BlossomFest Blossom Ball 2018

Arceus clumsily walked into the giant hall, taken aback by the countless chandeliers hanging over his head, the room was well set up and it seemed like a lot of people had already arrived and were starting to make little groups and talk, he being himself didn't even invite anyone and barely even knew anyone who had come yet, he even had to call his mum and ask her to send his a tux by owl and took around 5 minutes to do his hair before he came which is the most time he had ever spent making it. As his eyes quickly scanned the room though they landed on some familiar, and beautiful grey hair with a few pastel coloured roses placed on it. He took a deep breath in, she seemed to be talking to someone and it would be rude to interrupt but he would feel awkward just standing it the doorway so he gathered his courage and walked over to her.

As he continued walking towards her swerving around the groups of kids he kept thinking about what he should say, did she invite anyone? He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable, they've only met three times and even though they had quite an adventure he wasn't sure if she would like him to go over and say hi or if she would just feel awkward, he was almost having a small panic attack as he reached her. "H-hey Lucy" Stuttering! Why was he stuttering! She was his friend why did he feel so awkward, he glanced at the other girl, he didn't recognise her but she also did look nice. Looking back at his friend he gave her a small smile, "You look really nice" he told her his eyes glistening as he stared at her.

His tux and hair:

Addressing Dorothy Do

"Hi there." A voice said, and Rosie opened her eyes from being lost in her own thoughts to be greeted by an unfamiliar face. Well, slightly familiar, she supposed. Rosie remembered catching a glance of her at the Hufflepuff common room from their many small hangouts there at night, the girl was one of the kids who joined them. But that didn't change the fact Rosie still didn't know her name.

After she introduced herself as Dorothy, the girl started going on about how Rosie looked, and if someone ruined the ball for her. She couldn't help but giggle a bit, smiling a little.

"Do you want to get 'im? I can help. Or. If you want.. We could get all of them. I'm itching for some real fun!" Dorothy proclaimed, a smile that just screamed trouble on her face.

Rosie laughed and shook her head again, sitting up straight to address Dorothy. "Oh, nono! Nobody ruined it for me." Anatole's lack of reply had gotten her a bit down, but it certainly didn't ruin the whole ball for her. She didn't need a guy to have fun. "I've just had a bit of an odd week, and I'm just tired. All my friends seem to have dates or something," she sighed, shrugging, "It is what it is, yeah?"

Okay, to be honest, she was still a little upset. But the boy had his own mind! He could whatever he wanted, he wasn't Rosie's to control. But Dorothy provided nice company for the time being. She felt her heart flutter as excitement in her increased finally.

As Aravis had finished talking to Alexander she looked up to see Eri walking over. Ami was there as well, only she had no intentions of following Eri. Aravis smiled towards Ami, maybe she could fix most of what happened when they first met by being nicer to her. Eri came over asking if she could sit with Ara. 

"Oh hi Eri! Of course I don't mind.  I've been meaning to say hi to you but I was busy hiding out in the introvert corner it seems." The black hair girl stated with a small laugh at the end. If Aravis wasn't direct center of attention then she could be found in the corner or against a wall avoiding it. 

Aravis sighed in her head. Maybe she was just too chicken to actually talk to anyone else. She made a list of things to do before the ball was over. 1. Apologize to Ami. 2. Actually say hi to Adam or any other friends. 3. Look for her brother if he was even there. And finally 4. Talk to Odette and possibly introduce her to people. 

Aravis smiled proud of her list. Four things wouldn't be so hard. She could get 3 of them done at the same time. She could walk around talking to Odette while looking for the ''Majestic LuLu' as she called her brother and then introduce Odette to Adam. All she had left to do was apologize to Ami.

Rosie grinned when Howie didn't pull his hand away. She was surprised at how natural it felt to hold his hand. She was.. happy right now.

“Don’t be silly Rosie, I’d never not want to know you. Never had a friend like you before. Didn’t exactly fit it back home, ya see. And don’t you worry about all these other people, they’re just going to be jealous of our superior dancing skills.”

