A ‘Friendly’ Invitation
It was summer and only a day or two had passed since Felix and his parents had attended the Virtanen Summer Fest, but Lin Kolbeck had never been one to move slowly. She played her hand with such quick precision that her son rarely saw it coming. She had seen something between Felix and his classmate at the fest, apparently (leaving it vague since this thread is not finished), and for these plans to be set in motion she needed the Frannson family to know just how interested the Kolbecks were.
So the nagging had begun. At first subtle hints were dropped, and Felix picked up on most of them, but the teenager was resistant and ignored her. He could not, however, disregard a direct order from her, considering she had reminded him about their ‘discussion’ on keeping ‘better company’.
When he had tried to remind her of what Hogwarts had done to him during the Hexwizard, his mother told him that Kolbeck men didn’t sit on the sidelines, but faced their fears head on. She did not look impressed when Felix suggested that natural selection was why he was the only male heir.
So, Felix found himself in a dilemma; ask Greta to the ball, or deal with Lin nagging his ears off before possibly arranging something on her own.
On the other hand, he definitely wanted the opportunity to shove it in George’s face how completely totally fine he was doing, but he also had planned to never step foot in the Hogwarts castle again.
But if he didn’t go… would someone else ask Greta? Clearly men found it easy to fall in love with her. Except for Felix because he was in TOTAL control of his own emotions, thank you very much. Grabbing and kissing her was just totally a one-off, possibly a two-off, erm… Three-off thing.
Ugh, Greta would definitely find another date because she was the most beautiful woman in the world. It wasn’t just that her face was pleasant to look at, or… erm, the rest of her body, but how she presented herself to the world with such confidence, how those sea green eyes seemed to sparkle in pure joy at the simple things like an ice cone, and how kind her heart was.
He would kill three birds with one stone; get his mother off his back, shove it in George’s face how wonderful his life was, and keep gross men away from his friend whose naivety rivalled a Disney princess.
The Swede planned to keep his letter to Greta short and sweet, but there were several lines hastily crossed out before his invitation actually begin.
He hadn’t dated a girl since his third year, but he knew they liked flowers. Greta must have as well because she always smelled like them and sometimes cotton candy after she had inhaled one too many snow cones. After almost being suffocated by a girl’s hair one too many times, you started to notice what she smelt like.Greta,
I hate Hogwarts, but I don’t hate you.
Remember how that one guy you had a crush on tried to hex me—
COME TO THE BALL WITH ME
Do you want to go to the fall ball together? I won’t be a shitty date, and I’ll even dress up if you want.
Felix
He was just going to send a large bouquet of muted pastel roses, but quickly panicked when his mother had snidely remarked ‘how romantic’ it was and decided the gift needed something to dull the romantic element.
He purchased a hand-crank shaved ice machine and a variety of flavoured syrups, and hastily wrapped them in brown paper before sending three owls out to deliver the letter, package, and flowers.
@Evelynn Decipio
│ │ | │ │ | STA: 10 • EVA: 22 • STR: 8 WIS: 10 • ARC: 8 • ACC: 15 | │ │ | • Perfectionist • Impartial • Fearless • • Evasive Maneuvers • Evasive Maneuvers II • | │ │ | │ │ |
A ‘Friendly’ Invitation
Durmstrang | Year 6 | Height: 5' 2" |
Russian | Swedish | Norwegian | English |
"Margarethe, dear, something has arrived for you.." The figure of Greta's mother had arrived in the doorway of her bedroom, simple robes hanging elegantly from her form. A distinct light gleamed in her eyes, as though glinting from the depths of a starved soul feasting themselves upon an open buffet; and the lilt to her tone made the near whisper of the announcement loudly interject itself into the foreground of Greta's attention. The little Valkyrie looked up from the nest of twigs and leaves and flowers and various other knickknacks that Mother Nature had offered her that morning, tongue still pinned between her teeth and lips from the previous concentration needed to weave them intricately together. Tongue disappearing in an instant, a reflexive look of innocent guilt flashing to her features, Greta could only stare at Astrid for a moment as her mother's words--and more importantly, the uncharacteristically devious smirk that accompanied them--sunk in.
"Something arrived?" Greta echoed, the question laced with equal measures of confusion and suspicion. "For me?"
