Spinning Finished

Rosie was utterly shocked. She watched him laugh for a good few seconds before grabbing his robe, furrowing her eyebrows and bringing him closer. "I-Is that funny?" She asked, her grip getting tighter. "I-Is my grandma dying funny?" Rosie snapped, before letting go and wrapping the scarf around her neck again. She shoved past him and started to go to the exit, frustrated and angry. Why? Why did he start laughing? That wasn't funny.

Rosie muttered under her breath bitterly as she started to walk out, she felt her eyes sting and her stomach twist into a knot. That was a disgusting experience. Rosie had already met a few people that she got a bad vibe from. Laughing? Why the bloody heck was he laughing? What was there to laugh at? Rosie's sadness? Frick that, she thought. The Ballroom was supposed to be a good place, where her and Anatole danced for the first time. And it wasn't about to be ruined by some inconsiderate stranger, not again. It's not like the experience at the Grounds ruined the lake for Rosie, but it did destroy her mood for the rest of the day. But Rosie refused to let this one ruin her day today. So she was getting out of there before it got worse.

She grabbed his robe, angrily. That was anger. Clear, and obvious, and brutal. He seemed confused, staring at the girl as she left, no understanding what had happened. Not understanding why the confusing thing that had just happened had happened at all. It had been a misunderstanding, he had thought that the girl had purposefully let her grandmother be eaten by a ferocious beast, anyone could have made the same mistake. The girl stalked out of the room, obviously mad, extremely mad. There was really nothing Kaegen could say at this point in time. Nothing he could do that would change what he had said. What he said hadn't even been that bad, even if you didn't think it was a mistake. He had just asked innocent questions, nothing bad.
Kaegen wasn't feeling all too good about this, he had messed up bad, it hadn't been a joke and now that girl's day had been all but thrown into the garbage. As he watched her leave the young ravenclaw took out a piece of paper and a quill, and wrote down a message.
'sorry'
It wasn't enough, it wasn't really anything. But he still didn't really understand what he had done wrong. Wrapping the piece of paper around a rock he had in a pouch, Kaegen chucked the rock over the girl's shoulder. And then he ran in the other direction, found a pile of chairs that someone had put to the side, and slipped behind them. He would stay there until this blew over, then come out, and just steer clear of the easily angered girl.

As Rosie muttered bitterly under her breath whilst storming out, her tiny foot steps being heard from across the ballroom, she felt the rock hit her shoulder. She winced and turned around, opening her mouth to start yelling again but she stopped, seeing the paper. Rosie crouched down and gazed upon the rock, which seemed to have a paper wrapped around it. She picked it up and slowly unwrapped it, looking at the note.
sorry.
Rosie let out a small sigh. She was being harsh, that was for sure. Rosie took a small breath and stood back up, squinting to the little figure crouching behind the chairs. Was he... Trying to hide? He wasn't doing a very good job. Rosie walked over slowly and crawled under the chairs, sitting next to him. "Sorry I was mean to you, my Grandma's just a tough subject. I didn't mean to scare you." She explained, hugging her knees to her chest. Rosie was quite the apologetic one, sure it was his fault for pushing the subject, but Rosie wasn't an angry person, and she didn't wanna give off that reputation so early. Rosie gave off a strained smile, but it was clear she was still a little hurt from the experience.

Kaegen had no idea, none at all, what was going on. She had just been mad at him, had a rock saying sorry really made her come back? Why? He pondered what was going on in the other girl's brain as his eyes were busy searching for a way out, a way to escape. Anything, really. Why was her grandmother a touchy subject? Why did she care if her grandmother died? Everything died, didn't it? If it wasn't her fault, if there was nothing she could have done differently, then why was it tormenting her?
He was honestly not much better, but at least he knew it was stupid, he wouldn't get mad about it would he? No, probably not. It took a lot to get him mad. Why was the girl calling herself mean? For grabbing his shirt, was that mean? For being mad that he brought up a dead person? Was that mean? It was odd, sure, but mean? And last of all, she said that she hadn't meant to scare him. She hadn't scared the boy, it was the angry unknown, the unexplained and unpredictable. It was a powerful force, that was normally on Kaegen's side, but now it was on hers, and that scared him.
"I don't understand, she's dead, why is it touchy?"
His voice was the same as it was before, whispery and quiet and faraway. But his eyes were panicking, terrified of the unknown that seemed to swirl around this girl.

Adam led his companion into the great throes of Hogwarts' ballroom with confidence. He figured that Anatole had already been here before, but that just meant that he couldn't deny the room's beauty. It was amazing, even when not in use. Luckily for them, it turned out that the room was mostly empty, too. Adam was surprised to see his friend Kaegen standing with another girl that Adam didn't know, but he kind of hoped that Kaegen wouldn't pay any mind to him and Anatole. Adam wasn't in the mood for another confrontation today.

"So, what do you think?" he asked, facing Anatole and smirking. "I'd say it's a little better than a crowded greenhouse, wouldn't you?" Adam spread his arms to show off the decorations, the chandeliers hung from the high ceiling and the ornate walls and windows giving the ballroom a very medieval feel. It seemed like something that Anatole wouldn't be able to resist, mostly just because it was something that Adam loved, too. In the short time he had known the Gryffindor boy, Adam had realized that they were pretty similar. That might help him during this competition, but he'd have to be wary, too. For now, he basked in his reveal, showing it off to his rival and hoping that Anatole was just as awed as he had planned for.

