A Night of Swing

"No, have a seat."

"What's a lovely gal like yourself doing all alone at a place like this?" The man sat down and looked across the table.

She turned her head and gave the man an appraising look. He wasn't bad. The light glinted on his perfect white teeth and light brown hair, flecked, if only slightly, with gray. The candle in the middle of the table flickered as she sighed heavily.

"I don't know what I'm doing." She turned back around and struggled to fight back tears. She wasn't here alone for nothing. She was here alone because she was just that. Alone, always alone. Her life was full of emptiness and seriousness.

"Well, let me tell you what you're doing now," he said slowly, a mischievous glint in his eye. "You and I," he said, "are going dancing." With that, he grabbed her long elegant hand carefully and led her out onto the floor.

I want us to play my own game.
Don't tell me who you are it's all the same!
(All the same! Oh all the same!)
Let's go out where they can't see.
(No they can't see!)
We'll dance to ourselves, just you and me.
(You and me, baby oh! You and me!)

"I'm not sure I know how!" she whispered in his ear.

He chuckled a bit and led her to the center of the dance floor.

"It's easy! You'll be swingin' in no time! Just follow me!"

The dim light in the room caught her shining ebony hair, pulled up into a twisting knot at the back of her head. Slowly, slightly nervously, the man took her hands and started to twirl her around, stepping carefully and slowly so she could pick up the beat. He was a rather timid man. Sweet, brilliant and charming, but timid. Things had happened to him that people only saw in nightmares, but a place like this helps you forget everything. His heart pounded faster as she got the beat and started to smile. He was suddenly very aware of her cream colored skin touching him, and her cool, smooth hand in his. He gathered her in her arms as she spun against his chest, and dipped her low. She laughed a musical, tinkling laugh and his face broke into a grin.

"I told you that you could do it! You're a natural!"

She laughed again and smiled ruefully.

"Well I've got a marvelous teacher." The man grinned again and pulled her up, turning her around again and pulling her close.

"You know," she said breathlessly. "I'd really like a drink. Would you like to get one?"

He shook his head, smiling.

"Love to."

Man I'm going crazy when I hear that sound!
(Uh huh, baby! Ooh, ooh baby!)
I'm buyin' drinks, pass em all around!
There'll clappin' and cheerin' as I make my way.
We'll sing 'n' swing 'till the break of day!
'Till the break of day! 'Till the break-of-day!

They slowed their dancing down and stopped, walking over to the bar, where a wizened old man was serving up drinks to flushed looking young people. They walked slowly up to the counter swaying a bit to the sound of the music playing and whoops of laughter from the people out on the floor.

"I'll have a Caesar, and my friend will have..." He looked inquiringly at the woman in red beside him.

"Martini, dry, please."

"And a Martini dry for my friend."

"Right then..." the bartender said.

He turned his back on the couple and an instant later he turned around with two drinks in his hand.

"Thanks. Should we find a table?"

"Certainly."

Walking slowly through the crowd they found their way to a table in the back and sat down. There was a comfortable silence, until the man spoke again. "So, come here often?"

She laughed again, happily. "Oh no. Actually, my friend Xiomara persuaded me to come tonight! She said she wouldn't leave me to look like a fool, but here I am, and she ran off with some guy she met all of an hour ago. Haven't seen her since!"

The man threw his head back and laughed at this. It sounded like a friend of his, and he told her so. But something didn't feel right, to him. Xiomara, Xiomara... It sounded very familiar, but he couldn't pin where he'd heard it before. It was like someone that he'd grown up with...Suddenly he remembered.

Ooh we'll be...
Swingin' and dancin' to our own tune,
(Our own tune! Oh our own tune!)
Movin' and jumpin' in the light of the moon.
(Light...of...that silver moon!)
It'll be shinin' oh silver bright!
(Ooh, ooh, ooh, uh huh!)
We'll be ready for more by the end of the night!
(More gimme' more! More I want more!)

"Xiomara Hooch!"

The woman looked sort of startled but recovered quickly. "Er, yes...what makes you say? Have you met her?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Actually, I'm surprised that you know her."

"Well, I feel the same way!"

"Would you care for another drink?"

"Yes please."

The man got up in search of more drinks and left her to sit by herself for a moment. She was thinking things over in her head, life, and everything else, and for once, she wasn't unhappy with what she saw. Things were looking up. I'll have to thank Xiomara for this. She thought amusedly. The music was swaying the whole place, and she felt as if she could do anything. It made her want to dance, and sing, and do all the things she'd never dared do in her whole life, at once.

