BlossomFest Blossom Ball 2018

The fire stopped but the flashbacks did not. Tears continued to fall down her cheeks as images flashed through her mind. The trees on fire, Serena bleeding and unconscious. Marissa had no idea what she was doing when she helped Serena, she only wanted to get her away from the danger. Why is there so much smoke? Why is this happening now, when I am having so much fun? These thoughts continued to race through her mind as she zoned out. Everything was blurry from her tears, people getting burns and running out of the hall. People screaming and crying as they see their friends harmed or the fire. It all echoed through her mind as she just stood there, doing absolutely nothing.

But that is when she felt someone grab her hands, calling out her name. She could not process it properly, she had a feeling of her stomach churning as she remembered the camp events. The feeling of hopelessness, fear and distraught. All of these came crashing down on her like a tsunami. But the worse part of her panic attack, was feeling of numbness. All of of these thoughts rushed through her mind, but the numbness always won.

Marissa zoned in slightly, just enough to realise James was looking worryingly to her. She blinked slowly, wondering how long she had been there. It felt like seconds, but she guessed it could have been minutes or hours possibly. "J-James." She managed to say between her sobs, lightly squeezing his hands in response.

Marissa seemed distant. She looked as if she could see something James could not. In truth, James could see what she did, because he had been in the last fire too. But James was determined to keep his mind straight.
"Marissa!?" he had spoken to her, grabbing her hands in concern.
"J-James." she replied, squeezing his hands in return. James wanted to ask if she was okay or what was the matter. However, it was obvious to James that Marissa was not okay right then and the matter was that the BlossomFest ball had just been highlighted by a crazy, seemingly psychotic boy catching fire to everything.
James looked around, and was able to see that the professors who were there were regaining control over the situation. Although the adults were taking care of it, students everywhere were filing out of the ballroom, leaving the dance. It seemed like the event was over, and James hadn't even been able to dance with Marissa once. Or dance at all, in fact.
James turned his eyes back to Marissa. Her blue eyes, wide with fear seemed to cut into James' heart.
"Marissa." he said again, "It's okay. The fire's going away. The professors are taking care of it."
James was becoming increasingly concerned for his friend. She seemed lost, and he was afraid that there was something going on inside her head that he could not do anything to help.
James pulled Marissa over to a nearby set of chairs, untouched by the fires, and sat her down on one, him taking his place on the other next to her. He didn't let go of her hands, as if he was afraid that if he did, he would lose her.
"It's alright...." he tried to continue comforting her, "I'm here, it's okay...."

Eri had gotten a little strength back, but her back still burned. She wished she noticed that her dress had been on fire sooner. Because of that lack of knowledge the burn spread from the base of her neck all the way down to the base of her spine. And every time she moved searing pain would shoot all over her back. But she needed to get up and go to the hospital wing. But she couldn't get up off of her knees. The pain was too much.

The brunette wiped away her tears and attempted to stand up. She gritted her teeth in pain and finally stood on her feet. Then she started to walk. One step at a time. Each step more painful than the last. She had barely made it ten steps then she collapsed on the floor again. Her whole back aching greatly. And pain searing from the tip of her spine to the base of her spine. All she wanted to do was lie down and cry, but she needed to get to the hospital wing before the burn got any worse and caused potential nerve damage for the rest of her life and that would not be good.

The brunette stands back up and manages to leave. 

Marissa was still zoned out. Flashbacks were still happening, but not just of the camp out. The children that always tormented her at home town, taunting her, pulling at her hair whilst they called her names. It never stopped, even if they were told of. This was one of the main roots on why Marissa was mute. All of these memories came flooding back, hitting Mari like bricks one after the other.

James continued to try and comfort her, saying that it was alright. But all she could feel was pins and needles in her hands, and it was not from him. She looked at him as tears still threatened to spill out. He guided them both to chairs, gently placing Marissa on a chair as he kept holding her hands the whole time. She would have blushed, but that was the least of her worries. "S-so-s-sorry." She managed to say. Marissa just had the urge to apologise, she was probably scaring the living daylight out of James. She faced towards him, wiping away the remaining tears with the back of her hand.

Marissa continued to cry and sniffle for a few minutes whilst hugging herself. She was still shaking from the shock, seeing the fire go up like that. She did not mean to freak out like that, but it just triggered everything. James would probably think she's some crazy weirdo by now, just comforting her out of pity. She sniffled looking down at her dress. Marissa dressed up so nicely, excited to dance with James and possibly make some friends. But that was now ruined.

