I'm Coming For You, Draco Malfoy!

You Will Go To The Ball...

I could kiss Potter!

I know, I know, I already did and want to again, desperately. But I actually mean as a general enthusiastic expression of my gratitude.

Oh yes, I did that already too but who would have thought the giving dancing lessons would bring me so much joy? Nearly as much joy as being freed from the Dark Mark! Or maybe it was more because there were no consequences to face.

Neville, Luna, and I bonded too. We found we all had something in common that we all loved with a fervent passion.

And perhaps, for the first time since the war, I believed that Harry wasn't using me in some political exercise. He was like an excited puppy before the lessons and openly proud of me afterwards. And it was for no one else, just me, that he'd grin until the skin crinkled around his eyes as we'd celebrate with a welcomed pink gin in our second Slytherin dorm after the lessons.

And the lessons were surprisingly popular. Even some of the professors came along too. Though I blame Harry for that because I'm sure he probably told McGonagall quite gleefully how he'd bullied me into teaching him how to dance and how my lessons had spread to nearly sixty students by word of mouth alone and how we'd had to split the classes into three lots of Beginners and Intermediates (though Harry and Richie were coming to all the sessions to learn as much as they could). I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that Goldstein made an appearance too and was embarrassingly mooning over me in front of everyone. I asked Neville to deal with him and even a love-struck Goldstein couldn't help shrinking in the intimidating presence of Neville's 6' presence. Neville made him dance with Dennis Creevey, which offered me a modicum of delight because Anthony suddenly found himself on the receiving end of what he'd been putting me through; Dennis clearly became more and more head over heels in love with Anthony and the harsher Anthony was, the more Dennis idolised him. That was, until one week when it all suddenly changed and Anthony was looking at Dennis like he was the most beautiful creature on earth. To the degree when I began to wonder if Anthony was under the influence of a Love Potion. My eyes narrowed as I watched Hermione and Pansy hand out refreshments during a break.

The thing that most surprised me about the lessons was how no one doubted or questioned me. I suppose co-teaching with Neville and Luna helped and the support of our ever-growing circle encouraged that. But it was like Harry had said, after a slightly awkward start, people trusted us to be doing the right thing. We worked on building up the steps into routines, piecemeal, until we could put them together into full dances. There was, I thought, nothing better than seeing the wild mix of people in the huge Room of Requirement's ballroom smiling and laughing because they'd completed a dance virtually flawlessly and it was because of me.

I found true happiness in making others smile and it was a revelation to me. It wasn't that I wanted to necessarily teach dance – it was that I wanted to make others happy. For the first time since that war, I felt the worries of being an 'ex-Death-Eater fall away from my shoulders. I felt like I was truly finding myself and the smiles were coming a little more naturally.

Of course, Pansy and Blaise were merciless in their teasing.

'Oh look, it's our ballet master,' they'd announce whenever I walked into a room.

The Great Hall was their favourite location, especially if I was already seated at whichever table we were at that day, surrounded by our little entourage of snakelets. They'd push open the great doors and as soon as they spotted me, shout, 'we've been practicing, Grand-Master Dray.' Then they'd immediately fall into hold, Pansy with her back arched impossibly away from Blaise and her head over her left shoulder, Blaise stoically upright with his head also turned away, his shoulders down and his elbows up. Then they would do a spectacular series of reverse turns with heel leads straight down between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables to calls of 'More! More!' and wolf-whistles. And this, this is what Hogwarts should have been about for the past seven and a half years!