He didn’t want to come to this ball, on the opposite, he thought it was a sick thing to do. The idea of attending a ball centred on everything romantic was so out of place in a castle that was in possession of those who had zero understanding of anything coming close to real affection. He didn’t like trouble, usually did what he could to avoid it, but the whole Valentine’s Ball thing was such a travesty that he had been very much tempted not to attend and live with the consequences. Or maybe he would even be able to convince the matron that he wasn’t feeling well — it was sort of true, his head was throbbing more or less all the time. And she would certainly be able to confirm that he hadn’t slept enough. So he had grown more and more convinced that he would ditch the ball. But then there was his sister. He couldn’t let her get into trouble, and therefore she had to attend. But after what had happened at the end of term ball, it would be heartless of him to force her to go alone. He didn’t think that anything like last spring could happen again; the headmaster would hardly want to repeat such a scene. But the shock wasn’t forgotten, at least not by him, and he was quite sure, also not by his sister. If they were facing those fears, they should face them together.

A year ago he would have been embarrassed to go to a Valentine’s Ball with his sister. Now she was about the only person whose presence he didn’t mind after more than five minutes. For the ball last year, he had tried to ask one of Vi’s friends out, but after a lot of stammering and turning bright red, he had given up. The girl was now gone too. So many were gone, and it was impossible to find out whether they were alive and fine. To find out whether… He balled his hands into fists and forced himself to continue walking behind Violet Gertrude Stroud.

When they came in view of the Great Hall, he almost turned on his heel and walked back again. He was in no mood for this huge amount of pink. He guessed that was the way these monsters compensated for their lack of heart - by making their outside all the more disgustingly sweet. ”If you don’t find your friend,” he said to his sister in a low voice, ”we’ll just say hi to Nick and maybe Professor Smith, and then we’ve been seen enough here and can go back.” He was crossing his fingers that Vi wouldn’t find what-was-her-name-again. This was a ball after all. So if he showed up next to his sister, the girl might expect him to dance with her? And he couldn’t dance, and more importantly he didn’t want to dance. He just wanted this to be over.

outfit

Sera didn't understand the point of so many Balls and celebrations. This one was for Valentines' day and it was supposedly romantic, which made it all even more ridiculous. A school was for learning and any celebrations that weren't traditional, like Yule, really had no purpose. Rhea said it was for fun, she said that since all the kids were stuck at school all year, they needed something to make them happy sometimes. Sera thought it would actually be better if they were allowed to go home on the weekends, that'd be far better and she wouldn't be obligated to go to a romantic Ball she had no interest in. Then again, it would've been unpleasant after what Theo told her, she didn't want to go home yet. So maybe it wouldn't be so terrible. The Hallow's Eve one had been fine, and the Lestranges' Yule one had also been bearable. So she'd resigned herself to her fate and agreed to let Rhea help her dress, once more. She was going with James, as friends or something else she had never bothered in finding out. She knew that @caerus and @regulus would be there, too, but she'd actually been asked to go with @lj. She'd said sure, because Balls were boring and loud and filled with people, while LJ was quiet and didn't mind that she wasn't all that great in social situations.

Valentine's was supposed to be pretty and romantic, Rhea said, but Sera had refused to budge from her choice of dress. Absolutely not, she refused to wear pink or red or anything like that. She was comfortable like this and she'd said so right before she kicked Rhea out of her dormitory and finished dressing up. Really, this was all far more trouble than it was worth. She didn't even know why she was dressing like this. Supposedly, because she was a Nott and Nott women were supposed to look elegant and poised have good hair. Not that she would know because Theo had gone and gotten married and- never mind. She was doing what she'd been taught to do when she arrived and she would continue to do so because deciding to do anything else required a lot of attention to make a decision. Attention that was better used on literally anything else. So she'd just gotten dressed and gone down to the common room where LJ had been waiting before departing to the Great Hall together. The crowded hall was fine, really. A bit bright and filled with chattering people and floating pink hearts. It was slightly ridiculous but it didn't sour her mood, or anything. At this point she was more bemused than annoyed. Maybe Rhea was right, kids could use a bit of something special to spend time together. She'd never considered it before, but this might actually be fine bordering on pleasant... if they stayed away from the crowd.

