English #26687E

French #72267E

Interacting with @Henry Knight as Charles Alluring.
Coat, jumper (not currently visible), jeans, shoes, rucksack, cake tin (the middle one), cupcakes.

Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin had always hated the Flue Network, and she probably always would. No matter what her wizarding friends told her, she found it impossible to really get used to the sensation of being squeezed through a pipeline at high speed before being spat out of the system like a faulty cog. However, she knew she would just have to deal with it the moment she opened the letter, addressed to her in a handwriting she had recognised as that of Charles Alluring. The owl - one whom she didn't recognise, though that was nothing unusual as the two mainly conversed using their respective school owls - tried to fly off as Cassie opened the letter, but the muggle-born quickly called it back. "Hey! I can't reply without you, I don't have an owl!" she hissed out of the window, all too aware of the lone man on the pavement below her, pointing at the bird and gasping. As the great owl finally hopped back in through the window, the man shook his head and carried on, murmuring something which Cassie Heather couldn't quite hear but made her smirk. It reminded her of something - a wizarding book she had seen whilst shopping for her school supplies the summer before her second year at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. What had it been called again? Why Muggles Prefer Not to Know - something like that. Well, at least it helped one muggle-born witch send letters to her pureblood friends.

Though the owl was staring at her and kept hooting like I have jobs to do, Cassie ignored it and opened the letter. It was an invitation - one to a Christmas dinner on the twenty-third. Charles mentioned a semi-formal dress code (Cassie just snorted), to come early (like that was going to happen), and that there wouldn't be many people there; just family and a few friends (good). Cassie wasn't sure she'd be able to stand a room with more than fifteen pureblood idiots in it without either throwing up or killing someone.

After finishing the letter, she quickly checked with her parents (as Cassie Heather had suspected, they had needed quite a bit of reassurance that nothing would go wrong) before sending back a reply in French, which the two usually conversed in.

Hey Charlie,
I'd love to come! I'll flu in maybe 50 mins before the dinner? See you then!
- Cass
P.S. Will there be cauliflower cheese?
P.P.S. I'm allergic to strawberries

On the 23^rd, in the car on the way to the Place Cachée - one of the main wizarding streets in France, and one of the few places where a muggle-born could access the Flue Network - Cassie wasn't sure which emotion prevailed.
Firstly, there was excitement - she had never been to the Allurings' house before, and had to admit that she had often wondered what it looked like. Now, she even felt a little privileged that Charles had chosen to open up this part of his life to her - his family wasn't something the boy liked to talk about, and Cassie had no doubt that he had reason.
This thought have way to apprehension - Cassie couldn't help remembering the first time she had been to the Place Cachée. She and her parents had spent several minutes trying to figure out how to get into the street, seeing as the animated statue couldn't talk to them and seemed even annoyed that they were wasting her time. But Charles had turned up, and had shown Cassie (and, by extent, the entire McGregor-Martin family) around. It had been great, up until the moment when a man Cassie assumed to be Charles' father had turned up and dragged his son away, shouting at the mostly Muggle family and nearly causing Mr and Mrs McGregor-Martin to completely withdraw their permission for Cassie to attend Beauxbatons. Now, Cassie gulped at thinking about it. Hopefully the man wouldn't recognise her - but she had a sick feeling of walking into the lion's den.
The rest of her emotions gave way to a tangled mess of thoughts and mere feelings, none of which made much sense to Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin. But it didn't matter. Did it?

Soon enough, the family of three stood in a large room filled with fireplaces, Cassie clutching a little leather pouch filled with bright green Flue Powder in one hand and a cake tin under the other arm. Hugs and warnings to stay out of trouble were exchanged (admittedly, the latter was directed only to Cassie), and Cassie stepped into the fireplace, sprinkling green powder into the flames. She saw her mum take an involuntary step forward, as if to drag her daughter out of the flames, and her dad gulped. "It's fine, Mum," Cassie told her reassuringly."It's just warm, that's all..."
Sophie gave a little smile. "Go on, you're going to be late.".
"Stay out of trouble!" Pierre reminded his daughter - a final warning, though it would likely go unheeded.
Cassie grinned. "I'll try," she promised. "The Alluring residence, Durham, England!" Cassie called to goodness-knew-who, before being sucked into the fireplace.