Ever since her regular communications with Theo had been stopped, it had been a rare occasion for Greta to get a letter from anyone, let alone something, whatever that might be. Who would be sending her something?
"Yes, darling, for you." There was a certain air of amusement in the way her mother gently repeated sentiment, assuring that this was no trick or gambit. In fact, one might even have considered the woman to be quite beside herself with joy if they knew how collected and subdued the wandmaker usually was. This was a moment of celebration, after all, and she would do nothing to risk severing the fragile threads of fate that had begun to spun themselves about her precious daughter. "Well?" she inquired, tilting her head and turning to take her leave. "Are you coming?"
"Yes!" As though to do anything other might result in the surprise arrival being torched and discarded, Greta jumped to her feet to whisk after the wisp of her mother. An excited bark sounded as Marenus, the pearl-coated cruppy that had been contentedly pawing at the little bits of twig and petals that had fallen from the desk in Greta's crafting, launched to his feet to chase after her. By the time the teenage witch emerged into the common sitting room of their humble house, hands pushing loose curls out of her face, her mother was already busying herself in arranging a rather extravagant bouquet of roses in all variety of pink pastel colours. "Are those from pappa?" Greta inquired in barely more than a whisper, a heat quickly flushing across her cheeks and ears.
"No," her mother answered matter-of-factly with that same almost sickly-sweet smile. "These are for you."
"Me?" Greta squeaked, a hand timidly lifting to tame down her hair and tuck it behind an ear. Her gaze swept from them to a letter positioned nearby. Creeping up to the edge of the table, she reached for the correspondence and pulled it near, mind racing a mile a minute as she tried to fathom from whom it might have been. And why. It all felt very mysterious and romantic, exactly the sort of thing that a gallant knight or lord might do to win the favour of their intended lady in one of her fantasy books. Try as she might, Greta couldn't quite suppress her growing smile. With careful precision so as to preserve the integrity of the letter forevermore, she opened it.
"Koby?!" She blurted almost immediately. She hadn't meant to, but her eyes had darted to the signature before absorbing any of the other content, her jaw dropping open as disbelief and reality clashed in a rather violent display that would put the most skilled of jousting knights to shame. "This is from Felix?!" She'd looked towards her mother this time, her exclamation both statement and question. "These are from... No but he wouldn't... Did he... He didn't..." A pause of flabbergasted silence and dumbfounded staring at the massive array of what was really quite a remarkably beautiful--a perfect, really--arrangement of roses. Her voice diminished to a whisper again, seemingly frightened that to speak too loud might disperse reality, a reality that her fluttering heart seemed more and more hopeful to be true. "Felix sent this..?"
"Oh, did he?" An airy response of feigned ignorance from her mother accompanied the tug of a smile at her lips. "Close your mouth, dear, you're catching flies."
Greta's teeth champed shut, lips pursing momentarily. But only for a fleeting moment, teeth biting at her lip to stave off the returning grin as her eyes dipped back to actually read the letter note. She snickered quietly to herself seeing the crossed out messes, barely able to picture Felix sitting down to write her anything at all, while also being able to perfectly imagine how frazzled he must have looked, his hand endlessly mussing at his hair that shadowed what could only have been an agitated expression as he tried to force thoughts to ink. She almost couldn't bring herself to actually read the real sentiments, and didn't realize she'd held her breath before doing so. It released in a sharp "OH!" when she did, followed immediately be an "Oooh....." of equal parts terror and giddiness as the implication of his invitation settled in. He wanted to go to the ball with her. Together. As her.. as her date.
"...well?" A silky voice cut through the internal flurry of butterflies and whirling petals.
The blush deepened upon Greta's face, and she became acutely aware of the weight of eyes upon her. "Um... well... T-there's another trip to the UK coming up..." Greta stammered, not really sure why she was stumbling over her words or finding it difficult to admit the contents in the letter. "...and there's going to be a dance... there's always a dance, that's nothing new..."
"And..."
"Since it's in the fall, they often seem to like to theme it after the harvest or All Hallow's Eve, or something similarly related for that time of year. The international schools will all be going, of course." None of this was confirmed, of course. It was still the summer and the school year had yet to resume. But if patterns continued as they had for every year for as long as Greta could recall, what she said was true as far as she knew. "And there'll be all sorts of food..." she went on, rambling about the specific sorts of decor they'd used in the past, and the varieties of foods they'd presented, and the sorts of costumes and clothing students have worn.
