BlossomFest Blossom Ball 2018

Aravis noticed Odette against the wall in the corner. Against the wall in the corner alone. She assumed her cousin had no one to talk to. "Actually Eri, it was nice talking to you for a short bit. By no means am I meaning to leave to be rude it's just...my cousin looks like she doesn't have a friend in the world. I'll catch you later!" The tall girl said before running off towards her cousin. She was beginning to start her little to do list way earlier than she wanted. 

Aravis mentally updated her list. Instead of apologizing to Ami first that would have to be last. After all, lonely family was much more important than apologizing for a few wicked sneezes. Aravis skipped over towards her angsty blonde cousin filled with silence and...well...books and such. "Ello little lady, what are you doing out here all alone?" She said quoting a movie the two had watched over holiday with a smile. "No but seriously why aren't you talking to anyone? Did someone do something? I'll hex them for you." She said dropping the smile glaring at random people near by in case they had done anything. If someone had done something to Aravis's cousin they were in for a world of pain.

Odette was quickly becoming bored. This was starting to feel like any other ball she's been dragged to. Crossing her arms and huffing, she debates on whether she should just leave now. She could go play with her kitten, Po, or catch up on some much needed homework. Anything was better than realising that when you're standing by yourself in a crowded room, you're more alone than you thought you were.

But the young girl didn't want to have a pity party she just wanted to have someone to talk to. Sadly, everyone seemed to know each other and Odette only knew very few of them.

Just as Odette was about to leave, she saw her cousin, Aravis, coming her way. "Ello little lady, what are you doing out here all alone?" Aravis said when she made it over to the Ravenclaw girl. Odette gave a very unladylike snort and smiled. Before Odette could reply, Aravis spoke again. "No but seriously why aren't you talking to anyone? Did someone do something? I'll hex them for you." The Slytherin girl's smile fell away quickly as she began to glare at other students as if they had all done something.

"No one has done anything to me. I just kind of realised that I don't know very many people and everyone already seems to know each other," Odette shrugged. "I was actually just about to go back to my room and do some research or something. Or maybe play with Po."

“Maybe she should lay off the punch, too much sugar ya know?”

Rosie giggled in response. "Maybe." It hadn't been the content of Verla's monologue, but more the flurry of activity and the speed at which it occurred. As Rosie watched, Verla was already out the door of the ballroom. Rosie shook her head. Poor Verla. She couldn't imagine what the girl was going through.

Rosie didn't miss the color on Howie's cheeks. He apparently knew about as much as she did about all of this. She didn't mind it, though. Not knowing everything wasn't a bad thing. "I picked eating, you can pick if we sit or walk." Her mother had often told her she could be too bossy. It was likely from being the oldest child. Being the boss had just kind of came with the territory.

She fidgeted with her hands. They felt weird now- empty. She sighed softly, almost inaudibly, though with Howie's proximity, it was fully possible he could have heard it. She eyed the refreshment table with a grin. So many sweets. "Let's get our food first then we can figure it out." Looking around, there wasn't really that many quiet tables left. Most had people sitting at them. Socializing wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It really just depended on if Howie wanted the two of them to stay in their own little world. Either way, Rosie didn't mind.

James strode down the corridor towards the Ballroom. He walked and looked clean and confident, but he was a mess inside. He had been to so many dances before, in the Muggle world, but none that were magical inside of a castle. He tried to convince himself that that was why he felt so nervous... but that wasn't the reason at all. Not so deep down, he knew that the real reason he was fighting his sweat was because this was the first dance that he had to ask someone out to. And it wasn't just any someone, it was Marissa. Still, a part of his mind lingered on Ebony, but he tried not to think about it too much... all of this BlossomFest stuff had gotten to him, so he hadn't had much time to focus on school work.
James stopped in frontof the ballroom doors, smoothing out his shirt, and straightening his yellow tie as best he could. He took a deep inhale, and entered the dance room.
Looking around, James saw a considerable amountof people already there and dancing away. Either that, or talking and conversing in groups. James looked around for Marissa, and almost at once, spotted her.

 It was definitely going to be a night to remember for the children in the ballroom - they all appeared to be having fun as far as the French professor could tell, which was always a bonus. Not before long, the woman was approached by a petite blonde girl, probably still in her first year at Hogwarts, or her second. Her dress was simple, but there was always an unattainable amount of beauty within simplicity. A dark blue ribbon wrapped around the torso area of the garment, tied in a bow at the front. Her hair had been pulled up into a bun, and she really did appear to be extravagant. Then again, everyone looked marvelous in Matilda's eyes.