Cassie stumbled out into the Allurings' fireplace-room, gasping, with her hair covered in soot. She immediately spotted Charles and gave a little wave, before gesturing to her hair and saying with a grin, "Hey Charlie! I actually straightened it and everything, would you believe? Fat lot of good that did!" Cassie held the end of her plait over the fireplace and brushed the worst of the soot off, then stomped her feet to get most of it off her shoes too. "It always is worse if you're going between countries," she reflected. After wiping her hands on her jeans (immediately smearing soot all over them too - at least the jeans were black, so you didn't notice unless you looked closely), the muggle-born shrugged her backpack off and looked around her. "Woah, Charlie, you have a fireplace room?" she asked, disbelieving. Cassie flashed him a grin. "I can't decide whether that's cool or just show-off-ey." Suddenly, the girl's eyes widened. "I nearly forgot!" she exclaimed, subconsciously switching to English. "I brought cake!"
She emptied her hands, placing the backpack, pouch and tin on the table. After grabbing a tissue from her backpack, she wiped her hands and dropped the pouch into the bag; she didn't need it any more. Flashing Charles a quick smile, Cassie opened the tin and gestured for him to take a look. "Look!" she said, sounding oddly proud of the array of green-topped cupcakes now on show, some amateur and a little messy and some obviously iced with a professional hand. "Me and Papa made them. See, that half's chocolate and that half's vanilla, but that one's marble because we didn't have much mixture left so we just used both." Cassie looked over at Charles for confirmation. "We didn't know how many people there'd be so we just made two batches - that's twenty-one - is that enough?"

Charles ~

Russian
French
Spanish
German
English

Andrew ~ English
Russian

Leo ~ English

Colin ~ English

Servants/House Elfs/Npc guests ~ English

Charles leaned against the wall and occasionally looked toward the clock on the wall as he was worried that she wouldn't show or she'll would be late or changed her.... Charles thought that she wouldn't show so as he got read to leave, a fireplace shot out a girl with brown hair and wearing a black jacket holding a cake tin. Charles smile and let out a breath of relief as he picked up a towel from the rack behind him and approached Cassie to help her up, seeing her get up herself and nod about her complaining about the floo network, Charles spoke " don't worry Cass, the floo isn't my first choice to but it looks like you can use this," he handed her the towel which was why the kept them there for that exact reason.

Charles looked around the room when Cassie mentioned it and about how she should feel about it, Charles laughed a bit before speaking " my family mostly uses it to travel to parties. Guests don't normally use it and I don't prefer being in here either," Charles then saw her talk about the tin she had and how she baked cakes. The boy didn't want to tell her that usually you didn't bring food to pureblood dinners but decided against to as he looked inside to find little cakes that Cassie said were 21 of. Charles looked from them back to Cassie and decided not to tell her as he spoke " there's around 30 or so arriving today but that should be enough Cass."

Charles straighten his jacket before smiling to Cassie and saying " we still have a hour or so till dinner, so I can show you around a bit if you like then you can put your bag in my room if you like?" However there wasn't enough time for anymore conversation since a black haired boy wearing a outfit similar to Charles walked it except he walked in. The boy was Andrew Alluring; the older brother of Charles, who was 16 and clearly judging both Charles and Cassie as he spoke to Charles " is this where the misfits hang out?
Running away again Charles? By all means please do so grandfather can officially disown you this time," Charles bit his cheek as he contained himself in front of his brother not wanting to give his grandfather nor father a reason to punish him as he spoke " shouldn't you be with you date Andrew? Or do having a arrange marriage excuse those types of manners?"

Charles knew he was getting to him just like his brother was getting to him as he heard Andrew speak again " at least I'm lucky enough to have a arrange marriage, your destined to be alone younger brother even grandfather sees that." Charles again bit the inside of his cheek to hold back from saying anything to rash as he spoke " at least no one is being forced to marry me when I'm of age to someone as unruly and dimwitted as you big brother," Charles had a feeling he shouldn't have said that as he felt his brother hand on the collar of his jacket as he was pushed against the wall that his head was slammed onto.