"Rhea said the Slytherins were going to put whiskey in the drinks." She'd drank whiskey and wine before, it wasn't nearly as strong as the spirits she found in the Krai to keep her warm. On special occasions, with dinner, such things. Technically, she knew she wasn't allowed any. For some arbitrary age reason, like many things here in England were. It was against the rules but she doubted LJ would actually care. They broke the rules often enough and it wasn't really worth spending the entire night trying to find out which Slytherin had done it. Rhea said that house didn't give up their own so it would likely be in vain anyway. So, for a second, she looked over at the drinks table. It wasn't as if she enjoyed drinking, she never liked losing a clear head. Then again, sometimes it drained away tension. It was an unhealthy coping mechanism, James said, so she didn't do it. Had refused to do it and ended up blowing up trees in the forest instead. She had to say it was far more therapeutic than bottling things up. That was all she ever did, swallow everything until it was processed, until it vanished. Could she really say she ever dealt with anything at all, in that way? She didn't know and she didn't care.

Donald didn’t know that this was mandatory, after all he was planning to avoid it originally, but he understood where his friend was coming from. He felt that Valentine Day felt all so very forced to him. The young boy had never had a Valentine Day’s card and he didn’t really feel that bothered about it to be honest. Heck, Don never even had a girlfriend. Still he guessed that it didn’t matter. There was plenty of time for that kind of nonsense he supposed. Besides there was no reason why the two Ravenclaw third years wouldn’t have fun here regardless. Sure they didn’t have dates, but so what, they could still eat the food, enjoy the punch (no doubt enchanted to prevent anyone from spiking it) and have a good time amongst themselves. There was nothing that would be stopping them from enjoying the night anyway, right?

”I know Perry” he said in agreement with his housemate with a tiny shrug. There was a million other things he would rather be doing, he would happily admit, but they were here now and, in his opinion, they should make the most of it. ”I never tried to ask one out.” he admitted feeling slightly embarrassed. Again he got a feeling he was rather being his yearmates on that front ”Though I don’t think girls are that intimidating” he said thinking of his sister and the female friends he did have. ”But, yea, they seem scary when you ask them out. They seem to make it as embarrassing as possible from what I can see” he began to think that maybe he was actually well out of the entire dating and getting a girlfriend malarkey.

”It does, it seems like something you have to do. That is expected of you. I don’t really want to date…” he wondered if he should express how he was feeling overall to Perry. He wanted someone to talk to but he was not entirely sure that his friend would understand. Sure other boys in their dorm had already taken an interested in girls, but Donald wondered how much of that was actually real and how much of it was a show? He wasn’t sure. All he knew that, so far, he didn’t find girls attractive and he didn’t find boys attractive. Was that normal for most 13 year olds or was it now about the time that you started taking an interest in someone. Where you started to find out who you were? Maybe if he was in this boat next year it would be the time to start worrying but the third year couldn’t help but feel that he was…different from most of the other boys in his dorm. In the end he decided against telling Perry. He didn’t want for his mate to think him strange.

He scanned the dance and noticed his little cousin walk in with a very distracting suit. He rolled his eyes and hoped that Perry didn’t see him. Or if he did that he didn’t know it was Donald’s cousin. Dominic could be so embarrassing at times. Still at least he was hanging out with Henry, a Gryffindor girl and another Hufflepuff pupil. It was good to see his little cousin have some friends.

A giant smirk came on his face when he saw his sister enter with a boy ”Well hello” he said quietly to himself before nudging Perry. ”You see who my sister is with?” he asked his friend indicating to the 4th year girl that was his sister ”Want to go and tease her? It could be fun…” he was sure that Amy would not do anything to them in the Great Hall full of people. She couldn’t hex them or hit them without getting into massive trouble.

The 13 year old also saw @kitty enter the Great Hall. If she joined with Amy, that might make it more problematic for the pair to tease. Kitty was nice and wouldn’t attack them either but she would certainly stop the boys from teasing the 4th year Hufflepuff. If that was indeed what Perry wanted to do. ”Or…if you rather we can just hang here and chat?” Donnie supposed that would work as well. He always had time to tease his sister later after all.

outfit picked by Blue, of course

It wasn't truly Valentine's day. As unaware as he was of western culture, it was impossible to miss this celebration, if only out of the amount of consumerist pushing it had behind it. The fourteenth. Supposedly romantic, signifying love and beauty and a time to celebrate couples. He thought it was very fitting that Blue's birthday fell on that date, U-Jin couldn't think of a better day. Blue was, after all, the most beautiful person, in his eyes. It felt as if he had never appreciated someone like he did Blue and probably wouldn't do so again. He couldn't find it in himself to mind, really. Blue was special, even if he never spoke it out loud, and U-Jin cared. That was why he might have panicked a little right before the date of his birthday, it was the first time he was with someone on such a date. Well, 'with', they hadn't labelled it but he was. So he'd bought several presents. Candy, a jacket, a kit for his broom, cologne, he'd really lost track of how many things he'd bought but he didn't think that was a bad thing. Blue deserved the world.

