31 Mar 2022, 21:31
"So, are you going to the ball?"
IC Date: Monday, March 21, 2022
Walking from the Quidditch Training Pitch to the Hospital Wing
A smile spread across Eliza's face as he offered to show her his ball outfit. As he expected, she seemed to be an enthusiastic fashionista. Eliza was bound to give him many tips and suggestions as to how to style or restyle his outfit, so Avery was pleased and smiled in response. "Perfect! I'm sure I'll be the best-dressed boy at the ball after your help!" he exclaimed, relieved that he wouldn't be going to the ball looking like a chum.
Avery nodded as Eliza said that they didn't have houses at Durmstrang, but was incrementally more confused as she continued to explain that there was only a single castle. Just two towers, one for boys and one for girls? No extra buildings? She was really going off on a tangent, wasn't she? He was pretty sure he hadn't asked about the structural design of the Durmstrang campus, but maybe she was interested in architecture like she was in fashion? Avery wasn't quite sure what all that extra information had to do with houses, but then it occurred to him that Eliza thought he meant actual houses -- structurally. "Oh," he responded, eventually. "Actually, I didn't mean houses as in buildings. I meant houses as in..." he trailed off. Why in the world were Hogwarts' four houses called 'houses', anyway? He was a native English speaker, but did he even have a good explanation for someone who didn't understand English completely? "...as in student groups, like teams. At Hogwarts, students are separated into four different houses based on their characteristics and values, like how Gryffindor is the house of the brave. Then, the four houses compete against each other to earn points by being good students and good citizens in general. If that makes sense?" He wasn't quite sure if Eliza would understand, if this concept wasn't applied at Durmstrang. "Do students compete individually to get good grades so they can sleep higher on the tower?" he asked. That sounded like a lot of pressure, being ranked like that. "Wouldn't people be super cut-throat, though?" Instead of helping each other like housemates might do.
Eliza looked very disappointed after Avery asked about which year she was in, and then mentioned that he expected her to be older. But wait, wasn't being mature a compliment? Especially when it came to the Hexwizard Tournament, which Eliza seemed to care so much about. If Avery were in Eliza's shoes, he would love to seem older, more confident, more mature, and more knowledgeable, so he would likely get picked for the Hexwizard Tournament. Her disappointment was very confusing to him. "Well, I think it's great to seem older," he said hurriedly, hoping to explain himself to alleviate her disappointment. "That means you seem to have a better handle on things, and seem more confident and knowledgeable. That way, if anything goes wrong during the ball, you'd be able to protect yourself from harm and get out safely!" he laughed nervously, thinking about the Fall Ball fiascoes. He wondered if Eliza knew that the ball tent fell on happy dancers during a giant storm. Hopefully she didn't, because Avery was on the Fall Ball planning committee and the weather screw-up was mainly his fault, since he had optimistically convinced the committee that the terrifying storm was just a drizzle.
Anyways. He should've kept his mouth shut.
He was obviously much relieved when Eliza agreed to the Hospital Wing with him. She even seemed a little happier, for some reason. Her reaction indicated to Avery that she secretly felt that she needed to go to the Hospital Wing, despite saying that she was fine a moment ago. Perfect! He had been right about her injuring her head all along! She was merely waiting for him to suggest going there together, probably because she was too shy to ask him to go with her in the first place. "Alright, then," he said with a smile, leading the way back to the castle. "I'm so glad that you decided to come with me. You won't regret it." She was finally going to get her much-needed medical attention.
Soon enough, they reached a side door of the castle. He knew he had to make sure she didn't feel shy about going to the Hospital Wing the last second, and actually made it there safely. "After you," he made a theatrical flourish of his arm as he ushered her into the castle, and they headed down a corridor.
@Samatha Salwis as Elizaveta Mikhailov
Last edited by Avery Chen on 12 Apr 2022, 19:35, edited 1 time in total.
1 Apr 2022, 18:35
"So, are you going to the ball?"
|
|
|
|
What else could houses be if it was not building? Confused, Elizaveta looked at the boy as he tried to explain what he meant, nothing the boy said made any sense to her. Why would you call groups houses? She knew she wasn't the best at English, but didn't make any sense, she was sure everybody would agree with her. Why would a school separate students to make them compete with each other? Sure, winning was fun, but that also meant that there were 3 losers. Losing was horrible and Eliza liked to avoid it as much as possible. The other kids already thought she was a loser without her losing anything. When the boy asked if it made sense she answered "yes" even though it didn't make any sense to her.
On his next question, she again answered with a simple yes. It made way more sense to compete individually than in teams. In ballet, her favourite sport, it was the same, there were no teams but you still had to work together. Cut-throat? She looked shocked at the boy, she knew what the word cut meant and what the word throat meant, but had never heard the two words combined. Did the boy ask if they cut each other's throats? "What? No! We don't kill each other!" she said in shock, they weren't monsters. Avery kept assuming all these weird things, first, he thought Durmstrang students ate grass and now he thought they hurt each other just to sleep higher on the tower.
