HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYLA GRAVES!

TAG: @lyla + everyone! | OUTFIT

“What do you think, Brut?” Lyla stood back for a minute, to admire her handiwork.

The portrait reached up to twirl his mustache, shaking his head at Lyla. “What have I told you about throwing parties here, Sbisa?”

“I think your exact words were: your brother never thought of something so preposterous. Which I took to be a great compliment,” Lyla grinned picking up her camera and snapping a picture of the old headmaster’s portrait. The polaroid popped out of the bottom and she shook it before holding it up for him to see. “Don’t be so grumpy. You’re an awful backdrop when you frown.”

He seemed to want to say more, but Lyla was already opening the door to the Trophy Room. She had met her younger namesake a few years back. Their names were about the only things they shared. The Ravenclaw was like a middle aged woman stuck in a teenager’s body. It was…unsettling to say the least. Especially when Blue tried to talk about politics and adult antics.

Now, it was @lyla ’ birthday and they had planned…well, this. She would probably be pissed, but she and LJ had agreed that it was time for her to loosen up. After all, next year she was going to be a seventh year and then after that, she was probably going to go off to do something like save the world. Whatever — Blue had a bright future in front of her…but sometimes, it felt like the girl forgot to live in the present. So that’s exactly what Lyla was giving her: one night to think about just herself, no consequences. If they got caught, she would take the fall, be expelled, and continue her brother’s tarnished legacy doing…whatever it was Thad did.

With the doors open, it didn’t take long for the Trophy Room to fill up with students from all houses. In a way, it was half about Blue’s birthday and half about the end of the school year. They had worked their asses off…now was the time to celebrate.

As she turned to look at the door, she raised her wand. “Cave inimicum,” Lyla said, quietly, a small haze emanating from the tip of her wand. The charm would keep them hidden from anyone who opened the door. Unfortunately, she wasn’t the best at casting it, so the Headmistress would likely see through it and people could easily come through the protective barrier, but that wasn’t the point…it would do for now for wandering eyes and ears. Only those who knew about the party would think to go through the door… Lyla turned up the magical record player and started mingling with the party-goers who were already there.

She wasn’t really in a party mood. She never really was though, but as head girl it was kind of her thing to be a stick in the mud. Many didn’t like her because of her cold demeanor when around people, but she didn’t like to let people in. Few people got to know the person inside, and she liked it that way. She could protect herself. After losing almost everyone she cared about it was nice to know that she could control her world. She could control who she let it and it meant that she could keep herself safe, and keep herself from hurting. She would handle it, but knowing that she didn’t have Jesse, or Walker there kind of sucked for her, because she really well and truly alone.

She kept up appearances, but she kept her private life that. She liked her secrets, she liked her love life to be her own business. Jesse knew that she cared about him, and this semi-release meant so much for them. She wanted him there, to enjoy this with her, but she knew that soon he would be out of school and so would she. She would be able to help him, a new start. A future. It was there just waiting for them. It wasn’t over, and they still had the things that they had to do, but she would take this small victory. She would take it because it meant that they could be together.

Tucking her short hair behind her ear, she put her hands behind her back and stepped inside looking at the decoration. She hoped that people didn’t hate her for showing up, but she needed a break, from pretty much everything.
Outfit

Lyla's Outfit

Lyla didn't know what she was doing headed through the castle right now. LJ had told her that Red wanted to see her when he had given her a hug and wished her a happy birthday earlier. Really, she was surprised that she was in the castle at all. She had considered staying out a little later than really necessary and having dinner with Mum and Dad. That plan had been, mysteriously thwarted when she had ended up having lunch with her parents instead. That had been interesting. It was always interesting to find time to be together when she was supposed to be at school. Still, they had had lunch in England, which was better, though a lot less fun, than gallivanting off around the mainland to whatever country took their fancy. She had Delilah had gotten away with that a couple of months ago, she didn't honestly think they would get away with it again.

And yet, when LJ had told her that Red was looking for her, Lyla didn't think that she really had all that much reason to. It was her birthday, sure, but it wasn't like she had all that many people that she really considered her friends. The fact that she needed to 'loosen up' was something that she didn't think that she would ever hear the end of, from her cousin, or from the Gryffindor girl. They were both seventh years. They were both almost out of this place, and Lyla couldn't help but be a little jealous. Hogwarts was all well and good and whatnot, but she didn't like being here more than she had to be boarding school was simply… Boring. There was a whole lot more going on in the world than what they needed to worry about in these halls. They were 'protecting them' or some other nonsense, and it was just that. Nonsense.

