troll-duck
It is only James' second day at hockey-ballet boarding school, yet he is loving every minute of it. In the mornings he goes to his academic classes– math, english, and physics– then takes one ballet class after lunch. His evenings are filled with hockey practices and unofficial ice-times. He hears, however, that next week his days will be more filled with ballet and less filled with hockey.
And while he’s disappointed that he won’t have as much time for hockey as he does this week, James has taken quite a liking to ballet.
So far, he has learned three things about this new sport.
One: ballet is definitely more relaxed than he thought it would be. He supposes, however, that was only because his team was so bad and unresponsive to corrections that their teacher gave up trying after the first five minutes. James had a great time in those first 5 minutes, though, of actually trying to dance. There was just something about it. He’s excited for more ballet classes.
Two: Ballet dancers are easy to make friends with. James has introduced himself to almost every person he has come into contact with, and has so far evaded any enemies. Of course, it’s hard to be menacing when James Potter is near. Even the most haughty, pretentious dancers fall prey to his charm.
And Three: Regulus Black is still a little prick who hates him. James practically chased him down the hallway yesterday, hoping that Regulus would at least be willing to talk to him. He wasn’t. For some reason, Regulus has never liked James. Whenever James was near him he could always feel Regulus’ ice cold eyes staring into his soul. And James has never been able to figure out why. When James tried to include Regulus in whatever he and Sirius were doing throughout his childhood, or tried to make him smile or laugh, Regulus would just scowl at him and run away.
It bothers him deeply; everyone likes James. Even those who don’t like James do like James.
Except for Regulus. He’s strangely immune to James, and James cannot stand it.
He has to turn Regulus around this year. And not in a ballet way, although if that’s what it takes, James will make it happen. His best friend’s little brother will like him. He must.
So, it is to James’ absolute delight when he walks into his afternoon ballet class and sees Regulus and all his pro-ballerino/a friends, just standing in the middle of the room.
Until his heart seizes because he remembers that Sirius, in fact, will be there too.
Regulus and Sirius will be in the same room, at the same time, when they are both aware of each other’s presence.
That is something that has not happened since the night Sirius ran away. And that is something that coach Minnie assured Sirius wouldn’t happen.
It is only the second day, and things have taken an unexpected turn.
James takes a quick minute to survey the room of people before all hell breaks loose. First, there’s his hockey team, his lovely group of guys. Well, there’s only three from his team currently, because the rest of them don’t have any sense of time management and will likely be fifteen to thirty minutes late. Sirius is not here, thankfully, because he takes drumming class as an elective, meaning he and James don’t have that class together so he can be as late as he wants to his next one.
Peter is only there because James promised him that he’d play chess with him later if he arrived early. And the other two, Davis and Jeremiah, have only arrived because James bamboozled them yesterday into thinking that class started an hour early.
There are three ballet dancers that James already knows in the room. The first is Remus, who is tall and sandy haired. James adores Remus; they met in English and have become close friends in the one class they’ve had together. Remus is a wizard at English, and from what he hears from others, is a wizard at ballet too.
The second dancer that James recognizes is Marlene, who is standing next to Remus. She is lovely too, James has decided, especially since their introduction, when they realized they were walking down the hallway in the same direction and both turned to each other and said, “hi!” at the same time. He hasn’t gotten to know her well, because they had to go to separate classes, but at the end of a two minute conversation they were both wheezing from laughter. So, James would say they are friends.
And the third dancer is, of course, Regulus. He’s standing at the center of his group of friends, and they all seem to be talking to him, though he’s not talking to them. Typical Regulus. It appears he’s stretching his calves, doing so with his arms crossed. His gloomy face turns to anger when he spots James.
James simply gives him a bright smile in return and watches Regulus’ scowl grow larger.
It appears that the ballet students don’t really know what to do. They’re just standing in the center of the room, all piled up and looking awkward.
James wouldn’t really know, but yesterday his teacher told his hockey team that all ballet classes started at the barre, so shouldn’t the ballet students be at the barres?
His question is quickly answered by the teacher that walks in. All of the ballet students immediately straighten their spines and look at him with admiration and a bit of fear. It’s funny to James that they’re so scared of a teacher. James would never be scared of Coach Minnie, even when she yells voraciously.
“Well,” says the teacher, only looking at his pupils, “I’m sure you are all wondering why your schedules have been switched around.” And then he turns to the four hockey boys, looking confused. “And I’m sure your… team? Or what looks like four scraggly boys?” James is a bit offended by that comment, he’s not scraggly.