 "Bonjour, mademoiselle," She greeted the girl in return, drawing her eyes back up to survey the crowd, "Are you enjoying yourself?" Her accent had definitely become lighter since she first made an appearance at Hogwarts, and she was sure that people were beginning to get used to how she sounded. Students in her Divination class were finally able to get what she was saying without asking her to repeat herself. It was a quiet luxury that she quite enjoyed.

 Soon after she had asked the question, she caught sight of another student approaching the conversation. He was dressed finely, just as everyone else in the room. Of course, balls such as this did call for attire as such, but Matilda hadn't expected anyone below third year to dress accordingly. Although she was sure a few of them were coming from places of higher wealth. He had brought a drink for the blonde girl, causing a smile to tug at the professor's lips. "Oh, I'm quite fine. Thank you though." She politely declined his offer, turning her head away from the conversation.

 Perhaps she should let the two students be, she wouldn't mind walking through the crowd and saying hello to a few of her students. She honestly had a few favourites that she wanted to greet, which she would at one point during that night. She heard the boy compliment the girl as well as herself, in which she turned back to look at them, "Merci, you look wonderfully yourself," She returned the compliment, then picked up the skirts of her gown, "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to do my rounds." She announced, before taking off into the crowd of the ballroom.

Cocking his head a little to the right, Parcel tried to understand what Ami was saying. Seems like he had guessed wrong and her date actually was a girl. There also seemed to be a lot of words he didn’t know of, "bi? Lesbian? Pan? Was pan like you having a frying pan as a boyfriend or girlfriend?" This was stuff Parcel didn’t know anything about or had any interest in knowing for that matter. He didn’t even want to think about girlfriends yet, so why would he want to have a panfriend, or whatever it was called to be together with a frying pan.

Ami pointed at the bruise he had given her, and Parcel winced a little “Yup, it was definitively bigger then mine…”

"The first time I ever hit a bludger, someone hits it back at me. Really, such a terrible first experience. Quidditch sucks."

“WAIT WHAT!?” That was words that took Parcel by surprise. Quidditch was such a great sport. It was the only sport he actually liked, well dueling might be fun to, but he didn’t have much experience with it, so Quidditch was as of now the on and only sport for him! And now Ami was saying that his lucky bludger shot had made her not like Quidditch!? This was unacceptable, utter poppycock! He didn’t know if she was wizardborn or muggleborn, but if that was her first experience with Quidditch, and from only that she decided she didn’t like it, then he would have to help her enjoy the sport! It wasn’t much he would be able to do at this stupid Ball, but he would at least reassure her that Quidditch didn’t suck, and in fact, was awesome!
This was no longer a time to be afraid of cooties, drastic measures had to be taken, she had to learn that Quidditch didn’t suck, that it was the coolest sport there was and that the bruise might hurt now, but it was worth it when it came from a game of Quidditch.

Throwing away all pretenses of cooties Parcel took Ami’s hands in his own. He was holding them tightly, trying has hard as he could to not blush from the feeling of her soft hands in his own, well probably soft but maybe not as soft hands. Also pushing down the impulse to drop her hands and start running around the room while waving his own hands around like a little girl shouting “UUU, get it off! Get it off! The cooties gonna kill me!!”
Looking straight at Ami’s face with the most sincere expression he could muster Parcel started to speak.
“Ami… Eggbeater… maybe sometime in the future friend… I am so sorry for making you feel that way. And I might be a simple boy, a boy without much experience in these kinds of things, but Ami, if you would give me this honor I would-… I would really love it if you would…” Parcel almost faltered, starting to feel his ears grow hotter. Why did the atmosphere feel so “mushy”, and way was he so bad with words, it almost sounded as if he was confessing to her, and what was that expression she was making? He couldn’t even read that one, but he was to deep in it now, he had to continue, or it would probably cause confusion later!
“…if you would let me teach you the love of Quidditch!”

Having finally said it made his guilt lessen a little. Quidditch was the greatest sport in the world in Parcel’s eyes, and he would feel terrible if someone had stopped liking it because of him!

“I might not know much, but if you want I can teach you what I know, like the highlights of the Montrose Magpies, or which team have the best beaters, and why the snitch is a ball or what kind of new cool brooms there is out there! And also, there are lots of books about it in the library, like books about the different teams and maybe even about Quidditch tactics!”
He had already forgotten he was holding Ami’s hands as he was daydreaming about the possible Quidditch-books in the library. Lifting his hands closer to himself in his daze Parcel even ended up looking like he was trying to pull Ami closer to himself.

