Saccharine Sixteen PV invited people Closed

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	Never had a birthday party. That was an affront to all things decent, Pericles had decided, and he got to work at once with breaking Aly's partyless streak. All he needed was her favorite color and a weekend in which he could fly for Hogsmeade. While the staff at Madam Puddifoot's couldn't twist his arm into hosting it at the cafe, they were accommodating in selling some sweets and decor. Lavender balloons and tablecloths, golden streamers and snack racks, a few whimsical touches turned the courtyard intod a party proper. He couldn't have asked for a finer distraction from the ball behind them, let alone the tests dead ahead. Aly's gratitude was a balm on the dark mood haunting his subconscious. Peri pretended to shrug it off, glancing over with a smirk as he answered. "I reasoned, if your parents never put you through the agony of a birthday party, someone ought to subject you to it." He accentuated his point with the grating doot of a cardboard noisemaker, the shimmering tendrils at its end wiggling her way. For someone with an almost entirely monochrome wardrobe, her fellow Ravenclaw managed to look festive for the occasion. Pericles paused to admire their handiwork. He seemed satisfied, though Aly admitted to being nervous, inspiring a pensive frown. The boy began rifling through his satchel as he assured, "Don't be. You don't even have to 'do' anything, really... besides try the cake, and-" a wrapped box was raised "-open gifts." The present was packaged into cobalt paper dotted by bronze constellations. Inside awaited a camera with the same Ravenclaw colors, all rich blue and metallic stars, alongside a corked carafe marked Developing Salution. The lens collapsed into the box housing the body, making it easy to slip into a bag or carry with the soft strap over one's neck. "I wasn't sure if you were interested in photography," Pericles confessed, "but it seemed like the sort of thing you'd enjoy." Creativity met practicality. Whether she saw something beautiful, or anything out of the ordinary, Aly now had a means to trap its image. Seeing the gramophone brought back a gentler memory. Aly had just come back to school, Peri was just starting to socialize again, and a coincidental run-in turned into the perfect opportunity for rekindling their friendship. He smiled softly to himself as she shared her love of music, an expression which trailed off with her unfinished sentence. Right. The ball. He wasn't talking, thinking, or acknowledging that tragedy yet. Today wasn't about that. It was about Aly, and he was happy to compartmentalize the rest. "It really was a shame we didn't get a chance to dance last month," Peri finished for her casually, as though that was the worst thing to come from the disastrous night. He held out an upturned palm with a nod towards the clearing. "D'you s'pose I could steal the birthday witch long enough for a song?"
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Reducio

⋄ May 9th, 2024 | Courtyard ⋄
⋄ Interactions: None, but open to other party guests | Mentions: @Pericles Dralt and @Aly Salinger ⋄

𝓑irthday gifts are hard, especially when they're for a newer friend that you've only just started getting to know, and double especially when you were twelve, and had no money, and were trapped at a boarding school in Scotland. She wasn't even allowed to go to Hogsmeade yet, and the market for first and second years looking to buy laundered goods from upper years was cutthroat. Theoretically, she could have asked her dad to buy and owl her a gift for Aly, but it felt impersonal and childish to do so, leaving her with little option but to get creative.

Back in November, she'd had an impulse to start a project that was more a gift for a certain broom than it's rider, but time had gotten away from her until the idea had slipped her mind entirely. After the Ball, though, she'd been desperate for something, anything else to think about and occupy her anxious, idle hands, and as such had owled her father a request for embroidery floss.

That specific project was slow going, with her manic, sleep-deprived energy having shifted the shape of the project in her mind from a nice, hand-made gift for a friend to the Winchester Mystery House of broom charms. She irrationally felt like, once she finished it, she was going to have to grapple with what exactly had happened that night, and she just flat-out didn't want to. She wasn't ready. So instead, she made the charm more and more intricate, adding and removing ribbons and strands, continuously pursuing perfection and moving the goal posts any time she got too close. Totally normal coping strategies.

The upside of her self-imposed sisyphean task was that she had plenty of extra embroidery floss to make Aly a gift with. While she didn't consider herself particularly adept at making friendship bracelets, her recent delusion had at the very least helped her to hone her skills in the craft, and the end result was a cute, if slightly slanted constellation themed bracelet. Similar to this.

She didn't know much about Aly's interests outside of Quidditch, but before things had gotten bad that night, Aly had taken the time to show Bex her beautiful constellation dress, speaking of it so fondly that Bex could only assume that this was as good a direction to go as any. The bracelet she'd made for Aly was a deep Ravenclaw blue with white stars, a simple facsimile of the night sky in miniature. On each end of the bracelet was the sun and moon respectively, standing in elegant sentinel, and in the center was Orion, club and shield eternally at the ready and prepared to defend them both.

