Infamous | Fred Weasley x OC |

Chapter Forty Six

While Professor McGonagall was teaching the Gryffindors to dance in preparation for the yule ball, us Hufflepuffs were being taught to dance by Professor Sprout.

Sprout had booked an unused classroom and made all the Hufflepuffs who were fourth year or older all cram in. We were then made to line up, boys against one wall and girls against the opposite wall. Sprout remained in the middle of the floor and walked through the boys dance steps and then the girls.

From across the room, I saw Kevin looking in my direction while Sprout was going over the dance moves. I leant over and whispered to Maddie, "I call dibs on you for my dance partner."

After her performance was through, and she waited for everyone to applaud, she waved her hands and said "Okay, now we've got the hang of that, partner up! Go on, go on, we haven't got all day here."

Maddie turned to me and smiled and I comically held out my arm for her to take.

"Boys, you need to hold the girls by their waist, not at arms' length," Professor Sprout was shouting across the room as a couple tried to dance, only touching each other by the fingertips. Maddie and I laughed to each other but then Sprout turned to us.

"Have you two not got partners yet," She said, clapping her hands together. Before I could explain that Maddie and I were going to dance together, Sprout continued talking, "I can see Mr Newman and Mr Diggory are also partnerless. Boys!" she called and Kevin and Cedric came over.

I saw Kevin desperately trying to make eye contact with me as he came over so I made sure to lock eyes with Cedric instead. Cedric smiled at me and held his hand out for me to take. Maddie beamed as Kevin came over but her smile didn't last long. Just as I was about to take Cedric's arm, Kevin pretty much dove between us and took me by the hand. Cedric smiled a small smile and shrugged at me as he paired off with Maddie instead, who looked at Kevin and me with a disappointed look in her eyes. I returned to expression but she whipped her head away and focused on dancing with Cedric.

This dancing thing was only made worse as I was forced to spend a half hour dancing with Kevin as he randomly talked about quidditch and how great Cedric was doing in the tournament compared to the others, especially Harry. I sighed. I can't catch a break.

*

We sat at the Gryffindor table for dinner that day, mainly because I wanted to catch up with the twins, and Emmy and Lee were becoming fast friends, but also because after the day of dancing I had, I wanted to avoid interacting with Kevin any more than necessary.

Emmy slouched down at the table, sitting opposite me and next to Lee and the twins. She managed to briefly hold her head up to make eye contact with me and we shared a glum smile.

"Your dance lessons as bad as ours then?" Emmy asked with a sigh. I nodded.

"Pretty sure they were worse," I grumbled, resting my head on my hand and smooshing my face up.

"Oh, that's rough. How come?"

"Kevin practically cornered me and I had to dance with him," I complained. Emmy pulled a face, "He's got two left feet and spent the whole time talking to me so he didn't even notice he was so bad."

Emmy laughed half heartedly which ended up sounding more like a scoff than a laugh. Maddie just huffed.

"Kevin's not bad," she mumbled under her breath.

"It was alright for you," I protested, sitting up straight to look at her, "You got to dance with Cedric."

Maddie frowned and stopped talking, suddenly finding her dinner plate intensely fascinating. I rolled my eyes at her and returned my attention to my dinner too until Emmy kicked me under the table in order to get my attention.

"What's up with her?" she whispered, gesturing to Maddie with a nod of her head.

"What do you mean?"

Emmy shook her head and rolled her eyes at me.

"Never mind."