Charles felt his brother's hand on his neck and the other on his shoulder as he was pressed against the wall, he was clearly not stronger then his brother so he remain stuck as Andrew spoke " I thought you learn last time you disrespected me Charles or would you like another bloody nose," Charles gritted his teeth but couldn't free himself since he was smaller then his brother even at 5'5 but he also was merely 13 while Andrew was 16 but he still would defend himself as he spoke " your sure you want to risk mother and father punishing you Andrew?"

Charles expected the laugh of his brother when he spoke " father won't care, he never does and mother is to weak to say anything or did you forget. I'm in line to be the next head so I'm untouchable," Charles fought against his brother's grip which got tighter and was useless

English #26687E

French #72267E

Interacting with @Henry Knight as Charles Alluring.
Coat, jumper (not currently visible), jeans, shoes, rucksack, cake tin (the middle one), cupcakes.

As Cassie brushed her hair out, Charles handed her a towel, which Cassie took gratefully and brushed across her shoulders, arms and legs before putting it back on the rack where Charles had taken it from. "Very organised," she grinned, slightly teasing as they both knew how Cassie's organisational skills were not the best. "Thanks."

Charles told her about the room's general uses and Cassie snickered. "I guess all the posh dudes come by apparition?" she asked innocently, giving a mock bow as she added, "Not a problem for yours truly, next time I'll just hitchhike some poor shopkeeper." Then, she suddenly remembered the cakes and showed them to Charles. She didn't miss the looks the boy gave her, and frowned. "Is- is something wrong?" she asked, but Charles just told her how many people were coming and Cassie's jaw dropped open. Shut it hastily, saying in disbelief, "Thirty?! I thought this was just family and close friends! Small, you said!" Eyes wide, the muggleborn suddenly laughed, relaxing. "Your family sure has a lotta close friends, huh."

After Charles offered to show her around a bit, Cassie stuck a wonky thumb in the air. "Sure! Can you believe I actually made it- Oh, hi!" A boy had walked into the room - one whom Cassie didn't recognise, but she assumed was Charles' brother, Andrew. The boy was the spitting image of his father. "Are you-" But the boy interupted her, his voice sliding smoothly over hers as if Cassie didn't exist.

Cassie Heather watched the exchange between the two brothers with something between horror, disbelief and - okay, yes - a tiny bit of amusement. But then Andrew pushed his younger brother against the wall and Cassie jumped, a frown bouncing onto her face. "Oy! You let go of him!" she said indignantly, and hurried over to Charles before attempting to yank him out of his brother's grip.

d20:16 +8 = 24 -> Success
Just wanted to roll to make things a little more interesting stat-wise at my end, feel free not to for your characters' actions

Two tugs, and she managed it, Andrew's fingers loosening for just a second before closing on thin air. "What're you doin', treatin' your brother like that? To think I brought cakes and everything! Me an' Charlie might as well eat them ourselves at this rate." She completely missed the reasoning that threatening someone about to enter into a fancy dinner with missing out on cupcakes wasn't very effective. Turning to Charles, she asked, "D'you wanna go on that tour? And leave your brother to his-" she snorted; she couldn't help it "-arranged marriage?"

Charles ~

Russian
French
Spanish
German
English

Andrew ~ English
Russian

Leo ~ English
Colin ~ English
Servants/House Elfs/Npc guests ~ English

Charles felt his brother tighten his grip on him before loosening it and saying " feeling stuck blondie maybe you should train harder," Charles pulled at his brothers hand as he knew that Andrew knew he was only weaker and shorter because he was younger than him since at Dumstrang Charles could be consider strong and also tall among many of the students. As Andrew's grip loosen he saw Cassie pull him off while also saying something to him that made Charles eyes go wide with fear as he saw Cassie turn to him and speak.

Charles only could say to Cassie " Cass watch out," as he jumped and made a move toward Cassie but got there seconds late as Andrew already pushed her away from them as he spoke " I don't remember asking for your opinion nor do I care. And why would anyone care for cakes if you forgot where we are," Charles then stepped between Cassie and his brother as he said to his brother " she has nothing to do this so leave her alone!" Charles then saw his brother give a wicked smile as he heard him mutter "so this is what love looks like? Trying to be a knight in shiny armor Charles."

