Where did we go wrong? Open Closed

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mentions @Caradoc Browne & @Serena Towers

He had to get a closer look.

Abandoning his breakfast – letting go of his fork making not only the black pudding still precariously dangling off it drop to the plate but instead making the entire fork land in a small splash, not that he would notice if it made a mess as he was already in the middle of getting up and turning around to walk toward the commotion.

This was unusual and therefore fascinating. He wondered if something had happened to make the Head of... Hufflepuff, was it? He couldn't be completely sure. It was not his Head of House, but the other three were a bit of a blur to him. Sure, the school could probably use some cheering up or something, given the supposedly life-threatening things happening all the time.

Seriously though, life threatening? This was a magic school. Of course there were hazards. And sure, he didn't see the point of attending some of the larger events – it seemed this school couldn't hold one without something catching fire from what he heard around the halls. That they had spells for, didn't they? And he was still disappointed that he hadn't been able to get a closer look at those spiders...

But he was getting distracted again. Focus. He wanted to have a closer look, so he made his way closer to the Ravenclaw table where Professor Something-Something was dancing and singing. And a to Muggle song, no less. At least he'd assume so. It wasn't one he was particularly familiar with but it sounded close enough to some of the old stuff their neighbour had always been playing during his summer garden... well, party might be bit of a stretch, given that it was always like the same six or seven old dudes sitting around a table drinking ale.

A few of the faces of the people dancing along with the man looked familiar, but for the life of him he couldn't remember their names right now. One of them was one of the badasses [Serena Towers] from the lake disaster, though.

He came to a stop next to the group dancing – he didn't join in (yet) – but he was watching them avidly and subconsciously bopping his head along the beat of the music.

Inetracting w/ everyone | Mentions @Caradoc Browne | Open for Interactions.

May was walking out of the dungeons after Potions class, stumping her feet, her school robes all dirty, and her hair fully messy.
Why is potions clas always so tiring and dirty? May thought.
As she entered the Great Hall, May saw that there was a group of people, students and professors all huddled up. Surprised, and curious, May went to the group.
"What's going on?" May asked, but she stopped dead. There was man dancing and singing there, but he looked familiar..."Professor Browne?!"
May couldn't believe her eyes. What was the Head of House doing? How could anyone think and let him do that!?
"Wow, he's a good dancer," May said, nodding slowly. "I bet he is having fun"

A few other Hufflepufs were there, now, lots of them were....dancing. May wanted to join, let her bag down, and start dancing. But she couldn't. She was to shy!
"Well, there's no better time to dance, right?" May said to herself, and began to dance, clapping her hands, and smiling. A few strands of her hair were glowing bright yellow, something that, for reasons unknown to May, happened. May didn't want to be ridiculous, but she had already entered and...that was that.

Elena had seen a lot of weird stuff in her time at Hogwarts. She had come into the school with the mindset of any average 11 year old expecting it to be a standard school with certain set expecations of its students and staff while in the pursuit of magical education. Those expecations were upheld but sometimes there were..exempetions as she was seeing right now. "Well. uhm.." She eyed the Head of House as if trying to formulate a response to his actions and failed. It wasn't that the Gryffindor disapproved of the actions, it was just..she didn't know the proper words to describe such carefree behavior. "Well, either Professor Browne is revealing his exlempary dance skills to the school or this is his daily morning routine."

She said in response to Saskia's question still too dumbfounded that Annie's introduction went right over her. More and more students flocked to the scene, she noted two more instructors among the crowd though they seemed to be doing nothing to stop this madness. She guessed if it was alright for them, it would be alright for everyone else. A part of her had that twitching feeling, the urge to contribute to the maddening chaos. She did not want to be that one student left out though she very seriously doubted her ability to live up to the Hufflepuff's Professor's dancing skills. It just didn't seem likely.

