*Come Dance with Me* PV Ivy Bellamy Closed

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@Carolyn Hunt
sorry for the wait!

Now that the summer holidays were just around the corner, Ivy had been roaming around the castle, her mind never at rest and her feelings about leaving mixed. She had come to love life at Hogwarts, and considered the castle her home now... but so much had happened here, things that had changed her and left her feeling unsafe and scrambling to keep herself together. The hag, then the Ball - not to mention everything she had uncovered about her parents a few days ago. Why was being a student here so hard?

With a frustrated sigh, Ivy kicked the door to the Ballroom open with a muted bang, wearing a white leotard and flowing skirt, dark brown hair piled up into a bun on top of her head and black leg warmers a contrast to the peach-coloured tights. It had been a challenge getting up and down the stairs in her pointe shoes, but a simple dusting of rosin had kept her from toppling over on the stairs. Thankfully, she got received no strange looks from other students, due to the fact that everyone was outside, enjoying the warm weather.

Her lips pinched together with displeasure at the sight of another student dancing to the playful melody of one of the Giselle variations (which one was this again...? she wondered), and her scowl only deepened when she saw who it was. Ivy didn't know the girl's name, but she knew enough. She was that annoying girl who had stuck up for Elspeth in May, the snivelling brat who was apparently "traumatised" by the Ball. It was perhaps a little insensitive of her, but frankly, Ivy didn't care. She had kept it together - it had been a struggle, but she had managed to appear ok. Why couldn't anyone else? This girl in front of her had been even more irritating. The way she had managed to stay calm and her oh-so-superior airs had been unbearable for Ivy to witness, especially when she had been looking for a fight that afternoon.

The Gryffindor knocked the toe of her left pointe shoe against the polished floor three times, making a crisp tap, tap, tap sound to alert the girl of her presence just in case she hadn't heard her come in over the music. "Your ankle wobbled on the arabesque," said Ivy loudly, folding her arms across her chest. (In all fairness, the girl's ankle did wobble, ever so slightly.) "It'd be a... shame if you fell and broke your leg." The way Ivy said it, it was clear that she did not think it would be a shame if the Ravenclaw fell. Lifting her chin and narrowing her grey eyes at her, Ivy took a few more steps towards the girl. "Get out."

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@Carolyn Hunt

There was only one thing that was worse than an argument you couldn't win: arguing with people like Carolyn. Attempting to start a fight with them never went anywhere, because they refused to engage the way you wanted them to. They talked to you in a calm, responsible way that was supposed to help, but only made you madder, because it made you feel as intelligent as a two year old. Ivy scowled at Carolyn as she offered her a chance to explain if she had any "specific problem" with her. "Are you kidding me?" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "I don't owe you anything. I just need you to leave."

Why was she acting like such a bitch towards Carolyn? It wasn't even her she was annoyed at, it was Elspeth. Perhaps if the scene in the Rehearsal Room had never happened, she would have started this conversation a lot more nicely. Perhaps she would have even wanted to be friends. Other than the ankle wobble, Carolyn danced rather well, not that she'd ever tell her that. It was truly a shame that they had to meet like that, Ivy decided, because they could have bonded over ballet if it had never happened. She glared at the Ravenclaw, holding her gaze steady for a few moments as if trying to stare her away, before finally looking away. It killed her to give into this girl, but she needed to practise, and if it meant going halves with her, then so be it. "Whatever, just don't get in my way."

Ivy moved over to the other side of the room, setting down her things with a loud thud, and began to stretch. She pulled her leg up into a needle, tilting forwards occasionally to find her balance. As she worked on her flexibility, she began to think everything over again. Now that she had calmed down, she was starting to think that maybe she had been a little too harsh with Carolyn. Yeah, ok, maybe her calmness was a little irritating, but she hadn't really done anything to her. "That day in the Rehearsal Room?" Ivy finally spoke up. "I was mad, but not necessarily at you. Elspeth was just crying and it got on my nerves. After the Ball - well, it's just, everyone was affected by it. Some people more than others. And it feels unfair for us to be upset about it, because so many people were hurt, and we weren't hurt at all. Not really, anyway." The Gryffindor wasn't sure why she was telling Carolyn all this, but there was something about her that made her seem trustworthy, like she wouldn't tell if you gave her a secret to keep.