He was weak, vulnerable, scared. And then appy came in. A stronger part of his mind recognized his weakness and dismissed it, but still treated it as fact. The fact that yes, he had messed up something with this girl, but also that there was nothing he could do about it. If you kill a chicken, you can't bring it back to life. You just have to make sure it doesn't die in the first place, which was the hard part. The impossible part. Eventually you always failed. Succeeding meant pushing off something inevitable, and that's what he was going to change. But he couldn't change it now, so the only thing to do was to get out of there as fast as possible. Kaegen clambered up the back of the stack of chairs, moving his signature fluidity, launching himself forward towards appy and the door. He hit the floor running, and at the last moment, as he was passing the other boy, gave a mighty push off with his legs and spun around, sliding past appy on his back across the waxed dance floor about a foot away from him with a hand on a knife handle. The slide hadn't really been on purpose, the hard floor had threatened to twist an ankle, causing him to push off hard with the other foot, and think on his feet. Sliding on your back past someone was about the stupidest thing you could possibly do, you were exposing yourself to potential attacks. As he slid past appy, he attempted to spin around, land on his feet and escape, but the sliding thing had slowed him down quite a bit.

Natasha entered the magnificent ballroom and stared in awe. She had passed it a couple times walking to her classes, but had never gone in. Truth is, she had always been afraid. A ballroom usually meant dancing, and dancing usually meant choosing a partner. Natasha hadn’t made many friends during her time at Hogwarts, so it would be awkward to just walk up to someone and ask them to dance. 

The room was truly a sight to behold. It was, it was like a winter wonderland. The walls surrounding her were a bright, sparkling blue. All the shine practically blinded her. She looked around to the rest of the large ballroom to see that she wasn’t alone. There was a girl talking to a Ravenclaw, and pair of boys coming in from another entrance. The students seemed minuscule compared to grandness of the room. 

Her friend had promised to meet her here. Ella was a Slytherin so Natasha hadn’t seen her in while. The Slytherin was usually extremely punctual. Hopefully she wasn’t blowing Natasha off. To wait for Ella, Natasha decided to go make some new friends. There were some Ravenclaws, which could possibly be a good conversation starter. She looked towards the boys that just arrived only to see the other Ravenclaw slide past them and out into the hallway. Natasha walked over to him and stared at him in confusion.

“Hey, uh, I’m Natasha. Are you alright?” she smiled at him, offering her hand to the boy on the floor.

Rosie winced as the boy shot up and tumbled over the chairs, sprinting to the exit. Was it something she said? Well. She did yell at him. Rosie stood up to follow him and noticed three new figures in the ballroom, one of which was her close friend Anatole, which brought her some relief. The other boy was someone she didn't recognize, but he seemed nice enough. Rosie scoped around for the boy she seemed to scare off, wanting to apologize and introduce herself before he left. Then he realized there was yet ANOTHER girl at his side. Great. She also seemed nice though, so Rosie jogged up to the pair, not remembering to greet Anatole and his friend.

"Sorry," she muttered as she came over. Rosie offered an apologetic smile to the boy, and then the unfamiliar girl that stood near him. It seemed Rosie was meeting a lot of new people on this... Rather unfortunate day. It had been a rough start, she just hoped she could turn it around. Rosie seemingly unintentionally ignored the two boys behind her, deciding she could talk to them later. Her priority was to make up with someone she yelled at. Because Rosie wasn't one to hold grudges. Unless it was Max Avery. He sucked.

Anatole's rush of confidence from his first entry to the "friendly competition" stayed with him as he was led down to the Ballroom. He had predicted this one, having been here plenty of times before to practice with Rosie. Anatole refused to call it gorgeous in front of Adam's face, since it would just make him seem like he had the better pick. "Hey, you wish. At least I have some freaking room to breathe in mine." His ego was still a little inflated as he tried to keep up with Adam's pace, rapid and firm, just like his personality.

As they opened the door, all he saw was flustered faces and just a slight bit of chaos. The madman from the Trophy Room was crawling around like a caterpillar over something simple that glinted in the light, another Ravenclaw was trying to help him up, and Rosie just stood there. Yes, she had a small grimace on her face with the surrounding discord. She was cute, and Anatole assumed that now would be the time for Adam to whisper a snide remark in his ear. Instead of walking towards the incoming duo, she decided to help out the ones in trouble.

How Rosie of her.

Anatole took a breath in, speaking his mind again like an idiot. His words couldn't form. "I've seen this room a million times, Harringtom. Don't act all impressed." His head turned over toward Rosie, the hair on his head flinging out and back in from the force. "And if I were you, I would hold your tongue on her, Blondie. It's getting old."

It was funny that Anatole would bring up the strange girl out of the blue. Adam hadn't paid her any attention, really, and he'd expected to mostly just be ignoring everyone in the ballroom for their little showdown, as they had in Professor Wright's greenhouse. Watching him stare over at her, Adam smiled. "Who, her? I didn't say a word about her. Why, something you don't want me to find out?" Laughing, he stepped back and spun in a circle, admiring the room's carved walls and elegant decoration. "If you've been here so often, Anatole, you should know just how awesome it really is. Don't act like this isn't a contender."

Frowning a little bit, Adam couldn't help but notice that his friend still seemed pretty hung up on the girl across the room. She was pretty, he guessed, but he didn't think that Anatole was really paying all that much attention to the prettiness of girls. Wasn't that something you weren't supposed to do when you were only eleven? Adam had decided that he wouldn't let himself start worrying about that stuff until he was Dean's age. It was just so much easier that way. Anatole, it seemed, had made no such promise. Sighing, Adam waited a second more to see if he'd snap out of it before walking back over to his friend. "Alright, since there's no one else here to do it for you, I guess I have to be that friend now." Trying not to laugh, Adam lowered his voice a little bit so that it sounded ridiculous, in the way that one does when one is imitating a teenage boy. "Dude, do you like, like her -- no. I can't do this." Returning to his normal voice, Adam shook his head to cleanse himself of whatever he'd just decided to do and asked again. "But seriously, do you think you like her?"