Valentine's Ball 2018 

OPEN TO HOGWARTS ONLY
DRESS TO IMPRESS
Outfit

Sebastian didn't rather care what preconceived notions and opinions other people held on this particular holiday; he personally enjoyed quite a bit. Sure, the garish nature of the typical decorations for February 14th grew tiresome and quickly... but that wasn't the be all and end all of what the day held. Of course... Hogwarts had rarely held the occasion on the actual designated day so he had gotten to enjoy the holiday in his own way while they prepped for the ball and now he was more than ready to face a hall full of hormonal, temperamental teenagers and adolescents of which at least a third would be utterly disgusted at being required to wear something presentable. That was taking into account the percentage who believed themselves above such celebrations and would imagine themselves conspicuously absent. Things had long changed in the years since he'd been at the school. In those days it was an event to look forward to, something exciting to break the monotony of classes and a chance to look better than each other. Now it was a farce and honestly... he wasn't going to ponder over what was in the minds of the students who roamed his corridors.

@odelia had kept him sane since Charlotte had stepped down and while he had worked amazingly well with the latter... well he was just better friends with the former. He hadn't trusted the House Elves with the decorations for the ball and had at one point tried to get Odelia to plan it instead... only to find her in his office later the same night with coffee and parchment for planning. He had tried for tasteful. Classy. But he had to make sacrifices if he wanted to avoid tension with the witch- it wasn't like he doubted her judgement- yet letting her have her classical pink hearts and Valentine puns had almost made him stressed. He had been thinking silver and red- he had gotten silver and red... but there were pink heart balloons and banners with one liners in there too. The ceiling had been enchanted so it looked like it was snowing, there were roses on tables near the walls... and he was proud. He hadn't seen the place kitted out for the occasion in- in too many years so he was just glad he beat his own school days, at least by his standards. Odelia seemed to have approved as well.

The ball was in full swing by this point- or close enough to- and his blue gaze did a familiar trace of the sea of faces around him. Knowing @truly and @lj were present put him at ease as they were reliable enough to raise a flag should something go wrong. Which Sebastian was confident would not happen. After the unfortunate accident at the ball for the end of the school year the year previous, he doubted many people were in a hurry to test his patience again. But he was not the same man as he had been when that disgusting monster had gotten under his skin before. He was more in charge now, far more capable of keeping a lid on the ugly side of his compassionate disposition. Yes... as he looked around with a small smile to his lip, he turned back to @odelia and toasted her with his glass. "We make a great team. I can only imagine what we'll come up with for the dances to come. Halloween should be interesting if nothing else." He commented lightly. Still he hoped that the night would be enjoyable and not without some entertainment.

---

IT'S VALENTINE'S, PUT THE TRAINERS AWAY PLEASE.
Also the party is in swing so please don't post your characters as arriving in an empty-or near empty- room. Outfits must abide the student handbook dress code. NOW HAVE FUN!

Duty above all else. It had become her motto and the thing that was leading her through the day. She knew that it was a horrible way to live, but had things that were expected of her, duties that she had to perform, things that she had to do every day. She had a job to do, and school to finish. She could only allow herself to fall apart when the job was done, and no matter how miserable she was, no one could see it. Lila would be the only one. The break up was not public knowledge, but the way that her father had treated her was. Truly wasn’t sure what she expected people to think of her, but she was Head Girl. She was bound by duty and honor to be at this dance, and so she was. Even if she was miserable for being there.

The room was loud and full of love and couples. She wore a smile on her face, but the warmth that she had been showing in the last few months had faded, and she was left with the cold exterior that she used to have. Distant, withdrawn, it was who she used to be before she met Luke. How easy it had been for her to revert, for things to go from amazing to lonely. She put up her walls and kept telling herself that if she could make it through this, everything would be okay.

She was making her rounds and stood near the punch bowl making sure no one spiked it, her face was even and expressionless. It had been almost a year prior that she had met Luke. How stupid she had been. Swallowing thickly she sighed and watched as those around her had fun.

Outfit

It was right after Chinese New Years, and he was still stuffed from a weekend full of noodles and calming down his sister. It was so difficult, sometimes, to try to convince her that not everything was as world-ending. She was eleven, so everything was world ending. Even the littlest things seemed to hurt her so much, and it was up to Nick to fix them. He understood it, really. They were trapped in some weird universe where their mother had to hide in Singapore, and he knew that it was really hard on Lizzy. She was still too young to understand what exactly was happening. Besides, it wasn't really up to him to explain politics and the like. It was up to their parents to tell her what to think, and there grandparents as well. He was just there to make sure she didn't kill herself. It was hard with her friends, but that was it. He was her brother, not her parent. He knew that he was going to have to adapt that, though. Their father was being more hands-off than anything, and their mother was still gone. He knew that their auntie was trying to fill the gap, but she wasn't doing as well as she could have, and it was hard. 