Charles felt Andrew grab his collar bone hidden under his shirt and slam him against the wall again as his head throb of hitting it and he pulled at his brother's hands which were useless as Andrew's got tighter around his collar bone and he felt his finger nails digging into his skin. He had a feeling he was going to have a bruise later as he heard his brother speak again " I didn't think you could be more pathetic Charles but I see how wrong I am," Charles watched as Andrew eyed Cassie before turning back to him and saying " you can't chose a date for nothing, I was hoping you'll at least chose one that is pretty but you failed at that to. She is one of us through right," Charles pulled at his brothers arms as he said " none of your damn business Andrew!"

With that Andrew would threw Charles to the ground who would land on his side before feeling a kick to his stomach sent by Andrew who would kneel down a bit and say to him " respect your elders now," Charles would then watch Andrew walk out the door and acting as if Cassie wasn't even there.

Charles would get to his knees as he pulled himself up before running a hand through his hair and composing himself, he then would turn to Cassie as he spoke " sorry about him, hopefully we don't run into him or anyone else of my family until dinner," Charles would then smiled at Cassie before walking toward the door and standing by it before speaking " would you still like a tour or would you just like to leave because I completely understand if you do, Cass."

_{Permission give to have npc Andrew push Cassie Heather away given by @Lucia Fox}

English #26687E

French #72267E

Interacting with @Henry Knight as Charles Alluring.
Coat, jumper (not currently visible), jeans, shoes, rucksack, cake tin (the middle one), cupcakes.

Evasion roll: d20:5 +6 =11 -> Fail

Andrew pushed the younger girl away easily - Cassie had often found that her size made it easy for people to make her loose her balance. Not that she cared... or at least, she tried not to. Her height always had been a sore point with the young witch.

Though Cassie Heather opened her mouth to speak, a steady retort springing to her lips, Charles stepped between her and Andrew. Andrew muttered something Cassie couldn't hear before slamming his brother against the wall again. The muggle-born's eyes widened and she watched in horror and disbelief, barely catching the casual insult thrown in her direction. "You-"

Rage filled her as Andrew dropped his brother like a toy he had grown tired of playing with, before making to walk out. It was just before Andrew went out of sight that Cassie caught a glimpse of his hair and gasped, suddenly grinning at Charles. The oldest Alluring boy's hair was suddenly far longer than it had been when he had walked in. It reached his shoulders now, and appeared to be continuing onwards - and Andrew had no idea. Perhaps it had been growing the whole time, and no-one had realised. "Score one for accidental magic," Cassie muttered as she helped her friend up. She gazed out of the doorway with something like pride on her face. "I always did find it hard to control."

Charles apologised for his brother and Cassie rolled her eyes. "Not really your fault if you have a family filled with idiot blood purists." She flashed a grin at her friend. "Present company excluded - for the 'blood purist' bit anyway!"

Cassie hovered, indecisive. "I- I- I don't want to leave you to go face them alone- but can you imagine the look on Mum and Papa's faces if I stayed here? I- I-" A guilty flush pulling into her cheeks, she reached into her backpack and pulled out her phone, shaking it and pressing the power button. Her eyes lit up and she placed it back into the bag, pulling the zip triumphantly. "It's out of charge! Okay, tour now? And is there somewhere I can put my bag an' coat? Can't wait for you to see my Christmas jumper."

Charles ~

Russian
French
Spanish
German
English

Andrew ~ English
Russian

Leo ~ English
Colin ~ English
Servants/House Elfs/Npc guests ~ English

Hearing Cassie confusion and worry, Charles reached over her hands and held them for a moment as he looked in her eyes and spoke " don't worry about it, I'll be fine Cass." He gave her a smile and listened as he watched her pull something from her bag that interest him as he nodded toward before quickly speaking " what was that black thing you pulled out?"

After listening to Cassie some more he would add " you can leave your stuff in my room and don't worry not my whole family is like my brother, are relationship just changed since a few summer's ago," Charles would walk to the exit and hold the door open for Cassie. After seeing that she left the room, he would smile before saying " this way, follow me Cass."