"I think I'll be content with being a wallflower." She remarked bobbing her head along to the Professors's voice and smiling. Well, she couldn't complain, it was a nice and funny change from the daily schedule of the school. He had quite the crowd now and what had once been a realtively sparsely populated room was now slowly getting packed to the brim as students flocked to see what was going on or to join in on the dance. Classes could wait, this was a story she wanted to embed in her head to ensure she wasn't dreaming. A Head of House dancing..dancing through the school, on top of the tables and Merlin knew what else.

Interacting with: @Nico Shymane & @Zahid al-Benghazi ibn Masoud

Hjørdis sighed, still watching Caradoc. He was making quite the spectacle of himself it seemed. It was rather interesting, if nothing else. Perhaps slightly amusing. Though, she was about to rage and murder him if the man stepped on the food. And unfortunately, there appeared to be a rather high chance of that happening.

"Yes... We should... probably stop this..." She responded towards Zahid, though she made no real attempts to actually get up and stop anything. Not yet, anyway. It was kind of sweet seeing the students getting involved. They were mostly badgers, from what she could tell - of course they were! But nonetheless, they looked happy and that was enough. A few moments of joy was something they definitely needed in these trying times. This was enough.

She nodded towards Nico, as the prefect took a cupcake. It was perhaps far too early to actually be eating cupcakes but Hjørdis did not care. She needed the sugar to wake herself up to deal with today - especially given everything that was happening. Grabbing some actual food, she placed a few pieces of hash browns and some spoonfuls of baked beans onto her plate. The Head of Slytherin picked up her knife and fork, carefully cutting one of the hash browns and scooping it up with some baked beans.

A soft smile appeared on her lips as she finished chewing her food, swallowing it, "I'm glad you like them," She replied towards the prefect whose face screamed contention. It was nice to see the Dhampir look so excited, it was rather sweet, to be honest.

Hjørdis silently continued to eat her breakfast, attempting to ignore the music and the dancing going on all around her. Sigh. Caradoc was... special, to say the least. That was definitely one word for it. He was something, alright.

Interactions: @Glen Pope | Mentions: @Ami Procoppio

Serena dancing by the table - not really wanting to join the group that was actually on the table. That would draw far too much attention to her, she honestly would hate that so much. Rocking to the music, she swayed along with it moving her shoulders and arms as well as her legs. Her head bopped along too. The badger was focused on the music, immersed in it. Nothing else mattered but the music. At least, that was until she saw Ami, who grabbed her. The former secretary planted kisses on her cheeks before booping her nose. The shock was evident on her face, at the sudden contact. Serena tilted her head, a little confused, as Ami complimented her. "Wh-" She started before the fellow badger winked at her and quickly turned away.

Before Ami left, she threw back another compliment. Serena blinked, who was drooling at the sight of her?! No one, surely! Did anyone even notice her? Well, obviously Ami did but no boys were drooling. Serena chuckled, shaking her head. Her former secretary was mad, clearly. There was little else to it. Nonetheless, she could not help the fact that her cheeks had turned slightly pink as she blushed from the kind compliment of it all. Scratching the back of her head awkwardly as the other girl exited out of the great hall, Serena looked around. Professor Browne - and some of the other boys - were dancing on the Ravenclaw table. Not wanting any more attention, she quickly looked around to see if she could head to the badger table. It was on the far side. However, as she walked down, she spotted a Slytherin sitting nearby - that had been looking.

She grinned, "Oh, Glen right?" She asked him. Serena approached the table, opposite him, "Mind if I join you for a bit?" She continued, wondering if she could take a break there. It did not look like they were intending on eating any time soon anyway.

♫ Open to interaction ♫
Interacting with @Serena Towers

Aaand the badass girl was approaching. He hoped she wasn't still angry about what happened a year ago or something. But she was grinning, so he took that as a good sign. Besides, she probably wasn't really headed-- Nope, that was his name. Uh. Oh, Merlin, what had been her name again? Something with a S? Or a T? Or was it both? He really should probably know her name. But she also didn't sound completely sure about his name so maybe it would be alright that he couldn't remember hers? He hoped so. He didn't want to hurt her feelings after all.

