When they returned to the Great Hall, everyone wore a satisfied expression, and the ball settled into a more relaxed mood.
The young wizards wandered around the hall with gilded plates of pastries in their hands, chatting as they imitated the adults.
Now that the floor was less chaotic, the headmasters and professors finally felt willing to venture out for a dance.
And so the students saw Professor Dumbledore dancing with Professor Sprout, though their figures hardly matched. The tall Dumbledore was thin, while the plump Professor Sprout looked like a round apple.
From a distance, they looked like a three-dimensional number "10" spinning around on the dance floor.
Ludo Bagman danced with Professor McGonagall, who had to concentrate fully to keep his beer belly from knocking her away.
Madame Maxime and Hagrid danced a waltz, tracing a wide path across the floor and effectively clearing it. When two people four meters tall came spinning toward you with the wind whistling around them, it was difficult to resist getting out of their way.
The young wizards always had energy to spare. Harry and the others had barely sat down for a few minutes before they disappeared somewhere with their partners to have fun again.
Zhang Xiao and Glove Lady remained seated near a corner, leisurely enjoying the rare festive atmosphere.
At the next table sat Pheobe and her partner, Ravenclaw's male prefect Roger Davies. No one understood why Pheobe had chosen him, but Ron's sultry French girlfriend had quietly revealed that Pheobe had not actually wanted to choose anyone. She simply needed a partner.
So she had used divination to pick someone at random from her many suitors.
Pheobe was criticizing Hogwarts' Christmas decorations to Roger Davies. "This is nothing-" She surveyed the star-studded walls of the Great Hall and