It shouldn't have been up to their auntie anyway. Their father should have been helping out more. He shouldn't have just vanished to Singapore, he shouldn't have cancelled their holiday. But that had happened, and then Lizzy's first Chinese New Year away from home had been so strange. At least their ang mor was sent to them, at least they had their noodles. They were going to start this new year off on a good foot. They were going to be fine. Nick turned to Atha as they entered the Great Hall, tugging on his sleeves so that they went a bit longer. He didn't know what to say right yet; he had tried to ask Atha in a more... romantic setting to go. That didn't work out well, ironically enough. He had tried to keep it a secret, he had gotten @cyrus to help him get together some nice roses, but he ended up giving it away before he had even figured out how to ask.

He was blaming his sister for that, too, but he knew that she didn't care. She was so wrapped up in herself all the way across the hall, likely looking around for Carin and Henry. He thought he spotted the Dominic boy nearby, but he wasn't sure. "It's very pink in here. I don't think Headmaster Flint picked this stuff out. Professor Graves, maybe?" he said, offering Athazaz Acanthus Bones a grin. It really looked more decorative than he thought Flint would go for. He seemed the type to make it smooth, classy. Professor Graves, on the other hand, had kids. She would definitely be the one to make it like this. And were there puns as well? Oh, gosh.

She really wasn't sure how she had managed to convince Seb that they should go with a more classic Valentine's Day. She knew him well enough to know what he was thinking about-- silvers, reds, something classy as supposed to classical. But Odelia knew what she wanted and she had gone into his office knowing exactly what they were going to do, offering him some coffee and having her quill ready to scratch out exactly what she wanted to say. She knew that she was going to get what she wanted as soon as she walked in there. Seb was a sucker for coffee. She didn't think that it was just that that convinced him, but it was certainly a great help. Odelia had gotten what she had wanted, and they had decorated the Great Hall to look exactly like what they wanted it to. It was full of pink and red, hearts and cute little puns. She was even gladder that it was after the actual day, because then she got to fire call her husband for a bit. Now she could focus on the kids, which was just as important. She wanted them all to have a great time, especially since the decor looked so good. Maybe some of them would get up the courage to ask out their crush, maybe some of them would be having the time of their lives with their friends. Either way, love was in the air tonight. It was adorable.

With the Great Hall so crowded she had to lean a bit closer to hear Seb, and she let out a laugh. "See what happens when you listen to  me?" she said, looking around at the kids. They were all dressed nice, and she didn't yet see anyone wearing something out of dress code. Of course, there were the occasional too short of hems, but that was easily fixed with a simple charm. After narrowing her eyes at a Ravenclaw girl with too short of a dress, Odelia flicked her wand to solve the problem and turned back to her friend. "So, what did you do for the big day?" She knew that they couldn't go anywhere, not this weekend, but she was wondering if he had decided to break his own rules. 

outfit

Ties were really hard, but they'd gotten it at last. They twisted in front of the mirror, trying to see if anything looked bulky, or weird. They'd probably have to start using a binder next year or at the end of this one, maybe. Mum would definitely get them one, and maybe the people at the Pride center would help them find one that was good for athletics, because they'd want to be wearing it during Quidditch. Or maybe that wouldn't matter for some other time yet, they didn't know. Puberty was weird.

They were really proud of their outfit, and they didn't care if Henry and Lizzy matched or whatnot, because matching was for older people or weirdly status-obsessed people, or people grossly in love, and that was none of them. They were only kids, and they weren't weird like that.

They'd met up with Henry James Blanchet and @lizzy and gave both of them a grin. "You look great! We all look great! Are you guys ready?" They paused, chewing their lip. "I mean, we gotta be either way, 'cause I think this is the only place we eat eat?" They could have been exploring, but that might have looked even worse. Maybe the next dance.

"Should we go in?"

Terrianne was currently hating each and every single person around her. She hated this season of love (mainly because she always seemed to be single and in a bad mood. She had damn near been storming around the castle for the last two weeks, her long red hair hanging with her like some sort of fog announcing her presence. She was a Weasley, and a halfblood; she didn't have the pull that some of these girls had. She didn't out rank anyone, but she had a wicked tongue and in the mood that she was in she would rather just lay on her bed with Tofu.

