit her bottom lip as she smiled. "Thank you." Always, when she was complimented, she felt like a little girl in her reaction. Usually when she received them they were in the form of a jest from Seamus. Perhaps that's why she blushed at the word lovely.

"I don't count those as smiles!" Such an expression was one she'd come to detest. Even though they masqueraded as smiles, you could always tell which were real and which weren't. The fake ones broke Fern's heart.

"I came alone." Fern mentioned as her thumb roamed slowly across a wrinkle of his cotton shirt. "Nobody to stop me from dancing with a handsome young man!"

Re: 19:30-ish

[billthedefender]

"You're most welcome." Bill didn't see a casual compliment as anything more than that, a compliment. When Bill usually saw her she was behind a bar, here in a lovely dress well, she looked lovely.

"Neither do I. You know we're in a sorry state of affairs when they're more common than real ones."

He laughed but her roaming thumb was slightly unsettling. "You wouldn't be flirting with a married man, now would you?" Bill winked, twirling her once again. Most women hardly noticed him these days and none would go so far as to call him handsome. Of course he didn't mind their innocent conversation, but if the situation was reversed... Bill knew he wouldn't want Fleur talking to someone like Fern was to him... But that might just be the slightly insane possessive part talking.