She'd wrapped it in simple paper and string for lack of any better options, and upon arrival immediately deposited it at one of the tables. As far as she knew, she was the youngest person in attendance by quite a large margin, something that wouldn't have even been on her radar in the past, but felt like a glaring red caution sign to her now.

Scanning the crowd, she spotted both Pericles and the birthday girl standing together some distance away from her. Since the Ball, she'd developed this clawing anxiety that, everytime she turned her back on the ghostly boy, something awful was going to happen to him. She'd begun trailing after him like a little ghost of her own, sticking to his side at breakfast and in the common room like an especially persistent leech. It was an impulse that left her feeling embarrassed, angry, and small.

The two of them appeared to be looking at something, some sort of box with a little umbrella shaped trumpet attached to it. Regardless, the two of them were standing close and seemed to be busy, so Bex stationed herself in front of the very purple snack table, indulging in both the food and the urge to keep Pericles within her line of sight. So long as she didn't look him in the eye, she could pretend everything was just fine.

OOC: I'm stationing Bex at the snack table because the last time Bex thirdfourth wheeled, a small boy got stabbed.

The noisemaker's little whistle was a sound Aly had never heard before in all her life, and it surprised her so much that she nearly flinched when Peri dooted the thing in her direction. "Oh, is that what these do?" she mused, picking one up from a nearby table and turning it over in her hands, eyeing the shimmering lilac end and curly cardboard on the other side. Placing the thing gingerly between glossed lips, Aly blew into it, only to have the entire thing fly out of her mouth and land with a dull clatter on the cobblestones beneath her. She bent to pick it up with a sheepish chuckle. "Guess I've still some practice to do on this whole birthday thing."

When she straightened back up again, noisemaker clutched firmly in her fingers, it was to the sight of
an eagle-themed box being presented her way. Aly flushed pink at the sight - she'd never been the best at receiving gifts, always embarrassed that she didn't have something to give in return, even on her own birthday. Still, she always so strongly cherished that which was gifted to her so thoughtfully by friends, including the necklace strung round her slender neck even today - a fourteenth-birthday present from Dee, two years ago today. Merlin, how time flies. Reaching out with an eager, if bashful grin, Aly took the box gently from Peri's hands. "Aw, you didn't have to do anything," she half-reprimanded, half-thanked him; "the party was enough!" Still, it seemed that he wanted her to open it right this moment, and so she tore into it with gusto, trying at first not to rip the beautiful and very thematic Ravenclaw/astronomy wrapping paper but in the end giving up and splitting Cassiopeia right down the middle. Inside sat the most gorgeous camera she'd ever seen in the same theming, astronomically adorned and hued like her House, as well as a bottle of developing solution. Aly gasped as she lifted the camera out, turning it slowly in her hands (albeit much more carefully than she'd done with the noisemaker) to admire its glimmering body from every angle. What an absolutely gorgeous creation this was, and though the Ravenclaw was rendered speechless for a moment, she had just enough presence of mind to place the camera back down on a nearby table before flinging herself at Pericles and wrapping her arms gratefully around his neck: "Oh, thank you, thank you! Peri, this is gorgeous! I don't even want to imagine how much it cost, you truly didn't have to. I'm obsessed with it. Oh, do you think that I'll be able to take pictures through a telescope lens? I could get great close-ups of the moon that way!"

Her excited chatter fading, she let go of the hug and stepped back, only for Peri to extend his hand to her once more and ask for a dance. If Aly's freckled face hadn't been bright pink before, it was most certainly a mortifying shade of fuchsia now. "Yes, I was quite looking forward to the dancing," she mourned, though she avoided admitting that she wouldn't have known with whom to dance at the ball even if she had made it to the dance floor. Though Aly Salinger was nowhere near the category of shy, she demurely reached out and placed her hand softly in her friend's outstretched palm, trying not to seem nervous - why was she nervous, anyway? "I believe the birthday witch would quite like to be stolen for a song, indeed."

Aly was certainly no dancer, and she'd only ever truly danced with two people before: her father and her ex-boyfriend. Both of them were dead to her, though only one had truly passed through the veil. Peri's hand was cold, but not clammy, as she led him to the empty space she'd planned for folks to use as a dance floor and placed her free palm on the shoulder of his grey jacket; his other hand found her waist, and together they began a slow spin round the courtyard, oblivious to anyone arriving for the moment. Ironically enough, the record switched at that very moment to the next song: 'Magic Works' by the Weird Sisters, the very melody to which the pair of eaglets had listened down in the dungeons during their reconnect seven months earlier. A slow grin climbed across Aly's face at hearing those wistful opening notes that suddenly didn't sound quite so sad anymore. "Wow, the universe really keeps trying to get you to listen to the Sisters," she joked, looking up at her good mate's tall frame, for he still towered over her by at least half a foot even with the low heels she had chosen to wear for the day. However, looking him in the eyes - eye - was a bad idea, because her green gaze landed not on his silvery single stare but instead on the dark patch where there had once been something looking back at her.