Her mom always complained that she looked so old, so Elizaveta never thought it was a good thing to look older. But what Avery explained made a lot of sense, who wouldn't want to seem more confident and knowledgeable? Most of all, Eliza was happy that he didn't think she was too old for the ball and a little smile appeared on her face, which only lasted a few seconds. When the boy talked about something going wrong at the ball the smile disappeared. Why would anything go wrong on the ball? She didn't want to have to protect herself from harm on a ball! "Why would anything go wrong?" she asked scared, ignoring his awkward laughter.
Avery said he was glad she decided to come with him and that only made her more confident about the fact that he would ask her to the ball with a huge banner and a rose. When he added that she wouldn't regret it, she knew there was no other way than that he would ask her to the ball soon. She had quietly followed him while making sure her hair looked good and there was no grass on her uniform. There was no way she would get asked to the ball with a banner and a beautiful rose if there was still grass on her uniform.
When they reached the castle he let her go inside first, like a real gentleman. "Thank you," she said sweetly while scanning the corridor she just stepped into. Maybe she would be able to see the banner before Avery would ask her to the ball. This corridor seemed empty, maybe his friends would be waiting in the next one? She couldn't do anything but follow Avery since she didn't know the way to the hospital wing and wait until he asked her to the ball. "Which way now?"
5 Apr 2022, 01:09
"So, are you going to the ball?"
Now that Eliza understood what 'houses' meant at Hogwarts, she answered his question about sorting at Durmstrang. So, it seemed that students competed individually in order to sleep on higher floors within their respective towers. When Avery asked if the competition was cut-throat, Eliza seemed shocked, responding with a resounding 'no!'. They don't kill each other? Well, that was a bit of an overstatement, he supposed. Did they come close to killing each other, then, instead of being just regular cut-throat? "Oh, wow," he managed to respond, not quite sure why she was thinking that he assumed Durmstrang students would kill each other -- perhaps their strong and combative reputation superseded them and some of the burly students were actually violent? "That still sounds like tough competition," he murmured in response, and didn't ask any further.
Her smile disappeared as Avery mentioned the fiascoes of the Fall Ball. He could've kicked himself for running his mouth where it didn't need to go, considering the now-worried look on her face. "Why would anything go wrong?" she asked him, venturing onwards. He nervously swept his fingers through his crow's nest of hair. "Well, uh," he began, not quite sure how to explain what happened without exposing himself as a culprit. "There was a really bad storm during the Fall Ball, and the large tent that stood over the ball got knocked over, falling on many students who were dancing and eating underneath. Some of them got hurt, so it was very unfortunate," he explained, hoping that it was enough to satisfy her curiosity and that she wouldn't ask more, lest he feel continuous guilt about what happened and maybe she would even figure out that he was part of the Committee.
Eliza was very sweet and polite. She flashed him a smile as he ushered her through the door into the castle. "This way," he responded, leading the way down the corridor to the right. "We'll go up a few flights of stairs, and then we'll be at our destination." They walked down a hallway with suits of armor glistening in the evening's golden hour, as the sun's orange glow hung lower in the horizon. "How do you like Hogwarts so far?" he asked as they reached a flight of stairs and began their ascent up the tiring flights. The stone steps were pretty steep, but he was sure that Eliza could handle it as he took them quickly in stride. Perhaps a little too quickly, and without stopping for a breath. His morning workout routine and continuous quidditch practice made him forget that others could get tired up these steps.
@Samatha Salwis as Elizaveta Mikhailov
7 Apr 2022, 08:10
"So, are you going to the ball?"
|
|
|
|
She was worried about what Avery had meant with his comment about the ball since she had no idea how balls could be dangerous. Eliza could see that he was nervous when he moved his hand through his hair and began talking. Shocked by the boy's story, she looked at him, wondering how in the world that could have happened. Did nobody have eyes to see what was going on with the weather? Why was the fall ball even outside in the first place? Wasn't that asking for trouble? In the summer you could surely have a party outside but in the fall it didn't seem so good of an idea, did it now?
Elizaveta hoped that the organizers had learned from their previous mistakes and nothing like that would happen at the upcoming ball. "Will this ball also be outside under a tent?" she asked worried for her safety. Sure, it was sad for the other kids that they got hurt, but her safety was her priority. As long as nothing bad happened on the next ball, she was fine with the other students who got hurt on the last ball. It wasn't like she could change anything about it anymore. And if something did go wrong Avery could protect her like a real hero, since he would be her ball date and he would need to protect her from anything bad.