Two days later, that was to say yesterday, it'd been U-Jin's birthday. Not really, it wasn't the date on which he was born, but in his culture all birthdays were celebrated on the new year. Traditionally, that's when one was considered older, not on the date itself. Lunar new year. He'd officially become eighteen, even if his date of birth was in the summer. He'd not gotten another broom, thankfully, but his uncle on the Park side had sent him keys to a new apartment in Seoul, his cousin -Iseul-imo's son- had sent him some silk robes with more silver than silk in them, and his parents... well, they'd sent a letter announcing that he was going to study law in Seoul and start working in ruling the clan as soon as he returned. The gift had been in the shape of the family ring, signifying that he was the heir, first in line and of age. He refused to wear it, kept it in its pouch in his trunk. Priceless, he should have sent it to his aunt's vault in Gringotts, but he refused to even look at it. It was fine where it was. What did he care? He didn't want to think about them or about his clan or about going back. He didn't want to think about anything other than being here, and being with Blue.

So of course they had come to the Ball. @bluebird never missed a party, it was obligatory, and U-Jin was loathe to deny him anything anyway. His clothes had been picked by the other boy and he put them on easily, with some assistance in the form of his boyfriend's wandering hands, and they'd hurried here. Of course @jay and @dion had long since departed but he didn't much care. They would see them there, eventually, and he was focussing on his date. Really, as much as he could. It was a romantic event so he ought to be more nervous than he was. It wasn't acceptable in his culture to be with another boy, much less to attend an event specifically for romantic purposes with one. He had gotten away with parties like the Yule one because they could play it off as going with a friend... well, he supposed that if anyone asked he could still claim that. He was an awful liar, however. It was necessary but he really wished he could be just himself without having to worry about word getting back to his mother. Couldn't help it, she was a pest, always tainting everything and everyone. They just had to pretend for a little bit before they could leave and be themselves elsewhere.

She'd taken Myrtle this time.

This was called for romance and the Grey Lady wasn't overfond of such. She supposed that might have somewhat to do how she was murdered-- by one who claimed to love her, and so she did have a rather poor opinion of much types of romantic love. Oh, she knew well enough that love was grand, having seen her parents, yet they'd been ripped apart, wands turning on each other and students turning on each other, and the school had nearly been torn apart. She still remembered that, and there were few enough who did, or who had witnessed it as she had, ever-caught between her parents, unsure of who to favor or help.

A grim thought for a holiday of love, though love was always tempered with pain. Hopefully, this night would have little enough pain other than romantic woes of students, though with the last school formal having gone so smoothly, she supposed the atmosphere was calmer. Students dove and flickered against each other, exchanging bright conversation.

She did not say anything, merely hovering some yards above the living, observing.

She's Slightly Late, Oops

Well this was it; her last Valentine's dance at Hogwarts. Maybe that was why this time she had forewent her usual blue dressed for something a bit more neutral, something a bit more in keeping with the holiday. Since Darien had left to explore Muggle science and his 'bounds of genius', she hadn't attended an event with anyone. Not because she hadn't wanted to, but there just hadn't been anyone for her to go with, so she either had stayed in her dorm under the pretense of being too ill to go or had went to hang out with her friends. Since Professor Flint had taken charge however these events were now mandatory, and though it irked her, it wasn't in her nature to directly oppose authority.

She did wish her Dad was still the librarian though. Even though he had routinely embarrassed her, it had been comforting to have him so close in case things went wrong or she just needed a hug. But now he was looking after the baby with Mum and she now lived with her sisters as they had left the UK to protect her. Kase loved her sisters and was more than happy to live with them, but she missed the bear hugs and her mum taking an interest when she came home during the holidays. Though she supposed, as she looked down at the shoes on her feet and the style of her dress, her Dad would likely have monopolised her time for the evening. For tonight she could just relax and have fun. As soon as she found someone to talk to, that is, as everyone had left before her while she was still pinning up her hair.

