Dancing to the sound of silence OPEN Locked

Carolyn was pleased to hear that she did at least somewhat well and it was also nice to see Lyra happy. She understood her excitement perfectly. It was always delightful to share your passion with someone and they both clearly loved the art of dance. “Well, I’m okay with that. I already knew I wouldn’t be able to do achieve perfection today. After all, even the ballet, which I love, requires me to practice the new moves constantly before mastering them. It was good to try something new though,” she said smiling. She definitely wouldn’t exchange ballet for this but it would be fun to do something different from time to time.

After that Lyra turned around the ball room and wordlessly wandered towards some equipment. To Carolyn’s surprise, she actually managed to find drums there. She knew there was a gramophone player somewhere but she never really paid much attention to it since she had nothing to play on it, the African drums though? Carolyn definitely didn’t expect to see those here. “Wow, well that’s unexpected. Hogwarts truly never cease to surprise me in every possible way,” she admitted to the other girl before Lyra proceeded to try the drums. It had a nice sound. “Sure I can try. I mean, I learned the steps; it would be shame to pass up the opportunity. I’m just sorry I won’t be able to do the same for you. I was never good with instruments. I learned to play the piano but my skills are decent at best,” she revealed regretfully. Well…I can’t be good at everything, she reminded herself.

“Okay, hit me with the music,” the young witch encouraged her friend eventually. She definitely wanted to try it. Usually, she did better when she had some kind of music to guide her. She was sure this would help her to do better.

OOC: No need to apologize. As you can see, I’m pretty slow as well. We had 6 puppies to take care of so I wasn’t able to reply either. :-D

“Well, I’m okay with that. I already knew I wouldn’t be able to do achieve perfection today. After all, even the ballet, which I love, requires me to practice the new moves constantly before mastering them. It was good to try something new though," Carolyn said after Lyra spoke. The Ravenclaw nodded. "Yeah, most dance steps take a while to nail anyways."

The first-year voiced her agreement as Carolyn expressed surprise at finding the drums. "Yeah it is pretty amazing. I think one of the staff brought most of these here, or the castle itself." At her roommate's next words Lyra positioned herself on the stool and took the drums in hand, placing them to lend onto her body as she had learned by herself, watching tutorials online in the Muggle world. "Oh don't worry, my playing on this is far from extraordinary. I can play a quick tune and melody but definitely can't pull off a piece either. It's probably much less than what you can do on the piano." The Ravenclaw reddened, not wanting her friend to overestimate her skill. "I've only watched a few tutorials to record myself for a beat I wanted, it helps with songwriting too."

Lyra took a deep breath and lifted her hands to the drum, "Whenever you're ready, you can start. 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8" she said, before dropping them on the goat hide and playing a regular beat, accentuated by higher notes that she played on the thinner parts of the instrument.

Interacting with @Carolyn Hunt

Interacting with @Lyra Lake and @Carolyn Hunt

Lucia had made her way to the ballroom today to dance.
Well, of course she had - if she had been looking for a place to sing she would probably have gone to the rehearsal room, but the ballroom was more often empty and was larger as well.
She had dressed herself appropriately - the girl had no real dance costume or uniform, but Lucia wore a pair of black leggings and a white t-shirt bearing the blue and glittery slogan, 'Dance mode: On', and she found that these gave her enough freedom of movement to dance however she wanted.
At the last moment, she had shrugged on a blue hoodie and made her way to the ballroom.
When she pushed open the door, humming to herself the song she was planning to dance to, she realised that she was not alone.
"... 6, 7, 8," came the echoing voice of a brown haired girl who sat on a stool at the side of the room, playing a beat on a drum.
A second girl, this one dark haired with even darker eyes, stood in the centre of the room in a posture that looked as if she were about to start dancing.
"Sorry," Lucia murmured, walking around the edge of the room to a spot on the other side, where she pulled off her hoodie and began unlacing her trainers - she planned to dance barefoot as she had no dancing shoes.
The ballroom was huge - hopefully the girls wouldn't mind her coming to dance.

As Lyra started the beat on the drum and waited for Carolyn to get used to it and dance, her attention was drawn by another girl who came in quietly, apologizing for intruding. Her hands still flying on the drum, not stopping, the Ravenclaw turned to the new girl, flashing a quick smile that showed off her dimples. "No, not at all! This room is big enough for all of us." Seeing the girl's bare feet, Lyra asked "What style were you going to dance?" Remembering her manners, the first-year introduced herself. "I'm Lyra, first-year Ravenclaw."

During this whole monologue, the brunette's hands had kept on playing, keeping the beat even in order to give Carolyn a steady accompaniment. "I hope we aren't bothering you." Lyra then stopped talking, wanting to give her roommate a chance to introduce herself to the new girl as well. Using her legs, the Ravenclaw moved the drum to face both Carolyn and the other girl, so as to not seem rude to anyone.

