Thursday Evening | Before Supper | February 12th | Outfit

Billie glided into the empty Common Room with a smile on her face. She could always count on the common room being devoid of life right before a meal. She moved the couches off to the sides, they were easy enough to move and she always put them back afterwards. With the fire raging in the hearth Billie turned on the wireless sitting on the mantel and cranked the volume. One of the more recent 3 Owl Standard songs was starting, though it wasn't one of Billie's favourites it was still easy enough to dance to.

Centering herself in the middle of the room she fluffed out her black rainbow trim tutu and straightened the front of her pink body suit. With her jazz shoes in place Billie removed a gel bracelet from her wrist and used it to pull back her gold, pink and blue hair. She removed her wand from the chain around her neck and smiled. She stretched to the ceiling, pointed her hands to the ceiling, wand tip up and cast a spell. Bubbles of every colour started to spew out of the tip.

Music filled the common room as Billie closed her chocolate eyes and began to dance using her bubble blowing wand to accent every twist and twirl she made. She was a championship ballerina and nothing was going to stop her from being able to dance not even practicing magic in a special wizarding school that all of her muggle friends knew nothing of.

Eli's outfit

Thank you, come again! Eli smiled smugly to himself as he left the stunned fourth year, who he had just kissed the forehead of, in the middle of the fifth floor corridor.  The little twig-let had thought to show off to his friends by throwing some not-so-politically correct insults Eli’s way.  What the poor rookie failed to realize was that Eli was quite used to such occurrences, and he was never one to let something go without a little.. payback.  Keeping to his mantra of ‘Shock and Awe’, Eli had shamelessly put his best talents to use and walked away from the situation feeling rather good.  Let that brat try and jab at him again.... Eli would be ready.

Sliding his slender fingers into his pink sweater pockets, Eli skipped happily up the stairs towards the portrait guarding the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.  Practically singing the password to the Fat Lady, Eli continued his skip on into a scene he was not expecting at all.

The music he could understand.  The dancing, too, he understood, being a lover of dance himself.  But the bubbles?  Now that was something new.  Stepping into the common room, Eli got a better look at the ballerina dancing in front of the fireplace.  Eli recognized the girl to be a fifth year... by the name of Billie, if his memory served him right, which it was often known not to.  Despite his many relations with the fifth years, Eli couldn’t say he knew Billie all that well, but, after seeing her dancing bubble display, she was looking more and more interesting in his eyes.

Watching her movements, Eli began to copy them.  He wasn’t trying to mock her or anything, but ballet was something he’d never attempted before.... ever.  He was.... curious.  Since he was Eli, however, he stuck in his own unnecessary flourishes - even adding in an attempted leg extension that didn’t quite go as he planned.

“Ow ow ow ow ow!” Eli whined, plopping himself on the ground and rubbing his right thigh, “Are ballerinas made of stretchy rubber or something?  ‘Cause humans are not made to bend like that.  Flippin’ gillyweed!  I think I tore my jeans...... and I love this pair.”

Billie had noticed Eli the instant he had walked in but the smile on her face never falter and her movements didn't slow. She continued her impromptu routine with streams of bubbles enhancing her graceful movements. It seemed that dancing was the only time Billie was actually graceful. She faced the older boy and watched him mimic her movements. She could tell by the look of amused concentration on his face that he wasn't making fun of her (not that it would have mattered if he had been) but was genuinely interested in the way she moved.

She chuckled softly when he fell after an ill thought out high extention. She put her hand to her mouth as to not be impolite and stopped her stream of bubbles putting her wand back around her neck. In her first year she had managed to lose her wand a record breaking fifteen times. It had gotten to the point where during the summer her father had fastened a metal cap to one end of her wand and fed a chain through it so that she could wear around her neck and be less likely to lose it. Billie rarely ever lost her wand now.

With her wand safely away she knelt down next to Eli and giggled, "We actually are made of rubber but shh it'll be our little secret." She put a finger to her lips and gave him a wink. Having been a trained professional ballerina most of her life Billie was well aware of how abnormally flexible her body was compared to most people her age, "Next time you might want to warm up first before trying something like that." She put a hand on his leg and rubbed it for a moment with a soft smile before letting him take over again, "trust me, I've had my fair share of pulled muscles, charlie horses and even a few mangled toes from being a ballerina."

