Just after this thread.


After Sasha left her office, Aileen found it impossible to focus on the midterm projects for the NEWT levels. She stood, paced a bit, and considered going home, but realized she'd have to face Abby and try to downplay her good mood. Abby would catch on sooner or later, peppering her with lots of questions. Which could lead to Aileen spilling the beans and ruining the surprise for her sister.

She just couldn't let that happen. So she moved through the corridors, up the flights of stairs, and to the astronomy tower, where she hoped Sasha wouldn't be hiding out. He seemed to live in there with the Astronomy professor most days.

Climbing up the spiral staircase, Aileen knocked and entered the tower after hearing Tapendra's voice. She stepped in to find the room bathed in the blue and purple tones of a winter sunset, and Tapendra in the middle of it, studying diagrams he'd spread out on the board. The two fireplaces looked like they'd just been lit. Keplar dozed on the stair beneath the flames, opening one eye at her, while Kneph (the Sha), warmed his paws by the opposite fire.

"Tapendra," Aileen shut the door behind her, restrained excitement in her voice.

"You'll never believe what just happened." She stepped forward, focusing on him rather than the diagrams, a bright smile flickering on her face.

Tapendra had been, indeed, studying. It was possible that this particular approach to the subject wasn't the most effective, as he was quickly finding. Amazingly, books with just some old woodcuts - even moving ones! - were not that useful for dance. He'd begun writing out the steps and their diagrams on his chalkboard, but wasn't helping.

He'd done several of these dances as a child, he knew, but that wasn't aiding him here. He was mostly stuck remembering the governess who'd attempted to teach him and the other children, and how he'd eventually given up and run away to avoid her lessons and her little birch switch.

Either way, he was focused, the gentle crackle of the fires and quiet crooning of his record player lulling him deep into thought. Therefore when Aileen entered and spoke he jumped, the old book in his hands slamming shut. He looked at her in surprise and embarrassment that vanished at her smile - replaced largely by confusion.

Had she spoken sarcastically, he'd have probably thought of a snarky reply - as it was, a few come to mind nonetheless. But her smile was so unusual it made him blink, head tilting slightly as he put the book on the board's base.

"Try me," he said, with a smile.

The look on his face, like she'd just woken him from a nap, would have amused her more had she been paying proper attention. Aileen half-sat on one of the empty desks. Quiet music played, peaceful enough that it faded into the background.

"Well,"  she paused, her eyes bright with a knowing gleam. Of course she was going to draw it out. "Sasha came to see me, and he openly admitted that he didn't want to talk about schoolwork. Which is rare in itself."

Aileen wondered if Sasha had already made it up to the tower and told Tapendra all about it. That just wouldn't be fair.

"And then he asked about Abby and her 'situation'," she emphasized the word, only air quoting in her head.

"So I thought, what could he mean? Has she found another tomb to get lost in? But no," she shrugged one shoulder. "He wanted to ask if he could invite her to the Yule Ball."

Another smile flickered across her face. "I'll need to check with McGonagall, of course. But if they could go together..."

She trailed off and looked at him, sounding almost hopeful.

Tapendra quirked an eyebrow, automatically causally crossing his arms and cocking a hip as he shifted his weight. Aileen was...well, downright happy. It was disconcerting, though by no means unpleasant. It was easy to keep his features in a smile, then, her bright eyes and smiles contagious.

He raised a hand to his mouth as she revealed her grand secret, his fingers finding his beard as his smile grew to a full grin. Sasha and Abby, then? Merlin's beard, that was the best news he'd heard all month! Well, not all month. In a month, perhaps.

Either way, it was adorable - and something Tapendra was, by all means, as happy to hear as one would expect he would be. Tapendra bounced on the balls of his feet.

"That's wonderful!" he said, smirking slightly. "I'll assume you said yes, then."  He was, in a way, relieved - Sasha's tryst with Ferguson had...not been something Tapendra had been able to wrap his mind around comfortably. But...Sasha with girls! That - that he could handle, quite happily. Especially one like Abby, whom Tapendra quite liked - and wanted to see grow out of her shell, too.

"It'd be lovely if they could go together. Abby would be ecstatic," He said, with a soft laugh. "I wish you luck containing her, if she can go. I imagine she'll be over the moon at the idea." His eyes matched hers for brightness, for a moment. "Let me know if McGonagall wants a second voice in regards to getting permission - not sure how much help my opinion'd be," he glanced at his feet (which were, largely due to the cold air, in shoes today), "But it's worth a shot if it gets Abby into the Ball."