The teacher continues, “I’m sure you are wondering what they’re doing here.” He nods over to the ballet dancers. “I have requested the presence of both groups here today,” he scans a finger around the room, “as the school administration has thought it best that our ballet students provide an example of adequate students here at Cherier Boarding School. So,” he continues, turning back towards the ballet dancers, “why are you all standing there like a bunch of gaggling oafs? Get to your barre spots. Chop chop.” He claps his hands and all of the ballet students immediately run to their spots, which seem to be pre-designated.
“Now, let’s get started while we wait for the rest of the hockey boys to file in. If they ever do.” He rolls his eyes at this, and some of the ballet students begin to laugh. This annoys James a little. They don’t deserve to judge his team; they don’t know them, and they certainly aren’t superior to them just because they can kick their legs to their heads.
“Ok, plies everybody.” The teacher begins to list a long string of words, like he expects the ballet students to understand. And apparently they do, because they all move their arms and feet while he’s talking. The teacher, who still hasn’t given James his name, claps at the pianist and they begin to play. The ballet students all start moving at the same time. They also all do the exact same motions, so James supposes that they really did know what their teacher was saying.
The combinations keep coming, and James’ hockey mates eventually trickle in. He supposes it’s been at least 20 minutes of watching the dancers pay attention, accurately do their moves, get screamed at because they’re not good enough (though James doesn’t even know what they’re doing wrong), and then be even more diligent to prevent getting yelled at again. James simply doesn’t know how they do it. He would go crazy if he had to be silent for more than 10 minutes. The students just don’t talk to each other, even though he knows they’re friends because he saw them chatting away before the start of class.
Sirius walks in approximately 30 minutes late, when Regulus is getting corrected on moving his foot a certain way. To James, the “corrected” way looks the exact same as the wrong way.
But, this means Regulus does not notice Sirius walk in, nor does the teacher, who actually yelled at one member on James’ team for walking into the studio while the ballet dancers were dancing. James is glad that Sirius did not have to share this fate.
James does see steam coming out of Sirius’ ears, however, when he notices that his baby brother and all of his ballet friends are in the room. He balls up his fists, makes a loud huff, then decides to sit down next to James and drop it.
James would say something, if he wasn’t scared out of his skull from when about five minutes ago he got scolded for whispering to Peter that Regulus looked constipated while kicking his leg up in the air in some ballet move.
The ballet teacher does notice Sirius’ presence eventually, because he stops the ballet dancers and calls everyone to the middle of the classroom.
“Now that we’re adequately warmed up,” he’s currently talking to the ballet students, “it’s now time to incorporate everyone. I’ll pair you up, and you’ll start working.”
“Pandora… and you.” He points to Peter. Pandora leads him to her barre spot.
The teacher continues, “Rosier, you and this one.” He points to another boy on the team, Kingsley.
“Remus, you’ll go with the one who is oh so concerned about his hair right now.” He points to Sirius, who finally looks away from himself and his hair in the mirror, confused as to why everyone is staring at him.
James is so excited about this. His new friend Remus and the platonic love of his life will be working together. Oh, he thinks that is just great.
A few more pairs are called before James realizes it’s just him and Regulus left.
“And that leaves you two.” The teacher announces, to which Regulus looks like he wants to throw up, and maybe throw a punch at James.
Regulus doesn’t say anything, though, because it appears he is too frightened of the teacher. Yet, the minute he turns away from them, Regulus plants his palm in his face and gives an, “Of course. Of course” before scoffing and angrily walking towards the barre. James thinks he looks like an angry baby at the moment, which makes him laugh.
Regulus whips around, “well, are you coming?” he asks, seeming exasperated. He looks even more like an angry baby now, with his face all red and fists bunched up, like someone has tried to get him to eat a cheerio by singing the airplane song. Yeah, James thinks, he was definitely not a happy baby.
James doesn’t respond, he just simply starts walking towards Regulus, whistling with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed. Once he’s standing right in front of him at the barre, James gives a smile. “Yes. I am.”
Regulus rolls his eyes again, then puts his face down against the barre for a good minute.
James surveys the room. It appears that some people are getting along well with their partners, learning the basics while laughing, and some are not. A perfect example of the former is Remus and Sirius. They’re both doubled over while Remus is attempting to teach Sirius ballet moves that Sirius already knows how to do. He did take ballet until he was 12, after all.
He sees Davis attempting to do a kick with his leg. It appears that all of the partners are doing some form of dancing. That is, except for Regulus and James.