The sixteen-year-old winced, the hand that had been on his shoulder instinctively going up to cup his face so that her thumb could rub lightly and protectively over the strap on the side of his head - but, at the very last second, she thought better of it and instead tried to smoothly save the action by tucking a short stray lock of milky hair behind her friend's ear. She could not imagine the pain he'd gone through, even after having sat with him in the Hospital Wing for a bit following the ball. Was it too blasé to say that, even after all of it, he pulled off the eye patch nicely? Trying to ignore the situation entirely, for it was probably far safer to not mention the ball at all and continue on with their nice day, Aly returned her hand to Peri's shoulder, though she did take a half-step closer to him and rest her head on the opposing shoulder, too. "Thank you, Peri," she whispered, so softly that perhaps he wouldn't even hear over Myron Wagtail's low crooning in the background. "This is wonderful, truly wonderful. I don't even know where I'd be right now without you."

She would stay like that, so close as to feel his heartbeat, until the song's smooth notes faded out, unless Peri pushed her off, of course; however, as soon as the melody began to end, Aly raised her head and immediately spotted a curly-haired, miniature version of herself standing awkwardly near one of the tables. Breaking away from Peri, Aly practically sprinted over and attacked Bex from behind with a tight bear hug; she'd grown protective of the first-year, especially since the ball. "Bex!" she exclaimed with a grin, jumping round to the twelve-year-old's front. "Oh, good, you came!" Turning back to the dance floor, she called out, waving over her white-haired dance partner, "Hey, Peri! Look who's here!"

⋖ 09/May/2024 @ lunchtime | ENGLISH [#715380] | FRENCH [#b654a9] ⋗
INTERACTIONS n/a | MENTIONING @Rebecca Lark, @Aly Salinger, @Pericles Dralt, @Finnegan Connor
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Celebration had never been a common practice at Hogwarts for Evelynn, something perhaps a touch counter intuitive. When daily life was wrought with danger and struggles to survive, one might think it common to find mirthful glee in such a simple event as seeing another sun rise. Yet the prevailing feeling was somber. How could time be wasted in revelry when it could be spent pursuing improvement, or closure to so many unanswered questions? That's not to say participation was always withheld, of course. A notable presence at the recent Masquerade Ball was an obvious testament to that.

In such cases, however, participation generally accompanied ulterior motives: social networking, information gathering, defense of peers, to note a few. The infrequency of party attendance was held all the more true when it came to birthdays. Evelynn, herself, hadn't held a party since her move to Europe, and given fading memory of anything previous, argument could be made that those hardly counted. The closest thing to one would have been last year, when Ivy showered her attention upon her; the two had spent the day together at the lake under their tree. Other than that, however, Evelynn had been loathe to even let anyone know the date of that particular anniversary. Somehow, it always felt like it would be a superficial affair. Nothing she ever wished to subject upon herself.

Of course, she was an odd one out in that regard. Few seemed to hold that same reticence, and while Evelynn had never formed sufficiently deep bonds with many—or rather, few of her past friends had lasted long enough to reach their next birthday before disappearing without notice—she'd still managed to earn herself a few invitations. Most recently had been Miss Harper's, more than two years past. So when Miss Salinger had extended and an invitation for—nay, insisted—Evelynn attend her sixteenth birthday celebration, it felt...strange. To say the least. She was a positive acquaintance, a friend of a newly established ally, but not exactly a friend; and, for her own good, never would be.

Why then, exactly, the invitation had been extended was difficult to fathom, but Evelynn's rearing wouldn't allow her to directly turn it down. A status of friendship wasn't require to make an appearance, and that would be the socially acceptable thing to do. Not to mention, prior to now, Evelynn had retained a notable lack of social connections to the house of Eagles. This sudden influx of acquaintances who donned the blue and bronze could prove useful in her renewed investigative efforts. This was how she had convinced herself to attend. It also helped that the part itself was taking place at lunchtime in the courtyard. There would be a natural conclusion when classes resumed, and it would be easy enough to slip away if needed.

Evelynn didn't wear anything eye-catching or noteworthy. Since the event took place on a school day between lecture periods, she wore her black wizard robes, the only embellishment a gryffindor crest heralding her house allegiance. When the professor had released them to lunch, she hadn't even needed to slip up to her dorm to retrieve the gift, her satchel carrying everything of import with her always. Effectively, she had no preparty preparation to conduct. And yet, she did not arrive immediately upon its start.

Despite the beauty of the day, bright sun shining from a clear sky, every step felt like trudging through a foot of mud. She could feel the miasma of uncertainty start to swirl, like the beginning of a hurricane as wind picked up the surf on the ocean, spraying droplets of warning at those sailing in its path. Her skin prickles, and her clothes felt restrictive. And every thought from nameless passing students in the hall, a blaring in her head. By the time she exited the Small Hall and could see the display of lavender decorations and balloons bumping gently against each other with the breeze, she could feel frequent fluttering in her chest, respirations elevated. But it wasn't the balloons of the decorations or the table of food next to which a young witch stood that drew her attention.