Man, I'm going crazy when I hear that sound!
(Yeah, baby! Ooh, ooh baby!)
I'm buyin' drinks, pass em all around!
There'll clappin' and cheerin' as I make my way.
We'll sing 'n' swing 'till the break of day!
'Till the break of day! 'Till the break-of-day!

Her partner returned with the drinks and placed hers in front of her and took a sip of his. She downed hers in a few gulps.

"Would you like to dance again?"

He looked at her face. Her hair was coming down slightly and a few tendrils had escaped and cascaded around her face like fragile decorations. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright. He found himself willing to do anything, anywhere, for this woman he hardly even knew, right then. He laughed at her eagerness. She was like a small child.

"Yes, of course."

They rushed onto the dance floor, adrenaline pumping through their veins, emotions running high. They danced and dipped and spun and swung, around and around. The crowd parted slowly and stood around watching. The two dancers couldn't tell anything. They were involved in each other, entwined in their partner's eyes, wrapped up in themselves. They danced furiously, the crowd clapping and cheering on the sidelines, and they took no notice.

"What's your name, anyway?" he panted. He needed to know the name of this woman. This woman who had taken his everything and turned it upside-down in a night, who was enchanting him with her every breath. She put her finger to her lips.

"Don't speak, just dance. Dance with me." And dance they did.

He grinned and shook his head.

"You're one hell of a woman."

He lifted her over his head and spun her. He swung her through his legs, out again and onto her feet. She was entranced, and he was too. And they loved it. The music began to die down as the song finished and the crowd clapped wildly. They stared panting into each other's eyes.

"What say you and me leave and go someplace more comfortable?"

Would she have known what she should have, she would have said no, she would have run. But the music and alcohol were pumping through her veins. She was feeling reckless, and loving it. "Sure."

I'll take you home and close the door.
(Shut that door, hunny! Shut that door!)
Mamma, don't bother me no more!
(Don't bother me, no! Don't bother me!)
Shh, now baby, don't say a word!
(Not a word! No not a word!)
Put a sign on the door, babe "Do not Disturb!"
(No don't disturb! Now don't disturb!)

"Where do we go, mystery man?"

"You'll soon see, mystery woman! Room number 117 Hogwarts," the man said quietly into the fireplace, in the lobby off the main room. He didn't to ruin the surprise for his lovely partner. He threw a handful of glittering powder into the flames and they turned emerald. "Ladies first!"

"Why thank you!"

After a very wild ride during which they both felt the need to throw up, they got out on the other side of a fireplace. The man clapped his hands for the lights to turn on. It was evident that they were in a large, comfortable looking living room.

"Let's go somewhere else..." he muttered into her ear.

She giggled a bit and yanked the constricting pins from her hair. They soon reached a bedroom door. Inside was a large silky bed.

"Voila," he murmured.

Reaching over, he slid his hands down the back of her satiny dress and unzipped it. She stepped out of it, grinning. "Well, now that I know your intentions...let me help..." She finished the job and slid under the silky sheets.

She was beautiful, even without the dress, and the fancy hair style. She was perfect and she knew it. At that moment in time, she was glad for once that she was Minerva McGonagall.

We won't think, baby we'll just do!
(Just do it! Ooh just do it!)
We'll be in passionate heaven, baby me and you!
(Heaven Baby heaven!)
And when you wake in the early morn,
(When you wake, ooh when you wake.)
You'll wanna do it all again for sure!
(For sure! Yeah for sure!)

They moved in harmony, they danced their own dance to the music of themselves. They lay next to each other, awake and flushed.

"May I have your name now?" she asked quietly.

He smiled. "Remus Lupin."

"I like it. My name is Minerva. Minerva McGonagall."

The next morning, when they weren't intoxicated with bliss and submerged in each other, they'd cower in fear of what they had done. Hide from the world because they found happiness in each other, and it was wrong. Frowned upon by society. A teacher and a former student? It just cannot be! But right then, beneath the smooth silken sheets and entangled in each other's arms, they were happy. They found solace from their hard lives and responsibility. All thanks to some wild, dancing music, and a night of swing. And there they lay till the cock's crow.

Man I'm going crazy when I hear that sound!
(Uh huh, baby! Ooh, ooh baby!)
I'm buyin' drinks, pass em all around!
There'll clappin' (Woah!) and cheerin' (Woah!) as I make my way.
We'll sing 'n' swing 'till the break of day!
'Till the break of day! 'Till the break-of-day!
Break of day! (Ooh, yeah, yeah.)
Break of day!
Ooh oh yeah...'till the break of day! Yeah!