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Like many others before her, Ivy seemed to grow even more frustrated when Carolyn spoke to her in her usual collected manner. Some people appreciated her calmness and it seemed to soothe their nerves as well, others however had the exact opposite reaction. Especially when they were feeling angry or frustrated. It was not something Carolyn could really change though. That’s simply who she was. She would occasionally snap, like she did that day in the Rehearsal room but that was usually when her friends got hurt or when someone tried to hurt her REALLY hard. This was neither. Ivy seemed to be on edge in general and it looked like Carolyn just got tangled in the whole mess of emotions. “I see,” she nodded when the girl spat out that she didn't owe her anything. “Well I don’t think I do either, so I’m going to stay.” She shrugged still mostly unaffected. Carolyn needed many things too but they didn’t just happen because she did. Ivy would have to suffer the same fate today.

For a moment or two, the young Ravenclaw half-expected Ivy to storm out of the room but it looked like her stubbornness won in the end. “Alright, sounds fair,” she agreed to the girl’s conditions not wanting to anger her even more. She was still somewhat disappointed that they couldn’t achieve peace but she was not used to prying or being pushy. For a short while after that, both girls paid their attention to the practice. While Ivy stretched, Carolyn went on working on her balance. She stood on one leg, in parallel passé then closed her eyes and started counting until 60. This was a common test and a way for her to steady her balance whenever she made a mistake. "That day in the Rehearsal Room?" A voice broke through her wall of silence. She did not interrupt what she was doing though. Giving the other girl a chance to speak without being interrupted. It might be uncomfortable to relay her thoughts if she felt like she was being watched.

Finally, Ivy finished what she had to say and Carolyn put her leg back down, turning to the girl. She was close to 60 anyway and she didn’t want her to think she wasn’t paying attention. Actually she was quite happy Ivy decided to talk to her even if the previous two attempts didn't quite work out. They say third time's a charm. “I think you got her wrong though. Maybe you should try talking to her?” She offered carefully. “Elspeth feels guilty for getting away unscathed. She has a trauma but a most of it comes from other people getting hurt and not being able to help. She is also working on fixing that. Brain is a curious little thing and you can’t always control it even though it’s yours.” To her it seemed like Ivy had the exact same problem right now but she didn't dare to share that thought. “She was trying her best but Cassandra probably pushed her over the edge.” She explained. She wouldn’t get in too many details about Elspeth state of mind though. It was not her secret to share and she would never betray her friend’s trust like that. Or any otherfor that matter. “I’m not angry at you for defending your friend and I don’t mind a little teasing but it bothers me when someone doesn’t see the signs and doesn’t know when to stop. Elspeth had explicitly asked her a numerous times to let her go if she did, none of that would probably happen.” Carolyn was pretty sure about that one. Her friend usually did her best to keep the emotions bottled in, unless there was a specific trigger that she simply couldn’t get over. “I also think her getting so stressed about all this doesn’t rob others of their ability to grieve. You can’t take that from anyone, only they themselves can do that. Everybody has the right to deal with stuff in their own way and I’m sure Elspeth does not enjoy hers in the slightest.”

Now came the tricky part. Should Carolyn make a comment about Ivy’s own state of mind? She didn’t like to make assumptions and it was always hard to say whether it would help or not. Each person was very different after all. Some found it helpful but others found it extremely annoying. Still she felt like she could relate to the other girl a little bit. “To be fair…it seems like you are doing the same…just differently. My friend can’t control her fear but it looks like you have the same issue with your anger, which is quite common really.” At least that’s what her father told her. “But then again. What do I know? It’s not my place to say, I’m sorry.” She apologised sincerely. “It’s just when I get frustrated, I come here to dance my troubles away and usually hope to be left alone during those times.” It was rare for her to reveal such personal information but she felt it was only fair. She wanted to show the other girl why she thought, she might know what’s on her mind. The difference was that when Carolyn felt frustrated, she didn’t lash out on others but rather she focused all of the pent up negative feelings on herself. In a way, Ivy was doing much better job at dealing with problems than she was. It probably wasn’t nice for others but it was definitely healthier.