At the center of a cleared area were two figures. Each stood in each other's arms, their bodies swaying gracefully across the stone to the rhythm of a song that Evelynn didn't recognize. Dressed in very smart looking white trousers, a comfortable mauve sweater, and kitten sandals to match, Miss Salinger looked lovely. She didn't need a remarkably awe-inspiring gown or make-up to turn heads—her beauty was innate, displayed with every easy movement of her dance and expression on her sun-kissed skin. The lioness watched as brunette curls protested against the pins that held them, their energy not to be contained as they danced across Aly's shoulders and down her back. And the look she carried in her gaze, as though the subject of her attention was the only being in existence during their shared moment...what many would no doubt give to be in his place.

And Pericles, stalwart and dignified as ever, guiding his partner with a level of easy expertise as though he'd been groomed specifically for a royal court. How he could make even his regular attire seem so regal astounded Evelynn. There was a princeliness about him that couldn't be dismissed. While rays of moonlight bestowed upon him an ethereal intangibility, he practically glowed beneath the sun's embrace. Though the patch over one eye prompted a painful twist of remorse, affection seemed to emanate from the one remaining. A slender hand raised to tuck a stray strand of his silver hair behind a freckled ear right before the two drew closer, chest to chest. Evelynn's stomach rose to her throat.

She had no business being there. She'd thought once before when she'd first seen them side by each at the ball, and thought so once again—they made a handsome pair. There was an attachment there that defied any external sorrow, was no doubt strengthened by it. Evelynn would only ruin that. She'd already brought ruin to it. Of all the ball attendants to be targeted, it had to be them: Pericles, with whom she had slowly given ground, had accepted as an allied partner of sorts; and Mister Connor, whose persistence and lack of boundaries had seen him moved into her dorm and into her daily life. They were the closest things she had to friends. And they'd nearly died.

They always did.

Foolish, foolish girl. To think it would be any different this time. To think attending a birthday would be an innocent affair. She was rationalizing actions on the promise that she would stay objective, that she would keep them at arm's length. It didn't matter if she did, though, if they didn't. She had been plucking at webs when she should have been clearing them out.

A parchment wrapped gift roughly the size of a book was left on a table within view before Evelynn turned to take her leave.

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	From accidentally launching the noisemaker to insisting he hadn't had to bring a gift, Aly was- as ever- effortlessly charming. Peri could only wave away her humility, insisting with mock seriousness: "Parties have at least one present, that's standard procedure." Yet in spite of the comedy and casualness with which he carried on, he had watched intently as she examined the gift, practically holding his breath in search of any indication that it wasn't off mark. All suspense was dashed the moment he was rewarded with the ultimate praise of ardent gushing and an enthusiastic hug. Satisfied as he was reassured, Peri wrapped an arm around Aly's shoulders, patting her back and smiling somewhere beneath the faceful of curls. That she was already inspired to take pictures through a telescope lens was promising. "When you do," when, not if, he was confident she could pull it off "I call the first print." Unlike most members of his family, Pericles wasn't the most physically affectionate, but dancing was a different animal. The heir had attended enough pureblood functions to be adept at keeping time. He fell into step effortlessly, matching Aly's grace as they whirled into a waltz. The Weird Sisters reference coaxed out a snicker, but whatever line he was about to pitch back was cut short as Aly looked at him and flinched. Meticulous care had gone into crafting just the right ambiance: time, decor, and location all played a part in setting the mood for a party. Yet in that moment, Pericles felt it flicker with all the precariousness of a candle in the breeze. His elegant gait was offset by the smallest misstep in their dance, a stride aimed slightly in the wrong direction. Through their closeness, Aly would feel a stiffness in his shoulders when she reached towards the eyepatch, as though his entire body was braced to recoil. They went lax again after the gracious redirection to tuck an errant strand of hair. His eye closed, and in his relief, Peri tilted his head in the subtlest lean towards the touch. Today wasn't a day for grief. It was a day to celebrate surviving, specifically, a day to be grateful that Aly was alive in the world. "This is wonderful, truly wonderful. I don't even know where I'd be right now without you." The gravity of her words settled over him, anchoring him to the moment. He wanted to deal some snarky line to dispel it- Probably in the Great Hall, and lucky you aren't, they're serving flobberworm fritters today- but thought better. He considered saying something neutral to the effect that she was such a source of light, she surely would have been fine with or without him. He debated professing just how lucky he was to have friends like her in his life. Yet in the end, Pericles decided there was a comfort in that weight. He stayed silent so as not to dispel it, etching the feeling into memory, the kind one called on to dispel thoughts dark as dementors. Something to look back on come a rainy day. When her head lifted from his shoulder, he looked down to meet her with a weary smile, the sort that said: We're here. We've made it. Another tragedy behind them, another graduation just ahead, another year around the sun. In that moment, something caught Aly's eye- no, someone. She tore off to collide with Bex, calling Peri's attention to her. The Ravenclaw blinked away the sleepy haze, brow arching and eye gone wide, soon followed by a pleased smile. "Becca." His little shadow. He raised a hand to wave her way, as though he hadn't had breakfast alongside her just that morning. Merlin, poor Becca. The first brush with death was almost always the hardest. While he wasn't at all bothered by the increase in her company, he had to pretend not to notice it for what it was. Pericles hadn't found the right words, the "correct" words, something he could say to balm it all over. Looking at her now, it began dawning on him that there was no simple formula to remedying what had happened. She deserved earnestness, hard truths administered as gently as he could, but not right now. Now was a golden opportunity to show her there was still a sun waiting once the storm clouds cleared. And, speaking of the sun.... Movement near the gift table snagged Pericles' attention, earning a distinctly bird-like leer as he cocked his head, glancing to see if someone was bold enough to take something. But no, something was being left, and the giver was gone as soon as the deed was done. A shade of red he'd come to recognize retreated from the courtyard. It was Eve, and she was running again. Always running: storming out of the Great Hall, fleeing to the forest, he swore sometimes he saw the back of her more than the front. He knew that pull all too well, that nagging urge to exist on the fringe of others' lives, the grim desire to disappear. It compelled him to give chase, gravitating after her as the moon and sun spun together in syzygy. The window to catch her would close if he wasn't quick. Peri lurched into a long stride only to take a table corner (hard) to the right thigh. Depth perception was not his friend these days. He grunted a strained sound and declared through a tense jaw "I'm fine, I'm fine," before recovering his pursuit of the retreating redhead. He tried to halt her in her tracks by calling out. If staying had been awkward, leaving after being spotted would be downright disobliging. "Eve?" Their conversation in which she claimed nicknames were too informal, much like Peri's eye, had gone clean out of his head. Pausing under an archway, he would stare for a second before half requesting, half demanding: "Come and dance with us."
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☾ @Evelynn Decipio ☼ @Aly Salinger ✰ @Rebecca Lark ʚїɞ