The hall was as crowded as ever as she stepped through the doors, smoothing down the front of her dress and casting her eyes about to see who was nearby. At least she wasn't the last person to attend. That would have been mortifying in the extreme. Grinning at those closest to the doors, she walked past them to immerse herself properly so she didn't stick out anymore. She'd find someone to talk to soon enough, she was sure. Till then, she could always go grab a drink or something small to eat. Ponder over her books for a while until an opportunity arose. Tipping her head back, she waved at The Grey Lady as she passed by her. As far as ghosts went, she was one of Kase's favourites.

Outfit

Coming to teach at Hogwarts was something that she hadn't had to think much about, surprisingly. When she had been a student here, Saoirse had always felt a little cooped up being trapped in here. But being a professor here was different, for obvious reasons. She could go if she pleased. She was here by choice. After all of her travels, she was well versed in many species of magical creatures. It was something that she had honestly been looking forward to teaching to students interested in the subject. She knew that some took the class because they deemed it to be an easy elective, which was fine. Not everyone in the class was going to be passionate about the subject, but enough of them seemed to enjoy it. If she had her way, they would all end the year liking the class. Saoirse liked to think that she made it interesting enough. She tried to, anyway. It was her first proper teaching job. She had taught during her travels, but that had been in a more informal setting than an actual classroom.

Still, she liked it. She hadn't been sure that she would, which was a bit of a shock because of how quickly she'd applied to the position when she'd heard about it. It was just a little more stable than she was used to. More structured. She hadn't had structure for a long time, so that had taken some adjustments for her. Saoirse thought that she had done well enough. She hadn't been sacked, after all. And she was glad for that. This was something that she had needed after she had come home. She had left everything that she had in Africa behind, and that meant Cashile as well--and their marriage. Saoirse needed the distraction to stop thinking about the fact that she had sent him divorce papers and he hadn't even fought her on it. Hadn't said a word. She hadn't even heard from him since she had settled in back home. She didn't even know where he was in Africa at this point. They moved around so much that no one part of the continent was home… it had all felt like home. But she was moving past that now. She had a job here, and she had a flat down in Hogsmeade. She enjoyed teaching, and liked her students. Liked her Gryffindors too.

Being a head of house hadn't been a part of the plan, but when the position had opened up… she figured there was no harm in asking. There weren't a lot of former Gryffindors working in the castle, so the options weren't exactly endless. If there was one part of this job that she couldn't say she loved, it was going to the balls and chaperoning. Saoirse had never been much for dressing up. She hadn't gone to the dances when she had been a student at Hogwarts, so coming as a professor was odd. But it was also a necessity. She needed to help out. It was for Valentine's Day, so she had gone to the effort of picking out a red dress, and even putting on lipstick. That was a lot of effort for her, quite honestly. The most surprising part was the fact that her hair was down, and not styled in her normal braids or updo. She stood along the edge of the wall as she casually observed the festivities. She didn't know quite what she was meant to be chaperoning, but it didn't seem like anyone was up to no good, that she could say anyway. So that was fine by her.

This was stupid, but she had promised to find Vi, so she was looking for her. Apparently, Clio did accidentally tell two different people she would go with them, so she was sort of screwed, but she made up for it by so far not catching up with either as of yet. She had abandoned Octi by being impatient and she had just forgotten to ask Vi where they were going to meet, so either way... Well, she should have planned things better, but she hadn't. She had gotten distracted. Or she didn't want to go. She couldn't quite tell which idea she was clinging to, not yet. Looking back at where Cameron was standing, she shook her head. She didn't want to go, she could face that. She thought that the ball was stupid, but not necessarily because of Valentine's Day. It was stupid because it was mandatory, and the whole idea of it made it so that she wanted to just punch something.

Which was... not out of the ordinary for her. So she sucked it up and rolled her eyes at Cameron and his stupid friends, and she abandoned the idea that Rory might want to hang around with her. She should just find Vi and move on. They could stand moodily with each other for a bit, and then she could go grumble about things with Octi, and then they could go. It was a good enough plan, and since it was the only plan she could come up with she was kinda stuck with it. 

After nearly five minutes of fruitless searching, she managed to find Arthur Stroud and Violet Gertrude Stroud. They were together, which wasn't necessarily shocking, but it was a bit of a problem. She didn't think that Arthur could stand her-- which wasn't a problem, necessarily, because a lot of people thought that she was too callous. But that kind of cut into her sullen time. What if he actually wanted conversation? He would just have to suck it up, then. She didn't really want to talk. Clio crossed the room to stand with them, making sure to walk along the outskirts. There was no way she was dancing. "Hi. Sorry for accidentally abandoning  you. I did the same for Octi as well." After that was said, she crossed her arms across her chest and sighed. This was dumb.