♦ Responding to Eris Fawley & Katya Petrov ♦
mentions Charles York, Phaedra Stavrou

Letting out a soft 'oof,' Max stiffened as the short redhead wrapped her arms around him. For dancing they could at least let go of each other and step away, but when it came to hugging he was at a complete loss as to how to extricate himself without seeming standoffish. Only his mother, aunt, and Tom had ever hugged him, and he found that nothing good ever came of it - the point of physical contact was somewhat lost on him. But Eris had looked beyond relieved and he saw now that the fire had hit a table near her, so he tolerated it as best as he could and mostly focused on the breathing he'd forgotten to do.

When she released him and stepped away to survey the carnage, Max relaxed marginally and shot a cursory glance around the room to see what kind of damage had been done. Fire, fire, everywhere! Minus the exclamation point because looking at it all mostly made him feel tired and fed up; he hadn't even gotten a chance to taste the food and now it was all ruined. With the mess of scorched fabrics and the sopping floor, clearly no eating or dancing was going to be taking place tonight. He hoped the boy would be expelled for this. He also hoped Phaedra and any of his other friends who were here were okay, otherwise he'd be forced to teach the firebug a lesson on how to hurt someone without the use of a spell.

Returning his attention to Eris, it took some amount of willpower not to cross his arms as he considered her explanation. Certainly it was relieving that the case wasn't her lack of desire to see him, but the miscommunication was a problem and you couldn't blame a twelve-year-old for feeling at least a little bitter over waiting over an hour for something that wouldn't happen. Especially when it meant that he hadn't shown up in time to see the fun part of the ball.

"I don't think we'll be doing anything tonight," he sighed, settling for sticking his hands in his pockets. "If there's some greater power who decides which people get to be wizards, it obviously made a mistake with that one. Like the mistake I made in thinking you meant for us to meet in the Common Room. Or the one I made in - "

He stopped. Took a breath. No, you couldn't go around spouting stuff out when you were angry and didn't mean it. It was an error on both of their parts and getting upset would only make it worse; it wasn't really Eris he was angry with anyways. It was just so... sad. Was one night of fun too much to ask for? Stupid question - it clearly was.

He might've said more to her in a less flippant tone had her companion - whom he'd forgotten for a moment - not spoken. He didn't recognize the girl in the slightest, which was startling considering how many people he'd gotten to know through the newspaper and just seeing them around the Common Room. He looked her up and down in cool assessment, unsure of house or rank or social standing, and came out with the fact that she appeared to be hiding her hands. Without attempting to call her out on it, he stretched out one of his own hands for a shake to force her to show whatever it was she was hiding. "Max Avery, Eris's date," he said, realizing a moment too late that neither of them had claimed it was a date. Oh well, too late now. "Nice to meet you."

Interacts with Ami Procoppio

“So, this is how I die?” Was what Parcel thought as he was lying on the floor, looking up at the ceiling above him. OR, the ceiling might be what he tried to look at, but there was a head in the way. The head was of course Ami’s as she was lying on top of him.

He blinked a few times in utter lack of what more he might say before she finally decided to move herself. This was terrible, this time his whole body had to be covered in cooties. He would have to wash himself off with bleach after this. And the new garments he was wearing would have to be burned… or maybe not, his mother would kill him if he did that. Hide them in his trunk perhaps? Never to use them again. Or perhaps he could freeze his clothes, and that would kill the cooties off? Did cooties lay eggs? What was really a cootie anyway? “How do I combat something I can’t identify?!” The thoughts in Parcel’s head was all rotating around how to survive this terrible situation. “Oh, why couldn’t I just be like one of those side characters in stories, just standing around and give a thumb’s up when the hero come and saves the day, “you go hero! Now I’m going home to sleep”… By Merlin’s rubber bathing-duck why do I have to be so dang heroic!?” Perhaps not all of Parcel’s thoughts was linked to survival, and some of them might even border to delusional, but one thing was sure, this time he had to be cootie-infested.

Lying on the floor like the most majestic dead starfish anyone could imagine. Parcel kept opening and closing his mouth as if he was about to speak. He didn’t wake up from his daze until Ami started speaking.

"What... the hell... just happened?”

“Boy with wand... fire… all hope lost” Parcel tried to explain what he had seen before dragging them both away from the tables, but his words turned to mumbling and there was only some of the words that was audible to others.

“Thanks, but you didn't have to do that, I'm not some damsel in distress that you need to save."