She nodded. Of course she'd given Sasha permission!

"Thank you, though I hope that won't be necessary." She privately felt that if McGonagall said no to her, additional voices would only do more harm than good, but it was kind of him to offer. The Headmistress did seem fond of Tapendra, shoes or no shoes.

With his boyish grin and energy, the Astronomy professor looked delighted - possibly more so than Sasha had! A soft, quietly happy smile lingered on her face, which Aileen saw no reason to hide right now. He'd been the right person to tell.

"I'll get to take her dress shopping, get her hair done," she mused, imagining the girl running her ragged. "She's never seen the castle during the holidays. All those lights, the trees."

Aileen crossed her legs, one foot swinging slightly to the low music. "You're right; she's going to be positively insufferable," she said, fondly. That wasn't exactly what he'd said, but that was what 'over the moon' meant to her!

Glancing over, she noticed the book he'd set on the stand, raising her eyebrows at the dancing figures on the cover. Then she listened more closely to the music - melodic, gentle, not at all in bad taste. Had Tapendra asked someone to the ball already? For just a moment, her good mood dimmed.

Somehow an overexcited Abby trailed by a quiet Aileen sounded like some poor shop keeper's commonly occuring nightmare. For a moment he considered recommending Darian, but the man mostly did men's clothes and, frankly, Tapendra'd be shocked if he wasn't drowning under dress robe orders as it was.

And Tapendra was pretty sure Darian wasn't going to willingly design anything that resembled a candyfloss explosion, which was about the only kind of dress Tapendra could imagine Abby liking, much less wearing. The more dour, carefully tailored clothes favored by her elder sister didn't suit Abby in the slightest - though they worked extremely well on Aileen.

"I wish you luck," he said, with amusement. "And extend my good wishes to whichever dress shop she zeroes in on." He rubbed his beard again, the half smirk/half smile expression steady on his features. "And do try and recommend colours other than pink to her? Though somehow I can't picture Abby agreeing any other colour." Yellows, perhaps?

He laughed softly at her comment. "Well, look on the bright side!" He said. "She's not the sort to pitch a fit if you tell her she can't wear a certain kind of dress. I can't imagine her asking to wear anything terribly objectionable." Unlike his sister, who seemed determined to go to the ball in a skirt that was far, far too short.

He followed her gaze to the book (and, by extension, the board) and his smile fell, replaced by worried embarrassment. "S' the bloody dance classes," he admitted, in an embarrassed mutter. The blush didn't take long to find his face. "I don't know half the ones I'm supposed to be teaching them..."

If he'd known dance classes were part of being a Head of House, he'd have never applied!

"No, not for a fancy event, at least." Her sister would probably want to look like a princess for the Yule Ball, not like she was out at a club.

"But I'm going to discourage a tiara. Some other kind of pretty hair piece should suffice," she smirked.

Aileen felt a tiny bit of sympathy as his face fell and he admitted that he didn't know half of the dances he was supposed to be teaching. She pushed away her relief that he didn't have a date, and wondered at the logic of asking the Heads of Houses to be responsible for most of their students. Just picturing him awkwardly teaching the equally awkward Ravenclaws - how did that make sense?

Glancing down to hide her amusement at the image, Aileen stood and peered at the diagrams on the board. The book would not be much help, either.

"I have the advantage there, though I can't say I'm thrilled about the thought of teaching extra lessons."

Being pureblood, she'd volunteered with the hope that they wouldn't actually need her. She expected to receive more specific news about which years she'd be teaching in a day or two.

"Do you know the basics?" She glanced over her shoulder at him.

The advantage pf pureblood upbringing - sometimes it was an advantage! Tapendra, personally, did not miss it - but Hogwarts had found a good way to put him in a spot that was difficult to research alone.

The diagrams were quite good, if...rather scientific. Most of them looked rather more like math than a dance step, the notes and numbers written in his quick but clear hand. Step counts, movements, how to clearly detonate to other pairings where you where going...

Tapendra licked his lips. "Well..." He ran a hand though his hair. "Somewhat. I learned a little bit when I was young. You know..." He smiled, slightly nervously. "Governess lessons. How to dance, hatiquette, that sort of thing. But all I remember is something about a...box step. And sweaty palms." And finding it terribly awkward.

"The book is...not that helpful?" It was clear he wasn't sure whose fault the confusion was - his, or the books'. "It seems to assume the reader already knows several terms..."

