Zykeal, Taylor, Anastasia, Paige and Aly Valentines closed

Zykeal had spent a while getting ready for this event, although he normally dressed like your typical skater-guy you'd see skipping class outside your normal highschool, he did at least take care of himself when the situation required him to do so. The boy didn't lie to himself though, he did enjoy looking sharp, and this is why he took meticulous care to make sure he at least looked presentable for whomever those in charge decided to stick him with. Hopefully, there would be at least some good conversation maintained between the two.

The Hodag Hollow boys seemed to be quite the catch though, most of his dormmates were also getting ready, dressing at various degrees gauged upon their own personalities. Pierre, AJ, Rafa, and himself were all attending the event it seemed. Maybe some jokes were said between the boys of the Hodag, some jesting and teasing alike. Although he was being cordial with the boys, he still did his best to look as good as possible for the evening. A nice suit, a sharp black two-button jacket that allowed for a more casual look that seemed to produce an easy-going personality. Accompanying the jacket was a clean white button-up that was in contrast with his jacket. It allowed more for the jackets slimming presence to stand out. With a typical pair of black slacks and nice pair of black strap-and-buckle dress shoes.

When it came time for him to make his way towards the Astronomy tower though, he honestly got a bit of shiver, the boy had no idea what he was thinking when he had signed up for this. There were people he was interested in, sure, but he wrote some snarky comment on the fill-in box to where it asked who one was interested in. Zykeal thought it'd be funny, after all, to just see where the administration thought he'd settle with the opposite sex. What he didn't expect though was the game that they decided to play with him this evening, he'd soon find out though.

As he slowly made his way up the steps of the tower, barely noticing the arranged decorations that lined it, he'd patted the inner-pocket of his jacket and made sure that his ivory-colored aspen wood wand was there; it was the one thing he never left behind, no matter the occasion. For now though, as he managed the last few steps of the tower, he'd let his hand raise and run his fingers through the slight mess of reddish-blonde hair, pushing it back a tad bit just to give it a nonchalant look towards it. Zykeal had a way of wanting to try and not look too overdone, but, just right. Maybe there would be someone new to catch his eye this evening? Zyk severely doubted this, after all, his reputation wasn't the best at the school and his last few 'relationships' had ended harshly, causing roomers to spread throughout his house's common room.

Shifting his way into the area designated for the event though, those golden irises of his scanned the classroom and almost felt sick at the amount of pink he saw. This should have been expected of him, but, for some reason, he felt that maybe the magical world did things a little differently for Valentines' day. Regardless, he'd continue his way through the Arch and a sign would catch his eye. Of course, his mind told him to scan it as if it'd mention nothing important at all, but, there were different items to choose from and he took care to look at the three different options. As the boy did not enjoy sweets at all and even though the color pink was not his favorite, he took care to take one that looked particularly beautiful from the bunch.

Looking down at the rose, he noticed the attachment upon it that seemed to shift for a moment before a number was visible upon it. This could only mean one thing to him and his eyes darted up to see the various number of picnic blankets that were set up for the students, accompanying them were the balloons, shaped like hearts with numbers on them clearly indicating the area that each student was designated to. This was actually wonderful magic, he surmised, as he had only to touch the rose for it to distinguish his identity and his place amongst the event.

As he took the rose with him in his left hand over towards his designated area, he'd unsheath his wand from the pocket of his jacket with his right and begin to meticulously rotate his cylindrical obsession throughout the fingers of his hand. Twisting it like a drumstick, letting it run through his hand smoothly and flawlessly; well-practiced. Although there were cushions for them to sit upon, he did note, there seemed to be a lot more cushions at his designated area than some of the others had. This seemed a bit odd to him and he wondered if this was going to be some sort of double-date scenario.

Instead of sitting, he'd stand on the opposite side of the blanketed area and wait patiently for the mystery date to arrive. For one, his mother would have beaten manners into him if he was so forward to sit without allowing his date to be comfortable before him. On the other hand, his mind was still wondering at the numerous, and uneven, amount of cushions that his blanket had. This is where the second-year would be positioned, facing towards the entry-way of the astronomy classroom and waiting for the mysterious date to arrive.

The Outfit for the Event: Valentines Suit
@Taylor Haywood - @Anastasia Beckett - @Paige Chase - @Aly Salinger

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OUTFIT:

Taylor had never really been too eager to meet new people but this Valentines event excited her greatly. The thought of being able to meet someone that she could live out story book fantasies with made her long greatly for it to already be time to go. There was still about an hour left until it was meant to start so she decided it would be a rather good time to put on her outfit. The deep red sweater complimented her light gold eye makeup nicely and she paired it with a skirt. Figuring she definitely would not be needing any school books, she switched out her big bag for a smaller and much cuter black bag.

