Dance With Me Harry

DANCE WITH ME HARRY

By Aerie22

CHAPTER 21

Wednesday

It had been raining for three days straight, and Harry was restless. It was a cold late September rain and on Monday when he had tried to run, he found himself slipping on the mud or the wet grass, falling twice before he was half way to the lake. Even Quidditch practice had been called off due to lightning.

Harry now understood, from the extraordinary emotional roller coaster he had ridden first during the summer and now in his first month at Hogwarts that running and exercise was more than just a physical outlet for him. It also served an emotional one, providing release from the frustrations and anger, the sorrow and the pain.

So he was used to physical activity. He didn't realize how much of release it provided him, how much he craved strenuous exertion until Hermione had broken his heart. That was why he had taken off running in shame. And he had continued to run every night; not a job or a fitness exercise but a hard, pounding, driving run both to blow off steam and to keep his distance from Hermione.

And now he also discovered that the harder he worked his body, the less chance he had of another nightmare. Less chance of seeing Cedric's lifeless, accusing eyes, and the ghostly pointing fingers of friends and acquaintances who haunted his sleep.

But now it was Wednesday. After three days of inactivity, he was not only restless. He was frightened. He had had his first nightmare in weeks last night after spending a sedentary evening sitting around doing homework and playing chess with Ron. Now he found himself tossing and turning in bed. It was after 1:00 am on this Wednesday night, and sleep was still elusive.

He slowly rose from his bed and wandered aimlessly into the boys' bathroom, then down to a deserted common room, where he sat down in front of the embers of a dying fire. But after a few minutes, he got up again and began pacing. But the restlessness and anxiety would not go away. Finally, he simply walked up to his dorm room, changed into a pair of running shorts, a tee-shirt and his running shoes and, grabbing a towel, made his way back to the common room.

He started by doing a series of stretching exercises to warm up, as his Muggle neighbor, Mr. Nichol, taught him. Harry held no illusions about his hobby. Early on in the summer, Voldemort visited him in a dream, showing him that, no matter how skilled the fighter, no matter how artful the move, no matter how fluid the motion, a quarter ounce of yew wood enclosing a Phoenix feather, an thirteen-and-a-half-inch piece of wood, would overcome such Muggle pretensions.

Harry awoke from that visit by Voldemort not with a pain in his head, but a cramp, and the realization in his heart that his new hobby was just that: a hobby. He would have to look elsewhere for answers to the Dark Lord.

He rose from the floor of the common room, his muscles now warm and limber, and began doing simple movements. Within a short time, he found that the warmth of the fireplace coupled with the fact that the tower had been closed up tight against the weather had caused a sheen of sweat to cover his body. He tossed aside his tee-shirt, began to go through a series of more elaborate and strenuous moves, including kicks and spins, both alone and in series.

He was in mid-air, doing a spinning kick when he noticed something move. He came down in a crouch, his body ready to defend against attack. But it was not an enemy or intruder. It was Parvati Patil sitting on the stairs, watching him wide-eyed. Parvati, cleansed of her makeup and newly awakened from her sleep, still looked very pretty in her pink and white pajamas, her long braid hung over her right shoulder.

He quickly grabbed his tee-shirt and donned it, blushing furiously.

Parvati was the first to speak. "Were you just dancing? I've never seen dancing like that," she said with a trace of wonder in her tone.

"Uh...no. It's called karate. It's a form of Muggle self-defense," he stammered.

Parvati was still wide-eyed. "But it looked like a dance...you know, a combination of...like...ballet and modern dance."

Harry just stood there, not knowing what to say.

Parvati shook her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just get so dry when the weather's bad and we have to close all the windows. I just went to refill the water pitcher by my bed and heard something down here and came to check. And I saw you doing that. It was so beautiful."

Harry shrugged, holding his towel up to his chest.

Parvati suddenly broke into giggles. "Harry you don't have to try to hide. I won't bite. You look like some young virgin fearing she's about to be ravished."

Harry looked shocked, then began to giggle himself.

"Could you teach me some of that...you know, some of those moves?" she asked shyly.

Harry looked puzzled. "You want to learn karate? Self-defense stuff?"

"Well...I guess," she said tentatively. "I just thought maybe some of the kicks and pirouettes. I don't know what else you do for this ... karate?"