Once she'd gotten over her surprise that he'd had a governess, the thought of Tapendra suffering through dancing lessons was just... hilarious. Aileen pictured this gawky, tall child with hands and feet that were too big for him, trying to follow the governess' instructions while balancing his overlarge glasses on his nose. She stifled a chuckle.

And the contrast between them! Aileen had loved dancing growing up. She'd done passably well at the music and art lessons her parents had foisted on her, but hadn't remembered liking them very much. But dancing! Dancing had structure, yet spoke to her vanity to be able to twirl around and capture attention. Though Aileen had never been particularly serious about it, it was something she was good at and genuinely liked.

She nodded, "There's only so much anyone would be able to pick up from that book, I'm sure." While old, it did not look well-used.

Aileen considered him for a moment, barely believing she was doing this.

"I could show you a few things, if you'd like?" She said it casually, as if she were offering to pick out a tie or pour him a (disgusting) coffee.

Moving away from the board, she stood a few feet in front of him and raised her eyebrows.

"For the good of Hogwarts, of course," a mischievous smirk lifted up the corners of her mouth.

Any mutter that it was the only decent dance the library had had remained unsaid. It...really had been! All the others left had borne distressing titles like "Festival Dances of Ancient Arabia" and while their woodcuts had been quite informative, he wasn't sure they were quite what McGonagall had in mind for the Ball's theme.

There was a moment of awkward silence, and then she offered to help. Tapendra wasn't sure how to react to that comment, but he did the first thing that came to mind and smiled - mostly with relief.

"Would you? It'd be a great help," he said, then paused and looked at her with a bit of caution. It wasn't nasty caution, which almost surprised him. In school, Aileen had been quite terrible to him - and so it was easy to remember what this would have been like 20 years ago. Oh, he'd have suffered.

But now...it was odd. The smirk just made him smirk back, amusement plain on his face. "For the good of Hogwarts," he agreed, with a soft laugh. "And to not being shown up too  badly by Durmstrang and Beauxbatons." He fully expected the American champions to to open the dance with a shuffle or something, and therefore wasn't worried on that account.

At the wariness on his face, Aileen only felt a flicker of offense. Growing up, she would have danced with him just to trip him, accuse him of stepping on her, and then tell the teacher he’d been too busy staring at her chest to lead properly. But things were different now, and Tapendra seemed more relieved than wary. The tiny knot in her stomach unraveled – not that she acknowledged its existence.

“Salem doesn’t count, does it,” Aileen shook her head with a smirk.

Glancing around, she waved her wand to position the furniture further away, and raised the volume of the record player a bit.

"Let’s start with the box step. It should be simplest," she nodded, slipping into a more professional mode as she gestured him over. Aileen first explained that they would move to the count of 1-2-3, and then demonstrated the box step at a slow pace so he could see how her feet moved.

She waited a few moments for him to try on his own.

"Now, with a partner,” Aileen paused, giving them both time to prepare for the awkwardness, then moved forward.

“Put your left hand in the air like this," she took his hand with their palms facing each other. Merlin, he really did have large hands. It was something she’d failed to notice when they’d been trapped in a tomb last summer.

"And your other hand on my shoulder blade. No Acromantula fingers," amusement crept into her tone, remembering the various phrases her teachers had used. "Like an oven mitt."

She rested her left hand on his shoulder, on the seams of his sleeve. As she looked up (way up!), the thought of him having to direct the girls during the lesson almost made her smirk again. She could just imagine Tapendra telling them the correct way to do it once, and then pretending they did it right to avoid any further contact.

"Back straight," she reminded him with a quick smile. She moved slightly to her left so that their knees wouldn't knock as they moved.

"Ready?” She raised her eyebrows, expecting this to go fairly smoothly. It was just the box step, after all![1]

1.	I used this funny video for reference

Tapendra did as she instructed, the wariness he'd felt somewhat dispelled as his all but erased muscle memory told him this seemed familiar and correct. It had been...gods, had it truly been decades since his dance classes? He was getting old.

Still, the box-step was simple enough, though awkward to do under scrutiny. He muttered to himself, the words nonsense and meant simply to make himself feel a bit better. The blush wasn't helping at all, and despite his efforts to get rid of it, it seemed to get worse the more he worried about it.

Naturally it therefore flared a bit when she stepped forward and spoke of partners. The pause was much appreciated, and Tapendra took a moment, sucking his breath in. It was a lot easier when he forced himself to relax. Even if she laughed at him - he didn't care, did he? She laughed at him for everything else, right? Sure. Okay.