Restlessly fidgeting with her thumbs, she glanced at the clock across from her and figured it was better to be early than late so she briskly walked out of the Ravenclaw commons and over to the astronomy tower. As she grew closer and closer, her nerves grew greater and greater. Like the day before a big test, except only worse because she wasn't good at "romantics" but she was rather good at test taking. The halls leading up the the door were lined in pink and red hearts. They were incredibly bright and a bit too cheerful but still nice to see. It reminded her of the many movies she had watched in her younger years. The main classroom was even more decorated than outside of it and she was surprised to see that there were already some people there. On a table there was roses, some bags of chocolates, and cupcakes. CUPCAKES! She ran over to the cupcakes and surveyed them to see which was the largest. Spying one in the back that seemed to be bigger than the rest, she picked it up to see a number appear on the previously blank label. Before she walked over to where the corresponding number was, she also grabbed a bag of chocolate and shoved them into her bag.

When she arrived to where she needed to be, she was surprised to already see someone there. It was a boy with blonde hair and he seemed to be standing, waiting for someone. He was wearing a suit which she was grateful for because she felt like she may have been over dressed but she was not. She wondered if she had come to the wrong number so she double checked her cupcake only to realize that she was, in fact, at the right place. Walking closer to the boy she took a deep breath, needing to calm herself before starting a conversation, something she hated doing. "Well um hello there. I'm uh I'm Taylor...and I think this is my number too." she told him with a small smile. She stared at the ground while saying this as she was unable to hold eye contact with anyone for over 2 seconds. The Ravenclaw then sat down on the blanket and patted next to herself, motioning him to sit.

@Zykeal Lane

Well, this was going to be fun.

At least, that's what Aly Salinger decided to herself on the long, arduous trek up the stairs to the classroom at the tip-top of the Astronomy tower, grinning wider and wider at the sight of every pretty paper heart that dangled from the ceiling above. Though Valentine's Day was usually supposed to be about romantic love, the little curly-haired Ravenclaw was only twelve, and hadn't even had her first real crush on anyone yet. As such, she had come to the event armed with a small grey crossbody bag full of pretty and freshly harvested white snowdrops (which had just begun to bloom around the Hogwarts grounds in the last week) and a plan to hand them out to anyone and everyone she would encounter at the event in the Astronomy Tower. After all, platonic love was just as important as romantic love, and Aly loved making friends!

Clad in a soft, warm sweater of a bright vermilion colour and a fluffy white skirt, Aly hummed to herself as she clambered up the last couple of steps into the Astronomy classroom, which had been lovingly decorated to be even more beautiful and welcoming than usual. Aly herself had never been the biggest fan of Astronomy class, often mixing up her planets and stars, but she always had to admit that the classroom's vibe was far more interesting than most of the other educational rooms at Hogwarts, beaten out only perhaps by the Ravenclaw common room. Today, however, heart garlands and floating hearts in all sorts of happy and warm reds and pinks covered nearly every square inch that Aly could see. She inched closer to a table that seemed to be the main attraction and peered at the sign.

"Please take one... you may take up to one of each if you would like," the petite brunette read aloud with an excited glimmer in her eye. "You don't think they mean the garlands, too? They're so beautiful..."

Then Aly realized there was no one about, and blushed pink with embarrassment.

Opting not to grab for the bag of sweets, since she didn't have any pockets in which to store them and her small purse was already full, Aly reached for one of the smaller pink roses, barely more than a bud, in the vase on the table and carefully snapped the stem off to form just a stub on the rose's base. Tucking this rose into her fluffy brown hair, just behind her right ear, Aly cautiously picked up one of the cupcakes as well. (After all, Cauldron Cakes were her favourite sweet, and these cupcakes did look very much like Cauldron Cakes!) After taking a moment to admire the ever-so-delicate pink rosette frosting, her keen emerald eyes noticed the number beginning to form on a small, otherwise blank sticker on the cupcake wrapper.

"My number," she whispered, her face breaking out in an exhilarated smile. "I can't wait to see who I got! Hopefully I'm not too late..."

In the adjacent room, bunches of picnic blankets and balloons had been set up to accommodate all of the many students who had signed up for the event; Aly carefully made her way through them, cheerfully murmuring "Excuse me!" and "Pardon me!" so as not to seem rude while she searched for the balloon that corresponded to the number on her cupcake. Finally, her gaze alighted on it across the room, and she hurried up to the blanket with her heart practically bursting... only to find it already full, with a boy standing on one side and a girl seated on one of the blanket's cushions.