'I've never seen this girl around.' As she did with new acquaintances, her eyes swept over the girl, taking in her attire and what she could get from her personality. Her hair was a beautiful soft black, falling into a waterfall down her back, and her eyes were a deep blue, although lighter than Lyra's eyes. She seemed slightly off-putting since her skin was a very pale shade of white and her lips were blood-red. 'I don't think she's a vampire, not that I would care if she was. However she doesn't seem fully human, her traits are just a little unnatural for a human child. She is beautiful though. Maybe she could be a vampire or Veela. I've never seen either yet, although they aren't different from normal humans at all.' While carefully analyzing the girl, Lyra kept her face blank of emotion, not wanting to seem unkind or judging. 'I'll wait until she introduces herself. Plus, Ravenclaws are the house of open-mindedness, so I wouldn't care if she was one anyways. I'm sure she's really kind.'

Interacting with @Lucia Fox and @Carolyn Hunt

OOC: Welcome to this RP!

„I’m sure, you’ll do well enough,“ Carolyn smiled at her friend, who seemed quite nervous about her drum skills. It was fine truly. She appreciated anyone who at least tried, no matter how good they were. She wasn't perfect either and while she sometimes wished she was, it didn't mean she judged others as well. On the contrary, she was always very strict with herself whereas with others, she appreciated basically any even remotely interesting qualities.

After encouraging Lyra, she got in the position, prepared to start the dance, listening to the counting “5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 8". Eight was always the signal for her to start and so she did the same this time. The drums definitely helped her with the rhythm. Now, that’s better, she thought almost immediately. She was so focused on the steps that she didn’t even notice another girl coming in. It wasn’t until Lyra started to speak that she stopped moving and turned to face the newcomer. “Oh, hello,” she greeted her politely. “I’m Carolyn…also first-year Ravenclaw,” she introduced herself, hoping they weren’t bothering the girl.

To be perfectly honest, she was also very interested in whatever their fellow student came here to practice but she would leave her alone if that made her uncomfortable. After all, she herself did not always appreciate the attention.

Interacting with @Lyra Lake and @Carolyn Hunt

"No, not at all! This room is big enough for all of us," the girl at the drum told Lucia, and the latter smiled and nodded to her.
Lucia finished unlacing and taking off her shoes, the tune she was planning to dance to spinning joyfully around her head, and looked up.
"What style were you going to dance?" asked the girl at the drum, not breaking her steady beat. Lucia opened her mouth to answer, but the girl carried on, saying, "I'm Lyra, first-year Ravenclaw."
1, 2, 3, 4, called out a voice in Lucia's brain in time to the beat from the drum. 1, 2, 3, 4.
As Lyra moved her drum around with her legs, facing both Lucia and the dancing girl, the latter stopped in her dance and turned to Lucia.
“Oh, hello,” she said, “I’m Carolyn…also first-year Ravenclaw.”
"Hi," Lucia said. "I'm Lucia - I'm a first year too, although Hufflepuff."
She then told Carolyn, "You don't need to stop if you don't want to, just carry on as if I'm not here. Like Lyra said, this room is big enough for both of us."
As if to prove this, the Hufflepuff stood up and, sliding her shoes under the seat and placing her hoodie on top of it, made to do some stretches. She didn't always bother with these, but she got the impression that the other girls - Carolyn at least - had at least had dancing lessons, and she didn't want them to look down on her.
I may never have had lessons or done a grading, Lucia thought to herself, but I can dance all the same.
Then she remembered that Lyra had asked a question - the girl wanted to know what style of dance she was going to be doing.
"Sorry, Lyra, you asked what style I'm going to dance. Well," Lucia answered honestly, turning to face the girl, "I'm not really sure. I've never had lessons or anything like that," she admitted, "So I don't know. I just go where my feet take me."
Realising that that sounded extremely cheesy, Lucia blushed and turned to Carolyn, gesturing to her ballet costume. "You're doing ballet, right?"

As the girl introduced herself, she sat down to start stretching, and admitted to never having a dance lesson in her life. Lyra nodded, remembering that she had danced like Lucia before her father made her take lessons. In fact, the girl had been dancing hiphop on her own for years, and when she had been confronted with the idea of lessons, she adamantly refused, wanting to conserve her freedom in that domaine. However, her father insisted and Lyra eventually gave in, which was one of the best decisions of her life. She quickly fell in love with different styles and started choreographing dances herself to different songs she enjoyed and dance became a huge part of her life.

