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“Please make sure that you don’t prioritize getting ready for the Yule Ball over this essay. Exams are coming up and this essay will help you as a study guide of everything we talked about this year.” Lance announced to his class as they got ready to leave and finish for the day. He still had a dance practise with his Ravenclaws, assuming he didn’t get delayed by any student’s still needing help. Yule was still 2 weeks away, but part of Lance wanted it to be over, so he wouldn’t have witness people begging with their eyes to be asked. Lance didn’t think he was like that. His older sister was a year above him so unless she already had a date, they would go together. He just enjoyed going with his friends unless he was in a relationship long enough to actually go with to the ball with. And god knows what he’d be witnessing on the actual day of the ball when he had to chaperone.
Once all the students had exited his classroom and he’d answered the questions, Lance stretched. Muggle studies was an easy subject to teach seeing how he was a half blood and grew up as a muggle most of his life but most of his students were witches and wizards who hadn’t been around any type muggle item in their life. He picked up his things from the desk in front and took it into his office. He’d deal with grading things later. There had been a box of chocolate frogs in the staff room and he wanted to go swipe one before he had to get to the Ravenclaw Tower for ballroom practise. He moved quickly to the staff room and walked in as Keith Kogane, his old quidditch rival and the professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts, pulled what he assumed was the last chocolate frog if picking and throwing away the box was any indication.
“It that the last one?” Lance whined
“Um yes?” Keith answered
Lance let out a groan as he walked into the room and flopped into a seat, staring at the spot the box used to be. “I had been looking forward to having one before I have to work with my Ravenclaws on ballroom dancing.”
“You’ve been teaching them how to dance?” Keith asked, pulling a nearby seat and sitting down
“Yeah, haven’t you?”
Like Lance was the head of Ravenclaw, Keith was the head of Gryffindor, which made for a fun year when they tried beating each other for the House Cup and the Quidditch Cup.
“No, I just call for aa joint class with Allura’s snakes and leave her to deal with them.”
Lance let out a laugh, “what would Shiro think?”
“Shiro is dealing with his badgers. He doesn’t have time to reprimand me.” Keith said, opening the packaging open, his chaser skills allowing him to quickly grab the frog before it could jump off the packaging. Once it stilled in his hand, he broke it in half and held out half to Lance. “here.”
“Are you sure?” Lance asked. He hadn’t expected Keith to share it with him.
“You had been looking forward to it.” Keith said
“Thanks.” Lance said, giving Keith a smile. It had been strange coming back to Hogwarts and seeing Keith again. He never thought he’d see him again and seeing him back in the place that felt like home away from home made it feel like things hadn’t changed. They had been acquaintances during their school year, who used their rivalry as a way of pushing themselves forward and now that they didn’t have nearly as much to compete against, they got the chance to sit and talk and become friends. “have you had to deal with any drama in your house about dates for the Ball?”
“Another thing I don’t deal with. I told them not to bring their sob stories to me unless they think it could end in someone getting physically hurt. Some people obviously didn’t listen.” Keith said, complaining.
“You’re their head of house. Your supposed to help them.” Lance chastised, though he felt like he couldn’t be totally surprised
“Not with their relationship problems.” Keith said
“I bet your looking forward to chaperoning.” Lance teased
“There’s a reason I skipped the dance every year. Well except my last year, Shiro literally threatened to take points away if I didn’t go. Having a brother as a professor sucks.”
“I’m sure. I mean, I had fun except I almost always went alone if my date wasn’t my sister.” Lance reminisced taking his last bite of his chocolate frog
“Wait, what? Are you serious? You went by yourself? What about all those people you were dating?” Keith asked, sounding confused and stunned
“They dumped me usually before. I think I only actually went with Plaxum as my date, but we got into a huge fight on New Year’s, so we broke up.” Lance explained. Before it would have killed him to admit this but not anymore. It had hurt then but Lance had moved on. “you know, I was never nominated to be the couple that opened the ball with the other schools. Oh well, guess I’ll have to live vicariously through my ravens.”
“I assumed you would of. You seem to always have people’s attention and you never seem alone so to speak.” Keith said
Lance shrugged, “not a lot of people wanted to take the challenge of dating me.” A fact he knew too well.
It was silent and starting to lead into awkward silence when Keith spoke. “I never liked going to those dances but part of me wanted to, but I wanted to only do it if I was going with someone I know I’d enjoy myself with. Since I have no choice in going this time around, I guess I should at least with someone I enjoy going with now.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Lance said. If he did what Keith was going to do, honestly, he’d want to go with Keith. Now that he had the chance to talk with Keith more, he realised that if he hadn’t been so focused on the rivalry, he and Keith could have been friends, which seeing how it had led to Lance having a small crush now, that’s what would have happened. They could be as sappy as Hunk and his long-distance girlfriend who was a teacher at Dungstrang Institute. But he missed that chance.
“Did you want to go together?”
Lance blinked at Keith. “me?”
“If you don’t want to…” Keith started but Lance stopped him.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I’m just confused why you’re asking me.”