Still, she had checked some of the regular spots that she normally found the Gryffindor, and when she didn't find her she thought that she might as well start checking the unusual spots. Trying to think a little more like Red, and a little less like herself, Lyla found her feet carrying her towards the Trophy Room. It wasn't somewhere that people would typically suspect, and LJ had at least told her that she was 'downstairs'. Of course, given that they had been in the Ravenclaw Common Room, nearly everything was downstairs, but that was beside the point. If she wouldn't have been so worried about someone coming along and asking what she was doing… Someone in the form of Aunt Odelia more than anything… Lyla thought that she would have just called her name or something…

There were other ways of getting information in this castle though, and she turned to find one of the portraits that was hanging on the wall. The girl in the painting was one that Lyla had spoken to often enough that she figured she would at least help her out now. "Hello, Annette." She smiled at the girl, and then she nodded down the corridor, "Do you know if Red is down here somewhere?" When they had met it had been a joke, but now the monikers had stuck, and it was easier than both of them answering to Lyla all the time. Red and Blue. Simple enough, and really pretty accurate. One was fire, and in your face with her sass, and the other was cool, distant, but the sass was strong there too. They were a lot more alike than she thought either one of them wanted to admit.

"She's in the Trophy Room, Miss." The painting pointed down the hall and Lyla smiled with a nod of thanks before she headed in that direction. Without thinking really, she headed for the door and pushed it open. Confused for only a moment before she stepped all the way into the room and was met with the sights and sounds of a party. A party?? It took half a second for her to realize what she had just stumbled into and she looked around for the older girl that LJ had sent her to come find. When her eyes picked @lylasbisa out in the crowd she headed that way, smiling a little bit but shaking her head just the same. "What are you up to Red? Trying to get thrown out before you can graduate?"

outfit

Being such a friendly person, there were few things that went on around that Hal didn't end up knowing sooner or later. Granted, often it was a bunch of stuff that he wanted nothing to do with and would rather not have cluttering his mind any given day. But, sometimes, it was fun things. Like a party. Hal liked parties, though wizards were shite at throwing them and he much liked his old muggle school mates' little get together during the summer. Say what you will but posh blokes knew how to throw a party like nobody's business. His cousins could be counted to always know where the fun was and because Hal kept them all mysteriously supplied with his hangover curing tea and assorted useful little things that were Absolutely Not Magical, Of Course Not. A small price to pay to be in the know of muggle society when he emerged from the bloody isolation of Hogwarts during the hols, something that would be impossible if he didn't have contacts - or family, whatever. It was all the same anyway.

So he heard from Travers who heard from Nick who heard from someone that Lyla Graves' surprise birthday party would go down in the Trophy Room today and he confirmed it with Sbisa a couple of days ago, when he had run into her in the corridors. Since she was, according to Travers, the one organising the whole deal, Hal had been mostly sure this wasn't a prank and that people were, actually, invited and this wasn't an exclusive get together. So yeah, he had decided to go. Mentioned it to Octavian, just in case he expressed interest to go and keep Hal company whilst he watched his school mates in a non-supervised environment that would likely have alcohol. It promised to be very, very fun and he wouldn't miss it for the world, really. If Octi showed up or not. Hal hoped he did. It would be a lot more fun if he were there - and wow, that didn't sound pathetic at all! Travers had said she'd stop by, in that cryptic way of hers, and - fair enough - she was standing by one of the walls when he showed up. Smirking at her and not being in the slightest bothered by her eye roll, Hal settled nearby - but not close enough to make her kick him.

In his hand it was the silver box Jane had procured for him, where he had put the gift he had bought through owl order when he decided to attend the party. He didn't quite know Lyla Graves well, just enough that she wasn't a stranger to him and that he was sure they had spoken a few times before, but he wouldn't show up to her birthday party empty handed. That...his mother raised him better than that, okay. Lyla was both a girl and someone from an important family and both of these things meant that Hal had to be That Charming Courtenay Boy that his grandmother's neighbours loved to point out and shove their heiresses granddaughters at - even though most of them couldn't even go outside without someone holding their hands because they were young. Hal shuddered. So not the time to think about this, honestly. Instead, he smiled at Sbisa when she passed around and waved slightly, still side eyeing Travers to make sure she wouldn't do anything weird.

outfit

Parties were great, really. He always attended as many as he could, there was always someone who invited him for some reason or another. Mostly it was his friends, dates weren't a thing. The last time there'd been an actual party had been the Valentine's Ball, though, and he'd left with Jay that night. A lot of things had changed since then. Jay was just his friend now, and he had a crush on a Hufflepuff girl that apparently danced with Alice. Kit was alive, and he had told both Matilda and Imogen that he was alive months before he'd told Octi. Lily had been mean for a while and then moved on from him too. So, really, he was out of regular lovers. Not that they weren't his friends anymore, but still. It was hard to swallow that because he wasn't one for unattached things. He wasn't one for romance either, but he was a constant FWB kind of person. Strangers were fine for general urges, for when he just need to scratch an itch, but generally? It left him feeling cold and alone. He didn't like that. He tried to spend more time with his friends, then. With Clio and Atha, Cyrus and Oralie and Emma and Zoe, Lyla -not the birthday one, the lion- and Alissander and Hal. The thing was that a few of them had started asking questions about how he was, about his lovers, about his studies. He didn't want to talk about any of that and he wasn't going to pay any more attention to his studies than he absolutely had to. That was why parties were good, because he could show up after stopping in an alcove for a bit of a smoke, carrying his guitar in one hand and a bottle of something in another and just forget about everything. Maybe he would even find someone for some broom closet activities.