“Oh that’s cool. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t bother us at all.” Technically she was answering for Carolyn too, so the Ravenclaw shot her an apologetic glance, trying to convey that she just wanted to put Lucia at ease. “Sorry I asked, I just saw you barefoot and thought you were doing Horton, like what Carolyn’s doing now.” ‘Gosh, I answered for Carolyn again, I have to stop doing that.’ Lyra turned to Carolyn “Sorry about that.” she said before waiting for her roommate to answer.

Interacting with @Lucia Fox and @Carolyn Hunt

The young girl eventually introduced herself as Lucia from Hufflepuff and Carolyn realized she actually never properly talked to someone from that house. Then again, she didn’t have many friends to begin with so it wasn’t all that surprising. „Nice to meet you Lucia,“ she answered with a smile.

The question from Lyra went unanswered at first. The young Hufflepuff stared to get rid of her extra layers and Carolyn assumed she wasn’t interested in sharing. That’s okay, I don’t always feel like sharing either, she shrugged. Moments later though, Lucia perked up again as if remembering something. "Sorry, Lyra, you asked what style I'm going to dance. Well…I'm not really sure. I've never had lessons or anything like that so I don't know. I just go where my feet take me." Carolyn wasn’t sure why she looked so worried while saying those words. Dancing freely was also amazing, just because she enjoyed one dance style in particular didn’t mean more versatile dancers weren’t cool… quite the contrary. Carolyn wanted to say as much aloud but Lyra ended up being faster so she just nodded.

It was actually the second time her roommate did interrupted her but Carolyn didn’t mind too much. She would correct her if she said something wrong but she didn’t. Some other people might have been frustrated by such behavior but the dark haired witch was a very patient individual. It took a lot to make her angry or even remotely annoyed. “That’s okay,” she accepted her friend’s apology without any hesitation. She then turned to Lucia. “I think it’s amazing that you can just listen to music and create your own moves. You don’t need lectures to be a great dancer. All that matters is that you enjoy it,” she finally voiced out her opinion. It was an honest one too. “I do ballet, yes. For that one you obviously need guidance so you won’t get hurt but it’s not like it’s the best dance out there. That’s why I was just trying Horton as Lyra pointed out. I hardly ever try something new and honestly it’s a struggle every time I do but I enjoy doing it anyway. Quite frankly, you might even do a better job than me. Ballet made me a bit stiff when it comes to other dances,” she admitted. “Studying one dance for so long isn’t necessarily always the best thing to do. I’m happy to do so but that’s me. You have actually much more freedom in your movement than I do which sounds pretty fun to be honest.”

Interacting with @Carolyn Hunt and @Lyra Lake

Lucia was relieved that the girls didn't seem to look down on her due to her lack of lessons and experience within dance. She couldn't bear people who acted snobbily towards her - even though (though she had never realised this herself) she sometimes did exactly that. However, she had been mostly cured of that habit at Hogwarts though she still held a tendancy to look down on muggles.
In fact, the pair seemed to think better of her for it, which Carolyn explained.
"I'm sure I won't do better than you," Lucia said to Carolyn, "Like I said, I just make everything up as I go along."
Suddenly, a vision popped into her head of a group of freestyle dancers whom she had once seen in a parade at home. They wore costumes seemingly designed more to show off bare skin than hide it, and danced to rap music. Lucia Fox did most definitely not dance like that, and she quickly tried to explain this before Lyra and Carolyn got the wrong impression.
"I mean, I guess I keep a sort of style - it's a kind of mix between ballet and ballroom, I think. But really the only dances I could name on sight are ballet and tap. Ballet because of the costumes, and tap because of the noise the shoes make. I dance barefoot because I don't have any proper dancing shoes and trainers don't work very well, but it's fine."
Suddenly she realised that the girls might think that she was too poor to buy dancing shoes. Admittedly, Ebony Fox probably wouldn't have the money to be able to provide her daughter with lessons or an entire costume, but she would probably have enough for shoes, at least.

Lyra softly clapped as Carolyn finished her monologue, glad that her roommate had spoken up and especially that what she said was very true. Dance wasn't a class that you took, nor was it talent you were born with. It was just moving your body and having fun.

Lucia seemed relieved to not have stumbled on a pair of Ravenclaws who would judge her for her dance style. Lyra wanted to keep up that positive impression and quickly jumped in when the Hufflepuff approximately described her dancing style. "Ballet and ballroom are pretty cool. If you had the chance, would you choose to take dance?" The first-year asked. 'Could I teach you?' was what she really wanted to say, but that would be too straightforward and she did not want to pressure Lucia into anything, so this was probably the safest way to ask. "Also I have some spare ballet shoes you could borrow if you want to try them out, for fun."

If the girl had never been exposed to classes, regardless of her financial status, there was a low chance of her having ballet shoes, not that you needed any to dance. Lyra was simply offering because she thought it could be an interesting experience for Lucia.

Interacting with @Carolyn Hunt and @Lucia Fox