Though the boy was unfamiliar to her, Aly instantly recognized the girl as Taylor, who was a second-string Beater on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, where Aly herself played first-string Keeper. The smile fading awkwardly from her face, Aly glanced from Taylor to the boy and back to Taylor, feeling more and more confused by the second. "Er, my cupcake says this is where I'm supposed to be," she offered up, showing them both the label on her cupcake. "But... er, I'm not crashing, am I? Oh dear, this is all so terribly awkward!" She cautiously rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand, waiting for someone to say... something.

@Zykeal Lane and @Taylor Haywood (and Anastasia and Paige of course!)

Aly's Details:

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Text Colour: #1155Cc
Outfit:

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(with curlier hair)

Word Count: 723

Stoically he stood there, watching as some others had entered the classroom, and then moved off towards other blanketed areas. Those golden hues of his caught some that he extremely hoped would not venture towards his numbered area, thankfully though, he was spared from the drama that would have caused this evening. Eventually, though, a girl he'd never had seen before, smaller in stature compared to the second-year girls he was more familiar with, thus he deduced that she was a firsty. This didn't bother him at all, he'd be interested to see how this ones experience with the school thus far had been going.

When she approached, he'd stop the rotation of the wand within his hand and settle his arm straight down along his side, letting the tip of the ivory-white wand be pointed towards the ground. As she introduced herself, he offered a friendly, but, small smile and let it be accompanied by a little nod, "Hello Taylor, I'm Zykeal," he offered, then added, "pleasure to meet you," he finished. Those eyes of his appraised her for a moment, unconcerned and slightly abrupt, looking at her attire for the evening and coming to a thought that it seemed nicely appropriate for the night. As he noticed though, she had a cupcake in her hand and this caused him a slight unease as he hoped she didn't want to give it to him, he detested sweets and they always seemed to hurt his stomach.

As she settled down and pat the seat next to her, which he found quite forward, he'd notice out of the corner of his eye that another individual was walking towards the two. The sudden thought of the other seats upon the blanket came to mind and the suspicion was growing that he was not going to have such an easy night after all. Looking down at Taylor, as he continued to stand there for a moment, he offered, "It seems it will not just be the two of us," he couldn't help but offer a small apologetic smile before shifting his form to wait for the next individual to arrive. Another girl was approaching and he watched as she timidly approached, checking her cupcake once again for confirmation, and he offered another small smile as she approached, welcoming her hopefully with his own confidence that he often emitted.

After she settled in front of them, as he suspected she would, he waited as she spluttered out a few words in confusion and radiated embarrassment from her mannerisms. Keeping his shoulders square and the smile upon his features, he just shook his head and offered a slight laugh, "Oh, it's okay, I think we might have a group here to make things easier for first impressions," he deduced, hoping for the love of Merlin that this was true and inwardly dreading if it was not, "I'm Zykeal, it seems you might know Taylor here?" he smiled as he shifted to the side so that he could point his wand over towards the seat that was next to Taylor, the one that she had patted for him to sit, "Shall we sit?" he questioned, hopefully, she would join them and then another boy would come and ease the tension in the group.

As he was turned, he didn't see the third girl approaching the group. This nearly blindsided Zykeal, but, his peripheral vision caught the figure approaching and he turned his head, forcing a smile upon his features once more as he looked upon the figure of another individual. A girl. This was going to be one hell of a night, he surmised. Holding a sigh within, he straightened once more as the newest girl approached and offered a little nod as he did with the others, smile holding steady as she waved to the group and offered a few words of greetings. Once again, the boy repeated his own greeting, "Zykeal," he offered, not as many words this time to accompany his introduction at first, but, he tried to add a little more, "it's a pleasure, please join us," and he turned to the side and motioned towards the empty seats upon the blanket, noticing how many there actually were for the second time.

If this turned out how he expected, there would be one more guest eventually arriving. A boy, hopefully. Instead of waiting for the next guest though, as he figured it'd be a boy, he'd go ahead and move around the area of the blanket to the opposite side of where the girls might be sitting. There, he'd wait for the girls to be seated before he'd take his own seat. Whenever they did, or, did whatever they wanted, he'd settle himself down nicely, making sure that he didn't wrinkle his attire and unbuttoning the single button he had upon his jacket so it wasn't cramped against his sitting posture. Letting his jacket hang open, he'd sheath his wand inside the pocket of his suit jacket and look upon the three girls that were there, "It seems there will be another guest," he said, nodding his head over towards the number of cushions the blanket held, "Let's make the best of this, ya?" he smiled towards the group and let his arms shift out to the sides, laying his palms upon the ground.

