Terry Boot & Dean Thomas December 2009 | Yule Ball backstory log; Dean & Terry share a dance
RATING: G (or C for Cute) | Warnings: None
Terry honestly wasn’t sure why he was there.
He stood near the edge of the dance floor, watching couple after couple spin around over and over. He desperately wanted to be part of it all, but --
He couldn’t. Not the way he wanted to.
With his hands shoved in his pockets, he knew it was probably obvious how out of place he felt, so he pulled them out of his pockets and tried to stand a little taller, like he meant to stand there by an empty table. Like nothing at all was wrong. The Yule Ball was supposed to be something fun -- this glamorous, likely once-in-a-lifetime event. That, he reasoned, was why he was there. How could he pass up the only chance he’d ever have for a ball like that one? Without a proper date, however, Terry felt more alone in the crowded Great Hall than he ever had before.
Dean had spent most of the night with friends in lieu of having a proper date of his own. There hadn’t been anyone he’d particularly wanted to ask, although he did rather wish he’d asked Parvati when he considered what a miserable time she seemed to be having with her own date. Still, he was managing to have a decent enough time and he was smiling as he approached Terry.
“You know,” he half-teased, “I think you’re supposed to mingle at these things. Maybe dance a little.” It was fairly obvious that the Ravenclaw was a little out of his element here.
“Umm.” Terry’s cheeks flushed almost instantly, both at the embarrassment of being called out and at how good Dean looked in his robes. (He always looked good, however.) As a dancer himself, he knew he was expected to make some sort of grand showing, but -- but he didn’t have anyone to waltz with who was actually interested in him.
“I was dancing,” he countered, “earlier. With Lisa. And Megan.”
“Oh.” Dean shuffled his feet awkwardly, feeling a little stupid for his teasing. It had probably been a dumb comment to make when he hadn’t exactly been watching Terry the whole night. It wasn’t like he knew how long the Ravenclaw had been standing there. “Well, that’s good,” he said, probably sounding even lamer than he already did. “That you were dancing.”
Wow, really smooth, Dean, he thought. He wondered what the chances were that the floor could just swallow him up right now.
It wasn’t hard to tell that Dean felt uncomfortable all of a sudden, and Terry cringed a little. That was his fault, he thought, for not playing along. “Sorry,” Terry mumbled, frowning. “I know you weren’t making fun. It’s just --” He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. “It’s hard, you know, to see everyone,” Terry waved a hand even though he knew Dean didn’t need help figuring out what he was talking about, “coupled up when no one -- I mean, it’s not like I’ve got a real date.”
“I don’t either,” Dean admitted. “And I think Parvati would have some choice things to say about hers, if that makes you feel better.” There were a lot of people coupled up, and many of them even looked pretty cozy, but there was some small comfort in knowing that there were others who felt as awkward and out of place as he did at something like this.
“Dunno,” Terry mumbled. “‘Least she’s got one. ‘Least she’s got a chance.” He knew the odds were stacked against him - not just at Hogwarts but after, too. He knew it was going to be harder to find what he wanted. Life wasn’t some sort of fairytale. It wasn’t a romantic comedy.
Terry sighed. “How many boys --” he started, and then he stopped, unsure. Michael and Anthony knew, and his sisters, but he hadn’t wanted to tell his classmates yet. But there was something about Dean that told Terry that he could trust him. He cleared his throat and tried again, “what are the chances there’s a bloke here who’d want to dance with me? Like actually dance. Like everyone else gets to. Maybe Parvati doesn’t like Harry much, but -- at least someone here’s bound to fancy her. She doesn’t know how easy she’s got it.”
“I’d dance with you,” Dean said, leaving the topic of Parvati and her date who would clearly have rather come with someone else behind them as he regarded Terry seriously. Maybe he had it easier; he liked girls, too, so it was easy for him to pretend or maybe it just meant he had more potential dance partners than most people here. It wasn’t something he’d thought a lot about before the fact that he liked boys and girls both in the same way. It wasn’t something he’d even said out loud, although he thought Lavender and Parvati, at least, knew. But he meant it when he said he’d dance with Terry, even if he hadn’t exactly meant to blurt it out so candidly and he rather suspected he wasn’t the only one.
Immediately, Terry felt his cheeks flush, and he averted his gaze, embarrassed that he’d said so much. “Dean…” Terry sighed. “I appreciate the thought but you don’t have to…” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “I don’t want anyone feeling bad for me. I’ll be okay.”
“It wasn’t.. I wasn’t...” Dean felt sort of awkward now, but he was determined to push through it. “I know I don’t have to, but I want to,” he said, shuffling his feet a little awkwardly and suddenly feeling that his dress robes were very stifling.
Terry’s brow furrowed as he tried to process what he was hearing. Dean wanted to? Wanted to dance with him? He didn’t think someone like Dean would lie about it, but he hadn’t realised Dean had ever looked at him like that before.
“Oh --” His heart pounded in his ears, and he felt so incredibly stupid and dense. For all the time he spent watching Michael flit around with girls, he was so much more clueless than he’d realised. “Merlin. Okay.” He could do this, he told himself. Summoning up all of the courage he had, Terry reached out for Dean’s hand. “C’mon then.”
Dean’s heart was in his throat as he realized Terry had agreed. It was a little unexpected, even when it shouldn’t have been, but he recovered quickly from his surprise and took Terry’s hand with a grin.
“Alright, let’s do it,” he agreed as he began to lead the other boy out toward the dance floor.