She laughed and met his eyes. "I've never had a friend like you before either, Howie. My mum didn't like very many people, so no one was ever allowed to visit. Everyone thought I was.." she paused, "odd." She didn't mind it now though. She seemed to have found where she did belong.

When Howie placed his hand on the small of her back, her heart seemed to skip a beat. She wasn't accustomed to being this close physically with a boy. She was blushing again now, but she wasn't acting shy anymore. She didn't shy away from holding his hand or dancing with him.

As she looked into his eyes, she couldn't help but grin just as big as he did. Tonight was the most magic she had experienced since she had been at Hogwarts. She felt like she was a princess from a fairy tale. Suddenly, she felt funny, but not in a bad way. She had butterflies in her belly. Was this what a crush felt like?

Charles was not expecting to be invited to the formal ball. Nor was he expecting the person who asked him was the very person he had an argument within the study hall. No, it was not expecting any of that at all. He could not wrap his head around what she was trying to achieve. Still, he was going to go not in any formal attire but his school clothing as he doubted he would be staying at such an awful place for long. So he made his way to the formal ball location and into the ball itself. He could see people dressed nicely equally between men and woman, He could care less about any of them as he walked past them. To him none of these students mattered to him, He did not care what they said to him but if they insulted him he would make a note of it. He could care less if he was the only one that was dressed in his school attire. He had no plans on staying long here in this forsaken ballroom/

He was lucky in a way he did not have a long struggle to find the girl that invited him. She told him in the letter where to meet. But what he was not expecting was to see another girl also there. It felt like a trap.. It felt like he was being set up.. But he had to believe the girl was not that cunning to do that to him. Or maybe she was and he would have some more respect for her. But after her defence of muggles and muggle borns he was not sure if he would ever have any respect for the girl. His rage soon returned as he walked towards her.

“ What do you want Aurelia and why have you brought me here to this forsaken ballroom. Do you think i care about such a pointless gathering of students? " His voice raising in anger and dark "Clearly, this is a waste of time designed by more than likely a muggle professor who was taught this was something that a school should have and had influenced the other professors to go along with it.” He was angry and he was not holding back “ then again if it was a blood traitor that would also explain it. Either way they are a bad influence on the school body for hosting this… pointless forsaken Formal ball “ He said as he clenched his hands hard not enough to draw blood but enough that it caused him pain. He looked at Aurelia and her friend and waited for them to respond. All the while he looked around him feeling disquest at the other students for even coming to the formal gathering when they should of been studying and doing other useful things with their time.

Verla walked back inside and bumped into another boy she didn't recognize. She'd never seen him before. She looked dead at him and immediatly fell in awe. She apologized and walked past him, hiding her cute red freckled face as she did. She went back to the punch bowl. When was Levi going to get here? She'd convinced herself that she talked to him enough about coming so that he might and it wasn't all worth it. She struggled as she tried to figure out what to do with her time. She took out her books from her school bag she always had with her, and begab to study by herself. This was a waste of time. Why did she even come? She had no idea. She really felt uncomfortable. She stood up with her nose in her book and walked to get some punch. When she did, she walked into the table and fell right into the red liquid. She began to cry, as she had bumped her nose which was now bleeding. She hoped no one noticed. Although her shrieks of fright from the sight of blood, her own blood, was bound to get almost the whole ballrooms attention.

[font=times new roman]𝓣he pastry in Katya's hands was delicious. She had never tasted anything with such a divine taste before, except for her mother's cooking, which was more than spectacular. She took another bite, moaning at the flavour, closing her eyes. She knew how to appreciate good baking, even if it made her look highly unladylike in the moment. She peeled back the waxy wrapper from the edge of the treat, bringing it up to her lips once more. Before she could delve into the goodness of it once she bit into it again, there was a tap on her shoulder.

