A gentle sway PV Closed

Talia didn't mean to enter the spectacular ballroom with its chandeliers aglow and its windows bathing the room in wonderful sunlight.

But it was one of the best mistakes she had made.

The brunette had been on her way to the library for some leisure reading, thinking about everything but nothing in particular. Entering what she had thought was the designated destination, she kept her eyes on the ground until she noticed some sparkles under foot.

Were libraries supposed to have sparkles on the ground? No, she didn't think so. Not even if they were magical libraries. She looked up confused, realizing she had not, in fact, walked into the library, but instead into a grand ballroom, its beautiful decor shining in the natural light from the sunlight streaming in from the huge stained glass windows on the tall walls.

Happy mistakes, Talia thought to herself, trying to stay positive, though much scarier thoughts were lurking in her mind. Every time the young girl forgot something or messed up, she would be worried that she would turn into a complete stranger like her mother, who suffered from early-onset Alzheimer's.

As the sweet girl frowned a bit, asking herself whether or not she could remember her name, her early childhood, her family, she breathed a sigh of relief. She seemed to be fine.

Her mind at rest, she looked around the massive event room once again, taking in the decorations and fun sparkles and...

And the people.

Shuffling to the nearest table, Talia stood awkwardly behind a vase, hoping she was obscured enough to not be noticed.

The girl didn't answer her question as they continued to dance without talking. Was she angry at her for zoning out too long or was she so into the music that she couldn’t hear her? She could feel the anxious thoughts and feelings returning as she began to fumble on her steps. What if she didn’t make any friends? What if she ended up making enemies by accident? These thoughts of doubt led her to remember a dark memory from her past.

Tina was eight when she went to a public muggle school, but she only stayed for a week. Everyday someone different would insult her or make her feel as if she didn’t belong there. On the last day, a girl walked up to her and told her she was weird since she had muddy shoes. She had enough of their meanness and ran to the bathroom, crying. The girl followed her just to tell her she was a crybaby. The lights began to flicker and the sprinklers turned on as she became more upset. Luckily, she ran out of the school before anything really bad could happen.

Snapping back into reality, she noticed her movements were faster with more vigor. Before she could stop herself, she slammed into a girl who was standing near a vase. Immediately, she apologized profusely and asked, “Are you alright?”

"Sometimes I feel like I need to show that I know my work isn't perfect. That I can see my mistakes." the girl chuckled. "I didn't mean it as in she's loud or mean, or obnoxious. It's too big. That's it. But I guess that the explanation you gave makes much much more sense." she chuckled again, not sure what more to say.

She got back to the drawing or rather started a new one. It was the same girl, this time with a partner in a completely different pose. You could see that they were both vampires, and the girl quickly finished a rough sketch of the two.

Thea looked up at the two girls dancing. The music was getting faster and it wasn't too loud, so it was enough to hear someone open the door to walk in. They didn't say anything, looked at the ground for a couple seconds and then went to hide behind a vase. The girl chuckled, leaving her sketchbook on the floor and moved closer to the newcomer.

"You know," she started. "If you open the door, staring at the ground for a couple seconds, be startled for another couple seconds and THAN go to hide behind the base... I'm afraid it won't help that much." Thea chuckled, looking at the vase long after too longafter she started talking, one of the girls - with aggressively red hair, bumped into her, making Thea scooch away as fast as possible to not get hit by the two falling. "Ouch," she said, looking at them.

"It was an accident," Tina replies, feeling sorry for the girl she hit. Sometimes dances can get lost in the music and loose themselves. It's never safe to be around an emotional dancer. Tina began feeling out of place in the ballroom. First, she ruined her relationship with a dancer, then she knocked down a brunette by dancing, and now she had a girl staring at her for causing an accident. She was clearly a mess and started to think about leaving when she saw the parchment with ink on it. When she squinted, she made out the ink to be drawings of dancers.

"Are you an artist? Do you draw?" She asked while stepping towards the girl. She had been looking for someone to help her get better at art since she arrived at Hogwarts. She could draw abstract art in her sleep, but realistic art was more difficult with her warped mind. She used to think it would hinder her creativity, but her art teacher explained to her that realistic art can be seen in different ways without being abstract. 

Although she knew she would never be an expert in art, she at least wanted to learn more about art and hoped the girl had an art passion.

Elia thumped to the ground with an audible "oof". The red headed girl who had been dancing with her had spun into her and knocked Elia over. Elia massaged her derriere and stood back up. She saw the red head get embarrassed and walked over to her. 

"Don't worry. I'm ok. Look see? I've got all my moving parts." Elia said. She walked back to mirror as a sweet, soft melody poured from the gramophone. She began to dance again watching the world as she spun. In her dance, she told the story of what had happened today. It began with a single dancer who spun by herself, gradually joined by others. She bounded around showing the different girls through her movements. IN the end she leaped towards the mirror and ended in a simple attitude arabesque. 

Elia let her feet fall into a fifth position and bowed. She turned away from the mirror and walked towards her bag and water bottle. She sipped from the cool metal bottle as she untied her pointe shoes and let her feet breathe. 

She look a gander around the room. There was a good handful of people who had joined her in the room and she felt happy that maybe she had made some friends.

