At least Miss Hunniford wasn’t the most terrible person he might’ve had to dance with three times in one night. She’d used to live in Hogsmeade, and had been in Cee’s year, so he knew her vaguely; and she was sensible, thankfully, and she hadn’t been afraid to roll her eyes when it happened again, so at least she clearly didn’t care much for the occasion either. So maybe dancing with her was a bit of a mercy, as little as he might have meant it to be.

“Alright, but if we divide it here,” Theo said, gesturing discreetly with the hand he was clasping hers in as the dance turned them towards the halfway point of the ballroom, and grinning at her, “who’s going to get the side with all the punch?” He was only half joking at that. The refreshment table was along one wall, and although the punch was coloured to match the theme of romance, it still did the job of helping one swallow the evening pretty well.

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