Hogwarts Summer Camp Welcome BBQ

{ Interacting with: @Kateri Karr / @Caradoc Browne / @Gargott Dunaid }
{ Mentions: @Howard White }

The grumbling of her stomach woke her up. Serena had skipped breakfast in laziness earlier and... it was getting to lunch time. She needed something. Groaning, she managed to get herself out of bed and got dressed. Out of simple laziness, she opted to wear her Hufflepuff pride outfit. It was similar to the one she wore at the ball but with a few changes. Her bright yellow jumper was replaced by a tank top, which was far more suited to this weather. She did, however, shove the jumper into her bag, just in case she needed it later. This was London after all, the weather could turn at any moment - without notice! Donning a pair of black shorts this time, she got dressed and made her way over to the BBQ.

It took at least fifteen minutes longer than it should have because... well, she got lost. Serena literally just walked around for a while until she eventually started to hear something and followed the noise. The smell of food started to reach her, causing her to grin.

Approaching the BBQ, she looked around. Her eyes landed on the familiar face of one Howard White. She recalled his behaviour back in the Great Hall not too many weeks prior, causing a sigh to escape her. A frown appeared. Is that... raw? She blinked as she wondered what he was eating. Serena must have stared at him for at least thirty seconds, starting to get overwhelmed by worry and concern. They had not really been in touch for a while but... she felt the overwhelming desire to just reach out and hug him and tell him that everything would be okay. Of course... she had no idea if she would believe her own words. Clutching her fist together, slightly irritated with the whole thing, she nodded to herself as she affirmed her own decision.

A few of her other friends were there - she recognised Amadea immediately. But... Howard was her priority right now. Grabbing some things onto a plate quickly, she made her way over to the professors that were grilling, "Good morning! Wait... Afternoon? No, morn- Shoot- Good day!" Serena settled on, deciding she had no idea if it was even noon yet or not... Man, without a routine and classes to get up for, time was hard to track. Hiding her cringe, as she scratched the back of her head awkwardly, Serena just held up a plate towards the professors. She did not really know one of them [GARGOTT] but one was her Head of House and the other her Astronomy professor. Admittedly, astronomy was not her forte but she, at the very least, recognised the professor.

She grinned at them happily, "Sorry to disturb you but would you please be able to cook this for me please? And uh, also one of whatever Howard's eating, please?" She asked, as she pointed to the burger patty that he was picking at. She assumed it was a beef one but... she had no idea. However, she should offer him a cooked version of it. That was pretty much all she knew. Hopefully the professors would be able to cook it up for her. Offering her own plate up, she handed over a vegetarian patty and another plate with the one that she suspected Howard was eating based on the colour and how similar it looked - but admittedly, she was looking from a distance, "I think... it's this one?" In her awkwardness, she underestimated how many times she said the word 'please' there.

Scarlett was a bit late - sure - but better late than never. Lucia and her had quickly packed their belongings in the tent of four, and Scarlett had stayed behind, generally getting the lay of the land before heading to the barbecue. It was lucky she was hungry, because otherwise the barbecue might've been missed in favour of Capture the Base.

Scarlett skipped into the open space where plenty was going on already, which wasn't a surprise. It was all she assumed with inter-school meetings; handsome Durmstrang boys flirting with Hogwarts girls, Ilvermony students mingling and chatting with American accents ('flashlight' 'closet' and 'pants' were a few of the American terms Scarlett found most endearing'). She was in a simple white shirt, a checked red and black jacket and shorts, though the jacket might have to go in the heat.

She immediately went to where the food was, but made a mental note to head for drinks later. Scarlett wondered if they had any Butterbear - she remembered all too well at the Gryffindor end-of-year party, where everyone was getting a bit too tipsy for eleven-year-olds. Not the best memory looking back, but they were indeed fun times.

Scarlett took a plate and started to add food to it - a burger patty, a bun and some sauces. Nearby, a boy in some knitted hat complained loudly, "Where's that pizza at? It's not a real BBQ without some pizza on the side."

She scoffed. "Pizza isn't really a barbecue thing."