Parcel turned is head to face Ami as she was speaking more. His face turned an even brighter shade of red as he looked at the girl laying by his side. Seeing her only reminded him of how close their faces had been, and of his impending death. It took a split second before he noticed, but Ami was smiling! How could she be smiling at a time like this! They would surely die! So how could she be so happy!? Was this a plan she had? A plan to take revenge on him after he pummeled her in the quidditch match?! So, she would kill him by infecting him with cooties!?
Parcel jumped to his feet as fast as humanly possible while looking at Ami. Could she be so devious?! Was it possible that her plan was to kill him all along?... “Well, she seemed nice, and she said that she was ok after the match… And well, it was I that dragged her away and not the other way around… but then the real culprit is that annoying boy that fired of the spell!”
With a face as red as the freshest of tomatoes he came to his own conclusions to who was responsible for is soon to be death. He started stammering out a reply to Ami as he began searching the room for the culprit.
“No-.. Its fine, I’m not a hero that saves damsel’s either, so I guess we both got to try out something new.”
While he spoke to Ami, Parcel’s eyes went around the room trying to locate the boy that fired of the spell. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to drown that boy in one of the punchbowls right now. How he would laugh as the boy lost his strength while fighting against Parcel’s grip. The delight it would bring him to watch that last bubble of air burst in the liquid’s surface as the boy slowly went to eternal sleep, and ah! How refreshing the world would feel when Parcel was done with this less than flattering deed… or… at least he could punch him… just nudge him gently in the face with his fist as hard as he could.

Alas, the searching reviled no boy matching the one in his memory. It seemed like the boy had fled the scene or been sent to the headmaster’s office.
Turning back to Ami again, Parcel’s ears turned red once more, all he could think of was their noses almost touching.
“Um, well, I think-.. I think those people need help… yeah, totally, I should go and see if they need any help, so yeah, see you later… we still need to teach you to love quidditch, so yeah, later… oh, we’ll come up with the date later… yeah, so… later!”

Parcel was looking around for the best exit strategy as he tried to mumble out his goodbyes to Ami. He couldn’t stay here longer, his face turned red every time he looked at her, so how could he stay? He didn’t want to be known as the tomato-boy or something!
He noticed that several students were exiting the ballroom, the fire had apparently hit some of them so there was bound to be someone leaving.
Was there anyone that needed help where Parcel was exiting? No… not really, he was just looking for an excuse to get out as fast as possible.
Secretly hoping that Ami didn’t notice the lack of helping he gave on his way out, Parcel started half walking half running out of the room.

Parcel exits thread.

Marissa's eyes were getting all teary as she stuttered out "S-so-s-sorry."
James didn't know what she really had to be sorry about. Maybe Marissa thought that he thought that she was a wreck or something like that. James couldn't deny that that's what it seemed like on the outside, but it didn't matter to him. She was going through some hard memories, he assumed, and he wouldn't judge her for that.
"Hey, hey..." James said, rubbing her hand gently. He hoped it was reassuring and comforting for Marissa. "I don't see what there is for you to be sorry about." James told her.
James couldn't deny that he was very much disappointed that the event seemed to be over so quickly, and almost as soon as he had arrived. Maybe there was a way for him and Marissa to still enjoy the night. But if that was a possibility, he needed Marissa to be okay first.
"C'mere." James prompted softly. He reached over and pulled Marissa into a warm hug, hoping to make her feel better. If he was being honest with himself, it made him feel better. He didn't know how to explain it, but it made his face feel slightly hot.

Marissa wondered if she should pick out the small flowers that detailed her hair. The ball was ruined, she noticed basically nearly everyone had left. There were several students left, trying to comfort others as they stood around wondering what to do. It was ruined. She did not even get a chance to dance with James. Secretly, she had been practising from time to time, hoping she would not be a complete mess in front of him. Obviously she had been doing it alone in her dorm room, away from any prying eyes.

She snapped out of her trance as she felt someone rub her hands gently. Mari looked up to find it was James. She was surprised he actually stayed and tried to comfort her. Finding this comforting, she smiled weakly up to James. He then did something she would have never expected. James pulled her into a hug. At first she was shocked, obviously. People rarely hugged her. Marissa shook herself out of the thoughts and slowly hugged him back. She sighed slightly, happy with this sort of comfort. No one ever really saw her have an episode, she would run away and lock herself in her room until it was over. But not this time. She scooted her chair closer to James so the hug would not be awkward. She hugged him gently, not wanting to seem weird.

Marissa seemed to have calmed down some, and James was glad. The tension inside of him lessened, and Marissa scooted closer to return the hug. James couldn't help but smile.
"You okay?" he asked after a few moments of silence. He didn't need her to actually say anything; a nod would be just fine.
After she replied, and both of them had gotten their bearings, James wanted to ask Marissa if she wanted to go have a little dance of their own, so that the night wasn't a complete disaster.
"Hey, do you wanna go have a dance of our own, so that this night isn't a complete disaster?" he voiced his thoughts.
Where would they go? They could stay in here, but James wasn't so sure about that. They could just go dance in the Hufflepuff common room, but James wasn't too sure about that either; there would probably be a lot of people there, and it might look weird for James and Marissa to be dancing in the middle of all of them. The Great Hall was a big no-no. Perhaps at the top of the Astronomy Tower? What if Marissa was afraid of heights? Or what if it was too cold? James couldn't think of anywhere the two of them could go.