Even with her in short heels and Aileen already being tall for a woman, the height difference was still a bit of an issue. He wasn't quite sure where to position his leading hand; in the end, it seemed easier to go with her eye level than his. She told him to straighten up, and he did, having automatically bent himself to bring himself more in level with her. This just made the top of her head be even further away.

He sighed, smiling in an awkward sort of apology. Why was he so damned tall? Why couldn't have have stopped growing at 6'2 or something?

Her smile and smirk did help, though, and he smiled more genuinely. "As I'll ever be, I suspect," he said. The configuration of knees seemed simple enough, though he'd have to match his steps to hers as opposed to being able to lead as properly as was technically required.

At her signal, he began the steps. It was lucky to be practicing with a partner who knew what she was doing, he suspected, but the steps were simple enough. After a few uncertain patterns he was fairly comfortable at it, height difference or no.

At his blushing and muttering, Aileen pursed her lips to hold back the snickers. Why she found it so amusing, she didn't know, but suspected that if she started this by teasing him, he would refuse to do it. And then she'd miss out on the chance to tease him later.

As he began the simple steps, the only suggestion she voiced was for him to step forward on his heel and then slide in on the ball of his other foot, to give lift to the movement. Not that he really needed it. She had to stretch her arm up to reach his shoulder, but she preferred that to dancing with someone shorter than she was.

"You seem to be remembering this quickly," Aileen smiled. Before he could stumble over his feet in shock at the compliment, she added, "No evidence of sweaty palms yet."

"Now, to move around the room, you step forward and to the left, instead of just forward."

When they turned, she noticed Keplar watching their feet, the cat's tail twitching. She narrowed her eyes at the animal, hoping it wouldn't bolt from the fireplace and pounce on her shoes. Dance lesson over!

"You can also do a right box turn, so the forward step is taken with the right foot, while the left takes the back step. Half turns - to the right or left, let you link between the box turns. Helpful when you need to move around corners and other dancers."

The Yule Ball would certainly be crowded this year, and with younger years the size of goblins, Tapendra might actually step on someone.

"You try and I'll follow," Aileen suggested, slowing her steps.

The compliment didn't have the effect she might have feared; instead, he smiled slightly. "I do dance," he said. "Just not...together. With other people." Well, it was with other people, just not with them. He wasn't used to having to handle anyone's steps but his own. As for sweaty palms - well, those would probably be incoming from both of them, he feared. Dancing was relatively athletic, after all...wait, did they have a charm for that? Dryus Palmiatus? If not, they needed it.

"Alright," he said, not entirely clear on what she'd meant  by all of that, but confident enough to at least give it a shot (it was better than stopping and asking 'What?', anyhow). He was careful to measure his steps to hers, the turns awkward but, after a little bit, easy enough to do. It helped Aileen seemed to know what she was doing; he imagined that with the kid there'd be a lot of confused crashing of knees and feet and, knowing the students, of couples.

There was still a lot of confusion to the knees even for him, though, and he found himself struggling on whatever he was focusing on - he'd avoided stepping on her feet and knocking knees so far, but the moment he thought about it too much he suffered from near misses. He smiled, slightly hopelessly, after a few turns.

"You're good at this," he said with a soft laugh, though it wasn't really surprising when he thought about it.

Aileen raised her eyebrows at him, curious to know what kind of dancing he was talking about. Did he shuffle to obnoxious music in the tower when no one was around to laugh at him? Actually, she could see that. And of course the music would be obnoxious rather than the tasteful melody playing now.

Aileen, however, never acted silly! No. Merlin forbid anyone catch her humming to the latest record blaring from her sister's room.

The look of concentration on his face and the near misses were amusing to her, if only because he hadn't stepped on her feet yet.

Glancing up, she returned his compliment with a playful smile. "I should be, after enduring dance lessons for years."

She hadn't minded, but he didn't know that. If she admitted it out loud, McGonagall might swoop down out of thin air and assign her all the lessons for the Yule Ball.

"The dancing you do on your own must be paying off, because you're getting the hang of it," she reassured him in a teasing tone after a few more turns. "You just need practice, and-" Aileen thought for a moment. "Silencing charms on the students when you ask them to pair off. Otherwise, I expect you'll hear a lot of 'I can't dance with him, he smells like a troll!' and 'she has flobberworm arms'! Though we can hope the Ravenclaws won't be too awful."

Tapendra would likely have to encourage them to have more fun. Speaking of such...

"Did your governess ever tell you how to do an underarm turn?" She couldn't help but smirk at the name. Really, it was like a twirl, just with more pomp and fluff.[1]

1.	Found an example here