“So…” James finally clears his throat, “About this ballet thing…”
Regulus doesn’t respond, he just keeps his head on the barre.
James continues, “I mean, you’d think since that guy sent you over here to teach me, and because you’re oh so scared of him, that you would actually try to help–”
Regulus turns his head and stands back up. “Alright James, you wanna have a lesson? Let’s have a lesson.”
Regulus then proceeds to sit down, and James gives him a confused look. “Well?” Regulus squints his eyes and scrunches his nose, “Don’t just stand there, put your hand on the barre.”
“Ok, ok. Correct away, then.” James responds, raising his hands in the air, then placing the right one down on the barre.
“No, you idiot.” Regulus sighs, “the other hand.”
James gives him a puzzled look but places his left hand on the barre so that it crosses over his body.
“Oh my god. You are impossible.” Regulus stands up, puts his hands on James’ shoulders, and forces him to face the other direction so his left hand is on the barre but it’s no longer crossing his torso.
James smiles. He already knew how to stand.
But, Regulus leaves James no time to think about that as he is on the move again, clearly thinking that James needs help doing every little thing. Maybe James is the baby in this situation.
Regulus is sitting down again, currently forcing James’ feet into a horribly awkward position.
“Ow!” James complains.
Regulus frowns up at him. “You have horrible turnout,” he says, before wrenching James’ feet open more, and then forcing him to lock his knees. Ballet is abhorrently painful, James has just discovered.
And it appears Regulus is nowhere near done however. He pokes James’ belly button, which James giggles at, before Regulus huffs, “Oh, grow up” and then continues to move. He pushes James’ shoulders on his back, taps his chin so that he moves it upwards, and molds his arm into a foreign shape.
“Well,” Regulus says wearily, getting a scan of the new and improved ballet James. “It’s a start.”
James beams at him, before his knees begin to seize and he turns his feet back in.
“James Potter, now why would you do that?” He sighs before kneeling down again and repositioning James’ feet.
“You don’t understand!” James explains, “My knees are killing–”
“Don’t think about turning out from your knees, think about turning out from,” Regulus pokes a finger on one of James’ hamstrings and watches as James begins to squirm away, snorting like a little pig.
“Oh, you most certainly cannot do that. I have overly ticklish hamstrings.” James announces.
Regulus slaps his palm up to his face again, though this time James can see the tiniest curve of Regulus’ lips.
It’s gone in a heartbeat, replaced by frustration. “What the hell does that even mean? How did you even find that out?”
“Well I didn’t until just now.” He looks at Regulus and winks. Regulus goes cherry red, squinting his eyes terribly hard, like if he scrunches up his face enough it will collapse in on itself and James won’t be able to see it.
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” Is all Regulus responds.
“Absolutely not,” James returns, “I would never, ever shit you Reggie.”
“Oh, just get back to the barre.” He swats James on the back, motioning for him to get back into position. James smiles again. “What is it?” He asks James, “You’ve got spine tickles now too?”
James laughs. “Oh, boy do I ever.” He gets back into what Regulus is calling ‘first position’, actually thinking about what Regulus told him regarding turnout. He thinks it may have helped his knees.
James is proud of his first position for five seconds, before Regulus scowls again, commenting, “Jesus, whatever are we going to do about these ribs?”
He walks over to James again. “Please don’t squirm,” he says, before taking his index finger and thumb, placing his thumb on James' left rib and pointer on the right, then forcing James’ ribs to close.
It feels like the wind has been knocked out of him.
Regulus keeps his fingers on James’ ribs before telling him to, “hold that” and then letting go.
James, of course, cannot hold this position, so the minute Regulus lets go James gives a “phew” and expands his ribs, causing his back to sway.
Regulus looks so disappointed. “Oh you absolute troll. How are you going to even do a tendu if your back looks like a duck that is about to waddle into the pond–”
“Hey,” James fires back, “I don’t appreciate being called a troll-duck. For your information, I think my tendus would look beautiful, and it’s only my second day–”
“Oh please. If you look like a troll-duck, it is my duty to call you out on it. And for your information, the troll-duck was your creation, not mine. I never even said you were a troll-duck, I just called you a troll and a duck at two different instances–”
“So essentially you called me a troll-duck. And now I’m calling you a pretentious prick who needs to take a fucking-”
“No, you need to take a fucking–”
“You didn’t even let me finish! You don’t even know what I need take, too, because I didn’t even tell you what you need to take in the first–”
“James, what the fuck does that even me–”
“I don’t know. I’m just a troll-duck, how would I–”
“So you agree, then? You admit you are a troll-duck?”