⋄ May 9th, 2024 | Courtyard ⋄
⋄ Interactions: @Aly Salinger, @Pericles Dralt, and @Evelynn Decipio | Mentions: @Finnegan Connor ⋄

𝓜unching on crisps, Bex watched as Aly and Pericles twirled around the dance floor, whispering quietly to one another. Her gut twisted nervously, and it took a concentrated effort to remind herself that neither of them were any sort of threat to the other. But it was the closeness that worried her, the same closeness that had blocked her view of Finn bleeding out at the ball. How easy it would be for one to harm the other with her none the wiser, how easy to use the comforting, innate humanity of an embrace as a cover for violence.

They looked happy, though. Like they were each radiating a light that only the other could see.

They probably weren't going to stab each other.

She turned around to grab more crisps; as a result, she didn't see the older girl coming, and when Bex was grabbed from behind she had a brief moment of irrational panic before she registered the familiar sight of Aly's hair, so similar to her own, dangling next to her face. She melted in relief instantly, like butter in a hot pan; physically affectionate to the core of her, Bex missed the easy physicality of her friendships before coming to Hogwarts. People were more formal here, less inclined to casual touch than she was used to, and she hadn't had the easiest time adjusting to the lack of it. The hug settled something inside of her that she hadn't realized had been knocked off-kilter, if only for a moment.

"Hullo, Aly. Hi, Pear." She said, waving over at the tintless boy who'd been so cruelly abandoned by his dance partner at the opposite end of the party. "Happy Birthday. Oh, hang on. I got you a present."

Procuring it from the table, she handed the brown paper-wrapped package over to the older girl with little fanfare. Had she known the purple color scheme in advance, she might have tried to decorate the paper similarly, but alas, it stood out in plain, neutral colored contrast to the lavender tinted party that enveloped then. She supposed that the present and Pericles had that in common, but Pear made it look cool. "I made it with embroidery stuff. It's not embroidery, though, I've got no clue how to do that." She couldn't help but be nervous that Aly would hate it. She seemed like the type to be polite and pretend to like it, too, which Bex hated. She didn't want her older friends to feel like they had to coddle her, she wasn't a baby. She could handle being bad at gift-giving. Definitely.

A stilted, pained noise from Pericles sent her into high alert, and she realized with a lurch that she'd lost focus and let him wander out of her line of sight. Scanning the party frantically, she let out an audible sigh of relief as she spotted him and realized that he'd just managed to run into a table. Which, ouch, but also conceptually hilarious. Pericles occupied a certain larger-than-life spot in her brain, and watching the older boy do something as mundane and human as bang his leg into a table corner felt a bit like running into God buying plums at the grocery store.