She wanted her father and mother. She wanted more time with her twin. She wanted things to be like she wanted them to for just once in her life, but they weren't and she was mostly to blame. She had broken up with Bash, she had ended things and gone off to shag Markus. Now Markus was leaving or gone, or whatever was going on with him. Terrianne merely wanted to be left alone until the Easter holiday. She had a lot to do before then, and she had to see her parents off on the Honeymoon her father was planning and see that the wedding went through without a hitch.

She wore a dress that her father had sent her to wear, she wasn't a fan of the color or the cut, but at this point she was only going because she had to. Singles Awareness Day was what her father called it. She braided her hair, did her make up, and went down stairs. She probably wouldn't be asked to dance and would sit around feeling like fool that she was. The place was disgustingly pink and she wanted to throw up, but that was more to do with her break up than the time of year. Finding a table she sat down and sighed putting her chin in her hand.

Outfit

There were a lot of people there. Perry noticed that as soon as he had taken a step into the hall, and now that he was standing as far in the corner as he could get he was really recognizing that. He had known that the whole school was going to be there. Perry was pretty good with numbers, and realizing that the school was there and really understanding how many people were in Hogwarts was just two different things. It was, really, two difficult things. He could list off the numbers of his Hogwarts year easily, and he could assume that the numbers were pretty similar around the board. It was just seeing it in real time that confused him a little bit. Why had he agreed to go to this? Oh, right. That was the problem. He hadn't agreed to go. He really, really didn't want to go. But they all had to be there, they all had to suck it up and just smile as they stayed inside the Great Hall. He knew why. It was because of the Gryffindor last year, wasn't it? That was the sort of drama that they were dealing with, and because of that they all had to be there. Perry knew that he couldn't complain much, but his face was serious as he looked around him.

He liked his house. He was pretty familiar with a lot of the Ravenclaws, and even if he wasn't friendly with them he felt like he could trust them at least a smidgen. He was close to a few, and he had even branched out a tiny bit and could quite honestly say that he got along well with at least one person from the remaining houses. But that didn't mean that he considered them to be his close friends. He wasn't sure if he trusted them all implicitly. He was nervous around people he didn't know (and those that he did). Perry just considered them as people that he could walk to class with, people that he could trust enough with his anxiety. They might not understand it but they were willing to help out, at least a bit. Apart from them he had Donnie, who he trusted more than that. Donnie hadn't judged him, yet, on what freaked him out. They got along well because they like quidditch, because they were in the same clubs... He considered them to be friends, actually, but he didn't know if he was right to think that. He didn't want to ask, either. They were a bit too old for that and had known each other for too long. It could end up bad.

Not wanting to embarrass himself, Perry shrunk a little bit farther back into the corner, stealing a glance at all of the pink decorations. "Do you think we were supposed to bring dates? Did you bring a date?" he asked Donald Leonardo Westwood, widening his eyes. He could always go and see if Althea needed someone to escort her. They didn't get along, what with her prissiness, but she was usually able to put it on hold for long enough to get what she wanted. "I don't know what to do around girls."

((OOC: Don's outfit ))

Donald really wasn’t going to go to the Valentine Day ball. He didn’t have any partner to go with and he didn’t really fancy going along with his sister either. That would have been a bit weird. If the 13 year old was honest with himself he found the entire thing a bit confusing. Indeed the young boy was feeling very confused about his sexuality in general. Some of the other boys in his dorm had started talking about the girls that they like (none of them have talk about any boys they like), and stuff like that but Donald really didn’t find that kind of talk interesting. He didn’t really like girls nor boys in that way. At least, not yet. The third year wondered if he was just a late bloomer? It was very possible he supposed.

Regardless, he was preparing to spend an evening in the library swotting up or out on the quidditch pitch having uninterrupted practice when his good friend, Perry, managed to get the Welsh wizard to change his mind. Don supposed that he would not leave Percival high and dry. He liked Perry, he was a good friend to be around and he enjoyed his company. Both boys were interested in similar things like quidditch and shared a lot of clubs together and most of their classes. They were house mates, years mates and, Donnie hoped, mates. He guessed that they hanged around together so that would make them butties. If they didn’t like each other they wouldn’t be hanging out together, or at least that is how the Ravenclaw seeker saw it.

As he entered the room the skinny lad did scan to see if he recognised anyone there. To be more accurate, to see if he could spot his older sister there. He had not had a real chance to hang out with her the past few weeks and it was upsetting him a bit. Donald was starting to wonder if he had said or did anything to her that upset her, he couldn’t think of anything. At least not outside what he usually said or did to annoy her. Perhaps she got herself a boyfriend and not told him about it? If that was the case, this would be the location where he would find them. Amy would not be expecting Don to attend this after all.