Nell wasn't the type to attend large feasts or meals at any rate. She mostly didn't go to them for three reasons: A) People. No explanation needed. B) She was a strict vegetarian, and many places didn't have the food to accommodate her. C) She never really ate much, anyways. However, tonight might be a bit different. The aroma of the various foods pulled Nell out of the tent and away from her book (a very difficult thing to achieve), and she wasn't the least bit disappointed in the options. There was so much food. An array of vegetables, meats, and anything you could think of lay on the tables in front of her. Nell overlooked the meat and made her way over to the vegetables. She gladly took a couple skewers and started putting vegetables on a plate. The first was mushrooms - Nell had an odd liking for mushrooms... Then she put onions - Nell could eat loads of the stuff. She continued adding an assortment of veggies to the plate until she was satisfied. Nell then went to a table where she arranged the colorful food onto the skewers. She put them in rainbow order because - why not? Nell took her two skewers and went over to Caradoc Brown as he was cooking the skewers for the students. As she waited, she quickly went over a grabbed a piece of bread. Nell had some obsession with bread... On that thought, she grabbed another piece. She also grabbed a cup of...lemonade? Anyway she went back over to retrieve her skewer of veggies.

The loud chattering and snickering coming from every corner of the area served as a past-time for the Hufflepuff who played it innocently as if he was lonely and cut off from society; whereas the majority of the fellow students chattered and enjoy common conversation, the boy preferred to carefully listen to whispers and juicy gossip, it sure did serve as a social building activity for sure. He still wasn’t over the fact that he had heard someone whisper to their friend about how they had hidden some really explosive stuff to set it off at night. He managed to gain off a couple of sickles from the Gryffindors to shut Euph up - agreeing to not have him be one of their possible victims.

That was before he sat on one of the many benches and gluttonously shoved in food inside his mouth. His lime eyes stirring from one side to the other. The crackling fire was a foot or two away. The liquids oozing from the bun - tomatoes and the meat itself - linkered down his wrist and soon found their way down throbbing on his elbow rather disgustingly. The colour wasn’t particularly appealing either, but Euphaustus couldn’t care less about his manners or appearance. All he could think of at that very moment was the fulfilling taste of what he was so gallantly eating.

This planning of sorts; events, was rather spontaneous. Before anything was announced he thought he’d be spending the rest of the warm exhausting day back home. It didn’t sound so dull until he learned that his cousins would be staying over for three weeks or so. They were far more disgusting than him and this camp was not just a getaway from simple muggle life but also an entirely different adventure he wanted to experience. As long as he had his belongings with him and total privacy from the peeking eyes of his relatives, the boy was happy. These thoughts dwindled as his eyes twinkled while staring at the little lights hanging above his head. Nearly choking on his food as he had distracted himself.

Once he was done from eating, he wiped his hands roughly clean and nudged the edge of the surface he was occupying with his elbows to slick it off. The stickiness stayed there but he soon rubbed that against the side of his shirt where his hipbones supported the light clothing he wore.

The smoky waves of the fire were rather aesthetically pleasing to look at and so he felt like he just had to stare until he got bored. There were so many students he couldn’t distinguish who was who or try to recognize some of his (small group) of friends. Feeling rather left out and dull, the boy instinctively kept himself some company and started talking to himself like he was straight up having a conversation with somebody else, like any normal being would do.

Perhaps they were uh… invisible?

“Fire’s pretty warm, right? Never lit a fire in the Summer, which makes sense but this is different. Oh, you too? Cool!”
Then he gasped like he had heard some tragic story of some sort.
“It was fire that got you? Yikes. Best stir clear - you don’t want it to attack you again!” He laughed, “I’m kidding.”

Interacting with@Scarlett Aden

Open interactions!

She scoffed. "Pizza isn't really a barbecue thing."

Hearing the voice disagreeing with the fact that pizza was the equivalent to liquid luck. But just as he was about to say something back, he immediately choked onto some rice as, of course, it went down the wrong pipe.