Speaking about her being his date to the ball, when was he going to ask her? She quietly followed him, still looking for the banner but all she saw were the metal suits, which she didn't care about. Hoping one of Avery's friends was hiding behind one of the suits, she quickly peaked behind one, only to be disappointed by the empty space behind it. Her little exploration had caused her to fall a bit behind on Avery and she needed to hurry to catch up to the boy in his quidditch uniform.
She reached the boy just in time to hear him ask about her time at Hogwarts so far. Seriously, the boy asked so many questions, but never the right one! Trying to think of what to answer and having to walk up the stairs as fast as the boy did was pretty hard. Her ballet training helped her to be able to keep up with the boy, but he still went a bit too fast for her liking. Instead of asking him to slow down, she answered his last question. "It's okay," she lied to him. She didn't want to rub the boy the wrong way by telling him how awful her time at this stupid school had been, because he still needed to ask her to the ball. Luckily for her, she was a pretty good liar and the boy would probably have no idea she was lying.
10 Apr 2022, 19:20
"So, are you going to the ball?"
It seemed that Eliza was worried whether the chaos of the Fall Ball would transpire again. Avery could not suppress a sheepish smile as he answered the girl's questions. Certainly, he still felt guilty about what had happened last semester. It was the first time he ever planned an event, and it was a major, embarrassing screw-up. "No, I don't think the Blossom Ball will be under a tent this time," he responded slowly, simply based off of what he had heard from the rumors going around. "My roommate is actually a part of the ball committee. I think he might've learned a lesson or two from the last ball, so I heard it'll be in the Great Hall and in the Courtyard this time, not under a tent. I'm sure nothing will go wrong, so don't you worry," he added, hoping that he sounded optimistic and reassuring to the Durmstrang girl.
They went down the corridors quietly once they were inside the castle. Eliza seemed interested in looking around, as she was gazing everywhere, and even peering behind suits of armor. "Do you see anything interesting?" he asked her conversationally, and out of curiosity. "Usually there are lots of little surprises hidden around these corridors. There's so much you can do to explore in a castle like Hogwarts," he noted. "You just have to be curious and pay attention to the smallest details."
They went up the stairs quickly, and Avery was glad that Eliza kept pace with him. She definitely needed to get to the Hospital Wing ASAP after that horrible knock to her head. She answered his question about her time at Hogwarts with brevity, probably affected by her injury. "Oh, okay, I'm glad you liked your time at Hogwarts so far," he responded, not quite sure what else to say in response to her terse answer that provided no further detail. He was also not too skilled in reading others' emotions, so the fact that Eliza could be lying didn't even occur to him -- the boy who wore his emotions on his sleeve.
"Well, here we are!" he proclaimed, once they reached the Hospital Wing. He went through the doors, and talked to the nearest assistant. "Hello! The-the two just got into a little crash on the quidditch training pitch," he began to explain, probably exaggerating their accident a little, since they hadn't even made contact, whereas a 'crash' might've sounded like they did. But hey, it's always safer to tell a worse story when you're at the hospital, right? That's what Avery figured. You didn't want to arrive and downplay your injuries so they wouldn't know what to do with you. "I think you should take a look at Eliza first," he suggested, because her head injury was obviously a lot worse than his fake 'wrist' injury. "She got knocked over really badly when I was on my broom. I might've even hit her head, so I feel really bad," he explained, just so that the assistant would have a body part to focus on without blatantly saying that he thought she had a concussion because she was acting strange.
@Samatha Salwis as Elizaveta Mikhailov
11 Apr 2022, 21:31
"So, are you going to the ball?"
|
|
|
|
Elizaveta was extremely glad to hear that this ball wouldn't be held under a tent, since her ball needed to be perfect and she couldn't afford any problems. It sounded like Avery had lots of connections, which made him an even better ball date. The only bad thing about him was that he was so slow, how long would it take before he would ask her to the ball?
When Avery talked about little surprises hidden around the corridors, a little twinkle appeared in her eyes, as she believed he was talking about him asking her to the ball. Honestly, what else could these little surprises be? Nothing, right? He would ask her to the ball very soon, she just knew it. Paying attention to the smallest details, she could do that! Now determined to pay attention to every little detail, she nodded as her eyes scanned every inch of her surroundings, maybe Avery had placed down little clues all over the castle which she had to find and when she found everything he would ask her to the ball.
Disappointed that they had reached the hospital wing without Avery asking her to the ball, she followed the boy, who was now talking about their little crash. She didn't think it was that bad, but she didn't say anything and just quietly while leaving the talking to Avery. When he told the assistant they should have a look at her first, she was a tad confused. She was fine, he was the one who wanted to go to the hospital wing. According to herself, her head was fine and it didn't need to be checked by the assistant, but she was too nervous to say anything so she quietly followed the assistant to one of the beds. The assistant told her to sit on one of the beds, so that was what she did without saying anything back.