𝓢he turned around to see the one and only Rhea Bishop standing next to her. Immediately, Katya put the pastry on the edge of the food table beside her and squealed, wrapping her arms around the gorgeous friend of her's. "Rhea!" She shouted excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet while she hugged the other girl. The black-haired Slytherin was a few inches shorter than the Gryffindor, but she made up for it in a remarkable amount of energy. She pulled away from the tight embrace, a brilliant grin widespread across her face.

𝓗er best friend looked like a masterpiece. Her dress was exquisite, as expected, and she simply looked so... vibrant. Katya felt as though she should have, perhaps, stuck out more, but she enjoyed the feeling of the cool emerald green fabric against her legs. Even though her legs were admittedly clad in a pair of ballet tights that she had brought to the school. She was comfortable in her small gold heels, and that was all that mattered. Or at least, that's all that should matter. Either way, the girl knew her parents would be proud of her for dressing up properly for the occasion.

"𝓗ow are you? I have not talk to you all year!" She mentioned, picking her pastry back up from the edge of the table. She didn't quite feel comfortable eating it anymore, so she took Rhea's hand in her free one, dragging her to to the garbage bin at the end of the table, throwing the pastry into it. "Sorry, did not want that." She stated, then turned back to her friend. Except this time, her eyes ended up going past Rhea, latching onto Fawley girl with that awfully weird boy from the lake. Seriously, who dressed like that? And to a ball, of all places? You'd think he'd been raised by an ogre in a swamp.

𝓠uickly excusing herself from her best friend's presence, Katerina elegantly made her way to the swamp boy - that was her new name for him now - and Fawley girl. A tight, close-lipped smile was settled on her lips, and she approached the two, placing her cool hand over Eris's shoulder. "Look at you! Beautiful!" She complimented the girl, looking at her dress. It was a fine mixture of blue and gold, and could only be from one of the best dressmakers in the world. Either her grandmother pulled through, or she borrowed it off of somebody. Katya's best guess was Rhea.

𝓗er amber eyes then flickered to the swamp boy, and she looked over his attire. Just as she had expected - unreasonable. She rolled her eyes, then looked back to Eris, furrowing her eyebrows together as she caught a hair out of place. She reached up - they were almost the same height, Katya being just a smidge taller - and tucked the piece of hair behind the girl's ear. "Come, we must sit and speak," She directed, reaching down to take the other girl's hand and leading her in the direction of a table, away from swamp boy.[/font]

Seeing the faces the two girls was making made Parcel realize one thing, to “complement their outfits” was not the right choice. Why wasn’t that the right choice? well, because when both girls make facial expressions as if they are drinking concentrated lemon juice, then something clearly had to be wrong. He couldn’t say he was all that good at reading facial cues, but even he knew that much!

This put him in a ratter awkward conundrum, because if he did something wrong, and they left, then they would be gone, and he would be safe from cooties for this time, and that would be good, because Parcel liked to be alive… alive was good. At the same time, if the girls left because he did something wrong, then the girls would think he was weird, and if they told others he was weird, then everyone would think he was weird, and being weird is bad, what kind of kid wanted to be weird, to be weird is lame, and to be lame is uncool, and uncool is the opposite of cool, and cool is what all kids wanted to be, right? This was simple logic!

"I didn't come with anyone I just came to be here and enjoy the ball."

Waking up from his own train of thought Parcel noticed that things might be taking a turn for the worse, because the girl speaking, Eri, was looking around as if about to leave.

"If you don't mind I think I might go talk to someone I just saw come through the door."

There it was!! Parcel was right, she was about to leave, or rather, now she was walking away. So, you could technically say that she had already left. This made things worse, because now there was only the two of them left, Parcel and Ami. His bulletproof plan of “three was too many to dance” was ruined, it was broken! And he had no plan B! If Ami asked him to dance then he would be toast, dead meat for sure!

Parcel saw Eri of with his eyes before turning his attention back at Ami. “Welp- that’s it, I’m dead” He could not see much hope for his future.

