Open The Final Dance

[Leda Layton]

Leda hadn't particularly wanted to go to the Valentines ball this year, but given the fact she worked for the Hogwarts Monthly, and that she was Head Girl, she felt as though she had to. If she was going to attend though, she refused to do so alone. She'd spotted Zennon a few days ago, and after finding out that he wasn't coming to the event with his girlfriend, Leda had convinced him to come with her as friends instead. As one of her best friends it seemed appropriate and she wasn't taking no for an answer. Leda had put on a dress that really she wouldn't have even considered wearing a few years ago, but a lot had changed recently and she wanted to look good, and so once she was ready she'd found Zennon in the common and dragged him up towards the Great Hall. "Stop fussing, your collar is fine," she swatted the prefects hand with a smile. She had to admit she was quite glad when she'd found out he wasn't coming with Sam. The seventh year walked them up through the entrance hall, sliding an arm into his, and looking around to see if there was anything interesting going on. "Hey, maybe this is where Monty finally plucks up the courage to ask Professor Kingsley on a date," she shrugged, wondering if her cousin was ever going to grow a spine and make the first move on a relationship Leda had been convinced for years was in the stars. ​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Leda looked amazing, no surprise from Zennon, but she had to suffer through the fact that Zennon had neglected to really bother dressing up tonight. He'd been trying to avoid certain responsibilities and after deciding he wasn't going to the dance this year, disappointing Sam, he'd thought it wouldn't be fair to dress up for Leda. Not that he particularly wanted to dress up for anyone either really, certainly not for Valentine's Day anyway. He didn't hate valentines, except that it had never been his favourite holiday. He didn't really have a favourite holiday though, so it was a nit stupid in any respect, favourite holiday or not. He supposed he hated them all equally for what they represented. Why buy presents for people on designated days, why not every day? Or if not everyday, why not any day? Why specifically one day a year, or a couple of days a year depending on what you believed in and what country you were from? Just another weird tradition Zennon would only be too happy to leave behind. He looked over at Leda. "Fine, fine, sorry," he dropped his hand from his collar leaning around the now blonde to look at the people already in the room. The Great Hall always managed to look so much bigger during these school events. Probably the lack of tables. He grinned at her as she slid her arm in his and snorted back a laugh. "Come on, Leds, you can't be serious? Monty, ask Cyndi? He'd likely suffer another collapse." Zennon loved Monty, really he did, he was a great person and he'd done a lot for the Slytherin, but Monty and courage of that nature were certainly not two words that belonged in a sentence. "No way, she's going to have to ask him."​

 

[Leda Layton]

Leda smiled to Zennon, “Oh, you’re right, what was I thinking?” She said back, Monty wouldn’t be able to ask her out in a million years. “Maybe we could you know, push them together then,” she suggested quietly, trying to think of what they could do. Leda may have been Head Girl but she had discovered that wasting time was something she was very against, and that the two professors should probably declare the love they had for one another before they missed their chance completely. Besides Leda hated secrets and she knew that this one needed to come to light as soon as possible so that every party could move forward. She realised she’d missed her chance on sending either of them an unsigned rose on their behalf, but there had to be something they could do. “What if.. we made some sort of sign,” creativity when it wasn’t to do with writing, wasn’t Ledas strong point, but surely there had to be something in the room full of love that they could work with to let them both know they were being blind to the inevitable. ​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon laughed lightly as Leda. After everything she’d been going through he was glad to know she wasn’t letting it get her down. She seemed different, he could see it. There were a lot of little things, she was kinder overall, more willing to hear people out instead of jumping to conclusions though she was still the Leda he knew and loved, it was nice to see some change even though it came from a place of such great tragedy. Leda was one of the people that Zennon, from the bottom of his heart, trusted implicitly. He truly believed that even though she was prone to gossip, he could tell her anything and it wouldn’t leave her lips to another ever. Really she was prime candidate to spill all his guts to, but honestly there was so much happening in her life he didn’t feel comfortable adding to that. Maybe later when she’d had more time to process and deal with Olive’s death, but certainly not right now. Leda was the kind of friend you could turn to in a pinch and she’d help you hide the bodies, the kind of person that was with you or against you and you always knew where you stood with her, Zennon loved her for that. He truly, truly did. “Obviously you were thinking about how much Monty and Cyndi would be amazing together and it tripped you up for a moment,” he said, patting her arm affectionately. “Don’t worry, that’s why I’m here. I’ll keep you in line.” He wasn’t sure exactly what she might have had in mind in terms of pushing the pair together but he was certainly interested to hear her thoughts and so he looked around a bit to see if he could help bolster her ideas. “A sign could work, but, it would be difficult if they knew it was from us, we definitely need to find a way to make this untraceable time us, they’ll never go for it otherwise.”​

 

[Leda Layton]

The best way for Leda to describe Zennon was like that of a brother, her partner in crime. They’d snapped together like Lego when Zennon was just a first year, and even though like all relationships, it hadn’t been an easy ride to get to this point, she loved the Slytherin and wouldn’t have done anything to put him in harms way. The Head Girl continued to think about what they could do, grinning at the prefect when he said he was there for her. He really had been these last few months, more than anyone. “Well, they could know it was us,” she began with a devious glance to him, “as long as they believe the signs were from each other,” Leda raised her eyebrows, nodding him over towards the snack table where she would be able to write something down. Grabbing a napkin, she muttered a spell under her breath to summon a pen, and began to write out notes as neatly as she could. She knew Montys handwriting and that was relatively easy to try and replicate, but she had no idea about Professor Kingsleys, opting for something a little neater. Monty may have had his suspicious, but he wasn’t the type to just leave a friend hanging now was he? “We give these to each of them, say we’ve been asked to hand deliver it from the other, and maybe they’ll follow the instructions and meet each other on the dance floor,” she whispered to Zennon, thrusting one into his hand so they could split up and deliver their notes, as innocently as possible, with the best of intentions. ​

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon's mouth shifted into more of a sly grin as he listened to what Leda had planned. She knew what she was doing and he was definitely going to miss this when she was gone. She'd better bloody write him, that was all he could say on that. He looked around and followed her to the table to watch her write the notes. He couldn't believe they were actually doing this, but, it was like she was crossing things off of her bucket list. He wasn't sure if it was going to work, but, at least they could try and if it didn't work, well, no one could say they hadn't done it. "Sign it as Cyn with crosses," he offered, not really knowing if that was the way she signed her notes, but it seemed sufficiently womanly. Merlin, if Jake heard about this he would be either deeply offended he wasn't asked or annoyed they'd picked Monty, either way, Zennon was confident he could convince Jake this was the right decision. Surely the son of the potions master couldn't fail it, right? And if both Monty and Professor Kingsley were happy, that could only be good for everyone else right? He took the note as it was offered to him and headed over to Monty. Leda had Professor Kingsley covered and so he held the note carefully in his pocket as he approached @Professor Monty Pendleton and look over his shoulder to see Leda disappear on the other side to give the note to @Professor Cyndi Kingsley. "Professor! Hi, are you enjoying the dance?" He asked, not wanting to jump into it too quickly. "Great, look I have this note from," he dropped his voice here to make it more obvious that this was something personal "Professor Kingsley," he leaned away a little bit, "and she's asked me to give it to you right away." He said, holding the note out that would tell him that Professor Kingsley was inviting him to meet her on the dance floor.​