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@Carolyn Hunt

Carolyn's calm way of doing things continued, and it still irritated Ivy, but she set that aside and tried to listen. To be honest, it was a little unnerving, how deeply Carolyn seemed to understand how Elspeth had felt. The Gryffindor couldn't help but feel like Carolyn was one of those people who could almost read your mind. Those kinds of people, Ivy tended to stay away from. She was one of them, but she also had her own mess of feelings, her own tangle of secrets she didn't want anyone to know. Ivy could fool most people by putting up a wall, but people like Carolyn saw straight through them.

"Cassie was just trying to have some fun," she said automatically. It was a reflex of hers to defend her friends. "It isn't their fault that Elspeth is such a-" Ivy broke off and glanced at Carolyn, releasing her leg from the needle and pulling her other leg into a leg mount to save some time. The phrase she had wanted to sling at her was such a sensitive crybaby. She wasn't sure why she had stopped herself from saying it. It didn't matter if Carolyn or Elspeth's feelings were hurt, Ivy wasn't even friends with them. "It wasn't Cassie's fault, she was only teasing. Elspeth made a big deal over nothing. That's all," she said shortly.

"There's also the fact that she thought I was Ana. Twice. It's understandable - but I'm so sick of it. Ana is so much taller than me and our eyes are different colours. Is it really so hard to understand that I find Elspeth annoying? I can't deal with emotional or stupid people, and Elspeth appears to be both."

She knew that her choice of words was a little too harsh, but Ivy found that she honestly didn't care. Some sick, twisted part of her wanted to see the oh-so-calm Carolyn yell for once. Ivy rolled her eyes at the statement that she had an "issue with her anger". "You're right, it's not your place to say. And you don't know anything about me, so stop making assumptions." Perhaps it had been a mistake to try and talk to Carolyn about this.

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Despite everything, Ivy was still defending Cassandra. To some extent, Carolyn still understood her urge since they were friends and until now she didn’t even make a final judgement of Cassandra’s character. She simply disliked what they did that time. The Gryffindor was definitely not helping their case however. „So that’s their idea of fun? Putting people down?” She questioned curiously. “Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with little teasing or perhaps a fun prank if both sides are up to it but Elspeth definitely wasn’t” The young Ravenclaw was a bit irked by the fact that unlike her, Ivy seemed to made her decision about Elspeth character without really knowing her. Still, there was a spark of hope in her eyes when the other girl stopped herself before insulting her friend. She even understood why their meetings weren’t pleasant to Ivy but unlike Cassie, Elspeth didn’t do any of that on purpose.

“No, I can’t relate to that. Elspeth is my best friend so it’s hard to see her as annoying though I do understand we all have people that don’t sit well with us. The emotions come mostly from her trauma and that is something she can’t influence but I’m sincerely sorry that she misunderstood you for Anna…” Carolyn was not sure why she was apologising for something that was not her fault but she could imagine such thing could ruin your day. “You are wrong though. She is incredibly smart and she is strong in her own way. Like I said, she is working on dealing with her trauma and it takes a great courage to do it. The problem is that you are judging her by your standards,which never works.” She didn’t want to assume anything after the reaction she just received but it seemed despite her anger, Ivy didn’t have any issues with making great assumptions herself so Carolyn allowed herself to voice out her thoughts. Each individual processed their emotions differently and Carolyn understood that. She hardly ever shown extreme emotions herself but that didn’t mean she expected the same from everyone around her. “For example I love snakes. I find them adorable but there are people who are terrified by them. From my point of view, such reaction is unnecessary but I understand they are different and they have no control over their fear. I also don’t like what Cassandra did but I’m not spitting on them as a person. I don’t know them after all. Will I avoid them and speak up if they ever hustle Elspeth again? Yes. Other than that though, I couldn’t care less,” she shrugged. Carolyn was somewhat annoyed by the insults but it was not enough to make her snap. Perhaps if Elspeth was here to hear them but thankfully that was not the case. "Of course, I'm not asking you to be friends. If you two don't fit well together, it doesn't make sense to force it. I just wish you weren't so harsh on her, that's all."