Harry nodded. "Sure. But why? Do you want to learn self-defense?"

Parvati sighed. "Well, given some of the trolls here at Hogwarts--the human kind, I mean--I suppose that might come in handy. But what I would really like to learn are some of the dance aspects of what you were doing. You were so graceful, but you also had such power and elevation. It was amazing," she said dreamily.

Harry shrugged and smiled. "Sure, if you'd like."

Parvati's face broke into a wide smile, showing her perfect teeth. She stood up. "Great! But first you have to turn around."

Harry gave her a puzzled look and obeyed.

"By the way, you've sure changed since last year," she said. "Okay, you can turn around now."

Harry turned around and stared. Parvati had transfigured her pink and white cotton pajamas into what looked to be a black leotard, covered by pink satin running shorts and a loose thin red jumper cinched at the waist by a loose black sash.

"Wha...what do you mean...I've changed?" he stammered.

She looked him up and down. "Harry, last year at the Yule Ball, you were basically and skinny, gangly boy. Sure you had some shoulders, probably from Quidditch, but the few times we danced I could tell you were basically a skinny boy."

Harry flushed at her frank assessment.

As she continued down the stairs, she continued. "Well, first of all, you're taller. What are you, five-foot-ten?"

Harry shrugged nervously.

"And you're cut like a dancer. Harry, you've grown some muscle. And it looks good," she said flirtatiously.

Now Harry was really blushing and getting a little uncomfortable. 'Was she trying to seduce me?' he thought.

"I don't know what you mean, cut?" he said nervously.

Parvati laughed. "You've got that young virgin look again. Don't worry, Harry. I promise I won't try to take advantage of you."

Her face took on a more serious tone and shrugged. "Being cut simply means you've got larger, more defined muscles. Not big like a weight lifter or anything, but long lean muscles. They look good on you."

Parvati was now on the floor, doing leg extensions, shifting into splits, to languid twists, then to additional extensions.

"You seem to know a lot about dancing," Harry ventured.

She looked up at him with a smile. "If there is one thing I love to do more than anything else in the world, it's dancing," she said, as she started to back arches and sending Harry's mind into a whirl. She finished and held her hand out for Harry to pull her up. She was surprisingly light and agile and Harry was a little disappointed that his pull didn't bring her up into his arms.

"Ever since I was little, all I wanted to do was be a dancer. I nagged my parents to send me to dancing school. But there weren't many decent dancing schools in the wizarding world, so I convinced them to send me to a Muggle school for a while."

"Padma also went to dancing school for a while, but she was so reserved that she really could never enjoy it like I did. So after a while she quit. And it caused a bit of a problem with just one of us going out among the Muggles, so eventually, my lessons ended. But I never lost my love for the dance."

Harry smiled in sympathy.

"No loss, I guess," Parvati said ruefully. "I'm getting a little big to be a real ballerina. I'm already five-foot-seven and that's pretty much beyond the pale. We wouldn't want one of our precious male dancers getting a rupture hoisting my carcass around the stage," she said with a laugh.

"I think you have a very nice figure," Harry said, admiring her willowy shape and blushing.

Parvati laughed and kissed Harry on the cheek. "You're pretty hot yourself," she said smiling. "But you were going to show me some moves.

* * *

Harry was amazed at how quickly Parvati picked up on some of the karate moves. But he had to laugh at how, where his moves were all speed and power, hers were all of style and grace. "Parvati, you're supposed to be fending off an attacker, not tickle him," he said with a laugh.

And Harry was amazed that she could not only do a side kick, but she could hold the elevation of her leg seemingly effortlessly. "Here, Harry. This is quarter to six," she said, raising her right leg parallel to the ground and holding it. "And this is ten of six."

Harry's eyes widened in amazement as Pavati seemed to bend slowly at the waist as her left leg rose higher and higher behind her.

"And this is five of six. And this is six o'clock," she said, holding her leg in a vertical split, her torso parallel to the ground with her head down, her braid nearly brushing the floor. Harry's jaw dropped. He had never seen anything like it. It was erotic, but he couldn't help but admire Parvati's athletic and aesthetic skills.

Then she tried showing Harry some basic ballet jumps and spins. He found himself actually enjoying himself. And the strain on his muscles made him forget any preconceptions of men in ballet.