“No! That’s not what I said at all! You… you…” James is grinding his teeth at this point. Regulus looks like a rabid dog.
“Woah, woah woah!” The teacher is now in front of the both of them, looking annoyed. “What on earth is going on boys?”
It’s a good thing that the teacher interrupted, James has decided, as Regulus is about to throw a punch right now. He’s most certainly an angsty teen version of his previously pouty baby face. A Holden Caulfield of sorts, if James had to put a name to a face.
“Nothing, Mr. Slughorn. I was just getting a bit frustrated with James, because I temporarily forgot that he is a beginner.”
“Hmm, I see. And how is the beginner coming along, then?” Mr. Slughorn prompts, now turning to James.
“Ah, well,” James laughs, “I’d say pretty terrible. This is definitely not my typical sport…”
“Yes, yes. Stop complaining, more doing. Let’s see what we’ve learned.” Slughorn’s voice stays perfectly calm, though his eyes give a dangerous glint that tells James he needs to obey right now.
So, he slinks over to the barre, a little nervous, and gives his best attempt at first position. Slughorn grimaces slightly, but James just smiles at him.
“Oh yes…” Slughorn says, “I assume you were going clinically insane over the ribs, am I right Regiland?”
Regulus nods in response, pleased that his ballet teacher agreed with him.
“Yes, well, that’ll take time. It always does.” Slughorn continues to inspect James, scrutinizing his arms, legs, and neck. “The turnout is also… less than desired.” Darn it, James was hoping Regulus was wrong about that one. It just feels like turnout is something good to have in the ballet world.
“The hyperextension will make up for that though,” Slughorn continues. James begins to smile again, looking over to Regulus and wiggling his eyebrows like he has something to be proud of, even though he has no idea what hyperextension even is. Regulus just scowls again.
“Lift this up,” Slughorn taps his finger under James’ foot, then fixes his arm, because James had definitely replaced it in the wrong position since Regulus first did it, and then attempts to close James’ ribs again.
How do ballet dancers attempt to dance when they can’t even breathe, James wonders.
“Well, Regulus,” Slughorn gives Regulus an approving nod, “A valiant effort. You too James. Keep up the good work.”
Slughorn walks away, and Regulus looks like he is going to punch James in the face again.
“Regiland?” James snorts, having a field day with the new nickname.
“Oh, fuck off.” Regulus rolls his eyes and begins to walk away.
“Nooo, Regiland! Don’t go! We have more ribs to close! Regiland!” James shouts after him, just like he did the previous day.
Regulus whips around, stalking towards James and covering James’ mouth with his hand.
“That will never be said again.” He declares. His eyes look ice cold.
Not cold enough to freeze James, however.
“Well, all you had to do was ask, Regiland.” He giggles and watches as Regulus grows horribly angry, gives James a hit to the ribs, then angrily storms out of the room with his hands over his ears. James just continues to laugh for a good few minutes.
He then scans the room to find his friends, and notices that Sirius and Remus have gotten along very well. They’re now doing competitions to see who can do the most turns in a row. Obviously Remus has figured out by now that Sirius is a splendid dancer.
Peter and Pandora also seem to be having a nice time, though Peter seems to be just as uncoordinated as James. She’s attempting to have him tendu, which doesn’t seem to be clicking for him. He’s having trouble pointing his feet. But James cannot be one to talk; he didn’t even do any steps because he was so god awful at standing.
There’s two boys that give off bad energy, however. One is blond, the other dark haired. The two are conversing in the corner, whispering, ignoring both of their partners. It’s like they’re judging everyone’s skills in the room. It’s completely unfair, in James’ opinion. His hockey team has been there for two days, they have no right to berate the team for a sport they just haven’t had enough time to play.
Class ends soon, and Sirius, Peter, James, and Remus all walk to the dining hall together. James and Peter have always been good friends, but just not best friends like he is with Sirius. James loves Pete, though. He loves Remus too.
“Is ballet school always this… civilized?” James asks Remus, surveying the boring stone halls.
“Uh, sadly. Nothing fun ever goes down, except for the occasional parties that are thrown. The administration tries to stop those from happening as much as possible, though.”
“Hmm.” James hates the dullness of this school. It needs to change.
That’s when a lovely idea hits him.
“Hey guys, what are you all doing tomorrow night?”