Coming in, though, he saw @lylasbisa somewhat busy with the other Lyla. He could wait to greet her, though. He was surprised to see the Head Girl somewhere around, and absolutely not surprised to see most of the people around. Maybe @clio would show up, but she wasn't one for parties. Maybe, if she didn't mind, he would hit on her brother. Or maybe Gerry? Anyway, the night was too young for any of that right now. He might as well drop off the drink at the bar and find himself someone to talk to. The first part was easily done, and after pouring himself a glass he turned to look around the room. It was pretty crowded already, but he could see familiar faces splashed about here and there. A few greeted him and he passed by them with smiles and hellos and light kisses to cheeks. Still, he kept wandering and stepping between groups. Then he spotted @hal and while he may be straight and not what he was originally aiming for, he was a pretty good bloke. A friend. Cute too, but since he was straight and a friend, he would keep any interest to himself. It was one thing to hit on someone straight as a joke if they were strangers, it was something else to hit on a straight friend when one actually thought they were cute. Like in this situation. Still, he walked over with a smile and poked him in the side. Hal had also told him about the party, though Lyla had mentioned it first. "Hey there. Thought you were too well behaved for this sort of thing, Hal." He snickers, offering him his glass. 

minus badge, plus smile

After the party for Ava's seventeenth had faded and the hangovers had as well (though not her own, of course; things were far more fun being a more sober among the intoxicated, something she'd picked up from her father), she'd half-thought that might be the end until the graduation parties, the birthdays swept into the excitement for those. There were, after all, only so many parties NEWT students could attend in a night before professors felt they had to star looking to Prefects and the Head Students for Explanations, and those were fun when collaborated with, though it was often annoying to rely on the youngers to keep their word. Then again, that was why some were left out.

Tonight was Eagle Lyla's seventeenth, and she'd of course heard of it far before the Ravenclaw, though that was done for a good surprise, because it was supposed to be the best way for Lyla to enjoy it. According to the tentactula vines that spread from Lion Lyla, at least, and while Amelia was aware enough of how Eagle Lyla would react by now (almost six years completed, and an internship together, after all), it was going to be fun.

Her own gift wrapped in papers she'd written Arithmency problems she'd begged off the Professor for. A level matching Eagle Lyla's, of course-- it would be far too rude to go under. Careful, neat handwriting, able to be either ignored or tossed through. She'd found the little advertisement in a paper and set it aside in case she'd need anything from it ever. An independent little store in Germany, specialized in curiosity-books. Every new chapter required solving a Runic puzzle to have the text unlocked, the puzzle shifting every time the chapter was re-opened. Once unlocked, it was a text on Chaldean Arithmency, a subject more niche than not. Apparently. According to her father, at least, who'd brought it up when talking to Theo, and it was honestly amusing to see them go into it. Previously she'd've sworn they'd never mentioned it before, but suddenly they apparently knew a great deal.

Either way, it had been confirmed by Eagle Lyla's aunt that it wasn't a rip-off. She slid back her grin as Eagle Lyla entered the room, seeming somewhat puzzled, but less uncertain than the small clump of Ollivanders who looked like they were rethinking their attendance. Ah, their loss. Lion Lyla was throwing a lovely party for Eagle Lyla.

Passing on Through

It had been a foolish hope, she'd known.

After all, had this not been tradition for one thousand years? Mages who had completed their learning would celebrate before their examinations, with copious amounts of alcohol, whatever style of music was popular, using any and all excuses to do so. If such a thing had not happened, then the school was in difficulties. Such gatherings of simple celebration had not happened in 1998, 1943, 1863, 1836, 1776, 1723, near every year with Plague, the dragon pox transmission, 1473. . .

Gatherings then might be driven by desperation, anger, triumph during wars, yet the emotions in the room were always different. To have have the exusions means the school was in danger, yet how irritating they were to stumble upon! Perhaps if she spoke to more students, she would have known, and then been able to avoid, rather than merely finding herself in the midst of one.

Still, to dismiss it or send for a professor would be counterproductive to the reason gatherings were kept track of. If children wished to miss their studies, that was their own doing, would reflect accordingly on them. She floated through the nearest wall to leave.

☆208 words☆

❤fai