Hearing Jacob's tone, Louisa started to sob silently.
The pain that had accumulated over time, the pain that seemed to be eating her alive appeared in the form of tears that silently travelled across her innocent cheeks.
Even the audience had become tense.
'Why did Jacob ask Louisa to take him to that spot?'
'What is he thinking?'
While others feared for Jacob's decision.
'Was he going to do something terrible?'
'Was he going to give up?'
A feisty redhead blamed Loki since he was a Slytherin and was ready to bet that he was the one that ruined the story since a Gryffindor could never do such a thing and would never make such a terrible ending.
Professor McGonagall even started to have second thoughts about the play.
'Should I stop it?'
Although hidden in the cover of darkness, Professor McGonagall could still spot the two enthusiastic students behind the stage she'd so generously set up.
And seeing them she found them to have soft smiles on their faces.
'Why are they smiling?'
'In this tense atmosphere where I can't guarantee they'll leave the class alive, why are they still smiling?'
McGonagall slowly became frustrated and soon after a bit of contemplation began to let go of her frustrations and trust in the creators of the play.
She'd decided to trust her students like a good professor should.
Every crunch of the sticks and every roll of the wheels over the gravel felt impactful to the students.
Jacob and Louisa soon arrived at the spot under the moonlight where the girl was dancing step by step.
'Is the girl still dancing there?' students wondered.
The foliage slowly cleared up and everyone saw her, the little girl was still dancing in the moonlight.
There were faint gasps throughout the room, everyone watched Louisa bite her lips to the point that they began to bleed.
The girl's dancing was marvellous, filled with swings and turns that caused her dress to fly, making circles around the ground as her hair shimmered. Everything seemed perfect.
Everything seemed as if the girl was free.
Everything seemed to be a perfect contrast to Jacob who was bound to the wheelchair.
The girl's show soon ended and Louisa had cried enough to the point where all her tears had emptied out.
And with Jacob not doing anything throughout the girl's dance everyone felt a little relieved.
'Perhaps he just wanted to watch the girl dance?'
'But what of Louisa? Is he not worried about her degrading mental health?'
As the girl's performance ended, Jacob began to clap loudly.
The girl instantly became embarrassed at her audience and quickly under everyone's gaze ran away through the forest to go back home.
A few chuckles escaped the audience because of her actions.
Everyone then saw Louisa slowly put her hand back on Jacob's wheelchair as she began to turn him around so that they could go back.
The entire performance had been nothing short of torture for her.
It felt like pins were pricking her chest and head, yet she bore it all since she felt like she deserved it, since in her mind she felt it was because of her that Jacob lost his freedom to move, freedom to feel free.
But once again under the barrage of self-degrading thoughts she was facing, Jacob's calm voice resounded.
"Erm…Louisa…*cough* *cough* I mean…would you…"
"Huh? What did you say, Jacob?" Louisa asked, quickly wiping away all the tears on her face before Jacob could turn around and look at her.
"I mean…I was wondering….if you'd want to…you know…pick up on that offer you made me when I went up to defeat Sullivan."
"...huh?"
Louisa like the rest of the audience was suddenly dumbfounded.
"Come again." Louisa asked with a puzzled, pained expression on her face, "What did you say?"
But Jacob continued in the same jovial tone he was using earlier.
"I mean…I was wondering if I could have you for a dance? Is that not alright?"
Simultaneously like the rest of the crowd, everyone thought Jacob had finally lost it.
Louisa's lips quivered but she remained steadfast and said, "Alright. I'll push the wheelchair and you move? Is that alright?"
"....no. Not like that." Jacob said and under everyone's stunned gazes, he waved his wand and formed legs from himself by transfiguring the dirt on the ground. "Help me up." Jacob said.
Louisa's eyes widened a little but she didn't discourage Jacob's attempt at looking normal and did her best to help him up so that he could stand up on his own.
"How are you going to dance in those Jacob!? You'll fall down!! I understand you want to walk again but-"
"Shhhh!!!!" Jacob just placed his finger on Louisa's lips and shut her up.
Then he slowly wiped away the blood leaking from her lips and the tears that still remained on her face, "Calm down and watch. Don't you want to dance with me?"
Louisa's eyes widened and although she didn't understand what was going on a warm feeling of hope had sprouted in her heart and so she slowly nodded her head.
"Then let go." Jacob said pulling his arms out of her grasp.
"But-"
"Trust me, and let go." Jacob said again and taking a deep breath after closing her eyes, Louisa finally let go.
Everyone instantly expected Jacob to collapse to the ground, after all, transfigured legs weren't meant to move, they were frozen and appeared stationary.
At least that was what most people thought.
Professor McGonagall's eyes widened instead as she mumbled something in the midst of all the silence.
"Animated transfiguration."
It wasn't very tough to make something animated using transfiguration, after all, it was just a third-year course syllabus and most graduated students could perform basic animated transfiguration.
But it was still extremely hard to perfectly or even with some flaws, mimic human body parts using transfiguration.
The problem was such prosthetics would vanish after a little bit of time when the caster's spirituality depleted. This was also why it wasn't used by medi witches since it was but a temporary solution.
Even then one would need a lot of concentration and focus to be able to pull it off, it was ridiculously hard.
But as McGonagall's words travelled through the audience's ears, they all remembered the several times they had seen Jacob levitate himself out of bed in the dead of the night while Louisa slept to do something elsewhere.
'Ah! He was practising for this.'
"May I have the opportunity to take you for a dance?" Jacob asked with a soft bow as he looked up at Louisa.
Louisa's eyes watered immediately and her brows trembled along with her whole body but she wasn't one to see an opportunity in front of her and not take it, so she placed her trembling hands in Jacob's grasp and said, "You may!"
"Then let's dress appropriately."
With the wave of his wand, Jacob transformed their clothes into ones suitable for a ball dance, with Jacob wearing a full tuxedo and Louisa wearing a deep blue gown that was littered with what appeared to be stars.
Jewellery appeared around her neck and on her ears as Jacob placed his wand back into his holster and stood up from his courteous bow to meet her eyes.
"Let's begin."
Curtains fell on the stage and the lights immediately turned on but everyone remained stunned and silent, their thoughts going back to the final beautiful scene with Jacob and Louise standing in the middle of a flowery field against the backdrop of the moon.
Everyone was lost in a trance until they all heard a soft *clap*.
It came from Professor McGonagall who was smiling excitedly and happily.
Soon the whole classroom burst into a round of applause that Loki and Hermione took with a polite bow, they were both tired which was apparent from the sweat gathered on their brows but they didn't let it show and kept a professional smile on their faces as if this was nothing for them.
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