Valentine's Day was never that bad, not really, but it kind of stunk that Sue wasn't going to be around for it. He usually went all out for Valentine's Day. He got her roses the day before, he made breakfast the day of, and he usually went and got her something practical and then something extravagant. Last year Zacharias had gotten Sue the new set of quills that she had wanted and then a special pendant that warmed up when he was thinking about her. Which was... Well, he was sure that she didn't wear it that often because she had laughed and claimed that it was constantly running warm. He couldn't help it, though. Zacharias did constantly think about her. She was probably the one person that he never stopped thinking about. He loved his wife, loved the fact that she was able to put up with him, loved how brilliant she was, how inspiring. There was nothing about Sue that he would change, not ever. Even when she occasionally just darted out of the country... He wouldn't change that. Not at all. He loved her more than he could explain, more than...

He always had a goofy smile on his face during Valentine's Day, and he knew that it was there even though he was up at the school (and even though it was a few days after). His kids were somewhere doing something, and he thought that they were probably hiding from him. He wasn't too embarrassing, but he was still a professor, so they didn't want to be near him all of the time. It was sad, but he could deal. He was strong. Not as strong as his wife, but strong. Smiling at the decor (which was clearly Professor Graves, not Sebastian), Zacharias stood idly near the punch bowl so that he could pretend to turn a blind eye to the future spiking... And so he could steer the smaller ones away from the spiked juice.

outfit

"You've done well, Odelia. On both the Headmaster and the dance." A light smile pulled at her lips as she'd addressed @odelia at the beginning of the dance. There had been no injured students needing her attention, and if they had luck from the moon, it need not be. Her mother had viewed both the new moon and full moon as lucky-- one was for growing children, and the full for good-natured parents. The new moon had been two nights ago, true, but it was growing. No omen in itself, truly, but Astoria was optimistic for tonight.

"For somehow, though I don't know you as well as I'd like, I would assume the pink was not your doing?" That question had been addressed to @sebastian shortly after, a light in her eyes. "Surely that's Odelia's hand in it--- washing in the bleach with the red."

Her eyes half-skimmed the crowd, as she moved around the corners of the room, gaze sliding around the lighter hair to linger half a second on the darker colors. Her daughter was there, surely-- she hoped. She'd mentioned the other night that it would be best for Tamara to attend with some friends, or some people Tamara half-knew for sake of appearance only perhaps, because at thirteen, her daughter was hopefully too young for someone. She remembered being her daughter's age, half a head taller than most, a year older than her year and considered a child by those born in the same year as her, as she'd been only a second year to their mature third. That had been . . .the year of the Tournament, yes, she remembered. She'd convinced Lucretia's brother Cassius to take her to the Yule Ball, and had enjoyed the night what one might consider a tad too much. As the matron, she did have the responsibility to make sure that the younger students were safe for the night, but it seemed like @zacharias was making sure of that.

She did hope, really. He'd been her sister's year, and Hufflepuff, so like others, she'd considered him nothing much to pay attention to. He'd been at her wedding (the first one, that was) as his wife had been a friend of Anthony's. She didn't quite know how he felt about everything, but if he was trusted enough to at at Hogwarts with a higher position, especially after the last dismissal. . . well, not for her to worry, unless some student let something slip in a delirious haze.

She cared, yes. She cared for the students, both impartially and personally, which was one of the reasons why students didn't fight Healings with her or if they attempted to, found themselves firmly bound and coaxed out of their mood, the Healings given an extra pinch. But she was Lady Greengrass again, and wed to a Lord Nott. She had herself to thrust up, after all, and if she could improve her standing, she would. Whatever rises she made, kept her daughter more secure.

"@saoirse," her smile still light. "You look lovely tonight." The other woman had her hair loose; Astoria sympathized. While the Wing was unoccupied or she was out, she let her hair fall loose, rather than binding it up and away. From what she'd seen of the Care of Magical Creatures professor, the other woman enjoyed braiding her hair out and away from her face. Not that she'd seen quite much of other professors recently, other than at meals.

She'd been brewing up some handfuls of potions for the past week in case students came asking-- enough, hopefully, to make sure there were no children born in November. It was unlikely she'd see far more than she had the previous year, though it was always important to make sure.

Speaking of children. . .it was possible. It was a possibility. She'd know for certain in a few weeks, but as for now she had only the Hogwarts students to care for. And of the Hogwarts students, there was @petrova , tall and beautiful in a way that refused to take from her edges, Theodore's heir in every way.