His eyes watered slightly before putting down his plate onto the table, gulping down the rice grains as it agitated his throat. Remi looked back at the person who said that, and it appeared to be this red-haired girl who was definitely taller than he was.

Hoarsely, he said, "Pizza can be eaten anywhere and at any event. It can be a funeral and you can have pizza there. Though, my parents say pizza is bad for the blood - Say muggles suffer from high-blood pressure and all that."

He cleared his throat again, his voice coming back, "And ever heard of barbecue pizza? I had some, it ain't too bad. Not crazy for it though."

Remi, who reached for his plastic cup of lemon-aid before drinking it a little. A couple of thoughts popped into his head as he might be talking a little too much. Tsk, but his parents would have him only talk to his sisters or something, not other people. Plus, he could learn a couple of things here especially the new things to understand with European witches and wizards.

"You a squib?" He said bluntly, he sipped again on his lemon colored drink at the girl as he gave a weak interest of a stare at the ginger. "Ain't too wrong with that. Kinda weird but it could be worse." Remi said, thinking of examples in his head if the girl would ask, he would state some in a lickty-split without a second thought.

Interacting with @Rafael D'Spacito
Permission Given to Place Him at the Event

It was the first event of the summer season. Ilvermorny had been invited to watch the match between Durmstrang and the Hufflepuff house at Hogwarts. Everett was, of course, one of the chosen students to go. Being one of the smartest in his class and incredibly polite and courteous to the staff made him a sure pick. Not that he was incredibly excited to go to London, his family had the wealth to travel whenever they wanted so this wasn’t exactly a special occasion since he had been before. What was exciting was the prospect of new students he had the opportunity to meet. A new pool of people to get to know for his own personal reasons and prospects.

There was one boy in particular he was looking out for. The Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain. Sure, they didn’t win enough to be in this match but the captain himself was noteworthy. Youngest captain right out of the gate at eleven in his first year. Anyone who even mildly paid attention to the Hogwarts quidditch matches knew about the Thunderbird. He only hoped that he could find him before any of the other swooning fans from Ilvermorny, he was quite the hot commodity from the whispers he heard among students.

Surprisingly, the opportunity came sooner than he thought. Gearing up for the BBQ food the captain was already situated in line. Sadly he was near the front of the line which meant Everett had to do the ever deplorable thing of cutting the line to be near the boy. Desperate times call for desperate measures. There was a girl behind him, quite adorable, but definitely not his type since she was, well, a girl. He sauntered up to her, a charming smile on his face. Gently taking her hand he laid a soft kiss on her knuckles. With her greeting, he could tell she was from the area at least whether from Durmstrang or Hogwarts he couldn’t tell. “My, my, aren't you a lovely sight to see. I hope you don’t mind me sneaking in here with you. I’m mighty hungry and I’ve actually been trying to track down this handsome devil of a quidditch captain.” Everett gently lowered the girl's hand as she agreed, a fluster on her face.

He turned to the captain that must’ve at least heard him, whether or not he fully captured his attention didn’t matter because he was going to capture it either way. He quickly grabbed two plates before the boy could grab one of his own, handing one to him. “Everett Brooks, Ilvermorny. Feel free to call me Rett. You’ve got quite the reputation across the pond. Luckily I’ve finally found you to see if that reputation is as true as they make it seem.” A cheeky grin was tossed Rafa’s way. As Everett looked down the line of food, an eyebrow raised in surprise. “I'm surprised at how well y'all pulled through with a barbecue. I was expecting whatever a London barbecue is, but this is... satisfactory.” As someone from the south, he knew what good barbecue was supposed to be, and this wasn't the worst.

Cute girl used to get close to Rafael is a nameless Hogwarts student.

His face lit up with a cheerful smile as he would settle to stand close by to his friend. As she spoke his gaze would drift over the variety of food and meats they had to offer and hummed slightly as his mind focused on the food. The smell of the already cooking foods over the campfire made his mouth water as he opted for Quesadilla filled with cheese and chicken that he would take from the buffet. On the side he would fill some cucumber salad and turn back to Santario to continue their conversation.