After that, Carolyn paused for a moment, clearly contemplating something. “Well, to be perfectly honest I was quite excited to meet another ballerina here. It’s a shame there is no common ground for us. Practising with someone from time to time would be fun,” she admitted one last personal piece of information. She wasn’t willing to give Ivy any more than that however. It looked like she wasn’t interested in peace anyway. Any hint of anger was now gone and Carolyn was feeling mostly disappointed. Truth to be told, she was incredibly patient person but she also didn’t like to be pushy and waste her time. That was her shortcoming perhaps. She tried and if it didn’t work out, she would simply give up and focus on something else. If it was someone important to her, she would take much longer but she only just met Ivy and while she didn’t necessarily seem to have issue with her personally (though sometimes it sure felt like it), Carolyn couldn’t imagine how to make it work. Especially if she kept degrading Elspeth. Perhaps if the brown haired girl was just an acquaintance, she could overlook some of it but she was not. She was her best friend, which meant a great deal to Carolyn

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@Carolyn Hunt

At Carolyn's rebuttal, Ivy fell silent for a second or two to collect her thoughts. "No, they..." She sighed, not entirely knowing how to explain Cassie's character. They were a complicated person indeed, and their sense of humour and how they liked to have fun wasn't something that could be explained or understood in mere words. With Cassie, you just had to get it, and you either did or didn't. There was no in between. "They're not a bad person or a bully. It's not like they saw Elspeth and decided to make her life miserable on the spot. Their teasing - believe me, they didn't mean anything bad of it." Ivy would keep defending her friend for as long as she needed to, but to be honest, Carolyn kind of had a point when it came to how Cassie had ignored Elspeth's distress and unwillingness to talk to them - not that she'd ever say it out loud. Besides, Ivy could kind of see where Cassie was coming from, although it wasn't necessarily the most virtuous reason. In the moment, it might have felt like more fun to escalate the situation than to calm Elspeth down. And Ivy... well, she had definitely made the situation worse by jumping in, hadn't she?

The Gryffindor momentarily wondered if part of the reason she was so adamant in defending Cassie was because of the mix-up with her and Ana. Especially after all that had happened with the Ball at the time. She was fine now, of course, but when the fiasco had occurred in the Rehearsal Room, the memories had still been fairly fresh in her mind, no thanks to the nightmares that she'd gotten. The Ravenclaw mistaking her for Ana automatically gave Ivy a bad perception of her, and the fact that Carolyn had insulted Cassie on Elspeth's behalf had only made things worse. No doubt that Ivy felt the urge to defend her friend out of loyalty, but perhaps there was more than just one reason as to why she was doing so.

Carolyn's own loyalty was admirable, she had to admit. She was just as determined to defend Elspeth in this situation as Ivy was with Cassie. However, respectable as her loyalty was, Ivy couldn't help but feel irritated (and perhaps a little envious) at the other girl's patience and collected demeanour yet again, a little envious of Carolyn's ability to stay calm and not lash out like she was doing so. The Gryffindor felt like she was a little girl being chastised or lectured, to be honest, with what the analogies and wise view on the world. Ivy gritted her teeth, willing herself not to say anything snarky until Carolyn was finished. She opened her mouth, then shut it. She didn't know what to say to her. Once again, she had made far too many good points for her to argue against. And yet Ivy still could not find it in herself to apologise, which would probably fix everything and allow them both to stop discussing the awkward matter.

Without anything left to say, the second year stretched quietly, allowing her anger and frustration to cool. She felt the need to speak and say something to fill in the awkward stretch of silence, but didn't quite know what. Thankfully, Carolyn solved that problem for her. Ivy had a feeling that the Ravenclaw's seemingly limitless patience was finally running thin. "A shame indeed," she managed a response.

More awkward silence.

