Hogwarts' Golden Glory

When the music changed to the third piece, there was some movement from the teachers' section.

It wasn't the kind of formal, lined-up entrance commotion; it was the kind of commotion where someone stands up first, then another person stands up, and then a whole line of people gradually leaves their seats.

Professor Flitwick was the first teacher to step onto the dance floor. He was short, almost invisible among the group of older students, but he danced very seriously, stepping precisely to the beat, as if performing a set of meticulously planned steps that had been repeatedly confirmed.

His dance partner was Professor Sprout, who was more than twice his height, but she moved very slowly, as if deliberately matching his rhythm.

When the two stand together, the image does look somewhat asymmetrical, but when they dance, they naturally adjust to the same rhythm to suit each other's movement speed.

Hagrid came down too.

He walked up to Mrs. Maxim, and because of the size difference, he had to tilt his head slightly to see her face. But he still reached out his hand, as if he were doing something he had already confirmed he would do, but needed to confirm again whether the other party would accept it.

She looked at him for a moment, then stood up. When she put her arm around his shoulder, Hagrid's shoulder visibly tensed for a moment before relaxing.

The two walked along a long arc along the edge of the dance floor, their steps clumsy but earnest.

As they turned, Hagrid's shoes scraped the ground with a brief swishing sound, and Mrs. Maxim's skirt spread out in a smooth fan shape as she passed, but their rhythm did not break, and they continued to move forward slowly.

Professor McGonagall didn't go onto the dance floor, but she stood by the table and clapped a few times, as if responding to the moving people in her own way.

As her gaze swept across the dance floor, the angles of her face softened somewhat, as if she were allowing herself a brief respite from being under supervision.

Professor Sinesta beside her was dancing at a steady pace with a historian of magic she knew, the distance between them slightly larger than that of a normal dance partner, as if they were still getting used to each other's strides.

On the other side of the dance floor, Kane finished a graceful arc with Hermione and was about to let go when his gaze swept over her shoulder toward the teachers' table.

Then he paused. Not in a definite way, but as he spun, his gaze briefly fixed in one direction, as if confirming something he hadn't seen in a long time, but whose outline he still remembered.

Professor Alder stood before Dumbledore. His hair was longer than Kane remembered, the gray-white ends reaching the edge of his collar. He wore a dark gray robe, simple in style, with neatly fitted shoulders.

His posture remained stable, with no unnecessary movements. He would naturally stop at each position, as if he had done it many times before and did not need to arrange it deliberately.

Dumbledore stood opposite him, the distance between them not exactly the same as the spacing between regular dance partners.

Dumbledore's hand rested on his shoulder, and he reached out to support Dumbledore's elbow. It looked quite unusual, like two people who had known each other for a long time were performing a dance in their own way.

Instead of following the usual dance steps, the two moved forward along a slower arc.

As Dumbledore passed a pillar, he turned his head slightly and whispered something to Grindelwald. Grindelwald didn't answer, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

The arc was very short, and the two of them naturally turned back to the center before reaching the edge, as if they had already confirmed the length and direction of the route in advance, without needing any further communication.

Kane stood at the edge of the dance floor, his gaze fixed on the floor.

Dumbledore's gaze met Kane's as he moved through the crowd, lingering briefly in his direction. Then his eyes curved slightly, as if confirming a message that had already been understood in a way that required no words.

Then that blink felt like a confirmation that it was over, or like a conversation that was going on but was temporarily put on hold and then resumed at the right time, as if he was confirming that Kane had seen what he was doing and would not interrupt him at this moment.

Grindelwald seemed to sense something as well, and his gaze swept in the direction of Dumbledore's line of sight, but only paused briefly before looking away and returning to Dumbledore's shoulder.

The music in the dance floor was nearing its end, and the moving figures continued to slowly extend forward along their respective paths.

The firelight from the fireplace shone on their faces, falling along the edges of their silhouettes and then moving away, like a page being slowly turned.

Hagrid and Mrs. Maxim had moved to the other side of the dance floor, their steps closer than before, as if after several rounds of adjustments, they had finally found a rhythm that suited each other.

Karkarov sat in his original spot and looked away somewhat awkwardly as he watched his dance partners move.

When the music stopped, the flames in the fireplace narrowed by exactly one notch, as if they had been waiting for this moment.

The music circled the wall in its final arc before slowly returning to the orchestra pit, as if putting itself back in its original place.

The candlelight in the foyer didn't go out immediately, but the edges of the light slowly moved from the center towards the wall, as if making way for those who were about to leave.

People began to move from the edge of the dance floor toward the door.

Some people are straightening their jacket collars again, while others are turning their heads to confirm the direction of the next section of the route with their dance partners.

Pairs of people were slowly passing through the lobby, branching out along the corridors. The sound of footsteps gradually spread out in each passageway, as if propelled by the same force, dispersing in different directions.

Harry and Cho Chang paused in the middle of the foyer.

Cho Chang was smoothing out the edges of her scarf, and Harry stood beside her, holding nothing in his hands, as if waiting for her to finish the last step.

"Tonight really went by quickly."

Autumn, Zhang said.

"That was pretty fast. I thought I'd be there longer."

Harry said.

She smoothed the edges of her scarf, looked up at him, and asked, "So, what do you think of tonight?"

"Not bad. May I invite you to the Rose Garden for a while?" Harry finally got it and said what he had been wanting to say for a long time.

She smiled.

Neville and Hannah also came out of the foyer, the two of them slightly closer together than when they entered.

"I really danced well tonight," Nave said.

"I also think it went more smoothly than I expected," Hannah said.

"I thought I'd step on you at least three times, but I only did it once." After saying that, Neville looked down at the ground beside his feet, as if preparing to leave more room for adjustment next time he danced.

"That time it was at the turn, and I was prepared to be stepped on, so it didn't affect my pace." Hannah's tone was reassuring, as if she had taken Neville's words to heart and knew that he would be relieved to know in advance that she wouldn't step on him too many times.

Hagrid and Lady Maxime walked to the side gate of the castle, wanting to learn more about each other's families of origin.