”Don’t worry, I don’t have a date either.” he confessed to his friend. The Welsh Ravenclaw supposed that it would have been conventional to bring a date along but he didn’t think it was obligatory. ”I don’t think we need one anyway.” he told @perry in a re-assuring voice. As Perry said about not knowing what to say to girls the 13 year old shook his head in agreement ”I know, right? Apart from my sister, I don’t know what to say to girls either. I mean, at least in terms of asking a girl out. I would have absolutely no idea where to start or what to say to them…” he looked around the room at some of the girls there. How did one ask a girl how to dance? He didn’t have a clue. Ravenclaws were meant to be smart, but on this, he was stumped. It was a riddle well beyond what he was capable of solving.

”Besides which…” he lowered his voice slightly ”…I would be too scared to ask anyone anyway.” he spoke as if he was confessing something. It did occur to him that might be way he didn’t have a girlfriend, why he was not interested in girls, or boys, that he would be too scared to ask them out? But, he wasn’t sure. It felt as it there was something more to it than that, something….else. Whatever it was, Don didn’t really want to dwell on it at this moment in time.

At least for tonight he was prepared. There would be no surprises... no embarrassing happenstances that would linger and berate him for time to come. Like when he'd met Cass in London. Or when he met @roswell in the snow a few weeks ago and startled him. Why had he even been sitting out in the frozen lawns? It was a question that continued to pester him. But considering his mental state... he was growing used to being pestered. He judged his actions by the reactions of others and not himself.

Still the die was cast and he was to be made to spend his night with the entire populous of Hogwarts, his ideas harboured and untouched as they remained locked within his mind. That bothered him. Sure, he hadn't made any ground-breaking discoveries yet, but how was he supposed to be expected to do so if he was constantly dragged away from his train of thought by inconsequential daily trivalities? Ridiculous logic, frankly.

His father understood; it was one of few of the older Wizard's redeeming qualities. His mum mirrored the same favour as others and believed he pushed himself through too much just to gain a bawhair of ground. She'd pressed him to comply with Professor Flint and Professor Graves, and he had, if only to save face. If he continued to beg off with 'a headache' then people were going to start suspectinf something. Possibly his dormmates. For now he was content in the knowledge they had more pressing matters at hand than what he got up to on a daily basis.

Regulus strolled around the outskirts of the room with a glass of punch in hand and a pocket liner in the other. Force of habit, really, to slip his hand into his pocket even in company. It encouraged bad posture and slumping according to his Dad. So he'd made it a common stance, naturally. Anything to stop Eddie taking an interest in him when he'd done enough permanent damage as it was already. Whatever it took, no matter how small.

It led for an isolated existence mostly. Usually he met people by accident and usually it was when he wasn't in one of his more stable states. Like @clio , who he had accidentally lobbed a dinosaur femur at on reflex after sitting alone with his thoughts for a few hours. At leasy @freya was someone he worked woth on placement; any oddities that arose he could blame on stress and pushing himself... or at least he would do if she ever asked. He liked the Gryffindors fpr that trait, really... they weren't particularly nosy unless they were invested. And Regulus had spent a year making sure no one made such a mistake with him.

---

Outfit

After having spent about half an hour trying to convince Gunther that he didn’t need more food while the cat pleaded for the opposite, he had ended up missing Carin in the common room. Leaving Gunther victorious with some snacks, he raced through the common room and up to the Entrance Hall, managing to spot Carin(a) Rowan Flint almost immediately. It took a little while longer to find @lizzy, but Henry mostly trusted the search to Carin, as they were so much taller than he was. In the mean time, he looked around at all the older students that were very impractically dressed. He guessed that this was what would normally be called elegantly, but he only gained the conviction that these people didn’t intend to climb on trees tonight. Admittedly, neither did he, first, because he was also dressed in his least favourite clothes that he shouldn’t ruin, second, because it was dark and cold outside which were no ideal climbing conditions, and third, because Henry didn’t want to ruin Nick’s evening. Lizzy’s brother was a wonderful person, but he really didn’t understand anything about tree climbing.

Finally they were joined by Lizzy. Returning Carin’s grin, he nodded. ”Ready.” Looking around at all the students flocking to the Great Hall, he was slightly taken aback at how many people there were around. Maybe it was all the colours that made everything appear more crowded than usual. ”Yes, we need three seats next to each other. I hope there’s enough room.” It was foolish, the hall was huge, but there really were so many people.

”I guess so,” he said, looking to Lizzy for confirmation before squeezing his way through the crowd, careful not to lose either of his friends out of sight.