“Uh... ah, sure? I mean, sure. I mean, no. I don't mind.” He winced. Well, that was off to a good start. He sighed. “Company would be nice?” Oh wow. Could he get any more awkward? He'd thought he'd gotten better at this whole thing, but apparently she still made him nervous. Not because she was a bad person or anything, but because he still cringed at his utter incompetence when he remembered the lake disaster. And she'd had a front row seat to that – heck, she'd basically had done his job for him, hadn't she?

He offered her a friendly smile while he inwardly almost panicked trying to decide if he should ask her for her name or not. He didn't want to hurt her feelings by asking but if he didn't and it came up later, that'd just be worse, right??

Interactions: @Glen Pope

Serena blinked as the Slytherin said yes and no at the same time. She tilted her head uncertainly, waiting for him to finish his sentence. Or rather, actually formulate a sentence. So... she could join him? She took it as the affirmative after he was done and grinned, sitting herself down opposite him, "Thanks!" She replied happily, "I'm Serena, by the way. Serena Towers, in case you forgot. Not a Slytherin but ehh the Hufflepuff table is all the way on the other side and... my head of house is... well, I don't think we're eating any time soon." She added, introducing herself and why she was too lazy to go to the other side, as she glanced over her shoulder and motioned towards one Professor Browne. The badger head of house was certainly a strange man. His display today - where he was literally walking on the Ravenclaw table next to them - said something.

But as far as Head of Houses go... Browne was probably the best one to have. Well, he was certainly better than the stone cold looking one that sat in line with this table. Serena was secretly very glad that she was not her Slytherin - even though that was the only house that would have made her mum stop complaining so much.

"How are you doing though? I don't think I've properly gotten to speak to you since... well last year, maybe?" She asked him, rambling on at him. If anything, Serena was definitely in the mood to make conversation. The badger's breathe was definitely audible though, tired from running down the corridor and all of the energetic dancing they had been doing. She was hyped up and pumped though - which was evidenced by her rambles.

Interacting with @Serena Towers

Oh, good. Phew. She hadn’t taken offense at his rambling and even introduced herself immediately without him having to ask so that was awesome. It was obvious to him that she was not a Slytherin but it was not like there was a rule against her sitting here and looking at what her Head of House was currently doing… She was probably right about the not eating soon.

The comment made him look over to where he had left his breakfast abandoned and forgotten. Oh well, he could always finish that later or just grab a new plate if he needed to, so, whatever. (His iya would probably hit him over the head for that though. But what she didn’t know…)

The smile he’d been giving Serena however froze, as he heard her next words. Last year… the lake incident. Where she’d done his job as a prefect for him as he had utterly sucked at it – zoning out instead of intervening. He really didn’t want to revisit that with her – she’d probably kick his arse. But he couldn’t just ignore her question right? After all, he’d invited her to sit down with him (somewhat. He’d tried.) and that normally meant talking, so… But what if she wanted to reprimand him? No, she probably would have done that already if she had wanted to, he doubted she would have waited almost a whole year for that. But… Maybe she just wanted to- to- uh… compare notes on that fiasco? Or maybe she just genuinely was asking about the time since then? Could that be? Hopefully…

“Uh, yeah, well, fine? I guess? I mean, nothing much happ—Well, I dunno. There’s always stuff happening in this school, I mean, but I’ve been fine? I mean, I’m still not that great at either studying or spells –“, not that she’d asked about that but now it was too late to take back “but I’m not horrible at that either I guess, so. Uh, yeah, fine.” If his skin tone was lighter he’d probably be beet red by now. He winced. Why was talking to someone so difficult? Scrambling for something else to say he rushed out a “’dnhow’reyou?” that might or might not be comprehensible.

Iya means Mother

The Head of House jumped off the table and landed between the two tables on one side. There was no time to waste! Sliding his feet backwards over the floor, Doc swayed from side to side till met the end of the table and was far closer to Nora and Zahid than he figured they feared by now. He couldn't resist taking the time for a (to him) appropriate wink at the both of them and the gathered students as well. As if summoned (duh), the next song queued in. A smirk flashed instantly on the man's face. "My, my...
At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender."