Charles went left before going right and up a fought of stairs when he took another left and occasionally looked back to ensure that Cassie was following him. He then took another left and down a flight of stairs when he saw the door to the library opened a crack causing Charles to smile as he spoke " before we go to my room there's someone I want you to meet," Charles pushed the two large dark oak doors opened as he walked through the grand library to the back where at a window seat sat a small almost pale boy who looks to be around 9 or 10 with black hair that covered his eyes a bit wearing a dress shirt and dress pants both in black say crossed legged on the seat reading a book.

" Leo! There's someone I want you to meet," Charles spoke as he stepped in front of his younger cousin and looked over to make sure Cassie was still there when he glanced back at Leo and saw the young boy jumped a bit and peered up with a frightened look on his face as Charles rayner whispered to him " this is Cassie a friend of mine, she's kind and a muggleborn so don't tell anyone," before turning to Cassie and saying " this is Leo, my younger cousin. He's a bit shy and frighten," Charles looked back toward Leo who was holding his boom tightly on his chest as he watched Cassie.

Permission to slightly Godmode Cassie Heather given by @Lucia Fox

English #26687E

French #72267E

Interacting with @Henry Knight as Charles Alluring.
Coat, jumper (visible now heh), jeans, shoes, rucksack, cake tin (the middle one), cupcakes.

Charles reassured Cassie that he would be 'fine', but the girl wasn't convinced and passed the Durmstrang student a worried look. "Some people have a weird definition of 'fine', Charlie. I don't want you to be 'fine', I want you to be 'good'. At least." Cassie wanted the best for Charles - she wanted the best for all her friends, and she was relentless in her campaign to get them it, even if they themselves didn't really mind.

"Oh, that's my phone," she replied in response to Charles' question. "You don't have those, do you? Goodness, I have no idea how the wizarding community's survived so long without electricity. It's, like, so useful."

Cassie followed her friend as he lead her through the 'house' - though, by its size, Cassie wasn't sure it really deserved the term. Usually, the muggleborn would take off her shoes before entering a friend's home, but the word 'home' didn't seem to apply in this case. It was more of a... residence. Just a place to sleep and eat in.

"Woah, you have a whole library?" Cassie asked in wonderment as Charles opened the doors. Then, however, she caught sight of the boy at the window. He couldn't have been more than ten years old, and yet he wore what, in Cassie's eyes, was practically a suit. This already made the older girl feel sorry for him - ten-year-olds should never, in her opinion, be forced to wear something as formal as that.

The boy jumped as Charles made his and Cassie's presence known, clutching his book to his chest. Charles whispered something to him and introduced him - Leo. Cassie would have to remember that; she had never been particularly good at names.

A serious look on her face, Cassie Heather adopted a rather posh accent and held a hand out. She was just acting, as Charles would know - if you disregarded her rather casual appearance and scuffed trainers, she could probably have passed for a pureblood heiress, though Charles knew she was anything but. "A pleasure to meet you dear Sir," she said, a glint of humor entering her eyes. "How are you-" then the muggleborn burst out laughing, bending over with a hand on her chest. "I can't do this." Cassie looked back up at the serious boy with the book and raised a hand again. This time, however, it was a fist - she was waiting for a fistbump, completely forgetting that - what was his name again - Leo might not even know what a fistbump was. "Start again?" she proposed. "Heya, I'm Cassie Heather, you can call me Cassie," the girl said. "Ooh, you wanna see my jumper?"

After dropping her bag onto the floor and carefully placing down the tin, Cassie unzipped her coat to show her jumper in all its Christmas glory. "Watch this..." With a grin, she pressed the nose firmly and it lit up, flashing as a beeping sound came from it.
And thus, Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin began an enthusiastic, if tuneless and not completely accurate, performance of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer to a confused audience of two high-society purebloods.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You might even say it glows
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh 'cos they're all jerks
They never let poor Rudolph...
I forgot the words to this bit!
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
Rudoph with your nose so bright
Would you guide my sleigh tonight?
Then all the reindeer loved him
'Cos they're all just little simps
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You'll go down in history!"