His call-out to the rapidly withdrawing redhead brought Bex's attention onto her as well, and Bex couldn't help but wonder what had made Evelynn flee the scene so fast, because the Gryffindor girl clearly had places to be. Perhaps she was allergic to the latex in balloons, or was late to a very important meeting of some kind. Or maybe she just hated dancing, which was reasonable.

"Hi, Evelynn!" She called out. "You don't have to dance if you don't want to, there are crisps over here."

Interacting with @Aly Salinger @Pericles Dralt @Rebecca Lark
Briefly mentioning @Evelynn Decipio

It was truly a thrill when Aly’s birthday invitation arrived. It had been ages since she last received one, and yes, Lindsey was eagerly awaiting the specific date like a twelve-year-old. Her fifth year term had been exhausting. Lindsey had opted out of the Spring ball, deciding that she’d better work on her grades for the upcoming exams (as well as having totally no idea where she could find herself a date). And now, as the date was approaching, mumbles of N.E.W.T. courses and career paths circulated throughout the fifth-year circles, and to be frank the thought of growing up was overwhelming. A relaxing party hosted by a friend was just what she was in need of. Not to mention a birthday party.

Birthday Girl deserved for the best. She was more than willing to temporarily leave her books and poke her nose into another fulfilling task, something she would have wanted to do but had no proper excuses. Crafting. Lindsey couldn’t say that she had a knack of it, but when she made an attempt on embroidery years ago, it, surprisingly, went out well. And yet today she wanted to do something different - string art. It didn’t take her long to gather all the stuffs she needed, and crossing her legs while situating herself comfortably on the edge of her bed, Lindsey started to get to work.

The basic outline was soon sketched out: a four-leaf clover, copied from a photograph on a 20x20cm paper. The template was then attached on a thin wooden board which was sprayed with coats of black primer, and pieces of nails were carefully hammered in predesigned spots. Lindsey sorted out the strings by the various shades of green, found one of the lightest colour, and tied a knot on the beginning nail. She then looped the strings to outline the clover, attempting to keep the strings straight for a better outcome. Weaving was the most difficult part - thankfully, she wasn’t short of patience. After various nights of hard work it was finished - in the shape of a four-leaf clover, weaved with green strings varying from mint to forest. The artwork was then mounted into a dark blue frame to be put up for decoration on a desk. Lindsey was pretty confident that her wish of good luck could be conveyed through it.

When her final class in the morning was finished, Lindsey quickly packed her things and ran downstairs, stopping by first floor to get into the badger’s den and pick her gift up. Adjusting her uniform in front of the mirror - she would have wanted to change into something fancier, but the time was getting close - Lindsey again went through the wooden door, jumped downstairs, and walked towards the courtyard. With music leading the way, she soon spotted Aly’s frizzy brown hair, swirling in the wind along with its dancing owner. Aly had been swaying with - Lindsey squeezed her eyes while approaching - was that Pericles Dralt? She was thinking of how she could cut in with politeness, when Aly stopped to talk with someone. Good. Now she was free of embarrassment.

And so she approached the lilac-coloured celebration area. “Happy birthday Alyyyyyy!!” Lindsey chirped, grinning with excitement shining in her eyes. “This is for you and wish you a happy and lucky sixteen!” She pushed the gift box wrapped in Ravenclaw blue paper towards the girl with slight nervousness. “It’s an attempt on string art.” Lindsey added. Indeed, there were a couple of uneven strings and skewed nails, but overall it looked okay - and Lindsey did hope that Aly would like it.

To be able to see the attendees clearly helped her confirmed her previous thoughts. “And hi Pericles. Good to see you again.” She greeted her fellow fifth-year and leader of the Aspiring Animagi club, delighted to see a familiar face. There was also someone she wasn’t acquainted with before - probably Aly’s friend or housemate? “Hello,” She turned to the younger girl with a friendly smile. “I’m Lindsey. Fifth year, Hufflepuff. Don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

The girl had been calling out to some Evelynn, offering crisps with much enthusiasm in Lindsey’s ears. Her suggestion sounded reasonable enough, and Lindsey politely followed the girl to gaze at the direction where Evelynn had departed. She drifted her eyes back, and reached for a crisp herself. Decipio in her year was the only Evelynn she had ever heard of, and could it be her? It was only by then when Lindsey suddenly realised that her ideas on Aly’s social circle was vague. She took a bite on the crisp thoughtfully, considering that she should, perhaps, get out of her comfort zone of solo studying and connect with people more often in the future.

Reducio

The gift looks similar to this:

⋖ 09/May/2024 @ lunchtime | ENGLISH [#715380] | FRENCH [#b654a9] ⋗
INTERACTIONS @Pericles Dralt @Aly Salinger @Rebecca Lark @Lindsay Springhall| MENTIONING n/a
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"Eve?"