This one lasted perhaps only a minute or two, but to Ivy, it felt a lot longer. Now that she had calmed down, she sort of regretted speaking so sharply to Carolyn. She had a feeling that the Ravenclaw could be someone worth knowing if she'd give her a chance, and Ivy wished for a second that they'd met under different circumstances. Rarely was she wrong in her diagnosis of trustworthy people, after all. The Gryffindor did not regret defending Cassie, nor had her view on Elspeth changed much, that was for certain, but she felt the need to apologise for being rude to Carolyn.

It was a shame that apologising had never been her strong suit. "Look, er," she started awkwardly. Ivy cleared her throat. "I'm, well... sorry -" she said the word as quickly as she could, cheeks flushing "- for being so awful to you before. You didn't deserve to be insulted and all that." Ivy stared at her fingers, clearly uncomfortable but genuine about the apology. "Like, I'm not sorry for defending Cassie or disliking your friend. Just to be clear. But me insulting you was uncalled for. You were just trying to help. I guess." Wow. This was a terrible apology, and Ivy knew it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She couldn't even look at the girl in the eye, instead keeping her grey eyes focused on the ground, cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment.

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They were going in circles. Ivy was still fighting for her friend while Carolyn done the same for Elspeth. The Gryffindor did sound somewhat unsure this time round though. Perhaps she allowed herself to see things from a different perspective? Still, it was always hard to admit someone you cared about wasn’t perfect and Ivy obviously didn’t want to do so. The young Ravenclaw could see why. Cassandra was obviously a good friend to her and doing bad things, didn't necessarily mean they were a bad person. That was probably what Ivy tried to communicate at that very moment but Carolyn would need time to forget what she witnessed back in the rehearsal room. At least she is finally willing to listen. She recognised the girl's effort yet it didn’t change the fact that they were stuck in an infinite loop. This wouldn’t get them anywhere and it was a precious time being wasted. Carolyn would rather use it for dancing. “A shame indeed,” her classmate echoed, letting the room fall into uncomfortable silence. Unaware of Ivy's inner turmoil this was a signal for the raven-haired witch to go back to practice. She nodded in understanding and slowly started warming up her muscles. You had been standing idly for far too long, her brain reminded her. It would only take a minute or two before she was interrupted once again.

Carolyn stopped what she was doing and turned back to the other girl. Ivy seemed much calmer now but if she was being honest, she still didn’t see the apology coming. Ah...perhaps not all is lost then. The words were quick and followed by immediate embarrassment but that was okay. Carolyn’s own grandma and occasionally dad struggled with apologies too. It was not that they couldn’t feel sorry or acknowledge their own mistakes but their pride was at times too much of an obstacle to get the message across. Despite all that however, they were good people and she loved both of them dearly. The young Ravenclaw recognised the same behaviour in her classmate and made a decision not to torture her for too long. Instead, she listened to Ivy's clumsy apology patiently, without interrupting until she was clearly done talking.

“That’s okay...I was mostly worried for Elspeth. The insults directed at myself didn’t bother me that much and before you say anything YES, I’m aware that’s a very annoying quality of mine.” Carolyn shrugged genuinely thinking it was not a big deal. People tried okay but she was raised in a certain way and while it was irritating to others, it was usually those that tried to hurt her so she couldn’t care less to be honest. “I do appreciate the apology though and I don’t expect you to start liking Elspeth just because I do. If you wrong her in any way, I will protect her, if not then we’ll be okay. You are free to dislike anyone you want.” As long as nobody gets hurt… remained unsaid for now. “I have a feeling I won’t be shaking hands with Cassandra anytime soon either but you are not one to blame for that." There was a hint of smile on her face as she said this. "I don’t like passing judgement on people before getting to know them and I definitely don’t like to judge them based on their social circles. If you are willing to do the same, perhaps there is a common ground for us to be found after all?” She asked calmly and offered Ivy a hand for handshake. It was her olive branch and it was up to Ivy to decide whether she would grab it or let it slip through her fingers. Carolyn wasn’t sure she would be willing to make the same offer twice.