Her words made him chuckle and he nodded in agreement. "Yeah we really cannot let th-them win, but with Willow and Quinn on our t-team, the game is already half won!" he said within chuckles and gestured towards his shirt that he was already wearing in support for his school and the Hufflepuff team that would represent them during the big game against the Durmstrang students, He saw a lot of familiar faces around here, but also a lot of people that he had never seen before. "I'm glad to see your camera is still working as it is supposed t-to," he told her, remembering hearing that it had been destroyed in her fall during the blossom ball.

Quickly losing interest in that goblin like professor, he would specifically look around for people who stood out of the crowd and soon enough his gaze would linger on a boy, @Howard White, that he caught chatting with a girl. Interesting... Straightening his back he would finally get moving as he slowly approached the pair and if he caught their attention he would incline his head in greeting. For a few moments his gaze would linger on the dhampir's face, more specifically his eyes as he stared right in them before he would let his gaze lose focus and smile.

"You called?", he would ask with a lazy smirk playing on his lips, referring to the cursing from the dhampir, yet his tone seemed to lack the playfulness his words insinuated. "Nichlas. Nichlas Forsberg," he introduced himself, "You?" He asked the two of them. He wondered about the girl, was she a human? Hopefully not a muggle born... A possible human and a dhampir; at least he was quite sure that this was what the other kid was; red eyes, pale skin and well, he couldn't know about the other kids fangs since he has not seen him smile and from the looks of it, doubted that he would show a bright smile anytime soon. Not that it mattered much, dhampirs were like werewolves not much less than any wizard as long as they had magical parents; they were still wizard beings unlike muggles. From all the students he could see around so far the boy looked like one of the most approachable since he lacked that bubbly, goofy energy way too many kids seem to share here. Ella was one of the few bubbly people he could deal with for longer than necessary, but that was probably because they were siblings so she always had some kind of special treatment in his perspective.

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playing as johannes cyprian ambroży
interactions OPEN TO ALL | mentions@Anastasia Beckett [as Alexei], all
abilities charmer, foulplay | position kicked back on a random chair
text colour #4d5c7f | outfit ref here
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Ah, the appeal of summer.

Quite usually Johannes would spend his summer days in Frankfurt, Germany under the wing of his grandfather, tailing along in strategic meetings and running errands around the city as Alexander Manfred did what he needed to do in order to keep the self-made business working smoothly even with a young teen running around underfoot. That's how its been for every summer since Asriel hit of age to attend Durmstrang,

Unfortunately, it was clear from a first glance that none of his followers had bothered to attend the summer camp, as much as they had whispered amongst themselves about the game. Of course, if he had known that he was going to be taking the entire summer away from Frankfurt alone for the first time in literal years, perhaps he could have owled a few of them the news for a bit of fun. Not all of them, of course, for it seemed that a few of the newer kids were just a bit too enthusiastic to win his favour, and he was not going to be trying to reign in a ten-year-old hell-bent on proving literally nothing for an entire summer without help. But alas, Johannes took the entire trip from Durmstrang to Frankfurt expecting a few months of properness, spent a total of two (2) days dutifully following commands and quietly watching his grandfather worriedly read over letters sent from southern Germany by Anselm. The boy would not get any explanation except for a single unopened letter given to him the hour before his departure to London. His grandfather was needed for something, they needed both Saurs in stock to resolve something.

But we aren't here to talk about the ways of the less savoury. It's a summer of new acquaintances. That idea excited Johannes perhaps just a bit more than it should have- look okay, it was fun knowing that his reputation preceded him, but it got a bit old whenever he attempted to cross a hall to get to class and got lines of people rolling their eyes at him or when he passes his brother and immediately get nervous glances. This summer camp was a mostly blank slate. A place where he could make his own connections without his groupies tailing behind him or expectation pulling him down, foreign school or not.

He had arrived whole and tucked into a tent quietly with his things earlier, nothing to worry about. This all aside, let's bring us as the readers to the now. Our lovely Polish subject named Johannes, 13 and clad in black denim and red flannel leaving the tent he would call 'home' for the next few months and attempting to figure out where he was supposed to go for dinner. The salty scent of food permeated the air, trying it's very best to drown out the polluted air of London as it grew stronger the closer the Saur child got to a small hub of light and noise. What- Pausing in his tracks from where he was at the outskirts, the Durmstrang third year took a moment to take in the scenery laid out in front of him.

