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The third floor had a lot of empty classrooms, but the one James was most familiar was classroom 305. It was his and Barty's classroom. There was an anonymous list of unused classrooms that couples could use to get privacy and claim specific classrooms.
Classroom 305 didn't get used at all anymore, unless it was by Barty and James. It wasn't even on the cleaning list anymore. Not properly anyway. The house elves tended to it from time to time, but it wasn't an important place to keep neat and tidy.
It was easy then for Barty to transform the old dingy classroom into something resembling a high society ballroom. They'd both gotten invites to a ball, but neither of them had wanted to go.
James didn't like them. He may have been raised with manners, but he wasn't raised to be the perfect high society heir for the Potters. Barty hated them, his father was always wanting him to be someone he wasn't.
The dancing wasn't great either. James much preferred if his partner lead, and Barty hated the awkward small talk he'd have to make while dancing with random women he didn't know.
It wasn't the dancing they didn't like, it was just the dancing at a high society ball. Really, they didn't like high society balls.
But they didn't need a high society ball to dance with each other. Not when they had classroom 305, and magic to transform it into something much nicer.
"Shall we?" Barty asked, doing his best posh and high society accent. James laughed slightly.
"Of course," James said, echoing his accent with ease. "You may have this dance Future Mr Potter." Barty laughed then. James never called him Mr Crouch, he knew how much Barty hated it. But he still liked to be fancy and dramatic, and Barty would never object to being called Future Mr Potter. It was a promise of the future.
Barty took James' hand and led him onto the small dance floor he'd set up in the middle of the classroom. With flick of his wrist and a whispered spell the gramophone started to play a slow song. James settled his free hand onto Barty's shoulder, and Barty rested his free one on James' hip. Really it should have been his waist, but neither of them were going to correct it.
It was second nature by then for Barty to gently pull James into a simple waltz around Classroom 305. James was happy to follow.
There was something freeing to it, to dancing through the empty classroom that had become their haven, and letting the world fall away. Something relaxing to dancing with each other in a random room with no one there to judge.
There were no expectations on them in Classroom 305. No in their classroom they could be just them.
There were no High Society Expectations weighing them down as they danced together. There was no forced small talk, and there were no forced roles in the dancing. They were free to do as they pleased in their classroom.
James was free to fall into a simple rhythm, as Barty led them around the dance floor. They were free to forget about the outside world, and they were free to be with each other as they wanted to be.