Dance of emotions (SSXHG)

Chapter 2

Without wasting any more time, he used a hiding spell on himself and cautiously opened the door. Luckily it did not squeak and he managed to enter the room undetected.

He froze in surprise. That was truly not what he had expected to see upon entering.

It was a small room, in which soft music could be heard and it's walls were partially decorated with floor length mirrors.

Underneath her cloak Hermione had obviously hidden a track suit for she now wore a white T-shirt and shorts, which revealed her slender legs. In combination with the heels her legs seemed much longer than they actually were. The strangest thing, however, about this whole situation was the grey puppet which wandered about oddly stiff and danced with Hermione.

Something seemed to agitate Hermione because she let go of the puppet and turning away let loose a string of curses.

"By Merlin, this won't be good enough for him! I have to get better. He all but waits for a chance to point out a mistake!"

Tired, she put a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and approached the puppet once again.

As she whirled through the room, Snape recognized the basic steps of a Tango. But soon enough, she tripped over her shoes and tumbled to the ground.

"Goddamnit!"

She kicked the shoes off angerly and wanted to continue on dancing barefoot.

In the meantime Snape had snapped out of his stupor and had also understood that she had been talking about him in her utterances. Did she really train this hard in her free time just to not give him any chance of embarrassing her? It touched him somehow, that she was so desperately seeking his approval.

Just as she was about to start dancing again, he spoke up.

"You should not over-exert yourself, Miss Granger."

Shocked, she spun around to face him just as he reversed his hiding-spell. In doing so she moved so fast that she tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground.

Snape hurried to her side worriedly. "Are you alright?"

She scrambled away from him quickly, which left him standing there perplexed.

"What are you doing here?"

Hermione seemed to be unable to process what just happened and looked up at him, completely dumbfounded.

Her professor took a step towards her and held out his hand in order to help her stand up. She took his hand after a moment of tentativeness and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

"I was merely curious. Listen", he eyed her slightly flushed face with his dark orbs "I do not expect perfection from you."

"But I do.", She whispered. "Isn't that what makes me me? I'm an overachiever and nothing but perfection is expected from me...even if you refuse to admit it."

"This is no exam, Miss Granger", he reminded her. "It should be about fun, about some sort of compensation for all the time spent with schoolwork and maybe about preparing you a bit for your future social life."

Hermione let go of his hand shyly. He hadn't even noticed that he was still holding it in his.

"That may be your view, sir. But it's not mine."

Stubbornly, she turned away from him and put her heels back on.

"I'd like to resume training now if you don't mind, sir."

Surveying her face got him thinking. Surely she tried to maintain a neutral expression, but he still could see every emotion clearly.

Resigning himself to his fate, he started unbuttoning his robe. Yet in the very same moment he began to question his decision.