Blast... As hasty as Evelynn was to withdraw from the scene and leave the touching moment to those who deserved it, her ears seemed to have lagged behind. The call couldn't even have completely left Pericles' lips before it found her, the sound of her name rooting her to the spot so effectively it may have been the incantation for a freezing spell. Like a rabbit caught in an avian glare, her steps had halted abruptly, her body stilling as though some part of her hoped that if she didn't move, he wouldn't see her. Of course, that was ridiculous, and even at half his capacity, he was still too keen eyed for that. Any hope that she would yet go unnoticed was dashed with the follow-up, his voice then near enough to send the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.

For the briefest moment, flight still pushed itself to the forefront of her thoughts as a viable option, her frame still turned away from him, hidden behind a veil of denial. One that was just as swiftly swiped away at the jubilant call of a little moth. Evelynn's chin turned to the side, her profile displayed; followed momentarily by irises reflecting their stony surroundings that flicked to meet Pericles'... patch. Her jaw tensed slightly, but otherwise she remained unreactive as her gaze swept over a sprinkle of freckles to the silver of a moon peering after her. She lingered, holding his gaze silently, battling the dichotomy of flight versus some hollow yearning to repair whatever vestige of functional life she'd once held.

In the end, she begrudgingly relented, having come to the same conclusion. Had she managed to slip in and out without notice, depositing the gift on the table in the process, it would have been forgiven. Perhaps if she'd come prepared with an excuse and an apologetic smile on her lips about having to be elsewhere, she might have been able to get away with a departure. But she hadn't, and she didn't have an excuse. Not one that she could bring herself to vocalize; and not one they'd be like to accept. She really had no other choice but to acquiesce. To do otherwise would be rude, and while she hesitated to play with fire and invite greater tragedy than had already befallen—her gaze flicked back to the patch—neither was she prepared to burn bridges entirely. And then her focus finally shifted past him, to the group growing the trio of girls at the snack table. Shoulders falling with the release of a slow exhale, Evelynn did her best to adopt a polite smile and keep the weariness from her voice as she caved. "...how can I say no."

She turned, then, allowing her peer to escort her back towards the others, collecting her gift from where she'd previously deposited it along the way. "Apologies," she offered to Salinger on approach. "You both cut such an enigmatic image across the courtyard that I felt I had stumbled into a royal court." Small courtesies and flowery words fell from her lips in an effort to politely smooth over the fact that she'd tried—and failed—to skip out on the direct celebrations. "I did not want to interrupt. A blessed sixteenth to you. May you be granted many more years." And she meant that, the ache in her core flaring with that sentiment, wholly believing it to be less likely to transpire the more frequently she kept Evelynn's company.

"And good to see you well, Miss Lark. And you, Springhall," she would greet the other two, politely dipping her chin to each of them in turn. Waiting until the birthday girl had finished opening the gifts the other two had bestowed upon her, Evelynn would offer up her own, holding the parchment-wrapped parcel gingerly towards her. "It is only a small token, regrettably. I was uncertain of your preferences, but you are a Ravenclaw."

And it was a good book, sorrowful themes aside. Plus, after having put together at the ball that Salinger had been raised a witch, it was possible she'd never heard of the author. For an academically-minded individual, that opened a whole plethora of literary classics to pull from whenever the need for a gift arrived. This was, of course, banking on the hope that the birthday girl was the reading sort. Given that she had recently joined the Headliner, however, Evelynn had wagered fairly confidently on the affirmative.

The Gift

Reducio

Book: "The Fault in our Stars" by John Green — Hardcover book, quarter-bound in black leather, raised bands on the spine, traditional style spine titling, with silvered finishing and page gilding

Bookmark: Thin silver metallic feather, curved at the top to dangle a silver chain over a book's spine, beaded with recycled glass and star-carved moonstone charms

House Colours: Ravenclaw

Calming Presence in Effect: Aly, Evelynn & Pericles Affected

An invitation to a birthday party had not been on Piérre's bingo card, exactly... but it was nice to know that it was now something that he could mark off as being an experience in his life (well, other than parties hosted for himself and his brother and a few choice friends that by now at this point in his life were long gone). Swishing through the halls in a blue-colored outfit with all the trappings of the witty Ravenclaw house the pale boy with wide emerald eyes and slightly shaking hands clenched a simply wrapped box whose paper was that of school homework parchment and that was tied up in a messy crossover 'bow' with some twine. There was a little label on it, a small and torn parchment paper (as well) that had in his slanted and smudged left-handed cursive "Aly".