Charles ~

Russian
French
Spanish
German
English

Andrew ~ English
Russian

Leo ~ English
Colin ~ English
Servants/House Elfs/Npc guests ~ English

Charles watched Cassie try and fail at a proper introduction but lucky for her the only person that didn't matter with besides from Charles was Leo as the thirteen year old lean into Cassie and whispered in her ear, "relax, you don't need to worry about that with Leo. He's easily frightened and nervous so," Charles gave a smile toward Leo as he bend down and sat on his knees so he could be around the same height as Leo who was clutching his book on his chest and breathing quite quickly still keeping his eyes pointed down.

Charles nodded toward Cassie's introduction before looking back toward Leo and rubbing his knee as he spoke "she's not like the rest, she's a muggleborn Leo. Just breath okay," a different more calming and nurturing side was seen of Charles with his younger cousin that was never seen before as he smiled toward Leo who barley looked at Cassie with terrified eyes as he spoke quietly " hi, nice t..to meet you C..Cassie."

While Charles was confused with why Cassie wanted to show them her jumper but hoping that it might help Leo relax so Charles smiled mostly toward Leo as he spoke " yeah, doesn't that sound amazing Leo?" Meanwhile Leo just nodded a bit while both boy's watched Cassie take off her coat and was semi surprised to a Christmas jumper since to them that was causal and not semi formal but they were even more confused and surprised when Cassie pressed the nose and a medley played from it whole she sung a foreign song to them.

Leo looked interested in the jumper but also frightened as he hugged his book tighter to his chest and held his eyes to the ground as worry and fear filled them. Charles rubbed his younger cousins knees softly as he turned toward Cassie before speaking " I'm sorry but what is Rudolph? Is he some type of reindeer in a tale or something? However it's a nice jumper and your singing voice is great."

Charles smiled a bit toward her before looking back toward Leo and getting a idea as he let his eyes linger on Cassie before speaking with a smile, " Cassie brought cakes Leo, what do you say about having one now?" Charles still rubber his cousin's knee whole Leo barley looked up at Cassie still fear swimming in his eyes.

Sorry for the long late!!!

English #26687E

French #72267E

Interacting with @Henry Knight as Charles Alluring.
Coat, jumper, jeans, shoes, rucksack, cake tin (the middle one), cupcakes.
So sorry for the late reply!

"I know," Cassie replied, her voice at its normal (admittedly quite loud) volume. However, she was pretty sure Charles didn't want Leo to hear so she spoke in French. Would Leo be able to speak French? Cassie Heather herself had been able to speak a little at his age, seeing as she had grown up with her papa speaking French as well as English around the house, but wasn't anywhere near fluent. "I'm joking, Charlie," she added with a grin.

Charles seemed different around his cousin: like he was around Cassie, actually. Himself, rather than the loud, flirty idiot he pretended to be around others. Cassie didn't know how someone could do that - change who they were around different people - but then again, Cassie had always been a very forthright girl. She had found a quote once which she'd remembered ever since, though she couldn't remember who had said it: if you cannot handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best. Cassie remembered connecting with that quote, but some people always seemed to be their best. Cassie Heather was fine just going with herself, whether for the better or for the worse.

Cassie burst out laughing at Charles' face. She'd completely forgotten that he might not know who Rudolph was, and was now delighted by the reaction her song had gotten. "'Kay," she said, and held up a finger. "One- the jumper, is not just nice, it's at least spectacular." She waggled her finger jokingly. "No disrespecting the jumper. Two-" she held up two fingers - "I'm utterly tone deaf, stop lying to me." Her eyes sparkled with laughter. "An' three- goodness I can't believe you don' know who Rudolph is!" she laughed. "He's one of Santa's reindeer! You do know Santa, right? Climbs down chimneys at Christmas, gives kids presents, you know. The fat guy with the red suit and really over-the-top beard?"

"Cake!" Cassie exclaimed. "Yeah, I brought cake!" she plopped down onto the floor and held the tin in both hands, wrenching the lid off. "Probably not best to eat 'em right before tea - I mean dinner - but eh, who cares, let's have giant tummy aches." She stared at the cupcakes for a moment before picking out the one with the most icing. "Guests first, right?" she joked, and bit off the top half of icing as though to claim the cupcake. Then she offered the tin to first Charles, then Leo.