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We moved as a group through the empty space of the hall. Such a maneuver could not go unnoticed by the company of Slytherin girls and boys standing nearby. However, contrary to expectations, they did not take any action. When we approached the girls, we stood a little behind, giving Dean the opportunity to come forward. Reaching Astoria in a dark green dress, which was watching with interest the development of events, Dean spoke up:
"Excuse me for interrupting your conversation. Allow me to introduce myself. Dean Thomas, fourth-year Gryffindor," the boy bowed quite gracefully after an acceptable introduction. "May I have this dance, miss?"
Dean held out his right hand. Astoria nodded and held out her left.
"With pleasure."
The invitation went off without a hitch, and as we walked out to the empty seats in the hall, we waited for a new round of music, starting another dance.
"Miona. Do you want to fool around?"
"That sounds as ambiguous as possible, Max. I would like to hear the full version of your proposal before agreeing."
"It's just all sorts of Hagrid flying around the hall like whirlwinds. I want to do something unusual, too."
"Like what?"
"In the first step of the tact, activate the battle transgression for a brief moment. It should have the effect of a smoky black plume, and the step itself should become twice as long."
Hermione pondered for a couple of moments, and then, after glancing at our completely black robes, she agreed. A step with a fleeting transgression activation, and for a moment, there was a plume around us, slowly dissipating just in time for the second tact, and again we activated the transgression. So we remained three-dimensional, but there was a falling plume of smoke that wasn't smoke at all. Looking around, both of us, not without pleasure, noted the other dancers' somewhat dumbfounded or surprised faces.
After a few minutes, the dance came to an end, and we returned Astoria to where we had picked her up and exchanged couples for the next dance while Dean went off in search of his next victim. However, as it turned out, he did not go far and asked one of the girls standing in Astoria's company.
"Don't be jealous," Lavender said after a minute of us circling the hall. "You're supposed to smile at a ball, not throw lightning bolts from your eyes."
"I didn't do it on purpose," taking control of the previously unnoticed sensations, I smiled purely and sincerely. "Didn't notice it myself."
"That's the way it always is. Hermione, too, shot me a couple of glances. If it could kill, you would be dancing with a corpse right now."
That's how the ball went. Several times Roger Davies, as if on instinct, tried to get Fleur "to get some air" in the garden that was around the bend. At such moments, as if from nowhere, Krum appeared next to him with his couple, distracting the guy, and for the third time explained to Miss Delacour in few words the whole point of what was happening. Fleur seemed smart, but it was only at this moment that she realized something. What exactly? I don't know. But at about ten o'clock in the evening, someone carried Davis's unconscious body out of the hall.
More than once or twice, we noticed couples allegedly secretly leaving the hall, and every time, absolutely every time, after five or ten minutes, the hourglass with the House points, which had not been removed from the walls, counted a minus. Considering that there were a lot of couples, who tried to get private often, and that Snape had an incredible flair for offenses, the points were flowing away regularly and at an alarming rate. It is worth noting that the Slytherin House did not stand aside from this distribution of fines.
The twins brought in some more booze and poured it into anything with liquid in it. Not overdoing, but not stingy either. Of course, this maneuver did not go unnoticed, and the boys were punished, but the alcohol did its job. Nothing criminal, the doses were childish, but they certainly made the guys feel more relaxed.
When the ball was about to close, about a third went to their bedrooms. Those who didn't dance and didn't show much activity, like Potter and Ron, were sitting around, demanding that the banquet continue, saying, "Let's prolong it some more!" But no one really wanted to prolong anything - everyone had danced enough, and you could sit in the common room if you wish.
"Let's go get some fresh air," Hermione put her hand on my elbow as we left the Great Hall.
"Fresh and cold."
The castle is almost silent by now, but you could hear the quiet sounds from the various groups of students continuing their fun. Of course, the main source of the sounds were the open windows of the common and student rooms, and in the silence, these sounds were more than audible. Still now and then, one could hear: "Minus twenty points!" from Professor Snape. And these sounds were always coming from different directions, making it seem as if there were at least five Snapes in the castle.
"It's a strange feeling," Hermione put her hand on her chest. "Such excitement! We've never broken curfew just for fun without the charms of concealment, have we?"
"Adventuress. Shall we climb the Astronomy Tower?"
"Let's fly..."
Hermione let go of my hand and went into battle transgression, turning into black smoke, lost in the gloom of the dimly lit torchlit corridors. I immediately followed her example, quickly catching up. Transgression flight is quite fast, and it wasn't a minute before we reached the tower's doors. Too dense objects cannot be passed in this state, only air, and water, with physiological needs becoming alien to you. I had to pull out a reduced cane and materialize my hand with it, unlocking the door with Alohomora and opening it with trivial childish telekinesis.
Breaking out into the open, we circled a little in the air in the form of black smoke and then landed on a flat roof. I immediately felt the cold wind, and Hermione was shivering, wrapping herself more tightly in a very light cloak. I immediately took out my handkerchief and transfigured it into a solid winter robe with fur and a hood, throwing it over the girl's shoulders.
"Thank you," she smiled softly.
I wasn't afraid of that cold at all.
An aging moon hung in the sky just above the horizon, the stars shone, and I stood holding the girl by the shoulders, looking into her eyes.
"Hermione Jean Granger. Would you agree to be my girlfriend?"
With the gesture of the illusionist, I transfigured a rose out of thin air without a wand in my hand.
It wasn't an easy trick for me, either. Transfiguration without a wand strains the brain too much.
"I..."