Winifrey nodded at Aurelia, her eyes widening as the girl stumbled a bit. Hopefully she wouldn't fall, and if she did Winifrey wondered if anyone would be there to catch her. If she was there, she would do her best. But Aurelia was a very tall girl, and with the added weight of the dress, the two first years would probably end up both going down. Plus, she would most likely get the full force of the fall. That did not sound very appealing to Winifrey.

"Thank you," Winifrey smiled, brushing her dress down a bit. She too was thankful that it wasn't so big and heavy. It was quite nice and comfortable enough that she was sure she would not have any problems tonight. "Well, your dress looks very nice on you too," Winifrey complimented her friend's dress once more, giving the tall girl an encouraging smile. She was confident that her friend would make it through the night with her dress.

"And no problem about being late. I was not here for that long. I almost got lost again, but there were some other students that helped me out," She smiled sheepishly. Winifrey was sure she would get the hang of it at some point. If not this year, then definitely next year. She was glad that Aurelia had not had an accident getting here. The thought of her friend falling down the moving stair cases made her internally grimace. That would be a terrible thing if it happened.

"Something like that. I've invited someone but I doubt he would be coming."

Winifrey nodded, clasping her hands in front of her dress. She supposed it would be interesting to meet someone new. The end of the school year had proven to be.... rather interesting. She was glad that it had finished with something like the ball. It celebrated the end of the year and Winifrey was sure that the first years deserved it after all that had happened.

Then the person who Aurelia invited arrived. She knew this because he immediately started talking to them, addressing Aurelia rather rudely as intelligent sounding words spilled from his mouth. Winifrey's brows simply furrowed as words like 'muggle' and 'blood traitor' were spoken, causing her to take an involuntary step back. The fact that he was immensely tall did not help either as it added to the intimidation.

Why was this stupid blood thing so important? She did not understand. Nor did she want to. Winifrey was close to simply walking away when Aurelia started talking, chastising the boy and his sharp words. She cheered her friend on silently as she glanced between the two, slightly amazed that the boy, Charles, was even taller than Aurelia.

Then Aurelia introduced her to him, causing Winifrey to give her friend a wide eyed look. This could either go very well or extremely wrong. Well, she had told herself that she would meet new people while in attendance to the ball. Here was the opportunity.

Winifrey gently lifted her hand for him to shake, forcing herself to give a small smile. "Hello." That was the simple quiet word that left her lips. Dear god she hoped this went well.

Ami almost (almost, mind you) flinched when Parcel grabbed her hands, paling at the thought of physical contact. The panic turned to mild amusement, however, as it was plainly obvious that Parcel wasn't trying to get her to dance, and instead, she had to stifle a laugh as his tone of voice turned dreamy at the mention of Quidditch, nearly begging her to change her stance on the airborne soccer game. Clearly, Parcel definitely had a thing for Quidditch.

On and on and on and on... is this what she sounded like when she spoke of her books and her music? Wow, major wake-up slap to the face, if anything. Well, the whole confession-like vibe of the situation had made Ami giggle a little bit, so it was all good. She was in a better mood, and maybe kinda sorta possibly had a new friend, like the Gryffindor had stated to her.

Ami yelped involuntarily as Parcel seemed to pull her closer in his excitement, his grip on her hands tightening. "Woah, buddy. Personal bubble, 'kay?" she said nervously, stepping backward and dropping one of his hands. "But the whole Quidditch-loving thing sounds like it's right up your alley, it was pretty clear from the effort you put into your beating. I'm more of a speed-flying type of girl, though, I don't know how much you'll get through to me. I suppose we can try this whole... Quidditch-teaching thing, if you really want." Ami wasn't going to tell the Gryffindor just how many Flying classes she'd skipped... yet. She was sure it was going to come back and bite her in the butt at some point in her life, just hopefully, not now. Now would be a very, very bad time.

       Responding to Aravis Escanora

Eri smiled at Aravis. She didn't mind. Odette did look pretty lonely. "It's fine. I have some other people I have been meaning to speak to lately. Tell Odette I said hello." Eri grabbed her black jacket off of the chair and began stood up from her chair. Again she smiled at Aravis and began to walk away. 

The brunette scanned the room with her green eyes. Right now she wished she hadn't worn this dress. She was trying to go for a simple look and this was the only dress she owned. She was aware that most people wore fancy dresses, but Eri kind of wished she had worn a plain white dress or even a fancy shirt and some leggings. But it's to late to change now.

As the Ravenclaw walked she spotted the person she wanted to speak to, Adam Harrington. Eri sawhe was speaking to someone so she went to the snack table instead to eat some food. She was getting some pumpkin pasties and watched the students. 

After she got a few snacks she walked away from the table to see who she could find to speak to. There were lots of people there.