"My date is hotter than the sun... except we're not dating and we've both got a knack for sneaking out at night. So maybe she's brighter than the moon? I don't know how it would work. You figure it out, Brainiac Bludger."

“OH! thank Merlin’s suspender pants!” She had a date, she was taken, ergo, she had a dance partner. So, Parcel would live to see another day! This was wonderful news! His new objective was clear as day, all he would need to do was talk with Ami until her date was here, and then they would go and dace together while Parcel could stealthily sneak off into the night like a dementor after escaping inmates! Fast as his legs could carry him, out, out and away! Yes! This was great, if Ami left with her date later, then Parcel wouldn’t be seen as weird, it all started fitting together! “Wait- Did Ami say he or she? It has to be a ‘he’ right, can girls even go on dates with girls?” While it might look like Parcel is well-versed in the art of dating, the truth was that he had no idea how this stuff worked. And he already had trouble with boys and girls going on a date, so girl going with girl? That was yet another thing beyond him. And if he wasn’t mistaken then she had also said that they weren’t dating… but if they had asked each other to go then they were on a date, right? So then Parcel was probably still in the clear!

But she was clearly asking him a question, and to not look weird he would most likely have to answer it. So, while scratching his scar thoughtfully, he began to answer it to the best of his ability.

“Hmm. If I'm right then the moon reflects light from the sun, right? I’m not to good in astronomy but I think it went something like that. So, if that’s true and your date is brighter than the moon, then he’s beauty would be an imitation of the person he’s with, because the sun is always brighter than the moon. So, since you are the person he will be attending with, then that mean that you are a lot prettier then him, because he reflects your beauty as you shine as a sun!”

He had answered as good as he could! Feeling a little proud of his awesome answering abilities Parcel patted himself lightly on the chest. “Umm, that didn’t come off as me flirting with her, right? It wasn’t like she would take that as me thinking she is beautiful as a bright sun?” Oh no, what had he done? This might be bad, what if she walked off because she thought he was creepy! Or what if she thought he liked her! He was just answering her bloody questions! Might this all be a trick to make him say he liked girls or something!?
While lamenting in his own problems Parcel noticed the bruises on Ami’s arms as she took off her blazer. He really hoped that someone else had given her those, Parcel had gotten one bruise in the match himself, but that was one and it had almost faded completely already, Ami had definitively more than one.
Pointing at one of the bruises on her arm Parcel spoke.
“Oh, I really hope that wasn’t something I did! It looks a lot worse than the bruise I got”

Cel sighed in exasperation, shifting the scratchy and completely impractical skirts around in a futile attempt to find a better position. At least she could tuck a stiletto sheath in the back of one shoe and a bookmark down the other; the skirts were absolutely useless. Earlier she'd fought over simply borrowing the dress as opposed to taking it-- she was not certain why she had agreed to keep it, yet there she was... and to be fair, the owner had given her multiple reasons, all of which were admittedly veracious and unable to be disproven.

a) I have too many, and I have no idea how I'll bring them all back at the end of the year.
b) You're going to need a formal dress, both for the BlossomBall and for future events.
c) It's more likely for you to somehow kill the dress at the Ball than for you to return it to me in one piece at the end.

Which was completely true, though she could use that little piece of information to her advantage. Well, she told you that you're probably going to mess it up anyway, so it should be okay... but what if she's disappointed? Just do it... Indecision warred in her mind until her hand absentmindedly slid the needle knife out from the back of her gladiator sandals. A pause in uncertainty.



The girl sighed, then began sawing through the sheer fabric of her over-the-top skirts, careful not to rip or destroy the fabric. Perhaps you can sew it afterward, her mind ventured as the knife slid through the synthetic textile-- honestly not a good knife, quite the opposite, but it cut through the thin fabric well enough. "Probably going to regret this later," she murmured to herself, the words inaudible to anyone else.