Tina nods as the girl assured her that she was fine. She took a break from dancing as she sat down from the floor to watched her dance. From the precise way she was dancing, she could tell she was performing a story. She didn't know what the story was about, but it looked entertaining. She couldn't help, but to admire her dance with perfection, feeling, and strength. It's been a long time since she performed a story with so much drive and passion. She felt inspired to try, not caring if she was being a copycat. When she finished her performance, Tina clapped enthusiastically before performing her own interpretation dance.

She danced out a story of her beginnings at Hogwarts. She crouched down whenever she wanted to depict fear and anxiety and leaped when she was free from the negative feelings. She twirled to show how these emotions repeat and how things are never ending. She did complex movements for complex situations and simple ones for simpler issues. She could feel the fire and energy heighten as she moved in a faster pace; this time with control. She ended the dance with a back flip and a split, hoping to show uncertainty of the future. She walked over to girl asking her for a second time, "What's your name?"

The door would open as Henry walked in, wearing a plain black top and leggings, simple converse on his feet. Once he'd shut the door and turned around, already bending to take off his shoes, he'd finally actually take into his surroundings enough to notice that there were other people in the room.

He froze in his spot. Henry was a lad of many activities, even if he wasn't very good at them, due to the expanse of hobbies his siblings had. When one child did it, it was common for them to come home and teach everyone else it. This means Henry has had home-taught lessons in different types of dance, singing, acting, maths, sports, science, story writing etc. He supposed that was the benefit of having eight siblings who's interests were all so different. With six sisters, naturally dancing was something that occured in the house a lot both when they were younger and when they're bored at home now. Everyone of the Reed children had danced at some point and up to when he left for Hogwarts, Henry and a few of his siblings had been doing a general dance class. Whilst he wasn't exactly sure why he wanted to continue it by himself, he had a feeling it might just be because he wanted to feel as if he was doing something with his family again.

Although, this doesn't mean he was intending to share that with the four girls he had just walked in on. Standing up and running a hand over the back of his neck, the lad would play it off as if he hadn't been aiming to spend an hour or so running himself ragged doing all he could remember.

"Oh, wow..T-This isn't the..uh..Kitchens? No..Oh well..Sorry!" He'd state, shrugging sheepishly at the lot.

"Not only draw," the girl sighed as the girl with red hair stepped closer to her. "My father insisted I learn every single art form that exists." Which means that I spent years of my childhood covered in paint and other... unknown substances, she added in her mind. It wasn't horrible it was a bit... questionable for a 5 year old kid to be running around covered in paint.

The girl sat back down in the corner of the room with her sketchbook, trying to draw a partner for the vampire girl. Thea sighed looking at her failed attempts as it looked as if the small vampire was dancing with a blob of pencil instead of another being. Looking at the dancing girls - or girl now, since the other one decided to rest - it was clear that the dancer was telling some sort of story. As the Hufflepuff was about to get back to drawing, the ballroom door opened again, but it wasn't another girl, but a boy.

She couldn't tell which house he was from, as instead of the school robe he was wearing a black top and some leggings. Her and the girl that tried to hide behind a vase were the only ones who seemed like they didn't come here to dance. The boy froze at the spot and tried to excuse himself but honestly, if someone knew anything about the castle's layout they'd know the kitchens weren't on the fourth floor.

"The kitchens are in the basements and technically, no student should have access to them. And also, robes." she tended to point things like that out. It was annoying, sure, but not only was it kind of obvious but Thea was generally an annoying person.

"Pft yeah.. I knew that.. did I say kitchens? I meant..the trophy roo-, okay what the hell, hello, hi, meant to come in here."

Henry'd stand up from his crouch and walk further into the room. His cheeks had stopped burning by now and he was feeling slightly less nervous. The girl who spoke reminded him of his sarky older sister so he felt as if he could be sarky back. Due to the amount of siblings that Henry had, it was a merge of different personalities all in one small space. Henry personally was a quieter, old soul type of boy who the others came to generally for advice or just to rant. He was their secret keeper. The other two boys in the group were incredibly rowdy and loud which is probably why he stuck with the girls more often than not. His mother always said that it's because he's the middle child, he has to balance the others out or there'd be pure chaos.

He moved to one of the chairs so that he could take off his shoes. He glanced around at the both dancing and sitting girls

"So, what types of dance do you do? Mind if I join?"

She felt the girl could've been nicer in her response and that she didn't know if the boy had the chance to read the Hogwarts rules in handbook. She disliked it when people assumed things about other people's life, but managed to hide her contempt under a stoic look. She remembered how she said she was skilled in all art and genuinely says, "That's amazing. Maybe you could teach me what you learned about art sometime. I've been meaning to learn some new art styles."

"Sure," Tina replies with an awkward smile. She turned to the familiar boy and asked, "What do you want to do? I've just been performing some freestyles and warm ups. "

She grabbed her water bottle and drank the cold water sparingly. She was planning to dance all day and wanted to save the only water she had. When she finished, she looked at the bottle and realized she had taken her mother's water bottle. It was yellow and black like the Hufflepuff colors and her maiden name was written in orange with a fancy cursive. She sighed as she set the bottle back down and waited for the boy's answer. She wouldn't let herself get sad every time she saw something that reminded her of home.