Keith didn’t look at him when he answered, and Lance could see the tips of his ears glowing red. “I know we didn’t totally get along when we were students, but I guess us being teachers have been better for us because we’ve gotten closer. I’m glad we have because I’ve realised that you’re a pretty cool person. And I would actually enjoy going to the Ball with you. If you want to.”
“Um yes. I would actually.” Lance answered, starting to feel embarrassed himself
“Really?”
Lance nodded. “I would. I know we have to keep an eye on the students, but I do expect at least one dance.”
“I’ll make sure of that. I can meet you at your room and we can head over together?” Keith suggested
“Sure.” Lance agreed. He went to say more but a loud ticking from his pocket stopped him. He pulled out his pocket watch and looked to see it was ticking loudly as it was getting closer to when he was supposed to get to the Ravenclaw tower for their dance lesson. He pressed down on the face to quieten it and looked to Keith. “I have to get going. I have a dance lesson.”
“I should be heading to the seventh floor too. Allura will throw a fit if I’m not there to help her stage a strong presence of no mistakes.” Keith said, standing up
“I feel sorry for your lions.” Lance said.
“It’s punishment for acting like I’m their relationship therapist.” Keith snarked as they left the staff room, making Lance burst into laughter.
Keith felt like he was a kid again, the nerves growing in his stomach as he approached Lance’s room. He never liked dress robes, so he decided to go for a muggle approach in formal wear. He tugged as his black bowtie as he reached the door. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Lance opened the door to reveal he had also decide to forgo dress robes. His navy blue suit looked good, which made his dress shirt and waistcoat pair look a bit underdressed but thankfully Keith wasn’t totally concerned about how he looked.
“You look good. I don’t think I’ve seen you with your bags brushed back since Quidditch.” Lance said stepping out of his room and messing with the sleeve of his fitted blue jacket. Keith could see the edges of a wand holster on that arm. Keith had just kept his in his inside waistcoat pocket. His glares got more than enough across and he could cast wandless spells well enough.
“Shiro suggested I look a bit more put together.” Keith said, wanting to mess with his hair but knew if he did and Shiro saw, he’d be in trouble.
“I like it. Though I loved your pineapple hair you had in Advanced Potions.” Lance said as they made their way to the Great Hall.
“Professor Hagger kept that room hotter than any room in the dungeons than it needed to be.” Keith defended
“Whatever the reason, I liked your hair.”
“You always told me you didn’t.” Keith reminded
“I’m allowed to change my mind.” Lance said with a smile.
The Great Hall was decked in its winter wonderland splendour that came with every Yule Ball. Student’s where already inside, greeting students from Dungstrang and Beauxbatons, waiting for Headmaster Coran to officially call three couples from each school to start the Ball.
“I can never grow tired of how they make this place look.” Lance said, staring up at the night lit magic ceiling. Keith was paying more attention to how the soft glowing lights in the room made Lance look. Keith wasn’t used to getting crushes but after getting to know Lance better, he could see himself getting along with him easily and he did. Who knew how things could have turned out if they had been friends earlier? But he had a chance now and Keith wanted a chance at it.
Before they knew it, they were on the platform the teachers table used to sit with the other teachers and Headmaster Coran.
“Welcome my students and a big welcome to our guests from Dungstrang and Beauxbatons. We start our Yule Ball inviting a couple from each school to start the dancing and I’ve taken suggestion from our teachers and students. From Dungstrang, we invite Ms. Shay Balmera to the dancefloor and I think I’d be cruel to not allow her to dance with her partner.” The Herbology professor walked over to the woman in question. Shay was about a full two heads taller than Hunk, but as she took Hunk’s hand to be lead on the floor, she looked small enough for Hunk to sweep into her arms safely.
“We also invite from Beauxbatons, Ms Ezor and Ms Zethrid.” A loud amount of cheering from the French students came as the two female teachers took the floor. “and from our own school, we invite our Muggle Studies professor, Mr. Lance McClain and our Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Mr. Keith Kogane to join their fellow teachers on the floor.”
Both Keith and Lance stared Coran down, who only gestured to the floor. Keith spotted Shiro looking at them expectedly. He knew he should have never opened his mouth to that sell out.
“Shall we?” Lance asked, holding out a hand. Keith still didn’t like being the centre of attention, but he took Lance’s hand anyway and let himself be lead into the clear area.
“This is so embarrassing.” Keith muttered as he put his hand on Lance’s shoulder, letting him hold onto his waist.
“I guess you don’t really remember how the opening dances go do you?” Lance asked as the music started and he started leading.
“Not really. I stayed in the back the only time I came here. Why?”
“This is why.” Lance took Keith by the waist and with seemingly no effort, picked Keith up and spun him around before putting him back on the floor and sweeping him back into dancing.
Keith had not been expecting that. He guessed that’s what he got for not paying attention when Allura was teaching both his lions and her snakes how to dance. That would also explain why Shiro had been a giggly mess the only time he had gone, and Adam had been his brother’s date.
“You ok?” Lance asked, as they switched arms
“Absolutely. When can you do that again?”
“How about now?” Lance asked, a smile on his face as he put his hands on Keith’s waist. This time Keith was ready and put his hands on Lance’s shoulders. That smile didn’t leave Lance’s face and by the time they were done dancing, Keith’s cheeks were hurting from his own smiling.