And so, mere minutes later, Cel held a heap of dark sapphire fabric in her arms, silent footsteps landing in the back of the gigantic Ballroom. Blade, ball, heel, blade, ball, heel. The fox-gait, she called it, a silent step after a silent step. Somehow she managed to sidle out the door, deposit the neatly rolled fabric outside the door, pray to nothing in particular that nobody would steal it-- why would someone want to steal a pile of fabric?-- then dart back into her corner, all under the cover of the room's shadowed edges, where nobody seemed to wish to enter. Much, much better.  The skirts had been jaggedly cut to knee length, freeing up her leg space-- and personally, Cel thought the jagged, carelessly ripped-- oops-- cut looked a lot more... herself than the flowing loops from before. 



The belt came loose from its chokehold around her waist next, then the straps of her shoes loosened just enough for her to step out of them-- the stiletto blade was as good as gone, anyway, and the bookmark she pulled out to mark her place in the book. The comb, she removed then continued to attempt to take down the rose braid spiraling across the back of her head, but the stubborn knots and elastic bands were secured too tightly for her to bother any more, and she soon gave up, only succeeding in loosening it ever so slightly to give her less of a headache. Cel slid down the back of the wall again, arranging her legs into a more comfortable kneeling position, not wishing to find a chair.

For a while, she simply read, content to use the chatter of students, the harmony of music and whisper of rustling fabric as white noise, but she soon looked up as she spotted a familiar face--familiar, how quaint-- and looked up. No, not a familiar face-- two familiar faces, and a third she was sure she had seen somewhere before, likely just around the halls. Cel only watched as the owner of the bright flaming hair that had first attracted her attention was pulled away, leaving the bedraggled-looking boy standing alone.

A moment of indecision passed before Cel rose from her kneeling position-- her knee smarted, the forming bruise was now visible through the jaggedly higher cut of the skirt-- and stepped in the same silent walk toward Kaegen, doing her best to stay silent. It seemed to be an instinct: silence when she did not wish to attract attention, even if it was obvious that silence would do little.

As soon as she reached the table, she tipped her head down in a nod of recognition, finding that she did not wish to use her voice so soon after reading-- book fatigue, she liked to call it, even if no one else understood the significance. What a good book that was, though.

"Hi," Cel vocalized as she neared, intensely see-through-your-soul gaze pinned on the less-than-properly-dressed boy-- but who was she to judge who dressed properly or improperly? It was only a matter of respect toward the professors; otherwise, she would never have worn such complicated attire... and to appease her conscience about Parker. "Here for the food, I suppose?" she continued softly tipping her head at the food piled high on the tables and the greedy children's hands snatching at it. Honestly, there did not seem to be any other reason the strange boy would be present that Cel could logic out in her admittedly strange brain.

If he had actually wanted to attend for dancing-- extremely, extremely unlikely-- he would be dancing. Obviously, he had not done much research, if his attire was any indication, and he did not seem to be speaking to anyone about matters of importance-- Eris and his conversation seemed brief, abrupt, likely not enough time to exchange much more than greetings. Besides, if it was only Eris he wanted to speak to, he would be gone by now.

Eri smiled. At least someone was going talk to her. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy talking to Ami and Parcel she just wanted to talk with some other people she knew. Which at the moment was Aravis. 

"Thank you. And if this is the introvert corner than I should definitely be here." Eri said as she sat down next to Aravis. It was true that she had never made an effort to speak to her or her brother since they were nine, but they were considered as her friends. Hopefully they didn't mind that she hadn't talked to them since they were at Summerset Academy.

Eri laid her jacket on the back of her chair. "How are you liking Hogwarts? It's better than some other schools I have attended in my opinion." Eri said. That was very true. There are a lot of nice people at this school.

The brunette wiped a strand of hair out of her face. She looked around the room to see if there were any other people she knew. She saw Adam and made a mental note to go speak to him. She saw Charles and made a note to avoid him and she saw a couple other friendly faces.