Two of the girls' had still yet to introduce themselves and he looked to each of them, "I'd just met Taylor here," his hand motioned softly over towards the first girl that had arrived, "when we were pleasantly surprised by additional guests," he continued, "I didn't catch your names though," and he looked eat each in turn once again, "I don't often display my house and year when first meeting people, but, as this is a group..." he'd sigh a little and continue, "As I said, I'm Zykeal, a second-year in Gryffindor," he finished, waiting to see if the others would placate his line of conversation at the moment. This being a group, the conversation amongst them all would have to be more broad than personal, it'd seem. He'd do his best though, to manage the situation, and wait for the final guest to arrive.

The Outfit for the Event: Valentines Suit
@Taylor Haywood - @Anastasia Beckett - @Paige Chase - @Aly Salinger

Aly was still rubbing awkwardly at the back of her neck by the time a third girl showed up, with the same number on her rose and chocolates as was on Aly's cupcake wrapper. As if this could get any more confusing! she thought, double-checking the number on her cupcake just to triple-check that she was in fact at the correct balloon and blanket. After all, she'd signed up for this expecting to make a friend, but just one.

Good thing she'd brought more flowers than necessary.

Pushing past the awkwardness, Aly stepped forward with a bright, cheerful smile and plopped down on one of the empty cushions atop the numbered blanket. She did so rather clumsily, but Aly had never been graceful; it was part of her charm. Folding her legs underneath her, as was the proper way to sit in a skirt, the petite pureblood glanced at the other two sitting folk, and then at the girl who was still standing. Zykeal, the boy with the distinctly Irish accent had said? What a unique name. Aly had certainly never heard anything the likes of it before.

Plus, next to him, she was beginning to feel just a little underdressed. Her scarlet sweater and soft, fuzzy skirt were pretty, for sure, but the golden-haired Gryffindor boy was in a full black-and-white suit with a dark vest of sorts, a collared white shirt that appeared to have been pressed, and even a little white handkerchief in his black jacket. What an ensemble! Aly thought, glancing around at Taylor's pretty burgundy sweater and plaid skirt, and then at the third girl's pink sweater, dark pants, and bevy of accessories. At least neither of the other girls had gone inordinately fancy, which made the Ravenclaw second-year feel just a bit better. Her grin widened.

"Zykeal and Taylor," she repeated back, just to make sure that she had the names right, even though she already sort of knew Taylor. "Pleasure to meet you!" Aly added a little wave with one hand before continuing, "My name's Alyssa- Alyssa Salinger, Ravenclaw second-year- but you can call me Aly, everyone does." Then she turned to Taylor, gesturing towards her. "We're on the Quidditch team together, if I remember right! You're, er, a Beater, right? Second string? I'm the first-string Keeper! I think I've seen you at practices..."

Before either of them, or the standing girl, could respond, Aly remembered the snowdrops in her purse. Hoping to Merlin that they hadn't been crushed, she dove into her bag, pulling out three small bouquets of the naturally drooping, partially-bloomed white flowers. Luckily, none of them had been crushed, and the Ravenclaw had had the clarity of mind the previous night to tie a few bouquets of them together with tiny white ribbons. She handed two of the small bunches of snowdrops to Zykeal and Taylor, one each, respectively, and then since the third girl was still standing, placed the third bouquet on the cushion that she hoped the other girl would soon sit on.

"I always think that flowers brighten up a day, even one that's already so lovely, like Valentine's Day," the quirky, curly-haired girl quipped to the members of her little group. Aly's smile was even wider now, if that was even possible; giving out flowers to anyone and everyone in her classes and even to strangers in the corridors of Hogwarts had become one of her favourite pastimes over the past two years, and she was beginning to become known for it. Not that she was doing it for the notoriety- just for the smiles, and for the flowers, of course! "Had I known that they'd be giving us roses, I might not have bothered!" (Lie. She knew she would've anyway.) "But... well, I thought you might enjoy these, so here you all go! Just for you."

Aly turned to the standing girl, gesturing to the cushion on which the third bouquet of snowdrops sat peacefully. She didn't want anyone to feel left out, after all, even if this group of four was... more chaotic than she'd hoped. "And those are for you! What's your name?"

@Zykeal Lane, @Taylor Haywood, @Paige Chase

Aly's Details:

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Text Colour: #1155Cc
Outfit:

Reducio

(with curlier hair)

The Snowdrops:

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Word Count: 691