"That's all very nice, Margarethe," she sighed, "but that wasn't my question." A lofted brow over piercing eyes pinned Greta to the spot. "What does the letter say?"
Greta fidgeted on the spot, avoiding her mother's eyes but too muddled to come up with any sort of verbal escape. "Koby is asking me to go with him to the ball..." she murmured.
"Enunciate more clearly, dear; you are not a mouse."
"Felix is inviting me to attend the ball w-with him," she swallowed, feeling hot and cold all at once.
"Excellent!" The loud CLAP of her mother's hands coming together made Greta jump, the wide grin across the woman's features hardly bringing any comfort, either. "This is an occasion for a new dress, I think."
"A new... dress?" With generally having to scrounge through her mothers old clothing or make something for herself, the notion of a new garb made the young witch perk up.
"Yes, I think so," her mother replied, "we will have to make sure you are adequately... displayed." Already seemingly on the move, the gears in her mind turning at a hastened speed as she paced about the space and flipped through a small little pocketbook. "Get to writing your acceptance while I make the arrangement. We will take a trip into town this coming weekend." With that, she whisked out of the sitting area, leaving Greta alone with the letter and the flowers where she stood still staring at the messy scrawl, almost believing this to be some sort of prank by Hanzo.
A sudden series of barks broke her from her prolonged reverie and she looked up to see the growing silhouette of a winged form. It took her another second and Marenus pawing at the window sill for her to realize that it was an owl carrying--or rather struggling to carry--a package coming straight at the window. "Rini, back!" Greta urged, dropping the letter to the table to rush forward. She threw open the panes not a moment too soon, as a rather fatigued looking eagle owl tucked its wings to swoop into the space, dropping the package into the girl's waiting arms. Both of them crumpled rather haphazardly to the ground. Marenus scampered up, swapping between licking at Greta's face and sniffing at the package.
"Okay, okay! Off! Off!" Greta pushed off the excited crup and righted herself to her knees, eyeing the new package with fresh curiosity. It was kind of heavy. She shot the avian an empathetic look, whispering, "stay as long as you want. I'll get you some snacks in a bit."
"Margarethe, what was that noise?" Astrid's voice called from somewhere upstairs.
"Nothing!" Greta looked up and over her shoulder, then back to the package. Fingers dug hastily into the wrapping, something telling her that she wouldn't want her parents to see whatever it was. Confusion coloured her features upon the gift's initial reveal. The hand-crank machine almost looked like a meat grinder, or maybe something she would find in an apothecary. Something for school, maybe? It wasn't until she had been looking through the various syrups, doubt gradually overtaking the belief that it had been for her at all, that she figured it out. When she did, she had to bite her lip to muffle the squeal of delight when the gift revealed itself. A snow cone machine! Just for her! All year 'round!!
Certain that her instinct would be right and that her parents would surely confiscate it, Greta scooped the syrups and machine and letter into her arms and raced back upstairs to her room to hide it. She returned to tend to the messenger owl, offering rest and refreshments, and spent a good while with her face buried in the flowers to inhale the fresh wave of giddy appreciation. Only when her head was dizzy and her cheeks glowing anew with a rosy hue did she finally do her mother's bidding and pen a response to send back with the recovering owl.
Dear Koby,
Wait, am I supposed to be calling you Felix? Thank you for the snow cone maker! I love it! I had to hide it in my room, because I'm pretty sure that my parents wouldn't let me have it since it isn't the sort of consumables they usually allow in the house. And I haven't tried it yet, but I'm so excited to!
And thank you for the flowers, too. Mamma has set them up on display in the middle of our sitting room. I don't think she's ever set something of mine on display before. I actually thought they might have been a gift to her from my pappa at first, the way she was smiling at them. They're very lovely. And they smell really nice too. Did you pick them?
I hope your summer has been going well so far. Again. I mean, I know it's only been a few days since the luncheon. But it seems to be going by so quickly. It's hard to believe we'll already be back to school soon! I miss the summer camp. It'll be nice to see everyone again.
Anyway, to answer your question.. I think I w would love to would be happy to go to the ball. With you, I mean.
Greta
p.s. I think dressing up would be fun.
@Winnie Harper