“Do you want to dance?”
The abruptness of the statement caught Harry off-guard, it wasn’t a very well kept secret that he’d been blest with two left feet. Asking him to dance was akin to asking the Whomping Willow to hug you: synonymous with unbridled pain.
“Huh?” he said, putting his knack for verbosity on display for the world to see. Harry was obviously the live-in genius of Hogwarts.
Fleur didn’t seem to be all that annoyed, but one could never be sure. By one, he meant himself. Obviously. Fuck, he was scared.
“I asked whether you wanted to dance…?” She’d enunciated every word of the sentence, seemingly realising that the bloke in front of her was a little slow on the uptake.
“Dance?” Right, was it too late for him to stroll on over and usurp the Headmaster’s office? “With you?” No, genius. She had obviously been asking in lieu of Hagrid. “Me and you?”
“Yes,” she said slowly, “that is what the phrase ‘do you want to dance?’ means.”
“Right, yes. No.”
“No? You don’t want to dance with me?”
“More like I don’t want to break your toenails… and your toes. Reckon I could mess up your ankle too. I’m a walking health hazard when it comes to dancing.” And a walking example of putting one’s foot in their mouth, but he was pretty sure she had deduced that already.
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad?” Ah, optimism. Just as Harry was about to open his mouth again, she interjected. “I’ll teach you, it’ll be fun.”
Harry, who had just about reached his limit of saying no to literal goddesses, gave a resigned nod and moved to get up. She offered out a hand to him, and walked him out of the Great Hall. Fleur led him through the castle, keeping a brisk walking pace until they both made it to the courtyard. In front of a few dozen prying eyes. Yipee.
“Are you sure you want to do this here?” he asked, completely tranquil and totally not nervous. “Doesn’t seem like an appropriate setting, wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.”
Seeing that he wouldn’t get a response, he continued. “There’s no music. How do we dance without music? I condemn indulging in blasphemy!” Fleur rolled her eyes, and he let the matter go.
They were still standing together, their hands clasped, when she started to sway gently from side to side. No beat, no rhythm, just a gentle sway drawing inspiration from the wind. He joined her and tried to match his movements with hers. Suddenly,
“I see the crystals raindrops fall, and the beauty of it all is when the sun comes shining through.” Man started singing. “To make those rainbows in my mind, when I think of you some time. I wanna spend some time with you.”
Fleur obviously got his cue, as she continued. “Just the two of us, we can make it if we tried.”
He smiled, maybe the clusterfuck leading up to that moment had been worth it.