CRUEL SUMMER ⌗theo nott [SLOW UPDATES]

five

01 July, 1997 (11:58a.m, Monday)

Theo Nott beat her to the drawing room for dance lessons. If you're not first you're last, he thought. The Death Eaters and Dark Lord were meeting somewhere else today so the two of them had the room all to themself, plus the dance teacher of course.

"You're ten minutes late." Theo said when Scarlett walked in the room.

She rolled her eyes, "Theo, the instructor isn't even here yet. It's only 11:58."

"Well she has two minutes."

Scarlett sighed and sat down on the floor beside him, "Thanks for doing this for me."

He nods, "Obviously, was I supposed to just let you dance by yourself?"

She laughed, "I guess you could've."

He rolled his eyes, "Well I couldn't let that happen. Plus this is my chance to show off my fabulous ballroom dance skills. I had to learn it for the Yule Ball."

She looks over at him, "You mean the Ball where you literally sat at the table all night?"

He turned red, "No... Why do you remember that?"

"Because I sat there too. No one asked me to go either."

"Oh, plenty of girls asked me to go. I just said no."

She raises an eyebrow, "Who all asked?"

He shrugs, "Daphne, Astoria, Pansy..." He trailed off. He was lying.

"Daphne asked Adrian. Astoria went with Draco. Pansy asked Graham."

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, maybe no one asked me to go. But I didn't ask anyone either."

She smirked, "But I thought you were the cutest boy in Slytherin?" She teased.

"It was fourth year, Scarlett, I wasn't focused on dating anyone."

"Right, that started fifth year."

He opened his mouth to argue but a short red haired lady walked in, her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she wore a long green skirt paired with a white shirt. "Sorry to run late, my Floo wasn't working, I'm Madam Sallow, I'll be your dance instructor for the next three weeks. You must be Scarlett.." She trailed off, looking at Theo, "I assume you're Adrian?" She asked.

He frowned, "No, Adrian couldn't make it. I didn't want her to have to have to dance alone, I'm Theo."

"How kind of you. Will he make it to the next practice?"

Scarlett shrugged, "I haven't heard from him so I don't really know."

Madam Sallow turned her nose up at that, how could you have a dance partner and he just decide not to show up to practice? Where was his dedication? "Well, hopefully he can manage to catch up."

That was all she said before she walked over to the two and stomped one foot down, "Theo, you stand here." She then turned to the blonde girl, "And you stand here. Place your arms around his shoulders. Theo, you place your arms on her waist. Your feet should be lined up with each others and you should stop staring at each other like you're mortified."

-

For the next two hours that two teens danced all around the drawing room, Theo spun her around until she was dizzy— much against Madam Sallow's wishes, but she'd given up on them. They'd learned what they needed to and she was losing her voice from complaining that they were moving entirely too fast. For the first hour and a half, they awkwardly danced around, barely touching the other, avoiding eye contact and keeping it to a minimum when it was necessary, then Theodore dipped her and she laughed, when he lifted her back up and began to spin her, the awkwardness seemed to melt.