The current staff have a long table sitting on a dais above the dance floor, set up currently with several extra chairs in case any old professors or staff members return for the ball. Feel free to stop by for a chat, or even to ask someone to dance.

Hecate sat quietly at the Dias looking out over the dance floor. She hadn't had to help at all with the planning of this and could fully enjoy it. This worked out better than expected.

"Hey! I used to be a rock star. Late entrances are the norm." He chuckled as he gave her a kiss on the cheek and then gently tugged her towards the great hall.

Now he was all for heading straight to the dance floor and twirling his wife around but the moment he entered the room his eyes fell on a lonely figure sitting at the staff dais.

That just wasn't right so he steered Iliana in the opposite direction and made his way over to Hecate.

"Hey" he said as he stepped up beside her. "What are you doing up here all on your own?"

"Marcus..." she said with a smile, and her eyes went to his wife. "I'm simply enjoying the music and the children having... fun." She said and took a sip of her gilly water. "Care to join me, or... will you be heading to the dance floor?"

"You've met Iliana before haven't you?"

At her invitation, Marcus turned to his wife. "You don't mind if we sit with Hecate for a bit?"

He was pretty sure she wouldn't mind so he held out a chair for her and then he grabbed one for himself and positioned it just behind the two women.

"I hear you're coming back to Hogwarts or are you already back?"

She smiled at the woman. "Actually I've only seen her. Iliana," she told Marcus' wife. "I'm Hecate." Marcus brought up the question of returning to the school. "Yes, indeed I am. The school governors made me an offer I couldn't refuse..." She said and shrugged.

"Well it's good to have you back Hecate." He supposed he was the only one to share that sentiment. The woman hadn't made a great impression on the students.

Marcus gave a mental shrug, they would get used to it.

"You know you can come and visit me anytime Hecate, if you need someone to talk to that is."

"I would enjoy that very much Marcus, thank you. It's nice to have a friend on the staff. I fear I am not much liked here." She said not really caring.

Risu needed a break. The muscles and nerves and bones in his arm, at his age already approaching their best-before date, felt strangely limp and exhausted after he'd been shaking hands with a positively infinite number of former students and professors for a time that seemed similarly unending.

One of the people whose hands he'd grasped, more or less on autopilot at that time, had turned out to be a long-forgotten fellow Slytherin from Risu's student days. She had recognised him, and, in a manner that had echoed faintly in his memory, pulled him onto the dance floor. Risu, usually fairly unenthusiastic about bodily exertion, was still a decent dancer - not a virtuoso by any measure, but the simple grace of his steps was perhaps more fitting in any case - and they'd weaved their way through the other students, past and present, for an enjoyable twenty minutes.

Risu's acquaintance had then excused herself to have some dinner with her husband, and Risu, a thin film of sweat on his face, grabbed a jug of pumpkin juice before climbing the staff dais where, he was pleased to see, he was not going to be on his own. "Good evening, Hecate. Iliana." He nodded and smiled at both of them as he joined the little group of teachers. "Professor Lawson," he added, stretching out his hand to Iliana's husband - the two of them had never exchanged more than a few words, so Risu did not feel comfortable going for the first name right away. "How are you?"

"Evening..." She said to the Astronomy Professor. "You seem a little out of breath." She said looking at the man. "You seem to know what you are doing on the dance floor..." She'd seen him strutting his stuff on the floor with some Alumna she didn't know.

Sage needed a break. And he needed to hide. And so, he'd grasped the right moment and made a dash for the staff dais. He noted that a few of the staff were already there as he shuffled into a seat and ducked down low.

He didn't want anyone to spot him. He didn't want to dance anymore. SNIFF.

She turned to the man who'd just shown up... "Professor Dodson." She said with a smile. He was the Herbology professor and she hadn't gotten a chance to speak to him. This was unacceptable. This was a failure on her part and she was going to fix that. She needed him and his... greenhouse. "I'm Hecate Lafay, Potions Mistress." She said and offered a hand for him to shake.

Sage was so on edge - not that that was anything new - that he very almost toppled off of his seat when he was addressed. He gave a little shriek too. The Potions Mistress? This was the woman all the children in his first Herbology lesson had been afraid of? He felt his face pale slightly as he gave her hand a shake. "S - Sage Dodson, ma'am," he stuttered in reply, "but I guess... you already knew that."