He was humming to himself, though he wasn't sure what the tune was. It was a staccato dance that had been playing in his head for the past couple of days--a sound like rain falling or like a small heart beating very fast interspersed with the largo of broad and wide strokes like large wingbeats. They dueled each other at the worst of times and at the best the small melody seemed to be trying to chase the longer and bolder one to no avail. Just out of reach, always a thousand of its miniscule wingbeats ahead. It wasn't an infuriating sound to Piérre, nor was its presence unappreciated, but it was something that clenched his heart every time he felt it crescendo into a hopeful rise--the feeling that now would be the moment it would finally take its place alongside the first only to feel empty the moment that it tapered off and away. Like a misty valley opening its mouth to swallow its denizens in comforting cool and cloud, the knowledge that anything above it vanished as soon as it entered--losing itself within as it had no reason to be throughout.

Piérre knew Aly only through three ways: the first of which was the fact that he kept up with gossip and that he tried to keep track of his classmates when he could, the second of which was that she had been the one that had roused and calmed him after a debacle in Divination last fall, and the third of which was that he had been charged by Pericles himself to ensure Aly's safety at the recent Cursed Ball--the last of which Piérre had failed splendidly at, not to mention the fact he had failed splendidly at ensuring that no harm came to Pericles himself.

Yes, that knowledge came to the boy in full force like a brick to the head and a hydraulic press into his chest as he laid eyes upon the dark patch that covered the light that once illuminated from an eye whose twin was now lonely. That knowledge that caused the boy's emerald eyes to turn dull and jade with almost immediate and chilling shame that coursed through his veins and turned his entire body to lead--that made his heart feel as if it would drag him to the ground and leave him there unable to move again, to instead force him to waste away immobile until exposure transformed him into a creature of spirit and not of flesh to continue such self-induced agonies for the rest of eternity in the body's stead.

And there was Evelynn as well. Always seeming to be about Pericles in the recent months, wasn't she. Well... at least she had the courage to do and to be the thing that Piérre had demanded of himself to be. She had done good, and she had succeeded where he had failed. He was, oddly enough, content enough to watch as a spectre to the happenings. He may have been oblivious, but he was not wholly blind to the suspicions that welled up in the springs of his heart like an artesian well. Two people that Piérre believed he had damaged in some way, even if he truly hadn't, and they had found each other. They had come to find camaraderie in each other. Without...

There was food supplied for the party, but Piérre wasn't hungry with the way that his stomach was turning over and over again at the moment. Perhaps the best way to go about this was simply to walk in as if he wasn't going to be noticed, place the gift down, and then quietly leave. Evelynn seemed to have the same idea until she had been snagged by the others. Perhaps Piérre could take advantage of the moment himself. In and out, as if he had never been there to begin with.

So, quietly, his steps made as little sound as he could manage. Across the way from the sheltering area of the arches dividing the Courtyard from the immediate external walls of Hogwarts, he stepped out--his shoulders were slightly forward and his eyes were tracking all those whom he could see--and crossed over to the nearest table, placing the humble box where it would be quickly seen. He stood for a second, looking over the festivities, before he averted his eyes sheepishly and turned his collar up to turn and slip away the same way as Evelynn had tried.

"Happy Birthday, Aly." A tiny smile crossed his face as the whisper of his own voice under his true voice summoned a tiny glitter in his eyes from a deep and dark place. A glimmer of hope. "Never let them go."

Reducio

A Magic Moth that is in the form of a Luna Moth with the colors of green, red, and blue, with unusually and strangely defined eyes upon its wings that seem to appear almost lifelike in nature (especially for a moth's false eyes)--they follow the looks of their owner with anticipation of being sent out to fly, to search, and to entertain. Inside the package is a note.

Aly,

I want to apologize for what happened at the ball. I lost my temper because I was scared and recklessly tried to take control of things I shouldn't have tried to control. That was wrong, and thinking like that could have hurt you or others more. Please forgive me for lashing out at you--you didn't deserve that.

I've always thought that moths and butterflies were the most beautiful creatures. Luna moths in particular--they're not native to here, but they can sure enchant fabricated iterations of them like they are. I hope you like the eyes, they trick predators into thinking that a much larger animal is looking at them. These ones are enchanted to look around and search the immediate vicinity for anything that it can notice at first glance. The moth'll come back either when it's done scouting the area or when around 5 minutes have elapsed, and he'll happily sit on your shoulder and look pretty if that's what you want him to do.

I hope that he can keep you safe wherever you go, or at least more informed of your surroundings.

Happy birthday, I hope you have many many more with each one more delightful than the last.

~ Piérre M.

Statistics: Stamina 7 | Strength 5 | Evasion 18 | Wisdom 12 | Accuracy 16 | ArcPower 5

Abilities:
Keen Eye | Calming Presence | Beast Master [Cat] | Cat's Grace | Animagus [Hummingbird]

Items:
Wand [Yew & Snallygaster Heartstring] | Soda | [Sharpened] Locksmith's Knife | Empty Phials
[Red] Deck of 52 Playing Cards