Though Eli had never had any type of formal dance training or coaching, he still loved it.  His favorite had to be the random stuff - the dance moves people randomly came up with as they were caught up in the beat and rhythm of the music.  Eli also loved the dances of the girl pop groups from Korea.  Those dances involved a lot of butt shaking and cute hand gestures.  The dances were choreographed to attract the attention of the male audiences, obviously.... which is exactly why Eli loved learning and performing them in front of others. 

"We actually are made of rubber but shh it'll be our little secret."

Eli grinned, "I knew it!  I knew there had to be an explanation behind it all.  Does that mean your limbs can act as erasers as well?"  He let out a small giggle at his own joke and glanced back down at his leg.  The pain wasn't bad.  It had subsided for the most part, but it would probably be sore the rest of the day.  Oh well.  Eli had to admit that his little trick hadn't been the brightest idea he had ever had.

"Next time you might want to warm up first before trying something like that.....trust me, I've had my fair share of pulled muscles, charlie horses and even a few mangled toes from being a ballerina."

"I'll definitely keep that in mind," Eli poked a finger into his thigh lightly.  He didn't honestly think he'd ever remember to stretch before doing something like that again.  Most times, for him, dancing was just a spontaneous action.  It wasn't like he danced for competition.  He just danced for the pure thrill of it.

"How long have you been doing ballet?"
 

Billie flopped down into one of the large and very comfy armchairs that she had pushed off to the side. Though she was still in a dancing mood she couldn't carry on a conversation while dancing. Dancing for her got rather intense and it took all of her to perform even if it was just spontaneous random fun in the common room.

She looked to Eli with a smile, "I've been dancing since I could walk pretty much, Mum put me in professional classes when I was three so about thirteen years now. Of course being here at Hogwarts cuts down on my dancing time but I compete during the summer so I dance as much as I can while I'm here."

She rested her chin on the arm of her chair staring at Eli with her chocolate brown eyes completely focused on him, her wide smile causing her eyes to sparkle, "I won my first national title when I was five." She chuckled, "My parents have a whole room devoted to all the trophies I've won." Her tone suggested that she wasn't actually bragging just telling him the truth, in all honesty Billie had no idea how to brag, especially at Hogwarts a magical school where she was horrible at magic, "At least it's something I'm good at. Much better at dancing than I am at magic."

She cocked her head to the side, "What about you, you ever take dance lessons?"

"I've been dancing since I could walk pretty much, Mum put me in professional classes when I was three so about thirteen years now. Of course being here at Hogwarts cuts down on my dancing time but I compete during the summer so I dance as much as I can while I'm here."

His eyebrows peaked, "Thirteen years?!  Wow!  That's.... dedication, for sure.  But I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, though, I mean, transforming someone's body into rubber does take time, right?"  Eli flashed Billy a playful grin and snickered.  It was true, wasn't it?  Thirteen years would be plenty of time to train someone's body to be that flexible.  And since Billy started from a young age, well, that put her at a better advantage than late starters. 

His thoughts trailed off back to his childhood.  What would it have been like if he had taken dance lessons?  Thing was, he probably wouldn't have.  His father would most likely not have allowed it.  But if he had, Eli would most likely be more flexible than he was.  His earlier stunt wouldn't have hurt him in the way it did.  Yet, Eli knew it did no good to linger on the past, so he quickly caught himself back up to the future.

"A room?  Full of trophies? National title?!"  Eli's eyes went wide, "Merlin's nail clippings!  I didn't realize I was in such prestigious company!  You must teach me the ways, sensei, 'cause I am afraid to say I have not ever taken one professional dance lesson."

Billie giggled, "Yeah it takes about three years to turn to rubber everything from there out is just gravy." She gave him another wink and cocked her head to the side a bit more as she rested on the armchair. It was just so comfy. If she didn't love dancing so much she'd spend all day sitting in these chairs. She wondered how anyone got anything done being so relaxed and comfy. She supposed that's why everyone went to the Library to study, the chairs there were not comfy at all, in fact they were so uncomfy that they hurt after sitting in them for only twenty minutes. There was no easy way to fall asleep in chairs like that.

Billie blushed a bit when he became so excited about her achievements. She honestly hadn't expected it. It wasn't that she wasn't proud of what she had accomplished, she was, it just had never been that big a deal before. She was the youngest of four children and when your older siblings were a teacher, a doctor and in school to be a civil engineer, being a ballerina just didn't match up. Her parents were proud of her of course but when it came to her brothers and sister she was just a ballerina and never anything else.

"Well it may take a little while but I'm sure I could teach you a few tricks. You know that little room not far from here? The one that turns into anything you want it to? We should make a dance studio!"