Confused about why Avery hadn't asked her to the ball yet, she let the assistant check her head. Maybe the boy needed to get some things first? Maybe he needed to warn his friends to get ready? Yes, that would make sense. After all, there was no way he could know she would have approached him at the quidditch pitch, did he now? He needed to go to his friends now and that's why he asked the assistant to check up on her, so he had the time to go to them. Yes, this made perfect sense. But why was he still here then? "Don't you need to go to your friends to make sure they are ready?" she asked him kindly, trying to gently remind him.
12 Apr 2022, 01:07
"So, are you going to the ball?"
As they walked towards the Hospital Wing, Eliza seemed extremely curious about her surroundings. The graceful girl peered here and there, taking in all the details of the corridors and stairwell around them, as if she were in her own world. Perhaps she was just a dreamy girl, Avery figured, but it was also likely that she had suffered an injury that caused her to behave so curiously. After all, Avery didn't know what Eliza was like, usually. Better to be safe than sorry, he figured, as he trudged onwards towards the Hospital Wing. She would get whatever help she needed, soon.
He breathed a sigh of relief as Eliza quietly followed the assistant for an examination. Luckily, she didn't seem offended by the way he described their accident and her possible injury. Nor did she make any excuses as to why she shouldn't be examined. He watched quietly as the assistant examined her, hoping that she didn't have a severe injury if she was indeed hurt somehow. He knew that he would feel absolutely guilty if he had caused her to have a concussion. Perhaps he shouldn't have flown so quickly around the field, assuming that nothing would get in his way after his team members had left.
"Don't you need to go to your friends to make sure they are ready?" Eliza asked him gently while the assistant was checking her for injuries. Avery was confused for a second. However, he glanced at the clock on the wall and a split second later, he realized he was late. "Oh my gosh, you're right!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand to his chest in surprise at how late he was. His friends had arranged a study group for this time, and it was his turn to bring them dinner from the dining hall so they could eat and prepare their group project at the same time. "Thank you so so much for reminding me, Eliza! I really got to go! Anyways, I hope you're healthy and uninjured, best of luck with your physical examination! See ya later!" With that, he gave her a quick wave, completely forgetting about his fake wrist injury, and rushed out of the Hospital Wing towards the Great Hall.
He was a worried mess about how late he was, and completely neglected to ask Eliza how she would've known about his group project meeting. The logic completely escaped his mind at this point, as he dashed down the stairs to the ground floor. However, he hoped that she was uninjured, and if she did have a concussion, hopefully she would recover quickly. She was a very nice girl, all in all.
Avery exits the thread.
@Samantha Salwis as Elizaveta Mikhailov
12 Apr 2022, 19:09
"So, are you going to the ball?"
|
|
|
|
At first Avery seemed to be confused and did not know what she was talking about, but luckily he soon realized what she meant, or at least that was what Elizaveta thought he did. After telling her she was right he thanked her and she smiled at him. She was happy to remind him to make sure he would ask her to the ball, it was no big deal to her. Understanding that he had to go, she nodded, still thinking he would ask her to the ball. He wished her luck and told her he would see her later, before rushing out of the hospital wing, leaving her alone with the assistant. The blonde watched the boy walk away, convinced he would come back for her in a couple of minutes.
The assistant continued to examine her, while Eliza impatiently waited for Avery to return. After being told that she was fine, the girl got up from the bed and wondered why her future ball date hadn't returned yet. It shouldn't take that long to get a banner and rose, right? Slowly, she walked to one of the chairs in the hospital wing and sat down. Still wanting to believe he would ask her to the ball, she started to make up excuses for why Avery hadn't come back yet. Maybe he needed to go to his dorm, where he had left his banner, before he could return to her and it was a long walk? Maybe one of his friends forgot to get a rose and Avery had to get one himself? Or maybe he was getting changed since he didn't want to ask her to be his date while wearing his dirty uniform?
After half an hour of waiting in the hospital wing for somebody who wouldn't come back, Eliza couldn't come up with any excuses anymore. One of the assistants approached her, asking why she was still there since they had already told her she was fine and could leave. "I am waiting for my friend to come back," she said quietly, looking down at her feet. In the nicest way possible, the assistant told Eliza that they didn't think her friend would come back, and the blonde's heart shattered. He had to come back, he had to ask her to the ball, he just had to. Not wanting to believe the words, she shook her head. "He will," she said almost crying. "I hope." Would he though? A little tear ran down Eliza's cheek as she realized he probably wouldn't and she still didn't have a date to the ball. He probably had never wanted to ask her to the ball, after all, who would want to go to the ball with her? She was the weird girl at home and here too, she was stupid for believing it would be any different at Hogwarts. Elizaveta quickly got up and cried quietly as she ran out of the hospital wing, knowing Avery wouldn't come back.
Thread left