"Er... yes. I am," Risu said, taking a deep draught of his pumpkin juice. It felt very good. He had to resist the urge to wipe his sweaty brow with his sleeve. His dress robes (the male ball attendees were wearing a colourful mix of those and Muggle suits) were neither particularly fancy nor expensive, a research fellow not being the line of work that supplied fat cheques at the end of the month, but they did fit him well and Risu had cared well for them, so smearing a line of sweat onto the arms was not in.

He smiled, feeling a little like an athlete being complimented by his coach after a particularly successful run. "Thank you," he said. "Opportunities to dance are few and far between, but when they do come up, I like to, er, rise to the occasion. I need a break now though before I can rise again."

He flashed the Potions professor another smile before she wandered off to pull another teacher into their little group. Risu used the brief pause to gulp down more pumpkin juice. "Professor," he added his own greeting with a courteous nod when Hecate arrived with the man in tow, and stepped back a little to enlarge their circle.

"S-sage?" She repeated trying to sound as if she wasn't teasing him. "I see my reputation precedes me." She turned to the other professors and then back to the Herbology one. "That's an interesting name for a man in your position. Do you come from a long line of Herbologists?"

"I look forward to seeing more of your talent on the dance floor," she said to the professor with a smile.

"How do you do?" Sage asked politely, before glancing to the dancefloor and twitching nervously. He hoped he hadn't been spotted.. Ducking a little lower, the timid man turned back to his colleagues and recognised the man as the Astronomy Professor. He looked like he'd been boogying a lot. Hmmm.

Right on cue, the tips of Sage's ears burnt a bright red. Was it possible this woman could SMELL his fear? It wouldn't shock him. "No offence meant, Miss Lafay.." he cleared his dry throat anxiously. And as for her question? "Uhm.. farmers actually. A long line of farmers."

"None taken. And it's Hecate..." she said with a smile to the man. "Farmers? As in... muggle... farmers?" She asked him curious. She eyed the astronomy professor drowning in his pumpkin juice...

Risu resurfaced (risurfaced?) from the depths of his goblet of pumpkin juice. The cool liquid did wonders for his sweaty face, and he felt his body relax a bit. In fact, he thought he could almost go for another round on the dance floor already. A bit surprised at himself about his enthusiasm (but he had been having fun) he looked down from the dais in the direction of the dinner tables while, next to him, the conversation between the Potions and Herbology professors chatted gently on, but his dance partner was nowhere to be found. Perhaps out for a walk.

His goblet was empty. Risu put it down on the table and rejoined the conversation. "Oh, perhaps you should judge for yourself, Professor," he said to Hecate with a slight smile. "Talent, I think, is a bit too grand for what I do. It's more... accident avoidance, really. In four-four time."

Next, he turned to Professor Dodson. "I'm very well, thank you. How are you? I think my partner and I passed you on the dance floor a few times?"

Hectate. Right. Sage simply gave a hesitant nod. Despite the rumours he'd heard, she SEEMED relatively normal. Heh. "Well... yes," he answered, head tilting to one side. "My parents are wizarding folk but using magic to farm just isn't satisfying." He doubted she'd understand..

Risu seemed like his complete opposite when it came to action on the dancefloor. Sage was hiding up here to avoid dancing.. whereas the Astronomy professor seemed almost eager to get back out there again.

He seemed to be enjoying that pumpkin juice a whole lot too, and Sage found himself pouring a goblet of his own. "I was too busy concentrating on not tripping over," he admitted truthfully. So chances were he hadn't seen Risu. "Dancing isn't really my ... thing."

"Judge for myself? Are you asking me to join you on the dance floor Risu?" She smirked... "Accident avoidance?" she made a quirky face. "It's the first time I heard of that kind of style. Maybe you will teach me." She said and looked at the herbology professor, "but I would hate to drag you out to the dance floor. At your age, no offense, I'm sure you need time to recuperate." She lifted the pitcher on the table, holding in laughter. "More Pumpkin Juice?"

"Or rewarding. It's the same reason I go picking nightshade on my own... there is nothing more rewarding as to find the perfect ingredient and picking it with your hand." She said moving her thumb over her finger.