That's right, ABBA was finally playing (again) through Hogwarts halls. Where were those days he'd blast these through the Hufflepuff commons. "Oh yeah!" Finding his two faithful badgers still at his side. He'd give them a wide grin and nodded to follow. "And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way." Shooting a quick glance behind him, towards the professor's table, he'd quickly get his hair out of his face and stomp his foot to the rhythm. "The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself!" Getting in position, all three next to each other, he marched them towards the centre. Singing along to the music as it gained volume, the trio took on their poses for the upcoming refrain. Doc down the middle, Jack to his right and Jake to his left. "WATERLOO!"




Swaying left and right, kicking back and forth as their swung around them, the three badger boys kept their own so far. With no rehearsal whatsoever, Caradoc was quite impressed should the two boys have stayed in sync the entire time. The dance moves weren't anything advanced, but they did have a tendency to come unexpected. As the Head of Badgers belted out the lyrics to the song, he looked across the room. Many baffled, stuffed up faces. There were a handful of dancers that had joined them. Shooting some imaginary guns at a young Ravenclaw girl (Breana) as he made eye-contact with whomever had joined him. He even swung an invisible fishing rod at some dancing Gryffindor lads (Alan & Zykeal) a bit further down the hall. "My, my...
I tried to hold you back, but you were stronger."


Bopping up and down as they slowly shuffled backwards towards the professor table again, it would have been insane if they weren't met with more heads nodding along in unison by now. Who could resist such a song? It didn't matter if you were raised with a wand up your ass, rather than in your hand. There had to be at least a shred of good taste somewhere in that body? Banging his golden hair through the air, Doc led the two boys up the steps at the back. With moving only their feet, he tried having the whole group shuffle all the way to the left side of the stage before having them shuffle all the way back. "Waterloo, finally facing my Waterloo" He turned those who danced around a few times during the second refrain. Bringing the boys to end in front of the gathered profs, this time facing them with a wide grin on his face. Now Doc was facing Nora, Jake stood in front of Nico and Jack had pulled the lucky straw to be faced with professor Zahid.





The three badgers fell back as if hit in their hearts on that last note. Naturally, Doc had slipped in a quick wink, as the man couldn't be helped. Hitting the final refrain, the trio stumbled back upon the middle path. Kicking left, kicking right, fists pumping all around. Drops of sweat were now forming on the professor's head as he was actually getting tired. Three songs down in the morning and already tired, perhaps you were getting a little older Mr Browne. Waving his arms to Jack and Jake, he called them towards the centre. With the music clearly working its way to the end, the trio stopped precisely on the dot as the song cut off and left them in their own pose. "Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you"

Singing. Loud unrestrained singing. That is what brought Katrina into the Great Hall. It sounded like the entire host of angels (or just one music deprived Head of House) had made its home in the room.

Pulled by her amused curiosity, Katrina found herself surrounded by numerous baffled students. They had a reason to be baffled because standing on a table was the Hufflepuff Head of House singing it a surprisingly good voice a song that Katrina actually recognized. There were a few other students bopping their heads or tapping their feet to the beat, but two younger students were dancing along with the Head of House as if this was a practiced routine.

An infectious smile grew upon Katrina's face. Music reminded her of her deceased family. However, not in a bad way. The Walker household always had music playing or were making music of their own. She had grown up playing chords to the piano and singing along for as long as she could remember. Everyone in her family had something to contribute.

The lack of music was one thing Katrina could never really get used to. Occasionally there would be someone playing in the Rehearsal room and once they had even caroled in there. But besides three occasions, the school was without much music.

"So how could I ever refuse?
I feel like I win when I lose..."

Katrina couldn't help it. As the ending came around, she had to join in. It would be against her very DNA to not join in. Especially since she actually knew the song.

"Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you" Her voice was a touch soft, and she was standing away from most of the students, but she couldn't be kept from bopping her head along with the beat. There was no dancing from this lioness, but head bopping-- there was an abundance of. Katrina didn't quite know why she was enjoying herself as much as she was, but she was making the most of it.

@Caradoc Browne