It was well after 2:30 am when they both collapsed on the couch in front of the fireplace, exhausted.

Finally, Parvati turned to Harry. "That was fun. But Harry, why were you down here in the first place?"

Harry sighed. He didn't want to burden his new friend with his troubles, but Parvati persisted. Eventually, he gave her a brief description of his experiences at the TriWizard tournament and the nightmares and how wearing himself out before bed tended to keep the nightmares at bay.

She sighed and put her arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. They rested there for a while, with Harry nestled comfortably against her, but wondering if he should be doing something more.

Finally Parvati spoke. "Harry, what's with you and Hermione?"

Harry's mood darkened. "She doesn't like me," he said tentatively. "But at least we're talking again, sort of," he added quickly.

Parvati looked down at Harry. "Oh...I think you're wrong there. She's been absolutely miserable for the past few weeks. A royal pain--even more so than usual--if you ask me. And I'm sure it's over you."

Harry made a face as he watched the embers of the fire burn themselves out. "I doubt that," he said sullenly. "If she liked me, she wouldn't have...ignored me the way she has," he said with a pout, sinking deeper into the couch against her. "The only reason we're even talking is I ended up apologizing for trying to be nice to her...for telling her I kind of liked her."

Parvati waiting patiently, anxious to hear more. But Harry simply stared off into space, and she didn't feel it would be wise to press him. She simply sighed. "Harry," she said softly. "Hermione may be a great one for academics, but she's one of the most immature girls I know when it comes to people, especially boys. Maybe it's because you and Ron are the only ones she treats as friends and she takes her cues from you two. And, between you and me, you aren't exactly the most worldly wizard out there. But you're a regular Gildroy Lockhart compared to your mate Ron."

Harry scowled at the mention of Lockhart and looked up at Parvati, who now had a faraway look in her eyes. They sat there for a long time, watching the dying fire. Finally Harry spoke. "You really like Ron, don't you?" he said quietly

She gave a little shrug. "I thought I did. After all, he's grown so tall, and he's not bad to look at. And when we met on the train on the way here, he was so sweet. He told how nice I looked and how I seemed have grown up over the summer. I thought he'd finally matured...maybe gotten over his shyness...that he would stop acting like an overgrown kid now," she said with a sigh.

She played absently with Harry's hair and continued. "And I always thought we night be a good fit. We've got so much in common. He's the youngest boy in a large and crazy family. Padma and I are the youngest children in a large and crazy family. He's Quidditch crazy, and I'm from a Quidditch crazy family," she said. "And a lot of that rubbed off on me. I'm one of the few girls I know who doesn't glaze over when Quidditch comes up."

Parvati then turned to Harry. "But the thing I most like about him is that he's a steadfast guy, someone who stuck by you and Hermione when the chips were down, even when his life was on the line. A girl likes it if she knows she can count on her man. I think Ron can be that kind of guy."

Now it was Harry's turn to sigh. "You know, Ron really does like you a lot," he said. "He just has trouble expressing himself."

Parvati shrugged. "Well, he better get over his trouble pretty soon," she said distantly. "I've already turned down a date with a perfectly nice boy from Ravenclaw waiting for Ron, but that's not going to happen many more times."

Harry nodded, surprised that he could be so comfortable with this girl who he never really knew before tonight. "I guess I know what you mean. I gave Hermione a try but got hurt really bad. You think she likes me? So does Ron. But I'm not going through that again. I'll just sit back and wait to see what happens."

Parvati gave Harry a poke in the ribs. "It must be past your bedtime. You're getting cranky and whiney."

The two giggled.

Then Parvati looked down at Harry with a serious expression. "I'll tell you what. You see what you can do with Ron, and I'll see what I can do with Hermione. Maybe it's meant to be. Maybe not. But the Yule Ball is coming up in a couple months. Things didn't exactly work out last year between us, but I suppose neither of us expected it to. But if we can't knock some sense into those two dopes in that time, what do you say we give it another try? You're not so bad, and bet you're a hell of a dancer if you put your mind to it," she said with a smile.

Harry looked up at Parvati. He smiled. There could be worse things in life than to end up with such a nice, straight-forward, uncomplicated girl. And such a pretty one. And one who could do a vertical split. Harry started laughing softly. "It's a date. And at least I can waltz."