"Tripping? I'm sure, Sage... May I call you Sage? I'm sure you are amazing... at dancing." She smiled at him. Maybe she could befriend him... and he'd let her have the use of his stores.

"At my age, indeed," Risu repeated with a faint smile, running a hand through his greying hair. "It's the old-fashioned cut of my dress robes, isn't it? I knew I should have chosen something more... snappy. Oh, yes, thank you," he added in response to the Potion mistress' question, and held out his empty goblet.

Risu vaguely remembered their conversation in the staff room, so he kept a close eye on the stream of pumpkin juice flowing into his goblet so that Hecate didn't have an opportunity to slip some gruesome and painful death in liquid form into his juice.

"Dancing isn't really my, er, thing either, Professor," he told the Herbology teacher while still keeping watch, "but... thank you, Hecate..." He took a sip and found the pumpkin juice as refreshing and tasty as ever. "Er, yes, not my forte," Risu went on, "but I enjoy the occasional opportunity to do so. Just to keep the ageing joints agile, you see. I'm sure yours is the lesser need, of course, as someone who teaches Herbology, but for an astronomer... It's usually the eyes that are a problem first, and then your back - you are either sitting in front of a computer," Risu wondered briefly if Hecate and Sage knew what that ingenious Muggle invention was, "or bent over peering into a telescope."

She shook her head and looked over at Marcus. She poured herself a glass and nodded to Risu. She looked around, they looked as if they were enjoying themselves... some were kissing, some were dancing, some were eating. She was getting antsy, she wanted to go out to the dance floor. She looked at the men at the table. Marcus had his wife there, Sage seemed like he was going to scream like a girl if she moved any closer to him, and Risu... well Risu was Risu...

Even SAGE could see the what was going on here. And he was the most anti-social creature to ever walk the plantet. Well, he was close anyway.

The Potions Mistress was starting to look ever so restless.. he wondered if Risu had even noticed, he seemed more interested in talking about his creaky joints! HE certainly wasn't about to ask Hectate to join him for a dance so now was his time to work as match-maker..

Not that he knew HOW to match-make.

So he just gave Risu a not so subtle nudge with his elbow and nodded in Hectate's direction with almost pleading eyes. Risu had to ask her to accompany him to the dancefloor before the scary Potions Mistress dragged HIM.

Risu was thoroughly enjoying himself now. Everyone, as far as he could see, was having a good time, and the generally positive atmosphere drifting through the Hall and, presumably, beyond the doors leading into it too, cheered him up more and more. He flexed his fingers in an effort to produce a satisfying crackle in his joints, but they would not cooperate - and anyway, Hecate and Sage were no longer paying attention. Like Risu, they were more or less in a private world observing the ball guests.

Then Risu felt a nudge on his elbow, making the pumpkin juice in his goblet (he was in half a mind to switch to a more agreeable beverage) run back and forth in little waves. He glanced around and found himself looking at Sage. And Sage had a curious expression on his face. It was half pleading, half hoping, and the addressee of this look was similarly twofold - Risu was one, but the other seemed to be Hecate, standing next to Risu idly.

Risu, bad as he was at deciphering social signals like this, was hit by a sudden flash of inspiration. He had to suppress a small smile. His younger colleague wanted a dance with the unapproachable Potions mistress! Out of sight of the so-desired, he tipped Sage a tiny wink, telling him that he had everything under control, then moved his arm so that Hecate could see Sage had tugged on it. He smiled brightly. "My dear Professor Dodson... I would certainly not pass up an opportunity to brave the dance floor with you, but," he sighed, "I have to admit I only know the male partner's steps of most dances. And I am sure you would prefer to return to your greenhouses with both shins intact."

He stepped back a little so that Hecate and Sage were face to face. "But I am sure that Hecate here would not mind at all dancing with you." He clapped the younger man lightly on the shoulder, feeling very proud with himself for swiftly recognising the situation at hand.

She snapped back to look at her collegues to see that Risu was offering her up to Sage... hmmm There were less desirable options... she thought looking towards the headmaster. "Of course...." She said standing, "I would enjoy a dance..." She said agreeing with Risu. She waited for Sage to get up and take her on the dance floor, which he better do soon... the only thing she hated more than being kept waiting was being kept waiting to do something she wished to do.