There were so many people- perhaps this wasn't the right place, it seemed more like a mini-town square than anything by this point- girls and boys of all types dressed what seemed to be the entire rainbow, talking amongst each other and heartily making the most of the night as it started. The first thing he noticed was the decorations, which was already a clear sign he had skipped out on where he was supposed to stay- Durmstrang events had a great deal more of drama to them, entire crowds clad in red and white. He wasn't quite sure what he had initially expected out of Hogwarts, but it certainly wasn't the quirkily flapped banana yellow umbrella tented benches set out to eat. Or the very blatant mark of territory that was the various house-coloured banners strung up in a wall of fabric. Okay, maybe he expected some sort of signal, but not the way that they did it.

There were more girls than guys at the gathering- so many pretty girls and attractive boys and wow, what kind of holy act did he commit to ascend his way to heaven? Scratch that, he found the problem, he found out why his brain short-circuited. In one word: gay. In two, 'gay panic'. And while his face held its usual resting up-to-no-good expression, his entire bleeding brain was screaming at him to keep his cool. Because you know, saving face was not only a skill drilled into him since the start of his apprenticeship, but it also made him standing alone near the outskirts wreathed in night even cooler than he felt.

God, he was such a mess. Damn it, get it together boy, it made a sloppy look if he slipped into visible pan panic. In an attempt to clear his increasingly chaotic brain, he made an impulse decision to brave the walk into the area and approach a random empty seat somewhere near the thickest part of the crowd, deliberately avoiding the gaze of any errant Durmstrang nameless who just happened to recognise him.

Unhindered in his little trip, he kicked back and wordlessly slipped into the classic class-clown-esque mask that made every new figure of authority look at him with scrutiny, one leg tucked in close under the chair and the other stuck out as he slouched comfortably into a strangely graceful lounge. His hands in his pockets and purposefully distressed denim, he was the picture of teenage rebellion- all he needed was some sharp eyeliner, but he couldn't have tried to snag any even if he tried under his grandfather's eye- the very picture of what his old-money pureblood etiquette lessons lectured not to do. The family crest upon his rings felt cold and unworthy upon such a filthily uncaring type, shiny silver hidden away from the world. It felt exceptionally strange to sit alone- quite usually he would have his lackeys messing around behind him, intent on causing trouble and winning favour. But at least Asriel had not been forced into the summer camp alongside him. Johannes did not know what he would have done if he had to spend the entire summer with his increasingly distant brother, forever in the shadow of a greater, more obedient child. Boring.

Amidst the small sea of strangers stood out only a small handful of semi-familiar, fellow Durm students that he'd probably shared a few classes before and seen before, but never interacted with- curses, this is what happened when he was content to stay in his own little corner. If he had someone along with him perhaps he could have been able to work up the courage to strike up a conversation if only to keep up his own reputation, or maybe he could have sent them up to do it for him. Peering under unruly curls turned copper in the backlit soft fairy lights, Johannes could only take a metaphorical step back and watch things unfold before him.

The baby Petrov seemed to be very popular with the girls- not very surprising considering the boy's reputation, and while Johannes had a good amount of bad reputation, it was for general mischief and not passive-aggressively attempting to woo every girl who laid their eyes on him, or so he'd heard the rumours say. Alexei was surrounded by a small circle of exceptionally pretty young women clad in swishy dresses in a move that made the Polish feel like the blonde had gotten all of the luck offered for the night, greeting each properly with a kiss to the hand and what was most likely a smooth sentence. A few other strangers were busy happily filling their plates with food and making their introductions from behind an optimistic outlook on the coming summer, lining up nicely to approach a giant barrel labelled 'barrelcue'.

Everywhere he focused on, there seemed to be a conversation- so much English, so many different accents. Move over America, this was the melting pot of Europe, it seemed.

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