Rose Dursley: The Girl Who Lived

14. Learning to Dance

The next morning, Ron was in the Great Hall with Hermione and Rose. As Ron was eating his breakfast, one of the first years came up to him. He was carrying a large box that was wrapped up in brown paper.

Ron thanked the boy as he took the box from him. Ron looked at the label as he started to unwrap the paper. "It's from my mum," he said. "I wonder what it is."

Ron opened the box and pulled out some very strange looking robes. They were long and frilly, and looked more like a dress.

"What's she sent me this for?" said Ron.

Hermione laughed at his confusion. "They are dress robes," she said.

Ron looked at the robes with contempt. Then he dumped them back in the box and went back to eating his breakfast.

Later that day, they were all called to a special lesson with Professor McGonagall.

"Now then, there is another tradition around the Triwizard Tournament," said McGonagall. "That is the Yule Ball. And yes, when I say ball, I mean there will be dancing."

The girls giggled excitedly and whispered to each other. The boys all groaned and shifted around uncomfortably in their seats.

Hermione turned to Rose. "That sounds so much fun," she whispered.

"Yeah," said Rose, in a very unconvincing way.

McGonagall turned to look over at the boys. "Mr Weasley, come up and join me," she said.

"Urgh," Ron groaned, then stood up and walked over to where McGonagall was standing.

"Put one hand on my shoulder, and the other on my waist," said McGonagall. "Then we step forward, one-two-three, one-two-three."

Everyone thought it was funny to watch as Ron awkwardly danced with Professor McGonagall. That was until she made everyone else pair up and start to practice dancing too. Soon the while room was filled with awkward teenagers dancing around.

~~~~~

Later that day, Ron and Rose were heading to their detention with Professor Snape. When they entered the classroom, they saw Snape sat at his desk drinking something out of a potion bottle.

When he saw them come in, Snape put down the bottle he was drinking from. "Ah, the two troublemakers," he said.

Snape stood up and walked towards Rose. "Weasleys have always been trouble, Miss Dursley," he said. "You would do well to spend more time with Miss Granger instead."

"But Ron's my friend, Sir," said Rose.

Snape turned to look at Ron with a sneer. "I see," he said. "The pile of cauldrons on the side are dirty. When I return in an hour, I expect them all to be clean."

"Yes, Sir," said Rose.

And with that, Snape left the room and headed to his office.

"I can't believe that bloody dungeon bat," said Ron. "Saying we should stop being friends. That's way out of order."

"Yeah, I know," said Rose. "He really doesn't like you, does he."

"No," said Ron. "Or maybe he just likes you more, cos you're his teacher's pet."

"Shut up," Rose said, and gave Ron a soft punch on the arm.

Ron laughed as he stepped away from Rose.

"Urgh, let's just do these bloody cauldrons before we get in any more trouble," said Rose.

Ron and Rose each grabbed a cauldron and walked over to the sinks. Then they started to scrub them clean.

When Ron finished his first cauldron, he paused to take a rest. "So, anyway, were you looking forward to the Yule Ball?" he asked.

"Meh, not really," said Rose. "It's not really my kind of thing."

"Oh, okay," said Ron. "I thought all the girls were excited about it."

"They are. I'm not," said Rose. "Are you looking forward to it?"

"No, well, kind of," said Ron. "It's just the pressure, isn't it. Needing to find a girl to go with."

"Yeah, but you're alright," said Rose. "You could find someone to ask."

"I don't know, it's hard," said Ron. "I'm not very good at talking to girls."

"Of course you can talk to girls, you're talking to me just fine, aren't you?" said Rose.

"Yeah, but you're not like the other girls," said Ron.

Rose dropped the cauldron she was scrubbing into the sink and turned to face Ron. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

Ron gulped nervously. "Err, I didn't mean it in a bad way," he said. "I just mean I feel more comfortable around you compared to other girls."

"Hmmpf, and why is that?" Rose asked.

Ron was slightly worried now that he had said the wrong thing. He decided it was too late to back out now. He would just have to go for it.

"You are just less girly, you know? More like one of the guys," Ron said.

"You think I'm not a girl?" said Rose.

"Err, no, I mean, you are. It's just, err, that is..." Ron tried to think. "It's just the stuff about you, like the way you dress."

"What's wrong with the way I dress?" said Rose.

"No, nothing. I think you look cool," said Ron. "I just mean, like, you don't wear dresses and stuff, or pink and girly colours."

Rose threw the next cauldron in the sink and started scrubbing it vigorously. "Yeah, well, I don't like wearing dresses," she said. "I feel more comfortable dressing the way I do."

Ron could tell he was just making Rose more annoyed, so he decided to stop talking. It was all going wrong. He had wanted to ask Rose to come to the Yule Ball with him. But instead, he had ended up insulting her.

It had worked perfectly earlier, when he had practiced what to say in his head. He had said, 'you are not like the other girls, that's why I like you so much, will you go the the ball with me?' And she had said, 'yes, I would love to'. Urgh, why was real life so much harder, thought Ron.

Rose and Ron finished cleaning the cauldrons in silence. They had just finished the last one, when the doors burst open and Snape came back in the classroom. He swept through the room with his cloak billowing out behind him, and went to inspect the cleaned cauldrons.

Snape ran his finger around the inside of one of the cauldrons. "These are... adequate," he said. "You can go. Just behave yourself in future."

"Thank you, Sir," Ron and Rose both mumbled.

Then they left and walked out the dungeons, and up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room.